The number 4 (τέσσαρες, tessares) is a fundamental integer, but within the context of the Greek alphabet, it is the value of the letter Delta (Δ, δ). In the system of Greek isopsephy, every letter has a numerical value, and Delta, the fourth letter, naturally holds the number 4. This letter is the initial of Demiourgos (Δημιουργός), the Craftsman or Creator, and of Dike (Δίκη), Justice, hinting at the formative and ordering principles the number embodies.

Position on the Tree of Life

The number 4 is the numeration assigned to Path 14 (the 14th path of the Hermetic Qabalah, corresponding to the letter Daleth). It is the value at the 14th step of the Numeration of the Greek Alphabet scale. This path connects Chokmah (Wisdom) to Binah (Understanding) and is attributed to the planet Venus. However, the value 4 itself most strongly resonates with the Sephirah Chesed (Mercy), the fourth emanation on the Tree of Life, which is associated with the vision of love, the Divine Name El, and the Archangel Tzadkiel. Chesed is the force of expansion, structure, and beneficent authority, solidifying the fourfold nature of the manifest universe.

Historical context

The number 4 has been a symbol of stability, completion, and the material world since antiquity. In Pythagorean philosophy, the Tetrad (the number 4) represented the first solid figure (the tetrahedron) and the elements of earth, water, air, and fire. It was the number of justice (as it is the first square number) and of the soul. This concept was absorbed into Hellenistic Jewish and Christian mysticism, culminating in the Qabalistic understanding of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH, יְהוָֹה), the four-letter Name of God. In the Sefer Yetzirah, the four letters of this Name are correlated with the four directions and the four worlds of creation. In 777, the number 4 appears as the value of Daleth (the Hebrew letter, value 4) and is associated with Venus, memory, and the Third Sephirah (Binah) in certain contexts, but in the Greek alphabet scale, it stands resolutely as Delta. This value underpins the formula of the Tetractys, the sacred ten-pointed triangle of the Pythagoreans, which begins with the Monad (1) and the Dyad (2) and culminates in the Tetrad (4) that gives rise to all number.

In the specific context of table row CLXXXV (Numeration of Greek Alphabet) at column 14, the number 4 is the direct and unadorned numerical value of the Greek letter Delta. It appears here as a simple but potent numeral, a key to unlocking the numerical harmonies between Hebrew, Greek, and Qabalistic systems as synthesized in the correspondences of 777.