The Trilogy

Expanding past the concept of the number 2, we arrive at the number 3, and it is by no accident that I use the word “expanding.” To build upon a point that I left pending in Duality, we see that the union of 2 entities can result in the creation of a third and new entity. Of course, this can represent the basic process of 2 people forming a relationship and then conceiving a child (or adopting one) out of that relationship. So the 3 becomes, in a sense, the first focal point of progeny and of expansion of the family. Whereas the 1 was the original engine of creation for the sake of creation in general, which brought the abstraction of the 0 into a concrete form, the 3 could be thought of as the creative process that takes place after you already have those concrete forms in place, and only serves to continue creation along that direction.

Of course, this doesn’t have to be restricted only to the addition of children and future generations. Another facet of the 3 could simply represent the additional people outside of one’s closest inner circle. So we can think of the 3 as the first point of growth and expansion beyond the stability of the 2, and the simple addition of friends outside our main circle of parents, siblings or significant others to expand one’s social circle. So, this association of the 3 with the concept of growth and addition in general, is probably why bread and butter numerologists say the 3 is a “lucky” number; that, and it’s specific association with the expansion of social and family relationships would fit into its traditional role as a highly “social” number.

But let’s look at this number from another angle, that of stability vs instability, or balance vs imbalance. Naturally, with the 2, we saw that in addition to opposition and conflict it could also represent balance; for example, the 2 wheels of a bicycle, or the two weight plates of a scale. However, with the introduction of a third presence, this can knock that balance off kilter. Much as when you have a child suddenly within a marriage where both spouses were happy and stable, the child, while adding joy, meaning, and solidifying the meaning of a family, may at the same time add great instability and imbalance, as now the love between spouses gets divided and focused mainly on the child. In fact, it changes the lives of the parents profoundly, even irreversibly; hence, the feeling of instability. A less dramatic example would be a person who unfortunately becomes a “third wheel” on an evening out between two good friends or even romantic partners. This person unintentionally, through their own misreading of social cues, or through force of circumstances, ends up being a nuisance for the other people involved, and hence, adds a sense of uneasiness and discomfort to the comfort zone of the relationship between the first two entities.

Naturally, being an odd number then, the 3 is unbalanced. Though the number 1 is the first unbalanced and odd number, it’s state of imbalance is quite different from that of the 3. Where you have the 1, you have a single presence with no other presence around it to “even it out”; now, this could mean anything from total loneliness and isolation, to completely unopposed, tyrannical and absolute power of that single entity involved. On the other hand, with the number 3 things are a bit different. Here, you have the first possibility of imbalance of power and inequality within a group in the truest sense of the word. Suppose you have 3 individuals; so, in case of any conflict that divides the group, you will invariably have 2 people opposing 1 person, so you get the first possibility of “ganging up” and “bullying;” also, we get the first chance of a “majority” in a democratic sense. Of course, all 3 individuals could oppose each other as well, but let’s keep this simple for now.

As uncomfortable as the 3 may seem at first glance, it could actually be a positive force. Let’s consider the previous examples of the “burden of children” or the “third wheel” friend accompanying a couple for the evening: as much as one can be considered to be a demanding challenge, whilst the other as a nuisance for those around them, their respective presence is the first step beyond the comfort zone created by the 2. This is important because without the addition of this 3rd force or entity, a family would never truly grow, and we as people would never truly develop friends and other social relationships with society at large outside of our families or significant others. This could mean we remain with a fundamental inability to interact with society in general, reflecting our crippled potential to properly flourish as people throughout our lives. After all, we do need to develop as social beings outside our family, relatives and significant others as well. So, the 3 can represent a catalyst for such positive change and development. Additionally, if we recollect that the number 2 could represent a point of balance, well again, such balance can easily turn into the stagnancy of a comfort zone, out of which we feel afraid to step out of. Here the 3 comes to our salvation to force us out of this. Wherever we feel the weight of a perfectly balanced dilemma and indecision of the 2, the 3 could gladly give us the uneven, unbalanced and decisive impetus to make our way out of dilemmas. As aforementioned, this is the virtue of the 3 being an odd number: that it is impossible for there to be an even split between 2 possibilities, as you would invariably end up with a 2-1 majority favoring one option over another.

But, beyond this, if all three elements of the number 3 are aligned in perfect harmony, that makes for a very strong, unified force amongst those individual elements indeed. Yes, I recall that I already mentioned the number 1 as having an unbreakable strength due to its shape as a number, and the fact that with one single entity, you have a lack of “joints” to extra entities which can be used to break apart it’s structure. So what the heck am I talking about here? Well, it turns out that the 3 also has it’s own unique strength, as long as it’s individual elements are all aligned correctly; otherwise, of course, disharmony amongst its elements would create obvious weakness. But, let’s focus on when all three elements of the number 3 are aligned: you get a perfectly and evenly shaped triangle. So what’s so important about this? Well, even from a structural standpoint, the triangle happens to be the amongst the most stable and strongest of shapes in nature. This makes sense if you think about it; for example, If you have a table with 3 legs, it now becomes capable of standing evenly upright without falling towards any side. Yes, you could say the same with 4 or more legs, but with every additional leg, you add a potential point of weakness in the structure of this hypothetical table. With 3 legs you have the absolute minimum number of legs to keep the table supported and upright. Also, though a square is considered strong, a triangle is stronger still because there are simply fewer sides to the shape which you could possibly deform. That, and the fact that the acute angles of all three vertices of the triangle only serve to strengthen every wedge-like edge of the triangle, versus the perpendicular angles of the four corners of a square. What I’m getting at then is that the number 3 is the very first symbol of strength and unity amongst a group of people or elements; yet, by its design, such fortitude can easily be turned into disharmony and weakness, but such is the nature of group dynamics. Therefore, this number would adequately represent the nature of “the group” and perhaps even politics, with its cyclical pattern of moving from harmony to discord amongst its members periodically.

