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That's weirdly similar to the alchemical _Axiom of Maria_: "One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth."

Though the only thing that proves is that mystics all over the world could count to three.

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Perhaps the alchemical axiom was influenced by Taoism? The east and west both had roughly contemporaneous periods of alchemical development and lots of known knowledge transfer so it's certainly possible that religious texts associated with a group known for alchemy in the east would end up in some way in the hands of western alchemists.

"Though the only thing that proves is that mystics all over the world could count to three."

And that they thought about transformation and did not believe that anything is fixed and unchangable (like for example atoms were supposed to be.)

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