Aurora Effect Again

At 2:23 p.m., February 15, 2019, City of Aurora officials confirmed an active shooter and Aurora police were on the scene at 641 Archer Road, an industrial area approximately 40 miles from Chicago, Illinois. Officials would later confirm the incident happened at Henry Pratt Co., a manufacturing firm.

Five plus the shooter are dead. The gunman was 45-year-old Gary Martin. Martin’s sister said he had been laid off from his job two weeks ago and was battling with deep depression. The meeting he was attending on Friday, February 15th, was being held to terminate him.

The victims were identified as Trevor Wehner, 21, of DeKalb; Vicente Juarez, 54, of Oswego; Clayton Parks, 32, of Elgin; Josh Pinkard, 37 of Oswego; and Russell Beyer, 47, of Yorkville. All five were employed by Henry Pratt Co.

Aurora police Chief Kristen Ziman (Ziman from Siman from "heard" or "as heard by God") said the officers wounded while responding to the scene of the shooting were recovering and another victim was being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Ziman's new conference appearances have been much different than the usual law enforcement briefing because she has been expressive and appreciative about the good energy being sent the way of the injured officers.

The new governor of Illinois J. B. Pritzker said of the Aurora, Illinois shooting: "There are no words for the kind of evil that robs our neighbors of their hopes, their dreams and their futures."

After the Aurora, Colorado shooting in 2012, Colorado's Governor John Hickenlooper called it an "act of evil."

Lucifer ("light-bringer") was a Latin name for the planet Venus as the morning star in the ancient Roman era, and is often used for mythological and religious figures associated with the planet....Interpretations of a similar term in the Hebrew Bible, translated in the King James Version as "Lucifer," led to a Christian tradition of applying the name Lucifer and its associated stories of a fall from heaven to Satan.
...
As a name for the morning star, "Lucifer" is a proper name and is capitalized in English. In Greco-Roman civilization the morning star was often personified and considered a god and in some versions considered a son of Aurora (the Dawn). Source.

The Aurora shooting occurred at 641 Archer Avenue. 

The former site of the Argonne National Laboratory and its predecessor, the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory in the forest preserve near Red Gate Woods, can be entered from an access road on Archer Avenue. The Argonne National Lab is one of the inspirations for the science fiction program Stranger Things.

The site is also close to a Lincoln park. Another power name.

At 3:02 p.m., officials confirmed the shooter had been apprehended. Law enforcement sources at 3:45 p.m. confirmed the shooter was dead.

Five officers had been shot during the active shooter incident. Several plant workers were injured.

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The syncs in the shooting keep piling up.

Gary Martin

“Quiet. Keeps to himself,” said Jennifer White, who lived nearby, of the gunman. “He kept to himself. Normal guy. He was pretty nice. It was a surprise.” She said he lived alone and was “always by himself…which is kinda weird.” The shooter lived at Acorn Woods Condominiums in Aurora. She told CBS Chicago that he had drones and “would wave at us or stare at us. Kinda creepy.”

His neighbors connected the dots. Jennifer White said she realized what was going on with Martin when she saw investigators surrounding his car. But she said she didn't notice any red flags.
"He seemed perfectly fine," White said. "I've seen him out there ... with his drones."
People who spoke to CBS Chicago described Martin as a loner.
"He always kept to himself," she said. Source. 

"When I saw the cops around here I knew it had to be him because he is a weird freaking guy," neighbor Jennifer White said. Source.

Okay, I read this and thought, oh my, the usual "he's nice" but "he's creepy."

The typical "nice guy" next door neighbor comment.

I was stopped short when I noticed one detail: "Jennifer White" is the maiden name of my wife.

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Henry Pratt Company, located in Aurora, Illinois, is one of North America’s largest manufacturers of valves for the potable water, wastewater, power generation and industrial markets. The Henry Pratt Company is a subsidiary of Mueller Water Products, Inc., a NYSE publicly traded company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The Mueller Company traces the history of its business units, subsidiaries and brands back as far as 1857, when the forerunner to Mueller Co. was founded by Hieronymus Mueller in Decatur, Illinois. (Decatur is also a power name.)

