Will Be, part II

When we examine the events in the order of existence created for men by the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, we discover that they begin not in Babylon — which has always traditionally represented the outer world and its temptations — but in a city named Djoolfapal, the capital of a country called Kurlandtech. These are invented places with no historical counterparts. 

The city of Djoolfapal derives its name as follows. “-Djool” is simply an alternate spelling of the English word jewel. “-Fa” denotes the note fa in the musical scale and Gurdjieff’s enneagram. “-Pal” is an appendage meant to make the town sound like an Asian city. The name means “Jewel (thing of great value) located at the note fa, that is, prepared to move from the note fa to the note sol. This denotes a place where preparations to move from natural influences to spiritual influences are very nearly complete, where the conditions are ideal (the jewel.) And of course the movement to the note sol is a movement to the sun, which Ashiata Shiemash, a ray of light from the sun, is uniquely qualified to mediate. 

 The word “Kur” in German means cure or healing, and “Kurland” would indicate, in that same language, a country in which healing takes place. Extending the analogy by appending “-tech” creates a hybrid German portmanteau word meaning, roughly speaking, country where technical means are applied to effect healing. The linguistic coincidences here are too obvious to overlook, given that Louise March was German and spoke the language fluently.

Extending the analogy, Beelzebub, on first arriving in this land where healing is accomplished by means of technology (work) he entered into relations with the “Tchaftantoori” brotherhood, whose name signifies “to be — or not to be at all.” This word sounds suspiciously like the German words for cooking tandoori meats- “schaffen”needs to make in German and one of the declinations of the verb is, “er, es or sie” (he, it, or she) “schaft,” that is he makes.  The name of the brotherhood, in other words, means those who cook spicy chicken– rather than those who make soup out of chickens by allowing the chicken to run to the kitchen while the water is boiling, an analogy that turns up elsewhere in the book.

The two terrestrial beings who founded this brotherhood were named Poundoliro and Sensimiriniko. These two names likely indicate two important factors for Being that allow the proper evaluation of one’s state. Poundoliro refers to two major European currencies, the English pound and the Italian lira; furthermore, while both indicate valuation, the word pound also indicates weight, or gravity—as does the word ponder. 

The associations are clear enough: to weigh, to ponder, to evaluate.

Gurdjieff coined this particular word to indicate the inner personal gravity which creates enough weight within being for proper evaluation to take place — and that is indeed exactly what these two founders of the brotherhood  do. 

The second protagonist, Sensimiriniko, has a name which likely refers to sensation. 

These two factors within being, according to the story line, have the capacity to reach a correct evaluation of one’s lack within being. 

Their seeking out of the monks dwelling in monasteries in the environs of the city is an account of the recruitment by these active parts of being of various “I's,” different individuals within the inner kingdom, who already have an interest in work of this kind. This represents a connection between the outer, or intellectual, understanding of real inner work (monks are those parts of being which are capable of being aware of and thinking of work) and the inner parts, the sensation and the gravity of being, which Gurdjieff also called magnetic center. 

By the time Ashiata Shiemash arrives, this brotherhood has already prepared the ground to move from fa to sol. Their recognition of the need for corrective action (the Kur) and their exemplary efforts (the Djool) is what renders them eligible for this work.

Ashiata Shiemash, in his role as the ray of light from the sun, works with the brotherhood — the inner parts — to introduce objective ideas. This is the entry of a finer energy into the psyche of the ordinary kingdom of being within us. They form, according to the narrative, a separate and new kingdom within us — a kingdom of objective truths that isn’t contaminated by our ordinary selves.

The story of how the brotherhood began to recruit more and more individuals because of their “intensity of ableness”is not meant to indicate any outward action. The story itself is already so highly idealized that any critical evaluation of it renders its events highly suspect in outer terms. In inner terms, however, it becomes far more plausible. The consequences of this evangelism spread the potential for sensation of conscience throughout the population; in allegorical terms, this represents the exposing of more and more parts of being, or individual I’s, to the effects of conscience.

The culmination of this activity rests in  Ashiata Shiemash’s discourse on objective conscience. It describes the ultimate aim of such inner work.

I leave it to readers to explore the implications of this inner teaching at further length. It raises a rich series of questions about the nature of our inner order and its possibilities. Understanding the text about Ashiata Shiemash from this point of view will require a complete reconfiguration of any average understanding of its trajectory. 

I suspect Gurdjieff hid many more clues to his understanding of such matters in the story line.

What is more compelling than any other thing is the idea that Gurdjieff felt we had the potential to create these conditions within ourselves. 

“Will be,” he said to Louise March; and he meant inwardly, not outwardly. 

The story is not about some ancient past, but the future of our work: hope of consciousness.

Regards,

Lee