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29 May: Blessed Elia of St. Clement Fracasso
May 29
BLESSED ELIA OF SAINT CLEMENT FRACASSO
VirginOptional Memorial
Blessed Elia of St. Clement was born in Bari, 17th January 1901, to deeply Christian parents. At her baptism, she was given the name Theodora, gift of God. In the brief course of her life on earth, she lived up to her name. On 8th April 1920 (then Feast of St. Albert, author of the Carmelite Rule), she entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari. She received the habit on 24th November of the same year, the feast of St John of the Cross. On 8th December 1924, she wrote in her own blood her act of total and definitive offering to the Lord with the vow to embrace the “most perfect”. She died on Christmas day 1927. On 19th December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI signed the Decree of Beatification. She was proclaimed Blessed in Bari Cathedral on 18th March 2006.
From the Common of Virgins
Office of Readings
Second Reading
From the Writings of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement
(Ed. O.C.D. 2001: pp. 282, 295, 322)The desire to lose herself in God and her apostolic zeal
O sweet hiddenness, I love to pass my days in your shadow and to consume thus my existence, for love of my sweet Lord. At times, thinking of those eternal rewards, so great compared to the slight sacrifices of this life, my soul remains in wonder, and seized by an ardent longing, it throws itself on God, exclaiming: “Oh my good Jesus, I want to reach my goal, the gates of salvation, no matter what the cost. Do not deny me anything; give me suffering. May this be the most intimate martyrdom of my poor heart, hidden from every human glance: a rugged cross is what I ask of you. I want to pass my days here below hanging from this cross.”
When we suffer with Jesus, the suffering is delightful; I long to suffer with all my heart, beyond this I no longer want anything.
My Delight, who could ever separate me from You? Who could be capable of breaking these strong chains that keep my heart attached to yours? Perhaps the abandonment of creatures? It is precisely this that unites the soul to its Creator. Perhaps tribulations, suffering, crosses? It is in these thorns that the canticle of the soul that loves you is freest and lightest. Perhaps death? But this will be nothing other than the beginning of true happiness for the soul. Nothing, nothing can separate this soul from You, not even for a brief moment. It was created for You and is lost if it does not abandon itself to You.
My life is love: this sweet nectar surrounds me, this merciful love penetrates me, purifies me, renews me, and I feel it consuming me. The cry of my heart is: “Love of my God, my soul searches for You alone. My soul, suffer and be quiet; love and hope; offer yourself but hide your suffering behind a smile, and always move on. I want to spend my life in deep silence, in the depths of my heart, in order to listen to the gentle voice of my sweet Jesus.
“Souls, I will search for a way to cast you into the sea of Merciful Love: souls of sinners, but above all souls of priests and religious. To this end, my existence is slowly disappearing, consumed like the oil of a lamp that watches near the Tabernacle.”
I sense the vastness of my soul, its infinite greatness that the immensity of this world cannot contain: it was created to lose itself in You, my God, because you alone are great, infinite and thus You alone can make it completely happy.
RESPONSORY
R/. An unmarried woman, like a young girl, can devote herself to the Lord’s affairs. * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).
V/. God is the strength of her heart, he is hers forever: * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).Morning Prayer
Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. O Lord, how gentle is your love! Lost in your embrace I shall be blessed forever (alleluia).
Prayer
O Lord,
who were pleased to accept the self-offering
of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement, virgin;
grant through her intercession,
that, sustained by the Eucharist
we may be able faithfully to do your will.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you,
and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.Evening Prayer
Canticle of Mary
Ant. Your love, O Lord, is like a fire consuming me in the ardent furnace of your Heart (alleluia).
Blessed Elia of St. Clement (Teodora Fracasso, 1901-1927)Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.
#Bari #blessed #BlessedEliaOfStClement #GodAlone #infiniteBeing #Liturgy #LiturgyOfTheHours #love #loveAlone #loveForJesus #loveForTheLord #loveIsLoss #loveOfGod #loveWithoutLimits #martyrdom #mercifulLove #optionalMemorial #perfection #suffer #suffering #TeodoraFracasso #trueLove #virgin
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May 29
BLESSED ELIA OF SAINT CLEMENT FRACASSO
VirginOptional Memorial
Blessed Elia of St. Clement was born in Bari, 17th January 1901, to deeply Christian parents. At her baptism, she was given the name Theodora, gift of God. In the brief course of her life on earth, she lived up to her name. On 8th April 1920 (then Feast of St. Albert, author of the Carmelite Rule), she entered the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari. She received the habit on 24th November of the same year, the feast of St John of the Cross. On 8th December 1924, she wrote in her own blood her act of total and definitive offering to the Lord with the vow to embrace the “most perfect”. She died on Christmas day 1927. On 19th December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI signed the Decree of Beatification. She was proclaimed Blessed in Bari Cathedral on 18th March 2006.
From the Common of Virgins
Office of Readings
Second Reading
From the Writings of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement
(Ed. O.C.D. 2001: pp. 282, 295, 322)The desire to lose herself in God and her apostolic zeal
O sweet hiddenness, I love to pass my days in your shadow and to consume thus my existence, for love of my sweet Lord. At times, thinking of those eternal rewards, so great compared to the slight sacrifices of this life, my soul remains in wonder, and seized by an ardent longing, it throws itself on God, exclaiming: “Oh my good Jesus, I want to reach my goal, the gates of salvation, no matter what the cost. Do not deny me anything; give me suffering. May this be the most intimate martyrdom of my poor heart, hidden from every human glance: a rugged cross is what I ask of you. I want to pass my days here below hanging from this cross.”
When we suffer with Jesus, the suffering is delightful; I long to suffer with all my heart, beyond this I no longer want anything.
My Delight, who could ever separate me from You? Who could be capable of breaking these strong chains that keep my heart attached to yours? Perhaps the abandonment of creatures? It is precisely this that unites the soul to its Creator. Perhaps tribulations, suffering, crosses? It is in these thorns that the canticle of the soul that loves you is freest and lightest. Perhaps death? But this will be nothing other than the beginning of true happiness for the soul. Nothing, nothing can separate this soul from You, not even for a brief moment. It was created for You and is lost if it does not abandon itself to You.
My life is love: this sweet nectar surrounds me, this merciful love penetrates me, purifies me, renews me, and I feel it consuming me. The cry of my heart is: “Love of my God, my soul searches for You alone. My soul, suffer and be quiet; love and hope; offer yourself but hide your suffering behind a smile, and always move on. I want to spend my life in deep silence, in the depths of my heart, in order to listen to the gentle voice of my sweet Jesus.
“Souls, I will search for a way to cast you into the sea of Merciful Love: souls of sinners, but above all souls of priests and religious. To this end, my existence is slowly disappearing, consumed like the oil of a lamp that watches near the Tabernacle.”
I sense the vastness of my soul, its infinite greatness that the immensity of this world cannot contain: it was created to lose itself in You, my God, because you alone are great, infinite and thus You alone can make it completely happy.
RESPONSORY
R/. An unmarried woman, like a young girl, can devote herself to the Lord’s affairs. * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).
V/. God is the strength of her heart, he is hers forever: * Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit (alleluia).Morning Prayer
Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. O Lord, how gentle is your love! Lost in your embrace I shall be blessed forever (alleluia).
Prayer
O Lord,
who were pleased to accept the self-offering
of Blessed Elia of Saint Clement, virgin;
grant through her intercession,
that, sustained by the Eucharist
we may be able faithfully to do your will.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you,
and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.Evening Prayer
Canticle of Mary
Ant. Your love, O Lord, is like a fire consuming me in the ardent furnace of your Heart (alleluia).
Blessed Elia of St. Clement (Teodora Fracasso, 1901-1927)Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/27/fracassolit24/
#Bari #blessed #BlessedEliaOfStClement #ff0000 #GodAlone #infiniteBeing #Liturgy #LiturgyOfTheHours #love #loveAlone #loveForJesus #loveForTheLord #loveIsLoss #loveOfGod #loveWithoutLimits #martyrdom #mercifulLove #optionalMemorial #perfection #suffer #suffering #TeodoraFracasso #trueLove #virgin
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Josephine Peary, First Lady of the Arctic - In the late nineteenth century, there was only one Earthly frontier left to discover: the North Pole... more: https://hackaday.com/2019/10/29/josephine-peary-first-lady-of-the-arctic/ #arcticexploration #hackadaycolumns #josephinepeary #arcticcircle #originalart #robertpeary #biography #northpole #featured
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Waves on Other Planets
On Earth, most waves form when wind blows across the water. The shear and added energy from the wind ripples the surface, eventually building up waves (through the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). The same process should happen anywhere else where wind and open liquid surfaces meet–even on other planets. To explore this, researchers built a new model, PlanetWaves, that predicts the waves based on a planet’s gravity, atmospheric conditions, and the density, viscosity, and surface tension of its surface liquid.
After validating the model with conditions on Earth, the team explored wave conditions for Titan, ancient Mars, and several exoplanets. They found that Titan’s lighter gravity and liquid ethane (which is less dense than water) combined to make waves on Titan much taller than those generated at the same wind speed on Earth (top image). You can watch them in action in the video below. Standing in a light breeze on Titan, you’d watch giant 3-meter waves rolling in.
The team also found that waves on Mars would have gotten shorter as Mars lost its atmosphere and the air pressure dropped. Over time, the same wind speed would have elicited smaller and smaller waves. Wave action has a big effect on a landscape’s erosion, so understanding how waves look on other planets will help us parse their geography. (Video, image, and research credit: U. Schneck et al.; via MIT News; submitted by Joseph S.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kECVsTTetM
#exoplanets #fluidDynamics #KelvinHelmholtzInstability #oceanWaves #physics #planetaryScience #science #Titan #waves -
Waves on Other Planets
On Earth, most waves form when wind blows across the water. The shear and added energy from the wind ripples the surface, eventually building up waves (through the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). The same process should happen anywhere else where wind and open liquid surfaces meet–even on other planets. To explore this, researchers built a new model, PlanetWaves, that predicts the waves based on a planet’s gravity, atmospheric conditions, and the density, viscosity, and surface tension of its surface liquid.
After validating the model with conditions on Earth, the team explored wave conditions for Titan, ancient Mars, and several exoplanets. They found that Titan’s lighter gravity and liquid ethane (which is less dense than water) combined to make waves on Titan much taller than those generated at the same wind speed on Earth (top image). You can watch them in action in the video below. Standing in a light breeze on Titan, you’d watch giant 3-meter waves rolling in.
The team also found that waves on Mars would have gotten shorter as Mars lost its atmosphere and the air pressure dropped. Over time, the same wind speed would have elicited smaller and smaller waves. Wave action has a big effect on a landscape’s erosion, so understanding how waves look on other planets will help us parse their geography. (Video, image, and research credit: U. Schneck et al.; via MIT News; submitted by Joseph S.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kECVsTTetM
#exoplanets #fluidDynamics #KelvinHelmholtzInstability #oceanWaves #physics #planetaryScience #science #Titan #waves -
Waves on Other Planets
On Earth, most waves form when wind blows across the water. The shear and added energy from the wind ripples the surface, eventually building up waves (through the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). The same process should happen anywhere else where wind and open liquid surfaces meet–even on other planets. To explore this, researchers built a new model, PlanetWaves, that predicts the waves based on a planet’s gravity, atmospheric conditions, and the density, viscosity, and surface tension of its surface liquid.
After validating the model with conditions on Earth, the team explored wave conditions for Titan, ancient Mars, and several exoplanets. They found that Titan’s lighter gravity and liquid ethane (which is less dense than water) combined to make waves on Titan much taller than those generated at the same wind speed on Earth (top image). You can watch them in action in the video below. Standing in a light breeze on Titan, you’d watch giant 3-meter waves rolling in.
The team also found that waves on Mars would have gotten shorter as Mars lost its atmosphere and the air pressure dropped. Over time, the same wind speed would have elicited smaller and smaller waves. Wave action has a big effect on a landscape’s erosion, so understanding how waves look on other planets will help us parse their geography. (Video, image, and research credit: U. Schneck et al.; via MIT News; submitted by Joseph S.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kECVsTTetM
#exoplanets #fluidDynamics #KelvinHelmholtzInstability #oceanWaves #physics #planetaryScience #science #Titan #waves -
Waves on Other Planets
On Earth, most waves form when wind blows across the water. The shear and added energy from the wind ripples the surface, eventually building up waves (through the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). The same process should happen anywhere else where wind and open liquid surfaces meet–even on other planets. To explore this, researchers built a new model, PlanetWaves, that predicts the waves based on a planet’s gravity, atmospheric conditions, and the density, viscosity, and surface tension of its surface liquid.
After validating the model with conditions on Earth, the team explored wave conditions for Titan, ancient Mars, and several exoplanets. They found that Titan’s lighter gravity and liquid ethane (which is less dense than water) combined to make waves on Titan much taller than those generated at the same wind speed on Earth (top image). You can watch them in action in the video below. Standing in a light breeze on Titan, you’d watch giant 3-meter waves rolling in.
