Gurdjieff And Orage*

When, at the age of 49, A. R. Orage left behind his brilliant career as editor of The New Age in 1922 to work with G. I. Gurdjieff in France, it was not to leave the things of this world for the promise of things in another. He hoped to increase his moral and psychological powers in order to better serve the world at large -- and England in particular. Nine years later, after successfully representing Gurdjieff in New York as a teacher, writer, and fund-raiser, Orage returned to England to found and edit The New English Weekly. What he brought to his renewed career was a surer sense of self and, most importantly, a greater conviction in the possibilities for English and American economies of the Social Credit scheme he had been advocating since 1919. In effect, Orage went to Gurdjieff to find a way to convince others of the value of an economic scheme that would harmonize industrial production, the flow of capital, and consumer capacities.What he had not anticipated in his new task was falling in love with a young American heiress, Jessie Dwight, whose ancestors have been renowned since the early 18th century in American public life.From 1924 until the end of Orage's life, Jessie fought Gurdjieff for possession of Orage, though Orage did his best to stay aloof from the conflict. It is commonly assumed that Orage and Gurdjieff parted ways in early 1931 because of Jessie, but it appears that he, as well as Gurdjieff, thought that it was time for him to reassume, with his new family, his editing career fortified by Gurdjieff's teaching. As Ouspensky and de Hartmann had done, and Jean Toomer soon was to do, Orage voluntarily gave up his direct association with Gurdjieff.Orage didmore in New York than represent Gurdjieff's interests. He taught his own psychological exercises, and tutored a number of promising American writers. Most significantly, he stirred interest in Social Credit as a possible solution to the financial depression that gripped American and worldwide economies in the 30s. Social Credit became a political policy in Western Canada, was sponsored in Congress in the late 30s, and interested leading American politicians, including Huey Long in Louisiana, Bronson Cutting in New Mexico, and Henry Wallace in Washington.