unforum

[mortality]

Sylvia, that looks like a great way to tie all the puzzle solutions together.

I'm not so sure that we have all the solutions tho. Does anyone have thoughts about replacing Ahasuerus, W. Wallace, and Enlil with the three Greek names for the Hebrew God? Could matching a MSG3 puzzle name with the appropriate Triangle of Art name be the answer? After swapping the names, the solved Triangle of Art would be placed into the diagram.

Since we're in a holding action until Ethan verifies the rest of the speculation, how about we get a head start on MSG4?

Does MSG4 relate to the Freemason symbols of the compass and square? Ethan's John Dee reference and the Duke of Manchester on the top of the puzzle both have connections to that kind of secret society.

Freemasons sometimes use words as a way of identifying themselves. Could the words in MSG4 be anagrams or clues to providing the proper passphrase?

Given that the handwritten page/puzzle numbers in the bottom corner seem significant (1 ring, 2nd king, 3 names of God), could we be looking for either four words or four phrases?

[casablanca]

Wow. Just went through those last three pages and now I'm getting ready to go through them again.

Wish I had more to add, but I'm going to have to so some research first. I used to work for a guy who was a mason, but not surprisingly he didn't talk about it much (he had the compass symbol on his car next to the one with the fez). I'm gonna hit Wiki, I'll post if I see anything fun.

Awesome work.

[mortality]

The Doozy

[dashcat]

I must have missed or forgotten Ethan's original response to to where he thought the next event would be so I sent him this.

[Miso2kay1]

Hey everyone, great finds. I need to recap on those soon when I get back from class.

Anyways I was messing around with the main page of WF and checked out the source code (love Firefox),

[WolfHawk]

I've obviously missed something somewhere. What "gibberish" and what "Spearment?"

[Sylvia]

The gibberish is in these comments:
http://whitechapelfoundation.org/opencases/?p=3#comment-8
http://whitechapelfoundation.org/opencases/?p=3#comment-7
http://whitechapelfoundation.org/opencases/?p=3#comment-15
http://whitechapelfoundation.org/opencases/?p=3#comment-16

Spearmint's comment is here:
http://whitechapelfoundation.org/opencases/?p=19#comment-34


And this is what Ethan said about it:

[mortality]

Ethan, in a later email (posted a few pages back, maybe), said that we should look at "one of the free web hosting sites on the Internet." Casa spotted "http" and "com" within the jumble of letters Ethan provided us in the email Sylvia posted above.

http://www.freewebs.com/ seems likely enough. We just need to figure out what goes after the "/". If it's freewebs, then we probably need to use the original, full set of letters including the "http" and "com."

That, and figure out the rest of MSG4. Freemasons place some emphasis on Solomon, his wisdom, and the Temple, so that definitely seems like a viable link. There are a number of websites that list masonic phrases (link). Have not found any that offer the passphrases to gain access to the more secret stuff. People with such knowledge are called Tilers. Any thoughts?

I also decided to have a little fun and left a follow-up comment for Spearmint at the OC blog.

[Typoxic]

The question here is, does the "left-hand path" refer to something strictly Satanic, or is he playing fast and loose with his euphemisms?

The question before that is, of course, is Spearmint in game or some kind of comment jacker?

[mortality]

Ethan seemed to be saying it's IG. I get the feeling they moderate the comments closely.

Depending on what you're reading, left-hand need not be explicitly Satanic. At least in the sense that it serves Satan's goals. King Solomon's story has him summoning demons or commanding djinn, essentially making him a necromancer, right? But he used his necromancy to build the Hebrew God's Temple. Of course, he's also supposed to be the wisest man to have ever lived, and therefore uniquely capable of dabbling in necromancy for good ends.

[Typoxic]

My understanding of the whole "left-hand" thing is that it comes from the idea of, you know, the scene at Judgment, where there's Jesus or whoever you like in a big chair and he points you to the right if you're going to heaven and to the left if you're going to hell. I'm not sure Solomon's brand of necromancy or demonology would necessarily qualify as left handed, since it was apparently in line with the wishes of his deity. Spearmint, I'm thinking, isn't so uniquely gifted, and probably doesn't harbor any illusions to the contrary.

I was just re-reading some of the correspondence, and it dawned on me that the connections I drew for MSG3 still seem valid. The names on our triangle are big-time sinners, characterized by murder, rape, and blasphemy (respectively). It's interesting that they're set up to correspond to three different names or aspects of God.

Edit: I just re-read Spearmint's thing. The wording doesn't give much insight into his mythos.

[mortality]

There's conflicting lore on the origins of the left-hand/right-hand dichotomy. We don't know if our PMs are pointing solely at the Old Testament Solomon, or also the New Testament Solomon. Arabian legends, where he is called Suleiman, also tell their own story. It looks like there are, for want of a better word, Pagan versions of the occult that use the left-hand/right-hand dichotomy as well.

