Keeping love is much harder than creating it. Creating is always easier than keeping. Yes, starting a relationship can be hard, all of the feelings, learning that person, trying to combine your personalities and thoughts into a cohesive relationship, all of that is hard. But maintaining it over 5, 10, 30 years is even harder. The amount of effort and time needed to maintain it for long periods of time is often overlooked. I know a lot of newer witches will go straight towards love potions or spells to try and real their partner back in should things begin to wrong in the relationship but honestly, relationships are complicated and far transcend the abilities of magic.
We have a mindset, a belief if you will, that everything should just stay the same. “I loved how things were when we first met”, “Remember how we used to spend our time on the weekends?”, “Our first dates were so much more fun than they are now”. People want to recreate those feelings and times. They wish they were back in that time again. Life becomes about reliving old memories than building new memories. This can be a huge mistake in life because we become stuck in the nostalgia of the past, glued to how things used to be, when sometimes they weren’t even that great when they were happening, that we have deluded ourselves into recreating memories instead of creating new memories. Things can become stagnant and that is when we begin to think about spells and such to ‘get back what was lost’ so to speak.
Once we have completed school, college included, we have no real way to measure growth anymore, nor much reason found to do so. Up until that point there was growth in your life: exams, classes, graduation to the next level. Afterwards, you practically live the same life, year after year. If you don’t set new growth, new targets, new organic milestones, life becomes boring and immeasurable. That repetition becomes a hindrance on our happiness as our brains are always craving new stimuli. This is the same thing that happens after you have been dating for a long period of time, the same thing that happens after marriage, and the same thing that happens after you move in with someone. You lose that next organic milestone. And once you become compliant and used to the usual, when a change does happen, good or bad, it puts stress on a relationship.
It is important to expect a relationship to change, because we as people, will change, every one of us. And hope for it to change. And work to make it change. A lot of people consider their wedding day as the day that they found the one and are now going to be with that person forever. But in reality, it is a starting line, not a finish line. With a normal race, you know the course. With marriage or any relationship, you have no idea what you will encounter so there is a lot of learning and growth that NEEDS to take place in order to be successful.
Expect to be challenged, expect to fail, and expect to overcome those challenges. If you believe everything will be perfect, you are setting yourself up for a greater downfall vs. knowing that we are not perfect and our relationship is not perfect. When things go wrong, you will need to pivot and potentially change directions with where it is headed. Saying “From today onwards, everything is going to be perfect. You are going to do X, Y, and Z and I am going to do X, Y, and Z and everything will work out” is great. Only, that isn’t how relationships work. Relationships ARE work.
Many times, it feels as if we were made to believe that if you aren’t with someone you can’t feel love but that just is not true. One of the greatest forms of love, and the most foundational, is love for ourselves. Self-love. Love for our self comes from self-respect. Love starts with respect. Being alone well is an art form. Sadly, growing up we are told only other people can provide the love we are looking for and that is one of the biggest reasons so many of us feel lonely or jaded about love. When people don’t live up to our expectations, we feel let down. Learning to love yourself can help mitigate this and gain insight on what you both want and need. Learning to navigate your personal relationships will deepen them and create stronger, more lasting bonds. Spells are great and can enhance what you have created but only your own personal efforts will truly create love and keep it in your life.
Truly, I am blessed to have amazingly supportive and loving friends in my life. One of my girlfriends is very much like me in that she is trying to really pinpoint her home’s aesthetic and sometimes purchases items that no longer serve her. As it so happens, this awesome piece is one of them.
It definitely matches my home’s aesthetic and my personality more so of course I took it happily! I love her so much. She had just recently moved down here to San Antonio and so it was a bit dusty but that was easy enough to clean up for sure! After wiping it down, I turned it into my husband’s new gaming snack station. There is no place to actually put in .25c everything he grabbed a snack BUT, if there was, I would be rich and able to retire tomorrow.
I hope everyone has the opportunity to make friends and receive unique and delightful gifts that support their home so perfectly. Thanks again, Bestie!
These days, there are so many expectations and rules and people will not hesitate to judge you. They judge your craft, your knowledge of topics, whether you believe in the rule of 3 or not, your opinions on religion, and the list goes on. But these are all part of what makes you, you! If you need help, go ahead and ask! If you do things your way, awesome! If you are struggling to get things done and aren’t able to finish, rest assured that it happens. Never feel guilty for being you in this world! Life is hard enough without guilt weighing down your shoulders. All of these things are going to affect your mental health and then eventually, your physical health and wellbeing. Take this time now to forgive and control what you can and dismiss what you can’t.
Hop on that broom and go live the absolute best life that you can!
Ok but no really. May is mental health awareness month and although this is a meme, it honestly sounds like an amazing time. Minus the whole being undead thing, Vampires have it pretty good. Their stereotypical lifestyle translates to some great self-care. Sleep in late without any regrets and allow yourself a chance to rest and catch up on what you missed during the work week, then sit down for a warm cup of tea or maybe even warm spiced wine or mulled cider, wrap yourself up in a weighted blanket while surrounded by candles so you can read your favorite book undisturbed and it sounds to me like you have a recipe for self-care. Or a vampire. Or both. Which you identify it as.
I know I have been absent for the last few weeks. I have had a lot going on in my personal life and luckily for me, some of it is fantastic! Some days it is hard to get out of bed, some days it is hard to eat because you are not hungry, and some days it is hard just to EXIST. Those days will come and go and we will continue trying to be the best most magical version of ourselves we can. To anyone who is struggling with mental health, finances, physical health, their job, or even relationships, I see you. I see you trying hard and making it day by day and that is wonderful! Just keep on going because things will get better. I am finally back so look forward to more posts in the future! Not just Tarot spreads! I promise!
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it is finally time to put up the Yule tree! If you are anything like me, you probably store seasonal decorations in a closet or the garage. Clutter tends to overwhelm our minds, make our homes look smaller, collect dust, and become an eye sore in general. Take this time while you are putting away your fall decorations and switching them for winter decorations to go through all of your seasonal items and maybe even a closet or two. Get rid of what you haven’t used! Get rid of what you know you won’t use. Styles change and so does weight. Never be embarrassed. Change is inevitable so embrace it and move on.
Fall cleaning is necessary! Clean your sacred space so that it will continue to support your mental health and keep your home running smoothly. Clutter creates chaos in the mind. It is hard for me because I ADORE pumpkins. I have so many glass, fabric, filled, light up, etc pumpkins…. but I know now that I have too many. And that is a fact. They are being stored in bins. That is too many.
