The conspiracy surrounds Camp Hero, an officially deserted Air Force Station at Montauk Point on Long Island, New York State. Camp Hero was a US Army base established before World War II. It later became the Montauk Air Force and was officially active until 1969. However, since but then new telephone lines and high capacity power have been installed whilst many witnesses have observed advanced military electronics equipment being tested in the area. Power usage for the derelict facility is measured with a gigawatt meter meaning it consumes enough power to run a small city.

Conspiriologists believe the subterranean levels of the base continue to house a centre for research and experimentation electromagnetic mind control operations and interdimensional and time manipulations. These experiments date back to 1943 and the infamous — and probably fictitious — ‘Philadelphia Experiment’, when Albert Einstein and Hungarian-born physicist Janus Eric Von Neumann worked on US Government experiments that ripped holes in  the fabric of reality whilst attempting to make a Navy vessel invisible to radar.

It is alleged that during the Philadelphia Experiment a battleship disappeared from sight and from our normal timeline. When it reappeared, the crew onboard had suffered devastating psychological damage and terrible physical repercussions as some sailors rematerialising in the hull of the ship or suffered third degree burns. After the war, Montauk and other associated bases and laboratories in the Long Island area continued  research into what sounds like the most outlandish science fiction. When a US Congressional investigation into these secret projects decided to shut them down in the 1960s, it was not just the base that was underground as Montauk continued to run without governmental approval, receiving its funding from mysterious sources.

THE STRANGE PART

In 1984, the officially empty Montauk Air Force Base was given to New York State for use as public park land. However, whilst the property is under the care of the New York State Parks System, no part of it has ever become a park. Significantly, the deeds transferring the base to New York State make it explicit that the US government still hold all rights to any and all property beneath the surface. Given that plans from the US Army Corps of Engineers provide evidence of the existence of at least four levels of subterranean facilities beneath Camp Hero, maybe there is something to the conspiracy buff’s claims of a massive underground research centre looking at the borders of established science.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

National Security Council

Montauk is often alleged to be run by a cabal behind the National Security Council of the US. All of the members of the cabal are also thought to be members of the Grand Orient Lodge of Egyptian Freemasonry who are using the advances made through research carried out at Montauk to further their aim of global domination.

Aleister Crowley

Possibly the most important occultist of the century, self-styled ‘wickedest man in the world’ Crowley is known to have visited the Montauk area of Long Island shortly after the end of World War One in which he had been acting as an intelligence officer. Quite what his interest in Montauk was is open to speculation, but it is worth noting that his pupils included ground-breaking scientists such as Jack Parsons — the man behind NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories and an associate of Janus Eric Von Neumann.

THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

Nazi Scientists

Nazi submarines were often spotted off of Montauk during the war and many Nazi scientists came to work for the American military after the conflict ended. Montauk has a had a large Aryan community since the 1930s and some conspiracy theorists believe that the experiments at Montauk were infiltrated and taken over by ex-Nazis bent on using the awesome power being studied for their own evil schemes.

Time Travellers

Given that many of the experiments at Montauk seem to involve the prospect of time travel, some feel it is fair to assume that the real force behind the conspiracy are time travellers from the future. Stranded in the past, they have taken over the experiments started by Einstein and Von Neumann in the hope they can build a machine to take them back home.

MOST CONVINCING EVIDENCE

For what is officially claimed to be merely a derelict military facility within a designated state park, there seems to be a lot of security around Camp Hero. Picnicking women and children have been accosted and threatened at gunpoint by unidentified military personnel for venturing into its vicinity. Other people wandering through the park near to the supposedly abandoned Air Force Station have been told they have violated top secret and restricted areas and could be arrested. Non-uniformed armed guards from

seemingly shadowy government and military agencies have a track record of performing some very unconstitutional activities in the area. If there is no conspiracy at Montauk why is this happening?

MOST MYSTERIOUS FACT

The land the Montauk Air Force Base is built on — and possibly under — should under the terms of American law belong to the Montauk tribe of Native Americans who were the original inhabitants of the area. Despite huge amounts of evidence to the contrary, the US Federal Court has declared the Montauk extinct to prevent the remainder of the tribe claiming the land.  It should be noted that the Montauk Indians record numerous strange legends concerning the area and can remember when the site of Camp Hero was actually home to an ancient and rather odd stone pyramid.

SCEPTICALLY SPEAKING

Whilst fascinating conjecture, there is little independent hard evidence to back up some of the wilder aspects of the Montauk conspiracy. It seems understandable that the US Government or dark forces within it might test ultra-advanced technology at a secret base, but when you have got places such as Area 51 at your disposal, there is not any logical need to operate out of base only 100 miles from New York City.

The tenth sphere, Malkuth (pronounced marl-KOOT) is the base of the Tree of Life, the lowest of all the Sephiroth. It is also known as Shekhinah, a term that refers to the female aspect of God – God the Mother, rather than the Father. As the Kingdom (or, perhaps more appropriately, ‘Queendom’) Malkuth represents the state of being. It is stability, the end result, physical embodiment – the very end of the act of creation. As such, it is associated with mundane physical reality, finished products and end results, the fruits of any act of creation.

Personal consciousness and the interaction of the senses with the physical universe all fall within the realm of Malkuth. Its planetary symbol is the Earth, but it is important to note that the sphere is not the physical universe itself. Solid matter – reality – is the product of all ten spheres and twenty-two paths, rather than just one. Malkuth then is not reality as such, but it is the portal through which reality is given form; the mother, rather than the child.

