Keys as Cars: Stones as a means of transportation and the healing of the Anor Stone in Ithilien [correction: Ithil Stone]

 

[12/1/2023 NOTE/ UPDATE:  I have changed my opinion on the identity of the stone below.  It was a tough call originally, but I leaned toward the Anor Stone and explored that storyline.  I wrote a new post on Eowyn's ascension to Valinor, and determined that the Ithil Stone is the more likely candidate for the identity of the specific stone seen in this dream.  Could be wrong, and I waffle between the two, but the Ithil Stone makes the most sense currently.

See that post here:  "The ascension of Eowyn:  Using the Ithil Stone"

The other storyline involving the Anor Stone could still be true - likely would need to be in order to be used by Lehi and others - but that is not necessarily represented in this dream.

The overall storyline of stones as means of transportation obviously still very much holds.]

I've noticed I've repeated the phrase 'it took me awhile to figure out...' a few times, sometimes sounding like the figuring out is all in the past and done.  Or, that somehow I have now nailed THE correct way of thinking on things.  This isn't the case, and I hope I have also equally stressed that I don't know, and don't think anyone will, until we have 'tools' provided to allow us to just that:  to know (Stones being one of those tools).

So, when I write that phrase, it is more me saying that a puzzle piece, language, or story element wasn't clear or didn't seem to fit, but now it seems that it might (but can always be subject to revision if I come across new information or a way of thinking).

In any case, I write that preamble because I am going to use that phrase again here.

It took me awhile to figure out that cars were symbolic or had something to do with Stones in my dreams.  They were and are prevalent, and I wasn't sure why.

And not even in my dreams, but also in other connections.  In my post where I summarized a story of Asenath defeating the Balrog in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho , I ended with the song "Good Times Roll".  This is the song I associated with the recovery of the Sawtooth Stone.  You will notice that the band that sings this song is The Cars.

And, of course, there is the cover art for the song "Lonely Boy", by the Black Keys, that I started this post with.  You have mention of the keys, obviously (Stones as Keys), El Camino (the Way), and an old-school car as the image (these stones are old, after all).  The Way (a Strait and Narrow Road - the Straight Road) and Keys (black currently, but perhaps to be made shiny/ white?) that will act as the mode of transportation that allows access and travel along that Road, I think.

I won't mention all of my car/ Stone dreams here but rather focus on one fairly recent one and discuss my guesses as to what it is saying about the story.  

In this dream, I was in something like a natural scene, with grass, rolling hills, trees, etc.  It felt like a very peaceful place.  I say 'something like' because in my recollection it also had this 'indoors' feel that is hard to describe - a weird artifact of dreamscapes, I think.

I was with a girl I dated in college, and we were looking at a car that was sitting in front of us.  I don't remember exactly how that car got there, but it was new to us, meaning recently acquired or found, but it was not new.   It was a used car with a history.

My girlfriend was in the process of telling me (and I think there were others with us) that she would not be using this car.  She was very emphatic on this point, and in fact she wanted to be rid of the whole thing.  The issue was, apparently, that its previous user had been a smoker.  This history and the fact that the smoke smell still lingered in and around the vehicle made this car unusable in her view.  I also got the sense that the previous owner was known, and she didn't have positive feelings.

She turned her back to the car and was done with it.  As she was saying all of this, however, I got into the car myself behind the steering wheel.  I put my hands on the steering wheel and, despite everything she was saying, as I sat there looking around, I thought "Yes, but I think we can still use this", and I began to tinker with it and explore the immediate area around me in the car.  It was in the process of doing this that I woke up.

Again, based on other things related to cars and stones, when I woke up my thoughts went to the car as a stone fairly quickly (everything looks like a nail to a hammer, I guess).  But what was the meaning?  

