Friday The 13th...

(Photo: Overcast morning by Lisa Erin Brown)

Today was Friday the 13th...a dark day to many who approach the day's doings with kid gloves. Is it actually a day that should be feared?

My day started in the wee hours of the morning. Glenn and I were back from an ill-fated evening of pool (we were both a bit off our game) at the local watering hole. A pizza was popped into the oven, and my finger was burned when I took it out. A few hours later I got up for a glass of water and crushed the middle finger of my left hand in the fridge door. Aside from those slight unfortunate events, I've felt a bit "off" today. Is it stress? The onset of illness? Not sure. Is it the effects of Friday the 13th? Hmmm...dunno. Have I spent the bulk of the day in this days' clutches, or has it just been...a crappy day? Me being the curious sort, I decided to look into the back history of this day of distress.

When I think of Friday the 13th, the movie series comes to mind. Jason Voorhees running around chopping up stupid and promiscuous teenagers in cabins by a lake. I wanted to know more. The evil and dark basis of those movies, well...it had to start somewhere.

Interestingly enough, there isn't a wealth of history on this subject. Nothing written or spoken of before the 19th century. If you fear the day, you are said to suffer from "Friggatriskaidekaphobia". Try saying that five times fast. "Frigga" is taken from the name of the Norse goddess, and is said to mean Friday. The remainder, "triskaidekaphobia", means 'fear of the number 13'.

In numerology, the number 13 follows the number 12 which is said to represent completeness. Basically, 13 is said to harsh 12's mellow.

Norse mythos are said to state that any dining party of 13 people, well...be sure one of them is going to die. Christianity has a similar saying that centers around the Last Supper...13 individuals were at that breaking of bread, and you know how that turned out.

The 13th card of the Tarot is the "Death" card. The imagery alone gives those who don't know it's true meaning a feeling of evil portent. Yes, the skull topped image on the card's face has been labeled as that of the Grim Reaper. The truth is, this card signifies an ending to something. It also indicates the birth of a new chapter. Out with the old...in with the new. Just think of it as a time of transformation. Of transition. Not really as dark and foreboding as you initially thought, huh?

The most I was able to find as a basis for this day being a time of uneasiness and fear is based around the history of the Knights Templar. In a nutshell format, the Knights were a monastic military order that was created to protect Christian pilgrims. They were started in Jerusalem in 1118. King Philip IV of France amassed a pretty substantial debt to them as they were in his employ for a long time. Philip got greedy for the Knights wealth and hatched a plan. He brought a laundry list of charges against the order, all claims of heresy and pretty repugnant...the King wanted to make sure that the charges he leveled wouldn't be defended by anyone. On Friday, October 13, 1307, the Knights were all arrested and tortured to gain false confessions from them.

Seemingly an egotist, the king wouldn't leave it at that and strove to completely disgrace the Knights. In front of Notre Dame Cathedral, he expected the Order's grandmaster, Jacques de Molay, to publicly admit to the heresy. Instead, the grandmaster apologized, calling out the King and the Bishop of the time, Pope Clement V. He said that the Knights had been forced to falsely confess, and that they were all innocent. Philip was rather ticked off and burned Molay and his second-in-command at the stake. Molay's dying words were that he cursed King Philip and Pope Clement, and that they would die by year's end...which they both did.

All of these events added to the dark reputation of Friday the 13th. It is all stated in 'The Da Vinci Code', but all ties to the 13th being the cryptic day it is today are all modern invention. As mentioned before, nothing has been found to have been documented about "Friday the 13th" before the 19th century.

(Photo: overcast night by Lisa Erin Brown)

Is Friday the 13th really a dark day that should be acknowledged as such? Should we make plans to stay home rather than to go out? In my opinion, if you feel that strongly that something bad/negative will happen on the 13th, then do whatever makes you feel comfortable. It's not so much the day you should worry about as how you feel about it. No matter what day it is, if you feel something bad is going to happen, it most likely will.

The Hollow Earth Theory...

Is the Earth hollow? Science points to 'no'. However, 'The Hollow Earth Theory' is alive and well. There are a number of people out there who believe that our planet is hollow, and inhabited by a hyper-intelligent race of people. By the information I have read on the subject, this wild theory goes back to a man by the name of Edmond Halley, in 1692. If that name rings a bell with you, he is the same Halley who computed the orbit of Halley's comet, and gave the rock it's name. An English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist, and physicist, Halley believed that what we know to be the Earth's "crust" is actually a shell 500 miles thick. Underneath this outer shell are two more layers, each with it's own magnetic pole, and a dividing atmosphere. The inner layers rotate at different speeds, which he said explained anomalous compass readings.

