Wonders in the Sky

by Jacques Vallee

  “One day when it was raining without stopping the teacher observed two ships sailing over the woolly clouds above the ruins, in front of his house. On these two ships that measured more than ten fathoms [over sixty feet], two tall men were busying themselves, each one twelve feet tall and wearing a red hat and multicoloured clothes. They held a pole in their hands. The ships moved very quickly.

  “In the home of the teacher Lü Yu that day there happened to be a score of scholars who, alerted by Lü Yu, came out of the house and stood next to him to observe the phenomenon. Then, the men in multicolored clothing passed their hand over the scholars’ mouths; their mouths at once became black and as a result none of them could speak. At that moment, they saw a man, escorted like a mandarin, dressed like an old scholar, emerge on one of the ships accompanied by a bonze. A long time after this, the ships flew away, as if carried by the clouds, and descended again a kilometer away, in a cemetery. The ships set off again; the scholars felt their mouths return to normal. But five days later, Ju Lu died, though nobody knows why.”

  Source: Shi Bo, La Chine et les Extraterrestres, op.cit., 42.

  171.

  1526, Rome, Italy: Demonic transportation

  The Italian inquisitor Paulus Grillandus, whose Tractatus de Hereticis et Sortilegiis had almost as much impact as the Malleus Maleficarum, wrote that a countryman in Rome saw his wife take all her clothes off and go out of the house.

  The next morning he asked his wife where she had been all night. At first she refused to tell him, but when he started to become more aggressive she told him she went to a witch gathering. He demanded that she take him with her the next time, and not long after this they were both “transported” by two he-goats. However, she warned her husband not to pronounce the word “God” during his time with the demons, to which he agreed. The man saw many famous people at the meeting, all of whom declared their devotion to the Devil in a ceremony. There was a dance and a banquet. The man noticed that the food on the table lacked salt. Of course, salt has purifying qualities associated with warding off evil spirits and was therefore shunned by demons and fairies alike. The man was unaware of this fact, much to his misfortune. He asked for the salt and, when he thought he had it in his hand, exclaimed, “Thank God, the salt has come!”

  Suddenly, everything disappeared before his eyes. Men, women, tables and dishes evaporated and everything went dark. He found himself naked in the countryside, in the cold night. At dawn he met some shepherds who informed him he was near Benevento, some 100 miles from Rome. They gave him something to eat and clothes to wear, and eventually he found his way home, begging for money on the way. When he reached Rome, starving and exhausted, the first thing he did was to report his wife, who was forced to confess and promptly burnt at the stake.

  Medieval demonologists, similar to today’s abductionists, could be divided into two broad groups: the skeptics and the “true believers.” The sceptics regarded the whole subject of transvection as a mental illusion that gave a person the sensation of being lifted bodily by devils and taken through the sky. There was no need or precedent for complex psychological theories as such illusions were generally attributed to dark Satanic forces. In fact, it was heretical to think otherwise: “The act of riding abroad may be merely illusory, since the devil has extraordinary power over the minds of those who have given themselves up to him, so that what they do in pure imagination, they believe they have actually and really done in the body.”

  Some researchers have speculated on the possibility that some, if not all, abductions and encounters occur in altered states of consciousness and not in the physical world as we know it.

  Source: Malleus Maleficarum: The Classic Study of Witchcraft, Part I, Question I, 7, trans. Montague Summers (London: Bracken Books, 1996).

  172.

  1528, Utrecht, Netherland: Yellow object in the sky

  “Cruel and strange observation” of a yellow object in the sky, flying over during the siege of the city. The inhabitants of Utrecht panicked, while attackers took it as a sign of impending success. Lycosthenes writes: “At the time the city of Utrecht was heavily besieged, a terrible sign was seen in the sky which threw the town inhabitants into dismay and the enemies into the hope of capturing the town. For a sign in the sky, resembling a cross of a yellowish color (and of terrible aspect) appeared over the town. And because it was the symbol of Burgundy, they believed on both sides that the town would shortly belong to the Burgundians.”

  Source: Terribile visione in cielo durante l’assendio di Utrecht (1528), and Lycosthenes, Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon, 536.

  173.

