The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Sam Hain and Halloween
18:45 Jun 29 2011
Times Read: 596

Halloween or Samhain had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all livestock had to be secured for the winter months. Crops were harvested and stored. The date marked both an ending and a beginning in an eternal cycle.Samhain



The festival observed at this time was called Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween). It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables. They also lit bonfires in honor of the dead, to aid them on their journey, and to keep them away from the living. On that day all manner of beings were abroad: ghosts, fairies, and demons--all part of the dark and dread.

How Samhain Became Halloween



Samhain became the Halloween we are familiar with when Christian missionaries attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people. In the early centuries of the first millennium A.D., before missionaries such as St. Patrick and St. Columcille converted them to Christianity, the Celts practiced an elaborate religion through their priestly caste, the Druids, who were priests, poets, scientists and scholars all at once. As religious leaders, ritual specialists, and bearers of learning, the Druids were not unlike the very missionaries and monks who were to Christianize their people and brand them evil devil worshippers.

Pope Gregory the First



As a result of their efforts to wipe out "pagan" holidays, such as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations in it. In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship.

In terms of spreading Christianity, this was a brilliant concept and it became a basic approach used in Catholic missionary work. Church holy days were purposely set to coincide with native holy days. Christmas, for instance, was assigned the arbitrary date of December 25th because it corresponded with the mid-winter celebration of many peoples. Likewise, St. John's Day was set on the summer solstice.Good Vs Evil - Druids, Christains, and Samhain



Samhain, with its emphasis on the supernatural, was decidedly pagan. While missionaries identified their holy days with those observed by the Celts, they branded the earlier religion's supernatural deities as evil, and associated them with the devil. As representatives of the rival religion, Druids were considered evil worshippers of devilish or demonic gods and spirits. The Celtic underworld inevitably became identified with the Christian Hell.

The effects of this policy were to diminish but not totally eradicate the beliefs in the traditional gods. Celtic belief in supernatural creatures persisted, while the church made deliberate attempts to define them as being not merely dangerous, but malicious. Followers of the old religion went into hiding and were branded as witches.



Feast of All Saints



The Christian feast of All Saints was assigned to November 1st. The day honored every Christian saint, especially those that did not otherwise have a special day devoted to them. This feast day was meant to substitute for Samhain, to draw the devotion of the Celtic peoples, and, finally, to replace it forever. That did not happen, but the traditional Celtic deities diminished in status, becoming fairies or leprechauns of more recent traditions.The old beliefs associated with Samhain never died out entirely. The powerful symbolism of the traveling dead was too strong, and perhaps too basic to the human psyche, to be satisfied with the new, more abstract Catholic feast honoring saints. Recognizing that something that would subsume the original energy of Samhain was necessary, the church tried again to supplant it with a Christian feast day in the 9th century. This time it established November 2nd as All Souls Day -a day when the living prayed for the souls of all the dead. But, once again, the practice of retaining traditional customs while attempting to redefine them had a sustaining effect: the traditional beliefs and customs lived on, in new guiseAll Saints Day - All Hallows



All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed means sanctified or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. The evening prior to the day was the time of the most intense activity, both human and supernatural. People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. The folk continued to propitiate those spirits (and their masked impersonators) by setting out gifts of food and drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe'en--an ancient Celtic, pre-Christian New Year's Day in contemporary dress.

Many supernatural creatures became associated with All Hallows. In Ireland fairies were numbered among the legendary creatures who roamed on Halloween. An old folk ballad called "Allison Gross" tells the story of how the fairy queen saved a man from a witch's spell on Halloween.



Allison Gross



O Allison Gross, that lives in yon tower

the ugliest witch int he North Country...

She's turned me into an ugly worm

and gard me toddle around a tree...

But as it fell out last Hallow even

When the seely [fairy] court was riding by,

the Queen lighted down on a gowany bank

Not far from the tree where I wont to lie...

She's change me again to my own proper shape

And I no more toddle about the tree.

In old England cakes were made for the wandering souls, and people went "a' soulin'" for these "soul cakes." Halloween, a time of magic, also became a day of divination, with a host of magical beliefs: for instance, if persons hold a mirror on Halloween and walk backwards down the stairs to the basement, the face that appears in the mirror will be their next lover.Halloween - Celtic Day of the Dead



Virtually all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient Celtic day of the dead. Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious customs, but each one has a history, or at least a story behind it. The wearing of costumes, for instance, and roaming from door to door demanding treats can be traced to the Celtic period and the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was thought that the souls of the dead were out and around, along with fairies, witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink were left out to placate them. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like these dreadful creatures, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice is called mumming, from which the practice of trick-or-treating evolved. To this day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises. Halloween also retains some features that harken back to the original harvest holiday of Samhain, such as the customs of bobbing for apples and carving vegetables, as well as the fruits, nuts, and spices cider associated with the day.



Modern Halloween



Today Halloween is becoming once again and adult holiday or masquerade, like mardi Gras. Men and women in every disguise imaginable are taking to the streets of big American cities and parading past grinningly carved, candlelit jack o'lanterns, re-enacting customs with a lengthy pedigree. Their masked antics challenge, mock, tease, and appease the dread forces of the night, of the soul, and of the otherworld that becomes our world on this night of reversible possibilities, inverted roles, and transcendency. In so doing, they are reaffirming death and its place as a part of life in an exhilarating celebration of a holy and magic evening.

Lost Voyage and Blair witch project tour also True Blood tour in WI dells
23:22 Jun 19 2011
Times Read: 608

Not content with being already famous as the waterpark capital of the world, Wisconsin Dells now wants to challenge Roswell and the Bermuda triangle as one of the globe's scariest places.



Dells Boat Tours' new "Lost Voyage" boat expeditions are nighttime adventures inspired by the TV series "Lost" and the cult horror film "The Blair Witch Project"; the "Lost Voyage" promo video has a distinct "Blair Witch" feel.



In the story created by Emil Bertalot, a tour boat in July 1943 disappeared without a trace near Cold Water Canyon. In our time, a trio of teenagers discover the old boat in the middle of the canyon, on dry land. Then they disappear.



"Lost Voyage" has an online element, too. Website registrants can download a series of mystery-related questions, such as "What two words are stenciled on a machine in the canyon?"



In the course of answering the questions, participants gain pieces of a code that solves the mystery, and could qualify to win a prize. Read more at www.dellslostvoyage.com/HOME.html.



These voyages are designed as 90-minute, after-dusk excursions. Visitors will travel up the Wisconsin River by boat and then explore Cold Water Canyon on foot. Voyages continue through Labor Day. They load at 8:15 nightly.



Fares are $20 for adults, $15 for students. Call (608) 254-8555 for reservations. Because of the scary nature of the expedition, it's not considered suitable for children under 10 years old.



Speaking of the scary, the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum has crafted a new vampire exhibit with an open casket and secret passageways. No word yet if the barkeeps nearby are pouring any TrueBlood.



A few other new Wisconsin Dells elements this season:



The Noah's Ark Waterpark features the movie "Pirates!" at its 4-D Dive-in Theater. The comic 15-minute film, created for theme parks, features the late Leslie Nielsen as a nasty pirate captain and Monty Python alum Eric Idle as his French first mate. Expect booby traps and plenty of shtick. The "4-D" refers to such sensory elements as spraying water, bursts of air and even smells. Noah's Ark info: www.noahsarkwaterpark.com.



In a case of the old becoming new again, The Tommy Bartlett Show, after experimenting in recent years, is concentrating on classic water skiing, down to the '50s costuming, with plenty of stunts, side-by-side tricks and long-distance jumps. Info: www.tommybartlett.com.