In 1818, an American Army Officer named John Cleves Symmes, jr. spoke up a bit louder on the subject, only he proposed that the outer shell was 800 miles thick, and that there were 4 inner shells. Symmes was forceful in his conviction, and said that it was vital that an expedition be launched proposing that one be sent to the north pole to seek out an entrance he felt sure was there. The president at the time, John Quincy Adams, agreed. The trip never got off the ground, Adams leaving office before it could happen. The next president, Andrew Jackson, stopped any and all preparations for the trip. It is said that he didn't support it because he was a 'Flat Earther', but that has been proven to be false. I suspect he just saw it as being a bit 'out there'.

There were other prominent supporters of the theory, but no trips to either pole to check for any actual entrances into the Earth's interior were ever made. I guess I would say that probably the most well known hollow Earth account is that of American Navy Admiral Richard E. Byrd. His diaries supposedly tell of him flying into the Earth's interior while flying over the south Pole. There were others with him. He mentions seeing animals that looked like prehistoric mammoths. He wrote of arriving at a city known as Agartha, where he met an alien race of people who were technologically advanced. Byrd said that they were concerned about us surface dwellers because of our bombs and the way we were treating the planet.

On this subject of entrances at the poles (there are said to actually be entrances all over the planet, if they are looked for)... I found the two photos below. These were posted on the Internet by someone who says they found these 'doorways' into Agartha via Google Earth. They said that the one on the right clearly shows some sort of man-made structure. They figure it to either be some sort of manufactured retaining wall, or a "door" of sorts. Hmm...interesting idea. My thought is, if you can find a doorway into the Hollow Earth on Google Earth, then why the hell hasn't anyone already been down it? There are all of these reports/claims of seeing or knowing the location of a doorway into the Earth...if that's true, I would think someone would have checked it out by now. Don't you? One would think we would have heard more about something that huge if there were definitely entrances into a hollow Earth.

On top of the theory of our planet being Hollow, are the theories of who is living down at the end of those tunnels. Some say they are the Atlanteans. When Atlantus was crumbling around them, the Atlanteans fled into the Earth for refuge. It is believed that the land of Agartha is actually a UFO homeland where flying saucers are made and flown by Atlantean pilots. Those aren't ships from other planets with little green or grey men aboard...they are actually peaceful ships from the inside of our home.

Some believe them to be the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel. They say that when the kingdom was destroyed around 720 B.C. by the Assyrians, and the Tribes disappeared completely from the grid...well, they went into the Earth.

Another 'out there' claim is about the Nazi era Thule Society and Hitler. There isn't any proof that's been found to say that Hitler was in fact a member of the group, but he did approve of it. The Thule Society (a.k.a. Study Group for Germanic Antiquity) was a German occultist group. They are most known for sponsoring the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei which became the Nazi Party. The Society were big studiers of Tibetan mythos and in turn the myths surrounding an opening into the Earth. Even as outlandish as the other claims above are, there is the belief by some that Hitler is still alive and living inside the Earth. The story is that Hitler and his chief advisers escaped the last days of the Third Reich through an opening at the South Pole (Antarctica), and are said to still be there with around 2,000 German and Italian scientists and almost a million people. Amazing what people will believe.

Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" might seem to illustrate that Verne believed in a hollow earth. Some do think him a prophet, interestingly enough. I don't know. The mind is a powerful thing. I suppose, one man's fictional product of imagination is another man's belief. Nothing I found confirmed that Mr. Verne was in fact a Hollow Earther.

I will admit that the idea of a Hollow Earth is intriguing. Do I believe it? Not so much. A couple of the sites I found also talked about our solar system being in a hollow planet, as well. They called it a "concave" Hollow-Earth hypothesis. Where do the originators of these ideas come up with this stuff? As I said, the mind is a powerful thing.

The Rising Sun...

I stepped out on the front porch to grab the paper. It's cool and relatively dim out. My corner of the world is slowly waking up. A quiet Sunday morning except for the birds. Decided to walk down to see what was happening by the marsh. Discovered this huge ball of neon hanging low in the sky...so glad I had my camera with me...

Mom...

It's Mothers Day. Just a tad bittersweet for me this go round. Not an entire year has passed since my mother's passing. After a long stretch of silence between the two of us, I was working up to seeing her again. I didn't get the opportunity.

I remember a conversation she and I had. I was in high school at the time, and for some reason we were talking about beliefs. The discussion came around to what we thought would happen when we died. She believed that...well, that would be that. You just ceased to be. No tunnel of light. No loved ones who passed before waiting there to greet you. Nothing. Assume that's how she always felt.

I, on the other hand, believe that this isn't it. I'll be continuing our conversation next time I see her...

Cool Jasmine...