Henry Pratt Company was founded in 1901 as a metal fabricating shop, and it designed and developed the first rubber-seated butterfly valve in 1926. The company is headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, with manufacturing facilities in Aurora, Illinois, and Hammond, Indiana.

Aurora Name Game

If it seems like there are a number of mass shootings and other forms of violence at Aurora (means "dawn") sites, there are. The name comes forth in weird contexts. For example, on The X-Files, Dana Scully's father was played by Don Sinclair Davis, who was born 8-4-1942 in Aurora, Missouri.

Colorado's Aurora (therefore "Red Dawn") shooting, during The Dark Knight Rises screening, on July 20, 2012, kicked off this cycle. See my examinations of this thread at: "Aurora: Synchromystic Wonderland" and "Red Dawn Again" in July 2012.

A variety of connections are to be noted.

On March 25, 2017, Aurora Genai Sheffel was crushed by a log.

On March 5, 2017, Aurora Buol-Smith was stabbed by her son, who said he was a werewolf, and said he had to kill her because she was a vampire.

On November 2, 2016, on Aurora Avenue, Urbandale, Iowa, two police officers were gunned down.

On March 31, 2016, a man opened fire almost immediately after Virginia State Trooper Chad P. Dermyer approached him at Richmond's Greyhound bus station. The officer died that night at the hospital. The shooter was identified as 34-year-old James Brown III of Aurora, Illinois, who has a long police record. According to his Illinois relatives, he wanted to go out in a firefight with police. There appears to be no explanation for why Brown was in Richmond, Virginia, from his home in Aurora, Illinois.

On September 24, 2015, five people were killed, eight were critically injured, and eight were seriously injured after a Ride the Ducks vehicle veered out of its lane on the narrow Aurora Bridge and struck a bus carrying international college students on a tour of Seattle, Washington state.

On February 14, 2015, there were shootings at a Waffle House in Aurora, Colorado.

On December 2, 2015, the San Bernardino mass shooting occurred. The youngest victim of the massacre was Aurora Godoy, 26, San Jacinto, California. Aurora Godoy = dawn of the gods = Morgengrauen der Götter or Morgendämmerung der Götter.

On September 26, 2014, all Chicago air traffic was stopped early after a deliberately set 6:00 am fire at a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control facility in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois. Paramedics from the Aurora Fire Department, responding to a 911 call at 5:42 a.m. by an individual at the facility, entered the basement and followed a trail of blood that ultimately led to an individual later identified as Brian Harris, who attempted a self-immolation combined with an attempted suicide with a knife.

On April 13, 2014, the gunman who fired in the Overland Park Jewish Community Center and at the retirement community of Village Shalom killed three people between the two locations. The gunman was identified as 73-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. of Aurora, Missouri.

There are many such examples.

How far back are such links?

On July 18, 1984, the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was a mass shooting that occurred in and around a McDonald's restaurant in the San Diego neighborhood of San Ysidro . The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, shot and killed 21 people and injured 19 others before being fatally shot by a SWAT team sniper. One of the fatalities had the first name Aurora.

On April 28, 1949 – The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.

(Additional notes from TP, SL, and JL. Thank you.)

Phantom Clown: Macon + LaGrange

Correspondent Jim Brandon (The Rebirth of Pan) writes:

Well, we had a Fayette episode so how about something explicitly Masonic? Phantom clowns were reported in Macon, Georgia. 

I have written about this part of the name game often, as Macon is the French for Mason, and the use of that name is an overt Masonic naming of the landscape, just as much as Lafayette, Washington, and a number of other power names. I grew up in Macon County, Decatur, Illinois, so my decoding experience with "Macon" is firsthand.

