The Egyptian Oedipus, Volume II

CHAPTER II. 14 OEDIPUS AEGYPTIACI: THE HIEROGLYPHIC GYMNASIUM

From what has been said, it is clear that a certain supreme World is established from the theophanic original: "Theophanico" — a visible manifestation of God descent of the first monad original: "monas" — the number one, representing unity or God into the denary the number ten; a second world from the second monad into the third; and a third World indeed through the descent of the third monad into the fourth, through which a return into unity is made. The center of the first is God, of the second intelligence, of the third reason, and of the fourth sensation. The first center possesses an indivisible entity—all things in all things, everywhere central. All things exist in the first World through absolute unity; all in the second through the intellectual; all in the third through the rational; and all in the fourth through the senses. But let us see how this Pythagorean tetractys a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows, which the Pythagoreans used to explain the nature of the universe or "four-fold" exists within God, Angel, Soul, and Body, repeating several points from our Musurgia, volume 2, pages 448 and 451.

An example of mystical arithmetic in the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4

It is well established that one, two, three, and four joined together produce the denary 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, which is the symbol of the entire Universe, the goal and limit of all things, and it explains the natural power of simple unity. From this very denary, which is a kind of second unity, the explanation of the square root is reached by an equal progression of the four-fold; for 10, 20, 30, and 40 joined together constitute 100, the square of the denary root. Likewise, the hundred-fold unity, by an equal movement, brings forth the thousand-fold; for 100, 200, 300, and 400 joined together constitute 1,000—the cube of the second unity, namely the denary root. There are, therefore, by natural influence, no more than 10 numbers, which are bounded by this four-fold progression; nor does any other variation of repetition occur beyond the thousand-fold (the cube) of the denary root, since the four-fold, through its three-fold repetition, then rises in the order of the denary. You have, therefore, the four-fold of unity, containing in its power the explanation of every number. For the general Unity is distinguished by four units, which are arranged here in a fitting order: the first is the simplest; the second is distant from the first by the addition of a cipher original: "Zyphræ" — meaning the addition of a zero to turn 1 into 10 and constitutes the denary root; the third, denoting the hundred, constitutes the square; the fourth, denoting the thousand, constitutes the cube. Thus, the mind contemplates its own entire entity divided into these units in a four-fold way: in the simplest unity it considers God as the Creator of all; in the root or denary unity, it considers intelligence; in the square of intelligence, the contraction or soul; and finally, in the cubic number, which unfolds nothing further, it considers the body. All things in God are God; in intelligence, they are intellect; in the Soul, they are soul; in the body, they are body. And in the first unity, you behold all remaining units, though they are enfolded without division, without difference, and without distinction.

One skilled in mystical arithmetic can penetrate all secrets.

Certainly, if anyone were to penetrate this simplest unity alone, having cast aside all multiplicity—so that he proves it to be no more simple than non-simple, no more one than non-one—he should know that he has penetrated all secrets. For through this unity, he will see the unity of the mind stripped of all multiplicity, and he will find that its life is not corruptible in its absolute unity, in which it is all things. Moreover, the most perfect certainty of this absolute unity is such that the Mind acts all things in it and through it; for it is the entity of all entities, the quiddity the "whatness" or essential nature of a thing of all quiddities, the cause of all causes, and the end of all ends.