Number

Number in the Jungian-Pauline tradition is not first of all the quantitative instrument of counting and measurement but a qualitative reality — an archetypal ordering principle that structures psyche and matter jointly. Jung and Pauli hypothesized that number is the most primitive psychoid archetype, the point at which psyche and matter, mind and world, are still one and through which synchronistic events become thinkable.

Von Franz developed the thesis most fully in Number and Time (1974): the first four natural numbers, taken in their archaic and Pythagorean valences, carry distinct qualitative meanings — one as unity and totality, two as division and polarity, three as dynamism and process, four as completion and wholeness — that are manifest in mythological, alchemical, and dream material across cultures. The Pythagorean tetractys is the classical schema. The Yijing is another numerical cosmology. Number in this sense is an archetype, and the practice of counting is historically a theological act before it becomes a merely technical one. See qualitative-number and synchronicity.

Relationships

• qualitative-number
• synchronicity
• jung-pauli-interpretation-nature-psyche