The New Jerusalem/El-HEJERA Project .
Appendix D:
The concept of the 144,000 citizens of the New Jerusalem.
Several contemporary spiritual teachers refer to an enlightened elite that is likely to facilitate world redemption, in terms of "The 144,000" Chosen Ones. (Examples include Devra West's "Divine Unity" congregations1, "The Collective Messiah" in James Hurtak's book "The Keys of Enoch"2, and even the number of Extra Terrestrial “Walk-Ins” in Ra Jah “Merk” visions3). Seeking to unify world Christianity, “the Exposition of the Divine Principle” of the Reverend Moon says: “The total number of saints whom Christ at the Second Advent must find to accomplish his task is 144,000”.
The origin of this concept is in the Book of Revelation, which concludes the Christian Bible. The Revelation is a very special book within the New Testament. Even fierce critics of Christianity (such as D.H. Lawrence in his book "Apocalypse") acknowledge it as a great visionary work. John Michell (an associate of the Academy of Jerusalem) has shown, in his books "The City of Revelation" and "Dimensions of Paradise", that the Book of Revelation contains many Gnostic and perennial insights encoded through a system of sacred numbers and proportions. Thus, the numbers used in the Book of Revelation has important specific meanings for us. (This parallels what John Michell finds in Plato’s ideal city, Magnesia, which has 5040 citizens. This number is not a quantitative measure, but a principle of harmonization of the qualities of the various numbers, since 5040 = 1x2x3x4x5x6x7 = 7x8x9x10)
In the Book of Revelation chapter 7 it is written: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel”. It then continues to enumerate very exhaustively, in fact ceremonially, the 12 tribes of Israel - each with a constituency of 12,000. Revelation (14:3) then further states: "The 144,000 people stood before the throne, the four living creatures and the elders; they were singing a new song, which only they could learn". These people are later explicitly mentioned in relation to the New Jerusalem.
The 144,000 are therefore explicitly associated with the 12 Tribes of the New Israel. Noting that “the tribes” were considered lost at that period, this is an image of a universal, restored Israel. This restoration of the whole Israel is evident from Jesus’ selection of his 12 apostles (and is evident in practices of the Essenes and early Christians). The ideal future image, even for all humankind, is in the pattern of the restored 12 Tribes of Israel. Recall that the 12-gated “New Jerusalem” of Revelation is also associated with the 12 Tribes of Israel (Rev. 21:12)
Remarkably, the number of 144,000 appears also
on the other side of the globe in much the same manner: “It is a staggering
coincidence that in a completely different tradition – that of the American
Indians – we find similar archetypal images. In a book “A Hopi prophecy” (Acorn Publishing,
Glastonbury, p.24) we find:
144,000 Sun Dance enlightened teachers will
totally awaken in their mind bodies. They will begin to meet in their own
feathered serpent or winged serpent wheels and become a major force of the
light to help the rest of humanity to dance their dream awake. A Sun Dance
teacher is any human being who has awakened, who has balanced their shields,
who has gained the dream mindbody and who honors all paths, all teachers, and
all ways.
Both visions – that of St. John
from The Revelation and that of the Hopi prophecy – belong to completely
different traditions and are separated by hundreds of years, but nonetheless
they have much in common: the 144,000 initiates, the full enlightenment of each
human being, the cosmic-spiritual music and dance in Divine service, the
feeling of joy and ecstasy in anticipating the return of humankind to the Kingdom
of God.
From Leon Moscona: The Second Coming, Divine
Rainbow Press, Dublin 1995. P. 182).
The universality of this number beacons us to study its numerological messages:
The number 144 - which is also mentioned in relation to the dimensions of the 12-gated New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:17) - is of course 12 times 12, or 12 squared. There are many other references in Revelation to the number twelve. When any 12 entities enter into a relation with any of the 12 (including with itself), there will be 144 types of relations. So 144 are the completion of the 12.
The 12-fold structure of the heavenly zodiac is reflected in the Twelve Tribes. The center of a 3-dimensional space is marked by 12 marks (12 edges for a cube, 12 faces for a dodecahedron and 12 vortices for an icosahedron). In principle, humankind has 12 sides or aspects. (See the series of “The Twelve Faces of Humankind” at www.thehope.org/artgal.htm and Richard Gardner’s book “The Purpose of Love”). This is why the ceremonial Round Table of the Twelve Knights has a universal appeal. We propose that this image originated in Jerusalem, and is associated with the Temple, with the Last Supper and with the Dome of the Rock.
The concept of the thousand (which is 10 times 10 times 10, or ten cubed) is also prevalent in the Bible. Thus Moses, at Jethro's council, instituted a regime with leaders of groups of 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 (Exodus 18:21,25). God's "Day" is 1,000 years (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8). Ecclesiastes (7:28) wishes to find one real human among 1,000 persons.
Bearing in mind the likely Hebrew origins of the Book of Revelation, there is another meaning to the thousands, not just as a number but also as an entity. In the Hebrew Bible Eleph – a thousand - is written exactly as Aleph – which means to instruct or train (especially an animal), and it is also the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. The essence of the Habad (Chabad) teaching is the plea to God: Alfeni Hokhma alfeni Binah (train me in Wisdom, train me in Understanding). It is the quintessential transition from an animal to a divine soul.
Therefore the concept of the 144,000 refers not only to the size of the community of the elect, but also to their process of training for election. They are trained to discover the 12 human types, within and without, and learn to relate their dominant type to each of the types in the self and other people.
While the number 144 is not so frequent in Jewish mysticism, its half – 72, and its double – 288 are quite prominent. In our booklet on “Israel and the 70 nations” we touched upon the equivalence of the council of 70 (with its head and the Presence of the One) and 72. The gematric value of 72 corresponds with the word AV, meaning “cloud”, and the concept of 72 is used for the “cover” of the formless or concealed deity. There is a Cloud of Glory around the Divine Presence, and there are 4 different ways in which divine names (mainly permutations of the name of YHWH) sum up to 72. These four levels of calling God’s name add up to 288.
The number 288 is first implied in the description of the Spirit of God (Elohim) hovering over the face of the waters in the story of the acts of creation. Later Jewish mysticism (Lurianic Kabbalah) preceded these 288 to the creation of this world. From an original 320 Lights making the Divine Crown, 288 fell into the demonic mire, and humankind was created in order to redeem these 288 trapped light sparks, raise them to return them to God.
Like in Revelation 7, in the Book of Numbers (7:1-88) there is an exhaustive repetitious count of the 12 tribes. This comes after two realistic-like censuses of the number of members of each tribe (chap. 1 & 2, both adding to 603,550), but then comes the dedication of the Tabernacle, and each leader of the 12 tribes bring an exactly similar offering, made of 24 items (2 silver and one golden vessel, and 21 animal offerings). Thus the dedication of the Tabernacle/Temple is marked by 288 (12x24) offerings, reflecting on the Temple’s role in raising the 288 fallen light sparks, and only then does the Holy Spirit appear there.
Such insights (and there are many more connected with these numbers) give us hints as to the types of spiritual exercises appropriate for the New Jerusalem pilgrims, and to the manner in which these processes could be conducted. For example, a “Grand Process” might join 72 issues each of which ought to be process by a couple of participants. The dyads seeking to stand in the midst of four concealed sparks of light that should rise and unite through them.
References:
(1)
URL
(2)
Academy
For Future Science URL
(3)
Aquarian Perspectives URL