Cinema is a branch of art that exhibits the symbols of the unconscious. Cinema characters are created where many archetypes become heroes. The plots of Nine animated film, also produced by Tim Burton, bear the traces of these character creations.
Nine animated movie and its themes in the cinema
The movie named Nine takes place in a pessimistic dystopia where characters made up of numbers, machines at the end of the world and artificial intelligence development brings fear to humanity . The key story of the movie begins when a scientist turns his genius into regret in the hands of the politics and wars while trying to use it for the service of humanity. As machines turn into war vehicles, they eventually tend to destroy humans as well. In the hands of the inventor scientist, tiny robots with small numbers similar to humans remain. The scientist blows his breath into the tiny robots he creates by marking each number and sets them up by putting them in their boxes. Pneuma, breath, is the sign of the soul in ancient times. Pneuma is a Greek word for the soul and means breath. The breathing scene in the movie implies that the scientist is breathing his soul into the humanoid robots he has created. After he blew the last one, the humanoid robot number 9, from his soul, he dies. Thus begins the adventure of the protagonist 9, the humanoid tiny robot numbered with the number 9, that comes with the awakening. Throughout the movie, 9 will encounter characters marked with other numbers and fight evil machines. However, there is a fine point, all numbered humanoid robots have light and shadow features of numerological characters.
The History of numerology and the meanings of numbers
Numerology is a letter and number system that has been used since ancient times by those who try to explain the mysteries of the universe with numbers. The desire of the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras to reduce multiple numbers to single numbers with mathematical calculations and explain them as such is the method of calculating numbers by numerology and the Kabbalists were inspired by it. This method of making sense with numbers, which was used in Greek, Babylonian and Arab societies, was also found in the abjad calculations of the Arabs. The Arabs, who gave numerical values to each letter, were collecting the letters in the person's name according to the numerical values of the letters with Abjad, which means mathematics in the Arabic language, and made personality analysis, star name and fate analysis. In classical numerology, not only the name but also the date of birth of the person was calculated. For example, for a person whose date of birth is October 10, 1977, the number obtained by adding all the digits in the date of birth and reducing it to a single number is considered the number of that person's life path. On the other hand, the day the same person was born (10=1+0: 1, the number of person is 1) gives the number of persons. Although numerology, like astrology, basically gives certain parameters, it has differences in terms of some calculations according to various calculation differences. However, the meanings attributed to the numbers according to the basic principles and the personality number and the life path figure remained the same in all calculation methods. Numbers from 1 to 9 are made according to the Pythagorean method of mathematics. For someone whose birthday is 18, the equivalent of 18 is 1+8=9. In this case, the number of persons that person is 9. Whatever he adds, the calculating person reduces the non-single-digit result to a single digit by adding all the numbers again. Since only the numbers 11, 22 and 33 are considered master numbers when these numbers come out as a result of the operation, the numbers in these numbers are not added together and reduced to one, they have their meanings.
In summary, the numbers 1 to 9 meanings:
1: Initiator, creator, leader, individual, uniqueness, father and authority figure, independence, and self. A person's personality number or life path number of 1 emphasizes his individuality, independence, pioneering and leadership qualities.
2: Represents sharing, duality, balance, benevolence, mother figure, and partnership. The fact that a person has 2 features or goals indicates that he can have altruistic features, be in motherly roles, and act with a sharing self-perception.
3: While the famous holy three have creative and artistic features such as the expression of the holy spirit, their communication skills have a developed vibration. 3's are carriers of spiritual inspiration and they can convey it with their artistic abilities. Communication planet Mercury (Hermes) represents the 3rd House in Astrology as an archetype that carries information. People with this personality can think fast, transfer quickly, have strong communication skills, and develop artistic inspirational writing skills.
4: Represents the figure of stability, safety, and grounding. Those with 4-type numeral weights are like the 3's complement. While 3s understand the rules of spiritual life, 4s keep the rules and order of material life alive. 4s are good at order and organization, and with 3s they rule two worlds.
5: They are characterized as intellectual, curious, free and seeking revolutionaries. The courage to step out of the known patterns, the courage to be yourself, and bring freedom are the intellectual goals of the 5s.
6: This number is the way of seeing love, love and art. It is like an effort to reach spiritual unity from the love of two people. 6's want to enjoy life, they are inclined to art, marriage and union are close to them. They are prone to selfless living like 2s.
7: Mystical, mysterious, analytical, contemplative and intuitive 7s are like the union of two realms, namely the spiritual realm and the material realm. They become souls close to spiritual love, who like to hang out individually. 7's can be researchers, writers, and scholars who hang around like hermits. This number, which is the sum of 3 and 4, symbolizes the bridges of spiritual and material life. They can achieve victory by walking through the two realms and balancing like the man holding chariot number 7 in the Tarot. They know where and how to find information. Knowing oneself and the realms is the life purpose of the 7s.
8: Symbolizes the number of successes, self-confidence, and hard work. They are like the working element of the order, who can work in jobs that require material security and welfare, that require endurance, etc. Their life goals are based on living this life. They like to act together.
9: The number 9, which represents purity, unconditional love, wisdom, intuition, benevolence, and the collective self carries the meaning of bringing together inexperience and mastery, being wise in childishness, putting collective interest and collective goodness in place of the individual self in 1 and revealing individuality. The 9s represent the end and the beginning, but unlike the beginning of the number 1, they represent a beginning that comes with an ending. This beginning is the beginning of an ending that also affects the individual but is more collective. 9 lives in our consciousness and finds its voice through the good it brings to the collective.
Behaviours of numeral humanoids in the Nine animated movie are according to symbolic meanings.
