Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson

I read Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson for the claims a later writer can set beside Plato, Donnelly, and the other Atlantis books on this site. G. I. Gurdjieff is the author. The title page adds the subtitle An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man, and the line All and Everything / First Series. The page before the first chapter says the first series is three books under this title. This copy then opens “First Book.” The file runs 1,135 pages. It prints no publisher and no year, and it prints no page numbers. The page numbers I give are the file pages of this PDF. The book is in copyright. The quotations below are short excerpts for review and study.

The tale is told by Beelzebub to his grandson Hassein, aboard a ship, about the three-brained beings of the planet Earth. I am not going to retell the whole series. The findings I would carry into a comparison are the ones in which he names a place, a count of time, a people, or a custom that touches Atlantis. He tells an early bursting of the Earth, two fragments, and a later second misfortune in which the chief continent, Atlantis, enters within the planet. He lands there once, at a city called Samlios, under a king called Appolis. A tribal pythoness moves his own people off the continent a year before it goes. The lands he still names after that event are Grabontzi, which he says is now Africa, and Ashhark, which he says is now Asia. On a fourth flight he calls a country Nilia, now Egypt, and its capital Thebes.

The book at a glance

• Title: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man. The title page also reads All and Everything / First Series.
• Author: G. I. Gurdjieff.
• Edition I read: A file of 1,135 pages. The opening says the first series is three books under this title. This copy prints no publisher and no year, and it prints no page numbers.
• What he claims: While his tribe was settling on Mars, the Earth burst and two fragments flew into space. The larger later came to be called the Moon. Its earlier name on his page is Loonderperzo. The smaller was Anulios, and that name was gradually forgotten. Beings of a continent called Atlantis, which later disappeared, still knew the smaller fragment and still called it Anulios. The second misfortune to the planet is the one in which its chief continent, Atlantis, entered within the planet. On his first descent the ship Occasion landed on the shores of that continent. He went to Samlios, then a very big city and the capital of the largest community on Earth, where King Appolis lived. The cause of the descent was a young countryman of his tribe. Kinsmen on Mars told him that this kinsman had emigrated to Earth some 350 Martian years earlier. He descended to Earth a second time only eleven of their centuries after the first descent. Shortly after the first descent a second catastrophe, local in character, had engulfed Atlantis along with other land masses. A year before it, a tribal pythoness told his tribe to leave Atlantis for a smaller continent called Grabontzi, which he says exists today as Africa, and which became much larger. During the same perturbation, parts of a continent called Iranan entered within the planet and other land was added, so that it became almost as large as Atlantis had been. He later calls that continent Ashhark, and today Asia. Hunters from Atlantis stayed on the Sea of Beneficence. A learned society on Atlantis, the Society of Akhldanns, was founded 735 years before the second transapalnian perturbation, on the initiative of a being named Belcultassi. On a fourth flight the ship Occasion alighted on the Red Sea, which bordered Nilia, now Egypt. The capital he reached was Thebes, and he went on by the river now known as the Nile.

