The cover shown for this paper on The Creation, from The Holy Planet Purgatory in Beelzebub,
is the cover of the book:
To Fathom The Gist
Volume 1: Approaches to the Writings of G. I. Gurdjieff
This book will be available from Amazon from about 31st March 2013. We intend to make it available as an ebook on Scribd, Kindle and Apple at a later date.
The subject matter of this book is “how to penetrate Beelzebub’s Tales.” Thus the book discusses what efforts need to be made in order to “fathom the gist” and how to make them.
It provides explanations and examples. …….
There will be at least two other volumes in this series of books.
One (or more) will consist of notes on the various chapters of Beelzebub’s Tales after the fashion of those provided in Volume 1, when sections of Beelzebub’s Tales are directly
discussed. We can say little more than that except that work has begun on that. There will be a further volume in this series of books which discusses Objective Science. The essay on The Creation which follows is a draft excerpt from the volume on Objective
The Creation of The Megalocosmos
Here we try to make sense of the description of the creation in the Purgatory chapter of The First Series. In part it is an attempt to reconcile Purgatory with In Search of the Miraculous, both of which are Gurdjieff’s descriptions.
In Beelzebub’s Words...
“Our COMMON FATHER OMNI-BEING ENDLESSNESS, having decided to change the principle of the maintenance of the existence of this then still unique cosmic concentration and sole place of HIS most glorious Being, first of all altered the process itself of the functioning of these two primordial fundamental sacred laws, and HE actualized the greater change in the law of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh.
“These changes in the functioning of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh consisted in this, that in three of its Stopinders HE altered the what are called ‘subjective actions’ which had been until then in the Stopinders, in this respect, that in one HE lengthened the law-conformable successiveness; shortened it in another; and in a third, disharmonized it.
“And, namely, with the purpose of providing the ‘requisite inherency’ for receiving, for its functioning, the automatic affluence of all forces which were near, HE lengthened the Stopinder between its third and fourth deflections.
“This same Stopinder of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh is just that one, which is still called the ‘mechano-coinciding-Mdnel-In.’
“And the Stopinder which HE shortened is between its last deflection and the beginning of a new cycle of its completing process; by this same shortening, for the purpose of facilitating the commencement of a new cycle of its completing process, HE predetermined the functioning of the given Stopinder to be dependent only upon the affluence of forces, obtained from outside through that Stopinder from the results of the action of that cosmic concentration itself in which the completing process of this primordial fundamental sacred law flows.
“And this Stopinder of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh is just that one, which is still called the ‘intentionally-actualized-Mdnel-In.’
“As regards the third Stopinder, then changed in its ’subjective action’ and which is fifth in the general successiveness and is called ‘Harnel-Aoot,’ its disharmony flowed by itself from the change of the two aforementioned Stopinders.
This passage from the Holy Planet Purgatory has probably bewildered more than a few readers of The First Series. It had that impact on me.
To be clear, my confusion arose directly from the words of Beelzebub contradicting the structure of the octave as it is commonly described and, in particular, as it is described by Gurdjieff to Ouspensky.
Ouspensky illustrates the octave as shown below:
There are clearly two intervals in the octave that are shorter than those that precede them; Mi-Fa and Si-Do. If we assume that in the original action of the Law of Heptaparaparshinokh all the intervals were the same length then it seems that something much more disruptive has happened to the original octave than just two of its intervals being adjusted. The two intervals mentioned in the text both appear to have been shortened rather than one being lengthened and one shortened.
Terminology
Figure 2 below illustrates the terminology used in the text of Beelzebub’s Tales.
The terms have the following meaning:
- Deflections: These are the notes of the octave, also referred to as centers of
gravity.
- Stopinders: From the text, “the distance between each two of these deflections or
‘centers of gravity’ is called a ‘Stopinder-of-the-sacred-Heptaparaparshinokh.” This is the distance between two deflections.
- Mechano-coinciding-Mdnel-In: This is the name given to the Mi-Fa interval.
- Harnel-Aoot: This is the name given to the Sol-La interval.
