Gurdjieff, Astrology & Beelzebub's Tales

Book excerpt: This book presents an analysis of the narrative subject matter of Beelzebubs Tales in terms of astrological correspondences. It contains preliminary information relating to Gurdjieffs teaching, to astrology and to the links which connect them. The events of Gurdjieffs life/myth are given in the light of cultural and historical contexts and these are related in general to the forms he gave to his teaching and in particular to some of the literary strategies he employed in the Tales. Gurdjieffs cosmological Laws of Three and Seven are examined in relation to some of their possible origins in Christian, Western European Occult, and Theosophical ideologies. Gurdjieffs knowledge of astrology is explored and his cosmological laws are shown to be similar to those of astrological cosmology and to be largely derived from them. There is an account of zodiacal structure and terminology, and of the system of correspondences used in popular astrology of the 1920s and 1930s. The Tales four sets of twelve chapters are examined. Each set is analysed in terms of subject matter in correspondence with the twelve signs of the zodiac. The relationship between these sets of chapters is explored in terms of the symbolism of the sun, moon and mercury, the functioning of the cardinal, fixed and mutable astrological modes and in terms of Gurdjieffs Law of Three. The conclusion reached through this analysis of narrative subject matter is that the Tales is a zodiacally structured text.