In the comment section of my post Children as Mice, and rescuing the Lost, WanderingGondola brought up Sonic the Hedgehog, and how he has been on her mind recently. She shared the interesting finding that Sonic was originally called Mr. Needlemouse I found both the reference to a needle and a mouse very interesting, and I was also intrigued by her persistent thought of a hedgehog in the first place. I mentioned in my reply to her that hedgehogs had also crossed my mind this week due to an art assignment my son brought home from school.
I am going to share his hedgehog, and then I will also share two other drawings he made literally just this morning.
Fredy the Hedgehog
First of all, luckily there was a brief writing assignment that went with the Hedgehog, because based on the creation alone, I am not sure that I would have identified this creature as a hedgehog.
Meet Fredy:
I am willing to bet our man did not spend a whole lot of time on this particular project. This was pretty much confirmed when I asked him a couple questions about it this morning following my response to WG, and he just looked at me and said "Dad, I was just trying to get it done, and didn't want to think about it all that much". Can't say I blame him. If someone wanted me to make a hedgehog covered with hearts, I would have probably given it the same effort level.
I was actually worried I had already thrown this away but fortunately I found Fredy today in a stack of papers on the kitchen counter that we hadn't yet cleared out. As you might be able to see (not sure how clearly the writing comes through), it was done on Feb. 15, the day after Valentine's Day, and I am guessing it was a Valentine's project given the hearts plastered on the hedgehog's body. It just appeared on the counter this week, though, so either he just brought it home, or he had it in his school bag and finally cleaned it out. Either way, Fredy made his appearance just this week.
You can never tell exactly what the finished product was supposed to look like with these things, but as I gaze upon Fredy, it seems that perhaps there was a misunderstanding on my son's part as to the exact application of said hearts, but who knows.
As I mentioned in my earlier comment, when I took one look at Fredy I thought "Now that is a pied hedgehog!" with pied in this sense meaning "variegated with spots of different colors". So, that was an initial connection to the Pied Piper, I guess, though I didn't really think too much more on it at the time - there wasn't really anything else that connected him with the Piper. It took WG's comment about a hedgehog being called a "needlemouse" in Japanese to bring the rodent aspect in, and thus a somewhat stronger tie-in.
A few things to note, that I already kind of touched on in my comment, but just logging here quickly.
My son mentions that Fredy is going to teach him math. I was already thinking of him as the Pied Hedgehog, and had written the previous week about Pi in the mathematical sense relating to the solar eclipse occurring over the Kirtland Temple on April 8 at 3:14pm, as well as to the name Pied (Pi-ed).
In his haste to get done with this project, my son misread the second part of the question. He was asked what kind of day the class would have if the hedgehog was going to be the teacher. He understood the question to be what specific day would the hedgehog teach him math. He chose April 7, since that is his birthday, and while not on April 8, it is one day before and fairly close for our purposes (while also coinciding with the final day of both WrestleMania and the LDS General Conference).
Lastly, the name - of course I am going to look into that one. Fred means "peace". Recall that in my post "Take u body, find peace", I connected Peace with Tirion, and that this was a place that would be found, and as mentioned in other posts as well, that this would be through a journey involving keys, stones, and doors or gates.
Pi also came to symbolize a gate or door, specifically to Heaven or Tirion itself, as well as a communication link to that place (see Pay Lay Ale), and so I just thought it was interesting that we had a pied hedgehog named peace, who was going to teach my son about math (Pi) the day before the solar eclipse passes over the Kirtland Temple at the time of Pi.
Snakes and Skulls and Crossbones
Today got a bit more interesting with artwork as well. My son likes a YouTube art class called "Art for Kids Hub". In these videos, the artist instructs kids how to draw certain things. The videos are actually very well done, in my opinion, and the drawings are put together in a way that the kids feel they have made something pretty nice (my son actually tries on these). I've sat down and done some of these drawings with them in the past, and they've been fun.
Anyway, this morning my son wanted to do some drawings. This is before I had asked him about his hedgehog art, so I didn't jog any artist inclinations this morning from that. He was limited on screen time today, so my guess is part of his interest in drawing was so that he could watch the art class on the iPad. He is a sneaky guy like that.
Not sure what the inspiration for his choice was, but this is what he drew:
It's a cobra. When he showed it to me, the thought popped into my head "The wisdom teeth are out".
That line comes from Vampire Weekend's song "Step", and which William Tychonievich creatively linked to snakes. Snakes are known as symbols of wisdom, and so a snake baring its teeth might correctly be described as wisdom teeth coming out. I liked his idea, and it is what I thought of when I saw this particular snake.
As of last night, partly spurred by a draft post I had begun in the afternoon relative to Peter-Marsh (Peter specifically began to be my primary though as soon as I hit publish on my last post), and a post last night by William Tychonievich in relation to Equilibrium Marshes, I now believe that Peter and Thomas B. Marsh are captured in legend and stories as the angel Uriel.
Uriel, as a potential name, came up in my February 3, 2022 words. I didn't cover it in the post about those words because I didn't know what to do with Uriel if that was the name of a person (whether the Archangel or otherwise). I even briefly explored the words as a potential Elvish words, with Uri-el being the Sun Star. Here is the phrase in question:
Feb. 3
Vaha isi vaha ein urendi sufficient to conclude a state of equilibrium mas helcar uriel domo Abraham reciprocal saw
Uriel is said to guard the gates of both Hell (Tartarus or The Pit) and Eden. Peter also has the keys to gates and doors, and seems a natural fit, as does by extension Marsh. You can look up more on Uriel if you want to see some other potential ties. I am going to try and keep this post a bit shorter, so will just tee up some thoughts, and then you can look into the Beings/ characters more and see if it makes sense for you as well.
Further, my thinking last night and this morning has led me to believe that Peter-Marsh, and thus Uriel, is also the Being who was Alma in the Book of Mormon. Not Alma the Younger, of course, since he is already spoken for by Elrond, but Alma (the Elder) who once sat on Noah's council as one of his priests, but preserved Abinadi's teachings (and in fact tried to save him, at the risk of his own life), and started God's church among the Nephites.
This makes sense on many levels, and I am surprised I did not see it sooner. Another one of those times where once I had the thought, it just kind of 'clicked'.
I have Abinadi (Faramir) working together with Peter-Marsh in events to come. It makes for a nice story to have a reunion between Abinadi, the one who delivered the message to Noah, and Alma, the one who risked his life to preserve Abinadi's words, start up a church based on those teachings, and lead as many as would listen away from the false and wicked deeds of Noah and his priests. In our story, Noah is Brigham Young-Omar-Dairon, and so this ties in nicely with Thomas Marsh's past and future interactions with that Being also.
In addition, look up Mosiah 26 if you have a chance, and what happens and is given to Alma based on God's own words. Alma is promised eternal life, and then God says something interesting:
Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep.
And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and him shall ye receive into the church, and him will I also receive.
Further, Alma is given the direct authority to judge the people of the church that he has set up. If they confess to him and to God, then they will be forgiven. If not, however, Alma has the power and authority to 'blot' out the names of those that will not repent. Anyway, it is an interesting chapter to go through in light of this thinking if you have the time.
My words that had Uriel in it were given on February 3. The phrase immediately prior to that (but separately covered in the Part 1 post that was earlier) was about Omar (Brigham Young-Dairon), and how is name will be made 'dark'. Here is that phrase:
Feb. 1
Sar gu Omar du esta Thank You
I take it to mean that Omar's name will be be 'dark' (literally, 'Stone without Omar dark to name'). To 'blot', which is what Alma did with the names of those that did not repent, per Etymonline includes a reference to any 'dark or black patch'. Literally to make a name dark or black through staining over it.
So, it may not be just a coincidence that this phrase comes directly before there is mention of "Uriel", or Peter-Marsh-Alma, the one who has been given keys regarding Jesus' church, and specifically with 'judgement' and repentance. Repentance is specifically what Alma is charged by God to involve himself with in his dealings with God's church.
This story works out nicely then. Abinadi and Alma reunite under different circumstances. Abinadi won't have to get burned to death, and Alma doesn't have to hide from Noah or get abused by that terrible Amulon. False leaders are exposed, and happier journeys ahead for both of them, perhaps.
