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themselves by the following oath: "By Him who gave to our soul the tetractys, which hath the fountain and
root of ever-springing nature."

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THE CUBE AND THE STAR.

By connecting the ten dots of the tetractys, nine triangles are formed. Six of these are involved in the
forming of the cube. The same triangles, when lines are properly drawn between them, also reveal the six-
pointed star with a dot in the center. Only seven dots are used in forming the cube and the star.
Qabbalistically, the three unused corner dots represent the threefold, invisible causal nature of the universe,
while the seven dots involved in the cube and the star are the Elohim--the Spirits of the seven creative
periods. The Sabbath, or seventh day, is the central dot.

p. 69

Pythagorean Mathematics

CONCERNING the secret significance of numbers there has been much speculation.
Though many interesting discoveries have been made, it may be safely said that with the
death of Pythagoras the great key to this science was lost. For nearly 2500 years
philosophers of all nations have attempted to unravel the Pythagorean skein, but
apparently none has been successful. Notwithstanding attempts made to obliterate all
records of the teachings of Pythagoras, fragments have survived which give clues to some
of the simpler parts of his philosophy. The major secrets were never committed to
writing, but were communicated orally to a few chosen disciples. These apparently dated
not divulge their secrets to the profane, the result being that when death sealed their lips
the arcana died with diem.

Certain of the secret schools in the world today are perpetuations of the ancient
Mysteries, and although it is quite possible that they may possess some of the original
numerical formulæ, there is no evidence of it in the voluminous writings which have
issued from these groups during the last five hundred years. These writings, while
frequently discussing Pythagoras, show no indication of a more complete knowledge of
his intricate doctrines than the post-Pythagorean Greek speculators had, who talked
much, wrote little, knew less, and concealed their ignorance under a series of mysterious
hints and promises. Here and there among the literary products of early writers are found
enigmatic statements which they made no effort: to interpret. The following example is
quoted from Plutarch:

"The Pythagoreans indeed go farther than this, and honour even numbers and geometrical
diagrams with the names and titles of the gods. Thus they call the equilateral triangle
head-born Minerva and Tritogenia, because it may be equally divided by three
perpendiculars drawn from each of the angles. So the unit they term Apollo, as to the