The Numenius Factor
     Alexandria, Egypt, 203 AD.

     Numenius was sitting at his desk in an apartment located above a brothel in the Jewish quarter of the city. Sure he would babysit the children, he told their mothers (mostly young widows forced by circumstance into their profession). W.W.G.D. What would God do?
     Yes, indeed. Just don’t doze off...zzz...
     "Hey! Ho!"
     ...or bam! a book might hit you in the head.
     "Are you napping again, Grandpa?" asked the kiddies.
     "Praying. Grandpa was praying." Numenius coughed, rubbing his head as he looked about the room to see his past lectures in tatters on the floor. He felt like Empedocles whose kid sister used to destroy his plays, they say. How much wisdom had been lost in this way?  Numenius shrugged. Another whole year lost.
     "Grandpa, will we grow old like you?" the children asked again.
     "I hope so."
     "Will we lose our teeth like you?"
     Numenius grinned. The children stuck their fingers between his missing teeth and giggled, then resumed their play.
     Numenius now leaned back in his chair, chewing a stale bread end and flipping the crumbs like a cigar into a jar, remembering when he was a dstructive child too. Picture it: Apamea’s synagogue. A boy picking the lock and slipping inside. He shouldn’t be trespassing like this, but he wanted that old Tanach (Heb. bible) in that geniza (Heb. hiding place). Smash goes the wall. Oy! So many coils! Nevertheless, into the bag they go. Now run, Nehemya (Nehemiah)! Down the streets he ran, then tripped, as a snake uncoiled to read: "Neither shall you steal."
     "Oy, fec!"
     He kept running until he reached his Uncle’s house, short of breath, of pneuma-of spirit. He looked up into the sky, his eyes rolling around in his head, as the Spirit of God now came to rest upon him, giving him strength. Oh, he was so happy! Below, a puddle of urine had collected at his feet. "I’ll build You a new ark and tablets, I promise!"
     Numenius chuckled. What a crazy kid he was! Of course, there was also that vision he used to have. Or was it a dream?: At night, rising out of his body, kicking his way through the light to get to the top of the world, then hanging there, along with the other flowers. They shared a space, each one, and were connected by their petals, each one, so that they created a sphere around the cosmos-a place for creation to happen. At least he sensed it was a sphere, since a sphere that big just looks flat like the earth.
     It was odd because they appeared to be nothing more than beautiful white flowers dangling in space, while behind them lurked chaos, churning and churning its massive clouds and flashing its red thunderbolts. There was just chaos, space (chora), and the flowers.
     The flowers had already created the universe and were now maintaining it, utilizing just enough matter to do so, while holding back the unused portion-the ancient beast of chaos, the red-and-black ouroboros-just so that a little boy could float back down to Earth in order to play and move around. All the flowers wanted the same thing-movement-since  the flowers can’t move up there. That’s why little Nehemya stole the bible. He wanted to see if Moses had mentioned the flowers.
     But who could the boy tell his nightly encounters to? Who would listen? Maybe the world wasn’t ready, yet he vowed he would one day to try to teach them. Tahuti had a childhood vision which would not easily die...
     Numenius snapped back into the present as a knock came at the door. A woman popped her head inside the room.
     "Huh? What is it, Hannah?"
     "Professor, Candy’s in trouble."
     "Those Ben Onans again!"
     Numenius and the children rushed into the street where they came between a rabble of rabbis on one side, and Candace on the other.
     "Go ahead, stone an old man!" shouted Numenius, standing before Candace.
     "Reb Nehemya, this woman was found sleeping with a married man. We have evidence," stated a scribe among the Cynics.
     Said Numenius, "Good. Bring the wet-dick here. We’ll stone him too."
     "Are you a Mesopotamian Jew-a magian-and would you advise us?" they asked.
     "Oh, so you’ve read my Zoroaster ! What did you think?" asked Numenius.
     "Reb, we can’t stone the man. He has a wife and children."
     Numenius replied, "No. The issue is marriage, otherwise you would have also considered this woman’s children. God sees in color, not in black and white."
     "Bastards!" shouted another man.
