Ghosts of Bannerman’s Island

Beacon, NY—Just south of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge lays a
mysteriously isolated island and on this island stands the ruin of a
once grand Scottish Castle, which in its time, stood as a fortress and
rose above the trees to create an impressive gateway to the Hudson
Highlands. This is the image I remember as I child, and I am still
captivated by the menacing vision of this dark lifeless structure
surrounded by the rushing tides of the Hudson River. Today this majestic
ruin, known as Bannerman’s Island Arsenal, rests on Pollepel
Island and crumbles before our eyes. The recent deterioration of
the ruin inspired me to not only witness and photograph the devastation,
but to write about its lingering legends.

Pollepel Island was just as mystifying nearly 400 years ago as it is
today. This dark deserted isle was the subject of an impressive
“arsenal” of storytellers’ tales. Storytelling was a common past time
and, just as with any story, over time these tales were naturally
embellished and grew into astounding historical accounts that were
passed down by the area’s early inhabitants giving us the great early
legends of angry spirits, lost lovers, and ghostly goblins.

The Early Legends

Long before Francis Bannerman built his castle, this six and
three quarter acre isle was uninhabited. The Native Americans feared the
island was possessed by evil spirits, which made it a prime location
for settlers to hide during periods of aggression with the Indians.
Over time, a number of legendary tales evolved. As I walked along the
shoreline, the crystalline ice formations glistened in the sun and I
thought of the legend of Polly Pell, a story that stakes claim for
naming the island. The story of Polly Pell (Pollepel) was shared among
Dutch settlers when newlywed Polly Pell was saved from the frozen Hudson
River following a romantic sleigh ride with her beau. The fierce
currents of the icy Hudson washed Polly and her new husband up on the
rocky shores when a slave rescued them and named the island after her
and the legend of Polly Pell was born.

The infamous Pollepel Island became well-known among Hudson River
sailors. The secluded island was the basis of much of fantastical
folklore that surrounds river travel through the Hudson Highlands.
The story The Storm-Ship written by famed storyteller and
Tarrytown resident Washington Irving, tells the tale of a dreaded tribe
of goblins that the Dutch feared inhabited Pollepel Island. These
goblins thrived under the reign of the Heer of Dunderburgh who is said
to control the gusty winds and treacherous waters of the Highlands. The
Dutch lived in fear of the Dunderburgh. The “storm ship”’ actually
refers to the legendary Flying Dutchman, a ship lost in a brutal storm
sinking just south of Pollepel Island. The story condemns the captain
and his crew to sailing the Hudson for eternity and it has been reported
that their cries for help can be heard during violent storms. Once a
ship ventured past Pollepel Island, the captain and crew earned right of
passage for a safe journey down the Hudson.

Whether or not the ghosts, goblins, and evil spirits existed was left
to the imagination. However, boat captains were known to cast off new
sailors on their inaugural voyages down the river as an initiation.
Often drunk and scared out of their wits these poor sailors were forced
to disembark to take their chances with the phantoms of Pollepel Island.
They were picked up on the return trip hopefully sobered up and
fearless.

Given the history of Pollepel’s influence on shipmen of that period,
it is ironic that the next ghost story would be that of a tugboat
captain angered by Bannerman himself.

A Ghost from the Bannerman Era

Francis Bannerman VI was the visionary behind the progressive growth
of the Scottish castle that bears the name of Bannerman’s Island
Arsenal. Bannerman purchased Pollepel Island in 1900 when his
insatiable hobby of scrap collecting gave way to becoming a massive arms
company. As his wealth increased, Bannerman was able to build a home
that would serve as a monument to his heritage. The castle itself was
comprised of six major sections; three arsenals, the lodge, the tower,
and the superintendent’s house. In addition, there is also a family
residence with magnificent views of the Highlands.

The property was protected by breakwaters, which were formed by the
sinking of old barges and boats. There is a legendary tale that the
tugboat captain of one of the boats requested that his prized vessel not
be sunk in his presence, but before anyone knew it, the boat was
sinking right before the former captains eyes. The captain cursed
Bannerman and swore revenge. It has been said that employees in the
lodge often heard the ringing of the boat’s bell at various times
signifying that the captain had returned to make good on his promise.

Just as the tugboat captain experienced a devastating loss that would
condemn him to Bannerman’s castle for an eternity, Bannerman would also
experience loss.

A Castle in Ruin

Bannerman’s Island Arsenal has had its share of disastrous events. A
1920 explosion of gun powder and shells blew a wall clear over to the
mainland. Three people were injured including Mrs. Bannerman and the
incident incurred $50,000 in damage. The most devastating event occurred
in August of 1969 in a fire that gutted all the buildings on the
island. It was undetermined as to what was the cause of the engulfing
blaze that would destroy the celebrated estate of the late Francis
Bannerman VI leaving it in ruin. This would not be the last disastrous
event that the castle would endure. In late 2009 and early 2010 the
castle saw increased damage that has forever changed the landscape of
this iconic structure. I wonder how much longer it will endure the
elements and how this rich haunted history will be remembered.

Remembering Bannerman’s Island Arsenal

The recent collapses have removed Bannerman’s name from his cherished
castle. As the castle fades into history, the legends will remain to
haunt us for a lifetime. As unbelievable as the stories may be, they add
to the allure of the island and someday may be all that remains of one
of the most captivating historical sites in the Hudson Valley. I think
that Jane Bannerman’s quote best describes how I feel about Polly Pell’s
island.

“No one can tell what associations and incidents will involve the island in the future. Time, the elements, and maybe even the goblins of the island will take their toll of some of the turrets and towers, and perhaps eventually the castle itself, but the little island will always have it’s place in history and in legend and will be forever a jewel in it’s Hudson Highland setting.”

– Jane Bannerman

Island Tours and Contributions

The island and castle is easily viewed from land. Take a short drive
south on Route 9D until you get to Breakneck Ridge. Park on the side of
the road and cross the bridge over the trains track. BE VERY CAREFUL OF
PASSING TRAINS!!

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Biblical plagues really happened

The Biblical plagues that devastated Ancient Egypt in the Old Testament were the result of global warming and a volcanic eruption, scientists have claimed.

Researchers believe they have found evidence of real natural disasters on which the ten plagues of Egypt, which led to Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, were based.

But rather than explaining them as the wrathful act of a vengeful God, the scientists claim the plagues can be attributed to a chain of natural phenomena triggered by changes in the climate and environmental disasters that happened hundreds of miles away.

They have compiled compelling evidence that offers new explanations for the Biblical plagues, which will be outlined in a new series to be broadcast on the National Geographical Channel on Easter Sunday.

Archaeologists now widely believe the plagues occurred at an ancient city of Pi-Rameses on the Nile Delta, which was the capital of Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Rameses the Second, who ruled between 1279BC and 1213BC.

The city appears to have been abandoned around 3,000 years ago and scientists claim the plagues could offer an explanation.

Climatologists studying the ancient climate at the time have discovered a dramatic shift in the climate in the area occurred towards the end of Rameses the Second’s reign.

By studying stalagmites in Egyptian caves they have been able to rebuild a record of the weather patterns using traces of radioactive elements contained within the rock.

They found that Rameses reign coincided with a warm, wet climate, but then the climate switched to a dry period.

Professor Augusto Magini, a paleoclimatologist at Heidelberg University’s institute for environmental physics, said: “Pharaoh Rameses II reigned during a very favourable climatic period.

“There was plenty of rain and his country flourished. However, this wet period only lasted a few decades. After Rameses’ reign, the climate curve goes sharply downwards.

“There is a dry period which would certainly have had serious consequences.”

The scientists believe this switch in the climate was the trigger for the first of the plagues.

The rising temperatures could have caused the river Nile to dry up, turning the fast flowing river that was Egypt’s lifeline into a slow moving and muddy watercourse.

These conditions would have been perfect for the arrival of the first plague, which in the Bible is described as the Nile turning to blood.

Dr Stephan Pflugmacher, a biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Water Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, believes this description could have been the result of a toxic fresh water algae.

He said the bacterium, known as Burgundy Blood algae or Oscillatoria rubescens, is known to have existed 3,000 years ago and still causes similar effects today.

He said: “It multiplies massively in slow-moving warm waters with high levels of nutrition. And as it dies, it stains the water red.”

The scientists also claim the arrival of this algae set in motion the events that led to the second, third and forth plagues – frogs, lice and flies.

Frogs development from tadpoles into fully formed adults is governed by hormones that can speed up their development in times of stress.

The arrival of the toxic algae would have triggered such a transformation and forced the frogs to leave the water where they lived.

But as the frogs died, it would have meant that mosquitoes, flies and other insects would have flourished without the predators to keep their numbers under control.

This, according to the scientists, could have led in turn to the fifth and sixth plagues – diseased livestock and boils

Professor Werner Kloas, a biologist at the Leibniz Institute, said: “We know insects often carry diseases like malaria, so the next step in the chain reaction is the outbreak of epidemics, causing the human population to fall ill.”

Another major natural disaster more than 400 miles away is now also thought to be responsible for triggering the seventh, eighth and ninth plagues that bring hail, locusts and darkness to Egypt.

