Decatur Again In Weird News

Stephen Decatur.

The Commodore's power moniker is appearing lately in conjunction with some disturbing stories.

Friday, September 19, 2014. Decatur, Georgia. Friday afternoon around 2:00, Decatur (Georgia) Police got several phone calls that a man acting in a "bizarre" matter, running into traffic near B&B Trailer Park. One caller reported the man, later identified as Jose Dorsett, said "someone" was trying to kill him. He reportedly ran into traffic, and several cars had to swerve to avoid him. He was said to be foaming at the mouth. Dorsett charged the officer who responded to the scene, and the officer used his K-9 to detain him. The K-9 bit Dorsett in his thigh, and the officer was able to get him down. Another officer arrived to help handcuff Dorsett. He was taken to the Decatur Morgan Parkway Campus Emergency Room. According to hospital staff, Dorsett was under the influence of cocaine and was likely experiencing a drug overdose. On Saturday, Dorsett was declared brain dead. Source.

Sunday, September 21, 2014. Decatur, Indiana. Stephen Cox, 30, of Decatur, Indiana, died Sunday at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, according to the Hamilton County Coroner. The crash in which he sustained his injuries occurred September 14 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ohio. the crash occurred during an event called the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience. During the event, which is offered at the speedway on most weekends, people can pay to ride in or drive race cars. Source.

Monday, September 22, 2014. Decaturville, Decatur County, Tennessee. The latest suspect, John “Dylan” Adams, 26-year old younger brother of earlier suspect Zachary, in the Holly Bobo case was arraigned in Decatur County Court. Holly Bobo, a 20-year-old nursing student, was abducted from her home outside Parsons, Tennessee, about 100 miles west of Nashville, on the morning of April 13, 2011. Her remains were found by two farmers in a rural area outside Holladay, Tennessee, in Decatur County on September 7, 2014. The timeline of the events can be found here and here.

Monday, September 22, 2014. Decatur, Alabama. A toddler found submerged in a tank of baptismal water in an Alabama church died of accidental drowning. Brayden King, who was two months shy of his second birthday, was under the supervision of a sister in her early teens when he fell into the tank on Friday at the Pentecostal House of Prayer in Decatur, about 75 miles north of Birmingham. The toddler was found in 33 inches of water and declared dead after unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him. Source.

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

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

Decatur again. Yes. We are aware that Decatur interacts with bizarre 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.

Decatur, Illinois's iconic Transfer Station use to be located in Lincoln Square, named after the assassinated Illinois president, Abraham Lincoln.

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

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 also fought against the Barbary pirates. Stephen Decatur at one time conducted tests in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey in 1804, and allegedly 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.”

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.

The USS Bainbridge, which organized the 2009 US Navy rescue of an American ship captain (Captain Richard Phillips) from Somali pirates, was named for Commodore William Bainbridge, who was held prisoner by North African Barbary pirates from 1803 to 1806.

Commodore Bainbridge commanded several famous naval ships, including the USS Constitution and saw service in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. Bainbridge was also in command of the USS Philadelphia when it grounded off the shores of Tripoli in North Africa, resulting in his capture and imprisonment for many months. In the latter part of his career he became the U.S. Naval Commissioner.

Lieutenant Stephen Decatur commanding the USS Intrepid executed a night raid into Tripoli harbor on February 16, 1804 to destroy the Philadelphia. Admiral Horatio Nelson is said to have called this "the most bold and daring act of the Age."

It is worthy of pointing out that James Shelby Downard's research in King Kill 33 notes that Bain relates to Bane (fatal cause of mischief), and in Scottish legend, the Bain Fairy is a death fairy who is the keeper of the Bain Bridge. King Kill 33 noted the American battleship Bainbridge, which was dedicated by Lyndon Baines Johnson, is a harbinger of death, according to Downard.

On March 22, 1820, Commodore Bainbridge served as the second for Commodore Stephen Decatur (a Brother Mason) in the duel with fellow Navy officer James Barron that cost Decatur his life at the age of 41. His wife Susan called the seconds Decatur's assassins. The Decatur name game is a book unto itself.

Decatur's name dots the landscape of America.

