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Welcome my dear friends. Enjoy your visit and share your thoughts. Thank you, much love

Saturday 23 May 2015

KEEPING IT REAL with FRIZZY LIZZY

KEEPING IT REAL with FRIZZY LIZZY

Hello, Everyone! Thank you for taking the time to look at my humble feature that I call “Keeping It Real.” Whatever I discuss here is indeed real, as it happens or happened, but there are times when I wonder myself about what I am experiencing: Is it real or am I in an alternate reality and how do I keep from losing my way?

I mention this in the context of dealing with someone close to me who has some degree of dementia or Alzheimer's Disease. An old friend of mine, Yolanda, is affected by dementia and I am doing my absolute best to co-exist with her – and with it.

I have some experience with dementia, courtesy of my late father. By his own account, his mind began to fail him when he was about 72 but I never noticed much of a problem until he was around 79.

His manifestations varied between funny and nasty. He was funny when he was with me and he could get nasty with my sisters. Little things like asking the time every minute or less bothered the hell out of my sisters and they would lecture him and dress him down for asking. Consequently, he would lash out at them and chew their asses very well. Whenever he asked me, I told him the time, and if he did not like it, I told him another one!

The way that I saw it, that was my father asking and it was for me to be kind to him when his mind became a little addled or confused. And talk about confusion, he surely had it!

When he was not telling ma that he had to go to Pittsburgh or Cincinnati or New York to see a man who had money for him, he was seeing himself in places where he had never been, or had not visited in many years. He never left town.

I recall taking him for a ride in my car. We stopped and drank coffee and we talked and all was well and in this reality. After we had coffee we drove around the towns in the region, to places that he had not seen since he stopped driving his own car in the early 1990s.

As we drove, we got behind a pickup truck that had a refrigerator in the back. My father said to me, “Every time I am out here I get behind that same guy with the refrigerator in his truck!” All I could say was, “Really?” The more he insisted on the fact that he was always driving behind the same truck, the more I searched for an answer that he would like, and one finally came to me.

He mentioned the truck and the fridge once more and I said, “Now isn't that remarkable?” Even in his addled and confused state he knew that his point had been made with me and he had to agree that it was truly remarkable!

My sisters had no patience for his state of mind. They would correct him or tell him that he was being difficult or silly or something to set him off. He knew that he was the father and they were the children, even if they were in their 30s and older, and he would raise hell with them for it.

One night they decided that he was insane and he needed to be committed to a mental hospital. They took him to a Veterans Hospital and walked him into the emergency room.

They told the admitting nurse that he was mentally unhinged and that he needed to be committed. He sat there waiting for the doctor to see him and did not say a word to anyone.

The Doctor came and introduced himself and proceeded to give him a field test to determine his grasp on reality. He asked things like my dad's name, address, telephone number; the day, date, and month; who the president was, how old my father was, how many quarters and cents make a dollar, and other questions of general knowledge.

My dad answered every question crisply and correctly, or so my older sister told me.

The doctor made his notes and concluded that there was no reason to admit my father for observation or any other reason; that he was sane and living in reality.

My father turned to the doctor and said, pointing to my sisters individually, “This one has the dynamite and that one has the matches.”

Eventually my dad's condition deteriorated to the point where he was no longer safe to life alone. I petitioned to court to make him a ward and admit him to a skilled nursing care facility. The judge, who was an old friend of my father, felt badly for him but his sole criterion for deciding in favor of making him a ward of the court was the answer to one question: If there was a fire in my father's house, what would he do? Would he run outside to safety or go into another room thinking he could close the door on the fire?

Dealing with my father's dementia made me more aware of my shortcomings and lack of understanding of that condition. I might have done well by my father but I knew that I had lots to learn.

My education resumed with my friend, Yolanda. She is 86. She had a stroke about 6 years ago and it took the vision in her left eye and most of it in the right. It also got some of her sense of balance and her ability to move. She was single for most of her life and accustomed to driving everywhere she wanted to go. Prior to her stroke she was an animal rescuer and she had 9 dogs in her care, not to mention cats, birds, raccoons, skunks and other creatures at her home. She also took dogs around to the hospitals and nursing homes as pet therapy for the patients and residents. To say that she was an active woman would be an understatement.

