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The Secret Doctrine
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The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy, a book originally published as two volumes in 1888, is Helena P. Blavatsky magnum opus. The first volume is named Cosmogenesis, the second Anthropogenesis. It was an influential example of the revival of interest in esoteric and occult ideas in the modern age, in particular because of its claim to reconcile ancient eastern wisdom with modern science.

Blavatsky claimed that its contents had been revealed to her by 'mahatmas' who had retained knowledge of mankind's spiritual history, knowledge that it was now possible, in part, to reveal.

Contents [hide]
1 Volume One
2 Volume Two
3 Volume Three and Four
4 Study of the Secret Doctrine
5 Quotations
6 Writings about "The Secret Doctrine"
7 References
8 See also
9 External links



[edit]
Volume One
The first part of the book explained the origins of the universe itself, in terms derived from the Hindu concept of Yugas, or long passages of time through which the world is supposed to have evolved. Blavatsky attempted to demonstrate that the discoveries of "materialist" science had been anticipated in the writings of ancient sages, and that materialism would soon be proven wrong.

[edit]
Volume Two
The second half of the book describes the origins of humanity through an account of "Root Races" dating back millions of years. The first root race was according to her "ethereal", the second root race lived in Hyperborea. The third root race lived according to her in Lemuria and the fourth root race in Atlantis.

According to Blavatsky, the present fifth root race, the so-called Aryans, is approximately one million years old. It overlapped the fourth root race and the very first beginnings of the fifth root race were approximately in the middle of the fourth root race. Blavatsky argues that some peoples are less fully human than the "Aryans". For example:

Of such semi-animal creatures, the sole remnants known to Ethnology were the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in China, the men and women of which are entirely covered with hair. They were the last descendants in a direct line of the semi-animal latter-day Lemurians referred to. There are, however, considerable numbers of the mixed Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human stocks -- e.g., the wild men of Borneo, the Veddhas of Ceylon, classed by Prof. Flower among Aryans (!), most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc.
Blavatsky also asserts that "Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans -- degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality."

While these instances are questionnable and have been criticized, other extracts from her writings show her strong belief in an Universal Brotherhood of humanity. In the Key to Theosophy she wrote that "All men have spiritually and physically the same origin, which is the fundamental teaching of Theosophy." and that one of the objects of the Theosophical Society is "To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, colour, or creed." She also spoke out against European slave trade in Africa (Key to Theosophy 3), the Caste System (SD I:270) and often laid stress on "kindness, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to one's self" (The First Message of HPB).

[edit]
Volume Three and Four
Blavatsky wanted also to publish a third and a fourth volume of the Secret Doctrine. After Blavatsky's death a controversial third volume of the Secret Doctrine was published by Annie Besant.

[edit]
Study of the Secret Doctrine
According to P.G.B. Bowen, Blavatsky gave the following instructions regarding the study of the Secret Doctrine:

Reading the S.D. page by page as one reads any other book (she says) will only end us in confusion. The first thing to do, even if it takes years, is to get some grasp of the "Three Fundamental Principles" given in the Proem. Follow that up by study of the Recapitulation - the numbered items in the Summing Up to Vol. I (Part 1.) Then take the Preliminary Notes (Vol. II) and the Conclusion (Vol. II).

[edit]
Quotations
Such a work as this has to be introduced with no simple Preface, but with a volume rather; one that would give facts, not mere disquisitions, since the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century. (The Secret Doctrine)

[edit]
Writings about "The Secret Doctrine"
Alice Bailey wrote about the Secret Doctrine: But those of us who really studied it and arrived at some understanding of its inner significance have a basic appreciation of the truth that no other book seems to supply. H.P.B. said that the next interpretation of the Ageless Wisdom would be a psychological approach, and A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, which I published in 1925, is the psychological key to The Secret Doctrine. None of my books would have been possible had I not at one time made a very close study of The Secret Doctrine.
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel (1933; from Max Heindel writings & with introduction by Manly Palmer Hall), www
THE SECRET DOCTRINE is one of the most remarkable books in the world... Behind her [H.P.B.] stood the real teachers, the guardians of the Secret Wisdom of the ages, who taught her all the occult lore which she transmitted in her writings.
[edit]
References
The Secret Doctrine, by HP Blavatsky
The Secret Doctrine and Its Study by P.G.B. Bowen
The Key to Theosophy, by HP Blavatsky
The First Message of HP Blavatsky. To WQ Judge, General Secretary of the American Section of the Theosophical Society. 1888.
[edit]
See also
Theosophy
Round (Theosophy)
Book of Dzyan
Mahatma Letters
[edit]
External links
The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 and Vol.2 Online Version
The third volume of the Secret Doctrine
The Secret Doctrine Net
The Secret Doctrine at Blavatsky.Net
The Book of Dzyan Research Reports by David Reigle
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine, little essay on H.P. Blavatsky and "The Secret Doctrine" published in 1933
Theosophy
Founders of the T.S. Helena Blavatsky - William Quan Judge - Henry Steel Olcott
People Alice Bailey - Annie Besant - Jiddu Krishnamurti - Gottfried de Purucker - Helena Roerich - Nicholas Roerich
Theosophical texts Isis Unveiled - The Secret Doctrine - The Voice of the Silence (Blavatsky) - The Key to Theosophy - More...
Theosphical philosophical concepts Etheric body - Etheric plane - Mental body - Mental plane - Round (Theosophy) - Septenary (Theosophy) - Universal Brotherhood - More...
Institutions, publications Theosophical Society - United Lodge of Theosophists - More...
Related articles Agni Yoga - Esotericism - Maitreya - Plane (cosmology) - Spiritual evolution

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Doctrine"
Categories: Theosophical texts | 1888 books | Unfinished books






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Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
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Helena BlavatskyHelena Petrovna Hahn (also Hélène) (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London), better known as Helena Blavatsky or Madame Blavatsky was the founder of the Theosophical Society.

Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Influences
3 Works
3.1 Books about her
4 Quotations
5 External links



[edit]
Biography
She was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk), Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), the daughter of Col. Peter Alexeivich von Hahn and Elena Fadeev. Her mother, also known as Helena Andreyvna Fadeyev, was a novelist, known as the "Russian George Sand", and died when Helena was eleven. Her father being in the armed forces, she was sent with her brother to live with her maternal grandmother, Helena Pavlovna de Fadeev, a princess of the Dolgorukov family and a famous botanist. Both her mother and grandmother were strong role models that allowed her to mature into a nonconformist. She was cared for by servants who believed in the many superstitions of Old Russia and apparently encouraged her to believe she had supernatural powers at a very early age.

She married when she was seventeen, on July 7, 1849, to the forty-year old Nikifor (also Nicephor) Vassilievitch Blavatsky. According to her account, they never consummated their marriage, and within a few months, she abandoned her husband. Other sources say that she had several extramarital affairs, became pregnant, and bore a deformed child, Yuri, whom she loved dearly. She wrote that Yuri was a child of her friends the Metrovitches (C.W.I p. xlvi-ii, HPB TO APS p. 147). He died at the age of five, and Helena said that she ceased to believe in the Russian Orthodox God at this point. According to her own story as told to a later biographer, she spent the years 1848 to 1858 traveling the world, claiming to have entered Tibet to study for two years with the men she called Brothers. She returned to Russia for a short stay in 1858 to soon leave with Italian opera singer Agardi Metrovich. In 1871, on a boat bound for Cairo an explosion claimed Agardi’s life, but H.P. Blavatsky continued on to Cairo herself. It was in Cairo that she formed the Societe Spirite for occult phenomena with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb), which closed after dissatisfied customers complained of fraudulent activities.

It was in 1873 that she emigrated to New York City. Impressing people with her psychic abilities she was spurred on to continue her mediumship. Throughout her career she was able to perform physical and mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance, out-of-body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience. One new feat of hers was materialization, that is, producing physical objects out of nothing. Though she was apparently quite adept at these feats, her interests were more in the area of theory and laws of how they work rather than performing them herself.

In 1874, Helena met Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena. Soon they were living together in the "Lamasery" (alternate spelling: "Lamastery") where her work Isis Unveiled was created.

