The Ether Permeates The Universe
We intend, in a series of articles to investigate fundamental aspects of Gurtdjieff’s description of the Universe according to the text of The Tales. In particular, we intend to examine Etherokrilno and Okidanokh.
Gurdjieff introduces the term Etherokrilno on Page 71, with the following words:
“But nevertheless, I repeat, a sphere without atmosphere, that is, a space containing only World Etherokrilno, is for contemporary ships also the best, because in such a sphere there is no resistance at all, …
Gurdjieff describes how the system of Archangel Hariton works. We should note that on page 70 he writes:
“These materials are arranged in a certain order and isolated from each other by means of ‘amber. They have such a property that if any cosmic gaseous substance whatever enters the space which they enclose, whether it be ‘atmosphere, “air, “ether,’ or any other ‘totality’ of homogeneous cosmic elements, it immediately expands, owing to the mentioned disposition of materials within the cylinder.
By using the word ether in this paragraph, Gurdjieff appears to be making a distinction, indirectly, between ether and Etherokrilno. By the word “ether” presumably Gurdjieff means what science called ether (until it decided that such a substance did not exist).
[There was good scientific reason to believe that the space of the universe was permeated by a substrate of some substance. The point was this. It seemed that all waves – for example waves on water, and waves through the air, were waves that were propagated through a medium. So when it was discovered that light had a wave formation, the question was asked “what was the medium through which the electromagnetic waves were propagated” and the presumed answer was ether.]The word Etherokrilno appears to be constructed from the words: ether (from the Greek word “aither” meaning “upper air” or “pure air.” – it was associated with the fifth element, a substance that was believed to fill all space and make up all bodies.) and the word krilno (possibly meaning “winged” in some Slavonic languages)
On page 137 Gurdjieff writes:
“Owing to these two fundamental sacred cosmic laws, there first arise from the substance called ‘Etherokrilno, under certain conditions, what are called ‘crystallizations’; and from these crystallizations, but later, and also under certain conditions, there are formed various large and small, more or less independent, cosmic definite formations.
“It is just within and upon these cosmic definite formations that the processes of what are called the involution and evolution of the already formed concentrations and also of the said crystallizations take place of course also according to the two said fundamental sacred laws- and all the results obtained from those processes in atmospheres, and further, by means of these atmospheres themselves, blend and go for the actualizing of the said ‘exchange-of-matters’ for the purposes of the Most Great common-cosmic
Trogoautoegocrat.
“Etherokrilno is that prime-source substance with which the whole Universe is filled, and which is the basis for the arising and maintenance of everything existing.
In the chapter on purgatory, Gurdjieff writes, describing the circumstances prior to creation:
“In the beginning, when nothing yet existed and when the whole of our Universe was empty endless space with the presence of only the prime-source cosmic substance ‘Etherokrilno, our present Most Great and Most Most Holy Sun Absolute existed alone in all this empty space,
Thus from these excerpts, we can tentatively deduce the following:
- Etherokrilno is a substance that provided the universe prior to the creation and was independent of the absolute. In creating the universe the absolute appears to have interacted with Etherokrilno.
- Etherokrilno still participates in the universe, being the substance from which the arising and maintenance of everything existing occurs.
- Etherokrilno is probably not the ether envisaged in science – although it may be related.
In the next posting in this series we will introduce the concept of Okidanokh.