The team also found that waves on Mars would have gotten shorter as Mars lost its atmosphere and the air pressure dropped. Over time, the same wind speed would have elicited smaller and smaller waves. Wave action has a big effect on a landscape’s erosion, so understanding how waves look on other planets will help us parse their geography. (Video, image, and research credit: U. Schneck et al.; via MIT News; submitted by Joseph S.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kECVsTTetM
#exoplanets #fluidDynamics #KelvinHelmholtzInstability #oceanWaves #physics #planetaryScience #science #Titan #waves -
Waves on Other Planets
On Earth, most waves form when wind blows across the water. The shear and added energy from the wind ripples the surface, eventually building up waves (through the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). The same process should happen anywhere else where wind and open liquid surfaces meet–even on other planets. To explore this, researchers built a new model, PlanetWaves, that predicts the waves based on a planet’s gravity, atmospheric conditions, and the density, viscosity, and surface tension of its surface liquid.
After validating the model with conditions on Earth, the team explored wave conditions for Titan, ancient Mars, and several exoplanets. They found that Titan’s lighter gravity and liquid ethane (which is less dense than water) combined to make waves on Titan much taller than those generated at the same wind speed on Earth (top image). You can watch them in action in the video below. Standing in a light breeze on Titan, you’d watch giant 3-meter waves rolling in.
The team also found that waves on Mars would have gotten shorter as Mars lost its atmosphere and the air pressure dropped. Over time, the same wind speed would have elicited smaller and smaller waves. Wave action has a big effect on a landscape’s erosion, so understanding how waves look on other planets will help us parse their geography. (Video, image, and research credit: U. Schneck et al.; via MIT News; submitted by Joseph S.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kECVsTTetM
#exoplanets #fluidDynamics #KelvinHelmholtzInstability #oceanWaves #physics #planetaryScience #science #Titan #waves -
Markets reaching for the Moon while the geopolitical order on Earth is unravelling is a sight to behold. Are dumbified TACO, FOMO, TINA, Mag 7 etc. evidence of Tainter's diminishing returns from social complexity? I.e. the world losing it? #econsky #riskmanagement en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_...
Joseph Tainter - Wikipedia -
UK survey respondents love earth mysteries
New poll results about paranormal belief in the UK show that “earth mysteries” are really popular across the pond. US surveys don’t ask about these beliefs, so we can’t compare. That is just one of many complications that make it difficult to make sense out of poll numbers reflecting levels of paranormal beliefs over time.
Over the years, I’ve tracked belief in paranormal concepts, mostly in the US. It’s been interesting to see people claim that belief has increased, because it’s very much more complicated than that. Factors that increase or decrease not only belief, but social acceptance of those beliefs, are many and various. Media certainly has something to do with it, as well as a rejection of traditional religious practices. Several studies have found a correlation with between religion and the paranormal.
Yearly surveys are common, but not all are good. You can read about difficulties with belief surveys here:
https://sharonahill.com/ghost-belief-in-the-us-varies-widely-by-year-and-source/
I have updated my tracking table regarding ghost belief to include the one report I found for 2024. It’s fun to look at and ponder but is it really useful? I don’t know.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?
Yearly polling resultsYearSource% belief in ghosts2003Harris512005Gallup322007Baylor-Religion492008Harris442008Ipsos.McClatchy572009Pew 18 *2009Harris332010Harris512010Gallup562011YouGov362012YouGov/Huff. Post452013Harris422016Chapman472017Chapman522017YouGov452018Chapman582019YouGov452021YouGov412021Statista362023NORC502023RealClear612024Civic Science41* This is an anomalous result, but is not altogether inconsistent with the other result from that year at 33%.A new paper came out measuring belief in paranormal concepts in the UK.[1] It’s not surprising that there would be a difference in popularity of certain beliefs between the US and UK. For example, I would guess that the US population has a higher percentage of belief in UFOs and Bigfoot, but I should not assume because these polls are always tricky to interpret and not reliable. From the abstract:
The study makes four contributions to research on the paranormal by a) reiterating the continuing popularity of paranormal beliefs, even in highly secularized locations, with over 70% of people in the United Kingdom believing in something paranormal; b) demonstrating that these beliefs are differentiated across contexts where they might otherwise be assumed to be similar; c) demonstrating the applicability of social control and bounded affinity theories for explaining belief in the paranormal;
and, d) documenting how conventional religiosity relates to paranormalism in a relatively secular cultural context. These findings highlight the need for further research on diffuse forms of supernaturalism
and the potential for such studies to contribute to important questions about theory and research in sociology.The 70% may be surprising at first, however, it is similar to the U.S. When you give an array of people a list of many choices, they likely will favor at least a few.
You can read the entire paper here. Let’s look at the top beliefs that showed up in this survey.
The highest levels of belief were reported for issues related to earth mysteries, with belief in dowsing (45.6%) and ley lines (41.5%) registering the highest affirmative responses. Beyond this, the highest levels of belief were reported for black magic (36.3%), hauntings (35.9%), mysterious creatures (32.9%), and curses (30.0%). The lowest levels of belief were reported for belief in Bigfoot (14.8%), the U.K. Wildman (14.8%), and fairies (15.4%).
Dowsing and ley lines! I have thoughts. Obviously, earth mysteries relates to my interest in spooky geology. I have first-hand experience in seeing how attached people are to their belief in dowsing. I have also seen the increased mention of ley lines in paranormal contexts. Currently, reports of spook lights or encounters with mysterious balls of light (BOL) are increasing, particularly related to cryptids. The association with “window areas” and, in turn, a connection to earth energies, is a given.
Belief in dowsing and ley lines might be less in the US because, at least for leys, the concept began in the UK and is more tied to their history and heritage. However, I don’t recall either of these being an option in US surveys. That is unsurprising as you have to limit your choices and such surveys already include a pretty long list related to cryptids, ghosts, aliens, Atlantis, psi, etc. So I do wonder what the comparison would really be regarding dowsing and leys in the US vs UK, especially considering the rising media inclusion of BOL and high strangeness areas.
I’m unclear why this these two options were included in this recent UK survey. I haven’t seen their inclusion before. In the past surveys (done by Baker and Bader) the focus was more on fears, but included paranormal beliefs such as ancient civilizations and telekinesis. “Black magic” was framed as demons or the devil. It’s similar but may not be interpreted the same way by respondents. As always, the phrasing of questions is always a problem. Notice the phrasing in this survey (with the percentage of “belief” shown):
- Dowsing can be used to detect water, minerals and other elements 46.5
- Lines of energy, sometimes called “ley lines,” connect ancient structures 41.5
- Black Magic exists 36.3
- Places can be haunted by spirits 35.9
- Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world 32.9
- Curses can be used to inflict harm or punishment on someone 30.0
- The ancient, advanced civilization of Atlantis, once existed 26.3
- Aliens have visited the Earth in our ancient past 25.6
- Some crop circles are created by non-human forces or energies 25.4
- Alien Big Cats (ABCs) roam the British countryside 21.6
- Aliens have come to Earth in modern times 21.6
- Some people can move objects with their minds (telekinesis) 19.5
- The Loch Ness Monster exists 19.5
- Fortune tellers and psychics can foresee the future 18.9
- The Abominable Snowman exists 15.9
- Fairies have the power to influence the human world 15.4
- Bigfoot is a real creature 14.8
- The U.K. Wildman, sometimes known as “the British Bigfoot,” exists 14.8
- Believe in at least one item above 78.3
- Believe in at least one item above (excluding earth mysteries) 71.5
I could critique the phrasing on almost all of them for some reason. Just a one word change may prompt a different answer. Example: “Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world”. What does that even mean? Ivory billed woodpeckers? Dinosaurs? It’s a terrible phrasing structure, but you have to do some lumping to be as comprehensive as possible. The ley lines question puts them in context of connecting ancient structures but also loops in “lines of energy”. This conflates multiple ideas about leys.
Similarly, those who respond to these questions may not have a full understanding of what is being described. Many people mistakenly think that dowsing has some strange, but scientific, basis. As with ley lines, the idea of “energy” from the earth may suggest that there is some natural component at work that we haven’t yet discovered. Those kinds of belief may seem less paranormal than aliens, curses, or magic. Typically, higher education is correlated with lower levels of belief, but not in all concepts. This complexity shows how difficult it is to parse out why people believe weird things.
In conclusion, while I find these surveys interesting, there is a lot going on in the background and interpretations are context-dependent, which renders the percentages suspect. I’m beginning to question if we can make any kinds of concrete assumptions from them. The latest study concludes that the researchers are hopeful that “social scientists will further explore this interesting and consequential form of culture, across a wider range of social contexts.” I agree with this – paranormal beliefs are an important part of our culture and need to be recognized as such – but I would prefer a careful approach. Reported high percentages of belief in the paranormal sure are interesting, but is not something to fret about. It has always been, and always will be present.
———-
- Tom Clark, Joseph O. Baker & Christopher D. Bader (10 Feb 2025): Marginalized, Secularized, and Popularized? The Prevalence and Patterns of Paranormal Belief in the United Kingdom, The Sociological Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/00380253.2025.2461298
#beliefInGhosts #dowsing #earthMysteries #Ghosts #leyLines #paranormalBelief #problemWithSurveys #surveyOfParanormalBelief #UK
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UK survey respondents love earth mysteries
New poll results about paranormal belief in the UK show that “earth mysteries” are really popular across the pond. US surveys don’t ask about these beliefs, so we can’t compare. That is just one of many complications that make it difficult to make sense out of poll numbers reflecting levels of paranormal beliefs over time.
Over the years, I’ve tracked belief in paranormal concepts, mostly in the US. It’s been interesting to see people claim that belief has increased, because it’s very much more complicated than that. Factors that increase or decrease not only belief, but social acceptance of those beliefs, are many and various. Media certainly has something to do with it, as well as a rejection of traditional religious practices. Several studies have found a correlation with between religion and the paranormal.
Yearly surveys are common, but not all are good. You can read about difficulties with belief surveys here:
https://sharonahill.com/ghost-belief-in-the-us-varies-widely-by-year-and-source/
I have updated my tracking table regarding ghost belief to include the one report I found for 2024. It’s fun to look at and ponder but is it really useful? I don’t know.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?
Yearly polling resultsYearSource% belief in ghosts2003Harris512005Gallup322007Baylor-Religion492008Harris442008Ipsos.McClatchy572009Pew 18 *2009Harris332010Harris512010Gallup562011YouGov362012YouGov/Huff. Post452013Harris422016Chapman472017Chapman522017YouGov452018Chapman582019YouGov452021YouGov412021Statista362023NORC502023RealClear612024Civic Science41* This is an anomalous result, but is not altogether inconsistent with the other result from that year at 33%.A new paper came out measuring belief in paranormal concepts in the UK.[1] It’s not surprising that there would be a difference in popularity of certain beliefs between the US and UK. For example, I would guess that the US population has a higher percentage of belief in UFOs and Bigfoot, but I should not assume because these polls are always tricky to interpret and not reliable. From the abstract:
The study makes four contributions to research on the paranormal by a) reiterating the continuing popularity of paranormal beliefs, even in highly secularized locations, with over 70% of people in the United Kingdom believing in something paranormal; b) demonstrating that these beliefs are differentiated across contexts where they might otherwise be assumed to be similar; c) demonstrating the applicability of social control and bounded affinity theories for explaining belief in the paranormal;
and, d) documenting how conventional religiosity relates to paranormalism in a relatively secular cultural context. These findings highlight the need for further research on diffuse forms of supernaturalism
and the potential for such studies to contribute to important questions about theory and research in sociology.The 70% may be surprising at first, however, it is similar to the U.S. When you give an array of people a list of many choices, they likely will favor at least a few.
You can read the entire paper here. Let’s look at the top beliefs that showed up in this survey.
The highest levels of belief were reported for issues related to earth mysteries, with belief in dowsing (45.6%) and ley lines (41.5%) registering the highest affirmative responses. Beyond this, the highest levels of belief were reported for black magic (36.3%), hauntings (35.9%), mysterious creatures (32.9%), and curses (30.0%). The lowest levels of belief were reported for belief in Bigfoot (14.8%), the U.K. Wildman (14.8%), and fairies (15.4%).
Dowsing and ley lines! I have thoughts. Obviously, earth mysteries relates to my interest in spooky geology. I have first-hand experience in seeing how attached people are to their belief in dowsing. I have also seen the increased mention of ley lines in paranormal contexts. Currently, reports of spook lights or encounters with mysterious balls of light (BOL) are increasing, particularly related to cryptids. The association with “window areas” and, in turn, a connection to earth energies, is a given.
Belief in dowsing and ley lines might be less in the US because, at least for leys, the concept began in the UK and is more tied to their history and heritage. However, I don’t recall either of these being an option in US surveys. That is unsurprising as you have to limit your choices and such surveys already include a pretty long list related to cryptids, ghosts, aliens, Atlantis, psi, etc. So I do wonder what the comparison would really be regarding dowsing and leys in the US vs UK, especially considering the rising media inclusion of BOL and high strangeness areas.
