0842
hours. As I woke up I thought about last night's dream; the setting was near a
university and friends had found housing in a second floor apartment that had a
living room and two bedrooms. The bedroom in the back, the larger one away from
the street had semi-continuous windows, rectangular, three feet wide and two
and a half feet tall going from the north side then to the east side out onto a
semi suburban setting with trees and house tops (maybe I was on the third floor
apartment not second). There were three queen-size beds with at least one
college aged person sitting or lying on each (like they were getting up to meet
the day). The other bedroom, half the front with two windows overlooking the
street below (two floors to the front; I don't remember going up to the third
floor for the back bedroom but it was up a floor). The smaller bedroom had two
queen size beds but nobody was in the room and it didn't look occupied.
The
living room had a mix - two male aged students and two female. I was looking
for my college aged friends who weren't there, but who reportedly looking for a
place to stay. When I looked out the south window in the west bedroom facing
the street I saw sets of railroad tracks pressed together about fifty yards off
and up at about apartment roof level. When the tracks stretched out from the other
side back towards the apartment (where they connected) it looked like a siding
with four to six railroad tracks. I thought the trains must be for
entertainment like at an amusement park and I wondered why my friends wanted to
live in such a place.
When I looked out the north window in the living room
there were more railroad tracks above, again like a siding. Very odd, I
thought. The stairs to the apartment came out relatively in the middle with the
kitchen on the right at the top of the stairs.
The next thing I knew I was
outside on the street and when I walked the sidewalk to the south side of the
building I saw a small hole in the concrete and a mouse peering out. How could
a mouse make such a hole, I thought. Then the hole opened (I could see through
the wall) and I saw a large basement cluttered, extremely cluttered with white
plumbing pipe from two inch size to four or six inch size (in diameter). Each
pipe appeared to have a U trap like under a sink or toilet pipe. Also there was
at least one large furnace, perhaps two in the mix. The furnace was about ten
feet wide and eight feet tall. Maybe these were some sort of ovens, in any case
they produced heat. There was never any sound in the dream but it was in usual
(for the scene) somewhat muted colors. I don't remember any bright red or green
colors except for the cloudless blue sky. When I awoke from the dream I thought
"plumbing and furnace in the basement and railroad tracks over the blue
sky. (0909)
Then
as I was getting breakfast I thought "ladder" Amorella was talking to
Merlyn - the Great Chain of Being was the reference. At first I thought of
Jacob and the ladder to Heaven but the explanation (last night's blog) was for
Merlyn, not myself. Then, what would Merlyn have thought of the railroad tracks
and plumbing? Bear tracks and underground rivers immediately popped to mind. All
this comes from last night's explanation of Rank and Order in reference to Great
Merlyn's Ghost.
** **
A Betweener holds to a Rejoinder who holds to a Deliverer. This is
the order in the Great Merlyn's Ghost books. Top rung, somewhere in the
middle of the ladder, Deliverer. One down, Rejoinder, two down, Betweener. You
are still in the middle of the ladder.
** **
You
needed to get this out of your head before it was forgotten. You worry about
forgetting things you do not know, boy. Post. - Amorella
It
was a dream of placement and circumstance. I do know that.
You
had a bath and cleaned up while feeling better. In the tube the focus was on
the Great Chain of Being. Let's drop in on that focus, Merlyn's focus in the
seventh century. -- Your best bet
is using selections from Wikipedia. I will select and you may edit what will
work. - Amorella
** **
Great Chain of Being
[Selections and minor editing]
The great chain of being
Latin: scala naturae, literally "ladder/stair-way of
nature"), is a concept derived from Plato and Aristotle, and developed
fully in Neoplatonism. It details a strict, religious hierarchical structure of
all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by God. The chain starts
from God and progresses downward to angels, demons (fallen/renegade angels),
stars, moon, kings, princes, nobles, men, wild animals, domesticated animals,
trees, other plants, precious stones, precious metals, and other minerals.
Divisions
The Chain of Being is
composed of a great number of hierarchical links, from the most basic and
foundational elements up through the very highest perfection, in other words,
God.
God, and beneath him, the
angels, both existing wholly in spirit form, sit at the top of the
chain. Earthly flesh is fallible and ever-changing: mutable. Spirit, however,
is unchanging and permanent. This sense of permanence is crucial to
understanding this conception of reality. It is generally impossible to change
the position of an object in the hierarchy. (One exception might be in the
realm of alchemy, where alchemists attempted to transmute base elements, such
as lead, into higher elements, either silver, or, more often, gold—- the
highest element.)
Subdivisions
Each link in the chain
might be divided further into its component parts. In medieval secular society,
for example, the king is at the top, succeeded by the aristocratic lords, and
then the peasants below them. Solidifying the king's position at the top of
humanity's social order is the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. In the
family, the father is head of the household; below him, his wife; below her,
their children.
Just as Milton's Paradise Lost ranked the angels (c.f.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's ranking of angels), so too does Christian
culture conceive of angels in orders of archangels, seraphim, and cherubim, among
others.
