GRGR(12)NOTES(8) A

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

GRGR(12) NOTES
These are the notes for GRGR(12) the second chapter of
GRGR(12) and the last chapter of GR Part II-

These notes are for pages GR.V.269-278 ('Gravity's Rainbow'
Viking edition or Penguin edition). See Weisenburger if you
have it. Most of what I added to Weisenburger and a few
Fowler notes, are taken from Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 
GR.V.269.26 Whitsun
Weisenburger notes that Part 2 of GR opens on Christmas and
closes here on Whitsunday, May 20, 1945. Whitsun-the feast
of Pentecost-falls on the seventh Sunday or 50 days after
Easter. The day occasions some light parody, since this is,
in the Christian calendar, the day that celebrates the
decent of the Holy Ghost on Christ's disciples, bestowing
the "gift of tongues."  Remember in V.,  Before Benny
Blundered, the Alligator "turned to face him." Benny,
"sentimental," "superstitious," refers to himself first a
"schlemiel" and next a "schlimazel" and as Benny is at the
moment of crisis, that moment when like Michelangelo's Moses
he is saturated with the motivation, we have, "Surely the
Alligator will receive the gift of tongues, the body of
Father Fairing be resurrected, the sexy V. tempt him away
from murder." 

Pointy will experience auditory hallucinations. In 1945,
Easter Sunday was celebrated on April 1 and the Pentecost on
May 20.  Pentecost is from Greek pentecoste, "50th day",
also called Whitsunday, major festival in the Christian
church, celebrated on the Sunday that falls on the 50th day
after Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit
on the disciples, which occurred on the Jewish Pentecost,
after the death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ
(Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2), and it marks the
beginning of the Christian church's mission to the world.
The Jewish Pentecost, Shabuoth, Hebrew SHAVUOT, in full HAG
SHAVUOT("Festival of the Weeks"), second of the three
Pilgrim Festivals of the Jewish religious calendar. It was
originally an agricultural festival, marking the beginning
of the wheat harvest. During the Temple period, the first
fruits of the harvest were brought to the Temple, and two
loaves of bread made from the new wheat were offered. This
aspect of the holiday is reflected in the custom of
decorating the synagogue with fruits and flowers and in the
names Yom ha-Bikkurim ("Day of the First Fruits") and Hag
ha-Qazir ("Harvest Feast"). During rabbinic times the
festival became
associated with the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, which
is recounted in the Torah readings for
the holiday. It became customary during Shabuoth to study
the Torah and to read the Book of Ruth. 
Celebration of Shabuoth occurs on the 50th day, or seven
weeks, after the sheaf offering of the harvest
celebrated during Passover. The holiday is therefore also
called Pentecost from the Greek
pentekoste ("50th"). It falls on Sivan 6 (and Sivan 7
outside Israel). The Jewish feast was primarily a
thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest, but
the rabbis associated it with remembrance of the Law given
by God for the Hebrews to Moses on Mount Sinai. The church's
transformation of the Jewish feast to a Christian festival
was thus related to the belief that the gift of the Holy
Spirit to the followers of Jesus was the first fruits of a
new dispensation that fulfilled and succeeded the old
dispensation of the Law.   When the festival was first
celebrated in the Christian church is not known, but it was
mentioned in a work from the Eastern church, the Epistola
Apostolorum, in the 2nd century. In the 3rd century
it was mentioned by Origen, theologian and head of the
catechetical school in Alexandria, and by Tertullian,
Christian priest and writer of Carthage.  In the early
church, Christians often referred to the entire 50-day
period following Easter as Pentecost. Baptism was
administered both at the beginning (Easter) and end (the day
of Pentecost) of the season. Eventually, Pentecost became a
more popular time for baptism than Easter in northern
Europe, and in England the feast was commonly
called White Sunday (Whitsunday) for the special white
garments worn by the newly baptized. In The First Prayer
Book of Edward VI (1549), the feast was officially called
Whitsunday, and this name has continued in the Anglican
churches.     

