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Unity and numerical relations

Quaternary and septenary

Quaternarius; Septenarie; Senarius; Sabaoth

The quaternary is a fourfold term; the senary sixfold and septenary sevenfold.

From the book

Lumen de Lumine

Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes) · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordThe quaternary is a fourfold term; the senary sixfold and septenary sevenfold. Vaughan uses them to describe union, completion, opposition and return, not one continuous arithmetical recipe.
  • In this bookOne account joins four elements to the eternal ternary and calls seven the Sabbath. Another combines threefold chaos and threefold sapphire under a governing unity, then doubles six into twelve contrary members (pp. 92–93 · Passage A; pp. 95–96 · Passage B; pp. 96–97 · Passage A).
  • In this editionThe modern reading makes the numerical names intelligible while retaining “Sabaoth” where printed. The edition notes that the surrounding explanation gives this latter form the sense of Sabbath rest.
  • A place to read1651, pp. 92–97, where the arithmetic changes its terms while retaining the problem of peaceful completion (pp. 92–93 · Passage A; pp. 95–96 · Passage B; pp. 96–97 · Passage A).

Meaning

Number here can count components, express a relation or name a completed condition. The quaternary is explicitly glossed as the four elements in the regeneration passage; the septenary names the rest reached through union. In the farewell, six counts two sets of three and seven includes an influx of metaphysical unity. These explanations are related, but Vaughan does not simply repeat one list of seven items (pp. 92–93 · Passage A; pp. 95–96 · Passage B).

The final twelve complicates any easy equation of higher number with greater perfection. Each of the six parts is twofold, and the doubles are contraries: good and bad, corrupt and incorrupt, rational and irrational. Multiplicity can therefore name conflict requiring peace rather than a completed achievement. The unity among the opposed members supplies the governing relation (pp. 95–96 · Passage B).

Use in the book

The book’s numerical imagery has a visual preparation in the cube supporting a fiery pyramid. That vision should not be made to explain every later number by itself, but the forms teach the reader to attend to relations of support, enclosed fire and upward striving. The description of first matter later calls it the quintessence of four, the ternary of two and tetrad of one, explicitly placing these expressions among its physical and metaphysical generations (p. 11 · Passage A; pp. 45–46 · Passage A).

The regeneration passage gives a particularly definite quaternary. In Christ Jesus’s Incarnation, Vaughan says, the four elements are united to their eternal unity and ternary. The next sentence, “Three and Foure make Seven,” makes the septenary the true Sabbath, God’s rest into which the creature enters. The number belongs to the argument that a body can reach a celestial and immortal constitution; it is not offered as a bare calculation whose theological sense can be discarded (pp. 92–93 · Passage A).

The farewell starts from a different count. Chaos is threefold in its first analysis, and the sapphire of chaos is also threefold. Six is consequently the Pythagorean senary or number of marriage. The influx of metaphysical unity is sole monarch among those parts and makes the seventh number, called “Sabaoth.” Vaughan adds that the body will rest there with God’s assistance. The divine assistance and governing influx are not dispensable embellishments to an autonomous material calculation (pp. 95–96 · Passage B).

He then changes the way the same six are considered. Each is twofold, and each doubling is a contrariety. Twelve results, six against six, with unity of peace among them. The bad, corrupt and irrational seeds are called tares and consequences of the curse. Vaughan presents these differentiations as the explanation of a Kabbalistic problem, so the reader must keep distinct the six-part marriage, the seventh governing unity and the twelve opposed members (pp. 95–96 · Passage B).

The quoted problem follows without Vaughan’s own English translation. It places two triads within seven, with one in the middle; twelve stand at war; three friends and three enemies are named; some give life and some kill. The final hierarchy places one over three, three over seven and seven over twelve, all arrayed together. The compressed statements preserve tensions rather than a fully labelled diagram. The supplied modern edition translates them but does not invent the missing mapping of every number to a named substance (pp. 96–97 · Passage A).

Aphorism 5 gives the quaternary another explicit function: it is the bond and means of return. This complements the earlier account of union and rest, but “return” is not silently equivalent to the final use of the elixir or to a modern chemical reduction. The local syntax speaks of unity creating, Trinity differentiating and quaternary mediating return. A fourth relation is not a fourth person added to the Trinity (Aphorism 5 · p. 100).

