G.I. Gurdjieff, from “Views…”:
The direction of the creative activity of the Absolute proceeding toward man is the direction of momentum…
…(T)he line issuing from the Absolute and passing through us…is something like a ladder, and the moon is the base of this ladder.
…(I)nvolution proceeds from top to bottom and evolution from bottom to top…
Everything is governed by law… In accordance with the law, you can follow either the law of evolution or the law of involution… —Views From the Real World, God the Word
…Everything is in motion, both organic life and inorganic, either up or down. But evolution has its limits, as well as involution… (Y)ou start a do—a vibration which has a certain momentum in it. With its vibration it can go a certain distance till it starts another note vibrating, namely re, then mi…
Man serves as an apparatus in the development of this law. I eat, but Nature has made me for a certain purpose, I must evolve. I do not eat for myself… I eat because this thing cannot evolve by itself without my help. I eat some bread, I also take in air and impressions. These come in from outside and then work by law. It is the law of the octave… Do contains both possibility and momentum; it can rise to re and mi without help. Bread can evolve, but if not mixed with air it cannot become fa: this energy helps it to pass a difficult place. After that it needs no help until si, but it can go no further than this by itself. Our aim is to help the octave to completion… —Views From the Real World, New York, February 29, 1924
G.I. Gurdjieff, from “In Search…”:
“…Octaves can develop consecutively and continuously in the desired direction if ‘additional shocks’ enter them at the moments necessary, that is, at the moments when vibrations slow down… There remains for a man the choice either of finding a direction for his activities which corresponds to the mechanical line of events of a given moment, in other words of ‘going where the wind blows’ or ‘swimming with the stream,’ even if this contradicts his inner inclinations, convictions, and sympathies, or of reconciling himself to the failure of everything he starts out to do; or he can learn to recognize…’intervals’ in all lines of his activity, and learn to create the ‘additional shocks,’ in…his own activities, the method…cosmic forces make use of in creating ‘additional shocks’ at the moments necessary.
“The possibility of artificial, that is, specially created, ‘additional shocks’ gives a practical meaning to the study of the law of octaves, and makes this study obligatory and necessary if a man desires to step out of the role of passive spectator of that which is happening to him and around him.
“The ‘man-machine’ can do nothing. To him and around him everything happens. In order to do it is necessary to know the law of octaves, to know the moments of the ‘intervals’ and be able to create necessary ‘additional shocks.’ —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 7
“These ‘additional shocks’ can come either from other octaves which pass across the given point or from parallel octaves which start from higher points. —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 9
Michel Conge:
…(O)ne of the remarkable aspects of the Law of Seven (is) the idea of intervals. We must try to understand that neither involution nor evolution, as we see them now, could take place without these apparent impediments. If there were no intervals, the initial divine manifestation would be followed by an immediate return of its energies. There would, strictly speaking, be no Creation. No voluntary effort would be required, and consequently there would be no evolution, because this mechanical return of energies would never be conscious and willed; that is to say, it would never have the nature of a gift which…is a basic element of evolution as we must understand it. Alternatively, everything would tend to disintegrate, gradually shrinking the Most Holy Sun Absolute, a process which, in scientific terms, would mean an increasing entropy. —Inner Octaves, The Idea of Evolution
Mme. de Salzmann:
In our lives we never fully accomplish what we intend to do. All our movements and actions are subject to the Law of Seven. They begin in one direction but cannot pass the interval in the octave. We go up to the note mi and return to do. To go further, there must be an additional force from within and from without… —The Reality of Being, 84. The intensity must increase
Orage, from “Talks & Lectures…”:
The impressions we usually receive are empty, or of them, we receive only the name, at most—the husk. Hence they are not real food for us, nor can they function as a shock to lift air from its mi to fa. They do not strike a full do. They must be made conscious, that is, filled with content… Conscious impressions feed the higher centers. —Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York: Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931, Sunday, 8 February 1925
Mme. de Salzmann:
In the ascending octave toward consciousness, remembering oneself is the shock that is necessary to pass the interval between mi and fa— the first conscious shock. It brings a force that can only come from the wish, the will. We must make the will grow degree by degree, step by step.
All the centers are involved. If one reaches fa, it can draw the others toward fa. All the centers must be in front of the interval for the intensity of vibration to increase. The relation between the centers is the shock necessary to pass the interval, which will never be passed without it…
In proceeding further with the octave, the question of the second conscious shock can appear only when I have been consciously present for a sufficiently long time. In this effort of Presence, my feeling warms up and is transformed. It purifies itself, and my emotions become positive. But this does not last; my emotions fall back and again become as usual. This shows that what in me observes, what watches, has no will. The interval between si and do is very difficult to pass. —The Reality of Being, 86. First and second conscious shocks