The Mystery of Three-ness and the Trinity

Today I was inspired to create a bundle of mugwort and chrysanthemum with a charm marked with a triskelion.

The Celtic symbol of three interlocking spirals is one of many arcanum* which convey a metaphysical knowledge of the law of three—just like the triquetra, which has been used by Christianity to symbolize the Holy Trinity.

This chain of associations led me to remember an earlier fascination I had (and still have, obviously) with the writings of mystic and theologian, Cynthia Bourgeault, and in particular—her book on the Trinity and the law of three. So I pulled out the book and refreshed my memory a bit. Here is a small snippet where she sums up the case she made in one chapter for releasing the Trinity from the constraint of having only one possible meaning.

“…the real task before us is to have the courage to let go of the Trinity as Christianity’s theological ace of clubs (using it only to prove that a human being was fully God) and to approach it instead in its cosmically subtle role as an ordering and revealing principle, of which Christ is its culminating expression. In misusing the metaphysical principle as a doctrinal prop, we have missed the inherent energy for transformation. If we could bring a new expansiveness to our search, we might discover that the Trinity holds treasures we have not yet begun to suspect.”
- Cynthia Bourgeault, “The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three”

Read the book! And then find me.
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* CB shares a definition of “arcanum” which pulls it out of the perceived spooky realm of tarot cards and reclaims it for concise identification of a common spiritual tool when she says that “An arcanum is a densely encoded symbol (image, sacred gesture, or liturgical formula) that, when read by an illumined heart, conveys objective metaphysical knowledge.”