Form and Sequence

There are many aspects to Beelzebub’s Form and Sequence.  Here I am referring of course to the chapter titled ‘Beelzebub Explains to His Grandson the Significance of the Form and Sequence Which He Chose for Expounding the Information Concerning Man’ (chapter 46).

Among the many aspects regarding this Form and Sequence, the first to consider is whether Gurdjieff is referring to a literal Form and Sequence with some kind of visible and definable set of terms.  Few Gurdjieffian’s really spend much time trying to fathom the methodology Gurdjieff used to create the text of Beelzebub’s Tales.  In most cases, it is assumed that study of Beelzebub’s Tales is of the same nature and effect as study of other books. Seeking out patterns and rhythms within the text is viewed with tacit disdain in most circles: something akin to the dot-connecting of conspiracy theories.

In many ways this is understandable.  There have been so many examples of imagination in occult and esoteric studies that the long-time paranormal and divination researcher Jonathan Zap (of ZapOracle.com) listed this as the second of his 22 classic pitfalls of esoteric research outlined in his essay entitled “carnival 2012- A Psychological Study of the 2012 Phenomenon and the 22 classic pitfalls and blind spots of esoteric research”. Zap himself emphasizes the importance of rigorous reality testing with other seekers by means of serious dialogue in areas where apparently synchronistic number and other patterns obscure the boundaries between the truly significant and the imaginary.

It is with an aim of this kind of reality testing that I feel a functional, active, and reasonable dialogue is the best approach to fathoming Gurdjieff’s methodology.  Fortunately, there is a wide range of evidence leading us to the conclusion that Gurdjieff indeed has a method.

The effort to understand his method, of course, is not meaningful in and of itself.  What is most important is to understand how to use Beelzebub’s Tales as a tool for consciousness.  To understand its structure is to understand its purpose as well as its use.  We understand this very simply regarding the tools we use every day in life.  For instance, the shape and form of the head of a hammer naturally conveys its possibilities, and we see from the different shapes of hammers their different uses.

Beyond these kinds of examples of tools are others that rely on some theory or cognitive understanding.  For instance, the long elastic bands patients of physical therapists use in the exercises they are given have a different kind of form; a form based on cognitive assumptions.  If a native american from 1755 were to stumble upon such a tool, not having any theoretical context for its use, he would perhaps use it as a sling shot.  A physical therapy patient relies very heavily on the assumption that their therapist knows something about anatomy and the structure of the body.  For them, this is completely theoretical, as they do not know all of the muscles and their interconnections; however, they rely on the palpable differences felt from regular engagement in the exercises given them and develop trust in the therapist.

All this should help us see that the Form and Sequence of the Tales would inevitably speak to its use as a tool, and it is the practical benefits of this tool that are most important to the reader.

Again, there is a wide range of evidence of Gurdjieff’s ‘Form and Sequence’.

The first and I suppose most obvious is the existence of a chapter entitled “Form and Sequence”.  Though this would seem a clear enough indication, upon reading the chapter and finding out Gurdjieff never explicitly states what this sequence is, it is apparent he did not intend to impart his method directly, but meant for the reader to find it for themselves.  This is in keeping with his teaching style.

The second kind of evidence are textual clues, which come in a vast range.  Broadly speaking, I differentiate ‘overt’ versus ‘subtle’ cues.

Overt cues regard relatively visible phrasing and textual arrangement that can be directly referenced or quoted.  The first of these are Gurdjieff’s ‘promised explanations’ and ‘do you remembers’.  Gurdjieff many times, on the cusp of explaining something, decides to put it off until a later time ostensibly to outline pertinent contextual information beforehand.  For instance, rather than explaining the meaning of the two terms ‘Foolasnitamnian’ and ‘Itoklanoz’ which he touches upon for the first time at the end of his chapter on the Relativity of Time, he postpones, only to return to the subjet hundreds of pages later in the first chapter of the second book.  Or another example, rather than explaining the meaning of the word Hasnamuss when it comes up in the chapter about Beelzebub’s Third Flight, he again defers, only to return to it a couple hundred pages later with his description of Lentorhamsanin in the chapter about the desctruction of Ashiata’s labors.  Further, he often reminds the reader that the current material under consideration will only be understandable “when all the Laws of World Creation and World Maintenance” have been explained. Gurdjieff fulfills his promise in the chapters on Purgatory and the Law of Seven.  In all these cases, Beelzebub makes a promise to explain and remembers to do so later. In many of these cases as well, Gurdjieff uses very similar, almost formulaic language in his construction of grammar and syntax.

Not only are explanations promised and foresight demonstrated, but previous information is referenced or remembered.  For instance, in the chapter religion, in learning about the teaching of Saint Moses, we are asked if we remember about Konuzion’s religious invention from the Third Flight. There are many instances in which Beelzebub asks Hassein if he remembers some specific piece of information that was given.

In both these cases, Beelzebub appears to test Hassein (the reader) in whether he is able to hold all the pieces being presented.  He is literally being asked to hold onto a partial picture until more information is given later, or to remember something that was partially given before.  This clearly indicates Gurdjieff’s own sense of the material as being composed of interlocking, interdependent pieces, and shows what effort is required of the reader in piecing things together.