Findings worth setting beside other writers

• Two fragments, then the Moon. In the chapter on the cause of the genesis of the Moon, the whole of Mars is shaken. The Earth, which sometimes came near enough to Mars to be seen clearly, had burst, and two fragments had flown into space. He names a comet, Kondoor, as having to function in that solar system, on its first full orbit. On the page where he names the fragments, the larger is Loonderperzo and the smaller is Anulios. More recently the larger is called the Moon, and the name of the smaller was gradually forgotten. Atlantis still knew Anulios (file pp. 79, 82).
• The second misfortune. The various changes in the presence of the beings began for the most part after the second misfortune, during which the chief continent, existing under the name Atlantis, entered within the planet (file p. 103).
• The first descent. A young being of his tribe had emigrated to Earth some 350 Martian years earlier and had become the cause of an incident. Beelzebub tried to help from Mars, then flew the next day on the ship Occasion. The ship had brought the tribe to that solar system, was left for interplanetary communication, was based on Mars, and its supreme command had been entrusted to him. It landed on the shores of the continent which later, during the second misfortune, disappeared entirely from the surface. That continent was called Atlantis, and was then the principal place of the three-brained beings of the planet, and of most of his tribe. He went to the city Samlios. Samlios was a very big city and the capital of the largest community on Earth. The head of that community was called King Appolis, and the young countryman had become involved with him (file pp. 106, 107).
• Eleven of their centuries, then the engulfing. The second descent was only eleven of their centuries after the first. Shortly after the first descent a second catastrophe had occurred, local in character, and it did not threaten disaster on a great cosmic scale. During it, Atlantis, at the time of the first descent the largest continent and the chief place of the terrestrial three-brained beings, was engulfed within the planet, along with other land masses and most of the beings on them. Other land masses emerged and formed new continents and islands, most of which still exist. Samlios had stood on Atlantis (file p. 168).
• A year, a pythoness, and Africa. The beings of his tribe on Earth at the time of the catastrophe all escaped. A year before it, their tribal pythoness called on them to leave Atlantis for a smaller continent not far away, on a definite part of its surface. That continent was then called Grabontzi. The part she indicated escaped. As a consequence, Grabontzi, existing today under the name Africa, became much larger, because other land masses emerged from the water and were added to it (file p. 169).
• Several days. During the second transapalnian perturbation, besides the chief continent of Atlantis, many other large and small land masses entered within the planet, and new ones appeared. These displacements lasted several of their days, with frequent planetary tremors. Survivors found themselves on unfamiliar new land, and many men and women were compelled for a number of their years to exist apart (file p. 254).
• Asia, a sea, and a society from Atlantis. On the third descent the ship Occasion did not alight on the Colhidius Sea, now called the Caspian. It alighted on the sea then called the Sea of Beneficence, because he wished to go to Gob, the capital of the second group on the continent of Ashhark, on the southeastern shore. Gob stood on the Keria Chi and the Naria Chi. While Atlantis was at the height of its splendor, the powdered horn of a being called a pirmaral was taken as a remedy. He says pirmarals still breed, and contemporary beings take them for deer. The beings of Atlantis destroyed them for their horns until none were left there, and professional hunters went to other continents. Several families went to a continent then called Iranan, later Ashhark, today Asia. Parts of Iranan entered within the planet, other land was added, and the continent became almost as large as Atlantis before the catastrophe. The hunters stayed. A learned society on Atlantis was called the Society of Akhldanns. One member had already settled on that sea to watch for the danger. When Atlantis was engulfed he remained, in the country he calls the future Maralpleicie. The hunters chose him chief. He married a hunter’s daughter, Rimala, and thus became the founder of the second group on Ashhark, now Asia. The same history says the society was founded 735 years before the second transapalnian perturbation, on the initiative of Belcultassi (file pp. 194 to 198, 271).
• Egypt on the fourth flight. On the fourth flight the ship Occasion alighted on the Red Sea, which washed the eastern shores of Grabontzi, now Africa, and bordered the country known as Nilia, now Egypt. From the shore they went on camels to the capital of the future Egypt. That city was called Thebes. The next day he traveled on a choorteteff down the great river now known as the Nile, toward structures then being built for observing other cosmic concentrations (file pp. 262, 263).

The Earth bursts, and two fragments fly off

Chapter 9 is titled “The cause of the genesis of the Moon.” Beelzebub has arrived on Mars, where his tribe had been directed to exist, and they are still settling. On one of their busiest days the whole planet Mars is shaken, and a stench arises. When they can make out what happened, the cause is the Earth. That planet occasionally approached so near to Mars that they could observe it clearly, sometimes even without a teskooano.

For reasons we could not yet grasp, this planet, it transpired, had 'burst' and two fragments broken off from it had flown into space.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 79

He has already said that this solar system was then still being formed. He then names a comet.

