Tetraktys

The Tetraktys (Greek: τετρακτύς) is the triangular figure of ten points arranged in four rows (1+2+3+4=10), revered by the Pythagoreans as the supreme symbol of cosmic harmony. The Pythagorean oath was sworn upon it: “By that pure, holy, four-lettered name on high, / Nature’s eternal fountain and supply.”

The four rows represent the progression from unity to multiplicity: point → line → surface → solid, and musically encode the fundamental harmonic ratios (1:2 octave, 2:3 fifth, 3:4 fourth). Like Solomon’s Temple, the Tetraktys operates as an architectural and mathematical model of divine ordering and probability. It is a compressed cosmological glyph—a mapping of the cosmic bridge—demonstrating how the One becomes the Many, directly paralleling the Kabbalistic emanation of the ten Sefirot from Ein_Sof and the Neoplatonic procession from the One.

See Also

• Guthrie_1987_The_Pythagorean_Sourcebook_and_Library — the sourcebook documenting the Tetraktys
• Sacred_Acoustics — the harmonic ratios encoded in the Tetraktys
• Sefirot — the ten Kabbalistic emanations paralleling the ten Tetraktys points
• Ein_Sof — the unity from which the Tetraktys emanates
• Neoplatonism — the emanation cosmology paralleling the Pythagorean scheme
• Tree_of_Life — the Kabbalistic glyph structurally cognate to the Tetraktys