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ok, it's bugged me for a while, and I may finally have a possible answer. Any input would be appreciated.
When I began studying religons, I rather quickly noticed several common threads. Common symbols and concepts between varying schools of thought. Many of these carried roughly common meaning, such as the circle symbolising life and/or the soul. One I have yet to figure out, however, is the number 3.
This number keeps cropping up, and I keep noticing it, in several religons. I was just thinking, perhaps it's because God/Goddess is at the same time tripple and one. Three parts of the same being. Just a thought. opinions?
I don't know about other beliefs, but in Christianity, the number 3 is representative of the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
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Mike F.
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The trinity has it's foundations in the Pagan rule of three... it again is a christian borrowed symbol!
3 has been a number that has held mystic value way before the modern era!
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Well there are several reasons as to why 3 is a reoccuring theme. One, it represents the 3 moon phases- waning, full, and waxing. The moon also being a representation of many goddesses would acquire that attribute. In the sence of 'life stages' being maiden, mother and crowne.
Example- The three aspects of Cerridwen.
another example- The Morrigan of Irish Pagan belief-
She is a goddess of war, death, prophecy and passionate love. Together with Badb and Macha she build a triad of three warlike goddesses.
The Triple Goddess, or triple aspects of the Goddess were well known to the Celts. To the Irish Celts these aspects were represented by Anu or Danu as the Maiden, Badb as the Mother, and Macha as the Crone. Sometimes the Morrigu, who was in herself called triple, took the part of the Crone. To the Celts of Wales, the Maiden was Blodeuwedd, the Mother Arianrhod, and the Crone Cerridwen. Even in Arthurian times, we find the triplicity: Elaine as Maiden, Margawse as Mother, Morgan as Crone.
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Brigit of the Celts
Brigit was one of the great Triple Goddesses of the Celtic people. She appeared as Brigit to the Irish, Brigantia in Northern England, Bride in Scotland, and Brigandu in Brittany. Many legends are told about Brigit. Some say that there are three Brigits : one sister in charge of poetry and inspiration who invented the Ogham alphabet, one in charge of healing and midwifery, and the third in charge of the hearth fire, smithies and other crafts. This catually indicates the seperate aspects of her Threefold nature and is a neat division of labor for a hard-working goddess.
Brigit was probably originally a Sun Goddess, and a charming story of her birth is that she was born at sunrise and a tower of flame burst from the forehead of the new born Goddess that reached from Earth to Heaven. It was likely She who inspired the line in the famous Song of Amergin: "I am a fire in the head." Her penchant for smithcraft led to her association by the Romans with Minerva/Athena. As a warrior Goddess, She favored the use of the spear or the arrow. Indeed, various interpetations of her name exist including, "Bright Arrow," "The Bright One," "the Powerful One" and "The High One," depending upon the region and the dialect.
As a Goddess of herbalism, midwifery and healing She was in charge of Water as well as Fire. I don't beleive that anyone has ever counted all teh vast number of sacred wells and springs named after or dedicated to this Goddess. A story is told of how two lepers came to one of her sacred springs for healing and She instructed one Leper to wash the other. The skin of the freshly bathed man was cleansed of the disease and Brigit told the man who was healed to wash the man who had bathed him so that both men would be whole. The man who was healed was now too disgusted to touch the other Leper and would have left him, but Brigit herself washed the leper and struck down the other arrogant fellow with leperousy once more before he could leave. Offerings to the watery Brigit were cast into the well in the form of coins or, even more ancient, brass or gold rings. Other sacrifices were offered where three streams came together. Her cauldron of Inspiration connected her watery healing aspect with her fiery poetic aspect.
Brigit is clearly the best example of the survival of a Goddess into Christian times. She was cannonized by the Catholic church as St. Brigit and various origins are given to this saint. The most popular folktale is that She was midwife to the Virgin Mary, and thus was always inviked by women in labor. The more official story was that She was a Druid's daughter who predicted the coming of Christianity and then was baptised by St. Patrick. She became a nun and later an abbess who founded the Abbey at Kildare. The Christian Brigit was said to have had the power to appoint the bishops of her area, a strange role for an abbess, made stranger by her requirement that her bishops also be practicing goldsmiths.
Actually, the Goddess Brigit had always kept a shrine at Kildare, Ireland, with a perpetual flame tended by nineteen virgin priestesses called Daughters of the Flame. No male was ever allowed to come near it; nor did those women ever consort with men. Even their food and other supplies were brought to them by women of the nearby village. When Catholicism took over in Ireland, the shrine became a convent and the priestesses became nuns but the same traditions were held and the eternal flame was kept burning. Their tradition was that each day a different priestess/nun was in charge of the sacred fire and on the 20th day of each cycle, teh fire was miraculously tended by Brigit Herself. There into the 18th century, the ancient song was sung to her : "Brigit, excellant woman, sudden flame, may the bright fiery sun take us to the lasting kingdom."
For over a thousand years, the sacred flame was tended by nuns, and no one knows how long before that it had been tended by the priestesses. In 1220 CE, a Bishop became angered by the no-males policy of the Abbey of St. Brigit of Kildare. He insisted that nuns were subordinate to priests and therefore must open their abbey and submit themselves to inspection by a priest. When they refused and asked for another Abbess or other female official to perform any inspections, the Bishop was incensed. He admonished them to obediance and then decreed that teh keeping of the eternal flame was a Pagan custom and ordered the sacred flame to be extinguished. Even then, She remained the most poular Irish saint along with Patrick. In the 1960's, under Vatican II modernization, it was declared that there was insufficient proof of Brigit's sanctity or even of her historical existance, and so teh Church's gradual pogrom against Brigit was successful at last and She was thus decanonized. It is very difficult to obtain images or even holy cards of ST. Brigit outside of Ireland anymore.
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=) yet more samples.
May this thread continue to be a chalice to hold triads, triplicate examples, and ponderings to the cosmic, metaphysical, divine signifigance. Of the value 3.
Think I may have found the answer I have so long sought. Thanks for the feedback
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