Reflection for July 13, 2022: The Time is Now

These are the forgeries of jealousy:
and never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck’d up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents:
The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard;
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.

A recent Salon of The Western Mysteries reminded me that, most of the Western path is, drivel.

By drivel I mean exactly that. Stuck in Victorian largely attitudes or age of reason attitudes. Man controlling his own destiny. Man controlling nature. Man as superior to Woman. Money as. …A recent Farcebook Discussion reminded me I have little to nothing in common with most Western Practitioners.

Moving beyond a need for self improvement (that removes many ‘occult orders’), moving beyond gain (many see the Western path as a way to get stuff, be it Talismans, money magic etc)…

We find The Western path is about now, and what is now? It is crisis. It is about coming into harmony with the planet. This means putting down your special wands, put down the money spells.

For Christ commanded us to be Gardeners. This is why he was reborn in the garden.

One expression of this Garden is Faery and the very planet itself.

Magic then in the 21st century is not about self improvement, not about lodges, not about initiations, not about special tools, not about an order … …But it is bout Humanity, the planet and working within well established magical pathways to build bridges to the future.

I understand now, why most Occult groups for want of a better word are ‘lifeless.’ They are stuck in wish fulfillment, self improvement and thus largely Humanocentric thinking.

It is the 21st Century, the time is Now, our environment is crying…. It time to move away from stuffy lodges and dusty academia, throw away your talisman to avoid fungal warts…

It is a time for participation. It is a time to enable. It is a time to give. It is a time of compassion.

This is magic in the 21st Century.

Upon reflection I also see this as a call to arms for myself. To knuckle down with praxis.

This morning I entered the Inner Convocation, it was very liberating

 

Day 197 (Post 777)

Reading 4 2 14, The Alchemical Tarot Renewed by Robert M Place

 

 

Position 1 Hanged Man, air, beginning…

Position 2 The Magus, reversed. Fire. changing. maturing

Position 3, the Queen of Vessels, Water of Water, Goddess as grail bearer of the Ocean

Position 4 9 swords, Air, destruction, cutting, moon, sex, completion not quite complete

Position 5 The High Priestess, Sophia, Lifter of the Veil, Bearer of Gnosis, Shekinah, Her of the heavens.

 

 

Tarot is an interesting thing. It works on many levels and in many ways. Some even view it as the perfect window into the soul. I don’t believe they are that good, personally…One large aspect of modern Tarot is the Hermetic traditions. The Hermetic traditions center around a form of Gnosticism (see the passages of the Corpus Hermeticum in comparison to Sethian for example cosmological beliefs etc.) centering around a divine priest in the Melchizadeck tradition honoring all priests, but from Thoth. Thoth the A Egyptian God, to Thoth the Atlantean. To a more familiar Hermes and Mercury. As an archetype for all priests the Hermetic tradition then is an interesting one. By archetype we mean more Platonic archetype and not Jungian.

One key principle or more accurately axiom of Hermeticism is “As above, So below.” The concept of macro and microcosm. The universe in miniature and in full expanse, the self and the Self. Hermeticism textually goes back around 2000 years, or approx. 1^st Cent CE. Of course all text documents, of such nature are often far older than their written equivalents, oral tradition can date things… but that’s an argument for another time.

Tarot then can be seen through this lens of the Hermetic Axiom. We can see the court cards and number cards as the Microcosm, or the self. The trumps then can be seen as the Macrocosm. The Macrocosm of course can be seen as the Nous or divine mind, the mind of the divine.

 

The above reading is interesting in that it is composed of three potent Macrocosmic images and two Microcosmic images.

Nous: “Mind”, The soul, not the same as ‘pneuma’ or spirit. It is the part of
the anima that gives us consciousness. The anima as a whole gives life (or
literally movement.. “animates”) to our bodies. Tatian declares the soul as a
special kind of spirit. (See; Tatian’s “Letter to the Greeks’)

 

Ogdoad: Regarded in some texts as the “eighth kingdom above the hebdomas.” It is the realm of the Demiurgos (or sometimes that is the 7th, with the eighth being that of Sabaoth), as well as usually being the realm of the zodiac
(dodecon). Sometimes it is also seen as the beginning of freedom from the
Archons, and the beginning of connection to the Aeons. Pythagoris says…
“The ogdoad–8–was sacred because it was the number of the first cube, which
form had eight corners, and was the only evenly-even number under 10
(1-2-4-8-4-2-1). Thus, the 8 is divided into two 4’s, each 4 is divided into two
2’s, and each 2 is divided into two 1’s, thereby reestablishing the monad. Among
the keywords of the ogdoad are love, counsel, prudence, law, and convenience.
Among the divinities partaking of its nature were Panarmonia, Rhea, Cibele,
Cadmæa, Dindymene, Orcia, Neptune, Themis, and Euterpe (a Muse).” (Thomas
Taylor’s Theoretic Arithmetic, Thought by one source to be the rarest and most
important compilation of Pythagorean mathematical fragments extant.)

”… the Ogdoad, which is the eighth, and that we might receive that place of
salvation.” (”The Testimony of Truth.” See also; ”A Valentinian
Exposition.”) ) The Sacred ogdoad according to some sources is: Barbelo (deep), Sige (silence), Nous (mind), Veritus (truth), Sermo (word), Vita (life), Homo (man), Ecclesia (church). The last member of the group acts to syncretize the group.

 

Rba , Rabai – elect priest, chief intator and the ordainer of new Mandaean priests. Holds the office known as rabuta. Compare to the Jewish “rabbi”.

Seth: ”From Adam three natures were begotten. The first was the irrational, which was Cain’s, the second the rational and just, which was Abel’s, the third the spiritual, which was Seth’s. Now that which is earthly is “according to the image,” that which is psychical according to the ” likeness ” of God, and that
which is spiritual is according to the real nature; and with refer­ence to these three, without the other children of Adam, it was said, “This is the book of the generation of men.” And because Seth was spiritual he neither tends flocks nor tills the soil but produces a child, as spiritual things do. And him, who “hoped
to call upon the name of the Lord” who looked upward and whose “citizenship is in heaven – him the world does not contain.” (Theodotus, Criddle Collection.)

Sethian: It is a name for a specific sect of Gnostics, but also a category created by scholars to refer to a number of sects that are related to Valentinians. The Sethians as a group were known to Hippolytus who dedicated Book Five in his work, ”The Refutation of All Hereseys,” to denouncing them. (See Gaffney) Seth was a character of Gnosticism who represented a savior figure and third son of Adam, founder of the Gnostic race. Generally Sethian works include, “Pistis Sophia,” “Allogenes,” ”The Gospel of Mary,*” “Sentences of Sextus,” “Marsanes,” “Gospel of The Egyptians,*” ”The Apocalypse of Adam,*”
“Origin of The World,” ”The Gospel of Thomas,*” ”The Gospel of Philip,” “The Three Steles of Seth,” “Melchizidek,” ”The Apocryphon of John,” ”The Gospel of Judas,” Trimorphic Protennoia,” the un-named text in the Bruce Codex, and ”Zostrianos.” (Others) Some Sethian works suggest strong ties with
Jewish Gnosticism, as well as Platonic thought, as well as Zoroasterism. (They maintained three principles; darkness below, light above, and spirit in-between, according to work attributed to Dr. Roy Blizzard, University of Texas. See also; ”Sethian Gnosticism, A Literary History,” Turner) see also;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sethian ( * Indicates works from the Nag Hammadi Lib., with other works by the same name.)

