August 2025 – Month of the Great Wood Monkey – Jia Shen 甲申
Orbs and Hungry Ghost Month – August 2025 is ruled by the Great Wood Monkey. The monkey’s cerebral yang metal energies represent the qualities of agility, intelligence, optimism, courage, strength and chaotic individualism. This month, however, the yang wood element sitting on top of the monkey, tends to reign in some of the chaos making the monkey’s qi less outwardly active and more introspective. This month’s qi energy brings to mind the image of the Three Wise Monkeys, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil!”
August is also known as the month of the “Hungry Ghosts” with the veils between dimensions getting thinner. Celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival is all about looking after hungry, discontented, wandering souls. These are ghosts without families to care for them or people who died because of unfortunate events like pandemics, war, genocide, murder or suicide. Families do everything they can to placate these unhappy spirits with gifts of food, money and other supplies. Though primarily intended to prevent these ghosts from causing trouble in their own lives, the customs of Ghost Month do raise a certain mindfulness about making space in our world for those who have fallen out of society. Our world at this moment sorely needs this compassion.
Speaking of thinning veils, I decided to look into the phenomena of “orbs” this month. I received several interesting emails last month about the prana balls (vitality globules) that were discussed in the June newsletter and also questions about orbs from readers. So, I decided to check into what is happening with orb phenomena. I have several photos with orbs that have taken at sacred sites or of sacred people. See the photo above that I took at a meditation meeting. I even have one of an orb sitting on the knee of the founder of the Bahai faith. (I took a photo of a painting of him.)
Orbs are described as circular, translucent anomalies that appear in photos, often in low-light conditions or around places with spiritual significance (e.g., cemeteries, ancient temples, or meditation spaces). Unlike prana balls (which are described in esoteric traditions as conscious energy units), the reality of orbs are frequently debated between paranormal, scientific, and photographic explanations.
Amazingly, I discovered that the world’s first conference called the Orbs Phenomenon took place in Sedona, Arizona where several scientists controversially stated that orbs, spherical or circular objects that are appearing on digital pictures – demonstrate good evidence of ‘other worldly’ life forms. Their conclusions, if correct, could have huge implications for the way we view our universe and our part in it. Dr. Klaus Heinemann, a former research professor at Stanford University and researcher in materials science for NASA, the American space agency says “There is no doubt in my mind that the Orbs may well be one of the most significant ‘outside of this reality’ phenomena mankind at large has ever witnessed.”
As a scientist with considerable experience in sophisticated microscope techniques which examine down to atomic levels of optical resolution, Heinemann decided to try and discover the cause of the mysterious circles. He and his wife began taking hundreds of digital photographs at random events to see what happened. Apparently, high definition digital technology can enhance the appearance of something that would otherwise at very low contrast, not previously have appeared on older type cameras hence why Heinemann states that we are now witnessing this new phenomenon. Absurd though it may sound, Heinemann quickly realized that if he asked the orbs to appear on his pictures, he claims they appeared more regularly especially at spiritual gatherings. He has written the Orb Project which is filled with years of research and guidance on how to capture orbs on pictures.
I took this photo on the stairs up to a spiritual center in Hungary. Led with a theologian with 30 years experience said, “I first heard about Orbs in 2002 when I attended a spiritual school in America as part of my ongoing research into the thousands of doctrines, beliefs and religions currently practiced. The orbs quickly became a fascinating scientific study.”
Dr William Tiller, the famous theoretical physicist who spent 35 years researching consciousness and matter at Stanford University in California was also an attendee and believes that the orbs are plasma like balls of energy. He reminded the attendees,” What we see with our physical eyes comprises less then 10 percent of the universe. This is because human vision operates only within a limited range of the electromagnetic spectrum. For instance, we cannot see radio waves which carry huge amounts of information – yet we know they exist. Most great discoveries throughout history have been initially ridiculed. To my mind, there is no doubt that the Orb phenomenon is real and deserves to be taken seriously. There are not just a few pictures of orbs, which could easily be faked, but hundreds of thousands from all over the world.”
Orbs are a controversial subject, but like the vitality globules definitely exist. Hundreds of thousands have taken pictures of them. To do some further research on the subject, I asked Deep Seek some questions about orbs. It brought back 25 pages of definitions and conflicting theories! Too much info for here, but left with a couple great comments.
(1) “The interplay between physics and metaphysics here is tantalizing. While science explains the “how” of orbs (light + particles), it doesn’t address the “why” of their persistent appearance in meaningful contexts.”
(2) Modern-Day Miracles: In an age of cameras, maybe the divine speaks through pixels as it once did through burning bushes.”
Hope you’re able to capture some great orb pictures in this very yin Hungry Ghost Month!
Love and Light, Carol
