Α to Ω: Wynonna Earp S3

Genesis 3:24. “After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

      **UPDATE: 1645 **: If you’re here, you are a truly amazing Earper and I thank you for considering my blog worth your time. I’m sorry that it’s so damn ugly, but I needed a way to show people who saw V.1 (the 0600 version), what has been added, so the new stuff is in BLUE FONT. As of right now, it’s still pretty ugly and incomplete, but I’m trying.  A lot of this is just copied from wiki, you can probably tell when it’s me (I probably won’t have time to proof) because of the cussing and typos. For now, I hope you enjoy the fruits (4am Genesis pun ftw) of my labor.

A lot is hyperlinked, so feel free to go as deep as you want (TWSS) (stop judging me, I snapped at like hour 30 of working on this). After immersing myself in this for days there is only one thing I’m sure of and that is that I am not sure of anything. This lays out what I’ve found in religion and mythology that seems to relate to the show, but the further I dug the less sure I felt of anything. The point I’m trying to make is that this is built off of what the show has lead us to believe, not necessarily what I believe about all the characters, although I will be interjecting my own thoughts. I’ll probably do something dumb to show that, like make the font purple.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The Garden of Eden

The Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Seems simple enough right? God put Adam in the garden to tend to it, figured out that Adam needed a companion and made Eve (or Lilith, don’t worry, that’s explored further down). So Adam, God, and Eve were hanging out blissfully, then stuff started going down hill.

First let’s look some other interpretations of this garden.

Jannah
– The Arabic word for paradise or garden in the Qur’an is Jannah which literally means “concealed place”.
– The term jannāt ʿadni (“Gardens of Eden” or “Gardens of Perpetual Residence”) is used in the Qur’an for the destination of the righteous.

I’m including this because they made it a point to say that the writing that appeared when Waverly put on the ring was Arabic. In Islam the word means Paradise, which refers more to the Christian idea of heaven than it does the place where Adam and Eve goofed off. I’m inclined to think that the concept of the garden on the show is a combo of both versions.
I also find it a bit interesting that the the literal translation is “concealed place” since we know the stairs aren’t visible to everyone or on film.

The Trees

Lots of trees. There are TWO that you can’t eat from though.
*It’s actually debated if there were two trees or if they were the same tree. Feel free to go down the wiki rabbit hole if you want to explore that more.

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Then they ate from it because a snake told them it was ok.

There isn’t a complete consensus on exactly what “knowledge” was gained from the fruit of this tree, but I think the popular theory is that it was basically the knowledge of everything. The most well known immediate implication was that they realized that they were naked and felt shame so they covered up.

Consuming the fruit after God forbade it is sometimes referred to as The Original Sin and led to “the fall of man”.

When God forbids the man to eat from that particular tree, he says that if he does so, he is “doomed to die”. The Hebrew behind this is in a form regularly used in the Hebrew Bible for issuing death sentences.

Tree of life
-grants immortality.

Genesis 3:24. “After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

God expelled the disobedient humans from the Garden and placed two Cherubim to keep them out and prevent them from getting to the Tree of Life.

The Stairs

This is just some stuff I stumbled upon that seemed like it might be something about something because of words…it’s 4:12am, I’ll finish this sentence in the afternoon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi
-It may have the form of a natural object or a product of human manufacture (a staff, a tower, a ladder, a staircase.)

ok, so I read this about 100 wikipedia articles ago, and I’m too lazy to open it again, so here’s a maybe-kind of accurate gist: If my Latin serves (I don’t actually know latin) it translates to “world axis”, like the center of the world, and some believe it to be the connection between Heaven and Earth. Since it’s the center it’s where all directions meet, which would explain why no one, even 3G Jeremy, could figure out which way they were going.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Mesopotamian_religion
The temple itself was constructed of mud brick in the form of a ziggurat, which rose to the sky in a series of stairstep stages. Its significance and symbolism have been the subject of much discussion, but most regard the tower as a kind of staircase or ladder for the god to descend from and ascend to the heavens

Bulshar: mankind will be enslaved in body and in mind

His ultimate goal is to “enslave humanity”, somehow the Garden seems to be the key to doing so.

According to Juan Carlo’s journal, “Bulshar was created in the Garden to enjoy the spoils of Paradise”.  Turns out he’s the infamous serpent from the story of the fall of man.