One of the biggest volcanic eruptions in human history occurred when Thera, a volcano that was part of the Mediterranean islands of Santorini, just north of Crete, exploded around 3,500 year ago, spewing billions of tons of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.

Nadine von Blohm, from the Institute for Atmospheric Physics in Germany, has been conducting experiments on how hailstorms form and believes that the volcanic ash could have clashed with thunderstorms above Egypt to produce dramatic hail storms.

Dr Siro Trevisanato, a Canadian biologist who has written a book about the plagues, said the locusts could also be explained by the volcanic fall out from the ash.

He said: “The ash fall out caused weather anomalies, which translates into higher precipitations, higher humidity. And that’s exactly what fosters the presence of the locusts.”

The volcanic ash could also have blocked out the sunlight causing the stories of a plague of darkness.

Scientists have found pumice, stone made from cooled volcanic lava, during excavations of Egyptian ruins despite there not being any volcanoes in Egypt.

Analysis of the rock shows that it came from the Santorini volcano, providing physical evidence that the ash fallout from the eruption at Santorini reached Egyptian shores.

The cause of the final plague, the death of the first borns of Egypt, has been suggested as being caused by a fungus that may have poisoned the grain supplies, of which male first born would have had first pickings and so been first to fall victim.

But Dr Robert Miller, associate professor of the Old Testament, from the Catholic University of America, said: “I’m reluctant to come up with natural causes for all of the plagues.

The problem with the naturalistic explanations, is that they lose the whole point.

“And the whole point was that you didn’t come out of Egypt by natural causes, you came out by the hand of God.”

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A Host of Mummies, a Forest of Secrets

In the middle of a terrifying desert north of Tibet, Chinese archaeologists have excavated an extraordinary cemetery. Its inhabitants died almost 4,000 years ago, yet their bodies have been well preserved by the dry air.

The cemetery lies in what is now China’s northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang, yet the people have European features, with brown hair and long noses. Their remains, though lying in one of the world’s largest deserts, are buried in upside-down boats. And where tombstones might stand, declaring pious hope for some god’s mercy in the afterlife, their cemetery sports instead a vigorous forest of phallic symbols, signaling an intense interest in the pleasures or utility of procreation.

The long-vanished people have no name, because their origin and identity are still unknown. But many clues are now emerging about their ancestry, their way of life and even the language they spoke.

Their graveyard, known as Small River Cemetery No. 5, lies near a dried-up riverbed in the Tarim Basin, a region encircled by forbidding mountain ranges. Most of the basin is occupied by the Taklimakan Desert, a wilderness so inhospitable that later travelers along the Silk Road would edge along its northern or southern borders.

In modern times the region has been occupied by Turkish-speaking Uighurs, joined in the last 50 years by Han settlers from China. Ethnic tensions have recently arisen between the two groups, with riots in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. A large number of ancient mummies, really desiccated corpses, have emerged from the sands, only to become pawns between the Uighurs and the Han.

The 200 or so mummies have a distinctively Western appearance, and the Uighurs, even though they did not arrive in the region until the 10th century, have cited them to claim that the autonomous region was always theirs. Some of the mummies, including a well-preserved woman known as the Beauty of Loulan, were analyzed by Li Jin, a well-known geneticist at Fudan University, who said in 2007 that their DNA contained markers indicating an East Asian and even South Asian origin.

The mummies in the Small River Cemetery are, so far, the oldest discovered in the Tarim Basin. Carbon tests done at Beijing University show that the oldest part dates to 3,980 years ago. A team of Chinese geneticists has analyzed the mummies’ DNA.

Despite the political tensions over the mummies’ origin, the Chinese said in a report published last month in the journal BMC Biology that the people were of mixed ancestry, having both European and some Siberian genetic markers, and probably came from outside China. The team was led by Hui Zhou of Jilin University in Changchun, with Dr. Jin as a co-author.

All the men who were analyzed had a Y chromosome that is now mostly found in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia, but rarely in China. The mitochondrial DNA, which passes down the female line, consisted of a lineage from Siberia and two that are common in Europe. Since both the Y chromosome and the mitochondrial DNA lineages are ancient, Dr. Zhou and his team conclude the European and Siberian populations probably intermarried before entering the Tarim Basin some 4,000 years ago.

The Small River Cemetery was rediscovered in 1934 by the Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman and then forgotten for 66 years until relocated through GPS navigation by a Chinese expedition. Archaeologists began excavating it from 2003 to 2005. Their reports have been translated and summarized by Victor H. Mair, a professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in the prehistory of the Tarim Basin.

As the Chinese archaeologists dug through the five layers of burials, Dr. Mair recounted, they came across almost 200 poles, each 13 feet tall. Many had flat blades, painted black and red, like the oars from some great galley that had foundered beneath the waves of sand.

At the foot of each pole there were indeed boats, laid upside down and covered with cowhide. The bodies inside the boats were still wearing the clothes they had been buried in. They had felt caps with feathers tucked in the brim, uncannily resembling Tyrolean mountain hats. They wore large woolen capes with tassels and leather boots. A Bronze Age salesclerk from Victoria’s Secret seems to have supplied the clothes beneath — barely adequate woolen loin cloths for the men, and skirts made of string strands for the women.

Within each boat coffin were grave goods, including beautifully woven grass baskets, skillfully carved masks and bundles of ephedra, an herb that may have been used in rituals or as a medicine.

In the women’s coffins, the Chinese archaeologists encountered one or more life-size wooden phalluses laid on the body or by its side. Looking again at the shaping of the 13-foot poles that rise from the prow of each woman’s boat, the archaeologists concluded that the poles were in fact gigantic phallic symbols.

The men’s boats, on the other hand, all lay beneath the poles with bladelike tops. These were not the oars they had seemed at first sight, the Chinese archaeologists concluded, but rather symbolic vulvas that matched the opposite sex symbols above the women’s boats. “The whole of the cemetery was blanketed with blatant sexual symbolism,” Dr. Mair wrote. In his view, the “obsession with procreation” reflected the importance the community attached to fertility.

Arthur Wolf, an anthropologist at Stanford University and an expert on fertility in East Asia, said that the poles perhaps mark social status, a common theme of tombs and grave goods. “It seems that what most people want to take with them is their status, if it is anything to brag about,” he said.

Dr. Mair said the Chinese archaeologists’ interpretation of the poles as phallic symbols was “a believable analysis.” The buried people’s evident veneration of procreation could mean they were interested in both the pleasure of sex and its utility, given that it is difficult to separate the two. But they seem to have had particular respect for fertility, Dr. Mair said, because several women were buried in double-layered coffins with special grave goods.

Living in harsh surroundings, “infant mortality must have been high, so the need for procreation, particularly in light of their isolated situation, would have been great,” Dr. Mair said. Another possible risk to fertility could have arisen if the population had become in-bred. “Those women who were able to produce and rear children to adulthood would have been particularly revered,” Dr. Mair said.

Several items in the Small River Cemetery burials resemble artifacts or customs familiar in Europe, Dr. Mair noted. Boat burials were common among the Vikings. String skirts and phallic symbols have been found in Bronze Age burials of Northern Europe.

There are no known settlements near the cemetery, so the people probably lived elsewhere and reached the cemetery by boat. No woodworking tools have been found at the site, supporting the idea that the poles were carved off site.

The Tarim Basin was already quite dry when the Small River people entered it 4,000 years ago. They probably lived at the edge of survival until the lakes and rivers on which they depended finally dried up around A.D. 400. Burials with felt hats and woven baskets were common in the region until some 2,000 years ago.

The language spoken by the people of the Small River Cemetery is unknown, but Dr. Mair believes it could have been Tokharian, an ancient member of the Indo-European family of languages. Manuscripts written in Tokharian have been discovered in the Tarim Basin, where the language was spoken from about A.D. 500 to 900. Despite its presence in the east, Tokharian seems more closely related to the “centum” languages of Europe than to the “satem” languages of India and Iran. The division is based on the words for hundred in Latin (centum) and in Sanskrit (satam).

The Small River Cemetery people lived more than 2,000 years before the earliest evidence for Tokharian, but there is “a clear continuity of culture,” Dr. Mair said, in the form of people being buried with felt hats, a tradition that continued until the first few centuries A.D.

An exhibition of the Tarim Basin mummies opens March 27 at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Calif. — the first time that the mummies will be seen outside Asia.

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Mystic girl of Gwrych Castle

A company boss Kevin Horkin was taken pictures at Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North Wales and may have captured a picture of a spirit.

Kevin didn’t notice anything unusual until he downloaded the pictures to his PC. In one of the photos was the image of a pale young woman looking out a window.

Amazingly, it’s impossible for anyone to stand at that particular window because the floor in the room is completely destroyed.

North Wales Paranormal group have confirmed that many sightings have been recorded at the castle.

Local history claims that the first castle at Gwrych was built by the Normans in the 12th century. It was seized by the Welsh prince Rhys ap Gruffydd (the Lord Rhys) of Deheubarth in about 1170 who then rebuilt the timber castle in stone. This castle was later destroyed by Cromwell’s army following the English Civil War of the mid-17th century.

The later castle at Gwrych was begun in 1819. The castle is a Grade 1 listed building set in a wooded hillside overlooking the Irish Sea.

