The Silmarils were stones preserving some of the light of the Two Trees of Valinor long after the trees themselves had been destroyed.
The word amber originally referred to ambergris, a substance produced by sperm whales. In a comment on my post “Blue-Green Abelard and gray and yellow amber,” Bill connected ambergris with Captain Ahab’s leg which was bitten off and swallowed by the white sperm whale Moby Dick:
This is potentially where the ambergris comes into play. Ahab wanted revenge for the loss of his leg to Moby Dick, which the whale had eaten. Ambergris is from the whale's intestines, and can, I think, not irrationally be linked to Ahab's leg passing through those intestines.
One of the Silmarils is associated with a similar story. Beren was holding one of these stones in his hand when that hand was bitten off and swallowed, Silmaril and all, by the werewolf Carcharoth — whose name strongly suggests a large white predator of the seas: Carcharodon carcharias, the great white shark.
Beren and Ahab are of course very different characters, but the parallel still seems potentially significant.
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Ambergris is said to develop from hard, indigestible things the whale eats. The beak of squids was given as an example. Should a whale eat a stone, it certainly seems like the the same effect would be produced.
I've been thinking more about the Ahab story. What really chapped Ahab's hide and what he wanted revenge over was the loss of his leg to Moby Dick.
In my dreams, Stones have been associated with Shoes, and thus we have a potential tie to the imagery of a missing leg. You can't put a shoe on a foot that doesn't exist anymore due to one's leg missing. In effect, a Stone, or a potential Stone, has been eaten.
In some cases it seems one Shoe will be sufficient to get someone where they want to go. For others, two Shoes will be needed, symbolizing (I think) the two-step process required in the Way (and illustrated/ enacted in the LDS temple drama, and represented by the connection of Aman-Numenor-Middle-Earth at the end of the First Age).
If Ahab was such a Being that required two steps, his missing leg would be a problem. He would, in effect, be marooned and unable to leave or reach the final destination, having no ability to wear the required Shoes.
This parallels Ahab-quoting Khan's story from the Wrath of Khan. He wants revenge on Kirk because Kirk (who I tied to the White Whale) exiled and marooned him on a planet with no way for him to get off. He did this after Khan attempted to take over the Enterprise, which would parallel Pharazon's own story. In effect, Khan is missing his leg and is unable to 'walk' anywhere, with respect to mobility across worlds.
This also seems to map to this notion of a missing 'tail/ tale', like what you wrote about with Indian Jones. Humans don't have tails (in that sense I guess we are all missing them), but given the definition of tail being a "posterior extremity", something "long and slender", and the notion of it being a "hinder, bottom, or concluding part", legs are probably the closest thing to actual tails we have.
The fact that its homophone tale refers to a story or a "piece of information", I think the connection of Ahab's missing leg to a Stone tail/ tale is a pretty good one, as is then the symbolism of Moby Dick limiting Ahab in some fashion as it relates to mobility and knowledge (via the Stones).
Also of interest, I didn't know that Tail is from a word that means "Hair/ Tuft of Hair". I thought that was really interesting, and goes along with this Bald theme. To not have a Tail/ Tale would mean to be hairless.
Taillessness, hairlessness, and whales are all juxtaposed in the TMBG song "Mammal":
One of us might lose his hair
But you're reminded that it once was there
From the embryonic whale to the monkey with no tail
And that song is from the album Apollo 18, which has a (spacefaring?) sperm whale on the cover.
Great finds. Your memory for these types of connections and references is amazing.
In Wrath of Khan, I made reference to the ship that Khan was finally able to commandeer in getting off the planet he was marooned on, called The Reliant. I translated that in Elvish as "Spider's Light".
In Nephi's vision, we have the Book of the Lamb that will be published as it was meant to be, coming from the Ithil and Rose Stones. But this will quickly be corrupted by the Great and Abominable Church before being given to the Gentiles. I have placed Ungoliant as current head of the GAC.
Thus, we may have a clue as to Ahab-Pharazon's own key to replace his missing leg/ stone/ story: The corrupted Book of the Lamb. Since it will have passed through Ungoliant's hands, and will both act as an instrument to increase faith in Jesus while also concurrently acting as a massive stumbling block and source of blindness, it would rightly be called "Spider's Light", or The Reliant. It fits nicely.
Using that Book would get Pharazon and any Gentiles with him, to Eressea #2, I think, where they would be given the opportunity to repent and rebuild what was destroyed, just like in Nephi's vision.
So, that would be where the Khan-Pharazon-Ahab story comes to its crux or fork in the road, perhaps. Is it revenge or repentance at that point? Wrath of Khan and Moby Dick suggest revenge. The Book of Mormon points to this as a very real possibility, also, but also suggests a happier ending in which it is repentance and being numbered among Israel (having some hair) that wins out.
“With spider’s oil the lamps of Salem burn” (the only line I was able to produce back when I was trying my hand at being Nostradamus).
That name Salem recently came up again in the post on my Hebrew names.
I should perhaps mention that Herman Melville is one of the past lives proposed for me by my Uncle Bill.
Herman Melville means "Army Man from the Bad Settlement/ Country". Could be a Pharazonic name, particularly from the perspective of the Eresseans, I guess.
