"arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy" (the four branches of mathematics, according to the Pythagoreans), by 1751, from Latin quadrivium, which meant "place where four roads meet, crossroads," from quadri- "four" (from PIE root *kwetwer- "four") + via "way, road, channel, course"
The adjective quadrivial is attested from mid-15c. in English with the sense of "belonging to the quadrivium," late 15c. with the sense of "having four roads, having four ways meeting in a point." Credit: Etymologyonline . com
One day in my reading I stumbled upon this word but didn't know what it meant. So...down the proverbial rabbit hole I went. The treasure I found and the things I discovered were insightful and beyond ideas I had previously considered. I also learned the use of the term 'crossroads' did not come into common usage until the late 1800s. Up to that point the word 'quadrivial' *(from the Latin: quadrivium) was used to express the meeting point of four ways. *(More on this in a minute).
From Plato and Socrates, from Antiquity all the way through the Renaissance period, the seven liberal arts were studied by the educated classes. According to Plato, a core of mathematical knowledge – later known as the Quadrivium – was essential for an understanding of the Universe. The curriculum was outlined in Plato’s Republic. The name Quadrivium means four ways, but this term was not used until the time of Boethius in the 6th century AD. Credit: https://thatsmaths.com/2017/07/20/quadrivium-the-noble-fourfold-way/
The term Liberal Arts and their division into the TRIVIUM and the QUADRIVIUM date back to the Middle Ages. The trivium includes those aspects of the liberal arts that pertain to the mind. The quadrivium, those aspects of the liberal arts that pertain to matter. The liberal arts consists of seven branches of knowledge that prepare students for lifelong learning.
The Trivium: grammer, logic, and rhetoric.
The Quadrivium: arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy.
Logic is the art of thinking; grammar, the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; and rhetoric, the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance. Arithmetic, the theory of number, and music, an application of the theory of number (the measurement of discrete quantities in motion), are the arts of discrete quantity or number. Geometry, the theory of space, and astronomy, an application of the theory of space, are the arts of continuous quantity or extension.
These arts of reading, writing, and reckoning have formed the traditional basis of liberal education, each constituting both a field of knowledge and the technique to acquire that knowledge.
Credit: https://kevincorbett.com/the-trivium-and-the-quadrivium/
As Proclus wrote: The Pythagoreans considered all mathematical science to be divided into four parts: one half they marked off as concerned with quantity, the other half with magnitude; and each of these they posited as twofold. A quantity can be considered in regard to its character by itself or in its relation to another quantity, magnitudes as either stationary or in motion. Arithmetic, then, studies quantities as such, music the relations between quantities, geometry magnitude at rest, spherics [astronomy] magnitude inherently moving.
Thus arithmetic is number in itself, music is number in time, geometry is number in space, and cosmology is number in space and time. - Credit: https://equivalentexchange.blog/2011/07/22/the-medieval-quadrivium/
All of this preamble is meant to inform about the historical basis for the trivium and the quadrivium for those who may not be familiar. My particular interest is in the quadrivium because I feel it represents more than meets the eye. The quadrivium/quadrivial/crossroads is also an important concept which has spiritual implications I have been pondering in my meditations.
Is the quadrivium the intersection of science and spirituality, spirit and matter? What exists at the meeting-point of this intersection? It isn't just the meeting-point of two lines, there is something energetic at the junction of the two. What about Christ hanging on the cross *(a quadrivium)? He is suspended between heaven and earth, between matter and spirit. And what is at the very center of the 'cross'? His sacred heart. There is something much deeper here worth considering.
Think of a time when you came to a quadrivial in your life. Perhaps you were facing an intersection of your old life and a completely new life. At this quadrival-intersection you were faced with a choice...stay on the same, known road or muster the courage to head into the unknown, into completely new and unfamiliar territory. When we find ourselves standing at Life's quadrivials, invariably a decision must be made. The temptation is to use our heads at these critical moments. However, I'm learning as I get older that listening for heart-wisdom is often the better choice. In my experience the heart is a truer compass. The heart is always 'true north' not merely 'magnetic north.'
If I stand with my arms outstretched I too become a cross, a quadrival. And what is at the center of the cross, the quadrival of me? My sacred heart. Somehow, in ways I cannot express, I sense there is power not just in the frequency of our hearts, but also in the actual energetic 'structure' of the cross. Someone very wise recently said to me: "Don't see the cross, BE the Cross." He was speaking to the energetics contained within the structure.
Our hearts are also tied to numbers, just as with the arithmetic of the quadrivium.
Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. Credit: Nova Online/pbs. org/heart facts
Thus, our hearts are intimately tied to numbers in time...just like music. There is more power than we can imagine in the 1, 2, 3, 4, musical beating of our oh-so-human hearts. I sense our hearts are both human-matter but also supernatural energy generators. Even the earth has a 'heart-beat' which is measured at 7.83 hertz and is called the Schumann Resonance. My sense is this is all connected in more dynamic, fractalized, holographic ways than we can conceive because like Pi, it goes on to Infinity!
If we go into most Christian churchs in the western world we will see the image of Christ hanging on the cross. Is it significant that we are also shaped like a cross and each of our hearts are at the very center of the cross, the quadrivial that is us? Is there something hidden in plain sight that we may not have noticed or discovered yet? Perhaps the Cross is the physical structure and the Quadrivium is the energetic force which that structure represents in the Quantum Field.
Our heart is the power-station for us to funtion in this human life. The brain can stop, other parts of the body can fail and life can still be sustained if the heart continues beating. What is this heart-energy creating and can we harnass it in evermore creative, expansive, intuitive ways? The science of HeartMath*(heartmath.com) holds important scientifically proven perspective worth learning about.
I believe each of us has hidden gifts, buried treasure that is only accessible through the portal of our own hearts. Maybe our hearts are wormholes to other dimensions? So much is sparkling and twinkling and waiting to be discovered. When you want answers, when you want access to "higher-states," assume the position of the Cross and feel the energy of the Quadrivium. There is something important about listening to the sound, the music and the wisdom of your own beating heart! Energy. Frequency. Vibration. 3,6,9. The vortex math of Nikola Tesla beating inside our treasure-chest!
Did you ever notice that the first for letters of the word heart are...HEAR!? Be sure to listen!
The CROSS/QUADRIVIUM of YOU is a completely YOU-nique antenna. YOU are already hard-wired to receive customized information from the Blessed Quantum! Your sacred heart knows how to tune in. Trust!
BE the attenna! BE BOLD! BE BRAVE! BE A LISTENER! BElieve in Higher Potentials!
Ask The Quantum and you shall receive!
"When I look with my eyes, I see what is there. When I look with my heart, I see what is possible." - Cheryl Page
