Balta Sheave

I am going to do a lot of skipping around with these May and June 2020 words over several posts just based on what is most interesting to me at the moment, so it's going to seem fragmented as I pull different threads of the story out as I see them.

I was going to write a little about what I see as Glorfindel and Gildor's stay in Salt Lake City following the Sawtooth Stone events, but then something caught my attention as I was looking into this, and now I want to get that down.

On June 23, I have a long series of seemingly random phrases from who I believe is Glorfindel at this stage.  I will include them all below, but will only focus on for this post on the section that begins with "Balta Sheave"

June 23, 2020

Iglorion avante
Vasella [followed by the LDS primary song "Search, Ponder, and Pray"]
to stand a witness of his works, writing in purple ink

when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.

Balta sheave

Father's Day: Please remember that date
salt of the earth [followed by a series of numbers: 8 16 24 20]
A strong mead of their choice
A cow that moos when its time to be milked
You want to go play with mir [then another word I missed] in the sky
Indemnify
lini pick to restore Ausir eldest

[3 name or titles are then given - I forget the first two, but the third is:] 

Lawgiver:  Good cornbread

Hui ki-coe [followed by a word that sounded like pizza, but I missed]

Love:  something everyone born-borne here to understand

OK, so Balta Sheave.

When I looked at this phrase this morning, I thought I would take another run at Balta, and see what I could find.  I found what I believe is the solution - almost certainly, actually - but it is one that wouldn't have made sense even 6 months ago since we wouldn't have gone down this Peter-Marsh-Swampy theme yet.  However, in light of all that, it seems like a clever word game, and yet another code name for a character.

You could try and have Balta be an Elvish word, and it might work out to something that had to do with 'might, power', or something like that.  That definitely could work.

But I was feeling creative, so I did my usual sweep with names and looked up the word to see if I could find some additional meanings. 

It turns out that Balta likely has a few different meanings I think are fairly relevant to our story.

First, Balta is the short name for one of the three traditional Kings who visited and witnessed the birth of Jesus in the standard nativity (You know "We three kings, or orient are...").  The Kings' names are Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar, according to tradition.  Balta is commonly used (apparently) as an abbreviation or diminutive for Balthazar.  Interestingly, and you may see where I am going with this as I step into this next part, Balthazar is typically the King that is represented as being Black.

We have been discussing Three Kings in our story here in relation to Witnesses who travelled back to Aman in order to then help gather their people back there.  Those are the Kings or Chiefs of the Elves of the Cuivienen:  Thingol, Finwe, and Gim Githil-Ingwe.  That is what I thought of, at least, as I realized that Balta was Balthazar, one of the three kings.

So, this got my mind already going down this path of perhaps Balta, as mentioned, is a person, and perhaps one of these three Beings.  The Black or Dark King.

I then looked for other definitions of the name, and found something pretty interesting.  The word or name is used in various languages, with many of them meaning "axe".  This could be interesting, or I was interested in looking into this, but then I noted the Romanian meaning for Balta.  

In Romanian, Balta means "marsh, swamp, or muddy pool".  

Marsh or swamp?

I had already been going to down the mental path that Balta referred to one of these three Beings, and likely Gim-Githil who, for those who were along for that ride, I have associated with Peter-Marsh, our Swampy Apostle.  So this seemed too good to be true.

The fact that this was also the meaning in Roman-ian, with Roman being a key part of that word (so not just a random language), and Peter being so closely tied to Rome, I think sealed the deal for me.  I believe the reference to Balta is a reference to Gim-Githil (who is, as of right now, also Pharazon and Peter).  The fact that Balta is also traditionally the Black King in Nativity tradition also works really well here, given everything I have gone through with Gim Githil (and frankly also things that William Tychonievich has written about on his blog)

The name is followed by "Sheave".  Sheave is associated with Wheat, in the sense that one sheaves wheat into bundles.  This analogy comes up in the scriptures with the parable of the Wheat and Tares, which Joseph Smith (importantly) flipped to ensure that it is the Wheat that is gathered out from among the Tares first, leaving the Tares and the Earth to be burned.  Here is a wheat sheaf:

Recall that this gathering is both a big part of my story here on this blog, as well as something I have guessed was currently ongoing back in 2020.  Or, more accurately, at this time 82 of these Fathers have been gathered back to Aman, and we still need to nab the other 14, who just so happen to be Gim Githil-Ingwe's group.

Thus (maybe too conveniently), I think these first two lines refer very specifically to 'sheaving', or gathering into a sheaf, the Wheat of Ingwe with this next step of the 14 Fathers.  This seems to be a good reading when that second line suggests that "Father's Day" is a day that should be remembered.

Next, a 'mead' is mentioned - a strong one, and one that either will be, or has been already, chosen by these Fathers.  My guess is this alludes to the drink that came from the lilies that Pharazon (Gim Githil) and the Numenoreans destroyed on Eressea.  In words of the Faithful, the drink that came from these lilies was called mead:

.... our bread is leavened of the lilies that long ago drank up the light blessed, castabout the Magic Trees Remembered; and our mead comes of their nectar, a syrup golden, of which your honey holds but a distant, faint shape, or sound.

Pharazon and these other Fathers would have drunk of this mead on Eressea, and as written about both here and perhaps on William blog, the price was 'dear/ deer'.

So, I think the choice of mead has already been made.  It will be drunk again by Gim Githil, though in much different circumstances.

The next line about a cow is interesting.  The immediate symbolism I think of is obviously about calves being led up to the stall.  Gim Githil's group of Fathers are among those calves-cows that will be led up to the safety and redemption found in Tirion.  Cow's 'moo', obviously, but its mention here I think just like everything else has some additional meaning.  Gim Githil and these other Beings will have some things to say - things to speak, and what they say may provide additional 'milk' - healing or something like that.  I don't know.  To 'moo' comes from 'bellow', I guess, which can mean something like "to sound or roar", and also a "loud, deep cry".

This all seems to be part of 'going to the sky', and an 'indemnification', which means to compensate for a loss or expense.  What was lost?  In Pharazon-Peter-Ingwe's assault on Eressea, the Lilies were lost, and the price was expensive.  These lilies, per Words of Them That Have Slumbered, also represented the 'fool hopes' of Lorien (Joseph-Ausir) for the union of all manner of Beings in peace.  They were destroyed, and it is this that needs to indemnified.  This reading is supported by the mention of "Ausir Eldest" to conclude that phrase, with Lorien-Joseph of Egypt being that person.

Lini pick may be a reference to the lilies, but in a more hopeful interpretation, it may just mean the 'plucking' or picking of many Beings, including Gim Githil and the rest of these 14 Fathers as an act of restoration for Joseph.  That is how I choose to read it right now, and this seems to align with Asenath's hopes and words regarding the restoration of her family in Aman, and with Joseph.

OK, so to summarize highlights if that was all over the place for everybody.:

I think this phrase directly ties to Ingwe-Gim Githil and the gathering of him and his group of Fathers which still has yet to be accomplished.  The word game involving "Balta" I think might help support this notion that Gim Githil is Peter, as well as helps with the Pharazon connection, honestly.  This last group of Fathers will be led up like cows or calves, and likely even have some things to say once they get to where they are going.  Yaks have come up on William's blog as another name or symbol of these cows, I believe, and to "Yak", in English, is also slang for "to speak or talk" (and even to laugh), so I think there is something there.  With the complete group of Fathers gathered back, there is some kind of indemnification as well as a restoration, if only a partial one at that stage still, for Joseph.  

I am not sure how clear that is to anybody else, but overall I think I understand at least some of what Glorfindel was saying in that phrase on "Balta Sheave".