Rough Notes:
One
ONE (COMPASS) 1
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BlueBoundsComplete CycleCupGod's WillHeavenImmortalityInitiationIntelligencesOneSpirit
BOUNDS
“All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it…”
D&C 93:30
COMPASS
“Compass: To surround; to environ; to inclose on all sides; sometimes followed by around, round or about.”
Noah Webster
“…ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.”
Josh. 6:4
COMPLETE CYCLE
“…wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.”
1 Nephi 10:19
CUP
“Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand…”
Jeremiah 25:17
“Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.”
Ezekiel 23:31
“After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.”
1 Corinthians 11:25-26
“Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”
Luke 22:20
“After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:25
“And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.”
3 Nephi 11:11
GOD’S WILL
“And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.”
3 Nephi 11:11
“…I, having accomplished and finished the will of him whose I am, even the Father…and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink— Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished…”
D&C 19:2,18,19
HEAVEN
“One scholar has suggested that, since the compass, which is used to draw circles, points towards the bowl of the sky, and that the square, which is used to draw squares, points towards the earth, that the combination of the two symbols represent the powers of God in creating the bowl of the starry heavens and the four corners of the earth.”
Brown and Smith, Symbols in Stone, p. 105
“And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”
Matthew 23:9
“One and two are considered the parents of numbers, not really numbers themselves. And they give birth to the digits three through nine, in other words, trinity to the trinity of trinities. And with that and zero you can create – everything.”
Michael Schneider, Oral Interview, via YouTube
“Many mathematicians claim that it is more correct to say that a circle has an infinite number of corners than to view a circle as being cornerless.”
Brown, James Robert. 2008. Philosophy of Mathematics: A Contemporary Introduction to the World of Proofs and Pictures. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge.
IMMORTALITY
Coming soon…
INTELLIGENCES
“All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.”
D&C 93:30
SPIRIT
Coming soon…
One is a very common number in scripture,37 although more often than not it is intended literally rather than figuratively. When employed as a symbol, it most often represents unity.38 That unity can apply to the Godhead,39 the Church,40 a group of people,41 and so on.
As a symbol for God, one numerologist noted, the number one is “indivisible, and not made up of other numbers, [and] is therefore independent of all others, and is the source of all others. So [it is] with the Deity.”42 Another wrote: “Two words are made use of in the Old Testament Scriptures for ‘one’; yacheed, which signifies ‘only one,’ and echad, meaning ‘one of others.’ . . . Yacheed is never used of God. Always the word is echad, one of others, signifying not an absolute unity, but a compound unity, three in one.”43 The implication of the Hebrew, then, is that God is “one” with those with whom he serves in the Godhead. They are perfectly united; they are not “alone.”44 For this reason the Shema45 states, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Pertaining to the oneness of the Church, the Apostle Paul states that the members are “one body” (see Ephesians 4:4–6). Similarly, “the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind” (Moses 7:18; see D&C 38:27).46 The two sticks of Ezekiel are also said to be “one in [our] hand” (Ezekiel 37:17).
Applicable to all married couples is this command to Adam and Eve: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; Abraham 5:18).
Prior to the incident at the Tower of Babel, Moses speaks of the oneness of language and speech that prevailed throughout the earth (see Genesis 11:1, 6–7). Under Joshua the armies of Israel were said to fight “with one accord” (Joshua 9:2). Nephi makes an interesting comment when he notes that, in order to fulfill God’s promise to scatter the house of Israel throughout the earth, the Nephites needed to “be led with one accord into the land of promise” (1 Nephi 10:13).
There are too many examples to list. Suffice it to say that in each case the idea is that two or more people or things are united into a “oneness” that constitutes a “spiritual unity.”