And Melville writes from the perspective of a man named Ishmael, which I find also relevant.
Thinking more on this, we are probably writing imprecisely about Pharazon needs to do. Going along with the Eressea #2 theme above and the Gentiles going there, it would probably be restorative work on Eressea that would be under his purview. We can directly lay the charge of the drinking and the destruction of the lilies to him.
So, we have three venues off of this world where some work needs to happen: Numenor, Eressea #2, and Aman (I am leaving off Eressea #1 for now, since that seems to be a different thing with the GSB/ Empire State Building). My guess is Pharazon's scope of work would be on Eressea #2.
As an additional tie between Pharazon, King Noah, and drinking Dandelion Wine, Noah is the character in the Book of Mormon most directly attached to Wine, being a Wine Bibber:
"And it came to pass that he planted vineyards round about in the land; and he built wine-presses, and made wine in abundance; and therefore he became a wine-bibber, and also his people."
Perhaps a call back to what he had drunk in abundance before on the land but didn't exist any longer, as well as a foreshadowing to the opportunity to help replant fields of the real stuff in the future. Just thinking out loud.
It may well be a purposeful callout given the over-the-top Ahab references and parallels with Khan, but it is interesting to note that the Enterprise cripples the Reliant by destroying one of its two warp drive nacelles. These are the two 'sticks' that allow warp drive. Just like Moby Dick taking out one of Ahab's two legs, the Enterprise takes off one of the Reliant's legs.
It is so Moby Dick/ Ahab, though, I have to think one of the creators thought of this.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise is only able to get away by having two fully operational 'sticks' or legs (thanks to Spock).
This is another nod to the importance of the Two Sticks mentioned in Joseph's prophecy in 2 Nephi 3. I had written about the symbolic link to Warp Drives (Warp and Woof) and spacetime, so this seemed surprisingly relevant symbolism in the Khan/ Kirk showdown.
Also it is "Genesis" that Khan is after. A pretty loaded and relevant word in this story.
Bill's thinking here doesn't quite work for me, but the mention of Ahab is interesting relative to something I'm currently writing.
Metal Gear Solid is a famed stealth game series, its main protagonist being Solid Snake, a prime mercenary soldier and spy. However, in the only MGS games I've much played -- The Phantom Pain and its prologue, Ground Zeroes -- the protagonist is instead Solid Snake's father, known as Big Boss. In Ground Zeroes, Boss's mercenary company is attacked by a strike force led by a secret, malevolent US organisation; though Boss was evacuated, he fell a nine-year coma, riddled with shrapnel and his left arm lost, albeit replaced with a hook-hand prosthetic at some point. At the start of Phantom Pain, several days after Boss initially wakes up, he's given the codename "Ahab" to protect his identity (and later gets a cool bionic arm to replace the hook). Other Moby Dick-based names used include Ishmael and Pequod, and the book's title itself was used in the name for a fake developer studio to playfully hype the game early on. A major theme for Phantom Pain is revenge -- not "typical revenge between two people, but a never ending series of killing between races", a "false spiral" that affects "the next generation" -- which makes the book references fitting.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_V:_The_Phantom_Pain
metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/Moby_Dick_Studio
metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/Themes_in_the_Metal_Gear_series
Later this morning, I thought of the dream I had involving deer that were attempting to eat my pumpkin patch. The dream was almost exactly a year ago, on May 28, 2024. I had written a blog post about it, and we had tied it in with posts you had written about "Come and Buy" referring to Pumpkins, hobgoblins, goblin markets, etc.
I had associated the deer with the Numenoreans and their destruction of my pumpkin patch as the assault on Eressea and the ruin of the lily fields. But, it was one particular detail that stood out to me as I went back to read what I wrote of the dream. Toward the end, as I surveyed the carnage of the scene, there was one deer specifically that I associated with Pharazon. It walked upright on two legs, or at least tried to. He had been shot in the foot, and due to its bad leg, required a crutch or walking stick in order to limp off of my field. Here is what I wrote about that deer:
"I looked to my left and saw a deer walking on two legs, upright just like a human being would walk; However, it had been shot in the foot, and so now was limping and holding a walking cane for balance as it was trying to get away; It was so strange to see this deer walking like a man!"
This would be yet another connection between Pharazon and Ahab, and this notion of a missing, broken, or bad leg.
Likening the story of the Pumpkins to this notion of Dandelion Wine, or a drink that comes from yellow flowers and drunk by a dandy lion (with dandy meaning "draws attention by unusual finery of dress"... like Pharazon's gold outfit!), I think also may solve the riddle of the dream I had of a Being I believe represents you stealing from my refrigerator.
Why it was a refrigerator that was shown, though, has been a mystery. I think the Wine or drink reference solves it. Wine - good wine at least - is supposed to be stored at a consistently cool temperature, with many people opting for a Wine Cooler to do this. Cooler and Refrigerator mean the same thing. Thus, the dream was another reference to the theft or taking of the lilies and their wine.
That is my best guess, and is consistent with the overall Pharazon picture that I've been working through.
I should also note that in my one and only dream in which I believe I was looking at King Noah, my vision zoomed in on his foot, which I noted was badly mangled and disfigured, though in the dream how it got this way and why it mattered wasn't clear at all.
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