Why Work?

To understand why we call this practice the Work, take a moment to watch this video:

We go through our day in varying degrees of attention. Most of our daily tasks call for minimal attention, such as dressing ourselves, eating or interacting with friends and family. Some tasks require more attention; such as reading a book, drafting an email or attending a job interview.

We can perform the first group of actions while simultaneouslyperformingothers: dress ourselves while speaking on the phone, eat while chatting with our friends or interact socially while sending and receiving text messages. However, we cannot perform tasks that require attention alongside other tasks without harming our performance. We cannot read a book while speaking on the phone, draft an email while chatting with our friends, or attend a job interview while texting.

We function in varying degrees of attention

Our attention is subject to our will. If we desire, we can perform any task more attentively.We can bring attention to dressing, sensing the fabric of our clothes,matching the colors of our shirt to our slacks and shoes,etc. We can dine intentionally, tasting each bite, each sip, etc.

But we neednt be professionals in any field to verify that we can bring more or less attention to the simplest actions, and this demonstrates that:

Our attention is subject to our will

Dressing inattentively is effortless; dressing intentionally requires effort. Eating inattentively is effortless; tasting the food requires effort. Directing attention through will requires effort.This explains whyGurdjieff called his methods of self-development The Work.

Directing attention is not the end of the Work; it is a means by which, we become conscious. Few teachings make the distinction between consciousness and attention, and this is where the Fourth Way differs from most other systems.The Workis not only about being attentive; it is about being conscious, andconsciousness is self-awareness. George Gurdjieff called this self-remembering. Peter Ouspensky called it divided attention. More recently, it has become popularly known as being present. Call it as we may, without the distinction between awareness and consciousness, our efforts to be conscious can only yield partial results.

I have invited writers of all ages and cultures, and from all walks of life to share their successes and failures in their efforts to be conscious. Their posts form the foundation of ggurdjieff.com. Subscribe to receive our posts by email.

Here there are only those whopursue one aimto be able to be. George Gurdjieff

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New to this Work? Start Here | Gurdjieff Becoming Conscious

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff - parts of the only moving images (film, footage) of G.I.Gurdjieff 1947-49. Fourth Way. Movements. Ouspensky.

Suggested reading:

In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949; London: Routledge, 1947. - P.D. Ouspensky

Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Boston: Shambhala, 1996, and Samuel Weiser Inc., 1996, ISBN 0-87728-910-7 (6 volumes)

Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson by G. I. Gurdjieff (1950)

Other books off on a tangent:

The Reality of Being, by Jeanne de Salzmann, 2010, Shambhala Publications, ISBN 978-1-59030-928-5

The Unknowable Gurdjieff, Margaret Anderson, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1962, ISBN 0-7100-7656-8

Gurdjieff: A Very Great Enigma by J. G. Bennett, 1969

Gurdjieff: Making a New World by J. G. Bennett 1973, ISBN 0-06-090474-7

Idiots in Paris by J. G. Bennett and E. Bennett, 1980

Becoming Conscious with G.I. Gurdjieff, Solanges Claustres, Eureka Editions, 2005

Mount Analogue by Ren Daumal 1st edition in French, 1952; English, 1974

Gurdjieff Unveiled by Seymour Ginsburg, 2005

Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff by Thomas and Olga de Hartmann, 1964, Revised 1983 and 1992

IT'S UP TO OURSELVES, A Mother, A Daughter and Gurdjieff, a Shared Memoir and Family Photoalbum by Jessmin and Dushka Howarth, Gurdjieff Heritage Society, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9791926-0-9

Undiscovered Country by Kathryn Hulme, 1966

The Gurdjieff Years 1929--1949: Recollections of Louise March by Annabeth McCorkle

Teachings of Gurdjieff : A Pupil's Journal : An Account of Some Years With G.I. Gurdjieff and A.R. Orage in New York and at Fontainbleau-Avon by C. S. Nott, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1961

On Love by A. R. Orage, 1974Psychological Exercises by A. R. Orage 1976

The Fourth Way by P. D. Ouspensky, 1957

The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution by P. D. Ouspensky, 1978

Eating The "I": An Account of The Fourth Way: The Way of Transformation in Ordinary Life, William Patrick Patterson, 1992

Boyhood with Gurdjieff by Fritz Peters, 1964

Gurdjieff Remembered by Fritz Peters, 1965

The Gurdjieff Work by Kathleen Speeth ISBN 0-87477-492-6 Gurdjieff: An Introduction To His Life and Ideas by John Shirley, 2004, ISBN 1-58542-287-8

Gurdjieff: A Master in Life, Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch, Dolmen Meadow Editions, Toronto, 2006

Toward Awakening by Jean Vaysse, 1980

Gurdjieff: An Approach to his Ideas, Michel Waldberg, 1981, ISBN 0-7100-0811-2

A Study of Gurdjieff's Teaching, Kenneth Walker, 1957

Gurdjieff: The Key Concepts, Sophia Wellbeloved, Routledge, London and N.Y., 2003, ISBN 0-415-24898-1

Who Are You Monsieur Gurdjieff?, Ren Zuber 1980

Gurdjieff, Louis Pauwels, 1964

The Self and I: Identity and the question "Who am I" in the Gurdjieff Work, Dimitri Peretzi, 2011, ISBN 978-960-99708-1-5

Gurdjieff and Hypnosis: A Hermeneutic Study, by Mohammad H. Tamdgidi, foreword by J. Walter Driscoll, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009 (HC)/2012 (PB), ISBN 978-0230615076 (HC), ISBN 978-1137282439 (PB)

The Shadows of the Masters, Leonardo Vittorio Arena, ebook, 2013.