She married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on April 3, 1875 in New York City. She maintained that this marriage was not consummated either. She separated from Betanelly after a few months, and their divorce was legalized on May 25, 1878. On July 8, 1878, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

While living in New York City, she founded the Theosophical Society in September 1875, with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. The Society was a modern day Gnostic movement of the late nineteenth century that took its inspiration from Hinduism and Buddhism. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. Imperfect men attempting to translate the divine knowledge had corrupted it in the translation. Her claim that esoteric spiritual knowledge is consistent with new science may be considered to be the first instance of what is now called New Age thinking. In fact, many researchers feel that much of New Age thought started with Blavatsky.

By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international organization, and it was at this time that she moved the headquarters to Adyar near Madras, India.

Her last words in regard to her work were: "Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure."

Suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, Bright's disease of the kidneys, and complications from influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died at her home May 8, 1891. Her body was then cremated; one third of her ashes were sent to Europe, one third with William Quan Judge to the United States, and one third to India where her ashes were scattered in the Ganges River. May 8 is celebrated by Theosophists, and it is called White Lotus Day.

She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society, by her protege, Annie Besant. Her friend, WQ Judge, headed the other branch.

[edit]
Influences
Blavatsky was influenced by the following authors:

William Blake
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Blavatsky influenced the following authors, artists and musicians:

Sir Edwin Arnold
Annie Besant
Col. James Churchward
Aleister Crowley
Raghavan Iyer
Charles Johnston
James Joyce
Wassily Kandinsky
C.W. Leadbeater
Guido List
Piet Mondrian
Boris Pasternak
Nicholas Roerich
George W. Russell
Alexander Scriabin
Max Theon
William Butler Yeats
[edit]
Works
Her books included

Isis Unveiled, a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology (1877)[1]
The Secret Doctrine, the synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (1888)[2]
The Voice of the Silence (1889) [3]
The Key to Theosophy (1889) [4]
Her many articles have been collected in the H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings. This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.

[edit]
Books about her
The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky by Daniel Caldwell [5]
HPB: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky by Sylvia Cranston
Theosophy: History of a pseudo-religion, by René Guénon [6]
H. P. Blavatsky and the SPR by Vernon Harrison [7]
H.P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement by Charles Ryan [8]
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel (1933; from Max Heindel writings & with introduction by Manly Palmer Hall), [9]
Madame Blavatsky's Baboon by Peter Washington Rebuttal/Review
"Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth" by Marion Meade
[edit]
Quotations
There is no religion higher than truth.

"There is often greater martyrdom to live for the love of, whether man or an ideal, than to die" is a motto of the Mahatmas. (C.W. IV, p. 603)

Nothing of that which is conducive to help man, collectively or individually, to live—not “happily”—but less unhappily in this world, ought to be indifferent to the Theosophist-Occultist. It is no concern of his whether his help benefits a man in his worldly or spiritual progress; his first duty is to be ever ready to help if he can, without stopping to philosophize. (Collected Writings VOLUME XI, p. 465, October, 1889)

I speak “with absolute certainty” only so far as my own personal belief is concerned. Those who have not the same warrant for their belief as I have, would be very credulous and foolish to accept it on blind faith. Nor does the writer believe any more than her correspondent and his friends in any “authority” let alone "divine revelation"! (Collected Writings VOLUME XI, p. 466, October, 1889)

I am an old Buddhist pilgrim, wandering about the world to teach the only true religion, which is truth.

[edit]
External links
AnandGholap.Net - Online Books on Theosophy
Theosophy Library Online
Blavatsky Study Center
Blavatsky Net
Works by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky at Project Gutenberg
Books by HP Blavatsky at Theosophical University Press
Links to books by HP Blavatsky
Articles and books by Helena Blavatsky and other theosophists
Articles on HP Blavatsky
Dmoz Directory. H.P. Blavatsky online resources
Discussion of H.P. Blavatsky's Literary Influence
Biographical sketch of H.P. Blavatsky
Brief biography of Blavatsky with psychological insights and speculations about her childhood.



Theosophy
Founders of the T.S. Helena Blavatsky - William Quan Judge - Henry Steel Olcott
People Alice Bailey - Annie Besant - Jiddu Krishnamurti - Gottfried de Purucker - Helena Roerich - Nicholas Roerich
Theosophical texts Isis Unveiled - The Secret Doctrine - The Voice of the Silence (Blavatsky) - The Key to Theosophy - More...
Theosphical philosophical concepts Etheric body - Etheric plane - Mental body - Mental plane - Round (Theosophy) - Septenary (Theosophy) - Universal Brotherhood - More...
Institutions, publications Theosophical Society - United Lodge of Theosophists - More...
Related articles Agni Yoga - Esotericism - Maitreya - Plane (cosmology) - Spiritual evolution

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Petrovna_Blavatsky"
Categories: 1831 births | 1891 deaths | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Theosophy | Ukrainian people | Purported telepaths





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Magic (paranormal)
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For other uses of the term or name "Magic", see Magic (illusion) or Magic (disambiguation). For other uses of the term or name "Sorcery", see Sorcery (disambiguation).

The ancient symbol of the pentagram is often used as a symbol for magic. This is a pythagorean pentagram drawn by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.Magic or sorcery are terms referring to the alleged influencing of events and physical phenomena by supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means. They can refer to cultural complexes of beliefs and practices that believers can resort to in order to wield this supernatural influence; and also, to similar cultural complexes that seek to explain various events and phenomena by supernatural means.

The term magic in its various translations has been used in a number of ways:

In the context of parapsychology, magic is often defined as the study and application of psychic forces or energy.
From the point of view of many established religions, for example Christianity, magic is often used as a pejorative term for Pagan rituals, with the implication that they involve sinful, blasphemous or idolatrous practices. The magic and religion article deals largely with this aspect.
Among occultists, magic is a fairly neutral term which has some varied connotations, such as white magic and black magic. The famous occultist Aleister Crowley chose the spelling magick to distinguish "the true science of the Magi" from all its "counterfeits," such as stage magic. Today many use that spelling in the same or otherwise similar way, often to connote a Pagan, Wiccan, or Hermetic system of beliefs and ritual practises.
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Magic and Religion
3 History
3.1 Magical beliefs in Western Europe
3.2 In the Middle Ages
3.3 Magic in the Renaissance
3.4 Magic and Romanticism
3.5 Magic in the twentieth century
4 Beliefs
5 Theories of magic
6 Religious ritual and magical thinking
7 Magical practices and spells
8 Varieties of magical practice
8.1 Magical intentions
8.2 Magical traditions
9 Magic in fiction
10 Religious attitudes towards magic
10.1 Indigenous traditions
10.2 Magic and the Magi
10.3 In Judaism and Christianity
10.4 In Islam
10.5 In Hinduism
11 See also
12 External links
13 References



[edit]
Etymology
The word magic ultimately derives from Magus (Old Persian maguš), one of the Zoroastrian astrologer priests of the Medes. In the Hellenistic period, Greek μάγος (magos) could be used as an adjective, but an adjective μαγικός (magikos, latin magicus) is also attested from the 1st century (Plutarchus), typically appearing in the feminine, in μαγική τέχνη (magike techne, latin ars magica) "magical art." The word entered the English language in the late 14th century from Old French magique.

Likewise, sorcery was taken in ca. 1300 from Old French sorcerie, which is from Vulgar Latin *sortiarius, from sors "fate", apparently meaning "one who influences fate." Sorceress appears also in the late 14th century, while sorcerer is attested only from 1526.

[edit]
Magic and Religion
Main article: Magic and religion
The conceptual relationship between religion and magic is similar to the relationship between "religion" and Paganism, whereas "religion" refers to a system of established beliefs, and "magic" and "Pagan" are labels used by people within that system to describe beliefs and practices that conflict with or are outside of that system.

From the point of view of adherents of Christianity, the terms "magic" and "wizardry" connote beliefs which are held to be false beliefs or heresy. In this sense, the term 'magic' is typically outdated, although in the direct quotation of religious scripture it may have some limited usage in modern times.

Originally referring to the older Zoroastrian Magi (i.e. sages, priests), the term "magic" became a negative term, and among the followers of the Israelite religion was recorded into Western history with its denigrating meaning. All descendants of the younger Abrahamic faith and its traditional culture of belief inherited this use of the term. In times of antiquity, practitioners of other religions were accused of practicing magic, even the adherents of Christianity and Islam, particularly when they were still burgeoning faiths.