The timing works out with Alma and Peter, also. Alma died about 92 B.C. according to the Book of Mormon timeline. He would then be reborn over on Valinor as "Peter", I suppose, and live and work with Jesus there, and where much of what is said to Alma in Mosiah 26 is likely reaffirmed to Peter at that time as well, or that is how I imagine it. Peter would then come to Earth sometime following Jesus' death and resurrection. As I then see it, he would face his own death and likely crucifixion here on this Earth, and his church, words, and teachings would be twisted and usurped by Saruman and by the institution that claims to hold his body and authority (the Roman Catholic Church). History would somewhat repeat itself as later, Marsh would seemingly have his authority and keys usurped by Saruman again through the person of Brigham-Wormtongue (but not really!).
Anyway, that is where my mind is now. The 'curious case of Thomas B. Marsh', as Leo put it, continues, and I have to say of all the characters and topics that have been covered on this blog, he is the most pleasant surprise and has been a fun one to explore and build out a bit. As I mentioned in an earlier post, he wasn't even on my radar and I didn't know much about him until early February, when it was Leo that wrote a couple posts about him. Now I think we might be getting a better view of him, maybe, or at least have some interesting things to explore.
One last observation: Leo left a comment on one of William Tychonievich's posts that started off with "Perhaps Mr. Marsh will soon have his day in the sun...". The phrase stood out to me at the time for whatever reason, enough that I remembered it now and generally knew where to search for it on WJT's blog to find the phrase to make sure I had it right.
This reference to being in the sun was interesting to recall based on what I learned about Uriel. One of his associations? The Sun. For example, in Paradise Lost (a book that came up over in my Wrath of Khan post), John Milton describes Uriel as "The Regent of the Sun".
I introduced my post yesterday with a dream about a mouse.
I didn't attempt any interpretation of the dream specifically, because I didn't know what to make of it. Rather, I used it to transition into the account of the mouse that horded all of its dog food in my truck, and then I was mentally off into the story of the Pied Piper.
A little later in the day, I checked a blog by Bruce Charlton. He has come up before on this blog, and I've even linked to a post he invited me to write on Notion Club Papers blog having to do with orcs, of all things.
As it turned out, on the same day I was writing about mice and rats on this blog, Bruce had written his own little piece on these rodents. It was intended to be a humorous take on the brand name "Murine", and how the packaging could be implied to make one believe (if they understood what Murine meant) that the eye drops were intended to be used on mice.
I thought it was noteworthy that we were both writing about mice that day, and left a comment calling that out, but also making an oblique reference to 2 Timothy in the New Testament about itching ears. Hay Fever gives one not only itchy, watery eyes, but also an itchy throat as well as itching ears. Since I am way overboard right now on seeing story symbols in lots of things, including mice, I thought it was a relevant take on the 'mice' or rats in my own story. They are sick - afflicted with something that affects both their ability to see and hear correctly, and if they are to be healed, they (and maybe it is more accurate to say "we" here) will need to have some remedy other than what is currently available, it seems, in a pharmacy or otherwise.
That was the gist of my additional commentary beyond calling out the synchronicity of us posting on mice.
However, another commenter by the name of Hagel left a comment a few minutes before my own that said simply "People who have pet rodents would be interested".
This comment caught my attention. In my rodent post, I concluded with the music video to Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra". In that video, a woman is seen interacting with a rat as if it were a pet. Here is a sample still shot from the video showing the woman and her rodent pet:
This woman does indeed look like the type of person that would buy some eye drops for her rat if it was suffering from hay fever.
At this point my wheels were turning a bit due to these two fairly conspicuous links to my post (the fact that another person wrote about mice, and that a commenter referenced rats as pets).
Bruce's post is short enough I will just paste in the whole thing below and bold a few of the statements that jumped out at me:
Observing the above at a pharmacist's, I was struck by the question of why on earth the manufacturers would suppose that I, or anybody else, would care enough about mice with hayfever to buy this product?
And then - presumably - we are supposed to go to the immense trouble and inconvenience - even danger - of capturing and treating these unfortunate rodents? Pah!
You probably think me callous. But, for my part, any such mice can just shelter in their burrows and endure their "itchy, sore and watery eyes" - I do not intend to do anything whatsoever to resolve their problem.
On this matter, I am unrepentant.
In re-reading his post, I began thinking through my dream again, which included a mouse trapped under my bed, who was clearly in some kind of distress and trying to communicate with me in some manner, but which I found to be, as I called it, "creepy and unsettling".
My imagination started to take over, and I began imagining that the mouse hadn't asked to be a mouse. In my dream, I noted that its face had almost human features, and I began wondering if this mouse WAS actually human, but by some terrible misfortune had been turned into a mouse. It had been trying to communicate with me in the only way that was left to it, and at first I, because I do not like mice, did not want to hear it.
At this thought, the interpretation of the dream seemed to click into place, and I had a vivid memory come to me of a movie my siblings and I watched when we were very small, which seemed to tie it all together.
My dad recorded tons of videos onto VHS tapes when I was growing up, and had a fairly organized and numbered index of these tapes. Every VHS tape was numbered, and there was a binder that had the table of contents for each number, showing which shows were on it by the counter number. To get to the right show, you would rewind the tape all the way to 0, and then just fast forward until you reached the corresponding counter number, and there you were. Makes me feel like I grew up in the stone age just writing that, and when I explain it to my kids, but that is how it worked.
Anyway, he had a fairly exhaustive Christmas collection on these VHS tapes, and as kids we would watch all sorts of shows during the holidays. However, there was one show we stayed away from because it freaked the absolute crap out of us. That show was called The Nutcracker Fantasy. I remember watching it through at least once when I was a bit older and so not scared, but in my very young years, we stayed far away from it due to its absolutely terrifying opening scene
Sometimes, we'd be watching the show that came right before this one (I can't remember what it was exactly) and we couldn't find the remote to turn the VHS player or TV off. The Nutcracker Fantasy would start playing, and we would be running around screaming and crying in absolute terror trying to find the remote so we could shut the stupid thing off.
What was so terrifying about the opening scene of this movie? The Ragman. The Ragman was set up as a Being who would go around at night and turn disobedient children into mice. It is not the best quality, but I found the opening segment on YouTube, so watch it here first, and listen to the woman's monologue, and then I will go into my thinking (I also found a full remastered version of the movie on YouTube, if anyone ever wants to check it out):
First off, and in case you are wondering, I did check Ragman in Elvish, and "Rag" means "crooked", much like the crooked cane the woman specifically said he both used to walk and apparently used to turn the children into mice. Another word that means "crooked" in Elvish? Gog.
Anyway, when I pulled up the clip yesterday and watched it, it seemed to further point to my dream. Here we specifically have beds, in the context of night, and mice. These were all prevalent in my dream, as I was using a flashlight in the dark to search under my bed. Further, we had a very specific example in this movie of human children being unnaturally transformed into mice.
The Ragman himself has some connotations to Satan or Saruman. As the adult Clara explains (the woman speaking in the clip), the Ragman was said to just turn disobedient children into mice, and this disobedience had something to do with time. For those who have been through an LDS temple, you might hear echoes of Satan saying that for all those who don't live up perfectly to various promises, they will be in his power. Here, the children have broken a rule, and the Ragman has them in his power, in the form of turning them into mice. He also represents a sort of anti Santa Claus. Whereas Santa carries a bag full of toys to distribute to children, the Ragman carries his bag to collect children.
Anyway, with all of that, here is a brief synopsis of what I think my dream of the mouse meant, and then I will also tie it into the Abracadabra music video.
In the dream, I was looking for something that was lost, clearly. My guess is that it would have been a child (one of the Children). Instead, I came across a mouse. This mouse, however, was the very Child I was looking for, but it had been transformed into a mouse by the Ragman (Saruman). My first instinct was to 'dispose' of it, as I called it. The Child was trying to get my attention and communicate with me (and tell me it was not actually a real mouse), but I couldn't understand it, and was in fact put off by how it was trying to speak to me. Fortunately, I held off on immediate judgment once I saw that it was stuck/ trapped and not going anywhere. So, I stopped and thought of what I should do next.
Had I not woken up then, my hope (and expectation) is that I would have come to understand the predicament and realized that this mouse was in fact the lost Child I had been searching for. At that point, the searching part of the "search and rescue" mission would have concluded (for that Child), and then the question would have been how to free it and heal it. Meaning, rather than kill it as it was stuck there in its trap, I would have needed to find a way to free it, bring it somewhere, and look for a way to transform it back into its true form. But how can you transform a Child that has been transformed into a rodent back into the Child it truly is?
Magic - Abracadabra!
Which takes me back to the Steve Miller music video from yesterday.
