Payload Website Template

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_) 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. 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 '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

Footnotes

[15]Tao-teh-king, ch. 10, unpublished [at the time of Guénon's writing] translation by Jacques Lionnet [text slightly different from the edition published in 1962].

[16]Ibid, ch. 53, same translation [and same remark as to the 1962 edition. In this translation, when we have had to render a standard text into English, we have generally had recourse to a more or less widely accepted version. In the present instance, the four English translations of the Tao-teh-king that we consulted for these two passages (those of Lin Yutang, D. C. Lau, Ch'u-ta-Kao, and James Legge) all differ markedly from that of Jacques Lionnet, and so we have simply translated them as given in Guénon's text. Tr.]

[1][Quatre de chiffre is an idiomatic expression that, even in French, is commonly placed in quotation marks; it is not directly translatable. One of the primary usages which is given in all the major comprehensive French-French dictionaries, and which indicates its idiomatic character, is to designate a particular form of snare used in taking small animals. This same device is known in English as a 'figure four trap'—so-called because of the use of three notched sticks arranged in the form of a 4 and fitted together as a trigger. Guénon, however, uses the term in a quite different sense, as will be obvious from the text. The phrase 'Sign of Four', though somewhat arbitrary, seems to approximate the French as closely as possible. Tr.]

[2]Elsewhere we have alluded to bonds of this kind as regards 'accepted Masons' (_Aperçus sur l'initiation_, ch. 29).

[3]'Armes avec motifs astrologiques et talismaniques' in _Revue de l'Histoire des Religions_, July-October 1924.

[4]Another instance of the same association of the symbolism of Jupiter with that of the quaternary is to be found in the fourth card of the _Tarot_.

[5]The cross represents the quaternary under its dynamic aspect, while the square represents _it under its static aspect_.

[6]In Christian iconography the heart surmounted by a cross is naturally the representation of the Sacred Heart, which from the symbolic point of view is an image of the 'Heart of the World'. Let it be noted that since the geometric figure of the heart is a down-pointing triangle, that of the whole symbol is nothing other than the alchemical symbol of sulphur in an inverted position, which represents the accomplishment of the Great Work. [In the article 'Le Chrisme et le cœur dans les anciennes marques corporatives', in *Regnabit*, November 1925, in connection with this same symbolic parallel, René Guénon added: 'We find here the inverted triangle, the equivalence of which with the heart and the cup we have already indicated; in isolation, this triangle is the alchemical sign of water, while the up-pointing triangle is that of fire. Now, among the different significations that water constantly has in the most diverse traditions there is one that is particularly interesting to keep in mind here: it is the symbol of Grace and of the regeneration effected by it in the being that receives it. In this respect we have only to recall the baptismal water, the four fountains of living water of the Earthly Paradise, and also the water flowing with the blood from the Heart of Christ, inexhaustible sources of Grace. Finally, and this corroborates further this explanation, the reversal of the symbol of sulphur signifies the descent of spiritual influences into the 'world below', that is, into the terrestrial and human world. It is in other words, the "celestial dew" of which we have already spoken.']

[7]Care must be taken, moreover, to distinguish between accidental deformations due to the incomprehension of symbols, and intentional and meaningful deformations.

69 § The 'Sign of Four'

Footnotes