In terms of the soul’s journey and the development of the psyche, Malkuth is the realm of direct physical experience, the place where our senses interact with that which is real. Thought, emotion, memory and evocation have no place here – if you caress a piece of silk, Malkuth is the plain sensation of sheer softness, rather than any pleasure it evokes. It is sight and taste and feel, devoid of context or analysis, experience without meaning. There is nothing really self-aware about Malkuth; alone and uncombined with other spheres, is it bestial and purposeless. Pure Malkuth has no emotion or reason, no mind to speak of; just a certain amount of instinct and reflex. In Malkuth, existence happens from moment to moment, free of context or meaning. There is just physical sensation and the awareness of it. As such, it is very close to Greek concepts of Hades, the hellish domain of empty shells.

Malkuth: The Kingdom

This is not a bad thing, however. Without a solid, objective base for experience, there can be no reality. We all create our own meaning and significance internally for each event, and if we did not share a common base free of all assumptions, we could have no grounds for free-willed communication or existence. By remaining free of all emotion, thought and analysis, Malkuth ensures that it carries with it no assumptions. There is no built-in static to interfere with the way we create our view of reality. We have ultimate free will to determine our interactions with the world and each other – there is no dogma built in to Malkuth, no insistence on meanings or ethics or anything else. We are all individual, and by remaining entirely within the area of sensation, Malkuth allows us to share a world without compromising that individuality. For this reason, Malkuth is often referred to as the flower of the Tree of Life – we take the beauty from it that we seek.

On a more mystical level, Malkuth is the focus point for the rest of the forces of the Tree of Life. The Sephiroth express themselves into the world through Malkuth; it is a vital gateway, the first portal between the universe and the paths back to God – the gate to the orchard. Before the soul can start to seek its return to God, it first has to fully become separated, so Malkuth is the marker which denotes the point at which separation occurs – one has to pass beyond it before one can go back. As a balance point between physical matter and the energies of the spirit, it seethes with dynamic energies. Each Sephiroth is an infinity in it own right, and Malkuth is the infinity of boundless space speckled with tiny particles of matter.

Malkuth is often associated with the four classical elements of Greek philosophy: fire, air, water and earth. The elements themselves are further considered to represent energy, gasses, liquids and solids; power, will, intuition and strength; and destiny, spirit, life and inanimate matter. Malkuth is therefore usually depicted as the Cross of Equated Forces, divided into four equal quarters, coloured russet, citrine, olive and black. As the only sphere of the Tree grounded into physical reality, Malkuth is the only stable Sephira – changing it takes time and effort, due sacrifices to the inertia of causality.

The lessons that Malkuth asks us to learn are focussed on operating within the real world. We exist, as humans, in a sea of relationships that we share with other humans. Can we learn to apply the wisdoms we acquire in other areas of the Tree to our lives as social animals? Can we learn to cherish the senses and let go of the static that we associate with them? Can we appreciate moments of peace, beauty and love for what they are? These are the challenges of the sphere of Malkuth.

The Temple of Malkuth

When visualising Malkuth, it is usually depicted as a four-quartered Temple in an underground cavern. A long, rough tunnel some ten feet high winds its way through dark rock, lit by burning wooden torches. The tunnel is drafty, and the stone is damp, even wet in places, but the air is not cold. After a time, the tunnel leads to a set of stairs carved into the rock. They lead through a circular hole in the roof. Climbing the steps leads to the Temple of Equated Forces, a square cavern carved smoothly out of the rock and floored with sparkling sheets of marble. Each wall is covered by a curtain of shimmering silk. A stone altar stands in front of each curtain, holding a plain candle. Straight ahead from the point of entry – to the east – the curtain and candle are sky blue, and represent Raphael, the archangel of air. Behind, they are pure white, and represent Gabriel, archangel of water. To the right, they are bright red, and represent Michael, archangel of fire. Finally, to the left, they are a rich gold, and represent Uriel, archangel of earth.

In addition to its imagery, which represents its position as the foundation of the four elements that make up the world, Malkuth is also associated with the colour sky blue, gates, the human body, sandalwood, clover, oak trees, the magic circle, rabbits, gnomes, the virtue of discrimination, mother earth, organisational techniques and the moment of birth.

The Tree of Life from Wikimedia

By winding its way down from one Sephira to the next, God’s divine energy gains texture and meaning. Eventually, it is grounded into reality and takes its allotted form. The shards of the sundering become all the aspects of our physical world – inanimate matter, human consciousness, physical actions, even intangible ideas. The Tree can illustrate any and all of these end results, but as a foundation, it’s most useful to consider the Tree from the viewpoint of the creation of the universe. Just bear in mind that it encompasses all possibilities.

Before the existence of the Tree, there is just the infinity of God’s divine light. Nothing else exists. The light is not God Himself, but it is His essence. In accordance with God’s will and the sundering, the light becomes conscious. This is the first Sephira of the Tree – Kether, the Crown. Limitless light, Kether awakens to its own existence.

Despite its consciousness, Kether has no awareness. It is still undifferentiated – unity allows no externalisation. The second Sephira, Chokmah (Wisdom) forms in response to Kether’s unity. Chokmah is able to look back at Kether and perceive the wonder of the divine love. Two points provide the basis for a path, and the energy of the Sundering cascades down that path. Chokmah is both the source and recipient of that energy, and broadcasts it out joyfully in all directions.

