Freaky Phenomena

Day of the Dead is one of the oldest celebrations currently in existence. Although it is often described as "Mexican Halloween," the only real connection between the two holidays is a coincidence of timing. 

 

Celebrated mainly in Mexico, Dia de Muertos falls on November 1st  and 2nd. It coincides with the Catholic holiday All Saint's Day, although it predates Catholicism by several thousand years. Dia de Muertos is a festive, brightly colored celebration of the dead in which people honor and remember their ancestors, as well as providing offerings for their spirits. In many regions, children and babies are honored on November 1st, and adults are honored on November 2nd. 

 

The roots of Dia de Muertos go back to the Aztec civilization. The Aztecs celebrated the deaths of their ancestors at the beginning of August, for an entire month. (No one ever accused the Aztecs of half-assing anything.) Unlike today, the offerings and sacrifices were mainly dedicated to an Aztec goddess of the dead.

 

In the wake of the Hispanic invasion, the Aztec holiday was moved to November 1st in order to placate the sensibilities of the new Catholic rulers, and merge the religions. (A similar phenomena took place when the birth of Christ was scheduled to overlap with the existing midwinter festivals of pagans and heathens throughout Europe.) This remapping was a natural fit, since the Catholic celebration of All Saint's Day also involves going to cemeteries and lighting candles to remember the dead.

 

A species of orange Mexican marigolds (Tagetes erecta) are closely associated with Dia de Muertos, because they are believed to attract the spirits of the dead. These marigolds are arranged around the offerings, 

 

The beautiful sugar skulls sold for the celebration are left out as offerings for the dead, along with other food, snacks, toys for the spirits of dead children, and pillows so that the dead can have a comfortable place to sit. These offerings are gathered at cemeteries, as well as at small altars in homes and in public spaces. Most public schools and government offices set out an altar for Dia de Muertos. 

 

Dia de Muertos celebrations also happen to coincide with the return of the Monarch butterfly to Mexico. These orange and black beauties flock to their Mexican wintering grounds in the hundreds of thousands. They are believed to represent the souls of the dead, returning home to visit with their families for one or two days a year.

Every year Halloween is celebrated in countries around the world. This near-global holiday happens to coincide nicely with the harvest festivals which have been celebrated at the end of autumn by cultures throughout history. The contemporary Western celebration of Halloween owes much of its roots to the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain, although it also has ties to ancient Roman celebrations, and the harvest festivals of medieval Europe.

 

Samhain (pronounced "sah-win") is the Old Gaelic word for "the end of summer." There were four quarter dates in the medieval Gaelic calendar, corresponding to the turning of the four seasons. Of these dates, Samhain was the first and most important. It marked an important date for people who raised livestock, as flocks were brought in from their summer pasture, and animals were slaughtered in preparation for winter.

 

The night of Samhain marked the boundary between fall and winter. Like many boundary periods, it was a time when magical creatures and the souls of the dead had an easier time visiting our own plane of existence. Thus it became a default celebration of the dead, a practice which can still be seen today in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead on November 1st. 

 

Ghosts were often thought to visit their old homes, and the living residents would hold feasts to welcome them, complete with an empty chair at the table where the ghosts were invited to sit. Samhain was also a night to practice divination, which was thought to be more successful on that night than any other.

 

On a more sinister note, harmful spirits were also thought to be more active on Samhain night. Superstitious households would often take measures to counteract their malicious mischief, including practices which may have led to many of today's Halloween celebrations.

 

One such custom was the practice of dressing up in a costume and going door-to-door asking for treats. By disguising yourself, you were hiding yourself from the evil fairies and goblins who were also about. The hobby horse, a horse's skull attached to a long pole used as a puppet, was an important part of many of these celebrations. 

 

The Jack 'o lantern also came from this practice. When traipsing about the dark countryside in costume, Samhain celebrants lit their way with small lanterns carved out of turnips and beets. These were meant to represent the will 'o the wisp, the eerie spirit light which could be seen over marshes at night, and which was closely associated with evil spirits. 

