Since ancient times the sawtooth mountain, Montserrat, has been known both as a sacred site by Catholics, and by pagans as a place of magic.

Montserrat is said to be hollow, concealing an underground lake, accessible only by a passage from the interior of the monastery. Those black waters are perhaps the source of the etheral magnetism which attracts people from great distances, and compels them to explore the mountain alone.

Montserrat can be reached by automobile in one hour from Barcelona. In 1998 after a car sat in the visitor parking lot for three days at the Abbey of Santa Maria, the monks reported it to the police. The authorities found the car unlocked, with the keys still in it. The missing man was identified as a hiker. The search helicopter flew over an area that should have been inaccessible to all but the most experienced mountaineers, when they spotted black smoke - a signal of distress.

But the rescuers found a different man at the site of the fire, a disoriented business executive clutching feebly at his briefcase - a man who had no climbing experience, who had been missing for seven days. He whispered to the paramedics that while he was lost, he slept with a silent woman. From the same area the rescuers extracted a mummified female corpse.

The Holy Grail is the unassuming cup in which Jesus served wine at the last supper. After the wine was transubstantiated, the cup then held the blood of the Lord. This chalice was inherited by Joseph of Arimathea. It had the power to grant whoever drank from it, eternal youth.

Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer and high commander of the SS, in his search for artifacts of the occult traveled to Spain, as the Holy Grail was said to be inside the mountain. In October 1944 he was seeking immortality for himself, not for Hitler. He pounded on the door of the monastery, but that was as far as he got. The Benedictine monk who answered the door refused him entry, and his soldiers refused to break down the door.

In the year 1024, a descending light was seen at Montserrat every Saturday evening on a regular basis, accompanied by a haunting melody that floated on the wind. The disembodied beacon always fell to Earth at the same spot, where the Bishop of Olesa would find the venerated carving of the "Black Madonna". The Bishop commissioned the Abbey to be built at the same spot, the following year. The Black Madonna has survived a thousand years, remaining the centerpiece of the Montserrat chapel. The virgin mother is Catalonia's patron saint.

Strange lights in the sky over the mountain are a commmon occurence today. In addition to being a center for witches covens, secret societies, and "New Age" hippies, the mountain still is home to frequent UFO sightings, so commonly that crowds gather there on a regular basis, on the 11th day of every month.

Kristina Oliva earns a living by restoring furniture. On the 11th of May, 2015, she joined the throng of UFO spectators. At ten P.M. the sky was cloudless and bible black. A single point of light in the sky raced from above Olesa, and disappeared down the throat of Montserrat, as if the mountain had opened its hollow core to the sky.

Then a large group of bright wanderers appeared above, which did not move like shooting stars or satellites or airplanes. Instead these points moved independently and suddenly, in short jumps, as if an enormous game of checkers was being played in the heavens.

The light show lasted two hours, then it was over. Kristina wondered what she might see if she came back next month.

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