A straight line allows polarity, but not meaningful motion. The energy flooding out from Chokmah travels an infinite distance – but the universe of expression is curved back on itself. Eventually the energy returns to the point it originated from, back at Chokmah, whilst still travelling in a straight line. The limitless light is filled with Chokmah’s energy, but the curve that the energy has been around describes an infinite blackness. This blackness becomes the third Sephira: Binah, Understanding, the Womb of God. With Binah’s formation, movement and space become meaningful. The new sphere receives Chokmah’s infinite energy, the mother to Chokmah’s fatherhood.

(BINAH) The Seas of Binah by *pathworking

Now that there are three points of reference in the limitless light, it is possible to begin to map out distance and direction. Binah organises the energy of Chokmah, and divides it into quanta – the individual shards. All are still part of the whole, and Binah’s oceans are very much still one, but there is also a sense that it is possible for subdivisions to exist. Having organised the divine energy, Binah emits it again, into the infinities it encompasses – a new direction. Finally the three dimensions of space are complete, and the real universe comes into being with the creation of the fourth sphere: Chesed, Mercy. In Chesed, the shards from Binah are clothed in all of the infinite variety of form that three dimensions of space allows for. Chesed is constant change and plenty without discrimination; perfect inclusiveness. Everything is welcome within Chesed, for there is no idea of shortage or foreignness.

The undiscriminating bounty of Chesed causes problems, however. Not everything is meant to exist; there is not enough room for infinite amounts of every possibility. That brings up the requirement for some hard decisions. The fifth Sephira is Geburah, Severity. In its infinite love, Geburah understands that some elements must be sacrificed to make way for others that are more appropriate, necessary or successful. That which is not needed is slashed away, so that the whole may take its most perfect form.

That perfect form is manifested in the sixth Sephira: Tiphareth, Beauty. This is the City of Gold, home of the soul. It is the pinnacle of refinement, but it still reflects the perfection and beauty of the divine in all its wisdom. Tiphareth does not yet have any impetus for action, and without action, there can be no exploration. The perfection of Tiphareth, perceiving the need for motion, gives birth to the seventh Sephira: Netzach, Victory. Netzach is an engine of energy and direction. It is powered by the limitless energy of divinity, and seeks restlessly to provide the motion than Tiphareth requires. This motion is both physical and spiritual, and gives rise to emotion, the force that drives the personality.

(TIPHARETH) The Golden City by meekel

Motion without direction however is self-defeating. To balance its energy, Netzach’s need seeks dispassionate intelligence – Hod, Glory, the eighth Sephira. In Hod, Netzach’s energy is analysed, examined and given purpose. This is the place of rational thought and scrutiny, where communication becomes possible because the personal mind is taking shape. Drawing on the power of Netzach to drive it, Hod pushes its energies down into Yesod, the Foundation, the ninth sphere. In Yesod, the glory of Tiphareth is reflected and mingled with the thought of Hod and the feeling of Netzach into a great melting pot of possibility. Splendours and nightmares exist here, in the realm of the imagination and unconscious. Yesod encompasses all that may be, all that was and all that can be envisaged.

(YESOD) Misty Forest by Freya Sensei (minor liberties taken)

Yesod is a murky and impure mirror, however. The true image of the divine can not be allowed to manifest purely in the universe, for it would be a beacon to all of the shards of God’s self, sweeping all individuality and free will away. For the Sundering to have meaning – for the shards of God to be able to experience – then the glory of Tiphareth must be hidden, at least a little. The manifest world cannot bear the light of God’s perfection. Therefore, Yesod provides a filter between the rest of the Tree and the final Sephira: Malkuth, the Kingdom.

In Malkuth, Hod and Netzach are able to reach down to organise the energies of the divine – and the bounty of Chesed and Binah – into the patterns that lie beneath reality. These patterns are slotted into place within Malkuth, which then works with the primal forces to bring the world of matter into being. By coming into existence, Malkuth creates the universe, and the purpose of the Tree is finally realised and completed.

This is the lightning-flash that creates the universe, the energy of God pouring down the Tree. As a spiritual pursuit, Kabbalism is about the individual climbing back up the Tree, along the sword-stroke path, to regain some unity with God.

The puzzle is as follows:

If thou art diligent and wise, O stranger, compute the number of cattle of the Sun, who once upon a time grazed on the fields of the Thrinacian isle of Sicily, divided into four herds of different colours, one milk white, another a glossy black, a third yellow and the last dappled. In each herd were bulls, mighty in number according to these proportions: Understand, stranger, that the white bulls were equal to a half and a third of the black bulls together with the whole of the yellow bulls, while the black were equal to the fourth part of the dappled and a fifth, together with, once more, the whole of the yellow. Observe further that the remaining bulls, the dappled, were equal to a sixth part of the white and a seventh, together with all of the yellow.

These were the proportions of the cows: The white were precisely equal to the third part and a fourth of the whole herd of the black; while the black were equal to the fourth part once more of the dappled and with it a fifth part, when all, including the bulls, went to pasture together. Now the dappled in four parts were equal in number to a fifth part and a sixth of the yellow herd. Finally the yellow were in number equal to a sixth part and a seventh of the white herd. If thou canst accurately tell, O stranger, the number of cattle of the Sun, giving separately the number of well-fed bulls and again the number of females according to each colour, thou wouldst not be called unskilled or ignorant of numbers, but not yet shalt thou be numbered among the wise.

