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The '''Fourth Way enneagram''' is a figure published in 1949 in '']'' by ], and an integral part of the ] esoteric system associated with ]. The term "]" derives from two Greek words, ''ennea'' (nine) and ''gramma'' (something written or drawn), and was coined by Gurdjieff in the period before the 1940s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=enneagram&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cenneagram%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BEnneagram%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Benneagram%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BENNEAGRAM%3B%2Cc0t4;,enneagram;,c0;,s0;;Enneagram;,c0;;enneagram;,c0;;ENNEAGRAM;,c0|title=Google Ngram Viewer|website=books.google.com|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref> |
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The enneagram is a nine-pointed figure usually inscribed within a circle. 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 number is derived from or corresponds to the recurring decimal .] = 1/7. These six points together with the point numbered 9 are said to represent the main stages of any complete process, and can be related to the notes of a musical ], 9 being equivalent to "Do" and 1 to "Re" etc. The points numbered 3 and 6 are said to represent "shock points" which affect the way a process develops. The internal lines between the points; that is, the three-point figure and the six-point figure, are said to show certain non-obvious connections, although here very little elucidation is offered. |
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==Origins== |
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As reported by ] the enneagram was introduced by ] to his study groups in ] and ] in 1916. Ouspensky records this original explication in his book of Gurdjieff's teaching ] where the enneagram appears as Figure 44 and in further diagrams.<ref>In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, 1949, (reprinted 1977), PD Ouspensky, Routledge and Keegan Paul Ltd, London, pp. 285–295, 376–8.</ref> It was presented as an ancient secret being released for the first time, the truth behind for example the ]. Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff as saying; "The knowledge of the enneagram has for a very long time been preserved in secret and if it now is, so to speak, made available to all, it is only in an incomplete and theoretical form without instruction from a man who knows". Gurdjieff also remarked "In order to understand the enneagram it must be thought of as in motion, as moving. A motionless enneagram is a dead symbol, the living symbol is in motion." |
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<ref name="OuspenskyInSearch">{{Cite book |
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| last = Ouspensky |
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| first = P.D. |
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| author-link = P. D. Ouspensky |
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| title = In Search of the Miraculous |
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| publisher = Harcourt Brace, and Routledge |
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| year = 1949 |
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| location = New York and London |
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| pages = 294 |
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| isbn = 0-15-600746-0}} ISBN is for Mariner Books, 2001. Quote: "The knowledge of the enneagram has for a very long time been preserved in secret and if it now is, 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."</ref> |
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Although no earlier record 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 reversed Kabbalistic ] as used in "Etude sur les origines de la nature du Zohar", by S. Karppe, Paris, 1901, pp. 387, the Great Magical Arcanum of ] which is also composed of a circle triangle and hexad, the Magical Acanum of ] in '']'' (1877), and ]'s ]. There has also been speculation that it may be related to the Pythagorean ], which also combines the numbers 3 and 7. Renaissance ] (which used an enneagram of three interlocking triangles, also called a ])<ref name="Webb">{{Cite book |
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| last = Webb |
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| first = James |
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| title = The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, and Their Followers |
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| publisher = Putnam USA, and Thames and Hudson |
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| year = 2001 |
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| location = New York and London |
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| isbn = 0-87773-427-5}} ISBN is for Shambhala Publications, 1987.</ref> or a nine-pointed figure used by the Christian medieval philosopher ].<ref name="Webb" /> |
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], a populariser of ], has claimed that the enneagram has a Sufi provenance and that it has also been long known in coded form disguised as an ].<ref name="ShahCommanding">{{Cite book |
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| last = Shah |
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| first = Idries |
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| author-link = Idries Shah |
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| title = The Commanding Self |
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| publisher = ] |
