Headless Horsmen

Headless Horsemen

Scene taken from Tim Burton’s 1999 film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Headless Horsemen

   The first time I came across the ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ was as a child, way back in the early 1970’s. It was, of all things, a Disney cartoon- one that held my attention rather well despite my being no fan of them even at that tender age. Ichabod Crane and the Headless- Horseman- a tale of a schoolteacher and his “face-to-face” rendezvous with a headless horseman was set in a small village on the banks of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, and told of a Hessian trooper whose head was taken off by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. Buried without his head in Sleepy Hollow’s churchyard, he was believed to hunt the premises at night, desperately searching for his missing head.

  A tale that has endured many different versions, especially in the film world, the latest version (1999) starred Jonny Depp, and most people think it started with Washington Irving’s 1820 work without realising his tale had its foundations laid in tales far older.

Scene from Disney’s 1949 two part film- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad

   The Brothers Grimm had published their versions of folk tales on this subject some years before Irving and, considering the parallels to be seen in their stories, may well have influenced him no small amount. In the tale of Hans Jagendteufel (sometimes Hagen-Teufel ) , set near Dresden, a woman gathering acorns in a place called “Lost Waters” hears a hunting horn and turns around to see the headless “hunting devil” riding by. To her joy it ignores her and continues its hunt for ‘evil-doers’ and the like. In their tale ‘Brunswick’, a “Wild Huntsman” warns hunters not to hunt without dire results- those that decided to go against his advice and entered the woods find themselves to be the prey instead.

Scene taken from tapestry at British Museum showing Arthurian tales

   Travelling further back in time the tale can be seen to have roots in the Arthurian romances, if not even in the far older Celtic legends too. In the 14^th century tale of Gawain and the Green Knight, a mysterious ‘Green knight’ appears at Camelot with the intention of testing the king’s knights’ loyalty and honour. Daring Arthur, or any of his knights, to behead him on condition that whoever took up the challenge would swear to meet him a year and a day after the event to receive the same treatment in return. Although Arthur was first to rise and offer to accept his nephew Gawain, the youngest knight present, argued for the right to perform the deed himself and promptly carried out the decapitation with one blow. The Green Knight, however, instead of dying on the spot merely retrieved his head and reminded all present of the conditions of the challenge before leaving.

    Depending, again on the version told, Gawain rode out the Green Knight’s castle to fulfil his obligation and, without knowing it, was tested 3 times for his honesty and of these tests he passed 2 which was reflected in his treatment by the Knight who takes the same number of swings with his axe at Gawain’s neck with only the third stroke making contact, Honour thus satisfied the tales ends with the usual happy ending as Gawain returns to Camelot.

    The photo above  is of the location where the Headless Horseman  purportedly lost his head - somewhere near this field on the slope of Merrit Hill in White Plains, New York, about nine miles from Sleepy Hollow.  During the last week of October, 1776, this property was the site of hostilities between American and British forces during the American War for Independence.  Today, a small monument topped with an antique cannon marks the site of these events, and a sign nearby describes the historic significance of the location.    The old Celtic legend of the Dullahan, or Gan Ceann, the headless harbinger of death, is thought to possibly be the first ever reference to a headless horseman found in history books, albeit it’s impossible to know where or by whom the Dullahan is first mentioned, but he appears to be tied to the ancient Celtic god, Crom Cruach, the Dark God of the Burial Mound.
   Legend has it that about 15 centuries ago Ireland was ruled by the sacred High Kings. They were god-given rulers, and King Tighermas considered himself to be a direct descendant of this dark lord who demanded human sacrifices to be made in his name each year in order that both the land and women would ‘bear fruit’ and Crom Cruach’s preferred method of sacrifice just happened to be decapitation.
  St. Patrick, in his own legends, is said to have found this stone, sometime during the 6^th century, and smashed part of it to pieces thereby banishing the ‘God’ to hell and ended this ruthless pagan practice, along with the sacrificial religion. The worshiping stone, known as the Killycluggin Stone, actually exists and can be found within the precincts of  the museum of Cavan County .   A collection of ancient texts, known as The Metrical Dindshenchas, tells us that people from Ireland upon their king’s request were duty bound to give up their firstborn in return for a rich harvest the next year- the unfortunate children’s heads would be smashed on a stone representing Crom Cruach.

