In their first meeting in the spring of 1915, Ouspensky was struck by Gurdjieff’s knowledge, knowledge he had himself sought in the east without success. Gurdjieff could explain the most mysterious phenomena and reconcile seeming contradictions between different teachings. “But all the same,” said Ouspensky after one of their early discussions, “the most important thing is facts. If I could see genuine and real facts of a new and unknown character, only they would finally convince me that I am on the right way.”ⁱ

A year and a half later, in the summer of 1916, the facts arrived. Gurdjieff gathered his students in Finland for more concentrated work. Ouspensky had prepared for this gathering by carrying out various breathing, fasting, and mental exercises that had brought him to a state of unusual tension and laid the ground for the extraordinary experiences he would undergo. Throughout the Finland gathering, Ouspensky went in and out of remarkably higher emotional states, states that brought with them new perceptions and realizations. These states—described in his book In Search of the Miraculous—were so unlike anything he had ever experienced before, that they would affect permanent changes in his relation to himself and those around him. He recognized that these were the facts Gurdjieff had promised him earlier. What had been missing then, that was present now, was emotional preparation. “This state,” Ouspensky concluded, “which is emotional, is exactly what we do not understand, that is, we do not understand that it is indispensable and that facts are not possible without it.”ⁱ

[GURDJIEFF] “Man is an image of the world. He was created by the same laws which created the whole of the world. By knowing and understanding himself he will know and understand the whole world, all the laws that create and govern the world.” ⁱ

To understand the Law of Three, we must understand how laws function in general.

In a village of ten families few laws are necessary. The mayor can maintain order in person. He can ask the bar owner to close by ten so as not to disturb the neighbors. He can ask the florist to keep her dog on a leash so as not to scare the children. And he can ask the farmer to keep his donkey away from the main square so that it not eat the gardenscape. In a village of a hundred families, such personal government becomes more difficult, and in a town of a thousand it becomes impossible. The governor can no longer know everyone by name. He must issue laws to maintain order and appoint deputies to enforce these laws: no noise at night; no dogs off leashes; no donkeys in the main square.

Laws enable a governor to maintain order in their jurisdiction. The closer the domain falls under the direct influence of its governing authority, the fewer laws it requires. The more distant the domain spreads away from its governing authority, the more laws it requires.

The first astronomers to look up at the night sky and and attempt to understand the laws that governed the universe considered this principle. They beheld immaculate order: moon, planets, sun, and stars, rotating in clockwork synchronicity. Day reliably followed night, season followed season, in an order without which life on earth would be impossible. For them, these laws were proof of a governing authority, a creator. And although this creator was far removed from human comprehension, humans, as members of his universe, could observe some of the laws they lived under, and indirectly learn something about his intention.

The ancients envisioned this creator as a trunk from whom the creation branched out exponentially. Those branches directly in touch with the trunk enjoyed the creator’s direct influence and guidance. Those immediately beyond them were one step removed. And as the ray of creation unfolded from greater to smaller branches, its extremes drew farther and farther away from its originating trunk, presenting God with the same challenge as the mayor of a growing village. To maintain order, he had to institute laws that would ensure the continuation of his vision in the absence of his direct influence.

The Law of Three was one of these fundamental laws.

The sun is the god of organic life on earth. It bathes nature with light and warmth. The ancients observed the sun acting upon nature in three different modes: toward the end of winter, its rays encouraged germination; throughout spring, it sustained shoots till they matured into full-fledged plants; and in summer, it scorched them back to dust. Therefore, at different times of the year, the god of organic life manifested as creator, sustainer, and destroyer, inspiring the ancients to personify him as a divine trinity.

To the modern eye, a triad of gods overseeing all phenomena seems naive, unless we realize they represent a law, not a fact. According to this law of three, any process on any scale without exception, is the result of the action of three forces—the positive, the negative, and the neutralizing. In the case of the sun’s influence on organic life, the Law of Three unfolds through time: spring cannot come without winter, summer without spring. Nature cannot survive without a proportionate balance of creation, sustenance, and destruction.

[GURDJIEFF] Everything in the world obeys the Law of Three, everything existing came into being in accordance with this law. Combinations of positive and negative principles can produce new results, different from the first and the second, only if a third force comes in.ⁱⁱ

In contrast with Hindu polytheism, the Hebrew Bible emphasized the existence of a single god. Nevertheless, in any given instance in the Bible, this single god invariably played the role of creator, sustainer, or destroyer. God created the world in the beginning of the Book of Genesis, sustained his people in the story of Exodus, and destroyed his creation in the Biblical flood. In accord with the Hindu worldview, the Biblical world also had to cycle through these three phases endlessly, each inspiring the stories that populate the entire Bible. The Hebrew philosophers observed and coined the Law of Three.

As the trunk and governor of the universe, the creator enjoys complete freedom. The immediate branches diverging from him, however, come under a few laws to maintain his intention and will. The next divergence comes under more, and so on, until we reach the extremes of the ray of creation, under the most number of laws.

If a force from a higher level seeks to intervene in a lower world, it must regard its laws. Otherwise, its intervention will destroy the cosmic order. The earth is positioned on a relatively low level on the ray of creation, under many more laws than the worlds above it. One of these is the law of physicality. Therefore, to intervene in the affairs of earth, a higher force must assume a physical body; it must incarnate. Hinduism implied this by having Vishnu incarnate to periodically restore the balance between good and evil. Christianity implied it by portraying its founding figure, Jesus of Nazareth, as an incarnation of God.