The Enchantment of the Number Three
Click here to go to the main page

"The Enchantment of the Number Three"

by Susan Bosler
Email: morgan@iswest.com

Celtic art and literature has long been preoccupied with the number three. Looking at Celtic works or art one notices that often figures are grouped in clusters of three, creatures have three heads, objects repeat three times, or a single head might have three faces.

From the Druid or Celtic Shamanistic viewpoint the number three represents the different views one might develop following an initiation ceremony. Celtic Shamans believed that they could see the present, past and future - their vision of the world was complete and trustworthy. The Shaman often saw himself as a man standing in three different worlds at the same time. In this way, his judgments, decisions and advice became infallible and was closed to interpretation.

To the Celtic Shaman the worlds overlapped thus his consciousness is different from anyone else. His world view is full and complete. He has many ongoing relationships with otherworldly entities, such as fairies, the dead and the yet to be born. He gains his knowledge of this world from these entities and bestows it upon those who are not so blessed with such insight, such as King Arthur.

The Celtic preoccupation with the number three can be seen in the image of many of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses such as the three Brigids, and in the course of a story, often male heros travel in groups of three in an attempt to complete a task, each of the three completing a different leg of the journey.

Just as night and day need twilight or dawn to go between it, the Celtic Shaman is the necessary third being between what is seen and unseen. He is neither this nor that. This widespread interest of the number three remains in our thinking today. Many modern concepts in philosophy, mathematics, physics, etc., are still very much based in the idea of "the three."



To the Main Page
To the next article



LE FastCounter