Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Six and Seven

Numbers are international. We cannot be sure that Pythagoras invented the Tetraktys all by himself – he could have learned it from the Egyptians or from the Israelites. Symbols are international – we find the hexagram or the pentagram or the lily almost in every culture.
The Star of David has six triangles surrounding one hexagon. The interlocking tetraktyses have 13 points. 13 include the meanings of the numbers six and seven, twelve and one. Twelve and one is the basis for the theory about the encampment of the Tribes.

Khan el-Ahmar

There's a Christian Star of David from the 7th century AD in the mosaic floor of the Euthymius Monastery in the Judean Dessert. In order to get there you need to drive east of Jerusalem in the direction of Jericho until Mishor Adummim and near the gas station to turn right and drive for one mile into the industrial area. Khan el-Ahmar means red hostel.
Y. Hirschfeld wrote an extensive article about the Euthymius Monastery and in it I found the following description:
The easternmost unit contains a six-pointed star pattern with a red chalice at its center…The mosaic stone pavements of the northern aisle were almost completely destroyed, except for a small section at its eastern end. In this section a small portion has survived of a six-pointed star identical with the six-pointed star of the southern aisle.