And so I sit to tell a tale -- of three and three and three
How above, below and in between
Can come to mean just One.
On one particularly fine Beltaine morning many years ago, I slipped into this world. The sun was just rising and the magical dew of the first morn of May glistened in the grass as I took my first breath of air. With that breath I gained life, lost union and began my journey, as we all do, into a world of separateness and division.
Birth is the first of our three physical passages being followed by life and death. Within the human experience, we eventually recognize our body, our soul and our spirit. In our world, we reflect upon the cosmos, the earth and the waters. And, all the while, we try to remember (or forget) the past, live in the present and look forward to (or fear) the future. It is hard not to notice how often the aspect of three rises in our everyday lives.
This tendency of three, or triplism, was marked long ago by primitive mankind. Observation of the moon brought the earliest identifications with three. The moon could be seen growing, at full, and dying. When it did "die," it was invisible for approximately three days before reappearing. These phases came to represent the eternal cycle of renewal -- creation, preservation and conclusion.
Lunar observations are likely the origin of the first ideas about rebirth following death and the inclination in stories of descent for the goddess or god to disappear into the underworld for approximately three days (such as Jesus Christ).
In the moon we also find the source of the triple deities that populate the world's great mythologies and the early association with three as an Otherworldly or supernatural number. The first great triple deity was the Goddess herself, seen in the waxing of the moon as a maiden, at full as mother and waning into the crone, who dies to be reborn a maiden.
From these early beginnings, triplism flowered into mythology and folklore, taking its place in the Hindu trinity, the Buddhist Triratna, Celtic and later, Christian mythology among many others.
The Celtic tradition is rich with the multiplicity of three. The oral tradition of the Celts made use of the triad as a mnemonic device and its mythology is replete with triune deities such as the Dagda, Brigid, the Morrigna, Lug and Erui herself. The Celtic Mother Goddess shepherds the seasons of the year in her guises as Brigid, Danu and the Cailleach. Triplism is found in symbols such as the triskele, the pre-Celtic triple spiral as well as imagery and sculpture depicting three heads and sometimes three phalluses.
On the Hill of Tara in Ireland, the former kings of that time were required to wed the Goddess of the land before they ruled the realm. By creating relationship between Goddess, land and man, the fertility of the land was felt assured.
Perhaps one of the reasons the depiction or use of three (the triad, the triangle or triplism) was important was the actual image itself, other than what it visually represented. That is, simply by "being," the triple motif notified the viewer that they were entering ritual space or hearing a sacred story -- a symbolic road map for all cultures to follow. The power was held in the image itself, a cosmic "take notice here."
In our day, we tend to identify triplism with the number three. Looking only at folklore it is easy to find the value of accumulation -- three wishes, three princesses, three brothers, three horses of different colours, three fairies, three attempts, the three Fates and on and on. But it would be insufficient to consider the value of three as contained only in the effect of increase.
If one looks at characters from folklore, such as three brothers, or the depiction of a triple-headed deity, there is often a difference between each subject. That is, they are not three of the same thing. They exist in relationship to each other.
One brother may be crafty, another lazy, but the third will be the naïve, good-hearted fellow willing to take the counsel of insignificant creatures. Of three sculpted heads, one may look forward, one back, but one will probably look right at you.
While it is easy to identify with the "good" brother, or the forward looking head, perhaps part of the magic of three is its ability to shift. If there is a main aspect and two ciphers, perhaps the identity of the "main" character depends on which aspect our attention rests, representing its relationship to us in that single moment of our lives, before our perspective changes.
Embedded in the dynamic ability of three is also the ability of the third to reconcile. Creation, manifestation and dissolution are all features of the third. How many princes kissed their princesses without the intervention of an evil stepmother or a dark magician?
When was the last time life was going well for you (or so you thought) and along came a period of tension -- a difficult coworker, a lost job, difficulty at home or an injury that, in the end, actually turned your life in a better direction? Those "silver linings" and "blessings in disguise" are the third -- a reconciling function that transcends two seeming opposites, creating a middle ground where a new, more fitting attitude can be experienced. Exactly how long does anyone think the Garden of Eden would have been interesting without the snake?
The fabled Greek mathematician Pythagoras considered three as the "perfect" number, because it is All -- beginning, middle and end. While today we consider numbers as presenting quantitative data, early peoples also considered the qualities of numbers, that is, their archetypal meaning in relationship to their cosmos.
There is an ancient symbol referred to as a Vesica Piscis. It is an upright almond shape produced by the overlap of two intersecting circles. It was originally a symbol of the Great Goddess, the almond shape is the vulva which gives birth to the manifest world. It is now seen commonly on many automobiles as the "fish shape" that symbolizes Jesus Christ.
Two circles form the image, and they are the worlds of spirit and of matter. If they did not intersect they would represent only duality, forever side by side, never creating, possibly forever in opposition. But when they do intersect they produce the third, the common ground where both spirit and matter can become manifest in the flickering life of a human being.
Humankind is the indispensable third, without which the creative universe could never manifest into matter. The third is both within and without -- the world that we create as humanity, and the personal, the path that we walk by seeing that both worlds contribute to the life that we make for ourselves.
When we can, just for a moment, feel those three worlds together, then we realize that what we have called three is an illusion, it is One. Perhaps those that came before us realized that triplism notifies, multiplies and symbolizes a greater reality. Three paths to one Source.
And so, many years down the line, I come full circle. Beltaine itself is the Celtic festival of "re-union" and its birthplace is an Irish hill called Uisneach, a place of primordial unity. From my long ago Beltaine to that soon to come, I find that separateness and division is not the legacy of humankind, it is the illusion we must see through.