Wonders in the Sky (55 page)

 

Source: The oldest report comes from a letter dated January 20th, 1694 by a certain Maurice Jones to the author of the additions to
Cambden's Brittania
. The letter was published in
The Philosophical Transactions
, vol. XVIII (1694), pp. 49-50, along with a chronology and names of witnesses of the events.

307.

23 July 1694, London, England
Figures moving within a fiery circle

Jane Lead describes something she calls an “enclosed Principle” surrounded by a fiery circle:

Source:
The Works of Jane Lead
, op. cit.

308.

25 November 1696, Tobolsk, Russia
Human form in the sky

An object split into four luminous parts, the center being dark, with a human form inside. The report reads: “On Sunday, at 2 P.M., there appeared in Tobolsk a sign in the sun: it split into four parts, as it were, and the rays from the sun were light, but in the middle it was dark. And among these parts one could see in the darkness something like a man with extended arms.”

 

Source: Cherepanov,
Aerial Fears of Tobolsk in Olden Days–from the Siberian Olden Days.
(Tobolsk, 1882). Quoted in
Zvesdochtets
(Moscow, 1990), 214-215.

309.

28 November 1696, Tobolsk, Russia
Double object descending

At 5 A.M. “there was a sign in the east: from a dark cloud there was suspended something like an iron-clamp with a great fire that shone brightly and descended down to the very earth.”

 

Source: Cherepanov,
Aerial Fears of Tobolsk in Olden Days – from the Siberian Olden Days
(Tobolsk, 1882), op. cit.

310.

4 November 1697, Mecklenburg & Hamburg, Germany
Two wheels in the sky

Two enormous, glowing wheels are shown in a picture with crowds watching the sky. This was primarily seen between 6 and 7 P.M.: “A great fiery ball in the shape of a cannon ball was seen floating…which phenomenon or air sign also above the horizon of Hamburg at the same time but below was seen floating a cross shape…” After a quarter of an hour the ball emitted a bang. It then “disappeared from the sight of many thousands of spectators.” After the same delay the cross-shape, described as having “a sulfur-gleaming, bright shining terrible lightning” also departed.

Fig. 28: Mecklenburg phenomenon

Source:
Nachdencklich-dreyfaches Wunder-Zeichen: 1. Eines großerschröcklich-feurigen Cometen, 2. Eines entsetzlichen Feuer-Kugel Lufft-Zeichens, 3. Einer sehr ungestalten Fontange-Mißgeburt…,
[s.l.], 1697 [Goethe Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt-am-Main, Einblattdrucke G. Freytag].

311.

1699, St. Didier, Vaucluse, near Avignon, France
Merging globes in the sky

A priest saw a large light and three globes coming from the sky and merging together: “As I arrived near the oratory I saw the sky open, a great light appeared and soon I observed three globes of fire. The middle one was higher than the other two. I thought, ‘here are the lights I have been told about.' Immediately I fell to my knees and thanked God for such a great marvel. At the same time, two more lights appeared, but a bit higher than the place where the chapel is located (…) The two globes merged with the middle one and vanished.”

 

Source:
L'histoire du diocèse d'Avignon
by Abbot Granget, cited by Michel Bougard,
La chronique des OVNI
(1977), 99-100.

From the scientific observations of several astronomers to the visions of Jane Lead, the 17th century is especially interesting to a researcher of unusual aerial phenomena because it gives us a complete template by which to parse the claims and sightings of today's witnesses.

This section of our Chronology records stories of abductions by little people (interpreted as “fairies” in Celtic countries, but similar in stature and behavior to today's Aliens) as well as reports of partial paralysis and occasional healing powers among humans exposed to these phenomena. Such enigmas continued to be seen in the light of theology, to the grave detriment of poor witnesses accused of commerce with demons, but a new philosophical movement would soon remove the old religious backdrop in favor of a revolutionary, “experimental” mode of thinking.

The observations recorded in
Mirabilis Annus
, an important document we have quoted on several occasions, provide a good illustration of the context of the prodigies and their interpretation for political or religious purposes. In his thoughtful analysis (
An Age of Wonders, Prodigies, Politics and Providence in England 1657-1727
, Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2002, 27-30) William E. Burns notes:

Whatever the physical nature of the unexplained objects that triggered the sightings, their interpretation allowed critics of the régime to vent their opposition:

Aerial phenomena were also used as symbols of desired events, historical changes that the compiler of the changes wished to see happen. Again, in the words of Burns:

We are left with the fact that the interpretation of the reported events is generally biased by the writer who recounts the cases, but that may be the price we have to pay for obtaining any knowledge of the underlying phenomena in the first place. As to the actual explanation for the sightings, it is left for us to discover.

Early in the 17
^th
century Descartes and Pascal in France, and Francis Bacon in England, had already introduced new methods of inquiry into the order of nature. By the end of the period people were beginning to think in new ways, inspired by the progress of science based on observation.

The Age of Reason was imminent: in 1703 Isaac Newton would be elected President of the Royal Society; in 1705 Edmund Halley would predict that the comet last seen in 1682 would return in 1758 (it did) and in 1707 French inventor Denis Papin would invent the high-pressure boiler that would lead to the first steam-powered ship and would pave the way to James Watt's steam engine and the industrial revolution.

The new impetus in science in the closing years of the seventeenth century parallels a worldwide evolution in classical literature, in education and in the arts. When the year 1700 comes around, there are literate people everywhere who are eager to read intelligent reports of new ideas and discoveries. Magazines circulate throughout Europe and America; new journals are born. Naturally, reports of unusual aerial phenomena continue to thrive in this new enlightened culture. They are now reported in the pages of well-edited periodicals like the
Gentleman's Magazine
, the
Annual Register
or the
Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal society of London, “
giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours of the ingenious in many considerable parts of the world.”

As we shall see, these “undertakings and labours” often had to do with an attempt by “the ingenious” to understand phenomena that were beyond the physics of the time – and still present us with a most interesting challenge today.