The Psychology of Numbers

We often take for granted the fundamental

role that numbers play in our lives. In modern times we have been so busy in manipulating

numbers for the sake of counting and calculating, that many of us are unaware that they also

contain a symbolic meaning. Numbers do not merely have a quantitative

nature, but also a qualitative one. Several philosophers, alchemists and mystics

throughout history have associated religious or mystical ideas to numbers. Perhaps the most important one of all is the

6th century BC philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, who saw numbers as the arche or

fundamental underlying substance of reality. He thought that they had divine properties,

and as such, that they were tools for communicating with the Supreme Being. Thus, a proper understanding of numbers could

lead to an understanding of the basic structural principle of the universe, a notion that influenced

the field of sacred geometry, which studies the geometric patterns and forms present in

the world, for they are considered sacred and are believed to convey a sense of harmony

and order in the universe. Languages such as ancient Greek and Hebrew,

did not have the Arabic numerical system, and used the letters from their alphabets

as numbers. The ancient Greeks practiced isopsephy, in

which the numerical values of the letters in a word or name are added together and then

reduced to a single digit. Those that reduced to the same digit were

compared and analysed for deeper meaning. This goes back to the Pythagorean tradition. The Hebrews did the same through a practice

called gematria, in which they assigned mystical meaning to words and names based on their

numerical values, particularly in Kabbalah. In China, numbers are associated to the sounds

they make when said out loud. Some numbers are believed to be auspicious

or inauspicious. For example, 4 is related to death, and 8

is related to wealth. Similar practices exist across the world,

which reflects the human tendency to find symbolic meaning and patterns in numbers and

language. Today, this practice is known as numerology,

popularised in the early 20th century. Pythagoras is considered the father of numerology,

because of his interest in the mystical properties of numbers. The resurgence of this practice added a new

layer, namely, using numbers to understand oneself. A practice that is prevalent in esoteric circles. Numbers in themselves possess psychological

values and meanings, and from their combination, particularly of name and date of birth, the

characterological pattern is interpreted. Thus, numerologists, astrologists, and psychologists

all have their unique approaches, but their goal is fundamentally the same, it is the

age-old maxim, “know thyself.” The Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl

Jung stated that mathematics ruined the experience of school for him. Given this distaste, one might expect that

Jung would have ignored or dismissed numbers and anything linked to the subject. But not so, Jung had a long fascination for

numbers, and came to see them as archetypes (instinctual patterns of behaviour of mankind). He was interested in what the collective unconscious

had expressed from time immemorial about each natural number. In his study of alchemy, Jung noticed that

many authors associated mystical ideas to numbers. This, he believed, were the first attempts

to outline the total order of the collective unconscious, as the sum of the archetypes. Numbers have existed from eternity, predating

humanity itself, and is carried in the heritage of animals and insects, which although they

may not possess the same level of abstract mathematical understanding as humans, they

often use basic numerical skills for survival, navigation, and communication. Thus, numbers seem to be the simplest and

most elementary of all archetypes, being the very matrix of all others, and consequently,

they are primordial images which reach farther into the depths of the unconscious than any

other archetype. Jung defines number as the archetype of order

which has become conscious. Number helps more than anything else to bring

order into the chaos of appearances. That they are archetypes emerges from the

psychological fact that natural numbers, given the chance, amplify themselves immediately

and freely through mythological and symbolic statements. For some reason, we intuitively feel that

some numbers, like 7, make us feel good, while others, like 13, terrify us. It is as if numbers were linking our soul

to that which is beyond ourselves. Even numbers are appealing as they create

symmetry, odd numbers, oddly, cause interest. While we consciously use numbers quantitatively,

the unconscious uses numbers qualitatively. Dreams speak the language of nature, which

is expressed in symbols. Although numbers can appear in dreams explicitly,

it is more frequent that they appear implicitly. Instead of dreaming of a specific number,

you might dream, for example, of being in the second floor of a building, inside a room

with three people, or in a circular garden, etc. Paying attention to these small details can

allow one to further amplify the meaning of dreams, and better understand their contents. From decades of work with patients, Jung came

to see that numbers play an exceedingly important role in dreams, for they are frequent images

used by the psyche for expressing the coming to consciousness of the Self, the total personality

of an individual, which includes one’s conscious and unconscious contents. The Self is the archetype of wholeness, or

what Jung calls a God-image. Numbers are the structural characteristics

of the Self symbol, and as such, are crucial for individuation, the lifelong path towards

psychic wholeness. It is not a linear process, but rather a circular

one, which works through a circumambulation (circling around) of the Self. It is generally believed that numbers were

invented by man, and are therefore nothing but concepts of quantities, containing nothing

that was not previously put into them by the human intellect. But, for Jung, it is equally possible that

numbers were found or discovered. In that case they are not only concepts but

something more—autonomous entities which not only contain quantities, but also certain

qualities. Numbers have life, they are not just symbols

on paper. As archetypes, numbers have the quality of

being pre-existent to consciousness, and hence, of conditioning it rather than being conditioned

by it. They are discovered inasmuch as one did not

know of their unconscious autonomous existence, and they are invented or devised insofar as

they are brought into human consciousness, with their presence being inferred from similar

representational structures. People don’t have ideas; ideas have people. Jung writes:

