Cosmological Notes on Pythagorean Number Theory, the Vedas and Kabbalah

COSMOLOGICAL NOTES ON THE MATRIX AND THE FIGURE OF THE DECADE

The Rig Veda teaches that the one animating principle of all the gods and man is a UNITY. IT is the eternally self-existent one, that lies behind Hiraṇyagarbha (the Womb) and brings forth a Universe. It is from Hiraṇyagarbha that the drama of creation, the first gods and the triune (Trimurti) who are one (Agni, Vayu, and Surya) spring forth. The names transliterated in their Latin and Greek originals of the Thrones, seraphs, Dominions, Principalities, Cherubs, demons and denizens are analogous to the Vedic system — under the Devas, Rishis, Pitris, suras and asuras. The triune PRINCIPLE is found in the Kether, Chokmah and Binah, like the three seraphim and four “sacred animals,” or cherubim (the cube).

The triune and the seven are what are called the Ten Sefirōt (Attributes, like the ten Pāramitās) of the Jewish Kabbalah (the manifested Universe). This is synthesized by the monotheists into the ONE GOD. In sum, the Decade — represented as the perfect number, or the ten are collectively ONE.

From the INFINITE SPACE (the No Number, ZERO) preceded all the numbers, which contain in the DECADE (ten), all the Universe. That which the ancients called FATHER-MOTHER, is the visible, and invisible expanse of NIGHT beyond the earth and sky, i.e., Space and Substance. It is the Universal MATRIX (Devimatri) from which all her spawn (Nebula, Suns, Stars, and Planets) were gradually born. They are its fish in the Great Sea (CHAOS) teeming with life. “Spirit” is the BREATH (Heat) which alone could organize the physical Kosmos and its planets. DEITY, from the NO NUMBER, obtains its form through Number (becomes the manifested Word), i.e., the gods from the smallest unit to the organized systems as a whole. Thus, the Numbers depend on Unity, which is the “absolute harmony or spirit — a chaos to the sense, a perfect cosmos to reason.”

The Generative MATRIX gave birth to all things, the Illusion, according to this mathematical philosophy. The Pythagoreans taught that the way to be liberated from ignorance and this cycle of illusion was to acquire higher understanding of the universe through introspective practices. The mystery of the power of numbers goes even beyond the ten, and it is taught that the combination of the numerical values in arithmetic gives the value and nature of the Gods. As Plutarch states in his Isis and Osiris, “…the power of the triangle is expressive of the nature of Pluto, Bacchus, and Mars; and the properties of the square of Rhea, Venus, Ceres, Vesta, and Juno; of the Dodecahedron of Jupiter…” One would wonder, as most of us will begin, why conceal such intricate doctrines in nonsensical language and under the figures of geometrical solids? These were studies involved in classical MATHEMATICS, for it is a language. Understanding this, it was generally understood that there were multiple ways of conveying realities and images of things in the unseen world, hence the use of geometric figures.

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RECOMMENDED READING

1. Huffman, Carl, “Pythagoreanism“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
2. The Doctrine of Emanations, or The Pythagorean Science of Numbers, Wisdom World.