Exploring Sacred Numbers In Ancient Egypt—By Julia and Martin Herdman

Book Serialisation: Chapter One Part 1

Exploring Sacred Numbers in Ancient Egypt – Chapter One (Part 1)
By Julia and Martin Herdman
Published by Julia Herdman Books (The Fontain Press) UK. | All rights reserved.

For over twenty years, we have studied the mysteries of ancient Egypt, uncovering patterns and insights that challenge conventional interpretations of its religion and philosophy. Now, we are excited to share our discoveries with you through this serialized release of our book, Exploring Sacred Numbers in Ancient Egypt.

In Chapter One, we reveal how the ancient Egyptians understood numbers as a fundamental aspect of metaphysics, shaping their vision of the cosmos. Their creation myths, often seen as separate traditions, share a hidden numerical structure that offers fresh insights into the origins of Ma’at (cosmic order) and Isfet (chaos). We also present a new perspective on Thoth, the god of wisdom—not merely a divine scribe, but the true architect of creation, imposing order on the infinite potential of the Nun.

Join us on this journey as we re-examine the foundations of Egyptian thought, beginning here with Chapter One.

---

Chapter One (Part 1)

When Jean François Champollion deciphered Egypt's most sacred language, hieroglyphs, or the 'divine words' in 1822, he unveiled a treasure trove of long-hidden and wondrous knowledge. His revelation began the process of shedding light on the deepest mysteries of ancient Egyptian beliefs, particularly their views on the transience of life and the quest for a secure place in the afterlife. Of course, since the translation of the 'divine words', Egyptology has come a long way. The books of the underworld, the pyramid texts, coffin texts and hundreds of papyri and inscriptions have been translated, but it has fallen short in one crucial respect: Egyptology has failed to tackle the ancient Egyptian understanding of numbers, particularly sacred numbers and their use as symbols of the divine.

In today's striving for the scientific rather than the meaningful sacred, numbers have been sidelined in favour of numbers as mere quantitative tools and their metaphysical properties and connection to the cosmos and the gods are routinely ignored; materiality is the order of the day. To date, interest in the ancient use of numbers in Egypt has come mainly from those studying the history of mathematics. Most historians looking into the subject have been disappointed with what they found. Annette Imhausen says in her book Egyptian Mathematics: New Perspectives on Old Sources (2007), "The reputation of Egyptian mathematics has been rather poor. This has been due in part to the very limited number of available primary sources, particularly when compared with the vast collections of cuneiform mathematical texts produced in Mesopotamia."

It is now over a hundred years since the German philologist Kurt Sethe published the seminal work on ancient Egyptian sacred numbers, Von Zahlen und Zahlworten bei den alten Ägyptern (Strassburg, 1916). Sethe was one of the greatest linguists of his day, and his work on ancient Egyptian numbers has stood the test of time well in many respects. He concluded that the Egyptian number system was denary or based on a scale of ten; there were three forms of Egyptian numerals: hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic and that these hieroglyphics can be traced back to about 3300 BC. Amazingly, the same symbols are known to have remained in use for sacred inscriptions until the end of the ancient Egyptian state in the 4^th century AD.

In his magnum opus, Sethe Sethe's insights highlighted recurring numbers in ancient scripts, pointing towards a possible religious undertone. His work was groundbreaking, yet strangely, it has been the final word on the subject for over a century. Modern Egyptologists, while respectful of Sethe's findings, have been reticent to push the boundaries, often relegating numbers to the periphery of artistic symbolism.

However, just as the mighty Nile nourished Egyptian lands, its hidden currents pulling along secrets of the deep, the river of numerical knowledge also holds untapped potential. As we will show in the coming chapters.

This book presents a new picture of ancient Egyptian sacred numbers and their use. It is based on over two decades of meticulous research in which we uncover the origins and significance of Thoth's sacred numbers. We reveal how the ancient Egyptians wove these numbers into their myths, rituals, texts, and sacred spaces and offer a fresh perspective on their complex beliefs.

1.1 The God of Numbers Thoth

The ancient Egyptian god, Thoth was a moon god and is one of the oldest ancient Egyptian gods. Thoth had many names and epithets that expressed his qualities and attributes, typical of polytheistic religions where a god's descriptions told of the god's essence, role, and the things over which the god was thought to have influence. Thus, as a god of the moon, Thoth was a god of the natural and the supernatural, of time and space, the heavens and the earth, and of the living and the dead. he was known as many things, including the 'Lord of God's Words,' the 'Counter of Stars,' the 'Opener of the Year,' the foremost of the Westerners,' the Vizier of Re,' the One Who Teaches the Gods Ma'at,' the'The Divine Scribe,' the 'The Cubit of Truth,' the'The Bull of the Two Truths,' and the'The Maker of the Everlasting'. ^[1]

Thoth was the penultimate name given to the Egyptian baboon or ibis-headed god of writing, wisdom and knowledge. It was a corruption of Tehuti, a version of the god's Egyptian name^{[2] [3]}, Djehuty, Dhwtj or Dww/y, and was given to him by the Romans. Some of his alternate names included Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, and A'an.

