Azilio, Zombies, and Holy Places

 OK, so actually relatively busy morning with thoughts.

Alizio vs. Azilio

I noticed in my previous post that I had misplaced the l and z in the name of William Alizio, from William Tychonievich's story, spelling it rather "Azilio".  I noticed it this morning, and thought I would look into it.  I had gone through the exercise of seeing if the original "Alizio" was an Elvish word hiding a couple days ago(I tend to check names in stories this way now after a few past promising results), and it seemed like it might be, but wasn't sure.  However, now spelled as "Azilio" I was almost positive this looked like an Elvish word.

My first search in Eldamo didn't really provide me with much, but I did go to a Kindle version of the "Words of the Faithful" that is still there (I had burned the physical copy), and found that word exactly two times spelled like that.

In both instances, the word is given in context of a place.  The first time a 'meeting place' is discussed between Izilba (Eowyn-Ilmare) and another woman, via stone communication.  The second time is likewise between these same two women, and now references Eressea specifically.  In both instances, people are referred to as being gathered, drawn to, or headed to these places, and the communication about this is via a crystal or stone.

I don't know the exact interpretation of "Azilio" specifically, and suspect the full meaning(s) might not be fully known by the translator either, so will leave it at that for now - that it was in the context of places and people going toward them.

Tun against old zombie

In addition to having the Azilio/ Alizio swap investigation, I woke up with a very curious phrase on my mind.  "Tun against old zombie" was the phrase, it was partly thought and partly visual, because I knew the spelling of 'tun' was without an 'e', even though I knew or 'heard' it pronounced like 'tune', as for a song.

I looked up 'tun' on Eldamo, and realized I probably should have already known what it meant.  Tun is another form of the name for Hill City, or Tuna, the city of the High Elves who live in Valinor/ Aman.  I referenced this place in my "Gordon Kor" post, where I noticed that Kor is also another name for Tuna/Tun (see that post here)

So, interesting so far.  

Tun/ Kor is also one of the two places that I have identified as Holy Places, to which people will be gathered and not be moved.  The other is Asenath's home, just off Eressea (a place that she possibly calls 'little Eressea').  These are the Two Towers of Good perhaps, or will be, in contrast to Saruman's and Sauron's Two Towers of Evil.  Whereas evil beings gathered to and were sent from those towers in an earlier age, I view the opposite happening in a future time, where good Beings are gathered to one of these two towers/forts/refuges, and then later sent out from them in victory.

So, we have a slight tie in with the Azilio transposing error, in which gathering places are mentioned in conjunction with the word azilio, and 'Tun' is a place that, in my current understanding, is one of the future gathering places.  Both the error and the phrase were realized and heard in the same morning.

But what about 'old zombie'?

This gets interesting, as I think there are at least two layers of meaning here.  The first seems pretty straightforward, and is actually a direct (as direct as these seem to be) answer to a question that has been on my mind since the emergence of Saruman in my topics here, and of Tim in William Tychonievich's writings.  The second is a bit more fuzzy to me, but there seems to be enough there to mention a few things.  I just can't promise to package it up in a neat story.

So, the first thing.

Zombies of today's definition are portrayed as basically re-animated corpses - the walking dead, essentially.  This was not always so, and a brief look at earlier uses of the word on Etymonline yielded this:

also zombi, jumbie, 1788, possibly representing two separate words, one relating to the dead and the other to authority figures, but if so historically these were not kept distinct in English-speaking usage. The oldest attested sense in English is "'spirits of dead wicked men [...] that torment the living.'" The sense of "reanimated corpse" is by 1929 (Seabrook).

OK, so at some time in the past, the most common usage of zombie was the about evil spirits who torment the living.  I tend to go with the more archaic usage of words in many of these research attempts, because for some reason those definition tend to turn out to be what was meant by whoever dropped the phrase into my mind.  Don't ask me why.  

In this case, then, we have 'old zombie' simply refer to an old evil spirit that torments the living.  Based on my own experience, this sounds about right for Saruman.  Pretty clear definition.

This is important, because in the last couple days I have been debating on storylines for Saruman.  If it does turn out that Tim is Saruman (we don't know this for sure, but even William seems to think, based on his experiences, it is not necessarily unlikely), then I was confused about a few things.  Why did he show up in blue - how was that possible?  I remembered that Gandalf had stripped him of all color, so why is he now showing up in blue, if there is any significance.

