Years ago, we came across a relatively unknown spiritual law of success that’s important for anyone who wants to be successful in life. It’s a key for avoiding a common pitfall we commonly see when people reach for their dreams and goals.
The phrase
“to everything there is a season”
relates to this law.
What’s So Special About This Spiritual Law?
This concept could change your life and, where applicable, enhance your abilities as a healer, coach, or counselor.
More than a century ago, the Armenian philosopher George Gurdjieff described the “Law of Octaves” as a universal law. According to this spiritual law of success, every process we undertake is on either an ascending octave that’s helping us to progress, or a descending octave that’s causing us to regress. And within the flow of each process or octave, there are seasons or periods of movement followed by periods of rest, which are called “intervals.”
The concepts of “octaves” and “intervals” identify opportunities and obstacles that are built into any process. With awareness, they can help us to deal effectively with periods of movement and rest in our lives, so we can progress steadily toward our goals.
The Law of Octaves is illustrated in the seven-tone musical scale. Each step, or musical note, can be understood as a vibration. The first three notes – do, re, and mi – proceed without resistance. It’s a period of easy progress, which is often like a “honeymoon period,” when you enthusiastically start a new project.
Between mi and fa, you encounter the first interval, which generally occurs when some kind of internal or external roadblock interrupts the flow. It may be time for a change of pace. In fact, trying to force our way through an interval may be a mistake.
Intervals provide a natural resting place amid the bustle and activity of life. In a period of activity, they may be inviting us to turn your attention inward, to assess where we are, so we can then go out and take our next steps. Rabindranath Tagore once said:
“The movement of life has to rest in its own music.”
The key with intervals is to return to the goal when the time is right to make further progress. Unfortunately, after becoming distracted, many people give up when the honeymoon ends. They fail to bridge the mi-fa interval, and never make much progress toward their goals.
Practical Application of this Law of Success
It’s easy to lose sight of our goals when an interval occurs. We may realize that reaching our goal may not be as easy as we had hoped. Awareness is a key now, recognizing that the positive purpose of the interval is to examine the opportunity it presents. It may be time to:
- Take a break
- Re-evaluate your direction
- Clear any inner blocks that may be holding you back
- Re-examine why you want to achieve this goal (your motivation)
- Ask for guidance regarding what is needed to progress further
- Clarify Your Next Steps
With awareness, you can stay focused and return to the octave when the interval has ended. Then you probably have clear sailing for awhile again. The honeymoon is over now, so you need to draw on greater commitment to continue in the direction of your goal.
This renewed progress takes you through fa and si (not an error) until another roadblock appears, at the si-do interval. The process is almost complete now, so the focus is wrapping up the final details. In the law of octaves, this is a critical time, when many of those who have successfully bridged the mi-fa interval become distracted and fail to finish on a high note.
Ever wonder why so few projects are completed well?
The si-do interval explains why so many projects are completed poorly. Awareness is important again here. Finishing completely is critical to success, because the completion of one ascending octave leads to the next ascending octave, while failure to complete the octave sets us back. And, as with the mi-fa interval, the key is to recognize the interval, take a break, and return to the finishing touches.
The Law of Octaves is profound. It shows how things can turn into their opposite as each interval can lead to another deviation and on and on. This is why many people never reaching their goals. If we fail to bridge intervals, we can find ourselves putting a lot of effort into going nowhere.
This concept has helped us to allow for rest periods in projects like writing our books. When the flow of the writing is broken, we know to set it aside for a bit, examine what’s happening, and return to the project renewed. Taking breaks at the appropriate times and completing octaves connects us with the flow of life, and we can reach our dreams with relative ease.
What Descending Octaves Reveal about this Spiritual Law of Success
If you want to reach your dreams and goals, it’s also important to recognize descending octaves, with negative energy flows. At times, we all find ourselves in these descending patterns, when nothing seems to be going right. The law of octaves tells us that there will be a break in the downward flow at the mi-fa and si-do intervals. When an interval arrives, we have an opportunity to change direction and start a new ascending octave rather than allowing the descent to continue. As with ascending octaves, the key is awareness.
Noticing Large and Small Octaves
Since we are multi-faceted, each of us is involved in many octaves at any time. An octave may just last for part of a day, as with preparing a meal, running errands, or cleaning the house, or many years, as with attaining a college degree, having a family, or developing a career. And, of course, within the octave of developing a career, there are many smaller octaves.
It may be harder to perceive the Law of Octaves in more abstract and large-scale. Here, it helps to recognize that long octaves tend to have large intervals, which can be very challenging. On a positive note, bridging them successfully provides tremendous rewards.
We noticed the law of octaves in our own lives awhile back. Our roles as coaches, authors and trainers seemed to have lost direction after a long period of successes. Everything was fine externally, it felt like something missing and we couldn’t tell what it was. We started to feel uneasy and lacking the inspiration to carry us forward.
This interval was simply a natural period of rest. It was one part, or phase, of the ongoing series of octaves. Once we realized that we were in an interval, our perspective changed. We felt fine about taking some time off, and did some processing and reflecting.
We also took some time off to have some fun and renewed our commitment at a deeper level, so the octave could continue on course without deviation when the time was right. In the interim, we might have wasted energy if we had tried to force ourselves to continue forward without a clear direction.
Understanding of the Law of Octaves and connecting with the synchronicity of life saved us a lot of aggravation and allowed us to feel renewed in our commitment when our energy was again required.
Enlisting the Spiritual Power of the Soul
To stay on track, remember to enlist your soul’s guidance. We use a process we call Soul Centering, which is one of the most beneficial processes we have seen in our own lives, along with the lives of our students and clients. Connecting with the soul elevates everything you do to a higher level.
With a soulful perspective, we all can become more intentional and more in the flow. Accessing our inner guidance and wisdom, we are open to the synchronous clues that light the way. With this in mind, being aware of this spiritual law of success allows us to view our lives more soulfully and to progress positively on life’s mysterious journey.
Alternating periods of activity and rest are natural to survive, let alone thrive. Capacity, interest, and mental endurance all wax and wane. Plan accordingly.
– TIM FERRIS
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