We are all familiar with the Sphinx of the Giza Plateau, but it lacks the two breasts of a virgin and the amber neck of the Akhaldan Sphinx. The two breasts of a virgin—what do these signify? Gurdjieff says they symbolize love. That we should evoke love in all of our inner and outer functionings. But not the popular notions of love (really a word for lust) we hear of in the songs of today and in so much of our so-called literature with its pantings of lust and warblings of unrequited love. The breasts of a virgin symbolize a special kind of love, a transcendent love, a love beyond the person—impartial love.

The amber neck? Why amber? What property is specific to amber? And below the neck is what? The animals: the bull, the lion and the eagle. And so the instincts, the anger, the imagination of the bull and the lion and the eagle are kept below the neck.

The society Akhaldan? What does that word represent? Well, here we are on less sure footing. But let's make a probe. The Sphinx is commonly associated with Egypt and using this as a frame of reference let's consider the letters akh. For ancient Egyptians, the akh is the transformed spirit, existing eternal and unchangeable in the starry heavens. So is the society Akhaldan the society of Eternal Life?

Well, certainly that was its aim. Did Gurdjieff create the word in this way? We cannot say, but we're exploring, seeing where a line of thought leads, what it gives, trying on our third reading to study the book, to come to a deeper understanding.

Those of us who are sincerely engaged, not having one foot out and one foot in, are people of the book. These three series of books are the bible of The Fourth Way. Have we ever considered that—following the Old Testament, New Testament, Koran—All and Everything is the fourth of the great books? That it completes the cycle? Read it and you'll find it contains the esoteric history of not only the planet but the universe. It shows us our place and our cosmic and individual purpose. And, yes, it mercilessly exposes our self-love and vanity but also maps the means of transformation.

Now, can you imagine being a fundamentalist Christian and not knowing the four gospels or the 23rd Psalm or Genesis? What kind of Christian would you be? Are you just a Sunday Christian? Oh yes, All and Everything, especially the First and Third Series, is so difficult to read. Why didn't he make it easier? Why did he have to, as he says, "bury the bones"?

The book is a Legominism, a means of passing esoteric knowledge down through time in a form that is essentially undistorted. One must earn the right to this knowledge through the challenge of reading the book. What seems at first like impenetrable "boiler plate"—think of the definition of Harnelmiatznel—is actually concisely and precisely posed. A secondary effect is who will dare to sermonize from the book in the style of evangelical preachers, intoning long passages that speak of Hernasdjensa, Heptaparaparshinokh, Triamazikamno and Hanbledzoin (but of course they will know how to pronounce Hasnamuss).