history

Star Forts

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These are some rather spectacular sites, where fortified structures appear ingrained as part of the landscape, rather than merely sat upon it. Displaying a geometric beauty we do not often find in today’s projects.

They are found all over the world, apparently there 1,734 known sites, over 105 countries. That’s quite a widespread technique, and really does then beg the question, what was their true purpose? Are they just for aesthetics, even though they cannot be observed in their full splendour except from above?

Many have been destroyed, lost to time or simply remodelled or built over, so who know how many there really were. But the interesting tale of why is the usual type of thing, apparently, they were all built for extra strategic defensive purposes. It is said “Star forts, or bastion forts, are a type of fortification that first emerged more than 500 years ago in response to the growing power of cannons on the battlefield, with sloped walls and angled bastions that allowed defenders better coverage above any attackers“.

Now, make of that what you will, and if you read about specific countries, they will tell you that they all starting doing it around the same time, and nearly even bankrupted their countries to do it. So, what was this invading force all over Europe and the world around the 1500’s that required everyone to adopt the same building style – for random forts dotted here and there? Not sure myself, but if you have an idea of what that might have been, please do comment with that. I have already taken a brief look at 1522, because of a social media comment from Jane Goodall saying we need to reduce population to that of 500 years ago to restabilise society. But I found that in that year alone, there really was quite a bit going on, which would not lead me to believe it was stable at all, despite the claimed population number at the time. For example, we had – The Knights’ Revolt in Germany, A terrible plague in Rome, The first major slave revolt in North America occurred, The Battle of Bicocca, a major earthquake in Almeria, Spain, The Treaty of Windsor was signed to name but a few. In one year, so they say. So, to think that it was all smiles, roses and opportunity just because there were less people, is a strange fallacy to hold onto. And as I have mentioned in my article A Working Strategy, it was in 1388 they put laws and acts in place to heavily control and utilise the population in the UK. So, I am again surprised that we had enough people, skills, materials and money to undertake such elaborate projects on a vast scale, keeping in mind cathedrals and churches were also being built around this time as the monasteries fell. Seems there is still much to mull over…

(c) K Wicks

The Old World

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There are scatterings of the old world throughout the lands and even submerged off coastlines. Relics, buildings, monuments and rather grand things to show we missed quite a spectacular time. These are what are being called Tartarian currently, to represent grand things of a time past. It is mentioned on maps and was known as a region, now covering Russia, China and lots of Europe. As the range of photographs from the 1800’s and early 1900’s show, they are all over, and the buildings we have left to speculate on about their true nature, show a grandness and beauty we are simply not capable of today. Or it would appear that way with our modernistic, square and unflattering building techniques. Very much built not to last, or look good in any way, often barely even functioning for its purpose.

In the last 100 years or so, many of these old unique buildings and monuments have been destroyed, burnt, bombed and demolished – throughout various countries. Some of them strangely not long after construction apparently. World fairs being a classic example of build something grand and disposable, quickly at great cost, then tear it down. Although some of the ‘temporary features’ built still stand today. But we lost the skills of that time it would seem. And world wars seemed to have served as a great cover to get rid of others that would have been noticed and probably stopped otherwise. Ancient, not so ancient and modern alike, sweep and clear missions hold no regard for what has come before.

And of those previous skills, I still find it difficult to get my head around there being enough skilled craftsman, and materials available to find their way to every continent, and multiple countries to build all these architectural masterpieces within what seems to be a relatively short time frame. The similarities are striking. Post offices, city halls, asylums, schools etc. Seemingly way too large for the communities and infrastructure of the towns at that time. Dirt roads and pillared giant neoclassical buildings, for a population of only a few hundred in some cases, or less. Where we are also led to believe people were rather illiterate, and didn’t get pushed into formal education until early 1900s. Someone was writing a lot of letters, or there was a great need for shipping things around small towns though for there to be so many massive post offices. And a big need for overly large buildings, and somewhere to house all the people deemed crazy or unfit for their new society rolling out. Maybe I’m missing something there.

The other rather splendid buildings we have, which are earlier it is said and we also have plenty of, are churches and cathedrals. So even further back, less people because of all the plagues and wars, yet grand building projects requiring money, time, people, skills, construction etc. Seems to defy belief really when you really think it through. Or maybe it’s just the timeline I have been taught doesn’t quite add up, thinking we had Romans building great things, then the skills just disappeared for a few hundred years during some ‘dark ages’, followed by peasants and medieval Europe, the crusades etc. Leading us to believe people again were just poor and busy trying to live, with skirmishes, revolutions, wars and religious domination also occurring. The 1493 papal decree, the inquisition, the church of England split and the war on monasteries. Oh, and chuck in some plagues, huge fires engulfing entire cities, invasions, fall of empires etc. Just seems like what we see, and what we are told don’t quite match up. And we must have had great numbers of people to keep losing millions, every decade and century to what we would call ‘an untimely end’.