Places to read

  1. Light From Light · Passage A · p. 11Original; The First Matter · Passage A · pp. 45–46OriginalCube, pyramid and the numerical names for first matter prepare the vocabulary (p. 11 · Passage A; pp. 45–46 · Passage A).
  2. The Regeneration, Ascent, and Glorification · Passage A · pp. 92–93OriginalFour elements unite with the ternary; seven is called the true Sabbath (pp. 92–93 · Passage A).
  3. The Descent, and Metempsychosis · Passage B · pp. 95–96OriginalTwo triads form six, unity completes seven, and doubled contraries make twelve (pp. 95–96 · Passage B).
  4. The Descent, and Metempsychosis · Passage A · pp. 96–97OriginalThe quoted Kabbalistic problem sets out the hierarchy and conflict without a fully specified diagram (pp. 96–97 · Passage A).
  5. Aphorism 5 · p. 100LatinQuaternary is the bond and means of return (Aphorism 5 · p. 100).

In this edition

The modern reading uses quaternary, ternary, senary and septenary where the historical discourse uses Latin or older numerical forms. Its note preserves “Sabaoth” as printed in the farewell even though the explanation concerns Sabbath rest. Silently standardising the form would conceal a feature of the supplied witness (pp. 92–93 · Passage A; pp. 95–96 · Passage B).

“Reductionis” in aphorism 5 is rendered “return,” meaning a leading or bringing back in this context. The annotation explicitly rejects an unannounced identification with modern chemical reduction. In the Kabbalistic quotation, “stipati” is rendered “arrayed together,” preserving association without pretending that the passage has supplied a solved chart of all relations (pp. 96–97 · Passage A; Aphorism 5 · p. 100).

Historical forms and local uses: Quaternarius, the fourfold elemental nature; Septenarie, the sevenfold Sabbath of rest; Senarius, the six made by two threefold structures; Sabaoth, the printed name of the final seventh number.

Quaternary — Quaternarius

Quaternarius. The fourfold term explicitly glossed as the four elements in the Incarnation passage. In aphorism 5 it is called the bond and means of return. These contexts give it a mediating role in union and return; it is not a fourth divine person added to the Trinity.

Read: The Regeneration, Ascent, and Glorification · Passage A · pp. 92–93 · Original; Aphorism 5 · p. 100 · Original.

Septenary — Septenarie

Septenarie. The seven of the regeneration passage, formed by three and four and identified with the true Sabbath or rest of God. It names the completion into which the creature is to enter. The later seven is reached through two triads and their governing unity, a related but differently stated count.

Read: The Regeneration, Ascent, and Glorification · Passage A · pp. 92–93 · Original; The Descent, and Metempsychosis · Passage B · pp. 95–96 · Original.

Senary — Senarius

Senarius. Six, counted from the threefold chaos and threefold sapphire in Vaughan’s farewell. He also calls it the number of marriage. The account next adds metaphysical unity as seventh, then considers each of the six as containing opposed doubles, so the term should not be detached from its successive qualifications.

Read: The Descent, and Metempsychosis · Passage B · pp. 95–96 · Original.

Sabaoth

Sabaoth. The printed name Vaughan gives the seventh number in which the body will rest with God’s assistance. The edition retains this spelling rather than silently replacing it with Sabbath, while noting that the surrounding explanation concerns Sabbath rest. It belongs to the two-triad account, not a separate eighth principle.

Read: The Descent, and Metempsychosis · Passage B · pp. 95–96 · Original.

Means of return — Medium Reductionis

Medium Reductionis. The function assigned to the quaternary in aphorism 5, beside its being a bond. The modern translation uses “means of return.” The phrase concerns bringing back within the generative scheme and is not silently made a technical term for a modern chemical process.

Read: Aphorism 5 · p. 100 · Original.

Contrarieties

Contrarieties. The opposed doubles within each of the final six parts: good and bad, corrupt and incorrupt, rational and irrational. Their twelvefold division requires unity of peace. The word marks a real conflict within Vaughan’s explanatory scheme, not merely the harmless variety of ether’s complexions.

Read: The Descent, and Metempsychosis · Passage B · pp. 95–96 · Original.