Is UFOlogy Dead? : Do We Even Want To Ask?

Noticing a lot of UFO pundits posing the question: is ufology dead? Oy. Here we go again. This question gets asked every now and then. The question raises another question: Why does one believe UFOlogy is "dead" in the first place? A lack of, … what, that causes one to ask the question.

And maybe UFOlogy isn't "dead" so much as it is dormant. Like the Phoenix, it rises again, renewed.

Classic cases remain unsolved. The whole thing remains unsolved. As in, what are they, who are they, what do they want, how are we connected . . .

Because the questions are unanswered -- at least to a global community agreement -- some consider UFOlogy as "dead."

Things change, while remaining the same. True of all, certainly of the UFO realm. Maybe what's "dead" is us, not "it." We're not asking the right questions, we're still eating our own, and stubbornly clinging to assumptions. We're still drawing lines in the sand about what is all right to consider, and what is too far out, kooky, embarrassing.

Artist MIchele Witchipoo: The Three of Swords

The Three of Swords, by Michele Witchipoo

Michele Witchipoo is an artist; comic books, creator of Psycho Bunny,
and more. She recently shared her version of The Three of Swords, minor arcana Tarot. I like it; if there's a deck coming from Witchipoo, I'm going to order it!

Visit her site; she has lots of artwork and you can order Psycho Bunny, among others, as well as commission art work.

Outsider/Folk Art: Patroness of Fallen Women

About fifteen years ago, there was a local woman who sold religious folk art/outsider art items at her booth at the Saturday Market. Saturday Market is a long running street fair in Eugene (since 1970),  full of booths of hand made items, as well as food booths and lots of music.

I bought several things from her at the time and did a paper on her when I was studying folklore at the University of Oregon.

This is a beaded necklace, with a wood pendant. On the front is an image of St. Maria Magdalene. On the back is a little label: "St. Maria Magdalene Patroness of Fallen Women." This is what Books of the Times site has to say about St. Maria Magdalene:

There is a breathtaking moment in the Gospel of Philip, one of the Gnostic gospels, which were denounced by the church as heresy. The apostles witness Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene on the mouth. The apostles are horrified, jealous. ''Why do you love her more than us?'' they ask. Jesus' response is mysterious and enigmatic. ''Why do I not love you like her?'' he says.

What is the meaning of those kisses? Sexual passion? A profound friendship? Jesus anointing Mary Magdalene as his successor and as leader of the church?

Traditionally, Mary Magdalene has been seen as a reformed harlot, portrayed in paintings as red haired and bare breasted. But as Karen L. King, the Winn professor of ecclesiastical history at Harvard University, in the Divinity School, points out in her new book, ''The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle,'' nowhere does the Bible say that she was a prostitute.

I know I have that paper, with photos, around here somewhere. I also have other items that I hope to take snaps of and post. I think the woman -- a very colorful person! -- called herself "Sister Spirit" and I want to say "bear" was in there somewhere, but it's been many years and I don't remember.

She sold jewelry with decorated images of the saints and the BVM as well as Jesus. She was known for her Jesus nightlights: religious plastic nightlights of Jesus and Mary, (the kind you can buy at dime stores; I've even seen them at Dollar Store type places) painted, often with neon colors, and decorated with beads, glitter, feathers .

I haven't been to the Saturday Market for a couple of years; but when I have gone there, I didn't notice her around. I think she left the area some time ago, or at least, stopped making her wonderful folk art.

(cross posted on UFO Mary.)

Found Poem: 'It's OK to be a woman'

“It’s OK to be a woman!”

found poem, by Regan Lee, April 2011

inspired by the ravings of Henry Makow’s It’s OK to be a woman: April 1st, 2008

It's OK to be a woman!

pretty daffodils poking their heads

above matted leaves,

alone

strike me as confused.

You have been betrayed by society.

poison for women.

the things you most need

courtship and marriage.

No more dates.

No more flowers, dinners, dances

and movies.

behavior modification

Watch this video.

dynamiting the four legs of our human identity

You are in the Springtime of your life.

you are

at the height

of your fertility

we can't get a raincheck from nature.

