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Home , Ancient philosophy, Dicaearchus, Neopythagoreanism, Porphyry (philosopher), Pythagoreanism

Pythagorean Teachings across the Centuries

Angela Tripodi, adapted and expanded by the Rosicrucian Research Library Staff and Friends

he of has been defined by Vincenzo Capparelli and by several Tother authors, as the “Greatest school of Wisdom of the West.” It has had profound influence across and has contributed to providing the coordination needed to combine the search for mystical with a clear of wisdom. Even if the inheritance of the Pythagorean tradition cannot be fully grasped, due to its initiatory character, The last-remaining column of the temple dedicated to which required a severe selection process and Lacinia in Crotona, . Photo by Sandro Baldi. involved the obligation of absolute silence of teachings until the very last degrees. The from its Neophyte members, it is still possible few initiates able to enter the last doorway to relive the outlines of the sacred obeyed the sacred promise of absolute silence. in the teachings. Several sources need to be This of silence was the secret of the consulted in order to retrace the spread of school and is mentioned in several sources. this inspired wisdom whose light reached It also implies that all especially profound far from its original source. According to and teachings were hidden, the information transmitted by , not only from outsiders, but also from the , and in part by Laertius, participants of the lower degrees. when the school at Crotona1 was destroyed, As is well known, the school had its many essential concepts were lost forever. center in Crotona. Shortly after The School of Crotona established, Pythagorean political, ethical, and religious concepts spread like wildfire The type of initiation given at the school across all of southern Italy, affecting life included a long period of training that was throughout the entire area known as Magna accomplished through various degrees. These Graecia. This Pythagorean wisdom extended trials were difficult to overcome for the among the people of neighboring areas, such majority of the aspirants. Their was as Lucca, Pisa, and other towns. Many hampered by severe tests that became harder were attracted to the Pythagoreans in order to master as the applicant advanced farther, to learn about the marvelous teachings that requiring special personal characteristics, resounded with unusual expressions among qualities difficult to find among the students. the people. Even the Roman institutions felt It can be understood that the most its influence, and himself remarked important and essential concepts of on this: “Many from our institutions are Pythagorean were not the subject attracted by them.”

Page xxiii the and all the individual objects. Next, , in his Dialogues, Theaetetus, , etc., demonstrates the influence of the Pythagorean school, so much so, as Burnet states, that Plato established his own with the intention of continuing the line of teachings of the Pythagorean school.3 Moved by the desire for learning the secrets of this “initiatic knowledge,” Plato was not satisfied to listen to the last representatives of , who had taken refuge in (some of these, as noted before, were part of the group surrounding ). Rather, he tried to get in touch with those more advanced on the initiatic path. From this desire arose his need, according to some authors, to investigate more deeply and more personally in those places that had been the Portrait of Socrates. Roman marble, first century CE, theater of the “Pythagorean drama.” perhaps a copy of a lost bronze statue made by Lysippos. Louvre, Paris. Photo ©2005 Eric Gaba/Wikimedia In such places the environment had Commons. preserved traces of the events and still kept Given these beginnings, though this school had been founded by , it was intended to attract the interest of Italian Peninsular peoples more than all the other ancient ; however, the contrary happened in many ways. Capparelli notes that in Italy the school of Pythagoras has had a negative reputation, at least in modern .2 Several of the Pythagorean teachings have been attributed to other ancient such as Plato and . Some literary critics, and among them, Burnet, give the following explanation.

Pythagorean Influence on Socrates and Plato The Pythagoreans, after being dispersed, went to Greece and regrouped around Socrates, who became their leader and incorporated the original teachings with the following modification: the Pythagoreans assumed the “” to be separated from Alexander Visits the Plato. Page from a dispersed Rosicrucian manuscript of the Khamsa (Quintet) of Amir Khusrau Digest the sensible objects. Socrates denied such Dihlavi. Mughal miniature attributed to Basawan, Lahore, No. 1 separation and established the of 1597/87. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2009

Page xxiv alive the voice of the Master. In addition, it was possible to listen to the many stories in which the of the destruction of the school was still fresh. Also in such surroundings, memories were preserved with great care in certain families and could suggest to the sensitive mind of Plato the correct materials for a reconstruction of a true and most genuine Pythagoreanism. According to Gomperz, Plato made use of this information to construct a link between the Socratic and the Pythagorean teachings. Nevertheless, Plato, following the tradition of silence, at the beginning rarely mentions the Pythagoreans. After his first trip to Italy, unavoidably and progressively he is more and more attracted to the voice of the “Pythagorean Siren,” so much so that, beginning with Meno, in his later dialogues Bust of Aristotle. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek bronze and in the teachings of his immediate original by Lysippos from 330 BCE. The alabaster mantle successors, we can witness the “inclusion of is a modern addition. Palazzo Altaemps, . Photo ©2006 by Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons. into the greater Pythagoreanism.” Pythagorean doctrine, “Not only because This change is also notable in . of the many years spent at the Academy, In this work, Plato introduces and where he had the opportunity of learning Simmias, Pythagoreans from Thebes, as all that was known there. This information those who listen to the last words of the was the result of the long researches made by dying Socrates, and talk with him about Plato himself, and because of the systematic immortality. This choice is relevant, as Plato historic research that he himself did (or was did not place some or followers of done by his students), Aristotle was able to or at the scene; rather have a rich and vast library.” he chooses Pythagoreans.4 In his , Aristotle wrote, Pythagorean Elements in Aristotle’s Work “With respect to the activity of these philosophers called Pythagorean, they Aristotle himself felt the influence of began the study of and were the Pythagorean doctrine, not only because the first to make progress in it. They grew he attended the Academy for twenty years, accustomed to it to the point of believing but also because he took part in the interest- that its principles were the principles of all ing meetings of Pythagorean savants. His entities. Given that are the first early work, On Philosophy, discusses the elements of mathematics, they perceived in teachings of the Pythagoreans and Plato; and numbers much similarity with what exists similarly, he does so in Eudemus (or “On the and becomes. ”), and , of which we only “Therefore, they assumed that some have short passages. aspect of numbers relates to , some According to Vincenzo Capparelli, other to soul and , another is the Aristotle was one of the greatest students of ‘right moment.’ Besides, they found that the

