From the Narrow Desert

On October 28th, 2010, Redditor OrdinaryPanda submitted a post to the /r/AskReddit subreddit, which asked what words or phrases other Redditors misunderstood as children. In the comments section of the post, Redditor Lord_Baron confessed to mishearing the quote "Knowledge is power – Francis Bacon" as Knowledge is power, France is bacon." Prior to being archived, the commented accumulated over 7,600 up votes.

Francis Bacon (28 October 1909 – 28 April 1992) was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his raw, unsettling imagery. Focusing on the human form, his subjects included crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-portraits, and portraits of close friends, with abstracted figures sometimes isolated in geometrical structures. Rejecting various classifications of his work, Bacon said he strove to render "the brutality of fact." He built up a reputation as one of the giants of contemporary art with his unique style.

Recently, I was about to see a painting by a favourite artist that I had never viewed in the flesh—the Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650) by Diego Velázquez in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome. Yet amid my excitement was a hint of trepidation. Two things provoked it. First, the fear of disappointment. Just before my visit, the artist Mark Leckey had confided in our A brush with... podcast how he had journeyed to view Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling but found that he “couldn’t see it”. He said: “I made this pilgrimage. And then it was denied by the crowds and everything else. It was just horrible.”

William Wright proposes that the first element in the name Moriancumer refers to Moria -- the Dwarrowdelf of Tolkien, subject of the Song of Durin -- and that there is a hidden reference in the Book of Mormon to the Brother of Jared, like Gandalf, opening the gates of Khazad-dûm by uttering the password friend.

While writing this I thought to check William Wright's blog, and found he's posting again. (A second small sync: Another Will Wright is famous for simulation games, most notably The Sims, which lets players create and somewhat control virtual people. Not-quite-free men!)

I look to the story, or rather my updated story, of the Brother of Jared to demonstrate the truth of that sentence I just wrote.  He moved a mountain by faith.  In an earlier post, I suggest that the mountain that he moved was actually Durin's Door in order to access the mines of Moria, obtain Mithril that could be fashioned into stones, and have Jesus fill those stones with light.

In the video, there are 3 colored triangles and also loose colored string on the set.  At the midpoint of the video (about the 2 minute mark), we find Petty singing in front of a black backdrop.  He then proceeds to smash through this backdrop to reveal a member of the band behind it.  With that band member is the red triangle, and the red string now seeming to extend out from both him and the triangle.  We then see the blue triangle with the same band member now with blue string, and lastly the yellow triangle, but this triangle is inverted and now, to me at least, resembles more something like a jewel or diamond.

Sam: Does anybody ever experience light without any source? You see it on the wall or on the ceiling. It could be in a triangular shape or round. Sometimes I see a triangle. Three triangles together on the ceiling. Has anybody else seen that?

The stone it called to me

And now I see the things the stone has shown to me

A rock that spoke a word

An animated mineral it can be heard

. . .

And now it is your turn

Your turn to hear the stone and then your turn to burn

The stone it calls to you

You can't refuse to do the things it tells you to

In the dream, I was back in the house I grew up in (and that my parents still live in).  I was talking with my dad about something, and I started to say something like "It just feels like things are close, because I can hear you guys upstairs on your ceramics making a lot of noise".  As I was saying this, my dad's face transformed into that of Keanu Reeves as the character of Neo in the Matrix movies, which was a bit strange, and I found that it was difficult to tell whether the words I said were coming from me or the person I was now facing as Neo.  As soon as I became aware of this, I woke up.

In the video for "The Statue Got Me High," as the intro is playing -- the part that freaked me out so much when I first heard it and made me remember the three triangles -- the camera zooms in on a giant ceramic cup and saucer:

As they sing, "And now I see the things the stone has shown to me," we see this:

This video was made seven years before The Matrix, but it certainly seems to prefigure it:

After reading Mr. Wright's posts, I found a new comment from Wandering Gondola -- who plays lots of video games so I don't have to -- pointing out that my three triangles in a triangular configuration suggest the Triforce from the Legend of Zelda franchise. It's a bit different (Zelda on the left, a reconstruction of what I saw on the right) but certainly suggestive:

Zelda made me think of F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, and then I seemed to remember that Fitzgerald had appeared on this blog once before. He had indeed, in the October 2022 post "Blasphemy against Zeus, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and whale vision," featuring this image:

What's that on F. Scott's head? Look familiar? The image on the Zeus Is a Dick book also suggests a line from "Statue": "The monument of granite sent a beam into my eye."