  9 October 1528. Westrie, N. Germany: Horrible object

  A bizarre sighting was chronicled by Pierre Boaistuau in his Histoires Prodigieuses. Ambroise Paré describes a blood-red ‘comet’ that appeared over Westrie. It so terrified the populace that some reportedly died of panic and others became ill. The ‘comet’ emerged from the east and was seen for an hour and a quarter, disappearing finally towards midday – which implies, by the way, that it could not have been a comet unless by “midday” was meant “the southern direction.”

  At the top of the object people described an arm that held a great sword, the blade pointing downwards. There were three stars towards the tip of the sword, the one right on the end being the brightest. On both sides of the ‘comet’ were a great number of axes, blades and bloody swords and repulsive, bearded human faces.

  Source: Ambroise Paré and all subsequent authors drew from a booklet by Peter Creutzer: Auslegung Peter Creutzers, etwan des weytberhümbten Astrologi M. Jo. Liechtenbegers (sic) discipels über den erschrecklichen Cometen…erschynen am xi. Tag Weynmonats des MCCCCxxvii. Jars…(1527).

  Fig. 13: “Horrible object” seen in Westrie

  174.

  August 1533, Peru: Another mysterious “non-comet”

  Garcilaso de la Vega, the Incan, writes in Chapter 23 of his work Historia General del Perú, that Tupac Huallpa’s fear of his own death was exacerbated by the sighting of a great greenish black ‘comet’ in August 1533. It was an unusual comet, “a little narrower than the body of a man and longer than a pike” (spear-headed medieval weapon), and had been seen by many witnesses on several occasions at night. This made Huallpa particularly depressed because a similar object had been observed a few days before the death of his father, Huayna Capac. This comet was evidently not of the ordinary kind, at least in the opinion of Huallpa, who was accustomed to heavenly phenomena. Besides, comets are not “greenish-black!”

  Tupac Huallpa was executed on 29 August 1533.

  Source: Inca Gracilaso de la Vega, Historia General del Perú (1617), Book I, Chapter XXXIV.

  175.

  31 May 1536, Monte Stella, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy Apparition, with a message

  Antonio de’ Antoni, a poor deaf-mute shepherd of Gardone Val Trompia, was reciting the rosary while his flock was grazing. Suddenly there came before his eyes a light more intense than the Sun, in the middle of which the Virgin appeared with Jesus in her arms. Dressed in a simple way, she wanted the shepherds to build a temple there.

  Antonio went off and described the event to everyone he knew, and when he returned the site was “illuminated by the beams of an overhanging star.” Pope Paul III gave the place a consecrated status, and construction was completed in 1539.

  Source: Marino Gamba, Apparizioni mariane nel corso di due millenni (Udine: Ediz. Il Segno, 1999).

  176.

  1537, near Florence, Italy

  Benvenuto Cellini’s “enormous splendor”

  In his autobiography well-known artist Benvenuto Cellini relates the following:

  Fig. 14: Benvenuto Cellini

  “On horseback, we were coming back from Rome. Suddenly people cried ‘Oh God what is that great thing we see over Florence.’ It was a great object of fire, twinkling and emitting enormous splendor…”

  Source: Benvenuto Cellini, Vita, 1558-1566, Book I, 89.

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  16 January 1538, Franconia, Thüringen, Germany Disk, melted metal

  A large “star” was seen in the sky and came down, emitting balls of fire that melted metal objects. Scholar Simon Goulart lists the case in his chronicles as follows:

  “It was seen in Franconia, between Bamberg and Thuringia Forest, a star of marvelous magnitude, which came lower gradually, and became a great white circle from which whirlwinds and clumps of fire emerged. When they fell onto the earth they melted the tips of spears, irons and horses’bits without hurting either men or buildings.”

  Source: Simon Goulart, Trésors d’Histoires Admirables et Mémorables de notre Temps (1600). Genève: P. Marceau (1610), 53-54. Jobus Fincelius, Wunderzeiche, Warhafftige Beschreybung und gründlich verzeichnuss schröcklicher Wunderzeichen und Geschichten (Jhena: Rödinger, 1556); Lycosthenes, op. cit., 563.

  178.

