Definitions HQ

Number (n.) began ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠as a name for peas strung in a row — and turned out to be a peculiar entity with irreducible properties: even, odd, prime, negative, irrational, imaginary.

Number (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an archetype of order become conscious: strip an object of every property and its number remains — and the unconscious uses it to create order, as in the quaternity mandalas that appear in times of disorientation.

Number (n.) has ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠never lost its numinous aura: the natural numbers, which look like a mere stringing of identical units, contain the whole of mathematics and everything yet to be discovered in it.

Number (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a mysterious thing between myth and reality, half discovered and half invented — the great mediator valid in both the physical and the imaginary world, an archetype through and through.

Number (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠more than we take it for: the digits we count with are also mythological entities, divine to the Pythagoreans, though we never notice it at the till.

Number (n.) may ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠be found as much as invented, Jung suspected, with a relative autonomy like the archetypes, pre-existent to consciousness and sometimes shaping it; so one may ask what numbers do of themselves.