[UA] Monster Dream

[Michael d'Arcy]

On 8/1/07, John Tynes <john at tynes.com> wrote:
> Last night I dreamed I was building a monster out of antique furniture
parts, and its name was Portmanteau.

Clearly this is a great sign. Portmanteau is simply from the Latin *porta
mantellum*, via old middle French *portemanteau*, and the Latin means "bring
the cloak!", suggesting something's being or is to be covered up. But what?
It's a "monster" you're building, but that's just *monstrum*, which is a
portent and omen in Latin, an unnatural sign of things to come. What ought
we to make of it? Alas, Hodgman's COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE offered no help
in its omens and portents chart, but perhaps we may still decipher this. "I
dreamed I was building a monster out of antique furniture parts", *consomniaui
ynstruebam monstrum articulis supellectilis antiquæ*; "and its name was
Portmanteau", *Portamantellum atque cognominatus erat*. *c.y.m.a.s.a.p.a.c.e.
cymas a pace*? The hollow sphere after (or following) peace? Hm. Clearly,
then, you must build it, as you and your monster will bring peace to the
Hollow Earth. How? *Cyma* is originally from the Greek κυμα, which Aeschylus
used metaphorically for a "flood of men" (in *Seven against Thebes*),
whereas Euripides, in *Ion*, used it to refer to the "waves of adversity".
With the calling for the cloak or covering, we can assume something (that
ought not to've been) has been uncovered, a literal "apocalypse", bringing
such ruin as implied, so perhaps your "monster" is needed to reveil (*bring
the covering!*) what's been revealed? In the system of numbers Beatus of
Liébana applied to the Roman alphabet, *monstrum *works out to a gematria of
620, which is curious. In Hebrew, for 620, we have *bacharti*, the "chosen
one" of Isaiah 43:10; in the Greek of Rev. 16:5, we have *ho hosios*, the
"holy one"; in other places, *kardia theou*, "heart of god", which is *
teleios*, "perfect" as a "sacrifice" (*thysia*). With it, perhaps, "he has
redeemed Jerusalem" (*ga'al Yerusalam*; Isaiah 52:9), paying the "ransom of
their soul" (*pidyon nafsham*; Psalm 49:9), in "the place of judgment" (*mekom
hamishpat*; Ecclesiastes 3:16) through his "ancient" (*yashish*; Job 15:10),
"holy oracle" (*devir kadsheak*; Psalm 28:2). Keter, the crown of the
sefirot of the kabbalists, is also 620. Your "monster" seems to be a secret
savior, then, for in addition to the preceding, 620 is also *hamelekh YHWH
tzeva'ot*, given in Isaiah 6:5 as "the king, the lord of hosts". And the
Latin *cognominatus*? It, too, is 620 by Beatus' system. And that verb, *
cognomino*, means not just to name a thing, but to give it a characteristic
name or one symbolic of its deeds or nature, suggesting in the phrase
*Portamantellum
cognominatus erat *that he was not just named Portamanteau, but that he was
named so for a specific reason, one which perhaps we've unfolded here. A
last note, *Portamantellum *itself enumerates to 737 (ah, for want of
another 40!), which is also the sum for the phrase *orationes dei
operis*(as used in Crowley's
*Grimorium Sanctissimum*), meaning the "prayers of the god of the
working/operation/procedure", so perhaps the name itself yet carries further
mysteries to be uncovered.

Celebrate, then, for you, like John Murray
Spear<http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/246/john_murray_spears_god_machine.html>,
have been given the chance to build a mechanical savior! ("October 1853, on
a hilltop in Lynn, Massachusetts, a group assembled to create the New
Messiah. They had not come to pray or to praise God: they were actually
going to build Him out of metal and wood under the supervision of spirits.")

Either that, or you just had a cool dream. Or bad digestion. You know,
whatever sounds most likely.
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