Page xxv relationships of harmony consist of numbers, and that all would be similar to Given that numbers are the numbers.... So they arrived at the conclusion first elements of mathemat- that the elements of were the elements ics, they perceived in numbers of all things, of all that exists on and much similarity with what that ‘ was harmony and numbers.’” exists and becomes. In another part of the same work, he added: “The Pythagoreans say that elements of Pythagoras’s wisdom. This the principles are ten, expressed in pairs understanding primarily lay in the realization of opposites: limit-unlimited; even-odd; that the essential teachings did not refer only one-many; right-left; male-female; stillness- to , but involved a new concept of movement; straight-bent; light-darkness; human destiny: the strong aspiration for a good-bad; square-rectangle.”5 natural renewal. The Tradition Returns to Egypt Pythagorean spread in two directions in the vast cultural The Crotona School itself never rose environment of Alexandria: the Jewish- from the ashes of destruction; however its Alexandrian Pythagoreans and the Roman influence spread with time more and more Pythagoreans. The latter is better known in in the form of mysteries, of mysticism, our philosophical tradition then the former. almost of divination. So much so that However, much of the content of the Pythagorean thought found more fertile Pythagoreanism of the Jewish community in ground in Alexandria than in . There, Alexandria found a strong resonance in the the had come more closely religious and moral continuity that gave rise in contact with the Eastern world and to in Egypt. was better able to understand the various It is not easy to fix the date when the revived Pythagorean movement established itself in . Nevertheless, we must consider that those with austere ways who established the greatness of the Roman would feel kinship with the Pythagorean elevated and severe discipline. Probably from this circumstance arose the legend of Numa as being a disciple of Pythagoras, the elaboration of the and during the Samnite , and the erection of the statue of Pythagoras at the side of the where the Senate met, considering him to be the wisest of the Greek philosophers.

Neopythagoreanism in the Classical World There is no space to describe in detail Rosicrucian the great influence of the teachings of the Sphinx, Ptolemaic Period, made from pink granite, Digest Sage of on many Latin authors and No. 1 Alexandria. Photo ©2005 by Chmouel Boudjnah/ Wikimedia Commons 2009 of the different opinions that were discussed,

Page xxvi In his analyses, he paused to take into account all aspects of the philosophy. This methodology helped him to understand and re-create Pythagoreanism in its essential aspects, its and its teachings. Perhaps his best known work influenced by Pythagoreanism was the “Dream of Scipio” in his Republica. We can find Pythagorean influence in the writings of . According to the researcher Carcopino, several Pythagorean elements can be found in his fourth Eclogue.6 At last the Final Time announced by the Sibyl arrive: The procession of ages turns to its origin. The Virgin returns and reigns as before; Mosaic of Virgil, ca. 300 CE. Roman Villa in Tunisia. A new race from heaven on high descends. both positive and negative. As an example Goddess of Birth, smile on the new- we can consider, Publius born baby, (105-45 BCE). He was a contemporary and In whose time the Iron Prison will fall a friend of Cicero, and in the introduction of to ruin his translation of , stated that there And a golden race arises everywhere. was no one better than himself to renew that , the rightful king, is restored!7 ancient Pythagorean discipline that appeared These elements include: to be extinct during his time. • The theory of the Great Year. Nigidius, as all Pythagoreans, possessed This is a key element for the expected an encyclopedic knowledge. Cicero declared human regeneration. that he possessed all the arts, and was a clever • The Virgin, a sign of justice and diligent investigator of those mysteries whose appearance predicts the end that conceals within herself. In the of the Iron Age and the beginning of frame of his philosophical and scientific the . research, he did not miss considering the • The invocation to Apollo. esoteric tradition. Pythagoras was considered to be an Some modern writers assume that incarnation of this Deity. Nigidius desired to rebuild the Pythagorean • Apollo is supposed to rule the practice of social equality and goods held last century (during which the in common as a dream for new human Many return to the One before re- happiness. We know that he adhered to a manifesting again into the universe), simple diet, but we know little about his and this painful transformation teachings. It can be assumed that Nigidius will generate the rebirth of the used an analysis of Pythagorean morals and Golden Age. as the rules of life for perfecting the • The filia (friendship) that will individual and for manifesting latent . rule in the Age of Gold, in the spirit Another Latin author interested in of which all species will live together Pythagorean knowledge was Cicero himself. without harming each other.

