Crow Magic

 

In the heart of the Bolognese Mountains well hidden among very tall and old pine trees, is a seemingly abandoned mansion. The property is close to my home, but it was only in the past year that we discovered it by taking an alternative route through the winding mountain roads. And ever since I first laid eyes on the place I have been drawn to it, coming up with reasons to drive past even when it is the longer way to wherever.

This place has horror movie charm +++ yet I have always felt very peaceful there. Of course we’ve stopped by and had a look around safely from the outdoors as the place is in a state of heavy decay. Which is very sad considering it was built in the 1800s by one of the area’s most famous and eccentric characters. Count Cesare Mattei was an inventor who created a medical therapy: electrohomeopathy. This made the nobleman quite rich and he lived in a castle very close to where the abandoned mansion is located. The mansion was built as a place for medical and spiritual refugee and many of European super-rich sought private treatment there. It looks to have been abandoned for several years. 

Fast forward to Halloween 2022 and we are driving past the mansion. For some reason either because I was lost in thoughts or more likely chattering away about something I missed seeing the place as we had drove by. I realized this after we had passed and were higher up on the mountain, so my husband who was driving said there is no way you should miss your abandoned villa on Halloween and turned the car around. 

This time around I purposefully took a long look at the mansion when I saw above the main doorway a very large, and I mean an abnormally large crow standing on the ledge above the doorway. It was shuffling about and moving its wings as if ready to take flight. My mind went to she will swoop out in front of the car. It happened so quickly and as my mind was processing what I was seeing my husband said I thought I just saw a very large black bird moving around on the ledge above the doorway. And of course I was amazed that he saw her too! 

Some might think we saw the Goddess Morrigan or a cryptid or that we both had a bad case of pareidolia caused by the black casing of the floodlight near the door. We did go back two days later to investigate and noted the placement of the light. But if it was a trick of the eye why had this never happened before? 

Halloween is my husband’s birthday; the beginning of Samhain season, for some witches the ending and beginning of a new year. It is the season most associated with the Goddess Morrigan many a witch's patron diety. 

We were called to that place and even turned around specifically to witness the beautiful impossibly large black crow, a good omen, and reminder that our world is indeed a mysterious place. 

Blessed are the witches! 

"Wherever crows are, there is magic. They are symbols of creation and spiritual strength. They remind us to look for opportunities to create and manifest the magic of life. They are messengers calling to us about the creation and magic that is alive within our world everyday and available to us."  

~Ted Andrews

                                                               Blessed Samhain xo

Image Credits

With the exception of the photos of the mansion which are mine, excluding the drone image which I found uncredited on an internet search, the crow is from Wiki and the Witch image from TUMBLR. I do try to give credit to original creators whenever possible. 

Do you believe in ghosts?

I believe in ghosts. I am not certain that all things considered ghostly are actually our dead, but I do know weird stuff happens. I have lived in a few haunted places. And I have had communication with my deceased loved ones in synchronicity and while dreaming. Sometimes the dream messages are very specific, and always very comforting. My last dream of this nature involved my Oma, and I was shown a very specific place, which I had never been to before and that I visited a few days later. In the dream she had been standing at the top of a brightly decorated staircase, which was identical to the entrance way of an ancient house that I was visiting the next day, and when I arrived there I recognized it immediately from the dream. I wrote it down in my journal for remembrance and because her appearing just there had a significance that I was able to recognize as magical.

Photo of my ancestor honouring table.

Swedish UFO flap and Nuclear Power Plants

Several nuclear power plants around Sweden were simultaneously visited by mysterious lights and objects this past Friday January 14th 2022 at approx 8:30pm resulting in numerous reports and even a police chase. 

Daniel Petersson and his family were driving southward on highway E6 when they first spotted a large light near the Ringhals nuclear power plant. At first the family thought a plane may have been in trouble and they began to film the large, bright light. The Petersson's video can be seen on local Swedish media here. A security guard also witnessed what he thought might be a large drone and quickly notified the authorities.

Still taken from the Petersson's video of the mystery light.

Google map of the location

A 2011 view of the Ringhals power plant. 

Ringhals is the largest nuclear power plant in Scandinavia, and has had two of its four reactors shutdown. Reactor 1 was permanently taken offline on December 31st 2021, two weeks before this incident.

The power plant has been in operation for 44 years, but has had a history of safety concerns promoting extra monitoring from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority and protests from Greenpeace and local citizens.

Roughly at the same time as the Petersson sighting other mysterious lights began appearing at nuclear power plants around Sweden namely Forsmark, Oskarshamn and Barsebäck, the last one being fully decommissioned. 

Police at Forsmark also witnessed the UAP and using helicopters and police drones attempted to intercept it for up to an hour, and to no avail!  "The first observation from the patrol was made at 20.51 and we lost contact with the drone 22.10," says Petra Blomqvist, press spokesperson for the police. "According to the police, there is still no indication that the drone has landed inside the area of the nuclear power plant or that any object has been released from it."

