Tetramerous Heimweh

by
Dallas F. Bell, Jr.

Four Connected Dimensions of the Elect’s Heimweh Algorithm Data¹

I. Materielle Dinge: Cause and Effect Reasoning (What)

(Figure 1)

The brain automatically merges double vision taken in through the eyes. Even when seeing or thinking of a positive object differently, diplopia, prevents needed focus (Jam. 1:6-8).

You must be a doer of God’s word and not just a hearer who deceives themselves. They are like people that see their face in a glass and go on their way forgetting what manner of man they are (Jam. 1:22-24).

Choose to serve YHWH,² LORD Adonai the Pantokrátōr, as His slave (Rom. 1:1). Take your shoes off in submission (Ex. 3:5) having your heart circumcised (Rom. 2:29).³ Then, study to show yourself approved knowing what is knowable and what is not knowable, and when and how to use that knowledge without vain philosophies or babblings (II Tim. 2:15-16).

Be commissioned as His soldier into His unit⁴ accepting His assignment⁵ in the divisions of (1) personnel (administration), (2) intelligence (linguists collecting-intel and counter-intel), (3) operations (offensive and defensive maneuvers), (4) logistics (supplies and the supply chain), or (5) public relations.

A good soldier of Christ Jesus endures hardship and no man that wars entangles himself in the affairs of this life that he may please the one that chose him to be a soldier (II Tim. 3-4).

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against rulers of darkness, so take on the armor of God to stand in that evil day having your loins gird with truth, wearing a breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the wicked, wearing the helmet of salvation, and carrying the sword of the Holy Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray always with supplication in the Spirit and watch with all perseverance and supplication for all saints for we are ambassadors in bonds (Eph. 6: 11-20).

Soldiers do not turn back or they are not fit for the kingdom of heaven (Heb. 10:38-39; Luke 9:62; II Peter 2:20). They attack the strength of the enemies of God (Prov. 21:22). The Gen-G’s, generation of the Godly righteous (Ps. 14:5), are opposed by the Gen-S’s, generation of Satanic evil (Prov. 30:12-14). If you do not deliver the innocent you are also guilty (Prov. 24:11-12). This is a burden in the valley of vison (Is. 22:1).

Man is born unto trouble as the sparks that fly upward (Job 5:7). There will be tribulation and the elect will be gathered from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24:29-31) and nations will be deceived from the four corners or quadrants (gónia) of the earth (Rev. 20:8).

When a person is converted to truth their souls are saved from death and a multitude of sins are hidden (Jam. 5:19-20).

Do not cast your pearls before swine (Matt.7:6). One generation of seeding evil makes four generations of weeding evil (Ex. 20:5, 34:7; Num. 14:18; Deut. 5:9). Rods are for the backs of atheist fools (Prov. 26:3-5, see endnote 7) and death is for the reprobate minds of Sodomites (Gen. 19:24-25) who embrace the bosoms of strangers (Matt. 19:5-6) and become one in wickedness (Prov. 5:20) doing that which is unseemly (Rom. 1:27). Family members of people that promote false god(s) are to be killed by the hands of their family (Deut. 13:6-10).

II. Abstrakte Konzepte: Logic Reasoning (How)

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you are dead and your life is secretly concealed with Christ in God (Col 3:1-4).

John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress” was somewhat spiritually autobiographical in that his character Christian was on a progressive path to the Celestial City.

As he was being (unjustly) murdered, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:54-60).

We received a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace so we may serve God accepably with reverance and fear because God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28-29).

Our conversations are in heaven (Phil. 3:20). We are not to love this world (I Cor. 2:6). To be a friend of this world is to be an enemy of God (Jam. 4:4). We are heirs of heaven (Titus 3:7). Our home is not of this world (Heb. 13:14).

We are looking for our home in heaven (John 15:19, 17:16) and the world will hate us for that (John 15:18). Yet, we are to demonstrate Divine order by being humble (Luke 8:35), being angry and not sinning, and speaking truth (Eph. 4:25-26). There is a just anger and an unjust anger. Just anger is necessary for the correction of the wicked and is exemplified by God (Lactantius‘De ira Dei, De Mortibus Persecutorum [parallels Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica], Divine Institutes).⁶ Hatred stirs up strifes but love covers all sin (Prov. 10:12). Love does not behave itself unseemly. Love never fails (I Cor. 13:3-8).

