4 The Shape of Things To Come

REBIRTH INTO UNISEX

4 THE SHAPE
OF THINGS TO COME


Text:
The 4th, in alchemy, is the arcane substance: ‘earth’. It is also Adam. Metaphysically, it completes The Trinity. (C. Jung, Mysterium Conjunctionis. V. Adam and Eve 8. Adam as Totality; VI. The Conjunction. 1 The Alchemical View of the Union of Opposites)

Jung remarks that The Unconscious hesitates between the numbers 3 and 4. 3 is Male; 4 is Female. The triad completes Consciousness from the Male side; the square, or circle, completes Consciousness from its opposite, Female-Unconscious side (square, if Father dominant; circle, if Mother). The transition from 3-to-4, in serial counting, thus oddly maps the dynamic form of transit from Male-to-Female dominance of collective consciousness, which may be assumed ubiquitously available for dialectical purposes. Oddly, because 1. the Conscious Dominant stages in the sequence of psychosexual development are reversed; from dominance by Mother (and Her Eyes, especially); to dominance by Father; 2. The Big 3-4 Age transition undergone by the Collective HISTORICAL Unconscious is Zodiacal – transition (in round numbers) from Pisces-Fish-Christianity (0 -2000) to Aquarius (2000 – 4000); 3. The hesitation between 3 and 4 to which Jung referred has been resolved.

3 Archetypically denotes the Trinity (Christian): symbolic logos of cosmic conscious male Father-Son totality, inwardly completed through Love. In the Christian Unconscious, this Archetype was projected as Father-Creator God (Elohim, in the Bible) incarnate in the man Jesus of Nazareth, through the Virgin Mary.

4 as “the 4th”, assumes referential identity of cardinal/ordinal number tokens, as if they simultaneously represented the synthesis of successive units in a series- merely distinct, as coin tosses; or with accumulative effect, as pedals turning a wheel. Thus understood, it may be stated that “the 4th” completes a cumulative series 1-2-3- when these tokens correlate 1-1 with any three points a->b->c-> drawn as vertices on a triangle. Drawing the shape “4”, in fact (usually from bottom-up-left-right->), uses the hand to reproduce an instance; in addition, the lower right-hand quadrant ‘squares’ whatever medium surrounds the triangle. The Arabic number token thus shows what it says; depicts what it signifies.

In this respect it belongs to a specific, yet unnamed (I think) category of sign-use. “I Do”, uttered by man and wife at the marriage ceremony belongs to this category. Uttering the words enacts – shows-- what its meaning asserts -- says. Sincerely saying them is what makes what they mean true.

“4” .. “I Do” … any more?

Hold your breath. Now repeat slowly, distinctly, deliberately after me:

“I” – state official username – “Do solemnly swear..”….uh oh ….The Oath.