Sunday, February 1, 2009

On the Triad

From The Theology of Arithmetic by Iamblichus (4th century A.D.)

The triad has a special beauty and fairness beyond all numbers, primarily because it is the very first to make actual the potentiality of the monad—oddness, perfection, proportionality, unification, limit.

The triad is called ‘prudence’ and ‘wisdom’—that is, when people act correctly as regards the present, look ahead to the future, and gain experience from what has already happened in the past: so wisdom surveys the three parts of time, and consequently knowledge falls under the triad.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was searching for a symbol, particularly a triad that represents balance and found your site. I read through a lot of your posts and find them interesting. They meet up with a lot of my own. I plan to keep checking in. Thank you.

K. Sander, Stroudsburg, PA