Tobin's Spirit Guide

Haitian Voodoo

2011-06-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

Haiti is a Catholic country. But daily life still moves to the rhythms of spirit religion. (via National Geographic)

Demogorgon Part I - Demonology Profile

2011-01-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

Demogorgon, although often ascribed to Greek mythology, is actually attributed to a fourth-century scholar, imagined as the name of a pagan god or demon, associated with the underworld and envisaged as a powerful primordial being, whose very name had been taboo.

Etymology

The origins of the name Demogorgon are uncertain, partly because the name itself was perhaps of imaginary coinage. Various theories suggest that the name is derived from the Greek words δαίμων daimon ('spirit' given the Christian connotations of 'demon' in the early Middle Ages)—or, less likely δῆμος demos ('people')— and Γοργών Gorgon ('grim') or γοργός gorgos ('terrible'). Another, less accepted theory claims that it is derived from a variation of 'demiurge', although the two scholarly editions of the earliest mention of the term (Jahnke 1898 and Sweeney 1997) see Demogorgon as a corruption of demiurge.[1]

Derivation and history

Demogorgon is first mentioned in the commentary on Statius's Thebaid[2] often attributed in manuscripts to Lactantius Placidus. The commentary, which was composed ca. 350-400 AD, is the most common medieval commentary on the poem and is transmitted in most early editions up to 1600.[3] The commentary has been misattributed to the Christian author Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius, even though the commentator appears to have been Mithraic.[4]

The name Demogorgon is introduced in a discussion of Thebaid 4.516, which mentions 'the supreme being of the threefold world' (triplicis mundi summum); in a mystical passage that seems to show Jewish influence, as it mentions Moses and Isaiah); the author says of Statius, Dicit deum Demogorgona summum ('He is speaking of the Demogorgon, the supreme god', or perhaps 'He is speaking of a god, the supreme Demogorgon'). Prior to Lactantius, there is no mention of the supposed "Demogorgon" anywhere by any writer, pagan or Christian.

In the Early Middle Ages, Demogorgon is mentioned in the tenth-century Adnotationes super Lucanum, a series of short notes to Lucan's Pharsalia that are included in the Commenta Bernensia, the "Berne Scholia on Lucan".[5] By the late Middle Ages, the reality of a primordial "Demogorgon" was so well fixed in the European imagination that "Demogorgon's son Pan" became a bizarre variant reading for "Hermes' son Pan" in one manuscript tradition of Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum gentilium ("Genealogies of the Gods":1.3-4 and 2.1), misreading a line in Ovid's Metamorphoses.[citation needed]

After Boccaccio Demogorgon is mentioned as a "primal" god in quite a few Renaissance texts, and impressively glossed "Demon-Gorgon," i.e., "Terror-Demon" or "God of the Earth." The French historian and mythographer Jean Seznec, for instance, now spots in Demogorgon an allusion to the Demiurge ("Craftsman" or "Maker") of Plato's Timaeus. For a remarkable early text actually identifying Ovid's Demiurge (1/1, here) as "sovereign Demogorgon," see the paraphrase of Metamorphoses I in Abraham France, The third part of the Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch (London, 1592), sig. A2v."[6]

In literature

Demogorgon was taken up by Christian writers as a demon of Hell:

"Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon."
— John Milton, Paradise Lost II. 966.

Note, however, Milton does not refer to the inhabitants of Hell itself, but of an unformed region where Chaos rules with Night. In Milton's epic poem Satan passes through this region while traveling from Hell to Earth.

Demogorgon's name was earlier invoked by Faustus in Scene III of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1590) when the eponymous Doctor summons Mephistopheles with a Latin incantation.