Sethian Monadology: The system of the monad, constructed through the tetraktys
of the decad, which serves as an underlying philosophy in Sethian Gnosticism. It
is developed from the creation myths. The system is like, and based upon that
of Pythagoreans, and resembles the principles of the ancient Chinese philosophy
of the Tai Chi., which is based upon the ogdoad. The system is based upon
working variations of numerical values. Turner states, ”….vigorous
arithmological speculation on the first ten numbers, but especially the first
four numbers, comprising the Pythagorean tetraktys (the {mode} of the first four
numbers). This was carried on by such Pythagoreanizing Platonists as Theon of
Smyrna and Nicomachus of Gerasa, who in turn depend in part on similar
arithmological and mathematical theories produced by such early first century
Platonist figures as Dercyllides, Adrastos of Aphrodisias (a Peripatetic
commentator on Plato’s Timaeus) and Thrasyllos, a court philosopher under the
Emperor Tiberius. The harmonic ratios produced by these first four numbers and
the geometric entities of point, line, surface, and solid had been applied to
the structure and the creation of the world soul long before by Plato and his
successors in the Old Academy, especially Speusippus and Xenocrates. (See;
Turner, See also; ”The History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 2.,” by Fung
Yu-Lan, Princeton, 1953, See also; ”A Valentinian Exposition.”)

 

….

The Sufi mystic Ibn al-Arabi drew a diagram similar to the one used to develop a pattern around a khatam (see above). However, Al-Arabi’s diagram’s diagram is concerned with spirituality, not ornamentation. He drew it as part of his explanation that “all phenomena are nothing but manifestations of Being, which is one with God.” Conincidentally, Al-Arabi was born in Spain at around the same time the practice of zillij, mosaic design, was starting to flourish. As Sufism had particular appeal to North Africa, his spirtual use of the pattern may explain the prolific use of the eight-point star and and symetries of eight in Moroccan Islamic patterns.

 

The number eight was important among Sufi mystics. “The octagon, with a ninth point in the center, is also central to the mystical symbology of Sufism. It is the seal or design which Ernest Scott says ‘reaches for the innermost secrets of man’. Meaning wholeness, power and perfection, this primary geometrical symbol is one which Sufis associate with Shambhala …”

On his website of natural patterns, Ian Alexander refers to the eight-point star as both the Sufi star and the Moroccan star. He offers the following explanation, as quoted from Friday mosque in Iran “Form is symbolised by the square. Expansion is symbolised by the square with triangles pointing outwards (an 8-pointed star). Contraction is symbolised by the square with triangles pointing inwards (a 4-pointed star). The two star-shapes together symbolise the cycle of creation, ‘the breath of the compassionate.’”

Origins and Meanings of the Eight-Point Star

 

 

 

 

Day 220

Freedom is not achieved by turning our backs upon the heritage of the land, nor is it won by force of arms. The restricting vessels of a true tradition are the way to freedom, but only if they are correctly understood and utilized. If this operation is successful, the restricting power itself is not only transcend, but transformed.

–The UnderWorld Initiation

Re-reading the underworld initiation. Just finished the hidden adept which was a fun book. Debating whether to read some Gersholm Sholem, Ibn Arabi and/or fiction about cats…..

The liberation mentioned above is a spiritual union if all opposites and transcended. The UnderWorld tradition is a universal one found world wide. The Orphic mysteries, sleeping beauty, the Cult of Venus and the Goddess in her tomb. Transformation within the very depths of the earth, within and without…

As we know in Hermeticism, “As above so below” The macro and microcosm. Transformation in the depths of the earth then is seen on a stellar, solar, lunar scale.. within this lunar scale is ourselves.  Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum lapidem. Visit the interior of the Earth through purification you will find the hidden stone.

I realised, it is this aspect that I must initially explore in the home I live in. Misplaced from England and New york city, now in this spiritually, botanically unfamiliar land. To truly work here, I must work here. Therefore I must pass through the inverted tree, downwards into wonderland… to the realms below.

They summoned Eurydice and gave her to him, but upon one condition: that he would not look back at her as she followed him, until they had reached the upper world. So the two passed through the great doors of Hades to the path which would take them out of the darkness, climbing up and up. He knew that she must be just behind him, but he longed unutterably to give one glance to make sure. But now they were almost there, the blackness was turning gray; now he had stepped out joyfully into the daylight. Then he turned to her. It was too soon; she was still in the cavern. He saw her in the dim light, and he held out his arms to clasp her; but on the instant she was gone. She had slipped back into the darkness. All he heard was one faint word, “Farewell.”

 

I must embrace the Rose, meet the natives of the land….

 

From this it is plain that the Earth is like the bass above which the rest of the harmony of the universe progresses. If it were removed, the other voices would remain in an unpleasant and imperfect harmony of many dissonances. Believing sufficient to have been said on the universal symphony of the planets, we will now turn to the particulars of their symphony.

—Athanasius Kircher

 

Reflection for August 7th, 2013: The greater must reveal itself to the lesser

If this metaphysical space is to be known,

such knowledge can be attained only by faith and grace,

not by ‘entering’ but by ‘being entered’

-this is so because the greater must reveal itself to the lesser.

Put differently, that which is immanently ‘Spirit’ can only be known receptively,

through its own intellective vision, and not any derivative faculty such as reason,

feeling or sensation. Reason can only discern conceptually,

at best reducing reality to a dualism of subject and object

(as in the case of Descartes) or catagorical postulate

(as in the case of Kant) or dialectic process

(as in the case of Hegel) – its ‘telos’ will tend to be utopian(as in the case of Marx),

fundamentalist( as in the cases of religious, political or secular dogmatism)

or anthropocentrically consencual (as in the case of Rousseau’s social contract);

while sensation or feeling even where elevated to

the level of empirical ‘science,’ can only discern reality as matter or as psyche,

quantitatively, thereby cutting it off from its transcendent

and qualitative roots, leading to an emphasis on hypertrophic subjectivism

(as in the case of Nietzsche), Psychologism(as in the case of Freud),

or reductive positivism(as in the cases of philosophical positivism and of scientism).

That which transcends us cannot be known reductively

but only by that transcendent faculty which is immanent in us-which in

Tradition is termed the ‘Intellect’

or the Self-knowing Spirit. To know is to discern BEING.

We must empty ourselves or our ‘self’ in order to know who we ARE.

We must return to the sacred emptiness of the space that is our

ontological core in order to know that which truly IS.

–M Ali Lakhani (the Distance between us, found in Sacred Web issue 31)

 

Reflection for August 6th, 2013: The imaginative life of humanity.

The same problem besets conventional science. ‘The intellectual effort to solve the mystery of the physical universe is in vain since the scientist is trying to separate himself from the universe. It is a single unit. Nature and man are not two different things.’ Thinking that they are is what transmits a misperception: the post-Cartesian world-frame that dictates duality as a model for vision. Deep ecology presages on the other hand the obsolescence of western humanism’s dominant metaphor for perception, and this is its special use as a hermeneutical tool.

We could press the point further and say that deep ecology takes us beyond any separatist dichotomies which traditionally try to distance metaphysics from practical concerns. That separatizing habit is a frequent influence on cultural judgement, by which, for instance, mystical has become synonymous with otherworldly, impractical, even inane; and down-to-earth a commendatory for what could equally be called blinkered or unimaginative. Since a rich symbol-system is essential to the imaginative life of humanity, we are reminded just how severe are the limitations of this type of dismissive judgement of the metaphysical realm. That dismissal could be likened to the global capitalist monoculture derived from the alienating perspectives of the Cartesian dichotomy, or Kantian imperative, that suggests beings other than man are simply means to be used to man’s ends. We are realizing the contrary. Human operations of destruction and appropriation evident on the level of natural ecosystems are accurately reflected in the cultural operations of judgement by which the utilitarian ethic is used to delimit the activities of the psyche and imagination. But our cultural perspective could change and develop a ‘sustainable mind-field’ to partner and revive the biophilia hypothesis, which proposed that the completeness and meaning of human being in the world depends on humans’ conviction of actual affiliation with the remainder of life (as opposed to neutral detachment or isolation, from it). Such an inclusive imaginative mind-field has in fact been the province and occupation of poetics, myth and mysticism for much longer than humanism’s recent, if persistent, denial or degrading of imagination.

http://www.sacredweb.com/online_articles/sw6_davies.html
Esoteric Dimensions of Deep Ecology
by Paul Davies

Hermeneutics: The science of interpretation, or interpretation theory.

