A Peek into Elysium (Elysian Fields)

Hello, again. Amorella here. The Roman arch already exists in the Elysian Fields in those days long before the Romans. The hypothesis had not yet been absorbed by the Living but eventually it would be. Human designers and engineers among the Dead still work together on projects of interest. It is all theory of course but conscious minds have time to plan and think so many of them do.

In these books, Plato was partially correct in the sense of idealistic Forms but the Forms are human in origin and not perfect in this Place of the Dead, Elysium. One of the difference set-wise is that no sun exists though a moon does. The night sky has its wanderers and stars similar to those seen on Earth. The Dead feel comfortable in their surroundings and though it appears familiar territory each realizes it is not Reality as they used to know it. Reality is where the Living are.

I use photographs you have from various places to make scene descriptions of these Elysian Fields. From the Dead’s point of view any scenes will do, however I am more selective. Let’s use the one today to describe a scene as an example. I still write in an Arial font but with no slant for descriptions. Here is the example:

**

Hello, dear reader. This is the Supervisor of the Dead. The slanted ‘the’ is pronounced ‘thee’. Any time anyone uses my name in these books the ‘the’ is understood to precede my selected name. Presently, I am standing on stone, but I need stand on nothing. I am looking North. The sky is lit a pale blue and today is partly cloudy though a sun never rises or sets. The background of trees are green-leaved as this is late Spring in Elysium, the land of the Dead.

While you, the Living, exist in four dimensions, height, width, depth, and time, the Dead consciously exist in three. I collect the rent in advance from each upon herorhis arrival. The payment brings the Dead down one dimension short, time.

The Dead continue to exist, whether they like it or not. Once each has resolved a few personal issues sheorhe winds up here.

Straight out to the North are stone walls protecting this multi-stoned town fortress with its outer fields and forests, which holds ten thousand human heartsansoulsanminds. Culturally, these people are Greek orientation and set themselves in the eighth century before the common era of your time which would be twenty-eight centuries ago. This is roughly the time the Greek alphabet was created and Homer or whoever the storyteller was, developed what has come to be known as The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Elysium is as of many islands, each with its own culture for familiar comfort. The focus of these stories, however, is ancient Greek, but rest assured, in the real first Revolt of the Dead, the whole of world community participated.

I, the Supervisor, in my natural condition, hover between the material and non material, between physics and metaphysics – I am a capital consciousness that allows this Place to exist. I am the Frame as well as the Door in and out.

Speaking of which, I am focusing still North onto a gate in the outer wall of this small fortress. The gray stone gateway is four average humans wide and two average humans tall and is capped with a Roman arch, though the Romans themselves copied the design from the earlier Etruscans.

The Living in this eighth century BC, if you will, have not discovered the secret strength, the physics of the arch, even though the Dead, who technically have no real use of the arch, made use of it at least a century ago. The concept and development of the Roman arch would take until the second century before the common era before it would filter its way into the world of the Living. That is, it took six centuries for an idea cultivated from the Dead to communicate itself to the Living. I see humor in this fact but I doubt the Living do.

Looking to the ground below, it appears solid enough to hold the rock wall and other massive structures, I see green grasses of one type or another, small fields between nearby stone walls and buildings scattered about this nearby land. Grasses and colorful flowers grow in abundance as water is plentiful to promote an abundant and flourishing setting. The Dead who have earned it enjoy this world of comfort. This is the place for the reclaimed virtuous, a place where those who have done their humanly best with what they were given. The Dead walk upon these grasses which they may solemnly rest under at home. “It may be a comfort to the Living to realize this,” smiled the Supervisor pleasantly. 

**

You say the above is an example. Does this mean it will be used within the book?

You are ever concerned with wasted effort.

I wonder, that’s all. A writer writes, it is never wasted as it may not be used now but may be used later. I am curious, that’s all.

It is not time to begin the first chapter, orndorff. You need to understand more. This setting and tone is not of your world. It will take you time to adapt.

That’s fine with me.

Tomorrow we will continue along another aspect of these ancient Elysian Fields.

