Rest in Peace Ms. Francis: An Esoteric Look

     I was sad to hear that Anne Francis had died, at age 80, of pancreatic cancer. I blogged about Ms. Francis at Pulp Jello, with a link to the very excellent Monster Island News, who has a lovely post about her.
     Aside from her role in the classic sci-fi Forbidden Planet, Anne Francis was had her own way cool TV show in the sixties: Honey West. I loved that show! I was ten years old, and watched it religiously. Boy, I wanted to be her when I grew up!
     In looking at clips of the show on YouTube, I noticed a couple of estoeric themed episodes. One is The Owl and the Eye, where Honey West is hired to protect a statue of an owl:

     This episode clip is titled The Abominable Snowman:

The trailer for Forbidden Planet:

Alfred Lehmberg on Linda Moultan Howe

Alfred Lehmberg has a nice post on meeting Linda Moulton Howe on UFO Magazine's blog: Strange Tresure.

Howe has her detractors, and, while I think disagree with her views on paranormal aspects of UFOlogy, and think she's been gullible at times, the vehemence of her critics don't match with her supposed "crimes." She's brought far more productive things to UFOlogy than not.

Witchy Discernments and Witchy Facts: Christine O'Donnell

It's not illegal to be a witch in the United States. Or, for that matter, a Satanist (i.e., "devil worshipper.") It's not illegal to be a Muslim, or an atheist in the United States. But from the reactions of many to Christine O'Donnell, who are freaked by the idea she might have been a witch, you'd think it was illegal. The same mechanisms in people who are "afraid" Obama is a Muslim, as if that's an illegal act.

Fear of witchery is of course combined with pure stupid ignorance. An airhead goes blithely off with some edgy punk boyfriend who's "dabbling" in devil worship, witchcraft er, whatever.  Not only from those afraid O'Donnell is, or was, a witch, or is harboring some kind of dormant witch gene that will  spontanely possess her, but O'Donnell herself. Here's what she said in 1999 on the Bill Maher show:

She's so stupid she can't tell the difference between Wicca, witches, and Satanists. Neither can most of America.

People are also blaming Maher for this. All he did was have her on his show; she said it, he didn't.

Here's another fact: witchcraft, Wicca, are protected by the U.S. Army. You have the legal right to be a witch and practice that religion under the "natural relligion" category. For more on this visit the Religious Tolerance site. This doesn't stop the ignorant, the snarky, and the religious intolerants from doing their best to spread fear and persecute those who are practicing witches, but it's encouraging, a bit.

"We're in the Money," -- Not

Those of us that write on things esoteric, on blogs, on e-zines, for publications, make very little, if any, money. We do it for... all kinds of reasons. Because we like to write, because we're creative and find writing a form of creative expression, because we like to share and communicate with others, because we've had our own experiences and are trying to figure them out, because we like to think and ponder and wonder, because... many more reasons I haven't thought of. But one thing is clear, we aren't in it for the money. I don't expect money. Well, I expect money in the sense I'm hopeful and have intent and am not projecting negativity, just being realistic. We don't, most of us, write because we think we're going to make money. It's safe to say most of us wouldn't turn money down if it came our way, but it's not expected. It's not about money. If it were, we wouldn't be doing this.

So, in that context, I THANK YOU to all the contributors here at Women Of Esoterica. I am constantly amazed at the fact that everyone here: Kithra, Lesley, Richelle Hawks, Danielle Lee, Anya, Deirdre, Karyn Dolan, Farah Yurdozu, Tina Sena, and Chris Holly contribute to this blog for FREE. Thank you, thank you.

Moving on. . . while most of us write for free, or very little, and of course welcome any money that may come our way, we do it for the reasons listed above, and more. Hopefully, if we're serious enough, or rather, sincere enough, in our intent, in our journey, in our research, some respect comes our way. Genuine discussions on all this stuff; Forteana, anomalous, UFOs, paranormal, whatever . . . takes place. Some even get to make an actual impact somewhere beyond the fringe. That's pretty huge.

