above image: Buso, Demons in Mindanao who devoured the flesh of the dead.

Mythology from around the world.

I recently was going through an old Mythology dictionary I own and decided to share some of the more unique stories I found. I have posted some of these myths in my older blog about five years ago. I love ancient myths and mythology and it was my fascination with the ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian pantheon that got me into history. I love sharing these kinds of things and hope you enjoy reading about them. I especially like researching ancient African myths since they are probably the closest thing to what our ancient ancestors believed long, long ago. I love researching about their beliefs and rituals because they are most likely the closest thing to our ancient ancestor’s beliefs.  The hunter/gatherer tribes that still exist in Africa still practice the same beliefs and rituals that our ancient ancestors began hundreds of thousands of years ago that is what makes reading about their culture so fascinating.  I would love to get to spend some time there studying them first hand but until that happens I will have to be satisfied reading about them.  Tribes like the San and Hutu have not changed in thousands of years and as the last of the hunter/gatherers are being assimilated into the 21^st century it is nice to know that some of them still hold onto our ancient ancestors beliefs.

Holawaka: Ethiopian, a messenger-bird from god.

This bird was sent to tell the Galla tribes that they could become immortal by removing their skins when they grew old but the bird, in return for some food, gave the message to a snake who thereafter was able to grow by sloughing off its skin.  As, punishment the gods inflicted a painful disease on the bird.

I like the myths that have to do with explaining how animals got a certain trait.  I can just imagine some inquisitive kids sitting around a fire tens of thousands of years ago asking an elder why a snake sheds.  The ingenuity and imaginations of our ancestors have contributed greatly to not only our beliefs but the expansion of our creativity itself.

Paguk, North American, a moving skeleton in the Algonquin and Ojibwa tribes.

This apparition, said to be the skeleton of a hunter who starved to death, is said to move through the woodlands at fantastic speed with much bone rattling.  Its presence portends the death of a friend.

As I wrote in the intro I grew up hearing tales like this and spending a lot of time in the very woodlands these stories originated and I will be the first to say that there are some crazy noises in the deep forest and I have been frightened more than a few times.  I know next time I’m out taking pictures I will be on the look out for the Paguk and if I do find one I will be certain to share it with you all.

This entry immediately caught my attention and I knew I had to share it. One of the CRAZIEST myths yet!

Iniriri, West Indian, a woodpecker, once there were men but no women.  Then one day four beings with no sex organs fell out of the trees.  The men tied these beings up and the Iniriri, thinking they were trees, pecked holes in their bodies, forming vaginas.

This next one seems like it may have inspired a certain cartoon and song that come around Christmas time…..

Moowis, North American, a snowman that came to life, A man named Elegant nearly died of grief when the maiden Handsome, rejected his love, so he made a snowman which he bedecked with feathers and fine clothes and then gave it life, calling it Moowis.  The maiden fell in love with Moowis and accompanied him when he left on a long journey.  As the days grew warmer, Moowis melted in the heat of the sun and the girl was left with nothing but a handful of feathers.

Abiku, African, Dahomey tribe.  This is the spirit born with each child, which tries to take the child to its forest home.

To prevent a child from being taken, some parents put them in chains while others disfigure the child’s face so the spirit will reject or fail to recognize the child.  These spirits are said not to like bells so some parents fix bells to a child harboring an abiku or rub pepper into the child’s skin, hoping the pain will drive the spirit away.  In some accounts these demons eat children.

 The name “Abiku” which literally means born to die. These are supposed to belong to a fraternity of demons living in woods.

Buso, Demons in Mindanao
These fearsome, one-eyed beings had long-bodied and flat nosed and live in trees.  They dig up corpses which they eat by tearing the flesh of the dead with two long pointed teeth.

This is one of those myths that probably had stemmed from real world problems, animals were more than likely the culprits but the ancient Mindanaoins used superstition to rationalize their fears.  That is what makes these stories so fascinating to me.  I love seeing how our ancient ancestors explained scary or unexplainable problems.

This one comes from the Pacific Islands:
 Gimokod, the soul, when the person dies the soul bathes in the Black River at the entrance to the underworld in order to wash away all recollection of the former life.

To me this one is the Pacific Islanders explanation for reincarnation and I am interested to do a little more research on this particular belief.

Well I hope you enjoyed these little snippets of Mythology from around the world, I plan on diving deeper into these and other myths during the next week or so. I cannot wait to share what I find with you all. Until then have a pleasant day and remember to always question everything until you get the answers you are satisfied with and of course……..PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

above image: Holowaka, an Ethiopian myth.

From the Dictionary of Mythology, an A-Z of themes, legends and heroes.  J.A. Coleman

A True Coincidence?