Greek Theatre

Amorella here hovering in the shade of the bottom left. Richard has been dressing the five characters for his head so he found some head shots of actors and actresses of the 1960’s. I okayed them. Though he could have used others just as well these five send good mental currents and give the book some of his flavor as well it should. Here’s who he came up with. I added the material from sources orndorff gathered from their films in his mind. At least, as of now, the iconic characters have bones. They shall be named later.

 **

Richard Burton is an iconic figure for the fifth character who calculates the advantage [in the war] of the moment. He is concerned for his personal honor as well as his responsibility as a drafted leader of the Dead. He has a bitter relationship with the woman in charge of his command. He does trust her outwardly, but his gut tells him she is using him to make herself look better among the Dead. He does not like the fact that she is more analytical than he is. He wonders who is behind the Supervisor, who is pulling his strings. He has no imagination like the women as to what the Supervisor is, Burton assumes the Supervisor is Hades who works directly with Zeus. He just does not understand the motivation for the seeming deception between the two.

**

Elizabeth Taylor is iconic figure Number Four as the diplomat currier and behind the scenes confident of Number One. The two women think that they are better at dealing one on one with the Supervisor of the Place of the Dead because they see Supervisor as being female in gender like themselves. In the battle they interpret the Supervisor foremost as a Betweener, as a Queen in a King’s clothing, as Hera not Hades, her brother or Zeus her husband. She thinks Zeus would not have the inclination or take the time to deal with the insurrection of the Dead. Besides, she, Hera, was raped by her brother Zeus, and as goddess of marriage she married him anyway. Hera is resentful and will side with us against Hades, Zeus or Whomever when the time comes to do so.

**

Peter O’Toole is Number Three, the iconic male figure most trusted by Number One. He is quick-minded, intelligent, and gifted with leaps in logic. He is prophet-like in anticipating the Supervisor’s next move, but with this gift he dances close to madness, a terror in his mind as he assumes he and perhaps all the human dead will fall into Oblivion should madness prevail in the Place of the Dead which is built within Reason’s Walls. In the blink of an eye he secretly falls in love with Number Four. He thinks it is a trick of the Supervisor who has somehow got into his mind. He is secretly concerned he is the Supervisor’s mole and that he will be the downfall of the Rebellion.

**

Sean Connery works as icon Number Two. He is as charismatic as Number Three and a master of reason and gallows humor. He feels there is always irony as a shadow whenever Supervisor makes a move. That as deceptive as the Supervisor might be when it comes to battle, he, as Hades, stands not alone, that he has secret partners as always, two in this case, Thanatos (Death) and his twin brother, Hypnos (Sleep). Even Charon, the Ferryman of the Dead, might be involved. He thinks there is more to this Insurrection than meets the eye, that the Place of the Dead is not as timeless as it first appears.

**

Sophia Loren is icon Number One, the Leader. She prides herself among the Dead as looking most like Mother, the original mother of all humans who are Living as well as in the Place of the Dead. Mother is as the North Star. Without her none would be in this Place to begin with.

Motherhood is a spiritual quality and an essential in winning this battle with the Supervisor who has continued to deny them the right to see their many steps of grandchildren and to tell them how it is to be Dead even if they, the Dead, don’t know why they continue to exist as consciousness with three dimensions of believable bodies even though the Dead ‘know’ they no longer have them.

She thinks that even Zeus may not be responsible for their situation, and if nothing else, the Insurrection will provoke a reaction that will allow her and the others to know more about why they are in this Place, and why the Living must go through life as they do.

**

I am readily grateful for Amorella’s help here. It is in my writing nature to create models so that I might better ‘see’ who I am working with. I will have to move into their minds to understand their past situations as well as their present ones. Once they become ‘real’ in my head I will grant them the free will to change, where possible, Amorella’s story to their bent, just like in real life. They have each find their own way to ‘survive’ their situation with both reason and dignity no matter what the outcome with their confrontation with Supervisor, and they have to do it on their terms.  – rho

Amorella here again. Free Will is what it is, a Necessity in these books. I have books four and five complete, as I stated earlier, but I do this by allowing for Free Will within them; that is, within orndorff as well as the characters he is helping to create. People, many of them, underrate a Presence, even if it may only be imaginary. It is the same with the characters in the story, you see. They underrate the Supervisor.  Realism in fiction. It works every time, just like real life where it is human fiction built into reality. Look in the mirror orndorff, you know this concept is true. 