Without more explicit context or hints, we can't be certain we're looking to the correct source; except maybe that we aren't dealing with the Arabian version, because of Ethan's reference to John Dee.

For what it's worth, Ethan is still skeptical that the Greek names/aspects of God correspond to the names in MSG3. But I agree with you.

[Typoxic]

I guess the christian mythology must be based on something older, so that makes sense.

Whether or not they correspond, like x matches with y etc., they're still a set of three names arranged around a triangle in mimicry of the original. It's reasonable to assume they correspond in purpose to some extent. It seems like changing the names would change the tone of the summoning/invocation in a major way, especially changing from holy names to fairly unholy names. I still think the guy might be English, but that's completely irrelevant.

[Sylvia]

I truly don't know, yet, what to make of all this except that it's a puzzle that we still need to decipher. We are probably over thinking it. Take a deep breath it will come to us soon enough.

In the letters we were given for the possible url for spearmint

abeechwelitplymytownrot

in AC there is an Aubrey Beech, which made me think of the abeech at the beginning of those letters. I'm not saying that has anything to do with it just that it caught my attention. I'm still going through all that stuff on AC and Overwatch, so I can't give an accurate analysis of it yet. So for now this is just a change of pace.

Here is somethings I thought you guys might be interested in, though:

Look at this again, Jade's WF notes, and notice the LEAF in the center of the shape, then notice in AC-Faeries a leaf is used a lot. And on this page the word CONFUSION is used to link to the next page.

Here are some more things to help change the pace.

http://jademacalla.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://conjecture.blip.tv/

here you can find links to all of Jade's blogs http://www.blogger.com/profile/00391362727614170810

but these are note worthy.

http://inquestjournal.blogspot.com/

http://inquestonline.net/

especially since at WhiteChapel Foundation News the date as now been corrected to

[mortality]

Good ideas. Not sure it makes anything simpler, tho.

Simplify is a good thought to keep in mind. We should remember that the handwritten page number and symbol on the first three puzzles was a clue to the solution we were looking for. That being said, how the symbols/numbers related wasn't obvious until after we had solutions.

Other than the Masonic passphrase possibility (4 words or phrases), what other solutions are likely for MSG4? How do they relate to squares and 4s? And how does it tie to the logic that seems to connect the other 3 puzzles.

{[(MSG1: Seal) + (MSG2: Wise King) = (Solomon's Seal)] + (MSG3: Triangle) = Triangle of Art} + (MSG4: ?) = ?

Some Masons date the origin of their societies to when Solomon built the Temples. So there is lore that provides a connection. Also, Ethan said the Whitechapel Foundation had references to the 4th Duke of Manchester being a Grand Master of the Masons in England.

In another direction: The Key of Solomon is a magical text that provides the instructions for using the Seal and Triangle for conjurations. A square could be a book...

I think we should ask Ethan to check some things against the Whitechapel records.

Please suggest your own. My ideas are as follows:

Freemason rituals
Masonic passphrases or words of power
Left-hand path
Demons/djinn; generally, and summoning in particular (this might be too broad...particular demons might be easier)
Rosicrucians (both John Dee and the author of the Amphitheatrum had ties to them)
Hermeticism (ditto)
Solomon's Seal
Solomon's Triangle/Triangle of Art
*Key of Solomon; a/k/a Clavis Salomonis
*Lesser Key of Solomon; a/k/a Clavicula Salomonis; a/k/a Lemegeton

* maybe ask Shannon if there are copies in the Scarpelli Library, too?

Additional thought...which book did Ethan say had the first reference to the left-hand path he'd ever seen?

I like the idea of revisiting the Amphitheatrum. It seems like it might connect 0701 to 0702 in a way that Ethan will believe. Here is an online version of most/all of it: link.

Latin-English translator: link.

The image Sylvia provided above for Engraving 3 is part of a larger page. link. It's titled "The Four, The Three, The Two, The One." Strange coincidence, what with having four 0701 messages.

Wikipedia says Khunrath had ties to John Dee that "led him to develop a Christianized natural magic, seeking to find the secret prima materia that would lead man into eternal wisdom." The Amphitheatrum was his first alchemical publication. It "is an alchemical classic, combining both Christianity and magic and illustrated with elaborate, hand-colored, engraved plates heightened with gold and silver. In it, Khunrath showed himself to be an adept of spiritual alchemy and illustrated the many-staged and intricate path to spiritual perfection." Wikipedia identifies the text as relating to Kabbalah, and it's a precursor to Rosicrucianism.

ETA: I can't imagine we actually need to read the Amphitheatrum, but I found a French translation, which should be easier to work into English. An English translation of a google-converted HTML version of a PDF: link