Love Pop Follow-ups: Joseph and a Rainbow Stick

I coach my youngest son's flag football team, and we had our first game of the season this morning.  On the way to the game I realized that I missed, or at least did not sufficiently emphasize, one of the clearest references to "Pop" from my earlier post.

William Tychonievich wrote a quick post referencing that LovePop post, and he concluded with a paragraph which has me convinced that it was a miss that I should add here.  So, let me do that, and then there was something about the photo I took of the LovePop store that suddenly struck me as being fairly interesting, so I am also going to tackle that.

William concluded his post with a reference to Joseph.  He had shown a picture of Pepe the Frog, and stated that Pepe is a form of the name Joseph:

William Wright's post goes on to discuss Joseph. Pepe is a diminutive for the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese forms of that name.

I didn't read William's post until I got back from our football game, but Joseph was the exact name that was on my mind as I was driving to the game.  So, I figured this meant something.

The LovePop symbol I had tied directly to the Rose Stone, being the Red "Book" in my mind.  I first started calling that stone the Rose Stone (I had formerly called it the Sawtooth Stone) following a dream I had that I related in my post "Rose:  Daz Papa's Book".  The dream was very short and simple:

In a dream image from this morning I saw something like a paper or a placard with the phrase "Rose: Daz papa's book".

OK, so first off, the writing was on a paper or placard - a Card, in other words. But there is the explicit mention of the Rose Stone (as I understand it) being "Papa's" book. Like "Pop". I guessed that this Papa was Joseph in that post, since he created or produced whatever story is on the Rose Stone, and that therefore this image must have been given from the perspective from one of his Daughters - the Daughters of Asenath.


Thus, one of the Pops that I did mention, but did not emphasize I think enough, was Joseph. This is his Stone, and on it apparently are words that seem to 'redeem' Israel, turing their crimson sins to white, at least from the dialogue I had included in my last post.


Anyway, I just wanted to add that - the specific mention and tie to Joseph here - because it was on my mind, and when I read William specifically linking Pepe the Frog to Joseph, it seemed like something I should do.


I should also note that I had traced the language of that earlier dream scene to Uncle Remus' tales - the "Daz" reference seeming to me as something that would come from those stories. I brought in Disney's version of those stories - both the book my dad would read to us when we were kids, as well as Disney's movie "Song of the South". This is also a direct wink, and a reference to Joseph perhaps, in that I saw the LovePop sign at Disney Springs, a shopping center owned by Disney.


Which gets me to my picture. In my earlier post, I just used a logo I pulled from the internet. One reason I did this is when I took the picture, I took it completely zoomed out, figuring if I were to ever use it I would just crop the logo.


However, the sign was horizontal, and to crop it out and paste it in here was problematic - the image didn't get big enough to see well before it was too wide, if that makes sense. So I just pulled in the online logo which was much clearer.


I went back, however, and looked at the photo one more time and saw a surprising detail. In the photo, I capture myself taking the picture, as I was reflected in the windows of the story front. Here is the shot - you'll see my reflection in the center as the dude holding and taking a random picture of the store:

So, you obviously have our poor random guy in the Red Shirt with the LovePop logo walking through a door (sorry I dragged you into this, random dude). That is actually pretty interesting in itself given the symbols and stories I've been working through as part of the Rose Stone (individuals stepping through doors).


And then you have me standing there taking the photo. I thought of Zelda holding her Purah Pad in that Mural video clip. She was capturing things by pointing and clicking there, and I made the, perhaps strange, association between that picture-taking device and the Ithil Stone. It was symbolic of Eowyn's Recorder, basically.

But all of this wasn't what I noticed and was somewhat shocked in realizing when it caught my attention.  Rather, it was what was in my hands in addition to my phone:  I was holding a stick.  Seriously.  I am sure you can't see from the zoomed out full picture as it is displayed above, so let me zoom in on my hands:

So, why am I holding a random Stick while I am taking this picture? Well, when he headed to Orlando during the latter half of the week to spend one day at Disney and the second at Universal (we had spent the first half of the week on the beach on the Gulf side of Florida), we had given the kids each a $25 gift card which they could use at Disney to buy anything they wanted, no parental approval required (which was probably more exciting before they saw how much things cost in those Disney stores!). My youngest son decided he wanted to buy an extremely large lollipop - something he would never have been allowed to do in normal circumstances. It was a lollipop that looked something like this:

It's like a rainbow swirl unicorn lollipop, and the thing was huge.   The one pictured above must have been the small version - he got something that was fairly massive.  He had been working on it off and on at intervals for a couple days.


I had let him take it to the stores to keep him occupied, but realized very soon that this was a mistake. He was accidentally getting sticky lollipop all over things in the stored he shouldn't have been, and nearly impaling innocent bystanders. So, we made a deal that whenever we were in a store, I had to hold it, but he could hold it outside as we were walking. In this case, however, they were hurrying off to the next store, so I just held on to it in transit.


So, quite a few things come together in this silly stick I am holding. I've likened the Rose Stone to a Stick - specifically one of the Sticks in Joseph's prophecy from 2 Nephi 3, and in Ezekiel 16. Further, as mentioned above, I have analogized Zelda's phone-like device to the Ithil Stone, which was the other Stick. The Rose and Ithil Stones were the Two Sticks that were to be joined together in someone's hands. And here, go figure, I am holding Two "Sticks", in their various forms, symbolically joined in my hands as I am taking this picture of LovePop.


In addition, the Sticks I have envisioned are like Hermes' Caduceus and the Rod of Asclepius, which have Snakes coiled around the Stick(s). That is the exact type of "Stick" I was holding here for my son, in terms of having something coiled around it, but rather than Snakes in this case we just had sugary goodness.

So, this was a fairly fascinating detail to note, particularly with all of these images and details coming together in one image like that.


One last thing to call out, however.

On William's post, Leo left a comment that ties to this Rainbow Lollipop Stick and to Joseph, I believe. William ended the post showing Pepe in the arms of Jesus, and making his reference to Joseph. Leo once again brought up the Rainbow Connection (3rd time's a charm!) in reference to the picture:

At the risk of being predictable, I can't help but think of Kermit from that picture. It looks like he found that rainbow connection and hopped on Pop.

Love Pop

 Love and the Ace of Hearts symbol came up a couple times for William Tychonievich in his last post and update.  Last week it did for me as well in a slightly different way, and I wasn't going to post anything on it, actually, but I figured why not log it given William's last post.

I wrote about my run in with Perfect Harmony at the Coca-Cola store last Saturday while we were on vacation and cruising around a series of shops.  We left the Coca-Cola store to walk to the other end of the shopping complex, and on our way we passed a store I had never heard of before.  But the sign on top of store just jumped out at me, in a very similar way that red Coke shirt did.  In fact, as I was looking at it, a man (presumably an employee of the store) walked out the front door of the store wearing a red shirt with the store logo on it.  I took a picture of the store sign, but it doesn't fit or format well here, so this is the same logo, basically, that was on the sign:

Now, two things jumped out at me simultaneously:  The "Pop" and the image of the Red Book with a heart in the middle of it.

By the way, it turns out the store is a card store, and they specialize pop-up cards, where you open up the card and get some kind of 3-D art that unfolds.  Here is a Disney example from their very simple line-up of cards (the first good example that came up in my search of their online store), and they get much more involved with cards transforming into things like flower bouquets:

So, clearly the "book" that I saw in the logo was actually meant to represent a Card, but I saw it as a Book.  But, a Red Card with a Heart in the middle of it - where have we seen that before?

But the Card connection I didn't make until this morning after reading William's latest post.  Up until then, I was still thinking about it as a Book.  Which, as I highlighted in an earlier post, is really the same thing in the symbolism we are dealing with here.  That post was titled "Ace in the Hole", and it was about the Rose Stone, where I directly linked the symbolism of the Ace of Hearts Card to that Stone.  I cited a dream I had about a Red Card, and mentioned after looking it up on Etymonline that a Card can refer to both a Playing Card (like that shown above) but also to a tablet or writing - something like a story or book:

Here, I think, is the answer to the mystery about why the topic of soccer penalties had come up in my dream. A Red Card can mean "Red Writing" or "Red Tablet or Charter". This is, in my mind, a clear reference to the Red Sawtooth Stone [Rose Stone], and specifically the story that comes from it. William saw a Red Book in his dream titled Unhenned, which I've linked with this same Stone, with the Hen in question being potentially a reference to Jesus.