The Cattle of the Sun God by Roman Bearden

But come, understand also all these conditions regarding the cattle of the Sun. When the white bulls mingled their number with the black, they stood firm, equal in depth and breadth, and the plains of Thrinacia, stretching far in all ways, were filled with their multitude. Again, when the yellow and the dappled bulls were gathered into one herd they stood in such a manner that their number, beginning from one, grew slowly greater till it completed a triangular figure, there being no bulls of other colours in their midst nor none of them lacking. If thou art able, O stranger, to find out all these things and gather them together in your mind, giving all the relations, thou shalt depart crowned with glory and knowing that thou hast been adjudged perfect in this species of wisdom.

If you want to have a go at this yourself, stop reading now. But be warned. Most professional mathematicians would need either a high-powered computer or several years of hard work to find the answer!

Still reading?

The trouble is that the sheer vastness of the numbers concerned makes it extremely difficult. The puzzle describes a complex indeterminate polynomial equation that must have an integer solution. The answer turns out to be 7.76×10^{^206544} – a truly gargantuan amount. Number theorists have suggested that if you took a sphere with a diameter equal to the width of our galaxy, and shrunk each of the cattle to the size of an electron, they still wouldn’t fit.

The tempting idea behind Uberman was that it would allow you to reduce your sleep to just 3 hours a day, freeing up five or six hours of waking time. There are stories of all sorts of geniuses and major leaders who slept just three or four hours a day, from Leonardo da Vinci to Nicola Tesla and Winston Churchill.

Unfortunately, it seems pretty clear that the concept of polyphasic sleep is substantially mythological. People need different amounts of sleep, and a certain percentage of the population is perfect happy on just  three or four hours. Others may need ten or eleven. The article at the link above is a detailed and interesting analysis of polyphasic sleep by an open-minded life-long sleep scientist. It seems redundant to just repeat everything he says, so if you want the full details, have a look there.

The short version though is that spreading sleep around doesn’t change your requirements. If anything, it is likely to leave you needing a bit more sleep, because of the time it takes between falling asleep and actually starting to get benefits from it. The most natural sleep schedule appears to be the siesta — having a longer sleep during the night, and a shorter one in the middle of the day to bring the total up to the eight hours or so that we require.

Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, was convicted of the bombing in due course. Certainly there is plenty of evidence that he was peculiar enough to have carried it. He sent a series of letters to his sister some considerable time before the bombing took place, talking about his “anger and alienation”. These included comments about committing suicide, about dropping out of society and into hiding, and about the government of the “Evil King”. The letters were so disturbing that McVeigh’s family suspected him of being the Oklahoma bomber almost immediately. His sister believed that McVeigh’s mania against the government stemmed from the army’s insistence that he repay them $1,000 that he had been overpaid.

However, McVeigh had applied for Special Forces training, and had failed the assessment course. He claimed in one of his letters that his assessment at Fort Bragg had revealed several unsavoury duties. Special Forces operatives, apparently, would be required to work with civilian police, silencing — killing — people who were considered a security risk. They would also be expected to help “the CIA fly drugs into the USA to fund covert operations”. It was the evil nature of these assignments that supposedly turned McVeigh against the US government.

Timothy McVeigh

So was McVeigh actually guilty? Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that the Oklahoma bombing was conducted by US secret services agents to distract attention from a far more critical action: the attempted rebellion of a cabal of top military officers against the US government. Sickened by the Clintons’ excesses — not the sexual ones, but Hillary’s supposed theft of fifty million dollars from the US reserve, and Bill’s treasonously illegal alleged sale of nuclear missiles & launch codes to Israel — a group of morally-upstanding army and navy officers were going to arrest Clinton and expose him.

On Monday April 17th 1995, Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr reportedly handed a sealed indictment charging Hillary and Bill with embezzling $47 million, and receiving moneys in payment for conveying missile launch and tracking codes to Israel. That same evening, a plane carrying top members of the military and intelligence communities crashed in Alabama, killing everyone inside. Witnesses said that they heard two explosions in the air before the one on the ground, suggesting sabotage or missile strike. One army officer on the supervisory boards of the NSA and the ASA — the Army Security Agency — was amongst the dead.

The cabal, theorists allege, was killed. Oklahoma was then bombed shortly afterwards, to monopolise media attention and thereby cover the deaths of the cabal members. It also served to draw the minds of more junior officers away from potential presidential scandals, and concentrate them on the humanitarian emergency. McVeigh was a soft target to frame because he was so insanely paranoid about the government. All this happened just before the sealed indictments were due to be made public. Instead, the special circumstances of the bombing delayed the indictments, and swung public support back to the president.

It’s an interesting aside that Media Bypass Magazine is a small publication dedicated to exposing intelligence agency action, and presenting the truth to the public. On the morning of the bombing, Lawrence Myers, a writer of bomb manuals and other survivalist literature, was in the offices of Media Bypass, interviewing for a job writing about serial bombers. While he was being interviewed, the Oklahoma bomb went off, and the news broke. He was hired on the spot, and quickly became the editorial controller of the magazine.

However, there are claims that Myers had been a counter-insurgency operative in Central America as part of the Delta Force, and was now working in counter-intelligence. His latest role was to infiltrate Media Bypass so as to spread ludicrously bogus exposés, suppress true exposes, and generally discredit the magazine.