In the Middle Ages, what we now call "the sciences" began to develop, partially through alchemy. Alchemy attempted to codify specific methodology for the mechanical achievement of tasks which most considered to be important, such as the healing of illnesses and the making of wealth (gold etc). Whereas religion advocated a faith-based deference to matters of spirit, alchemy played a significant role in developing human curiosity about the natural world into a systemic structure of beliefs and practices. It is from alchemy that our modern concept of wizardry and magic come from; as a kind of melding of spirituality and methodical and professional investigation into the mysterious or "arcane."

[edit]
History
[edit]
Magical beliefs in Western Europe
Belief in various magical practices has waxed and waned in European and Western history, under pressure from either organised monotheistic religions or from scepticism about the reality of magic, and the ascendancy of scientism.

In the world of classical antiquity, much as in the present time, magic was thought to be somewhat exotic. Egypt, home of hermeticism, and Mesopotamia and Persia, original home of the Magi, were lands where expertise in magic was thought to be prevalent. In Egypt, a large number of magical papyri, in Greek, Coptic, and Demotic, have been recovered. These sources contain early instances of much of the magical lore that later became part of Western cultural expectations about the practice of magic, especially ceremonial magic. They contain early instances of:

the use of "magic words" said to have the power to command spirits;
the use of wands and other ritual tools;
the use of a magic circle to defend the magician against the spirits he is invoking or evoking; and
the use of mysterious symbols or sigils thought useful to invoke or evoke spirits.
The use of spirit mediums is also documented in these texts; many of the spells call for a child to be brought to the magic circle to act as a conduit for messages from the spirits. The time of the Emperor Julian of Rome, marked by a reaction against the influence of Christianity, saw a revival of magical practices associated with neo-Platonism under the guise of theurgy.

[edit]
In the Middle Ages
Mediæval authors, under the control of the Church, confined their magic to compilations of wonderlore and collections of spells. Albertus Magnus was credited, rightly or wrongly, with a number of such compilations. Specifically Christianised varieties of magic were devised at this period. During the early Middle Ages, the cult of relics as objects not only of veneration but also of supernatural power arose. Miraculous tales were told of the power of relics of the saints to work miracles, not only to heal the sick, but for purposes like swaying the outcome of a battle. The relics had become amulets, and various churches strove to purchase scarce or valuable examples, hoping to become places of pilgrimage. As in any other economic endeavour, demand gave rise to supply. Tales of the miracle-working relics of the saints were compiled later into quite popular collections like the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine or the Dialogus miraculorum of Caesar of Heisterbach.

There were other, officially proscribed varieties of Christianized magic. The demonology and angelology contained in the earliest grimoires assume a life surrounded by Christian implements and sacred rituals. The underlying theology in these works of Christian demonology encourages the magician to fortify himself with fasting, prayers, and sacraments, so that by using garbled versions of the holy names of God in foreign languages, he can use divine power to coerce demons into appearing and serving his usually lustful or avaricious magical goals. Not surprisingly, the church disapproved of these rites; nevertheless, they are Christianised, and assume a theology of mechanical sacramentalism.

[edit]
Magic in the Renaissance
Renaissance humanism saw a resurgence in hermeticism and other Neo-Platonic varieties of ceremonial magic. The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, saw the rise of scientism, in such forms as the substitution of chemistry for alchemy, the dethronement of the Ptolemaic theory of the universe assumed by astrology, the development of the germ theory of disease, that restricted the scope of applied magic and threatened the belief systems it relied on. Tensions roused by the Protestant Reformation led to an upswing in witch-hunting, especially in Germany, England, and Scotland; but ultimately, the new theology of Protestantism proved a worse foe to magic by undermining belief in the sort of ritualism that allowed religious rites to be re-purposed towards earthly, magical ends. Scientism, more than religion, proved to be magic's deadliest foe.

Alongside the ceremonial magic followed by the better educated were the everyday activities of folk practitioners of magic across Europe, typified by the cunning folk found in Great Britain. In their magical practices astrology, folklore, and distorted versions of Christian ritual magic worked alongside each other to answer customer demand.

[edit]
Magic and Romanticism
Baron Carl Reichenbach's experiments with his Odic force appeared to be an attempt to bridge the gap between magic and science. More recent periods of renewed interest in magic occurred around the end of the nineteenth century, where Symbolism and other offshoots of Romanticism cultivated a renewed interest in exotic spiritualities. European colonialism, which put Westerners in contact with India and Egypt, re-introduced exotic beliefs to Europeans at this time. Hindu and Egyptian mythology frequently feature in nineteenth century magical texts. The late 19th century spawned a large number of magical organizations, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, and specifically magical variants on Freemasonry. The Golden Dawn represented perhaps the peak of this wave of magic, attracting cultural celebrities like William Butler Yeats, Algernon Blackwood, and Arthur Machen to its banner.

[edit]
Magic in the twentieth century
A further revival of interest in magic was heralded by the repeal, in England, of the last Witchcraft Act in 1951. This was the cue for Gerald Gardner, now recognised as the founder of Wicca, to publish his first non-fiction book Witchcraft Today, in which he claimed to reveal the existence of a witch-cult that dated back to pre-Christian Europe. Gardner's religion combined magic and religion in a way that was later to cause people to question the Enlightenment's boundaries between the two subjects.

Gardner's newly publicized religion, and many others, took off in the atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s, when the counterculture of the hippies also spawned another period of renewed interest in magic, divination, and other occult practices. The various branches of Neopaganism and other Earth religions that have been publicized since Gardner's publication tend to follow a pattern in combining the practice of magic and religion. Following the trend of magic associated with counterculture, some feminists launched an independent revival of goddess worship. This brought them into contact with the Gardnerian tradition of magical religion, and deeply influenced that tradition in return.

[edit]
Beliefs
Many people in the West claim to believe in or practise various forms of magic. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, and their followers are most often credited with the resurgence of magical tradition in the English speaking world of the 20th century, but in their eagerness to reconstruct the lost traditions of the past, they often included elements of questionable authenticity, or items altogether manufactured. Other, similar movements took place at roughly the same time, centred in France and Germany. Thus, any current tradition which acknowledges the natural elements, the seasons, and the practitioner's relationship with the Earth, Gaia, or the Goddess may be correctly regarded as Neopagan, and few such traditions can be sensibly labelled more authentic than any others.

Aleister Crowley preferred the spelling magick, defining it as "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will." By this, he included "mundane" acts of will as well as ritual magic. In Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter XIV, Crowley says:

What is a Magical Operation? It may be defined as any event in nature which is brought to pass by Will. We must not exclude potato-growing or banking from our definition. Let us take a very simple example of a Magical Act: that of a man blowing his nose.
Although some current practitioners of magic prefer the term Pagan, Neopaganism is more precise for scholarly reference to current rituals and traditions (though both are technically correct, as Neopaganism is but a particular subset of Paganism). Wicca is a more codified form of modern magic than Neopaganism, again owing much to Crowley and his ilk.

Wiccans and other followers of modern religious Witchcraft use magic extensively. However, they do not all subscribe to Aleister Crowley's definition of what that is, nor use it for the same purposes. Ruickbie (2004:193-209) shows that Wiccans and Witches define magic in many different ways and use it for a number of different purposes. Despite that diversity of opinion, he concludes that the general result upon the practitioner is a positive one.

[edit]
Theories of magic
In an age where the existence of magical forces is no longer taken for granted, believers in magic are likely to be asked, "How does magic work?"