Paul declared, “To live is Christ and to die is gain…For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Phil. 1:21. 23).

Being justified by faith we have peace with God throught Christ Jesus by whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God but we glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation works patience and patience, experience, and experience, hope, and hope makes us not ashamed, because of the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us (Rom. 5:1-5).

Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity so that you will not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you lack these things you are blind so be diligent in your calling and election that you never fall, so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (II Peter 1:5-11).

Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidense of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear (Heb. 11:1-3).

III. Mathematische und Geometrische Konstruktionen: Numbers and Shapes/Spaces Reasoning (Where)

The existence of a mathematical truth should be equivalent with the reason for it (see the Schopenhauer reference). Infinity indicates there must be an AI behavioral algorithm end for earthy purpose.⁷ Heraclitus of Ephesus noted potamoisi toisin autoisin embainousin hetera kai hetera hudata epirrei, usually accepted as generally meaning we are in a state of becoming.⁸ Jehovah, the God of becoming, has built that into each of us as an instinct, a desire, a homesickness for heaven. "He has planted eternity in the human heart" (Eccl. 3:11). And because of that, we will never be fully satisfied with this life. Nothing will ever measure up to heaven. You were created to know God. You were created to go to heaven. Not having a continuing city causes us to seek one to come, so by Jesus, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually (Heb. 13:14-15). Not a city with material foundations but desire the heavenly city prepared by God (Heb. 11:10, 16).

Sickness is an involuntary ailment or annoyance. It is a reflexive response to a stimulus. There is a conscious desire for eternal existence beyond pain and death (Rev. 21:4). This is a rational longing or yearning for something possible, such as an infant desires to be fed with existent food (I Peter 2:2), adolescents desire friends available in a society (Prov. 18:24, 27:10), and adults desire sex within marriage (Prov. 5:19; I Tim. 5:14). Jesus said blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness because they will be filled (Matt. 5:6). Even young ravens cry out to God and are fed (Job. 38:41; Ps. 14:9; Matt. 6:26; Luke 12:24). Those good desires (Hebrew yetzer hatov for good instinct) are not to be abused (Hebrew yetzer hara for evil instinct, Gen. 6:5, 8:21).

A soldier expects to be rewarded for obedient service. There are five different heavenly rewards, referred to as crowns, believers can receive: the Victor’s Incorruptible Crown (I Cor. 9:24-27), the Crown of Rejoicing (Luke 15:7), the Crown of Righteousness (II Tim. 4:8), the Crown of Life (Jam. 1:12), and the Crown of Glory (I Peter 5:2-4). The angels sing praises to the Lamb in heaven (Rev. 5:11). Jesus went to prepare a place for His elect and in His Father’s house are many mansions (John 14:2-3).

(Rev. 20-22) King James Version

20-- And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. ² And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, ³ And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. ⁴ And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵ But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. ⁷ And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, ⁸ And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. ⁹ And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. ¹⁰ And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. ¹¹ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. ¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. 21-- And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. ² And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. ⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. ⁵ And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. ⁶ And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. ⁷ He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. ⁸ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. ⁹ And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, ¹¹ Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; ¹² And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: ¹³ On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. ¹⁴ And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ¹⁵ And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. ¹⁶ And the city lieth foursquare [Greek tetragónos, see term tetralogy and endnote 2], and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs [a furlong is considered to be around 1/8 mile]. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal [it is about a 1,500 mile walled and gated cube and not a pyramid because the walls and gates would be slanted inward and thus not functioning walls or gates]. ¹⁷And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. ¹⁸ And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. ¹⁹ And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; ²⁰ The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. ²¹ And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. ²² And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. ²³ And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. ²⁴ And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. ²⁵ And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. ²⁶ And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. ²⁷ And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. 22-- And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. ² In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³ And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: ⁴ And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. ⁵ And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. ⁶ And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. ⁷ Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. ⁸ And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. ⁹ Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. ¹⁰ And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. ¹¹ He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. ¹² And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. ¹³ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. ¹⁴ Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. ¹⁶ I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. ¹⁷ And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. ¹⁸ For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: ¹⁹ And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. ²⁰ He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. ²¹ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

IV. Psychologisch Motivierende Kräfte: Intentions from Moral Reasoning (Why)

The elect’s tetramorph (four-shapes) of the cardinal motivating virturous/moral⁹ influences from the tetralogy of humble love, courageous justice, forgiving mercy, and graceful redemption (see the direct and indirect coverage in section II) are faith, knowledge, wisdom, and patience/endurance.

