The Archons Within

Multiple I’s and the Kingdom of the Blind
the archons within

The Fourth Way begins with a disturbing proposition: ordinary man is not inwardly unified. He speaks as though one continuous “I” governs his life, yet different aims, desires, fears, moods, and impulses repeatedly take control. One I promises; another forgets. One seeks truth; another seeks comfort. Each temporary ruler speaks in the name of the whole.

The Archons Within approaches this fundamental problem through the Gnostic image of the Archons—limited authorities who mistake partial vision for complete knowledge and temporary power for rightful sovereignty. The article does not claim that Gurdjieff taught a doctrine of cosmic Archons. Instead, it explores a striking structural correspondence between the Gnostic rulers and the Fourth Way teaching of multiple I’s.

The Archon imagery makes man’s inner division easier to recognize personally. It reveals an unstable inner government in which changing forces seize the throne, recruit thought and memory to their service, and remain powerful because their succession goes unnoticed.

The practical question is therefore not merely: “What do I think?”
It is:
Who—or what—is speaking when I say “I”?

  Fourth Way @ Wikikpedia  
George Gurdjieff developer of the Fourth Way practice

The Fourth Way is an approach to self-development developed by George Gurdjieff over years of travel in the East (c. 1890 – 1912). Students often refer to the Fourth Way as "The Work", "Work on oneself", or "The System". The exact origins of some of Gurdjieff's teachings are unknown, but various sources have been suggested.[1]

The term "Fourth Way" was further used by his student P. D. Ouspensky in his lectures and writings. After Ouspensky's death, his students published a book entitled The Fourth Way based on his lectures. According to this system, the three traditional schools, or ways, "are permanent forms which have survived throughout history mostly unchanged, and are based on religion. Where schools of Fakirs, Monks and Yogis exist, they are barely distinguishable from religious schools. The fourth way differs in that "it is not a permanent way. It has no specific forms or institutions and comes and goes controlled by some particular laws of its own."[2]

When this work is finished, that is to say, when the aim set before it has been accomplished, the fourth way disappears, that is, it disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form. Schools of the fourth way exist for the needs of the work which is being carried out in connection with the proposed undertaking. They never exist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction.[3]

The Fourth Way addresses the question of humanity's place in the Universe and the possibilities of inner development. It emphasizes that people ordinarily live in a state referred to as a semi-hypnotic "waking sleep," while higher levels of consciousness, virtue, and unity of will are possible.

The Fourth Way teaches how to increase and focus attention and energy in various ways, and to minimize day-dreaming and absent-mindedness. This inner development in oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of change, whose aim is to transform man into "what he ought to be."