Page xxvii Similarly to the fourth Eclogue, the sixth book of the reveals deep mystical Pythagorean influence. , a Greek writer and (46-120 CE), was another leading proponent of the Pythagorean wisdom to which he gave ample testimony in his many literary works. Two short dialogues in the Greek and Roman Questions in the Moralia show how, during the first century of our era, Pythagorean groups were active and their teachings were transmitted under the seal of secrecy. In others of his works, such as “On the of Socrates,” “On the Face in the Moon,” and “On Isis and Osiris,” other fundamental concepts of the Pythagorean Diogenes Laertius (third century CE) school are proposed, such as the description of the human soul. The soul is conceived adopted an opinion respecting him, that of as being entangled in the vortex of its he was Apollo who had come from the lower and gross instincts, limited by its Hyperboreans; and it is said, that once when continuing material needs. As such it will he was stripped naked, he was seen to have be driven toward until such a golden thigh. And there were many people time as it can to lead a pure life, overcoming who affirmed, that when he was crossing the definitively its lower nature. The attraction river Nessus it addressed him by his name. of material objects will cease, and all that is “He was the first person, as Timaeus says, perishable will be aside. Then the soul can who asserted that the property of friends is reach illumination and will become a benign common, and that friendship is equality. And daimon. It will then rise to superior heights, his disciples used to put all their possessions enter into direct contact with the Divine, together into one store, and use them in and assist other that share the same common; and for five years they kept silence, desire and that have made great efforts with doing nothing but listen to discourses, and firmness and . never once seeing Pythagoras, until they were approved; after that time they were admitted Diogenes Laertius and his Life of Pythagoras into his house, and allowed to see him.”9 The influence of Pythagorean thought In another section of his work he was felt also in ancient Christianity, and described the secrecy of the teachings: some early writers defined Pythagoras as “…but until the time of , a follower of ’ teachings. Diogenes there were no doctrines of Pythagoras ever Laertius (third century CE), in his work Lives divulged; and he was the first person who and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, was the published the three celebrated books which first author to describe the life of Pythagoras Plato wrote to have purchased for him for a 8 in its entirety. He described the school and hundred minae. Nor were the number of his its Master as follows: scholars who used to come to him by night Rosicrucian “He is said to have been a man of the fewer than six hundred. And if any of them Digest No. 1 most dignified appearance, and his disciples had ever been permitted to see him, they 2009

Page xxviii wrote of it to their friends, as if they had the advantages of a vegetarian diet. The gained some great advantage. interesting aspect is not so much what he tells “The people of Metapontum used to us about the food, but the ethical concept call his house the temple of ; and the of this practice—of this rule of life related street leading to it they called the street of to eating—from the Pythagorean point of the , as we are told by Favorinus in view. He explains that the Pythagorean rule his Universal History. And the rest of the is not only healthy, but rather is a necessary Pythagoreans used to say, according to the instrument for the union with the Divine, account given by , in the tenth which must be the goal of life for all human book of his Laws on Education, that his who are aware of their divine origin. precepts ought not to be divulged to all In this work Porphyry discussed his the world....”10 theory concerning , considering them as inferior acts of worship and Porphyry Followed the Pythagorean Life only likely to invoke spirits. Only In this brief summary about the philosophers, understood as disciples of evolution of the Pythagorean thinking, Pythagoras, avoid these practices of low two important sources cannot be omitted: magic in order to consecrate themselves the writings of Porphyry and Iamblichus. to , since they are students of nature Porphyry (ca. 233-ca. 309 CE), a Phoenician and understand her signs. Further, they are disciple of , was a true follower of seen to be intelligent, modest, moderate, the Pythagorean teachings. Faithful to the and always intent on raising themselves to 11 doctrine of the school, he believed that all the Divine. life must be dedicated to the purification of Porphyry’s Life of Pythagoras the soul, to the control of the body, and to overcoming passions in order to merge with His best known work is The Life of the Divine. In order to attain this elevation Pythagoras, in which Porphyry described the toward God, it is necessary to overcome school of Crotona as follows: the obstacles produced by the vibrations “When he reached Italy, he stopped at and impulses of . One must have Croton. His presence was that of a free man, determination to rid oneself of that “clothing tall, graceful in speech and in gesture, and in that imprisons and obscures the soul.” everything else. relates that the In his work, On Abstaining from Using arrival of this great traveler, endowed with all Animals as Food, Porphyry highlights the advantages of nature, and prosperously guided by fortune, produced on the Crotonians so great an impression, that he won the esteem of the older magistrates by his many and excellent discourses. They ordered him to deliver exhortations to the young men, and then to the boys who flocked out of the school to hear him, and then to the women, who came together for this purpose. “Through this he achieved great Peter Paul Rubens, Pythagoras Advocating reputation, and he drew great audiences (1618-20). Royal Collections of the United Kingdom. from the city, not only of men, but also

