Spiritualism – KNOMO CHOICIUS

This is my attempt to rewrite one of the most depressing and distressing parts of the Hebrew Bible. Genesis 34. I wrote this back in 2012. Had it played out this way, a lot would be different today.

Note: Hebrew does not have capital letters. This piece mirrors that. My dad, who was rarely impressed with my fiction, told me I matched the rhythm of the translation that was supervised for the Conservative Jewish movement.

and jacob and esau renewed their bond of brotherhood
and bid each other peace
and they left each to go their own way, each with their own people
and lo a few days later jacob bought a parcel of ground outside of the city state of shechem for his family to dwell
and the people settled into their daily routines
and jacob was enjoying the chance to sit under the canopy of his tent and watch his young grandchildren play
and it was a joy to see the older children helping their mothers with the daily work

reuben and simeon and levi and judah and gad and asher and dan and naftali went out to practice sword fighting
for that of course is what young nomadic men did
but dinah their sister was lonely
and she bewailed her virginity
for back in haran before the party left laban
the father of leah her mother and rachel her aunt
she herself dinah had come into the way of women
and her loins burned
but the menfolk were too busy with their doings to pay attention to her

and that night a woman came to dinah in her dreams and spoke
oh dinah not for this
no not to see my great grandsons fighting
did I urge terach my husband to move to ur of the chaldees
to live amongst a civilized people
not for this did I urge terach my husband
to leave off from his wanderings
among people who thought that the women were only property
instead I urged him to live amongst the sumerians
among whom women had rights
no not for this

and in the dream dinah did ask is it really you chama
is it really you
and the spirit woman smiled and nodded
for chama was her great great grandmother
and tho the menfolk had not the wit to understand who she had been
yet some few of her adventures had passed down the chain of the generations
yes even by her male offspring
and now chama had a female descendent

and then chama spoke again in the dream saying
god is so funny
and then dream chama said
what a joker
waiting four generations to give the strong woman a daughter
and being in spirit chama now was truly able to see it was funny
and she laughed
and then she looked again at dinah and advised her saying
you go out in the morning and see the daughters of shechem
and get in the market their advice to make yourself sparkle
for it will not take much
because you are indeed very beautiful
and let your father and your brothers take notice of you
and chama smiled once again
and her image faded from the inner eyes of dinah the only daughter of jacob

and then indeed did the spirit of chama go unto jacob
her great grandson
who also lay sleeping
and she spoke to jacob saying
jacob pay attention
and jacob was surprised
for he had never had a woman speak in a dream before
and ordering him around no less
so chama his great grandmother said to him
you listen to me jacob
you listen well
you have a beautiful daughter
your grandfather abraham was wrong to lie to the foreigners about
his beautiful wife being his sister
and it credits you that you have not lied to protect dinah your daughter
but that is more because you are so obsessed with the muscles of your sons
than any sense of propriety
give it a rest and let your eyes behold the beauty of dinah your daughter

she has come into the way of women
and yet you have done nothing to find her a suitable husband
your sons simeon and levi are hot headed and dangerous with those swords
peace does not come easily
do not let this opportunity slip jacob
do not let it slip away

and jacob felt confused
and asked the dream image
who are you
and the dream chama said
I am chama your great grandmother
not for this did terach your great grandfather live with the sumerians
who understood that a people would be great
only as their sons
and daughters both
were great
jacob the spirit of chama repeated
jacob listen well
and then her image faded from the inner eyes of jacob
the second born of rebecca and issac

and in the morning dinah rose
and went to shechem to meet the daughters of the land
and freshen her look
and shechem the son of hamor the hivite
even the prince of this place
did lay eyes on her beauty as she was leaving the bath house
dressed in the finery of the craftswomen of his father’s town
and the kohl made her eyes sparkle
and his loins burned
and the loins of shechem the prince of shechem did burn very hot
and he asked his valet
who is this beautiful woman
and the valet did answer
oh shechem my lord this is the daughter of jacob who bought the piece of land outside the town walls last week for a hundred shekel weights of silver
and shechem said unto his valet
now leave me that I might approach the maiden

and dressed in the magnificent finery of a prince of the land
shechem did go to meet dinah the daughter of jacob
the prosperous wanderer
and dinah took heart from the dream of her ancestor
and let him approach
and she did not giggle or hide her face and
shechem was surprised at the composure of the beautiful woman
and he invited her back to the palace to meet hamor his father and
the hivite king of the city state of shechem

