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In Pythagoras’ Trousers,
Wertheim traces the history of science and religion and demonstrates
how
entwined they have been. The roots of
science are traced to the mystical teachings of Pythagoras, an Ionian
philosopher who studied in the Egyptian mystery teachings, lived in
Babylon and
returned to Greece and Italy circa 600 BC. Pythagoras
introduced mathematics to the Greeks, borrowing
from the
Egyptians and Babylonians. Wertheim outlines Pythagoras’ essential
ideas
concerning the nature of numbers: Pythagoras
saw the essence of reality in the immaterial magic of numbers. He believed the universe could be explained
by the properties of numbers and the relations between them, a
philosophy
encapsulated in his famous dictum “All is number.”
(pp. 18-19)
At
the heart of Pythagorean thought were the whole numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
and so
on. Pythagoras believed that numbers
were divine and he equated them with the gods. The
number 1 through 10, those of the decade, were
said to be
especially sacred. ... the deities had become abstract mathematical
entities. The Pythagorean world picture
was ... a metaphysical dance of numbers. ... Indeed might not number be
the
essence of form itself? ... The temporal
numerical patterns apparent in the heavens and the spatial patterns
made by
numbers themselves convinced Pythagoras that all was indeed number, and
that
number was truly the essence of reality. (pp.
24-27)
In the earliest times, numbers were
regarded as having mystical and magical properties.
The esoteric mystical and occult literature
is replete with sacred numerology, geometry, symbols, hieroglyphics,
myths and
so on, embodying such ancient teachings. Numbers
do not simply follow each other in a linear way
with each number
simply being one more than the one before it. Instead,
numbers are principles inherent within the
metaphysical and
physical nature of reality. Numbers, as
symbols, depict the processes by which form is generated from
formlessness.
Pythagorean thought was largely
abandoned in the mainstream of religious science but has reemerged
during
different historic periods. In the twelfth century, the philosophy of
Robert
Grosseteste (1168-1253), the first medieval scientific thinker,
embodied
Pythagorean influences. Wertheim
summarizes
Grosseteste’s metaphysics: In
Grosseteste’s metaphysics of light, we see the first full-blown
expression of a
mathematico-Christian cosmology, in which we may even recognize
elements of the
modern mathematical world picture. According
to Grosseteste, the universe was generated from
a point of
primordial light–the divine illumination, or lux, of which
visible light
was said to be the physical manifestation. Now,
because the definitive feature of light is that it
propagates
outward, like flares radiating from a candle, this original point
immediately
began to expand, forming the sphere of the universe.
As the first emanation of God’s power,
Grosseteste believed that lux was ultimately the cause of all
natural
action in the universe. Indeed it was
the primal force of the world. Man could
not study the divine lux directly, but he could study its
physical
manifestation in light. Thus,
Grosseteste believed light was the key to understanding the working of
the
natural world. ... Grosseteste concluded that a mathematical
understanding of light
would serve as the model for understanding all natural influence, or
what we
would now call force. ... this is close
to what mathematical men believe today. In
contemporary physicists’ quest to understand the forces
of nature, it
is light that has generally served as the model.
(pp. 49-50)
Grosseteste conceived of the
Biblical Deity as a divine mathematician and viewed the mathematics and
geometry inherent in nature as reflecting the same creative principles
as
inherent in the Mind or Being of God. His
scientific work was in the study of optics, the
refraction of light,
rainbows and the like. In this view,
creation emerged from a point of primordial light, the first point of
cosmic
manifestation. The underlying lux,
or supernal light, is the metaphysical principle underlying creation.
Many pioneering figures in science’s
early years–such as Nicholas of Cusa, Copernicus, Kepler and
Newton—evinced an
avid interest in mystical teachings and doctrines.
Nicholas of Cusa was a fifteen-century cardinal
of the Catholic Church and regarded as the primary champion of
mathematical
science in his era. Wertheim summarizes
Nicholas’ views: In
true medieval tradition, God was both the starting point and end goal
of Cusa’s
metaphysical speculations. For him, the
universe was the unfolding of forms already enfolded within God. Accordingly, to know the world was to know
the unfolding of God, and the way to knowing was through number. Cusa believed that number was nothing less
than the “image” of “God’s mind” –thus to study mathematics was to
study the
mind of God. ... God and mathematics harmonized into a mystical
theology that
combined both prescriptions for spiritual transcendence and scope for a
genuine
mathematical science of nature. … the primary purpose of mathematical
study was
to bring us ever closer to the undivided Oneness that is the source of
all, in
Cusa’s words, that we may be “elevated in accordance with the powers of
human
intelligence” so we may come to see “the ever-blessed one and triune
God.”
