Labyrinth Designers & the Art of Fire

Introduction

Articles

Areas

Index

Faqs

Lexicon
Authors3

U
M
Arturo Reghini, Sacred Pythagorean Numbers. Part 1

by Iulia Millesima | Alchemy & Sacred Geometry

Was an italian mason, Arturo Reghini (1878-1946), to write one of the most comprehensive document
on masonic Delta and Pythagorean tetraktys.

arturo_reghini_numeri_sacri_pythagoras1And that’s despite British masonry has kept its connection

with Pythagoreans much more alive than Latin’s. In fact Old Charges clearly mentioned Pythagoras as
the founder of european masonry.

Sacred Numbers, Sacred Geometry and Acoustics. All of them playing an important role in the
interdicted part of Alchemy keys. While sharing common sources on these topics, nowadays Alchemy
and Masonry are revealing different and sometimes conflicting aims. Alchemy is a discipline without
brotherhood, Masonry is a brotherhood without discipline. Most of misleading beliefs on Alchemy have
been spread around by Masonry. Reghini, educated in maths, nom de plume Pietro Negri, although an
highly ranked mason was one of the most italian prominent hermetic researcher. His aversion to
fascism, after an early trusting endorsement, was finally overtly ended. I Thought that a serial
translated divulgation of his “ I Numeri Sacri nella Tradizione Pitagorica Massonica” or “ Sacred Numbers
in Traditional Pythagorean Masonry) posthumous published in Roma 1947, could be of some interest.
My translation is as follows:

The Pythagorean Tetractys and Masonic Delta.

“Bless us, divine number generating gods and humans, sacred tetraktys, containing the root and source
of creation that eternally regenerates”. Golden Verses.

Restoring the ancient Pythagorean arithmetic work is very difficult, for reports are still scarce and not all
reliable. We should at every step and statement cite sources and discuss their value, but this would
make our exposure long and heavy and difficult to understand. Therefore, in general, we will refrain
from any philology, we will stick only to what has been resulted less controversial and always declare
where it is just our opinion or our work.

The Pythagorean ancient and modern literature is very extensive, and so we decide to waive the listing
of hundreds of books, studies, articles, and authors of ancient and modern steps constituting it.
According to some critics, historians and philosophers, Pythagoras was a simple moralistic and would
never deal with mathematics, according to some hypercritical Pythagoras would not have existed, but
we have for sure the existence of Pythagoras, and, accepting the witness of almost contemporary
philosopher Empedocles, we do believe that his knowledge in every field of knowledge was very great.
Pythagoras lived in the sixth century before Christ, he founded a school in Calabria and an Order that
Aristotle called the Italian school, and taught among other things, arithmetic and geometry. According
to Proclus, head of the School of Athens in the fifth century of our era, Pythagoras was the first who
raised the geometry to the dignity of science and, according to Tannery, geometry comes from the brain
of Pythagoras as Athena comes armed with all points from the brain of Jupiter.

But no writings of Pythagoras or attributed to him has come down to us, and it is very possible he did
not write anything. If it were otherwise, in addition to remote antiquity, it should be kept in mind the
fact that the Pythagoreans kept secret over their teachings, or at least some of them. A Belgian
philologist, Armand Delatte, in his first work: “ Études sur la littérature pythagoricienne, Paris, 1915” ,
made a most learned criticism of the Pythagorean literature sources, and he has made clear, among
other things that the famous “Golden Verses”, although a compilation by a neo-Pythagorean of the
second and fourth centuries of our era, woud allow us to go back almost to the top of the Pythagorean
school, for they were transmitting archaic knowledge. This work by Delatte will be our principal source.
There are other ancient witnesses in the writings of Philolaus, Plato, Aristotle and Timaeus
Tauromenium. Philolaus was, along with Tarentum Archytas, one of the most prominent contemporary
close to Pythagoras, Timaeus was a Pythagorean historician. And the great philosopher Plato is strongly
affected by the influence of the Pythagorean and we consider him a Pythagorean, although not
belonging to the sect. Much less ancient are Pythagoras biographers, that’s to say Iamblichus, Porphyry
and Diogenes Laertius, who were neo-Pythagoreans in the first centuries of our era, along with writers
and mathematicians as Theon of Smyrna and Nicomachus of Jerash. Mathematical writings of the two
latter authors are the source transmiting Pythagorean arithmetic. Even Boethius has fulfilled this task. A
lot of information we owe to Plutarch.

Among the moderns, besides Delatte and the old work by Chaignet on “Pythagore et la philosophie
pythagoricienne”, Paris, 2nd ed. 1874, and “ the Word of Pythagoras” by Augusto Rostagno, Turin, 1924,
we will make use of the work “ The Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans”, London 1816, 2nd ed.,
Los Angeles, 1934, Dr. Thomas Taylor English Greek scholar who was a neo-Plato and a neo-
Pythagorean, and among historians of mathematics we will make use of “Maths in ancient Greece”,
Milano, Hoepli, 1914, 2nd ed., Gino Loria, and his work “ A History of Greeck Mathematics” T . Heath,
1921.

To modern mathematics the unit is the first issue of the natural series of whole numbers.

They are obtained starting from the unit and adding another unit later. The same is not true for
arithmetic multiplication. In fact the same word, monad, indicated the arithmetic unit and the monad in
the sense that today we would call metaphysical monad and the shift from universal to the duality is not
as simple as switching from one to two by the addition of two units. In arithmetic, including
multiplication, there are three direct operations: addition, multiplication and raising to power,
accompanied by the three inverse operations. Now the product of the unit itself is still the unit, and a
power unit is still the unit, then only the addition allows the passage from unity to duality. This means
that to obtain two we must admit that there may be two units, which means having the concept of two,
namely that the monad can lose its unique character, that it can stand out and that there may be a
duplication of units or multiple units. Philosophically there is the question of monism and dualism, the
metaphysical question of Being and its representation, the question of the biological cell and its
reproduction. Now if we admit the intrinsic and essential oneness of the Unit, one must admit that
another unit can be only an appearance, and that its appearance is an alteration of uniqueness that
comes from the Monad operating a distinction in itself. Consciousness operates in similar manner a
distinction between self and not self. According to Advaita Vedanta this is an illusion, and indeed is the
great illusion, and there isn’t any choice but to get rid of it. It is not an illusion that there is this illusion,
even if it can be overcome. The Pythagoreans said that the dyad was generated by moving away or
separated from itself, which divided by two: and indicated that differentiation or polarization with
different words: diaeresis, tolma.

In math a multiplication unit was not a number, but it was the principle, ἀρχή’s of all numbers, we say
the beginning, not start. Once admitted strength of another unit and several units, then from unit, by
addition, the two and then all the numbers result. Pythagoreans conceived numbers as drawn up or
composed or variously depicted as points. Point was defined by Pythagoreans as a unit having position,
while, in Euclid’s opinion, point has no parts. Unit was represented by the point (σημεῖον semeion sign
or seed) or even, when written alphabetic system of numerals came in use, from the letter A or α, which
was used to write the unit.

Once having admitted the possibility of the unit addition resulting in two, represented by the two end
points of a segment line, we can continue to add units, and subsequently obtain all the numbers
represented by two, three, four … points aligned. In that way we thus have the linear development of
the numbers. Except the two that can be achieved only by the addition of two units, all integers can be
considered either as the sum of other numbers, for example, five is 5 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, or also 5 = 1 + 4
and 5 = 2 + 3. One and two did not have this general property of numbers: and therefore, to the ancient
Pythagoreans, as well as the unit two can’t be considered a number, but the principle of even numbers.
This view was lost over time because Plato ( Parmenides, 143 d) speaks of the two as equal, and
Aristotle (Ta Topikà, 2, 137) speaks of the two as the only even prime. The three in turn can only be
considered as the sum of one and two, while all other numbers as well as being the sum of several units,
are also both different from the sum of parts, some of them can be regarded as a sum of two equal
parts in the same way that the two is the sum of two units, and are called even numbers because of
their similarity with the pair, so for example 4 = 2 + 2, 6 = 3 + 3, etc.. are even numbers, while others,
such as three and five which are not the sum of two parts or two equal addends, are called odd
numbers. So the triad 1, 2, 3 has the mentioned properties which numbers greater than 3 don’t.

In the natural series of numbers, even and odd numbers take alternately place one after another; even
numbers have in common with two the peculiarity above mentioned and then they can always be
represented in the form of a rectangle (epipedo) in which one side contains two points, while odd
numbers, like unity, don’t, and when they may be rectangular in shape, it happens that the base and
height contain a number of points which in turn is an odd number. Nicomachus also reports a more
ancient definition: excluding fundamental dyad, even is a number which is divisible into two equal parts
or unequal parts that are either even or odd, or, as we should say, that have the same parity, while odd
number can be divided only into two unequal parts, one even and the other odd, i.e. parts that have
different parity.

According to Heath (A History of Greek Mathematics, I, 70 ) the distinction between odd and even goes
back to Pythagoras of course, which is not hard to believe, and Reidemeister (Die arithmetic der
Griechen, 1939, pag. 21.) says that the theory of even and odd is Pythagorean, and this concept makes
explicit the mathematical logic of Pythagoreans as well as being the foundation of Pythagorean
metaphysics. In Unequal Numbers, says Virgil, Deus Gaudet, God takes delight.

The Masonic tradition conforms to this recognition of the sacred or divine odd numbers, as indicated by
the numbers expressing initiation ages, the number of lights, jewelry, brothers members of a factory
etc.. Wherever there is a distinction, a polarity, there is an analogy with even and odd pair, and one can
establish a correspondence between the two poles as well as equal and odd, so for Pythagoreans the
male was odd and female peer, the right was odd and the left was equal ….

Pythagorean Tetraktys and Masonic Delta by Arturo Reghini: The numbers starting from three, in
addition to a linear representation, concede even a surface representation ie in the plane.

number_fourThree is the first number that admits a linear representation over the plane
representation, through the three vertices of a triangle (equilateral). Three is a triangle or triangular
number, it is the result of mutual coupling of the monad and the dyad, two is the unit analysis, three is
the synthesis of unity and dyad.

Thus we have with the trinity the manifestation or epiphany ( Theophania, Embodiment Day, Θεοφάνια)
of the monad in the superficial world. Arithmetically 1 + 2 = 3. We are continuing our translation of
Arturo Reghini “Sacred Numbers in Masonic Pythagorean Tradition” first chapter : “

Proclus (The Theoretic Arithmetic of Pythagoreans, 2 ed., Los Angeles 1924, pag. 176) observed that two
had a character in a way intermediate between unity and three. Not only because it is the arithmetic
mean, but also because it is the only number which, summed with itself or multiplied by itself, you get
the same results, while, as for the unity, the product gives less than the sum and the product of the
three gives more, ie, it has

1 + 1 = 2 > 1.1 ; 2 + 2 = 4 = 2.2 ; 3 + 3 = 6 < 3.3

In Modern times it was instead noted that 1, 2, 3 are the only positive integers whose sum is equal to
the product. You can also easily recognize that 1, 2, 3 is the only triple of consecutive integers for which
it happens that the sum of the first two is equal to one third, because the equation x + (x + l) = x + 2
admits unique solution x = 1. It is also recognized immediately by the geometric representation that the
sum of several consecutive integers always exceeds the number following the last of its parts, except
where the summands are two that we have: 1 + 2 = 3. Concluding the triad, the holy trinity, you can only
get it through the addition of the monad and the dyad, and so providing continuing basis under the four
points to get ten.

This geometrical development of the first triangle to one of three vertices taken as the center of
homothety gives us so later the triangular numbers, and triangular gnomon is called the base which is
added to switch from a triangular to triangular row. Arithmetically, written as a first line the sequence of
integers, we can deduce the sequence of triangles, writing the units under the unit, then by the sum of
one and two, and then taking for elements of the second row the numbers which are obtained by sum
of the first integers, or doing, to obtain an element of the second row, the sum of the element preceding
it in the same row with what precedes it in the same column:Thus, by definition, the riangular No. t is
the sum of first n integers, and is therefore equal to ‘(n-1) ° triangular increased by n. If the triangle
three does an equilateral triangle, proceeding with the development homothetic, the other triangular
numbers too have regular shape, namely the similarity is preserved in the development of form.
Moreover, since around a point you can have six angles of 60 ° (as was known to the Pythagoreans), ie
there are six congruent equilateral triangles around a point, building upon all six against this common
vertex, taken as the center of homothety, we obtain the total coverage and isotropic plane through
regular triangles.

The number four too, in addition to its linear representation allows a single flat representation:It is
therefore a square, it is the second square, because the unit is square of one. The gnomon of the
square, ie the difference between 4 which is the second square and the previous square is above 3, the
third square, or as we say the square of base 3, is obtained in the geometric representation by adding to
the right and below a gnomon shaped like a team and composed of 5 points, and so you move from one
square to the next adding the odd numbers. Thus we see that squares grow while preserving the
similarity of the form and since around a point we can have four angles congruent and each of them a
square, it follows that, by developing homothetic four squares at the common top as a center of
dilation, you get the total and isotropic coverage of the plane by means of squares. Arithmetically you
can just write odd numbers in a first line, and in the second act as we did for the triangular numbers to
get the squares:

It follows the important property: The sum of the first n odd numbers is equal to N. square, property
that allowed Galileo to find the formula of naturally accelerated motion.

A square is a number in a rectangle shape whose sides contain the same number of points. A number
having a rectangular shape was called eteròmeco if containing only one point more than the consecutive
and was named promeco if the difference between points on one side and consecutive exceeded one.
For example 15 was a promeco and 20 was an eteromeco.

Leading a straight line to the side and parallel to a diagonal it divides a number eteromeco into two
parts, that are two triangles equal; and as the number of points of n ° eteromeco, consisting of n
columns and n rows is n (n + 1) it follows for the No. triangular number the following formula
Recalling the definition of triangular we haveIf one leads the parallel to a diagonal to a square number,
the square is divided in two consecutive triangulars, ie the sum of two consecutive triangular square is
equal to one, and this allows us to deduce from the sequence of triangular that of squares. Written in
the first row the triangular series, in the second row the sequence of squares

writing below every element of the first line the sum with the previous one……..”

Pythagorean Tetraktys and Masonic Delta by Arturo Reghini: Unlike number three, number four also
admits a geometric representation of space. Specifically, conducting the perpendicular to the plane of
an equilateral triangle to its center, there is a point on it that has the three vertices of the triangle equal
distance to the side.

tetrahedronFour points are the vertices of a tetrahedron, called pyramid by the Greeks (1) that’s to say a
regular pyramid with a triangular base, which is the space representation of the number four.

We are continuing our translation from Arturo Reghini “ Sacred numbers in masonic pythagorean
tradition” 1947, Chapter 1.

Again it is possible the homothetic develop to one of the summits, which may be disposed below the
base the consecutive triangular number and tetrahedral numbers are thus obtained. The gnomon of
tetrahedron is the triangular which is added to the previous tetrahedron. The first tetrahedral (2)
number is the unit: the second is 4 because 1 + 3 = 4; the third is 10 because 4 + 6 = 10. Starting from
an initial line composed entirely of units, and writing in the second line the sequence of natural
numbers, in the third that of the triangular and fourth tetrahedral, we obtain the following framework:

The law of formation of this framework is as follows: each element of the framework is equal to the sum
of all elements of the previous line beginning with the first up to the above considered item, for
example 5 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, 15 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5, 35 = 1 + 3 + 6 + 10 + 15, or even every element is
equal to the sum of what precedes it in the same line and that above it in the same column, eg 20 + 35 =
15.

There is only one linear growth of numbers. However, there are an infinite number of surface
developments and infinite solid developments. For example the number 5 can be represented in the
plane by means of the 5 vertices of a pentagon and in space as the five vertices of a pyramid with a
square base. Development for the pentagonal is made by taking as a center of dilation one of the
vertices of a pentagon, and for the tetrahedron with a square base as a center of homothety taking the
top of the pyramid. Arithmetically to obtain the pentagonal it is enough to start from the succession of
the terms of the arithmetic series of three that’s to say frm the numbers: 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 … and make
the sum. The sum of the first n. is equal to N ° pentagonal, and therefore pentagonal are: 1, 5, 12, 22,
35, 51 … The pyramid with a square base are instead obtained by the sum of first n square consecutive:
1, 4, 9, 16, 25 … and are the numbers: 1, 5, 14, 30, 55 … In such a way we held hexagonal numbers
starting from the series of arithmetic reason 4, or series of hexagonal gnomons: 1, 5, 9, 13, 17 … , And
hexagonal are: 1, 6, 15, 28, 45 … He readily acknowledges that the No. hexagonal number is just the (2n
– 1) ° triangular number. It could also demonstrate that the development of pentagonal and hexagonal
keeps the similitude of shape, but not the isotropy; and therefore, although the plane satisfied a
breakdown in regular hexagons, one can not obtain total and isotropic coverage through the
homothetic development of three hexagonal matching around a common vertex. Similarly one can show
that a space satisfies equipartition only by cubes whose vertices fill it in the whole and isotropically, but
it does not agree equipartition otherwise although tetrahedron and also the octahedron are
homothetically developed and fill completely and isotropically the angle-oidwithin which they develop.
We make this observation because Aristotle, after stating (3) correctly that the plane may be in
equipartition only through regular triangles, squares and regular hexagons, added that space can be in
equipartition by using cubes and pyramids. It is a fallacy in which Aristotle is committed, and, as the
three polyhedral regular numbers tetrahedral, octahedral and cubic, homothetically developed within
one of the angle-oids, fill this angle-oid totally and isotropical.