My closet, and I do love clothes, was bursting and I just could not fit anything else in there. It was bursting and things couldn’t be hung up without something else falling. Something needed to be done and so, I pulled every last thing out and laid it on the bed. Then I cleaned the closet; swept, mopped, and dusted the entire thing. A little air freshener later and it was ready for things to be put back. I evaluated every single thing I owned and thought about the last time I wore it and the odds of when I would wear it again. Then I organized each item left over by type: dresses, formal, workout, witchy, random, etc. I HAD SO MUCH ROOM! And a very large pile for donation. Yes I was sad about wasted money but each time I do this, it is a good lesson for me and my wallet to really consider if I need to buy that thing or is this just retail therapy because I am depressed? Depression sucks and shopping makes me feel better. Sometimes, I get things I don’t need because of that serotonin boost I would get by buying and a second boost when it arrived and I got to open the box.
To go one step further, I have bought new hangers. All of my hangers were blue and I felt the need to change it up a little to match my aesthetic a little better. I found some lovely grey hangers and now I am switching them out as I wear each item. Once it has been laundered and is ready to be hung up, that is when I switch it to grey. Very quickly I am going to know which items I still don’t touch and which ones I do. This will help me do a second purge. I’ve even seen some people turn all the hangers around to face a different direction and at the end of the year they donate everything still flipped around. It’s a great idea and if it works for you, then hell yeah! I am very color specific and I hate backwards hanging things. It is awkward and looks terrible in my mind’s eye. But the hangers aren’t going to waste because my husband needs more hangers (he is always short hangers) so my old ones will still get used. I don’t feel like I am throwing away money and I am decluttering an often messy part of my home. I feel like I am winning and when the seasonal depression hits, those little wins can make all the difference between a manic episode and being able to keep on going.
I hope none of you suffer from seasonal depression but if you do, try this out and see if it helps! Use essential oils and candles afterwards to really uplift your spirit.
Has doing something like this ever helped you out? Let me know what you do in the comments!
This is our final MAINSTREAM services that you see most often. I will have two bonus services next time with their very own list as well! I’ve seen 5 of this list so not terrible but definitely room for improvement! Let’s get to it!
I’ve only seen 2 out of this list and unlike the other lists, I don’t recognize a great deal of the movies listed here. Clearly I have a long way to catch up!
What movies do you want to see the most from these lists?
International Archaeology Day (IAD) is a celebration of archaeology and its contributions to society. Every October the AIA and archaeological organizations around the world present archaeological programs and activities for people of all ages and interests. Whether it is a family-friendly archaeology fair, a guided tour of a local archaeological site, a simulated dig, or a presentation from a visiting archaeologist, the interactive, hands-on IAD programs provide a chance to uncover the past and experience the thrill of discovery which I think is absolutely amazing and wonderful. Many Pagans of today are able to experience our religion due to the efforts of archaeology helping us to piece together
I feel that we owe a lot to archeology and peoples’ love of history, the past, respect for cultures, and uncovering mysteries has heavily contributed to the progress and evolution of archeology. 100 years ago it was perfectly ok to use dynamite to get into a chamber, nowadays that is absolutely unheard. These days, CT scans, MRIs, ground penetrating sonar, and patience contribute to discovering the past in the most non invasive ways possible.
Without history, translations, religious studies, and many people far smarter than I, I would not be able to appreciate my pagan roots or religion properly. So here is my personal shout out to IAD! Donate to your local historic society, cemetery, museum, or national archeologic organization today if you can to celebrate. Or go potter around digging in the ground or a creek! Because that works too! 😀
A lot of folks have probably been seeing the FB posts and Tiktoks of all of the amazing items coming to stores. Joanns hooked me up with this weekend and I loved it! My bestie and I went shopping and I am now a very happy witch. Have you guys seen any Code Oranges lately? If so, let me know where so I can go there next!
I hope every single person who identifies with the LGBTQ+ community is able to live safely and happily, accepted by everyone around them! Never be afraid to be your most authentic self no matter how difficult that may be!
It is important to take care of all those people in our lives, no matter how they identify. 43% of LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness have been forced out of their homes due to conflicts with their families about their sexuality and/or gender. There are many resources our there to help you if you are struggling as a member of the community or if you are interested in understanding the community. I hope that if even 1 person benefits from one of these resources, then this post will have been more than worth it!
The Trevor Project provides information & support to LGBTQ young people 24/7, all year round.
GLAAD– the world’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization – increases media accountability and community engagement that ensures authentic LGBTQ stories are seen, heard, and actualized. Founded in 1985, GLAAD is a non-profit organization focused on LGBTQ advocacy and cultural change. GLAAD works to ensure fair, accurate, and inclusive representation and creates national and local programs that advance LGBTQ acceptance.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is focused on sharing and expanding suicide prevention strategies, programs, research initiatives, and public policies to prevent suicide in LGBTQ communities and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQ people. Survey data suggests that individuals who identify as LGBT are at greater risk for suicide attempts.
Trans Lifeline’s Hotline is a peer support phone service run by trans people for our trans and questioning peers. Call if you need someone trans to talk to, even if you’re not in crisis or if you’re not sure you’re trans.
Texas is known for being quite warm and it is already getting toasty here. I cannot WAIT for Spooky Season because that means Fall is coming and my favorite décor will be in stores again. For everyone who is out there melting, stay hydrated, stay cool, and stay magical!
My sweet precious baby boy has finally passed away after dealing with a lot of health complications from old age and it took me a while to be able to write about it. One of the little cats from my cauldron has crossed the rainbow bridge and left us for now. It was easily the absolute hardest thing I have ever had to deal with. I had him for a very long time and he was 14 and a half years when he passed. I couldn’t be more grateful to have had him in my life. He helped my mental health in so many ways. I absolutely miss his sweet meow, his warm cuddles, and his happy chirpy greetings the second I walk in the door.
I miss him very much and my husband had a lot of trouble dealing as well. Niku was such a joy in our lives and he is absolutely missed. He left us peacefully with the two of us holding his paws and petting him.
We received his ashes back and a sweet pawprint. Each day, we try to light an incense in his memory because he was such a huge part of our life. My husband got me a wind chime for the door and every time we hear it, we think of Niku.
