Gurdjieff: Ritual Movements and Prayer

Azize, Joseph

doi:10.5840/asrr202421108

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review

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published on February 2, 2024

Joseph Azize

https://doi.org/10.5840/asrr202421108

Gurdjieff: Ritual Movements and Prayer

G. I. Gurdjieff, a mystic of Greek descent, said that, in ancient religion, ritual and sacred dance were guidebooks containing vital truth, which could not be understood without a key. They were “guidebooks” in that they aimed to bring one to a state where one can experience one’s individual reality, and even a relationship to God. For Gurdjieff, prayer, including ritual prayer, meant connection, and so he attributed to rituals an objective value, and did not reduce them to an instrument of communication. His own “sacred gymnastics” or “Movements” comprised three categories: “exoteric,” “mesoteric,” and “esoteric.” While all three levels are linked, the esoteric and mesoteric levels approximate to ritual prayers and to contemplative exercises. Exoteric Movements chiefly serve to prepare one’s body and attention for the higher. We note how Gurdjieff exhibited these ideas in his “ballet scenario,” The Struggle of the Magicians, and how they are consistent with what was understood of ancient Greek dance in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The key to understanding the unity of his aims and methods is his concept of “self-remembering.”

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