  15 May 1544, Nay, Béarn, France: Crashing object

  An object shaped like a fiery sword (variously described as “three fireballs”) hovered above the town, then fell and crushed a house with a frightening noise.

  Source: Pierre Boaistuau, Histoires Prodigieuses (1560), vol. II, 148.

  179.

  1546, Caranza near La Spezia, Italy: Disk changes color

  A manuscript by the chronicler, Father Antonio Cesena, found in the public library at La Spezia, tells of farmers reporting “a strange disk, changing from yellow to red, with red fireballs shining beneath it”. It was seen in two separate areas including the small village of Caranza, near Passo del Bocco “from time to time.”

  Cesena interpreted the sighting as a portent of the death later that year of Count Luigi Fieschi, the governor of Varese Ligure.

  Source: Antonio Cesena, Relatione dell’origine e sucessi della terra di Varese (1558). The original manuscript is lost but a copy made in 1683 is still held by the Bibioteca della Società Economica di Chiavari (ms. Z VI 29).

  180.

  24 April 1547, Halberstadt, Saxony, Germany: Black sphere

  A black ball-shaped object was seen, apparently “emerging from the middle of the moon” and flying fast towards the North.

  Source: Simon Goulart, Trésors d’Histoires Admirables et Mémorables de notre Temps (1600); Jobus Fincelius, Wunderzeiche, Warhafftige Beschreybung und gründlich verzeichnuss schröcklicher Wunderzeichen und Geschichten. (Jhena: Rödinger, 1556); Lycosthenes, op. cit., 595.

  181.

  13 November 1547, Near Rome, Italy

  Strange objects fly over

  A rod and a cross appeared in the sky at 3 P.M., with a bird-like object above them. The weather was clear and the sky was calm. The objects were seen for three days.

  The event is depicted in a German broadsheet in the Johann Jacob Wick’s collection, held by the Zürich Zentralbibliothek.

  Source: Jobus Fincelius, Wunderzeiche, Warhafftige Beschreybung und gründlich verzeichnuss schröcklicher Wunderzeichen und Geschichten (Jhena: Rödinger, 1556); Erschreckliche unerhorte warhafftige Gesichten so gesehen ist zu Rhom… (Strassburg: Jakob Frölich, 1547), ZB PAS II 12/29.

  182.

  15 December 1547, Hamburg, Germany

  Heat-generating globe

  “The sailors of Hamburg saw in the air, at midnight, a glistening globe fiery like the Sun, rolling towards the northern part. Its rays were so hot that passengers could not remain inside the ships, but were forced to hide and take cover, thinking that their vessels were about to burn.”

  Source: Simon Goulart, Trésors d’Histoires Admirables et Mémorables de notre Temps (1600); Fincelius, Jobus, op. cit.; Lycosthenes, op. cit., 595.

  183.

  28 June 1548, Oettingen, Bavaria

  Flying vehicles, red flames

  The sky became darker and about twenty flying “vehicles” were seen coming and going above the houses, along with red flames. The witness says he saw the phenomenon on two occasions: on 28 June and on 26 July 1548.

  Source: Bruno Weber, Wunderzeichen und winkeldrucker, 1543-1586, Urs Graf Verlag (Zürich: Dietikon, 1972), 93.

  184.

  19 June 1550, near Trebnitz, Saxony, Germany

  Bloody rain, split sun

  The people of Saxonia, near Wittemberg, beheld a strange sight, according to Boaistuau in Histoires Prodigieuses. A great cross appeared in the sky, surrounded by two large armies that made a lot of noise while they fought. Blood fell to the ground like rain and the sun split in two, one piece of which seemed to drop to the earth.

  Boaistuau drew this story from Lycosthenes, who in turn took it from Fincelius. Lycosthenes made an error in the date and location, but we were fortunate in finding a contemporary broadsheet from 1550 that depicts and describes the phenomenon just as Fincelius wrote.

  Source: Jobus Fincelius, op. cit.; Ein new streydtbars / grausam / glaubhafftigs wonderzeychen / so dieses Fünfftzig (…) Junij / am himel gesehen worden ist (Nürnberg: Stephan Hamer, 1550?), GNM Nürnbergt. HB 2795/1204.

  185.

