Question about the "Three-Fold Law" in Wicca?

[Toxicmage]

I am no expert on this but once I had a book about witchcraft which talked about the "Three-Fold Law" which according to the author stated that "whatever you bless - will come back to you three times" & "whatever you curse - will come back to you three times."

I don't remember the name of the author or the book (this was many years ago), but for those that practice wicca, this sounds a lot like the "Law of Attraction" that was popular a few years back.

Is the 3-fold law & the law of attraction pretty much the same thing?

Would you say that the "three-fold law" works pretty well in your life?

 

[Morell]

Never experienced that working. Sounds like useful religion to teach one manners, though.

 

[Dascent]

Here's a spin which can spiral fast into "makes sense" or "wtf"
Threefold law is nothing else bun an adaptation of action and reaction.
Change the term with consequence, with karma, with what you put out is what you get back, with common sense.
You greet your neighbor, they will greet you back, you curse them and resent their way of living, they will be resentful towards you.
The 3 nature of all things in an older concept found in many cultures across time and cultural heritage.
Now, quite recently I've seen a material with a guy who speaks about the dark language, english and bless is not empowering but "be less"
In some cultures only one who can bless others is a figure of authority be it religious or parent.
In that context, bless is used to wish someone else to be less than the one casting the words, because words are powerful.
Of course can be all bs but in the circles of magic where words have power not only meaning, a deeper understanding is always welcomed.

 

[Grayhoss]

According to a Blue Star trad high priestess I know, the notion of threefold return happening to 'everyone' is a misunderstanding, born of Cunningham having written about mysteries to which he was not initiate, (as a first-degree postulant writing about a third-degree mystery.) did not properly understand..and thus, botched up, quite badly.

 

[borbponderer]

Pretty sure it breaks Thermodynamics, not to mention Newton's laws of motion.

 

[Ben Gruagach]

The threefold law idea goes back to Gerald Gardner, who founded Wicca. An example of it is in the second degree initiation ritual, where the initiate is told that things return in triplicate. As a symbol of this, the initiate uses the scourge to strike their own initiator three times the number of strokes that they were given earlier in the ritual.

In some cultures it's common to say that things come in threes. My mom (Irish descent) always said that when there's a death in the family or in one's circle of friends, there will be two more shortly after.

 

[borbponderer]

The threefold law idea goes back to Gerald Gardner, who founded Wicca. An example of it is in the second degree initiation ritual, where the initiate is told that things return in triplicate. As a symbol of this, the initiate uses the scourge to strike their own initiator three times the number of strokes that they were given earlier in the ritual.

In some cultures it's common to say that things come in threes. My mom (Irish descent) always said that when there's a death in the family or in one's circle of friends, there will be two more shortly after.

From wikipedia:

"The Rule of Three has a possible prototype in a piece of Wiccan liturgy which first appeared in print in

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's 1949 novel

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:

"Thou hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest good, so equally art bound to return good threefold." (For this is the joke in witchcraft, the witch knows, though the initiate does not, that she will get three times what she gave, so she does not strike hard.)

However, The Threefold Law as an actual "law", was an interpretation of Wiccan ideas and ritual, first publicised by noted witch

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, in his books on Wicca. Prior to this, Wiccan ideas of reciprocal ethics were far less defined and more often interpreted as a kind of general karma."

Post automatically merged: Today at 9:22 PM

So yes, Gardner, but bit an indirect route.

 

[Durward]

Not connected to Wicca, but thousands of years old, triplism like the Triskele in Ireland, which is dated to around 3,200 BC (before the Celts).
But, even the Celts used a threefold belief. Triple goddesses, all things coming in threes. I was very pleased to see that gold creates trimer, or three moles of atoms, to over simplify, triangles of three.
All of this was also way before any of the Abrahamic systems and was likely often based off the observations of spirit and nature. So it isn't something the Abrahamic cancers invented or promoted, and the idea likely does relate to any natural systems involved in nature, spirituality, and reality.
Of course, just making the statement of thrice creates a command for your intent, so if you believe it does three times the damage, or brings back three times the good, your wish and desire can drive your intent to make this the truth. At that point, it doesn't really matter where it originated or if it is something natural that will just happen because of some natural law.