Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy (Isa. 54:16).
The idea is that this refers to Joseph Smith's "restoration" of Christianity from smoldering coals to a blazing fire, and that the instrument he brings forth is the Book of Mormon. The next bit, about "the waster to destroy," is passed over in silence. Thinking of it now, though, I thought of the Waster as Odysseus and of the prayer of Polyphemus, the blinded Cyclops, against him:
Poseidon, girdler of the earth, god of the azure hair, --My father, if a father's name thou ownest, hear my prayer:Grant that this layer waste of towns, who boasts himself to beLaertes' son, the Ithacan, his home may never see.
Then I remembered that Du Cane's Odyssey has come up on this blog before, and in connection with Joseph as the Smith. This was in "Gilgamesh was an elven king," where this slightly modified passage from Du Cane -- modified to address Vulcan by his title Smith rather than by name -- was interpreted as possibly a reference to Joseph the Prophet.
O Smith, declared th' earth-shaking god:Should Mars the debt refuse,Thou hast my word that I will payTo thee thy lawful dues.
When I was searching my blog for that post, though, the first result was "Swords of Mars, two-mouthed chameleon-cat-men, and kings' stories engraved on stones," which begins thus:
Thomas B. Marsh has been in the sync stream, and it occurred to me that, since the h in Thomas is silent -- i.e., Thomas = Tomas -- we could also remove the h from Marsh, yielding Mars.
Thomas B. Marsh has been identified with Peter and Pharazon. This character has also been symbolically linked to Odysseus -- particularly in connection with Dante's tale of his last voyage, where he attempted to sail west to an island (Purgatory) forbidden to mortals. Now we have Mars as a possible reference to this figure as well. Mars, as war god, is also a "layer waste of towns."
The context of the "O Smith" quote is that Poseidon is attempting to negotiate the release of Mars, who has been caught in bed with Aphrodite and put in chains by Vulcan. (In this haphazard mixture of Greek and Roman names for these characters I follow Du Cane.)
Poseidon only, of them all, from merriment refrained,Nor ceased he to the craftsman famed his earnest prayer to make,That he his prisoner would unbind, and wingèd words he spake:"Loose him, and I, as thou dost bid, myself will surety stand,That he before th' immortal gods shall pay thy just demand."
I recently alluded to this very episode in the Odyssey, in the comments on "Death to the natural man." In reference to the sword as a cross, I quoted these lines of Yeats and explained that the goddess mentioned was Venus/Aphrodite:
The sword's a cross; thereon He died:On breast of Mars the goddess sighed.
Poseidon as "th' earth-shaking god" has also been in the sync stream fairly recently, in the post "Then we’ll do an earthquake. That’s Israel attacking Athene." In the dream reported in that post, I imagined Bill interpreting the title line by saying "Who could 'do an earthquake' but Poseidon, the god of Atlantis and founder of their dynasty?" and thus seeing in it a reference to Pharazon's assault on Aman, analogous to the Atlanteans' attack on Athens in Plato.
If Odysseus and Mars are symbolically the same character here, it is interesting that one Du Cane quote has the Cyclops praying for Poseidon to punish Odysseus, while the other has Poseidon asking Vulcan to release Mars. In Hesiod and elsewhere, the Cyclopes are closely associated with Hephaestus (Vulcan) and are his assistants in smith-work. Homer himself does not make this connection, but we can nevertheless think of Polyphemus as symbolically speaking for Vulcan. We thus have the same three characters in either scene: Mars-Odysseus (Pharazon), Vulcan-Polyphemus, and Poseidon. The question is who is represented by the latter two.
10 comments:
On "Joseph the Smith", it may be that the other Joseph is referred to here, at least on one level (i.e., a reference to Joseph Smith, and also a play on his name to refer to another Joseph who is a Smith).
My mind goes there because of Joseph of Egypt/ Dior/ Ausir. Per Etymonline, a Smith is a "blacksmith, armorer, one who works in metal, (jewelers as well as blacksmiths), more broadly, handicraftsman, practitioner of skilled manual arts (also including carpenters)"
The mention of a Jeweler caught my eye. I covered the Jewel House recently in earlier comments, and the gathering of those Jewels, with Jewels seeming to refer to both people and Stones.
Anyway, Joseph is heavily associated with Jewels. But, the notion of a Smith incorporating one who makes or works with Jewels takes us right back to the Malachi passage that I brought up yesterday from Jesus' Bountiful visit. In Malachi, it refers to the Lord of Hosts making up his Jewels:
"and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."
One that would "make up" (assemble, gather, I think, and thus work with) jewels would accurately be called a Smith.
I thought of the other Joseph as a possible reference, too, particularly in connection with Don Bradley's theory that the Sword of Laban may have been forged by Joseph in Egypt, making him a literal smith.