 

Reflection for August 5, 2013: Credo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewton_Mendip
Church of St Mary Magdalene, Chewton Mendip

In the Western world, a strong belief in the objective truths of religion, which are viewed as incontrovertible, demonstrable facts, is regarded as essential to the life of faith. When asking if somebody is religious, peo- ple often inquire: “Does he or she believe?” as though accepting certain credal propositions was the prime religious activity. Indeed, faith is equated with belief, but this equation is of recent provenance. Origi- nally the meaning of the word faith was akin to trust, as when we say that we have faith in a friend or an ideal. Faith was not an intellectual position but a virtue: it was the careful cultivation, by means of the ritu- als and myths of religion, of the conviction that, despite all the dispirit- ing evidence to the contrary, life had some ultimate meaning and value. The Latin word credo (translated now as “I believe”) seems to have de- rived from the phrase cor dare: to give one’s heart. The Middle English word beleven meant to love. When Christians proclaimed: credo in unum Deum , they were not so much affirming their belief in the existence of a single deity as committing their lives to God. When St. Anselm of Can- terbury prayed in the eleventh century: credo ut intellagam (“I have faith in order that I may understand”), he was not blindly submitting to the doctrines of religion in the hope that one day these incredible asser- tions would make sense today, if he abdicated his critical intelligence. His prayer should really be translated: “I commit myself in order that I may understand.” The meaning of dogma would only be revealed when he lived a fully Christian life, embracing its mythology and rituals whole- heartedly. This attitude is foreign to modernity. Today people feel that before they live a religious life, they must first satisfy themselves intel- lectually of its metaphysical claims. This is sound scientific practice: first you must establish a principle before you can apply it. But it is not the way that religion has traditionally worked.

http://www.sacredweb.com/online_articles/sw4_armstrong.pdf
Karen ARmstrong (Faith an Modernity)

 

Reflection for June 16, 2013: The tree surrounded by four rivers

 

 

 

Soaring upwards
Can be like reaching down

Pushing forward

Can be like pushing back

Going right

Can be like Going left

Within is within

All things begin

And end at the cross roads

–GraalBaum 2013

 

 

This world-mountain was Nizir to the Chaldeans, Olympus to the Greeks, Hara Berezaiti to the Persians of the Avesta, the later Alborz and Elburz; a transfer, as says Mme. Ragozin, of ‘mythical heavenly geography to the earth.’ This mountain—the solar hill of the Egyptians—we shall again refer to in the next two or three chapters. At its apex springs, the heaven tree on which the solar bird is perched. From its roots spring the waters of life—the celestial sea, which, rushing adown the firmament, supplies the ocean which circumscribes the earth or falls directly in rain. At their fountain these springs are guarded by a goddess. In Egypt Nut, the goddess of the oversea, leans from the branches of the heavenly persea and pours forth the celestial water. In the Vedas, Yama, lord of the waters, sits in the highest heaven in the midst of the heavenly ocean under the tree of life, which drops the nectar Soma, and here, on the ‘navel of the waters,’ matter first took form. In the Norse, the central tree Yggdrasil has at its roots the spring of knowledge guarded by the Norns, the northern Fates; two swans the parents of all those of earth, float there. In Chaldea the mighty tree of Eridu, centre of the world, springs by the waters. The Avesta gives a very complete picture—Iran is at the centre of the seven countries of the world; it was the first created, and so beautiful, that were it not that God has implanted in all men a love for their own land, all nations would crowd into this the loveliest land. To the east somewhere, but still at the centre of the world, rises the ‘Lofty Mountain,’ from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, ‘High Haraiti;’ at its

summit is the gathering place of waters, out of which spring the two trees, the heavenly Haoma (Soma), and another tree which bears all the seeds that germinate on earth. This heavenly mountain is called ‘Navel of Waters,’ for the fountain of all waters springs there, guarded by a majestic and beneficent goddess. In Buddhist accounts, the waters issue in four streams like the

Eden from this reservoir, and flow to the cardinal points, each making one complete circuit in its descent. In the Persian Bundahish there are two of these heavenly rivers flowing east and west. To the Hindus the Ganges is such a heavenly stream. ‘The stream of heaven was called by the Greeks Achelous.’ The Nile in Egypt, the Hoang-Ho in China, and the Jordan to the Jews, seem to have been celestial rivers. This mountain of heaven is often figured in Christian art with the four rivers issuing from under the Throne of God.

Sir John Maundeville gives an account of the earthly Paradise quite perfect in its detailed scheme. It is the highest place on earth, nearly reaching to the circle of the moon (as in Dante), and the flood did not reach it. ‘And in the highest place, exactly in the middle, is a well that casts out the four streams’—Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. ‘And men there beyond say that all the sweet waters of the world above and beneath take their beginning from the well of Paradise, and out of that well all water come and go.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/amm/amm07.htm

 

http://chasinghermes.com/2009/04/24/08-axis-mundi.aspx

 

 

Proof of the Gnostic Lineage

I’ve just finished a draft of an academic paper on the Christian Monadology. It is a paper I have studied many years to be able to write. I have contended for some time that if I could show not only the lineage of the Gnostics but their epistemology common to that lineage, then I could show lots more, precisely the basis for the Gnostic Christianity.

In order to show this lineage I needed a ”fingerprint” I could trace through the centuries that links first century Christians with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries. The Aeonology and the use of the Monad has shown just that….

“Meade links Simon Magus with the study of the Monad, by linking the Aeonology, and the concept of the ‘monadic morphism’ known in the mathematical equation, (4) is expressed consistently with Nag Hammadi discoveries. Meade describes the Aeonology which is consistent with Valentinian descriptions Meade did not have.

“In his Aeonology, Simon, like other Gnostic teachers, begins with the Word, the Logos, which springs up from the Depths of the Unknown-Invisible, Incomprehensible Silence. It is true that he does not so name the Great Power, He who has stood, stands and will stand; but that which comes forth from Silence is Speech, and the idea is the same whatever the terminology employed may be.

The Word, then, issuing from Silence is first a Monad, then a Duad, a Triad and a Hebdomad. For no sooner has differentiation commenced in it, and it passes from the state of Oneness, than the Duadic and Triadic state immediately supervene, arising, so to say, simultaneously in the mind, for the mind cannot rest on Duality, but is forced by a law of its nature to rest only on the joint emanation of the Two. Thus the first natural resting point is the Trinity. The next is the Hebdomad” (G.R.S. Meade on Simon Magus)

Compare the Aeonology of the description above to that of Valentinus from ”A Valentinian Exposition.” A text discovered after Meade’s work. The passage confirms Meade’s basic assertion of the Aeonology.

“… I will speak my mystery to those who are mine and to those who will be mine. Moreover it is these who have known him who is, the Father, that is, the Root of the All, the Ineffable One who dwells in the Monad. He dwells alone in silence, and silence is tranquility since, after all, he was a Monad and no one was before him. He dwells in the Dyad and in the Pair, and his Pair is Silence. And he possessed the All dwelling within him. And as for Intention and Persistence, Love and Permanence, they are indeed unbegotten.” (“A Valentinian Exposition.”)

