Properties of the number 16

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Symbolism

• Indicate the achievement of the material power.

• Being considered as the "final" number of the emanation, it represents the Incarnation completed, according to Abellio.

• According to R. Allendy, it represents "the role of the Karma 6 in the cosmic unit 10. This role consists in creating a current of evolution (1 + 6 = 7) but towards two opposite directions, so that, by itself, 16 even number, is unable to choose." As a product of 2 x 8, it is the positive evolution leading to the karmic liberation, or the negative evolution leading to an increasingly tight sequence in the cycles of nature.

• For J. Boehme, this number represents "the Abyss", or the hell, opposed to the nirvana.

• According to Creusot, it symbolizes the construction and the destruction.

• According to Guy Tarade, it is the number of Lucifer.

Bible

• The Old Testament counts 16 prophets and the New Testament counts 16 apostles and evangelists.

• Joash reigned sixteen years on Israel to Samaria. (2 K 13,10)

• Uzziah had sixteen years when the people of Judah chose him as king in succession to his father Amaziah. (2 K 14,21)

• Jotham, son of Uzziah, reigned sixteen years to Jerusalem. (2 K 15,33)

• Ahaz, son of Jotham, reigned sixteen years to Jerusalem. (2 K 16,2)

• Sixteen classes of priests were formed with the heads of the family of son of Eleazar. (1 Ch 24, 4)

General

• It is the number of years in inside of which the four Gospels were written, according to visions of Mary Agreda.

• Difference of age between the Virgin Mary and his Son Jesus, according to visions of Maria Valtorta.

• The sixteen petals of the Visuddha Chakra located on the front of the throat.

• Ahura-Mazda, according to the Avesta, created for its people 16 places of habitation.

• The Jains have 16 goddesses.

• The sixteen guardians of the Great Work of Templar.

• The sixteen geomantic figures.

• In the Hindu religion, an Avatar is an extraordinary being, the miraculous incarnation of the Divine in a human form, for the well of the humanity. By definition, the Avatar has sixteen particular gifts: the ability to materialize objects at will; qualities of omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence; the capacity to transmit a pure love current, inexhaustible; the possibility to transcend all conditions of the Karma which appears by his capacity to transform miraculously the life of a person by an act of divine will.

• Some roses of cathedrals have sixteen rays.

• The antiquity recognized sixteen plant sacredness: catmint, plant of the vitality; centaury, enchantments; chelidonium, triumph; mistletoe, salvation; heliotrope, sincerity; jusquiame, dead; tongue of dog, sympathy; lily, manifestation; melissa, comfort; nettle, bravery; periwinkle, fidelity; rose, initiation; sage, life; serpentaria, fluid; vervain, love; virgo pastoris, fruitfulness.

• Sum of the four first odd numbers (1+3+5+7=16) which, by theosophical addition, gives 1+6=7, the sacred number.

• The magic square using the first sixteen numbers is associated to the Jupiter planet and has for sum 34.

• The Jupiter planet has 16 satellites.

• Anniversary of marriage: weddings of silverware.

Occurrence

• The number 16 is used 21 times in the Bible.

• The number 80 is used 16 times in the Bible.

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Last modification: December 19, 1998

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