Replica of Killycluggin Stone

    Even as Christianity replaced the indigenous religion the old fears never completely died out for a god so dark could never perish and would still harvest souls one way or another- if not by a willing sacrifice, then with wrath and fury. Thus rose , in Irish folklore,  the legend of the Dullahan.

     A type of ‘Unseelie’, or dark faery, it appears to be the Celtic equivalent of the Grim Reaper, carrying a whip made out of a human spine in one hand and his rotting head in the other. Some describe him as a headless rider on a headless black horse, whilst others claim he rides on a carriage made out of bones, coffins, and tombstones pulled by six fire-breathing headless horses. Both versions agree on one thing - if you hear him speak, then he is speaking your name, and your time has come.

   Sleepy Hollow, German forests, or Irish fields, the legend persists, Maybe it has its roots in tales far earlier than those I’ve managed to dig up and if you know of any please let us know here – who knows what we could uncover between us all ?

D W Storer 2018/2019

The Baphomet

  

The Baphomet

   This post is without doubt going to prove to be somewhat difficult to write- far too many people have been brainwashed by religion, the media, and especially Hollywood, into thinking that the Baphomet is in fact the mythological bogeyman of Christianity known as ‘the Devil’ and to explain what it truly represents will as usual be met with the cries and accusations of heresy, Satanism, and other nonsensical blatherings that so many retreat into when faced with facts that challenge their beliefs.

''I am who you say I am
Yet you know me not''

D W Storer

   It’s a curious thing, for the Devil wasn’t originally seen by the church as an evil figure but as a dark angel that worked as ‘God’s Gaoler’, yet it evolved within the social politics of the medieval mind into a creature of ultimate darkness that hated humanity pretty much around the same time as the witchcraft trials began to gain momentum in the 14^th and 15^th centuries. Works such as Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum added to the hysteria that began with outbreaks of plague across Europe as scapegoats were sought- to wit, witches and a greater source of evil were used by those who could not explain why such things occurred and needed to find a way to hold on to their power.

   

     Such thoughts even helped lay the foundations of the fall of the Templars arranged by King Philip IV of France, who was heavily in debt to them, with the collusion of Pope Clement V who was related to him.  The arrest warrant started with the phrase: "Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume" or "God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom"   which led to the mass arrests of members of the order on October 13, 1307 ,and the eventual execution of so many of them on charges of heresy and apostasy, financial fraud, and even sodomy.

     What was it then that the Templars were supposedly worshipping? The accusations included idolatry, and descriptions of their idol ranged from the mummified head of John the Baptist to the Goat of Mendes -  the indictment (acte d'accusation) published by the court of Rome set forth ... "that in all the provinces they had idols, that is to say, heads, some of which had three faces, others but one; sometimes, it was a human skull ... That in their assemblies, and especially in their grand chapters, they worshipped the idol as a god, as their saviour, saying that this head could save them, that it bestowed on the order all its wealth, made the trees flower, and the plants of the earth to sprout forth.  The medieval mind, with such events taking place, needed no urging to further develop the character into the ‘Devil’ we know of today.

   Nowadays most people associate the image of the Baphomet with the one created as an illustration by Eliphas Levi in his books ‘ Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie’ (Dogma and Rituals of High Magic)  which he published as two volumes (Dogme 1854, Rituel 1856), in which he included a sketch drawn by himself and  described it as the Baphomet and "The Sabbatic Goat",  yet it greatly differs from the historical descriptions from the Templar trials. It is possible that he, himself, was inspired by grotesque carvings on the Templar churches of Lanleff in Brittany and Saint-Merri in Paris, which depict squatting bearded men with bat wings, female breasts, horns and the shaggy hindquarters of a beast. Levi is known to have believed that the usual figures depicting the ‘Devil’, especially those used in the witchcraft trials of old were more half remembered items of pagan religions than the enemy of mankind and so this coloured his works accordingly. 