Hanging coffins are a unique burial ritual where coffins that have been placed on cliffs for their final ‘burial’. This practice spans across many cultures including China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. I think it is important to explore the burials and funerary practices of different cultures so that you can better understand their thinking and ways of life.
China:
Hanging coffins in China are known in Mandarin as xuanguan which also means “hanging coffin”. They are an ancient funeral custom of some ethnic minorities. The oldest are said to be in the eastern province of Fujian, dating back 3,000 years. The most famous hanging coffins are those which were made by the Bo people (now extinct) of Sichuan and Yunnan. The coffins are found across a swathe of central China – mostly in remote valleys to the south of the mighty Yangtze River, which flows from the Himalayan foothills to China’s eastern coast.
Coffins of various shapes were mostly carved from one whole piece of wood. The coffins rest in a variety of formations, sometimes barely visible from the ground below. They’re lined up in the crevices in the cliff face, balanced on wooden cantilevered stakes, placed in rectangular spaces hewn in the rock face or stacked high up in caves.
The Bo people were one of the non-Han peoples native to southern China prior to Qin-Han conquests southward. The sparse descriptions of them in Chinese records describe them as being a prosperous farming culture who were also accomplished horsemen. They became victims of genocide by the Ming Dynasty in 1573 AD and are effectively extinct. Their language, rituals, and behaviors are unknown to archaeologists. There is a possibility, however, that the Ku people of Qiubei in southern Yunnan are surviving descendants of the Bo.
Hanging coffins in a cave in Guizhou, southwest China.
Some of the Ku people also practice hanging coffins. People with the surname “He” in Yunnan are also believed locally to be descendants of the Bo. The reasons for the hanging coffins of the Bo people are unknown, because no Bo people are left. It’s thought they disappeared in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), persecuted by military expeditions led by China’s Imperial Armies. Ancient literature from the Tang Dynasty suggests that the higher the coffins were placed, the greater the show of filial piety to the deceased. Others say the reasoning was more practical: It prevented animals from poaching the bodies and kept land free to farm.
The site in Washi, Yunnan.
Aside from the hanging coffins of the Bo, there are also several other hanging coffin sites found throughout China from differing time periods. They are also similarly mysterious, with the peoples responsible for them now either extinct or Sinicized.
The oldest coffins dated back to the Tang dynasty but many contained bones from multiple bodies. It is believed the bodies would have been buried first and the bones put in the hanging coffins once the bodies had decomposed. The coffins, which were dug out of a solid piece of wood, were then packed with sand – making them enormously heavy.
In a region where caves and cliffs are plentiful, burying the dead at a height might have seemed a better option than in land that erodes easily and is prone to sinkholes. There were up to 100 cave coffin sites in the province. The open-air burials do have something in common with other funerary practices in China’s borderlands. Tibetans and Mongolians practice sky burials – where bodies are chopped up and offered to vultures or other animals.
Guizhou cave
In 1999, at one of the most famous hanging coffin sites in Matangba, Sichuan it was discovered that many of the coffins had been looted – despite being some 90 meters above the ground and being protected as “national cultural relics.” The items allegedly included ancient swords and other valuables.
Banknotes have also been left by more recent visitors to the site, a superstitious offering for the dead, though not all visitors are respectful – one skull had a cigarette jutting out of its jaw. In a steep gorge down river, local tourist authorities have erected fake hanging coffins – perhaps an effort to satiate tourist curiosity and preserve the existing site.
Philippines:
Cliff burial site in Sagada, Luzon in the Philippines.
Hanging coffins are one of the funerary practices among the Kankanaey people of Sagada, Mountain Province, in the island Luzon of the Philippines. They have not been studied by archaeologists, so the exact age of the coffins is unknown, though they are believed to be centuries old. The coffins are placed underneath natural overhangs, either on natural rock shelves/crevices or on projecting beams slotted into holes dug into the cliff-side.
The coffins are small because the bodies inside the coffins are in a fetal position. This is due to the belief that people should leave the world in the same position as they entered it, a tradition common throughout the various pre-colonial cultures of the Philippines. The coffins are usually carved by their eventual occupants during their lifetimes.
The elderly carve their own coffins out of hollowed logs. If they are too weak or ill, their families prepare their coffins instead. When someone dies, pigs and chickens are traditionally butchered for community celebrations. For elderly people, tradition dictates this should be three pigs and two chickens, but those who cannot afford to butcher so many animals may butcher two chickens and one pig. The number must always be three or five.
The deceased is then placed on a wooden sangadil, or death chair, and the corpse is tied with rattan and vines, and then covered with a blanket. It is thereafter positioned facing the main door of the house for relatives to pay their respects. The cadaver is smoked to prevent fast decomposition and as a means to conceal its rotting smell. The vigil for the dead is held for a number of days, after which the corpse is removed from the death chair to be carried to the coffin. Before being taken for burial, it is secured in the fetal position, with the legs pushed up towards the chin. It is then wrapped again in a blanket and tied with rattan leaves while a small group of men chip holes into the side of the cliff to hammer in the support for the coffin.
The corpse is wrapped like a basketball”, says Soledad, “on the way there, mourners do their best to grab it and carry it because they believe it is good luck to be smeared with the dead’s blood.” The fluids from the corpse are thought to bring success and to pass on the skills of the deceased to those who come into contact with them during the funeral procession.
When the procession reaches the burial site, young men climb up the side of the cliff and place the corpse inside the coffin (sometimes breaking their bones in the process of fitting them in), which is then sealed with vines.
The Sagada people have been practicing such burials for over 2,000 years. It was reserved only for distinguished or honorable leaders of the community. They must have performed acts of merit, made wise decisions, and led traditional rituals during their lifetimes. There is also one documented case of a woman being accorded the honor of a hanging coffin interment.
The newest coffins measure to about two metres. These days, coffins are long because the relatives of the deceased are afraid to break the bones of their loved ones. Very few choose to follow that tradition now. Eventually the coffins deteriorate and fall from their precarious positions.
Despite their popularity, hanging coffins are not the main funerary practice of the Kankanaey. Today, Sagada’s elders are among the last practitioners of these ancient rituals. Younger generations have adopted modern ways of life and are influenced by the country’s profound Christian beliefs. Children want to remember their grandparents but they prefer to bury them in the cemetery and visit their tombs on All Saints Day. You can’t climb and visit the hanging coffins. It’s a tradition that is slowly coming to an end.