Consecrate yourself

Don't waste your time

on boys

or

nomads.

Let the sluts

have the sex.

sacrifice

for the right man. (This will make him love you.)

the dynamics of heterosexuality

SEX IS THE SECRET RELIGION OF SECULAR SOCIETY

hunger for food or love.

Our neo-pagan society

a mystical religious experience

achieving

salvation.

society is secretly run

by a sex cult,

obelisks

illustrated sex

our religion.

goddesses. 

as ordinary as men.

Hollywood nonsense

flawed

you have been betrayed by society.

social engineering.

participate.

Green Warty Things: Capes and Entities

The Shaman's Cape


 A Strange Green Cape
About twelve years ago I was visiting friends who were house sitting for a mutual friend of ours.  The home owner traveled to Mexico frequently on business; he owned a store in Oregon, and brought back folk art, books, and ceramics to sell in his store.

As I was wandering around the home looking at his extensive book collection, I noticed a large cape hanging on the wall. This cape was very unusual. It wasn’t made of any type of cloth, but seemed waxy and stiff, with little “horns” or  large thick thorns protruding from it. The cape was a darkish lime green color. While the cape wasn’t made from any cloth like material and didn’t look like it’d be comfortable to wear -- certainly not practical -- it was obvious this was a cape indented to be worn.

I touched the cape,rubbing my fingers on its smooth surface, being careful of course to avoid those white yellowish stud things that were clearly sharp enough to really hurt if touched.  I appreciated the cape for its history (whatever that may be, since I didn’t have a clue) and was drawn to it for some reason -- I couldn’t stop running my hands down the cool smooth surface.  Even while I was attracted to the cape, I felt uncomfortable around it at the same time; I didn’t like it. It was big and ugly, a sickish green color, and subconsciously, it annoyed me. It just seemed out of place.


Overcome with Fatigue: An OOBE
I had planned on staying to visit with my friends but suddenly felt extremely tired. It was the middle of the afternoon and a beautiful day, but I had to get home -- I was just so suddenly exhausted. Fortunately I didn’t live far, just a couple of miles. Yet riding my bike home on that beautiful day was so damn exhausting. I was losing focus; as if I were coming down with the flu yet I didn’t feel sick, as in ill, just ... inexplicably tired.

As soon as I got home I headed right for the bed, flopping down and grateful to finally make it home. Almost immediately I began to leave my body; one of those OOBE states that happen to me spontaneously and that I haven’t been able to control since I was a child. I wasn’t asleep, but not awake exactly, yet I was consciousness of the bedroom, the open window, the sun coming through the screen and other mundane things. At the same time I was paralyzed  but felt myself rapidly leaving my body. I could hear the sound of whistles and flutes coming from a distance away, then getting closer. These musical sounds were not coming from outside (like a neighbors house or stereo) but from whatever place my astral body was going towards...

The next thing I knew I was in a deep sleep.  I remember visions of chanting and signing, the flutes and whistles again, the cape draped around someone, a man. I couldn’t see his face. We were somewhere in the desert, or some rural country area. It was night and the stars were numerous and very close to the ground; I could touch them if I just reached out far enough. This was no dream; it was as real as this moment now, sitting here typing this. The memory of the desert ground; so hard, with dusty brown bits of soft dust, the coolish night air, the smells of earth and night, the music of flutes, bells, chanting. I was next to this man in a cape, his cape, face unseen, doing a jerky kind of wheeling, turning movement beneath the stars.

Add caption

A History Revealed
When I woke up, it was dark, and I felt as if I’d been poisoned. Not actually physically sick  but I mean, I felt as if someone had given me some kind of sleeping pill  or drugged me in some way. It took me a very long time to get back to reality. I felt sluggish and my tongue felt thick. This feeling lasted for a couple of days.

