ZERO POINT

"The SLUGS"

On G. I. Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

4. The Evolution and Involution
of Exioehary

Beelzebub explains in detail to Hassein the processes by which the first being-food is refined within the planetary body to produce different classes of substances–seven in all. His descriptions illustrate the application of the Law of Heptaparaparshinokh.
Beelzebub mainly describes the evolution of substances within the planetary body from the intake of the first being-food, and we will follow this description in a moment. A similar refinement and evolution of substances occurs within the higher being-bodies–from the intake of the two other being-foods. Beelzebub states: “... these higher cosmic substances in beings are transformed according to exactly the same principles as the substances of the first being-food.” (p. 790) To understand all of the physical-psychological-spiritual possibilities for a human being, we would ideally be able to detail all three Heptaparaparshinokh processes, and their inter-relationships. However, in The Tales, Beelzebub more fully explicates only the processes that occur within the physical or planetary body–and this is most immediately relevant to our understanding. He states to Hassein that the same analysis might be applied to the other being-foods, but does not subsequently explain these processes. #1

   Recall that, any involutionary-evolutionary processes embodies the Heptaparaparshinokh process and this produces seven “centers-of-gravity active elements”in any Cosmos.   Beelzebub lists these seven substances which constitute a Tetartocosmoses, like ourselves: (1)   Protoehary (2) Defteroehary (3) Tritoehary (4)   Tetartoehary (5) Piandjoehary (6) Exioehary and (7)   Resulzarion. At other times, Beelzeub uses variations of these terms. Thus, in describing the evolution of the first being-food, Beelzeub uses the terms being-Protoehary, being-Defteroehary, being-Tritoehary and so on, with the preface ‘being.’ Beelzebub states that if we were talking of the evolution of the second being-food, air, we would use the terms Astralnomonian-Protoehary, Astralnomian-Defteroehary, and so on. This same pattern might be extended to descriptions of the third being-food, although Beelzebub does not elaborate further on this. #2
    Beelzebub’s model of the refinement of the being-foods within a human being provides a profound teaching concerning how a human three-brained being might become no longer a slug, but consciously participate in the formation and coating of their own higher being-bodies.   Human beings feed on three primary substances which provides the elements necessary to nourish and sustain three being-bodies.
    This is Beelzebub’s account of the refinement of the first being-food within the body. #3   Immediately that the first being-food enters the mouth, it begins to mix and fuse with other active elements which have already been evolved within the organism. Beelzebub calls this process “Harnelmiatznel,” and it occurs at all levels of the refinement of the food substances, as the being foods interact with elements produced within the body which have a corresponding “affinity of vibrations.” The first being-food in the stomach, after being transmuted by other active elements, is the substance being-Protoehary–the first note–do–of the food octave. This substance then evolves through the “intestinal track” and into the “duodenum” where it becomes “being-Defterochary”–re. Part of these substances serve the planetary body in that form, while the other part continue to evolve–next to form “being-Tritoehary” in the “liver”–the note mi. At this point, the refinement of the food substances encounters the Stopinder, or interval, which has been lengthened in the functioning of the Heptaparaparshinokh, and so the process comes to a standstill.
    At this interval , some “shock” or “input” from outside of the organism is required in order to fill the gap, allowing the food substances to evolve further.   Beelzebub explains: “... this totality of substances named ‘being-Tritoehary’can in the given case evolve further from this state only with the help of forces coming from outside.” Recall that this is how a Trogoautoegocratic system functions–requiring forces from outside and no longer self-sufficient.
    This “shock point” or interval is filled by the intake of air–the second being-food. Air, enters as a side-octave and provides the extra force or influence to allow the progressive refinement of the first being-food. Beelzebub has a special name for this interval which is filled automatically, and does not require any particular being-effort or participation. He calls this interval the “mechano-coinciding-Mdnel-In.” In Gurdjieff’s teachings, as outlined in Ouspensky, the input of the air octave is described as providing the first “mechanical shock,” If no outside force intervened, then the substances crystallized so-far, through the digestive system, would “involve back again into those definite cosmic crystallizations from which they began their evolution.” (p. 788)

