Dream Records #626-635 with Alchemical Notation

    #626 – Ted Bundy doing drugs to self-medicate. He tried to kill himself, you know. He had personal conversations like this one to lure you in. Brutal things. Burning, sinful lusts. 🜂

    #627 – The crowd is shouting for Cassius Clay to get up from the floor. “Get up!” The stress of panic attacks and manic episodes is too much. “What are you doing? Get up!” 🜃

    #628 – That duck is drunk. Or the other way ‘round. And I’m sorry if this embarrasses you. 🜄

    #629 – I’m in Russia, visiting. Seeing the monumental memorials again. I’m to meet my ex-wife at the flag garden honoring national alliances. But she doesn’t show and I have to raise the flag myself. 🜃

    #630 – I’m with Dahmer’s mother chasing UFOs. Her ways are movable. Her car is fast. Aimless down a crooked trail. We took photos, but they all came back blurred. 🜁

    #631 – A dozen parachutist soldiers in our church. Unannounced. They knock over the sanctuary lamp as they crash through the ceiling. But no one is watching. I think they should apologize but no one is listening. And the altar is burning. 🜂

    #632 – He moves his bishop across the board, favoring the concrete over the abstract. Food. Drink. Sex. These are the forces that motivate him. Because. Since. Cause and effect. Calculated pauses. No affect. No blinking. Bishop takes queen. 🜃

    #633 – His fingers. Her lip. And teeth. Too many teeth. And blood. So much blood. His screaming. Her smile. 🜂

    #634 – Martin Luther is pouring me a beer. “Come drink with me,” he says (though I don’t speak German). “The devil harasses, but you amuse me. Tell me again what you wrote in your book about the socialist Jesus.” Jack Lemmon is there too, but he doesn’t say a word. 🜄

    #635 – It’s the Zapruder film stuttering. Frame by flickering frame. But the convertible is empty. Loop. It’s the Zapruder film stuttering. Frame by flickering frame but the convertible is empty. Loop. It’s the Zapruder film stuttering. Frame by flickering flame but the convertible is empty. Loop. It’s the Zapruder film...🜂

But What of the Water?

    Excuse me. Sorry. Excuse me. Do you work here? Can you help me? I’m looking at this rice and what I want to know is – has it been genetically modified? No. I know about that label. But what about the stuff they don’t label? The man on the radio was talking about how scientists are putting bull DNA into the rice. You know, hooves and horns and all. I didn’t really understand that. Something about a lactose intolerant condition. Enzymes, I think. So, I’m trying to determine if this is that bull beef DNA rice, ‘cause if it is, I don’t want it. I don’t want anything changing my genetic material.

    How rude! How dare you speak to me like that. I’ve been shopping here for fifteen years, and I’ve never been treated so rudely. I insist on speaking to your manager, young man.

    Hang on. Listen to me for a minute. Before Satan showed up in the garden, he’d already ruled nations. He’d been thrown out of heaven, fallen to Earth, corrupted governments, and led nations to slaughter. Pre-adamic ritual slaughter. We know from Apollonius the Egyptian that the Earth is at least one hundred and fifty-thousand and seventy-five years old. More or less. And the first fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a corrupted fruit from a wicked tree.

    Do you hear that? Is that the civil defense alarm? The tornado siren? Is it the regular test? Today’s not Wednesday, is it? We’ve had so many tornadoes recently. More than I remember when I was a girl.

    Did you hear about that murdered Catholic priest across town? It’s a conspiracy run, I tell you. I don’t have much need for the Catholics with their Roman popery and their idolatry. But all these premeditated acts of religious defiance are getting out of hand.

    What we need is prayer and clean living. Or prayer and fasting. Though all the modern Bible translations leave that verse out. Do you know why? Do you understand what they’re doing to our Bibles?

    What we need is prayer. And when we pray the angels hear us, and they hearken to our words. Talk to the angels and the angels listen. Talk to a mountain and it will obey. Jump itself into the ocean if you tell it to. The science of it is bizarre. It makes no sense, but it makes dollars, if you know what I mean.

    And what is happening to the totality of this body. My body? That’s what I want to know. The totality of this body needs healing. Deep frequency healing of the body chaotic. It’s the frequency of the stars. They’re singing a recalibrating symphony – the song of the Father. The spirit calls us into the song, and into the dance. Spinning. Twisting. Twirling.

    Now I’m dizzy. Let me sit down for a second. Whoa. Whoa. Okay. Thanks. Sorry. It all got away from me for a bit there.

    You’ve got to remember that we’re more than seed puffs in the wind. We’re made of dust sure. And the angels are made of pale, trembling fire. And the wind is the breathing Spirit of God. But what of the water?