The height at which their coffins are placed reflects their social status. The reason the coffins were hung was due to the belief that the higher the dead were placed, the greater chance of their spirits reaching a higher nature in the afterlife. Many of the locations of the coffins are difficult to reach (and obviously should be left alone out of respect), but can be appreciated from afar.
The more common burial custom of the Kankanaey is for coffins to be tucked into crevices or stacked on top of each other inside limestone caves. Like in hanging coffins, the location depends on the status of the deceased as well as the cause of death. All of these burial customs require specific pre-interment rituals known as the sangadil. The Kankanaey believe that interring the dead in caves or cliffs ensures that their spirits (anito) can roam around and continue to protect the living.
Indonesia:
Hanging coffins (liang tokek, literally “hanging burial”) is one of the funerary practices of the Toraja people of Sulawesi, either for primary or secondary burials. The distinctively boat-shaped coffins, known as erong, are always placed below overhanging parts of the cliff-face. These can be natural overhangs or cave openings, but some coffins are placed beneath man-made overhangs. They are guarded by carved wooden representations of the dead known as tau-tau. Older tau-tau are more abstract, but more modern tau-tau can be quite lifelike. The reasoning for their placement is to discourage looters who might steal the items interred with the dead.
Like the hanging coffins of the Philippines, liang tokek accounts for only a minority of the region’s funerary practices. Liang tokek were reserved for the “founders” of the village and thus are among the oldest dated coffins, dating to around 780 AD. They were part of burial complexes which include other kinds of interment practices, usually differing based on the social class and age of the dead. These complexes are believed by the Torajans to be abodes of spirits of the dead in the afterlife.
The more common types of ancient burial were the liang sillik and liang erong which were cave burials; with the latter utilizing coffins (erong), while the former does not. Other more recent burial customs include liang pak (tombs carved into walls), tangdan (house-shaped tombs for noblemen, usually placed on hilltops), and liang patane (house-shaped tombs for commoners).
There are mysteries and legends everywhere in the world. Many have tried to uncover the legend of a library with metal books so large, one man cannot life one alone.
Milan, Italy was the birthplace of Father Carlos Crespi Croci. Born in 1891 and dying in 1982, he was a Salesian monk that he was, he dedicated his life to saying prayers and pursuing charity work. He resided in a small town of Cuenca in Ecuador. The native inhabitants and the tribes of the region as a gesture of thanks gave him ancient artifacts, depictions of amazing figures which associate America to Sumeria, loads of gold, symbols which hint to an unknown language, and more than 50,000 other objects.
They gave him so many artifacts throughout his 60 years of being a missionary in Ecuador that he displayed them and opened a local museum for all to see. Father Crespi opened the museum in association with the Vatican and the Salesian School in Cuenca, which became one of the largest museums in Ecuador.
Some of the artifacts show pyramids similar to the pyramids found in Egypt. Some also show possible god-like figures made of gold and silver, along with other materials that suggest mix of cultures or an ancient people that history does not talk about. Many of these artifacts suggest that they are Babylonian or Egyptian in heritage. Some disagree and call them something else even going so far as to insinuate possible alien technology.
After some time, however, the museum was burnt down. There have been rumors both that the artifacts were destroyed and after the passing of Father Crespi, they were shipped to the Vatican. He was able to save most of his artifacts and for the next 15 or so years, he stored them in rooms and the hallway of his living quarters. He kept all of his artifacts safe until he died in 1982. The village people were very broken hearted that he died and they left his things the way he did. Many of the pieces were robbed from his home over the next 30 years.
However, much of the collection is still stored at the Central Bank of Ecuador. The collection holds authentic and precious artifacts: weapons, ceramic jewelry, religious icons, oversized tablets, plates, doors, decorations, statues, pottery, and the like. However, there are no golden metal plates.
In the mid 1960s a prospector named Juan Moricz was trekking into the dangerous jungle of the Andes Mountains and made a discovery that caught the world’s attention. He found an entrance to a massive cave. The words he used were “An endless cave” to describe what he explored. After some length of time, he found a section of the cave that had man-made structures, carved into the walls. While admiring this section of the cave he found a collection of gold and silver tablets, panels, books, and more. He believed that this was a priceless treasure, or some will say a library made of gold, with all the knowledge of the past. He mentioned that the symbols on these artifacts and books had pictures and symbols of pyramids and more.
The researchers, historians and the analysts have been working for years to find out the age and origin of the items gifted to the humble priest. Erich von Däniken wrote in his 1973 book The Gold of the Gods that János Juan Móricz (1923–1991) had claimed to have explored Cueva de los Tayos in 1969 and discovered mounds of gold, unusual sculptures and a metallic library. It was also said in the book that the Metal library has thousands of books, with metallic pages and inscriptions, symbols and designs.
These items were said to be in artificial tunnels that had been created by a lost civilization with help from extraterrestrial beings. Von Däniken had previously claimed in his 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods, that extraterrestrials were involved in ancient civilizations
Father Crespi had his collection around the same time that Juan found the cave. The people that now know both stories, believed that Juan found the cave that the local tribe was guarding, and offered gifts to their friend, Father Crespi.
Neil Armstrong (the astronaut) heard about Father’s Crespi‘s collection and he traveled down to see them. It wasn’t long until people came to the realization that points to one fact; these artifacts must have come from a nearby area, and the local tribes know of their whereabouts.
People started to research and even though the village people were closed-mouthed of the location of more artifacts and where they came from, people learned of a great mystery. The local tribespeople knew of an ancient site that they deemed spiritual and secret. People started to learn that these modern day village people knew of a great underground city that they have been protecting for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
After further inquiring, people learned that the local people were not as friendly about this story and inquiries as they thought. These village people gave the gifts to Father Crepsi out of love and respect but these local tribes didn’t want outsiders to learn about the ancient site.
As a result of the claims published in von Däniken’s book, an investigation of Cueva de los Tayos was organized by Stan Hall of Scotland, in 1976. One of the largest and most expensive cave explorations ever undertaken, the expedition involved over a hundred people, including experts in a variety of fields, British and Ecuadorian military personnel, a film crew, and former American astronaut Neil Armstrong.
The team also included eight experienced British cavers who thoroughly explored the cave and conducted an accurate survey to produce a detailed map of it. There was no evidence of Von Däniken’s more exotic claims, although some physical features of the cave did approximate his descriptions and some items of zoological, botanical, and archaeological interest were found.
