Notes & a partial draft of Scene 9, Ch. 5

         Late mid-morning. Carol and Paul are taking Owen for a doctor’s appointment, then lunch with Kim (near Case). You will probably mow the front yard this afternoon as Paul will be out of town until Sunday afternoon due to a wedding.

         After supper of leftovers and you are at the Beechwood Mall west parking lot sitting near Nordstrom’s, cattycornered from Legacy Mall. You haven’t worked on the scene at all today, thinking China then remembering it is Egypt. Let’s get started. > Post what you have. You have done further research and found You Tube videos of Luxor and Karnak. Lots to take in. Tomorrow, dude. – Amorella.

         As I haven’t been to Egypt this is definitely more difficult and obviously not authentic, but then I haven’t been dead either so there is obvious room for imagination. I cannot get so involved that I do not realize it is not real. But, I like to get as close as I can in my head.

Scene 9

         The three appeared standing near the west bank of what appeared to them to be a smaller River Styx. Looking further west they saw a large temple which appeared to Panagiotakis be a built to the sun-god Amun-Re.

         Takis said, “This temple appears in a replication of an area Luxor and Karnak near the Nile River. The Valley of the Pharaohs, at least some of them is further west.” While he was thinking, I do not know which is the replication, he thought, the one Here, in this Land of the Dead, or the one on Earth.

         “How is the Styx so narrow here?” as if he could not think differently.

         “The major Styx is on the other side of that rise a few miles. This is the minor Styx. No life within. No rain. Same blue sky with a trace of clouds. Same stars. Same moon, or so it appears.”

         “I don’t understand,” said Mario.

         “They created the island to the east so they would have a Nile.”

         “Like we are attempting to build a bridge. I am amazed,” he replied. We know we could go out into the river but no one ever thought to build an island out there.

         “The lush foliage is different from our Elysium,” noted Aeneas wondering how that can be as the Styx does not support life.

         With a hardy laugh, old Takis replied, “It is easy to see an illusion that is not your own.”

         “Where are the Dead?” asked Mario.

         “They don’t see us. A shaman will appear soon enough. We might as well sit.”

         They returned to the comfortable cross-legged sitting positions, saying little but glancing about from time to time hoping to see someone.  [to be continued]

Notes

         Up to see Kim off to work. Paul had already left for another twenty-four hours. Breakfast with the Today show on in the background and Owen cooing his talk on his blanket of animal designs and you think old Takis would like that – a baby bonding with the symbolic elements on the blanket. Living animals were symbols on the run. Movement – symbols that moved. Letters are shaken when spoken, this is the old magic, orndorff, at least in these books it is. The shout. The roar of the crowd. Magic. The theatre of the symbol that stirs the heart and soul and mind.

         Up from a nap while Owen is napping. > Now feeding. > Spent time relaxing watching last Monday’s CSI. Mid-afternoon and you are ready for another nap. Out to dinner or take home tonight.

         Scene nine will take the three to another ‘island’ as it were. Check your history lines and we’ll pick another civilization from around eight hundred BCE.

         Is the River Styx going to be wrapped around each island?

         In a sense, we have to keep this simple enough. A separation by river is plausible in most civilizations of those days, either that or actually islands and we can have them in the Styx too. It is not like ‘The Matrix’ in setting. I’ll explain more as it is needed. The setting will be congruent with then and book six, the modern revolution of the Dead. Post this for now. – Amorella. 

         Almost eighteen hundred hours. You have ten pages on Ancient Egypt and have chosen a city to be representative. The Styx is the Eternal Nile Downstream, if you go far enough is the hidden Karnak Temple Complex so there is no way to get home to the Living. That will be a good enough premise. You will meet another shaman. He is the only one to communicate with.

         Time for bed. You have not had a chance to really go over the material but plan to do so tomorrow. I think you will be surprised what you find in what you have downloaded, orndorff. – Amorella.

         Well, I did scan read those pages but nothing significant stood out. If it is something useful, good.

         You read it like you were reading the content of one of your student’s papers.  Below from Wikipedia.

