The Keys To The Kingdom - Garth Richard Nix

Garth Nix - The Keys To The Kingdom.

In The Popular Book Series entitled: " The Keys To The Kingdom " - written by Garth Richard Nix [ that means: " The One Who Dwells In The Enclosure Is The Strong And Powerful One Who Finally Stands Up And Says: ' No More ' " ]; and published by Scholastic Publishing [ which refers to: " A Provider Of Educational Books That Are Based Upon True Knowledge " ] -  we have been provided Yet Another Prophetical & Spiritual Allegory.

You see, dear brothers and sisters, Arthur Penhaligon - [ that means: " The Noble And Courageous Stone Is: The Dweller In The Enclosure And Who Shall Arise In The Midst Of Your Sea " ] - is, truthfully, though most of you still don't know it: ' A Reference To Someone That Has Been Very Clearly Spoken Of In Scripture '!

But, of course, you probably still don't believe me. So, why not just honestly consider The Following Passage From Scripture - because, in the much larger scheme of things, You Might Just Be Glad That You Did....

" Who then is A Faithful And Wise Servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is That Servant whom his master, when He comes, will find Him so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that: ' He Will Make Him Ruler Over All Of His Goods '. " - Mathew 24:45-47.

The Keys To The Kingdom: Is Just Another Prophetical Allegory Amidst Millions Of All Those Others....

" The School For Good And Evil ".

You see, dear brothers and sisters: ' While Billions Of Us Lay Fitfully Sleeping; Others Among Us Have Been Recording Their Own Most Interesting Dreams '... and, whether we want to believe it or not, It Is God Himself That Has Always ( So Faithfully ) Provided Them!

In fact, why not just read it yourself from Those Biblical Scriptures?


In The Old Testament, it very clearly states:

" And, it shall come to pass afterward that: ' I Will Pour Out My Spirit On All Flesh '.

Your Sons and Your Daughters shall Prophesy; Your Old Men shall dream Dreams; and Your Young Men shall see Visions. And, also, upon My Menservants and on My Maidservants: ' I Will Pour Out My Spirit In Those Days '.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood, Fire, and Pillars Of Smoke.

The Sun shall be turned into Darkness, and The Moon into Blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

And, it shall come to pass that whoever calls upon The Name Of The Lord shall be saved. For, in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance; as The Lord has said: ' Among The Remnant Whom The Lord Calls '. " - Joel 2:28-32.
 

Just as it has been, once again, reiterated by The Apostle Peter from within The New Testament:

" And, it shall come to pass In The Last Days, says God: ' That I Will Pour Out Of My Spirit Upon All Flesh '. Your Sons and Your Daughters shall Prophesy; Your Young Men shall see Visions; Your Old Men shall dream Dreams.  And upon My Menservants and on My Maidservants: ' I Will Pour Out My Spirit In Those Days; And They Shall All Prophesy '. 

I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath:Blood, Fire, and Pillars Of Smoke.  The Sun shall be turned into Darkness And The Moon into Blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of The Lord.  And it shall come to pass that whoever calls upon The Name Of The Lord shall be saved. " - Acts 2:17-21.

Who is that child with: " His Own Fishing Rod "?

In fact, Such Illustrative And Heavily Symbolized Allegorical Writings seldom go completely unnoticed by everyone... and thus, not so surprisingly, The Wikipedia.com entry for: " The Keys To The Kingdom " - has this to say about The Religious Symbolism found throughout this very interesting book series....

" The Keys to the Kingdom appears to contain Many Examples Of Religious Symbolism and Spiritual References, possibly as a reference to the idea that not even the architect is as creative as humans, particularly in Judeo-Christian Tradition. One example is the title of the series, a reference to the words spoken by Jesus Christ to the Apostle Peter in The Bible at Matthew 16:19 - ' I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven '.

Another example is the affliction of each Morrow Day with one of The Seven Deadly Sins that results from their choice Not To Obey The Will.