Egyptologist E. A Wallis Budge translated his name as 'He who is like the ibis'*. However, more recent research offers another possible translation. It appears the name Dhwtj can be broken into three components. The first syllable, 'd’, is said to be the root of the word “body”. The second syllable, ‘hwt’, was the word ‘temple’, and the suffix ‘y’ means ‘dual’. This produces a name that means “the body of the two temples or enclosures.^[4] Thoth certainly had two temples, one in the valley, which is known as Upper Egypt, and one in the delta, also known as the land of Lower Egypt, so this may be a more realistic interpretation than Budge’s. However, we cannot ignore Budge’s translation because the name Thoth was written using the image of an ibis for over 3,000 years.

Indeed, Thoth was most often depicted in the form of a Sacred African Ibis or as a man with a Sacred African Ibis head. He could also appear as a baboon but rarely as a man with a baboon’s head.

The Greeks called Thoth Hermes because he reminded them of their messenger god and because he was a god of the moon. They equated his healing powers and his role as conductor of the souls of the dead with Hermes, who was the shepherd of lost souls guiding the deceased, to the mythical ferryman, Charon, who transported the deceased over the river Styx to complete their journey to Hades.

At his cult centre at Hermopolis Magna, which was imagined to be the oldest place on earth by his devotees, Thoth was considered to be the god who understood everything on Earth and in the heavens, whereas Hermes, it seems, was a mere messenger or conduit of the words of the gods. However, despite these differences, which we will explore in later chapters, when Egypt was ruled by the Ptolemies, Thoth and Hermes became syncreted or merged. This syncretion was made complete when Hermes acquired creator-god status around the time of Aristotle (384-322 BC), and by the end of the Greco-Roman period, the two gods were totally assimilated, with both the Greeks and the Egyptians believing they were worshipping the same god under different names. ^[5]

The Romans had their own version of Hermes called Mercury, but Mercury was not identical to Hermes or Thoth. The Roman god of wisdom was Minerva, who became closely aligned with the Greek Athena, not Hermes. However, in many other respects, Mercury was practically identical to the Greek Hermes; he wore the same winged shoes (talaria) a feathered hat (petasos), and he carried the caduceus, a winged staff entwined with two snakes.

The Romano-Egyptian god most closely related to Thoth was not Mercury but Hermanubis. ^[6] Hermanubis combined the Greek Hermes with the Egyptian Anubis, the dog-headed god who led the souls of the dead to the Hall of the Two Truths, where their hearts were weighed against the feather of Ma’at. A marble statue of Hermanubis found in the remains of the Roman temple of Ras es-Soda in Alexandria in 1936 shows the god in the guise of a rather thick-set man with a dog’s head standing in a typically Greek pose. The god is dressed in a Greek robe from the waist down and sports a kalathos, a basket representing fertility and abundance on his head decorated with an Egyptian lotus flower. In his left hand, he holds a palm frond symbolising time, eternity and victory over men and death. The palm stem is surmounted by a small disc with a uraeus, the sacred serpent motif of the pharaoh’s headdress. This magnificent statue was found alongside statues of Isis and Horus^[7] and perhaps makes up a late trinity or holy family with Hermanubis in the role more typically taken by Osiris as the lord of the dead.

Numbers

Ancient Egyptian numbers were based on a base-10 system, using hieroglyphs to represent different powers of ten. They had distinct symbols for numbers such as one, ten, one hundred, and so on, often illustrated with straight lines for numbers 1 to 9, arranged into patterns. This numeration system allowed for the representation of large numbers through combinations of symbols. We will focus on the symbols and their meaning in Chapter 2.

Our ability to represent numbers with symbols sets us apart from animals. It’s not entirely clear when people first began doing this, but it has been proposed that scratches made on animal bones by our Neanderthal ancestors around 60,000 years ago could be the beginning.[8] The number symbols the ancient Egyptians would use for over three thousand years were in place before the beginning of the Old Kingdom.

At around ten months old, human infants are already getting to grips with numbers. But they can only detect number changes between one and three. As we grow and our brains develop, our natural baby number skills become the ability to estimate bigger numbers without the need for language. The difference between other primates and humans is that we humans go on to develop numerical precision and externalise the process of counting, which is precisely what the ancient Egyptians did all those years ago.

