Without Gurdjieff I would never have understood Astrology.
Without Astrology I would not have understood Gurdjieff.
There is one ‘real world’. What Gurdjieff achieved was to prepare sleeping man to be able to get in contact with the real world. The real world can be approached through symbolism and analogy, which are both beyond words and can open a window to this real world.
Astrology is a model of the real world: I am not talking of the horoscope Astrology of today, but of Astrology as a Sacred Art, which has as its basis the Ancient cosmology, based mainly on Greek knowledge and philosophies with origins in Egypt, Babylon and Chaldea.
Gurdjieff’s cosmology in All & Everything uses a model derived from our solar system. Our solar system is also used in the Astrological cosmology as an analogy of the laws in any cosmos.
In chapter 18 of Beelzebub’s Tales, “The Arch-preposterous” the main subject is Saturn and Mars. To understand these both the connection to the Moon and planet Earth are necessary.
The presentation is based on my own research and practice of Astrological consultation over the past 45 years.
Seymour B. (Sy) Ginsburg
The thesis of this paper is that the popular view that Gurdjieff discouraged the study of dreams is erroneous. Consequently, the importance of and a methodology for studying dreams is proposed.
The error came about because of the misinterpretation of two talks Gurdjieff gave in 1923 and 1924 reported in Views from the Real World. In those talks Gurdjieff spoke about the importance of breaking the connections between centers so that we can sleep briefly and deeply without dreaming. Although not explained in these talks, Gurdjieff was referring to breaking the connections only between the lower centers, not between the higher and lower centers. The connections between the higher centers and the lower centers should never be broken because the higher centers are constantly streaming the wisdom of objective conscience to the lower centers, as emphasized by Maurice Nicoll.
This is confirmed in the Ashiata Shiemash chapters of Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson in which Gurdjieff stresses the importance of accessing the subconscious. Ashiata Shiemash taught that objective conscience (the higher centers) had not yet atrophied in three brained beings, but had been suppressed into the subconscious because of our improper oskiano (education).
Our work, therefore, is to access the subconscious so that we can receive wisdom from the higher centers. Methods to access the subconscious include hypnosis, but especially the interpretation of dream symbols.
Gurdjieff did not instruct groups in the use of dream symbolism, but he did work with individual pupils such as Margaret Anderson who wished to study their dreams.
Because Gurdjieff did not explain the principles of how to interpret dreams in his published writings, we turn to the work of Sri Madhava Ashish, a Hindu monk and student of Gurdjieff’s teaching. Ashish was visited in his Himalayan abode over many years by numerous prominent Gurdjieffians several of whom he instructed in the esoteric study of dreams.
Thjs paper presents Ashish’s seven principles of esoteric dream interpretation along with an explanation of the distinction between purificatory dreams and noumenal dreams, and the significance of lucid dreaming.
Gurdjieff names Kundabuffer, the organ placed by “higher individuals into man’s presence”, to be the ultimate reason for humans to perceive reality “topsy-turvy”. Orage, following this idea, writes about Kundalini being a legacy of “ mistaken Buddhist lore, … considered to be a faculty whose least result is great inspiration and which may even lead to flashes of cosmic consciousness …(whereas) … in fact Kundalini is nearly the reverse of all this. It is that attribute in man which prevents his observation of reality as it is…”
There is a definite antithesis between the idea found in the Work that “Kundalini is sleep” and the “oriental” view that seems to be most commonly encountered that “the road to awakening, one way or another, passes through the awakening of the Kundalini energy”.
What are we to make of this dichotomy? Are we to accept unquestionably what is in A&E as if it the views presented there were the final truth, or are we to investigate and verify what we are told? And if we should verify everything we hear or read about the Work, how are we to approach this issue of Kundalini?
But even further, if we scrutinize and analyze what Gurdjieff writes about “Kundalina” and compare it with what is written in the oriental “lore” about it, how can we be certain that we are not just involved in pseudo-logical “wiseacring manipulations”?
It ill eventually be argued that Gurdjieff’ s idea on Kundalini and Kundabuffer is in accord, both with his image that “the brain is the positive, the spinal chord the negative and the solar plexus the neutralizing force in the event of development”, as well as with the scientific observations made in recent years about the function of the synapses in the spinal chord.
And it will also be argued that “oriental” views, although they are often contradictory amongst themselves, to the point that explains why Gurdjieff had such a negative stance toward “Kundalina”, they also often try to convey with words an experiential truth about the way the body’s energies can be perceived by the practicing seeker.-
This talk is loosely entitled “Our Three Bodies.” Chartres Cathedral is a bridge joining ancient knowledge with the Christian world. It is an embodiment of “esoteric Christianity,” a term Gurdjieff himself used to describe his teaching. Thanks to insight provided by Agnes Hidveghy in her talk at the 2004 A&E Conference and a rich Roman Catholic upbringing, when we viewed Chartres after the Conference, I had an epiphany which set off a chain reaction linking many concepts which I had been studying separately, and which ultimately gave for me indubitible meaning to a fundamental sacramental element of the Christian Church. In this talk, I will discuss highlights of these links, among them:
• Several examples of esoteric Christianity in Chartres and their link with Gurdjieff’s teaching.
• Selected diverse depictions of multiple bodies in art.
• Abstract expressions of Cosmic Law for inner development which inccorporate multiple bodies.
• The relevance of the meridian system to the bodies, to certain oftten overlooked elements found in the Cathedral, and to Gurdjieff location exercises.
• The relevance of music in Chartres Cathedral to tone and sensationn retention in Gurdjieff location exercises.
• The relationship of certain orthodox prayers and the “Sign of the Cross” to Self-remembering.
Ian C MacFarlane
The Second Conscious Shock is generally only mentioned in passing in many Gurdjieff related texts and usually it is described as a practice that is related to the later stages of the Work. The nature of the second conscious shock, how it is applied, and its results will be explored, as well as the reasons for the obscurity surrounding the subject in the extant writings on the Work.
The examination will begin with Ouspensky’s discussion of the Second Conscious Shock in ‘In Search of the Miraculous’, based on his time with Gurdjieff in Russia early in the 20th century. Therein, Ouspensky indicates that the second conscious shock is related to the enneagram of the three foods, sexual energy and the transformation of negative emotions into positive emotions. Then interpretations of other students of Gurdjieff who have written on the subject will be examined, including Orage, Nicoll, Bennett, and Beidler.
Finally, this paper will explore the various interpretations of the teaching on the second conscious shock in relation to Gurdjieff’s teaching on Intentional Suffering as mentioned in Beelzebub’s Tales.