The Theology of Arithmetic

...of the sovereign principle, so that it might resemble God in each of these respects. This is especially true insofar as the Monad is generative and constitutive of things that are mixed and highly diverse, just as God harmonized and unified the universe from such opposing elements. The Monad begets itself and is begotten from itself; it is self-perfect, without beginning, and without end. It appears as the cause of permanence, just in the same way that God is conceived in natural operations as the savior and preserver of natures.

Therefore, they call the Monad not only God, but also Mind and Male-Female. It is called Mind original: nous; the divine intellect or rational faculty because Mind is the most sovereign element in God, in the creation of the world, and in every art and reason—even if it does not manifest through the whole of an activity in every specific instance. This Mind is a kind of identity, unchanging through knowledge, as it has embraced all things within itself by conception, even if it undergoes a kind of extension original: ekstasis; here referring to the Monad's "standing out" or projecting itself into the variety of forms into the forms of beings. It acts as a kind of artistic reason original: logos technikos; a guiding rational principle of craftsmanship resembling God. It does not depart from its own internal reason, nor does it allow anything else to change, but is truly unchangeable—just like the Fate Atropos Atropos was one of the three Fates (Moirai) in Greek mythology; her name literally means "Inflexible" or "Unchangeable," as she was the one who cut the thread of life..

For this reason, the Monad is also called Demiurge the craftsman or creator of the universe and Molder, being conceived in the progressions and withdrawals of mathematical natures, from which arise physical bodies, the generation of life, and the orderly arrangements of the cosmos.

They even mythologize the Monad as Prometheus The titan who fashioned mankind from clay and stole fire from the gods. The author provides a folk etymology here, linking the name to the Greek words for "not running forward.", the creator of life, because it does not "run forward" original: pro-thein; a wordplay on the name Prometheus in any way, nor does it depart from its own reason, remaining most solitary. Yet, it does not allow other things to wander either, for it shares its own unique properties with them. No matter how many distances a number increases by, or how many things the Monad increases, it prevents them from "running forward" too far and brings them back to the original reason of itself and of them.

As the Seed of all things collectively, they identify the Monad as both male and female. This is not only because they thought the odd number was male (since it is difficult to divide) and the even number was female (since it is easily dissolved), and that the Monad alone is both even and odd; but also because it was conceived as both Father and Mother, possessing the principles of both matter and form...