The Time Travelers

King Revaita of Mahabharata fame once journeyed to meet Brahma, and he sojourned with the Creator for a few days. But when he returned to Earth, many centuries had passed. The story is nearly 3,000 years old according to some scholars. As an artifact of a wider oral tradition, it could conceivably be much older.

A similar fate befell the Irish hero Oisin, who fell in love with a Fae princess and went to live with her in the Faeworld for three years. When he decided to return home for a visit, he discovered that 300 years had elapsed. And if we are curious about the possible presence of alien or advanced technology in the story, it is interesting to note that Oisin's wife Niamh gave him a magical steed for his vacation in the mortal world, from which he was not to dismount. When Oisin did slip off the horse for a drink of water, he aged three centuries in only seconds.

Time travel is eventually possible, which is the same as saying that it is possible right now - which should also give us pause. What is, "right now," exactly? Is it not a moment that is always being shunted along, or tucked away backward? When is then? When is tomorrow, precisely, as in at what moment does tomorrow cease to be tomorrow and become today? The moment that you just lived through is either gone, or else it persists, in a "place" called "before now". On a long enough timescale, even our petty, paltry human species will discover the means by which to move in time in a non-linear fashion. We must. What currently seems impossible is almost inevitably probable, later on.

What do we know? There are many incidents that suggest that time travel is a possibility; there are several anomalies and bizarre accounts that should at least give us a moment's pause. As with anything in the material universe, where a function is possible through technology and the requisite underpinning theoretical systems, a naturally occurring analog will exist. If it is possible to build a "time machine", then we may expect that naturally occurring time travel also happens.

Consider the Welsh phenomenon of Hugh Williams, one man or three, who survived repeated shipwrecks in Wales' Menai Strait. This is variously identified as myth, "urban legend", and coincidence. The wrecks occurred over a period between 1664 and 1860, so it is unlikely to have always been the same man. Hugh and Williams are equally common Welsh names. But the possibility also exists that one man was caught in a dreadful time-loop for two centuries, in which he was forced to repeat the same terrible experience of watching other people go to their deaths while knowing that he would be the lone survivor.

Consider also the Versailles "time slip" that two women experienced in August of 1901. Two well-educated women - one of whom was the principal of St. Hugh's College, Oxford, and the other the Vice Principal - claimed to have been transported back to pre-Revolutionary France for a short while. Their description of the shift from the present (their present, and therefore the present) to the past is eerily precise, and what we might expect: Light and sound were suppressed, and the dimensionality of objects seemed somehow reduced. That's a fairly advanced understanding of what might occur when moving through time non-linearly and in an unconventional direction - in this case, backwards. A "flatness" and a sensory distortion might well result.

Note that in the account told by Moberly and Jourdain, there is no doorway or gate, no transition point of any mythical or fairy tale quality. They did not pass through a looking glass or enter a magical pond. They simply walked from one moment to another, sans starship, sans time machine, and sans arcane artifice. How utterly fitting and in keeping with the natural order we all observe is this experience? And more critically, how did it benefit either woman to tell such a patently and stereotypically hysterical story?

There are rejoinders, of course, including assertions that the women constituted a lesbian couple with a somewhat open relationship that included having affairs with students - St. Hugh's was a women's college. A romantic couple can suffer from the interesting shared delusion known as folie a deux in which a pair of people convince themselves and one another of a patent untruth when viewed objectively.

Whatever the case, why no one's yet written these two into a spacetime-skipping dynamic duo of crime-fighting lesbian awesomeness is the real mystery. The Vicar might even take up that gage himself, were it not for the fact that the Vicar is so abysmally bad at lesbians.

***

Remember Eloi Cole? Of course you don't. He was an April Fool's Joke. There was nothing at all to see there. There is nothing to see here now. It's not like CERN's security has ever been breached. Move along.

That which is both dreamed and undreamed is always real.

Anomalous phenomena occur - of that we can have no doubt. Some anomalous phenomena appear to be paranormal or ethereal in nature. These we may chalk up to ghost encounters, interactions with discarnate intelligences, and involvement with the realms beyond our own - so far beyond our own, or at least so different, in fact, that they are regarded by mainstream thinkers as pure fantasies. But the Elfheim and the Faeworld may be just as patently real as our own plane, albeit utterly bizarre from our pedestrian and pastoral point of view. We cannot overlook in this the "Oz Factor" identified by British UFO researcher Jenny Randles.

Some of the anomalies we address may be alien in origin. Still others may demonstrate that time travelers are visiting us from the future, observing certain key events and individuals in history. If this last proposition has validity (as it probably must), then it is perhaps just barely possible for us to begin to assemble a kind of corpus of data that argues for imposition in our own times and in our history by beings from our future. How far in the future is anyone's guess. What we might become in the distant tomorrow is equally open to guesswork. But the idea that UFOs and other anomalies might sometimes be examples of this temporal tourism is a compelling one, and well worth further study.

Transtemporality is occurring right now. We are moving through time as you read this post; the author moved through time while he was writing it. What was written persists, which perhaps means that it has managed to exist in every observable moment from its creation until now. No less, the physical and material content of a book is a record of the time in which it was printed; future historians and archaeologists are going to make excellent use of this fact in the next couple of centuries, incidentally. Take that as a stock tip, because on a long enough timescale, everything is privatized.

Evidence for time travel is a sketchy matter, not least because we cannot really be certain that our timeline may be susceptible to penetration from a differing timeline in such a way that we could detect.

Remember this? And do you also remember that highly advanced technology likely also means an enhanced ability to hide? And do you remember the Beatniks?

Given the nature of "intelligent life" as we define it - simultaneously managing to assume that not all life is motivated by intelligence not directly recognizable to us - curiosity is certainly a feature of the phenomenon. The defining characteristics of that curiosity may turn out to be completely alien to us (as we might expect) given the length of time or the physical distance (same thing) that separates humans from offworlders or futureworlders. One thing we can be reasonably certain of, however, is this: the popularity of the home x-ray system is so limited because it is simply not allowed to be marketed to the public. We can thus doubt that time travel is open to virtually everybody for long periods of time. In the far flung future of our own kind, in something like a billion years, maybe all human beings travel all of the temporal realms without restriction. But the Vicar will wager that if it is so, it's only because we are no longer recognizable as human beings to those of our own time - or of any period in between.

Humanity 6.0

There ought then to exist an epoch in the timelines of many differing species a period in which time travel is possible and its use is limited because it is simply too dangerous and too complex a technology to be accessible to any but a select few. But we can also infer that time travel will need to be limited in ways beyond distribution; the best way to go unnoticed is to establish oneself as a part of the group, place, and time in which one proposes to travel.

The most important dichotomy or paradox in play here is this: The future doesn't exist yet. Not for us, anyway.

How many people do we all deal with on a day-to-day basis that are not in fact people? How many more do we interact with that are not at all what they seem? Is your neighbor a human being? Or is your neighbor an alien entity in the form of a human being? And if your alien neighbor is from a sufficiently advanced civilization, how would you even be able to tell?

Is the fly on the wall a fly at all?

Evidence may exist for transtemporal visitation, but nailing it down as such is a tall order... maybe even an order that cannot be filled. Some percentage of anomalous activity could easily be seen in precisely these terms. And we might just be able to track this kind of thing by paying attention to when and where certain phenomena emerge.

We are not all beautiful, unique snowflakes. In fact, we are produced by templates that can yield eerily similar results over time.

Several historical events feature interesting cases of "luck" - either fair or foul - that have ended up tipping the balance of power in otherwise unforeseen directions. One excellent example of this occurred off Yorktown in 1781 at the Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes.

On September 5th, 1781, the British fleet under Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Graves was beaten by a barely larger French fleet under Vice Admiral de Grasse. This particular campaign is of interest because the conduct of Graves is to this day a matter of debate, controversy, and curiosity. The British have long been famed for the skill and near-invincibility of their naval forces - although a thorough and frank survey of history proves this to be more myth than fact - so it is interesting on its face that the Battle of the Chesapeake went so poorly for the British fleet. But historians often identify that since Graves was not a colonial sympathizer, he must have been fairly inept, since he failed to secure for Lord Cornwallis the coastal security and relief necessary to win at Yorktown. His command of the fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake was marked by chaos, confusion of signals, and bizarre choices with respect to order of battle. His most aggressive squadron was kept at the rear of his fleet, and he failed to exploit a critical error by the French in separating their van from the bulk of the fleet. Graves' ships suffered severe damage and many casualties, forcing him to withdraw. As a result, Cornwallis was forced to surrender, and the Battle of Yorktown was won by General Washington, ensuring colonial independence.