TWO 2
Digital Illustration by Ben Crowder "By Water and by Fire" Digital Illustration by Ben Crowder "Opposition in All Things" The new Rome temple features curved sides that imply the vesica piscis
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COVENANTS
The Hebrew word covenant as we read in the Old Testament is: briyth (ber-eeth). It means: to cut, ‘from ‘barah’ (1262) (in the sense of cutting (like ‘bara” (1254); a compact (made by passing between pieces of flesh) (Strong’s Condordance). Thus by dividing something new is created, separateness becomes apparent, opposites, choice, and consequences come into existence. Creation through division happens in the creation account in Genesis:
“divided the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:4)
“divide the waters from the waters” (vs.6)
Division of living from non-living with the introduction of plant life which would include cell replication through division (vs.11)
“divide the day from the night” (vs.14)
Animal life was divided from the seas and the earth (vs.20-21)
Woman is divided from the man, but they are considered one flesh (Genesis 2:21-24)
We have other examples of covenant creation through division:
God makes a covenant with Abram by passing in-between the divided carcasses of several animals. (Genesis 15:7-18)
Moses divides the Red Sea and Israel passes between the halves. (Exodus 14:21,22)
The Jordan river parts and Israel passes between the halves. (Joshua 3:16,17)
Elijah and Elisha pass through divided water on dry ground. (2 Kings 2:8-13)
Joel speaks of “rending your hearts.” (Joel 2:13)
“And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,” (Jeremiah 34:18)
Veil of the Temple divided at Jesus’ crucifixion. (Matthew 27:50,51)
Captain Moroni and several Nephites rend their garments in token of a covenant. (Alma 46:12-21)
Mount of Olives to divide allowing an escape for Israelites in the last days. (Zechariah 14:4)
In the modern LDS sacrament ordinance, bread is divided in token of a covenant.
For more information see: Cut a Covenant
CREATION
“With two, number begins.”
Robert Lawlor, “Sacred Geometry Philosophy and Practice,” 20
“One and two are considered the parents of numbers, not really numbers themselves. And they give birth to the digits three through nine, in other words, trinity to the trinity of trinities. And with that and zero you can create – everything.”
Michael Schneider, Oral Interview, via YouTube
LAW
“There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.”
1 Kings 8:9
MAN + WOMAN
See “Creation”
OPPOSITION
“The [vesica piscis] emphasized difference. It foreshadows the world’s apparent boundaries, conflict and echoes our own sense of separation. Opposites appear when separateness begins.”
Michael Schneider, A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, 36
PORTAL (EYE, MOUTH, SOUND, ETC.)
“[The vesica piscis] is thus associated with the number 2 and the principle of complimentary opposition (creation), polar opposition, and the law of witnesses. This shape resembles the openings in the human body, including the eye, a doorway for light…In an LDS temple context, the ordinances of the temple may bridge the 2 worlds symbolized by the vesica pisces, that of the living and the dead.”
Val Brinkerhoff, “The Day Star: Reading Sacred Architecture” (Book 2), 67
WITNESSES
Two pillars may symbolize witnesses such as Boaz and Jachin, two pillars which stood in the porch of Solomon’s Temple.
The number two has a dualistic meaning in scripture. Its first symbolic connotation is that of opposition, separation, or good versus bad.47 Its second meaning pertains to the law of witnesses and the canonical necessity to sustain a charge.48
Of two as a symbol of division or separation, note several examples. In the Book of Mormon we are told there are “two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth” (1 Nephi 14:10). Elsewhere we read of similar two-part divisions—of the sheep and goats (see Matthew 25:31–33), wheat and tares (see Matthew 13:24–30), light and darkness (see Genesis 1:4), and the breakup of the kingdom of Solomon (see 1 Kings 11:9–13). All are symbolic of the division, opposition, and enmity that have existed since at least as early as the war in heaven.49
There are numerous examples of the one good and the other bad (or marred) in scripture. Jeremiah speaks of the potter’s two vessels, one marred and one good (see Jeremiah 18:1–4). There are the two covenants or laws (i.e., the law of Moses and the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ), the former of which the book of Hebrews refers to as “decaying” and “faulty” (see Hebrews 8:6–13; 10:9, 16, 17). God’s first and fallen creation (see Genesis 3) will be replaced by a new heaven and earth (see Revelation 21–22), just as the “first Adam” who fell has been replaced by the “second Adam” who raises all from the Fall (see 1 Corinthians 15:45–50).
As an additional image imbedded in the number two, there is the frequent mention in scripture of the need for two or three witnesses in order to sustain a charge against any accused man (see Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Matthew 18:16; John 8:17–18; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28; D&C 6:28; 128:3). Similarly, the Twelve and the Seventy were spoken of as going out in twos (see Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1), as do missionaries in this last dispensation (see D&C 42:6). In the Old World, God offered two testaments of the sacred and divine origins and meanings of his word (i.e., the Old and the New Testaments). The New World has also brought forth two witnesses: the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. Citing Matthew 22:40, one commentator stated that the keeping or not keeping of two cardinal commandments will stand as a witness of the worthiness of all the children of God.50 Another wrote, “Generally, . . . two speaks of fullness of testimony, either for good or for evil.”51
There is an additional layer to the number two that is much less common than the other meanings just covered. It is the image of “reproduction,” “life force,” or “creative power.” The symbol is employed in the creation and preservation of the two sexes (see Genesis 1:27; 7:2).52