Do You Believe in the Magic of Numbers?
Where are the numerology people? The mathematicians? The Kabbalist? - those living in this very physical world aware of incomprehensible wonder but will not cease trying to comprehend it.
This story is about the number five.
As a young adult, I was trying to make a difficult decision that involved a significant expense and how to pay for it. My wise uncle, a banker, told me, “It’s just numbers. You can figure numbers out.” Twenty-five years later and a few signs from the universe, I thought there was more to this statement than simply addition and subtraction - perhaps there are wonders revealed through numbers. Now I know there is much discourse on this topic, from angel numbers to gematria, and I wish my banker uncle were still alive to discuss it with me. It seems numbers can be both logical and mystical all at once.
“The Significance of 5” was the title of a document in the planning of our jewelry business that was left blank for a few months until the significance was revealed. As Hush Hush took shape from a few charms into a business strategy, every decision needed to pass the test of poignancy. Every collection piece needed a reason for being and not being random. We relied on data and our collective business experience to plan. Still, symbolism played a role since we were making talismans, after all. But there was one decision we could not make sense of… until it did.
We had to decide how many pieces we would launch the brand with. We came to the number five because it seemed like the right number - not too few or too many. Though nothing about 5 stood out as necessarily symbolic. That was when we started the blank document titled “The Significance of 5” because sometimes you can back into a reason in branding. Research on Google helped us find some significance, though none of the findings worked for the brand. But, sometimes, you just have to go with your gut in business, so we proceeded to launch 5 pieces and continued to develop all other aspects of the company.
Next came creating a logo mark that we would use as a stamp on the jewelry and many other branding needs. We went through several iterations, and finally, one morning, I landed on a shape that felt like it could be the one. It was a logical logo construction in that it used the letters of the brand name, H-U-S-H, overlaid into a unique shape. The shape came together almost seamlessly, yet an open space or rather gap left me questioning whether it was interesting or unfinished. When I showed it to my husband, who spent some time studying Torah in Israel, the shape immediately reminded him of the Hebrew letter Hei in which the gap in the letter held immense significance. He explained how the gap serves as a reminder of the effort that is required to unify the three garments of the soul we use to express ourselves - thought, speech, and action. As he spoke, dots were being connected. Thought, speech, and action were very much the tenets of HUSH HUSH. Based on this understanding of what a gap in a symbol could signify, I leaned toward the space being a necessary part of the design.
Days later, I was researching the letter Hei and learned it was THE 5TH LETTER OF THE HEBREW ALPHABET! <<<<<Insert mind exploding -> 🤯>>>>> We found the answer to our question, “What is the significance of 5?, Why should we use five pieces to launch our brand?”, which we knew was right all along, but needed clarification, a sign from the universe. We came to it backward, but Hebrew is spelled backward too.
We are a woman-owned and operated business, and we use all our faculties to create something from nothing. We believe in that little guiding voice within - the one that tells you when something is right or wrong when there are no material facts for proof. Some, usually old-fashioned guys, call it being emotional, to which we say
Sorry, your uncle didn’t have better advice for you.