Comprehensive biographies Gurdjieff: Making a New World posthumous work by John G. Bennett, 1973, Harper, ISBN 0-06-060778-5 The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, and Their Followers by James Webb, 1980, Putnam Publishing. ISBN 0-399-11465-3 Gurdjieff: The anatomy of a Myth by James Moore, 1991, ISBN 1-86204-606-9 Gurdjieff's America: Mediating the Miraculous by Paul Beekman Taylor, 2004, Lighthouse Editions, ISBN 1-904998-00-3. Reissued as Gurdjieff's Invention of America 2007, Eureka Editions. G. I. Gurdjieff: A New Life by Paul Beekman Taylor, 2008, Eureka Editions, ISBN 978-90-72395-57-3

Music G.I. Gurdjieff Sacred Hymns, by Keith Jarrett, ECM, 1980 Seekers of the Truth: The Complete Piano Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann, Volume One, by Cecil Lytle, Celestial Harmonies, 1992 Reading of a Sacred Book: The Complete Piano Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann, Volume Two, by Cecil Lytle, Celestial Harmonies, 1992 Words for a Hymn to the Sun: The Complete Piano Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann, Volume Three, by Cecil Lytle, Celestial Harmonies, 1992 Gurdjieff/deHartmann, piano music pianist Elsa Denzey, GFT (record label), 1998 Gurdjieff's Music for the Movements, by Wim van Dullemen, Channel Classics, 1999 Thomas de Hartmann: Music for Gurdjieff's '39 Series' , by Wim van Dullemen, Channel Classics, 2001 Chants, Hymns and Dances, by Anja Lechner and Vassilis Tsabropoulos, ECM, 2004 Melos, by Anja Lechner, Vassilis Tsabropoulos and U.T. Gandhi, ECM, 2008 The Way of the Sly Man, by Dave Morgan, Being Time, 2010 Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff, by Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble, ECM, 2011

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Gurdjieff - Rare Remarkable - YouTube

Gurdjieff said, You are nothing but the body, and when the body dies you will die. Only once in a while does a person survive one who has created soul in his life survives death not all. A Buddha survives; a Jesus survives, but not you! You will simply die, not even a trace will be left.

What was Gurdjieff trying to do? He was shocking you to the very roots; he was trying to take away all your consolations and foolish theories which go on helping you to postpone work upon yourself. Now, to tell people, You dont have any souls, you are just vegetables, just a cabbage or maybe a cauliflower a cauliflower is a cabbage with a college education but nothing more than that. He was really a master par excellence. He was taking the very earth away from underneath your feet. He was giving you such a shock that you had to think over the whole situation: are you going to remain a cabbage? He was creating a situation around you in which you would have to seek and search for the soul, because who wants to die?

And the idea that the soul is immortal has helped people to console themselves that they are not going to die, that death is just an appearance, just a long sleep, a restful sleep, and you will be born again. Gurdjieff says, All nonsense. This is all nonsense! Dead, you are dead forever unless you have created the soul.

Now see the difference: you have been told you are already a soul, and Gurdjieff changes it totally. He says, You are not already a soul, but only an opportunity. You can use it, you can miss it.

And I would like to tell you that Gurdjieff was just using a device. It is not true. Everybody is born with a soul. But what to do with people who have been using truths as consolations? A great master sometimes has to lie and only a great master has the right to lie just to pull you out of your sleep.

Osho,The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 2, Talk #2To continue reading,click here

Gurdjieff has been much criticized because he was a liar and the lying came from the Sufis; he was a Sufi. He was disciplined in Sufi monasteries and schools. And in the West, in fact, he introduced Sufism in this age in a totally new version. But then it was impossible for the ordinary Christian mind to understand him because truth is a value, and nobody can think that a master, an enlightened master, can lie.

Can you think of Jesus lying? And I know he lied but Christians cannot think about it: Jesus lying? No, he is the truest man. But then you dont know the question of knowledge is very, very dangerous. He lied about many things a master has to, if he wants to help. Otherwise, he can be a saint, but no help is possible from him. And without helping, a saint is already dead. If a saint cannot help, what is the use of his being here? There is no point in it. All that he can attain through life, he has attained. He is here to help.