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| year = 1994 |
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| location = London |
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| isbn = 0-86304-070-5 |
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| url-access = registration |
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| url = https://archive.org/details/commandingself00idri |
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}} ISBN is for 1997 edition. The enneagram is disguised as "two superimposed squares" with the space in the middle representing the ninth point.</ref> Another claim to a ] provenance is offered by the Sufi Enneagram website.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sufienneagram.com/overview.html|title=Overview}}</ref> The archives of the ] Sufi order of ] have been claimed to provide an account of a meeting between Gurdjieff and Shaykh ] in which the secret of the nine points was transmitted to Gurdjieff.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.naqshbandi.org/golden-chain/the-chain/shaykh-abdullah-al-faiz-ad-daghestani/ |title=Archived copy |access-date=10 May 2015 |archive-date=5 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405152927/http://www.naqshbandi.org/golden-chain/the-chain/shaykh-abdullah-al-faiz-ad-daghestani/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> |
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] claims an ] origin, claiming that both Gurdijeff and Ouspensky developed their teaching with insights gained from visits to ].<ref name="ChristianFourthWay">{{Cite web|last=Staff |title=The direct connection between the Fourth Way and Inner Christianity |publisher=Praxis Research Institute |date=14 July 2006 |url=http://www.praxisinstitute.net/Praxis%20Now/Church%20of%20The%20Elders/Christian%20Fourthway.htm |accessdate=2009-08-19 |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140723083849/http://www.praxisinstitute.net/Praxis%20Now/Church%20of%20The%20Elders/Christian%20Fourthway.htm |archivedate=23 July 2014 }}</ref> |
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Another proposal suggests the diagram is a map of the ]s from ]c schools,<ref name="van Laer">{{Cite web |
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| last = van Laer |
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| first = L. |
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| title = Chakras and the enneagram |
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| publisher = Doremishock.com |
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| year = 2003 |
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| url = http://www.doremishock.com/enneagrams/enneagramintro.htm}}</ref> although this is implausible since the earliest cakra doctrine posits five cakras and the later classical statement of the cakra doctrine posits six cakras, not nine.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=The system of five cakras in Kubjikāmatatantra 14–16: a study and annotated translation|publisher=s.n.]|date=1992|place=S.l.|language=English|first=Dory|last=Heilijgers-Seelen|oclc=905777672}}</ref> |
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== Background of the enneagram in Gurdjieff's cosmology == |
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The enneagram according to Gurdjieff shows the "Law of Seven" and the "Law of Three" united and so some explanation of these laws is necessary here. |
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The Law of Seven or law of octaves, according to which phenomena evolves in seven steps; and the Law of Three, according to which phenomena are produced by three forces, are presented by Gurdjieff as global laws appearing on all scales and essential to his ]. This cosmology offers a view of how the world operates said to derive from ] and more ancient sources, and to complement or complete modern experimental science rather than to contradict it. According to this cosmology everything is material, including ] and spirit, and all matter can be assigned a "density"; consciousness and spirit for example having lower "densities" (and therefore higher "vibrations") than, for example, ] while, for example, ] has a higher "density" and lower "vibration" than water, and so on. |
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The ] in music is said to be an ancient application of the Law of Seven and a convenient way to study it.<ref>In Search of the Miraculous, page 124 Routledga and Keegan, 1950/1973</ref> The major musical scale is used with short intervals at mi-fa and ti-do (Ouspensky refers to Ti as "Si" and So as "Sol" and the diagrams on this page reflect his usage). In other words, if one thinks of a standard ] and takes for example middle C as Do then the following six white keys, DEFGAB will represent the rest of the octave, and the next white key will be the higher C. There will be black keys between each of the white keys, except between E and F (the mi-fa interval) and between B and the higher C (the si-do interval) |
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In any process described in terms of the Law of Seven, the Mi-Fa interval and the Ti-Do interval are said to be shock points where outside help is needed if the octave is to continue to develop as intended. A failure to recognize this in terms of human projects is said to be a major reason why things go wrong in general.<ref>ISOTM, page 126=129, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1950/1973</ref> The octave of ] that appears as visible ], and the ] are said to be examples of physical phenomena where the underlying Law of Seven can be detected (although no detail is offered here). The musical scale Gurdjieff is quoted as using<ref>In Search of the Miraculous Fig 11, page 125 Routledga and Keegan, 1950/1973</ref> is not the modern standard musical scale but ], a ] scale associated with the Renaissance composer and musical theorist ]. |
