RIP Budd Hopkins

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Trish and Rob

The passing of Budd Hopkins on Aug. 21 was ignored by the mass media. Most commentators probably wouldn’t recognize the name.  Yet, Budd Hopkins was a pioneer, who boldly ventured into the strange borderland realm of alien abductions. An artist by profession, Budd took an interest in people who witnessed UFOs and subsequently found they had somehow moved ahead in time, often by a couple of hours.

His first book, Missing Time, explored those missing hours through hypnotic regression, which revealed alien abduction experiences.  We read that book when it first came out and were reminded of the earlier abduction experience of Betty and Barney Hill. But Hopkins revealed that such abductions were now widespread, yet virtually unknown to the world.

In early 1986, OMNI Magazine assigned us to cover a UFO convention in South Florida, where we met Budd and accompanied him on an abductee investigation. (We’ve previously written in detail about that experience .)

We remember Hopkins commenting that he had recently met with a famous novelist, who was abductee. He wouldn’t tell us the writer’s name, but it wasn’t long before we found out it was Whitley Strieber.  At the time, Strieber was best known for his novels, including The Hunger, The Wolfen, and Warday.

It would be Strieber who became the face of the alien abduction scenario – for better or worse – when he wrote Communion, and Hopkins became a secondary figure in the eyes of the mass media.

Meanwhile, Budd continued his work with abductees and went on to write Intruders, Witnessed, and other books. He also pursued his career as an artist, and became a nationally known abstract expressionist painter with works in the collections of the Guggenheim, Whitney, and Metropolitan Museums, as well as Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

I remember asking Budd if he thought his work in the UFO field was affecting his art. He answered simply: “I hope not.” He also maintained that he was not an abductee himself, but when pressed by Trish he conceded that he had a scar on the back on his left calf and didn’t know how it had gotten there. He looked uncomfortable and didn’t want to say any more about it.

Budd’s last book, published in 2009, was a memoir that brought it all together. It’s called: BUDD HOPKINS: Art, Life, and UFOs. We wish Budd well on his new adventure in the afterlife. And we hope he has found the answers to his many questions.

 

Posted in budd hopkins, synchronicity | 17 Comments

Irene’s global synchro

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Trish and Rob

A couple of days ago we pointed out the global synchronicity related to the earthquake that cracked the Washington Monument and toppled an angel from atop the National Cathedral.

In the aftermath of the quake, Hurricane Irene followed a path that swiped the capital. So there were two natural disasters in one week. Both events were disruptive, but fortunately neither caused loss of life in D.C. or major damage. Flooding from Irene postponed the dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial that had been planned Sunday, Aug. 28.

It was forty years ago Sunday that King gave his famed ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on the Mall in the capital. That was fitting and intentional -so not a synchronicity.

The global synchro here involves action taken by the state of Arizona on Friday, Aug. 26 to file suit in federal court to overturn parts of the 1965 Civil Right Act. In other words, while the nation prepared to honor King, who fought to remove barriers keeping blacks and other minorities from voting, Arizona decided to tinker with those rules. Keep in mind that at one time there was a poll tax in the South, which had been instigated to keep poor blacks from voting.

Responding to the law suit, Attorney General Eric Holder said: “The Voting Rights Act plays a vital role in our society by ensuring that every American has the right to vote and to have that vote counted. The provisions challenged in this case, including the pre-clearance requirement, were reauthorized by Congress in 2006 with overwhelming and bipartisan support.”

The timing of the law suit, coming just two days before the dedication of the King Memorial, could be synchronicity. But it’s probably not. The action by Arizona was probably planned to coincide with the dedication. A sorry statement about politics in Arizona and across this country, which is as divided politically now as it was prior to the Civil War.

So the global  synchro blew in with Irene. The flooding in Washington caused the postponement of the dedication, which is reflective of where things stand in U.S. politics. In fact, efforts are widespread to undercut or ‘postpone’ voting rights for the poor and minorities. This is being done through changed in rules about what identification is required to vote and when and where you can register to vote. There are also efforts underway to draw new lines for voting districts which would make some districts more white and affluent and favor Republicans in congressional races.

