PYTHAGORAS
by Thomas W. Olzak
As we part the veils of history's portals,
we find that many men and women of the
past are known to us only through legend
and the sometimes biased reporting of
their contemporaries. To learn of the
man or woman behind the legend is difficult; and sometimes impossible. Such is
the case with Pythagoras.
What we know of the life of Pythagoras
is, for the most part, a combination of
religious myth and legend. (1) I attempted
to take what I believe to be the slender
threads of truth which run through the
colorful tapestries portraying his life, and
weave a new tapestry. This composite
representation of Pythagoras' life includes his early life, his travels, his
school, and the possible Pythagorean influence on Freemasonry. Although there
may be no direct link between Pythagoras and Freemasonry, the teachings of
Pythagoras have greatly influenced its
structure and its teachings.
The Beginning
Pythagoras was born, as far as we can
tell, in the year 600 B.C. His birth was
allegedly foretold by Pythoness, then the
Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle told Pythagoras' parents, the merchant Menesarchus and his wife Parthenis, that they
would have a child destined to surpass all
men in beauty and wisdom. They were
also told by the Oracle, that throughout
his lifetime, their son would contribute
much to the benefit of mankind. When
he was born in Sidon, in Phoenicia, Pythagoras was named in honor of the
Oracle. (2)
The story of Pythagoras' birth is often
accompanied by stories of a virgin birth.
Sacred writings indicate that Pythagoras' mother conceived through a
specter or holy spirit which appeared to
her. His father had revealed to him
through a vision that his wife would bear
a son through divine conception and that
he would be a benefactor to mankind.(3)
Legends of a virgin birth may have
surfaced after the death of Pythagoras to
help raise him to a status above normal
man. As will be shown later, Pythagoras
was thought by many to be a "Divine"
teacher.
The Preparation
Not much is known of Pythagoras'
childhood. However, there is much written about his travels during his early
adult life. It seems he was initiated into
the mysteries of several countries. These
included the mysteries of Isis, Adonis,
the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Chaldean
Mysteries and the secrets of Babylon. In
addition, he studied for several years in
Hindustan where the Brahmins who
taught Pythagoras named him Yavancharya, the Ionian Teacher.(4)
It was from the Brahmins that Pythagoras probably learned of the transmigration of souls. This concept played a
major role in his future teachings. But, it
was in Egypt that Pythagoras learned the
sciences upon which he would build his
explanation of the world; mathematics
and geometry.(5) As was partially evident
from his later teachings, he was
thoroughly familiar with oriental and occidental, or western, philosophies.
Nevertheless, Pythagoras did not exalt
himself because of his knowledge. According to Albert G. Mackey, in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry,
" Disdaining the vanity and dogmatism
of the ancient sages, he contented himself with proclaiming that he was simply
a seeker after knowledge, not its possessor, and to him is attributed the word
philosopher, or lover of wisdom, as the
only title he would assume."(6)
In fact, Pythagoras was the first to use
the term philosopher as a description of
himself.
After preparing himself through the
study of the mysteries and religions of the
seats of wisdom of the ancient world, it
was time for Pythagoras to teach his
world view to those who were worthy.
The School
Sometime during the second half of the
sixth century B.C., Pythagoras travelled
to Crotona, Italy where he opened a
school. The word school may be a misnomer, however. The Pythagoreans, as
they would soon be called, were a religious group or community. Further,
Pythagoras was thought to be more than
a philosopher.(7)
Iamblichus, in his life of Pythagoras,
calls him "leader and father of divine
philosophy," a superhuman being, a
divine man. This description of Pythagoras is not unique. He was also given
these attributes in accounts written by
Porphyry, a Tyrean philosopher and
author (circa 232-301 A.D.), and Diogenes Laertius, a notable third century
A.D. biographer of the Greek Philosophers.(8)
The followers of Pythagoras were also
convinced of his divinity. They called
him the "son of god. " Every word Pythagoras spoke was noted and considered important. In his book Masonic,
Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, Manly P. Hall gives us
an example of his legendary stature,
"In height he exceeded six feet; his
body was as perfectly formed as that of
Apollo. Pythagoras was the personification of majesty and power, and in his
presence all felt humble and afraid. As
he grew older, his physical powers increased rather than waned, so that as he
approached the century mark he was
actually in the prime of life. The influence of this great soul over those about
him was such that a word of praise from
Pythagoras filled his disciples with ecstasy, while one committed suicide because the Master became momentarily
irritated over something he had done.