The Great Chain of Being
God
The top of the Chain
of Being, also external to creation, God was believed to exist outside the
physical limitations of time and space. He possessed the spiritual attributes
of reason, love, and imagination, like all spiritual beings, but he alone
possessed the divine attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresenc.
God serves as the model of authority for the strongest, most virtuous, most
excellent type of being within a specific category (the "primate").
Angelic Beings
Beings of pure spirit,
angels had no physical bodies of their own. In order to affect the physical
world, angels were thought to build temporary bodies for themselves out of
particles of air. Medieval and Renaissance theologians believed angels to
possess reason, love, imagination, and—like God—to stand outside the physical
limitations of time. They possessed sensory awareness unbound by physical
organs, and they possessed language. They lacked, however, the divine
attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God, and they
simultaneously lacked the physical passions experienced by humans and animals.
Depending upon the author, the class of angels was further subdivided into
three, seven, nine, or ten ranks, variously known as triads, orders or choirs.
Each rank had greater power and responsibility than the entities below them.
The most common classification is that of St. Thomas Aquinas:
St
Thomas Aquinas classified all beings by rank.
•
Angelic Primate:
•
Seraphim
•
Cherubim
•
Thrones (Ophanim)
•
Dominations
•
Principalities
•
Powers
•
Virtues
•
Archangels
•
Angels
Humanity
For Medieval and Renaissance
thinkers, humans occupied a unique position on the Chain of Being, straddling
the world of spiritual beings and the world of physical creation. Humans were
thought to possess divine powers such as reason, love, and imagination. Like
angels, humans were spiritual beings, but unlike angels, human souls were
"knotted" to a physical body. As such, they were subject to passions
and physical sensations—pain, hunger, thirst, sexual desire—just like other
animals lower on the Chain of the Being.
The Great Chain in natural science
From Aristotle to
Linnaeus
The basic idea of a ranking
of the world's organisms goes back to Aristotle and his biological
classification, where he ranked animals over plants based on their ability to
move and sense, and graded the animals by their reproductive mode and
possession of blood (he ranked all invertebrates as "bloodless").
British science historian Charles Singer pointed out: "Nothing is more
remarkable than [Aristotle's] efforts to [exhibit] the relationships of living
things as a scala naturae" Aristotle's History of Animals
classified organisms in relation to a linear "Ladder of Life",
placing them according to complexity of structure and function so that higher
organisms showed greater vitality and ability to move.
Scala naturae in evolution
The set nature of
species, and thus the absoluteness of creatures' places in the Great Chain,
came into question during the 18th century. The dual nature of the chain,
divided yet united, had always allowed for seeing creation as essentially one
continuous whole, with the potential for overlap between the links. While
Christian theological dogma dictated a static view, radical thinkers like
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck saw the Great Chain (or at least sections of it) as a
progression of life forms from the simplest creatures striving towards
complexity and perfection (i.e. the human form). The very idea of an ordering
of organisms thus laid the basis for the idea of transmutation of species as
formulated by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The idea of the Great
Chain of Being continued to be part of the metaphysics in 19th century
education, and the concept was well known. The geologist Charles Lyell used it
as a metaphor in his 1851 Elements of Geology description of the
geological column, where he used the term "missing links " in
relation to missing parts of the continuum. The term "missing link"
later came to signify transitional fossils, particularly those bridging the
gulf between man and beasts.
The idea of the Great Chain
as well as the derived "missing link" was abandoned in the early 20th
century science, as the notion of an ordering of living organisms is
antithetical to modern biological classification. The idea of a certain
sequence lingers in practice though, as entry level textbooks and courses in
general biology still usually teach plants before starting on animals, and go
through the invertebrates before starting on vertebrates, typically finishing
with mammals.
Adaptations and similar concepts
The American spiritual
writer and philosopher Ken Wilber uses a concept called the "Great Nest of
Being" which is similar to the Great Chain of Being, and which he claims
to belong to a culture-independent "perennial philosophy" traceable
across 3000 years of mystical and esoteric writings. Wilber's system
corresponds with other concepts of transpersonal psychology.
In the 1977 book "A
Guide for the Perplexed ", British philosopher and economist E. F. Schumacher
wrote that fundamental gaps exist between the existence of minerals, plants,
animals and humans, where each of the four classes of existence is marked by a
level of existence not shared by that below. Clearly influenced by the Great
Chain of Being, but lacking the angels and God, he called his hierarchy the
"levels of being". In the book, he claims that science has generally
avoided seriously discussing these discontinuities, because they present such
difficulties for strictly materialistic science, and they largely remain
mysteries.
Selected and edited from
Wikipedia
** **
1104 hours. This is much easier to
copy and edit (recopying blue print) than to attempt my own rendition, which
would be very little and awkwardly transcribed. I am so thankful for Wikipedia
in particular and the Internet in general -- I could not have put these books
together without this help.
No, you could not. You do remember 'key
words'. This is also important, perhaps more so, in putting the books together.
Post. - Amorella
Carol is in the shower and it is time
to do my neglected exercises. (1109)
1216
hours. This is taken from my notes 20 September 2010.
** **
You hesitate but here is what you are thinking without much articulation.
