Mathematics is built from the natural integers 1, 2, 3, etc. Numbers are fundamental ordering elements and possess qualitative aspects that are widely present in many traditions such as the Pythagorean or the I Ching. During the building process of mathematical construction, these factors—which physicist Wolfgang Pauli called “primary possibilities” of the unconscious—abandon their symbolic meaningful charge to become quantitative mathematical numbers. Since then, although quantity and significance have been deployed in independent fields of knowledge, qualitative unconscious halos of the numbers have not disappeared so far. Pauli met them in his quest towards the famous “exclusion principle.”
They might seep into the scientific discourse that has reached the limits of its method, which sees the observer “coming in through the back door,” as an integral part of the phenomenon “whole universe” modeled by contemporary cosmology. Through the reflection of the archetypal number, detected as “rhythmic configurations of energy” in the history of the universe, author Alain Negre reveals unprecedented links between certain events in this story and raises the questions of their use in theoretical physics as an aid in interpreting and in suggesting new avenues of research.
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Table of Contents
Preface ix
1. Seeing the History of the Universe in a Different Light 1
2. Wolfgang Pauli and Number as ‘Primitive Mathematical Intuition’ 7
3. Signs in the Sky: The Withdrawal of Projections 19
4. Science Finds its Origins Outside of its Own System of Thought: Natural Numbers and the Foundations of Mathematics 29
4.1. Limits in Scientific Knowledge 29
4.2. Levels of Reality and Mirroring Effects 33
4.3. Qualitative Number and Quantitative Number 36
4.4. The Number-Archetype, the Point of Contact between Matter and the Psyche 39
4.5. Symmetry and Asymmetry in Number 42
5. The Concept of Number-Archetype and the First Four Integers 49
5.1. One Becomes Two, Two becomes Three . . . Number as a Field 49
5.2 The First Four Integer Numbers as Fundamental Dynamic Models 51
6. The Transition from Three to Four 65
6.1. The Transition from Three to Four in the (3 + 1) Psychological Functions 67
6.2. The Transition from Three to Four in the Trinity and the Assumption of Mary 67
6.3. (3 + 1) Dimensions of Space-Time and (3 + 1) Interactions in Physics 68
6.4. The Transition from Three to Four in the (3 + 1) Quantum Numbers 69
6.5. Trinitarian Kepler and Quaternarian Fludd 70
7. Traces of a Quaternary Rhythm in Cosmological Events 75
7.1 Two Strongly Emergent Events 78
7.2. Two Horizon-Type Events or Temporal-Attracting Events 82
7.3. Relative Durations of the Four Quadrants of the History of the Universe 87
7.4. The Four Quadrants and Cosmological ‘Eras’ 88
7.5. The (3 + 1) Aristotelian Causes and the (3 + 1) Steps of Alchemical Work throughout the Universe 90
8. Traces of a Ternary Rhythm in Cosmological Events 95
8.1. Three Forces and Three Ternary Sequences 95
8.2. Ternary Sequence in the First Quadrant 100
8.3. Ternary Sequence in the Second Quadrant 101
8.4. Ternary Sequence in the Third Quadrant 102
8.5. Ternary Sequence in the Fourth Quadrant 107
8.6. The Unfinished Game of the Untotalizable ‘4 x 3’ Structure 109
8.7. The Fourth of the Aristotelian Causes and Alchemical Process Revisited 110
9. The Archetypal Images of the Zodiac as Projection of Numbers-Archetypes 115
9.1. Zodiac Signs Expand Number Symbolism 115
9.2. Jung’s Equation of the Self 119
9.3. Illustration of Cyclical Process 122
9.4. The Two Spirals of the Zodiac Circle: Involution, Devolution, and Evolution processes 124
10. The Rhythmic Reflections of the Psychophysical Energy through a Diachronic Reading of the Zodiac 131
11. Squaring the Circle and the Union of Opposites 147
11.1. Strange Loops and ‘Aspects’ 147
11.2. The Interchange of Time 149
11.3. The Three Crosses of the Relational Physics of the Universe 152
11.4. Coniunctio Oppositorum: The Six Oppositions 157
12. The Universe and its Fourfold Refection 171
12.1. Four Types of Psychological Projection 171
12.2. Ego-Self Mirrorings 173
12.3. Matter-Psyche Mirrorings 174
12.4. The Four Emblematic Events of the Universe as Four Psychophysical Projections 177
12.5. The Chiseling Work of the Universe 187
Conclusion 191
Bibliography 195