A day or two later I found out that this cape was from Mexico and had belonged to a Shaman. It was used in special ceremonies. I hadn’t mentioned this to my friend; it was the other way around. He had told me, quite spontaneously, that he was told that the cape was used for magical purposes that involved whistles and dancing, and was performed out in the desert, away from towns and especially the Church. How or why our friend managed to get this cape I don’t know, except that was a collector of what we call folk art and folk religious items. To those that participated in these dances and ceremonies, those are just labels used by outsiders.


Desert Visitation: The Green Warty "Man"
This incident happened about twenty-five years ago or so.  I was sitting on the bed reading. It was still early, around 7:00 pm, maybe earlier. I was simply on top of the covers, dressed, reading my book. My husband was in the other room. I had what I call a “mind post card,” -- it’s an experience that happens every so often, where the picture, absolutely vivid 3-D full color image,  is “inserted” into my mind with a sharp suddenness. It’s as if someone had literally slid a postcard or a slide  of an image (and very often a moving image) into my head. I don’t know where it comes from, or why it happens. Usually it’s a telepathic thing: a preview of something that occurs later that day, or within a day or two. This time however, it wasn’t a prediction of something; it was a “visit.”

source: UFO-FYI

The Lime Green Warty Man in the Desert
This “mind post card” was of a dirty lime-green being with warts or bony stubby nubs all over his body. He had two little stubs or buttons at the top of his forehead; not horns or antlers, but the suggestion of such. I just “knew” that this being was male. It wasn’t human, but it wasn’t animal. It was maybe closer to human than not, but definitely not human. He was sitting in profile to me, squatting down actually. We were out in the desert -- or, he was. At this point it doesn’t matter; it was as if I was transported, or his whole world superimposed itself onto mine. I was there with him/it. We had entered each other’s realm of existence. Somehow I had been transported to his desert, and his desert had moved closer to my world. He looked a bit like this ubiquitous image of the alien in Varginha, Brazil without the red glowing eyes, and much greener.

He saw me -- or sensed me --  and turned his head to look at me. He slowly grinned at me, but this was no happy smiley expression! He was a nasty piece of work! It was clear he knew exactly how I was feeling, and thought it very funny in a sadistic way. He was also a little irritated I was there -- or, he was here -- that we were in each other’s worlds. He didn't like that I had, however unintentionally, managed to cross over and into his realm.

Coming Back in a Flash and a Scream
I was so damn startled that I screamed. With that scream he popped out (or I was snapped back to my own reality.) And again he seemed irritated, it as if he wanted me to stick around so he could toy with me. He was mad I had screamed and ruined the fun. Such a temporary and special event gone in a flash. I was so damn unnerved by this, frightened, that I was annoyed at my husband. "Didn't you hear me scream?" I asked him. "Yes," he said, but told me he didn't come into the bedroom because he thought I was dreaming, or just stubbed a toe or something. Of course there was nothing he could have done about a green warty desert dwelling entity that appeared on the astral plane, but I was so unhinged by the experience I wasn't thinking logically.

Image: Brain Froud

To this day I remember that experience with a chill. I don’t associate any UFO experience or connection with this (although, with all the high strangeness that often accompanies UFOs who knows) and I wouldn’t say it was alien. Not alien from another planet; not even alien from this earth. But  I had the sense it very much belonged here and was of the earth, and it belonged here, if such judgments can be made on these things, more than humans. I had the feeling it was indigenous to the earth.

Sex of The Fourth Kind: Alien-Human Sex Studies: | UFO Digest provides video proof of ufos, alien abduction and the paranormal.

From Paul Schroeder for UFO Digest, the following article on sex and aliens:Sex of The Fourth Kind: Alien-Human Sex Studies:

Part of the understanding of the interaction between alien and humans on Earth is not just in understanding alien tactics and underlying alien motives.

It is of a sexual nature.

The astounding answer in part begins with the realization that we are, by nature, beyond our awareness and general understanding, inter dimensional beings.

We contain and exude both a physical energy and a spiritual energy.

As some of our psychic "energy" extends into other dimensions, these energies can be seen and regularly utilized by dark entities.

Reptilian/grey aliens the pilots of UFOs, demons, and other dark astral wildlife, frequent this dark dimension.