The following poem, generally thought to be written by the non-elect Li Bai when he was travelling in Yangzhou (around 2000 kilometers away from his home in Sichuan), is titled “Thoughts on a Tranquil Night.”

Before my bed a pool of light—
O can it be hoar-frost on the ground?
Looking up, I find the moon bright;
Bowing, in homesickness I’m drowned.¹⁰

The elect Nehemiah¹¹ (Neh. 1:4) and a pslamist spoke of how the Israelis wept and mourned for their homeland (Ps. 137:1-9).¹² Desire is the bosom of the heart, desiderium sinus cordis (Latin from Augustine’s Confessions meaning longing [yearning] makes the heart [grow] deep). After winning the war at Troy with his Trojan Horse concept, the relentless journey of Odysseus (Ulysses) to his home on the island of Ithaca is immortalized by Homer in his poem “The Odyssey.” Odysseus’ increase in wisdom is seen by his openly taunting the Cyclops early in the journey, which caused him trouble, and in the end his wearing a disguise and maintaining his composure until he could strike when he was taunted by his wife’s suitors. Ovid’s “Tristia” (Sorrows or Lamentations) is an oeuvre that bewails his banishment from Rome.¹³ The exiled Russian Alexander Pushkin referred to Ovid. Vladimir Nabokov wrote a lot about homesickness, especially in “Pnin.” Svetlana Boym was nostalgic in her, “The Future of Nostalgia,” and Joseph Brodsky’s, a Russian exile and winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature, poems were about exile, such as “Odysseus to Telemachus” or “May 24, 1980.”¹⁴ Brodsky’s “A Room and a Half” continued his story of sorrow much like fellow Russian exile Osip Mandel’shtam’s volume of poetry named “Tristia.”¹⁵ Adam Mickiewicz’s, an exiled Polish poet, masterpiece of “Pan Tadeusz” indicated how much he missed his home as did Leo Tolstoy’s protagonist Nikolai Rostov in “War and Peace,” and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Alyosha Karamazov in “The Brothers Karamazov.”¹⁶

For people, generally, symptoms of homesickness are cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and physical: (1) at a cognitive level they include frequently thinking about home and having inappropriate thoughts when idealizing it,¹⁷ (2) at a behavioral level it is common to have a loss of concentration, even given to weeping, causing difficulty in sleeping (God gives sleep, Ps. 127:2) and eating, and neglecting a social life, (3) at an emotional level sadness, loneliness, anger (unjust because it does not correct wickedness, see section II) and anxiety (the elect are to be anxious for nothing, Phil. 4:6) may be experienced depleting energy, (4) at a physical level the long-term stress may create headaches and tenseness. Naturally, there are things all people may do, such as being adventurous, contacting loved ones, doing what you have a passion for, and maintaining a humorous and positive attitude. The elect are specifically to read the Bible, make their pain first known to God and then to friends, followed by going out and serving others as unto God (Jam. 5:13-16).

All Scripture is God-breathed (Greek, theópneustos from theós for God and pnéō for breathe out in II Tim 3:16; see endnote 1) and is, therefore, the sole immutable source of Divine doctrine.

Job exclaimed, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27).

David testified that he would be reunited with his dead child after death (II Sam. 12:23).

For in this we truly are groaning, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven (Aramaic Bible). For concerning this also we are made to groan, and we long to wear our house that is from heaven. In our present tent-like existence we sigh, since we long to put on the house we will have in heaven (II Cor. 5:2).