It seems most likely we humans first used our fingers for counting, which limited us to ten, but by counting other body parts, starting with our toes, then ears, eyes, nose, nostrils, nipples, navel, testicles and penis, as seen in the ancient counting system of the Yupno in Papua New Guinea our original ten can be extended to 33. ^[9] Modern archaeologists call using body parts to remember or represent numbers symbolic storage. Symbolic storage enables humans to represent abstract ideas, memories, or cultural knowledge through things or images. This process allows societies to “store” complex concepts outside the human mind, making them accessible to their successors because they are transmissible across time and space. In later chapters, we will investigate the symbolic storage of the ancient Egyptian number symbols, but for now, we’ll focus on how the ancient Egyptians used numbers.

We are now entering the territory known as the sacred and the profane. Like all literate societies with a religious bent, the ancient Egyptians used numbers in two ways: for writing ordinary, everyday, practical things, which Egyptologists call ‘the profane’ and for writing their special religious things, which Egyptologists call ‘the sacred’. Sacred numbers hold symbolic, religious, or mystical significance within a cultural, philosophical, or spiritual tradition. They are often believed to represent cosmic principles, divine order, or hidden truths about the universe. This book will focus on the sacred and the sacred use of numbers, meaning numbers used in connection with religion, magic, metaphysics, and the supernatural. Until now, only philosophers like Pythagoras and Plato are thought to have explored the metaphysics of numbers. However, this book will show how the ancient Egyptians got there first.

In reality, numbers are abstract entities existing independently of the physical world. They are not tangible objects like chairs and books; they are conceptual tools that underpin our understanding of quantity and order. As such, they possess a peculiar ontological status; they exist in the world but are not visible or material; you can’t touch, feel, taste or smell them. This has led some philosophers to argue that numbers exist in a timeless and spaceless domain of pure forms, called a Platonic realm after the famous Greek philosopher.^[10] Others suggest a more mind-dependent realm where numbers are human mental constructs. But, by and large, most mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers take the Platonic view, which states that numbers are metaphysical mathematical entities. Supporters of this view argue that numbers as mathematical entities have an objective reality because mathematical statements are universally true. For example, the statement that a prime number is the sum of two squares is considered a fact, not an invention. So, what better language could the priests of ancient Egypt have discovered to construct their model of the cosmos?

1.2 Thoth the Cosmos and Ma’at

The Egyptian conception of the cosmos as a structured, layered, numerical, and geometric system with Egypt and the river Nile at its centre. Central to their beliefs about the cosmos was the notion the Earth was surrounded by the limitless, dark and mysterious primordial waters known as Nun, from which it and everything that would ever exist was made. Numerically, the Nun connects us with infinity and the Platonic realm of pure forms. Numerically and mathematically, the ancient Egyptians used natural numbers, also known as counting numbers without zero or negative numbers and had access to an infinite supply of counting numbers that, in theory, could be achieved if they had an infinite amount of time to count them. Thus, the infinite Nun transcends the limitations of finite quantities and measures because it was believed to stretch infinitely in all directions without a definitive end or beginning; it is shapeless and, therefore, formless. And so, to the ancient Egyptians, the waters of Nun contained the amorphous lump of all the numbers that could ever exist. Only Thoth gave each number a name and its discrete entity with it. He did this by splitting another one from the formless blob of many, just as Atum split himself from the Nun when he created the world at the beginning of time.

In fact, all metaphysical things were drawn from the infinite well of the waters of Nun - speech, imagination, beauty, magic and so on, whereas all material things were drawn from the totality of the creator gods – Atum, Amun, and Ptah. The creation narrative reflects this through a process whereby the divine essence divides infinitely, leading to a multitude of life and deities, each with unique roles and attributes.

So, for the ancient Egyptians, the waters on Nun were the equivalent of Plato’s realm of forms. It was a realm beyond our physical world that was perfect and unchanging and was, therefore, the source of everything that was brought into existence. Plato’s theory focused on ideal forms rather than actual forms. For instance, while we see many different chairs, they all strive to emulate the perfect form of “chairness.” For the ancient Egyptians, the realm of the Nun was the source of all reality, but for them, the creator gods provided the actuality.

1.3 The Creation Myths and Cosmic Rupture

Almost all Egyptologists will tell you there is no one overarching creation myth in ancient Egypt. A fact that, while technically accurate, rather misses the point that there is a great deal of overlap and continuity between the creation myths of Heliopolis, Thebes, Hermopolis, and Memphis. All the creation myths include the notion that the world comes into existence from the waters of Nun or from the watery albumen of the cosmic egg laid by Thoth at the beginning of time. Another commonality is that the first land appears in the shape of a mound from which the sun emerges on the first day.

The following section outlines the central tenets of the Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Thebes and Memphis creation myths.

1.4 The Creation Myth of Hermopolis

The Hermopolis creation myth, which is perhaps the oldest of the creation stories, focuses on the innate character of the primaeval waters represented by a set of eight gods, called the Ogdoad, made up of four pairs of watery blue and green-skinned gods, the males depicted in human form with snake heads, the females depicted in human form with frog heads. Nun and Naunet represented the primaeval water itself; Huh and Hauhet embodied the water’s infinite extent; Kek and Kauket personified the darkness within it; and Amun and Amaunet represented its hidden and unknowable nature. How the world was created is not elaborated upon, and Thoth’s role in the process is unclear.

