Cheltenham Jill - The Talismen, Midland Beat - 1960's Girl In The Bertoia Chair

What is the mystery surrounding 'Cheltenham Jill' who models for her photo around 1967-8 sitting in a Bertoia wire framed chair?  Who is Jill with her big eyes and dark hair, framed in a photo of over 40 years ago?

Jill was born in the early 1940's and lived with her parents in a large Cheltenham semi-detached house, built around the turn of the century.  Her mother liked cooking and home making, whilst her father worked in the packing department of Sarco Spirax, then based on St George's Road, Cheltenham, a company which is still in existence today.

Jill enjoyed the music paper 'Midland Beat' which featured bands from the Midlands, many of them, still famous names of today and also local bands of the time, such as The Talismen, from Cheltenham itself, who can still be heard on YouTube. They feature in a 'Midland Beat' magazine from 1964.

Jill became a secretary and went to work in London, near Regent's Park, at the London Graduate School Of Business, as it was then called and wrote home to her parents on headed paper from the college, to 'Dear Mum and Dad', in one letter, from March 1967, mentioning that when term has been wound up she will be 'Back in Cheltenham in time for dinner'..

In another missive from Jill, to her parents, she encloses what she calls 'Jill and Roger's Wedding Pressie List', containing the colour scheme for her life with Roger and the articles she is looking for as wedding gifts. She also mentions in one of her letters, that the Finance Director who is her boss, is going to work for Beechams.

All details left in the discarded Cheltenham house, a calendar on the wall from 1995, showing the last signs of life.  Mum made jam and read 'Family Circle' magazine whilst Dad enjoyed Meccano and had been a member of the Automobile Association (AA) in 1966.

Who was Jill and did she ever marry Roger or did she die before this event could take place? The feeling is that Jill died not so long after this photograph was taken, whilst her mother died in the1980's and her father died around August 1995,leaving the house as an abandoned treasure trove of memories.  There was no one to claim the Cheltenham house, so it was left.  Presumably, a solicitor somewhere has the keys.

But what happened to Jill, a young woman with a vibrant life full of hope before her? In the 1960's, when King's Road and Carnaby Street were the most fashionable places to be, many young people from the provinces moved to London and made a life for themselves there as Jill did, obtaining work and settling down in their new environment.

People say Jill looks sad in her photo, depressed, even.  We don't know if she ever married Roger, because, if she had of done, he would surely have claimed the Cheltenham house, which belonged to her parents, as her husband.  Where is Roger now?

There are various theories about Jill, but no one as yet has been able to 'crack' the photo.  Jill holds all the clues and although the theories about what could have happened to her abound, including that she may have been taken advantage of by the 'wrong sort of people', in London and disappeared, no one knows for sure.  

Yet she remains an enigma, a mystery, a 20th century Mona Lisa, a summer portrait of modern history, sitting on a very fashionable, 1960's Bertoia designer chair, in her sun dress, posing for the photographer, her head tilted back slightly, to show off her dark hair, curled at the bottom, a fashion statement of the late 1960's.

If I was going to date this photo completely, I would say that it is not 1966 as the hair is slightly longer than the 1966 lacquered fashion style and by summer 1969 hair fashions were going a little bit softer than the pronounced roller curl at the bottom, so I would run with 1967-8, to be on the safe side.

Milner Field Resurrection, The Saltaire Vampires and The Hill of Baal

Ricky is selling blood weed and vamp snort on a Bradford estate back in 1996.  He is creating vampires from their use of the drug.  In 2011 Dominic the mayor's assistant and Gary, his friend who is a historian are going round looking for old ruined houses to bring back to life.  Dominic shape shifts.  Sometimes he is Harry Price, the ghost hunter and other times Titus Junior of The Salt Mill.  Thanks to Dominic, Borley Rectory is floating round on the ether collecting souls. Dominic has then fixed his ideas on Milner Field, former home of Titus Junior.

Both Dominic and Gary belong to the Brotherhood of the Tulip, a secret organisation that intends to resurrect Titus Junior at the Hill of Baal, near the Rocks of Faith, by using a ritual that Gary found written on an old parchment in a bookshop.  Grand Master Tulip has found a suitable host and he has called on his vampire helpers who work at a local retro rock music venue for their assistance, as well as linking up to sources in Glastonbury.