Homesick for heaven is always being of good courage, and knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight); we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord (II Cor. 5:6-8). On a flat surface (2d Euclidean geometry for Pythagorean Theorem), Archimedes famously observed, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The path of righteousness is life (Prov. 12:28). Death is the inevitable point between this life and the next. Death is victory to the elect (I Cor. 15:55). In non-Euclidean geometry, e.g. right triangles for Pythagorean Theorem on the surface of spheres, the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line (see the Schopenhauer reference). The sting of the non-elect’s death is sin (I Cor. 15:56).

Accounting for a worldwide flood, the Mesopotamian poem, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” explains how the polytheistic gods do not allow for an afterlife, which causes a fear of death and an over emphasized longing for friends.¹⁸ The Taoist (Chinese the way), Buddhist, and Shinto (Chinese shin for god and tao for way) influenced haiku poet Matsuo Bashō’s disbelief in a conscious afterlife led to no homesickness and a fear of death with an over abundant longing for family, friends, lovers, animals, and plants. In his melancholy, he wrote

Laid waste on this journey.
My dreams wander scattered
through desolate fields.

The disciple of Bashō, Yosa Buson echoed the same theological beliefs as did many other writers, such as Kobayashi Nobuyuki (Yatarō or Issa) and Etsujin¹⁹ who wrote

I envy the tom cat:
how easily he lets go of
love’s pain and longing!

Masaoka Shiki²⁰ callously wrote

How lonely I felt
on a cold, cold night
when I killed that spider.

In the Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa (Sanskrit words Rāma and ayaṇa for journey), Rama, one of many deities worshipped in Hinduism, is exiled for a period and returns home. In either of the Buddhist, Jain, Sikh or Islam infused (e.g. Malaysia) versions there is a theme that may be interpreted as homesickness. For example, when Rama’s brother, Bharata, comes to visit him in the forest and tells him about their father’s death, Rama is heartsick.  Then, when he sees his delicate wife, Sita struggle to make a home for them in the forest, Rama remembers Ayodhaya and palace life with tears in his eyes. But strictly there is no homesickness, as such, in the Ramayana. Of course, remembering about parents, brothers and kith and kin and getting emotional feelings due to separation are there. Homesickness should have a feel of returning immediately or urgently, which is not there nor any scope for it as all three characters have a vow not to return before fourteen years. That is why, when Bharata entreated to return, Shrirama argued at length.²¹

Understanding is a wellspring of life, but the instruction of fools is folly (Prov. 16:22). The tongue of the wise uses knowledge correctly, but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness (Prov. 15:2).

Paul recalled that he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (II Cor. 12). Having experienced the sounds and sights of heaven, Paul became homesick...why ⇌ where ⇌ how ⇌ what…tetramorph ⇌ tetragónos ⇌ tetralogy ⇌ tetragrammaton = elect’s tetramerous heimweh.

YaHWeH’s gift of now,
dreamy long fare. Heavenly,
street of quantal gold.

(Figure 2)

TERMS:

Adonai (Gen. 15:2 etc.), meaning Lord, Lord, LORD, master, or owner, is Hebrew plural (used for intensity) possessive from Adon. In the Tanakh, Adon may refer to men and angels as well as to the LORD God of Israel (e.g. Exodus 34:23). Also used ten times in KJV for Ruler of all, Ruler of the universe, the Almighty Pantokrátōr (Greek from pás, "all" and kratéō, "prevail"; II Cor. 6:18; Rev. 1:8, 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 16:14, 19:6, 19:15, 21:22) having unrestricted power exercising absolute dominion. (See endnotes 2 and 7.)

Heimweh (German homesickness, translated from heim "home" and weh "woe or ache" from the Swiss dialect) expresses a longing for the mountains, Alps. It was originally a medical term in Switzerland addressing the yearning of soldiers for their alpine homes.

Material things (German materielle dinge), abstract concepts (German abstrakte konzepte), mathematical and geometrical constructions (German mathematische und geometrische konstruktionen), and psychologically-motivating forces (German psychologisch motivierende kräfte). (See endnote 7.)

