Properties of the number 108
Symbolism
Number of the man.
According to the rosicrucians, it symbolizes the summit that a man can reach on the Path during his incarnation and it is then the number of the achievement.
Universal Number, as a product of 9, number of Completion, and 12, Cosmic number.
Blanquart points out that from the Soul's day (November 2) to Christmas (December 25) there are 54 days and 54 nights, that is to say 54 positive units and 54 negative units: 54 + 54 = 108. In this senses, 108 would symbolize the progress of darkness to the light.
Bible
The epistle of Saint James, whose central message is that there is no authentic faith without chariatble works, contains on the whole 108 verses. It is also in the epistle of James that the Catholic Church has recognized the sacramental anointing of the sick (Jm 5,14-15).
General
It is written in some exoteric texts that Jesus-Christ would have had 108 disciples, not including the apostles. Nicodemus would have been a part of these disciples.
According to the information furnished in the narration of Maria Valtorta, Lazarus would have remained 4 days and half in his grave, that is to say 108 hours, before to be resuscitated by Jesus-Christ.
During his passion, Our-Lord received a total of 6666 blows on his body, including 108 to his stomach.
The 108 years of cycles of the Rosicrucian brotherhood. That is to say the number of years characterizing the periods of activity and sleep in the Order Rosicrucian A.M.O.R.C. The White Cardinal underlined that at the beginning of the era of the Aquarius, in 1962, the Order of the Temple had disappeared from the external world 6 times 108 years.
Since March 25, 1976, it is under the term of "Mother of the reconciliation of all peoples" that the Virgin Mary appears to Maria Esperanza Bianchini, at Betania in Venezuela. In addition to the visions and messages that she receives, Maria is overwhelmed of mystical phenomena. For example, on Good Friday, she bleeds of the marks of Christ and many times, a host appears miraculously on her tongue. A particular appearance, where 108 persons have seen the Virgin at Betania, occurred on March 25, 1984 and was approved by the bishop of the diocese, Mgr Pio Bello Ricardi.
September 8, 1995, day of the anniversary of the Virgin Mary, was celebrated in France, in Puy, this feast of Our Lady. For this occasion, 108 different statues were there, according to the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin in France and in others countries.
The 108 rosary beads bouddhic, Hindu and Tibetan. There is also the Chinese rosary of tantric and bouddhic origin. These 108 rosary beads of the Eastern would come from the sum of the 12 months, the 24 arrangements in which the solar calendar has been divided, and the 72 divisions of the Chinese year in periods of 5 days: 12 + 24 + 72 = 108. According to another extremely old tradition in the East, the importance of the number 108 would derive from 10800 which multiplies the number of moments in the year and the number of verses in the Rig-Veda.
There is, in the East, 108 weaknesses, such as the illusion, the desires, the hatred, the attachment, the pride, etc. which correspond to 108 grains of the Buddhist beads. These 108 weaknesses are called 108 karmic links.
108 lords of the Tao according to the Taoism.
108 columns of the temple of Ourga.
108 towers of the Phnom Bakheng in Angkor.
In the East, they speak about 108 branches or navamsas.
In the foundations of the Abbey of Theleme, built on hexagonal level, were placed an enigma of 108 verses.
There is in Ceylan in the East exorcism cults where the sorcerer, called chaman, seeks to cure by the means of more or less obscure invocations because he is talking to entities relatively not very developed. All night, while he exorcizess the evil one, with a nutcracker of betel he has to cut 108 lemons above the head of the sick person.
In Ladakh (called also the small Tibet) there is a lamasery by the name of Lamayuru and according to the legend, there was a lake, that would have been drained thanks to a miracle of a saint Buddhist. This monastery was built in the 10th century by a scientist that the King of the Ladakh sent for. This King had build 108 of those in all the oriental Tibet.
In Varanasi, surrounded by an immense multitude of listeners of all classes, Buddha pronounced a speech and developed his doctrine. His words, collected by his disciples, form 108 large volumes, known under the generic name of Gandjour. They treat exclusively on the metaphysics of creations; on the frail and perishable nature of the man; on the use of the virtues which emancipate the soul of the metempsychosis and on the abolition of the castes and the equality of all men in front of God.
After the death of the Buddha, Padma-Sambhava, the great Tibetan guru that re-establishs the esotericism to the Tibet, would have hidden and preserved 108 writing the more sacred that were revealed to him in celestial worlds (akashics file) in the world of men and the Kingdom of Nagas (or of followers). He hid them at the border of Nepal in the North of Tibet.