New Truths and New Knowings

    There are new truths and new knowings. There are revelations yet unseen. My imagination is active. My intellect goes forth to create according to what comes to mind. From the remnant of dreams, all the vapors and gasses of the night combined with a line upon line study of the scriptures. I’m putting together the outline and notes that will lead us, point to point, maybe not you would want to go, but to where you need to go - the end of knowing. Follow with me. All will be revealed.

    First, there are some who stand prepared at the gates. Always in readiness. Always in faith. Ethiopian Copts are guarding the Ark of Covenant in an undisclosed location, behind an unmarked door. The guardians have the key. The guardians have the lock.

    Let there be demonic dermatology for the warlock senator from Georgia. The curse of his skin be upon him.

    If you always follow the angel of prophecy, you’ll never be lost. This remains true – though I’ve stumbled occasionally. Usually somewhere in Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. The little horn, the tin horn dictator, shouting in my ear distracted me, but only for a time. Even among the wise rulers, those with understanding, some will stumble. A number of them will be purged. Purified and made clean. Purged and made white. White with fear and bloodless pale. Where is it leading? Follow on.

    Stalin has been spotted on Venus, his visage in the clouds.

    And now we come to the extraterrestrial, inter-dimensional, documentary entities – stepping between the registers of spatial timeslips and their spiritual machines – oft observed flying through our airspace. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. Observe the wheels within the spinning wheel. See it spin, high and dreadful above the surface of the earth and full of eyes, lifted up into higher dimensions. Ancient angels identified as aliens in our day, instantly transformed from magic to material by material magic.

    Finally, look closely at the seven resurrections of the American empire - no love and no lie - after years of dispute and negotiations and the successive waves of diplomatic “healing,” it will be destroyed by Christ at his coming. Count the multinational corporations and financial manufacturers that dominate every field, internet and satellite television – they illustrate the need for American independence.

    The whole global system is fractured. It cannot be saved. There is little time left – less than eight hours. Eight hours relative.

Prophecy Club Minutes - 05.16.26

Prophecy Club
05.16.26
7:34 pm
First Bethel Baptist Church Basement

ATTENDANCE
Present Members: Brothers Haggai, Joel, Daniel, Jonah, Ezekiel, and Agabus
Absent Members: Brother Micah
There were no guests
There was a quorum present

ORDERS OF BUSINESS

The meeting opened with our standard invocation: “Open our eyes that we may see wonderful things in your law.” Open our eyes now, Lord. Amen.

Brother Joel read the minutes of the previous meeting. Brother Agabus pointed out that in the discussion of Secrets of the Freemason, “Ordo ab Chao” had been misspelled as “Ordo ab Kayo.” Much laughter ensued.

Unfinished Business

Brother Agabus reported on his investigation into the socialist roots of the Pledge of Allegiance. He reported – it IS true that a socialist wrote the pledge and that the original version did NOT include the phrase “one nation under God.” Brother Agabus reported that he continues to investigate whether or not we should continue to recite the pledge in light of these discoveries.

New Business

Brother Haggai presented part 15 of his series on the satanic connections between the Pope and the coming of the Mahdi. Spirited discussion followed.

Brother Ezekiel of the Man of Perdition Committee reported that they had no new Antichrist Candidates to consider this month.

A question was raised about whether angels and demons are bodies with DNA of some sort. Brother Daniel said no. They are spiritual beings, not physical. Brother Ezekiel insisted that “there are celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies” and that bodies have DNA. Discussion was tabled after several minutes.

Brother Joel presented a report from the UFO Committee. There have been (at least) three sighting of possible UFOs circling the Saint Louis Arch this month. Brother Joel requested funds for overnight watch groups. Motion was made by Brother Daniel. Seconded by Brother Jonah. The motion was passed with five Ayes and one Abstention (Brother Agabus)

Brother Joel also discussed the change in nomenclature. UFO is less standard. UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) has replaced it. Brother Joel requested money to change the Committee’s letterhead and business cards. Motion was made by Brother Daniel. Seconded by Brother Jonah. The motion was passed with five Ayes and one Abstention (Brother Agabus)

Brother Agabus was questioned about his abstentions. He said: “I refuse to recognize the authority of this group until it distinguishes between the Zionist state and the Israel of God.”

CLOSING

Brother Joel led us in the closing prayer: Lord, You are our refuge and fortress. Guard our hearts and minds. Protect us from demonic attack, physical harm, and emotional wounds. Keep us safe in the shadow of Your wings. Amen.

We will hold the next board meeting on 06.16.26 at 7:34pm. The meeting will be a top-secret Strategy Briefing. The password will be: hoy al-ha N’viyiym ha N’yaliym. Do not share with nonmembers.

The meeting ended at 10:16pm

[Signatures of minute taker and board president]

Atmospheric Echoes

     I was traveling to Newark when I heard the first reports of the unidentified aerial phenomenon. Strange visions in the sky – coming from major metropolitan centers. I’d been on the bus for six hours and I still had two more hours to go. A long trip toward what? Work or consolation? I would have taken whatever was available. Starting over was starting over.

