I posted my many-eyed whale dream on the 430th anniversary of Dee and Kelley's many-eyed whale vision.

Last night, curious about John Dee and Edward Kelley's vision of a many-eyed whale which I had heard summarized by Jason Louv on a podcast, I searched the Internet for john dee whale and found on Google Books the part of Louv's 2018 book, John Dee and the Empire of Angels, where this vision is related. Louv gave the date of the vision as April 27. That date struck me as significant or familiar somehow but I wasn't sure how.

Then I looked back at my recent post "The many-eyed whale shows up again," and saw that it begins, "Back in 2014, in the early hours of April 26, I had a dream . . . ." But my original post describing that dream, "A beast with many eyes," didn't give the date of the dream itself but just said, "On Friday night (actually, very early Saturday morning), I dreamed . . . ." For some reason, I had thought it was important to mention the date of the dream in my recent post, so I checked a 2014 calendar for the Saturday before the date of the post.

I went back and checked the date of the post. It was April 27, 2014.

I had checked all this on my phone just before going to bed. It was late, so I told myself that in the morning I would look it up again and post on it.

In the morning, I got up and went into the study. I found that my wife had left her laptop on so she could charge something in the USB port. Whatever version of Windows she has shows a picture when the computer is on but you haven't signed in yet. It's generally some sort of exotic scenery, with something you can click on to get more information about that place. Today, the picture was this:

On my own computer, I went to Google Books to find and transcribe the passage that gives the date of the whale vision, only to find that I was no longer able to do so: "You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book."

Fortunately, Louv's source material, Meric Casaubon's A True & Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and Some Spirits, is available online. I found the whale bit, which starts on p. 102, but it is dated only "Friday, Cracoviae, Aprilis." However, looking back at the date of the previous entry, on p. 93, we find "Wensday, Cracoviae, Aprilis 25," so Louv's date of April 27 for the whale vision checks out. As for the year, the vision took place in Kraków. Dee went to Poland in September 1583 and returned to England in 1589. The only year in that range in which April 27 falls on a Friday is 1586.

(Update: I had for some reason checked June 27 instead of April! The actual year was 1584, as given on p. 73.)

Here is the account as given in A True & Faithful Relation.

The Firmament and the waters were joyned together, and the Whale CAME, like unto a legion of stormes: or as the bottomless Cave of the North when it is opened: and she was full of eyes on every side.

The Prophet said, Stand still, but they trembled. The waters sank, and fell suddenly away, so that the Whale lay upon the Hill, roaring like a Cave of Lions, and the Prophet took them by the hands, and led them to the Whales mouth, saying, Go in, but they trembled vehemently; He said unto them the second time, Go in: and they durst not. And he sware unto them, and they entred in, and he lifted up his voyce, and cried mightily, Come away, and, lo, they stood before him richer than an Emperours Throne, for unto him that was naked, were clothes given: unto him that was a child and a man, were 12 gates opened. And the Prophet cried mightily, and said, This Whale cannot die; and lifted up his voyce again and said: Within this Whale are many Chambers, and secret dwelling places, which I will divide betwixt you on the right side (unto the which was a child, and now a man) there are twelve opened, but unto thee that hast provided strange Garments for thy self, and not such as men use to wear, I will give thee head, hart, and left side, whose places are 46. You shall enter, and be possessed this day together: And behold, the son shall return again 21 times, and in one year, but not all at one time. You shalt depart hence into a dwelling that shall be all one: where there is no end, the place of comfort and inspeakable glorie.

After this, Dee says, "As you have delivered us a parable, enigma, or prophesie, so I beseech you . . . to expound what is meant by the Whale, the naked man, the Child, &c."

The angels Gabriel and Nalvage reply, "The naked man is Dee, The Childe is Kelly, . . . The Hill is the World, The waters are the bosome of God, . . . The Whale is the spirit of God, The Chambers are the degrees of wisdome . . . ."

This is a bit different from Louv's summary ("they meet God, and God is a whale"). The whole thing is clearly framed as a parable, and God is "what is meant by the Whale."

Specifically, the whale represents "the spirit of God" -- i.e., the Holy Ghost, whose more usual symbol is the dove. This is interesting because entering the mouth of the whale is a reference to the story of Jonah, and the name Jonah means "dove."

Life imitates Unsong: A real-life double pun correction

My first mention of Joan of Arc on this blog was on December 15, 2020. I mentioned her as part of a pun from Unsong, which had been brought to mind by a P. G. Wodehouse novel, which had been brought to mind by a mention of the biblical story of Balaam's ass.

I am suddenly reminded of a passage from the P. G. Wodehouse novel Jeeves in the Offing.

