Tradition, Esotericism, Secrecy and Hiddenness in the Gospel Studies of P.D. Ouspensky and Maurice Nicoll

John Willmett

doi:10.1163/15700593-02001012

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the views of Gurdjieff’s disciples P.D. Ouspensky and Maurice Nicoll on the esoteric nature of the Gospels. Utilising one of Wouter Hanegraaff’s definitions of esotericism as religious activity concerned predominantly with salvific knowledge of the ‘inner mysteries of religion’ reserved for a selected elite, Ouspensky’s and Nicoll’s view of the Gospels as the rendering in metaphorical form of esoteric knowledge as the formulation of the esoteric psychology of the path of inner evolution is discussed. Sources for this discussion are Ouspensky’s A New Model of the Universe (1931), and Nicoll’s The New Man (1950) and The Mark (1954). It is suggested that the Gospels render esoteric knowledge and its linguistic expression secret and hidden. Nicoll’s idea of the necessity for this secrecy and hiddenness in dealing with the esoteric, that esoteric knowledge given to those unprepared for it is dangerous, both because it will be spoiled, its truth and beauty destroyed, and because it will turn into what Nicoll calls “world poison”, is illustrated in a discussion of the thesis presented in Jacob Needleman’s A Sense of the Cosmos (1975), that the rise of modern science represents an abuse of esoteric knowledge. The article concludes by presenting ideas from Needleman, Ouspensky and Nicoll of what needs to be done in the face of this current widespread abuse of esoteric knowledge.

Highlights

In the chapter ‘Christianity and the New Testament’ in A New Model of the Universe (1931) Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky (1882–1947), one of the closest collaborators with George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949), advocate of ‘the Fourth Way’, says: ‘The Gospels tell directly and exactly of the existence of esoteric thought, and are themselves one of the chief literary evidences of its existence’.1 Ouspensky’s pupil, assistant, and friend, Jungian analytical psychologist Maurice Nicoll (1884–1953), in The New Man (1950) and The Mark (1954) analyses the Gospels as vehicles for esoteric thought, both the substance of that thought and its esoterically hidden and metaphorically encrypted presentation
Nicoll’s idea of the necessity for this secrecy and hiddenness in dealing with the esoteric, that esoteric knowledge given to those unprepared for it is dangerous, both because it will be spoiled, its truth and beauty destroyed, and because it will turn into what Nicoll calls “world poison”, is illustrated in a discussion of the thesis presented in Jacob Needleman’s A Sense of the Cosmos (1975), that the rise of modern science represents an abuse of esoteric knowledge
The article concludes by presenting ideas from Needleman, Ouspensky and Nicoll of what needs to be done in the face of this current widespread abuse of esoteric knowledge

Summary

Introduction

In the chapter ‘Christianity and the New Testament’ in A New Model of the Universe (1931) Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky (1882–1947), one of the closest collaborators with George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866–1949), advocate of ‘the Fourth Way’, says: ‘The Gospels tell directly and exactly of the existence of esoteric thought, and are themselves one of the chief literary evidences of its existence’.1 Ouspensky’s pupil, assistant, and friend, Jungian analytical psychologist Maurice Nicoll (1884–1953), in The New Man (1950) and The Mark (1954) analyses the Gospels as vehicles for esoteric thought, both the substance of that thought and its esoterically hidden and metaphorically encrypted presentation. 27 I take Ouspensky’s frequent mention of St Paul’s Church to mean that he understood that St Paul’s Christianity was primitive and foundational [‘the Church, which originates from the Epistles’—Ouspensky A New Model of the Universe, 149] This Church only later came to see the need to write esoteric documents based on the ‘life’ of Jesus which receives no mention in Paul’s writings, where Iesous Christos is a spiritual or psychological presence only (‘the chief role was played by the understanding of the Gospels based not on Christ, but on Paul’, 149). They contain esoteric knowledge, or knowledge of esoteric matters couched in the form of myth and symbol which needs to be interpreted

The Esoteric Nature of the Gospel texts

What Now?