As you can see in that excerpt I re-posted here, I also linked William's Red Book from his dream and, further, mentioned that this might have something to do with Jesus.

The story on the Rose Stone is said to be one of Love, and about a Family, at least those were words I wrote down one early morning back in March 2021:

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.

Thus, the symbolism of the Heart that is at the center of this Red Book or Card.

And a Family needs, ultimately, a Father.  A "Pop".  When I first looked at the sign, it was William's posts or references to "Hop on Pop", the Dr. Seuss book, that came to my mind.  In that phrase, it was clearly meant to refer to a Father.  And on the logo for this business, that is how I saw it as well, although clearly it was intended to refer to the art or images that pop up as you open the card.

In other words, I saw the phrase as "Love Dad", both without a comma like that as in something you feel or do for your Father, but also with a comma, as in a Father signed the Card "Love, Dad", as many people do when they finish off a letter or a card that they they might send or give to somebody.

William wrote about the warning to not "hop on pop".  That some Pops are not to be hopped on.  He actually extended this warning or interpretation to one of my dreams in which a man drove off with a wagon filled with all of my tools except one - my circular saw (which I have since analogized to the Rose Stone).  His opinion was that this might fit into that overall theme of not 'hopping' on something (in the dream I had been desperately running after a wagon at extremely high speeds in an effort to 'hop on' the wagon that was getting away).  I like that interpretation.

But where there are false "Pops" or Christs, there is also a true One.  And in looking at this sign, and in thinking about it now, that is kind of what I see in that logo symbolism:  Love Jesus (your Father).

I think that ultimately the Family of Light is all brought together as the family of Jesus.  In that poem I wrote to myself a couple years ago, that is essentially what I found myself writing out whatever was going through my head - here are the last few lines:

Understanding from experience hard-earned
that where the light shines
darkness cannot stand
This light now being made manifest in us
Never to be again overcome
Children of Christ
His family eternal, bonds unbreaking
Happiness abounding

 

So, Children of Jesus is ultimately what we are and will be known as again, I believe.

In a strange phrase regarding the Stone, and captured in the same morning or setting as mention of another set of "Pops", that of the 96 Fathers, I wrote down that the Stone has quite a lot to say about Jesus:

October 10, 2022
Jah ni sola gross determino ascertain to come back
Stone - there is so much hurray about Jesus Christ
Pas gar 96

I looked up "hurray" to see if it added any clarity to that statement.  Apparently, per Etymonline, it came originally from a battle cry used by the Prussians during the War of Liberation in the early 1800's.  Ever since, it has traditionally been a cry of "exultation" by sailor and soldiers, apparently.  The "Liberation" context relative to its first recorded use caught my attention, since I think that is exactly what this whole thing will be about.  Liberation and prisoners going free in some way.  A Declaration of Independence.

So that helps explain the "Love Dad" reading, with Jesus as the Father mentioned.  Whatever is on that Stone will, perhaps, place Jesus as that Father, and remind his Family that they are his.  Further, there are other "Fathers" to be reconciled to and love.  Finwe's House, for example, with him as their Father.  Gim Githil, the 96th Father - the Last and the First as it relates to those Eldar - and his own redemption along with all of those Fathers.

But, I just had a thought this morning with respect to the "Love, Dad" aspect of the phrase.  The Rose Stone, apparently, was created at the advice and counsel of Jesus himself.  I interpret a specific collection of words from 2020 as a dialogue between Joseph-Ausir and Gim Guru-Faramir, with respect to the need to make this Stone.  

Gim Guru says the Story needs to "come out".  Joseph replies that he feels we will all "wake up" before it is written.  This is perhaps a reference to an opinion that we might need to experience or live the story before it can be written, but likely has other symbolic elements in it was well.

Gim Guru replies that the Story needs to be written "before all else", and the statement that follows seems to suggest that it is Jesus (Eru) who has asked that this Story be written now, and that it be placed on the Rose Stone.  Here is part of the strange dialogue:

May 4, 2020
[Joseph?] Ah, but you are so little

[Joseph] Yea, though the starry heavens shall pass away yet my love shall not depart from thee, O house of Israel; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as the driven snow

[GG] You should get the story out, a min

[Joseph] Feel we will wake up before we get it out

[GG] Let it be written before all else, trust in Eru good alone can come

So, the creation of the Rose Stone was an exercise or act of trust or Faith, and done at the request, as I take it, or counsel of Jesus.  Thus, the "Love, Dad" reading of that LovePop phrase - a letter or book from the past meant for a far future day, with him as its author in the sense that it was his idea in some fashion.

In any case, that statement from Joseph about scarlet sings becoming white is part of this story of "RED-emption" and also symbolized by the Red Book or Rose Stone, and thus further support the additional reading that it is not only Jesus as the Father of his Family that the Book will have something to say about, but also the redemption of the "true Fathers" within that Family, perhaps.  Again, I don't have a very clear idea of what that looks like, but I guess that is why we will have the Book at some point.

Anyway, just wanted to get that down - the imagery of the Red Book with the Heart inside of it, along with LovePop was very interesting when I saw it initially.  There are so many little symbols and stories going through my mind that I don't know necessarily what to write about, but when I saw William's latest post, I thought may as well do a quick post on Love Pop.

Red Matter and Black Holes

This is going to be a really quick follow-up to my last Karl Urban post.

I have not watched these new Star Trek movies, but apparently in the first of J.J. Abrams' reboots (the 2009 movie), there is a thing called Red Matter.  How this Red Matter is portrayed in the film caught my attention as I was quickly doing an online search to what this movie was about.  Again, I know next to nothing about it, but I was interested to see something "Red" and particularly how it was shown:

It is a Red Ball.  Or, I guess, the substance is contained within that Red Ball, and the made the Ball Red to reinforce that it contains Red Matter?  I don't know - I was just interested in the Ball.

That is because I think our Rose Stone is also Red.  It then got a little more interesting as it appears this Red Ball is capable of creating a Black Hole in the movie.  Here is a description from a fan site I found as I was trying to find out more about this Red Matter:

In 2387, the Romulan sun went supernova, threatening to destroy Romulus, the Romulan people, and the galaxy. Ambassador Spock piloted what he described as "our fastest ship" equipped with red matter in an effort to create a black hole to absorb the exploding star.

OK, I don't quite understand what is going on there (probably a taste of my own medicine for people who stumble upon my blog and wonder just what the heck they are reading).  I mean, ultimately wouldn't a Black Hole be more destructive and disruptive in the long run than the Supernova it is being created to absorb?  Again, it's J.J. Abrams, I suppose.

But the mention of a Black Hole was interesting, because that has been a symbol associated with the Rose Stone in particular.  So, it is true that even in terrible stories and plots we can find some interesting little winks, I guess.

In addition, that fan site description said that Spock carried the Red Matter on the "fastest ship".  So, there is this element of speed again.  I have suggested that the 'fastest' being - the Swift Messenger Jah ni hah - will carry the Rose Stone, so that seemed like a fairly direct reference.

Nothing else I really wanted to point out here, other than I saw a giant Red Ball that was said to create a Black Hole, and that seemed interesting.

I also should mention that the word "matter" apparently also can mean something like a story or narrative:  "From c. 1200 as "a subject of a literary work, content of what is written, main theme;" sense of "narrative, tale, story" is from c. 1300.".  So, the Red Story?  That would fit with all of the other symbols we've explored, and with what I think the Rose Stone represents.  Further, matter is yet again another French-based word that, complementary to that earlier definition of a story or tale, means, "the subject of a mental act or a course of thought, speech, or expression," from Anglo-French matere, Old French matere "subject, theme, topic; substance, content; character, education". 

It is both a mental act as well as thought-speech that I believe will be communicated to and from the Rose Stone, so that also fits with this name of Red Matter.

This hasn't, however, made me interested in watching these new Star Trek movies anytime soon, though.  I pulled up a couple clips, and I am not sure I could get into them.

