Four

If three is the number of creative potential and manifestation, then four is the number of stability, of the manifest world brought into existence. It is the first number that contains the potential for solid, three-dimensional reality – the tetrahedron, a pyramid shape with a triangular base, has four corners. Many elements of the outside world are broken down into groups of four: the four classical elements of air, earth, water and fire; the four cardinal directions of north, south, east and west, the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn/fall and winter; the four daily periods of morning, afternoon, evening and night; and so on, right down to the four suits of cards. Many management (and military) theorists suggest that four is the most stable nodal structure in an organisation – that no person should have more than four direct reports, so as to avoid overcomplication and chaos.

Four Boxes by Bright Tal

Perhaps because of its role as such an earth-centred number, four often has unfortunate religious overtones. It is said to be the number of Lucifer the fallen, the banished fourth who came after the trinity. The last apocalypse will be heralded by his four horsemen, Death, War, Plague and Famine. In China, Korea and Japan, the word for four sounds very similar to the word for death, and so it is often considered highly unlucky right across the east, where some buildings are numbered without a fourth floor. Some numerically-named product lines with strong eastern presence entirely omit the 4-series for the same reason – Nokia mobile phones, for example. It also has plenty of religious significance attached to its symbolism of stability and completion, of course – in Christianity there are four archangels, four cardinal virtues, four rivers of paradise; there are also the four boundless wishes of Buddhism, the Islamic four Principles which make up the divine, the four worlds of the Hebrew Kabbalah, the four faces of Brahma, and so on.