The weather here on the Georgia coast has been really nice. Much cooler, which is always preferable to the hot days of late spring and early summer...those will be here soon enough. These more comfortable days are prime for opening the doors and windows, allowing the soft breezes to circulate through our rooms. I especially like having the door to the screened in porch open as the fragrance from the Jasmine fills the back half of the condo. We had a bit of rain early yesterday which did knock some of the flowers off of the vines, but they are still quite full of the small white stars. The above photo is of the Jasmine vines and the stones I recently added under the arch. Tuscan rock paving stones and bricks with river stones as filler. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

I was tending to my herbs today. I've always wanted to have an herb garden, and this collection marks my gardens beginning. I chose all of them for their aromatic properties. A couple of them are among my favorite cooking herbs, but their primary purpose is to be as ingredients in something I've wanted to try my hand at for awhile now. Making loose incense. For the unfamiliar, "loose" incense is usually in a powder form. It's also common for there to be coarser blends, as woods and resins are often used. Some herbs are also used in larger form, like Lavender buds. The herbs I'm cultivating currently are: Goodwin Creek Grey Lavender; German Thyme; Rosemary; and Sage. I also have a large planter of Peppermint and Lemon Balm that isn't pictured. They all complement each other so well. I look forward to experimenting with various blends.

My Hydrangea bushes are quite breathtaking. I can't ever remember seeing a Hydrangea bush with so many blooms before. The bushes have really outdone themselves this year. I clipped several of the brightly colored balls and made a couple of arrangements for the coffee and kitchen tables. Nothing adds...well, I was going to say "adds life", but since they were cut from a bush they aren't really alive any longer. I'll just say that they can really change the vibe of a room for the better.

There were some pretty spectacular clouds out, but there usually are. That's one of the things I love about Savannah and being on the Atlantic coast. These particular cloud formations looked like a wall of cotton with a fissure torn across, the late day sun glowing through the opening. A beautiful way to observe the descending sun of the evening hours.

Theories & The Flat Earth...

What is a "theory"? If you ask Webster, there are a number of definition variations. However, they all point to a central defined theme. "An ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances." You will also find the words "conjecture", and "speculation" within the definitions.

There are different grades of theories. There are plenty of 'theories' that fall under that heading of 'theory' because they reside in the realm of research, and are destined to possibly or eventually become fact. Then you have theories that are just plain 'out there'. The subject of "conspiracy theories" is alive and well these days, and it seems that they are more prevalent and popular than ever. Of course, I am speaking of my observations over my generation. There could easily have always been the same number of "oddballs" during the lives of past generations. It just seems clear that in more modern times, the term "conspiracy theory" has taken on a more pejorative vibe.

Theories are not just seeded by the thought of something being possible. For those individuals who are in pursuit of making a theory a fact, there is "belief" at the core. Some of the most outlandish theories always have a fan base, a section of society that truly believes that a theory is real. They blindly go on, showing support for the existence of something they have not observed firsthand. I'm sure that if we all really examined our personal beliefs, we all have beliefs that we have no factual information to base them on. We simply support a theory because we want it to be real. However, there are some theories that people truly believe in that are just...well, as I said before...they're 'out there'.

There are two theories I've known about for a long time, but have lately done a bit of reading on. Mainly because I think the existence of the theories fascinating, and I find it even more fascinating that there are people in our modern society that actually believe them to be reality.

The first of the two is the Flat Earth Theory. The Flat Earth Society is alive and well. It doesn't have a wealth of members, but it does count musician Thomas Dolby as one. Actually, he holds the #1 position on their membership roster. There is also a Robert Smith, Belfast U.K. listed, but there's no way of knowing if it's the Robert Smith, lead singer of 'The Cure'...I did some Googling...no luck. There are 263 listed in all, a large section listed as "Private". Now, I will say that I think the society probably has a number of members who joined with a 'nudge, nudge' and a 'wink,wink', if you catch my drift. Wanted to be a member in a tongue-in-cheek way. Do those members who want their names to remain 'Private' actually believe? Hmm, I dunno. Maybe.

How anyone could actually believe that the Earth is flat is beyond me. When did we humans realize that the Earth is indeed a sphere? Aristotle proposed the Earth was round around 330 B.C. By the Middle Ages, it was common knowledge. So what happened? How did a belief in the Earth being flat enter back into the mix?

Around 1838, an English inventor named Samuel Rowbotham, made some errors in interpreting the outcome of the Bedford Level Experiment. (He used a six-mile stretch of water to try to find the existence of a curvature in the earth...he said the findings proved there wasn't any, so he proved the Earth to be flat. Later attempts by others to reproduce his findings were unsuccessful, and the tests backed up the fact that the Earth is indeed a sphere.)