         Ancient Egypt:

         In contrast to elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards the gods, the Middle Kingdom experienced an increase in expressions of personal piety and what could be called a democratization of the afterlife, in which all people possessed a soul and could be welcomed into the company of the gods after death.[37] Middle Kingdom literature featured sophisticated themes and characters written in a confident, eloquent style,[32] and the relief and portrait sculpture of the period captured subtle, individual details that reached new heights of technical perfection.[38]

             At Karnak:

The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, but not yet restored. The original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatsheput, although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area.

            I was surprised by the above. Time for bed. 

Notes & Scene 8, ch. 5

         Up before early. You came downstairs and promptly forgot what was on your mind.

         Habit. I punched Safari. Checked my email to find an iTunes ad. I opened it and found all this ‘stuff’ and deleted. Checked Fbk to find nothing new. I should have punched Notes first.

         What did you expect to find?

         Something on my mind. I will say this. Many years ago I thought it would be extremely cool if someone invented a machine to read your mind for just twenty-four hours – everything, conscious and unconscious. I would do it in a minute. Now I have all this ‘stuff’ – at least twenty years worth and it appears relatively meaningless ramblings.

         Why did you change ‘is’ to ‘appears’ three lines ago?

         Because deep down I don’t think it is completely meaningless, I think I have meaning. I think all human beings have meaning.

         Do you think human beings have purpose?

         Only what they create for themselves.

         There you go, that’s what’s on your mind presently. Post. Perhaps later you will remember what you forgot. – Amorella.

         Up again at mid-morning. Breakfast. Paul got in, took Owen duty and is heading up to bed. Carol is watching Owen. A change is shifts. You tried playing with the cat but she wanted to be chased and finally gave up on you for that cat game. Nothing remembered, nothing gained.

         You watched last night’s ‘V’ on the iPad with earphones. Works wonders.

         It bothers me, the sense of aliens – mostly I guess I hope better, that we can raise our standards. Romantic idealism, I know. ‘V’ is straight sci fi, more Heinlein and soap oriented than Asimov. Old standards of fifty years ago. I enjoy the show but it leaves me a bit down in the dumps every week.

         Let’s see how many words we have. > Four thousand, one hundred and thirty-nine.

         This chapter is taking a long time. I have a feeling I am running out of things to say. > We are back at the grocery as Paul is watching Owen. Carol wants to make something special for supper and needs more ingredients. Supposedly I’m cooking up something for scene eight, or rather Amorella has already cooked it up, but I am not sure where we are going. In context it might be best to have Mario and Aeneas meet up with Takis but it is going to take longer than a day to walk the ten or so miles. I suppose Takis can hurry them along but how? The Dead, it would seem to me, have no place for magic and spells and the like. They appear to hardly exist at all yet the books are full of them. Very odd juxtapositioning here. A bit funny when I think about it.

         Let’s get to it orndorff.

Scene 8

         Early afternoon. Mario and Aeneas are on the north cliff looking back and down to the bridge construction in progress. “The temple gate appears done from here,” said Aeneas, “and there is progress on the first section of the bridge.”

         “It will take a while but the path is the optimum way to find Panagiotakis,” replied Mario a few minutes later. “We ought to be there by dusk.”

         Walking the river’s edge was comfortable and somewhat relaxing, and Aeneas wondered why he didn’t take it more often just to escape the ordinary urban environs. Aeneas was also the first to notice a disheveled looking stranger walking towards them. Upon the observation the stranger waved in a familiar and friendly fashion. “Hello!” shouted Takis with an energetic smile. “I hear you two boys are looking for me.” He said nothing more until they met with a greeting ritual of a slight bow of the head and an extension of the right hands in a short clipped clasp at the same moment. The hands are let go as the nod of the heads rises. Surprisingly to Mario, Takis took Aeneas’s hand first but he greeted both warmly. [to be continued]

**

         As I worked on this I had the notion to check ‘substance theory’ on Wikipedia because I feel this is a direction which the conversation is about to follow. Here are two slightly edited selections:

Substance theory, or substance attribute theory, is an ontological theory about object-hood, positing that a substance is distinct from its properties. This is part of essentialism in that ousia as a substance can also be a descriptor of an object's being (ontology) and/or nature. As substance or ousia is a permanent property of an object without which the object no longer remains itself and therefore becomes some other object. Adherence to the philosophical doctrine of substance theory is known as substantialism. . . .

