Simply Buddha

Sure hope these are "ours"...

In 2004, US fighter pilots of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group had a number of UFO encounters off the Californian coast. Many of them were visual. The UFOs were occasionally also seen on radar by naval personnel. The UFOs were relatively small and drone-like, but accelerated at impossible speeds. They were interested in a mysterious glowing phenomenon in the ocean, perhaps a submerged “UFO” (or is it USO?). The US military confiscated the evidence and swore everyone to silence, but somehow the story got out anyway. The military later released some strange footage of the unidentified objects. In this documentary, some of the navy personnel on duty at the ships USS Nimitz and USS Princeton are interviewed about their experiences. The pilots are not featured.

These UFO observations are not bad. Indeed, they probably did happen. But what did the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group really encounter out there? Nobody knows, and I certainly don´t rule out anything, not even flying mermaids. However, the most likely explanation is a secret *human* drone project of some kind, either “one of ours” or some Russian, Chinese or North Korean quality gadgets. In other words, the military could be behind the entire thing. Perhaps they were testing their new drones in the area deliberately, to see how the pilots (who were on a training mission) would react? The UFO-MIB angle comes in handy if anyone starts asking too many questions. This time around, however, the strategy didn´t seem to have worked – even mainstream media outlets reported on the story. Rather than being sidelined to kook territory, the whole thing became national headline news! Unless somehow, that too is part of the grand conspiracy plan…

My prediction is that next time the US engages some rogue (or not so rogue) state in military combat, we will hear a lot about the state of the art drone technology of the US navy, and how their supersonically fast drones are used to track Charlie´s submarines…

Occult technology

“Ancient Discoveries: Secret Science of the Occult” is a grossly misnamed BBC documentary, which I link to mostly for entertainment purposes (it´s only about 50 minutes long, for some reason the clip repeats the documentary twice). If you are a TV producer at a “serious” network and don´t know what to show the proles this week, the pro tip is (apparently) to stitch together four completely unrelated topics and connect them to “the occult”, and voilà, you just saved the ratings. That´s essentially what the BBC did here, although I´m sure some Gardnerian Wiccans or esoterick Crowleyans might decide to piggyback on whatever success this production will have (LOL).

The topics dealt with in “Secret Science of the Occult” are, in order of appearance: the mystery initiations of the ancient Mayans, the Rood of Grace at Boxley Abbey in England, the siege of Malta, and the Nekromanteion of Acheron in ancient Greece. Of these, the siege of Malta in 1565 has zero occult connections. The Rood of Grace was a miraculous crucifix exposed as a mechanical device (and hence a hoax) during a radical phase of Henry VIII´s Reformation. I admit that I found the Mayan segment fascinating – it seems my ancestors had a rather scary mystery cult deep underground, below the temples of Chichen Itza. And yes, child sacrifice was part of the picture. The Nekromanteion was, at least according to the BBC, another hoax. An underground temple in which the ancient Greeks could meet the spirits of their departed, the “spirits” were really dummies operated by pagan priests through mechanical devices, while the supplicant was high on hallucinogenic drugs and hence unable to see through the fakery.

The theme running through this production is that “the occult” is fake and that some occultic phenomena can be explained by appeals to technology. On this score, at least, the BBC is rather daring, since non-skeptical documentaries (usually of an American vintage) have more viewers. Otherwise, I was struck by the strong literalism of the “occult” claims (or is it just a BBC distortion?). The Nekromanteion was regarded as the literal entrance into Hades, just as the caverns under Chichen Itza were regarded as literally part of the Mayan underworld. No allegory here! The fact that the places were used for mystery initiations, presumably involving some pretty strange food or heavy dancing, gives the “literal” interpretation a slightly new meaning…

Don´t try this at home, kids.

From Duce to decadence: the strange tale of the Tyresö Palace

“Tyresö Palace – Nordic Museum”, published in 2016, is a tourist guide to Tyresö Slott in Stockholm, Sweden, and its immediate surroundings. Since 1932, the palace belongs to the Nordic Museum, founded by 19^th century ethnographer Artur Hazelius (who also created Skansen). I recently visited and found it…strange. The last owner had a weird obsession with Marie Antoinette, the 18^th century French queen executed during the French Revolution. If you want to see 20+ portraits of said Marie Antoinette, Tyresö Palace is definitely the place for you! Yes, one little engraving even shows her execution at the hands of the evil revolutionaries. There are also many portraits of Catholic popes and cardinals, and one photo of Mussolini. Yes, *that* Mussolini.

Clearly, not what you expect to find at a Swedish “palace” (I suspect a British lord would refer to the premises as “manor”)!

