The Meaning of Number 3: What Connects Opposites

“Good things come in threes.”

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“Good things come in threes.”

The Meaning of Number 3: What Connects

Within the philosophy of numbers, the number 3 symbolizes another universal principle. After the 1 and the 2 gave rise to “the one” and “the other,” bringing opposites and polarity into the world (see The Meaning of Number 1 and The Meaning of Number 2), the 3 is the logical next step: it puts opposites into relationship and creates a connection between differences. It’s the connected, the shared. It’s the fate of every pair of opposites to interact. We know the symbolism of the 3, of what connects, from philosophical concepts like thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, or from the threefold structure found in nearly every religion, such as the Trinity in Christianity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) or the Trimurti of the Hindu gods (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva): more on this in The Meaning of Numbers in the Bible and Numbers in Fairy Tales, Myths, and Literature.

The Taiji Symbol as a Symbol of What Connects (Number 3)

The third principle, the one that connects opposites, is also more broadly familiar to us as the principle of love. Love always creates a connection between two things, in whatever form that takes. Its symbol, the heart, shows graphically how two poles flow together into one toward the bottom. Another sign for the same principle is the yin and yang symbol. The two poles, black and white, are dynamically connected and form a new unity. Through that connection, something new and shared emerges, a new whole. That’s why people also speak of a three-in-one.

The connecting principle that gives rise to a new whole comes through in many quotes about the symbolism of 3, such as “Good things come in threes,” “You must say it three times” (Mephistopheles, in Faust), “Toi toi toi,” or “Ich bleib dir 3.”

Synonyms for the Principle of 3:

Connection, love, function, three-in-one, trinity, synthesis. Symbols include the heart, the triangle, the Valknut (Wotan’s knot), the Taiji symbol, and Odin’s horn.

Question:

Have you ever noticed that the numeral 3 is made up of two incomplete circles joined together?

Quotes on the Meaning of Number 3:

„It isn’t possible to combine two things well by themselves without a third: some unifying bond is needed between both. And the fairest of bonds is that which makes the most complete fusion of itself and the things which it combines.“
(Platon)

„The problem of a unity that steps outside itself, that becomes an “other and a second,” only to close back together with itself in a third nature: that problem belongs to the deepest shared spiritual inheritance of humanity.“
(Ernst Cassirer)

„[…] that the dichotomy Pauli spoke of isn’t a dichotomy in the sense of Aristotelian logic, but that complementarity enters here at a decisive point. A dichotomy in the Aristotelian sense would rightly be, as Pauli wrote, an attribute of the devil: repeated over and over, it only leads into chaos. But the third possibility that has emerged with quantum-theoretical complementarity can be fruitful, and repeated use of it leads into the space of the real world. In fact, in the old mysticism, the number three is tied to the divine principle. Or, without reaching back into mysticism, you could think of Hegel’s three-step: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. The synthesis can’t just be a mixture, a compromise between thesis and antithesis: it only becomes fruitful when something qualitatively new emerges from the connection between thesis and antithesis.
(Werner Heisenberg)

„The Dao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced all things.“
(Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, Tao Te Ching)

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