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Omens

Mighty_Emperor

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Venezuelans see collapse of religious statue as an omen of country's political future

By Associated Press

Tuesday, June 8, 2004


CARACAS, Venezuela - As one of Venezuela's most venerated religious figures, Maria Lionza has inspired hope and granted wishes to devotees for more than 200 years.

So Venezuelans were shocked when a prominent 53-year-old statue of the mythical goddess split apart at the waist on Sunday and fell backward to face the heavens.

Those active in the cult of Maria Lionza, a mix of African spiritualism, Indian and Catholic beliefs, interpreted the incident as an omen that Venezuela's political crisis is nearing conclusion.

``It's all coming to an end. The abuses against us and this country are ending. We are going to see liberty, truth,'' said Tamara Escalona, a faith healer who also happens to be a critic of President Hugo Chavez.

The fact that the statue fell backward to face the sky means Maria Lionza is asking God for assistance to resolve the crisis, she said.

However, the pro-Chavez newspaper Vea accused opposition ``vandals'' of toppling the sacred statue during a weekend march.

News of the event interrupted coverage of demonstrations for and against Chavez, the leftist firebrand whose tumultuous five-and-a-half year presidency has deeply polarized the country.

His supporters, the poor masses, say he is the first leader to try to help them but his foes blame him for wrecking the oil-rich nation.

The opposition has been trying for more than two years to get a referendum on his rule. Just last week electoral authorities said his foes had collected enough signatures to mount the recall vote.

Crafted by sculptor Alejandro Colina, the voluptuous statue was placed at its current location in Caracas in 1953 by the dictator Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez. A Maria Lionza devotee, Perez Jimenez hoped to legitimize his regime by putting the statue on the divider of a new highway.

Every day, thousands of motorists pass what looks like a naked, muscular Indian woman sitting astride a wild tapir, a snake coiled at its feet.

The 20-foot-tall statue is the scene of split-second pilgrimages through four lanes of traffic. Scrambling believers clutch offerings of flowers, candles and money.

Each year, hundreds of thousands trek to the Sorte Mountains, 180 miles west of Caracas, to visit Maria Lionza's reputed home. There, they perform religious ceremonies, ask her help, and thank her for answering prayers.

According to legend, Maria Lionza had unusual green eyes, fair skin and supernatural powers. Some say she was the daughter of an Indian chief. Others believe she was born to an Indian princess and Spanish conquistador, giving birth to the mestizo race.

One version says she was attacked by an anaconda guarding a lagoon.

``While God punished the snake with death, the maiden herself became the guardian of the lagoon and later became the protector of nature in this area of (the state of) Yaracuy,'' wrote anthropologist Angelina Pollak-Eltz.

Another version says she jumped to her death at a waterfall to avoid enslavement by Spanish invaders who had killed her family.

The statue's collapse generated more hyperbole in this politicized nation. For months, the pro-Chavez Greater Caracas government of Freddy Bernal has been trying to move the statue to restore it. The statue's owner, the Central University of Venezuela, insisted it should stay where it is.

The cult of Maria Lionza won international renown after Panamanian salsa singer Ruben Blades wrote a song about her in the 1970s.

Escalona and many others said it wasn't coincidence that the statue broke just as the recall campaign got underway.

``Yesterday was an awful day for us. But we are going to see the light,'' Escalona said.

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=31070
 
Bumping an ancient single post thread to house this interesting article,

Feather Death Crowns: Appalachian Omens of Death
By J Nathan Couch on July 22, 2015

Feather pillows are about as rare the Loch Ness Monster, but once upon a time they were as common as could be.

Long ago, the people of Appalachia began to notice a peculiar phenomenon: odd crownlike masses in the pillows of the seriously ill or recently deceased.