We learned later that in accordance with this general cosmic harmony of reciprocal maintenance of all cosmic concentrations, a comet of vast orbit, which still exists under the name of 'Kondoor,' also had to function in this solar system

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 79

On this page the comet was describing its full orbit for the first time. The reason the Earth burst is, in his words here, a reason they could not yet grasp.

A few pages on, the two fragments have names. Ordinary three-brained beings who arose on the Earth knew them by these names. Beings of later times gave them different names at different periods.

The larger of these two fragments was named 'Loonderperzo' and the smaller 'Anulios'; and the ordinary three-brained beings who arose and were formed on the Earth knew them by these names.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 82

more recently the larger fragment has come to be called 'Moon,' but the name of the smaller one was gradually forgotten.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 82

As for the beings there now, they have no name for the smaller fragment, and they do not even suspect its existence. Atlantis is the exception he prints.

It is interesting to note that the beings of a continent on that planet called 'Atlantis,' which later disappeared, still knew of this second fragment of their planet and also called it 'Anulios.'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 82

The next page continues into the last period of that continent. Beings of that last period, in whom the consequences of an organ called kundabuffer had already crystallized, called the smaller fragment Kimespai, which meant never allowing one to sleep in peace. Contemporary three-brained beings do not know the fragment, because of its small size and its remoteness, and because it is invisible to them. If one of them caught sight of it through a telescope, he would take it for a big aerolite.

The second misfortune

Chapter 14 is titled “Introducing a perspective that promises nothing very cheerful.” In the beginning, he says, the beings on that planet had the same presence as all the three-brained beings arising on the corresponding planets of the Great Universe, and the same duration of existence. The change is dated to the second misfortune.

The various changes in their presence began for the most part after the second misfortune had occurred to this ill-fated planet, during which its chief continent, existing under the name of 'Atlantis,' entered within the planet.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 103

From that time on, they created conditions of external existence that caused the quality of their radiations to go steadily from bad to worse. Great Nature was compelled to transform their common presence through compromises, in order to regulate the vibrations they radiated, which were required chiefly to preserve the being-welfare of the former fragments of their planet. For the same reason, Great Nature gradually increased the number of beings there, until they are breeding on all the lands of that planet.

The first descent, Samlios, and King Appolis

Chapter 15 is the first descent to the planet Earth. Beelzebub says he descended for the first time on account of a young being of his tribe who had become seriously involved with a three-brained being there, and in consequence had got mixed up in a very stupid affair. One day several beings of the tribe, also dwelling on Mars, came to his house. They and their kinsmen on Earth had tried to deal with the situation themselves and had been unable to.

They told me that one of their young kinsmen had emigrated to the planet Earth some 350 Martian years earlier, and that recently he had been the cause of an incident with very disagreeable consequences for all of them.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 106

He tried to help them without leaving Mars. When he became certain that nothing effective could be done from so far away, he decided to descend to the Earth and find a way out on the spot.

The very next day, taking with me everything that might be necessary, I flew there on the ship Occasion.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 107

I may remind you that the Occasion was the ship on which all the beings of our tribe were transported to that solar system and that it had been left for our use in interplanetary communication.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 107

This ship was based on the planet Mars, and its supreme command had been entrusted to me from Above.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 107

The first descent was on that ship. On this first visit it landed on the shores of the continent which later, during the second misfortune to this planet, disappeared entirely from its surface.

This continent was called 'Atlantis,' and was then the principal place of existence for the three-brained beings of that planet, and likewise for most of our tribe.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 107

Having disembarked, he went straight from the ship Occasion to the city named Samlios, where the young being who was the cause of the descent had the place of his existence.

Samlios was at that time a very big city and the capital of the largest community on the planet Earth.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 107

The city was the dwelling place of the head of this large community, who was called King Appolis.

It was with King Appolis that our young, inexperienced countryman had become involved.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 107

The second descent, eleven centuries later

Chapter 19 is his tale about the second descent to the planet Earth.

