Arturo Reghini, Sacred Pythagorean Numbers. Part 11

Seven is the only number of the decade virgin and without a mother, άμήτωρ and παρΦένοϛ: and for this reason, as we have already said, it was compared and consecrated to Athena-Minerva, daughter of Zeus-Jupiter but not of Juno, because she is being born springing fully armed from the brain of Zeus-Jupiter. Both Pallas Athena and the number seven have the prerogative of virginity and immaculate conception.

If we think that Athena-Minerva was known to be the goddess of Wisdom, the meaning of this symbol is outlined quite clear: the divine wisdom does not belong to the world of generation, it is transcendent, olympic, humanly inconceivable. We add, moreover, that the magical tradition often ties the gift of clairvoyance and clairvoyance to virginity: the Greek language, as the Italian, gives the same meaning to the words κόρη, virgin (daughter) and eye pupil, and Cagliostro, who used the “pupils “as clairvoyants, called them eyes for this reason and called them doves for their candor.

Even Clement of Alexandria (14) notes that the number seven is a virgin and without a mother, and Christian writer Aristobulus identifies the sevenfold with spiritual light. Notes in this respect Delatte that this theory is not, as one might expect, a Jewish innovation because it is already included in Philolaus, as is testified by a verse of theologumena: and was retaken in the hymn to the number (Pythagorean-Orphic) according to Aristobulus. Aristobulus therefore had done nothing, as usual, which adapt this concept, that suited his needs, to Jewish apologetics. On the other hand, seven was the number of the wise men of before Pythagoras Greece and seven the number of Pythagorean sciences, and liberal arts, spread, perhaps by Boethius, in the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium.

Catholicism, unlike the other Christian sects derived from Judaism, has recently added the dogma of the Immaculate Conception to that of virginity of Mary, and ties so much importance to these dogmas  to sustain them in the difficulties inherent in the well-known fact that the Gospel repeatedly speaks of brothers and sisters of Jesus. The difficulty is overcome by stating that in the Gospel, and only in the Gospel, the word άδελφόϛ does not mean brothers but cousins. Very simple and convenient. The Pythagoreans and the classics, talking about the immaculate conception and virginity of the number seven and Pallas Athena, did not need to support themselves with acrobatics of hermeneutics, and even to us these fables of paganism does not seem so absurd as the paladins of hagiography would take.

It seems to us manifest the derivation, or at least the reference, of this Catholic dogma to the ancient Pythagorean symbolism, as it is certain that Aristobulus and San Clemente drew on pythagorean source. And we do not want to examine to what extent the figure of Mary, rather than remembering that of Minerva,  remember the figure of Isis, as shown by iconographic considerations. Instead, we want to mention the feats performed by some Christian writers at the expense of arithmetic Pythagorean mysticism. For example, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, a Christian writer  of the French Revolution time, is said in the “philosophe inconnu” (unknown philosopher) and also “théosophe d’Amboise”, to run wild in his writings, and in particular in the posthumous Des Nombres (on Numbers), in his system of the Christian mysticism of numbers, and devoutly ranting he does not hesitate to tie to Pythagoreans supposed errors, to be able to reproach them for the exaltation of his faith “beautiful, immortal, beneficial, accustomed to triumph.” Saint-Martin says, for example (15) that “Phythagore et ses disciples se sont trompés quand ils ont dit que 7 était sans sans père et mère”, or the Pythagoreans are wrong when stating that seven was without father and mother, and justifies his sentence with the good reason that” le nombre 4 est le père et la mère de l’homme qui, en effet selon la Genèse, fut créé mâle et femelle par cette puissance septénaire contenant 4 et 3″, or the number 4 is the father and mother of the man, who according to Genesis, was created male and female because of the sevenfold power containing 4 and 3. Now Pythagoras and his disciples have never said anything like this, and the unknown philosopher makes all a confusion between what the Gospel talks about Melchizedek, who was without father or mother, and the fact that seven was for Pythagoreans a number sacred to Minerva because, like Minerva, she was a virgin and was not generated. And after such confusion and ignorance even of the Gospel, Saint-Martin does not hesitate from correcting the supposed madness of the Pythagoreans!

The number five or pentalpha is the symbol of harmony, and therefore also the symbol of the Pythagorean brotherhood, like the Flaming Star is the symbol of the Masonic brotherhood cemented by brotherly love. The Pythagoreans wrote in correspondence of the vertexes of the letters forming the word pentalpha the word ύγίεια, which means health, because the harmony of all elements and functions of the body which manifests as health and harmony of all the spiritual elements, makes possible the health or safety, seen both in the eschatological sense of Orphism and in the Pythagorean sense of palingenesis. The number seven is the symbol of wisdom.