Pythagoras was so impressed by this
tragedy that he never again spoke unkindly to or about anyone." (8)
Life at the school was highly structured
and discipline was considered of great
importance. Silence, Secrecy, and unconditional obedience were cardinal
principles of this great order. This does
not mean that there was a lack of warmth
and friendship among Pythagoras' students. Pythagoras taught that friendship
was the truest and nearest perfect of all
relationships. He believed "...that relationships were essentially mental rather
than physical, and that a stranger of
sympathetic intellect was closer to him
than a blood relation whose viewpoint
was at variance with his own.(9)" Consequently, the Pythagoreans became a
brotherhood with each member caring
for the others.
To enter the school at Crotona did not
give the new student the right to come
into direct contact with Pythagoras. A
neophyte was required to pass through
three degrees before he could enter into
Pythagoras' presence. The first, Mathematicus, assured the student of proficiency in mathematics and geometry.
The second, Theoreticus, dealt with the
superficial applications of the exact
sciences. The third, Electus, "entitled
the candidate to pass forward into the
light of the fullest illumination which he
was capable of absorbing." (10) It was only
after a candidate reached the level of
Electus that he was allowed personal
contact with Pythagoras. "The study of
music, Geometry and astronomy was
considered essential to a rational understanding of God, man, or nature, and no
one could accompany Pythagoras who
was not thoroughly familiar with these
sciences. " (11)
The Way
As members of the school passed
through the three degrees, they learned
the great teachings which would be identified by later philosophies as
Pythagorean. The greatest of these teachings may have been Pythagoras' system
of numbers.
According to Dagobert D. Runes,
"There is general agreement that Pythagoras is regarded as the initiator of
mathematical demonstration and deduction." (12) The Pythagorean philosophy is
based on numbers. Aristotle also commented on the importance of mathematics to Pythagorean thought,
"...the Pythagoreans, as they are
called, devoted themselves to mathematics, they were the first to advance this
study, and having been brought up in it
they thought its principles were the principles of all things. " (13)
Not only did Pythagoras apply mathematics to logic and science, but he also
used it to explain the world.
" . . . Pythagoras combined rational
science and religious mysticism, and endeavored to use mathematical concepts
and axioms for other worldly speculations. He influenced Plato and Plotinus,
and, through them, many mystics and
metaphysicians up to the present day. (14)
In addition, the Pythagoreans developed a form of algebra from their study
of mathematics. "...Pythagoras has
been not only credited with a method
common in value to all branches of mathematics but to be personally comparable
himself with Descartes who decisively
combined geometry and algebra." (15)
Pythagoras used numbers to explain
material phenomena. The first four
numbers are of great importance. The
number one represents the point, number two the line, number three the surface, and number four the solid (16) These
are the fundamental Pythagorean
geometric figures.
Combinations of the geometric elements constructed from the first four
numbers were used to construct
geometric shapes. These shapes were
also used as symbols to explain the gods
and existence. According to Plutarch,
this was as a result of images Pythagoras
had seen in Egypt. (17)
Two of the shapes used by Pythagoras
were the triangle, or triad, and the
square, or tetrad. The triangle represents the monad, 1, and the duad, 2, the
monad representing the male and duad
representing the female. Further, the tetrad, 4 represents the soul of man and the
most perfect number. The concept of the
triangle and the square was later adopted
by the 17th century Rosicrucians. Some
say that these two concepts, possibly influenced by Rosicrucian teachings, are
represented by the Masonic apron. The
triad, which in total represents spirit,
mind, and soul, descends into the four,
the world.(18)
Pythagoras' most important contribution to the world of geometry was the
Pythagorean Theorem. This theorem
describes the relationship among the
three sides of a right triangle.
There are two more teachings of Pythagoras which must be mentioned. The
first describes the concept of one god.
The second describes the belief in the
immortality of the soul.
In the Greece of Pythagoras, many
gods were worshipped. In fact, there
was a god for each important aspect of
human endeavor. Pythagoras believed
that transcending these popular gods was
the absolute deity. This absolute deity
was indescribable, without beginning or
end, and without form. This deity of
Pythagoras must not be confused with
the Judeo-Christian Yahweh. Blavatsky
infers in her "The Secret Doctrine" that
the god of the Pythagoreans, and many
other great schools of their time, may
have influenced the Judeo-Christian
concept of god. (19)
The last teaching of Pythagoras we will
examine is his belief in the immortality
of the soul. The system of gods which the
Greeks worshipped did not allow for a
blissful life after death. Instead, the essence of a person was confined to Hades
and an eternity of meaningless, suffering
existence. Pythagoras believed that man
had a soul which was one with God.