Gurdjieff was very much criticized because the West couldnt understand, the ordinary Christian mind could not understand. So there are two versions about Gurdjieff in the West. One thinks that he was a very mischievous man not a sage at all, just a devil incarnate. Another is that he was the greatest saint the West has come to know in these past few centuries. Both are true, because he was just in the middle. He was a po personality. You cannot say yes, you cannot say no about him. You can say that he was a holy sinner, or a sinning saint. But you cannot divide, you cannot be so simple about him. The knowledge that he had was very complex.

Osho,Journey to the Heart, Talk #7To continue reading,click here

Gurdjieff says: Go on remembering the observer self-remembering. Buddha says: Forget the observer just watch the observed. If you have to choose between Buddha and Gurdjieff, I suggest choosing Buddha. There is a danger with Gurdjieff that you may become too self-conscious rather than becoming self-aware, you may become self-conscious, you may become an egoist. I have felt that in many Gurdjieff disciples, they have become very, very great egoists. Not that Gurdjieff was an egoist he was one of the rarest enlightened men of this age; but the method has a danger in it, it is very difficult to make a distinction between self-consciousness and self-remembering. It is so subtle it is almost impossible to make the distinction; for the ignorant masses it is almost always self-consciousness that will take possession of them; it will not be self-remembering.

The very word self is dangerous you become more and more settled in the idea of the self. And the idea of the self isolates you from existence.

Buddha says forget the self, because there is no self; the self is just in the grammar, in the language it is not anything existential. You just observe the content. By observing the content, the content starts disappearing. Once the content disappears, watch your anger and watching it, you will see it is disappearing once the anger has disappeared there is silence. There is no self, no observer, and nothing to be observed; there is silence. This silence is brought by Vipassana, Buddhas method of awareness.

Osho,This Very Body the Buddha, Talk #4To continue reading,click here

One old woman became very much impressed by Ouspensky, and then she went to see Gurdjieff. Within just a week she was back, and she told Ouspensky, I can feel that Gurdjieff is great, but I am not certain whether he is good or bad, whether he is evil, devilish, or a saint. I am not certain about that. He is great that much is certain. But he may be a great devil, or a great saint that is not certain. And Gurdjieff behaved in such a way that he would create this impression.

Alan Watts has written about Gurdjieff and has called him a rascal saint because sometimes he would behave like a rascal, but it was all acting and was done knowingly to avoid all those who would take unnecessary time and energy. It was done to send back those who could only work when they were certain. Only those would be allowed who could work even when they were not certain about the master, but who were certain about themselves.

And to surrender to a Gurdjieff will transform you more than surrendering to Ramana Maharshi, because Ramana Maharshi is so saintly, so simple, that surrender doesnt mean anything. You cannot do otherwise. He is so open just like a small child so pure, that surrender will happen. But that surrender is happening because of Ramana Maharshi, not because of you. It is nothing as far as you are concerned. If surrender happens with Gurdjieff, then it has happened because of you, because Gurdjieff is in no way going to support it. Rather, he will create all types of hindrances. If still you surrender, that transforms you. So there is no need to be absolutely sure about him and that is impossible but you have to be sure about yourself.

Osho,Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi, Talk #5To continue reading,click here

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George Gurdjieff | OSHO | Meditation - Mindfulness and the ...

Gurdjieff was born in Armenia around 1870. His first tutor was a priest and he also received a scientific education in surroundings and a way of life that had changed little for centuries. To his questions: Who am I? Why am I here? he found no answer either in religion or in science, but suspected that the truth lay hidden behind what had come down from the past in religious traditions and those strange myths and legends which he learned from his father, a traditional bard or 'ashokh'. With inspired like-minded companions, he set out to find in Asia and Africa the truth he sought, learning many languages, and acquiring many practical skills to earn the money for his journeys.

In 1912 he brought to Moscow an unknown teaching, a teaching that was neither a religion, nor a philosophy, but a practical teaching to be lived. He called this teaching 'The Fourth Way'. To follow the way he proposed, nothing is to be believed until verified by direct experience and life in the world is not to be renounced. It is a way in life, on which - gradually, for it cannot be done all at once - everything has to be questioned - one's beliefs, assumptions, attitudes, one's whole outlook on the life of man on this Earth.

Man is asleep, said Gurdjieff, he has no real consciousness or will. He is not free; to him, everything 'happens'. He can become conscious and find his true place as a human being in the creation, but this requires a profound transformation.

Gurdjieff calls us to awaken, telling us: "Man's possibilities are very great. You cannot even conceive a shadow of what man is capable of attaining. But nothing can be attained in sleep. In the consciousness of a sleeping man his illusions, his 'dreams' are mixed with reality. He lives in a subjective world and he can never escape from it. And this is the reason why he can never make use of all the powers he possesses and why he lives in only a small part of himself."

