3 and 7 and Cosmic Laws
The Ray of Creation and the Food Diagram are inseparable from Gurdjieff’s teaching about the fundamental law of three forces and the law of the sevenfold development of energy (the Law of Octaves), and the interrelation of these laws as expressed in the symbol of the enneagram. The reflection of these ideas in man is inseparable from Gurdjieff’s teaching about the tripartite division of human nature, the three “centers” of mind, feeling, and body, and the astonishing account of how Gurdjieff structured the conditions of group work is inseparable from the idea of his work as a manifestation of the Fourth Way, a spiritual path distinct from the traditionally familiar paths termed “the way of the fakir,” “the way of the monk,” and “the way of the yogi.”
Gurdjieff focused on two main cosmic laws, the Law of Three and the Law of Seven.
- The Law of Seven is described by Gurdjieff as “the first fundamental cosmic law”. This law is used to explain processes. The basic use of the law of seven is to explain why nothing in nature and in life constantly occurs in a straight line, that is to say that there are always ups and downs in life which occur lawfully. Examples of this can be noticed in athletic performances, where a high ranked athlete always has periodic downfalls, as well as in nearly all graphs that plot topics that occur over time, such as the economic graphs, population graphs, death-rate graphs and so on. All show parabolic periods that keep rising and falling. Gurdjieff claimed that since these periods occur lawfully based on the law of seven that it is possible to keep a process in a straight line if the necessary shocks were introduced at the right time. A piano keyboard is an example of the law of seven, as the seven notes of the major scale correspond exactly to it.
- The Law of Three is described by Gurdjieff as “the second fundamental cosmic law”. This law states that every whole phenomenon is composed of three separate sources, which are Active, Passive and Reconciling or Neutral. This law applies to everything in the universe and humanity, as well as all the structures and processes. The Three Centers in a human, which Gurdjieff said were the Intellectual Centre, the Emotional Centre and the Moving Centre, are an expression of the law of three. Gurdjieff taught his students to think of the law of three forces as essential to transforming the energy of thehuman being. The process of transformation requires the three actions of affirmation, denial and reconciliation.
How the Law of Seven and Law of Three function together is said to be illustrated on the Fourth Way Enneagram, a nine-pointed symbol which is the central glyph of Gurdjieff’s system.
Law of Three
The Law of Three, in a short description, means that three forces enter into every manifestation, into every phenomenon, and every event. They are called (but these are only words, because they do not express their qualities) positive, negative and neutralising, or active, passive and neutralising; or, still more simply, they may be called first force, second force and third force.
These three forces enter into everything. In many cases we understand the need for two forces — that one force cannot create an action, that there is action and resistance. But generally we are not aware of the third force. This is connected with the state of our being, the state of our consciousness. In another state we would be aware of it in many cases where we do not see it now. Sometimes we can find examples of the third force in ordinary scientific study — for example, in chemistry and in biology we can find the necessity for a third force in the creation of events and phenomena.
We begin with the study of psychology. Later we shall talk more about three forces and we may find some examples of their interaction. But it is better to be prepared and get accustomed now to the idea of the need to study these three forces.
- http://mozart2051.tripod.com/law_of_three.htm
- http://zenyogagurdjieff.blogspot.ca/2008/10/law-of-three.html
Law of Seven
The Law of Seven must also be described briefly. It means that no process in the world goes without interruptions.
In order to understand the meaning of this law it is necessary to regard the Universe as consisting of vibrations. Suppose something begins to vibrate at 1000 vibrations a second and the frequency increases to 2000 vibrations a second. This period is called an octave, because this law was applied to music and the period was divided into seven notes and a repetition of the first note.
The octave, particularly the major octave, is really a picture or formula of a cosmic law because, in common arrangements, within one octave there are two moments when octaves slow down by themselves. Vibrations do not develop regularly. In the major octave this is shown by the missing semi-tones; that is why we are told that it is a picture of a cosmic law; but this law is not restricted to music.
The reason why it is necessary to understand the Law of Seven is that it plays a very important part in all events. If there were no Law of Seven, everything in the world would go directly to its final conclusion; but because of this law, everything deviates. For instance, if rain began it would go on without stopping; if floods began, they would cover everything; if an earthquake began it would go on indefinitely. But they stop because of the Law of Seven, because at every missing semi-tone things deviate; they do not go by straight lines.
The Law of Seven also explains why there are no straight lines in Nature. Everything in Life and in our machine is based on this law. So we shall study it in the work of our organism, because we have to study ourselves not only psychologically, not only in connection with our mental life, but also in connection with our physical life. In our physical processes we find many examples of the working of this law.
At the same time, the Law of Seven explains that, if you know how and at what moment to do it, you can give an additional shock to an octave and keep the line straight. We can observe in human activity how people start to do one thing and after some time do a quite different thing, still calling it by the first name without noticing that things have completely changed. But in personal work, particularly in work connected with this system, we must learn how to keep these octaves from deviating, how to keep a straight line. Otherwise we shall not find anything.