URI http://geocities.datacellar.net/tokyo/1236/laws5.html
In the Ray of Creation, each level of "World" is assigned a number corresponding to the number of forces acting in that world.
In the Absolute, the three forces constitute one whole: the single and independent Will of the Absolute. The Absolute is therefore assigned the number 1. In a world of the second order (All Galaxies), the three forces are divided; these worlds are therefore assigned the number 3.
Thereafter, as we descend the Ray of Creation, each lower world inherits all the forces from all the worlds above it as far as World 3, and in addition, having been created, it manifests three forces of its own. Thus, in worlds of the third order there are (3)+3 = 6 forces; in worlds of the fourth order there are (3+6)+3 = 12 forces, and so on:
| Ray of Creation | |
|---|---|
| World | Orders of Laws |
| Absolute (everything everywhere) | 1 |
| All Galaxies | 3 |
| Milky Way (a galaxy) | 6 |
| Sun (a solar system in a galaxy) | 12 |
| All Planets (a planetary system of a sun) | 24 |
| Earth (a planet of a planetary system) | 48 |
| Moon (a moon of a planet) | 96 |
The number of forces in each world indicates the number of orders of laws to which the given world is subject.
The fewer laws there are in a given world, the nearer it is to the Will of the Absolute.
The immediate Will of the Absolute reaches only as far as World 3; it does not reach World 6. In World 3 the Absolute creates, as it were, a general plan of the Universe, which is then further developed mechanically. The Will of the Absolute cannot manifest itself in subsequent worlds apart from this plan, and in manifesting itself in accordance with this plan, it takes the form of mechanical laws.
On the Earth we are very far removed from the will of the Absolute; we are separated from it by forty-eight orders of mechanical laws. If we could free ourselves from one half of these laws, we should find ourselves subject to only twenty-four orders of laws, that is, to the laws of the planetary world, and then we should be one stage nearer to the Absolute and its will. If we could then free ourselves from one half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the sun (twelve laws) and consequently one stage nearer still to the Absolute. If, again, we could free ourselves from half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the starry world and separated by only one stage from the immediate will of the Absolute. And the possibility for man thus gradually to free himself from mechanical laws exists.The study of the forty-eight orders of laws to which man is subject cannot be abstract like the study of astronomy; they can be studied only by observing them in oneself and by getting free from them.
At the beginning a man must simply understand that he is quite needlessly subject to a thousand petty but irksome laws which have been created for him by other people and by himself. When he attempts to get free from them he will see that he cannot. Long and persistent attempts to gain freedom from them will convince him of his slavery. The laws to which man is subject can only be studied by struggling with them, by trying to get free from them. But a great deal of knowledge is needed in order to become free from one law without creating for oneself another in its place.
G. I. Gurdjieff
Man has in himself his own "Ray of Creation", his own "Moon", "Earth", "Planets" and "Sun". These correspond to his False Personality, his True Personality, his Essence and his Real I, and they are subject to the laws of their corresponding worlds. False Personality is the most mechanical part of a man, under 96 orders of laws and under the influence of the Moon. Everyone in the Work must observe and study the laws of his own False Personality, with the aim of freeing himself.