Three factors contributed to Greg Boyd’s recent exploration (obsession?) of "the threefold structure of reality":

1. His metaphysical argument that God must be triune in Trinity and Process.
2. The writings of Charles Pierce.
3. The Christus Victor Ministries discussion board, where people have posted hundreds of threes that occur in religions, Scripture, mythology, philosophy, theology, mysticism, psychology, physiology, art, literature, music, nursery rhymes, sports—basically, everywhere.

The meaning of three—A reflection of the Triune Creator?

So far participants in the discussion have just been cataloguing all kinds of threes—everything from nursery rhymes to Hegel’s Grand Synthesis—without drawing conclusions about what the growing collection might mean. Perhaps a pattern will emerge, or perhaps the threes we have collected might turn out to be unconnected in any meaningful way.

Boyd has suggested that the project may have evangelistic potential. Many pre-Christian and non-Christian scholars have speculated that there is something special about three since it is so pervasive in the world we know. As Christians, our testimony to the triune God may be the most plausible explanation for this pervasiveness. Perhaps this project will help make the idea of a triune Creator more intelligible to non-Christians. Or perhaps it will give Christians theoretical and practical insight into the triune Creator.

Three ways you can help

Philosopher Charles Pierce believed that thinking is intrinsically communal—- Greg Boyd agrees. He is considering turning whatever conclusions can be drawn from the threes we have compiled into a group article or book, in which contributors would be considered research assistants or co-authors (of course, a disclaimer will state that contributors do not necessarily share Boyd’s views).

1. Post threes you observe in the Christus Victor Ministries

--- discussion board ---. (Use the search function on the menu-bar to find the "Threefold Structure of Reality" thread.)

2. Suggest book titles that will appeal to lay Christians and non-Christians.

3. Help document and substantiate threes that are collected.

What I am about to state is the truth… on my Word of Honor.

I am no genius, not exceptionally smart and not highly educated. (I wish I had a formal education.)

What I am about to share with you is a chain of events which I promise were not planned by me, they just occurred? (I do not know how?)

Do you believe in the Super Natural Power that is some times given to certain people, which cannot be explained? Is there such a thing as the Power of Three? Please read the following…It is rather STRANGE, you decide?

My Creations:

1. Three years ago I started a business called Dalli International Marketing Inc.
2. I also Created a Finders Corporation called FIIFA
3. I also created IICGN… (see --- http://www.icgn.us/ ---)

1. Recently an idea came to me on how to help save the Forests
2. How to help Needy Children
3. How to help promote World Peace.

(Coincidence or is this an added indication of the Power of Three?)

The Items that I chose to help promote saving the Forests, Helping needy Children and to help promote World Peace include the following:

(Is this a Coincidence or is this the Power of Three? Did you notice the 3 P's above?

Pin, Pen and Pendant?)

If you visit ICGN you would find that I promote the Pen as "The Instrument of Love and Peace"

In regards to the Pen, in ICGN's presentation, I stated, to promote Peace you need to:

1. Lead with your Heart
2. Then use your Head (Intellect)
3. Using your Hand to write what your heart and head dictates. (The Pen is held by Hand)

(Coincidence or is this also the Power of Three? Did you notice the 3 H's above?)

Last but not least, recently an idea came to me, which I am hoping it will help promote FIIFA and DIMI (my two Corporations) and ICGN. See my newest Web Site, "WIN-WIN-WIN" at
--- http://www.win-win-win.us/ --- (Yet another Trilogy!)

Having read the above, and since I admitted to you that I am no Genius or even exceptionally smart or even highly educated…(I did not plan the above) do you suppose a certain unknown Power is advising me to do the above? Giving to me these ideas in Threes to let me know that it is my duty to do this? What else could it be? Coincidence? Perhaps? What do you think?

www.museumof3.com

Let's go to find the CULTURE of 3!

• A grand piano has 3 legs.
• The tripod of a camera has 3 legs.
• Have you also ever seen a crow or a toad that has 3 legs?
• Trinity, triad, triangle, trident, pyramid, 3 candles and 3 gates in a cathedral, 3 in Plato's philosophy.........
• There are so many examples of threes in our human culture.
• I have studied this phenomenon for over 20 years, and I have named it the "culture of 3 (or 3 culture)".
• Look around you, and you will easily find many incidences of 3's.
• If you find any examples, please be so kind as to inform me.

Let's build the "MUSEUM OF 3"

• I have collected many items that exemplify the '3 culture', but I need even more.
• Anybody who is interested in the '3 culture' can join us.
• Could you please donate your data, materials, collections, and anything else related to the '3 culture' to our "museum of 3"?
• And let's celebrate the culture of 3!
• I hope you will be a charter member of our society.

The Motivator is the achievement, success oriented person. The Motivator has a compulsive need to be productive and successful, and to avoid failure.

The triskele is a three-legged pattern. The triple form represents the female principle, and is particularly sacred to the Celts, who used a triple cycle for the seasons, and for many magical patterns. Celtic goddesses frequently appear in triple form. From ancient times, the great earth mother was a trinity, representing her three aspects, maiden, mother and crone. The Triskelion is the triple-triangle form of fate (or the fates). Three rings were supposed to invoke the three fates in several ancient traditions. There are many examples of triskele patterns on pictish stones and in the Celtic manuscripts, the pattern may be used as a magical charm-probably to avert evil. Spirals are among the most sacred signs of Neolithic Europe, symbolizing the womb, death and re-birth. They appear on megalithic monuments, entrances to caves-sacred places of worship, all over the continent and the British Isles, such as Newgrange in Ireland. The spiral was a particular symbol of the goddess faith. Spirals also symbolized the coiled serpent or dragon, both regarded as sacred on the old religion, representing the natural energies of the earth and sky.

