The Strange Synchronicities of Hellier

‘There are windows on the world’ he said. ‘Don’t you think we don’t look through them from time to time?‘

The Testament of Gideon Mack – James Robertson

Part One – There’s no such thing as a coincidence.

On Sunday 23rd May 2021 my housemate turned to me and asked: ‘Why do I keep seeing the name Christie popping up in these records?’
My housemate is an avid local historian; and has been for years. She has a real skill for mapping out the family trees of entire villages in our local area. She frequently gives me little pieces of information about fun things she’s found out (usually how much incest went on back in’t day, or when people scandalously had children out of wedlock), but rarely tells me the names of the people involved. So when she turned to me, the day of my finishing watching docuseries Hellier, and asked me about the name Christie I responded with a shocked: ‘Why did you say that to me?’.
To most (including my housemate) that might seem like a strange and blunt response. But if you’ve seen Hellier, you probably understand.

There’s no point in me trying to convince you to watch Hellier. The likelihood is that if you know, you know, and if you don’t; there’s a very good chance you might not like it. Hellier has a way of finding the people who it resonates with – which seems to be the point.
For those who’ve never heard of it, I can’t give you a synopsis any better than Last Podcast on the Left’s Henry Zebrowski when he said ‘Hellier is a show about goblins, but it’s actually about the friends they made along the way’. A documentary about goblin hunters who don’t actually find any goblins might seem boring on the surface and yet it is, in my opinion, one of the most compelling arguments for the existence of the paranormal available right now.
A good portion of the documentary is about synchronicities and how following them can lead you on unexpected paths. So I think it might be best, for my article, to focus on the synchronicities that have occurred in my own life revolving around the show that has inspired me to create this entire blog.

The first book I read in 2021 was The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman. I was a massive His Dark Materials fan as a kid, and this sequel was a disappointment to me; but that’s not what’s this article is about. What’s important is the title: The Secret Commonwealth. I’d never heard it before and presumed it, and the tales of the otherworldly beings within the novel, were just an invention of Pullman’s. That was until a few months later, when I heard The Secret Commonwealth mentioned in Hellier. I discovered that the term comes from a text written in 1692 by Scottish minister and folklorist Robert Kirk. It is essentially a long-form essay about the beliefs of Kirk’s congregants on non-human entities; namely the elves, fauns and fairies. I found the fact that earlier in the year I had read a book by the same name – a reference that I didn’t get – to be fascinating. My first synchronicity. I immediately bought Kirk’s text and read it soon after. I must admit that whilst I’m glad I found it, I did find it a little difficult to get through. However, since reading it I have noticed references to The Secret Commonwealth coming up in my life frequently. Most could be chalked down to coincidence – I notice it more because I’m looking out for it. One of the more interesting synchronicities happened shortly before writing this blog. I read a lot, and my closest library is a bit of a walk away, so to save on cost I buy in bulk from charity shops (where you can pick up books for the low cost of 65p, if you don’t mind a limited selection). A few weeks ago I bought a few books, all of which I chose purely by judging them by their covers. I started reading The Testament of Gideon Mack first – a novel I chose because of the picture of a dancing devil on the front. Turns out it’s about a Scottish minister who has an encounter with Satan himself. In the first chapter the minister checks into a hotel under the name Robert Kirk. A few chapters later he’s talking about finding a copy of The Secret Commonwealth in his dad’s study. Randomly picking this book up in a charity shop right as I decide to write an article on Hellier seems like too much of a coincidence for me.

The Secret Commonwealth and my housemate (who has not seen, nor is particularly interested in, Hellier) mentioning the name Christie were two of the biggest synchronicities that I have experienced since watching the show; but there have been smaller ones. When explaining the general premise of the show to my aunt she said ‘well if you keep seeing balloons everywhere you might start thinking that balloons are a message’ despite me never telling her that balloons feature heavily in the show. It seems that every book I read mentions Hermeticism or Thelema; even when I’m just randomly picking books up from the library or a charity shop. A month or so before watching Hellier my Mum bought me an old Reader’s Digest book on UFOs, only for me to see it on the Newkirk’s shelf in the show. There has also been synchronicities of personal significance, that I am not going to share at this time. None of this makes me feel particularly ‘special’; I believe that if you watch Hellier, and it resonates with you, then you likely will have experiences of your own: Hellier wants you to pay attention.