Of course, it’s a backlash, all happening in the aftermath of the election of the first black president. It’s also savvy politics. Republicans, who traditionally fail to get more than a small percentage of votes from blacks and other minorities, know the population trend is moving away from their base. Unless these actions are taken to deter minorities from voting, the Republican Party will become a minor party. In a way, that would be justice served. White Republicans, in particular, would find out what it’s like to be a minority.

Of course, they could avoid the problem another way. They could change their politics. After all, Lincoln was a Republican.

Posted in synchronicity | 21 Comments

Hurricanes, Quakes, and Indra’s Net

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Trish and Rob

On Tuesday, August 23, a 5.8 earthquake occurred in Mineral, Virginia, at a depth of 3.7 miles, and was felt from Atlanta to Canada. On August 27-28, Hurricane Irene put nine states under emergency status, resulted in the evacuation of more than a million people, and as of this writing, at 12:28 AM on August 28, has left several million people on the northeast coast without power. That number is sure to rise.

There seem to be a lot of firsts with Irene. The lower part of Manhattan – now referred to as Zone A – was evacuated for the first time in the city’s history. The Manhattan Transportation Authority – MTA – has been shut down for the first time in the city’s history. That means bridges, tunnels, subways, trains, are all shut down.

In Philadelphia, the Schuykill River is rising to levels not seen in 140 years – since 1869. The governor of Pennsylvania declared a state of emergency for the first time since 1986 and says this could be the worst storm to hit the Philly area in 50 years. The Philly area got 13 inches of rain in the month of August, so the ground is already saturated and the rain that accompanies Irene means flooding is a given.

Irene, however, is not Katrina, the category 4-5 hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005. But it’s a huge, sloppy monster the size of Europe, and has affected all of the eastern seaboard except for the states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. In a sense, it’s the storm equivalent of the quake on August 23 – impacting a vast area. The hurricane, like that quake, isn’t impressive on the intensity scale – but it IS impressive in terms of the number of people who are affected.

This storm also addresses the question of global warming, as discussed in this excellent New York Times piece.

In my particular belief system, weather is a product of collective consciousness.  The fact that in 2011 we have had such severe natural disasters worldwide suggests that we, as a worldwide community of individuals, may be at a crossroads. It may be that the planet – Gaia – can no longer sustain the damage humanity has perpetrated through war, greed, and the destruction of the environment.

This crossroad seems to be reflected in just about every facet of our lives – from the polarization in politics, to the rebellions in the Mideast, to the economic policies that have resulted in such dire circumstances for  at least two thirds of the world who live in abject poverty. Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine spells it out in terms even non-economists can grasp.

So what synchronistic messages can we decipher from these events?

Everything is local. What affects you, affects me. The world is now so interconnected that the Butterfly Affect  seems to be our MO as a species.

We, as a collective of humanity, are a powerful force – if we unite for the changes we want.  Sometimes, the only way we can do this is to experience a weather phenomena or other natural disaster that is usually associated with some other part of the country – the quake, Hurricane Irene.

Rob and I were watching some of the coverage of Irene this evening and he remarked how weird it was to be watching the coverage of this hurricane while our skies were clear, the temp hot, the winds at a balmy five miles an hour. But that’s precisely the point. The Northeast is now experiencing what Floridians face every year between June 1 and November 30.

At the dog park this evening, Karin remarked that her sister had called a NYC friend, an attorney, to check on her in terms of the hurricane. “You know you’re going to lose power during this hurricane, right?” she asked

“That’s fine. I’ll order Chinese.”

Really? Chinese in the middle of a hurricane when the power has gone out?

Even though Florida isn’t earthquake prone, we may one day experience what California does during an earthquake.  Or they may be hit by a hurricane. Malibu’s fire storms of several summers ago could hit you in Kansas, you in Texas, you in Belgium or Somalia or Turkey. Who knows? We do not exist in perfect isolation. Whether we like it or not, we’re the inhabitants of Indra’s Net: what affects one, affects all. It always come back to that. Your community, your kids, your family, your ex, your blogger friends, your immediate and your larger family.

When you bleed, so do I.

Just ask the planetary empaths. They know.

We think their ability may be the evolving talent of a species perched at this crossroads.

