Two: The Exploration of Archetypal Symbols Series

Just like the number one was not considered a number by the ancients, two was also in the same boat.

When you start with one point and then add a second point, you have just created distance which can be represented by connecting the two points into a single line but a “line” doesn’t exist in nature just like a single point doesn’t exist in nature.

Thus, two was not considered a ‘number’ but, like one, an originator of numbers.

“In the Dyad we see the Monad refract as Two. The Dyad emphasized difference. It foreshadows the world’s apparent boundaries, conflict and echoes our own sense of separation. Opposites appear when separateness begins.

A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, by Michael Schneider – 1st ed., 36

This is where things get interesting. Ponder the prior quote when reading Lehi’s words in 2 Nephi 2:11-13:

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition  in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.

And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.

Things only exist because their opposite exists. Light can only exist because there is darkness that it is separate and distinct from. God actually creates by dividing things and placing a separation between them; one only needs to look as far as Genesis for proof of this. God divides the:

1. light from the darkness (Genesis 1:4, God divided the light from the darkness.)
2. the waters from the waters with a firmament (Genesis 1:6, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.)
3. the water from the land (Genesis 1:9, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear)
4. the plants from the earth (Genesis 1:11, Let the earth bring forth grass)
5. the day from the night (Genesis 1:14, divide the day from the night)
6. the animals from the sea and the earth (Genesis 1:20, 24, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life…Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind)
7. the man from the woman (Genesis 2:21-22, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.)

He commanded all living things to multiply, and all living cells multiply through a process known as mitosis, where they will split into two to form two new cells; creation through division, division = multiplication! The implications of this are extremely fascinating to ponder and meditate on.

Some really interesting things begin to happen now when you consider the implications of two points in existence.

Two radiating points, like the waves generated by two pebbles dropped in a pond, intersect to create a shape called the vesica piscis (Beginners, 34). Interestingly, the vesica piscis is a shape similar to many openings of the body like the eyes, the mouth, vocal cords, and our reproductive openings through which life passes into this world.

The number two or the vesica piscis can represent:

• Creation (through the birth portal or by speech)
• Witnesses (2 witnesses)
• Man & Woman (as co-creators)
• A Veil (The clothing of a spirit in flesh through birth)
• Opposition (the creation of a ‘difference’)
• Vision (the portal of the eye which light passes through)
• Mouth (vocal cords vibrate, producing sound which generates words. God speaks and intelligence organizes itself accordingly)
• Portal between worlds (pre-mortal life to mortal life, the all-seeing-eye of God piercing the veil)
• Christ (as the Creator)

The vesica piscis as a mouth may have reference to God speaking and things forming into existence. By his Word were all things created, so it is interesting that an early Christian symbol for Jesus, who also goes by the title of “The Word,” was a fish constructed of the vesica piscis. From the vesica piscis, all shapes can be created, and from God’s Word, all things have come into existence.

We see the vesica piscis used frequently around windows and doorways, indicating a passageway for light or people. Since we look through a window, we have a direct association with the eyes.

Another form the number two commonly takes is in objects. In the temple, pay close attention to where you see things in pairs.  Solomon’s Temple had two pillars at the entrance to the Holy Place and these pillars even had names: Jachin and Boaz. Pillars can represent witnesses, covenants and man and woman together in marriage.

Some of the most important doctrines from creation to opposition to the relationship between man and woman can all be comprehended and represented within the number two. Two is another fascinating letter in the divine alphabet that can teach us much when understood within the context of the holy temple and scripture.