Category: THE FOREST DARK LOGBOOK

A few days ago I discovered an old sketch I did a long time ago. It’s even older than the drawing in the first transmission post, in which I put in question if we are always the inventors or the “creators” of our ideas.  When writing the Forest Dark Movie script I had long forgotten about that drawing,
Spiral-like shapes came up again and again in different circumstances during the writing process and will be part of the visions the main character experiences in the story.

Only later I came across the metaphysical significance of spirals or circles. There are endless interpretations and theories about the all-over-presence of spirals and circles in form of mandalas and mazes. There is something magic about certain patterns, maybe not in the sense of an active power but as powerful symbol which can set our minds in motion.

Like the icon in your windows-surface the spiral might be only the symbol for a much deeper dimension, for being drawn to something beyond you know.

Jacques Vallee emphasized the dominance of circle like forms in Ufo-reports and even psychologist J.G. Jung speculated about UFO’s as a modern symbol triggering change inside the collective unconscious. Maybe somebody is projecting these images upon us as kind of a wake-up call.  As I said in the “You can’t see the forest for the trees” I am sure that a lot of people receive a call sometimes. The question is, do we recognize the call. Do we remember the call? And how does it influence our decisions? And if we can be manipulated by strong symbols projected directly into our conscious how much choice do we have? Maybe certain symbols stand not only for transition but for something which has forgotten and has to be remembered. As said in the Anamnesis article it is possible that if we create and explore we actually remember what has been forgotten, but what has been always there.

Close Encounters Of The Fourth Kind are not a new phenomenon. A lot of people know that the epidemic reports of alien abductions which happened for instance in the 80ties bear many similarities with the abductions through fairies in medieval tales. Typical elements like the loss of time and disorientation about the spatial dimensions were already there a long time ago.

However I learned that this phenomenon has a much deeper dimension. The bible tells us in St.Paul’s Vision:   ” I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.  I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.  And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.   ” (2 Corinthians 12)

There is something very interesting about Paul’s vision: he repeats the line: “whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know”. Paul is obviously uncertain. So uncertain, he repeats the line twice. This hits one of the core problems of all abduction scenarios: it’s unclear on what level the abductions actually happen. Abduction reports are full of very physical detail. There are torture scenarios, medical experimentation and other things which happen to the body. Nevertheless these experiences might have symbolic quality and we might not have the capacity to truly understand the quality of these otherwordly encounters.

However we need to keep in mind that whatever it is, it can take us wherever we are, because one thing is for sure: we might not know about if “in the body or out of the body” but solid matter like walls are no problem for these forced separations from the ordinary world.

Travel between our world and the otherworld might be a much more common thing as we know. Modern physics told us that matter is a certain form of energy. Maybe our material world is a less solid as we expect. Our everyday world is part of a larger otherworld.

To be taken into the other realm might not be always a spectacular neither a conscious event. We travel back and forth and try to translate the inexpressible or forbidden things we hear. A lot of music, books, movies and other creative activity is about this. This is also what the Forest Dark movie is about. Of course, I am not allowed to tell you about everything what I heard during the journey. Indeed I beg your patience because it it wise to be very careful.

The honorable H.P. Lovecraft had not seen these erratic blocks but Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was here. It was in the fairytale atmosphere of the Harz Mountains in the middle of Germany the famous writer found inspiration for his masterpiece Faust. What brought a sociable man like Goethe into this remote region?

One of the reasons why Goethe visited these mysterious millions of years old mountains was that he was an explorer. Goethe pursued many geological, botanical and other science studies.

The guides first refused to lead Goethe to the Brocken-Mountain or Blocksberg. In his great play the “Walpurgisnacht” takes place on the Blocksberg. The gathering of witches and demons there isn’t Goethe’s invention. A German scholar, Johannes Pretorius, mentions the mountain in connection with the witches-sabbat 1668. Before that several mountains were named “Blocksberg” when there were rumors about witches and forbidden pagan ceremonies. Lonely regions with mountains and large impenetrable forests weren’t safe regions in the dark ages. Superstition was pretty alive and the mysterious atmosphere triggered men’s imagination. They were the mountains of madness. Thus, one might say that the “Blocksberg” myth, as expressed in Goethe’s play, is a modernized and simplified vision of a phenomenon which was widespread in Europe and not only to be localized in one spot.

So, it’s all pure fiction, isn’t it? Maybe we shouldn’t take things too literal. There are other possibilities and theses possibilities aren’t less dangerous. The “Walpurgisnacht” myth as the witches-sabbat might stem from the metaphorical imaginary of medieval times. The origin however could be a much longer tradition and it tells us of fundamental human experience and indeed some secret cults and pagan worshipping. Out there in these lonely mountain caps surrounded by the dark forest is lurking something unspeakable, something beyond the Christian imagination. Remember our investigation of the matter in the “Dark Place, Holy Place” article. Maybe it was important for the Christian writers to blame the witches because then it would become something they could better deal with.

When Goethe visited the mountains the region wasn’t any longer a wilderness. However even today you can find good inspiration when you leave the most popular paths crowded with tourists in the summer. Goethe worked for 36 years on the first part of his Faust play, which is about the biggest questions of mankind.  And somehow this seems related to his long lasting journeys into these mysterious mountains.

There are places which can transform you and they provide important information for your work as I know from the development of the Forest Dark.  But better not to linger too long in the mountains of madness. The atmosphere of a certain place can get a grip on your mind and will leave you changed forever. It was Goethe who warned us that we will not walk under palm trees scot-free. Having visited many very special areas I know what I am talking about. The interesting question remains how the course of our actions, the countries we visit, makes us or our work usable to unseen forces and the object of their interventions. Who is really in charge? Is it really us? However it is on the other side necessary to visit those places and hear their melodies to find any answer.