“Even our division of time, that is, the days of the week into work days and Sundays, is connected with the same properties and inner conditions of our activity which depend upon the GENERAL LAW. The Biblical myth of the creation of the world in six days and of the seventh day in which God rested from his labors is also an expression of the law of octaves or an indication of it, though an incomplete one. Fragments: Seven

“They are let out into life for a definite purpose, and become mixed with influences of the first kind. But it must be borne in mind that these influences are conscious only in their origin. Coming into the general vortex of life they fall under the GENERAL LAW of accident and begin to act mechanically, that is, they may act on a certain definite man or may not act; they may reach him or they may not. In undergoing change and distortion in life through transmission and interpretation, influences of the second kind are transformed into influences of the first kind, that is, they become, as it were, merged into the influences of the first kind. Fragments: Ten

At one of the following meetings, in the presence of G., when he made me repeat what he had said about the way and about magnetic center, I embodied his idea in the following diagram: V …life; H … an individual man; A … influences created in life, that is, in life itself — the first kind of influences; B … influences created outside life but thrown into the general vortex of life — the second kind of influences Hi … a man, connected by means of succession with the esoteric center or pretending to it E … esoteric center, standing outside the GENERAL LAWs of life M … magnetic center in man C … influence of man h1 on man h; in the event of his actually being connected with the esoteric center, directly or by succession, this is the third kind of influences. This influence is conscious, and under its action at the point m, that is, in the magnetic center, a man becomes free from the law of accident H2 … a man, deceiving himself or deceiving others and having no connection, either directly or by succession, with the esoteric center. Fragments: Ten

“That is something people always ask,” he said. “Whatever they may be speaking about, they ask: Ought it to be like that and how can it be changed, that is, what ought to be done in such a case? As though it were possible to change anything, as though it were possible to do anything. You at least ought to have realized by now how naive such questions are. Cosmic forces have created this state of affairs and cosmic forces control this state of affairs. And you ask: Can it be left like that or should it be changed! God himself could change nothing. Do you remember what was said about the forty-eight laws? They cannot be changed, but liberation from a considerable portion of them is possible, that is to say, there is a possibility of changing the state of affairs for oneself, it is possible to escape from the GENERAL LAW. You should understand that in this case as well as in all others the GENERAL LAW cannot be changed. But one can change one’s own position in relation to this law; one can escape from the GENERAL LAW. The more so since in this law about which I speak, that is, in the power of sex over people, are included many different possibilities. It includes the chief form of slavery and it is also the chief possibility of liberation. This is what you must understand. Fragments: Twelve

“That is an entirely different thing,” said G. “These people came under a GENERAL LAW. We do not speak of them and we cannot. We can only speak of people who, thanks to chance, or fate, or their own cleverness, do not come under a GENERAL LAW, that is, who stay outside the action of any GENERAL LAW of destruction. For instance it is known through statistics that a certain definite number of people have to fall under trams in Moscow during the year. Then if a man, even one with a great hunger, falls under a tram and the tram crushes him we can no longer speak of him from the point of view of work on the ways. We can speak only of those who are alive and only while they are alive. Trams or war — they are exactly the same thing. One is merely larger, the other smaller. We are speaking of those who do not fall under trams. Fragments: Seventeen

“If a man could understand all the horror of the lives of ordinary people who are turning round in a circle of insignificant interests and insignificant aims, if he could understand what they are losing, he would understand that there can be only one thing that is serious for him — to escape from the GENERAL LAW, to be free. What can be serious for a man in prison who is condemned to death? Only one thing: How to save himself, how to escape: nothing else is serious. Fragments: Seventeen