  15 October 1550, Biubiu River, Chile

  The Lady from the Comet

  Pedro de Valdivia (1500-1554), a conquistador who went to America to seek fame and fortune, fought for Francisco Pizarro in the Battle of Salinas, and later headed the conquest of Chile in 1540, founding Santiago del Nuevo Extremo (nowadays Santiago) the following year, Concepción in 1550 and the city of Valdivia in 1552, before his death at the hands of the Araucan Indians.

  Valdivia left very few written documents, but one of these, an “instruction” addressed to his representatives at the Court, dated October 15th 1550, mentions two mysterious figures that appeared to the Mapuche Indians shortly before an attack. The beings, a beautiful woman and an old man on a horse, both dressed in white, had come to warn the Indians that they would perish if they tried to retaliate. When the first visitor, the woman, had disappeared, the devil himself intervened to reiterate the message!

  Valdivia made two reports, one of which, the most complete of the two, he sent to the king Charles V on the same day. This is what the conquistador wrote:

  “And it seems our God wants to use His immortality for his divine cult to be honored in it and for the devil to come out from where he has been worshipped for so long; thus, according to the native Indians, the day they came upon this fort of ours, at the same time as those that rode on horseback assaulted them, there fell in the middle of the squadrons an old man on a white horse, and he told them:

  “‘Flee all of you, these Christians will slaughter you,’ and their fright was so great that they began to flee. They [the Indians] told more: that three days before this, [when the Indians were] passing the Biubiu river to overcome us, a comet fell among them, on Saturday at midday, which was seen by many Christians at our fort as it traveled with greater brightness than other comets, and from which, once fallen, a beautiful woman came out, also dressed in white, who told them: ‘Serve the Christians, don’t go against them because they are very brave and will kill you all.’

  And when she went, the devil came, their chief, and he told them to gather a large multitude of people, and that he would come with them, because, on seeing so many of us together, we would drop dead with fear; and thus they proceeded with their journey.”

  Source: Pedro de Valdivia. Cartas (1552) in Crónicas del Reino de Chile (Madrid: Atlas, 1960).

  186.

  Circa 1551, Morbecque, France

  Sex with the Devil: A flying contactee condemned to die

  A woman named Jacquemine Deickens, the wife of Hirache, was accused of sorcery after a being (thought to be the Devil) appeared to her as she was milking the cows.

  She was said to have known him carnally, and received a mark on her back, below the left shoulder blade, which proved her guilt. Every three or four weeks she flew out of her house to meet with other witches at the crossroads in front of the house of Mr. Pierre Depours, there to dance and partake of a feast with many demons.

  She was tried and executed in 1557.

 
Source: Claude Seignolle, Les Evangiles du Diable selon la croyance populaire (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1964), 245.

  187.

  1551, near Waldstadt, Germany

  Woman taken up by the devil and dropped from the sky

  A woman who had uttered some blasphemies during a drinking party was taken up in the air by the devil “in the presence of everyone.” The witnesses rushed out to watch where she was carried. They saw her hovering up in the sky outside the village, after which she dropped and was found dead in the middle of a field.

  Source: Dr. Jean Wier, Histoires, disputes et discours des illusions et impostures des diables, des magiciens, infâmes, sorciers et empoisonneurs, le tout compris en 5 livres. Translated from the Latin, ca. 1577.

  188.

  3 January 1551, Lisbon, Portugal:

  Flying red cylinders

  Red cylinders in the sky are rumored to have terrified the population. We note that another reference speaks of a “fiery meteor” seen on 28 January at the time of a great earthquake. In the absence of a precise source we cannot say if confusion exists between the two reports.

  Source: H. Wilkins, Flying Saucers on the Attack (New York: Ace Books, 1967), 183. We have found no original reference for this event.

  189.

  March 1551, Magdeburg, Germany

  A phenomenon scares an Emperor

  Three suns were seen in the sky. Emperor Charles Quint decides to halt the siege of the city. In the absence of more information, these may have been parhelia. Historians report that “The emperor Charles V laid siege to it; but was prevailed upon to withdraw his army for a great sum of money…”

  Source: Rev. Alban Butler, “Life of Saint Norbert” in The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, vol. 6 (New York: D. & J. Sadlier, & Company, 1864).

  190.