In Search of the Miraculous

can trace the enneagram in the sand and in it read the eternal laws of the universe.

And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before.

"If two men who have been in different schools meet, they will draw the

enneagram and with its help they will be able at once to establish which of them

knows more and which, consequently, stands upon which step, that is to say, which is

the elder, which is the teacher and which the pupil. The enneagram is the fundamental

hieroglyph of a universal language which has as many different meanings as there are

levels of men.

"The enneagram is perpetual motion, the same perpetual motion that men have sought since the remotest antiquity and could never find. And it is clear why they

could not find perpetual motion. They sought outside themselves that which was

within them; and they attempted to construct perpetual motion as a machine is

constructed, whereas real perpetual motion is a part of another perpetual motion and

cannot be created apart from it. The enneagram is a schematic diagram of perpetual

motion, that is, of a machine of eternal movement. But of course it is necessary to know how to read this diagram. The understanding of this symbol and the ability to

make use of it give man very great power. It is perpetual motion and it is also the philosopher's stone of the alchemists.

"The knowledge of the enneagram has for a very long time been preserved in secret

and if it now is, so to speak, made available to all, it is only in an incomplete and theoretical form of which nobody could make any practical use without instruction

from a man who knows.

"In order to understand the enneagram it must be thought of as in motion, as

moving. A motionless enneagram is a dead symbol; the living symbol is in motion."

Much later—it was in the year 1922—when G. organized his Institute in France and

when his pupils were studying dances and dervish exercises, G. showed them

exercises connected with the "movement of the enneagram." On the floor of the hall where the exercises took place a large enneagram was drawn and the pupils who took

part in the exercises stood on the spots marked by the numbers 1 to 9. Then they

began to move in the direction of the numbers of the period in a very interesting

movement,

turning round one another at the points of meeting, that is, at the points where the

lines intersect in the enneagram.

G. said at that time that exercises of moving according to the enneagram would

occupy an important place in his ballet the "Struggle of the Magicians." And he said also that, without taking part in these exercises, without occupying some kind of place

in them, it was almost impossible to understand the enneagram.

"It is possible to experience the enneagram by movement," he said. "The rhythm itself of these movements would suggest the necessary ideas and maintain the

necessary tension; without them it is not possible to feel what is most important."

There was yet another drawing of the enneagram which was made under his

direction in Constantinople in the year 1920. In this drawing inside the enneagram

were shown the four beasts of the Apocalypse—the bull, the lion, the man, and the

eagle—and with them a dove. These additional symbols were connected with

"centers."

In connection with talks about the meaning of the enneagram as a universal symbol

G. again spoke of the existence of a universal "philosophical" language.

"Men have tried for a long time to invent a universal language," he said. "And in this instance, as in many others, they seek something which has long since been found

and try to think of and invent something which has been known and in existence a

long time. I said before that there exist not one but three universal languages, to speak more exactly, three degrees. The first degree of this language already makes it

possible for people to express their own thoughts and to understand the thoughts of

others in relation to things concerning which ordinary language is powerless."

"In what relation do these languages stand to art?" someone asked. "And does not art itself represent that 'philosophical language' which others seek intellectually?"

"I do not know of which art you speak," said G. "There is art and art. You have doubtless noticed that during our lectures and talks I have often been asked various

questions by those present relating to art but I have always avoided talks on this

subject. This was because I consider all ordinary talks about art as absolutely

meaningless. People speak of one thing while they imply something quite different

and they have no idea whatever what they are implying. At the same time it is quite

useless to try to explain the real relationship of things to a man who does not know

the A B C about himself, that is to say, about man. We have talked together now for

some time and by now you ought to know this A B C, so that I can perhaps talk to you

now even about art.