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This is a very emotionally and spiritually charged piece. As such, there will be references that those outside Mormonism and Christianity in general will not get. In this entry, I will attempt to explain some of these references.
Right away you will see a reference that really, only the LDS will get, Kolob.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolob
Essentially, the center of the universe. Modern astronomy cannot even come close to approaching the center of the universe, even now. Thus, the statement: “If I could but Hie to Kolob” means “if I could but go quickly to the center of the universe”. Or, do the impossible.
“Turn back the pages” — there was once a theatrical production made by the church called “My Turn On Earth” in which life was described as a book whose pages are being written even as we live them.
“Before my mortal birth” — the LDS believe in Eternal Life. This means that we lived before we came here, live here for but a moment, and will continue to live after passing from this life.
“Great Serpent”, “Father of Lies”, “fallen Son of the Morning” — all names for the devil. As even non-Christians likely know, Satan was once an angel. He denied the will of God in the pre-mortal life and became Perdition, a fallen angel. Lucifer was his name in the pre-mortal realm, which means “Son of the Morning.” “Great Serpent” is in reference to the form he took when tempting Eve in Eden. “Father of Lies” is in reference to what he does.
“Sons of Perdition” — other devils. The Hosts of Satan, the 1/3rd of the hosts of heaven who chose to follow Lucifer, along with Cain (so far as we believe, the only mortal to have thus far been cast to hell). They, along with Satan, were cast out and now live a very lonely and cold existence cut off from all contact with anything other than them. They are truly truly miserable. Make no mistake about it, Hell is Frozen.
“Cold depths of Hell” — well, I already covered this in the previous paragraph, didn’t I?
“Is there no balm in Gilead?” — Common saying among believers, whose answer is, of course, YES! It’s basically a rhetoric used to emphasize just how much the user of the phrase feels they are suffering.
That’s all I can think of... If there’s anything else you’d like explained, please, use this blog entry to ask for explanation, keep the poem’s page for comments directly on the piece itself.
Comments
Lucifer
"Bearer of light" actually.
Ah...
Well, I have heard both... if "Bearer of light" is the more accurate translation, "Son of the Morning" is still close enough, and fitted my meter better. :D
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
Satan
For someone who's so important in Christianity, he's only mentioned twice in the Bible, and as a tempter, which some scholars actually interpret as working for God, testing people like Job and Jesus.
The idea of a Devil personified is a later invention probably by inadequates like politicians who need to blame someone else for their mistakes.
Angharad
Angharad
*shrugs*
Everyone else welcome to retain their own personal belief systems as far as I am concerned. These poems are being written from my perspective, and therefore, I will be explaining what my perspective is. If it doesn't jive with your own, you are welcome to disregard it other than as context in which the piece is written.
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
oh and...
He most certainly does work for God, according to my perspective, though he doesn't think so. It's one of those catch-22 situations with the devil. There needed to be an opposition to God, because there needs to be opposition in all things. Opposites Equal really is, according to my perspective, the very nature of the Universe.
EDIT: and yes, the capitalization was intentional. Kolob is only the center of our small letter universe, which is itself revolving around a greater universe, which revolves around a greater universe, and so on, all the way to the Universe, which only Gods can possibly fully comprehend. Mankind, as we presently are, can only make a stab at it.
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
Incomprehensible dimensions
Even distances in our own galaxy are mind-bogglingly big and almost beyond comprehension - the sun is about 149,597,890 km away from Earth, or 8 light minutes. Alpha centuri, our next nearest star is 8 light years away. Light itself is mind bogglingly fast, travelling 299 792.458 kilometers per second. In a year, that translates as 9.4605284 × 1012 kilometers.
Going larger...
...and...
...not forgetting...
No prizes for guessing where I 'alf-inched those stats. And they're not too far off current thinking. So if we're a typical galaxy and have a diameter of 100,000 light years; it's reasonable to assume other galaxies are probably several galaxy diameters away. Even a galaxy diameter quickly looks about as insignificant as a nanometer does to us.
Meanwhile, although it's certainly possible there are other lifeforms out there (somewhere) that may be advanced as us, the vastness of space means that (a) unless they develop some form of propulsion that can take shortcuts through space, so achieving significantly faster than light travel; they're not likely to visit us, and even if they were within about 50 light years or so away (very unlikely), any radio / TV signals would be impossible to spot amongst background noise (interestingly, I discovered this theory down the proverbial rabbit hole, so don't follow that link :))
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
shortcuts through space
I actually have a very thin skeleton of a story in early planning stages for retelling at least the Genesis story as having been conducted as a social experiment by just such a race of aliens... And that "Jethresh Krishtov" was the name of the researcher who headed the project, and "Luther Frehr" was the name of a close friend who ended up attempting to sabotage Jethresh's project...
The leader of their collective organization is to remain unnamed and plays only a very minor role.
According to this story, we are, in fact, descendents of this very alien race... we forcefully evolved due to them splicing their own genetic information into the more primitive hominids already on Earth. They did this, having been evolved from hominids on their own world, named Aivahn, which orbits a sun named, you guessed it, Kolob.
Essentially, they spliced the information from one female volunteer of their race into a native female hominid, and named the result "Eva", and the same with a male volunteer and named it "Addamo". They then separated these two from the rest of the hominids on a specially constructed floating continent named "Eydan", which they'd already infused with all other native flora and fauna except hominids... and I think you can predict much of the rest of the story from there. Though tie-ins are planned for the Searth series, especially with the exile of Frehr and his followers to a planet named "He'ehl"... A planet much much closer to Earth and which, when "discovered" by humans, gets named "Searth..." Short for Second Earth.