“[W]hole numbers possess that characteristic of the psychoid archetype in classical form—namely,

that they are as much inside as outside. Thus, one can never make out whether they

have been devised or discovered; as numbers they are inside and as quantity, they are

outside… I therefore believe that from the psychological

point of view at least, the sought-after borderland between physics and psychology lies in the

secret of the number. Hence the saying, fittingly enough, that man

made mathematics, but God made the whole numbers.” Psychoid (soul-like) is a term coined by Jung

that refers to the irrepresentable nature of all archetypes, which do not fully belong

in the psyche, nor in matter, but rather transcends both and yet provides a bridge to them as

the unifying element. This is known as the unus mundus (the one

world), which is the transcendental unity of existence that underlies the duality of

psyche and matter. As the most primitive archetypes, numbers

become vital in understanding this connection. Numbers belong to both worlds, the real and

the imaginary, the world of matter and psyche, it is visible as well as invisible, quantitative

as well as qualitative. In this connection, Jung writes:

“I always come upon the enigma of the natural number. I have a distinct feeling that Number is a

key to the mystery.” Numbers are autonomous entities that exist

independently of human influence. It is with these inherent truths, that man

made all the complex and advanced mathematical concepts and theories. Numbers had their significance before men

used them as instruments, however, in the instant that they are used as mere instruments

for calculation, they become dry and lose their symbolic meaning. Jung writes:

“To the former [the mathematician], number is a means of counting; to the latter [the

psychologist], it is a discovered entity capable of making individual statements if it is given

a chance. In other words: in the former case number

is a servant, in the latter case an autonomous being.” Jung coined the term synchronicity to explain

how an inner image (dream, thought, vision, mood, premonition, etc.) can appear in the

outer world, as if the boundaries between psyche and matter were to collapse. For instance, you might dream of an important

person in your life that you have not talked to for many years, and still have unfinished

business with. Then you wake up to find a call from an unknown

number, which you later find out is from that person, who could have appeared in subsequent

dreams, but instead appeared in reality. That is a synchronicity. One’s inner image, somehow, “appeared”

in the outer world. Synchronicity is not based on causality, but

rather on a meaningful correspondence of events. Synchronicity can also appear directly in

the outside world, through seeing a particular number or set of numbers appearing in your

life over and over, as if there is a message being sent to you. The number 11:11 is a common series of numbers

people see. You might also find multiplies of 11, like

22, 3:33, 444, etc. These repeating digit numbers are referred

to as angel numbers. There is something peculiar about numbers

that seem to be related to synchronicity, as both share numinosity and mystery as their

common characteristics. However, whereas the properties of natural

numbers have existed from eternity, synchronistic events are acts of creation in time. That is to say, they appear to be linked up

with an individual’s inner development and is in some way dependent on it. Jung calls synchronicity the parapsychological

equivalent of the unus mundus. As Jung grew older, he became increasingly

interested in understanding how each number has an individual personality, and wanted

to take a further step into the realisation of the unity of psyche and matter through

research into the archetypes of natural numbers, especially the first four, which occur with

the greatest frequency and have the widest incidence. Jung began writing notes on the first five

natural numbers. Two years before his death, however, he was

too old to continue this project and handed his notes over to one of his closest colleagues,

Marie-Louise von Franz. After Jung’s death, she was devastated and

felt that she couldn’t continue this project anymore. But her conscience would not let her rest,

so she eventually picked up the topic and wrote her book, Number and Time: Reflections

