Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 1–9 RELIGION and the ARTS brill.com/rart

Editor’s Introduction G.I. Gurdjieff, the Arts, and the Production of Culture

Carole M. Cusack University of Sydney

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949) was an original and influential teacher of modern esotericism and one of the sources of what Harry T. Hunt describes as “secular Western mysticism” (225–250). Gurdjieff is often studied in the context of his older contemporary Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831– 1891), who co-founded the Theosophical Society with Henry Steel Olcott in 1875, and also Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), who broke away from Theosophy to found the Anthroposophical Society in 1912. It is true there are similarities between the three esoteric systems: both Steiner and Gurdjieff were familiar with, and used on occasion, the language of Theosophical discourse; Blavatsky and Gurdjieff consciously melded Eastern and Western religious, spiritual, and esoteric ideas; Steiner and Gurdjieff taught esoteric movement arts and had artists, dancers, and musicians as followers; and all three were charismatic lead- ers whose pupils gave them fierce loyalty (Petsche, “Gurdjieff and Blavatsky” 98). Yet both Blavatsky and Steiner attributed their teachings to various “Mas- ters,” while Gurdjieff “never based his authority upon ‘Masters,’ let alone being their emissary” (Azize 28). The popularity of the “Ascended Masters” tradi- tion in twentieth-century America may be one reason Gurdjieff’s teaching (the “Fourth Way” or the “Work”) is less well-known than either Theosophy or Anthroposophy (Brown passim). The secrecy with which the Foundation groups led by Gurdjieff’s successor Jeanne de Salzmann (1889–1990) guarded his legacy is certainly one reason for this. Scholarly research on Gurdjieff has until the last decade or so been limited, with most studies being hagiographies by “insiders,” focused more on celebration than on criticism (Sutcliffe 269–273). The cultural productions of Gurdjieff and his pupils include the music that he composed with (1885–1956) and the script that Alex- andre de Salzmann devised with Gurdjieff, which read vertically from top to bottom, in which were written the aphorisms that were featured on the walls of the Study House at the Prieuré des Basses Loges, Fontainebleau-Avon, where the second Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man flourished from 1922–1924. Bennett said the script resembled Arabic, and recorded thirty of

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/15685292-02101021 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:24:26AM via free access 2 cusack the sayings, including: “Take the understanding of the East and the knowl- edge of the West, and then seek,” “Respect all religions,” and “Always remember that you are here having realized the necessity for contending with yourself; therefore thank everyone who affords an opportunity” (Bennett 153–154). The “sacred dances” or Movements are another cultural form that Gurdjieff taught, and they connect with the basic Fourth Way teachings, that humans are three- brained beings who must work to acquire a soul or kesdjan body through “work and conscious suffering” (Cusack 76). Johanna J.M. Petsche describes Move- ments as “dances and exercises characterized by unusual and symbolic ges- tures of the body, usually placed in unpredictable sequences” (“Gurdjieff and de Hartmann’s Music for Movements” 100). The Movements facilitate “self- remembering” (in Gurdjieff’s system a vital practice that indicates the emer- gence of the mechanical human from the state of waking sleep that is his or her natural condition). Gurdjieff taught his pupils esoteric contemplation or “inner exercises” that until recently were largely unknown to outsiders, although there were descrip- tions of these practices in some of his pupils’ memoirs. Joseph Azize, a pupil of Gurdjieff’s pupils George and Helen Adie, published the text of an exer- cise preserved by the Adies (“The Four Ideals”), and he has followed this up with studies on the practices of fasting and contemplation in Gurdjieff’s teach- ing (“Fasting in Christianity and Gurdjieff”; “The Practice of Contemplation in the Work of Gurdjieff”). Azize’s contribution to this special issue increases our knowledge of this aspect of Gurdjieffian practice. Gurdjieff also authored four works that are a major site of culture in the Fourth Way tradition. Only one text was published privately in during his lifetime, The Herald of Coming Good (1933). It was removed from circulation after commentators, including the journalist Rom Landau, pronounced it “the work of a man who was no longer sane” (Landau 254). After Gurdjieff’s death his “Three Series,” also known as “All and Everything,” was gradually released. The first book, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (1950) was followed by Gurjieff’s semi-autobiographical Meet- ingsWith Remarkable Men (1964) and Life Is Real OnlyThen,When “I Am” (1975). Michael Pittman’s article in this special issue, “Gurdjieff, Art, and the Lego- minism of Ashiata Shiemash,” analyses Beelzebub’s Tales to clarify Gurdjieff’s attitude to artistic production. This special issue of Religion and the Arts is focused on the culture of the “Work” as taught by Gurdjieff and continued by his followers. The arts specifi- cally (music and dance, visual art and literature) are an important part of this culture, but are not the totality (Karalis 253). The ten articles collected here discuss a wide range of cultural productions: spiritual exercises, alternative life- ways, actor-training methods, personal experience, phenomenology, personal

