The Golden Trinity of Storytelling

Stories have the power to shape our universe. At its best, a story communicates a universal truth which serves as a lesson for the audience, and is therefore a key to gaining higher levels of consciousness. Storytelling is an opportunity to commune and shape the collective consciousness to conjure awareness and change. “Rather than existing as separate individuals, people come together as dynamic groups to share resources and knowledge.”

Humans continue to examine the power of storytelling by exploring which stories are most effective and why. Stories tend to be ineffective because they are missing a strong foundation or something out of balance. They may have a strong narrative, but lack a vivid environment. They may have a vivid environment, but lack complex characters. They may have complex characters but have trouble relating to their audience. The most effective narratives find proper balance between three fundamental concepts;

content, context, and contrast.

In fact, many symbolic trinities depicting the human experience appear in many different cultures, religions, and philosophies across history:

The “triad” featured here is seen in the Holy Trinity, Ayurveda, Neidan, and Alchemy, as well as many more. Though the content may vary, each contain specific elements that work together to represent a complete story.

The Ayurvedic Trinity, for example, depicts three “doshas”, or elemental substances: Pitta, Vata, and Kapha. Pitta means fire and water, Vata means ether and air, and Kapha means water and earth. The story told through the trinity is that a human being is healthy when all three doshas are in balance. These doshas represent the various temperaments and characteristics of a human being’s physical, mental, and spiritual health.

In many different elements of life, we can apply the three elements to content, context, and contrast to better understand what qualities each element holds.

Exploring various trinities in relation to the golden storytelling trinity (content, context, contrast) creates new opportunities for connections to deepen any story. These trinities are tools to help artists understand how to create a healthy, fully formed story that will engage the audience and leave them transformed.

1. CONTENT is the substance that a storyteller uses to create an experience for the audience. It is made up of data (dialogue, facts, details, memories, anecdotes, etc.) It is the what, the substance and primary material (or Prima Materia) that communicates the story and series of events. Content is the first pillar of the foundation. Thus, content is the essence of the story itself. It is the ground in which seeds of thought are planted and take root.
2. CONTEXT breathes life into the story and gives the story meaning. In order to find meaning, context asks “why this story?” and “why this story now?” It frames the content of the story through the lens of the audience’s experience and the story’s literal setting. By addressing the context in which the story exists, the storyteller allows the audience to connect on a deeper level and cultivate a perspective in relation to the content. This perspective is what the story means to the audience. “Timeless” stories and myths continue to be told because they have a contextual truth so strong it resonates with audiences across history. Stories that have the strongest context bring forward a thought, idea, or feeling that is relevant to the collective audience both past and present. If context is not addressed in a story, the audience psychologically disengages from the content.
3. CONTRAST is the third element which drives the action of the story and considers how to tell the story most effectively. Contrast is adaptive, constantly changing how the story is told. Within the world of the story, characters can have a contrasting objective or goal, which produces conflict and tension. We learn exponentially more about these characters by observing this contrast than through exposition and factual information alone. Outside of the story itself, designers can create contrasting elements (i.e. lights, costumes, environments) that deepen the context and content. Creating contrast within your story keeps your story fresh and unpredictable. It is the most frequently overlooked yet valuable ingredient to a truly gripping story, and keeps the audience living in the moment.

By cultivating a symbiotic balance between these three elements, storytellers can aim to reveal the deepest possible meaning that an audience can absorb.

German Philosopher Georg Hegel believed that: “the totality is the product of that process which preserves all of its “moments” as elements in a structure, rather than as stages or phases. Think of these structural elements as the interrelated ones of a whole architecture or even better, a fractal architecture.”

Like a snowflake, a story exists to illuminate a unique perspective both complex and complete, fractal and subatomic, for its audience to exist within. By framing the story within the three pillars of conscious storytelling: context, content and contrast, the storyteller has the ability to transform both the personal and collective consciousness.

Author: Jesse Carrey-Chan