The 16th century Dutch demonologist Johann Weyer described him as the master of fate in hell's hierarchy.[7]

According to Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Demogorgon has a splendid temple palace in the Himalaya mountains where every five years the fates and genii are all summoned to appear before him and give an account of their actions. They travel through the air in various strange conveyances, and it is no easy matter to distinguish between their convention and a Witches' Sabbath. When elements of Ariosto's poem supplied Philippe Quinault's libretto for Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera Roland, performed at Versailles, 8 January 1685, Demogorgon was king of the fairies and master of ceremonies. Demorgogon is also mentioned in the Book II of the epic poema El Bernardo written in Mexico by Bernardo de Balbuenain the 17th. century and published in Spain 1624. The passage tells how the fairy Alcina visits Demorgogon in his infernal palace.

Aquí Demogorgon está sentado
en su banco fatal, cuyo decreto
de las supremas causas es guardado
por inviolable y celestial preceto.
Las parcas y su estambre delicado
a cuyo huso el mundo está sujeto,
la fea muerte y el vivir lúcido
y el negro lago del oscuro olvido
(Libro II, estrofa 19)

Edmund Spenser mentioned him briefly in The Faerie Queene:

A bold bad man, that dar'd to call by name
Great Gorgon, Prince of darknesse and dead night,
At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight. (Canto I, stanza 37)

He is also the protagonist of an opera Il Demogorgone, ovvero il filosofo confuso ("Demogorgon, or the Confused Philosopher" by Vincenzo Righini (1786) with a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, which was originally written for Mozart.[8]

In Moby-Dick, Starbuck describes the white whale as Ahab's demogorgon.

Demogorgon is also a character in Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. In this lyrical drama, Demogorgon is the offspring of Jupiter and Thetis who eventually dethrones Jupiter. It is never mentioned whether Demogorgon is male or female and it is instead portrayed as a dark, shapeless spirit. The theory of Demogorgon's name originating from Greek demos and gorgos is possibly at work in this text as an allusion to a politically active and revolutionary populace. Shelley's allusions to the French Revolution further support this.

In the poem "Demogorgon" by Álvaro de Campos, the writer is afraid of becoming mad by learning the true nature and unveiling the mystery of life.

References

* Lactantius Placidus, ad Theb. 4.516, ed. Jahnke (1898) (Google books)
* Lactantius Placidus, ad Theb. 4.516, ed. Sweeney (1997) (Google books)
* P.van de Woestijne, "Les scholies à la Thébaïde de Stace: remarques et suggestions," L'Antiquité Classique n.s. 19 (1950), pp 149–63], dates the scholiast of Statius to ca 350 - 400 CE.
* Dr Daniel Kinney, "Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text"
* Varda's Demogorgon page
* Ogden, Daniel (2002). Magic, witchcraft, and ghosts in the Greek and Roman World, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515123-2

(Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon)

Cattle Mutilation in Ecuador

2010-08-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Ghostly apparition a haunting figure at Myer

2010-08-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

Ghostly apparition a haunting figure at Myer
Noel Murphy | July 30th, 2010

POLTERGEISTS could give Myer Geelong shoppers more than they bargain for if old Morrie Jacobs has his way.
Morrie's ghostly spectre is said to haunt the store, where he maintained a draper, clothier, boot and shoe store dating back to the Gold Rush days.

Jacobs, the one-time "Champion of Cheapness", is the chief suspect behind reports of books, shoes, basketballs and other goods moving about mysteriously within the store.

Shoulders have been tapped, footsteps heard and even a translucent image sighted of a balding elderly man in a grey waistcoat with baggy grey pants, black armbands and silver fob chain, Geelong historian Kerri Lee reported a few years back.

"Books and shoes have been thrown from shelves and across the floor, and a row of television and radios inexplicably switched on," Lee told the Advertiser.

But the best account of old Morrie's paranormal activities is one that will send a shiver up your spine.

"Late one night, three managers were surveying the store when they noticed that a basketball was out of place . . . three foot off the floor, spinning in mid-air at the top of the escalators," Lee said.

You might hear old Morrie humming, too, if you listen closely next time you visit: "My store, Myer."