Other overt textual clues include phrasing where Beelzebub promises to tell the “sequence of events” of a given character or people’s story.  This very phrase is used many times, indicating a definite sequencing.  For instance, in describing the story of the pearl hunters in the chapter on india and their migration to Pearl Land, he refers to the “sequence of events” in their history. We wont break down what this sequencing is here or what its significance may be, but suffice to say this is another case of overt indication from gurdjieff that he indeed is using a method, whether or not it is immediately intelligible enough to hand itself over willingly.

Beginnings of paragraphs form another obvious clue.  Whenever Gurdjieff is about to break off into a tangent, or wishes to emphasize a particular point, he begins with “it is interesting to notice”, “you must know”, “you must first know”, etc., often returning to the main topic with a sentence beginning with “So my boy”, or “and so, my boy” and a sentence or paragraph summarizing what he had been speaking about before tangenting. In every single case these contain vital clues or hints that help knit portions of the main text together which would otherwise remain unconnected.

Beyond these overt examples in the text itself, are subtler repetitions and rhythms very difficult to grasp.  One example of this is the chiasmus in the early part of the chapter on Beelzebub’s Fifth Flight.  Ive documented this in another essay.  Here, the pattern is inferred indirectly through the relationship of the elements and symbols, and isnt the literal repeating of a series of words.  Again, I wont explain the significance of this pattern but simply point it out.

Similar to this are occurrences of the same honorifics, adjectives, or other qualifiers in front of varying persons, places or things, indicating relationships or similarities between them. For instance, Mister Bellybutton is an absurd character who shows up in the chapter entitled America with whom we would almost never connect to Gurdjieff’s ENDLESSNESS unless both had been given a similar title.  Gornaoor Harharkh, Beelzebub’s saturnian raven friend, also has the honorific of mister, gornahoor meaning in saturnian “mister”.  These connections cause the reader to draw indirect connections between characters and means that characters have to be overlapped or superimposed one on top of the other.  This superimposition requires the reader to view not only the particular section they are in, but to bear in mind other areas of the book as well, and at particular levels of interpretation.

Because the material is so interdependent, it is difficult to explain connections in ordinary language, but Ill try another example:  ‘Saint’ Venoma and his ‘labors’.  The words “saint” and “labors” are meant to connect Venoma, in the readers mind, to the ‘saintly’ Ashiata and his ‘labors’.  Saint Venoma’s ship system is based on an understanding of gravity and how objects are automatically pulled towards them.  On one level of interpretation, this appears to be speaking about human habits, whether physical, mental, or emotional, a fundamental subject of Gurdjieff’s teaching.  Further, the ship system can be seen as representing Gurdjieff’s teaching, similar to the Buddhist description of the Buddha’s teaching as a vehicle or boat.  Venoma’s ship system is displaced by Hariton’s system of perpetual motion.  Corresponding to Saint Venoma’s ship is Ashiata’s teaching, which spreads by means of ‘Antkooano’, the “convincing” of other people of the truth of Conscience.  A connection can be seen between Ashiata’s teaching’s spread by means of “convincing” and the use of gravitational force fields used for locomotion in Venoma’s system.   Of course, both the Saintly Venoma’s ship system and the Saintly Ashiata’s teaching spread widely, in the end being displaced. Lentrohamsanin’s displacement of Ashiata’s teaching corresponds to Haritons displacement of Venoma’s system.

There are many more commonalities between these two stories.  There are significant differences as well.  However, it highlights the use of honorifics to point to a connection between characters.  Investigating those characters, the reader will inevitably find many more similarities between them that allows for greater clarifications of what each represents. In other words, it is implied that these symbols are metaphors for the same thing, each metaphor bringing forth a certain aspect of the picture.

Other common and repetitious phrases include seemingly ambiguous references to time such as “many years later”, “later”, “long, long ago”, or references to various scales of time such as “martian years” without an apparently clear indication of what that length of time stands for.  These kinds of phrases serve to link disparate areas of the text together in ways that aren’t immediately connectable but which depend on each other for coherence of thought.

Yet more oft-repeated phrases include “more or less”, “in general”, “intentionally actualized from Above”, “as it were,” etc.  Further, in particular sub sections of chapters, it becomes clear in looking at a series of paragraphs, that almost the exact same set of phrases are being mixed up in different orders, with just enough changed it doesnt bat the eye.

These are some of the most easily demonstrable elements within the text itself that point unmistakably to a Form and Sequence used by gurdjieff, whether we’ve adequately laid out what that form and sequence exactly is or what its significance represents.  In other words, there are intentional patterns that allow for coherence of thought.  That coherence is significant, not the patterns themselves.  A reader cannot go through the text with any kind of thoroughness or attention and fail to notice all of these things happening. As a result, it becomes clear Gurdjieff was using very complex Forms and Sequences, conscious of what he was doing, and by clear inference is expecting the reader to patch things together for themselves in the same way.  This allows for the book to be both a concrete representation of his own functional capacity for, as he would put it, “sane mentation”, as well as a path for the development of the same within the reader.