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The Law of Three holds that three forces act on any event, which can be called Active, Passive, and Neutralizing forces, or simply First, Second, and Third forces respectively. These three forces can appear in any order, 123 for example or 312, giving 6 possible "triads" of forces describing 6 very broad types of event.<ref>] p174, accessed through web, http://holybooks.lichtenbergpress.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/A-Further-Record.pdf</ref> ]ity is said to be "third force blind", to have difficulty recognizing the third force, which may appear to us in the guise of a result or of a background environment. "People cannot perceive the third force directly any more than they can spatially perceive the ']'" Gurdjieff is quoted as saying.<ref>ISOTM, page 77, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1950/1973</ref> In terms of the Law of Seven one of the three forces appears as the "do" of the octave and the other two appear as the "shocks" (which also function as the do of new octaves) The explanation of these laws in ] is largely in abstract terms, with some detail given for the so-called "food diagram" described below and the cosmic octave, the ]. |
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The enneagram shows the Law of Seven and the Law of Three in a single symbol with the three forces joined in a triangle at the 3,6 and 9 points, and in addition six inner lines (hexad) following the 1,4,2,8,5,7,1,... sequence. The meaning of these six inner lines is not, by Ouspensky's account, made clear by Gurdjieff. One shock point is shown on the enneagram at point 3, which is the Mi-Fa interval where it might be expected. However the other is at point 6, at the So-La interval. It might have been expected to be at the Ti-Do interval, and Gurdjieff is presented as offering this apparent mistake as a mystery to be solved.<ref>ISOTM, page291, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1950/1973</ref> Ouspensky offers the solution that the shock at point 3 itself develops as an octave to point 6, where its own Mi-Fa interval occurs. This second octave cannot develop unless it has a shock at its own Mi-Fa, and this is the shock which in fact occurs at point 6.<ref>ISOTM, page378, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1950/1973</ref> The example of the "food diagram" enneagram summarized below might clarify this. |
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==Application to processes: the food diagram== |
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As the enneagram figure is a symbol said to represent the "law of seven" and the "law of three" in unity, therefore, according to this view, the figure can be used to describe any natural whole phenomenon, cosmos, process in life or any other piece of knowledge. The figure is the central organizing glyph of the Fourth Way's view of the material world which Gurdjieff is quoted by Ouspensky as relating to ]. |
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] |
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The most detailed example of how this is said to work, given in ''In Search of the Miraculous'', is an explanation of how Gurdjieff believed inputs to the human body ("food", "air" and "impressions", collectively regarded as types of food) are processed into the so-called "higher substances" necessary for higher consciousness to function. In Gurdjieff's view "everything is material"; consciousness and spirit are to be regarded as aspects of matter, although more refined or of a "higher vibration" than perceptible aspects. This proposition is an essential basis for Gurdjieff's view of the evolution of food into the "higher substances" necessary for higher consciousness; briefly summarized below from the account in ''In Search of the Miraculous''.<ref>ISOTM figures 25–39, pages 182–192;figures 59 and 60, Routledge and Kegan Paul,1950</ref> ], a later collection of Ouspensky's talks, is a supplementary source for the same material. |
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At point 9 ordinary food (beginning as Do) is eaten and enters the body and digestion begins. The "density" of human food is assigned a number, 768. |
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At point 1 it is said to be processed in the gut as Re and is refined to a "density" of 384 the same "density" as water. |
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At point 2 the food is further refined to Mi and assigned a density of 192, the same density as air. It has entered the blood stream. |
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At point 3, Mi-Fa, occurs a "shock". Air can provide this shock because it also is of density 192, and furthermore this air enters as a new Do |
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At point 4 the original food octave is at "Fa" but the new air octave is at Re. They are both in the bloodstream at "density" 96, the "density" of hormones and vitamins and rarefied gases and animal magnetism "and so on". At this point we reach the end of "what is regarded as matter by our physics and chemistry"<ref>ISOTM 1950 page 175</ref> It should be remembered that Gurdjieff is here speaking in 1916. |
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The substances or energies at point 5 are assigned a "density" of 48 and used in thought. These are the So or "Sol" part of the original food octave and the Mi part of the air octave. |
