When Gerald Gardner first presented this idea of a karmic system of the return of energy and actions, he presented it as a two-fold system. Whatever we sent out returned to us magnified by two. Later on, Raymond Buckland had explained it as being three-fold. The latter version stuck.

Where did these ideas come from? Well, it's a scientific reasoning that "every action has an equal and opposite reaction." We also look at the fact that "energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but merely change form" and we start to see where this comes in. If you push a ball, the energy put into pushing that ball, and the subsequent action, causes the ball to move. Now, say that ball bumps into a wall. The energy, still in the movement of the ball, causes the ball to bounce back. Obviously, this is assuming enough energy went into pushing the ball in the first place for it to reach the wall. If energy were to just simply disappear, the ball never would have reached the wall, let alone bounce back. In fact, it may never have moved in the first place. If our actions had no reactions, the ball definitely would not have moved. You could point out that at some point, the ball will stop moving, in which case the energy must have dissipated. A good observation, but even now, the ball is still possessed of potential energy in which any other action placed upon the ball will cause the process to begin again. It didn't dissipate, it only changed form.

So if we look at the natural laws that govern the world we live in, we understand that whatever actions or inactions we take are going to have some sort of effect or non-effect on the world around us. An example of this concept would be a fire consuming a building. If we act, we have an effect on how damage occurs. We can have minimal effect, keeping it from consuming some things or slowing down its process. Or we can have a bigger effect, and stop it all together. If we don't act, the fire will continue to consume everything within its reach unless some other force comes along to stop it. That inaction has the same effect as though you hadn't even been there.

The same goes for magick. If we put the energy into something, it will have an effect. If we don't, the circumstance won't change. This is why it's important that we do the mundane aspect to correspond with any magick we do. The magick acts as a boost, where our physical actions put more energy into it. For example, if you do a spell to gain employment, but don't go out of your way to do the usual steps necessary in job hunting, any offers you may receive could be scams or something that you really don't want. Even if the idea opportunity presents itself, you'll be unprepared to actually obtain it. But if you do it just the traditional way, you may still have the same effect, but at least be prepared for when your goal starts to present itself. Putting the two together gives a boost of energy. It helps to effect energies to bring to focus the opportunities you want/need, and if you're putting the mundane efforts (substance) into it, you won't miss out.

Now that we've gotten the science and examples out of the way, let's get back to explaining these stances. There's come to be an understanding, that whichever term one uses to explain this Law of Return, that just because it involves a number doesn't necessarily mean they believe that energy returns in a multiplied format. In the Correllian system, for example, they believe that the Three-Fold Law of Return means that energies will return as many times until the lesson is learned. This presents a different idea, as though the energy never settles (as it did when the ball stopped moving finally), unless one sees it for what it is and learn that it is an effect of what energy they had sent out.

More commonly, it is viewed that the energy will return just the once regardless of whether the individual knows what it's from or not. It's agreed that when the energy returns, it is not an eye for an eye kind of system. Put out healing energy, a patient's cancer goes into remission. The energy comes back and you may find that you simply have a stroke of good luck. Put out energy to cause an enemy's ambition to fail. The energy comes back and you find that your car breaks down beyond repair. This isn't to say that it's impossible that when the energy comes back it won't be the same end result as whatever you had sent out. It's just that if you punch someone, you may get kicked in return. Just because that ball bounced off the wall doesn't mean it's going to go back to you exactly as it had been before. It might have veered off to one side. Maybe that caused it to bounce off of yet another thing. Maybe you've moved away from that starting point.

So if we all agree that energy sent out will one day return or otherwise have some sort of effect on us in turn, why the talk about numbers and multiplicity? It's a matter of perspective. For some, it's a traditional thing. That's the way it's taught, that's the way it is. Some people will leave out cookies and milk for Santa as per tradition. Others put out brownies. For some, it's because, based on their personal experiences, when energy came back their way, they felt it was two- or three-fold what they had sent out. Still others may argue that it only feels that way because we didn't get to feel the full force of that energy for ourselves to begin with. Or, better put, what we put out there may have felt two- or three-times what we would expect it to feel like. For example, you pinch somebody and they punch you in the nose. To you, the punch feels three times worse than what that pinch would have felt like, but to the person you pinched, that punch may only seem to them like a fraction of what they felt when you pinched them.