Cosmic Witchcraft - Book Faerie

Hi I'm Susan. This blog is a collection of my past, present, and future imaginings, notes, photographs, and writing  that has ...

Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Thursday, 9 January 2025

My Journey with UFOs and UFOlogy

 


The giant red orb appeared in my life on November 4th 1990. I was an adult with another witness and we were mesmerized, shocked in disbelief and in awe. There are no adequate words when faced so abruptly and undeniably with the impossible. It changes you and my life was never the same again. In my book Cosmic Witch I describe it as an initiation into the uncanny.  

I had childhood encounters that I had chalked up to imagination or fever dreams, but experiencing a UFO as an adult forced me into rethinking everything I thought I knew about myself, our world and the very fabric of reality. But, what can an individual do with these new thoughts and feelings? I looked for community both in the UFO clubs like the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and later Skeptics Canada. And while I met some nice people in both belief camps neither of these groups worked for me. So I struck out on my own patterning my investigations after my late friend Robert Moore and Jenny Randles UFO investigative handbook.

My first website chronicled my investigation into spook lights and appealed to witnesses of the paranormal including UFOs to share their encounters with me. And in those early days I was honored to connect with so many others that like me just needed to share their experiences in a safe space free of any judgments. I am still privileged to meet with others, but my role now is focused on being a keeper and steward of their experiences by preserving these through my online initiatives and database and less on investigation.  

What I came to realize through my research and investigation is that the simplistic cases were often easy to find mundane explanations for, but those that involve high strangeness, perhaps the majority, defy any easy explanations. 

This is where UFOlogy has often struggled.  Cases involving high strangeness are often neglected or worse ridiculed by the investigators themselves because the details are too mind-boggling to be acceptable to a “nuts and bolts” mindset. This has left us with the dominate hypotheses of it must be extraterrestrial (UFOlogy) or it must all be mundane (skeptic groups) and neither of these are satisfying. 

Branches of UFOlogy have also leaned too far into the idea of disclosure from the American government who has a history of playing dirty pool so to speak with the subject of UFOs. The recent revelations in the US Congress have provided the public with little to no tangible evidence for their claims and until such time comes we should be treating this as more myth-making that may or may not have some kernels’ of truth to them. The obvious risk is the creation of a state sanctioned belief system or narrative as to the nature of these cosmic mysteries. And human history should teach us the inherent danger in this. 

Keel and Vallee both advocated for multidisciplinary academic approaches decades ago. The Society for UAP Studies (SUAPS) and the Sol Foundation are currently fulfilling this role. I am cautiously optimistic about both initiatives, and hope at some stage they will include the arts.

While the academy is playing catch up on our subjects UFOlogy needs to evolve in order to remain relevant. It should be focusing more on the witnesses and the most unusual experiential reports in an ethical and supportive way. And less on debunking the easy cases which brings us no closer to understanding the nature of UFOs. 

North American UFOlogy also lacks in diversity. In order to more effectively explore the complexities of extraordinary experience it needs to reach out beyond its own colonial mindset and listen to the voices of Indigenous peoples and other cultures from around the world whose own experiences may not reflect the mainstream hypotheses, but are equally valid and important.  

I love the UFO. It has shaped my life in different ways sometimes painfully and unpredictably so, but always inspiring and keeping my sense of wonder alive.  The UFO has taught me that the Universe is a deeply rich and mysterious place where highly strange magical things can and do happen and for that I will always be grateful. 


Originally published to AP Magazine Dec. 2024 edition 


Friday, 14 August 2020

Cosmic Witch: Magic, Witchcraft, and the Supernatural



I am so happy to announce the English version of my book Cosmic Witch (The Witch - La Strega in Italiano) is now available on Amazon. Feeling, excited, accomplished, nervous, happy, and relieved.

There is a strong autobiographical component to this book where I recount my experiences with mysterious lights, and other paranormal phenomena, and how those encounters shaped who I am, both as a researcher of exceptional human experiences, and as a witch.

I am an introvert, it has never been easy for me to be so open, and I am fully aware of how strange what I write about will sound to most people, but I believe in my heart that my initiation as a witch occurred when I first experienced the strange, mystical lights in the sky, which some people identify as UFOs. The encounters I write about occurred mostly in Canada and around the Great Lakes.


In a spiritual sense, I view them as messengers from the star goddess, and throughout my life they have extended to me their cosmic invitation, and allowed me to participate in their magic.


This book came about through a series of synchronicities that brought me together with my publisher Le Due Torri in Bologna Italy, and lays the foundation for future planned projects where I discuss some of the experiments I have conducted in conjuring UFOs, including a reworking of the famous 1970s Toronto "Phillip" sessions. Its is a book written from my heart and perhaps guided occasionally by unseen hands.

The beautiful artwork is by Miguel Romero aka Red Pill Junkie, who captured the spirit of Cosmic Witch with this breathtaking image.


COSMIC WITCH: magic, witchcraft, and the supernatural Available through Amazon in English and Le Due Torri in Italiano

Saturday, 4 January 2020

Ghosts Are A Trickster


Video clip taken at Fort George. Both the security staff and I felt something brush past us in the dark room. This particular building is proclaimed the “most haunted” site in Kyle Upton's book on the ghosts of Fort George.

Ghosts are a Trickster

In the early 2ks I worked as a segment producer on a television show called Creepy Canada. The attached video clip was filmed by me (very poorly, sorry) after a day of shooting in Fort George, Niagara-on-the-lake, Canada. This particular building I was in is proclaimed the “most haunted” site in Kyle Upton's book on the ghosts of Fort George.

That evening after the production crew was wrapping up I was called into a room where another producer from Los Angeles had heard what he believed to be the sound of a child's spirit playing with some wooden toy blocks. I recall that he was super unnerved and when I heard the weird noises I grabbed one of the security guards who worked at the Fort to accompany me in trying to find the source of the sound.

We walked through the large barracks style building with only a flashlight and my camera to light our way until we got to the other end, down some stairs and to where the sound was coming loudest. At the source it had the very distinctive sound of an animal (maybe a squirrel or mouse that was in between the wooden panels and outer stone wall. Our walk to looking for the sound's source was a bit tense and so naturally we started laughing, and thinking of how we were going to tell the producer from LA that the "child ghost" which freaked him out so much was an animal scratching on the wall. I remember hoping the poor thing was not trapped and would find his or her way out.

The video clip begins where we started walking back. Still feeling satisfied at debunking the sound I all of a sudden felt a chill. The air literally shifted and changed. As we walked into the upper space I felt someone from behind push past me very quickly and brush my shoulder. I could see a figure a very dark a little taller than myself out of my peripheral vision. I should add here that the security guard and I were completely alone at this point.

On the video you hear me gasp, then the security guard and I ask him if he is ok? He answers yes, and I tell him we are not alone there. He also felt the figure move past us only he saw directly in front what he described as solid legs move through the door ahead.

A television production which is a fictionalized reality, a debunking, and a true encounter all in the same day in a very haunted place.

As I say, Ghosts Are A Trickster