22. Circle of Nine Points
THE CIRCLE OF NINE POINTS - The circle of nine points is sometimes referred to as the enneagram. Mr. Leon MacLaren, the founder of the School, was introduced to the enneagram as it was expounded by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Later on, when he met Sri Shantananda Sarasvati, he referred to the Advaita system of the nine elements by which creation is both brought into existence and dissolved.
Description
This was central to the teaching of Gurdjieff and
Ouspensky. Ouspensky refers to it in chapter 14 of his book ‘In Search
of the Miraculous’. They used it to demonstrate the octave and other
matters. More recently the ennegram has been used by others as the
basis for analysing different types of personality.
Mr. Leon MacLaren, the founder of the School, was introduced to
the enneagram as it was expounded by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Later on, when he met Sri Shantananda Sarasvati, he referred to the
Advaita system of the nine elements by which creation is both brought
into existence and dissolved. Sri Shantananda Sarasvati. also
emphasised the importance of number in this process, i.e. the nature of
number generally and the nature of each particular number. All of this
was developed by reference to the circle with nine points which we are
now considering.