    Lévi called his image "The Goat of Mendes", possibly following Herodotus' account that the god of Mendes, which was the Greek name for Djedet, in Egypt, had a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were believed to be holy by the Mendesians who worshipped the god Pan and his living image on earth which is often referred to as the  Mendean Ram, or Ram of Mendes .

   Representation of carvings found on Templar churches depicting the Baphomet

    Some years before Levi had begun his works the name Baphomet appeared in an essay composed by the Viennese Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, which he titled  ‘Idoloduliæ et Impuritatis convicti, per ipsa eorum Monumenta’ or The Discovery of the Mystery of Baphomet, by which the Knights Templars, like the Gnostics and Ophites, are convicted of Apostasy, of Idolatry and of moral Impurity, by their own Monuments. Here he presented his views with the intention of discrediting Templarist Masonry and Freemasonry. In it he argued, using as archaeological evidence of "Baphomets" mentioned by earlier scholars, and parts of the Grail romances by authors such as  Von Eschenbach and Chrétien de Troyes, that the Templars were Gnostics and the "Templars' head" was a Gnostic idol.

     The content of this essay consists mainly of his opinions on images described as ‘Baphomets’ that he had located found in various museums and collections of antiquities. Carved from stone, they were portraying hermaphrodites with either two heads or two faces that although having beards had breasts also. It appears that the majority of them had serpents, the sun and moon, included along with various, and often unknown, emblems as well as inscriptions that he attributes to both the Sophia ‘Mete’ and  the ‘Achamot Prunikos’ of the Ophites as described by  Hippolytus of Rome which was represented half man, half woman, as the symbol of wisdom, unnatural voluptuousness and the principle of sensuality  which he claimed signified the baptism of Metis, or the Gnostic baptism, which was an enlightening of the mind, albeit this was interpreted by the Ophites as a fleshly union instead.

The Goat of Mendes , as portrayed in the Hammer film adaptation of
Dennis Wheatley’s ‘ The Devil Rides out ‘

    For Aleister Crowley Levi’s Baphomet was an important figure within his Thelemic cosmos and he asserted that the Baphomet was a divine androgyne and ‘the hieroglyph of arcane perfection’ – in essence that which reflects, or ‘As above so below’. Featured heavily within the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church, the congregation recites in The Gnostic Mass, ‘And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mysteries, in His name BAPHOMET’

    Crowley went further in clarifying his tenets by stating that ‘The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God... 'The Devil' is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation. He is 'The Devil' of The Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection... He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is Ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty’

     At the end of it all you can either adapt your own beliefs or hide behind them depending on how you feel on such matters. For myself I believe the Baphomet to be an allegorical depiction of some Higher Consciousness that exists possibly with the hope that humanity may actually learn to rely less on modern technology and more on instinct and the pursuit of a higher level of awareness. There is a phrase that doubtless Crowley took from those famous inscriptions carved upon the walls of the Delphic Temple – ‘Gnothi seauton’ , he included it in the above passage, which translated from the Greek is generally taken to be ‘ Know thyself- then follow the God’ . Gnosis, self- knowledge and the union with the God, what more could we aim for? 

   Look to yourself, look above, look below, look at everything, for everything has a reason to ‘be’ as much as everything has a reason not to ‘be’ and in learning why perhaps, with time and effort,  you will discover your own place and why you yourself are here.