Sex of The Fourth Kind: Alien-Human Sex Studies: | UFO Digest provides video proof of ufos, alien abduction and the paranormal.

Idea is, entities/aliens=demons, who are feeding off us sexually... really a not unfamiliar theme in esoterica, and lore has a wealth of stories of succibi and incubus. Are those really aliens, or descriptions of energies religious people call "demons" (non-ET, but non-human entities just the same).

And in a somewhat related post: my entry on UFO Mary about "demonic possession" via sexual activity, as well as the general insanity of Henry Makow's website.

New Posts at The C Influence

New posts up at The 'C'-Influence blog, Rick Phillips and Bruce Duensing's blog/experiment in esoteric and philosophic thought. Lesley and I are both contributors over there. Current discussion is on harmonics.

TCI - SP3 - Lee Actualizes Discussion on Harmonics. My piece is inspired and generated from Bruce Duensing's work on harmonics, energy, cetacean intelligence. . . as usual, when it comes to Bruce, it's difficult to do his work justice. So go over there and read it already!

I've also added my Amazon book suggestions and my "Terrence McKenna" clip of the moment.

New Age Clown Fish Dream

Wonderful dream last night in a kind of goofy way. There is much more to this dream that goes along with what I posted about awhile ago on Snarly Skepticism, and maybe I'll post about that but for now, I'll just share this one part:

I'm some kind of psychic/healer/medium and am hired by a family to heal their fish; a clown fish. The clown fish is beautiful, but much larger than clown fish in waking life. This dream clown fish is about two feet long, almost eel like, but very friendly and beautiful. The orange color, all the colors, just lovely. But the clown fish is sick, so I'm hired to come and help.

The family is a blended family and a large one. Mostly Caucasian American and Indians, Hindu and Buddhist. 


I go into the room where the fish is. There are two tanks. One on a shelf, the other tank on a shelf higher and off to the left a bit. A tube connects the two. After looking at the fish I know the fish will most likely be all right, though it's sick now, but the rest is up to the family, I tell them. They really love this fish. I tell them the fish has a "Forty seventy" chance of living (I realize when I woke up you can't have a "forty seventy" but that's what was said in the dream) and that, instead of being sad that there's a seventy percent chance it might die, be grateful and concentrate on the forty percent that he'll live.


I show them how to sit with the fish every day, for at least ten minutes a day, and just concentrate on the fish being well. Send it love, literally, white light from your heart to the fish, and back again. Everyone in the family has to do this, and even when away from the fish, think about the fish and send it love and light.

I tell them it's important to keep the tanks clean, make sure the water is fresh and running and let the fish go back and forth between tanks. The fish follows the tube between tanks.  And indeed, as we're there in the room and I'm talking, the fish is happier and brighter and swimming back and forth between tanks.

I think this dream has something to do with the subconscious and the whole circus discussion surrounding UFO experiences. The clown fish, aside from the name, is orange (orange orb.) The clown fish was not just a happy go lucky rather silly fish; it was actually very beautiful and intelligent, as well as happy.

The BVM, The Vatican and Project Blue Beam: Paranoid Thoughts

I posted this short item on my blog UFO Mary, about the Vatican's sudden interest in investigating, after twenty plus years, the visions at Medjugorje. And this at The Orange Orb, after I checked my email and found a link to a new piece about Project Blue Beam and possible use of religious scenarios as psy-ops technology.






Visit The Orange Orb
http://orangeorb.blogspot.com

Fear, Wonder and Control: Global Staging

I consolidated and slightly altered a few posts that I entered earlier today at my blogs UFO Mary and Octopus Confessional. The past month or so the world has been witness to some unusual events; signs in the sky, attempts at toppling authorities, and the implementation of control and fear from the infrastructure, who, I suspect, are responsible for such seemingly disconnected events.

Red Hooded Woman and Nigerian Bomber

A strange incident, that seems odder still when juxtaposed with other odd events this holiday season; the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 in particular.