Alternative Universe: Karl Urban, Eomer, and Dr. McCoy

So I realized something this morning that I am going to log relative to Chip Monk Theodore.  I don't think this changes my guess relative to Prince Imrahil representing Theodore-Moses during events of the LOTR, but it was interesting to note.  Maybe it will change things in the future, or might influence someone else's thinking or ideas.  Or even spur some new thoughts of my own.  We'll see.

The thing I realized is the the same actor who portrays Eomer - Eowyn's brother - also portrays Dr. McCoy in J.J Abrams' modern remake of Star Trek.  That actor is Karl Urban.  Here he is below as Eomer and Dr. McCoy:

Now, Karl Urban's name itself is also pretty interesting as we get another reference to "Free Man" and thus France.  Karl is the German variant of Charles, which means Free Man.  Urban literally means "of the city".  So, Free Man of the City.  Could be interesting.    Urban can also be Elvish for "Sun God".

At some point, of course, we have to find Eomer's role in this whole thing.  He is Eowyn's brother during the critical events of the 3rd Age, and played an important role in not only Rohan's defense, but also with that of Gondor.  He loved Eowyn, being driven to near madness and rage when he saw her lying as if dead on the battlefield.   Further, he had a special connection, affinity, and allegiance to Aragorn-John, recognizing him for who he was.  He would also see Wormtongue (Brigham) for what he was, and Wormtongue would recognize in Eomer his foe, turning Theoden against him and ultimately arresting and imprisoning him.

Eomer also did come up yesterday in the same breath as Imrahil, as it was Eomer, Imrahil and Aragorn who were said to ride back to the gates of Minas Tirith together unharmed following the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

I said in my Imrahil post that of all the potential incarnations of Moses I am thinking through, that one has the least 'evidence' going for it.  I did, however, like how the name Imrahil turned out, honestly, and I did like the symbolism of him and Faramir becoming Aragorn's chief advisors and commanders.  So, it seemed to fit in a general way.

Now, J.J. Abrams has ruined many a good story.  I actually don't think I have watched one of his Star Trek re-makes.  I may have started one but wasn't able to finish it.  I have watched the tragedies that were the new Star Wars movies, however (let's have a quick moment of silence...).  My understanding is that in the new Star Trek movies he actually created an alternative timeline, meaning the characters are not really the same characters as they were - sure, they share the same names, but their stories are altered.  It is an alternative universe, or multi-verse, or something like this.

But, for some odd reason, this alternative universe still can be accessed by the old universe and characters.  Again, in my opinion, cue the bad storytelling.  In fact, remember how in my Oliver Cowdery post I mentioned how if D&C 110 was true then I would need to rule out Oliver as a candidate for being Moses because then we would have Moses appearing to himself as Oliver?  Well, J.J. Abrams concocted this kind of scenario in his Star Trek storyline with Spock.  The old Spock, still played by Leonard Nimoy, and living in another universe or timeline, appears to the new Spock.  I've never actually seen the scene that produces the screenshot below but here we have them meeting each other.  Huh?

Further in Abrams' remake of the Wrath of Khan, I guess we now have not Spock sacrificing himself to save the ship from Khan, but rather Kirk does so in this new alternative universe.  So, the storylines get mixed up and characters do different things, while everyone pretends that this new storyline exists in some kind of connection with the old one.  Again, I haven't watched these movies, but I am just left to ask what kind of dark magic is at work here.  

So, we could look at Karl Urban playing both Eomer and Dr. McCoy and conclude that maybe it is Eomer who is our third Chip Monk.  It is possible, I think.  However, we could also conclude that this is alternative universe Chip Monk Theodore, and we have swapped in the wrong guy to play Dr. McCoy here.  That is the theory I am going to go with currently.

You can see how little support we are working with here on the Imrahil piece (and how ridiculous the thinking is here sometimes) if we are talking about a common actor bridging characters as evidence we should seriously consider.

But my current guess still stands - Imrahil as Moses.  But this did serve to remind me that at some point Eomer's story will need to come out, along with so many others.  I mentioned that James was a mysterious character said to be present at the Mount of Transfiguration.  I wonder if there is any chance that could be Eomer, if that story is accurate and we need to account for another person there?

Lastly, it shouldn't be surprising, I guess, to see a close connection between Eomer and Imrahil.  They became great friends, and ultimately would even become family.  Eomer would marry Imrahil's daughter Lothiriel.

The Second Elder: The question of Oliver Cowdery

Let's keep going on the Moses theme, and get another strange guess out.  This one didn't occur to me until this morning, and so its a relatively new thought.  Consider it highly speculative, and my writing some things out here is my way of actively thinking through it.  Like hanging a picture on a wall and stepping back to see if you like it there or not.

I don't think it is required, necessarily, that we find our third Chip Monk Theodore among the early Mormons of Joseph Smith's time.  But it might be nice to.  Something was surely going on in the early 1800s in terms of some of the characters I have been writing about showing up on this Earth at that time.  We have already covered our second Chip Monk Simon-Peter, for example, and guessed that he is none other than our swampy friend Thomas B. Marsh.  Similarly, Brigham Young has been found to be the unfortunate reincarnation of all sorts of bad characters.

Can we find Moses-Theodore among the early Saints?

I think we possibly can, and my mind settles right now on Oliver Cowdery as the man.

I mean, clearly there is something about Oliver.  He was called on to be Joseph Smith's scribe during the Book of Mormon translation.  He even knew about the Gold Plates before Joseph told him about them, having seen them in a vision.  He was one of the Three Witnesses.  He would take on the role of Second Elder (Joseph was First Elder), and was actually the first person baptized into the Church - even before Joseph, who baptized him.  And he would be Assistant President of the Church, a role he held until his excommunication, when it was given to Hyrum.

Oliver's relationship with the Mormon church actually followed a similar arc to that of Thomas B. Marsh, though some accounts from what I have read suggest Marsh and Oliver were not necessarily on friendly terms themselves, though I need to look more into this.  Both men would be excommunicated from the Church during Joseph's lifetime - Oliver in 1838, and Marsh in 1839.  And both would rejoin Brigham Young's church after Joseph's death, though Oliver joined much sooner than Marsh.

Both Oliver and Marsh would fall on hard times and become poor during their estrangement from the church.  In Oliver's case, as he felt an increasing desire to reconcile with the Mormons, he was limited in doing so due to his financial situation at first - health would eventually become the major limiter in the end, however.  The Mormons were moving West following their expulsion from Nauvoo, and Oliver did not have enough funds to purchase the necessary supplies to join them.

Eventually, though, he did travel to Winter Quarters in Nebraska (from his residence in Wisconsin) in 1848, where he was ultimately reinstated by a vote of the High Council stationed in Iowa.  An interesting point in his reinstatement parallels that of Marsh several years later.  Oliver Cowdery was made to renounce all claims to leadership within what was by then being called the LDS Church (Brigham's Church).  In the minutes of Cowdery's reinstatement, this was actually a huge topic of debate.  Some members of the Council had moved to welcome him back, but other members referenced letters he had written which suggested that Oliver still felt like he possessed certain Keys and authority, apparently.  He was made to renounce any claim to those Keys, or rather, to state that he had changed his mind.  In closing, he stated:

I have not come to seek place, nor to interfere with the business and calling of those men who have borne the burden since the death of Joseph. I throw myself at your feet, and wish to be one of your number, and be a mere member of the Church, and my mere asking to be baptized is an end to all pretensions to authority.

Oliver would be accepted back and rebaptized, just as Thomas B. Marsh was and, also just like Marsh, did not ever have a position of authority again in the church.  Although, this may have been partly because Oliver did not live long after his re-baptism, but church leaders were definitely concerned with him laying claim to any position of power, as they saw it.

By 1848, his health was already deteriorating.  He desired to travel out West and join the Mormons out in Utah, but both his poverty and health made this a pipe dream.  He simply could not make the trip.  In a letter he wrote to Phineas Young (Brigham Young's brother and also Oliver's brother-in-law) in 1849, he stated:

I am poor, very poor, and I did hope to have health and means sufficient last spring to go west and get some gold, that I might so situate my family, that I could be engaged in the cause of God; but I did not succeed. I was then in hope you could go . . . if I could not. Now, as neither of us went, let us not be discouraged, but press on, trusting in the Lord.

 

Oliver would die that next Spring on March 3, 1850.  He was only 43 years old.  He died at Peter Whitmer, Sr.'s house, and David Whitmer was there.  David said that Oliver died "the happiest man I ever saw."