First off, for those that noticed, the video has many scenes that run in both ways - time goes both forward and backward. The video also ends somewhat in the opposite way in which it began, but the end result still remains the same. The silver ball is rolling around on the spinning plate. Toward the beginning, the woman takes the ball off, but in the end she puts it back on.
In any case, our focus here is on the rat that I included a screenshot of earlier. The rat first makes its appearance as her pet at about the 1:00 mark. We then see it next at the 1:15 mark, as the magician appears to be cleaning the rat off for the woman.
We won't see it again until around 2:25, and this next sequence might be the most important for the story here, and the true magic trick that is performed in the video.
The magician makes the mouse reappear as if from thin air next to the woman.
The rat then proceeds to transform first into a chicken:
And then soon after into a human baby:
The baby seems to be clearly hers, as she looks down at it with a loving gaze. It is also interesting to note that the chicken transforms into a baby as the flames grow in front of the woman, as if it is a baptism of fire.
It is a fairly random set of sequences, and who knows what was originally intended, but I think I can apply some meaning to it, given my mouse dream and other thoughts.
The rat is actually one of the Children of Light - a member of that family, just like the mouse in my dream. It has been turned into something it is not. The magic trick is turning it back into what it once was.
Jesus compared the Children of "Israel" with chickens that he would gather (and who in the past had been resistant, at least some of them). The rat in the video is changed into a chicken to show that this rat has been gathered, like one of the Children. It is actually sitting there with its mother, the woman of fire who is lying there. The chicken has been gathered home, in other words.
Then comes the baptism of fire, and it is re-born into its true form, as symbolized by the baby.
The woman, then, in the video likely symbolizes either Asenath or Eowyn. In the Words stories, Izilba (who in my story is the same Bein as Eowyn) is represented by Fire. In fact, at one point she is said by another individual to be of the "House of Fire", and Fire seems to accompany her in various situations. Thus, we might be able to peg this woman in the video who is seen in most scenes with fire on or around her as Eowyn. Her children (and Asenath's), per my words from the spring of 2022, will be gathered back to her. As a reminder, those words were from Feb 18, and went:
Kle family beth talu milu com-rad cam den Ilmare besse Asenath ren
Loosely, in my book and as articulated in that earlier post, this translates into referring to the Family of Light being gathered back to their mothers - Asenath and Ilmare (Eowyn).
In the music video, it is the magician that makes the rats reappear with the woman. The magician here, then, as also related elsewhere, is Faramir and those working with him to hunt and gather the jewels and bring them home. Faramir, Peter, and others' magic will consist in bringing the Family home. Then other magic, perhaps, is brought to bear as Eowyn, Asenath, and others heal and transform their family back into their true selves.
Thus, my dream might have been from the perspective of Faramir and those working with him. They came looking for children, but found rodents. They would need to look past the outward appearance (and even behaviors) and see their family even through the terrible curse that is on them. This curse, by the way, would also extend to Faramir, Peter-Marsh, and these other Beings called to gather out the Family. They are also now mice, rodents, etc. who are in need of healing. In fact, one layer of the dream might be through the eyes of other Heavenly Messengers (such as the 3 Disciples) who find Faramir himself, now transformed into a rodent.
Going back to the Nutcracker Fantasy, it is loosely based on the Nutcracker story itself (with the additional flourishes such as the Ragman and transforming children into mice). The Mouse King in that tale I would of course place as Saruman himself. We here on this earth are under his domain, and somewhat in his image in our current state. My guess is that there are real rodents in this tale, meaning Beings who are Rats through and through, much like Saruman. But, among these, are many, many Beings who would be otherwise if they were shown a way, I think. And that is what this story is about - the magic that brings them (us) back both spiritually and physically.
A couple other interesting notes about the Nutcracker Fantasy.
First, Christopher Lee, who played Saruman in the LOTR movies, actually has the leading role in this film. He plays Uncle Drosselmeyer, Street Singer, The Puppeteer, and The Watchmaker. There is actually a scene where Clara wakes up from what she assumes was a dream to see Uncle Drosselmeyer step through the door, but at first Drosselmeyer has the appearance of the Ragman. Another potential connection of the Ragman to Saruman through the actor.
Second, the name of Clara's love interest, and the Nutcracker, is named Franz. Franz is a form of the name Francis (and therefore France), which has come up recently.
Anyway, to conclude, Bruce Charlton asked the question about who should go through the "immense trouble and inconvenience - even danger - of capturing and treating these unfortunate rodents?"
I know he was asking the question about physical mice, but I find myself taking contrarian positions to or disagreeing with much of what he writes these days, and so even though I know he was joking and speaking specifically about physical mice in our world (which I share his sentiments about), I figured why not find a reason to be contrarian on this also. So, I will answer his question in the context of what I have covered in this post: to the extent that any such rodent, who is sick and needs help, is a member of this Family of Light, it is their own Family who will go through the trouble, inconvenience, and danger to come and rescue them (taking upon themselves the same afflictions in the process), and find a way to heal them from whatever their sickness is, hayfever or otherwise.
There was something under my bed. I am not sure what I thought it was, but I went down to investigate. I had a flashlight, which I swept across the floor under my bed in looking for whatever it was that I was trying to find.
A mouse jumped out and startled me. It was a strange looking mouse, however, with a white face that was almost human, though I can't remember clearly what its actual form was. It seemed like it was actually trying to communicate with me, but in a way that felt somewhat creepy and unsettling.
I at first thought I needed to do something about it immediately, but as I looked at this mouse more, I noticed that its tail was wrapped around some kind of bar. It was caught in a trap, and wasn't going anywhere. Seeing this, I realized I had some time to figure out how to best dispose of the mouse. While in the process of thinking, I woke up.
A mouse in my truck
I had a real life encounter with a mouse last month that was kinda gross, somewhat funny, and mostly really annoying.
In early February, the cab of my truck started to smell like what we all thought was chicken feed. I had picked up some earlier and left it in the bed of my truck for a bit, so I thought that perhaps the smell of those feed bags had worked its way into the cab.
However, after moving the bags out to the barn, and airing everything out, the smell stayed around. And not only stayed around, but seemed to be getting stronger.
Besides just being unpleasant, it was a bit embarrassing carpooling my kids' friends to their practices with this super strong smell (of what I thought was chicken feed).
After dealing with this for a few weeks, hoping it would go away but not being so lucky, I determined to do something about it. My oldest son was helping me track the smell down, and we noticed that if you just sat in the car, with the engine off and no air blowing, there wasn't any smell. Only after the truck was turned on and air circulating did the smell start. So we concluded that it was coming through the vents.
I wondered if perhaps a mouse had gotten into my chicken feed and stored it in my engine compartment somewhere. However, a quick check showed that all feed bags were sealed up tight with no holes, and the lid was on the metal bin I used for any open chicken feed. Further, the engine bay was completely free of any feed a mouse might have been storing in there.
I did read that sometimes mice can get into a car's HVAC system, but the flaps in my truck that are meant to prevent this were still in place, and again, there wasn't any evidence that any food was available for a mouse to bring into my truck.
Perplexed, I decided that I may as well change out the cabin air filter in the truck, and look at the internals of the climate control system to make sure no debris was in there. My thinking was that perhaps the air filter had absorbed the smells from the chicken feed bags. It was a pretty dubious theory but I was stumped otherwise. I hadn't ruled out that a mouse had gotten in there, either, but I just didn't see what they could have put in there that was producing this smell.
I had to stop in at a store right by the dealership to get some new files for my chainsaw anyway, so while out there I got a new filter from the dealership. The moment I walked in, the song "Abracadabra" by the Stever Miller Band was playing. I will get to that at the end of the post, but it was in my head for the next several weeks.
The engineers designed the climate control system on my truck in such a way that you have to disassemble the right side of my dashboard and get behind the glove box in order to switch out the filter. After getting access, I pulled the filter out, and was absolutely shocked at what came out.
Dog food!
I am talking a massive amount of dog food was sitting on top of my air cabin filter. The filter sits in such a way that it lies horizontally over the blower motor at the bottom of a well that goes up to the air inlet vents at the top of engine compartment. When I pulled out the air filter, most of that dog food then fell down into the blower motor itself.
This obviously made my job much bigger, as I had to take apart even more of the dashboard to get access to the blower motor and remove it. After getting the blower motor out (and the dog food that was packed inside of it), I was able to reach up into the well area and clear out the rest of the dog food that was sitting in there.
Here is a picture of the carnage.
Gross.
There was even more that had fallen out onto the ground (which my dog was happily eating up).