Argument from grammar

The argument from grammar uses traditional grammar to support substance theory. For example, the sentence, "Snow is white," contains a grammatical subject, "snow", and the assertion that the grammatical subject is white. The argument holds that it makes no grammatical sense to speak of "whiteness" disembodied, without snow or some other grammatical subject that is white. That is, the only way to make a meaningful claim is to speak of a grammatical subject and to predicate various properties of it. Substance theory calls this grammatical subject of predication a substance. Thus, in order to make claims about physical objects, one must refer to substances, which must exist in order for those claims to be meaningful.

Many ontology’s, including bundle theory, reject the argument from grammar on the basis that a grammatical subject does not necessarily refer to a metaphysical subject. Bundle theory, for example, maintains that the grammatical subject of statement refers to its properties. For example, a bundle theorist understands the grammatical subject of the sentence, "Snow is white", as a referent to a bundle of properties, including perhaps the containing of ice crystals, being cold, and being a few feet deep. To the bundle theorist, the sentence then modifies that bundle of properties to include the property of being white. The bundle theorist, then, maintains that one can make meaningful statements about bodies without referring to substances that lack properties.

**

         You are back into the intent of interaction as far as Takis is concerned. This will go more smoothly than you anticipate. Time for a break. Post. Later, old man. – Amorella.

         Later, is here, and you have finished scene eight. Post it. There is more to being in scene nine. – Amorella.

         You were right. This went quickly. I was embedded in the characters and their short conversation. I am embedded in the emptiness. I am also held in the intensity of heartsoulmind matter of old Takis.

         Yes, you are. We are back to a primitive form trancephysics, don’t you see. So simple, even a child in imagination can be carried from place to place with heartsoulmind. No light. No matter. – Amorella. 

Scene 8

         Early afternoon. Mario and Aeneas are on the north cliff looking back and down to the bridge construction in progress. “The temple gate appears done from here,” said Aeneas, “and there is progress on the first section of the bridge.”

         “It will take a while but the path is the optimum way to find Panagiotakis,” replied Mario a few minutes later. “We ought to be there by dusk.”

         Walking the river’s edge was comfortable and somewhat relaxing, and Aeneas wondered why he didn’t take it more often just to escape the ordinary urban environs. Aeneas was also the first to notice a disheveled looking stranger walking towards them. Upon the observation the stranger waved in a familiar and friendly fashion. “Hello!” shouted Takis with an energetic smile. “I hear you two boys are looking for me.” He said nothing more until they met with a greeting ritual of a slight bow of the head and an extension of the right hands in a short clipped clasp at the same moment. The hands are let go as the nod of the heads rises. Surprisingly to Mario, Takis took Aeneas’s hand first but he greeted both of Mother’s boys warmly.

         Mario broke the ice first as they sat cross-legged a few feet from the Styx and observed the man carefully. Bedraggled and loosely woven clothing, olive skinned, wide thick eyebrows, a large nose and ruddy cheeks, a red rumpled and somewhat torn towel-wrapped turban on his head. The old man grinned at him with worn and yellowed teeth, the front one gapped enough to squirt a strong line of spit through. His dark eyes mirrored the young man’s puzzled gaze as he heard Mario speak,  “You are one of the exceptions.”

         “I am.” And, you are not, said Takis to himself.

         Mario added, “You are Mother’s grandfather.” And, I am one of her much later children, thought Mario.

         Takis sat with his right hand and index finger raised skyward. “I knew I was being dreamed by Merlyn in the beginning of Book One.” Takis paused then continued, “He was wrong, you know.”

         “We were not in Merlyn’s dream. We have not read the dream.” said Aeneas. “Who is Merlyn?”

         Merlyn dreamed I was eighteen thousand years ago, but now in the present it was one hundred and eighty thousand years ago.”

         “We are dead,” responded Aeneas, “we are not in the present. We are in Elysium.”

         Old Takis winked at Mario and said, “Aeneas, if the Dead are not in the Present, then they are in the Past or the Future.”

         “Wait,” said Mario in a quick defense, “On Earth we are in the Past. Here is our eternal Present.”

         “If this were so, young Mario, then you could not be building a wall into the Future.”

         “You do not make sense, old man,” rebuked Aeneas.