In the Tibetan tradition, it insists a lot on the role of Shakti (or Tara), that is to say against female part of the followers. In reality, for the initiate, it is a question of being united with its own Shakti called Kundalini or "The Mother of the World". There exists 108 names of Tara referring to the different manifestations of the eternal feminine.
When Theos Bernard wrote his book "Penthouse of the Gods", published in 1939, he claimed to have been the first person to have had access to the city of Lhassa, in Tibet, located at an altitude raised in the Himalaya and where are monasteries sheltering thousands of lamas, disciples of Buddha. The reading of his book gives the impression that when the lamas, or monks, do not eat or not reply to physical needs of their body, they make only repeat mystical songs, by having recourse to a roll of prayers. The author declares that in one of temples, the monks passed the complete day to repeat prayers that they had begun at dawn and that in the course of a day, it had told these prayers exactly 108 thousand times. He tells also how the lamas repeated some songs, always the same ones, for the purpose to increase their force.
The new Japanese year is celebrated, the day before at the evening, by 108 knocks of gong in the main temples. It is one of the feasts which joins together the most world, because, exceptionally, they are the laymen and not the monks who have to knock on the gong.
In the mandala Kongo-Kaï of Japanese, there exists 108 saint celebrities called the Honorable of the Vajradhatu.
According to a Tibetan legend, there exists in Shambhala 108 great Initiated and Masters.
There exists 108 signs of headdresses of the Buddha, 108 devoted lamps and 108 names of Buddha.
In Hinduism, there are 108 pose representations (dances anointed) of the Nastya Shastra, there is 108 Upanishads, 108 names of Vishnu in the Mahabharata and 108 names for Shiva.
An Italian legend claims that the 108th pope will be the last true pope and that the others will announce only the era of the Antichrist.
The Chinese astrology counts 36 beneficial stars and 72 evil stars, their sum constitutes the sacred number 108.
In Cabal and in Hinduism, 108 years complete of Brahma constitute one whole period of the age of Brahma, that is to say 1 Maha Kalpa.
The length of the Basilica of saint Denis in France, built in 475 after J.-C. by monks Benedictines, measures 108 meters. Its width is 39 meters and its height under vault, 29 meters.
The sum of three times six squared gives 108, 6²+6²+6² = 108. The number 666 corresponds to the number of the Beast of the Revelation.
In the geometry of the pentagon, the angle between the lines of the points formed by the star, is 72 degrees. Also the angle between paws of the pentagon is 108 degrees.
Gematria
By using as correspondence table A=1, B=2, ..., Z=26, André Bouguénec found that the French words "LE VERSEAU" (the Aquarius) and "RENAISSANCE" (rebirth) give 108. It is the same with the words Medjugorje, "Sacre-Coeur" (Sacred Heart) and religions.
Occurrence
The number 20 is used 108 times in the Old Testament under its cardinal form.
In the Bible, 8 numbers among 365 are multiple of 108, and the sum of their respective occurrence gives 11.
Nicephore found 913 different words in the Greek original text of the Revelation, which has on the whole 1400. If from these 913 words we subtract 42 of them which are proper nouns, on the 871 which remain there are 108 words that we do not find in the rest of the New Testament. And 416 words only, on the 913, are found in the Revelation and the Gospels.
In the Bible, 108 numbers are multiple of 40. And the sum of the occurrences of all multiple numbers of 70, which are in the Bible of Jerusalem or in the NRSV, gives also 108.
The sum of the occurrences of all numbers of the Bible equal or higher than 50000 gives 108 by counting "ten thousand times ten thousand" (Dn 7,10) as being an additional number equal to 100000000. The same result is obtained by adding the occurrences of numbers of the Old Testament starting from 45400.
The sum of the occurrences of all numbers of the Bible in the interval 30 and 33, corresponding to the age of Jesus during the three years of its public ministry, gives as result 108 (99 in the Old Testament and 9 in the New Testament).
The word "first-born" is used 108 times in the Bible. The words "in truth" and the verb "to forgive" are used for each 108 times in the NRSV.
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Last modification: December 19, 1998
28 Comments for Number 108 Symbolism, 108 Meaning and Numerology
Comment on Number 108 Symbolism, 108 Meaning and Numerology
108
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RE: Baseball
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108 meaning and numerology
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Number 108 in dreams
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RE: Number 108 in dreams
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RE: Warning
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RE:feeling a calling towards the number 108
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RE: 1/08/72
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Baseball
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108
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