Of course, “Great Nature” adapted beings so that the second being-food, required for the Kesdjan body, enters from outside, and provides the shock which allows the further evolution of the substances of the first being-food. The air enters the “lungs” where it is transformed into Protoehary, but in this case “Astralnomonian-Protoehary.” This enables the further development of the first being-food, which then produces “being-Tetartoehary,” as the note fa. This substance has its center of localization within the “hemispheres of their head-brain.” Part of this Tetaroehary will serve the planetary body, but the remainder further evolves by mixing with other substances in the body. The next substances to be formed are the “higher definite being-active-elements” called “Piandjoehary,” which are localized within “the cerebellum,” at the back of the brain in the head–sol in the scale. Again, part of this substance is used for the planetary body, while the rest passes “in a particular way through the ‘nerve nodes’ of the spine and the breast,” and is then concentrated in the “testicles” or the “ovaries,” the note la. This is the “being-Exioehary”–sperm in men–which Beelzebub describes as being“for the beings themselves their most sacred possession.” (p. 791)
Beelzebub depicts then a final step:

“Only after this are the cosmic substances which enter being-apparatuses for the purpose of evolution ... transformed into that definite totality of cosmic substances–which transformation is the lot of all beings in general and also of your contemporary three-brained beings who breed on the planet Earth in particular, for the automatic justification of the sense and aim of their existence, and this totality of cosmic substances is everywhere called Exioehary.” (p. 790)

In this passage, there are certain “inexactitudes” in terms of the naming of these substances. Beelzebub describes being-Exioehary being formed in the testes or ovaries, and then continues to say “only after this” is there produced Exioehary. Now, according to the seven names originally given for the seven gravity-center substances, the sixth was Exioehary and the seventh was Resulzarion. And so, we might have expected Beelzebub to use the term being-Resulzarion if this is the seventh element, but instead he seems to repeat Exioehary. #4 However, consider Beelzebub’s next lines:

“And so, my boy, this totality of their first being-food which results from the evolution in these being-apparatuses, corresponds in its vibrations to the last Stopinder of the being-Heptaparaparshinokh ... .” In Beelzebub’s account, there is a seventh element, which brings the octave to the Last Stopinder. This might be taken as Exioehary or as being-Resulzarion.
The food octave has now passed to si in the octave structure and encounters another interval, which has been shortened. Beelzebub explains that this interval of si-do requires a “higher intentionally-actualizing-Mdnel-In” (or shock) in order for the Exioehary to evolve further. Beelzebub explains that, in this case, the Exioehary can:

“... transform completely into new higher substances and in order to acquire vibrations corresponding to the vibrations of the next higher vivifyingness ... it requires just that foreign help which is actualized ... in the ‘being-Partkdolg-duty,’ ... which factors until now serve as the sole possible means for the assimilation of the cosmic substances required for the coating and perfecting of the higher being-bodies ....’” (p. 792)

Conscious labors and intentional suffering cannot “happen” accidentally, but must be the result of a certain being-effort and the striving of the individual towards his/her own self-perfection. This is why this interval is “intentionally actualized.”
    In order to breach this highest interval, to produce some completed do on a new order of “vivifyingness,” within the higher-being bodies, the individual must participate in actualizing these higher possibilities. The processes of conscious labors and intentional suffering thus have actual effects on the inner alchemy of the human being, in producing substances of a a greater “vivifyingness.”   (At a latter point, we will explore further how such being-Partkdolg-duty actually releases more refined substances from within the Etherokrilno.)
    Thus, Beelzebub describes the refinement of the first being-food through seven levels, explaining the nature of the Heptaparaparshinokh process–with its different intervals and centers of gravity. The substances of the other being-foods are developed in a similar fashion, and so in the larger scheme, different mechanical and conscious shocks will be required to complete these inner octave processes.
    Unfortunately, your favourites, know of none of this, and do not actualize their ‘being-Partdolg-duty.’   Subsequently, these sexual substances also begin to “involve back ... towards those crystallizations from which their evolution began.” This involution of the sexual substances tends to “‘deperfect’ their previously established essence-individuality,” leading to innumerable “illnesses” and diminishing the “thirst for Being.” (pp. 793-794)   And so, the slugs do not use the substances of the ‘Exioehary’ for their own self-perfection, to coat and perfect the higher being-bodies, or even to consciously reproduce themselves.   Without such an inner alchemy, the beings are described as “strongly sensing the emptiness of their existence.” #5