In this cave system, they did find man-made structures, carved tunnels, rooms, and more. It was an exciting find. Newspapers and magazines wrote about the discoveries and the world thought that the collection of artifacts from this lost civilization would be found. The hunt wasn’t unsuccessful but Neil and his group didn’t find the lost treasure that they were hoping to find. The lead researcher met with an indigenous source, who claimed that they had investigated the wrong cave, and that the real cave was secret.
The cave system of Cueva de los Tayos (Spanish, “Cave of the Oilbirds”) is a cave located on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains in the Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador. . It is large but many think that the cave has been explored fairly well in the last decade. Some believe that the cave is much larger than many have explored.
The cave is used by the native Shuar people who descend into the cave each spring using vine ladders and bamboo torches to collect fledgling oilbirds (“guácharos” or “tayos” in Spanish). Written references to the cave go back as far as 1860 and it was visited by gold-seekers and military personnel in the 1960s.
Many reports have talked about the cave going for miles and miles vs what people are saying is only 2.5 miles long. If this is true then perhaps many explorers including Neil Armstrong, did find the correct cave system but didn’t find the right passageway to the artifacts. Many caves have several different entrances, chambers, tunnels, and passages.
A Google search for Cueva de los Tayos takes you to a cave entrance and what appears to be a tour that you can go on. This cave is likely to be the one that Neil Armstrong explored. It does have manmade structures inside but it has a big descent at the beginning of the entrance. Neither Jaun nor any prospectors from the 60s mentioned that advanced climbing gear is needed to find the Metal Library so this is quite likely the wrong entrance if this is the correct cave.
Access to the cave is restricted. It is necessary to obtain permission (access and temporary visit) and pay a tax (designated to improve the communities) in Sucúa, Ecuador, at the Shuar Center Federation.
At the Maria Auxiliadora Church, where Father Crespi spent most of his time, you can view parts of the collection. Dr. Luis Alvarez curates the collection and when asked about the golden plates, he has said that those were just pieces of junk. The metallic plate is indeed not made of gold. They resembled modern day carvings on a metal sheet and so today the metallic library is suspected to be a hoax.
I know I haven’t been posting quite as much lately and I wanted to give you all and explanation as to why that is. On Samhain I was doing a happiness and prosperity manifestation spell and literally a moment later, both of my toilets and bathtubs backflowed waste water. Oh my gosh! How is that manifesting happiness and prosperity?! You might ask yourself. And if you look in the here and now, you might be correct. However, although it is a headache right at this moment, it is going to really help us out in the end.
My husband and I have had to learn to work together in ways that we have never had to before and although it has tested our patience greatly, we have also grown closer together as a couple as well. Was it frustrating? Oh absolutely. For sure. It cost us $23,000 in damages which took weeks to clean up and dry out. They even had to cut out a good portion of our walls! But the insurance is going to pay for just about all of it. I wanted to change out the subway tile, and it is covered. I wanted to redo all the floors, and it is covered. I wanted to paint a lot of the rooms of my house but just never found the time, and it is covered. New floors in 4 rooms, a new toilet, new vanities, and new shower stone walls, freshly painted rooms, and all of it is covered. We just have to pay the $2,000 deductible.
I would say that the $2,000 MORE than makes up for what is going to be done to our house and the short amount of time it will be completed in instead of myself and my husband having to do the work and pay for all of it over a long period of time, giving up our weekends to get the work done. It has put me in contact with quite a few really nice folks who offered to do other odd jobs around the house for extremely reasonable prices should I need them in the future. And on top of all that, it is going to raise the value of my home exponentially because my home was built in 85 and trust me when I say it LOOKS like it was built in 85. But the updates here are going to really help up its selling power when we move in about a year and a half.
While this was a chaotic and frustrating way to end 2022, I assure you that it will make 2023 that much more comfortable and 2024 that much more profitable when we finally sell our home to move. Did I want to deal with a renovation right this instant? Absolutely not. I would have preferred to time it. Am I going to be ok? You better believe it. Living is a little rough right now because everything had to be gutted but the walls have finally been put back in and materials are all ordered. Construction is in the process and the contractor is amazing and willing to work with our difficult schedules.
It is going to bring us both the prosperity and the happiness I had wanted because I will finally really love my home customized by me and the increased value from the fantastic updates we are able to add. We would never have been able to afford all these little projects I’ve wanted if this hadn’t happened. I know some folks get extremely frustrated with life and all it has to offer but when we consider the long term affects of what is happening around us, sometimes it is important to note that the good can vastly outweigh the bad despite it being what seems to be a bad situation. In this case, I was very lucky and I am manifesting a fantastic sacred space for myself and my husband. The kitties get to sniff all new smells and meet all new people and in the long run, we are killing it!
Not all manifestations happen that quickly. Some take months and some take years. But give yourself an opportunity to see the the different ways that you can be blessed even if at the time it doesn’t seem like a blessing! How are your dreams manifesting themselves? Tell me in the comments below! I would love to hear!
While I celebrate spooky season year around, the joy I get from being able to celebrate with friends and family who don’t normally is a blast. Tomorrow begins October and I will be having my official wedding to welcome in the spooky! A lot of people asked me why am I having my wedding on 1 October instead of 31 October and the reason is simple. I do a lot of ritual on that day. And while it is definitely awesome to get married on Halloween for the lovers of horror, spooky, and goth, a full on wedding and subsequent anniversaries will get in the way of my practice. So to compromise this and have a Fall wedding, we decided to get married on 1 October! This way we will be able to celebrate the way we want to without getting in the way of my craft.
What are your thoughts on getting married on 31 October? Let me know in the comments! I would love to hear your opionions!
Good Morning Witches! As one who does a lot of driving and enjoys awesome stories told by amusing women, I wanted to recommend the Witches, Magic, Murder, & Mystery podcast. I am about 50 episodes in and I realized that if I enjoy it this much, I really ought to recommend it to others who enjoy some of the same things as myself. They don’t do just true crime which I am, of course, a huge fan of. They talk about stories of witches throughout history, mythical creatures, true crime, and strange disappearances. Everything from the usual popular serial killers, less known killers, strange diseases, curses, Cryptids, aliens, historical legends, and Pagan customs. As of my writing this, there are over 170+ episodes to access.