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2010/07/30/196291_news.html

Couple with a young female spirit

2009-12-15T10:50:00.007-08:00

Couple with a young female spirit, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Will Thomas with an unidentified spirit

2009-12-15T10:50:00.005-08:00

Will Thomas with an unidentified spirit, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Man with the spirit of his deceased second wife

2009-12-15T10:50:00.003-08:00

Man with the spirit of his deceased second wife, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Man with the spirit of his helper

2009-12-15T10:50:00.001-08:00

Man with the spirit of his helper, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Couple with a female spirit

2009-12-15T10:49:00.013-08:00

Couple with a female spirit, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Man with a spirit face appearing

2009-12-15T10:49:00.011-08:00

Man with a spirit face appearing, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Man with the spirit of his deceased first wife

2009-12-15T10:49:00.009-08:00

Man with the spirit of his deceased first wife, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Man surrounded by signs of spirit presence

2009-12-15T10:49:00.007-08:00

Man surrounded by signs of spirit presence, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Man with a spirit face

2009-12-15T10:49:00.005-08:00

Man with a spirit face, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Man with a female spirit

2009-12-15T10:49:00.003-08:00

Man with a female spirit, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Pauline Frederick - Potiphar's wife (LOC)

2009-12-15T10:49:00.001-08:00

Pauline Frederick - Potiphar's wife (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

Woman with two boys and a female spirit

2009-12-15T10:48:00.003-08:00

Woman with two boys and a female spirit, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

A seance

2009-12-15T10:48:00.001-08:00

A seance, originally uploaded by National Media Museum.

Edmund Kemper: The Co-Ed Killer

2009-07-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Edmund Kemper (image via crimeandinvestigation.co.uk)

Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948), also known as "The Co-ed Killer", is an American serial killer who was active in California in the early 1970s. He started his criminal life by shooting both his grandparents when he was 15 years old. Kemper later killed and dismembered six female hitchhikers in the Santa Cruz area. He then murdered his mother and one of her friends before turning himself in to the authorities hours later.

Between May 1972 and February 1973, Kemper embarked on a spree of murders, picking up female students hitchhiking, taking them to isolated rural areas and killing them. He would stab, shoot or smother the victims and afterwards take the bodies back to his apartment where he would have sex with their bodies and then dissect them. He killed five college girls (four students from UC Santa Cruz and one from Cabrillo College). He would often go hunting for victims after arguing with his mother.

Mary Anne Pesce and Anita Luchessa
On May 7, 1972, Kemper was driving around UC Santa Cruz campus, where he picked up two 18-year-old college students named Mary Anne Pesce and Anita Luchessa, who were hitch-hiking to Stanford University. After driving for about one hour, he drove on to a rural area in Alameda, California, where he stopped the car and thumbcuffed both girls. He then fatally stabbed both Pesce and Luchessa.

Kemper drove the bodies to his mother's house, where he brought the bodies to his room and took photographs of them for sexual pleasure. That night, Kemper dismembered the bodies and placed Pesce's dismemberments in a duffel bag, which was discarded on a mountain side road. He used Luchessa's severed head for oral sex, before he dumped her remains in a ravine.

Aiko Koo
On the night of September 14, 1972, Kemper had picked up 15-year-old Aiko Koo, who had decided to hitchhike home instead of waiting for a bus. While keeping her at gun point, he stopped his car at the side of a road and strangled her to death. He placed her body in the trunk of his car and drove back to his mother's house. In his room, he proceeded to rape and dissect her body, as well as conduct several experiments on her corpse. He later dismembered her body and buried her severed head in his mother's garden as a joke, later remarking that his mother "always wanted people to look up to her." He buried the rest of her remains in the backyard of his mother's house.

Cindy Schall
On January 7, 1973, Kemper was driving around the Cabrillo College campus, where he picked up 19-year-old student Cindy Schall. He stopped his car in a secluded area by woods, where he fatally shot her with a .22 caliber pistol. He placed her body in the trunk of his car and drove back to his mother's house, where he dissected her in a bathtub. He kept the body in his room overnight until he removed the bullet from her head and beheaded her, burying her severed head in his mother's garden. He later proceeded to dismember the rest of her body and discarded the rest of her remains in a ravine.