These objects became known as Death Crowns (or less-commonly, angel crowns). Death Crowns are usually elaborate, interlocking designs that resemble a disc or crown. The quills always point inward, and though rare, are only found in the feather pillows of the seriously ill or recently deceased.

http://www.cultofweird.com/paranormal/feather-death-crowns/
 
Bumping an ancient single post thread to house this interesting article,



http://www.cultofweird.com/paranormal/feather-death-crowns/

Thanks for the article. Very interesting!

I first found out about feather pillow omens in the book Tales Of Terror, a collection of spooky stories from the Ozarks, One of the tales was called "The Feather Reader".

image.jpeg
http://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com/2008/11/tales-of-terror-1975-ida-chittum.html
Made me very nervous about my pillow as a child!
 
It suddenly struck me on reading a post elsewhere that I have a borderline Fortean anecdote that has somehow gone untold.

About five years ago I was on a trans-continental flight, around seven hours of total ten and half in the air, and I was jet-lagged, mildly hungover and beset by doubts concerning the path of life down which I was sleepwalking. Flying seems to badly affect both my circulation and digestion, so as usual I'd spent almost the whole time plodding laps around the cabin, sipping water, and I'd ended up perched at the back, gazing out of the window while most other passengers slumbered.

Anyway, my thoughts were wandering and I had reached a moment of real existential dread: what the hell does it all matter? Like the rest of humanity I'm merely an accident of evolution crawling around inconsequentially at the unfashionable end of the cosmos. And then the inevitable counterpoint--blind hope: perhaps I'm not... if only this cosmos that seems so bleak would give me a wink or a nudge while nobody else is looking...

And then, dead ahead, far in the distance at the perfect moment to punctuate the inwardly uttered thought, a flash of lighting appeared beneath the clouds we were cruising above. It was bright enough to neatly illuminate a little patch in the navy skyscape that stretched outward towards distant vanishing points--like somebody had turned on a nightlight for a fleeting moment and I'd opened my eyes, acknowledged it and then I'd returned to sleep. No storm, no turbulence, no other witness with whom to compare observations, but it happened as sure as I am typing now.

I was stunned at the time but also superstitious about requesting an encore--why gamble when you've just won on a free spin? As the days passed the vividness of the impression faded and the obvious explanation of it having been a mere coincidence gained the higher ground. But neither logic nor the law of probability has quite crushed the notion that it may, just possibly, have meant something.
 
... Feather Death Crowns: Appalachian Omens of Death ...

This Appalachian region folklore blog:

http://theresashauntedhistoryofthetri-state.blogspot.com/2011/01/appalachian-death-crowns.html

... characterizes the feather crowns as omens of an impending death only for bedridden ill folks.

The purported significance 'flipped' if the crown was found in the pillow of someone recently deceased:

... Finding such an artifact in the pillow of someone ill was a sure sign that the person would die within the next three days, but it was a comforting symbol when found in the pillow of the recently deceased.

Finding a crown in a person's pillow meant that the person has gone to Heaven. The phenomenon was reserved for the deceased faithful, and those who had been saved before death. ...
 
It suddenly struck me on reading a post elsewhere, that I have a borderline Fortean anecdote that has somehow gone untold.

About five years ago I was on a trans-continental flight, around seven hours of total ten and half in the air, and I was jet-lagged, mildly hungover and beset by doubts concerning the path of life down which I was sleepwalking. Flying seems to badly affect both my circulation and digestion, so as usual I'd spent almost the whole time plodding laps around the cabin, sipping water, and I'd ended up perched at the back, gazing out of the window while most other passengers slumbered.

Anyway, my thoughts were wandering and I had reached a moment of real existential dread: what the hell does it all matter? Like the rest of humanity I'm merely an accident of evolution crawling around inconsequentially at the unfashionable end of the cosmos. And then the inevitable counterpoint--blind hope: perhaps I'm not... if only this cosmos that seems so bleak would give me a wink or a nudge while nobody else is looking...