U.S. Naval Academy

117 Decatur Road

Annapolis, Maryland

The chorus: "That Decatur old Neptune's proud trident shall bear, And the laurels of Vict'ry triumphantly wear" appears in the song Stephen Decatur, as noted in The Life and Character of Stephen Decatur; Late Commodore and Post-Captain in the Navy of the United States, and Navy-Commissioner by Samuel Putnam Waldo (1822).

(Thanks to Robert Schneck for pointing out the Decatur, Alabama story to me.)

44th President Syncs With Four Oaths

The 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama is a man of symbolism. Perhaps no other number is more synchromystical in his life that "4."

President Obama takes his 4th oath of office for the President of the USA, on January 21, 2013, the symbolically significant Martin Luther King Day.

Obama was born on August 4, 1961. He married Michelle Robinson on October 3, 1992.

The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998; followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.

Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago and was a civil rights attorney until 2004. He served as a representative in the Illinois Senate until November 4, 2004. In 2004, Obama was elected to the United States Senate for Illinois. 

On November 4, 2008, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by John McCain. 

Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20, 2009, for his first term. The first time.

On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "A New Beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.

On the 4th of April (the fourth month), 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission. 

President Barack Obama is officially sworn-in by Chief Justice John Roberts in the Blue Room of the White House during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Sunday, January 20, 2013. A portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale is behind the President.

At noon today, January 21, 2013, President Barack Obama will have taken the oath of office for the presidency four times for his two terms.

It is to be recalled that on January 21, 2009, the day after the inauguration of Barack Obama, Chief Justice John Roberts re-administered the constitutional oath of office to Obama in the Map Room (the oath having been flubbed in the ceremony the previous day).

The Charles Willson Peale painting of Benjamin Latrobe, a Freemason and the first Architect of the USA, was moved from elsewhere in the White House's Map Room, to be behind the swearing in on January 21, 2009. Latrobe designed many buildings around Lafayette Park, including the highly symbolic Stephen Decatur House.

 The Map Room in 2008, before the second swearing in during 2009. The Latrobe painting was not over the fireplace.

 The Map Room (above and below) in 1992.

Mothman-Latrobe

Intriguing footnote: In 1848, newly appointed president Thomas Swann and Chief Engineer Benjamin Latrobe sent surveyors to chart a route through the then-Virginia mountains west of Cumberland. Mason County, West Virginia and Point Pleasant, West Virginia - Mothman Country - were first surveyed and charted by Latrobe's surveyors. On January 20, 2013, @anomalistnews floated a news bulletin throughout Twitterland that President Barack Obama had taken his first oath this year on a copy of The Mothman Prophecies. An inappropriate silly joke, perhaps, but one in which there is a strange link to the factual "redo swearing in" of January 21, 2009.

The Number 4

The number of order in the universe is 4—the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water; the four seasons; the four points of the compass; the four phases of the Moon (new, half-moon waxing, full, half-moon waning). The Four Noble Truths epitomize Buddhism. To the Pythagoreans 4 was the source of the tetractys 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, the most perfect number. In medieval times there were thought to be four humors (phlegm, blood, choler, and black bile—hence the adjectives phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, and melancholic), and the body was bled at various places to bring these humors into balance.
Because 4 is generally a practical, material number, few superstitions are associated with it. An exception is in China, where 4 is unlucky because she (“four”) and shi (“death”) sound similar. In the biblical Revelation to John the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse wreak destruction upon humanity. ~ Encyclopaedia Britannica

Bainbridge Name Game

The moniker "Bainbridge" is part of a historical Masonic name game that was elevated into the news in 2009.

The USS Bainbridge, which organized the 2009 US Navy rescue of an American ship captain (Captain Richard Phillips) from Somali pirates, was named for Commodore William Bainbridge, who was held prisoner by North African Barbary pirates from 1803 to 1806.

William Bainbridge (May 7, 1774 – July 28, 1833) was a Commodore in the United States Navy and a Congressional Gold Medal winner. He was also a Freemason, initiated into Lodge No. 51, Philadelphia, on June 10, 1810 (according to 10,000 Famous Freemasons from K to Z By William R. Denslow and Harry S. Truman).