Fun fact “Clootie“ (chiefly Scotland) is used as a name of the devil

The Serpent

Most commonly assumed to be the actual devil. The snake is punished for its role in the fall by being made to crawl on its belly and eat dust.
The greatest bull shit the devil ever pulled was giving my dear snakes a bad rep.

Ancient serpent:
Serpent occurs in the Book of Revelation as the “ancient serpent”or “old serpent”used to describe “the dragon”, Satan the Adversary, who is the devil. This serpent is depicted as a red seven-headed dragon having ten horns, each housed with a diadem. The serpent battles Michael the Archangel in a War in Heaven which results in this devil being cast out to the earth. While on earth, he pursues the Woman of the Apocalypse. Unable to obtain her, he wages war with the rest of her seed. He who has the key to the abyss and a great chain over his hand, binds the serpent for a thousand years. The serpent is then cast into the abyss and sealed within until he is released.

Some of that sounds familiar, eh?

Epic of Gilgamesh: In one of the oldest stories ever written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh loses the power of immortality, stolen by a snake.

 

 

Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent eating its own tail that represents the perpetual cyclic renewal of life, the eternal return, and the cycle of life, death and rebirth, leading to immortality.

Wait, where have I…ohhhhhhh

 

Lucifer

The name Lucifer, the Latin name (literally “Light-Bearer” or “Light-Bringer”)
Because he contrived “to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble ‘My power’ on high”

There is too much going on in my mind about thrones and light and waverly….

 

The Cherubim and 

The Sword

In the show: When 1887 Juan Carlo mentions Peacemaker, he uncovers a sword. Later Kevin wonders out-loud how Wynonna with “no training, no blade” hopes to defeat Bulshar.
Jeremy reads from “Juan Carlo’s Journal”: “We guarded the entrance to keep him in, to keep everything in, but we failed, Julian and I”

Two cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way (I dunno), were placed by God east of the garden to guard the entrance and the Tree of Life.

In the Book of Ezekiel and (at least some) Christian icons, the cherub is depicted as having a number of wing pairs, and four faces: that of a lion (representative of all wild animals), an ox (domestic animals), a human (humanity), and an eagle (birds).

Because I think this all has as much to do with Revelation as it does the Old Testament, I’m including this:
“In Revelation 4:6–8, four living beings are seen in John’s vision. These appear as a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle, much as in Ezekiel but in a different order. They have six wings, whereas Ezekiel’s four living creatures are described as only having four.*”

*In Christianity, the four living creatures are Cherubim. Cheribum most commonly have four wings, where as the higher ranked seraphim have six wings.
*more on this at further down, but there is a picture of a six winged creature on the murder board at BBD. 

In some traditions the angel with the sword is the archangel Uriel so let’s talk about him.

Uriel:
– Often identified as a cherub and the angel of repentance. He “stands at the Gate of Eden with a fiery sword”, or as the angel who “watches over thunder and terror”.
– Uriel is also regarded as the keeper of beauty and light *
* Totally unrelated, I just want to announce the winner of the favorite line of 3×10 poll. It was “something, something. You’re the light, Waverly.”

Uriel is one of four main Archangels known as Cardinal* Angels. They are also called the “Archangels of the Four Directions” or “Four Corners” or “Four Winds”. They are Uriel (north), Michael (south), Raphael (east), and Gabriel (west)
*We’ve got A LOT of bird talk coming up. I know Cardinal means like…important, but I’m leaving no feather unturned. 

Uriel in Enoch:
The Book of the Watchers tells us that Uriel asked God for divine intervention during the reign of the fallen gregori (fallen watchers)**. These fallen take human wives and produced half-angel, half-human offspring called the nephilim.
**More on those guys further down.

Fun fact (fun fact: I never use the phrase right): St. Thomas Aquinas imagined Satan as a fallen Cherub.

Julian

“We guarded the entrance to keep him in, to keep everything in, but we failed, Julian and I” – I’m just typing because having that one fucking ‘I’ take up an entire line was infuriating and I don’t even think that’s how it would look posted, but I don’t know, so now there is almost three full lines of pointless text.

So Julian. All signs point to? CHERUB!
I’m just going to copy what I have for Julian in my weekly.

