According to a new documentary airing in Europe, the God of all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam… had a wife.

And her name Asherah.

And she has largely been scrubbed out of the Bible.

And she is probably pissed.

“You might know him as Yahweh, Allah or God. But on this fact, Jews, Muslims and Christians, the people of the great Abrahamic religions, are agreed: There is only one of Him,” writes Stavrakopoulou in a statement released to the British media. “He is a solitary figure, a single, universal creator, not one God among many … or so we like to believe.”

“After years of research specializing in the history and religion of Israel, however, I have come to a colorful and what could seem, to some, uncomfortable conclusion that God had a wife,” she added.

Stavrakopoulou bases her theory on ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in the ancient Canaanite coastal city called Ugarit, now modern-day Syria. All of these artifacts reveal that Asherah was a powerful fertility goddess.

The Asherah theory has been around since 1967 but the recent work of Exeter’s Francesca Stavrakopoulou is most credible evidence found to substantiate the claim.

[Discovery]

As reported on UFO Casebook, a Louisiana star gazer looking to get some shots of the recent Supermoon might have snapped a pic or two of an unsuspecting space craft not used to being visible in regular moonlight.

The object apparently held perfectly still while the entirety of the photographers family took turns locating it with the camera.

[UFO Casebook]

Ever wondered if there was a degree ever more impractical than your double major of philosophy and sociology? We encourage you to submit your application to Kemerovo State University where you can become culturally enriched and educated at their recently announced Yeti Institute.

The facility comes after a recent run of Abominable Snowman sightings in the Siberian mountains. It will be headed up by Igor Burtsev who believes the current creatures being spotted are surviving Neanderthals.

He explains:

‘We spoke to local residents’, said Dr Igor Burtsev, who conducted an expedition last summer and will head the new institute at Kemerovo State University. ‘They told us Yetis were stealing their animals.’

The academic claims around 30 Yetis live in a remote region of Mount Shoria in in southern Siberia.

He strongly denies accusations that the ’sightings’ are a bizarre ruse to attract tourists to the far-flung region.

Reports say the two-legged creatures are heavy-set, more around 7ft tall and resemble bears.

‘Their bodies were covered in red and black fur, and they could climb trees,’ said one account.

We immediately have two questions. Is there anything more awesome than this? Will they accept transfer credits from community college?

[Daily Mail via Cryptomundo]

We aren’t out and out saying this is definitive video proof that a ghost came down from heaven and blocked this goal from going in so the LA Kings could secure a better seeding in the NHL playoffs, but consider the similarities between this and the 1994 family comedy Angels In The Outfield.

First, both took place in the greater Los Angeles area.

Okay, that’s pretty much it. Unless Christopher Lloyd is dead and turned into a ghost so he could replay his role as Al the mischievous head angel in reality. But Christopher Lloyd isn’t dead.

Is he?

[YouTube]

Did the Chupacabra mythos start as fan art for the 1995 Sci Fi thriller Species?

That is the assertion of Benjamin Radford who tracked the legend to it’s roots on the island protectorate of Puerto Rico. According to new research, all Chupacabra references can be traced back to a newspaper article in the second week of August in 1995. The alleged eye witness Madelyne Tolentino who provided the illustration depicted a lanky bobble headed creature with spikes jutting from the spine area.

Radford’s theory is that the creature might have been inspired by the 1995 erotic, science fiction thriller Species. In that film, a shape-shifting alien Natasha Henstridge attempts to mate with a human male. Her true form most notably bares resemblance to Tolentino’s drawing in the spikes and boney hands.

Which might be no coincidence, since according to Radford, Tolentino admits that she saw the film before penning her illustration and confesses that it might have inspired her final product. Species was released in theaters on July 7th, only a month and a half before the original newspaper report.

[Live Science]

It’s pretty apparent the sky is going effing bananas. Moon’s are going super and now the sun is frigging multiplying. Or, at least is seemed like it was. This shot from Chinese television appears to show a pair of suns shining down like this was a contemplative shot from the sands of Tatooine.

