In Beelzebub’s Tales, in the chapter on Art, Gurdjieff wrote about an ancient form of art called “mysteries”, devised to transmit important knowledge to succeeding generations of initiates. This art, we are told, degenerated into what is now merely theater performed by actors, conveying mostly entertainment and little knowledge. 

In his Third Series, Gurdjieff wrote that ancient literature was written and read for the purpose of perfecting one’s reason, and this, we are told, also degenerated into mostly entertainment with little meaning transmitted to the reader.

There is a striking parallel to how Dungeons & Dragons began and how it is today. Recently there has been much heated discussion about what is changing and has changed in the hobby.

So what has changed since D&D made its appearance almost fifty years ago?

It would be easy to blame Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro or generational differences between players for these changes, and I’m not saying that blame isn’t deserved.

Yet, there is something else going on below the surface, because, as mentioned earlier, this keeps happening in all human endeavors sustained over a period of time.

The Law of Seven

“The same thing happens in all spheres of human activity. In literature, science, art, philosophy, religion, in individual and above all in social and political life, we can observe how the line of the development of forces deviates from its original direction and goes, after a certain time, in a diametrically opposite direction, still preserving its former name. A study of history from this point of view shows the most astonishing facts which mechanical humanity is far from desiring to notice.” – In Search of the Miraculous, p. 129

We do not live in a static world; everything is in a process of change. Gurdjieff calls the universal law that governs this process the Law of Seven or the Law of Octaves or Heptaparaparshinokh.

Without going into too much detail about the law itself, generally speaking, nothing simply continues in a straight line forever by itself. There are certain points in the course of our actions, called intervals, that can alter the course of action.

The Law of Seven, p. 104, Gurdjieff: An Approach to his Ideas, Michel Waldberg

We begin our course of action with the best intentions, with a clear vision of what we want, with a certain amount of force, and then often without noticing, something happens. We lose interest and become bored with what we set out for, or it turns out to be more difficult than we thought, we lose the original force, or any other number of factors enter into the situation. At this interval in the course of our action, the octave deviates.

The Law of Seven, p. 105, Gurdjieff: An Approach to his Ideas, Michel Waldberg

This can continue to happen until we find ourselves doing the exact opposite of what we set out to do. Or if we are part of something larger, say, an organization, that the successors are now doing the opposite of the original vision. Theatre. Literature. Dungeons & Dragons.

So what can be done about this? Well, given the way human beings exist as they do right now, nothing can be done. Why?

“People are machines. Machines have to be blind and unconscious, they cannot be otherwise, and all their actions have to correspond to their nature. Everything happens. No one does anything. ‘Progress’ and ‘civilization,’ in the real meaning of these words, can appear only as the result of conscious efforts. They cannot appear as the result of unconscious mechanical actions. And what con­scious effort can there be in machines? And if one machine is unconscious, then a hundred machines are unconscious, and so are a thousand machines, or a hundred thousand, or a million. And the unconscious activity of a million machines must necessarily result in destruction and extermination. It is precisely in unconscious involuntary manifestations that all evil lies. You do not yet understand and cannot imagine all the results of this evil. But the time will come when you will understand.” – In Search of the Miraculous, p. 52

So do we acquiesce to degeneration of all things?

No. It is possible, but very difficult, through conscious effort, at certain intervals of the process, to maintain a process so that it does not deviate from its course, or even making progress in the process.

But this does not just happen. It requires people who are willing to learn how to make conscious efforts.