So, the question is what to make of Oliver Cowdery.  I am a problem looking for a solution, keep in mind, and that problem is where else can we find Moses.  So, the finger is already on the scale a little bit as I am looking at various things, but Oliver seems as likely a candidate as any if we are to find Theodore-Moses among the early Mormons.

And again, we may not necessarily need to.  My current position is that Faramir-Eonwe was not among these early Mormons.  But he has an alibi in my story as the Holy Ghost, and Joseph Smith was reported to have said on more than one occasion that the Holy Ghost at that time (1830's) was a spirit and would be taking on a body in the future .  For example, here are words attributed to Joseph from a compiled source called the Encyclopedia of Joseph Smith's Teachings:

The Holy Ghost is yet a spiritual body and is waiting to take to himself a body, as the Savior did

 

And also from another compilation called The Words of Joseph Smith:

The Holy Ghost is now in a state of probation which if he should perform in righteousness he may pass through the same or a similar course of things that the Son has.

These statements are both as others heard, recorded, and understood them, so I can't vouch for their complete accuracy, but you get the core idea.  In Joseph Smith's mind, the Holy Ghost was not among them in bodily form at the time.

Now, we do have a potential alibi for Moses in Doctrine and Covenants 110.  In that account, Moses was said to appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery at the Kirtland Temple.  So, if that account is true, it would be very unlikely for Moses to also be Oliver, in that our script gets pretty confusing if we have Beings appearing to themselves at the same time.  I prefer to stay away from those kind of explanations.

Rather, I think we can call into question the authenticity of D&C 110.  The contents of that section were never referenced by Joseph Smith during his lifetime - same with Oliver.  Literally not one word in public or private was ever uttered by either Joseph or Oliver in relation to this purported event.  We do have an account written in the third person by Warren Cowdery, Oliver's brother, which was entered into Joseph Smith's journals.  The next we see it is in an 1843 handwritten copy by Willard Richards, who changed the writing to the first person, as if Joseph was saying it.  That is basically, as I understand it, the version we have today.  It was not publicly published until well after Joseph's death, first appearing in the Deseret News in 1852.  Orson Pratt appears to be the first church leader to publicly teach about it in 1859.  And ultimately Brigham Young would include it in the 1876 version of the Doctrine and Covenants, and it was canonized as scripture in 1880.

In other words, though I personally don't know the truth of it, a man wouldn't be faulted for putting D&C 110 in the same box as D&C 132, the revelation that Brigham Young later 'found' which supported the practice of plural marriage.  For the record, I have both down as false.

That is all to say, that if it turns out D&C 110 is legitimate, it would pretty much put a dagger in the heart of this theory, at least for me.  We don't have to accept it as so, however, and I personally don't, currently, so I don't take this as a legitimate alibi for Moses.  Thus, I feel free to search for him among the early Mormons and see if we can find him.

Oliver is most famous for being the Book of Mormon scribe.  As he said in his own words "I wrote with my own pen the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the prophet".  However, he is almost as well known for what he tried and failed to do:  Translate a portion of the Book of Mormon.

Oliver was anxious to translate just as Joseph Smith was doing.  And this desire didn't just come from Oliver, you should know, but God, in a revelation to Oliver through Joseph (in D&C 6), told him that he had given him a gift to translate, just as Joseph was doing:

And, behold, I grant unto you a gift, if you desire of me, to translate, even as my servant Joseph.

Oliver would, I believe, take this to mean the Book of Mormon.  Which is interesting, because the revelation is actually pretty clear that the translation has to do with records that had been currently held back and were not present at that time

:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, that there are records which contain much of my gospel, which have been kept back because of the wickedness of the people;

And now I command you, that if you have good desires—a desire to lay up treasures for yourself in heaven—then shall you assist in bringing to light, with your gift, those parts of my scriptures which have been hidden because of iniquity.

I think this pretty clearly spells out that it is not the Book of Mormon we are talking about... or, at least not the unsealed part of the Book of Mormon, right?  This takes us to the Brother of Jared and his writings, which I will get to in just a second. 

Despite this, Oliver and Joseph assume that Oliver can take a go at the Book of Mormon itself.  He fails utterly.  We don't have details of this, but it is referred to in D&C 9.  In that section, God tells Oliver that he doesn't need to proceed with any more attempts at the Book of Mormon - that will remain Joseph's job, and he can continue to act as scribe.

However, in that same section, it is once again alluded to the fact that Oliver may yet translate in the future, and it is with respect to other records that remain hidden or "kept back" that he will do this:

And then, behold, other records have I, that I will give unto you power that you may assist to translate.

Be patient, my son, for it is wisdom in me, and it is not expedient that you should translate at this present time.

Earlier, in D&C 8, God gives Oliver a little more detail about what these other records are:

Oliver Cowdery, verily, verily, I say unto you, that assuredly as the Lord liveth, who is your God and your Redeemer, even so surely shall you receive a knowledge of whatsoever things you shall ask in faith, with an honest heart, believing that you shall receive a knowledge concerning the engravings of old records, which are ancient, which contain those parts of my scripture of which has been spoken by the manifestation of my Spirit.

So, a specific reference is made to ancient records, which are engravings, and which contain parts of scripture that have been "spoken by the manifestation of my Spirit".  That is a really interesting phrase.  Recall that the Brother of Jared wrote things while in the presence of Jesus while Jesus manifested himself to him on the Mount in the form of a Spiritual Body, saying that that body was the "Body of my Spirit".

I am not sure why I haven't caught on to this promise to Oliver before, but is seem very clear.  Oliver is promised that he will translate ancient engravings.  Multiple times he is told this.  At the time, of course, the only such engravings known to him and Joseph were the Gold Plates, so it seemed like a good try, I suppose, to take a run at those.

But God had told Oliver repeatedly to 'be patient' and that at that present time was not the time for him to translate.

D&C 9, then, is typically held up as an example of a 'lost opportunity', and indeed it can read that way.  The standard narrative is that Oliver could have translated, but he missed his shot.   I prefer to look at it as an object lesson of a different sort.  Joseph Smith was called to translate the Book of Mormon because those where his records to translate - that was his job for a specific reason based, in part, on who he was.  I have alluded to that before, but I will write a more specific post just as to what that means for Joseph.  You can take the statement to its logical conclusion, though, in putting together a guess as to just what I mean.  Again - Restoration.  What Good Things we do and send out will return to us at a later time and be restored to us.

My belief, which is only strengthened by looking at some of these passages directed toward Oliver, is that there are specific records and ancient engravings literally still waiting for Oliver to translate.  That was the promise.  Read the entirety of Sections 6, 8, and 9 and see if you come to a different conclusion.  And although the Mormon Church - Brigham's Church - could make Oliver renounce all authority in their organization, they could not take away the gift that God said he had already given Oliver - the gift and opportunity of translating Ancient Engravings.  That remains, I think.

My belief is those Records lie in the Library of Tom Bombadil, and may take the form of both the Brother of Jared's writings as well as the Brass Plates, said to consist of 5 Books bearing Moses' name according to Nephi. 

There are other tantalizing - I mean, just tantalizing - references to Moses in some of what is found in these Doctrine and Covenants passages.  

For example, in D&C 8, after mentioning these ancient records that Oliver will at some point in the future receive and translate, God brings Moses into the discussion.   He says that the gift of Moses is also the gift of Oliver.  He repeats it multiple times, almost trying to burn it into Oliver's head that no matter what, God has given him a gift:

Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground.

Therefore this is thy gift; apply unto it, and blessed art thou, for it shall deliver you out of the hands of your enemies, when, if it were not so, they would slay you and bring your soul to destruction.

Oh, remember these words, and keep my commandments. Remember, this is your gift.

This is very Moses-specific language - the gift that will enable Oliver to escape his enemies just like Moses delivering Israel through the Red Sea.   I have guessed that these ancient Records - the Rose Stone, Ithil Stone, Brass Plates, Sealed Book of Mormon, and more - will, in some fashion, create a path or an escape for Beings to leave this world and go to Tirion-Jerusalem.  In my opinion, this is exactly what God is referring to in his words to Oliver, and why he brought up Moses as his specific example, which otherwise might be a strange comparison.