 

 

 

Posted in global synchro, global warming, hurricanes, synchronicity | 8 Comments

The Quake and Global Synchros

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Trish and Rob

On August 23, when we first saw the news about a 5.8 quake in Mineral, Virginia that was felt from Atlanta to Canada, we figured there had to be some synchros involved. Sure enough, the damage in Washington, D.C. was revealing.

The Washington monument, built to commemorate President George Washington, was completed in 1884, and according to Wikipedia, is the world’s  tallest stone structure and tallest obelisk. Its height is a shade over 555 feet-  169.294 meters – and the monument is made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneis.   During the quake, it sustained a four foot crack on the West side near the pyramid top of the monument, which has since been closed to the public until repairs can be made.

Since the monument was built to commemorate George Washington,  the first president of what was then, in 1789 – and is now – a fragile democracy, this damage may reflect the fractured congress that can’t seem to get anything accomplished and which nearly brought the country to its knees during the crisis about raising the debt ceiling.

The other significant damage was to the National Cathedral in Washington. This Episcopal church considers itself to be the “spiritual home of the nation.” Not only were three of its four spires damaged, but the head of an angel fell off. There were other monuments and buildings in D.C. that were damaged, but these two seem to be addressing democracy and spirituality.

On the democracy front, the damage to the Washington Monument may be a warning about what’s going to be happening – or not happening – when Congress returns from their long vacation. Cracks, fractures, closed door negotiations ( monument closed to the public.) Could this be a possible reference to the so-called Super Committee of 12 – 6 Dems, 6 Repubs – who will decide (or not) how the debt issue will be handled?

With the National Cathedral, the possible message becomes even more intriguing. Since the cathedral considers itself the spiritual home of the country, the fallen head of the angel is sort of alarming. Is the U.S. becoming a fallen angel?

The division between church and states has blurred so much that candidates like Texas governor Rick Perry can hold a prayer vigil where most of the seats in the stadium are vacant, and yet he rises by double digits in the polls. Michelle Bachman, a Tea Party favorite, peppers all her speeches with references to God  – God told her to run, God told her this, that, and is whispering in her ear 24/7. The fallen angel may be synchronistically symbolic of where religious divisions and schisms here in the U.S. and worldwide, will take us.

The world in which we’re now living seems to be riddled with clues about where we’re headed – and why. Our interpretations may be wrong. But the beauty of global synchros – of all synchronicities – is that we each have our own interpretations, our own takes on what they mean, and can plan our lives and act accordingly.

Animals at the National Zoo in D.C. apparently knew what was coming. And so did some of the planetary empaths.

 

 

Posted in creativity, earthquakes, global synchro, politics, synchronicity | 23 Comments

Hurricane Tips- for Friends on the Eastern Seaboard

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

 

Be sure you have plenty of bottled water, batteries of various sizes, canned goods, ice, stuff to watch on laptops, board games, whatever makes you happy. The aftermath without power is usually worse than than the cane.

Have a propane grill. Be sure to have cash at home. Stock up on kitty litter, dog food, snacks. Hard boil a bunch eggs. Good source of protein and they keep for a long time without refrigeration. Gas up you car. Have plenty to read. Write on your laptop in your car, the laptop plugged in to the lighter.Have a generator, if possible.

Use plywood on your windows if you don’t have shutters.  If you don’t have plywood, then use masking tape on your windows – makes Xs. It supposedly keeps glass from shattering. Trim trees. Be kind to the animals that seek refuge on your porches, in your home. Pay attention to what the birds are doing. They  always know.

Have plenty of towels available. They’re good for leaks. Have a safe room and an evacuation plan.

When the power goes out, start loading your cooler with ice and perishables.

Fill prescriptions before the  storm hits.

Crank up the numbers on your fridge, your freezer.  Maintain your sense of humor. Get to know your neighbors.

It’s really important to do what your authorities recommend. But this comes with a caveat. If they tell you to evacuate and everything inside of you screams against doing that, then stay put. These screams are your instincts speaking and, besides,  your fear and trepidation may attract unwanted experiences.

I remember that in 2005, accuweather.com showed Hurricane Charlie coming right  up through Florida as a cat 4 or 5. I called Millie, a psychic who has proven to be accurate about  about weather stuff, and when she said their forecast was wrong, that Charlie would hit on the west coast of Florida, we stayed put. It turned out she was right.

