Axiom of Maria

Axiom of Maria is a mystical precept in alchemy where "one becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth." It is attributed to 3rd century alchemist Maria Prophetissa.

Psychoanalyst Carl Jung interpreted this concept as a metaphor for the process of total individuation of the self. One is the primal state of unconscious wholeness; two deals with the conflict between psychic opposites; three points to a possible resolution (transcendence) and the fourth is a transformed state of consciousness; relative wholeness and at peace.