Rowbotham published a 16-page pamphlet called "Zetetic (seeking) Astronomy"outlining his bogus findings and his views about the "lay of the land". He actually believed that the Earth is a flat disc with the North Pole at it's center; a wall of ice along the southern edge, which would be Antarctica; with the Sun and Moon 3000 miles above the surface, and the "cosmos" at 3100 miles. Pretty imaginative, but rather implausible wouldn't you say? What is on the other side of the ice, anything? By Rowbotham's belief, I guess we will just fall off the edge and...what? Cease to exist? Did he even think it out that far? Couldn't really find anything on that aspect of things. After Rowbotham died, the wife of an explorer kind of took up the cause forming a Universal Zetetic Society, but over all interest started to fizzle after the first World War.

Then in 1956, a sign writer named Samuel Shenton, formed the Universal Flat Earth Society to take up where the Zetetic Society left off. When the first satellite was launched and we received pictures of the Earth from space, he still stuck to his guns. He is quoted as saying, "It's easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye." Uhm...okay...

Another subject that is deeply rooted in the garden of "conspiracy theories" is the belief that the lunar landing was faked. Shenton and the Flat Earther's (among others who weren't members of the society) believed that the Apollo landing was staged and based on writings by Arthur C. Clarke. When Clarke heard about the over the top claims, he wrote a letter to NASA that is quoted to have said: "Dear Sir, on checking my records, I see that I have never received payment for this work. Could you please look into this matter with some urgency? Otherwise you will be hearing from my solicitors, Messrs Geldsnatch, Geldsnatch, and Blubberclutch." Pretty funny.

In 1971, after Shenton's death, Charles K. Johnson established the "International Flat Earth Research Society of America and Covenant People's Church". As president of the Society, and with his wife Marjory as Secretary, he built the membership to a few thousand. His more current version of the Earth map still has the Earth as a flat disc with the North Pole at it's center, but this one is completely encircled with a wall of ice 150-feet tall. Johnson used the symbol for the United Nations as proof because he said the design depicts his world map of the flat Earth to the 'T'. I did find an article-interview with Johnson that is quite interesting from the standpoint of what the man believed. As I read it, I kept thinking "is this guy for real?" He obviously believed everything he says in the interview. Originally printed in Science Digest in 1980, here's the link...it will cover things better than I can.

This is a song by the band 'Bad Religion" about the Flat Earth Society...can you guess how they feel about them?

Flat Earth Society

by Bad Religion

Lie lie lie... the full moon is rising over dark water and the fools

Below are picking up sticks and the man in the gallows lies

Permanently waiting for the doctors to come back and tend to him, the

Flat earth society is meeting here today, singing happy little lies

And the bright ship humana is sent far away with grave

Determination... and no destination, lie lie lie... yeah, nothing

Feels better than a spray of clean water and the whistling wind on a

Calm summer night but you'd better believe that down in their quarters

The men are holding on for their dear lives, the flat earth society is

Somewhere far away, with their candlesticks and compasses and the

Bright ship humana is well on it's way with grave determination... and

No destination, lie lie lie ....

I'm going to wrap up this post about the Flat Earth by saying to each his own. I'm a big believer in the individuals right to believe whatever they want to believe. I think I've established that I think the thought of the Earth being flat is rubbish, but the theory itself is absolutely fascinating. It sounds like something one might read in a Jules Verne story, but he did write "Around the World in 80 Days"...so, there you go. Guess we know where he stood on whether or not the world is flat.

I mentioned earlier in this post that there are two theories I've been reading about lately. I'll be writing about the second one in my next post...the "Hollow Earth Theory". By far, the more interesting of the two.

If A Tree Falls By The Marsh, And No One Is There To Hear It...

Yesterday I was in the kitchen cooking (quiche, pasta salad, boiled shrimp). It was pleasantly cool for a change, so we had turned off the AC and opened everything up.

I had finished most of the things on my list, and the quiche was baking. After refilling my glass of ice water, I stepped out on the back porch to experience the cool outdoor air. (The kitchen tends to get swelteringly warm when I have the oven on.) The Big leafy vines of Confederate Jasmine over the porch door were as fragrant as usual, and I was taking a moment to...well, I guess you could say I was 'stopping to smell the Jasmine'. It was when I looked over to where we have our Hydrangea bushes that I noticed something was...off.

The Tidal Creek we have in back fills with each of the two daily tides. Otherwise, it's a muddy bog of reeds, stumps, and the like. The tide was out when I noticed that there were a lot more limbs sticking up from the mud than usual. On closer inspection, I saw this:

One of our big trees had fallen. We suspect that it had become rather undercut by the erosion of the widening creek bed. (Actually, I feel odd calling it a creek as it is much wider than my idea of a creek.) It was shocking to see because I hadn't heard a thing. I would think that it would have caused quite a noise when it fell over.

After the initial shock, I felt sad. Trees are one of my favorite things. I don't go around hugging them, but I have great respect for these beautiful and majestic forms of life. I have no idea what the condo 'powers that be' will do with my fallen neighbor. I expect they will dismember it to a degree, and leave the rest to incorporate with the creek.

Goodbye tree...