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Gurdjieff
is said to have introduced the Enneagram to the West, having
learnt about it in the context of Islamic esoterism and the Sufi
tradition.
This
article, however, will demonstrate that this belief is in fact
mistaken, with proof that the Enneagram was already known in the
West, as far back as the 18th century.
Having said this, it is not our intention to minimize the value
of Gurdjieff's work, but rather to raise it higher,
establishing it in the framework of the spiritual legacy of the
Western world from
which he came.
The
word “Enneagram” is derived from the Greek words,
“ennea” meaning “nine” and “gramma” meaning “sign”.
The main problem facing esoteric iconography
experts is the complete absence of books or written
materials concerning the subject. In reality the system for interpreting the Enneagram has always been that
of direct transmission: “word of mouth”.
Via
certain sources of information, also based on the Islamic
culture, it is possible to
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discover the wide range of
symbology related to the Enneagram.
The
Enneagram was used:
to
describe the processes of nature;
to
study the Holy Scriptures;
as
a system of cryptography
and
as
a summary to explain psychological mechanisms. This
last point is the most well-known aspect of the
Enneagram nowadays. This is a result of the interpretation of
modern scholars, who know very little of the historical and
cultural roots of the symbol. The value and importance of the
symbol of the Enneagram will never be clear without knowing its foundations.
The
Enneagram demonstrates, to open-hearted people who become
interested in it, a wide range of correlations of concepts, laws
and symbols.
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Continued...
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