     It seems like everyone has been a little down lately so I figured I’d post something more on the funny side than the dark side of conspiracies and mysteries. First, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Summer Solstice, us wiccans/Pagans call it Litha. The celebration of Summer, my second favorite season. Today is also the longest day of the year which is another nice bonus, I like long summer days more than short winter days for sure! Anyhow, Happy Summer to all and I hope that the Goddess (or whomever you may believe in) blesses you and yours. Don’t worry things are getting brighter! Now for the post. I found this article and I had to share, it is so crazy! I for one don’t believe in coincidences, I believe the Universe or the Fates have everything predetermined (to a point) but this article really got me thinking. I think you guys ill enjoy this. Here we go.

     Dr. Tom Leonard, a professor of statistics at the University of Warwick, England, provided the following observations and story to author Arthur Koestler in 1974:

A particular coincidental event has, by definition, an infinitesimally small probability of occurring. However, there are infinitely many events which might possibly occur coincidentally to a particular person but, as it happens, do not occur. If we summed over all possible coincidental events, then we would find the probability of at least one of them occurring during the person’s lifetime to be quite sizeable. I would indeed be surprised if many people could say that they had never experienced an extreme coincidence.

     The best coincidence yarn I know of runs as follows. In his first lecture at this University, a new professor of statistics was describing the laws of probability to his students. To illustrate them, he removed a coin from his pocket and tossed it into the air. It landed on a polished floor, spun around a few times, and to a thunderous applause came to rest-VERTICALLY ON IT’S EDGE! The point is that this was one of many coincidences that might have happened.

The chances of a perfectly rounded coin coming to rest on its edge after being tossed have been calculated by mathematician Warren Weaver at approximately ONE BILLION TO ONE! (Alan Vaughn, Incredible Coincidence, pp.198-99).

Wow! That is some crazy COINcidence! (I’ve been waiting the entire post to do That!). It makes me think about coincidences and the chances of truly random events. What do you guys think?

Have a great day and as always: PEACE!!!!! Let’s all try to be happy together, more positivity means less  negativity!

The Mysterious disappearance of Louis Le Prince.

     Who was Louis Le Prince you ask? Well That is a great question and I am dying to tell you. He is just a footnote in history when in actuality he should be one of the most famous inventors ever known. After I tell you a little bit about him and his mysterious disappearance I will tell you one theory that will shock you but has a very high chance of being real. I have been away from my blog for a while dealing with real life issues, unfortunately when you are an adult real life comes knocking and as much as you don’t want to answer it you know you have to. Well stuff is still going on and I am slightly more distracted than usual but I had to do something to keep myself sane and grounded so I figured I’d get back to the blog. I will apologize in advance if I seem less than normal, I will get back to my abnormal self soon enough. Until then I hope you enjoy what I can share with you while dealing with real life. I split coffee all over my new keyboard last week and I’m using it trying to get all the keys loose and the w is sticking big time! So if I am missing a w in some ords, I’m sorry. (I did that one on purpose!)

Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince as born on 28 August 1841 in Metz, France. His father was a major in the French Army but it was his father’s friend who would have the most dramatic impact on his life and the future of photography. Le Prince was introduced to his father’s friend, Louis Daguerre, when he was a young child. Mr. Daguerre just happened to be one of the most influential photographers of the day, he also was the creator of  Daguerrotype Photography . Young Le Prince was fascinated by not only Daguerre but in photography itself so Mr. Daguerre spent time in the studio with Le Prince and taught him the ways of photography and the chemistry necessary to produce the prints. Long story short, he went on to study the arts and Chemistry at Lepzig university and never lost his passion for photography. You really should look him up on Wikipedia, his story is fascinating. I am going to fast forward a bit so we can get to the mystery. While working in the US he developed an unusual camera that utilized 16 lenses for the purpose of creating motion pictures. The motion picture was still just a concept and many inventors and photographers were attempting to be the first to patent the technology capable of doing so.

Le Prince's first effort at the moving picture came in the form of a 16-lens camera which rotated between the lenses to take a sequence of frames. He anticipated that for the brain to see a continuous image as opposed to the familiar flick-book effect, there needed to be 16 frames per second. Le Prince's first solution to this problem was very much an Occam's Razor kind of approach; if you would like sixteen pictures, use sixteen lenses. However, this produced an obvious problem: each lens was if only marginally in a different position from its predecessor, and thus, the resulting frames when put in a row and projected would create a very wobbly motion picture. Nevertheless, this was Le Prince's first patent, which interestingly covered cameras and projectors with as many as 16 lenses.

 In May 1887, however, Le Prince and his family returned to Leeds where his innovation took a large and important step for both him and cinematography. He built a new camera with the purpose of capturing motion pictures, but this one was single-lens, but that was only the tip of the iceberg of his innovation. He had come to the conclusion that it wasn't as straightforward as having the shutter open and close sixteen times per second, as the exposure wouldn't be correct and the film would be moving, which would create blurred results. Le Prince created a sort of clamp that would stop the film every time the shutter "opened," but this could cause the film to snap as it makes its way through the process. This meant that there had to be an additional alteration where the film only moved when the shutter was "closed." The solution is the reason for "opened" and "closed" being in quotations when discussing this single-lens camera. The camera's shutter was actually nothing more than a hole in a rotating disc — a very intelligent approach.