Illusionist Rick Wilcox makes a helicopter appear in his family-friendly stage show. Yes, a helicopter. Show info: rickwilcox.com.



Chula Vista Resort has trucked in sand to create a beach as part of its Aztec-themed Adventure Lagoon waterpark. Resort info: www.chulavistaresort.com.



If you're planning a jaunt to the Dells this summer, here are a few other things to read:



"Devil's Lake State Park is a geologic paradise". Travel writer Brian E. Clark reviews the park's century of history. It's planning a Centennial Dedication and Birthday Party June 25.

Dijin
02:04 Jun 14 2011
Times Read: 619

In Islamic mythology, the Djinn are fiery spirits, one of which was Iblis. From the Arabic junna, "angry, possessed." The Jinn pre-existed in middle eastern folklore before Islam, and were incorporated into the religion. The djinn are creatures who lived on earth before man; they were made up of 'smokeless fire' whereas men were made from earth. Djinn are often disruptive, but can sometimes be of service to mankind. The Djinn shunned daylight and were responsible for disease and insanity. Unlike other devilish creatures, however, the Djinn are creatures of free will, even having a chance at redemption through Islam. The three classes of Djinn are:

Ghul, mishchievous shape-shifting spirits associated with graveyards. "Ghul" is the origin of the English word "ghoul."

Sila, Djinn who can appear in any form

Ifrit, evil spirits.

In Middle Eastern magical practice, Djinn are invoked much like the spirits of the Goetia in Western magick. The word "genie" is a corruption of Djinn. Both 'Djinn' and 'Genius' probably share a common root. Djinn are said to avoid salt and steel, and to be afraid of the sound of singing.

The four horsemen of the Apocolypse
02:00 Jun 14 2011
Times Read: 620

Conquest

Famine

War

Death





The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse describes the four horsemen who, according to the New Testament in the Christian Bible, represent Conquest, War, Famine and Death. They are summoned and empowered by God as part of the opening of the Seven Seals.



There are four separate horsemen, each representing something different. Each rides a different color horse, wields a different weapon and has a different power.





THE WHITE HORSE



The white horse is the first of the four horsemen to arrive. He represents Conquest and his power is "to go forth in conquest; to kill with the beasts of the Earth." He Yeilds a Crown and a Bow.



AS EVIL

The other three horsemen represent evil, destructive forces, and given the unified way in which all four are introduced and described, it may be most likely that the first horseman is correspondingly evil. Some interpret the rider of the white horse to be the Antichrist, or a representation of false prophets, citing differences between the white horse in Revelation 6 and Jesus on the white Horse in Revelation 19. Revelation 19 Jesus has many crowns, but in Revelation 6 the rider has one. In Revelation 19, the rider on the horse is depicted as "The Word of God". The rider of the white horse may represent the second coming of Christ during which the end of the world/judgment day would occur. He may also just represent judgment of the living and the damned



AS RIGHTOUS

Irenaeus, an influential Christian theologian of the second century, was among the first to interpret this horseman as Christ himself, his white horse representing the successful spread of the gospel. Various scholars have since supported this theory, citing the later appearance, in Revelation 19, of Christ mounted on a white horse, appearing as The Word of God. Furthermore, earlier in the New Testament, the Book of Mark indicates that the advance of the gospel may indeed precede and foretell the apocalypse. The color white also tends to represent righteousness in the Bible, and Christ is in other instances portrayed as a conqueror. However, opposing interpretations argue that the first of the four horsemen is probably not the horseman of Revelation 19. They are described in significantly different ways, and Christ's role as the Lamb who opens the seven seals makes it unlikely that he would also be one of the forces released by the seals.

Besides Christ, the horseman could represent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was understood to have come upon the Apostles at Pentecost after Jesus' departure from earth. The appearance of the Lamb in Revelation 5 shows the triumphant arrival of Jesus in heaven, and the white horseman could represent the sending of the Holy Spirit by Jesus and the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.



FROM THE BIBLE

"I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest."

— Revelation 6:1-2 NIV

THE RED HORSE The rider of the second horse is often taken to represent War. His horse's color is red, or, in some translations, specifically a "fiery" red. This color, as well as the rider's possession of a large sword, suggests blood to be spilled on the battlefield. The second horseman may represent civil war as opposed to the war of conquest that the first horseman brings



FROM THE BIBLE

"When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a huge sword."

— Revelation 6:3-4 NIV

THE BLACK HORSE

The third horseman rides a black horse and is generally understood as Famine. The black colour of the horse could be a symbol of the dead. The horseman carries a pair of balances or weighing scales, indicating the way that bread would have been weighed during a famine.

Of the four horsemen, the black horse and its rider are the only ones whose appearance is accompanied by a vocal pronunciation. John hears a voice, unidentified but coming from among the four living creatures, that speaks of the prices of wheat and barley, also saying "and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." This suggests that the black horse's famine is to drive up the price of grain but leave oil and wine supplies unaffected. One explanation for this is that grain crops would have been more naturally susceptible to famine years than olive trees and grapevines, which root more deeply; the statement might also suggest a continuing abundance of luxuries for the wealthy while staples such as as bread are scarce, though not totally depleted. Alternatively, the preservation of oil and wine could symbolize the preservation of the Christian faithful, who used oil and wine in their sacraments.



FROM THE BIBLE

"When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

— Revelation 6:5-6 NIV

THE PALE HORSE

The fourth and final horseman is named Death. Of all the riders, he is the only one to whom the text itself gives a name. Unlike the other three, he carries no weapon or other object (but some versions say that Death carries the scythe, symbolizing that he is the Grim Reaper); instead he is followed by Hades.

The color of Death's horse is written as khlômos (χλωμóς) in the original Koine Greek, which is often translated as "pale", though "ashen", "pale green", and "yellowish green" are other possible interpretations. The color suggests the sickly pallor of a corpse. The natural colors of horse coats that could be indicated include dun, palomino, buckskin, or one of several color variants with dilution genes.

The verse beginning "they were given power over the fourth of the earth" may refer solely to Death and Hades, or it may summarize the roles of all four horsemen; scholars disagree on this point



FROM THE BIBLE

"When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth."

— Revelation 6:7-8 NIV

Lost voyage boat tour and Horror movie occult Blair witch project tours
02:34 Jun 13 2011
Times Read: 625

I am so going to both of them I mostly will go for the Lost voyage tour since I did watch the series for six years straight and love it still. For people in Wisconsin its in the WI Dells. Here is the link.





http://www.dellsboats.com/LostVoyageTimesAndTickets.cfm?movie=30

The Bell Witch legend
11:25 Jun 11 2011
Times Read: 633

John Bell, a farmer from North Carolina,along with his wife and children settled in northern Robertson County Tennessee in 1804. Their farm consisted of 320 acres of rich farm land that laid along the Red River. They lived a quite peaceful life here for the first 13 years. They were members of the Red River Baptist Church where John became a deacon. The family grew and became somewhat prosperous.



In the late summer of 1817 something would happen that would change their lives forever. Some members of the family began seeing strange looking animals around the property. Then late at night they started hearing knocking sounds on the doors and outer walls of the house. Later sounds were being heard in the house. Sounds of a rat gnawing on the bed post, chains being drug through the house, stones being dropped on the wooden floors, then gulping and choking sounds.



The family was terrified but kept the problem to themselves for over a year. When things became intolerable John confided in a neighbor, James Johnson. He invited Mr and Mrs Johnson to spend the night. After several nights of witnessing these strange things, Mr. Johnson suggested that more people should be told. And a committee was formed and an investigation started.



It was not long before people were coming from miles around to hear and witness this unseen force that was terrorizing the Bell home. Before long this unseen force had gained enough strength that it now had a voice. When asked who and what it was, it gave different identities. It once stated that it was the witch of a neighbor woman named Kate Batts. This is what many people believed, and from then on, this unseen force was called "Kate" the "Bell's Witch".