     "Wrong again! These children have a loving Father in spite of man’s neglect," shouted Numenius, staring at the main instigators. "Strange, though, how this one has your eyes, Reb Ishak-and this one your mouth, Reb Shlomo. You hypocrites! Take care of your children! Have you never thought to buy them clothes or food?"
     "For Eve’s evil spawn?"
     "Eve invented the kiss. She discovered love," stated Numenius, adding, "Who among you can tell me the halakah (verdict) in Onan’s case?"
     Replied a rabbi, "G-d killed Onan because he masturbated."
     "No. Our Father killed Onan because he was evil, not because he masturbated, which is what all of you should have done, had it kept you from stoning mothers and creating orphans!"
     "The Law says otherwise," said yet another.
     Numenius lifted his leg. "Thus says Yahweh: Love is the Law, mercy its halakah, or else I should have killed you long ago! Now go home, all of you, and never try this again!"
     Numenius pointed homewards. The crowd dispersed, ominously eyed by the statuesque Numenius, who now turned to Candace. "Little mother, are you alright?"
     "Yes, Grandpa, I only received a bruise on my arm."
     Numenius inspected her. "Dear, are you pregnant again?"
     "Yes, Grandpa." She frowned.
     "Oh well, cheer up, and don’t worry about those men, okay? I’ll take your kids to school. Go get some shopping done with Hannah today." Numenius left with the shaken kids who asked him questions en-route to school.
     "Grandpa, will mother be alright?" asked Elizabeth, one of the children.
     "No worries." Numenius winked.
     "Grandpa, will you do that funny pointy thing again?" asked Simon, her little brother.    Numenius hiked his leg and pointed. Simon pulled his finger as Numenius farted. The children roared and began to relax.
     "Will Melanie be at school today, Grandpa?" Elizabeth asked again.
     "Have you missed a breakfast yet?"
     Elizabeth smiled and picked some roadside flowers as they reached the Museum where Melanie and the other students awaited them. Melanie got hugs and daisies from the kids, who now ran to play in a side room filled with toys purchased by Melanie. After greetings, all the students took their seats as Numenius approached the podium.
     "Er, where did we leave off yesterday?"
     "You talked about having seen the destruction of Jerusalem and of having visited Mesopotamia, Professor," stated Melanie.
     Numenius smiled. He liked being called Professor (Diadochus, or successor), though he wasn’t a formal successor to Plato’s Academy in Athens like Albinus, its current chair holder.
     "Good. Let’s move on," said Numenius. "As I stated before, the Jewish caravan routes from Mesopotamia to Apamea were insufficient for finding the MSS I desired, as well as were the libraries of Apamea and Alexandria, so I travelled to Mesopotamia where, to my surprise, I even found MSS from Sindos (India). Today let’s compare the Brahamanas  philosophy to Plato’s.
     "The texts of the Gangarides (Ganges people) are replete with Parmenidean double-talk. To wit: All is one, but then there’s the world which is a dream. But Plato would say that makes two-God and his dream. Again, they claim that God is entombed in the heart but that He’s also cosmic. To this, we can imagine Plato asking again, is He entombed or is He cosmic? Parmenides double-talked this way also, ascribing ’quaking’ borders to the Sphere (sphairos). Again, Plato might ask that if God is limitless, why does He have quaking borders? In a word, has the cosmic egg hatched or not?
     By contrast, Plato’s Timaeus also states that the Sphere sways and moves unevenly under the pressure of prime matter or original chaos, which is composed of the four Empedoclean elements jostling about. But Plato doesn’t double-talk. Instead, he proceeds to unfold the order of creation. For Plato, the Orphic world-egg has most definitely hatched into a chicken. It quaked then cracked then quacked.
     "Thus, Orpheus had it right from the start, a tradition passed down to Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato: In the beginning was the cosmic egg (Monad) which hatched, and a second creator God was born (Dyad), who then created the World Soul (Triad). These are the Three Supernals, each equally real.
