The strange ‘underpants’ formation at Milk Hill on 29 May 2005 caused controversy due to its possible resemblance (looked at one way) either to a pair of Y-fronts, or a ‘Star Wars’ helmet (looked at the other way). But is it actually neither? JAN KREGERS has another interpretation…


There is absolutely nothing weird about this pictogram if you happen to live in the American Southwest. It looks very much like a Hopi Katchina mask, on which eyes are usually indicated by slit-like lines. Katchina masks/head-dresses are also frequently divided along a vertical axis - in the case of the Milk Hill formation, this would be the stem of the 'Y' shape. So, far from being a 'blot on the landscape', I personally think it is a rather spiritual glyph.

Additionally, many Katchinas represent semi-divine Sky or Star-Beings, which the Hopi and other Native American tribal groups have always openly acknowledged as factually existing entities. It is very interesting to me that the minute anything even begins to look like a face, Western-science-oriented literalists start getting uptight, disapproving, and/or 'bewildered', even though the revelation of the identity of the agencies behind the crop formation phenomenon is the next logical step, once our attention has been gained and held. The bottom line is this: human beings are part of a continuum of knowledge, and just as we have knowledge, so there are other beings in the cosmos who have more knowledge still. So what is the big deal about this? The answer is, not a heck of a lot. Nobody thinks twice about going to school here on Earth, whether it's elementary school for the tykes or continuing education or graduate school for adults, and we all look at bettering ourselves as a praiseworthy activity that nourishes our individual sense of self-worth. Thus, I fail to see why the presence of very smart (not to mention very spiritual) Skypeople causes such idiotic insecurity. So what if they know more about the universe than we do? Do we despise all students in the second grade simply because they don't understand algebra yet?

Yes, the 'Katchina Mask' is not the 'usual early-season circle', but what are crop formations all about, if not intellectual flexibility? We are not supposed to be 'mentally comfortable' with them, as we are meant to be learning from them. Given the 'Face and Disc' formation of a few years back along with this year's early 'anomalous' Katchina, it seems we are being increasingly asked to acknowledge that there is a definite 'Who' behind the 'What' that the formations themselves embody.