After the organization of Bibb County in 1822, the city was chartered as the county seat in 1823 and officially named Macon. This was in honor of the North Carolina statesman Nathaniel Macon, because many of the early settlers in Georgia hailed from North Carolina. Macon was the 5th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, under President Thomas Jefferson.

Nathaniel Macon

Nathaniel Macon, a Freemason, was the son of Maj. Gideon Macon (1715–1761) and Priscilla Jones (1718 – March 1802). Nathaniel’s father’s parents were John Macon (December 17, 1695 – March 31, 1752) and Ann Hunt (1697 – February 15, 1725), both of Virginia. Nathaniel’s paternal great-grandparents were Col. Gideon Macon (c. 1648 – February 1701 or 1702) and Martha Woodward (1665–1723). Gideon and Martha Woodward Macon were also the great-grandparents of Martha Dandridge who married George Washington and became First Lady of the United States of America. Therefore, Nathaniel Macon was the second cousin of Martha Dandridge Washington.  In Masonic circles, Major John Mason held several offices in the grand lodge. Most, if not all, the Macon men in the ancestral line were all Masons down through the 20th century.

Freemasons use Mason names to name locations to honor other Masons, thus Macon, Georgia was named after Nathaniel Macon.

Brandon continues, regarding Macon, Georgia, with these insights:

The really interesting aspect is the geographic since Macon is just a few miles south of the 33-degree latitude line. But also – ta-dah! – abt 50 miles west on the line is Warm Springs and the Little White House where 33-degree Mason FDR use to go (all the way from DC by train no less) for rest cures. And even FDR died there in 1945 under strange circumstances, according to crime writer Emanuel Josephson.

The essence of the Phantom Clowns reported from Macon, Bibb County, Georgia are that several reports developed when four children at a bus stop or walking to school said they saw some clowns bothering them.

It happened on Tuesday morning, September 13, 2016, near Elkan Avenue. Three clowns were reported by Aisha Thompson, after her children ran home.

“If it’s a joke, it’s not funny. If you think this is something to play with, don’t. Take it serious,” said Thompson. "They're still shaken up. My oldest daughter, she's the big sister of all four of them, she's shaking in her jacket. When I was hugging her she was shaking and she's in the mentor's program, on the softball team, and JLC. She doesn't want to go to school and my children love school."

Thompson's youngest son, Marlon Patterson, said the clowns were wearing face paint and were shining lasers as they ran out of the woods and up and down the street.

"I was very scared, I started crying, I didn't know how we were gonna get home so we just tried to go to everybody we could to get a ride and one lady gave us one," said Patterson. 

Thompson said her children have also received friend requests on Facebook with clowns as their profile pictures.

"I don't know if it's something they're doing just to scare them or if it's something serious, but I would rather be safe than sorry," said Thompson.

“They saw a laser light. When we were having our discussion about this yesterday, it was mentioned that they would be in the woods shining one of those lasers to get the children’s attention, so they said they started to walk fast and as they approached the woods they came out and they took off running,” she continued.

Lt. Randy Gonzalez with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office says, “We’d like to find out who they are because we don’t want them giving small children impressions that clowns are scary because we as adults growing up know that clowns to us were not scary.”

“Kids think they’re going to school is their job. They’re unable to perform their job correct, having fear,” said concerned mother Teria Davis.

Thompson says her younger child attends Southfield Elementary which is nearby the area. She adds she will have to take her kids to school on her own until this issue is resolved.

It was reported that the clowns came from bushes and abandoned houses near Elkan Avenue and Dapleton Drive.

Some of the kids who reported the clown sighting to authorities also reported that they received Facebook messages from people dressed as clowns saying "I will find you."

The Bibb County Sheriff's Office said this is the first report of clown sightings in the area, though Tuesday morning's witnesses told deputies that the sightings had been going on for the past few days in the "bottom side" of Bloomfield.

Sources, 1, 2.

Just in...also from Georgia and also Masonic.

