Quincunx
This article is about the geometric pattern of five units. Sir Francis Galton also gave the name "quincunx" to the machine he invented for demonstrating the normal distribution - also known as the bean machine.
Quincunx expresses the arrangement of five units in the pattern corresponding to the five-spot on dice, playing cards, or dominoes. A quincunx looks like this:
The quincunx pattern originates from
Pythagorean mathematical
mysticism. This pattern lies at the heart of the Pythagorean tetraktys, a pyramid of ten dots. To the
Pythagoreans the number
five held particular significance and the quincunx pattern represented this. Sir
Thomas Browne moulds his mystical discourse
The Garden of Cyrus (
1658) on the quincunx pattern.
- The power of the Pythagorean mysteries is based upon a mystical understanding of the mathematical order of the Universe which could be summed up in visual representation of such numbers as the Tetraktys (10) and the Quincunx (5).
- - Robert Graves, The White Goddess