Saturday & Sundry Memories: Mysteries in S.W. USA.

Mention of UFO sightings in a bunch of predictions by a "time traveller", featured in my post dated 2 January 2019 set my mind back almost five years, to a post I wrote in February 2014. I enjoyed re-reading that post myself (inner narcissist coming out) so shall re-air it, lightly edited, for the weekend.

Back in 2014, we had recently watched an "indie" movie on DVD: The Wicksboro Incident. It's one of the genre often labelled "found footage", in documentary style though purely fictional. The film's theme: Wicksboro, a fictional small town in far south-western Texas, disappeared with its inhabitants sometime in the early 1950s. One survivor emerges from hiding decades later to tell his story to two amateur film-makers. His story involves ... aliens. 'Nuf said. A passing reader who stumbles across this blog at some future point might wish to see the movie, I will not spoil it by expanding further on the plot. The film, around 70 minutes long, starts slowly but builds. There's lots of shaky camera work, dark, almost blank screens with voices only, to reassure us that the DVD hasn't stuck in its groove (or whatever).

That film underlined, for me, how an area of south-western United States, New Mexico, part of southern Colorado, and south-western Texas seem to have developed mysterious connections to strange happenings, modern legends, the weird and the would-be wonderful. On our trips, over the years around these areas, we've visited a few locations of mysterious reputation. Roswell, New Mexico always comes to mind first.

We first visited Roswell, New Mexico in 2006, the UFO Museum and Research Center was then situated in the main street, in what appeared to be an old movie theater. A new center for the museum was under construction further down the road.

We read many of the numerous exhibits: newspaper articles, sworn affidavits and other printed material displayed around the walls. The main part of the museum deals, unsurprisingly, with the reported UFO crash near Roswell in 1947. There are, among many other things, reports and signed statements from witnesses who saw evidence of the crash and collected wreckage. Evidence of a request for "child size coffins". In several of the statements, witnesses reported seeing purple colored symbols, hieroglyphic-like, on a strip among the wreckage. There's a statement by a woman medical officer, detailed to take notes at an autopsy of bodies following the crash. She was later sent to England, and subsequently is said to have disappeared - or has not been heard from again.

Who can say how genuine any of the material is, after 60 years have passed? And yet, why would ordinary, everyday people have fabricated such a story, back in 1947 on a summer evening just before midnight, without reason? In those days there were few, if any TV programmes about extra-terrestrial phenomena to ignite the imagination. There were few sci-fi movies. What else but "a happening" could have sparked reports of such a bizarre occurrence as this? We discussed our feelings about the whole Roswell story later, after our museum visit, came to the conclusion that "something" did happen on that night in 1947. The "something" was covered up by lies from those in authority at the time. Lies from government downward are not unknown, even in current history, which fact inclined us to believe at least some of the stories told by witnesses.

On a 2005 trip to see Anasazi cave dwellings at Mesa Verde, Colorado we happened across a UFO Watchtower in the San Luis Valley, near Hooper. The site was run by a friendly lady who told us tales of strange sightings she and others had experienced. She also told us that some Native American tribes believe that their ancestors came from "the stars".

On a later trip, 2011, celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary, in the far north of New Mexico, we intended to see what we could find relating to some strange legends surrounding a tiny town called Dulce, on the border of Colorado and New Mexico, close to the Continental Divide, where altitude reaches 7 to 8 thousand ft at various points. Google search "Dulce, New Mexico" for numerous tales of varying incredibility about Dulce and what lies beneath Archuleta Mesa! We, unfortunately, decided to turn around and head home just before we reached Dulce, due to unexpected wintry weather, altitude (7,871ft), and a few uncomfortable health issues.

One particular little village on Highway 64, Dulce, was going to fascinate yours truly because of stories of UFOs, aliens and a massive 7-layered underground government facility said to be nearby - under a huge mesa. There are also stories/legends of a UFO crash near Aztec village in this area. Again, there's a ton of information, comment from locals and researchers online. Some, if even half-true would be hair-raising. It involves bio-tech experiments (which I can believe), mutilated cattle found regularly around the area (documented), alien cooperation following a firefight between government troops and aliens or "grays" (which I can't believe).

I'd guess that there really is, or was, some kind of underground facility in this area dating from 1950s through 1970s. The fear of nuclear war was fierce then.
The US government, paranoia-filled as usual, could easily have decided to experiment, attempting to plan for all eventualities: mutations, radiation effects, etc. etc. Where better than this wilderness area with plentiful natural underground caverns, easily extended and modified, for use without much chance of discovery? That part of the stories isn't hard to believe, given the atmosphere of those times.

We didn't reach Dulce though. We stayed overnight in Chama, a village 25 miles to the east. The temperature was frigid up there in the mountains, some of what we'd assumed was remnants of the winter's snow remained in the fields and forests over the highest parts of the route.