“Individual freedom has become a kind of sacred deity.”
I would just as soon not see this as a thought.
Why?
Because it does not help me to think such things. I gain nothing from
it, and it is not provable in any case. Pure opinion, and I don’t put much
stake in opinions.
In the books the Dead have an economic system based on a sense of
righteousness. (Notice I did not say self-righteousness.) – Amorella.
I need to see the dictionary here.
Righteousness: 1 :
acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin; 2 a :
morally right or justifiable *a righteous decision* b : arising
from an outraged sense of justice or morality *righteous
indignation.
[From Merriam-Webster]
Uh, this is making me uncomfortable.
Why? You cannot have the books' ‘Rebellion’ without it. [Amorella]
** **
Every
so often you get it in your head that a reader has hit upon something useful
now. In this case you are correct we might as well get this taken care of
before we enter Elysium. - Amorella
These
books, GMG, are also economically based on a sense of righteousness, but now that the Second Rebellion is complete
let's use the definition: "acting
in accord with moral guidelines or rules." - Amorella
Are there no moral laws either? This
appears very loosey-goosey. In fact it is embarrassing there would be no moral
laws.
Why, what difference has it made? People
still break them; they do so [free will] in HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither also. An
absolute law does not take into account the human condition. The humor here,
before you get bent out of shape, is that people are around long enough to
regret the error of their ways. Regret is also a human condition. - Amorella
Now, that is funny. Yes, it is. Dark
humor at its best! Okay, I can live with 'rules' rather than 'laws'.
1535 hours. Errands completed and
lunch at Smashburgers, then down to Fields-Ertel and Mike's Car Wash which cost
us about an hour because of traffic, much of it going to the car wash. Car is
clean though and looking good for an automobile in its tenth year. We are at
Pine Hill Lakes Park looking southeast to the woods just east of the kiddy park
and the larger lake. Great spot because we have a pine tree for shade and we
have the moonroof open as it is almost forty degrees with little or no wind, a lot
of sun and blue winter sky in February no less.
You are feeling rather chipper, what with
the fresh air and you each have a large ice tea from Kidd's Coffee, not to
mention that you each had a Jennifer cookie this morning and each have one for
tomorrow morning too. - Amorella
I'm ready for Spring with a capital.
And, you are ready for a road trip to Texas
and Arizona, and perhaps California too. - Amorella
Yes,
Ma'am.
Here's how Dead 12 will be. More description
as Merlyn moves into the shroud, not cloud, of Elysium. He finds himself on the
road to Mother's home, which is described in The Rebellion. Why don't
you drop in a photo, one you took at Pompeii, of the road we are using in this
setting; this is where Dead 12 will conclude. - Amorella
-
Mother's house is up to the right just out of sight -
Let's begin with this conclusion. - Amorella
** **
Merlyn's
spirit condensed into the spiritual mist, the Shroud of Elysium, until his
droplet of heartansoulanmind formed and energized, flowering into the full-stemmed
spirit and personality of Merlyn the Bard of Scotland. Consciousness fixed its
position head high and he found himself staring at the slightly worn stone way, two
carts wide and more than half shaded by stone buildings on each side of the
higher curb walkways leading to and from Mother's House. Solidly Greek and
identifiable by all of Ancient Greek and Before as all Dead had been brought up
the to the higher cultural level of Greece and its immediate surroundings in the
common era during the time of Homer, writer and sage and up through the
architecture of the Classical Age of Plato and Aristotle.
I
know this place from my memory of the books of Classical Greek and Latin,
thought Merlyn. It is as though I have been here before. But before I have
never been introduced to Mother, who is called by the name Gloama by those who
knew of her in Life before continuing consciousness and continuity in Elysium,
Shroud of those Blessed in this Collective Spiritual Consciousness. Unknown to
Merlyn, Mother is waiting, as all later mothers know to wait for their
children, every last one. 212 words
** **
Two
hundred and twelve words, 94 percent on the reading scale. This conclusion needs
work as part of the first draft. (1635)
Take a break. We will work up to this before
editing the near final draft. - Amorella
2201 hours. After left over Papa John
pizza for supper and watching the DVRed "CSI", "CSI-NY",
"Bones" and tonight's NBC Nightly News I returned to cleaning up the
conclusion to Dead 12. Here it is.
***
Dead 12 - Conclusion (draft 2)
Merlyn's
nearly volatilized spirit condensed into the spiritual Shroud of Elysium until
his droplet of heartansoulanmind re-energized; flowering into the full-stemmed
spirit and personality of Merlyn the Bard of Scotland. Consciousness had
re-fixed its position head high. Merlyn found himself staring at the worn
stone, two-cart wide roadway. Unknown to him at the time the slightly uneven stone
surface on which his ghostly spirit stands leads to Mother's House. Merlyn thought,
I know this place from heart's memory of Classical Greek and Latin. I am fully
self-aware and residing in Elysium, this collective cultural consciousness of
the Classical Era.
Unknown
to Merlyn alone and beginning his walk, Mother is awaiting his arrival as all
mothers since knowingly understand and wait for their own, every last one with
whom to be reunited.
131 words
***
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