• Angel. In fact “one of two angels tasked with protecting the Garden”. Per Kevin. Who I’m not sure we can trust, but it’s 5am and I don’t trust anyone or anything especially myself. 
• Apparently didn’t have his ring for at least last 130 years.
• Bobo refers to him as “missing for some”.
• Per Mama “Ward pushed Julian outside” the GRT the night Waverly was born. And he’s been lost ever since. This raises so many questions. Did Ward physically push Julian? How did Ward make an angel do anything? Why is Julian “lost” being outside the GRT? Remember we’ve heard the GRT triangle referred to as a prison and a sanctuary.
• Kevin says that Julian and Bulshar “were the original haters. ”  Who or what did they hate? I’m probably way overthinking this one, but this makes it sound like they were on the same side “oh them, they’re haters”. 
• OK, I give in, I’ll entertain that thought. That damn statue in the Greenhouse. Like the one we see in the credits, the angel only has one wing, which I’ve always interpreted as “half-angel”, meaning Waverly, but now that I know that Angels can literally turn to stone, I’m admitting that it’s possible. Devil’s advocate (no pun, yo), during Michelle’s flashback to the Greenhouse we see the statue THEN we see human looking Julian, we don’t see them both at once. Maybe what Michelle really went looking for was a way to turn Julian back (maybe that sword?). I still don’t buy that it’s him, because why the hell…? If the last time they tried to stop Bulshar was 130ish years ago and Bulshar has been entombed since then, what would have happened 23 years ago to have either turned him from stone to soft and bangable or vice versa?

Guys, I’m not sold on anything that we are supposed to believe about Julian or Juan Carlo or even Bulshar for that matter. 

He was always in the Gibson green house when Michelle would go there. He disappeared when Waverly was born, punished for mating with a human?
Ward pushed him out? Like…humans being cast out of the Garden?
How did Ward force Julian? Peacemaker? What color would it glow?

 

 

Juan Carlo

Episode 3×10 opens on 1887 Father Juan Carlo dictating this: “The Guardians were powerless in the face of evil that the serpent was perpetrating. Their remit was to stand by idly even as a new reign of terror began.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutelary_deity

Copied straight from my weekly:

I want to break this down a bit just in case. Kevin says “You are the daughter of one of two angels tasked with protecting the Garden: Juan Carlo…” then Waverly continues “and Julian”. I know what the obvious conclusion is here, that Juan Carlo and Julian were the two angels tasked with protecting the Garden, this conclusion is supported as Jeremy reads what are assumed to be Juan Carlo’s words from the book: “We guarded the entrance to keep him in, to keep everything in, but we failed, Julian and I”. BUT the fact that Kevin doesn’t finish her thought leaves just enough room for me to question if that’s what she was going to say about J.C. Why am I questioning Juan Carlo’s wings or at least that he was like Julian? Because of some serious déjà vu:
JC: “to survive and witness, never to decide”/ Kevin: “we observe and record, but don’t participate”
JC: “I’m not allowed to interfere” / Kevin: “that would be interfering” (on why she didn’t get the arm)
The wording can’t be a coincidence. Was Kevin about to say that Juan Carlo and Julian were the angels protecting the Garden or was she going to say that Juan Carlo was from the same group of “ambassadors” that she is. And who’s to say Kevin isn’t a type of angel? I mean, she looks like Anna Silk, rocks the hell out of a black suit, and loves pickles. Sounds pretty angelic to me.

Also of note, Juan Carlo tells Dolls in S2 that he hasn’t been entirely human “for a while now” and that he was “granted” immortality.

Watchers:

• Slav transliteration, Grigori, “Watchers”, “those who are awake”; “guard“.
• Angels dispatched to Earth to watch over the humans. They soon begin to lust for human women. The offspring of these unions are the Nephilim

The first Book of Enoch devotes much of its attention to the fall of the watchers.
The Second Book of Enoch addresses the watchers who are in fifth heaven where the fall took place.
The Third Book of Enoch gives attention to the unfallen watchers.

The apocryphal (doubtful origins) Books of Enoch refer to both good and bad Watchers, with a primary focus on the rebellious ones. Seems worth nothing that there are “bad” watchers since I don’t trust JC or Kevin (remember, I’m in to deep. I don’t trust anyone).

Kevin:

“I’m a representative of a long line of ambassadors tasked with looking after the balance* in the world”. She also calls her group “world savers” and says “we observe and record, but don’t participate”.
*There’s that word again. 