It seemed that Kate had two main reasons for visiting the Bell home. The main one was to kill John Bell. For what reason no one knows because Kate never gave a reason why. The second reason was to stop John's youngest daughter Betsy from marrying a certain neighbor boy named Joshua Gardner.



Over the next three years "Kate" tormented members of the Bell family almost daily. John and his daughter Betsy was the ones who received the worst of the physical abuse. Betsy had her hair pulled, she was pinched, scratched stuck with pins and even beaten. While John Bell began suffering from spells of swelling of the throat and often had the feeling of a stick being stuck sideways in his throat. Then came the twitching and jerking of the facial muscles. Kate would blast him with curses and hideous threats during these spells. As time went on John Bell became weaker and weaker.



Kate was becoming well known and drew large crowds of people. She seemed to be very intelligent in many things: the bible, people's past and the future. She could be in two places at the same time - miles apart from each other.



She(Kate) finally accomplished her mission for coming to the Bell farm. On December 20,1820 John Bell had died. It was believed that he was poisoned by Kate, and Kate took full credit for his death. And then in March of 1821 young Betsy broke off her engagement with Joshua Gardner.



Kate then bid everyone farewell and promised to return in seven years. She did return in 1828 for a few short weeks. During this visit she came to the home of John Bell Jr and had long talks with him about the past, the present and the future. She made some predictions for the future. Kate also said there was a reason for John Bells death. However she never said what the reason was. After the second visit, she said her next return would be in One Hundred and Seven years. That would have been in 1935. But some believe that she (Kate) never left the area at all due to the strange things that has occurred in and around the town of Adams and the Bell Witch Cave over these many years.



There are many books written about the famous Bell Witch of Tennessee. The legend of the Bell Witch is part of Tennessee history and is still taught in schools today.

The Legend of Morrow Road
12:20 Jun 09 2011
Times Read: 637

Located in Clay Township, Michigan, old Morrow Road is famous for a horrifying reason.







The story goes that a mother and child went missing from their home on this road sometime in the late 1800's. The little boy disappeared into thin air and shortly after, the mother also vanished. It is believed she died a terrifying death while searching for her son. Locals say the ghostly figure of a mother can still be seen wandering old Morrow Road to this day.



The rural road spans 2.5 miles and, until recently, was all dirt until half of it was paved over as citizens relocated to the area. In the last 200 years that this legend has survived, several different versions have come together to create one startling likeness between them. Each version differs only slightly:



- A kidnapper was involved, ripping the young boy from his mother's arms.



- A momentarily distracted mother makes the realization that her son has drowned and upon finding his lifeless body, she becomes distraught and takes her own life.



- A home invasion -- their old farm house was robbed and they were the only two victims.



- A fire, maybe an out-of-control bonfire took hold of the boy and claimed his life. The mother last saw him near the fire and came to this conclusion. She herself succumbing to the flames after making this terrible realization.



- A freezing, stormy night may have captured the boy as he wandered away from home. As the mother searches, she also succumbs to the blistering cold.



- A murderer on the loose takes hold of the boy, ending his life. The mother meets the same demise while searching for her lost son.



- The mother gives birth out of wedlock and due to the shame she felt (in the late 1800's), she abandons her child outdoors. However, her guilt overcomes her and when she returns to fetch her child, he is gone and her endless search begins.



As locals and tourists alike drive up and down the old rural road they have reported actually hearing the mother screaming out for help in the fruitless search for her child. Many of these people independently report the ghostly woman to be wearing the same blue nightgown. Orbs have been spotted floating in the woods nearby; many people believe this type of phenomenon to be the energy of a spirit.



One must wonder how this legend has survived generation after generation, all the while gaining so much popularity that it has captured the attention of people across the country. Something is acting to perpetuate the life of the legend and it doesn't seem to be slowing as time goes on. Could it be the repeated sightings or audible recognitions of a ghostly mother crying out in pain? How is it that complete strangers have recognized this woman always wearing and shouting the same things? Some may say it is coincidence or possibly bored teenagers on a Friday night; the thing to consider is the length of time this legend has continued to scare young and old alike. Over two centuries of torturing those who dare to take a drive on old Morrow Road, just to see what they can find.

The Iowa Villisca House
12:18 Jun 09 2011
Times Read: 638

The Iowa Villisca House was the scene of ax murders and is said to have unexplained happenings occurring within the walls.



The Iowa Villisca House was the scene of ax murders and is said to have unexplained happenings occurring within the walls. What happen in this house is documented as the worst murder that the community has ever seen or heard about and they now know that some of the spirits of the victims have remained in the home. The victims were the Moore family and two visiting children from the Stillinger family. An ax murderer had killed the family. Although police had their suspects, no one was ever convicted of the crimes.



The Linns purchased the home in 1994, just before it was to be razed. The intention was to restore the house back to its original state when the murders occurred. The home was then entered into the National Register of Historical Places. It is said that many strange things happen to people who are in the house. Although nothing was ever officially documented, it is possible that the Moore's or some of them still live in the house waiting for justice.



In Missouri, Pikes Lodge is a place where paranormal happenings occur. It is said that a woman spirit usually only shows herself to small groups of people. However, at a large gathering, the music sound stop, the light were turned off and the guests were left with an eerie feeling. Many neighbors report hearing unexplained noises coming from the lodge when no one is around. A little girl plays in the halls at night. There was a little girl killed when the building was school. There neighbors hear laughing, doors slamming and windows appear to be shaking.



In Hall of Waters in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, people have reported seeing a boy by a pool area. In Odell Sports Center, some have heard a door slam in the locker room, a man laugh and have seen a man in the shower. Many of these paranormal happening have some history behind them, as to why it is happening. Many are not investigated because it has become a way of life for people that work or live in the buildings.



Ghostly sounds have been recorded in many areas as well. The Battleship North Carolina has a recording of an unidentified voice. In Raleigh, a voice recording captures a baby crying. It is said that a baby did die in the Mordecai home long ago. On time, a camera operator was making a joke, when the video was replayed, an unidentified voice was heard mimicking the camera operator. With all the new technology that helps investigators learn about the unexplained, it is only a matter of time before someone finds answers to why spirits remain on earth.



There are many such reports throughout the United States and other countries. Many are unexplained, but some are believed to be that of someone that died in that particular location. The unexplained and paranormal happenings will continue throughout the years. There are always going to be new reports and new encounters. The world of the unknown is a mystery to many, but many investigators and physics believe that they are lost soles who want to remain on earth or want justice for any wrong doings against them. This may be the case in many unexplained occurrences. However, many ghostly happenings are related to years past and may never find a happy ending, leaving the ghost to move around the buildings they haunt forever. Some spirit however are ghosts that do not want to leave a place that made them happy. For the most part, ghosts are friendly, but can be harsh if they feel threatened.

Demons of the Night
12:17 Jun 09 2011
Times Read: 639

By that time when people only had candles to keep the darkness away, a frightful horde of spirits awoke during the long hours between dusk and dawn. They appeared as bodiless shadows or transitory shapes which had been a patchwork of motley parts – goathooves and catpaws, dog-teeth and human faces.



By that time when people only had candles to keep the darkness away, a frightful horde of spirits awoke during the long hours between dusk and dawn. They appeared as bodiless shadows or transitory shapes which had been a patchwork of motley parts – goathooves and catpaws, dog-teeth and human faces. Evil to the backbone, they cowered in hedges or scraped at doors and window shutters, always ready to pinch and to scratch, to seduce, to paralyse and to kill. Common people spoke about goblins, ghosts or gnomes ,and they were afraid of them. Even scholars and sorcerers feared those creatures, but they tried to master and to command these supernatural beings to render them serviceable to human purposes. Learned sorcerers called them demons, sometimes also scions. The signification of this word - that originally designated the scions for grafting the trees – turned into “offspring”. When sorcerers used it, they expressed that the demons were offsprings of Satan, the Foe.