Tetralogy (Greek tetra-, meaning four, and -logia, from logos, meaning word; tetramerous, four-groups/sets, believed to be first used for the botanical arrangement of flowers into groups of four or flowers having four parts; see endnote 2) is a series of four connected words/works, such as Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Der Ring des Nibelungen (German for The Ring of the Nibelung) is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied (lied, song). The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel" (means stage festival) structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend (means eve or evening before). It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagner's Ring, or The Ring. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. Wagner’s sixteen-hour operatic tetralogy traces a power-struggle that sees families ripped apart, hearts broken, heroes slaughtered and fortunes won and lost. The operas are Das Rheingold (“The Rhine Gold”), Die Walküre (“The Valkyrie”), Siegfried which promoted an evolutionary myth of man’s will progressively controlling the future (see C. S. Lewis’ Christian Reflections, ed., Walter Hooper, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1967), and the Götterdämmerung (“The Twilight of the Gods”) ending which reflects Schopenhauer’s pessimism. In other words, the negative fatalistic end of not just this story but all possible stories--enden sah ich die welt (German for I saw the world end). It was first performed in sequence at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany, on August 13, 14, 16, and 17, 1876. https://www.lyricopera.org/lyric-lately/beginners-guide-wagner-ring-cycle/

Mitchell Cohen, Baruch College professor of political science at the City University of New York, wrote The Politics of Opera: A History from Monteverdi to Mozart (Princeton, 2017) and has lectured on the political biography of Wagner. Cohen explained in a September, 2020, email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. that Wagner began the text for the Ring while still in Dresden in 1848, wrote the poem backwards, that is, beginning with what became Gotterd (originally Siegfried's Tod). He had finished the four texts before reading Schopenhauer in late 1854. He then reworked the ending (there are several endings; the one we know but also earlier versions; which can be found in the Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington 1993 translation, “Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung: A Companion” (Thames and Hudson, New York). After writing the texts backwards, he then wrote the music forward, finishing in 1869 but with a long hiatus in composing it, in the midst of "Siegfried." 

Duality (order theory) is a concept regarding binary relations. Duality, in mathematics, is a principle where one true statement can be obtained from another by merely interchanging two words. It is a property of algebra (lattice theory), which is involved with the concepts of order and structure common to different mathematical systems. A mathematical structure is called a lattice if it can be ordered in a specified way. Projective geometry, set theory, and symbolic logic are examples of systems with underlying lattice structures, and therefore also have principles of duality. In a branch of mathematics, category theory, duality is a correspondence between the properties of a category C and the dual properties of the opposite category C^op. Given a statement regarding the category C, by interchanging the source and target of each morphism as well as interchanging the order of composing two morphisms, a corresponding dual statement is obtained regarding the opposite category C^op. If σ be any statement in the language of category theory, duality is the observation that σ is true for some category C if and only if σ^op is true for C^op. In classical logic, the ∧ and ∨ operators are in a sense dual because (¬x ∧ ¬y) and ¬(x ∨ y) are equivalent. This means that for every theorem of classical logic there is an equivalent dual theorem. Symbolism is necessary to connect fiction (F) to the reality of truth (T). F can only exist because its opposite T^op already exists. The addition of T to F^op by finite beings diminishes T and enhances the counterfeit F^op. (See endnote 1.) Wagner’s opera symbolism is discussed at https://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/Teutonic_Mythology/ringsym.html

A brief contrast of Wagner’s mythological manmade symbolism (W) with Divine biblical symbolism (B) follows. (The many Scriptures for the B symbols below may be found in the subject section of a concordance or by the subject in a biblical dictionary.)

