My son-in-law graduated from Naval War College in Newport RI this last weekend. Several weeks ago 'the kids' (my daughter and son-in-law, Mike and Melissa, "M&M") offered to take me to the Navy vs SMU game and continue on to Newport for the Tuesday graduation. I couldn't pass up the chance to see Keenan Reynolds beat the all time rushing touchdown record of Monte Ball or Mike's graduation . Believe it or not, this is important background on how I made my 3rd trip to visit Mr. Gann's grave.
Leaving VA Beach early Saturday morning to make tailgating by noon, we were about an hour into the trip when it occurred to me we'd be traveling within a half hour of Green-Wood Cemetery the next day. In addition, the graduation would be Tuesday leaving Sunday and Monday as down time. So I asked Mike 'What is our itinerary for Sunday?' And he said, we're taking you to Green-Wood Cemetery and continuing on to Newport.' They'd known I was planning and had previously aborted a 3rd trip to Mr. Gann's grave.
This was very meaningful to me. My wife tolerates and, perhaps, even enjoys my adventures in attempting to understanding WD Gann's "The Tunnel Thru the Air." But when I try to explain to the kids what I've got think they think is bizarre, well, I worry they they think.... It was very important to me that, whatever my delusion, the pursuit of the riddles of TTTTA important in my life and they'd support it.
Mr. Gann understood and explained that those who are toughest on your beliefs are your family and your country...those closest to you. The young Robert Gordon, a proxy I'd suggest for Mr. Gann's early life's story (at least), is criticized by his brother and, to some extent, his father for his odd intellectual behavior and/or lack of manly pursuits (farm work, war...). It comes to the point that Mr. Gann gives us Mark 6:4 on page 69:
I'm not a prophet. I don't think Mr. Gann considered himself one (though I don't know). I simply read, try to make correlations between observations and offer suggested conclusions. Yet, I know how crazy it seems to anyone not having read WD Gann materials and, most prominently, TTTTA and "The Magic Word." It was comforting to me that my family felt they'd entertain my 'eccentricity' by this surprise visit. As you will see, there was a reward for the kids for this unspeakable kindness.
So, we set out Saturday morning and, not an hour into the trip, I began unloading on M&M many of the items I had discovered that might become noteworthy when we visited Green-Wood Cemetery.....a good 3 plus hours of background information. On the number 69, the 6th Prophecy of 9/11, Mr. Gann's prediction of his ultimate life span of 77 years, the mysteries of the number 53 which was Sadie Gann's life span, the dimensions Mr. Gann's gravestone (30"X30"X8") and its derivatives, the WD Gann Memorial Triangle (GMT), the Great Week of 2520 years, the 1/15th subdivision of 168 and the further subdivision of 84 that comports with the discussion of prophecy on page 84 of TTTTA, Mr. Gann's assertion that all life and time and all things are circular.....360 degrees.... I'm sure it was a long 3 hours of TTTTA lecture. I felt sorry for them.
We were treated to moments of incredible serendipity during the trip. Just a few follow.
Part of my impromptu lecture to M&M had been Mr. Gann's "all life and time is circular." The first thing before tailgating was for Mike to check us in. He delivered me to my room and it was:
It was room 360 of the Annapolis Marriott Courtyard. 360 degrees in the circle. Perhaps the circle of life? I didn't make the reservations or check us in. It was on Mike's Marriott Rewards tab. He saw it too. Not a biggee, but....
To declare my Naval Academy partisanship, Mike loaned me his Naval Academy 'sprint team' jersey (#7) and, of course, he wore his jersey (#12) to honor the great Academy quarterback, Roger Staubach. I did not ask that we wear those jerseys. It happened. Seven, one seventh the time distance to Jubilee. Twelve, one twelfth the square of 12 or one of the twelve tribes. If you study WDG, you know the numbers 12 and 7:
And, you know, the point of prophecy explained on page 84 of TTTTA; that we should study the Bible "...to understand the signs, and discern the future, and profit by it." And what is 12 X 7....it is the number 84 or half the 168 interval of the cycle I have identified by the number of lines in TTTTA and which I call the "WD Gann Map of time." [Might I add, Naval Academy had #12 Roger Staubach. Well, my alma mater had #7 Michael Vick and #5 Tyrod Taylor (both still in the NFL). When you add Vick and Taylor you get 7+5=12 or Roger Staubach #12. And when you add #12 Stauback and Vick, you get #19 Keenan Reynolds. And the circle of math, err football, never ends.]
