So, Zelda imagery has now come up in two of my dreams, which I've taken notice of. My family has the Nintendo Switch game console, we own the latest two Zelda games (Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and actually Skyward Sword, now that I think of it), I've played them (they are great games) and as a kid I did play Zelda I and II on the old school Nintendo. Thus, I shouldn't be surprised or it shouldn't be interesting in and of itself to have these images show up in my dreams - my brain definitely has history to pull from in creating whatever dream story it wants to.
What is interesting, though, is that in both cases the dream seemed to tie into stories I was thinking through here, and helped push some thinking along. In my first dream, found in my post "C'est Moi", the dream reinforced the French placement of the Rose Stone, highlighted this notion of a link or connection being made between "Ali" (the Ithil Stone) and the French speaking Being introducing themselves with "C'est Moi", and the Beings who are using both stones. It even was the first clue to reimagining the Rose Stone as Red (with the Tree on the mural being lit up Red as part of the communication). The dream was given in the very specific imagery of murals that are a part of this "Tears of the Kingdom" Zelda game.
The second dream, just from a few nights ago, invoked very specific imagery of a Main Quest that you get as you play the game, and opened up some thinking relative to "Thingol's Realm", and what that might mean, including some things on Baptism and travel out into the Waters, whatever that even means.
Further, I made some other connections with names as I thought of them, for example indicating that Zelda meant "Grey Fighting Maid" and linking that character symbolically to Eowyn-Ilmare in that earlier "C'est Moi" post.
So, I figure Zelda is fair game now for some Cicada Reading, and my mind went back to those murals from my first dream. It seems too obvious a symbol or image to ignore, and I think there is something here, or at least I see a story along with some interesting details. So, let's throw caution to the wind (it can't get much worse, right? I hope?) and see what we can divine from our friends at Nintendo.
Tears of the Kingdom starts out with Zelda and Link making their way down into the depths below Hyrule Castle. There is a "Gloom" that has been coming from caverns below the castle, making people sick, and they are setting out to investigate. After some progress walking down below, they enter a chamber filled with very large murals on the wall. It is these murals, or at least the style of them, that were in my dream, and thus it is also this scene, and the dialogue that ensues (it is actually a one way dialogue, since Link doesn't speak - ever - in the game) that I want to touch on in this blog.
I never know whether to start with the video, and then make some comments, or start with comments and observations so people know what they are looking for, or at least what I am pointing out. In this case, it is only a 3 minutes or so cutscene that I am focused on, so I will start with the video and then make some observations. This picks up the story where they first enter the chamber with the murals:
I was actually going to go into a bunch of background and my own thoughts relative to a "War in Heaven" that occurred prior to and in another place from this Earth (in a galaxy - or universe - far, far away...), but I am out of energy for that today and would just ramble and take far too long to get something out. Rather, I will just get a few things put down, and I can always build on some thinking if it goes anywhere.
Notice that Zelda's first observation is that the murals depict a story, and that this story represent "The written history of the royal family".
Remember that what we have Eowyn pulling together in our story is a record, which includes a history. We don't know everything that this is about, but my guess has been that it at least has some information about a time long before our world, which explains who we were, why we are even here on this Earth, the role and plan of Eru (Jesus) in that story, and details about this "War in Heaven" that made our presence here in the void dressed up in the bodies of Gorillas necessary.
I have touched on this War briefly in this blog, for example in my post "The Houses of Hair Man and Bald Man", I talked about how a group of people tried to destroy God's Family:
Let us also, then, call these Bald Beings "Gentiles". These Beings fought against and tried to destroy God's Family and people in a time long before this world. This world is an extension of that conflict (a continuation of a much different version in my mind of the "War in Heaven" than is found in LDS theology), and it is here where the House of Finwe finally prevails, through means previously not thought possible or likely. A curious work of redemption.
Eowyn is one that was charged quite a long time ago (back in Ithilien at beginning of the 4th age, is how this story goes), to leave Earth and compile a record, it seems, from various Beings and witnesses that, in my imagination, includes a history of that War.
And here, in this Zelda cutscene, we have Zelda coming across ancient records in the form of murals that are about a Family, and a Great War that was waged on them by an Evil Being known as the Demon King.
Recall also that in words I received on March 7, 2021 about what is presumably on the Rose Stone, the speaker states that they are about a Family:
The story on the stone is the story of our family. It is meant for our family, to cause them all to shine. It is a story of love, of our love undying and unending, even in a void. To bring forth, even in this nothing-place, love's power - our family's power.
You came powerless, as did others, with hope in a promise. The story is the promise, and the power.
And the void, now de-void it own power, recedes; what WAS NOT now becoming IS.
The Demon King is mentioned as having stolen something of great power, and it is by this stolen thing that he thinks he has the power to overcome this Family, or group of banded tribes and people. The idea of 'theft' and of things being stolen by Evil Beings is then yet again present in this symbolism, and that this theft posed a real threat or a source of power for Evil to overcome good.
So, in very rough, general strokes, Zelda is describing a version of the War in Heaven here in this scene, including events that have led us to our current situation and state.
She then does something really interesting - she begins recording what is on the murals with a 'device' that was invented and given to her by a woman named Purah. There are some things here both about the device, and the name of its inventor.