So you see, there is a reason that I sandwiched Watchers between Juan Carlo and Kevin. Are they Grigori? Angels? Fallen Angels?

Kevin says that her colleagues are all dudes and she’s tired of their boy bull-shit so she’s took a risk and came to chat with our ladies, the heir and the champion.

“Don’t forget Eve.” “Oh, I wish I could. Don’t even get me started on that girl”.

Lilith
Why am I talking about Adam’s alleged other woman right after talking about Kevin? Well there’s this “Don’t even get me started on that girl” about Eve, also Lilith is a bit of feminism cult hero and Kevin was not subtle about her annoyance with the dude-bros she works with.

Even if there is no link between Lilith and Kevin, there are still some interesting parallels between her story and the show.

–The FIRST first woman: Some biblical scholars picked up on discrepancies between two accounts of the first lovers and their solution was to assume that there must have been some other first woman, apart from the one later identified with Eve.

-While reading about Lilith I came across this bit of gossip about Eve; “the erotic iniquities attributed to Eve constitute a separate category of her shortcomings.  In terms of textual popularity and dissemination, the motif of Eve copulating with the primeval serpent takes priority over her other sexual transgressions.”*
*She did what with who? This opens up so many possibilities when considering the ancestry of  everyone involved in this story. Is Bulshar someone’s father? 

– One take involving Samael (In Judaism, Samael is said to be the angel of death, and the title “Satan” is accorded to him) and Lilith is that they were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one. The marriage of Samael and Lilith is known as the “Angel Satan” or the “Other God”, but it was not allowed to last. To prevent Lilith and Samael’s demonic children Lilin from filling the world, God castrated Samael.

– Another take: Samael became the consort of Adam’s first wife, Lilith. Lilith is a demon created alongside Adam, originally created for the role Eve would fill. Samael created with her a host of demon children, including a son, the “Sword of Samael”

– A bit more about Samael: In a work, dated to the period during the spread of Islam, Samael appears as the serpent in Genesis. Probably influenced by the Quran, due to its parallels to the Islamic equivalent of Satan; Samael, consisting of fire, disapproved the creation of Adam made from dust, afterwards descended from heaven to seduce Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit. Furthermore, probably adopted from Apocryphon of John, Cain was born from Eve by intercourse with Samael.*
*So Samael might be the serpent aka (probably) Bulshar and was banging both of Adam’s wives.

Waverly. Daughter of Julian*. First of Her Name. Actual Angel. Master of Wii. Champion Against Evil. Rightful Heir to the Throne:

Going to copy what I have from my most recent weekly and add some notes based on research. 

• Was born in the greenhouse on the Gibson farm.
• Julian is her father. if anyone is to believed anymore
• Half-angel
• I’m going to quote exactly what Kate said about the tarot card she pulled for Waverly: “Temperance. The angel card, balance and moderation, but it’s upside down. Lack of long-term vision.”… “She’s something alright.”
• Bobo referred to her as “kin”.
• Promised to Bulshar by Bobo.***
• Has been given powers by her father’s angel ring. 
• The Arabic words that translate to “Garden of Paradise” appeared on the ring after she put it on.
• Is The Champion who is meant to save us all by keeping Bulshar out of the Garden.  

Kevin says: “You are the daughter of one of two angels tasked with protecting the Garden: Juan Carlo…” then Waverly continues “and Julian”.
Kevin also says: “that ring on your finger. bulshar stole it from your father”
But as you’ve already read, this exchange feels off to me. 

Light:
“you came and arrived out of the light” Jolene
“You’re the light, Waverly.”

The Black Stone
Stumbled upon this and started having a lot of questions about that ring on Waverly’s finger.

–  Islamic tradition holds that the Black Stone fell from Jannah (Paradise) to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar, which became the first temple on Earth. Muslims believe that the stone was originally pure and dazzling white, but has since turned black because of the sins of the people who touch it.
– Another tradition says that the Black Stone was originally an angel that had been placed by God in the Garden of Eden to guard Adam. The angel was absent when Adam ate the forbidden fruit and was punished by being turned into a jewel — the Black Stone.

Simurgh

I bet you’re wondering “WTF is smurg?”. Well, let me show you, then we’ll talk about it.

