The Herald of Coming Good

Last updated

The Herald of Coming Good. First Appeal to Contemporary Humanity is the first book published by G. I. Gurdjieff. [1] The book was privately published in Paris in 1933. The book was published with the help of Charles Stanley Nott a student of Gurdjieff.

Contents

Structure

In addition to the main body of the text, the book contains the following sections: [2]

Contents

Gurdjieff refers to The Herald of Coming Good Book as "... this first of my writings intended to head the list of my publications ...". It is a programmatic essay, describing the author's anthropological world view and his ethical concept of a full realization of mankind with reference to the activities of his organization, the Institute For Man's Harmonious Development .

The book contains an outline of all his other writings, All and Everything , consisting of "ten books in three series".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Gurdjieff</span> Russian philosopher, mystic, and writer (c. 1866–1877 – 1949)

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was an Armenian philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer of Armenian and Greek descent, born in Alexandropol, Russian Empire. Gurdjieff taught that most humans do not possess a unified consciousness and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff described a method attempting to do so, calling the discipline "The Work" or "the System". According to his principles and instructions, Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness unites the methods of the fakir, monk and yogi, and thus he referred to it as the "Fourth Way".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idries Shah</span> Afghan writer and Sufi teacher (1924–1996)

Idries Shah, also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi and by the pen name Arkon Daraul, was an Afghan author, thinker and teacher in the Sufi tradition. Shah wrote over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.

Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson or An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man is the first volume of the All and Everything trilogy written by the Greek-Armenia mystic G. I. Gurdjieff. The All and Everything trilogy also includes Meetings with Remarkable Men and Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. D. Ouspensky</span> Russian esotericist

Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii was a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff. He met Gurdjieff in Moscow in 1915, and was associated with the ideas and practices originating with Gurdjieff from then on. He taught ideas and methods based in the Gurdjieff system for 25 years in England and the United States, although he separated from Gurdjieff personally in 1924, for reasons that are explained in the last chapter of his book In Search of the Miraculous.

John Godolphin Bennett was a British academic and author.

The Fourth Way is an approach to self-development developed by George Gurdjieff over years of travel in the East. It combines and harmonizes what he saw as three established traditional "ways" or "schools": those of the body, the emotions, and the mind, or of fakirs, monks and yogis, respectively. Students often refer to the Fourth Way as "The Work", "Work on oneself", or "The System". The exact origins of some of Gurdjieff's teachings are unknown, but various sources have been suggested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Nicoll</span> Scottish psychiatrist, author (1884–1953)

Henry Maurice Dunlop Nicoll was a Scottish neurologist, psychiatrist, author and noted Fourth Way esoteric teacher. He is best known for his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, a five-volume collection of more than 500 talks given and distributed to his study groups in and around London from March 1941 to August 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen G. White</span> American author and co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Ellen Gould White was an American woman author and co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Along with other Adventist leaders such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, she was instrumental within a small group of early Adventists who formed what became known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. White is considered a leading figure in American vegetarian history. Smithsonian named her among the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Richard Orage</span>

Alfred Richard Orage was a British influential figure in socialist politics and modernist culture, now best known for editing the magazine The New Age before the First World War. While he was working as a schoolteacher in Leeds he pursued various interests, including Plato, the Independent Labour Party and theosophy. In 1900 he met Holbrook Jackson and three years later they co-founded the Leeds Arts Club, which became a centre of modernist culture in Britain. After 1924, Orage went to France to work with George Gurdjieff and was then sent to the United States by Gurdjieff to raise funds and lecture. He translated several of Gurdjieff's works.

Eternal return is a philosophical concept which states that time repeats itself in an infinite loop, and that exactly the same events will continue to occur in exactly the same way, over and over again, for eternity.

James Charles Napier Webb was a Scottish historian and biographer. He was born in Edinburgh, and was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered primarily for his books The Harmonious Circle, The Occult Underground, and The Occult Establishment.

The Sarmoung Brotherhood was an alleged esoteric Sufi brotherhood based in Asia. The reputed existence of the brotherhood was brought to light in the writings of George Gurdjieff, a Greek-Armenian spiritual teacher. Some contemporary Sufi-related sources also claim to have made contact with the group although the earliest and primary source is Gurdjieff himself, leading most scholars to conclude the group was fictional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret C. Anderson</span> American magazine editor

Margaret Caroline Anderson was the American founder, editor and publisher of the art and literary magazine The Little Review, which published a collection of modern American, English and Irish writers between 1914 and 1929. The periodical is most noted for introducing many prominent American and British writers of the 20th century, such as Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, in the United States and publishing the first thirteen chapters of James Joyce's then-unpublished novel Ulysses.

James Harry Manson Moore was a Cornish author. He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a leading authority on G. I. Gurdjieff.

Charles Stanley Nott (1887–1978) was an author, publisher, translator and a student of G. I. Gurdjieff. He first met Gurdjieff and A. R. Orage in New York in 1923. He spent time at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and became a close student of Gurdjieff. He helped with the publication and distribution of Gurdjieff's first published book The Herald of Coming Good. He wrote two books on his life and experience with Gurdjieff, Orage, and P. D. Ouspensky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Heap</span> American publisher

Jane Heap was an American publisher and a significant figure in the development and promotion of literary modernism. Together with Margaret Anderson, her friend and business partner, she edited the celebrated literary magazine The Little Review, which published an extraordinary collection of modern American, English and Irish writers between 1914 and 1929. Heap herself has been called "one of the most neglected contributors to the transmission of modernism between America and Europe during the early twentieth century."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Needleman</span> American philosopher

Jacob Needleman was an American philosopher, author, and religious scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olgivanna Lloyd Wright</span>

Olgivanna Lloyd Wright was the third and final wife of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They met in November 1924 and married in 1928. In 1932 the couple founded Wright's architectural apprentice program and the Taliesin Fellowship. In 1940, Olgivanna and Frank founded the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation with their son-in-law, William Wesley "Wes" Peters. Olgivanna became the President of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation upon her husband's death in 1959. She remained the president until a month before her death in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rom Landau</span>

Romauld Landau (1899–1974) was born in Poland but became a British citizen when he served as a volunteer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was a sculptor, author, educator, Foreign Service officer and specialist on Arab and Islamic culture. His particular area of interest was Morocco. He was also an art critic and book reviewer for several newspapers and periodicals, including The Spectator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Kherdian</span> American poet

David Kherdian is an Armenian-American writer, poet, and editor. He is known best for The Road from Home, based on his mother's childhood—cataloged as biography by some libraries, as fiction by others.

References

  1. The Harmonious Circle, James Webb, G P Putnam's Sons, New York, 1980, pp 426-430
  2. The Herald of Coming Good: First Appeal to Contemporary Humanity, Paris - Angers: privately published 1933