I’m unclear why this these two options were included in this recent UK survey. I haven’t seen their inclusion before. In the past surveys (done by Baker and Bader) the focus was more on fears, but included paranormal beliefs such as ancient civilizations and telekinesis. “Black magic” was framed as demons or the devil. It’s similar but may not be interpreted the same way by respondents. As always, the phrasing of questions is always a problem. Notice the phrasing in this survey (with the percentage of “belief” shown):
- Dowsing can be used to detect water, minerals and other elements 46.5
- Lines of energy, sometimes called “ley lines,” connect ancient structures 41.5
- Black Magic exists 36.3
- Places can be haunted by spirits 35.9
- Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world 32.9
- Curses can be used to inflict harm or punishment on someone 30.0
- The ancient, advanced civilization of Atlantis, once existed 26.3
- Aliens have visited the Earth in our ancient past 25.6
- Some crop circles are created by non-human forces or energies 25.4
- Alien Big Cats (ABCs) roam the British countryside 21.6
- Aliens have come to Earth in modern times 21.6
- Some people can move objects with their minds (telekinesis) 19.5
- The Loch Ness Monster exists 19.5
- Fortune tellers and psychics can foresee the future 18.9
- The Abominable Snowman exists 15.9
- Fairies have the power to influence the human world 15.4
- Bigfoot is a real creature 14.8
- The U.K. Wildman, sometimes known as “the British Bigfoot,” exists 14.8
- Believe in at least one item above 78.3
- Believe in at least one item above (excluding earth mysteries) 71.5
I could critique the phrasing on almost all of them for some reason. Just a one word change may prompt a different answer. Example: “Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world”. What does that even mean? Ivory billed woodpeckers? Dinosaurs? It’s a terrible phrasing structure, but you have to do some lumping to be as comprehensive as possible. The ley lines question puts them in context of connecting ancient structures but also loops in “lines of energy”. This conflates multiple ideas about leys.
Similarly, those who respond to these questions may not have a full understanding of what is being described. Many people mistakenly think that dowsing has some strange, but scientific, basis. As with ley lines, the idea of “energy” from the earth may suggest that there is some natural component at work that we haven’t yet discovered. Those kinds of belief may seem less paranormal than aliens, curses, or magic. Typically, higher education is correlated with lower levels of belief, but not in all concepts. This complexity shows how difficult it is to parse out why people believe weird things.
In conclusion, while I find these surveys interesting, there is a lot going on in the background and interpretations are context-dependent, which renders the percentages suspect. I’m beginning to question if we can make any kinds of concrete assumptions from them. The latest study concludes that the researchers are hopeful that “social scientists will further explore this interesting and consequential form of culture, across a wider range of social contexts.” I agree with this – paranormal beliefs are an important part of our culture and need to be recognized as such – but I would prefer a careful approach. Reported high percentages of belief in the paranormal sure are interesting, but is not something to fret about. It has always been, and always will be present.
———-
- Tom Clark, Joseph O. Baker & Christopher D. Bader (10 Feb 2025): Marginalized, Secularized, and Popularized? The Prevalence and Patterns of Paranormal Belief in the United Kingdom, The Sociological Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/00380253.2025.2461298
#beliefInGhosts #dowsing #earthMysteries #Ghosts #leyLines #paranormalBelief #problemWithSurveys #surveyOfParanormalBelief #UK
-
UK survey respondents love earth mysteries
New poll results about paranormal belief in the UK show that “earth mysteries” are really popular across the pond. US surveys don’t ask about these beliefs, so we can’t compare. That is just one of many complications that make it difficult to make sense out of poll numbers reflecting levels of paranormal beliefs over time.
Over the years, I’ve tracked belief in paranormal concepts, mostly in the US. It’s been interesting to see people claim that belief has increased, because it’s very much more complicated than that. Factors that increase or decrease not only belief, but social acceptance of those beliefs, are many and various. Media certainly has something to do with it, as well as a rejection of traditional religious practices. Several studies have found a correlation with between religion and the paranormal.
Yearly surveys are common, but not all are good. You can read about difficulties with belief surveys here:
https://sharonahill.com/ghost-belief-in-the-us-varies-widely-by-year-and-source/
I have updated my tracking table regarding ghost belief to include the one report I found for 2024. It’s fun to look at and ponder but is it really useful? I don’t know.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?
Yearly polling resultsYearSource% belief in ghosts2003Harris512005Gallup322007Baylor-Religion492008Harris442008Ipsos.McClatchy572009Pew 18 *2009Harris332010Harris512010Gallup562011YouGov362012YouGov/Huff. Post452013Harris422016Chapman472017Chapman522017YouGov452018Chapman582019YouGov452021YouGov412021Statista362023NORC502023RealClear612024Civic Science41* This is an anomalous result, but is not altogether inconsistent with the other result from that year at 33%.A new paper came out measuring belief in paranormal concepts in the UK.[1] It’s not surprising that there would be a difference in popularity of certain beliefs between the US and UK. For example, I would guess that the US population has a higher percentage of belief in UFOs and Bigfoot, but I should not assume because these polls are always tricky to interpret and not reliable. From the abstract:
The study makes four contributions to research on the paranormal by a) reiterating the continuing popularity of paranormal beliefs, even in highly secularized locations, with over 70% of people in the United Kingdom believing in something paranormal; b) demonstrating that these beliefs are differentiated across contexts where they might otherwise be assumed to be similar; c) demonstrating the applicability of social control and bounded affinity theories for explaining belief in the paranormal;
and, d) documenting how conventional religiosity relates to paranormalism in a relatively secular cultural context. These findings highlight the need for further research on diffuse forms of supernaturalism
and the potential for such studies to contribute to important questions about theory and research in sociology.The 70% may be surprising at first, however, it is similar to the U.S. When you give an array of people a list of many choices, they likely will favor at least a few.
You can read the entire paper here. Let’s look at the top beliefs that showed up in this survey.
The highest levels of belief were reported for issues related to earth mysteries, with belief in dowsing (45.6%) and ley lines (41.5%) registering the highest affirmative responses. Beyond this, the highest levels of belief were reported for black magic (36.3%), hauntings (35.9%), mysterious creatures (32.9%), and curses (30.0%). The lowest levels of belief were reported for belief in Bigfoot (14.8%), the U.K. Wildman (14.8%), and fairies (15.4%).
Dowsing and ley lines! I have thoughts. Obviously, earth mysteries relates to my interest in spooky geology. I have first-hand experience in seeing how attached people are to their belief in dowsing. I have also seen the increased mention of ley lines in paranormal contexts. Currently, reports of spook lights or encounters with mysterious balls of light (BOL) are increasing, particularly related to cryptids. The association with “window areas” and, in turn, a connection to earth energies, is a given.
Belief in dowsing and ley lines might be less in the US because, at least for leys, the concept began in the UK and is more tied to their history and heritage. However, I don’t recall either of these being an option in US surveys. That is unsurprising as you have to limit your choices and such surveys already include a pretty long list related to cryptids, ghosts, aliens, Atlantis, psi, etc. So I do wonder what the comparison would really be regarding dowsing and leys in the US vs UK, especially considering the rising media inclusion of BOL and high strangeness areas.
I’m unclear why this these two options were included in this recent UK survey. I haven’t seen their inclusion before. In the past surveys (done by Baker and Bader) the focus was more on fears, but included paranormal beliefs such as ancient civilizations and telekinesis. “Black magic” was framed as demons or the devil. It’s similar but may not be interpreted the same way by respondents. As always, the phrasing of questions is always a problem. Notice the phrasing in this survey (with the percentage of “belief” shown):
- Dowsing can be used to detect water, minerals and other elements 46.5
- Lines of energy, sometimes called “ley lines,” connect ancient structures 41.5
- Black Magic exists 36.3
- Places can be haunted by spirits 35.9
- Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world 32.9
- Curses can be used to inflict harm or punishment on someone 30.0
- The ancient, advanced civilization of Atlantis, once existed 26.3
- Aliens have visited the Earth in our ancient past 25.6
- Some crop circles are created by non-human forces or energies 25.4
- Alien Big Cats (ABCs) roam the British countryside 21.6
- Aliens have come to Earth in modern times 21.6
- Some people can move objects with their minds (telekinesis) 19.5
- The Loch Ness Monster exists 19.5
- Fortune tellers and psychics can foresee the future 18.9
- The Abominable Snowman exists 15.9
- Fairies have the power to influence the human world 15.4
- Bigfoot is a real creature 14.8
- The U.K. Wildman, sometimes known as “the British Bigfoot,” exists 14.8
- Believe in at least one item above 78.3
- Believe in at least one item above (excluding earth mysteries) 71.5
I could critique the phrasing on almost all of them for some reason. Just a one word change may prompt a different answer. Example: “Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world”. What does that even mean? Ivory billed woodpeckers? Dinosaurs? It’s a terrible phrasing structure, but you have to do some lumping to be as comprehensive as possible. The ley lines question puts them in context of connecting ancient structures but also loops in “lines of energy”. This conflates multiple ideas about leys.
Similarly, those who respond to these questions may not have a full understanding of what is being described. Many people mistakenly think that dowsing has some strange, but scientific, basis. As with ley lines, the idea of “energy” from the earth may suggest that there is some natural component at work that we haven’t yet discovered. Those kinds of belief may seem less paranormal than aliens, curses, or magic. Typically, higher education is correlated with lower levels of belief, but not in all concepts. This complexity shows how difficult it is to parse out why people believe weird things.
In conclusion, while I find these surveys interesting, there is a lot going on in the background and interpretations are context-dependent, which renders the percentages suspect. I’m beginning to question if we can make any kinds of concrete assumptions from them. The latest study concludes that the researchers are hopeful that “social scientists will further explore this interesting and consequential form of culture, across a wider range of social contexts.” I agree with this – paranormal beliefs are an important part of our culture and need to be recognized as such – but I would prefer a careful approach. Reported high percentages of belief in the paranormal sure are interesting, but is not something to fret about. It has always been, and always will be present.
———-
- Tom Clark, Joseph O. Baker & Christopher D. Bader (10 Feb 2025): Marginalized, Secularized, and Popularized? The Prevalence and Patterns of Paranormal Belief in the United Kingdom, The Sociological Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/00380253.2025.2461298
#beliefInGhosts #dowsing #earthMysteries #Ghosts #leyLines #paranormalBelief #problemWithSurveys #surveyOfParanormalBelief #UK
-
UK survey respondents love earth mysteries
New poll results about paranormal belief in the UK show that “earth mysteries” are really popular across the pond. US surveys don’t ask about these beliefs, so we can’t compare. That is just one of many complications that make it difficult to make sense out of poll numbers reflecting levels of paranormal beliefs over time.
Over the years, I’ve tracked belief in paranormal concepts, mostly in the US. It’s been interesting to see people claim that belief has increased, because it’s very much more complicated than that. Factors that increase or decrease not only belief, but social acceptance of those beliefs, are many and various. Media certainly has something to do with it, as well as a rejection of traditional religious practices. Several studies have found a correlation with between religion and the paranormal.
Yearly surveys are common, but not all are good. You can read about difficulties with belief surveys here:
https://sharonahill.com/ghost-belief-in-the-us-varies-widely-by-year-and-source/
I have updated my tracking table regarding ghost belief to include the one report I found for 2024. It’s fun to look at and ponder but is it really useful? I don’t know.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?
Yearly polling resultsYearSource% belief in ghosts2003Harris512005Gallup322007Baylor-Religion492008Harris442008Ipsos.McClatchy572009Pew 18 *2009Harris332010Harris512010Gallup562011YouGov362012YouGov/Huff. Post452013Harris422016Chapman472017Chapman522017YouGov452018Chapman582019YouGov452021YouGov412021Statista362023NORC502023RealClear612024Civic Science41* This is an anomalous result, but is not altogether inconsistent with the other result from that year at 33%.A new paper came out measuring belief in paranormal concepts in the UK.[1] It’s not surprising that there would be a difference in popularity of certain beliefs between the US and UK. For example, I would guess that the US population has a higher percentage of belief in UFOs and Bigfoot, but I should not assume because these polls are always tricky to interpret and not reliable. From the abstract:
The study makes four contributions to research on the paranormal by a) reiterating the continuing popularity of paranormal beliefs, even in highly secularized locations, with over 70% of people in the United Kingdom believing in something paranormal; b) demonstrating that these beliefs are differentiated across contexts where they might otherwise be assumed to be similar; c) demonstrating the applicability of social control and bounded affinity theories for explaining belief in the paranormal;
and, d) documenting how conventional religiosity relates to paranormalism in a relatively secular cultural context. These findings highlight the need for further research on diffuse forms of supernaturalism
and the potential for such studies to contribute to important questions about theory and research in sociology.The 70% may be surprising at first, however, it is similar to the U.S. When you give an array of people a list of many choices, they likely will favor at least a few.
You can read the entire paper here. Let’s look at the top beliefs that showed up in this survey.
The highest levels of belief were reported for issues related to earth mysteries, with belief in dowsing (45.6%) and ley lines (41.5%) registering the highest affirmative responses. Beyond this, the highest levels of belief were reported for black magic (36.3%), hauntings (35.9%), mysterious creatures (32.9%), and curses (30.0%). The lowest levels of belief were reported for belief in Bigfoot (14.8%), the U.K. Wildman (14.8%), and fairies (15.4%).
Dowsing and ley lines! I have thoughts. Obviously, earth mysteries relates to my interest in spooky geology. I have first-hand experience in seeing how attached people are to their belief in dowsing. I have also seen the increased mention of ley lines in paranormal contexts. Currently, reports of spook lights or encounters with mysterious balls of light (BOL) are increasing, particularly related to cryptids. The association with “window areas” and, in turn, a connection to earth energies, is a given.
Belief in dowsing and ley lines might be less in the US because, at least for leys, the concept began in the UK and is more tied to their history and heritage. However, I don’t recall either of these being an option in US surveys. That is unsurprising as you have to limit your choices and such surveys already include a pretty long list related to cryptids, ghosts, aliens, Atlantis, psi, etc. So I do wonder what the comparison would really be regarding dowsing and leys in the US vs UK, especially considering the rising media inclusion of BOL and high strangeness areas.
