Thread by @AmurakaHidden

UNITY + Trinity = Quaternary: A Lesson in Pythagorean Number Theory (🧵)

"To the Egyptians, ONE was not a number, but the essence of the underlying principle of number; all other numbers being made of it. One represents Unity: the Absolute as unpolarized energy."

In Nature there are TWO forces producing equilibrium, & these THREE constitute a SINGLE law. The TRIAD resumed in UNITY, and by adding the conception of UNITY to the TRIAD, it becomes the TETRAD (FOUR), the first square & perfect number, the SOURCE of ALL Numerical Combinations.

FOUR is the principle of ALL Forms. According to consecrated dogma, there are THREE Persons in God, and these THREE constitute one only Deity. THREE and ONE provide the conception of FOUR, because UNITY is required to explain the THREE.

One becomes Two, Two Becomes Three & Out of the Third comes the One as the Fourth'

Pythagoreans viewed FOUR or the Tetrad as the Primogenial Number, Root of ALL Things, Fountain of Nature & the Most Perfect Number, the Number of Numbers. The Decad (10) is composed of 1+2+3+4.

The Tetractys was of Great Importance. Tetractys means 'FOUR'.

There are four dots (YODS) across the bottom, along each side and one in the center, 10 in All.

1+2+3+4=10.

To Pythagoras, this was Proof that all 10 Powers or Sephiroth of Creation exist in the Number Four.

The Pythagoreans considered there to be only 7 numbers in reality.  Unity & Duality, 1 & 2 were not considered numbers.  Numbers began at three & ended at the most auspicious of all NINE.

10 (10=1) is NOT really a Number but more of Concept, Nature's Way of Organizing Herself.

In Hermetics, the relationship of unity to duality, duality to trinity, and trinity to quaternary is pivotal.

Again, 1+2+3+4 = 10, so the Tetrad was thought to contain ALL Numbers.

This Relationship of Unity, Duality, Trinity & Quaternary is often symbolized in Alchemical Art.

The Following Alchemical Image shows ONE Serpent (ophis), TWO natures or poisons (iōn: fixed and volatile), THREE ears (the three volatile spirits) and FOUR legs (tetrasōma: the four bodies or elements).

1+2+3+4 = 10

The three ears are outside the circle while the four legs are inside, symbolizing the view that the trinity is creative and therefore stands outside of creation, while the four elements, being created, are circumscribed within.

The Fact is UNITY manifests itself as a TRINITY. It is the “Creatrix” of form, but still not form itself; form emerges through movement, that is, Time and Space.

Unity + Trinity = TETRAD, THREE and ONE provide the conception FOUR, because UNITY is required to explain the THREE.

Hence, in almost all languages, the name of G-d consists of four letters, and in Hebrew these four are really three, one of them being repeated twice (YOD), that which expresses the Word and the creation of the Word.

This concept is shown, again, in the Spiritus Mercurialis and his transformations are represented as a monstrous dragon, Python. It is a quaternity, in which the fourth is at the same time the unity of the three, the unity being symbolized by the mystagogue Hermes.

The Trinity, that is to say the Three Principles, is the basis of all reasoning, and this is why in the whole “series of genesis” it is necessary to have all [three] to establish the foundational Triad that will be the particular Triad.

Unity + Trinity = Quaternary

🧵🔚