Quaternity

1. Etymology

Quaternity (Latin quaternitas, a set of four) names a four-fold image—usually square or circular and symmetrical—that psychologically points toward wholeness. Related: mandala; temenos; cross; circle; four functions.

2. Plain summary

A quaternity is a fourness that holds a center: four directions, four functions, a squared circle, a cross in a round. Jung treats it as one of the most widespread archetypes of order and completeness—useful both as a map of consciousness (typology’s four) and as a sacred schema (heaven, sun, God, soul).

From circle and quaternity come crystal, stone, city, castle, church, house, vessel, and the wheel—images of containment or of ritual turning around a center. It often appears with the need for a temenos (protected space) and with mandala drawings in analysis. Related to the self as wholeness, not as ego inflation.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common quaternity-related figures and motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
four-fold structure square or circular; symbol of wholeness; widespread archetype; schema for four psychological functions; crossed threads / cross of highest moral-religious significance in the West; circle as completeness / heaven / sun / God / primordial image of man and soul; geometrically formed crystal; wonder-working stone; city / castle / church / house / vessel; wheel (rota) and circumambulation; ego contained in greater self; concentration on a center; temenos / holy enclosure; mandala as living form; four elements / directions; relation to god-image; individuation as ordering toward the center; opposites held in a fourfold frame; active imagination drawings.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology the quaternity is an archetypal schema of fourfold wholeness, linking typology, sacred geometry, and Self symbolism. Sharp supplies the house definition; Samuels lacks a dedicated head and is supplemented via mandala. Descent Press keeps Sharp (and Mandala/Samuels) in §4 so lexicon paraphrase never silently becomes Jung’s voice

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Quaternity. An image with a four-fold structure, usually square or circular and symmetrical; psychologically, it points to the idea of wholeness. … The quaternity is one of the most widespread archetypes and has also proved to be one of the most useful schemata for representing the arrangement of the functions… The cross formed by the points of the quaternity… Similarly the circle, as the symbol of completeness… From the circle and quaternity motif is derived the symbol of the geometrically formed crystal and the wonder-working stone… city, castle, church, house, and vessel… the wheel (rota)… concentration on and preoccupation with a centre.

(Sharp, 1991)

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated quaternity headword (verified absence in vessel text extract). See mandala (Samuels p. 90) for related squared-circle / fourfold geometry.

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

The quaternity is one of the most widespread archetypes and has also proved to be one of the most useful schemata for representing the arrangement of the functions by which the conscious mind takes its bearings. It is like the crossed threads in the telescope of our understanding. The cross formed by the points of the quaternity is no less universal and has in addition the highest possible moral and religious significance for Western man. Similarly the circle, as the symbol of completeness and perfect being, is a widespread expression for heaven, sun, and God; it also expresses the primordial image of man and the soul.
(Jung, 1946/1966, CW 16, pp. 207–208, ¶405)

From the circle and quaternity motif is derived the symbol of the geometrically formed crystal and the wonder-working stone. From here analogy formation leads on to the city, castle, church, house, room, and vessel. Another variant is the wheel. The former motif emphasizes the ego’s containment in the greater dimension of the self; the latter emphasizes the rotation which also appears as a ritual circumambulation. Psychologically, it denotes concentration on and preoccupation with a centre…
(Jung, 1951/1968, CW 9ii, p. 224, ¶352)

And since the quaternity is a symbol of wholeness and wholeness plays a considerable role in the picture-world of the unconscious, the victory of four-leggedness over three-leggedness is not altogether unexpected.
(Jung, 1948/1968, CW 9i, pp. 233–234, ¶425)

We have, at last, to admit that the quaternity is something psychic; and we do not yet know whether, in a more or less distant future, this too may not prove to be a projection.
(Jung, 1938/1969, CW 11, pp. 55–56, ¶95)

See also: rapport; rational; mandala; self; archetype; god-image; individuation; opposites; unconscious; symbol; active imagination; libido.

References

Jung, C. G. (1966). The psychology of the transference. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 16, pp. 207–208, ¶405). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1946)

Jung, C. G. (1968). The phenomenology of the spirit in fairytales. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 9, pt. 1, pp. 233–234, ¶425). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1948)

Jung, C. G. (1968). The structure and dynamics of the self. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 9, pt. 2, p. 224, ¶352). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1951)

Jung, C. G. (1969). Psychology and religion. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 11, pp. 55–56, ¶95). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1938)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge. (No quaternity head; see mandala.)

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.