Clearly, the descriptions are of the same phenomena and epistemology. This shows the lineage of this philosophy from Simon (30’s C.E.) to Valentinus, (180 A.D.) a span of time from the first century Gnostics of Simon to the Valentinian Gnostics into the third century. (See also the passages about the Monad from “Eugnostos The Blessed,” see below.)”

I’ve been collecting the passages for years that could make this link from the first century to the fourth. There is far more than linking Simon Magus and Valentinus, I can link every known Alexandrian Gnostic to the Monadic system, and do in the paper I mention.

I’ll include the references from this paper below. The paper itself is very long, that is because it has to show parallels to a whole system. The meat and potatoes of the work is it shows a lineage of the Monadology straight from John the Baptist through Origen. Its non refutable, the claims are made on prima facie literary parallels, like the one’s above. All the references are very reliable. Here are my conclusions…

Conclusion:

The study of the Monad is inherent in the understanding of Christian Gnosticism, to reveal the metaphysics, epistemology, and the nature of the Word, in the Gnostic Aeonology. The study of this phenomena can be traced through the entire lineage of Christian Apostles, their attributed written works, and the works known followers in the historical lineage of the Alexandrian Church.

Sethian Gnosticism can be qualified as that Gnosticism adopted by pre-Christian Jews and the known followers of John the Baptist. They exemplified Seth as pure, and viable as a Monadic icon, in the Aeonology.

Christian (Sethian) Gnosticism can be qualified as the philosophy (Secret Christianity) were Jesus occupies the Monadic form as a type, just like Meade’s account of Simon’s “Great Power.” In effect, Christianity in the Gnostic sense started when the followers of John the Baptist adopted Jesus as the Monad, and the primary emanation from the void, Silence.

References:

1. “Fragments of a Faith Forgotten,” by G.R.S. Mead, (available in the Nag Hammadi
Library, online.)

2. “Simon Magus,” by G.R. S. Meade, (NHL online, see ‘archives.’)
http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_simon_magus.htm

3. “The History of Chinese Philosophy,” Vol. 1.,2., by Fung Yu-Lan, Princeton, 1953. ( Compares and identifies some aspects of Pythagorean theory with the Tai Chi.)

Note: Fung Yu-Lan and other sources describe the kenosis and mechanics of the Tai Chi almost exactly like the passage from ”Eugnostos The Blessed.” The literary parallels in Chinese philosophy includes the emanation of the triad. The following are from Fung Yu-Lan.

a.) “Wu Chi {The Great Void} creates Tai Chi, Tai Chi is the one Chi. One Chi
generates Yin and Yang, and Yin and Yang can change in infinite ways.” (From
“The History of Chinese Philosophy,” Fung Yu-Lan, Princeton Press, 1953.)

b.) ” Tao produced oneness. Oneness produced duality, Duality evolved into the
ten thousand things. The ten thousand things support the yin, and embrace the
yang. It is the blending of the breaths (of yin and yang) that their harmony
depends.” ( from “Lau Tzu,” or the “Tao Te Ching” sixth c. B.C. ).Ibid, Fung
Yu-Lan) There are other Chinese descriptions which include the triad in the
sequence.

4. The Monad

The Monad, and Transmutations

Mathematical Monad……(Extended study by The Catsters)

{Natural transformations, See also Klein Jars}

5. “The Nag Hammadi Library,” Robinson, Harper, 1990. (available online)
See also the ”Bruce Codex.”

6.”Early Greek Philosophy,” Barnes, Penguin Classics, 2001. (Contains chapters on
Pythagoreans) and Aristotle’s passage seen above.

7. “Great Thinkers of the Eastern World,” McGreal, Harper, 1995. (Defines heuristic devices, and describes related material to the Tai Chi philosophy.)

Further Reading:

“Gnostic Secrets of the Nassenes,” by Gaffney, Inner Traditions, (2004). Text contains “The
Refutation of All Heresies,” Book 5.

“The History of the Church,” by Eusebius, Penguin Classic, (1965)

“The Jesus Sutras” by Martin Palmer, Ballentine, 2001. (Contains Christian
scripture based upon the classical Buddhist/Taoist use of the Tai Chi, to
represent Jesus as spirit.) The text also identifies the five skhandas of the Soul,
“Form, Perception, Consciousness, Action, Knowledge.”

“Xing Yi Quan Xue,” by Tang, Unique Publications, 2000. (See page 80. for a
breakdown explanation of the Tai Chi icon.)

“Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals,” by Kennedy/Guo, North Atlantic Books,
2005. (See page 86. for the ‘Ba Gua’ sequence composed by Sun Xi Kun.) This paradigm
shows the morphism of the Tai Chi, into Ba Gua sequences. This parallels the Pythagorean
model of the morphism in Oneness.

By Tom Saunders

 

The Math of the Word by Tom saunders

The Math of the Word

by

Tom Saunders

What if the Word, as the ”Gospel of John” uses it, could be shown by Mathematics? Would this change your perception of your spiritual self? It might if you understand that the Word, as used by some very early Christians, was used in a way the Orthodox Church never taught. It can be shown. Actually it needs to be explained in two ways.

Ancient Pythagoreans were historically divided into two distinct groups, the ‘Acusmatici,’ or Aphorist, and the ‘Mathematici,’ the scientist. (Early Greek Philosophy, Penguin Classic, pg. 162.) This is a natural duality of the human intellect. The aphorist tends to describe things through literal description, and the scientist uses measurement or mathematics.

In the following explanations, do not confuse yourself by forgetting that you, as an intellect, are not one or the other, you are both. So was everyone in the group of Pythagoreans.

The natural separations or dualities of the human mind are very much part of the Word. However, because this is a natural duality, separating these traits from one another, destroys its natural value. This holds true for both the literal and mathematical explanation of the Monad, and Monadology. This is how good and evil are shown to be controlled. Later it will be shown how the Monad, is equal to, and part of the Word, and ‘Jesus Wisdom’ equals the status of the Word. The ancient Christian Gnostics used a method called Gematria to study the mechanics of the Word.

Gematria

Gematria: The study or science and art of number and letter manipulation. This would include geometric forms such as the Tetraktys of the Decad. ”I {Jesus} have turned their (periods of) influence and their quadrangles and their triangles and their figures of eight , since their (periods of) influence remained turned to the left from the beginning, together with their quadrangles and their triangles and their figures of eight.” (”Pistis Sophia,” See also; Tetraktys of the Decad.” See also; ”Marsenes.” ) (Source: “Saunders Gnostic Glossary.”)

What the above statement is about, is the study of the Monad. The Monadology. Everything in the Nag Hammadi Library has an underlying philosophy of the Monad tied to it. Its really unavoidable, as I will show. Jesus in terms of the Sethian Monadology, and the first sentence of the ”Gospel of John,” becomes the Word, and the Monad in Gnostic Christianity. In Orthodox Christianity this knowledge was forbidden and being tied to it meant the penalty of death. This knowledge is still considered heresy.

The intellect of the Aphorist, and Scientist become important in the Christian Gematria, because duality is the basis for much of how both the mathematical and literary descriptions define how the Sethians used the Pythagorean Monadology. The Gnostics who adopted Christianity, or the other way around, left behind literary descriptions of the monad, and some are full Monadological sequences.

These are literary descriptions of the Monad, i.e. Monadology.

“As I said earlier, (said Jesus), among the things that were created the
Monad is first, the dyad follows it, and the triad, up to the tenths. Now the
tenths rule the hundredths; the hundredths rule the thousandths; the thousands
rule the ten thousands. This is the pattern <among the> immortals. First Man is
like this: His monad […]. ( is His God, my insertion.) (From “Eugnostos the
Blessed,” Nag Hammadi Library, Codex III, Robinson, 1990.)