One wonders at such a turn of events, because had the typically superior British fleet been better commanded, Yorktown might not have been a defeat for Lord Cornwallis. Perhaps the Fates sided with the formation of a new nation on the North American continent. Perhaps the Gods favored the Novus Ordo Seclorum. Or perhaps a traveler from the future kept Admiral Graves in sufficient doubt and confusion through subtle manipulations to insure that he would lose the crucial battle waged on that September day.

If we allow our imaginations to run riot, we may end by asking things like, "Was Alexander the Great poisoned by a traveler from the future?" What limits are there, really, on the nature of this kind of exercise?

Consider the Foo Fighters. These are bizarre Second World War era anomalies that were characterized by glowing orbs buzzing, pacing, and otherwise apparently intelligently operating in the immediate vicinity of aircraft - reported by both Allied and Axis pilots. While there are numerous theories for these things - including alien spacecraft, spirit lights, and super secret super weapons - none of these are foregone conclusions or absolutely convincing. Instead, the data never quite adds up. If the Foo Fighters were alien spacecraft, then we must wonder at what they were doing and why they were here. If they were time travelers, or evidence of time travel occurring (a more likely and therefore more compelling possibility), then they represent the possibility that someone or something was clearly recording events. Possibly, they were altering events - a factor that has to be considered at several points in history.

Notice that these appear to be amorphous forms, possibly capable of changing shape, size, and brilliance.

To be sure, the Second World War was really the first truly global war waged on anything like its scale. This is the primary reason why it is immensely important in terms of historical significance. It may be eventually identified as the rough watershed point at which the technological era (as we currently call our own age) truly began. We have no idea what tomorrow will bring, unless we use our prophetic powers. The scientists prefer we not do this, and the futurists really prefer that we don't - they consider it cheating.

I can tell you right now that in a hundred years, the wealthiest and most powerful people will live high above the rest, surrounded by android-like servants, many of whom will be configured for sexual performance and other useful applications. These same people will be heavily genetically modified, possessed of significant physical and mental superiority. In addition, we might expect nanotechnology to be integrated into those who can afford it, augmenting or perhaps even supplanting the immune system such that those with the money to afford these enhancements will never get sick - their on-board nanobots will be programmable. This means that known bacteria and viruses will be immediately eliminated, whereas unknown infections or new mutations will be handled through program upgrades. Injuries will almost instantly be repaired, and cancer will be unknown to those with power and fortune. For the remaining 99% of the population trapped on an overcrowded and incredibly polluted Earth, dwelling in rabbit warrens and "undercities," the daily grind will involve desperate attempts to avoid rape, murder, and/or consumption by mutant predators - like the highly evolved "ratmen" left to roam free after budget cuts to institutions engaged in twisted military experiments. And if you think that shit's bad, wait til you see the floating robot sentinels like great conical shards of black glass, and take in with horror the darkly ironic juxtaposition proposed by the elite dwelling in orbiting pleasure cities like living gods, looking down literally and figuratively at their sometime brethren suffering in the radioactive mire below.

If the scenario above is anything like our near future, then we can see where time travelers might have a vested interest in observing certain developments. Points in time in which conflict breeds rapid technological advancement are clear destinations for transtemporal visitation; we need only see what anomalies appear in these eras to find possible evidence for observers from the future.

Miguel Alcubierre may one day be a very important person, historically speaking. He authored the first paper on "warp drive" back in the 1990s, and he is currently the Director of the Nuclear Sciences Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). If his work proves valid and the systems roughly proposed by his theory are viable, then one day, starship captains will give the order to "engage the Alcubierre drive." That's not just fun and exciting, it's also significant in another way - this man may end up being the theorist who made interstellar exploration and colonization possible. In essence, he could be the granddaddy of real life Star Trek.

Someday...

One of the proposed side effects of the Alcubierre warp function, however, is the fact that such a bubble of warped space would accumulate trillions of particles along its leading edge. When one stops the ship, the particles might be emitted ahead of the vessel. These particles would apparently be energetic enough to destroy anything in front of the ship. So it is additionally possible that Miguel Alcubierre has theoretically demonstrated the mechanics for a super weapon of untold power.

He seems like somebody that aliens and/or folks from the future might be interested in. Walk this line of thinking forward, and we might ask about UFO sightings - or other anomalies - near Alcubierre both physically and temporally. Are there an unusual amount of sightings in general spatial-temporal proximity to this man, Miguel Alcubierre Moya? Are those from another place &/or time following this physicist?

As it happens, UFO sightings began to be very common in Mexico in the last century. Two significant events are identified by UFOlogy, one in 1974 and one in 2004, with the latter incident having some truly compelling features. It involved the Mexican military tracking objects in infrared that were invisible to the naked eye, and which moved very rapidly. While we cannot directly correlate UFO and anomalous incidents exactly with Alcubierre's movements, it is worth noting that the man was born in 1964 in Mexico City and that he moved to Wales in the early 1990s to obtain his PhD. He worked in Germany subsequently, at the Max Planck Institute, before returning to Mexico in 2002.

We can hardly afford to forget the Nuremburg, Germany "UFO battle" of 14 April, 1561, if we are thinking of temporal distortions and weirdly anomalous events. The Max Planck Institute for Physics is in Munich, though, rather than Nuremburg. Transtemporally speaking, "close enough" is a concept both absurd and too rooted in our own limitations to have any legitimacy. As a matter of fact, a Google search for "UFOs Munich" yields a staggering number of relevant results. And oddly enough, one major UFO incident occurred in the year of Alcubierre's birth - 1964 - not in Mexico, but rather in New Mexico.

The Socorro, New Mexico Incident is also known as the Lonnie Zamora Incident, named after the police officer who sighted a strange craft and two apparent occupants on April 24, 1964. It took off with a roar and a great deal of fire when he approached, and physical evidence was clearly left behind. The event has been variously labelled absolute proof, a hoax, a prank carried out by physics students, and evidence that Zamora should not have ever been allowed to be a police officer. This last option is arguably the most absurd: police officers are exactly the sort of people that see alien spacecraft and aliens - or time travelers. But more importantly, we must wonder as to who these visitors were, and where they were trying to get to. Zamora stumbled upon a vessel and its apparent occupants in the process of doing something - though what is not at all clear. What is clear is the fact that they left in a hurry. Did their time capsule land them on an important date - say around the birth of Miguel Alcubierre Moya - but in the wrong place, New Mexico rather than just plain old original Mexico? It's a plot twist straight out of Doctor Who, but there again, the truth is often stranger than fiction...

We can range far and wide in this discussion. An exploration of the truth means venturing often into areas less-than-true, and an exploration of the possible is a fruitless exercise in imagining eternity and infinity woven into one... which in fact they are, anyway. If we would catch time travelers at their business, we must first realize that we are attempting the almost impossible. If we have stealth technology now, how does our stealth capability measure up in ten thousand years? We have equally considered elsewhere the same question in alien contexts: If a species can cross interstellar space, how can they not possess equivalently advanced techniques for concealment?

What does not want to be seen will remain unseen if will is joined to capacity.

Who is watching you right now?

The Deros & Richard Shaver

The Deros are a proposed race, a species dwelling in underground caverns that house fantastic cities. According to the primary source and authority on their existence and habits, they are cruel, violent, and destructive. They possess advanced technology to which they are merely the heirs, having no real understanding of the proper use of the mechanisms and implements they have inherited. The Deros are the descendants of superior beings that once inhabited our world, including giants and enlightened races capable of interstellar travel. These Deros are far inferior to their ancestors, ruled by base passions and delighting in savagery and torment. They are either the invention, or the discovery, of one Richard Shaver.

This whole matter falls immediately into one of the Vicar's favorite categories - the realm of things we cannot deny because they are by definition unknown - and it is well worth learning about if one has no prior exposure to the topic. This is not only because the Deros and the various tales of Richard Shaver (known collectively as "the Shaver Mystery") have been proposed as influential with respect to modern science fiction and ufology. It is also because the possibility really does exist that Richard Shaver was not nearly so crazy as his detractors insist.

