Quaternion

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, and finally to different modern quaternarian models of the subatomic world.

Von Franz argues that the symbolic quaternion in alchemy directly prefigures and structurally anticipates modern scientific models of four-dimensional space-time and subatomic quaternarian structures, establishing a psychophysical homology.

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

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the basic fourfold structure of the psyche, which means more than only the conscious functions, is generally represented, if it appears, as a purely primitive self-manifestation of the unconscious, usually as an undifferentiated quaternion.

Von Franz distinguishes an undifferentiated quaternion — the primordial fourfold self-manifestation of the unconscious — from more evolved quaternary structures in which differentiation between the four poles reflects the degree to which consciousness has engaged with the unconscious.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psychotherapy, 1993thesis

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a pattern of order which, like a psychological view-finder marked with a cross or circle divided into four, is superimposed on the psychic chaos so that each content falls into place and the weltering confusion is held together by the protective circle.

Jung presents the fourfold mandala as a functional instrument of psychic ordering, in which the quaternary cross-division imposes pattern upon chaotic unconscious contents and circumscribes them within a protective wholeness.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1963supporting

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When the same content appears in its four-phase it has reached its best possibility for being realized in our consciousness (namely, through the four functions). Seen from this angle, number is not only quantity but has also a temporal quality.

Von Franz assigns a temporal-qualitative meaning to the number four, identifying the four-phase of an archetypal content as the moment of maximal availability to consciousness through the four psychological functions.

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

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