"Late in the sixth century, Pythagoras
taught that souls migrated after death
into other bodies, both human and animal. Meat-eating was therefore an
abomination, a form of cannibalism. (20)
The Pythagoreans believed that the
soul should be tended and purified.
"The practice of silence, the influence of
music, and the study of mathematics
were all looked on as valuable aids in
tending the soul. (21)
After returning to a material form
enough times to purify the soul, the soul
would eventually become one with God
and discontinue its journey through successive bodies.
It can be seen that the Pythagoreans
described their world in terms of
geometric and mathematical symbols.
They believed in a supreme God of
which all men's souls were a part. Their
community, or school, was based on
caring, study and purification. But how
did Pythagorean thought of the 6th century B.C. influence Freemasons of the
17th and 18th centuries?
Influence on Freemasonry
The ritual, teachings and system of
morality of Freemasonry can be said to
be derived from the teachings of the
Greek philosophers. According to William Hutchinson, called by many the
"Father of Symbolic Freemasonry,"
"Our morality is deduced from the
maxims of the Grecian philosophers,
and perfected by the christian revelation. (22)
The scholars of 17th and 18th century
Europe were greatly influenced by classical studies. These studies particularly
concentrated on Plato and Aristotle.
Plato was greatly influenced by the Pythagoreans.(23) Aristotle, his pupil, was
also affected but to a lesser extent.
Plato also believed that the world could
be described in terms of numbers. It is
possible that he borrowed this concept
from the Pythagoreans;
"In Italy he (Plato) stayed for a time
with a Pythagorean community, vegetarian and communist, which had for
generations controlled the Greek colony
in which it lived." (24)
The study of geometry was also very
important to Plato. Will Durant describes the possible combination of Pythagorean and Platonic numbers in a
story about a bridge;
"There is, as the gentle Spinoza would
say, a world of things perceived by sense,
and a world of things inferred by
thought; we do not see the law of inverse
squares but it is there, and everywhere;
it was before anything began, and will
survive when all the world of things is a
finished tale. Here is a bridge: the sense
perceives concrete and iron to a hundred
million tons; the mathematician sees,
with the mind's eye, the daring and delicate adjustment of all this mass of material to laws of mechanics and
mathematics and engineering, those laws according to which all good bridges that are
made must be made; if the mathematician be also a poet, he will see these laws
upholding the bridge; if the laws were
violated the bridge would collapse into
the stream beneath; the laws are the God
that holds up the bridge in the hollow of
his hand. Aristotle hints something of
this when he says that by ideas (idealistic
representations of things or phenomena
as we know them) Plato meant what
Pythagoras meant by "number" when
he taught that this is a world of numbers
meaning presumably that the world is
ruled by mathematical constancies and
regularities...To Plato...mathematics is
therefore the indispensable prelude to
philosophy, and its highest form; over
the doors of his Academy Plato
placed...these words, 'Let no man ignorant of geometry enter here." (25)
It is true that geometry played a fundamental role in the operative craft from
which speculative Masonry was born. In
addition, the system of morality and
philosophy upon which speculative Masonry is based must have been influenced
to some extent by the teachings of Pythagoras and Plato.
Pythagoras can be directly linked to
Freemasonry through the writings of
some of the early Masonic authors.
James Anderson, author of "Anderson's
Constitutions of 1723, " makes this comment;
"Nor do we find the Grecians arrived
to any considerable knowledge in
Geometry, before the Great Thales
Milesius, the philosopher, who died in
the reign of Belshazzar, and the time of
the Jewish captivity. But his scholar, the
Greater Pythagoras, proved the author
of the 47th problem of Euclid's first
book, which, if duly observed, is the
Foundation of all Masonry, sacred, civil
and military."(26)
Although Anderson's grasp on actual
historical events is not without doubt, it
is clear from this early Masonic work
that the link between the speculative
mathematics of Pythagoras and the
speculative craft was established.
