Paranormal stories come in waves, ghost stories and UFO reports sometimes increase and decrease – most UFO stories happen in the summer time as people are enjoying outdoor events more. Ghost stories of course are more common in the fall and winter months.

The rarest of all stories of course are crypto creature sightings. We know that there have been an increase of Bigfoot sightings last summer – there was at least one alleged sighting of the Lochness monster.

The rarest sightings are that of the Chupacabra, the well-known goat sucker from south of the border – and the Mothman.

However, it appears that Mothman sightings are happening a lot more lately and he most prevalent sightings are happening in the Chicago area.

Back in April, a man was jogging in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in the city of Chicago. He was about 1 and a half blocks from Oz Park when he saw a man or human nearly seven feet tall with huge black wings behind him.

This has now kicked off a new flap of Mothman or humanoid bird sightings all over the Chicago area.

However, one of the more dramatic sightings happened in 2011. It was seen near west 63rd and Pulaski road. There is a tobacco shop in the area and a Giant wooden Indian stands on the roof.

The witness was photographing the giant Indian because he thought if you positioned the camera in the right spot the left thumb of the statue pokes out from the side making the statue anatomically correct.

A few teenage girls were laughing at the statue and as the witness was snapping the photos he caught something that he thought was a plane at first, but then after careful study he saw what appeared to be a bat like creature flying over head.

The bird-like or bat-like humanoid has been sighted so many times that there is now a map available that shows where the creature has been sighted.

There have been at least 15 sightings of the Mothman like creature since the year 2011.

We have spoken before about how the Mothman creature stems from sightings reported all over Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the 1960’s It was reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 12, 1966, to December 15, 1967.

The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated November 16, 1966, entitled “Couples See Man-Sized Bird … Creature … Something.”

It was later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies, which claimed there were supernatural events related to the sightings.

The story was made into a motion picture starring Richard Gere.

I have confessed that my favorite unknown creature is the Mothman – I have been reading about the legends of these creatures and before Point Pleasant’s sightings there have been stories of these birdmen dating thousands of years.

Whether they are winged angels or winged demons are anyone’s guess – they almost always seemed to be associated with witchcraft or sorcery.

According to the book Flying Humanoids by Ken Gerhard The conceptual synthesis of both human and bird characteristics dates back over 17,000 years. According to carbon dating, that is the age of the cave paintings at Lascaux, France.

One particular image there is known as the Bird Man of Lascaux, essentially a human-like form with the head of a bird. Other anthropomorphic birdmen appear in engravings and bas-reliefs starting around 900 BC. For example, the ancient Sumerians depicted the Apkallu or Abgal, as winged humanoid demigods.

We have also compared the Mothman to the ancient Mespotamian demon known as Pazuzu—the demon made famous by the movie the Excorcist. Pazuzu is the Assyrian king of wind demons, who is typically characterized as a human with dog’s face with two sets of attached wings.

The harpies of Greek Mythology are very well known from literary works and Ray Harryhausen films.

They are portrayed as vile, foul-smelling monsters that possess the head and bust of a hideous hag, attached to the body of a vulture or eagle. In Hindu and Buddhist culture we find tales of Garuda, an exceptionally important figure, who is often described as being man-like with enormous wings. In Japanese folklore, there is the Tengu; in Mayan culture, Camazotz, which describes an enormous death bat.

The winged Harpy or flying Hag has been reportedly seen by many people as this creature appears above the bed. It has the same characteristics as the Harpy and also can be compared to the Latino legend of La Lechuza.

As a matter of fact, as I was scanning the Humanoid bat or Mothman creature sightings in Chicago – one sighting was reported to be that of La Lechuza.

On April 16th, 2017 in Humboldt Park, Chicago, There were multiple witnesses that reported an owl-like humanoid stood up on two feet and looked right at them . Witnesses say that it looked like a huge Lechuza except it was black and about six feet tall. It had large glowing red eyes.

Since Spanish colonial times, generations of children in South Texas and across the river in Mexico have grown up hearing stories of Lechuzas. Lechuzas are shapeshifters, mostly women who through witchcraft can turn themselves into huge white owls.

In most stories, the bird is an owl, but sometimes a Bruja or witch will turn into an eagle.

