Well, O4S fans, here is the final trivia post for Going Forth by Day (The Order of the Four Sons, Book VI), and for the series as a whole. If I think of any more good stuff to share, I may do another one at some point in the future, but I think I hit the higlights.
SPOILERS AHEAD - consider yourself warned!
If you haven't already read them, the previous trivia posts are here:
Book I, Book II, Book III, Bonus Trivia, Book V, first Book VI
6. Afterlife Kids
There are many, many references to death, mourning and the afterlife in the world of Cerulean—ghosts, mummies, a coffin, the golden tabernacle boxes. I wanted to create a new vision of the afterlife for this story. So I had my own long, strange journey into the underworld alongside Kate. I read every book I could get my hands on that has some sort of afterlife trip, (e.g., What Dreams May Come, Lincoln in the Bardo, The Lovely Bones, Everlost, Before I Fall) watched every movie (e.g., again, What Dreams May Come and The Lovely Bones, Defend Your Life, Beetlejuice, Book of Life, Coco, Chances Are), and many, many more. I already mentioned Over the Garden Wall, which I developed a minor obsession with. I did a month-long ritual to summon Anubis and put myself in a trance. (Seriously.) I even tried DMT, but that shit is harsh and it’s hard to take a proper hit. My visions of the afterlife kept taking me to a large, rambling house with many stairs and many doors. It took me to my family members who have passed on. I felt like the message was—you go home, you go back to the beginning. I also had a very scary vision similar to what Kate experienced with the little girl—like I was dying and giving birth and being born all at once, so that’s why it made its way into the story.
In this book, the dead come back to haunt a lot of people—literally and figuratively. What we now call the Egyptian Book of the Dead (Egyptian funerary texts) is actually translated as The Book of Coming Forth by Day, or The Book of Going Forth by Day, hence the title of this book, Going Forth by Day.
Joan, Kate and Alyssa all make underworld journeys. Joan goes in the flesh, intending to destroy death from within, and thereby make herself into a goddess. In heroes’ journey narratives, there is always a descent into the underworld. Kate follows Joan in order to stop her. Alyssa’s Terminus Revelation comes true, and she dies long enough to see what her afterlife will look like. When she is revived, her final prophecy is inspired by Egyptian funerary texts, specifically The Papyrus of Ani.
Also, in the afterlife, Kate finds the little girl living in a sod house—again, I wanted to give the afterlife a distinctly American flavor. In addition to the Book of the Dead, there are also the Egyptian Coffin Texts, a collection of funerary spells. Spell #1080 is called “The Sealed Thing”:
This is the sealed thing which is in darkness, with fire about it, which contains the efflux of Osiris, and it was put in Rostau. It has been hidden there since it fell from him, and it is what came down from him onto the desert sand; it means what belongs to him was put in Rostau… This is the word which is in darkness. As for any spirit who knows it, he will live among the living. Fire is about it, which contains the efflux of Osiris. As for any man who shall know it, he shall never perish there, since he knows what shall be in Rostau. Rostau is hidden since he fell there… Rostau is another name for Osiris. As for any man who is there, he will see Osiris every day, his breath will be in his nose, and he will never die…
Rostau means “mouth of the passages” according to one source, “gateway to the Duat,” according to another. Rostau is a door, in other words. It is the abode of Osiris, who was dismembered. The Duat, the realm of Osiris, is underground—hence, the sod house. There are wildfires burning on the horizon when Kate finds it, a hidden place. And the little girl in the well had been dismembered, like Osiris. Kate discovers her “efflux.” Kate, who, as far as we know, is immortal and indestructible.
Sarosh, Lokni, Amenti and the Answerers – Sarosh was the strongest of Joan’s familiar spirits. His name is from Avestan, and may mean any of the following: obedience, hearkening, observer, or conscience. This language was used at the inception of Zoroastrianism. I wanted to give him a name that was quite ancient—considering he first latches onto Joan when she’s an infant in the 9th century, his name (and he) had to be pretty old.
