MAGONIA

From Merseyside UFO Bulletin, volume 2, number 1, January-February 1969.

 

From its very early years, MUFOB/Magonia was pressing for a broader, more culturally specific explanation for the UFO enigma. In this, one of my first contributions to the Bulletin I put forward some thought on UFO/folklore connections. Unfortunately most of the sources I used were outdated even when I wrote this, but I think this piece still stands as an indication of the way UFO research and speculation was moving at the time. Shortly after this was written Vallée’s Passport to Magonia was published, which expanded greatly on some of the ideas beginning to be developed here. Ufology was never quite the same again. — John Rimmer

In recent years some ufologists, seeking a physical reality for UFOs, have abandoned the interplanetary vehicle theory and are looking literally in the opposite direction. From the early days of the Shaver affair a small body of opinion has held that the secret of the UFO lies within the earth. One of the major arguments for this point of view depends on the prevalence in all countries and cultures of tales and traditions about dwellers within the earth. Tales like these are a fairly common feature of British folklore, and a considerable amount of research has been carried out into these stories.

The Celtic fairy tradition is rich in stories of the strange underworld inhabited by these creatures, In Cornwall there is a strong tradition of mine-piskies called ‘knockers’. Apparently they are more often heard than seen. William Shepherd, a Cornish miner, speaking at the turn of the century said:

“There are mine-piskies which are not ‘knockers’. I’ve heard the old men in the mines say that they have seen them, and call them the ‘small peoples’. It appears they don’t like company, for they are always seen singly. The knockers are spirits too, as one might say. They are said to bring bad luck, while the small people may bring good luck.” [1]

In the Scottish tradition the most generally held view of fairyland — Elfame — is that it is deep within the earth. In the old lowland ballads it is a land without sun or moon, where ‘rivers of blood and water swirl and crash in deep caverns’. [2] In Welsh myth one encounters the land of Annwyn — the ‘Not World’, a strange underworld, penetrated occasionally by brave explorers who experience the most remarkable adventures. [3] In Ireland the Sidhe and Tuathaa de Dannan are associated with the fairy hills. the rathes, which are held to be the entrances of the fairy underworld.

The truth may lie here. Not in a literal interpretation of the word ‘entrance’, but in an understanding of the significance of these raths and hills. They are in the most part, the burial mounds of the early neolithic inhabitants of these islands. It is easy to imagine the Celtic peoples in their earliest migrations from south Germany meeting these neolithic races. To the Celts they would seem strange indeed. Living in semi-excavated ‘beehive’ dwellings, associated with the burial mounds, and of a small, and possibly to the newcomers, ugly nature. They may have been regarded as scarcely hurqan.

By the time of the Celtic immigration they would be few in number, which would give them a stealthy, elusive appearance. One could imagine that these aboriginal races could keep well away from the settlements of the newcomers, which again would make them appear a furtive and mysterious race, In later centuries, when the last of the neolithic tribes had vanished, the Celts would remember them in connection with the mounds, with the caves and doep valleys that they made their last refuge. Some of these mounds may have been opened and explored, to reveal the bones and artifacts of these short humanoids.

The stories of those mound dwellers would grow. The small size of the passages and rooms in these mounds and in the remains of the dwellings that were found, would give credence to the idea of a small, elusive, magical race. Walter Johnson [4] theorizes that fairy belief is:

“In large part, an obvious retention in folk-memory of a small, mysterious, magic-loving folk, who were in the minds of the Celtic peoples, the aborigines of the island …. The little folk of the neolithic period lived often in underground charlbers, hence the Iron Age folk peopled every mound with fairies.”

Here we are introduced to the idea of the ‘race memory’, Jung’s ‘collective subconscious’, a thread of memory that is born into us all, and connects us with our furthest ancestry. Such a memory would produce basic subconscious stimuli, and would go a long way to explain the tremendous public interest that was aroused by the Shaver affair, and such aspects of the UFO mystery as humanoid contacts, and UFO kidnappings, which parallel many stories of fairy abductions. It is clear that in the human mind there is some deep-seated emotion, which is responsive to the ideas of underground civilizations and troglodytic beings.

Having said this it is necessary to point out that this can be regarded as only one thread in the evolution of the fairy legend, and the later devglopments of it. It is a significant point “…that tales of little people are to be found in countries where there never were any pigmy race … The stunted races (that some folklorists) consider to have formed the subjects of the fairy legend, have themselves tales of little people…” [5] Other factors contributing to the growth of the fairy tradition may include belief in protective or malevolent ancestor figures, animistic spirits associated with specific objects and localities, derivations from godlike forms of early religions that have remained as a part of primitive and peasant culture, and totemic forms associated with a particular tribe or family.

All of these threads have become woven together to form a strong cord of belief that one can conjecture lies within the mind of us all. In sophisticated, technological cultures, when this comes to the surface it must be rationalized as flying forms, interplanetary visitors or ‘deros’, although some may query whether the latter can be regarded as ‘rationalizations’).

Creatures from the sky, and below the ground; tall, beautiful, god-like humans, or small, malevolent goblins, are so consistent a part of human experience, from Baffin Island to New Zealand, that there can be no doubt that they are real! Perhaps what ufologiath should turn their hands and minds to is a definition of reality. The only reality that any human can experience is that which lies within himself. A dream is reality to the dreamer; life is a dream. Perhaps in our chosen field of study we have reached the stage when we should put away our magnetic-field detectors and spectroscopic analysis equipment, and start reading philosophy. A few philosophers taking an interest in UFOs would not only prove an interesting sight, but may produce some constructive results.

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Notes and References:

1. W.Y.Evans Wentz, Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries.
2. The Ballad of Thomas the Rhymer.
3. E. Annwyl. Celtic Religion in Pre-Christian Times.
4. W. Johnson. Folk Memory.
5. B.C.A. Windle: introduction to Tyson’s Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients, pp lxxxiv-xcvii.

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