Tom Mellett passes along a news story from LaGrange, Georgia about someone on Facebook threatening to become a creepy clown and abduct children - for Tuesday, September 13, 2016.

LaGrange Police are working to get warrants to track down the person threatening to dress like a clown and abduct children from specific schools.
Lt. Dale Strickland told 11Alive News someone started a Facebook Page (which has since been taken down) threatening to dress like a clown and drive a white van to Callaway Elementary, Franklin Forrest Elementary, Callaway Middle School, Troup High School, and Callaway High School and abduct children. Strickland says that threat is a clear violation of the law. The department is working to obtain warrants that will help them track down who posted the threats.
Stickland said there were no spottings of the creepy clown, but the police department was flooded with calls from concerned parents. The police department posted a message on Facebook: "This behavior is not cute or funny... if applicable, you may face charges."

LaGrange turns out to be a Masonic Name Game just as much as Macon. I made the discovery a few years ago that LaGrange is an associated hot name, due to the fact the name Chateau de LaGrange was the French home of the Marquis de Lafayette, evolved during the last thirty years of our writings and mutual exchange on the subject. The Fayette Factor strikes again.

Phantom Clown incident now have come from South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, and Georgia.

Beyond FLW: Griffins, Fairies, and Decatur's Millikin Place

The name Millikin means the grandson of Maolagan ("little bald one").

The name Griffin is Welsh and the meaning of the name Griffin is "strong in faith" and "lord." Borrowed from the Welsh, Griffin is from griffinus, a Latinate form of Griffith which was used in the Middle Ages. Griffith is a Welsh name of debated origin. Some believe it to be an Anglicized form of Gruffydd, the Welsh form of the Roman Rufus (red, ruddy). Others however, think the name is derived from the Old Welsh Grippiud (prince).

The name Mahoney originally appeared in Gaelic as O Mathghamhna, which is derived from the word mathghamhan, which means "bear."

In a PBS documentary called Walter Burley Griffin: In His Own Right, my grandfather, the late Dustin Griffin, makes it clear that the famous designer and architect Frank Lloyd Wright – who worked with grandfather’s uncle, Walter Burley Griffin – gets credit where credit is not due. ~ writes Andrew W. Griffin (pictured below), on June 20, 2014. 

Peter Proudfoot, a Rome Scholar in architecture and an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of New South Wales, in his provocative 1994 book The Secret Plan of Canberra...suggests that Walter Burley Griffin’s winning Canberra design was used to implement cosmic symbolism, sacred geometry and a geomantic arrangement to integrate surrounding natural elements like the Chinese idea of feng shui.
The “ancient science of geomancy” – the idea of man in harmony with nature and “deified landforms” – was at the root of the Griffin plan, claims Proudfoot in The Secret Plan of Canberra. ~ Andrew W. Griffin

Marion Mahony Griffin was a keen horticulturist, graphic designer and painter. Her artwork includes portrait miniatures, a large mural, Fairies Feeding the Herons in a Rogers Park school (1931).

Marion Mahony, a Frank Lloyd Wright associate and the first licensed female architect in the United States, created my hometown of Decatur, Illinois' tribute to Prairie Style Homes: Millikin Place.

The Adolph Mueller House (part of Millikin Place) is different than any of Mahony's previous homes, which has led some to speculate that she was inspired by the man hired to design the landscape, Walter Griffin. After collaborating on the Millikin Place commission, the two later married and became internationally famous when they won the commission to design Canberra, the new capital of Australia. Source.

Tripoli, Tridents, Three Cities, Mermaids, Navy Seals, and Jonah

From the Halls of Montezuma

To the shores of Tripoli;

We fight our country's battles

In the air, on land, and sea;

First to fight for right and freedom

And to keep our honor clean;

We are proud to claim the title

Of United States Marine.

The breaking news Saturday, July 26, 2014, is that the United States is shutting down its embassy in Libya and evacuating its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said.