And then, dead ahead, far in the distance at the perfect moment to punctuate the inwardly uttered thought, a flash of lighting appeared beneath the clouds we were cruising above. It was bright enough to neatly illuminate a little patch in the navy skyscape that stretched outward towards distant vanishing points--like somebody had turned on a nightlight for fleeting moment and I'd opened my eyes, acknowledged it and then I'd returned to sleep. No storm, no turbulence, no other witness with whom to compare observations, but it happened as sure as I am typing now.

I was stunned at the time but also superstitious about requesting an encore--why gamble when you've just won on a free spin? As the days passed the vividness of the impression faded and the obvious explanation of it having been just a coincidence gained the higher ground. But neither logic nor the law of probability has quite crushed the notion that it may, just possibly, have meant something.
:nods:
 
..if only this cosmos that seems so bleak would give me a wink or a nudge while nobody else is looking...
And then..a flash of lighting appeared beneath the clouds we were cruising above..

Usually the Big Man likes to operate in stealth mode-
"Men cannot see the bright light in the clouds" (Job 37:21)
"The Lord dwells in the unapproachable light which men can't see" (1 Tim 6:15)


But for you it seems he made an exception..:)-
"Come near to God and he will come near to you" (James 4:8)
 
It suddenly struck me on reading a post elsewhere, that I have a borderline Fortean anecdote that has somehow gone untold.

About five years ago I was on a trans-continental flight, around seven hours of total ten and half in the air, and I was jet-lagged, mildly hungover and beset by doubts concerning the path of life down which I was sleepwalking. Flying seems to badly affect both my circulation and digestion, so as usual I'd spent almost the whole time plodding laps around the cabin, sipping water, and I'd ended up perched at the back, gazing out of the window while most other passengers slumbered.

Anyway, my thoughts were wandering and I had reached a moment of real existential dread: what the hell does it all matter? Like the rest of humanity I'm merely an accident of evolution crawling around inconsequentially at the unfashionable end of the cosmos. And then the inevitable counterpoint--blind hope: perhaps I'm not... if only this cosmos that seems so bleak would give me a wink or a nudge while nobody else is looking...

And then, dead ahead, far in the distance at the perfect moment to punctuate the inwardly uttered thought, a flash of lighting appeared beneath the clouds we were cruising above. It was bright enough to neatly illuminate a little patch in the navy skyscape that stretched outward towards distant vanishing points--like somebody had turned on a nightlight for fleeting moment and I'd opened my eyes, acknowledged it and then I'd returned to sleep. No storm, no turbulence, no other witness with whom to compare observations, but it happened as sure as I am typing now.

I was stunned at the time but also superstitious about requesting an encore--why gamble when you've just won on a free spin? As the days passed the vividness of the impression faded and the obvious explanation of it having been a mere coincidence gained the higher ground. But neither logic nor the law of probability has quite crushed the notion that it may, just possibly, have meant something.

's'all about interpretation, innit. Some years ago I (slightly spectacularly) rescued a distressed lamb and was left with a bleeding cut on the palm of each hand, which disappeared as I looked.

All very Good Shepherd-like, with added stigmata, but it meant nothing. The lamb and its mum were happy though.
 
It probably meant nothing.
:thought:
 
We need more coverage of omens! :)

Not more actual omens though, or rather, not the bad sort like this recent Japanese one:

Legend has it there is an evil spirit trapped in the Sessho-seki stone, so what happens now that the stone is broken?

(Safe Guardian link)
Japan’s ‘killing stone’ splits in two, releasing superstitions amid the sulphur springs

Predictions of dark forces being unleashed by an evil vixen hung over social media in Japan on Monday after a famous volcanic rock said to kill anyone who comes into contact with it was found split in two.

According to the mythology surrounding the Sessho-seki, or killing stone, the object contains the transformed corpse of Tamamo-no-Mae, a beautiful woman who had been part of a secret plot hatched by a feudal warlord to kill Emperor Toba, who reigned from 1107-1123.

Legend has it that her true identity was an evil nine-tailed fox whose spirit is embedded in the hunk of lava, located in an area of Tochigi prefecture, near Tokyo, famous for its sulphurous hot springs.

