◆ SpookStack

oe 328 fantasy, others. think. that miilially Ho} C fearing. They centucien age the mystery ecracted the German aetronomer, Johan Kesler, while mare recently, scientists held an intemational symposium to dipeucs the mutter. Sut seither Repler nor conlemporary ecientisis found the key fo the problem, which may tum oat te have an sltogather unexpected: achition. in autligutty aad the Middle Ages human imaginal- tor wae Burret aA wrugual star, dow beleved fo be te Stier of Bethiehoam, The. star wae sleged te be able te moubd and wiag, From that tt ws dunn te the Christian Apocemha- books banned by Church censorship from easvicws and religious reading. The Apocnpha reflects men's eiforts fo szplein tee most dramaiic. mysteries of Hie. These books. sometimes etand indie? contradictions gt Chorch-apprwved testa. & fonilier one about eurty Ghuistianity is cated "Tha Tale About the Thras Magi". The _ original mre. ion must have been written in Latin in the eddie of the third cantury at tha earliest, and later trane- fated mia many languages. A tSthcentury Byala. qwwedien. irenslation made five centusiea before tha apace ere contains a highly eousual dnterpretation of the tale. ‘The elar, 2 says, waa watched by. ectron- geners. {this tg the ectual word weed} in many Oriental gountties. Doce 2 appeared af eight and “ii ug the whole of the sky as the auc does.” Then the etar - uy over Mounl Vane for a whole day, stier which S.slighted on ths mounlain fiks on saghe. ‘Tha text containg » refarence te “certain books” which claim that Christ came doen from dist Bhar. “But Rowas different from the ong pictured i eur churches. 1 had wings, the kind an gage hap, aed mary long reyes.) which sant it meving in a circle when it descended spon Mount Vans. Fain wareion of the afd etory uraupectadly introd< wees & new image ead a new ides, both sharply at wartance with the chorelt fests. Without question, the apocryphal version is fantastic. Bul it is: hardly mare fantastic than the approved “canonic tersion. What was m the Devise! te author's fentasy? That, tan, & shroudsd in avestery. @NGELS IW FLYING. MACHINES. The Dechany Monastery in Kosoeskeys Metghia, southern Yugosiavia, was Guilt inthe firet hall of the Vth cectury, and. by 1380 contained numerius freec- oes en subjects from the Okt and New Testaments. én the upring of 164 more frescoes were found a the monastery. The Vogeriay magazine Svat publin- hed photographs eatitled: “Spaceships on the Dac. any Cracitix, Sputeike in our leescoes, Could aeck eM icos-painters Aeve. depicted spacashige iy Dec- hany?’ Ht did mol take a joumaliet's imagination to think ap ities Hike these Dechany frescoes actually depict angels fiping & apaceshipe the fhe present aputuke. Jwe hips are ahown flying one alter the other from wast to east, Siting ie the lead ship i a man iffy ceniact “OO without an angel's halo. He hells. an ona pontrad golumn” and books behind Rim: as H werdh the Night of bis fellow-spaceman. Sitting da the apace ship following is another man, who aleo haa nothing im common with the treditional angel and alec has one band on the “gemieois”, Both ships have streamlined bodies, Cluny vielily jets Gn theie wake accentuate. the dnparalon of apeed. "The saints i the Tying machines ara by tw Gosifion of pilates”, ays the magazine, Angels watching the Right corer their eyes and ars with their hands and seem te be bucking away for fear of beiag blinded of deafened. Balew, be groupe ace pictused, every face portraying aucpries, fear, or perplesity, The centres] Figure represents the ermelied Christ. The treectd depicting the Resurrection of Christ feoke just ex. add. The Messigh looks as H be ie in a yocket which Aes not pat begun te move, saplzina ths Vogosiay magaezins. Indead, the which foots very much [ike & space rocket, with a troawing atab- ize: in ite upper part With his right hand Christ dy tying te EK aboard the ship ond ef the people standing on She ground before starting en hin way to the heavenly kingdom. Monks ai Dechany, to whom exparte tured for an enpinnation, ceplied thet apparently the drawings of “ghips are pictures of the Sun and te Moon. According to New Testament legend, Christ was erecified during a sole ecligee. ut why the "aos is depicted rising in the west the monts Gould not Bay. One of the papers on the Dechany miracle refers ta & hypethesin saying thal Chviet was aman whe came down te Earth from gpace. The smegerine comments that such eas are “overbold”, that the fypothesis, H confined, “would basically altée the Biblical story ehout Christ”, The frescoes, it te noted, showing objects obvigualy resembling aputeika, “hail- Se fayman aed specislisi alike. The Decheny, "Miracle" te not unique. An icon in the Church Archasaiogy Stedy of the. Moscow Thga- logical Academy, called The Resucection ef deans Christ and dating back. to the 17th century, shoors Christ. in a streamlined container which waguely meembles a apeceshio etunding an the ground. Smoke billows from hath aides of the contsiner's lower Ban, eesioping the legs of fhe angels whe watch from the sidelines. dest-as on. the Dechany fresco, Oreists right bend bits a man {the chorch vertion Mentilies him with Adam), Eve waite far her dum on the other ede. The icon bs eundy of an apecophal aston. There may have been a writen vention presenting a aon canonical view of Ohrei's reserection and ssc. ids, but H there ia, eething je known about i. Posa- tly Ho wae dsstoyed by Church cossan at alas Swagoesrad wih tee, Or perhaps the manuacriat eziets wndisceverad, a whith case Ho may here mapired wen (or awurad) painters to present apaer aprboctes, {eortinend).