It was the first Gothic folly to be built in Europe by a wealthy industrialist Lloyd Hesketh. Bamford Hesketh, his son, inherited the title of Gwrych in his early 20s and used his vast fortune to build the 4,000-acre Gwrych Castle Estate.

The castle once had a total of 128 rooms including the outbuildings, including twenty-eight bedrooms, an outer hall, an inner hall, two smoke rooms, a dining room, a drawing room, a billiards room, an oak study, and a range of accommodations for servants.

There are nineteen embattled towers and the whole facade is over 2000 yards. Many feel the castle’s outstanding feature was the castle’s 52-step marble staircase.

THE HISTORY OF GWRYCH CASTLE

Local history claims that the first castle at Gwrych was built by the Normans in the 12th century. It was seized by the Welsh prince Rhys ap Gruffydd (the Lord Rhys) of Deheubarth in about 1170 who then rebuilt the timber castle in stone. This castle was later destroyed by Cromwell’s army following the English Civil War of the mid-17th century.

The later castle at Gwrych was begun in 1819. The castle is a Grade 1 listed building set in a wooded hillside over looking the Irish Sea. It was the first Gothic folly to be built in Europe by a wealthy industrialist Lloyd Hesketh. Bamford Hesketh, his son, inherited the title of Gwrych in his early 20s and used his vast fortune to build the 4,000-acre Gwrych Castle Estate.

The castle once had a total of 128 rooms including the outbuildings, including twenty-eight bedrooms, an outer hall, an inner hall, two smoke rooms, a dining room, a drawing room, a billiards room, an oak study, and a range of accommodations for servants. There are nineteen embattled towers and the whole facade is over 2000 yards. Many feel the castle’s outstanding feature was the castle’s 52-step marble staircase.

Queen Victoria stayed at Gwrych in 1932 in what is now known as the Victoria bedroom. These rooms are situated in the front of the castle in the round tower on the first floor, with two windows overlooking the Irish Sea.

In 1946 The castle was sold and then it passed through subsequent owners and is now derelict. All of the windows are cast iron and the fantastic stained glass has vanished. It’s been years since the castle’s been occupied. Years ago they used to hold medieval fairs and the like on the grounds of the castle.

The castle was bought several years ago by an American businessman who planned to spend 10 million pounds to convert the castle into a top-class opera house with adjoining luxury hotel. But those plans never materialized and the building was frequently vandalized. Unfortunately, in early 1998 Gwrych was extensively damaged following the collapse of ceilings and floors, and was later damaged by fire.

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The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man is set on fire to pay tribute to the gods. The sacrifice of the humans inside is part of a religious ritual to increase fertility, crops, commerce, or merely to re-ignite the chances that bad times will disappear.

According to Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentary on the Gallic Wars), the Wicker Man was a large wicker statue of a human used by the ancient Druids (priests of Celtic paganism) for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy. Other records talk of people being placed inside.

Despite any debunking of Caesar’s accounts by modern skeptics, the imagery of the burning of the Wicker Man lives on and its use cannot be denied in modern neo-pagan rituals. Whether the Wicker Man exists in historic Pagan accounts, in modern neo-Pagan events (such as at Nevada’s Burning Man), or in movies and contemporary events, the symbolism is very real and powerful.

And quite obvious.

For those interested in deciphering the unfolding of the sacrifices (including murder-suicides and costumed violence of late) during these difficult times, please pay attention to these signs, noticed already by those to whom the twilight language is being directed.

As I already have mentioned in these pages, it goes beyond coincidence to find the moniker of the Wicker turning up during incidents from the Son of Sam killings to last year’s Chicago area “Phantom Clown” sightings and near-abductions of children. Keep your eyes open.

From an article published this morning, comes news of this celebration:

A 12-foot tall Wicker Man will be set on fire tonight [Friday, January 30, 2009] in a pagan winter ritual close to the Fermanagh border [Northern Ireland].

[The name Fermanagh is an Anglicization of Fhear Manach which means “Men of the Manacháin tribe,” so named after their chief O’Manacháin (Anglicized as O’Monaghan), the famous warrior monk. Contae Fhear Manach or Fear Manach = “Men of Monach” in Irish.]

The folk ceremony at Aughakillymaude Mummers Centre near Derrylin will celebrate the loosening of winter’s grip and the impending return of spring as it marks February 1, known as a Quarter Day in the Celtic agricultural calendar.

At 10 pm [local time] the straw mummers hats worn all winter by the troupe performing their traditional drama will be set on fire to mark the close of the mumming season and the Wicker Man will then be lit.

The huge figure has been created by model maker Gordon Johnston from flexible sally rods — willow rods used for wicker furniture and fencing. According to Jim Ledwith of the Mummers Foundation, little is known about the origins of the Wicker Man, apart from Julius Caesar’s second hand accounts of druidic winter rituals of human sacrifice during the Gallic wars.

These alleged that female slaves and criminals were burned alive inside effigies 100 times the size of the Fermanagh one.

“While the details of the wicker man ritual may have become coloured with the telling, it represents a tradition of sacrifice by burning practiced by the continental Celts.

“Indeed, the practice of human sacrifice was still prevalent in fifth and sixth century Ireland,” Jim said.

“Throughout Celtic Europe the wicker man legend lives on and the effigy is still burned ceremoniously as a mock sacrifice in themed ceremonies, especially at Beltaine (May) to mark the rite of spring — notably without the human sacrifice element.”

Mummers will light a gas beacon at Aughakillymaude to symbolise the sun’s return.

The 1973 movie The Wicker Man, starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, is regarded as one of the finest horror films of all time, and it ends with Woodward, playing a police detective, being burned alive inside the chest of the effigy.

Don’t Look Now an Anglo-Italian thriller, directed by Nicolas Roeg, was released in 1973. In the double-billing that took place back then, 1973’s The Wicker Man was the “A” feature on their original UK theatrical dual release.

The figure of the “little person” in the red rain gear in Don’t Look Now serves as a trigger or key. As Wikipedia notes, the “spiraling vortex of coincidences, recurring themes and motifs (light on water, breaking glass, the colour red)…reaches a dramatic conclusion in an old bell tower. John [Baxter, the lead character, played by Donald Sutherland] confronts the mysterious figure in red, realizing too late that his visions were premonitions of a grisly end.”

A less well-remembered American remake of The Wicker Man, with Nicolas Cage in the lead, was released in 2006 with the film’s tale being set on a private island in Puget Sound, Washington. In this 2006 version, a little girl is seen running around in a red coat. As well, there is a pair of twins, old women, both of whom are blind.

In the feature film Flatliners, Kiefer Sutherland is tormented by a small childlike figure in a red hooded coat in an homage to his father’s film.

The theme of the little red-clad Venetian figure is used in a dream sequence in the “Book Clubbin'” episode of television series “Absolutely Fabulous,” Series 5.

The Irish feature film Intermission (starring Colm Meaney and Colin Farrell) references Don’t Look Now’s chase of a small figure in a red coat several times.

Don’t Look Now’s drowning scene is referenced by the 2005 film The Dark starring Sean Bean and Maria Bello in which their daughter drowns wearing a bright red sweater.

In the 2005 film Hostel, a figure fleetingly glimpsed wearing a red raincoat is pursued through narrow alleyways.

The end chase scene of Don’t Look Now is referenced in the 2006 release of Casino Royale where James Bond is pursuing Vesper through Venice while she is wearing a red coat.

The Wicker Man burns red.

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Genie, Jinn or Djinn

We don’t actually know a single thing about life on other planets. Scientific evidence that extraterrestrials visit us doesn’t exist.

Our belief that they do is fantastic modern mythology in the making.

However, there is enormous evidence that deceptive entities are masquerading as extraterrestrials.

There are unseen creatures that we share this Earth with.
They don’t come from other planets.

They’ve been called many names:

aliens, spirits, Etherians, Ultraterrestrials, and more.

In the Koran they are called the Jinn.

Information about the Jinn reads like a textbook description of UFO and other paranormal phenomena.

Discovering these entities gives you an essential key to understanding paranormal phenomena.

They are the major players behind our myths and most perplexing mysteries.

UFOs aren’t extraterrestrial — They’re extradimensional.

The JINN are beings with free will, living on Earth in a world parallel to mankind. The Arabic word means to conceal. They appear to include juvenile pranksters as well as powerful superior beings with an agenda we don’t understand. They have influenced mankind’s religious and cultural beliefs from antiquity to the present.

Jinn can create UFOs, hallucinations, psychokinetic effects, cattle mutilations, crop circles, apparitions and other paranormal phenomena.

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Genie Invocation Spells or Jinn Invocation formulas Djinns.
Jinns, Genies are also living beings but they are made of fire. Genie or Jinns can be conquered by human beings by special invocations and if the invocation is done properly then after the completion of the Invocation it is possible to conquer the genie of jinns. But they all are one having the same powers and if this power is conquered by any one that person will be a very powerful human being having any type of power to do any thing and every thing.

