“Defying Gravity”, the latest sci-fi drama series for TV from the US is about a “Grand Tour” around the Solar System to pick up “fractal objects” that have beamed radio transmissions like whale song from the following locations:- Alpha object on Mars, Beta object from the Nazca plains of Peru, Earth, Gamma object on Venus, Delta object on Mercury, Epsilon object on Europa, Jupiter, Zeta object at the rings of Saturn, Eta object on Pluto, comprising 7 objects. But what of Uranus and Neptune? Where are the Theta and Iota fractal objects? Is that part hidden from us at the moment, because for hundreds of years, the “magic number” was 7, not 9? And why Seven anyway? 7 days of the week; 7 heavenly bodies in ancient cosmology, Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Mercury; “lucky” 7, 7th heaven, 7 deady sins, etc etc. But why 9? According to the numerological analysis of the Hebrew numerical values of words in the Bible, mentioned and explained in the books of author Adrian Michell, such as “City of Revelation” everything there is based on the number 9. And what is the 2 that is added to 7 to make Nine, apart from Uranus and Neptune, the Two Twin moderately sized gas giants of comparable size and colour. 9 in the abjad numerological system of assigning numbers to Arabic not Hebrew letters, is the value of the Arabic word, Baha, meaning Glory, Splendour and Light. It comprises a 2 for B, a 6 for H and a 1 for the second A, the first not being written in Arabic, being a short vowel, not a long one. According to Baha’i understanding, Baha is the greatest name of God, mentioned in Islam but not identified and known until the advent of The Baha’i Faith. Perhaps the writers of “Defying Gravity” either know of this, or are somehow writing in a mysterious symbolic feature into their drama, without knowing why. 9 is a more modern fashionable number with Revolution Number 9 by The Beatles, Number 9 Dream by John Lennon, before Pluto was declassified as a planet, 9 planets in the Solar System, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Although analogies break down after a while, when gone into in two much detail, and although such “ideas of reference” are regarded with contempt and derision by “rational scientists”, such associations and ideas are a staple food for artists in literature, music, drama etc. Also, it could be asserted that there are 7 major religions in Earth, based on Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster and that of China? And add the Twin Manifestations of The Baha’i Revelation in the persons of the Bab and Baha’u’llah and you get 9, though I do admit that this argument is at least a bit contrived. But the mystery remains in “Defying Gravity” as to why Uranus and Neptune are still missing after episode 9 in being targets for collecting “fractal objects”.
1083) Published: Essay: Number Nine
Typed and written 00:26, Tuesday, 15th December 2009 CE
.
1083) Number Nine
"Yellow Stand in the Park Fellowship of the Infamous Neptunian Chrislamic Fundamentalist Space-Wales (YSPFINCFSW), Torchwood Institute Kidlington Branch" 
Dear Pete, this is a very interesting posting. Thank you so much. It is something many Baha’is may have thought about. Here are a few additional thoughts for further conjecture.
The number 7 identifies a process of spiritual growth, reflected in the creation story, the seven valleys (cities, castles) etc. It begins with the lowly state of material attachments, proceeds through the difficult period of testing and trials, cause-and-effect outcomes, leading with the help of the grace of God to detachment and subjugation of the self, and reunion of one’s will with the Will of God. The Bab identified the number 5 with “man” and further indicated that it signified “birth.” He also identified the number 6 as signifying “death.” We know from tradition that the number seven signifies completion, as the day that God rested in Genesis, and as in the notion of seventh heaven.
In a section from the Mathnawi, in a poem some have entitled Become More by Dying, Rumi describes a process of dying 6 times to various lower states to arrive at the (seventh) state of complete union and “nonexistence.” The medieval saint and mystic St. Teresa of Avila, borrowing heavily from the mystical traditions of Islam and from illuminationist thinking, developed her work Interior Castles around a set of 7 castles, one inside the other, where the inner most one is the state of spiritual existence described as Rumi did.
The fact that the number of verses recited at the end of the Baha’i prayer for the departed is 6 supports the Bab’s use of the number 6 as the number of death of man. 6 also appears as the sign of (evil and materialistic) man in the Book of Revelations, as the end of a dispensation and the beginning of a new one as the 6 jars of water turned to wine in the miracle of Cana, and the six “husbands” of the Samaritan woman at the well. Man was also created on the sixth day, according to Genesis (metaphorically speaking, not literally). Thus, 6 signifies incompletion, and near completion, and in the case of those humans who choose not to proceed further, even evil. It precedes the number 7 which represents fulfillment of one’s spiritual journey, a state which some seekers manage to attain. But even then, as Baha’u’llah tells us, these journeys have no real end.
Further, the Bab and Baha’u’llah appear to fold this pattern of 7 into a broader pattern of 3, which more generally represents stages of spiritual growth from animal > materialistic human > spiritualized human. For example, Baha’u’llah emphasizes that man exists on three planes in the Seven Valleys (see the section called Valley of Unity). By identifying the Valley of Knowledge as the last plane of limitation, He shows that the earlier, middle, and final valleys can be distributed into three conditions. Also, the Bab by using the numbers 5 and 6 as he does implies that the number 7 leads to completion, so we see three numbers or stages in series. The birth and death to which He refers, I think, should not be considered as physical events, however, but spiritual ones. One is “born” to existence, then has to “die” to materialism in order to “live” to the life of the spirit. This is the meaning of the crucifixion, in essence. The three days of the resurrection correspond to these 3 more general stages, as do: Egypt > Wilderness > Promised Land, Cain > Abel > Seth, and some other representations such as the three days of Jonah in the belly of the sea monster.
The number 9 is, I think, on a completely different axis of consideration than any of the above. It has to do, more so, with the appearance of the Manifestation in the present age, itself a form of perfection and completion, renewal, and initiation of something entirely new. The clock will now turn back to the number 1 (to unity) as humanity begins anew. The number 9 is the sign of the Greatest Name, here, now, and forever.
Dear Wayfarer,
That’s wonderful! When you were discussing 6 and 7, being death and rebirth? it reminded me of “being at 6s and 7s”!
Also, Peter denying Christ 3 time before the cock crows and the dawn appears, to me symbolises the Christian church failing to recognise the Revelation of God in Muhammad, the Bab and Baha’u’llah before the dawn of the new age, as in the three woes or trumpet blasts in Revelations, as explained in Some Answered Questions by ‘Abdu’l-Baha.
lots of love,
Pete.