Q U I N T I V I U M : The Integration of Inquiry
Phenomena to Study
A Re-Acquisition by The Rev. David R. Graham


All is Number.
 

Nature is Mathematics patent. Mathematics is Nature latent. Mathematics is primal. Nature is produced.

The modern academic study of phenomena (curriculum) grew helter-skelter from a four-part curriculum developed in the Greek cultural areas during the 4th and 5th Centuries BCE. That curriculum was called Quadrivium. It was used throughout the Mediterranean world, including to North and East Africa, which were Greek areas long before Alexander's time. Roman teachers subsequently amended Quadrivium to seven parts, calling their configuration Septivium. By custom, Quadrivium is attributed to quasi-Pythagoreans, Plato and others. But this is a careless attribution. Pythagoreans of that era were both reticent and renowned for setting decoys to draw the curious into fruitless endeavor -- away from themselves. Quadrivium was developed by pseudo-Pythagoreans, whose number included Plato, not by quasi-Pythagoreans.

Pythagoreans were monastics religious. They were private and vegetarian. Silent. They established the principles of the professions (law, medicine, priesthood) and of the arts (engineering, music, drama, iconography). They collated and preserved the Sacred Scriptures.

Pythagoreans supported those they taught or treated and, on principle, took no compensation for teaching or curing them. They attended only those determined to learn, and these they accepted regardless of their condition of birth.

On principle, a monastic propagates wisdom freely, without charge, so confident are they of their holding. This principle is illustrated by the Hippocratic Oath, which is the Pythagorean formulation of the medical profession. (This Oath, incidentally, prohibits iatrogenic abortion and euthanasia.)

Pythagoreans were not academicians per se, although they engaged in academic activities. Academicians, such as Plato, admired them and relied on them for curriculum content. However, academicians are not monastics. They are not seasoned and deepened by renunciation as monastics are.

The Pythagorean study of phenomena (curriculum) was expressed by the Star Pentagram, the emblem of the Order. It was a five-fold study reflecting the five-fold nature of the Universe, which is combinations and permutations of the five Elemental Principles: Ether, Air, Fire, Water, Earth.

All is Number.

Pythagoreans placed before academicians, such as Plato, a decoy called Quadrivium. This was a curriculum of four-fold nature, reflecting four Elementals, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and absenting the first one, Ether. The ruse worked.

Plato, following 'Pythagorean tradition,' calls Ether the Fifth Essence (Quintessence) and takes it for the logical type, Unity. That is, he takes Ether for a logical type different from that of the other four Elementals -- Air, Fire, Water, Earth. In fact, all five Elementals, including Ether, are of the same logical type, Multiplicity. Plato takes Ether as superior to the Elementals, as of the logical type, Unity. He takes the mundane for something it is not -- the supra-mundane (Unity). He is followed in this error by many Alchemists and Freemasons.

This error of systematization or construction signals the presence of a grave defect in Platonic epistemology, a defect that we should expect will deform Platonic philosophy in toto. It does.

Ether is the first essence (Elemental), not the fifth.
It is of the same logical type as the other
Elementals, namely, Multiplicity.

Ether has been mis-taken, by Plato and others, both cosmologically (male aspect) and ontologically (female aspect). Endless confusion and perfidy have gone down through the ages as a result. We may assert that Pythagoreans intended as much!

Over the centuries, Quadrivium has undergone scission motivated by hope of supplying its deficiency. The result is an omnium gatherum without hope of integration because Quadrivium, Itself, is an inadequacy.

Behind any discussion of education reform is this matter of correcting the structure of the study of phenomena by reinstating its first element, Ether. This is a quid pro quo. In place of the Pythagorean decoy, we could employ the Pythagorean Archetype, which is Five-ness.

It is called Quintivium: The Integration of Inquiry. Quintivium is the correct study of phenomena reflecting accurate cosmology and ontology and being appropriate for all grades and manner of student. Quintivium is a reacquisition of archetypal Indo-European structure through a study of phenomena, through empirical study.

Quintivium embodies the five Elemental Principles, Ether, Air, Fire, Water, Earth. It embraces the five essential activities of culture, Seeing, Teaching, Guarding, Producing, Crafting. Its comprehension declares the great principle of the Universe: Non-Dualistic Philosophy. It asserts that all beings are brothers and sisters in the same family, belonging to God the Father and Nature the Mother.

 
All is Number.


