Christian Theosis is the true aim of Gurdjieff's Fourth Way

Gurdjieff's Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (Penguin/Arkana, pp. 568–570, 756 & 768: see full text below after the article) outlines the ultimate aim of his Fourth Way, "theosis"—the process of deification or union with God—that is intrinsically Christian rather than Sufi, Buddhist, or derived from any other religious system.

Gurdjieff’s cosmology presupposes theosis as the teleological end of human evolution

Theosis, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is the divinely intended process by which human beings become partakers of the divine nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4), ultimately transcending their fallen state and participating in the uncreated energies of God while maintaining ontological distinction from God’s essence. This same telos undergirds Gurdjieff's schema of the three being-bodies:

• Planetary Body (Physical Body or lower part of the Soul) — nourished by food/water.

• Kesdjan Body (middle part of the Soul or Astral Body) — nourished by air and finer energies emanating from the Sun and planets.

• Higher Being-Body (the higher part of the Soul or the “Soul Proper”) — nourished from the sacred being-Hanbledzoïn or Aiësakhaldan, which originates not from planetary or solar sources, but from “the direct emanations of our Most Holy Sun Absolute.”

Gurdjieff's language of the Most Holy Sun Absolute, Theomertmalogos, and emanations directly reflects Christian metaphysical categories—particularly the Neoplatonic-Patristic synthesis found in the Greek Fathers. The Theomertmalogos is explicitly defined in Chapter 39 (p. 756) as “the Word-God,” a clear invocation of the Logos theology of the Johannine Prologue (John 1:1–14).

This Logos, or Word, emanates divine substance into the cosmos, nourishing and forming the basis for the highest being-body (Soul proper), which alone is imperishable and capable of becoming what Gurdjieff calls an “Irankipaekh”—a cosmic individual who is no longer subject to “painful influences from any external cosmic factors whatsoever”. This corresponds precisely to the Orthodox understanding of the glorified human being, one who is transfigured, incorruptible, and participates in the divine energies.

The role of hanbledzoïn and the Soul: a trinitarian anthropology

Gurdjieff describes Hambledzoïn as the “blood” of the Kesdjan body, but most crucially, the "blood" that serves the higher being body or the Soul is the sacred Hanbledzoïn—also called Aiësakhaldan—and is “formed from the direct emanations of our Most Holy Sun Absolute.” This highest stratum of being-nourishment is not available through any involuntary process but only, exclusively, through:

“the process of what is called ‘Aiëssirittoorassnian-contemplation’ actualized in the common presence by the cognized intention on the part of all their spiritualized independent parts.”

This contemplation may be functionally equivalent to hesychastic prayer in the Orthodox tradition—a synergy of body, soul, and spirit directed toward union with God through the uncreated energies. Gurdjieff is describing not mere mindfulness or mystical absorption (as in Buddhist samadhi), but the conscious participation of the whole being in divine transformation, which is the essential core of theosis.

Theosis, not Nirvana or Fana’: teleological distinction from Buddhism and Sufism

In Buddhist traditions, the ultimate goal (nirvana) is cessation—the extinguishing of desire, suffering, and ultimately, the sense of individual selfhood. In Sufi Islam, the concept of fana’ denotes annihilation of the self in God, often followed by baqa’, subsistence in God. However, both are predicated on union via effacement rather than union through transformation while retaining personal individuation, which is the Christian theotic model.

In contrast, Gurdjieff affirms that, if formed:

“...the higher being-body... can never decompose; and this ‘higher part’ must exist... until it perfects itself to the required Reason...”

This perfection to the required Reason—a rational participation in divine being—results not in absorption into a universal essence but in the actualization of a permanent, conscious, divine individuality. This is aligned with the Pauline and Patristic idea that believers will be “conformed to the image of the Son” (Romans 8:29), not dissolved into divine essence but glorified in and through it.

The centrality of the Word (Theomertmalogos) as Christological anchor

The culminating affirmation in Chapter 39 of the creation of world underscores this:

“...there was obtained the what is called ‘Emanation-of-the-Sun-Absolute’ and now called, ‘Theomertmalogos’ or ‘Word-God.’”

This use of Theomertmalogos—Theo- (God), -meretm- (flow/emanation), -logos (Word)—makes it unmistakable that the creative and salvific principle in Gurdjieff’s cosmology is identical to the Logos Christology of the New Testament and early Church Fathers.

This Logos is not merely an abstract principle but the source of divine substances required for the formation of the immortal soul—a soul whose development is the objective of the Fourth Way. It is not accidental that only cognized, intentional participation with the emanations of the Word—through moral, spiritual, and conscious work (Being Partkdolg-Duty)—allows the soul to be formed and perfected.

Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way as Christian Theosis

While Gurdjieff draws language, method, and metaphor from multiple esoteric traditions, the teleological structure of his system is fundamentally Christian—not merely in moral orientation but in metaphysical architecture.

The Fourth Way is aimed at the conscious formation of the soul into a permanent, divine individuality through union with the emanations of the Word (Logos). This is not moksha, nirvana, or fana’, but rather:

Theosis: A fully Christian doctrine of participation in the divine nature without loss of personhood, achieved through synergy of effort and grace.