I’m unclear why this these two options were included in this recent UK survey. I haven’t seen their inclusion before. In the past surveys (done by Baker and Bader) the focus was more on fears, but included paranormal beliefs such as ancient civilizations and telekinesis. “Black magic” was framed as demons or the devil. It’s similar but may not be interpreted the same way by respondents. As always, the phrasing of questions is always a problem. Notice the phrasing in this survey (with the percentage of “belief” shown):
- Dowsing can be used to detect water, minerals and other elements 46.5
- Lines of energy, sometimes called “ley lines,” connect ancient structures 41.5
- Black Magic exists 36.3
- Places can be haunted by spirits 35.9
- Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world 32.9
- Curses can be used to inflict harm or punishment on someone 30.0
- The ancient, advanced civilization of Atlantis, once existed 26.3
- Aliens have visited the Earth in our ancient past 25.6
- Some crop circles are created by non-human forces or energies 25.4
- Alien Big Cats (ABCs) roam the British countryside 21.6
- Aliens have come to Earth in modern times 21.6
- Some people can move objects with their minds (telekinesis) 19.5
- The Loch Ness Monster exists 19.5
- Fortune tellers and psychics can foresee the future 18.9
- The Abominable Snowman exists 15.9
- Fairies have the power to influence the human world 15.4
- Bigfoot is a real creature 14.8
- The U.K. Wildman, sometimes known as “the British Bigfoot,” exists 14.8
- Believe in at least one item above 78.3
- Believe in at least one item above (excluding earth mysteries) 71.5
I could critique the phrasing on almost all of them for some reason. Just a one word change may prompt a different answer. Example: “Mysterious creatures, previously thought extinct, still inhabit this world”. What does that even mean? Ivory billed woodpeckers? Dinosaurs? It’s a terrible phrasing structure, but you have to do some lumping to be as comprehensive as possible. The ley lines question puts them in context of connecting ancient structures but also loops in “lines of energy”. This conflates multiple ideas about leys.
Similarly, those who respond to these questions may not have a full understanding of what is being described. Many people mistakenly think that dowsing has some strange, but scientific, basis. As with ley lines, the idea of “energy” from the earth may suggest that there is some natural component at work that we haven’t yet discovered. Those kinds of belief may seem less paranormal than aliens, curses, or magic. Typically, higher education is correlated with lower levels of belief, but not in all concepts. This complexity shows how difficult it is to parse out why people believe weird things.
In conclusion, while I find these surveys interesting, there is a lot going on in the background and interpretations are context-dependent, which renders the percentages suspect. I’m beginning to question if we can make any kinds of concrete assumptions from them. The latest study concludes that the researchers are hopeful that “social scientists will further explore this interesting and consequential form of culture, across a wider range of social contexts.” I agree with this – paranormal beliefs are an important part of our culture and need to be recognized as such – but I would prefer a careful approach. Reported high percentages of belief in the paranormal sure are interesting, but is not something to fret about. It has always been, and always will be present.
———-
- Tom Clark, Joseph O. Baker & Christopher D. Bader (10 Feb 2025): Marginalized, Secularized, and Popularized? The Prevalence and Patterns of Paranormal Belief in the United Kingdom, The Sociological Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/00380253.2025.2461298
#beliefInGhosts #dowsing #earthMysteries #Ghosts #leyLines #paranormalBelief #problemWithSurveys #surveyOfParanormalBelief #UK
-
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I bought a bargain second-hand copy of The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, published by the Geological Society
- To prove it's not all hardcore science here, I visited my friend's new bookshop in Brixham in Devon and snagged myself a copy of SenLinYu's Alchemised, published by Michael Joseph. If you're in the area, go check out Into the West Bookshop, tell them The Inquisitive Biologist sent you.
- Another second-hand bargain was Cold-Water Corals: The Biology and Geology of Deep-Sea Coral Habitats (yes, these exist!), published by Cambridge University Press.#Books #Bookstodon #Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Geology #EarthSciences #Corals #MarineBiology #DeepSea #Scicomm @bookstodon
-
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I bought a bargain second-hand copy of The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, published by the Geological Society
- To prove it's not all hardcore science here, I visited my friend's new bookshop in Brixham in Devon and snagged myself a copy of SenLinYu's Alchemised, published by Michael Joseph. If you're in the area, go check out Into the West Bookshop, tell them The Inquisitive Biologist sent you.
- Another second-hand bargain was Cold-Water Corals: The Biology and Geology of Deep-Sea Coral Habitats (yes, these exist!), published by Cambridge University Press.#Books #Bookstodon #Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Geology #EarthSciences #Corals #MarineBiology #DeepSea #Scicomm @bookstodon
-
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I bought a bargain second-hand copy of The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, published by the Geological Society
- To prove it's not all hardcore science here, I visited my friend's new bookshop in Brixham in Devon and snagged myself a copy of SenLinYu's Alchemised, published by Michael Joseph. If you're in the area, go check out Into the West Bookshop, tell them The Inquisitive Biologist sent you.
- Another second-hand bargain was Cold-Water Corals: The Biology and Geology of Deep-Sea Coral Habitats (yes, these exist!), published by Cambridge University Press.#Books #Bookstodon #Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Geology #EarthSciences #Corals #MarineBiology #DeepSea #Scicomm @bookstodon
-
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I bought a bargain second-hand copy of The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, published by the Geological Society
- To prove it's not all hardcore science here, I visited my friend's new bookshop in Brixham in Devon and snagged myself a copy of SenLinYu's Alchemised, published by Michael Joseph. If you're in the area, go check out Into the West Bookshop, tell them The Inquisitive Biologist sent you.
- Another second-hand bargain was Cold-Water Corals: The Biology and Geology of Deep-Sea Coral Habitats (yes, these exist!), published by Cambridge University Press.#Books #Bookstodon #Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Geology #EarthSciences #Corals #MarineBiology #DeepSea #Scicomm @bookstodon
-
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I bought a bargain second-hand copy of The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, published by the Geological Society
- To prove it's not all hardcore science here, I visited my friend's new bookshop in Brixham in Devon and snagged myself a copy of SenLinYu's Alchemised, published by Michael Joseph. If you're in the area, go check out Into the West Bookshop, tell them The Inquisitive Biologist sent you.
- Another second-hand bargain was Cold-Water Corals: The Biology and Geology of Deep-Sea Coral Habitats (yes, these exist!), published by Cambridge University Press.#Books #Bookstodon #Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Geology #EarthSciences #Corals #MarineBiology #DeepSea #Scicomm @bookstodon
-
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE TAROT
For centuries, across cultures, people have spoken of a world beyond the physical. Some call it the supernatural or God, others the subtle body, the collective unconscious or the ethereal. Whether connecting with something deep within or something divine beyond us, this non‑physical realm has long fascinated both sages and scholars. Though modern science and mysticism often clash, I have always been drawn to their boundary—a liminal space where metaphysics and quantum theory blur into what some call the ‘secrets of the universe.’
Historically, people have developed tools and methods to commune with this unseen world. With this column, I hope to explore these divination practices—both to demystify the idea that we can engage with the unseen and to consider how they might help us connect more deeply with ourselves and each other. Theorists like Albert Einstein, who envisioned an interconnected universe, and Carl Jung, who wrote about archetypes and the collective unconscious, have suggested a hidden web. I believe divination can help us tap into it, offering insight and self‑understanding.
One of the most well‑known tools today is the tarot. While tarot as we know it differs from its origins, the practice of cartomancy (using cards as divination tools) began in the Tang dynasty in seventh-century China before traveling west and evolving into the 15th‑century Italian tarot deck. Contemporary tarot decks still maintain the 78‑card structure developed in the Renaissance era, which is divided into the Minor and Major Arcana.
The Minor Arcana mirrors a traditional deck of playing cards, with four suits—pentacles (or coins), swords, wands and cups—each aligning with one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Within each suit, ten numbered cards trace a personal journey through the challenges, growth and lessons of that element.
These culminate with the court cards—Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings—which reflect stages of maturity. Pages carry the curiosity of beginnings and knights the restless energy of adolescence, while queens and kings embody mastery of the inner and outer realms. Together, the suits form a story of self‑actualization through the elements that shape our lives.
The Major Arcana, a set of 22 cards, speaks to our broader existential journey. They follow the fool through symbolic stages of life. The fool encounters figures like the Empress, Strength, Death, and the Star that echo the hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell. These archetypes appear across global mythologies, alchemical traditions, and Jungian psychology, offering a symbolic map of transformation.
In essence, a tarot deck is a guide to the process of becoming. It’s an archetypal narrative found everywhere from ancient myths to Alice in Wonderland and Star Wars. It mirrors what spiritual practitioners call the dark night of the soul: the leap into the unknown, the trials, the adventures, and eventually the revelations.
For this month’s collective reading, I’ve chosen the Smith-Waite deck. It was illustrated in 1909 by artist and occultist Pamela Colman Smith. Commissioned by Arthur Edward Waite, the deck was created through Smith’s intuitive practice, and her imagery has since become the foundation for countless tarot decks.
Every reader approaches tarot differently, but I begin by grounding myself, often with a quiet prayer or affirmation, before shuffling and pulling the cards the spread calls for. This month, I’ve drawn three cards for the collective: one for our past, one for the present moment, and a third for what awaits us.
In the past position, we have the Ace of Swords. This suggests the collective has recently moved through a period of sharp, and maybe even uncomfortable clarity. An essential truth has been revealed. The Ace appears when illusions fade and we’re asked to see things as they truly are. For many, this may have been a moment of honesty, a shift in perspective, or the realization that something could no longer be overlooked.
In the present, we meet The Emperor. He brings structure, discipline, and a call for grounded authority. After the clarity of the Ace, the Emperor asks us to act on what we now understand. This is a moment to establish boundaries and take leadership into our own hands. Collectively, it signals a need to envision new systems, routines, or foundations that support long‑term stability and growth.
Looking ahead, the Six of Pentacles points toward a future shaped by reciprocity and balanced exchange. We are invited to consider how we share our resources and to do so with fairness, generosity, and integrity.
Together, these cards paint a trajectory from clarity to structure to compassionate action. What we understand now becomes the blueprint for a more balanced and mutually supportive future. While I hesitate to use these tools for fortune‑telling, I use them instead as cues for reflection, and this reading suggests a collective movement toward reciprocity, —something I can happily stand behind.
#arcana #campbell #CarlJung #Column #curiousMethods #divination #edwardWaite #ElfieKalfakis #jungian #majorArcana #Photo #pyschology #tarot -
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE TAROT
For centuries, across cultures, people have spoken of a world beyond the physical. Some call it the supernatural or God, others the subtle body, the collective unconscious or the ethereal. Whether connecting with something deep within or something divine beyond us, this non‑physical realm has long fascinated both sages and scholars. Though modern science and mysticism often clash, I have always been drawn to their boundary—a liminal space where metaphysics and quantum theory blur into what some call the ‘secrets of the universe.’
Historically, people have developed tools and methods to commune with this unseen world. With this column, I hope to explore these divination practices—both to demystify the idea that we can engage with the unseen and to consider how they might help us connect more deeply with ourselves and each other. Theorists like Albert Einstein, who envisioned an interconnected universe, and Carl Jung, who wrote about archetypes and the collective unconscious, have suggested a hidden web. I believe divination can help us tap into it, offering insight and self‑understanding.
One of the most well‑known tools today is the tarot. While tarot as we know it differs from its origins, the practice of cartomancy (using cards as divination tools) began in the Tang dynasty in seventh-century China before traveling west and evolving into the 15th‑century Italian tarot deck. Contemporary tarot decks still maintain the 78‑card structure developed in the Renaissance era, which is divided into the Minor and Major Arcana.
The Minor Arcana mirrors a traditional deck of playing cards, with four suits—pentacles (or coins), swords, wands and cups—each aligning with one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Within each suit, ten numbered cards trace a personal journey through the challenges, growth and lessons of that element.
These culminate with the court cards—Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings—which reflect stages of maturity. Pages carry the curiosity of beginnings and knights the restless energy of adolescence, while queens and kings embody mastery of the inner and outer realms. Together, the suits form a story of self‑actualization through the elements that shape our lives.
The Major Arcana, a set of 22 cards, speaks to our broader existential journey. They follow the fool through symbolic stages of life. The fool encounters figures like the Empress, Strength, Death, and the Star that echo the hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell. These archetypes appear across global mythologies, alchemical traditions, and Jungian psychology, offering a symbolic map of transformation.
In essence, a tarot deck is a guide to the process of becoming. It’s an archetypal narrative found everywhere from ancient myths to Alice in Wonderland and Star Wars. It mirrors what spiritual practitioners call the dark night of the soul: the leap into the unknown, the trials, the adventures, and eventually the revelations.
For this month’s collective reading, I’ve chosen the Smith-Waite deck. It was illustrated in 1909 by artist and occultist Pamela Colman Smith. Commissioned by Arthur Edward Waite, the deck was created through Smith’s intuitive practice, and her imagery has since become the foundation for countless tarot decks.
Every reader approaches tarot differently, but I begin by grounding myself, often with a quiet prayer or affirmation, before shuffling and pulling the cards the spread calls for. This month, I’ve drawn three cards for the collective: one for our past, one for the present moment, and a third for what awaits us.