When you realise potentially lots of people have been deliberately removed, from either society or the records, it would be much easier to retell it as you want it remembered. Because you would want a certain version of events to be carried down, the chosen history to be taught and retold. Usually children would be very important to that, and being separated from their parents of course, makes this much easier. Funnily enough, there was a fair amount of movement of that nature in the 1800 and 1900s. Check out my article A Train Of Thought for more on that. But again, many countries and continents have moved a great number of children under the guise of for your ‘safety & health’, or for just plain old social experiments or excuses for ‘education’, displacing natives and trying to eliminate cultures, language and traditions that way. It’s a tried and tested method, still going on today unfortunately.

So, given what we know of how those who control society behave, and their methods and motives for things, I find it easy to understand why they wouldn’t want beautifully crafted buildings around to remind people of what came before. Also, whether they are a representation of a mysterious time or not, they are of a previous time and mindset, and one they don’t want people having anymore. To start over, you need to get rid of what came before. And people can be very good at remembering, but only if they actually knew in the first place…

Tartarian Architecture

(c) K Wicks

An Island, Or Was It?

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You may or may not be familiar with the so called ‘fictious’ island known as Frisland. I am not one for just going with what ‘they’ say, so like to do a bit of digging to see what it’s all about. And this one I find interesting, because it is purported to be a completely made-up island, as so “Frisland, also called Frischlant, Friesland, Frislanda, Frislandia, or Fixland, is a phantom island that appeared on virtually all of the maps of the North Atlantic from the 1560s through the 1660s”. So, for over 100 years, all sorts of cartographers, from all over the place, just happened to ‘make up’ an island on every map. Sure Jan. Convenient way though to just erase a bit of the past, isn’t it? “Oh, don’t worry about THAT, they just made it up, move along, nothing to see here. But we’re not making it up…” Here is one of the maps of the time to give you an example of what there is to see.

Map by Nicolo Zeno, 1558

So, we have very clearly all the other places we know exist today, with very detailed coastlines, names of places and mountain ranges etc. But for some unexplained reason, not content with actual coastlines and landmasses to chart and record, no, they just made them up out of the blue. Main question would be, why? And when everything else appears so accurate, even the little island looking bits along Norway’s coast, if you zoom into those edges today, they appear as sandbanks. So why would I think they just made it up! That’s the bit that makes no sense. Unless, you realise there may have been land masses they didn’t want anyone else to know about as time went on, or areas that would reveal too much. And like I said, the ocean may have also changed its route, course and coverage of the land, showing certain areas as perhaps, Pangea or Gondwana to show ‘when the land was attached’, but maybe it’s always been attached, just underwater. With seasonal changes over a long period, what they are now calling climate, could in fact just be cyclical cooling and warming of our dome, which makes the ice melt, causing potential catastrophe but leads to a way out, or it gets cold and freezes meaning more land is revealed and we get to see a piece of what came before. Although, we don’t really, because certain institutions were formed to make sure they are the first ones called to anything of historic significance. They then take as long as they like, often under a veil of secrecy to ‘investigate’, then sometimes years later, we get a public ready piece of information about said discovery. So much more is known than we have been told.

But with the mysterious islands, and various tales of other and different lands, is it so far-fetched to think there is more? And given how many lies have been told about history, to suit the victor, I think it is correct to question that which came before, and that which we apparently see now, because as know, looks can be deceiving and you can achieve an awful lot if people just believe unquestioningly, something to be true. And they are discouraged from questioning, or looking, or wanting to see for themselves. If there is nothing to hide, then surely it makes no difference whatsoever if someone chooses to give it thought. Because sometimes one thought can lead to another, and curiosity, if present, should take it from there and form ideas and further thoughts and questions. I am more than happy to accept that people just got it wrong, repeatedly, all over the world for hundreds of years, but I also equally happy to accept that it has been orchestrated to appear as such, moulding a very small and controllable world by way of maps, programming and repetition. It may well be that California was never an island, and didn’t have a very straight cut off line, which now appears on current maps as the border between California and Oregon, despite first-hand accounts from people having sailed round it. And while doing their straight line, they clearly didn’t notice the rest of the land, instead electing to show it as water. Silly people of the past, can’t even draw maps properly! Or so we are told…

Current Google view with 1698 map piece.