The existence of beings that cohabitate with our type of humanity is the subject of extensive debate, and has been throughout history. This was once the common wisdom, that we are not alone on the earth, in it, or beyond it. In science, that which has no direct evidence in support of it is considered unproven, and is generally described to the lay population as "bullshit". But this is not an honest rendering, as many of us are well aware. In fact, it is extremely dishonest to present a thing for which one has no evidence as being unworthy of research because it is labelled as "fantasy" or else, "science fiction". This was Richard Shaver's struggle. In essence, what he asserted made him a prime target for identification with the diagnosis known as paranoid schizophrenia. This neat little disorder makes one deeply wary and likely to invent all manner of bizarre forces and beings responsible for various delusions and hallucinations and related weird beliefs. In fact, it is very often the case that one's whole thesis will be received by psychiatric and therapeutic professionals with immediate doubt and rejection - at least internally, if not also in therapeutic sessions. This gives rise to a bit of a paradox, to which the Vicar has decided to put his name.

Here then is the statement of the "Vicar's Paradox": The unbelievable will be rejected even when it is absolutely true.

The Vicar's argument can be summed up by the statement that when information produces dissonance with respect to an accepted context, the information will be ruled "untrue", "inadmissible", or "fraudulent", no matter how compelling. This is why we may expect that even if an alien body were delivered to a major research organization, it would be either rejected as a hoax or else concealed entirely from the public. In essence, the accepted contexts by which we judge reality cannot stand up to fundamental challenges. For this precise reason, Galileo Galilei was persecuted by the Inquisition. More significantly, offers by Galileo to his accusers to view evidence of heliocentrism through a telescope were rejected out of hand... no doubt because any evidence contrary to accepted contexts is inevitably the Devil's work.

This guy is the Lord of Night and Shadow, the Master of Deceit, and the Infernal Archaeologist...

As we all know, fossils were placed in the ground by Satan in order to lead the faithful astray.

Those who have experienced the truly Fortean will understand at once that this paradox is a very real concern. It can ultimately be life-threatening, and perhaps even species-threatening. Our capacity for survival in this universe is linked on a long enough timescale to our ability to recognize veracity in the absence of validation. No matter how great a level of technical refinement is achieved, an absence of imagination and spiritual awakening yields a depraved and decadent existence.

For Richard Shaver, the infernal apotheosis of this condition were the Deros. He identified the term with a phrase that runs something like, "Destructive Robots," or else, "Detrimental Robots". But the term was really an effort on the part of its inventor to describe what he identified as a powerful and relatively evil species that directly manipulates and preys upon humankind. To Shaver, the Deros were responsible for disappearances, some natural disasters, unexplained objects in the skies, and a host of what his contemporaries and moderns would classify as delusions and hallucinatory flights of fancy. Shaver's Deros were supposedly possessed of devices capable of manipulating human thought and inserting ideas directly into human minds. In short, the Deros caused some individuals to be seen as mad - particularly when what the individuals were reporting or describing ran dangerously close to revealing the whole and awful truth. Also, the Deros were said to eat people after engaging in sexual sadomasochistic torture of their victims.

Things beyond common human understanding &/or human perception may well exist; the Vicar would argue plainly that they are absolutely in existence or at least likely to have been so, or that such things will exist in the future. Given a sufficiently long periodicity, the future will give rise to those who can alter or otherwise transit in time, meaning that beings from the future frequent this and all other periods in cosmic reality. That said, in a sufficiently bifurcated system (here, a system in which there is a clear divide between the accepted "probable" and the unaccepted "improbable"), the mainstream view will periodically be upset by unacceptable evidence. When this evidence is physical, it will be lost or destroyed. When this evidence is experiential or phenomenological (as in, many witnesses see a bigfoot, or a UFO sighting report involving a landing leaves bizarre and otherwise inexplicable physical evidence in a farmer's field) it will be labelled an anomaly and all further investigatory activity will be cancelled or otherwise interdicted. When the evidence is compelling - regardless of its form - it will be marginalized and subjected to commentary which confuses the issues and obfuscates the value of the data. Mere "reports" of weird activity will be labelled hoaxes, nonsense, imagination, the result of chemical entertainment, or else insanity.

All of this occurs for a simple root reason: we do not accept as a collective intelligence any information that fundamentally contradicts the perceptions of the age. If the ancients believed in fairies, then odd goings on were the work of fairies, and little more needed to be known. But in modern times, we believe in biochemistry and physics and hard mathematically-based sciences. Odd goings on must either be readily explainable as mundane within these contexts, or else they are immediately rejected. The outlier cannot be integrated into the current composition of human collective consciousness, whatever the era. The witch-hunters of old would not have accepted arguments founded upon the DSM-IV-TR for example; this would have been nonsense and very likely the work of the devil, since it would have interdicted the collective mandate to resolve such matters with torture and immolation. The coming future society in which the wealthy elite are able to confer upon their children the grossly disproportionate benefits of genetic manipulation technology will regard spiritual objections - and the inevitable spiritual revelations or visitations - to such conditions as manipulative terrorism. Our own age is marked in much the same way: no cause is ever just when it employs violence, except "our own" causes, since our view is right and all contrary perceptions are wrong.

The CEO of the future will bring new meaning to the phrase, "The boss is gonna rip my head off!"

Richard Shaver may well have possessed a unique gift, not for hoax or legend-spinning, but rather for perceiving that our conception of reality is fundamentally flawed. We really do not understand the underlying "why" behind any phenomena. We certainly cannot begin to know if there are intelligences or complex sapient agencies behind mundane or bizarre events, because we do not accept in the mainstream anything other than mechanistic causes. We exist on a planet in space, but the majority view is that we are either alone in this universe or have never been visited by extraterrestrial species - although this is changing. From a statistical and logical standpoint, this fading but still powerful opinion is actually and literally idiotic: it presumes that what we do not know does not exist. Were this ever a valid platform for reasoning, then most modern technology and understanding would never have developed. Advancement would be impossible, since our imaginations and plans would always be folly.

Sans the agency of the Gods, we'd have had a difficult time explaining to a Sumerian of Ur that men would one day build machines with which to fly. By reverse "engineering", we must wonder at Daedalus and Icarus: is this a myth, or a recollection of a man and his son developing hang gliding technology in the misty ancient past?

http://granger.artistwebsites.com/

Shaver's Deros are an example of the same psychological and existential construct: he argued that he had been in the presence of these things, seen one of their underground cities, and been subjected to their "mind rays". According to Shaver, the Deros broke him out of jail one night, sending a holographic woman to assert mind control over his captors and guide him to one of their underground facilities. In the absence of evidence, this kind of reasoning is simply paranoia, delusion, and ultimately just schizophrenia. But what if the reality of the situation is precisely as Shaver explains it? His tales blend the Lemurian-Atlantean mythos - the notion of a lost civilization of high sophistication, whatever the name - and phenomena like unexplained disappearances and strange craft-like sightings in the sky. In short, Shaver is one of the first Fortean writers to attempt to create a kind of unified field theory of weird shit. He is in essence the granddaddy of some of the ideas advanced by John Keel and Jacques Vallee.

Richard Shaver - writer, artist, madman, witness

More importantly, what if the best evidence for certain phenomena is those who have experienced these phenomena first hand? If there are situations that defy conventional logic because they operate according to rules and conditions we have not yet begun to theorize about, much less describe or research, then it naturally follows that the only reliable rendering of the same would be found in anecdote, myth, legend, and the forever vilified "eyewitness account".

Tools and implements lack the essential human quality of possessing a soul; moreover, they lack active intellect, emotion, and volition. There are a vast number of differences between the human understanding of the world and raw data absorbed or otherwise captured by a mechanism. The oddity in scientific inquiry turns upon this; the fact that we would trust data captured remotely or in the absence of human experience over the direct evidence we access with our own senses tells us that the fundamental guiding principle of evidence gathering is that we cannot trust human beings. We cannot trust ourselves. We cannot hope to imbue any of what we experience directly with any validity. In psychology, we often argue that what an individual perceives is very different from the reality around them. There is an assumption that an objective reality exists, and that subjective reality is innately flawed.

Richard Shaver said he went underground to see a city run by the Deros; his detractors point out that Shaver spent time in the care of psychiatrists. Which is true? In 1971, Shaver's editor and publisher, Ray Palmer (an equally interesting fellow whose influence is still felt in science fiction today) stated that he believer Richard Shaver spent 8 years in a mental institution.