GR.V269.27 megalo

megalo-

megalo- me.galo, before a vowel megal-, a. Gr. megalo-,
combining form of megaj great (cf. the equivalent mega-),
used in many scientific terms; megalence'phalic a.
encephalic, pertaining to or affected with hypertrophy of
the encephalon or cerebrum; 

GR.V.269.30 parkinsonism
Weisenburger, Not the muscular tremor, but the stooping
posture and facial distortions of Parkinson's disease (these
people are "frozen).

GR.V.269.32  Trafalgar Square on V-E Night

Trafalgar is a plaza in the City of Westminster, London,
named for Lord Nelson's naval victory (1805) in the Battle
of Trafalgar.  Traditions associated with Trafalgar Square
include political rallies, caroling (in December) around a
large Christmas tree sent from Norway (donated since World 
War II), and boisterous New Year's Eve celebrations. Here,
more than one hundred celebrated V-E. 

GR.V.269.33 Blavatskian wing of Psi Section
White Lotus Day
Pilgrimage to 19 Avenue Road, St. John's Wood

Elena Petrovna Blavatsky Russian spiritualist, author, and
co-founder of the Theosophical Society to promote Theosophy,
a pantheistic philosophical-religious system. The term
theosophy is derived from the Greek theos, "god," and
sophia, "wisdom," and is generally translated as "divine
wisdom." All theosophical speculation has as its foundation
the mystical premise that God must be experienced directly
in order to be known at all. In 1879 Mme Blavatsky and
Olcott went to India; three years later they established a
Theosophical headquarters at Adyar, near Madras, and began
publication of the society's journal, The Theosophist, which
Mme Blavatsky edited from 1879 to 1888. The society soon
developed a strong following in India.  Asserting that she
possessed extraordinary psychic powers, Blavatsky, during
journeys to Paris and London, was accused by the Indian
press late in 1884 of concocting fictitious spiritualist
phenomena. Protesting her innocence while on a tour of
Germany, she returned to India in 1884 and met with an
enthusiastic reception. The "Hodgson Report," the findings
of an investigation in 1885 by the London Society for
Psychical Research, declared her a fraud. Soon thereafter
she left India in failing health. She lived quietly in
Germany, Belgium, and finally in London, working on her
small, meditative classic The Voice of Silence (1889) and
her most important work, The Secret Doctrine (1888), which
was an overview of Theosophical teachings. It was followed
in 1889 by her Key to Theosophy. Blavatsky died on the
Buddha's birthday, May 8, 1891, at 19 Avenue Road. Fifty
four years later, on V-E day, the day both Harry Truman and
Thomas R. Pynchon celebrated their birthdays, these
fictional Blavatskians form "The White Visitation make a
"Pilgrimage" in Blavatsky's honor. 

Fowler says the address may also be that of the British
Founder of the Golden Dawn. ?

 S.L. Mathers. Samual Liddel Mathers was born in 1854 at
what is now 108 De Beauvoir Road, London. Mathers made the
first English translation of Knorr Von Rosenroth's,
"Kabbalah Denudata." Mathers dedicated his entire life to
the Western Mystery Tradition and to the magical way of
life. He was the Chief of the Second Order of the Golden
Dawn, and he was the author of many of the Golden Dawn
teachings and documents. Mathers and his wife did much work
on the Tarot. He also brought the Egyptian pantheon into the
Golden Dawn. 

 Theosophy's three principle aims: to promote the unity of
mankind; to promote the comparative study of religion,
Philosophy and science; and to explore human psychic
faculties. They adopted the Hindu White lotus, a symbol of
the Trimurti, or threefold godhead, to represent their
unified aims. To the society, the Lotus also symbolized the
unity of world religions: in Hinduism it is the Padma,
birthplace of the gods, and in Buddhism it is the Buddha's
throne, just as in Egyptian religions the lotus was Horus's
seat, it  came to Christianity as the multifoliate rose.