Continual awareness of the inexplicable mysteries of life is one of the signs of Magnetic Center.
The Nature of Magnetic Center
“The magnetic center in a man means his power of distinguishing between influences which are life influences and created within the sphere of life, and influences which come from conscious man, from outside life. If you have no sense of scale – and a sense of scale is one of the meanings of having magnetic center – then everything will be contradictory simply because you do not put things where they belong, on the right level, but mix them all up on the same level. That is, you have no feeling of the vertical arm of the cross, which represents different levels, and different categories – in short, higher and lower, and so, more conscious and more mechanical levels in you. And remember that if you want to be in more conscious parts of yourself, you get there by directed attention, to begin with. The object of esotericism is to lift us in the vertical scale of being.” Maurice Nicoll, The Mark, p67.
“Magnetic center is therefore something in a man that gives him the first feeling of things above and things below or things more internal and more external and relates him to the idea of the vertical scale of things, however dimly. For the vertical is internal and everything higher in the vertical scale is more internal in man. It is like a little machine in him that like a small lift works upwards and downwards. A man with magnetic center therefore will not only understand literally and naturally, but will catch the meaning of what is above the literal and natural level. That is, he will understand internal meaning, apart from external meaning. This is the starting point of everything else in a man’s evolution.” Maurice Nicoll, The Mark, p67.
Signs of Magnetic Center
“This feeling, this continual awareness of the inexplicability of everything is one of the signs of right Magnetic Center. The sense of mystery goes beyond all self-love. It decreases Personality. It makes a man feel his nothingness. So it connects him with positive ideas, for anything that renders Personality more passive and Essence more active has connection with positive ideas. For this reason God, as Absolute, is a positive idea. The Ray of Creation is a positive idea. The Conscious Circle of Humanity is a positive idea. The idea that we are all asleep and must awaken is a positive idea.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p994
“Ask yourself: How do you think? How do you move? Can you explain it? However, most people do not trouble themselves with thoughts of this kind, and a great many people think that such thoughts are extremely morbid. They advise you to consult a doctor. But if you have such thoughts you have already the possession of Magnetic Center which is a sign of Being, because a man who has Magnetic Center, even if he has done very little in life, is even then superior in his Being to a man who is, say, a great success in life and attributes everything to himself and has seen no mystery.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p716
“No longer to believe in life as being capable of fulfilling all we seek is one thing, and to believe that there is something else that we must seek is another thing, for this latter means that a man has Magnetic Center—something in him that points in a certain direction that does not obey the ordinary laws of a compass.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p166
The Function of Magnetic Center in Work
“When you hear the ideas of the Work they may fall on some ready-prepared place in you— that is, on Magnetic Center. You may feel that here is what you have wanted. This valuation is due to the action of the kind of Magnetic Center in you. And in different people Magnetic Center is different. But it lies in emotional parts of centers—that is, it lies in the places where you feel worth, where you feel valuation, for valuation is emotional. But this, so to speak, first-love will not last. It may be a very beautiful feeling, yet it passes away, having fulfilled its task, and you are left to the task of re-valuation. For Magnetic Center may bring a person into the Work but it will not keep him in it.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p208.
“It is said that once you have valuation of the Work you do not need Magnetic Center. It is necessary to understand that a thing may be useful in one place but useless or even a hindrance in another place. Nothing is valuable just in itself but only in its relation to other things. We are taught that Magnetic Center is valuable in its place. If strong enough it can lead us from life into the Work.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p1538
Moving Beyond Magnetic Center
“Although a man may have right Magnetic Center, which should lie in the intellectual part of the Emotional Center, it is only introductory. If he is led to a teaching connected with the Conscious Circle of Humanity by means of it, his task is only begun. He has to turn his sense of mystery, his seeking, his cravings, his lack, into something real—-into practical and practiced work, and the more he values emotionally the more he is given help. If he has the strength to catch the rope overhead then not only is he working but the Work works on him. It begins to teach him, in periods of silence, in those gaps in one’s mechanical life when usually everything is a blank or boredom.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p994
Logion 24
His students said to him,
"Take us to the place where you are,
since we are required to seek after it."
He answered them,
"Whoever has an ear for this should listen carefully!
Light shines out from the center of a being of light
and illuminates the whole cosmos.
Whoever fails to become light is a source of darkness."
Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise.
Quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008)
Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll’s The Mark refer to Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York, 1954
Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.
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