     "Let’s now briefly outline Plato’s creation scheme as we did before. You’ll recall that Pythagoras claimed Three Supernals: Monad, Dyad, and Triad, which are represented by the point, line, and plane (triangle). In Plato they are also called Existence, Sameness, Difference [Tim.35], Mother, Father, Offspring [Tim.50], Form, Copy, Space (receptacle) [Tim.52], or Being, Becoming, Space [Tim.52]. Call them what you will: Grandfather, Father, Son. I call them God, mind, and soul, since man is a microcosm possessing a godhead (monad), mind, and soul like the universe. Thus we have a series of Ones: God, mind, and soul to which we also add matter (body) and ether (spirit)-matter because we recognize creation, and ether because we recognize something above matter, but which is not quite soul. So we’ve fulfilled the Pythagorean Tetraktys: Monad, Dyad, Triad, and Tetrad, to which we’ve now also added the Pentad. These five represent godhead, mind, soul, spirit, and body (matter). So now we’ve also fulfilled the five kingdoms traced out in Plato’s Timaeus [Tim.53, et al]: earth,  water, air, fire, and spirit. These elements (stoicheia) are created through the point (Monad), line (Dyad), and triangular plane (Triad), since triangles can be doubled, creating our five solids. In Empedocles, these five kingdoms are the four roots (rhizomes) plus the daimon (spirit).
     "Now Plato mentions three parts of the soul, whence Homer who mentioned menos (liver), thymos (heart), and psyche (head). Plato calls them ’wheels of the soul’ (kykloi tees psyche). Listen to Plato: ’They copied the shape of the universe and fastened the two divine orbits of the soul into a spherical body which we call the head...and which acts as a convenient vehicle (ochema) [Tim.44].’
     "Numenius continued, "Now remembering that Plato Pythagorizes and Pythagoras Platonizes, Plato calls these two circles in the head the ’Same’ and ’Different’, after Pythagoras’ Monad and Dyad, or Limit and Limitlessness. Thus altogether we now have: 1. same (Monad, halo above the head, godhead)2. different (Dyad, intellect, higher soul, our head) 3. thymos (Triad, our heart, lower soul)4. menos (Tetrad, stomach, spiritual vehicle, ’pneumatikon ochema’)5. sarx (Pentad, ’flesh’ body, matter)               
     However, we will do better if talk about these parts of the soul as ochemata (vehicles or chariots) as Plato does. Thus we now have:1. monad (monoides ochema, unit body, dodecahedron, essence, representing Pythagoreans)2. augoid (augoides ochema, light body, icosahedron, mind, representing Platonists)3. asteroid (asteroides ochema, astral body, octahedron, passions, representing Stoics)4. etheroid (etheroides ochema, etheric body, cube, desires, representing Epicureans)5. sarkoid (sarkoides ochema, flesh body, pyramid, flesh, representing Aristotelians)
     Now the Christians claim a psychic body (soma psychikon), spirit body (soma pneumatikon), and glorified body (soma doksikon), whence the Jewish nephesh (ghost)       and ruach (spirit, or pneuma). Again, call them what you like, but it still doesn’t describe man’s godhead, the monad. Though it’s double-talk, one text of the Gangarides (Taittriya Up. 5.2) mentions not only this godhead, but also 4 other vehicles, called mayas or forms-in other words, Plato’s ochemata. Thus and so:1. anandamaya (joyful body)2. vijananamaya (higher mind)3. manamaya (lower mind)4. pranamaya (breath body)5. annamaya (food body)
     Pneuma-what the Gangarides call prana-is the subtle breath (lepton pneuma) which Plato says courses throughout our bodies giving us life (Tim. 78), whence Empedocles who claimed that man thinks with his blood, which is to say with his heart. But the monad has a body (soma) too. I call it the flower of the intellect since it’s poised above the mind, as the One poised above Nous, and appears as a halo (halon) above the head. Not to be confused with the light body (augoid), this flower of the intellect is something greater in power, yet smaller in stature. It looks much like a white flower with a stem (axon, or axis) trailing below it, which is the silver cord of Solomon that is broken at death.
     "Listen again to Plato: ’Our divine part (monad) attaches us by the head to heaven like a plant by its roots [Tim.90]’. Now, invisibly attached to this cord, or floral stem, are the lower wheels of the soul, like round petiole leaves. In addition, each monad is connected to its neighbours by 4 petals or limbs (dendron), which, along with the head, equals five parts. This eternal connection constitutes the true sympatheia of the universe. I haven’t found these wheels, this flower, or this stem described anywhere else other than in Plato."