Between the stroke and aging, her mind is not as sharp as it was, either. Her reasoning is not as good as it might have been years ago.

Yolanda lives in a skilled nursing care facility. They keep a good eye on her there. I visit with her frequently. Even with the best of care, she has fallen 14 times since November 1, 2014. She has gone from needing a cane to walk to using a walker to keep her balance.

She loves to dance; she always has and always will. A few weeks ago at the home, they had a band playing and she was there. She completely forgot that she needed a walker and she got up to dance. Within a few seconds she lost her balance and fell flat on her face! The home called for an ambulance and they admitted her to the hospital. Had she kept her ability to reason, or the inhibitions that keep us from injury, she would not have fallen while dancing, but she fell.

I have always treated Yolanda as I would any person who has a physical disability. I gave her whatever help she needed to get into and out of my car. I helped her to walk, and to go shopping. She moved slower than I did and I paced myself so she never felt like she was slowing me down. I acknowledged to her that I understood that she had disabilities and I acted accordingly, being considerate and gentle towards her.
So she fell while dancing and the hospital called me because I am the closest thing to family that she has in the area. I came as soon as I got the call.

Yolanda was barely conscious. She had lots of bruising on her face and a large lump on her forehead. She had injured her arms and hands in the fall and the doctors feared that she might have broken her neck. She was a real mess. That was 18 days ago.

As she recovered and became stronger her state of consciousness varied. She quickly came to the belief that all of the nurses were cruel and inflicted pain on her for fun. She told me of waiting for hours for pain medication or for someone to help her to get a drink of water from her pitcher that has a filter in it. She said that she called for a nurse for an hour but none came, and that she was placed in a chair for exercise, in the outdoors, and they left her there for 7 hours. None of this made sense to me so I went to the nurses to find out what really happened.

Yolanda never told me that she was of the opinion that a nurse should come the very second that she calls out for one. She never said that she did not use the call button that was in her bed with her to call a nurse. She never told me that she became argumentative with the other persons in her 4-bed ward and woke them from a sound sleep with her calling for a nurse. She never told me that she scolded a hospital volunteer for giving her a drink of water that was not from her spacial pitcher instead of explaining to him that she drank filtered water. As for 7 hours in the chair, it was 90 minutes, and it was not outside, it was next to her bed to allow her to ventilate her lungs to try to prevent pneumonia.

I was dealing with someone who was in an alternate reality and she was an old and treasured friend. She had scolded the nursing staff and accused them of cruelty and they did their best to avoid her. Her doctor was in no hurry to get her out of the hospital. I had work to do.

The nurses wanted to help Yolanda. That was their job. After some talking and reasoning with them about my friend's dementia and living in a reality not necessarily the same as theirs, things began to run more smoothly. Yolanda's complaints became fewer and the nurses were sweeter in delivering their skilled care.

Yesterday, May 22, 2015, Yolanda was in excellent mental and emotional condition. Her face was devoid of pain and had a relaxed look. Conversation with her was easy, sensible, and in the present tense. She smiled and laughed when we shared a happy thought or a joke. It was like the sun parted the gray clouds!

Today I visited her and the sun had gone away. Yolanda was gloomy and rather detached. The first words out of her mouth were, “Someone stole my black Crocs,” the shoes that she was wearing when she was admitted to the hospital. I reached under the chair next to her bed and produced the “stolen” Crocs. She then started to argue with me that the Crocs she had been wearing on Fridaywere white. There were no white Crocs, only black ones.

Then I heard about the cruelty of the nurses again, and how long they took to give her something for the pain in her neck (her doctor ordered pain medication to be given every 4 hours).

Finally she told me that she wanted to get out of bed again. I asked her when she was last out of bed and she told me Friday evening, after I had left her. She was up and walked in her room and even went outside for a time. I knew this to be purely imagination because she had a urinary catheter in her and a bag for collecting the urine fastened to the bed, as well as an oxygen line connected to the nasal prongs that delivered oxygen to her. A brief chat with her nurse (who impressed me as empathic) told me that she had not so much as sat up in bed, much less walked outside.

