Gravitas, Part III: Gravity and the Holy Trinity

 

When Gurdjieff discussed the idea of higher particles “coating” man’s being body, he spoke of substances being deposited in us. He talked about it in terms of “magnetic center,” a part that attracts the impressions of life and deposits them. 

Yet although all the interactions of impressions are, on this level and within any level, magnetic, the force that binds them to one another is ultimately gravitational; and the more mass and weight impressions acquire, the more they draw other impressions unto themselves, in the same way that a planet emits a wider and more powerful gravitational field as it gets larger. This gravitational field creates, as a consequence, a magnetic field around it with a greater and greater charge, because magnetism is a function of gravity and not the other way around. That is to say, physics would have us believe the gravity has its origins in electromagnetic functions; but it’s actually the opposite. Electromagnetic functions have their root in gravity. 

The simple way of seeing this from the metaphysical and esoteric point of view is that the law of three precedes the law of seven. This is why Gurdjieff’s holy affirming, holy denying, holy reconciling is the central subject of prayer. You will notice there are no prayers, per se, related to the law of seven. And indeed, the Holy Trinity is the foundation of the universe, according to Christian exoteric and esoteric thought.

This “coating” of higher particles within the human being thus has its roots in the attraction of gravity, not the attraction of magnetism. They both function; they’re both necessary. This interaction is reflected in the holy communion, where mention is made of both the body and blood of Christ. In this case, the “body” of Christ is the gravity, and the “blood” is the magnetism. Gurdjieff’s “Hanbledzoin” is a property of the blood of the higher being body because it’s a magnetic property; and indeed, any experience of it verifies its magnetic nature. 

But the “body” of Christ, which is gravity, is “unleavened,” and there's an esoteric meaning to this. The inner meaning of it is that no foreign agent acts to give it its essential character. Its action is pure, it does not need yeast to rise: it is the yeast. Through its action, the purity of its form and intention, it's what allows rising in the bread of life and Being to take place.

Magnetism is a wandering force. Gravity stays at home. Both forces are necessary; but the force that stays at home is the place from which all wandering begins. In this regard, think of Dogen’s expression for Zen practitioners as “leavers of home.” Although we always walk away from this expression thinking about the quality of leaving and wondering, we rarely think about the quality of home, which is the necessary condition upon which the premise of leaving takes place.

One of the reasons that stillness is cultivated in esoteric science, and in us, is because stillness is a property of gravity. 

Gravity remains whole and draws unto itself by the force of its Being; and unlike electricity, which creates spectacular displays of sound and light in the force of its interactions and discharge, it works silently and without any outward sign of its existence other than the mass of its Truth. 

I say this because there's a relationship between gravity and Truth that has to be understood through the organic intellectual, physical, and feeling capacities of the organism. The human organism was designed to encounter these elements within the gravity of Being; but as the psyche of mankind exists today, there is no such encounter. We see magnetism and gravity as purely external and stupidly physical forces, accidents that interact randomly and without rationale. This is the opposite of the truth; and yet the intellectual mind can’t be trained to understand it. The parts in it that do have understanding have been atrophied, and the parts that don’t are convinced that they already understand.

If I dwell within the gravity of Being first, my life quietly attracts the material that is necessary. The subtle organs of the body, what yoga calls the chakras, gather force individually and collectively; and although these individuated forces, which acquire certain interesting and sometimes powerful magnetisms, are compelling, it’s actually the collective force of the subtle organs that makes a difference in the action of Being. 

The collective force of the subtle organs is what can occasionally create enough force within Being to perceive The Perfection; and these are always still and silent matters that emit, above all, a call to worship. This is the only possible consequence of such influences, which is why they’re called objective. 

Objective gravity and consequential objective interaction with magnetism create objective feeling-experiences; and it’s only objective feeling experiences that produce any clarity of understanding about our relationship and the cosmological forces that support us and which we participate in as agents.

May our inner gravity increase today. 

Be well.

Warmly,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.