Tetractys

The Pythagoreans' fundamental conception of number was contained in what they called the tetractys, a triangular figure of the first four numbers made of points arranged as shown here. These four numbers add up to ten.

Edinger identifies the tetractys as the core numerical symbol of Pythagorean cosmology, equating it with the oracle of Delphi and with the harmony of the spheres, and thus grounds its psychological significance in numinous antiquity.

Edinger, Edward F., The Psyche in Antiquity, Book One: Early Greek Philosophy From Thales to Plotinus, 1999thesis

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the symbolism of the tetractys; the descent and ascent of the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4; and I spoke of how the three steps of transition in the ascent of the tetractys, 4, 3, 2, 1, correspond to the three stages of the coniunctio.

Edinger explicitly maps the ascending and descending movement of the tetractys onto the three stages of the alchemical coniunctio, making the figure a structural diagram of the individuation process.

Edinger, Edward F., The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung's Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995thesis

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From the point of view of psychology, these early formulations are not only valid for the external world, but are also the projection of pure psychology. They represent the sequence of psychic development in infancy.

Edinger reinterprets the geometrical progression encoded in the tetractys — point, line, plane, solid — as a psychological sequence mirroring the developmental emergence of the self from undifferentiated unity.

Edinger, Edward F, The Psyche in Antiquity, Book One Early Greek Philosophy thesis

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One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the One as the fourth.

Edinger presents the Axiom of Maria as a parallel numerical formula to the tetractys, both encoding the alchemical and psychological movement from unity through multiplicity back to a higher unity.

Edinger, Edward F., The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung's Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995supporting

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23-3. The Pythagorean tetractys. Author's diagram. 277 23-4. The process of psychological development. Author's diagram.

The figure list of the Mysterium Lectures records a dedicated diagram of the Pythagorean tetractys placed immediately adjacent to a diagram of psychological development, visually asserting their structural equivalence.

Edinger, Edward F., The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung's Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995supporting

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the number 216 is the product of the cubes of 2 and 3, which are the two last terms in the Platonic Tetractys

Plato's commentator identifies the generative number 216 as derived from the terminal members of the Platonic tetractys, embedding the figure within the cosmological arithmetic of the Republic's nuptial number.

Plato, Republic, -380supporting

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He also speaks of a human or imperfect number, having four terms and three intervals of numbers which are related to one another in certain proportions

The Republic's discussion of the divine and human numbers — four terms, three intervals — provides the Platonic textual foundation upon which the tetractys-based numerology of cosmic cycles is built.

Plato, Republic, -380supporting

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A central concept of the Pythagoreans was arithmos, number. They were responsible for the discovery of numbers as a conceptual paradigm; they were gripped by the numinosity of

Edinger establishes the broader Pythagorean context in which the tetractys arises, describing the numinous grip of arithmos as the foundational experience from which all Pythagorean number symbolism — including the tetractys — proceeds.

Edinger, Edward F, The Psyche in Antiquity, Book One Early Greek Philosophy aside

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the unit had been held by the Pythagoreans to contain within itself both the elements of number, the even (or unlimited) and the odd (limited or limit)

The Timaeus commentary on the Pythagorean monad as containing the principles of both even and odd number provides the arithmetic metaphysics underlying the tetractys sequence of 1 through 4.

Plato, Plato's cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997aside

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