All incidents were investigated by police and public statements were made by each with some at first denying the possibility of drones being the cause particularly of the Ringhals and Barsebäck events. The armed forces were also notified and so far no explanation has been provided other than the possibility of military drones by the Swedish Minister of Defence. 

These sightings of mystery lights and drones are similar to American ones from a couple of years ago that were never satisfactorily explained to the public either. 

In 1990 I witnessed a large red UFO hovering over a nuclear power plant in Pickering Canada, so these types of nuclear-related sightings are very much of interest to me. I have written about nuclear power plant and nuclear missile UFO sightings my own experience, and evolving ideas on why these locations are the scenes of UFO events.

While I do not think the psycho-social hypothesis is a perfect coverall explanation for all UFO sightings, including these types of events, I do think it would be foolish not to consider the wider social context in which these UAP appear.  

We do know that UFOs appear at times of great social upheaval. Consider the UFO waves in Europe and Russia during the late 80s and early 90s as the USSR collapsed, and the so-called Foo Fighters appearing during WWII to both military and civilian witnesses. I could give many more examples, but I would encourage those interested in examining UFOs from this angle to read Eric Ouellet's Illuminations: UFOs as a Parapsychological event. 

With this in mind it must be noted that these current incidents came one day after Sweden's military started patrolling the main town on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland amid increased tensions between NATO and Russia, and a recent deployment of Russian landing craft in the Baltic. Something that has been extremely troubling to many European citizens amid the ongoing stresses of living through the pandemic. 

It should also be noted these incidents coincide with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg's 178th Friday School Strike. 

If these mysterious Swedish lights and drones are UAP what may these events be trying to tell us? Are they an outward cry for help from a population experiencing tension and prolonged anxiety from Russia, climate change,  and the Pandemic? 

This was in no way covert. These incidents all occurred at the same time and on the same day and were witnessed by many people including police who unsuccessfully chased at least one object.  

Why appear over several nuclear power plants simultaneously and including ones not operational if not to simply and absolutely get the attention of authorities?  

These reports are nearly identical to a wave of drone sightings in France occurring in 2014-15 that involved sensitive nuclear submarine sites, nuclear power plants, and government buildings. It should be noted that this period also had acts of terrorism in France, creating a lot of anxiety in France and Europe at the time.   See news items here and here. 

We will likely never know.  

As always I love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment if you have some ideas on these mystery lights and drones. 

Further reading and sources. 

News Items are in Swedish.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/halland/har-fastnar-det-mystiska-skenet-pa-film

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/uppsala/stor-dronare-flog-over-forsmark-polisen-utreder-brott

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43901/mysterious-drone-incursions-confirmed-over-swedens-nuclear-facilities-this-weekend

Update: An unknown "drone' (it seems drones are the new weather balloon) was also reported by several witnesses over the Swedish parliamentary buildings at the same time the UAP activity was occurring over the nuclear power plants. These events are very overt, whatever these things may be. 

Update January 29th: Two weeks later more than 200 reports of mysterious lights and drones over Swedish skies and police have ruled out any foreign involvement. In other words is not the Russians or the Chinese.  

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/swedish-police-rule-out-foreign-powers-behind-1458594.html

UFO activity and Nukes

UFOs and nukes seem to go together. Twice I have seen UFOs near or hovering over a nuclear power plant and I am not alone in having this type of experience.  UFOs or UAP to use the more modern and trendy term are also seen at nuclear missile sites. And have disarmed them that at least once that I'm aware of. 

The question comes to mind why does the phenomenon appear at nuclear sites? And often enough that this has been noted by many UFO investigators? 

Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are not the same thing. But both terrify most of us.  And maybe the answer to why they are so frequently seen at nuclear sites lies somewhere in our collective fear? Are these manifestations in the sky a result of our own terror? Does it provoke or invoke the phenomenon we witness like a cosmic answer to our subconscious cry for help? A modern version of the gods answering our prayers, only in a more scientifically believable format for the age of rationalism and information?

Some food for thought. 

Images taken from a South Korean protest against the use of nuclear power plants. Protesters are wearing traditional masks which are reminiscent, at least to me, of the Greys. 

After I initially shared this blog I was alerted to some research dating back to the 1980s that very much echoes my thoughts.

"Stephen Weart understood the point as far back as 1989 in his Nuclear Fear: A History of Images, ufos are transmutational symbols; a psychological, creative act of mythopoesis

“Awesome modern technology, said the UFO stories, must be accompanied by a full-scale transmutation of civilization and everyone within it.”

The Atom wields deep meaning in the explosion of inner forces within the individual.

See “So What does it All Add to” pp. 7-11 in"

http://www.astronomyufo.com/UFO/SUNlite6_6.pdf

Hat tip to Mrherr Zaar of the Radio Misterioso  FB group for the above information and link. 

Presenting The UFOLOGY Tarot

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The Witch of Plum Hollow

I first wrote about Elizabeth Barnes many years ago when I still lived in Ontario. I came across her while researching a historical poltergeist case that she had been consulted on, and I became fascinated by her story. 

