Trinity and the Law of Three
The Law of Three Changes Everything
Sunday, March 12, 2017
In the United States our politics have devolved into divisiveness and partisanship. Think about it: You feel passionate about your party and your issues. Your co-worker or neighbor backs the other political party with equal passion.
The way we live so much of our lives stops right there. Someone takes position A, and someone else opposes them in Position B; they exist in rivalry and antagonism, world without end. This is precisely the behavior we’d expect in a binary system—a place of “two-ness” in opposition. At best, when we’re finished yelling at each other, we might try to compromise and form some kind of “synthesis” position out of our dueling dualisms.
If the universe is created in the image of the Creator and the Creator is a Trinity, it begs the question: What if we don’t live in a binary universe, but instead in a ternary universe?
This week and next, Cynthia Bourgeault, a faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation, will explore the profound metaphysical Law of Three. Cynthia’s exploration of the doctrine of the Trinity paired with the teachings of an enigmatic Armenian teacher, G. I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949), is unique and can help us move forward and get unstuck.
If three-ness captures the essence of the cosmos more than two-ness, it means that we can hold our perspective with earnestness while fully awaiting an uncontrived third force to arrive and surprise us all out of our neat little boxes. Note that this isn’t some mere synthesis of opposition, but something genuinely novel arriving on the scene, a Position C.
The exact form that third force takes is beside the point, nor is it that first and second force suddenly find themselves invalidated in the face of some newer, shinier debut. Instead, the third force redeems each position and gives everyone a valuable role to play in the creation of something genuinely new—a fourth possibility that becomes the new field of our collective arising.
Gateway to Silence:
Behold, I make all things new. —Revelation 21:5
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 92-93.