Another school of thought holds that not all Lechuzas are Brujas. Some are merely the spirits of women annoyed for a specific reason, a faithless husband or a widower who has remarried.

Those frightened by the appearances of a Lechuza can fall back on four basic remedies: Prayer, tying seven knots in a string or rope, engaging the services of a Curandera or killing the creature with a shotgun or rifle.

When a Lechuza finds her target she will perch in a location where she can’t easily be seen and then will make either strange whistles or the sound of an infant crying. Anyone who attempts to determine where the sound is coming from is at risk of becoming –prey for the Lechuza, Lechuza will then swoop down and carry off the confused and horrified individual.

It is believed that hearing the cry of the Lechuza is an omen that someone in the household will die, a trait more commonly found in tales of the banshee. Lechuza are immune to weapons and bullets and possibly are immortal.

In some versions of the story, the Lechuza is the spirit of a witch who was murdered by locals. Her spirit returns in the form of the bird-monster to get revenge. In other tales, the Lechuza is the vengeful spirit of a woman who has returned from the grave to torment the living and to seek revenge.

In modern times, most reported run-ins with the witch-bird involve her swooping down at cars driving deserted roads at night.

There is a story about a Lechuza being shot in Texas. No one could find the dead bird, but the next morning, someone discovered the body of a very hag-like , mature woman hanging across a tree branch. Needless to say, many saw a connection between the killing of the Lechuza and the corpse.

In ancient Greek mythology, the owl was the preferred bird of Athena, daughter of Zeus, the Goddess of Wisdom and War. Her preferred species was the Little Owl, which often accompanied her perched on her shoulder. The owl had the ability to light up Athena’s blind side revealing to her unseen truths and thus expanding her natural wisdom.

Due to its association with the Goddess, the owl gained protected status in Athens and inhabited the Acropolis in great numbers. As the symbol of Athena the owl became thought of as a protector, its symbolism was adopted by Greek armies on their way to war as inspiration for their daily lives.

The owl was known as a harbinger of bad tidings and doom throughout Europe, and put in appearances as a symbol of death and destruction in a number of popular plays and poems. For instance, Sir Walter Scott wrote:

“Birds of omen dark and foul,

Night-crow, raven, bat, and owl,

Leave the sick man to his dream —

All night long he heard your scream.”

Even before Scott, William Shakespeare wrote of the owl’s premonition of death in both Macbeth and Julius Caesar.

The owl has always been associated with war, death, and witchcraft. Word origins indicate that Wizard comes from “Wise”, (Male) and for “Witch”(female). This is why owls have been known to be wizened.

This has always been associated with the Old English wicce “female magician, sorceress,” in later use especially “a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their cooperation to perform supernatural acts.

There have also been claims at various times that associated women more strongly with witchcraft, most famously those in the Malleus Maleficarum. While the influence of the Malleus upon accusations of witchcraft are arguably overstated, and while there have been times and places where accusations made against men outnumbered those against women (in the far north of Europe, particularly), it does remain that witchcraft became particularly associated with women culturally both when considered negatively, but also when considered positively.

The etymology of wicca/wicce is unclear, and likely comes from a word that simply means “one who does magic” though other suggestions have been made and it’s worth noting that until recently “wise one” was understood to be the etymology.

The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster. Hearing the hoot of an owl indicated an imminent death, it is thought that the deaths of many famous Romans was predicted by the hoot of an owl, including Julius Caesar, Augustus & Agrippa. While the Greeks believed that sight of an owl predicted victory for their armies, the Romans saw it as a sign of defeat. They believed that a dream of an owl could be an omen of shipwreck for sailors & of being robbed. To ward off the evil caused by an owl, it was believed that the offending owl should be killed & nailed to the door of the affected house.

Beliefs on owls varied between ancient American Indian tribes. Some tribes viewed owls as harbingers of sickness and death. Other tribes saw them as protective spirits, others believed them to be the souls of living or recently departed people and should be treated with respect. Some tribes even saw the owls as earthly incarnations of their gods, the Hopis believed the Burrowing Owl to be their god of the dead. The Inuit explain the flat face and short beak of owls, in the story of a beautiful young girl who was magically changed into an owl with a long beak, as an owl, she became frightened and flew into the wall of her house and flattened her face and beak. Some tribes referred to death as “crossing the owl’s bridge”.