I did not argue with Yolanda, however, I did respectfully and gently disagree with her. I used readily visible facts to overcome her notions, like producing the missing Crocs, or showing her where the tubes were connected to her and the bed, and the wall. We had a laugh when she remarked that she had not been to the bathroom for almost 3 weeks. I replied that she did not need to go because they had brought the bathroom to her!

She marveled at not seeing a toilet for 3 weeks and wondered if she had to learn how to use one again. She smiled when I assured her that it was easier than trying to ride a bicycle at her age.

We shared a hug and I left her watching a movie on the TV over her bed.

I took five pages to tell you all of this in detail, not because I wanted to take up your time and space, but to assure both of us that what I have been seeing is for real in my world and Yolanda's and my father's, yet it is generally accepted to be unreal in the world at-large.

I have never dealt with a parent or loved one who has some level of dementia for hours on end. My respect goes to those who have. It also goes to those who have come to realize that we all have our limitations and that care of a loved one in a skilled nursing facility can be that which keeps us sane and our loved ones in a safer environment than we could ever provide.

Thank you for allowing me to share my experiences with you. I hope that I have written something that is useful to you.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

ڰۣIn Loving Light from the Fairy Ladyڰۣ

About the Will O'the Wisp

About the Will O'the Wisp

Hi, dear friends and followers. Today we take a look at the legends of The Will O' the Wisp, not to be mistaken with orbs but with some similarity in appearance, but any other similarity stops there. Thank you for visiting my blog, and welcome back again

The Will o' the Wisp is the most common name given to the mysterious lights that were said to lead travellers from the well-trodden paths into treacherous marshes. The tradition exists with slight variation throughout Britain, the lights often bearing a regional name.

There are various explanations for the Will o' the Wisps, the most general being that they are malevolent spirits either of the dead or non-human intelligence. They have a mischievous and often malevolent nature, luring unwary travellers into dangerous situations. Wirt Sikes in his book British Goblins alludes a common story about a Welsh Will o' the Wisp (
Pwca or Ellylldan); a peasant, who is travelling home late in the evening sees a bright light travelling before him, 

looking closer he sees that the light is a lantern held by a "dusky little figure" which he follows for several miles, suddenly he finds himself standing on the edge of a great chasm with a roaring torrent of water rushing below him. At that moment the lantern carrier leaps across the fissure, raises the light over its head and lets out a malicious laugh, after which it blows out the light leaving the unfortunate man far from home, standing in pitch darkness at the edge of a precipice. They were not always so dangerous, and there are tales told about the Will o' the Wisp being guardians of treasure, leading those brave enough to follow them to sure riches.

In many places the Will o' the Wisp were associated with spirits of the dead who could not enter either heaven or hell, malignantly wandering the earth leading foolish travellers astray. Katherine Briggs mentions the Shropshire 'Will the Smith' in her book, A Dictionary of Fairies: St Peter allowed a wicked blacksmith named Will a second chance to live a wholesome life on earth, but he lived it in such evil that he was doomed to wander the earth in purgatory. The Devil allowed him one grace, a burning piece of pit coal to warm him on his desolate walk through the wild lands, which he uses to lead wanderers into the marshes. 

The lights were also seen as death omens, and when seen within graveyards they were known as corpse lights. These were said to light the path of a coming funeral - from the victims home to the graveyard - in the form of small flickering flames. In other tales the light were often said to appear in places where a tragedy was about to occur.

More mundane explanations for the Will o' the Wisp come in the form of marsh gasses - natural methane - formed from rotting vegetation. The gas was thought to sometimes ignite spontaneously forming standing flames over boggy ground. It has also been suggested that the little understood phenomena of ball lightning may have been the cause of sightings.

