Struggle of the Magicians: Why Uspenksii Left Gurdjieff: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship

by William Patrick Patterson and Wm. Patrick Patterson

Of all relationships, that between teacher and student is the most mysterious, most rewarding. That between Gurdjieff and Uspenskii (P. D. Ouspensky), two of the seminal spiritual figures of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 187951480X
• ISBN13: 9781879514805
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Arete Communications
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great book, facts, facts, facts

There exists much confusion on how in the beginning of the last century appeared, and also who brought and embodied this so strikingly powerful, ancient and sacred esoteric teaching of spiritual transformation known as the Fourth way. Through the detailed, first hand study and use of published and unpublished materials, integrating the facts into one chronological timeline, Patterson ventures to explore the question of identity of G.I. Gurdjieff, the significance of his life, the mission he had accomplished, as well as concepts of the teaching.With the use of historical events as a background for the depiction of Gurdjieff and some of his most well-known students - Uspensky, Orage, and Bennett - the reader gets a multidimensional picture, a deep perspective of the archetypal interplay of historical forces and people, with their personal histories, identifications, as well as their search for higher truth. One can almost get a taste of the ancient, always different and yet always the same, struggle of the magicians. That is, the struggle of a teacher to create conditions for his student to see himself and to grow in the sense of being, and the unconscious struggle of a student to keep his limited world unseen, secure, and intact. Unlike many writers on the subject, Patterson limited the main text of the book to the description of factual events and kept his comments, interpretations and intuitions to the footnotes and short essays at the end of the book. This powerful method provokes the reader to use their own critical thinking and judgment to come to more or less uninfluenced conclusions. Through the life examples of great seekers like Uspensky, Orage, Bennett, as well as many others, and life of Georgiy Ivanovitch Gurdjieff - the man, whom they saw as their teacher, and who paid very high price to bring this teaching to the West, Struggle of the Magicians invites reader to explore the dynamics of teacher-student relationship and gives valuable learning material on the history of establishing of the Fourth Way in our time.

Gurdjieff, Uspenski, Orage and Bennett

This is a chronicle of the teacher-student relationship between G. I. Gurdjieff and his three most prominent students, set against the background of some of the most turbulent history of the past century. Using a simple journal style, the author draws on a variety of sources to relay a timeline history of Mr. Gurdjieff's many attempts bring the Fourth Way to the West and his relationships with P. D. Uspenskii, John Bennett and A. R. Orage. Gurdjieff first meets P. D. Uspenskii in 1915, while teaching in Russia. After years of travel and study in the Middle East and Asia Minor, he has uncovered an ancient teaching and he has come to Moscow and Petrograd on a mission to make this teaching accessible to the West. Uspenskii seems to be the man Gurdjieff is looking for -- ideally suited to assist him in setting up his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. A writer and lecturer on the occult and theosophy, Uspenskii can easily capture the attention of his listeners and he has a massive intellect, well able to take in the breadth of Gurdjieff's ideas and cosmology. For Uspenskii, Gurdjieff holds the key to understanding and gathering together the many threads of the different eastern ideas that he has been pursuing. But Uspenskii has trouble placing himself in the role of a student and in accepting Gurdjieff's authority. Here we see the archetypal struggle between master and disciple - first acceptance, but then resistance and a rebellion that destroys the trust so necessary for the student's development. The revolution and the World War drives Gurdjieff and Uspenskii out of Russia to Essentuki, Constantinople, and eventually to Europe after the war. We see Uspenskii more and more keeping his distance, but using Gurdjieff's teaching to set up his own groups. He ends up in England while Gurdjieff settles in France to finally open his Institute at Fontainebleau.We get glimpses of John Bennett, who first meets Gurdjieff in Constantinople in 1920 and he appears later in France. Like Uspenskii, he has an unusual ability to take in the ideas of Gurdjieff and pass them on to others. And, like Uspenskii, when given the chance to take on a major role assisting Gurdjieff in France, he declines, avoiding the demands for genuine work that Gurdjieff would put on him. We also meet A. R. Orage, a well known English literary critic and founder of the very influential journal, The New Age. Approaching middle age, Orage throws himself into the work at the Institute, soaks up the teaching so well that Gurdjieff sends him to America to start groups there. He is faithful to this task until he meets his own inner resistance as it manifests in his 1927 marriage to a much younger woman, Jesse Dwight, who has little interest in Gurdjieff's work and is determined to keep Orage away from it. These men were giants among Gurdjieff's students and contributed greatly to introducing his ideas to the West. But at a critical moment each could not make the inn

Most Insightful Work

Recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Fourth Way and its students. Also gives the view that Gurdjieff was and is the Teacher and not Ouspensky---something that so many have gotten confused. Must read.

What A Great Read

I bought this book without knowing much about the author and was very pleased. I could not put it down!! Anyone with even a vague interest in Gurdjieff and his ideas will love this book. After reading it, I just had to read more of Patterson's books! He has an incredibly readable style.

A insightful look into the history of the Gurdjieff movement

The book let the reader feel as if he is riding the current of history along with the individuals who worked with Gurdjieff in the early years of the 20th century to establish Mr. Gurdjieff's teching in the west. It also provides a historical context that portrays events against a backdrop of political and social events and upheavals. A GREAT read.