Page xxix of women, among whom was a specially adjuring Pythagoras as a divine witness, in illustrious person named . He also the words, drew audiences from among the neighboring “I call to witness him who to our souls barbarians, among whom were magnates and expressed the Tetraktys, Eternal Nature’s kings. What he told his audiences cannot be fountain-spring.”12 said with , for he enjoined silence Porphyry emphasized the image of upon his hearers. However, the following is Pythagoras, perhaps even enhancing this a matter of general information. He taught image for his readers. He represented him as that the soul is immortal, and that after a divine being with extraordinary powers: death it transmigrates into other animated bodies. After certain specified periods, “He soothed the passions of the soul and he said, the same events occur again, for body by rhythms, songs, and incantations. nothing is entirely new. All animated beings These he adapted and applied to his friends. are kin, he taught, and should be considered He himself could hear the Harmony of the as belonging to one great family. Pythagoras Universe, and understood the universal was the first one to introduce these teachings of the spheres, and of the which into Greece. move in concert with them, and which we cannot hear because of the limitations of our “His speech was so persuasive that, weak nature.”13 according to , in one address made on first landing in Italy, he made With respect to Pythagoras’s teachings, more than two thousand adherents. Out of Porphyry indicateed: desire to live with him, these built a large “His utterances were of two kinds, auditorium, to which both women and boys plain or symbolical. His teaching was were admitted. [Foreign visitors were so twofold: of his disciples some were called many that] they built whole cities, settling Students (mathematikoi), and others Hearers that whole region of Italy now known as (akousmatikoi). The Students learned the . His ordinances and laws fuller and more exactly elaborate of were by them received as divine precepts, science, while the Hearers heard only the and they would do nothing to transgress summarized instructions of learning, without them. Indeed, they ranked him among the more detailed explanations.”14 divinities and held all property in common; and whenever they communicated to each Iamblichus and the Pythagorean Tradition other some choice bit of his philosophy, Another philosopher who developed the from which physical could always be Pythagorean teachings was Iamblichus. His deduced, they would swear by the Tetraktys, approach was different from Porphyry’s. While

Rosicrucian Monfredo de Monte Imperiali, Digest Imaginary Debate between No. 1 and Porphyry, in 2009 de Herbis, fourteenth century.

Page xxx Open cluster of the Pleiades. Photo by NASA/Caltech.

Porphyry recognized the importance of the “Pythagoras is said to have been the first Pythagorean teachings as a new interpretation to call himself a philosopher, a word which of the ancient Greek culture, Iamblichus heretofore had not been an appellation, tried to give new life to Pythagorean thought but a description. He likened the entrance by considering it to be the real of of men and women into the present life to philosophy. He defined it as an “aspiration to the progression of a crowd to some public attain wisdom and in a certain sense, love for spectacle. There assemble those of all it.” Therefore, the act of teaching philosophy descriptions and views. One hastens to sell is equivalent to introducing the student to the wares for money and gain; another exhibits Pythagorean doctrine. bodily strength for renown; but the most Iamblichus (245-c. 325 CE) was an liberal assemble to observe the landscape, the Assyrian Neoplatonist who presented the beautiful works of art, the specimens of valor, Pythagorean teachings as an organized body and the customary literary productions. of work, an integral whole in the fields “So also in the present life people of of , ethics, and theology, based on manifold pursuits are assembled. Some are the affirmation that “everything reduces influenced by the desire of riches and luxury; to number.” In respect to his concept of others, by the love of power and dominion, or Pythagoras himself, his opinion was new and by insane ambition for glory. But the purest significant. He focused on the Master, using and most genuine character is that of those a good part of the ancient tradition. He did who devote themselves to the contemplation this by calling upon some special sources. He of the most beautiful things, and they may avoided quoting Porphyry and went back properly be called philosophers. further to Nichomachus, drawing upon an “Pythagoras adds that the survey of unknown source. The interpretation that the whole heaven, and of the stars that he presented concerning the personality of revolve therein, is indeed beautiful, when Pythagoras and of his performance as Master we consider their order, which is derived had not been seen before in the traditional from participation in the first and intelligible history of the Pythagoreans. essence. But that first essence is the nature of He made the point that if Pythagorean Number and ‘reasons’ (logoi) which pervades philosophy was the Divine philosophy, then everything, and according to which all those Pythagoras was its author. In addition, he [celestial] bodies are arranged elegantly, and affirmed that the soul of Pythagoras, Divine adorned fittingly. in heaven, did not fall to earth; rather he was “Now veritable wisdom is a science sent to bring philosophy as a gift to humanity conversant with the first beautiful objects from heaven: which subsist in invariable sameness, being

Page xxxi undecaying and divine, by the participation in which other things also may well be called beautiful. The desire for something like this is philosophy. Similarly beautiful is devotion to erudition, and this notion Pythagoras extended, in order to effect the improvement of the human race.”15