The origin of ley lines is entirely practical. In 1921, amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins coined the term to help describe how Neolithic Britons might have navigated the country: by walking in straight lines between various known visual markers such as standing stones and small mountains. Watkins' work helped identify a number of the straight tracks that people used in Neolithic times, some of which are still in use by travelers today.

 

In 1969 the term was co-opted by the New Age movement and given a spiritual, magical connotation. British author John Mitchell published a book which melded Watkins' ley lines with theories of feng shui and energy movement along landscapes. 

 

In this newer sense of the term, ley lines are said to be lines of power which connect large objects and locations of spiritual significance. Ley lines are always precisely straight, but beyond that, there is little agreement as to their specific location or what they can actually do.

 

In North America, ley lines are often said to connect many power points which were of religious significance to Native Americans. This is a tricky business, of course, and a lot of guesswork is involved. Locating and mapping ley lines is an activity which is closely aligned with dowsing. Presumably because dowsers are able to sense where the invisible power lines lie, and help map the locations of power points.

 

Ley lines are also said to connect vortex spots. Earth vortices are said to be "hot spots of energy focus," sort of like the planet's own Chakras. These locations include Uluru (a.k.a. Ayers Rock), Tibet, Calgary, and Sedona, AZ.

 

Unfortunately, much of the information on vortex spots and ley lines in America are locked up in products for sale, which makes this topic difficult to research online. (For example, you can order a 5x7 photo of a map of Seattle's ley lines for $7.) And many of the pages which people link to as resources have gone to 404 errors over the years, which makes it more difficult still.

 

One way to find ley lines in your area is to spent some time perusing a map. Because ley lines are said to connect prominent sites, you can probably identify some of these sites in your area and draw straight lines between them. Look for mountains, old graveyards, and significant geologic sites such as hot springs, the confluence of rivers, volcanoes, waterfalls and so forth. 

 

Earlier this week, a resident of Terrace, British Columbia was awakened from a sound sleep by a loud, rumbling hum that echoed throughout the entire town. Kimberly Wookey grabbed her video camera and recorded footage of the noise, which was verified by many other Terrace residents.

 

The loud, droning noise seemed to come from the sky, although it can be difficult to pinpoint the source of an overwhelming noise like this. Particularly in an area with the geography of Terrace, BC which is surrounded by mountains that can echo the noise strangely.

 

The video is startling: you can really tell the volume of the hum, which is incredibly loud compared to other "hum" phenomena. (The famous Taos Hum, for example, is more of a low-frequency buzz, like the sound of a refrigerator.)

 

The Terrace hum has been heard before, most recently back in January. Speculation about these "hum" phenomena has run the gamut. Theories include a consequence of the HAARP antenna array in Alaska, earthquake or other tectonic activity, government experiments in crowd control, and UFOs. 

 

The Taos Hum is probably the most famous of all the hums. It first came to media attention in 1992, when residents claimed to have been hearing it for over a year. However, not all Taos residents heard the hum. In fact, a survey showed that only 2 percent of the town's population of 7,000 people claimed to have heard the noise. 

 

It can be difficult to pinpoint the source of a low-frequency noise, and difficult to strain it out from all the other low-frequency noises that urban residents hear on a daily basis. From the drone of traffic to the rumble of an idling diesel truck engine, our cities are noisier than we give them credit for.

 

Seattle recently experienced its own brush with a phenomena like this, dubbed the "West Seattle Hum." Early speculation was that it could be due to the mating call of a croaker fish, which can be quite loud, especially if it finds resonance (e.g. in the hull of a nearby empty ship). However, it turned out to be just another example of industrial noise pollution: the source amounted to a giant vacuum cleaner that was being used to clean out empty cargo containers down at the docks.

 

Where Terrace, BC is concerned, city spokesperson Alisa Thompson has identified the hum as being the sound of a city worker sharpening the blade of a grinder. "The grader blade needed to be straightened. Kind of gets ground down, and it makes a very strange noise. It's a simple as that," she said. 

 

(Or is that just what they WANT us to think???)