Although the book is a work of fiction, all the characters are based on real people.  The Hill Of Baal is of course Baildon, where ancient peoples worshipped the God Baal up on the moor.  There are other places in the UK also dedicated to Baal too.  Public sacrifices of cattle as part of a celebration, happened in Baildon in the 19th century.  The cattle were led on a path from the area of Baildon Green, up to another area around what is now known as Shipley Glen and then slaughtered, to bring prosperity to the farmers and the other workers.  Baal is sometimes depicted as a Fallen Angel connected to King Solomon and is also known as Baal Hamon in history.  Baal is a Carthaginian deity and it is widely believed that Phoneticians and other ancient Mediterranean peoples actually reached the countries we now call the United Kingdom, bringing their beliefs with them.

The Saltaire Vampires: Milner Field Resurrection

The Netta Fornario Experience

In 2009, after an exhibition of sand sculptures celebrating the life and times of Charles Darwin appeared in Centenary Square, Bradford, West Yorkshire, we put a video on the internet - not fixed and doctored YouTube, or hidden 'sign in' Facebook, but still going after free enterprise.  The video was a series of pictures with a song about Netta Fornario.  People watching the video often reported getting the feeling of choking as if Netta Fornario had been strangled.

Unfortunately the internet these days is used by journalists and opportunists as an idea stealing medium and next thing a Scottish theatre company had done a Netta play probably because we'd given someone the idea to capitalize on it.  Gone are the days of enjoying your website, someone will plagiarize your ideas and hard work, then pass them off as their own, so now instead of putting out free material like a two bit 'Ho' we are forced to put unique material in to small ebooks, purely for all the time, effort and painstaking research we have put in.

Many years ago I visited the home of the then 'Queen of the Witches' who had been married to a very famous 'King of the Witches' who gave his name to a 'brand' of magic.  I was clearly told  by an American coven member who must have known some Yorkshire folk that you 'don't get ow't for ow't', though I think she meant ow't for now't.

So following on from such esteemed advice our unique and previously unknown Netta Fornario material is now for sale in a very reasonably priced ebook because it is not about making money but it is about the magical principle of giving AND receiving, in order to create balance and harmony.

The Netta Fornario Experience

Camelopardalis, Orion The Hunter and Perseus - Cosmic DNA Inside a Water Bottle

 

The Romans called a giraffe a camelopardalis, but the name really meant a camel/leopard creature with spots. The Ether has many messages trending and near the surface of the Inner Planes for those who may seek, find or even have a passing interest. The constellations produced in a bottle of water matched with those in the sky, giving out their astral message. Oddly enough from February onwards it is the time to see Perseus and Orion the hunter is saying there is a lot out there for you, if you keep on hunting for it - 'Seek and you shall find' et al.

This really shows that the Universe gives out a subtle message, a frisson of facts yet to be known and yet they are actually being shown in advance, to those with the interest to go hunting them. The picture shows the water bottle in question, plus a planisphere with matching results to the water dots on the inside of the water bottle.  This is basically an esoteric message in a bottle, showing the position of the stars, reproduced in water by the hidden workings of the Ether.

Hauntings Ghosts And Other Lurgy Knocking Around

Lots going on really.  I just love the TV series entitled 'The Haunted Collector', after devouring all the 'Paranormal Witness' series.  I've also recently watched all the 'Sea of Souls' entire series as well as doing the same with 'Afterlife', then I've tucked in to 'School Spirits'. I've never had enough of the paranormal - it is NORMAL to me.

I remember when I was seven years old, being allowed to stay up and watch a TV show which included table rapping. and loving it.  I've also enjoyed the 'Bedlam' series, earlier this year. I haven't really been able to get in to 'Ghost Adventures', though. I actually like watching one paranormal programme after another, in fact, my entire household does.

My home is full of paranormal activity and spirits and do you know, I'd miss them all if they left, even the ones that play up.  Talking of this though, I do sail pretty close to the wind. I cleansed some tarot and cards a few months ago and after this they were useless.

I think a bit of psychic dirt adds a lot of balance, because life is not clean it is muddy and muddy cards work better for life issues than pristine clean ones. You may notice that a lot of tarot and oracle cards are printed in China and may well have the feel and presence of these workers on them too. 