Anvil: (W) for forging of weapons; (B) for smoothing metals.
Apple: (W) youth, fertility, and immortality; (B) saints security, sorrow, and fitly spoken words.
Armor: (W) physical concealment; (B) spiritual protection.
Bird: (W) brings information; (B) vulnerability.
Blood: (W) faithfulness and noble action; (B) life and atonement.
Boar: (W) scapegoat; (B) enemy of Israel.
Bridge (rainbow bridge): (W) connection; (B) bridge is not in the Bible yet geshur (meaning bridge) is a Syrian region, rainbow represents God’s covenant.
Cave: (W) evil and deceit; (B) refuge and burial.
Cup: (W) holds fate; (B) blessings or sufferings.
Dragon: (W) treasure guard; (B) tyrants and Satan.
Dream: (W) instructional vision; (B) God’s revelation.
Eagle: (W) power and fierceness; (B) spiritual renewal and false security.
Earth: (W) object of worship and soil (Erda): (B) God created and man’s dominion over, and for the meek to inherit.
Eyes: (W) the inner good or evil state; (B) revealed knowledge and moral state.
Fire: (W) supernatural element of creation; (B) God’s all consuming judgment (the fire [supernatural power] of God is needed to be contained by the wood [Moses and other believers] of the burning bush [the accomplishment of His specific will], Ex. 3:2-4).
Fog: (W) the presence of evil; (B) fog is not in the Bible but mist represents blindness.
Forest: (W) primeval nature; (B) unfruitful kingdom.
Giant: (W) violence of nature: (B) enemy of God’s people.
Gold: (W) the power of treasure; (B) redeemed, refined saints, and Christ’s doctrine.
Hammer: (W) a weapon that causes thunder and lightning; (B) God’s word.
Hat: (W) physical transformation; (B) the head covering helmet is the armor of salvation.
Head: (W) trophy; (B) Divine authority.
Hell: (W) the land of the dead; (B) eternal place of judgment for the non-elect.
Horn: (W) signal; (B) power.
Horse: (W) transportation through the worlds; (B) God’s protection.
Kiss: (W) supernatural quality; (B) submission to God or evil.
Lightning: (W) dramatic lighting; (B) God’s judgment, especially of Satan’s fall.
Lips: (W) allows understanding; (B) usually negative strategies.
Mountain: (W) ceremonial place; (B) place of God’s revelation and protection.
Oak: (W) a dwelling where deadly mistletoe grows; (B) strength and haughtiness.
Pipe (flute): (W) imitate birds; (B) joyful or mournful emotion.
Rainbow: see bridge.
Riddle: (W) intellectual competition; (B) clever entrapment.
Ring: (W) omnipotence; (B) authority and royal document seal.
River: (W) peaceful home and powerful protector; (B) peace and God’s prospering of the saints.
Rock: (W) refuge; (B) solid foundation.
Rope: (W) the destined cords of life and death; (B) bindings.
Serpent: (W) magical transformation; (B) subtlety of God’s enemy.
Spear: (W) authority; (B) weapon in Jesus’ side and for suicide.
Sword: (W) strength and the force for life; (B) weapon for judgment, the word and spirit of God.
Sky: (W) allows or disallows distant viewing; (B) signals a hopeful or ominous future.
Thunder: (W) accompanies the light of lightning; (B) God’s power and majesty.
Trees (see Oak symbol specifically): (W) fir is forest, linden is for lovers and enchanted sleep, and ash is war; (B) righteousness, eternal life, and wisdom.
Wanderer: (W) disguised having power and cleverness; (B) wicked that are cursed.
Water: (W) basic element of creation and home of gold; (B) unstable yet cleansing.
Wine: (W) antidote; (B) God’s blessings or wrath.
Wolf: (W) travel in forests and are family oriented; (B) ravenous, nocturnal, false prophets.

Diverse manmade/mythological symbols often reflect the same opposition to Divine symbols. For example, wolf, to many non-Christianized American aboriginals, generally signifies the highest spiritual teacher and pathfinder to be learned from (above the hawk and eagle totems). In the Shoshone myth the wolf is creator god and in the Pueblo myth the wolf is a directional (east) protector. As experienced to be objectively consistent with nature, wolves are obviously ravenous and nocturnal but they are biblical symbols of people that prophecy contrary to God’s immutable truth. A truth statement has an object, action, and an explicit or implicit outcome. Changing any of those components makes it a false statement. The accepted writings of a culture, especially their literary symbols, reflect their theological beliefs that determine their motivation toward their innate relationship with infinite time/space, such as the examples presented in this paper of ancient Mesopotamian, Indian, and Roman works to more modern Chinese, Japanese, and Russian writings etc. When the relationship with the reality of infinity is incorrect, other things must fill the void. For example, the haiku’s of Buddhists, who reject the reality of Creator God, masculine thought, and an afterlife, will predictably be overly focused on the entropy of nature with negative feminine emotion. Bashō wrote

A sad fate for us all:
we feed bamboo shoots
at the inescapable conclusion!