Neither of us slept a wink that night though. The altitude was probably getting to us both. My husband, restless, decided to get up and play on the laptop. I experienced a severe attack of allergic sneezing which brought on a sharp sinus headache and it simply wouldn't let up. In addition I had developed a troublesome sore on my ankle. We both wondered aloud whether to carry on west or head back to Oklahoma next morning. When we looked outside at about 7 AM we decided at once! Snow had coated the car, and it was still snowing. Probably not at all a surprising find to the locals but a bit disconcerting to southerners like us, spoiled by an unusually warm spring. I hadn't packed any warm clothes. We had to layer up with what we had. It was Sunday, no shops were open to buy warmer clothing - there were no shops around anyway! I'd also managed, somehow, to get myself multi-bitten by an insect (goodness knows what insect would be around in those temps!) I still have 3 itchy bites on my left earlobe, several down the left side of my neck and a cluster of bites on my chest. And they ain't love bites!! We headed home on Sunday morning.

A trip to the Big Bend area of southern Texas in 2012 threw up yet another oddity. In the village of Marfa stories of "the Marfa lights" or "ghost lights" are common. Stange lights, with no logical explanation, have frequently been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of the village. These have gained fame due to some observers having theorised a connection to paranormal phenomena....UFOs, ghostly apparitions etc.

A half-hour drive west of Alpine found us in Marfa, a tiny town made famous by some mysterious lights which appear, intermittently, in the vicinity - Wikipedia explains.

Interestingly the fictional Wicksboro Incident, mentioned at the top of this post, took place in the same general area as Marfa - possibly chosen by its creators because of "the lights"?

I shall remain among the "don't knows" on the topics of UFOs, ghosts, and strange goings-on in general - until I actually experience something to fully convince me otherwise. The experience mentioned below was getting there, it did bring goose bumps. It was an incident unrelated to UFOs and aliens, but still strange. In Santa Fe, New Mexico some years ago, celebrating either my birthday or my husband's.

We had wandered into a hotel lobby thinking it to be the entrance to an arcade of stores. We noticed a bar, still early evening quiet, decided to have a birthday drink there. I considered taking the seat near the wall at the end of the old copper lined bar, but decided it looked rather dark.

I pulled out the next stool along, then felt guilty for leaving a single stool empty, in case a couple might want seats later on - but still, it somehow didn't feel right to move to the end stool. Later in the evening, when some live entertainment was about to begin, it was announced that a beloved regular in this bar, a lady well known in Santa Fe (local singer or musician) had died of cancer a couple of days ago. The seat at the end of the bar had been her usual place to sit. The barman brought her usual drink and placed it there, in her memory. The hairs on the back of my neck began to prickle !

Stories of that Star of Wonder

During the run-up to Christmas, some years ago, I posted about the Star of Bethlehem story, which has always been something of a mystery to astronomers and astrologers alike. A then regular commenter and blog friend, "mike" related an alternative version of the Star's story. Commenter "mike" became ill, later on and had to cease commenting. I fear for the conclusion of his story. In memory of a good friend to this blog here is the story he related, as told at Wikipedia.


"The Star" was an episode of the Twilight Zone during its run in the 1980s, based on a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke.

I wasn't surprised to find that it originated with Arthur C. Clarke - I always enjoy his novels and imaginings.

"On an interstellar journey, far in the future, a medical doctor and a priest debate about the existence of God in the wonders of the universe. Dr. Chandler, believes in the random patterns, but the priest, Father Matthew Costigan—also an astrophysicist—believes it is God's grand design. While having their friendly debate and wishing each other a merry Christmas, their ship picks up a subspace signal from a long-dead world. Father Matthew claims it is impossible that a civilization could have survived its star going supernova. The planet was so far from the star when it exploded that it escaped the worst.

Upon landing on the now-dead planet, the explorers discover that the planet holds the last remains of a race which was destroyed when the supernova hit. Their civilization was quite advanced, with remnants of art and other pieces of their culture. Along with a computer record of their entire history comes evidence that they had had a thousand years of peace before their extinction. The captain requests Father Matthew to determine when the star went supernova. He calculates that the star exploded in the year 3120 B.C.

To his dismay, however, Father Matthew realizes that it would have taken 3120 years for the light from this explosion to reach Earth, in the Eastern Hemisphere. This star was the same star that shone down on Earth the day Jesus was born, "The Star of Bethlehem". In front of Dr. Chandler, Father Matthew cries out to God, to question why it had to be these people who had to lose their lives, why it could not have been a star with no life around it. Dr. Chandler attempts to comfort him by reading a poem he found among the archives of the advanced culture. It says that no one should mourn for them, for they lived in peace and love and saw the beauty of the universe. It says to grieve for those who live in pain and those who never see the light of peace. Dr. Chandler says that "whatever destiny was theirs, they fulfilled it. Their time had come, and in their passing, they passed their light on to another world. A balance was struck, and perhaps one day, whenever we've fulfilled whatever destiny we have, maybe we too will light the way for another world." The doctor's words and this quiet artifact consoles and encourages the priest."