(c) K Wicks

Benin, once a great city

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I happened across the history (or at least part history) of Benin, in Nigeria. It is said it was once a magnificent huge city, with wealth, structure and millions of inhabitants. Bronze was the main metal in use for wondrous sculptures and artifacts. Pictures of these are around today, because of relics stolen in past times being given back. That’s what led me to it, and to want to read more. I’ll mention the other piece of ‘evidence’ that made me want to know more. A letter, written by an englishmen in 1955, referring back to 1897, when the British arrived in Benin. It painted a horrific picture of what they arrived to, making it sound like the predator alter in the movie – part of that letter below, but with the extra line the internet one I saw omitted at the time, clearly outlining how that particular practice came to be. In fact, the entire ten page letter is an interesting read.

It seems that after that 1485 visit, missionaries were sent thereafter. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. And can be said of many of the great cities of the past, in Africa, South America, and places we don’t even know of because it has been so neatly covered over and forgotten, and not by accident in many cases. Where land grabs and changes of rulership happened, previous kings and emperors being coerced into agreements, people being made to play along or given incentives, sometimes torture and death was needed to help to ‘convince’ them it seems. In the above case, the letter goes onto detail how much that particular kingdom was diminished, and how they had to bargin and negotiate with ‘government’ after that for land, resources and what appeared to be a type of freedom. Slowly it changes into what we see today, with the story being that the rest of the great city was actually destroyed by the British in 1897, and people had to flee. Each continent has had its fair share of strife, people movement and invasions, back and forth with something being gained by someone each time, and great losses and displacement on the ground, so this isn’t a unique story, but interesting to me none-the-less.

(c) K Wicks

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Rainbows

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The image of the rainbow is one I have always loved, starting in childhood with the Care Bears stare, to watching Rainbow Brite, and the story Jason and his technicolour dream coat. The wonderful array of colours, it’s nice to see. And I will admit, I have been rather sick of it recently. Glancing away from it every time I see a police car painted as it, or zebra crossing, or fire engine. Seeing it purely as a waste of money and thinking rather sour thoughts when looking at it. And then associating it with other rainbow representations which seem to have taken to being put in our faces at every opportunity. And while internally whinging about the fire engine the other day, it suddenly struck me how negative I felt towards it, the rainbow. Something that has always been represented previously as positive, magical and bright, was now being used anywhere and everywhere, but in the wrong context, to me anyway.

And I wondered, if there really could be anything in it. That rainbows are a representation of light and good, but you have to be of a good heart to make it work (cue the care bears idea), so by making people feel negative towards it, it can create more negativity. This is a rather new thought and idea, which is still forming by the way, so may seem quite out there initially, but wanted to give thought to the different references towards rainbows.

The Greek Goddess Iris – she was the goddess of the rainbow, and the messenger of the Olympian Gods. But more specifically, was known as the personal messenger and handmaiden of Hera, the goddess of marriage, women and family. It seems there is great need for Hera at the moment, in many parts of the world.

Bifrost – If you have seen the Marvel films of Thor you will know this reference, but it actually is written into Norse mythology where most of the information comes from for Odin, Thor and Asgard. Frost giants, mystical lands and legends, and a rainbow bifrost, which connects the different lands of the realm.

A double rainbow appeared in London at a timely moment recently on the day the queen died, which showed in full over Buckingham Palace.

A photo/video circulating of a shadow of a plane on clouds, with a complete circle of rainbow around the shadow. Very cool, but a bit weird to look at.

It’s theorised that rainbows are in fact a reflection of the firmament dome that we are encased in, and that’s why it always appears as a dome or circular shaped to us, like a snow globe I guess.

Either way, and whatever it really represents, I still get excited when I see one in the sky and will try and make more effort to not be put off by them in other walks of life.

(c) K Wicks

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Giants

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There has been talk of giants for generations, hundreds of years in fact across multiple continents in varying forms. It could just be that some tales are just too fantastical and stay with us for reasons unknown, or it just could be, that it’s because they were whispers of truth, turned into tales and stories to make sure they stayed with us. To help us to understand that there once was a different time, of giants and titans, of Myths, monsters and legends, when a different atmosphere was perhaps around us and these things were not so out of the ordinary. They seem so outrageous now because everything has been ‘normalised’ and scaled down, but who is to say we will not have a time like that again one day.