It actually gets even more specific in a comparison with Oliver and his gifts with that of Moses.  And this comparison is one that the Mormon Church has completely obliterated in the current version of the Doctrine and Covenants, and it has to do with a "rod".  Here is how D&C 8:6-8 looks today:

Now this is not all thy gift; for you have another gift, which is the gift of Aaron; behold, it has told you many things;

Behold, there is no other power, save the power of God, that can cause this gift of Aaron to be with you.

Therefore, doubt not, for it is the gift of God; and you shall hold it in your hands, and do marvelous works; and no power shall be able to take it away out of your hands, for it is the work of God.

OK, so in this account we have a generalized gift said to be that of "Aaron".  Sure, it also refers to something being held in Oliver's hands, but we don't really know what that would be from this description.

Well, in the original revelation it is very clear what this Gift was:  a Dowsing or Divining Rod.  Something that would have been like this:

The reference has been removed in modern Mormonism due to fears, I imagine, of the magic or the occult being part of Mormon tradition, as well as any notion of Oliver, Joseph, or anybody associated with them as being "Money Diggers".  Here is how the original went:

Now this is not all, for you have another gift, which is the gift of working with the rod: behold it has told you things: behold there is no other power save God, that can cause this rod of nature, to work in your hands, for it is the work of God; and therefore whatsoever you shall ask me to tell you by that means, that will I grant unto you, that you shall know.

A Divining or Dowsing Rod - like the one Oliver would have presumably had - was traditionally a forked rod that looked like the illustration above.  Here is a link if you want to dive in more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing

And also, by the way, you should know that a Divining Rod looks just like Dr. Brown's Flux Capacitor:

So, that is interesting, right?  Oliver Cowdery has a gift that has been given to him from God in relation to a Divining or Dowsing Rod.

Sound like anybody else we know?  That's right - Moses.  Moses was given a staff, by which he also had a gift or power as it related specifically to Water.  He struck a rock with his rod, and water flowed for the thirsty Israelites.  He raised his rod, and the Red Sea parted.  That was definitely a gift related to a rod, and having something to do with Water.

A Dowsing Rod was (and still is used today, by the way, by some) used to find not only Water, but also other things such as minerals, treasure, etc.  Which is why the Mormon leaders today are concerned with any mention of Oliver's Rod and potential connections with Treasure Seeking and old-school belief in magic and superstition.  But we are pro-Magic on this site, obviously.

This Rod and Gift is interesting, and maybe one of our best little winks we have that there is a connection between Oliver and Moses.  Both had gifts having to do with a Rod, and this Rod having some connection to Water.  In Oliver's case, it seems to have been primarily used, or at least God desired it to be used, as a source of Revelation, which again in the very next section, in D&C 9, God compared that spirit of Revelation to Moses parting the Red Sea.

I don't know - it seems like we could be on to something here.  I didn't know what to think when I first started writing, but now I think this is a good guess, particularly as I got into those D&C passages.  There is something to chew on here, at least.

If so, this would mean that Oliver's promises still stand.  He received those promises because he is, in fact, Moses and the Brother of Jared.  Those Records that sit at Tom's House, and were alluded to in those D&C sections, are waiting for him to fulfil the gift and promise he was given way back in the early 1800's, that gift being one of translation and bringing forth 'new' scriptures (really just the restoration of what was once known, but has been lost).  And in this case, just like Marsh who renounced any leadership within the Mormon Church but kept the role of Doorman-Usher and Deacon, Oliver didn't need to hold on to anything having to do with Brigham's church either.  He has the translation gift directly from God, and he didn't give that up.

Prince Imrahil and Moses

Prince Imrahil started running through my mind a little this afternoon and evening, and doing so in connection with Moses.

I think it was the imagery of Elias (Faramir) and Moses standing with Jesus that strangely brought this on, which I will explain in just a moment.

Imrahil himself is not a new thought.  Ever since the character of Faramir has taken a larger presence on this blog, I've wondered off and on if and how Imrahil might factor into this Story.  Even for those very familiar with the Lord of the Rings, Imrahil has somewhat of an understated role in the tale that can get lost somewhat.   One reason is that we don't meet him until the Return of the King, when events shift to Gondor and Minas Tirith and after we've become interested in the fates of other characters.  Another is he didn't make Peter Jackson's movie cut.

Imrahil is Faramir's uncle from his mother's side, being Finduilas' brother.  He will play a critical role in the defense of Minas Tirith, which includes saving the lives of both Faramir and Eowyn, actually.  Faramir's rescue was more direct.  Denethor had sent him off to retake Osgiliath.  As expected, the counter-offensive failed, and the troops were routed.  Imrahil and his Knights had been held back as a sortie, and they rode out to rescue or save as many of the retreating men as possible.  Gandalf rode with them and chased off the Nazgul who were involved in the fight.  This is actually when we get our first glimpse at Imrahil's bravery:

Now they [the sortie] sprang forward, formed, quickened to a gallop, and charged with a great shout.  And from the walls and answering shout went up; for foremost on the field rode the swan-knights of Dol Amroth with their Prince [Imrahil] and his blue banner at their head.

"Amroth for Gondor!" they cried.  "Amroth to Faramir!"

The cavalry would return to Minas Tirith, with Imrahil himself carrying Faramir's body, and Tolkien writes "only the charge of Dol Amroth had saved him from the red southland swords that would have hewed him as he lay".  Imrahil will carry Faramir directly to Denethor, and it is upon seeing his son in that state that the final straw breaks in Denethor's mind.

So, Imrahil saved Faramir's life on the field.  

During the course of the battle, Imrahil and his men will play almost a magical role that complements that of Gandalf.  Gandalf took command of the city when Denethor lost his mind, and it is Imrahil that basically became his co-commander:

So it was that Gandalf took command of the last defence of the City of Gondor.  Wherever he came men's hearts would lift again, and the winged shadows pass from memory.  Tirelessly he strode from Citadel to Gate, from north to south about the wall; and with him went the Prince of Dol Amroth [Imrahil] in his shining mail.  For he and his knights still held themselves like lords in whom the race of Numenor ran true.  Men that saw them whispered saying: 'Belike the old tales speak well; there is Elvish blood in the veins of that folk, for the people of Nimrodel dwelt in that land once long ago".... and yet - when they had gone, the shadows closed on men again, and their hearts went cold, and the valour of Gondor withered into ash.

Legolas would later also acknowledge something special about him when they met following the battle:

At length they [Legolas and Gimli] came to the Prince Imrahil, and Legolas looked at him and bowed low; for he saw that here indeed was one who had elven-blood in his veins...

"That is a fair lord and a great captain [speaking of Imrahil]," said Legolas.  "If Gondor has such men still in these days of fading, great must have been its glory in the days of its rising."

I include the above excerpts to just show that there is obviously something unique and special about Prince Imrahil.  Does this mean he had to be Moses?  Of course not, but I am not trying to show that specifically here, only that there is something about him that keeps getting called out and mentioned, both explicitly and implicitly.

He would also play a part in saving Eowyn's life during the battle.  As he met the funeral procession of Theoden, he noticed Eowyn, who was also being carried back presumed dead.  He would then be the one to notice, upon closer observation, that she was not dead.  He even fashioned a small test or evidence to show she was still alive in holding up his vambrace to her lips to show a slight mist that formed from her breath.  He then sent a rider to the city to come and bring aid, before he rode back into the battle that was still ongoing.

Aragorn, Eomer, and Imrahil would ride back to the Gate together following the battle, and all three were unharmed:  "These three were unscathed, for such was their fortune and the skill and might of their arms, and few indeed had dared to abide them or look on their faces in the hour of their wrath".

There are several specific mentions of Imrahil's bright and shining mail, and here we have a reference to his face (along with Aragorn and Eomer), and how no wished to look on their faces.   It is a small point, and not convincing at all, but it reminded me of something Leo had brought up relative to Moses, in that he had to shroud his face when he spoke with the Israelites, in that they feared his countenance after coming back from the Mountain.

At the conclusion of the war, Aragorn was crowned King, and he also named two chief commanders and advisors:  Faramir and Imrahil.  They would be known together as the Princes of Ithilien and Dol Amroth.  It is this detail, their being Aragorn's chief advisors, that I thought of when I was exploring earlier the events of the Mount of Transfiguration. with Moses and Elias appearing with Jesus.  For some reason my mind connected Elias and Moses with Jesus as being "like" Faramir and Imrahil with Aragorn.  Is that a correct connection?  I am not sure, but it is one that came to me and it has been a persistent one starting earlier today.

