Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit: What did the Dormouse say?

White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane, is probably too-obvious a tie in to all of this, given that the song references both Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.  Stories and symbols from those stories have shown up here, as well as over on William Tychonievich's blog.

This includes, of course, the White Rabbit - a character I have associated with the Being who once played Faramir.

Anyway, this morning I got the idea to look up if there is a music video for Jefferson Airplane's song.  There is an old one back from the 60's when the song was written (apparently under copious LSD usage).  But the band released a lyric video in December 2021, and I watched that.

Here it is:

The most striking scene to me was at about the 0:40 mark when the Sun became something that looks at first like our eclipse symbol - a black circle surrounded by a gold ring, in this case.  The eclipse, however, and thus the sun, transform into a Black Hole.  Rather than sucking things into it like a normal Black Hole, though, this hole has things fall out of it:  pills, books, and some Greek columns.

The events in the lyric video are all preceded by the opening of a book.  This book carries the symbol of the White Rabbit on its cover, which when opened, floods the room with light and then draws us in to the rest of the video and the song lyrics.   Similarly, the video ends as the White Rabbit runs and jumps into what appears to be that same book.

Given the symbolism of the White Rabbit in my own story here on this blog and the association with Faramir, I wasn't surprised to see the book represented this way.  I have suggested that Faramir is the seer that is mentioned by Lehi, and prophesied by Joseph of Egypt.  This seer will write some things which will be pretty important, and will be (I think) a combination of things he receives from Eowyn through the Anor and Ithil Stone link (the Book of the Lamb/ Deseret's Book), and what is received from the Sawtooth Stone (which I think should have Joseph's own writings on it).  The depiction of pills (medicine in this case maybe, not psychedelics), books, and 'history' (as represented by the columns) falling out of the black-hole-sun I think is symbolic of the stories that Eowyn will share.

Feed your head and what the Dormouse said

For the first time ever in listening to this song, I was drawn to the last words and what those might mean.  Grace Slick concludes the song by singing:

Remember what the dormouse said

Feed your head

Feed your head

While it is easy to interpret that phrase as suggesting that the Dormouse said "Feed your head", and that this is what we are to remember, the fact is that the Dormouse nevers says this in the books.

After doing a little digging around on this topic and reading some interesting points of view from other writers, I think the injunction to remember what the Dormouse said is likely a reference to the trial in Chapter 11 of Alice in Wonderland.  In that trial, the Hatter is called as a witness and has this exchange with the King:

“I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, “—and I hadn’t begun my tea—not above a week or so—and what with the bread-and-butter getting so thin—and the twinkling of the tea—”

“The twinkling of the what?” said the King.

“It began with the tea,” the Hatter replied.

“Of course twinkling begins with a T!” said the King sharply. “Do you take me for a dunce? Go on!”

“I’m a poor man,” the Hatter went on, “and most things twinkled after that—only the March Hare said—”

“I didn’t!” the March Hare interrupted in a great hurry.

“You did!” said the Hatter.

“I deny it!” said the March Hare.

“He denies it,” said the King: “leave out that part.”

“Well, at any rate, the Dormouse said—” the Hatter went on, looking anxiously round to see if he would deny it too: but the Dormouse denied nothing, being fast asleep.

“After that,” continued the Hatter, “I cut some more bread-and-butter—”

“But what did the Dormouse say?” one of the jury asked.

“That I can’t remember,” said the Hatter.

“You must remember,” remarked the King, “or I’ll have you executed.”

The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went down on one knee. “I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” he began.

“You’re a very poor speaker,” said the King.

Thus, it is the Hatter that cannot remember what the Dormouse said, or at least does not want to put it out on official record or reveal what was said.

In this light, we understand that the Dormouse may have said something important, but it has been forgotten or concealed.  Thus, the closing line of the song White Rabbit - "feed your head" - is not a quote of what the dormouse said, but perhaps a request by the singer to attempt to remember what was said.  To feed one's head might be something like to learn or seek after knowledge, or something like this.