In my 2022 post, I connect this juxtaposition of Fitzgerald and dick with Tender Is the Night -- a novel in which the main characters, Dick and Nicole Diver, are based on the author and his wife, Zelda.

Oh, by the way, the F stands for Francis.

I've also just noticed that "Statue" contains an indirect Michelangelo reference: "The truth is where the sculptor's chisel chipped away the lie" -- alluding to the apocryphal story about Michelangelo saying he created his masterpiece by "just chipping away anything that doesn't look like David."

"I run continental drift, and guide the butterfly migration, and keep icebergs in the right place, and prevent people from boiling goats in their mothers' milk. . . . I have never seen anything to convince me that God plays an active part in the universe. His role seems to be entirely ontological."

"You can't be a deist! You're an archangel!"

"I am not a very good archangel."

"What about San Francisco?" [which in the novel has been transformed into heaven on earth]

"God can have a right hand as well as a left hand. I see no evidence that either is controlled by any head. . . . God created Adam Kadmon, the fundamental structure that binds everything together. . . ."

I've said to a few friends of mine that I see [Aleister Crowley's philosophy of] Thelema as a decapitated version of the same philosophy in my work -- that the two systems bear some philosophical resemblance to each other and that there is a certain resonance between them. However, my ideas find their symbolic head in Christ and the spirit of Christianity. This can be seen in the fact that the head of Abraxas represents Christ in my cosmogram. Thelema, by contrast, has no such authority. . . . Because of this choice of words, "decapitated," it gave me pause when I discovered that the Bornless Ritual which Crowley performed inside the Great Pyramid of Giza was originally called the Headless Rite, and it begins with these words: "I summon you, Headless One!"

And when [Riplakish] had reigned for the space of forty and two years the people did rise up in rebellion against him; and there began to be war again in the land, insomuch that Riplakish was killed, and his descendants were driven out of the land (Ether 10:8).

And it came to pass that Levi did serve in captivity after the death of his father, for the space of forty and two years (Ether 10:15).

And it came to pass that Com drew away the half of the kingdom. And he reigned over the half of the kingdom forty and two years (Ether 10:32).

This Aethyr being accursèd, and the seer forewarned, he taketh these precautions for the scribe.

First let the scribe be seated in the centre of the circle in the desert sand, and let the circle be fortified by the Holy Names of God --- Tetragrammaton and Shaddai El Chai and Ararita.

And let the Demon be invoked within a triangle, wherein is inscribed the name of Choronzon, and about it let him write ANAPHAXETON --- ANAPHANETON -- PRIMEUMATON, and in the angles MI-CA-EL: and at each angle the Seer shall slay a pigeon, and having done this, let him retire to a secret place, where is neither sight nor hearing, and sit within his black robe, secretly invoking the Aethyr.

This number 42 is the Great Number of the Curse.  See Liber 418, Liber 500, and the essay on the Qabalah in the Temple of Solomon the King.  This number is said to be all hotch-potch and accursed.

The chapter should be read most carefully in connection with the 10th Aethyr.  It is to that dramatic experience that it refers.

And it came to pass that after he had smitten off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised up on his hands and fell; and after that he had struggled for breath, he died (Ether 15:31).

So, what was my motivation? Difficult to say. My visit was inspired mostly by my eleven-year-old son’s desire to see the Sistine Chapel, a desire I shared even though I struggled to pinpoint the source of my interest. Was it all about seeing a magnificent work of art, or was there more to it than that?

The Pope then superglued himself in between the hands of Adam and God in the central depiction of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. "This is symbolic, my children!" Pope Francis shouted while waiting for the glue to dry. "I am placing myself between God and man because — oh, this glue is irritating my skin. I wasn't expecting that."

Francis Barrett was an occultist. The standard biography of him was written by Francis X. King. Barrett's magnum opus, The Magus, includes a chapter "On the Wonderful Virtues of Some Kind of Precious Stones."

