Use of Chiasm in Beelzebub’s Tales

A chiastic structure from the Tales, Beelzebub’s Fifth Flight.  Chiasm is a formula used in oral tradition partly for mnemonic purposes, that is, to help remember.  It was used by bards and storytellers to remember very long narratives, as well as served to maintain an accurate oral tradition. However, it has also been used to create patterns of meaning.  It causes an inference or resonance between two or more similar or dissimilar things that happen in different parts of the sequence of a story.

An example of a chiastic structure, each letter representing, for the case we are reviewing in Beelzebub’s Tales, a paragraph:

A
B
C
D
D
C
B
A

Traditionally, the central paragraphs, in this case designated at point “D”, forms the “turn” in the story.  Generally this is the point of greatest conflict.  You can see here that it is a turning point in which Beelzebub changes the story he is telling.
Extract from Fifth Flight (pages 315-316):
A


”During this time, that is to say, between my fourth and fifth visits, great changes occurred to the surface of your planet; many changes also occurred there in the concentrations of the places of settlement of these favorites of yours. For example, all those centers-of-culture of theirs on the continent Ashhark where I had been in person during my previous descents upon the Earth, namely, the countries of Tikliamish and Maralpleicie, had by the time of my fifth arrival there entirely ceased to exist.

B


“The cause of the destruction of these centers-of-culture of theirs and of the changes on the surface of this planet in general, was again a misfortune, the third for this ill-fated planet.



C
“This third misfortune was entirely of a local character and occurred because during several years there had proceeded in its atmosphere unprecedented what are called ‘accelerated-displacements-of-the-parts-of-the-atmosphere’; or, as your favorites there would say, ‘great winds.’



D


“The cause of these abnormal displacements or great winds at that time was once again those two fragments which had been separated from this planet of yours during the first great calamity, and which afterwards became independent small planets of this solar system, and are now called Moon and Anoolios.



D


”Strictly speaking, the main cause of this terrestrial misfortune was only the larger of these separated parts, namely, the Moon; the smaller fragment, Anoolios, played no part in it whatsoever.

C
“The accelerated-displacements in the Earth’s atmosphere resulted from the following:

”When the atmosphere on the small, accidentally arisen planet Moon had been finally formed, and the Moon, according to the already mentioned law of ‘Catching-up,’ continued to fall back upon its fundamental mass by the path already then established, and this newly arisen definite presence on the Moon had not yet acquired its own harmony within the common-system-harmony-of-movement, then the what is called ‘Osmooalnian-friction’ which was, so to say, not harmonized with the whole, evoked in the atmosphere of the Earth the mentioned accelerated-displacements or great winds.

B
“These unprecedented great winds then began, by the force of their currents, as it is said, to wear down the elevated ‘terra-firma-parts’ and to fill up the corresponding ‘depressions.’

A
“Such depressions were also the two countries of the continent Ashhark upon which the process of existence was chiefly concentrated of the second and third groups of beings of contemporary Asia, that is to say, the main parts of the countries Tikliamish and Maralpleicie.”

summary:
A  Tikliamish and Maralpleicie



B  the changes on the surface of this planet

C “‘accelerated-displacements-of-the-parts-of-the-atmosphere’; ‘great winds.’



D
”The cause, Moon and Anoolios.



D
 “The cause, Moon; Anoolios plays no part whatsoever,

C “The accelerated-displacements; accelerated-displacements or great winds.

B  wear down the elevated ‘terra-firma-parts’ and to fill up the corresponding ‘depressions.’



A  Tikliamish and Maralpleicie.”

This is one of hundreds of similar examples.  Others are “buried” beneath several layers of interpretation and much more difficult to see. Here you can see that G moves from the human collective level, to global, to atmospheric, and up to planetary, after which he goes back down.  The use of these kinds of patterns varies quite a lot: some ladders are 7 tiered, some appear only to move “up”, others “down”, and many other variations.

One interesting aspect of this is that right at the turning point when the movement of the metaphor begins to go “down” the scale again, the viewpoint expressed by Beelzebub changes. He goes from saying that both the moon and anulios cause it to saying only the moon caused it.  We’ll leave interpretation to the reader.

Another aspect that is worth while to notice and which applies to other cases of patterning is the subtle change in representation.  For instance, in the material I have colored blue, Gurdjieff repeats nearly the same thing but with more detail the second time. The first time he says there were great changes to the earth and loss of the centers of culture, but doesnt say what those general changes to the earth were. In the second, he fills in some of this information.  This is a ubiquitous techniquie he uses of giving out a very little information at a time, postponing further information until later.