Serpent Mound Lore #SomethingWickedTour @stacitroilo @storyempire

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Hello and welcome to the first day of Story Empire’s Something Wicked Blog Tour! The SE authors will be sharing posts all week long, visiting the blogs of our colleagues  with posts and books offering shivers and goosebumps. We hope you’ll join in the fun and, hopefully, discover some chill-inducing reads along the way. You can find the complete tour schedule here.

But don’t expect all of those goosebumps to come from creepy-crawling things or ghosts and ghouls oozing from the crypt. As my first guest, Staci Troilo, explains, darkness comes in all shapes…

Thanks for welcoming me here today, Mae.

The Gate

Ciao, amici! When my SE cohorts came up with the idea for a Something Wicked tour, I was initially concerned about how my current writing would fit into the theme. Sci-fi felt like a far cry from malevolence. Then I realized aliens with a nefarious agenda were just as wicked as demons; they just had a different origin. I don’t think it matters if a being is from a star in the Hydrus constellation or from Hell… evil is a matter of intent, not origin.

My Astral Conspiracy series is a combination of futuristic tech and ancient history. If you (like me) are obsessed with—or even aware of—Ancient Aliens, you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

In The Gate, the first of my five-book series, the characters visit the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio. They’re there to steal a buried artifact, which is absolutely fiction. But the lore behind the effigy is pure fact. And it’s fascinating. Serpent Mound (aerial view)

Photo Attribution: Timothy A. Price and Nichole I.; uploaded by the authors. [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Serpent Mound was built by Native Americans. I wish I could tell you when, but that’s still up for debate. A set of charcoal pieces was found in 1996. Two of the pieces were carbon-dated to 1070, which would make the builders the Fort Ancient society (a mound-building culture from the Late Prehistoric era, 900-1650 AD). But the third was dated two thousand years earlier to the Adena culture (2920 +/-65 years BC). The current theory, and the one that makes the most sense to me, is that is was built during the Adena period and then renovated by the Fort Ancients. Adena graves nearby strengthen that theory.

The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot long, three-foot-high earthwork of a snake. It’s the largest known serpent effigy in the world. It’s located on an astrobleme (an asteroid impact structure whose center is raised sedimentary strata). At the west end, the snake’s tail is coiled into a spiral; at the east, its mouth is open as though eating an egg, the sun, a giant eye, or the body of a frog (experts can’t decide). There are seven curves to its body.

But what was it built for? The oval and head area of the effigy is aligned with the summer solstice sunset while the tail is in line with the winter solstice sunrise. It’s also been suggested that the undulations of the body are correspond to certain lunar events. So, the mound may be a calendar marking the seasons.

The sculpt mimics the constellation Draco, with the star Thuban mapped to the first curve of the body. Thuban was used as the North Pole star from the fourth to second millennium BC, so there is an argument to be made that the effigy was a compass of sorts.

And nearby graves suggest this may have been a mortuary of sorts, a place that would help guide spirits to the great beyond. (It’s worth noting the graves were nearby, but none were found at the site itself.)

Whatever its true purpose, it has a great significance in my novel, The Gate, book one of my Astral Conspiracy series. If you’re curious about how I used it, I encourage you to read the book.

The Gate

He lost his job. Lost his girl. Now it’s all he can do not to lose his life.

Landon Thorne is a disgraced archaeologist, a laughing stock in his field because of his unconventional beliefs – he’s an ancient astronaut theorist. No one takes him seriously.

Until an alien armada targets Earth.

Now Landon’s in high demand – by the US government and someone far more sinister.

They race across two continents to the Gate of the Gods, the one place on Earth that might give humans an advantage over the aliens. But no one is prepared for what they’ll find.

And not everyone will make it out alive.

The Gate is the first of five novels in the Astral Conspiracy Series, part of Sterling and Stone’s Invasion Universe.

Universal Purchase Link

Other Links:

Staci’s Amazon Page | Staci’s BookBub Page | D.L.’s Amazon Page | D.L.’s BookBub Page

Bio box for author, Staci Troilo

I found this fascinating, just like the book. The Gate is an excellent story that moves at a break-neck pace. I highly recommend adding it for addictive reading.

Finally, in closing, Joan Hall is hosting me today, where I’m sharing a scary historical encounter. Hop over if you can and check out Red Eyes and Winged Beasts.

74 thoughts on “Serpent Mound Lore #SomethingWickedTour @stacitroilo @storyempire”

  6. Astrobleme, eh? Totally new word for me, and that alone makes me happy! I’m trying not to take time to comment this morning due to being so far behind, but I can’t help it. I LOVE the info on this mound, which has always fascinated me, though apparently not enough to look all of this up for myself. THANKS for a wonderful post you two, and for such a cool book, Staci! Read it, did I. Loved it, I did! (There. Yoda does qualify as an alien, right?) 😀 😀 😀

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  9. The lore of the serpent mound was definitely an intriguing part of the read, Staci. I enjoyed how you made that real-life connection to the sci-fi story. Actually, both you and Mae do that well. Thanks for the more complete history. It’s pretty amazing.

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  13. How fascinating, Staci! You really piqued my interest in the Serpent Mound and it is now added to my bucket list of places to visit! I totally agree with your statement that evil is a matter of intent, not origin. I have your book on my Kindle and I know I will enjoy it when I get some time to read! Thanks for sharing this amazing piece of history! Thank you, Mae, for hosting!

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    • Jan, thanks so much for stopping by to support Staci and the tour. You now have me thinking I need to see the Serpent Mound. Ohio is within a drive-able distance, so this needs to go on my list of sites to see.
      And I know you will enjoy the book when it surfaces on your TBR. Happy reading!

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  14. I wonder if the Serpent Mound area feels different/strange? Maybe there are forces at work that will come to light when Staci’s aliens land 🙂
    Off topic, but we had a water tower in our hometown and I swear-to-God you could only circle it clockwise. If you tried to go the other way, it was as though you hit a brick wall! Unexplained phenomena, or a wild imagination? lol

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  15. I love lore like this. So interesting. Lunar calendars had thirteen months, didn’t they? Makes me think of Stonehenge, set up for solstices and astrology. A great post.

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  16. Love ancient lore like this! So interesting. I really enjoyed this post. Lunar calendars had thirteen months, didn’t they? Makes me think of Stonehenge, designed to align with the solstices and astrology. Thanks for sharing, Mae.

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  17. This was fascinating to me! I can’t believe I didn’t know that you wrote with a pen name. Maybe I did know and just forgot. My memory is horrible. Either way, I’m definitely intrigued about this series. Thanks for sharing it with us. 🙂

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  19. I love how you all can contribute to Something Wicked, even though you mightn’t all be strictly horror writers – shows a great versatility! Also, shows an AMAZING amount of research done (at least by Staci) to grasp your subject matter(s)!

    Liked by 3 people

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