A survey of writings by believers in magic shows that adherents believe that it may work by one or more of these basic principles:

Natural forces that cannot be detected by science at present, and in fact may not be detectable at all. These magical forces are said to exist in addition to and alongside the four fundamental forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.
Intervention of spirits similar to these hypothetical natural forces, but with their own consciousness and intelligence. Believers in spirits will often see a whole cosmos of beings of many different kinds, sometimes organized into a hierarchy.
A mystical power, such as mana or numen, that exists in all things. This power is often said to be dangerous to people. Sometimes this power is contained in a magical object, such as a stone or a charm, which the magician can manipulate.
A mysterious interconnection in the cosmos that connects and binds all things, above and beyond the natural forces.
Manipulation of symbols. Adherents of magical thinking believe that symbols can be used for more than representation: they can magically take on a physical quality of the phenomenon or object that they represent. By manipulating symbols (as well as sigils), one is said to be able to manipulate the reality that this symbol represents.
The principles of sympathetic magic of Sir James George Frazer, explicated in his The Golden Bough (third edition, 1911-1915). These principles include the "law of similarity" and the "law of contact" or "contagion." These are systematized versions of the manipulation of symbols. Frazer defined them this way:
If we analyse the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. The former principle may be called the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion. From the first of these principles, namely the Law of Similarity, the magician infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it: from the second he infers that whatever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object was once in contact, whether it formed part of his body or not. [1]
Concentration or meditation. A certain amount of restricting the mind to some imagined object (or will), according to Aleister Crowley, produces mystical attainment or "an occurrence in the brain characterized essentially by the uniting of subject and object." (Book Four, Part 1: Mysticism) Magick, as defined previously, seeks to aid concentration by constantly recalling the attention to the chosen object (or Will), thereby producing said attainment. For example, if one wishes to concentrate on a God, one might memorize a system of correspondences (perhaps chosen arbitrarily, as this would not affect its usefulness for mystical purposes) and then make every object that one sees "correspond" to said God.
Aleister Crowley wrote that ". . . the exaltation of the mind by means of magical practices leads (as one may say, in spite of itself) to the same results as occur in straightforward Yoga." Crowley's magick thus becomes a form of mental, mystical, or spiritual discipline, designed to train the mind to achieve greater concentration. Crowley also made claims for the paranormal effects of magick, suggesting a connection with the first principle in this list. However, he defined any attempt to use this power for a purpose other than aiding mental or mystical attainment as "black magic".
The magical power of the subconscious mind. To believers who think they need to convince their subconscious mind to make the changes they want, all spirits and energies are projections and symbols that make sense to the subconscious. A variant of this belief is that the subconscious is capable of contacting spirits, who in turn can work magic.
Many more theories exist. Practitioners will often mix these concepts, and sometimes even invent some themselves. In the contemporary current of chaos magic in particular, it is not unusual to believe any concept of magic works.

[edit]
Religious ritual and magical thinking
Viewed from a non-theistic perspective, many religious rituals and beliefs seem similar to, or identical to, magical thinking.

Related to both magic and prayer is religious supplication. This involves a prayer, or even a sacrifice to a supernatural being or god. This god or being is then asked to intervene on behalf of the person offering the prayer.

The difference, in theory, is that prayer requires the assent of a deity with an independent will, who can deny the request. Magic, by contrast is thought to be effective:

by virtue of the operation itself;
or by the strength of the magician's will;
or because the magician believes he can command the spiritual beings addressed by his spells.
In practice, when prayer doesn't work, it means that the god has chosen not to hear nor grant it; when magic fails, it is because of some defect in the casting of the spell itself. It is no wonder that magic tends to be more formulaic and less extempore than prayer. Ritual is the magician's failsafe, the key to any hope for success, and the explanation for failure.

A possible exception is the practice of word of faith, where it is often held that it is the exercise of faith in itself that brings about a desired result.

[edit]
Magical practices and spells
The basic mechanism of magical practices is the spell, a spoken or written ritualistic formula that might be used in conjunction with a particular set of ingredients. If a spell is properly executed and fails to work, then the spell is likely a fraud. However, in most instances, the failure of a spell to bring about the desired effect can be attributed to the failure of the person executing the spell to follow the magic formula exactly. However, there is no known instance of a spell actually producing its intended effect under verifiable, repeatable conditions.

Generally speaking, there are two types of magic: contagious magic and sympathetic magic. Contagious magic involves the use of physical ingredients which were once in contact with the object or objects one hopes to influence with a spell. Sympathetic magic involves the use of physical objects which resemble the object or objects one hopes to influence; the Voodoo dolls of "New Orleans Voodoo" are an example of this.

See also: Spell (paranormal)
[edit]
Varieties of magical practice
[edit]
Magical intentions
There are several historical varieties of magical practice. Generally, magical intentions can be divided into two general areas. The first is divination, which seeks to reveal information. Varieties of divination include:

astrology
augury
cartomancy
dowsing
fortune telling
geomancy
I Ching
omens
tarot cards
Necromancy involves the alleged summoning of and conversation with spirits of the dead (necros). This can be done either to gain information from the spirits; or it can be done with the intention of commanding those spirits, in which it falls under the second general area of magic; that of casting spells. Included in this broad category are a number of specific magical intentions, such as the weather magic of the rain dance, the physical magic of alchemy, or the making of potions and philtres.

Richard Kiekhefer further subdivides the category of spells. One general subcategory of magical attentions that are expressed in spells is psychological magic, which seeks to influence other people's minds to do the magician's will. A love spell would be an example of this kind of spell. Kiekhefer's second category of spells is illusionary magic, which seeks to conjure the manifestation of various wonders. A spell that conjured up a banquet, or a spell that conferred invisibility on the magician, would be examples of illusionary magic.

[edit]
Magical traditions
Another method of classifying magic is by "traditions," which in this context typically refer to complexes of magical belief and practice associated with various cultural groups and lineages of transmission. These traditions can compass both divination and spells. Examples of these traditions include:

Alchemy
ceremonial magic
Chaos magic
Hermeticism
Hoodoo
Huna
Nagualism
New Age
Palo Monte
pow-wow (folk magic)
Reiki
Santería
Satanism
Seid
Thelema
Vodun
Wicca
Some of these traditions are highly specific and culturally circumscribed. Others are more eclectic and syncretistic. When dealing with magic as a tradition, the line often becomes blurry between magic and folk religion.

[edit]
Magic in fiction
In considering magic as tradition, a related category concerns magic in fiction, where it serves as a plot device, the source of magical artifacts and their quests. Magic has long been a subject of fictional tales, especially in fantasy fiction, where it has been a mainstay from the days of Homer and Apuleius, down through the tales of the Holy Grail, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and to more contemporary authors from J. R. R. Tolkien to Mercedes Lackey and J. K. Rowling.

See also: Magic (Harry Potter) and Magic (Discworld)
In science fiction plots (especially the "hard" variety), while magic tends to be avoided, often extraordinary facts are portrayed that do not have a scientific basis and are not explained in that fashion. In these cases the reader might find it useful to remember Arthur C. Clarke's "Third Law": Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Magic has been portrayed in numerous games, in which magic is a characteristic available to players in certain circumstances or to certain types of player characters. Magic in such games, especially in the latter variety of games, is usually classified according to some system (for example, elemental magic, nature magic, or "red magic").

There may be a well-developed system in fictional magic, or not. It is by no means impossible, moreover, for fictional magic to leap from the pages of fantasy to actual magical practice; such was the fate of the Necronomicon, invented as fiction by H. P. Lovecraft, who sold it so well that there have been several attempts by modern authors to produce it as a grimoire.

Sorcerors and sorcery are a staple of Chinese wu xia fiction and are dramatically featured in many martial arts movies.

Many mythological, legendary or historical magicians have appeared in fictional accounts as well.

Several characters in the Marvel comics world have access to many types of supposedly magical powers. Examples would be Dr. Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth; Illyana Rasputin, alias Magik, the former Sorceress Supreme of her dimension, Limbo; Amanda Sefton, alias Daytripper, the current Sorceress Supreme of Limbo and Amanda's mother, Margali Szardos, a sorceress of the Winding Way.

[edit]
Religious attitudes towards magic
[edit]
Indigenous traditions
Appearing from aboriginal tribes in Australia and New Zealand to rainforest tribes in South America, bush tribes in Africa and ancient Pagan tribal groups in Europe and the British Isles, some form of shamanic contact with the spirit world seems to be nearly universal in the early development of human communities. The ancient cave paintings in France are widely speculated to be early magical formulations, intended to produce successful hunts. Much of the Babylonian and Egyptian pictorial writing characters appear derived from the same sources.

Although indigenous magical traditions persist to this day, very early on some communities transitioned from nomadic to agricultural civilizations, and with this shift, the development of spiritual life mirrored that of civic life. Just as tribal elders were consolidated and transformed into kings and bureaucrats, so too were shamans and adepts devolved into priests and a priestly caste.

This shift is by no means in nomenclature alone. While the shaman's task was to negotiate between the tribe and the spirit world, on behalf of the tribe, as directed by the collective will of the tribe, the priest's role was to transfer instructions from the deities to the city-state, on behalf of the deities, as directed by the will of those deities. This shift represents the first major usurpation of power by distancing magic from those participating in that magic. It is at this stage of development that highly codified and elaborate rituals, setting the stage for formal religions, began to emerge, such as the funeral rites of the Egyptians and the sacrifice rituals of the Babylonians, Persians, Aztecs and Mayans.