Leading toward a Unification of Depth Psychology and Physics. A notoriously difficult work, which von Franz

herself called “unreadable”. Despite its difficulty, it is a major elucidation

and elaboration of Jung’s work. Von Franz delves into the archetypal and symbolic

meanings associated with the numbers 1 to 4. She postulates that representations of this

quaternio of archetypes provides the dynamical patterns which underlie all processes of perception

and symbol formation in the psyche and account for the structure and transformations of matter

and energy in the physical world. Von Franz was struck, particularly since the

discovery of quantum physics in the early 20th century, that just as the psyche has

a numerical characteristic “built in” to its very being, so does nature. She explores how the realms of mind and matter—psyche

and physis—are both numerically structured, hinting at how the inner world and outer world

are united as if they were one, which is what makes synchronicity possible. Von Franz’s general hypothesis is that all

mental and physical phenomena are complementary aspects of the same unitary, transcendental

reality. At the basis of all physical and mental phenomena

there exist certain fundamental patterns of behaviour called archetypes. The world outside is somehow contained within

our minds, while at the same time our minds are contained within the world. As above, so below; as within, so without. Therefore, as one delves deeper within the

unconscious, one gets a better understanding of the world as well, because we are a microcosm

existing within a macrocosm. We will now move on to interpreting the psychological

and symbolic meaning of the most primal numbers (1 to 4), using the works of Jung and von

Franz, Pythagoras and his followers, and other works such as Theology of Arithmetic by Iamblichus,

and The Three Books of Occult Philosophy: Book II by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. Psychologically, the number 1 refers to primal

unconsciousness. It is a state of non-differentiation, in which

we are not yet aware of our potential, which lies undiscovered and undeveloped. As such, it symbolises the principle of individuation

in the state of unrealised potential. One is no number, hen to pan (one is all). This is expressed in the ancient symbol of

the ouroboros, depicting a snake eating its own tail. Jung writes:

“One, as the first numeral, is unity. But it is also “the unity”, the One, All-Oneness,

individuality and non-duality—not a numeral, but a philosophical concept, an archetype

and attribute of God, the monad.” It is not surprising that the number 1 or

monad is generally treated as a symbol of unity and the origin of all things. The Pythagoreans used a circled dot to symbolise

the monad, an infinite circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere, a

symbol of the unus mundus. One of the suggested origins of the word “religion”

comes from the Latin “religare” (to bind again). The task is to reunite our fragmented dual

nature with the One. Likewise, the word “yoga” comes from the

ancient Sanskrit word “yuj” (yoke or union). It is the union of the material with the spiritual,

the individual self with the supreme self. Totality is superior to the parts. As beings of a dual nature, elevation is motion

toward unity. The Pythagoreans did not consider 1 to be

a number at all, because number means plurality, and 1 is singular. The One is the origin of all numbers. All other numbers can be created from 1 by

adding enough copies of it. Interestingly, multiplying 111,111,111 times

itself equals to: 12345678987654321. Therefore, the monad runs through all the

number series, through the one-continuum. With its retrograde relationship to the primal

monad each number “reaches across” to its successor. This hen-to-pan aspect is specific to all

numbers. While in the threshold of consciousness numbers

appear to be individual entities, in the unconscious they interpenetrate and overlap (as do all

the other archetypes). The unity is itself the active principle,

and number is the passive one. For when the One is multiplied it produces

no other number than itself. The Unity is the beginning and end of all

numbers. It is the source of all things. Out of the monad, comes the dyad, which Pythagoras

associated with “audacity”, because of its boldness of separation from the one, and

“anguish” because there is still a sense of tension of a desire to return to oneness. It is also associated with matter, and seen

as evil. Two is actually the first number, as it is

the source of polarity, light and darkness, order and chaos, which alone makes existence

possible. In the Book of Genesis, God praised all the

seven days of creation stating that “it was good”, except the second day, the origin

of division in creation. The alchemist Gerhard Dorn says that the number

two belonged to Eve. For this reason, the devil first tempted her. A secret relationship thus arose between the

number two, the devil, and woman. This devilish principle of duality sought

to build a creation in opposition to God. Thus, it is the number of discord, confusion,

and misfortune. It is also, however, the number of charity,

marriage, mutual love, and society. As it is said by the Lord, two shall be one

flesh. It is better that two be together then one,

for if one shall fall, he shall be supported by the other. Since antiquity, both in the West and the

East, even numbers have been regarded as feminine and odd numbers as masculine. It is also present in alchemy. Two is the first even number and also the

female principle. In practically all cultures and religions

of the world two identical demons or divine figures are found acting as the guardians

of the entrance to the Beyond, in psychological terms, the collective unconscious. For example, in Hindu mythology, Jaya and

Vijaya are the two gatekeepers of the abode of Vishnu, known as Vaikuntha (the place of

eternal bliss). In Egyptian mythology, the deity Aker appears

as a pair of twin lions, guarding the sun-disk, the gate to the Beyond, and the Lamassu are

Assyrian protective deities depicted as winged bulls or lions with human heads that were

placed at the entrance to palaces or cities to ward off evil forces. Identical duplications of figures or objects

in dreams or in myths, point to the fact that a content is just beginning to reach the threshold

of consciousness as a recognisable entity, taking the first step toward manifestation. Whenever a latent unconscious content pushes

up into consciousness, it appears first as a twofold oneness. For this reason, nearly all cosmogonies begin

their tales of the emergence of world-consciousness with a duality: creator twins, a god and his