The exact determination of the demons’ powers was a step to dominate them and the scholars went astonishing far in doing so. The most industrious among them asserted for example, that the different spirits which haunted the world constituted an infernal hierarchy with Satan as their leader and that they were classified into six legions. Each legion consisted of 66 cohorts or divisions, each cohort had 666 companies and each company comprised of 6666 soldiers.



This nocturnal army indulged only in the fancies of the scholars: The total number of demons in the system would have exceeded one billion – that would have been more demons existing on the earth than humans at that time. Most scholars were not so much interested in such calculations but more in the denomination and characterization of certain demonic spirits.



The description of powerful demons had been rendered more difficult because they were masters of transformation. A spirit was in the position to assume a harmless shape to attend to his hellish business in the mortal world. He could appear as domestic animal, for example as dog, as fly, toad or mouse to execute his work unnoticed.



His real shape was a hideous reflection of his malignity, a scorn of all natural living beings and shapes. There was for example Eurynome. He devoured corpses, had an ugly, wrinkled skin, sharp teeth and claws at hands and feet. He was said to be Satan’s Prince of Death und his services were useful for those who were up to murder. The demon Ronwe – clumsy, heavy with giant ears and long tail – imparted to the knowledge of all languages – a dangerous weapon for all who worked with magic spells. Xaphan on the other hand, who always carry along with him bellows, was only an ugly curiosity; he was occupied with – so it was said – fanning the eternal fire in hell. Orobas held a high rank in the infernal realm. When he was summoned, he sometimes appeared as a human and another time again as a horse. He could report the truth of all historical events or predict the course of history. Astaroth, the Grand Duke of Hell, appeared on some occasions as man in many colours and on others as fallen angel – what he really was. His once beautiful angelic traits were distorted and his gorgeous wings were lustreless. He was spreading such a terrible stench around him that the sorcerers who summoned him wore a silver ring that should protect them against the demonic evaporation. Like Orobas, Astaroth could also predict the future and reveal the lost past and he possessed of the complete knowledge of all skills that a man or sorcerer could master.



Sorcerers could evoke a lot of other Satan’s servants – Abracax and Flauros, Behemoth and Belial, Buer and Asmodeus – and about their powers had been kept book thoroughly. Of course, the masters of magic knew that they once would have to pay dearly for their servants, but often they made the experience that the price was very high indeed.

Apparitions
12:16 Jun 09 2011
Times Read: 640

The term 'apparition' is defined simply as a supernatural manifestation , or in more common terms, the appearance of a ghost or spirit of a human or an animal.



These strange, and often frightening, manifestations have been reported for as long as mankind has walked the earth, and are as variable and different as the people who witness them. Lets look at some of the various types of this particular phenomenon.



One type of apparition is called an 'atmospheric apparition'. These types of manifestations are not usually considered to be what experts in the paranormal would call an 'intelligent haunting', but a haunting that is more like a tape recording. Most of the time these types of apparitions stem from very violent and tragic events. The energies released from the individuals involved in these events seem to become imprinted upon the very fabric of time and space, what is known as the Akashaic record in Hindu beliefs. These events, like fierce battles that took place on a particular piece of ground, such as Gettysburg, may leave an sort of recording that replays itself over and over for a period of time. One of the interesting things about such manifestations is that they do fade over a period of time, much like a video tape will eventually wear out after much usage.



Another type of apparition are called 'historical apparitions.' These apparitions generally consist of seeing people from another time period of a certain house or area that has a particular sort of history. These apparitions are always dressed in period clothing and never seem to be aware of the witnesses or other people who may live in the residence in the present time.





One of the most common forms of this phenomenon is called 'Recurring apparitions'. These are ghosts or spirits that occur in regularly at a specific time each year. The manifestation usually occurs on the specific date or anniversary of the event which caused this sort of haunting to transpire. Such reports of recurring apparitions often include murder victims, people who have committed suicide, quite often people have reported seeing ghostly armies or soldiers marching and running across battlefields to the sounds of cannon and gun fire.



Crisis or Death Bed Apparitions are spirits of the dying or deceased individual that appear to loved ones or close friends shortly before or just after their physical death. These are probably the most common types of apparitions. These types of apparitions rarely go on for more than 3-5 days after a person's body expires. This type of apparition seems to be most common during times of war. During all the wars of the last 200 or so years, there were hundreds of reported cases of the appearances of dying or dead service men to family members even though they were thousands of miles apart. The most common ideology with this particular type of apparition is that the spirit of the departed appears one last time to take care of some unfinished business, to say a final goodbye, or let their loved ones know they are at peace.

Roadside Ghosts
12:14 Jun 09 2011
Times Read: 641

All across America, and in many other parts of the world, there are haunted highways and back roads and many people report encounters with the spirits and ghosts who roam these often lonely roads.



Seemingly seeking a way home, or trying to hitch a ride to the destination they were heading for when death severed them from their mortal bodies. Still, other people report seeing phantom cars that disappear as they reach a certain curve or area of a road, or even ghostly wagons being pulled by wispy horses and driven by spirits dressed in period clothing. Many folks have reported picking up a hitchhiker only to have the shock of witnessing the seemingly solid, living person transfigure into the image of a rotting corpse before completely fading away.



One such place is in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. Tompkinsville is located in the south central part of Kentucky, about twenty miles southeast of Glasgow, Kentucky. There is an old road outside of Tompkinsville that is called the Meshack Road. Tompkinsville is a small town itself is located just a few miles north of the Tennessee border.



For many years, people who have lived in the area, and even tourists who know nothing of the area's history, have been reporting encounters with a ghostly young girl associated with this road. One of the many similar reports tells of two young men were on their way to a local weekend dance that was always held in town on the weekends back during the 1950s. One Friday evening while they were on their way to the dance they saw an attractive young woman walking along Meshack Road. They offered her a ride into town and she accepted. She looked liked she was dressed for a night out on the town, although the dress looked somewhat old-fashioned, and they decided to invite her to go along to the dance with them. Reportedly, she danced with both of the young men that evening, and there were witnesses who remembered seeing the woman, noting that she was a stranger to the area.



As the dance ended, the young woman agreed to let the boys drive her home, but only if they would let her out at a certain area. It was pouring the rain when they left the dance hall and one of the boys offered her his coat. He told her that he would pick it up later.



The two young men dropped the strange girl off at a small, somewhat run down house along Meshack Road and a few days later, the young man went back to pick up his coat. He walked up on the porch and asked the middle-aged woman for the girl he had dropped off a few nights earlier. The woman told him that while she had once had a daughter, she had died in an accident on the road a few years earlier. She told the confused young man where her daughter's body was buried and he went to the churchyard. There he found his coat draped over the gravestone.



There is another strange phantom that is also reported to haunt Meshack road. For many years, people who have traveled along this road have reported that they have felt an unseen presence holding tightly to the waist of a person riding a horse or riding a motorcycle. This unseen entity holds onto the rider's waist for about a mile and then disappears. No one seems to know who or what could be behind this strange occurrence.



There are many other such tales all across America, and such places always seem to have been the site for traumatic and/or violent, unexpected deaths. Perhaps, one day, these poor lost souls may find their way to their destinations, or perhaps, they will forever walk the lonely roads and byways where they met their end, forever reliving their last moments. Perhaps, one day you will meet one of the roadside ghosts of America.