I descended to your planet Earth for the second time only eleven of their centuries after my first descent.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 168

Shortly after my first descent a second catastrophe had occurred to that planet, but this one was local in character and did not threaten disaster on a great cosmic scale.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 168

The continent of the first visit is named again, and the verb changes from “entered” and “disappeared” to “engulfed.”

During this second catastrophe, the continent of Atlantis, which at the time of my first descent had been the largest continent and the chief place of existence of the terrestrial three-brained beings, was engulfed within the planet

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 168

He goes on, in the same sentence, that other large and small land masses went with it, as did most of the three-brained beings existing upon them, together with almost everything they had achieved and acquired in the course of centuries.

In their place there emerged from within the planet other land masses forming new continents and islands, most of which still exist.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 168

It was on this very continent of Atlantis that the city of Samlios was situated where, do you remember, that young countryman of ours had existed who was the cause of my first descent in person.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 168

During this second great disaster, many of the three-brained beings nevertheless survived, and by the time of his second descent their posterity were breeding on almost all the newly formed land masses. The beings of his own tribe who were on the planet at the time of the catastrophe all escaped that end. Most of them, at the time of the first descent, had existed on Atlantis.

It appears that a year before this catastrophe our 'tribal pythoness' made a prophecy in which she called upon all our tribe to leave the continent of Atlantis and migrate to a smaller continent not far away

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 169

They were to exist on a definite part of its surface that she indicated.

This smaller continent was then called 'Grabontzi' and the part the 'pythoness' indicated did indeed escape the terrifying perturbation that occurred to all the other parts of the common presence of that ill-fated planet.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 169

As a consequence of this perturbation the continent of Grabontzi, existing today under the name of 'Africa,' became much larger, as other land masses emerged from the water spaces of the planet and were added to it.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 169

The pythoness could warn them, he says, thanks to a special being-property which can be acquired only intentionally, by means of what is called being-partkdolgduty. He postpones that explanation. The reasons for this second descent itself begin, on the same page, with an etherogram received on Mars from the Center. I leave that summons here.

How long the displacements lasted

Later he returns to the same event under another name, the second transapalnian perturbation.

The point is that during the second transapalnian perturbation, besides the chief continent of Atlantis many other large and small land masses entered within the planet, and new land masses appeared in their place

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 254

These displacements of various parts of the common presence of this unfortunate planet lasted several of their days, accompanied by frequent planetary tremors and manifestations that could not fail to evoke terror in the consciousness and feelings

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 254

During that period many of the three-brained beings, together with one-brained and two-brained beings of other forms, found themselves upon other newly formed land masses, in places entirely unfamiliar to them. It was just then, he says, that many of these beings of active and passive sex, men and women, were compelled for a number of their years to exist apart, without the opposite sex.

Hunters, the Sea of Beneficence, and the Society of Akhldanns

Chapter 20 is the third flight to the planet Earth. He stayed on Mars only long enough to see those who had just arrived and to give instructions of a common tribal character. He descended again to uproot from the three-centered beings their custom, which they considered a sacred duty, of destroying the existence of beings of other brain-systems.

On my third descent to the planet Earth our ship Occasion did not alight on the Colhidius Sea, now called the 'Caspian,' but on the sea known at that period as the 'Sea of Beneficence.'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 194

We decided to alight there because this time I wished to go to the capital of the beings of the second group on the continent of Ashhark, the city of 'Gob'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 194

Gob was situated on the southeastern shore of that sea. It was then a large city, renowned over the whole planet for its production of fine fabrics and precious ornaments.

The city spread over both banks of the mouth of a large river, called the 'Keria Chi,' which rose in the eastern highlands of the country and emptied into the Sea of Beneficence.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 194

On its western side another large river, called the Naria Chi, flowed into the same sea. It was chiefly in the valleys of these two rivers that the beings of the second group on the continent of Ashhark existed.

