{"id":119,"date":"2015-02-28T09:47:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T17:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fourinthegarden.com\/?p=119"},"modified":"2016-07-05T20:51:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T03:51:18","slug":"character-names-in-four-in-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/character-names-in-four-in-the-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Character Names in Four in the Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people don’t know that I renamed the Teachers<\/strong> in Four in the Garden<\/em> many times. In my first draft, they were named Initiator<\/strong>, Fulfiller<\/strong> and Enabler<\/strong>. Those names didn’t work for me and every subsequent set of names didn’t work, either. I devoted a lot of time to figure out the best names for them.<\/p>\n

Ennoia<\/strong>, who is the mind of God, was chosen because it is a Greek word meaning “mind.”\u00a0The word also means\u00a0thought, understanding, will, intention, and purpose.<\/p>\n

The Teacher, Manna<\/strong>, expresses\u00a0the words of God. The name refers to manna from heaven, which symbolizes spiritual nourishment from God. Mana<\/em> is a Japanese name that means truth or love. Mana<\/em> is also a Polynesian word that describes the supernatural force found in and flowing from all things.<\/p>\n

Aable<\/strong> is the power of God\u00a0and\u00a0performs the works of God. Abel<\/em> or Able<\/em> is a Hebrew name that means breath. Breath and spirit are implied by this name. Aable<\/strong> is a variation of able, which means capable.<\/p>\n

The name Cherished<\/strong>\u00a0for the protagonist came to me from the very first draft. The name fit and stuck throughout the entire revision process. I never had reason to question it.<\/p>\n

Illuminos<\/strong>, the fallen angel, started out as Luminous. Adding “ill” to the beginning gave the name a slightly sinister cast. Both names are\u00a0based on the Latin word lumen<\/em>, which means light. The Bible mentions that the devil can masquerade as an angel of light.<\/p>\n

The name, Radiance,<\/strong> was chosen for the good angel because she is\u00a0all about light. She has the ability to project God’s light into a scene and to focus it into narrow beams at a target.<\/p>\n

Blaze<\/strong>, the most complicated character, was chosen because I wanted a word that had to do with fire, his obsession. His name needed convey something out of control. His favorite phrase, “Conflagration!” also conveys an out of control fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people don’t know that I renamed the Teachers in Four in the Garden many times. In my first draft, they were named Initiator, Fulfiller and Enabler. Those names didn’t work for me and every subsequent set of names didn’t work, either. I devoted a lot of time to figure out the best names for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Hhvw-1V","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":260,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/willfulness\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":0},"title":"Willfulness","date":"March 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In my book, Four in the Garden, I avoided the use of the word \"sin\" because it's such a religiously-loaded and off-putting word. It conjures feelings of shame, guilt, and condemnation. Rather than driving us to God, it generally has the opposite effect. Sin is often used to describe \"bad\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/god-and-brussels-sprouts\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":1},"title":"God and Brussels Sprouts","date":"August 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"People seem to either love or hate Brussels sprouts. People who hate them made that determination because they have tried them at least once in their lives. Then you have those people who have spurned God because they tried that once, too, and they didn't like it or it didn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/a-solitary-adam-without-eve\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":2},"title":"A Solitary Adam, without Eve","date":"October 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most dramatic detours from the Garden of Eden story is that Four in the Garden explores the relationship between one person and God. In the Garden of Eden story, God created a companion for Adam because none of the animals proved to be a suitable companion for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":345,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/where-god-dwells\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":3},"title":"Where God Dwells","date":"November 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Where does God dwell? The scriptures teach us that God dwells in heaven, his holy habitation (Deuteronomy 26:15), but aren\u2019t we also taught that God is everywhere? Being in a place isn\u2019t the same as abiding there. God may be everywhere, but he doesn\u2019t abide everywhere. Abide means to remain,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christ"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/an-intimate-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":4},"title":"An Intimate God","date":"September 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When we think of emotional intimacy, we rarely think of God. Yet, God created intimacy. Not only that, but God is capable of deep intimacy. Some people were put off by the intimacy Creator showed the main character, Cherished, in my book, Four in the Garden. Why is it so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/what-is-an-umbilicus\/","url_meta":{"origin":119,"position":5},"title":"What is an Umbilicus?","date":"June 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the story, Four in the Garden, the umbilicus is presented as a unique connection to God, a channel through which God's life flows into us. Spiritual abundance is often compared to a well or fountain that overflows and spills out from within. The dictionary definition of umbilicus is \"center\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}