Orson Scott Card's series Alvin Maker centers on a fictionalized version of Joseph Smith in an alternate 19th century America in which each race practices its own varieties of folk magic. In this culture surnames are explicitly occupational titles, so after completing his apprenticeship Alvin truly becomes Alvin (the) Smith. Note that Alvin was the name of the real Joseph Smith's older brother who died as a young man.
The fictional Alvin grows into the super rare vocation of a Maker. Previous Makers include Merlin and Ben Franklin. Meanwhile Alvin faces opposition from a Sorathic entity known as the Unmaker. There's your waster!
Your earthquake post was published not quite 68 hours before a massive earthquake hit Kamchatka. Since it (probably?) affected the Russian Navy submarine base located there, this event ties together Mars and Poseidon.
I'll leave it up to you whether you consider your post in any sense clairvoyant.
Just looking at Ben's first comment, the name Alvin once again invokes the Alvin and the Chip Monks symbolism, and specifically Alvin here makes sense given potential ties to Joseph of Egypt, the Smith, etc.
And, of course, the specific meaning of Alvin as "Elf Friend".
I read several of those Alvin Maker books but didn’t continue with Heartfire because the title and cover art made it look like a romance novel, and I was embarrassed to buy it. Maybe I should rectify that omission. I see that Card is planning to publish w seventh Alvin Maker book next year, 23 years after the sixth.
Earthquakes happen pretty regularly, so no, I don’t consider a generic earthquake dream to be prophetic unless it includes some specific details that line up with its real-world fulfillment. “Probably affected a submarine base” isn’t good enough.
That makes sense regarding earthquake predictions.
I know exactly what you mean about the Heartfire cover. In any case I'm glad to hear that Card is completing the series .
When I read Ben's last statement, I had forgotten that Heartfire was the name of a book written by Orson Scott Card. Rather, I thought the Card he was referencing was an actual card, that went by the name of Heartfire (as I had also forgotten about that book).
In other words, I read it as a specific card that completes some series. Even after recognizing the error, I was interested in why I mistakenly read it that way so I looked up Heartfire to see if that was the name of any card.
It turns out it is a card that comes from the card game Magic: The Gathering, of which I have no familiarity. But, I had remembered you had brought it up recently, but couldn't remember where. After some unsuccessful searching, I remembered that the reference to Magic actually came from the post you linked regarding your first sync. So, it wasn't a recent reference - it was just a recent reference to your mention of this from some time ago.
Anyway, the Heartfire card itself is interesting, as we see a Being who is literally on fire, and who seems to be throwing fire at something/ someone else. This brings up the symbolism/ imagery of the Burning Man, which takes us right back to Abinadi-Faramir. Even the little text at the bottom of the card supports this, as a reference to a Magi who burns (and thus also Alvin, one of our Three Magi/ Chip Monks/ Wise Men). Here is the link to the card, and below the text which alludes to a sacrifice by fire:
https://scryfall.com/card/war/131/heartfire
"The Mage looked within and realized there was still one piece of fuel to burn".
The Alvin Chip Monk/ Abinadi Being-character has also been associated with "The End", so it was particularly interesting to see that my error in reading had this Card - the Burning Man - as "completing the series".
Card is also a word that means "a writing, paper, tablet", which also fits, and which brings me to me second erroneous or creative reading which I will mention in the next comment.
It must be these Scott middle names.
When I realized that Heartfire was the title of the book by Orson Scott Card, when I said that name in my mind, the same thing happened to me as when I said Francis Scott Key out loud. I heard it as "Orson's got Card".
Card, again, can refer to a tablet or some kind of writing, which made me wonder what the name Orson meant.
Orson means "Bear, Bear Cub", which can take us to two different characters that have been strongly linked independently as well as with each other.
First, King Arthur, with one of the meanings of Arthur being "Bear".
Second, Meglin, whose own name also means "Bear-like" (sorry to bring him up again...).
Both characters have been associated with a Card, in the form of books and writings. With Arthur, the Sword in the Stone being symbolic of writings (the Word of God) that will be pulled from a Stone.
With Meglin, you have another name that refers to a Bear, and we had that interesting imagery of the bear who was raiding the refrigerator, if you remember, with the contents of that refrigerator being tied to lilies and also to saying, writings, words. This connection was further explored with the symbolism of Mr. Mxyzptlk stealing a book in that Superman comic, and in that Book, Language Log, that may have belonged to someone else in your dream (a person named Bob) that you highlighted in your post "Death to the natural man".
So, we have two characters, both with names being associated with Bear and also with potentially with writings. It is interesting to me that Card can specifically mean "Tablet", and I saw you in that dream I had of you holding what I referred to as a "tablet - something like a large iPad" in the library and reading "I Like Ling".
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