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
Stopinders Centers of GravityDeflections or
Mechano-coinciding -Mdnel-In Intentionally-actualized -Mdnel-In Harnel-Aoot Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
1
98 54 43 32 53 1582
Fig 1. The Octave from In Search Of The Miraculous Fig 2. The Terminology Used By Beelzebub
- Intentionally-actualized-Mdnel-In: This is the name given to the Si-Do interval. The text states:
“And, namely, with the purpose of providing the ‘requisite inherency’ for receiving, for its functioning, the automatic affluence of all forces which were near, HE lengthened the Stopinder between its third and fourth deflections.
“This same Stopinder of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh is just that one, which is still called the ‘mechano-coinciding-Mdnel-In.’
This Stopinder appears to have been shortened rather than lengthened. So the question naturally arise as to how that happened, given that the text states unambiguously that it was lengthened.
The Octave Before It Was Changed
We assume here that all the Stopinders were of equal length prior to the changes HE made to the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh. This is not explicitly stated in the text, but it is implied by the following excerpts:
“In the beginning, when nothing yet existed and when the whole of our Universe was empty endless space with the presence of only the prime-source cosmic substance ’Etherokrilno,’ our present Most Great and Most Most Holy Sun Absolute existed alone in all this empty space, and it was on this then sole cosmic concentration that our UNIBEING CREATOR with HIS cherubim and seraphim had the place of HIS most glorious Being.
All that existed was the Sun Absolute, inhabited by our UNIBEING CREATOR with HIS cherubim and seraphim, subject to the merciless Heropass, surrounded by Etherokrilno.
Fig 3. The Original Octave
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
1 7
The Original Octave (By Intervals)
1
7 17 17 17 17 17
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
The Original Octave (By Ratios)
“...the Most Most Holy Sun Absolute was maintained and existed on the basis of the system called ‘Autoegocrat,’ i.e., on that principle according to which the inner forces which maintained the existence of this cosmic concentration had an independent functioning, not depending on any forces proceeding from outside, and which were based also on those two fundamental cosmic sacred laws by which at the present time also, the whole of our present Megalocosmos is maintained and on the basis of which it exists, and, namely, on the basis of those two fundamental primordial sacred cosmic laws, called the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh and the sacred Triamazikamno.
The octave was not influenced by any external sources. It’s operation was confined to the Sun Absolute. There is no suggestion that the octave was, at that point, disharmonized in any way. Deductively, this suggests that the octave was regular as illustrated in Figure 3.
The Changed Octave
In the above diagram we represent the Stopinders (the distances between the deflections) first as fractions of the whole and then numerically. This numerical representation is used because it is easier to think of distances in whole numbers rather than fractional proportions. To create this representation we multiplied each of the fractions in the top diagram by 24. So the whole numbers shown can also be thought of as twenty-fourth parts of the complete distance from Do to Do.
(Note that the ratio between notes given by Gurdjieff to Ouspensky, are not the ones
that conventional western music, “the even tempered scale” uses. This calculates tones and semi-tones between two Dos in terms of "One twelfth powers of two." It agrees in respect of the doubling of vibrations from Do to Do, but not where the intervening notes
Fig 4. The Changed Octave
The Changed Octave (By Intervals)
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
1
8 18 112 16 16 524 18
The Changed Octave (Using Numbers)
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do
in the octave occur in respect of the exact number of vibrations. It is slightly different, but also close to the octave as presented by Ouspensky.)
The question that arises is “How do the changes HE made to the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh bring about an octave of these dimensions?” The text states: “These changes in the functioning of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh consisted in this, that in three of its Stopinders HE altered the what are called ‘subjective actions’ which had been until then in the Stopinders, in this respect, that in one HE lengthened the law-conformable successiveness; shortened it in another; and in a third, disharmonized it.
I take “subjective actions” specifically to mean actions which depend upon the Heropass (time) in the context of the note itself.
We normally understand the word “subjective” in respect of a living thing and a viewpoint. One dictionary definition (from a dictionary we use) defines the meaning of subjective as: “dependent on the mind or on an individual's perception for its existence.” That's fine for subjective views, ideas or opinions. For example, I stand on top of a mountain and see a nearby hill. Subjectively it looks low. But I change my position to a point from within a nearby valley and now the hill looks high.