As it turns out, it was just an optical illusion. Although, no one is quite sure what that illusion is exactly:

What’s going on? Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to Space.com, asked Jim Kaler, the University of Illinois astronomer who squelched the excitement over the aforementioned exploding Betelgeuse and who has written books on the day and night sky.

The double sun image is an effect of optical refraction, Kaler said, but it’s a “pretty darn rare” one, and one not fully explained by science.

“I doubt it’s been computer modeled,” he said. “There must have been some blob of atmosphere somewhere that caused this truly spectacular phenomenon, which in a sense is a mirage.”

In short, we cannot be sure that the sun has not, in fact, multiplied and is preparing to bleach all of our bones with their combined heat beam.

[MSNBC]

You’re in space. But not for long.

The capsule you was unfit to leave Earth and you knew it before you left. Power failed and your orbit trajectory is about to send you screaming to your death. Atmospheric reentry will turn your body to goo before you hit the ground.

With your last moments of radio communication you make sure that those with your blood on their hands know it. You curse the officials who sent you up in this death trap. You begin to weep in anger. Unsaid is why you went up knowing full well that you’d not come back alive: to protect a national hero who happens to be a drinking buddy.

These were the last moments of Vladimir Komarov. His extraordinary story of bravery, friendship and barbaric bureaucracy behind the Iron Curtain are told in the book Starman.

The mission was to stage a mid-space meeting between two Russian vessels where the crews would exchange one passenger each and come back to earth. It was to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Communist revolution, a very important moment for current head of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev.

The problem was the Soyuz 1 capsule meant to carry Komarov was found to have 203 structural problems before it even left the ground. When it became clear that Brezhnev’s desire to see the mission take place would overrule any kind of safety concern, Komarov insisted on completing his mission because his back-up pilot was Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space and an icon of the Soviet space program. Not to mention a friend.

So Komarov went up and his legend reverberates to this day.

[NPR]

No one wants to be the first person to die from anything. No one wants to choke to death while the smoke you’ve just inhaled in your lungs turns to acid. So can you have to be double cheesed off if you were among the Roman soldiers who were the first to die from chemical warfare in 256 A. freaking D.

Almost 2,000 years ago, 19 Roman soldiers rushed into a cramped underground tunnel, prepared to defend the Roman-held Syrian city of Dura-Europos from an army of Persians digging to undermine the city’s mudbrick walls. But instead of Persian soldiers, the Romans met with a wall of noxious black smoke that turned to acid in their lungs. Their crystal-pommeled swords were no match for this weapon; the Romans choked and died in moments, many with their last pay of coins still slung in purses on their belts.

It’s an awesome story which you should read right now.

[LiveScience]

Masks. Sure we’ve seen them used by serial killers and surgeons for years, but what are the absolute five creepiest of human history? Let’s find out.

Tibetan Ritual Mask: In a culture big on rituals in general, masks play a huge rule. We couldn’t find the exact purpose of this bad boy but we’re going to guess it’s the ritual of waking your child up in the middle of the night and scaring them until they finally learn that doing the dishes means washing and drying.

Hannya Mask: A Japanese creation. This is said to represent a jealous female demon in Noh theater. We are particularly fond of it because the demon looks kind of confused. Like someone threw a surprise party for it and then lead it over to a cake box. But then when they opened the lid the sheet cake was covered in live bugs.

Anglo Saxon Ship-Burial Helmet: This very rare find (only four have been recovered intact) isn’t particularly creepy but it does look like an advanced robot grew a mustache. We are also shocked this hasn’t been co-opted by Kanye West. Yet.

Kifwebe: Members of the Kifwebe society in what is now known as Zaire had a reputation for supernatural power, which was represented in this mask. It’s said that the features of the face are representations of where the Kifwebe get their powers, for example:

The eye slits are said to the “holes of termites” and “the swelling of sorcerers;” the chin represents the snout of a crocodile; the long, pointed mouth resembles the beak of a bird, also the “flame of a sorcerer;”

Does anyone want to bet me that Charlie Sheen uses the term “flame of a sorcerer” sometime in the next two weeks?

Plague Doctor Beak Mask: During the plague, so many folks needed medical attention that these total creepers became a welcome site. The entire, fun ensemble came equipped with a creepy robe and even creepier poking stick for “examinations.”

