The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff Free

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Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Gurdjieff was a spiritual teacher in the first half of the twentieth century who offered an unusually penetrating analysis of the human condition together with practical methods for The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff development of being and consciousness. The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff presents a unified solution to a number of mysteries connected with his writings and with the emblem G. The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff presents a unified solution to a number of mysteries connected with his writings The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff with the emblem of his teaching, a geometric figure known as the enneagram. Gurdjieff called the enneagram the philosopher's stone of the alchemists and a source of great power, yet he never explained it satisfactorily to his pupils. This book shows that Gurdjieff transmitted through his writings an understanding of the symbol that he chose not to divulge in his talks. It also shows that the emblem of his teaching can be seen in the large-scale structure of his writings if one knows how to look The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff the surface. Richard J. Defouw became fascinated with astronomy as a youngster and went on to earn degrees in this field at Harvard and Caltech. His main interest subsequently shifted to the ideas of Gurdjieff. For two years he participated in a study group associated with the Institute for Religious Development headed by W. Nyland, a direct student of Gurdjieff. Later he spent ten years as a pupil in the Gurdjieff Foundation of Colorado. Defouw presents The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff analysis of the literary world created by Gurdjieff that one might expect from someone whose first interest was the search for order in the natural world. The surprise is that such an analysis is possible. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Friend Reviews. To see what your friends The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieffplease sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff. Jan 27, Peter Klok rated it it was amazing. This is a difficult read. It is not the place to begin with the study of Gurdjieff's ideas. It is for the time when you are ready to really attempt to understand the Enneagram. It is the kind of book where you have to be able to hold things in your mind, go back to earlier diagrams, and read all the footnotes in the back of the book as you go along. But it is really worth it. I think Defouw is really on to something here. After reading this, you will be prepared to go back to Gurdjieff's writings This is a difficult read. After reading this, you will be prepared to go back to Gurdjieff's writings and trace the Enneagram in it for yourself. The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff might help to understand a level of the books that is not immediately apparent. It will be a quest to understand the octave of man's possible evolution. View 1 comment. 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About Richard J. Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. You know the saying: There's no time like the present In that case, we can't Read more Trivia About The Enneagram in No trivia or quizzes yet. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Gurdjieff and the Enneagram — Center for Action and Contemplation

In previous posts I have mentioned the work of Christian Wertenbaker. It runs to pages plus a glossary and a list of references. The top of the triangle is point 9, and points 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are marked by coloured lines. If you wish to know more about that, and were not taught it by a pupil of Gurdjieff, it is in my forthcoming book Gurdjieff: Mysticism, Contemplation, and ExercisesNovemberOxford The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff Press. The outer circle is omitted from the cover illustration, but as said, the point ten is in the middle: two intriguing touches. The book is The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff in twenty short chapters, 1 being the introduction and 20 the conclusion. As I have mentioned earlier, the highlight of the volume is, in The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff opinion, the excerpts of unpublished material from Gurdjieff the group meetings on pp. It is not an explanation of the enneagram nor even a historical treatment of the enneagram craze, let alone of Gurdjieff. It is rather an engagement or exploration of the enneagram from several complementary perspectives: the most important of these is probably the psychological, although the mathematics and The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff are more eye-catching. But there is also philosophy and cosmology here. The enneagram, its significance, and its hidden symmetries and curiosities, seems to be its theme, with the chapters developing from more simple and mathematical concepts to the more complex and cosmological. That is the book as a whole. If one did not already know something of Gurdjieff, this book would not be the ideal introduction: but if one does, it is quite a useful task to engage with its