The Trinity and Sacred Numbers: Christian Mysticism and Angelology

In the Christian context, the Trinity is manifested through intra-divine procession, given that, if the One is the symbol of God and expresses the Essential Unity of Divinity, the Three expresses the same Divinity manifested in substance. This association between the number Three and circular change is an important support for meditation and it is not surprising that, when distinctions are made in any field of research, an appropriate tripartition of the same can easily ensure an internal movement within the theory, which well reflects the internal life of what one wants to understand. The Number Three appears in the classic distinction between Will, Intellect and Sentiment relative to the study of the human soul.

The Number $4$. The Four in absolute terms is the foundation of the idea of Double Duality. If the Other recognizes itself as Life in the One, the Double Duality is the moment of acceptance of the Other by the One. An aspect of the idea of Double Duality directed towards the world of informal manifestation is well symbolized by every mutual circularity generated by Duality. The famous Yin-Yang symbol, the one with poles in inverse color to that of the area in which they are found, is a universally recognized symbol of this. Opposition is what is manifested on the surface, concentration on the centers from which such opposition is generated goes back to their necessary complementarity in informal manifestation. Descending into manifestation, the double current that originates from the two poles is one with generative expansion. The profound meaning of a verb such as 'to quaternate' reveals such expansion in manifestation. For the Pythagoreans, not by chance, the Four was called the Guardian of the Keys of Nature. For them the Divine Tetraktys contains the roots of Inexhaustible nature. The number Four is the number of letters of the Name in the Kabbalistic tradition. The essential principles of subtle nature used in symbolic speculation of a cosmological type are $4$. They must not be understood looking at immediate appearances. They are symbolized in the $4$ elements, through the double opposition of hot-cold and dry-humid; Fire (hot and dry), Water (cold and humid), Air (hot and humid) and Earth (cold and dry). All of Nature appears regulated by cycles based on a quaternary division: the $4$ seasons, the $4$ aspects of the sun, the $4$ cardinal points, the $4$ elements, the $4$ ages of Man, etc..

The $3$ and $4$ in Judeo-Christian angelology (Zadiq)

The descent of God into Man and his consequent ascent towards the Eternal presupposes the alchemical resolution of chaotic man into cosmic Man. The soul of man that ascends to heaven needs an interior hierarchization in accordance with a perfect model which is Christ or God-Man. The interior ordering, according to the human-divine model, can only occur through the geometric and hierarchizing action of Numbers expressed by a Hierarchy of spiritual entities to which the Hebrew tradition gave the name of messengers, winds or days and the Christian tradition translated with the name of angels. To proceed with accuracy in the formless spiritual worlds, the only possible way is to operate through the use of Numbers or equivalently through the letters of a sacred language like Hebrew. The secret tradition of Israel identifies in the number $72$ the steps of Jacob's ladder that rested on earth and whose top reached heaven and from which God's angels, אלהים מלאכי, ascended and descended. With this ladder of $72$ steps Jacob had the vision of the Lord יהוה who promised him numerous descendants, with the name of God of $72$ letters synthesized in the $3$ mysterious verses Moses separated the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:19-21) and even, according to tradition, ascended to Sinai. In secular Christianity the angelological doctrine referring to the name of $72$ letters has disappeared, remaining only the division into $9$ angelic Choirs, divided into three Hierarchies. These Choirs constitute a triple development of the Divine Ternary: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones convey the action of the Trinity in a properly metaphysical or metacosmic world, that is from the borders of what is created beyond into what is uncreated; the Dominations, Virtues and Powers transmit the action of the Divine Ternary in the government of the World or macrocosm; finally, the Principalities, Archangels and Angels allow the action of the Trinity in the soul of Man or microcosm for his salvation. This division is then flanked by a variable number of Archangels such as Michael, Raphael and Gabriel whose names are explicitly encountered in the Old and New Testament, together with others present in the Johannine apocalyptic Revelation and who are nameless. In this writing we want to use the Ternary and the