The Magic of Number Nine

Try it yourself. Pick a number, any two digit number will do.

Add the two digits together and then subtract the total from the original number.

The result will always be a multiple of nine, so adding the digits of your answer will always result in the number nine.

Amaze your friends, they may not have heard of it.

The Chaldeans believed the number nine to be sacred, and kept it apart in their numerology from the other numbers. How they did this is beyond me.

Egyptians had nine cosmic levels.Something like steps in the sky I expect.

Etruscans, the pre-Roman people of north west Italy, worshipped nine gods. Not one of their nine gods helped against the Romans.

In ancient Rome, baby boys hold a purification ceremony when they were nine days old. Similar to christenings I suppose, but with the goddess Nundina in charge.

Greeks called nine "the horizon", the imaginary line at the edge of the sky. Demeter, usually carrying around nine ears of wheat, searched nine days for her daughter Persephone, and there are nine Muses who can inspire you. The Greeks didn't need much inspiration for number nine.

Nine is a bigtime number in Norse Mythology too. The god, Odin, hung himself on an ash tree for nine days to learn the wisdom of the Runes. There were nine Norse giantesses, who strode nine paces at a time and lived at the edge of the sea and land. Once, before Christianity, nine day fertility feasts were held every nine years.

For flying venom and every venomous swelling, on a Friday churn butter which has been milked from a neat or hind all of one colour, and let it not be mingled with water.

Sing over it nine times a litany and nine times the Paternoster, and nine times this incantation.

Up in the Hebrides a favourite folk cure for jaundice still consists in wearing a shirt previously dipped in water taken from the tops of nine waves, and in which nine stones have been boiled.

Troubled with warts? Simple stuff. Chant "Nine times, nine times, nine times, begone!"

In Numerology, the positive characteristics of number nine are selflessness, fulfillment, completion, universality, universal understanding, interrelatedness, compassion, idealism tolerance, forgiveness, generosity, benevolence, humanitarianism, emotionalism, and justice.

Number nine is also associated with accomplished artists and thinkers who are inspired by universal truths.

Obviously we are talking about cats here. There are no ordinary cats.

The revered philosopher, Wang Fu, recorded a concise description of the Chinese Dragon, detailing the 'three joints' and the 'nine resemblances' of the dragon.


The three joints are from head to shoulder, from shoulder to breast and from breast to tail.

The nine resemblances

1. Horns of a stag
2. Head of a camel
3. Eyes of a demon
4. Neck of a snake
5. Scales of a carp
6. Claws of an eagle
7. Soles of a tiger
8. Belly of a tortoise
9. Ears of a cow.

The Chinese have, apart from dragons, an ancient Chinese Classic called I Ching, the Book of Changes, .

In this Book of Changes, nine was a crucial point of change and transformation. When a change occurred in one aspect of life, that change was a result of a change in its opposite. Therefore, as a symbol of extremity, the number nine in Chinese Culture is also a warning, a turning point.

(If you can grasp the essentials of the I Ching, then you have the intelligence of a cat. Congratulations!)

In ancient China, the number one represented the starting point and the number nine represented the extremity.

Jiu Zhou is a poetic name referring to the nine states, which means that the country encompasses so much territory that it is beyond measure.

The highest heavens were referred to as the "ninth heaven" and Jiu Quan, the ninth spring, where the afterlife was located beneath the deepest water.

In the royal palace the doors, windows, stairs and fixtures existed in multiples of nine or a number that contains nine. The numbers of the gilded knobs on the double doors of the major gates of the Forbidden City has nine rows of nine knobs, representing the supreme power of the Emperor.