The Theosophical Path Illustrated Monthly Volume 1, July-December, 1911
Religion
The Theosophical Path Illustrated Monthly Volume 1, July-December, 1911
Theosophy -- Periodicals
The esoteric teachings of Pythagoras in regard to number dealt
principally with the significance of arithmetic and geometry, and
emphasized the importance of the application of number to weights and
measures. He was the first to explain the multiplication table to
the Greeks. The leading idea of his system was that of the Unity in
Multiplicity. Therefore the Pythagorean concept of harmony was based
upon the relationship of the One and the Many, the idea of the One in
Many and the Many in One--"as above, so below." By number Pythagoras
meant not merely figures, but regulated motion or vibration, rhythm,
law, and order; for he made number equivalent to intelligence. He said:
Number is that which brings what is obscure within the range of our
knowledge, rules all true order in the universe and allows of no
errors.
He assumed, as first principles, the numbers and the symmetries
existing in them, which he called harmonies. He taught:
Virtue is a proportion or harmony. Happiness consists in the
perfection of the virtues of the soul, the perfect science of numbers.
Nature is an imitation of number.
Pythagorean arithmetic was concerned especially with the first ten
digits, which were "hieroglyphic symbols, by means of which Pythagoras
explained his ideas about the nature of things." He taught that unity,
the monad or one, is no true numeral, for one multiplied any number
of times by itself always equals one; that is, unity unlike the true
numerals, has not an infinite series of varying powers, for its square,
cube, and other powers, are one and all equal to one, the first term of
the series. Another peculiarity, which proves unity not to be a true
numeral, is its indivisibility into whole numbers.
The monad is God and the good, which is the origin of the one and is
itself Intelligence. The monad is the beginning of everything. Unity
is the principle of all things and from Unity went forth an infinite
or indeterminate duality, the duad, which is subordinate to the monad
as its cause.
Pythagoras taught that the duad, the first concept of addition, was the
first true figure and regarded the one as a symbol for the Primitive
Unity or the Deity, the Absolute, behind and above the indeterminate
or infinite duad, which symbolized chaos or spirit-matter. The triad
or the three, the monad plus the duad, symbolized the Divine, the
Heavenly, as opposed to the Earthly.
The Pythagoreans say that the All and all things are defined by
threes; for beginning, middle, and end constitute the number of all
and also the number of the triad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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