The Many Arcs of The Tales

Interweaving Highways The Tales embodies multiple interweaving themes and arcs. In  factual books there is usually a single linear theme. In fictional work there can be several interweaving themes with a sub-plot here and there, but it is rare to have more than three...

The Tales of Automatic Thought

The Domain of Automatic Thought The Siren Song of Automatized Thought The Tales is not a comforting read. It was written “to-corrode-without-mercy-all-the-rubbish-accumulated-during-the-ages-in-human-mentation”. Among the many observations Gurdjieff...

The Disease of Tomorrow

Walking darkly into the Future This is one of the passages from The Tales that impacts all of us sooner or later. Later usually… “… the personal observations and investigations I later specially made, regarding this said strange impulse present in them,...

Okidanokh – The Bare Bones

The Creation, Perhaps Okidanokh is one of the more confusing words that Gurdjieff uses in The Tales. He refers to it as the “Omnipresent-Active-Element”, clearly declaring it to be everywhere and playing an active role in the Universe. It plays the pivotal...

Genuine Being Duty

Temple Duties (Text taken from the Toomer Version of The Tales. For PDF copies of this document, contact Gurdjieff Heritage Society.)  Glancing up at his grandfather somewhat sadly, Hassein replied thoughtfully, “My dear grandfather, your talk about ships has given...

The Tales: The Toomer Version

Jean Toomer at his Desk A very old version of The Tales, or better put, a partial draft version of The Tales has emerged. It is an edited version of parts of The Tales that Jean Toomer worked on back in the 1920s. It was rescued from waste-bin or fire and personally...