Around the Theatre

The Voice of Moscow

November 21, 1914

[On the first few pages of In Search of the Miraculous, P. D. Ouspensky describes his
return to Russia in November of 1914 and how, working as a journalist, he came
across the following notice and put it in his newspaper that winter, shortly before his
first meeting with Gurdjieff.

“One day in the office of the newspaper I found, while preparing for the next issue, a
notice (in, I think, The Voice of Moscow) referring to the scenario of a ballet, “The
Struggle of the Magicians,” which belonged, as it said, to a certain “Hindu.” The
action of the ballet was to take place in India and give a complete picture of Oriental
magic including fakir miracles, sacred dances, and so on. I did not like the excessively
jaunty tone of the paragraph, but as Hindu writers of ballet scenarios were, to a certain
extent, rare in Moscow, I cut it out and put it into my paper, with the slight addition
that there would be everything in the ballet that cannot be found in real India but
which travelers go there to see.”]

~•~

The Hindu I. G. G. popular with Moscow collectors, has written a most curious ballet
scenario called “The Struggle of the Magicians.” The scenario is based on an
imaginary Eastern tale, full of whimsical transformations and mysterious phenomena
from the other side of the world.…

[The complete text is available Copyright © 2000 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing

in the printed copy of this This webpage © 2000 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing
issue.] Featured: Spring 2000 Issue, Vol. III (2)
Revision: October 1, 2000