The Four Degrees of Pythagorean Initiation

first perfect number - that is $2^{16} = (1+2+3)^3 = D(3)^3$, the triangular of 3 to the third power -). Degree I: the ACUSMATICI (Novitiate, those who could listen). According to Pythagoras, it was appropriate that Novices should not speak for at least 3 years, so they were tested with silence and became listeners to their first masters. In this degree they were taught psychology, physiology, liturgical exercises, meditation and the secret symbols of the Order. Thus in this degree there was a first rough shaping and especially through meditation, ascetic exercises and silence, those instruments were formed that would then allow them to learn more quickly and solidly the doctrines of the successive degrees. In this degree the Novices were clothed in white linen and had their first contact with the life of the Order. Life in the Pythagorean Order was a kind of monastic-scientific life. 1. The Pythagoreans rose early in the morning before sunrise and performed a particular meditation before the rising sun which then ended with songs of praise. 2. Subsequently they took walks in the sacred woods which then concluded in a meeting in the Temple of their own degree where lessons in philosophy and the doctrine of the degree took place. 3. At noon they consumed a meal seated at tables of ten people, the youngest of the group made a reading aloud which was then commented on by the eldest 4. The afternoon was dedicated to individual study or walks in small groups to review the morning lesson (except for Novices obviously) 5. In the evening after various bodily and spiritual exercises, after washing themselves, they celebrated some special liturgies of which very little is known, but which certainly involved music as well... 6. Before falling asleep they had to retrace their entire day examining it according to what they called psychostasis and examine its positive and negative aspects. This exercise was very important for the Pythagoreans and was not an exercise of only moral character. In this degree the Acusmatici learned a whole series of sayings and maxims, among which probably falls the fundamental core of the Golden Verses, which they had to learn without discussion (ipse dixit) and which had the purpose of correctly shaping the mentality of the novice from the start. Many of these sayings, sometimes formulated in a sibylline way, had various levels of interpretation, some of which have also been maintained up to us. A typical example can be, "the beginning is half of everything" which has become in modern culture "well begun is half done". Degree II: the MATEMATICI (The mathematicians dedicated themselves to the study of the Universe) After the first entry into the school and having acquired the first instruments, the initiates could dedicate themselves to the study of the Universe. In this degree they were provided with complete scientific training, they were taught physics, astronomy and especially geometry and mathematics which were considered the principal instruments for the study of the Universe. Mathematics was considered the fundamental instrument for the study of relationships and therefore of ideas, while geometry the perfect instrument for the study of forms and therefore of causes and effects. Music was the study of relationships in time, while astronomy the study of geometric forms in time. In this degree they were taught the Symbolism of Numbers and how these numbers could provide keys for the interpretation of reality. Degree III: the VENERABILI (The Sebastikoi which literally means the Venerables, the Liturgical ones) The Sebastics had as their proper symbol of the degree the letter Y which had various meanings. After having studied the entire exterior world and the relationships that exist in the Universe and in the exterior world, the Venerables dedicated themselves to the study and understanding of the interior and spiritual world. They deepened the mysteries of the soul, its origin, metempsychosis. They deepened and learned theurgy and had to become conscious mediators between the visible and invisible. At the degree of Liturgical ones, the Pythagoreans were taught first of all how to interpret dreams and how to communicate with the chthonic spirits of caves. They had particular methodologies to provoke hypnotic states of consciousness and thus magnetic sleeps with associated dreams related not only to the world of the living and dead but also, as Iamblichus says, to "permanent realities". For these experiences the Pythagoreans had to prepare themselves with incense fumigations, appropriate songs that in their conception had the power to chase away demons and elevate the soul. It seems that in this degree techniques of clairvoyance were also taught to promote intuitions to problems of spiritual and also mathematical order. Of these techniques of clairvoyance through magic mirrors and polished surfaces typical of ancient Egypt, Iamblichus speaks abundantly in the Egyptian Mysteries and some Pythagorean representations found suggest they were practiced by members of the Order. The letter Y had various meanings. The first certainly the choice of direction in the road, that is toward virtue or toward voluptuousness; the second is a hint at the connection between the visible and invisible and to the mysteries of death. Advancing in this degree indeed the Pythagoreans had to succeed in the descent in full consciousness into Hades. The soul of the Initiate reanimated by a sacred formula not well identified, had to reanimate itself after a kind of apparent death and direct itself into Hades and live that process of which Apuleius speaks in the Metamorphoses as typical of the Greek Greater Mysteries. "I approached the limits of crossing over; I trod my foot on the threshold of Proserpina and returned passing through all the elements; in the middle of the night I saw the sun shine in all its dazzling splendor; I approached the gods of hell, the gods of heaven, I saw them face to face, I adored them up close. Here is all I can say." - APULEIUS, Metamorphoses. This passage had to resolve in victory over death and liberation from the phenomenal world. Degree IV: POLITICI (Economists and Legislators Administrative Degrees) At this point the task of the Pythagorean became no longer that of perfecting himself because