Its separation into two roughly equal parts, believed to have occurred within the past few days, has spooked online users who noted that, according to folklore, the stone continually spews poisonous gas – hence its name.
etc
 
You mean something like a ten weeks omen of Russian buildup of military power on a border of a separate country?
Yeah, more of that.
Bring on omens.
Fkn Ides of March (sorry Scarg - I am expecting something so globally fucked to happen that nobody will have a damn thing to say; just me i HOPE).
 
Yes, about this Fox stone, what if like in the Anime, Tactics, it was Heavenly dog (Ten-gu) mistaken for Heavenly fox (Ten-ko)???

That could be a real problem. You can control foxes but Tengu do as they please.
 
You mean something like a ten weeks omen of Russian buildup of military power on a border of a separate country?
Yeah, more of that.
Bring on omens.
Fkn Ides of March (sorry Scarg - I am expecting something so globally fucked to happen that nobody will have a damn thing to say; just me i HOPE).


Not that I'm trying to make light of your point, Skinny, obviously the situation looked ominous, but there was a lot of talk about it just being an intimidation tactic and whatnot. FWIW:
What I saw that night was creepy as heck.

According to my mother, my great-grand uncle saw something similar in the sky which led him to predict the second world war.
 
Not that I'm trying to make light of your point, Skinny, obviously the situation looked ominous, but there was a lot of talk about it just being an intimidation tactic and whatnot. FWIW:
What I saw that night was creepy as heck.

According to my mother, my great-grand uncle saw something similar in the sky which led him to predict the second world war.

In the excellent documentary The Nazis: A Warning from History, they tell of how Hitler and his dinner guests were at his hilltop retreat after deciding on World War 2 when they noticed the sky. It was black and blood red.
 
Thanks, ’Lumes.
I’ve been advised by a Seer to withdraw as much money as I can and hold the cash until at least mid-April.
 
It suddenly struck me on reading a post elsewhere that I have a borderline Fortean anecdote that has somehow gone untold.

About five years ago I was on a trans-continental flight, around seven hours of total ten and half in the air, and I was jet-lagged, mildly hungover and beset by doubts concerning the path of life down which I was sleepwalking. Flying seems to badly affect both my circulation and digestion, so as usual I'd spent almost the whole time plodding laps around the cabin, sipping water, and I'd ended up perched at the back, gazing out of the window while most other passengers slumbered.

Anyway, my thoughts were wandering and I had reached a moment of real existential dread: what the hell does it all matter? Like the rest of humanity I'm merely an accident of evolution crawling around inconsequentially at the unfashionable end of the cosmos. And then the inevitable counterpoint--blind hope: perhaps I'm not... if only this cosmos that seems so bleak would give me a wink or a nudge while nobody else is looking...

And then, dead ahead, far in the distance at the perfect moment to punctuate the inwardly uttered thought, a flash of lighting appeared beneath the clouds we were cruising above. It was bright enough to neatly illuminate a little patch in the navy skyscape that stretched outward towards distant vanishing points--like somebody had turned on a nightlight for a fleeting moment and I'd opened my eyes, acknowledged it and then I'd returned to sleep. No storm, no turbulence, no other witness with whom to compare observations, but it happened as sure as I am typing now.

I was stunned at the time but also superstitious about requesting an encore--why gamble when you've just won on a free spin? As the days passed the vividness of the impression faded and the obvious explanation of it having been a mere coincidence gained the higher ground. But neither logic nor the law of probability has quite crushed the notion that it may, just possibly, have meant something.
Wow Yith, that’s odd. The clouds have gathered these past 20 minutes or so here in north Essex. It’s dark and gloomy and there’s obviously a downpour on the way.

Just as I read your post about the lightening, I went into the living room to let the cat in from the garden, and a single bolt of lightning lit up the entire living room (just for a second). No thunder though, so far.

Strange coincidence. :)
 
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