Pythagorean Therapeutics Iamblichus also emphasized the healing and therapeutic capacities of the great philosopher: “According to credible historians, his words possessed an admonitory quality that prevailed even with animals, which confirms that in intelligent persons learning tames Robert Burton, The Anatomy of even wild or irrational beasts… Through Melancholy, 1638. Fronticepiece. such and similar occurrences, Pythagoras demonstrated that he possessed the same been Euphorbus, son of Panthus, conqueror dominion as over savage animals, of Patroclus.”17 and that he allured and detained them by the “Pythagoras conceived that the first power of his voice.”16 attention that should be given to people “Pythagoras used to make the very best should be addressed to the senses, as when possible approach to men and women by one perceives beautiful figures and forms, teaching them what would prepare them or hears beautiful rhythms and melodies. to learn the truth in other . For by Consequently he laid down that the first the clearest and surest indications he would erudition was that which subsists through remind many of his intimates of the former music’s melodies and rhythms, and from life lived by their soul before it was bound these he obtained remedies of human to their body. He would demonstrate manners and passions, and restored the by indubitable arguments that he had once pristine harmony of the faculties of the soul. “Moreover, he devised medicines calculated to repress and cure the diseases of While Porphyry recognized both bodies and souls. Here is also, by , the importance of the something which deserves to be mentioned above all: namely, that for his disciples he Pythagorean teachings as arranged and adjusted what might be called a new interpretation of ‘preparations’ and ‘touchings,’ divinely the ancient Greek culture, contriving mingling of certain diatonic, Iamblichus tried to give new chromatic and enharmonic melodies, through which he easily switched and circulated the life to Pythagorean thought passions of the soul in a contrary direction, by considering it to be the whenever they had accumulated recently, Rosicrucian real essence of philosophy. irrationally, or clandestinely—such as sorrow, Digest No. 1 rage, pity, over-emulation, fear, manifold 2009 desires, angers, appetites, pride, collapse or

Page xxxii spasms. Each of these he corrected by the nature. He therefore thought himself worthy rule of virtue, attempering them through to be taught, and to learn something about appropriate melodies, as through some the celestial orbs, and to be assimilated to salutary medicine. them by desire and imitation, inasmuch “In the evening, likewise, when his as his body alone had been well enough disciples were retiring to sleep, he would thus conformed thereto by the divinity who had liberate them from the day’s perturbations given birth to him. and tumults, purifying their intellective “This peculiar organization of Pythagoras’s powers from the influxive and effluxive body, far finer than that of any other person, waves of corporeal nature, quieting their seems to be what was obscurely sleep, and rendering their dreams pleasing driving at in his enigmatical verses: and prophetic. When they arose again in Among the Pythagoreans was a man the morning, he would free them from the transcendent in knowledge; night’s heaviness, coma and torpor through Who possessed the most ample stores of certain peculiar chords and modulations, wealth, produced by either simply striking the lyre, or adapting the voice. And in the most eminent degree assisted in the works of the wise. “Not through instruments or physical voice-organs did Pythagoras effect this; but When he extended all the powers of his by the employment of a certain indescribable intellect, divinity, difficult of apprehension, He easily beheld everything, through which he ex-tended his powers of As far as ten or twenty ages of the hearing, fixing his intellect on the sublime human race! symphonies of the world, he alone apparently “These words ‘transcendent,’ ‘he beheld hearing and grasping the universal harmony every detail of all beings,’ and ‘the wealth of and consonance of the spheres, and the stars intellect,’ and so on, describe as accurately that are moved through them, producing as possible his peculiar and exceptionally a melody fuller and more intense than accurate method of hearing, seeing and anything effected by mortal sounds. understanding.”18 “This melody was also the result of The Pythagorean use of music therapy dissimilar and varying sounds, speeds, did not end with the dissolution of the school magnitudes, and intervals arranged with of Crotona. Examples include the “Turco- reference to each other in a certain musical Persian psychologist and music theorist , producing a convoluted motion most al-Farabi (872–950), known as Alpharabius musical and gentle. Irrigated therefore in , dealt with music therapy in his with this melody, his intellect ordered and treatise Meanings of the Intellect, where he exercised thereby, he would, to the best of his discussed the therapeutic effects of music ability exhibit certain symbols of these things .19 Robert Burton wrote in to his disciples, especially through imitations his seventeenth-century classic work, The thereof through instruments or the physical Anatomy of Melancholy, that music and dance organs of voice. were critical in treating mental illness,20 “For he conceived that, of all the especially melancholia.”21 inhabitants of earth, by him alone were these From the Greek traditions of celestial sounds understood and heard, as if and , the coming from the central spring and root of tradition of the school of Crotona moved

Page xxxiii in two directions. The first has been well He introduced a three-fold concept of music, documented by Dr. as the clearly drawing on Pythagorean ideals: tradition returned to Egypt in Neoplatonic 1. Musica mundana: music of the and Hermetic garb, and was thus transmitted spheres/worlds 22 further east as far, at least, as Persia. This 2. Musica humana: harmony of history is intertwined with the spread of human body and spiritual harmony Hermetic thought throughout the Middle 3. Musica instrumentalis: instrumental East within Islam, chronicled by Robert music (including the human voice)25 Zoller23, and the seminal work of Dr. Garth Fowden, discussing the Egyptian roots and Boëthius’s work marks the transition Hellenistic expansion of this tradition.24 in the Latin West from classical Roman philosophy into the scholastic tradition The other direction is toward the Latin which would follow. His works influenced West, through late antiquity to the Middle the entire Western , and insured Ages in Western Europe. that Pythagorean thought would continue in Late Antiquity the educational system of Western Europe for hundreds of years through his foundational In late antiquity, the Roman philosopher work on what would become the Severinus Boëthius (ca. 480–-24 or 525 CE) of the : studied many subjects, and was a devotee of “The quadrivium consisted of , Pythagorean mathematics, , and geometry, music, and . These . He translated works by the followed the preparatory work of the trivium Pythagoreans Porphyry and Nichomachus. made up of , (or , as it was called at the times), and . In turn, the quadrivium was considered preparatory work for the serious study of philosophy and theology.”26