and she bowed her head and said to hamor
my lord is gracious to let my father dwell alongside your people
and hamor noted the beauty and refinement of this wanderer’s daughter
now sparkling in the fashions of his own people
and he did say unto dinah
you and your people are welcome to our place
your people clearly find favor with your god
who must be powerful to leave a wandering tribe so prosperous
may our people find favor with your people
and your people find favor with our people
and may we rise together as a new people
and dinah bowed
and said my lord
I will convey your greeting again to my father
and shechem and dinah
their loins burning
both took their leave
and dinah followed shechem to his rooms

and that evening dinah returned to her mother and her three aunts
and they were amazed at her appearance
for dinah shone like the full moon in her face
and her garments were simple
but of splendid fabric embroidered with gold
a sign of the love of shechem her lover
and dinah did tell her aunts what had happened
that she had been chosen as the mother of a new nation
to be born of the seed of shechem and the seed of jacob.

and jacob was exceedingly glad to be in the land
promised by god to his grandfather
and to have such a daughter as dinah
who had moved to enact the commandments
of his great grandmother
but simeon and levi were displeased

what oh father
is our sister a harlot
to be given up without your permission
and jacob sighed
for chama had warned him in the dream
of the warlike nature of his second and third sons
and jacob reminded them of his flight from this land over twenty years ago
and reminded them of his fears
of his brother esau having been so recently relieved
and reuben said
oh father but the menfolk of shechem are not circumcised
and do not worship our god
and jacob sighed and was silent for a moment
and then simeon said let us tell them that they must be circumcised
to honor our god
and jacob and reuben and levi all agreed to this plan
but levi and simeon were sure that hamor and shechem would refuse

and so reuben went to meet with hamor and shechem
and tell them how to make the covenant
and reuben was sure that they would not agree
but when he went unto the men
he was surprised at the love of shechem for his sister dinah
and they agreed at once that they would be circumcised
they agreed that all the menfolk of the city state of shechem would be circumcised
and so it was

and that night again the spirit of chama came to jacob in his dream
and this time abraham and sarah and terach were with her
and they spoke to jacob saying
jacob oh jacob
do you listen well
and jacob was surprised
for never before had he had such a dream
and the ancestors spoke as with one voice
saying your sons simeon and levi are planning a heinous crime
for they know of the pain and agony of the sons of the city state of shechem
and they plan to avenge themselves
for the quote dishonoring unquote of dinah your daughter
jacob oh jacob
do you hear us
and they fell silent
but looked at his soul

and jacob trembled with fear
and the four once again
said jacob oh jacob
do you hear
and this time he said
yes my parents I hear
and I will act
but jacob knew not what to do

and in the morning he went to the tent of zilpah
leah’s handmaid and dinah’s aunt
and told her to take dinah and go to shechem
and warn them to make preparations against an attack
for the second and third sons of jacob were indeed very hot headed
and jacob was not strong enough to prevail against them
and he could not bear to set brother against brother
and jacob went to sit in his tent
and took strong drink to dull the pain of his spirit

and dinah did warn her love soon to be her husband
and though the menfolk of shechem were in pain
they resolved to protect their city
and they took of the store of strong herbs prepared by their priests
against time of need
and they were ready
when simeon and levi appeared
they were ready with their swords
pointed as the wayward sons of jacob came toward their gates
and levi and simeon were surprised
and they stopped
and shechem did say
oh you sons of jacob do no credit to him
for I do love your sister dinah
and your father is pleased to join our people’s lots
so do you leave us
and go in peace
and levi seeing himself overwhelmed with force turned to do so
but simeon lunged to attack prince shechem
and that was a mistake

it was quickly over
and the next day
the wedding was celebrated
and a new people arose
from the loins of jacob through dinah his daughter

Here is my Goodreads review of a new book that will be of interest to those interested in life after death, old science fiction, or Spiritualism. I cyberly met the editor, whose PhD project this was, through a weird orchestration of events last winter, and, being a fellow writer, offered to review the book. It’s now available on Barnes and Nobel, but here is the text of my review:

The heading, “Fake News from Futures Past,” is from the Foreword. The Acknowledgements of all that it took to compile the stories of Robert Duncan Milne, and the detailed Introduction to the collection of stories themselves, this massive treasury of stories from the time of the first blossoming of genre science fiction fifty years before it was called that, gives us a window back into a time when science and spirituality were not at such odds as they are for most people today.