Looking for Genie Invocation spells or formulas for invocation of genies.then here you will get all the information on genies. Jinn invocation is done to conquer jinns. Invocation of jinn is possible by jinn spells or genie spells with talismans or charms.
So Genies can be called with different name. Some common genie name are JINNS, GENIES, DJINNS, ANGEL, HAMZAAD, JABAL, AJINNA MUSSA, DJINNS and more, what ever may be the name but evocation of these powers and the method to evoke genies or jinns, djinns are the same as they are same power.
So if you have questions in your mind that how to conquer the genie or jinn, or how to get the genie invocation spells or jinn invocation spells, or how to get information on djinns etc you may not worry. If you need any information of genie formulas or jinn spells email me and I will guide you with all the information you require.
Summoning of genies or Invocation of genies is easy. Summoning or invocation of genies, jinns etc requires proper concentration and then invocation of genies (jinns) is possible.

As we all are aware of ALADDIN GENIE or ALLADDINS JINN. But there are all fairy tales as Aladdin’s Genie Lamp etc as we read in fairy tales and read how alladdin rubbed his lamp etc and genie or jinn was evoked. Again it is not so easy Aladdin genie etc can be evoked or summoned or conquered by proper genie invocations and rituals.

So have questions on spells. Or Where can I find Real and True Spells?. Or Who can help me in Casting Spells. Just Contact Me.
If you need or want any information on love or money spells email me and I will guide you.
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Egyptian Treasures in the Grand Canyon

The April 5, 1909 edition of the Arizona Gazette featured an article entitled “Explorations in Grand Canyon: Remarkable finds indicate ancient people migrated from Orient.” According to the article, the expedition was financed by the Smithsonian Institute and discovered artifacts that would, if verified, stand conventional history on its ear. Inside a cavern “hewn in solid rock by human hands” were found tablets bearing hieroglyphics, copper weapons, statues of Egyptian deities and mummies. Although highly intriguing, the truth of this story is in doubt simply because the site has never been re-found. The Smithsonian disavows all knowledge of the discovery, and several expeditions searching for the cavern have come up empty-handed. Was the article just a hoax? “While it cannot be discounted that the entire story is an elaborate newspaper hoax,” writes researcher/explorer David Hatcher Childress, “the fact that it was on the front page, named the prestigious Smithsonian Institution, and gave a highly detailed story that went on for several pages, lends a great deal to its credibility. It is hard to believe such a story could have come out of thin air.”

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On April 5th, 1909, there appeared a front page story in the Arizona Gazette. It told of an archeological expedition in the heart of the Grand Canyon funded by the Smithsonian Institute. (a full transcription of the article can be found at: http://www.keelynet.com/unclass/canyon.txt) It is a rich story of finding a labyrinth of man-made tunnel systems high above the Colorado River, a virtual citadel filled with ancient artifacts, hieroglyphs, armor, statues of deities and even mummies. Anyone contacting the Smithsonian Institute will receive a polite “no records found” reply to an inquiry about their supposed role in the Grand Canyon.

The following narration shows how I came to be convinced of an exact location in the Grand Canyon that is a key to this story (regardless of whether the newspaper article is a hoax or not), and contains mathematical proof. This story also reveals an ancient cartographic code that led me to this conclusion, and the meaningful coincidences that unfolded as I pursued this mystery. The location is known as “Isis Temple” and is paramount in a well kept secret that is just now being uncovered in ways far richer and more important than material wealth. The cherished gem of Arizona, the Grand Canyon, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, contains a legacy and a link to a history known only by a few; suppressed not only by greed and politics, but by a forgotten code hidden right beneath our very feet. It is all beginning to come to light now.

I first came across the information about the newspaper article in 1998 via the www. To satisfy my curiosity, I went to the Phoenix Public Library, found the article on microfilm and made a few photo copies of it. I didn’t give it too much thought at the time, other than mentioning it from time to time to people who attend free speaking engagements and classes I offer. As a 30 year independent researcher in the field of sacred geometry, (sometimes known also as hyper-dimensional geometry, living geometry, and alchemical geometry) and other related subjects, I found the topic relating to Egypt synchronistic, since a lot of my studies revolved around the ancient schools of thought and geometry of sacred sites and temples of Egypt. Like others, I thought it was rather odd, if indeed the article was not a hoax, that evidence of ancient Egyptians would be found in Arizona, of all places!….. After all, the Egyptians did not explore the Americas, everyone knew that, and it was not taught in any school. We thought this also of the ancient Romans, until ancient Roman headgear, armor, swords, coins and other artifacts were found just North of Tucson, not far from Interstate 10 !

Now that the subject has come up about suppressed information, if indeed that is what it is, there is a well researched book of 914 pages by Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson titled Forbidden Archeology, which can open anyone’s’ third eye to a history of mankind that has never been taught, except in those ‘mystery schools’ so well cloaked in myth, secrecy and ridicule. Some good information can be found by searching the archives of http://www.dailygrail.com and also http://www.mcremo.com.

Then in October of 2000 I came upon a another web site that had lots of information and photos of Egyptian hieroglyphs found a hundred years ago in Australia ! The hieroglyphs were on the stone wall next to a cave entrance, and told of ancient Egyptian explorers getting lost and stranded, left to die in Australia. (see: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~classblu/egypt/egypt.htm)

At around the same time I happened to read in a book titled Ancient Secret of The Flower of Life, Vol. II, page 302, the story of two backpackers who ventured into the Grand Canyon. What they claimed to have found first, while on their way to a location known as Isis Temple, (see photo at: http://www.hitthetrail.com/mikespages/isis.htm) was a rather large pyramid made from the native rock. Once at Isis Temple, at an elevation of about 800 feet, they claimed to have seen several cave entrances, just as reported in the newspaper article. They also noticed that they all seemed to be sealed shut or destroyed, as if to keep everyone out. (the question here arises, why deliberate sealing of caves in such a remote, hard to access, area?) Because they were also expert rock climbers, they climbed the 800 feet to the most promising looking cave entrance. Upon reaching the entrance they discovered that it too had been sealed off several feet in with native rock. They did notice, however, that the entrance seemed to be man made and that there was a 6 foot circular pattern clearly hewn into the ceiling. This story was told to the author of the book, and from the context of the material presented in the book and from the nature of the author’s character, of whom I am familiar, I could not for the life of me imagine why such a story would be fabricated and told to him unless it were absolutely true.

And yet, Isis Temple (which can be seen from the South Rim visitors areas) is at least 40 miles from the location given in the newspaper article. So, if the newspaper article was not a hoax, and Isis Temple was the real location, the other location could have been misinformation to keep people away. Then again, if the newspaper article was a hoax, what then had the two backpackers stumbled upon ? And why were extremely remote cave entrances sealed ?

A question arises here also: why are there so many geographical locations in the Grand Canyon named after Egyptian and Hindu deities?

Then, approximately two weeks later, on October 13, channel 10 (one of our local t.v. stations), did a short segment on their weekly t.v. news magazine show about the 1909 article and some local people actively looking for it out at the Canyon. I contacted the producer of the segment and left my name and phone number, telling him to give it to a couple of the people he had interviewed, as I could supply them with this information regarding Isis Temple. At the very least they could go with good telescopes and look for cave entrances from the Rim to confirm their existence. Simple.

As of yet no one has called me back.

I plan to check the condition and strength of my old telescope and go there myself soon. A severely damaged disc in my back prevents me from an actual backpacking trip to Isis Temple, as the trip is extremely arduous and requires at least six days of backpacking in some of the most challenging terrain on the planet.

The next thing I did was call the “Back Country” information line (520-638-7875) at the Grand Canyon, where permits are bought for backpacking and extended hikes, both on and off trails. The lady was very talkative, polite and helpful. She even suggested two books I should read on possible routes to Isis Temple since there are no trails to it. Then I casually brought up the subject of possibly exploring caves I had heard about at Isis Temple and asked her if she could confirm their existence. Her reply was a simple, but emphatic “NO”. Then a long pause. Then very curtly she said the Park Dept. was about to engage in a Canyon-wide research project into the bat population and habitation, to make sure they were not being endangered. Everyone was to stay out of caves she said. That ended our conversation. Interesting, but not conclusive.

In the meantime, this whole thing was getting under my curious skin a bit. I decided to approach the subject a little differently. I was going to see if there was a geometrical connection between Isis Temple and the Great Pyramid of Giza. Why the Great Pyramid? From my knowledge of sacred geometry I knew it to be a central figure in a planetary grid system. As a former, avid backpacker myself, and having some knowledge of cartology, it took me no time to get the exact longitude and latitude of the center of Isis Temple. I then began searching on the www for the exact coordinates of the center of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.

That’s when things started to turn REALLY curious and informative.

My web search brought me more than I could have hoped for. It led me to the work of a man named Carl Munck. (see: http://www.pyramidmatrix.com) Over ten years ago he had started doing a similar thing that I was attempting, but he had started at Stonehenge, trying to find a longitude/latitude relationship with the Great Pyramid. His continued work led to the discovery of what is now called Archeocartology, and the key to the system is using the Great Pyramid as Prime Meridian rather than Greenwich . What he had done was eventually find a whole code system that the ancient’s knew about and had used in determining where to place sacred temples, and sacred sites. It is simply known as THE CODE, or Code of the Ancients. He has several books out on the subject, a newsletter and several videos.

