Still II ~ Eight

- CHAPTER TWENTY -

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Castel del Monte

"The vast emptiness of this structure suggests a body-shuddering sense of mysticism. Most historians regard it, as one guide book points out, 'an enigmatical book made of stone, where we find enclosed in a code the stages achieved by technical disciplines at the time of Frederick II.' The imaginative stone canvas stands for an age of superstition when wizards, sorceresses, alchemists and astrologers held the fate of a society in their chants and in their herb-encrusted apothecary jars. Castel del Monte embodies those esoteric times."

- Castel del Monte

"The number EIGHT represents dissolution, timelessness, matter bound in time, equilibrium, balance, the cube, the planet Pluto or the Moon's Nodes.

In ancient Egypt and Babylonia (2x2x2 = 8) represented the Sun's journey through the 24 hours of the day accompanied by the God Thoth the patron of scribes and the element time. The most common symbol of this function was an 8-rayed cross or a figure of 8 laid on its side. The auspicious value of eight as an image of equilibrium or return is further defined within the idea of 8 spokes of a wheel denoting universal principles. For example in China they were represented by the 8 trigrams contained in the I Ching, the eight petals of the lotus, the 8 pillars of Ming Tang and the 8 paths of Taoism.. In Buddhist iconography they were exemplified by the 8 spokes on the Wheel of Dharma symbolising the correct attitudes or rules of behaviour listed in the Ssu Ching. In Hindu mythology they were the 8 arms of Vishnu, the guardians of the reciprocal principles of space and time. In Aegean iconography they were represented as the 8 arms of the marine octopus. However, the number signifies resurrection, rebirth or revival, this idea is found extended in Christian beliefs from the shape of the baptismal font as an octagon and that 8 is formed from 4(body)+3(mind)+1(spirit). The eighth sphere in Caballism is Yod symbolising Humility."

- Numerical Symbolism

"The Jewish Encyclopedia Stresses the determining role of the (Sufic) Brethren of Sincerity on the production of the mighty Cabala system: 'The Faithful Brothers of Basra originated the eight elements which form God,' it says, 'changed by a Jewish philosopher in the middle of the eleventh century into ten.'
This alteration of basic Cabalism deprived the Western development of the system of a great deal of its meaning and usefulness. And Hebrew and Christian Cabala literature later than the twelfth century is therefore only of partial meaning. This includes all aspects of the Cabala of ten elements, as distinct from the Eight Cabala."

- The Sufis
by Idries Shah
(p. 385)

"The plan of Castel Del Monte is an expression of the philosophical acquaintances of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. The impression is that the emperor has tried to realize a symbolic construction that had its base in the principles of astrology and the cabala."

- Castel del Monte

Masonic Kabbala

- The 868 Circle -
A modification of the traditional Qabalistic Tree of Life used by Aleister Crowley.
image and concept courtesy of Joshua E Seaver © 1997