I formulated 3 different options, each as equally likely at first to me and each pointing to a different Stone.  These options all centered around the 'smoker' clue.  The options were:

1. The Anor Stone.  In this scenario, the 'smoker' and previous user was Denethor.  He lit himself on fire (after trying to also burn Faramir) and burned to death while holding the Anor Stone.  He thus, in a macabre type of humor, became himself literally a smoker.
2. The Ithil Stone.  Here we have Sauron as the smoker and previous user.  Sauron's smoking would have been a bit further back in time, when he burned the White Tree Nimloth on Numenor and created the reek or smoke that covered that island for quite some time.  Different than Denethor, Sauron caused something to smoke, instead of himself 'smoking'.
3. Pharazon's Stone.  I've had this notion going all the way back to 2019 that Pharazon must have had a stone also that is not currently accounted for among the Palantiri of Numenor.  I don't think it is this one (if there was one in fact), so I won't go into more detail here, but will perhaps do a post on this whole concept of Pharazon's Stone at some point.

So, I started with 3, and then quickly narrowed it to two, dismissing this unnamed/ unknown Pharazon's Stone.  If he did have one in his assault on Eressea and Aman, it would have been lost, I think, in those events.

That left the Anor and Ithil Stones, and I still kind of vacillate between these two, much like I do with a lot of different options for things.  Each has something going for it, and in some ways it doesn't matter as much overall, but in some ways does in trying to put together a story that makes sense.

In that light - in trying to have a cohesive story that makes sense (if you call all of this making sense...) - I have landed on the Anor Stone for now as the best fit for the story, and I think it is its use as the Liahona in Lehi's exodus to the Promised Land that tipped it for me.

As mentioned above when I summarized the options, the Anor Stone burned with Denethor on his pyre and was said to be marred in some fashion as a result.  The marring took the form of Denethor's burning hands being visible to any who would look into the stone unless they exhibited significant will in turning the stone's vision to another purpose.   This is mentioned in the LOTR in the "Pyre of Denethor" as follows:

Casting the pieces into the blaze [Denethor] bowed and laid himself on the table, clasping the palantír with both hands upon his breast. And it was said that ever after, if any man looked in that Stone, unless he had a great strength of will to turn it to other purpose, he saw only two aged hands withering in flame.

So, we have a damaged stone in the aftermath of the LOTR.

My thought is that my dream was meant to represent Eowyn and Faramir coming into some kind of stewardship or ownership of the Stone.  We don't know much of their story in the events immediately after the conclusion of the LOTR.  We know they settled in Ithilien, and according to Sam in a conversation with daughter Elanor found in Tolkien's draft writings compiled by Christopher, Eowyn became the White Lady living in a White House.  Faramir, as Aragorn did state in LOTR, would have retained his office of Steward under Aragorn and become the prince of Ithilien.

It was in this office of Steward that Faramir may have retained some kind of role in the oversight and stewardship of the Anor Stone.  Here again is that description of the Anor Stone being the Liahona as spoken by the Couriers (at least as I have interpreted it in my story):

Those of us who delivered that ball-instrument to Lehi's family;

a compass, yet not wholly so, sufficient to lead one across seas to lands promised.

A palantir it was - a globe of crystal, metallic-seeming royal ancient sunlight beaming

<asguiliant>

Singing songs of heroes bold, yet some songs remain untold

Resonant it was, echoing thought commissary needful for instruction, eggs bearing

[Hodnil]

to learn from who irradescent, a welding link, hands made sickly stewards reward

[Gildor]

 

I think at least one meaning of the last line regarding a 'steward's reward' might have to do with the Anor Stone being given as a gift or something to look after.  Aragorn-John would have been the one who would have given or continued that charge with Faramir.  Further, the gift or bestowal might not have been limited to Faramir alone, but also something usable by other 'stewards' (recall that I have Lehi as being Denethor himself reborn, and perhaps still retaining some commission as a steward).  Joseph of Egypt (Numenor) was also a steward of his own sort, and thus his having potentially recently received the stone as part of his rescue also seems to follow this pattern of stewards being gifted the Anor Stone.

However, to make all of that possible - Lehi and Nephi using the Stone to cross the Many Waters in their day, and Joseph recently doing likewise in our day (early 2020), the Anor Stone would have needed to be healed.  It is for this reason, likely, that Aragorn gave the Anor Stone as a gift to Faramir and Eowyn, in the hope and expectation that the Stone could be healed.