Aristotle is in error for he has confused the space with angle-oid space, but if the error comes from such
a confusion that has indirect evidence that the pythagoreans of that time were already dealing with
cubic, tetrahedral and octahedral numbers, besides with the equipartition of the plane by regular
polygons and of space by regular polyhedron, and in particular of the space within an angle-oid. In
addition to such plane numbers said polygonal numbers, and to the pyramid numbers represented in
space by the polygonal base pyramids, pythagoreans admitted plane and solid numbers rectangle
shaped, and shaped like a regular polyhedron. The formula which gives the polygon number N. r-sided
has been known by Diophantus and it is

for n = 4 and r = 6 this formula gives for the fourth hexagonal number P (6. 4) = 28, with the points that
represent having the following provision:

The formula that gives the number N pyramidal with base r-gonal is

which appears in another form in the Codex Arcerianus, a Roman code of 450 A.D. (4). For example for r
= 4 and n = 5 we find that the fifth pyramid with a square base is F ( 4.5) = 55.

As to mark a straight line takes two points, the minimum number of lines which delimits a portion of this
plan is three, between all the plane numbers the three is the minimum; so the minimum number of
planes needed to define a portion space is four; between all solid numbers the four, namely the
tetrahedron, is the minimum. According to Plato (see Timaeus) this tetrahedron, or pyramid, as he calls
it, is the latest particle constituent bodies, that’s to say the atom or molecule of matter (4). Of course we
now know that atoms or molecules do not have this form and that are not indivisible, but it is worth
noting that the body having the greatest molecular firmness, that’s to say diamond, has a molecule
composed of four atoms arranged in a regular tetrahedron shape. The mistaken etymology from πῦρ
[pyr] = fire explains Plato’s error in giving to tetrahedron the symbol of fire.

Adding the unit to unit we have gone from the point to line, identified by two points, by adding to these
two points another point you can move to the plane through the triangle, and by adding the unit you
may still move to space through the tetrahedron. But remaining within the limits of human intuition of
three-dimensional space, you can not add a unit to the four vertices of a tetrahedron taking a point out
of the three-dimensional space and representing the five as a pyramid of hyperspace as a basis for the
tetrahedron. In other words, the unit switches to two and you have the line, the two passes to three and
you have the plane, you go from three to four and have the space and then you have to stop, because
proceedings have ended. Now, according to the meaning that Aristotle and simply Greeks gave to the
word perfection, things are perfect when they are finished, completed: the end is perfection. In our
case, since the four is the last number that you get going from point to line, from line to floor and from
the floor to space, because you can not figure out a fifth number of the space defined by the four
vertices of the tetrahedron, the four is, in the generic greek and pythagorean sense of perfection, a
perfect number. The assembly of the monad, the dyad, the triad and tetrad includes everything: the
point, line, surface and the concrete world of solid material, and you can not go further. Therefore the
sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10

That’s to say the sum or the quadruplet or quadruplet of unity, duality, trinity or the tetrad, in other
terms the decade, it is perfect and contains the whole………..”

Pythagorean Tetraktys and Masonic Delta by Arturo Reghini: “Every whole, or sum of four things, is
called tetractys, after a Pythagorean word, and there are several tetractys.

arturo reghini_triangular_fourthBut that we now have dealt with is the tetractis par excellence, which
Pythagoreans took their oath under. A Speusippus fragment notes that ten contains within itself the
linear variety, plane and solid number, because one is a point, 2 a line, 3 a triangle and 4 a pyramid (1).

We are continuing our translation from Arturo Reghini “ Sacred numbers in masonic Pythagorean
Tradition” 1947. First chapter.

Jew Philo (2), repeating Pythagoreans concepts said that four are the limits of things: point, line, surface
and solid, and Geminus says that arithmetic is divided into the linear theory of numbers, the numbers
theory, the plane numbers theory, and the solid numbers theory.

Perfection, or the completion of universal manifestation, is achieved with ten which is the sum of the
numbers up to four. The decade has it all, like the unit, which contains all potentially. The name δεκάς is
just for that receptive property δεχάς.

This finding is the result of the limit set for the development of numbers from the three-dimensional
quality of space, and would lead to the recognition of the same properties of four and ten even if the
spoken numbering, instead of being a decimal numbering, was for example a duodecimal based or
based ternary numbering.

As a matter of fact we note the coincidence. The reason why Greek, Latin, Italian spoken numbers and
so on is decimal, is that human kind has ten fingers, which are of great help in the account (with your
finger), so that in writing Latin and ancient Greek unit was represented by a finger identified by the
letter I. The last finger is the tenth, and then 10 is perfect. Five has special representation in the two
writings, in greek by the initial word of pente, in latin by the palm or open hand span later identified
with the letter V, as in latin world the writing of number had been ahead of the knowledge and use of
the alphabet; and 10 is represented in greek by the letter Δ, decade initial, and which has the shape of
an equilateral triangle. While in Latin is represented by two open and opposite hands, that’s to say by
the sign later identified with the letter X. These signs are enough in the greek and latin writing of
numbers to writing or representation of numbers up to one hundred, which is carried in H of the original
greek word Hecaton, and in Latin a sign then identifiable with the initial of centum.

Both Pythagorean tetractys and spoken numbering highlight the importance of the number ten in
completely independent ways. And this is not the only correlation between four and ten because greek
language forms the names of the numbers from ten to 99 using the names of the first ten numbers,
introduces a new name to indicate 100, and then a new name to indicate the thousand, finally a new
and final name for the tens of thousands. This very word μύριοι, μυρίοι if differently marked, indicates
an indefinitely great number. In short, greek language has only four names, after nine, to designate the
first four powers of ten and stops to the fourth power, as the sum of the integers ends with four in
tetractys.

A third finding concerning decade (and therefore tetractys) is as follows: After unit, that is potentially
polygonal, pyramidal and versatile of any kind, the first number which is simultaneously linear,
triangular and tetrahedral, and then appears in the irradiation of unit and in the simplest form of
manifestation and realization of unity, is the number ten. It is the first number that appears
simultaneously in the three sequences of linear, triangular and tetrahedral numbers:

We know only five numbers that have this property, they are: 1, 10, 120, 1540, 7140. The determination
of the other numbers that are simultaneously triangular and tetrahedral depends on the solution of the
equation obtained by equating triangular x to tetrahedral y, that is on the solution of the indeterminate
third degree

with two unknown equations.

equation which we know the five solutions:

but which modern mathematics can not determine the other possible integer solutions.

A fourth finding is provided by the observation that letter delta is the fourth letter of the greek alphabet
and takes the shape of an equilateral triangle. Letter D = delta is the fourth letter also in etruscan,
phoenician and various latin and greek alphabets, and, although the good order of an alphabet letters
is not an order established by a law of nature, we must not neglect this observation for the value
Pythagoreans could annex to it or any part thereof. Decade is therefore the fourth triangular number
and tetrahedral third and it is represented, in the writing of numbers, by its initial which is the fourth
letter of the alphabet and forms the shape of a triangle.

If you take fourth triangular its representation is:

which is found in Theon of Smyrna and Nicomachus of Jerash. This representation is a decade symbol, in
the etymological sense of the word, that is a meeting of more than one sense. There is a symbol which is
triangular or a triangle; it is the fourth triangular, is composed by ten points arranged in four lines
containing respectively one, two, three and four points. “Look,” says Lucianus, what you believe are
four instead are ten, and they represent the perfect triangle, and our oath” (3).

A fifth finding is very important, certainly for the Pythagoreans, is obtained from consideration of the
musical scale. Modern music uses the tempered scale, which is approximately the natural scale based on
the simple ratios principle. While Greeks made use of the Pythagorean scale based on the principle of
the fifth. We shall see later, the genesis of this scale, for the moment let’s just note that all three of
these scales are made up of seven fundamental notes arranged in the well known order. Greeks called
the octave harmony.

Fundamental notes in this range or octave, whereof law of the other fifth are deduced, are the first,
fourth, fifth and octave, that is the four strings of the Philolaus tetrachord: the first, fourth, or syllable,
the fifth or diapente, and diapason. According to tradition, Pythagoras, by observation and experiment,
had found that the relationship between the length of these strings and the length of the first were
expressed by numerical ratios 4:3, 3:2, 2:1 that’s by the relations between the tetractys numbers, which
are not only simple ratios, but also the simplest possible. Philolaus tetrachord shows that, in harmony,
appear the same foundation numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, which appears in tetractys. “This discovery, writes
Delatte (4), produced on all minds, especially on the Pythagoreans, an extraordinary effect, that today
we can no longer appreciate. Tetractys gave them the key of acoustics mysteries, and they extended to
the whole domain of physics the same conclusions. It became a cornerstone of their philosophy of
rhythmicity, and we understand how they may have considered tetractys as the source and root of
eternal nature. “

Pythagorean Tetraktys and Masonic Delta by Arturo Reghini: The poetic formula of the Pythagorean
oath has been transmitted by various authors, but its most ordinary and exact form is the following:

pythagorean_oath

“No, I swear by him who has sent to our soul tetractys in which there is the source and root of eternal
nature.” A variation of this formula also appears in Aurea Carmina, or Golden Verses.

The last part of “ Sacred numbers in masonic Pythagorean Tradition” 1947, first chapter.

The pythagorean symbol of tetractys in its schematic form of an equilateral triangle, clearly coincides
with the schematic form of Masonic Delta, and also with the schematic form of the Christian symbol of
Trinity. This latter assimilation comes as too easily done, especially in the case of the Eternal Father eye
fitted inside. The christian character of the masonic symbol is not much more conspicuous when, as
often happens, the written tetragrammaton appears in the triangle, for example, the name of God in
four letters, so designated by cabalists with greek word, and even disappears when the triangle is
located within the giant flaming five pointed star with or pythagorean pentalpha, as in frontispiece of
Baron De Tschoudy Étoile Flamboyant, which is attributed to the ritual of fourteenth degrees of Scottish
Rite.
In addition, the sacred delta, which is together with sun and moon, one of three sublime lights of
Freemasons society, as says the Apprentice ritual, is in the first degree work between sun and moon
symbols and behind the Venerable seat, while in the second degree work is replaced by a Flaming Star.
The initiatic ages of apprentice and mate corresponding to this substitution. The result is a connection
between two symbols, and since no doubt , the five-pointed star is a symbol so characteristic both of
the ancient pythagorean brotherhood and Freemasonry, it results the identification with the Masonic
Delta with the pythagorean tetractys. To give a christian character even to the five pointed star one
should say that this was the star shape of that appeared, according to the fourth Gospel, to three Magi,
Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, but the fourth gospel on this point does says nothing, and other
Gospels, the three Synoptic Gospels, do not make the slightest mention of three Magi. And as the
ancient documents prove the continuity of the Masonic tradition referring to Pythagoras, the
identification of masonry with geometry and masons’ claim to be the only ones who know sacred
numbers, it seems that the identification of Masonic Delta with pythagorean tetractys be comforted by
more weight than identification with the christian symbol.

Among mason symbols we do not see any christian symbol, not even the cross appears, instead and it is
natural, but only symbols of architectural and numerical occupation and geometric symbols. If masonic
delta had a christian character it would be a isolated symbol, confused, which one would not understand
the existence and diversity in freemasonry. We insist on this point not only because it is right for the
seriousness and serenity of critical investigation not to be misled by sympathy or antipathy, but because
the misunderstanding and ignorance about it are ancient and deadly, and many rituals, instead of
driving the brothers to the full understanding of symbolism, contributing in good or bad faith to prevent
an interpretation that it is essential to understand masonic of symbolism.

This is not to say or see a contrast between pythagorean tetractys or masonic delta and the christian
symbol of Trinity. The christian ternary opposition to the pythagorean quaternion was due to the
christians myopic bigotry of the early centuries, and it was unjustified because, as we will see, the
Pythagoreans were triad enhancers, and that their practice of worship and enumerate the number three
in all the things guided them in the classification of even numbers.

To summarize, two can only be achieved through addition, and only by addition of two units. Three can
only be achieved through addition, where at least one of the terms is unity.

From four on all numbers can be obtained by addition of all the terms others than unit. The geometric
representation of numbers in a three-dimensional space is perfect and end with number four, and
since the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10 is the new unit of the decimal numbering system, and consequently the
perfection of four and ten and the tetractys symbol. Thus Pythagoreans did not specially deal in
numbers larger than ten that were expressed in language and writing by ten and previous numbers and
for this reason, perhaps, they reduced to first nine numbers the numbers greater than ten by the
consideration of their pitmene or bottom, substituting to them the remaining of their division for nine
or the very nine when the number was a multiple of nine: remaining easily obtained through the well
known rule of the division remaining for nine.
Since the development of the numbers by addition ends with four, one must now consider the
development or generation of numbers by multiplication. It seems sure that pythagoreans did actually
appeal to this canon of distinction, because number seven was sacred to Minerva since as Minerva it
was a virgin and not generated, that is it was not a factor of any number (within the decade) and was
not a factors product. Thus numbers are divided into numbers that are not products of other numbers,
or prime numbers, and numbers that are products. Taking into account only the numbers within
decade, numbers are divided into four classes: the class of prime numbers within decade, that are
factors of decade numbers: and they are the two (which really is not a number), but appears as a factor
of 4 of 6 of the 8 and 10, three that is a factor of 6 and 9; and 5 which is a factor of 10. Second class
consists of the prime numbers less than 10 which are not factors of numbers less than 10, and is
represented by only seven. Third class consists of the composed numbers, less than ten, and that factors
of numbers less than 10, and is made only by the number four, which is at the same time the square of
the two and a factor of 8; the fourth class is formed by composite numbers less than 10 which are
compounds of other numbers without being factors within the decade, it is represented by six, eight
and nine, because 2 · 3 = 6, 2 · 2 · 2 = 2 · 4 = 8 and 3 · 3 = 9. Not counting 10 and taking into account two
we have four prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7 whose only one does not produce other numbers, and four
composite numbers: 4, 6, 8, 9 of which only one is factor.

It is worth to note that this pythagorean canon of distinction for numbers classification within decade
coincides perfectly with the traditional canon of distinction compliant with Vedanta for the fourfold
classification of twenty-five principles or tattwa, precisely the first principle (Prakriti) which is not a
production but it is productive, seven principles (Mahat, Ahamkara and the 5 tanmatras) which are both
products and productive, 16 principles (the 11 indriya, including Manas and the 5 bhuta) which are
unproductive productions, and finally Purushawhich is not neither production nor productive. We refer
the reader about the exposure that makes René Guenon in his “The Man and his becoming according to
the Vedanta”, Bari, Laterza, 1937. This same principle of distinction affects, as noted by the Colebrooke
(Essais sur la Philosophie des Hindous, trans. Pauthier), the division of nature, made in Scotus Erigena De
divisione Naturae, who says: “The division of Nature I believed to be established in four different
species, of which the first is what creates and is created, the second is what is created and in turn
creates: the third that is created and does not create, and finally the fourth what is not created nor
creates. “Of course it is not appropriate speaking of derivation, however, Pythagoras, chronologically
precedes, not only Scotus Erigena but Shankaracharya too. So that leaves the established traditional
character of the pythagorean doctrine of numbers.

In chapter two of Pythagorean Tetraktys by Arturo Reghini we are discovering how number six is
Aphrodite’s and why, four, six, eight and nine are perfect numbers.

Reghini Tetraktys chap II

This second chapter of “ Sacred numbers in masonic Pythagorean Tradition” 1947 is entitled ” The
quaternion of composed and synthetic numbers”. Arturo Reghini starts it presenting an excerpt by
Apuleio’s De Magia : Non ex omni Ligno, ut Pythagoras dicebat, debet Mercurius Exculpi“

or not from any wood, as Pythagoras said, Mercurius has to be carved.

In the development of numbers from the unity and passing through the line segment, triangle and
tetrahedron, we had to stop at number four because the addition of a new point outside the three-
dimensional space is not possible for the human insight. We can continue to consecutively add units, but
we can only do so while remaining in the field of linear, plane and solid numbers; and, considering for
example linear numbers, there is lack of any criterion to distinguish the various properties of numbers.

Moreover, instead of generating numbers by addition, one may then considers the generation of
numbers through the operation of multiplication. Indeed, the same terminology, traditionally remained
unchanged, is clearly indicating that numbers were regarded as produced by this operation. Following
this method the distinction immediately presents itself in two and four classes of numbers: the class of
prime numbers or protoi or asynthetic that cannot be obtained by multiplication, and the class of
synthetic or secondary numbers, or compounds that are the product of other numbers called their
factors. Since two is not a number and even numbers are always the product of two for another factor,
prime numbers are always odd numbers; and the odd numbers which are not promechi (1) or squares
are prime numbers. The first decade, not counting the two, contains only three prime numbers: three,
five and seven, which means the sacred numbers of apprentice, teacher and fellow freemason.

The numbers in the decade that can be obtained by multiplication are four: four, six, eight and nine.
Four is the product of two factors equal to two, which is a square, and since the square is obtained by a
consecutive addition of gnomons, which are nothing more than the odd consecutive numbers, and
since the squares in their growing keep the similarity of form, so according to Pythagoreans in a certain
way, they retain their character of odd numbers, even if their basis is not odd, because they differ from
other rectangular numbers which in geometric development do not preserve the similarity of form. For
example the eteromechi (2) numbers are obtained by adding the number two after a gnomon square
shaped like a square where one side contains a point more

and one has the numbers: 2, 2 · 3 = 6, 3 · 4 = 12, 4 · 5 = 20. . . . . . n (n + 1). These numbers have always
different form, because two eteromechi numbers as n (n + 1) and m (m + 1) can not be balanced by the
same sides of one and the other, that’s to say can not happen to be n: m = (n + 1) (m + 1) because it
should be m (n + 1) = n (m + 1) and then n = m. And the same goes for rectangular or oblong numbers
called promechi which are products of two factors that differ by a number r any different from one as 8,
15, 24. . . m (m + 2); for it can never happen that the number m (m + r) is similar to the number n (n + r),
that’s to say m: n = (m + r) (n + r) being in that case mr = nr and so m = n. And a number can be
Promeco and eteromeco in various forms and all of in a dissimilar way, for example 45 = 5 · 9 = 3 · 15;
and 16 = 4 · 4 = 2 · 8. Therefore, the square numbers are the only growing rectangulars retaining the
similarity of form. The number four, after the one, is the first of these numbers. In this way it escapes
the imperfection of even numbers: We know indeed that it is perfect because with four it ends the
development of the number one in space and one obtains the decade.