In the previous game, Link had something called a Sheikah Slate which was kind of like this - and that name would be been interesting since Slate is a type of Stone (and also a writing tablet). But in this iteration, the Slate has been replaced with the Purah Pad, which is what Zelda is holding. Put Purah Pad might be even better for our purposes.
Now, to match up with my story, the analogy of this game should have this device Zelda is holding as somewhat giving a shout out to the Ithil Stone. That is what I have proposed Eowyn-Ilmare has used to gather and record her story that she will share to the Rose Stone, so we should see it somewhere here, maybe, and this device is our best bet. Again, if the device was still called a Slate, that would be low hanging fruit here, but it isn't, and so I had to look a little bit harder, but I am happy with the result.
First, Purah is an Elvish word, or at least its root PUR is, as well as a similar word form Purya. That word means "Fire, artificial fire, to burn, consume, set fire to", etc. So Fire is the big them here. That seemed promising for reasons I will explain in just a sec. Pad, as it turns out, it also an Elvish word, but also an English one. In Elvish we have "to step or walk; a road or path" and even "an enclosure". In English pad actually means something very similar in one sense, looking it up on Etymonline. We get things like "to walk or travel on foot" and "path, walk along a path or make a path".
OK, so it should be obvious to some readers that we can do a lot with the above - I mean, like a lot. But I am not going to go through every possible iteration or angle, but will just highlight a couple things that seem interesting to me (and fairly obvious winks, if I want to see them that way).
I have compared these Stones (which include the Ithil, Rose, and Anor) as being literal paths that were created by Asenath. In words I attribute to Tom Bombadil as he speaks to the Stone Couriers once they arrived at his house in France, Tom says (recorded by my on March 22nd, 2021):
Designated as the paths which Asenath wrought
This phrase followed another one a few days earlier about things being numbered and counted, and I attributed both of these phrases to Stone. Here is what I wrote in my post titled "The Paths that Asenath wrought" saying that Paths are synonymous with Stones (see bolded part specifically):
As I mentioned above in the post, it seems that Asenath made 'paths'. Etymonline's definition of a path is a 'narrow passageway or route'. A straight and narrow road? Maybe having something to do with that I think.
......
So, what exactly are these paths? I don't have a definitive view, but my guess is that these are literally Stones, or at least involve them. Joseph Smith taught that every person who goes to the Celestial Kingdom (Aman) will have a Stone, and I have indicated before that this Stone may be the means or the Key to how they arrived there.
So back in that post, I had arrived at a Path and a Stone as equivalent descriptors, in some way, of the same thing. And here we have a Pad that Zelda is carrying, with Pad also meaning a path or way (which people will walk).
Even more, we have the name Purah, which means Fire. I think multiple allusions here. The "Pad" was Purah's invention in the Zelda story, and the Stones are Asenath's invention in mine, aligning with Tom's commentary. Asenath is the Holy Ghost (the female Twin of that entity), and as such can be symbolized by Fire (the Baptism of Fire being a Holy Ghost thing). Further, Fire or Heat is likely how these Crystal Balls were made in the first place - a path made by Fire. Wrought Iron is a term most people are familiar with, and we have had allusions to Iron in recent posts, with Pens, Iron Rods, Olympic Medals and so forth. Wrought Iron involves the use of Fire and Heat to produce the Iron, or in this case, the Stones or Crystals that Asenath invented and made.
But the Stones also consist of Fire within them, in that I mentioned the words for Fire and Story are the same in Elvish. In fact, I made that point in one of my recent Top Gun posts, where I mentioned the iconic Goose (the Swan, remember) song he played at the piano - Great Balls of Fire - and mentioned that was a reference to these Stone.
And actually (partially just to document how my mind is working with this in assembling pieces together), I just remembered that it is Maverick and Goose that sing "Great Balls of Fire", which is another memorable Top Gun scene, and which is actually reprised by Goose's son in the second movie. Great Balls of Fire. Stones? I think I've mentioned that one of the Elvish roots for Fire and Stories or Tales (to Tell) is the same: NAR. Fire and Stories on these Great Balls?
So, this is all to say that I think the Purah Pad is a pretty good hit for our Ithil Stone as the 'device' that Eowyn would use to capture (and then will transmit) her record, similar to what Zelda is using here.
Lastly, Zelda mentions that some of the record is obscured. While this has various meanings within the video game itself in terms of what story is revealed, I will analogize this with the current state of what Eowyn has collected. Remember she has collected most, but not all, of what she needs. The missing piece to the puzzle is on the Rose Stone. This is actually pretty well represented by how the murals are obscured in the Zelda scene. There, the murals are buried under a mountain of rock that block her from capturing the information with her Ithil Stone Purah Pad. In our story, the Rose Stone (what is 'obscured' from Eowyn) was hidden first under a literal mountain, and then later under a crust of surface damage that would prevent anyone from seeing what is on it.
Anyway, I think the mural analogy came together pretty well, and thus there might be a reason why in my dream the communication between "Ali" and "C'est Moi" was given with the symbolism of murals from Tears of the Kingdom.
I actually have more interesting thoughts regarding the character of Link, as well, while we are going full throttle on hidden meanings within video games, but we have to spread the crazy out, and that will need to be a different post.
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