THREE THREE THREE

There are three versions of Maggie represented in the play... each with her own love, reality want, each possessing and refusing parts of the others. In examining the text, I would be remiss not to examine the idea of the triad-- why is three important, what does it mean, and how can I represent that meaning clearly.

The Triad is a Pythagorean title for the number three. According to Priya Hemenway they considered it the most beautiful number, as it is the only number to equal the sum of all the terms below it, and the only number whose sum with those below equals the product of them and itself.

Menage A Trois: More Mag's for one Man

IN Religion: Triple deities, legendary persons, deities, and mythological creatures (sometimes referred to as tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune or triadic), are common throughout world mythology; the number 3 has a long history of mythical associations. The deities and legendary creatures of this nature typically fit into one of the following general categories:
triadic ("forming a group of three"): a triad, three entities inter-related in some way (life, death, rebirth, for example, or triplet children of a deity) and always or usually associated with one another or appearing together;
triune ("three-in-one, one-in-three"): a being with three aspects or modes of existence (e.g. Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in traditional Christian theology);
tripartite ("of triple parts"): a being with three body parts where there would normally be one (three heads, three pairs of arms, and so on); or
triplicate-associated ("relating to three corresponding instances"): a being in association with a trio of things of the same nature which are symbolic or through which power is wielded (three magic birds, etc.)

The Number 3:

1. Three is a PRIME number.

2. Three-dimensional means that something has length, width and depth.

3.Once upon a time there were three little pigs ... three billy goats gruff ... Stories often begin this way and have a similar structure. Number one and number two are always similar so the listener is lulled into believing number three will be the same. But with number three there is a twist in the tale.

4. If the number of petals on a flower is a multiple of three, it is probably from a group of plants called the monocotyledons which includes crocuses, daffodils, tulips, lilies and other plants grown from bulbs.

5. A tress of hair originally meant a plait or pigtail with three interwoven strands of hair.

WICCA
The Rule of Three (also threefold law or law of return) is a tenet of Wicca. claiming that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times. John J. Coughlin states that " . . . there is a literal reward or punishment tied to one's actions, particularly when it comes to working magic," and that "there are many Wiccans, experienced and new alike, who view the Law of Return as an over-elaboration on the Wiccan Rede." The Rule of Three has been compared by Karl Lembke to other ethics of reciprocity, such as the concept of karma in Dharmic religions and the Christian edict, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

TRIPLE GODDESS OF WICCA:

In ancient Indo-European mythologies, various goddesses or demi-goddesses appear as a triad, either as three separate beings who always appear as a group (the Greek Moirae, Charites, Erinnyes and the Norse Norns) or as a single deity who is commonly depicted in three aspects (Greek Hecate and the cult image of Latin Diana Nemorensis, of whom Hecate is one part[1]). Often it is ambiguous whether a single being or three are represented, as is the case with the Irish Brighid and her two sisters, also called Brighid, or the Morrígan who is known by at least three or four different names. In most ancient portrayals of triple goddesses, the separate deities perform different yet related functions, and there is no obvious difference in their ages. In Wicca and related Neo-pagan religions, the Triple Goddess is, along with the Horned God, held in particular reverence, and her three aspects are most often portrayed as being of different ages: Maiden, Mother and Crone.

Maiden, Mother, and Crone
Some followers of Neopagan religions believe that in ancient Old Europe, the Aegean and the Near East, a great Triple Goddess was worshipped, predating the patriarchal religions imported by nomadic speakers of Indo-European languages (later superseded by patriarchal monotheism). Some identify this goddess with Gaia, the Earth Mother (Roman Magna Mater). That such a Great Goddess existed is disputed by authors such as Cynthia Eller and Philip G. Davis.
Descriptions of the relation between Greek Mythology and the Triple Goddess can be found in many of the myths translated in Robert Graves' anthology The Greek Myths and more cryptically and poetically in his book The White Goddess and his book of essays entitled Mammon and the Black Goddess. Graves translates a poem of the Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) which illustrates a triple goddess as a theme among medieval Sufis:

I follow the religion of Love,
Now I am sometimes called
A Shepherd of gazelles
And now a Christian monk,
And now a Persian sage.
My beloved is three-
Three yet only one;
Many things appear as three,
Which are no more than one.
Give Her no name,
As if to limit one
At sight of Whom
All limitation is confounded.

Maiden
Among Pagans, "The Maiden" represents enchantment, inception, expansion, the promise of new beginnings, birth, youth and youthful enthusiasm.

Mother
The Mother represents ripeness, fertility, sexuality, nurturance, fulfillment, stability, power and life.