Some Regional Names
There are many names for what is essentially the same phenomenon, these are as follows:
Hertfordshire & East Anglia: The Hobby Lantern
Lancashire: Peg-a-Lantern
Cornwall & Somerset: Joan the Wad
East Anglia: The Lantern Man
Somerset & Devon: Hinky Punk
Shropshire: Will the Smith
Worcestershire: Pinket
The West Country: Jacky Lantern, Jack-a-Lantern
Lowland Scotland: Spunkies
Wales: Pwca, Ellylldan
Norfolk: Will o' the Wikes
Warwickshire & Gloucestershire: Hobbedy's Lantern
North Yorkshire & Northumberland: Jenny with the Lantern

Other names
Corpse candles: Related to graveyards and funeral processions.
Ignis Fatuus: The Latin name which means foolish fire.

The Legend Behind the Will O’ the Wisp in the Movie "Brave"

“Some say our destiny is tied to the land, as much a part of us as we are of it. Others say fate is woven together like a cloth, so that one’s destiny intertwines with many others. It’s the one thing we search for, or fight to change. Some never find it. But there are some who are led.” This quotation is spoken by Princess Merida as an introduction in Disney Pixar’s movie "Brave." Merida is seen riding through the forest looking to change her fate, when she sees tiny blue lights that form a path beckoning her to follow them.

Scotland is full of legend and folklore and its said that will o’ the wisps are either mischievous spirits of the dead, or spirits such as fairies, which lead travelers off the beaten path. The bright blue will o’ the wisps in "Brave" seemed so alive that it would be hard for anyone to resist the temptation to follow them, including a princess looking for her place in the world.

Travelers—particularly those who venture out after sunset on unfamiliar pathways—beware of the will o’ the wisps.

So what are they, really, and what part do they have in this movie?

“The will o’ the wisps are in a lot of Scottish folktales,” says “Brave” director Mark Andrews. “They were said to lead you to treasure or doom—to change your fate—but they’re an actual phenomenon of swamp and bog gas seeping up through the earth and interacting with the natural resources to create the blue flames. People would follow these lights thinking they were little fairies, and basically drown or get sucked down into the bogs.”

It is said—though by whom is a bit of a mystery—that on certain days for certain travelers in certain parts of the world, little lights dance on the horizon, whispering tempting invitations or pledging the answers to lifelong questions, the realization of dreams, a key to secret treasures, in general a change of fate.

The animated lights, will o’ the wisps, lead Merida to a mysterious location where she finds the witch’s cottage that holds the power to change her destiny, although not necessarily for the better.

Charmed and curious, unsuspecting travelers follow the floating lights, mesmerized by their whispers, their promises. Yet no matter how long or how fervently they follow, they never quite touch the beautiful beacons whose flickering lights eventually fade and disappear, leaving the inquisitors, the dreamers, and the treasure seekers lost and alone.

“We made the wisps like actual little spirits,” Andrews continues. “They’re almost like Marley’s ghost in a way, because Marley’s ghost isn’t an evil spirit. Even though he’s frightening, he’s trying to warn Scrooge to change his ways. That’s what the wisps are doing. There’s a duality to them, because they’re either good or evil. They lead Merida into more and more trouble, but in the end, they’ve led her exactly where she needs to go.”

So be careful of your paths and steps and the lights you follow, lest the will o' the wisp lead you into a swamp - or worse!

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

ڰۣIn Loving Light from the Fairy Ladyڰۣ

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Rivendell, a Tolkien Legend

Rivendell, a Tolkien Legend


Hi, dear friends. Today I wish to introduce to you briefly to the history of John Ronald Ruel Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE FRSL (/ˈtɒlkiːn/;[a] 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high-fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford from 1945 to 1959. He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda, and Middle-earth[b] within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the larger part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature — or, more precisely, of high fantasy.

Middle-earth is the setting of much of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The term is equivalent to the term Midgard of Norse mythology, describing the human-inhabited world, i.e., the central continent of world of Tolkien's imagined mythological past. Tolkien's most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, and Middle-earth has also become a short-hand to refer to the legendarium or its "fictional-universe".

Within his stories, Tolkien translated the name "Middle-earth" as Endor (or sometimes Endórë) and Ennor in the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, respectively, sometimes referring only to the continent that the stories take place on, with another southern continent called the Dark Land.