Red Flowers, Green Leaves

Amorella here, admiring the flowers. Orndorff captured this at a bus stop on the way to Pompeii. The flowers were growing up the concrete wall from a small crack in the parking lot asphalt at the wall’s base. This suddenly reminds orndorff of a favorite poem by Tennyson which he quickly Googled and copied from OldPoetry.com.

                       “Flower in the Crannied Wall”

                                  By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies,

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,

Little flower—but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, all in all,

I should know what God and man is.

**

I think I pluck at my unconsciousness for much the same reason, to better understand what man is. I assume (perhaps wrongly) that we human beings are more closely attached in our unconscious selves than consciously. I am ever hopeful that the works coming from my unconscious self through Amorella may shed more light on us as a species. I would like to think this is a right deed for a right reason.

In other words, you are attempting to take advantage of my so-called imaginary existence?

Yes, especially if you are imaginary. If you were a real presence then I have a further obligation to see what insight you might provide me, which may in turn give others a new perspective by which they may gain further reflective insight into themselves.

How else can we understand more about ourselves as a species without seeing ourselves from the outside looking in rather than from the inside looking out? This is the reason I feel obligated to share my experiment. Even if you, Amorella, are solely the product of a somewhat distorted (though hopefully harmless) mind, something may still be gained. Mine is the ‘imagination’ of a poor-minded Poe perhaps, but who knows? It is worth my time to me and it helps keep my old mind active to boot.

These thoughts settle your own. From my perspective your writing is a right deed for the right reasons. Otherwise, orndorff, if I weren’t real enough to write my books in your name, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. – Amorella. 

Greek Temple from Xanthos

Amorella here. This was taken at the British Museum two years ago. I chose this to demonstrate a fact about spiritual qualities, orndorff.

(I understood this after a minute or so.) Reason and Dignity. Both are identifiable in this photograph (at least to me).  I had never considered seeing either quality in a picture before.

It makes sense, you see, that the Dead would fear losing Reason and Dignity in the Rebellion. If all fell into Oblivion, then it would make no difference as no consciousness would exist – a dreamless sleep without a sense of being or having been.

The heroes of the Rebellion assumed, rightly, that they would not be sent to Tartarus because at that time they thought only the gods were punished there.

You wrote in the 4 December post:

 “I feel very limited in knowing what is the right thing to do, in terms of these writings.”

The five heartsansouls [the Heroes] most responsible were limited in knowing what the right thing to do was also. Returning to the 2 December posting two lines jumped out at you from Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral:

“The last temptation is the greatest treason:

  To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

This is the reason the seven deadly sins will be included in the story. Here is what you found in Wikipedia:

“The Seven Deadly Sins . . . is a classification of the most objectionable vices which has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers . . . . The final version of the list consists of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

The Catholic Church divided sin into two principal categories: ". . . the more severe [are the] "Capital" or Mortal sins. Mortal sins destroyed the life of grace, and created the threat of eternal damnation . . . .” - Wikipedia

All seven are Mortal sins in these next two books. The Catholic example is an arbitrary compromise because it is Medieval in origin and though centuries apart from Classical times people today can still easily understand the basics. I use the Vices in the following order from worst to least worst: Pride (inordinate self-esteem, disdainful or ostentatious behavior), Greed (selfish/excessive desire), Lust (craving/desire), Wrath (anger), Gluttony (excess in eating/drinking or in indulgences), Sloth (apathy/ laziness) and Envy (resentment).

Do I have these in the correct order, Amorella?

You do. I realize they are not the traditional order you would put them in, but these will better reflect the Vices of those early times in my book.

Do you want to sort out the seven Virtues presently?

These are the Virtues used in books four and five: Temperance (moderation), Prudence (self-discipline, good judgment, and caution), Fortitude (courage), Justice (fair dealing, right action), Holiness (a spiritual sense reinforced by acting humanely), Humility, and Charity (benevolent goodwill towards humanity).

Do you want them in a particular order?

