Jupiter and Moon, taken 4/17
I ended the previous post (about the Ba'al Gate controversy) with this conclusion:
I've been finding myself looking at all my Mesopotamian books lately, my Samuel Noah Kramer books and all the rest of them. In comparison the Egyptian material seems almost whimsical, comforting, much more like the Bible than Jews or Christians would want to admit.
I've also been on the lookout for specifically Mesopotamian symbols, feeling they are coming to define this new and perilous age we are entering into. Look no further than the ongoing Syrian war (which may still trigger a wider conflagration), the emigrant crisis threatening to destabilize Europe (ostensibly triggered by the Mesopotamian wars), the oil crisis (deepened by Iraqi and Iranian oil in the market), and now the reappearance of Nibiru, or Planet 9 or whatever the hell you choose to call it.
These kinds of tectonic shifts are not going to be limited to mere geopolitical events, they are going to unleash energies across the spectrum. Which is why anyone interested in Synchronicity or magic (but I repeat myself) needs to be familiarize themselves with the potent symbols of Mesopotamian culture and religion so that you may see them at work around you.
I wrote a few weeks back about a "synchrostorm" that kicked up in the wake of the apocalyptic X-Files finale, but I've since come to realize this was no storm at all. Rather it was the new normal.
The X-Files has always been a deep sync generator for me, which my friends knew all too much about 10 years or so ago. So it's no surprise that its return would give me the cheat codes to break through to this next level, a mixed blessing to be sure.
The first major sign was the appearance of a massive flock of grackles in my backyard. As I wrote in the prophetically-named "Bad Things Happen When the Birds Gather":
But following the rather apocalyptic "season" finale of the recent X-Files miniseries, that synchrostorm reared its head. Dreams began manifesting, memories returning as unknown premonitions, the whole nine yards.
Just as we saw in "Founder's Mutation," several thousand grackles appeared in our backyard--the day after the last episode aired.
They stayed for five days, seemingly waiting for me to record them, and then flew off. They were here four weeks early (they weren't due until the beginning of Spring), I couldn't find out information on any other grackle flocks in any of the local news or birdwatching sites online (some of which get ridiculous about cataloging every bird someone sees) and they've never settled here in the 23 years we've been living in this house.
Not long after I was talking with Gordon via Skype and telling him a strange story I recounted several years ago on The Hidden Experience podcast, about a screaming animal that seemed to shape-shift in front of my eyes. When I told that story to Mike I didn't know that both the scream (which sounds like a horrific woman's scream) and the shape-shifting lore were both long associated with the Fox, Nature's great Trickster. When I told the story to Gordon, I did.
That night as I was making dinner my son bolted out the door, undressed, clutching his very expensive camera (which he bought following his UFO sighting). When he came back inside he explained that there was a fox on the friggin' front porch, just hours after I recounted my admittedly bizarre fox story to Gordon. He chased it, in the freezing cold, but his fancypants camera couldn't focus in the dark.
We haven't seen any foxes in this neighborhood for several years now. And one chooses that exact night to show up on my front porch.
Since then I've heard (and smelled) the fox in the yard on several nights. I've seen it now on three separate occasions and the birds made another (even stranger) appearance. Now, we've been in the area a long time and have seen a lot of animals, often up close. Something seems to be different this year.
Let me explain why.
I first saw the fox on my power walk a couple of weeks ago. It strolled right past me and into the woods in bright daylight. Nothing particularly strange about that. But I was listening to Killing Joke's 2006 album Hosannas from the Basement of Hell at the time, which I hadn't listened to for a while.
The third song on that album is "Invocation". The invocation in question is to Babylon, or Babalon, if you prefer, and the lyrics paint an accurate image of the world circa 2016.
The second time was strange. I was driving a rented minivan home. We had to drive up to New Hampshire for my grandmother's funeral (one of several recently) and needed something we could all fit into.
It was not a good start to the trip- we didn't get the vehicle we ordered, it didn't have Sirius radio (which we paid for), the mechanism to move the seat back was not working properly (preventing me from actually, you know, driving) and we were running very late.
