Zelda's Tri Rod

WanderingGondola mentioned a new Zelda game on my last Zelda-specific post "A Welding Link".  I looked into some of her trailer links for the game that she included and called out a few things I thought might be interesting.

She followed up with another comment on my "Honey Nut Cheerios strikes again" post with her observation that what is called the "Tri-Rod" in that new Zelda game looks very similar to Hermes' Caduceus.  I looked into it, and it turns out that she is correct - there is a striking resemblance.  

Here is the Caduceus, with its two snakes, and the wings at the top of the staff or rod:

Before I show Zelda's Tri-Rod, in my post on the Caduceus, I mentioned that one reason I thought the staff representation, with its two snakes coiled around each other, was so interesting was the potential for these two snakes to become a staff comprised of two sticks wrapped around each other.  In doing so, I had cited a William Tychonievich post where he had mentioned Moses being commanded to take up a serpent by the tale, and that it became a rod in his hand.  Thus, Hermes' Caduceus could be the symbolic representation of the two sticks that become one, mentioned in both Ezekiel and in Joseph of Egypt's prophecy in 2 Nephi 3.

In imagining this, I pictured literally two wooden sticks (that the snakes had turned int) woven around each other to form one stick.

Well, check out Zelda's Tri-Rod staff that will be her primary weapon in this new game that hasn't been released yet:

The staff Zelda is holding is effectively one stick or rod, but based on the top of it you can tell that the rod itself is comprised of two separate strands or sticks that have been woven together to form this rod,which is more or less completely fused together that the place where Zelda is holding it, and less tightly held or woven together the further from her hand the rod is (which seems to bring to mind Moses' act of holding the snakes with one's hand).

It doesn't have the wings on it, but it doesn't have to, I suppose, since she is already in "Heaven", isn't playing the Hermes messenger role directly, or having to ascend or fly up from our World (since she already accomplished that at the beginning of the 4th age).

Indeed, without the wings, you might actually say that Zelda's Rod here actually resembles the Rod of Asclepius even more than the Caduceus, should the Snake on that Rod also become a Stick or Rod and be welded to what it was wrapped around.  Here is the Rod of Asclepius.

This symbol has always been associated with Healing and Medicine, whereas Hermes' Caduceus became associated with those things in the US only due to some errors in symbiology; the US Government and Military had also intended to use the Rod of Asclepius as its symbol, but adopted the Caduceus instead, not realizing there was a difference.

The Rod of Asclepius calls to mind the story of Moses raising the serpent on a pole, of course, and healing the Children of Israel who had been bitten by the flying fiery serpents.  The instructions were that one only had to look on that Rod and they would be healed.

Seeing Zelda hold something that ties so closely to a clear symbol of Healing is pretty interesting, since as a character I've used to represent Eowyn, we should expect this.  It is Eowyn who wished to become a Healer, as recounted in LOTR in the chapter "The Steward and the King":

Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.

'I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,' she said; 'and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.'

Besides the physical appearance of this Tri Rod, two other things about its description stood out to me:  who gave it to her, and what it does.

The game isn't out yet, so there isn't much known about characters and what they do.  Which is just fine with me, because I am just looking for little threads anyway like names or some other details anyway.

Now, we compared the Caduceus with the combined Ithil and Rose Stones, or at least the stories that are derived or obtained from them.  Thus, while it makes sense for Faramir-Link-Hermes to have such a staff, it also makes complete sense for Eowyn-Zelda to have one as well, right?  On Earth as it is in Heaven, and by definition, if Faramir has a complete record here on earth after linking up with Zelda and her Stone, then Zelda must also have the complete record.  That was one of my primary points in that Welding Link post in that there would be a Recorder in Heaven (Eowyn) and a Recorder on Earth (Faramir), and per Joseph Smith's letter that is now Doctrine & Covenants 128, there would be a complete record that would be identical and accurate with both of those Recorders.

In an even earlier post focused on Zelda, and showing those murals with the history of the War in Heaven, I called out that Zelda was sure to mention her "Purah Pad" which is what she used to Record the accounts or the history presented on these Murals.  That Purah Pad I guess represented Eowyn's Ithil Stone, and I connected it to Asenath, who in my guess is the Being who designed and/or created these Stones to do what they do (which seem to be pretty multi-functional, I guess).

