The Quaternity
The four
Fourness, the pattern of completeness.
The Quaternity: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Jung found the number four wherever wholeness is at stake: four elements, four seasons, four directions, four evangelists, four rivers of paradise, and, in his own psychology, four functions of consciousness: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition.
He often quoted the alchemical axiom of Maria Prophetissa, “One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth,” and read the hard step from three to four as the taking-in of what had been left out.
The Quaternity: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Ezekiel’s four living creatures, the four cardinal points, the four humours and four qualities of Galenic medicine, set out in the Materia Medica’s introduction to Galenic pharmacy.
From the Sources
Thurston gives the reasoning that three, the number of the Trinity, figures the divine nature, while four, the number of the elements, typifies the material world.
“The reason is that three, the number of the Blessed Trinity, figures the Divine nature, and four, the number of the elements, typifies the number of the material world.”
Herbert Thurston, Symbolism, Section on the symbolism of church building (the twelve consecration crosses). The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 14; New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912 (New Advent online text). The text, read in full
In Revelation, John sees four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds.
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth”
The King James Version of the Bible, Revelation 7:1. Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
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
- Psychological Types (1921), CW 6
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
- “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity” (1942/1948), CW 11
- “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 Quaternity.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/quaternity.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Psychopomp: The one who leads the soul across. Putrefactio: Rotting: the old form must decay before the new can grow. The Quest: The long search for what was lost. The Quintessence: The fifth, beyond the four: what the elements hold in common.