The Nine animated movie begins with humanoid robot number 9 waking up in a room and coming out of the box it was put in. The scientist who made it lies on the ground, dead after blowing his soul into the 9th. Just like the symbolic meaning of the number 9, he leaves the room with a childlike naivety and clumsiness and throws himself into a world that has turned into a battlefield.
Throughout the film, we see 9 as someone who is frightened but does not give up, pure but visionary, striving for individual but collective. Just like the meaning of the number nine in numerology, the number 9 humanoid is concerned with serving the collective salvation. This feature of the number 9, which symbolizes the beginning of the ending, can be understood from the fact that he is the last robot created and the last character of the movie, a character that changes the dystopian ending of the story and leads to a new collective beginning.
All numbered robots in the movie behave by the meanings of numerological numbers. The first to come to the aid of the 9-figure robot in trouble while wandering alone is the 2-digit robot. Humanoid number 2 nurtures 9, aids and selflessly protects him, as is the symbolic meaning of 2. On their adventures, they encounter the number 5, which, like its symbolic meaning, is curious, seeking liberation, and friendly.
Thanks to the number 9, robots of all numbers begin to appear one by one. In all of them, we see that the characters are created according to the numerological meanings of the numbers. While some of the humanoids have the light feature of their characters, some have turned into shadow characters and they act against the purpose of the scientist to create them.
The movie is shaped around the goal of robot number 9 to risk many things and work for the collective good by the pain of creation and to destroy the big machine and save the world from the invasion of machines. The robot named 9 displays the numerological latent power of the number 9 as a representation of the service-oriented life that fights for purity, intuition, goodness and collective interest.
In the story of the 9 animated movies, the character that the 9-number humanoid will clash with first becomes the robot numbered with the number 1, which is a humanoid robot of its kind but has turned into a shadow character. The main character named 9 collapses on the character named number 1 like a nightmare. Number 1 is the leader, the number 8 is his assistant and loyal employee. But they have survived in a place hidden from the machines and built their empire of small humanoid robots, and the king of this imaginary empire is the robot named 1. The movie shows 1's individuality in shadow-type behaviours. His individuality, independence and leadership appeared in the form of selfishness and despotism, like hypocritical politicians who turned into shadow characters. Robot number 8 works at his service and as his assistant as a robot that obeys him without question.
In the numerological sense of the number 1, there is 'courage' among the light traits, that is, strong positive leader traits. Whereas the number 1 robot in the movie is his shadow, he is a total coward and has established his secret cowardly kingdom by hiding from the machines with those who obey or put up with him. While robot number 8 in the kingdom established by 1 obeys him unconditionally, robots number 6 and 5 endure him and live in the secret area they are in. The 6-figure robot is living in that fake kingdom and drawing artistic shapes that isolate itself from them in a corner. The humanoid number 6 also carries a sense of togetherness and artistic vision according to the characteristics of the numerological meaning of the number 6. However, this feature of him also appeared as a shadowy expression in the shadow kingdom. Number 6 is like there with them in the kingdom but lives in isolation within them. Moreover, he makes drawings in which he demonstrates his artistry, but those drawings are visions that give signs of what to do to end the disaster they experienced. While the number 5 lives with them, it stands close to the number 6 in the shadow with its characteristic feature in the pursuit of freedom. Number 5 will be the first number character to appear in front of 9 after robot number 2, wandering outside the kingdom as a curious person. Freedom and revolutionary meanings are loaded on the 5s in symbolic language. Number 5 also desires the revolution that will end the false kingdom and dystopian captivity. So he will help 9 as well as number 2. 9's friend numbers on this journey initially appear as 2, 5 and 7. Number 6 lives in isolation. Altruistic number 2 lies outside the kingdom in hopes of helping someone on the dreary battlefield where all seems lost, and 9 gets first aid from him. The researcher and revolutionary 5 will be friends with 9 while secretly taking the steps of liberation by going out of the kingdom. When they get into trouble, the mysterious and lonely number 7 will appear to support 9's team. The emergence of 7 is the emergence of the most mystical and knowledgeable number in numerology. The humanoid robot number 7 is walking around like a secret warrior with a blind mask on his face and lives far and independently from the false kingdom that 1 has established. Others don't even know that he lives by the symbolism of the number 7, which is known for its mystery until he shows up to save 9 and his crew, who are in trouble. From this moment on, number 7 and number 9 will be each other's biggest supporters and will be companions to each other. Since the number 7 also represents knowledge and enlightenment in symbolic language, the number 7, which has light features, also accompanies 9 by guiding it and helping it find the unknown. Number 7 takes 9 to places where it can find information. In this journey, 3 and 4 appear as two little robot figures wandering like twins. According to the principle of the inseparability of the spiritual and material worlds, the numbers 3 and 4 act together as a person and help the team of 9 be synchronized with their numerological characters.
Since the number 9 represents the collective good and interest, it is the key character of the return to unity, purity, and collective benefit, to the beginning where everything is clean. The pure wisdom of the collective consciousness defeats dystopia, allowing souls to be saved by evil machines. Towards the end of the movie, characters 1 and 8, who do not join 9 and act in the shadows, finally get away from their egos and trust the intelligence of true wisdom. The journey of 9 tells about the soul selves that can act with the consciousness of unity in which everyone serves the functions of creation by developing a healthy self, without leaving the collective consciousness of us. In any case, the course of the movie story, with the number 9, strips the souls of falsehood.
“I” and “we” are subjects who stand apart but not separate. Saying ‘me’ without saying ‘we’ may turn into egoism. A 'unity consciousness' that reveals the constructive features of the character is achieved with a sense of self-interest inseparable from the collective interest. The splendour of the soul is in the inseparable beautiful balance of me and us.
By Neris Dipsov, Author of the Joker and Our Filters Book.
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