9

Nine has a piece of real arithmetic behind its mystique: add 9 to any figure and the reduced digit stays where it was. That is why 9, 18 and 27 all land together on this number, and Balliett in 1905 went further by stressing that it is 3 multiplied by itself. Westcott reports the older image of 9 as an ocean running round the other digits, with no further elementary number beyond it.

Meanings pull apart widely. Walton wrote of universal love and Cheasley of intuition, sympathy and complete expression, while Sepharial's scheme, built for name totals, lists grief and anxiety. Clement gives the 9th D major in a table that sets one key against every date of the month.