‘Where is the Source of the System?’: Academic Strategies for Attributing the Teachings of the Fourth Way

Abstract

The article discusses a new wave of interest in the teachings of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff at the Western Academy, highlights the key question around which the main contro­versy is currently going on: where are the origins of the Gurdjieff system? Several hypotheses are consistently analyzed: Sufi — proposed mainly by adherents of the doctrine, globally eso­teric — put forward by J. Webb, and Gnostic — developed by T. Churton. A new conceptualiza­tion of Gurdjieff's teaching, developed by D. Aziz, is considered in details. Aziz’s arguments in favor of the fact that Gurdjieff derived his system from the Hesychast Athonite tradition are analyzed, it is concluded that there are some reasons for this view. Aziz concept is deconstruct­ed on the basis that at the general philosophical and anthropological levels Gurdjieff’s prac­tices exist in a completely different mechanical-materialistic coordinate system in relation to the spiritual-religious picture of hesychasm. The article proposes a new version of the source of Gurdjieff's system — the theosophical one. To substantiate it, the historical connections of the two teachings are given and it is shown that Gurdjieff popularized himself in theosophical occult circles. Further, a number of fundamental features that Gurdjieff’s system takes from theosophy are revealed: the sevenfold structure of cosmology and anthropology, evolution­ism, quasi-scientific discourse, the esoteric core of religions, and the practice of constructing biographies. In the final part, it is concluded that Gurdjieff used theosophical concepts and myth, creating from abstract theoretical knowledge a system of practices based on the unique personality of a charismatic teacher who did not need the authority of distant mahatmas.