I remembered that my friend/ words-partners had told me that Saruman had a path to redemption, and a way to get back to Eressea, that started with leaving my mind alone and releasing me from whatever mind-lock was going on.  I then wondered if maybe there was something to it - that Saruman was now acting on behalf of the Good Guys, or at least not actively working against them.

So, I started working out storylines with this possibility.  However, this seems to fly in the face of the imagery I used to illustrate story elements from the "Iron" video from Woodkid.  The character in that video, who I analogize as Saruman, was definitely not good, and seemed to meet a fiery end (off camera).  How does that fit in?  So, as late as last night, I was working through this and exploring a way that Saruman is actually working on behalf of good or at least aligning interests.  It became the dominating question in my mind - how do I think of Saruman?

I think the phrase this morning was meant to answer that.  Tun (both the place and the people there, which I believe include Eowyn-Ilmare) are against the old zombie that is Saruman.  So, I am not going to waste any more time coming up with a redemptive story for him.  If Heaven itself is against Saruman, then that is what I will be also.  

Simple, and I feel some sort of relief at not having to figure it out.  I am not sure what that means for 'syncs'. tie-ins, connections, etc., and how to treat that, however, but I actually am not sure it is important to figure out.  I just need to know that I don't need to listen to Saruman and he is a liar.  In fact, when he appeared to William and took credit for 'drawing' his attention toward things, it may well be that he is lying.  We can't trust anything he says.  That ability might be beyond his power, and he can only try to falsely claim credit for it.  It's a possibility, at least.  In that story, then, my callout on the fingerprints of Saruman may not be correct, and I am only repeating the lie through my writing.  I heard of Tim's appearance, believed what he said, looked through my words to find evidence for his lie, and of course found it.  But it might not be so, and Tim and the messages he is trying to take credit for are two completely different things.  Or, that everything is confounded with Tim, and there isn't one clear way to get past that (this seems the likeliest to me, honestly).

Which brings me to his Blue Clothing.  That might be a lie, also.  I sort of assumed that he couldn't appear in a color that he didn't have, but then I remembered that Joseph recounted how the devil (Saruman) appeared to him as an angel of light before Michael let Joseph know what was up.  If he could appear like that, then I think donning some blue clothing or appearance to try and make him seem like something he is not would be a simple thing.

In summary, I have resolved that Saruman is not good, but am unsure, in practice, what that means in terms of where and how he is involved, though this might be answered in the second clue about Zombie, which I found by wondering why use the word 'zombie' in the phrase?  Seems overly complicated or clunky if there isn't another reason to include it.

"Zombie" is also the name of a well known song by the Cranberries.  It was written during The Troubles (this is an interesting tie that I will cover in just a second) as an anti-terrorism song in response to the deaths of two children by an IRA bomb.

I have never actually liked this song going back to my high school days, because the 'zombie' chorus just sounds like nails on a chalkboard in my head - perhaps that was the desired effect, though.  In any case, that chorus goes:

In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What's in your head, in your head?
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie-ie, oh

So, what is in our heads?  A zombie.  What zombie?  Saruman.

This fits with the point I made in referring to the LDS temple drama where Adam and Eve are never able to be rid of Satan.  They pray, he is there.  They walk around, he is there.  They just linger (another Cranberries song, I realized, as I typed that), and he is there.  Inescapable.  That is, until True Messengers show up and finally dismiss him.

I believe what makes this Being inescapable in our current condition, is exactly what that song chorus says - he is in our heads, more or less to some extent.  And by 'he' I guess this could mean the Being himself or those who work with him.

It's funny - I was so concerned about Omar-Brigham, that I took my eye off of Saruman in this tale, and that was probably an oversight, I guess.  Maybe even an oversight brought on by Saruman.

So, the depressing fact is that we won't be completely rid of this Being - Satan - not totally at least.  Maybe that is why he doesn't mind being identified.  He isn't going anywhere.

But the good news is that the Good Guys haven't left us either, and until a Stone shows up that cuts through all of the lies and darkness, there must be ways to still listen to them and hear their voices, either clearly on their own at rare times or likely filtered through the darkness surrounding our world, including the mind of Saruman.

