Although Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson is written in the form of stories told by the protagonist, there is material that can be compiled and studied topically.
As an example, in the text, Gurdjieff lists hereditary and acquired tendencies towards weaknesses in behavior that are unbecoming for one who is created in the image of God.
I’ve compiled them into a list below, with page references.
In his Third Series, Gurdjieff instructs his students to familiarize themselves enough with Beelzebub’s Tales to where he could mention the chapter number and the student would know overall the contents of that chapter for further detailed discussion:
“…[E]ach of you should cease entirely, at least for three months, the reading of your newspapers and magazines, and during this time should become as well acquainted as possible with the contents of all three books of the first series of my writings entitled An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man…
An all-round acquaintance with the contents of these three books is necessary also in order that when I personally, or the mentioned instructors, speak during our general meetings about some question which in the given moment is the center-of-gravity question, and speak about its details, we may, for the purpose of economizing time, simply refer to the corresponding chapter in this first series, and you, already having preliminary information about this, may easily assimilate what we shall subsequently develop in detail.
For example, intending in today’s meeting to speak about a question which is based on data I have already more or less elucidated in the last chapter of the third book, namely in the chapter entitled “From the Author,” the deliberations on the proposed question today should be as a continuation of this chapter.
Well, if you were all well-informed of its contents, then I could for the purpose of economizing time refer to the requisite passages, but now I shall be compelled to waste time on reading to you certain extracts.”
Previously, I gave some tips on reading Beelzebub’s Tales. While reading, one helpful method for remembering Beelzebub’s Tales at the level mentioned above is to outline each chapter.
Below is a sample outline that takes each chapter and notes, very broadly, when important characters are introduced, or major events take place, or major topics are touched upon.
Purpose of Three Series
Friendly Advice
Giant versus Human
A new problem appeared during playtesting. During mid-tier play (4th-6th level in this system), player feedback was that adversaries they thought should have felt harder to fight were too easy, and I agreed.
To address this, I returned to the perennial principles the game is based on, in this particular case, scale.
The perennial idea transmitted by G.I. Gurdjieff is that we live in a universe of scale.
“…the lines of development of vibrations are divided into periods corresponding to the doubling or the halving of the number of vibrations in a given space of time.”
– In Search of the Miraculous
The example given in this passage relates to music, that each scale up or down is a doubling or halving of the vibration. The whole universe can be regarded this way, starting with the universe as a whole, down to the scale of galaxies, to the scale of solar systems, to the scale of planets, to the scale of our planet, to the scale of humans, to the scale of micro-organism, on and on, each a world unto itself on its own scale.
Character creation in Atlantean Exodus using the Perennial RPG system is “older-than-old-school”.
But how can this be?
In Beelzebub’s Tales, in the chapter on Art, Gurdjieff wrote about an ancient form of art called “mysteries”, devised to transmit important knowledge to succeeding generations of initiates. This art, we are told, degenerated into what is now merely theater performed by actors, conveying mostly entertainment and little knowledge.
In his Third Series, Gurdjieff wrote that ancient literature was written and read for the purpose of perfecting one’s reason, and this, we are told, also degenerated into mostly entertainment with little meaning transmitted to the reader.
There is a striking parallel to how Dungeons & Dragons began and how it is today. Recently there has been much heated discussion about what is changing and has changed in the hobby.
So what has changed since D&D made its appearance almost fifty years ago?
I have enough material to start playtesting what I’m calling Perennial RPG (the system) and Atlantean Exodus (the setting). Previously, I had run two sessions with a couple players using Cha’alt. Now we were going to use a system conversion of the Caves of Chaos from B1: The Keep on the Borderlands.
To start the session, I summarized the setting for the players:
“Atlantis, the greatest continent in the world, has sunk beneath the waves. Forewarned of the impending catastrophe, you have escaped to a strange land with your lives and with the seeds of civilization, if you can keep them.”
I told the players that their characters belong to a remnant of Atlantis that survived and reached the shore of an unknown continent. This remnant has formed a caravan that is exploring the new land.
Maybe you have tried reading Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson before, but put it down without finishing. Maybe you have always wanted to read it but you found it intimidating. Maybe the name alone made you question whether this was the sort of book you should be reading.
Whatever the reasons, here are some tips to help you conquer this ‘weighty and bulky tome’.
After a year of running Beyond Thule, our group is wrapping up the campaign for now. Players are already talking about returning in the future, as a player or GM.
Here’s how the final session went.
Games have been a universal cultural phenomenon for thousands of years and possibly longer. Senet. Mehen. The Royal Game of Ur. Backgammon. Pachesi. Mancala. Go. Draughts. Chess. Dice. Cards. Dominos. Marbles. Hide-and-Seek. Stop-and-Go. Tag. Word games. Trivia games. Wargames. Resource management games. Railroad simulation games. Roleplaying games. Video games. On and on.
Games have histories, some remembered and some lost. One story tells of a Chinese emperor Yao who had his couselor Shun design the game Go for his unruly son. In 11th century Persia, it is said that Burzoe invented nard, a variant of backgammon. Albert Lamorisse, a French filmmaker, invented the strategic board game, Risk. From its tabletop wargaming roots, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson invented Dungeons & Dragons and rediscovered roleplaying games. Allan Alcorn, an American engineer and computer scientist, invented the video game Pong. Richard Garfield, an American mathematician, invented the trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. Klause Teuber, a German dental technician, invented the strategy and negotiation board game Catan.
Games can serve as a leisure activity to relax and pass the time. While a variety of vices can attach themselves to games, playing games is not a vice in itself.
In early 2020, I had been considering attending the All & Everything conference, since it was to be held in Salem, Massachusetts, not far from where I live. But then circumstances caused the in-person conference to be cancelled and instead, the conference would be held online. This was less interesting to me, so I did not attend.
Still, I had an interest in what was to be presented at the conference. And in researching what papers were to be submitted to the conference, I came across a paper by Jan Jarvis and later a rebuttal to her paper by Rafael Lefort Jr.
The papers were particularly interesting to me in that they presented Gurdjieff’s ideas on death and immortality, the rebuttal more accurately than the original paper, in my opinion.
The Jarvis 2020 paper is titled Role of Abstract Ideals in the Creation of the Kesdjan.
The Lefort Jr rebuttal is titled Esoteric Christianity vs. Secular Humanism in Esoteric Clothing: A Rebuttal to ‘Role of Abstract Ideals in the Creation of the Kesdjan’.
The original paper was presented at a conference in 2020 and recently, the Q&A for the conference was published. It is evident however from the Q&A that her assertions were hardly challenged at all.
If you’re interested in the topics of death and immortality as presented by Gurdjieff, I recommend reading the rebuttal—it touches on all of the points of the original paper and is more thoroughly researched on the topics presented. To date, I have seen no counter paper to refute the Lefort Jr rebuttal.