Middle-earth is the central continent of Earth (Arda) in an imaginary period of the Earth's past (Tolkien placed the end of the Third Age at about 6,000 years before his own time), in the sense of a "secondary or sub-creational reality". Its general position reminiscent of Europe, with the environs of the Shire intended to be reminiscent of England (more specifically, the West Midlands, with Hobbiton set at the same latitude as Oxford).

The subject of Elven creatures has been entertained on this blog rather frequently. Perhaps it is fitting that we take a look at one of the locales where Tolkien placed elves in his masterfully written legends. Today we shall look at 


~Rivendell.~

Rivendell, also known as Imladris, was an Elven outpost in Middle-earth. It is also referred to as "The Last Homely House East of the Sea", a reference to Valinor, which is west of the Great Sea in Aman.

Rivendell was located at the edge of a narrow gorge of the river Loudwater (one of the main approaches to Rivendell comes from the nearby Ford of Bruinen), but well hidden in the moorlands and foothills of the Misty Mountains.

Rivendell was established by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth in SA 1697. During the War of the Elves and Sauron, Eregion was laid waste and Elrond brought the survivors to Rivendell, soon Sauron laid siege to it but was eventually beaten back. Following the establishment of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men the hosts of Gil-galad and Elendil march to Imladris and laid camp in there to prepare their arms and then proceeded southeast to Dagorlad.

When Angmar rose to power and conquered Arthedain , Elrond sent Glorfindeland a host of elves to meet with the armies of Earnil and Cirdan thus honoring the Alliance of elves and men. After the fall of Angmar the heirs of Isildur were fostered in Rivendell and the heirlooms were kept by Elrond.

During the Quest for the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo Baggins and the Company of Thorin stopped off at Rivendell. Bilbo described it as "a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all."

After the quest, Bilbo and Gandalf returned there and were greeted again by Elrond and the elves.

Years later, Frodo Baggins and his Hobbit companions journeyed to Rivendell, where they met with Bilbo, who had retired there after his eleventy-first birthday. Several other Elves, Dwarves and Menalso arrived at Rivendell on separate errands; at the Council of Elrond they learned that all of their kind are related to the fate of the One Ring, and they must decide what to do about it. In the end, it was the Hobbits who influenced the decision.

There was a large hall with a dais and several tables for feasting. Another hall, theHall of Fire, had a fire in it all year round with carved pillars on either side of the hearth; it was used for singing and story telling on high days but stood empty the rest of the time so people could go there to quietly think. The eastern side of the house had a porch where Frodo Baggins found his friends once he awakened and where the Council of Elrond was held.

Rivendell was protected from attack (mainly by the River Bruinen, Elrond, and Elven magic), but Elrond himself said that Rivendell is a place of peace and learning, not a stronghold of battle. After the War and Elrond's departure, his sons Elladan and Elrohir lived in Rivendell. Their grandfather, Celeborn, lived with them for a while until he finally took ship and sailed West.


I hope that you have found this information useful. Please give me your comments and suggestions for any future features in this blog.
Thank you.

Video of the life history of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien


Tuesday 19 May 2015

New Megalithic Site Could Steal Title for Oldest Stone Monument

New Megalithic Site Could Steal Title for Oldest Stone Monument
Hi dear friends and followers, today I would like to share with you about ancient megalithic sites and their authenticity, 'or not.' You make the decision. Thank you for visiting my blog and enjoy. 


September 17, 2014
Martin J. Clemens

A new megalithic site has been found in the near east and it seems to predate the pyramids of Egypt, and even Stonehenge.

A pretty exciting statement in any sense, but let’s not get ahead of things.

The site in question, known in Arabic as Rujum en-Nabi Shua’ayb, is a massive crescent-shaped mound that sits just northwest of the Sea of Galilea in Israel. To say that it’s just been discovered is a bit misleading though. It’s actually been known since about the 1920’s, but was originally thought to be a simple, yet massive, wall or buttress fortification for a nearby town. How wrong they were…


Not as interesting to look at as other megalithic sites, Jethro Cairn’s secrets are below the surface.