In the books each Virtue is equal to another. What you found in Wikipedia will work well here:

"It is likely that Plato believed that virtue was, in fact, a single thing, and that this enumeration was created by others in order to better define virtue. In Protagoras and Meno, he states that the separate virtues can't exist independently, and offers as evidence the contradictions of acting with wisdom (prudence), yet in an unjust way, or acting with bravery (fortitude), yet without knowing (prudence).”

This works for the beginnings of the first human Rebellion in the Place of the Dead. These are the simple elements of morality in the human sense of good and evil.

You are a writer not a theologian. The characters honestly deal with issues that surround the events as they unfold. The Rebellion will be as a game of chess in temperament, i.e. intellectual aggression.

The Dead do not realize this as a fact, but it is impossible for chaos to exist in such a Place where the Dead exist. Chaos may exist in human minds individually and/or collectively but the Setting begins and ends with a Platonic capital.

This is interesting, Amorella. It allows me thought and consideration.

Really now, and who else would have come to such a elementary realization? – Amorella.

I am not most cognitively skilled on the block.

Yes, this is true. In some ways it is amazing what I have to work with.

Thanks, Amorella. I appreciate your honesty.

Yes, you do. 

Green-Eyed Stare

Hello, this is Amorella. Jadah popped up to give the camera her green-eyed stare. Whenever orndorff gets this Jadah look he thinks of space aliens, the old fashioned LGM’s. Do you believe in intelligent aliens in the galaxy?

I used to. It is possible but improbable, but the aliens stored in Hanger 51 from the incident in New Mexico in the late 1940’s? No. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is just up the road, about an hour’s drive from our house. I was at the base a couple of times when I was in ROTC at Otterbein. I don’t remember of ever hearing of Hanger 51 during those days.

What if I told you I have cat-like eyes?

From my perspective, Amorella, the only eyes you have are the ones in my head. Here’s what I think. You are an imaginary but believable ‘presence’ to me. You have no need of eyes, ears, or any other body part. All you need is consciousness.

What about the other sketch you drew? This one? Is my consciousness in the drawing?

At the bottom towards the right, it says “rho 1630” meaning four-thirty, and below is the date: “19 june 87”. I am not sure why I drew it but I did. You were the ‘eye’ but why the long eyelashes I do not know. The scars on my right arm were inflicted but I don’t remember why. It was all psychological and no doubt when I was in a light, self-induced hypnotic trace.

For some reason the shadow of my big toe shows on my wrist just below the thumb. Likewise, the shadow of my arm shows in the lower right hand corner. You were in my arm. This was all new to my consciousness then. I had to adjust to your ‘presence’ even in my imagination. What the shadow is on the iron-shaped piece with my toe sticking out I have no idea. It looks like a cup and saucer above that shadow with maybe an ‘ear’ in cup. 

I remember I drew the sketch because I couldn’t think of any words to explain how it felt to have a presence within. Thirty-one stitches show. I never counted them before. No significance of 31 in the sketch other than there are 31 days in the month of June. Maybe that shadow on the iron-shaped object is really my arm with my hand’s distorted shadow sticking out.

I remember I had the feeling, the intuitive sense, that my mind was in several places at the same time. That’s the reason for the shadows being like they are. I used this dimensional sense in “Grandma’s Story Fourteen” in book one, Braided Dreams.

Here is an example from the story. Grandma has just introduced Lili.

“I am Lili of the mountains. I dance the mountain air to walk cloud tops when I dream of life now long ago to you, but not to me. It has been as twenty years of life, these two thousand of yours, that is how I sense it. Everyone is different though, just like on Earth. Grandma and I get along because we related when I was alive. You have to dance away a piece of your soul before you can talk one on one with the Grand Lady of Nature and our human selves. It has to be without intent. I bent that whisper in the west wind though I sense an east by northeast wind is blowing today.

The two I am telling a story about were dancers as I am. Shu-shu is the pronunciation I like, I am Li-li, and I pronounce Ch’ang as Kay-Eng. This is my story and that is how I will pronounce the names. You read silently so I don’t suppose it makes any difference, but I like to hear the language sing as I talk in my native mountain tongue of your long ago.