I was glad that I picked up this little book at a bookstore in nearby Tyresö Centrum, since it explains a thing or two. The palace was originally built during the Swedish “Great Power period”, and belonged to the ultra-illustrious Oxenstierna and De La Gardie families. Often, it was inherited on the female line (strange, I´ve been told by my politically correct teacher that Swedish women didn´t have inheritance rights until the late 1800´s, Muslim women of course getting them already under Muhammad). The palace has been rebuilt so many times that it´s not *really* a 17^th century building anymore, rather it´s a bewildering and eclectic combination of many different Revival styles. I have no idea what they are called, but I suppose we could call them Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Romanesque and Neo-Gustavian. The Rococo interiors are real, though (including a Chinese tapestry). And yes, the present look of the palace is due to American wealth!

The last owner of Tyresö slott, Claes Lagergren, was a late 19^th century Swedish businessman of farmer stock (well-to-do farmers, presumably). He was something of a maverick, had a fascination with the old European aristocracy, and converted to Roman Catholicism during a visit to Rome in 1880. This was at a time when most Swedes still considered Catholicism politically and religiously suspect, Sweden being a Protestant nation (with growing pockets of secularism here and there). Lagergren become papal chamberlain (!) in 1884, and five years later Pope Leo XIII officially ennobled him, giving him the title of marquis. Serving as a kind of diplomat between the Vatican and Sweden (this was before the Vatican became a soverign state), he also supported the Bridgettine Order of Elisabeth Hasselblad. His money made it possible for the Bridgettines to acquire Saint Bridget´s old house at Piazza Farnese in Rome. This of course explains both the Catholic portraits at Tyresö Palace (including of Saint Bridget or Birgitta, the famous Swedish 14^th century mystic who moved to Rome) and the infatuation with the French aristocracy. The only known portrait painting of 16^th century pro-Catholic Swedish king Johan III actually painted during the king´s lifetime also hangs at the palace, Lagergren apparently acquiring it in Rome.

Did I say “his” money? Well, not entirely his money…

In 1891, Lagergren married a super-rich American, Caroline Russell (later Caroline Lagergren), a member of a prominent New York business family with interests in banking, shipping and railway transport. It was thanks to her money that the Lagergrens could acquire Tyresö Palace and the enormous estate surrounding it. The restoration and/or rebuilding of the palace were also made possible by Caroline´s substantial wealth. Claes Lagergren´s newly minted aristocratic title gave the couple access to the Swedish crème-de-la-crème, including Prince Eugen who periodically lived at their estate and even established an artists´ colony there. (Eugen was a “Symbolist” painter otherwise mostly known for his connection to Waldemarsudde.) After Caroline´s death, Claes married another rich American, which enabled him to continue the lavish lifestyle. The palace was bequeathed to the Nordic Museum at Lagergren´s death in 1930 (officially taken over two years later).

One thing that struck me when visiting Tyresö slott was the (fairly typical) combination of ultra-conservatism and decadence. Lagergren was on a friendly basis with the painters around Eugen, including Anders Zorn (something not mentioned in the info booklet). Zorn, notorious for his paintings of nude women, was apparently something of a pornographer in private as well, telling lewd stories in drunken condition at Lagergren´s dinner parties, after having first tasted roasted peacock (the favorite dish of the marquis). It sounds weird that a papal chamberlain and admirer of Duce would have a guy like this over for dinner, but there you go! It´s also interesting to note that a huge portrait of Madame Le Pompadour adorns one of the many walls of the palace…

“Tyresö Palace – Nordic Museum” also contains information about a very different world: that of the peasants and servants working at the estate. Many of the peasants were crofters, and all of them seem to have been dirt poor, or nearly so, living in run-down houses literally infested with bugs. Once Caroline came down to a peasant who had just given birth, giving her some blankets – something unprecedented at the time. It seems the marquis missed the social encyclical of Leo XIII.

With that, I end this little blog post.

Ja, Åland

Den egensinnige åländske redaren Gustaf Eriksson intresserar dagens miljövänner. På engelska!

Captain Eriksson´s Equation

A different breed of Man

In 1888, famous Swedish writer August Strindberg plus family spent the summer in Denmark, at the 18^th century Skovlyst palace at Holte. Strindberg, who I assume was quite the character, was soon embroiled in a bitter conflict with the head of the palace staff, Ludvig Hansen. Hansen accused Strindberg of sleeping around with one of the maids, 16-year old Martha Magdalene, who was also Hansen´s half-sister. Apparently, Hansen´s violent outbursts scared Strindberg into leaving the palace prematurely. Later, he filed a formal complaint with the Danish authorities, accusing Hansen of theft. Then, nothing much happened, Strindberg with family simply leaving the country.

