The Archangel Setrenotsinarco

 

 

     "This sad end of my friend Abdil's existence did not prevent his sermons and exhortations from having a strong effect on a growing number of beings.  And indeed the quantity of sacrificial slaughterings began to diminish perceptibly and it became evident that, even if this custom were not abolished, it would at least be considerably mitigated.  And for the time being that was enough for me.

     "As there was no reason for me to stay there any longer, I decided to return at once to the Colchidius Sea, and then to consider what to do with the planetary body of my friend.

     "When I reached our ship Occasion I found an etherogram from Mars, informing me of the arrival there of another party of beings from the planet Karatas, and asking for my speedy return.

     "Thanks to this etherogram a very strange idea came into my head, namely, that instead of disposing of my friend's planetary body on the Earth, I might take it with me and give it to the presence of the planet Mars.

     "I decided to carry out this idea, for I feared that in their hatred, my friend's enemies might make a search for his planetary body; and if they happened to hear where it had been returned to the presence of their planet or, as your favorites say, 'buried,' they would no doubt find it and perpetrate further outrages upon it.

     "And so, on the ship Occasion I soon ascended from the Colchidius Sea to the planet Mars, where the beings of our tribe, with the aid of several kind Martians who had already learned of the events that had just taken place on the Earth, paid due respect to his planetary body I had brought back with me.  They buried it with the ceremonies customary on the planet Mars, and over the burial place erected a suitable monument.

     "In any case this was the first and will surely be the last what your favorites call 'grave' for a being of the Earth on this at once so near yet so far and, for terrestrial beings, quite inaccesible planet Mars.

     "I learned afterward that this story came to the attention of the Most Great Archangel Setrenotsinarco, the All-Quarters Maintainer of that part of the Universe to which the system Ors belongs, and that he manifested his approval by giving to the appropriate being a command concerning the soul of this terrestrial friend of mine.

     "On the planet Mars I did indeed find awaiting me several beings of our tribe, recently arrived from the plant Karatas.  Among them, by the way, was your grandmother, who, according to the indications of the chief 'tsirlikner' of the planet Karatas, had been designated for me as the passive half for the continuation of my line."

 

 

 

Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson, by G. I. Gurdjieff, page 191

 

Viking Arkana Edition, 1992.

 

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