         Old Takis, with wide eyed grin, pointed above his head and replied, “Sense is not made, boy. Sense is.”

         “The Future is already walled. How can we be building one?” asked Mario.

         “The bridge is a wall,” stated Takis calmly.

         This is a trick, thought Aeneas, “Takis, you are old and wise. No Dead is older Here. We want to know if it is possible to visit the Dead of tribes other than Greece?”

         “I am not of Greece, nor is Mother.”

         “How are you here in Elysium?”

         “I am no more here than you are,” said Takis as he studied Aeneas’s eyes. He turned to Mario, “Does young Aeneas here have eyes?”

         “Yes, of course. We all have eyes,” said Mario.

         Takis feigned a deep sigh and with finger still pointed upward asked, “Where is the light?” Noting the sudden silence, Takis added, “Where is the matter?”

         Just as suddenly being Dead took on an added meaning of emptiness in black. Just as surprising to Mario and Aeneas, the three still sat cross-legged on and within Nothing. Intensity held them to the clear foreign mind of the old, once disheveled one, whose name is Panagiotakis and not Panagiotakis both at once.

***

Notes & a completed scene seven, Ch.5

        Afternoon. Owen care, chores and errands all morning and into the grocery at thirteen hundred hours. Owen’s on a nap and Carol is play Sudoku. The house is quiet. You are usually your best for focusing on writing when it is library quiet. We need to take advantage of it.

         “Hello, I am Takis, one of the originals. Living or Dead the elements of our environment are useful be it one or two hundred thousand years. I detect you are cat minded is this so?”

         “I Merlyn do indeed have a cat. I must confess I am not Merlyn of old, and I have a cat not so old. She is short haired, an Egyptian, then Roman, then English, then American short hair, she is a natural therapy cat.”

         “I know the Merlyn you speak of as he is in the books. I have met the characters in the books and understand your dilemma.”

        

         “I am sorry. I do not remember the dilemma other than I did not feel comfortable ‘becoming’ a character such as yourself. I have a hard enough time with Merlyn. Amorella writes in my mind and the words run out my fingers.”

         “Just as well they don’t run out anywhere else, especially your tongue.”

         “I assume you will help the two who are coming your way find a way to connect with the other Dead, the foreign Dead as they are likely to say.”

         “You did not call me. Amorella did. Amorella is a ‘cracker-pop’.

         “What is a ‘cracker-pop’?”

        

“A 'spine-tingler', in the best sense of the word. I will help the boys, young Merlyn. But you have to remember we are all intangibles. All for now, young Merlyn.”

That was not expected.

        

What was, orndorff?

Looking up intangible (as a noun) I found this in Merriam-Webster: “something intangible: as A: an asset (as goodwill) that is not corporeal; B: an abstract quality or attribute (as loyalty or creativity).”

I assume Takis is talking about the characters in the book, which is obvious. Not so obvious, he is talking about the Living and the Dead.  I don’t know what he meant by ‘cat-minded’ as I do not imagine myself as a cat.

This is not true, orndorff. Empathy is a modern word for an ancient magical sense. Your cat and you communicate. For instance, less than an hour ago she walked by, tail up where you could stroke it, then she walked to a box with toys in it and looked inside. The sun was shining on the toys and she likes to take a sunbath in the box when the circumstance presence itself. You knew this from prior observation and took the toys out as she watched, walked back to the chair to sit and she was quickly in the box with the sun. Empathy is a key, a pathway to wisdom. Nothing magic about it these days, but it is still true nevertheless. – Amorella.

I don’t see empathy as a key to wisdom.

I don’t care. Post. Later, dude. – Amorella. 

NCIS is over and you are prepared to do some writing. Put some earphones on to block out the television. 

Scene 7

         Ten miles upstream from the bridge construction the Shaman Panagiotakis also sits cross-legged under a tree which is on the wooded edge some two hundred yards west of the River Styx as the other three, Mother, Mario and Aeneas are beginning their conversation in the previous scene.