Doctoral student Ido Wachtel, from the Institute of Archaeology, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, recently presented evidence through the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East that suggests quite strongly that the ancient city that was long believed to lie directly next to it, doesn’t actually exist. It was that city that was believed to have been protected by the wall, however, Wachtel, in what is to be part of his master’s thesis, has demonstrated that the mound is actually a freestanding monument and is larger than an American football field.“The proposed interpretation for the site is that it constituted a prominent landmark in its natural landscape, serving to mark possession and to assert authority and rights over natural resources by a local rural or pastoral population.”[1]

The area of the monument, which is also called Jethro Cairn – in reference to the Biblical Prophet Jethro (also known as Neby Shoaib) who is or was venerated by the Druze and Sunni Muslims throughout Palestine – does include an Early Bronze Age city, called Bet Yeren, but Wachtel has found that its borders, which are within walking distance, are too far away from the monument for it to have provided any fortification to its inhabitants.

These revelations have given rise to renewed interest in the site by the greater archaeological community and, indeed, serve to elevate Jethro Cairn to the status of being (possibly) one of the oldest known megalithic sites in the world.

An estimated 14,000 cubic meters of stone were used in its construction.

Wachtel isn’t the only one digging on the shores of the Sea of Galilea though. Researchers and archaeologists from Tel Aviv University have been excavating the studying nearby Bet Yeren for decades. Also known as Khirbet el-Kerak (or Khirbet Kerak), Bet Yeren has been dated, through what is now known as Khirbet Kerak Pottery, to be as old as 5500 years, which places its construction within the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (3300 – 1200 BCE). And by association, Jethro Cairn is believed to be at least as old.

Wachtel describes the structure as being 150 meters long by 22 meters wide at its base, and standing at a preserved height of 7 meters. He estimates that it would have taken between 35,000 to 50,000 days to construct, which he claims hints at its original importance to the culture responsible for its construction.[2]

You’ll recall from high school history class, that the Egyptian pyramids at Giza date from around 2360 BCE, which puts Jethro Cairn anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand years earlier. Bet Yeren and its included sites compete with Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England for the title of oldest known megalithic site, and that competition rages on now, what with the relative uncertainty of the Bet Yeren / Jethro Cairn dates and the recent discovery of what appears to be a much larger and much older monument structure (or structures, as the case may be) underneath Stonehenge. However those two sites aren’t the only ones in this competition.

An image of one of the stone circles at Göbekli Tepe

As has been reported here, many believe that the site known as Göbekli Tepe – a Neolithic settlement in the Southeast Anatolia Region of Turkey –holds the all-time title for oldest known megalithic construction on the planet. Early dating results from a survey and preliminary excavation performed by Istanbul University in conjunction with the University of Chicago, suggest that Göbekli Tepe was built at the beginning of the Mesolithic period in the Holocene epoch, which makes it roughly 12,000 years old.

That is paradigm shifting information, but it doesn’t end there.

Reported here in January of this year, a site in the West Java province of Indonesia called Gunung Padang has much of the archaeology community (and the alternative history community) talking. Following a preliminary survey of the site, researchers believed they had revealed that what once was thought to be a simple hill, was actually a stepped pyramid.

In and of itself, such a discovery would be incredible, since there are so few pyramids in Asia, but when the site was dated the team came up with an astounding number…23,000 years old!

Gunung Padang

That number isn’t set in stone, so to speak, so further work is being done. This summer representatives from the Indonesian government and various schools of archaeology have begun an extensive excavation of the site, with the intention to determine exactly what lies beneath the thick undergrowth, and to confirm the initial construction date of 21,000 BCE. Definitive answers should become available within a year or two. If you’re interested in a more in-depth look at what the Gunung Padang findings mean, I provided a lengthy analysis of the subject in the latest edition of Darklore (VIII).

Göbekli Tepe and Gunung Padang notwithstanding, the discovery of Jethro Cairn and the reassessment of its importance within the story of human development is something to be excited about. If the dating of Bet Yeren, and subsequently Jethro Cairn, hold up to scrutiny, a whole new chapter in human history can be written.




