“From this point of view another formula. Know thyself, is full of particularly deep meaning and is one of the SYMBOLs leading to the knowledge of truth. The study of the world and the study of man will assist one another. In studying the world and its laws a man studies himself, and in studying himself he studies the world. In this sense every SYMBOL teaches us something about ourselves. Fragments: Fourteen

“The understanding of SYMBOLs can be approached in the following way: In studying the world of phenomena a man first of all sees in everything the manifestation of two principles, one opposed to the other, which, in conjunction or in opposition, give one result or another, that is, reflect the essential nature of the principles which have created them. This manifestation of the great laws of duality and trinity man sees simultaneously in the cosmos and in himself. But in relation to the cosmos he is merely a spectator and moreover one who sees only the surface of phenomena which are moving in various directions though seeming to him to move in one direction. But in relation to himself his understanding of the laws of duality and trinity can express itself in a practical form, namely, having understood these laws in himself, he can, so to speak, confine the manifestation of the laws of duality and trinity to the permanent line of struggle with himself on the way to self-knowledge. In this way he will introduce the line of will first into the circle of time and afterwards into the cycle of eternity, the accomplishing of which will create in him the great SYMBOL known by the name of the Seal of Solomon. Fragments: Fourteen

“The transmission of the meaning of SYMBOLs to a man who has not reached an understanding of them in himself is impossible. This sounds like a paradox, but the meaning of a SYMBOL and the disclosure of its essence can only be given to, and can only be understood by, one who, so to speak, already knows what is comprised in this SYMBOL. And then a SYMBOL becomes for him a synthesis of his knowledge and serves him for the expression and transmission of his knowledge just as it served the man who constructed it. Fragments: Fourteen

“In the present instance the series of SYMBOLs given — 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 — is interpreted as applicable to one process. But even this interpretation is incomplete, because a SYMBOL can never be fully interpreted. It can only be experienced, in the same way, for instance, as the idea of self-knowledge must be experienced. Fragments: Fourteen

“Each one of these systems can serve as a means for transmitting the idea of unity. But in the hands of the incompetent and the ignorant, however full of good intentions, the same SYMBOL becomes an ‘instrument of delusion.’ The reason for this consists in the fact that a SYMBOL can never be taken in a final and definite meaning. In expressing the laws of the unity of endless diversity a SYMBOL itself possesses an endless number of aspects from which it can be examined and it demands from a man approaching it the ability to see it simultaneously from different points of view. Symbols which are transposed into the words of ordinary language become rigid in them, they grow dim and very easily become ‘their own opposites,’ confining the meaning within narrow dogmatic frames, without giving it even the very relative freedom of a logical examination of a subject. The cause of this is in the literal understanding of SYMBOLs, in attributing to a SYMBOL a single meaning. The truth is again veiled by an outer covering of lies and to discover it requires immense efforts of negation in which the idea of the SYMBOL itself is lost. It is well known what delusions have arisen from the SYMBOLs of religion, of alchemy, and par-ticularly of magic, in those who have taken them literally and only in one meaning. Fragments: Fourteen

“For uniting into one whole all knowledge connected with the law of the structure of the octave there is a certain SYMBOL which takes the form of a circle divided into nine parts with lines connecting the nine points on the circumference in a certain order. Fragments: Fourteen

“Before passing on to the study of the SYMBOL itself it is essential to understand certain aspects of the teaching which makes use of this SYMBOL, as well as the relation of this teaching to other systems which make use of SYMBOLical methods for the transmission of knowledge. Fragments: Fourteen

“This SYMBOL cannot be met with anywhere in the study of ‘occultism,’ either in books or in oral transmission. It was given such significance by those who knew, that they considered it necessary to keep the knowledge of it secret. Fragments: Fourteen

“The SYMBOL which takes the form of a circle divided into nine parts with lines connecting them together expresses the law of seven in its union with the law of three. Fragments: Fourteen

“The complete construction of this SYMBOL which connects it with a complete expression of the law of octaves is more complicated than the construction shown. But even this construction shows the inner laws of one octave and it points out a method of cognizing the essential nature of a thing examined in itself. Fragments: Fourteen