It took a little longer to realise the "drowning boy" figures into this too. Majora is rather dark and disturbing, to the point it spawned a popular creepypasta-thing, Ben Drowned. I knew little about it before reading Wiki; figures it started on /x/.

The light was boring down on us, glaring malevolently through the evening. Fear literally rolled over me, transforming me in an instant from a competent if slightly uneasy CIG officer into a terrified little boy.

One moment I was standing there and the next I was racing through the underbrush. I had no clear thoughts. I just wanted to get away from that light. I was drowning in the ocean of desert.

Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelming question ...

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.

The light of sun and star and moon

In shining lamps of crystal hewn

Undimmed by cloud or shade of night

There shone for ever fair and bright.

But still the sunken stars appear

In dark and windless Mirrormere;

There lies his crown in water deep,

Till Durin wakes again from sleep.

Yesterday one of my employees and I went through the twice-yearly ritual of completing the meaningless fire-safety paperwork that gives the fire department something to do between fires. As always, a series of photos have to be attached: of a staff member holding a fire extinguisher, opening the door, answering the phone, etc. One of the required photos was this:

That's a pointing finger and an electric ceiling light, plus a mask for good measure.

This morning, less than 24 hours after taking the above photo, I was browsing a meme dump and found this:

The ceiling-light "sun" also suggests a UFO, of course, and it reminded me of "The time I mistook the sun for the Andromeda Galaxy."

I had no morning classes today, so, as is my habit these days, I went to a coffee shop to read the Book of Mormon -- Chapters 2 through 5 of the Book of Ether. Ether is the name of a prophet, no relation to the quintessence or to anaesthesia ("etherized upon a table"), though plenty of jokes have been made about the latter (cf. Mark Twain's quip that the BoM is "chloroform in print"). This section covers the Jaredites' creation of "barges" (actually hermetically sealed vessels) to cross the ocean, with supernatural shining crystals providing the illumination. The main character is the unnamed "Brother of Jared," whose real name Mormon tradition holds was Mahonri Moriancumer. In his September 2 post "Jaredites in Moria: Making sense out of the Brother of Jared and his shining stones," William Wright proposes that the first element in the name Moriancumer refers to Moria -- the Dwarrowdelf of Tolkien, subject of the Song of Durin -- and that there is a hidden reference in the Book of Mormon to the Brother of Jared, like Gandalf, opening the gates of Khazad-dûm by uttering the password friend.

The shining stones in Ether shine because -- fitting right into a major theme of this post -- they were literally touched by the finger of God:

And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea. . . .

And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear (Ether 3:4, 6).

And they were built after a manner that they were exceedingly tight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish; and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish (Ether 2:17).

Saucer, dish, disk -- it's all the same thing.

Drowning -- or asphyxiating underwater, anyway -- is also a concern as the dish-tight vessels are being created:

And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me, and I have made the barges according as thou hast directed me. And behold, O Lord, in them . . . we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish.

And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top, and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood (Ether 2:18-20).

When it rains, it pours

But you didn't even notice it ain't rainin' anymore

It's hard to breathe when all you know is

The struggle of stayin' above the risin' water line

An unpredictably rising water line was a worry for the Jaredites, too: "ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you" (Ether 2:24).

Remember that Will Stone describes himself as "drowning in the ocean of the desert." In my September 15 post "When life gives you lemons, make le monde," I mentioned that as a child I always thought the Mormon word Deseret was just desert, expanded to three syllables to fit the meter of the song "In Our Lovely Deseret." The word originates in the Book of Ether, where it refers to the honeybees the Jaredites carry with them across the ocean: "And they did also carry with them deseret, which, by interpretation, is a honey bee; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees" (Ether 2:3).

Here's a coloring-book page from the CJCLDS, showing UFO-esque "barges" complete with honeybees and shining stones:

When I returned home from the coffee shop and went into my study, I found that the desk (etymologically another disk or dish) where I usually read had several small stones on it. They weren't there when I left; I later found my wife had just acquired them and hadn't found a place to put them yet.

Small stones sync with the Brother of Jared story, as he prepared "sixteen small stones" (Ether 3:1) for God to touch with his finger. There weren't 16 stones on my desk, but I guess there were 1 + 6, since the pyrite is clearly the odd man out.