Q U I N T I V I U M

Seeing/Philosophy
ETHER

Guarding/Government
FIRE
Teaching/Science
AIR

Producing/Industry
WATER

Crafting/The Arts
EARTH


Details of Quintivium are as follows:

Seeing/Philosophy:
Reference
Mathematics
          Logic
          Philology
Chemistry
Ecology
Aesthetics
Systematics
          Etymology
          Cosmology
          Chronology
          Ontology
          Epistemology
          Archives
          Libraries
Exegesis
Diet
ETHER

Guarding/Government:
Support Our Troops
The Solar Dynasty
Banking
Legislatures
Diplomatics
Executive Authorities
Military
Police
Physical Education
Care Of Animals
Law
Agencies
Victors
Vandals
FIRE
Teaching/Science:
Piety
Saints and Sages
Anthropology
Linguistics
          Medieval Terminology
          Latin
          Greek
Patriotism
Palæontology
Medicine
Physics
Oceanography
Hydrology
Geography
Cartography
Geology
Botany
Zoology
Biology
Atmospherics
Astronomy
Memories
Homeschooling
Online Continuing Education
AIR

Producing/Industry:
Agriculture
          Apiculture
          Arboriculture
Mining
Logistics
          Trains
Metallurgy
Manufacturing
WATER
Crafting/The Arts:
Architecture
          Castles
Engineering
Mechanics
Construction
Shooting
Warfare
Seamanship
Trades
Cooking
Cleaning
Sewing
Writing
Painting
Sculpture
Music
          Chant
Drama
Dance
Design
Web Design
EARTH


 

Since deciding to homeschool and adopting Quintivium as the structure of our study of phenomena, the central direction of our effort has not changed. Our understanding of what we are about has expanded. Our sense of going forward in a proper manner has deepened. The success of our undertaking is gratifying.

We start by recognizing that these are not our children. They belong to He Who made and is them. We are care-takers, accountable as hired hands are to a property owner.

We try to discover and lead out the inner necessity of each child: ex (from) + ducare (lead) = educate . We lead by encouraging self-motivation.

More than anything else,
we desire that the children have good character.

This is possible only if the parents have good character and the children are constant beneficiaries of their careful attention. Part of this attention is to keep off deleterious influences -- bad company -- much as a gardener keeps weeds and pests away from young plants.

As before, we stress algebra. The reason is simple: the unique characteristic of the human being is the ability to reason; this ability, therefore, must be fostered; and the best way to do that is to develop skill with algebra. A person who can think can do anything needful. A person who cannot think is useless to themselves and to society.

After algebra, we stress proper use of the English language. Proper use is thinking, speaking and writing the Truth. The word communication has a significant etymology: com (with, being) + unus (one) = communicating. The word communication means at-one-ment, being at one. Thinking, speaking and writing the Truth is being at one.

Three years ago I was aware of the importance of poetry in the literary diet, but I am more deeply aware of it now than I was then. Without trying to describe all of its salutary qualities and effects -- a thing I cannot do in any case -- I want to stress that I now most deeply feel the importance of poetry. Really, poetry is music and music is communicating.

The Word is The Beginning
Brahma Kavi
God is the Poet -- The Poet is God

Each child's life is unique. A child takes birth in order to fulfill its own destiny, not the wishes of others, including parents.

Our public and private schools ask, 'How can we shape this child to our ends, making it obey our will, fulfill the goals we have established for it.' There are aspects of life that make this approach both desirable and imperative. We may call these aspects and the teaching of them the primary school of life. They include personal hygiene, diet and recreation, obeying parents, reverence for elders, constant self-examination and other things.

However, these aspects are not the whole story. Beyond this primary school are the secondary and post-secondary schools of life where we focus on character formation and the development of skills. In these schools the inner necessity of the student more and more takes precedence. Train the heart to be pure (character formation) and the hand to be useful (skill development). This is the goal. Detail emerges gradually as the child matures.

Each child, male and female, should learn a trade or blue-collar occupation. They will have a livelihood that is simple, direct and always-in-demand, and they will have a reserve against uneven times, which always come. Trade skill is an indispensable component of an educated person.

The trade chosen should be that determined by the inner necessity of the child, at about age 15 or 16.

Consider that Gandhi spun cotton to the day he died, Washington was a surveyor and Lee a civil engineer. Consider, also, that the study of phenomena at the United States Military Academy begins with the work of a private soldier and progresses through the ranks.

Nothing is more debilitating to society than managers (officers) who do not understand and cannot do the work of trades-people. Conversely, no situation is happier than one in which managers empathize with their charges because they understand and can do their work.

God accepts but does not approve of prayer. God appreciates self-reliance. Just so, a teacher is happiest when a student is self-taught, operating on their own two feet.

Inner necessity is, by nature, ascetical and eremitical.
Self-reliance is a hallmark of an educated person.

Homeschooling is one of the ten elements that comprise our system of education. Homeschoolers are teachers of note. Qualities they seek in an educated person are paradigmatic for the whole society.

A new day is come for our system of education. Gitche Manito has called us to the sacred river, to bury our weapons, to bathe and emerge clean, refreshed, not fighting. The Call of the Divine is an Invitation that has to be accepted. Let us take note and take heart.

 

Adwaitha Hermitage
Quintivium conflated July 12, 1986
remainder, January 15, 1992 and September 3, 1997
and again, May 1, 1999


The picture at the top of this page was drawn by Mary Graham and colored by her, also. Its title is Malcolm X and it is part of Faces of the Incarnation, a coloring book for children that was developed at Adwaitha Hermitage.

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