Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

QUATERNARY

A symbol of four planes of manifestation of the Divine Life. The four planes are sometimes taken as those below atma, namely, the buddhic, the mental, the astral, and the physical planes. But usually the quaternary stands for the lower nature of the present cycle, which implies all manifestation below the higher mental plane. This, which may be called the lower quaternary, comprises the lower mental, the astral, the etheric, and the physical planes, which are now the planes of relativity and illusion subject to the law of karma.

"The quaternary of the sensible world, which is properly what Pythagoras meant by the word Kosmos, is Fire, Air, Water, and Earth." - OLIVER, Pythagorean Triangle, p. 112.

This quaternary signifies the four planes (elements) below atma, viz. the buddhic (fire), the mental (air), the astral (water), and the physical (earth).

"It is the root that never dies, the Three-tongued Flame of the Four Wicks. The Wicks are the sparks that draw from the Three-tongued Flame' (Book of Dzyan). The Three-tongued Flame that never dies' is the immortal spiritual Triad, the Atma, Buddhi, and Manas, or rather the fruitage of the last, assimilated by the first two after every terrestrial life. The Four Wicks' that go out and are extinguished are the Quaternary, the four lower principles, including the body." - BLAVATSKY, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I. P. 257.

“Man, who consists of soul and body, consists of seven qualities. For he flourishes in three spiritually and in four bodily. For in the love of God he is excited in three qualities spiritually when it is said to him by the Law,— 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind' (MATTHEW xxii. 37). But he consists of four qualities bodily, because he is composed of hot and cold, of moist and dry matter."-ST. GREGORY, Morals on the Book of Job, Vol. III. p. 692.

"To put the matter shortly, up to the present human consciousness has functioned upon the physical plane, also on that of the passions and emotions, to a lesser degree on that of the intellect -which, after all, is not consciousness, but only one of its instruments—and, much more rarely, on the plane of the spiritual. By the spiritual I mean that plane of experience on which we realise our oneness with one another and with the mysterious power behind phenomena, whom we call "God." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., Evolution of the Spiritual Man.

See Also

AUKERT
AUSHEDAR
ELEMENTS
FOUR
GATHA (Ahuna)
HEBEN
IRON PLATE
LAND
LION-GAIT
LOTUS LEAF
MINISTERS
PILLARS
PILLARS (four)
QUARTERS (Compass)
SAU
SKY
SQUARE
TORTOISE
VARA
VARENA
VESTURES
WORLD
WORLDS (five)
YOMI