The Miraculous Part 4
July 9, 2025
The Miraculous Part 4
George Gurdjieff (1877-1949) is known as the discoverer of the wisdom of the enneagram and the first person to bring its wisdom to the western world. He studied with many mystics and spiritual teachers in his travels from the Middle East throughout Asia. Since being a young man, Gurdjieff searched for a more conscious spiritual pathway. Raised Russian Orthodox, he never departed from that faith and requested a Christian funeral. But in his extensive travels, Gurdjieff explored many religions and incorporated some of their belief systems into a body of knowledge he called “The Work.” The work focused on the three human intelligence centers and the soul that undergirds them. His teachings were later called “The Fourth Way.”
His teaching school was based on the premise that most people live uninspected lives and are simply sleepwalking through life. He held that life is a serious proposition and that if we can awaken from our hypnotic trance, we will live a conscious and vibrant life with an understood purpose; he would teach at his school, The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, which found its final home in Fontainebleau, France.
Gurdjieff wrote several books, the most notable of which are Beelzebub’s Tales and Meetings with Remarkable Men. His most prominent student and ardent follower was Peter Ouspensky, who recorded his teachings—the book is entitled In Search of the Miraculous. It explains the three centers, the Enneagram, its mathematical foundations, and the premises of attainment of consciousness.
Ouspensky’s book, In Search of the Miraculous, sums up Gurdjieff’s lifelong quest to find the ultimate spiritual pathway. The title reveals that such a pathway would lead us to the miraculous, the realm of the Divine. It is possible that Jesus referred to this realm as “The Kingdom of God.” Of note is that Oscar Ichazo (1931-2020) formed the Arica Institute which has similar aims to Gurdjieff’s school. After learning from Ichazo, the psychiatrist and seminal Enneagram author, Claudio Naranjo (1932-2019) formed a study group called “Seekers After Truth” that was similar in intention to Ichazo’s and Gurdjieff’s schools.
Why do we search for the miraculous? One answer lies in the fact that humankind has always sought an understanding of itself, its origins, and its eventual destiny. Venturing past all our “knowns” into the unknown is a journey into the miraculous. The first humans found their identity by journeying into nature, its revelations, energies, and guidance.
The earliest societies worked out the patterns of the stars, the constellations, the solstices, the earth’s healing substances, and the myths that sprang from the primary relationship to nature. They searched for something beyond themselves— the realm of the miraculous. And many of us still search for it. Some of us have found bits of it, and others have seen more than a little. It is miraculous to love, to develop in consciousness, to understand our fixations, and to apply the healing energies that counteract our fixations. It is miraculous to experience union with the Divine. It is miraculous to transcend our limitations and enter the world of wonder.
Spiritual practice: Journal your definition of the miraculous.
Self-inquiry: What of the miraculous have you personally experienced?
Dear God,
As I reach beyond myself, I ask to touch your face. Amen.
