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The Alethiometer | The Symbol Reader

Truth Teller

#Alethiometer #The Alethiometer #The Symbol Reader #Symbol Reader #Truth Teller #His Dark Materials #northern lights #the golden compass #the subtle knife #the amber spyglass #the book of dust #phillip pullman

All right, so I have news for anyone who's interested in my Jewsade/Jewish dæmonism stuff! After not doing anything with it since I've hit a wall with no idea on how to actually write it, I am now considering using Maharal of Prague as a framing device that could connect the story to the main characters of His Dark Materials. Maharal is most well known for having rumored to have created a Golem - it's actually the most famous Golem story to exist - but he was more interesting a person than that. He was well studies in Philosophy and Kabbalah, as well as Astronomy and various other sciences. He was born in Poland about 30 years after the Alhambra decree in Spain, meaning he was a baby/young child at the time the supposed Jewsade may have occured. He was known to have conversed with Emperor Rudolph II later in life. In addition, his teachings later influenced the Chassidut movement.

I'm not really explaining his significance well, but he is an important figure who had the Golem legend grow around his character and fights against Blood Libels centuries after his death. And the fact that the Alethiometer was supposedly invented in Prague at around the time of his death helps.

You see, my idea of it currently is something along the lines of: Lyra, in the midst of studying the Alethiometer, finds some vague references to an early scholar named Long Loew. There is only one note from him which is very interesting, but there's very little about who he was and what are other stuff he said. After researching she finds a book that explains a bit more about him, which might be the heart of the story. That, or she'll slowly uncover hints and the story will progress in two parallel lines - one telling of the life of Rabbi Yehuda Loew of Prague and his struggles with the rising power of the Magisterium and another about Lyra uncovering his life and learning about the current state of Judaism under the Magisterium-dominated Europe. It will likely include some throwaway lines about the Jewsade and its outcome and about shifts in centers of Judaism. Some spotlight might also be given to Rabbi Mordechai Yaffeh (but only because I like him. He doesn't seem to have interacted with Maharal much even though he also served as the Rabbi of Prague for some time while Maharal was living in another city) and to some of Mahahral's students. There will also have to be some talk about the Shulchan Aruch and such books, but that's another thing.

Part of the idea here is also to remind people that Jews were involved in scientific development, to a degree. Some famous rabbis had exchanges with famous Astronomers. Due to how a Christian-dominated world generally works, though, you're unlikely to find discoveries made by Jewish scholars around the 16th-17th centuries. At least so I think, I'm far from an expert on that topic. Either way, I think this kind of story might lend itself easier to write. It does lose the angle of focusing on Sepharadi Jews, but I'm hardly qualified for that anyway. I think Maharal's type of philosophy might work very well with dæmons and the Alethiometer, though I do need to study it more (which I guess makes the fact one of my distant great uncles was a scholar of Maharal very convenient). I do still need to read the Secret Commonwealth to understand adult Lyra better and see how such a story might work - for example, might Pantalaimon go alone to the Jewish quarter of Prague when Lyra is unwilling to? What would each of them find out? What could really drive Lyra to check out one particular scholar? So, that's the bad news: after having a hard time starting to read the Secret Commonwealth, any progress that might be done is postponed until after I read it. I do intend to try and do it quickly, though.

So, yeah. I intend trying to talk about Jewish life in Lyra's world through the eyes of an old Jewish Rabbi, Philosopher and Kabbalah student, or maybe two or three of those. I will need to thouroughly research their history, but that's going to be fun (hopefully). Plus, I'm descended from Maharal! So this is kind of uncovering family history!

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!

I’ve come to share the Alethiometer Reading Rules I’ve prepared for the One-Shot game I’m running on Lyra’s world. It’s based on Call of Cthulhu 7e, but I think it may run on other books as well, as long as it has the same attributes.

It’s a game set during TSC, precisely during the Magisterial Congress, so the new method is available to them. I wanted to make the two methods distinct, so I made the Classical way harder to read, but predictable and steady; the new method is quicker but more dangerous, exchanging Sanity and Life in exchange for quick answer. Anyone could in theory read the alethiometer, since not all of them are readers, but there’s rules for that to make it reasonable. It hasn’t been playtested yet but I shall run it this week and see how it goes. Hopefully is not too broken lol

The symbols and their meanings I took from that purple leaflet they released in the past, with the History of the Alethiometer.

#his dark materials #the alethiometer #hdm rpg #call of cthulhu #my*stuff

Lyra: Why should I trust you?

Mrs. Coulter: Ask the alethiometer about me.

Lyra:

The alethiometer:

Lyra: oh shit. oh fuck. why would you show me this??! I need eye bleach.

#mrs coulter #mrs. coulter #marisa coulter #his dark materials #mrs coulter and lyra #lyra belacqua #the alethiometer #hdm s2 e5 #hdm #hdm s2

his dark materials modern highschool au where lyra uses the alethiometer to cheat in her exams because she totally would

#his dark materials #hdm #lyra belacqua #lyra belaqua #lyra silvertongue #alethiometer #the alethiometer #au

I'm re-reading His Dark Materials and i wanted to use the books as a theme for inktober but it turns out that 1) Fuck Ink 2) I can't commit Nonetheless! I'm still gonna draw some stuff from the books because they're great so here's the alethiometer for starters

#mine #his dark materials #mixed #northern lights #the golden compass #the alethiometer #don't excpect too many human characters lmao but i'm probs gonna draw some deamons #next year i'll try to prepare smth for inktober before the first at 10 am lmao #there normally are 36 symbols but i didn't have enough space so!#i genuinely tried to do this ibktober style and did a lineart but....#fuck lineart #also ironically enough i didn't have a compass so that's why the cirlcles are kinda wonky lmao

#the alethiometer #the northern lights #the subtle knife #the amber spyglass #his dark materials #the golden compass #philip pullman #emojis #pictures #dust #lyra

Somewhere between a legitimate divination tool and a fun toy, this website displays an alethiometer, complete with all its symbols and meanings. The fun part is that it actually gives you responses that make since, in a very similar way to tarot cards. (mobile app version X)

#alethiometer #the alethiometer #the golden compass #His Dark Materials #hdm week #original content

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