As aforementioned, Navy's senior quarterback, Keenan Reynolds #12, was tied with Monte Ball for the most rushing touchdowns in NCAA Division 1 football at 77 career rushing touchdowns. On the first possession, I somehow snapped this photo while sitting down and holding my camera up in the air as Keenan rushes for the record breaking touchdown:
What was the final score of the game? It was 55-14, Navy scoring one of its largest margins. Would that be 55+14= yes it is. It is a total score of 69 points.
But these are treats that I appreciated, likely far moreso than might M&M or you, the reader. I'll skip the many other notations I made at the November 14 game. There were many. But I'll skip to the next day, Sunday, November 15, 2015 when we arrived at Green-Wood Cemetery at just after noon. And I will skip treatment of the objectives of my intended 3rd trip to Mr. Gann's grave in another post. Rather, I want to describe two very personal gifts given M&M and myself.
Melissa and I were running around the 12 stones I have previously identified and consider to constitute "The Land of Beginning Again" taking pictures, measurements, etc. Mike was standing two stones behind Mr. Gann's stone reading Fantasy Football on his phone, looking down and he saw on the stone in front of him two dates; December 24 and December 30. Can you see them below?
December 24 is Mike's birthday and that of the husband on that stone. December 30 is Melissa's birthday and that of the wife on that stone. [As instruction to M&M, the stone indicates the family's daughter was born on June 14 and I'm currently a grandfather in waiting.] Of the 600,000 or so interments at Green-Wood Cemetery, I'm sure we might find many birth dates of December 24 and many of December 30. But both on a single stone? And the exact stone backing up to the back of Mr. Gann's? And what's the chance that, in our 30 minute visit we'd find a stone with both dates, on a single stone and while NOT looking for it? Probability; one divided by the number of stars in the sky in my opinion.
And a personal gift for me. One of my objectives in visiting Mr. Gann's grave a third time was to investigate the possibility of identifying a 13th stone (recall the 12 stones of the WD Gann gravestone geometry). If there is a 13th stone, then it is the one next to the "Great Tree" that obscures the view of Lower Manhattan from WDG's grave. So I concentrated much of my time on that stone. If you look at that picture above, the "Great Tree" is in the background just above Melissa's left wrist or about 30 or so yards down the hill behind her. The 13th stone is about 3 feet to the right of that tree.
After Mike showed me the above stone, I went back to the hypothetical 13th stone with a heightened awareness. And this is what I saw from the rear of the stone:
So, we set out Saturday morning and, not an hour into the trip, I began unloading on M&M many of the items I had discovered that might become noteworthy when we visited Green-Wood Cemetery.....a good 3 plus hours of background information. On the number 69, the 6th Prophecy of 9/11, Mr. Gann's prediction of his ultimate life span of 77 years, the mysteries of the number 53 which was Sadie Gann's life span, the dimensions Mr. Gann's gravestone (30"X30"X8") and its derivatives, the WD Gann Memorial Triangle (GMT), the Great Week of 2520 years, the 1/15th subdivision of 168 and the further subdivision of 84 that comports with the discussion of prophecy on page 84 of TTTTA, Mr. Gann's assertion that all life and time and all things are circular.....360 degrees.... I'm sure it was a long 3 hours of TTTTA lecture. I felt sorry for them.
We were treated to moments of incredible serendipity during the trip. Just a few follow.
Part of my impromptu lecture to M&M had been Mr. Gann's "all life and time is circular." The first thing before tailgating was for Mike to check us in. He delivered me to my room and it was:
It was room 360 of the Annapolis Marriott Courtyard. 360 degrees in the circle. Perhaps the circle of life? I didn't make the reservations or check us in. It was on Mike's Marriott Rewards tab. He saw it too. Not a biggee, but....
To declare my Naval Academy partisanship, Mike loaned me his Naval Academy 'sprint team' jersey (#7) and, of course, he wore his jersey (#12) to honor the great Academy quarterback, Roger Staubach. I did not ask that we wear those jerseys. It happened. Seven, one seventh the time distance to Jubilee. Twelve, one twelfth the square of 12 or one of the twelve tribes. If you study WDG, you know the numbers 12 and 7:
And, you know, the point of prophecy explained on page 84 of TTTTA; that we should study the Bible "...to understand the signs, and discern the future, and profit by it." And what is 12 X 7....it is the number 84 or half the 168 interval of the cycle I have identified by the number of lines in TTTTA and which I call the "WD Gann Map of time." [Might I add, Naval Academy had #12 Roger Staubach. Well, my alma mater had #7 Michael Vick and #5 Tyrod Taylor (both still in the NFL). When you add Vick and Taylor you get 7+5=12 or Roger Staubach #12. And when you add #12 Stauback and Vick, you get #19 Keenan Reynolds. And the circle of math, err football, never ends.]
