69 § The 'Sign of Four'

Among the ancient guild marks, there is one that has a particularly enigmatic character: it is that to which the name 'sign of four' (quatre de chiffre ^[1]) is given, because in fact it has the form of the figure 4 , to which supplemental lines, horizontal or vertical, are often added, and which is generally combined either with various other symbols or with letters or monograms to form a complex whole in which it always occupies the upper part. This sign was common to a great number of guilds if not, indeed, to all; and we do not understand why an occultist writer (who additionally and gratuitously attributes its origin to the Cathars) has recently claimed that it belonged solely to a 'secret society' of printers and booksellers. It is true that the sign is found in many printers' marks; but it is found no less frequently among stone cutters, makers of stained glass, and tapestry weavers, to cite only a few examples which suffice to show that this opinion cannot be upheld. It has even been noted that private individuals or families had this same sign depicted on their homes, on their tombstones or in their coats of arms; but in some such cases there is nothing to prove that it should not be attributed to a stone cutter rather than to the property owner himself; and in the other cases it is certainly a question of personages who were united by some kind of ties, sometimes hereditary, to certain guilds. ^[2] However that may be, there can be no doubt that the sign in question was a corporate one and that it relates directly to the craft initiations. Moreover, to judge by the use made of it, there is every reason to think that it was essentially a sign of mastership. As to the meaning of the quatre de chiffre, which is obviously what interests us most, the authors who have spoken of it are far from agreeing among themselves, the more so in that they seem generally to be unaware that a symbol can be susceptible of several different interpretations which in no way exclude one another. There is nothing surprising in this, whatever those who keep to a profane point of view may think, for generally speaking not only is a multiplicity of meanings inherent in symbolism itself, but also, in this case as in many others, there could have been superposition and even fusion of several symbols into a single one. W. Deonna, having been led at one point to mention the quatre de chiffre among other symbols appearing on ancient weapons, ^[3] and speaking on that occasion (quite summarily, moreover) of the origin and meaning of this mark, mentioned the opinion according to which it represents what he somewhat oddly calls 'the mystical value of the figure 4'. Without rejecting that interpretation entirely, he nevertheless prefers another, and supposes that 'it is a question of an astrological sign', that of Jupiter. In its general aspect this sign does in fact resemble the figure 4 ; it is also certain that it can be used in a way that is related to the idea of 'mastership'; but none the less, contrary to the opinion of Deonna, we think that this is no more than a secondary association which, however legitimate it may be, ^[4] has merely been added to the primary significance of the symbol. There seems in fact to be no doubt that it is before all else a quaternary symbol, not so much because of its resemblance to the figure 4 , which could be somehow 'adventitious', as for another more decisive reason. This figure 4, in all the marks where it appears, has a form which is exactly that of a cross of which the upper end of the vertical branch and one of the extremities of the horizontal branch are joined by a oblique line. Now it is incontestable that the cross, with no prejudice to all its other meanings, is essentially a symbol of the quaternary. ^[5] What further confirms this interpretation is that there are cases in which the quatre de chiffre, in its association with other symbols, manifestly occupies the place that is occupied by the cross in certain more common figurations, which only differ from these others in the absence of the oblique line. This is for example the case when the quatre de chiffre is to be seen in the figure of the 'globe of the world' or, again, when it surmounts a heart as happens very frequently in printers' marks. ^[6] This is not all, and there is still something else which is perhaps no less important, even though Deonna refuses to admit it. In the article we referred to above, after having noted that some have sought 'to derive this mark from the monogram of Constantine, already freely interpreted and distorted in the Merovingian and Carolingian documents'; ^[7] he says that 'this hypothesis appears completely arbitrary' and that 'there is nothing analogous to support it'. We are very far from being of this opinion; and it is curious, moreover, to see that among the examples reproduced by Deonna himself, there are two which represent the complete chrismon [labarum] in which the P (the Greek rho) is replaced purely and simply by the quatre de chiffre. Ought not this at least have urged him to greater prudence? It must be noted also that without any apparent difference of meaning two opposite orientations of the quatre de chiffre are to be found. ^[8] Now when turned towards the right instead of the normal position of the figure 4 which is towards the left, it is strikingly similar to the P . We have already explained ^[9] that the simple chrismon is to be distinguished from the so-called 'Constantinian' chrismon. The first is composed of six radii, opposed two by two and proceeding from a centre, that is, three diameters, one vertical and two oblique; and as 'Chrismon', it is said to be formed by the two Greek letters I and X. The second, which is considered as uniting in the same way the two letters X and P , is derived directly from the first by adding to the upper part of the vertical diameter a loop which changes the I (iota) into a P (rho), but which also has other meanings and which, moreover, occurs under many diverse forms: ^[10] this makes even less surprising its replacement by the quatre de chiffre which, after all, is only just such another variant. ^[11] All this becomes clear once it is noted that the vertical line, in the chrismon as well as in the quatre de chiffre, is really a representation of the World Axis. At its summit, the loop of the P is, like the eye of the needle, a symbol of the 'narrow gate'; and as to the quatre de chiffre, we have only to recall its relationship with the cross which has an equally axial character, and to note also that the addition of the oblique line (which completes the figure by joining the extremities of the two arms of the cross and thus closing one of its angles) ingeniously combines with the quaternary signification (which does not exist in the chrismon) the same symbolism of the 'narrow gate'; and it will be recognised that there is here something that is perfectly appropriate for a mark of mastership.