• Mister Monday: Sloth

• Grim Tuesday: Greed

• Drowned Wednesday: Gluttony

• Sir Thursday: Wrath

• Lady Friday: Lust

• Superior Saturday: Envy

• Lord Sunday: Pride 

Other religious references include The Old One, a Prometheus-like character who held great power but was chained and punished by The Architect for his interference with Her creations, including the liver being chopped out and regrown before the ' eagles ' come back again, only difference is that it is clockwork characters and they only chopped the liver previously, now they do eyeballs. ( alternatively seen as A Lucifer Character ). However, the revelation in the final installment that The Old One was split from the entity of The Architect, and retained her powers, strongly suggest that he is a reference to God.  

The Drasil Trees' name resembles that of the Norse ' World Tree ', Yggdrasil. There is even a range of literary and mythological reference in the series: Mister Monday's butler is compared to Nestor of The Adventures of Tintin; a character describes Monday's Noon as exactly how she imagined Jane Austen's Mr Darcy; the Piper is a re-creation of the legendary Pied Piper of Hamelin, who with his music led a population of rats from a city, later to do the same to the town's children, whose parents had refused to pay him the promised fee. The Mariner is likely a reference to the title character of the ballad The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Both the mariner of the book and the one of the poem had shot a bird and suffered misery as a result, though Garth Nix does not specify what type of bird the mariner in his book had shot.

In addition, the name ' Artful Loungers ', used for Superior Saturday's servants, may be a reference to ' Artful Dodger ', the name of a street thief in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. References to Dickens and the society wherein he lived are also implied in the personalities of the Piper's Children and in the Denizens' clothes. In Drowned Wednesday, Arthur suggests that a passage may open ' through the wardrobe ', which is most likely a reference to the wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe - through which the protagonist children enter Narnia. The same book also includes an ' exchange of blows ' wherein each fighter tries to kill each other by means of one strike only, similar to the challenge issued by The Green Knight.

Also, The Incomparable Gardens may represent The Garden Of Eden,and Saturday's Tower would be analogous to The Tower of Babel, an attempt to reach Heaven. The character of Lord Sunday who claims that his only wish is to care for his garden may be a reference to Candide, who decides that ' we must all tend to our gardens '.

In addition, the three sons of The Architect and The Old One may reference The Holy Trinity, the Father ( Lord Sunday ), the Son ( The Mariner ), and the Holy Spirit ( The Piper ), as well as the three Greek gods Zeus ( Lord Sunday ), Poseidon ( The Mariner ), and Hades ( Pied Piper; he was banished to the Void of Nothing ).

A cultural reference is found in the use of the word Architect to designate The Creator. It may signify either an association with Freemasonry or a simple leap of logic, in that The Freemasons use the epithet ' Great Architect ' to signify The Supreme Being - whereas, in a history of the world wherein The Epicenter Of The Universe is A House, its maker must necessarily be An Architect.

Arthur's Name implies reference to archetypes: Arthur Penhaligon might be a play on Arthur Pendragon, who is otherwise known as King Arthur. A pun to this is that he is known as Lord Arthur, by some Denizens. The ' Return Of The Pendragon ', a supposedly prophesied idea wherein King Arthur would return from the land of the dead and bring a golden age to the Earth, may be implied here; Lord Arthur Of The House represents The Pendragon, in which role he restores balance to The House and thence to The Universe. In keeping with the Christian theme of the books, he could be seen as being a counterpart to Jesus, further backed by the fact that he has adopted parents, paralleling Jesus' adopted father, Saint Joseph.

The Metal Gloves of Grim Tuesday may be a reference to Járngreipr, a pair of metal gloves that Thor used in Norse Mythology. This is made more likely by the fact that Thor used them to catch balls of molten iron, and Arthur and Grim Tuesday used them to catch floating gobbets of Nothing. "

The Truth is always: " Stranger Than Fiction "!

And, while it may seem pretty odd to the rest of you... It Honestly Doesn't Surprise Me, that God has always been: " The Author And Finisher Of Our Faith ".

After all, isn't that just precisely, ' What Everything In The Universe Ultimately Now Teaches Us '?

Why don't, You Just Tell Me....

Ahava and Shalom.

May Yahweh's Own: Love And Peace - be upon you!