The world is still greatly unknown to our species, so the possibility that we share it with another race of technically advanced, evolutionarily sophisticated entities is open. But the undercurrent in Shaver's discussion of the Deros is not dissimilar to the metaphorical coding of the Secret Language. It appears to reference existing in a controlled state, where thoughts are the result of inserted programming. And the Deros themselves delight in torture and cruelty as well as in destroying independence.

One must wonder, was Shaver talking about a race of advanced beings living under the earth? Or was he talking about the psychiatric industry as it existed in his day and which he had directly experienced? Did Richard Shaver undergo electroconvulsive therapy? Was he subjected to the brutality of psychiatric treatment and its sacred role of enforcing conformity and obedience?

Sure, because this is reasonable...

If Shaver was not entirely mad or merely a brilliant writer engaged in some sort of in vivo fiction experiment, his stories seem to serve as powerful metaphorical communications making full use of the Secret Language. And interestingly enough, the enigmatic man also is responsible for either the invention or the discovery of Mantong, a supposedly ancient language upon which all human tongues are based. While the actual function and form of Mantong essentially renders this proposition unlikely at best and absurd at worst, the Vicar would immediately propose that it is a form of code that may do far more than allow us to play word games. Richard Shaver's Mantong identifies letters as thought forms more sophisticated and complex than pictograms. 

An excellent write up on Mantong exists here, and here is a link describing the connection between Shaver's Mantong and another writer's inventive, "Protong". On the surface, things like this read as ridiculous, but Shaver's own creation - or discovery, of course - actually sort of works within its own context. Application of Mantong to simple words yields embedded thought forms that run consistently across many phrases. The deeper question turns upon what - if any - messages Richard Shaver may have embedded in his own stories, correspondences, and communications. His language could readily be used to send information in unexpected ways. At the very least, it is interesting that his own name would not translate very nicely in Mantong - a thing thoroughly worth considering. Mantong is definitely not the sort of language likely to catch on, but it has cohesion and purpose and was therefore convincing to a great many of Shaver's devotees.

Beyond the tales, he was also intensely interested in things he called, "rock books" which he apparently believed contained lost records of the distant past. Some skeptics immediately discard the idea of information hidden within crystalline structures of various rocks, but perhaps they are overlooking the fact that the "silicon revolution" is a precise rendering of this exact concept in the real world. Sand is silica, and grains of sand are tiny rocks. To be sure, Shaver's versions are not at all the same, but the underlying slip-coded notion is obvious. It's almost as though the man had received information he was totally unable to understand or apply.

The drawing Kenneth Arnold produced to describe his sighting.

There is a strange link we should consider by way of conclusion: the Kenneth Arnold sighting in 1947 was later picked up on by the aforementioned Ray Palmer and this publicity helped catapult the idea of "flying saucers" as spaceships into the collective consciousness. Thus, Shaver, who reported that the Deros had flying ships and "rockets" launchable from their underground bases, was published by the same man who later promoted the "saucer mystery". But the UFOs seen by Arnold are not necessarily anything out of the ordinary - they could readily have been secret military craft seen from an angle that confused the viewer. As unlikely as this may seem to the true believer, none of us were actually there, so we do not know. 

What's odd is that Palmer helped to immediately shift the search for UFO truth off-world. One wonders, why? Couldn't such things come from within the earth, or out of the oceans, seas, and lakes as is sometimes reported in some fairly compelling USO accounts? After all, humanity actually only continuously occupies a small percentage of the earth's surface. There are many places where particularly technically able species could conceal themselves. Was Palmer intentionally misdirecting us? Did he know something? Or was he totally unaware of the manipulation occurring, caused by rays from deep within the earth that subtly reprogrammed his head?

Was the publisher of the Shaver Mystery a victim - or even a servant - of the Deros?

Paranoia is contagious.

That Voodoo That You Do

The Vicar recently had a dream, sent to him by some capricious sprite for the Heavens know what reason. Dryads belong in vast woodlands, and not in the human head. Synchronic resonances have been echoing. The Brotherhood of Athena's Men (and we are not all men) has many recent reports of whispers and shifts and changes in the force patterns of the globe. Something small but powerful is moving, and a connection long thought dead has proved instead to be very much alive. We have been hearing for a very long time from the less-civilized, more organic practitioners that the Earth herself is angry.

The question before us is simple: to what should we be paying attention? Which changes and echoes have merit and value, and which ones are but passing hints of fires that once were; tattered smoke fading against the sky?

Earth spirits are a particularly interesting lot, often forcing us to acknowledge their reality when we least wish to. Of late, there have been some disturbing events in the U.S. and abroad - in particular, in Shenzhen, China, where some of the Vicar's brethren have at least temporarily located their operations. Most of these events center around sudden formations of sinkholes and related phenomena. The mundane explanations are as always perfectly accurate insofar as they go. But this is always the center of any occult or paranormal issue: the scientific or skeptical purist insists that mechanisms alone are sufficient explanations. The seeker recognizes that describing a mechanism is never the same as providing explanation for a cause.

Who is the ghost in your machine?

Take, for example, this event, occurring about four days ago in Russia. From a little further back, we have this interesting experience that killed a man in Florida. Then, there's the recent South China event that really got Athena's Men talking about the phenomena. Is the Earth eating people?

The point of things occult is never that they do not have a perfectly reasonable explanation, but rather that elements of reporting and occurrence like frequency and attentional market share sometimes make simple, otherwise normal events into very paranormal stories. Why have there been so many sinkhole stories, lately? What exactly is the Earth's problem with us that it is suddenly swallowing people up? Perhaps Poseidon is angry, or perhaps the ancient mythic Chinese belief that a giant spirit frog is responsible has some merit?

Lest the dear reader think that the Vicar is the only one who has noticed a significant uptick in this kind of catastrophe, I submit this NBC news report for your consideration: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/51460942/#51460942. Yes, even the mainstream media has noticed that the ground keeps opening up and eating people at an elevated rate.

Among the ancients, this kind of event was neither darkly funny nor easily brushed aside as "natural phenomena". From a strictly objective, rationalist perspective, all things are natural phenomena, since they all occur in the real universe as functions of the cosmic systems that govern our existences. Even the weirdest things fit within an overarching framework of the laws of physics. In our public lives, members of occult orders are sometimes even called upon by media or investigatory bodies to reassure the public that events like these are nothing out of the ordinary. But the truth is a different matter; human beings in modern societies rarely play official or accepted roles that reflect their true natures and inclinations. The whole point of living in a society is to adopt a socially acceptable and utterly fabricated identity. This was to some extent less true in early incarnations of the human social order, and perhaps this is why the ancients were so "superstitious" as we would render it. They had the good common sense to note when weird shit was happening, and label it as such.

In conclave, occult wizards will sometimes discuss why it is that a particular phenomena has bubbled to the surface of the collective consciousness. A while back, we were contending with this emergent "Zombie Craze" that never amounted to a damned thing. Currently, we've been addressing the whole, "earth swallows you whole" phenomenon. But all of this is window dressing, bound to distract the curious and the more invested researcher from the bigger picture. Here at the Lamp, we focus on the overridingly important element of themes. When a theme is emergent in our world, it is the mechanism by which this happens that ends up mattering far more than the specific and individual events themselves.

The real question is, why do so many people like the idea of a large percentage of humanity turning into undead, flesh-eating monsters that it's okay to decapitate with a katana?

Zombies are a big deal in pop culture these days, so there is a perfectly valid social-psychology argument to be made for the weirder people out there getting too attached to the cultural messages and being carried off by their own internalized fantasies. The same argument is applicable to matters of religious visions, UFO sightings, and cryptozoological encounters. What these really constitute are ready and easy means by which those tasked with exploring and studying the world may ignore completely those events and occurrences that do not fit with established wisdom. Ergo, a scientist need not investigate reports involving factors in apparent violation of established scientific laws. Witches do not exist, because important people who do not believe in witches say so.

A serialization of events can often be discarded or otherwise ignored out of hand by those who are paid to spend  all of their time ignoring anything even slightly out-of-the-ordinary. This is the point of being employed as a professional skeptic. Heads of medical schools and/or biology departments are not about to acknowledge that something like a zombie is a reasonable concern in modern life. Yet, we have the tale of Luka Rocca Magnotta from last year. This individual is accused of killing and eating a Chinese international student. In the mental health business, we refer to that kind of behavior as "having issues". But in the paranormal community and the world of occult orders, we recognize a demonic inhabitation when we see one.

