Alethiometer

From Srafopedia

The alethiometer

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In His Dark Materials

One of the Three Tools, it is a highly precise and difficult instrument for predicting things or finding out the truth. The name comes from "alethia," the Greek word for "truth," and "meter" for "measure". The Alethiometer is first mentioned at the end of Chapter 2 of TGC/NL, where it forewarns that Lord Asriel’s research could prove hazardous. After being presented with it at Jordan College by the Master, Lyra uses the Alethiometer throughout the books to point her in the right direction- figuratively. Although it takes many people a lifetime to puzzle out even the simplest of meanings, Lyra had possessed an innate feeling for it, and thus was able to use it on the few occasions when she felt she needed to. Lyra discovered that the Alethiometer has an attitude, a personality of its own- it works by Dust, and it knows the workings of everything. It is, as the name would show, the truth-teller. In The Amber Spyglass, Lyra has fallen from grace and suddenly finds that she is not able to read the Alethiometer any more- she has lost that power. However, she spends the rest of her life re-learning the symbols, to traverse the deep and tangled ladders of meaning that each symbol posessed.

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How to Use the Alethiometer

Each of the Alethiometer's 36 symbols has a range of meanings. Below are the primary, secondary and tertiary symbol meanings.

Hourglass - Time, Death, change

Sun - Day, Authority, truth

Alpha and Omega - Finality, Process, inevitability

Marionette - Obedience, Submission, grace

Serpent - Evil, Guile, natural wisdom

Cauldron -Alchemy, Craft, achieved wisdom

Anchor - Hope, Steadfastness, prevention

Angel - Messenger, Hierarchy, disobedience

Helmet - War, Protection, narrow vision

Beehive - Productive work, Sweetness, light

Moon - Chastity, Mystery, the uncanny

Madonna - Motherhood, The feminine, worship

Apple - Sin, Knowledge, vanity

Bird - The soul (the dæmon), Spring, marriage

Bread - Nourishment, Christ, sacrifice

Ant - Mechanical work, Diligence, tedium

Bull - Earth, Power, honesty

Candle - Fire, Faith, learning

Cornucopia - Wealth, Autumn, hospitality

Chameleon - Air, Greed, patience

Thunderbolt - Inspiration, Fate, chance

Dolphin - Water, Resurrection, succor

Walled Garden - Nature, Innocence, order

Globe - Politics, Sovereignty, fame

Sword - Justice, Fortitude, the Church

Griffin - Treasure, Watchfulness, courage

Horse - Europe, Journeys, fidelity

Camel - Asia, Summer, perseverance

Elephant- Africa, Charity, continence

Crocodile (Caiman) - America, Rapacity, enterprise

Baby - The future, Malleability, helplessness

Compass - Measurement, Mathematics, science

Lute - Poetry, Rhetoric, philosophy

Tree - Firmness, Shelter, fertility

Wild Man - Wild man, The masculine, lust

Owl - Night, Winter, fear

Each symbol has one primary meaning and a range of subsidiary meanings, which are potentially infinite. However, the subsidiary meanings are all related by association to the primary meaning. So, for instance, the sun symbolizes :

Day, because it is during the day that we see the sun.
Authority, because the sun is the most powerful thing in the sky.
Truth, because by the sun's light we can see the true forms of things.
Kingship (or political authority of any kind), because the king is the sun around whom the court or the state revolves;
A Particular King Or Leader (in the context of a query to the alethiometer, it will be obvious which one is meant);
Phoebus Apollo, and thus rationality and the intellect, as opposed to the baser emotions;
Archery (Apollo's bow and arrows) and thence
The Power Of Administering Punishment At A Distance, including
Plague;
The Creative Arts (through Apollo's patronage of the nine Muses);
The Laurel (through Apollo's love for Daphne), and thence
Honor, Prizes, Fame, through Apollo's awarding of the laurel wreath;
Divination and Prophecy (through the Delphic Oracle);
Pastoral Husbandry (Apollo's flocks and herds), and thence
A Particular Farm, and thence
A Particular Beast;
Homosexual Love (Apollo's love for Hyacinthus);
Gold ...

And so on, possibly infinitely. No one has ever reached the end of any symbol range, even though some have been explored to the depth of a thousand or more meanings.

Each symbol is thus capable of expressing a multitude of ideas, but each subsidiary meaning carries with it some quality of the primary one, even when it may appear to coincide with a meaning in another range. For example, the meaning "sea" appears both as number seven in the dolphin's range and number four in the anchor's, but it signifies different things in each. In the dolphin range, it means "the sea as wide, nourishing home", and in the anchor range, the sea as danger and unpredictability." A skillful reading of the alethiometer would have to take into account not only the meaning itself, wherever it comes within the range, but also the significance lent it by the range itself.

Any question can be expressed by a combination of three symbols, using either the primary or any of the subsidiary meanings. For example, Should I marry now, or wait for a year? would be expressed by means of the bird (third meaning, marriage, because birds mate for life), the hourglass (tenth meaning, a year), and the horse (fifth meaning, constancy). The inquirer moves each of the hands in turn until it points to one of the three symbols.

But that is only the physical part of the process. The other part is mental. The inquirer must endeavor to hold in his or her mind a clear picture of where each of the meanings comes in its range. Evoking the image of ladders with rungs extending downward is sometimes advised by skilled practitioners of alethiometry. Picture three ladders side by side, each rung being one meaning in the range, and mark distinctly the rungs corresponding to the meanings you intend - for example, by imagining a bright light shining on them, or ribbons tied around them, or by covering them in gold leaf. The inquirer must hold that image firmly, without losing it for a moment, while setting the hands in position.

Once the question has been asked, the needle will begin to move around the dial, and the inquirer must pay close attention to its movements. It may stop at any number of symbols: two, or three, or many more. The inquirer must note carefully not only which symbols it stops at but also how many times it stops there, because the number of times corresponds to the place of the intended meaning in the symbol's range.

For example, the question above might receive an answer in which the needle stopped at chameleon three times, walled garden seven times, baby five times, madonna nine times, sword six times, bull two times, ant ten times, and bird three times.

By noting the pauses carefully and consulting the books of readings, the inquirer would discover the following meanings: "wait", "allow", "fail", "love", "not", "strong", "sustain", and "marriage."

So much for the external process; the inward process would require the reader to put these meanings together correctly and come to the answer:

Wait and allow your love to cool and die away, because it is not strong enough to sustain marriage.

The alethiometer moves to answer immediately, and usually answers only once. It is clear that a reader must be unusually quick-witted as well as diligent and perceptive, and that only long practice and deep familiarity with the symbol ranges, acquired over many years, can bring about accurate interpretation.

In short, the alethiometer supplies the semantic content of a message, and the mind of the inquirer supplies the grammatical connections between the individual elements. Only when the two work together does the full meaning become apparent.

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