Bro. Pythagorus

[Bevan Jones]

Dear Brethren All,

We know that Euclid's 47th theorem and Pythagorus are fairly important in Masonry, adorning the PM's jewel. We further know that geometry and music were vital to Pythagorus' "Harmony of the Spheres". Geometry and Music also feature in the Several Liberal Arts, forming part of every gentleman's classical education, typically as part of his Grand Tour. I've always loved this explanation:

Trivium, 3 roads
- Grammar
- Rhetoric
- Logic

Quadrivium, 4 roads
- Arithmetic (number)
- Geometry (number in space)
- Music (number in time)
- Astronomy (number in space and time)

What did Pythagorus discover in Egypt as part of his Grand Tour? Would relish to hear your thoughts brethren.

Yours, fraternally
Bevan

 

[Bevan Jones]

Pythagoras told us that the numbers are alive. This is a hard saying and who can hear it?

Not sure I agree that numbers are alive. What's certainly alive are the cycles and relationships that those numbers represent. We codified number long before we codified written languages. That's because number and cycles were so vital to our hunter-gatherer nature-based lifestyles, whereas an oral tradition perfectly sufficed for language. However, ever since then we've become fixated on the importance of the code, not the underlying meaning. It's like reading a travel guide and thinking we have all the answers, yet not ever having set foot in the foreign country. The map is not the terrain.

Soothsayers play on this by coming up with ever more esoteric combinations of number and codes, claiming there's some hidden meaning. I prefer to go back to Nature's first principles, then see if the language can help explain it. For example, in any financial market, we all know that the Bull walks up the stairs, but the Bear jumps out the window. Pythagorus' theorem is a beautiful way to measure these cycles and, for any given time period, can help predict the fall of the bear's jump etc. It's a little long-winded but there is also some cool geometrical interpretation of Pythagorus at:

I think understanding the underlying relationships is vital to unlocking the hidden mysteries of nature and science. Number is simply a language tool to help us to do so. I'm particularly fascinated by the nature of water, being the major element of our bodily and intellectual existence. I think Pythagorus was influenced by Thales, who moved from thinking mythologically about water to arguing, abstracting and thinking philosophically about it. This was a major defining step in our civilisation. Water cleanses our bodies and the earth by taking all our germs and pollution and running them through a massive salt bath (the ocean), before returning precious fresh water to us as rain. Whoever amongst us cannot see the inherent deity / spirare / pneuma in that must surely be blind. The cycle of water is the earth breathing... breathing life into Nature and Homo Sapiens.

P.S. Apologies for the rambling nature of my posts. I tend to go off-piste sometimes but the thread should still be there.

 

[Bevan Jones]

>Not sure I agree that numbers are alive.

It is certainly my experience that numbers are alive.

That's great. Can you elucidate more on this with a practical example of your experience? Would be interested to hear more.

 

[Bevan Jones]

..... Since the acceptance of "spooky" interaction of particles at a distance and quantum mechanics casting doubt even on the existence of particles it is not so absurd to consider that numbers interact at a distance as well.

Thanks for your examples. However, I can't escape the feeling that we're still talking about number as the best Homo Sapien language available to describe natural phenomenon. It's still not the thing itself, only one description of it. Certainly this language has brought us immeasurable progress in recent years. It is also rational (excuse the pun) and prevents us reaching too far into the more speculative areas, such as the fad for linking quantum, string theory et. al. to some or other spirituality. However, many others have done similar things over the years, when we look at gematria and Hermetic Qabalah for instance. I can only imagine the GAOTU giggling somewhere, saying "I gave them Number and now they're obsessed with it. They should have looked at Nature instead."

Then again, the apple was eaten in the Fertile Crescent, after Sapiens left the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa, where we first discovered fire. Down here we're not so focused on number, meaning we might not have the fanciest stuff, or know more than the next guy, but we sure enjoy life. Anyway, I suppose the dreamer in me wants to link Pythagorus' understanding of the immortality of the Soul, to his geometrical musings. However, it's entirely feasible that he was simply interested in both fields and his attempts to relate them were also spurious. On the other hand, his Egyptian teachers would have certainly inter-related their "conjuring" of number with their magic, which they saw everywhere. Being of Nubian (Black) descent, their Black Arts and Black Magic would have been a major draw-card for the early Greek philosophers. The mystery continues...

 

[Bevan Jones]

... It is the harmonics in the flows of Intent that provide the Directionality to Existence.

I like that vision. Resonates well with me. Speaking philosophically, as Heraclitus would put it, "Character is Fate".