     Numenius was on the mark. Plato was the first man in the world to write about these  psychic wheels. Only 1000 years later did the Indians discover their so-called lotus chakra system, and even then it wasn’t codified until the 16th cent. AD. The Yoga-sutras of Patanjali make no mention of them, and the oldest oriental texts to do so, the Yoga-shika and Chudamini Upanishads, were written well after Sankara (8th. cent. AD) who, like Patanjali, was also ignorant of chakras. But most of all it’s our own Protestant-raised Western spiritual seekers, ignorant of Plato, who perpetuate the lie of an ancient oriental  wisdom unknown to the West.
     Numenius continued, "It is the same. It is the Same-even the SAME of Plato, Pythagoras and Orpheus! Just as the mind receives directly from the One, so the soul is like a butterfly pollinating the anthers of its own flower (monad), radiating its life down the fiery silver cord to enliven its wheels. Man (an-er) is a flower (anth-er)-a mind flower. Most philosophers, like Parmenides, can only comprehend the light of the intellect which they call  either chora (void) or plenum (fullness). Foolish Eleatics (i.e. Gnostics)! Little do they know that our mind flowers are creating a daisy-chain across the universe: A flower brocade which constitutes the spherical body (soma) of the Orphic world-egg. Above the intellectual light of the soul, so beloved by Eleatics, is the supreme beatific vision of the mind flowers, many-in-one, holding back chaos, suspended above the world in the vault of heaven (Empyrean), diffusing light to create the constellations and the orbs. There are no Aeons or Angels ruling us. We are the creator minds, co-creating with the Great Mind in this cosmic brocade. Each monad controls his sarkoid through his own cord.
     "Let me briefly relate a Jewish tale, the Akedah. Abraham decided that his son, Isaac, needed to learn about God, so they pilgrimaged to Mesopotamia to see Shem, Noah’s son, who was now 490 years-old; and there they sat at Shem’s feet as he taught them about God’s mercy for mankind after the Flood. In this way Noah passed on his wisdom to Shem, Shem to Abraham and Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, Jacob to Joseph, and ultimately to Moses and Aaron. Such is our tradition also: Wisdom travelled from Orpheus, our Greek Adam, to Pythagoras, our Greek Abraham, to Empedocles, our Greek Joseph, to Plato, our Greek Moses, to Plato’s nephew, Speusippus, our Greek Aaron.
     "I, too, pilgrimaged to Mesopotamia in search of grace and found only religions of works and of philosophic double-talk. Today men no longer live under law, but under grace if they will have it. Read the Christian letters of Paul of Tarsus alongside Plato’s Seventh letter to the Italian Pythagoreans (worshippers of Apollo) which speaks of the transmission of light from teacher to student. Both sources can teach us about God’s grace. Now for our questions. Anyone?"
     Cronius spoke up, "Professor, how do monads incarnate if they are suspended in space (chora)?"
     "The mind flowers cannot move," replied Numenius. "They never disturb their shared joy. They long ago unspindled their axons which harbor the wheels, and which alone incarnate. In this way we are simultaneously above and below, or amphibious. We are like man-of-wars (jellyfish) whose heads float atop water while their tentacle (axon) reaches  far below to snare fish. When the fish is snared, the tentacle draws the fish upwards to be digested. Similarly, our experiences on earth are being shared and eternally contemplated as Platonic Ideas by our mind flowers in the world-egg, as these experiences travel up our axons. At this very moment our shared experiences here today are being immediately digested by our several monads, as well as by all, since all are connected by dendrons (limbs).
     "Do we re-incarnate as well?" asked Ammonius Sakkas.
     "Indeed, but don’t expect to be whisked off to Rome or Athens so soon. We have people here who love us, and with whom we’ll likely stay. Like a roll-over in bed, we move when they move. Get over, scoot!"
     The students chuckled. Numenius looked up. "No more questions?" Then he wound up the talk with the same old valediction: "Lady and gentlemen, I am Numenius from Apamea come to Alexandria to found a new Academy. Together we can change the world!"
     Numenius saw off his students who, upon leaving, variously remarked, "I think he’s Plato. I think he’s Moses. I think he’s a jellyfish, but I like him."