Both incidents served to grab international attention during a time when many of us are vulnerable emotionally and spiritually; we're amped up at this time of year on many levels. Add to this mix international travel; people dependent on the whims and fates of weather, airport security, government, flight arrivals and cancellations. . .

The Pope, during the Christmas Day blessing, was attacked by a young woman in a red hooded sweatshirt. The woman had climbed over a barrier and managed to pull the Pope to the ground; however, the Pope was unharmed. Reports say the woman was mentally unstable. Interesting for the above reasons but also in context of the attack two weeks earlier on the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi's attacker, it's been reported, also has mental problems.

One of the things to emerge from these incidents --  the bombing attempt, the attacks on the Pope and Silvio Berlusconi --  is the reminder from authority of the need for tighter security. Homeland Security was lightening quick in its announcements for newer, stricter security edicts, which have already been put in place. Along with these even more restrictive rules is the urging of Homeland Security for the use of body scanners in airports.

As to the failed bombing attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, there's further support for the sleeper agent scenario: Abdulmutallab told authorities "operatives" in Yeman gave him the explosives. The US attacked Yemen on December 19th.

Whether intentionally planned by the Global Cabal (you know, "Them,") or the Trickster in our face, there are esoteric elements all over these events. Two mentally unstable people, a  woman in her twenties wearing a hood that's red, (Christmas color, blood, sacrifice, wanton woman,) the inept would be airplane bomber from Nigeria, (the Nigerian e-mail spam scams,) Christmas Day, (world peace, love, goodwill to men, religion. . . ) the Pope, (authority, religion, spiritual control, sexual control, Nazis,) the Vatican,(more control and authority infrastructure, hidden treasures and secrets, power, global presence) and Kafka-esqe rules that are, we're  told,to keep us safe, but really serve to humiliate and control.

These incidents seem unconnected and maybe they are; but they all happened on the global stage, during a time of global sharing and unity, and where travel is at its highest on a world wide level. Institutions were attacked: the Pope/Vatican, (and two weeks previously, Italy's PM, another authority) and an airline, directly involving Homeland Security.

The BVM Returns to Egypt
The BVM made an appearence  in Egypt this month:Virgin Mary appearing in Egypt?

Hundreds, if not thousands, have been lining up for hours every night at the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in a Cairo neighborhood just off the Nile. Many of them claim that a mysterious light hovering above the church's domes is an apparition of the Virgin Mary who will bring Christian Copts prosperity and relief in a time of national and religious struggle.

The crowds began appearing Thursday evening when a number of residents spotted a flickering light. No one was sure where the illumination was coming from, and word quickly spread that the light took the shape of the Virgin Mary wearing a blue gown and standing in the sky between the church's two high crosses.

There is a video clip at the above link on Beliefnet.com, with a link to the following clip on YouTube:


The image shown reminded me of the BVM's appearence, which the article mentions,  in Zeitun, Egypt, from 1968 to 1971. Similar white, cut-out type figure, and pigeons. Pigeons are mentioned in the recent BVM apparition as well:

The scene on Saturday was huge when we saw the lightning and white pigeons flying around us. White pigeons always accompany apparitions like these," one Copt told The Times.

Watching the clip shown here, an orange light can be seen flickering off towards the end of the clip, as if the image of Mary was being projected from that source.

Coming in on the heels of other recent weirdness in the world, this BVM apparition doesn't seem to be a paranormal event, but part of this staging on a global level. Signs in the skies: UFOs for the saucer heads (Kremlin, etc.) blue spirals in Norway for the skeptics and rational, the BVM for the religious. And to keep us on our toes, failed Nigerian bombers and attacks on Italian authorities; the Pope, again performed for the religious, the Prime Minister for the rest of us.

Control, fear and wonder all at once. All are distractions, seemingly without connection to each other. Year end strangeness; it appears to be a bit much.

Red Hooded Woman Synchronicity
After I had posted these entries, I watched the movie Inkheart after dinner.  I had a jolting moment of synchronicity when, during the opening scene, where the character is reading to his daughter, a red cape and hood float down from the sky and fly about, landing outside their window.






