Is Disney Seeking to Trademark Dia de Muertos? | TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History

Red Pill Junkie at The Daily Grail on Disney's possible intent to appropriate (steal) Dia de Muertos. Disney's history is such, sadly. Amazing and astounding but not surprising. Is Disney Seeking to Trademark Dia de Muertos? | TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History

Vintage Day of the Dead Image

 

Vintage Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos postcard

postcard

Lucky Mojo Curio Site

I love this site: Lucky Mojo Curio Site. It's been around for years, and still going. Have fun exploring religious, folk art and folk religious items from around the world. Truly wonderful ... Images shown: Saint Wallet Package Amulet

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From Scott Corralles: Dark Holiness: Forgotten Apparitions

A truly fascinating account of an apparition in Spain in the 1930s, -- one I was unfamiliar with this one -- with dark overtones, from Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology. As is pointed out in the this article, lots of similarities to other BVM apparitions, but some distinct and sinister differences as well. Not uncommon either; the church's attempts at suppressing the incident.

Dark Holiness: Forgotten Apparitions

Esoteric Connections in Mexican Wrestling

My new Trickster's Realm will be up sometime tomorrow for Binnall of America: Fun With Lucha Libre’s Esoteric Side. The column was inspired by the by now almost iconic photograph of two Lucha Libre wrestlers viewing an image of the Virgin Mary in a California restaurant.

While there at Binnall of America, be sure to read all the other great columns, and listen to the podcasts. As always, Tim Binnall offers the most interesting interviews -- and for free.

Fatima 1917: The Buzzing

From the "What's all this then?" blog:Fatima. 1917. The Buzzing.

Mexican Wrestlers and a BVM Image

There's a great post over at Cabinet of Wonders about Mexican wrestlers visiting a "shrine" of the BVM, who appeared on a griddle at the Las Palmas restaurant: Masked wrestlers declare BVM appearance a miracle. This has a lot of Fortean juxtapositions and history here; goes beyond a mere image of Mary on a potato chip kind of thing.

The Growing Latina Population; What Does This Mean For Non-Latino Women In the Womens Spirituality Movement?

The Growing Latina Population; What Does This Mean For Non-Latino Women In the Womens Spirituality Movement. from the Mother Lover Goddess blog.

Nude Virgin Mary on Playboy Cover Offends

(Er, I kind of can see why it would . . .)

This isn't paranormal or UFO related in any way, but it's still odd:

Nude Virgin Mary cover prompts Playboy apology

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A nude model resembling the Virgin Mary on the cover of the Mexican edition of Playboy magazine, published only days before a major Mexican festival dedicated to the mother of Jesus, prompted the company's U.S. headquarters on Friday to apologize.

The magazine, which hit newsstands on December 1 as ceremonies began leading to Friday's pilgrimage to the Mexico City shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, showed a model wearing nothing but a white cloth over her head and breasts.

Project Gutenburg: Free e-book on Mexico and Religion

image: TEMPLE OF THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE

The Project Gutenburg site (a fantastic site) has the following offering:MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION;WITH INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN THAT COUNTRY DURING PARTS OF THE YEARS 1851-52-53-54,AND HISTORICAL NOTICES OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH PLACES VISITED, By
ROBERT A. WILSON, 1855. It's free to all, in e-book form: click here for details.

I haven't read it yet; but plan to. Here's a sampling of topics from random chapters:

Chapter I
Arrival at Vera Cruz.—Its appearance from the Steamer.—Getting Ashore.—Within the City.—Throwing Stones at an Image.—Antiquity of Vera Cruz.—Its Commerce.—The great Norther of 1852.—A little Steamer rides out the Tempest.—The Vomito, or Yellow Fever.—Ravages of the Vomito.—The Vomito brought from Africa in Slave-ships.—A curious old Book.—Our Monk arrives at Vera Cruz, and what befalls him there.—Life in a Convent.—A nice young Prior.—Our Monk finds himself in another World