[1] Wachtel, Ido. ‘Jethro Cairn’ – An Early Bronze Age Site in the Upper Galilee, Israel: Function and Significance. International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Section 354. https://9icaane.unibas.ch/ICAANE2014AbstractsMay.pdf

[2] Jarus, Owen. Massive 5,000-Year-Old Stone Monument Revealed in Israel. Live Science – September 15, 2014
http://www.livescience.com/47835-massive-5-000-year-old-stone-monument-revealed-in-israel.html?cmpid=514627_20140915_31633386

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

ڰۣIn Loving Light from the Fairy Ladyڰۣ



Monday 18 May 2015

BROSNO DRAGON: (RUSSIA)

BROSNO DRAGON: (RUSSIA)


Hi dear friends and followers. Today I have another legend on dragons, this time we go to lake Brozno in Russia. Take five and enjoy, thank you for visiting my blog.



The bizarrely bio-luminescent brute known as the “Brosno Dragon” first reared its horrific head in the 13th century not far from Moscow. According to local legend, the brutal Tatar-Mongol army was on its way to invade Novgorod when their leader, Batu Khan, allegedly stopped his troops on the shore of Brosno to rest and allow the horses to drink. It would be a decision he would soon come to regret.


As the Mongol soldiers led their horses to the lake, they were horrified to see an immense roaring beast lunge from the black waters to devoured both the animals and soldiers alike. The troops further inland were so terrified by their comrades’ fates that they immediately turned back. Thus, according to folklore, Novgorod was saved by the appetite of this “lake dragon.”

This would not be the last time that this monster would show its political allegiance. According to lake residents, during World War II — in a maneuver that would have made Winston Churchill proud — the dragon once again surface and managed to swallow a Nazi airplane (or at least it’s pilot) that had apparently attempted to make an emergency landing in the water. While chances are it was merely hungry, perhaps the Allies had their very own lake monster on tap.




Considering the enormity of its reputation, it’s surprising that this creature is only supposed to be about 16-feet long. Eyewitnesses depict the beast as an iridescent dragon with what is alternately described as being a fish-like or serpentine head, although, due to the often frigid climate around Lake Brosno, investigators have surmised that this creature is likely not a reptile.

When not fending off foreign hordes or Nazi aviators, this aquatic dragon — doing what a dragon must — is said to have intermittently spread its reign of terror throughout the small fishing villages located not only on Lake Brosno, but on the nearby Volgo River as well.

In fact, as recently as 1996, the Itar-Tass news agency reported that residents of the Brosno Lake area were terrified of what the local press has dubbed “Brosnie” or “Brosnya.” The article goes on to assert that many of the citizens of these tiny communities were so upset that they had taken to fortifying their homes — as quoted from an article published by Reuters News Service:

“’I’m afraid,’ said one elderly woman, Varya, who lives in the small lakeside village of Benyok about 400 km northwest of Moscow. ‘I do not feel comfortable staying in this place. The monster could crawl into my house any day.’”

1996 was apparently a banner year for the beast as an anonymous tourist from Moscow allegedly snapped a picture of the Brosno monster after his 7 year-old son screamed that he saw a “dragon” in the Lake and in November of that same year, the Karavan weekly sent an expedition to Lake Brosno.

The expedition consisted of journalists Marina Gavrishenko and Yeugeny Novikov, the head of the Tver Regional Legislative Assembly’s press-service, Nikolay Ishchuk, photographer Anaida Jilavyan and editor-in-chief of the Karavan newspaper, Gennady Klimov. Gavrishenko had this to say about the mystery:

“At first sight, the whole of the monster story looks like a fairytale. After the expedition to Lake Brosno, I do believe that the place is actually mysterious. Stories told by witnesses prove this opinion. We met with local people who were perfectly sane and adequate. What is more, all legends about the mysterious monster trace the roots back to the old times. 
I am sure that legends and rumors cannot arise from nothing.”