D W Storer 2018 / 2019

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

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

Part 1

**
Once saw I a lonely Star
Pass oe’r far lonelier shores
Once its fires burned so bright
But now -
They burn no more

D W Storer taken from The Key of The Storm 2016

    So much has been written about Aliester Crowley, so many have jumped on the bandwagon – whether to demonize or canonize depends on your point of view. He asked for, and obtained, the notoriety he craved then realized far too late that it was less of an aid but more a hindrance. Deserted by his friends and followers, I wonder if he’d be laughing now at how his readership has grown due to the efforts of those who saw him not as a great occultist but as a fashion icon to latch onto in order to boost their own popularity.

    An occultist, poet, magician, mountaineer, painter, prophet, and a novelist to boot, Aleister was born on the 12^th October 1875 in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire into a wealthy Plymouth Brethren family whose Christian fundamentalist beliefs he rejected by the time he was educated at Cambridge University where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry – which resulted in several publications on the subjects, and developed his interest in Western occultism.

    Joining the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898, he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett, and after being denied advancement to the grade of Adeptus Minor by those leaders of the London sect he went directly to Mathers in Paris who granted him the title anyway in 1900. Despite being entitled to the grade, the London sect who disapproved of Crowley’s lifestyle descended into chaos with mass resignations and the eventual deposing of Mathers altogether.

    After a ‘magical‘war between himself and the Golden Dawn, of  which Aleister claimed victory, he moved to Boleskine House by Loch Ness in Scotland and after giving himself the title ‘ Lord Bolskine’ he went to Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein to pursue his passion for mountaineering after which, he then travelled to India  in order to study  the Hindu and Buddhist Yoga disciplines before returning to England.

    Eloping on the 11th August 1903 with Rose Edith Kelly, marrying her the next day in order to save from an arranged marriage, they spent their honeymoon in Cairo, Egypt, the following year where he began within a few days of their arrival, with the help of his new wife to create the first of his major works the ‘Liber Al vel Legis’ or as most know it ‘The Book of The Law. 

G-R-R-R-R-R!

Oh cabbage-heads soaked in rum!

On the blink, on the tum!

It’s right, tight, put out the light!

Putty faces!

Oh Grimaces

At this time of night!

Let me draw, paint, sculp

Your faces of pulp!

Oh gulp!

Put out the light!

Diabolically, divinely bright tight!

What do you know about that?

I’m a cat!

The world’s my rat!

It all goes under my hat

Thin and fat,

Oh my mat,

I’ll paint

You like a saint

Until I faint

Ain’t

That quaint?

Gr-r-r-r!

Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r!

Once more for luck

(Love a duck)

Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!

Crowley -1916

   

    On 16 March 1904, Crowley tried to "shew the Sylphs" to Kelly by means of the ‘Bornless Ritual’ whereupon she entered into a light trance and told him, "They're waiting for you!" This led to him asking Thoth to clarify the matter and attempting to get his wife to identify Horus as the origin of the message by taking her to the Boulaq Museum where she passed numerous images of the god before pointing out a painted wooden funerary stele, the Stele of Revealing, which depicted Horus receiving sacrifices from the deceased - a priest named Ankh-af-na-khonsu. By a strange coincidence, or moment of synchronicity, the exhibit had been numbered by the museum as artefact 666.

    At Rose’s insistence, for three days beginning 8 April 1904, Crowley at noon then stayed in his room for an hour, where he wrote down what he heard dictated from a presence behind him who he came to know as Aiwass which led to the creation of the three chapters of verse known as The Book of the Law.

    Despite having two children with Crowley: Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith (July 1904 –1906) and Lola Zaza (1907 – 1990) she was divorced in from him 1909 and in 1911 Aleister had her committed to an asylum for alcoholic dementia where she remained until died in 1932.

Notes = 

‘To shew the Sylphs’- (Crowley’s own words) – to show the Sylphs -
 A Sylph, or  Sylphid are invisible beings of the air, according to Paracelsus and are often depicted as cloud beings. It’s entirely possible that the myths of angels, the winged protectors of the Garden of Eden originate with them for  they embody the extremes of nature, mercurial and intense.

