Fate IV--The Law of Threefold Return

Then there are those who feel that when good or bad returns, it can return in any way at all.  You could break someone's leg, but in return your arm might be broken.  Or maybe nothing gets broken, but you lose your job.  Still others think whatever you do to someone, something similar will happen to you.  For example, you cause someone to be ill.  In return, you become ill three times.

There are others yet who believe that instead of multiple return, something *could* happen to you that is simply three times (or multiple times, depending on your belief) as bad as what you did to someone else.  Or three times as good, depending on the situation.  So if you make someone ill deliberately (cough on them, I guess), you can get ill either three times, or get three times as ill (be careful, as this can cause death).

There are more variations, but I hope that by now you get the jist.

I have only heard this theory (in any of its variations) from practitioners of magic, most of whom were Neo-Wiccans.  I can only assume that it is a means of controlling people's practice of magic since it seems to serve no other obvious purpose in either religion or magic.  It's sort of a different version of punishment for non-Christians.

-Ave