“helper”, or, as in Genesis, the earth “without form and void”, over which the

Spirit of God moved. Psychologically, the number 2 represents a

conflict being generated for the purpose of bringing our inner potential to consciousness. The unconscious has a compensatory role, insofar

as it compensates the one-sided tendency of one’s conscious attitude. Jung writes:

“[M]an’s real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites—day and night, birth

and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail

against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battle ground. It always has been, and always will be; and

if it were not so, existence would come to an end.” Every human being is born in a paradisiacal

state, in original wholeness—whereby the infant is completely submerged in the unconscious,

without a developed ego. This is the state of non-differentiation,

where one naively participates in one’s surroundings in a state of uncritical unconsciousness,

submitting to things as they are. The infant’s individuality is in complete

identification with the mother, who provides protection, comfort and nourishment. As the infant grows up and adapts to the world,

he develops an ego (a sense of “I”), which slowly emerges out of the Self, and thus begins

the disintegration process necessary for selfhood. This natural process is described in the Garden

of Eden myth with the eating of the forbidden fruit. Another version is the Prometheus myth described

by the Greek epic poet Hesiod. Prometheus’s mischief angers Zeus, who decides

to hid fire from humans. Prometheus steals the fire back and gives

it to mankind, this enrages Zeus and Prometheus is punished. Zeus sends the first woman to live with man,

Pandora (literally “all gifts”), who carries a jar with her from which were released sorrow,

disease and death; only one thing was left behind—hope, outlining the end of the Golden

Age. Plato describes our prior existence as immortal

souls in a state of unity, before our souls descend into the body after drinking from

the River of Forgetfulness. We innately know we have come from wholeness,

but we come to forget what we once knew. Thus, we spend our lives in search of that

which will enable us to remember the wholeness we once knew. A similar idea is found in the Buddhist cycle

of birth, death, and rebirth—known as samsara. The process involves the forgetting of past

lives and experiences with each new incarnation. The goal is to break free from this cycle

through enlightenment (nirvana). In short, we are born integrated, we disintegrate,

and we have to reintegrate. The task of life is to become whole again,

but on a higher level of consciousness. This is the sine qua non of all self-realisation. The primary relationship in all of our lives

is that of the dual relationship between ego and Self, what Jungian analyst Erich Neumann

has called the ego-Self axis, further elaborated by Jungian analysts Edward Edinger and Michael

Fordham. The ego cannot exist without the support of

the Self, and the Self needs the ego to realise it. They are necessarily connected, and together

provide a vital link to human consciousness. The ego is like the boat which carries you

in the vast ocean of the unconscious. Without it, one would stand no chance against

the amoral unconscious forces, which are expressions of nature—they are not as concerned, as

we are, with human values and ethics, but belong to a realm closer to the instincts,

which Jung calls the images of the archetypes. Generally speaking, the priority of the first

half of life consists in building the ego: education, relationships, work, etc (ego-Self

separation), and in the second half of life one turns to one’s inner life: dreams, meditation,

contemplation, etc (ego-Self union). However, this may be an oversimplification,

as the process of alteration between ego-Self separation and ego-Self union is not a linear

process, but seems to occur in a circular process throughout life, both in childhood

and in maturity. This connection which provides life vitality

may be severed through childhood trauma, or if one spends one’s life focused solely

on ego-consciousness. But how are our conflicts in life resolved? Jung writes:

“[E]very tension of opposites culminates in a release, out of which comes the “third”. In the third, the tension is resolved and

the lost unity is restored.” Out of one comes two, but from the pairing

of these two comes the third. This third element or triad is what Jung calls

the transcendent function, which arises from the union of conscious and unconscious contents. If we can endure the conflict that is assaulting

us, something happens: it is resolved or reconciled. Three is the synthesis to the thesis and antithesis,

and thus provides a healing function. Three symbolises the resolution of our human

conflict through that which is higher and beyond our will, but which we provoke to come

into existence by facing our conflict, which is what wanted to come into consciousness

in the first place. The alchemists called it tertium quid (“third

thing”), an unidentified and mystical essence that emerged from the union of two known opposing

elements. In China, the progression of numbers correspond

to the cosmic rhythms of Yin and Yang, wherein any extreme is opposed in order to restore

balance, and is united in the indescribable and nameless Tao. This leads to the paradox that the powers

confront one another, but they are not in conflict—as they are held together by a

third element. Similarly, Heraclitus believed that the fundamental

principle of the universe is change and that opposing forces end up coming together to

form a harmonious unity. Thus, we may say that three consists of what

unites the opposites. Three serves as a symbol of a dynamic process,

and is the formula of all creation. The belief or hope that the third attempt

at something will be successful is expressed in the saying, “third time’s the charm.” It is relevant that three is the first odd

number and male principle. The poet Virgil sings, “God delights in

an odd number”, and Shakespeare says, “There is divinity in odd numbers.” Jung observed that the idea of a religious

trinity is quite old. He writes:

“Triads of gods appear very early, at a primitive level. The archaic triads in the religions of antiquity

and of the East are too numerous to be mentioned here. Arrangement in triads is an archetype in the

history of religion, which in all probability formed the basis of the Christian Trinity… I would mention as an example the Babylonian

triads, of which the most important is Anu, Bel, and Ea.” These triadic structures of gods and mythological

figures appear in different ways, such as one main figure flanked by two companions,

which represents the realisation of the unity of its inner opposites, and the emergence

of the One in consciousness. For example, in the Roman mystery religion

of Mithraism, the god Mithras is accompanied by two figures: Cautes and Cautopates, the

first one holds a torch pointing upward, and the second one holds a torch pointing downward. The triadic structure can also appear with

three equally important and identical figures, which represents a preconscious or older form

of the archetype. For example, in ancient Greek and Roman mythology,

the Fates are three sisters who control the destiny of both human beings and gods. One spins the thread of life, another one

measures the thread allotted to each person, and the final one cuts the thread of life

when a person’s time has come. In Norse mythology, they are called the Norns. The motif of triple goddesses was widespread

in ancient Europe. The triadic structure we are most familiar

with, however, appears as three different deities of equal importance. In the Egyptian myth of creation, there are

three deities: Isis, the goddess of magic, motherhood and fertility, Osiris, the ruler

of the underworld who is a symbol of rebirth, and Horus, the falcon-headed son of Isis and

Osiris, associated with the sky, light, and divine kingship. Christianity has the Trinity, the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hinduism has the Trimūrti, Brahma the creator,

Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. The most sacred Hindu symbol is “Om” or

“Aum”. The latter carries the theme of creation,

preservation, and destruction. Thus, though a plurality is accomplished by

the number three, in many respects it clearly maintains its oneness. This “three-oneness” is the rediscovery

of unity on a higher level. Three is seen as a symbol of perfection and

completion. The soul, the body, and the spirit; the beginning,

the middle, and the end; birth, life, and death; past, present and future. Three is also a symbol of wisdom, harmony,

and piety. In the Hermetic tradition, the syncretism

of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth has the epithet “Trismegistus” (Thrice

Great). By three the world is perfected. He is the archetype of the Wise Old Man, and

author of the Emerald Tablet, which is supposed to contain all the knowledge and mysteries

of the world, in just a few lines. The illusion of separateness is the root of

ignorance. There are two types of ignorance: the ignorance

of not knowing (which must be elevated), and the ignorance of wrong knowing (which must

be dissipated). Wisdom is equidistant from all extremities;

it consists of reconciling the divided parts. Aristotle spoke of the golden mean, in which

the greatest virtue lies between a deficiency and an excess of a trait, such as confidence

between self-deprecation and vanity. Earth is the middle place between heaven and

hell. Dante’s Divine Comedy has three parts: Inferno,

Purgatory, and Paradise; with Purgatory being the place of purification of the soul, where

imperfections are burned away; for only truth survives the fire. The shamanic cosmos has three worlds: The

Middle World, the Underworld, and the Sky Realm. These are linked together by a central world

axis, the Axis Mundi, at the centre of which is a tree, pillar or mountain; sacred symbols

of the Self. Perhaps the most popular image is that of

the World Tree. It is a Tree of Life and also a source of

the wisdom of the ages. In Norse mythology, it is called Yggdrasil. This mighty and sacred ash tree is at the

centre of the cosmos, and around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. When the tree trembles, it signals the arrival

of Ragnarök, the destruction of the gods and of the world. Plato speaks of the tripartite nature of the

human soul. Thumos (roughly translated as “spiritedness”)

is the middle region between reason and appetite. In the allegory of the chariot, Plato depicts

the human being as a charioteer (who represents thumos). He is being pushed by two winged horses: a

mortal dark horse that descends (appetite), and an immortal white horse that ascends (reason). The charioteer must direct these two conflicting

forces in order to follow the path of the Good. The triune, “the Good, the True, and the

Beautiful” is rooted in philosophical and theological traditions. The three theological virtues are faith, hope,

and charity (love). There is a popular saying that, “good things

come in threes”. The threefold path of Asha is considered the

core maxim of Zoroastrianism: good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. In Japanese mythology, there are Three Sacred

