IN his theory of psychological types, Jung concluded that the quaternity forms the archetypal basis for order and orientation within consciousness. Jung's typology comprises two 'rational' functions of evaluation, thinking and feeling, and two 'irrational' functions of perception, sensation and intuition. These functions are directed not only externally (extroversion) but also internally (introversion), so that in total eight 'types' are defined, viz introverted thinking verses extraverted feeling, etc.
The recognition of characteristic types is a consequence of the fact that the symmetry of the four
functions is lost as they develop in the individual. Through natural bias, either reinforced or
modified through circumstance, one becomes the 'dominant', socially adapted function, and while
another two 'auxillary' functions may develop later the opposing fourth function does not simply
add itself to consciousness. While three of the four functions are thus potentially available to
consciousness, the so-called 'inferior' function remains unchanged no matter how differentiated
the other three become, and thus becomes a source of one-sided imbalance and inner tension. This inscrutable fourth is always a problem for the three, because of its autonomous and ambivalent nature. While on the one hand it is inferior, unadapted and affective,
like a hidden fire that burns uncontrollably in the darkness of projection, or an incurable wound or
lameness, or even "the impossible passion that never resolves," on the other hand it harbours supreme significance as the sublime secret of life in the individual and life in the universal, the transcendent One and All.
The fourth function always works in a way that represents the whole rather than merely the
conscious part of the personality. It thus forms the link between the conscious personality and the unconscious Self, providing the bridge of the transcendent function, the 'middle way' of
mediation that produces symbols of unity. The rooted fourth function always retains something of
the inertia and darkness of matter, and its assimilation is as much a process of materialisation of
spirit as a spiritualisation of matter, an alchemical process that leads ultimately to the 'chymical
wedding' of both in the corpus subtile or glorified body, the embodyment of the Self in a unified
vision of reality, the underlying unus mundus.
To live in close proximity to the fourth entails great difficulty, for it harbours within it what is most intractable and affective in our nature, the greater darkness that will not depart, the fearful turmoil and primal chaos of the negredo that threatens to overwhelm the 'little light' of consciousness. Because of its affectivity and ambivalence the fourth is our greatest danger, and yet it is also our greatest possession, the seed-point of departure whose end we cannot see, our source of humility and the goal of our final triumph. Here we enter the dangerous domain of the ambivalent god Mercurius, who is the "giver of life as well as the destroyer of old form,"and the "zone of world-destroying and world-creating fire," and as the alchemist Michael Maier describes it, the fiery abode of the fabulous four-footed Ortus of the "Erythraean Sea."
The freedom of the three is grounded and fixed by the fourth, limited and conditioned as we are by our inferior function, and yet this function is, by virtue of its connection with the imago Dei, our 'window on eternity.' It is both the content and the container, that is to say it is contained within us and yet contains us. By this we understand the alchemical dictum 'all things do live in the three, but in the fourth they merry be', and also the opposition and irrational union of the outer three and the inner one.
Published by New Alchemy © MM