Notes
Detroit attack: terrorist once again confounds airport securityChristmas assault on pope in St Peter’s

United States Attacks Yemen 

Reposted on my blog  Octopus Confessional

1961 One Step Beyond on The Sacred Mushroom

A clip from a 1961 episode of One Step Beyond on sacred mushrooms and ESP. Dr. Andrija Puharich, author of the book The Sacred Mushroom, appears, as well as others involved in related research at the time.

From Hidden Experiences: "five owls"

Another poetically moving piece from Mike Clelland's Hidden Experience blog, this one another entry about the appearance of owls. I like this blog because it's very personal, and the author seems connected with nature and signals around him -- listens to them -- as go-betweens and guides from one world of awareness to another. As Mike has written in the "about this blog" section:

Events can be hard to recall. Especially when these memories seem to stretch my psyche in ways that can be distressing. If these memories and events are just tiny clues, what do they point to?

I feel strongly that something is going on. But what that might be, seems beyond my ability to solve

.
I think for many of us with experiences of the UFO/paranormal/Fortean kind, these clues, signs, messages, synchronicities . . . act as reminders and guides to these experiences. Often something triggers some nagging feeling or bit of memory or a dream or something that I know has to do with "the other" but not sure why, or how, not just yet. And this absolutely includes UFOs.

That is why I am always urging others in the UFO field to include these reports and types of witnesses and accounts instead of rejecting them as nonsense or irrelevant. It's also why I am so appreciative of those who, like Mike, put themselves out there and so willingly share their experiences. A big part of this, I think, is that we just can't help ourselves but also, we hope that in our sharing of seemingly unrelated, vague, so-called "so what" moments we'll find that someone else knows what we're talking about. I can't speak for Clelland or anyone else of course and maybe I'm presuming much here; but I do see connections with these kinds of things. It's like looking at some types of art or listening to poetry or jazz; an abstraction or symbolism that doesn't, on the surface, "mean" much but yet resonates with the viewer anyway.

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.

Spiders and Owls: Women's Exclusion From Bohemian Grove

I recently commented in a post for my blog Octopus Confessional on Alex Shoumatoff’s excellent article, Bohemian Tragedy, in the May issue of Vanity Fair. Shoumatoff’s article reveals the secrecy and greed of Grove members who are involved in “forest management” and “fire prevention” techniques by harvesting the redwoods in the Grove. Their cutting of the redwoods and other trees affects more than just private areas in a closely guarded compound; the aftermath affects entire eco-systems, within and without the Grove, including water systems and marine life.

Regarding the effects of these practices on the rest of us I wrote:

The Grove's arrogance, power and disregard has affected not just themselves in their inner circle, but the outside world as well; the peasants, us, the no accounts, yes, the measly proletariat. The issue of salmon is a huge one; affecting far more than the meal on our dinner plates; it affects the environment as well as economy in many ways. The Grove calls all this harvesting "forest management" but there's far more to this than simple "fire prevention" tactics, as Shoumatoff adeptly reveals.

The elitism, arrogance and power that is the foundation of Bohemian Grove is highly secretive, extremely protective of itself, and clings to these traits with rigorous tenacity. (Shoumatoff, a journalist, was kicked out of the Grove for trespassing -- the legality of his treatment is in question. Shoumatoff takes part in an ironic history: The Bohemian Grove was founded by journalists in the late 1800s; today however journalists are banned from becoming members and are considered enemies of Grovers.)

Men -- mainly white, Protestant men; few Jews or blacks, for example,have been members. As Shoumatoff writes:

They see themselves as the moral underpinnings of America’s greatness, whose central tenets are the Protestant work ethic: work hard and prosper and you’ll get into that great club in the sky. The Bohemian Club is like the Opus Dei of the Protestant American establishment. Very few Jews have made it in, and even fewer blacks.

