by Bruce Johnson —
Bruce Johnson has over 30 years of study in the fields of Ancient Wisdom and occultism. He has taught classes on a wide range of topics, from Atlantis to mediums to Zoroaster. He is also a Spiritualist minister, with a background in spiritual astrology. He lives in Colorado with his wife and their cat.
The renowned philosopher Pythagoras is widely recognized as the greatest geometer, astronomer, mathematician, and musical instructor of antiquity. In addition to his well-known expertise in these fields, Pythagoras was also highly educated in metaphysical and occult knowledge that he acquired in his extensive travels throughout the ancient world. The earthly sojourn of Pythagoras begins around 586 BCE in Samos, the significance of his upcoming life having been foretold to his parents unexpectedly in a prophecy by the priestess- oracle of Delphi. Some esotericists believe Pythagoras was an earlier incarnation of the adept Koot Humi.
Pythagoras’ keen desire to attain spiritual wisdom led him to be accepted into, and initiated in, the Mysteries of India, Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, and Phoenicia. Pythagoras studied the Inner Wisdom for years with Brahmin instructors, even meeting and becoming a disciple of Lord Buddha for a time while in India. The awareness he gained from study in the Indian and other Mystery Schools is the source of the exceptional sagacity Pythagoras demonstrated. In addition to disciplines like geometry and music, Pythagoras had acquired arcane knowledge on many subjects including astrology, stones and minerals, magical powers, healing, and divination.
Pythagoras taught that the stars and planets were alive and in fact, the living vehicles or bodies of great conscious beings. Pythagoras was well- experienced in Judicial or Mundane astrology which he learned from the Chaldeans. Pythagorean astrological and astronomical tradition teaches of a heliocentric solar system, a spherical Earth, the obliquity of the ecliptic, and his discovery that the planet Venus was both the morning and evening star.
Pythagoreans believed in an infinite universe, and defined God as Universal Mind that is diffused through all things. Pythagoras embraced the spiritual doctrines of reincarnation but not transmigration, the ether and the five elements, Karmic Law, Emanation, positive magic and alchemy, and occult numerology among others. The Emanation of the sacred Triad, Tetrad, and Decade from the mystical number One taught by Pythagorean philosophy describes the process of manifestation from invisible spirit into mental matter, and finally, tangible physical form.
Pythagoras understood the occult and therapeutic properties of the many types of plants and stones that exist in nature and could remember his past lives as plants, fish, birds, and persons. Pythagoreans practiced healing using special poultices made of different plant combinations. Color and music therapy were also important healing methods. Pythagoras used special musical harmonics to effectively treat various diseases.
Pythagoras is well known for being able to influence the weather and cause rain, storms, or sunshine. He was also a skilled mesmerist who could affect the behavior of wild animals. One time he called an eagle down from the sky to himself, subsequently stroking the eagle’s head and calmly talking to it. On other occasions, he convinced an aggressive she-bear not to eat human flesh, and a bull to stop eating beans in a field by whispering in its ear. Spiritual gifts demonstrated by Pythagoras include- Interpreting omens, traveling clairvoyance, healing, prophecy, dream interpretation, bi-location, and divination.
Among the divination methods practiced by Pythagoras were- by pattern interpretation of burning frankincense combined with smoke, by flights of birds and sounds in nature, and by various forms of water divination.