As for the number six is an eteromeco number, but it is also a perfect number, and precisely it is the first
perfect number in the modern sense. Perfect numbers are those numbers which are equal to the sum of
their divisors (except the number itself). In fact, the divisors of six are: 1, 2, 3 and we have: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
From this point of view Pythagoreans distinguished three kinds of numbers: the perfect numbers,
elliptic numbers and hyperbolic numbers. The perfect numbers were those for which the sum of divisors
was exactly equal to the number itself, the elliptical numbers or deficient those for which the sum of
divisors was less than the number itself, and the hyperbolic numbers or abundant those for which the
sum of divisors exceeded the number itself. For example, the number 15 is an elliptical one because the
sum of its divisors is 1 + 3 + 5, which is less than 15, while 12 is a hyperbolic number because the sum of
its divisors is 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 = 16 which exceed 12. Of course, the perfect numbers are relatively rare
and the ancients only knew four, and namely the first four: 6, 28, 496, 8128. There are no known odd
perfect numbers, those that are must end for 6 or 8, and are given by Euclid’s formula 2r – 1 (2r – 1) if
the exponent r is prime and so also is the first factor 2r – 1; and since we do not know a general rule for
recognizing the prime numbers, the study of perfect numbers presents formidable difficulties and we
know a little more than a dozen of them. The number six is perfect in this, even modern, sense, of the
mathematical term.

Another property of the number six is this: the sum of its factors is equal to their product, for example 1
+ 2 + 3 = 1 · 2 · 3 = 6. Indeed this is the only case where this happens for three consecutive positive
numbers. In fact, denoting by x the medium term, it should be (x – 1) + x + (x + 1) = (x – 1) x (x + 1) or 3 x
= x³ – x, and dividing by x, it must be 3 = x² – 1 or x² = 4 and x = 2. The number two is therefore the only
solution: and so the only set of three consecutive numbers whose sum is equal to the product and
consists of the triad 1, 2, 3 or from the monad, the dyad and triad.

As the number six results from the multiplication of the number two, the female principle, for the first
odd number that is male, it was called gamos and was the Pythagorean number sacred to Aphrodite.
Note here that, according to Matila G. Ghyka, a rumanian author of two very valuable works, widely
used and of great interest especially for the study of sacred architecture, the pythagorean number
sacred to Aphrodite would be the five and not the six (3). Matila G. Ghyka bases his belief on a single
excerpt by Nicomachus, who also points at an analogy (4) between the number five and Aphrodite,
because five is the sum of two and three, but that is a simple analogy recognized only by this late
Pythagorean, while the number six is identified with Aphrodite not only by the same Nicomachus (5),
but it corresponds to Aphrodite also according to other ancient writers, like Lidus, Moderatus and San
Clemente (6). Matila G. Ghyka takes no account of this fact, rather it does not even brings notice, and
says that number five was according to Pythagoreans the symbol of procreation and marriage, and this
false allegation is used to assign a Pythagorean character to a theory of his, as a matter of fact to his
central theory, whereas the five is the symbol and the number of organic life and the six is the symbol
and the number of inorganic life. He presents this theory as a pythagorean theory that Pythagoras had
overshadowed by just taking number five as the number of Aphrodite. This is not true, and, whatever
may be the philosophical and scientific value of Ghyka theory, this is a theory of this modern writer, not
a Pythagorean theory. The pythagorean number for Aphrodite is six and not five.

The third issue of the decade, which is obtained by multiplication is the number eight. It is a promeco
number because 8 = 2 · 4, but is the first cubic number in space, such as the four was the first square in
the plane. Now the cubic numbers have a representation in space similar to that of squares in plane as
well as growing while preserving the similarity of form. So even the cubes whose edge is an even
number, and in particular the number two, are beyond the general character of the even numbers (7).

The fourth and last number of the decade which is obtained through the multiplication is the number
nine which is the square of number three, or a number that was considered perfect for reasons we shall
see, and that even today is by definition taking into account to be a perfect number for example by
puzzlers. Nine is the last monadic number, that’s to say in modern terms it is the last single-digit
number; with this number ends the numbers ennead, the number ten being a new unity, so it is perfect
according to pythagoreans. An ancient writer, Pseudo Plutarch, enumerates the reasons for the
perfection of number nine (8), saying, “The number nine is perfect because it is the first odd square, and
it is odd since it is divided into three triads which again are divided into three units”.

Dante in his Vita Nova, that’s to say a life which is after the initiation life, undertakes a persistent use of
this “perfect number nine ” (9), noting that this number was a friend of Beatrice, and that he was in
ninth grade when he saw Beatrice for the first time, and he arrives to identificate Beatrice with this
number. He explains the reasons which, partly at least, justify its consideration of number nine, and why
(10) “this number was a friend of the glorious woman of my mind, who was called Beatrice by many”,
and says that “the more subtle thinking, and according to the infallible Truth, this number nine used to
be she herself, by way of similitude”. The number three is the root of nine, however, that is without any
other number, it’s nine for itself, as we see clearly that three times three is nine”. According to Dante
the criterion of perfection is the traditional one, pythagorean criterion, and he himself specifies the
description quoting (11) Aristotle when saying in the seventh book of physics on perfection: “Each thing
is almost perfect when it touches and adds its own virtues, and then it is almost perfect according to its
nature”. Of course, he ends up to explain the division of spiritual beings into three hierarchies and
principalities, each composed of three tiers, in order to give the chrism of orthodoxy to its design, but
the fact is that the nine heavens idea do not belong to the Jewish tradition and Christianity adopted it
here, as for other things, a pagan idea and more especially a pythagorean conception. In short, for
Dante, the number nine is a power of three, does not include other factors that the number three, it is a
direct Trinity manifestation, its power, which is the glorious woman that dominates the mind of Dante,
or Domina, and no doubt those of all the other “true lovers” who called her with the same name.

To better understand this Dante’s numerical symbolism one should expose the interpretation of the
writings on Dante and medieval literature in general, according to Gabriel Rossetti, Ugo Foscolo,
Giovanni Pascoli and in particular Luigi Valli, and we can not do much more than referring back the
reader. In Masonry the number nine has special significance when determining the age of initiation in
various degrees of Scottish Rite, and it is the basis for calculating any architectural design, for the
plotting table on which such calculations are carried out is divided into nine boxes and it was precisely
for this reason called tiercel boad or tripartite board by the ancient Freemasons. In the third grade
legend nine brothers go in search of Hiram, exploring three by three of the east, the south and west, to
find themselves on the ninth day of searches at a given place in the north.

We will see later, when dealing with ternary numbers, the archaic reasons that have made the number
three a perfect number in the classical Aristotelian sense of the word. The number nine, the power of
three, it is also perfect for the same reasons, also it is perfect for being the last digit of a number, and
because it is the last number of the quaternion of composed numbers contained within a decade.

We have thus found a second tetractys, that composed by numbers 4, 6, 8, 9. We can observe that the
sum of the first four numbers composing the first tetractys was ten, while the sum of this second
tetractys components is 27, that’s to say the cube of three, another perfect number which we should
deal. Of course the first tetraktys is the tetractys par excellence. It can identify the decade, symbolized
by the equilateral triangle, or the letter Delta, which was in the sanctuary of Delphi. In fact, the
Catechism of Acousmatics, the archaic traditional pythagorean sect, asks: (12) What is there in the
sanctuary of Delphi?” and the answer is, “The tetractys because in it is harmony, inside are Sirens”. We
will see later the significance of this somewhat curious response; for the moment be content to see how
inside the sanctuary of Delphi, from which takes origin the motto “Know thyself”, there was the same
symbol of tetractys and Delta Masonic appearing in Freemason temples. Evidently, awareness of self
and knowledge of tetractys have some relationship to each other.

The basics of the Pythagorean acoustics and geometry in this end of the second chapter of Arturo
Reghini’s “ Sacred numbers in masonic Pythagorean Tradition” .

reghini tetraktys chapter 2 11The quaternion of composed and synthetic numbers. Arturo Reghini: In
addition to the essential Tetractys ancients considered other Tetractys or quadruple or quaternion, and
Plutarch distinguishes several of them (1). He called Pythagorean the one composed by the first four odd
numbers and the first four even numbers, that’s to say (1 + 2) + (3 + 4) + (5 + 6) + (7 + 8) = 36

where 36 is the square of the first perfect number. We observe that 36 is the first triangle that is also a
square: and that six is the only triangle whose square is still triangular. It is formed by the sum of two
Tetractys, one formed by the odd numbers 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16 which is the square of 4, and the one
formed by the even numbers 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 which of course is equal to the twice of decade. Plato Plutarch
calls platonic Tetractys the one formed by the numbers which made the soul of the world whose
creation is exhibited in the Timaeus; the Platonic quadruplet is formed by the sum of the two
quaternions that have both completed the first unit and then are made with the first three powers of
two and three, that are: 1, 2, 4, 8 and 1, 3, 9 , 27. The first has 15 for sum, the second has 40 for sum:
there is a total of 55 which is the tenth triangular number. Therefore so seen the generation of numbers
compounds contained within the decade, it remains to be seen how to arrive at the prime numbers 5
and 7, the first of which appears as a factor of ten because 2 · 5 = 10 while the second is not generated
by the multiplication by any number of the decade and does not generate any number of the decade.
For this reason, the seven was assimilated to Minerva, because the goddess Athena, the Minerva of the
Latins and the Etruscans, was a virgin, was not generated, but had jumped out of the brain of Jupiter
armed to the teeth. The observation of the thing and the consecration of the number seven to Minerva
confirms that the numbers generation was done in a Pythagorean way by multiplication, that by means
of the way we have held to the composed numbers.

We must now follow another way. And there are two ways, independent of one another, both leading
to the numbers five seven, one starting from the consideration of a tetrachord of Philolaus, the other
starting from the consideration of the polygonal and pyramidal numbers.

According to Archytas (2), a Pythagorean living a little later Pythagoras, there are three progressions:
arithmetic, geometric and harmonic, and Iamblichus stated (3) that in the school of Pythagoras there
were considered the three arithmetic, geometric and harmonic averages. We need to remember that
according to the Pythagoreans there is arithmetical proportion within four numbers a, b, c, d when a – b
= c – d, and in the particular case of the continuous proportion, that’s to say if both the media b and c
are equal, that’s to say if the proportion is a – b = b – c, the average is called the arithmetic median or
the arithmetic median of c, and is equal to half their sum, that’s to say

If you have numbers instead of segments a, b , c, and d the definition of arithmetical ratio and
arithmetic average is the same. Similarly, it has geometrical ratio between four numbers when a: b = c:
d, and in the case of continuous proportion that is, if b = c and the proportion becomes a: b = b: c, and b
is the proportional average between a and c, and has b = √ a c

If you have numbers instead of segments the definition of geometric proportion is the same, and the
average segment proportional between two segments a and c is also called the geometric average. This
segment can always been build in Pythagorean geometry, even if the given segments are not
commensurable, by means of an application of the Pythagorean theorem, and this building and the
demonstration of the Pythagorean theorem are independent of the postulate of parallels or Euclid
postulate, as we shown in another study (4).

It is said in the end that the four numbers a, b, c, d are in harmonic proportion when their inverse are in
arithmetic proportion that’s to say when

and in particular one has continuous harmonic proportions when

Thus the number b is the harmonious average between a and c when b is equal to the arithmetic
average of the inverse of a and c. This definition differs from the definition handed down by the
tarentine pythagorean Archytas in his piece but is equal to it, and from the two definitions we derive the
same consequences. From the definition of harmonic average that from the relation

and here above it is obtained:

which one can also write

and for the fundamental property of proportions one has also

and therefore

important relationship that is found in Nicomachus. This ratio allows the construction of the harmonious
average segment between two segments a and c assigned.

According to Iamblichus (5) Pythagoras would have learned this important proportion in Babylon and he
was the first to deliver it in Greece. In this babylonian proportion the extremes are two whichever
numbers or segments a and c, and their average are respectively their arithmetic average and their
harmonic average. Since then the rectangle sides a and c is equal to the square of side √ ac

there is also the proportion

which contains the three arithmetic, geometric and harmonic averages. The property expressed by this
relation can be stated by saying that the geometric average between two numbers or segments a and c
is also the geometric average between their arithmetic average and their harmonic average. Given the
two segments a and c the pythagorean geometry teaches to build their arithmetic, geometric and
harmonic average even if the segments are immeasurable, and all that apart from the theory of parallels
and the related assumption. If it’s numbers you can determine in which cases the three arithmetic,
geometric and harmonic average of two integers a and c are integer numbers, but we abstain from this
digression.

In the special case where both a = 2c the Babylonian proportion is:

and if a = 1

This quaternion contains the numbers that are the respective measures of the length of four as well as
the tetrachord of Philolaus. It is nothing more than the lyre of Orpheus (6), that’s to say the instrument
he used to accompany his acting and even singing. If the first string gives the sound of our Do (C) the
fourth string, having half length gives the double sound frequency, that’s to say the first harmonic of Do
(C), or the Do (C) upper octave, while the sounds emitted by the other two strings are respectively those
of Fa (F)and Sol (G). The first harmonic of Sol (G) is also the second harmonic of Do (C), and
proportionality also the first harmonic of the second Do (C) coincides with the second harmonic of Fa
(F). The ear perceives and likes these chords and concordances.

In addition, notes Tacchinardi (7), “it is notable that tetrachord contains the ranges most characteristic
of the voice in declamation. In fact, questioning the voice goes up by a fourth; strengthening it grows by
one degree, and in the end, ending, descends a fifth. “It should also be noted that (8) “Indo-European
accent was an accent in height, the tonic vowel was characterized, not by a strengthening of the voice,
as in German and English, but by an elevation. The greek tone consisted of an elevation of voice, the
tonic vowel was a vowel toned sharper than unstressed vowels. The interval is given by Dionysius of
Halicarnassus as an interval of a fifth. “And in the tetrachord of Philolaus the Sol (G) is the fifth of the Do
(C) and the Do of the second octave is the fifth of Fa (F).

A tradition reported by Diogenes Laertius tells how Pythagoras, listening to the sounds emitted by the
hammer of a blacksmith pounding on the anvil, observed that the height of those sounds depended on
the thickness of the hammers, and then experimenting with strings equally stretched drawn from the
same rope , found that with the decreasing length of the the string sound was rising, and that were
obtained some sounds that the human ear perceives the chord when the lengths ratios of the strings
were expressed by simple numerical ratios. If the tradition reported by Diogenes Laertius is true this
would be the first example of a scientific discovery obtained by the orthodox method of scientific
observation, followed by the experiment, and, as the simplest possible ratios are the three ratios: 1: 2, 2
: 3, 3: 4, Pythagoras would have experimentally aknowledged that, taking a single rope and three single
strings as long as with the previous ratio, we precisely obtained the lyre of Orpheus or tetrachord of
Philolaus. In addition, when the strings were arranged in the descending order of their lengths 1, 3: 4, 2:
3, 1: 2, was immediate the realization that they form a geometrical ratio, that the second string is as
long as the length the arithmetic average of the lengths of the extreme strings, and that the third rope is
the harmonic average. And, if we accept the tradition reported by Iamblichus, it may be that the
knowledge of Babylonian proportions has led Pythagoras to expering with ropes having those lengths,
and to find by ear the chord of the sounds emitted by them and their identification with the sounds
from the strings of the lyre of Orpheus and the tetrachord of Philolaus. However, one can imagine the
admiration that this discovery must have aroused within pythagorean: by means of the Tetractys
numbers one can get the Tetractys of the strings of the Philolaus tetrachord; and the lengths of these
strings are nothing more than the simplest case of the Babylonian proportion.

In the end it is worth noting how these measures may also be suggested by the linear view of the linear,
polygonal and pyramidal numbers, important object of the pythagorean arithmetic. In fact, if in a long
segment h one takes its midpoint, the segment is divided into two segments each of length 1: of 2 h. If
then one considers the fourth triangular number which is the Tetractys, and supposes that the form is
that of an equilateral triangle, is easy to intuitively recognize that there are points located on the
boundary of the triangle and only a single central point, that the three height s of the triangle meet at
this point, and it is equidistant from the three vertices as well as from the three sides, and that it divides
the three heights into two parts, which the lesser is the half of the major and the third part of the whole
height h, and that the major is the 2: 3 of h. The rigorous recognition of this property requires the
development of the Pythagorean geometry, which would take too long to treated, we limit ourselves to
refer the reader to our work over the Pythagorean geometry (10).