    Although some of the three-brained beings to strive for self-perfection by “abstaining from the ejection from oneself in the customary manner of these substances formed in them called sperm ... .” (p. 807) they did not understand the necessity of the fulfilling of their being-Partkdolg-duty, if this abstinence was to have its desired effect–in terms of quenching the thirst for being.
    Instead, they began “to imitate” the practices of the genuine initiates and to organize themselves in various groups and sects, putting this abstinence into effect. Thus, “monasteries” were established and various “monks” began to refrain from the ejection of sperm, but little was ever achieved as the brothers did not understand the importance of fulfilling one’s being obligations, or of “intentionally absorbing” the second and third being-foods.
    These practices led to varied pathologies and perversions according to Beelzebub. The reason for this was that unless the substances pass through both “Mdnel-Ins” or discontinuities in their octave development, then these same substance begin to “involve” or degenerate into the earlier stages of their evolutionary development.   And so, these sorry monks retain their semen but fail to transmute these substances through the final si-do, and so the sexual substances begin to degenerate within them.
    Beelzebub offers shocking portraits of humankind–the misuse and squandering of the sacred sexual energies, and the involution of these substances into poisons. The lack of being-partkdolg-duty and the striving towards self-perfection, and the failure to consciously absorb all three being-foods, lead to various forms of degeneracy common among “your favorites.”
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Footnotes: 1. Ouspensky presents (1950) Gurdjieff’s teachings about the three foods, and their development within the “food diagrams,” and has other useful perspectives which supplement Beelzebub’s explanations. (See Holmes, 2004c)

2. This background is important to explain varied ‘inexactitudes’ posed by Beelzebub’s descriptions, which we will come to, concerning the different use of the terms Exioehary and being-Exioehary.

3. Beelzebub does not use the musical notes as references, but I have added them to help clarify these processes.

4. I mention these points, not fully understanding the issues here, but having a particular way that I have interpreted this section of Beelzebub’s Tales. Part of the solution lay in the fact that three octaves of being-foods need to be considered to have a fuller account of these dynamics. Further, Exioehary as a substance is different from being-Exioehary, but its formation depends also on further processes within the other being-foods.

5. Mantak Chia (1984), a Taoist master, similarly explains that the cultivation of male or female sexual energy is essential to the alchemy of the soul. In the preface to Chia’s work, Winn explains: “The Taoist teaching of physical immortality ... means that before (men) die they have the opportunity to cultivate a “solid” or substantial spiritual body, also known as the Immortal Body, the Solar Body, the Crystal Body, and other names. ... The Taoists insist each adept preserve his individual nature within a body (physical or spiritual) so he can oversee the growth of his soul until final union with “wu chi,” the nothingness from which the oneness of the Tao emerges.” (p. iii) Chia explains that the sperm energy can be mixed with the chi, or vital energy of the organs, and refined into shien, or spirit. Thus, the sexual energies link the biological body to the metaphysical identity–the animal nature to the divine. Readers are recommended to Chia’s teachings for practical techniques for the cultivation of non-ejaculatory sex, as practised by the Taoist masters. Chia references Gurdjieff’s teachings as supportive of the Taoist philosophies and practices.
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