So the term itself, "subjective actions" is a little mystifying. I interpret "subjective actions which had been until then in the Stopinders" to mean the actions that occur because of the nature of the Stopinder itself. A Stopinder of itself is not alive (at least we cannot conceive of how it is - but it may be). The only thing that is subjective within the Stopinder is the rates of vibrations which define it, which itself is determined in part by the dimension of time or the Heropass. One Stopinder is different from another, if by nothing else, by the range of the vibrations it encompasses.
In The First Series (Page 124) Beelzebub states:
“Only Time alone has no sense of objectivity becauseit is not the result of the fractioning of any definite cosmic phenomena. And it does not issue from anything, but blends always with everything and becomes self-sufficiently independent; therefore, in the whole of the Universe, it alone can be called and extolled as the ’Ideally-Unique-Subjective-Phenomenon.’
So what is suggested here is that subjective actions in the Stopinders are actions that relate to the rate of vibrations in the Stopinder, which themselves are fully entwined with time.
This seems counter-intuitive, since a wave propagating through time could be thought of as entirely objective (i.e. every living thing would see it is as the same). But from the perspective of the Stopinder itself the actions are subjective, since different actions exist in different Stopinders - and the difference is by virtue of its vibrations.
We also note here that the octave represents a gamut of vibrations in the sense that each note in an octave has its specific vibration, different to every other note. This vibration,
being a wave, is subjective in the sense that the wave has a specific amplitude that repeats over time. Our assumption is that the starting point, before HE made changes, is an octave where every Stopinder is of equal length and hence every deflection is an equal distance from the last one to the next one.
The changed octave is distinctly different. One Stopinder has a relative length of 2, three Stopinders have a relative length of 3, two Stopinders have a relative length of 4 and one Stopinder has a relative length of 5.
The Changes, Step By Step
In the diagrams that follow, we represent the octave as traversing a circle for the sake of illustrative simplicity. In the text, the law of Heptaparaparshinokh, is formulated with the words:
“‘The-line-of-the-flow-of-forces-constantly- deflecting-according-to-law-and-uniting-again-at-its-ends.’
A circle thus seems appropriate anyway, although, in the progress of the octave from deflection to deflection there is no reason to expect there to be a perfectly circular path. Nevertheless, as the formulation of the law states, it will unite at its ends. In sub-octaves, the octave does not return to the same note that it began with. If a sub-octave is ascending (Do-Re-Mi…) the final Do will be double the vibrations of the original Do. If a sub-octave is descending (Do-Si-La…) then the final Do will be half.
In Figure 5, in the top diagram, we represent the start of an ascending
octave Do-Re-Mi-Fa, where the
Stopinders are exactly equal, their length being represented by the relative value 3. In The lower diagram we simply follow what Beelzebub states:
Fig 5. Steps 1 and 2
Do Re Mi Fa 3 3 3
Originally, the interval between Mi and Fa is regular Fa Re 3 Do Mi Fa 3 3
HE, lengthens the interval between Mi and Fa
“And, namely, with the purpose of providing the ‘requisite inherency’ for receiving, for its functioning, the automatic affluence of all forces which were near, HE lengthened the Stopinder between its third and fourth deflections.
“This same Stopinder of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh is just that one, which is still called the ‘mechano-coinciding-Mdnel-In.’
So we have lengthened the Mi-Fa Stopinder to have a relative value of 4. How do we know that it will have a relative value of 4? Only because, as we shall see, we can make it fit. The text states:
“...that in one HE lengthened the law-conformable successiveness; shortened it in another; and in a third, disharmonized it.” Law conformable successiveness requires that the Stopinders Fa-Sol, Sol-La, La-Si and Si-Do have exactly the same relative value as the Stopinder Mi-Fa. We take “law conformable successiveness” to mean that as the octave ascends then, by law, the gap between the current note and the next note remain the same.
The continued ascent of this octave is illustrated in this manner, in the top diagram in Figure 6.
