Three is a Magic Number
Three is a magic number, and the power of 3x3 is an ancient way of manifesting magic in our world.
In this year’s Conference, we are working with the significance of the number three in relation to the ceremonies of the Earth Goddess of Creation.
In an earlier news-shot, I’ve already talked to you about the Three Realms in which we are imagining the gnosis of the Great Mother of all Creativity, and Her Sacred creative fire to inspire, illuminate and ignite ingenuity.
Throughout human history, the number 3 has always had a unique significance, but why is this so?
While on retreat in Andalusia this month, where some of our earliest ancestors to inhabit the European landmass settled in caves along the coast, I have visited some of the sites they left their marks in, in the form of pictographs and petroglyphs, which are at least in part believed to have been ways of counting.
There is some evidence to suggest that early humans may have used counting systems which consisted of “One, Two, Three” and thereafter “Many”.
The use of three lines to denote the number 3 occurred in various writing systems, including Roman and Chinese numerals that are still in use today. In mathematics, the number 3 is a prime number. It is also the first number that forms a geometrical shape: the triangle.
The primordial triangle (downward pointing), a simple shape created by three positioned points which mark out equal sides, relies on the power of three working together to create balance, union and space.
It of course symbolises the vulvic triangle of the Great Goddess of Creation, and is amongst one of the earliest cave-art depictions of the human, and sacred, form.
The Mesopotamian inverted triangle, or Nabla, was a symbol that originally represented fertility and the Divine Feminine. Later it became the symbol for patriarchal social hierarchy, foreshadowing the tripartite division of patriarchal European society. Inspired by the shape of a harp, it symbolised nurturing, life-giving, and the protective, watchful “eye” of the Goddess, from +/- 2600–2025 BCE.
In geometry, the triangle (with the point facing upward) is supposed to have been invented in Egypt, sometime around 2500 BCE. For the ancient Egyptians, it was one of their most sacred symbols, representing harmony, balance, ascension, and the primordial mound of creation (Benben) from which all life emerged. Profoundly shaping religious and funerary art, the shape was of course central to pyramid construction.
Three has a special place in many world cultures because the concept of triples is primal and a deeply rooted part of our psyche that our ancestors everywhere recognised and used.
The Pythagoreans, (followers of the Greek philosopher by that name) believed it to be ‘the one true number’.
In their eyes, the number 3 was derived from the union of oneness and duality. In addition, beyond three, numbers can be divided into various groups, groups which are part of the duality of life. They saw that, in these first three numbers, all of the others are synthesized, that is; from the triad proceed all of the other numbers, and from this primordial triangle all figures derive.
If three is the first number that moves beyond the ‘one’ of individuality and the ‘two’ of duality (which is its reflection), it is no wonder that magical qualities are associated with it. We can see that, since ancient times, three has signified the sacred, the creative force, and the structure of reality, making it a core number in spells, folklore, and spiritual practices for harmony, manifestation, and Divine connection. This is no doubt why many world religions contain triple Deities or concepts of trinity.
In Celtic cosmology, the number three was the most sacred, representing totality, balance, and the interconnection of all life. Many of the Celtic symbols were therefore composed of three elements, such as the Triple Spiral/Triskele, Triquetra, and the Three Rays, to personify this. Each aspect of these symbols represented a layer of the human soul, of the sacred realm, or of states of existence, as groupings of three embodied these ideas and principles associated with the cycles of life, faces of the moon, and of the Celtic seasons (spring, summer, winter).
Three is the number of time: past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end. It represents the creative triad of Feminine, Masculine, Progeny, and is found in the three particles of an atom as protons, neutrons, and electrons, as well as in the mystical realms (Under-, Middle- and Other-world) of mind, body and spirit.
Three takes our minds beyond duality into a unity of otherness, and therefore becomes the number of the Divine, signifying the sacred, the creative force or Creation itself, and is the basis of the structure of our reality.
George Ivan Gurdjieff said: “Every phenomenon, on whatever scale (from subatomic to cosmic) and in whatever world, springs from the interaction of three forces: the first active, the second passive, and the third neutralizing. Every action requires three forces. When three forces are present, things happen, actions are actualized. But without three forces—with one or two forces—nothing happens.”
The number three appears universally in creation myths, religious trinities, fairy tales, and magic itself, for creating patterns and signifying wholeness or completion.
Strengthening intentions in spiritual practices for harmony, manifestation, and Divine connection, the energy of Three is called upon in rites and rituals around the world.
From speaking a vow three times, cheering three times at a celebration, triadic riddles or challenges in folklore, drawing a circle round or bowing three times to end a practise, or making three knots in a handfasting cord, the repetition of three is interwoven in our daily and spiritual life whether we are aware of it or not.
The saying “by the power of three times three” essentially relates to this sacred power of the number three, magnified by itself. The 3×3 grid holds immense magical significance across various traditions, which is why we, as Goddess Conference ceremonialists, are working with this format in our circle this year.
Perhaps most famously represented by the three times three multiplier in Wiccan and occult practices relating to the Rule of Three and The Law of Return, “3×3” is considered a symbol of perfect harmony, balance, and the manifestation of intent in Neopagan belief systems, amplifying an intention to its greatest potential by trusting Divine wisdom.
In numerology, the number 3 symbolises creativity, communication, self-expression, and social energy, representing fun-loving, optimistic, and talented qualities, often associated with the arts and verbal skills, and embodying growth and abundance.
This feels to us to be in perfect harmony with our ceremonial intentions and the magic we are asking the Earth Goddess of Creation to bring through for the Goddess Conference this year!
Do come and join us at Lammas, 28th July to 2nd August, in Glastonbury UK, to experience and help celebrate the beauty of Her Triple Magic of inspiration, manifestation, and initiation by the power of three times three.
By Katinka Soetens