Anyway, I think we get to the point that there is something to Imrahil - and there are more interesting things he did that I am not covering here -  even if nothing really connects him directly to Moses from the story in the LOTR.  We just have some circumstantial things and small references that may or may not lead anywhere.

But, true to form, I'd like to close with a look at his name.  We can't let that go unexplored, right?

It has been guessed by some that Imrahil's name is Adunaic, since he is of Numenorean descent.  At the same time, however, these same people take a very Elvish interpretation or guess as to the last part of his name, which is hil.  Hil would be Sindarin or Quenya for "Heir, son, or child".  Because of this, some have guessed that his name means something like "Heir of Imra", with the identity of who this Imra being unknown.

But let's throw that out, and give ourselves the allowance to look at this as an Elvish name in totality in solving for Imrahil.  After all, we have multiple references to Elvish blood running in him - let's see if the name viewed as completely Elvish might give us a clue.

The first thing you might notice is that the name starts with Im.  We have seen this before!   In the form of our Gim G's, but specifically in how we arrived at Gim Githil's name.  Recall, that for some reason between Gnomish language and other Quenya and Sindarin languages, there was a G that seemed to be added.  I won't go through the it here, but you can refer back to my post on Gim Githil and how I got that name from Ingwe if you want a refresher.   Riveting stuff, I am sure.  The short of it though, is that Im is a form of Gim.  In other words, we may be staring at a version of a Gim name here, just as with Gim Guru and Gim Githil.

That would be great, right?  If we could round out our 3rd member of the Chip Monks with another Gim-type name?  The three Gims.  I think we can, and this makes me think the connection between Imrahil and Moses maybe isn't so crazy (or crazier than anything else explored here).

So, we have Im (or Gim) which can mean "Royal Elf, High Elf" as it did directly with Ingwe-Peter.  It can also mean "Like, Same", which could be interesting as well.  Let's just leave it at the first definition for now and proclaim this name to be a Gim name in hiding.

So what does Rahil mean if I am saying this name might be Gim Rahil or Im Rahil?  I'm glad you asked.  I would break up that word as Ra and Hil, and leave that Hil as we had it before with "Child, Son, or Heir".  

Ra means "Lion", among a few other options.  So, if we leave Gim as a title or indicator as we have done with Gim Guru and Gim Githil, whose names seem to mean something like Sun and Moon, respectively, we have Gim Rahil mean "Son of Lion" or "Lion Heir" or something like that.  The Lion reference is obviously interesting since we've just linked Moses to a Lion thanks to Leonard "Bones" McCoy.  But here we have the added detail of a son or heir, which we could take multiple ways.  A Lion that is an Heir or Son to somebody?  A being who is the son of a Lion?  A Lion who is the son or heir of another Lion?  All sorts of possibilities with this one, and a few places we could go with it, and that isn't even counting some of those other definitions that could add some layers of meaning.

I am going to leave it there, with some loose threads still hanging.  Again, there isn't much evidence here, now that I think about it.  Part of the post, if nothing else, serves to reinforce that Imrahil was a badass and Peter Jackson should have found a way to get him in the movie.  But, then again, Jackson may have massacred the character like he did with Faramir and Denethor.  Maybe it was better to leave him out.  Whether he is also Moses remains to be seen, but that is the connection or thought that I am running with right now.

From a timeline perspective, Moses would come sometime after this.  The 3rd Age was estimated to end around 6,000 years ago, or 4,000 BC.  Lehi and Nephi leave Jerusalem-Tirion around 600 BC, so that gives us about 3,500 years for Moses to come around and do his thing in leading people from Middle-earth (our world) over to Tirion.  In other words, the timing would work in having Imrahil / Gim Rahil take on that role - it would just be a question of whether it would make sense for all of the other reasons that we just don't know enough about yet.

But, you heard it hear first - my hypothesis, held together with not a whole lot, all things considering, is that Moses was Imrahil in an earlier life.  We'll see how that ages.

Zelda's Trident

I had a brief dream this morning which involved Zelda holding a Trident.  It was just really an image, basically, that was up long enough for me to recognize what I was looking at, and then it was gone.

I've already proposed Zelda as a symbol of Eowyn in this story, at least with respect to that opening scene from the Nintendo video game The Legend of Zelda:  Tears of the Kingdom.  So, it was under that same assumption that I tried to make sense of the image after I woke up.

By the way, before I get to that, I just realized that the common title to all of these various Nintendo games featuring Zelda is pretty relevant for our purposes here:  The Legend of Zelda.

I've brought up the Elvish words Nyarna before, interestingly enough in the same post that I mentioned the Brittany Spears.  These "Spears" I think may tie to the Trident visual (since a Trident is a Spear, I suppose), but in that earlier post I had just commented that Nyarna had come up in a dream for me, and that this word was also found in my 2019-2020 words.

The word Nyarna means "long epic tale, story, legend".  

Legend.  

When one reads the phrase The Legend of Zelda, you can interpret it as meaning a Legend about Zelda.  That would be likely the way the Nintendo creators intended it, and I think works for us as well.  There is definitely a Story that needs to be shared or told about who Zelda represents in our Story, meaning Eowyn.  Things like what exactly transpired following her ascension, why her to take on that role, etc.  

But, you can also read that phrase as meaning the Legend that Zelda has, or the Legend that comes from her or that she compiled.  This fits very well with the story here, in which we have Eowyn collecting a Legend or Story on her Ithil Stone that will ultimately be shared with Faramir and the Rose Stone.

Anyway, just a thought I had that is probably a tangent, but might also fit in with this Trident theme in some way.  But, let's get back to that Trident.

My first thought honestly went to Neptune or Poseidon.  The Trident is that God's famous symbol, and so I tried to make sense of the image in relation to that.

Poseidon was the Greek God of the Sea, and there has obviously been quite a lot of symbolism and discussion around the "Sea".

I could go a few places with this, but because the dream was again in a Zelda-based theme, I'll stay focused on that aspect and go back to my last Zelda dream.  In that dream, I was shown something as a "Main Quest", with a short description appearing that said:

To be led into the realm of Thingol
There to find that which you most desire

In that post, I had guessed that the "realm of Thingol" was a reference to the "Sea", and by that I meant something like the space between Worlds.  I've described or referenced it as Outer Space or something like that, but I truly don't know how to imagine or think of whatever it is this "Sea" represents.  I just think it is real and will be entered and crossed at some point.  Outer Space is probably the best thing I can picture in imagining what lies between Worlds, I suppose, but at the same time who knows what it is that we are actually talking about here.

As part of this guess as to Thingol's realm, I included a passage from Words of Them That Have Slumbered which mentions that Thingol would inherit or be given Ekkaia - the Waters the encircle the Earth - from Ulmo, the Vala of Waters and Sea.   There is specific mention of a "scepter" in that excerpt that I didn't highlight then, but which might be relevant in thinking about this Trident symbol:

Westward rowed Thingol-king, alone across the vast ocean Ekkaia encircling, traversing what would be - should Eru's promise not withholding - his own kingdom of waters, Ulmo not supplanting, but receiving of him vice-regency, in scepter, when the Vala retires;  As surveying prospective places for improvement in Eru's Original Designs, yet within its manifold layers, immeasured and without end... 

A scepter is a staff that is linked to royalty or some specific sovereign, but also, per Etymonline, based on words which mean "Spear, lance, stick" etc.  And so, in this scepter mentioned here you could picture the Trident, potentially, given its association with the God of Waters.  I do, actually, based on the dream from this morning.

Eowyn is John-Thingol's daughter from a long, long time ago (I think), and her holding the Trident might represent this.  I've also indicated that she may have been (I think probably was) Earwen on Aman for a time (having condescended into that Elvish form after being Ilmare, the Maia).  Earwen was known as the Swan Maiden, but of note in how it fits with this symbol of the Trident, her actual name means "Maiden of the Sea" or just "Sea Maiden".