The healing would have been necessary in order for Lehi and Nephi to use it in the future as the Liahona.  In fact, given that Lehi was Denethor, all traces of that ugly event would have needed to be removed or at least become inaccessible to Lehi.  Otherwise, it would have been not only unusable to Lehi at best, but at worst, been extremely damaging to him in bringing those events to mind in any way.

Therefore, in order to be able to explain Lehi-Denethor's ability to use the Anor Stone without seeing his own burning hands in that Stone, it would have been healed, and I now believe that this would have been done by Faramir, or at least begun by him, during his time in Ithilien.  

In fact, beyond just healing the Stone, there is a possibility that he began to put it to use as something other than or in addition to a seeing-stone, a gift that actually could be used in forms of transportation or journeys to other worlds.  This would explain the dream of Faramir and Eowyn's reactions to the Stone, and Faramir viewing it and experiencing it as a car.

That possibility is interesting to me, because as I have also alluded to elsewhere, I believe the character of Faramir is also known as Enoch.  We don't know much about Enoch, and what we do have or know, including what we read in Joseph Smith's Peal of Great Price (specifically, the Book of Moses) is likely already pretty confounded.

It does seem that there was a 'city' that Enoch built and that at one time this was carried up to heaven.  Why could Ithilien not have become this place, and Faramir and Eowyn's use and of the Anor Stone (and likely the Ithil Stone once recovered from the ruins of Baradur) not become a key factor in enabling this to happen.  In my story, the Stones create a means for individuals and people to travel to another world, and it seems internally consistent to imagine that they might have also been used in the raising of Enoch and his people to Heaven.

We know Elves such as Legolas came to stay in Ithilien and transform it into something likely very remarkable.  We also know that Legolas and the other Eldar who settled there would have eventually departed for Home.  Tradition within Tolkien's writings has them still taking ships aboard Cirdan's ships until the Last Ship sailed.  This could be, but perhaps their departure involved something with these Stones.  Or, perhaps as the Eldar took the ships that were prepared for them, other Men were able to depart through means of the Stone.  All possibilities, but this notion of the Anor Stone being both accessible and used during this post-LOTR period in Ithilien opens up these other types of narratives.

As part of this work on the Anor Stone, something must have been enhanced or unlocked that allowed it to connect, both as a seeing-stone as well as help in transportation, across such a vast distance as would be required for Earth and Heaven.  Tradition of the Palantiri has such 'minor' or small stones as the Anor, Ithil, and Orthanc Stones as not having the same reach or range as the other larger, more massive Stones.  So there might be some additional details forthcoming as to just what, if anything, was done to make this possible.

One other point:

My guess is, based on all of this and where my mind has gone relative to the Anor Stone and Faramir's possession of it (and the potential that he, Eowyn, and others might have actually departed from Middle Earth through means other than death), that it would have also been Faramir that gave the Anor Stone away to Lehi (his own past-father Denethor) as the gift that would remain with the Lehites at least until Alma's son Helaman, after which I think we lose specific mention of its fate.

Faramir would have specifically commissioned the Couriers (Hodnil and Gildor) to leave it outside Lehi's tent.  These same Couriers seem to have delivered the Sawtooth Stone to Tom Bombadil's House, and perhaps they will also be involved in returning the Anor Stone along with the Sawtooth Stone to Faramir.

This story I have painted above, with Faramir's work with the Anor Stone, might help solve a little more of the riddle as to his involvement with that Stone and the Sawtooth Stone in the future.  It is not just because he had a hand in burying or hiding that Sawtooth Stone, but also due to his work on taking that Anor Stone and restoring it as means of following the Straight path home.  This all falls under what the Book of Mormon calls restoration, where Good deeds done are returned to those who did them, even if many lives and even ages later.

As Alma the Younger (Tom Petty-Elrond) explained to one of his sons in Alma 41:

. . . the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.

Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.

For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all.

So, Faramir, similar to the Brother of Jared and others in this story, did a good deed or work a time long ago, and perhaps it will be restored to him again.

Lastly, this story of the Anor Stone's healing by Faramir in Ithilien, and the implications surrounding it, might also help us resolve Gandalf's choice in Minas Tirith, and why saving Faramir's life, even as Gandalf was needed on the the Pelennor Fields, was important.