         That particular summer of your long ago, I had begun a embroidery project with an emerald green backdrop. Something unpronounceable was in the air when I stared into the green silk cloth. My left foot touched something unseen, a stone I immediately dug up. It was what you would call camel in its color tone. That which was unpronounceable in the summit air was Plenty and Bountiful, at least on its sharp edge. Others would call it goat, but I understood differently, that is why I was a shaman, and the others were not. Understanding is a sense, like smell. It is.

Shu-shu and Ch’ang both smell goat. Shu-shu is my grand niece. Ch’ang loves her and can do nothing about his love. Shu-shu loves Ch’ang, and she can do something about it. She chooses to do nothing. Ch’ang therefore, also chooses to do nothing. Together the two become as a single room, like this stone hut Grandma and I, Li-li, presently stand on. To exert their separate personalities Shu-shu shape-shifts into a doorframe in the west wall. Ch’ang shape-shifts into a doorframe centered in the east wall. The river, a thousand feet below, runs from west to east. A thousand feet above the river, love attempts to construct a bridge between the two doorframes.

         Love is a condition and cannot literally build the bridge between the two. Hearts build bridges. Those stone walls, the west wall and the east wall of this hut, are the rigidity of their hearts to this day. The centered doorframes are the souls of Shu-shu and Ch’ang.

         Li-li took a moment to smile in the moment as she suddenly transported herself to the center of the stone hut where she can see out the two opposite doorframes. In life I could not see both doorframes at once due to the Nature of Things. Dead, I can. This is not a trick, I assure you, smiles Li-li.

         I, the Li-li, think. Each doorway is a Dragon of Plenty and Bounty. Each soul-framed doorway is equal. I, the Li-li, remember. Each doorway is invisible in the Nature of Things. Each doorframe is invisible in the Nature of Things. Each wall is invisible in the Nature of Things. I, Li-li am also invisible in the Nature of Things. Yet, I am writing in the Nature of Things. I am writing in Grandma Earth. Grandma Earth is visible to all who are a part of her. This is how it is, there is nothing that can be done about it.”

**

To answer your question, Amorella, the sketch shows my sense of unconsciousness and consciousness, not yours. Why would it? You are basically imagination personified. As for Grandma's Story Fourteen, I remember enjoying the writing, specifically about the Dragon. 

With this you can better see how and where I, Amorella, gather my story.

Remnants

Amorella back to Pompeii as this is now one of orndorff’s favorite haunts. Main Street or one of them. Perhaps we can make a place similar as headquarters for our five characters who are put in charge while having their own personal problems to deal with. Now that you have wandered about the place and can gather more pictures for reference from classical history sources as well as Flicker you can build up an album as it were of description that while seven centuries late will still serve our purposes here.

A Greek town will serve as a city-state in the place of heroes, Elysium I assume.

Yes. We don’t have to count out ten thousand heartansouls. The drama and comedy will focus on a single street block. The one you walked the most will do, that is, from the theatre to the top of the hill where the picture was taken. Set up a folder and mark it Pompeii.4. Book five has another, less humbling setting.

I am sure thousands upon thousands of other people have taken this same scene at Pompeii. I am inflicted with a near empty sadness seeing Vesuvius, its caldera covered with clouds in the distance while we are standing in the ruins. Scientists say the gas from the explosion killed everyone very quickly, before the lava flow and ash.

In checking Wikipedia I just found this tidbit on Pompeii:

“The town was founded around the 7th-6th century BC by the Osci or Oscans, a people of central Italy, on what was an important crossroad between Cumae, Nola and Stabiae. It had already been used as a safe port by Greek and Phoenician sailors. According to Strabo, Pompeii was also captured by the Etruscans, and in fact recent excavations have shown the presence of Etruscan inscriptions and a 6th century BC necropolis. Pompeii was captured for the first time by the Greek colony of Cumae, allied with Syracuse, between 525 and 474 BC.”

From: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii

The town will fit closer to the time period of the Rebellion than I had suspected – a pleasant surprise.

You are thinking ‘rebellious’ thoughts yourself, wondering if I am writing this post for the right reasons.