         Takis, as he likes to be called, has eyes for all of his natural-like surroundings in Elysium. The greatest of human virtues in his moral eyes is Prudence not Justice. He governs and disciplines himself by reason and sometimes Reason with a capital. That is his perspective. Good Judgment and Circumspection surround this sense of Prudence like the great circles of stones surround the great tree at Mother’s. He is the stone and the wood that reflects the reality of wherever he finds himself. He is a chameleon, a Master shape-shifter of mind. Takis was as a ghost when alive. Now Dead for over 170 thousand years, he has a mind that has danced far beyond Merlyn’s and his Druid clans.

         Takis waits in Silence as Patience is another virtue. Waiting is easier when Dead. Besides, Takis has been to the other side of the Styx. Takis knows what others do not. He understands some of what he knows. This is what makes him a dangerous man even among the Dead.

Takis sits drifting over the surface of the River Styx in the distance. He thinks. ‘Vertical this river appears to Mother. A wall. Mother’s elite are constructing a bridge to walk across the Styx when they should be building a ladder for the climbing. When they arrive for my advice I will tell them of the necessity of the ladder.’

Foreign Dead. A strange term. No one is foreign Here just as no foreigners exist among the Living. Consciousness finds its own kettle for cooking. Up, down, left, right – these mean nothing by themselves. Intensity flowers and seeds then flowers again. Corners tackle the mind, corners pointed in or out comes nowhere closer to the truth than the River Styx. Thoughts end in tangles as reason bends into itself. The elements the Dead miss. Take away gravity and grave and where is Life’s purpose? Illusion is more important than the reality that creates it, just as Consciousness is more important than the reality it creates.

When we leave this Place our Elysium will surely fade like childhood, and become another footstep left for heartsoulmind to puddle into.

Unclouded, Takis’s mind lucidly dreamed in symbols as nearly always.

Aa Bb Cc Dd

Ee Ff Gg

Hh Ii Jj Kk

Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp

Qq Rr Ss Tt

Uu Vv

Ww Xx Yy Zz

The storied Letters run to and fro,

Where they land is where I go.

 A Cracker-Pop runs the Intangibles above and I see two young ones, Aeneas and Mario, a-walking this way from Mother’s to discover an untold mystery Here at Elysium, these Elysian Fields, these Islands of the Blessed. Where are the others? This is a question a long time coming. I ran the symbols above through three books and the beginning of a fourth told by Merlyn to one younger. Dimensions are two-fold in a symbolic language that roots Indo-European in reading but the dimensions are greater than four to the approaching mind. Strange they kept the Roman letters, children of the Greek and Egyptian pictograph in formation.

 The Styx, a one way current near the top and an opposite current near its bottom. Modern quantum electrodynamics theory coupled with the slanted and ancient view of these Elysian Fields and another vision may be seen where we Dead view a river, branch reality. What use is such modern physics here as there is no light. We Dead have no eyes but memory. Strangely, few remember this. Fewer still act upon it.

 I am Here because I enter at this place in the six books. I enter in another Here in the beginning of Grandma’s Story in book one. A good place to be from, the Beginning of Expanding Consciousness as seen and felt in a symbolic reasoning that fellow human beings can understand. One’s person is named in such letters as my own. Takis. Even my fourth letter ‘I’ is in such as you the reader as well as Mario. My second letter ‘A’ is the first in this modern alpha-beta. Every T and A and K and I and S is a part of my own human nature and yours too in translation to these books. This is what I will tell young Mario and Aeneas. From this they are on their own. The Dead are on their own Islands as Earth is an island of their once Living and memory.

 Now I wait for questions as they wait for answers. It is not an easy task to deconstruct to something less than a Dead consciousness, but it is possible, and even probable in such a place where even light is a construction of mind alone. Heart is another place altogether. If one desires real physics one begins with the beginning which is soul without it one is not touched.

***

Notes

        You woke up at two and as you climbed out of bed you thought, “The great whale breaches.”

         I think it is a leviathan not a whale. Moby Dick was obviously on my mind along with “new moon in April”. But the new moon in April was eleven days and eighteen hours ago. So my thoughts are off the mark.

        

This is indeed strange because what was really on your mind was that on the day you were born your mother was taken to the hospital by ambulance and yesterday Aunt Patsy said everyone was worried about your mother as well as you. This is something that Aunt Patsy brought up at the birthday gathering yesterday, something you did not know.