He then tells Hassein the history of these beings, a long time before the period of the present tale, and even long before the second great catastrophe, while the continent of Atlantis was still at the height of its splendor. One of the ordinary three-centered beings of that continent discovered that the powdered horn of a being then called a pirmaral was a very effective remedy for all sorts of diseases, and this discovery was afterward circulated far and wide by various freaks. It became the custom that anyone who fell ill had to be given a dose of this powdered horn to swallow.

You might be interested to know that pirmarals still breed on your planet, but the contemporary beings take them merely for one of the species they call 'deer' and have no special name for them.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 195

Well, my boy, the beings of the continent of Atlantis destroyed so many of these pirmarals for the sake of their horns that soon not a single one was left there

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 195

Certain beings of that continent who had made a profession of hunting pirmarals went to look for them on other continents and islands. The hunting took many hunters, so these professionals always took their whole families along to help.

One day several of these families banded together and set off to hunt pirmarals on a distant continent then called 'Iranan,' which later, after the upheavals caused by the second catastrophe, was called the continent of 'Ashhark'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 196

Today, he adds, their favorites know it as Asia. Because of various disturbances during the second terrestrial catastrophe, certain parts of the continent of Iranan entered within the planet, while in their place other land masses emerged and attached themselves to it.

this continent was considerably changed, becoming almost as large as the continent of Atlantis before the catastrophe.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 196

One day, while this group of hunters and their families were pursuing a herd, they came to the shores of the water space later called the Sea of Beneficence.

This sea, with its rich and fertile shores, pleased them so greatly that they no longer wished to return to the continent of Atlantis, and from then on they remained in that region.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 196

The country was, in his word, sooptaninalnian for ordinary being-existence. Great herds of the two-brained beings called pirmarals existed there. The shores were covered with luxuriant vegetation, including vast numbers of fruit trees, whose fruit still served as the principal product for their first being-food. Flocks of birds darkened the sky. The waters so abounded with fish that you could almost catch them with your bare hands. Every inch of the soil along the shores and in the valleys of the two great rivers could be used to grow anything you like.

In short, the country and its climate so delighted the hunters and their families that none of them had any desire to return to the continent of Atlantis.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 197

They settled there and multiplied. He then tells an extraordinary coincidence. When the hunters decided to settle, there already existed on those shores a being from their own continent.

there already existed on the shores of that sea a being from their own continent who was very important at that time and who was an 'astrosovor'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 197

An astrosovor, he says, is a member of a section of a learned society, the like of which has never again appeared on the planet Earth and probably never will.

This learned society was called the 'Society of Akhldanns.'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 197

Just before the second catastrophe, those learned beings then existing on Atlantis, who had founded that society, became aware that something very serious was about to happen on their planet. They set themselves to observe all the natural phenomena on their continent and could not find out precisely what was impending. They sent certain members to other continents and islands.

One of these members, the important being I just mentioned, chose the continent of Iranan for his observations and, having migrated there with his servants, settled on the shores of that water space later called the 'Sea of Beneficence.'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 198

He met some of the hunters, learned that they too had come from Atlantis, and began to establish friendly relations with them.

Thus, shortly afterward, when the continent of Atlantis was engulfed within the planet, this learned Akhldann, having no longer a place to return to, remained with the hunters in that future Maralpleicie.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 198

The hunters chose him, as the most intelligent, to be their chief.

Still later, this member of the great Society of Akhldanns married one of the hunters' daughters, named Rimala, thus becoming the founder of the second group on the continent of Ashhark or, as it is now called, 'Asia.'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 198

A later page gives the founding of the society a number, and a founder’s name. The page opens in the middle of a sentence about beings who arose on the continent of Atlantis and existed there four centuries before the second great transapalnian perturbation. He then says he learned the details partly from the texts of what he calls teleoghinaras, and partly from investigations made much later.

this learned Society of Akhldanns, which arose on the continent of Atlantis and was composed of three-brained beings of the Earth, was founded 735 years before the second transapalnian perturbation.

