Axiom of Maria. A precept in alchemy: “One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.”
Jung used the axiom of Maria as a metaphor for the whole process of individuation. One is the original state of unconscious wholeness; twosignifies the conflict between opposites; three points to a potential resolution; the third is the transcendent function; and the one as the fourth is a transformed state of consciousness, relatively whole and at peace.