Offered by Jasmine McCracken, a Wisdom student from New Zealand.
While already familiar with the three force creative dynamic from a course I had done in alchemy and Cynthia Bourgeault’s book The Law of Three and The Holy Trinity, it was during the process of writing a book on my own spiritual journey called “Coming to my Essences” that I couldn’t help but notice what seemed to be the Law of Three showing up over and over again. However, I realized my understanding was a bit fuzzy, something seemed missing, and I became curious to dive in a bit deeper and took to google..
In my google search I quickly found a blog by Marcella Kraybill-Greggo. Marcella turned out to not only be connected to Cynthia but was also offering courses as a way to recognize the Law of Three in one’s life. I then contacted Marcella who sent me her introduction video to her course The Law of Three as a Spiritual Practice. The beginning of this video included a body movement prayer which instantly provided me with a more embodied awareness of the Law of three through my senses. I knew that including my body was the way I would deepen into recognizing the law of three in my life.
I then sent this introduction video to the wisdom group “Heart and Mind” with whom I met with each fortnight, all very familiar with Cynthia’s teaching, to see if anyone else was interested in deepening into the law of three alongside me in Marcella’s upcoming course. It turned out the whole group was interested (or challenged) and collectively we decided we would do it as a group, together.
Marcella then generously worked with us to create a way that we (in New Zealand) could weave her material into our fortnightly gatherings of which I would facilitate over the coming three months. Held within our group’s proven format for sharing and listening we would watch a thirty minute segment of Marcella’s recorded sessions followed by each of us sharing a word or phrase that had shimmered for us during the viewing. We would then each share again, this time elaborating and deepening into what inspired and challenged us, after everyone who wanted to had shared, we would go into an open discussion around what had come up before closing with a prayer.
The first and second recordings we watched together had us experience how the three states showed up in music and our bodies via our senses: “Holy Affirming” the first force had a quality of forward momentum, “Holy Denying” the second force had a quality of contraction and dissonance, and “Holy Reconciling” the third force had a quality of spaciousness and of coming together in harmony. Many of us found that recognizing the dynamics of law of three in our bodies through our senses brought us into a balance that was previously skewed towards a more intellectual understanding.
We referred to chapter three of Cynthia’s Wisdom Way of Knowing on “three centered knowing”: the intellectual center, the emotional center, and the movement center: mind, heart and body. While already having my own copy of this book I was fascinated to learn more deeply how the moving center within us “carries with it perceptual gifts” such as “the capacity to understand the language of faith encoded in gesture.” How “The language of spiritual transformation is already written deeply within our bodies,” and “when we get the hang of the gesture, we discover the spiritual truth it illumines.” This backed up the instant new level of recognition I had of the law of three on first experiencing the body prayer. The law of three was written deeply in my body, my body knew. As Gurdjieff said “The most subtle lessons of the spiritual path are conveyed in gestures, not in words” … Marcella’s course was providing a much needed experiential aspect for us that dovetailed with the more intellectual learning from Cynthia’s Law of Three book.
Once a month we met with Marcella on zoom for a “Law of Three midwife” session where one of us would bring a life scenario and Marcella would guide and show us how the law of three was showing up in this scenario; inviting the group to participate in the process and reflection. This was an integral part of our learning.
The next recorded session had us deepen into recognizing the specifics of Holy Affirming, also known as first force or active force, and Holy Denying, also known as second force. Holy affirming was the initiating force; the start of something; a new movement or direction. Holy Denying was a resistance; a constriction; a reaction; a seeming obstacle; the felt sense of a NO inside the original YES. Marcella taught us how these first and second forces were not to be seen as good or bad, positive or negative, rather that they were both necessary forces in the creative process.
I personally, and I believe the group as a whole, recognized how our minds wanted to label Affirming as a positive and Denial as a negative, when really they were both Holy. I could see how ingrained this labeling was in me; I instead endeavored to let go of previous assumptions and to be more curious; I also recognized how often I might unconsciously lessen my desire, or not even desire, in my aversion to second force. But now I was re-learning that Holy denying was not the enemy, its “push back” could help widen my view. Holy Denying was actually in direct proportion to my longing; there to get me closer to what I want. It was Holy, as well.
This led us to the next recording of Third force – the Holy Reconciling. Holy reconciling was the neutralizing force that came with the capacity to recognize first and second force in a situation, even if that meant that what one initially thought was first force was actually second force and vice versa. Third force was a softening, an “all belonging” energy. It often brought with it a sense of surprise, a relaxed feeling, a settling sensation. It was the space for both forces to co-exist. It was the both/and. From this spaciousness a New Arising could then be birthed due to the alchemy of the first and second forces. This new arising was not always physical – it could be subtle such as a new awareness. It was a whole new playing field from which a new triad would begin. We appreciated that when we became third force for the situations in our own lives that same energy was also third force for the world, allowing a new expansive arising.
One of my original inquiries in my interest in exploring Law of Three more was around how the law of three plays out in an unawakened state compared to how it plays out in an awakened state. I had a sense there would be a difference and there was.. in the un-awakened state the Personality is in the position of Holy Affirming and Essence is in the position of Holy Denying. In this unawakened state “life” is the reconciling force. The unawakened triad keeps looping back on itself – it was a sort of holding pattern where nothing really changes. In the awakened state however, Essence is in the position of Holy Affirming and the Personality is in Holy Denying, instead of life Holy Reconciling is the vast heart-mind. This is where alchemy happens, and a truly expansive and creative way of life.
For most of our group, with a background in the Christian tradition this was a very new way of experiencing the trinity within us. As the course came to a close we reflected on some other systems we knew of that spoke to the same Law of three as well, such as our coaching or spiritual direction methods, and the three Gunas in the Vedic tradition. How each approach can impart more wisdom to another. We also appreciated how in our gatherings the law of three had always been at play: something new presented, then a challenge; perhaps differing points of view. Then through listening and conversation third force came to play, often resembling a resonant “glow” as we recognized the deep intelligence at play in our gathering that night; now we had a deeper appreciation of the creative forces at play to bring that about.
As a way of bringing together what we had learned in this Law of Three course I facilitated a SoulCollage in our closing gathering. In silence, letting our movement center lead, we each made a small collage consisting of two foreground images, one that inspired us and one that challenged us, plus a background image: Three images glued together to create a new image. We then all came together and reflected on how our collages, or “our souls”, were speaking to us, often in profound ways.
Now, back to my book, that story of my spiritual journey that had me diving into Law of Three again. Through Marcella’s inspired course I now had a much deeper appreciation of my spiritual journey: how my walking in nature had been such an integral part of my spiritual journey, really the walking was a body prayer. I had been bringing my body, my senses, my movement center, with all its much needed intelligence into the picture. A picture that had previously been very much dominated by my intellectual center with my Personality being the active force that looped back on itself, now, with Essence as the active force I am (almost!) continuously in awe. Coming to my senses really had been needed to come to my essence. This whole journey turned out to be yet another example of the Law of Three at play.
This post was so incredibly helpful in practically grounding the lessons of the law of three. Thank you!