And remember: this too shall pass.

 

Posted in hurricanes, synchronicity | 28 Comments

The Owl and Mercury Retrograde

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Trish and Rob

On August 9, we posted a synchro called Mush Head and the Owl, about an owl we met in the Amazon.  I knew that somewhere around the house I had a photo of this owl, but didn’t have any idea where it might be.  I searched all the usual places and finally gave up on it.

So, a week or so later, I figured I would put Mercury retrograde to some positive use and cleaned out our back bedroom. We have a guest arriving next week and I didn’t want her to have to sleep in a room piled high with stuff. So I gathered up all of Megan’s things that got stashed in the bedroom when she move after college, went through the closets, organized the bookcases, the night stand. And there, inside the nightstand, I found a photo album my dad had put together when Rob and I were leading tours in the Amazon.

This photo was right on top.You can see the piece of rope still around his foot that the boy who owned him used to tether the owl to his shoulder. Is he cute or what? Now I’m wondering if he’s a messenger again, finding his photo after all these years. It seems only appropriate to post this on the day Mercury turns direct again!

 

 

Posted in owls, synchronicity | 5 Comments

The ‘I don’t know’ synchro

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Trish and Rob

We spent most of the day on a recent Sunday trying to figure out something that should be relatively simple – the format and general content for a journal focusing on creativity. With journals, most of the pages are blank. Our job basically is to guide and inspire, but do so briefly.

After going back and forth with ideas and getting frustrated, we decided we liked to create much more than pick apart the process of what we do. Sure, we were trying to create something, but we kept fumbling the nuts and bolts and it was driving us crazy. I mentioned to Trish that we should look for a synchronicity to guide us. But what I noticed was that both of us would mutter from time to time: ‘I don’t know…I don’t know.’ I mentioned it to her and she said, “Well, it’s true. We don’t know.”

Meanwhile, one of my ideas for the journal was to include a quote on inspiration or creativity for each of our entries. So after gathering nearly 75 quotes to choose from, I accidentally opened Google Reader and noticed Mike Perry’s post for that day was a list of quotes about inspiration.

Curious, I pulled it up the list. One of the entries was a lengthy quote by a poet named Wislawa Szymborska. Surprisingly, the last line read:

“Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous ‘I don’t know.'”

So, there was our synchronicity. And, yes, in spite of our negative-sounding  mutterings–or maybe because of them–we finally came up with a feasible outline before the day was done.


 

 

 

 

 

Posted in synchronicity | 8 Comments

Pluto

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

The big guy is Earth, the little guy is Pluto

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It’s the little planet that swirls at the edge of the solar system, the one that astronomers have dissed and demoted so it’s no longer a planet in their scheme of things. But astrologers who dismiss Pluto as irrelevant do so at their own peril.

Pluto is the great transformer, the absolute bottom line. It takes no hostages, can’t abide victims, and basically just does its thing: working from the bottom up, from the inside out, it strips away veneers, facades, lies, duplicities, and exposes the  truth, whatever it is.  Then it smacks it down, destroys it, and says, OK, now build something better from the ashes.

Right now, the world is experiencing Pluto’s transit  through Capricorn, a sign that rules authority, structures, foundations, everything we have taken for granted for decades. This transit began in late January 2008, then Pluto turned retrograde and slipped back into Sagittarius between June  14, 2008- late November 2008. Take a look at this Wikipedia timeline for how Pluto brought havoc to financial markets – the subprime mortgage crisis, the sky is falling shriek from Wall Street and the Bush administration, the bailout for banks and everyone except The People.

Once Pluto entered Capricorn again in late November 2008 – Obama had won the presidency and for a little while, life seemed to be pretty good despite the chaos. But Obama inherited a mess and any secret undercurrent held by the status quo has been subsequently stripped of its veneer and exposed for what it is: a scam. From the health care debacle in the U.S.  to the Murdoch hacking scandal in the U.K. to the debt ceiling absurdity to the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating, the monsters are being exposed.

And they’re running scared.