A key component of the practice of real magic centers upon the recognition of higher forces. We talk often here at the Lamp of the existence of beings otherwise invisible to us, and known as the "Others". These are not meant to be merely a monstrous, creepy backdrop supportive of horror fiction plots. Instead, this is a catchall term for the varying beings and perhaps even species that must inhabit our universe due to the laws of probability and the general trend of evolutionary biology as we currently understand it and are capable of imagining it. By extrapolation, if the development of a large and highly active brain is an indication of evolutionary advancement and success, then the basis for thought - electrochemical interactions - might also be understood to be subject to the same evolutionary forces. On a long enough timescale, a species might evolve beyond the need for physical, material bodies and structures at all. This is hardly a new idea, and not particularly revolutionary. But it is one to which wise individuals pay attention, because in a vast cosmos, it is so likely as to be a foregone conclusion that such entities exist. That they might additionally be able to either travel to our world, or already inhabit it (whatever that would actually mean for such a being), is also very likely.

DMT trippers will sometimes describe beings called, "machine elves" that are variously described. Sometimes they are perceived by the drug-user as akin to Gray aliens, or as beings not unlike the praying mantis. They are as likely to be real as anything seen under conditions imposed by an altered state of consciousness, and those who scoff at such things would do well to remember that religions the world over are generally founded upon the visions of those who in the modern world would be regarded as either insane,   "under the influence", or deeply mendacious. If we rule out active madness and the desire to simply deceive (although these are equally valid, we should recall), we are left with the possibility that the use of psychedelic drugs in spirituality may be for unlocking elements of perception not typically accessed. It is possible that this connects one to an understanding of the world that the conscious, uninfluenced mind is at best ill-prepared for.

Something not dissimilar to this makes space and time orderly and operational.

Demons, angels, gods, spirits and other such things may indeed be nothing more than imaginary explanations for unpleasant or unexplained realities. They may additionally be explainable as aliens in the way "Ancient Alien Theorists suggest." But it is actually a cosmic certainty that energetic consciousness operating free of any material anchor is out there somewhere. That being the case, we have to give some consideration to the possibility that so-called "glitches in the matrix" are not glitches at all. Rather, they are caused in some cases by beings with considerable power and motives quite beyond our immediate understanding. If a condition exists for which rational explanation falls short - such as the sudden emergence of high-profile sinkhole stories, reflective of an abnormal number of actual sinkholes forming - then other avenues of exposition and discussion must be pursued.

All of this ends up turning on ideas common in Vodun, the composite religion of a great many people worldwide. Some people come to the Lamp for entertainment, others because the internet does shit like that to people if they aren't careful enough in their searches, and still others for direct instruction in the true secrets of the mystic arts. The Ars Arcanum recognize the validity of Vodun, and for good reason. This is a composite cosmology of shockingly profound and structured logic coupled with sound magical science. If one is not amenable to a term such as "magical science," as always, that's cool with the Vicar. You are welcome to go to another site where you can expect to be validated in your objection to such things.

Meanwhile, in the real world, sometimes things are unexplainable by mundane argument. Systems like Vodun recognize that there are a great many "spirits" in the world and beyond it, with which mortal humans must sometimes contend or else have congress should certain conditions, events, or occurrences be desired. One of the underlying tenets of Vodun has been described to the Vicar in his varied and far-ranging educational experiences in the following terms: Vodun is so real that it is a valid factor in all experiences whether mortals accept the proposition or not. This runs so closely to Jung's famous, "God will be present whether invited or not," line that it bears thinking about. The most ancient human approach to understanding the universe includes recognition of the Others. This is really the only rational way to view the universe. If a sinkhole opens under your feet, it could be the result of shoddy construction or subsurface water, from a purely mechanistic view. But the deep seeker knows that this is a discussion of process, rather than a discussion of cause. We should never even bother to ask why the sinkhole opened, since mechanisms and processes will be raised by way of explanation. The more important queries involve matters like, "Why at this particular time?" and "Why did this happen to this particular person?"

Another underlying principle operating in all of this is the idea that individual people have an influence upon the energetic web that all life is considered to be connected by. This idea is primarily salient in Native American shamanic usage, but it is also a factor in Vodun and in a variety of other more occult theories that embrace the notions of elder mystical paths. Connectivity is rendered as a conceptual force in synchronicity theory, and the more causal approaches to connectivity often are unable to address at all the weird habit things have of organizing themselves such that human beings recognize non-causal connections based in meaning, metaphor, and personal interpretations.

We come now full circle on our path, to the realization that systems like Vodun offer interpretations and explanations of a sort often more revelatory and satisfactory to our ears than those provided by mainstream science and the establishment point of view so loudly trumpeted in all official things. Additionally, the "zombie" came to the modern world from Vodun, and it has clearly succeeded in penetrating beyond the fringes of collective perception. Collective awareness consists in some sort of energetic field - this we know absolutely within the occult schools, since we can do things with it and "read" the collective will to some degree. But what that energy is, and how precisely it works, we have few viable theories for. Perhaps the best explanation is the Shamanic "Web of Life" in which the energies of all beings - organic and otherwise - are woven together.

In the Vodun understanding of things, we do not actually have to believe in the spirits in order for them to have validity with respect to our lives. In fact, we are sometimes utterly defenseless against such things precisely because we trust to skepticism rather than in our own spiritual power and the protective powers of higher orders of positive beings. No less, the human collective consciousness appears also to be directly referenced by Vodun practitioners, since there is an understanding that what we collectively note, make significant, and otherwise concern ourselves with has the power to manifest itself. Cycles of emergence can thereby be generated, and these can be very dangerous when the emergent factors in question are negative occurrences or destructive events.

Did someone unleash a spirit on a mission to swallow up people whole in the belly of terra firma? Or did the first reported event cause people to concern themselves excessively with the matter, thereby setting up a kind of causation resonance that allowed for more sinkhole formation? The mechanisms are - again - largely secondary to this discussion. The earth is "eating" people and we can easily learn by what process a hole opens up in what appears otherwise to be solid ground. Have these holes been opening because we expected them to? Did the rash of "zombie" attacks occur because we were fascinated with them and anticipated a "copycat effect"? Do the "spirits" really draw power from our expectations and concerns as most animistic faiths would argue? Superstitions abound in most cultures regarding avoidance of certain trouble-borrowing behaviors like speaking ill of the dead, predicting negative outcomes to courses and events, and cursing the spirit world.

Victims of weird deaths, accidents, and afflictions are often identified as positive individuals who were doing nothing at all wrong just prior to their death, maiming, or the emergence of an illness. But the old medical-spiritual mechanics of Chinese medicine, for instance, argues that this is an unlikely assertion at best. How is it possible for a bad thing to happen to a good person in a just universe? The simple answer is that the universe is not just at all. But to certain thinkers informed by a more spiritual, animistic point of view, the universe is inherently just. It and the denizens of the spirit realms may not exist to punish us, but rather it is the case that when we undertake certain actions or patterns of behavior, we weaken the normal protective psychic patina that otherwise defends us against intrusion or manipulation by one of the Others. This same patina can be understood as stronger or greater from individual to individual, and the weird immunity of some magic users to the negative effects of causation, synchronicity, and spell casting may be most readily explained in this way.

It is often described as being the opinions and beliefs of the collective conscious that shape and mold what is possible and what transpires in the world. What we will has some significant influence on the real environments that we choose to surround ourselves with. Fads and phenomena in the psychological, social, political, and entertainment communities often embrace this fundamental outlook without ever acknowledging it - firm argument in support of the idea that at the head of each cultural structure is a collective or hierarchy of occultists. Concerns over "toxic people", "toxic relationships", "negative thinking", and a host of other considerations are reflections of a deeper understanding of this universe and our place within it. If we "think positively" we are probably much more likely to weather the random storms of life. But we may also be reinforcing our own spiritual armor. This is the Voodoo that you do without ever realizing that you do it. So too, you embrace ideas similar to those found in Vodun when you ascribe a personality and a will to inanimate objects. The car that we ask to keep on running long after it should have found a new home in a junkyard is only one example. Our prayers may have greater weight than any mainstream scientific viewpoint would ever permit.

As it is said in every major monotheistic faith - and in every system accepting the existence of minor and major spirits - "Prayer works."

