Page 191 - The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages_Neat
P. 191
Thus timidity is opposed to audacity, to both [of] which the want of true courage is
common; but both timidity and audacity are opposed to fortitude. Craft also is opposed to
fatuity, to both [of] which the want of intellect is common; and both these are opposed to
prudence. Thus, too, profusion is opposed to avarice, to both [of] which illiberality is
common; and both these are opposed to liberality. And in a similar manner in the other
virtues; by all [of] which it is evident that perfect numbers have a great similitude to the
virtues. But they also resemble the virtues on another account; for they are rarely found,
as being few, and they are generated in a very constant order. On the contrary, an infinite
multitude of superabundant and diminished numbers may be found, nor are they disposed
in any orderly series, nor generated from any certain end; and hence they have a great
similitude to the vices, which are numerous, inordinate, and indefinite."
THE TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS
(The following outline of the Pythagorean numbers is a paraphrase of the writings of
Nicomachus, Theon of Smyrna, Proclus, Porphyry, Plutarch, Clement of Alexandria,
Aristotle, and other early authorities.)
Monad--1--is so called because it remains always in the same condition--that is, separate from multitude.
Its attributes are as follows: It is called mind, because the mind is stable and has preeminence;
hermaphrodism, because it is both male and female; odd and even, for being added to the even it makes
odd, and to the odd, even; God, because it is the beginning and end of all, but itself has neither beginning
nor end; good, for such is the nature of God; the receptacle of matter, because it produces the duad, which
is essentially material.
By the Pythagoreans monad was called chaos, obscurity, chasm, Tartarus, Styx, abyss, Lethe, Atlas, Axis,
Morpho (a name for Venus), and Tower or Throne of Jupiter, because of the great power which abides in
the center of the universe and controls the circular motion of the planers about itself. Monad is also called
germinal reason, because it is the origin of all the thoughts in the universe. Other names given to it were:
Apollo, because of its relation to the sun; Prometheus, because he brought man light; Pyralios, one who
exists in fire; geniture, because without it no number can exist; substance, because substance is primary;
cause of truth; and constitution of symphony: all these because it is the primordial one.
Between greater and lesser the monad is equal; between intention and remission it is middle; in multitude it
is mean; and in time it is now, because
p. 72
eternity knows neither past nor future. It is called Jupiter, because he is Father and head of the gods; Vesta,
the fire of the home, because it is located in the midst of the universe and remains there inclining to no side
as a dot in a circle; form, because it circumscribes, comprehends, and terminates; love, concord, and piety,
because it is indivisible. Other symbolic names for the monad are ship, chariot, Proteus (a god capable of
changing his form), Mnemosyne, and Polyonymous (having many names).
The following symbolic names were given to the duad--2--because it has been divided, and is two rather
than one; and when there are two, each is opposed to the other: genius, evil, darkness, inequality,
instability, movability, boldness, fortitude, contention, matter, dissimilarity, partition between multitude
and monad, defect, shapelessness, indefiniteness, indeterminate ness, harmony, tolerance, root, feet of
fountain-abounding idea, top, Phanes, opinion, fallacy, alterity, diffidence, impulse, death, motion,
generation, mutation, division, longitude, augmentation, composition, communion, misfortune,
sustentation, imposition, marriage, soul, and science.