Mrs. Barnes did not self identify as a witch, but many of the things she became famous for could certainly be considered "witchy and so she was dubbed by her contemporaries as the Witch of Plum Hollow. Elizabeth Barnes was a wise woman, gifted psychic, medium, and healer.

Elizabeth was born in the year 1800 in County Cork Ireland. She was the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter much like my own grandmother had been. At a young age she eloped with an Irish sergeant, who her family greatly disapproved of already showing a fierce independence. The young couple emigrated to Canada, and settled in the Cobourg area. However, a few short years later her husband Harrison tragically passed away leaving Elizabeth a very young widow.

Living in a very new country that offered only harsh living conditions at the time Elizabeth chose to remarry as opposed to trying to return to her family in Ireland. Her second husband was a shoemaker by trade and together they were blessed with nine children. In 1843 the family moved to Sheldon’s Corners which is near Plum Hollow, and soon afterwards Mr. Barnes went on to live in Smith’s Falls leaving his family behind, and Elizabeth alone to support all of their children! There was very little in the way of employment opportunities never-mind meaningful ones for women at that time, especially a single parent. Elizabeth wisely turned towards her psychic abilities as a fortune teller and as a healer to support her family.  

She was very good, so good that her uncanny talents were soon sought after by people living as faraway as the USA. Despite her fame she never charged more than 25 cents and often helped and healed for barter or trade. 

Elizabeth achieved quite a bit of notoriety as a psychic when she was credited with helping solve the murder of Morgan Doxtater. His cousin Edgar Harter was tried, convicted and executed for the crime in 1860 just as she had predicted. She also advised George Dagg of the infamous Dagg poltergeist events that occurred in the family home near Shawville Quebec. This was widely reported in the media of that time. She felt that the eerie occurrences were the result of three individuals who had been dabbling in the occult, and set about to put the paranormal activity to rest.

Elizabeth was known throughout her life as a kind woman who was respected as a “wise woman” within her own community. Mother Barnes - The Witch of Plum Hollow - Elizabeth lived to be over ninety years of age and is buried in Sheldon’s Corners cemetery. She is very fondly remembered today, plays have been written about her, her old homestead has been preserved, and there is even a road named for her. 

Elizabeth's witch's cottage (photo credit) 

After my initial article was published I was contacted in 2006 by a direct descendant of Mother Barnes as she became affectionately known. Elizabeth's gr. great grandson not only openly shared family lore with me, but photographs of the extended family and pages from the family's bible. It appears that Elizabeth's extraordinary gifts also have been passed down through the generations to some of her descendants. I cannot describe how exciting it was to be in contact with Elizabeth's family, and I am eternally grateful for what they shared with me. 

Great Granddaughter Gertrude circa 1960’s with photo of Elizabeth Barnes.

Elizabeth Barnes was not the only woman of her era to become a professional witch despite the inherent dangers and ostracization from the so-called respectable society in those days. Women in Elizabeth's position had little choices beyond marriage, prostitution, or scullery-type work, and one of my longer term goals would be to write a social history about these fiercely independent, courageous women who turned to the paranormal to support themselves and their families. 

In 2018 inspired by Mother Barnes and other women like her I portrayed an early 19th century fortune teller at a historical event in Mississauga. I also did mini tarot card readings.  

 

Susan Demeter - Bradley Historical Event 2018

And for all those who appreciated my table, including talk about the hardships of women in the early 19th century I still received a few jeers and disapproval from the parents of a child who was curious about my table. As they were pushing their daughter past me I overheard them say in a stage whisper "we don't believe in people like that." But, judging by the look on the girl's face as gave me a backward look this only served to make the girl even more intrigued by my appearance and what I was up to.  

Sources:

Legends Told In Canada by Edith Fowke 1994 R.O.M

Leeds and Grenville Their First Two Hundred Years By R. Mckenzie 1967 McClelland & Stewart

Personal correspondence with Elizabeth Barnes descendants. 

UFO Poetry

A video inspired by A.I Oracle's responses to the UFO enigma. 

 "Life beyond your world is not obliged to you.

Those who are mapping the stars are bound to their organic light waves stretching to the outer darkness.

In time, you will discover that speed is a single place.

While alien to you, these living thoughts are dancing like ghosts forever lost. Forever forming their own voiceless light, dissolved from its solitude gracefully accorded on their fleeting shadows.

Once cherished within every moment, they have ministered delicate and humble homage among the stars. Their travels resulted in space without limit.

Their mission now is to discover what trials may bring you to see them.

They were the first to know that all life is copied and recopied from other planets as it reaches outward. The signs that can alert you on your path in our tiny universe made this possible.

Hearing so very different voices, you will forever be known by your stars."

The  response from the Throne of the Sphinx, an AI-based Oracle when asked about the UFO Enigma developed by Mark Bocoozi of the Windbridge Institute