A few words about some fictional elves and ghosts

There are a few similarities between the elves in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books and the ghosts in fantasy writer Jonathan Stroud’s wonderful Lockwood & Co. series.

Terry Pratchett’s elves have no redeeming qualities; they are vicious, cruel, malevolent and dangerous to humans. I have quoted some of the things that he says about them in an article featuring energy vampires .

Jonathan Stroud says similar things about his ghosts. They are malevolent and dangerous to the living. There is nothing good to say about them.

Terry Pratchett’s elves enter the world through gaps in the defences, through what could be described as weak points in the barrier between Fairyland and the Discworld; the ghosts too enter via windows or portals, spots where the barrier between this world and the next has grown thin.

Both the elves and the ghosts cause their victims to experience terrible feelings; they may even lose the will to live.

It takes the Discworld witches to deal successfully with the elves; in the alternative London of the Lockwood series, only children and teenagers with certain psychic talents are able to detect, deal with and destroy the ghosts.

While his stories are very amusing, Terry Pratchett gets serious from time to time and gives some warnings about his elves; it is the same with Jonathan Stroud and his ghosts; the Lockwood books are very funny, but some of the ghost material is very alarming.

Just as Terry Pratchett’s words about elves really resonate, so do some of the chilling things that Jonathan Stroud says about his ghosts.

August Strindberg and some suspicious deaths

August Strindberg’s autobiographical novel Inferno is inspiring post after post. It is full of material relevant to this blog.

It took three articles to cover the story of the relationship between August Strindberg and his secret friend, the man who was determined to make Strindberg admire the works of Madame Blavatsky and become a theosophist.

The relationship operated on three levels: it can be looked at in terms of two men quarrelling and falling out, a cult member attacking a target who refused to be recruited and two black magicians having an occult battle.

There is something more to say the black magic aspect. This article will cover some suspicious deaths that Strindberg mentions in connection with the battle and its aftermath, the battle that took place only in their letters and on other dimensions as they never met in real life.

The first two deaths

Two prominent men just happened to die shortly after something relevant by Strindberg had been published, and the secret friend believed that Strindberg had caused the deaths.

In Strindberg’s own words:

“By a diabolical chance during our paper war, the following incident takes place: L'Initiation publishes an article by me which criticises the current astronomical system. A few days after its appearance Tisserand, the head of the Paris observatory, dies. In an access of mischievous humour I trace a connection between these two things, and mention also that Pasteur died the day after I published Sylva Sylvarum.

My friend, the theosophist, does not know how to take a joke, and being superstitious above the average, and perhaps, more deeply initiated in black magic than I, gives me clearly to understand that he regards me as a wizard.”

So Strindberg thought that the two deaths were just coincidences, but his secret friend blamed him for them. When it comes to the attribution of sinister occult powers, it is a case of the pots calling the kettles black. The two men really did deserve each other!

Dan Simmons’s wise words about mind vampires

I first mentioned Dan Simmons’s horror story Carrion Comfort in the final article of the series inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story The Parasite.

I did eventually find the copy I wanted, the one with an introduction specially written for the 20th anniversary edition.

Much of what Dan Simmons says about vampires in general in his new introduction is of great interest and relevance; it is both horrific and very familiar; it stirs up very painful memories.

He starts by informing his readers that while blood-drinking vampires of the type portrayed in horror films do not exist in real life, mind vampires certainly do. I think in terms of energy vampires, people who have a negative effect on those around them, but the scenarios and effects are much the same.

“I regret to be the one to inform you, Dracula and his blood-slurping ilk are make-believe.

But mind vampires are real.

Few if any of us get through life without being preyed upon by more than one mind vampire. Even children are not exempt from falling victim to these foul fiends.”

It is probably true that most people will encounter at least one vampire along the way; I would not say even children but especially children, at least vulnerable, defenceless and unprotected ones. Some unfortunate if not doomed children even have vampires for parents.

“Mind vampires feed on violence, but the ultimate violence for them is the imposition of their will over yours. I long ago discovered that such an exercise of will and control of one person over another is a form of violence, and one we can all gain an unholy taste for if we’re allowed to.”

