The elders of Chelm are not unstable.First they construct a total table.
Chelm is a Polish city proverbial for its comically foolish Jews, butts of the Jewish equivalent of Polack jokes. This made me think of the very stupid people I interacted with in my dream "Among the giants." I had thought of them as "goyish" -- an adjective that only makes sense if Jewishness is assumed as a baseline -- and one of them had asked me about some sort of ritual gesture used by Hasidic Jews. The "elders" reference also ties in with the mention of Presbyterianism (from presbyter "elder") in the dream. Specifically, one of the giants was trying to explain what Presbyterians understand by St. Paul's phrase "the word of wisdom." The Wikipedia article on Chelmer jokes is titled "Wise Men of Chelm" and it even identifies "the first book title which mentions both 'Chelm' and 'wisdom.'"
Unfortunately, I had misremembered Mandelbaum. There are no elders. The correct lines -- from Chelmaxioms: The Maxims, Axioms, Maxioms of Chelm (1977), one of the works I had in mind when I mentioned (in "The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's") having read "an awful lot of awfully Jewish stuff" -- are:
The men of Chelm are not at all unstable.First they build themselves a total table:
a robust rhombus sawed from eucalyptus . . .
My error -- remembering presbyters where there were none -- is the converse of Bill's. He had commented on the significance of the Pentecostal reference in my dream, when in fact the reference was to Presbyterians.
Looking up the reference in Chelmaxioms now, I noticed some other lines:
The men of Chelm do not despair:they lift their lances in the airand leave them there.
This reminded me of Bill's "Brittany Spears" thing. If we read the verb leave in the sense of frondescence, it also suggests the Rider-Waite suit of Wands.
The carpenters of total tablestremble at the thought of flaw;at each evasive edge they chantthe vast and versal Chant of Awl.They sang without a part of speech --until they fell on two more phemesand alternated /all/ and /awl/and found the peace we cannot reach
Carpenters and homophones were recently featured in "Of sealing wax."
Note added: I've just discovered that the late blogger Lawrence Auster, whom I used to read regularly, was Allen Mandelbaum's nephew. Small world.
6 comments:
Some interesting things here.
First, the confusion with Elders and Men. Could have have been purposeful, in that my understanding is that "Elders" (Eldars/ the Firstborn) are here on this Earth today dressed up as Men (and that this was also the case historically in other settings, like Numenor).
Chelm is a word that means "Dream", which I actually think further strengthens the Eldar-Men connection. The Elders/ Men of Dream. There is one individual in this story whose name means or refers to Dreams, and who is famously associated with dreams and visions in scripture, and that is Joseph. I've guessed Joseph's Valar identity was Irmo, also known as Lorien. Irmo means "Desirer", which I will get back to in a second, but Lorien refers to "Dream Lands", from Lor meaning Dream.
Desirer is an interesting name for Joseph because of how it ties into the Eldar, and likely Star Boy in our little game. Desire comes from the phrase "de sidere", literally meaning "from the stars", I was surprised to find on Etymonline. This is the same meaning as Eldar, at its core, which is often translated as "Star Folk", but in its more specific variant "Eleda" we get "of the stars".
In other words, the "Elders of Chelm" may be a reference, in this instance of seeing shapes in clouds, to Joseph and his House. Another thought or two relative to their the table mentioned in a follow up comment.
The 'total tables' that the Elders of Chelm first built which seems to relate to them not being unstable seems like a very specific tie back to the Joseph Smith letter and its contents I referenced yesterday.
Tables, of course, can be taken as a physical table like a piece of furniture. But like we've explored elsewhere, it is also a reference to a writing tablet or something which is written or inscribed on. It gets even more specific, though. A table is also a list, and Etymonline specifically defines it in its verb form as to "enter (someone's name) into a list".
This is exactly what Joseph Smith was writing about - a record that contained a list of names, and that this list needed to be complete or perfect. The definition of "total" on Etymonline is "complete in extent or degree, lacking no member or part; entire". Thus, the Table that the Elders of Chelm first created can be interpreted as being this entire and complete list that of names referenced in Joseph's writing, and tying to this concept of "sealing" or binding something together.
