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Fourth Way Contextual Studies
Inscriptions From the Temple at Delphi, 6th Century Greece:
Know Thyself, and Thou Wilt Know the Universe and the Gods.
Evolution is the Law of Life.
Number is the Law of the Universe.
Unity is the Law of God.
The School of Pythagoras
"Pythagoras has come down to us almost as a legendary character. The main reason for this is the terrible persecution of which he was the victim in Sicily, and which cost so many of his followers their lives. Some were crushed to death beneath the ruins of their burning schools, others died of hunger in temples. The Master’s memory and teaching were only perpetuated by such survivors as were able to escape into Greece. Plato at great trouble and cost, obtained through Archytas a manuscript of the Master, who never transferred to writing his esoteric teachings except under symbols and secret characters. His real work was effected by oral tradition.
At the same time and on different parts of the globe mighty reformers were popularizing similar doctrines. It is not by chance that these reformers appeared simultaneously. Their diverse missions had one common end in view – they prove that, at certain periods, one identical spiritual current passes mysteriously through the whole of humanity...
Pythagoras crossed the ancient world before giving his message to Greece.
He saw Africa; Asia; Memphis; Babylon; along with methods of initiation and political life.
Years of Travel
The Pythoness of Delphi, when consulted by the young couple, had promised them ‘a son who would be useful to all men and throughout all time.’ The oracle had sent them to Sidon, in Phoenicia, so that the predestined son might be conceived, formed and born far from the disturbing influences in their own land. He was taken to the Temple Adonai in a valley near Lebanon.
Pythagoras’ obsession was to discover a bond and synthesis; to find the unity of the whole. He focused on the Temple – there he saw the ideal image and the solution to his problem of understanding.
The base of the Temple, columns, architrave and triangular pediment suddenly represented the triple nature of man and the universe; of the microcosm and the macrocosm crowned by divine unity.
'Yes, here concealed in these geometrical lines was the key of the universe, the science of numbers, the ternary law regulating the constitution of beings, and the septenary law that governs their evolution.'
Pythagoras saw the worlds move through space in accordance with the rhythm and harmony of sacred numbers. He saw the balance of earth and heaven of which human liberty holds control; and the three worlds – the natural; the human; the divine, playing the universal drama in a double ascending and descending movement. All this in an instantaneous flash. Spirit brought face to face with Truth.
Now he must prove by Reason what his pure Intelligence had obtained from the Absolute.
The Hierophant of Adonai had said to Parthenis, Pythagoras’ mother: ‘O mother of Ionia, thy son shall be great in wisdom; but remember that the Greeks still possess the science of the gods, the knowledge of the God can no longer be found elsewhere than in Egypt.’
Pythagoras’ initiation under the pontificate Sonchis, the High Priest in Egypt, lasted 22 years.
'The science of numbers and the art of will-power are the keys of magic - they open up all the gates of the universe.'
He saw the ‘involution’ of the spirit into matter by universal creation and its evolution or re-ascent, toward unity by way of that individual creation called the development of consciousness.
Pythagoras was kept within the walls of Babylon by the despot King, Cambyses, and there he studied religion through Chaldean Priests, the survivors of the Persian Magi, and the elite of the Jews and Zoroastrians. He knew that all religions were rays of one same truth, strained down by different degrees of intelligence and intended for different social conditions. Pythagoras stayed in Babylon for 12 years.
After 34 years Pythagoras returned to Samos.
(Natural Philosophers of the 16th/17th centuries named that light is not the emission of a radiant matter, but rather the vibration of an imponderable element – which one was obliged to admit that the whole of space is filled by an infinitely subtle fluid penetrating all bodies and through which waves of heat and light are transmitted. Newton called this “Sensorium Dei” or the brain of God, i.e. the organ by which divine thought acts in the great and small).
Croton
Croton was the flourishing city in Southern Italy and it is here where Pythagoras developed his school. The school was known as the Temple of the Muses and was based on experimental science and a complete organisation of life. This Institute became a college of education; a science academy and a small model city. ‘It is by theory and practice, by science and art combined that slow progress was made – that magical harmony of soul and intellect with the Universe.’
The Order and the Doctrine
Pythagoras had strict rules for admittance.
Women worshipped in the Temple of Ceres. Men worshipped in the Temple of Apollo.
The mighty Goddess held the profound mysteries of women and of Earth.
Men – the Solar God and Heaven.
'not every kind of wood was fit for making mercury'
First Test
To enter the Gymnasium (not of the usual kind) where racing, throwing quoits and javelins took place; also mock fights and Doric dances. (Wrestling was strictly prohibited, being considered responsible for the development of pride and hatred).
The Aim was to practice the virtues of friendship.
Narrative was encouraged so that the master could make an assessment of the opinions held by the novice. Pythagoras would come up unexpectedly and study gestures and words giving especial attention to gait and laughter. He had made such a profound study of the human face that he could read the depths of the soul.(Pythagoras was the inventor of physiognomy).
Second Test
A decisive test based on the initiation of the Egyptians – the aspirant was to spend the night in a haunted cavern.
