WILL MESA WOMAN, CHILD, AND SOUL IN THE LIVING TEACHING OF MR. GURDJIEFF

Mr. Gurdjieff once said that woman acquires soul with child. He went on to say that  it is not necessary to have child but to have readiness for having child. 

 

What did Mr. Gurdjieff really mean with that statement? Well, after more than thirty-five years of being exposed to his writings, his utterances, and his world of allegoric, I have come to the categorical conviction that each and every statement from Mr. Gurdjieff has various levels of meanings. For instance he once said that Shakespeare was pederast. Did he really mean that Shakespeare chased boys? Well, at one level probably that is what he meant. But there are other levels. I then decided to read Hamlet again. I soon realized that most of Hamlet is pure titillation and feeling masturbation. So, at one level what Mr. G implied is that Shakespeare was a great masturbator of feeling.

 

Now, in relation to the statement of woman acquiring soul with child, I have done what Mr. G calls being-mentation over his statement. I have found at least two different levels where the statement by Mr. G can find two different meanings. One is the physical level or level of the Physical Realm and the other is the spiritual level or level of the Spiritual Realm.

 

The physical level is quite obvious: woman has a physical child. This necessity almost imposed in woman is a call of Nature. During a period of time in the life of a woman, the call is for her to have a child. Woman wants to be mother. Even now, at this age of reproductive technology, women who has the economic means at their disposal and who hate men, they go for artificial insemination. So strong to be mother is the call of Nature.

 

But there is also the spiritual level, a deeper level. This is not a call of nature but a call of the spirit. A woman feels that her life is not complete if she does not have a spiritual child. The actual form of the spiritual child changes with different women, but for all, the child manifest in the outer world in the form of a work of art or the humanities or a work of science or mathematics. For example, this is the case for a Sophia Wellbeloved in the world of religion and the humanities and Mme. Curie in the world of science.

 

The appearance in the world of both the physical and the spiritual child follows the same process, a process characterized by three stages, namely, conception, gestation, and actual birth

 

Both the physical and the spiritual child are conceived at a definite moment in time. For the physical child, this moment is the fusion of the sperm of a male and the egg of the woman in whom the child is being conceived. For the spiritual child the conception may take place over a longer period. A feeling of creative need appears in the consciousness of the woman conceiving the spiritual child. The feeling gives rise to a wish for externalization and the spiritual child is conceived.

 

The period of gestation is longest one for both the physical as well as the spiritual child. It is for that reason that it is the most critical stage in the process of growth. It requires the greatest care by the woman involved in this process. A miscarriage is possible during this period for both the physical and spiritual child during the period of gestation. Voluntary abortion is another possibility during the initial phase of the stage of gestation. The physical child is intentionally taken out of the matrix of the woman or the project conceived by the woman in gestation is abandoned. There are a variety of possibilities here.

 

 The actual birth of both the physical as well as the spiritual child happens at a precise moment in time. The physical child makes its appearance in the outer world in the form of a male child or a female one. The spiritual child comes in the form of a work of art or a work of science. Most often, the actual birth is accompanied by a ceremony such as birth party for the physical child or a book signing for the spiritual child.

 

 The actual birth of the physical as well as the spiritual child is accompanied by labors. The woman giving birth to the physical child experiences pain. For the physical child the pain is very physical and for the spiritual child the pain is psychological and spiritual. What if the conceived and gestated child is not accepted by people in the outer world? 

 

Mr. Gurdjieff taught that men and women have the same possibility of development and growth in the sense of self-perfection but that the ways for man and woman are different. Man does not acquire a soul by having a child, either physically or spiritually. Man must work like a true devil in order to bring shape and formation to his soul. Man acquires soul with the sweat of his work. Woman knows and understands that her work is to give birth to either a physical child or a spiritual one or both.

 

May all women reading this piece have a child!

 

My best wishes for all my invisible female friends out there expecting a child!

 

Regards to All,

 

Will Mesa 

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