Rosalind Thorpe and Allison Liu
On February 5, after an argument with his mother, Kemper left the house in search of possible victims. He later encountered 24-year-old Rosalind Thorpe and 23-year-old Allison Liu, who were on the UC Santa Cruz campus. According to Kemper, Thorpe entered his car first, which apparently reassured Liu to enter after her. Right after leaving the university grounds, Kemper fatally shot Thorpe and Liu with a .22 caliber pistol. He then wrapped their bodies in blankets, and placed them both in the backseats of his car. He drove back to his mother's house where he beheaded them, while his mother was in the backyard. He then performed sexual activities with their bodies. The next morning, he dismembered the bodies of Thorpe and Liu, and discarded the remains off a seaside cliff.

Clarnell Strandberg Kemper and Sally Hallett
On Good Friday of 1973, Kemper battered his sleeping mother to death with a claw hammer. He then beheaded her, and used her decapitated head for oral sex before using it as a dartboard. He also cut out her vocal cords and put them in the garbage disposal, but the machine could not break the tough tissue down and regurgitated it back into the sink. "That seemed appropriate," he said after his arrest, "as much as she'd bitched and screamed and yelled at me over so many years". His murderous urges not yet satiated, he then invited over his mother's best friend 59-year-old Sally Hallett. When she entered the house, he strangled her to death and then left the house.

Kemper was driving eastward trying to leave California, but when word of his crimes hit the radio airwaves he became discouraged, stopped the car, called the police and confessed to murdering his mother. By this time, he did not speak of his crimes as the "Co-ed killer", and waited inside his car until he was arrested.

Imprisonment
At his trial he pleaded insanity, but he was found guilty of eight counts of murder. He asked for the death penalty, but with capital punishment suspended at that time, he instead received life imprisonment.

At the time of Kemper's murder spree in Santa Cruz, another serial killer named Herbert Mullin was also active, earning the small California town the title of "Murder Capital Of The World." Also adding to the college town's infamy was the fact that Kemper's and Mullin's crimes were preceded three years earlier by multiple murders committed by John Linley Frazier, who murdered Santa Cruz eye surgeon Victor Ohta and his family. Kemper and Mullin were briefly held in adjoining cells, with the former angrily accusing the latter of stealing his body-dumping sites.

Edmund Kemper remains among the general prison population and is incarcerated at California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville, California.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Animal Sacrifice in Santa Cruz County

2009-07-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

Researchers find remains of apparent animal sacrifices at Elkhorn Slough
By DONNA JONES
Posted: 07/24/2009 01:30:02 AM PDT
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_12904674

ELKHORN SLOUGH -- A student volunteer helping with shark research at Elkhorn Slough discovered something a bit more grisly, a makeshift blood-spattered shrine.

"There were mutilated chickens, and candles," said Matt Metzger, 17. "I'm from North Carolina, and I don't see that a lot."

Metzger, a high school student, is spending 10 days in California, working with Sean Van Sommeran and the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation. The team was surveying sharks and rays near Kirby Park on Monday when Metzger climbed a small ridge to take photographs of the shoreline where the work was being done.

"I kept smelling something dead and kept following it until I found the chickens," he said.

Van Sommeran said researchers went on to find several sites -- some appearing to be more recent than others -- that contained candles with religious and skeletal images, chicken feet and heads, and beer and whiskey bottles. Similar debris was found on the beach, apparently scattered by tides.

"It was a gross scene," Van Sommeran said. "It's animal cruelty and a waste of food. They just murdered the chickens."

Ken Collins, a land steward with the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, said he had only seen photographs of the sites, but said the find was unique, though workers occasionally find goat carcasses by the road around Christmas, possibly the leftovers from holiday meals.

"We've never found anything so religious and violent on our properties," Collins said, adding he wasn't sure if "religious was the appropriate word."