engagement. It is interesting, but little more, in my opinion, to draw attention to the Fibonacci sequence where it naturally occurs. Where does that leave us? Open-mouthed and gaping? Let us say that there is a golden symmetry to the nautilus shell. I acknowledge that it is beautiful. But then what? What have we gained which simply contemplating this wonderful instance of creation did not itself provide? This is startling, perhaps, but to what does it lead? What is the practical continuation? What difference does it make to my life? If that is all there is, one might as well watch a modern movie: a form of pseudo-art which seems to rely on special effects, sentimentality, titillation, or a combination of these, and not much else. An idea can be such that I become aware of my own existence in front of the reality, a higher reality, of this idea. It is not that there is nothing in The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff critiques, but such phrases can too cheaply be exploited by people who are, in some respects at least, poseurs. As I see it, in this volume, anyhow, one will find an exploration, and not merely the striking of a pose. He then relates each brain to one of these dimensions. I follow his contention that the body moves in ordinary time, and the feelings bring an eternal quality to our consciousness. What I find harder to understand is his view that the mind is related to the third line. Is the mind really free to that idea? I am not persuaded. The value of this book, in places like this, is that it raises for pondering a fair and legitimate contention. Relative to the body and the feeling, I think that this is correct. So, I think that Wertenbaker is heading in the right direction. I wonder, however, if he has not drawn his correspondence too tightly? If these can be rewritten more clearly … Then, at 52, Wertenbaker admits that the well-known passage in Miraculous about the incorrect but significant placing of the interval is not clear to him. Incidentally, his exposition of the enneagram at 84 seems to me to indicate that he does have some fair idea of what is meant even if there is always an irreducible element of mystery. The imperfection does not vitiate the aim and its nobility, with this knowledge, it may even validate it. It is such as to bear a higher impression. I have, from time to time, used a similar but less satisfactory image to express an insight. Wertenbaker is to be commended for his reading of J. Bennett and A. Blake, whose important bodies of work are too often The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff see, e. I may be wrong, but I sense rather than assess that his treatment reacting space to fermions and time to bosons may explain, in concrete terms, something of the different cosmoses in the Ray of Creation. Although I had to read the book slowly, and even then tired in the last twenty pages, it is, I think I have demonstrated, a worthwhile endeavour The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff read this book. It sharpens the mind in such a way that at times it touches the feeling — and now this is the final point I wish to make, and it relates to what I said about ideas and theory being practical, or at least having the potential to be so: the feelings which are touched by ideas like the ones in this book are higher and more subtle ideas. One cannot fly too close to them for too long: one must approach, withdraw, digest, approach once more, and so on. That, I think, is another aspect of the pattern of the enneagram: it both conceals and reveals the mystery of recurrence. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content In previous posts I have mentioned the work of Christian Wertenbaker. Joseph Azize, 16 May Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. The Secret Enneagram of Gurdjieff and its relationship to Universal Vortex Math

Ouspenskyand an integral part of the Fourth Way esoteric system associated with George Gurdjieff. The term " enneagram " derives from two Greek words, ennea nine and gramma something written or drawnand was coined by Gurdjieff in the period before the s [1]. The enneagram is a nine-pointed figure usually inscribed within a circle. Within the circle is a triangle connecting points 9, 3 and 6. The inscribed figure resembling a web connects the other six points in a cyclic figure This number is derived from or corresponds to the recurring decimal. These six points together with the point numbered 9 are said to represent the main stages of any complete process, and can be related to the notes of a musical octave9 being equivalent to "Do" and 1 to "Re" etc. The points numbered 3 and 6 are said to represent "shock points" which affect the way a process develops. The internal lines between the points; that is, the three-point figure and the six-point figure, are said to show certain non- obvious connections, although here very little elucidation is offered. As reported by P. Ouspensky the enneagram was introduced by George Gurdjieff to his study groups in Saint Petersburg and Moscow in Ouspensky records this original explication in his book of Gurdjieff's teaching In Search of the Miraculous where the enneagram appears as Figure 44 and in further diagrams. Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff as saying; "The knowledge of the enneagram has for a very long time been preserved in secret and if it now is, so to speak, made available to all, it is only in an incomplete and theoretical form without instruction from a man who knows". Gurdjieff also remarked "In order to understand the enneagram it must be thought of as in motion, as moving. A motionless enneagram is a dead symbol, the living symbol is in motion" [3]. Karppe, Paris,pp. There has also been speculation that it may be related to the Pythagorean Tetractyswhich also combines the numbers 3 and 7. Renaissance Hermeticism which used an enneagram of three interlocking triangles, also called a nonagram [4] or a nine-pointed figure used by the Christian medieval philosopher Ramon Llull. Idries Shaha populariser of Sufismhas claimed that the enneagram has a Sufi provenance and that it has also been long known in coded form disguised as an octagram. Robin Amis claims an Orthodox Christian origin, claiming that both Gurdijeff and Ouspensky developed their teaching with insights gained from visits to Mount Athos. Another proposal suggests the diagram is a map of the chakras from yogic schools, [9] although this is implausible since the earliest cakra doctrine posits five cakras and the later classical statement of the cakra doctrine posits six cakras, not nine. The enneagram according to Gurdjieff shows the "Law of Seven" and the "Law of Three" united and so some explanation of these laws is necessary here. The Law of Seven or law of octaves, according to which phenomena evolves in seven steps; and the Law of Three, according to which phenomena are produced by three forces, are presented by Gurdjieff as global laws appearing on all scales and essential to his cosmology. This cosmology offers a view of how the world operates said to derive from alchemy and more ancient sources, and to complement or complete modern experimental science rather than to contradict it. According to this cosmology everything is material, including consciousness and spiritand all matter can be assigned a "density"; consciousness and spirit for example having lower "densities" and therefore higher "vibrations" than, for example, water while, for example, rock has a higher "density" and lower "vibration" than water, and so on. The diatonic scale in music is said to be an ancient application of the Law of Seven and a convenient way to study it. In other words if one thinks of a standard musical keyboard and takes for example middle C as Do then the following six white keys, DEFGAB will represent the rest of the octave, and the next white key will be the higher C. There will be black keys between each of the The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff keys, except between E and F the mi-fa interval and between B and the higher C the si-do interval. In any process described in terms of the Law of The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff, the Mi-Fa interval and the Ti-Do interval are said to be shock points where outside help is needed if the octave is to continue to develop as intended. A failure to recognize this in terms of human projects is said to be a major reason The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff things go wrong in general. The musical scale Gurdjieff is quoted as using [13] is not the modern standard musical scale but Ptolemy's intense diatonic scalea just intonation scale associated with the Renaissance composer and musical The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff Gioseffo Zarlino. The Law of Three holds that three forces act on any event, which can be called Active, Passive, and Neutralizing forces, or simply First, Second, and Third forces respectively. These three forces can appear in any order, for example orgiving 6 possible "triads" of forces describing 6 very broad types of event. The enneagram shows the Law of Seven and the Law of Three in a single symbol with the three forces joined in a triangle at the 3,6 and 9 points, and in addition six inner lines hexad following the 1,4,2,8,5,7,1, The meaning of these six inner lines is not, by Ouspensky's account, made clear by Gurdjieff. One shock point is shown on the enneagram at point 3, which is the Mi-Fa interval where it might be expected. However the other is at point 6, at the So-La interval. It might have been expected to be at the Ti-Do interval, and Gurdjieff is presented as offering this apparent mistake as a mystery to be solved. This second octave cannot develop unless it has a shock at its own Mi-Fa, and this is the shock which in fact occurs at point 6. As the enneagram figure is a symbol said to represent the "law of seven" and the "law of three" in unity, therefore, according to this view, the figure can be used to describe any natural whole phenomenon, cosmos, process in life or any other piece of knowledge. The figure is the central organizing glyph of the Fourth Way's view of the material world which Gurdjieff is quoted by Ouspensky as relating to alchemy. The most detailed example of how this is said to work, given in In Search of the Miraculousis an explanation of how Gurdjieff believed inputs to the human body "food", "air" and "impressions", collectively regarded as types of food are processed into the so-called "higher substances" necessary for higher consciousness to function. In Gurdjieff's view "everything is material"; consciousness and spirit are to be regarded as aspects of matter, although more refined or of a "higher vibration" than perceptible aspects. This