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Pythagoras: Numbers
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One of Pythagoras' beliefs was that the essence of being is number. Thus, being relies on stability of all things that create the universe. Things like health relied on a stable proportion of elements; too much or too little of one thing causes an imbalance that makes a being unhealthy. Pythagoras viewed thinking as the calculating with the idea numbers. When combined with the Folk theories, the philosophy evolves into a belief that Knowledge of the essence of being can be found in the form of numbers. If this is taken a step further, one can say that because mathematics is an unseen essence, the essence of being is an unseen characteristic that can be encountered by the study of mathematics.
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At the heart of Pythagoras` teachings was the vision of the underlying harmony of the universe. This harmony had to be abstracted from the confusion of visible things and daily events. As a matter of fact this harmony existed in the abstract - in the same way as numbers and mathematical formulas are abstractions.
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"PENTALPHA The triple triangle, or the pentalpha of Pythagoras, is so called from the Greel; words pente, meaning five, and alpha, the letter A, because in its configuration it presents the form of that letter in five different positions. It was a doctrine of Pythagoras, that all things proceeded from numbers, and the number five, as being formed by the union of the first odd and the first even, was deemed of peculiar value; and therefore, Cornelius Agrippa says (in his Occult Philosophy) of this figure, that, "by virtue of the number five, it has great command over evil spirits because of its five double triangles and its five acute angles within and its five obtuse angles without, so that this interior pentangle Stains in it many great mysteries." The disciples of Pythagoras, who were indeed its real inventory placed within each of its interior angles one of the letters of the Greek word or the Latin one Salus, both of which signify health; and ... it was made the talisman of health. They placed it at the beginning of their epistles as a greeting to invoke secure health to their correspondent. But its use was not confined to the disciples of Pythagoras. As a talisman, it was employed all over the East as a charm to resist evil spirits.
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In the field of mathematics, Pythagoras attempted to teach about the Limited and Unlimited dual universe in which everyone lived. His conclusions were based on the study of music and other mathematical ratios that showed how intervals could all be expressed using the numbers one, two, three, and four. If all of these numbers are added together, the sum is 10 – what is called “the whole nature of number”. Additionally, Pythagoras and his followers developed their own theories about the cosmos. All in all, Pythagoras helped lead men to search for answers, whether it was through religion, philosophy, math, or science, which helped in the development of these fields.
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According to Pythagoras, the position of each body in the universe was determined by the essential dignity of that body. The popular concept of his day was that the earth occupied the center of the solar system; that the planets, including the sun and moon, moved about the earth; and that the earth itself was flat and square. Contrary to this concept, and regardless of criticism, Pythagoras declared that fire was the most important of all the elements; that the center was the most important part of every body; and that, just as Vesta's fire was in the midst of every home, so in the midst of the universe was a flaming sphere of celestial radiance. This central globe he called the Tower of Jupiter, the Globe of Unity, the Grand Monad, and the Altar of Vesta. As the sacred number 10 symbolized the sum of all parts and the completeness of all things, it was only natural for Pythagoras to divide the universe into ten spheres, symbolized by ten concentric circles. These circles began at the center with the globe of Divine Fire; then came the seven planers, the earth, and another mysterious planet, called Antichthon, which was never visible.
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Pythagoras and his followers were important for their contributions to both religion and science. His religious teachings were based on the doctrine of metempsychosis, which held that the soul was immortal and was destined to a cycle of rebirths until it could liberate itself from the cycle through the purity of its life. A number of precepts were drawn up as inviolable rules by which initiates must live.
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