(b.) Again it is this pattern that exists among the immortals: the Monad and the
thought are those things that belong to Immortal Man. The thinkings are for
<the> decads, and the hundreds are the teachings, and the thousands are the
counsels, and the ten thousands are the powers. Now those who come from the
[…] exist with their […] in every aeon […].” (From “Eugnostos the
Blessed,” Nag Hammadi Library, Codex III, Robinson, 1990.)

Students of Chinese Philosophy may recognize the description above, is very much like that given in the explanation of the Tai Chi. In fact they are both the same formula. For those not familiar with this philosophy I have prepared two short video presentations that explain the advanced workings of the Tai Chi, and another for how the Monad works as a parallel to the Tai Chi.

Here are two passages that will confirm to most that the above descriptions from the Nag Hammadi, are in fact describing the same concepts….

(a.) “Wu Chi {The Great Void} creates Tai Chi, Tai Chi is the one Chi. One Chi
generates Yin and Yang, and Yin and Yang can change in infinite ways.” (From
“The History of Chinese Philosophy,” Fung Yu-Lan, Princeton Press, 1953.)

(b.) ” Tao produced oneness. Oneness produced duality, Duality evolved into the
ten thousand things. The ten thousand things support the yin, and embrace the
yang. It is the blending of the breaths (of yin and yang) that their harmony
depends.” ( from “Lau Tzu,” or the “Tao Te Ching” sixth c. B.C. ).Ibid, Fung
Yu-Lan)

I have prepared two video presentations that will give the reader an advanced insight into the above passages. The first is how the Asians preserved Ba Gua Science as far as how it is applied. The next is an explanation of how Ba Gua Science, works like the Monadology, and some about how it is used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsBDhQZtjEo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1DN0_PEJAE

The Mathematical explanation of the Monad, does not involve what is pre-Monadic. Its a mathematical formula that shows what is contained within the space of the Monad itself. However, the nature of the Mathematical monad, does tend to show a very important aspect of duality. The use of the term Tai Chi, and Monad, include the aspects and the meaning of the terms Yin and Yang, and dyad, or duad. By the mathematical gematra, these both mean virtually a double aspect of the same thing. Dyad does not mean two things separated from the Monad, but it does show the aspect of one becoming two things, if you don’t lose the perspective of being both an Aphorist and Scientist.

The algebraic equation that shows how a Word is formed in the equation, is based upon the aspect of the Monad being composed of unit forms (axioms), and modification axioms. In other words the algebraic formula shows the Monad as having the aspect of the ability to mutate. This is what the literal descriptions say. The following videos explain the mathematical Monadic theory much better than I can…Watch them as a balanced Aphorist and Scientist and you’ll see the gematra of the Catsters show you the Word, right before your eyes.

Mathematical Monad……(Presentation study by The Catsters)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBQnysX7oLI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si6_oG7ZdK4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fohXBj2UEI&NR=1

{Natural transformations, See also Klein Jars}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZSUwqWjHCU&NR=1

See also, on Pythagorean Math…..

http://library.thinkquest.org/22584/emh2000.htm

Right before your eyes if you gaze at the illustrations and the way the base forms grow, it confirms the literary, and mathematical concepts alined with the Aphorists, and Mathematicians.

A Note on Leibnitz

The term Monadology comes into the modern lexicons of our language through the work of Gottfried Leibnitz. However, the term Monad, and its connected concepts is far older. It is not known to me at this time when the mathematical study of the Monad existed. It would be my best guess that the Pythagoreans knew it and kept it an occult study, as they did the literalist study of the Monad.

Leibnitz’ work shows that a person is his own Monad. This is consistent with what I am showing, and I suspect Leibnitz, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjiman Franklin, knew a lot more than they revealed about Leibnitz’ work. The Preamble to the U. S. Constitution is a Monadic sequence. Follow the below formula, and you can see for yourself… Once you know how to recognize them, they stand out, like those in the Nag Hammadi Library. (This may well be part of how Pythagoreans kept the secrets hidden. If you know the formula, you know what to look for. If you don’t, you don’t see the formula. This means the list that is a Monadic sequence, jumps out. A list that is just a list, is just a list.

The Church was still so powerful at the time of Leibnitz, he stood on the brink of being killed by the Church. In my opinion all he or even Jefferson, and Franklin had to do was reveal they were investigating the Monad mentioned in the works of Ireaneus, and they would have been killed. I trust with this essay I divulge what they could not.

The Christian Monad

The Sethian use of the Monad, as with the Tai Chi, begins before the Monad, with a void, or emptiness. In the Sethian Christian texts, this emptiness is called Silence. From Silence comes the One, or the Monad, which is Jesus Wisdom, i.e. the Word. The obvious purpose of the ”Secret Sayings of the Living Jesus,” otherwise known as the ”Gospel of Thomas,” would be to provide the literal source of this virtual set of the Word. I say set because the Monadic equation shows ((abc) (ex)) <~> (abcex) {a word}. This virtually means the monad, and monoid equal the Monad, and dyad. One equals one, the monad equals the Word. Actually the formula shows, the Monad equals, (Word) <~> ( 114 ‘type’ (sayings) as a set which is the ”Gospel of Thomas.”)

Note: { I am using the tilda (<~>) to show what is a straight line in the formulas of the videos, this is due to the keyboard functions of my computer. The tilda between the arrows equals a straight line.}

The concept of emptiness or the ‘great void,’ is described by Aristotle, who reveals emptiness from the Pythagorean perspective. One of the rare clues about Pythagorean concepts starting with emptiness, is quoted by Aristotle, in “Physics.” (213b22-27) “Early Greek Philosophy,” pg. 171.

“The Pythagoreans too said that empty exists, and it enters the heavens from the limitless breath, as though the heavens actually inhale the empty which distinguishes natural things, and is sort of separation and distention of contiguous things. {Limit} They hold that this appears first among numbers for the empty separates their natures.”

Actually there is a lot more to take in after you grasp emptiness. The Gnostics took the study of emptiness to a level called Kenosis….

Kenosis: A Greek term meaning emptiness, or to make empty. As in Philippians 2:7, “Jesus made himself nothing…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenosis In Christian theology, Kenosis is the concept of the ‘self-emptying’ of one’s own will and becoming entirely receptive to God and his perfect will. It is used both as an explanation of the incarnation, and an indication of the nature of God’s activity and condescension.

The use of kenosis is actually broader than the definition above might suggest. If you have viewed the videos so far you have an idea of what comes next with the ‘numbers,’ and what can be made of the nature of those numbers. From duality, comes the Ba Gua, or Monadic sequence.

Both the Chinese and Pythagoreans, learned to apply sciences extending outside the realm of the (One) Monad, and learned to form sets, which are governed by the natural laws of ‘limit,’ and form. This means that the limits of form, correspond with other aspects of the natural forces of perhaps the Word, Wisdom, or language itself. This is why things like evil as a form have seven ‘types,’ (See lies in the video). Sets form out of natural cycles and influences, i.e. patterns.

In the Gnostic schema, dualities, are referred to as Powers, Archons, Aeons, Autogenes, Monogenes, etc., all pretty much exactly show the same powers. All are the cause and effects of duality, in the schema, or ‘stages’ which mutate out of the Monadic form. At this point the most likely mathematical correspondence with the way the sequences mutate is by aligning the Monadic sequence with the binomial aspects of the Tai Chi. Ba Gua, are in fact, trigrams which represent a binomial system. The mathematical aspects of this fact are beyond the scope of this essay.

Form, Separation, and Limit

Pre-Christians used different ways including using Seth to show how the separation of good and evil forces worked. Dualities like good and evil, extending out of emptiness, are represented by actions. What the Monadic sequence does is teach the Gnostic how to encounter adversity with skills applied to the kenosis process, with the tools he develops from learning the sequences of good and evil. This is exactly how the martial artist learns to confront adversity, you develop skills.