To the shores of Tripoli

The lyrics are contained in the book Rhymes of the Rookies by W. E. Christian, published in 1917. The author of these poems was W.E. Christian. They are more commonly known today as being in the "Marines' Hymn," which is the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps.

The line "To the shores of Tripoli" refers to the First Barbary War (1801-1805), and specifically the Battle of Derna in 1805. The conflict involved war with the Barbary States (the Ottoman provinces of Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis). The run up to the war and the war involved many names you have heard before in this blog (e.g. Bainbridge, Decatur, and others). The return of the bodies of the precursors to today's Navy SEALs has been an ongoing challenge in working with the governments of Tripoli. 

The Tripoli Monument is the oldest military monument in the United States. It honors heroes of the First Barbary War: Master Commandant Richard Somers, Lieutenant James Caldwell, James Decatur (brother of Stephen Decatur), Henry Wadsworth, Joseph Israel, and John Dorsey. It was carved in Livorno, Italy in 1806 and brought to the United States on board the USS Constitution. From its original installation in the Washington Navy Yard in 1808 it was moved to the west terrace of the United States Capitol in 1831, and finally to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1860. (See additionally, "Remains of 'First Navy Seals' Lie in Tripoli," Washington Post, May 29, 2011, and also, Richard Somers.)

Tripoli (Arabic: طرابلس ‎ Ṭarābulus) is the capital city and the largest city of Libya. As of 2011, the Tripoli metropolitan area (district area) had a population of 2.2 million people. The city is located in the northwestern part of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean and forming a bay.

Tripoli was founded in the 7th century BC by the Phoenicians, who named it Oea.

Tripoli is also known as Tripoli-of-the-West (Arabic: طرابلس الغرب‎ Ṭarābulus al-Gharb), to distinguish it from its older Phoenician sister city Tripoli, Lebanon known in Arabic as Ṭarābulus al-Sham (طرابلس الشام) meaning "Levantine Tripoli." It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean (Arabic: عروسة البحر‎ ʼarūsat el-baḥr; lit: "bride of the sea"), describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three Cities," introduced in Western European languages through the Italian Tripoli. In Arabic: طرابلس‎ it is called Ṭarābulus, Libyan Arabic: Ṭrābləs, Berber: Trables, from Ancient Greek: Τρίπολις Trípolis).

Around the beginning of the 3rd century AD, it became known as the Regio Tripolitana, meaning "region of the three cities," namely Oea (i.e., modern Tripoli), Sabratha and Leptis Magna.

Tridents and Tripoli have been associated for centuries. The above Medal of Louis XV, notes the bombing of Tripoli by Duvivier, 1728 Paris. The reverse shows Nepture with his Trident, threatening Tripoli. 

The British Naval General Service Medal, 1848, was given to veterans of the naval battles along the Barbary Coast during the French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars. The reserve shown is Britannia with a trident seated sideways on a seahorse.

Watery creatures and Tripoli go fin-in-fin, so to speak.

In 2011, a Libyan rebel poses on a sofa shaped like a mermaid, with the face of Muammar Gaddafi's daughter Aisha at her home in Tripoli.

The name game in Libya even got involved in the civil war there.

The Battle of Tripoli (Arabic: معركة طرابلس‎ maʻarakat Ṭarābulis) - in August 2011 - was a military confrontation in Tripoli, Libya, between loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi, the longtime leader of Libya, and the National Transitional Council, which was attempting to overthrow Gaddafi and take control of the capital. The battle began on 20 August 2011, six months after the Libyan civil war started, with an uprising within the city; rebel forces outside the city planned an offensive to link up with elements within Tripoli, and eventually take control of the nation's capital.

The rebels codenamed the assault "Operation Mermaid Dawn" (Arabic: عملية فجر عروسة البحر‎ ʻamaliyyat fajr ʻarūsat el-baḥr). As noted above, Tripoli's nickname is "The Mermaid" (Arabic: عروسة البحر‎ ʻarūsat el-baḥr) (literally "bride of the sea").