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 1–9 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:24:26AM via free access editor’s introduction 3 autobiography, literary texts, and reminiscences of Fourth Way teachers. The perspectives represented range from those of long-term Gurdjieff practitioners and teachers, to outsider academics, through the mixed perspectives of schol- ars who are also insiders or former insiders, and academics who participate without “joining” the Work. This reflects the recent problematization of the insider/outsider binary, in which it is argued that distinguishing an “insider” from an “outsider” is not only difficult, but often impossible, given that individ- uals and communities typically inhabit multiple roles and realities (Gleig 96). The issue is divided into two halves, both of which commence with arti- cles by long-term Work members in the lineage of John Godolphin Bennett (1897–1974), a brilliant and eclectic Gurdjieff pupil who broke with the Foun- dation and Jeanne de Salzmann in 1953. I am grateful to all the authors in this collection, but I owe special thanks to Anthony Blake and David Seamon, both of whom have given generously of their time and knowledge to some- one they have never met, in a far continent, who sends regular e-mail queries that have been answered with unfailing kindness and courtesy. Both Blake and Seamon unite Work practice with distinguished academic careers that are also intertwined with Gurdjieffian and Bennettian concepts: Blake in physics and systematics at DuVersity; and Seamon in architecture and phenomenology at Kansas State University. The first half of the issue is broadly focused on Gur- djieff’s life and cultural productions. It opens with Blake’s autobiographical memoir, and includes articles by three colleagues from the University of Syd- ney, Joseph Azize, Johanna J.M. Petsche, and myself, and a study by Michael Pittman of Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The second half of the issue opens with Seamon’s study of aesthetic experi- ence through the lens of Gurdjieffian phenomenology, and contains four more pieces.These are:Vrasidas Karalis’s (University of Sydney) examination of René Zuber’s pupil memoir, Who Are You Monsieur Gurdjieff?; a discussion of the portrait of Gurdjieff in Leonora Carrington’s cult novel, The Hearing Trumpet (1977) by Ricki O’Rawe (Queen’s University Belfast); a study of the influence of Gurdjieff upon the theater through the work of celebrated Polish director Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999) by Catharine Christof (Loyola Marymount University); and an analysis of the Guitar Craft technique of music teaching, devised by King Crimson guitarist and Work practitioner Robert Fripp, by David Robert- son (University of Edinburgh), which brings the story of Gurdjieff’s impact on the arts and cultural production to the present day. My thanks are due to the anonymous referees who provided feedback on the nine original articles.1 I am grateful to the Editor of Religion and the Arts,

1 Johanna J.M. Petsche’s contribution, “G.I. Gurdjieff’s Piano Music and its Application In

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James Najarian, who received my initial, very sketchy, idea for a special issue with enthusiasm, and to Alison Cotti-Lowell, the efficient and professional pro- duction editor who worked on the issue. I owe a great debt to my research assis- tant, Venetia Robertson, who has worked on several Gurdjieff-related projects, and to Raphael Lataster, whose meticulous formatting of articles facilitated the smooth transfer of the files to Brill. Johanna Petsche and Joseph Azize, my con- versation partners on Gurdjieff and his teaching over the years, inspire me and keep me interested and working. Finally, for nearly two decades the support of Donald Barrett has contributed greatly to the success of my research, for which he deserves acknowledgement.