I was a participant for two decades in a USA based Spiritualist church, and even briefly a member. Having had a series of mystical experiences in 1996, including a materialization event that was pretty scary, the Independent Spiritualist Church, combining belief in science and spirit, became a welcoming community for me. Yet nobody mentioned science fiction. We knew about the Fox sisters, but not Robert Duncan Milne. By the time I was attending, the attention paid to science was mostly perfunctory and declaratory, claiming that Spiritualist seances offered irrefutable scientific proof of the world of spirit. The actual members of the congregations had little to no interest in actually gaining any understanding of scientific facts or reasoning. This was disappointing to me, as a working engineering consultant. But reading the introduction to the book provides lots of historical context to what was happening in the American culture as technology started battering older ways of life.

I have been a lifelong lover of science fiction, and especially older science fiction. As Scottish sci fi writer Ken MacLeod writes in the Foreword, the writing practice of the time, which continued in full strength up through John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar (1968), was to include “fake news” and other “fake” (fantasy, fictional) references to provide the background for the stories. I miss this style of storytelling, and was happy to get a drink of it in the stories I read for this review. Nowadays, writers of all genres are told to “show, not tell” what is going on. That’s annoying for me. If I wanted them to show me everything, I would watch a movie, not read a book.

Here are some thoughts on a few of the stories, written in a time of skeptics, but not a dogmatically skeptical population at large. Science was new, science was interesting, science seemed to provide credibility to Spiritualism, when compared to the old “revealed truth” faiths.

The Silent Witness: What a great story. Anyone working as an expert witness over the last 30 years will be familiar with the arguments about whether digitally captured photos, rather than film, could be presented as evidence. AI is reopening those arguments again. Here we have the latest scientific gadget of the 19th century, an experimental recording and playing phonograph, that becomes the silent witness and saves the innocent accused.

HOT NEWS! An AI video was just allowed in court to let a murder victim speak.

The Eidoloscope: The editors note that this story is considered one of Milne’s greatest works. While he was not the only speculative writer describing the possibility of travel to the past, they conclude that he likely picked the idea up from what we now might call “the thought field,” rather than from any of the other writers exploring this idea. In the story, we learn that the walls really do have eyes, or at least the ability to see and record, even if they need the help of Milne’s character’s invention to let them retell what they’ve seen. Milne is absolutely not giving mere lip-service to science. He explains in clear prose that any willing lay-person may readily understand, the concepts of how his character’s time machine works. It’s simple cause and effect, like any other science, even if it appears to bring us recordings of ghosts rather than embodied beings. The timing is such that the embodied beings whose likenesses are brought before the witnesses are still remembered and recognized by current living humans, when they have the chance to see the walls emit their memories.

The editors show what a visionary Milne was, in addition to being a literary and scientific genius. He understood, brought to life, and warned us about the ethical issues that are usually only revealed after extensive use and reliance on new technologies.

It’s also interesting that Milne, likely in line with the word usage of the day, calls out the new technological gadgets as “art.” The sci-fi gadgets were made by individuals using concepts and tinkering skills, rather than a methodological scientific process. Of course, as the Rosicrucians and modern physicists alike tell us today, it’s all about harmonization of vibrations. Who needs a team and a big budget? Besides, the inventor meets the skepticism of the other character with irrefutable 18th century thermodynamics: Energy is neither created nor destroyed! It is merely changed from one form to another. Thus any energy thing that has ever experienced energy in its neighborhood, sits ready, in proper circumstances, to disgorge that energy in form identical to that in which it was absorbed. The local “Akashic Record” is held in every solid object. Anything that happened once is eternal. We don’t even need the mysterium of quantum physics!

A New Palingenesis: Milne starts out by noting that the ideals of Spiritualism are pure, and uplifting to those who live according to a belief in an afterlife, a point also made by the founder of another modern religion, the Bahai. Yet, he acknowledges the dogmatic blocks that many will have in following his tale. This is obviously still a problem today for many different “occult” phenomena.

This story is particularly beautifully written. The paragraph describing the caring doctor’s action to comfort his dying wife lets us imagine being present in the room with the narrator, the doctor and his wife. It covers all the things open minded people wonder about. “While noting the tender care and consideration with which the doctor arranged the cushions and performed those hundred little nameless offices, which only affection dictates, for his invalid wife, I could not help wondering, as so many more have fruitlessly done, at the mysterious provision which does not permit us to know whether the emotions and affections are merely the chance mechanism of a moment, or enduring and imperishable entities which have an infinitely more lasting existence than the forms of matter with which they are now associated.”

Is love forever, even if the body is not? Read the story and come to your own conclusion!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7540907155