page_title: Tetractys
section_title: Kabbalist symbol
hierarchical_section_title: Tetractys / Kabbalist symbol
caption_attribution_description: English: Diagram of the Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton arranged in a Tetractys shape, showing that by the rules of Gematria the sum is 72. From diagram by German Hebraist/Cabalist Johannes Reuchlin. See images File:Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae - The cosmic rose.jpg and File:Boehme-heart.jpg for historical Tetragrammaton-Tetractys diagrams.
context_page_description: The tetractys, or tetrad, or the tetractys of the decad is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row, which is the geometrical representation of the fourth triangular number. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the secret worship of Pythagoreanism. There were four seasons, and the number was also associated with planetary motions and music.
context_section_description: There are some who believe that the tetractys and its mysteries influenced the early Kabbalah. A Hebrew tetractys has the letters of the Tetragrammaton inscribed on the ten positions of the tetractys, from right to left. It has been argued that the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, with its ten spheres of emanation, is in some way connected to the tetractys, but its form is not that of a triangle. The occultist Dion Fortune writes: 
  The point is assigned to Kether;
  the line to Chokmah;
  the two-dimensional plane to Binah;
  consequently the three-dimensional solid naturally falls to Chesed.
  The relationship between geometrical shapes  and the first four Sephirot is analogous to the geometrical correlations in Tetraktys, shown above under #Pythagorean symbol, and unveils the relevance of the Tree of Life with the Tetraktys.
caption: A tetractys of the letters of the Tetragrammaton adds up to 72 by gematria.
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