Mrs. Popoff introduced me to the practice of morning ablutions sometime around 1971. Living weekends at her home in Long Island, I worked to earn money towards the second Basic Course at Sherborne House in England and attended group meetings Monday evenings. Tuesday mornings I returned to school in New Jersey. Jack, my boyfriend, lived at the Pinnacle full-time during this period. We were both new to Gurdjieff and Fourth Way teachings.
I believe that Mrs. P, as we came to refer to her, instructed Jack and me privately concerning ablutions. They weren’t given to us during a group meeting but in the more personal setting of living at the Pinnacle. The point made was that once one starts the practice, it is to be done faithfully every morning upon rising, for the rest of one’s life. The ablutions were to be performed as follows:
With cold running water, one “washes” one’s hands intoning, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” Then in like fashion three times each: the eyes starting with the right, each nostril (inhaling the water and blowing it out), each ear, gargling, the throat, the back of the neck, the right arm from elbow to wrist, the left arm, the perennial area, the anus and base of the spine, each leg from the knee down, each foot, and then the top of the head. All three times while intoning, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”
I was particularly struck that when we eventually arrived at Sherborne House in England for the Second Basic Course, we were instructed on ablutions as part of our orientation. The cold running water and the progression of body parts repeated three times were basically the same. The intonation of “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost” was not the same. I’ve always wondered if that particular intonation was Mrs. Popoff’s addition. What I never wondered about, was that this practice undoubtedly came from Mr. Gurdjieff, since two people from different countries, with different exposures to G, both introduced it as an important practice.
Mr. Bennett explained the purpose of the ablutions one morning when it was noted by Mick Sutton, with evident disgust, that not everyone was coming to morning exercise having done them. We were subsequently told that the purpose of ablutions was to cleanse the film that collects on one’s skin overnight as we sleep. Thus one becomes more receptive to the energies being worked with.
Sadly, over the years, I let the practice of ablutions slip away, only recently picking it back up again thanks to a query from Joseph Azize. He posted this about ablutions on his blog.
But I do wonder why this practice has seemingly fallen out of the canon of Gurdjieff Work. Or has it?
My ablutions have been reduced to just the face, but I have done it faithfully since Sherborne. I did not learn it from Mrs. P. What I believe I learned at Sherborne, memory having a way of distorting our memories, is intoning, “For myself, for others and for the Work.” Even as a Gurdjieff apostate, this phrase resonates for me.
Yes, and of course that also resonates with what Mrs. Popoff taught us. thanks for chiming in, Dennis!