Forms of the Plane · 3D
Enneagram of the Octave
The circle rising through a scale
Gurdjieff read the enneagram’s circle as a musical octave: do at 9, then re, mi, fa, sol, la and si around it, with 3 and 6 where the scale needs a shock to carry on. Let the octave rise and the circle becomes one turn of a spiral, ending above where it began. Seen from above it is the flat enneagram again.
- Points
- 9
- Turns
- 1
- Notes
- do re mi fa sol la si
Turn it in your hands, strike it to hear the chord of its edges, slice it with a plane.
Facts
- Point 9 is both the do the scale starts from and the do an octave higher: the same place on the circle, one level up.
- The triangle 3 · 6 · 9 no longer closes. It climbs the octave with the scale, from do to do.
- The hexad 1 · 4 · 2 · 8 · 5 · 7 still closes, crossing the spiral back and forth like the digits of 1/7 repeating.
History and meaning
In Gurdjieff’s teaching every process is an octave. Between mi and fa, and again between si and do, the scale lacks a semitone, and something from outside must enter for the process to go on. The enneagram places those shocks at 3 and 6.
Across the dimensions
- Its shadow EnneagramRead the circle as an octave and let it rise: one turn of a spiral from do to the do above, casting the enneagram below.
