Thursday, March 8, 2007

Mothman, Garuda and Indonesian Air Crash

When discussing the strange episodes of interactions between humans and that winged weirdie seen in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966-1967, John A. Keel didn’t carry around in his head the psychological icon of Mothman, which, of course, didn’t exist yet. No, his concept of what was the source of the foreboding and tragedy was much more ancient.

A detail often forgotten is that John A. Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies was initially to be entitled The Year of the Garuda. The title Keel wanted was his way to connect the ancient Indian legends of the Garuda, an unknown flying cryptid, with the modern Mothman events.

For Keel, his sense of the underlying weirdness, subtle spookiness, dramatic danger, covert sightings, plus the sinister Fortean reality of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, were linked in his mind to the image and idea of Garuda, more so than any realization of what Mothman was or was becoming. To Keel, Garuda was the key.

Now comes a startling reminder of that name for it is being noted in the news that the tragic crash in Indonesia was of a Boeing 757, an aircraft of the Garuda Airlines:

Indonesia jet explodes on landing

An Indonesian jet has crashed and burst into flames on landing at Yogyakarta airport in Java, killing 22 people. The state-owned Garuda Airline, which operated the Boeing 737-400, confirmed that 118 people had survived. Indonesia’s president immediately announced an investigation into the crash in Yogyakarta, 440km (270 miles) south-east of Jakarta….

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said there were nine Australians on board, four of whom were missing. They included officials and journalists covering his planned visit to Java for a counter-terrorism conference. Prime Minister John Howard said the country should be “prepared for bad news” as there could well be Australian fatalities….

BBC News, March 7, 2007

What is the Garuda? The Garuda is a large legendary bird or bird-like creature that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a cryptid to many. Garuda is usually described as having a golden body, white face, red wings, and an eagle’s beak and wings but a man’s body. The Garuda is the national symbol of both Indonesia and Thailand.

For those that own the rare Saturday Review Press first edition (1975) of The Mothman Prophecies, the creature depicted on the white dust jacket is a Garuda, not a Mothman.

Source: Cryptomundo