List, interested parties:

What interests me right now is whether it can be demonstrated that reports of the 'nine sounds' phenomenon were published in the UFO literature prior to 1985. Can you help? (If not, I will be forced to ask the question "_Why_ can't you find evidence of it?".)

Not necessarily in the UFO literature, this particular phenomenon of knocks or beeps or chirps, in multiples of three, often three sets of three, is well known in the demonic literature. See, for example:

• The Haunted by Robert Curran (St. Martin's Press, 1988)
• The Demonologist by Gerald Brittle (Berkley Books, 1980)
• True Tales Of The Unknown by Sharon Jarvis (Bantan,1985)

This is not to suggest in any way that abductions are tied up >in the occult or demonology, but only to point out that this idea of the three knocks, six knocks, or nines knocks (three sets of three) does appear in wide spread areas of occult literature.

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the note on the three 3s. These are my thoughts about what you and others have commented on UpDates.

1. 1) I know about the demonic tradition of 3-3s but it’s very important to find the earliest UFO reference. It’s like finding the first mention of a Grey in UFO reports. Whether folkloric references to Greys exist or not ­ and they do, I can tell you ­ is neither here nor there. Willingly or unconsciously experiencers and witnesses absorb published material and regurgitate it in their stories or under hypnosis. The job of a historian ­ that is, the task of anyone doing serious research ­ is to seek out the earliest reference to an element within the context he or she is investigating.




The 3-3s question is a puzzle in that this particular phenomenon coincides in time and space with the earliest UFO reports but the first UFO mention of it apparently dates to the 1980s. I would deem a lack of 3-3 reports in pre-Strieber UFO literature highly indicative of _something_, and I doubt any analytically-minded researcher would think otherwise.




2. Kevin, you list several books wherein 3-3 experiences are mentioned. I am unlikely to get the chance to consult them for a long time. Could you send me photocopies of any relevant pages in those works? I would gladly reimburse for any cost involved.

   
   

3. The number nine is often thought to be Satanic as it represents Christ’s death on the one hand (he spoke his last words at 9:00, according to Mark 15:34-37) and, on the other, as W.W. Wescott says in his book on the mystical meaning of numbers, it stands for “the earth under evil influences.” It is also an inversion of 6 (as in 666), the difference between the two numbers being 3 (as in 3 threes).




In a sense this is an irony in Strieber’s books as he tries to show the Greys are more goodly than evil, although their traits are clearly demonic even in his descriptions of them. If you visit his website you find so much doom-and-gloom news coverage that it is obvious that he sees the ‘visitors’ as our salvation in a rotten world.




4. It seems to me that Strieber tries hard to entangle the reader in lofty thoughts about meaning and occult symbols in a bid to steer us away from the more down-to-earth task of deciding whether to believe him at all. 200 years ago this kind of thing would have quickly turned him into a mystic, someone like Swedenborg or Jane Lead.

When I entered law school in 1996 I took a course, like most law school students, entitled "Legal Research and Writing." The purpose of the course was not simply to train me in techniques of legal research but also to teach me how to persuade a court or jury. In making a legal argument, I was told, try to divide the subject matter into three points. I realized immediately this advice was identical to what I received twenty years previously in theological seminary in my homiletics class--when giving a sermon, generally make three points, with appropriate introductory and concluding material. Though I think that this method will gradually erode under the pressure of more limited attention spans/desires for shorter materials in our post-modern culture, I believe that "thinking in threes" and "presenting in threes" still has a lot to be said for it.

Thus, as I have been studying words, I have been particularly attentive to the way that they might be grouped in "threes" in order to convey shades of meaning to us. For some reason as I do this, Dr. Seuss's story "I can Read with My Eyes Shut," comes to mind. In that cute book he says:

There is no better way to launch a new literary topic than to begin with the Bard. He encourages us to focus on threes in a brief exchange in Twelfth Night. The "boy" Caesario has appeared at Viola's home bringing a message from her self-absorbed and self-appointed lover Count Orsino. Viola wants to rebuff the advances of Orsino but is intrigued by the "boy" who comes to visit. She asks her steward Malvolio to describe his features and age. Malvolio says:

Malvolio has both piqued and sated our desires for precision about who this "boy" Caesario is [really a girl dressed up as a boy]. We are given a "three," with Caesario in the middle, and we have as precise a description of the time between boy- and manhood as any technical scientific description--and, a much more visual and entertaining one, too!

Those who have developed their sense of touch learn to make precise distinctions between and among sensations. Three words to distinguish the outer surface of something are coriaceous and membranous, with pergameneous in the middle.

It may be defined as "of the nature or texture of parchment; parchmenty." The word pergameneous derives from the City that gave birth to parchment--Pergamum, a city (and kingdom) of significance in the Hellenistic world of the 4th-2nd century B.C.E. We need to turn to "parchment" for a more precise definition.