What follows is copy-typed, by me, from a piece by Ann Barkhust in "The Best of the Illustrated National Astrological Journal 1933 and 1934."

The Star of Nativity, What was the Star? Who were the mysterious strangers?


The Star of Bethlehem has always been a fascinating enigma for modern astrologers. Present day believers (1933) in the star-legend are inclined to think the "Star of the East" might have been one of the transient stars which occasionally flare up in the heavens and then die away, often marking the death throes of a sun. Or, they say, it may have been a variable star; one which flares up for a few days or hours into great brightness, then sinks back into its usual dullness as though nothing had happened.

An increasing number of students, however, do not look to any star not in the usual course of the heavens. Quoting the "Zohar" we find the following: "When the Messiah is to be revealed a star will rise in the east shining in great brightness and will remain in the east fifteen days". So many of these ancient Jewish teachings have a foundation in the Egyptian that it lends corroboration to the claims of a modern school of astrological thought which identifies the Star of Bethlehem with the sacred Star of Egypt, Sirius, which is in the mid-heaven on Christmas Eve, at the time when the constellation Virgo, the Celestial Madonna, stands over the eastern horizon.

According to "Religion of the Stars", Sirius is the star that led the Wise Men from the East to the site of the blessed nativity. For ages prior to the time now allotted to that event, Sirius had been the star that indicated the coming of a Savior. At the present time (1933) Sirius rises on Christmas evening about seven o'clock, taking five hours and three minutes to reach the meridian. Thus now it stands directly overhead at midnight of Christmas Eve. This has not always been the case but for many thousands of years Sirius has been the most conspicuous object in the heavens Christmas night.

Jesus' birth, like that of all the other Messiahs, was the fulfillment of the promise foretold in celestial configuration. It is also stated in the Hebrew legends that a brilliant star shone at the birth of Moses, and was seen by the Magi of Egypt who immediately informed the King. Again it is said that when Abraham was born this star shone in the heavens eclipsing all other stars in glory. In his teachings to the Persians, the great teacher, Zoroaster, foretold the birth of the Christ-child at which time a shining star would be seen in the heavens. The Wise Men always knew precisely the time when the Sun would be in a direct line with that great fixed star, Sirius, the Dog Star.

In the "Celestial Ship of the North" the Magi - commonly call the Wise Men - are shown as astrologers who had pure, unassailable knowledge found in the Zodiacal heavens and the fixed stars. They were said to come from Arabia, but the word Arabia at the time of Jesus' birth meant not only Arabia Felix, but northern India, i.e. the Himalayas. These Magi were Mahatmas or Masters from India who had calculated astrologically the advent of Jesus and journeyed for two years or more to visit him. In the fifth chapter of the "Aquarian Gospel", by Levi Dowling, is found the following confirmation of this statement: "Beyond the River Euphrates the Magians lived; and they were wise, could read the language of the stars and they divined that one, a master soul, was born." Their number, three, is derived from the fact that they offered three gifts, but tradition had it that there were twelve or twenty Magi, and that the entire journey from India and a return took nearly five years. They fully realized that great planetary conjunctions are always coincident with critical periods on earth, at which time Mundane changes take place that are universal.

Kepler claimed positively that all the planets were in conjunction in Pisces when Jesus was born. Every eight hundred years Jupiter and Saturn are in conjunction the same as was thought to be in effect at his birth. The sign, Pisces, was generally connected with the Messiahs - called by the Kabalist "The Constellation of the Messiahs". Sephariel, an English astrologer of the present (20th) century, gives as convincing proof a chart for this birth, placing the Moon and Uranus in conjunction in the sign Pisces, with the Sun in the opposite sign, Virgo, that of the immaculate Mother. Arbanal, in his commentary on the prophet Daniel, claims with others that the Jews, who called their Messiah "Dag" or fish, connected him with the sign of the Fishes "which indicated the land of Judea." He states that his authority is from ancient and reliable sources.

