The Gurdjieff Society of Newport is hosting an evening in commemoration of Mr and Mrs Adie, and with them, of the Great Work into which Gurdjieff had initiated them; that the Work may live within us, and “so may all be for our neighbour.” Those who knew the Adies are invited to join us. It will commence at 6:00pm on Saturday 27 June 2024. The venue will be near Charlestown, south of Newcastle.
We are aiming to provide conditions for the ongoing work of the Society and its members and friends. Hence, the emphasis is on the internal work, and not on sentimental recollections. We have prepared an evening of Movements, exercises, readings, exchange, and sharing in a meal.
For those who were there with the Adies, there is a special opportunity to measure what we have gained and lost: I was like that, I had those features, those tendencies, I am ever-changing, but although there is fluctuation, there is still a trend. Is what I found with the Adies alive within me? Perhaps I discover something on the Movements floor, or listening to a reading, or in the exchange. It is, in short, a way of testing myself. Most if not all of us experienced friction at Newport, especially with our peers. It is an opportunity to repair the past by being able to join with one another on the pure basis of the Work, making passive personality and our negative emotions, internal considering and identifications.
Related to this, our experiences leave many traces. Sometimes the impression made goes quite deep, but it is not as active as it might be. It may lie unremembered, which means as a passive element. One benefit of commemorations is that they may awaken these long-ago received beneficent impressions, and make them active.
Finally, it could be something in the direction of a “school of repetition.” As Gurdjieff told Ouspensky:
Special schools existed in this prehistoric Egypt which were called ‘schools of repetition.’ In these schools a public repetition was given on definite days, and in some schools perhaps even every day, of the entire course in a condensed form of the sciences that could be learned at these schools. Sometimes this repetition lasted a week or a month. Thanks to these repetitions people who had passed through this course did not lose their connection with the school and retained in their memory all they had learned. Sometimes they came from very far away simply in order to listen to the repetition and went away feeling their connection with the school. There were special days of the year when the repetitions were particularly complete, when they were carried out with particular solemnity — and these days themselves possessed a symbolical meaning.
These ‘schools of repetition’ were taken as a model for Christian churches — the form of worship in Christian churches almost entirely represents the course of repetition of the science dealing with the universe and man. Individual prayers, hymns, responses, all had their own meaning in this repetition as well as holidays and all religious symbols, though their meaning has been forgotten long ago. (pp.302-303)
Those who are interested in attending may contact me, through this page if you have no other details for me.
Joseph Azize