From THE CODE we get factual, mathematically provable evidence that all ancient sites, megaliths, temples, stone circles, effigies and certain natural formations and vortexes across the entire face of the globe are very precisely located on a global coordinate system in relation to the Great Pyramid. ( I know, this is hard to believe, but read on) Not only that, but an ancient numerology system known as Gematria (used by Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, Romans and others of the ancient world) is used in the manipulation of the numbers that relates the numbers to other key locations, mathematical constants such as Pi and the radian, and the positions of the sites themselves given in the geometry of their physical construction.

GEMATRIA and THE CODE can be considered to be “whole brain” methodologies. In other words, both bi-lateral functions of the brain must be employed to reach applicable and functional results. Or, the left, rational/verbal/lineal, side of the brain and the right, intuitive/imaginative/non-lineal, side must work together, in much the same way as when viewing stereo-gram images, sometimes known as ‘Magic Eye’ pictures also. (Those pictures that were popular a few years back that looked like just a mass of colored dots when first seen, but after gazing in a particular manner for a while a complete 3-D picture or scene ‘popped’ out to your vision. Usually children and young adults have an easier time seeing the pictures because they are not yet as completely absorbed with just left brain, rational, thinking habits, and their right brain, creative, side is more flexible.)

THE CODE of Carl Munck dovetails perfectly with the planetary grid system and the related Platonic Grid Lines found by Ivan Sanderson, Bruce Cathie, William Becker and Bethi Hagens. The world grid system (www.ascension2000.com/convergence/9918.html) is commonly known as the Unified Vector Geometry 120 Polyhedron. Interestingly enough, THE CODE also is applicable to the Planet Mars, when the North/South Prime Meridian passes exactly through nose of the famous “Face” in the Cydonia area and the “D & M Pyramid”.

Still with me? I hope so, because this is all mathematically verified.

Aside from the obvious question that this arouses regarding how such ancient people could have knowledge of such a system and implement if for thousands of years, (which, because there is no short answer for that question, I will not address here) there is also the question of how such feats were accomplished with so much accuracy without the aid of modern technology, like our Global Positioning System (GPS) which uses satellite telemetry and computer accuracy to achieve what the ancients accomplished with … what ?

When this sort of question arises in my talks and classes, I pull out an object to demonstrate the dynamics of geometry and simplicity. It is a solid object with no moving parts or batteries, and it fits in your hand. It has a unique property about it that no mind on Earth, that I am aware of, can explain. (and it has been under heavy scrutiny by some of the best minds of engineering and physics at University levels) It absolutely defies one of the basic laws of physics and motion. (and this is not my imagination! Just ask my wife.)

People usually gasp and don’t believe their eyes when they first see what this object does. And it does this without high technology. I show it to them over and over again, and let them try it for themselves, and it always works. And the key to the object is in its proportions, its shape, its geometry…the mathematics involved. Plain and simple. (Ask me and I’ll show it to anyone at any time, anyplace. It is not my invention and it has been around for almost 30 years, yet few people know of it.)

If you know the key to something, or have the something that employs the key, optional methodologies are available to use. It is obvious the ancients had optional methodologies in finding, plotting and implementing building sites based upon a longitude and latitude not all that dissimilar to our own. It is also obvious from the data that the ancients new exactly where the equator was and employed it.

Another device that should be mentioned is a survey and navigational tool designed by Crichton Miller, who received a patent on it just recently in the United Kingdom. The device is nothing more than two pieces of straight wood formed into a cross with a pivot point where they meet, a plumb line coming down from the pivot point, and a semi-circular scale (similar to a protractor) attached. It looks very much like a Celtic Cross. It is very accurate and requires no batteries. (see: http://www.dailygrail.com/ misc/cem130700.html for complete details ) A book about the device is due in the Spring of 2001. It is believed this device, or similar, was used in surveying for the Great Pyramid, and also employed as a navigational tool for ocean-going explorations. And speaking of accuracy, as well as complexity of problem solving capabilities with no complex technology or batteries, think for a minute of the slide rule and the abacus.

Anyway, back to the story here….

Well, now I had the longitude and latitude of the Great Pyramid, and a mathematical system for finding a relationship between Isis Temple and the Great Pyramid. But, I got lazy here. I contacted Michael Lawrence Morton, who I had found through another web site . ( http://www.greatdreams.com/gem1.htm ) ( also http://hometown.aol/marscode/giza.html) I gave him the coordinates for Isis Temple and let him do the math and find the mathematical correspondences. Since Michael was very familiar with THE CODE, also familiar with all the mathematical constants and numerous other sites and their mathematical connections, and had also discovered and applied THE CODE to the local stars and astronomy (the Archeo-Sky Matrix ), I felt confident in his abilities and expertise.

In his words, Isis Temple is a “…major….major site !!!” This he could safely say with confidence because the numbers related to so many other major sites, including the Great Pyramid, and with numbers typically accurate to complete whole numbers, to within 7 and 8 decimal places, and decimal harmonics from 7 to 8 decimal places !

The following is a brief synopsis of just some of the mathematical connections to Isis Temple. The search is still ongoing. Statistics relating to certain “dates of occurrences” and the Gematria of a personal nature that were found have been left out. The math proof of the following findings is attached at the end of this narration, with full credit graciously attributed to Carl Munck and especially Michael Lawrence Morton, without whom this search would have come to a dead halt.

Isis Temple is mathematically connected to:

* slope angle of the Great Pyramid * grid point value of the Great Pyramid * derived height of Great Pyramid with capstone included * decimal harmonic of the East longitude of the Sphinx at Giza * decimal harmonic of the West longitude of the Chephren Pyramid at Giza * decimal harmonic of the tangent of arc-distance from Earth’s equator to either pole * radius of Moon * ratio of radius of Stonehenge’s Sarsen Circle and Radian (deg) * decimal harmonic of generic area of a circle * grid point value of the star Sirius, circa 2000 a.d. * grid point value of the star Regulus, circa 2000 a.d. * East latitude, in arc-min., of the “Face” at Cydonia on Mars

At this point, it doesn’t matter if Isis Temple is the location mentioned in the 1909 article. At this point it doesn’t matter if the article was a hoax or not. Maybe it doesn’t matter if archeological information has been withheld from the public (in this regard I am more inclined to believe it is a matter of information filtration brought about by a social process rather than a conspiracy). Maybe it doesn’t matter if there are or are not sealed caves in Isis Temple. But I, for one, continue the search. There is still a vast treasure to behold that makes that which we carry in our pocket quite moot when compared to the big picture.

Archeocartographic findings of ISIS TEMPLE based upon THE CODE of Carl Munck and the ARCHEO-SKY MATRIX Code, mathematics and correlations found by Michael Lawrence Morton.

location of Isis Temple N. of Equator and West of Great Pyramid, Giza: 36 deg 08 min 27 sec N. 143 deg 16 min 14.8 sec W.G.

36 x 8 x 27 = 7776 N. 143 x 16 x 14.8 = 33862.4 W.G.

33862.4 / 7776 = 4.3547325 G.P. (grid point)

4.353957151 (G.P.) = Pi x 1.177245771 x 1.177245771 ( 1.177245771 = ratio of the radius of Stonehenge’s Sarsen Circle in British feet and Radian (deg.) …..1.177245771 = 57.29577951 / 48.6693441…also the decimal harmonic in arc-seconds of the West longitude of the Chephren Pyramid at Giza, the East longitude of the Sphinx at Giza, and the tangent of arc-distance, adding to actual statute mileage figure, in statute miles, from Earth’s equator to either pole….6214.85528 )

4.353957151 (G.P.) x 248.0502134 = 1080 (248.0502134 = grid point value of Great Pyramid…..1080 = mean radius of Moon in statute miles, and 1080 is also the feminine gematrian number for alchemical fusion where 1080 + 666 = 1746 )

33862.4 (W.G) x 57.29577951 x 57.29577951 = 10.31324031 ( 10.31324031 = decimal harmonic of the square arc degrees of a circle, the generic area of a circle, where Pi x 57.29577951 x 57.29577951 = 10313.24031)

10.31324031 = 4.3539557149 (G.P.) x 2.368705056 ( 2.368705056 = grid point value of the binary star Sirius, circa 2000 a.d. )

270 / 4.353957149 (G.P.) = ( Pi x 19.7392088) ( 270 is average number of human gestation days…divided by Isis’s Temple grid point value of 4.353957149 = the grid point value of the binary star Regulus, star in the heart of the Lion constellation Leo, or 19.7392088 x Pi. Also, 270 = 9 x 30, and 30 is the grid point value of the intersection of 7th Ave. and Indian School Rd. in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where, on March 13, 1997, 8:30 p.m., the “Phoenix UFO” was witnessed to hover for 4 minutes. March 13, 1997 is 5764 days before December 21, 2012 a.d., end of the Mayan calendar. 5764.166073 is the derived original full height, including capstone, of the Great Pyramid in regular British inches. )

30 / 4.353957149 (G.P.) = 6.890283706 (6.890283706 = arc-minutes East of Mars Prime Meridian = latitude of “The Face” at Cydonia. ) (see also: http://farshores.topcities.com/farshores/mlmindex.htm for all of the above)

credited to Barry McEwen & Michael Lawrence Morton
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Underground Entrances

The Liyobaa Cave Entrances

After the conquest of South America by the Spanish Conquistadores, the Catholic priests who were attempting to convert the heathen Indians discovered a cave entrance to what they called “Hell.” This entrance has since been sealed off with tons of rubble, dirt and huge stones and boulders.