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The Gurdjieff Society - About Gurdjieff

G.I. Gurdjieff (1866?-1949) was considered by some to be the greatest mystical teacher of all time, and by others to be a fraud. His liberation philosophy, commonly called "the Work," paved the way for now-conventional techniques of group and encounter therapy. He was born in Alexandropol, in the Russo-Turkish frontier, to Greek and Armenian parents. Although familiar with Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, Gurdjieff preferred to devise his own occult teaching. He postulated that people are no more than machines run by forces outside their control. Human beings in such a state are essentially asleep. In order to wake up, they must work hard to penetrate their normal state of unconsciousness to reach the true consciousness inside.Gurdjieff's ultimate symbol for his worldview was the enneagram: a circle whose circumference is divided by nine points, yielding an uneven six-sided figure and a triangle. The enneagram shows the whole universe, and how people cross the intervals of development via shocks administered by a teacher. Gurdjieff claimed the enneagram was his alone, but it probably dates to a very similar figure drawn by Athanasius Kircher in 1665. Gurdjieff called his system the Fourth Way, or the Way of the Sly or Cunning Man. There were traditionally three paths to immortality: those of the fakir, the monk and the yogi. In the Fourth Way, however, people do not need to suffer physical, emotional, or intellectual tortures, but merely start from their own life experiences. They work on themselves as they are, trying to harmonise all paths and using every cunning trick they know to keep themselves "awake."

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Gurdjieff & Fourth Way - Watkins Books

A seminal spiritual figure, introduced to the West an ancient yet unknown esoteric teaching of development and awakening, one that teaches how to creatively use the diverse impressions of ordinary life to come to real life.

Humanity, Gurdjieff realized, had entered a precarious new period in its evolution. The world would be destroyed, Gurdjieff warned, unless the 'wisdom' of the East and the 'energy' of the West were harnessed and used harmoniously. To effect this Harnelmiatznel, Gurdjieff gave the necessary shockhe introduced to the West a unique and powerful esoteric teaching of self-transformation. Gurdjieff called it The Fourth Way.

An original teaching, Fourth Way is neither a mixture of spiritual lines nor a modern eclectic concoction. It is, as Gurdjieff declared, "completely self-supporting and independent of other lines and it has been completely unknown up to the present time."

The teaching of The Fourth Way is the last esoteric message of the present cycle.

Link:
The Gurdjieff Legacy Foundation: George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff ...

Gurdjieff Books

1. Views from the Real World Recollections by Gurdjieffs pupils of early talks in Moscow, Essentuki, Tiflis, Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Chicago. Within this book is an essay titled Glimpses of Truth, an account, written by one of his Russian pupils, of a visit to Gurdjieff near Moscow before the revolution. This essay was occasionally read in Moscow as an introduction for people meeting Gurdjieff for the first time, as is related by P. D. Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous.

2. Life is Real Only Then, When I Am The long awaited third and final installment of Gurdjieffs exposition published in 1976. This books opens a unique window into Gurdjieffs personal work that is uncommon in other works. The prologue gives a most interesting disclosure of the inner world problems which Gurdjieff had to face and the process of his own spiritual evolution. The final chapter, called the Inner and Outer World of Man is incomplete, and it stops tantilizingly when Gurdjieff is about to disclose the secret for the prolongation of human life.

3. Meetings with Remarkable Men a purported autobiographical description of key moments in Gurdjieffs formative years. Intriguing and colorful. Map of pre-sand Egypt. Gurdjieffs father as Ashokh. It is clear that Gurdjieff wrote this. It is less clear whether it actually happened the way he wrote it. J. G. Bennett, who sought to trace Gurdjieffs sources after his death, claimed that most of these stories weremetaphoricaland the figures alluded to pseudonymical.

4. Beelzebubs Tales to his Grandson Written in an obscure and lengthy style that neutralizes the readers normal cognitive pathways, Gurdjieff paints a galactic canvas unlike normal expository narrative. Gurdjieff spend seven years writing this magnum opusas he himself said, sparing himself neither day nor night, constantly writing and rewriting. It appears that Gurdjieff, having decided to throw open his ideas to anyone who chose to buy his books, wished to safeguard their real significance by making them accessible only to those who were prepared to make a very big effort. In doing this, however he fell between two stools. On the one hand, he was anxious that Beelzebubs should be widely read. On the other hand, he was impelled to write more and more obscurely.

5. Herald of the Coming Good Gurdjieffs first and relatively short narrative reflecting Gurdjieffs initial and somewhat naive enthusiasm. This book would be of profound interest for understanding the development of Gurdjieffs thinking; but, at the same time, it represents an unfortunate episode which he afterwards wished to bury. Only a year or so later he wrote that if any of his readers had by their good fortune failed to read The Herald of the Coming Good, he advised them not to do so.

1. In Search of the Miraculous a cinematic narrative in Ouspenskys own words of his experience searching for the miraculous and finally crossing paths with George Gurdjieff in Russia. Published posthumously and after the manuscript had been reviewed, praised and authorized by Gurdjieff. To this day, In Search of the Miraculous is the best-selling doorway into Gurdjieffs practical, theoretical and philosophical teachings.

