The Five
The quintessence
The four, and the centre that unites them.
The Five: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Five is the quaternity with its centre: four points and the one that holds them. The alchemists sought the quinta essentia, the fifth essence beyond the four elements, the heavenly substance of which the stars were made; Jung read it as the unity drawn from the four.
The Five: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Aristotle’s aether, the quincunx of four around one, the pentagram, the five wounds of Christ, the five senses.
From the Sources
Silberer writes that the cross is more generally conceived as a fiveness, four and one: in alchemy, the four elements gathered about the quinta essentia.
“More generally the cross is conceived as quinity (fiveness)—i.e., 4+1ness (in alchemy four elements which are collected about the quinta esentia).”
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts (originally published as Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism), Part II, Section IV ('Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry'). Translated by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D.; Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1971, an unabridged republication of the work published by Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, in 1917 (Project Gutenberg eBook #27755). The text, read in part
The Britannica defines the quintessence as the fifth, immaterial element over and above the four material elements of air, water, earth and fire, which Aristotle held to permeate the whole world.
“QUINTESSENCE, in ancient and scholastic philosophy, the name given to the fifth immaterial element, over and above the four material elements, air, water, earth and fire, which Aristotle assumed to be permeating the whole world”
Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Quintessence, 'Quintessence'. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
- “The Structure and Dynamics of the Self,” in Aion, CW 9ii
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Numbers
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Five.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/five.
Nearby in the alphabet: Fire: Energy that warms, purifies, and consumes. The Fish: Life in the depths, drawn up. Flight: Rising free of the ground, or fleeing from what pursues. The Flood: The waters that end one world and begin another.