The village of Liyobaa (or to translate it, “The Cavern of Death”) was located in the province of Zapoteca, somewhere near the ancient village of Mictlan, or the “Village of the Underworld.”

The Cavern of Death was actually located in the last chamber of an eight-chamber building or temple. This temple had four rooms above the ground and four more important chambers built below the surface.

The high priests of the then-prevailing Indian religion conducted the ordinary ceremonies for the common man of Theozapotlan in the upper rooms. It was when they descended into the subsurface chambers that the secret and, to them, holy ceremonies, were conducted.

The first underground room was the one which was reserved for any human sacrifice. Its walls were lined with the images of the representations of their various “Gods.” A blood-stained stone altar in the center of the chamber served for the sacrifice of any human victim, whose still-beating heart would be torn from a screaming still-living body and offered to the lips of those same stone idols for their supposed repletion.

There was a second door in the first chamber which led to the second room. This was a crypt where the preserved bodies of all the deceased high priests reposed. The next door in this crypt led to the third underground vault, about the walls of which were the preserved bodies of all the former “Kings” of Theozapotlan. For, on the death of a king, his body was brought to this chamber and installed there with all the state and glory, as well as with many sacrifices to accompany him.

It was from this burial chamber of kings that the fourth and last underground room was accessible. A doorway in third room led into the last underground chamber which seems appropriately to have contained nothing but another entrance covered by a huge stone slab. I write “appropriately,” for the entrance to either HELL or the CAVES should be covered but unencumbered in the area about it for the benefit of those who might wish to leave rapidly and wisely. It was conceived by the Catholic Fathers of that day that this was an entrance to Hades; however, as we may well understand, it was an entrance to a Dero larder.

Through this doorway behind the stone slab were placed the bodies of all human sacrifices as well as the bodies of all the great lords and chieftains of the land who fell in battle. The bodies of those warriors were brought from far and wide to be thrown into this cave when they had been cut down in battles which were constantly being waged by these people.

Many of the common people, when debilitated by an incurable illness or oppressed by an unsupportable hardship, which made them seek death, would prevail upon the high priests to allow them to enter the door of death while still living. They believed that if they did so they would be the recipients of a very special afterlife.

The high priests would sometimes accept them as living sacrifices and after special ceremonies allow them to enter the “Cavern of Death” while still living. Needless to say, none ever returned to describe their experiences.

The Catholic priests, in order to convert the believers in this “myth” to Christianity, made arrangements to enter this subterranean door with a large retinue of torch holders and a long rope, which was tied to the stone slab door. They also took the precaution of having a large armed guard make sure that the door was not closed on them.

After they had lighted their torches and entered the door, it was discovered that they would have to descend several large steps. At the foot of the steps was a very wide stone-paved passageway with a high stone buttress on either side. The passageway led directly away from the steps into the distant bowels of the earth. The bones of the most recent arrivals, picked clean, lay before them as the passage seemed to continue without end. On each side of the buttressed path they could see into a large area which was a large labyrinth of stone pillars that seemed to hold up the very mountains which they knew they were beneath. As they advanced into the mountain, a putrid, dank air assailed their nostrils, serpents retreated from the light behind the shadows of the pillars in the distance.

They continued into the depths at a distance of about 40 meters when suddenly a strong cold wind began to blow about them. Still striving to continue, as their torches were extinguished rapidly, they took flight when all became dark, not only for the danger of the serpents, but also from strange sounds they could not place, but which were not being made by the members of their own party. Using the rope and the light of the torch one of the guards held in the doorway, out of the strong wind, the entire party rapidly retreated from this terrifying region.

When all the company had swiftly retreated to the ante-chamber of “Hell,” they rapidly replaced the large stone slab door. After this the head prelate gave orders to fill in all the underground chambers and seal off and erase all signs of the stairs to them, thus eradicating for all time this entrance to the Caves.

The Tunnels of South America

In Southern and Central America, as well as in Mexico, the ancient people did not deny the existence of subterranean caves, chambers or tunnels. An examination of the religious beliefs of these ancient civilizations will reveal this.

The Aztecs of Mexico had their dark, dreary and much-feared “Tlaxico” which was ruled by “Mictlan,” their god of death. The Mayas of Yucatan held a belief in the existence of underworlds. These they termed “Mitlan,” and they were icy cold as are most subterranean chambers or tunnels (for proof visit a large cavern in summer clothes and see how uncomfortable you are). These underworlds were presided over by “Ah Puch.” the Lord of Death. We also have mention of the underground in the Mayan sacred writings, the “Popol Vuh”; as well as in the “Book of Chilam of Chumayel.” Even some of the codices seem to refer to them.

Peru and Chile, when they were ruled by the Incas, also reveal knowledge of the underground. “Supai,” the god of death, had an underground dwelling, a much feared “Place of Darkness .” “Pachacamce,” the god of the earth, caused underground rumblings in subterranean places where huge stones evidently fell, hours after he had shaken the earth with violence.

A legend of the first Inca “Manco Capac” relates that he and his followers, the founders of the Inca real, came from underground caves, while the people of the time revered snakes because of “Urcaguay,” the god of the underground treasures. This god is depicted as a large snake whose tail has a hanging pendant from it, the head of a deer and many little gold chains. Even the “Comentarios Reales de los Incas” of Garciliasso de la Vega hints at the existence of the subterranean.

References to the tunnels have come down to us from information that the Conquistadores obtained. From some unknown source they had gathered information that the wealth of the Inca’s domain was stored in a vast underground tunnel or road, and Pizzaro held the Inca Atahuelpha prisoner in order to obtain his wealth, which, it was rumored, was stored in a vast subterranean tunnel that ran for many miles below the surface of the earth. The Inca, if he had the information regarding the entrance to this tunnel, never revealed it. The priests of the Sun God and the Inca’s wife determined, it is asserted, the eventual fate of the Inca by occult means. The knowledge that Pizzaro did not intend to spare the Inca Atahuelpha’s life caused them to seal up the entrance and hide it so well that it has never been found to this day.

A few Quincha Indians, who are pure descendants of the line of priests, are said to still have the knowledge of the location of the entrance to this tunnel. They are the appointed guardians of this escort, so it is rumored today in Peru.

Another source of tunnel information may be a huge monolith of perpendicular rock, which stands apart from its native habitat, the mountains. This rock is of lava, and how it was erected or who erected it is lost in the ages of antiquity, long before the Incas came on the scene. The huge monolith stands alone on the shore of Ila, a small town in the southern tip of Peru, not far from the Chilean border. The rock bears odd hieroglyphic marks carved upon it. Marks which only in the light of the setting sun create a cryptic group of symbols. It is said that these marks will reveal to the person able to read them and decipher the message correctly the location of a secret entrance to the tunnels,an entrance located, some researchers assert, in the fastness of the “Los Tres Picas,” the Three Peaks region. This is a triangular formation of mountain tops near the monolith in the Loa River section.

When Mme. Blavatsky visited Peru, she viewed and concurred with the information regarding the markings on the Ila monolith. She also asserted that information regarding the entrances to the tunnels had been graven in the walls of the “Sun Temple,” at Cusco. Information of a symbolized nature, but nevertheless information which revealed to the person, with the knowledge of the meaning of the symbols, the secret entrance to those tunnels which the priests of the “Sun God” knew about. It is reported that Mme. Blavatsky received a chart of the tunnels, from an old Indian, when she visited Lima. This chart now reposes in the Adyar, India, archives of the Theosophical Society.

Harold T. Wilkins, author of Mysteries of Ancient South America, also researched and inquired about the tunnels until he was able to conclude the following: Two underground roads leave the vicinity of Lima, Peru. One of these tunnels is a subterranean road to Cusco, almost 400 miles to the east. The other runs underground in a southern direction for more than 900 miles to the vicinity of Salar de Atacama. This is a large salt desert in Chile, the residue of the ocean water which was landlocked during an upheaval of the earth. The upheaval of cataclysm which created Lake Titicaca raised Huanuco high above its place on the shore line. For information about this event, see the section titled “Tiahuanacu in the Andes” of Imanuel Velikovsky’s Earth in Upheaval.

The Cordellarias domeyko, in that section of Chile, very evidently landlocked a great portion of the sea when it was raised. After the sea water evaporated, the vast salt waste, which is almost impossible to traverse, was left.

The tunnel, which has a entrance somewhere in the Los Tres Picos triangle, is also said to have a connection with this long southern underground road.

I conjecture that any continuation of the southern tunnel was broken during the cataclysm, which created the Andes mountain range. Such a continuation would have connected these ancient tunnels with the reputed Rainbow City center in the Antarctic.

I also conjecture that another event may have also happened during a shifting of the earth’s crust at that time. Some of my readers may be familiar with the fact that at least one tribe of Indians in the Southwestern United States has a legend of coming from South America.

This legend relates a story of many years ago. The forefathers of the tribe are said to have lived in a large city far to the south. The story even ties the stars of the sky with the Southern Cross. The town may have been Huanuaca before the earth shift which raised it above sea level. At any rate the legend asserts that the people of this town in the south, the forefathers of a tribe of American Indians, were driven from their homes by a much more hostile and fierce group of warriors. The remnants of those who fled wandered for a long, long time in underground passages which led to the north. These passages eventually led them to our Southwest, where they emerged and set up tribal life once again.