The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a broken spirit who can bear? (Prov. 18:14).

REFERENCES:

Figure 1. The beginning converged winter and summer photos, diplopia, are of the Neuschwanstein castle set at the top of a hill in the Alps in Bavaria, Germany. Its unique location is on a rocky ledge overlooking Pöllatschlucht (pollat, head and schlucht, canyon or gorge). Called the fairytale castle, Neuschwanstein Castle (literally translates to “New Swan Stone” castle) is a 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Germany. The palace was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and in honor of Richard Wagner who was influenced by Schopenhauer.

Figure 2. The concluding haiku by Dallas F. Bell Jr. is followed by his 24” x 36” oil on canvas painting depicting the finite understanding of Au (gold from Latin: aurum with the atomic number 79; Rev. 21:21) titled “Street of Quantal Gold.” Like the painting’s horizontal and vertical information structure, this masculine haiku is traditionally horizontal (left to right) but is also vertically sectioned (top to bottom).

YaHWeH’s dreamy street.

Gift of long fare of quantal

now. Heavenly gold.

Arthur Schopenhauer's, who did not understand the Pythagorean theorem nor non-Euclidean geometry, conception of the domain that should be characteristic of mathematics is that the existence of a mathematical truth should be equivalent with the reason for it (Arnold Emch’s 1914 paper Goethe and Schopenhauer on Mathematics). Schopenhauer’s PhD dissertation of 1813, The Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, (Über die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde) examines what many philosophers have recognized as an innate tendency to assume that in principle, the universe is a thoroughly understandable place. Inspired by Aristotle’s doctrine of the four basic kinds of explanatory reason or four causes for “why” (i.e. why is there something, rather than nothing?). (Physics, Book II, Chapter 3) Schopenhauer links in parallel, four different kinds of reasoning. In sum, he identifies the general root of the principle of sufficient reason as the subject-object distinction in conjunction with the thought of necessary connection, and the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason as the specification of four different kinds of objects for which we can seek explanations, in association with the four independent styles of necessary connection along which such explanations can be given, depending upon the different kinds of objects involved. One of Schopenhauer’s most significant assertions is that the four different modes of explanation only run in parallel with each other, and cannot coherently be intermixed. If we begin by choosing a certain style of explanation, then we immediately choose the kinds of object to which we can refer. Conversely, if we begin by choosing a certain kind of object to explain, we are obliged to use the style of reasoning associated with that kind of object. It thus violates the rationality of explanation to confuse one kind of explanation with another kind of object. We cannot begin with a style of explanation that involves material objects and their associated cause-and-effect relationships, for example, and then argue to a conclusion that involves a different kind of object, such as an abstract concept. Likewise, we cannot begin with abstract conceptual definitions and accordingly employ logical reasoning for the purposes of concluding our argumentation with assertions about things that exist. With this set of regulations about what counts as a legitimate way to conduct explanations, Schopenhauer ruled out the often-cited and (especially during his time) philosophically often-relied-upon cosmological and ontological arguments for God’s existence, and along with them, all philosophies that ground themselves upon such arguments. He was adamant that the German Idealist outlooks of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel rested upon explanatory errors of this kind, and he regarded those outlooks as fundamentally wrongheaded styles of thought, for he saw their philosophies as being specifically grounded upon versions of the ontological argument for God’s existence. Schopenhauer’s panentheism (all-in-God), as opposed to pantheism (all-is-God), is the view that what humans can comprehend and imagine to be the universe is an aspect of God, but that the being of God is in excess of this, and is neither identical with, nor exhausted by, the universe we can imagine and comprehend. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/Schopenhauer/

William Hamilton discovered quaternions in 1843. In extending complex numbers (which can be viewed as points on a 2-dimensional plane) to higher spatial dimensions, a quaternion is described as an ordered four-element multiple of real numbers, with the first element as the scalar part, and the remaining three as the vector part.

https://SystematicPoliticalScience.com/optimization.html

----------ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2020 © DALLAS F. BELL, JR.----------