2. The Psychology of Mans Possible Evolution the most concise exposition of the core of the Fourth Way. An easy read written in lecture form, read before an audience by Ouspenskys inner circle, with Ouspensky taking notes and revising over a period of 6 years. Save for the historical narrative of In Search of the Miraculous, this would be our #1 pick for best introduction to the Fourth Way. These first two books are the only ones edited by Ouspensky himself. The books below are compilations from meeting transcripts.

3. Conscience The Search for Truth a compilation of five essays based on more of P. D. Ouspenskys talks and answers to questions. Thiscompilationis centered around the development of conscience, although subject range through all Fourth Way ideas. The contrast between morality and conscience was a popular idea to which Gurdjieff periodically returned. In Conscience the Search for Truth, Ouspensky explores Gurdjieffs ideas in depth.

4. The Fourth Way a well indexed and accessible exposition of the Fourth Way, taken from notes of those attending Ouspenskys lectures. this book was not compiled by Ouspensky, but elaborates in great detail on what The Psychology of Mans Possible Evolution outlines. Each chapter is dedicated to a series of related Fourth Way topics, beginning with an introductory compilation of Ouspensky on that topic and continuing with questions and answers from his meetings.

5. A Further Record further notes from Ouspenskys lectures, written in a similar form to The Fourth Way, but including material that was left our from that compilation. This book would not serve as a good introduction to Gurdjieffs ideas, but as an inspiring addition to the books listed above.

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Gurdjieff Books | Gurdjieff Becoming Conscious

EMINENT spiritual scholar Ravi Ravindra is to give a talk on the pilgrim soul.

Prof Ravindra, originally from West Bengal, India now based in Canada, is a leading international speaker on religion, science, and spirituality.

His lifelong search has led him to the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, G. I. Gurdjieff, Zen, Yoga, and a deep immersion in the mystical teachings of the Indian and Christian classical traditions.

He is the author of several books on religion, science, mysticism, and spirituality and is able to articulate the connections between all faiths with great clarity.

This talk asks What is a pilgrim soul? What are the attitudes and characteristics of a pilgrim on a spiritual journey? Are they different from those of a religious believer? Can we be exclusively committed to one religion? said Katie Lloyd-Nunn, Hawkwood programme manager.

Ravi makes complex concepts accessible to those with a general interest, or deeper knowledge. He encourages people to bring their questions to the talk,

It takes place at Hawkwood College on Friday, September 1 and starts at 8pm, tickets are 10 (8 concessions) - to book call 01453 759034 or visit the website at bit.ly/2vahAWD

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Spiritual scholar Ravi Ravinda to speak at Hawkwood College in ... - Stroud News and Journal

This site was born out of a necessity to share unique insights into the Fourth Way. Readership grew, and with it the need for translation into more languages. Involvement grew, and with it the need for interaction, which gave birth to our Facebook page. Participation grew, and with it the need for structure, which gave birth to the Be. Pyramid.

The video above presents the construction of this pyramid. It lays out the Fourth Way principles with scale and relativity. This establishes a common language, by which those who want to become masters of themselveswho want to Becan communicate better. To climb the pyramid, we publish weekly video tutorials that focus on each topic and set specific exercises around that topic for the duration of the week.

When I realized that [ancient wisdom] had been handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, and yet had reached our day almost unchanged . I regretted having begun too late to give the legends of antiquity the immense significance that I now understand that they really have. George Gurdjieff

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. In his early years, he participated in expeditions that went in search of ancient teachings, partly documented in his book Meetings with Remarkable Men. His quest led him to a secret brotherhood, from which he seemed to have returned in possession of a unique system.

In 1910, Gurdjieff imported that system to Russia. He translated his eastern knowledge and experience into a language palatable to twentieth century western man. He called hisdisciplinethe Fourth Way, a blend of the three traditional ways of the Fakir, the Monk and the Yogi (read more about the Fourth Way). However, the Bolshevik Revolutionand the first World War forced Gurdjieff to migrate and eventually end up in France, where he opened his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. Gurdjieffs influence extended throughout Europe and as far as America, but the declining social order and World War II prevented him from further formalizing his organization. He was forced to close the institute and spent the latter part of his life writing books:Life Is Real Only Then, When I Am, All and Everything, Meetings With Remarkable Men and Beelzebubs Tales to his Grandson.He died in France on October 29, 1949.

Angkor Wat Temple

Gurdjieff was discreet about the origins of his teaching. He felt no need to reveal his footsteps. For one, he claimed that the wars had obliterated any traces of the schools with which he had come in contact. Moreover,his teaching specifically called, not for academical study, but for turning knowledge into practice. Gurdjieff himself had labored to acquire his teaching and had earned, so to speak, the rights over it. Such rights had to be earned anew by anyone meeting his work for the first time. While knowledge could be given, wisdom had to be earned. Hence, Gurdjieff, who had sacrificed much to obtain his wisdom, was reluctant to hand it over to others except at the price of labor. Once earned by any individual, the knowledge would become his own; he himself would become those ancient truths Gurdjieff allegedly dug up, a reiteration of ancient wisdom, a contemporary expression of a timeless truth.