That’s right, I analyzed the shit out of everything and those guys really got my attention and it’s missing the ‘r’ on that picture, because I haven’t committed the correct spelling of simrug to memory. A Simurgh  is a lot like a griffin, a phoenix, a winged lion, a lamassu, and probably lots of other mythical wingalinged creatures. But I swear to fuck those are Simurgh.

It has an enmity towards snakes, and its natural habitat is a place with plenty of water.
It appears as a peacock (uh, what kind of feathers are in those vase things next to the SMIGARH) with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion – sometimes, however, also with a human face.

some have proposed that the word griffin (γρύψ) may be cognate with cherubim

BIRDS!

Speaking of shit with wings. I hate Birds. Turns out my favorite show of all time is just a fucking show about birds and I’m not even 50% done with my bird analysis of Season 3.

• The credits end with birds flying across the screen.
• The Bluntline Bus (is it a dove) (S1 & S3)
• Svane = Swan
• The Order wore weird beak masks
• birds in VIP area in 3×01
• “he was following a cool bird” (3×04)
• Snowy Owl. (3×04)
• mama earp bird watching “cardinals in the courtyard, building a nest, laying eggs soon, starting a family” …”I just keep an eye on those cardinals” the robins, the sparrows, the magpies (3×04)
• Mama prison jumpsuit is red. Although imaginary Mama told Wynonna that red is not her color. 
• “the cardinal cardinal rule” (3×05) *I am reaching
• 3 bird baths in the Gibson greenhouse, all three have 3 levels. 
• peacock feathers are part of Kate’s tarot set-up.
• Mama cutting the head off of a turkey (3×06)
• Bulshar’s victim’s in cages 
• Simurgh in Gardner house *not exactly a bird, but we’ve been over that
• “separate cages.”(3×09)
• a cage has bars (it’s more of a terrerium) 3×10
• Trinity School Condors
• the murder board has a picture of a bird like creature (scroll up) with six wings. seraphim have six wings
• “a porg” …whatever, they have fucking feathers. (3×10)

The phoenix is a mythical bird that dies by fire, then rises from its own ashes after 500 years! Thus it symbolizes renewed life.

Stuff about fire in S3:

• Waverly escaped a fire
• Nicole escaped a massacre that was covered up by a fire.
• Kevin calls Charlie “Mr Flame” …also he’s a fire firefighter
• obviously a lot of flame thrower mentions

There are pictures on the murder board of volcanic eruptions and such. 

Questions. Comments. Concerns. And Treachery :

The sword. The Gun. and The Ring. Oh, and that plate.

• -I think they’re all siblings. Well, the metal on the ring, my theory on the stone is further up. 
•  I wonder if any of them can be used to get into the Garden. Maybe there were all made from the original flaming sword. Maybe that’s why Bulshar looked for the ring, then went after Peacemaker. 
• We know Peacemaker has Orange, Blue, White, but it didn’t glow at all when she shot Jolene. Maybe just a plot hole, because it has glowed orange when shooting non-revenant demons before.
  the ring controls the arm – that ring on your finger. bulshar stole it from your father

The Original families and their …occupation?

• McBlake = originally prospectors.
• Robin “Jett, the milliner”. A milliner = someone who or makes hats, especially women’s hats. 
• Gardner….GARDENER!
• Per those text Yarn things, Claude Simone was one of the people who went missing and according to Waverly the Simones “have been in Purgatory forever”.
  • The annoying City Manager in 3×04 is named Claude. Hm.

This: Ua-Ildak (Ua-ildak) is, in ancient Mesopotamian religion, a goddess responsible for pastures and poplar trees.

This exchange from 3×10: “Wyatt Earp is coming” – “Right on time, the blood moon occurs this very night. I had hoped we’d be spared.” – “Bulshar spares none.”
Just one of those that makes me think.

Also in 3×10 when talking about that Journal, Bobo says “he took her book”, and honestly, Bobo is the person I’m talking most seriouly right now. 

Nicole
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_(art)

I think she’s a Phoenix, but I have no idea why I think that.  

Charlie

• hula girl on the dash of his truck. “ride on flame thrower with a hula girl on the dash”
• When Wynonna thanks him for the help he says “No problem, it’s what I do”. Wynonna takes this to mean saving people in general, but it seems a little specific to killing demonic things and saving people from becoming trees…ok maybe not that last part, but I don’t think this was his first Demon Rodeo.

Doc

Jeremy

Robin

Mama

Wynonna