Media Bypass eventually resolved to fire Myers, but they re-hired him the same day when he suddenly conducted an interview with McVeigh (in maximum security prison at the time, and inaccessible to normal journalists) and offered it to the magazine in return for his continued employment.

Conspirologists generally suggest that the CIA killed the conspirators, acting to preserve the Clinton administration and avoid a scandal that would weaken America. They set up the Oklahoma bombing as a smoke-screen. At the same time, they decided to infiltrate Myers into Media Bypass with the aid of the bombing, killing two birds with one stone so to speak. To arrange this, they must have been planning the multiple assassination and subsequent bombing for at least a week.

On the other hand, odder theorists say that the American version of the British Israelite movement which claims that white Americans are the true descendants of Moses may have been involved in the bombing. Certainly, the Identity is very popular with right-wing maniacs. There have been suggestions that McVeigh was acting on the instructions of a powerful Christian Identity leader to help fulfil the prophecies leading to the return of Christ.

Rationally though, killing scores of innocent government workers seems rather like overkill, both in distracting from a minor rebellion and in getting a spook into a job. Surely the former goal could have been better achieved by declaring the whole incident a matter of national security, and the latter by giving Myers a stronger resume?

There are as many subdivisions as there are mythologies of course, but not all of them generate the same amount of mythic fantasy. Although the Norse and Greek myths have probably been the most influential in contributing to the flavour of modern fantasy, they are not particularly common settings for modern works. Perhaps they’re the victims of their own success, too familiar in terms of general fantasy to be appealing as a mythic story venue.

Other mythic cycles seem to be more attractive to fantasy writers. The Arthurian legend cycle of western Europe remains one of the most popular mythic fantasy settings. The historical origins of the ‘real’ King Arthur remain obscure. There are some mentions of a 5th-century British war-leader in some of the ancient chronicles, but they are tantalisingly slight, and generate a lot of debate. Anyhow, whatever the truth is, it certainly bears precious little relation to the mythic figure.

King Arthur's Domain, Tintagel by IDS

King Arthur’s creation in the sense we know him now dates from 1136, in the “Historia Regum Britanniae” (The History of the Kings of Britain) by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Although it claimed to be a historical account, Geoffrey’s manuscript was highly coloured, and devoted a large part of its text to the story of Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin the magician and the traitor Mordred – quite probably drawing its inspiration from older cycles of Welsh mythology. Despite its factual implausibility, the Historia was a big success amongst the nobility of England and France, and Arthur quickly became a favourite subject of medieval romances all over Western Europe.

Robert Wace added the Round Table in 1155, with the Holy Grail and Sir Lancelot arriving some twenty-five years later through Chretien de Troyes. Many others contributed, until the whole cycle was broadly cemented in its current form by Thomas Malory in Le Morte D’Arthur, around 1470. The definitive modern Arthurian fantasy – so far, anyhow – remains TH White’s “The Once and Future King” (1958). Although the text makes use of anachronistic comparisons and similes, and the story itself is considerably more overtly magical than most, this is still the most influential piece of Arthuriana.

Ancient China is another common setting for mythic fantasies. China has a unique depth of continuous cultural history to draw on, and its own self-image of its mythological past is enthusiastically magical. There are many domestic Chinese fantasies of course – in the West, the best known are “Outlaws of the Marsh”, by Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong (c. 1380), and “Journey to the West” by Wu Ch’eng-en (1592), better known as “Monkey”. Both of these epics are boisterous, highly magical and, like Homer’s “Odyssey” and “Iliad”, highly repetitive, at least in their original forms.

Yangtzi Gorge by Britrob

A much more contemporary example of the same sort of mythic tale is “Blades from the Willows” by Li Shanji (1946), which was serialised in Chinese newspapers in the same way as the Sword & Sorcery stories originally were. Although it only made it into print in English n 1991, “Blades from the Willows” was hugely influential in establishing the Wu Xia story style – the oriental analogue of Sword & Sorcery that most of the Hong Kong magical martial arts movies fit into. These movies – and the comics and books that they have inspired – remain the true inheritors of Chinese mythic fantasy, and they have become hugely popular all around the world.

It should be no surprise to hear that plenty of western authors have turned to Chinese myth for inspiration. Many have met with reasonable commercial success, in the west anyway. The most important was Ernest Bramah, who created a series of wryly humorous books about the mannered wandering story-teller Kai Lung and the tall tales he span. The first of these, “The Wallet of Kai Lung”, was published in 1900. A more recent master of the same charmingly humorous ‘Chinoiserie’ is Barry Hughart, who produced a delightful trilogy of novels about the mystery-solving sage Li Kao and his assistant Number Ten Ox, starting with “Bridge of Birds” in 1984.

A third important source of mythic fantasy is the “Alf Layla-wa-Layla” (literally ‘A Thousand Nights and a Night’), commonly known in English as the Arabian Nights. It is one of the world’s greatest compendiums of stories. It contains an immense cycle of tales that Scheherazade supposedly told to her cruel husband, the King, on a nightly basis, in order to keep him from having her killed. The contents are very varied in origin. Tales seem to have come from Arabia, Persia, India and even Egypt, and there is much dispute as to exactly when they took their ‘final’ form. The rough consensus seems to be that they took shape between about 900 AD and the year 1400. Many probably started as professionally written stories, rather than as folk tales; Arabic Middle Age culture was highly civilized and literate.