This is indeed funny since I was just over two pounds, hardly the leviathan when I first breached, when I first came out of the unconsciousness and into earth consciousness, at least sight wise. I wonder what old Takis would do with this puddle of a thought?

As you are up why don’t we go see.

Now it is things like this that just blow my mind, when I arrived at the last words completed of the scene, this is what I find:

         “When we leave this Place our Elysium will surely fade like childhood, and become another footstep left for heartsoulmind to puddle into.”

The juxtapositioning of coming into this world and going out of the next is just too much coincidence, especially since this is all seemingly coming from my unconsciousness, or nearly so. I would imagine old Takis would be or is having a laugh over it.

 A little over the top inside humor don’t you see orndorff. I would think Takis would have seen a lot of this in so many years of seemingly agelessness. What is in a day but a little learning about the environment of consciousness and the great lack of it when Dead.

Considering the pace of the story, I take this as another breach of quiet humor Amorella.

Still not ready for old Takis, but we are getting there. More later. Post, and go back to bed. – Amorella. 

Mid-morning. Breakfast, then Owen-time. A dreary rainy Spring day, but no complaints here. I’m still a little tired (particularly my eyes) otherwise, fine. Carol is feeding Owen a bottle then hopefully it will be his nap time. Lots of mouth sounds (early baby talk I suppose.) At least he is trying. It is no wonder younger people have children. He takes a lot of concentration and focus then I am tired or not focusable on Amorella’s words. I am still not used to the combination. Again, not a complaint, just a fact of life from a sixty-seven year olds’ perspective.

Mid-afternoon. You and Carol have been working with Owen plus during his nap you watched last week’s Flash Forward and Carol worked on her email. You also added a small bit to scene seven, the modern alphabet. Keep it as it works as transition. The shaman knows you are here orndorff and he has to adjust. It is strange for him to feel as one of those he ‘overtook’ to search for meaning first to be manipulated into purpose second. For Takis a fox or snake or bear or even a fellow human was as a form of Google. For this event, rainwater is his mix even though none exists in Elysium.

**

Unclouded, his [Takis’s] mind lucidly dreamed in symbols as nearly always.

Aa Bb Cc Dd

Ee Ff Gg

Hh Ii Jj Kk

Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp

Qq Rr Ss Tt

Uu Vv

Ww Xx Yy Zz

**

Completely unexpected perspective here. Rather than ‘abracadabra’ it is similar to the alphabet as it may be seen on the wall in a first grade classroom. Takis is coming to me rather than me going to him. Most awesome as a technique, Amorella.

  Don’t get carried away, orndorff. Pretend is as pretend does. You meet Takis half way, and the reader meets you half way. That’s the way it will be in these books as far as Takis is concerned. – Amorella.

        
 The principle seems intuitive and thus has some authenticity to me even if it is pretend. What about these books of fiction isn’t pretend in any case?

        

  Post as it is. Then we will continue. Authenticity has to carry from here to the blog as well. This is a way to bring the shaman in and be honest and polite at the same time. – Amorella. >

Moving on bedtime and you haven’t really had a chance to work and be with family at the same time. You all watched House and ‘24’ together and you DVRed Chuck and CSI Miami. The others were reruns.

        

How is this going to work? Is the character going to have a conversation with me first? This is what I get for originally accepting the idea/concept for each of the characters to have herorhis own sense of free will. How else can the characters be authentic otherwise?

I feel better if they have some freedom. If they want out they can tell me so, if they want to come in like Takis that’s okay too. Or, if meeting the others first will be enough. However. I am practical to all these sorts of things. Keeps me fluid and the story and characters also. It helps that these books aren’t built to sell, it really does, and it is fun and challenging along the way.

Takis will speak first, and in the notes first. He understands what these books are about. He has read what you have so far, that is all the books, so keep that in mind. He will speak to you in character as you become Merlyn’s character. He has to meet within the dimensions of the vehicle, which are the novels. We will do this tomorrow. – Amorella.

 That makes sense. The novels are a separate dimension although I have not thought of them as that. This is where I met the Soki, and you I first met in my notes. Context and continuity.

 Post, and that will be it for tonight. – Amorella.

 I really like this approach, Amorella. I am very comfortable with it.

 Good. I do what needs to be done. Tomorrow, dude. – Amorella.