Secret_History

76 The Secret History of the World
end of the trail, and to discover what lies on the other side. A student of
Mouravieff asks:
Why did Gurdjieff hide his sources? Why does he remain silent on this subject,
except in rare exceptional circumstances, such as that encounter with Mouravieff at
the Cafe de la Paix: “I find the system at the foundations of the Christian doctrine.
What do you say on this matter?” [asked Mouravieff of Gurdjieff]-- “It is the
ABC,” Gurdjieff answered me. “But they do not understand this!” [A response to
William Patrick Patterson’s criticism in his book “Taking with the Left Hand” by a
student of Boris Mouravieff Translated from the French by Theodore J.
Nottingham]
In his book, Struggle of the Magicians, Patterson includes quotes on the front
pages which say:
The Magus is the highest that man can approach to God. - G.I. Gurdjieff
Toast to Gurdjieff:: God give you the strength and the manhood to endure your
lofty solitude. - Rachmilevitch
Gurdjieff is a kind of walking God - a planetary or even solar God. - A.R. Orage
In response to these ideas, obviously dear to the heart of many Gurdjieff
followers, including Patterson, let me just point out that Gurdjieff never
accomplished the transmutation. He died just like everybody else. 33
Considering the fact that several other “seekers” were reputed to have
transitioned without seeing death - Flamel and Fulcanelli among them - we might
think that the only parts of Gurdjieff’s work that should interest us are the parts
that elucidate the work of the affirmed Masters. And frankly, Mouravieff has
offered many clues that do, in fact, contribute to the body of alchemical/hermetic
knowledge in a significant way.
Mouravieff’s work is extraordinary in its clarity and completion of what was
started by Gurdjieff, explaining much that Gurdjieff never explained, or if he did,
those he explained it to either did not understand it, or sought to keep it secret so
as to dispense it in controlled dollops to those they considered worthy (or who had
enough money to pay for it).
I would like to note here that the work of Mouravieff provides that ineluctable
bridge between the works of Gurdjieff, Ibn al-’Arabi, Carlos Casteneda,
conjectured esoteric Christianity, hermeticism/alchemy and the Cassiopaean
Transmissions. It should be noted that the Cassiopaeans - us in the future - have
definitively supported the existence and work of a man around whom the Jesus
legend formed - though they tell us that the story in the Bible that is supposed to
be history is a myth - and here we find a body of teachings that lends background
33 And I should add, so did Rene Schwaller.