Frost giants and Azguard – mentioned briefly in the linked article above, but I had no idea how intricate the lore is, and how when it is read in the context of their being far away frozen lands, inhabited by giant unknown beings, it doesn’t sound as crazy as it once did. Stories of cities in the sky and other things start to link in as well, if you are so inclined to that train of thought.

Jack and the beanstalk – this one is just a children’s story, and fun to think there could be magic beans, but that is not what interests me about it. Take away the magic means and cow to market bit, and focus on the tall tree like structure that grows up into the sky, to the land above. Where there are giants.

Titans / Nephilim – going back to biblical times, and written in the books of Enoch there are titans (think of the film Clash of the Titans, where they are in their godly giant palaces above, tinkering with and setting the fate of man). There are also the Nephilim, which were supposed to be of giant stature and are part of the angels who were cast out and procreated with humans. Lots to unpack there.

The Giants Causeway – In Ireland there is geological wonder called the giants causeway, literally names after a Giant called Finn MacCumhaill. And if you look around the whole British Iles, there are a strange number of tales and folklore about giants, things named after them and records of them. Makes you wonder if they really are all just made up, well, makes me wonder anyway.

Long Meg – There is a tale of a Giantess at the time of Henry VIII, who lived in London Town but came from the countryside. Most might think nothing of it, but having visited a site up north of what is claimed to be large neolithic stones called, Long Meg and her Daughters, I wondered. And we all know it’s fairly easy to make something either stick, or drop from history. Through the cunning use of inquisitions, burning, torture and ridicule, they usually got everyone singing the same tune, if you catch my drift.

Slight side note – I looked up where April Fools came from the other day, as I have been looking at different calendars around the world and in the past. I already knew we have moved the year from April to January, as the tax year is still running to the old one. New year’s eve used to be at the end of March, and April marked the start of the new one. Then some bright spark decided to change it to January (you see where they can then change time, add things, take it away), and everything changed. 1752, they moved it. But not everyone remembered or was on board, so they took to mocking anyone who celebrated new year on April 1st. Calling them fools.

Six fingered giants – Afghanistan, it seems we have recent stories of giants too, not just old school myths. This one during the Afghanistan conflict, where soldiers encountered a six fingered giant in the mountains they say and a number of soldiers were killed rather gruesomely. There have also been a few strange stories emerging from the desert regions, so who knows.

Patagonia – many a traveller and explorer wrote of there being giants in Patagonia, they are named as such and drawn on maps of that time, talked about in local lore, stories, paintings, legends etc. So, I do wonder if they simply were eradicated and then removed from history as much as possible. To make the world an ordinary, scaled down, small version of itself. To hide the true size and fantastical past of this realm, and what it and we are capable of? Perhaps.

BFG – A fictional story by Roald Dahl, and a very enjoyable one I read and watched as a child. And although is meant to be purely fictional, made me think of other lands inhabited by other creatures, lands just above us, or below us. And dreams are another kettle of fish, but the strangeness of this story did not pass me by. It’s not just a simple story about giants, there is more to it, but for this article, it’s about giants.

The Selfish Giant – a moral tale for children, but doesn’t just feature an old grumpy man as with Ebenezer scrooge, no, this one is a giant. Could just be as with the BFG, a story for children and nothing more.

There may be nothing to the tales and legends, and it could all be nonsense. But sometimes I can’t help thinking it isn’t…

I have also recently written a new fictional short story about giants, which can be found here – In the mountain

Long Meg

(c) K Wicks

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Myths, Monsters and Legends

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I was bound to get round to an article of this nature eventually. I have been mulling over myths, monsters and legends for over 30 years now. And although having previously accepted that these things were fantasy and fictional, rational thought and more research has now made me rethink that presumption. I’ll mention a few and how they fit into today’s landscape for me.

Giants and titans – we have had stories and tales of giants for our entire history. The book of Genesis mentions them, all old stories and legends have them at some point, and we even have modern tales of them. But what if they were real? Giant trees and other huge animals show there has been a time before of a greater size than now. Jack and the beanstalk spring to mind here. There have been whispers and stories of a land above ours, as well as below, so could it be that they were or are on land, just not the one we inhabit?

Olympics, gods and competition – they say we are made in gods image and compete to be the best. But what if we aren’t the best that’s ever been. We just try to emulate and replicate it as best we know how. We try to be the strongest, fastest, jump the highest, but only a much smaller scale than once was. Maybe.

Leviathan, mermaids, cracken – monsters and mysteries of the oceans have always been with us as long as we have been seafaring I should imagine. But where did they start? Did we have gigantic ‘monsters’ lurking in the depths of the seas? Could it be that from those strange times and great upheavals of the past there were things different from us as we know ourselves now. But maybe we were different back then too.