The Bornless Ritual  -
or the Invocation of the Heart Girt with a Serpent, is often considered the proper preliminary invocation to the Ars Goetia since it was introduced as such by Aleister Crowley ( also used in Crowley's Liber Samekh)  for establishing contact with the Holy Guardian Angel.

"Thee I invoke, the Bornless one.

Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens:

Thee, that didst create the Night and the day.

Thee, that didst create the darkness and the Light.

Thou art Osorronophris: Whom no man hath seen at any time.

Thou art Iabos:

Thou art Iapos:

Thou hast distinguished between the just and the Unjust.

Thou didst make the female and the Male.

Thou didst produce the Seed and the Fruit.

Thou didst form Men to love one another, and to hate one another.

I am _________ Thy Prophet, unto Whom Thou didst commit Thy Mysteries, the Ceremonies of _________:

Thou didst produce the moist and the dry, and that which nourisheth all created Life.

Hear Thou Me, for I am the Angel of Apophrasz Osorronophris: this is Thy True Name, handed down to the Prophets of _________.

Hear Me: Ar: Thiao: Reibet: Atheleberseth: A: Blatha: Abeu: Eben: Phi: Chitasoe: Ib: Thiao.

Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.

I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible God: Who dwellest in the Void Place of the Spirit: Arogogorobrao: Sochou: Modorio: Phalarchao: Ooo: Ape, The Bornless One: Hear Me!

Hear Me: Roubriao: Mariodam: Balbnabaoth: Assalonai: Aphniao: I: Tholeth: Abrasax: Qeoou: Ischur, Mighty and Bornless One! Hear Me!

I invoke Thee: Ma: Barraio: Ioel: Kotha: Athorebalo: Abraoth: Hear Me!

Hear me! Aoth: Aboth: Basum: Isak: Sabaoth: Iao:

This is the Lord of the Gods:

This is the Lord of the Universe:

This is He Whom the Winds fear.

This is He, Who having made Voice by His Commandment, is Lord of All Things; King, Ruler, and Helper. Hear Me!

Hear Me: Ieou: Pur: Iou: Pur: Iaot: Iaeo: Ioou: Abrasax: Sabriam: Oo: Uu: Ede: Edu: Angelos tou theou: Lai: Gaia: Apa: Diachanna: Chorun.

I am He! the Bornless Spirit! having sight in the Feet: Strong, and the Immortal Fire!

I am He! the Truth!

I am He! Who hate that evil should be wrought in the World!

I am He, that lightningeth and thundereth.

I am He, from whom is the Shower of the Life of Earth:

I am He, whose mouth flameth:

I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light:

I am He, the Grace of the World:

"The Heart Girt with a Serpent" is My Name!

Come Thou forth, and follow Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry land, or in the Water: of whirling Air or of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God, may be obedient unto me! Iao: Sabao: Such are the Words!

Aiwass –

 the spirit that dictated the Liber Al vel Legis to Crowley whom he described as

‘a ghost-like figure - tall, dark, personable, athletic, aristocratic, Persian-Assyrian in appearance with a face like a savage king ‘ although this was a psychic impression for by his own admission Crowley never actually turned to look at the figure.

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

Fortean Frolics - The Legend of The Crystal Skulls

The Legend of The Crystal Skulls

The Legend of the Crystal Skulls

   The crystal skull legends can be found across the world, and many of them seem to be associated with a ‘Great Flood’ which various sources claim to have happened approximately 5300 years ago with the myth, if myth it is, of the
"thirteen crystal skulls" seeming to be the one that crops up the most in those various cultures - and the people that tell of them state that at a crucial moment in time the skulls, which are scattered across the lands will be brought together and usher in a new age.

   Each skull is said to hold a certain area of information, and when they are one day assembled in a circle with the largest, the thirteenth, which is said to be the collective consciousness of all existence, placed at the centre, their accumulative knowledge will be revealed to those who learn to communicate with them.  What this information may be we can only guess, and how it is used, hopefully for the good of all, will be a revelation worthy of any apocrypha.

