the three sisters Doctrine

Doctrine

"What did they teach on this eastward journey, from childhood to adulthood, from sleeping to waking, from doubting to knowing? The Three Sisters, blessed are their names, came to us in innocence, and did not instruct us, but provided their perfect examples. They showed us that no great thing can be done alone. Without the breath of life, the eye cannot sees and the arm cannot act. Without the eye, the breath knows not its purpose, and the arm goes astray. Without the arm, breath and eye cannot act, but only contemplate. We must have difference, they taught us, for we are all parts of a greater Unity. We must experience the world in its different lights, dark, red, and gold, acting together as the colors of Creation do, or we are lost.” – An interpretation of the Journey to the East by Reverend Mother Grywin Estalla, Variegate Priestess of the Eastwatch Triad

Each of Sisters and their faiths contain many differences, but they all turn upon the Journey to the East. The thousands of stories (officially 3,333, but varied local traditions increase that number) focus on ways in which the Sisters learned to work together. Mystical interpretations of these tales form the core doctrine of the triad:

Each of us must balance our desires to control, observe, and act

In tale after tale, the Sisters bickered. Naryne set down rules and issued commands. Thellyne hid and observed, and Canelle aggressively charged at every challenge. In these acts, the triads see three primal impulses. Only those who combine and balance them can lead happy lives.

For every person, two others exist to lead them to perfection

Triads believe that two people might be good enough for ordinary love and companionship, but in great adventures and life’s most difficult struggles, everyone is best supported by two others, who the gods have hidden until it is time for them to unite, even if only for one task. The complementary two might never be found, or might be members of one’s family. In any event, truly propitious unions come in threes.

We will find paradise when Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld are unified

It is no coincidence that at the end of their great journey, the Three Sisters separated. Canelle resides on the mountain of Heaven beside the other gods, Thellyne wanders the world, and Naryne sits beside Maal, in the land of the dead. The sins of the mortal races, their distance from the gods, and their desire to do evil required the separation of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. Mortals do evil, so they must be judged by Maal, in a separate place. Even the gods must separate themselves from the mortal affairs, for the sake of the Compact. When mortals find balance in their inner natures and relationships, and obey the gods, the three realms will reunite. Few people worship the Sisters in the form of the triad, but most serious worshipers of any one of the Sisters comes to study the journey and its interpretations. Anyone seeking to become a variegate priest or priestess must contemplate these matters at length.