Issue #31 May 2024
“The whole Work is really a cosmos – everything in it depends on and explains everything else. It is only when one catches a glimpse of the whole that one feels an enormous wonder at a great purpose.”
~ Rodney Collin
Hi
This newsletter was twice delayed. First for the sake of work to produce the first volume of a comparison version of Beelzebub’s Tales. Second for the sake of work on Stephen Aronson’s new book. I’ll say more about the second of these books in the next newsletter when it is closer to publication.
The first book: Beelzebub’s Tales, Book One: Side-by-side Comparison is targeted at the serious student of The Tales. When you read the two different versions of The Tales (the 1950 version and the 1931 Manuscript) you can feel the difference between the two in many places, but you are not sure what is different and it is not a simple matter to find out. This book allows you to know the difference precisely. Some of the text is very similar, some is only slightly different, and in some places, it is surprisingly different.
The virtue of reading the two texts is that it is much easier to determine the meaning of some of the text simply because you have two versions. The two companion volumes will appear later this year.
In the meantime, we are disappointed that the recent solar flare never put on a “Northern Lights Show” for Southern Texas. However the heavens gave us a very clear eclipse, so I guess we should think ourselves lucky.
Ed.
Naming The Cosmoses
In In Search of the Miraculous by P D Ouspensky (p205), Gurdjieff explains the seven cosmoses with the following words: “Seven cosmoses, taken together in their relation to one another, alone represent a complete picture of the universe. The idea of two analogous cosmoses, accidentally preserved from a great and complete teaching, is so incomplete that it can give no idea whatever of the analogy between man and the world. “The teaching on cosmoses ….
The Light of Life
During the early 1920s, in Russia, Alexander Gurwitch conducted experimental research on the concept that all life emits and is embedded in a “morphogenic field”. The word “morphogenic” in this context means “relating to the form of living organisms. He demonstrated that cells emit light that can influence the behavior of other cells. He directed the root tip of an onion (a region of high cell division) …
The Work In Our Era
We are creatures of the Fourth Way. Gurdjieff taught us about three focused ways: The Fakir’s Way, which seeks to exert will to gain mastery over the body, The Monk’s Way, which works with the emotional side of man; and The Yogi’s Way, which involves work on the intellect. These three ways exist and persist through time. Each involves full commitment – giving up one’s life in order to follow a teacher of that way – and seems to change very little.
The Night of Power
Laylat al-Qadr, or the Night of Power, commemorates one of the most significant events in the history of Islam. It is the night when Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) received the first revelation from Allah. According to tradition, the Prophet Muhammad used to retreat to Jabal an-Nur, a mountain outside of Mecca, for a month or so every year. There, he would meditate in isolation …
⥫ GURDJIEFF OSKIANO ⥭