In the past position, we have the Ace of Swords. This suggests the collective has recently moved through a period of sharp, and maybe even uncomfortable clarity. An essential truth has been revealed. The Ace appears when illusions fade and we’re asked to see things as they truly are. For many, this may have been a moment of honesty, a shift in perspective, or the realization that something could no longer be overlooked.
In the present, we meet The Emperor. He brings structure, discipline, and a call for grounded authority. After the clarity of the Ace, the Emperor asks us to act on what we now understand. This is a moment to establish boundaries and take leadership into our own hands. Collectively, it signals a need to envision new systems, routines, or foundations that support long‑term stability and growth.
Looking ahead, the Six of Pentacles points toward a future shaped by reciprocity and balanced exchange. We are invited to consider how we share our resources and to do so with fairness, generosity, and integrity.
Together, these cards paint a trajectory from clarity to structure to compassionate action. What we understand now becomes the blueprint for a more balanced and mutually supportive future. While I hesitate to use these tools for fortune‑telling, I use them instead as cues for reflection, and this reading suggests a collective movement toward reciprocity, —something I can happily stand behind.
#arcana #campbell #CarlJung #Column #curiousMethods #divination #edwardWaite #ElfieKalfakis #jungian #majorArcana #Photo #pyschology #tarot -
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE TAROT
For centuries, across cultures, people have spoken of a world beyond the physical. Some call it the supernatural or God, others the subtle body, the collective unconscious or the ethereal. Whether connecting with something deep within or something divine beyond us, this non‑physical realm has long fascinated both sages and scholars. Though modern science and mysticism often clash, I have always been drawn to their boundary—a liminal space where metaphysics and quantum theory blur into what some call the ‘secrets of the universe.’
Historically, people have developed tools and methods to commune with this unseen world. With this column, I hope to explore these divination practices—both to demystify the idea that we can engage with the unseen and to consider how they might help us connect more deeply with ourselves and each other. Theorists like Albert Einstein, who envisioned an interconnected universe, and Carl Jung, who wrote about archetypes and the collective unconscious, have suggested a hidden web. I believe divination can help us tap into it, offering insight and self‑understanding.
One of the most well‑known tools today is the tarot. While tarot as we know it differs from its origins, the practice of cartomancy (using cards as divination tools) began in the Tang dynasty in seventh-century China before traveling west and evolving into the 15th‑century Italian tarot deck. Contemporary tarot decks still maintain the 78‑card structure developed in the Renaissance era, which is divided into the Minor and Major Arcana.
The Minor Arcana mirrors a traditional deck of playing cards, with four suits—pentacles (or coins), swords, wands and cups—each aligning with one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Within each suit, ten numbered cards trace a personal journey through the challenges, growth and lessons of that element.
These culminate with the court cards—Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings—which reflect stages of maturity. Pages carry the curiosity of beginnings and knights the restless energy of adolescence, while queens and kings embody mastery of the inner and outer realms. Together, the suits form a story of self‑actualization through the elements that shape our lives.
The Major Arcana, a set of 22 cards, speaks to our broader existential journey. They follow the fool through symbolic stages of life. The fool encounters figures like the Empress, Strength, Death, and the Star that echo the hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell. These archetypes appear across global mythologies, alchemical traditions, and Jungian psychology, offering a symbolic map of transformation.
In essence, a tarot deck is a guide to the process of becoming. It’s an archetypal narrative found everywhere from ancient myths to Alice in Wonderland and Star Wars. It mirrors what spiritual practitioners call the dark night of the soul: the leap into the unknown, the trials, the adventures, and eventually the revelations.
For this month’s collective reading, I’ve chosen the Smith-Waite deck. It was illustrated in 1909 by artist and occultist Pamela Colman Smith. Commissioned by Arthur Edward Waite, the deck was created through Smith’s intuitive practice, and her imagery has since become the foundation for countless tarot decks.
Every reader approaches tarot differently, but I begin by grounding myself, often with a quiet prayer or affirmation, before shuffling and pulling the cards the spread calls for. This month, I’ve drawn three cards for the collective: one for our past, one for the present moment, and a third for what awaits us.
In the past position, we have the Ace of Swords. This suggests the collective has recently moved through a period of sharp, and maybe even uncomfortable clarity. An essential truth has been revealed. The Ace appears when illusions fade and we’re asked to see things as they truly are. For many, this may have been a moment of honesty, a shift in perspective, or the realization that something could no longer be overlooked.
In the present, we meet The Emperor. He brings structure, discipline, and a call for grounded authority. After the clarity of the Ace, the Emperor asks us to act on what we now understand. This is a moment to establish boundaries and take leadership into our own hands. Collectively, it signals a need to envision new systems, routines, or foundations that support long‑term stability and growth.
Looking ahead, the Six of Pentacles points toward a future shaped by reciprocity and balanced exchange. We are invited to consider how we share our resources and to do so with fairness, generosity, and integrity.
Together, these cards paint a trajectory from clarity to structure to compassionate action. What we understand now becomes the blueprint for a more balanced and mutually supportive future. While I hesitate to use these tools for fortune‑telling, I use them instead as cues for reflection, and this reading suggests a collective movement toward reciprocity, —something I can happily stand behind.
#arcana #campbell #CarlJung #Column #curiousMethods #divination #edwardWaite #ElfieKalfakis #jungian #majorArcana #Photo #pyschology #tarot -
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE TAROT
For centuries, across cultures, people have spoken of a world beyond the physical. Some call it the supernatural or God, others the subtle body, the collective unconscious or the ethereal. Whether connecting with something deep within or something divine beyond us, this non‑physical realm has long fascinated both sages and scholars. Though modern science and mysticism often clash, I have always been drawn to their boundary—a liminal space where metaphysics and quantum theory blur into what some call the ‘secrets of the universe.’
Historically, people have developed tools and methods to commune with this unseen world. With this column, I hope to explore these divination practices—both to demystify the idea that we can engage with the unseen and to consider how they might help us connect more deeply with ourselves and each other. Theorists like Albert Einstein, who envisioned an interconnected universe, and Carl Jung, who wrote about archetypes and the collective unconscious, have suggested a hidden web. I believe divination can help us tap into it, offering insight and self‑understanding.
One of the most well‑known tools today is the tarot. While tarot as we know it differs from its origins, the practice of cartomancy (using cards as divination tools) began in the Tang dynasty in seventh-century China before traveling west and evolving into the 15th‑century Italian tarot deck. Contemporary tarot decks still maintain the 78‑card structure developed in the Renaissance era, which is divided into the Minor and Major Arcana.
The Minor Arcana mirrors a traditional deck of playing cards, with four suits—pentacles (or coins), swords, wands and cups—each aligning with one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Within each suit, ten numbered cards trace a personal journey through the challenges, growth and lessons of that element.
These culminate with the court cards—Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings—which reflect stages of maturity. Pages carry the curiosity of beginnings and knights the restless energy of adolescence, while queens and kings embody mastery of the inner and outer realms. Together, the suits form a story of self‑actualization through the elements that shape our lives.
The Major Arcana, a set of 22 cards, speaks to our broader existential journey. They follow the fool through symbolic stages of life. The fool encounters figures like the Empress, Strength, Death, and the Star that echo the hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell. These archetypes appear across global mythologies, alchemical traditions, and Jungian psychology, offering a symbolic map of transformation.
In essence, a tarot deck is a guide to the process of becoming. It’s an archetypal narrative found everywhere from ancient myths to Alice in Wonderland and Star Wars. It mirrors what spiritual practitioners call the dark night of the soul: the leap into the unknown, the trials, the adventures, and eventually the revelations.
For this month’s collective reading, I’ve chosen the Smith-Waite deck. It was illustrated in 1909 by artist and occultist Pamela Colman Smith. Commissioned by Arthur Edward Waite, the deck was created through Smith’s intuitive practice, and her imagery has since become the foundation for countless tarot decks.
Every reader approaches tarot differently, but I begin by grounding myself, often with a quiet prayer or affirmation, before shuffling and pulling the cards the spread calls for. This month, I’ve drawn three cards for the collective: one for our past, one for the present moment, and a third for what awaits us.
In the past position, we have the Ace of Swords. This suggests the collective has recently moved through a period of sharp, and maybe even uncomfortable clarity. An essential truth has been revealed. The Ace appears when illusions fade and we’re asked to see things as they truly are. For many, this may have been a moment of honesty, a shift in perspective, or the realization that something could no longer be overlooked.
In the present, we meet The Emperor. He brings structure, discipline, and a call for grounded authority. After the clarity of the Ace, the Emperor asks us to act on what we now understand. This is a moment to establish boundaries and take leadership into our own hands. Collectively, it signals a need to envision new systems, routines, or foundations that support long‑term stability and growth.
Looking ahead, the Six of Pentacles points toward a future shaped by reciprocity and balanced exchange. We are invited to consider how we share our resources and to do so with fairness, generosity, and integrity.
Together, these cards paint a trajectory from clarity to structure to compassionate action. What we understand now becomes the blueprint for a more balanced and mutually supportive future. While I hesitate to use these tools for fortune‑telling, I use them instead as cues for reflection, and this reading suggests a collective movement toward reciprocity, —something I can happily stand behind.
#arcana #campbell #CarlJung #Column #curiousMethods #divination #edwardWaite #ElfieKalfakis #jungian #majorArcana #Photo #pyschology #tarot -
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE TAROT
For centuries, across cultures, people have spoken of a world beyond the physical. Some call it the supernatural or God, others the subtle body, the collective unconscious or the ethereal. Whether connecting with something deep within or something divine beyond us, this non‑physical realm has long fascinated both sages and scholars. Though modern science and mysticism often clash, I have always been drawn to their boundary—a liminal space where metaphysics and quantum theory blur into what some call the ‘secrets of the universe.’
Historically, people have developed tools and methods to commune with this unseen world. With this column, I hope to explore these divination practices—both to demystify the idea that we can engage with the unseen and to consider how they might help us connect more deeply with ourselves and each other. Theorists like Albert Einstein, who envisioned an interconnected universe, and Carl Jung, who wrote about archetypes and the collective unconscious, have suggested a hidden web. I believe divination can help us tap into it, offering insight and self‑understanding.
One of the most well‑known tools today is the tarot. While tarot as we know it differs from its origins, the practice of cartomancy (using cards as divination tools) began in the Tang dynasty in seventh-century China before traveling west and evolving into the 15th‑century Italian tarot deck. Contemporary tarot decks still maintain the 78‑card structure developed in the Renaissance era, which is divided into the Minor and Major Arcana.
The Minor Arcana mirrors a traditional deck of playing cards, with four suits—pentacles (or coins), swords, wands and cups—each aligning with one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Within each suit, ten numbered cards trace a personal journey through the challenges, growth and lessons of that element.
These culminate with the court cards—Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings—which reflect stages of maturity. Pages carry the curiosity of beginnings and knights the restless energy of adolescence, while queens and kings embody mastery of the inner and outer realms. Together, the suits form a story of self‑actualization through the elements that shape our lives.
The Major Arcana, a set of 22 cards, speaks to our broader existential journey. They follow the fool through symbolic stages of life. The fool encounters figures like the Empress, Strength, Death, and the Star that echo the hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell. These archetypes appear across global mythologies, alchemical traditions, and Jungian psychology, offering a symbolic map of transformation.
In essence, a tarot deck is a guide to the process of becoming. It’s an archetypal narrative found everywhere from ancient myths to Alice in Wonderland and Star Wars. It mirrors what spiritual practitioners call the dark night of the soul: the leap into the unknown, the trials, the adventures, and eventually the revelations.
For this month’s collective reading, I’ve chosen the Smith-Waite deck. It was illustrated in 1909 by artist and occultist Pamela Colman Smith. Commissioned by Arthur Edward Waite, the deck was created through Smith’s intuitive practice, and her imagery has since become the foundation for countless tarot decks.
Every reader approaches tarot differently, but I begin by grounding myself, often with a quiet prayer or affirmation, before shuffling and pulling the cards the spread calls for. This month, I’ve drawn three cards for the collective: one for our past, one for the present moment, and a third for what awaits us.
In the past position, we have the Ace of Swords. This suggests the collective has recently moved through a period of sharp, and maybe even uncomfortable clarity. An essential truth has been revealed. The Ace appears when illusions fade and we’re asked to see things as they truly are. For many, this may have been a moment of honesty, a shift in perspective, or the realization that something could no longer be overlooked.
In the present, we meet The Emperor. He brings structure, discipline, and a call for grounded authority. After the clarity of the Ace, the Emperor asks us to act on what we now understand. This is a moment to establish boundaries and take leadership into our own hands. Collectively, it signals a need to envision new systems, routines, or foundations that support long‑term stability and growth.
Looking ahead, the Six of Pentacles points toward a future shaped by reciprocity and balanced exchange. We are invited to consider how we share our resources and to do so with fairness, generosity, and integrity.
Together, these cards paint a trajectory from clarity to structure to compassionate action. What we understand now becomes the blueprint for a more balanced and mutually supportive future. While I hesitate to use these tools for fortune‑telling, I use them instead as cues for reflection, and this reading suggests a collective movement toward reciprocity, —something I can happily stand behind.
#arcana #campbell #CarlJung #Column #curiousMethods #divination #edwardWaite #ElfieKalfakis #jungian #majorArcana #Photo #pyschology #tarot -
Skate to Hell (2026) Available March 3
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Men of the Mic: Legendary Hams Who Built the Community
2,179 words, 12 minutes read time.
