From Bloody Mary to witchcraft, three is the magic number
Three is the gateway into creating a space where you can contact the divine, says Wiccan
*This is the second episode in our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time. Listen to more episodes.
When it comes to the supernatural, the occult, and the strange, the number three has special powers.
From historic incantations and symbols — to modern horror movies and the childhood games we spread to scare ourselves.
Take the game Bloody Mary, which first appeared in the 1970s. It's usually played by young girls, who try to summon a spirit by going into a bathroom, turning the lights out, repeating "Bloody Mary" three times, and turning around three times.
In the earliest reports of the game as collected by folklorists, the magic number was three. In folklorist Alan Dundes' book, Bloody Mary in the Mirror, he writes:
You have to chant slowly so she has time to come from the spirit world.
Then you wait and see her face.
Once you see her, you have to run out of the bathroom where your friends are waiting.
If you've sinned or done anything evil in your life, then you will have three scratches of blood on your cheek.
The popularity of three in children's stories
Distinguished Service Professor of English at Binghamton University, Elizabeth Tucker told IDEAS the number three is a central number in many of the stories taught to children. Oftentimes, the number three will appear in the structure and title of a story.
"A story about three sons, for example, who go out in search of their fortune — and each of them has to go through this same sequence of actions in a certain way to try to achieve his heart's desire," she said.
"And so we learned from a very early age that when the number three becomes dominant, there's something story-like, something not exactly fictive, but different going on. It's like entering an enchanted realm where the possibilities are fantastic."
Tucker says the repetition part is crucial to propel a story from the first stage of the ritual, to the culminating stage, and to build anticipation in the mystical and the terror that may come with it.
"If you say the name slowly and then repeat, after that, you are building up incrementally toward a state of heightened excitement and fear in which you expect something will happen after the third repetition," she said.
"So it's very important to have that slow repetition of just the right number of names to get you into the frame of mind where you expect something amazing to happen and where you are both longing for that to happen and terrified that it may actually take place — and you may lose control of your own safety while going through that experience."
Why three?
In European history and folklore, three is often the number of invocation and incantation.
In records from the Scottish witch trials beginning in the 16th century, chants or repetitions of three were often seen as evidence of witchcraft.
Sierra Dye, an assistant professor of gender history at Cape Breton University, studies the Scottish witch trials, which began in the 16th century and continued until the 18th century.
"It's a very ritualistic kind of way of denoting that what you've said is actually powerful, that you're kind of invoking powerful words," Dye said.
"It's pretty common that people would say, 'Oh I spoke this charm three times as we walked around the oaken post three times.' You might be just saying words that sound like a prayer that are just using the words in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
Dye adds repetition three times also invokes the power of ritual in casting spells.
"For example, if you're trying to heal somebody who's sick or cast a sphere of protection around somebody, using those words in that repetitive ritualistic way is very powerful."
The three witches
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the three witches make their dramatized prophesies in the same time period as real women were being brought to trial for witchcraft.
His three witches are likely inspired by two sources — Daemonologie, a book about witches written by King James VI of Scotland, and The Moirai, or the Fates from Greek mythology. Some of the most iconic characters in Greek mythology, the fates are often depicted as weavers, spinning the threads of birth, life, and destiny.
In Theogony, a poem of Greek mythology by Hesiod, written roughly 700 BC, the fates are also related to the past, present, and future.
"And there were three who sat round, each one on her throne, the Fates…
Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos…
Lachesis singing the things that were.
Clotho the things that are…
and Atropos the things that are to be."
This relationship of threes to both life and time still exists in some forms of spirituality today.
Modern threes
In modern incarnations of witchcraft, such as Wicca and other forms of spiritualism or neo-paganism, threes still hold magical power.
Louise Bunn, an artist and Wiccan practitioner says three plays a particular role in finishing spells.
"When you're finishing up to make sure the spell is happening, you say 'by Earth, by air, by fire, by sea, by all the powers of three times three, as I do, will somewhat it be.' And the spell is done. That's a very common spell ending," she said.
Bunn said a significant figure in some forms of Wicca is Hecate, borrowed from ancient Greek religion.
"She's very popular with people who are more into sorcery. They like to think of it as dark magic. They do a lot of the spells from the Greek magical Papyri, which are kind of darker, more summoning, syncretic magic from the Greco-Roman Egyptian time period," she said.
In ancient Greek religion, Hecate was a goddess of magic, night, and crossroads, specifically where three roads meet.
Some modern Wiccans, neo-pagans, and spiritualists have adopted Hecate, especially her role as a goddess of crossroads.
The crossroads symbolizes both the transitory nature of life, and a magical place between realms, where the normal rules of time and space don't apply.
As Bunn says: "Once you have a three, then you've got an entryway into that space of possibility, a space where you can contact the divine. This magic space where things are possible, where you can invoke something special."
Guests in this episode:
Elizabeth Tucker is a distinguished service professor of English at Binghamton University.
Sierra Dye is an assistant professor of gender history at Cape Breton University.
Louise Bunn is an artist, sculptor and Wiccan practitioner.
*This episode was produced by Matthew Lazin-Ryder.
