Eugenio Siragusa Meets Ashtar and Ithacar on Mount Etna

Eugenio Siragusa was born in Catania on 25 March 1919. He worked there as a customs employee. By his own account, it began at dawn on his birthday, in Piazza dei Martiri, while he waited for a tram. He looked up and saw a luminescent globe. A ray came from it and struck him. Accounts disagree on the year, 1951 or 1952. About ten years of telepathic preparation followed, he said, taught by a voice that called itself "Barath."

30 April 1962. Around 10 pm. Siragusa was at home when he felt an inner call. He went to the window and saw an object flying over Etna. He took his Fiat 600 up the southern slope, toward the extinct cones of Monte Manfrè above Belpasso. Near 1,370 metres he stopped and went on foot. A powerful force, he said, drew him toward the top of the crater.

Halfway up, he saw them. Two individuals in silver suits that shone with moonlight, standing at the edge of the slope. Almost two metres tall, with perfect athletic builds. Their skin was very pale, almost transparent. One was blond, the other dark. They wore strange plates on the chest, a glowing belt, and wrist and ankle bands that looked like gold. A gentle luminescence surrounded them. One sent a green ray of light toward him. He was calm at once.

Then, in Italian: "Figliolo, ti abbiamo aspettato." Son, we have been waiting for you.

They named themselves Ashtar Sheran and Ithacar. Ashtar, commander of confederated worlds. Ithacar, his lieutenant. They said they had prepared him for ten years. Their message was for heads of state and the important men of the earth. Stop nuclear experiments at once. Bring about a fraternal union of all peoples. Siragusa said he sent it by telegram to heads of state and to scientists researching nuclear energy. His own site says the craft, 12 metres in diameter, was hidden inside the crater, and that he later went aboard four times.

On 28 October 1962, La Domenica del Corriere made the story a cover feature, painted by Walter Molino. Siragusa went on to report more than 30 physical encounters, including a 1969 journey to the "Luna Nera," an artificial platform he placed between the Moon and Venus. In 1964 he founded the Centro Studi Fratellanza Cosmica in Nicolosi. It drew international followers.

23 November 1978. Catania judicial police arrested Siragusa after a complaint from a wealthy American couple in the movement who had made large donations. The charges included plagio, the Italian crime of mental domination, and fraud. He was released provisionally on 5 February 1979. On 5 April 1982 the Catania tribunal acquitted him in full. Massimo Introvigne of CESNUR calls it the first plagio case against a new religious movement leader in Italy.

Scholars treat Fratellanza Cosmica as a UFO religion. The name Ashtar had first appeared in George Van Tassel's channelled messages of 1952. No photograph, trace or second witness exists for that night on Etna. Siragusa died in August 2006, and Giorgio Bongiovanni carried the story forward. He is remembered as Italy's founding contactee.