The only important question is this: Who is answering our prayers?

The Kaskaskia Curse and the Cahokia Connection

The State of Illinois has much to recommend it. It is a beautiful prairie state touched in the northern reaches by rugged country and to the south by bottom lands rich with game and heavily forested. A vast amount of food is grown in Illinois - once mostly prairie - and not a small amount of ethanol is also produced. The state boasts the mighty city of Chicago and several of the nation's better institutions of higher learning. It is governed from the center, however (though many Illinoisans are of the opinion that it is ruled in fact by Chicago) and has been for many years. The State has a storied past, replete with landmark legal cases, courageous military actions and the long, hard struggle of settlers in unknown territory.

Lincoln in his "suave" phase

Illinois was once the American frontier, believe it or not, part of the "Northwest Territory", and it is also notable for a handful of other prideful facts: it was conquered for the Revolutionary effort by the noteworthy George Rogers Clark and fewer than two hundred irregulars - hardened frontiersmen and trappers, for the most part. Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama both claimed Illinois as their homes before ascending to the Presidency. No less, a company of Illinois riflemen nearly captured the Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna while deployed during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. He was of course the notorious character responsible for the massacre at the Alamo (that's not exactly how it went, but legend is better than history). The Illinois riflemen managed to get Santa Anna's wooden leg - evidenced by the fact that it is today on display in a Springfield, IL museum. It is worth noting that the leg is not in Texas; no Texan could manage to get close enough to Santa Anna to spook him enough to leave a leg behind, much less capture the fellow. This incident -  along with the heroism of the 1st and 2nd Illinois riflemen at the battle of Buena Vista - and perhaps the succession of Obama after George W. Bush - certainly has something to do with the old saying, "Never send a Texan to do an Illinoisan's job."

Foreigners often associate America with Texas and vice versa, but it is possible to make a far stronger case that it is Illinois that constitutes the true heart of the nation.

Again, this is in Illinois, not in Texas.

But enough of regionalism. Such things are beneath the discussions undertaken here at the Lamp.

Springfield was not always the capitol of Illinois. Before that, the seat of state governance was in Vandalia, and prior to that, it was at a little place called "Kaskaskia" - population 9, as of the 2000 census. The ghost town was once a thriving city, defended by a nearby fort of the same name, and heavily populated for the times. It was made up largely of settlers of French origin, and a fair population of Native Americans and persons of mixed background were also to be found. The town was apparently designed to be stately, as there were numerous large stone mansions and farm houses, though visitors often described the place as a bit "shabby" - likely a function of its rapid growth. Rivers have a way of binding themselves to communities, particularly places of power. The practical value of the river grew Kaskaskia, but the mystic significance mattered far more, in the end.

The Kaskaskia region

Kaskaskia was settled in 1703 and was situated on the Mississippi, at the western edge of what would become Illinois. It was an auspicious location - at least it appeared to be. The town commanded regional river trade, and the fort made the area secure. By 1809, Kaskaskia was successful enough to be established as the capitol, but it only held this distinction for about nine years. By 1818, Illinois had become a State and as such, legislators felt that the capitol should be more centrally located. The seat of government was moved to Vandalia. But this did not greatly diminish the successful river port and trading post at Kaskaskia. The strange fate of the place came much later, and its source turned out - according to folklore, of course - to be a matter of occult magic from the town's earliest days.

According to legend, the doom of Kaskaskia resulted not from simple natural forces at work, but instead was the denouement of a drama - as always, a tale of star-crossed lovers, jealous men, and desperate youth striving for the right to self-determination. As the story goes, a wealthy trader named Bernard (whether this was the first name or the family name is rarely told and never certain) had a beautiful young daughter of marriageable age. She committed the cardinal sin of falling in love with a young Native American worker in her father's employ. When her father discovered the affair (likely nothing like what we might imagine, since this was said to have occurred in the 1730s, before webcam nudity and "sexting"), he dismissed the young man from his service and implored local land owners and merchants to forbid him employment. Apparently, this Bernard had some weight in the community, and the young man was essentially exiled.

For about a year, Bernard's daughter secretly pined while pretending to be interested in other suitors who came to pay her court. But a band of Natives at last came through the town, ostensibly to trade. This was not an uncommon thing in those days, and suspicions were not aroused until Bernard one day discovered that his daughter was gone. The band had included her true love in disguise, and the couple had fled in the direction of Cahokia. Bernard organized pursuit including some of his daughter's more "acceptable" suitors.

What Cahokia may have looked like, c. 1250

The angry father and his posse caught up with the couple at Cahokia, where they seized the young man and decided to drown him in the nearby river. He was bound to a log and as he was being taken to the banks, we can pause to imagine the scene: Frontiersmen and trappers, clad in wool and buckskin, sporting tomahawks, long knives and flintlocks observing the scene and smoking from pipes. The daughter of Bernard weeping, perhaps begging her father for mercy, her petticoats filthy and torn from the recent frantic flight. Her lover, the young native man, bloodied and beaten but unbroken. Over all of this, the shadow of a power-place, the so-called Monk's Mound, looms.

In all, the event is laden with emotional power and all the makings of true Magick about to work.

The young native man is said to have pronounced a curse as he was thrown into the river to drown: he intoned that Bernard would be dead within the year and that soon after the youth himself and Bernard's daughter would be reunited in the afterworld. Kaskaskia was damned and would be destroyed, "by the river that fed it," and all the land would be drowned. The altars of the churches were doomed to destruction and the homes of the white men too. Most disturbingly, the young "Indian" - in some renderings a young Shaman or the son of a Shaman or chief of the Illiniwek - pronounced that the "dead of Kaskaskia will be cast out of their graves".

Spring Equinox, Woodhenge, Cahokia Mounds

The legend states that Bernard was killed in a duel a few months later, and that his daughter was dead of grief and heart ache within the year. But Kaskaskia went on for many years, until in 1881 a strange shift in the Mississippi river was finally complete, flooding the town for good and cutting it off from land. The Kaskaskia site is today on the west side of the Mississippi - still considered Illinois despite the fact that the river theoretically forms the boundary between Illinois and Missouri. To be sure, this was the culmination a long process, aided by events like the earthquake of December 15th-16th, 1811, during which the river was said to briefly flow backward.

A comparison of the "area of effect" of an earthquake in the New Madrid zone, versus one on the West coast.

Matters occult step in when we recognize that the tragic and romantic drama recounted above is said to have taken place in 1735 in early Spring. It is impossible to determine if this was precisely at the time of the Equinox, but if it was, then the confluence of natural and mystical power was at a crest, since the killing of the young Shaman occurred at Cahokia. The people of that place - long since gone by the time of these events - were careful astronomers. They constructed a henge out of wood, reasonably famous in the region to this day. The exact nature of these circular structures - whether in the New World or Old; whether in stone or timber - is still not clearly understood in academic circles. But to the Occultist, this is a simple matter of a mystic calendar serving simultaneous purposes. These include pragmatic measures of time and careful tracking of seasons, but also mystical alignments of energy to create power centers. The energy in question is always a matter of debate, bound to mislead the uninitiated off into the weeds while professional academics poo-pah the whole matter. But those in the know are perfectly clear that the energy in question - at least on our end - is composed of human thought and human emotion. 

Our belief in things and our attention to them constitute a woven framework of consciousness energy. While the hard scientists decry these notions, they are also fools who work daily to raise a mechanistic state founded upon technology using human beings as a resource and a kind of economic fuel. Beware any woman or man who struggles with love and conversation but manages numbers with ease.

The legend cited here is hardly a matter of historical record. It is in fact an anecdote at best, but it has occult references in plenty. The fact that the murder of the young native man is said to have occurred at Cahokia is significant enough to give us pause, but the fact that the final flooding of Kaskaskia occurred in 1881 is all the more significant. The number is perfectly balanced and reduces in numerological progression to 9. The initiated know well what that means. More importantly, the events that set the curse in motion occurred in 1735, 146 years before the curse had run its course. In the flood of 1881, the dead were forced out of their graves and were washed away by the river; the altars of the churches were destroyed by rising waters. The wrathful prophecy was fulfilled.