Phantom Phone Calls
12:13 Jun 09 2011
Times Read: 642

Is it possible for those who have passed from this mortal coil to make contact from the spirit world through electronic media? Can a loved one make contact through the humble telephone to say one last good-bye or even give warning of impending disaster?



As odd as it may seem, this phenomenon is not an unusual one and occurs quite frequently, usually with in the first 24 to 48 hours after someone has died. However, many people have reported getting phone calls from deceased loved ones years after they have passed on. These calls are nearly always filled with heavy static and the caller's voice sounds faint, as if it is coming from a great distance.



Countless people have reported receiving telephone calls that seem to have come from a deceased relative or friend. These strange calls usually happen not more than once or twice and are nearly always brief messages.

For some, these phone calls can be frightening, but for others they are a source of comfort and help grieving loved ones move on with their lives.



Often when a person receives such a phone call he or she may not realize, at first, that the person that they are talking to is someone who has passed on from this world and thinks that he or she is talking to corporeal person.



Man people have reported receiving phone calls from a person that they never knew directly in life, but receive an urgent message to relay to another person he or she and the deceased both know/knew. These types of phantom phone calls are more rare. Often, the recipients of such calls say that the voice sounds odd, almost mechanical or unreal in some way.



In most of these phantom phone call cases, people reported that the ring

sounded different than it usually did. The tone would be different and the rings would come in shorter than usual bursts. Considering that paranormal investigators use all sorts of electronic equipment to detect spirit activity due to the fact that spirits do indeed seem to be able to communicate through electronic means; then it is not at all far fetched to think that the spirits of departed friends or loved ones could conceivable use the telephone as a medium to make contact between this world and theirs.



If this is indeed the case, then it is quite possible that one day we may find a way to develop such a device that is specifically designed to be able to allow direct interaction with the spirit world using the basic telephone technologies and developing them to a whole new level. Not only would this enable people to talk to their loved ones, but it would invariable prove that we continue to live on even after physical death. Perhaps we could gain new insights as to what happens after we die and remove the fear and uncertainty from this seemingly inevitable process.



Until such a time comes, the mystery of these phantom phone calls will continue to be just that, a mystery.

LA Lorena "Weeping Women"
12:08 Jun 09 2011
Times Read: 643










La Llorona (the crying woman) has terrified Hispanics across the United States and Latin America for over five hundred years. Below is a historical timeline detailing her ascension as a living legend.



1502 In the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, the goddess Cihuacoatl takes the form of a beautiful lady draped in white garments. Throughout the night she cries out in misery, “Oh hijos mios…ya ha llegado vuestra destruccion. Donde os llevare?” (Oh my children…your destruction has arrived. Where can I take you?) Many believe that Cihuacoalt was speaking of the future conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards.



1505 A girl child named La Malinche is born in the Aztec province of Coatzacoalcos of a noble Aztec family.







Circa

1515

La Malinche is given to Mayan merchants for slavery. In addition to her mother tongue of Nahuatl (Aztec), she learns to speak Mayan.



*Circa

1521 La Malinche gives birth to two twin boys by Cortés. Cortés continues his conquests. The King and Queen of Spain, fearing that Cortés has betrayed them and is building his own empire, repeatedly ask him to return to Spain. He refuses, saying that if he leaves they will lose their new territories. The King and Queen send a beautiful Spanish lady to convince him to return.



*Circa

1522 The Spanish lady seduces Cortés, convincing him to return to Spain with his two sons. Cortés tells La Malinche of his decision to return with his children and to leave her behind.

La Malinche, now realizing the role she has played in helping Cortés massacre her people, prays to her gods for help. One of her gods appears to her and says, “If you let him take your children, one of them will return and destroy your people.”



The night before Cortés’ departure, La Malinche escapes with the babies. Cortés’ soldiers soon discover her absence and set out after her. Upon arriving at the lake that Mexico City now rests on, the soldiers surround La Malinche. Just as they are at the brink of capturing her, she pulls out a dagger and stabs her babies in the heart, dropping their lifeless bodies into the water.



La Malinche lets out a heart-wrenching cry, “Oh, hijos mios.” (Oh, my children.)





*Circa

1531 La Malinche dies. Up to the time of her death she is seen and heard near the lake weeping and wailing for her children. She is given the name “La Llorona,” the crying woman.



1531 The first apparitions of La Virgen de Guadalupe occur in Mexico.



1547 Hernán Cortés dies of dysentery. In a letter preserved in the Spanish archives, Cortés writes “After God, we owe the conquest of New Spain to Doña Marina (La Malinche)” .

While in Spain Cortés praises her name, in Mexico “Malinche” becomes a word denoting betrayal.





1550 The first documented appearances of La Llorona after La Malinche’s death occurs in Mexico City. She is most often seen on the night of a full moon, wandering the streets wearing a white dress with a light veil covering her face. Her agonizing cries terrorize everyone who sees or hears her. Her last stop is always La Plaza Mayor where she lets out her most desperate, horrific cry, after which she vanishes into the lake.



1550 -

Present Sightings of La Llorona spread throughout the most of the Americas with people in each town/city/country believing she is local to their own area, creating a powerful and passionate belief in this horrifying ghost.



1970s Like many Hispanics in the U.S. and throughout Latin America, the director of , Bernadine Santistevan, is told stories of La Llorona—a woman who, betrayed by her husband, drowned her children out of revenge in a nearby river. The punishment for this horrific act: La Llorona’s spirit is condemned to roam the earth for eternity, crying for her children.

Bernadine, along with the other children in her small northern New Mexico town, is told that if she plays by the river alone or misbehaves, La Llorona will take her away.





1995 Susan Smith is found guilty of murder in the drowning deaths of her two sons by strapping them in their car seats and rolling the car into the John D. Long Lake in South Carolina.

A portrait made of Smith is published where she is referred to as “A Modern Day Llorona.”





1998 -

2003 Bernadine starts her search for La Llorona. Initially, she believes this ghost is from her home town in New Mexico. She soon discovers that La Llorona’s reign of terror has blazed across Latin America and the United States.

In the end, Bernadine spends 5 years searching for La Llorona across the Americas—interviewing people who believe they have seen or heard her, collecting music, poems, and art work dedicated to her, and working with historians and Jungian psychologists who study La Llorona as a cultural phenomenon and universal female archetype.



2000 Bernadine creates a community website with some of the findings she has uncovered about La Llorona. To date, the website, LaLlorona.com, has been visited by millions and is being used by numerous schools and colleges across the U.S. as a teaching tool.



June

2001 Andrea Yates drowns her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years, in the bathtub of her suburban Houston, Texas home. Yates claims that she heard voices.



March

2002

Andrea Yates is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Oct.

2002 A woman named Bernadine Flores drowns her two children and herself in a river near Pilar, New Mexico.



2003 Bernadine writes a script about La Llorona titled , a contemporary supernatural thriller that includes much of the factual discoveries about La Llorona that she came across in her search.



2004 is shot in New York City and in northern New Mexico.

Bernadine learns only a few days before shooting the key scene where La Llorona drowns her child that the river location she had selected is the same place that Bernadine Flores drowned her two children and herself.





May

2005 Brooke Shields’ book “Down Came the Rain, My Journey through postpartum depression” is published.



2006 -

2007

is in post-production.

March

2006 Claudia, the post-production manager for , has a freak experience at work where tears of blood drip out of her eyes. In , La Llorona says, “Sisters. You’re like me. You’re fingers will scrape the bottom of the rivers searching for your child…and you will cry tears of blood.”



May

2006 A screen test of a near complete version of is held in Santa Fe, NM where close to 2000 people stand in line for hours in the hope of attending the showing. A second unscheduled screening is held to accommodate the crowd, and is overwhelmingly well received.



