Gabriella Ricciardi: "Telling Stories, Building Altars: Mexican American Women's Altars in Oregon

Telling Stories, Building Altars: Mexican American Women's Altars in Oregon by Garbriella Ricciardi. In Madras, Oregon, altars and beliefs.

Professor Dan Wojcik: "Spirits, Apparitions, and Traditions of Supernatural Photography"

I found this while searching on-line this evening for Marian apparitions in Oregon: Spirits, Apparitions, and Traditions of Supernatural Photography, from University of Oregon folklore professor Daniel Wojcik. With photos he has taken himself at Bayside, New York. Very interesting.

Keep UFO Hunters on Air

Lesley posted this on Women Of Esoterica, and I'm passing it along. Please sign the petition and keep UFO Hunters on the air!

Bill has just finished filming for Season 3 and I don't know if there will be a Season 4. Maybe you -- plus some pals -- can write to the network and let them know you would like to see more episodes:

http://www.history.com/global/feedback/contact.jsp?site=HistoryChannel.com&NetwCode=THC

or you can sign a petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/uf0hunt/petition.html

Either way, it can't hurt, and it just might help!

Keeping hope alive!

Thanks!

nb

richelle hawks: "Virgins and Saints Along the Mohawk"

Esoteric author, and contributor to Women Of Esoterica, has a neat Medussa's Ladder on Binnall of America: Virgins and Saints Along the Mohawk." It's a look at the west coast vs. east coast cultural differences in presenting Mary, as well as broader cultural representations.

One of the most visible cultural dynamics is the presence of the Virgin Mary. In upstate New York's Mohawk Valley, where I live, Virgin Mary statues and icons are everywhere: restaurants, atop buildings and institutions, gas stations, affixed to mailboxes on rural roads. The Blessed Virgin Mary hangs out in windows, looms large over cemeteries, and watches over her flock from backyard altars. She's always made of concrete or plaster.

This is not Mexico, and this is not the fantastical, glorious Virgen de Guadalupe; here, the Holy Mother is unadorned, plain. There are no bright plastic flowers, nor are there colorful candles in jars, no milagros. Generally, there is no sense of "shrinage."

By the way, don't forget you can download a free pdf collection of blog entries on the BVM that includes an article by richelle on the image of Mary in Utah.

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.

Mary on a Griddle

The BVM makes an appearance, this time on a griddle in Calexico ,

More here

Website: "Christians Against UFOs and Aliens"

Christians Against UFOs and Aliens is a website that doesn't believe that aliens and UFOs exist, as in, beings from outer space, but that what many of us think of as aliens (ET) and spaceships are really Satan. In many ways, though for very different reasons, I think they're on to something; not because of their doctrine, but because of the "thing" that formed their doctrine. That "thing" being ET/alien/UFO/"other" . . . either way, interesting site for the Fortean obsessed.

On UFO Digest: Is There God a Mother?

Ron Murdock has a short piece on UFO Digest: Is There A God The Mother?

There's an "editor's note" to the piece:

Editor's Note: Although I am not Catholic I have read that the Catholic Church believes that Jesus' mother Mary was also born through miraculous conception. According to www.catholicplanet.com: "God desired that the Virginity of Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, be so perfect, complete, and all-encompassing that even the manner of her Immaculate Conception and her Holy Birth were required by God to be entirely Virginal, occurring solely and entirely by a miracle of God, and not in the usual way."

This coincides with the idea of the "ancient astronauts" theory; paralleling other sacred myths about being "seeded," genetic manipulation, sky beings, human "hybrids" (half man, half other), mixed parentage (human mother, "alien" or "god" father) and so on.

Project Blue Beam

Interesting piece on the Psychic Experiences site: NASA and Project Blue Beam.

Mary's Colors Clues?

On UFO Digest, Carolyn S. writes about the colors used in religious stain glass art, and asks if the colors used, particularly the colors used in images of Mary, are clues leading to information as well as location: Connection at New Orleans Cathedral to Rennes Mystery the Box and Mary's Colours

An excerpt from her article:

I have found another coincidence in the colours of Mary and something Ben Hammott has found using the clues he gathered from Rennes Chateau. Its concerning the wood box with the cup ,annointing jar, and other treasures that were found in a cave by Ben Hammott. It has to do with Mary's colours. . . Are these colours marking something or helping locate a treasure?. . . Red, blue, and green are the additive primary colors and if you make three circles combining with each other Mary colours are at the middle which is a light blue and white. Many statues of the world that use the Mary use the colors blue and white there is a scientific basis for this.

A Christian "Smoking Gun": UFOs and Religion

Synchronicity abounds in esoterica; the column I submitted last night for UFO Magazine is about this topic. I was unaware of Joe Jordan's articles until I was proofing the article.

Joe Jordon is a newly converted Christian who's rejected his new age ways and uses prayer within a Christian context to keep aliens at bay. He also seems to be about testifying at UFO conventions, as Greg Bishop reported awhile back on UFO Mystic.

Here's part 1 and a part II of his articles on this topic.

For the non-religious, UFO researcher Ann Druffel wrote How to Protect Yourself Against Alien Abductions.

I don't know when my article will be out; it depends on what issue editor Nancy Birnes thinks it will fit the best.

Visions Of The Virgin Mary by Courtney Roberts,takes an astrological journey into BVM apparitions.

ChristoPaganism

My Llewellyn catalog arrived yesterday, and in it is a full page ad for the book ChristoPaganism, by Joyce and River Higginbotham. I've never heard of ChristoPaganism before. From the little bit of reading I've done it seems to share basic ideas with Gnosticism. I think. But, if you're interested, the book is available on the usual site; Amazon.com etc. and a Google search turns up a lot of interesting places.

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.

Christian UFO Event; Pag

A first in UFOlogy:First Christian-UFO-alien symposium.