“Watch the skies!” was the credo of a 50ties paranoia B-movie classic. Stephen King did a good analysis of these movies in his book “Dance Macabre” and related the UFO-hysteria presented in these movies to collective phobias in Western society after the launch of the Russian Sputnik.
But strange things in the sky happened at all times and present much more rather than just an allegory. And there are much weirder things going on in the sky above our heads as flying saucers and ball lightning. Medieval and biblical accounts may sound pretty fantastic or a bit “psychedelic” to us today, but there are many of them and they come from around the world.
Pierre Boaistuau, in 1575 remarked:
“ The face of heaven has been so often disfigured by bearded, hairy comets, torches, flames, columns, spears, shields, dragons, duplicate moons, suns, and other similar things, that if one wanted to tell in an orderly fashion those that have happened since the birth of Jesus Christ only, and inquire about the causes of their origin, the lifetime of a single man would not be enough”.
In Tubingen, Germany, on December 5, 1577, a 7:00 A.M, “about the sun many dark clouds appeared, such as we are wont to see during great storms: and soon afterward have come from the sun other clouds, all fiery and bloody, and others, yellow as safran. Out of these clouds have come forth reverberations resembling large, tall and wide hats, and the earth showed itself yellow and bloody, and seemed to be covered with hats, tall and wide, which appeared in various colors such as red, blue, green and most of them black….May Almighty God inspire all men to recognize Him. Amen.”(From Passport To Magonia)
It should be kept in mind that these particular images and distinct visions like this one appeared not in medieval times but in between the dark ages and modern times. It’s the time where the notorious witches hammer was written and climate change, social upheaval and the Black Death created an apocalyptic atmosphere.
As with Near-death-visions there is a similar strong influence of cultural factors embedded in the reports of visions and sightings.
Consequently we might say that we never see exactly what’s going on and who is behind the phenomena.
This raises interesting questions about the true nature of the “celestial fires” we also find in the Old Testament. Medieval writers relate these observations to manifestations of God. Plutarch brought up the idea of the “daimons” which communicate between body and soul. Vallee interpreted UFO’s as “Windows To Another Reality”. Or does the fire in the sky represent the “archetype of the apocalypse”, which is described by Jungian Scholar Edward. E. Edinger in his analysis of the Book of Revelation? Do they mean a warning to us?
Sometimes the skies and the clouds seem to be places where the veil between our dimension and other realms becomes too thin. It might be also the time when entities from a kind we don’t understand can look down at us. Even with thousands of reports from modern UFOS to ancient myth we have no clue about their true intentions and what’s really going on.
What we know is that these manifestations in the sky can be powerful symbols changing the entire course of live of the witness. Again it is important that we take things not too literally. Sightings often have a weird, meaningless or funny nature like the intriguing descriptions of the Sleagh Maith from Reverend Kirk. They seem to be more like some kind of masquerade.
However whoever is behind the mask is anything but harmless. As I said in “Do you remember your first call” there might be incidents in our live, we even don’t remember consciously, which keep a hidden influence on our lives.
Of course there are many natural things particular in our days with so many planes, satellites, drones and weather balloons in the air which could lead to sightings we don’t understand simply because if we had a telescope at hand we could identify the Unknown Areal Object immediately.
But sometimes it seems like even with normal weather phenomena there is much more going on as we can see. For example, it’s still a mystery how exactly a thunderstorm does work. Some storms seem like an impressing demonstration of the powers of nature but at some times there are exceptional lightning storms. You could feel a distinct atmosphere when such an electric storm approaches and something strange may happen, which will become a theme in the movie project. Even today in the age of science where big storms have simply become “super-cells” there are certain moment moments we do remember that uncanny feeling, which inspired many writers as H.P. Lovecraft. He reported the forbidden things happening on tempest mountain when lightning strikes in his story “The Lurking Fear”.
Electricity in the air is always a magic medium where strange things can happen. That’s what my experience is. Weird stuff like Charles Ford’s strange falls does happen till today. If the atmosphere around us become charged with energy, we might get a glimpse of the other dimensions we don’t see but which are present all the time. It’s also the mysterious moment when a communication with the unknown might happen.
Whatever the “fires in the sky” mean we should investigate, since they seem not only influence a single life. As C.G. Jung pointed out in his analysis of the UFO myth during the 50ties whole societies or the course of mankind might be under some hidden influence which works with strong symbols. The fact that these experiences seem neither of a purely objective nature nor of a completely psychological nature makes this subject so mind-boggling. In the end our paranoia doesn’t necessarily mean that our speculations are always wrong. Furthermore it’s interesting that significant sightings, which leave a deep and soul shattering experience, happen at historical transition points. I remember people often saying ” I’ve never before seen something like this” over the last years. Maybe they only refer to unusual weather patterns, maybe not. We should keep watching the skies!