Part One

The first article, Anthony Blake’s “The Fourth Way: A Hazardous Path,” offers an autobiographical perspective by the co-founder (with Karen Stefano, in 1998) of The DuVersity, and current Director of Studies. Blake describes his spiritual journey in the 1960s, which began with his joining of Subud, the Indonesian new religion founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo (1901–1987). This led to the Fourth Way, in the person of J.G. Bennett, the charismatic and unorthodox Gurdjieff pupil (Pittman, passim). Blake lived at Bennett’s Institute at Coombe Springs in Kingston upon Thames, near , and as a student of philosophy and science, was powerfully influenced by his scientific and holistic approach towards spirituality. Blake was particularly struck by Bennett’s openness to other religions and traditions and eschewal of Gurdjieffian exclusivism, and his humility in telling students, “Maybe I am a holy man. But I tell you, even a holy man can always make mistakes.” Other highlights of Blake’s memoir include personal recollections of Bennett, and his shrewd and regret-filled recounting of the transfer of Coombe Springs to the soi-disant Sufi master Idries Shah, who sold it the following year. The next contribution, Joseph Azize’s “‘The Readiness Is All’: Gurdjieff’s Art of the ‘Preparation,’” provides a transcript of the contemplative exercise used by Gurdjieff called the “Preparation.” Azize explains the content of this spiritual exercise, noting that it has almost entirely disappeared from the Work today, and is hardly mentioned by pupils or scholars.The “Preparation” is a daily ritual

and Outside ‘The Work’,” was first published in Carole M. Cusack and Alex Norman (eds), Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012), pp. 271– 296.

Religion and the Arts 21 (2017) 1–9 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:24:26AM via free access editor’s introduction 5 that is always, even if slightly, different; no two sessions are the same. It serves to induce self-collectedness each morning, to encourage a balanced state, and to ready the practitioner for the day’s activities. It involves sitting in a chair for anywhere from five to thirty minutes. Gurdjieff did not write about this exer- cise, so Azize has consulted with various pupils and unpublished documents, to verify that it was a crucial part of his teaching that passed out of use when Jeanne de Salzmann introduced the “New Work” around 1980 (Moore 4). Michael Pittman’s article explains the meaning of the term legominism, which is a work that is intended to convey, but also to obscure, spiritual truths, an example of which is religion. Pittman argues that Gurdjieff’s notoriously difficult-to-read Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (1950), which features the legominism of the Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, is itself a legominism. This coheres well with many of the other articles in this issue, in that Gurdjieff used his art to aid his pupils’, and perhaps their communities’, spiritual transforma- tion. Pittman carefully explains how Beelzebub’s Tales, through the example of Ashiata Shiemash, de-hierarchizes religion and presents a new way of trans- mitting profound spiritual teachings. Johanna J.M. Petsche’s “G.I. Gurdjieff’s Piano Music and its Application In and Outside ‘The Work’” discusses the music that Gurdjieff composed with Thomas de Hartmann. Some of these pieces were intended to accompany his sacred dances, but Petsche focuses on the remainder, what she calls “the piano music,” which served another purpose. These pieces were not published or recorded, and Gurdjieff seemingly had no intention of doing so. As is appro- priate for an esoteric school, this music was generally only played within his circle of pupils. Petsche explains that this was in the interests of their spiritual development, and was intimately connected with Gurdjieff’s esoteric ideas. The music cultivates the “emotional centre,” complementing Gurdjieff’s writ- ings (which addressed the “intellectual centre”) and Movements (which related to the “physical centre”). Over time, and after his death, some of this music was released to the public, to the consternation of many Work members who feel that the music should be experienced live and should not be divorced from its spiritual context (Petsche, Gurdjieff and Music 134–153). Petsche’s own experi- ences with the Work, and the local and international interviews she conducted with various Gurdjieff pupils, makes for a valuable contribution to the field. Carole M. Cusack’s “The Contemporary Context of Gurdjieff’s Movements” analyses the range of secular and esoteric dance forms that proliferated during the time in which Gurdjieff was teaching. These include: Eurhythmics, taught by the Professor of solfège and harmony at the Geneva Conservatory, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950); Eurythmy, which was devised by Rudolf Steiner in 1912 with the assistance of his future wife Marie von Sivers and Lory Smits

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(Siegloch 56–74); Rudolf Laban’s Movement Choir; and Paneurythmy, which was taught by the Bulgarian esoteric Christian teacher Peter Deunov (1864– 1944). This article also connects the Movements with the production of The Rite of Spring that Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes debuted in Paris in 1913. It is argued that despite the admitted difficulty in definitively establishing facts in Gurdjieff’s life and teaching, that there are interesting and perhaps important influences and connections with regard to the development of the Movements that can be identified.