How these ancient Indians were able to see in the dark does not seem to have been taken into consideration. The question of how these ancient tunnels of the Atlan or Titan were illuminated has long been of interest to those who follow the Shaver Mystery. It has long been considered that the tunnels were lit by a type of atomic light.

Steve Brodie is once again a captive of the subterranean people, if he is still alive! I cannot ask him about this, and I regret that it did not come to mind during the all-to-brief period that I knew him many years ago. I do know, however, that he never mentioned any darkness except in relation to the weird outer space pictures he painted. Light is a funny thing: we accept it as our due and never notice it until it is missing. Perhaps some time in the future we may find one of the entrances to the caves and discover just how they are lighted.

The Maltese Cave Entrance

The Maltese Cave entrance is on the island of Malta. This island is the largest of a group of three islands, in the sea that divides Europe from Africa, the Mediterranean. The little Maltese islands lay well off the coast of a much larger island, Sicily, halfway between the Libyan seaport of Tripoli and Calabria of Italy’s Calabrese people who are located in the toe of the bootlike formation of Italy.

The three Maltese islands are composed of Gozo, Comino and Malta. They represent one of the smallest archipelagoes in the world, survivors of those remote days when continents were of a different shape. Those pre-cataclysm days when Atlantis and Mu may have existed, the days when there was a land bridge between Europe and Africa. Those days when the entire Mediterranean area was merely a series of large lakes.

Malta is the principle island of the three. It reaches a width of almost nine miles, while it is all of 17½ miles in length. Gozo is not as long as Malta is wide and Comino is almost a dot which separates them. Comino has at times boasted of a total population of 50 people.

Malta is the most southern island, 180 miles from the African coast. It was an ancient center of civilization at the time when the Phoenicians from Carthage invaded and began to rule it. At that time blood sacrifice was not new to the Maltese and they readily accepted the priests of Moloch as another name for “Baal,” the Sun or Fire God. These priests offered up human sacrifice to their god, one who rejoiced in the sacrifice of human victims and the outcries of the victims’ parents.

Since the time of the Carthaginians, Malta has had many rulers: Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Castilians. Then France ruled the island for a short time before it became the British possession it now is.

However, with all this varied history, and regardless of the many nations who ruled them, the people of those islands still speak the ancient Canaanite, Semitic tongue, the speech of the Phoenicians, and the mother tongue of Queen Dido, who was the founder of Carthage. Malta was the birthplace of Carthage’s most famous citizen, the man who made Rome tremble at the height of his power: Hannibal— of the world’s greatest generals.

On the northeast shore of Malta there are a number of large bays. One of these is known as Grand Harbor. This bay has a point of land extending into it upon which the capital of the Maltese Islands, the city of Valletta, is built. A few miles inland from this town toward the south, overlooking the plain which leads to the shore, is a large plateau known as the Corradino. The little village of Casal Paula is built on this plateau, and from the village one can view Valletta, Grand Harbour, the plain leading to it, and also look out to the sea.

In this small village of Casal Paula during the year 1902 workmen, who were digging a well, literally fell into the earth. They had once again uncovered the outer room of the Maltese Cave entrance. Since the well was to be dug for a house which was on the main street named “Hal Saflieni,” and because this first cave was later discovered to be complex of caves, three of which were a series of chambers excavated out of solid rock on three even lower levels for each chamber, this entrance is known as the “Hypogeum of Hal Saflienti.” A hypogeum is the Latin name for an underground structure.

Later this series of underground rooms was discovered to have been located in the middle of an ancient neolithic village. From the construction of the entrance stones, it is now assumed that at certain times a human sacrifice was chained before the entrance. The entrance and the walls and ceilings of some of the passageways and rooms have been found to be decorated with red ochre primitive art designs, but when first discovered the three caves were crammed with as many as 30,000 skeletons of men, woman, and children. After all these bones were cleared out, the primitive murals were discovered. They took the forms of diamond shapes, as well as oblated and elongated ovals, all of which were joined together with wavy lines and whirls. These decorations had been created solely from the application of red ochre, by the most primitive of methods.

Once past the entrance, a narrow passageway leads down into the first room. It is in this room, that the “Oracle” may be found. The Oracle is a hemispherical hole in the wall, a which is lower than the mouth of an ordinary-sized man. It is about two feet in diameter, and one can speak into it. A curved projection carved out of the back of the cave then acts as a sounding board. The voice is amplified and caused to resound throughout all the other caves. It creates an effect which must have frightened the primitives into sacrificing many of the members of their tribe to the being who spoke with the “Voice of God.”

If you continue down through the narrow and low passageways, you come to another room. The center of this room has a circular stone altar with runnels on it, the use of which can only be guessed at. Carved in the walls of this room are many niches, the bases of which are like bunk beds. They have hollows scooped out for the heads and bodies, as well as the feet of four-foot-high individuals and some are even smaller.

Leading downward from this room is a small, narrow passageway, ending in another even larger underground room, which has narrow slit-like entrances into other small caves which surround it. One opening, however, is a window into another cave, the entrance to which is covered by a huge slab of stone. This window looks down into what was evidently a prison, but how beings only four feet tall were able to manipulate the huge stone slab must remain a mystery.

An opening in the wall opposite the entrance to this cave leads to a passage narrow and torturous, the entrance to the real caves. This passage ends on a pathway which extends along the side of a vast cleft in the earth, a pathway along the edge of a veritable chasm, a pathway which leads ever downward to the long underground tunnels and series of caves which are reputed to allow one to traverse the entire length of the island and even further.

Legend has it that these passageways at one time connected with the underground crypts from which the Catacombs of Rome were created. This may very well be true; for the reader must remember that the Mediterranean Sea was created after neolithic times by earthquakes and the shifting of the earth’s crust. Therefore, while the ancient tunnels may have existed, they might have been closed by cataclysms of this type, with the knowledge of them coming down to us only in legends.

The tunnels under the “Hypogeum” have been sealed off ever since a school teacher took 30 students into the caves and disappeared, guide and all. It was stated that the walls caved in on them. Search parties were never able to locate any trace of these people.

It has been asserted that for weeks the wailing and screaming of children was heard underground in different parts of the island, but no one could locate the source of the sound. If the walls caved in, why the cave-in could not be found and excavated to free the children remains a mystery.

How the children could live to scream for weeks later is another involved puzzle. At any rate, the underground entrance to the caves in Malta has been sealed off, and nobody is allowed to investigate the site.

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Labyrinth and Minotaur

Labyrinth

Greek legend would have us believe that when King Minos (son of Zeus) came to the Cretan throne his brothers weren’t too chuffed so, in order to prove his right to the crown he ’sent an ancient email’ (prayed to Poseidon, God of the Sea) to give a sign of approval. He asked that a white bull be sent to him as confirmation and promised that if that sign of approval was sent, he’d sacrifice the bull in Poseidon’s honour.

Poseidon duly obliged but Minos decided he rather liked the little white bull (now’s the time for all of you over 45 to burst into song with your impressions of Tommy Steele (at least here in the UK)!!) so decided to sacrifice the best bull from his herd instead. Obviously not the sharpest chisel in the tool box – even I know you don’t tangle with the gods! – it goes without saying that Poseidon wasn’t best pleased so he punished Minos by forcing Pasiphae, Minos’ wife, to fall in love with the white bull. She arranged for the architect Daedalus to make a wooden cow, she then climbed into it and fooled the white bull into mating with her – just hope she made sure there weren’t any splinters! From this mating Pasiphae produced a child that had the head and tail of a bull but the body of a man, and this monstrosity scared the Cretans to such an extent that Minos summoned Daedalus to his Court and commissioned him to make a labyrinth so big and complex that it’d be impossible to escape from it.

Once it had been completed, Minos and his Merry Men, captured the minotaur and locked him in the labyrinth but every so often, seven youths and maidens were gathered from Athens and sent into the maze for the minotaur’s delectation and delight! When it came to the the third sacrificial anniversary, the Greek hero Theseus (the product of a menage a trois – his mother Aethra had entered into a bit of hanky panky with Poseidon and Aegeus on the same night!) volunteered to go into the maze as part of the picnic hamper and kill the minotaur to prevent more of his fellow Athenians being led to the slaughter.

On arriving on Crete, Theseus met Ariadne, Minos’ daughter, who fell in love with him and told him that, provided he agreed to marry her, she would let him into the secret of getting out of the impenetrable maze with all his bits intact. He agreed to the arrangement, so she gave him a ball of thread, he tied one end of the thread securely at the entrance to the maze and, as he walked through, he slowly unwound it. Once he’d come across the minotaur which, by some miracle, happened to be taking a snooze, he beat it to death and then led the remaining sacrificial Athenians back to safety by rewinding the thread.