In this book, we see why Sarosh is no longer in Joan’s service. But since he’d been with her for hundreds of years, he had been shaped by her will and her perceptions, and several characters remark on how much Sarosh looks like Michael. Given the nature of Joan and Sarosh’s relationship—ewwwwww. No wonder everybody suspects some creepy incest going on between Joan and her son.
Lokni and Amenti were also among Joan’s familiar spirits at the beginning of her long life. Lokni is a Miwok (Native American) name meaning, “rain falls through the roof.” That name is a bit of foreshadowing what fate awaits the psychic, Pham Suong, who was involved in banishing (re: destroying) Joan’s familiars. Amenti is Egyptian, and it means the “hidden place/land.” I thought this would be good foreshadowing for the Rostau, the hidden thing Joan has been searching for all these centuries that has eluded her (that’s what she needs the Oracles for).
In the afterlife, Sarosh explains to Kate that he and the other animal-headed creatures are called ushabti, or “answerers.” In Egyptian funerary art, ushabtis are small carved figurines placed in a tomb with a mummy. They usually have inscriptions from the Book of the Dead. They represent servants expected to perform labor in the land of the dead. Hence, we see them serving as guides, bus drivers, hotel laundresses, elevator operators, etc. I didn’t spell it out in the book, but I imagine the answerers are free to go back and forth to the material plane as they like, and some, like Sarosh, like it so much, they sort of abandon their posts. They are part familiars, part guardian angels, part enablers. It was healthy for Sarosh to go back to his home dimension at the end, so hopefully he takes a good, long rest before returning to Earth—if he ever returns.
So, the long
joke for the series has been, despite the name of the books and the
organization, the Order of the Four Sons, it’s actually four women who save the
universe—Kate, Alyssa, Emily and Leto. I think an argument could be made for
Millie as a fifth hero—the fifth, hidden moon, if you will. (Coyote and I are
feminists—in case there’s any doubt after Corbenic.) Millie has two daughters.
Millie is Michael’s descendant, and their relationship is very familial.
Daughters in this story are important, as are mothers. Joan is the Matriarch, and her pet Oracles call her “mother.” In the end, Kate goes home to her mother. In Book V, when the Oracles have their collective vision, they cry out, “Mother, Madame, Mistress, Matriarch.” Leto is a young girl yearning for a father figure, as was Katarina. Bathory has a weird mother/lover relationship with both of them. In the end, Vickers’s girlfriend is pregnant, and it will be a daughter. Alyssa is also pregnant with a daughter, plus they adopt Janus’ daughter, Arabelle. Christophe and Madeline have a newborn daughter, Angelique.
In the afterlife, Kate sees the ghost of a young girl in the road, then finds her body in the well. When she has her vision and figures out who she is and what she has to do, she becomes the little girl. I don’t spell it out in the book, but the little girl is the ghost of Irene Avery, and possibly God, or at least a god. Kate merges with her past and the divine to become the protector the universe needs.
Bunnies – In the afterlife, at the masquerade ball, Jess, (one of the little girls from Book I), is dressed in a bunny costume. Later, Kate transforms into a bunny while hopping through the cosmic forest.
Water – Almost too many scenes to mention. Michael ends up in a pool before he dies. The river that he and Joan restored when they restored the rest of the planet. Kate crosses a river to the afterlife. The afterlife floods. The Catfish puts in another appearance. Kate finds the little girl in the well, then bathes her body. The spirit of the little girl gives her a dipperful of water. Joan bathes Alyssa before doing her awful rite. Alyssa drinks water from the Omphalos for her ritual with Leo, and Madeline bathes her. Joan bathes Michael’s body before she unleashes Isfet. In the afterlife, Joan is unable to drink the water—it’s a common theme to have food and water forbidden to outsiders in the underworld, or in fairy realms. If you eat or drink, you are trapped there forever. I’m sure there’s more, but you get the idea.
