The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, (c 580-500 BC) was was the first person to call himself a philosopher, which means a lover of wisdom. After traveling through Egypt and the Middle East gathering knowledge, he founded a school for his mystical philosophy in Croton, Italy.

In the Pythagorean school, ten was considered the perfect number. To illustrate this point, they constructed a triangular arrangement of ten dots with one at the top, two on the second layer, Three on the next, and four at the bottom. This diagram was called the Tetractys, and the Pythagoreans considered it sacred. in the simplest form, it expressed the concept of emanation form the unseen divine world of the One to manifestations in the physical world, which is defined by having four directions, four seasons, and four elements. It could be used as a meditative device leading from the base, up the emanations, and back to the unity of oneness at the top.

There are many classes of symbolism that can be attached to the Tetractys. One of the most basic is a geometrical progression. With this theme, the single dot at the top depicts a point, a theoretical beginning with no dimension. The second layer has two points, which describe a line. Although a line has length it has no depth and still cannot be perceived any easier than the point. Next, are three points, which are necessary to form the first polygon, the triangle. This gives us a two-dimensional plan. The base has four points, which allows us to form the first three-dimensional object, the tetrahedron, which is composed of four triangular sides, like a pyramid with a triangle for a base. This is the beginning of physical reality.

If we also look at the relationships between the layers, called ratios, these describe numerically the vibrations of the three essential notes in the music scale: the whole note, which had a ratio of one to two; the perfect fifth, which has a ratio of two to three; and the perfect fourth, which has a ratio of three to four. Together with the four physical layers these musical layers give us seven layers altogether—four physical layers and three non-material layers. Like a Babylonian ziggurat, the Tetractys had seven layers but here numbers have re-placed the physical layers as emanations. To fill out the music scale Pythagoras devised four other notes and created our familiar Western diatonic scale with its seven notes, and he used the seven vowels in the Greek alphabet to indicate the notes in written form. The Tetractys can be correlated to all seven notes in the scale, and just like the notes, the seven layers can be correlated to the seven planets of the ancient cosmology and to the seven soul centers in the human body. I describe these concepts in more detail in my book: The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism.

The Tetractys can also show us that there is an archetypal essence behind what we are experiencing in our conscious reality. With this in mind, I devised a Tarot card layout based on the Tetractys, with a single card placed in each of the ten positions.  The top single card represents the archetypal realm illustrating the impulse that is at the source of what we are experiencing. The second layer depicts the dual forces at work in the conceptual realm. The third layer with its three cards depicts the plan in the realm of design. And the base depicts what we are experiencing in the physical realm.

Those of you who are familiar with the Kabbala may recognize that the Kabbalistic description of the formation of the emanations in the Tree of Life called the ten sephiroth may be derived from the ten circles in the Pythagorean Tetractys. The Kabbalists explain that God drew himself out of Ain Soph Aur (nothingness), thus creating the first emanation, Crown. Next God wanted to know himself and began to contemplate his nature, thus creating the next two emanations, Wisdom and Understanding, which are God looking at himself. His awareness of this duality created a third point, the awareness as a separate entity, and these three were reflected in the Ether below as the next three sephiroth: Mercy, Strength, and Beauty. Again, the awareness of this development led to fourfold pattern, which created the bottom four sephiroth: Victory, Splendor, Foundation, and kingdom, and as a result, the physical world came to be. We can see that in this story the sephiroth are grouped with one at the top, two on the next level, three on the next, and four on the bottom, as are the circles in the Tetractys.

The four levels of the Tetractys are also reflected in the four Kabbalistic levels of existence. Atziluth, the highest world, is the archetypal realm, where creative impulses are born. Below Atziluth is the world of creation and ideas, called Briah. Next in the descent is Yetzirah, the formative world where the forms of everything in the physical world are created. The fourth world is Assiah, the material world, where impulses, ideas, and forms, manifest as physical reality. These four worlds are another system of emanation. Further it was said that a separate Tree of Life exists in each world. So that there would be ten emanations on each of the four levels, for a total of forty emanations. The system is like a Tetractys composed of four Tetractys, or like the shamanistic vision of the Axis Mundi extending through separate worlds.

Here is a Tetractys spread that I did for myself using my Alchemical Tarot. The question I asked is: where am I now in my career?

In the archetypal realm, at the top, we see the Lady of Vessels. She stands on water and has the symbol for water on the vessel on her head. Water is one of the most often used symbols for the unconscious mind. Like the unconscious, water allows us to see its surface, but the depth underneath remain unseen. The woman stands on water showing that she trusts the unconscious to support her. She follows and trusts her intuition. 

As you may know from the introduction in my book, my career did take a turn that led me to where I am now when I had a series of dreams and synchronistic events that led me into studying the Tarot and eventually creating the Alchemical Tarot.

On the Conceptual level, we find two cards that many may consider the worst in the deck: Death and the man stabbed with ten swords. But Death simply means the end of something, the Ten of Swords refers to severe criticism. That is why I included the book. It is like he wrote it and then the critics stabbed him. This is sort of what happened when I first created the Alchemical Tarot and wrote my first book. I was following my own insight about the Tarot and contradicting many of the Kabbalistic and astrological associations that occultists had grafted onto the deck. And my research showed me that the Tarot did not stem from ancient Egypt, as was commonly claimed at the time; also, that Pamela Coleman Smith was the principal designer of the Waite Smith Tarot, not Waite. The truth in what I was saying and writing won out, in time, and the criticism came to an end. 

The third realm of design level, may also be called the plan. Here, following the direction of the figures, I am reading the cards from left to right. The Three of Vessels depicts three women balancing vessels on their heads like the Lady at the top of the reading.  Their vessels display the symbols for the other three elements: earth, air, and fire. They are the Lady of Vessels support group. They complete the fourfold plan. Next, the Knight of Staffs takes his burning staff into the desert. Like fire, the desert is hot and dry. But it also symbolizes the new or unclaimed territory.  The Five of Vessels, on the left, depicts vessels falling off shelves and breaking. But birds emerge from the one hitting the floor, as if it was an egg and giving birth to something new.

The plan would seem to be saying that now that I have people following my work, I am free to keep exploring and keep breaking old patterns, even ones that I created.   

On the base in the physical realm, two cards hold the center and the cards on the right and the left face into them, as if they are drawn to the center. Center left we see the Ace of Swords. Aces represent the beginning, and here we see an upright, positive sword symbolizing positive thinking. A serpent basilisk, symbolizing wisdom, entwines the sword, transforming from unripe green to ripe red. The Ace is drawing Temperance toward it. Temperance depicts Mary the Jewess, one of the first alchemists. She invented distillation, which is what is symbolized by the two cups to her right. Distillation is the most important operation in the Magnum Opus, which is the principal work of alchemy, and intended to lead to the perfection of the elixir known as the Philosopher’s Stone.     

Back-to-back with the ace is the Empress, which depicts the White Queen, a symbol of attraction. She is attracting the Nine of Staffs, which depicts the gray wolf burning in a fire. This is an alchemical symbol of sacrifice. In combination with the other three cards, what seems to be sacrificed are preconceptions.

After over 50 years of working with the Tarot, the cards are telling me I am at the beginning, but I am on the right path.