Ray of Creation

The Ray of Creation is an esoteric cosmology which was taught by G. I. Gurdjieff. It is a diagram which better represents the place which Earth occupies in the Universe. The diagram has eight levels, each corresponding to Gurdjieff's Law of Octaves (see In Search of the Miraculous, chapter 7).

The first level is "The Absolute", followed by "All Worlds", "All Suns", "Sun", "All Planets", "Earth", "Moon", and "The Absolute":

This lineage indicates and compares the construction of all of the levels, matters, and laws of the Universe, placing them in scale with one another.

It was taught that in "The Absolute" the three holy forces form a whole, and thereby there is only one law (force) in the Absolute (which is the Will of the Absolute). The three forces of this law converge to form "All Worlds", whose level, now, being a part of the whole now has three laws. This level also having three forces, acts in creating "All Suns" in a similar process, and thereby "All Suns" has six laws (three new ones and three of the All Worlds level). Similarly, "Sun" has 12 laws, "All Planets" 24 laws, "Earth" 48 laws, "Moon" 96 laws, and "The Absolute" 192 laws.

Each level after the Absolute has a bigger number of laws which govern it. Therefore, the further the level is away from the Absolute, the more mechanical the living things in it are. By this comparison it is claimed that there are 48 laws governing the life of living beings on Earth, thereby also claiming that the life on Earth is quite mechanical. Note that "the three holy forces" above, have manifestations in the physical universe as we know it today, such as are studies by physicists, other scientists. That is, aspects of "The Ray of Creation" as taught by Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and others, can be understood and described by modern science and scientists. Please also note that "The Absolute" mentioned here does not refer to God as it is normally understood or described by most humans.

Similarly to the difference of laws on each level, the level (in this case 'density') of matter differs in the same way. "The Absolute" has a matter density of one, "All Worlds" has a density of 3 (one atom of "All Worlds" has a three times the density as one atom of "The Absolute"), "All Suns" 6, "Sun" 12, "All Planets" 24, "Earth" 48, "Moon" 96, "The Absolute" (which in this case represents dead matter) 192.

This way everything in the universe according to this cosmology is classified as matter. (Note that even the matter of density 12 is too rarefied for contemporary science to classify it as matter.)

Gurdjieff's classification of Higher Bodies can be better represented on this scale. Physical body has the properties of the "Earth" level (that is, it has a density of 48 and it is subject to 48 laws). In comparison, a higher plane body would have a lighter density and it would be subject to a lesser number of laws (the amount varies on the level that the body falls under).

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