Gurdjieff and the fourth way
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I'm curious to know what people's thoughts are concerning Gurdjieff and his methods/teachings, and how they may relate to, enhance, or contradict the methods/teachings of Crowley. Up until recently I have been a member of a fourth way group, and I've felt this to be a very productive period.
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The first half of 'In Search of the Miraculous' is my favorite.
He's onto something with the Ionian scale but the models are archaic.G.'s own writing is coming from another world, much like AC.
Personally, I think people are vastly different now than in 1909.
I suspect it's a little easier for anyone to be a mystic or even awaken.
AC seems to anticipate this but G seems to be more pessimistic.I've found them to validate each other, though I only regard what I find useful.
There are many rumors of AC + G's meetings, most say G did not like AC.
AC visited G at least twice so there has to be more to the story, it must be a great one.I'm more strongly drawn to Thelema than 4thWay just because G seems stuffy and AC knows how to have fun.
EJ Gold's books 'Practical Work On Self' and 'The Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus' really helped me to understand G. -
@Middleman said
"The first half of 'In Search of the Miraculous' is my favorite.
He's onto something with the Ionian scale but the models are archaic.G.'s own writing is coming from another world, much like AC.
Personally, I think people are vastly different now than in 1909.
I suspect it's a little easier for anyone to be a mystic or even awaken.
AC seems to anticipate this but G seems to be more pessimistic.I've found them to validate each other, though I only regard what I find useful.
There are many rumors of AC + G's meetings, most say G did not like AC.
AC visited G at least twice so there has to be more to it.I chose Thelema over 4thWay just because G seems stuffy and AC knows how to have fun."
Do what the wilt shall be the whole of the Law,
I think if anyone is pessimistic it's the followers of Gurdjieff, not the Magus himself.
I never made the choice between Gurdjieff and Crowley, to me both systems are one and the same. Each provides pieces of the puzzle that help shed light on the other. Gurdjieff's levels of spiritual being mesh beautifully with the grades of the A.'.A.'.
The only caveat I offer anyone studying both systems, or particularly Gurdjieff's system, is that the fourth way as it's presented in Ouspensky's books and by most modern practitioners focuses on the path from initiation to Geburah. It does contain in itself a seed to propel one across the abyss but it never divulges that and most I think never make the leap because they never figure out how to destroy the temple that the system teaches them to build. They get stuck in their own head. They have no living or written examples of an elevated man other than that given in Gurdjieff's 3rd book, but they always misunderstand that one. And they won't branch out and study other systems.
The fourth way system however, offers a vast wealth of ideas and techniques for a student of the western mysteries. Gurdieff's teachings on identification, polarity, parts of a center, and many others shed great light on the intricate workings of the tree and bring those workings into conscious awareness and out of the symbolic and subconscious realm at the edge of consciousness.
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I've found the texts to be very illuminating but I have the same problem with the followers of the fourth way (at least, most of those that I've met), I feel there is an unnecessary rigidity to them and I find it hard to be relaxed in their presence. I've also felt there was something in the texts that perhaps they were missing (that's not to say I got it either). I'm quite in love with both the systems of Crowley and Gurdjieff, and I too find them to illuminate one another (even if finding the parallels isn't easy sometimes) and I'm quite sure they are two systems I want to pursue at the same time. But there is still that something about the followers of the fourth way that doesn't sit right with me.