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The Nature of Reality

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The Quaternity

the fundamental unit of manifestation

I propose here that Consciousness, in manifesting, takes on a four-fold structure, which Jung refers to as the Quaternity, with the Centre being the transcedent Origin (which contains within itself an even more transcendent origin - hence the dot in the middle). Four Archetypes designate the four fundamental units of manifestation.  These are drawn here according to the convention of the I Ching of representing the positive polarity ("yang") by an unbroken line, and the negative polarity ("yin") by a brokn line.  I suggest that rather than the four-fold being derived from the two-fold (yin yang, Shiva-Shakti) polarity, the two-fold dichotomy is a  special case of the four-fold quaternity, and that the original manifestation of the Absolute Reality was as four principle archetypes.

This hypothesis is based on the universality of the quaternity as the primary paradigm of cosmology and cosmogony.  Some correspondences are indicated by the following two tables, the first of which gives a few examples from selected esoteric teachings, and the second from science and contemporary psychology.

quaternity based on I Ching bi-grams	European (Greek, Celtic, & Hermetic) elements	Indian elements (tattwas)	Chinese "elements"	Tathagata Buddhas  (Vajrayana)	Kabbalah	Anthroposophy Etheric Formative forces	Sri Aurobindo- four emanations of the Supreme Mother
type of arrangement:	mandala	emanation	mandala	mandala (+emanation)	Emanation (+mandala)	mandala (+emanation)	mandala
	Spirit (Ether,  centre)	Space (Akasha)	Earth	Vairocana	Tetra- gammaton En Sof	n/a	Mahashakti
	Fire	Air	Metal	Akshobya	yod Atzilut	Warmth ether (centrifugal)	Maheshwari
	Water	Fire	Wood	Ratna- sambhava	he Beriah	Light ether (centrifugal)	Mahalakshmi
	Air	Water	Fire	Amitabha	vau Yetzirah	Chemical ether (centripedal)	Mahakali
	Earth	Earth	Water	Amoghasiddhi	final he Asiyah	Life ether (centripedal)	Mahasaraswati

quaternity	state of matter	Jungian psychology (and equivalents)	physical force	DNA codon	Theory of Process (Arthur Young)
	?	ego  (consciousness)	unified field?	n/a	n/a
	plasma	Intuition	strong nuclear	Guanine	I Purpose (goal)
	liquid	Feeling	electromagnetic	Cytosine	II Substance (movement)
	gas	Thinking	weak nuclear	Adenine	III Form (focus on centre)
	solid	Sensation	gravitational	Thymine	IV Combination

There are a few discrepencies, which increase the futrther into the minutae of symbolism one goes.  But on the whole it comes together quite well

Some Notes

Regarding the sequence of the first four numbers, here are some notes I drew up in 1992/93 on this subject. Click on the image for a larger (possibly more readable) version

Finally, having said (and written up) all this, I might add as a post-script, regarding this hypothesis, that choice of the number four, rather than three, five, seven, ten, or any other number probably represents an arbitrary quirk of my personality.  Numerologically fours feature highly in my life, so I am probably doing nothing but reflecting my own self in this metaphysic; just as Blavatsky reflected herself in the number seven, the Chinese Taoists in the numbers two and five, and so on.

So there, you don't have to take anything seriously  ;-)

(and be wary of anyone who propounds any doctrine with too much seriousness!)

Unless otherwise attributed or quoted, all text (and diagrams) are licensed under a
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