The Power of Three
Why is 3 such a magical number?
Maiden, Mother, Crone; Father, Son, Holy Ghost; Body, mind, and spirit; the number of times the character in a thriller must try the complicated, death-defying task before it succeeds.
Old advertising wisdom says a product’s name is only remembered by the consumer after they’ve seen it three times within the space of a single ad. Books and films tend to come in trilogies. Storytelling itself is constructed on the frame of three-act-structure.
No doubt about it, three is a powerful number that resonated in the human psyche. “The Power of Three” was a phrase in magical circles long before The Charmed Ones made it famous. There is an innate power in threes. Aren’t you dying to know why?
I thought it would be fun to poke around in the mysticism surrounding this digit, and explore how we can use it to enhance our own magic.
Pythagoras (6th century BCE)
Greek mathematician and triangle expert “Pythagoras taught that everything in the universe has a three-part structure, he also stated that every problem in the universe could be reduced diagrammatically to a triangle and the number three.” (Team) It’s said that he studied with Egyptian scholars - and one wonders about connections to the architecture of the pyramids, (or which there are three) which required sophisticated mathematical knowledge to build. And lots of triangles.
Biology
Our DNA is made up of a series of codons in sets of three. Each codon is made up of three nucleotides. Threes are at the very basis of what we are. Our genetic code is built on threes.
Sir Isaac Newton
Was not just a mathematician, but also a mystic. It’s alleged that a translation of The Emerald Tablet was found among his possessions. The Emerald Tablet, or Tabula Smaragdina, is said to be one of several that contain the secrets of alchemy and of the universe itself. One quote from the tablets is this: “Three is the great wisdom, come from the Great One.”
Qabala
In Qabala, threes are attributed to the sphere on the tree of life known as Binah, the sphere of the mother, the Goddess, and the idea of form. Everything physical was first a thought, an idea, and then form. The idea is the first part of manifestation, the idea. Its energy is about intelligence. Without Binah, there could be no physical reality. It’s that crucial a step in the process of creation.
The Celts
The triquetra, three interlaced arcs, sometimes with a circle, sometimes wound with intricate knots. Always, the lines of the triquetra are interwoven and unbroken, representing the unbreakable link between all things, past, present, and future; begining, middle, and end. Eternity is represented by the symbol.
Ancient pagans saw it as representing the three forms of the goddess, maid, mother, and crone, and perhaps even earlier, it represented land, sea and sky. Later, when Christianity took over, it became known as the trinity knot, representing the male trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit/Ghost.
The design might be far older than the Celts, however. It has been found all the way back to the Iron Age, and was in use by the 4th century BCE on ceramics in Anatolia and Persia, and on early Lycian coins.
The Rule of Three
One of the most famous writings in Wicca, is this line:
Ever mind the Rule of Three. Three times what thou giveth, returns unto thee.
But why is it always three?
There’s some psychology behind this, that apparently is based in the fact that three is the smallest number that our brains can recognize as a pattern. One thing plus another thing, made a third thing.
If you look more deeply into that simple statement, three is the number of creation. Force + Form = The Universe.
How to Harness the Power of Three
It only takes a little imagination to apply the amazing Power of Three to our lives, our work, and our magic.
In classes, for example, I have found the really hard stuff (bio) makes sense to me after I’ve ingested it in three different ways, the lecture, the textbook reading, and then either an animation or video or lab covering the same information. It never fails.
Tip 1: To retain new information, digest it three times, in three different ways if possible.
The rhythm of three holds the magic of three, and the rhythm of three includes her multiples, six and nine. When writing spells, lyrics, charms, poems, use that power in the numbers of lines, or the numbers of syllables per line, to weave the energy of three into the creation of the verse.
Tip 2: Write 3, 6, or 9 syllable lines - 3, 6, or 9 of them.
I was trained to cast my magic circles three times around. In fact, in one of the most famous circle castings ends with the lines, “Three times ‘round the circle’s cast, great ones, spirits from the past, witness it and guard it fast.”
One of the requirements for teaching in some mystic traditions, is that the student must ask three times before they will be accepted. This was also a tradition, I believe, in some Buddhist temples for admitting students who wanted to become monks. Or else I saw that on an episode of Kung Fu.
Tip 3: When you really want something, ask three times.
I would carry this over into all my speech. When I want to make a point, when I state my goal, when I submit my proposal….
Tip 4. When you want to emphasize something, repeat it three times to seal the deal.
When we give thanks for something, we should do that three times as well, so the person (or entity) we are thanking really feels it, deep down, and knows it’s real, and doens’t forget it. We want it to sink in, and be meaningful.
Tip 5: When giving thanks, repeat it three times, on three different occassions.
Tip 6: When seasoning food, pick three herbs and spices to create a unique combination for each dish.
Tip 7: When gathering ingredients for a spell, focus on just three ingredients.
If everything we do returns to us in triplicate, we should be doing more good things. This doesn’t just apply to good deeds. According to the Charge of the Goddess, “All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals.” I love that philosophy. And so anytime we are acting from a state of love, or experiencing joy and pleasure, these are also radiating outward from us. Even if we’re the only one enjoying it. These energies are real.
The happier we are, the more of these light beams emanate from us out into the world where all things are connected. And then they multiply by three and bounce back to us.
Tip 8: Be everything you want to experience in life. Be love. Be joy. Be kindness. And those things will return to you tripled.
Maybe they multiply by three as they move through the realms of body-mind-and spirit, or physical-mental-and-emotional, or past-present-and-future, or the underworld, the upper world, and middle earth.
Maybe the three is a measurement based on the ripples of a pebble dropped into a pond.
Maybe it’s just magic.
Put it to the test
Do something deliberately, such as donating $5 to a worthy cause. Then let it go, even while fully expecting $15 or its equivalent to come back to you. Don’t obsess about it. Forget about it. Release it. But expect it. It wil arrive.
Here’s a really cool Ted Talk about the Power of Three that I think you’ll enjoy.
Team, Ancient Code. “Ancient Knowledge? The Secret Importance behind the Number 3.” Www.ancient-Code.com, 20 Oct. 2023, www.ancient-code.com/ancient-knowledge-the-secret-importance-behind-the-number-3/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2024.
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