July

2006 A Texas Jury overturns Andrea Yates’ capital murder conviction and she is declared not guilty for reasons of insanity. Yates is committed to North Texas State Hospital.



End of

2006 is completed. Meanwhile, Bernadine receives numerous emails and phone calls from people throughout the U.S. who have heard of the Santa Fe test screening of and who want to watch the film.



Present In the United States alone, an estimated 28 to 35 million Hispanics have grown up with stories of La Llorona, with this vengeful ghost considered by many to be the Latino world’s “best kept secret.” The majority of these “believers” are located in California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Illinois.



After many years searching for La Llorona, Bernadine is still convinced that La Llorona is real.



This is a story that the old ones have been telling to children for hundreds of years. It is a sad tale, but it lives strong in the memories of the people, and there are many who swear that it is true.



Long years ago in a humble little village there lived a fine looking girl named Maria Some say she was the most beautiful girl in the world! And because she was so beautiful, Maria thought she was better than everyone else.



As Maria grew older, her beauty increased And her pride in her beauty grew too When she was a young woman, she would not even look at the young men from her village. They weren't good enough for her! "When I marry," Maria would say, "I will marry the most handsome man in the world."



And then one day, into Maria's village rode a man who seemed to be just the one she had been talking about. He was a dashing young ranchero, the son of a wealthy rancher from the southern plains. He could ride like a Comanche! In fact, if he owned a horse, and it grew tame, he would give it away and go rope a wild horse from the plains. He thought it wasn't manly to ride a horse if it wasn't half wild.



He was handsome! And he could play the guitar and sing beautifully. Maria made up her mind-that was, the man for her! She knew just the tricks to win his attention.



If the ranchero spoke when they met on the pathway, she would turn her head away. When he came to her house in the evening to play his guitar and serenade her, she wouldn't even come to the window. She refused all his costly gifts. The young man fell for her tricks. "That haughty girl, Maria, Maria! " he said to himself. "I know I can win her heart. I swear I'll marry that girl."



And so everything turned out as Maria planned. Before long, she and the ranchero became engaged and soon they were married. At first, things were fine. They had two children and they seemed to be a happy family together. But after a few years, the ranchero went back to the wild life of the prairies. He would leave town and be gone for months at a time. And when he returned home, it was only to visit his children. He seemed to care nothing for the beautiful Maria. He even talked of setting Maria aside and marrying a woman of his own wealthy class.



As proud as Maria was, of course she became very angry with the ranchero. She also began to feel anger toward her children, because he paid attention to them, but just ignored her.



One evening, as Maria was strolling with her two children on the shady pathway near the river, the ranchero came by in a carriage. An elegant lady sat on the seat beside him. He stopped and spoke to his children, but he didn't even look at Maria. He whipped the horses on up the street.



When she saw that, a terrible rage filled Maria, and it all turned against her children. And although it is sad to tell, the story says that in her anger Maria seized her two children and threw them into the river! But as they disappeared down the stream, she realized what she had done! She ran down the bank of the river, reaching out her arms to them. But they were long gone.



The next morning, a traveler brought word to the villagers that a beautiful woman lay dead on the bank of the river. That is where they found Maria, and they laid her to rest where she had fallen.



But the first night Maria was in the grave, the villagers heard the sound of crying down by the river. It was not the wind, it was La Llorona crying. "Where are my children?" And they saw a woman walking up and down the bank of the river, dressed in a long white robe, the way they had dressed Maria for burial. On many a dark night they saw her walk the river bank and cry for her children. And so they no longer spoke of her as Maria. They called her La Llorona, the weeping woman. And by that name she is known to this day. Children are warned not to go out in the dark, for, La Llorona might snatch them and never return them.

Mysteries of ClairVoyance
08:06 Jun 07 2011
Times Read: 649

Clairvoyance (from 17th century French with clair meaning "clear" and voyance meaning "visibility") is the apparent ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clear").



Claims for the existence of paranormal psychic abilities such as clairvoyance are highly controversial. Parapsychology explores this possibility, but the existence of the paranormal is not accepted by the scientific community.



Within parapsychology, clairvoyance is used exclusively to refer to the transfer of information that is both contemporary to, and hidden from, the clairvoyant. It is differentiated from telepathy in that the information is said to be gained directly from an external physical source, rather than being transferred from the mind of one individual to another.



Outside of parapsychology, clairvoyance is often used to refer to other forms of anomalous cognition, most commonly the perception of events that have occurred in the past, or which will occur in the future (known as retrocognition and precognition respectively), or to refer to communications with the dead.



Clairvoyance is the art of 'seeing' beyond the five senses. Clairvoyance is often called the 'sixth sense' or esp. It is related to the images that are always present in our minds that bring messages from other frequency and realms. These images can be archetypes, colors, still frame, animations. They can be anything. They can remain on a few seconds or much longer. Initially its easiest to see them with your eyes closed. As you develop your psychic abilities will be able to look to higher frequency, with your eyes opened.



Rules to developing and trusting your increasing abilities.



* Heal your issues and thus you will want to heal others



* Create balance in your emotional and spiritual bodies or your messages will be as jumbled as your thinking



* Your frequency will automatically raise and you will receive images



* Experience, test and explore what is shown to you



* The truth about reality will be given - your mission feeling here



In clairvoyance we 'see' with what is commonly called the third eye. In the human brain there is a gland called the pineal gland. It is located in the back area of the brain almost in the center of the head. This gland has degenerated from its original size comparable to a ping pong ball to its present size comparable to a pea, because we forgot how to use it a long time ago when our breathing patterns changed.



With our reality grid raising planetary frequency, people working out there issues, developing psychic abilities becomes easier in time. This is the Master Plan to awaken sleeping consciousness.



Some people become clairvoyant after a Near Death Experience, an alleged alien abduction, serious illness or accident, such as a blow to the head area, or opening the kundalini energies.



Some people use chemical stimulants or Psychedelics to heighten their awareness. This is something I do not advise as the information may not be accurate and physical side effects may occur later on.



Clairvoyance connects to the right side of the brain - the feminine, creative, and intuitive aspects. That explains the reason some people feel physical sensations in on the left side of their body. The energy enters in through the left side of your body so as to activate the right side of your brain.



Children can display psychic abilities leading parents to believe they are Indigo or Crystal Children.



Opening your clairvoyant gifts has to do with DNA activation of your encoded cellular memories, activation of your chakras, raising your frequency, balancing your energy bodies, your self esteem, the ability to trust in what you 'hear' and 'see', your emotional state, and expanding your knowledge base in all areas of physical reality.



You can't do a reading for read someone on a subject, or understand symbols on a specific subject, if you have no knowledge of that subject. The brain will have no way of interpreting the archetypal symbolism into something you can understand. You can explain what you see, but we meaning must accompany imagery.



Once you have opened your clairvoyant gifts, it is like any other exercise ... it gets easier and easier. Meditation and yoga help.



For centuries the gift of clairvoyance was forbidden and hidden in cryptic messages that few could interpret. People, and religious leaders feared the power of the gifted and the truth these people would bring to an enlightened consciousness.



Humanity has returned to an age of enlightenment in which we are all activating or DNA codes to discover who we are and why we are here. Clairvoyance is part of our total experience, the spiraling evolution of consciousness through the alchemy of time.



Clairvoyance - a noun from late 17th century French [clair (clear) & voyant (seeing)] - is defined as a form of extra-sensory perception whereas a person perceives distant objects, persons, or events, including perceiving an image hidden behind opaque objects and the detection of types of energy not normally perceptible to humans (i.e. radio waves). Typically, such perception is reported in visual terms, but may also include auditory impressions (sometimes called clairaudience) or kinesthetic impressions.



