Wonders in the Sky (36 page)

Valdivia made two reports, one of which, the most complete of the two, he sent to the king Charles V on the same day. This is what the conquistador wrote:

“And it seems our God wants to use His immortality for his divine cult to be honored in it and for the devil to come out from where he has been worshipped for so long; thus, according to the native Indians, the day they came upon this fort of ours, at the same time as those that rode on horseback assaulted them, there fell in the middle of the squadrons an old man on a white horse, and he told them:

“‘Flee all of you, these Christians will slaughter you,' and their fright was so great that they began to flee. They [the Indians] told more: that three days before this, [when the Indians were] passing the Biubiu river to overcome us, a comet fell among them, on Saturday at midday, which was seen by many Christians at our fort as it traveled with greater brightness than other comets, and from which, once fallen, a beautiful woman came out, also dressed in white, who told them: ‘Serve the Christians, don't go against them because they are very brave and will kill you all.'

And when she went, the devil came, their chief, and he told them to gather a large multitude of people, and that he would come with them, because, on seeing so many of us together, we would drop dead with fear; and thus they proceeded with their journey.”

 

Source: Pedro de Valdivia.
Cartas
(1552) in
Crónicas del Reino de Chile
(Madrid: Atlas, 1960).

186.

Circa 1551, Morbecque, France
Sex with the Devil: A flying contactee condemned to die

A woman named Jacquemine Deickens, the wife of Hirache, was accused of sorcery after a being (thought to be the Devil) appeared to her as she was milking the cows.

She was said to have known him carnally, and received a mark on her back, below the left shoulder blade, which proved her guilt. Every three or four weeks she flew out of her house to meet with other witches at the crossroads in front of the house of Mr. Pierre Depours, there to dance and partake of a feast with many demons.

She was tried and executed in 1557.

 

Source: Claude Seignolle,
Les Evangiles du Diable selon la croyance populaire
(Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1964), 245.

187.

1551, near Waldstadt, Germany
Woman taken up by the devil and dropped from the sky

A woman who had uttered some blasphemies during a drinking party was taken up in the air by the devil “in the presence of everyone.” The witnesses rushed out to watch where she was carried. They saw her hovering up in the sky outside the village, after which she dropped and was found dead in the middle of a field.

 

Source: Dr. Jean Wier,
Histoires, disputes et discours des illusions et impostures des diables, des magiciens, infâmes, sorciers et empoisonneurs, le tout compris en 5 livres
. Translated from the Latin, ca. 1577.

188.

3 January 1551, Lisbon, Portugal:
Flying red cylinders

Red cylinders in the sky are rumored to have terrified the population. We note that another reference speaks of a “fiery meteor” seen on 28 January at the time of a great earthquake. In the absence of a precise source we cannot say if confusion exists between the two reports.

 

Source: H. Wilkins,
Flying Saucers on the Attack
(New York: Ace Books, 1967), 183. We have found no original reference for this event.

189.

March 1551, Magdeburg, Germany
A phenomenon scares an Emperor

Three suns were seen in the sky. Emperor Charles Quint decides to halt the siege of the city. In the absence of more information, these may have been parhelia. Historians report that “The emperor Charles V laid siege to it; but was prevailed upon to withdraw his army for a great sum of money…”

 

Source: Rev. Alban Butler, “Life of Saint Norbert” in
The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints
, vol. 6 (New York: D. & J. Sadlier, & Company, 1864).

190.

13 January 1553, Porco, Peru
An unexplained “comet” is taken as an omen

Nicolás de Martínez Arzanz y Vela, author of
Historia de la Villa Imperial de Potosí
(1705), writes in Chapter 2:

“As Don Sebastian and his allies were getting the people and the weapons ready to carry out the revolt in this Town, and Captain Francisco Hernández Girón in his division of Chaqui…was also preparing for his…there appeared in the sky, above Porco, three suns and two moons in the middle of a great ring, and within it two blue and red arches. On the same day there appeared above this rich Imperial Hill and Town another two arches of various colors and a notable comet as red as blood. Enrico Martínez, His Majesty's Cosmologist in the Peruvian Kingdom, says the following (…)

“‘On Friday January 13th 1553, fifty two days before General Hinojosa was killed, at seven o'clock in the morning there appeared in the sky, in Porco, the large ring that passes through the middle of the natural sun and through the other Suns and Moons; it was stretching towards the west, and was entirely white, a span in thickness; this ring seemed to be half a league in diameter. The natural sun was a little red, almost like blood, and the two at its side very red, just like blood, so much so that the brightness and fire caused those who saw it to avert their eyes. The two Moons at the front were like white Moons, slightly red; the two Arches that appeared were blue and red, as they usually appear; the small arch was wider than the blue one.'”

So far it seems we are dealing with an unusual, but perfectly natural, atmospheric phenomenon. More interesting is the so-called “comet” that was seen in connection with it:

“The comet that appeared outside the ring was very fiery and blood-red, with a formidable curly head and the tail was similar. This comet was seen in Porco and in all the surrounding areas. The comet was seen for seven days at dawn over the rich land of Potosí, with another two arches, one very white which looked like polished silver, and the other was above this one and was almost blood-red and was as bright as fire…”

This description does not match a cometary object, and at 7 A.M. this could hardly have been an aurora borealis. The social reaction to the phenomenon is even more interesting: “The astonished Indians, covering their faces and spitting in the air, cried:
Aucca, Aucca, maiccan Apuhuañuncca
. These words signified some bad event, abominable action or frightful ruin, which is all conveyed by the word
Aucca
, a name they also give to any visible or invisible enemy (…)