    In the early days of saucer sightings (Ezekiel 1, 2 Kings 2) there were numerous cases of a UFO or other UAP causing anxiety among the saints, far from home. Lonely. This happens far less often today – with advanced technology and complete memory recovery systems. Radar and full restoration still being perfected. Reports this week of shooting objects in the sky over Beijing. Random images maybe, but the reports made something of them.

    “Marvel not at these atmospheric echoes,” came a voice.

    I stared out the window at the lights in the distance and counted the minutes. How long had it been since… How long would it be until… These were calculations I couldn’t complete. I no longer understood the calculus of human interaction. Addition became division and she was gone.

    UFOs often create electrical force disturbance affecting not only people and animals but sophisticated electronics as well. Injury and short circuits. Rashes. Burns. Depression. Sleeplessness. Heartburn. Aerial sickness. Even radiation poisoning requiring prolonged hospitalization. Death and hell. Extremely dangerous. Technological overload. God and technology reversed and reordered. This could kill you in two to three days and, what is worse, corrupt the data. Context requires more detail, of course (160 GB – do not exceed capacity).

    “What it carries can give you new purpose in life,” came the voice again.

    I dug in my rucksack for my notebook. My notes. Conversational sketches. Character outlines. Parents and stuff. Histories and obscure words forgotten. With pen and paper I could write anywhere. Low-tech. Simple. At home (home no longer), on the bus (for another hour), in Newark. Put down the words, any words, all the words. Order would come later.

    In March of 1978 a man from Beijing reported a secret rapture – not preceding (better than “preventing” as the KJV has it) a “beam of light.” Hit me. Hit me. A hit waiting to happen. In 1977 a dog died in Salto Uruguay. Coincidence? How many others were carried away and never seen again?

    “Rise now. Right now,” said the voice again. “All over the world the prospect of being taken to heaven rises higher and higher. Are you one of the chosen?”

Nothing Much Matters after the End

The day that the end of the world began started like any other day; alarm clocks buzzed, the sun came up in the east, and men and women drank cups of coffee as they made their way to work. It was over before most of us had clocked in for the day; it was over before we even realized what had happened.

This isn’t to say that no one had anticipated the events of that morning. The members of the lunatic fringe, those of the tinfoil hat brigade had been watching the skies for decades for just this sort of thing. That guy on the History Channel, the one with the hair and the Greek name, said, “I told you it was aliens.” But by then it didn’t really matter.

At 6:45 that morning officials at NASA called for an emergency press conference to announce the arrival of several large spacecraft, alien spacecraft, approaching the Earth. With long-range radar sweeps and satellite photographs they presented overwhelming evidence that, indeed, we were about to be visited by intelligences of unknown origin. When asked, at the end of the press conference, why this information was being shared with the general public, instead of being kept secret and classified, the NASA spokeswoman said, “there’d be no point. The aliens will be visible to the general public – to anyone in the northern hemisphere with a telescope, even a cheap one, would be able to see them in a matter of hours.”

That day was spent in arguments over cubicle walls and lunch tables, on the airwaves and around government agency conference tables. How would we respond to these visitors? Did they come in peace or intend upon the destruction of the human race. Some said that we should be prepared to welcome these guests from beyond our solar system. Others argued that we need to begin readying our missile defense systems and mobilizing our military forces – immediately – before the invasion began.   Plans were drafted. Resources were mobilized. But none of it mattered. The aliens didn’t stay long enough for us to put any of our plans into effect.

Their space craft entered the atmosphere just after 9:30 AM Central Standard Time. They hovered over the Atlantic Ocean for about 20 minutes – long enough to dump something into the atmosphere. And then they left. There was no communication from them at all during that time. Nothing. They made not radio broadcast and did not respond to our frantic transmissions.

They stayed just long enough to jettison a toxin, or poison of some sort into the air and then they were gone, leaving the Earth along the same trajectory that brought them here. They didn’t stick around to see the result of their arrival. They didn’t stick around to enslave or consume the human population, or to count the dead.

The question of motive – Why? Why did they come? – remains. Was the poison they released into the jetstream a weapon?  Or were they merely emptying the trash before they made the next leg of their intergalactic journey? Did they know that it would have a fatal effect on the human population (and on many animal species as well)? Did they care?

But that question remains unanswered. They’re gone, and do not seem to be returning any time soon. And if the death they dropped into the skies continues to kill at its present rate, there will be few, if any, who will be around to ask them should they return. Nothing much matters after the end. 

What Is Out There?

So what is out there? Most of space is empty. Most of space is void. But there is something out there. There must be, or we wouldn’t be so compelled to go there again and again.  What is out there in the dark?