As Pluto continues to strip away the veneers (and it’s going to be in Capricorn until 2024), we are witness to chaos in the very institutions we thought were rock solid.  On a personal level, this transit forces us to look at the very things that may terrify us as individuals. I want security. I want a relationship I can depend upon. I want guarantees. Unfortunately, Pluto denies us our desires if those desires aren’t rooted in what’s best for each of us and, in the larger picture, if those desires don’t serve the collective need. A paradigm shift can’t occur until a tipping point is reached.

So unless that point is reached, Pluto will continue to expose  the lies and strip away the facade of organizations and corporations founded on greed, opportunism, and corruption. Capitalism is a broken system and Pluto is tearing it apart chunk by chunk, enabling us to peer behind the curtain and see the wizards for what they are – small, frightened people clinging to ways that no longer work. As these institutions crash and burn, Pluto expects us to build something better in those ashes.

What’s that something going to be?

Posted in astrology, synchronicity | 28 Comments

Grey Wolf in Delaware

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

 

We’ve posted a number of stories about animals as synchronistic messengers. This one  appeared as a  comment under Mush Head and the Owl. It’s such a striking confluence of events that we decided to bring it forward as a post. Jenean now lives in Delaware, so this sighting of a grey wolf is most unusual.

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Today while I was out with my grandkids, we were approaching the turn off from the main highway to our house when a large gray wolf crossed the road. This is a four-lane divided highway that runs north/south through the entire state, right in the middle of the heaviest populated area of our town – and there’s the wolf.

Traffic was braking and nearly rear-ending for at least half a mile upon sight of this animal.  Several cars pulled over. I was northbound and the wolf was in the middle of the southbound lanes of traffic – but not one person failed to slow down or actually to stop for him. I mean, there were near-collisions with every blink of the eye. I so wanted to turn around and go back to where he was but I couldn’t have gotten through the backlog of cars. Finally, I saw a patrol car pull out toward where he was .

Aside from the absolute and total uniqueness of such a thing – a grey wolf in this Podunk Delaware town on a major highway – is that for some time I have toyed with the idea of buying a little camper. Well, when I Googled “grey wolf Delaware” the second site that popped up was one selling a “grey wolf” travel trailer.  And get this: it’s listed for sale in the town where I live!

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What’s the message? Well, first we should consider   that Jenean’s blog is called gypsy woman and there are numerous references to the Gypsy’s caravan. So it would seem the grey wolf is telling her   to buy that little grey wolf camper and hit the open road.

 

 

 

Posted in animals as messengers, wolf | 13 Comments

Hurricane Irene and the I Ching

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

As of tonight, Sunday evening, Tropical Storm Irene is expected to become a hurricane by Monday morning.  South Florida is not only within the cone of error, but the present track has the storm crossing into South Florida as Category 1 storm on Thursday or Friday, depending on its forward speed.

If it crosses the island of Hispaniola, then the 10,000 foot mountains between the  Dominican Republic and Haiti could tear it up. If it crosses Cuba, the mountains there could do the same. If it doesn’t hit either of these islands and remains over the very warm water, then it’s expected to intensify.  Lots of ifs here.

Rob and Megan are in Minnesota and due back Wednesday night. My friend Nancy Pickard is visiting and is due to return home on Friday. So with all this in mind, I decided to consult the I Ching – a good test for divination. My question: Is Irene going to hit us?

I used this site to ask the question, which I have used before and is often uncannily accurate. I got hexagram 2, The Receptive, with no changing lines.  My heart sort of sank when I saw the word receptive.

“Applied to human affairs, therefore, what the hexagram indicates is action in conformity with the situation. The person in question is not in an independent position, but is acting as an assistant. This means that he must achieve something. It is not his task to try to lead – that would only make him lose the way – but to let himself be led. If he knows how to meet fate with an attitude of acceptance, he is sure to find the right guidance. The superior man lets himself be guided; he does not go ahead blindly, but learns from the situation what is demanded of him and then follows this intimation from fate.”

I asked Nancy, who is something of an expert on the I Ching, what she thought. “It could just mean you should be receptive to whatever comes,” she said.

I told her my question was to the point: Is Irene going to hit us?  “Hmm,” she murmured. “It doesn’t look took good.”

Time to buy ice.

PS  The 11 PM forecast shows a track farther to the east! keep moving east, baby!

 

Posted in hurricanes, I Ching, synchronicity | 33 Comments