The term clairvoyance is often used broadly to refer to all forms of ESP where a person receives information through means other than those explainable by current science. Perhaps more often, it is used more narrowly to refer to reception of present-time information not from another person, there being other terms to refer to other forms: telepathy referring to reception of information from another person (i.e. presumably mind-to-mind); premonition and precognition that refer to gained information about places and events in the future. The terms clairsentience and remote perception are often used in reference to psi phenomena falling under this broader context.



As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences and even within parapsychology as to the existence of clairvoyance and the validity or interpretation of clairvoyance related experiments.



Clairvoyance through history



There have been anecdotal reports of clairvoyance and claims of clairvoyant abilities on the part of some throughout history in most cultures. Most of these episodes are experienced during young adulthood. Often these have been associated with religious figures, offices, and practices. For example, ancient Hindu religious texts list clairvoyance as one of the siddhis, skills that can be acquired through appropriate meditation and personal discipline. But a large number of anecdotal accounts of clairvoyance are of the spontaneous variety among the general populace. For example, many people report instances of "knowing" in one form or another when a loved one has died or was in danger before receiving notification through normal channels that such events have taken place. Similar presentiments that are not eventually fulfilled are soon forgotten, however. While anecdotal accounts do not provide scientific proof of clairvoyance, such common experiences continue to motivate research into such phenomena.



Clairvoyance was one of the phenomena reported to have been observed in the behavior of somnambulists, people who were mesmerized and in a trance state (nowadays equated with hypnosis by most people) in the time of Franz Anton Mesmer. The earliest recorded report of somnambulistic clairvoyance is credited to the Marquis de Puységur, a follower of Mesmer, who in 1784 was treating a local dull-witted peasant named Victor Race. During treatment, Victor reportedly would go into trance and undergo a personality change, becoming fluent and articulate, and giving diagnosis and prescription for his own disease as well as those of other patients, and forgetting everything when he came out of the trance state. All this is in a manner reminiscent of the reported behaviors of the 20th century medical clairvoyant and psychic Edgar Cayce. It is reported that although Puységur used the term 'clairvoyance', he did not attribute any of this to the paranormal since he accepted mesmerism as one of the natural sciences.



Clairvoyance was in times following a reported ability of some mediums during the spiritualist period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was one of the aspects studied by members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Psychics of many descriptions have claimed clairvoyant ability up to the present day.



While experimental research into clairvoyance began with SPR researchers, experimental studies became more systematic with the efforts of J. B. Rhine and his associates at Duke University, and such research efforts continue to the present day. Perhaps the best-known study of clairvoyance in recent times was the US government-funded remote viewing project at SRI/SAIC during the 1970s through the mid-1990s.



Results of some parapsychological studies, such as the remote viewing studies, suggest that clairvoyance does not exist - the original "remote viewing" study was discontinued by the Stanford Research Institute due to lack of evidence. However there are as yet no satisfactory experiments designed that cleanly separate the various manifestations of ESP. Some parapsychologists have proposed that our different functional labels (clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition) all refer to one basic underlying mechanism, although there is not yet any satisfactory theory for what that mechanism would be.



Clairvoyance as a term has its origins from the French word claire, which means "clear", and voyance, "seeing". It literally means 'clear seeing' in French.



There is ongoing criticism and debate of all these results in the literature.



Developing clairvoyant abilities



Current thinking in clairvoyant circles posits that most are born with clairvoyant abilities but then start to turn them off as children are brought up to adhere to demonstrable social norms. Numerous institutes offer training courses that attempt to revive the abilities present in those early years.



Another school of thought claims that our "sixth sense" grows when we do spiritual practice. With regular spiritual practice done according to basic spiritual principles we increase our spiritual level and are able to perceive and experience the subtle world to greater degrees.

"Shadow People"
08:00 Jun 07 2011
Times Read: 650

Did you see that dark, fleeting shape out of the corner of your eye? Perhaps you caught a glimpse of a strange entity that is being seen with greater regularity around the world.



"What was that?" You were sitting comfortably on your sofareading the latest issue of Fortean Times in the dim light when movement across the room caught your attention. It seemed dark and shadowy, but there was nothing there. You returned to your reading - and a moment later there it was again. You looked up quickly this time and saw the fleeting but distinctly human shape of the shadow pass quickly over the far wall... and disappear.



What was that? Some natural shadow? Your heightened imagination? A ghost? Or was it something that seems to be a spreading phenomenon - apparitions that are coming to be known as "shadow people" or "shadow beings." Perhaps this is an old phenomenon with a new name that is now being discussed more openly, in part thanks to the Internet. Or maybe it's a phenomenon that, for some reason, is manifesting with greater frequency and intensity now.

Those who are experiencing and studying the shadow people phenomenon say that these entities almost always used to be seen out of the corner of the eye and very briefly. But more and more, people are beginning to see them straight on and for longer periods of time. Some experiencers testify that they have even seen eyes, usually red, on these shadow beings.



The mysterious sightings have become a hot topic of conversion in paranormal chat rooms, message boards and websites, and it was given widespread attention on The Art Bell talk radio show. Art's listeners even submitted their drawings of how they perceived these beings, and they can be seen in a haunting gallery on Art's site.



What are shadow people and where do they come from? Several theories have been offered.



The Imagination:



The explanation we get from skeptics and mainstream science - and who are usually people who have never experienced the shadow people phenomenon - is that it is nothing more than the active human imagination. It's our minds playing tricks on us... our eyes seeing things in a fraction of a second that aren't really there - illusions... real shadows caused by passing auto headlights, or some similar explanation. And without a doubt, these explanations probably can account for some if not many experiences. The human eye and mind are easily fooled. But can they account for all cases?



Ghosts



To call these entities ghosts demands first a definition of what we mean by ghosts. But by almost any definition, shadow people are somewhat different than ghost phenomena. Whereas ghost apparitions are almost always a misty white, vaporish or have a decidedly human form and appearance (very often with discernable "clothing"), shadow beings are much darker and more shadow-like. In general, although the shadow people often do have a human outline or shape, because they are dark, the details of their appearance is lacking. This is in contrast to many ghost sightings in which the witness can describe the ghost's facial features, style of clothing and other details. The one detail most often noted in some shadow being sightings are their glowing red eyes.



Demons or Other Spirit Entities:



The dark countenance and malevolent feelings that are often reported in association with these creatures has led some researchers to speculate that they may be demonic in nature. If they are demons, we have to wonder what their purpose or intent is in letting themselves be seen in this manner. Is it merely to frighten?



Astral Bodies:



One interesting idea suggests that shadow people are the shadows or essences of people who are having out-of-body experiences. According to Jerry Gross, an author, lecturer and teacher about astral travel, we all travel out of the body when we are asleep. Perhaps, this theory says, we are seeing the ephemeral astral bodies of these twilight travelers.



Time Travelers:



People from our own future, another idea states, could have found the means to travel to the past - our time. However they are able to accomplish this incredible feat, perhaps in that state they appear to us merely as passing shadows as they observe the events of our timeline.



Interdimensional Beings:



Even mainstream science is fairly convinced that there are dimensions other than the three we inhabit. And if these other dimensions exist, who or what (if anything) inhabits them? Some theorists say that these dimensions exist parallel and very close to our own, although invisible to us. And if there are inhabitants in these other dimensions, it is possible that they have found a way to intrude on our dimension and become, at least partially, visible? If so, they could very well appear as shadows. It has long been held by psychics and other sensitives that beings on other planes of existence are of different "vibrations." Science is beginning to look at reality, on a quantum level, in the same way - that particles of the smallest size exist as vibrations. Perhaps, some theorize, the vibrations of our existence are beginning to mesh with those of another dimension, which accounts for the increase in such phenomena as ghosts, shadow people and possibly aliens.



