We’d better start by defining who (or what) Beelzebub actually is. Well, he’s a highly developed being who, like mankind, is ‘three-brained’; that is, he possesses three, what for the time being we’ll call ‘centres’, all of which must be trained to work in harmony to realise the full spiritual, mental, and psychic potential of any given individual. As Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson progresses, it becomes clear that Beelzebub himself is based on the biblical being of the same name, in that he’s undergone a lengthy exile in our solar system for some kind of monumental (but unspecified) cock-up he perpetrated during that system’s creative (or formative) period. Gurdjieff probably chose Beelzebub as his protagonist because (a) there’s a bit of shock value involved, and (b) I think that Beelzebub’s ultimate reconciliation with the MAKER CREATOR ABSOLUTE – as he puts it (complete with capital letters) – is designed to serve as an example of how man, himself, can beat the odds, overcome his disadvantages, and come good in the end. The major difference between Beelzebub and your common or garden human is that whereas Beelzebub has managed to get his act together and unite his inner ‘centres’ into functioning harmoniously, man is nowhere close to achieving it and is, in fact, hugely disadvantaged from the get go. But more of that later. The ‘tales’ that Beelzebub tells, and the interaction with his grandson, Hassein, about the inhabitants of the planet Earth, are in the mode of the guru-disciple dialogues so common in morally instructive literature down the ages. Hassein’s growing inner awareness, as the book progresses, is, I think, meant to serve as a yardstick for the growing awareness in the reader. Gurdjieff claimed to have written this work to be interpreted on many different levels, each commensurate with where each individual reader’s inner development is at, at the time of reading. So I guess he’s saying that you’ll get more and more out of the book each time you re-read it; provided you’ve worked on harmonising your individual centres in the interim that is: which is as good a ploy as any, I suppose, to keep your writings in circulation.
So, back to the book. Beelzebub’s been released from exile in our solar system and he’s aboard the spaceship Karnak (I suspect the name – like all other names Gurdjieff uses – is meant to infer something but I haven’t worked out what it is yet) on his way to a conference in some remote corner of the Galaxy. Among other members of his own ‘tribe’ along for the ride are young Hassein, Beelzebub’s grandson, and Beelzebub’s long-term servant, Ahoon. Beelzebub’s home planet is called Karatas (possibly from the Latin caritas – charity/regard/respect?) and it was to that planet that Beelzebub was allowed to return after his recall from exile. At this stage in the work, we get some hints of what is to come. Apparently, all the planets of our solar system – Ors – are inhabited, but something went horribly wrong with the cosmic mechanics that affect Earth’s orbit and rotation, a mess that was caused, we learn later, because the architects of the cosmos had made a miscalculation and stuffed it up big time. This ‘architectural’ blunder had a detrimental impact on the spiritual development of the inhabitants of Earth which is explained in far greater detail as the book progresses. All this stuff is meant to be taken allegorically of course. So, at one end of the scale, we have Beelzebub’s three-brained tribe who have their collective psychic act together, and at the other end is poor old three-brained mankind which, for no initial fault of its own, is struggling to make it all happen.
But all is not lost! Aware that mankind is struggling under a spiritual development handicap, THE MAKER CREATOR ENDLESSNESS sends periodic ‘messengers’ from his abode on the Sun Absolute in an attempt to kick-start a revival and get man back on the path to harmonise his inner centres and realise his full spiritual potential. Among these messengers was one Ashiata Shiemash whose mission to Earth Beelzebub had somehow aided, and it was that assistance which eventually earned our star-hopping naughty boy a reprieve from banishment.
One last thing of note in this opening section is that Gurdjieff is already emphasising the importance to Beelzebub’s people – or tribe – of the combination of duty and ‘active being mentation’. One of the reasons I, personally, find Gurdjieff appealing is his insistence on a practical balance in your life. The cadres that exist even today which study Gurdjieff’s teachings (sometimes called ‘The Work’), see a balanced existence as critical. Very few people have the time (or, indeed, discipline) to devote all their time and energy to spiritual development and Gurdjieff was fully aware of that reality. Yes, it is important to put aside some time to work upon yourself, but don’t let it mess up your day-to-day living. You have to eat, sleep, and have time out, so don’t think it’s only those who go for it 100% who get to the top of the mountain. It’s perfectly OK to slowly slowly catch your monkey. In fact, I recall a little anecdote about one of Gurdjieff’s students who, tasked with working the dough kneading machine, had become so engrossed in ‘remembering himself’ (an exercise akin to what is nowadays called ‘mindfulness’) that the mixture was pouring out all over the floor. When Gurdjieff chanced upon the scenario and found his student lost in bliss but surrounded by dough, he gave him a good kick up the backside and a stern lecture on realising the correct balance between duty and working on inner development.
A final word, at this stage, on Gurdjieff’s tribe’s ‘active being mentation’. This is no more, and no less, than being fully aware in every molecule of your being of what you are thinking and doing at every moment in your life and, and this is just as important, what has caused it. In other disciplines it is called other things. To certain philosophical schools like the Stoics it is the state of ataraxia – or supreme calmness – in which your mind is totally objective and rational and unclouded by passion or some other false emotion that can infect what it is right for you to do or think. I found a lovely analogy in a book by one of my favourite fiction authors. It said that there was no such thing as a sixth sense; we only have five, but the trick is to use them all at once. I think that if you extend that analogy out to include your ‘inner’ senses so that everything you do or say or think is governed by a total 100% awareness of yourself at that very point in space-time, it comes somewhere close to explaining what Gurdjieff and other teachers are getting at by ‘active being mentation’ or ataraxia, or whatever else it has been called down the millennia.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Please join me in the next section, in which Beelzebub explains more to his grandson about the beings of Earth and touches briefly on the Law of Falling.