... know God through numbers ... know
nature through numbers. (pp. 56-57) Nicholas’s quest was to see into
the mind of God, understanding both
metaphysical and physical laws through numbers and to “behold God’s
cosmic
mathematical plan.” The mystical
perspective regards creation as the unfolding of number patterns or
forms
already enfolded in God. The plenum
contains all possible things in all possible states in an un-manifest
or
undifferentiated form. Creation occurs
from within-without from zero point dimensions as divine principles are
mathematically embodied in the generation of form out of formlessness. In
the seventeenth century, Kepler was “the first true mathematical
physicist”
and one of the “great mathematical mystics of all time.” Again, we find the Pythagorean number
philosophy: ...
Kepler saw the world as the material embodiment of mathematical forms
present
within God before the act of Creation. “Why
waste words?” he wrote. “Geometry existed
before the Creation, is co-eternal with
the mind of
God, is God himself. ... geometry provided God with a model for
the
Creation.” Thus, “where matter
is, there is geometry.”....
Just as geometry had provided God
with the model for the Creation, Kepler believed that geometry was
“implanted
into man, together with God’s own likeness.” For
Kepler ... “the human
mind
(was) a simulacrum of the divine mind,” both being essentially
geometrical. The implication was that
man, as mathematician, was the true human reflection of God:
that it was
through mathematical study of the world that we could truly participate
in the
divine. (Wertheim, p. 71) According
to The Secret Doctrine, a human being
embodies the same numerological principles of enumeration or
form-generation,
as embodied in the dynamics of the creation of the larger universe.
In the seventeenth century Sir Isaac
Newton established physics as the “queen of the sciences.” Newton formulated the law of gravity and
three laws of motion governing material objects. Newton’s
principles stood until Einstein’s
theories of relativity were formulated three hundred years latter. However, in addition to his ‘legitimate
science,’ Newton left behind over “a half million words on alchemy.” Newton held highly mystical views of space
and its relationship to God. Wertheim
explains: Newton’s
God did not oversee the maintenance of the world from some remote
pinnacle;
... Newton’s divine overlord was present
throughout the material world. He
achieved this omnipresence through the medium of space, which, for
Newton, was
nothing less than God’s sensorium. By
his omnipresence (mediated through space), God was all seeing,
all-discerning,
and finally, all ruling. In Newton’s words: “He is eternal and
infinite; omnipotent
and omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from eternity to
eternity; his
presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things, and knows
all things
that are or can be done.” … Most important, he argued that space must
be absolute
because it was synonymous with the presence of an absolute God. (p. 123) “Space” is the medium of God’s
omnipresence and omniscience. Newton
regarded himself as a restorer of the
ancient wisdom which God had given to humankind and his ideas allowed
for a
synthesis of science and Christianity in his era. Historically,
many scientists have held
spiritual and/or mystical ideas about the nature of creation and its
relationship to God.
Einstein’s theories of relativity
and the development of twentieth century quantum theory led to the
discarding
of several essential ancient ideas–such as those of Absolute Space and
Time,
and of the “aether”, an immaterial something said to pervade all Space
or to
constitute Space itself. However, new
concepts in physics—concerning hidden compacted space dimensions and/or
hyperspace and the mysterious quantum vacuum with its zero point
fields—provide
new ways of understanding mystical concepts about creation physics and
metaphysics, and concerning the nature of the Ether.
Space provides the medium in which everything
occurs. Newton describes Space as “God’s sensorium”—a remarkable
phrase!
From the turn of the last century,
the development of modern science has led to an increasingly
materialist
philosophy of science and a divorce between religion and science. Scientists regard the laws of nature as
inherent principles of matter and the idea of supernatural causes
behind these
laws has been dismissed. Materialist
scientists reject a priori the idea that reality might be the
embodiment of
Divine Mind or Spiritual Intelligences, or that forms of such hidden
sacred
geometry are at work in the generation of form out of formlessness. However, many of the
seemingly bizarre concepts and claims of mysticism are in fact quite
conceivable and understandable–in the light of the new concepts
emerging within
modern science. Unfortunately, physicists are simply speaking
metaphorically
about the mind of God and not seriously exploring such esoteric
possibilities. Blavatsky took such
comparative study of the wisdom teachings and the science of her day
most
seriously. |
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