You may notice on this blog I keep mentioning a house, now a ruin called 'Milner Field' before you yawn and run off at my apparent obsession, this was the result of a number of dreams I had back in 2011, which resulted in me finding a number of long lost cousins, all connected in some way or another to Milner Field, Saltaire and another missing mansion from Baildon, West Yorkshire, called The Knoll.

It was all very weird because a relative of mine had been a former director of Lister's Mill (Manningham Mills) and here was all this Salts of Saltaire stuff and directors of Salts getting popped off by living at Milner Field house.  I used to post on Saltaire forums, but it was always the chosen few who were let in to the inner circle and only a few stuffy stalwarts who were allowed to 'own' Milner Field and Saltaire history, using Denys Salt, a chap who lives in Austria as a puppet figure head for their books, plays writings et al.

Saltaire visitors oohed and ahhed at the genteel boringisms of such learn-nerd blokes, spouting off in deferential worship of them old fashion'd rich 'uns whilst we get 'A Penny For Going' (to the loo?).

Anyways there was a lot of carrying on at old Milner Field.  A close friend went up as 'official photographer' and was shown all the secret hidden places of the area by a strange man he met who was riding a horse.  Se mann rideo - in Saxon English.

Mr Gates has obviously been playing up and my sincere warning (not personal just advice to anyone messing with Milner Field) is - watch out for former Salts Mill MD Mr Ernest Gates, he hasn't gone away and he is out to lure the unsuspecting in.

Mr Gates, landed gentry from Old Buckenham Hall in Norfolk, lived briefly at Milner Field house until he got an accidental foot injury, went in to a private clinic in Eldon Place, Bradford in the mid 20's and died soon after.  His gardener met with a similar accident whilst working for the Whiteheads of Baildon when he put his foot through a potting shed floor..

I picked Mr Gates up last year via the pendulum originally.  When I started writing the Milner Field book my foot stated itching whilst looking at old photos of the house and I'm now limping around with a foot and toe problem so now I'm sending it back.  Maybe I trod on the tail of a tiger and maybe I didn't.

But there is nothing better than that bump of tiger tail under foot, its soooo good, really, - of course. I've not seen Mr Richard Lee Van Den Daele limping yet,(as he also co wrote a book on Milner Field), given that he lives near me.  Time will tell...

Now I'm going to 'baaaa' a bit as my sheep spirit guide comes to the fore.  I got an email once from a person signing themselves LVX, of course they really meant 'light' as LUX means light in Latin - but he thought I didn't know that.  Well we did Nuffield Latin at Bradford Girls' Grammar School with a teacher called Miss Guest who's mum or grandmama had been a suffragette, so not totally stupido, old man, though I do try... It can be fun sometimes you know. Or, they could have been naming themselves LVX after Lord Hadit, the Thelemic version of Lord Horus, but whatever, they thought they were pretty on dit or high ton as Lord Byron would say.

The Hermetic Order of the Silver Lunar Mist

We have a new website called The Hermetic Order Of The Silver Lunar Mist.  This is because we want to be 'Hermetic' as in Hermes and go all Trithemius and Albertus Magnus at the same time.  As Ptolemy might have commented to Cornelius Agrippa on their Astral walks.  And if Jakob Bohme could give us a little inspiration, well that is just fine and dandy too.

But if none of these energies are available, then we will take our inspiration from the ever present Green Ray of Mother Nature - as in Mother Earth and Father Sky.

So, as Mr Crowley said that  'Every man and every woman is a star', long before Lady GaGa trilled her 'Born This Way' ditty and his quote will probably be remembered long after her song is astral dust, then we as humans have a right to project and promote how we feel we should be, as we all have a right to 'BE' a valued somebody and tread that Astral Red Carpet or maybe that would translate as the Milky Way?

Visit the Hermetic Order of the Silver Lunar Mist

see also Followers of the Astral Path and The Kirk of Ufology

Bradford's Amazing Occult Characters

Just under the surface of the city of Bradford, in West Yorkshire, there is a seam of occult coal, an echo in the stones,a whistle in the beck. The spirit of psychic urban exploration, rises high in the planes, the old mills pass on their past vibrations in to the very stratosphere of Bradford existence. The above book includes some never before published information about the lives and work of some of Bradford's occult and paranormal people, who work in more than one world. See also The Hermetic Order Of The Silver Luna Mist, link below.

Weaving Occultism in Bradford

Visit the Hermetic Order of the Silver Luna Mist