The trinitarian and the quaternarian
M Winther
The physicist Wolfgang Pauli took great interest in the intellectual
controversy between the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) and the
physician and Rosicrucian Robert Fludd (1574-1637) (cf. Pauli, W.,
1955). While Fludd remained true to an alchemical view of the world,
Kepler's modern methods of quantitative measurement was, according to
Fludd, tantamount to heresy. Kepler and Fludd represent the attitudes
of the trinitarian versus the quaternarian (cf. Lindorff, D., 2004,
p.89).
The number three signifies the "trinitarian" standpoint, associated
with the development and dominance of consciousness. This is the ideal
of our civilization, as hypostatized in our trinitarian godhead. Level
three is sanity, and too much of it, actually. Thus, life, especially
in the spirit, is often lived imitatively rather than being rooted in
the earth. The number four signifies the "quaternarian" standpoint
associated with the joint cooperation of conscious and unconscious.
However, this level is also subject to falsification, I think, and
could be dangerous to people who are not suited for it.
The number four represents an advancement in that 'four', according to
C.G. Jung, stands for "the concretization of the spirit as it is cast
in the subjective mould". That's why level three can be regarded as
not quite right. On the surface it is right, but it is not rooted in
the earth, only ritually manifested, almost as a matter of pretense.
For instance, a Christian church lets people *imitate* a life in the
spirit, rather than experiencing it on the personal level. This
actually creates a hindrance for spiritual development as it is a fake
substitute, as it were.
A scientific career is typically lived on the level three in that it
is lived according to collective measures and ideas. Not much personal
experience is involved in his scientific endeavour. The reason why the
historical alchemist had a "quaternarian consciousness" is because he
experienced the chemical reactions in his own soul, he phantasized
about them, built a mythology around them. Thus he experienced the
chemical reactions with the wholeness of his soul, and not only in his
mind, as mathematical signs. One can say that the trinitarian
consciousness is a mind-life rather than a soul-life. Thus, the mind
imitates a soulful life. It is not wrong, but it is not right, either.
It depends on the capacity of the individual.
In medieval alchemy this progression is represented by the Axiom of
Maria wherein "One becomes Two, Two becomes Three, and out of the
Third comes the One as the Fourth." The axiom is a metaphor for the
whole process of individuation. However, in China the number five
possesses the same significance as four does with us, because it is
taken to represent the *centered* four, a concept also found in the
Western alchemical idea of the 'quinta essentia'. So, to the Chinese,
the fifth level is not going beyond, but centralization par
excellence.
Mats Winther
http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/
References
Lindorff, D. (2004). Pauli and Jung - The Meeting of Two Great Minds.
Pauli, W. (1955). 'The influence of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific
Theories of Kepler' in Jung and Pauli (eds), The Interpretation of
Nature and the Psyche.
Sharp, D. (1991). Jung Lexicon - A Primer of Terms & Concepts :
http://www.psychceu.com/Jung/sharplexicon.html