Good and Evil in Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, Part III: Third Force

  Part III of a seven-part series

The remaining fraction of this mechanism represents third force, the “holy reconciling” factor in Gurdjieff’s Trinitarian cosmology. This force acts as an inner part of man’s being according to the law of his formation as a mirror of larger cosmic processes. It corresponds to Meister Eckhart’s ground of the soul, that middle meeting place between the divine inflow and the outward action of agency in which an exchange takes place.

Gurdjieff describes this force as the result of the clash of inner and outer properties; and this represents some significant conceptual and theological challenges, because describing it as a result implies that it does not have an independent nature; and I believe it reasonable to point out here that the general conception of third force as considered by Gurdjieff pupils — as well as the general conception of the Holy Ghost — is that of a force or agency owning an independent identity distinct from the other two forces.

It poses further theological challenges in light of Christian teaching, because in Christian teaching the traditional structure of engenderment is Father – Holy Ghost – Son. Gurdjieff’s description asserts instead that the Father and the Son, taken together, give birth to the Holy Ghost; nuanced, perhaps, but also a potential heresy.

'And as for the third universal force, this is nothing but the result of the clash, everywhere and in everything, of these two fundamental, descending and ascending independent forces. " 'Although this third independent force is only the result of the first two fundamental forces, it is nevertheless the spiritualizing and reconciling principle of every cosmic formation. 

Gurdjieff describes the third force as the result of a clash between the other two forces. The word clash has imitative origins meant to reproduce the sound of a loud noise, two symbols coming together; yet it can also mean — as it does here — a struggle. We are reminded of Gurdjieff’s ray of creation, where the pressure (the momentum from the prime source) of the ray of creation is great and actually works against the struggle of creatures to ascend its hierarchy. 

Lest we doubt that this result, this third force, is not an independent entity, he reiterates that it is only (”nothing but”) the result, emphasizing its origin. This puts to lie any presumption that Gurdjieff makes room for an alternative interpretation. It furthermore imparts an exquisite irony to the traditional Gurdjieff adage that “one doesn’t work for results”: third force is a result.

Despite its dependent nature, it’s still absolutely essential, per its role as the spiritualizing and reconciling principle of every cosmic formation. 

Gurdjieff’s famous wordiness consistently belies the succinct nature of his more important statements. Much can be inferred here in this simple turn of words. First of all, we know that Gurdjieff has sketched out a very firm view of the essential nature of being. 

Being arises from within the spiritual — the divine inflow of the first force from the prime source is the “outward breath” of the divine, which is received as the “inward breath”of the material. This is the literal meaning of that which is spiritual, derived from Latin spirare, to breathe.

Yet the result of that inspiration, that breathing in of the divine by the material, is not just the cosmic formation itself (the created material) but also a lawful animation consisting of a spiritualizing principal that automatically arises. If we think about it for a moment, this is, in fact, a second spiritualization or inspiration of force; and we can liken this at once to Gurdjieff’s discussion of conscious shocks. It is a force arising automatically from the existence of the first two forces and their opposing struggle; and it animates being as a reconciling principal. It is what brings the two forces back together.

The two forces create the third force by their very existence alone; and it raises questions about the nature of third force. It can be construed, as might be typical in the geometry of the equilateral triangle, as the apex of the triangle, with affirming and denying forces lying along its base as entities on the same level and of equal value. 

In this image, the reconciling force is a higher force, located as it is at the apex of the triangle; and yet that seems peculiar, because in most conventional versions of God’s place in religious cosmology, the highest action comes from God —not from the “third force” of reconciliation between God and the material.

'And it is the spiritualizing and reconciling principle of every cosmic world-formation because it arises and must exist in them as a presence as long as there exist the results of diverse unusual mutual resistances occurring between the two fundamental forces flowing in entirely opposite direction.' 

In this phrase, we see that Gurdjieff conceives of the third force as an inevitable lawful arising as a consequence of the flow of the two opposing forces — the higher into the material, and the material back into the higher.

Understanding third force, in its Christian terms, as the Holy Spirit — Jeanne de Salzmann’s “higher energy” — we must take a further step in understanding that it represents the potential for a conscious action. As a spiritualizing force, it gives life to what is — it serves as breath, as inspiration. As a reconciling principal, it can function either mechanically or consciously; and of course Gurdjieff’s interest is in the conscious function of the third force.

May you be well within today.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.