Or so poor Hansen imagined…

In 1889, Strindberg had a novella published in Denmark. Titled “Tschandala”, it´s nominally about the conflict between a cultivated 17^th century Swedish intellectual and a suspicious-looking Scanian palace administrator (Scania or Skåne was a Danish province until the 17^th century). Anyone who knew the local gossip about the Hansen fracas immediately recognized the references. Yes, it was Strindberg´s answer to Hansen´s accusations, republished on a semi-regular basis ever since as part of the famous author´s collected works. Clearly, messing around with August Strindberg came with a price! (The Swedish version wasn´t published until 1897.)

As already indicated, the plot is set in late 17^th century Sweden. The main character, Andreas Törner, is a learned university teacher who is forced to spend a summer in Scania, a former Danish territory annexed by the Swedish great power. Törner and his family rent rooms at a nearby palace, administered by a certain Jensen, who is married to the aristocratic widow owning the estate. Jensen turns out to be a “Gypsy” or “Traveler” (Strindberg uses the politically incorrect designations “zigenare” and “tattare”. The latter in particular is considered strongly derogatory). He is depicted as a lower breed of man, a chandala or pariah, constantly surrounded by filth and foul stenches. The palace and its adjacent gardens are run down, the animals have nothing to eat, and the administrator´s main activity seems to be stealing (and sometimes eating) other animals from nearby farms. His family are a clan of bandits, and heavy drinking orgies are the main order of the day. Like many other low-lives, Jensen imagines himself to be a man of culture, worth and education, but of course looks comic or pathetic compared to Törner, described as an “Aryan”. Jensen is also something of a pimp – he wants his daughter Magelone to enter an illicit sexual relationship with Törner. Soon, the Aryan and the Gypsy are at each other´s throats in something that is presumably supposed to be a psychological thriller. Jensen burglarizes Törner´s rented room, threatens his children, tries to get him framed for theft, and so on. Törner fights back as best he can. At one point in the narrative, the Aryan reveals that Jensen´s wife isn´t really an aristocrat at all, but the daughter of a common harlot, thereby punctuating Jensen´s insolent pretensions at being part of the nobility. It also punctuates Jensen´s Gypsy pride, since it means that a non-Gypsy “gypped” *him* rather than the other way around. (It´s part of the plot that Jensen believes his wife to actually be a noblewoman, and therefore regards his marriage with her as his best Gypsy scam.)

An interesting detail with the story, is that Törner (who is Strindberg´s alter ego, remember?) *does* have sex with Magelone (really Hansen´s teenage sister Martha Magdalene). Magelone is described as extremely ugly, and sex with her as borderline bestiality. Törner´s body and soul are soiled by the experience, while the Gypsy of course sees it as a great success for his intrigues. In the end, Törner decides to get rid of Jensen. Playing on the Gypsy´s superstitions and fears, Törner projects pictures of ghosts which profoundly shock Jensen and reduce him to a babbling fool. In a climactic scene, a ghost-like image of a dog appears, inducing the starving dogs of the palace to attack the distraught pariah, tearing him to pieces. “The Aryan had emerged victorious”.

How much of the story is true? This sounds like a silly question – everyone assumes that it´s character assassination pure and simple – but in his private letters, Strindberg at least pretended that “Tschandala” told the truth, with the obvious exception of the climactic murder scene. He claims that Hansen actually was a Gypsy, defrauded Strindberg of money for the rent, and then drove him away from the palace. A Gypsy orchestra, a burglary into Strindberg´s rented room, and huge aggressive dogs played a prominent part in the psychological warfare. In his letters, Strindberg admits that he did have sex with the maid, but claims that she was 18 years old (and hence presumably legal to mount). The letter includes a portrait of Martha Magdalene, drawn by Strindberg himself, depicting an ugly and slightly obese nude female. She was also “very hairy”. Strindberg also claims that the aristocratic lady who owned Skovlyst was a brothel owner!

For obvious reasons, “Tschandala: berättelse från 1600-talet” (the Swedish title), is often considered to be Strindberg´s absolutely worst work, due to its explicit anti-Gypsy or anti-Traveler racism. While the anti-Ziganism is (of course) obvious, the work has further dimensions, equally disturbing to modern readers (and also to “progressive” Strindberg aficionados – the famous writer is often regarded as a man of the left). “Tschandala” is a Nietzschean story, with Törner-Strindberg cast in the role of Übermensch. The word in the title comes from Nietzsche´s “The Anti-Christ”, where he uses it profusely. In Hinduism, the chandalas are one of the untouchable castes. Equality is said to be impossible, since there really are different breeds of men. Even more disturbingly, inequality has to be *consciously created*. The “tschandalas” are filthy because they have been *forced* into the gutter by Manu´s laws. Also, the only way for the Aryans to flourish is by oppressing the “tschandalas”, thereby turning them into manure for the sprouting of the elite intelligentsia. In the novella, Törner has to set aside his Christian convictions and veneer of civilization in order to embrace his true nature as an Overman. Only by dispensing with societal conventions can he hope to defeat the out-cast Gypsy. It´s also interesting that Törner is described as a progressive. He is opposed to the autocratic rule of Swedish king Karl XI, and it´s implied at several points that he is an atheist. Strindberg presumably didn´t see any contradiction between a certain kind of leftism and the elitism of Friedrich Nietzsche.