Treasures: the sword, the mirror, and the jewel, which symbolise valour, wisdom, and

benevolence, respectively. Similarly, The Three Treasures or Jewels are

the basic virtues in Taoism. Laozi states:

“There are three jewels that I cherish: compassion, moderation, and humility. With compassion, you will be able to be brave. With moderation, you will be able to give

to others. With humility, you will be able to become

a great leader.” A central concept in Buddhism is the Triratna

(Three Jewels), which reminds disciples of the three core teachings: Buddha (the Awakened

One), Dharma (the teachings), and Sangha (the spiritual community). Three were the gifts of the Magi to Christ:

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which are symbolic of Christ’s roles as a king, priest or mediator

between humanity and the divine, and of a sacrificial saviour. Fairy tales, which for Von Franz represent

the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes, often contain

the number 3: three brothers or sisters, three animals, three items, three quests, three

wishes granted by a genie, etc. Therefore, one should pay attention to number

symbolism in fairy tales, and the part it plays. Three may also be seen a number of rebirth. Christ was resurrected after three days. Jonah spent three days in the belly of a great

fish. When two circles overlap, the resulting shape

is called the vesica piscis (literally, “the bladder of a fish”). It resembles the ichthys, a fish symbol associated

with Jesus. This almond-shaped segment is also called

a mandorla, in which we can often see Christ in its centre. This is the hypostatic union that describes

Christ as both perfectly divine and perfectly human, having two complete and distinct natures

at once (a reconciliation of opposites). Three is a symbol of perfection. However, Jung was not concerned with perfection,

but rather wholeness, and for that imperfection is needed. “Life calls not for perfection but for completeness;

and for this the “thorn in the flesh” is needed, the suffering of defects without

which there is no progress and no ascent.” Jung devoted practically the whole of his

life’s work to demonstrating the vast psychological significance of the number 4, the symbol for

becoming conscious of wholeness. In his book, Answer to Job, Jung states that

the Christian trinity lacks a fourth element, namely, the dark side of God as a compensation

to the light side of God, as well as the feminine (Virgin Mary), the earth, and the body. Von Franz states that “trinitarian thinking”

lacks a further dimension. She writes:

“[I]t is flat, intellectual, and consequently encourages intolerant and absolute declarations. It is erroneous to evaluate our insights by

naively attributing eternal validity to them. When an individual becomes aware of this differentiation,

a transformation of consciousness results, in which the ego no longer identifies its

insights with an “eternal” verity, but distances itself and becomes capable of comprehending

the insight as only one of many possible revelations contained within the unknown psychic and universal

background of existence.” Three enables the symbol of wholeness to manifest

itself, which cannot be attained if the ego is seen as the centre of the total personality,

or if we deny the shadow, the unknown and hidden qualities of ourselves. This would cause a psychic imbalance. A proper relationship is expressed in the

ego-Self axis, where equal value is put in one’s inner life and outer life. In this way, a new and unique chapter in our

life’s story can be realised and lived consciously and humanly in time and space. Four is a symbol of the Self, represented

by the mandala. The psychic images of wholeness which are

produced spontaneously by the unconscious are as a rule quaternities, or their multiples

(8, 12, 16, etc). The mandala is an image of the unity of life. It is typically used as an instrument of meditation

on the sacred wholeness of the world. It contains a mathematical structure, a detail

which made Jung realise that the unconscious somehow avails itself of the properties of

whole numbers. He writes:

“The mandala symbolises, by its central points, the ultimate unity of all archetypes

as well as of the multiplicity of the phenomenal world, and is therefore the empirical equivalent

of the metaphysical concept of the unus mundus.” These structures not only express order, they

also create it. That is why they generally appear in times

of psychic disorientation in order to compensate a chaotic state or as formulations of numinous

experiences. Just as the three comes out of a pairing of

one and two, so is four related to the prior numbers. This is expressed in the ancient alchemical

axiom of Maria Prophetissa, “One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third

comes the one as the fourth.” This means that the number three, taken as

a unity related back to the primal one, becomes the fourth. This four is understood not so much to have

“originated” progressively, but to have retrospectively existed from the very beginning. We can compare this with the Tetragrammaton,

the name of God in the Hebrew Bible, which contains four letters: yod, he, waw, he (transliterated

as YHWH - Yahweh). There are three different letters, with the

fourth being a repetition of the second. To that extent, the essential name is a triad. But since the letter “he” is doubled,

the name is also a quaternity. A similar notion is found in Taoism:

“The Tao gave birth to One, The One gave birth to Two,

The Two gave birth to Three, The Three gave birth to all of creation.” Thus, we begin at one, and end up at one again. As T.S. Eliot stated, “The end of all our exploring,

will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.” We have need of the word, but number is a

much more important thing. In essence, number is sacred. “The quaternity, above all, is an essential

archetype. The square, the cross. The squaring of the circle by the alchemists. The cross in the circle, or, for the Christians,