This says it all. The exercising of control of and power over others, overtly or covertly, is a very familiar characteristic of energy vampires. They want their victims to dance to their tune.

Two small synchronicities earlier this week

There are several articles on here that describe some of the small synchronicities and coincidences I have experienced over the years.

In many cases, something that I had been thinking about or wishing I could see manifested itself in my outer life.

I now have two more of these small coincidences to report.

A few days ago, I created a post for the Alternaticity Project Forum in which I mentioned the white and blue lozenge-checked flag of Bavaria. I then started drafting an article about John Buchan’s Greenmantle, to be published on the 103rd anniversary in July. I like to give myself plenty of time for and do a little work each day on such articles, as it takes a while to find something new to say about a classic book.

Later that day while I was out on various errands, I looked out of the bus window and saw something bizarre even by London standards: a man wearing a light blue and white lozenge-checked suit and a blue bowler hat. He was standing outside a hospital; perhaps he was a children’s entertainer who had come out for a cigarette.

A short time later, a van pulled up beside my bus as it waited at some traffic lights. The van had ‘Greenmantle’ on its side. It stayed beside my bus for a while after we moved off.

In this case, Greenmantle was the name of a landscaping and garden maintenance company. I had never seen one of their vans before; I didn’t even know that they existed.

This reminds me of some of the synchronicities I experienced in 2013, when I saw some very significant names on the trucks and vans around my bus.

I wonder what is behind all this and what the next synchronous events will be.

More about Terry Pratchett and the attributes of witches

Some of the main characters in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books are witches.

From time to time he slips serious statements about them into his amusing stories. I sometimes wonder where he got his ideas about witches and witchcraft from.

There is a little more to add to the article about a good definition of a witch; the new material is based on more quotations from Terry Pratchett’s books.

What a witch really is may not match what many people think a witch is; some of the attributes may be unexpected, but they are the sign of the real thing.

Witches are different

The idea that there is more than one type of human being comes from many independent sources.

The bureaucrats and the upward path

Recent developments in the war with the bureaucrats  who behave like cult members have reminded me of something I wrote in an article about the three paths that people take.

I said this in connection with the path that spirals upward:

“One horrible manager who left the company I was working for was replaced with someone similar. The only good thing that could be said about her was that she wasn't as bad as her predecessor, but this was a still sign of an upward move. I had done my best to deal appropriately with the first unpleasant boss; I had changed and she hadn't, so she could no longer play her games.”

This is similar to what has happened in the last few days: not one but two very unpleasant bureaucrats have resigned from the project that threatens my and my neighbours’ future. 

They have been replaced by people who are easier to deal with. They are still the enemy, but they are less unscrupulous, less lacking in integrity and more pleasant than their predecessors.  They may all be in on it, but the new people are not so deeply in as the old ones were.

I am sure that these departures are no accident and that unseen influences have been at work.

Strindberg and his cult-pushing secret friend: Part III

There is more than one way of looking at the story of August Strindberg and his secret friend.

Not only can we see it as a falling out between a cult member and the person he targeted for cultivation and recruitment, we can also treat it as an occult war between two black magicians. Either way, we have two men quarrelling in a very uncivilised and low-class way.

These scenarios or interpretations of events are not mutually exclusive; they all have relevance to the case. This final article in the series will cover these different dimensions of Strindberg’s story.

The cult member and the target

The secret friend’s persistence is sinister. Surely a normal, decent person would have realised long ago that Strindberg was just not buying Madame Blavatsky and her ideology and given up trying to sell to and recruit him.  He sounds just like one of those Multi-level Marketers who won’t take ‘no’ for an answer! 

Strindberg says that this man was very anxious for him to give a good opinion of Blavatsky’s book. His reaction to Strindberg’s criticism is a classic, textbook example of a cult member’s behaviour when the cult leader or the ideology is criticised or someone refuses to join after being targeted.

So why exactly was this man so determined to recruit Strindberg and why did he react the way he did when he finally failed?

I get the impression that some cult members are controlled - or even possessed - and under orders; I sense fear in addition to anger: they behave as if they will be terribly punished if they don’t complete their assignments successfully. They will pay for it if the targeted prey escapes.