'And, anyway, Reggie's gone for a walk and isn't available. I do wish you wouldn't always be so difficult, Bertie. Your aunt tells me it was just the same when you were a child. She'd want you to eat your cereal, and you would stick your ears back and be stubborn and non-cooperative, like Jonah's ass in the Bible.'

I could not let this go uncorrected. It's pretty generally known that when at school I won a prize for Scripture Knowledge.

'Balaam's ass. Jonah was the chap who had the whale. Jeeves!'

'Sir?'

'To settle a bet, wasn't it Balaam's ass that entered the nolle prosequi?'

'Yes, sir.'

I have recently been reading Scott Alexander's novel Unsong. One of the running gags is "biblical pun correction." One of the characters mentions Joan of Arc and is "corrected" by another: "Jonah whale; Noah ark." Later in the conversation, someone says "to no avail" and received the converse correction: "Noah ark; Jonah whale."

These pun corrections in Unsong always come in reciprocal pairs like this. So when one of the characters describes the pyramids as "solemn and huge," and is corrected with "Solomon wise; Goliath huge," you know that somewhere along the line someone is going to say something that sounds like "Goliath wise" and receive the converse correction. Trying to anticipate how and when the second pun will drop is part of the fun of reading the novel.

⁂

In my March 27 post "The New Orleans Saint," I mentioned Joan of Arc and also happened to mention February 14 (Valentine's Day) as the date the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl. Mr. Andrew left this comment on the post:

I just finished "Something Fresh" by Wodehouse last night. The main love interest woman is named Joan Valentine. I think Wodehouse meant this as a joke because Valentine obviously refers to romance, while the Joan character is a strong, independent, and daring/brave woman - and both are names of Saints.

My sister Kat Valentine has drawn a portrait of Joan of Arc and written a poem about her, both of which have been featured on this blog. So when I read this comment, I thought, Unsong style, "Joan of Arc; Kat Valentine." (I didn't notice the Wodehouse connection until I went back and read my original Joan of Arc comment.)

Knowing the rules of Unsong puns, I started waiting for the second pun to drop. After "Joan Valentine," I should be on the lookout for something like "Kat of Arc" -- or, since Kat's real name is Crystal . . . Wait a second, this is the second pun! The first one dropped over a year ago! On January 19, 2021, I posted this:

There was an LED advertising board behind the counter at the shop. I looked up at it and saw the Tricolor and the words "Made in France" -- Maid in France -- which got my attention. Then the screen changed, and I saw what it was advertising: a brand of glassware called Cristal d'Arques. "Made in France" notwithstanding, I'm pretty sure d'Arques isn't real French; but if it were, it would be a homophone of d'Arc. (Incidentally, my post on Joan of Arc was illustrated with a portrait of that saint by my sister Kat, whose given name is actually Crystal.)

So let me say now what I should have said back then: "Crystal Valentine; Jeanne d'Arc."

The many-eyed whale shows up again

Back in 2014, in the early hours of April 26, I had a dream which proved to be precognitive.

I dreamed that I was watching TV and saw an image of what I interpreted as being a whale with many eyes, though I only saw its face. It was blue in color, with a row of eyes on the left and a row of eyes on the right — perhaps eight eyes in all. It also had feelers on the sides of its mouth like a catfish. I dreamed that, after seeing this, I got on Wikipedia to do some research, trying to find out if whales with many eyes actually existed. I found information about a particular gene (with a Latin-sounding name which I no longer remember), rare but not unheard of (comparable to albinism), which manifests sometimes in whales and other animals and causes them to have several pairs of eyes. Now that I knew the name of the gene, I ran a Google image search on it and found several pictures of animals with it — several blue whales, killer whales, and other cetaceans, as well as a couple of tigers. As I did this online research, I had the feeling that I had learned about this gene once before but had forgotten about it. My reaction was, “Oh, yeah, that’s right. That gene.”

Last night, my recent interest in John Dee led me to search the archives of The Higherside Chats for his name and listen to an interview with Jason Louv called "John Dee, Enochian Magick, & the Empire of Angels." Louv discusses how the "angels" with whom John Dee and Edward Kelley interacted were quite different from the precious pink cherubs of popular imagination, and he recounts their meeting with what was supposedly God himself.

And at one point they even meet God, and God is not an old man with a white beard up in the clouds. God is a whale covered with eyes from head to toe, from the mouth of which emits a deafening sound that Dee and Kelley say is like a cave of roaring lions. And they go into it and see reality peeled back, the thirty aethyrs of reality unveiled from within the mouth of the whale. So that's a little different from the Hallmark version.

This remind me of a passage near the end of Scott Alexander's novel Unsong. One of the characters is having a dialogue with God about the problem of evil whilst pursuing the Leviathan on the ship Not A Metaphor. The passage I quote below begins with God speaking.