Some people believed that owls were particular bad to children, in Malaya it was believed that owls ate new-born babies, the Swahili believed that owls brought sickness to children, in Arabia it was believed that owls were evil spirits that carried children off in the night.

Some people believed that owls had magic powers, in Arabia it was thought that each female owl laid two eggs – one with the power to make hair fall out, the other with the power to restore it. In Algeria, it was believed that if the right eye of an Eagle Owl was placed in the hand of a sleeping woman, that she would tell everything you wanted to know.

British beliefs about owls include the Welsh belief that if a owl is heard amongst houses then an unmarried girl has lost her virginity. Another Welsh belief is that if a pregnant woman hears an owl, her child will be blessed.

Many people are well aware of the Fleetwood Mac song, Rhiannon, written and performed by Stevie Nicks. When she first appeared on the NBC TV show “Midnight Special” she told the audience that the song was about a Welch Witch.

A witch who according to the lyrics “Takes to the sky like a bird in flight” and is “taken by the wind.”

Nicks started writing this song after reading the book, Triad, by Mary Leader. It is about a woman who believes she is being possessed by the spirit of a woman named Rhiannon. There are themes of mythology and the occult that Nicks used in her song along with The name Rhiannon is the name of a Welsh goddess. According to myth, Rhiannon, the goddess of fertility and the moon, shuns a god and marries a mortal man. That god then frames her for the murder of her own son, and she is forced to stand at the entrance to a city and tell everyone entering that she killed her child.

Nicks did not know the story of Rhiannon the goddess until after she wrote the song, but she felt the lyrics fit that story as well. She told Mojo magazine December 2013: “It wasn’t until 1978 that I found out about (Welsh medieval prose tales) Mabinogion and that the names Branwen and Rhiannon are in there too, and that Rhiannon wasn’t a witch at all; she was a mythological queen. But my story was definitely written about a celestial being, I didn’t know who Rhiannon was, exactly, but I knew she was not of this world.”

The goddess Rhiannon rode a white horse and traveled with three birds that had healing powers. The birds appear in various Celtic symbols. All three are magical birds, whose song can “wake the dead and lull the living to sleep.”

In Welsh mythology, Blodeuwedd, the Goddess of Betrayal, is associated with the owl. According to the story in “The Mabinogion”, Blodeuwedd was created from flowers by the magician Gwydion for the prince Llew Llaw Gyffes.

She had an affair with Goronwy and they contrived to kill Llew. On his death, Llew was transformed into an eagle, but was healed & returned to human form by Gwydion. Llew returned to seek revenge, rather than killing Blodeuwedd, Gwydion turned her into a white owl, to haunt the night in loneliness and sorrow, saying “I will not slay thee, but I will do unto thee worse than that. For I will turn thee into a bird; and because of the shame thou hast done unto Llew Llaw Gyffes, you shall never show thy face in the light of day. And thou shall not lose thy name, but shall be always called Blodeuwedd.” The word Blodeuwedd is still used in Wales to mean owl.

With all of the folklore and all of the superstition surrounding the appearance of flying humanoids or even possible shapeshifters, we have to ask ourselves, are all of these sightings precursory events and is the powerful image of an owl, witch or demon returning to warn us of some impending disaster?

Are they truly what can be called apostate angles or angles of doom that are being seen to warn us that mankind has little time left?

They of course could be manifestations brought on by the overall feelings of hate and anxiety that seem to be all over the planet.

In this time where we are deluged with stress and chaos, it is often difficult to be positive with the hardships and misgivings we all can feel about our future. We may not show it on the surface, but deep down we feel the pain and suffering of those around us. It is because we are all connected in some way. Things in our world are changing rapidly. We are all waking up to the possibility that our lives are hanging in the balance.

I am thinking that perhaps the stress and anxiety in the world is somehow transferring into the realms of the ether and through some psychokinetic tension the spirits that were once passive are becoming angrier, impatient and wanting to somehow infiltrate and invade.

Perhaps the newly found paranormal world view can all be summed up in the idea that yes, we do live in a demon-haunted world and the demons are conjured up by our own thoughts and will.

Que Tengas Quidadao a La Lechuza!

Written by Ron Patton