Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

"Near the place where this river flowed into a large saliakooriapnian area,those great artifacts were just being completed, certain parts of whichespecially interested me."The district where the work was being carried on—both for this new'observatory,' as they called it, and for other buildings designed for thewelfare of their being-existence —was then named 'Avazlin'; a few years laterit came to be called 'Caironana,' and today it is referred to simply as the'outskirts of Cairo.'"These great artifacts were begun long before my fourth flight to the Earthby one of their 'pharaohs'—a title given to their kings by the beings of thatregion—and at the time of my first visit to this place they were beingcompleted by his grandson, also a pharaoh."Although the observatory that interested me was not quite finished,observations of the visibility of cosmic concentrations could be made from it,and the results issuing from these concentrations as well as the reciprocalaction of these results could be studied."At that period on the Earth the beings occupied with such observationsand studies were called 'astrologers.' But later, when that psychic disease ofyour favorites called 'wiseacring' was finally fixed in them, and thesespecialists 'shriveled and shrank,' becoming 'specialists' only in giving namesto remote cosmic concentrations, they came to be called 'astronomers.'"The difference in value and significance for the beings around them betweenthe professionals of that time and those who supposedly follow the sameoccupation today may show you the extent of the decline that has steadilytaken place in the crystallization of data engendering 'sane logical mentation,'which your favorites as three-brained beings ought to have in their commonpresence; I therefore find