Christ in ‘glory.’” The squaring of the circle is a symbol of

the philosophers’ stone, where all the principles of alchemy take place. In the image, we first have the outer circle,

a representation of wholeness. Within it, is a triangle, representing salt,

sulphur and mercury. Then we have a square (the four elements). When all these are brought together, we get

once again the circle of totality. This can be repeated ad infinitum. Hippocrates, considered as the father of medicine,

formulated humourism, in which four bodily fluids affect human personality traits. This proto-psychological theory indicates

four personality types: phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine, and choleric, which can be compared

to Jung’s four basic psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition,

that are identical to the four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. The Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus

compared the elements to four nature spirits: slyphs, undines, gnomes, and salamanders. Jung writes:

“[A]s soon as the unconscious content enters the sphere of consciousness it has already

split into “four”, that is to say, it can become an object of experience only by

virtue of the four basic functions of consciousness. It is perceived as something that exists (sensation);

it is recognised as this and distinguished from that (thinking); it is evaluated as pleasant

or unpleasant, etc. (feeling); and finally, intuition tells us where it came from and

where it is going.” Jung uses the equation “3 + 1 = 4” to

express the psychological fact of our 3 differentiated functions, plus 1 that is undifferentiated,

called “the inferior function”. The number 4 represents the totality of the

personality—this is why in the psychology of religion, the “4” represents to Jung

the necessary complement to the Christian Trinity, as the “dark”, feminine element

completing the Trinity to the Quaternity as a totality. However, because of its contamination with

the collective unconscious, the inferior function is very difficult to confront, as it is archaic,

mystical and primitive, the complete opposite of our “dominant function.” For example, the inferior function of a thinking

type would be feeling. It is where you are likely to encounter the

shadow, which also contains the “treasure hard to attain”. The alchemists thought that all nature consisted

of four elements, and that the quintessence was the common substance of these, so that

the four elements go back to their oneness in the fifth essence or aether, the material

that fills the region of the universe. Similarly, Plato compared these five elements

to the five platonic solids, the fifth of which “the god used for arranging the constellations

on the whole heaven.” One of the most important teachings in Buddhism

are the Four Noble Truths, which represent the awakening and liberation of the Buddha,

and the potential for his followers to reach the same liberation as him. The English visionary artist William Blake

speaks of four types of vision, each with increasing intensity. The ultimate one is fourfold vision, a glimpse

of eternity, whereby the smallest things in the world hold the cosmic truth for those

with eyes to see. He writes: “To see a world in a grain of

sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity

in an hour.” Classical philosophy and Christian theology

speak of the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. The four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke

and John are associated with the cherubim, winged chimeras that have four faces, usually

described as that of a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle. This association is known as the tetramorph. The cherubim are the moving forces of the

ophanim, the wheels of God’s fiery chariot, which appear as four wheels within wheels

in constant motion, and covered with eyes. In the Book of Revelation, four angels stand

on the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse also appear,

often identified as personifications of Death, Famine, War and Conquest. According to the Prose Edda in Norse mythology,

four dwarfs hold up the sky, supporting the world after it was made by the gods. There are four seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn,

and Winter), and four cardinal points (East, West, North, and South). In various mythologies and cultures, the “four

winds” are associated with specific deities representing the cardinal directions. The Mesopotamians identified them as four-winged

beings, three of which are male and one female. In China there are the Four Symbols, the Azure

Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Black Tortoise of the North, the

Vermilion Bird of the South. The Roman poet Ovid speaks of the Four Ages:

The Golden Age (justice, peace, happiness, and abundance of resources), the Silver Age

(agriculture, architecture, the emergence of seasons, competition, and social organisation),

the Bronze Age (a decline in morality and increase in violence), and the Iron Age (the

lowest point in human history: impiety, greed, crime, moral decay). The same theme is found in the four yugas

or world ages of Vedic astrology. Four is called the tetrad and early Pythagoreanism

associates it with justice. The sum of the first four numbers equals to

ten (the decad), which Pythagoras considered as the most holy number of all. All things spring from ten, which symbolises

unity arising from multiplicity. This is present in the Tetractys, a sacred

Pythagorean symbol, which initiates were required to swear a secret oath to, as it is what contains

the source and root of eternal nature. It is a triangular figure consisting of ten

points in four rows. The first row or single point is God, the

second row is duality, the third row is the union of matter and spirit, and the fourth

