Centers of Gravity: Esoteric Wisdom : Rare Fourth Way Teaching on Self-Knowledge and Awakening

You have held the secret in your hands a thousand times without knowing it.The ordinary deck of playing cards — four suits, twelve face cards — encodes a complete map of human consciousness drawn from the ancient teaching tradition that G. I. Gurdjieff brought to the West. Four suits correspond to the four centers of the human machine: instinctive, moving, emotional, and intellectual. Three face cards — Jack, Queen, King — correspond to the mechanical, emotional, and intellectual parts within each center. Twelve cards, twelve fundamental configurations of the human being, twelve ways of being asleep.This book reveals the hidden teaching of the playing cards and shows how to use it for the most practical purpose imaginable: seeing yourself as you actually are. Drawing on Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Maurice Nicoll, and Rodney Collin — and integrating their psychological precision with the mystical theology of the Orthodox Christian Fathers — Theodore Nottingham provides the tools for identifying your own center of gravity, understanding why you chronically misunderstand the people you love, and beginning the ancient work of inner liberation that every spiritual tradition calls the purpose of human life.The map is in your hands. The territory is your own soul. Read more