[edit]
Magic and the Magi
Magical beliefs and practices are common in many cultures and religions. The word magic comes from the beliefs and practices of the Magi (singular, Magus), Persian priests and scholars, followers of Zoroaster, who were credited by the classical world with mastery of astrology and other arcane arts.

[edit]
In Judaism and Christianity
Officially, Judaism, Christianity and Islam characterize magic as forbidden witchcraft, and have often prosecuted practitioners of it with varying degrees of severity. The traditional theologies of these religions have held that the apparent effects of magic are either delusional or the result of fallen angels manipulating nature on behalf of the sorcerer, hence witchcraft has often been seen as a type of pact with demonic beings.

Unofficially, Jewish and Christian mystics have practiced varying forms of magic for hundreds of years. Jewish folk stories often feature wonder-working rabbis and sages as protagonists, whose powers more or less resemble magic.




Further information: Kabbalah, and [], and [], and [], and [], and [], and [], and [], and []
[edit]
In Islam
Muslims, followers of the religion of Islam, believe in magic, and forbid practice of it (Siher). Siher translates as sorcery or black magic. Muslims believe that two Angels taught sorcery to mankind in order to test their obedience to refrain from it. Magic is considered an unforgivable sin; one for which there is no forgiveness.

And they follow that which the devils falsely related against the kingdom of Solomon. Solomon disbelieved not; but the devils disbelieved, teaching mankind sorcery and that which was revealed to the two angels in Babel, Harut and Marut. Nor did they (the two angels) teach it to anyone till they had said: We are only a temptation, therefore disbelieve not (in the guidance of Allah). And from these two (angels) people learn that by which they cause division between man and wife; but they injure thereby no-one save by Allah's leave. And they learn that which harmeth them and profiteth them not. And surely they do know that he who trafficketh therein will have no (happy) portion in the Hereafter; and surely evil is the price for which they sell their souls, if they but knew. (al-Qur'an 2:102)
However, whereas performing miracles in Islam is reserved for a prophet ("Nabi"), some schools of thought within Islam believe in a form of metaphysical training in which the seeker can obtain the power to perform miracle-like events (called "keramat"). This is however not regarded as magic but rather psychic power. During the golden age of Islam, there was an influx of Hermetic and Chaldean thought due to the translation of many texts into Arabic. Magic based on angels, properties of the 99-Names of Allah, verses from the Quran, and the power of the Arabic letters became accepted as an alternative to sorcery between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. One of the most famous books of this era was the Shamsu al-Ma'aref al-Kubra, by Ahmed al-Buni. This book was later banned by orthodox Muslims as heresy, but continues to be read and studied. This kind of magic was called, instead of Siher (Sorcery), Ilm al-Hikmah (Knowledge of the Wise), Ilm Shem Yah (Study of the Divine Name), and Rouhaniat (Spirituality). For example, in Islamic tradition, as well as in Judaism, King Solomon, could communicate with the animal kingdom. That is believed to be God given, a miracle and not regarded magic. But then we read of a mysterious person in the circle of people around Solomon by the name of Asef ben berkhia, who is said to have been able to outperform the angels with his knowledge of the Divine Names. Magical power through Divine blessings ("keramat" e.g.) is therefore attainable by man; it is iktisabi, to put it properly.

Many Muslims, especially during the middle ages, believed in these esoteric sciences such as Alchemy and Astrology, where a student under the proper master (pir) could obtain this knowledge. The Persian scientist Biruni, for example, is said to have been famed for his knowledge of using Astrology to foretell the near future with astrolabes.

Whereas the Persian magi were believed to use Agate stones to influence the weather, Muslims believe in wearing the Agate ring for protection and longevity, among other benefits. Stones of the sort are thought to influence mood. And whereas weavers of flying carpets are written to have been persecuted in medieval Persia [2], the presence and even ability to communicate with genies ("jinn" in the Qur'an) is openly acknowledged.

[edit]
In Hinduism
It has been long accepted by many that Hindu India has been the land of magic, both supernatural and otherwise. Hinduism is one of the few religions that has sacred texts like the Vedas that talks about both white and black magic. The Atharva Veda is a veda that deals with mantra that can be used for both good and bad. The word mantrik in India literally means magician since the mantrik usually knows mantras, spells and curses which can be used for or against forms of magic. Many ascetics after long periods of penance and meditation are supposed to attain a state where they attain supernatural powers. However many choose not to use them and instead transcend beyond physical powers into the realm of spirituality. Many siddhars are said to have done wonders and miracles that would have been impossible to perform.




[edit]
See also
magical thinking
Magick
List of occultists
Obeah
Related: skepticism, fetishism, animism
sex magic
[edit]
External links
Ordo Stella Matutina: Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition.
The Skeptic's Dictionary entry for Magical Thinking
Drualtys
Warding off Black Magic, Jinn, Evil Spirits
The Cauldron's Grimoire Online Collection of Spells
Free Encyclopedia of Thelema
Golden Dawn Initiation into the Western Mystery Tradition of magic
Magical Path Leading you on a journey through the Self to the Higher Self
Ordo Mentis New-age magical teachings
Thelemapedia The Encyclopedia of Thelema & Magick
The Veritas Society - Online source for Magic(k), Psionics, Qigong, Martial arts and Spirituality.
A Collection of Occult People Articles on the Mysterious People website
[edit]
References
de Givry, Grillot, Witchcraft, Magic, and Alchemy (J. Courtney Locke, trans.) (Frederick, 1954)
Hutton, Ronald, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford, 2001) ISBN 0192854496
Hutton, Ronald, Witches, Druids, and King Arthur (Hambledon, 2003) ISBN 1852853972
Kiekhefer, Richard, Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century (Pennsylvania State University, 1998) ISBN 0271017511
Ruickbie, Leo, Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (Robert Hale, 2004) ISBN 0-7090-7567-7
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28paranormal%29"
Categories: Magic | Pseudoscience | New Age | Witchcraft





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G. I. Gurdjieff
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Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (Георгий Иванович Гюрджиев, Georgij Ivanovich Gjurdzhiev; January 13, 1872? - October 29, 1949), was a Greek-Armenian mystic and 'teacher of dancing'. His teaching is about becoming more aware of ourselves in our daily lives.


G.I. GurdjieffContents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Teaching
3 Short bibliography
4 External links



[edit]
Biography
Gurdjieff was born in Alexandropol, Armenia (now Gyumri, Armenia), traveled to many parts of the world (such as Central Asia, Egypt, Rome) before returning to Russia and teaching in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1913.

In the midst of revolutionary upheaval in Russia he left Petrograd (St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd on September 1, 1914) in 1917 to return to his family home in Alexandropol. During the Bolshevik Revolution he set up temporary study communities in Essentuki in the Caucasus, then Tuapse, Maikop, Sochi and Poti, all on the Black Sea coast of Southern Russia where he worked intensively with many of his Russian pupils.

In mid-January 1919 he and his closest pupils moved to Tbilisi. In late May 1920 when political conditions in Georgia deteriorated, they walked by foot to Batumi on the Black Sea coast, and then Istanbul. There Gurdjieff rented an apartment on Koumbaradji Street in Péra and later at 13 Abdullatif Yemeneci Sokak near the Galata Tower. The apartment is near the tekke (monastery) of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis (founded by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi) where Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Thomas de Hartmann experienced the sema ceremony of The Whirling Dervishes. In Istanbul Gurdjieff also met John G. Bennett.

In August 1921 Gurdjieff traveled around western Europe, lecturing and giving demonstrations of his work in various cities such as Berlin and London. In October 1922, he established the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man south of Paris at the Prieuré des Basses Loges in Fontainebleau-Avon near the famous Château de Fontainebleau.

In 1924 he nearly died in a car crash. After he recovered, he began writing All and Everything originally written by him in Russian and Armenian. He stopped writing in 1935 having completed the first two parts of the trilogy and only having started on the Third Series which had been published under the title Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'.

In Paris, Gurdjieff lived at 6 Rue des Colonels-Rénard where he continued to teach throughout World War II.

Gurdjieff died on October 29, 1949 at the American Hospital in Neuilly, France. His funeral was held at the St. Alexandre Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral at 12 Rue Daru, Paris. He is buried in the cemetery at Fontainebleau-Avon.

Timelines, facts and whereabouts of Gurdjieff's early biography before he appeared in Moscow in 1913 are found in his text Meetings with Remarkable Men.

