Burning Ham and the Holy Ghost's Baptism

I didn't know exactly where I was taking that last post.  I started with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and ended with Mo Willems' book about a pigeon needing a bath.  My mind just kind of wandered and connected a few of those topics as I was writing and thinking.

However, I went back and read it a bit later, and noticed a few things.  It was actually the mention of a pigeon that had me go back and both re-read the post as well as look up a few things, but I will cover the pigeon last.

Anyway, there were actually a few fun little winks or things I saw in the post when I went back through it, so let's get into it.

John "Burning Ham"

I included a picture of the original copy of the book "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car".  At the time, I was only thinking of having the picture because it i) had the reference to a magical car, and ii) demonstrated the difference between the car envisioned in the book and the more flamboyant, Hollywood-ized car.

However, as I looked at the cover again, my eye was drawn to the illustrator's name:  John Burningham.

And wouldn't you know I saw that last name as Burning Ham, and my first thought was "Didn't I just write a post about a Ham?"  Indeed I did!  Along with French's Mustard, which is where the post started.

In fact, in that post, I would go on to compare a Ham with unclean Men here on this Earth who would ultimately become clean, or be deemed as such, and cross the Sea to arrive in another World.  Going so far as to suggest the "New Wine" (the Mustard) was involved in that cleansing:

This was a major sticking point in Peter's dream recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, where he was shown unclean animals and commanded to eat them, to which he first said "No Way".  But God said he had cleaned them, and they were not 'common' anymore.  In my mind, this Mustard or New Wine may in itself be a cleansing for a bunch of Hams (Men on this Earth) who will be welcomed back to a place where they have been previously forbidden to go.  "Francis is bacon", the other version of the phrase that went through my head of "France is bakin'" (William Tychonievich has used that other version a few times), may apply here in some fashion.  Francis - The Free Man/ French Man - being among and one of the Bacon (unclean Pig-Men).  

When I used Francis, however, as a reference to the Free Man, I had in mind one specific Being, and that is Faramir-Eonwe.  One reason, other than my theory is that he is currently a mortal Man now on this Earth, is that he was also Finarfin (I know I haven't written that post yet, but I have alluded to that guess a few times) and as such operates freely outside of bans, exiles, etc., that were imposed quite some time ago.  Thus, truly Free, at least in that sense and as a result of choices made during that time.

So, while I had a large number of Hams on my mind in going through the overall thought, it was this particular individual that I was thinking of in reference to the Ham as a Free Man.

And this fit with the rest of that name, particularly the Burning.  That is part of Faramir's story.  King Noah and his priests burned him to death.  Earlier, Denethor attempted to.  And ultimately, the fire that will burn this world is somehow associated with him.  Thus, the Burning Ham.

Almost to put an exclamation point on this thought, we need only look directly below John Burningham's name to find, what else, but a Red Sun.  I mean, seriously, there is a Red symbol there that you can easily take as being a Sun.

As the Holy Ghost (a point I will expand on in the pigeon's bath), I have stated before that he will come bearing both Jesus' name and also his words (as, for example, Jesus explains to his disciples in John 14).  This is connected to the Red Sawtooth Stone, which this Sun on the book cover represents, but not only that but also the Being himself, who is also "the son" and it is said that he will present himself wearing Red Apparel.  The Red Sun and the Red Son, delegated with authority from Jesus  to act in his name as "one next to the Supreme".

This point regarding the authority of Jesus, and therefore speaking and acting as if he were him, is actually supported by what we find in the Red Sun on this book cover.  It is the number one.  Jesus is Eru, in this story, and that name in Elvish translates very simply as "The One".  Thus, I see this "One" in the Red Sun as a symbolic wink to what I just wrote above.  It's just kind of right there.

OK, that was fun going over that book cover, let's go to Mo Willems and his book about bathing pigeons.  I recently found out that Mo is definitely one of William Tychonievich's favorite people - right up there for him like Sammy Hagar is for me, it seems. 

Baptising the Holy Ghost

The symbolism of taking a bath, both in that brief excerpt I shared from 2021 as well as in Mo Willems' book, strikes me as potentially having to do with baptism.  The symbolism of the water, as well as becoming clean (and, frankly, how amazing the pigeon felt as a result of the bath), all bring 'baptism' to my mind.