The comparison between the sacred numbers of Pythagoreans and the sacred numbers of Freemasonry, can not be done degree by degree because the separation of Masonic ritual, in the two distinct degrees of apprentice and companion, is relatively recent and the degree of master with its ritual and catechism is little more than two centuries old. However it seems that the changes consisted of a simple distribution and in some innovation, but that has always taken care to keep the symbolic and ritualistic heritage of the order. Moreover, even the distinction of the three degrees is in the spirit of traditional symbolism and connects to the first of the sacred numbers. You can roughly say that three is the number of the apprentice or novice, five is the number of companion and seven is the number of the master, or the venerable master or master builder.

But one must accept with a certain discernment variations, additions and especially the explanations and comments of relatively modern rituals and catechisms, which have elements infiltrated that are not traditional and instead are often arbitrary and personal. For example, the orientalist Goblet of Alviella, who was Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Belgium, has indianized the rituals of the upper levels: and since he completely ignored hermeticism, has added real errors to his its orientalist interpretation. Ragon, a writer of the last century, once known as the “auteur sacré” (sacred author) of Freemasonry, has done his best in the interpretation and commentary of the rituals, but he has stuffed them with definition and moralistic considerations that have little to do with the Masonic esotericism and sound aged: Excellent are the three books of Wirth, despite the personal inclinations which he manifests for the hermetic interpretations and the French school of occultism E. Levi, of Guaita, Papus, based on the Jewish cabala, and tarot. The best is to stick to the old rituals, simple, skinny, skeletal. There are some English prior to 1730, French prior to 1750 and Italian prior to 1780 (16) which are not derived from French Freemasonry.

The two words Freemason and loggia are not Italian words imported from English or French. They were in use in Italy since the three hundred, were called lodges those of brothers Comacini, and Florence is full of ancient loggias like that dei Lanzi the alleged derivation of the word loggia from the greek word logos, which means word or verb is unfounded and only serves to justify the veneration of the verse of St. John “in the beginning erat Verbum”. In architecture, loggia is a technical term that designates an open building, supported by columns or pillars, often built on top of buildings, for example the gallery of theaters, and so it is an proper term to designate the temple, Masonic, supported by twelve columns , which has he sky as vault.

In the Lodge there are three sublime lights, that’s to say the Sun, the Moon and bright Delta, three lights, that’s to say the worshipful Master and the two Wardens, three pillars, three windows, three mobile jewels that’s to say the square, the level, and the perpendicular, three immobile jewels that’s to say the rough stone, the cubic pointed stone and board trace or drawing board or triple table, and three ornaments that’s to say the floor mosaic, the blazing star and undulating ribbon. Triple is the symbolic journey of the profane to be eligible to receive the light, triple the battery, the kiss, the touching in stapling, triple the riddle proposed to the profane, the three steps of the apprentice.

The task of the apprentice, or novice, is to shape the rough stone; task of companion Freemason is to come to see and understand the blazing star. To discover it he must ascend five steps, he has the task of forming the cubic stone and square off so that it is suitable for the construction of the temple. He is distinguished by his knowledge of the blazing star, and, since in rituals after 1737, the letter G appears in the interior of the pentagram, it is also said that the task of the companion is to know the letter G and its meaning as well. All the rituals, we say all, care to remember that the letter G is the initial geometry and the Scottish ones observe that it is the initial of God, other rituals and catechisms that it is the initial of gnosis, etc. generation.

The only plausible explanation is the first, and the five steps that the partner must ascend correspond to the fact that geometry is the fifth of the Pythagorean science, and in our interpretation to the fact that in order to achieve the harmony symbolized by the blazing star, one should extend the tetrachord or Tetractis symbolized by the Delta with the law of a fifth.

In the Loggia and in the framework of the Loggia of companion, the blazing star replaces the Delta between the Sun and Moon, there are five lights instead of three: the stapling, the battery, the age and the steps are based on five instead of three.

The steps to climb to ascend to the orient are on the other hand , and seven are the steps to ascend into the Middle Chamber. Their number is that of the seven liberal sciences, the apprentice is required to know the first three, those of the trivium, purely human sciences, the companion should furthermore learn arithmetic and geometry, the master mason should clearly know even the last two, music and spheris, That’s to say the harmony of the seven notes and the harmony of the spheres.

Finally seven are the nodes of the undulating ribbon wrapping around the columns of the temple.

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