Given the first dot, we have Dimension Zero, the singularity, or monad. According to Robin Waterfield’s translation of The Theology of Arithmetic, “[t]he monad is the non-spatial source of number… the monad is… linear and plane and solid.” In a purely latent state of potentiality, the monad contains all that follows.

Given one dot, the second makes a dyad and represents Dimension One — linearity. To mark the distance from one dot to another creates a line between two opposing points. This is the level of polarity — the pervasive opposition of phenomena like night and day, cold and hot, Demons and Gods.

The paradox is that of course the two poles are connected, never separate. A magnetic field is the purest expression of this principle, as its apparently opposite lines of force ultimately loop back around and merge into one another in a demonstration of essential unity.

The polarity of masculine and feminine energy inevitably gives way to a triumvirate when mom and dad have a little baby. Everybody knows three is the magic number, but why is that?

The triad encloses area, providing a plane whereupon further creations can flourish. This is Dimension Two, which according to Nassim Harramein, “is where cartoons live.”

Indeed, the great charm of cartoons is the plurality of possibility; any thing can arise in that area! How often do we stop counting after one and two? The next value in that sequence is “several,” suggesting many more than simply three.

Meanwhile, every satisfactory story requires a beginning, middle and end. It needs a hero, villain and neutral narrator. There must be activity, trouble and finally peace. Musically, the score to the story must have its root, dissonance and resolution. Ultimately, the whole story is overseen by a holy trinity, be it Father, Son and Ghost, or Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The triad of creation, preservation and destruction shows the nature of creation at every scale. This is harmony.

After harmony, we get depth. At the fourth and final level of the tetraktys is the tetrahedron, a pyramid made of four equilateral triangles. This is the first solid that encloses volume, literally creating space in three dimensions.

As the forces of one and two are united by a third, an entirely new whole is generated. This is the first manifestation of what we might call “shared reality.” It is in three-dimensional space that bodies are born, grow, decay and die.

If you are reading this, you are most likely in the depths of a third-dimensional experience. You are a conglomeration of water held by Earth breathing air that feeds the fire in your eyes and belly. These elements interact with your five senses to create the sensation of embodied aliveness. What a beautiful miracle Platonic Solids (and a topic for another time)!

Here is a graphic representation of the process just described, wherein we have completed the original promise of the monad as containing all that is “linear…plane and solid.”