With that, I end this review.

Gudakonungen har talat

Dax för vänsterliberalerna i Kalifornien att bryta med gudakonungen? Vad håller dem kvar, är det de tantriska sexritualerna? Men dem kan man ju få gratis på andra ställen i California, eller? 

1. Dalai Lama varnar för massinvandring

Ett UFO blir briefat om UFOn

Donald Trump har blivit briefad om UFOn. Pentagon påstås i tio års tid ha haft ett forskningsprojekt om saken. Och en stridspilot låter sig intervjuas om saken...av Aftonbladet.

Och vi vet ju alla vad detta betyder, eller hur? Jepp, USA:s försvar har utvecklat ett nytt stridsflygplan, fel personer har sett det, och därför spelar man ut UFO-kortet som desinformation.

Men så kan det ju inte vara för det vore ju en KONSPIRATIONSTEORI.

Jaha. Så du menar att aliens finns? 

Donald Trump och UFOn

A Big Bang that did happen

“Big Bang in Tunguska” is a 2008 documentary about the so-called Tunguska event or Tunguska explosion, a mysterious (and very large) explosion that took place in 1908 in a remote part of Siberia in Russia. The Tunguska event is the largest impact event in recorded history, and could have killed hundreds of thousands of people if it had happened in a large city. The official death toll seems to be zero (sic), but an Evenk native interviewed in the documentary claims that many Evenk were indeed killed by the blast. The first scientific exploration of Tunguska Ground Zero was made in 1927.

Fanciful speculations about the explosion are legion, and some of them are (tongue-in-cheek) mentioned in the documentary, such as the claim that Nikola Tesla did it (ha ha) or that an alien space ship collided with a huge comet just outside the Earth´s atmosphere, the alien cosmonauts sacrificing themselves to save humanity (or was it progressive mankind). I read about the Tunguska event already as a child, in a book which promoted the “mini-black hole” theory, also mentioned in the program. Antimatter and the inevitable UFOs are other proposals. And yes, one of the guys interviewed claims it must have been a – wait for it – mosquito explosion! If so, it had no appreciable impact on the local mosquito population, which is so enormous, that it´s downright impossible to visit Tunguska during the summer… Maybe it was a mosquito population explosion, LOL.

The native Evenk people have an original theory all their own. They say that one of their shamans asked the thunder-god to destroy a competing clan. Angry at being used in this base manner, the god responded by punishing the Evenk with the Tunguska explosion. Clearly, we have to be careful what we wish for!

The documentary points out that no impact crater have been found, although it´s possible that one of the lakes in the region could be such. There is definitely an epicenter. Curiously, the trees in the epicenter were left standing after the explosion, while all other trees in the area fell to the ground! The theory which seems to fit all the facts is the idea that the events were caused by a meteorite which exploded in the atmosphere. There are still dissenting voices, though, including those who suspect that the explosion was caused by a hopefully rare form of volcanic activity in the Earth´s mantle. Weird facts that perhaps still need to be explain include magnetic anomalies in the region, and mutations in the local trees (their tree-rings are larger after 1908).

One thing that struck me when watching “Big Bang in Tunguska” is how extremely wild and isolated the area is. Even going there is hell, and staying around is no better. Temperature varies from -40 degrees centigrade in the winter to +35 degrees centigrade in the summer, almost as if Tunguska was another planet. During the summer, the area is turned into a cluster of impenetrable marshlands (mosquitos love it). The documentary reminds us of the fact that humans aren´t really in charge of anything. We can´t subject Siberia to our will, and we´re sitting ducks for meteorite impacts (or comets…or volcanic eruptions…or antimatter…or…). Who the hell put us on this rock, anyway? The Evenk thunder-god?

The documentary is nevertheless recommended.

Glad Midsommar!

Själv "firade" jag midsommar genom att ta en buss som går i typ två timmar genom värsta urskogen, måste vara Stockholms läns knäppaste linje, ha ha. Tyvärr fick jag inga gudomliga uppenbarelser från träden, men kanske nästa gång...?