Teachings on Reciprocal Feeding from Maurice Nicoll and the Gospel of Thomas

The Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) has a unique strategy for transforming energy that can be viewed through the lens of our spiritual teachings. 

Rhizobium bacteria infect the root hairs of the Black Locust tree. In response, the tree forms nodules on its roots, which provide a habitat for the bacteria. The bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form of nitrogen that the tree can absorb and use for growth. The tree supplies the bacteria with carbohydrates and other organic compounds, which the bacteria use as energy to fuel the nitrogen fixation process. This reciprocal relationship allows the tree to thrive in soils that are low in nitrogen.

Maurice Nicoll’s Teaching on Reciprocal Feeding  

Above is Maurice Nicoll’s diagram showing the octaves of food, air, and impressions. Yes, it is confusing. What are we looking at? It’s all about energy (or food) at a lower level being transformed to higher, finer energy through a process of transformation. We are looking at the Octaves, or steps, in the transformation. Note that they all produce a Hydrogen 12, which is of very high quality. Note that all three of these octaves must interact with the higher realm of food—impressions. This is important for personal transformation, as it depicts extra energies that are created by living more consciously. Commentaries, p195 

Maurice points out, in the diagram, that a Conscious Shock is required for all three octaves to finish their “digestion” from the upper story of impressions downward to H12 in the lower story–a deliberate and conscious effort to transform impressions into higher forms of energy. This First Conscious Shock is Self-Remembering.

M says that although everyone thinks that they already possess a state of Self-Awareness, it takes a long time of self-observation to begin to taste a more awakened state. Self-Observation helps to enable Self-Remembering. And once again M points to the state of being identified as an essential place to practice self-observation. The more we are identified with ourselves, the less we can remember ourselves. We are identified with every mood, every emotion, especially negative emotions, and with our suffering. This last one—our suffering—we must give up from the start. Here, M makes a key point related to the cosmology described here: I practice self-observation for a time, and eventually, I am more conscious of my inner state; I sense there is a choice, and I remember the teachings. If the energy that was about to go into a negative emotion is prevented from going there, it may pass into a moment of self-remembering. This means we have brought the Teachings up to the point of incoming impressions. p199 If incoming impressions are always grabbed by associations, I will never take in the food of new impressions—I will be asleep, empty, almost dead. “Life is impressions coming in; you cannot change life, but you can change the way impressions fall on you.” Commentaries, p199 

Annie Lou Staveley, in The Plan Is Good, talks about the effort required to arrive at an understanding of the Teachings. “Unless you are content with superficialities only, you must produce a corresponding effort in order really to understand the least thing.” p114 She goes on to say that we normally read and extract only those things that confirm our prejudices and build up our self-esteem.

My understanding of this cosmology: if I have an aim (such as living from Good), and that aim helps me to not react/associate/identify with incoming life/impressions, the energy that would have gone into mechanical reaction can first become transformed into Hydrogen Re 24. This falls in the Emotional Center, and the result is that I will “see something” in a new way—impressions will begin to fall directly on Centers. “Impressions that are taken in in a state of Self-Remembering become emotional. Even the simplest thing can become interesting or beautiful and reflect some meaning.” p199 But which self should I remember? Remember the self that knows what your aim is. Finally, self-remembering requires that I feel there is something higher than myself. There is a descending Octave from higher realms, and I am working to meet it with the ascending Octave of my Being.

More of my comments: First, this process, or requirement that something must come forth to meet the food of impressions is how I feel about the Gospel of Thomas—something must come forth to meet the cryptic impressions of the Logia—otherwise I’m simply trying to figure them out with my intellect. This food that Maurice is talking about is from a higher realm, and I need to meet it with something higher than my usual self. Second, I recall Cynthia’s teachings on the Imaginal Realm and how what we usually call “characteristics” such as kindness and steadfastness—the fruit of the spirit—are actually substances that we offer up. And Cynthia’s teaching that our post is to join in the dance of relationship and reciprocal feeding. These recollections of teachings seem related to what M is describing in Gurdjieff’s cosmology. And also to the dance of reciprocal feeding that the Black Locust has discovered.

Logion 11
Yeshua says,
The sky and all that lies in the dimensions above it
will cease to exist.
The dead know nothing of life, and the living will never die.
When you consume that which is already dead,
you are turning it back into life.
So, then, when you too re-emerge into the Light,
what will you do?
For on the day when you were created one,
you also became two,
but when you come to realize your twoness again,
what will you do?

Similar to sunlight falling on the Black Locust leaves, higher information is always coming towards us. As Cynthia says, “Our talent, our gift, is our willingness to enter the reciprocal dance with whatever cards we’ve been dealt in this plane.” That could be an answer to Yeshua’s question: “What will you do?”

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Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise. 

All quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008)

All quotations from Cynthia Bourgeault are from The Vocabulary of Wisdom.

Page numbers for Annie Lou Staveley refer to The Plan is Good, (Two Rivers Press: 2023)

Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.