Not all of the stories of the Arabian Nights are fantasies, but the role-call of tales found within its pages is impressive: “Aladdin and His Magic Lamp”, “The Ebony Horse”, “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad”, “The City of Brass”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “Julnar the Sea-Born” and many others. The first printed edition of the book was produced in France at the start of the 18th century, translated and edited by Antoine Galland. None of the earlier, hand-written manuscripts survive, and there is considerable controversy as to how much of the content Galland actually created himself.

In the end it doesn’t really matter, though. The origins of myth are lost in history, like the seeds of truth that may have given rise to them. That doesn’t change the vital role that that the world’s mythologies have played in shaping modern fantasy.

The mystery of the Man in The Iron Mask has been a focal point for both doe eyed romantics and serious historians since the 17th century, generating countless theories about the identity of the masked prisoner. The interest continues even to this day, as evidenced by Di Caprio’s movie. But the world is still no closer to discovering who this tragic figure was, and as the years pass, the chances of discovering of his (or her) true identity continues to fade.

Little is known about the prisoner. What little that exists in French official documents paints a deliberately sketchy picture: he was arrested in 1669, and was imprisoned first in Pignerol, a fortress high in the French Alps. He was transferred in 1681 to Exiles, which lay close to Pignerol, and in 1687 he was moved yet again to the southern French coastal island of Saint Marguerite. His stay on the island lasted eleven years until he was sent to the Bastille in Paris. Finally, the prisoner died in 1703, an undoubtedly welcome release.

Throughout his entire imprisonment, there were reportedly only two instances of witnesses outside of prison officials actually seeing the prisoner. During his move from Exiles to Saint Marguerite, the prisoner was seen wearing a steel mask. With the move to the Bastille, this cumbersome disguise was replaced with a more humane mask of black velvet. It has also been discovered through official correspondence between a government minister and Saint Mars, the prisoner’s jailer, that the prisoner was not to communicate with anyone, be it by writing or speaking. If he did, he was to be executed on the spot.

What terrible secret could this man have possessed that demanded such secrecy? Historians have wondered why he was even kept alive: if the knowledge he held was of such danger to the King and government, wouldn’t it have been politically safer simply to kill him? And why such a concern over people seeing his face?  Did he resemble someone well known to the French populace, which would have to make him famous indeed, considering the primitive state of print media during the 17th century?  Once again, simply killing him — an option not in disuse in the French court of the time — would have made more sense.

The mystery of the Man in The Iron Mask is as unknowable now as it was three hundred years ago. What is known is that a man paid a horrible price for an alleged crime — or deadly secret — that history can only guess at.

THE STRANGE PART

Saint Mars, the man appointed to jail the mysterious prisoner, held that position from the first day of his incarceration until the prisoner breathed his last in 1703. Given the usual turnstile approach to political appointments, this constancy is intriguing.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Louis XIV

Many fingers point towards the King of France. The masked prisoner could have been the twin brother of Louis, rumoured to have been conceived first but unfortunately born last. His true identity hidden from the twin to clear up any messy succession procedures, Louis would have imprisoned him once he discovered who he was. Other theories feel that he could have been an elder brother, the result of an extramarital affair of Louis’ mother. Another theory states the prisoner was an attending doctor at Louis XIII’s autopsy, who unfortunately discovered the late king incapable of siring children, thus endangering Louis XIV’s own right to the throne. Following the same thread, the prisoner could have been the true father of Louis, recruited due to the previous king’s inability in the bedroom, hidden to stave off political turmoil.

Count Antonio Matthioli

He may have been the prisoner, wearing the mask for the most pointless of reasons: because it was the fashionable thing to do in Italy at the time.

Louis Oldendorff

A Lorraine nobleman, Oldendorff was the leader of the Secret Order of the Temple. The rules of this society would not allow them to replace him while he still lived. After he died, another man was made to wear the mask, thus maintaining the  illusion of Oldendorff’s imprisonment, and keeping the Order from selecting a new leader.

Also suspected to be the prisoner: Richard Cromwell; the Duke of Monmouth; Vivien de Bulonde

THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

Hidden Daughter of Louis XIII and Anne

Terrified of not having a son, the elder Louis may have hidden his newborn daughter and replaced her with an infant boy changeling. When she discovered her identity, Louis XIV (the changeling) had her imprisoned.

Moliere

As beloved as the playwright was both by the French public and Louis XIV, Moliere made many enemies because of his lack of religious beliefs and disdain for the French establishment. He especially angered the Company of the Holy Sacrament, a strong and influential Catholic group. The theory follows that Moliere’s death was staged in 1673, with the playwright becoming The Man In The Iron Mask as punishment.

Nicholas Fouquet

Fouquet was allegedly imprisoned for discovering hidden knowledge that Christ didn’t die on the cross, but survived, leading to a secret bloodline of direct ancestors.

MOST CONVINCING EVIDENCE

The fact that the prisoner wasn’t simply killed indicates that there must have been a royal connection. Anyone else would have been left to an unmarked grave or garotte.

MOST MYSTERIOUS FACT

Despite the backstabbing of French politics, despite the gains that could be made by revealing who this prisoner was, despite methodical examination of records, there is no indication of who the prisoner was. It was an universally kept secret, by all parties involved.

SCEPTICALLY SPEAKING

The identity of the Man In the Iron Mask is so well hidden one can surmise it’s simply because he didn’t exist at all. The vision of such a figure would go far in quelling any dissidents to the King’s rule. The prospect of lifelong imprisonment will do that.