[edit]
Teaching
Some of those who had contact with Gurdjieff saw him as a Master - able to practice self-remembering, and work on oneself; in other words a human being able to be conscious of himself.

About his teaching, Gurdjieff once said, "What do I teach? I teach people how to listen to themselves." The teaching addresses the question of man's place in the Universe and his possibilities for spiritual development. Gurdjieff's teaching has many aspects that are well described in 'In Search of the Miraculous' - a book written by P. D. Ouspensky who met Gurdjieff in Moscow in 1915 and who studied under him for several years.

Gurdjieff believed that man lives his life in a form of sleep, and that higher levels of consciousness are possible. In developing the inner possibility of becoming more aware of ourselves in our daily lives, one is shown a whole new way of living that can enrich our experience of life and acquaint us with our real selves. 'Know thyself' takes on a more concrete meaning. The ability to be 'present' more often (instead of being absent as we usually are in our lives), requires work on oneself over time, guided initially by a teacher trained in the practice of the teaching by those who in turn were taught directly by Gurdjieff or by one of his pupils.

Gurdjieff taught that by making frequent efforts to activate their attention in small things, such as walking, speaking or sitting etc., people can gradually become more aware of themselves as living beings through the development of their attention instead of spending their lives asleep in dreams. To provide conditions in which attention can be exercised more intensively, Gurdjieff also taught "sacred dances" or "movements" (which are performed as part of a class) as an aid, and he left a body of music inspired by what he heard in visits to remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in a collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann.

This presence to oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of transformation, whose aim is to change the whole nature of the human being, ultimately preparing him, speaking symbolically as is necessary in such matters, to be a conscious servant of the divine purpose behind the facade of the created world.

Gurdjieff is best-known through the published works of his pupils, such as Ouspensky, who wrote In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, which some regard as a crucial introductory book about his teaching. Others refer to Gurdjieff's own books (detailed below) as the primary texts.

Many accounts about Gurdjieff have been written by various authors: A. R. Orage, Thomas and Olga de Hartmann, Fritz Peters, René Daumal, John G. Bennett, Maurice Nicoll and Louis Pauwels among others. Many others were drawn to his 'ideas table': Frank Lloyd Wright, Kathryn Hulme, P.L. Travers, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Toomer, and the pianist and composer Keith Jarrett.

Three books by Gurdjieff were published after his death: Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, Meetings with Remarkable Men, and Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'. This trilogy is Gurdjieff's legominism known collectively as All and Everything. A legominism is, according to Gurdjieff, "one of the means of transmitting information about certain events of long-past ages through initiates." A book of his early talks was also collected by his student and personal secretary, Olga de Hartmann, and published in 1973 as Views from the Real World: Early Talks in Moscow, Essentuki, Tiflis, Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Chicago, as recollected by his pupils.

The feature film Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979), based on Gurdjieff's book by the same name, depicts rare performances of the sacred dances taught to serious students of his work known simply as the movements. The film was written by Jeanne de Salzmann and Peter Brook, directed by Brook, and stars Dragan Maksimovic and Terence Stamp.

His teaching has been continued by various groups originated after his death, some under the umbrella of the Gurdjieff Foundations in New York, London, and Paris. Gurdjieff founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man to train what he called "helper-instructors" to help disseminate and practice his teaching. Today many groups use Gurdjieff's name and ideas, but they may not have been developed via a teacher-student relationship originating with Gurdjieff himself.

Gurdjieff used the "Stop" exercise to prompt his students. Suddenly and without notice a pre-arranged signal would be made, all students would 'freeze' whatever they were doing and hold the position they found themselves in when this signal was made. The students were encouraged to use this exercise to notice their habits, tensions and thoughts. Later another signal would be made and ordinary movement would recommence.

Much has been written about Gurdjieff, and many anecdotes about his life have been recorded. At one time in his life he set up a workshop to mend anything. Customers would visit bringing with them something broken, they would leave the article with Gurdjieff, who would then find a way of fixing it - whatever it was. Gurdjieff fixed all kinds of things. If he did not know how to mend a particular item he would set about learning enough to repair it.

[edit]
Short bibliography
Works by Gurdjieff
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson by G.I. Gurdjieff (1950) ISBN 0919608124
In Russian: ISBN 0919608116
Audio recording (in mp3 format) as read by William J. Welch: ISBN 0919608167
Meetings with Remarkable Men by G.I. Gurdjieff (1963)
Life is only real, then, when "I am" by G.I. Gurdjieff (1974)
Views from the Real World Talks of G.I. Gurdjieff (1973)
The Herald of Coming Good by G.I. Gurdjieff (1933, 1971, 1988)
Videos/DVDs about G.I. Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way
Gurdjieff's Legacy: Establishing The Teaching in the West, 1924–1949 Part III
Gurdjieff's Mission: Introducing The Teaching to the West, 1912–1924 Part II
Gurdjieff in Egypt: The Origin of Esoteric Knowledge Part I
Meetings with Remarkable Men
Books about G.I. Gurdjieff and The Fourth Way
In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky (1949)
The Oragean Version by C. Daly King (1951)
Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky by Maurice Nicoll (1952, 1955. 1972, 1980, 6 volumes)
The Fourth Way by P.D. Ouspensky (1957)
A Study of Gurdjieff's Teaching by Kenneth Walker (1957)
Teachings of Gurdjieff by C.S. Nott (1961)
Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff by Thomas and Olga de Hartmann (1964, Revised 1983 and 1992)
Boyhood with Gurdjieff by Fritz Peters (1964)
Gurdjieff Remembered by Fritz Peters (1965)
Undiscovered Country by Kathryn Hulme (1966)
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
Mount Analogue by René Daumal (1974)
On Love by A.R. Orage (1974)
Psychological Exercises by A.R. Orage (1976)
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 by William Patrick Patterson (1992, 1993, 1997)
Ladies of the Rope: Gurdjieff's Special Left Bank Women's Group by William Patrick Patterson (1999)
Struggle of the Magicians: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship by William Patrick Patterson (1996, Second Edition 1998)
Taking with the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, The Fellowship of Friends, & the Mouravieff Phenomenon by William Patrick Patterson (1998)
Voices in the Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices in Nazi-Occupied Paris 1940–44 by William Patrick Patterson (2001)
Idiots in Paris by J.G. and E. Bennett (1980)
The Harmonious Circle by James Webb (1980)
Toward Awakening by Jean Vaysse (1980)
The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff by Colin Wilson (1980)
Who Are You Monsieur Gurdjieff? by René Zuber (1980)
Gurdjieff: The anatomy of a Myth by James Moore (1991)
Gurdjieff; An Introduction To His Life and Ideas by John Shirley (2004)
[edit]
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
G. I. GurdjieffThe Gurdjieff Teaching
Gurdjieff Legacy
The Gurdjieff Studies Program
The Fourth Way Teaching
The Gurdjieff Journal
Gurdjieff's Legacy - The Video
Gurdjieff Videos
The UK Gurdjieff Society
The New York Gurdjieff Foundation
The Paris Gurdjieff Foundation
Open databse for contacts to Gurdjieff groups
Gurdjieff Books & Videos
Gurdjieff Reading Guide edited by J. Walter Driscoll
Gurdjieff connection to Gomidas
International Gurdjieff Review
Gurdjieff Studies U.K.
Gurdjieff Internet Guide
Fritz Peters Gurdjieff Trilogy
Gurdjieff’s Teaching In the Groups of Willem A. Nyland
The Dog: Theological Harmonistic Exercitations into the Discoveries Of Gurdjieff
G.I. Gurdjieff and His School by Jacob Needleman, Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University
A Call for a New Society by John G. Bennett
Chronology of Gurdjieff's Life by James Moore
Gurdjieff in America: An Overview by George Baker and Walter Driscoll
Gurdjieff Movements
Gurdjieff Studies (UK)
Gurdjieff Albuquerque
Gurdjieff: articles and links
Gurdjieff-Ouspensky Centers
The Gurdjieff Society of Florida
An Overview of the Fourth Way
Religious Movements at the University of Virginia page on Gurdjieff
A Reading Guide
Gurdjieff Conference in Armenia
Skeptic's dictionary on Gurdjieff as charismatic con man
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._I._Gurdjieff"
Categories: 1949 deaths | Russian philosophers | New religious movements | Fourth Way | Occultists | Armenian people





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Enneagram
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The Enneagram FigureThe Enneagram (or Enneagon) is a nine-pointed diametric figure which is used to indicate the dynamic ways that aspects of things and processes are connected and change.