Additionally, the 3 can represent the quality of vision and the process of creative thinking itself. For example, consider the very first creation of 3D modeling in games back in the ‘90s. The addition of another axis and plane of reference totally revolutionized the gaming industry in a crazy rush to create 3D graphics and the beginning of virtual reality. To accomplish this, the quality of vision, creative thinking and the ability to think outside the box into a totally new way of seeing things entirely, was needed in order to create all the numerous high resolution, realistic video games we have today across various platforms and devices.

Now, along with the 3’s association with vision and creative thinking, let me add another of my associations with this number, that of the three dimensions of time: the past, present and future. You have the relentless ongoing march from the one to the next in succession, at least from our point of view. But, according to the ancient concepts of eastern sages and spiritual teachers, this is not exactly how time works. According to them, the past and future can be thought of as currently nonexistent dimensions of time, meaning that the past, which was real at one point, has now concluded and thus “has died”, and that the future, because it has not yet arrived and is still simply yet potential and possibility, currently does not exist. In this vein then, the past and future could be thought of as linearly mirrored dimensions of each other flowing in opposite directions: backwards and forwards. But, the present moment, as we would like to think, is not simply an in-between linear line or dot connecting the two lines of the past and future; rather, it’s more like an upward facing triangle. Why is this? Because the present moment is considered to be special in that it’s the only dimension of time where we have the potential, freedom, will and power to do an infinite range of actions. Accordingly then, it cannot be restricted to a simple linear pattern, but rather, it should be viewed as something consisting of an infinite number of elements and not just 3; however, for the sake of simplicity, we’ll use the example of a triangle versus a line to illustrate this seemingly infinite and expansive nature of the 3. But, not only could this number represent the 3 dimensions of time, but also the present moment in particular. I say this because again, I used the example of the expanding triangle (to represent the present), which is 3-sided, and also because of the general association of the 3 with the quality of expansion, and hence; the possibility of expanding towards infinite potential, which is again something that is unique only to the present moment. We could add a spiritual bend to this too, because it is thought that we can only access our spiritual core in the here and now, through being totally mindful of the present moment; for this reason then, 3 can be thought of as a spiritual number as well. As a quick aside, some astro-numerologists like to link the 3 to the planet Jupiter, because of all this “expansive,” “lucky,” and “spiritual” stuff.

To conclude then, the number 3 can hold a whole host of meanings, but we’ll start with that of the addition of family members and social contacts in one’s life. Accordingly then, repeatedly seeing the number 3 could be nudging a person to simply make some friends, get out into the world and have some fun in the company of others; perhaps it’s time to party. It could also be indicating, especially for couples considering settling down, that it’s time to add some children to grow one’s family. Alternatively, we saw an association of imbalance with the 3rd number. So, it’s appearance in your life could be heralding a situation where things are uneven, unsteady and out of harmony, and a need to pay attention to that. But, on the flip-side of this, this number could be saying that you actually need some imbalance and unsteadiness in life, especially if you’ve gotten so chained to your comfort zone that you’re stuck in a rut which you’re too afraid to get out of. As previously mentioned, this number could help to force you to break out of a dilemma or indecision with decisive action. Then comes the association with the complex group dynamics that happen when we interact with a number of other people. When everyone is cooperating together, the 3 represents a symbol of strength, like an evenly shaped, strong and stable triangle. On the other hand we saw how, with this number being the first uneven number of a plural form, that you get the chance of discord and opposition, much like the 2, with an added imbalance, as you can easily end up with 2 versus 1 over an argument or disagreement. Similarly, perhaps the 3 could be signifying a need for unity and harmony amongst a group, whether that be within your family or at the workplace. It could also mean that there could be unfair power struggles, politics and even bullying by strength of numbers taking place in the domestic, workplace or other spheres where groups of people are involved, and the need to rectify this as soon as possible. Fourthly, the 3 could be seen as a beacon of vision and the process of creative thinking, much like that special eagle eye perspective that allows you to see a “secret option number 3” when stuck in a catch-22 situation. If you find yourself stuck in a similar position, this number could be alerting you to take heed of the possibility of a lightning-strike solution to a difficult problem that you don’t see or are unaware of at the moment, but is right in front of your eyes. Lastly, due to this number’s association with the 3 facets of time: the past, present and future, the 3 could be signalling one to closely pay attention to review either of these parts of one’s life. Then again, because of 3’s connection to the present moment particularly, it could just be telling you to either pull yourself out of the pain, anger, regret and other ghosts of the past, or the worry, anxiety and neurotic over-planning of the future, and to anchor yourself back fully into the magic and life of the present moment, much like a child. And, in relation to this, it could indicate a need to incorporate mindfulness into one’s daily life, such as through meditation or prayer, for example, in order to completely access that special dimension of the present, where we can get in touch with and grow our spiritual nature.