We thus found that the radius of the circle circumscribed to an equilateral triangle of height h is equal to
the two thirds of this height. In a similar way and taking advantage of the isotropy of the regular
tetrahedron it is recognized that, if the points making up the fifth tetrahedral number are arranged so
that the bases are regular triangles, they may be disposed at five equidistant planes, of which the first
meeting through the vertex of the tetrahedron, the second containing with three points, the third one
six, the fourth the ten points forming the Tetractys, and the fifth the triangular base of the tetrahedron.
The center of Tetractys also belongs to the tetrahedral number, and we intuitively acknowledge (but it
can be proved) that the four heights of the tetrahedron are equal, that they meet at a point that belongs
to the four Tetractys located above the four bases, and that the center of the tetrahedron divides every
height into two parts of which is the lesser is 1 : 4 of the height, while the major the 3 : 4 of the height.
Thus the radius of the sphere circumscribed to the regular tetrahedron is three times the radius of the
inscribed sphere and the 3 : 4 of the height of the tetrahedron. The property can be stated by saying
that, given a segment h, the Tetractys of height h and the tetrahedron of height h, the entire segment h
and its half are the extremes of a geometrical ratio which other terms are the radius of the circumcircle
circumscribed to the Tetractys and the radius of the sphere circumscribed to the tetrahedron. Thus
considering the tetraktys of height h and the tetrahedron of the same height, it happens that the radius
of the circumcircle circumscribed to the tetraktys is the harmonic average of the height and its half, and
the radius of the sphere circumscribed to tetrahedron is the arithmetic average of the height and its
half.

Let’s see now how to pass from the fundametal tetrachord of Philolaus to the scale or pythagoric range
of the seven notes.

But before leaving this subject let’s us introduce another notice, still in connection to the law of the
fifth, that’s to say the ratio 2 : 3. Cicero when looking at the tomb of Archimedes in Syracuse was able to
find and identify it because above it there was the figure of the cylinder and the equilateral cone
circumscribed to the sphere. Archimedes had discovered that the total area of the circumscribed
cylinder (6π r2) was a proportional average between the surface of the sphere (6π r2) and the
circumscribed equilateral cone (9π r2), having the diameter of the base equal to the apothem; and the
same he showed that the volume of the cylinder (2π r3) was a proportional average between that one of
the sphere

and that one of the circumscribed equilateral cone (3π r3). This discovery and property should be
considered important and worthy of appearing on the tomb of the great Geometer. It can be easily
deduced that the four relations between the surface of the sphere and the whole surface of the
circumscribed cylinder, between the volumes of the two solids, between the surface of the cylinder and
the total area of the circumscribed equilateral cone and between the volumes of two solids, they are all
four equal to the ratio 2 : 3, that’s to say the ratio of the fifth, the ratio of Do (C) : Sol (G) basic of the
tetrachord of Philolaus, the typical interval of the elevation in the spoken language so appreciated by
Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Arturo Reghini’s third Chapter on the Pythagorean Geometry and Acoustics and the fact, for a too easy
septenary, of being impossible. My translation from the italian book “Sacred Numbers in Masonic
Pythagorean Tradition”.

Reghini page 37 1Chapter III:

The Odd Prime Numbers Triad within the Decade.

What do these numbers allude to? To the sacred numbers proposed to Apprentices, Companions and
Masters meditation. And to the third degree Catechism.

Let’s start from the tetrachord of Philolaus C, F, G, C (do, fa, sol, do) whose chords are respectively long
1, 3 : 4, 2 : 3, 1 : 2 such that

and where the second term is the arithmetic median of the extremes and the third is the harmonic
median of the extremes, while the fourth is half of the first.

The last two terms can be considered as the first two terms of a new proportion in which the fourth
term is, as in the case of the previous ratio, half of the first that’s to say 1: 3 and the third term x should
be accordingly calculated. Therefore it is

That is

G C X G ( sol do x sol)

and the new tetrachord G C D G ( sol do re sol)

The length of the third chord can be calculated in various ways, as a third of an unknown proportion, as
the harmonic median of the extremes …

Is thus x = 4: 9, and, since this chord is less than 1: 2 it is external to the tetrachord, and takes instead its
lower harmonic contained in the first tetrachord which will double length that’s to say 8: 9. This
produces a new chord, contained within the extreme chords of the fundamental tetrachord, chord
which we designate as D (re), and you have an equal chain ratio

and the new tetrachord

G C D G ( sol do re sol )

Operating again as before, for example, taking as first terms of a new ratio, or tetrachord, the last two
terms of the proportion, or previous tetrachord and taking as before as fourth term half of the first, one
obtains

and is obtained for the x the value x = 16: 27 which is greater than 1: 2. The chord as long as that is
therefore included within the extreme chords of essential tetrachord, and that is what we call A (la). We
then have a third tetrachord

D G A D ( re sol la re)

and the ratio

Proceeding similarly, it has the proportion

Reghini page 35 2

which yields x = 32: 81, and since this fraction is less than half, one takes the chord which is its lower
harmonic, that’s to say which has the length 64: 81. This corresponds to the E chord of the Pythagorean
scale (although the natural scale E has a length 4: 5 (slightly different). One has, therefore, the fourth
tetrachord

A D E A ( la re mi la)

that is

Similarly considering the new proportion

E A X E ( mi la x mi)

That is

Which yields x = 128: 243 which is greater than 1: 2, and then this is our chord, which is our B ( si),
within the chords of the extreme fundamental tetrachord. It has therefore the fifth tetrachord E A B E (
mi la si mi.)

If we now consider the tetrachord B E X B ( si mi x si) that is

Which yields the value for x = 128: 729, of which one should take the lower harmonic than the lower
harmonic tha’s to say the chord of length 512: 729 to get a chord within the tetrachord of Philolaus, but

the interval between this chord and that of F ( = 3: 4 is too small because any ear can distinguish the
two sounds, and therefore F fa) will replace this chord and makes it the sixth tetrachord

B E F B ( si mi fa si )

In the end considering the tetrachord F B X F ( fa si x fa) that’s to say the proportion

Which yields x = 1: 2 and is therefore the seventh tetrachord

F B C F (fa si do fa)

With this seventh tetrachord the loop is closed, because continuing to operate as we have done until
now we would find the G ( sol), and so on.

Starting then from the three notes of the tetrachord of Philolaus C F G (do, fa, sol) and always working
with the same law we have found four other notes and more. The Pythagorean range for this reason
consists of seven notes which, written in decreasing order of lengths of the chords, are:
 C D E F G A B C (do re mi fa sol la si do)

where the octave is the top of the first harmonic and the first of the upper octave. As is known, it is
assumed by international convention as A (la) the third, eighth the chord that has the frequency of 435
vibrations per second, and it is then easy to calculate the frequency of the other chords.

Now the third chord of the tetrachord of Philolaus, that’s to say G (sol), is the fifth of the eighth, and
with the process now seen to extend the tetrachord of the scale we obtained only seven chords from
the top chord to the second tetrachord (which begins with G sol) which is the fifth respects to the new
octave which begins with G (sol); and so continuing with the development of this law of fifth it will
determine all the seven notes. From the first three chords of the tetrachord of Philolaus, whose lengths
are determined by the numbers of Tetractys and the Babylon proportion, by the law of the fifth we will
determine the seven chords. They are the odd prime numbers three, five, seven contained within the
decade, corresponding to the age of initiation of Blue Masonry, and for the frequency range the seventh
chord is also the latest and from that perfection of the number seven.

The seven chords, written in order so that each chord is followed by its successive fifth

C G D A E B F C (do sol re la mi si fa do)

and, if one divides a circle into seven equal parts and at the points of division are writing the seven notes
in that order and then the three points are counted from three to three from G (do), one neatly gets the
seven notes in the order of the musical scale; vice versa the seven notes written in the order of the
musical scale in correspondence of the seven dividing points of the circumference and counting the
points from five to five from C (do) , are neatly obtained the seven notes in the fifth order.

In the Pythagorean scale the intervals, or proportions of the notes of the fundamental octave unit are
expressed by

and it is easy to recognize that the way in which it is proceeded to the extension of the tetrachord all
these reports contain to the numerator and the denominator only powers of two and three. The
maximum power of two is the 128 = 2 to seventh, and the maximum power of the three is 243 = 35. The
same thing happens considering the relationship between any two notes of the octave. So while in the
tetrachord appear only reports of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 of Tetractys, in the eptachord (five chords)
displays only the ratios of the powers of the numbers of Tetractys, namely the first nine powers of two
and the first six powers of the three, addition to the unit, that’s to say the numbers

1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512

1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 243, 729

whose total sum is 2116 = 23 to the second.

Even in this way we obtain in the extension of the tetrachord the 5 and 7, because the two will appear at
the seventh and not later and the three will appear at the fifth and no later. than. The natural scale
differs from Pythagorean just because the length of the chords specified by the law of the fifth will
replace the approximate values expressed by simple ratios and has:

C D E F G A B C (do re mi fa sol la si do)

In the Pythagorean scale the five “intervals” or tone between the G (do) and the D (re), and between
the D (re) and the E (mi), between the F (fa) and G (sol), between G (sol) and the A (la) and between the
A (la) and the B (si) are exactly equal, and in the natural scale are quite equal; and in both scaes these
intervals are greater than the two remaining intervals between the E (mi) and the F (fa) and between the
B (si) and the C (do). To overcome this drawback the Pythagoreans inserted between the intervals other
five chords (which correspond to the piano black keys) so as to obtain twelve chords each of which
differs from the previous of an interval substantially constant and equal to a semitone. In the tempered
scale, introduced by Bach, these intervals are all absolutely equal and the lengths of the twelve chords
form a geometric progression, but intervals are no longer expressed by simple ratios of numbers, that’s
to say rational numbers, but irrational. In the case of stringed instruments, in which the strings length is
determined by the player’s fingers and ear, Blaserna the physicist says that the great violin virtuosos
tend to prefer the Pythagorean scale to the natural one, but is a bit ‘difficult to establish the correctness
of this statement since only a very sensitive ear can tell the difference. Meanwhile we note that the
development for the fifth tetrachord has led us to number seven and, in connection, even to number
twelve.

As a curiosity in the end we observe that, if at the seven points of the circle division, we write the
names of the five planets known to the ancients and that of the Sun and the Moon in the order of their
distance from earth that is: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and we proceed as we
did for the chords of the range going from the first point (Sun) to fifth (Moon), and from this to the fifth
(Mars) and so on, we obtain the days of the week in their order: Sunday (Sun-day), Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday (Satur-day). Removed the name of Sunday, which is Christian,
and the Jewish Sabbath, these are the ancient pagan names of the days of the week still in use in almost
every language and replaced with some exceptions, such as Russian and Portuguese. Starting the week
with Sunday the fifth day is sacred to Jupiter and the sixth is the day of Venus, and we find the
consecration of six to Aphrodite.

We observe, however, that the greek calendar did not know the week and that only some later
Pythagoreans and some Christians may have resorted to these considerations or considerations
equivalent to establish the consecration of the week days and the correspondence between the planets
and the days of the week. We note finally that the week of our calendar is a conventional division, and
that the planets are not seven, so that we can not establish the correspondence between the seven
notes, the seven planets, seven days of the week etc.. The only septenary which has a natural basis is
the Pythagorean musical scale, and the distinction of the seven colors made by of Newton, apparently
by analogy between optics and acoustics, is conventional, because from an iris color we change to
another through some thousand shades and not through a net gap like a musical note to another. A
septenary law instead appears in the table of chemical elements of Mendelejeff.

We note in the end that the numbers three, five and seven can also be obtained very simply by the
Tetractys numbers, considering the ratio of 1: 2, 2: 3, 3: 4 which express the lengths of the last three
strings of the tetrachord of Philolaus, and summing numerator and denominator. It is obtained in this
way: 1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5, 3 + 4 = 7.

In the Pythagorean literature, at least in that little which has come down to us, one does not find
anything that confirms or excludes the path we’ve set out to reach the number five and number seven,
starting from the tetrachord, although this path present similarities with the one held by Pythagoreans
in order to divide the circumference into five and ten equal parts.

Arturo Reghini here extends the Pythagorean arithmetic to those properties which actually exist. The
end of third chapter of “Sacred Numbers” presents some Pythagora classics: egyptian triangles and a
hypotenuse theorem extension.

reghini page 40 1

My translation from “I numeri Sacri nella Tradizione Pitagorica Massonica” or sacred numbers in
masonic pythagorean tradition. The second part of the third chapter on the driad of odd prime numbers
within the decade.

A second way to reach the number five is instead suggested by a Plutarch’s consideration. The mention
of Plutarch is located in De Iside et Osiris and reconnects to the “Egyptian” triangle rectangle, the
simplest of integers 3, 4, 5 triangles. Geometrically the Pythagorean theorem, which applies to every
right triangle, says that in a right triangle the sum of the squares created on catheti is equal to the
square on the hypotenuse, arithmetically, when the sides of the triangle are integers, it happens that
the sum of the squares of these integers is equal to the square that has side to the hypotenuse. In the
case of the Egyptian triangle where the short sides are the three and four and five is the hypotenuse,
Plutarch presents an analogical interpretation of the Pythagorean theorem to the effect that the five
would be the result or fruit of the spiritual action of the three vertically set and symbolizing the male
above the horizontal base of the four that symbolizes the female. Thus, the five would come not from
integers but from the polygonal numbers and precisely from the square numbers.

The triad of consecutive numbers 3, 4, 5 therefore displays the property that the sum of the squares of
the first two is equal to the square of the third. Indeed, it is easy to recognize that this is the only triad of
three consecutive integers to have this property; in fact denoting by x – 1, x and x + the three
consecutive numbers in the equation

(x -1)² + x² = ( x + 1)²
that is x² – 4× = 0 has only the solutions x = 0 and x = 4. If then instead of squares are considered three
consecutive triangular or pentagonal or pentagonal of a same gender r, and one tries, when it happens,
that the sum of the first two polygons is equal to the third, is that this fact occurs only when the
polygons are squares, one finds that this occur only when polygons are square and namely in the case of
the third, fourth and fifth square.

In fact the polygonal x ° gender r is expressed by the formula

and consider the indeterminate equation in the unknowns r and x

P (r , x – 1) + P (r , x) = P (r , x + 1).

It admits no solution other than the solution r = 4, x = 4.

In fact, replacing to symbols their expressions, the equation becomes:

that developing and reducing becomes:

(r – 2) x² – 4 (r – 2) x + r – 4 = 0

and applying the well-known terminate formula of the quadratic equation is obtained

that is

where the discriminant is equal to 5 for r = 3, is equal to 4 for r = 4 and is always between 3 and 4 for
any other value of r. We have only a rational entire and positive value of x in r = 4 and is x = 4. Therefore,
as in the case of the linear numbers, the only triad of three linear consecutive numbers for which
happens that the sum of the first two is equal to the third consists of the triad 1, 2, 3, so in the case of
polygonal numbers the same triad of consecutive polygonal numbers of the same kind for which
happens that the sum of the first two is equal to the third is constituted by the third, fourth and fifth
square that’s to say by the sides of the Egyptian triangle. The Egyptian triangle is presented in this
respect as a hypostasis of the fundamental triad 1, 2, 3. With the triad of the numbers 3, 4, 5 takes place
in the surface manifestation or epiphany what happens in the linear irradiation for the triad 1, 2, 3. The
number five takes third place and replaces the three, as the pentagram or blazing star takes the place of
the Delta, or luminous triangle, passing from the first degree Chamber to that of second degree.

The three numbers from this triad 3, 4, 5 are the numbers of the sides of the Egyptian triangle. But it can
be shown more generally the following properties: In a right triangle coprime integers always happens:
1) a cathetus is even and the other two sides are odd; 2) The even cathetus is always a multiple of four;
3) The hypotenuse is always the sum of two squares, one even and the other odd, and therefore is of
the form 4 n + 1; 4) The hypotenuse is never multiple of three; 5) One of the short sides is always a
multiple of three. 6) One of the catheti is always a multiple of five. 7) The perimeter and the area is
equal to a multiple of six.
These simple and interesting properties of right triangles in integers can be demonstrated in various
ways, but since it is not easy to find these demonstrations together we will give a demonstration that
the reader less demanding and mistrustful can jump.

Let’s give first of all the general formulas for right triangles in integers prime among them. Denoting by
x, y and z the catheti of the hypotenuse, we have:

y2 =z2 –x2 =(z–x)(z+x)

and the two factors of the second member must both be squares or contain a common factor α. In this
second case their sum 2 z and their difference 2 x must have in common this factor α, and as x and z are
for the hypothesis prime between them, so 2 x and z 2 can not have other common factor than the one
or the two.

It will therefore be:

z + x = α m2 z – x = α n2 con α = 1 , 2

and thus

whence

y=αmn

and canceling the common factor α and multiplying by two the three last equalities are obtained for x, y,
z the formulas

y=2mn z=m² +n² x=m² –n²

where m and n are numbers of different parity, that is, one even and the other odd, otherwise the three
sides would be equal and therefore not prime between them.

The even cathetus y resulta therefore multiple of 4, the hypotenuse and the other cathetus are odd, and
so the perimeter is even and the area is even because it is given by the semi-product of catheti.

examples:

m=2,n=1 ; x= 4, y=3,z=5

m=3,n=2 ; x=12,y=5,z=13

The general formula that gives the hypotenuse z = m² + n² shows that it is always equal to the sum of
two squares, one even and the other odd, and therefore is always of the form 4 p + 1. The cathetus odd,
if m is even and n odd, is of the form 4p +1, because for m = 2 h +1 and n = 2 k one has: x = m² – n² = 4 h²
+ 4 h + 1 – 4 k², while if it happens the vice versa is of the form 4 q – 1. It can be shown vice versa
(Fermat) that there is always a right triangle in integer numbers which has as its hypotenuse a prime of
the form 4 n + 1, and more right triangles in integer numbers, if the hypotenuse is a product of the
primes of this form.

We demonstrate that one of the sides is always a multiple of 5.