1.5 The Creation Myth of Heliopolis

In the creation of the myth of Heliopolis, the founding myth of dynastic Egypt, nine gods emerge from the primaeval waters represented by the eight gods of the Ogdoad. Atum, the source of all light and the totality of all existence separated himself from the waters of Nun in a spontaneous act of self-generation and using the fluids of his body; some versions of the story say he used his spittal or nasal secretions, others that he used his semen; he spat, sneezed or ejaculated out two children, the god of air Shu and the goddess of fire and moisture, Tefnut. Atum was the god of the day, Shu or yesterday and Tefnut, the goddess of tomorrow. Two more children followed; the male child, Geb, was the god of the earth, and the female child, Nut, was the goddess of sky and water. The myth tells us that Geb and Nut were so in love with each other that they were permanently locked in a sexual embrace. After a while, Atum became tired of their lovemaking and ordered Shu to separate them permanently. So, with his family complete, Atum’s world was 360 days long; his light filled the sky in the day, and at night, Nut gave birth to the stars. With his world in perfect harmony, Atum settled down to enjoy his creation.

The problem was that Nut and Geb were so full of life they yearned to have children of their own. So, as a good and dutiful daughter, Nut approached her father, Atum and asked for permission to have more children. However, much to her surprise, Atum said no. In fact, he went further; he cursed her, saying no day would ever exist upon which she could give birth to a child. Atum clearly did not want the peace and tranquillity or ma’at of his world disrupted even by the arrival of his own grandchildren. Nut, on the other hand, was angry and determined to get what she wanted, so she approached Thoth and asked for his help.

As the god of all knowledge, he knew how to play tricks, and soon, he had a plan that would enable Nut to have more children. The plan was simple, he would challenge the moon to a game of chance, often shown as Sennet in illustrations, in which the stakes were days of light. Of course, the moon lost and was forced to pay Thoth five days of light, which Thoth then gave to the sun, thereby enabling the sun to create five new days and thus changing the world from a 360-day year to a 365-day year. And so Nut’s children, Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys, were born, and the Great Ennead or the pantheon of nine gods of Heliopolis came into being. In the process, the perfection of the world and of time was broken forever. Atum’s world would henceforth be in a constant state of flux. But this was not a bad thing. The imperfect, ever-changing and finite world Thoth created and that humans lived in was beautiful and teeming with abundant life. In the new 365-day world, only the distant heavens were thought to be static, infinite, and eternal, making them the natural dwelling place of the gods who could be seen in the form of the visible stars and planets that moved in fixed orbits within their celestial spheres on boats; the sun guided by Re and Atum, and the moon by Thoth and Khonshu.

Henceforth, the year would consist of Atum’s perfect 360-day year nested within Thoth’s imperfect 365-day year with the five extra days known as the epagmenal or intercalary days.

Part 2 will be published on Sunday 16th March, 2025.

If you have enjoyed this post, please subscribe and support our work. Thanks, Julia and Martin Herdman

---

^[1]Boylan, P, Thoth the Egyptian Hermes, Griffith Institute, 1922.

^[2]It was a corruption of his Egyptian name caused by a minimal pair (t/d) consonant shift.

^[3]Hopfner, Theodor, B. 1886. Der tierkult der alten Agypter nach den griechisch-romischen berichten und den wichtigeren denkmalern. Wien, In kommission bei A. Holder, 1913.

^[4]Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford / Griffith Institute, 1962 and Middle Egyptian, Second Edition: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, Cambridge University Press, 2010

^[5]Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind, Cambridge University Press, 1986.

^[6]The cult of Mercury was based at the temple dedicated to him in 495 BC on the Aventine Hill in Rome. His mother was said to be Maia, and his father, Jupiter. Both Mercury and Maia were honoured in the Mercuralia festival on May 15. Mercury was a messenger-god and the god of commerce and business. He was a trickster portrayed like Hermes, wearing winged sandals or a winged cap and carrying a caduceus.

^[7] Frederick G. Naerebout, The temple at Ras El-Soda. Is it an Isis temple? Is it Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or neither? And, so what? in Nile into Tiber: Egypt in the Roman World, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Isis Studies, Leiden, May 11-14 2005, Brill, 2006.

[8] https://tsgvice.com/why-animals-recognise-numbers-but-only-humans-can-do-maths/

[9]www.http://LTZE74WL/why-animals-recognise-numbers-but-only-humans-can-do-maths-165121.html

[10] M. F. Burnyeat, Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy,

Cambridge University Press, 2012. Chpt. 7.