The bird beak had a functional purpose of holding scents like mint and vinegar so the wearer didn’t have to sniff death all day and was protected from miasmatic air.

Bad news was, the dudes who normally suited up as plague doctors were either folks who could not hack it in normal medical practice or recent students just beginning their careers. Either way, it didn’t look good for the patient. Then again, not much did, since they had the plague and all.

They are represented in myth, legend and even religion for centuries, but what happened to our fascination for giants? While other cryptids bask in our attention, the lumbering behemoths haven’t had a spot in the cultural sunshine in decades.

But yet, there was a time in this country when folks would flock from miles around to get a glimpse of proof this curious creatures existed. Even if the evidence was completely manufactured.

In the 19th century, facsimiles of giants and petrified humans captured the public imagination at sideshows. The most famous of these fakes was the Cardiff Giant, a 10-foot-long, 3,000 pound block of gypsum that was sculpted to look like a fossilized man and was exhibited in upstate New York in late 1869. The Cardiff Giant was the brainchild of tobacconist George Hull, who was inspired by the Nephilim of the Book of Genesis to create his oversized hoax.

The Cardiff Giant was so popular it was blatantly copied and recreated by the Patron Saint of this very site P.T. Barnum. Hull was so incensed by ripoff and attempted to sue Barnum. However, he ran into legal issues when he realized he’d have to vouch for the authenticity of his giant to claim damages.

[io9]

The Nation Of Islam has announced that among the topics discussed during this year’s Saviours’ Day Convention in Chicago will be a panel discussing proof of alien visitation and why global sightings are on the rise.

Flying saucers have long been a part of the official NOI doctrine, including founder Elijah Muhammad’s reports of a hovering object known as the “Mother Plane.” Current leader Minister Louis Farrakhan last year described a visitation by a floating object known as “The Wheel.”

During last year’s Saviours’ Day speech, Farrakhan for the first time in years discussed in detail a vision he had in Mexico in 1985 involving an object he calls “the wheel.” Using charts, photos and drawings, he spent almost four hours describing how he was invited aboard and heard Elijah Muhammad speak to him. Farrakhan says that experience led him to inklings about future events.

Farrakhan, 77, has said the wheel, with its great capacity for destruction, contains the “wisdom to purify the planet,” but has harmed no one so far. He also claimed there have been governmental attempts to cover-up proof of the wheel, which he says many call UFOs.

No word yet from Farrakhan if “The Wheel” in the sky keeps on turning, although he presumably knows where he will be tomorrow.

[AP]

Before Alan Moore’s 1987 retelling of the story, came 1979’s Czech ballad of The Swamp Thing. From what we can gather, this meme has been around for a little while but it’s new to us and hopefully a few of you guys.

Thanks to Weird Things reader @Bizmar on Twitter for throwing this our way.

A few friends go hiking in the Russian wilderness on an early February night in 1959. The Ural Mountain area is desolate, but not unmanageable for these nine veteran hikers.

On a larger scale, the Soviet Union continues to ascend in global power. Cuba is weeks away from succumbing to Communist revolution. Secrecy and corruption in all levels of government continue to run unchecked in an Iron Curtain system which it’s own citizens don’t dare question and the rest of the world fears.

Those nine hikers were found dead. Two of them had fractured skulls. Many of them were in various states of undress. One of them had her tongue ripped out of her mouth. All of their clothes had trace levels of radiation.

Their tent was ripped open. From the inside.

What were they trying to get away from? Were they running from something? Or someone? Did top secret chemical weapons testing cause them to go psychotic? Did a group of indigenous people brutally, torture and murder the friends?

Why was the subsequent investigation sealed under high level secrecy for decades?

The intervening 52 years haven’t provided hard answers, but there are plenty of theories ranging from UFOs to high-tech military testing.

The snow swept scenery is now called Dyatlov Pass in memory of Igor Dyatlov, the leader of those who died under such odd circumstances. Read about them AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

Everybody’s working for the hideous possible furry alien found in Indonesia weekend.

Thanks to Weird Things reader Lawrence for the tip.