Maurice Nicoll outlines the internal and external relationships of Sun-Earth-Man in Gurdjieff’s cosmological map of reality, the Ray of Creation:

The Sun in the Cosmic Order

“Different levels in the external Universe are representations of different levels of intelligence which are internal or psychological. If we speak of the Intelligence of the Sun we can understand that it is higher than the Intelligence of the Earth simply from external representation, for the Sun has infinitely more energies and radiance than the Earth. But the Ray should be actually understood in both senses for outer and inner correspond, and everything internal has something corresponding externally.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p124

“The sun is the visible symbol, the image itself of faith, hope and love. It sheds light on the good and the wicked, without leaving or quitting its central post.” Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot, p367.

Man as the Sun’s Experiment

“The Sun wants something apart from the needs of the Ray of Creation. It is here that the possibilities of Man are found. Let us now think of this idea which it is of such fundamental importance to understand in this Work. The Intelligence of the Sun wants something for itself in creating Man on Earth, quite apart from the necessities of the Great Ray. What does it want? It wants Man to ascend from the level of the Earth to the level of the Sun. For this reason it creates Man as something incomplete, as an unfinished being.” Commentaries, p126

“Man is thus an experiment of the Sun, placed on the Earth. He can remain asleep and serve Organic Life: or he can awake and serve the Sun. If he had been created with the same being and intelligence as the Sun he would not be on Earth. Man has therefore two explanations. He is created to serve Nature—that is, to be part of Organic Life—and in this sense it is not in the interests of Nature that Man should develop and so cease to serve Nature. But Man is also created to develop himself, until he reaches the level of the Sun. If you will make the effort to think, if you will really try to understand the meaning of the Ray of Creation and the Octave from the Sun, many inexplicable and apparently irreconcilable things will become clear to your mind. That is, you will be able to begin to think rightly about life on Earth, and of Man’s situation—that is, of your own situation.” Commentaries, p127.

The Sun’s Purpose and Man’s Response

“You must understand that Man has no significance in the Ray itself save as a part of Organic Life. But in regard to the Sun, which creates him, Man has the greatest significance if he chooses to find it. Here there is a door open to him—not leading up the gigantic Ray itself, but up a separate ladder beside it. This is one meaning of the parable of the Prodigal Son: Man can return to the Father. Many other significant things are said in the New Testament that are connected with the Sun-Octave. You have already seen that the Sun wants something for itself in creating Man on Earth. Man is not created only for the purpose of the Ray, but is created for the purposes of the Sun—as an experiment in self-evolution. Unless this self-evolution of Man is fulfilled in sufficient numbers the Sun will not receive what it wants and will not be satisfied. Let us take one out of the many parables in this connection in the Gospels:

“A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit thereon, and found none. And he said unto the vinedresser, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none: cut it down; why doth it also cumber the ground? And he answering saith unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it: and if it bear fruit thenceforth, well; but if not, thou shalt cut it down.” (Luke: XIII vi-ix)

“Do not try to understand this parable literally. Understand it psychologically and you will see that it means that Man has certain possibilities which can come to fruition and, unless some fruit is produced, Man will be cut off.” Commentaries, p129.

“The real, most intense meaning of Man on Earth lies in this Octave from the Sun into which he can grow internally and come under other influences. In our case we must subject ourselves to the influences of the Work and obey them. Once mankind loses all connection with the Intelligence of the Sun, it will inevitably be destroyed, and that is perhaps especially the danger today. And it is the same thing on the scale of an individual man. Once he loses contact with the better ‘I’s in himself, once he loses all faith, all meaning, all affirmation, all deeper understanding, he destroys himself.” Commentaries, p130

The Inner Sun and Its Development

“[Man] does not realize that externally the Sun represents the Higher Centers in him and that he has to work on himself a great deal to reach that level, represented in visible life as the Sun. He must reach the invisible Sun in himself. He does not realize that development of being is an internal matter and quite possible if one begins to be taught how to achieve such development. In other words, he thinks externally and thinks that by means of, say, larger machinery, he may reach the Sun, or even the Stars. All esotericism, all this Work, teaches that you cannot be different unless you begin to change internally your level of being.” Commentaries, p1462

“Creating sun in myself tends to be a more regular, basic, proactive practice. You know, you work at it a little bit every day. Your Lexio Divina is a way of creating sun in yourself just by feeding yourself with scripture and other things like that. But as you develop a steady track with one and the creating moon is your default response pattern when situations occur.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Holding Our Planet 2024, 51:23 14 Tuesday eve QA.

Following the Star

“Those who follow the ‘star’ must learn a lesson once and for all: not to consult Herod and the ‘chief priests and scribes of the people’ at Jerusalem, but to follow the ‘star’ that they have seen ‘in the East’ and which ‘goes before them’, without seeking for indications and confirmation on the part of Herod and his people. The gleam of the ‘star’ and the effort to understand its message ought to suffice. Because Herod, representing the anti-revelatory force and principle, is also eternal. The time of Christmas is not that of the nativity of the Child alone; it is also the time of the massacre of the children of Bethlehem—the time where autonomous intelligence is driven to kill, i.e. to strangle and push back into the unconscious, all the tender flowers of spirituality which threaten the absolute autonomy arrogated to itself by intelligence.” Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot, p533-534

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Logion 83
Yeshua says...
Images are revealed to humanity
while the light within them is hidden
by the brilliance of the Father's light.
It is God who is being revealed,
but the image of God
remains concealed by the blaze of light.

Logion 45
Yeshua says...
Grapes are not harvested from thorns,
nor are figs gathered from thistles.
Thorns and thistles do not produce fruit.
Good people bring goodness
out of a storehouse of inner treasure,
and evil ones bring wickedness
out of the repository of evil collected in the heart.
It is from there that they speak.
For from the heart's overflow evil enters the world.

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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. 

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

Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot, Jeremy Tarcher, 1985

Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.