Anyways, these stories really have nothing to do with LGBT anything, though I imagine such things will naturally come up briefly, so whenever I get around to writing them, they won't be seen here... except maybe in passing in a blog entry, depending...
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
01) Notes on If I Could But Hie to Kolob
Center of the universe? Scientist are still questioning that and how the origin of creation. Why the Big Bang?
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
According to Mormon
According to Mormon philosophy as I remember it, Heavenly Father created the universe old. All the laws and theories we have and use to explain the universe are created by Him about 6000 years ago, and are used to trick us all into thinking that there is consistency and logic, that it could have all developed naturally through evollution. That's to test our faith, will we believe evidence or have Faith that Heavenly Father did it all?
So it only appears that there was a big bang. After all, what evidence is there? The stars are moving away from each other? Well that only means that HF set them in the sky and had them moving apart.
----
I'm sorry...
But I have to correct this publically.
That is so opposite to Mormon philosophy as to be absurd. I'm not going to try to say there AREN'T rigid creationists amongst the membership, because there probably are. However, if there are, it's because they choose not to understand the grander picture.
Mormon philosophy is that we cannot fully understand the ways of God, nor can science fully understand the nature of our small letter universe, let alone the nature of any of the greater universes around which our own revolves, and forget even coming close to explaining the Universe.
We believe that science accurately describes the workings of the universe in which we live to the extent that it so far goes, but that it's incomplete. That means, instantly, that strict Creationism is inherently wrong.
Our solution to that problem? What measure of days did God use? If he measured them by days passed back on the planet he resides on which directly orbits Kolob.............
Well, then his "days" could have been any number of eons of our time.
Further, where in the Bible does it say that God DIDN'T use a big bang?
Where in the Bible does it say that God DIDN'T use evolution?
Further, insofar as religious texts are translated correctly, GOD USES LOGICAL SYSTEMS TO DESCRIBE FAITH.
No, really.
Again, sorry, but I just cannot allow this kind of bigotry to stand, as perpetrated by any party.
Please, if this is inappropriate, then the post this responds to is also inappropriate, and staff, please feel free to remove both.
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
I thought I might also disassemble some of the structure...
First, note the first word of each lead line: O, O, Then, O, My, Then, And, My, For, And, Seek, For, O, Seek, And, O, Yes, And, But, For, I, But, For, I, No, He, And, No, O, That, And, O, O, If
There's multiple structural patterns in this alone. First, in the build up to climax, I reuse the first word of the first lead line in the second lead line of the following set. This causes a building effect in the readers mind, whether they recognize why or not. Then, right immediately after climax I immediately break that particular pattern, causing a small dissonance, which dissonance causes the readers mind to turn more reflective rather than emotional. Finally, the words themselves have an embedded subliminal message, can you see it?
Next, we'll note the length and meter of the piece. It's 17 sets of 4 lines of 9 syllables. Notice a pattern? Odd number of sets, odd number of syllables, even number of lines per set...
Finally, I made use of an ancient Semitic device wherein you first state your complaints, and then you reiterate them, but turning them more positive, and in reverse order. Can you spot it?
Why do I use such strict structuring you might ask? Do you not agree this piece would have had less impact without them? I certainly think so. I even use poetic structuring in my prose, though of a looser variety. Metering your words, and using subliminal messaging, and emphasizing main points by stating and restating in reverse order all make for a much more powerful flow.
At least, that's what I personally believe, and it seems to serve me well.
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
I don't know that the Universe actually has a center
At least not one we can observe.
But first I have to say "Hieing to Kalob" a rich and beautiful phrase, a powerful metaphor that isn't invalidated by its not matching this week's scientific understanding of the universe. While I'm more of a Taoist/Buddhist/Whatever I find truth in the Bible, even though it speaks of six days of creation and the four corners of the Earth, because there's more to truth than the physical. Religious texts make lousy science books but can be wonderful for guiding us in our dealings with other people, our ethics and subjective spiritual lives. And science with its empirical methodology is great for figuring what everything is made of and how it works, but can be downright scary when folks try to apply it to the human dimension; since it recognizes no intrinsic value to anything beyond its utility toward a particular task. And I think you and I are more than that.
But enough philosophy. How it was explained to me by some smart person---when I wondered aloud which way the center of the Univers was---is that when it comes to the shape of the Universe, we're like the residents of the surface of a beachball. A beach ball has a center when viewed three dimensionally, but any one point on its surface is no more the center of the surface than any other point. Given our limitation of being two dimensional beings we can't directly observe the curve of the beach ball, so to us the surface appears to be a flat infinite surface. We head out in any direction far enough and we're right back where we started, totally baffled and feeling like we're in TRON or someplace.
~hugs, Veronica
And remember...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifLqzLEB3E0
Ah, but that's the very reason that it is impossible.
We cannot observe through to the core of the beachball, to use your metaphor, no matter how hard we try, and that core is where the center obviously must needs lie. As we try to observe inward, towards the core, what we're seeing is also going back in time. We cannot "hie" to the center, because the closer we get to it, the slower time subjectively flows. Similarly, in a beachball, the closer to the core of all that mass of air filling the inside an object gets, the more resistance and pressure is felt to move back towards the surface. Subjectively slowing its progress towards the center of the beachball.
So, the very act of trying to move towards the center of the universe slows our progress towards that very center. It would be very very hard indeed to move quickly towards something that's pushing you back outwards with all it's force.
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.