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Godel Chess - Global Chess - Part 2
We pick up the action as the Girls are en route to the mountain enclave of their mysterious friend, known as Isis:
Candi: Bambi, look! I've applied my puzzle-solving skills to the word "ARAGON" and see what's happened.
| Aragon
-- Remove the first "A" and replace it with a "D".
The word becomes -
Dragon -- The White Dragon, which is another name for "Mandrake" Aragon -- Remove the "N" and replace it with a "G". The word becomes..... Aragog -- Which is the name of the Gigantic Spider in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Horrors". Aragog -- Remove the "A and R" and replace it with an "M". The word becomes- Magog -- O' Ma gog! Bambi: Hmmm, Candi, I think you are on to something. I seem to remember something...yes, from our "Mongolia" book....Magog gog means "the final flick of the Dragon's Tail", which makes me think that there is a connection to Pimander, our Dragon Web Master and "Riding the Dragon" (what the Mongols call the ever after of death). Oooohhhh... The Pahlavi (Middle Persian) word "chatrang" also has a double meaning of the mandrake plant - which is said to resemble people - and thus the other-worldly or spiritual aspects of chess come to the fore and what a metaphor! Men being the pieces upon the playing board of the world - and underworld. You remember, a drink of a draught of Mandrake could be an aphrodesiac, or put one into a deep sleep, or kill, thus reflecting the multi-faceted aspects of Chatrang/Chess. The Mandrake potion was also used to induce a trance in initiates into the bloody religion whose symbol was the wolf. Those ancient Persians were just as good at double and triple-entendres as the ancient Egyptians! Candi: That's cool... and there's the connection to the dragons in Harry Potter and the great chess game taking place within the context of the J.K. Rowling's series of novels. This also ties in with the information Jan sent to us, about how Gog and Ma Gog will be the representatives of Satan at the Great Battle of the End Times at Armageddon; you know, Satan is often called the Great Dragon...now check this out... Aragon -- Add a "T" and an extra "R". The word becomes - Tarragon -- aka The Little Dragon, from the Latin Dracunculus...a connection between "The White Dragon", which is Mandrake, and Tarragon, which is "The Little Dragon." Mandrake is connected to the early history of Chess, because "Chatrang" is the name for the Mandrake in Pahlavi ( "Middle Persian"), and that is what the Persians called their game of chess - Chatrang - because the playing pieces had the shapes of men, and the Mandrake root also has the shape of a man, or sometimes a woman. Tarragon supposedly has the ability to cure the bites of serpents and Mad Dogs. That is another connection to the Dragon, which in some cultures is represented as a Great Serpent.
The tops of the Mandrake plants were tied to a rope on one end, and the other end was tied to a dog, and then the dog was frightened or tormented into running away, and as the Mandrakes were torn from the ground and screamed, the dogs went mad from the sound... I wonder if there is a connection between this legend and the fact that many ancient peoples calling their gaming pieces "little dogs"? Magog -- Take out the first "G" and add a "D" or two. The word becomes - Madog/Maddog...Only Mad Dogs and English Men go out in the noon day sun....Noel Coward God Dam! |
Mad
Dog - Bambi, there is definitely a connection between a Mad
Dog and the Mandrake plant. According to ancient legend,
the sound of the screaming Mandrake roots as they were pulled
from the earth drove men mad, and so people started using
dogs to pull the roots out.
Bambi: Candi, what's wrong!
Candi: Nothing...it's just that "God Dam" is "Mad Dog" backwards. Bambi: A palindrome? You know, like "Madam I'm Adam". Hmmm... but Mad Dog/God Dam isn't a palindrome...
| Bambi
Thinks:
According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (c. 1977 by G. & C. Merriam Co.) "palindrome" is a word of Greek origin palindromos whose literal meaning is running back again, fr. palin back, again+ dramein to run; akin to Gk polos axis, pole...: a word, verse or sentence (as "Able was I ere I saw Elba") or a number (as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward. "God Dam" is "Mad Dog" backwards, but if it were a palindrome it would have to read as the same word or phrase, either forwards or backwards, like "1881". |
Candi: Damn dam! But what does it all mean, Bambi? There's Queen Isabella, who many scholars think was the inspiration for the "Mad Queen" that ushered chess into the modern era. According to Jan's research, Isabella married Ferdinand of Aragon, joining their two kingdoms in a powerful alliance that ultimately drove the Moors from their last strongholds in Spain. The Moors were - according to classical historians - responsible for bringing chess to Spain some 700 years before the time of Isabella. Hmmm....do you think someone is pulling our legs? Is there a connection between Isabella, mad-dog playing pieces and Englishmen?
Bambi: Well - there is Scathach, who is also called Scatha. She was an ancient Celtic warrior goddess, possibly based upon a real person, who had the power of divination through the practice of Imbas Forasnai. Some sources link Scathach with Scota, after which "Scotland" is named. Eusebius wrote that Scota was an Egyptian princess who married a Scythian who was a prince of the Gaels - some call him Miletus - and her name was subsequently bestowed on the females of their line. Did you know that under ancient tradition the Scots clans traced their ancestry through the female line, just like the Pharaohs did? It's quite possible that when she left Egypt for her marriage to Miletus, Scota brought the games of Senet and Tjaw with her. Perhaps it is not such a coincidence that the game of "chess" is called "Schach" in German, "Echecs" in French, "Scacchi" in Italian?
Candi: But Bambi, you know what the HIStorians would say - that Chess is named after the Shah in Chatrang. Oh! Look at this...there is a connection with Magog and the Scythians.
|
Finally, Josephus and others identify Magog with Scythia, but in antiquity this name was used to designate vaguely any northern population.
From: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI |
Bambi: The Catholic Encyclopedia! What are you doing with that?Candi: We must be open minded when it comes to using all available research resources, Bambi. It does contain much accurate information. One just has to ignore the obvious anti-goddess slant of the writing.
Bambi: Well, The Catholic Encyclopedia didn't exactly give a glowing endorsement to the thought that "Magog" and the Scythians are synonymous!
Candi: Syno-mouse? I don't know what a Chinese mouse has to do with this, but other scholars tend to agree with the identification of the Scythians with Magog. I have recently done some research on the Scythians. Ashoka (269 - 232 BCE) was Scythian and Macedonian, and the last emperor of the Maurya Dynasty. That Dynasty ruled India from circa 321 to 185 BCE. Ashoka's royal seat was in the Kingdom of Magadha. Hmmmm...Magadha and Magog sound alike, don't they? The area Ashoka ruled encompassed the entire subcontinent of India as well as Baluchistan - which is also known as Hind, or Sind - and Hind has been suggested as the homeland of chess by some scholars. Ashoka became a Jain Buddhist... Gandhara...Hmmm... Some authorities believe that Buddha was a Scythian, a blue eyed Aryan...The Jains...they offer Vermillion, Poppies, and Mashed Bananas to a statue of the Jain's Buddha...and elephants love bananas, don't they? And isn't there a little mouse associated with the Indian elephant-headed god Ganesha?
Bambi: Not Syno-mouse! Synonymous - it means - oh, never mind what it means. You may be on to something with Ashoka. Hmmmm, the area is right, the time is right - oh, here we are. Hold that thought, Candi.
Candi: What thought?
Forward to: Godel Chess...Global Chess - Part 3
Back to: Godel Chess...Global Chess - Part 1