The rosetta.jpg diagram is based on the ideas of A. M. Young and the "Standard Model" of modern physics.
This is my attempt to map the Standard Model of quantum physics to Arthur M. Young's "rosetta stone". For information on the particles in the Standard Model of quantum physics, see, for example: http://pdg.lbl.gov/cpep/generation.html For more information on Arthur M. Young, see http://www.arthuryoung.com/. In particular, the diagram as originally proposed by Young is discussed extensively in The Geometry of Meaning.
In table form, it looks like this:
A Rosetta Stone of Matter
=========================
Generations
of matter: First Second Third
(Cardinal) (Mutable) (Fixed)
Elements +--------------------------------------------------> decrease
-------- | in lifetime
Fire | neutrino muon neutrino tau neutrino
| (L/TT) (MLL/T) (ML/TT)
|
Air | electron muon tau
| (L) (MLL/TTT) (ML)
^
|
| Noumenal (being)
--------------------
| Phenomenal (becoming)
|
v
|
Water | Up quark Charm quark Bottom quark*
| (L/T) (MLL) (ML/T)
|
Earth | Down quark Strange quark Top quark*
| (L/TTT or LT) (MLL/TT) (ML/TTT)
|
v
increase
in density
Note: In the Standard Model of quantum physics, the location of the Bottom Quark and Top Quark are switched. That ordering shows a certain consistency in that then each family (triangle in my diagram) has the same charge. I decided to go ahead with this different ordering because it proves much more consistent with Young. I don't know what the significance is, if any, in this difference (but if the physicists would decide for some reason to swap their placement of the Bottom and Top quarks in their model, I'd sleep better.) I have more to say about this in "The Threefold" below.
Young's model, which he called a Rosetta Stone of Meaning, traces the path from unity (the circle) to multiplicity by going through duality (opposites), trinity (the triangles), and quaternity, the crosses. These are discussed below in the sections "The Twofold", "The Threefold", and "The Fourfold".
The quarks and the leptons correspond to the twofold division described by Young as becoming and being (or phenomenal and noumenal), respectively. Quarks are "becoming" because they do not exist independently, and must occur in composite matter such as the protons and neutrons which are comprised of three quarks. Leptons are "being" because they are fundamental (as far as we know) and independent.
The triangles connect leptons of 0 charge (electron charge), leptons of -1 charge, quarks totaling charge of 0, and quarks totaling charge of 1. The quarks are totaled because they have no independent existence (so one never really can isolate a particle with a 1/3 quantum charge.)
When I had earlier tried to strictly follow the arrangement of the Standard Model, one of the quark triangles had a combined charge of +2 and the other a combined charge of -1. I now find I prefer to instead use the ordering that I feel is determined by Young's scheme (see "Further Comments" below) even though this produces two triangles of inconsistent charge. As individual particles, the ordering given by the Standard Model provides the most symmetrical layout. But because the quarks cannot exist independently, it seems to make more sense to take the quark charges as the sum of the trinities as the whole charge. This also has the pleasant result of producing a total charge of 0 for the entire figure:
Standard Model
==============
Quarks -1/3 -1/3 -1/3 -1/3 each or -1 sum
+2/3 +2/3 +2/3 +2/3 each or +2 sum
Leptons 0 0 0 0 each or 0 sum
-1 -1 -1 -1 each or -3 sum
---------------------
-2/3 -2 totals
Rosetta Stone
=============
Quarks -1/3 -1/3 +2/3 0 sum
+2/3 +2/3 -1/3 1 sum
Leptons 0 0 0 0 each
-1 -1 -1 -1 each
---------------------
0 total
In Young's astrological diagram the triangles represent each of the four ancient elements (earth, air, fire and water). Note that the increase of mass in the particles corresponds to the increasing density of the ancient element. The lightest particles - indeed possibly massless altogether - are the neutrinos which are on the triangle corresponding to fire. Next, air, is the electron/muon/tau. Then water is the quark line with the Bottom quark, and Earth the quark line with the heaviest of them all, the Top quark.
In his formulation of the Rosetta stone, Young said the crosses connected "pairs of opposites". Here, each cross represents one generation of four "particles". One line of each cross has two leptons, the other two quarks. Opposite particles have opposite charge.
The three possible crosses in the graphic were used by Young to connect the cardinal, mutable, and fixed signs in his astrological depiction. In his depiction of the measure formulae of physics and engineering, the crosses correspond to the three "generations" (my word usage here) by which measure formulae were obtained starting with L, L/T, and L/TT, which are then multiplied by mass to produce the second generation, which is in turn multiplied by length to create a third and final generation. In my organization of the quantum particles here, the crosses connect the three generations of matter (this usage comes from quantum physics and is accepted.) So, just as Young's 2nd and 3rd generation of measure formulas are formed by multiples of the first, so are the second and third generations of matter multiples of the first (and in fact quickly decay back into first generation particles).
I associated each particle with a location on Young's diagram because that is where it was forced to be. The line of thought goes something like this: There are three generations of matter so map them to the three crosses of the diagram. There are four triangles so map them to the four families of the Standard Model. In addition, to be consistent to Young's model, the phenomenal and noumenal distinction must alternate around the circle.