Part Two

The second part of the special issue opens with David Seamon’s examination of the capacity of the philosophy of Gurdjieff to initiate a phenomenology of aesthetic experience, which Seamon defines as the intense emotional engage- ments involved with producing or encountering works of art, including dances, poems, and buildings. He notes that while Gurdjieff did not himself use the lan- guage of phenomenology, he nevertheless discussed phenomenological con- cepts. To Seamon, Gurdjieff’s philosophy is a phenomenology of human being, providing many tools to understand experiences and consciousness (Seamon 280–281). Seamon explains that this was important to Gurdjieff, as it could aid his followers’ self-transformation. The focus is not on what the individual is at present, but on what the individual can become. Seamon further utilizes the writings of Bennett to explain, with a Gurdjieffian perspective, the relationship between art and aesthetic experience. This article is particularly interesting because Seamon regards himself as an insider to the Work, who thinks that many of Gurdjieff’s ideas and methods are valuable in a broader context than the specific esoteric context of the Gurdjieff tradition. Vrasidas Karalis’s “Gurdjieff and the Personality Cult. Reading the Work and its Re-Workings: Notes on René Zuber’s Who Are You Monsieur Gurdjieff?” focuses on a memoir by one of Gurdjieff’s personal pupils. The book is an autobiography, one filled with philosophical and religious musings, as well as interpretations of Gurdjieff’s later teachings. It largely focuses on the strange relationship between the student and the master. Karalis ably analyzes Zuber’s book. He notes that people have often tried to pigeonhole Gurdjieff into certain categories, which his teachings intended to undermine. He further explains that Zuber saw in Gurdjieff a most effective representative of esoteric Chris- tianity (Cusack 83). Karalis thinks that Gurdjieff’s system actually transcends esoteric Christianities, but concludes “Gurdjieff was the first representative of a new Christian Gnosis in a post-Christian world.”

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Ricki O’Rawe’s essay, “‘Should We Try to Self-Remember While Playing Snakes and Ladders?’: Dr Gambit as Gurdjieff in Leonora Carrington’sTheHear- ing Trumpet (1950),” discusses the iconoclastic and arguably ananthropocentic surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917–2011). Carrington was particularly suspicious of gurus claiming esoteric truths. O’Rawe investigates this conviction, with a focus on Carrington’s experiences with groups influ- enced by Gurdjieff and his pupil P.D. Ouspensky (1878–1947). Carrington real- ized that the very inequalities of power that were deemed unacceptable in traditional religions were also present in the Fourth Way. Gurdjieff was long accused of sexual improprieties (Petsche, “Gurdjieff On Sex,” passim), and in The Hearing Trumpet Gambit is likened to a reigning tyrant, and is said to have demanded his pupils’ absolute obedience. O’Rawe notes the dissonance between some people’s appreciation of the Fourth Way’s philosophy while dis- agreeing with its practice, and argues that the character of Dr. Gambit is a par- odic portrait of Gurdjieff, and of religious masters in general. O’Rawe explores the feminist literary turn of the mid-twentieth century from male/master- centric nrms towards materialist feminisms and female-focused spiritualities. The ninth article, Catharine Christof’s “Gurdjieff in the Theater: The Fourth Way of Jerzy Grotowski,” explores the links between Gurdjieff and the revolu- tionary Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski, who sought to remove spiritual- ity from traditional authorities and to relocate it within the bodies of perform- ers. Indeed, Gurdjieff himself recognized the power of actors to convey pro- found truths to the audience, rather than being mere vessels for amusement. Christof details the many aspects of Grotowski’s theater work that resonate strongly with Gurdjieff’s teachings, and she advances the notion that Grotowski should be considered an independent Fourth Way spiritual teacher (Slowiak and Cuesta 36). Gurdjieff asserted that the Fourth Way was not intended to be permanent. It would come and go, with the school disappearing, or trans- forming, when the aims of the Work had been accomplished. Appropriately, Grotowski’s theatrical work can be perceived as being one such transformation of Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way. The final article, David G. Robertson’s “‘Tuning Ourselves’: Fripp, Bennett, Gurdjieff,” explains how in the mid-1970s Robert Fripp, leader of rock band King Crimson, became a student of J.G. Bennett, who had in turn been a student of Gurdjieff. He returned to the music industry later that decade with greater discipline and structure to his music. Robertson explains that it was Fripp’s encounters with the teachings of Gurdjieff and Bennett that influenced his approach to teaching music, focusing on the technique known as Guitar Craft, and also Fripp’s compositions; something about which he himself has not been very explicit. Robertson’s central message is that Guitar Craft introduces