* A few half broken robot puttering around in circles on the surface of Mars, unable to complete their missions because of faulty hardware, unable to stop their peregrinations because of their programming.

* Asteroid mining roughnecks living between Mars and Jupiter – giving up ten years of their lives to drill and plunder space rocks for ice and nickel and iron in return for a substantial payout at the end of their contracted time. The risk is great, however: 37% of those space-miners die before the end of their contract. Their families or designated recipients receive a small, prorated portion of their payment.

* The gateway to hell. Several religious sects believe that the entrance to the infernal realm is found in the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. That anticyclonic storm has been raging continuously since it was first observed in 1830. The noise and roar of the turbulent storm, twice as wide as earth, actually raises the temperature of Jupiter’s atmosphere by 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Hell is hot and loud, drowning out the screams of the damned.

* Dark Matter and White Light, but not in equal proportions.

* Spinning saucer-craft piloted by either little green men bent on medical experiments of the perverse variety – namely the impregnation of God fearing American women, or buxom Venusian women intent on the seduction of virile, red-blooded, American men.

* Surfaces to exploit. There are always surfaces to exploit. There is always profit to be made.

* Ghosts and demons – malicious entities spreading their hatred through signals from television satellites. That’s how they get to us; television is the vector. They deceive our minds, put us into a subconscious hypnosis. These space demons use what is called the “flicker rate” (the flicker fusion threshold), the frequency of intermittent light stimulus to modulate our perception by superimposing subliminal messages on television programs. This is how they destroy our freewill, how they corrupt our minds – like an intergalactic virus, poisonous creatures infecting our spirits from a distance.

* The former President of the United States of America. Having been impeached and discredited, the previous POTUS fled the surface of the Earth and went into hiding in a bunker on the moon. He is plotting there, with a coven of his satanic high priests, to raise an army of demonized Bolsheviks. His plan is to storm the White House and to retake control of the nation.

What’s out there? Weird and dangerous stuff. Stars and wonder, passion and despair. Out there are all the things we fear and all the stories that we deny. Out there are the monsters that hid beneath our beds when we were children. Out there are shadows and dreams. Out there is wealth, or at least the potential for great wealth. Out there, in the depths of space is danger, fire, heaven, hell. Out there is blood and mystery. Space is filled with mystery.

A Dark Rapture

And Jesus answered them, “Take care that no one deceives you with carefully constructed government cover-ups and misinformation. You will hear of gyroscopic propulsion systems and secret spy planes, but these are not the end; see that you are not alarmed. Nation will fight against nation and kingdom against kingdom using the advanced technologies but this is only the beginning.

Then you will be handed over to be tortured by the FBI and interrogated before the Committee on Science and Astronautics. You will be hated and denounced as a whistle-blower, conspiracy theorist, lunatic. And many will fall away. Many false prophets will arise offering Communion; they will deceive many. But anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved. This good news of kingdom will be proclaimed to the entire galaxy as evidence to the species. And then the end will come.

So when you see the appalling abomination, of which the prophet D. spoke, flying over the windrowed heartland try to remember that you have a camera. But let the reader understand, you may see nothing more than a dancing blur of unfocused light, ill-defined shapes screaming toward the horizon. Escape to the mountains if you can.

There is evidence of galactic maleficence at work here. Alas, alas for those who have been abducted, raptured by large eyed demonic manifestations from space. Pray that you will not be among their missing numbers. For then there will be great distress – explosions of radio transceivers, lethal light beams and heat rays, colored lights that hypnotize and mass hallucinations – great distress unparalleled since the world began.

If anyone says to you, “Look, here are the crop circles of the Cosmic Christ,” do not believe him, or, “Look, he is in the desert of New Mexico,” do not follow. Because the coming of the Son of Man will be like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west. Where the corpse is, there the vultures gather.

Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will be bloodied. Televised preachers will write books about the convergence of holiday festivals and lunar events and the power of reason will be shaken. He will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather the elect, but a louder Trump will unleash great winds upon the land. Sky and earth will pass away. You don’t know when, but sky and earth will be burnt away.

As it was in the days of Deucalion, so will it be again: people eating, drinking, taking husbands, paying taxes, right up to the day Deucalion went up into that floating casket. And they suspected nothing. Then of two men in the fields, one is abducted and probed, one is left; of two women grinding their teeth, one is taken and impregnated with alien seed, one is left.

So stay awake, because you never know when the night is coming. It may already be too late. Get on your radios and sound an all points alarm. Block all highways, stop all traffic, and call every law enforcement agency in the state. They're here already! You're next! You're next, You're next...

Ken Ham Is not a Scientist

Ken Ham doesn’t believe in the existence of aliens.  He is firmly convinced that there is no life (intelligent or otherwise) anywhere else in the universe.