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 271

It was founded on the initiative of a being there named Belcultassi, who was able to bring the perfecting of his highest being-part to the Being of a Sacred Eternal Individual

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 271

That highest part, he says, now dwells on the Holy Planet Purgatory.

The fourth flight, Nilia, and Thebes

On the fourth flight the same ship comes down on another sea. He wishes to go to Grabontzi, now Africa, where the ape-beings he needed then bred in greater numbers than on any other land mass. The sea was also convenient for mooring.

Well then, on this fourth flight of mine to the planet Earth our ship Occasion alighted on the sea called the 'Red Sea'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 262

And we alighted on this sea because it washed the eastern shores of the continent of Grabontzi, now called 'Africa,' where I wished to go

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 262

Above all, it bordered the country he names next.

but above all because it bordered the country known as 'Nilia,' now called 'Egypt,' where at that period those beings of our tribe existed

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 262

Having alighted, they left the ship, reached the shore by what he calls a hippodrenekakh, and afterward, on camels, came to the city where their beings existed, then the capital of the future Egypt.

This capital city was called 'Thebes.'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 263

On the day of his arrival, one of the beings of the tribe told him that the Earth-beings of that locality had devised a new system for observing other cosmic concentrations from their planet, and were then building the required structures. From the details, it seemed to him that they had perhaps found a way of overcoming a difficulty to which he himself had been giving thought while completing an observatory on Mars. He postponed going farther south to collect the apes.

I traveled this time on what is called a 'choorteteff' down that great river now known as the 'Nile.'

G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, file p. 263

His guide was one of the beings of the tribe who had many friends there, among them the chief builder of those structures. Ahoon accompanied them.

Where I leave the book

The name Atlantis returns many times after these pages, in talk of learned societies, later centers of culture, customs, and the transmission of information. I have not quoted those later pages. What I can set beside the other books is already on the pages above.

He gives Atlantis as the largest continent and the chief place of the terrestrial three-brained beings at the time of his first descent, with its capital at Samlios under King Appolis, and with most of his own tribe living there. The ship is the Occasion, based on Mars. The continent afterward disappeared from the surface, entered within the planet, and was engulfed, during the second misfortune, which he also calls the second catastrophe and the second transapalnian perturbation. That event was local. It lasted several of their days, with tremors, and other lands went with it. New continents and islands emerged. A year before it, a tribal pythoness moved his tribe to part of Grabontzi. Grabontzi is the name he gives to the continent now called Africa, and it grew. Iranan is the name he gives to the continent later called Ashhark and today Asia, and after the same upheavals it became almost as large as Atlantis had been. Hunters of pirmarals, which he identifies with deer, left Atlantis for that continent and stayed on the Sea of Beneficence. The Society of Akhldanns was founded there, on Atlantis, by Belcultassi, 735 years before the perturbation. One member, an astrosovor, remained with the hunters, married Rimala, and is called the founder of the second group on Ashhark. On the fourth flight, Nilia is Egypt, Thebes is the capital, and the river is the Nile.

The intervals he prints are these. Some 350 Martian years had passed since the young kinsman emigrated, before the first descent. The second descent was eleven of their centuries after the first, and the catastrophe was shortly after the first descent. The pythoness spoke a year before the catastrophe. The displacements lasted several of their days. The society was founded 735 years before the perturbation. A sentence on that same page speaks of beings who existed on Atlantis four centuries before it. He prints no terrestrial year for the sinking, and on these pages he names no ocean for Atlantis.

A search of this copy does not turn up the name Noah. The early bursting of the Earth, with the fragments Loonderperzo and Anulios, is a different event from the second misfortune. The comet Kondoor is named on the page of the burst, as a comet that had to function in the system and was then on its first full orbit.

The quarrel at Samlios continues after file p. 107. I have not followed the later turns of that affair. The summons that brings him down the second time begins at the end of file p. 169, and I have not followed it. The building works at Thebes begin on file p. 263, and I have not followed them down the river.

