Each religion emanates from a unique and specific Faith. Each Faith produces a number of religions that are not identical but which for taxonomic purposes are grouped with a single cognomen.

For example, Christian Faith produces several religions, each denominated Christianity. Most deserve that cognomen, some do not. The deserving ones are to each other similar but not identical.

There is one Christian Faith. There are several Christian religions. There are many Christian churches.

Really speaking, there are as many religions as there are minds.

There are as many churches as there are patrons.

Christian unity is not in the church and not in the religion.

It is in the Faith.

Bonhoeffer meant this as well as other things when he coined the phrase, Religionless Christianity. The manthra of Teilhard, Cosmogenesis is Christogenesis, indicates, among other things, the same phenomenon viewed from another perspective, namely that of another Christian religion.

Church is body, what we think we are.

Religion is mind, what others think we are.

Faith is spirit, what we really are.

We are one in spirit,

somewhat one in mind

and many in body.

This is the truth.

Christian Faith is this:

• The Name of Jesus is Effective unto Salvation.
• Crucifixion of the Ego Yields Bliss.
• All Life is One.
• The Bible is Normative Literature.

Adwaitha Hermitage
January 21, 1992

There are nine numbers, 1 to 9. Zero is a place holder, not a number. Each number is a genius, an operation, a bundle of active character.

The specific character or genius of a number is called (in Greek) its pythmen. The pythmen of a number is the single digit that is obtained by distilling (adding) all the digits of that number until a single digit is obtained.

For example, to get the pythmen of the number 666, we add 6+6+6 to get 18. Since the pythmen of a number is a single digit, we must distill 18 by adding 1+8 to get 9. Nine is the pythmen of the number 666.

Similarly, we get the pythmen of the number 66666 by adding 6 five times to get 30 and adding 3 with zero to get 3, which is our goal, the pythmen of the number 66666.

Pythmen is a Greek word. It is used by Greek mathematicians, who were mainly geometers. The word is significant. The root is pyth, which means snake, and ultimately, Adiseesha, the Primal Cobra upon Whose Thousand-Hooded Heads the world is carried. Adiseesha is the embodiment of Dharma. In Ramayana He is Rama's Brother, Lakshmana.

The Oracle (a woman) at ancient Delphi was called the Delphic or Pythian Oracle. Apollo had slain a snake of that name at Delphi and the Oracle was a spokesperson for Him, Apollo, and for the Snake.

The Primal Serpent is part of the iconography of both Vishnu and Siva. He incarnates whenever the Lord does. He is wrapped around the body of Siva and is a divan on which Vishnu reclines. The Serpent is closely connected with Avathars of the Lord and always accompanies them. Thus, His presence at Delphi indicates an intense presence there of the Divine Force. No doubt the connection goes back to Dwapara Yuga (time of Krishna) or even to Treta Yuga (time of Rama).

The Godfather of Greek mathematicians is Pythagoras. Note the root pyth that connects this personality with palpable Divinity. Pythagoras is said to have learned his Art in Persia and Egypt. Paracelsus, the 16th Century German Alchemist who is in the Spiritual Lineage (Gothra) of Pythagoras, followed the Master in this respect.

Mathematician or geometer meant to Greeks what Adept or Sage means to us. What we regard as arid and boring, Greeks regarded as spiritual adventure of delectable savor.

When we find the pythmen of a number, we are trying to understand its operational character, its Dharma, its proper conduct. We are doing puja (worship) to Lord Siva or Lord Krishna or Lord Jesus (same as Siva aspect). The pythmen of a number is really The Pythmen because it is Adiseesha Himself, the Inseparable Companion and Devotee of the Lord.

Around the Sage Pythagoras there rose a monastic movement that laid the foundations for our modern medicine (Hippocratic Oath), our modern music (harmonic progressions), our modern mathematics and engineering (Pythagorean Theorem) and our modern diet (vegetarianism). Less obvious but equally true is that the ideals of Pythagorean Monasticism are a constituent element of Christian literature and practice.

A motto of Pythagoreans is:

ALL IS NUMBER.

