The Mothman

The Mothman

   Whether you’re a lover of Forteana or not, you’ve probably heard of the ‘Mothman’ – it’s even been the subject of a film, ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ made in 2002 with Richard Gere starring which was based on John Keel’s 1975 book of the same name in which he theorized that there were supernatural events related to the sightings and of one in particular that preceded (or predicted ) the collapse of the Silver Bridge which carries ca U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River and connects Point Pleasant, West Virginia, with Gallipolis, in Ohio.

   Reports of the Mothman seem to begin in the Point Pleasant area with sightings reported from November 12, 1966, to December 15, 1967 – the first newspaper to mention it was the Point Pleasant Register which ran a story on November 16, 1966 with the heading "Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something".

    According to the records so far the first known appearance put in by the creature was witnessed by five gravediggers working in cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia who claimed to see a man-like figure fly low from the trees over the heads on November 12, 1966. 3 days later two young couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, told police they had been followed by a ‘large grey creature whose eyes "glowed red’ when the car headlights picked it up that resembled a "large flying man with ten-foot wings", car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as ‘the TNT area’, which was the site of a disused munitions plant.

     The tale spread over the next few days with more reports of sightings being announced.  Two volunteer firemen claimed they had seen it but it appeared to be a ‘large bird with red eyes’.  The Mason County Sheriff George Johnson proclaimed that it was no more than an unusually large heron which he termed a ‘shitepoke’ after being informed by a local contractor, Newell Partridge, that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and even revealed that he believed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his dog were down to the creature.

    Dr. Robert L. Smith, a Wildlife biologist at West Virginia University, informed the press that the witness descriptions thus far seemed to point to the creature being a 'sandhill crane' , which was almost as high as a man and had a seven-foot wingspan as well as having reddish circles around its eyes, pointing out that the bird was not usually seen in the area and that this was probably a case of mistaken identity.

    The bridge in question, that seems to be the focal point for the Mothman legend really picking up speed, is a suspension eye-bar chain bridge, built in 1928 which collapsed during rush hour. The cause of this disaster isn’t really much of a mystery, for it was traced to a defect in one of the eye-bar links a crack to forming due a defect in one of the eye-bar links. The real mystery was the appearance of a strange visitor sighted several times by the citizens of Point Pleasant during the months leading up to the tragedy- which then became the basis for the film. 

    As for the film, I’ve seen it, directed by Mark Pellington and as state before was based on the 1975 book by Fortean author and parapsychologist John Keel and starred Richard Gere as John Klein, a reporter researching the legend of the Mothman. It had a mixed reception, despite being given a certificate to allow children over the age of 14 to see it, and barely made its costs back.

    Can I recommend it? That’s a tough one – it was advertised as being ‘based on a true story’ – note the ‘based’ .Whenever I see that word used with a film, or even a book, I see it as a warning sign, because in truth the film gets an awful lot wrong and even claims that the cause of the collapse was never found ( which it was in 1971- before the book was even written ) , along with other ‘lapses’ too. Still, saying that, if you’re a fan of matters Fortean then you may well enjoy it for what it is, a reasonable romp for late night viewing even if it does seem to be similar in style to the X-Files series a little too much.

     As a parting shot, curiously, it appears that there have been worldwide sightings for there are some cryptozoology theorists who claim that the Mothman has been seen before many catastrophes, incredibly even 9-11.

    Now it's your turn-  any thoughts or comments , suggestions ( preferably polite ones) , or if you want to mention your own experiences feel free to pop them into the comment box-  

D W Storer 2018/2019 

Crowley - A Brief History of The Last Of The Great Explorers Part 2

Crowley - 

A Brief History of The Last Of The Great Explorers

Part 2

   Crowley began to make headway with his poetry, novels, and occult literature, gaining a loyal readership that led to his creation of a new order in 1907 with George Cecil Jones , the Argentium Astrum. In 1912 , after publishing ‘The Book of Lies ‘ he become part of the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis- curiously this came about because the head of the O.T.O ,  Theodore Reuss  had accused him of revealing one of their secret rituals within its pages. After the misunderstanding was cleared up Reuss invited him to create, and become the head of an English branch of the order, which he adapted to fit with the precepts of his still fledgling Thelemite religion. And this in turn led to the creation of further branches in Australia and North America.

    Moving to the United States he took up painting and shortly after was accused of being a traitor because of his campaigning for the German war effort. In truth he was working for the British Intelligence services of the time, having managed to infiltrate the pro German movement that was dedicated to keeping America neutral under the watchful eye of George Sylvester Viereck, a German spy ,who had employed him as a writer for his propagandist paper, The Fatherland. The accusations only added to his notoriety which only served to increase the problems he faced, especially with the court cases which loomed cloud-like on his horizons

    Relocating to Cefalu, a town on the northern coast of Sicily, in 1920 with a small group of followers he set up a commune in a small house, naming it the ‘Abbey of Thelema’ . It’s possible that he named it after the Abbaye de Thélème, a place mentioned in François Rabelais's book ‘Gargantua and Pantagruel’ which was, for want of a better term, an "anti-monastery" where the lives of the inhabitants were "spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. His novel ‘Diary of A Drug Fiend’, which was published in 1922, is considered by many to be in many ways based on his experiences there. The hedonistic lifestyle they lived there, combined with the drug related death of one of his devotees, gave the press more ammunition to denounce him as ‘the wickedest man in the world’ and by 1923 the Italian government ordered him to leave.

    The next twenty years saw him traveling between France, Germany, and England as he continued to promote Thelema until ill health combined with his drug habit led him to a form of ‘semi-retirement’ in 1944, whereupon he took up residence at the Netherwood Boarding House in Hastings, East Sussex, where he lived until his death on the 1^st December, 1947 after having gained the widespread notoriety he once craved yet even now is a major occult figure whose influence will continue far beyond his expectations.

    After his cremation in Brighton the following Friday his ashes were, according to the terms of his will, sent to were sent to Karl Germer in America who buried , according to popular lore, buried them in his garden in Hampton, New Jersey.

Hymn To Lucifer

Ware,

nor of good nor ill, what aim hath act?

Without its climax, death, what

savour hath

Life?

an impeccable

machine, exact

He

paces an inane and pointless path

To glut brute appetites, his sole

content

How tedious were he fit to comprehend

Himself! More, this

our noble element

Of fire in nature, love in spirit, unkenned

Life hath no

spring, no axle, and no end.

His body a bloody-ruby radiant

With noble

passion, sun-souled

  Lucifer

Swept through the dawn colossal, swift aslant

On Eden's imbecile

  Perimeter.

He blessed nonentity with every curse

And spiced with

sorrow the dull soul of sense,

Breathed life into the sterile universe,

With Love and Knowledge drove out innocence

The Key of Joy is disobedience.

Aleister Crowley, 1913

     A curious, if not interesting point, is that his landlady at Netherwood – Kathleen Symmonds, attended his funeral and stated that afterwards there arose a tremendous thunderstorm that lasted through the night. Coincidence, or the last of the ‘Great Explorers’ bidding us farewell?

***

"To Crowley the greatest aim of the magician was to merge with a higher power connected to the wellsprings of the universe, but he did not trouble himself too much to define that power consistently; sometimes it was God, sometimes the One, sometimes a goddess, and sometimes one's own Holy Guardian Angel or higher self. In the last analysis he was content for the nature of divinity to remain a mystery. As a result he wrote at times like an atheist, at times like a monotheist, and at others like a polytheist."

Ronald Hutton , Professor of History, Bristol University

***

D W Storer 2018/2019