We are left with a set of numerological resonances that even the most casual occultist must wonder at. The 1811 earthquake occurred 76 years after the curse was pronounced. The mystic power of the curse ran 146 years, which is a numerological 11 - a master number. We might poke at random into any listing of events and find a few significant examples like this, but the overall character and quality in this matter is of a genuine magical process. In essence, the river might have swallowed Kaskaskia in time anyway, but it appears that something really did lock the decline of that city into a specifically mystical pattern - a magical schedule.
The tale told by tour guides and state historical site officials at fort Kaskaskia is an example of human beings manufacturing a story to explain a set of events. It is also very easy to conceal behind myth and folklore something more significant. In the esoteric tradition, we learn that the land and the people are bound together. 

A nation is a composition of beliefs, since the theoretical divisions and districts of a country are imaginary at best. The great American state that was born in the colonies has its heart and prime arteries in the Midwest. Much of the reported environmental cause of the shift in the Mississippi River described above is associated with the extensive deforestation of its banks to feed the engines of steamships. In essence, whether a young native shaman cursed the region or not, the ways of the new nation were not and are still not in accord with the natural order.

LaSalle and Tonti at Peoria Village (Illiniwek), 1680

Here at the Lamp, we are often concerned with various things of mainstream UFOlogical, cryptozoological and/or paranormal significance. But sometimes we turn slightly aside from the paranormal "heartland" in order to explore the hinterland of weird. 

It is worth noting that the old habit of utilizing imagery and symbols drawn from a conquered people has much to recommend it psychologically and culturally, but far more support for the practice may be found in mysticism. The very generations that embraced cultural and racial divisions and hatreds also enshrined certain ideals associated with native populations in the Americas, and a kind of mystic reconciliation is worked by this. Awe and respect for what one has destroyed is both cruel and hypocritical, but it has a magical purpose of holding back the forces of vengeance which were unleashed by the sins of imperialism. This is a curious example of the duality of human nature and mystic nature. If we believe not at all in mysticism and spiritual power, then in a sense, the exploitation of Native American imagery is a matter of putting away stereotypes and looking toward a new age. But it is this new age that we should pause to consider; perhaps it is sterile and without character or charisma. Perhaps it is an age of death, in which the dead have risen from their graves because the altars of the churches are no more. Value systems die hard deaths, not because people are unwilling to give them up, but because the cost is often more than we can bear.

For the uninitiated, a hidden meaning is hard to find in even the simplest slip-coded passages. But to play upon metaphor is never enough; to farm and mine and otherwise refine the resources of raw imagery can only point us in the right direction, when it does not give us specific instructions for rites, operations or processing. Why care about wronged natives, despairing maidens and flooded Kaskaskia?

If you would conquer a land and lay its people under the sword, it were best to remember and honor the ghosts of those you have wronged. The ghosts may forgive or forget in time, but they still walk the land.

And the land never forgets.

Occult Ritual Murder & the Dark Orders

Let us tread carefully on this ground, since the matter is one of some sensitivity.

Roberto Calvi - Murdered by P2?

The skeptic and the naysayer often deny the existence of secret societies, citing tried and true arguments like, "How can a society be secret if we know about it?" A fine question, and only too powerful were it not for the fact that the question itself is completely irrelevant.

First, there are many orders concealed by total secrecy, their names and their membership rolls so occult that they are only kept within the heads of particular members. For these we will find no internet references and no books, articles or card catalog entries leading to missing resources - a common trick among the occult orders, and useful for a researcher to know, if one is curious and dogged enough to spend weeks searching the local library.

Second, there are many orders with an open and obvious presence, but whose internal workings and structure are completely unknown to the public. Often, this inner secrecy is compounded by members being divided into degrees, and only the highest degrees know fully what it is that the organization is up to. Moreover, compartmentalization of the sort seen in espionage and intelligence circles is utilized to prevent information from wandering too far from its custodians. This same compartmentalization is derived from the psychological phenomenon so essential in avoidance of guilt and self-loathing when the secrets we keep or the decisions we are party to have some sinister component. And we must never forget that modern espionage learned most of its tricks from the occult masters of old.

One of the best ways to hide is in plain sight. No less, in terms of occult orders, we are talking generally about magic users. It is perfectly possible to stand directly in front of even a friend, acquaintance, or loved one without them recognizing or noticing you. This is even more easily accomplished with strangers, and is an application of the art known to wizards and ninjas alike. This is related to the ninjutsu "Shadow Technique" or koei no jutsu. We are also talking about less mystical applications, however, for this includes the use of disguise, misdirection, hypnosis and a host of other methods. What is possible on the individual scale or micro-scale is possible at ascending orders, up to the macro-scale. This is precisely why both Masonic lodges and CIA headquarters are such very visible structures.

The occult world around us all is usually visible only to the initiated and the acolyte; the master sees nothing but the world as it is, without these fictional divisions between mundane and occult. But that is another story. Very rarely, the occult goings on will accidentally and briefly surface for even the blind to see. We can cite in this regard the events surrounding the infamous Italian P2 or Propaganda Due Masonic Lodge, so well-known and attested that it has it's own Wikipedia page. This is hardly what we would expect from a completely secret society or at least one steeped in the use of espionage tactics and techniques, but it is the sort of thing that is bound to happen once in a while. Humans are imperfect, even when aided by occult magic. If an occult order has been around for centuries without too much information regarding its activities bubbling to the surface, the laws of probability require that every so often, something must slip through the cracks. Hence the current discussions of the Skull & Bones Order, the Bohemian Grove goings on, and various other supposed and/or clearly valid examples of active secret societies.

Contemplation of the divine, and one's place within it.

We know in our own era much of what was once secret, simply because most of those who intended to keep secrets two thousand years ago have little interest in keeping the secrets today. Death has a way of quieting men's fears and settling their concerns. We know about mystery cults within the pagan temple systems, for instance. These are considered by some scholars to be linked to Christianity even now. The records of such things are a part of history; the continuation of these is regarded as debatable in academic circles, but we must always view academics - like all experts - with absolute suspicion. The notion of a class or group existing separate from the application of skepticism and accountability is a canard of the damned. It is automatically rejected by the enlightened.

Evidence for the activities of the Occult Elite is a matter of fact, not speculation. We serve the Way and the Creator when we observe truth as the highest calling. There is no equivocation in the teaching that "the Truth shall set you free," and even less obfuscation in the teaching stating, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Faith and forthrightness are matters much in doubt under the pall of the influence of this rising New World Order. Do not be misled or otherwise drawn off course: The old teachings are valid when we understand that no one body of the Law is accurate; all bodies of the Law are accurate when we recognize how they are bound together.

Every so often there are murders, heists, strange shifts in the political and economic spheres, and weird developments visible in the mainstream media that hint at occult goings on. Take for example the case of a man found hanging in the Eugene, Oregon Masonic Cemetery in late February. The specific date was February 21, 2013, and the death was ruled a suicide fairly rapidly by officers on the scene. Weirdly, this particular matter ran originally on the KVAL site linked above and was picked up by Eugene Daily News and www.oregonnewstoday.com. All available sites link back to the KVAL blurb. A search of the Eugene, OR police department website will yield no additional data. The name of the individual is not given. Circumstances surrounding the case are also not given. In point of fact, as of the time of this writing, the date for the event is no longer accessible on the police blotter report, since it has "rolled off" the search listing. At the time the report was initially viewed by our office on 03/01, the date February 21, 2013, did not yield any such report - a search yielded an internal error on the website. It is as though this briefly reported event never actually happened.

We are left with two options: Either the news report is some sort of error or intentional deception for reasons unknown, or the event is deliberately suppressed for reasons equally unknown. It is not uncommon to protect the confidentiality of families in cases like this, so it is perhaps not surprising that little information is available.

An effort to stop the will of Creation itself.

We are reminded of the death of a known Occult Elite collaborator, Roberto Calvi. A bit of background is of course in order: Calvi was chairman of the second largest bank in Italy at the time of its bankruptcy in 1982, the Banco Ambrosiano. Robert Hutchinson wrote in Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei that Calvi's family claimed he was the pawn of much more powerful interests. The general implication has been that the Mafia, baronial families dealing in Italian markets and abroad, and the infamous P2 or Propaganda Due Masonic Lodge were the players that moved the bank chairman. He was convicted in 1981 on charges involving the illegal transfer of about $27 million outside of Italy in defiance of national currency laws. Later, in 1982, he went missing from his Rome apartment, eventually turning up as a hanged man, dangling beneath London's Blackfriar's Bridge.

The bridge itself.

