UFO Mysteries: Passport To Magonia Part Two

Again from Jacques Vallee's, Passport To Magonia: "Paracelsus was probably born in 1491, and in the very same year Facius Cardan recorded his observations of seven strange visitors directly related to the creatures of the elements who were so puzzling to the great philosophers. The incident is preserved in the writings of his son, Jerome Cardan (1501-1576), who is well known to us today as a mathematician. Jerome Cardan lived in Milan and was not only a mathematician but also an occulist and a physician. In his book De Subtilitate, Cardan explains that he had often heard his father tell the particular story and finally searched for his record of the event, which reads as follows: August 13, 1491. When I had completed the customary rites, at about the twentieth hour of the day, seven men duly appeared to me clothed in silken garments, resembling Greek togas, and wearing, as it were, shining shoes. The undergarments beneath their glistening and ruddy breastplates seemed to be wrought of crimson and were of extraordinary beauty.

Nevertheless, all were not dressed in this fashion, but only two who seemed to be of nobler rank than the others. The taller of them who was of ruddy complexion was attended by two companions, and the second who was fairer and of shorter stature, by three. Thus in all there were seven. He left no record as to whether their heads were covered. They were about forty years of age, but they did not appear to be above thirty. When asked who they were, they said that they were men composed, as it were, of air, and subject to birth and death. It was true that their lives were much longer than hours, and might even reach three hundred years duration. Questioned on the immortality of our soul, they affirmed that nothing survives which is peculiar to the individual...When my father asked them why they did not reveal treasures to men if they knew where they were, they answered that it was forbidden by a peculiar law under the heaviest penalties for anyone to communicate this knowledge to men. They remained with my father for over three hours. But when he questioned them as to the cause of the universe they were not agreed. The tallest of them denied that God had made the world from eternity. On the contrary, the other added that God created it from moment to moment, so that should he desist for an instant the world would perish...Be this fact or fable, so it stands.

At the end of Passport to Magonia, before the huge appendix section of that book begins, Jacques Vallee has some great thoughts about the UFO phenomenon that I think are very much remarking on here: "To conclude, let us remark that the density (timewise) of UFO manifestations is not decreasing. Let us also note that knowledge of the structure of time would imply superior knowledge of destiny (I am using the word "destiny" to designate not the fate of individuals but the mechanism through which physical events unfold and the canvas upon which they are implemented). Perhaps I should remind the reader of two points we have touched on earlier: (1) the relativity of time in Magonia, a theory passed on to us in numerous tales we have reviewed; and (2) that astonishing little remark made by a sylph to Facius Cardan, which antedates quantum theory by four centuries: "He added that God created [the universe] from moment to moment, so that should he desist for an instant the world would perish."

As Jerome Cardan says, "Be this fact or fable, so it stands." I cannot offer the key to this mystery. I can only repeat: the search may be futile; the solution may lie forever beyond our grasp; the apparent logic of out most elementary deductions may evaporate. Perhaps what we search for is no more than a dream that, becoming part of our lives, never existed in reality. We cannot be sure that we study something real, because we do not know what reality is; we can only be sure that our study will help us understand more, far more, about ourselves. This is not a worthless task, and this idea gives me comfort, as I leave you with the lines of Milton:
I took it for a faery vision
Of some gay creatures of the element
That in the colours of the rainbow live
And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awestruck
And as I passed, I worshipped; if those you seek
It were a journey like the path to heaven
To help you find them.

I hope anyone reading these posts has enjoyed them. The major reason I wanted to put them here is to give a kind of boost to the series I want to start on Thursday or Friday. I don't know about anyone else, but this information from Passport To Magonia really got my imagination going; as to the question of whether beings from other realms, planes, dimensions or even frequencies of existence could be real and what form they might take. Thanks again for all of your kind, thoughtful and intelligent comments. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!