CHAPTER XVIII
Visit to Contreras and San Angel.—The End of a brave Soldier.—A Place of Skulls.—A New England Dinner.—An Adventure with Robbers—doubtful.—Reasons for revisiting Mexico.—The Battle at the Mountain of Crosses.—A peculiar Variety of the Cactus.—Three Men gibbeted for robbing a Bishop.—A Court upon Horseback.—The retreat of Cortéz to Otumba.—A venerable Cypress Grove.—Unexpectedly comfortable Quarters.—An English Dinner at Tezcuco.—Pleasures unknown to the Kings of Tezcuco.—Relics of Tezcuco.—The Appearance of the Virgin Mary at Tezcuco.—The Causeways of Mexico

Naturally, I'm interested in the last two: Relics of Tezcuco and The Appearance of the Virgin Mary at Tezcuco.

Now here we're getting somewhere:

CHAPTER XXI.
Walk to Guadalupe.—Our Embassador kneeling to the Host.—An Embassador with, and one without Lace.—First sight of Santa Anna.—Indian Dance in Church.—Juan Diego not Saint Thomas.—The Miracle proved at Rome.—The Story of Juan Diego.—The holy Well of Guadalupe.—The Temple of the Virgin.—Public Worship interdicted by the Archbishop.—Refuses to revoke his Interdict.—He fled to Guadalupe and took Sanctuary.—Refused to leave the Altar.—The Arrest at the Altar

From the JREF: The Latest Virgin News

From the James Randi site, The Amazing Randi comments on a letter he received from a fellow skeptic and anti-woo. (Randi comments on a letter: The Latest Virgin News.) The letter writer is astounded by the beliefs of "woos" in regards to a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe. (For those unfamiliar with James Randi, he is a so-called skeptic, really, a pathological debunker. He's also an author and was a stage magician, and has been around for decades. His site is full of skeptic links and news, including a very busy and popular forum.) The letter writer describes a news item he saw about Our Lady of Guadalupe, where the religious can hear the heartbeat by putting their ear up to the painted pregnant Virgin, or see her eye move.

I'm not sure why this letter writer, as well as Randi's, responses bother me. It's not that I believe that the faithful can hear the heartbeat in the pregnant painted stomach, or that Mary's eye moves. I'm not even a Christian. So what do I care?

Part of it is simply the rude attitude on the part of Randi, the letter writer, and the ones who left comments. Insults and rudeness are a given in that crowd, and they feel perfectly justified, for they will tell you they have the right. When it comes to combating base superstition, anything goes, they say. Another reason it bothers me is because clearly, as with all things like this, things simply aren't so black and white. Much more is afoot, and sometimes it is magic, (or magick) sometimes it's devious aliens with advanced technology, it's a symbiotic dance between ourselves, our inner selves, and out there . . . it's many things, manifesting in many ways, through many things, including icons, religious symbols, . . .

There is a line most of draw in this context. I have no patience, or politeness, for those who use religion to persecute or oppress. Homophobics and misogynists, child abusers, and those who want to impose a theocracy on the rest of us deserve our outrage.

But that's a different context.

Rational explanations are given by some on the Randi forum for this vulgar display of relgious faith. A common one is that in times of cultural or political anxiety, people start believing weird shit. Sigh.

If one believes in aliens, one could say it's the aliens having fun with us. If one believes that the mind and spirit work together in fantastic ways, one could suggest that the eye of Mary really does move -- for them. Who can say?

Trickster-Mary-Devil in the Mysterious Valley?

Much has been written about the image of the Blessed Virgin disguised as something else: a terrestrial fairy, elemental, or ET, something from another dimension and so on. Some sort of entity that comes from a paranormal source, putting on a display for humans. Much debate about this idea, from outright rejection by religious literalists as well as UFO researchers, to a more integrated perspective, along the lines of Vallee, Swan, Keel, etc.