As best I can tell, a mouse found a way to open up the rubber flap that was meant to keep him and his kind out of my HVAC system, and was shuttling dog food into my car on top of the cabin air filter. The opening that the flap covers is quite small, so this was a tiny mouse who obviously spent an inordinate amount of time and dedication to get this much dog food moved into my truck over a very short period of time.
So, I had the culprit and the source of the smell, but where did he get the dog food from? The bin we keep our dog's food in is a giant rubbermaid tub that was sealed. There was another bag of dog food, but I inspected that and no holes. I was a bit stumped.
I finally found the source. The last time my wife bought dog food, the store had thrown in a smaller bag for free as a sample to try. I didn't know about this bag. She had taken the bag out and laid it on a shelf in the garage. The mouse had found it, eaten a hole through it, and shuttled the dog food one piece at a time into my truck. To give you an idea of the dedication of this mouse, the bag was on the other side of the garage from my car, and he would have had to bypass my wife's car in order to get over to mine. It is mind-boggling to me that a small mouse like this could have moved so much dog food into my truck in this way.
Anyway, I got it all cleaned out, everything put back together, and its all good again, but man that was annoying.
The Pied Piper, Black and White, and Pi.
For a refresher on my feelings about rodents, whether rats, mice, or otherwise, you can refer back to my post "Rat extermination and re-establishing links" (which also cites another post about National Rat Catcher's Day). I am lumping rats and mice together, here, with Saruman the Modest Mouse as our prototypical example.
In any case, late last week I accidentally ran across an interesting fact about the word "Pied" (from the Pied Piper). Before, I thought it meant something like a broad range of colors. In the Brothers Grimm tale, the Piper is described as wearing "a coat of many colored, bright cloth, for which reason he was called the Pied Piper". Further, Robert Browning's poem describes the Piper as being dressed quaintly in red and yellow. Illustrations of the Piper will vary between these two descriptions, or many times combine them.
Interestingly, a 'many colored' coat brings to mind the biblical tale of Joseph's coat of many colors. Given that I have associated the Piper with Faramir-Eonwe, and the seer who will be like Joseph (and perhaps bearing his Stone for awhile), I don't think we should be surprised to see a coat like this show up in his story. This coat, or something like it, is perhaps what Saruman was trying to replicate or copy when he showed off his new threads to Gandalf at Orthanc.
In any case, because of this, I assumed Pied meant 'many colored'. Not so! Or, at least, not completely so. "Pied" comes from the words "Pie", originating with the species of bird known as the Magpie. While it is used, per Etymonline, to describe things that are "parti-colored, variegated with spots of different colors", it's original connotation is with the colors Black and White associated with the Magpie. Here is a further note from Etymonline:
...as if it were the past participle of a verb form of the Middle English noun pie "magpie" (see pie (n.2)), in reference to the bird's black and white plumage. Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white.
So, "Pie" references the Black and White of the magpie, and its earliest use was in a religious context describing "Pied Friars", who wore black and white.
Here is a picture of a North American magpie:
One might recall another animal that we have associated with the Faramir-Willy Wonka character (and sometimes even also seeming to fly, though having no wings):
As I was thinking more on the Pied Piper and his story's analogy to the story here, I realized that Pi is also hiding in plain site. One might also say you were Pi-ed, in the past tense, if you were to have experienced Pi in some way.
In my post on the Kirtland Temple, I made some associations with Pi. The symbol for Pi sits on the east wall, and the solar eclipse (a White-Black Sun) will pass over the Kirtland Temple at 3:14, the number associated with Pi.
A follow-up comment from WJT spurred on additional thinking on my part relative to Pi's connection with Pay Lay Ale, and thus another post by that title. In that post, I posited a meaning for that phrase as a "Mouth to God", perhaps being a double meaning as a door or gate to God's presence, as well as acting as a mouth or voice for God.
The additional meaning of "Pied" seems clear in this sense, then. In addition to the Black and White symbolism, to be Pied as in to have experienced the events associated with this other symbol - to be Pi-ed. Pi, in the things written on this blog, stands in for Holy Places, Doors to Heaven, etc. To have not only spoken directly with Heaven, but to have also physically entered there.
The Pied Piper (Faramir, in this story, and perhaps representing others, also) will be pi-ed, because he will have both spoken with and entered Heaven, and thus will have a pretty good grasp on what exactly he is gathering the Family of Light back to. And then they will be Pi-ed, also.
This pattern is not unfamiliar to the original call and gathering of the Elves back to Valinor in Tolkien's story. There were 144 Elves (a number that is important in Joseph Smith's writings as well as Tolkien's) that originally awoke under the stars. The number became a symbolic one as more Elves were born beyond the original 144, but that number was still used to describe them. All of them were invited back to Valinor by Orome (later JRR Tolkien-Frodo). Because of Melkor's lies, these first Elves distrusted Orome, but 3 Elves (one from each House) agreed to come back. They experienced Valinor firsthand, and then returned to their fellow Elves to describe the glory of Valinor (Heaven) and encourage everyone to come back with them.
This event created the Sundering of the Elves - or their division. Many chose to follow Orome on the Great Journey into the West (roughly 2/3 of the Elves), while the remainder refused, and became known as the Unwilling (Avari). Even for those who decided to join Orome, not all continued on the path until the end.
In some of Nephi's final words, he described a 'great division' that will occur in the Last Days:
For the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people, and the wicked will he destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must destroy the wicked by fire.
My current thinking is that what will occur to bring about this division will be along the lines of or recall that original Great Journey. A path will be made, stories restored, doors open, and invitations extended, and this will be done by and come from Beings who have 'been there' and have been 'pi-ed'.
Abradacabra
I mentioned that song "Abradacabra". It really stood out to me for whatever reason as I walked into the car dealership. First off, that words showed up in my words before, as recalled in my post "Earthquakes in the night, Magic, and Michael Jordan". Specifically, I had "Abracadabra - Magic!", and these words seemed to follow those other February 2022 words which appeared to have something to do with gathering Beings home.
I have also associated Stones with Cars, and suggested that there may in fact be many Stones-Cars that will be used in bringing people home, referencing Joseph Smith's words that all Beings who enter Aman-Celestial Kingdom will have a Stone.
And here I was in a car dealership - a place that trades in cars and quite a lot of them on the lot and in the showroom - listening to the song Abracadabra, perhaps referring to the magical means by which Stone-Cars will help bring a family home. I don't know - just the analogy I made as I thought more about it later and why the song stood out to me in that place.
Anyway, I couldn't get the song out of my head for several days. The chorus goes:
Abra abracadabra I wanna reach out and grab ya Abra abracadabra Abracadabra
To 'grab' can have negative connotations (i.e., to seize forcibly or roughly) but it is also can be traced, per Etymonline, back to the Old High German garba, which means 'sheaf', or literally "that which is gathered up together".
Here is the song. Some interesting imagery in their music video (complete with a rat):
I was getting the kids to bed, and my youngest was belting out The Star-Spangled Banner for some unknown reason.
He then began to give me his version of how the song was written. He did a pretty good job remembering the story, and even was getting animated in acting things out as he was speaking, such as pretending to look through a telescope from a ship to see that 'our flag was still there'.
He couldn't quite remember, though, the name of the character and song-writer who was central to his story. So he asked me, and I replied, "Francis Scott Key".
The strangest thing happened, though, when I said it. Rather than hear those words as a name, I heard them as a phrase: "France has got key".
This was so obvious, that I was saying "France has got key" and that this meant something, that I just kind of stopped and thought about what had just come out of my mouth. My son didn't notice anything different, and clearly heard just the name, because he said "Yeah, that guy - Francis Scott Key" and went on with his narration.
I mean, I don't know - try saying that name yourself a few times and see if you can hear that other phrase.
I thought it was interesting to hear myself say out loud that France has got (a) key, to make the connection that this key would be the Sawtooth Stone, and to come to the conclusion that this is a true or accurate thought. The Sawtooth Stone is in France. It seemed remarkably clear as I said Francis Scott Key's name.
Also somewhat of note, this is the second word game in the past few weeks involving France. A few weeks ago, Francis Bacon came up. I can't remember exactly in what context, but as I read his name, I understood it as "France is bakin' " (bakin' meaning baking). I didn't know what to make of the word game at the time, but given events tonight with another Francis, I think maybe related.
Yesterday morning I took our oldest son to a hockey lesson. After I dropped him off, I ran a few errands like picking up some chicken feed, and ordering another package of bees for next month (one of my hives made it through winter just great, the other not so much.... 50% hit rate is about average, and actually pretty good for me, honestly), and found myself back at the rink with a few minutes to spare before his practice was over. I had my computer with me, so I thought I would get a few thoughts down for the next post while I waited.
