Directory of Terms

Tetractys:
A Name given to a symbolic arrangement of 10 points, not originally of astrological import, it has in one way or another been incorporated into astrological symbols -- Especially so in regard to the astrologically number-symbolism. Whilst the Tetractys is usually traced back to the pythagorean school, the best Exoteric treatment of its symbolism is found in Philo Judaeus, who presents it as merely a matter of numerical sequence, as one of the 'numerical squares'. In the tables recorded by Agrippa at the end of the 15th century, 3 is the number of Saturn and 16 the number of Jupiter, 6 is the number of the Sun, 9 is the number of Saturn and 16 the number of Jupiter.

The 10 of the tetractys is not linked in a numerical way with the planets. However, this merely points to a much deeper level of numerical association, which lies at the very roots of astrological numbers. The learned Kircher shows that the Tetractys is to be understood in regard to the Qabbalistic numerology attached to the Tetrad of the word INVH (Jehovah), of which the corresponding numbers are given Below:
```. -H = 10
``. `. -VH = 15
`. `. `. -HVH = 21
. `. `. `. -IHVH = 26

The total by means of this association of numbers is 72 - the magical number of the tetractys, and one of the most pure of astrological symbolic numbers. The magical 72 is linked with the pulse rate of the human blood (the microcosmic 72) and with the fact that in 72 years the sun retrogrades in excession exactly one degree (the macrocosmic 72): Wachsmuth has dealt with the number with a framework of modern occultism. As blavatsky says, the tetratys 'has a very mystic and varied significance' It is sometimes called the 'tetrad' or the 'mystic tetrad'