As I drove home, I pulled up to the stop sign around the corner from my house. And the fox stepped out of the woods and stood- stood- in front of the car. Posing. One beauty shot after another. Practically taunting me.
And I couldn't get the damn camera on my crappy flip-phone to get a picture. Weird menus I'd never seen before began popping up. The fox trotted away. I followed it, fumbling with the unfamiliar car and the bewildering malfunctions on the phone. I got one terrible picture before it got tired of my incompetence and ran across the street.
It wasn't until the fox disappeared that I realized what the song playing on the station the previous renter left the radio on was...
The song from the final scene of The X-Files episode "Babylon", "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers. Babylon again. Fox, Fox Mulder. So that was the second encounter.
The third time- on Saturday- was a charm.
I'd been telling Gordon that Star*Ships reminded me that my father's old house in Cohasset* actually had a megalithic stone circle in the backyard. It was apparently a natural stone formation that someone had carved into, installing a stairway and other features. The present owner seems to installed an obelisk in the center of the circle, judging from the satellite photo.
The house was on Border Street, right on the harbor.
I was thinking of where I could find old photos of the rock formation to send Gordon while walking the dogs with the Wibbley One. Out of nowhere the fox appeared and ran off down the street. Neither of us had our phones out.
I dropped the wife and the dogs off at home and set off on a power walk to the Templar cemetery (tell you about that later). I had the phone out, even though I wasn't really expecting to see the fox again.
Imagine my surprise when she darted out of nowhere and walked alongside me, about 40 feet to my left. In broad daylight. Again.
I'm seriously starting to think this thing is stalking me.
Unlike every fox I've ever encountered, she seemed totally unconcerned that there was a rather large man now following it, taking pictures of her. Actually, she seemed rather amused. Unfortunately my phone camera is crap, but I was collecting evidence, not creating art.
The fox seemed interested in my movements, didn't seem to care as I moved closer towards her, acted completely unlike any of the foxes I've encountered in the past. Foxes are generally nocturnal and skittish around people, and nearly all the ones we've seen around here bolt into the woods when people approach (nearly all- there was that one obvious exception ten years ago).
She was far less nervous than a dog or cat would be in the same situation. Made prolonged eye contact, had no problem with my moving closer towards her. I can't say quite why but this was unlike any contact I've had with a wild animal. Finally she trotted off and I returned home to make sure the pictures came out OK this time. But something was bothering me about the time here...
It was this:
In fact, my wife had found pictures of the stone circle that very day. There's more:
...Egypt, Massachusetts.
So the fox first appeared in a very dramatic and symbolic manner- on my front porch, of all places- and since then made itself visible in highly-charged situations. It acts like no fox I've ever encountered. A FB member said she seemed much too calm for a fox in that situation.
Is she in fact a messenger? If so, what is the message?
But wait- there's more!
Let me explain why.
I first saw the fox on my power walk a couple of weeks ago. It strolled right past me and into the woods in bright daylight. Nothing particularly strange about that. But I was listening to Killing Joke's 2006 album Hosannas from the Basement of Hell at the time, which I hadn't listened to for a while.
The third song on that album is "Invocation". The invocation in question is to Babylon, or Babalon, if you prefer, and the lyrics paint an accurate image of the world circa 2016.
It was not a good start to the trip- we didn't get the vehicle we ordered, it didn't have Sirius radio (which we paid for), the mechanism to move the seat back was not working properly (preventing me from actually, you know, driving) and we were running very late.
As I drove home, I pulled up to the stop sign around the corner from my house. And the fox stepped out of the woods and stood- stood- in front of the car. Posing. One beauty shot after another. Practically taunting me.
And I couldn't get the damn camera on my crappy flip-phone to get a picture. Weird menus I'd never seen before began popping up. The fox trotted away. I followed it, fumbling with the unfamiliar car and the bewildering malfunctions on the phone. I got one terrible picture before it got tired of my incompetence and ran across the street.