Hutchinson, in his work "The Spirit of
Masonry," first published in 1775, again
establishes the link between Pythagoras
and speculative Masonry, but in more
familiar terms;
"It is known to all the learned that
Pythagoras travelled into Egypt, and
was initiated there into several different
orders of priests, who in those days kept
all their learning secret from the vulgar.--He made every geometrical
theorem a secret, and admitted only such
to the knowledge of them, as had first
undergone a five-year silence.--He is
supposed to be the inventor of the 47th
proposition of Euclid, for which, in the
joy of his heart, it is said he sacrificed a
hecatomb." (27)
It is probable that Pythagorean teachings, either directly or indirectly, affected
the development of speculative Masonry. The use of mathematics and
geometry to explain the world is as fundamental to Freemasonry as it was to the
Pythagoreans .
Aside from the connection between the
teaching of Pythagoras and speculative
Masonry, there may be a connection between the structure of Pythagorean
schools and Masonic Lodges. According
to Mackey,
"The schools established by Pythagoras at Crotona and other cities,
have been considered by many writers as
the models after which Masonic Lodges
were subsequently constructed. They
undoubtedly served the Christian ascetics of the first century as a pattern for
their monastic institutions, with which
institutions the Freemasonry of the
Middle Ages, in its operative character,
was intimately connected."(28)
This possibility is provided for your
consideration. I was unable to find proof
of its validity.
Conclusion
Even though the "real" Pythagoras
may never be known, I believe this to be
a reasonably true representation of his
life and the affects of his teachings on the
world.
His beliefs concerning numbers as they
relate to the material world and morality
influenced the greatest minds of recorded history. In addition, I believe I
have shown that his concept of geometry
and mathematics played a significant
part in the development of speculative
Masonry. Further, the system of morality upon which Freemasonry is based
may be traced to the classical Greek
Philosophers, who were influenced by
the Pythagoreans.
Although this last point was not expanded here, I leave it to the reader to
seek out the basic writings of these great
minds. For it was on the teachings of
Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
and many more that the framework of
western civilization was built. As we
travel to the East, we can only benefit
from the help these great teachers can
give us. And who knows, maybe that for
which we have so long wrought is hidden
in the geometry of Pythagoras or the
Ideals of Plato.
Footnotes
1. Runes, Dagobert D., A Treasury of Philosophy,
Volume 11, (Grolier, New York 1955), P. 979.
2. Hall, Manly P., Masonic Hermltic, Qabbalistic and
Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, (The Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles, 1977), P 65.
3.Spencer, Lewis H.,Ph.D.,F.R.C.,Mystical Life
of Jesus, (Supreme Grand Lodge of Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, SanJose, 1953), P 84.
4. Hall, Masonic. . . Philosophy, P. 6s.
5 . Hutchinson, William The Spirit of Masonry, (The
Aquarian Press, Weilingborough, Northamptonshire, 1987), P 39.
6. Mackey, Albert G., Encyclopedia of Frecmasonry,
Volume 11, (Macoy Publishing and Masonic
Supply Company, Richmond, 1966), P 823.
7. Hall, Manly P., Masonic...Philosophy, P. 66.
8. Ibid, P. 66.
9. Ibid, P. 66.
10. Ibid, P. 66.
11. Ibid, P. 66.
12. Runes, Dagobert, A Trcasury of Philosophy, P.
979.
13. Coppleston, Frederick, A History of Philosophy,
Volume 1, (Doubleday, New York, 1985), P. 32.
14. Runes, Dagobert, A Treasury of Philosophy, P.
979.
15. Mackey, Albert, Fncyclopedia of Freemasonry, P.
824.
16. Hall, Manly P., Masonu...Philosophy, P. 67.
17. Ibid, P. 69.
18. Ibid, P. 72.
19. Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna, The Secret Doctrine,
Volume 1, (The Theosophical University Press,
Pasadena, 1988), P. 613.
20. Boardman, John; Griffin, Jasper; Murray,
Oswyn, The Oxford History of the Classual World,
(Oxford University Press, New York, 1986), P.
269
21. Coppleston, Frederick, A History of Philosophy,
P. 3 1 .
22. Hutchinson, William, The Spirit of Masonry, P.
23. Runes, Dagobert, A Treasury of Philosophy, P.
979.
24. Durant, Will, The Story of Philosophy, (Washington Square Press, New York, 1961), P. 42.
25. Ibid, P. 30.
26. Anderson, James, Anderson's Constitutions of
1723, (The Masonic Service Association of the
United States, Washington, D.C., 1924), P. 50-
27. Hutchinson, William, The Spirit of Masonry, P.
39-40.
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