Trees – As mentioned above, this book includes a yew and a hazelnut tree, as well as the plum trees from Suong’s prophetic dreams. There’s an entire cosmic forest in the afterlife, where we learn that, yes, Solomon apparently carved the staff from the Heartwood, the oldest tree in the forest. It’s also where the animals retreat to after the masquerade. When Carcosa is saved, a tree appears in the chamber where the Hormiga beastie once resided. Leto hides the used antidote casing in a copse of evergreens. Among the Tarwejan artifacts are a lot of clay Trees of Life. Alyssa sees Clayton under a tulip tree. When Dion dies, I describe his electrical burn wounds like tree branches. “Tarweja” is Sumerian for tree. (I modeled the Tarwejan people/culture after the Indus Valley civilization.)
Sri Yantra – it wasn’t actually mentioned in this book, but there is a scene in the throne room at Four Mothers, and there is a Sri Yantra in its floor. Throughout the series, it’s always signaled safety, and Four Mothers is definitely a safe harbor by the end.
Phoenix - Alyssa’s new house symbol, courtesy of Leo. The symbol of Atymnius, the first Sarpedonne’s inspirer.
Minotaur – There’s a minotaur-shaped topiary in the Order construct. In the afterlife, at the rodeo show, Kate sees a mock bullfight with a minotaur.
Pomegranates – Kate sees a pomegranate tree in the cosmic forest.
White – this and gray are Joan’s colors. She’s always in white until the end, when she kills Michael, and her dress turns black. Sarosh, in his spirit form, is white. Nathan DePriest is an albino.
Blue – the color of the Eerin’s eyes and their magic, Cerulean’s sky and the afterlife’s sky. Kate’s magic has always been blue, so when she and Sarosh team up, he starts manifesting with blue hues.
Gold – Joan, Michael and Sarosh are all golden-haired; Sarosh’s tie; the tabernacles; ley lines are always gold.
Black – Akhenaton always manifests as a black, shadowy entity, so as It begins to totally take over Bill’s body, Bill also begins to turn black; Joan’s dress turns black after she kills Michael; the moons of Carcosa are black; DePriest’s wand is black; when the TAV system goes down, Cerulean experiences a worldwide blackout; the demon Ferthur has black hair and black wings. When Joan invokes Isfet, the sky goes black. Anubis, the hotel concierge, is a black jackal. The masquerade invitation is black. Kate’s evening gown is mostly black. When Alyssa and Leo do their conjunction rite, she and Leo are wearing silver and gold robes, but everyone else is in black. They are bound with black cord. Kate becomes an army of black ants.
Names
Ryan Murphy
– We wanted Murphy to have a classic Irish cop name. Ryan is Irish for “little
king.” It takes a king to defeat a king. Murphy is a common Irish name and in
this part of the Midwest, a lot of people are of Irish descent.
Leto Souris – Leto is the name of a Greek goddess, mother to Apollo and Artemis. Her name is thought to mean “the hidden one.” As a baby, Leto was taken from her mother and effectively hidden from her. It can also mean “wife.” Leto may eventually be someone’s wife, (I doubt that person will be a man), but marital status, motherhood and conception all play a big role in our Leto’s life. In mythology, when a giant named Tityus tried to rape Leto, she was rescued by her children. Leto’s mother was raped, which is how Leto was born. I like to think Leto saved Susan’s peace of mind, and she becomes a hero in general. Souris, as I mentioned above, is French for “mouse,” so when Leto is allowed to choose her own surname, she chooses Souris. As a little girl, her street sisters and johns would call her “mouse” because she looked a bit mousy. Murphy carves a little toy mouse for her. Also, I have always loved how Leto, someone small and poor and seemingly powerless, becomes such a major player in this story. I think it is entirely fitting that Elizabeth Bathory and Nathan DePriest are done in by a fifteen-year-old ex-streetwalker.
My next O4S post will be the Book VI playlist, which is probably my favorite playlist of the series. Thank you for reading, and, as always, please feel free to leave comments below, or shoot me a message.
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