This requires knowledge and study of how the Monadic or Ba Gua Sequence takes shape. The skills needed for the arena or form of the fight, requires you understand the physical forms and limits, as well as the all the literal ones. Through a natural process of human form, and natural duality the experienced fighter sees the opponents actions and corresponds to the natural grid, of wisdom which determines offense, defense, boxing moves, or grappling moves. Every arena has different dualities, and hence different limits of types in a set, this is the basis for separation.

The Gnostic learns the dualities of good actions and evil ones, based upon how he needs to keep his faith, with his own actions. These are learned skills. Part of this is learning are the forms, the number of types, in sets like good, and evil, and learning how to control the skills you need to apply in the ‘void.’ This is the point of learning to use the Monadology in your psyche.

There seems to be a natural separation in the ”Gospel of Thomas.” It is obvious, as to the first real duality you can make in the text, if you use the process of separation to examine the sayings. The type of saying that is obviously a special part of the text are the parables. Apply all the knowledge of the text to the problems, i.e. forms of the Parables, using what you glean from the entire text and, you have merged your own mind with Jesus. According to the way the Monadology is applied, this makes sense as how you apply it to the Thomas text.

Then you apply this knowledge to yourself, and the form of you as your own parable.

This makes the Mathematical formula for you bonding with the Word, ( (y) (o) (u) ) <~> (Word/Monad), which would equal the mathematical equivalent of achieving Christian Gnosis. This has lots of happy connotations if you know the Gnostic texts.

The Trinity

The trinity, is after the duality. The Aphorists both Chinese and early Christian, again share aspects of how this mutation happens. The trinity in the Tai Chi system can be characterized by what is known as the ‘Taoist Trinity,’ which states…”Man’s Mind, is the same as heaven and earth.” This means in most aspects that the Mind, as an empty space, is like the Great Void, ( Wu Chi ) of Chinese philosophy. Being like heaven means the dualities of the Mind, and the collective on earth, work the same way in the kenosis process. In other words what comes into the voids of heaven and the human mind are much the same things.

In the Christian Gnostic texts the concept of trinity is literalized in different places, and in a few different ways, in some of those places. This is because the Monad is an occult study, and this idea is lots older than when the early Christians made Jesus the Monad. As the Monad and part of a trinity, the Monad, becomes the primary influence in the dualities shown in the form of the trinity.

Gnostics to my knowledge called the primary evil influence, a demon(s), like the Seven Forms of Wrath, in the “Gospel of Mary,” but did not refer to them as Monads. There is an evil Trinity in the Gnostic texts, its darkness, desire, and ignorance. There is also the ‘Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” but the Gnostic version follows a broader alignment according the the way trinity is used in the various Gnostic texts.

In the Trinity, Jesus is the Monad, as the control factor over all duality.

This extends the mathematical formula to (Word) <~> (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Darkness, Desire, and Ignorance.) There is no separation of good and evil, until the Gnostic becomes a controlling factor.

The Tetrad and Higher Forms

The Gnostic or Sacred Tetrad is preserved in the Works of both Basilides, and Valentinus. Its Word, Man, Life, and Church, (Truth). These terms have specific meanings in the ‘Gnostic lexicon.’ In the higher forms, referring to those with larger numbers of types in the Monadic sets, remain as associate axioms all influenced by the cause and effects of how the duality through the form is handled.

In the higher forms starting with the Word as the Monad in the sequence, the Gnostics added the term Knowledge, Gnosis, or free will, to the end of the sequence. This designates the Gnostic as the controller over the set. In other words duality like good and evil become controlled by the Gnostic, designated by the last member of the set of types in the associate side of the Monadic axiom.

This may be seen as adding another factor into the designated equation, one that can make a designated choice of producing one side of dualistic expression. This equation could be shown a couple of different ways to explain how the control of the set goes from its natural form, to one manipulated in part by the Gnostic.

One way would be to express the Word and Gnostic is one factor together. This would reflect the Gnostic and Word, as bonded as one…

( (Word) (The Gnostic)) <~> ( abcd {good} abcd {evil})

However, at this level, where the Gnostic takes control over the duality the mathematics would best serve to show plus or minus the factors of good and evil. After all this is the choice for the Christian Gnostic, and how the Monadic sequences start to become a viable heuristic device.

The Pentad

At the level of the pentad, another equation can be shown that demonstrates the power the Gnostic has to take control over what happens in the cause and effect within the types of a given set. Control would be shown something like this…

(Word) = (The Gnostic) <~> ( (abcde {good}) +/- abcde {evil} )) = (The Gnostic plus good or evil, contingent upon the chosen action. Sometimes Gnostics do evil deeds for very good reasons, although my best guess is this would be rare.

At this point the Aphoristic explanations of the Monadology show the Pentad as a circle. This of course represents the way the Monadology is used in the ‘arenas’ of human action, as shown in the video. This is where the Gnostic learns to gain control of these environments.

The sequence at the level of the Pentad, and higher in the Gnostic teachings include the designation of the Gnostic as a controlling factor. The sequence therefore looks like this….

(Word), (dyad or influence of duality), (c.), (d), (e), etc. depending upon the size of the set, and the last unit being the Gnostic, (Knowledge). So the Seven Forms of Wrath in the “Gospel of Mary,” as an evil form looks like a simple list. This is the passage from which the Seven Forms are introduced…

“When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, which took seven forms.

The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath.” (Chapter 8., “Gospel of Mary“)

Here the evil power (form) can be shown as, (darkness, desire, ignorance, excitement of death, kingdom of the flesh, foolish wisdom of the flesh, and wrathful wisdom.) The reader will note the last member of this set, uses the term wisdom, and this denotes the use of ‘evil knowledge.’ This would be congruent with the Christian Gnostic form.

When Mary in the Gospel says she is overcoming the demons, the formula in the Monadology looks like this…

(Word), (darkness, which is the duality factor in this set), (desire), (ignorance), (excitement of death), (kingdom of the flesh), (foolish wisdom of the flesh), and ( The ‘Knowledge’ to control the wrathful wisdom under the influence of darkness).

Conclusion

The Aphorist, and Mathematician in regard to the understanding and demonstration of the Word, (Monad) can be shown to coincide in showing the use of the term, and defining ‘Word’ in Christian theology.

The Pythagoreans adopted the Chinese method of study which includes Ba Gua Science. They converted it at some time in early history to include their rendering of form, separation, and limit. The Sethians both pre Christian and Christian adopted this theory, and made the teachings of Jesus the Monad. Monad = Word.

Hi,

Many times I cross-post essays to religious groups that I belong to. So is the case with the essay “The Math of the Word.” There is one important difference about this essay that I would like to explain.

This particular concept of putting the Word, into mathematical terms, qualifies the Gnostic learning in a way never before realized in modern times.

I knew the Pythagoreans had a mathematical companion to the literal or aphorist side to the explanation of the Monadology. My problem regarding math is, I’m very weak and almost inept at doing any kind of math. I never thought I could make the mathematical argument but the “Catsters” did it for me. This is in spite of the fact they don’t know who I am yet. They don’t know I’ve connected their work to mine, and are certainly unaware of the Gnostic connection. I’m sure they will be surprised.

If this material is a little overwhelming, I understand. The algebra in the Catsters’ videos is complex at first but not impossible to get even if you don’t know anything about algebra. I’ve been told that the literalist descriptions are not easy either. The saving grace is, when you can show the math, the real arguments over speculation can be put to rest. One = One, is a hard argument to beat.

It is like proving there is a Bigfoot. You show up with a real Bigfoot, in front of reliable sources then you have the right evidence. My work just put Gnostic science on that same level. The ancient Monadology is a large heavy beast the Orthodox Church has never been able to explain. I have no doubt that modern Bible scholars will be slow to respond. They always are. Again, One = One, is a hard argument to beat.