It wasn't until the fox disappeared that I realized what the song playing on the station the previous renter left the radio on was...
The third time- on Saturday- was a charm.
The house was on Border Street, right on the harbor.
I was thinking of where I could find old photos of the rock formation to send Gordon while walking the dogs with the Wibbley One. Out of nowhere the fox appeared and ran off down the street. Neither of us had our phones out.
I dropped the wife and the dogs off at home and set off on a power walk to the Templar cemetery (tell you about that later). I had the phone out, even though I wasn't really expecting to see the fox again.
I'm seriously starting to think this thing is stalking me.
The fox seemed interested in my movements, didn't seem to care as I moved closer towards her, acted completely unlike any of the foxes I've encountered in the past. Foxes are generally nocturnal and skittish around people, and nearly all the ones we've seen around here bolt into the woods when people approach (nearly all- there was that one obvious exception ten years ago).
It was this:
In early Mesopotamian mythology, the fox is one of the sacred animals of the goddess Ninhursag. The fox acts as her messenger.
Nin-hursag means "lady of the sacred mountain" (from Sumerian NIN "lady" and ḪAR.SAG "sacred mountain, foothill, possibly a reference to the site of her temple, the E-Kur (House of mountain deeps) at Eridu.Mesopotamia, yet again. What's the connection to what I had been processing before the fox appeared, though?
Her symbol, resembling the Greek letter omega Ω, has been depicted in art from around 3000 BC, though more generally from the early second millennium BC. It appears on some boundary stones — on the upper tier, indicating her importance.Boundary, Border St., Stones, the Stone Circle...
Detail of ground view of
Border St. Stone Circle
In fact, my wife had found pictures of the stone circle that very day. There's more:
The omega symbol is associated with the Egyptian cow goddess Hathor, and may represent a stylized womb. Hathor is at times depicted on a mountain, so it may be that the two goddesses are connected.Why is this important? Well, Border St. ends- or forms a boundary- in a very interesting place...
So the fox first appeared in a very dramatic and symbolic manner- on my front porch, of all places- and since then made itself visible in highly-charged situations. It acts like no fox I've ever encountered. A FB member said she seemed much too calm for a fox in that situation.
Is she in fact a messenger? If so, what is the message?
But wait- there's more!
The grackles returned on Tuesday. They'd been gone for weeks and all of a sudden they were back, in my backyard. Some were in a neighbor's tree but it was one that overhangs our property line. I went over to the other side of the house to show that they were in fact clustered on our property, not the neighbors, just as before. And just as before, they disappeared as soon as I recorded them.
Don't ask me to explain it. Are they just camera shy? Was their mission to stay long enough to be recorded before flying off and freaking someone else out?
Don't ask me to explain it. Are they just camera shy? Was their mission to stay long enough to be recorded before flying off and freaking someone else out?
What was even stranger is that YouTube wouldn't accept any of the HD versions of the videos, even though they were all very short.
Again, we've been here for 23 years and this has never happened before. And the birding sites I checked- some of which are so anal they record the most trivial sightings- had no news of grackle flocks.
So I had the obvious X-Files links, to 'Babylon' and 'Founder's Mutation'. They themselves make further connections. The Ninhursag symbolism connected back to Sumer (later, Babylon) and opened a whole new can of worms with the Anunaki and E.DIN and the Adamu and everything else referenced in 'Founder's Mutation'. All semiotically appropriate as Nibiru makes the mainstream news.
The flock symbolism also connects back to a later incarnation of Ninhursag, namely Astarte or Ashtoreth, whose name is linked to flocks†. But past that the entire episode remains an puzzle to me. I pay a lot of attention to birds on my walks and have not noticed a lot of grackle activity around here at all. Except now twice, in my backyard.
It could well be that earth changes- perhaps triggered by the approach of Planet 9/Nibiru- are causing strange and unusual behavior in animals. Or it could be a somewhat more localized phenomenon.
Don't ask me why but I seem to have a history with this kind of thing; there was the dolphin beaching right down the street from my old house in Braintree--in a fresh water river. Seriously, you would have to go there to see how absolutely impossible that was. I can't even think of a clever analogy.