Megistis Lavra, Mount Athos

Gurdjieff conveyed to those around him the sense of a mission. It seemed, not only to his own students, but even to people outside his direct circle of influence, that he was the agent of a great plan. In his youth this sense of purpose radiated from his search for the miraculous which drove him to travel to Greece and Egypt in the West, to Afghanistan and Tibet in the East. Beginning from about 1910 this same sense of purpose became connected to the vision of the Institute, which in 1917 received its full name: The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. From 1912 on Mr. Gurdjieff placed the aim of the creation of the Institute before every other practical aim, up until the time of his car accident and the closing of the Prieure. His sense of mission was then transferred to his writing (the three volumes of All and Everything) and to the preparation of groups of people, in Europe and America, capable of preparing people to receive those writings. After 1925 he was trying to put into words what he had hoped to realise in action, and he believed that his writings would eventually be read and understood by a wide audience.

The turning point between Gurdjieffs search period and the period in which he was focussed on the creation of the Institute seems to come just after the time he spent with the Sarmoun Brotherhood in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Northern Afghanistan. He first gained access to the central Sarmoun monastery in 1899-1900 and it appears likely that he had a more extended stay in 1906-1907. At the end of 1907 Gurdjieff went to Tashkent to practice healing. There he cured drug addicts and alcoholics, both as a means of studying the state of identification and as a means of making money. This was his last preparation for teaching. After about 18 months he began to draw students to himself and then, in 1912, left Tashkent for Moscow where he began to recruit candidates for the Institute. It appears, then, that Gurdjieffs experience with the Sarmoun Brotherhood transformed him from a seeker to one who had found and was ready to impart.

Labrong, Greater Tibet

While the origin of the Sarmoun Brotherhood is lost in the mists of time, there are traces of the Sarmoun in Babylon from the time of Hammurabi. The word Sarmoun itself means bee. The Sarmouni (the bees) were reputed to have teachings which pre-dated the Flood. We here again encounter the Ark metaphor, and it is certainly possible that there never was a physical flood and that the Sarmoun were referring to their responsibility of maintaining the Ark of Ancient Wisdom through the floods of time. They taught that objective knowledge is a material substance that can be collected and stored like honey. The Sarmoun Brotherhood apparently had memory of the periodic destructions and renewals of humanity, and they believed their tradition represented an eternal unchanging core of wisdom to which mankind should always have access. At critical junctures in history, the Sarmoun distributed their honey throughout the world by means of specially trained agents. John Bennett felt that the symbol of the enneagram, the knowledge of the law of seven, and the doctrine of reciprocal maintenance came from the Sarmoun Brotherhood. Mr. Gurdjieff suggested that many of his sacred dances came from the Sarmoun.

Some time after 1500 the Sarmoun became connected to the Naqshbandi Sufi tradition. The Naqshbandi Sufis worked in a fourth way style: they were quite undogmatic, and their work was always connected to fulfilling particular historical tasks. While the Naqshbandi Sufis and the Sarmoun were not one organisation, individual Naqshbandi teachers were probably associated with the Sarmoun Brotherhood. It seems likely that the Sarmoun inseminated the best of the Naqshbandi teachers with some of their understandings. We find the idea of the celestial hierarchy or inner circle of humanity in the Naqshbandi Sufis, which likely derives from their connection to the Sarmoun Brotherhood. Gurdjieff is known to have spent time in the tekkes of the Naqshbandi Sufis.

At the Preiure, and later in Paris, Gurdjieff told several of his students, quite directly, that he himself had a teacher. At turning points in his own life he says that he consulted advisors before making a final decision:

(Third Series, p 78-79) I must tell you that, many years ago, before the organization of the Institute, when I planned and worked out this program in detail I had to address myself for advice and direction concerning several questions to honourable and impartial people who had already overcome two centuries of their existence and some of whom were bold enough to hope to surmount even the third century

(Third Series, p 43) Gurdjieff tells us that when, after the accident, he considered shifting from teaching to writing he spent long hours writing letters of inquiry to some of my friends whom I respect. His aims for the following period were established thanks to the wise advice from one of my oldest friends, a very respected person.

John Bennett claims that Gurdjieff said, more than once, that he was able to call on people who knew the importance of his task.Beyond this, there is some evidence that Gurdjieff returned to Asia Minor for short visits at critical points during his life, and we know that he had regular correspondence with people that area, even into his last years. (He had no family there after 1919)

It is possible that the vision of the Institute came from the Sarmoun and that to some extent Gurdjieff was their agent. Gurdjieff never presented himself as a great teacher (which he could easily have done) but as an agent with a mission. The Sarmoun probably knew the end of their cycle was coming. The government of Kemal Ataturk in Turkey and the Soviet Governments in Russia and Afghanistan were making it impossible for them to continue. Perhaps the Sarmoun, seeing the end of their tradition, had the aim of conveying the wisdom of the East to the precocious civilisation of the West, where powers had so greatly outstripped being.

