Three is the mystic lucky number, multitude, creative power, beginning, middle and end, and it takes three to make a Hungarian truth. The three blessings of yoga are peace, friendship and compassion, and in Christianity the three divine virtues are faith, hope and love.
De Fluctibus Armiger, an Oxford doctor of medicine (otherwise Robert Fludd), holds that the Creator may be depicted in three ways: i) in human form, since man is made of life and light, and life and light are God; ii) in the form of the Sun, for as the Sun rules in the material world, so God rules in the spiritual world; and finally iii) in the form of a triangle, for as this plane figure has three different angles, so in the one Godhead there exist three different persons, which, because of their unity, are not separate from one another. Three, then, shows a still finer articulation and a still fuller union: Father Sky, Mother Earth and Man, their child, between them.
Time has three phases, as past, present and future, and the world is threefold, as heaven, earth and the underworld, marked by three qualities: inertia or ignorance, energy or passion, and light or goodness. In the first phases of the world’s creation, cosmic intellect, the sense of self and matter owe their manifestation to these three factors. In this world marked by light, force and shadow, man’s longing is threefold too: he strives after the heavens, and after women and wealth, for the goal of human life is threefold as well: virtue, prosperity and sensuality. Yet these triads still draw man further into the maze of worldly existence.
The Three Robbers
A man lost deep in the forest is set upon by three robbers, Dull, Fiery and Clever. Dull, who is rather wicked and spiteful, says: ‘Let’s strike him dead and rob him!’ Fiery says: ‘All right, let’s strip him, but let’s not strike him dead, we can spare his life! We’ll leave him here and clear off.’ At which Clever speaks up: ‘All right, let’s strip him, and you’re right, let’s not strike him dead, but let’s not leave him deep in the wilds either, we can lead him to the edge of the forest…’ Dull, ignorance, is fatal, and Fiery, passion, strips you bare, while Clever, too, takes everything, but takes you to the edge of the wilds of existence.
Whoever wishes to be liberated finds three paths opening before him: the path of right action, the path of knowledge and understanding, and the path of worship, that is, he may become a hero, he may become a sage, or he may become a devotee. The three traits of the hero are truth, selflessness and fidelity, the three traits of the man of knowledge are discernment, the purification of existence and freedom, while the three practices of the devotee are love, service and self-surrender. And whoever becomes an ascetic must discipline his body, his speech and his thoughts – each harder than the last.
When the worth of a statement, an act or an opinion must be decided, revelation, sacred tradition and logic, or in other words theory, practice and reason, are the three chief points of reference.
Three can be one and one and one, or the sum of one and two. A fine example is the meeting of the three sacred rivers, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati (1 + 1 + 1); but the Ganges and the Yamuna are visible and flow into one (1 + 1 = 2), while the mystic Saraswati joins them invisibly (2 + 1 = 3). Within the human body, the Ganges corresponds to the ida prana channel, the Yamuna to the pingala, and the Saraswati to the central sushumna. The holy place of Prayag, where the three rivers meet, is the mystic opening at the crown of the skull, the exit of the soul. And the sacred syllable Om is threefold too: its first part, the sound A, is God, its last part, the sound M, is man, and between the two, the sound U, is love.