In fact, if none of the catheti is a multiple of five they have the shapes

x = 5 h ± 1 or x = 5 h ± 2 y = 5 k ± 1 or y = 5 k ± 2

but they can not both be of the same shape, because, as it is easy to calculate, the square of the
hypotenuse should end for 2, 3, 7, 8, which is impossible, and then the sum of their squares ttat’s to say
the square of the hypotenuse ends for five, and then the same hypotenuse ends for five that’s to say is a
multiple of five.

We show that the hypotenuse can not be a multiple of three.

In fact, if for absurd the hypotenuse were a multiple of three the catheti could not be, and would be
then of the form x = 3 h ± 1, y = 3 k ± 1, and then the sum of their squares would be a multiple of three
plus two and could not be equal to the square of the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse is therefore of the
form 3 h ± 1.

We show that one of the catheti is a multiple of three.

In fact, if one of the catheti, for example, x is not a multiple of three, it would be:

y2 =z2 –x2 =(z+x)(z–x)

and being

z = 3 h ± l and x = 2 k ± l

it happens that in all four possible cases one of the two factors to the second member results multiple of
three, and then the other cathetus is a multiple of three.

To summarize: The hypotenuse and a cathetus are odd, the other is a multiple of four, one of the catheti
is a multiple of three and the hypotenuse is not; one of the three sides is a multiple of five, the
hypotenuse is of the form 4 n + 1 and is the sum of two squares, the perimeter and the area are even.

If the hypotenuse is not a multiple of five it can be that one of the catheti is a multiple of 3 and 5 and the
other of 4, for example in the triangle (8, 15, 17), or that one of the catheti is a multiple of 3 and 4 and
the other of 5 for example in the triangle (5, 12, 13), or in end that one of the catheti is a as a multiple of
3 so that of both 4 and 5, for example in the triangle (60, 11, 61) . If the hypotenuse is a multiple of five
can be that one of the catheti is a multiple of 3 and the other of 4 as in the Egyptian triangle (3, )
considered by Plutarch; or that one of the catheti is a multiple of 3 such as of 4, as for example for the
triangles (33, 56, 65), (63, l6, 65), (44, 117, 125). Other cases in which only one cathetus is a multiple of
3, 4, 5 are (119, 120, 169), (120, 391, 409) …
In the case of the Egyptian triangle (3, 4, 5) the radius of the inscribed circle is 1, the diameter is 2, the
cathetus and the hypotenuse are 3, 4, 5, the area is 6, the sum of the catheti is 7 , the sum of a cathetus
and the hypotenuse 8 and 9 and the perimeter is l2. The Egyptian triangle was used by the Egyptians to
draw a right angle. Taking a string divided into three parts of their lengths 3, 4, 5, and fixed on the
ground the distant points 5, holding the other two parts and reunifying the ends, you get the Egyptian
triangle and then the right angle. The square, which is characteristic tool of the fellow freemason and
serves to square the rough stone, that’s to say the particular job of the mate, is so linked to the number
five, which always appears in one of the sides of a right triangle and the numbers 3 and 4 which appear
always in one of two catheti.

The question that we have solved for polygonal numbers is presented for pyramidal numbers too, that is
for the most important numbers of the space considered by the Pythagoreans. It is to examine whether
there exists a set of three pyramidal consecutive numbers of the same kind such that the sum of the first
two is equal to the third. This means we need to solve the equation:

F (x . y – 1) + F (x , y) = F (x . y + 1)

that is

equation that after the development and reductions becomes:

(y3 – 6 y2 – y) x = 2 y3 – 15 y2 + 7 y + 6

whose solutions are given by

3 (y2 – 3 y – 2)

Giving y values 1, 2, 3, 4 … we obtain the following pairs of solutions:

and it is seen that the only integer solution is given by the pair x = 10, y = 6. The problem therefore
admits the only solution

F (10, 5) + F (10, 6) = F (10, 7)

that is

175 + 301 = 476

it then has the properties: The single triad of three consecutive pyramidal numbers of the same kind,
such that the sum of the first two is equal to the third, is constituted by the fifth, sixth and seventh
pyramidal with a decagonal base.
As the triad of numbers (3, 4, 3) solved the problem in the plane through the right triangle that had
those three numbers for the sides, so the list of possible numbers (5, 6, 7) solves the similar problem in
space by means of the fifth, sixth and seventh pyramidal with a decagonal based. And as the triad (1, 2,
3) of the linear numbers, that solves the problem of the three consecutive integers wherein the sum of
the first two is equal to the third, gives the number three, and the triad (3, 4, 5) ), which solves the
problem in the field of pyramidal numbers, gives the number 7 as result of the action of five on six so to
use the same language as Plutarch; We also observe that the three pyramidal with decagonal base that
solve the problem, namely the numbers 175, 301 and 476, are three multiples of seven. The sum of the
three sets 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5 and 5, 6, 7 is equal to 36. We observe in end that the sum of the number of
diagonals of the pentagon and hexagon is equal to the number of diagonals of heptagon, that’s to say 5
+ 9 = 14, and this is the only case in which this event occurs for three consecutive polygons , that’s to say
also the problem of determining three polygons having for number of sides three consecutive integers
admits a unique solution given by the triad (5, 6, 7),

The first three odd primes, that’s to say 3, 5, 7, represent the only solution of the same problem for
linear numbers, for the polygons of the same kind and for the pyramids of the same kind. It is worth to
observe, moreover, that the solution has for the polygon of the fourth kind, that’s to say with the
squares and for pyramidal has the pyramidal of the tenth kind that’s to say with the pyramidal numbers
with a decagonal base. Four and ten, the two numbers that identifies the mystery of Luciano’s Tetractys.

We believe that so far no one has demonstrated the properties set forth above on the triad of
consecutives polygonal of a same kind and the similar property on consecutives pyramidal of the same
kind. It is not our intention to state that the development and extension of the Pythagorean theorem for
a driad of consecutive numbers to the case of polygonal and pyramidal had already been done by the
ancient Pythagoreans, but we will not even exclude such possibility.

But keeping to the spirit of the Pythagorean arithmetic and following the procedures we have come to
the results that we have presented, and these properties actually exist. We have not done anything but
bring them forth and bring them to the consideration of the reader to who we leave the task to assess
the importance and to draw the consequences.

We add that it could be shown that the analogous problem for numbers in hyperpiramidal in the
hyperspaces does not admit solution. From the modern point of view there are within the decade four
prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, and we will meet this Tetractys, handling of regular polyhedra.

In addition there are four numbers by the decade with the first ten and they are: 1, 3, 7, 9; indicating
with the symbol of Gauss φ (n) the number of prime numbers with n and less than n (the units included)
is has: (10) = 4, the relationship between 4 and 10.

The fourth chapter of Arturo Reghini’s Sacred Numbers in Masonic Pythagorean Tradition. Pentagons,
pentalphas and dodecahedrons with twelve regular pentagons
arturo_reghini_numeri_sacri_pythagoras_pentalphaTitle: “The Pythagorean pentalpha and the blazing
star”.

Do not enter in my school who ignores the geometry, Inscription on the entrance of Plato School.

We arrived at number five starting from the tetrachord of Philolaus or by consideration of the Egyptian
triangle. Another way, similar to the first of two, who led the Pythagoreans to the evaluation of the
number five, is that starting from the consideration of the golden divine section of a line segment, and
leads to the study of pentalpha or pentagram, characteristic symbol of the Pythagorean brotherhood,
that’s to say the blazing star symbol characteristic of the Masonic brotherhood.

The rigorous study in terms of geometry and arithmetic of this topic would require a long development
that we have done in a previous work (1). So we will generally omit the proofs referring the reader to
our work, where we come to the results and the property, which we will use, in a Pythagorean way,
that’s to say without the postulate of Euclid.

One of the most important discoveries of the Pythagoreans is that of incommensurable magnitudes and
consequently of irrational numbers. The simplest case is that of the incommensurability of the diagonal
and side of a square, and Aristotle gives the proof the Pythagoreans gave. It is a consequence of the
theorem of Pythagoras. In fact, if for absurd the diagonal and the side of the square admit a common
measure, that is, if the diagonal contained m times a segment and the side contained it n times, the
square on the side could be divided in n² squares all equal and having as side this common segment, and
the square of the diagonal could be divided into m² squares equal to them: and being, according to the
Pythagorean theorem, the sum of the squares on the sides equivalent to the square on the hypotenuse,
the number of squares 2 n² contained within the squares of the sides should be equal to the number of
the squares m² of the hypotenuse, that’s to say it should be 2 n² = m². Now, being n and m two integers,
the two numbers of the previous equality should contain the same prime factors because a number can
be decomposed in a unique way into a product of prime factors, and this is not possible because m
should contain two and then m² would contain the two an even number of times and then also n should
contain the two, n² would contain it an even number of times n² and 2 would contain it an odd number
of times.

In particular if the side of the square is one, the square of the diagonal is two and the diagonal is equal
to the irrational number √ 2. Then, dividing the circle into four equal parts and neatly combining the four
points of division, you get the square inscribed, one can also say that the side of the square inscribed in
the circle of unit radius has as measure the irrational number √ 2. This segment incommensurable with
the unit segment is determined geometrically with the utmost simplicity. Similarly, considering the right
triangle in which the hypotenuse is double than the minor cathetus, one would find that the larger
cathetus has as measure the irrational number √ 3, and considering the triangle that has a cathetus
double than the other, one would find that the hypotenuse has to measure √ 5. And, since it is easy to
demonstrate that the side of the regular hexagon inscribed in a circle is equal to the radius of the circle,
it follows that the side of the equilateral triangle inscribed is equal to the segment that has as measure √
3 . The two irrational numbers √ 2 and √ 3 are respectively the measure of the side of the regular square
and triangle inscribed in circumference, and they are two segments incommensurable with the unit
segment which can be easily determined by geometry.

The number √ 5 is connected instead, though less simple, with the division of the circumference into ten
and five equal parts, and with the measure of the side of the inscribed pentagon and the side of the
regular inscribed decagon. It is called golden part of a segment, or also divine section, that part of the
segment such that the square that has this side is equivalent to the rectangle whose sides are the entire
segment and the remaining part. The determination by geometric of the golden part of a segment can
be achieved by two constructions, and with the theory of proportions the golden part of a segment can
also be defined as the geometric median or proportional between the entire segment and the remaining
part. It can also be shown that in the isosceles triangle that has the vertex angle equal to half the angle
at the base, the base is the golden portion of the side; and, since this angle to the vertex has the width
of 36 °, it follows that, divided the circumference into ten equal parts, the side of the regular decagon
inscribed is the golden ratio of the radius; vice versa the arc that has as rope the golden part of the
radius has the width of 36° degrees and is the tenth part of the entire circumference. It follows the usual
determination of the golden part of the ray OA of a circumference and the division of the circle into ten
equal parts.

arturo_reghini_numeri_sacri_pythagoras 46

It is leaded through the center O the radius OB perpendicular to the radius OA and took the midpoint C
of this radius OB, describes the circle with center C and radius CO: the diameter AC meets this
circumference in two points D, E, and it happens that the radius OA is a median proportional between
the entire secant AE and its outer A D. Dividing this ratio we can deduce that the outer part AD = AM is
the golden part of a radius AO. For the uniqueness of the golden part, the triangle isosceles side OA and
the base AD = AM has the vertex at the angle of 36° degrees and so AM is the side of the regular
decagon inscribed, and therefore bringing the AM segment as rope ten times as from point A, it divides
the circle into ten equal parts, and then also into five taking in alternating way the points of division (2).
If the radius OA is equal to one, the radius OC is 1: 2, the hypotenuse of the right triangle AO AOCE is

rturo reghini page 47

and the golden part A D has to measure

arturo reghini page 47 1

Then the side of the regular decagon inscribed in the circumference of radius one is the golden ratio of
the radius and has to measure

arturo reghini page 47 1

If, instead of uniting the division point A of the circumference into five equal parts with the next point C,
one meets the point A with the third division point E, and this with the fifth, and so on the starry
pentagram is obtained, so-called because it consists of five lines, also called pentalpha because it
contains five times the letter A formed for example by two ropes AE and AG and by the segment of rope
MR C I. The term pentalpha is located in the arithmetic of the father Kircher (1665), but the term
decalca, evidently formed similarity to the first, is already in Plutarch. However, this is not what we
want.

Since IC is clearly parallel to the quadrilateral C E, the C E G R is a parallelogram, more it’s a diamond,
because EC and EG are the same as the sides of the inscribed regular pentagon, and it is easy to
recognize that the isosceles triangle A E G is the apex angle of 36 °, and then that E G = E C = E M is the
golden part of the side A E pentalpha. We will call l5 the side E G of the regular pentagon and s5 the side
A E of pentalpha, and we can say that: 1 – the side l5 of the pentagon is the golden side of pentalpha s5,
2 ° that the side s5 = A E of the pentalpha is divided in two points M, N by the other two sides of the
pentalpha so that the part R C V = E M is the golden part around the side s5.

arturo_reghini_numeri_sacri_pythagoras_pentalpha

Since then the isosceles triangle C E M has a vertex angle of 36 °, the C M is based on the golden part of
the side E C, and as the five points of the starry pentagram are obviously all the same it follows that AM
= E N is the golden part of E M = A N. Then determined over a segment its golden part, the remainder is
the golden part of the golden, that’s to say A E: A N = AN: E N = E N: N P. ..

The sides of the pentalpha determine a regular pentagon M N P Q R of side M N = l”5 whose vertices are
also vertices of another pentalpha whose side s’5 is equal to A M, and it has the proportion

s5 : l5 = s’5 : l’5

in which each term is the golden part of the previous. It has namely:

s5 : l5 = l5 : s’5 = s’5 : l’5

The second pentalpha determines in turn a third inscribed pentagon’ of side l”5 and a third inscribed
pentalpha of side s “5 etc.. And you have the equal chain of ratio

s5 : l5 = s’5 : l’5 = s”5 : 1″5

in which each term is the golden part of the previous. We observe in passing by that if we consider the
successive arcs equal respectively to a tenth, two tenths, three tenths and four tenths of the
circumference and whose sum is equal to the entire circumference, their chords A B, U D, D G, G A form
a quadrilateral whose sides are respectively the side l10 of the inscribed decagon, the side l5 of the
inscribed pentagon, the side s10 of the inscribed decalpha, and the side s5 of inscribed pentalpha and
whose diagonal B G is a diameter and divides the quadrilateral into two right triangles, and then:

l2 5 + l2 10 + s2 5 + s2 10 = 8 r2
these four sides forming a Tetractys whose sum is equal to twice square of the diameter. We observe
now that if with a, b, c, d we denote four segments such that each is the golden part the previous one
has:

a=b+c and b=c+d

a+d=b+c+b–c=2b

Therefore, the second term in the sequence of the four segments is the arithmetic median of the
extremes. It has then for the definition of golden part

b² = a c c² = b d

and then b ² c ² = a b c d and finally b c = a d, and the four segments form a proportion. On the other
hand indicating with M the harmonic median of the ends a, d it is such that

arturo reghini page 49

and therefore also

bc=bM

and then c = M, that’s to say is the third term of the sequence is the harmonic median of extremes. We
can therefore state the property: If four segments are segments following a sequence such that each
segment is the golden part of the former they form a proportion and the second segment is the
arithmetic median of the extremes and the third is the harmonic median of externals.

Also this proportion between four segments is a special case of the Babylonian proportion as was the
proportion formed by the four strings of the tetrachord of Philolaus. For the two quaternions happens
also that the second term is the arithmetic median of the extremes and the third the harmonic median.
In the case of the tetrachord of Philolaus the law of determination was that the first term was twice the
quarter: in this case the law of formation is that each term is the golden part of the previous.

In conclusion: the side s5 of the Pythagorean pentalpha is divided by two other sides of the same
pentalpha in two intermediate points M and N such that A E: A N = A M: M N which are respectively
equal to
arturo reghini page 49 1

In this proportion each segment is the golden part of the previous, and it happens like the proportion of
the four strings of the tetrachord that the second segment is the arithmetic median of the extremes and
the third is the harmonic median of extremes. Moreover, like the Pythagorean range is achieved with
the law of fifth of tetrachord of Philolaus, and so each term of the chain of equal relations is obtained by
taking the gold part of the previous term, that is, through the division of the circle into ten and five
equal parts.

With this law extends indefinitely the fifth tetrachord and the octave in successive octaves and extends
the chain of equal relationships between the side of a pentalpha and that of the respective Pentagon
and the side of the consecutive pentalpha and pentagon. In conclusion the pentalpha bears imprinted in
the distribution of its sides a natural law of harmony because, like the A string that is the harmonic
median di so the side of the pentagon is the harmonic median between the entire side of pentalpha and
the part of it comprise between the two other sides of the pentalpha.

On the other hand the last of the five regular Pythagorean and Platonic polyhedra , the regular
dodecahedron, has twelve faces that are regular pentagons, and calling a the apothegm of this
polyhedron, that’s to say with 2 a the height of the dodecahedron or the distance between two parallel
faces, it can be shown that the planes parallel to the two parallel bases, intermediate between them and
passing respectively for the five vertices of the dodecahedron next to that base, they divide the height 2
a of the dodecahedron into two points M and N such that, indicating with A B the height

arturo reghini page 50

the segment A N = B M is the golden part of A D, the segment A M = B N is the golden part of AN and the
intermediate segment M N is the golden part the segment A M. These four segments form a Tetractys
similar to that formed by the four segments of the side of pentalpha written in the pentagonal face of
the dodecahedron. To use a term of magic it can be said that both the dodecahedron and its face bear
the signature of the same harmony, the harmony of pentalpha coincides with the harmony of the
dodecahedron.