It has occurred to me. These posts are becoming more focused on the upcoming book (which I have yet to begin) and I thought this blog was about you discussing what spiritual values really are (at least from the inner me to my consciousness). I thought the reflections might be worth sharing but lately this is like a kind of preview of the book to be which is fine in itself, it is just like with the other three books, but I don’t see a reason to share it, that is to lay it out on the table when it really doesn’t mean anything yet (to me).

What it comes down to is this, I don’t want to waste people’s time with what amount to a show of ‘inner self-centeredness’ – literally so. (As usually, I have no idea how you are going to respond to this, if you are going to respond at all.)  >

As there is no response, I am assuming I did not ask the question properly, that I have not thought it out, or that my question is (ironically) not being written (by me) for the right reasons.

You got it, boy. The head on the nail. I am not finishing this post until you get the question right. – Amorella.

How do I know this blog is being written for the right reasons and not for ‘good intentions’? I don’t want to write for good intentions, but I don’t know the difference, in the case of writing this blog and books. I want to write both for the right reasons not for good intentions. It is hard understanding and knowing my own moral dilemma, Amorella. I feel very limited in knowing what is the right thing to do, in terms of these writings.

This is better. Particularly your last sentence. The concern is that I am pushing the books through the blog. You are considered the writer, orndorff, not me. We have had this discussion once before. You have to accept me as part of yourself for legal reasons as well as mental ones. Yet, deep inside you see me as something more, a presence, as it were, real enough to write three books under your name. Your concern is that I am not paving your road with good intentions, so to speak.

Yes. You write this so much better than I do. Much easier writing, strangely you are more down to earth in tone than I am. Amazing.

All for today’s post. 

Late Fall

This picture was taken by Carol about a month ago while she and Richard were on their daily walk. The focus of the shot reminds me of seeing the trees rather than the forest which is easier here as many have already lost their summer dressings.

I like to think of the days as trees and the year of trees as a small forest. The thought, if centered within, should slow you down. Let’s say fifty years of tree growth equals a day or putting it another way fifty years equals one day.

For a human being under such circumstances two-thirds of herorhis life is over in twenty-four hours. This thought should speed you up. In fact, there would be a lot of lifetimes in a year of such a circumstance. What do you think, orndorff?

What comes to mind almost immediately is Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. Time plays with our sense of reason. We arrive, grow and die in human time not tree time.

I suddenly see a problem for the Dead in book four. They perceive things in human time and the projection of the Place of the Dead is in what time?

Human time. It would not make sense otherwise.

But if the Dead have to negotiate with you, what time are you in? Who are you in the story anyway?

I run the Place and charge rent.

I thought you were going to say you were the Custodian.

I am putting this in near human terms here.

This doesn’t make sense. What can you charge the Dead?

The same as I charge you, orndorff, your time.

As I am contentedly retired I don’t mind. I enjoy the time thinking, writing and then sharing.

It is nearly the same. The Dead don’t mind either, most of them in the story anyway. They spend their time thinking or dreaming or at the meetangreets or at an intimate meeting with a friend for example. Then I collect. This has already been inferred in the Merlyn books.

How many main characters?

Three. Two handsome men and a beautiful woman. Plus, two minor characters, another beautiful woman and a handsome man.

How did you come up with five people?

Four fingers and a thumb.

In real life people are not all handsome or beautiful.

The Dead can choose the best of their likeness to present themselves to others. Usually they choose to be in their twenties to fifties even if they didn’t live that long. To those who listen, the voice sounds much as it did in life.

To a complete outsider of the species what would the Dead look like?

A brain with an attached spinal column. That is also inferred in the Merlyn books.

I remember that, but it came to mind as a question.

I have a question for you, orndorff. Where do you think you will be some twenty to thirty years from now?

I will most likely be dead. Thus, a few ashes scattered about in my favorite places if daughter does her job. Will I still be conscious? I would like to think so, but if I am not I lived a life. This is not a morbid subject to me. I find it quite interesting as I always have. So, if I lived a life then I imagined being consciously Dead, I don’t see how I lose anything by this line of thinking. I hope this won’t be a depressing book for the reader.

A few will be interested.