“You know, so far no one has discovered life on other planets.  Secular scientists can’t even find evidence of radio signals from intelligent aliens.  So if aliens exist, then where are they? Well there isn’t any intelligent life out there; scientists won’t discover evidence of it.  And that’s just what Biblical Creationists expectYou see, scripture is clear that God designed the universe with the Earth as his focus.  We don’t live in an evolutionary universe that’s full of creatures that evolved by chance. The Earth is clearly designed for life with lots of water and just the right distance from the sun. No other planet in the universe is designed for life. And there aren’t any aliens on them. Intelligent life is unique to earth.”

But this is not science. Science begins with observations (something Ham thinks he understands when he repeatedly challenges evolutionists with the question, "were you there?"). Ham has made a conclusion on the basis of his peculiar reading of an ancient text and refuses to change it on the basis of observational evidence.

He says that “no other planet is designed for life,” being just the right distance from a star to provide heat and light, and containing an abundant source of water.  But this is ridiculous statement in light of the fact that astronomers have already located many planets outside of our solar system that are within that “habitable zone” around a star and may contain water and potentially life.

We don’t know yet whether there is life (intelligent or otherwise) on these exoplanets; to determine that will require more observation and more evidence.  But Ken Ham – who is not a scientist – already has made up his mind on the issue and no amount of evidence will ever be enough to make him change.

Answers with Ken Ham: Aliens - Where Are They? http://t.co/MrZnMUuRvO
— Ken Ham (@aigkenham) January 29, 2015

Biblical Limericks: Giorgio A. Tsoukalos Has an Explanation for Everything

I love how that Hist’ry channel show
explains how Ezek’el couldn’t know
that what heaven reveals
in those wheels within wheels
was actually a U.F.O.

Ezekiel 1: 4 - 12

Biblical Limericks: Giorgio A. Tsoukalos Explains Paul’s Vision

It wasn’t a bacchanalian
bout left him tatterdemalion,
but in his flesh or no
to heaven he did go.
How’d it happen?  It was aliens…

2 Corinthians 12: 2 - 4

(I wonder if he took an invisible watermelon with him...)

Do You Want To Know the Future? - by Dr. Tarrec

This is the first draft of the first chapter of Dr. Tarrec's forthcoming book, "Do You Want to Know the Future?"

Dr. Tarrec is a world renown scholar in the field of alchemical theology. Using his unique background, Dr. Tarrec unites the esoteric and mystical planes with exciting discoveries in science and technological breakthroughs.

Do You Want to Know the Future -Chapter1 by Jeff Carter

FDR, the CCC, and the Alien Conspiracy

It is an established point of history that FDR established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with secret and nefarious purposes known only to himself and his trusted advisors.  To the public the CCC provided public works and jobs.  But the hidden agenda of the CCC, its true raison d’être was to eliminate all evidence of inter-dimensional visitors as recorded by Native Americans in the petroglyphs of the American southwest as part of a vast governmental conspiracy to cover up the existence of non-human intelligent life forms.

Carved into the rocks and cliff walls near Phoenix, Arizona are countless images of strange desert creatures and bizarre travelers of the air – but how many more were destroyed in the dynamiting and blasting done by the CCC?  What messages have been lost?  What precious records were destroyed?  What was being covered up by the CCC’s systematic destruction of these ancient and sacred documents?  

It is difficult to classify these visitors.  They do not appear to be biological – and so cannot be grouped together with other accounts of Extraterrestrial Biological Entities (EBEs).   Instead they appear to be holographic life forms, manifesting themselves in orbs of blinking and shimmering light, holographic entities intruding into the night sky of this physical realm.  They don’t have any mass.  They make no noise. And my intuitive sense is that they are evil.

The native tribes that lived in the American southwest carved pictures of these trans-dimensional beings into the rocks of the desert.  They drew pictures of spiraling balls of light, of tailless lizard men rising from the desert sands, and of winged bird men imparting sacred teachings to humans.  They also carved doorways into the stones for these alien beings.  These sacred mountains are the home of alien spirits when they visit this tangible world.

We also find in these petroglyphs a great many pictures of the seafaring Phoenician giants that once lived on this continent.  The name Phoenix, Arizona does not derive, after all, from the mythical bird that is consumed by fire only to rise from its ashes.  It is named in honor of the Phoenician giants.  They were very powerful entities, and the tribes that lived here feared them, almost as much as they feared the dark star, holographic creatures in the night skies.

The Future Was Yesterday when We Cared

The future was yesterday when we cared, yesterday when all our troubles seemed so very far away, when we still thought we could change things. When we still thought that it mattered.  We’ve learned some hard truths since yesterday. 

We can look back now and laugh.  It was just (“just…” God! How lightly I use that word…) the fear of nuclear oblivion that led us to mistake weather balloons and pelicans for visitors from another world.  I remember that poor Air Force pilot who crashed his plane while chasing the shadow of Venus across the sky.  I laugh a little when I think of it.  I know I shouldn’t; he died in that crash and his two daughters grew up without their father.  But still…. Chasing the shadow of Venus?  You tell me with a straight face that isn’t funny.