     After the lecture Melanie approached Numenius, saying, "Numenius, Numenius, your lectures are becoming incomprehensible! Yet you’re so childlike and loveable, no one seems to mind."
     "You’re all just charmed by my senility!" replied Numenius. Melanie snorted as she pulled out a manuscript from her food basket and handed it to Numenius, saying, "I had several copies made in Greek and Hebrew of your latest MS, The Book of Creation. Don’t mind the cheese on them."
     "Oh, my Sefer Yetzira! Is it really that cheesy?" asked Numenius.
     "Well, it’s more majestic than your Odes of Solomon or Zoroaster (Chaldean Oracles), yet it lacks the majesty of your Shepherd of Men and Asclepias (Hermetic Corpus). This afternoon I’ll turn over these-ahem-ancient manuscripts to our friend, the bookshop owner, who knows how to keep a secret. As usual, all proceeds go towards the children."
     "That’s my Melanie! We’re despicable, aren’t we?" Numenius chuckled sinfully then sliced an apple, handing half to Melanie who began to pull out fruit, bread, cheese, and juice as they entered the fun-room to have breakfast with the kids who were still playing. Eight year-old Elizabeth sat in Melanie’s lap, eating grapes, as they continued their conversation.
     "Daughter, I’m getting old. I’ll be leaving you soon," remarked Numenius.
     "Oh Numenius, don’t say that. You’ll never die-not the Thrice-great Hermes, Ioulianos Theourgistes, the patriarch Avraham, and the great Solomon all in one!" she stated.
       "Oh, that’s right, old philosophers are just supposed to fade away, aren’t they? But you’ll still have to outlive my ghost so you can provide food for the children."
     "So all this time the Academy was just a front for an orphanage!" retorted Melanie. "Why don’t you ask your other students to bring food for the kids?"
     "Then whose lap will the children sit on? The kids love you-you’re their Abishag, their comforter. Besides, you’re filthy rich!"
     She laughed. "I don’t mind. Anyway, my husband’s money is mine to spend however   I wish so long as I’m alive."
     On the following Monday, Numenius arrived as usual with several children in tow only to find his  students looking sombre. Melanie was missing.
     "Professor," said Cronius, "Melanie was killed last night in her chariot. She was brought home to die."
     The children dropped their flowers as Cronius added, "Before passing, she said she wanted you to have this." They handed him an emerald necklace. "She said to sell it and put it towards the kids."
     Numenius knit his brows. "Class dismissed."
     He dropped off the kids then walked the causeway to Pharos Island and ascended the gigantic lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Once on the platform he clenched the necklace in a pink fist and stared out over the harbor. In the distance the morning sun shone on a tiny vessel with helpless passengers being buffeted by strong waves. Numenius beat his breast and howled.

*============*============*

     One month later the family was gathered around Numenius’ bed. Simon leaned over and whispered, "Grandpa, are you sleeping?"
     Numenius opened his eyes. "Praying. Grandpa was praying."
     Everybody smiled and gave a sigh of relief. Then Numenius added, "I can’t remember whether I’m 85 or 87."
     "That’s okay, Grandpa," replied Candace.
     "That’s okay, Grandpa," said little Elizabeth, imitating her mom.
     "Ah, my Academy," Numenius wailed. "I founded it. Melanie funded it. Now she’s gone, and I’m going too."
     "We love you, Grandpa," said a tearful Candy as she threw her arms around Numenius. Hannah and the children followed suit.
     "Are you going to leave us Grandpa?” asked Elizabeth, crying.
     Numenius smiled. "I’ll never leave you. Love is a cord that binds us."
     He then placed his hand on Candace’s stomach. "Protect your baby as I protected you."
     "I will," she replied.
     Silent moments passed when Simon finally asked, "Grandpa, are you still praying? Grandpa?"

Having cropped
the flower of the mind
from the Father’s bosom,
the paternal self-born Mind,
understanding his work,
then sowed in each
a fiery cord of love
that they might
continue loving forever.
                                                                 
    - from the Chaldean Oracles
This story inspired in part by the song Highwayman, by Johnny Cash

Copyright 2002 Stephen Attragon.