The Archetype of the Number and its Reflections in Contemporary Cosmology

This book is an interesting journey through what the author calls psychophysical rhythmic configurations, using the work of Jung and Pauli as a starting point and seeking to reconfigure the unus mundus in our times. This is a useful exercise as we begin to rediscover the qualitative in addition to the quantitative aspects of number as well as a deeper understanding of the creative imagination. Number is seen as the most basic element of order in the human mind, allied to imagination in scientific work. Astrological cosmology projects archetypes onto the sky and here we have 3×4 in the Zodiac. However, one must begin with one and the way in which it becomes two, then two becomes three, and three achieves wholeness in four. These transitions are explored in terms of psychological functions, theology and physics. Then there is a chapter on quaternary rhythm in cosmological events, also bringing in the four causes of Aristotle and the four steps in the alchemical process. Ternary rhythms are explained in detail within the Zodiac before chapters on squaring the circle and the union of opposites, along with the fourfold reflection in the universe. This last chapter entails mirroring, the participatory approach of Wheeler and the significance of the Uroboros. Here the observer or consciousness once more becomes integral in the model, and this book charts many of the interfaces between psychology, astrology, cosmology and physics. Jung and Pauli would certainly want to have read it.