We actually, as readers of the book, have the ability to go back and see what the Dormouse did say (or at least what Carroll wrote that he said - who knows, maybe something was left out).  The Dormouse speaks in Chapter 7, The Mad-Tea Party.  He shares a story that is mostly viewed as non-sensical.  Part of the confusion, however, is that Alice assumes that the Dormouse means "to pull" when he says the word "draw" (in this instance, drawing something from a well), when the Dormouse means "to sketch".  His story becomes slightly more understandable, if still a little fanciful, when one understands the true meaning of the word he is using.

A similar confusion happened in the excerpt above between the King and the Hatter, with the latter referring to this same Tea Party by saying "Tea", and the King thinking that he was saying "T", as in the letter.

Anyway, the crazy story of the Dormouse is that some sisters were sitting in a well and they were drawing (sketching) things.  At first we are told they drew "Treacle" (because they were in a treacle well) and then more specifically we are told that they drew things that started with M, and then given examples such as mouse-traps, the moon, memory, and 'muchness'.

And because I am finding stories in many things at the moment, here is my take on the relevance of what the Dormouse said (and why one would want to remember it).

In looking up 'treacle' on Etymonline (I didn't know what the word meant at all), I learned it is an antidote for poison.  Specifically, it is from the French 'triacle', which means "anti-dote, cure for snake-bite".

Well, this stood out to me because I have been working through things with respect to one Snake in particular:  Saruman.  Further, I have suggested that Saruman is the current Satan of this world, and has poisoned, well, all of us, quite frankly.

But here the Dormouse is talking about sisters who are drawing an antidote or a cure for the Snake.

This cure or treacle is based on drawing things that begin with an "M".  he actually never says 'letter' specifically here, I don’t think, and I will play the King and Hatter's game on this one, and say when the Dormouse says M, he really means "Em" (or at least can mean Em and M) and that this is an Elvish word.  That word means "Mother".  

I have written that the Family of Light, which is now mostly here on this world and completely under the poison of the Snake, all rolls up to Asenath and Eowyn, the two mothers of Light.  Thus, when the Dormouse says that these sisters are drawing things that begin with "Em", I think he is referencing these Mothers, and that the drawing, in this case, may well be a double meaning after all.  The Family being 'drawn' or pulled up back to their Family, and specifically the Mothers of that House.

There are 3 sisters mentioned in the story, and the Dormouse says that these sisters are 'well-in' the well.  At the bottom of it.  I had suggested that at least one of the Daughters of Asenath is here now as a mortal.  This could be an indication that there are at least two others that also joined her in some capacity.  I don't know - not everything has to mean something, or be so exact in that way.  3 is a symbolic number of lots of things, so just throwing that out there as more just a thought.

In any case, we have an 'Em' but we also have the specific words the Dormouse gives us that actually do start with the letter M, as part of this whole play on words.

Each of the 4 items he has mentioned have come up here on this blog (they aren't uncommon items, I guess, so that shouldn't mean necessarily much at all).  If we bucket mice and rats together as a group of rodents, I have written about mouse-traps (or the fact that Rats have stepped into a trap here on this world).   "Moon" has come up too many times to mention in various forms, but here specifically, I think, as the Ithil Stone.  And memories - regaining both stories and names - has been a big theme of this story.

Lastly, the concept of 'muchness', I think, is imagined in Xanadu, or what will come about as a result of all all this.

So, in the Dormouse's story, we have a neat little progression.  The mice/rats/ rodents are trapped, the Ithil Stone brings knowledge and memories to the Family of Light (current and future members), and they are given "muchness", which includes an escape from the trap the rodents are stuck in.

That is at least one thing that the Dormouse may have said, again just thinking imaginatively on this whole thing.

As one additional note, Jefferson Airplane has an interesting meaning in light of all of this.  Jefferson means 'son of Jeffery".  Jeffery is a name that means "God's Peace" (and also other things like peaceful pledge, traveller, etc.).  So, you can imagine the name meaning something like "Airplane to God's Peace".  I have suggested that "Peace" is an actual place, in addition to a state of Being, with that place being Tirion, which is up in the sky somewhere, and so this name game seemed interesting and relevant.