Numbers and Mysticism in Medieval Western Europe and the After these ancient authors who were thoroughly dedicated to the Pythagorean teachings, a few major thinkers were able to recognize, and deeply understand that knowledge that appeared mysteriously on the world landscape, and mysteriously disappeared in the vortex of a chaotic world to which they tried to give order. Even though Pythagorean and ideals permeated Medieval Western Europe, which was fascinated by numbers and their significance,27 the reputation of the Boëthius, On the Consolation of Philosophy, 1385, Italy. Pythagorean school itself sometimes fell into Rosicrucian Miniatures of Boëthius teaching and imprisoned. Glasgow the shadows. Digest Library. Manuscript by Gregorius of Genoa and No. 1 the scribe Brother Amadeus. Vincenzo Capparelli, analyzing this 2009 phenomenon in Italy, comments: “…with

Page xxxiv in the early thirteenth century of his Book of Calculation, the .29 • “A number sequence named after him known as the numbers, which he did not discover but used as an example in the Liber Abaci.30 “In the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, each number is the sum of the previous two numbers, starting with 0 and 1. Thus the sequence begins 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610 etc. The higher up in the sequence, the closer two consecutive Fibonacci numbers of the sequence divided by each other will approach the (approximately 1 : 1.618 or 0.618 : 1).”31 The golden ratio was known to the Egyptians and other ancient mystery schools, The Seven Liberal Arts: Music and Pythagoras, fifteenth and is often found in natural structures. century, colored pen drawing. Salzburg University Library. It was widely used in Renaissance art. It respect to this, we are forced to discuss a stands to that Pythagoras, with somewhat unpleasant topic: the unlucky Egyptian, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian outcome of Pythagoreans in Italy.” To connections, would have understood this as, support this conclusion, he cites Dante, perhaps, part of his advanced curriculum. who, even if informed with discretion The brilliant work of Fibonacci, as well about the Pythagorean teachings, which he as the Boëthian foundations of the whole often quoted in his works, did not consider educational system of the Western Middle it wise to include Pythagoras among the Ages, insured that Pythagorean ideas would “philosophical family.” be transmitted in many forms. Even the early researchers of the Academy With the great philosophers of the of Florence did not pay much attention Renaissance, there is a new evaluation of the to the contribution of Pythagoras as such, since they were under the spell of Plato and Neoplatonism.28 Nevertheless, under other names, the tradition continued unabated. There were outstanding exceptions to this, in both the Medieval and Renaissance periods. One was Leonardo of Pisa, known to history as Fibonnaci (ca. 1170-ca. 1250). Clearly inspired by Pythagoras, he is best known today for: • “The spreading of the Hindu- A Fibonacci spiral created by drawing arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares in the Fibonacci tiling, using numeral system in Europe, squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34.32 primarily through the publication

Page xxxv especially the mathematics of the golden ratio and its application in architecture.”35 There can be no doubt that the Pythagorean mystical tradition was certainly among the major influences on these Renaissance geometers. Their work connects the ancient world and more modern scholars such as Schwaller de Lubicz. Pacioli describes the heritage the Renaissance had received from the ancient sages and initiates: “The Ancients, having taken into Jacopo de’ Barbari (?), Ritratto di Frà Luca Pacioli, 1495, consideration the rigorous construction of Naples, Museo e Gallerie di Capodimonte. Luca Pacioli the human body, elaborated all their works, is the central figure. The table is filled with geometrical as especially their holy temples, according tools: slate, chalk, compass, a model. A rhombicuboctahedron (an Archimedean solid, with eight to these proportions; for they found here triangular and eighteen square faces) half-filled with water, the two principal figures without which is hanging in the air. no project is possible: the of the Pythagorean school. recog- circle, the principle of all regular bodies, and 36 nized the influence of Pythagoras on Plato. the equilateral square.” taught that “the world Later Pythagorean Influences of Pythagoras is better and more pure than that of Plato.”33 Tommaso Campanella In the eighteenth century, some lovingly studied Pythagoras and was astronomers reviewed the Pythagorean accustomed to introducing himself as a teachings, and attributed to them the follower of the tradition.34 Furthermore, concept that the was round, and the Campanella considered Galileo as the one heliocentric theory. In the second half of the who was able to resurrect the glory of the previous century, the “Boëthian Question” Pythagoreans in the scientific field. Even had emerged, related to the Pythagorean Leonardo da Vinci referred to them in his teachings in the field of mathematics. This studies and research. last deserves to be more extensively explored One of Leonardo’s collaborators, Fra Luca as an example of how little we know about Bartolomeo de Pacioli (ca. 1446-1517) was the great mystical and initiatic Pythagorean an Italian and Franciscan friar. tradition. He drew on the earlier work by the painter This question arose from a discovery and mathematician Piero della Francesca by the seventeenth century historian and (ca. 1415-October 12, 1492), whose work bibliophile Isaac Vossius while he was reading he incorporated into his own writings. a passage of the Geometry of Boëthius in Pacioli instructed Leonardo in mathematics and geometry, and Leonardo illustrated Pacioli’s reworking of della Francesca’s Short Book on the Five Regular Solids, which Pacioli expanded and Rosicrucian published in 1509 as De Divina Proportione Digest (On the Divine Proportion): “The subject Comparison between five different styles of writing Arabic No. 1 was mathematical and artistic proportion, numerals, ©2006 by Madden/Wikimedia Commons. 2009