The rink we were at is attached to a high school, and relies on its network for wifi. After I logged in, I tried to access my account, and got an error message that came with this picture:
It's Gandalf in Moria, obviously. I thought it was kind of funny that Gandalf popped up telling me I can't access my LOTR-connected blog. Apparently the school district has a blocker on for Blogger, and I definitely did not pass it while at the rink.
Overlooked words
A couple days ago, some things I had written about what it means to be strong came into my head. I think it was because I referenced the "Armstrong" material in my recent post about the Rock and his 22 inch guns, and this must have jogged the thought.
I had written just some brief thoughts on trying to capture what I thought it might mean to be strong, but I couldn't remember exactly what I had written. I didn't know where I had written it, either, but I knew it had to be in one of my notebooks. I checked the ones that had been more 'this stuff' oriented from 2021 and 2022, but it didn't come up anywhere after flipping through them.
By then it had become a bit of a mission to track it down, and I looked in a few other places. I opened up my gray notebook which had been my therapy notebook starting in the summer of 2020. I didn't think I had written these thoughts down that early, but I was looking everywhere at this point. Plus, a lot of my therapy had been focused on building resilience and trying to become 'stronger' mentally, so I thought perhaps I had written it down in that context.
It turns out that I DID write it down in that notebook, but not while I was in therapy. Rather, I wrote it down in 2022. For whatever reason, I must have had that notebook with me while thinking of some things, and ended up writing about some of the stuff that had popped into my mind.
Nothing earth shattering (I'll share some of it at the end of the post), but I think that perhaps one reason it came to my mind and I felt this need to search for it, is that in finding it, I also stumbled across some words from February 2022 that I hadn't included in my earlier post that had those words and some very rough, and likely somewhat wrong, translation options and thoughts. So, that was pretty cool! I hadn't remembered writing them, and I don't think I would have found them otherwise, as my old therapy notebook isn't something I really go through anymore.
Anyway, that is how I know I wrote these other thoughts down about being strong during that February 2022 timeframe as well - it is inserted between the various dates in February comprising these other found words. These were all found on the last couple pages that I had written on in that notebook.
I am including them below because when I shared my January and February 2022 words in earlier posts, I thought that had been it, but clearly there were a few more days, and so I think it would good to include for completeness sake. It actually looks like there are a couple days from those earlier posts that were also in this notebook, so I must have first written them down in this one before transferring them over to my other notebook where all of the other words that I already shared were. This means that at least some of these words were received in that usual dream or sleep way based on my handwriting in this other notebook. They were written pretty neatly in the notebook I referenced for those other posts, and so I assumed they must have been received while mostly awake, but that wasn't the case for several of them per this recent finding.
Recall that I had shared those words in two parts, with the last one ending on Feb. 19 (the second post is the one linked above, and you can get to the first through a link in that post, I believe). In a separate post, dealing with Xanadu, I also share a later phrase I wrote down with those words (but did not date, for whatever reasons), that were "Abracadabra - Magic!".
So, these newly discovered words pick up on Feb. 21:
Feb. 21
Men to be drawn
Estel granted
through God's own words
Ngal em
Feb 24
Maia
(that was it, though I also wrote about lots of strange dreams and thoughts, though I didn't capture any detail about them. I don't remember what they would have been about.)
Feb 25
Son-ship (Sun-ship?) to descend
Feb 28
Forsio nosdo
(Nosdo would have been a 'sensed' or sounded out word, because next to it I wrote "Nass-doe", with a bar over the a, long a long a sound)
In terms of Feb. 21, ngal em has straightforward Elvish translations. Ngal has one match, but there are multiple options for em.
Ngal = gleam, sheen, shine (by reflection)
em = named, called by name OR mother
In addition, Ngal has a similar root as Nal. In fact, when you look up Ngal, you get N(G)al, and plenty of variations that are Nal. Nal, besides meaning "to shine by reflection", can mean "to call".
As I thought a bit more on this phrase yesterday, and other things, I think we could use both meanings to potentially come up with something. Might not be right, but it is plausible.
First off, Men will be 'drawn'. The first and easiest interpretation is something like "led, brought, pulled" or something like that. The first thing that comes to my mind in reading men to be drawn are the words that Jesus told his disciples at Bountiful:
And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—
And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works.
However, tt may in fact be a different 'drawing' of Men that is being discussed. Or maybe this is limited to Step 1 in the the drawing of all Men. It may be in multiple stages, with the Wheat gathered out first and brought home. This might make sense. The words I had written on on Feb. 19 and mentioned in my earlier post seemed to cover some kind of fortress (what I have perhaps identified as Tirion). Where my mind is right now is that it is this place that some Men are drawn to.
If this is the case, these "Men" will be this Family of Light that are now among Men (living as Men, completely ignorant of who they are), along with those who will come with them.
Hope will be given to this group of people (Estel means "hope, trust, faith"), and it will be "God's own word" that gives it to them, and perhaps is the vehicle, in some way, that allows these men to go to this place.
God's own word, in this case, may refer to the records such as the Book of the Lamb that will come to those on our world through the Anor-Ithil Stone connection (Deseret's Book). Since they will have the complete record, maybe somehow this allows them to go straight to Tirion. Again, I am not sure how this all works, in terms of the mechanism or way that this all plays out.
Ngal em may have something to do with this then. First, let's just look at Ngal as in what I had first with "to shine".
In my post "The Great Pumpkin and waiting", I wrote some words I had received on March 7, 2021, which were just a few English phrases:
The story on the stone is the story of our family. It is meant for our family, to cause them all to shine. It is a story of love, of our love undying and unending, even in a void. To bring forth, even in this nothing-place, love's power - our family's power.
You came powerless, as did others, with hope in a promise. The story is the promise, and the power.
And the void, now de-void it own power, recedes; what WAS NOT now becoming IS.
So the Family will shine, and it will be by means of the story, specifically associated with the Sawtooth Stone in the words above, but which I have guessed joins with the rest of the words and story assembled by Eowyn, perhaps.
I think this story is what is meant by the "God's own word" reference, at least in part, and so these "Men" that are drawn back to Tirion will shine.
Em gets at how I think this Family is drawn home, as well as what makes them shine. The will be called by Name. Their own Name. This is part, I think, of Joseph Smith's words of every person receiving a Stone and on that stone is new Name. It would be a New Name, but an Old Name, also, I think. It would be their own story and identity, or something like that. Something that is intrinsic to that unique individual is restored to them.
Again, I am not sure how this all happens, or how a story, whether on or from Stones, causes all of this, but that is the rough sketch in my mind
The word on Feb. 24 as just Maia I think is ultimately what these Men on Tirion become. As Alma taught of the Holy Order in Alma 13, and of people being made "white" and entering into God's rest (Tirion), this is what will happen to this Family. They will also become part of that Order, and so would be of the order of Maia, of something like what Mormon's call the Melchizedek Priesthood.
The Feb. 25 words about a son-ship or sun-ship descending I don't really have a good read on right now, so I will just let that sit for the time being.
On Feb. 28, these Elvish words are translatable in a straightforward way, but I am not 100% clear on what the phrase we get from it means.
For = North
sio = hence
Nosdo = one of the family
To get Nosdo to mean "one of the family", I basically copied what was done with the word Noldo, in relation to Elves. Nol means The Wise, Noldor means The Wise Folk (Finwe's House), and Noldo is singular as "one of the Wise Folk".
Similarly, I took do and added it to the Family reference, to have it mean "One of the Family". Who knows if that is right, but the approach at least seems plausible and consistent with other instances.
So, you could have the phrase mean "North away/ from one of the Family". One member of the Family to either go somewhere from the North, or to go away to the North? I don't really have any strong sense for it right now.
Anyway, those are the words that were lost, but now are found, as of my search the other day. If I think of anything else I will post something on it, I guess. I have just had this little bit to think on them. They seem to fit in with the other words, but there is always the chance my understanding of the other words (which may or may not be correct) are leading my mind that way, so it wouldn't be surprising.
As far as my thoughts on what it means to be strong, or the words that got me on this whole word hunt to begin with, in what I wrote I went through a bunch of different definitions or ways of explaining it. I was trying to land on what strong would mean in a more complete sense, or in a way that wasn't like perhaps how you might at first interpret that word (e.g., someone following The Rock's weightlifting routine or some very superficial definition like that). I wrote some things down, none of which is probably very interesting here, and then I began to compare two Beings: Tom Bombadil and Sauron, as two very different representations of strength. Bombadil became, in a way, my representation of strength or what I was trying to find a way to define, in that he was 'the Master', but a master that used no compulsion, force, or sense of ownership upon other Beings in order to bring about Good. He also knew his Name - as in who he was, which is something he brought up with Frodo, and mentioned that Frodo himself at that time was Nameless.
