Humanity's Justice is an accursed mirage: Gurdjieff, and good and evil

The objective forces of good and evil manifest through us subjectively, and it is our responsiblity to which of these forces will manifest.

In Chapter 44 of Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, Gurdjieff presents a startling claim: humanity’s very conception of justice—and with it, our categories of good and evil—is, in the objective sense, an “accursed mirage.”

Beelzebub tells Hassein that the root distortion in the psyche of human beings is the crystallization of the idea that good and evil exist as external, independent, and opposing forces, rather than as inner dynamics woven into the fabric of existence itself.

This mistaken cosmology—projecting responsibility for oneself outside the self—has, according to Gurdjieff's myth, prevented humanity from achieving its true purpose: the self-perfecting of the higher being-body, or soul.

Instead of working on ourselves, we have become trapped in endless justifications, always attributing our failings to devils, spirits, other people or external influences.

Makary Kronbernkzion and the Birth of the Error

Beelzebub traces the origin of this distortion to a figure named Makary Kronbernkzion, a learned Atlantean scientist who first used the terms good and evil to describe cosmic forces of affirmation and denial.

In his original teaching, these were not moral absolutes but metaphysical principles: one force or energy descending, one ascending, and their reconciliation producing the creative third.

Yet over time, this teaching was misunderstood. What began as a subtle recognition of the triadic law of world-maintenance hardened into the crude dualism of “moral good” and “moral evil” as external powers acting externally upon man.

Once this misinterpretation took root, it grew into the foundation of religions, philosophies, politics, and laws—and finally into humanity’s very self-understanding.

Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub does not condemn Makary himself, seeing him rather as a tragic figure whose authentic insights were distorted.

The problem was not with the recognition of these objective cosmic forces, but humanity’s tendency to externalize responsibility instead of facing the hard truth: that evil arises from within us, working through our egoism, and can only be transformed through our own conscious labors and intentional suffering—a submission to internalise or take responsibility for oneself.

The Christian Parallel

Christ’s teaching does not affirm a simplistic moral dualism of two external powers vying for man’s soul. Rather, He insists that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) and that what defiles a man is not what comes from without but what proceeds from his own heart (Mark 7:15).

The Cross itself reveals that justice, as understood by men, is indeed an “accursed mirage.” Christ the innocent is condemned, while the guilty go free. But in that very injustice, the mystery of divine mercy unfolds and the esoteric energies unleashed: “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).

Where human justice divides between “good” and “evil” people, divine justice exposes all as guilty, yet offers reconciliation through love. This is the third force—what Gurdjieff calls the reconciling principle, the Holy Spirit—that includes and transcends opposites.

For the Modern Age

Our age is once again enthralled by dualistic thinking. Political ideologies divide the world into oppressors and oppressed, progressives and reactionaries. Religion often collapses into moralism, measuring salvation in external codes. Even psychology is trapped in binaries of health and pathology.

But both Gurdjieff and Christ remind us that the real battlefield is within. The “devil” is not an external force compelling us to sin, but works through our self-calming mechanisms, our refusal to take responsibility for the state of our being.

True justice is not human judging human, but awakening to the image of God within, struggling consciously against our own egoism, and receiving the grace that alone makes transformation possible.

Accursed mirage

The ancient mirage of “external good and evil” continues to paralyze humanity. Authentic justice is not a matter of judgment but of reconciliation, not of external law but of inner transformation.

For the modern seeker, this means refusing the comfort of blaming others—whether devils, systems, or ideologies—and instead accepting the task of conscious responsibility. Only then does the higher part in us awaken. And only then can we begin to participate in that true Justice which is inseparable from Mercy, inseparable from Grace, and inseparable from Love.

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The Magician raises his right hand aloft. He looks upwards and whispers these words as if in prayer:

‘Lord Creator, and all you His assistants, help us to be able to remember ourselves at all times in order that we may avoid involuntary actions, as only through them can evil manifest itself.’

All sing, ‘Forces become transformed to be’.

The Magician again blesses them with both hands and says, ‘May reconciliation, hope, diligence and justice be ever with you all’.

All sing, ‘Amen’.

Curtain

G.I.Gurdjieff, "Scenario of the Ballet: THE STRUGGLE OF THE MAGICIANS"

Act Five

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