Travelling to the stars has always been a daunting task, but is it being made more difficult than it need be? Is someone–or something–trying to do its best to keep mankind on Earth, by sabotaging space flight after space flight? The problem has become so widespread that NASA has jokingly referred to this enigmatic and often deadly force as the ‘Great Galactic Ghoul’. But is it the subject for levity, or something far more terrifying?

The high incidence rate of spaceflight accidents, disappearances and technological foul ups would have crippled any other endeavour that did not have the benefit of government funding. From simple wires burning out in satellite systems to the tragedy of the Challenger explosion, the Great Galactic Ghoul shows no national preference: both the Russian and American space programs have both been plagued it’s disruptive hand.

Recent examples include the fiasco surrounding the Hubble telescope. Once in space, the much vaunted telescope’s mirror was discovered to have been imperfectly ground, thus making its pictures far more blurred than expected. This was followed by an expensive repair mission, and even now, the much vaunted Hubble pictures are being discounted for being more a triumph of selective filters designed to hide the telescope’s imperfections than the groundbreaking shots supporters claim them to be.

Another example was the much vaunted Mars Explorer in 1993, which was to take closer pictures of the mysterious Cydonia Region of Mars. Just as the craft was entering Martian orbit, it suddenly stopped functioning. Other failures include the Soviet Koralb 11 (blew up), Sputnik 24 (blew up), NASA’s Mariner 3 (missed Mars), Mariner 8 (fell into Atlantic) and the fiery deaths of the astronauts involved in the Apollo 1 mission in 1971. The list goes on and on, either a testament to staggering incompetence or evidence of a thorough, worldwide act of sabotage, perhaps even on a galactic scale.

THE STRANGE PART

Missions to Mars fare the worst when it comes to sabotage. One of the most disturbing was the fate of the Russian Phobos probes. Launched in 1988, the Russians sent the two probes to investigate Phobos, the smaller of Mars’ two moons. They were interested in the irregular orbital patterns, which led many to believe it to either an artificial construct or perhaps even hollow. The first probe was somehow lost on the journey from Earth, while the Phobos 2 made it to Mars. En route to the small moon, the probe took photographs of a cylindrical shaped shadow on Phobos’ surface. Shortly thereafter, the probe was destroyed. Its final picture, beamed back to Russia, has been declared too sensitive to release to the public. The same night, orthodox Russian priests were asked to go to Moscow Phobos 2 Control Centre to discuss the pictures received.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

NASA

As horrible as it sounds, especially with the human lives being lost in some accidents, secret members within the NASA organization could be sabotaging missions in order to satisfy elements in the U.S. Government that do not want the space program to discover the alien prescence surrounding Earth. Corresponding members would of course exist in the Russian space program.

Competing Contractors

The financial windfall associated with landing a lucrative government contract would prove irresistible to many businessmen. The best way to succeed in the cutthroat tendering process would be to discredit fellow competitors, using whatever means available, including sabotage. The power of the dollar, especially one from a government trough, would easily overcome the sanctity of human lives in the eyes of many.

Also suspected: The FBI; MJ-12; sheer human incompetence.

UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

The Greys

For reasons of their own, it would be in the best interests of the Greys to keep Earth isolated from the rest of the Universe. If, as has been theorized, the Greys are rebellious slaves escaping from their ‘Masters’, using human genetic material to somehow rediscover the secrets of sexual reproduction and save them from the degradation of their cloned bodies, it simply would not do to have mankind drawing the attention of other alien races. In particular, the Masters.

Martians

The surprising incident rate surrounding Mars missions goes beyond pure coincidence. The Monuments on Mars indicate that there was–or may still be–life on Mars, life that may wish to be left alone or will make its prescence known in its own good time. The breakdowns, disappearances and erratic behaviour of craft around the Red Planet has led some NASA employees to joke about a Great Galactic Ghoul living in between  the asteroid belt and Mars. Perhaps this Ghoul is nothing more than a disgruntled Martian.

MOST CONVINCING EVIDENCE

Previous to its launch on September 25, 1992, NASA technicians opened the outer housing of the Mars Observer for a routine check. Inside, they were shocked to find to find the probe filled with garbage.  This garbage included metal filings, dirt, paper, fibres, and Plaster of Paris. Even though Hurricane Andrew had blown through the area, it was impossible for debris of this kind to enter the probe solely by the force of the storm.

MOST MYSTERIOUS FACT

In July, 1998, the Galileo spacecraft was passing Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, when it suddenly stopped transmitting information. Europa, along with Mars, has long been theorized to be able to sustain life.

SCEPTICALLY SPEAKING

We are a race that has trouble programming our VCRs. Is it any wonder our spaceships keep blowing up?

Templars pt. 2: Rise

Templars pt. 3: Superstar

Fortunately for the Templars, as previously discussed, their power wasn’t based on good battle strategy. After their initial expansion, they very quickly amassed substantial wealth. As the Templars were forbidden from owning wealth, the order became very cash rich. Taking advantage of the order’s policy of absolute secrecy regarding its affairs, they started offering discreet financial services to pilgrims, such as bonded credit notes. A pilgrim taking the journey to the East could deposit their money at a Templar chapter-house in Europe and get an encoded note. That note could then be presented to any other Templar house and redeemed for cash again – minus a hefty fee. They also offered loans, and received a special Papal exemption from the sin of usury (charging interest).