These days the Enneagram figure's most well-known use is in indicating a dynamic model of nine distinct yet interconnected psychological types (usually called 'personality types' or 'character types'). These types can be understood as unconsciously developing from nine distinct archetypal patterns.

As a typology model it is often called the Enneagram of Personality, but it is usually only called the Enneagram. This can cause confusion with the other ways in which the Enneagram figure is used.

Although usually understood as being a personality typology, others understand it as a model of archetype-based character types. The theoretical distinctions between 'personality' and 'character' requires more clarification by those who make them.

Contemporary ways of understanding and describing the Enneagram of Personality have developed from various traditions of spiritual wisdom and modern psychological insight. Whilst many people understand the Enneagram principally in spiritual or mystical ways, others understand it primarily in psychological terms.

Contents [hide]
1 The diametric figure
2 Historical development
3 The nine types
4 Wings
5 Stress & security points
6 Instinctual subtypes
7 Ego-fixations & deadly sins
8 Research issues
9 Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's integration of Astrology & the Enneagram
10 Criticism
11 References
12 See also
13 External links



[edit]
The diametric figure
The term 'enneagram' derives from the Greek words 'ennea' (nine) and 'gramma' (something written or drawn). The figure can also be called an 'enneagon'. The usual form of the Enneagram figure consists of a circle with nine points on its circumference equally spaced with one point at the top and numbered clockwise from 1 to 9, starting with 1 at the point one position clockwise from the top-most point and ending with 9 at the top-most point. An equilateral triangle joins points 3, 6, and 9, and an irregular hexagon joins the remaining six points. The lines forming the sides of the hexagon join the points numbered, in sequence, 1, 4, 2, 8, 5, 7, 1, which are the sequence of digits in the decimal representation of the fraction 1/7.

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Historical development
It is sometimes speculated that forms of the Enneagram typology can be found in ancient sources, especially within the Sufi spiritual tradition, or that the Enneagram figure is possibly a variant of the Chaldean Seal from the times of Pythagoras. There does not appear to be any evidence to support such speculations.

It seems that the Enneagram figure's first definitely established use (at least in its most common form of the triangle and hexagon) is found in the writings of the Greek-Armenian spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff (died 1949) and his Russian-born student P. D. Ouspensky. The teaching tradition established by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (which is still continued by various other teachers and schools) is called the Fourth Way.

According to his writings, he learned of the enneagram in the Egyptian Temple of the Goddess Isis located in what was called Heliopolis. However, he was taught that the origins of the enneagram dated back another 10,000 years – from his time – to a civilization which was more advanced than ours today. You probably learned the Pythagorean Theorem in geometry. Pythagoras is the founder of the Pythagorean school of science and mathematics and was an acknowledged master in the field. However, he was ridiculed for hundreds of years after his death for his belief in the connection between the enneagram numbers and personality.

More recently, the noted Russian philosopher Gurdjieff is reported to have traveled to what we now call the Middle East in search of the Secret Sarmouni Brotherhood, the reputed keepers of the ancient mysteries of the enneagram. In the early 1900's, intellectuals and notables from around the world flocked to New York and Paris to study with Gurdjieff. He offered his students personal discovery and awakening through intricate patterns of rhythm, dance, and movement, all of which were based on the enneagram. Gurdjieff, however, never revealed the enneagram as his inspiration or source.

Gurdjieff's teachings were heavily influenced by his personal experience with Sufism as well as Orthodox Christianity and Buddhism. Even though some of the principal ways of understanding the Enneagram have come from the Fourth Way tradition, there does not seem to be any clear evidence that he used the Enneagram figure as a typological model (at least not in the popular contemporary form).

One student of Fourth Way teachings, John G. Bennett, developed the idea of the Enneagram as part of a wider study that he named Systematics. This is unrelated to personality as such, but can be applied to transformative processes (see Bennett's book, Enneagram Studies, and Anthony Blake's book, The Intelligent Enneagram and Enneagram of Process). This use of the Enneagram has been applied to understanding and improving the functioning of groups, particularly in a business context (see Richard N. Knowles' book, The Leadership Dance).

Another branch of the application of the Enneagram is focused on different body types (see Joel Friedlander's book Body Types: The Enneagram of Essence Types, or Susan Zannos' book Human Types: Essence and the Enneagram).

The figure's use for a typological model is first clearly found in the teachings of Bolivian-born Oscar Ichazo (born 1931) and his system called 'Protoanalysis'. Ichazo first taught his understanding of the Enneagram (or the 'Enneagon' as it is usually called in his teachings) to students in Arica, Chile in the 1960s and later in the United States through his Arica Institute.

Much of popular Enneagram teaching has, however, been principally developed - directly or indirectly - from the teachings of the Chilean-born psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo who first learned the basics of the Enneagram from Ichazo in Arica.

It was principally from Naranjo that the Enneagram became established in the United States. His Enneagram teaching was further developed by many others teachers including a number of Jesuit priests and seminarians at Loyola University in Chicago.

Popular authors such as Helen Palmer, Don Richard Riso, Richard Rohr, and spiritual teacher Eli Jaxon-Bear have also contributed significantly to the spread of Enneagram teaching in the United States and internationally.

There are, however, some significant differences between Palmer, Riso and other Enneagram theorists in their interpretation and approach. Some Enneagram teachers (such as Riso) have developed and promoted theories that have not been generally accepted.

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The nine types
The nine Enneagram types are often given names that indicate some distinctive behavioral aspect, though these labels are insufficient to capture the nuances of the type concerned.

Some examples are as follows. (For convenience, the corresponding deadly sin is indicated in square brackets: see below).

One: Reformer, Critic, Perfectionist [Anger]. This type focuses on integrity. Ones can be wise, discerning and inspiring in their quest for the truth. They also tend to dissociate themselves from their flaws and can become hypocritical and hyper-critical, seeking the illusion of virtue to hide their own vices. The One's greatest fear is to be flawed and their ultimate goal is perfection. (Alternative One description)
Two: Helper, Giver, Caretaker [Pride]. Twos, at their best, are compassionate, thoughtful and astonishingly generous; they can also be prone to passive-aggressive behavior, clinginess and manipulation. Twos want, above all, to be loved and needed and fear being unworthy of love. (Alternative Two description)
Three: Achiever, Performer, Succeeder [Deceit]. Highly adaptable and changeable. Some walk the world with confidence and unstinting authenticity; others wear a series of public masks, acting the way they think will bring them approval and losing track of their true self. Threes fear being worthless and strive to be worthwhile. (Alternative Three description)
Four: Romantic, Individualist, Artist [Envy]. Driven by a fear that they have no identity or personal significance, Fours embrace individualism and are often profoundly creative. However, they have a habit of withdrawing to internalize, searching desperately inside themselves for something they never find and creating a spiral of depression. The stereotypical angsty musician or tortured artist is often a stereotypical Four. (Alternative Four description)
Five: Observer, Thinker, Investigator [Avarice]. Believing they are only worth what they contribute, Fives have learned to withdraw, to watch with keen eyes and speak only when they can shake the world with their observations. Sometimes they do just that. Sometimes, instead, they withdraw from the world, becoming reclusive hermits and fending off social contact with abrasive cynicism. Fives fear incompetency or uselessness and want to be capable above all else. (Alternative Five description)
Six: Loyalist, Devil's Advocate, Defender [Fear]. Sixes long for stability above all else. They exhibit unwavering loyalty and responsibility, but are prone to extreme anxiety and passive-aggressive behavior. Their greatest fear is to lack support and guidance. (Alternative Six description)
Seven: Enthusiast, Adventurer, Materialist [Gluttony]. Eternal Peter Pans, Sevens flit from one activity to another. Above all they fear being unable to provide for themselves. At their best they embrace life for its varied joys and wonders and truly live in the moment; but at their worst they dash frantically from one new experience to another, being too scared of disappointment to enjoy what they have. (Alternative Seven description)
Eight: Leader, Protector, Challenger [Lust]. Eights worry about self-protection and control. Natural leaders, capable and passionate but also manipulative, ruthless and willing to destroy anything and everything in their way. Eights seek control over their own life and their own destiny and fear being harmed or controlled by others. (Alternative Eight description)
Nine: Mediator, Peacemaker, Preservationist [Sloth]. Nines are ruled by their empathy. At their best they are perceptive, receptive, gentle, calming and at peace with the world. On the other hand they prefer to dissociate from conflicts and indifferently go along with others' wishes or simply withdraw, acting via inaction. They fear the conflict caused by their ability to simultaneously understand opposing points of view and seek peace of mind above all else. (Alternative Nine description)
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Wings
To some extent the personality issues and traits of the nine Enneagram types can be understood as 'overlapping' around the circle. Observation suggests, for example, that Type One people will also tend to manifest some of the characteristics of either or both Type Nine and Type Two. The two types on each sides of a person's principal type are usually called the 'Wings'. This aspect of Enneagram theory was first suggested by Claudio Naranjo and then further developed by Jesuit teachers. Some Enneagram theorists do not give much or any importance to the Wing concept.