Consequently, the little memory I had the other day after the phrase Chitty Chitty Bang Bang of my dad drying me off after taking a bath fell into this whole theme of baptism as well.

As I mentioned above, this theme of baptism seemed even more relevant as I saw that Burning Ham name, and connected it with that post on Mustard and Ham.

In any case, it was actually only a few minutes after publishing my post that I got the thought to look up the definition of a pigeon.  I actually also saw the name as a PIG-eon (back to Ham), but birds have come up a bit, and I was wondering where the name pigeon came from.  Truthfully, before I even looked it up, I was thinking of a potential tie with Carrier Pigeons, who apparently are also called Homing Pigeons, and due their ability to always find home, even when travelling over long distances, were tasked with carrying messages.

This theme of a 'Messenger' and finding a home that is a very long way away ties back again to the Faramir character, so that individual was already on my mind when I looked the bird up due to this line of thinking.

To my surprise, pigeon means "Dove", per Etymonline.  So that fit very well with the name that was already on my mind, since the Dove is a sign of the Holy Ghost, and I have Faramir as one half of that, with his twin sister Asenath as the other.

In seeing this, and how that fit so nicely with other thoughts, I immediately interpreted Willems' book as being about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Now, when most Mormons would see that phrase, they would think of something a little different, in that the Holy Ghost is baptising another individual, and this follows a baptism of Water.  And yes, that seems to be a thing.  But in this instance, just to be clear, I am actually referring to the Holy Ghost himself being baptized.  Mo Willems' book means "The Holy Ghost needs a Baptism", in other words.  Which may sound strange or sacrileges to some, but if he is here as Man, he would be in as much need of a baptism as the rest of us, just as Jesus was when he walked among the Men of Tirion.

So, I think that is pretty straightforward, actually, and will leave it at that.  

Looking up Pigeon gave me one more little gem or wink, however.

By far, one of the stranger or more surprising details of my story - one that developed before writing this blog, but not long before - is this notion of the Holy Ghost being comprised of Twins - a brother and sister.  It was something I hadn't ever considered before, but I just think that is how it is, for reasons I can't fully explain.  It has stuck and at this point would be hard to dislodge. 

While looking at the definition on Etymonline, the last sentence mentions the term "Pigeon Pair".  This apparently is a term that applies to twins, but of the opposite sex, just like I have proposed with Faramir and Asenath.  The terms comes from the observation that pigeons tend to just lay two eggs, and usually hatch one male and one female.

Going further, in today's usage, although the term dove used to apply to all pigeons, as per Etymonline's call out of its original use, today it is usually only applied to Turtle Doves, but which given the broader definition above are also a type of pigeon.  I did not know this.

Turtle Doves are a standard symbol of the Holy Ghost, with the famous Christmas song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" mentioning a pair of Turtle Doves.  Actually, this just made me think of a scene form Home Alone 2, where Kevin is given a pair of turtle doves by the toy store owner:

This is all to say, that seeing that mention of a pigeon pair, and a mention of two turtle doves, made me think that my guess of a male and female twin-pair making up the Holy Ghost as being not so outlandish, given these symbols that have been part of various teachings and imagery for quite some time.

Bringing this back to the Red Stone, and some of the commentary above on the Burning Ham/ Holy Ghost who will have that Stone, William had a recent vision-dream where he saw a box turtle look into a Red Ruby.  I thought he at one point also tied the box turtle to the turtle dove (based on the use of 'turtle' imagery) but I couldn't find it.  Maybe hidden in a comment.  Regardless, and in any case, I am doing that now and suggesting the turtle of his dream is potentially representative of the Turtle Dove, and thus the Holy Ghost.  In support of this, he said the vision came as he was praying and contemplating the "Descent of the Holy Ghost".

And, in fact, I got another surprise when I went over to William's blog just right now.  I had typed in "turtle dove", to find the post above, and the first result that came up was actually another post from back in January 2023 which mentions a Red Turtle Dove.  Go figure.  Apparently something that looked like this guy was stalking him:

And the other day, he posted on looking at a book called "Redeemed" as part of this vampire series.  On the back was mention of a Seer Stone, which caught his attention given some of the discussion here about the Sawtooth Stone, Red-emption, etc.  The paragraph in question starts out with the name "Zoey Redbird".  A red bird, just like the Red Turtle Dove.