The Sacred Number “3″

Three, a number imbued with exquisite symbolic meaning, is represented by a ‘Triangle’, the geometric form that is created from three invisible points and the three invisible lines that connect them. The number One (a Point) has no dimensions, and Two (a line) has one dimension: thus, One and Two belong to the realm of unmanifest pure Mind – they cannot be seen by the human eye. A Triangle combines two dimensions (left/right and up/down), and this gives it a unique, peculiar, and immensely significant quality. Like any flat surface, it can be seen — if it is facing you in its upright position. But if a triangle is flipped horizontally so that its side is facing you, then there is only a line facing you — and a line is totally insubstantial and invisible. This means that a Triangle can ‘appear’ in the Material world and then ‘disappear’ out of it. In other words, the ephemeral number Three lies curiously in between the Intelligible world of Spirit and the Sensible world of Matter. Three represents a ‘Threshold’ between them, a passageway that links the manifest with the transcendent. This ‘Threshold’ can be thought of as the locus of the soul, which is partly of the manifest world and partly of the unmanifest world. It may also be thought of as the dwelling place of angels and demons, beings that are partly of the earth and partly of the heavens. For Plato, this is the level of Dianoia, the level of abstract principles, mathematics, and pure reason, between matter (with its illusions and opinions), and the eternal world of the perfect archetypal Forms.