Mermaid! Dawn!

Libya has remained unstable for some time.

On the evening of September 11, 2012, Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya (560 miles East of Tripoli), killing four Americans in the attack: Ambassador Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and two CIA operatives, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former Navy SEALs.

Official Seal of the Navy Seals, with trident.

Now comes the evacuating of Americans from Tripoli, on the heels of the crash of Air Algerie Flight 5017.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, on July 25, 2014, an Iraqi shrine that is purported to be the burial site of Jonah, who the Bible says was swallowed by a whale, has been blown up by Islamic State militants (ISIS). The tomb, a popular destination for religious pilgrims and tourists, was inside a Sunni mosque in Mosul called the Mosque of the Prophet Younis, which is Arabic for Jonah. It dates back to the eighth century BC. The story of Jonah, or Younis, who was said to have survived three days in the belly of a whale, appears in both the Bible and Quran.

Carvers and McNairs: The Name Game Rolls On

Discussing Decatur, I mentioned recently there might be some school shootings with the opening of the new academic year. Decatur weirdness continues, as AWG has alerted me.

But shootings are in our radar for now, for some school districts began last week. For most, the school year will officially start this Wednesday, September 3.

What did occur is that a shooting did take place on August 30 - exactly ten days after the Decatur event. What it highlighted, for our twilight language purposes, was an intriguing circular "coincidence" – namewise.

Christopher Lamont Richardson Jr. was arrested last Friday and charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession of firearm on school property, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and discharging a firearm within city limits. (Please note, the alleged gunman's middle name is Lamont and that means "law man.")

Officers responded to a report of a shooting of one student by another, suspect Richardson, around 2:30 p.m. August 30, at Carver High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Police say the school had been conducting a fire drill when a school resource officer heard shots fired.

A 15-year-old student was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Now some name games from this most recent event link to the Decatur drama.

The high school name – Carver – links to the previous school incident in Decatur, Georgia. (Carver means sculptor or one who carves, quite naturally.)

The August 20th incident's Decatur high school name, you will recall, was the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy.

(McNair is an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Iain Uidhir "son of sallow John." This form is associated mainly with Ross-shire. Another meaning comes from the Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Oighre "son of the heir.")

The late AfricanAmerican astronaut Ronald E. McNair attended Carver High School, in Lake City, South Carolina. He graduated as the valedictorian of his class. Carver High School became Lake City Junior High School when integration occurred and students of Carver High and J. Paul Truluck High combined into Lake City High. The school later became Ronald E. McNair Junior High to honor the astronaut, and then later the student body changed and it was renamed Ronald E. McNair Middle School.

The 1948 stamp honoring Carver.

These schools, like many historical black/AfricanAmerican schools in the American South, were or are named after George Washington Carver. Carver (alive by January 1864 – deceased on January 5, 1943), was an AfricanAmerican scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born into slavery in Missouri in January 1864. George Washington Carver reputedly discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes.

As you can see, this tale of three schools overlap in their journeys among the Carvers and McNairs. What all this means, of course, lies beyond perhaps even human understanding.

That Michael Brandon Hill (the shooter in the recent Decatur event) might have intertwined with the power names of Jim Brandon of Rebirth of Pan fame, of course, was merely a "coincidence."

(Thanks to Rob S. for an idea.)

Decatur Again: School Shooting Season Begins

Decatur, Georgia, was in the news a week ago. A school shooting nearly became deadly, and, I speculate because of the publicity about it, a workplace shooting occurred over the weekend.

Mass shootings follow a known pattern - another form of school, business-related, or mass violence usually comes within days of a well-publicized event - then more routinely another shooting happens in a week, two weeks, a month, and a year. It doesn't always take place with such regularity, but it often does.

The other predictor of future shootings is the copycat effect that comes into play after an end of the school year outburst. It feels like a Newtown bounce this fall may happen; I hope not but such a possibility is worthy of being on our radar.