In this next game, apparently a Being known as Tri gives the Tri Rod to Zelda (thus its name).  If we assume that the Tri Rod and the Purah Pad can somehow be bridged or linked together to both point to the Ithil Stone (and in the Tri Rod's case, the combined Stones, I guess), then perhaps there is also a connection between Tri and Asenath?

I think the name suggests so.  Tri, of course, means Three.  Asenath I have as one of the Holy Ghost Twins, and as such, would be a member of what Christians traditionally refer to as the Trinity, or in the case of Mormons, the Godhead.  In either case, the Holy Ghost is the Third member listed, and thus a tie to the word Tri.

Further, we might also have a nod to the Three Disciples, who are also a "Tri" involved here.  My guess is that they will be the Three Witnesses who will testify to the truthfulness of the accounts or records that are represented by both Zelda's Tri Rod and Hermes' Caduceus.

Beyond the involvement of the Being named Tri, one additional thing stood out to me in reading about this Tri Rod.

Apparently, the Rod gives Zelda the ability to "bind" things.  Here is a preliminary description of the Rod I found on a Zelda fan site:

Given to her by the "mysterious fairy" Tri, it allows her to create "echoes" of objects previously scanned in the world, as well as versions of defeated enemies to fight on her behalf. It appears to be linked directly to Tri, with each echo created taking one or more of the triangles which float behind Tri to make.

It also allows her to "bind" to objects, similarly to Ultrahand, which either causes bound objects, enemies and echoes to match her movement, or "reverse bond" to cause her to follow their movement.

The binding itself is fascinating for me to see, as well as the fact that the binding happens two ways, either an object is bound to her, or she is bound to the object.

We see this concept of "binding" in Joseph Smith's writing I mentioned earlier in D&C 128.  There, he mentioned the work of the Recorders (Eowyn and Faramir) and their Books will be to "bind" things on Earth and in Heaven:

It may seem to some to be a very bold doctrine that we talk of—a power which records or binds on earth and binds in heaven. Nevertheless, in all ages of the world, whenever the Lord has given a dispensation of the priesthood to any man by actual revelation, or any set of men, this power has always been given. Hence, whatsoever those men did in authority, in the name of the Lord, and did it truly and faithfully, and kept a proper and faithful record of the same, it became a law on earth and in heaven, and could not be annulled, according to the decrees of the great Jehovah. This is a faithful saying. Who can hear it?

With proper authority, and if done accurately and faithfully, the Recorders are able to create and establish laws on Earth and in Heaven that are themselves binding, and in my opinion, will serve to redeem Beings and release Prisoners.

In fact, Joseph in the letter would go on to talk about this in light of Peter's Keys, and the fact that Peter had also been one of these Beings who have been given some power to bind things on Earth and in Heaven.  This is then potentially one additional reason why he will be involved in this whole effort - not just because from the Lion's Head the path Home begins, and that the gates of Hell (representing at least partially our own world) would not prevail against him, but because there is a Church of the Firstborn in Heaven that Peter seems to have some say about, and any law that would impact that Church would need his blessing and ratification, I would assume.

But it isn't just that we see this "binding" or "sealing" power mentioned in Joseph's writing.  It is that we see it in my own words from back in 2020, in context with what I imagine is the Rose Stone.  

March 22, 2020
Jewel zimel link
Back and east to come it profit your house
Them dual iskwendi to know
Suggest usher toward home a story to tell
A visceral glow
A stone binding two ways center-heart
tell me where the good men go

I mean isn't this "two way" binding essentially what we are talking about both in D&C 128, with things occurring on Earth and in Heaven that bind and unbind things across these worlds?  Further, isn't this essentially what is being described (loosely - again I am looking for threads here) in the binding function of Zelda's Tri Rod?  She doesn't just bind objects to her, but she also binds herself to those objects.  One can (and I do) analogize this with this same concept that Joseph is describing in D&C 128.  That Eowyn-Ilmare, as a Heavenly Being, and as actually a Queen of the Family of Light, binds Earthly things and Beings to her (including her own Family), but also that Earthly things and Beings can and will bind her to them.

And actually I just noticed that "Link" appears in that first line of those March 22 words - a potential play on the name of Link from Zelda in light of all of this, I could imagine, since this particular set of words seem to discuss the 'ushering' of Faramir-Link back to the House of Tom Bombadil in France by Glorfindel and Gildor.