General
As Gurdjieff's methods are complex and hardly work without a charismatic leader as he was, some of his teachings where adapted and integrated into the work of others. Namely from J.G Bennett and various therapists and consultants using the Enneagram of Personality in their daily practice or seminars.
"The Enneagram of Personality has been widely promoted in both business management and spirituality contexts through seminars, conferences, books, magazines, and DVDs.[1][2] In business contexts it is generally used as a typology to gain insights into workplace interpersonal-dynamics; in spirituality it is more commonly presented as a path to higher states of being, essence, and enlightenment. Both contexts say it can aid in self-awareness, self-understanding and self-development.[1]
There has been limited formal psychometric analysis of the Enneagram and the peer-reviewed research that has been done has not been widely accepted within the relevant academic communities.[3]" (Source Wikipedia)
The Law of Seven in practice
"Everything in the universe is created and sustained by vibrations — energy enlivening matter produces vibrations. Thoughts and feelings are vibrations, the wind rustling in the leaves is vibration, light reaching us from the sun and the stars is vibration. The whole of our life is vibration, everything that we perceive through our senses and everything we think feel and do.
Music is vibration – the emotional vibrations of a violinist’s inspiration, transmitted through the bow that enlivens the strings to vibrate and move an audience to tears, all this is vibration at every step. Understanding vibration is one way to grasp the essential unity that gives meaning to life.
... The Law of Seven determines how vibrations develop, interact and change. An octave is a repetitive motion. A succession of waves may be building up or dying away — forming an ascending or a descending octave. Each wave is similar but different to the one before and the one after. ...."
"We are most conscious of our failures when dealing with new situations, where often ‘things don’t work out’. But lots of things in human society do work out, at least usually. Houses, ships, cars get built; food gets produced and marketed; money gets earned and spent; laws get passed; babies get born. Many other things, new plans and initiatives, just peter out and fade away from lack of the right energy or turn into something quite different from the original conception. Understanding the law of seven is the key to learning how to finish what we start and what to expect along the way." (Source www.ouspenskytoday.org)
The law of the seven in everyday life
But the law of the seven can get applied in everyday life too. A relatively straightforward way to get a sense how this the octaves is evolving or not in everyone's life is to start to see how artists and performances make use of this law. In most cases the artists never heard about the law of seven, but most of their work has at least a basic sense of this law. Of course in the case of music the octave is beside of the rhythm the key of any kind of music.
Take, for example, the popular James Bond film series. Even though the stories of the different films themselves deal with new threats to the security of the Western world, the basic scheme of the stories remains quite similar. At the beginning, Bond and some of his colleagues or adversaries are introduced, as well as the area of the story or the threat.
About a third of the way through, Bond is confronted for the first time with the enemy or a major representative of the enemy. This is the first peak of tension and, of course, involves a lot of action scenes. After that the story and the main characters are set and known to the audience and the confrontations can continue. Then, towards the end, there is the final climax with the usual big showdown and, of course, lots of tension and action.
If we place this curve of tension on top of a keyboard starting with C (DO), we can see that both peaks occurs quite exactly at the changes from Mi to Fa and from Si to Do.
If we can apply this sense of dynamic in our own activities, as presenting in front of public or organizing a public event we could see that eventually to people will leave the event as happy as after watching a Bond movie. But of course the law of seven can show us in more deeper aspects of our lives how certain dynamics do evolve of get stuck.
Sometime then it helps to remember at which stage of a process or project we are and what could be necessary t overcome certain obstacles.
The following list may help to understand what kind energy might be dominant in each of the steps. Of course this is one interpretation out of many. Basically it is to said, that at the point of each interval (Mi/Fa and Si/Do) an extra portion of energy or consciousness is required. Otherwise the desired results will not be achieved, or we end up repeating the previous patterns. Many actions, mostly driven just by habits, are an endless repetition of Do-Re-Mi. Sounds boring and rather ugly.
| Do | It is said that, in a piece of music all the rest is contained in the first tone. So a intention to do or to achieve something is the Do of the following process and the quality or purity of the intention determines deeply the outcome, which is the Do in the next octave. |
| Re | Followed by the good intention, the right impulses leading to the first actions. |
| Mi | The actions are showing first results and it often seems that everything is on the right track until!? |
| 𝄮 | Interval: It can happen quite sudden, that obstacles appear, or that are confronted with strong doubts about this process and the probability of a success. This is the step where an we need to go back to Do and contemplate about what we really want to achieve. Then we need to figure what we can or must leave behind to go further. |
| Fa | A new stream of energy or supporters allow to get a refined picture of this particular journey. |
| Sol | The process is gaining momentum and a certain routine is emerging. |
| La | The momentum from Sol continuous. |
| Si | We see the light at the end of the tunnel and the realization of our goal seems to be quite near. |
| 𝄮 | Interval: As in the Mi/Fa interval things start to get heavy, often accompanied by external negative forces. A similar extra portion of consciousness as in Mi/Fa can help us to overcome the barriers. |
| Do | Finally the desired, but refined, results come true. It gets much easier to do the rest hopefully accompanied by joy and lightness. But every Do is already the Do of a next process or octave and should give more clarity about what is driving us in our daily life. |
References
- Clarke, Peter (2004). Encyclopedia of new religious movements. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-203-48433-9.
- Kemp, Daren (2004).
New age: a guide : alternative spiritualities from Aquarian conspiracy to Next Age. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN
978-0-7486-1532-2.
- Thyer, Dr Bruce A.; Pignotti, Monica (15 May 2015). Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice. Springer Publishing Company. p. 49. ISBN 9780826177681.