A dear friend of mine died about three weeks ago and on Sunday another friend died. It made me wonder, does death come in three's?
This is of course a superstition. According to an article on philly.com by Jenice M. Armstrong "Folklorists say the belief that good or bad things come in threes is an ancient superstition that remains a strong modern belief.
'All cultures have ritual numbers but they don't have the same ritual numbers,' explained Alan Dundes, a professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of Southern California at Berkley.
He said Americans have a propensity to see things in threes. For Native Americans, it's four, and for the Chinese, it's five.
'It is very deep in our culture in terms of religion - the father, son and holy ghost,' said Dundes, whose book Interpreting Folklore has a chapter on the significance of the number three in American culture.
'It's in our names. We have three names . . . We say, It's as easy as one, two, three,' he said. 'You just take it for granted that . . . all this stuff is somehow in threes.'
Then, there are all the three-oriented phrases like 'the third time's a charm, going down for the third time, and Tic tac toe, three in a row.'
Plus, there are numerous three-worded phrases: 'win, lose or draw; we shall overcome; fat, dumb and happy, and snap, crackle and pop.'
The importance of the number three comes from many ancient sources.
But Dundes, who describes himself as a Freudian, said he believes it's sort of a subliminal symbol of male genitalia.
'It's like putting a masculine stamp on things,' he said.
Folklorist Claudia de Lys writes that it springs from the basic observation about the mystery of birth.
'If lucky, the contact of two persons brought forth life, so that three meant life or action in everything,' de Lys writes in a Treasury of American Superstitions.
She believes the concept that three bad things happen together is based on the psychological need to believe that a bad cycle will end."
The psychological need to believe bad things will end is in all of us, but how far are we willing to go to believe it?
Another theory on the superstition of three is called "three on a match" and it comes from soldiers during the time from the Peloponnesian War to World War I. "The superstition goes that if three soldiers lit their cigarettes from the same match, one of the three would be killed or that the man who was third on the match would be shot. Since then it has been considered bad luck for three people to share a light from the same match.
The belief was that when the first soldier lit his cigarette, the enemy would see the light; when the second soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would take aim and note if the soldier was friendly or foe; when the third soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would fire. Another explanation for this was that the first to light the match gave an enemy marksman the range to the target, the second gave the windage on the target, and the third one was shot using this information."--Wikipedia
This second story makes more sense to me because it is logical and I am a logical person. However, the older I get, the more I experience, the more spirituality and synchronicity I witness, it makes me wonder if everything doesn't have to be so logical.
The night my friend died, I had a dream that someone I knew had died. I remember feeling very sad in the dream for this tragedy. I woke up and told my husband about my dream. In the dream I thought the person's name that had died was Ross, which is a young man that my daughter dated the latter part of high school. After talking to my husband I went to the gym to work out with my friend. When I arrived I noticed his truck was not in the parking lot. I thought this was odd. When I entered the gym he was nowhere to be found which was very unusual because he was extremely punctual. I texted him with no reply. I left the gym feeling uncomfortable and worried. The next day he was found dead in his home. His name was Russ.
Life is short. Be grateful for each moment.
This is of course a superstition. According to an article on philly.com by Jenice M. Armstrong "Folklorists say the belief that good or bad things come in threes is an ancient superstition that remains a strong modern belief.
'All cultures have ritual numbers but they don't have the same ritual numbers,' explained Alan Dundes, a professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of Southern California at Berkley.
He said Americans have a propensity to see things in threes. For Native Americans, it's four, and for the Chinese, it's five.
'It is very deep in our culture in terms of religion - the father, son and holy ghost,' said Dundes, whose book Interpreting Folklore has a chapter on the significance of the number three in American culture.
'It's in our names. We have three names . . . We say, It's as easy as one, two, three,' he said. 'You just take it for granted that . . . all this stuff is somehow in threes.'
Then, there are all the three-oriented phrases like 'the third time's a charm, going down for the third time, and Tic tac toe, three in a row.'
Plus, there are numerous three-worded phrases: 'win, lose or draw; we shall overcome; fat, dumb and happy, and snap, crackle and pop.'
The importance of the number three comes from many ancient sources.
But Dundes, who describes himself as a Freudian, said he believes it's sort of a subliminal symbol of male genitalia.
'It's like putting a masculine stamp on things,' he said.
Folklorist Claudia de Lys writes that it springs from the basic observation about the mystery of birth.
'If lucky, the contact of two persons brought forth life, so that three meant life or action in everything,' de Lys writes in a Treasury of American Superstitions.
She believes the concept that three bad things happen together is based on the psychological need to believe that a bad cycle will end."
The psychological need to believe bad things will end is in all of us, but how far are we willing to go to believe it?
Another theory on the superstition of three is called "three on a match" and it comes from soldiers during the time from the Peloponnesian War to World War I. "The superstition goes that if three soldiers lit their cigarettes from the same match, one of the three would be killed or that the man who was third on the match would be shot. Since then it has been considered bad luck for three people to share a light from the same match.
The belief was that when the first soldier lit his cigarette, the enemy would see the light; when the second soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would take aim and note if the soldier was friendly or foe; when the third soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would fire. Another explanation for this was that the first to light the match gave an enemy marksman the range to the target, the second gave the windage on the target, and the third one was shot using this information."--Wikipedia
This second story makes more sense to me because it is logical and I am a logical person. However, the older I get, the more I experience, the more spirituality and synchronicity I witness, it makes me wonder if everything doesn't have to be so logical.
The night my friend died, I had a dream that someone I knew had died. I remember feeling very sad in the dream for this tragedy. I woke up and told my husband about my dream. In the dream I thought the person's name that had died was Ross, which is a young man that my daughter dated the latter part of high school. After talking to my husband I went to the gym to work out with my friend. When I arrived I noticed his truck was not in the parking lot. I thought this was odd. When I entered the gym he was nowhere to be found which was very unusual because he was extremely punctual. I texted him with no reply. I left the gym feeling uncomfortable and worried. The next day he was found dead in his home. His name was Russ.
Life is short. Be grateful for each moment.
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