In the summer of 2002, experts of the Kosmopoisk Research Association went for an expedition to Lake Brosno and did echo deep sounding. The result of this experiment has yielded perhaps the most peculiar development in this case to date. The Moscow newspaper “Arguments and Facts” interviewed Vadim Chernobrov, the Kosmopoisk coordinator, who discussed the strange discovery they made in the depths of the lake:

“Echo deep sounding registered an anomaly. There was a huge jelly-like mass of a railway car size landing five meters above the bottom. The mass stood motionless. We waited for some time and then decided to make it move: we threw an underwater petard, a low capacity explosive device. When the device blew up, the creature started slowly going up. We stared at the water, and it was clear; there was nothing resembling a monster, however something unusual was still felt in the lake water.”

What did these Russian scientists actually blow up? Was it the corpse or, perhaps, hibernating form of the Brosno Dragon? Or, even more disturbingly, might it have been an egg cluster like those laid by many amphibians? Could the Kosmopoisk Research Associations lack of foresight in using explosive devices during their investigation have doomed this exceedingly rare species of “dragon” to extinction? Until there’s another sighting… or attack… it looks like we’ll just have to wait and see.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

ڰۣIn Loving Light from the Fairy Ladyڰۣ


Sunday 17 May 2015

Doppelganger - Spirit Or Omen?

Doppelganger - Spirit Or Omen?

Hi, Dear Friends and Followers!  Welcome to the world of the doppelganger.  Is it a ghost?  Maybe a spirit being from another reality?  Or is it just a figment of the imagination? Take five, enjoy, and draw your own conclusions. 



The term "doppelganger" is used often to describe someone that looks just like (or at least very similar to) another person, but there are more mysterious and sinister roots than the word suggests.

Literally meaning "double-goer", a real doppelganger is an apparition that appears in place of a person in a location or situation that would not otherwise be possible. 

Many people have seen this image of themselves, both in life and in visions. Other times, a person may be seen walking through a room when they are, in actuality, several miles away. The third most common sightings occur when the image of a person appears to walk past an area twice in a row - moving in the same direction - to where it would be impossible for the person to have returned there fast enough.

So what are doppelgangers? No one is certain. Many researchers believe the phenomenon to occur based on injuries or stimulation to certain parts of the brain which cause errors in spatial reasoning. The stories of these encounters are so varied that it's difficult to even classify this phenomenon as a "creature", except for the fact that most often the sightings seem to be intensely spiritual yet disconnected to the original person.

Doppelgangers are often seen as bad omens. In many circumstances, the doppelganger shows up during or soon after tragic events, such as in the case of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon of Victorian-era London. He was seen by multiple guests at a party at his home, simply standing and staring ahead silently, on the same night that he died at sea.

Other bad omens may come in the form of a warning, such as in the case of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who saw his twin apparition on several occasions standing in a mirror while he was lying down across the room. What he saw each time was an image of himself displaced by a paler second image of himself. His wife at the time pondered if it meant that he would be elected to a second term but not live through the end of it. She was right.

This could lead one to believe that there are likely spirits that mimic the appearance of a person. Many people believe that these spirits have ill intentions and wish to do harm to the person they are mimicking, be it physically, emotionally, or by ruining their reputation. If this were so, the offending spirit would likely be some form of demon.

In any case, this particular phenomenon does not represent the actual person or their actual spirit. The apparition is of another origin entirely. It merely looks like the person it is copying, it is not actually that person in a different space or time, nor is it a sign of an out-of-body experience.

We may never know exactly what these apparitions are, where they come from, or what they want, but there are too many sightings to disregard them. Whatever this creature or spirit is, its appearance is rarely good news.




On a personal note, I have had many visions through the years. I must admit that some of them may have been conjured from my own imagination.  But I can tell the difference.  It's much like, and maybe even one and the same as, what I define as the inner voice.  

You already know the result. It's like experiencing a very vivid feeling, possibly a foreboding, that you are about to make a bad choice, but you go ahead and do it anyway. 

The result is as you had felt but didn't heed, then the cards fall. I have also had visions, and it almost never misses that what I had felt oe envisioned, happens exactly that way.

Thank you again, Dear Friends, for visiting my blog.  Please share your thoughts with me, if you will.  Have a great week! 

ڰۣIn Loving Light from the Fairy Ladyڰۣ

AYÚDEME PROSPERAR, IGUAL QUE TÚ

AYÚDEME PROSPERAR, IGUAL QUE TÚ
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