Secrets of Your Cells: Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence (33 page)

Each of the two centrioles in a cell is made of microtubule pipes “welded” into nine groups of three each. Nine slightly twisted triplets link to form a hollow tube. Northwestern professor of molecular biology
Guenter Albrecht-Buehler asserts that this kind of universal design cannot be an accident of evolution; it must have arisen to serve a purpose.

Other design “coincidences” include the fact that at three weeks the cells of the human embryo enfold into three differentiated layers: ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. And neither cork (from the cork oak tree) nor grapes for wine can be harvested until the plant has grown and matured for three years.

The triad is the form of completion of all things.

— NICOMACHUS OF GERASA Roman mathematician and philosopher

In biology, other essential triads include our triune brain, encompassing the brain stem, the limbic or emotional brain, and the cerebral cortex—the intellectual or thinking brain.
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The reptilian brain stem provides for essential survival mechanisms; the limbic system gives us our emotional, nurturing capabilities; and the most recent addition, the outer cortex, enables us to think and reason.

Beyond our biology, there are other triplets. We who live on this third planet from the sun enjoy a life lived in three dimensions. In fact, astronomer and key figure of the seventeenth-century scientific revolution Johannes Kepler asserted that there are only three dimensions of space because of the holy Christian Trinity. In our storytelling, we naturally seem to love threes: we are offered three wishes, we have the three bears and three little pigs, and there were three magi at Jesus’s birth.

The triangle is the world’s preeminent symbol of divinity.

— MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe

We are also drawn to the triangle. Three lines enclosing a space form the first stable physical structure, a symbol that is found in many religious traditions. It was an ancient Egyptian symbol of the Godhead; in Christianity, it is a sign of the Trinity. In Christian art, God’s halo is traditionally a triangle; all others are round. It was a Pythagorean symbol for wisdom. It also represents the feminine (downward-pointing triangle) and the masculine (upward pointing).
In astrology, it came to symbolize water and fire, depending on which way the triangle points.

When we pray, we put our hands in the most natural pose and create a triangle. Hands in the prayer position also express the Buddhist greeting
namaste,
meaning “the divine in me greets the divine in you.” When we complete a Taoist qigong energy practice, we form an upside-down triangle with our hands and place them on our belly to ground the energy. When we meditate, we may sit in a lotus position, forming a triangle with our entire body.

The Three of Spiritual Traditions

Christianity gives us the trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Judaism has three faces of God—Yahveh or YHVH (the father), Shekinah (the feminine face of the divine), and Ruach (the breath of God). In the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah, three columns of the Tree of Life depict the foundation of creation. The Hindu pantheon called the Trimurti includes Brahma (creator), Shiva (destroyer), and Vishnu (preserver or warrior).

Triads of gods appear very early, at the primitive level. . . . Arrangement in triads is an archetype in the history of religion, which in all probability formed the basis of the Christian Trinity.

— CARL JUNG
A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity

An ancient Greek creation myth tells that three immortal beings emerged out of chaos: Gaea, or Mother Earth; Eros, or Love; and Tartarus, the Underworld. A Navajo creation myth talks about three races: coyote, first man, and first woman. In addition to the Three Pure Ones, the Taoists have Three Kingdoms of the Universe (Heaven, Earth, and the Middle Kingdom of Man), while the Buddhists have Three Treasures or the Triple Jewel: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
¹⁰
Table 8.1
lists sacred threesomes from a variety of traditions. Some of the triads represent three qualities of God or the holy spirit; others represent the pantheon of the three gods of creation.

Table 8.1
Sacred Triads of Spiritual Traditions

And so we’ve seen that the essential pattern of three in biology is at the heart of creation—the genetic code, embryonic development, and the three domains of life. We embrace this pattern in our stories and myths, and we build it into how the Mysteries are structured and how our pantheons are peopled. As we weave this pattern through our cultures throughout time, are we expressing the wisdom inherent in our cells?

Three habits of the heart . . . the processes of connecting, nurturing, and integrating all of our cellular memories to create who we are, what we need, and what we have to give.

— PAUL PEARSALL, PHD
The Heart’s Code

Three in Your Life: Self-Creation

Why have I taken you on this metaphysical excursion? Because it links science, the sacred, and life itself, and I want to invite you to explore this pattern further. So many creation philosophies from ancient to modern times revolve around this powerful three—what might happen if we engaged the power of three to recreate our personal lives? Can we create
positive change more easily by using our “three nature” to support a creative intent or emotional transformation? What might happen if we added to our meditation or movement practices the quality of three?

EXPLORATION

A Triad of Intent: Discovering Your Own Power of Three

Become a mystic explorer, a cytonaut, by engaging the secrets of your cells. Experience for yourself whether creative change can be achieved more easily if you use a triad of intent. For example: will doing an exercise three times or saying a prayer three times have a generative effect? Will this repetitive pattern support change? Do it for three days, then three weeks, and record and watch what happens. Both our cells and sacred traditions indicate that
three is the key to making things happen.
Imagine the possibilities if you shift your practice in this way.

BODY PRAYER

A Cellular Creative Practice

Set aside some time to reflect on what you would like to change in your life or your world. Keep it simple and definable; write it down as an intention or a prayer. Now put that intention into a series of three movements or gestures. The following is one example.

I stand feeling my feet rooted to the earth. I am anchored in the earth. Reaching up with both hands open over my head, I stretch and reach toward the sky and voice my intent (silently or aloud): “I am grateful and open to receiving wisdom and providing it to others.” Bringing my hands down in front of my heart in prayer position, I remind myself to honor the divinity in me, in others, and in all that is. I dedicate this body prayer to positive change in the world. Bending down, I touch my palms to the earth, planting my seed of intent, stating that I will do whatever it takes to achieve this. I repeat this three times.

Attach: Feel the earth under your feet. Be aware of the connection.

Align: Connect breath, ideas, feelings, and body. Consider doing some spiral movements and humming while tuning in to your intent.

Act: Plant the seed of intent. Listen and take action.

It’s as simple as one, two, three. Three brings a process to completion.

Without realizing it we “pierce polarity” whenever we count “one, two, three.”. . . [This] reflects a major leap of consciousness. It gives us the ability to transcend polar bonds and realize the unlimited.

— MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe

Cellular Wisdom in Sacred Art

Let’s look at how the triangle and pattern of threes are repeated in sacred art. Here is the Hindu Sri Yantra used in meditation, which is said to symbolize the entire cosmos or the womb of creation (see
figure 8.3
). The triangles pointing downward represent the dynamic female principle of energy (Shakti). Those facing upward represent the static male principle of wisdom (Shiva). Constructed from nine interwoven triangles and a few surrounding circles, this “cosmogram” symbolizes sacred space for all the Hindu deities. At the center of the smallest circle is a dot known as the bindu, the point at which creation begins and unity becomes the many.

This was one of the first ancient mandalas that I saw as an apt symbol for a cell; the architecture seemed remarkably analogous. There is a center filled with triangular threesomes (DNA code?) and an outer circular rim like a cell membrane with “receptors” at the edge. Symbolically, for those who meditate on it, each of the features provides information and a place for focused intent.

Now take another look at Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome (see
figure 4.2
). You can see that triangles are key to its stable structure, just as they are in the Sri Yantra—just as in the fabric of our cells.