You can listen to them through all types of media as well. It can be enjoyed on all platforms that support podcasts, YouTube, Instagram, and even Facebook:
Stories of ghost hauntings popularized by the Warrens have been adapted as or have indirectly inspired dozens of films, television series, and documentaries, including several films in the Amityville Horror series and the films in The Conjuring Universe. Over the years, several films and series have been released that are based in part or in full on the paranormal investigations or events that the Warrens are said to have witnessed and described. I absolutely love spooky movies and The Nun and Annabelle: Creation are 2 of my favorite white noise movies to play while I am cleaning the house. This does not sit too well with my husband who is terrified of these kinds of movies (why did he marry a witch then?!) but the influences from the Warrens’ original stories and the way the movies were portrayed was fantastic and I very much enjoyed them. Do I believe that these movies is exactly how it went down for the Warrens? Absolutely not. Hollywood tends to embellish some things. The more I researched though, the more it seemed that others do not believe the Warrens’ accounts either and find it to be merely a great story to tell for entertainment purposes.
The Perron Family Haunting
Their work also inspired horror movies like “The Conjuring” (2013). They investigated paranormal activity within the Perron family house in Rhode Island. The Warrens came in to conduct a séance to get rid of the spirits.
Amityville House
Another of the most famous cases investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren was the Amityville House haunting. The owners of the house, the Lutz family, left the house after only 28 days and called in the Warrens. Ed and Lorraine explained that this house was one of the most terrifying places they had ever visited. They later learned about the very dark history of the land and concluded that demonic forces felt an attraction to the place. The photographs of their experience are in the Warren Occult Museum. (This story also became a popular film in 1979 called “The Amityville Horror.”)
The Warrens are best known for their involvement in the 1975 Amityville Horror in which New York couple George and Kathy Lutz claimed that their house was haunted by a violent, demonic presence so intense that it eventually drove them out of their home. The Amityville Horror Conspiracy authors Stephen and Roxanne Kaplan characterized the case as a “hoax”. Lorraine Warren told a reporter for The Express-Times newspaper that the Amityville Horror was not a hoax. The reported haunting was the basis for the 1977 book The Amityville Horror and adapted into the 1979 and 2005 films of the same name, while also serving as inspiration for the film series that followed. The Warrens’ version of events is partially adapted and portrayed in the opening sequence of The Conjuring 2 (2016). According to Benjamin Radford, the story was “refuted by eyewitnesses, investigations, and forensic evidence”. In 1979, lawyer William Weber stated that he, Jay Anson, and the occupants “invented” the horror story “over many bottles of wine”.
Annabelle
Annabelle, the Raggedy Ann doll, inspired the trilogy “Annabelle” (2014), “Annabelle: Creation” (2017), and “Annabelle Comes Home” (2019). The Amityville haunted house investigation inspired the horror film “The Amityville Horror” (1979). Finally, “The Conjuring” (2013) was based on the real-life house haunting experienced by the Perron family in Rhode Island. Additional films have since come out in the “Conjuring” series.
Enfield poltergeist
In 1977, the Warrens investigated claims that a family in the North London suburb of Enfield was haunted by poltergeist activity. While a number of independent observers dismissed the incident as a hoax carried out by “attention-hungry” children, the Warrens were convinced that it was a case of “demonic possession”. The story was the inspiration for The Conjuring 2, although critics say the Warrens were involved “to a far lesser degree than portrayed in the movie” and in fact had shown up to the scene uninvited and been refused admittance to the home.
Guy Lyon Playfair, a parapsychologist who investigated the Enfield case alongside Maurice Grosse, also says the film greatly exaggerated the Warrens’ role in the investigation. He stated in 2016 that they “turned up once” and that Ed Warren told Playfair “[the Warrens] could make a lot of money […] out of [the case].” He corroborated the claim that the Warrens were “not invited” to the Enfield house and that “Nobody […] in the family had ever heard of him until [Ed Warren] turned up”.
Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson
In 1981, Arne Cheyenne Johnson was accused of killing his landlord, Alan Bono. Ed and Lorraine Warren had been called prior to the killing to deal with the alleged demonic possession of the younger brother of Johnson’s fiancée. The Warrens subsequently claimed that Johnson was also possessed. At trial, Johnson attempted to plead Not Guilty by Reason of Demonic Possession, but was unsuccessful with his plea. This story serves as the inspiration for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021). The case was described in the 1983 book The Devil in Connecticut by Gerald Brittle.
Snedeker house
In 1986, Ed and Lorraine Warren arrived and proclaimed the Snedeker house, a former funeral home, to be infested with demons. The case was featured in the 1993 book In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting. A TV film that later became part of the Discovery Channel series A Haunting was produced in 2002. The Haunting in Connecticut, a film very loosely based on the Warrens’ version of events and directed by Peter Cornwell, was released in 2009. Horror author Ray Garton, who wrote an account of the alleged haunting of the Snedeker family in Southington, Connecticut, later called into question the veracity of the accounts contained in his book, saying, “The family involved, which was going through some serious problems like alcoholism and drug addiction, could not keep their story straight, and I became very frustrated; it’s hard writing a non-fiction book when all the people involved are telling you different stories”. To paranormal investigator Benjamin Radford, Garton said of Lorraine, “‘If she told me the sun would come up tomorrow morning, I’d get a second opinion'”.
Smurl family
Pennsylvania residents Jack and Janet Smurl reported their home was disturbed by numerous supernatural phenomena, including sounds, smells and apparitions. The Warrens became involved and claimed that the Smurl home was occupied by four spirits and also a demon that allegedly sexually assaulted Jack and Janet. The Smurls’ version of their story was the subject of a 1986 paperback titled The Haunted and television film of the same name directed by Robert Mandel.
Union Cemetery (Easton, Connecticut)
Ed Warren’s book Graveyard: True Hauntings from an Old New England Cemetery (St Martins Press, 1992) features a “White Lady” ghost which haunts Union Cemetery. He claimed to have “captured her essence” on film.
According to a 1997 interview with the Connecticut Post, Steve Novella and Perry DeAngelis investigated the Warrens for the New England Skeptical Society (NESS). They found the couple to be pleasant people, but their claims of demons and ghosts to be “at best, as tellers of meaningless ghost stories, and at worst, dangerous frauds.” They took the $13 tour and looked at all the evidence the Warrens had for spirits and ghosts. They watched the videos and looked at the best evidence the Warrens had. Their conclusion was that “It’s all blarney.” They found common errors with flash photography and nothing evil in the artifacts the Warrens had collected. “They have… a ton of fish stories about evidence that got away… They’re not doing good scientific investigation; they have a predetermined conclusion which they adhere to, literally and religiously,” according to Novella. Lorraine Warren said that the problem with Perry and Steve is that “they don’t base anything on a God”. Novella responded, “It takes work to do solid, critical thinking, to actually employ your intellectual faculties and come to a conclusion that actually reflects reality … That’s what scientists do every day, and that’s what skeptics advocate”.
