Page 86 (part 1)

The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page]] 573 THE GNOSTICS AND PYTHAGORAS. § XXIV. THE CROSS AND THE PYTHAGOREAN DECADE. T HE early Gnostics claimed that their Science, the G NOSIS, rested on a square, the angles of which represented respectively Sige (Silence), Bythos (depth), Nous (Spiritual Soul or Mind), and Aletheia (Truth). It is they who were the first to introduce and reveal to the world that which had remained concealed for ages: namely, the Tau, in the shape of a Procrustean bed, and Christos as incarnating in Chrestos, he who became for certain purposes a willing candidate for a series of tortures, mental and physical. For them the whole of the Universe, metaphysical and material, was contained within, and could be expressed and described by the digits of Number 10, the Pythagorean decade . This Decade 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 so used and 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 Decade. It could be studied, in short, from the Universals 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 decade appeared, but to be finally re-absorbed, lost in the infinite Circle. The latter depended on sensuous perception alone, when the Decade 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 Decade, by Pythagoras from India. That it was that of the Brachmans and Iranians , as they are called by the ancient Greek philosophers, is warranted to us by the whole range of Sanskrit literature, such as the Puranas and the laws of Manu. In these "Laws" or "Ordinances of Manu," it is said that Brahma first creates "the ten lords of Being," the ten Prajapati or creative Forces; which ten produce " seven " other Manus, or, rather, as some MSS . have it, Munin, instead of Manun = "devotees," or holy Beings, which are the Seven Angels of the Presence in the [[Vol. 2, Page]] 574 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. 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 ( Sige 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 Vol. I. § "Primordial Substance and Divine Thought," which the reader has to notice carefully, if he would grasp the metaphysical idea involved in the above symbol. In man as in nature, it is, according to the cis-Himalayan esoteric philosophy (which is that of the original Manu Cosmogony), the septenary division that is intended by Nature herself. The seventh principle ( purusha ) alone is the divine S ELF, strictly speaking; for, as said in Manu, "He (Brahma) having pervaded the subtile parts of those six of unmeasured brightness," created or called them forth to "Self"-consciousness or the consciousness of that One S ELF (V. 16, ch. i. Manu ) . Of these six, five elements (or principles, or Tattva, as Medhatithi, the commentator thinks) "are called the atomic destructible elements" (v. 27); they are described in the above-named section. 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 having had its philosophical meaning and raison d ' etre, the number I signified with the Alexandrian 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 P ATER Z EUS had nothing sexual or phallic either in its sound or form of letters; nor had [[ pater Deus ]] ( vide Ragon). If we turn now to the Hebrew Alphabet, we shall find that while I or aleph, , has a bull or an Ox for its symbol, 10, the perfect number, or One of the Kabala is a Yodh (y, i, or j); and means, as the first letter of Jehovah, the procreative organ, et seq. 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 Sige (Depth, Chaos, matter born in Silence) are the primordial binary. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 575 THE THREE SCIENCES. 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." O NE was alone Good, and Harmony, because no disharmony can proceed from one alone. Hence the Latin word Solus in relation to one and only God, the Unknown of Paul. Solus, however, very soon became Sol -- the Sun. The ternary is thus the first of the odd numbers, as the triangle is the first of the geometrical figures. This number is truly the number of mystery par excellence.