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The Enneagram of G. I. Gurdjieff: Mathematics, Metaphysics, Music, and Meaning
A study of the enneagram symbol of G.I.Gurdjieff
144 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2017
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July 22, 2023
I should have known, as an English Education major, that I was in over my head reading this book. I’ve never done more googling in my life!
Still, I believe that this book is a deeply valuable contribution to the study of the enneagram, and of Gurdjieff’s teachings in general. As a student of the Work, I’ve found myself increasingly compelled to contemplate the enneagram and explore its connections to my own experience of life, both from an intuitive and an analytical perspective. Although this book leans heavily toward the analytical side of things — which perhaps I ought to have anticipated — it is nonetheless a rich body of material with which students of the Work can engage. Nested in the complex mathematics and incomplete conjectures — conjectures which are perhaps incomplete by their very nature, merely being, like all of this wiseacreing, more ‘useful bullshit’ that abstracts away from the raw experience of consciousness to which Gurdjieff’s teaching points — is a genuine truth with an ineffable depth, a truth which is reflected along different scales and dimensions of matter, time, and as always, our own lives. Does that sentence make sense? Probably not. But it sums up my general impressions from this book. My head hurts and I need to lie down. That’s a good thing!
Still, I believe that this book is a deeply valuable contribution to the study of the enneagram, and of Gurdjieff’s teachings in general. As a student of the Work, I’ve found myself increasingly compelled to contemplate the enneagram and explore its connections to my own experience of life, both from an intuitive and an analytical perspective. Although this book leans heavily toward the analytical side of things — which perhaps I ought to have anticipated — it is nonetheless a rich body of material with which students of the Work can engage. Nested in the complex mathematics and incomplete conjectures — conjectures which are perhaps incomplete by their very nature, merely being, like all of this wiseacreing, more ‘useful bullshit’ that abstracts away from the raw experience of consciousness to which Gurdjieff’s teaching points — is a genuine truth with an ineffable depth, a truth which is reflected along different scales and dimensions of matter, time, and as always, our own lives. Does that sentence make sense? Probably not. But it sums up my general impressions from this book. My head hurts and I need to lie down. That’s a good thing!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review