It might actually be easier to show up with a Bigfoot, than a Monad.

Whatever happens in the Bible scholar community is no longer much concern to me. I intend to put the Monad to use, and I’m not waiting on anyone else to do it. What the Nag Hammadi texts say can be made clear, and without major speculation.

A camel is a horse built by a committee that didn’t know what a horse looked like. This has been what the Gnostic scholarship has been like, without an adequate explanation of the underlying philosophies. This has hampered qualifying real Gnostic Science. No more.

Tom Saunders

 

Gnostic words for October 14, 2008:Tai Chi, Tartaros, Tatian,Tertullian, Tetraktys (Tetractys), Thereapeutae, Theodotus,Theosis, Theudas, Theurgy, Torah, Transubstantiation, Treatise

Tai Chi: As an icon the Tai Chi is a symbol, composed of the Yin and Yang circle, surrounded by eight trigrams. It, in terms of function is the underlying philosophy of all Chinese, and ‘classical’ Oriental philosophy. According to the scholar Fung Yu-Lan, ”The History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol 2.” Princeton, 1953, the philosophies of Pythagoras, and the Tai Chi are almost identical. The concept of Chi, and Sophia (wisdom), Logos, and Tao, meaning ”Word,” are identical. The power of male and female polarities in the Tai Chi, resemble the ideas of Pronoia, and Protophanes, in the concept of ”Barbelo.” ( See Barbelo, and Sethian Monadology. See also; ”The Valentinian Exposition.”) The Tai Chi is associated with the ”Book of Changes,” (I Ching), in Chinese Philosophy. Pythagoras is thought to have studied Chinese Philosophy, and obviously did. (See; Bulfinch’s Mythology, Gramercy, Crown Pub.
1979.) The analogy to the Tai Chi, Sethian values are in ”Tetrakys of the
Decad, Monadic Vlaues.”

Tartaros (Tartarus): Keeper of Hades. Also referred to as Tartarucus, Tatrokis, Saklas
and Temeluchus in various Christian texts. (See; ”The Book of Thomas the Contender,” Nag Hammadi Lib. Name is also used by Clement in “Stromata“)

Tatian: (110-180) Pupil of Justin Martyr and author of the “Diatessaron,” and “Letter to the Greeks.” Formed Gnostic sects in Syria called Encratites, meaning literally, ‘Masters of Themselves.’ Qualified the soul, as a special kind of spirit. (”Letter to the Greeks.”)

Tatian the Assyrian.

Tertullian: (160-230) Native of Carthage who joined literalist Christianity
around 196, after becoming a lawyer in Rome. Before he became a Montanist in 207, he argued with Hippolytus against Gnosticism. However his work does not reflect a sound knowledge of any of the pre-Christian, Valentinian, or Sethian
epistemologies. (See; Tertullian’s, ”Treatise of the Soul.”)

Tetraktys (Tetractys) of the Decad, The Monadic Values: There is no doubt that Sethian Gnostics applied the principles of this paradigm. ”Pythagorus considered all things relative to numbers… How he conceived this process has never been satisfactorily explained.” (Bullfinch, pg. 289.) Perhaps this is
the secret….

tetraktys

Pythagorus considered the monad as the source of all things. In the case of the tetraktys of the decad, the concepts of form and structure are related in mathematical values. These values work in harmony. They are not just a list, they are a set. The first and most obvious is numerical value is the digital sequence of one through ten. ‘Monad,’ 2. Decad, 3. Triad, 4. Tetrad, 5. Pentad, 6. Hexad, 7. Heptad, 8. Ogdoad, 9. Ennead, and 10. Decad.

Digital sequencing can be done in different base values, like using base six to count on your hands. You count to five on the right hand, and the first digit of the left hand represents six, the next set the left hand finger is given the value of twelve, then eighteen, then the sequence goes up to 35, when you run out of fingers, if you have ten. Another sequencing schema is the Heaven Sequence of the Tai Chi, which is in base eight.

The Pythagorean model showing the tetraktys of the decad is in the form of a triangle, usually shown as only dots, I have placed numbers beside the dots, denoting the digital sequence. Below is a traditional explanation for this sequence, where I have made aditions to show how the Tai Chi, and this sequence
are parallel….

o Monad
o o Decad
o o o Triad
o o o o Tetrad

________________________________These triangles should be equalateral.

1.
2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9. 10.

1.. The Tetractys represented the organization of space: {Wu Chi, Void, ”Jesus is Silence.” See; ”A Valentinian Exposition.”}
2.. the first row represented zero-dimensions (a point) {Tai Chi, yin and yang are the same.}
3.. the second row represented one-dimension (a line of two points) {Liang Yi, yin and yang are different}
4.. the third row represented two-dimensions (a plane defined by a triangle of
three points) {This is consistent with the San Ti. Man is the same as heaven and earth.}
5.. the fourth row represented three-dimensions (a triangular pyramid defined by four points) {This is consistent with the Si Xiang. This is Yin and Yang seenas two different things, or four types. This parallel to the Tai Chi does not include the Ba Gua (8 trigrams)} Wikapedia source…..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys

This triangle represents five, or more different mathematical values, not generally recognized unless you apply the Tai Chi model with the parallel of the Tetraktys. The mathematical values are thought of more like aphorisms, or a mantra, rather than calculations in some respect. Pythagoras put everything in terms of math, and I think the statistical terms below can be adapted to both the Tai Chi and the Tetraktys of the Decad.

The digital sequence of one through ten, connotes the decad. What cannotes the the ‘tetra’ is the number four. In the case of the tetraktys of the decad, the value of four corresponds with the relative value of the mathematical concept of ‘mode.’ One through six, would make the triangle a triad, and if you add a fifth
line, 11. through, 15., to the base, the mode is a pentad. As shown above we have the tetrad. (See; ”The Table of Ten Numbers,” http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta16.htm )

The mode is the value, or set of like units that appear most frequently in a set. As can be seen in the model of the tetraktys of the decad, all three sides of the triangle contain four units. (This is looking at the triangle of dots as an icon like the Tai Chi.) In terms of the triangle there are four levels, or modes (called types in the ”Gospel of Mary,”), Level 1. is one, level two the decad, is 2. and 3., level three the triad, is 4. 5. and 6., level four the tetrad, is 7. 8. 9. and 10.

O monad
O O decad
O O O triad
O O O O tetrad

A set in most science involving polarity, is called a field or pool, which connotes a perimeter of the form, or the unified body of the set, as a whole. Mode connotes the ‘level,’ of the form and structure of the pool. Therefor tetrads, hexads, ogdoads, etc. are thought of as modes and levels, which can be
applied to fields.

As you build the triangle by adding lines of digits to the base, the mode changes in sequence, but the values of mean, and median, also become relative to the model. This is allegorical to how a seed turns into a tree or plant. This same sequence is thought to be extant in the working of the Logos, Pleroma,
Kenoma, and Psyche of man, and collective consciousness of mankind.

This means you are using mathematical terms as points of a contemplation, or meditation, more like aphorism than calculation. Each configuration of the triangle regardless of the mode, retains the value of the monad in the digital sequence. The mode sequence, the mean value in the sequence, and the median
values in the sequence, are not mutually exclusive. They work in harmony.

The mode sequence is determined by looking at the triangle like an icon, and determining the number of units each side of the triangle has. The mode sequence has a different numerical value than the digital sequence value. In the Tai Chi, Wu Chi, is the void or zero, and in the Sethian system Jesus is Silence. Tai Chi, is one, meaning Yin and Yang are the same. Liang Yi is the third in the Heaven Sequence, and means Yin and Yang as seperate or different. The student of the Tetraktys retains the triology, or ‘tripartite,’ as a mindset, in the contemplation of the sequence. “Man’s mind/heart, is the same as heaven and
earth.” (”Kenpo Gokui’.’)

