Mind Body Spirit
Guest posts
Contributions from Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit authors, readers and customers.
Number 26 – The Number of Script
Mar 26th
By Wolfgang Held, extracted from “The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one“, published 1/03/12 by Floris Books.
Wolfgang Held was born in Germany in 1964. He worked for many years in the Mathematics and Astronomy section of the Goetheanum, where he now runs the publicity department. His latest book, ‘The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one’ explores the fascinating characteristics of numbers in relation to our lives. Throughout March we will be featuring selected edited extracts from this book. Today, the 26th of March, we are looking at the number 26.
Pierre De Fermat
The great mathematician Pierre de Fermat demonstrated that something applies to 26 which is true of no other number. Only 26 has neighbouring numbers that are a square (25 = 52) and a cube number (27 = 33). There are square numbers and cube numbers that adjoin each other such as eight and nine, with the satisfying reflection of 23 and 32. Square numbers and cube numbers can also meet in one and the same number. The smallest number this applies to is 64, which is simultaneously 43 and 82. The privilege of being both a square and a cube number belongs to all those where the number of More >
Number 21 – The Number Between Eternity and Time
Mar 21st
By Wolfgang Held, extracted from “The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one“, published 1/03/12 by Floris Books.
Wolfgang Held was born in Germany in 1964. He worked for many years in the Mathematics and Astronomy section of the Goetheanum, where he now runs the publicity department. His latest book, ‘The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one’ explores the fascinating characteristics of numbers in relation to our lives. Throughout March we will be featuring selected edited extracts from this book. Today, the 21st of March, we are looking at the number 21.
The cannons thundered 21 times when the Crown Princess of Sweden said ‘I do’ in June 2010, and 21 times when President Obama was sworn in. And there is a 21-gun salute when the Queen Elizabeth visits a foreign state. Why 21?
When sailing ships were equipped with cannon in the fourteenth century, they were not allowed to enter harbour primed for battle. They therefore fired off the powder from their cannon without cannon balls, and this sign of peace led to the gun salute. Seven such shots were fired since these early battle ships each had seven cannon. Possibly because cannon on land could fire more quickly, the seven salute shots More >
Number 14 – The Bridge Between Heaven and Earth
Mar 14th
By Wolfgang Held, extracted from “The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one“, published 1/03/12 by Floris Books.
Wolfgang Held was born in Germany in 1964. He worked for many years in the Mathematics and Astronomy section of the Goetheanum, where he now runs the publicity department. His latest book, ‘The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one’ explores the fascinating characteristics of numbers in relation to our lives. Throughout March we will be featuring selected edited extracts from this book. Today, the 14th of March, we are looking at the number 14.
The number 14 is twice seven, the second step in the seventimes table, and therefore, like that number, connected with time and development.
Salt
This is particularly apparent in human biography. School in Germany, Scandinavia and in Waldorf Schools begins during a child’s seventh year – that is, between the age of six and seven, when physical development is far enough advanced to allow intellectual development to begin, with writing, reading and arithmetic. At age 14 – or somewhat earlier today given good nutrition – soul maturity succeeds physical maturation, awakening in love for the opposite sex but also in enthusiasm for ideas and ideals. From being an ‘offspring’, one becomes a member More >
Voices of the Ancestors (by Cherry Gilchrist)
Mar 12th
By Cherry Gilchrist (Article from Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit magazine, issue 29, February 2012)
How much does our ancestry shape our identity? How relevant is it to our lives today? In this highly practical and inspiring book, experienced family researcher Cherry Gilchrist takes us on a fascinating journey to the heart of who we really are and demonstrates how looking at our past can change the present.
Growing Your Family Tree: Tracing your roots and discovering who you are
‘It happened one summer night, a few years ago. I had been working on my Welsh line of ancestry, trying to figure out the branch of the tree which I could now trace back to my 3 x great-grandfather, Edward Owens of Abbeycwmhir, a soldier who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. All that night, my sleep was disturbed by what seemed like a babble of voices. I heard people chattering insistently, and I knew that they were my Welsh ancestors. I could not make out what they were saying, but I had the distinct impression that they wanted to be ‘found’ again, and that they wanted their story to be told.’ (Chapter Two: Growing Your Family Tree)
It was a shock when I discovered that ancestors More >
Star Pilgrim (by Simon Small)
Mar 9th
A Story of the Deepest Mysteries of Existence
By Simon Small (Article from Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit magazine, issue 29, February 2012)
There is no escape from the Greatest Question.
Yet individuals can spend a lifetime refusing to acknowledge its existence; civilisations, eons.
Every now and again it forces its way into the open at a personal level, for most to be resolutely reburied as expeditiously as possible. Even more rarely, if ever, does a whole culture turn to look the Greatest Question firmly in the eye.
Star Pilgrim is a novel, set in the near future, about a civilisation that does just that. It is about an old, incredibly advanced alien race that has realised that only this question ultimately matters. It has become their all-consuming quest.
They have given themselves to penetrating the unspeakable mystery of this moment. The question, “Why is there anything and not just nothing?” is at the centre of all they do. This is the universal question. It is the Great Question.
Filled with awe, it asks “What is this moment?” And from this place it naturally evolves into a contemplation of the meaning and purpose of life. It seeks to know if existence has a fundamental purpose.
And they sense that it has; that More >
Number 6 – The Number of Perfection
Mar 6th
By Wolfgang Held, extracted from “The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one“, published 1/03/12 by Floris Books.
Wolfgang Held was born in Germany in 1964. He worked for many years in the Mathematics and Astronomy section of the Goetheanum, where he now runs the publicity department. His latest book, ‘The Quality of Numbers One to Thirty-one’ explores the fascinating characteristics of numbers in relation to our lives. Throughout March we will be featuring selected edited extracts from this book. Today, the 6th of March, we are looking at the number 6.
If you catch single [snow]flakes on a cold sheet of glass and, keeping conditions cold, observe them under a simple microscope, something of the distinctive nature of six will be revealed. Every crystal, sometimes as compact as honeycomb, sometimes finely branching, will show a six-pointed star in millions of variations. More perfectly than in the growth of mineral crystals, these fleeting water crystals reveal and embody hexagonal symmetry; and one can observe this wealth of snow crystal forms for hours without ever tiring of them.
The idea that, when snow falls in winter, something falls from the cosmos to the earth, is more than a merely poetic image. The number six, as More >