Page xxxvi which it was suggested that the Pythagoreans invented the characters called numerals, including the zero. These are the same as our modern Western numbers, and Boëthius stated that the Pythagoreans were “supremely ingenious and very clever” in their use. They used them for the performance of and without errors and “never failed.” The history of numbers currently ascribes our modern Western numbering system to the Hindu-Arabic tradition, largely spread through the work of Fibonnaci.37 Even if Vossius’s reading comes from a later revision of Boëthius’s fragmentary Geometry (for example, in the eleventh- or twelfth-century manuscripts of Boëthius’s Geometry in Paris and Chartres), it still significantly demonstrates the interaction Pythagoras within the tympanum at the right bay of the royal portal of , situated on top of the of the Pythagorean tradition with the middle column of the right jamb, twelfth century. Photo Arabic and other Eastern cultures, as Peter © 2001 by Jean-Louis Lascoux. Kingsley discusses elsewhere in this issue of way for untold millennia. What comes from the Rosicrucian Digest. The ancient—and one source flows outward and then eventually modern worlds—are not isolated culture returns to its origins.38 islands. Humans have interacted in this Later and philosophers have been inspired by the Pythagorean vision, including possibly Hilary Putnam (1926- ) in the United States, certain aspects The golden ratio was known of whose theories resemble Pythagorean to the Egyptians and other tenets. The connections of the Pythagoreans ancient mystery schools, and with the Essenes and the Theraputae have is often found in natural also insured that the tradition from Crotona will not vanish.39 structures. It was widely used in Renaissance art. It stands Conclusions to reason that Pythagoras, This brief survey has dealt with vast with Egyptian, Middle East- and complex topics and attempted to arrive at a synthesis which would highlight the ern, and Central Asian con- greatness of Pythagoras of Samos to whom nections, would have under- the Western world is so much in debt. stood this as, perhaps, part of Vincenzo Caparelli, a twentieth-cen- his advanced curriculum. tury Pythagorean researcher, came to this conclusion: “Pythagoras represents a synthesis of the knowledge that existed before him

Page xxxvii and he missed nothing of what others had The ancient Pythagoreans were conscious uncovered that was essential. These findings, of this fact and this was the major reason for organized in a vast system, acquired new maintaining secrecy and not propagating meanings and new significance in scientific their doctrines to the uninitiated. The and philosophical research.”40 Pythagorean doctrine in ancient times was Nevertheless, as it has been noted in overcome by the weight of its own magnitude the course of history, there has often been in Italy; however, it lived on through the little interest and a corresponding lack of centuries under many names and many recognition of this divine knowledge. The guises, as we have seen. school of Crotona was never literally revived It may have been a greatness that was from the ashes of destruction, perhaps painful and perhaps still is for some today. because, as emphasized by the Pythagoreans These truths offended their contemporaries themselves, they had transmitted discoveries and many of the uninitiated public who had and doctrines that appeared to be folly to somehow been convinced that their modest their contemporaries, and so they may still nature could not attain such heights. The appear today. Perhaps they are patiently mob took revenge by killing the bodies of the waiting their turn to be officially recognized. philosophers, in the hope of destroying their The true drama of the Pythagorean ideas. As we know, this can never happen, and school is that its wisdom is outside of time. Divine Light and Truth shall always endure.41

Endnotes

1Around 508 BCE the Pythagorean community 6Jérôme Carcopino, Virgile et le mystére de la IVe églogue at Crotona was attacked by Kylon, a neighboring (Paris: L’Artisan du Livre, 1930). governor who had applied to Pythagoras’s school and 7Virgil, Fourth Eclogue, trans. Philip K. Dick in “The been refused admittance because of character flaws. Eye of the Sibyl,” in The Eye of the Sibyl and Other Members of the community were expelled, and Classic Stories (New York: Citadel Books, 2000). Pythagoras, along with his immediate family, escaped Available at www.rosicrucian.org/publications/digest/ to the city of Metapontum. digest2_2008/Web%20version/WS_02_PKD/c_WS_ 2Vincenzo Capparelli, La sapienza di Pitagora (Rome: 02_PKD.pdf. Edizioni Mediterranee, 1988); Il tenore di vita pitagorico 8Diogenes Laertius, “Pythagoras” in The Lives and ed il problema della omoiosis (Padua: R. Zannoni, 1958). Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, trans. Charles Duke 3John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 3rd ed. (London: Yonge (London: H. G. Bohn, 1853), bk 8:1-26. Adam and Charles Black, 1920). Available at http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/ 4Theodor Gomperz, Laurie Magnus, George dlpythagoras.htm. 9 Godfrey Berry, Greek Thinkers: a History of An- Ibid., bk. 8:9, 8. Rosicrucian cient Philosophy (London: J. Murray, 1901-12). 10Ibid., bk. 8:15. Digest 5Aristotle, Metaphysics, bk. 1, part 5, trans. W.D. Ross, 11Porphyry, De abstinentia ab esu animalium, edited No. 1 http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.l.i.html. by Jean Bouffartigue, M. Patillon, and Alain-Philippe 2009