Vampires – it’s no secret we have historical references throughout most cultures to blood sacrifices or drinking blood. But is there any truth in it? There’s talk of young blood rejuvenating older people in mainstream articles now, so it’s not something they are trying to hide. All the movies and books of that nature had to be prepping us for something didn’t they?

Odin, Middle earth, Ragnarök – this one is interesting to me as it seems to overlap with the giants, and involves an end of days event which hold some weight to our current path in time. They have a land in their legends called Niflheim during a period called the Great Void (there is the word ‘great’ again, possibly a marker as I suspect in my previous article, There’s nothing great about it. But the word is awfully close to Nephilim, a giant race from Enoch’s time and a cross between the fallen angels and humankind. Funny how it starts to weave in to other things, or you realise where those other legends and tales may have come from.

We often dwell in the past, and for certain things, I think it is necessary and can help you to understand where we are and where this is all going…

(c) K Wicks

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Fatima – a miracle?

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There have been some very strange occurances over the last century, this one being a very odd and unexplained one. Fatima 1917. Three children witness an apparation, on three separate occasions leading to an event (which was predicted by the apparation), witnessed by over 50,000 people it is said. Reports say up to 80,000 witnessed it, but i’ll go with the lower estimate, which is still extremely impressive. Testimonies were taken and books have been written about this event, which has been mostly described as the sun dancing in the sky. Much was going on at that time in history with the first world war and the ‘Spanish flu pandemic’, so it’s possible that it was barely even noticed with various media blackouts happening at the time. The church however, were straight on it, declaring it visions of the Virgin Mary and taking it over pretty much and then deciding on what information to release about what the apparition told the children. If you would like to know a bit more, check out this vid explaining what happened and the details.

https://youtu.be/lDazOuWiwjo

(c) K Wicks

A Witch, How Convenient

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We know the stories, Salem witch trials and King James I and his hunt across Europe in the 1500’s. Multitudes of woman, and men tortured and killed under the guise and heading of ‘Witchcraft’. For years I believed the story too, as it was told. But as with everything these days, I began to give it a rethink having picked up more information along the way.

My first inkling, other than the systematic system of lies woven into our taught and learned history, was a small fact about alcohol. I’m interested in social history and how we got to these systems, procedures and regulations we see today, so randomly looked this up. I wanted to know when we started licensing alcohol and regulating it and learnt that women headed the trade originally, then came upon this article last year which renewed my interest in the subject – Women used to dominate beer industry.

Showing how women dominated the trade, wore black pointy hats, and had big cauldrons to ‘brew’ the beer. Sounds like an easy leap doesn’t it. Especially when you realise after the ‘witch’ clearances, it appeared it was an industry and land grab as with many other incidents throughout history. People got rid of their competition or problem by shouting ‘Witch’ – even on their own family sometimes. Stupidly simple, swift and effective. They say that men took over after that and women lost their place within that particular industry, and possibly others, I will have to delve further.

But it made me wonder, as I have done previously, about what other gifts and skills may have been targeted by jealous or fearful people. I’ve long thought that natural healers and seers used to exist (and possibly still do today), and that many would have seen them as a threat. It’s also not helpful to some if people can ‘read you’ or know what you intend if you are of a devious nature. That’s why intuition these days is encouraged but used against you as soon as you display it or people catch on you have it. They want you to reveal it, so they can make you mistrust it. They wouldn’t want people knowing what they could really do and are actually capable of.

To be able to remove your business or personal rival must have been an advantage for many. As we see today, once you have something in place to ‘deal with’ those labelled, many terrible things can happen. I believe that’s why they killed some, people with powers were a threat to them. And the rest, people who just knew too much? Well, I think asylums probably helped a bit there. You could just lock someone away forever if they wanted them out of the way. They were also used to get rid of people who were just a mere inconvenience to some, in the way or selfishness or inheritance. Don’t misunderstand me though, these are not just tools of the past, they continue to this day. Just with different names, labels, methods and gains.

Many people didn’t fall for the ruse though, and were unwittingly then caught up in it themselves, because those who perpetrate the atrocities will do all they can to keep them either hidden or make them acceptable. And there will always be people who are thrown to the wolves as they say. Nuremberg being an example of that, and quite possibly we will see another one of those types of trials in the very near future over the latest scandal upon the masses. October I am told it will happen, but as with everything we are given a ‘heads up’ for, only time will tell…

(c) K Wicks

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