There’s something timeless and quietly powerful about a man at a desk, microphone in hand, patiently tuning across the bands for a distant voice. It’s more than just a hobby; for many, amateur radio is a testament to curiosity, craftsmanship, and the deep desire to connect. Over the last century, countless men have sat at their radios, some unknown beyond their local nets, others rising to legendary status. Their stories still ripple through our repeaters and field days, inspiring the next wave of men who will pick up a mic and join this global fraternity.
If you’re a man eyeing your first license or dreaming of building your own shack, this journey through the lives of legendary hams will be more than history — it’s a roadmap, showing how technical skill, generosity, and camaraderie have always been the bedrock of amateur radio. And by understanding the men who built this community, you’ll find your own place among them one day.
The Founding Fathers of Ham Radio
It’s impossible to appreciate amateur radio’s rich tapestry without tipping our hats to the men who quite literally invented the medium. Their stories are the origin myths of our shared obsession.
Hiram Percy Maxim, whose call sign W1AW still echoes daily as the flagship station of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), was far more than a hobbyist. An engineer and inventor, Maxim was the quintessential tinkerer, a man who found beauty in complex gears and wires. In 1914, he founded the ARRL to organize a chaotic landscape of independent amateurs, many of them teenagers stringing wire from their parents’ rooftops. By setting standards for relaying messages across the nation, Maxim didn’t just build an organization — he fostered the first large-scale brotherhood of radio amateurs.
His creation of the “Wouff Hong,” a whimsical yet stern device supposedly used to enforce good operating practices, underlines his belief that with the freedom of the airwaves came responsibility. When today’s operators remind each other to maintain discipline on the bands, they’re echoing Maxim’s century-old ethic.
Long before Maxim, of course, came the men whose breakthroughs made radio possible. Samuel Morse, though best known for the code that bears his name, was also a relentless promoter of long-distance communication. Guglielmo Marconi took that spark and pushed it across oceans, becoming arguably the first “amateur” by experimenting well outside established commercial infrastructure. When Marconi’s signal crossed the Atlantic in 1901, it was less an engineered certainty and more a daring gamble — the sort of risk every good ham instinctively understands.
Even Hugo Gernsback, remembered by many as the father of science fiction, played a vital role. His radio magazines educated thousands of young men who would become the first true amateurs, laying the groundwork for the clubs and societies we rely on today.
Engineers, Innovators, and Celebrity Operators
What is it about men who build things with their hands that so often draws them to amateur radio? Perhaps it’s the perfect blend of theory and practical tinkering. The hobby attracts those who yearn to know not just that something works, but precisely why and how.
Take Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Before he revolutionized personal computing, Woz was WV6VLY, fascinated by radio circuits and pushing RF signals into the ether from his California home. Even after his Apple success, he remained an advocate for ham radio’s power to teach electronics in a hands-on way that books alone never could.
Then there’s Bob Moog, whose name is synonymous with the synthesizer. Lesser known is that Moog was K2AMH, a dedicated operator who found joy in both music and radio frequency design. The careful balancing of voltages in an oscillator isn’t far removed from tuning a VFO. For men like Moog, amateur radio was as much a canvas as a utility.
Joseph Taylor, K1JT, stands at a fascinating crossroads. Already a Nobel laureate in physics for his work on pulsars, Taylor turned his brilliance to the amateur bands by developing WSJT, the software suite behind modes like FT8. These digital modes have revolutionized weak-signal work, letting hams complete contacts on bands once thought impractical. Taylor’s example shows how intellectual curiosity doesn’t stop at professional borders — sometimes, the professor wants to come home and see if he can snag a new country on 6 meters just like the rest of us.
Ray Dolby, of Dolby noise reduction fame, shared similar passions, holding an amateur license. It’s a telling pattern: men who push technical frontiers in their day jobs often retreat to the shack not just to relax, but to keep exploring. They’re proof that whether you’re designing world-changing technologies or soldering a kit on your workbench, the same thrill of discovery pulses through every good ham.
Ham Radio in Space and the Competitive Spirit
Few stories better capture the adventurous spirit of ham radio than those of operators who quite literally took it out of this world. In 1983, Owen Garriott, W5LFL, made the first amateur radio contacts from space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. His casual QSOs from orbit to operators below were historic, proving the technology and launching the entire concept of “space stations on the air.” Garriott was followed by countless astronauts and cosmonauts, many of whom held amateur licenses before ever donning a flight suit.
Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, was himself a licensed operator (UA1LO), though most of his radio work was symbolic rather than operational. Still, there’s something profoundly moving in knowing that the men pushing humanity’s boundaries into orbit were often the same kids who once wound coils and trimmed antennas in their garages.
On Earth, that same pioneering spirit shows up in the fiercely contested world of radio sport. John Scott Redd, K0DQ, is a perfect example. A retired U.S. Navy vice admiral, he also happens to be a contesting legend, having won world championships in nearly every major DX contest. Men like Redd demonstrate that ham radio is as much a test of skill and endurance as any traditional sport — requiring strategy, technical acumen, and the unshakeable nerve to dig signals out of the noise when the clock is ticking.
Humanitarians, Educators, and Global Connectors
While it’s easy to be drawn to the technical marvels and competitive highs, some of amateur radio’s greatest men are remembered not for their rigs or contest scores, but for their compassion and commitment to public service.
Consider Marshall D. Moran, 9N1MM, an American Jesuit priest who became Nepal’s first ham operator. Arriving in the 1940s, Moran soon realized his modest station was the only reliable link between Kathmandu and the outside world. Countless climbers and trekkers owe their lives to the emergency traffic he relayed. In remote Himalayan villages, the reassuring crackle of 9N1MM on the air meant help was on the way.
Leslie R. Mitchell, G3BHK, similarly wove amateur radio into a global network of goodwill by founding Jamboree-On-The-Air (JOTA), the worldwide event that connects Scouts through amateur radio every October. Since its start in 1957, millions of young men have spoken to their first foreign friends over a radio Mitchell’s inspiration helped set up. In a world growing ever more polarized, these simple conversations — about hobbies, school, or what it’s like to camp under different stars — remind us that radio can be the ultimate bridge.
Early Experimenters and Broadcasting Pioneers
Long before the airwaves became crowded with thousands of daily QSOs, early experimenters were learning the hard way how to coax electrons into carrying voices.
Charles “Doc” Herrold of San Jose, California, was building primitive radio transmitters by 1909, predating even the first commercial broadcast stations. Herrold’s Sunday night shows were informal affairs, often just reading local news, but his enthusiasm laid crucial groundwork. Similarly, Charles E. Apgar, a mild-mannered insurance executive by day, used his home-built equipment to record clandestine German naval transmissions during World War I, helping break codes and ultimately saving ships.
These stories are worth retelling not only for their technical firsts but because they showcase amateur radio’s classic DNA: curious men, tinkering alone or with a handful of buddies, accidentally changing the world.
Kings, Anchormen, and Hollywood’s Quiet Operators
If amateur radio has a secret, it’s how often it lurks in the lives of men we wouldn’t expect. Walter Cronkite, whose authoritative baritone narrated America’s triumphs and tragedies, was also KB2GSD. Cronkite once narrated an ARRL film, famously concluding, “Amateur radio: what a wonderful hobby.” Coming from the most trusted man in journalism, it was an endorsement money couldn’t buy.
King Hussein of Jordan, JY1, was not content to be a figurehead. He operated regularly, chatting with common hams across the globe, reportedly insisting they drop the royal titles and just call him “Hussein.” And then there’s Marlon Brando, KE6PZH, who set up a radio on his private Tahitian island, reportedly making contacts to New Zealand just for the pleasure of breaking through the static.
Whether it’s Hollywood icons or heads of state, these men found in amateur radio the same satisfaction we all do: the joy of sending a signal into the dark and hearing a voice come back.
What These Men Teach Us
So why dwell on these stories? Because they prove again and again that amateur radio is more than a pastime. It’s a proving ground for technical skill, a sanctuary for curiosity, and, perhaps most importantly, a forge for character.
Every one of these legendary operators — whether Nobel physicist, pioneering priest, or retired sailor — shared the same humble beginnings as any newcomer. They struggled with code speed, burned fingers on soldering irons, fought RF feedback, and cursed propagation when their signals vanished into the ether. They became legends not by starting with extraordinary talent, but by pursuing their interest with steady, masculine resolve.
Their legacies tell us that the best hams aren’t defined by their equipment or QSL card collections, but by their willingness to serve, teach, and open the mic to strangers. This is the true brotherhood of amateur radio, and it’s as alive on your local repeater as in the halls of the ARRL.
A Word to the Men Still Considering Their License
If you’re reading this and still on the fence about getting your license, let these stories be your push. You don’t need a PhD, a palace, or even a fancy rig to join this fraternity. All you need is the spark that drove Maxim, the patience that guided Taylor, and the generosity that marked Moran’s every QSO.
Start by listening. Grab a cheap scanner, or tune into online SDRs. Visit a local club — you’ll find men who were once exactly where you are now, and who will be delighted to help you along. When you’re ready, pick up a study guide. Don’t worry if the material looks intimidating. Remember: every Nobel laureate and king we mentioned once puzzled over the same resistor color codes and license manuals.
Above all, understand that by stepping into this world, you’re joining a continuum stretching back more than a century — a line of men who built not just circuits and antennas, but a global brotherhood.
Wrapping Up: Join the Conversation
Amateur radio is richer for the men who made it their passion, and it waits for you to add your voice. If these stories of legendary hams have sparked something in you — if you find your mind drifting to DXpeditions, contest pileups, or late-night chats with faraway strangers — don’t let it fade. Take the first step.
Before you go, we’ve got even more stories waiting. This is the first of a special two-part series. Next week, we’ll shine the spotlight on the incredible “Women of the Mic: Legendary Hams Who Built the Community.” Don’t miss it — subscribe to our newsletter so you’ll be the first to know when it drops. Let’s keep exploring this amazing brotherhood (and sisterhood) together!
Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Who are the operators that inspire you? Have you had a mentor, or perhaps a memorable first contact that set your course? Drop a comment below and join our growing community of men exploring what’s possible over the air. And if you want more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter. Together, we’ll keep this brotherhood strong for the next century of men at the mic.
D. Bryan King
Sources
- ARRL – Ham Radio History (founder Hiram Percy Maxim & Wouff Hong)
- Ham Radio Prep – Famous Ham Radio Operators (Wozniak, Owen Garriott, Joseph Taylor)
- NOFARS – Famous Amateur Radio Operators (Maxim, Taylor, Moog, Cronkite, Atkins)
- NewHams.info – Famous Hams list including Vermilya, Moog, Beverage, etc.
- Red Pitaya – Famous hams like Yuri Gagarin, Les Hamilton, John Sculley
- KB6NU – Top figures: Morse, Marconi, Maxim, Gernsback, Taylor, Collins, Heathkit, Wayne Green
- EarlyRadioHistory – Pioneering amateurs 1900–1917 (Herrold, Apgar) :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}
- Wikipedia – Marshall D. Moran, first ham in Nepal, humanitarian operator
- Wikipedia – John Scott Redd, contesting legend and CQ Hall of Fame
- Wikipedia – Leslie R. Mitchell, founder of Jamboree‑On‑The‑Air (JOTA)
- Wikipedia – Charles “Doc” Herrold, radio broadcaster pioneer :
- Wikipedia – Charles E. Apgar, early wireless experimenter and recorder
- HFUnderground – Famous hams including cosmonauts, royalty, dignitaries
- Oxley Region ARC – Celebrity hams (Brando, Tim Allen, Hughes, Dolby, Priscilla Presley)
- WIRED – Why ham radio endures, mentions King Hussein, Marlon Brando, Gagarin :contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15}
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. The information provided is based on personal research, experience, and understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Readers should consult relevant experts or authorities for specific guidance related to their unique situations.
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Quote of the day, 2 December: St. Teresa of Avila
To the King Don Philip II
The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your majesty, amen. I strongly believe that our Lady has chosen you to protect and help her order. So, I cannot fail to have recourse to you regarding her affairs. For the love of our Lord, I beg you to pardon me for so much boldness.
I am sure your majesty has received news of how the nuns at the Incarnation tried to have me go there, thinking they would have some means to free themselves from the friars, who are certainly a great hindrance to the recollection and religious observance of the nuns. And the friars are entirely at fault for the lack of observance previously present in that house. The nuns are very much mistaken in their desire that I go there, for as long as they are subject to the friars as confessors and visitators, I would be of no help—at least not of any lasting help. I always said this to the Dominican visitator, and he understood it well.
Since God allowed that situation to exist, I tried to provide a remedy and placed a discalced friar in a house next to them, along with a companion friar. He is so great a servant of our Lord that the nuns are truly edified, and this city is amazed by the remarkable amount of good he has done there, and so they consider him a saint, and in my opinion, he is one and has been one all his life.
When the previous nuncio through a long report sent him by the inhabitants of the city was informed of the things that were happening and of the harm that the friars of the cloth were doing, he gave orders under pain of ex-communication that the confessors be restored to their house (for the calced friars had driven them from the city heaping abuse on them and giving much scandal to everyone). And he also ordered that no friar of the cloth under pain of ex-communication go to the Incarnation for business purposes, to say Mass, or hear confessions, but only the discalced friars and secular clergy. As a result, the house was in a good state until the nuncio died. Then the calced friars returned—and so too the disturbance—without demonstrating the grounds on which they could do so.