Where to read it

The copy I used prints G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, with the subtitle An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man, and the line All and Everything / First Series. It says the first series is three books under this title. It prints no publisher and no year. The file has 1,135 pages and no printed page numbers.

FAQ

Where does he put Atlantis?

On the first descent it is the continent whose shores the ship Occasion lands on, the principal place of the three-brained beings of the Earth and of most of his tribe, and the largest continent. Its chief city in the tale is Samlios, the capital of the largest community, where King Appolis lived (file pp. 107, 168). He names no ocean for it on these pages.

When does it disappear?

During the second misfortune, also called the second catastrophe and the second transapalnian perturbation. It entered within the planet, disappeared entirely from the surface, and was engulfed, along with other land masses. The catastrophe was shortly after his first descent, and local in character. His second descent was eleven of their centuries after the first. A tribal pythoness warned his tribe a year before. The displacements lasted several of their days (file pp. 103, 107, 168, 169, 254).

What lands does he say came after it?

Grabontzi, which he says exists today as Africa, and which became much larger. Iranan, later the continent of Ashhark, today Asia, which became almost as large as Atlantis had been. New continents and islands emerged, most of which still exist. On the fourth flight he calls a country Nilia, now Egypt, with its capital at Thebes, on the river now known as the Nile, and he reaches that coast by the Red Sea, on the eastern shores of Grabontzi (file pp. 169, 196, 198, 262, 263).

Who lived there, and what did they do?

Three-brained beings of the Earth, most of his tribe, King Appolis at Samlios, and a young countryman of the tribe who had emigrated some 350 Martian years before the visit. A tribal pythoness. Professional hunters of pirmarals, which contemporary beings call deer, who left with their families. The Society of Akhldanns, founded by Belcultassi 735 years before the perturbation, and an astrosovor of that society who settled on the Sea of Beneficence, remained after the engulfing in the future Maralpleicie, and married Rimala (file pp. 106, 107, 169, 195 to 198, 271).

Does he tell this as Noah’s flood?

The name Noah does not appear in this copy. The event he ties to Atlantis is the second misfortune, in which the chief continent entered within the planet. The earlier event, while his tribe was on Mars, is the bursting of the Earth into the fragments he later calls the Moon and Anulios.

Related on this site

1. The world’s beginnings: a page already on this site that uses Gurdjieff among its sources. The place names and the counts in this review are the ones in the passages quoted above.
2. Lewis Spence, The History of Atlantis: a 1926 history that sets Plato’s island beside later writers. Gurdjieff’s pages give Samlios, Grabontzi, and Ashhark, and a continent that entered within the planet.
3. Dolores Cannon, The Convoluted Universe, Book One: another account, from hypnotic sessions, of an Atlantic land and of what happened to it. The ship in Gurdjieff’s tale is the Occasion, and the first landing is on Atlantis.

Sources

The book

• G. I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man. All and Everything, First Series. This copy prints no publisher and no year. The quotations above are short excerpts. Page numbers are the file pages of the PDF, because this copy prints no page numbers.

Pages used

• File p. 79. The Earth bursts. Two fragments fly into space. The comet Kondoor.
• File p. 82. Loonderperzo, Anulios, the Moon, and Atlantis still knowing Anulios.
• File p. 103. The second misfortune. Atlantis entered within the planet.
• File pp. 106 to 107. The first descent. 350 Martian years. The ship Occasion. Samlios. King Appolis.
• File pp. 168 to 169. Eleven of their centuries. The engulfing. The pythoness. Grabontzi, now Africa.
• File pp. 194 to 198. The third descent. The Sea of Beneficence, Gob, the Keria Chi, the Naria Chi, Iranan and Ashhark, the pirmaral hunters, the Society of Akhldanns, Maralpleicie, Rimala.
• File p. 254. The second transapalnian perturbation lasted several of their days.
• File pp. 262 to 263. The fourth flight. The Red Sea, Nilia now Egypt, Thebes, the Nile.
• File p. 271. The Society of Akhldanns founded 735 years before the perturbation, by Belcultassi.