There are a great many possible suspects in his murder, not least of which are agents of the Vatican, since the Banco Ambrosiano's largest shareholder was the Vatican Bank, or "Institute for the Works of Religion". Calvi is reported as having warned Pope John Paul II of the impending financial disaster in advance; the default is said to have run between about $700 million and $1.5 billion, U.S. But the essential quality of the murder, and the location of Calvi's body, smacks entirely of the work of an Occult Elite Order. One cannot point to the Masons or the "Illuminati" (a fictional identification used as an umbrella to refer to what are in reality several dozen groups of enormously wealthy esoteric colleges), but it is absolutely provocative that Calvi ended up as a "hanged man". The erudite reader will have noted the running theme and occulted encryption of this post; the Hanged Man is a powerful symbol, used to reference the occult but also to serve as a mystical, magical force expressing that no further action may be taken in a matter. The suspension of the victim is the suspension of events and circumstances.

The Hanged Man is an ancient symbol infused with active magick; he is meant to indicate that time has stopped with respect to a course of events. He exists in the plane between now and tomorrow, as well as in the place between life and death. He is an overt pragmatic warning of things to come for those who dare to continue to rattle the same cages and shake the same tree. But the mystical resonance of a hanged victim is not to be ignored. Because events may hang between occurrences in time, the Hanged Man is in Tarot not a figure of death, but rather of life being contemplated, or spiritual serenity being achieved. It is for these reasons that he is typically depicted as hanged by his leg or foot, rather than by the neck. Often, he is depicted as crowned with a halo, and either martyred or enlightened in this sense.

"If you truly believe, come help us burn these people..."

If a Light intent is sought, the man is hanged by his foot and he contemplates the beatitudes of this universe and all attendant realities. His martyrdom - such as it is - is not a deadly thing. But if he hangs by the neck and is dead, then a different meaning is intended. This is a warning to those temporal forces that seek the truth or any kind of justice. It is also a mystical working, an auto-da-fe of blackest intent, designed to change the outcomes of individual and group undertakings such that evil proceeds from any hoped-for good. The dead man is not just a symbolic killing reminding those who pry too deeply of the potential fate they court; he is also a sacrifice to the dark powers in the hope that the undertaking of those working in evil may be protected by powers greater than themselves and far more twisted.

Inversion is a powerful form of Magick; let this not be forgotten.

But let us never forget that overt Tarot is a child of Light Magic and the esoteric workings focused upon salvation, liberation, and hope. While most of the lower arts do not begin to approach the higher philosophical meanings, they at least point to the forces of creation, rather than the forces of destruction. But we cannot expect the same of dark lodges, mafia organizations and international banks, to say nothing of the twisted terror that the Vatican might be capable of if it is led by those with a will to do evil. Calvi appears to have died so that others would know to leave the matter alone, and to force a pause in any investigations not alone by intimidation, but also by raw magical interference. The best magic binds the practical and the numinous in a single act. For the naysayer, it is worthy to note that whatever the true cause of Calvi's death, the effect is that the investigation floundered and the belated trial in 2005 in which various individuals were accused of complicity was ultimately unsuccessful - there were no convictions. The matter rests, much as Calvi rested - hanging in space and time, immobile and undisturbed.

This was super pimp in the 13th Century.

The term, "Blackfriar" refers to the monks of the Dominican Order, founded by St. Dominic (pictured above). The order was known in France as the Jacobins, due to attachment to the Church of St. James (Jacobus in Latin) and they were sometimes termed "the Hounds of the Lord" - Domini Canes. Hounds have long been associated with death, not least due to the fact that they were - and still are - used in hunting. Hounds also have the disconcerting habit of picking over the bodies of the slain after a battle, competing with various carrion eaters like other canines as well as vultures. The howling of a hound by night is often thought to presage or announce a death. Some families have a "black hound" associated with them; this spirit animal will appear as a means of informing the members of the household that a relative has passed.

Blackfriar's Bridge is an excellent place to hang the victim of an occult ritual murder, in other words. The synchronicity identified by Jung has an older nomenclature: Magick. The alignment of events with mystic concepts playing upon the unconscious mind is the perfect practice of applied magick in this regard. Other applications certainly exist, but when a powerful group wishes to send a message to other powerful groups, details similar to these are very often the hallmarks of such a communication. The use of magick has long been condemned by mainstream religions, even in antiquity.

The uninitiated very often stumble into error in these matters, because it is easy for those with limited imagination and little spiritual courage to accept that one book shall be their sole source of instruction. Such an attitude derives from intellectual laziness and a kind of cowardice with respect to the unknown and numinous realms. No Occult Order - fair or foul - can ever recruit from the ranks of those who run or fight at the first signs of oddities and glamours. Instead, the ranks of occult groups are swelled by those, who when presented with the unknown, desire to know more. The Way is not contained; it flows through all things and the teachings are often found in absurd places.

Moses... wait, no, that's Gandalf. I always get the two confused...

The old Hebraic identity of God - El Shaddai - is a terrifying entity that will destroy you if you don't do as He likes. This is the divine spirit so often seen to infuse the Monotheistic interpretations of God: The Destroyer suits the darker needs of men. Even God can be twisted, since the true Divine has little concern for passing fancies and various styles of worship. Religion is more a fad in the eyes of the true Creator than it is a means for achieving communion. Magick managed to be lumped in with a variety of sins not because it violates some theological structures, but rather because it appears to emulate them. Moses was a powerful wizard, after all; his power source is the sole departure from more arcane systems. The various Occult Elite orders have long been aware of this, leading to magickal practice and ritual abounding in the public square, directly under the gaze of the collective of the uninitiated. We can be reasonably certain that some of these take the form of murder rites. Sacrifice is all the more useful when the victim has violated the sacred trust of the order to which she or he once belonged.

Sure, it's weird, but does it summon Baphomet?

The long rule of Western Monotheism has led to various side effects which we may be certain are regarded as unintentional only by those not in the know. Whenever power rises, rebellion is the counter-stroke. Where we may desire rebellion, it is only realized if the power against which we rise is not sufficient to crush resistance at its first emergence. This is the issue faced by the current incarnation of Rome: the American Empire. If the espionage systems and technologies as well as the military/police forces prove insufficient (as so often has happened in history when power appears absolute until tested), then rebellion will carry. Every power structure is aware of this, seeks to prevent the conditions necessary, and fears greatly the results of failure. It is from these causes that the inner sancta of so many orders are willing to kill to keep secrets and instill terror. Causing death is the supreme expression of power, and summoning Death Himself is the supreme occult activity for those drawn to the darkness. Power and darkness walk hand-in-hand; one is but the shadow of the other. For the initiated, it is understood that this koan cuts both ways.

In leaving behind these matters, we must pause to consider the older name for the monotheistic God: Yahweh. This name is of impossibly complex origin and its meaning is a matter of much debate in the world of academia. But this has more to do with the fact that the name contains an ancient secret of enormous power, than any notion that the matter is really in doubt. Obfuscation is the occultist's primary purpose, since the teachings are "secret" by definition. But such an attitude cannot serve for those dedicated to Liberation Magic. The true power lies in the heart and souls of individual human beings, not in decadent and demon-infested elite conclaves. Yahweh's "daughter" is Sophia (as Zeus's "daughter" was Athena), and she is Wisdom. Yahweh Himself is Existence: I AM that I AM. Creation is an unending act accessible to us all, no matter how many Hanged Men turn up in conspicuous places. Time will not stop, and neither will the dynamic will of One God Many Faces. For those who seek total power, it is essential that certain rituals be employed to slow the pace of time; only through petrifaction can injustice reign. The old masters taught, "Fear turns men to stone; he who uses fear is a servant of the darkness." Stillness is the dictator's only friend.

This is the Eye of Creation, and Dante was an Owl.

Are you a member of Athena's Men? Do you accept the symbol, the responsibility, the dedication to discovering the teachings of the Way in all things? Would you be an Owl, a watcher in the night and a warder against the darkness, in service to human freedom and dignity and the right of self-determination? Some Occult Orders are designed to bind their membership not by weird sex rites, ritual murders and manipulation through greed and temptation. Some Occult Orders are composed of faithful servants of ancient and true principles, founded upon trust in a single overriding truth: The goodness placed within human beings by the Creator is a light that cannot be extinguished.

The faithful know when the time has come to act, but only the wise know what course to take.