Tag: passport to magonia

Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds by Jacques F. Vallée

Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds by Jacques F. Vallée

Jacques F. Vallee was one of the first scientists to closely study UFO phenomenon. He goes beyond a simple examination and compares it to the fairy religions and mythologies from the past. Passport to Magonia is one of his most well-known works.

Vallee also mentions, in the new preface that he wrote for the book in the early ’90s, of the difficulties that he had compiling the thousands of eyewitness accounts that are included in Passport to Magonia. I suppose with the easy connections to the internet that are available now, that I hadn’t considered how laborious it would be to gather all of that information together in the time before computers.

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At the very least, Passport to Magonia can be admired for its thoroughness in the section: “A Century of UFO Landings.” It is approximately 150 pages of account after account of UFO encounters. The amount of information, types of witnesses and manner of UFO phenomena is truly mind-boggling.

Some of the standout examples for me are: Juan Diego’s tilma and the sky anchor that was left behind in 1211 a.d. at a church in Cloera, Ireland. And, Aleister Crowley’s run in with two gnomes or aliens.

Vallee cites the book, Magick Without Tears, for the Crowley experience. It makes me so curious- I may just have to look into it.

So many of these accounts are beyond belief, which makes for great reading, but which Vallee reminds the reader, cannot be taken at face value.

He reminds us of our inability to understand the accounts even as he seeks to understand them. Futility, thy name is Passport to Magonia?

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Readers who enjoy UFO literature will probably enjoy this classic book. Vallee doesn’t provide the answers, but he has crafted a framework for UFO exploration beyond the usual acceptance or denial of a puzzling and reoccurring phenomena.

Thanks for reading!

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

magoniaAza Ray Boyle can’t breathe. It seems like she has always been sick- inexplicably short of breath and weak.

This continuous illness has made her always feel different from the people around her. But, perhaps, there are stranger and more exotic reasons why she is different. Ones that Aza can’t even imagine…

Jason is Aza’s dearest friend. They are so close that they almost speak their own language.

He realizes there is more to Aza than meets the eye. How will Jason handle it when he discovers the shocking truth?

This young adult fantasy is weird, but I enjoyed it.

That’s probably because I read a lot of weird, non-fiction. The story of Magonia, a world in the sky above the every day world which we know, has shown up in some of those books.

One of those books, Passport to Magonia: On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds, captured my imagination.

That book recounts an incident where a bunch of villagers were holding church service and they heard a crash outside. They went to investigate the noise and discovered what appeared to be a ship anchor attached to the roof of their church. It was connected to, this just blows my mind, a ship in the sky. This supposedly happened in 1211 AD.

The astonishing thing about Passport to Magonia is it has pages and pages of stories like that, eyewitness accounts of bizarre ships, people, and incidents concerning people from the sky. And they all actually happened, reportedly.

I remember thinking that an author needed to get her hands on these stories and turn it into something fantastic. Maria Dahvana Headley used a different source material than the book that I read, but does a good job bringing a mysterious blip in history to life.

She has the ability to interweave actual events with fantasy fiction story lines so that the two begin to blur in the reader’s mind.

I read Headley’s first book Queen of Kings years ago and I remember being struck by its originality.

Headley took Cleopatra’s life and turned it into a vampire story. It sounds sort of silly described that way, (oh, ANOTHER vampire story) but it is actually rather fun.

I had read Margaret George’s The Memoirs of Cleopatra shortly before Queen of Kings so I had a pretty good idea of the actual story of the Egyptian queen.

Back to this book, Magonia isn’t going to appeal to everyone.

I was, at first, rather turned off by the uber-intellectual back and forth conversations of the main characters- Jason and Aza.

I think, since the mega success of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, authors make their teenage protagonists so brainy and well-spoken, it is just unbelievable.

I mean, it’s been awhile, but I remember high school. My peers and I were lucky if we could string two cogent sentences together, let alone present verbal dissertations on the meaning of pi.

Anyway, once I was able to look past their flowery repartee, I got really into the story.

Headley paints a magical and dangerous world.

If you enjoyed Magonia, you may also enjoy The Mermaid’s Sister or Under the Empyrean Sky. Both are young adult novels and take place in fantasy worlds that are so close to the world we know, but different in surprising ways.

Check out my review of Aerie, the sequel to this book.

Thanks for reading!