    There is, of course, a problem with all the myths – one that sceptics are prone to wave like a battle flag, albeit it is surely one worth serious consideration, and that is one of authenticity for not one of the skulls to be found in museums across the world have been unearthed and discovered on any recognised archaeological expedition whilst those in private ownership have apparently never been allowed to be examined. Indeed, various scientific ‘authorities’ claim that they are all man made, for those that have been tested and scanned under electron microscopes are said to reveal tool marks made by diamond drills and even carborundum ( which was only discovered by Henri Moissan in 1883 whilst prospecting in Arizona ) which would render them all fakes unless they are mistaken in their diagnosis- on the other hand many believers argue the case for ‘ancient technologies’ ,  suppressed histories, and even extra-terrestrial intervention, pointing out that the vibrations created by modern tools would, in all likelihood, cause these solid quartz crystals to fracture if not even shatter.

   The British Museum and Paris's Musée de l'Homme have crystal skulls of their own to display and these do seem to lend weight to the argument of ‘fakes’. Records indicate that both have their origin with a French antiquities dealer Eugène Boban, who lived in Mexico City between 1860 and 1880 when by all reports there was a roaring trade in fake artefacts. The British Museum crystal skull came via New York's Tiffany's who had purchased it for £950  from  him , whilst the Musée de l'Homme's one was was  the result of a donation made  by Alphonse Pinart who had bought it from Boban also. Sceptics often point to the question of how he came by not one but two, and the previously mentioned examinations that have been carried out on them. Are they then intended purely as a metaphor that reality is a consciousness hologram through which we experience virtually, just tools intended to awaken human consciousness, deciphered by the  design of the crystal and the allegorical eyes, or are the sceptics wrong and they are in truth something far more ? 

   A good example is one sometimes known as the ‘Skull of Doom’, perhaps the most famous of them was ‘discovered’ in by Anna Mitchell-Hedges in 1924 who claimed that she unearthed the skull from beneath a ruined altar within the confines of a temple in Lubaantun, in British Honduras, or Belize as it is now known.  Made from a block of clear quartz it is surprisingly small, being only 5 inches high, 7 inches long and 5 inches wide. Anna claimed that she was "warned by locals at the time that it was used by Mayan priests to ‘will death’, hence its name.

   Frank Dorland, a freelance art restorer, had the Mitchell-Hedges skull in his care for a short time during the early 1970’s. He stated that after examining it closely that he believed it had been without the use of any metal tools, albeit some form of mechanical grinding had been used to create the teeth, and made a point of stressing the fact that, unlike so many other examples, the lower jaw was a separate piece. Speculating that it could have been created as far back as twelve thousand years ago he believed that diamonds had been to first cut it into a rough form, and that by using sand its final shape would have been the end product of between 150 to 300 years of  grinding and polishing .

    What are we left with? To gaze upon one within the confines of a museum cannot be enough to decide, and with those in private ownership so carefully hidden away it would be an incredible stroke of luck to be able to stare into its eyes and see for ourselves yet, with so many fakes out there I fear the truth of the matter will only ever be known to a select few- for the majority of us they can only remain a mystery until, if they are indeed real, they reveal their secrets at the time of their own choosing - if they ever decide we are ready for them to do so.

D W Storer  2018/19

New Beginnings

   Well , here it is. Another blog -  not just about my books, or my works, which range in subject from dark nihilism, Forteana, children's books, heretical organic philosophy, but will also include posts covering those odds n sods that appeal to me and, hopefully, to you too.

     There is, of course, a hope that you, whoever you may be, will leave comments and suggestions and, if you're feeling charitable, even follow and recommend the blog to others. 

   

    Just a few examples to let you know what you may be getting into, if you do come back that is- believe me things can only get worse from here as the blog evolves . So, my thanks to you for viewing this - make of it what you will-  all and any comments will be welcomed-  as well as polite suggestions as to what I can do next --- 

D W Storer -  2019