On the other hand it can be shown that the golden part of the height 2′ s equal to the side s10 of the
decalpha inscribed in the face of the pentagonal dodecahedron (decalpha obtained by bringing together
a ten-point division of the circumference into ten equal parts of four in four), one can also demonstrate
that the radius of the circumscribed circumference is the golden part of the side s10 of the inscribed
decalpha and in the end we know that the side l10 of the inscribed decagon is the golden ratio of the
radius r. So the Tetractys of the four segments marked on the height of the dodecahedron consists of
four segments: 2 a, s10, r, l10 which, therefore, constitutes the geometrical ratio

2 a : s 10 = r : l 10

wherein, each term is the golden part of the previous, and then the second term is the arithmetic
median of the extremes while the third term, that’s to say the radius r, is the harmonic median of the
extremes. The dodecahedron has, therefore, the property: the radius of the circumference
circumscribed to the face of the dodecahedron is the harmonic median between the height of the
dodecahedron and the side of the regular decagon inscribed in the face.

This third Babylonian proportion between the Tetractys of the four above indicated elements on the
dodecahedron is also connected with the number of sides of the pentagonal face and with the number
12 of the polyhedron faces; as in the case of the tetrachord the Babylonian proportion was connected
with the law of fifth, with the five black keys of the piano and the black and white twelve keys of the
octave. If we are planning to conduct the twelve parallel planes to the twelve faces of the dodecahedron
and passing through the next five vertices, they determine in the interior of the dodecahedron another
regular dodecahedron for which there are the same properties, and so on indefinitely.

Since in the Pythagorean science the seven liberal sciences were closely related and closely linked to the
various arts, it can be expected that in the various arts we can see the evidence of the importance the
Pythagoreans admitted to the golden part and the harmonic median. In fact the canon of Polycleto’s
statuary connects to the consideration of the harmonic median (3), whereas the golden part has a great
importance in the architecture before Pericles (4).

Arturo Reghini’s fourth chapter end: Plato was silent on number twelve, but facts and reasons validate
the choice of dodecahedron as a symbol of universe.

arturo reghini plato's words

Reghini, in this part of Sacred Numbers in Masonic Pythagorean Tradition, gives a rational explication for
letter G and a deep one on masonic symbolism. As well as a summarize of what said so far.

Matila G. Ghyka called the golden part the “Nombre d’Or ” ( golden number in french) and this is the
title of his major work devoted to the study of sacred architecture of all time. Music, sculpture and
architecture, all the arts, conform to the law of universal harmony based on the properties of sacred
numbers.

To fully understand how important and meaningful should be for Pythagoreans what we found about
the dodecahedron, one should remember that for them and for Plato the dodecahedron was the symbol
of the universe, and that the five regular polyhedra, namely the cosmic figures, were the symbol of the
four elements and the universe. If we want to see why there is only to read Plato’s Timaeus, the
Pythagorean dialogue par excellence.

The regular tetrahedron with its four triangular faces, four vertexes and six edges, was the symbol of
fire: and it may be that this correspondence has been determined by the shape of the solid whose
vertex recalls the tip of the flame , and has been confirmed by the erroneous etymology of the word
“pyramid” used by the Greeks , instead of tetrahedron, from the greek κυρ Fire (the right translation is
Sun). Each face is divided by the three diameters of the circumscribed circumference leaded to the
vertexes of the face into six triangles rectangles equal to each other, and, considering the tetrahedron
which have for vertex the common center of the regular tetrahedron and for basis the 24 equal triangles
in which is divided the surface, the tetrahedron consists of 24 equivalent tetrahedra. In this way the
octahedron has eight faces that are equilateral triangles, six vertexes and 12 edges, so the surface of the
octahedron is divided into 48 equal triangles, and correspondingly the polyhedron consists of 48
equivalent tetrahedra. In a similar way the icosahedron is made up of twenty faces that are equilateral
triangles, twelve vertexes and thirty edges: and its surface is divided into 120 equal right triangles and
the icosahedron consists of 120 tetrahedra which them as basis and have as common vertex the center
of the polyhedron. Each regular polyhedron has a polar polyhedron for which the numbers of faces and
vertexes are exchanged, while the number of edges remains unchanged. The tetrahedron is self-polar,
the polar polyhedron of the octahedron is the cube which has six square faces, eight vertexes and 12
edges. Philolaus saw the image of harmony in the cube because the number of its vertexes is the
harmonic median of the numbers of the faces and edges, which of course is also true of the octahedron.
Each face of the cube is divided by the diameter of the circumscribed circumference passing through the
vertexes in four equal isosceles triangles, so the surface of the cube is divided into 24 equal triangles and
the cube, or esahedron, consists of 24 tetrahedra whose vertex is equivalent to the center of the cube.
After having attributed to each of these four polyhedra the correspondence with the element fire, air,
water and earth, Plato silences Timaeus who only says: “So it remains to us still a form of composition
which is the fifth of what it has helped God for the design of the universe”. We observe that Plato and
the Pythagoreans knew that the regular polyhedra are five and five only, as it is demonstrated in a
simple way, and we see that also through this way of the cosmic figures one comes to number five.

As for the sudden and unexpected silence of Plato that truncates the exposure of the subject, it also
gave the eye to Robin (5), which simply says: “Au sujet du cinquième Polyedre Regulier, the dodécaedre
… Platon est très mysterieux “, or when arrived to the fifth regular polyhedron, the dodecahedron…..
Plato is very mysterious”. But he does not attempt to investigate the reasons for the sudden Plato’s
silence.

Now the dodecahedron is the polyhedron polar of the icosahedron and thus has twelve faces that are
regular pentagons, has twenty vertexes and thirty edges. Applying to it the previous subdivision
procedure is that the diameters of the circumference circumscribed to a face, passing through the
vertexes, divide it into ten equal right triangles, but if in the face is inscribed the pentalpha, the
pentagon is divided by the sides of pentalpha and by the diameters passing through the vertex of the
pentalpha in thirty right triangles, which this time are neither isosceles, nor the beautiful right triangles
dear to Timaeus (that’s to say with the double hypotenuse of minor cathetus ), nor are they all the same
or equivalents. On the other hand the surface of the dodecahedron is divided thereby into 360 triangles,
and correspondingly the dodecahedron decomposes into 360 tetrahedra which have then as basis and
have as vertex the polyhedron’s centre. Now 360 is the number of divisions of the twelve signs of the
zodiac, and is the number of days of the Egyptian year.

The thing is fully confirmed by what two ancient writers say. Alcinous (1), after having explained the
nature of the first four polyhedra, says that the fifth has twelve faces as the zodiac has twelve signs. and
adds that each face is composed of five triangles (with the centre of the face for common vertex) each
of which is composed of the other six (determined by a diameter and by two sides of pentalpha). A total
of 360 triangles. Plutarch, in turn (2), having found that each of the twelve pentagonal faces of the
dodecahedron consists of thirty right scalene triangles, adds that this shows that the dodecahedron
represents both the zodiac and year because it is divided in the same number of shares of them.
Plutarch alludes manifestly the to Egyptian year composed of 12 months each of thirty days, in which
the five epagomenal days are not part of the egyptian year.

To well understand the importance by Pythagoreans and Plato of these mathematical observations it
should be noted: 1 – that for them, the triangle is the atom (that’s to say the last indivisible part)
superficial because it is the polygon with the number of sides necessary and enough to delimit a plane
portion, and that correspondingly the tetrahedron, or pyramid, is the solid atom because it is the
polyhedron having the necessary number of faces and sufficient to delimit a portion of space. 2 ° -That,
because of the same definition of polygonal number, each polygonal number is always the sum of
triangular, and for the definition of pyramidal number each pyramidal number is the sum of tetrahedral
numbers. So we came to see that even the five cosmic figures, and in particular the symbol of universe,
were composed of tetrahedra, the entire universe was reduced to a sum of tetrahedral atoms.

The number twelve is the number of the faces of dodecahedron and consequently is the number of the
vertexes of polar polyhedron, that’s to say the icosahedron. Twelve is also the number of the edges of
cube and of the polar polyhedron, that is octahedron. If we consider the number twelve as consisting of
the twelve vertexes of a dodecahedron and we develop this dodecahedral number within one of the
angles, by taking the vertex as centre of “omotetia” is obtained in the usual Pythagorean way the
following dodecahedral numbers. The formulas of the regular polyhedral numbers (except of the
tetrahedral number) were determined the first time by Descartes, and are found in a manuscript of his
remained unpublished for over a century; in particular the n ° dodecahedral number is given by the
formula

arturo reghini page 52

but the dodecahedral n° can even be obtained through a relationship between the n ° pentagonal
number and its gnomon. In fact the pentagonal gnomons are the numbers of arithmetic series 1, 4, 7. 10
… so that we have: pentagonal gnomons

arturo reghini page 52 1

pentagonal numbers

arturo reghini page 52 2

and it happens that adding to a pentagonal its gnomon, you get the pentagonal following, and
multiplying a pentagonal for the following gnomon one gets the corresponding dodecahedron number.
Thus the sequence of dodecahedral numbers is :
dodecahedral

1 20 84 220 816………..;

relationship between pentagons and dodecahedra which arithmetically corresponds to the relationship
between the number of sides of the pentagonal faces and the number of the faces of dodecahedron.
Even in the extension of the tetrachord to eighth we have seen a connection between five and twelve.
Likewise, the Egyptian triangle of hypotenuse 5 has a perimeter given by 12.

The number twelve on his own has traditionally already been sacred and universal. In addition of being
the number of the months and signs of the zodiac, twelve was in Greece, Etruria and Rome the number
of the allowed gods, twelve the number of members of some priestly colleges in archaic Rome, twelve
the number of Etruscan and Roman rods beam, and many surviving Celtic dodecahedra attest the
importance that the ancient gave to this number and the dodecahedron. Facts and reasons that confirm
the choice of the dodecahedron as a symbol of universe.

The dodecahedron is inscribed in the sphere as in the Pythagorean cosmology cosmos is surrounded by
a band, the periékon, and how the universe has in itself and consists of the four elements fire, air, earth,
water, so the four regular polyhedra, which are the symbol, can be inscribed within the dodecahedron.
In fact it can be show how the hexahedron or cube can be incorporated in the sphere as well as in
dodecahedron, one can easily show how the icosahedron, having as vertexes the centres of the twelve
faces of the dodecahedron, is a regular inscribed icosahedron; and similarly for the octahedron with
vertexes in the centres of the six faces of a cube, and finally how to get from the cube a regular
tetrahedron taking as vertexes a vertex of the cube and the vertexes of the cube opposite to it in the
three faces of the cube there congruent. The tetrad of the four elements is contained within the cosmos
and in this in the band, as the four regular polyhedra are contained in the fifth and in this circumscribed
sphere.

Let’s now have a break and look at the taken path. First of all we have come to Tetractys (1, 2, 3, 4),
Tetractys equal to the Decade, and represented by the Delta existing in the sanctuary of Delphi, navel of
the world. This Tetractys contains in itself the other Tetractys, that of Philolaus (1, 3 : 4, 2 : 3, 1 : 2), in
which appear the same elements that appear in the first, and, extending the tetrachord of Philolaus, we
have found the law of fifth and we reached to the numbers 5, 7, 12. The eighth, or harmony as the
Greeks said, it is so the one potentially contained in Tetractys of Philolaus and therefore also in the
Tetractys depicted in Delta. Furthermore we have geometrically arrived at number five in two ways: by
means of the Egyptian right triangle that has five as hypotenuse and by the right triangle, with catheti
one and two, that has five as square of the hypotenuse (3).

This second path led us to the consideration of the golden part, the division of the circumference into
ten and five equal parts, to pentalpha, to dodecahedron, and the harmonic median of the extreme
segments of the two Tetractys formed with the elements of these two figures. We have seen that the
catechism of Acousmatics places in the sanctuary of Delphi “the Tetractys wherein is the harmony in
which are Sirens.” To understand the meaning of this answer of the Pythagorean Acousmatics
Catechism, and why they showed so much interest in the subject, there remains to be seen what do
Sirens represent, since they are connected in this way with harmony. This symbolism, observes Delatte
(4), is completely foreign to the ordinary conception of the Sirens and must be explained by the their
identification with the harmony of the spheres and the important role accorded to sacred music in the
Pythagorean school. According to Pythagoras (5) are the Sirens who personify this harmony. The same
thing happens to Plato (6). Imitating with this sacred music the celestial music, the Pythagoreans (7)
hoped to assimilate their souls with divine wisdom and get back among the blessed after death (8).

So Plutarch sees in Ulysses the philosopher hearing this harmony in order to take the wisdom. Plato (9),
dealing with the myth of Ero says that the harmony of the spheres is generated by the revolving
movement. Plato allegorically explains this harmony assuming that a siren, placed on each of these
spheres, makes her voice to be heard, and that the whole of these voices, which accord with each other,
produces the harmony of the world. According to Iamblichus (10) the greatest revelation that Apollo-
Pythagoras gave to world is the harmony of the spheres and sapient music, that in its turn gets imspired.
Iamblichus follows an ancient Pythagorean belief, according to which Pythagoras was an Apollo’s
incarnation, who was sacred the sanctuary of Delphi. The Tetractys, writes Delatte (11), seems due to
the veneration subject by the Pythagoreans to two causes, from the scientific point of view it explained
the laws of celestial and human music, and since the harmony was the great law of universe (12), the
Tetractys can be regarded as the source and root of nature, as the oath for the Tetractys. However, it
allowed the Pythagoreans to imitate, by means of the sapient music, the harmony of the spheres and so
approaches the divine perfection. The cathartic function of music made the Tetractys a doctrine
particularly valuable for the contribution that it brought to the moral and religious perfection. This
explains, according to Delatte, that Tetractys was one of the fundamental theories of the Pythagoreans
aritmological philosophy and religious.

The arithmetic and geometric development of sacred numbers that we have exposed goes to the
consideration of Delta, or sacred triangle, to that of the dodecahedron. The elements of Euclid, in
Euclid’s text, start without preamble with the consideration of the equilateral triangle and, according to
Proclus statement (13), Euclid poses for final goal of its elements the construction of Platonic figures
(regular polyhedra). Perhaps from the time of Pythagoras to that of Euclid, the beginning and the end of
the geometry remained traditionally unchanged, and the function of Euclid was to introduce his
unceremonious postulate, thereby rehashing the demonstrations and substituting such as his test of the
theorem of Pythagoras to that of Pythagoras himself, that was certainly another.

According to what remains of the Pythagorean geometry and according to the return that we have
made about ten years ago, the Pythagorean geometry was a more general geometry of Euclidean and
Archimedean geometry, because that was independent of the postulate of Euclid on parallels and
postulate of Eudoxus-Archimedes. The point of departure and arrival were probably the same in the two
geometries. But in Euclid the intent is purely geometric; while in Pythagoras, even if the performance
was purely geometrical, it was certainly not the intention, since the characteristic of the Pythagorean
philosophy was the connection of various sciences always present among them, and in particular of
geometry with arithmetic, music and astronomy. For Pythagoreans and Plato geometry was a sacred,
esoteric, and secret science, like according to Freemasons geometry is the master art of building and the
science of “sacred numbers” known only to them, while the Euclidean geometry, breaking all contacts
and becoming an end in itself, degenerated into a magnificent profane science. The wonderful synthesis
of all the sciences and arts divined by the genius of Pythagoras disappeared, and began to specialize.

We have highlighted some trace of the deep bond that united music with cosmology and arithmetic, but
we believe that the scarcity and rarity of the tracks can be attributed to the importance of the doctrine
that was to be one of the secret teachings of the Pythagorean school , and a clue as well as an
explanation at the same time are provided by the sudden reserve of Timaeus in Plato’s dialogue of the
same name as it comes to talk of the dodecahedron. To reveal this secret it would be a blasphemy, and
the Pythagorean legend had that such impiety would sometimes be avenged by daimonion, as
happened in the case of the Pythagorean Ippasos that, according to the legend, had died in a shipwreck
just to get published the inscription of the dodecahedron in the sphere. Plato had said enough, to say
more would have been, if not reckless, outrageous, and Plato remembers μή είναι πρός πάντας πάντα
ῥητά, or but is unto all always explicitly.

As for the number seven we are able to reach it only with the extension of the tetrachord to the range
and by considering the pyramidal numbers of decagonal basis. There is neither a right triangle which has
hypotenuse seven, nor which has seven as square of the hypotenuse, and the same thing happens to
the number eleven.

Seven is the only number of the decade virgin and without a mother, άμήτωρ and παρΦένοϛ: and for
this reason, as we have already said, it was compared and consecrated to Athena-Minerva, daughter of
Zeus-Jupiter but not of Juno, because she is being born springing fully armed from the brain of Zeus-
Jupiter. Both Pallas Athena and the number seven have the prerogative of virginity and immaculate
conception.

If we think that Athena-Minerva was known to be the goddess of Wisdom, the meaning of this symbol is
outlined quite clear: the divine wisdom does not belong to the world of generation, it is transcendent,
olympic, humanly inconceivable. We add, moreover, that the magical tradition often ties the gift of
clairvoyance and clairvoyance to virginity: the Greek language, as the Italian, gives the same meaning to
the words κόρη, virgin (daughter) and eye pupil, and Cagliostro, who used the “pupils “as clairvoyants,
called them eyes for this reason and called them doves for their candor.