The next step is that the Absolute shortens the Stopinder between Si and Do.
The text states:
“And the Stopinder which HE shortened is between its last deflection and the beginning of a new cycle of its completing process; by this same shortening, for the purpose of facilitating the commencement of a new cycle of its completing process, HE predetermined the functioning of the given Stopinder to be dependent only upon the affluence of forces, obtained from outside through that Stopinder from the results of the action of that cosmic concentration itself in which the completing process of this primordial fundamental sacred law flows.
Fig 6. Steps 3 and 4
Sol 4 4 Fa Re 3 Do Mi Fa 3 3 The notes Sol, La, Si and Do
now proceed by law-conformable successiveness 4 La Si Do 4 4 Fa Re 3 Do Mi Fa 3 3 HE shortens the interval
between Si and Do 4 Sol La Si Do 3 5 4 4
“And this Stopinder of the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh is just that one, which is still called the ‘intentionally-actualized-Mdnel-In.’
It is logical to question why we have shortened the Si-Do Stopinder by moving Si towards Do rather than by moving Do towards Si. In fact we could have done either. However the text also states:
“As regards the third Stopinder, then changed in its ’subjective action’ and which is fifth in the general successiveness and is called ‘Harnel-Aoot,’ its disharmony flowed by itself from the change of the two aforementioned
Stopinders.
The Harnel-Aoot has become
disharmonized because it ceases to
participate in a law-conformable
successiveness as the Stopinder La-Si commences. It has length 5 now, rather than 4.
We could question why we would expect the Intentionally-Actualized-Mdnel-In to have a relative value of 3. However this must be so if the successive two Stopinders have relative values of 3.
“...that in one HE lengthened the law-conformable successiveness; shortened it in another; and in a third, disharmonized it. The relative length of this Stopinder has to be exactly the same as the relative length of the commencing Stopinder of a new cycle, so that they too exhibit “law conformable successiveness”. We illustrate this in the top diagram in Figure 7, with a new cycle commencing Do-Re, then Re-Mi.
This brings us to the lower diagram in Figure 7. Since the deflections Fa, Sol, La, Si and Do have been fixed by the changes made by the Absolute, the Mechano-coinciding-Mdnel-In has a
final relative length of 2. Fig 7. Steps 5 and 6
Fa Re 3 Do Mi Fa 3 3
The intervals Do-Re and Re-Mi now proceed to evolve from the Si-Do interval
by law conformable successiveness
Sol La Si Do 3 5 4 4 Re 3 3 Mi Fa
The frequency of the note Fa was fixed by HIS will, so now the Mi-Fa interval is fixed. Originally lengthened, it ultimately became shorter
2 Sol La Si Do 3 5 4 4 Re 3 3 Mi
This is a deduction. The assumption is that when HE lengthens the Stopinder between Mi and Fa, HE sets absolutely the vibration of the note Fa. In doing so, HE fixes the vibration of the note Fa, in all octaves. The next higher Fa (if one were ever reached) will have double the rate of vibrations of that note, the next lower Fa will have half the rate of vibrations of that note. The same will, by law conformable successiveness, apply to Sol and La. HE then fixes the notes Si and Do. The notes Re and Mi are subsequently fixed by law conformable successiveness. So as all the other Stopinders are now fixed, mathematically, the Mi-Fa interval must have a relative distance of 2.
This now conforms with the octave as described by Ouspensky.
We can also ask what Beelzebub meant by referring to one of these Stopinders (Si-Do) as intentionally actualized and the other (Mi-Fa) as Mechano-coinciding. A possible explanation for this is that the relative length of Mi-Fa was not intentionally actualized by the Absolute, as the Si-Do octave was, but instead was determined by virtue of “mechanical coincidence.”
Finally, we note that, as we have represented it, in the changed octave, the note Do vibrates at a higher rate than it did prior to the change in the octave. Thus, as we have represented it, HE expanded the octave with the full distance from the beginning to the end now being 24 instead of 21. This is important, as we shall see when we consider the Heropass and investigate how it might be possible for a level of vibration to exist in which the Heropass has no impact.
