New tarot deck arrived today: the Jack O'Lantern Tarot. I haven't spent much time with it yet but I love the art work in this deck. The deck's creator is Giuliano Costa; publisher Lo Scarabeo.
The Fool is one of my favorite cards in the tarot. I love this deck's interpretation of The Fool. And, the entire deck of course has a distinct orange orb vibe.
I've been exploring the Public Domain Review site, looking for images for my digital collages. There is a lot of interesting information and illustrations going back to the 1600s. Simply fascinating!
Yes, as always, orange orbs on the brain.
I call this "Night City Orbs." 11" by 14" on board.
This is a mixed media piece. I collaged newspaper to a gesso background, then sand papered the surface, leaving some of the paper. Then I applied in thin washes acrylic and metallics.
Yes, that's Mamie (Sarah Paulson) and Valiant Thor (Cody Fern) getting it on.
I’ve been a fan of American Horror Story since its beginning. There were a couple of seasons I didn’t care for. But overall, oh it is a great show! I love the revolving cast, the stories, the direction, the credits, the acting, everything.
And they surpassed themselves with the second half of this year’s program: Double Feature.
I loved the first half, which had a family retreating to the east coast so the husband could work on his writing, and then . . . vampires and such. Excellent. But the best, the best, was the second half. UFOs! From Eisenhower to Nixon. Not just "the grays" but more than one alien race. Glowing eyes and exploding heads. Pink caftans. And Valiant Thor! Yes!
From the black and white to color, depending on the era, to Valiant Thor in the Whitehouse, to Mamie Einsenhower's glorious pink caftan, brilliant. (Pink was Mamie’s favorite color.)
I’m not going to get into discussing the “truth” of things because, after all, when it comes to aliens and ETs and UFOs, no one knows “the truth.” This is also a television program for entertainment. It’s not a documentary. But the writers who did the research for this season obviously had a good awareness of the UFO realm, and went with it. Sure it’s speculation and what ifs but it’s really good speculation and what ifs. It’s a throw back to classic sci-fi stuff.
Recently looked up the ad for this comsestic product? Nope. Not at ALL! And yet, ... cue spooky Twilight Zone music.
Today I decided (didn't even say it out loud to anyone, just thought it) "Hmm, I should try that product again, wonder if it's still here." And it was. So all day I've been using it, to see what I could see.
And sure enough, I go on FB, and ... yep. A big old ad for that very product on my page. An ad I haven't seen in a long while.
A very odd little coincidence.
Unsolicited and no doubt un-asked-for T.V. review: La Brea.
Typical predictive, derivative, lame, hackneyed crap.
And things like wolves, and saber toothed tigers, and giant dino birds. Street signs in the sink hole, like, Curson Ave. Where I used to fucking live! You can't beat that! Have to love this throw back, shallow, insipid, lazy ass writing team not at all surprised THAT happened network TV show. Looking forward to episode two. (I mean, after all, my other secret shame/guilty pleasure is that I watch General Hospital.)
Don't judge me.
Busy playing in the studio with mixed media pieces and collage. Here's a collage inspired by half-watching several episodes of Ancient Aliens recently:
Vintage Exploration, paper, liquid watercolor, acrylic, garnet texture paste on canvas, 10" x 8"
The other day, I posted this bit about my night mare beyond - a - nightmare, where I ended up calling upon Jesus Christ for help. Arrive he did, much to my conflicted feelings of both joy and despair. The latter because I am not a Christian, nor do I believe in the reglious thy of an actual, literal Christ.
I'd forgotten I had posted this not long ago: also involving calling out to JC.
Well, maybe I'm just a superstitious ex-Catholic (not that I ever was, not really. How could one be if, as a child, you were forced into a system. Then again, I did buy into a lot it. As a kid. Who could get into the theater of it all.)
But I haven't thought of myself as a Catholic, let alone a Christian, since fourth grade.
Someone once told me this was because of the power of imagery, emotion and intent. JC may not have been "real" in a literal, fundie Christian sense, but it's possible the energy of the symbol of a JC has the power. Hmm...
I'm not sure if what happened earlier today was synchronicity, or a glitch in the veil, or what, but it was both startling and trivial. As these things often are. Moments of intense weirdness in the midst of the mundane. "It" trying to get our attention.
I just started reading a new mystery on my Kindle. The main character is walking down the street, and I read something like "... then I saw the monkey trees." Or, "... there were monkeys in the tree." I thought, that can't be right! Makes no sense. I re-read and it was "The sycamore trees were beautiful." Or something like that. Whew.
About three chapters later, the character's husband buys her a monkey tree (monkey puzzle tree) and his nickname for her is "Monkey Tree."
These moments, for me, come in little clusters. A number of them will happen frequently for a couple of weeks, then, gone. I think the energy that is this synchronicity mirrors my own energy of inconsistency. If I were more consistent, these things would happen more often. And maybe more vividly; more serious instead of everyday stuff. Maybe. Then again, maybe not, and it's just business as usual in the realm of the weird.
Either way, thank you for the nudge.
Quiet around here concerning UFO Land. Well, not really; it's never quiet in UFO Land. Same old stuff, blah blah. Am I jaded? No . . . not exactly. Just busy with art and other things. Age has something to do with it, maybe. Heat, smoke here in the Willamette Valley. I just don't have the energy to get into the ridiculous stuff in UFO Land. UAP vs. UFO. I could go on for a long time about how stupid that is but, I won't. So much more. The Gov. has released documents on UFOs UAPs. Oh no they haven't. They did some but really, anyone who believes it's all good is delusional. I'm sure to get a bee in my bonnet and go off but for now, I'm content with looking up in the skies (nothing to see, through the smoke from all the fires) and trying to retrieve some kind of memory in the context of my missing time episodes.