As aforementioned, Navy's senior quarterback, Keenan Reynolds #12, was tied with Monte Ball for the most rushing touchdowns in NCAA Division 1 football at 77 career rushing touchdowns. On the first possession, I somehow snapped this photo while sitting down and holding my camera up in the air as Keenan rushes for the record breaking touchdown:
What was the final score of the game? It was 55-14, Navy scoring one of its largest margins. Would that be 55+14= yes it is. It is a total score of 69 points.
But these are treats that I appreciated, likely far moreso than might M&M or you, the reader. I'll skip the many other notations I made at the November 14 game. There were many. But I'll skip to the next day, Sunday, November 15, 2015 when we arrived at Green-Wood Cemetery at just after noon. And I will skip treatment of the objectives of my intended 3rd trip to Mr. Gann's grave in another post. Rather, I want to describe two very personal gifts given M&M and myself.
Melissa and I were running around the 12 stones I have previously identified and consider to constitute "The Land of Beginning Again" taking pictures, measurements, etc. Mike was standing two stones behind Mr. Gann's stone reading Fantasy Football on his phone, looking down and he saw on the stone in front of him two dates; December 24 and December 30. Can you see them below?
December 24 is Mike's birthday and that of the husband on that stone. December 30 is Melissa's birthday and that of the wife on that stone. [As instruction to M&M, the stone indicates the family's daughter was born on June 14 and I'm currently a grandfather in waiting.] Of the 600,000 or so interments at Green-Wood Cemetery, I'm sure we might find many birth dates of December 24 and many of December 30. But both on a single stone? And the exact stone backing up to the back of Mr. Gann's? And what's the chance that, in our 30 minute visit we'd find a stone with both dates, on a single stone and while NOT looking for it? Probability; one divided by the number of stars in the sky in my opinion.
And a personal gift for me. One of my objectives in visiting Mr. Gann's grave a third time was to investigate the possibility of identifying a 13th stone (recall the 12 stones of the WD Gann gravestone geometry). If there is a 13th stone, then it is the one next to the "Great Tree" that obscures the view of Lower Manhattan from WDG's grave. So I concentrated much of my time on that stone. If you look at that picture above, the "Great Tree" is in the background just above Melissa's left wrist or about 30 or so yards down the hill behind her. The 13th stone is about 3 feet to the right of that tree.
After Mike showed me the above stone, I went back to the hypothetical 13th stone with a heightened awareness. And this is what I saw from the rear of the stone:
Mae Alker LeGrand "DIED Sept 18." On September 18, 2007 my wife and I tragically lost our 25-year old son James. To say a parent should not have to bury a child does not remotely touch on the pain that a parent feels. There came a stunning moment of reflection when I called my daughter down to that stone to consider what I was seeing. As my thoughts become clearer some 3 days later, I find comfort, not sadness.
What is the probability that, on top of finding the dates December 30 and 24 on the same stone, within minutes I find the meaningful date September 18?
***WD Gann was born on June 6, 1878 which can be reduced to 6 6 6***
***My son passed September 18, 2007 which can be reduced to 9 9 9 ***
What's the probability? A story of improbability comes to mind. Sir Arthur Eddington's discussion of the army of monkeys typing the exact text of every book in the Library of Congress. Not in an infinity of years could an exact replication of the Library of Congress be so produced. At least as far as that story goes, not according to Albert Einstein's celebrated chronicler and himself a great physicist.
Let me boil this down to my personal testimony. All things are circular. Life has an apparent beginning and end. What I experienced on November 14 and 15, transforms my belief in what lies beyond death from a state of 'uncomfortable comfort' with the afterlife to complete personal satisfaction. As there is a law of the conservation of matter and energy which dictates that their sum never changes, so, I'd propose as have many others, there is a law of conservation of Spirit. The circle never ends.
Mr. Gann gives us "The Garden of Love" and "The Land of Beginning Again" in pages 36-40 of TTTTA. The 12 gravestones (and perhaps the 13th) of Green-Wood Cemetery as I have previously suggested, represent that place of which Mr. Gann was writing....in my opinion. I highly recommend an informed reading of those pages and particularly the following prose:
I hope this is comfort to those willing to consider.
Jim Ross
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.