In an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that examined whether supernatural films are really based on true events, that investigation was used as evidence to the contrary. As Novella is quoted, “They [the Warrens] claim to have scientific evidence which does indeed prove the existence of ghosts, which sounds like a testable claim into which we can sink our investigative teeth. What we found was a very nice couple, some genuinely sincere people, but absolutely no compelling evidence…” While it was made clear that neither DeAngelis nor Novella thought the Warrens would intentionally cause harm to anyone, they did caution that claims like the Warrens’ served to reinforce delusions and confuse the public about legitimate scientific methodology.
Do I believe it happened the way they say it did? No. Do I enjoy the movies despite that? Absolutely!
Honestly, I do hope others are enjoying these little historical tours as much as I enjoy writing about them. There is something so wonderful about a good library. If I could, I would absolutely live in Beast’s library and never come out. I have always loved Greece and Greek mythology so I truly enjoyed writing about the Villa of the Papyri. To have been able to see these ancient libraries would have been incredible!
The Villa of the Papyri
The long-buried Villa of the Papyri opened to the public almost 2000 years after it was submerged in volcanic mud in Herculaneum. (Credit: Eric VANDEVILLE/Getty Images)
While it wasn’t largest library of antiquity, the so-called “Villa of the Papyri”, Italian: Villa dei Papiri, is the only one whose collection has survived to the present day. It’s roughly 1,800 carbonized scrolls were located in the Roman city of Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy, in a personal villa that was most likely built by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus.
It was situated on the ancient coastline below the volcano Vesuvius with nothing to obstruct the view of the sea. The Villa was considered to be one of the most luxurious houses in all of Herculaneum and in the Roman world. Its luxury is shown by its exquisite architecture and by the very large number of outstanding works of art discovered, including frescoes, bronzes and marble sculpture which constitute the largest collection of Greek and Roman sculptures ever discovered in a single context.
When nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., the library was buried—and exquisitely preserved—under a 30 meter or 98-foot layer of volcanic material from the pyroclastic flows. Herculaneum was first excavated in the years between 1750 and 1765 by Karl Weber by means of tunnels. The villa’s name derives from the discovery of its library, the only surviving library from the Graeco-Roman world that exists in its entirety. The villa had four levels beneath the main floor, arranged in terraces overlooking the sea.
A digital reconstruction of the Villa dei Papiri (Credit: Museo Archeologico Virtuale di Ercolano)
The Villa of the Papyri, which is thought to have been built between about 40 and 20BC, occupied more than 220,000 square feet and overlooked the sea. The villa remains faithful in its general layout to the fundamental structural and architectural scheme of the suburban villa in the country around Pompeii. The atrium worked as an entrance hall and a means of communication with the various parts of the house. The entrance opened with a columned portico on the sea side. Around the atrium impluvium were 11 fountain statues depicting Satyrs pouring water from a pitcher and Amorini pouring water from the mouth of a dolphin. Other statues and busts were found in the corners around the atrium walls. The real living and reception quarters were grouped around the porticoes and terraces, giving occupants ample sunlight and a view of the countryside and sea.
According to the ground plan of the villa drawn up during the initial excavations in the 18th Century, the library was situated near the baths and gardens, suggesting that people would take the scrolls outside to read, if not to the plunge pools. “If you have a garden in your library,” as Cicero once said, “you’ll lack nothing”.
The House of Bourbon under King Charles VII of Naples issued excavations following the re-discovery of Herculaneum in 1738. Excavation work at Herculaneum was done through digging tunnels, and piercing walls, in an attempt to find treasures like paintings, statues and other ornaments to be exhibited in the Museum Herculanense, part of the King’s Royal Palace in Portici. The discovery of Villa dei Papiri in 1750 increased attention towards Herculaneum’s excavations. Over a decade after the excavations commenced, some workmen happened to be digging a well nearby when they came across a magnificent marble floor. To their astonishment they had chanced upon the grandest ancient villa yet found at Herculaneum.
The tunnelling was not only arduous but also dangerous, due to the build up of gases in the shafts. However, due to the excavators’ persistence 90 sculptures were eventually uncovered before pressure from the residents of Resina forced Alcubierre to abandon the excavations in 1765. Excavations were halted in 1765 due to complaints from the residents living above. The exact location of the villa was then lost for two centuries.
In 1780 the works were interrupted and concentrated in Pompeii mainly because of easier types of excavations due to different volcanic burial phenomena. The villa is recognized today as one of the most important buildings preserved by the volcanic eruption. The technique of building underground passages and wells was common and continued until 1828 before open air excavations became permitted and continually carried out even today. Most of the villa is still underground, but parts have been cleared of volcanic deposits. Many of the finds are displayed in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.
In the 1980s work on re-discovering the villa began by studying 18th century documentation on entrances to the tunnels and in 1986 the breakthrough was made through an ancient well. The backfill from some of the tunnels was cleared to allow re-exploration of the villa when it was found that the parts of the villa that survived the earlier excavations were still remarkable in quantity and quality. Excavation to expose part of the villa was done in the 1990s and revealed two previously undiscovered lower floors to the villa. These were found along the southwest-facing terrace of about 4 meters height. As of 2012, there are still 2,800 square meters left to be excavated of the villa. The remainder of the site has not been excavated because the Italian government is preferring conservation to excavation, and protecting what has already been uncovered.
The ground plan shows the western part of the complex leading from the grand peristyle (on the right of the plan) to a belvedere at its western extremity. The walls and structural elements are shown in red with the course of the tunnels dug by the excavators marked in grey/brown. The volcanic flow through the building was from east to west (right to left in the above plan).
At the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, the valuable library was packed in cases ready to be moved to safety when it was overtaken by a pyroclastic flow; depositing volcanic ash over the site, charring the scrolls but preserving them- the only surviving library of antiquity. The scrolls had been carbonized by the pyroclastic flows to such an extent that they resembled tree bark. They were so blackened, in fact, that several were used as fuel in the mistaken belief that they were charcoal or logs. It was only when someone dropped one to expose the writing inside that they realized what they had found.