Anyway, after writing some thoughts down about Bombadil, I came up with a phrase for strength that I liked and so I stopped there. The definition sounds a bit hokey, probably, but it does seem to fit with this whole theme of a family being reunited together. Here is where I landed:
Last week was kind of a "treasure" week. I wrote about watching the movie Treasure Planet, and looking at some ties there. William Tychonievich wrote about that "Hidden Treasures" cereal, and made some additional ties to and commentary around Treasure Planet.
I think I've mentioned that a typical Friday night in our household is a pizza and movie night. I make the pizzas, and the kids watch a movie. Being Friday today, you can guess what is on the agenda for tonight.
Last Friday was a big day for our youngest because he got to end his moratorium on screen time. He sustained a pretty bad concussion a couple weeks ago, and with pediatric protocols these days, or at least with his particular situation, they recommended no screens (or very limited screen time) for a period of time. That put movies off of the table for him until this past Friday.
He was excited because no one looks forward to movie night more than this guy, let me tell you.
The movie he ended up wanting to watch was called National Treasure. The fact that he selected that movie last Friday isn't so much a coincidence with my own post on Treasure (since I published that post later that evening after the post) but it was a coincidence with William's post, just a bit I think.
Anyway, National Treasure is a completely unrealistic but pretty fun treasure-hunter movie. The protagonists follow clues to try and find a treasure that has been kept hidden and secret for centuries. Of course, Masons take center stage, with all sorts of secrets, and there is a fair amount of American history that gets woven into the story, and odd real-world details that get inserted into these clues. As one example, the time shown on the image of Independence Hall on the back of a $100 bill is an important clue that shows the way to yet another clue.
If you suspend your disbelief enough and don't think about them too much, the clues all work and it is a fun mix of US history and treasure hunting.
A few spoilers follow, as when I was watching the movie, I noted a few things that I told myself I would get down. As I am about to lap last week with another movie night tonight, I figured now or never. I am just going to cite just couple things that really stood out that seem to tie to the story on this blog, starting with names of the 3 main characters.
Riley, Ben, and Abigail = Peter, Faramir, and Eowyn
There are 3 primary protagonists in the film who work together to find the hidden treasure. I will introduce them and then, of course, use their names to give their rough symbolic representation. And again, these characters can definitely be applied to other individuals or even groups - I am using them for my purposes for this story here for no more good reason than it seems relatively easy to see them that way.
First, we have the character Ben Gates. He is played by the actor Nicholas Cage. The name Ben has come up before on this blog, and has been determined to mean "The Son". Thus, Faramir has been the historic association with this name, and we will leave that here as well. Thus, the last name Gates has a pretty literal meaning here, as, along with Peter, Faramir seems to have something to do with Gates and Doorways, and their opening.
The actor's name, Nicolas Cage, could also be meaningful. I have mentioned that currently we (all of us) are in a prison. Cage is another word for prison, and Nicolas means "Victory of the people". The work that Faramir is engaged in, in the end, results in a very literal victory for the people and their release from their current prison. As Joseph Smith said, the prisoners shall go free.
Next up, we have Riley Poole. He is Ben's partner, and is somewhat of a genius when it comes to all sorts of handy things relative to their adventure. The character name, however, is not as immediately obvious. Riley can mean "Rye clearing". Rye is a type of cereal grain, and actually a member of the Wheat family. Thus, when I read rye clearing, I think not of just a clearing, like in the woods or something, but of an action. Either to clean the Wheat, or to collect and gather it - to 'clear' it. This seems like it might make sense, particularly given what we have determined as Peter-Thomas Marsh's role of a doorkeeper and usher: being able to help remove the Wheat (as in God's Family) to Holy Places.
I like this definition on its own, but Riley also means "Wood clearing", and we can imagine clearing here to perhaps be used in the same capacity as I used in Rye. One who clears forests or woods. Which at first sounds Saruman-ish, I guess, but I imagine this differently. As one who perhaps helps tend and manage the woods, or something like that.
Poole, as a last name, means a pond, lake, or creek. For this, I don't have much, other than the traditional story of Peter attempting to walk on water, but that might be a bit of a stretch.
The actor's name is Justin Bartha. This is a good one, I think.
Justin means simply "Righteous", and Bartha is a Hungarian surname that means "Shepherd". We have the Righteous Shepherd. Given the traditional story at the end of the Gospel of John which has Jesus asking Peter to feed and watch over his sheep, this is a pretty on on the nose, I think. This chargeto take care of the sheep, by the way, was repeated to Peter as Thomas B. Marsh, and the other Apostles who would work with him, in D&C 112.
In addition, Bartha can also be an Elvish word, which means "to doom". In this sense, to doom means to judge or decree. In multiple places in both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants it is cited that the 12 Apostles who were with Jesus in "Jerusalem" (Tirion) will be judges. For example, here is what the angel says to Nephi in the vision captured in 1 Nephi:
And he said unto me: Thou rememberest the twelve apostles of the Lamb? Behold they are they who shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, the twelve ministers of thy seed shall be judged of them; for ye are of the house of Israel.
And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed. And, behold, they are righteous forever; for because of their faith in the Lamb of God their garments are made white in his blood.
Peter-Marsh would have been with Jesus in Tirion, and is one of these 12 Judges, or those who set a "doom" on Israel, including those who are over on Eressea (the Lehite Promised Land).
Anyway, so actually quite a lot going on with the name of Riley Poole/ Justin Bartha in representing Peter-Marsh, the Righteous Judge, Shephard, and Wheat Gatherer.
So, we have Faramir and Peter-Marsh.
The 3rd character is named Abigail Chase. She is archivist, which is important for the movie but also for our story, in that she is a preserver of historical document.
Abigail means "My father is joyful". This name doesn't have any real apparent connection to the Being I think this person represents, at first blush, but I think it does. In Doug's additional writings, there is a description of Thingol (who again is John and Aragorn) as a Being filled with Joy. He has faced something like 'nothingness' come out of it, and goes around wherever Melkor has set up shop, and spread joy. Here is the specific quote I am thinking of:
And yet, came [Thingol], renewed in Spirit, sudden to lighten hearts, near Eru-Home, and without Eru-place, seeing there, in challenge, Melkor’s wide filling [falling?] deceptions, that he of the Darkness’s Mastery, was now set to Rule; Not only the night, but also by Eru, being given rule of Day, the night every day-time, to bound, and constrain; There following as Melkor to far out shores descended, was a trailing True-Friend of Eru Light, and where so landing, softly, in Melkor’s devices, thundering came his heart-song, joyful, to all there that Evil-Dark now Abiding;
Sorry, that is the way that writing goes, but the important thing to tease out is that Thingol is positioned as a Being who specifically brings a joyful song to all places that Melkor or other evil is. This may sound like something far different than what we envision from the actual stories of Thingol or even Aragorn, who weren't particularly bursting with outward displays of joy, but such is how it goes when we descend into these types of situations. We don't always seem as we are, and likely have to taken on roles that aren't completely suited to our true Being, in a way.
Anway, recall that I have Eowyn-Ilmare as a daughter of the Being who played Thingol, but from a time pre-dating this world (whatever his name would have been in a far distant past existence), and so the name of Abigail might make sense here.
As with the other two characters, looking at the actor's name also is helpful. The actress in this case is Diane Kruger.
Diane is a straight conversion to Artemis, and to Wonder Woman. Also in yesterday's post, I highlighted that Wonder Woman's name is Diane, and this is the name of the Roman goddess who is equivalent to the Greek Artemis.
Kruger is German in origin, meaning "jug" and can either apply to a tavern-keeper, or to a potter, one who shapes clay. I think both are applicable to Eowyn. For instance, in Xanadu it is mentioned that Sonny (the Son - Faramir) is going to need a drink. The movie in fact ends with Sonny receiving a drink from Kira (representing Eowyn). It is Eowyn who has the beverages to dispense, I think, at least to a few folks, as part of her role, so Kruger seems to work just fine here.
Collecting history - a sample scene that illustrates these connections
So, that is where the names took me. Perhaps you have other ideas, or think that this is looking too deeply into their names, which is definitely a possibility.
