Schokking, Bart-Jan
The Ship of Fools
Thales of Argos was written by a certain Volski in Odessa during the
1930s. This Volski belonged to the Southern Wing of a mystical school
that went underground after Stalin had come to power. Before there had
existed a very lively mystical scene in Russia, mostly in Petersburg
and Moscow. Many famous painters (Kandinski), composers (Scriabin, de
Hartman, Prokovieff), actors (Michail Chekhov), philosophers
(Ouspenski, Shmakov) and even politicians (Lenin, Trotzki, Bakunin)
were participating in and inspired by the many esoteric lodges which
existed at that time. There were Rosicrucian, Freemason, Martinist,
Templar and Theosophic lodges, to name only the most well-known. Except
for the Theosophist movement, that had been founded by Blavatsky, these
loges had all been founded by French communities. Around the turn of
the century they decided to create new groups in Russia. In France
there existed an ancient Rosicrucian and Freemason tradition, which
started to spread very widely in the 19th century with mystics like
Papus, Saint-Martin, Saint-Yves d’Alveydre and Fabre d’Olivet. Russian
esoterics gathered as much from this French tradition as they could, as
they did from the Indian Yoga tradition. From this knowledge they made
a new compilation, that was updated to the needs of their time, called Arcanology.
For the perenneal wisdom of the esoteric tradition should always be
given a new form according to the time and culture of a people.
Philosophers like Shmakov and GOM (the acronym of George Ottonovich
Mebes) are well-known to the public in Russia for their works on
Arcanology.
The mystical school Volski belonged to continued its activities during
the communistic times, but now underground. In the 1980s and 1990s it
was guided by a master Vladimir, who was travelling around with two
students. The school, called The Ship of Fools,
was travelling under the disguise of a jazz band. Here many difficult
situations were used to transmit the traditional knowledge. About this
period two books have been published: One step behind the Mirror and The Mystical Underground. Gradually students in Russia, Moldavia and Latvia started to join this school.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was possible for the Ship of Fools
to set sail to the West. It started its activities in Holland, more
precisely in the Sufi Movement that was founded by the Indian Hazrat
Inayat Khan. The circle of students was widened and seminars were being
organised in Holland and France. An impression of this period has been
published by Paul Klaui in the form of an article in the Dutch esoteric
magazine Bres.
In the seminars of the Ship of Fools
there is always temperature, a kind of extra energy given to the
participants. Because of this temperature people start to manifest
parts of themselves about wich they did not know before: sometimes
agressive or jealous, but also more playful and essential
personalities. Through confrontations with fellow-students and teaching
situations that were specially created for them, people can work with
their false personalities. Many of these remind of the situations
Gurdjieff created in order for his students to get rid of their false
pride, false fears or false perception of themselves.
Through difficult circumstances we can work with our false
personalities, but our essence can only grow trough the feeling of
friendship, romance and a sense of fairie tales. On the Ship of Fools
students have both experiences: there are hardships and difficult
confrontations with the mechanical and rude parts in oneself, but at
the same time the adventurous and innocent child in ourselves is
nurtured. In these circumstances people can act in a new, unexpected
and spontaneous way. This is what is happening with students during the
seminars that are taking place all over Europe. On the Ship of Fools
we do different practices Gurdjieff introduced to the Western world,
like his movements or self-observation. But also his works and the
works of his disciples are being studied and translated by the students
of the Ship. The Russian translation of the first volume of Nicoll’s Commentaries has been published, just as Margareth Anderson’s Unknown Gurdjieff. In the 1970s Bennett was having a correspondence with Vladimir, the captain of the Ship of Fools
and he gave comments on certain dreams of Bennett. At that time, the
time of the Cold War, it was not possible for him to come to England.
But Bennett was impressed by the letters he received from a man he had
never met. And just before he died, he sent his disciples to Vladimir.
But the contact between the Ship of Fools and Gurdjieff’s lineage
continues: now there is contact between students of the Ship of Fools and those of W. Patterson, who published different books on Gurdjieff and Ouspenski.