The excluded include women,there are no women members. This shouldn’t be surprising, given the purpose of the Grove, which is to maintain power among the corporate-government complex. Herbert Hoover called the yearly meeting of fellow power elites “the greatest men’s party on Earth.” Sociology Professor Peter Philliips at Sonoma State, has said “This is a place men can go and hang out with people who are similar to them." (Unclear if he is a member; I believe he is but not sure. However, he is an apologist for the Grove.) There have been a few “honorary” female members, as well as female guests, but these women are restricted as to access and privilege. They’re allowed to visit during the day, but cannot go into buildings except the City Club, and there they are kept to the downstairs. Access to the other camps on the 2,700 acre property is prohibited. Women guests, for example, spouses, sometimes visit, such as on the annual “Ladies Hi-jinks” night.

In 1979 the Grove was sued by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing but the Grove won. Judge Robert Kendall ruled that since men at the Grove “urinate in the open” the inclusion of women would “alter” the men’s behavior in a negative way. Pissing against trees seems to be part of the undercurrent of ritualistic behavior of Grove members. Shoumatoff makes reference to this penchant for tree pissing:

Another hallmark of the encampment is the promiscuous micturition—guys standing up to the redwoods and relieving themselves everywhere you look. Maybe they’re trying to symbolically assert their primacy over nature. But the amount of drinking that goes on, plus the fact that many members are elderly and likely have prostate problems and can’t make it back to their camp fast enough, also plays a role in what has become, if not a formal ritual, a group-reinforcing collective activity.

But back to women. While women aren’t powerful or rich enough to become members of the Grove, they are useful enough to work for the Grove. In 1981 the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, ruled that the Bohemian Grove had to start hiring women; the Grove appealed to the California Supreme Court and lost. Female employees of the Grove are restricted however; working only in a few select areas or “camps.” Presumably this excludes the rumors of prostitutes who are said to be present in the Grove during gatherings.

None of this is surprising; what else to expect from the industrial-global-banker-entertainment elite? Yet the Grove isn’t all just doddering old white men who piss against Redwoods and other plant life due mainly to alcoholic gluttony and enlarged prostates; it’s also the Fortean irony of members like ex-Grateful Dead musicians. And while women are not allowed in, is it any kind of victory if women were to become equal partners in weirdly goofy yet somber occult tinged rituals in the dead of night? It’s no comfort to me to know that there are women of power and wealth, in positions where global policies are made and implemented, that keep the rest of us hoi poli in our place, while they revel in the Grove. Those sisters would also exclude. We’d have a grove full of Margaret Thatchers; no appeasement there.

Another tidbit of irony comes to us by way of the Grove’s motto: “Weaving spiders come not here' (see note at end of article) meaning, leave your cares behind, all you big powerful men you. Rituals invoking this intent are performed at the Grove; the "Cremation of Care" ritual symbolically burns away the burdens of the outside world. It's tough being a member of the powers that be.

The reality is that policies and plans are put into place during these gatherings, and serious papers are presented on a variety of subjects affecting the world. For example, a list of topics presented at one Grove gathering are listed in a 2003 article by sociologist Peter Phillips for Counterpunch:

Additionally, there were daily lectures from world-class experts on global warming, war policy, school vouchers, mad deer disease, horse racing, stem cell research, terrorism, American-Russian relations, and marine ecosystem.

The paranoiac inclined Fortean can easily see the esoteric connections between those subjects.

The Grove’s two symbols, the Owl and the Spider, are both symbols of female wisdom. The Roman goddess Minerva is accompanied by an owl symbolizing the wisdom Minerva brings to the world. However, many, from the paranoid Christian anti-occultists to the unconsciously misogynist, the owl is the symbol of Lilith, which for many, represents Satan. This view ignores a more divine feminine perspective of Lilith. Regarding Spider, some Native American traditions “Grandmother Spider” weaves wisdom, bringing knowledge to others; but more importantly, Grandmother Spider is the creator! Women with Spider energy are powerful indeed.


Meanwhile, as cliché and basic Women’s Studies 101 it may sound, the fact is the men that are in power and come together at Bohemian Grove think little enough of women to include them in any meaningful -- powerful enough -- way. They’re useful, as servants, be they cooks, maids, clerks, hookers or wives of members but there their usefulness ends. In the Grove, what few women there are operate in a passive state, either as infrequent guests, or employees at the lowest rungs.