There is a scene, though, that I am going to specifically refer to that also reinforces some of these character references, and the story I have been exploring here. There are actually quite a few references, winks, scenes, etc., but this one I thought was a good one to cover here.
Ben and Riley actually first meet Abigail as they are trying to inform or warn people that the antagonist of the story, Ian, is going to steal the Declaration of Independence. No one believes them, and Abigail ultimately doesn't as well, but during the scene Ben makes a specific reference to some buttons that Abigail has been collecting. Here is the scene, and then I will mention a couple things:
From the opening dialogue, there are a number of Easter Eggs. For instance, when they walk in, they assume that "Dr. Chase" is a man, only to discover that Chase is a woman. One of Eowyn's story elements in LOTR was dressing up as a man in disguise in order to accompany the rest of the Rohirrim to Minas Tirith, only to be revealed as Eowyn to Merry in her conflict with the Witch King.
The part I want to focus on, though, is the button collection. Ben (who is calling himself Paul in the scene - a wink to Peter's biblical counterpart, perhaps?) goes and inspects Abigail's collection of George Washington campaign buttons. She gets agitated and doesn't want him to touch those buttons.
He references that it is a nice collection, but she is missing one button, however. It is not as apparent early in the scene, but later at the end of the above clip there is a zoom-in on the collection and we see that she has exactly 12 buttons. So, she is missing the 13th.
At the initial visit, Ben says that he had found the button that she is missing. He will ultimately send that missing button to Abigail, thus completing her collection. She has all 13.
In talking about the collection, Ben explicitly ties it to 'history', and that in putting together that collection, Abigail has assembled history. His exact quote is:
"You know that really is a nice collection. Must have taken you a long time to hunt down all that history"
So, we have a reference to hunting again, and also the notion that this took a significant amount of time to pull together. This is actually the quote that first made me take note of the entire scene and think that there must be something here.
In my story, Eowyn was charged with pulling together and aggregating what I am calling the Book of the Lamb, perhaps. This Book comprises the testimony or words of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. I believe those words may have been captured on Stones, represented in this scene as the 12 buttons in Abigail-Eowyn's collection.
But there is a 13th. Recall that in Lehi's dream at the very beginning of the Book of Mormon, it is 13 Beings he sees, with One being brighter than the sun, and then 12 others. My view is that whatever Book is being pulled together (and perhaps represented in part by the Book Lehi himself was given by that bright Being), there will be 13 stories or witnesses, perhaps, as represented by 13 Stones or these buttons.
That 13th witness or Stone is the Sawtooth Stone, then, and it is the one that Eowyn is currently lacking or has not been able to receive a story from. Faramir will come into possession of it at some point, and through the link of the Anor and Ithil Stone, share it with Eowyn, thus completing her collection and the Book itself. I don't know if that is all right or not, but it is the story I have fairly consistently explored on this blog, and it seems to be playing out in this scene. At least I can see it in the scene, I suppose.
Anyway, you never know if you are so wrapped up in your own story that you see things or analogies in other things that aren't really there, so who knows. The whole analogy could unravel at a more detailed level, but in general terms, it seems to work
To conclude this post, though, there was one other detail that stood out to me later in the movie.
The magic spectacles
In the scene above, Ben mentions the map is invisible. How do you read an invisible map? Well, the solution in the movie was through magical spectacles that looked like this:
Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon characters, which although were not invisible, may have well have been so given that there was no way of reading or translating them without magical means. In Joseph Smith's instance, that was accomplished through spectacles that were afterward referred to as the Urim and Thummim, whether rightly or wrongly.
Modern scholars, LDS and otherwise, have all seemed to cave to the notion that the translation happened by Joseph dropping a seer stone into a hat and putting his face into it. I think this is pretty dubious, by the way, as they rely on accounts many years later and by people who weren't actually involved. Both Joseph and Oliver, the only two people who were consistently involved in the translation from start to finish, were consistent and unanimous in their contemporaneous claim that the spectacles were used throughout the translations. Meaning, looking at the plates with magic glasses.
With that out of the way, I think these spectacles are a nod to those interpreters, or at least they stood out to me in that way.
So, just a few nuggets from National Treasure. There are more things I noticed, but again, just wanted to get a few things down and captured from the movie, in part so I don't forget.
Last Saturday morning when I woke up, the song You Might Think, by The Cars, was playing in my head. I actually couldn't get enough of the song, so it was just looping in my head for the rest of the day, and I was singing it quite a lot as well. Just all day.
Here is the song and music video. The Empire State Building does feature in it (as part of a King Kong-esque scene), but not sure anything really stuck out to me visually beyond that:
Strangely, though, it was not The Cars that sang You Might Think in the Cars 2 movie. The band Weezer did a cover of the song, and it was this version that was included..
The Flying W
I don't know much about Weezer, though I have heard few of their songs like "Island in the Sun" (which was popular when I was in college). In looking them up, I ran across their band logo, which is this:
When I saw it, I thought that it looked like a W with wings. It turns out, that is exactly what it is. It is literally called the Flying W, so everybody else, including the band, must also think this looks like a W with wings, and is likely what it was intended to be.
A W with wings connects with our Willy Wonka theme, and of a Being rising up with some wings at some point (per Jesus' inclusion of the words of Malachi in his discussion to those at Bountiful) and helping to bring hopefully a whole lot of people to safe and holy places.
So, when I saw a W with wings, this seemed to make sense to me in that usual strange way. Add on the fact that I associate Cars in general with Stones, that the other The Cars song was tied directly to the Sawtooth Stone, and the song that led me to this symbol is strongly associated with Cars in multiple ways (being originally recorded by a band named The Cars, and then for good measure, covered by this Flying W band and included in the movie Cars 2), and I think I got the picture.
In searching this logo, for some reason one of the first search results was a Reddit thread titled "The Weezer logo ruins my social life". I clicked on it. In the initial post, the individual makes a reference to how the Weezer logo looks very similar to the Wonder Woman logo, so much so that people think his Weezer merch is for Wonder Woman.
The first reply, no joke, is about keys (right?!), and how this guy feels the poster's pain because he once lost his set of keys that were on a Weezer keychain. Someone found them, held them up, and asked who lost their set of Wonder Woman keys, which the guy was forced to go up and publicly retrieve, to his shame.
This reply was followed by a commenter saying that he has been asked if it is a WWF (Wrestling - now known as WWE). I will get to the WWE comment later, because that was also relevant based on an experience earlier in the week with The Rock and WWE SmackDown (why not?), but I will first focus on the Wonder Woman comment.
Before I do, here is a screenshot of those first comments for reference:
Wonder Woman
When I read that, I thought that it is true - Weezer's Flying W does look a lot like the Wonder Woman logo. Here her logo is:
Very similar if you take out the shield imagery behind the lettering (there are logos with just the Ws, but I liked the shield version). The biggest difference is that due to the name Wonder Woman, with two W's, vs. Weezer, who just has claim to one, her logo then obviously has two W's nested with each other to form the larger W shape with wings.
Seemed to fit still with Willy Wonka in our analogy here, with more flying W's. But, this is a logo for a female superhero, so what gives?
In my post "Willy Wonka's other half", I mentioned that the Willy Wonka office with everything cut in half was meant to represent his missing half, or wife. Recall that in my story, Faramir and Eowyn have separated due to different jobs that needed doing. Also, I think it possible that Eowyn may have flown away from this world at the beginning of the 4th age. This would have happened in Ithilien, and likely as a result of something happening with the Stones (per my dream of the car).
Thus, my imagination basically took me to look at this symbol as Eowyn's symbol, rightly or wrongly. Willy Wonka-Faramir's other half.
One story detail for both Eowyn and Wonder Woman might not make this so far-fetched, or at least makes for an interesting connection in their characters. Combined with some more name games, the connection seemed at least plausible, and if nothing else, it was a fun little thought exercise or game.
When first envisioned, Tolkien called Eowyn specifically "Amazon". His notes state that originally she was a 'stern amazon woman', and also said that she rode into battle at Minas Tirith as an openly powerful female warrior ("Eowyn goes as Amazon"). That of course was changed for the final draft of LOTR, where Eowyn instead rode disguised as a man.
Amazons, by they way, as mentioned here are likely a reference to the Amazons of Greek mythology. Amazons were all women warriors and hunters who were considered equal to men in skill, physical capabilities, etc.
Wonder Woman's history, as it turn out, is also specifically linked to Amazons, which in this case were a group of immortal superhuman women living on a place called Paradise Island.