And now a friar who came to absolve the nuns caused such a disturbance without any concern for what is reasonable and just that the nuns are deeply afflicted and still bound by the same penalties as before, according to what I have been told. And worst of all he has taken from them their confessors. They say that he has been made vicar provincial, and this must be true because he is more capable than the others of making martyrs. And he is holding these confessors captive in his monastery after having forced his way into their cells and confiscating their papers.
The whole city is truly scandalized. He is not a prelate nor did he show any evidence of the authority on which these things were done, for these confessors are subject to the apostolic commissary. Those friars dared so much, even though this city is so close to where your majesty resides, that it doesn’t seem they fear either justice or God. I feel very sad to see these confessors in the hands of those friars who for some days have been desiring to seize hold of them. I would consider the confessors better off if they were held by the Moors, who perhaps would show more compassion. And this one friar who is so great a servant of God is so weak from all that he has suffered that I fear for his life.
I beg your majesty for the love of our Lord to issue orders for them to set him free at once and that these poor discalced friars not be subjected to so much suffering by the friars of the cloth. The former do no more than suffer and keep silent and gain a great deal. But the people are scandalized by what is being done to them. This past summer in Toledo, without any reason, the same superior took as prisoner Fray Antonio de Jesús—a holy and blessed man, who was the first discalced friar. They go about saying that with orders from Tostado they will destroy them all. May God be blessed! Those who were to be the means of removing offenses against God have become the cause of so many sins. And each day matters will get worse if your majesty does not provide us with some help. Otherwise, I don’t know where things will end up, because we have no other help on earth.
May it please our Lord that for our sakes you live many years. I hope in him that he will grant us this favor. He is so alone, for there are few who look after his honor. All these servants of your majesty’s, and I ask this of him continually.
Dated in St. Joseph’s in Avila, 4 December 1577.
Your majesty’s unworthy servant and subject,
Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite
Saint Teresa of Avila
Letter 218 to King Philip II
We recall two important events on this date:
In early December 1577—some scholars say the exact date was 2 December—St. John of the Cross and fellow chaplain-confessor Fray Germán de San Matías were abducted from their chaplain’s residence at the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila. In the general introduction to The Collected Works of Saint John of the Cross, Father Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. describes the scene:
On the night of December 2, 1577, a group of Carmelites, lay people, and men-at-arms broke into the chaplain’s quarters, seized Fray John, and took him away. By a secret journey, with orders from Tostado, they carted him off, handcuffed and often blindfolded, to the monastery in Toledo, the order’s finest in Castile, where nearly 85 friars lived.
In her introduction to Science of the Cross, St. Edith Stein continues the story of John’s abduction:
He was interrogated, and because he refused to abandon the Reform he was treated as a rebel. His prison was a narrow room, about 10 feet long and 6 feet wide. Teresa later wrote: “small though he was in stature, he could hardly stand erect in it.” This cell had neither window nor air vent other than a slit high up on the wall. The prisoner had to “stand on the poor-sinner-stool and wait until the sun’s rays were reflected on the wall in order to be able to pray the breviary” [a very plain stool typically found in a monastic cell]. The door was secured by a bolt.
We also recall that on 2 December 1894, Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus (Henri Grialou) was born in Aubin (Aveyron) France. After his priestly ordination on February 4, 1922, he was captivated by the doctrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and St. John of the Cross and decided to join the Discalced Carmelites.
John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Stein, E 2002, The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein, Book 6, translated from the German by Koeppel, J, ICS Publications, Washington D.C.
Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: The walls of Avila are featured in this nighttime winter scene. (Stock photo)
#abduction #BlessedMarieEugeneOfTheChildJesus #CarmeliteFriars #history #imprisonment #KingPhilipII #MonasteryOfTheIncarnation #Spain #StEdithStein #StJohnOfTheCross #StTeresaOfAvila
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At the feet of Mary, my beloved mother, I found life again!
I can’t go on! I can no longer live in this exile, I’m burning up!
At the feet of Mary, I have found life again!O all you who suffer, come to Mary!
At the feet of Mary, I find life again!Your salvation and your life are at Mary’s feet! O you who work in this monastery, Mary counts your steps and your sweat; say to yourself…
At the feet of Mary, I found life again!You who live in this monastery, free yourselves from everything earthly. Your salvation and your life are at Mary’s feet! You who live in this monastery, Mary says to you: My child, I have chosen you among ten thousand, among ten thousand I will place you in my temple.
At the feet of Mary, you find life!Mary says to you: I have put you in my temple, you will never hunger, you will never thirst; I give you the food, the flesh, the blood of the Innocent One.
At the feet of Mary, I found life!You who say I am an orphan, see, I have a mother in the highest heavens, happy child of such a mother!
At the feet of Mary, I find life!I dwell in my mother’s womb, where I find my Beloved! Am I an orphan?
In the womb of Mary, I find life!Don’t say I’m an orphan; I have Mary for Mother and God for Father! Happy child! Say:
At the feet of Mary, I found life!The serpent, the dragon wanted to bite me and take my life; but at my mother’s feet, in this monastery, I found life! Mary calls me…
And in this monastery, I’ll stay forever!
At the feet of Mary, I found life again!Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified
Cahiers Réservés, 6
Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Access to the unpublished Cahiers Réservés courtesy of the Carmels of Bethlehem and Haifa.
Featured image: Patrocinio de la Virgen del Carmen (Patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) is an oil on canvas painting by an anonymous 17th-century Novohispanic artist. This massive work is just over 7 feet in height and just over 6 feet in width (height: 218 cm, width: 195 cm). The gallery label from the Museo de El Carmen notes: “This is a magnificent oil on panel painting from the 17th century, whose soft colors and certain features in the drawing remind us of Luis Juárez (ca. 1585–1639), although it also shows echoes of Baltasar Echave Ibía (ca. 1605–1644), such as the general bluish tone of the painting. This leads us to assume that a skilled painter was the author of this work and was either a follower or a close follower of the previous painters. Following the traditional representation of the Patrocinio, so deeply rooted in colonial art, the composition of the canvas is almost symmetrical. In the upper corners, Saint Joseph and the young Jesus hold the mantle that the Virgin unfolds to protect the main characters of the Order. At the front of the male group we see Elijah wielding the flaming sword; behind him is St. Angelus of Jerusalem with a sword thrust into his chest and a palm, symbol of martyrdom and sanctity. On the opposite side, a group of nuns is probably led by St. Teresa.” Image credit: INAH-Museo de El Carmen / Michel Zabé y Omar Olguín (Public domain)
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/15/mariam-piedsdemarie/
#beloved #BloodOfChrist #hunger #life #mariamBaouardy #Mary #MotherOfCarmel #orphan #Satan #StMaryOfJesusCrucified #thirst
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The thread about Leith’s lost “Eagle Buildings” and what connects them to the building of the Forth Bridge
This thread was originally written and published in September 2020.
I saw a photo tweeted by the excellent Scran resource and was struck by the coincidence that I had looked the place up only a few days before when I had come across some other photos of it on Flickr.
https://twitter.com/Scranlife/status/1308652327373606912?s=20&t=RiEzrm-6XhDoBt2_yhUtig
The Eagle Buildings were at 5 Tower Street in Leith, next to the Sailor’s Home (now Malmaison Hotel).
Animated Now-And-Then transition of the Eagle Buildings (a 1970 photo by John R. Hume) overlaid on the current street view.Here they are in 1992, when it was being used as a workshop and store by a shopfitter. The photographer suggests demolition was in 1997.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cagiva1994/14016906377/
Most of that “sandstone” front was mock and was actually a showcase of the Portland cement wares of its occupants, Currie & Co. Ltd, Building-Trade Merchants in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leith and across the Scottish central belt.
The Eagle Buildings at 5 Towers Street on an 1892 Goad Insurance Map, which focuses on the construction of buildings and what occupies them. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandCurrie & Co, Ltd. had been incorporated in April 1898 by the merger of two similar building supply and cement merchant businesses owned by John Patrick Currie:
- Currie & Co. of Glasgow, founded in 1873, headquartered in Wellington Street. Subsidiary companies included the North British Asphalt Company, the North British Coal and Firewood Company and the Eagle Portland Cement Co. This is the eagle connection; it was a brand to sell cement.
- Joseph A. Currie & Co. of Edinburgh and Leith, founded in 1875 and headquartered in Bernard Street in Leith. This business had been bought in 1893 by John Patrick on the death of his brother Joseph Allan at the age of only 42.
This 1911 advert reveals that they had a lineage going back to the late 18th century through A. M. Ross & Sons, slate merchants in Glasgow.
1911 Perthshire Advertiser advert for Currie & Co.The headquarters had moved from Glasgow to 19 Rose Street in Edinburgh around this time, that building too was called the Eagle Buildings and it remains so to this day. If you crane your neck and look up as you pass, you’ll see an eagle watching over you high above in its “eerie”.
19 Rose Street, Eagle BuildingsJoseph Allan Currie was born in Cupar, Fife, in 1851. At the age of only 21 he was appointed manager of the Waltham Abbey Gas Works in London. He returned north and settled in Leith two years later, bringing with him a new trade of Portland cement merchant. Cement was not manufactured in Scotland at the time, but was imported from the Medway. Leith was therefore the perfect base for such a venture. Joseph Allan added plaster of Paris, pavement stone, lime, fireclay and earthenware to this business, becoming a successful builders merchant, growing the business to become one of the largest in Scotland. In 1894 his company was reported as being the largest suppliers of roofing felt in the region; an increasingly popular product due to the increasing cost of roofing slate and timber.
His obituary described him as having “indefatigable energy, strong personality and business tact“. Joseph was remarkable as being the sole suppliers of Portland cement for both the Forth Bridge works and the ill-fated first Tay Bridge.
One of the piers of the Forth Bridge, the iron caisson would be lined with masonry, bonded by Currie’s Portland cement.The construction of the Forth Bridge required some 20,000 tons of Portland cement, which was manufactured on the River Medway and was brought by sea to South Queensferry. Here it was transferred to an old hulk that Currie had purchased called the Hougomont; a ship that had been built in Burma as a convict transport for Australia. The Hougomont could store 1,200 tons of cement, which had to be stored for a certain number of days before it was used. When smallpox broke out amongst the workers in 1886, the Hougomont was moved to Port Edgar and used as an isolation hospital, helping the outbreak to be quickly dealt with.
The Hougomont moored off of one of the Forth Bridge’s stone piersJohn Patrick Currie – born 1848 – continued to run the business and became the largest Scottish building merchant and cement distributor, Scottish agents for I. C. Johnson & Co. Isaac Charles Johnson and his business partner had painstakingly reverse-engineered existing cement products, improved them and then produced a different product that they were careful to make sure was not subject to existing patents.
Johnson & Co.s Portland Cement, London & NewcastleAn 1894 description of the company in a trade publication states:
The commodities which Messrs. Currie & Co. deal in principally are: Portland cement, Scotch and Irish limes, pavement, freestone, crushed granite, Arran sand, slates, fireclay goods, barytes, umber, plaster of Paris, whiting, &c. In all these lines Messrs. Currie & Co. hold large stocks, and are ready to meet any demands with promptitude. Their standing is accepted as a guarantee of quality, and they spare no effort to maintain their high reputation for reliable material. The business in every department receives the direct personal attention of its founder and sole proprietor, Mr. John P. Currie, a gentleman whose commercial capabilities are well demonstrated in the success that has attended this influential concern. The business in which Mr. Currie is now so actively engaged derives its support from a thoroughly representative and increasing connection, and continues to develop.
Rivers of the North – Their Cities and their Commerce.It seems that the Curries named nearly all their properties Eagle Buildings, with at least 3 in Glasgow.
Currie & Co’s Eagle Buildings stables on St. James Street in GlasgowCurrie & Co.’s Eagle Buildings on Bothwell Street, Glasgow. Again an eagle is perched on topJohn Patrick died at home in Edinburgh in March 1919 at the age of 71. After his death, the company seems to have moved its headquarters to another Eagle Buildings, this time in Dock Street, Dundee. By this time it was an agent for the Cement Marketing Company, which would eventually rename itself after its most famous product; Blue Circle Portland Cement. The company was still trading in 1953, after which the trail in newspaper archives goes cold.
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Q-ship: The thread about Neil Shaw Mackinnon and the loss of the “Cullist”
Today’s auction house artefact is a set of medals awarded in World War One to Neil Shaw Mackinnon, a marine engineer officer from Leith. An experienced merchant mariner, Mackinnon’s wartime military service was brief but eventful and hallmarked by bravery and a run of luck that would end in tragedy; less than three weeks after he was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross by King George V (left hand medal, below) he would disappear with his ship into the cold, dark waters of the Irish Sea.
Medals of Neil Shaw Mackinnon. Left to right, George V Distinguished Service Cross; British War Medal; Victory Medal with Oak Leaves for Mention in Dispatches; WW1 Memorial Plaque.Neil Shaw Mackinnon was born on April 23rd 1877 at 64 Pitt Street in North Leith, the eldest son of Jessie Shaw and Donald Mackinnon, Gaelic-speaking natives of the Ross of Mull. The family raised their four children in the Gaelic language in Leith, but Neil did spend some of his childhood back on Mull at Bunessan before following his father’s footsteps and becoming a ship’s engineer. Tragedy struck the family in July 1903 when Donald was killed; he fell from an unsafe gang plank into the depths of a London dry dock one dark and wet night when returning to his ship and never recovered from his injuries. Neil now supported his mother and two younger sisters who, after the death of Donald, had moved nearby to 203 Ferry Road in North Leith before settling at 1 Royston Terrace in Goldenacre. Neil was the honorary secretary of the Clan Mackinnon Society in Edinburgh and like many merchant seamen he was a member of the Royal Naval Reserve. It was this latter commitment that saw him called up for active service during WW1, commissioning as a temporary Engineer Lieutenant on 13th May 1917. He would find himself on probably the most dangerous sort of ship that an RNR man could expect to be on at this time; the Q-ship.