In 1800, Bainbridge was sent to carry the tribute which the United States still paid to the dey (local ruler) of Algiers to secure exemption from capture for its merchant ships in the Mediterranean. Upon arrival in the 24-gun USS George Washington, he made the tactical mistake of anchoring in the harbor of Algiers--directly under the guns of the fort. The dey demanded that he ferry the Algerian ambassador and retinue to Constantinople or be blown to bits on the spot. With great disgust, Bainbridge raised the Algerian flag on his masthead and submitted to the embarrassment of serving as the dey's messenger service.

In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson decided that having the United States continue to bribe the pirate Barbary states did not work, and authorized the use of force (just as President Obama did last week). Bainbridge then was called upon to serve against Algiers and Tunis. During this First Barbary War, Bainbridge successfully captured the Moorish warship Mesh-Boha and recaptured the US ship, the Celia.

In command of the USS Philadelphia, when she ran aground on the Tunisian coast on December 29, 1803, Bainbridge was imprisoned until June 3, 1806.

When the War of 1812 broke out between the United Kingdom and the United States, Bainbridge was appointed to command the 44-gun frigate USS Constitution, in succession to Captain Isaac Hull. The Constitution was a very fine ship of 1,533 tons, which had already captured the HMS Guerrière. Under Bainbridge she was sent to cruise in the South Atlantic.

Commodore Bainbridge's tombstone - the obelisk above - at the Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia.

On December 29, 1812 he fell in with the 38-gun HMS Java, a vessel of 1,083 tons, formerly the French frigate Renommée. She was on her way to the East Indies, carrying the newly appointed lieutenant-governor of Bombay. She had a very inexperienced crew, including very few real seamen, and her men had only had one day’s gunnery drill. The United States Navy paid great attention to its gunnery, which the British Navy, misled by its easy victories over the French, had greatly neglected. In these conditions, the fate of the Java was soon sealed. She was cut to pieces and forced to surrender, after suffering heavy losses, and inflicting very little damage to the Constitution, other than removing Constitution's helm with a well-aimed shot.

During the action, Bainbridge was wounded twice, but maintained command throughout; even to replacing the missing helm on the Constitution with the one from the Java before she sank. To this day, the still-commissioned Constitution (anchored in Boston Harbor, near Bunker Hill) sports the helm that Bainbridge salvaged from the Java.

It was after the conclusion of the war with Britain that Bainbridge served against the Barbary pirates in the Second Barbary War.

During the American Revolution, Bainbridge's first command was the schooner USS Retaliation.

And it was US Navy SEALs snipers shooting from the USS Bainbridge - the ship - that brought an end to the hostage situation off the coast of Africa on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009.

That sniper fire is the latest event in a long saga.

In one of the most famous cases, British Adm. Lord Nelson was killed in the Battle of Trafalgar by a French sniper firing from the rigging of a ship in 1805. [The publisher Lewis Masonic released an intriguing book in 1998, Horatio Admiral Lord Nelson: Was He a Freemason? by John Webb. It seems rather clear that Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB, was a Mason. Numerous monuments, including Nelson's Column (below) in Trafalgar Square, London, have been created in his memory and his legacy remains highly influential.]

In the era of sailing warships, it was common practice to send marksmen into the rigging to shoot at enemy vessels.

This was one of the early duties of the U.S. Marines and the four-pointed quatrefoil design, on the top of Marine officers caps, reportedly originated as a way for Marine snipers in the rigging overhead to identify their own officers and avoid shooting them.

As another historical footnote, in 1820, Commodore Bainbridge served as second for Commodore Stephen Decatur (a Brother Mason) in the duel that cost Decatur his life. The Decatur name game is a book unto itself.

It is worthy of pointing out that James Shelby Downard's research in King Kill 33 notes that Bain relates to Bane (fatal cause of mischief), and in Scottish legend, the Bain Fairy is a death fairy who is the keeper of the Bain Bridge. King Kill 33 noted the American battleship Bainbridge, which was dedicated by Lyndon Baines Johnson, is a harbinger of death, according to Downard.

Bulletin:

The Liberty Sun, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship bound for Mombasa, Kenya, was attacked Tuesday, April 14, 2009, by Somali pirates, according to a NATO source with direct knowledge of the matter. The USS Bainbridge, which was on its way to take the recently rescued merchant ship Captain Richard Phillips to safe harbor, has turned and is on their way to engage the pirates. This according to NBC News, as of April 15, 2009.

Thank You.