There was a mass dolphin beaching in Wollaston (literally at the end of the street where I stayed with my father after the divorce), a whale beaching in Cohasset (again, impossible), and a mass whale beaching (94 pilot whales, in 1984) near our old summer house in Eastham.
If once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and thrice enemy action, what the hell is four times?
So what do I make of this?
It could well be that earth changes- perhaps triggered by the approach of Planet 9/Nibiru- are causing strange and unusual behavior in animals. Or it could be a somewhat more localized phenomenon.
Left: Yours truly, 1972.
Right: Close Encounters, 1977
Don't ask me why but I seem to have a history with this kind of thing; there was the dolphin beaching right down the street from my old house in Braintree--in a fresh water river. Seriously, you would have to go there to see how absolutely impossible that was. I can't even think of a clever analogy.
There was a mass dolphin beaching in Wollaston (literally at the end of the street where I stayed with my father after the divorce), a whale beaching in Cohasset (again, impossible), and a mass whale beaching (94 pilot whales, in 1984) near our old summer house in Eastham.
If once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and thrice enemy action, what the hell is four times?
So what do I make of this?
Well, we've also been experiencing strange issues with the electricity lately, weird flickering lights that don't seem to have any discernible source or pattern. Which, of course, my wife blames on me ( I seem to have the same effect on the WiFi signal). Maybe so. but I am going to err on the side of caution and call an electrician.
The common denominator here seems to be electromagnetic energy (which birds and cetaceans use to navigate by), which I don't believe I'm generating, but may- and I'm just spitballing here- have something to do with my childhood nightmares or my mother's owl shrine. Or more precisely, with the UFO flap while my mother was pregnant with me that got so much attention in both Passport to Magonia and Operation Trojan Horse.
It probably has something to do with my chronic pain issues, which always seem to be worse during electrical storms. It might have to do with that periodic tone I hear that you read about in "the literature." It may be why other members of my family were/are drawn to houses either with stone circles or near them.
Or to places where extremely unlikely cetacean beachings might happen. Highly charged places.
It may be why goddesses like Inanna and Astarte were associated with the sky and more precisely, flying boats and flying chariots, however unfashionable that may be to consider these days. Or that gods from Anu to El to Ahura Mazda to Zoroaster were associated with flying disks.
The common denominator here seems to be electromagnetic energy (which birds and cetaceans use to navigate by), which I don't believe I'm generating, but may- and I'm just spitballing here- have something to do with my childhood nightmares or my mother's owl shrine. Or more precisely, with the UFO flap while my mother was pregnant with me that got so much attention in both Passport to Magonia and Operation Trojan Horse.
It probably has something to do with my chronic pain issues, which always seem to be worse during electrical storms. It might have to do with that periodic tone I hear that you read about in "the literature." It may be why other members of my family were/are drawn to houses either with stone circles or near them.
Or to places where extremely unlikely cetacean beachings might happen. Highly charged places.
It may be why goddesses like Inanna and Astarte were associated with the sky and more precisely, flying boats and flying chariots, however unfashionable that may be to consider these days. Or that gods from Anu to El to Ahura Mazda to Zoroaster were associated with flying disks.
Though I'm willing to bet that the motherships you see in Close Encounters are every bit as fanciful as that sphinx-drawn chariot you see there.
In the meantime, keep an eye on your own backyard. This may be contagious.
In the meantime, keep an eye on your own backyard. This may be contagious.
*Longtime readers may remember that Cohasset is where The Witches of Eastwick was filmed, co-starring Veronica Cartwright, aka Cassandra Spender. In fact her big scene was filmed in the church my paternal grandmother attended. The exteriors for Cher's house in the film were shot on Border Street. Cher was involved in a serious accident on Rt 3 during the production of the film, a fact that seems to have fallen down the memory hole.
† As does the Wibbley One's maiden name, Hurd. For that matter, Hursag roughly translates to "Knowles".