HMS Cullist had started life as the merchant steamer SS Westphalia, launched at the Caledon Shipyard in Dundee on 24th December 1912 for the Leith, Hull & Hamburg Steam Packet Company. She was the sort of small steamer that was ten-a-penny on the North Sea at the time; a 1,030 ton, 230ft long ship plying back and forward between the Scottish east coast and the German ports on the Baltic coast. Her two boilers and 1,350 horsepower steam engine were sufficient to move her along at 10 knots, a slow but economic pace. A newspaper report in the Clyde Shipping Gazette from March 1913 describes the typical and varied cargo she could expect to carry being unloaded in Grangemouth; potash, machinery parts, earthenware, paper, glass, cement, firewood, flour, chemicals, metal ores, toys, pianos, electrical insulators, bread, scrap metal and more.
Newspaper report of the launch of the Westphalia, Dundee Courier, 25th December 1912In March 1917, Westphalia was requisitioned by the Admiralty sent to Pembroke Naval Dockyard to be converted into a Q-ship. This was a naval code name for a merchant ship that was fitted with concealed weapons, with the intention of luring German U-boats into attacking it on the surface before suddenly revealing its true purpose by opening fire on the aggressor at short range and (hopefully) sinking it. Q-ships were named after the Irish port of Queenstown where they had first been converted in 1915.
Illustration making light of a dangerous situation. Attacked Q-ships would often set false fires on deck and launch parties of men in their lifeboats to try and encourage U-boat commanders to believe they were done for and to close the distance until within point-blank range of the Q-ship’s own guns.The Q-ships had a brief period of success in 1915 before U-boat commanders became familiar with the ruse and switched their tactics. After this they became very risky propositions for their crews, far more likely to be sunk than to do the sinking. But such was the desperate situation at sea caused by the German U-boat campaign that the Navy still persevered with them and men still volunteered to sign up for them.
Diagram showing how a Q-ship might have hidden weapons and change its appearanceIt was into this extremely risky service that Neil Mackinnon went, answering to the ship’s master Lieutenant Commander Salisbury Hamilton Simpson. Apart from the application of “Dazzle Ship” camouflage paint, HMS Cullist (as the Westphalia was now known) still looked just like any other tramp steamer. But she hid a number of secrets that only the very closest of inspections could have revealed; cleverly concealed on her decks was the armament of a 4-inch gun, two 12-pounder guns and two pairs of 14-inch torpedo tubes.
“Dazzle Ship” camouflage painting model for HMS Cullist, IWM (MOD 2441)And so it was that Mackinnon, Simpson and the Cullist went to war. The ship was disguised under a number of fictitious merchant names – SS Hayling, SS Jurassic and SS Prim were all used – plying the merchant convoy routes and looking for trouble. She did not have long to wait; on July 13th she was steaming between Ireland and France when a German U-boat appeared on the horizon around 1PM. It was more economical for submarines to stay on the surface and to sink lone merchant ships using guns, but they were aware of the threat of Q-ships and so kept their distance. The U-boat opened fire at long range, but the shots were wildly short and so it began to press closer. Cullist spotted another merchant ship in the distance at 1:30PM and signalled her to keep away. Simpson was trying to draw the U-boat slowly into his trap. He kept himself between the aggressor and the sun, to dazzle the men trying to aim her guns, and regularly changed his course. This was a standard anti-submarine technique called Zig-Zagging that frustrated the use of torpedoes. By 1:45PM the enemy had closed to 5,000 yards and had begun to find the range, her shells were landing all around Cullist and showering her with spray and splinters. It would be very tempting for Simpson to have returned fire, but once he did so the game was given away and the submarine would be able to simply dive away and attack another ship another day. By 2:07PM the Cullist had counted sixty-eight shells land around her and finally Simpson gave the order to fire back; in an instant the screens were dropped and the guns were in action. It had paid off, the third round fired from the Q-ship was a direct hit and took out the U-boat’s deck gun. Further hits landed around the bow and conning tower and within a few minutes the submarine slipped below the water, on fire.
The Q-ship “Suffolk Coast” by war artist Charles Pears, Image: © IWM (Art.IWM ART 1053)The Cullist closed in on where the U-boat had been seen to disappear below the waves and dropped a number of depth charges. Her lookouts spotted oil and debris on the surface and the grim sight of a corpse floating on the surface in the dungarees of a naval engineer. The destroyer HMS Christopher arrived in support at 3:30PM to keep up the hunt but the submarine was never seen again. The men of Cullist were credited with her sinking; it’s not actually clear whether they actually did or even what U-boat it might have been, but German naval records show U-69 was operating in this area at this time when she disappeared to unknown causes. Lieutenant Commander Simpson was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) medal for this, with two of his officers awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) and Engineer Mackinnon recognised by a Mention in Dispatches.
The concealed gun of a Q-ship, readied for action. Note the false screens that have been dropped down, which would usually obscure it from observation by any U-boatA little over a month later, the Cullist was back in action again. On August 20th, she was touting for business in the English Channel when a U-boat opened fire on her at long range. For two and a half hours this was kept up, but she could not be encouraged to move in any closer. After over eighty rounds had been fired to little effect, the submarine finally scored a hit. This pierced the boiler room below the waterline, started flooding and injured some of the men on duty. Engineer Mackinnon’s directed his men to plugged and shored up the hole with timbers to prevent any further intake of water and got her back up to speed again. It was by now 7:25pm, the light would soon fade and the danger was that the submarine would slip away under the water and come back at night with torpedoes. Simpson therefore reluctantly ordered his gunners to fire back at a disadvantageous range to drive her away. Once again their aim was true and the enemy departed the scene before she took any significant damage.
HMS Dunraven, in Action against a Submarine, 8th August 1917. By war artist Charles Pears © The Royal Society of Marine Artists (Art.IWM ART 5130)Trouble seemed to follow the Cullist around and it was only another month before she was in action again. On 28th September she surprised a U-boat on the surface at the relatively close range of 5,000 yards and took the initiative, opening fire immediately without trying any ruses. Her gunners’ aim was true once more and of the thirteen rounds she fired, eight were hits. The submarine slipped below the surface in an uncontrolled manner at 12:43PM and contact was lost. It was soon picked up again and for four and a half hours a surface chase took place, Mackinnon somehow coaxing a speed of 13 knots out of his 10 knot charge. A surface U-boat could make at least 16 knots however and once again their prey eluded them. Lieutenant Commander Simpson however would recommend in his report of the last two actions that Makinnon should be considered for a medal, for his damage control in August and the speeds maintained in September. The First Lord of the Admiralty approved the award of the Distinguished Service Cross on 15th November 1917, a medal “awarded in recognition of an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy at sea“. Mackinnon would receive this decoration from the King on January 23rd 1918.
Photograph of Neil Shaw Mackinnon from the Oban Times & Argyllshire Advertiser on the occasion of his DSC being awarded, 9th February 1918.The Cullist‘s career continued to be active. On 17th November 1917 she was fired upon by a U-boat from a distance of 8,000 yards. This time the enemy’s shooting was much better and the Q-ship was soon taking hits. Luckily the conditions were foggy and the Cullist was able to engage in a game of cat-and-mouse in the fog banks to hamper the submarine’s shooting and try and draw her in. At 4,500 yards distance, having been on the receiving end of ninety-two German rounds, she returned fire and of the fourteen shots she got off, six her hits. Once again the damaged submarine was able to dive and slip away to safety and once again the report of Mackinnon’s captain praised his engineer’s conduct during the action: ‘These officers [Mackinnon and his deputy] are stationed in the Engine Room and Boiler Room during action and have always kept their department in a high state of efficiency and ready for any emergency, stimulating all ratings under their orders with their good example.”
The ship had enjoyed a run of good luck in this time; it was rare for a Q-ship to have quite so many contacts with enemy submarines and come away from them with the upper hand. The run was soon to end however, on February 11th 1918 she was steaming 25 miles east of Drogheda in the when two torpedoes from the U-97 hit her without warning. The ship slipped below the cold, wintry surface of the Irish Sea less than two minutes later, taking forty three of the seventy on board down with her. Neil Shaw Mackinnon never made it out of his engine room. The survivors were left struggling in the water when the U-boat surfaced, asking for the captain. When we was told that the he had gone down, he kept two of the men as prisoners and abandoned the rest to their fates with parting “words and gestures of abuse“. As it transpired Simpson, although injured, was alive in the water and he and others in the water managed to survive by clambering aboard – or hanging onto – a life raft and singing songs together until a passing trawler picked them up; allegedly midway through the popular wartime ditty of A Long Way to Tipperary. The five officers, twenty seven ratings, two Royal Marines and nine Merchant Marine Reserve seamen who lost their lives that day were:
Rank and Name (age)Rank and Name (age)Donkeyman John Bartell MMR, DSM*Ordinary Seaman William Lycett RN (18)Ordinary Seaman Leonard Bates RN (20)Leading Telegraphist Christopher Maris RN (23)Officer’s Steward Ernest Brown RN, DSMAble Seaman Alfred Martin RNOrdinary Seaman Horatius Carr RN (30)Engineer Lt.Neil MacKinnon RNR, DSC*Trimmer John Cockburn MMROrdinary Seaman Dennis McCarthy RN (19)Fireman Percy Cook MMR (20)Trimmer Robert McFaddon MMR (20)Fireman Patrick Corvan MMRFireman John McIvor MMROrdinary Telegraphist Stanley Dean RNVR (20)Corporal William McRobbie RM (23)Lieutenant George Doubleday RNR, DSC (22)Cooks Mate Tom Patter RN (21)Ordinary Seaman Sidney Garwood RN (19)Leading Cooks Mate Henry Richherbert RN (26)Leading Seaman Albert Gay RN, DSM* (28) Leading Seaman Ernest Robilliard RN, DSM (28)Fireman Michael Gillan MMR (22)Petty Officer Alfred Sheather RNN (25)Engineer Sub. Lt. Lewis Gulley RNR (28)Armourer’s Crew Samuel Shoebottom RNOfficer’s Steward Frederick Hall RN (32)Able Seaman William Smith RN (25)Paymaster Robert Hindley RNR (33)Private Henry Stebbings RMOrdinary Seaman Richard Hoban RN (20)Steward 3rd Class Thomas Turner age 18 RNAble Seaman Raymond Jelfs RN (22)Ldg. Seaman Norman Walterhubert RN, * (25)Trimmer Joseph Johnson MMR (18)Signalman Frederick Whitchurch RN (24)Able Seaman Walter Kersley RN (23)Ordinary Seaman George White RN (20)Shipwright John Lamb RN (26)Surgeon Probationer David Whitton RNVR (21)Able Seaman Jeremiah Leary RN *Painter Ernest Woodall RN (24)Fireman Joseph Lewis MMR* = mentioned in dispatchesNone of the bodies of those men were ever recovered and as such they are officially commemorated only in their medals and on the Royal Naval Memorial in Plymouth.
Part of the Royal Naval Memorial in Plymouth. CC 2.0 wolfgang.mller54Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
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So, this is a timely topic! From the latest issue of #InTheseTimes! The connection between Amazon Deforestation and CEO land grabs in the Western United States -- bought with blood money!
Fortress Yellowstone
The #UltraRich are fortifying themselves inside one of America’s last intact #ecosystems—with money plundered from ecological #SacrificeZones around the world
by Joseph Bullington, April 6, 2026
Excerpt: "Some of these ultra-rich ranch owners celebrate the natural beauty of their land and are ardent conservationists when it comes to the Yellowstone ecosystem. In digging into their business dealings, however, I found that most of these landowners accumulated their wealth through industries that help drive the destruction of nature elsewhere. Their ranks include private equity investors, oil and gas billionaires and real estate developers. "[...]
"Now, instead of forests full of fruits and animals and mandioca clearings, industrial soy plantations press in on #Açaizal like a closing fist. There is no escape from the onslaught of #monoculture. Manoel shows me where rows of broken cornstalks run right up against the edge of the community’s soccer field, which the soy farmers also want to plow. The soybeans and corn, like those in the United States, are genetically engineered to withstand the #herbicides and #pesticides the farmers dump on them to beat back weeds and pests, but the chemicals drift, says Manoel, making it impossible to grow fruits and vegetables and #mandioca nearby. The streams run low and full of poison."
Read more:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/yellowstone-billionaires-conservation-montana-deforest-amazon#Billionaires #UberRich #CEOs #AmazonDeforestation #BigAg #SoybeanProduction #IndustralSoybeans #PoisoningTheAmazon #GMOs #Monoculture #Deforestation #Cargill #HomeDepot #SoyPlantations #SaveTheForest #SaveTheRainforest #Earth4All #DSA #DemocraticSocialism #ReadItBeforeItsBanned #TaxTheRich #NoTaxHavens #EatTheRich #YeetTheRich #BigCorporations