proposition is an essential basis for Gurdjieff's view of the evolution of food into the "higher substances" necessary for higher consciousness; briefly summarized below from the account in In Search of the Miraculous. At point 9 ordinary food beginning as Do is eaten and enters the body and digestion begins. The "density" of human food is assigned a number, At point 1 it is said to be processed in the gut as Re and is refined to a "density" of the same "density" as water. At point 2 the food is The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff refined to Mi and assigned a density ofThe Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff same density as air. It has entered the blood stream. At point 3, Mi-Fa, occurs a "shock". Air can provide this shock because it also is of densityand furthermore this air enters as a new Do. At point 4 the original food octave is at "Fa" but the new air octave is at Re. They are both The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff the bloodstream at "density" 96, the "density" of hormones and vitamins and rarefied gases and animal magnetism "and so on". At this point we reach the end of "what is regarded as matter by our physics and chemistry" [19] It should be remembered that Gurdjieff is here speaking in The substances or energies at point 5 are assigned a "density" of 48 and used in thought. These are the So or "Sol" part of the original food octave and the Mi part of the air octave. Point 6 being where "impressions", regarded as a type of food, are said to enter the body. Otherwise The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff the ordinary food octave, shown in black in the diagram, proceeds. Point 7 represents emotional and other energies, of a "density" of If "self-remembering" occurs this will be the Fa point for the air octave and the Re point for the impressions octave. Otherwise it will just be the La point for the original food octave. At point 8, the "Si" or Ti at the end of the first "ordinary food" octave represents the sexual energies, of "density" 12; which are the "highest substance" according to Gurdjieff which the body produces naturally without conscious intervention. A desire to conserve this "higher substances" for esoteric use is said to be the original reason for religious celibacy. With the conscious intervention at point 6 of "self remembering" further and more useful "higher substances" are created, represented by the air octave's So or "Sol" at point 8 and the impression octave's The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff at point 8. This Mi of "density" 12 is the "higher substance" primarily necessary for Gurdjieff's The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff method. A further conscious shock, requiring "a special type of control over the emotions" at point 9 would enable a new "higher" or spiritual body to begin to grow, this is represented by Gurdjieff as the aim of his and other esoteric traditions. Although not shown in the diagram on this page, the Air octave, if it has a shock at Point 6 in fact may proceed to La with a The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff of 6. Ouspensky related the inner six-line figure of the Food Diagram enneagram to the circulation of the blood. Point 1, he wrote, represented the digestive system, point 2 the blood stream, point 4 the breathing system, point 5 the brain, point 7 the spinal cord and point 8 the sympathetic nervous system and sex organs, and the lines "showed the direction of the flow or distribution of arterial blood in The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff organism and then its return in the form of venous blood" [21]. Other applications of the enneagram to describing processes can be found in writings influenced by those The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff Gurdjieff, [22] notably in the writings of J. In his book Gurdjieff: Making a New World [23] Bennett describes the workings of a community kitchen in terms of the enneagram and offers some explanation of the meaning of the internal lines. Another of his books, Enneagram Studies[24] is devoted to the subject, offering nine examples of enneagrams in various applications. Rodney Collin in his book The Theory of Celestial Influence relates the enneagram to the planets of the The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff system, and the yearly cycle, and also offers some explanation of the inner lines. The Enneagram of Personality originates from the mapping of nine "ego fixations" on the enneagram by Oscar Ichazo. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 4 January In Search of the Miraculous. Quote: "The knowledge of the enneagram has for a very long time been preserved in secret and if it now is, so to The Enneagram in the Writings of Gurdjieff, made available to all, it is only in an incomplete and theoretical form of which nobody could make any practical use without instruction from a man who knows. Gurdjieff, P. Ouspensky, and Their Followers. The Commanding Self. London: Octagon Press. ISBN is for edition. The enneagram is disguised as "two superimposed squares" with the space in the middle representing the ninth point. Praxis Research Institute. Archived from the original on 23 July Retrieved 19 August Hidden categories: CS1 maint: unfit url Use dmy dates from July Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version.