1) Geometric “sky symbols”

• Luminous orbs / “balls of light,” star-like points that move oddly, and “glowing spheres.”

• Discs / “saucers,” “cigars,” and triangles (especially “black triangle” reports).

• Structured light: beams, columns, cones, searchlight-like rays, and “windows” or panels of light.
  These shape categories show up so often they’ve been tabulated in major civilian reporting databases (e.g., NUFORC summaries often referenced in overviews of reported shapes).  

 

2) “Techno-ritual” props and markings

• Unfamiliar symbols on panels, suits, or screens (often described as “glyphs” or non-human writing).

• Grids / checkerboards, “maps,” star charts, and schematic displays (sometimes recalled under hypnosis, sometimes spontaneously).

• Medical/temple imagery: tables, instruments, examinations—presented with an oddly ceremonial tone in some narratives (coldly clinical and “initiatory”).

 

3) Body-centered motifs

• Eyes / “watching” (big-eyed beings in some abduction traditions; or the feeling of being observed even without a visible entity).

• Marks and scars, punctures, scoop marks, rashes/burns—sometimes attributed to light-beam exposure (this “beam” motif is also something Jacques Vallée highlights when comparing waves of cases).  

• Missing time, dreamlike discontinuities, and sudden “scene cuts” (often described as memory that feels edited).

 

4) Communication themes (“the message”)

Across many experiencer traditions, the communication—when it occurs—is reported as:

• Telepathic / mind-to-mind rather than spoken dialogue.

• Apocalyptic or cautionary: warnings about war, nuclear risk, ecological collapse, or civilizational self-destruction.

• Spiritual/ethical reframing: urging “awakening,” unity, or a shift in human consciousness.
  John E. Mack (Harvard psychiatrist) is well-known for treating many accounts as having both “literal” and “psychological/spiritual” dimensions—his stance is often summarized this way in mainstream coverage.  

 

How these motifs compare to historical and religious iconography

A) Halos, mandorlas, and “beings in light”

A striking overlap is the visual grammar of radiance:

• In Christian art, a mandorla is an almond/oval aureole surrounding the whole body of a sacred figure, used to depict events that “transcend time and space” (Transfiguration, Resurrection, etc.). 
  That’s a close match to modern witness language like “a figure in an oval of light,” “a luminous envelope,” or “a glowing presence.”

 

B) “Wheels,” “chariots,” and sky-vehicles

Ancient texts and later iconography often describe divine mobility with vivid mechanics:

• Ezekiel’s throne vision (“wheels” with complex motion) has an enormous interpretive history; contemporary biblical scholarship typically reads it in ancient Near Eastern throne/chariot imagery rather than literal machinery. 
  Modern UFO culture frequently reinterprets this kind of imagery as “ancient astronauts,” but historically it functions as symbolic theology: divine sovereignty, omnidirectional power, cosmic order.

 

C) Marian apparition motifs vs “UFO flap” motifs

Apparition traditions also include recurring perceptual features familiar in UFO reporting:

• Fátima’s “Miracle of the Sun” tradition includes mass witness claims of extraordinary solar/light behavior and luminous phenomena. 
  Whatever one concludes about causation, the shared motif is public anomaly + religious framing, similar to how UFO waves (“flaps”) become culturally organized into narratives.

 

D) Mandalas, “symbols of wholeness,” and modern myth-making

Carl Jung famously treated “flying saucers” as a kind of modern myth whose circular form resonates with mandala symbolism (wholeness/order under collective stress). 

That doesn’t say sightings are only psychological—Jung’s point is that the shapes and stories also function symbolically in the culture that reports them.

E) Vallée’s “folklore continuity” thesis

Jacques Vallée is one of the key figures drawing systematic parallels between:

• modern UFO encounter motifs (beams, absurd/contradictory messages, liminal events), and

• older folklore/religious apparition patterns (fairy-faith, medieval prodigies, saintly visions). 
  The comparison isn’t “they’re the same thing,” but that the structure of reports often rhymes across eras: a non-ordinary encounter + altered perception + a message + a social ripple.

 

Putting the comparison together

A useful way to see it is as a shared visual and narrative toolkit:

• Light-body / aura / mandorla ↔ reported “glows,” “ovals,” “beings in light”

• Chariots/wheels/thrones ↔ “craft,” structured aerial objects, “vehicles”

• Angelic beams / divine rays ↔ “searchlight” beams, “scanning” columns of light

• Revelation/prophecy ↔ telepathic warnings, apocalyptic/ecological messaging

• Liminal spaces (heaven/otherworld) ↔ missing time, “screen memories,” threshold experiences