Even Clement of Alexandria (14) notes that the number seven is a virgin and without a mother, and
Christian writer Aristobulus identifies the sevenfold with spiritual light. Notes in this respect Delatte that
this theory is not, as one might expect, a Jewish innovation because it is already included in Philolaus, as
is testified by a verse of theologumena: and was retaken in the hymn to the number (Pythagorean-
Orphic) according to Aristobulus. Aristobulus therefore had done nothing, as usual, which adapt this
concept, that suited his needs, to Jewish apologetics. On the other hand, seven was the number of the
wise men of before Pythagoras Greece and seven the number of Pythagorean sciences, and liberal arts,
spread, perhaps by Boethius, in the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium.

Catholicism, unlike the other Christian sects derived from Judaism, has recently added the dogma of the
Immaculate Conception to that of virginity of Mary, and ties so much importance to these dogmas to
sustain them in the difficulties inherent in the well-known fact that the Gospel repeatedly speaks of
brothers and sisters of Jesus. The difficulty is overcome by stating that in the Gospel, and only in the
Gospel, the word άδελφόϛ does not mean brothers but cousins. Very simple and convenient. The
Pythagoreans and the classics, talking about the immaculate conception and virginity of the number
seven and Pallas Athena, did not need to support themselves with acrobatics of hermeneutics, and even
to us these fables of paganism does not seem so absurd as the paladins of hagiography would take.

It seems to us manifest the derivation, or at least the reference, of this Catholic dogma to the ancient
Pythagorean symbolism, as it is certain that Aristobulus and San Clemente drew on pythagorean source.
And we do not want to examine to what extent the figure of Mary, rather than remembering that of
Minerva, remember the figure of Isis, as shown by iconographic considerations. Instead, we want to
mention the feats performed by some Christian writers at the expense of arithmetic Pythagorean
mysticism. For example, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, a Christian writer of the French Revolution time,
is said in the “philosophe inconnu” (unknown philosopher) and also “théosophe d’Amboise”, to run wild
in his writings, and in particular in the posthumous Des Nombres (on Numbers), in his system of the
Christian mysticism of numbers, and devoutly ranting he does not hesitate to tie to Pythagoreans
supposed errors, to be able to reproach them for the exaltation of his faith “beautiful, immortal,
beneficial, accustomed to triumph.” Saint-Martin says, for example (15) that “Phythagore et ses disciples
se sont trompés quand ils ont dit que 7 était sans sans père et mère”, or the Pythagoreans are wrong
when stating that seven was without father and mother, and justifies his sentence with the good reason
that” le nombre 4 est le père et la mère de l’homme qui, en effet selon la Genèse, fut créé mâle et
femelle par cette puissance septénaire contenant 4 et 3″, or the number 4 is the father and mother of
the man, who according to Genesis, was created male and female because of the sevenfold power
containing 4 and 3. Now Pythagoras and his disciples have never said anything like this, and the
unknown philosopher makes all a confusion between what the Gospel talks about Melchizedek, who
was without father or mother, and the fact that seven was for Pythagoreans a number sacred to
Minerva because, like Minerva, she was a virgin and was not generated. And after such confusion and
ignorance even of the Gospel, Saint-Martin does not hesitate from correcting the supposed madness of
the Pythagoreans!

The number five or pentalpha is the symbol of harmony, and therefore also the symbol of the
Pythagorean brotherhood, like the Flaming Star is the symbol of the Masonic brotherhood cemented by
brotherly love. The Pythagoreans wrote in correspondence of the vertexes of the letters forming the
word pentalpha the word ύγίεια, which means health, because the harmony of all elements and
functions of the body which manifests as health and harmony of all the spiritual elements, makes
possible the health or safety, seen both in the eschatological sense of Orphism and in the Pythagorean
sense of palingenesis. The number seven is the symbol of wisdom.

The comparison between the sacred numbers of Pythagoreans and the sacred numbers of Freemasonry,
can not be done degree by degree because the separation of Masonic ritual, in the two distinct degrees
of apprentice and companion, is relatively recent and the degree of master with its ritual and catechism
is little more than two centuries old. However it seems that the changes consisted of a simple
distribution and in some innovation, but that has always taken care to keep the symbolic and ritualistic
heritage of the order. Moreover, even the distinction of the three degrees is in the spirit of traditional
symbolism and connects to the first of the sacred numbers. You can roughly say that three is the
number of the apprentice or novice, five is the number of companion and seven is the number of the
master, or the venerable master or master builder.

But one must accept with a certain discernment variations, additions and especially the explanations
and comments of relatively modern rituals and catechisms, which have elements infiltrated that are not
traditional and instead are often arbitrary and personal. For example, the orientalist Goblet of Alviella,
who was Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite of Belgium, has indianized the rituals of the upper levels: and since he completely ignored
hermeticism, has added real errors to his its orientalist interpretation. Ragon, a writer of the last
century, once known as the “auteur sacré” (sacred author) of Freemasonry, has done his best in the
interpretation and commentary of the rituals, but he has stuffed them with definition and moralistic
considerations that have little to do with the Masonic esotericism and sound aged: Excellent are the
three books of Wirth, despite the personal inclinations which he manifests for the hermetic
interpretations and the French school of occultism E. Levi, of Guaita, Papus, based on the Jewish cabala,
and tarot. The best is to stick to the old rituals, simple, skinny, skeletal. There are some English prior to
1730, French prior to 1750 and Italian prior to 1780 (16) which are not derived from French
Freemasonry.

The two words Freemason and loggia are not Italian words imported from English or French. They were
in use in Italy since the three hundred, were called lodges those of brothers Comacini, and Florence is
full of ancient loggias like that dei Lanzi the alleged derivation of the word loggia from the greek word
logos, which means word or verb is unfounded and only serves to justify the veneration of the verse of
St. John “in the beginning erat Verbum”. In architecture, loggia is a technical term that designates an
open building, supported by columns or pillars, often built on top of buildings, for example the gallery of
theaters, and so it is an proper term to designate the temple, Masonic, supported by twelve columns ,
which has he sky as vault.

In the Lodge there are three sublime lights, that’s to say the Sun, the Moon and bright Delta, three
lights, that’s to say the worshipful Master and the two Wardens, three pillars, three windows, three
mobile jewels that’s to say the square, the level, and the perpendicular, three immobile jewels that’s to
say the rough stone, the cubic pointed stone and board trace or drawing board or triple table, and three
ornaments that’s to say the floor mosaic, the blazing star and undulating ribbon. Triple is the symbolic
journey of the profane to be eligible to receive the light, triple the battery, the kiss, the touching in
stapling, triple the riddle proposed to the profane, the three steps of the apprentice.

The task of the apprentice, or novice, is to shape the rough stone; task of companion Freemason is to
come to see and understand the blazing star. To discover it he must ascend five steps, he has the task of
forming the cubic stone and square off so that it is suitable for the construction of the temple. He is
distinguished by his knowledge of the blazing star, and, since in rituals after 1737, the letter G appears in
the interior of the pentagram, it is also said that the task of the companion is to know the letter G and
its meaning as well. All the rituals, we say all, care to remember that the letter G is the initial geometry
and the Scottish ones observe that it is the initial of God, other rituals and catechisms that it is the initial
of gnosis, etc. generation.
The only plausible explanation is the first, and the five steps that the partner must ascend correspond to
the fact that geometry is the fifth of the Pythagorean science, and in our interpretation to the fact that
in order to achieve the harmony symbolized by the blazing star, one should extend the tetrachord or
Tetractis symbolized by the Delta with the law of a fifth.

In the Loggia and in the framework of the Loggia of companion, the blazing star replaces the Delta
between the Sun and Moon, there are five lights instead of three: the stapling, the battery, the age and
the steps are based on five instead of three.

The steps to climb to ascend to the orient are on the other hand , and seven are the steps to ascend into
the Middle Chamber. Their number is that of the seven liberal sciences, the apprentice is required to
know the first three, those of the trivium, purely human sciences, the companion should furthermore
learn arithmetic and geometry, the master mason should clearly know even the last two, music and
spheris, That’s to say the harmony of the seven notes and the harmony of the spheres.

Finally seven are the nodes of the undulating ribbon wrapping around the columns of the temple.

The number three and how deeply affected the Greek mentality. And not only. Arturo Reghini’s Sacred
Numbers in Masonic Pythagorean Tradition. Chapter five: The number and its powers.

reghini pythagorean classification in terns

“Pythagoreans assigned to the supreme God the perfect ternary number where there is start, middle,
end“. Servius, Commentary to Virgil – Eclogue VIII, 75.

What we have so far exposed it reconnects undoubtedly to the Pythagorean school, and only to the
Pythagorean school. But there are also other more archaic elements, that the Pythagoreans found,
accepted, assimilated and even exalted, although they are independent from the development of
arithmetic multiplication which focuses on Tetractys consideration. These items relate to three, its
multiple, its powers and immediately consecutive numbers.
We have already said that the spoken Greek numeration was decimal, such as ours, in which the powers
of ten and ten represent the units of a higher order. But the spoken Greek numeration, and so the
Sanskrit and Latin, to be confined to these, shows traces of a spoken numeration based on three putting
a powerful seal to the very mentality of people and justified, if not determined, the Pythagorean
predilection for the number three.

The echo of this predilection has come down to us; three is universally regarded as the perfect number
for excellence, the popular mottos: omne Trinum est perfectum (in the three is perfection), there is no
two without three, are inspired by this concept. In the Pythagorean and Neo-Pythagorean school, writes
Loria (1), there existed the general motto that any collection of things had to admit a division into three
categories “; Aristotle gives the Pythagorean judgment that everything concludes with the ternary
number which is inherent in all things, and found that the three s frequently “inter sacra” ( among
sacred) ; and Cardinal Borromeo, in a rare and little-known work of his (2), quotes that Aristotle’s note.
As for Plato, he begins the Timaeus, the Pythagorean dialogue par excellence, with the words: “one,
two, three.” The three, writes the neo-Pythagorean Theon from Smyrna (3) in his “statement of the
mathematical things useful to the reading of Plato,” is the first (number) to have a beginning, middle,
end; and Lidus (4) wrote nearly the same thing. And the Alexandrian Pythagorean Porphyrius (5) says
that “there is something in nature that has a beginning, middle, end, and to indicate that form and
nature the Pythagoreans suggested the number three.”

The number three is the end of this tern or triad and the Indo-European nomenclature numbers shows
that anciently when counting it was the last number, and then started again. In fact, the Latin Quator or
Quater means etymologically “et tres” (and three) because “qua” was the Latin enclitic; The Sanskrit
catur has exactly the same origin. In Greek one of the enclitics is τε that appears in Aeolian τέτορες and
Doric τέττορες and this structure is also found in Italian in the words caterva, quaterna, and quaderna. A
proof of this connection between the three and four is supplied from the frequency of the expression
τρὶς ϰᾳὶ τετρᾲϰΊς in Greek and in Latin of the corresponding expression “terque quaterque”, for
example in the Virgil’s passage “O terque quaterque beati (blessed)” (6), which according to Macrobius
is imitated from a passage of Homer in which the author of Theologumena Arithmetica (7) finds a
mystical sense. Even Dante continues the tradition saying (8): “They were repeated three and four
times”; and this archaic combination of the three and four agrees with that of the Pythagorean Tetractys
which has representation for the equilateral triangle, that is the Delta which is the fourth letter of the
alphabet. Three is in a certain way the last number, and so the perfect number for excellence, and thus
in the spoken numbering system ternary-based the four is a new unit, as it is ten in the decimal system;
and the two Number Four and Ten, of which we have seen the connection in Tetractys, are also
associated because of the establishing of a new unit respectively in the two numbering systems.
Even grammar helps to give the three a special importance because are many the grammatical ternary
distinctions although some of them may be intentional work of grammarians and therefore more
consequence than cause of the number three excellence. However, the language precedes the grammar
and the distinction of the three grammatical numbers, the three genera and people, it is an artificial
distinction wanted by grammarians. We observe that the three also serves the greek language in the
superlative formation: τρισμάκαρες means most blessed, and τρισμέγιστος which means great are
formed like the French très grand.

Of course, the tern of triads, that’s to say the number nine, the product of three times three, is for this
reason, as noted by Dante, a most perfect number: and it is not surprising that the three and nine have a
great importance in worship and magic. According to Gomperz (9) the the number three sanctity is
already encountered in Homer every time a trinity of Gods get unified in the same invocation, for
example Zeus, Athena and Apollo. Ancestor worship honors especially under the name of Tritopatores,
or fathers trinity, the father, grandfather and great-grandfather. “Nine, writes Rohde (10), as it is easy to
see, is especially in Homer a round figure; in ancient times it was very common and normal a division of
time periods according to groups of nine. ‘The Pythagorean Anatolius (11) cites the verse of Homer (Il. V,
160) to prove that Homer recognized special value to the number nine. And the pseudo-Plutarch notes
Homer seems to show a special predilection for the number three (12) and recognize a special value to
the number nine, and points out the fact about the verse IL. XV, 169, verse that for the same reason it is
also detected by Lidus (13) and by the anonymous author of Theologumena Arithmetica.

Porphyrius (14), narrating the Pythagoras trip to Crete, says that Pythagoras climbed up to the antrum
called the veiled by black wool, and there according to the rite passed three times nine days and saw the
throne which was annually set up to that God. “So we see appearing the twenty-seven as well, the third
power of the three; and Porphyrius, who well knew of course that three nine is equal to twenty-seven,
insisted on the ritual and sacred behavior of this period of time, doubly sacred because composed of
three enneads.

Zeller (15) lingers over the continued use of the number three in Greek funeral ceremonies; and Adolf
Kaegi (16) long disserts on the three and nine in mortuary ceremonies in India, Iran, Greece, Rome.
Many of these customs have come down to us going from paganism to Christianity, and the Catholic
liturgy offers us an example in the Triduum, the Novena and ceremonies for the thirtieth day after
death. The Roman calendar has the day of the reference in Nonae, which is the ninth day before the
Ides. In the Middle Ages still existed the temporal hours, and Dante speaks in the Vita Nova and recalls
them (17) in the verses: “Florence, within the ancient circle so she took still her tierce and nones.” The
ninth was noon; and it is a voice that still lives in English noon and in some Italian dialects, for example
Barbarani uses it in his poems in the Veronese vernacular.
This veneration for the number three and number nine, so deeply rooted in language, customs, and in
the Greek mentality, has contributed to the Pythagorean tradition of distinguishing a theme in every
collection of things; especially as Cotrone, home of the Pythagorean school founded by Pythagoras, was
a Dorian colony, and the oldest institutions common to Dorians is the division into three tribes (18). The
ships of Dorians were counted by multiples of three and Dorians were qualified as τριχάιρες, that’s to
say three tribes; the qualification was old because Homer too speaks (19) of the triple Dorians.

Of course, this veneration of the number three is not a Pythagoreans peculiarity; the Far East tradition,
for instance, exposes the Tao-te-king with the formula: “One has produced two, two produced three,
three produced all numbers”; and Fabre d’Olivet (20) observes that this doctrine is elegantly exposed in
the so-called Zoroaster Oracles: The ternary shines everywhere in the universe and the monad is its
principle. But this veneration is accentuated in byPythagorean in correspondence to its arithmetic
character; “The Pythagoreans, writes Servius (21), assigned to the supreme God the perfect ternary
number which is beginning, middle, end.” According to Bungo (22) the ternary is almost a return to the
One and the origin. Bungo notes (23) the ancient theologians primarily worshiped three Gods, Jupiter,
Neptune and Pluto, sons of Saturn and Rhea. After the unit Saturnia, Bungo says, that’s to say the union
of the intelligible world where all things are implied, they divided the sense world into three regions;
Heavenly ruled by Jupiter, media by Neptune, underground by Pluto ; So you have three brothers, three
kingdoms, three scepter and all three tripartite. We have then the three Furies: Alecto, Tisiphone,
Megaera; the three Harpies: Aello, Ocypeta, Celano; the three Fates: Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos. Pareto
(24) recognizes the application of this tradition in the Capitoline triad and in the triple sign by which
almost every deity flaunts her/his power, Jupiter’s triple thunderbolt, Neptune’s trident of , Pluto’s
tricipete dog. Christianity has the Holy Trinity, the three Magi and their threefold offering, the three
crosses of Calvary. But by Pythagorean the veneration of three assumes a very special significance,
because the Pythagorean characteristic is precisely the key function recognized to the number. As for
Freemasonry, we have already seen what significance has the number three among the Freemasonry
sacred numbers.

A distinction in three categories, which dates back to Pythagoras himself, is the three lives one (25)
which Aristotle uses in the Ethics, namely, the theoretical life, practice and apolaustic. Heraclid, shortly
posterior to Plato, says that Pythagoras was the first to make this distinction; as those who came to the
Olympic games could be divided into three classes: those who were going to buy and to sell, the ones
who were going to participate in races and those who went simply to observe, so men could be divided
into corresponding three classes. Rey, who is usually inclined to attribute the posterior Pythagoreans
back what the ancients attributed to Pythagoras himself, speaking of this distinction, recognizes “how it
is impossible to doubt the coming from the very beginnings of the school.”
I decided to publish this paragraph alone because of the importance I have recognized to it. Reghini
translates and comments the last two Pythagoras golden verses to demonstrates how he meant for
them to be somewhat threefold practiced. Not only, but Reghini takes the opportunity to point how
both incorrect and “sanitized” were the version, from the original Greek, of many among contemporary
scholars and hermetists.

Another important distinction in three categories as follows: “The Pythagoreans, writes Delatte (26),
divide the reasonable beings into three categories: the man, the deity and a being of an essence
intermediate as was Pythagoras.” Into three classes were also divided the members of the Pythagorean
association; which, according to Iamblichus, were those of novices, mathematicians and physicists.
Other names are given by other writers, but the division is always threefold.