In terms of names, Wonder Woman's actual name is Diana. In mythology, Diana is a Roman goddess, who is also identified with the Greek goddess Artemis. Of specific interest for us, is that Artemis is strongly connected to the Moon, being one of the things she is a goddess of. NASA's current moon exploration program, for instance, is called Artemis (the current plan is for Artemis II to circle the moon in the fall of 2025, and Artemis III to land people there in 2026).
Eowyn is also strongly attached to the moon in her own case, due to Ithil Stone (Moon Stone) and the land of Ithilien where she lived with Faramir (Land of the Moon). This attachment, though, also extends through her character of Izilba (Deseret) in Words of the Faithful. In that story, her communication through a stone she possessed at the time with other Beings was conducted only during certain phases of the moon (in this case, during its waning). Further, while there is no "Izil" (the first part of her name) in Eldamo, there is "Isil" (phonetically identical), which means "Moon". Actually, "sheen" as well, so you have something like Moonshine. A new moon shining? Potentially a link or play on words as well to a drink?
There are other similar story elements, and even some fun name games. For example, going back to Diana, in Elvish it can read something like Di-ana, giving us "Woman/bride toward or alongside", which in my story is what Faramir will ultimately do on his journey, so that works, I guess. Artemis can sound out like "Art-amis" which cleanly translates to something like "Alongside/ beside mother", which could make sense in the same way that Di-ana did, but not we have her called mother (perhaps as part of her position as a mother of the Family of Light). Additionally, you can interpret Art-amis as "Exalted Mother", and I like this interpretation also. I have indicated that Jesus said his servant (potentially Faramir in this case) will be 'exalted and extolled and be very high'. Well, Eowyn is already 'very high', and so exalted is a good description of where he ends up upon their reunion in Tirion, a very high place with respect to us.
Lastly on names, leaving Elvish aside, Diana means "Divine" in Latin (and also "Bright or "Shining One" and "Heavenly", which is also relevant). In Words of the Faithful, Izilba-Deseret is called this exact name or title by spirits who have followed her to the entrance of the Paths of the Dead (the same that Aragorn would enter many years later), she doesn't go in, but one of the spirits called her "Daughter Divine".
I don't know - maybe a stretch, but there are definitely some overlapping elements and connections if you want to see them, I suppose. Anyway, the characters and topics these details are potentially related to are so prevalent that I thought it was worth calling out.
The Rock on WWE Smackdown
The Weezer and Wonder Woman symbols also take us to the WWE. It was mentioned in that reddit thread I pasted in above, so of course the symbols are going to be similar - that was the point of that thread. What instead interested me in seeing that mention was that earlier in the week I had randomly watched an episode of a WWE show called SmackDown which featured the return of the character known as The Rock, played by Dwayne Johnson
Here is the WWE logo by the way, and you can see we once again have the W, and it is two W's like for Wonder Woman, but no wings this time, but Black and White. It reminded me of our Black and White Rabbit, with the sometimes red eyes.
I have not watched a WWE broadcast or show for probably a couple decades, to give you an idea of how random this was. One of my roommates in college was a big WWE fan, so he would watch SmackDown, Raw, whatever. It was actually kind of fun to watch with him sometimes, because he would fill us all in on the storylines and characters.
But I don't think I have watched anything since then, so it has been awhile.
We have been having issues with our cable quality, and so I have been testing out picture quality between the actual cable box vs. streaming those channels over the cable provider's app (on AppleTV). This tip was given to me by a Best Buy guy, so I've been trying it out. It turns out, by the way, that something must be going on with the cable signal, because the channels look great over the internet, but terrible through the box. I am not sure why.
Anyway, while in the streaming app, there was a big picture advertising WWE SmackDown, and it had a picture of The Rock. I thought this must be an old episode, because to my knowledge The Rock had gotten into acting and wasn't a wrestler anymore. The date on the picture said this was a new episode, however, recorded from the previous Friday. Curiosity piqued, I decided to watch and investigate.
The short of it is that The Rock had been indeed retired from WWE since 2016, which was the year of his last match. Apparently, though, starting last month, The Rock is set to return to the ring. This will happen at the next WrestleMania. Any guesses on the dates for that? If you guessed the Solar Eclipse, you are close: April 6 and 7. The Eclipse will happen on April 8. So The Rock returns right before the Eclipse.
Other important dates are tied up with April 6, however. Joseph Smith founded the first Mormon church on April 6, 1830. And, also potentially of interest, this year's General Conference of the LDS Church (where members gather to hear the leaders of the church speak, including the man they call prophet) will fall on April 6 and 7, so the same date as the founding, as well as with WrestleMania. Between the two, I'd probably go with WrestleMania.
In any case, The Rock is coming out of retirement, and the SmackDown show I ended up watching a part of included what they call a 'promo', which basically had The Rock taking the stage, issuing some challenges, partnering up with a wrestler named Roman Reigns (which is a pretty funny and relevant name, honestly) and a group of people known as the Bloodline. Heck, there was even a guy on that team called the Wise Guy (Wiseman = Wizard = Gandalf?).
I don't know any of these characters besides The Rock, so I don't have their backstories or know anything about them. But we have been dealing with El-Anor, the Sun Star or Sun Stone, and we have linked the Being of Faramir with this Star-Stone. A Star-Man, or Stone-Man. In my post The Honey Maid (OR: What crazy people see on graham cracker boxes and Oreos), I linked the man and the stone fairly tightly together in writing:
Is it the Son of Righteousness or Sun of Righteousness? Man or Stone? I think both, as this Son uses the Sun to rise. He will rise to Aman or 'Heaven', where Eowyn-Ilmare now sits.
And here we have a WWE character by the name of The Rock (The Stone) making his return to the ring after an 8 year hiatus (where have I seen 8 years before?) on the weekend before the Solar Eclipse, which has become a symbol on this blog of the linkage between the Anor Stone and the Ithil Stone.
I think that is pretty randomly neat.
And then there is this partner he has teamed up with, Roman Reigns. I have written recently about a Roman: Peter. Some claim that he was the first bishop of Rome. And whatever the case was then, Rome certainly claims him as a citizen now, both as part of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as having his body buried (apparently) under St. Peter's Basilica, which is technically in the Vatican, but the Vatican sits right in the middle of Rome.
I have written about Faramir teaming up with Peter at some point in the future in this story, and here we have The Rock teaming up with a Roman.
I don't know.
The Rock actually goes into a pretty funny monologue in the promo. He insulted the whole city of Phoenix as a bunch of 'cactus loving crackheads' and meth users. They still cheered for him.
At one point, he did make an interesting reference. He used the number 22. 22 came up for me in a dream which I included in on of my posts. In writing that post, I landed on tutu (two-two) as a potential meaning, which could be a flame or match, but also had some strange relevance to Elves and Tirion. In the end, I equated Tutu with Artu, and both of these with "Heaven" or Tirion.
The Rock used 22 to at first allude to the length of his penis, of course, or at least let people think that is what he was saying. Importantly, though, he uses the reference "22 inches of heaven", thus also linking 22 with heaven, though a bit differently than I had intended, obviously.
He also calls his penis a "Holy Moses", which is a first for me hearing anyone using that phrase to describe that part of the male anatomy. Whatever works, I guess. But Dicks and accompanying Stones have come up before. We are looking for Dicks that have Stones, and which will help gather people and lead us to a land just like Moses.
Lastly, as part of making sure everyone understood he wasn't referring to his Holy Moses, The Rock helpfully clarifies that he was actually referring to his arm. His biceps must be 22 inches around in circumference, I guess.
In a few instances on this blog I have stated that Faramir is also an "arm", specifically the Arm of the Lord. For example, in my post "First Man": Armstrong and Hail Mary, I referenced an earlier post on this very topic, and concluded by making the connection more explicit through the use of a name game with Neil Armstrong's last name. For the broader discussion and link to the earlier post, you can visit the Armstrong post and go from there (I thought it was a bit much to quote myself quoting myself...). Here is a brief concluding statement I made:
Anyway, so we have Faramir-Eonwe as both a strongman, and also an 'arm'. A strong-arm, or Armstrong. Interesting right?
In conclusion, and as a reminder, I saw this episode on Monday night (again, Smackdown is on Fridays, apparently, but this was the recorded streamed version on the Xfinity app... and actually I just noticed the X showing up again in Xfinity now that I wrote that). So, it would have been the next night, Tuesday evening, when I watched the first part of Treasure Planet, which I finished later in the week, where I was introduced to the character of Mr. Arrow who was also a Rock or Stone Man, and who would end up falling or detaching into a Black Hole
