The Sword of Gnosis by Jacob Needleman

Maurice Nicoll : Forgotten Teacher of the Fourth Way by Gary Lachman

£25.00

A biography of the influential teacher of the Fourth Way In 1922, Maurice Nicoll (1884-1953) abandoned his successful London psychiatry practice and his direct studies with Carl Jung to move his family just outside of Paris to the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, a center recently opened by philosopher, mystic, and spiritual guru G.I. Gurdjieff, the founder of the esoteric system that became known as the “Fourth Way.” Nicoll went on to become one of the most passionate teachers of the Fourth Way, committing the final three decades of his life to teaching “The Work” in his own unorthodox style. In this revealing biography, Gary Lachman draws on recently uncovered diaries to explore the unusual, syncretic approach Nicoll brought to his teaching of the Fourth Way.

He shows how Nicoll is unique in having Jung, Gurdjieff, and Ouspensky as teachers and to have known each of these important figures in esoteric history personally, yet—as Lachman reveals—Nicoll was not a blind devotee by any stretch. The author shows how he incorporated elements of Jungian psychology and Emanuel Swedenborg-inspired mysticism into his exploration and teaching of both Gurdjieff’s and Ouspensky’s ideas, as well as into his best-known work, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Lachman reveals the unorthodox side of Nicoll in fuller detail than ever before through excerpts from recently shared diaries, in which Nicoll included detailed accounts of his own solitary “self-sex” erotic experimentations to reach visionary states, along with recordings of his dreams and other personal and mystical reflections.

The social details of Nicoll’s life are also examined, including vivid portraits of the occult scene in the early-to-mid-20th century and the communal living situations in which Nicoll sometimes resided. Drawing on his familiarity with hermetic practices and his own experiences with “The Work,” Lachman comprehensively explores the significance of Nicoll and the novelty of his thought, offering a profound, needed, and sympathetic but critical study of this man so instrumental to the development and legacy of the Fourth Way.

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Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way by Stephen A. Grant

£24.30 £27.00

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Journey Through this World - Meetings with G.I. Gurdjieff, A.R. Orage and P.D. Ouspensky by C.S. Nott

£45.00

Antiquarian / Second Hand

Published: Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1974
Condition: Very good. Dust jacket unclipped. Binding firm, pages clean and unmarked.

This is the author's second journal and a sequel to his Teachings of Gurdjieff. C. S. Nott relates events in his life from 1927 to 1949, both in Europe and America, telling of meetings with Gurdjieff in France, his friendship with A. R. Orage in England, and his contact with P. D. Ouspensky in England and, during the war, in America.

The book includes an account of the time the author and his family spent with the Frank Lloyd Wrights at their estate Taliesin, in Wisconsin, and tells also of his life at The Putney School, Vermont. Mr. Nott also writes of his financial struggles both in England and the United States and of the various jobs he did: agent for a felt manufacturer, small publisher, farm worker, editor, writer and paint sprayer.

The book contains a summary of Gurdjieff's strange booklet, Herald of Coming Good, which Nott distributed for Gurdjieff, and to an account of his contact with the various Gurdjieff pupils, especially during the war. Throughout the narrative there runs as a central theme the teaching of Gurdjieff, its impact on the narrator and his striving to carry what he had received from Gurdjieff.

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