Anyway, that got a bit dark.  I am sorry.  I actually don't feel hopeless writing that - rather, the opposite.  In naming the game at least we know what we are up against, and for some reason I am not too worried about him at the moment, though I realize if this story is believable (and I am still thinking through it and seeing where it goes) that caution is obviously required in any thinking.  We can hear the Good Guys, I believe, but we must be aware that we can't take anything at face value and 'listen' as best we can to a good voice if we can find one.

I mentioned "The Troubles" as an interesting link to the "Zombies" song.  As I was looking in my notebook yesterday, I found a paragraph where I literally wrote "The Troubles", underlined.  Here is a picture of the actual paragraph:

The entry was from April 12, 2021, which is actually a fascinating one for me to go back through.  You'll note if you can see it in the picture, that at the top of the page I wrote "a link", though I am not sure why.  Below it is the last sentence from the paragraph before, and you will see the word 'gathering'.  It was in this context that I was considering things, and wrote out The Troubles.  Remember, that I started this post with an accidental writing of "Alizio", a word that I found appears exactly two times in a book, and each time is in context of a gathering or people heading to a place.  I also had the word "Tun" in my head, which at least one meaning or interpretation of points to one of these gathering places.

It was actually Holy Places that I was writing of in at least part of that April notebook entry, and I made a reference to Atlas Shrugged, a book written by Ayn Rand.  In that book, people are gathered out of society and brought to the Rocky Mountains, specifically to Colorado (which has come up in William Tychonievich's syncs, I believe).

In that part of the entry, I compared the Atlas Shrugged plot to the Family of Light (I called them family of Joseph, in the entry) being gathered out to a place of refuge.  I've typed out excerpt below (which ultimately ends with the last sentence in the top of the photographed page above):

Atlas Shrugged - Joseph's House preparing to change or create something new in response to a failing or deteriorating world.

The Holy Places being those areas of refuge for all to escape - evacuation - the mess?  Calves led up to the stall.

I wonder if it gets better for a little bit and then worse?  No, I don't think so.  We've crossed the Rubicon and things will continue to deteriorate in different ways.  Global conflict will at some point ensue, but need to be delayed or not significant enough in order for a gathering to occur first.

OK, so all of that sound pretty apocalyptical, and you have to remember that this is 2021 and I am still a bit of a mess in many ways.  The other thing to remember that by this time, my writing is almost definitely confounded.  It would be about a month later when I would put a moratorium on all writing until I figured things out, after which Mrs. Baal-ox was suggested to have been involved in my writing.  So, everything in that entry, or just some things, might be complete B.S.  It's more than likely.

In the paragraph I included you might see that I mention a dream I had about unrest and escaping it (if you can read my writing).  I will briefly give that dream here, as I do feel that to be legitimate, and then close this post out and think a bit more (and get back to work).

In the dream, I was standing on something like a train station platform.  It was relatively calm on the platform itself, as I was the only one standing there, but in front and above me was a large TV, and on the TV was a disturbing site of fairly significant unrest.  I remember an image of a man looking at the camera (and thus me through the TV) while holding up a knife and screaming.

I looked to my left, and there was something like a rollercoaster that led out from the platform up and away out of my vision.  It had a car attached to it like you would find on an actual roller coaster - with maybe room for 8-10 people.  Sitting in the car were what looked like older people, who were dressed like they were going to church, perhaps.  Meaning, nicely dressed but not in an expensive way.  The car was not full, and it looked like it was the last one leaving.  They were calm in the car, and were a visual counter or opposite to the mayhem on the TV.  The car took off up the tracks and away, and I remember feeling some relief that they got away.

My vision, however, was drawn to a door back to the right of the platform.  I went over to it, and opened it, but saw that on the other side was stairs leading down into the darkness.  I thought with some concern about when are 'they' coming up (not knowing or remembering who 'they' were), and then woke up.

Anyway, here is that Zombie video.  Interestingly, there is an 'old' and 'new' Zombie when it comes to the song, in a way.  A band called Bad Wolves recorded a song as a tribute to O'Riordan after her death, and adjusted the lyrics, creating a 'new' Zombie.  In their new version they replaced the original mention of '1916' in one of the verses, which referenced the Easter Day Irish revolt against Britain.  That day was called "Easter Rising"... perhaps a hidden meaning or reference to the Resurrection?  In O'Riordan's video, it does feature her standing (as a gold-clad Being) with children around an empty cross.