Listening for a signal in the noise

Last night I was teaching an online English class, and one of the students twice made the mistake of referring to the time using an ordinal number -- of saying, for example, "I usually get up at seven fifteenth." The first time, I just corrected it without further comment, but after she'd made the same mistake twice I decided I'd better explain in more detail. I explained that we use ordinal numbers for the date, not for the time. "For example, we would say that today is" -- I glanced down at the corner of my screen to check -- "August twenty-sixth, but if we want to talk about the time, we'd say that it's" -- I glanced down again and saw exactly the same numbers -- "eight twenty-six."

Quite the coincidence, right? The whole point I was making was that the same series of digits would be read differently depending on whether it was a date or a time, and I just happened to make that point at a moment when the time and the date were perfectly aligned. I thought, "He's got a watch with a minute hand / Millennium hand and an eon hand / And when they meet, it's a happy land."

⁂

This morning, I checked my email before leaving for work and found that someone had sent me this image from, apparently, Kamala Harris's Twitter.

When you want to do "Abbey Road" but don't have three friends

The email said simply, "Also saw this image & I know you’ve seen some Tarot connections. Notice any Tarot / Masonic symbolism?"

Well, yes, the Masonic symbolism rather hits you over the head -- but I wouldn't have looked at this photo and thought Tarot without some prompting from my friend. I thought of my Inauguration Day reading, identifying Harris with a woman between the two Masonic pillars Jachin and Boaz. The chessboard-tile floor does not appear on the card but is certainly implied by the context. One also sees an obvious visual allusion to the two pillars in the photo above. The angle of her legs even suggests a Masonic compass.

This photo also made me think of the AC/DC song "Highway to Hell" -- I think for no other reason than that it features the word "stride." Hey, Satan, paid my dues . . . . Another line from that song -- "Going down, party time" -- made me think of the chorus of the old Neil Sedaka song "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" -- "Kama kama down doobie doo down down."

I visited Harris's Twitter, wondering if the image was a recent one. (Apparently it's not.)

So the photo she chooses for the header is one of her -- cackling? Also, "Momala"? Doesn't she/her realize the preferred term is "birthing personala"? Momala ties back in with "Highway to Hell":

Hey, Satan, paid my dues

Playing in a rocking band

Hey, Momma, look at me

I'm on my way to the promised land

I'm on the highway to hell

(Don't stop me)

And I'm going down, all the way down

Momala + Joe = Mamalujo. Finnegans Woke!

⁂

Later, on the road, I was thinking about the 826 coincidence of the night before when I noticed that string of numbers on the license plate ahead of me: MML 8268. Right next to it was another license plate that read NNJ 0315. This second plate caught my attention, because NNJ is ninja and 0315 is the Ides of March. This made me think of the Arizona audit, by a group called Cyber Ninjas, with (we hope) the ultimate result of striking down Caesar.

My recent post "Copper Queen" connected the Empress card of the Tarot with both Kamala Harris and the state of Arizona. Writing that post made me think (because of the phonetic similarity to empress) of the TMBG song "I'm Impressed," so immediately after posting it, I looked it up on YouTube. The video ends with a cartoon robot version of the assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March.

At first I didn't think much of the MML 8268 plate, except to note that it included 826. Now, though, I realize that MML is Momala, and that 268 is the gematria value of my full name. (Back in July, I posted about seeing 286 on a license plate and mistakenly thinking that was the gematria value of my name!) Oh, and the Ides of March is my birthday.

⁂

A few days ago, on August 19, I received an email with the subject line "License Plate Synchronicity."

I was driving today and saw a car license plate that said D & C 1 38.  This drew my attention because I have seen very few references to the Old or New Testaments on license plates and don't remember seeing any other that refer to Mormon writings.  

The reference is to Doctrine and Covenants 1:38.

What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

On a hunch, I looked up D&C 8:2-6.

Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground.

Therefore this is thy gift; apply unto it, and blessed art thou, for it shall deliver you out of the hands of your enemies, when, if it were not so, they would slay you and bring your soul to destruction.

Oh, remember these words, and keep my commandments. Remember, this is your gift.

Now this is not all thy gift; for you have another gift, which is the gift of Aaron; behold, it has told you many things.

Instead of "the gift of Aaron," the earliest manuscript has "the gift of working with the sprout," amended by Sidney Rigdon to "rod."

This is generally taken as a reference to a divining rod, later biblicized by connecting it with Aaron's rod that budded and blossomed and yielded almonds.

⁂

As I post this, it's still 8/26 in Arizona. Not that I'm expecting anything to happen in the next two and a half hours, but you never know.

Not my typo