Page xxxviii Segonds. 3 vols., (Paris: Budé, 1979-1995). Available at 1 (2009), 2-9. See also: Kingsley, “From Empedocles www.animalrightshistory.org/library/porphyry/animal- to the Sufis: ‘The Pythagorean Leaven,’” Ancient food-bk1.htm. Philosophy, 359-370; and Kingsley, “Empedocles and 12Porphyry, The Life of Pythagoras, chaps. 18-20. Trans. the Ismā’īlīs,” , 395-396. in Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook 23Robert Zoller, “Hermetic Tradition” (New Library, (1920), new edition edited by David R. Fideler (Grand 1995); “The as Ancient Science” (New Rapids, MI: Press, 1987), 126-127. Library, 1997), available at www.new-library.com/ 13Ibid., chap. 30, 129. zoller/features/. 24 14Ibid., chap. 37, 130. Garth Fowden, The Egyptian : A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Princeton, NJ: 15Iamblichus, The Life of Pythagoras, chap. 12. Trans. in Princeton University Press, 1993). Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook 25 (1920), new edition edited by David R. Fideler (Grand “” in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/ Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1987), 70. wiki/Boethius. 26 16Ibid., chap. 13, 70-71. “Quadrivium” at Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Quadrivium. 17Ibid., chap. 14, 71. 27See Vincent Foster Hopper, Medieval Number 18Ibid., chap. 15, 72-73. Symbolism (New York: Copper Square Publishers, 1969). 19Amber Haque, “Psychology from Islamic Perspective: 28Capparelli, La sapienza di Pitagora. Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges 29 to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists,” Journal of Leonardo Pisano - page 3: “Contributions to number and Health 43 (4) (2004): 357-377 [363]. theory.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2006. 30 20cf. Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Parmanand Singh, “ Hemachandra and the (London, H. Cripps, 1652), subsection 3, on and (so called) Fibonacci Numbers” in Math, ed. Siwan , after line 3480, “Music a Remedy”: “But to leave all 20(1):28-30, 1986. declamatory speeches in praise of divine music, I will 31See “Fibonnaci” at Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia. confine myself to my proper subject: besides that org/wiki/Fibonnaci. excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it 32“” at Wikipedia, http:// is a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number. and will drive away the devil himself. Canus, a 33Giordano Bruno, Dialoghi italiani (Florence: Sansoni, Rhodian fiddler, in , when Apollonius was 1986). inquisitive to know what he could do with his pipe, 34 told him, ‘That he would make a melancholy man See “Tommaso Campanella” at Wikipedia. http:// merry, and him that was merry much merrier than en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_Campanella. before, a lover more enamoured, a religious man more 35“Luca Pacioli” at Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/ devout.’ Ismenias the Theban, Chiron the , wiki/Luca_Pacioli. is said to have cured this and many other diseases by 36Luca Pacioli, De Divina Proportione (Milan: Silvana, music alone: as now they do those, saith Bodine, that 1982). are troubled with St. Vitus’s Bedlam dance.” Available 37See “Arabic Numbers” and “Hindu-Arabic at www.gutenberg.org/files/10800/10800-8.txt; John Numeral System” at Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia. Crellin “Humanities are the Hormones: A Tarantella org/wiki/Arabic_numbers and http://en.wikipedia.org/ Comes to Newfoundland. What Should We Do wiki/Hindu-Arabic_numeral_system. about It?” in MUNMED, Newsletter of the Faculty of 38 Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Peter Kingsley, “Paths of the Ancient Sages: a 1996. Available at www.med.mun.ca/munmed/84/ Pythagorean History” Rosicrucian Digest 87:1 (2009), crellin.htm; Steven K.H. Aung and Mathew H.M. 2-9. See also Kingsley, “From Empedocles to the Sufis, Lee, “Music, Sounds, Medicine, and Meditation: An ‘The Pythagorean Leaven,’” Ancient Philosophy, 359- Integrative Approach to the Healing Arts,” Alternative 370, and Kingsley, “Empedocles and the Ismā’īlīs,” & Complementary Therapies, Oct. 2004, vol. 10, no. Ancient Philosophy, 395-396. 5: 266-270, available at www.liebertonline.com/doi/ 39See Rosicrucian Digest “The Essenes,” 85:2 (2007). abs/10.1089/act.2004.10.266?journalCode=act. 40Capparelli, La sapienza di Pitagora. 21 “Music Therapy,” at Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia. 41A version of this essay was originally published in org/wiki/Music_therapy. Rosa+Croce, no. 30 (Winter 2007), 34-48. It has been 22Peter Kingsley, “Paths of the Ancient Sages: A adapted and expanded by the Staff and Friends of the Pythagorean History” Rosicrucian Digest, vol. 87, no. Rosicrucian Research Library.

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