This myth has stood the test of time and many have tried to discover the site of the Minoan palace and the labyrinth. This yearning for the truth behind the ancient tale, was fuelled by a wealthy English archaeologist, Arthur Evans who visited Crete and excavated and partially reconstructed the site at Knossos between 1900 and 1935. Now, over half a million people a year visit the ruins and are told that this was the site of King Minos’ palace and consequently the most likely location of the mighty labyrinth so it’s little wonder that other sites in the area are shoved on the back burner, but a group of English scholars from Oxford University joined forces with the Hellenic Speleological Society and spent the last summer delving into a medley of tunnels and caves discovered in a disused quarry just 20 miles up the road.

Gortyn, in southern Crete. was at one time the Roman capital of the island. The archaeologists discovered that the caves at Gortyn (known locally as the Labyrinthos Caves) had been visited by ‘archaeological thieves’ – basically less energetic and rugged Indiana Joneses or less buxom and scantily clad Lara Crofts! – who were on the verge of blowing the whole thing sky high by dynamiting one of the inner chambers in the hope of finding treasure but thankfully our archaeological heroes arrived just in the nick of time!

The caves run to about two and a half miles and have numerous tunnels leading to wide chambers and dead end rooms which have been visited by travellers since Medieval times who were searching for the labyrinth. Unfortunately, interest waned in these a-mazing caves and was re-routed to Knossos over the last 100 years or so thanks to Arthur Evans’ excavation escapades. The caves at Gortyn then fell into neglect and even became a Nazi ammunition dump during World War 2!

Nicholas Howarth, a geographer from Oxford University who led the Anglo side of the expedition, said that the Gortyn caves had a menacing feel about them and it’d certainly be easy to become lost in the mass of tunnels and chambers so there seemed to be no reason why Gortyn couldn’t have been the location of the cave maze. He believes the main reason Knossos had remained so highly regarded as the labyrinth site was due to Arthur Evans who had the wealth and clout to promote the area once he’d excavated and partially reconstructed it.

But before you make up your mind which is the most likely site, Nicholas Howarth has also said there may be a third option; at Skotino on the Greek mainland but little’s known about this at the moment.

The fact of the matter is that there’s no real evidence that King Minos’ palace, the labyrinth or the minotaur existed – it’s purely a myth.

Andrew Shapland, the curator of Greek Bronze Age at the British Museum in London added his two penn’orth by saying that Knossos is mentioned by Homer (the Greek poet, not Simpson!) so it seems more likely that if in fact this myth was a reality then Knossos would be the favoured site.

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Minotaur

According to Greek myth, there was only one Minotaur – the child of Pasiphae, Queen of Crete and wife of King Minos, and a white bull sent by the sea god Poseidon.

The Minotaur had the body of an enormous human, with the head and shoulders of a bull. His body – particularly the animal parts – was covered in brown hair, and his horns were wickedly sharp, with a span wider then a man’s outstretched arms. Given his fearsome reputation, it seems likely that he measured around 10 ft (3 m) high.

King Minos trapped his stepson in the great Labyrinth below the palace of Knossos and kept the Minotaur satisfied by feeding him 14 young men and women exacted as tribute from the Athenians. According to one version of legend, this tribute was made every nine years, suggesting the Minotaur could live off stockpiled nutrient reserves for long periods of time. However, other versions suggest the tribute was annual, or that Minoans were slaughtered instead of Athenians eight years out of nine.

The Minotaur was probably about 30 when the Athenian hero Theseus came to Knossos, entered the maze-like Labyrinth where the Minotaur lived and killed it, and was at his physical prime. This suggests a total lifespan of around 50 years.

Many observers said that the Minotaur was invulnerable to any weapon but his own horn driven through his brain. This is probably an exaggeration, although a Minotaur’s size, speed, strength and ferocity, combined with a pair of deadly horns, must have made it a formidable adversary.

Knosses was destroyed by some form of cataclysm around 1450 BCE. Barbarian invasion from the mainland was once the favored explanation, but now a volcanic eruption and subsequent tidal wave are thought to have been responsible. By 1100 BCE, the Minoan civilization had faded.

In art and mythology, at least, the Minotaur lives on. Theseus and the Minotaur were favorite subjects for painters and craftsmen of ancient Greece. The tale continues to be one of the most popular of ancient legends. In the Middle Ages, Dante imagined the Minotaur as the brutal guardian of the Seventh Circle of Hell, a symbol of perversion.

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The Ica Stones of Peru

One of the great enigmas of planet Earth revolves around a collection of approximately 15,000 pre-Columbian artifacts, the ancient carved glyph rock library known as the Ica Stones.

They are carved stones supposedly found in a cave in the coastal desert city of Ica, Peru. Ica is a relatively small area, some 300 kilometers from Lima. In the 1960’s a farmer claimed to have found piles and piles of rocks deep in various gorges and caves not far from the Nazca Lines. Some were also buried slightly under the ground. The native farmer produced only bags of stones at first, but later, he produced literally thousands of the artifacts. For some time he made a good living selling the stones to tourists. The farmer became something of a celebrity. Word traveled in the archeological world, and experts descended on Ica.

As the story goes … The Peruvian government took an interest in the stones. They did not Peru to become another Egypt, overrun with diggers and robbers. They had enough of them already. No one knows what was said to the farmer but after arrest and confinement, he suddenly admitted in writing that the stones were hoaxed and that he had carved the stones himself. He was going to bilk the tourists and never realized it would get out of hand.

In 1966, Dr. Javier Cabrera, the town’s physician, received a small, carved rock for his birthday from a native. The carving on the rock looked ancient to Dr. Cabrera, but intrigued him because it seemed to depict a primitive fish.

Dr. Cabrera became the prime customer for the stones, and the farmer apparently had an endless supply. Dr. Cabrera questioned the farmer about carving the stones. The farmer was evasive and maintained his story about created them himself for fear of being arrested again and put in jail for the rest of his life.

When Dr. Cabrera had bought a few thousand he wanted to know how many there were in total. The farmer seemed to produce more every week. Cabrera was beginning to believe that he had fallen prey to this farmer, and the man had created them himself. The farmer refused to discuss how he made the stones. Logically Dr. Cabrera figured that the farmer would have had to carve one stone every day for over 40 years to produce the total library! This could not be possible. Dr. Cabrera set out to find answers about his Ica Stones based on the designs on the stones.

The stones come in all sizes. There are small ones that can fit in the palm of you hand. There are rocks as large as a dog. All of the stones have images that have been carved with continuous lines etched into the rock surface. The etching reveals a lighter color than the original dark varnish of age, yet the etched grooves also bear traces of this varnish, indicating that the carving was done in ancient times. They are a form of Andesite, a gray to black volcanic rock, and a very hard mineral that would make etching quite difficult with primitive tools, a local river rock, covered with a patina of natural oxidation. Laboratories in Germany have authenticated the incisions that make up the carvings as extremely ancient. Nearby fossil finds indicate the area to be replete in bone fragments millions of years old.

Unlike clay figurines that have organic material (i.e. straw) in their composition, there are no organic materials in plain old rock that will tell anything of its age. Traditional radiocarbon dating techniques rely upon organic material (that was once alive) to determine age. The surface of these rocks, however, has a varnish that is the result of bacteria and minute organisms which have adhered to them. A good black varnish or patina will take thousands of years to discolor and coat each stone. Etching these rocks would have removed the existing varnish, revealing the bare rock. Since these rocks have developed additional varnish in the grooves, it seems likely that they have were carved a long time ago.

Dr. Cabrera’s library is organized by subject matter including physical and social sciences (races of man), (nature) ancient animals, geography (lost continents), and prophecy (the knowledge of global catastrophe.)

Dr. Cabrera concluded that there was no way the farmer had time, skills, nor knowledge of how to create the stones. After purchasing 11,000 stones, Dr. Cabrera became a trusted friend of the farmer. He learned that the man was released from prison once he signed the confession that he was cheating the tourists. He agreed not to pretend the stones came from the hills but that he had indeed carved them himself. It was either that or go to prison for the remainder of his life for selling government possessions (the international antiquity laws).

Dr. Cabrera continued his research with geologists to interpret the maps on several stones showing a weird configuration of the world. Some angles and land masses looked vaguely familiar, but the majority were badly skewered into strange shapes. Geologists have confirmed that based on current computer projections, the shapes indicated on the rocks are indeed accurate for the planet Earth, as it was, about 13,000,000 (million) years ago – pre-stone age.

Peru has always held a spiritual fascination for people seeking higher knowledge. It has an air of mystery about it often linked to visits by Ancient Astronauts. Much of Peru sits on a major grid point meaning the electromagnetic energies are very strong. Peru is also a coastal region – the pull of the sea always a connection for those who study metaphysics as water represents the collective flow of creation. UFO sightings are common among local natives in Peru who say that watching a ship land in the water or on the land is not unusual. Some people claim to communicate with aliens. Machu Picchu is considered by some to have been a landing strip for UFO’s.

The Ica Stones will remain an unsolved mystery along with the Nazca Lines on the Plains of Peru which some believe could only have been designed as a blueprint by creational forces. This area has been thought by some to be an ancient spaceport based on the harness of electromagnetic energy for propulsion of space faring vehicles. The entire area was made up of huge iron ore deposits that concentrated magnetic energy, creating an electromagnetic field of extraordinary strength.

Who actually created the Ica Stones? Evidence seems to show they were not created by humans of the time line of their creation, but for now they remain an enigma.

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