Number 4

The number four occupies a privileged and richly contested position within depth-psychological literature, functioning simultaneously as a cosmological principle, a structural archetype of psychic wholeness, and a symbol of material realization. Jung’s identification of four psychological functions—thinking, feeling, sensation, intuition—established the quaternity as foundational to his model of orientation to reality, a theme elaborated extensively by Marie-Louise von Franz and Karen Hamaker-Zondag. Von Franz demonstrates that the rhythm of fairy tales typically resolves not in three but in four stages, with the fourth representing a qualitative leap into something wholly other. Hamaker-Zondag, drawing directly on Jung, articulates the transition from three (dynamic process, idea in formation) to four (reification in concrete matter) as both necessary and painful, implicating the fourth psychological function and its shadow dimension. The Pauli passages transmit the Renaissance quaternarian tradition through Kepler’s symbolism, embedding four in the Tetragrammaton, the four elements, and musical proportion—establishing it as the bridge between divine and natural order. Nichols catalogues the encyclopedic scope of fourfold symbolism across cultures, while von Franz’s Creation Myths documents the near-universal appearance of four in cosmogonic narratives. The tension between three and four—Trinity versus quaternary—runs as an unresolved fault line through Jungian psychology and its engagement with Christian theology and alchemy. Across all voices, four names not mere quantity but the achievement of wholeness in the world.

In the library 16 passages

the number four stands for its realization in everyday life… four has to do with matter, and also with mandalas… Jung observed in his work how tremendously significant the number four is: he discovered the four manners of psychological orientation (the four functions)

This passage articulates the canonical Jungian interpretation of four as the number of material realization, mandala structure, and psychic wholeness via the four functions.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997thesis

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You will always read that the number three plays a big role in fairy tales, but when I count it is generally four… the fourth is not just another additional number unit; it is not another thing of the same kind, but something completely different.

Von Franz argues that four, not three, is the true structuring number of fairy-tale logic, with the fourth element representing a qualitative transformation rather than mere addition.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, 1970thesis

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Jung, moreover, says that the step from three to four is painful, because in the psyche it is associated with painful insights into ourselves… the number four can, by the very fact of the confrontations, be a powerful step toward wholeness.

The passage develops the Jungian view that four carries psychological tension and duality, linked to the inferior function, and that its integration constitutes a painful but necessary movement toward wholeness.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997thesis

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The list of ‘fours’ that have helped man throughout the ages to direct his spiritual and physical life is endless… the number four symbolizes man’s orientation to reality as a human being.

Nichols surveys the encyclopedic range of fourfold symbolism across human culture and concludes that four functions as the primary symbol of humanity’s orientation to reality.

Nichols, Sallie, Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey, 1980thesis

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this number is called by the wise the ‘Origin and Source of the whole Godhead’. Nature herself, deriving her origin from the Godhead, also lays claim to this number as to her fundamental principle.

Pauli transmits the Renaissance philosophical tradition in which four is identified as the metaphysical root of both divine and natural order, expressed through the Tetragrammaton and the quadrivium.

Pauli, Wolfgang, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994thesis

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four, the first quadrangular number, the first square number; and so on. Then he said he couldn’t do it; he felt too old.

Von Franz recounts Jung’s unfinished project of articulating the unique mathematical and symbolic individuality of each number, placing four as the first square number and archetype of the quadrangular.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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four world periods, as well as four original Gods who created the world… he created the four corners of the world… he made four beings, water spirits, and placed them under the earth

Von Franz documents the recurrence of four in Mesoamerican and Native American cosmogonies, demonstrating its cross-cultural function as a structuring principle of creation and world-orientation.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Creation Myths, 1995supporting

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four naturae gradus ad quatuor Elementa relati, videlicet Esse, Vivere, Sentire, Intelligere, 4 mundi Cardines, 4 in coelo Triplicitates, 4 sub coelo qualitates primae, 4 anni tempora: Imo vero tota Natura 4 terminis comprehenditur

Pauli presents the Latin source text establishing four as the comprehensive measure of Nature across grades of being, the cardinal points, celestial triplicities, elemental qualities, and the seasons.

Pauli, Wolfgang, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting

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The ideas of a quaternion and of the Philosophers’ Stone coincide with the beginnings of natural science. Alchemical speculations led to the idea of four states of aggregation, to the model of a space-time quaternion of four dimensions

Von Franz links the alchemical quaternion to the emergent scientific worldview, showing four as the structural model underlying both the Philosophers’ Stone and modern four-dimensional space-time.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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omnes proportiones in Musica ex numero quaternario, et ejus radice virtutes suas recipiant… an indication of the quaternary in the cross, four lines being arranged so as to meet in a common point.

Pauli documents Kepler’s argument that all musical proportions derive their force from four and its root, and that the cross as quaternary image organizes celestial symbolism.

Pauli, Wolfgang, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting

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Three represents what is in process of formation, a force that is in operation; decisions have already been made, but the goal has not yet been reached. The form does not come into being until the following number: four.

Hamaker-Zondag articulates the sequential logic by which three names dynamic process and four names its concrete resolution and formal completion.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997supporting

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they put in the four cardinal points. The observer is naturally always in the centre of that circle or cross. Thus one arrives again at the symbol of the cross within the circle.

Jung links the fourfold orientation of the cardinal points to the mandala structure of the cross within the circle, positioning the observing self at the center of a quaternary space.

Jung, C.G., Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930, 1984supporting

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The number seven is composed of the number three, which is in motion, which is still part of a process, and the number four, which is expressive of external form and rather runs the risk of petrifaction.

In discussing seven, Hamaker-Zondag identifies four as its static, form-giving component that risks petrifaction, affirming four’s symbolic association with external, material structure.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997aside

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the right hand takes from it bundles of 4, until there are 4 or fewer stalks remaining.

The I Ching yarrow-stalk procedure uses four as its counting unit in the ritual division of stalks, reflecting four’s structural role in Chinese divinatory numerology.

Wilhelm, Richard, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950aside

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There is something peculiar, one might even say mysterious, about numbers. They have never been entirely robbed of their numinous aura.

Von Franz cites Jung on the numinous irreducibility of natural numbers, providing a theoretical ground for treating four and all numbers as archetypes rather than mere quantities.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Creation Myths, 1995aside

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