Carole M. Cusack, Indo-European Motifs in Gurdjieff: The Charioteer, Rider, Chariot and Horses Carole Cusack Gurdjieff Days 2626: International Symposium 17-18 September 2026, Yerevan State University.

https://www.academia.edu/176140810/Carole_M_Cusack_Indo_European_Motifs_in_Gurdjieff_The_Charioteer_Rider_Chariot_and_Horses?email_work_card=title The Katha Upanishad (5th -1st c. BCE) uses the image of the Charioteer (Buddhi/ reason), the Rider (Atman/ self), the Chariot (body), and the Horses (senses). Ratha Kalpana (the ‘chariot image’) is also found in the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides of Elea’s (b. late 6th c. BCE) On Nature and in Plato’s (428/427 - 348/347 BCE) dialogue Phaedrus. G. I. Gurdjieff (c. 1877-1949), in Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (1950) uses the same metaphor in Chapter 48, “From the Author.” Here it is claimed to be an illustration of Gurdjieff’s teaching on the four potential bodies in human spiritual development (physical, astral, mental and causal) and thus important for the esoteric process of growing a soul. The chariot image is employed in P. D. Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous (1949) in Chapters 2, 5, and 15 to the same ends. This paper examines similarities and differences in the ancient uses of Ratha Kalpana, and compares these to Gurdjieff’s appropriation of the image and specific linking of it to his goal of surviving bodily death through the acquisition of a soul.