Third Test
Imprisoned in a cell the aspirant was asked to discover the meaning of one of the Pythagorian symbols. They were kept alive by water and bread and then presented to the council who would mock and jeer “So this is the new philosopher”. Pythagoras would be looking for the qualities of self-control and self-respect, plus the willingness to bear - And would they be prepared to do the test again.
First Degree - Preparation
This lasted from 2 to 5 years. All novices were subjected to the rule of absolute silence. (No objections / no discussions). They were presented to the statue of a woman,’ The Muse of Silence’. Pythagoras believed that ‘intuition’ was the primordial and superior faculty of mankind. There was the honouring of ‘fatherhood’ and mother believing that our parents are given to us in accordance with a superior order called ‘Fortune’ or ‘Necessity’. To honour them is an ‘obligation’, whereas a friend could be chosen as a friend was ‘another’ self, and yet he must be honoured as a god.
Obedience was essential along with tolerance.
‘Numbers contain the secret of things and God is Universal harmony’.
The focus was on the power of music and numbers, and the unity of religions in esoteric science.
The 7 sacred nodes built up on the 7 notes of the heptachord correspond to the 7 colours of light; to the planets and 7 modes of existence reproduced in all the spheres of material and spiritual life from the smallest to the greatest.
The melodies of these modes when skillfully fused should tune the soul and make it harmonious enough to vibrate in accord with the accents of truth.
Purification of the soul corresponded to that of the body (hygiene)
and mind (strict moral discipline).
Routine.
Rising with the sun.
Chanting prayers and hymns to Apollo.
Performing a sacred dignified dance.
Silence (return of the soul to within itself).
At noon – prayer of benevolence to heroes and spirits. (A frugal
meal of bread, honey and olives.)
Afternoon – gymnastics – study – meditation.
Sunset – prayers to the gods of Kosmos; heavenly Jupiter; Minerva;
Providence; and to Diana, guardian of the dead.
Evening meal – the youngest member of the community read aloud and ate after everyone else.
The women sang and did sacred movements to close the day.
Second Degree - Purification
At this point the novice was entered into contact with the master. Here there was the possibility of real revelation of the occult doctrine- the mysterious science of numbers relating to the laws of universal evolution. All this was revealed under the oath of silence.
Third Degree - Perfection
Cosmology and Psychology.
And the Evolution of the soul.
The science of numbers was nothing but the beginning of the Great Initiation.
‘Know Thyself, and Thou Shalt Know the Universe of the Gods’
Humanity had passed through 6 deluges and ancient knowledge was known by the Greeks from the Atlantides.
The spirit builds and forms for itself, by its own activity its spiritual body.
Pythagoras called this ‘the subtle chariot of the soul’ destined to remove it from earth to heaven. The spiritual body is the organ of the spirit; it is the living soul.
Pythagoras and the Moon
The Moon played an important part in ancient esotericism. On its surface, facing the heavens, the souls were regarded as purifying their astral body before continuing the astral ascent. It was supposed that heroes and spirits took up their abode in order to clothe themselves in bodies appropriate to our world before re-incarnating.
They believed that the Moon had the power to magnetize the soul for earthly incarnation, and de-magnetize it for the heavenly spheres. Initiates believed both ‘real’ and ‘symbolically’ that the moon represented the intermediary stage of purification. The heavenly life of the soul may last 100's or 1000's of years according to its strength and impulse. (c.f.: Gurdjieff’s father's description of ‘substance’ in ‘Meetings with Remarkable Men’, p127).
The soul is trained to make a solemn oath - ‘it promises to remember - to remember the light’. (A child is born, a pitiful image of earth and he cries aloud with fright. The memory of the celestial regions has returned to the occult depths of the unconscious; it will only be revived either by knowledge or pain – love or by death).
Knowledge is power.
Love is creation.
Being is radiating truth and beauty.
Fourth Degree – Epiphany (the vision from above)
Three kinds of perfection:
1. The realization of truth in intelligence
2. Of virtue in the soul
3. Purity of the body
All bodily excesses leave marks in the astral body which is the living organism of the soul and consequently in the mind. The astral body participates in all the acts of the physical body.
The body must be pure for the soul to be pure.
Then the soul must acquire courage.
Finally, the intellect must reach wisdom.
Involution and Evolution
Destiny reigns over the past, and Liberty over the future
Providence presides over both.
‘Suffering’ is sacred, for pain is the test of the soul
The Three Castes
In the Vedic Epoch the Brahmans of India founded the division of society into castes, roughly based on ‘aristocracy’; ‘ democracy’; ‘tyranny’. (Pythagoras and the school suffered shipwreck in the storms of democracy). "
Adapted from:
PYTHAGORAS and the DELPHIC MYSTERIES
By Edouard Schure.
Published by William Rider and Son Ltd.
Cathedral House, Paternoster Row, London EC, 1923.
Sacred Dances
Amongst the 300 or so Sacred Dances and Movements compiled by Gurdjieff there is a series carrying the title of Pythagoras. The male dances are rhytmically strong and gymnastic - the female dances beautiful in thier fluidity and meaningful gestures.
Pythagoras compiled by JEB