But, there is great and good news!!! Jeremy Vaeni is back with Paratopia! YES! Actually, listening to episodes of Paratopia just might get me going again. Inspire me to rant off.
Anyway, Paratopia is one of the best podcasts around so if you have never listened to it in the past, do so now. And, thanks Jeremy.
Dreams concerning aliens, ETS, the other realm, UFOs . . . some research is on-going concerning a connection between waking experiences involving these things, and the dream world. (Google and all kinds of links to interesting research and studies will pop up.)
So, last night's dream:
After school, on the playground, with another staff member or two, and a group of children, waiting for the bus and parent pick-up. Getting on dusk. Earlier in the day, I had gone to a few bookstores and came across various magazines and books about The Green Man. Met a person with an interest in Green Man and we had quite a conversation. I was thinking about all the Green Man synchronicities as I was waiting with the students.
It's getting a bit chilly. Things feel . . . odd. Suddenly, large brilliant white lights appear in the sky above us, come down, we're all frightened and these lights are behaving as one, intelligently controlled. The lights form a circle of lights above us and scoop us up. Not only the people, but part of the playground - the black top -- as well. Just scooped out a large circle of ground with us on it and brought us into the ship.
Now we're standing on this large circle of blacktop inside a spaceship.
We're very scared, and the ship is zooming around, just a few feet above houses. We can see outside, but the craft is cloaked. No one sees us. It's like "they" -- the aliens -- are toying with us. We are so lost! We're pretty sure we're still on earth, but, where? We don't recognize the neighborhoods. I'm afraid we're going to be dropped off in the middle of a strange area and how will we get back, how will I get the children safe?
The aliens are Reptilians. We can't see them, but we just know this. We are very aware of their presence. They're above us in the ship, watching us. Like we're a toy. A game.
Now we're zooming off into outer space, and this time I am really terrified. But also angry. I start to pray to Jesus, which, even as I'm doing so, is ticking me off, since I am not a Christian and don't believe at all in a divine Jesus. But I'll try anything in order to save us. So I pray like crazy and promise Jesus that I'll believe if only he'll get us out of here.
Then one of the Reptilians calls down to me: "Do you really mean that?"
"Yes!!!!" I say.
"That's all we wanted to know. "
They return us to the playground. By this time parents are there, panicked, naturally. I wonder how in the world are we going to explain this but it doesn't take much, since everyone has seen the ground open up, the ship return us, etc. And one of the men on the ship goes on the news to explain how the Reptilians were showing him how part of him is Reptilian, exposing his lizard face under his real face.
The believe in Jesus part has me interested, if not also annoyed. When I was writing my Orange Orb column for UFO Magazine I wrote a column about Jesus saving me from the aliens. When I lived in my father's house in Northern California, I was having extremely intense dreams of aliens. (I also had a dream where I woke up coughing due to the strong odor of incense, heard chanting and a misty blurry priest during mass; turns out the house belonged to a Catholic priest who died in that room.) Finally, in one of the dreams, I prayed to Jesus to keep the aliens away. It worked. Which confused me. I'm not a Christian. I don't believe in that. However, I did spend eight years in Catholic school. I didn't believe any of it back then either.
Inspired my by dream encounter, years ago right after seeing the orange orb, of the tall white Insectoid-gray wearing a Geisha wig inside the ship.
I've been busy with my mixed media work. Little of it has to do with the realm of the strange, but I created this digital collage awhile ago.
I find it an odd juxtaposition, this current 'debunking' of Travis Walton, along with the hoopla over the gov. release of info regarding UFOs. Er, sorry. I mean UAPs. (snark.) I have long believed Walton, and I only met him once, very briefly, but both my husband and I were struck by his "vibe" -- he seemed absolutley geniune, and also, a bit haunted. Meaning, quite obviously, his experience changed him for ever. And even if (a big IF) Walton is full of it, that doesn't erase any of the other incredibly strange experiences people have had, all over the world, for centuries. (Including me, my experiences go back to childhood.)
But that aside, it's odd that on the one hand in this moment of the popular culture, people are embracing the Pentagon's stance on UFOs UAPs - and attacking Walton at the same time. Not that the same people are doing both. Maybe the former caused the latter.
Recent Boing Boing item on Exploding Head Syndrome. Yep, I have the same thing. Long ago worried about it. Do I have a tumor? Am I psycho? What is happening? But it's "just" Exploding Head Syndrome. Bright lights, flashes, weird beeping electronic sounds. No explanation for its cause, but, not to worry, say the experts. It's harmless.
Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is an abnormal sensory perception during sleep in which a person experiences unreal noises that are loud and of short duration when falling asleep or waking up. The noise may be frightening, typically occurs only occasionally, and is not a serious health concern. People may also experience a flash of light. Pain is typically absent. Despite the name, the sufferer's head does not actually explode. [wikipedia, via Boing Boing]
That may be. Seems to be. Fine. I'm good with that. But. . .
It still is at thing. What is it, and why? And is there some connection between other sleep related phenomena, like sleep paralysis, OBEs, (out of body experiences), lucid dreaming, vivid dreams, dreaming in color, sleep walking? All of which I've experienced since childhood, and still experience.
Combine that with a long list of supernatural/paranormal/UFO/anomalous episodes, there has to be a connection here. A clue. More than meets the eye than "just" some seemingly random odd but harmless (and therefore, don't worry about it little missy) occurrence like Exploding Head Syndrome.