We all know there are plenty of clown shoes in this field. Some of them are downright thieving, nasty, lying, dung filled clown shoes.  On the other end of the continuum are the sincere, the honest, the genuine researchers and people who have dedicated themselves to exploration in this realm, and, while they may not be paid in money, they are deserving of respect and care. You don't just kick 'em out because they haven't performed produced the right amount of stuff for your personal agenda, be it bank account or what. Especially if you don't pay them in the first place.

Lesley's Grey Matters: "Susan Boyle is killing Ufology!"

Lesley's new Grey Matters is up at Binnall of America, and this week she writes about the fascination with the decidedly non-fascinating, while ignoring the real fascinating stuff around us. In Susan Boyle is killing Ufology! Lesley writes:

When I see things like Susan Boyle capture so much attention -- I can only agree with the government (assuming they know a lot about ufos) that we are not ready for disclosure.

We watch it all the time -- the weird crap that captures the nation and/or the western world's attention. Anna Nicole Smith, OJ, Brad/Jen/Angelina and so on. Meanwhile, there is truly amazing stuff going on and most people don't seem to even care. (Italics mine)

I share with Lesley a pleasure in getting some gossipy goods -- shallow, fine, but the point is, as Lesley puts it, is that some of us know it's gossip, and get our gossip "news" from gossip type sources. It in itself isn't news news, not of any great import, but sadly, even places like CNN treat gossip and entertainment buzz with equal seriousness:

I expect to get my celeb gossip from the same place I have always got it, The National Enquirer, not the nightly news or 24 hour news channels. Even on those, I don't mind a short mention of the gossip, but I don't want it to be treated like news because it isn't. Celebrity gossip is treated like being REAL news, far more so than things that are really amazing and could really change the world as we know it -- like ufos.

Seriously, Britney's head shaving incident is treated like a national tragedy that should concern us all. Dozens of people seeing a strange object in the sky over Stephenville (or anywhere else) is comic relief.

Yes, culture has it ass backwards all right. I remember many years ago, when Miami Vice was popular, one of the network news programs breaking in during regular programming with a "news alert" to let us know that actor Don Johnson was gettting a divorce. I remember thinking if I hadn't just slipped into some silly topsy turvy alternate dimension, where news isn't, up is down, that kind of thing.

Lesley asks why it is that mainstream culture is so fascinated with the likes of gossip and other frivolous distractions, while ignoring the truly fantastic (and unexplained?)

Lesley begins her article by talking about American Idol's Susan Boyle who is "unattractive." I saw the clip where she comes out, and the expressions on the faces of both audience and judges. Some of those expressions included outright disgust.

As to the perennial question of why mainstream society and the infrastructure continues to ignore, ridicule and marginalize paranormal and Fortean type occurrences, while it's extremely frustrating, it might be some comfort to realize this is as much a part of the phenomena itself in many cultures, including ours. Call it the Trickster or what you like, but the phenomena enjoys this constant dance of "catch me if you can," of being elusive. Anomalous events, from Bigfoot to ghosts to UFOs and all of the other stuff in between are subversive, anti-structure, in your face occurrences that thumb their noses at science, religions, and society's comfort zones. Like gossip and entertainment. Everyone, including the skeptoids and pathological debunkers, know damn well these things exist, they simply cannot acknowledge the fact. Willful ignorance of the data, marginalizing and trivializing both the phenomena and individuals who experience, believe or research weird stuff, and insults are the rule, as well as the weird inverse of phenomena that Lesley points out. Gossip and fascination with the shallow bewitches; while the real mysteries are shoved aside.

Something About UFO-Mary

Two nights in a row have me dreaming about Mary, and Melina Mecouri, Rosalind Russell, and street theater. You can read about it on UFO-Mary.

Mary Alice Bennett: Sauniere and the Diva Emma Calve - Her Occult Influence

Hoffet also introduced Sauniere to the opera singer Emma Calve, the famous diva who was also a high priestess of the Parisian esoteric underground, and a Cathar.

Fascinating piece on UFO Digest by writer Mary Alice Bennett: Sauniere and the Diva Emma Calve - Her Occult Influence. New for me, and wonderfully intriguing. If you’re interested in the Cathars, Mary Magdelene, etc. you’ll want to read this.