While "the Lady" is often reported as not saying she's the Mother of God, the assumption that she is is made by the religious ones she appears to. Her messages and actions are benign; although, some fundamentalists insist there is nothing good about BVM visitations; that it's the devil behind the sightings. Especially in the case of the Medjugore appearances; many Catholics and other religious writers hold that apparition up as a solid farce. No holy mother, but the devil for sure. Former Vatican exorcist Bishop Andrea Gemma calls the Medjugore apparitions "work of the devil . . . diabolical deceit" and attacks the decades long appearances at Medjugorje for being vulgar:

"In Medjugorje everything happens in function of money: Pilgrimages, lodging houses, sale of trinkets. . This whole sham is the work of the Devil. It is a scandal."

The following is from the Angelus site, from Medjugorje Exposed:

Today, we waited for the Virgin at Marija's; with me were Marija, Ivanka, and Jakov. We began praying at 6:20 p.m. The Virgin appeared right away. We asked her about the Franciscan Friars and sisters of our parish...We asked her about the man who saw Jesus in the street as he was driving people in his car. He met a man covered in blood—this man was Jesus—he gave him a blood-stained handkerchief telling him to throw it in the river. Going on his way, he met a lady—it was the Blessed Virgin Mary; she asked the driver for the bloodstained handkerchief. The man offered her a handkerchief belonging to him, but the Virgin asked for the bloodstained one: 'If he had not given it to me it would have been the last judgment for all!' The Virgin said this was true.) (from Vicka's diary dated September 4, 1981)

The Trickster does seem to be strong in the Medjugore sightings in a crazy, conflicting, and bizarre yet very Fortean way.

We're used to urgings to pray, become more virtuous, build places of healing, hope and sacred gathering, magical displays like rosaries turning to gold or silver, the scent of roses and cinnamon, swirling, dancing suns and brilliant light beams at play during BVM visits. Nothing devilish about that. The above example of Medjurgore gives us a different picture, one that is sinister.

Chris O'Brien, UFO and high strangeness researcher and chronicler of the highly anomalous events going on in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, mentions a strange tale of a BVM sighting in the mid 1800s in his book Secrets of the Mysterious Valley. The area was, and still is, a true paranormal hot spot; UFOs, cattle mutilations and other UADS (unexplained animal deaths), Bigfoot sightings (!), and much, much more. Stories about high strangeness events go back hundreds of years in that area.

What O'Brien mentions is in the context of a serial murdering gang. Besides the Fortean, paranormal, UFO weirdness in the area, there has always been severe tension -- and often still is, according to O'Brien -- between whites and Mexicans and people with Mexican-American heritage, (as well as between land barons, etc.) In the mid 1800s, Felipe Nerio Espinoza, no doubt fueled by the tragic murders of his family by whites during the war, set out to murder as many whites as he could, and managed to kill many people, cutting out their hearts, before being caught and killed himself.

A priest related that Felipe told him of a vision he had:
The Virgin Mary had come to him and commanded him to kill one hundred Americans for each of his (six) slain relatives. He wishe dto kneel at the altar and make a vow to do so . . .(p305 Secrets of the Mysterious Valley)

The priest said that he explained to Felipe that the Virgin would never say anything like that to anyone, and that "it was the devil, tricking him" (p305)

This "vision" could be considered the psychotic thoughts of a brutal killer; but is it possible other, unseen forces, had something to do with his actions? As O'Brien continues, that area of Colorado has a history of "Old Scratch" (the Devil) sightings and lore. O'Brien says that this entity appears even today, often appearing at "dances and/or social events." (p 311) O'Brien has never found an actual witness, but has interviewed plenty who insist that they "knew someone who was there" (p 311)

O'Brien wonders if there's a connection between Felipe's vision and the devil legends:
"It's difficult not to come to the conclusion that Felipes' "vision" was something akin to demonic in nature. What well-meaning benign spirit like our Blessed Virgin Mary would demand such retribution? (p 311)