This encryption has numerous facets. Everything is an activity of nine actual kinds and many (9 Bang, order significant) apparent kinds. Genetics is numbers. Also, the word is Number (singular), not Numbers (plural). What does this mean? What genii do numbers have? Clearly, each genius has multiple facets. I will indicate one or two for each number, intending that these be taken as indications, not as summations.

What do the Pythmens mean?

1 is the character of egolessness. It is like a stone that is dropped into water but does not cause ripples. All of its multiples are (pythmen) the number it multiplies. It participates without becoming involved, in but not of, not affecting and being unaffected, even though operating in the midst.

2 is the character of symmetry, of balance: Male and Female, Cosmos and Effort, Structure and Power, Positive and Negative, Right side and Left side, Purusha and Prakrithi, respectively.

3 is the character of the Trimurthi: (Holy Trinity):

Brahma / Siva / Vishnu,

Rajas / Thamas / Sathwa,

Father / Christ / Holy Spirit,

Sath / Chith / Ananda,

Sathyam / Sivam / Sundaram.

4 is the character of symmetrical degeneration. Its multiples get smaller first among the small numbers and then among the large numbers. So: 4 times 1 is 4. 4 times 2 is 8. 4 times 3 is 3 (12), or, one less than 4 times 1. 4 times 4 is 7 (16), or, one less than 4 times 2. And so forth.

5 is the character of the 5 Elemental Principles, Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. This, incidentally, is the order of emanation of these Principles: Ether from the Inner Principle of Duality, Air from Ether, and so forth.

5 has another property: it produces the Golden Section or Divine Proportion, which is the standard of elegance. This relationship sights the facade if the classical Greek Temple. It also sights the dimensions of the Boeing 747 airliner. It is widely employed at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres.

The Golden Section or Divine Proportion underlies the famous Fibonacci Series, the number series starting 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144.

This series is grouped thus in 12s. It has many delicious properties. One is that when the pythmens of the first twelve numbers of the Series are added to the pythmens of the second twelve numbers of the series, the result is 9 in every case. In other words, the first 12 numbers (12 being the number of completion) are reciprocals to 9 of the second 12. This pattern repeats: the third set with the fourth, the fifth with the sixth and so forth. The Fibonacci Series is going to 9, which is the Universal.

6 has the character of conflict between the six virtues and the six vices. Love against hatred. Faith against fear. Humility against pride. Generosity against envy. Cheerfulness against anger. Continence against lust.

Not virtue but vice generates conflict, such as the Mahabharata War. Arjuna and Krishna had no taste for War. The Kauravas, the embodiments of the vice, forced war upon the Pandavas, just as Ravana forced war on Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Sugriva and Hanuman. Who's right and who's wrong is not a question of majority rule. Only vice takes virtue for a problem.

7 has the character of the vital centers, of which there are 7 major and 7 minor, comprising The Fourteen Worlds.

8 has the character of progressive degeneration. The pythmens of its multiples get successively smaller.

9 has the character of always returning to itself. This is why it is called the Brahma Number, the number of the Supreme Absolute.

The pythmen of any number multiplied by 9 or by any number with a pythmen of 9 is 9. Nine is the perfect number in the sense that it replicates itself absolutely. It never strays from itself. Therefore, it represents the perfect sadhaka (aspirant). It symbolizes the identity of jiva and Atma.

In planar geometry, the circle is related to 9. Its number is 360 or 9. In solid geometry, the sphere is related to 9. Also the dodecahedron, which is built of 12 pentagons -- significant pythmens and patterns, all.

The dodecahedron is the solid/3-dimensional (Trimurthi) representation of the First Elemental Principle (what Plato mistakenly calls the Fifth Essence or Quintessence), namely Ether or the Pranava, OM (A-U-M).

Muslims gave us much of our memory of these matters. As the saying goes, the streets of Cordova were lighted at a time when London was a swamp.

ALL IS NUMBER is the Pythagorean motto. Really, it is a manthra.

The Pythagorean symbol is the Star Pentagram, which adorns many of the world's flags. The near-universal use of the five-pointed star is evidence of the primal (Ur-Type or Archetype to Jung students) significance of the pythmen 5, and by implication, of Pythmens as the fundamental class of operations.

Adwaitha Hermitage
January 1, 1993