He said besides the obvious issue of animal rights, the worst thing about the chicken sites was the garbage left behind. He said he'd be responsible for the cleanup and hoped those responsible would move on now that their handiwork has come to light.

"Maybe the individual ... will take it to his room or her room and not do it on other people's property," Collins said.

(Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel)

VIDEO: UFO siting in santa cruz california july 18th 2009

2009-07-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

mandishot56
July 18, 2009
"this was really sketchy
orange things that changed colors floating in the sky and i have some pictures that u can zoom in on and it looks like they are flat-ish with a dome on top and it looked like there was 2 dark dots inside
THIS MADE ME BELIEVE IN UFO's
unless someone can prove this isn't real i will believe

Santa Cruz Residents Claim UFO Sighting

2009-07-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.kionrightnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=10752011&nav=menu1591_2
Santa Cruz Residents Claim UFO Sighting
Posted: July 19, 2009 07:15 PM
Updated: July 19, 2009 07:43 PM

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - A YouTube clip claims a trio of lights over the Monterey Bay Saturday night may have been UFO's.

Santa Cruz residents Larry and Gail Wisler posted video of a trio of flickering dots Saturday on the website; in an email to KION news, Larry Wisler said the lights were "not a natural weather event."

Wisler wrote he and his wife spotted the lights three separate times Saturday night after 9:30 p.m.; he adds neighbors confirmed seeing the lights and friends of his daughter and a pizza delivery man also commented on the lights after the video was posted on YouTube.

Calls to the Watsonville Airport did not reach anyone Sunday.

(Source: KION 46)

America's Secret Psychic Warriors

2009-07-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=10741888
Chief Investigative Reporter George Knapp and Photojournalist Matt Adams
Updated: Jul 17, 2009 9:19 AM PDT

The Heaven's Gate UFO cult didn't do any favors for the credibility of remote viewing when 39 of its members committed suicide in 1997. What pushed the cultists over the edge was a prediction by a prominent remote viewer that the rapidly approaching Hale-Bopp comet was being chased by a gigantic alien spaceship on its way to wipe out the earth.

More recently, another big-name remote viewer said he had pinpointed the spot where famed pilot Steve Fawcett crashed his plane, though the pinpoint was off by a just a smidge -- 50 miles.

"It definitely has value. Is it perfect? Far from it," said retired Army Intelligence Colonel John Alexander.

Col. Alexander knows from first hand experience that remote viewing is not just a weird fad or the equivalent of Madame Zelda's crystal ball -- it was taken very seriously by the U.S. government and other countries.

He was assigned to find out how far the Russians were ahead of the Americans in developing their own psychic warriors. The CIA spent 20 years and millions of dollars developing scientific protocols that, in effect, allow people to project their consciousness to other places and other times.

"What we call it is non-local reality. There is a universe of info out there that people tap into it through various means, remote viewing being one of them," he said.

Nevada's legendary military base, Area 51, was the target in one counterintelligence operation, Alexander says. Remote viewers were given coordinates for the base to see if they could peer inside, and they did.

The viewers saw weird black aircraft inside the hangars, years before the existence of the stealth fighter was acknowledged. To the dismay of the Air Force, they also saw a second secret project -- the B-2 bomber. The Pentagon freaked.

"Scared, because the point was we understand counterintelligence, we understand putting up programs to protect it, but how do you protect against something like this," he said.

"I had one instance where I described an attack on an American warship 50 hours before it happened. Described it in great detail and nobody believed it was going to happen. We all thought it was fantasy. Fifty hours later, it happened exactly as I described it," said author and remote viewer Paul Smith.

Smith, who grew up in Boulder City, literally wrote the book on remote viewing. He's the author of the training manual used by the Army. Like many other veterans of the classified program, he now teaches others how to do it through books, DVD's, and one on one sessions.

Remote viewing has become an industry, of sorts. Many of its best-known practitioners came to Nevada a few weeks ago for their annual convention -- to hear or make presentations and to hawk some merchandise.