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Fourth Way ideas to people without the typical jargon, and with barely a reference to Gurdjieff himself. Of particular importance is that King Crimson, in a story reminiscent of the Velvet Underground and early r.e.m., made little impact on the music charts but nevertheless proved very influential. This, Robertson argues, ensured that the ideas of the Fourth Way had actually been widely disseminated, though quite discreetly, like other nrms such as Theosophy and Discordianism. It is hoped that this special issue illuminates aspects of the Gurdjieff tradition that are little known and deserve greater exposure.

Works Cited

Azize, Joseph. “‘The Four Ideals’: A Contemplative Exercise by Gurdjieff.” aries 13.2 (2013): 173–203. Azize, Joseph. “Fasting in Christianity and Gurdjieff.” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 27.3 (2014): 285–302. Azize, Joseph. “The Practice of Contemplation in the Work of Gurdjieff.” International Journal for the Study of New Religion 6.2 (2015): 137–156. Azize, Joseph. “Biographical Studies of G.I. Gurdjieff.” Fieldwork in Religion 11.1 (2016): 10–35. Bennett, John Godolphin. Gurdjieff:MakingANewWorld. NewYork:Harper & Row, 1973. Brown, Michael F. The Channelling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age. Cambridge ma and London: Harvard University Press, 1997. Cusack, Carole M. “An Enlightened Life inText and Image: G.I. Gurdjieff’s MeetingsWith Remarkable Men (1963) and ’s ‘Meetings With Remarkable Men’ (1979),” Literature & Aesthetics 21.1 (2011): 72–97. Gleig, Ann. “Researching New Religious Movements From the Inside Out and the Out- side In: Methodological Reflections from Collaborative and Participatory Perspec- tives.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 16.1 (2012): 88–103. Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch. The Herald of Coming Good. Paris: Self-Published 1933. Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch. Meetings with Remarkable Men. London and New York: Penguin Arkana, 1985 [1963]. Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch. Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, New York: Penguin Arkana, 1999 [1950]. Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch. Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am.” New York: Penguin Arkana, 1991 [1975]. Hunt, Harry T. Lives in Spirit: Precursors and Dilemmas of a Secular Western Mysticism. Albany ny: State University of New York Press, 2003.

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Karalis, Vrasidas. “Mr Gurdjieff’s Legacy: The Poetics and Aesthetics of Reality in the Thought of a New Age Guru.”Literature & Aesthetics 15.1 (2005): 252–266. Landau, Rom. God Is My Adventure: A Book on Modern Mystics, Masters, and Teachers. London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson Inc., 1935. Moore, James. “Moveable Feasts: The Gurdjieff Work.”Religion Today ix.2 (1994): 11–16. Petsche, Johanna J.M. “Gurdjieff and Blavatsky: Western Esoteric Teachers in Parallel.” Literature & Aesthetics 21. 1 (2011): 98–115. Petsche, Johanna J.M. “Gurdjieff and de Hartmann’s Music for Movements.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 4. 1 (2013): 92–121. Petsche, Johanna J.M. Gurdjieff and Music: The Gurdjieff/de Hartmann Piano Music and Its Esoteric Significance. Leiden, The Netherlands and Boston: Brill, 2015. Petsche, Johanna J.M. “Gurdjieff On Sex: Subtle Bodies, Si 12, and the Sex Life of a Sage.” Sexuality and New Religious Movements. Ed. Henrik Bogdan and James R. Lewis. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 127–148. Pittman, Michael. Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America: The Confluence and Contribution of G.I. Gurdjieff and Sufism. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2012. Seamon, David. “Gurdjieff’s Presentation of Emotions: Towards a Phenomenology of Affective Experience.” The Humanistic Psychologist 18.3 (1990): 279–300. Siegloch, Magdalene. How the New Art of Eurythmy Began: Lory Maier-Smits, the First Eurythmist. Forest Row: Temple Lodge Publishing, 2015 [1997]. Slowiak, James and Jairo Cuesta. Jerzy Grotowski. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. Sutcliffe, Steven J. “Hard Work: Locating Gurdjieff in the Study of Religion/s.” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 27.3 (2014): 262–284.

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