Fourth Way Enneagram
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The Fourth Way enneagram figure was first published in 1947 in In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky. Ouspensky claimed that the enneagram was part of the teachings originally presented by G.I. Gurdjieff in Russia during the First World War. Gurdjieff is quoted by Ouspensky as claiming that this form of enneagram was an ancient secret and was now being partly revealed for the first time. [1] Although no earlier publication of the Fourth Way version of the enneagram can be cited it has been proposed that it may derive from, or be cognate to, the Jewish Tree of Life (Kabbalah) as used in Renaissance Hermeticism (which used an enneagram of three interlocking triangles, also called a nonagram) [2] or a nine-pointed figure used by the Christian medieval philosopher Ramon Llull. [3] Idries Shah, a populariser of Sufism, has claimed that the enneagram has a Sufi provenance and that it has also been long known in coded form disguised as an octagram. [4] Another claim to a Sufi provenance is offered by the Sufi Enneagram website.
[edit] Application
According to Gurdjieff as quoted by Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous the enneagram figure is a symbol that represents the "law of seven" and the "law of three" (the two fundamental universal laws) and, therefore, the figure can be used to describe any natural whole phenomenon, cosmos, process in life or any other piece of knowledge.
The basic use of the enneagram is to explain why nothing in nature and in life constantly occurs in a straight line, that is to say that there are always ups and downs in life which occur lawfully. Easier examples of this can be noticed in athletic performances, where a high ranked athlete always has periodic downfalls, as well as in nearly all graphs that plot topics that occur over time, such as the economic graphs, population graphs, death-rate graphs and so on. All show parabolic periods that keep rising and falling. Gurdjieff claimed that since these periods occur lawfully based on the Enneagram that it is possible to keep a process in a straight line if the necessary shocks were introduced at the right time.
The principal enneagram figure used by the Fourth Way and Gurdjieff is a circle with nine points. Within the circle is a triangle connecting points 9, 3 and 6. The inscribed figure resembling a web connects the other six points in a cyclic figure 1-4-2-8-5-7. This enneagram's construction is based on the laws of octaves.
The enneagram's construction is also constructed lawfully on the same laws as the decimal system. If the enneagram is used to represent a whole octave of notes and the number 1, then by dividing 1 into seven different notes...
- 1/7=.142857...
- 2/7=.285714...
- 3/7=.428571...
- 4/7=.571428...
- 5/7=.714285...
- 6/7=.857142...
- 7/7=.999999...
...it can be noticed that all of these fractions, except in the case of the last one, are made up of the same numbers running in a definite sequence, and by joining those numbers on the figure the given web-like shape is obtained. Also, if the web is used in an explanation, by knowing the initial number of the period it is possible to immediately re-establish the whole period in full.
On the enneagram most processes are represented through octaves where the points serve as the notes; a concept which is derived from Gurdjieff’s idea of the law of seven. In an octave the developing process comes to a critical point (one of the triangle points) at which help from outside is needed for it to rightly continue. This concept is best illustrated on the keys of the piano where every white key would represent an enneagram point. The adjacent white keys which are missing a black key (half note) in between represent the enneagram web points which have a triangle point in between. In order that this point would pass onto the next, an external push is required.
Using the enneagram a process is depicted as going right around the circle beginning at point 9 (the ending point of a previous process). The process can continue until it reaches point 3. At this point an external aid is needed in order that the process continues. If it doesn't receive the ‘help’ the process will stop evolving and will devolve back into the form from which it evolved. The process continues until point 6 and later 9, where a similar "push" is needed. If the process passes point 9 the initial process will end while giving birth to a new one.
A good example of this use of the enneagram is the illustration of Gurdjieff's concept of the evolution of the three types of ‘food’ necessary for a man: ordinary food, air and impressions (see picture to the right). Each point on the enneagram (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do) represents a stage and the possibility of further evolution of food at a certain stage in the human body.
As ordinary food enters the body, it starts to evolve and it evolves until a certain stage (which is represented in the picture as the black note Mi). Here food can't evolve on its own any further, and it needs an external "push". This "push" in the given case is Air, as it enters the body. Air aids the evolution of the food to the next stage (black Fa), while it itself begins to assimilate and evolve as a separate process. Air similarly can only reach Mi on its own, while it aided the evolution of food to the stage Sol. Here an external push is required for both of them in order that they should continue evolving. Impressions in this case enters the body and it aides the further evolution of food and air, while similarly it begins its own process.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, New York: Harcourt Brace; London:Routledge, 1949 Quote "The knowledge of the enneagram has for a very long time been preserved in secret and if it is now, so to speak, made available to all, it is only in an incomplete and theoretical form of which nobody could make any practical use without instruction from a man who knows."
- ^ Webb, The Harmonious Circle, Putnam USA, and Thames and Hudson, 1980
- ^ Webb, The Harmonious Circle, Putnam USA, and Thames and Hudson, 1980
- ^ The Commanding Self, 1994 Octagon Press, the enneagram is disguised as "two superimposed squares" with the space in the middle representing the ninth point
