In Aladdin, Aladdin is given 3 wishes by the genie he released from an ancient lamp. But why 3? Why couldn't it have been 7, 12, 23 or even just 1. It might make sense why the higher numbers wouldn't make sense as it would seem unfair and greedy for viewers of the movie (children). But, 3 seems to be the magical number. In mythology and fairy tales the number: 3 seems to be prevalent everywhere.Take for instance, "The 3 Little Pigs" Goldilocks and the Three Bears," the 3 fates in Greek Mythology and even the 3 main gods who ruled Mount Olympus. These are only a few examples of how cultures share the liking of this number. If you search in Wikipedia just the number "3," at the mid-way section of the article, there is a list of notable items and subjects centered around this number.
From just the list alone, 3, seems to be used in many religions and cultures around the globe. Many of the references of this number has to do with some type of shortcoming, deity or life. I won't explore these topics as it is such a quick search away, but I would rather want to discuss the concept of it and how it still remains in today's world.
The first religion in the list of religions which reference the number 3 is Christianity. To me, this is no surprise as Christianity quickly became one of the fastest spreading and accepted religions in the ancient and present world. Thus, I believe the concept and importance of "3" was made famous by them. Without trying to get preachy or make it seem like I know anything at all about the religion, I do know that Christianity discusses the places of: Earth, Heaven and Hell. 3 places. These places are similar to the Earth, Heaven and Hell of Greek Mythology. So simply from this alone, I believed the number 3 was derived from human consciousness to group the cycle of life into 3 understandable components. As no one really, truly understands what happens after death, people look back to who the person was before they died. Then they ask: were they good or were bad. Depending on the answer the people would decide what happens to the deceased after death. If they were good, they would supposedly go to heaven and if they were bad they would go to hell. Then that leaves the 3rd place being Earth right? The place where humans would live their physical lives through their physical bodies. And since heaven represents good and hell represents evil, it would make sense for the Earth to represent a middle ground between good and evil. This would be neutrality. If you think about, when you and I were born into this world, we had done nothing yet with our lives. We had not helped nor had we killed or hated or stole, etc. We were not good, but we were not evil yet.
And this leads me to believe that the number 3 is and was so prevalent in historical texts, literature and culture because of a human desire to fulfill a purpose. Whether a person is good or bad, that person will ultimately be stripped of their neutrality. Even if you were to give the argument that in war or fights between 2 or more people, one person or nation can remain neutral. This is true, but remaining neutral has its consequences. It may lead to one person furthering their agenda over the other. And if the winner of the war or fight happens to be someone who has ill intentions for society, would your neutrality really be justified as neutral? Or does it mean your reluctance to participate has aided in ill-intended agenda of the winner?
Just some thoughts to think about folks.