Chateau Le Prieure at Fontainebleau

According to his autobiographical anecdotes, Gurdjiefs internal aims had crystallized by the time he took the aim to foreswear his powers, after he was hit by the 2nd stray bullet in Tibet in 1902. In describing his oath in the Third Series he clearly defines sustaining self remembering as the highest function he could attain to. We could say, therefore, that for this time Gurdjieff was clear about his internal mission. From what was quoted above it seems possible that he acquired his external mission the creation of the Institute in his second stay with the Sarmoun.

Whatever the case, we know that seventeen years later, in 1924, Gurdjieff officially disbanded the Institute. In 1928 he went further by pushing away many of the students of his own inner circle. Mr. Gurdjieff felt that he had done what was possible in relation to the aim of the Institute, and in consultation with a very respected person, he set new aims for himself.In 1935, Gurdjieff moved to an apartment in Paris on Rue des Colonels Reynard where the last stage of his teaching was to follow. Gurdjieff had seen that he was not the vehicle for the new order and he focussed on his followers, that they might carry the teaching on to the next generation.

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Karma is not produced so much by a wrong kind of action as by the type of action which derives from a refusal to perform creative acts, when the need for them had come. Dane Rudhyar

Since Trumps election, the majority of my clients feel agitated, hopeless or haunted by a fuzzy, low-grade anxiety. To say thats understandable is a whopping understatement.

My initial response: Turn off, tune out and drop in. This is a distorted variation of Timothy Learys defining counterculture-era phrase from the 60s: Turn on, tune in, drop out

And heres what I mean:

I no longer hound dog the news, not because Im in denial, but the ongoing clusterfuck is too incestuous, too convoluted to unravel amidst the coming-at-you-every-five-minutes barrage of infoglut. It would take every iota of my psychic force to gain a sliver of objective truth and Ive other shit I want to do.

But this obsessive entanglement is what ensnares most folks: Once online their nervous system is tweaked, twanged and poked like a cyber-driven form of Chinese water torture. And theres a method to the madness.

Big media is complicit with Trump in myriad tacit ways. Trump is the grift that keeps on giving. As some internet advertising maven said once: Anger makes people click. Within our carnival culture, clicking means money.

Trump is one of the angriest human beings on earth (natal Mars in Leo is conjunct a Leo ascendant translated: righteous anger stoked by entitlement and a hybrid form of narcissism that has yet to be properly diagnosed).

And Americans are some of the angriest people on the planet. They are also in the era of the homogenous online hive mind desperate for acknowledgment, for some sense of being a unique individual so its a great match. People get the president they deserve or at the very least the president that mirrors their shadow.

My favorite form of self-torture is to trawl the comments section of any article I come across online. This is akin to flipping the lid up on the American Id.

Should the comments sections be uncensored, like, on Youtube, then OMG turn back! Or brace to be soaked in our cultures kookoo watering hole. The Internet has unleashed a Pandoras pox of rage and spread it virally into everyones home (and head). Historically this is unprecedented. But take heart. Amidst the horrors there are opportunities. Attached to full exposure is the potential for full illumination.

I do occasionally check in with three websites. Democracy Now, The Intercept (though I wish Glenn Greenwald had a mean editor) and a new site Im loving, The Outline (kind of like a non-puerile Gawker with political undertones and smart sardonic reporting). Those three sites give me enough info to have a cursory idea of the State of the Nation.

And then I get on with living.

The Shadow Knows

The mechanism of psychological projection works like this: The unconscious conjures an image related to some unsavory quality within the self and projects that image onto someone (or some condition, political party or ethnic group.) An adversarial relationship is established. The only way free from this position is through recollection. Reabsorption of the projection.

Projections are weird because usually intermixed with the projection is a lot of energy, passion and force. So when thats blasted out and lands on someone or something outside, a huge chunk of ones vitality is lost too.

Self-inquiry facilitates dissolving the realization that the projection is coming from inside ones own home.

After that insight, you can go to work on recollecting. Owning the projection to regain access to the psychic force that went missing. This is what maturation is all about. But with a Trickster like Trump at the helm, its doubly difficult to pause, evaluate and reclaim. But this is a necessary discipline should you wish to drop in on what youre interested in creating in life.

Which is really the point of this post. If you feel you want to do something more than react, rant and re-post articles from the New York Times about Trumps latest outrage, well, start recollecting. That method allows you to turn off and tune out. Youve made a clean break. Now you can DROP IN.

When a projection is owned, the rearrangement within the psyche creates a blank spot or hole within the fabric of ones familiar sense of self. This hole can act as a sort of portal into whatever youre wishing to align with or do or create in your life.

The quirky thing about projections: Not only does the projection rob you of vital force it acts as a distraction a way to avoid engaging with life because, well, Ive got so many fucking things I want to complain about!

When the complaining stops what do you do?

Drop into the hole and see where the portal leads you. If you need assistance book a session with me and well work it through.

You dont need to have all the specifics about what it is youll be involved with (or maybe you do maybe you want to take to the streets and protest, run for political office or just clean out your garage it doesnt matter.) What matters is that youve regained the drive for doing whatever. Youve dropped into your life and out of the swirling, distracting miasma of Trumplandia.

