For them the whole of the Universe, metaphysical and material, was contained within, and could be expressed and described by the digits contained in the number 10, the Pythagorean Decad.
This Decad, representing the Universe and its evolution out of Silence and the Unknown Depths of the Spiritual Soul, or Anima Mundi, presented two sides or aspects to the student. It could be, and was at first, applied to the Macrocosm, after which it descended to the Microcosm, or man. There was, then, the purely intellectual and metaphysical, or the “Inner Science,” and the as purely materialistic or “surface science,” both of which could be expounded by and contained in the Decad. It could be studied, in short, both by the deductive method of Plato, and the inductive method of Aristotle. The former started from a divine comprehension, when the plurality proceeded from unity, or the digits of the Decad appeared, only to be finally reäbsorbed, lost in the infinite Circle. The latter depended on sensuous perception alone, when the Decad could be regarded either as the unity that multiplies, or matter which differentiates; its study being limited to the plane surface, to the cross, or the seven which proceeds from the ten, or the perfect number, on Earth as in Heaven.
This dual system was brought, together with the Decad, by Pythagoras from India. That it was that of the Brachmans and Iranians, as [pg 606] they are called by the ancient Greek Philosophers, is warranted to us by the whole range of Sanskrit literature, such as the Purânas and the Laws of Manu. In these Laws or Ordinances of Manu, it is said that Brahmâ first creates the “ten Lords of Being,” the ten Prajâpati or Creative Forces; which ten produce seven other Manus, or, rather, as some MSS. have it, Munîn (instead of Manûn) “devotees,” or holy beings, which are the seven Angels of the Presence in the Western religion. This mysterious number seven, born from the upper Triangle △, the latter itself born from the apex thereof, or the Silent Depths of the Unknown Universal Soul (Sigê and Bythos), is the sevenfold Saptaparna plant, born and manifested on the surface of the soil of mystery, from the threefold root buried deep under that impenetrable soil. This idea is fully elaborated in one of the Sections of Volume I, Part II, Section III, “Primordial Substance and Divine Thought,” which the reader should notice carefully, if he would grasp the metaphysical idea involved in the above symbol. In man as in nature, according to the Cis-Himâlayan Esoteric Philosophy, which is that of the Cosmogony of the original Manu, it is the septenary division that is intended by Nature herself. The seventh principle (Purusha) alone is the Divine Self, strictly speaking; for, as said in Manu, “he [Brahmâ] having pervaded the subtile parts of those six, of unmeasured brightness,”[1361] created or called them forth to “Self”-consciousness or the consciousness of that One Self. Of these six, five elements (or principles, or Tattvas, as Medhâtithi, the commentator thinks) “are called the atomic destructible elements”;[1362] these are described in the above-named Section.[1363]
We have now to speak of the mystery language, that of the prehistoric races. It is not a phonetic, but a purely pictorial and symbolical tongue. It is known at present in its fulness to the very few, having become with the masses for more than 5,000 years an absolutely dead language. Yet most of the learned Gnostics, Greeks and Jews, knew it, and used it, though very differently. A few instances may be given.
On the plane above, the number is no number but a nought—a circle. On the plane below, it becomes one—which is an odd number. Each letter of the ancient alphabets had its philosophical meaning and raison d'être. The number one (1) signified with the Alexandrian [pg 607] Initiates a body erect, a living standing man, he being the only animal that has this privilege. And, by adding to the “I” a head, it was transformed into a “P,” a symbol of paternity, of the creative potency; while “R” signified a “moving man,” one on his way. Hence Pater Zeus had nothing sexual or phallic either in its sound or the form of its letters; nor had Πατὴρ Δεὺς (according to Ragon).[1364] If we turn now to the Hebrew alphabet, we shall find that while one or Aleph (א) has a bull or an ox for its symbol, ten, the perfect number, or one of the Kabalah, is a Yod (י, y, i, or j), and means, as the first letter of Jehovah, the procreative organ, and the rest.
The odd numbers are divine, the even numbers are terrestrial, devilish, and unlucky. The Pythagoreans hated the Binary. With them it was the origin of differentiation, hence of contrasts, discord, or matter, the beginning of evil. In the Valentinian Theogony, Bythos and Sigê (Depth, Chaos, Matter born in Silence) are the primordial Binary. With the early Pythagoreans, however, the Duad was that imperfect state into which the first manifested being fell when it got detached from the Monad. It was the point from which the two roads—the good and the evil—bifurcated. All that which was double-faced or false was called by them “binary.” One was alone good and harmony, because no disharmony can proceed from One alone. Hence the Latin word Solus in relation to the One and Only God, the Unknown of Paul. Solus, however, very soon became Sol—the Sun.
The Ternary is the first of the odd numbers, as the triangle is the first of the geometrical figures.[1365] This number is truly the number of mystery par excellence. To study it on the exoteric lines one has to read Ragon's Cours Philosophique et Interprétatif des Initiations, on the Esoteric—the Hindû symbolism of numerals; for the combinations which were applied to it are numberless. It is on the Occult properties of the three equal sides of the triangle that Ragon based his studies and founded the famous Masonic Society of the Trinosophists—those who study three sciences; an improvement upon the ordinary three Masonic degrees, given to those who study nothing except eating and drinking at the meetings of their Lodges. As the founder writes:
The first line of the triangle offered to the apprentice for study is the mineral kingdom, symbolized by Tubalc [Symbol: Three dots in a triangle] [Tubal-Cain].
The second side on which the companion has to meditate, is the vegetable kingdom, symbolized by Schibb [Symbol: Three dots in a triangle] [Schibboleth]. In this kingdom begins the generation of the bodies. This is why the letter G is presented radiant before the eyes of the adept [?!].
The third side is left to the master mason, who has to complete his education by the study of the animal kingdom. It is symbolized by Maoben [Symbol: Three dots in a triangle] (son of putrefaction).[1366]