It was widely reported that the Virgin Mary herself appeared in a flying saucer over Fatima, Portugal.  Thousands of devout worshippers flocked to the fields to see her, craning their necks uncomfortably so they could stare into the sky.  They screamed as they watched her craft plummeting toward the earth.  But then it suddenly stopped, halted in its descent by some unknown, unspeakable force. And then it abruptly zoomed upward and forever out of sight.

But , after all these things, tell me this, answer this one little question for me:  Why is Dr. Robert R. Sauvak in hiding?  If the bright orange lights seen over the White House were nothing more than atmospheric anomalies, as it has been so widely reported, why has Dr. Sauvak been forced underground?  And exactly why is the Canadian Bureau of Transport investigating geo-magnetism?   Isn’t that just a bit out of their purview? 

We now know, but still few have believed, in the last years of the twentieth century human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than our own.  This is something real, not visionary, not fictitious.  It is not a scientific romance.   This isn’t Percival Lowell’s imaginary canals built by an ancient dying civilization on the dehydrated surface of Mars.  This isn’t the Chariot of the Gods.  Or Stonehenge or Ley Lines or crop circles…This is real. 

This is nothing less than the very real and dark, visceral fear of the unnamed Other, the Thing in the Dark, the Thing From Another World.  How long can we hold a grudge?  How long can we blame the Communists? This is bigger than them.  This is bigger than all of us. 

The vast number of cattle mutilations alone should convince us of that.  Why it’s almost industrial in scale, but still we laugh at the reports and at the witnesses.  When, all the while, we should be afraid.  These cattle mutilations are a surreptitious invasion technique.  The same is true of the disappearance of honey bees.    Reports of faeries are nothing new; why object now when we speak of alien incursions into our airspace?

I don’t know if this message will reach you; the telephone lines have all been jammed.  The spotlight of the entire cold war security apparatus (you thought it had all been dismantled, didn’t you?) has now been turned toward this issue.  Fighter jets have been dispatched from nearby air-bases, but I fear that it will be too little and too late. 

Fire in the Sky - Fear, Earthbound and Ordinary

As much as I'd like to believe in extraterrestrials and interstellar visitors from outer space – I don't.  I can't.  Not really.  The physics just don't work. And the idea that alien species would travel 53 thousand light years in order to abduct people and to perform kinky medical experiments strains credulity.  But that doesn't stop me from wanting to believe…

During the month of October I try to watch a horror movie every day and then to write a little bit about each of them.  But Fire in the Sky (1993) may not be a ‘horror’ movie - not exactly. 

Horror movies often incorporate the strange and otherworldly – monsters, ghosts, demons - or they dwell on the strange and twisted – the demented and depraved – serial killers and slashers.   But the terror of the first half of Fire in the Sky is purely earthbound and ordinary.  It is the fear resulting from a lack of trust. The fear and guilt that grows in men who've lost and failed a friend.  It's also the growing irrational fears of a community slowing turning against its own.

Fire in the Sky is based on the "true story" of Travis Walton, who - according to his book of the same title - was abducted by aliens in November of 1975.  At the time he had been working as a logger in Arizona.  His friends and coworkers, who also claimed to have seen the alien ship, fled when Travis was taken.  Their story was not believed by the town folk, or by members of law enforcement agencies.  Even though they answered every question they were asked and willingly submitted to a polygraph test.

They knew it was an outrageous story.  They could hardly believe it themselves. But what could they do? Fortunately for them Travis reappeared again after five days.  Any charges or allegations of murder were dropped and the community tried to get back to life as usual. 

Fear in the second half of the film turns to the strange and otherworldly as Travis remembers his experiences inside the alien ship – though the experience depicted in the movie departs dramatically from the experience Travis Walton described in his book.  The filmmakers took enormous liberties. The scenes aboard the alien craft are intense and disturbing.  And even though there isn't much in the way of 'blood and gore' these scenes will surely make the squeamish turn away. 

But, for me, it is the earthbound and ordinary fear of the film's first half that is far more terrifying.  It is more terrifying because it is entirely believable   The fear that results from seeing friends and family and a once trusted community slowly turning against you.  Watching as friends and neighbors turn their backs.  If we can't trust each other (even with outrageous stories) the world will be a terrifying place - even without alien abductions and anal probes.

The Star of Glory

It may seem strange to discuss the birth of Jesus and the journey of the wise men in January, after we have already celebrated Christmas. Some of you may have already taken down the tree, and packed away the decorations. You may have already packed away the manger scenes. But in many churches January 6th is celebrated as the Epiphany – the “manifestation” or the “showing forth” of Jesus in fulfillment of the prophecies of his birth. The birth of Christ is celebrated at this time along with the adoration of the magi and thus the manifestation of God’s Glory to the Gentiles.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ”In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:

" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."