Lastly, there is also just the general notion of the Trident being a Spear used at Sea.  This is where I go back to the Brittany Spears that I mentioned above.  It appears something - whether a veil, darkness, space itself, I don't know - will be 'pierced' or divided, and a path created.  Think of my dream with the voice asking if I will "step through".  Some passage was created whereby that step could be accomplished.  Which would be an impossible step without the passage or path having been created where there wasn't one before.  In the dream, it was like a portal or door had opened up in the loft of my barn, demonstrating that this isn't some normal door we are talking about here, I don't think.   Again, I don't know how to exactly even visualize or try to get my mind wrapped around what this means, but there is something to this idea or this theme that keeps coming up.

So those are a few random thoughts in relation to the image of Zelda holding a Trident.  Maybe some other things will come of it, but just logging the image and some connections while it is on my mind.  I guess one other thought is that I did write about the Tri-Rod earlier in that new Zelda game.  Tri-Dent is like that, I suppose, at least in that they both have the Tri- element.

The Chip Monks and the Mount of Transfiguration

The three Chip Monks we have identified may also make sense given what is known or guessed at about events on the Mount of Transfiguration.

According to Bible tradition, Jesus went up to a "Mountain" and there was transfigured in the company of at least some of his Apostles as well as other angelic Beings.  Joseph Smith's words in the Doctrine and Covenants seemt to confirm that something did indeed happen on a Mountain with Jesus, that John (Thingol-Aragorn) was present and a witness of this event, but that we do not have a full record or account of what happened there.  In Doctrine and Covenants 63, it is mentioned that the Earth will be transfigured, and that what this meant, or the "pattern" that would be followed in doing so, was shown to the Apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration:

Nevertheless, he that endureth in faith and doeth my will, the same shall overcome, and shall receive an inheritance upon the earth when the day of transfiguration shall come;

When the earth shall be transfigured, even according to the pattern which was shown unto mine apostles upon the mount; of which account the fulness ye have not yet received.

So, there are a bunch of things we don't know about what happened on that Mount, and my guess is that even the accounts or versions we do have may not be completely accurate.

Even with that, however, we can make some assumptions given the stories we have that would suggest that our three Chip Monks were all present and actively participating in events that transpired there.

Both Peter-Simon and Moses-Theodore are clearly there in all versions of the event.  I will propose that Faramir-Alvin is there as well, though under a different name, and that is the one that gets a little complicated, perhaps.  The other two are straightforward, at least as to their being with Jesus in some capacity on the Mount.  For example, in Matthew's version, we have the story begin as follows:

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

OK, so we have Peter, James, and John, plus Moses and Elias, all there with Jesus.  Excluding James, we actually have identities or roles for all of these participants if we assume Elias is Faramir-Eonwe.  I will get to that point as the end of this post since it will be the most complicated.  But, if true, we have the 3 Chip Monks plus John-Aragorn-Thingol and the unknown individual of James (if that is accurate).

The accounts in Mark and Luke place the same individuals at the scene, so I won't also repeat those here, but will note that in Luke's account we have the added detail of Peter and the other disciples sleeping for some time during the event.

The Gospel of John is silent on the matter of the Mount of Transfiguration, but we do get a hint of John's witness and participation in that event in the Doctrine and Covenants as part of Section 93.  John indicates that he witnessed Jesus receiving "all power and glory".  He uses language and symbolism that points to the traditional account of Jesus' baptism (Holy Ghost descending as a Dove, a Voice out of Heaven), but which also strongly suggest or point to events on the Mount of Transfiguration, in which Jesus receives a fulness while still in the flesh (prior to his death and resurrection).  In that account as well, we learn that John has a more complete record or witness of Jesus than we current have at our disposal, and thus it is implied that we do not really even know what or who to worship and how to worship him.

And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father;

And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him.

And it shall come to pass, that if you are faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John.

I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.

For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.

It is important to remember that in my exploratory tale, John the Baptist and John the Revelator/Apostle are the same Being, for what it's worth.

In any case, we don't know a whole lot about what truly happened on that Mount with Jesus.  But the Chip Monks would because they were witnesses to the event.  Again, this is very clear for both Peter and Moses, who are named in all of the versions of the account.

This leaves us with Elias as Faramir-Alvin if we are to have this make sense and be another supporting argument in favor of the role these Chip Monks have and will play as witnesses of Jesus.

Elias is a tricky name and role.  It is traditionally thought of by Bible scholars (as far as I understand - I am not a scholar myself) that this is simply a version of the name Elijah.  Thus, again in my understanding, when many people read of the account of the Mount of Transfiguration, they simply view the angelic Beings who appear with Jesus as Moses and Elijah.

Joseph Smith had a different view of Elias, and this is hinted at in the New Testament as well even without his re-translation of certain passages.   Rather than Elias being Elijah, he viewed Elias as a title or role that was given to various Beings.  Specifically, there would be an "Elias" who was responsible for the gathering of Israel and to "restore all things".  This also includes the role of being a "fore-runner" or preparing the way for Jesus.

In this capacity, John would have played the role of Elias before and during Jesus' ministry.  This is what is hinted at in the New Testament, for example, when Jesus speaks of Elias and the disciples understand him to mean John the Baptist.  In Joseph Smith's "translation" of an excerpt from Matthew, however, we have greater clarity that John was indeed an Elias, but that also importantly there is another Being who is referred to here that is not John, and it is this Being who will restore all things at a future day and also be known as Elias:

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things, as the prophets have written. And again I say unto you that Elias has come already, concerning whom it is written, Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me; and they knew him not, and have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. But I say unto you, Who is Elias? Behold, this is Elias, whom I send to prepare the way before me. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist and also of another who should come and restore all things, as it is written by the prophets

It is very clear here that, at least to how Joseph was processing this scene in his re-translation of various Bible passages, Elias was both John and an unnamed other individual.  Two Beings playing similar roles.

It is this unnamed other individual who I propose is Faramir-Eonwe, or in other words the Holy Ghost.

And this role fits based on what was outlined by Jesus in John 14 in relation to what the Holy Ghost would do at some future day.  He would restore things and knowledge to the disciples, while also preparing the way for Jesus' return.  In a post from last year, I created a short list of the different things Jesus said the Holy Ghost would do - specific actions or roles that were given to him to complete at a future day (these come from John 14 - 16, with the final bullet added from Jesus' words at Bountiful):

• Be sent by the Father in the name of Jesus
• Teach the disciples of Jesus all things
• Bring everything that Jesus taught the disciples to their remembrance
• Testify of Jesus
• Reprove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (what these mean are mentioned)
• Guide the disciples to all truth, including things that Jesus wanted to teach them during his mortal ministry but the disciples were unable to bear
• Speak only what he hears (will not speak of himself)
• Show the disciples things to come (i.e., show the future)
• Receive what Jesus has, and then show it to the disciples
• Glorify Jesus
• Bear record of both the Father and the Son

Further, Joseph Smith gives greater clarity or descriptions as to the role of this future Elias in D&C 77.  Elias will come and restore all things, and as part of this he will "seal" the servants of God in their foreheads, with the assistance of others in performing this.  This "sealing" is part of gathering of the Family of Light back home, in my view, and this of course fits very well with my post just yesterday on what "Restoration" really means - to restore Good for Good and Evil for Evil.  Elias - the Holy Ghost in this future iteration - and his fellow Chip Monks will have a role in this Restoration.

The forehead sealing in conjunction with Elias is also another clue we have tagged the right Being in Alvin-Faramir.  Recall the unique symbol that was placed on the forehead of Harry Potter, for example, in the form of the Lighting Bolt.  I had suggested this Lightning Bolt was symbolic of our Swift Messenger Faramir:

The Lightning Bolt may be a symbol of Eonwe-Faramir and his Family.  As Jah ni hah, he is said to be a "Swift Messenger", which coupled with Light, brings to mind the symbol of the Lightning Bolt. . . 

. . . we see that symbol also in my dream, and in the character of Harry Potter, associated with Peter-Ingwe.  My best guess as to why is that this is the symbol of the Family of Light, and is what is thus sealed on the foreheads of all members of that Family (again, speaking of this symbolically - I don't think people all get large Harry Potter lightning bolts literally carved into their foreheads).

So, in my mind this all fits very well.  The title of Elias, formerly held and performed by John-Aragorn, is passed to Faramir (who once served as John's Steward in LOTR) as part of his responsibilities as the Holy Ghost in bringing to pass the restoration of all things and preparing the way for the return of Jesus.