row represents the quadrivium “the four ways” (arithmetic, music, geometry, and

astronomy). Here ends the psychological exploration of

numbers. We’ll now look at some esoteric and symbolic

meaning of the numbers 5 to 10. The number five is the sum of the first even

and odd numbers (2 and 3). In alchemy, it represents the holy marriage

(hieros gamos) of male and female, the sun and the moon, King and Queen, the anima and

the animus. This leads to the union of opposites and the

creation of the philosophers’ stone or the Self. The Pythagoreans call the pentad “lack of

strife”, and it is linked to life and vitality. There are five senses (sight, hearing, smell,

taste, and touch). Five is a holy number in Christianity, as

Christ suffered five wounds during his crucifixion: the nails on his hands and feet and the wound

from the Holy Lance which pierced His side. These wounds have been the focus of prayer

and contemplation, “by his wounds we are healed.” Six is considered the first perfect number,

since it is both the sum and the multiplication of the first three numbers. The perfection of six is shown in the six

days of creation in Genesis, where God saw that all the things which he had made were

very good. This is cosmic order and harmony. On the sixth day, man was created in the image

of God. Seven is considered the most mystical of all

numbers. It symbolises fullness and completion, as

it is the day God finished his work, blessed it, and rested. Thus, it is known as the Sabbath, the day

of rest. Seven is the most repeated number in the Bible. Of the unclean animals, God tells Noah to

take one pair, male and female, into the ark. But of the clean animals and birds, Noah was

to take seven pairs. It is a number of purification (“Go and

wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be

clean”), of divine praise (“Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous

judgments”), and of divine planning, seven people were named before their birth by the

angels or God. There are seven colours, seven days of the

week named after the seven classical planets, associated with the seven Roman gods. In Mithraism, there were seven degrees of

initiation, connected to the seven planetary spheres, through which the soul rose to paradise. There are seven archangels, seven sacraments,

seven deadly sins (and virtues), seven chakras, seven enlightened sages in ancient India,

etc. In Judaism and Islam there are seven heavens. The number eight is often associated with

infinity, given its shape. Its symmetry suggests balance and harmony,

and it is a multiple of 4 (symbol of wholeness). The Chinese consider it the luckiest number,

as its pronunciation, bā, sounds similar to fā (wealth or prosperity). In Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is a

fundamental teaching, consisting of eight steps that lead to enlightenment. Nine is the highest single-digit number and

represents the ultimate achievement and completion of a cycle. It is a symbol of spiritual attainment and

the return to the divine. In Dante’s Paradise, the ninth celestial

sphere is the Primum Mobile (the First Mover), it is the last sphere of the universe, moved

directly by God, and the abode of angels. From here, Dante ascends to the Empyrean,

the abode of God, where he experiences the ineffable and union with God. Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism, is

known for his book, The Enneads, compiled by his student in six groups of nine treatises. For the Neoplatonist, the highest task of

life is union with what they call “the One”, attained through theurgy (working with God). Nine is dedicated to the Nine Muses, the inspirational

Greek goddesses. There are also nine choirs of angels arranged

in a hierarchy based on their proximity to God. Finally, ten is the universal number, complete,

and signifying the full course of life. There are ten commandments in the Bible, and

in Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is composed of ten sephiroth or spheres,

which are emanations of Ein Sof (The Infinite). As we have mentioned, Pythagoras considered

the decad to be the holiest number. It flows back into a unity, from whence it

came so everything that is flowing is returned back to that from which it had the beginning

of its flux. Water returns to the sea, the body returns

to the earth, time returns into eternity, the spirit returns to God. The decad is the limit of all number: for

they run their course by wheeling and turning around it. The sum of the parts of any number until it

is reduced to one single digit is always between 1 and 9. This concludes the brief exploration of the

numbers 5 to 10. Now, it may be good to revisit the prior main

themes. We started by emphasising the importance of

numbers as having not just quantitative properties but also qualitative ones (for Pythagoras

they were divine). We mentioned how in ancient times people associated

mystical meaning to words and names based on their numerical value, which became the

basis for 20th century numerology that seeks to understand personality through numbers. Then we looked at how number is the most primitive

archetype (the archetype of order), and provides a vital link between matter and psyche (united

by the unus mundus), which explains synchronicity. Our main focus, however, was on the psychological

exploration of the first four numbers which form the basis for all the rest of the numbers,

and as such it is not surprising that they are the most recurring ones in the psyche:

1 being a state of unity, non-differentiation and potential; 2 the origin of a conflict

for bringing the potential to consciousness; 3 the resolution of that conflict through

a synthesis, and 4 the integration of the unconscious insight into human consciousness,

in order to progress towards wholeness—a return to unity on a higher level of consciousness—which

remarkably symbolises the human creation myth and the purpose of life. To paraphrase Pythagoras, “Number rules

the universe.”