Numbers Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues

by William Wynn Westcott

Excerpt from Numbers Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues
Hebrew words I hae added the pronunciation. The Secret Doctrine of Mmc. JMavatsk, a work of immense erudition containing a vast fund of archaic doctrine, has supphed me with valuable quotations, which arc the only recent additions to this treatise. If an- readers desire a deeper insight into the analogies between numbers and ideas, I refer them in addition to the works of Eliphaz Levi, xthanasius Kircher, Godfre- Higgins, Michael laier, and John Heydon; I have quoted from each of these authorities, and Thomas Taylors Theoretic Arithmetic has supplied me with a great part of the purely arithmetical notions of the Pythagoreans, the elucidation of which was mainly due to him. In conclusion, I request my readers, Autperlcge et vecte iiitellige, Ant abstine a censiira. W.Wynx Westcott, Fra. Ros. Cru., F.T.S. 396, Camden Road, London, N.The author will be pleased to receive additions and suggestions, from earnest students of either the Eastern or Western schools of Occultism. Part I. Pythagoras, His Tenets And His Followers. Pythagoras, one of the greatest philosophers of ancient Euroje, was the son of Mnesarchus, an engraver, he was born about the year 580 B.C. either at Samos an island in the gean Sea, or as some saj-, at Sidon in Phoenicia. Very little is known of his early life, beyond the fact that he won prizes for feats of agility at the 01-mpic Games; having attained manhood, and feeling dissatisfied with the amount of knowledge to be gained at home, he left his native land and spent many years in travel, visiting in turn most of the great centres of Learning. History narrates that his pilgrimage in search ot wisdom extended to Egypt, Hindostan, Persia, Crete, and Palestine, and that he gathered from each country fresh stores of information, and succeeded in becoming well acquainted with the Esoteric Wisdom as well as with the popular esoteric knowledge of each.
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Genres: Occult, Numerology, Nonfiction, Metaphysics, Amazon, Spirituality

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

William Wynn Westcott—who usually published as W. Wynn Westcott or W.W. Westcott and occasionally under the motto Sapere Aude—was a coroner, Theosophist, and Freemason who was a leader in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and went on to co-found the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, later remaining involved with the breakaway group Stella Matutina.

Reviews

[Wendy 'windmill' · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting

The information was good, but really poorly printed. Difficult to follow at times due to the print. If you can overcome that, then there's lots of info to ponder on.

[Lachrymarvm_Library · Rating 1 out of 5]

"…The contents are necessarily of a fragmentary character, and have been collected from an immense number of sources; the original matter has been intentionally reduced to the least possible quantity, so as to obtain space for the inclusion of the utmost amount of ancient, quaint, and occult learning. [….] My great difficulty has been to supply information mystic enough to match the ideal of the work, and yet not so esoteric as to convey truths which Adepts have still concealed.”
– William Wynn Westcott, from the 1890 Preface

“I am prepared to find that critics will declare this volume to be an undigested collection of heterogeneous information, still I prefer to leave the data in their present form; for there is a scheme of instruction running through it, which will be recognized by students of certain schools….”
– William Wynn Westcott, from the 1902 Preface

[this book contains the prefaces to all 3 printed editions of 1890, 1902, and 1911]

In his own words above, the author of this book (originally published in 1890) basically provides the essential thrust of the criticism I would have made myself, today, over 130 years later.

This book probably contains at least a handful of fascinating tidbits to intrigue any reader, even one with only a casual or no occult background… But that being said, even at only 100 pages, reading this book cover to cover is like reading a religious math textbook [ such a thing probably doesn’t actually exist, but if it did, this might be how it would feel ]. Now granted, as a reader of much Victorian occult literature, I understand that much of the period’s work was attempting a syncretism of ancient material (such as Egyptian myth) with Judaism, Christianity, and the (at the time) very new (to the West) mystic systems of the Far East.

As expected, the author’s ways of referring to these cultures feels dated although never comes across as problematic; plenty of other texts from this period can, occasionally, throw a whammy of a racist curveball at the modern reader (again, published 1890). The author, Westcott, mostly comes across as interested/open-minded of other cultures here. Mostly the noticeable things were in the spelling/ antiquated terminology of things like ‘Hindoo’ and ‘Mahometan’ (which I can only imagine is meant to be ‘Mohammedan’ – we would just say Muslim today). And since this is a print-on-demand book, as is sadly rather common, it is filled with typos - for example, in the chapter on the Number 10, the number '10' is misprinted as the word 'to' probably half the time and this makes it really annoying to read (and you’d think accuracy would especially be important when dealing with anything mathematical, especially when you’ve had 100+ years to proof-read and correct a small book) – but I digress.

If you’re not aware, Dr. William Wynn Westcott was one of the 3 founding members of the (in)famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a ‘secret’ society of magick and mysticism whose influence really can’t be understated on the sort of renaissance of esoterica that it inspired. This is only the first book I have read by Westcott, although I am much more familiar with the writings/translations by another Golden Dawn founder, S.L. MacGregor Mathers. So, I do not mean to judge Westcott entirely on this one work. I also plan to read his translation of the Sepher Yetzirah. But as for this one, “Numbers – Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues” – I have to say it is inferior in every way to something like “777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley” if you’re interested in numbers / gematria / Kabbalah, etc. I highly recommend that instead. This book by Westcott really won’t make a lasting impact, like I said, beyond a passing reaction to some random fact. You might say “Oh wow that’s interesting,” and then move on and never think about it again.
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[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

If not especially organized (something the author admits to), this book is very informative. The information given is often very interesting. Ultimately, though, it may not be terribly useful for my purposes. I’d like to be proven wrong about it, so I’ll keep it on hand to reference should the need arise.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a train wreck of information. It’s like throwing numbers at you...
There needs to be a better way to write the information without the level of confusion... or maybe its me??