New students are looking for practical benefits, but there are limits. For example, say you suspect your politician husband of fooling around. "In practice, it's hard to do because you want to be blind to the target. A remote viewer should not know what the target is upfront, because if you do know, there is all this mental noise going on," said Smith.

A remote viewer named Sherry was so impressed by remote viewing impresario Ed Dames that she now helps market his instructional merchandise. She doesn't need to peer into Area 51 to know that it works. "I misplaced cameras and car keys and use it for that kind of stuff. I also needed an attorney one time and I used it for that," she said.

So much for uncovering the secrets of the universe.

According to Dames, Nevada's capital Carson City should expect a major earthquake within the next five months. But before you sell your property up there, keep in mind that Dames has been wrong in quite a few of his predictions.

(Source: Las Vegas Now)

Gremory (Christian demonology)

2009-07-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia:

In demonology, Gremory is a strong Duke of Hell that governs twenty-six legions of demons. He tells all things past, present and future, about hidden treasures, and procures the love of women, young and old, but especially maidens.

He is depicted as appearing in the form of a beautiful woman with the crown of a duchess tied around his waist, and riding a camel .

Other spellings: Gamory, Gemory, Gomory.

Source: S. L. MacGregor Mathers, A. Crowley, The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King (1904). 1995 reprint: ISBN 0-87728-847-X.

Video: World’s First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years

2009-06-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

World’s First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years | Gadget Lab from Wired.com (via Tobin's Basement)

Samael Part I - Demonology Profile

2009-03-25T03:27:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia:

In Judaism and Christianity
In Jewish lore, Sammael is said to be the Angel of Death, the chief ruler of the Fifth Heaven and one of the seven regents of the world served by two million angels; he resides in the Seventh Heaven. Yalkut I, 110 of the Talmud speaks of Samael as Esau's guardian angel. In Sotah 10b, Samael is Esau's guardian angel, and in the Sayings of Rabbi Eliezer, he is charged with being the one who tempted Eve, then seduced and impregnated her with Cain. Though some sources identify Gadreel as the angel that seduced Eve, other Hebrew scholars say that it was Samael who tempted Eve in the guise of the Serpent. Samael is also sometimes identified as being the angelic antagonist who wrestled with Jacob, and also the angel who held back the arm of Abraham as he was about to sacrifice his son.

In The Holy Kabbalah (Arthur Edward Waite, 255), Samael is described as the "severity of God", and is listed as fifth of the archangels of the world of Briah. Samael is said to have taken Lilith as his bride after she left Adam. According to Zoharistic cabala, Samael was also mated with Eisheth Zenunim, Na'amah, and Agrat Bat Mahlat - all angels of prostitution.

Samael is sometimes confused in some books with Camael, an archangel of God, whose name means "He who sees God".

In Gnosticism
In the Apocryphon of John, found in the Nag Hammadi library, Samael is the third name of the demiurge, whose other names are Yaldabaoth and Saklas. In this context, Samael means "the blind god", the theme of blindness running throughout gnostic works. He is born out of the error of Sophia, who desires to create offspring of her own without the Spirit. His appearance is that of a lion-faced serpent. In On the Origin of the World in the Nag Hammadi library texts, he is also referred to as Ariael.

In Anthroposophism
To anthroposophists, Samael is known as one of the seven archangels: Saint Gregory gives the seven archangels as Anael, Gabriel , Michael, Oriphiel, Raphael, Samael and Zachariel. They are all imagined to have a special assignment to act as a global Zeitgeist ('time spirit'), each for periods of about 380 years. Since 1879, anthroposophists posit, Michael has been the leading time spirit. Four important archangels are also supposed to display periodic spiritual activity over the seasons: Raphael during the spring, Uriel during the summer, Michael during the autumn, and Gabriel during the winter. In anthroposophy, archangels may be good or evil; in particular, some of their rank are collaborators of Ahriman, whose purpose (anthroposophists believe) is to alienate humanity from the spiritual world and promote materialism and heartless technical control.
(Wikipedia)