Humans are a beautiful but weird species. As evolved as we are we still struggle with the simplest things like chaos and chance. Our brains are constantly trying to recognize patterns to create meaning and order to things that often times are just random. This quest to find patterns in things has led us to see the world is threes, the smallest number of occurrences it takes for something to become at least a pattern to us. When you see something at first time, its an accident, a thing of chance. When you see it a second time, it becomes a coincidence, something to pause and think about but not enough to make us stop in our tracks. When you see something for a third time, it becomes a pattern. Because our brains are designed to see that third thing as a pattern, the number three has become significant to humanity than any other whole number.
Omne, trium, perfectum, I find it poetic that it is three Latin words that describe the divinity that human beings have given to the number three. Translated as ‘every thing that comes in three is perfect’. Three is the number of completion, of perfection, of harmony.
When you look around the world, its hard to argue against this philosophy. The number three is everywhere and it serves the purpose in almost every aspect of our lives. It cuts across religion, traditions and philosophies. The best expression of this philosophy is human life itself. One day we are born, one day we die and we live our entire life in between. That life is also in three parts, three developmental stages. Childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The human body is divided into three, the head, thorax and abdomen. The perfect human face has three important parts, the eyes, the nose the mouth. I call it perfect since I wouldn’t imagine if the nose was on the back, the eyes in front and the mouth on the side. In most parts of the world, school is spread across three stages, primary, secondary and tertiary education. You see, except in the phrase, beginning, middle and end, the number three doesn’t signify the end. It signifies the completion of the necessary. You can split the developmental stages further, you can split educational stages to more than three. There would always be four, five and six. But at the end of the day, when all is said and done, when push becomes to shove, three is the least amount we need to make it make sense, to make it feel rounded. To make it complete.
Many religions across the world use the concept of threes. In Hinduism, there’s Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. In Greek mythology we have Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. In Judaism, there is the three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In Buddhism, the three main beliefs are Dukkha, Anita and Anatta.
In Christianity there’s God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The sign of the cross as made across the Catholic faith is in three. God is said to be omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent. Jesus goes back to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane three times, Samuel was called by God three times. At birth the the three wise men gave Jesus three presents, Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh all bearing three different meanings about His life. Jesus was tempted three times by the devil. Peter denies knowing Jesus three times. And on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. I could go on and on but I bet you get the point.
Now, look up in the sky and you will see the sun, the moon and the stars. All other heavenly bodies are complementary. Before humans discovered fire, there were three fundamentals to us, earth, sea and air. The world is observed in three dimensions, length, width and height. Earth mass appears in three forms, solid, liquid and gas. Speed is calculated using distance and time. We can move forward, backward or up. The objects we use everyday of our lives, houses, vehicles all exist in three dimensions. Travelling is only possible by land, sea and air. Time is perceived in threes as well, past, present and future, beginning, middle and end, yesterday, today and tomorrow. The clock is made up of three arms, the hour, the minute and the seconds hand.
It is no wonder that long before mathematics and physics were a thing, we could feel and understand the uniqueness of number three in our world. It is for these reasons that people from all around the world raised on different beliefs and traditions all have that deep feeling that the number three is just perfect. The point where everything becomes circle , where everything before it was incomplete, and everything after is simply an addition. Think about it. Force is mass times acceleration, Energy is mass times the speed of light. An atom has three particles, protons, electrons and neutrons. The triangle is the only shape with three lines that can close off. If your goal was to close off the shape, every other line is simply extra. To make anything stand without it being a balancing act, you need a minimum of three. You can add four, five or six but three is just as complete as it is. We have the three legged stool from our traditions and the three stoned hearth used in most rural settings.
Three is the first and only number that is the sum of its predecessors, two add one. When someone is testing a microphone, he will typically say 1,2,3 mic testing. If the same person says let’s clap for the presentation, he will go, 1,2,3 clap clap clap. The audience will then clap in threes clap, clap, clap. In music there are three clefs, G, F and C. To produce good music you need pitch, rhythm and melody. Heat is transferred through radiation, conduction and convection. In English, we have words for masculine, feminine and neuter. That famous unknown person comes in three, I, You, Him. Adjectival words occur in the adjective, the comparatives and superlatives such as large, larger, largest. Linguistics is studied, phonologically, morphologically and semantically. For a sentence to be agreeable in English we need the Subject, Verb and Object in any order. In storytelling to make them more impactful and insightful, they are told and written in three parts, introduction, body and conclusion. In Art, there are three primary colors and three secondary colors which come by after mixing either two of the three primary colors. A perfect drawing must have dimension, proportion and balance or size, amount and numbers as used in interior design.
This obsession with number three transcends religion, lore and mysticism. It is also in the stories we tell, in the traditions we pass down through the next generations, in our fairy tales. There were three little pigs that had to deal with the big bad wolf. Goldilocks walked in a room and found three bears and three bowls of porridge, three chairs in the living room and three beds in the living room. There were the three musketeers and there was the three idiots and genies always seemed to grant three wishes. A perfect marriage has three people, father, mother and children. A conservative couple would wish to have three kids.
To produce a movie, you have to undergo through three stages, preproduction, production and postproduction. The number three guides the movie process far more that you can realize it, the story is divided into three parts, introduction, conflict and resolution. Then once everything is in place, the director shouts, lights, camera, action! After a movie is out and the response is good, the team goes back to the studio to produce two movies since all good movies come in trilogies. The Godfather, The star wars, Lord of the rings, Back to the future, Toy story. And we all start to get bored by movie series after the third season. The power of three.
Why are we always given three options? In a purchase online products will appear as basic, advanced and premium. There are three traffics lights across the world, Red, Orange and Green. Researchers across the globe agree that having too many options affect our self control. People who are faced with several different options often find it too difficult to stay focused, handle daily tasks or even do something as simple as take their medicine which could be prescribed as one three times a day. The number three could be the magic that heals.
In sports, the number three is everywhere. The awards are given up to number three, Gold, Silver and Bronze. In a football match a win is awarded three points. in basketball a shot made from far out gives you three points. In wrestling, you pin your opponent in the count of three. In triathlon, you participate in three other sports.
I can keep going on and on about the number three a number that has branches in almost all every aspects of our lives. Its root deep beneath our subconscious, its vines spread across languages, cultures and walks of life. I can write about the beauty of the three from morning, daytime and night and still not exhaust the mystery and harmony in that number. So anytime you are around and about in the world, remember this –
Omne Trium Perfectum. Everything that comes in three is perfect.
The memoirist 