Comte de Gabalis [1913], at sacred-texts.com
CA Greek Initiate of the sixth century B.C., known as the Son of Apollo the Sun God, or Son of the Sun, and the first to take the name of Philosopher, lover of Wisdom. Pythagoras publicly recognised the power of woman to achieve Initiation by associating his wife Theano with him in the teaching of a brotherhood which he founded at Crotona, and by entrusting the conduct of this work to her at his death. To facilitate the mastery of mind, every disciple entering this school took a vow of five years' silence. During this period a system of numbers and symbols, preserved intact in the Order to this day, was imparted, concentration on which opened the mind of the disciple to different states of consciousness. Pythagoras held that numbers
are the principle of the universe and a key to the cosmic or Solar Consciousness in man.