In a recent article in the "Psychical Research Journal" is a statement "that the birth of the Babe at Bethlehem took place in the late summer, probably a few years BC. The form of the constellation was that of a cross, the shaft of which was formed by three planets in a vertical line - the Moon at the head, Mars at the center, and Venus at the foot. These were seen in the sign of the Crab (Cancer) whose principal stars formed the two arms of the cross. The sign of the Crab was visible before dawn in the eastern skies over Jerusalem, and the configuration reached exactness about one hour before dawn. The group of stars to the right or southern side of the cross were most important. It was called by the Romans the "Praesepe" or "Manger". From this description it is assumed that the moment of the birth would be the moment at which the Moon would come to a right line with the other two planets, Mars lying centrally between two clusters in the Crab. One of America's leading astronomers has checked all these details and made the following report:

"This configuration actually took place on September 27th BC6-7. It is a recurrent combination and liable to occur on the average once in thirty-one and four-tenths years; though not always with equal perfection. This "constellation" may probably have been seen in recognizable form some sixty times since the date first given. It is interesting to note that it occurs again this year, and will be seen in very perfect form on the morning of the 28th of August 1932."

Astrology - The Mystery

This was my first ever blog post, dated 11 August 2006, when it was unlikely to have been read by anybody. I repeated it 5 years later in 2011, and feel inclined to give it another re-airing today, illustrations added. My views still haven't changed.

I don't know how astrology works. Nobody does. Most astrologers find some way of explaining it. Some are unacceptable, even to me. This is how I see it:

The Universe is full of energies, forces, elements of which we know very little, if anything. More and more is being discovered as the years pass. I believe there are "energies" for want of a better word, or perhaps a better description would be "a kind of atmospheric soup", to which our human bodies react, starting with our first breath after birth, as a separate entity from our mothers.


With our first breath we are "imprinted" (again for want of a better word) with a pattern or blueprint based on the mix of energies at that very minute, in that particular place. This imprint blends with the genetically inherited flesh and blood from which we are formed. From centuries of observation, it would appear that these "energies" have some connection with the planets and lights (Sun & Moon) in our solar system, and their movements around the ecliptic. The planets themselves could be acting, to our eyes, in a way akin to the hands of a clock, indicators of cycles of time, overlapping cycles, repeating cycles - a complex network of cycles.

As we grow, the planets and their movement - transits - continue to have relevance, because our imprinted circuitry is sensitive to them, especially as the planets pass over certain areas. From my own experience, this occurs on a much lesser scale than the text books indicate. The outer, slow moving planets can affect our lives to varying degrees at a few specific points in any life span...but not every day, every week, or even every year. Most of the time we are free-wheeling, following an inborn blueprint, living our lives using free will, making our own mistakes, enjoying our own triumphs. A few times in a life, though, the Cosmos steps in and a particular configuration of planets trigger the imprint and re-direct matters. Even then it remains in our hands as to how we react to this re-direction. These especially sensitive configurations occur cyclically.

Astrology has a long, long history, reaching back further even than we can know. Knowledge passed down through centuries might well have become mangled, mis-translated, or politically censored and manipulated from time to time, a similar fate will have applied to the Bible and other holy books.

In ancient times people tried to understand the unknowable in the best way they could. They used fables, deities, archetypes, and strange symbolic glyphs to describe ideas which could not otherwise be explained. Generations of astrologers have updated these ancient concepts using modern expression, but the unwritten core of astrological knowledge remains within its modern understanding.

The notion that planets, and various accurately measured points on an astrological chart can affect our lives may seem incredible, yet there ARE patterns. Just as the planets move in regular defineable cycles, there are rhythms and patterns in all our lives. There are patterns of personality which can be seen to emerge based on positions of the planets and the angles they make with one another at the time of birth. There are patterns in the stages of our lives. There is a rhythm, in time to the slow dance of our planets.

COMMENTS from 2011
Wisewebwoman
I agree, T, what we know amounts to a head of a pin in the scale of the universe.
XO
WWW

Gian Paul This post of yours, Twilight, merits to be published not only once every 5 years, but every year. Make it a habit!

A personal reflection: it's all larger than just human destiny. Admittedly our own life/life experiences are the best ground for observation, but many other entities (states, corporations, associations, even conspiracies etc.) obey astrological patterns. What's created has by definition an hour of birth, hours of peaking or bottoming out, of death and renovation. So it's not only us little human individuals who are concerned.

mary beth
this is, by far, the very best articulation of my own position on astrology and its gratifying to see it out here in print. may many see it.

Hieronimuss

This is how I missed my subway stop last night. There was a voice in my screaming: Astrology really works! I was reading the article in the Mountain Astrologer on the Wikileak founder Assange and was looking at the transits when he supposedly "raped". Huh, Venus Mars conjoined his natal Uranus/Pluto and much more... It does work, but there are no two same ways of how we'll accept it, because it's not just mental, it's emotional, archetypal, social...

James Higham
I don't know how astrology works. Nobody does. Most astrologers find some way of explaining it. Some are unacceptable, even to me.

You seem to have a fair grasp of it now though.