In geometry, the Pythagoreans distinguished three kinds of angles: acute, straight and obtuse which
ascribed to three species of divinity (27), and three species of triangles (28): equilateral, isosceles and
scalene. They knew that the plane filling with regular polygons is only possible with three species of
polygons: triangle, square and hexagon; and they knew that there are three regular polygons that make
up the faces of the five regular polyhedra or cosmic figures. And, although no pythagorean geometry
text has survived, it is symptomatic that Euclid’s Elements could suddenly begin with the consideration
of the equilateral triangle; one may suspect that this traditionally happened also before the geometry of
the Pythagoreans. And in music we have seen the importance of the three progressions mentioned by
Archita, the arithmetic, geometric and harmonic progression with their three medium; and as the whole
octave or harmony is an extension of the Philolaos tetrachord, which is constituted by three strings do,
fa, sol ( C, F, G) and the harmonic of the first.

In arithmetic we have already seen that the Pythagoreans divided the numbers in perfect, elliptic and
hyperbolic numbers. Likewise, the rectangular, or epiped, numbers were divided into square,
eteromechi and promechi, and so did the Pythagoreans distinguishing three classes of even numbers
and of three classes of odd numbers.

Nicomachus (29) distinguishes between even numbers: 1st – numbers equally even, that’s to say the
powers of two; 2nd – the equally odd numbers, that’s to say the form 2 (2m + 1) numbers; 3rd – the
numbers not equally even, that’s to say the numbers of form 2n (2m + 1) with n ≥ 2. The three
categories are composed of the numbers:
numbers equally even : 4, 8, 16, 32……….. numbers equally odd : 6, 10, 14, 18……….. numbers not equally
even : 12, 20, 24, 28………..

The classification exhausts all the possibilities, and the even numbers of the third class are those not
belonging to the other two. The classification of the even numbers resembles that of rectangular
numbers, like the eteromechi are distinguished from promechi because the difference between the
sides, in the case of eteromeco, is only one point and more points in the case of promechi, so the
numbers equally odd contain only a factor two, while the not equally equal contain in addition to the
odd factor times the factor of two.

We note that Euclid in Book VII called equally even the product of two even factors, but this does not
conform to the Pythagorean tradition and Iamblichus blames Euclid for this definition and, as reported
by Taylor (30), Asclepius in his manuscript commentary on the first book of Nicomachus, says this
Euclid’s definition to be incorrect because with it one get even numbers and not numbers equally even.

To this ternary classification of even numbers another also ternary did correspond fore odd numbers
according to Nicomachus,Iamblichus and Theon testimonies, ; but it has been badly transmitted.
Nicomachus distinguished: 1 – odd primes; 2 ° – secondary and synthetic numbers as the 9, 15, 21, 25,
27, 33 … which are products of two or more prime factors even not distincted ; 3rd – the numbers that
are secondary and compounds in themselves but primes respect to another number such as 25 and 9. It
is obvious that the second class contains all the numbers that do not belong to the first, and in the
example reported by Nicomachus both 25 and 9 belong simultaneously to the two classes. It is therefore
necessary to return the Pythagorean ternary classification of the odd numbers; and we seem to be able
to do by the following: Noting that, in the Pythagorean ternary classification between the unit and the
number there is only the two; that, similarly in the classification of rectangular numbers, between the
square and the promeco there is only the eteromeco (which has only one more point in one of its sides)
and similarly in the case of ternary classification of even numbers between the number equally even 2n
and the number not equally even 2n (2 m + 1), where with n ≥ 2 there is only the equally odd 2 (2 m + 1)
where the factor two is unique, the ternary classification of odd numbers was likely to be the following :
1 odd primes; 2nd the prime factors powers of which at least two distinct; 3rd powers of a single odd
prime with exponent at least equal to two. That’s to say: odd prime numbers a; powers of a single prime
an with n at least equal to two; other cases of odd numbers in which there are at least two distinct
prime factors.

This Pythagorean classification of numbers in tern of even numbers and tern of odd numbers should not
be confused with the modern classification of odd and even numbers in four classes depending on
whether the remainder of the division of a number four is 0, 1, 2, 3 ; attention all the more necessary
because the same terminology with the same word means different things in the two classifications, and
for instance, the Pythagorean equally odd numbers have the form 2 (2m + 1), while modern have the
form 4m + 1. (31)

This classification in terns and this ternary custom, in agreement with the archaic numbering based
three that makes the four to be a new unit, leads to a classification in terns of all natural numbers. And
in fact there is in Theon the following set of the first nine numbers:

1 4 7 α δ ζ

2 5 8 that is β ε η

3 6 9 γ ς θ

represented in the Theon text by the first nine letters of the greek alphabet, which in their turn were
used just as numeral signs of the first nine numbers. In this ennead or tern theme the individual
numbers of the first line, divided by three, give as rest the unit, those of the second give as rest two and
those of the third give no rest. It may be noted that in this arrangement the only internal number is five,
which is always the case for the five, in the disposition of the ten numbers of the decade according to
the Tetractys.

Continuing to arrange the numbers in terns, one gets a set of enneads with 27 numbers represented by
the 24 letters of the greek alphabet and three episemi, or signs added to the greek alphabetic system of
written numeration. The second ennead starts with 10 and the third ends with 27, which is the third
power of the three and is therefore a perfect number because it ends the tern of enneads. Continuing
again one gets an ennead of enneads whose last number is 81. If we stop to this quadruplet 3, 9, 27, 81
of powers of the three it is composed of perfect numbers in the Aristotelian greek sense of the word.

We found the number 27 in Porphyrius who insists that Pythagoras spent three times nine days in the
sanctuary of Zeus in Crete; and that reappears as an object of particular attention by the Egyptian
Freemasonry of Cagliostro. In a letter sent to Cagliostro by the Master of the Lodge “Sagesse
Triomphante” (32) to give an account of the inauguration of the temple work, there is this passage: ”
L’adoration et les travaux ont durés trois jours et par un concours remarcable de circonstances nous
étions réunis au nombre de 27, et il y a eu 54 heures d’adoration” “the Worship and work have lasted
for three days and by a remarcable combination of circumstances we gathered 27 in number, and there
were 54 worship hours.

As for the number eighty one we see it appear in Dante and this time without the usual screen of
hierarchies and principalities. According to Dante, the natural life of a perfect man should have a
duration of 81 years, and he observes (33) that “Plato lived eighty-one years as testifies by Tullius”; and
adds that if Christ had not been crucified would have lived 81 years. As you can see, Dante knew a lot.

Dante has divided his Comedia in three parts each of 33 songs written in triplets each of 33 syllables. He
manifests in “De Vulgari Eloquio” the aesthetic reasons which he honors the hendecasyllable, but it may
be that the choice of hendecasyllable was due to other reasons as well. The 99, last two-digit number, is
a perfect number multiple of three and nine; it is the number of songs of the three parts if you do not
assign the first to a particular song and one hundred is the total number of songs. Each song contains 33
as each triplet contains 33 syllables. 33 is the product of 3 to 11, the 99 is the product of 9 to 11; and if it
is the sum of the first four powers of the three and the unit, one gets the square of 11, which is the
fourth prime odd number.

In this numeration based three, that is in this arrangement of numbers in terns and enneads, the new
units are the numbers connective to the powers of the three, namely 4, 10, 28, 82. Of the 4 and 10
we’ve been already dealt with. As for the number 28, firstly it is a perfect number in the sense
technically modern and strict to the word because its divisors are 1, 2, 4, 7 and 14 whose sum is exactly
28. For these reasons it was especially considered by the Pythagoreans and we know it in two ways.

The Antologia Palatina (34) retained under the name of the epigrammatist Socrates a dialogue between
Polycrates and Pythagoras in which Polycrates asks Pythagoras how many athletes is leading towards
wisdom. Pythagoras replies, I’ll tell you, Polycrates: half are studying the admirable science of
mathematics, the eternal nature is the subject of the studies of a quarter, the seventh part is practicing
meditation and silence, there are also three women whose Theano is the most distinct. That’s the
number of my students who are still those of the Muses. The solution to this problem, and the
corresponding equation of the first degree is just the number 28; and the way the problem is set shows
how to Pythagoras interested precisely to demonstrate that this number was a perfect number.

The other documentation about the number 28 is provided by the Pythagorean underground to the
Basilica di Porta Maggiore in Rome. Carcopino in his study on the Pythagorean basilica shows (35) how
the members of the Pythagorean brotherhood to which the basilica belonged were in the number of 28,
that is based on the observation already made by Mrs. Strong (36) that the funeral stucco of the basilica
cell were indeed 28. Without the purely fortuitous discovery of this underground Pythagorean basilica
we can not assert with confidence that the 28 is a sacred number in the Pythagorean sacred
architecture. Neither Carcopino nor epigrammatist Socrates indicate the reason for the choice of the
number 28, it is clearly due to its perfection, and to being equal to the sum of their own dividers, as well
as being a new unit in the terns and enneads system.

Other less immediate relations intercede between the quadruplet numbers .: 4, 10, 28, 82. The 28-sided
polygon has 350 diagonals that’s to say ten times the number of diagonals of the decagon that has 35
diagonals. Furthermore, the 28th tetrahedral number is ten times the 28th triangular number; and the
tenth triangular number is 55 which is at a time harmonic mean and the ratio between the tenth
pyramid with a square base which is 1540 and the fourth hexagonal which is 28. Similarly the 82,
following the perfect number 81 as the 28 follows the 27, is such that the tetrahedral 82 ° is equal to 28
times the triangular 82 °: So one has the two relations: F (3, 28) = 10 P (3, 28): F (3, 82) = 28 P (3, 82).

These are some of the relations between the numbers: 4, 10, 28, 81. Among the multiple of three six is
the perfect number; and its square, the 36, is the only triangular number that is square of another
triangular. In fact

reghini page 8-1

and taking into account that the two factors to the first member are two prime numbers together and
that the same should happen to the second member, and examining the four possible cases depending
on whether x and y are odd or even, is easily found that the only integer and positive solutions are x = y
= 1 and x = 8, y = 3. The six is also the only number for which happens that its cube is equal to the sum of
the cubes of the three consecutive numbers preceding it. In fact indicating with x – 1, x, x + 1 and x + 2
the four consecutive numbers must be:

reghini page 8-2

reghini page 8-3

which does not admit other real solution than x = 4, and then we have:
reghini page 8-4

If we consider the right triangles in integers, the only one whose sides have for measures three
consecutive integers is, as we know, the Egyptian triangle (3, 4, 5) which area has to fit 6; then there are
two classes of triangles in integers which it belongs as a first triangle, the Egyptian triangle, 1 – those in
which the hypotenuse exceeds of one their larger cathetus, 2 – those in which the larger cathetus
exceeds of one the lesser. The first of these two classes is given by the formula

reghini page 9-1

which for each odd value of n provides a right triangle in integer numbers (37).

This resolution is the same as that, in the words of Proclus, was given by Pythagoras. The first triangle
given by this formula, is for n = 3 and the Egyptian triangle; the second is for n = 5 and is the triangle (5,
l2, 13) whose area is 30; the sum of the areas of the two triangles is 36. The problem of determining a
right triangle in which the difference among catheti is equal to one, is a little more difficult and it was
solved by the mathematician Girard; the first of these triangles is the Egyptian triangle, the second is the
triangle (20, 21, 29) whose area is 210; the sum of the two areas is 216 = 63.

We observe now that the 36 is the eighth triangular number and, at the same time, the sixth square
that’s to say we have:

P ( 3, 8 ) = P ( 4, 6 ) = 36

and we observe that the two numbers 3 and 8 are respectively the number of sides of the octahedron
face and the number of faces, while the numbers 4 and 6 are similarly the number of sides of the face of
the cube or hexahedron and the number of faces; and that these two cosmic figures, cube and
octahedron are mutually polar. Similarly, the twentieth triangle, which is 210, is equal to 12ve
pentagonal, we have that:
P ( 3, 20 ) = P ( 5, 12 ) = 210

and also this time the number 20 is the number of triangular faces of the icosahedron and 12 the
number of the pentagonal faces of the polar polyhedron that’s to say the dodecahedron. In the end for
the tetrahedron, that is auto-polar, happens that P (3, 4) = 10.

So these three numbers 10, 36 and 210 are obtained by considering the five cosmic figures, namely the
three pairs of polar polyhedra: the auto-polar tetrahedron, the octahedron and cube, the icosahedron
and dodecahedron. As for the existing five cosmic figures, that so much takes part in Pythagorean and
Platonic geometry and cosmology, does exist then the admirable property: the triangular numbers that
have to order the number of faces of a triangular faces polyhedron are equal to the polygonal numbers
that have typically the number of sides 3, 4, 5 of the polar polyhedron and to order the number of faces
of this polyhedron. That is, the polygonal number that has to gender the gender of the face of the
polyhedron and to order n the number of faces a polyhedron remains unchanged, going from the
polyhedron to polar polyhedron.

One sees immediately that the sum of these three numbers 10, 36 and 210 is equal to 256 that’s to say
to the fourth power of the 4.

reghini page 10 1

while the product of these three numbers decomposed into prime factors contains the four factors 7, 5,
3, 2 high respectively to the first, second, third and fourth power. The bases form the quadruplet of two
and the first three odd primes and the exponents are the numbers of Tetractys. The triangular who have
to order the number of faces of the tetrahedron, octahedron and icosahedron are respectively:

reghini page 10-2

P ( 3, 20 ) = P ( 5, 12 ) = 210 = 3 P ( 5, 7 ) = 2 . 3. 7 . = product of 2 and the first three primes of the

decade.
It has also:

reghini page 11-1

We do not know if these properties have already been observed by others, sive Deus, sive Dea (either
god, or goddess).

The numbers of Tetractys appear in some formulas that express the cosmic figures as sums of
tetrahedra, and also appear in atomic physics in connection with the number of electrons that form the
nuclear covering of the rare gas atoms.

We have observed that a pyramidal number can always be expressed as the sum of the tetrahedral
numbers. Similarly it can be shown that the same thing occurs for octahedral, cubic, icosahedral and
dodecahedral numbers; namely, that a polyhedral of order n is always equal to an additive combination
of the three consecutive tetrahedral to order n – 2, n – 1 and n, and are the following identities:

reghini page 11-2

formulas that are easy to verify bearing in mind that the first members are given by the following
general formulas of polyhedral numbers:

tetrahedral n, reghini page 11-3

cubical n reghini page 11-4

octahedral n reghini page 11-5

n icosahedral reghini page 12-1

n dodecahedral reghini page 12-2

In the four preceding identities the coefficient of the average term that’s to say of the tetrahedral (n – 1)
° is respectively 2, 4, 8, 16, that’s to say the power of the two which has as exponent the numbers 1, 2,
3, 4 of the Tetractys .

This would happen according to the Platonic constitution of matter. In atomic physics instead appear
the squares of the numbers of Tetractys. And here’s how: If you order the chemical elements according
to the laws of Moseley and Mendelejev according to the similarity of their chemical behavior, the first
column is occupied by the so-called rare gases, namely helium, neon, argon, krypton , xenon, the
emanation of radium. It is found that the number of electrons that constitute the their atomic nucleus
covering, in the above written order, which is the natural one according to their atomic weight and the
atomic number, is respectively:

2 10 18 36 54 86

The corresponding finite difference or gnomons are then respectively and neatly

2 8 8 18 18 32 that’s to say 2. 12, 2. 22, 2. 32, 2. 42

reghini page 12-3

which is the double of the squares of the numbers of Tetractys.

We observe that the first four triangles given from the Pythagorean formula (see footnote 39) are: ( 3, 4,
5 ), ( 5, 12, 13 ), ( 7, 24, 25 ), ( 9, 40, 41 ), and in them the difference, between the hypotenuse and the
odd cathetus has precisely the values 2, 8, 18, 32. These triangles have in fact sides
reghini page 12-4

and the difference between the hypotenuse and the odd cathetus n is

reghini page 12-5

and substituting it has

reghini page 9-3

Since m is odd then that is of the form m = 2 p + 1 equal the catheter can be written:

reghini page 9-4

which is four times the p triangular number. This formula expresses then the Pythagorean theorem: the
quadruplet of p triangular number and the (p + 1) odd number are the two catheti of a right triangle in
integers in which the hypotenuse exceeds of one the even cathetus. It has namely:

reghini page 9-5

for example, for p = 5 has the triangle (60, 11, 61). This formula can be deduced as a special case of the
general formulas page 40 and 41 ( Arturo Reghini Sacred Pythagorean Numbers 9) by placing them in m
= p + 1 and n = p; In fact, the x becomes:

reghini page 9-6.

38. (40 in the formula image) The two identities

P ( 3, 8 ) = P ( 4, 6 ) = 36 P ( 3 , 20 ) = P ( 5, 12 ) = 210

say that the 8th triangular is equal to the sixth square and the twentieth triangle is equal to the twelfth
pentagonal. The problem of determining a triangle which is also a square was solved by Euler, the
indeterminate equation

reghini page 10-3

admits infinite integer solutions given by the double series

x 1 8 49 288 y 1 6 35 204 for which applicants apply formulas

reghini page 10-4

Similarly Euler (Algebra, ed. Leipzig, page 391) has solved the problem of determining the triangular
which are also pentagonal, that’s to say he solved the equation

reghini page 11-6

whose infinite solutions are given by the double series x 1 20 285 3976 55385 … y 1 12 165 2296 31977. .
.

for which formulas apply applicants

reghini page 11-7

The triangular corresponding to odd values to the order x are also diagonal numbers, that’s to say they
have the form z (z 2 – 1) with z = 1, 143, 27693. . .

The first solution, after the unity, of the two problems is that given by the two identities, that is that
connected to the cube and octahedron, and the icosahedron and dodecahedron, and expresses the
property that we set out on the cosmic figures.