The Power of Three

**Notice:** This **article** uses content directly taken from the The Power of Three **article** at the Charmed Wiki, and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

## Collective Power Information

### Description

* The magic of three magical beings who work as one.

### Usage

* Used to enhance their spells, potions, and active powers.

### Owners

* It is turned into the Power of Four the new collective of the Charmed Ones

### Former Owner(s)

* Penny Halliwell  (temporarily)
* Patty Halliwell  (through baby Phoebe)
* Prue Halliwell
* Piper Halliwell
* Phoebe Halliwell
* Paige Matthews
* Penelope Anderson
* Wyatt Halliwell
* Chris Halliwell
* Melinda Halliwell

**The Power of Three** is the collective power of the Charmed Ones, said to be the strongest kind of magic that has ever and will ever exist in this world. The requirement to tap into this power is for each witch to possess one of the three following powers: Telekinesis, Molecular Immobilization, and the power of Premonitions.

Symbolizing the Power of Three is the triquetra, a symbol that also represents the Charmed Ones themselves (*three together as one*) and which is marked on their Book of Shadows. Since Wyatt and Paris bore four children the Power of Thee became Power of Four.

While most of the spells written in the book require the Power of Three to take enough effect, it isn't always necessary for all three sisters to chant a spell together as long as they are all together at the same time. For example, Phoebe cast a spell to awaken their powers as the Charmed Ones by herself and was merely in the vicinity of Piper and Prue; Piper summoned the Power of Three to save Paige from an invading spirit, and Paige summoned it to vanquish a Slime Demon.

## Origins

It is not explicitly stated how a Power of Three bond is formed, but prophecy, lineage, identity, and mutual trust seem to be key factors. It could be possible that the three must take a blood oath as a promise to always remain together, or something of that nature, as Phoebe mentioned that she and her sisters once took one to always remain friends prior to becoming witches.

It may also be that one needs the aid of a spell to create such a bond. Phoebe read a spell to bestow the power of the Charmed Ones upon the sisters that is titled "Dominus Trinus":

*Hear now the words of the witches,*

*The secrets we hid in the night,*

*The oldest of Gods are invoked here,*

*The great work of Magic is sought.*

*In this night and in this hour,*

*We call upon the Ancient Power.*

*Bring your powers to we sisters three!*

*We want the power!*

*Give us the power!*

## Triangle of Power

Evil beings have also been seen to exploit the Power of Three. For example, the Rowe Coven was a trio of two warlocks and one half-Warlock (just as the reconstituted Charmed Ones were made up of the witches Piper and Phoebe and the half-witch, half-Whitelighter Paige), making them the evil equivalent to the Charmed Ones. Fortunately for the Charmed Ones, one of the warlocks was half human and rejected his evil heritage by becoming a priest with the Charmed Ones' help. With said brother relinquishing his powers and his two older brothers dead, the formation of an evil Power of Three was averted.

## Pros & Cons

### Strengths

The effect of a Power of Three bond being formed is that all the members' powers are pooled together into a collective. One of the benefits of this bond is High Resistance—the ability to withstand high levels of magical force that would kill an ordinary person.

More powerful (and hence higher level) beings are harder to kill/affect with one's powers than lower-level ones; for example, Piper and the other various Charmed Ones have been shown to have taken direct hits from all kinds of attacks such as fireballs and energy balls and have survived them many times over, whereas such attacks would instantly vanquish any other magical creature. The Triad is also highly resilient to Piper's combustion power whereas other lower-level demons usually disintegrate within seconds. Therefore, this particular con is easily balanced out by the strength gained by their collective.

### Weaknesses

The amount of power one gains from this bond is relative to the level of the other beings involved, though, in the case of Prue, Piper, and Phoebe, they were all more-or-less equal in strength when they first received the Power of Three.

There is the fact that this collective magically links all of the members to each other in various metaphysical ways. Certain spells cast on one member may affect the others through this connection, such as when Prue was magically turned into an evil warlock through a Dark Wedding ceremony, which subsequently caused Piper, Phoebe, and Penelope to turn into warlocks as well.

Additionally, the Power of Three bond can be broken in several ways:

If the members use their powers on each other in a negative manner or atmosphere, then the bond will be broken. Fortunately, this bond can be reforged by all three of the members reconnecting with each other on an emotional level or something to that effect. For example, when the Charmed Ones intentionally used their powers against each other in an argument, the Power of Three was severed since it was deeply rooted in their sisterhood rather than witchcraft. However, later on, they forgave each other for their actions, showing an understanding of the others' point of view and demonstrating their solidarity as sisters (which is where their Power of Three comes from) in a battle against a demon; as a result, their bond was restored.

The bond can also be broken in a more permanent way if one of the members dies. Although the strength of their power increases their chances of not being killed in battle, it is still possible, and such a death could have severe implications on the bond since the collective would be damaged beyond repair. In the case of the Charmed Ones, this was miraculously solved by the revelation that they had a half-sister, Paige Matthews, whose lineage as a Halliwell witch (as well as Whitelighter heritage) allowed the Charmed Ones' Power of Three to be reconstituted. However, this event is incredibly unlikely under normal circumstances.

### The Power of One

The first time that the term **Power of One** was mentioned was in the episode *The Wendigo*. The Power of Three was also once referred to as the *"Power of One"* to describe how all three Halliwell sisters work as one.

### The Power of Four

*Main article: The Power of Four*
The term **Power of Four** was coined by the Phoebe Halliwell from an alternate universe where the balance of power was shifted towards evil.

The term described the collective powers of Paige, Phoebe, Penelope, and their evil counterparts from the alternate universe, and was shown to be weaker than the Power of Three when they're not able to finish Gideon off by themselves. However, this may be at least partially due to the fact that there were only two Paiges, two Phoebes, and two Penelope's and no Pipers to finish off the trios.

The four witches tried to invoke the Power of Four with the following spell:

*We call upon the Ancient Lore*

*To punish with the Power of Four,*

*Strike down this threat from both there and here,*

*Make him suffer, then disappear.*