THE EGYPTIAN LINGUISTICS

THE EGYPTIAN LINGUISTICS

The linguistic thesisConsonant with evolutionary thought , modern scholars regard myth as either a quaint early attempt by primitives to rationalise the baffling physical world , a romantic effort to escape from harsh , matteroffact realities or as a clumsy artis tic endeavour to communicate historical and political realities. Even Jung , who often saw wisdom where others saw only superstition , attributed the universality of myth to the work ings of a mysterious 'collective unconscious' . She comes to a contrary conclusion and sub stantiates his claim . Myth may be the earliest known means of communicating information related to the nature of the cos mos, but it is also the most precise, the most complete , and per haps the best. Myth dramatises cosmic laws, principles , processes, relationships and functions, which in turn may be defined and described by number and the interplay between numbers .

The subjectivity of language is such that readers will invariably put individual interpretations upon many of the constantly recurring key words in this text. In every case, the standard dictionary definitions are so vague as to promote individual interpretation . The following definitions are therefore not intended as comprehensive or conclusive, but they at least serve to define these words as they are intended within the present context.Action:the observable consequence of the mystical, unobservable Primordial Scission. Action is 'cause' of the universe. Primordial action is simultaneously 'reaction' . Esoterically, Action is the revolt of spirit against its imprisonment in matter. Function:the specificity of action ; its role.Process:a sequence of action characterised by organised functions. Pattern:the schema of process; the manner in which it manifests itself. Form:the observable consequence of pattern in time and space; a cat is a vital form; a triangle is an abstract or ideal form.

If measure and symmetry are absent from any composition in any degree, ruin awaits both the ingredients and the composition . . . Measure and symmetry are beauty and virtue the world over.Plato's exaltation of mathematics as an august and mysterious ritual had its roots in the dark superstitions which troubled, and fanciful puerilities which entranced, people who were living through the childhood of civilisation . His influence on education has spread a veil of mystery over mathematics and helped to preserve the queer freemasonry of the Pythagorean Brotherhoods , whose members were put to death for revealing mathematical secrets now printed in school books.

The fact that the human mind can discriminate proves that the number two has a different meaning than the number one. The ability todistinguish implies difference, and difference requires two in order to have any meaning . We can, of course, create linguistic traps , and argue that there is no way to prove that language corresponds to 'reality' . From such a trap there is no escape. But if we allow that in some way language does correspond to reality, then philosophically , number becomes imbued with meaning , and numbers are not mere intellectual abstractions .
From the standpoint of everyday experience, we are aware of the universe as an incredibly diverse system made up of a multi plicity of apparent unities . A duck is a unity , made of a multi plicity of cells, each of which is a unity made up of a multiplicity of molecules, each of which is a unity made up of a multiplicity of atoms , each of which is a unity made up of a multiplicity of 'particles' for whose description ordinary lan guage will no longer suffice. Seen one way they are particles, or unities ; seen another way, they are modes of behaviour of energy; and it is energy that is now regarded as the ultimate unity underlying the material universe. The same line of thinking followed into the macrocosmic sphere leads to the same conclusion . The duck is a unity, which is one aspect of the planet earth, which is a unity , which in its turn is part of the solar system, which is a unity , etc . . . and on and on to the galaxies which , combined, make up the unimaginable unity we call the 'universe'. Positivists and certain linguistic philosophers may argue that the concept 'universe' is a fallacy, that the universe is an illusion , no more than the sum of its parts . But in that case a duck, or a positivist, is also a fallacy and an illusion , and no more than the sum of its parts . Multiplicity presupposes unity . Multiplicity is meaningless unless unity also has meaning . Both terms confer a real, not merely abstract, meaning upon number.
It is the manner in which our senses receive information that creates an automatic , often insuperable , problem . Multiplicity assaults our senses on every front, while the unities we call 'duck', 'cell' and 'molecule' are provisional and relative — and we know this. We are such philosophically provisional , rela tive unities ourselves. Philosophically , logically, we may pos tulate an ultimate unity , but it is impalpable to our senses.
We are obliged to acknowledge the limits of reason, and to acknowledge the necessary reality of realms to which reason has no access. And while reason will not in itself set men going along the paths of an initiatic tradition (that is the function of conscience), reason is enough to invalidate skepticism. It is the senses that make us skeptics. When scientists and intellectuals claim that their atheism or agnosticism is forced upon them by 'reason', they lie.

The generation of triangular and square numbers shown schematically can sometimes give an insight into the properties of numbers and the relationships between them that swifter and more 'efficient' modern calculating methods conceal. The Pythagorean ponders rather than memorizes, and understanding does not necessarily follow cumulatively, logically orsequentially. Like the Tao, it seems there one moment, and gone the next. The triangle is the first 'form'; four is the first possible 'analog' of one, and substance in principle; the tetractys is simultaneously ten, four and one. The meaning of the trinity as three-in-one can come leaping to you out of the diagram while remaining forever obscured when expressed in words. But it requires a certain kind of perception, and those lacking it are quick to deride it.