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Point 6 being where "impressions", regarded as a type of food, are said to enter the body. "Impressions" are said to also have a "density" of 48, and can serve as a shock if they are intensified by some such means as the exercise of "self-remembering" taught by Gurdjieff, thus allowing the air and impressions octaves to proceed. Otherwise only the ordinary food octave, shown in black in the diagram, proceeds. |
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Point 7 represents emotional and other energies, of a "density" of 24. If "self-remembering" occurs this will be the Fa point for the air octave and the Re point for the impressions octave. Otherwise it will just be the La point for the original food octave. |
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At point 8, the "Si" or Ti at the end of the first "ordinary food" octave represents the sexual energies, of "density" 12; which are the "highest substance" according to Gurdjieff which the body produces naturally without conscious intervention. A desire to conserve this "higher substances" for esoteric use is said to be the original reason for religious celibacy. With the conscious intervention at point 6 of "self remembering" further and more useful "higher substances" are created, represented by the air octave's So or "Sol" at point 8 and the impression octave's Mi at point 8. This Mi of "density" 12 is the "higher substance" primarily necessary for Gurdjieff's esoteric method.<ref>ISOTM 1950, page 193</ref>(Ouspensky makes some further remarks on the nature of this Mi 12 and Sol 12 in his book '']''.) A further conscious shock, requiring "a special type of control over the emotions" at point 9 would enable a new "higher" or spiritual body to begin to grow, this is represented by Gurdjieff as the aim of his and other esoteric traditions. Although not shown in the diagram on this page, the Air octave, if it has a shock at Point 6 in fact may proceed to La with a "density" of 6. |
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Ouspensky related the inner six-line figure of the Food Diagram enneagram to the circulation of the blood. Point 1 in his account representing the digestive system, point 2 the blood stream/heart, point 4 the breathing system, point 5 the brain, point 7 the spinal cord and point 8 the ] and sex organs. He wrote that the inner lines "showed the direction of the flow or distribution of arterial blood in the organism and then its return in the form of venous blood. It was particularly interesting that the '' point of return '' was not the heart but the digestive system which indeed is the case since venous blood is first of all mixed with the products of digestion, it then goes to the right auricle, through the right ventricle, then to the lungs to absorb oxygen, and from there goes to the left auricle and then the left ventricle and then through the aorta into the arterial system"<ref>ISOTM 1950, page 378</ref> |
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==Other applications to processes== |
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Other applications of the enneagram to describing processes can be found in writings influenced by those of Gurdjieff,<ref>For example, ]'s ''The Intelligent Enneagram'' (Shambhala, 1995), an excerpt from this book plus other material and references on the enneagram of process can be found on Blake's , accessed 25 June 2010</ref> notably in the writings of ]. In his book ''Gurdjieff: Making a New World''<ref>''Gurdjieff: Making a New World'', Spiritual Classics Edition 1992, Appendix on the enneagram</ref> Bennett describes the workings of a community kitchen in terms of the enneagram and offers some explanation of the meaning of the internal lines. Another of his books, ''Enneagram Studies'',<ref>''Enneagram Studies''. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1983.</ref> is devoted to the subject, offering nine examples of enneagrams in various applications. ] in his book ''The Theory of Celestial Influence'' relates the enneagram to the planets of the solar system, and the yearly cycle, and also offers some explanation of the inner lines.<ref>http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Theory-of-Celestial-Influence.pdf pages 108 and 190, Figures 7 and 8</ref> |
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==Applications to human typology== |
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The ] originates from the mapping of nine "ego fixations" on the enneagram by ]. A book published in 2017, "The Enneagram: Living and Dead" by Plavan N. Go, attempts to verify it from the viewpoint of Gurdjieff's theories, showing the relevance of the nine personality types and their mapping on the enneagram based on the interpretation of the enneagram according to the Law of Three, the logic of three into four (O+C+N > H), and the Law of Seven.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://gurdjieff.la.coocan.jp/literature/The_Enneagram_ENG.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=9 October 2017 |archive-date=9 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009093241/http://gurdjieff.la.coocan.jp/literature/The_Enneagram_ENG.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> |
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==See also== |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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==Footnotes== |
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{{Reflist|colwidth=35em}} |
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