Crone
The Crone represents wisdom, repose, death, and endings. Like the moon which waxes once again after the new moon and like in the year, where spring always follows winter. The Crone is an end, but she is always followed by the Maiden once more. It is death and rebirth, representing the common pagan belief of reincarnation as well as the renewing cycles of the moon and of the year.

the New Moon is the white goddess of birth and growth;
the Full Moon, the red goddess of love and battle;
the Old Moon, the black goddess of death and divination.

TRIAD

In sociology a triad is a group of three people. It is one of the simplest human groups that can be studied and is mostly looked at by microsociology. One common rule that has been widely observed is that in any group of three people two will tend to unite against the other one. This makes triads a far less stable arrangement than dyads. Larger groups also tend to be more stable because of the greater variety of relationships that can form in them. This is true for many different groups of people from groups of three siblings to groups of coworkers. This rule makes triads a very unstable grouping that has a high likelihood of leading to conflict. Because of this, groups of three are often avoided. For instance university roommates are almost always put in groups of two, as a room with three is far more likely to lead to conflict and unhappiness.
An important exception is when one of the members of the group is clearly dominant. Allegiance to a dominant can create a team mentality, both from the submissives to the dominant, the dominant to the submissives, and the submissives to one another.
A store with three employees can function very well if one is clearly the boss. The other two may unite against the one, or one another for the boss' favor, but since they are far weaker this will not have much effect. In other circumstances, the shared allegiance to the dominant allows them to have a stable relationship, tiered or no. This is also true in polygamous marriages. In societies where polygamy is practiced, sexual relationships often follow these rules, dependent also on societal rules.

Anthropology
3 distinct species of the genus Homo:
Homo habilis "capable man"
Homo erectus "upright man"
Homo sapiens "wise man"

Geology
Three basic planes: Above- Surfaced- Beneath
Three basic Earth divisions: Core- Mantle- Crust.
Three basic rock formations: Igneous- Metamorphic- Sedimentary.

Psychology
In his later work, Freud proposed that the psyche was divided into three parts: Ego, super-ego, and id.

In Philosophy
Plato split the soul into three parts: the appetitive, the spirited, and the rational
Hegel's dialectic of Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis creates three-ness from two-ness

In Education
3 R's: Reading~ 'Riting~ 'Rithmetic
3 divisions: Elementary (Grade) School~ Middle (Jr. High or Intermediate) School~ High (Sr. High) School
3 levels: Primary (~Elementary) Education~ Secondary (~Jr. + Sr. High) Education~ Tertiary (College, University, Polytechnical Institute, TAFE) Education
3 University degrees: Bachelor's~ Master's- Ph.D
3 University distinctions: Cum Laude~ Magna Cum Laude~ Suma Cum Laude
3 testing formats: True/False~ Multiple Choice~ Essay
3 levels to grade formulas: A+ (A plus)~ A (A neutral)~ A- (A minus)
3 good grade divisions: A~ B~ C
3 rings of the school bell return children to class after a fire drill.
3 ring notebooks are one standard of usage for holding looseleaf notebook paper (2 is another in lever-arch).
3-number combination locks are a standard usage for lockers.

As a lucky or unlucky number:
Three (三) is considered a good number in Chinese culture because it sounds like the word "alive" (生 pinyin sheng1, Cantonese: saang1), compared to four (四, pinyin: si4, Cantonese: sei3) that sounds like the word "death" (死 pinyin si3, Cantonese: sei2).

Counting to three is common in situations where a group of people wish to perform an action in synchrony: Now, on the count of three, everybody pull! Assuming the counter is proceeding at a uniform rate, the first two counts are necessary to establish the rate, but then everyone can predict when "three" will come based on "one" and "two"; this is likely why three is used instead of some other number.

In Vietnam, it is bad luck to take a photo with three people in it.

Luck, especially bad luck, is often said to "come in threes".

Some cultures in history have a place for people of third gender such as in Thailand.

It is often believed that people die in threes. This only includes people in one's personal sphere (ie. directly impact on one's day-to-day life).

There is a superstition that states it is unlucky to take a third light, that is, to be the third person to light a cigarette from the same match or lighter. This is commonly believed to date from the trenches of the First World War when a sniper might see the first light, take aim on the second and fire on the third.

3 strikes and the player is out.

3rd time's the charm.

In Music
In music, the Roman numeral iii is the mediant scale degree, chord, or diatonic function, when distinguished III = major and iii = minor.
Three is the number of performers in a trio.
There are 3 notes in a triad, the most important and basic form of any chord.

In a standard jazz combo there are 3 necessary parts: bass, percussion, and chord maker.