My guess is this has to do with Stones, which then gets to the mention of the Elders and their Lances being left in the air. As you called out, Lances have been specifically tied to the Stones, for example with the Brittany Spears. Further, in my story, these Stones (with the exception of one - the Rose Stone) have literally been left up in the air - they aren't here on this Earth, but somewhere else.
Meaning, Beings descended into this world without their Lances/ Stones, raising them in the air and literally leaving them there, becoming stupid animal-ish type beings like your dream Beings, but with the promise that there would be restored to those Stones at some point; there would be some way for this to happen.
In thinking it through, I've come to the conclusion that at least for 12 initial individuals (perhaps a few more initially as well), that happens via the conduit of the Rose Stone. The Book of the Lamb would be created somewhere up in "Heaven" - out there somewhere - using 12 of those Lances/ Stones, and those stories/ records would be conveyed through the linking of the Rose and Ithil Stones. I can only imagine that an actual physical reunion with said Stones with their corresponding Being happens afterward. I obviously don't know how the mechanics would work.
It is also interesting to think about the reduced mental capacity of your dream Beings and the Men-Elders of Chelm in this setting. I don't know if you remember, but I wrote an early blog post about both a Stone and an "Ancient Juice" that would be brought together. The Juice I had assumed was required because we here as Men are, on a cosmic scale, extremely mentally deficient, in my view. I had used the example of trying to explain something to my dog:
"On the cosmic scale of intelligence, we here on Earth are morons, I think, and it is the extreme limits and fallen nature of the bodies we inhabit that makes this so. Our brains are part of these bodies, and though our spirits can and do shape these brains to our use the best that we can, still we can't get past the fact that the hardware we are working with is pretty bad.
"Thus, I think without this juice, the interaction between Ilmare and Eonwe, at least for purposes of transferring complex thought, ideas, words, etc., would probably be as effective as me trying to transmit what I consider complex thought to my dog. My dog might understand that I love her, and even gather general words and meaning, but would be unable to fully grasp what is being said. She would need a significant change or boost in how her mind operates for that to be possible. So it is with Eonwe in his current form."
That overall thinking came in part on reflecting on the 2019 phrase/ words which were:
Sardi ar dyenido Starerios aman-ore
I translated that in one iteration as:
"With Stone and Ancient Juice/ Nectar, Starerios to rise to Aman".
Starerios here, in that post, I had also assumed referred to Eonwe/ Holy Ghost, and I think that still holds pretty well, particularly since one translation of Starerios, like Eldar, gives me "Of the Stars" or "Star One".
Chelm is also transliterated as Helm, the second element of the name we two share, the first element of which means "desire."
Funny you should mention "seeing shapes in clouds." Here is one of the short poems from Chelmaxioms:
one breath
away from wrath
he watched
demented clouds
refuse the
lineaments
he imposed
As it happens, I've just been thinking and writing about your Juice, though not for publication. This was in connection with Cold Brother and the idea that drinking the Juice might cause at first symptoms resembling death, something like the potion Juliet takes in Shakespeare.
The Men of Chelm also built their table "first". To me this is a direct tie to words from 2020 that I believe involved a conversation with Joseph, in which he was encouraged to write something "before all else":
V1: You should get the story out a min
Joseph (I think): Feel we will wake up before we get it out
V1: Let it be written before all else; trust in Eru, good alone can come
The idea being, I guess, that Eru-Jesus had asked that something be written first or at the beginning, and that that this was important.
"Min", in the dialogue above, is a word which can mean "One, First", which could be a play on words for both the ask to get the story out first, but also the identity of who is being spoken to in the phrase, with Joseph-Ausir being called or known as "Eldest" in other words I have. Actually, where he is called that had to do with both bovids (cows, but same family as bison) and a drink:
"A strong mead of their choice, a cow that moos when its time to be milked;
You want to go play with mir [something] in the sky, indemnify lini pick
to restore Ausir eldest"
So a potential loose tie to Elder/ the Elders there as well.
Post a Comment