Some theorists believe that one Wing will always be more dominantly active in someone's personality dynamics but others believe that both Wings can be active depending on life circumstances.

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Stress & security points
The internal lines of the triangle and hexagon indicate what are called 'Stress Points' and 'Security Points'.

In Don Riso's teachings the lines also indicate what he calls the 'directions of integration' to healthier psychological states and the 'directions of disintegration' to unhealthy psychological states.

The sequence of stress points is 1-4-2-8-5-7-1 for the hexagon and 9-6-3-9 for the triangle, whereas the security points sequence is in the opposite direction (1-7-5-8-2-4-1 and 9-3-6-9). These sequences are found in the repeating decimals resulting from division by 7 and 3, respectively, both of those numbers being important to Gurdjieff's system. (1/7 = 0.1428571...; 1/3 = 0.3333..., 2/3 = 0.6666..., 3/3 = 0.9999...).

These sequences or directions are often indicated on the Enneagram figure by the use of arrows on the lines of the triangle and hexagon (as in the example in this article above).

The traditional understanding of the stress and security points is that when people are in a more secure or relaxed state they will also tend to express aspects of the connected type in one 'direction' of their particular sequence and the other 'direction' when in a more stressed state. A relaxed One, for instance, will tend to manifest some more positive aspects of the Seven personality type (which makes sense, as Ones tend to be highly self-inhibitory, whereas Sevens give themselves permission to enjoy the moment). On the other hand, a stressed One begins to express some more negative aspects of the Four personality (particularly the obsessive introspection; they also share a certain amount of self-loathing and self-inhibition).

Another common understanding is that people may access and express both the positive and negative aspects of both type points depending on their particular circumstances.

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Instinctual subtypes
Each type also has three main instinctual subtypes - the Self-Preservation, Sexual and Social subtypes.

Self-Preservation subtypes focus on personal survival and well-being.
Sexual subtypes focus on intimacy and one-to-one relationships.
Social subtypes focus on others, groups and community.
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Ego-fixations & deadly sins
The Enneagram types have also been correlated with the traditional Seven Deadly Sins plus two additional descriptors - 'deceit' and 'fear'. The '7 sins + 2' need to be understood in a much more specific meaning than usual.

One – Anger
Anger as a frustration in working hard to do things right, while the rest of the world doesn't care about doings things right and doesn't appreciate the sacrifice and effort made.

Two – Pride
Pride as a self-inflation of ego, in the sense of seeing themselves as indispensable to others - they have no needs yet the world needs them.

Three – Deceit
Deceit in the misrepresentation of self by marketing and presenting an image valued by others rather than presenting an authentic self.

Four – Envy
Envy of someone else reminds this individual that they can never be what the other person is, reawakening a sense of self-defectiveness.

Five – Avarice
Avarice in the sense of hoarding resources in an attempt to minimize needs from a world that takes more than it gives, thus isolating oneself from the world.

Six – Fear
Fear often in the form of a generalized anxiety that can't find an actual source of fear yet may wrongly identify one through projection, possibly seeing enemies and danger where there are none.

Seven – Gluttony
Gluttony not in the sense of eating too much, but instead, of sampling a taste of everything the world has to offer (breadth) and not taking the time for richer experience (depth).

Eight – Lust
Lust in the sense of wanting more of what this individual finds stimulating to the point that most people would feel overwhelmed and say too much.

Nine – Sloth
Sloth or laziness in discovering a personal agenda and instead choosing the less problematic strategy of just going along with others' agenda.

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Research issues
Because of differences among teachers in their understanding of the personality characteristics of the nine types and more theoretical aspects of Enneagram dynamics, some skeptics argue that more research needs to be done to test the Enneagram as an empirically valid typology.

Whilst some believe that the research already done has not given support to the Enneagram's validity (especially concepts of the Wings or the Stress and Security Points) others believe that by its somewhat complex and 'spiritual' nature the Enneagram typology is too difficult to test by conventional empirical methods.

Recently published research (2005) based on a type indicator questionnaire developed by Don Riso and Russ Hudson [1] claims to have demonstrated that the nine Enneagram types are "real and objective".

In addition, a partially finished book entitled "Personality and the Brain" was posted for free download in December 2005. This book, written by a self-described "hacker", presents a model for linking the Enneagram to the current findings of neuroscience regarding prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala asymmetry. If this model proves correct, the Enneagram will enjoy direct validation. However, at present, the model is merely one layperson's hypothesis.

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Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's integration of Astrology & the Enneagram

The Gnostic CircleIn her 1972 book "The Gnostic Circle", Vedic Cosmologist Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet superimposes the Zodiac on the Enneagram and uses both the 12 and 9 divisions of the circle as an Integral Yoga which she presents an approach to understanding the evolution of consciousness. Norelli-Bachelet suggests that there is more to the Enneagram than personality typing. She teaches an understanding of the Enneagram that includes the indivual's journey in various cycles of time. In her work, the Zero figures into the Enneagram, holding the same place as the 9 point at the top of the circle, and she sets the numbers flowing in a counter-clockwise direction, following the direction of the planets around the sun and the astrological signs around the Zodiac. Each Integer or point on the Enneagram of the Gnostic Circle corresponds to one of the planets, with the Sun as the Zero, Mercury as the One and finally Pluto as the Nine.

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Criticism
Many psychologists and scientists regard the Enneagram as a pseudoscience that uses an essentially arbitrary set of personality dimensions to make its characterizations. Lacking falsifiability, the claims of Enneagram theorists cannot be verified using the conventional empirical scientific method. In this respect it is not considered to be any different from many other typological models such as that of Carl Gustav Jung's on which the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is based.

The Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue of the Roman Catholic Church has also expressed concerns about the Enneagram when used in a religious context because it is claimed that it "introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the life of the Christian faith". [2]

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet criticizes the modern approach to the Enneagram as lacking an understanding of time, and lacking cosmological perspective.[3]

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References
'The Enneagram Made Easy'; Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele, 1994, ISBN 0062510266
'The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others In Your Life'; Helen Palmer, 1991, ISBN 0062506838
'The Enneagram in Love and Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business Relationships'; Helen Palmer, 1996, ISBN 0062507214
'The Wisdom of the Enneagram'; Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson, 1999, ISBN 0555378201
'Facets Of Unity: The Enneagram Of Holy Ideas '; A. H. Almaas, Shambhala Books, ISBN 0936713143
'My best self: Using the Enneagram to free the soul'; Hurley, Kathleen V. 1993, ISBN 8572720669
'Self-Realization and The Enneagram'; Eli Jaxon-Bear, 2005, ASIN: B000B5KX10 (DVD)
'The Gnostic Circle: A Synthesis in the Harmonies of the Cosmos'; Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, Aeon Books, 1972, ISBN 0-87728-411-3
'The New Way: A Study in the Rise and Establishment of a Gnostic Society'; Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, Aeon Books, 2005
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See also
G. I. Gurdjieff
P. D. Ouspensky
A. H. Almaas
Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
E. Jaxon-Bear
Fourth Way
Gnostic circle
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External links
Arica School
Enneagram Insitute
The Enneagram Webring
Enneagram; Arguments For and Against...
International Enneagram Association
A Brief History of the Enneagram
The Leela Foundation
'Enneagram' in The Skeptic's Dictionary
A summary of several sources.
Enneagram Worldwide classes, workshops and events
Superimposing the Enneagram and Zodiac (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet)
The Missing Zero, the 4.5 Point and the Function of Time in the Enneagram
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneagram"
Categories: Personality | Psychology | Psychological tests | Spirituality | Fourth Way | Esoteric schools of thought | Pseudoscience | Occult | New Age | Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet



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