“The isolated existence of a thing or phenomenon under examination is the closed circle of an eternally returning and uninterruptedly flowing process. The circle SYMBOLizes this process. The separate points in the division of the circumference SYMBOLize the steps of the process. The SYMBOL as a whole is do, that is, something with an orderly and complete existence. It is a circle — a completed cycle. It is the zero of our decimal system; in its inscription it represents a closed cycle. It contains within itself everything necessary for its own existence. It is isolated from its surroundings. The succession of stages in the process must be connected with the succession of the remaining numbers from 1 to 9. The presence of the ninth step filling up the ‘interval’ si-do, completes the cycle, that is, it closes the circle, which begins anew at this point. The apex of the triangle closes the duality of its base, making possible the manifold forms of its manifestation in the most diverse triangles, in the same way as the point of the apex of the triangle multiplies itself infinitely in the line of its base. Therefore every beginning and completion of the cycle is situated in the apex of the triangle, in the point where the beginning and the end merge, where the circle is closed, and which sounds in the endlessly flowing cycle as the two do’s in the octave. But it is the ninth step that closes and again begins a cycle. Therefore in the upper point of the triangle corresponding to do stands the number 9, and among the remaining points are disposed the numbers 1 to 8. Fragments: Fourteen

“If we now place on the circumference all the nine numbers from 1 to 9 and connect those numbers which are included in the period by straight lines in the same sequence in which the numbers stand in the period, according to which number we start from, we shall obtain the figure found inside the circle. The numbers 3, 6, and 9 are not included in the period. They form the separate triangle — the free trinity of the SYMBOL. Fragments: Fourteen

that is, in one case x between mi and fa, and in the other between sol and la, where it is not necessary. “The apparent placing of the interval in its wrong place itself shows to those who are able to read the SYMBOL what kind of ‘shock’ is required for the passage of si to do. “In order to understand this, it is essential to recollect what was said about the role of ‘shocks’ in the processes proceeding in man and in the universe. “When we examined the application of the law of octaves to the cosmos then the step ‘sun-earth’ was represented in this way: “In relation to the three octaves of radiation it was pointed out that the passage of do to si, the filling of the interval, takes place within the organism of the sun. It was pointed out in the cosmic octave in relation to the ‘interval’ do-si that this passage is accomplished by the will of the Absolute. The passage fa-mi in the cosmic octave is accomplished mechanically with the help of a special machine which makes it possible for fa, which enters it, to acquire by a series of inner processes the characteristics of sol standing above it, without changing its note, that is, to accumulate, as it were, the inner energy for passing independently into the next note, into mi. Fragments: Fourteen

“This SYMBOL points out that the substance fa in being mixed with the substance la gives as a result the substance sol. And as this process proceeds in the octave, developing as it were inside the note fa, it is therefore possible to say that fa without changing its pitch acquires the properties of sol. Fragments: Fourteen

“All that has been said about the octaves of radiation and about the food octaves in the human organism has a direct connection with the SYMBOL consisting of a circle divided into nine parts. This SYMBOL, as the expression of a perfect synthesis, contains within itself all the elements of the laws it represents, and from it can be extracted, and by its help trans-mitted, everything that is connected with these octaves and much else besides.” Fragments: Fourteen

“Speaking in general it must be understood that the enneagram is a universal SYMBOL. All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted. And in this connection only what a man is able to put into the enneagram does he actually know, that is, understand. What he cannot put into the enneagram he does not understand. For the man who is able to make use of it, the enneagram makes books and libraries entirely unnecessary. Everything can be included and read in the enneagram. A man may be quite alone in the desert and he can trace the enneagram in the sand and in it read the eternal laws of the universe. And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before. Fragments: Fourteen

“The enneagram is perpetual motion, the same perpetual motion that men have sought since the remotest antiquity and could never find. And it is clear why they could not find perpetual motion. They sought outside themselves that which was within them; and they attempted to construct perpetual motion as a machine is constructed, whereas real perpetual motion is a part of another perpetual motion and cannot be created apart from it. The enneagram is a schematic diagram of perpetual motion, that is, of a machine of eternal movement. But of course it is necessary to know how to read this diagram. The understanding of this SYMBOL and the ability to make use of it give man very great power. It is perpetual motion and it is also the philosopher’s stone of the alchemists. Fragments: Fourteen

“In order to understand the enneagram it must be thought of as in motion, as moving. A motionless enneagram is a dead SYMBOL; the living SYMBOL is in motion.” Fragments: Fourteen

In connection with talks about the meaning of the enneagram as a universal SYMBOL G. again spoke of the existence of a universal “philosophical” language. Fragments: Fourteen

Examining the enneagram further I saw that the seven points could represent the seven planets of the ancient world; in other words the enneagram could be an astronomical SYMBOL. And when I took the order of the planets in the order of the days of the week I obtained the following picture: Fragments: Eighteen