As their cash reserves grew, they offered loans, mortgaged goods and properties, issued cheques on deposit accounts, and even minted currencies. They always took a cut, and that cut could be as much as 60% on some transactions. It wasn’t long before the Knights had so much wealth that they were able to lend Kings the money to conduct military campaigns. It is no exaggeration to say that they invented banking, and established it firmly throughout European civilisation. It was this wealth – and their special dispensation to leverage it into temporal power – that gave them their strength, and made them the companions of Kings. Richard the Lionheart, known as the Absent King because he spent just six months of his 16-year reign in the British isles, was a big fan of the Order, and often campaigned with them… even as his despised half-brother, John, was staying in their London chapter house.

King John. Even less popular than warts.

Quite simply, the Templars made themselves into an indispensable part of the European financial landscape, right up to the very highest levels. At their height, during the 13th century, there were over 160,000 Templars, of whom twenty thousand or more were full knights, which made them stronger than many countries at the time. The order owned not only castles and armies, but also entire chunks of country, complete with towns and cities, right across Europe. They had a large fleet of ships, tens of thousands of strongholds and castles, entire battalions of architects and builders, churches and cathedrals and even, for a while, the entire city of Cyprus. They were rich enough to bankrupt Kings if they wanted to – Edward II of England even had to pawn his crown jewels to them for a time. The Templar bankers literally had European society by the financial balls.

Financial power and military prowess are a heady mix, and the Knights quickly got a reputation quite different to the pious ideals that Hughes de Payens had started out with. In Europe, the Templars got the reputation of being swaggering bullies; in the Holy Land, they were known for politicking and playing dirty tricks. The undoubted friction between the Templars and the Hospitallers stemmed from more than professional rivalry – around the middle of the twelfth century, the Hospitallers foiled a Templar plan to betray an inconvenient Christian ruler to local Moslem forces. Meanwhile, back in France, the phrase “As drunk as a Templar” had become the universal metaphor for extreme inebriation, and right across Germany, brothels had become known as Templarhofs – Templar Houses.

After the collapse of the Crusader states in 1291AD, the militant orders were left in a strange situation. Their entire justification for existing – protecting pilgrims and the holy lands – had been removed, but their financial power was as great as ever. They had lost a lot of men and a number of territories, but on the other hand their outgoing costs had been slashed. For the European bases, it was business as usual. The goodwill engendered by St. Bernard de Clairvaux was now 150 years in the past now though, and the political landscape was very different.

Philip the Fair

King Philip II of France, known as Philip the Fair (for his hair colour rather than his ethics) was extremely ambitious, and resented the Templars’ power. When they refused him a loan towards the end of the 13th century, he became their devoted enemy, determine to have their wealth for himself. He had one Pope murdered for certain, and possibly also murdered the man’s successor, but eventually he got a puppet of his on the Papal throne in 1305, Pope Clement V. The Papacy was moved from Rome to Avignon in France, and the Inquisition with it.

Philip had Clement sign a document accusing the Templar Knights of all manner of institutionalised evil – blasphemy, trampling the cross, sodomy, worshipping a head named Baphomet, kissing each others’ bodies during initiation, witchcraft, and over a hundred other crimes. The Catholic Church nowadays admits that they were almost certainly all groundless. However, under its authority, Philip assembled a vast force of soldiers was secretly assembled across France, and on Friday, October 13, 1307, the entire Templar order in France were arrested in simultaneous dawn raids.

In theory.

In practice, Philip the Fair was not particularly popular, and many regional magistrates still respected the Templars. The order was forewarned, and only a fraction of its members were actually arrested. Whilst this included the Order’s leadership, many of the remaining arrestees were elderly or infirm, and it has been suggested that the Templars who stayed behind had volunteered to act as sacrificial lambs for the rest of the Order’s membership. Meanwhile, the Templar fleet – which had been in port on October 12 – had vanished into history, along with the Order’s treasure and most of its personnel.

Philip had the Inquisition torture confessions out of the arrested Templars, and finally, in 1312, forced Pope Clement to officially disband the Templars. Philip and Clement put pressure on the other European kingdoms to arrest and execute the ‘evil’ Templars, but most territories dragged their heels. Scotland, already excommunicated, welcomed all comers with open arms. Below the Scots, in England, Edward II did nothing except write to his sheriffs across the country telling them to stop the Templars roaming around – for three years – before holding a desultory investigation and letting almost all the Knights off. In Germany, the Knights turned up to court in full armour, to receive full pardons. In Portugal, the King simply renamed the Templars as the Knights of Christ and left it at that; in Spain, the Order’s members and lands were moved over to the Hospitallers instead.

Jacques de Molay (before burning)

The Order’s last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, had confessed under torture to the various charges, but he recanted in 1314, saying his only regret was lying about his men. Furious, Philip had him burnt at the stake on March 18, 1314 as he and Pope Clement looked on. Legend states that de Molay invited his murderers to join him in the grave within the year; certainly, Clement V was dead within a month, and Philip II died just six months after that.

For all Philip’s ranting and Clement’s obedient pressuring, all they really achieved was to disperse the Knights into the mists of history. The French crown grabbed ownership of the lands the Templars left behind, but never saw a penny of the Order’s fabled treasure. As to where the fleet ended up, where the Knights went, what happened to all that gold and what other secrets and treasures were carried off with it… Well, those are the kinds of questions which will inspire poets, dreamers and conspiracy theorists for eight hundred years – and counting.