Unfortunately, capturing the motion picture was only half the problem. The next minefield to be navigated was projecting the results as the intended moving image. With flexible celluloid not being readily available quite yet, the only real option was for the images to be put on to glass slides and to have them move in front of a lens. The slides would be on a sort of conveyor belt that would rotate them in order in front of the lens and then back around again so that a continuous projection could be achieved. As you might have spotted, the difficulties with doing this are nearly a perfect mirror of capturing the images in the first place: namely, the slides had to move at the same speed they were captured and without the slides moving within the device too much. Nevertheless, Le Prince had made a monumental breakthrough. The first motion picture captured (and it is believed to be the first ever) was from Leeds Bridge in 1888. (The Mysterious disappearance of Louis Le Prince, Father of Cinematography , Robert K. Baggs).

So eventually by 1890 he had figured it out and had produced the first motion picture in 1888 and in September of 1890 after boarding a train In Dijon that was headed to Paris, Le Prince vanished. When the train arrived in Paris three days later, Le Prince and all of his belongings were nowhere to be found! The train had made no stops and no one remembered any emergency stops. So here did Louis Le Prince go?  Le Prince’s family immediately suspected foul play from one of his competitors, while authorities claimed it must have been a well thought out suicide. Why would the man who spent his entire life trying to and then eventually inventing motion pictures kill himself, especially just a year after accomplishing his dreams?  Others say he disappeared to run from substantial debt but again, he had just invented something that he and everyone knew was going to change the world. Money wouldn’t have been a worry in his future. In 2003, research of Paris police archives yielded a drowning victim in 1890 said to resemble Le Prince but it was never confirmed.  One researcher claims his brother Albert killed him for either money or out of jealousy but these claims were widely ignored as it didn’t fit the profile of Albert of the Le Prince family. What happened to the father modern cinematography then? Well here comes the bombshell conspiracy that makes this worth looking into.

 No good conspiracy theory is complete without an assassination strand to it, but of all the theories, this is the one with the most motive. In 1889, Le Prince was about to patent his new projector as well as exhibiting his new motion picture in New York. The race to achieve this had, for all intents and purpose, been won by Louis, and patenting his inventions would secure his legacy in cinematography. This prompted the Le Prince family's suspicions of Thomas Edison over a patent know as Equity 6928. The result of who was awarded this patent was the person who would have invented the moving picture camera, and it was of great importance. The American Mutoscope Company initiated litigation against Edison in a war of the patents over Equity 6928, hoping to have Le Prince properly credited for the creation of the motion picture camera and called upon Adolphe Le Prince, Louis's eldest son to be a witness. Adolphe had worked closely with his father on a number of his experiments, and the hope was that the court hearing his many achievements would gain Le Prince the recognition he so deserved. Unfortunately, the initial case was awarded in the favor of Edison, and just two years later, any hope of an appeal was shattered when Adolphe Le Prince was found dead on Fire Island near New York while out hunting ducks. . (The Mysterious disappearance of Louis Le Prince, Father of Cinematography , Robert K. Baggs).

Wow! There you have it in black and white. I strongly believe that Thomas Edison not only had something to do with Louis Le Prince’s disappearance but also of Adolphe’s hunting accident. Edison was known for his ruthlessness when it came to acquiring patents for “his” inventions. He was in league with the elite families of the time and most definitely had the means and the motives to get rid of Louis and Adolphe. He had the best lawyers and hitmen money could buy. He spent a living stealing Nikola Tesla’s work, so he would have no problem taking out an all but unknown French inventor. Thomas Edison is placed among the greatest inventors in history books and every school kid must spend some time learning about the “Genius of Menlo Park”, when in reality he was a ruthless, cunning, evil manipulator only interested in one kind of power, the power of money and celebrity.

In conclusion, I am almost positive that Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor ever, according to main stream historians, was directly responsible for the deaths of both Le Prince men. He had Louis killed for his equipment and patent and he had Adolphe killed for knowing too much. The more and more I read about how awful Edison was the more I come to realize how we are brainwashed, indoctrinated or coerced into believing what those in charge want us to believe. Think about this, the guy that your history teachers have always taught was an outstanding citizen and inventor was nothing more than an evil, greedy man with nothing but his own interests at heart and an unlimited supply of cash and influence. In my world we call those people Super-Villains. So yes, the Mr. Edison who electrocuted an elephant just to make Tesla’s alternating current look bad (which it wasn’t and still is better than Edison’s ) or had no qualms about ripping off any other inventor that got in his way or beat him to an idea would have absolutely been capable of the crimes I mentioned above. This story is a sad reminder of how the corruption and ruthlessness of greedy businessmen has been influencing and changing our history to bend to their nefarious ways for centuries and worse yet I don’t see it changing any time soon. How many others have been killed for their knowledge? Many. Those are for a different time and different posts. Until then stay safe, stay vigilant and always question everything.

PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 above image: Louis le Prince's 16 lens motion picture camera.