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We start out with Shakespeare's observation that "The prince of darkness is a gentleman. " :)

I found Lia's interpretation of Cassaubon's research in finding numerical correlations in chapter 63 simply hilarious and befitting.

I am enclosing the passage in a spoiler because it's overlong.

(view spoiler)[ "We move on to the magic numbers your authors are so fond of. You are one and not two, your cock is one and my cunt is one, and we have one nose and one heart; so you see how many important things come in ones. But we have two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, my breasts, your balls, legs, arms, buttocks. Three is the most magical of all, because our body doesn’t know that number; we don’t have three of anything, and it should be a very mysterious number that we attribute to God, wherever we live. But if you think about it, I have one cunt and you have one cock, shut up and don’t joke and if we put these two together, a new thing is made, and we become three. So you don’t have to be a university professor or use a computer to discover that all cultures on earth have ternary structures, trinities.
But two arms and two legs make four, and four is a beautiful -number when you consider that animals have four legs and little children go on all fours, as the Sphinx knew. We hardly have to discuss five, the fingers of the hand and then with both hands you get that other sacred number, ten. There have to be ten commandments because, if there were twelve, when the priest counts one, two, three, holding up his fingers, and comes to the last two, he’d have to borrow a hand from the sacristan.
Now, if you take the body and count all the things that grow from the trunk, arms, legs, head, and cock, you get six; but for women it’s seven. For this reason, it seems to me that among your authors six is never taken seriously, except as the double of three, because it’s familiar to the males, who don’t have any seven. So when the males rule, they prefer to see seven as the mysterious sacred number, forgetting about women’s tits, but what the hell.
Eight ... eight ... give me a minute.... If arms and legs don’t count as one apiece but two, because of elbows and knees, you have eight parts that move; add the torso and you have nine, add the head and you have ten. Just sticking with the body, you can get all the numbers you want. The orifices, for example."
"The orifices?"
"Yes. How many holes does the body have?"
I counted. "Eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth, ass: eight."
"You see? Another reason eight is a beautiful number. (hide spoiler)]

In fact, I could have quoted the whole chapter as I thought it to be remarkable as I believe Eco was giving away his own views on "The Plan" in this chapter, I found it to be specially explicit when Casaubon reflects in retrospect at the end of this section and thinks how he allowed himself to be seduced by the thought of Sophia (Lorenza) instead of listening to reasonable and nurturing Lia, the matriarchal authority and the image of female fecundity and bearer of natural wisdom. Such great dichotomy of the female figure!

Dolors wrote: "how he allowed himself to be seduced by the thought of Sophia (Lorenza) instead of listening to reasonable and nurturing Lia,"

The funny thing there is that Lorenza doesn't embody wisdom, she is completely credulous and believes apparently pretty much anything. Causabon's wisdom is under his nose in Lia but he doesn't pay her enough attention - it's all too obvious I suppose!

Just to come back to Lorenza's gullibility; I found her little spiel about having a homunculus with Belbo completely hilarious.

And regarding the names, I'm wondering if Eco isn't being playful in slightly 'misappropriating' names?

I wish there were more of Lia as she is my favorite of all the characters in this book...and this 'magic numbers' section one of the best.

Joseph Campbell says something about the need of humans to find meaning in ordinary things, but of course now I can't find it.

But why should I deprive Belbo of his Combray?

Nice little reference to Proust there.

Lia was also my favorite character and I wish she had had more prominence into the story because I found her reflections and logical chain of thoughts more than brilliant.
I found it ironic that Casaubon was focusing on occult investigations while ignoring the legitimate miracles of love and new birth when Lia discloses him she is pregnant. It is Casaubon's desire (obsession?) for knowledge, or rather his intemperate lust for knowledge that will lead him into the arms of The Plan and to lose control. This lust is played out allegorically in the form of his desire for Lorenza. Sophia, being the Greek name for wisdom or certain types of knowledge, is the name that Agliè gives Lorenza. I thought Casaubon's lust for Lorenza in Piedmont mirrored his lust after Sophia or wisdom. In both cases his wife Lia was the counterpoint to his lust for wisdom and Lorenza. A pity he didn't listen to her.
But as Jan-Maat pointed out, mythology and esoterism might be empty vessels, the same as Lorenza, who turns out to be a shallow puppet dancing at the rhythm of delusion.

I also found it remarkable the way some chapters ended with a link to the Kabbalah of each section and that this one was linked to Tifereth, the sefirot which represents "beauty" and "glory", which matches Lorenza's (need for wisdom) appeal. Difficult not to succumb into temptation!

Adding to Jan-Maat's commentary in an earlier thread of Casaubon being the one stuck in the past, just like the Casaubon from George Eliot's novel Middlemarch, we see a theme about Belbo always keeping himself on the fringe, on the outside, of Belbo finding it hard to engage; both on a physical as well as an emotional level; and his efforts to break through his own introversion.

Interesting the roles and different character he links to musical instruments:

"The trumpet is warlike, angelic, apocalyptic, victorious; it sounds the charge.

The saxophone plays so that young punks in the slums, their hair slicked down with brilliantine, can dance cheek to cheek with sweating girls.

Before I forget to mention it, it is in this section that fun is made of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which I mentioned earlier on. Well, I know for a fact that many people gobbled the book up like sweetcakes when it came out; in fact, I've known people who were totally nuts about the book. So Eco is being quite mischievous. (Chapters 65 and 66)

Sigh. I really don't know how Eco could bear to write so much about all these sects. I was already tired of them a quarter-way through the book, and this is at least his second book about them...

Clearly they hold a high fascination for him, in spite of his jesting and ridicule.

Traveller "Sigh. I really don't know how Eco could bear to write so much about all these sects. I was already tired of them a quarter-way through the book, and this is at least his second book about them..."

So glad to see I am not alone in this sentiment. I still don't know how I pushed through to the end, especially as the humor appeared less and less often. And yet, I think I can say I liked it.