Number 9 is the number of Universal love, eternity, faith, karma, spiritual enlightenment and awakening, service to humanity, positive example and philanthropy, self-sacrifice and selflessness, soul purpose and a higher perspective, romance, inner-strength, responsibility, and intuition. It’s also the number of years that VoipNow has been around to bless service providers with UC goodness 🙂 .

If you ask different people from different cultures, number 9 has a considerable span of meanings.

Nine in Chinese culture – the Dragon

Nine is good in Chinese culture. It sounds the same as the word “long-lasting” (as opposed to Japanese culture where it sounds like the word for “pain”). It’s also associated with the Chinese Dragon, a renowned symbol of magic and power in Chinese culture. The Dragon itself comes in nine forms, or bearing nine distinct attributes. Wouldn’t you know it, the Dragon also has nine children. What it has more than 9 is scales. About 117 of them. It has precisely 81 masculine scales (yang: representing the heavens) and 36 female scales (yin: representing the Earth).

Math-savvy readers will have probably already guessed that all three numbers are multiples of 9, and have the same digital root. The Dragon also symbolizes the emperor status, and it is a common sighting in the famous Forbidden City.

The nine bows of Egypt

In the land of the pyramids, nine has both good and bad meanings. On the one hand, it symbolizes “the nine bows,” a term used in Ancient Egypt to represent the country’s traditional enemies. On the other hand, the figure also represents the group of 9 Egyptian deities called the Ennead. These are said to have judged whether Horus or Set should inherit Egypt, according to some versions of the Osiris myth.

The nine muses in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, there were 9 goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science, and the arts. These were the Muses, and they were regarded as the source of orally-related knowledge. Their names, along with their so-called professions, are: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (erotic poetry), Euterpe (lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (song), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy).

Different cultures have boundless meanings for this seemingly magical number. We like to embrace them all, because in the nine years we’ve spent pouring our sweat into VoipNow, we’ve learned to take the good with the bad. In this line of business, the sum is always greater than the parts. Happy Birthday, VoipNow, and many more!