Gurdjieff Bennett and the Fourth Way (2)

joined her husband's work as an equal and, it can be argued, complemented his
‗systematic‘ attitude with her own greater aptitude for certain practical aspects of
Gurdjieff's teaching. 29
However, probably the most significant of Gurdjieff's pupils was Madame
Jeanne de Salzmann (d.1990). Although initially junior to those of Gurdjieff's earliest
pupils who had travelled with him from Russia, most notably Thomas (d.1956) and
Olga (d.1979) de Hartmann 30 , 31 her pre-eminence as a transmitter of his sacred dances
(―the movements‖ 32 ) and the fact that she was the only of Gurdjieff's early pupils to
return to him after the deliberately engendered estrangements of the early 1930s33 34
combined to place her in the unquestionable position of most senior pupil during the
final phases of his career (late 1930s to 1949). It was from her Sèvres group 35 that
Gurdjieff received his first French pupils (1936); and it was exclusively with French
pupils that he worked during the years of the Second World War.
The end of the war and the consequent re-establishment of European and trans-
Atlantic communications brought about an end of the exclusively French phase.
However, circumstantially speaking, it was the death of Ouspensky in 1947 that must
be seen as having had the most far reaching implications for the longer term
dissemination of the teaching.
Following Ouspensky's death his pupils can be
understood as having divided into three main camps. Firstly, there were those who
assembled around Ouspensky's senior pupil Francis Roles 36 whose initial intent was to
remain as true to Ouspensky as possible, maintaining the ‗purity of the System.‘ This
posture categorically excluded any possibility of communication with Gurdjieff. 37
Secondly, there were those – e.g., Kenneth Walker (d.1966) – who followed Madame
Ouspensky's advice to go to Gurdjieff in Paris. 38 Thirdly, mention must be made of
Rodney Collin (d.1956) and those who gravitated towards him. Collin had apparently
20