"I did not say, Ana Thurmond, that your world is good now. I said that Adam Kadmon, its seed, was a good seed. That it will unfold, bit by bit, ringing conclusion after conclusion from its premises, until finally its own internal logic culminates in its salvation."

"How?" asked Ana, begging, pleading, shouting.

"Come and see," said God.

Then the Leviathan wheeled around, opened its colossal maw, and engulfed the Not A Metaphor. The ship spent a single wild moment in its mouth before the monster closed its jaws and crushed them all into tiny pieces.

Like Dee and Kelley, she had to enter the mouth of on otherworldly whale in order to receive the final revelation.

Dark Maga, Dark Magus

Possible sync development here.

Sunday, March 27: I post "The New Orleans Saint"; the sync fairies are yet again drawing my attention to Joan of Arc.

Monday, March 28: I become aware of the #DarkMAGA meme.

Tuesday, March 29: John Dee pings my radar and I start reading a biography of him. Hours later, I get sync feedback.

Dark = d'Arc. I've posted on this before.

Maga (feminine of magus) means "witch" -- which is what Joan's enemies accused her of being.

According to Wikipedia, John Dee's surname comes from the Welsh word for "black." In other words, his name was John Dark. Dee is commonly referred to as a "magus."

No idea where this is going, but I'm keeping my eyes open.

The red and blue jackals and the Winter Triangle

Over at The Magician's Table, I discuss the possibility that the two jackals on the Moon card are Sirius and Procyon (or possibly the modern Blue Sirius and the ancient Red Sirius), and that the "moon" itself is Betelgeuse.

The New Orleans Saint

Yesterday I received this email:

Here's a synchronicity that Wm may appreciate.  Yesterday, I saw a sign on someone's lawn that said "We love our saint" with a fleur de lys underneath it.  I don't know what the people who put up the sign meant by it, but there is definitely a connection to St. Joan. 

Trying to guess what it could have meant, I replied,

Could it have been plural, Saints? The Saints football team has a fleur-de-lys as their logo.

I know and care nothing about football and have never lived anywhere near New Orleans, and this was probably the first time in my life I have ever had occasion to refer to that team.

The next day, today, I listened to the latest episode of The Higherside Chats, "The Psyop circus, para-geopolitics, and signs of the times." Near the end, the host, Greg Carlwood, briefly mentioned that the Los Angeles Rams, whose colors are blue and yellow, won the Super Bowl on February 14, 2022, and just 10 days later those colors were suddenly everywhere. He said that he thought the Super Bowl was probably rigged and was used to send messages like that -- for instance, if he remembered correctly, the New Orleans Saints had won the Super Bowl just before Hurricane Katrina.

He hadn't remembered correctly. The Saints' only Super Bowl win to date was in 2010, five years after Katrina. So, a completely random reference to the New Orleans Saints just a day after I received that email. The synchronicity fairies are apparently trying to get my attention.

The pairing of the fleur-de-lys with the word saint is not directly connected to Saint Joan, the Maid of Old Orleans. The team takes its name from the song "When the Saints Go Marching In," and the fleur-de-lys has long been used as a symbol of New Orleans because of its French heritage.

Surely as you put it on this earth, my friends, it's gonna fall

For the past several weeks, I've been listening to the 1967 Grass Roots song "Let's Live For Today" -- moved, I guess, by the same counterintuitive "nostalgia for a more wholesome time" that had me listening to "The Bad Touch" on repeat about a year ago (as described here). A message of vapid nihilism, yes, but still a healthier sort of vapid nihilism than the 2020s variety.

I've also recently taken an interest in the astronomical and mythological theories of David Talbott -- an interest which developed out of my recent posts about the Tower card of the Tarot de Marseille. Having watched the three episodes of "Symbols of an Alien Sky" on YouTube, I checked the Thunderbolts Project channel for more in the same vein and found "Remembering the End of the World." As I was watching, I scrolled down in the comments a bit and found -- bizarrely! -- that someone had left a comment with an extensive quote from the lyrics of "Let's Live For Today."

It's a completely incongruous thing to post on this sort of video, and it coincided with my own recent interest in the song -- an interest that started before, and had absolutely nothing to do with, my interest in David Talbott. Intrigued by the coincidence, I searched the Web for more information about the song, and what came up was a list of tracks on the album "Let's Live For Today." I know nothing of the Grass Roots except that one song, so this was all new to me. The last song on the album caught my eye: "House of Stone." I looked up the lyrics.

You can build your house of brick

You can build your house of stone

But surely as you put it on

This earth my friend

Just as likely it'll fall on down

And you can build it high as a mountain

Oh, you can build it thick as a wall

But surely as you put it on

This earth my friends it's gonna fall

Did I mention that I first started watching David Talbott videos because of a comment someone left on one my posts about this image?