There are plenty of reasons to continue to rail against the Bohemian Grove meetings; for the above reasons, for the occult underpinnings, for their rape of the environment, to be a squeaky wheel. Take your pick.

---

Notes:
"Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you longlegged spinners, hence!
Beetles black approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence." ~ William Shakespeare

"A quote from the 1st Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act 2, scene. 2. A charm to protect the sleeping Titania from tiny creatures common in England, all harmless, though once thought to be venomous." From: "Weaving Spiders, Come Not Here" - What Is This Bohemian Grove?" by J. Mark Sovegin, 2008.


Alex Shoumatoff: Bohemian Tragedy, in Vanity Fair, May 2009

Peter Phillips:US Elites Celebrate Patriarchy, Racism and Class Privilege, in Counterpunch on-line 2003

Images:
Minerva, public domain

Blue Maya: A Visit From Mary

My new Trickster's Realm will be up sometime tomorrow on Tim Binnall's Binnall of America site. This week I write about an experience I had while meditating invovling Mary and Kuan Yin. (Kuan Yin depicted here is in her manifestation as the Sea Goddess.)

Magic Inscription of Lilith Found on Human Skull

Magic Inscription of Lilith Found on Human Skull by Stephen Yulish on UFO Digest. Yulish, a Christian steeped within a Christian framework, comments on Dan Levene's article in Biblical Archaeology Review,: Rare Magic Inscription on Human Skull.

"Virgin News"

I have an entry at my blog UFO-Mary on some comments, including The "Amazing" Randi's usual vitrolic self, about a letter written to the JREF on a news item about Our Lady of Guadalupe. You can read it here.

A Little Experiment: Pendulums, Telepathy and Aliens

I have an article up at UFO Digest on my personal experience with UFOs and aliens: A Little Experiment: Pendulums, Telepathy and Aliens

Three different times I’ve had the eerie experience of knowing that “they” were in the room with us. Who “they” are, I’m not sure, but a few things I just know to be true are: “they” are related to UFOs, “they” are not human, and yet have a connection to us, and “they” are very much aware of us; far more than we are of them

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You might be wondering what Popyeye and Jeep have to do with anything; well, read it and you'll find out!

Healing Images?

As I was waiting for the eye doctor today, I entertained myself by looking at the walls. Typical of doctor’s offices (including chiropractors and acupuncturists) there were a few large, nicely framed and colorful posters on the walls of the usual specific body parts of that particular doctor's speciality. In this case, eyes. These posters, charts and images of the body -- or its parts -- are seen in offices everywhere. I realized for the first time however how strange they are.

Large images of diseased, broken, sick, damaged organs. Detailed time lines of the progression of diseases. Close-ups of infected appendages, or internal disasters. To the chronically curious, like myself, these images might be mildly interesting, but what purpose do they serve? I wondered why would any patient want to see these images, while they’re in a place where they’re either ill in some way, or else they wouldn't’ be there (unlike Eastern medicine, where it’s preventative, not after the fact) or, where you’re in for a check up, hoping all is well. Most of us are anxious to some degree when we go into a doctor’s office, whether it’s routine or something more involved. Being surrounded by images of illness, and being used to it as normal, sends messages to our psyches that all is not well, and all will not be well.

What we surround ourselves with says a lot about what happens to us on different levels. What we say to ourselves goes much deeper than the surface; we're sending messages to ourselves all the time, and our subconscious takes it all in. Like attracts like. It’s like telling someone not to think of a white elephant. As soon as you say that, you’re thinking of a white elephant.

Why not have images that show preventative things one can do for themselves, encouraging images, healing images?

True, there were nice, pretty, Impressionist type images here and there; it wasn’t all gory red and sick-yellow oozing eyeball close-ups surrounded in gray lettering that announced “Macular Degeneration” and “Diseases of the Eye.”

The point is, why have these things at all in places of care and healing? How different would our health, and our health care system be, if we realized the impact of our surroundings on our health?

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.