Or,  שְׁאוֹל – Sheʾōl or Gê-hinnōm: what the Hell!

In a dark and humid, albeit blisteringly hot, olfactorily offensive region outside of time and outside of space, the former Roman deity associated with light and truth (but demoted via Abrahamic synchronicity to his present sad state) speculates.  Today, in the temporal realms, is a day fraught with incoherence disguised as meaning, a more and more common phenomena but still special, at least to the spiritual descendants of ancient Abram.

Just what relation, if any, he wonders, does the biblical Netherworld have to the Netherlands (recalling Puritans, he is not fond of the Dutch), and, in either or each case, might it involve the divine’s posterior excretory orifice, assuming he, she it or they have one?  Would that mean that Sheʾōl or Gê-hinnōm, Hades or Hell or, well, you know, whatever, is located somewhere in a divine gastric system, the stomach perhaps, or the intestines, large or small, or even the colon — semi or whole?  That would certainly explain the pejorative “Holy Crap!  

He is obviously curious as to where he finds himself, perhaps contemplating an escape.

Where then, or what, may Heaven be?  Or Purgatory?

Something on which to reflect (assuming heresy and blasphemy do not deter you) on a sad Sabbath, recalling another sad Sabbath almost two millennia ago, when the purported Son of Man spent a brief sojourn in an uncomfortable waiting room anticipating transport to his Dad’s place. 

Was transport delayed because of Sabbath imposed restrictions?

Paraphrasing Gandalf while still “the Grey”: 

“Good Sabbath?  Do you mean that you wish me a good Sabbath.  Or that it’s a Sabbath on which to be good?  Or that it is a good Sabbath whether I like it or not.  Of course, it is probably not ever good to spend Saturdays in אוֹל – Sheʾōl or Gê-hinnōm or Hell.”
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2022; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen).  Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales.  He has academic degrees in political science (the Citadel), law (St. John’s University), international legal studies (New York University) and translation and linguistic studies (the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies).  He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.