Look at the variations of
the flowing outside “I” from 1a down to 1c. We have said this
part of the “I” represents the personality, the kind of traits we acquire
during life. Many authors have described the personality "types”, and we must reject
modern horoscopes as being too simplistic and too often abused without the
knowledge that maybe “ancient astrologers” once did have.
Amongst the most useful of type classifications for practical
purposes and which anyone can test for themselves are: Sheldon’s body types of
endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph, and their corresponding 3 “cerebrotypes”:
viscerotonics, somatotonics and cerebrotonics; not a far cry from Gurdjieff’s
Man No. 1 (physically centred), Man No. 2 (emotionally centred) and Man No. 3
(intellectually centred) – (and remember the corresponding tripartite tradition
of the Three Ways: “fakir – monk – yogi”); and the Enneagram types 1 through 9,
which are a little subtler, as all 9 have “wings” or variants.
So our 12th century masters knew about
this and showed it in their strokes. If one’s personality (ego) is excessively
intellectually centred, we are following the upper curve of fantasy (1a)
and we are driven along on the illusion of the power of the intellect to make
fireworks and dwell in the ceaseless roaming of the mind. See how the curve
flows outwards – that is my ability to use thoughts to conquer the world! If I
am centred mostly in this upper part of the ego, the intellect, then I will try
to build a tower to the heavens and grasp God by the neck and squeeze the truth
out of him by analysing everything and disassembling everything and dissecting
everything and rebuilding everything to see how it works… But then, I come to a
dead-end. I face the same impasse that Socrates always came to: the logical mind
can only go so far on its own, and no further. That is why after analysing
everything and being as logical and rational as possible, the Greek master always
reverted to myth and legend to report on what he called the supra-sensible
world.
If on the other hand my concern is with
lusty life and I have a tendency to gluttony, good-living and the experience of
the emotions more than the dry intercourse of the intellect, I will find my
abode in the soft thick curves of the outer “I” in its middle part (1b):
fat and thick from drinking of the mead and the honey of this life. And when
so-called disasters arise, I will have nowhere to go, but will lament the lack
of more food, drink and sensual experience, and cry away until I can find more
of the same, if it ever comes.
And then if what I really seek in this
life is the status quo of the physical, and only believe in the material, and
value money, riches, anxiety, tension, the money and fame game, I will lie
myself down in the bottom curve of the right-hand part of the “I” (1c)
and roll in the mud, seeking pearls perhaps, and asking how much they might
cost, and striving to buy them, only not to appreciate them once I get them,
and looking for something else, and so on repeatedly. I will think, yes, the
body is my temple, I shall do exercise, I shall eat this food or that, I will
keep myself young, I will seek out those pleasures that only bodies can give. I
am strong, I am good-looking, I am the master of the world… until physical
diseases sets in from I know not where and destroys everything I thought I had
gained.
These are three short interpretations of
the preponderance of the three possible sections of the outward facing “I”,
corresponding to personality types and modes of existence. They are all basic
groundwork, all nothing without the left-hand side… which we shall deal with in
the next entry.
(to be continued)
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