Picture of papyrus recovered from Villa of the Papyri. Picture published in pamphlet called “Herculaneum and the Villa of the Papyri” by Amedeo Maiuri in 1974.
Its 1,800 blackened scrolls, now carbonized by the heat of the eruption, weren’t rediscovered until the 18th century, and modern researchers have since used everything from multispectral imaging to x-rays to try to read them. Initially the first papyri scrolls which were obtained in 1752 were thrown away due to the high number of unreadable charring, then Bernardo Tanucci advised the King to study them. The King subsequently established a commission for the study of the papyri, however, much of the catalogue has yet to be deciphered.
Other texts found in the villa’s library include several books of Epicurus’s On Nature, the writings of a Stoic philosopher named Chrysippus, and parts of the De Rerum Natura, an Epicurean poem by the Latin writer Lucretius. Around half the scrolls found, however, are still sealed. Given that Philodemus knew both Horace and Virgil, it is possible that more literary works are still waiting to be unravelled. The challenge is how to do so without destroying them in the process.
The papyri, unrolled and read, after various methods of manipulation, contain a number of Greek philosophical texts. When the scrolls were first found, many were simply sliced open like baguettes. While this enabled some of the writing to be read and copied, large chunks were consequently ruined. A few years after the villa was discovered, Father Antonio Piaggio, curator of manuscripts at the Vatican, designed a ‘papyrus unrolling machine’, which was used to unfurl hundreds more of the scrolls, but again the fragile paper often crumbled. Later, scientists attempted to pry open the scrolls using a variety of gases and glues, but with limited success.
More recently, scientists have discovered that when a scroll is placed under infrared light, the black ink will stand out from the blackened papyrus, so that it is legible. Using multi-spectral imaging, a technique developed in the early 1990s, it is possible to read the burned papyri. With multi-spectral imaging, many pictures of the illegible papyri are taken using different filters in the infrared or in the ultraviolet range, finely tuned to capture certain wavelengths of light. Thus, the optimum spectral portion can be found for distinguishing ink from paper on the blackened papyrus surface. Given the damage caused to scrolls by unwinding them, and the speed with which their ink fades when exposed to daylight, the preference today is for ‘virtual unwrapping’. Non-destructive CT scans will, it is hoped, provide breakthroughs in reading the fragile unopened scrolls without destroying them in the process. Scrolls that remain sealed are scanned – by Micro CT-scan, for example – and then ‘read’ using advanced computer software. Encouraging results along this line of research have been obtained, which use phase-contrast X-ray imaging.
Credit: Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali
The owner of the house, perhaps Calpurnius Piso, established a library of a mainly philosophical character. It is believed that the library might have been collected and selected by Piso’s family friend and client, the Epicurean Philodemus of Gadara, although this conclusion is not certain. Followers of Epicurus studied the teachings of this moral and natural philosopher. This philosophy taught that man is mortal, that the cosmos is the result of accident, that there is no providential god, and that the criteria of a good life are pleasure and temperance. Philodemus’ connections with Piso brought him an opportunity to influence the young students of Greek literature and philosophy who gathered around him at Herculaneum and Naples.
Much of his work was discovered in about a thousand papyrus rolls in the philosophical library recovered at Herculaneum. Although his prose work is detailed in the strung-out, non-periodic style typical of Hellenistic Greek prose before the revival of the Attic style after Cicero, Philodemus surpassed the average literary standard to which most epicureans aspired. Philodemus succeeded in influencing the most learned and distinguished Romans of his age. None of his prose work was known until the rolls of papyri were discovered among the ruins of the Villa of the Papyri. This seems to have been the professional library of Philodemus
Several scenes in Robert Harris’ bestselling novel Pompeii are set in the Villa of the Papyri, just before the eruption engulfed it. The villa is mentioned as belonging to Roman aristocrat Pedius Cascus and his wife Rectina. (Pliny the Younger mentions Rectina, whom he calls the wife of Tascius, in Letter 16 of book VI of his Letters.) At the start of the eruption Rectina prepares to have the library evacuated and sends urgent word to her old friend, Pliny the Elder, who commands the Roman Navy at Misenum on the other side of the Bay of Naples. Pliny immediately sets out in a warship, and gets in sight of the villa, but the eruption prevents him from landing and taking off Rectina and her library – which is thus left for modern archaeologists to find.
Much of the villa remains to be excavated (over 2500 sq m). Excavations in the 1990s revealed two previously undiscovered levels, but since then there has been little further progress. The Italian government has opted for conservation of what has already been discovered over excavation of what has yet to be discovered.
Like the chained tree of Landi Kotal, two panels of a double door of the Shabqadar Fort, 20 miles from Peshawar, are chained to the watchtower. Here the story is not so much about the actions of a drunken officer, however, more about being made a scapegoat for royalty. A plaque on the doors reads: “The weeping willows: In the winter of 1840, a Mohmand Lashkar (war party) succeeded in breaking down these gates. The then-Sikh Maharaja Sher Singh (Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s son) had them court-martialed for treason. French General Jean Ventura headed the proceedings which lasted two days, finding them to be guilty as charged and the gates were sentenced to 100 years imprisonment. They are languishing enchained ever since”
Sometime during the winter of 1840, a group of Mohmand (a Pashtun tribe) warriors attacked the Shabqadar Fort (then known as Shankar Garh Fort) and made their way inside after a bloody clash. The fighting lasted the entire night, but eventually, the Sikhs, led by Prince Sher Singh, who happened to be staying at the fort, fought back, and by morning, the attacking tribesmen had been pushed out. After the attack, the infuriated prince ordered an investigation to ascertain how the tribesmen had managed to make their way inside the fort.
Ventura was one of the first European officers to be employed by Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of Punjab, to train his troops in the art of European warfare. As commander of the Fauj-i-Khas (European model brigade), he attained the rank of general and was also appointed Kazi and governor of Lahore.
General Ventura carried out a detailed investigation for two days. The verdict handed down surprised everyone; the wooden doors of the fort gate were held responsible for the invasion and were sentenced to chained imprisonment of 100 years. General Ventura probably did not want to ruffle feathers by laying blame on the Sikh ruler Sher Singh, who was inside the fort during the night of the raid.
In Urdu and Punjabi, there is the term ‘Sikha-Shahi,’ which means chaotic or atypical government policies. So when you learn about a door sentenced to be chained during the Sikh era, you kind of nod in agreement that this must have been one of those examples of the so-called Sikha-Shahi.