The next stage in the Heaven Sequence, (Use of even numbers) is the Si Xiang, which represents the tetrad or four units. In the Chinese system Wu Chi = 0, Tai Chi equals 2., Liang Yi = 2, and Si Xiang= 4., puting the Tai Chi in a setof eight parts, symbolically aligned with the Ba Gua, or eight trigrams, making
the Tai Chi an organized Ogdoad. The Sacred Tetrad is regarded in the same way, as the Si Xiang, in form, structure, and mechanics. (See; Tai Chi. See; ”The History of Chinese Philosophy,” Vol. 2, Fung Yu-Lan, Princeton, 1953.)

The mean is determined by adding the number of units, in the digital sequence, then dividing that sum by the number of units, the result is an average number of units. That would be the pentad or five, the mean of ten units. In building form and structure in the Monadology, the constant value of the mean is thevalue of one, (Monad) and denotes the value of the monad in each consecutive mode in the sequence. The Monad remains integrated into the form and structure of all mode values. (See; Decalogue.)

The median, is the value where half of the units in a set are larger or smaller than the opposite set of units. The median is the point where the set is divided, and determines balance with the reflective or dual values of male/female, good/evil, light and darkness. The odd numbers where their are more units on one half of the set than the other, represents unbalance. Pythagoreans used the terms square for even numbers, and oblong for odd numbers.
(Ibid.)

In the application of the sequence the consideration of median, is that ‘duality,’ reamains a constant regardless of the level, or mode, as does the power of the Monad. Duality can be meant to be more than one feature, when drawing a monadic paradigm, as duality does not always mean opposite, it can
mean either, or. In some cases it can be implied as an opposite. It can be areflective value, like a mirror image, or reflection. (See; Bythos)

For instance, the pentad can be given five values, with good connotations, and their opposite with negative conotations. Five constructive values, are opposed to the destructive values of opposition. The Chinese use the idea of the Wu Xing, or five constructive, and destructive forces. The reflective value or
median value (duality) is always considered as part of form and structure,
regardless of the mode, or level in the sequence.

The fifth value is the parabolic, more of a geometric adaptation, which has dimensions or perspective, reflection and even vibration. (See; Parables.) The parabolic view is in reference to the higher modes of the Pentad and above, where the structure and form can be seen as multi-dimensional and having
perspective. (See; Parabole, which can be shown as viewing the inside of a
cone. See also; Gematria.)

As a contemplation device, all the values of the tetraktys of the decad, are imagined in unison as a harmony. This unified perception is imperical to the idea of how the natural order of wisdom works in the tripartite vision of man as being psyche, material, and spiritual. The sequence is operational in the realms of man, heaven and earth.

You can see that 1. 2. 3. and 5. form the equalateral cross, common in the first century. There may be more of these parallels, than I mention at this time. The Platonic tetrad, used in the ”Square of Opposition,” a tool of logic, can also be seen in the formation of 2. 3. 5. 8. and 9.

If you look at the triagle of dots you will see that 2. 3. 4. 6. 8. and 9. form a circle with 5. in the middle. 1. 7., and 9. are outside the circle. (See Tripartite) As one contemplates this image the fifth value of the parabolic becomes apparent. The image can look like it is multi-dimensional, where the center (5) as seen as closer and further away, adds perspective. The center dot 5. becomes parabolic point of center, and the middle of the sequence.

In regard to the human figure, you can draw arms going up from 2., and 3., and legs off 8. and 9., and you can imagine the human figure in the gematria within the triangle.

In martial arts, especially those aligned with the classic Tai Chi, the points of the shoulders and hips represent the primary centers of the body’s natural ”primary square of balance,” where 5. is the center of the body the diaphram. Some martial artists use this ‘cone’ image like sights on a gun, aiming at a
target, and using the same grid for defense. This shows the tool (sequence) is useful as both applied in the material world, and applied to the psyche. The entire system of Isshin Ryu Karate can be shown in the ”Heaven Sequence,” as well as the application against opponents.

Kabbalistic Tetraktys illustrating the 72 names of God and the manifestation of creation

Thereapeutae: (Therapuetrides) A Jewish sect in Alexandria described by Philo in his “On the Contemplative Life.” They were similar to Essenes, and were mistaken by Eusebius as being Christian. ( “The History of the Church,” Eusebius, Williamson, Penguin, 1989, pg. 422-23)

“the entire interval from dawn to evening is given up by them to spiritual exercises. For they read the holy scriptures and draw out in thought and allegory their ancestral philosophy, since they regard the literal meanings as symbols of an inner and hidden nature revealing itself in covert ideas.”

—Philo, para. 28

Theodotus: A student of Valentinus, and Pantaenus in the Alexandrian lineage. Theodotus explains that passions are called spirits: ” The passions that are in the soul are called spirits, not spirits of power, since in that case the man under the influence of passion would be a legion of demons; but they are so
called in consequence of the impulse they communicate. For the soul itself, through modifications, taking on this and that other sort of qualities of wickedness, is said to receive spirits.” ( See; Fragments of Theodotus, Kirby, Criddle.

http://neonostalgia.com/xtian/Extracts_from_Theodotus.htm , and Theodotus )

Theosis: (Theiosis, Theopoiesis, Theōsis) In Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic theology, theosis, meaning divinization (or deification or, to become god), is the call to man to become holy and seek union with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in the resurrection. Theosis comprehends salvation from sin, is premised upon apostolic and early Christian understanding of the life of faith, and is conceptually foundational in both the East and the West. See also; Consecration, Deification, Divine Union, Sanctification. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosis

The Ladder of Paradise icon described by John Climacus.

Theudas: (42 CE approx.) Theudas, meaning ‘gift from God’ declared himself a prophet and was executed while attempting to ‘part the Jordan” for his followers. Years later Valentinus laid claim to some of his teaching. ( Ehrman, “Lost Christianities, pg 193, says Theudas was a disciple of Paul, this is not true.. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.97-98 )

Theurgy: ‘Works of the Gods’ ( See; “Zostrianos”). This refers to human affairs and the effects in the earthly state. ”Theurgy (from Latin: theurgia, Greek: theourgeia) describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action of God (or other personified supernatural power), especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving theosis, and perfecting oneself.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theurgy

……

In its “original Egyptian” use, the term Theurgy however refers to “becoming a hollow reed. This concept is quite different to the “modern” use employed by modern “Hermeticists.” Although the two concepts may in turn cross over, the fundamental difference is one involves taking from the “Gods” and the other involves opening one’s self up in order to be filled. In theory this may be the same or similar, but the actual process is different. In such that one involves manipulation and the other involves self sacrifice.

https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/more-thoughts-on-ritual/

Torah: The first five books of the Bible, “Genesis,” “Exodus,” “Leviticus,”
Numbers,” and “Deuteronomy,” also referred to as “The Law.”

Transubstantiation: The act of applying or transference of Holy Spirit into wine and bread. The term is common to the Christian and Gnostic Eucharist, Communion, or sacramental ceremonies. ”A change of substance, {transmutation} usually refering to the doctrine of the Eucharist sacrement of the Lord’s Supper, where the bread and wine were declared symbols of the body and blood of Jesus.”( See; ”The Steinerbooks Dictionary of the Psychic, Mystic, and Occult,” Rudolf Steiner, 1973. pg. 219. See also; “Valentinian Exposition,”
Baptism A., B., Eucarist, Chrism, etc. Nag Hammadi Lib. See also; ”Gospel of Philip.”)

Treatise: A book or writing directed toward a specific purpose.