The Smoothing of the 96 to go Home

In an interesting but very short dream from the night before last, I found myself standing in the kitchen/ dining room area of my house.

I was engaged in a conversation with my wife.  We had been talking about something important, though I don't remember what it was, as I had the sensation of joining the conversation or realizing where I was with everything in-progress.

My wife was looking at me, and said, "I just think people are a little uncomfortable with the idea of you going around forgiving sins."

I considered what she was saying, and there was a bit of a pause as I thought through things.  I eventually responded, "Well, it's an idea I think they are just going to have to get more comfortable with.".  And then the dream scene faded.

What God hath cleansed

Later in the day, I thought that maybe the dream had to do with a recent post I had written titled "What shall we do with the drunken Railer?  You forgive him and welcome him home."

In that post, I must now confess, I was speaking to the Beings I assumed had inserted some of their words, questions, and thoughts into William Tychonievich's blog.  Honestly.  I thought I heard their voices in those words, and I gave my own views on it, for whatever that is worth.

They had first asked a question in William's post "Come buy, come buy," was still their cry it relates to why did the Numenoreans come and do what they did.  My answer is because they were sick.

I actually keyed in on the title of another post by William simply titled "With?".  No matter what William intended that use for, when I read it I understood it as asking whether Pharazon, specifically, was with or on the side of Good.  My response was yes.

Further, based on my understanding that the Numenoreans were 'sick' (the "ailers") and that Pharazon is on the side of Good, I gave my view that both he and they ought to be forgiven and welcomed home.  I then further used a well-known quote from Acts in the Bible, having to do with Peter's dream of the unclean animals (Peter being chosen intentionally given my thoughts on Pharazon), to express my opinion that, as far as God was concerned, Pharazon and these Fathers-born-as-Numenoreans were already forgiven.

As I thought through my dream, this seemed to be the clearest example of what she might have been talking about.  It might in fact be an uncomfortable idea or notion to forgive these Beings who did, in fact, do horrible things.  But I personally feel that this is the way, and part of that is based on the belief that we do not know the full and complete story for how and why those Beings were placed in that position, or placed themselves in that position.

Though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool, when all is said and done.

Smoothing a path home for once sick but now cleansed Fathers

Interestingly, this line of thinking helped me make a bit more sense of some words I had shared from the Fall of 2022.  In my post "Alpha and Omega, and the 144 or gross", I shared these words (which also tie to my wife and potentially then also this recent dream conversation with her since I these words came on her birthday):

October 10

Jan eh [Jah ni?] sola gross determino ascertain to come back 

Stone - there is so much hurray about Jesus Christ

Pas gar 96 

In that post, I shared that the first line likely has to do with a Being named Jah-ni hah, and would go something like:

Jah-ni hah [Faramir-Eonwe] only 144 to define/mark/conclude ascertain to come back

The 144 mentioned are the 'Fathers' of the Elves.  The first Elves who awoke at Cuivienen.  The implication of the first statement is that these Fathers are not currently wherever it is that they would come back to, and that Jah-ni hah alone has the power to approve their return to that place.  This is because he was been endowed with redemptive powers for that House, in line with Joseph Smith's definitions for that name in his Alphabet and Grammar of the Egyptian Language.

These Fathers were involved in the assault on Eressea.  I highlighted that from some of Doug's drafts or writing that I shared in an earlier post.

The idea seems to be that they, as spirits, took on the bodies of Men on Numenor.  As such, they would also fall under the shadow of Sauron, and ultimately participate in the assault of Eressea and upon their own descendents.

In my view, among these Fathers-turned-Enemies was Pharazon, who would have been also the Being known as Gim-Githil, or Ingwe.  Literally, the Being who is still held to this day as the High King of the Elves was attacking his own people on Eressea.  And again, I think the full story of this comes out at some point, but not focused on what happened on Eressea (what would be the point of reliving that?), but rather why and how these Elvish Fathers chose to be on Numenor in the first place.

My mind, interestingly, goes back to our Star Trek:  Wrath of Khan analogy and the Choice of Spock, or his solution to the Kobayashi Maru

What do we think of the Father's solution?  That is what Spock asked Kirk as he lay there alone in the chamber, sick and dying.  Well, it is an impossible question to answer right now since we do not know the details of the catastrophe that these Father's hoped to avoid by taking such a terrible path.  All we have are their deeds in that assault, and they were dreadful, and many Beings suffered.  

But there is a good chance that the alternative scenario that they hoped to avoid was much worse, if you can image that (I have a hard time doing so, I admit).  Their hand forced, and standing between a rock and a hard place, perhaps this was the only way, and it was a terrible choice and path they were forced to tread.

In any case, this all takes me to the latter part of those October 10 words, that went "Pas gar 96".  In that earlier post, I guessed that perhaps this had to do with Juice (Pas in Elvish can mean Juice).  When I saw the word as a potential meaning, I jumped on it pretty quickly since this concept has come up elsewhere, and nothing else seemed as clear.

In light of recent developments, however, I think this is not quite correct.  I would now interpret this phrase as:  

Smooth to go 96

I know it doesn't seem like it initially, but this makes perfect since in light of everything else going on.  Let me explain really briefly.

In Words of the Faithful, at one point it is explained to Zhera' (Faramir-Eonwe) that approval has been gained for him and his family to go to Elvenhome, and that this was done through the "Smoothing" of a Being named Silmariel who was apparently working the back channels among the Eldar and convincing them that they ought to accept these people into their home.

Smoothing, in this case, was used in the figurative sense, as in someone smoothing over matters or making something more agreeable.  This Silmariel basically had been seeking for and gaining permission from Beings who needed to willingly consent to having these new visitors in their home.  You can't force things in Heaven, apparently.

So, in that same sense of Silmariel smoothing others over in terms of getting this permission, I view this use of smooth in the same light.  Something will smooth the path home for these first Fathers of the Elves, the 96 that first started on the journey home in the Beginning.  Interestingly, that number here, and the need for their way to be smoothed, seems to imply that all of these First Fathers were part of the Numenorean conflict (with the exception of Finwe and Thingol-Elu, and perhaps a few others, I guess).  So, they took on this burden, and the shame of it, as one united group, perhaps.

So, I had this thought to change the translation to 'smooth' yesterday, and I got a little wink this morning that this may have been the right thing to do.

Over on William's blog, he quoted a passage from the Notion Club Papers which ends with 'smooth' being used in the same figurative way I have thought through here.  He actually used the phrase to find a hidden reference to Lewis Carroll in that story, but the last line obviously jumped out at me given my having through over 'smooth' the day before.

Jeremy was an admirer of the Public-house School (as he himself had dubbed them), and soon after he became a Lecturer he gave a series of lectures with that title. Old Professor Jonathan Gow had puffed and boggled at the title; and J. had offered to change it to Lewis and Carolus, or the Oxford Looking-glass, or Jack and the Beanstalk; which did not smooth matters.