It is no coincidence that the Sacred Liberal Arts are Seven in number: this is the number of the mysteries, the steps towards union with God, and the rays of Creation, as well as the visible planets, the notes in the musical scale, and the steps or levels of the … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Iamblichus
Putting a Rose Back on the Cross
Cologero has been very generous in allowing many of us to write on Gornahoor. For that reason, I’ve sometimes repaid him by not posting anything, when I was sure I had nothing important or clear to say. I am ending the series on Iamblichus; the reader will have to write … Continue reading
Octad
The Octad is a short chapter. Iamblichus continues his march through numbers noting that all men, without exception, count 1-10. The empiricist says this is because they have 10 fingers, and the Hermeticist says “why do you suppose that is?”. In any case, it is not impossible to conceive attempts … Continue reading
Heaven By Storm on the Number Seven
I have paused, once more, at the Number Seven, for there are seven deadly sins which every mortal must purge themselves from, before the ascent, and there are seven corresponding virtues, four classical ones, and three theological ones, which (no doubt), ingenious readers can correspond in various ways to each … Continue reading
Hebdomad
Seven is called the Virgin, Guardian, Message, Critical Time, Athena, Chance & Acropolis. It is a mean between the second Monad (ie., the Hexad, issuing into material Creation, since Dyad and Triad belong more properly to the One) and the Decad. It is perfect: it is 3 from 4 and … Continue reading
A Pause at the Hexad
There is a natural pause over the Hexad: it represents, in many ways, a repetition of the Monad, being halfway in between 1 & 10. The Hexad, or Seal of Solomon, reminds us that even the Monad itself is not original, but ab-original, because Iamblichus never deals with the Number … Continue reading
Hexad
The Hexad is the first perfect number: it arises, by multiplication (rather than addition) from the Dyad and the Triad, and is hence termed “marriage” (whereas the Pentad is androgynous). That is, the Hexad unifies Male-Female through “blending” and harmony, rather than sticking them together through addition in the Pentad, … Continue reading
Pentad
It is worth while reminding the reader that Iamblichus was not merely a mathematician and a philosopher, in the idealistic fashion: he was of a princely line, and well-educated, and his caste seems to have been that of Brahmin. Iamblichus wrote a life of Pythagoras, an autobiography of his great … Continue reading
The Tetrad
As we have journeyed through each Number, they appear to us like different states of consciousness: in the 1, I see Unity, in 2, I behold the difference between Being and Non-Being, and with 3, I see the deeper harmony of the One-and-the-Many. Of course, neither Unity, Being, nor Harmony … Continue reading