Good luck!

'Turn Off, Tune Out and Drop In'

June 29th, 2017

Its mid-year. How in the hell did that happen? (Time the revelator).

As I noted last year I havent had the time to compile music for a proper mix on Mixcloud. I miss doing that as the process is actually meditative but well, heres a bunch of tunes on Spotify. Ive been spinning this collection since the dawn of 2017. There are some rhyme and reasons to the order and flow though a lot of serendipity too.

Enjoy.

Opening graphic: Toilet Paper, vol. 12 cover by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.

'Mid-2017: Songs for the New Secession'

April 30th, 2017

Paul Horwich, in a long NY Times essay wrote:

The singular achievement of the controversial early 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was to have discerned the true nature of Western philosophy what is special about its problems, where they come from, how they should and should not be addressed, and what can and cannot be accomplished by grappling with them. The uniquely insightful answers provided to these meta-questions are what give his treatments of specific issues within the subject concerning language, experience, knowledge, mathematics, art and religion among them a power of illumination that cannot be found in the work of others.

Wittgenstein isnt an easy immersion, but hes worth your effort because the more you study his philosophy which was actually, in spots, more akin to mysticism the more freedom you might gain as an astrologer.

Like the closet mystic Carl Jung, Wittgenstein knew how to couch his propositions to pass the scrutiny of his peers (well, except for his mentor Bertrand Russell who he drove to fury by disregarding traditional formulations of logic.)

And because of this sketchy dance, between chilly logic and the nimbus of mysticism, I find Wittgenstein to be the most satisfying of linguistic rebels. His mix of the effable with the ineffable mirrors in a direct way how human beings toil with making sense (or a muddle) of astrology. Read more

'Why Astrologers Need to Study Wittgenstein'

March 15th, 2017

The earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal. Camille Paglia

Dead men walking. Women marching. Alternative facts. Reality show presidents. Anti-Christ-Palooza. Terrorists and Tiaras. Bitcoin. Gold coins. NSA. GMOs. WTF.

Signs, symbols, and Zeitgeist stingers. Time traveling omens from Armageddon are the stock and trade of our modern day narrative. The stories and anxieties we lay down and fret about until the Ambien kicks in.

Doom tales monopolize our inner landscape because speeding up to the end means a new beginning is just around the corner. Or over the cliff. Thats one theory. The catch, of course, is the way we resist other narratives. Its wise now to think beyond the parameters of being a garden-variety human being.

This is the nut of the message from the ongoing transits of Neptune and Pluto through the closing section of the zodiac, while Uranus in short fuse Aries keeps broadcasting, Come on! Speed it up. (Or blow it up). Hurry! Go faster (and furiously.)

When food, money, energy and optimism are scarce we become attached to whatever sort of hoard (be it our meager amount in savings or the way Plutocrats hog all the wealth and investments in their seemingly exempt world) weve come to associate with as a means to see us through to the new phase. Or at the meanest level, its outsiders who are closing in on our turf and must be turned away.

So were looping right now. Sort of like the routine animals demonstrate before being eaten by a predator. Youve probably seen videos like this on those nature shows you watch on Youtube. The prey runs around and around in a hysterical circle before the killing bite is administered by the predator. Right?

This entire article is included in the new book Skywriter: Notes on Modern Astrology. Order below!

For the past ten years, Frederick Woodruffs AstroInquiry has become the go-to spot for readers in search of illuminating commentary on astrology, popular culture, spirituality and the pitfalls of New Age charlatanism.

Woodruffs 40-year career as a professional astrologer, artist, and pop-culture critic have honed a perspicacious writer who doesnt pull punches as he explores radical new views on astrology, the shortcomings of New Age magical thinking and the precarious minefield that dots our tech-obsessed cultural landscape.

Thankfully, hes funny and also keen on suggesting creative ways forward for everyone.

And now theres an e-book that collects Woodruffs most popular and provocative articles into one comprehensive and engaging book. You wont want to miss any of them!

This volume includes:

The Truth About Mercury Retrograde Planetary Ennui: The Nostalgia for Samsara and the Outer Planets How To Make Facebook Your Slave and Preserve Your Creative Drive The Power, Beauty, and Wonder of the Horoscopes 12th House Imbeciles at the Gate: How The Internet Destroys Astrology How To Escape From the Torture of Self-Help Hell Depression and the Solar Consciousness Secrets of the Heart: Love is an Action Not A Feeling Create Your Own Archetype & Call It You: An Escape from Evolutionary Astrology Redefining the Oxymoron of Sex and Marriage Death is the New Black How To Write About Astrology (Especially How Not To) Astrology, Ants, Hives, Essence, and Types: A Gurdjieffian View Final Notes About the Life-and-Culture-Changing Uranus-Pluto Square

Order your copy now!

'Outer Planet Transits & Nostalgia for Samsara'

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Frederick Woodruff * Astrology * Gurdjieff * Fourth Way ...