Matthew 2:1-12

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

These gentile magi – wise men - were probably Persian astrologers, priests of Zoroastrianism looking for the birth of the coming redeemer of the world, the Sosiosh of their religion, whom they had identified as the King of the Jews.

These Persian astrologers had anticipated the coming of a great leader, from the land of Israel. And this was a common expectation of the time. The Jewish historian, Josephus, as well the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus describe the whole of the east as living in great expectation of one who would come from Judea “to attain universal empire” and to “possess the dominion”.

They came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is he that was born King of the Jews? We have seen his star.” Theses gentile astrologers may have been aware of the prophecy of the messiah’s birth by yet another gentile, Balaam, who said:

I see him - but not in the present.

I perceive him – but not close at hand:

a star is emerging from Jacob,

a scepter is rising from Israel…

Numbers 24:17

But this also accords with the Persian idea of a fravashi – that is the stellar counterpart to a great man. When a new great leader was born on earth, a new brilliant star would appear in the heavens. The magi had observed and followed the star that betokened the birth of the great leader from Judea, the one who would attain a universal kingdom – the king of the Jews.

There has been through the centuries much speculation about the nature of this “star.” The Greek word aster is commonly translated in the New Testament as star, but is used frequently in other Greek writings to describe other shining object, which is helpful because the star that the magi followed didn’t act very much like a normal star. It moved across the sky – like you would expect, but then it disappeared from their sight, so that the magi had to stop and ask for directions in Jerusalem, and it also stopped over a particular place. Natural stars don’t behave like this.

Nearly every kind of cosmic phenomenon has been suggested to explain the nature of this star; everything from meteors, meteor showers, and comets to eclipses of the sun or moon, supernovas, and bolides (super large meteors that can generate as much light as the full moon).

Stellar conjunctions, and planetary conjunctions, have also been proposed as the explanation for the star. In the 17th century German astronomer, Johannes Kepler observed the triple conjunction of the planets: Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. Working backwards he calculated mathematically that the same kind of triple conjunction of these planets would have occurred in the year 7 B.C. which would have been about the right time for the birth of Christ, but there is some question as to how this conjunction of planets would have guided the wise men to Bethlehem, and how it would halt over the place where the child was.

Other less scientific explanations have been proposed through the years. Some Eastern Orthodox traditions describe the star as a specially created planet (like the specially ordained fish that swallowed Jonah) that was put into place by God bearing a picture (an icon) of Mary and Jesus, or of Jesus holding a cross.

Gregory of Tours in the 6th century AD said that the star was an angel that tumbled out of heaven and landed in a well in Bethlehem. He further said that the angel was still there and could be observed by passers-by.

More recently, author Barry H. Downing in the book entitled The Bible and Flying Saucers explained the star as a “space vehicle answering the description of modern UFOs” with a “star-like beacon” to lead the wise men, sent by beings from another world to “deliberately draw attention to the birth of Christ” But as much as I’ve always liked the X-Files, I don’t find this to be a very plausible or compelling explanation.

Instead I’d like us to search the scriptures to see if we can’t find a more biblical explanation. And to start, I’d like for us to look back to the book of Exodus.

“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22)

This pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night guided the Israelites as they left the slavery of Egypt. They followed it out of Egypt and to Mt. Sinai where it settled over the mountain. It was the Glory of God and to the people it looked like a devouring fire on the mountain-top. (Ex. 24:17) Later, after they had constructed the tabernacle, the Glory of God, this fiery presence of God, filled the tent. (40:34 – 35)

The Glory cloud / fire, the Glory of God, is also called the Shekinah. This is the transliteration of a Hebrew word not found in the Bible but used in many Jewish writings to speak of God’s presence. The term means, “that which dwells.” It is often used in combination with Glory to speak of the presence of God’s Shekinah Glory.

It was this same cloud by day, fire by night that the Israelites followed to the land of Canaan. Whenever the Glory cloud rose from the tabernacle, the Israelites broke camp and followed. When the Glory cloud halted, there the Israelites pitched camp. (Numbers 9: 17 – 23)

When Solomon built his temple in Jerusalem we are told that, “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the Glory of YHWH filled the temple The priests could not enter because the Glory of YHWH filled the temple. When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and the Glory of YHWH resting on the Temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising YWHW with ‘For he is good, for his faithful love lasts forever!’”

(2 Chron. 7:1 – 3)

The Shekinah Glory – the fiery cloud – was the visible symbol of God’s presence among the people. It was this fiery presence that Moses observed in the burning bush. When the Israelites fled from Egypt they followed this pillar of fire during the night. When they camped in the wilderness, the fire hovered over the tabernacle at the center of the camp. The people camped around the tabernacle and dwelt in the light of God’s presence. When the Glory cloud moved, the people followed the brilliance of his presence. When they finally settled in the Promised Land God’s Glory resided with them at the temple.