One other detail from my words in 2019 seems to strongly support this view, and I will close out this post with those and some brief commentary around it.

Back in June, I shared one of my strange phrases from November 2019 in which the Holy Ghost is mentioned (in the form of the name Paraclete, the Greek for Holy Ghost), but with the name "Eli-yhu" in front of it.  At the time, I guessed this to be a form of the name Elias (deriving it from Elijah), and thus we had a Being known as "Elias Holy Ghost".  Here is the phrase and my translation from back in June:

Nov. 3 and 4, 2019

Ever longinquitous lore eli-yhu para-cle'et lea alsado ish nee eshtaru te ak'a to go out useru

My 'translation' (probably not great, but I think good enough, honestly, for this):

 

Ever distant/ remote lore Elias Holy Ghost compose light out of your nothing-place whence I Eressea path very far to go out without love/ lover

For reference and as reminder, I have Eowyn speaking here, and thus the reference to a path that she took alone without Faramir sometime at the beginning of the 4th Age.

The 'remote lore' I believe must refer to the stories that will be found on the Rose Stone and also on the Ithil Stone, and that will be composed or written by Faramir, and will also involve the communication and transmission of such stories over a great, potentially unimaginable, distance.

This is all to say, that despite some potential confusion with the name of Elias/ Elijah, I actually see this future Elias role very clearly as falling on Faramir.  Consequently, it makes complete sense to me to have him and his fellow Chip Monks taking on the roles they will play, specifically their involvement with records, stories, and whatever else in France.

To summarize, then, we have the three Chip Monks present at the Mount of Transfiguration both as key holders, it seems, as well as witnesses.  They both did and witnessed things there, in other words, and it doesn't seem like it was a large crowd that was there.  They are Elias (Faramir-Alvin), Moses (Theodore), and Peter (Simon).  Their past involvement on that Mount was for a reason, I think, even if we don't know all of those reasons right now since we lack the complete and accurate record of what happened there.  Whatever that reason was will also be one of the reasons for their future involvement in this story, which includes the Study and its Records in France.

"For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored"

This team of Chip Monks or the three Magi makes sense to me in light of another "Law" of Heaven.  That law or principle being Restoration.

Alma the Younger had three sons that were at least spoken of in the Book of Mormon.  Two of those - Helaman and Shiblon - I have pegged as our Stone Couriers, Glorfindel and Gildor.  Alma talked to each of them about certain things as recorded in the Book of Alma, and the discussion with Helaman I have mentioned before in light of the Brass Plates and the Anor Stone.

The third and youngest son, Corianton, got a little different discussion than the other two did, since he had apparently done some things that required repentance.  Alma basically pointed out what he did wrong, asked him to repent, and told him why it was so important to repent.  That importance came down to what Alma referred to as Restoration.

This Restoration was spoken of both in terms of a Resurrection (spirits and bodies being reunited together) as well as with Being and their works (Good and Evil Beings restored to Good and Evil, respectively).

Alma will ask Corianton if it is just to take something and place it in a state or place that is not in harmony with its nature, and if this fits with the concept of Restoration?  The answer is clearly no:

And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature?

O, my son, this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.

Restoration is to bring things back to how they were - Good will be Good again, and unfortunately Evil will still be Evil.  That is how the game works.

Therefore, Alma is telling Corianton to choose to do and be Good, and in so doing, Good will be restored to him again.  Here is how he puts it:

Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.

For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all.

This fits as well with what Amulek had earlier taught (in partnership with Alma) to those at Ammonihah, specifically Zeezrom, about what Salvation and Redemption looks like, and it again comes back to Restoration.   Zeezrom tried to initially misconstrue Amulek's words; he asked whether God will save people in their sins, and Amulek said that no, he won't.  Zeezrom tried to portray this as Amulek limiting God in some way, or pretending to tell God what is or is not possible.  Amulek simply said that God won't deny his word.  If one has chosen Evil, at the last day they will have a 'bright recollection' of all their guilt.  The wicked will "remain as though there had been no redemption made", with the exception that they will still be resurrected.

This concept of restoration is not only limited to a final judgment, I believe, but also in the ongoing roles and missions Beings are called to play in this ongoing Story.  Good Beings who have done Good have those Good things restored to them in various ways.

We have seen that already somewhat in the story of the Brother of Jared.  I highlighted in an earlier post that if he did in fact make those Doors of Durin as Celebrimbor, this Good Act was restored to him later as the Brother of Jared, when he was able to use those doors to access Moria, obtain the necessary materials for his Stones (Mithril), and gain the required Light for the journey (as well as be taught and shown things by Jesus that may prove important and critical in a coming day).

What I mean is, almost in a Karma-esque way, it seems that this law of restoration works at an individual level in the stories of Beings even before some kind of final judgment, and that works or intents from previous lives and incarnations are returned or restored to those same Beings in the future.  And not just some vague thread or general things in their lives, but very specific stories and acts.

JRR Tolkien, in this story, would be a similar example, if you think about it.  If he did in fact play the role of Frodo in the real story of LOTR, then that story was returned to him in a later life in the form of JRR Tolkien, and the books we have today are just such an act of restoration.  Frodo not only lived the story, but he was careful to preserve it and write it all down (in the Red Book of Westmarch).  That good story was returned for him to tell.

So, I see a similar thing in the lives and roles of these Three Chip Monks.  Each of them had roles to play in earlier lives, that included specific actions, witnesses, and records, that will be restored to them, I think, in the events that include whatever is to be found in Tom Bombadil's Study.  In other words, it isn't just a bunch of random guys showing up there and getting some records that they had no previous part in.  Rather, these are their own books and stories being returned or restored to them.  

For example, with Faramir-Eonwe, my guess is he had a hand in both the initial recording of Joseph's words on Rose Stone, as well as its later burial or hiding away.  That Stone and the words on it will be returned to him.  Similarly, the Brother of Jared and Moses (if they are the same Being) had a hand in both the recording and preservation of whatever the current Brass Plates are, as well as the account that was written following the Brother of Jared's mountain vision (and the interpreters that came along with it).  Peter's words, I have guessed, are to be found among the Records on the Ithil Stone, along with his fellow Apostles, and those words will be returned to him as well.  Perhaps other things, too, that we don't yet know about.

What I am trying to say, is there is a reason these three are involved, and it is a result of their own past choices, which included following the will of Jesus, even if they have basically no memory of that now.  In fact, it is likely for such a time as they will find themselves in that Jesus asked them to do what they did in the first place, so that those things could be restored to them, and then from there published and shared with a much larger set of Beings.

Because of this, the current trio that I've thought through here largely makes sense to me, of course in the context that there will be many more record keepers and witnesses called to take part in this whole endeavor than just these three.  Plenty of people have taken part in the creation and preservation of Truth.

But again, the task at hand isn't just about Records, but how Beings will establish a Path for all who will come to follow.  Based on past works, implied powers and capabilities given from God, and future tasks still yet to do (including unfinished business on this world and elsewhere), I think it is as good a team as any.  They seem to be the ones for the job at hand.  

To close, I thought of one other scripture that further supports this notion of Men being called to do things based on prior work and repentance.  In Alma 13, Alma the Younger teaches those at Ammonihah (the same place that I mentioned earlier with Amulek's restoration words) that there is a Holy Order, and the Men became part of this Order by choosing to repent and perform Good Works.  This willingness to repent and do Good put them in a place of privilege in which they would receive "holy callings".  My guess is that what I imagine happening in France and then later beyond that place is an example of just such a holy calling to Beings of that Order:

And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption.

And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.

And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.

The redemption that will come, as I imagine it, from these Stones, Records, and Stories currently housed in France I think would fit this description of a "preparatory redemption".  Some of these things, like the Rose Stone, have been kept hidden from the very beginning of the World, and some things have been a long time in preparation and preservation.  There seems to be a plan in place.  These Three will take part in that plan according to their callings, but it will be in conjunction with a much larger team of Good Beings that have their own callings and responsibilities as well.  These Three I just have put some more thought into lately as it seems their work does something to restore some truths and build a bridge or some kind of path (you know, across outer space or something like that), and that this is an important future step for Beings on our own Earth to head for greener pastures and stand in Holy Places.