Meet the Source; Ashiata Shiemash

In the whole of G.I. Gurdjieff's grand opus, his bizarre, idiosyncratic history of mankind, the most important figure is that of Ashiata Shiemash. It was he and he alone who was able to bring about enough change in humanity that, for a short time at least, people lived in a way much more in accordance with the way people could live if they were conscious, if they had a conscience, if the knew and felt their deep connection to each other. The consequences of the changes he brought about were far-reaching: from the cessation of wars and slavery, to the lengthening of the life span of humans.

(Quotation from All and Everything, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, by G.I. Gurdjieff, pp. 317-318., Viking Arkana, New York and London, 1992.

The Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash Sent from Above to the Earth
"It was just seven centuries before the Babylonian events I have spoken of that there was actualized in the planetary body of a three-brained being there the 'definitized conception' of a Sacred Individual named Ashiata Shiemash, whose turn it was to become a Messenger from Above, and who is now one of the Highest and Most Saintly Common-Cosmic Sacred Individuals.
"The conception of Ashiata Shiemash took its form in the planetary body of a boy of poor family descended from what is called the 'Sumerian race,' in a small village called 'Pispascana,' situated not far from Babylon.
"He grew up and became a responsible being partly in this village and partly in Babylon itself which, although not yet magnificent at that time, was already a famous city.
"The Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash was the only Messenger sent from Above to your planet who by his holy labors succeeded in creating conditions in which for a certain time the existence of its unfortunate beings somewhat resembled the existence of three-brained beings inhabiting other planets of our Great Universe and having the same possibilities. And this saint was also the first who, for the accomplishment of the mission assigned to him, refused to employ the customary methods established during centuries by all the other Messengers from Above for the three-brained beings of that planet.
"The Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash taught nothing whatever to the ordinary three-brained beings of the Earth, nor did he preach anything to them, as was done before and after him by all the other Messengers sent from Above with the same aim.
"And in consequence of this, none of his teachings, in any form whatsoever, passed from his contemporaries even to the third generation there, let alone to contemporary beings."


This mysterious central figure in the grand opus of Gurdjieff, said to have lived seven centuries before the great civilization of Babylon may have been entirely a literary creation, a mythical figure created to illustrate a point, to inspire and to exhort. Or did he actually live in a human body at some point? Once, in a story commonly circulated among the members of the various Gurdjieff Foundations, the official holders of the teachings of Gurdjieff, one of his pupils asked Gurdjieff: “When exactly did Ashiata Shiemash live?” Gurdjieff is said to have answered: “Maybe not yet.”

So it was particularly astonishing to me that, when I began to study shamanic methods for altering consciousness, during the first days of my training, I came into a state of consciousness where I met this august personage, and learned that he was to be my teacher.

This encounter occurred during the basic workshop taught by faculty from the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. The exercise involved a “journey” to the Upper World to meet ones inner Teacher. In this schema, the Middle World is where we live, the Lower World is a place which looks natural, full of fields, trees, lakes, waterfalls, and where the Power Animals live, and the Upper World, above the sky, is where the high spirit teachers, angels, kachinas live. In this journey, while the teacher drums a steady beat in order to assist the alteration of the student's brain wave patterns and induce an altered state, the student is instructed to visualize himself rising up into the heavens on the back of bird, or on a column of smoke from a fireplace, or by climbing a huge tree, until he passes through a barrier or membrane of some sort, perhaps a layer of clouds, thus entering the Upper World. We had done this as a trial run, to get familiar with the place. My Upper World looked like a city made of crystal, resting on a layer of clouds. Pegasus had dropped me off at a stairway the proceeded upward through the layer of clouds and left me gazing at the dazzling splendor of this amazing place. During the journey to find ones teacher, we were to proceed back to this place above the clouds, and announce our presences, asking to meet our teachers.

When I got there the second time, I kept seeing a setting (or rising?) sun near the horizon, up one of the avenues of the crystal city. It was hard to look at it because of the brightness of the light. Then it turned into a partial eclipse and I had the sense that it was trying to make it easier for me! I kept asking to meet my teacher and I kept being shown the sun. Finally I got it, the sun was to be my teacher. But, ever the good student, I complained to the universe that I was supposed to find someone in the form a human to be my teacher. Then I saw a head floating in front of me, a square jawed, Semitic looking man with a black beard in ringlets. He resembled a bas relief sculpture I had seen in an art museum in my youth, from the Assyrian civilization. I asked him if he was to be my teacher, and he replied with a dignified nod. I was in awe of his presence, feeling the power and grandeur he was emanating. Then I asked if I might be given the privilege of knowing his name. He replied very clearly: “Ashiata Shiemash.”

This was astonishing to me for many reasons. I had been told by one of the senior people in the Gurdjieff Foundation that the name Ashiata Shiemash meant in ancient Sumerian: “Rays of the sun.” At the time I did not know it, but I was about to leave the Gurdjieff Work, the groups of people who were trying to put into practice the teachings of that obscure Russian mystic, who had written about Ashiata Shiemash. My departure occurred about a month later, when the politics of humans in an organization made it impossible for my wife and I to continue to participate with the groups, after thirty-five or so years of devoted membership. During the difficult, highly emotional meeting in which it became clear that we had to leave the organization, the president asked me what was going to happen to my inner work if I left the group, our connection to the Source. I did not tell her then, but I felt a great inner peace and confidence that the Source was not to be found in the structure of the Gurdjieff Work, because the Source was accessible within my own psyche in the form of this inner connection to Ashiata Shiemash himself.

What follows is a collection of writings which came through my fingers while I was in trance, connecting to the wisdom of that personage. I believe that the messages came from Ashiata Shiemash. I cannot be certain of this, and I do not know how one could ever be certain of such an assertion. I do not ask the reader to believe that this is the true source of these writings. Gurdjieff himself was not one to ask for blind faith, but expected his pupils to verify everything they were taught. But I believe the content of these writings has a great value regardless of the source, whether it comes somehow from my own prior learning in the Gurdjieff Work, from some deep place in the collective unconscious of humanity which became available to me through shamanic states of consciousness, or if it indeed comes from some high being from ancient times named Ashiata Shiemash.