Awareness is a key. People protecting others in schools, colleges, malls, churches, workplaces, and similar locations need to be alert. We are entering a dangerous "red zone" time of year. 

The Rebirth of Pan (1st edition, Firebird Press, 1983)

Mysterious America (1st edition cover, Faber & Faber, 1983)

Decatur again. Yes. We are use to Decatur in the weird news. Jim Brandon pointed out "Decatur" as a "power name" in his The Rebirth of Pan in 1983, and I wrote about it as part of the "Name Game" in Mysterious America, also first in 1983.

First described as "Atlanta-area," the "almost deadly" school shooting happening last Tuesday, August 20, 2013, occurred at Decatur, Georgia's Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy. The elementary school was named for the second AfricanAmerican astronaut, who died aboard the Challenger, the space shuttle that exploded after takeoff on January 28, 1986.

Michael Brandon Hill, 20, opened fire in the school, using an AK-47, to six bullets in the floor of the office. But as he was calmed down by school bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff, who spoke to Hill while on the phone with the 911 operator. She talked him into surrendering, and the publicity was heightened when President Obama called her a "hero."

Investigator T.L. Wortham of the DeKalb County Sheriff Department's Fugitive Unit told the media that as officers were apprehending the suspect, Hill said, "I'm sorry, I'm off my meds." Several weapons were seized, Wortham said.

Hill took a photo of himself (a "selfie") with an AK 47-style rifle and packed up nearly 500 rounds of ammunition — enough to shoot more than half the school's students - police later said.

After the Decatur incident, another shooting - with six shot - occurred on Saturday, August 25, 2013, in Lake Butler, Florida. The alleged shooter, Hubert Allen Jr., 72, was reported dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a “complete shooting rampage” at Pritchett Trucking. The owner of Pritchett Trucking and the farm, Rolling Oaks, Marvin Pritchett, 80, was first killed. Allen then drove to a local bar where he shot and killed Romando Gonzales Delgado, 28, and then killed himself. The gunman was identified as the step-grandfather of Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller.

Decatur, Georgia, has had its brushes with infamy in the recent past.

In June 5, 2012, a fight lead to a stabbing Decatur’s Columbia High School. Two days later, on Thursday, June 7, 2012, a gun was brought to the DeKalb County school after stabbing incident. And then on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012, loaded guns were seized at two area high schools.

Mark David Chapman, the assassin of Beatle John Lennon, attended Decatur, Georgia's Columbia High School from 1971-1975. (His high school photograph is at top.)

Decatur, Illinois's old Transfer Station use to be located near Lincoln Square, named after the assassinated Illinois president.

My old hometown’s name, Decatur, (of Decatur, Illinois) has a Fortean mystique and synchromysticism about it that has created all kinds of mojo.

Several locations are named "Decatur" across the United States of America.

Such sites are named after the War of 1812′s Navy hero, Stephen Decatur, who fought against the Barbary pirates. Decatur at one time conducted tests in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey in 1804, and fired on the Jersey Devil. The records say that Stephen Decatur identified the winged creature as a “devil” – pale in color, with leathery bat-like wings. Decatur perforated one of the thing’s wings with a fired cannonball, but it seemed unfazed, which disturbed everybody who was there at the time. It flew off.

The word decatur (French in origin) is loosely translated as “dweller at the sign of the cat,” and Native Americans who lived in the area that is now Central Illinois had numerous stories of encounters with large dark predatory cats, which are still sighted in the area to this very day.

Stephen Decatur, a Masonic figure of some noteworthiness, is responsible, as well, for the Stephen Decatur House in Washington D.C., which is located on Lafayette Square.

Should we be surprised if an outburst of new violence occurs in the wake of the copycat effect recoil from Newtown? Will it "pick" a location with a "power name"?

How can the next wave be prevented? Certainly, ignoring the patterns of the past is not wise.