The fiery cloud guided them towards safety out of Egypt and through the wilderness into the Promised Land. The Shekinah cloud also protected the Israelites from their enemies. When the armies of the Pharaoh pursued them to the Sea of Reeds, the Glory cloud moved from their front and took position behind them. It came between the army of the Egyptians and the Israelites (Ex. 14: 19 – 24)

But…

But because of their sin and disobedience and their rejection of the covenant God had made with them, that cloud of fire, the Glory of God was removed from amongst them.

The prophet Ezekiel observed as the Glory of YHWH came out over the temple threshold and rose from the center of the city and halted over the mountain to the east of the city. (Ezekiel 11:22-23) The Glory of God was abandoning the city. The city of Jerusalem had been polluted by the crimes and sins of the people and so God was removing His presence from among them. It came out of the temple, over the city, to the Mount of Olives, and hovered there, as if loath to completely abandon the city.

A Midrash ascribed to the 3rd century AD. Rabbi Johanan expresses this as follows: “For three and a half years the Presence [Shekinah] tarried on the Mount of Olives, proclaiming thrice daily, ‘Return wayward sons’ (Jer. 3:22). When it saw they would not repent, it flew away, saying ‘I will go back to my [heavenly] place till they realize their guilt; in their distress they will seek me and beg for my favor’” (Hos. 5:15)

And that was it. The Glory of God was removed and the city along with the temple was destroyed, and the people were sent into exile. That was the last time in the pages of the Old Testament that the Glory of God – that Shekinah cloud of fire was observed. God removed His presence from amongst the people.

Now God did promise that the Glory would return. When the exiles returned from Babylon and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem Zerubbabel was promised that the temple would one day the Temple would be filled with Glory, “A little while now, and I shall shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I shall shake all the nations, and the treasures of the nations shall flow in, and I shall fill this Temple with Glory.” (Haggai 2:6 – 7)

Meanwhile, the Shekinah presence of God was removed from the people. But not everything was lost. All was not in despair for Ezekiel had received a vision of the return of the Glory of God. “… and I saw the Glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his Glory.” Ezekiel 43:2.

I propose that the star that lead the magi was not a UFO, or a comet or even a spectacular planetary conjunction, but that it was the Glory of God- the Shekinah presence that lead the magi.

Ezekiel said, “…and I saw the Glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his Glory.”

 Ezekiel 43:2.

During the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east…

Isaiah prophesied

“Arise, shine out, for your light has come

and the Glory of YHWH has risen on you.

Look! though night still covers the earth

and darkness the peoples,

on you YHWH is rising

and over you his Glory can be seen.

The nations will come to your light

and kings to your dawning brightness."

(Isa. 60: 1 – 3)

Where is the one born king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising.

This star and its fiery light guided the magi from their home in the East to Israel to find the newborn King who would attain a universal kingdom. They followed the star in the same way the Israelites followed the pillar of fire by night.

The star that the magi followed led them to another star – the bright morning star Jesus Christ - 2 Peter 1:19 Rev. 22:16.

And just as the Israelites were protected from their enemies by the presence of God, the wise men too were protected from the evil of King Herod, being warned in a dream not to return the same way they had come.

This unearthly light – the Shekinah presence – had retuned from its heavenly place as the star to guide the magi to the infant Jesus Christ whose name was Immanuel “God with us”(Isa. 7:14)– the incarnation of God’s Glory. It was this epiphany, or manifestation of God’s Glory to mankind that we celebrate today.

God sent his Glory again, his Shekinah Glory in the person of Jesus to dwell among us. Just as the Glory cloud inhabited the camp with the Israelites in the wilderness and the city of Jerusalem at the temple – Jesus inhabited the camp with us. He “tabernacled” here among us and we saw his Glory, the Glory that he has from the Father as the only son of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Jesus, our Emmanuel brings us into the presence of God, into the Glory of the Father. “Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them.” Rev. 21:3

O star of wonder star of night,

star with royal beauty bright,

westward leading, still proceeding,

guide us to thy perfect light.

--John H. Hopkins jr.

The star – the Glory of God – led the wise men to Jesus, the incarnate Glory of God; the bright morning star. Jesus as the star, as the Glory of God guides us to the presence of the Father. We must do as the magi did, we must follow the star.

As with gladness men of old

did the guiding star behold,

as with joy they hailed its light

leading onward, beaming bright;

so most gracious Lord may we

ever more be lead to thee.

--William Chatterton Dix

UFO sightings...

(Click the picture to see it full sized.  The music is something i made.  You can download it here.  Thank you.)