Gurdjieff’s terminology may be veiled in mythic cosmology and symbolic language, but his doctrine of higher being bodies, the role of sacred contemplation, and the function of the Theomertmalogos converge upon an esoteric Christianity—one in which salvation is not merely moral or ethical, but ontological and cosmic.

---

Excerpts from Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" (Penguin/Arkana)

Pages 568-570:

"And so, when thanks to a change of tempo of their blood circulation there is obtained a temporary suspension of the action of the localization of that false consciousness which has already become the ‘autocratic ruler’ of their common presences, thereby giving the sacred data of their genuine consciousness the possibility of unhindered blending with the total functioning of the planetary body during the period of their waking state, then indeed my boy, if the crystallization of data for engendering in that localization an idea of something opposite to that which has already arisen in them and somehow become fixed, is assisted in a corresponding manner, and if moreover the actions evoked by this idea are directed upon a disharmonized part of the planetary body, an accelerated change in it possible.

“When, during the period of the Tikliamishian civilization, the learned beings of the locality Maralpleicie first constated in their common psyche the special possibility of such ‘combinations,’ and began to search for ways of intentionally bringing one another into this special state, they soon understood and found the possibility of actualizing this by means of what is called ‘being-Hanbledzoïn,’ namely, that cosmic substance, the essence of which the three-brained beings of the contemporary civilization came close to understanding, and which they called ‘animal magnetism.’

“Since for the explanation of the given case and also perhaps for my following explanations, you must know more in detail concerning being-Hanbledzoïn, I find it necessary before speaking further to inform you just now about this cosmic substance.

“Hanbledzoïn is nothing else than the ‘blood’ of the Kesdjan body of the being; just as the cosmic substances called in totality blood serve for nourishing and renewing the planetary body of the being, so also Hanbledzoïn serves in the same way for nourishing and perfecting the body Kesdjan.

“It is necessary to tell you that in general the quality of the composition of the blood in three-brained beings and also in the common presences of your favorites depends on the number of the being-bodies already ‘completely formed.’

“Blood in the presences of three-brained beings may be composed of substances arising through the transformation of three separate independent what are called ‘general-cosmic-sources-of-actualizing.’

“The substances of that part of the being-blood which is designed by Nature for serving the planetary body of the being arise by means of the transformation of substances of that planet on which the given beings are formed and exist.

“But the substances which are designed for serving the Kesdjan body of the being, the totality of which is called Hanbledzoïn, are obtained from the transformation of elements of other planets and of the sun itself of that system, where the given three-brained being has the place of his arising and existence.

“Finally, that part of the being-blood which almost everywhere is called the sacred being-Hanbledzoïn, and only on certain planets is called the ‘sacred Aiësakhaldan,’ and which part serves the highest part of the being called the soul, is formed from the direct emanations of our Most Holy Sun Absolute.

“Substances required for the blood of the planetary body of the being enter into them through their ‘first-being-food,’ or, as your favorites say, ‘through food.’

“But the substances needed both for coating and for perfecting the higher-being-body-Kesdjan enter into their common presences through their, as they say, ‘breathing,’ and through certain what are called ‘pores’ of their skin.

“And the sacred cosmic substances required for the coating of the highest being-body, which sacred being-part of theirs, as I have already told you, they call soul, can be assimilated and correspondingly transformed and coated in them, just as in us, exclusively only from the process of what is called ‘Aiëssirittoorassnian-contemplation’ actualized in the common presence by the cognized intention on the part of all their spiritualized independent parts.

Page 756

“And so, my dear boy, our COMMON FATHER CREATOR ALMIGHTY, having then in the beginning changed the functioning of both these primordial sacred laws, directed the action of their forces from within the Most Holy Sun Absolute into the space of the Universe, whereupon there was obtained the what is called ‘Emanation-of-the-Sun-Absolute’ and now called, ‘Theomertmalogos’ or ‘Word-God.’

Page 768

“Now as regards the first two lower being-bodies, namely the planetary-body and the body-Kesdjan, then, after the first sacred Rascooarno of a being, his planetary body, being formed of Microcosmoses or of crystallizations transformed on that planet itself, gradually decomposes and disintegrates there on that same planet, according to a certain second-grade cosmic law called ‘Again-Tarnotoltoor,’ into its own primordial substances from which it obtained its arising.

“As regards the second-being-body, namely, the body-Kesdjan, this body, being formed of radiations of other concentrations of Tritocosmoses and of the Sun itself of the given solar system, and having entered after the second process of the sacred Rascooarno into the sphere just mentioned, also begins gradually to decompose, and the crystallizations of which it is composed go in various ways into the sphere of its own primordial arisings.

“But the higher being-body itself, being formed of crystallizations received directly from the sacred Theomertmalogos into the solar system within the limits of which the being arises and where his existence proceeds, can never decompose; and this ‘higher part’ must exist in the given solar system as long as it does not perfect itself to the required Reason, to just that Reason which makes similar cosmic formations what are called ‘Irankipaekh,’ i.e., such formations of the mentioned Most Most Sacred substances as can exist and be independent of Kesdjanian arisings and at the same time not be subject to what are called ‘painful’ influences from any external cosmic factors whatsoever.