Aliens:



The alien and abduction phenomena are so bizarre that it's no surprise that extraterrestrials are suspects as the shadow people. Abductees have reported in many cases that the alien grays seem to be able to pass through walls and closed windows, and to appear and disappear abruptly, among other otherworldly talents. Perhaps, too, they can go about their alien agenda disguised in the shadows.



There's a good deal of overlapping among the above ideas, of course. Aliens and ghosts could be interdimensional beings, or aliens could be time travelers - and some believe demons are responsible for all of these disturbing phenomena.



There is no way to prove or disprove any theories about a phenomenon that is so mysterious, that happens so quickly and without warning. Science finds it virtually impossible to catalog or study such phenomena in any methodical way. All we can do, at present, is to document personal experiences and try to piece together what the shadow people phenomenon might be. Perhaps it's an old mystery becoming more recognizable... perhaps it represents a doorway to and from different planes of existence... or perhaps it's just shadows.

The Pontianak (Demon Vampire)
07:33 Jun 07 2011
Times Read: 652

The Pontianak, Kuntilanak, Matianak or 'Boentianak' (as known in Indonesia, sometimes shortened to just kunti) is a type of vampire in Malay folklore and Indonesian mythology, similar to the Langsuir. Pontianak are women who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. The name 'pontianak' is reportedly a corruption of the Indonesian or Malay 'perempuan mati beranak', or 'she who has died in childbirth'



What is Pontianak?



In Malaysia, the creature "Pontianak" is believed to exist in real by certain individual and it is considered a legend by some. The origination of the word "Pontianak" is unknown. In Malay "anak" means child but the word "ponti" is unknown.



It is in general believed that "Pontianak" is the soul of a lady died of child birth. "Pontianak" is basically a female vampire who appears at night. Sometimes she is accompanied by a baby. Normally she is seen at the road side or under a tree. She has long hair. Sometimes she appears young and beautiful to attract male victims. After the victim falls in her trap, she will turn ugly and old with sharp teeth. Attacks would be based on claws, and defense probably on leaping or footwork. She is believed to feed on intestines and blood. "Pontianak" is believed to be attracted by child birth when there is a plenty of blood flowing out from human body. In the olden days, measures are taken by the people to prevent the vampire from coming during child birth. She is believed to be scared of thorns.



The legend



It is said that a woman who dies while she is with child will rise again as a "Pontianak", a fearsome nocturnal undead being who will bring violent death on anyone she meets. Such a being resides inside the trunk of ancient trees, but will revert to her old human nature if an iron nail is driven into her neck. The nail remains in the woman's neck until she dies and is buried with it ... should the nail ever be removed, she will once again become a Pontianak and embark on a killing spree. Due to the frightening fighting prowess of one of these creatures, few are willing to attempt to tame one. For this reason, it is considered unlucky to strike a woman, especially a married woman.



Appearance



In folklore, a Pontianak usually announces its presence through baby cries or assumes the form of a beautiful lady and frightens or kills those unlucky enough to come too close. It disguises itself as a beautiful young woman mainly to attract its victim (usually male). Its presence can sometimes be detected by a nice floral fragrance identifiable as that of the Plumeria, followed by an awful stench afterward. In his 1977 short story collection The Consul’s File Paul Theroux posits that the phantom is an invention of Malay wives who wanted to discourage their husbands from random sexual encounters with women that they met on the road at night.



It is also believed that a Pontianak is very likely to want to target certain female victims (in particular, those who are pregnant or in the childbirth process), and attempt to cause miscarriages as a form of revenge, due to that fact that they may have died as a result of dying during childbirth themselves.



Gauging how far away a Pontianak is by its cries is very tricky. The Malays believe that if the cry is soft, it means that the pontianak is near, and if it is loud, then it must be far. Some believe that if you hear a dog howling, that means that the pontianak is far away. But if a dog is whining, that means the Pontianak or demon-vampires is nearby.



Some also say that mistaking a 'flash' of someone passing by may actually be the Pontianak 'moving' around. They are often described as a woman having very long black hair covering their faces, and wear a long white dress, while their legs and feet are not visible.



A Pontianak kills its victims by digging into their stomachs with its sharp fingernails and devouring their organs. Pontianaks must feed in this manner in order to survive. In some cases where the Pontianak desires revenge against a male individual, it rips out the sex organs with its hands. It is believed that Pontianaks locate prey by sniffing out clothes left outside to dry. For this reason, some Malays refuse to leave any article of clothing outside of their residences overnight.



Some believe that having a sharp object like a nail helps them fend off potential attacks by Pontianaks, the nail being used to plunge a hole at the back of the Pontianak's neck. It is believed that this will turn the Pontianak into a beautiful woman, until the nail is pulled off again. The Indonesian twist on this is to plunge the nail into the apex of the head of the kuntilanak.



The Pontianak is associated with banana trees, and its spirit is said to reside in them during the day.





Name sake



Pontianak in Indonesia is named after this creature, which was claimed to have haunted the Sultan who first settled there. It is said that if you have your eyes open when a Pontianak is near, it will suck them out of your head. When this ghost is really angry, she is said to be able to eat a person.



Langsuir



Langsuir is a version of Pontianak, popular in Malaysia as one of the deadliest vampires in Malay folklore. Different from the pontianak, which always appears as a beautiful woman to devour the victim, langsuir possess the victim and suck their blood from the inside, slowly killing them. It is believed that langsuir are women who suffered from laboring sickness (meroyan) and which resulted in the death of both mother and child in childbirth. Such a woman would turn in to a langsuir 40 days after her death. Portrayed as hideous, scary, vengeful and furious, the langsuir is further characterized as having red eyes, sharp claws, long hair, a green or white robe (most of the time), a rotten face with long fangs and the ability to fly. It is also believed that the langsuir has a hole behind its neck which is used to suck blood. If one puts the Langsuir's hair in this hole or cuts their claws, Langsuir will become human again. To prevent women from turning into langsuir, glass beads are put in the corpses mouth.



Langsuir vs Pontianak in Malay folklore



The Malaysians have a rich mythology involving numerous "demon-vampire" types of all diverse sorts. One of the more prominent Malay vampires is known as the Bajang. The Bajang is generally assumed to be male and takes the form of a huge cat which mews at night. The female of this species is known as the Langsuir, or Langsuyar. There are some variations to the Langsuir tale.



In one version, the Langsuir was a woman of exquisite beauty and charm who, upon hearing the news of her child's stillbirth, died of shock and became a demon. Women in Malaysia seem to have this particularly horrible tendency to suddenly die of shock and become demon-vampires. Anyway, upon hearing the news, the woman claps her hands and flies off to a tree where she perches. The stillborn child becomes the Pontianak. The Langsuir wears a beautiful robe of green and possesses long, tapering nails and flowing black hair- which conceals a "feeding hole" in the back of her neck, which she uses to suck the blood of young children.



In this version, the Langsuir can be stopped or, more precisely, 'domesticated.' To do this, you must catch her, trim her nails and her hair, and then stuff the hair into the hole in the back of her neck. Goodness, it'd be hard enough to catch a normal women and do that, much less one that possesses supernatural powers.



In another telling of the tale, the Langsuir is a woman who has died during childbirth before the 'forty days of uncleanness have expired'. In this variation, the Langsuir is a demon-witch that shrieks and flies about by waving her arms and opening and closing her hands. To prevent this from happening, immediately after the woman has died, glass beads are placed into the corpse's mouth, hen's eggs placed under each armpit, and needles stuck into the palms. This prevents the Langsuir's ability to shriek and move her arms and hands.



The tendency for one to become a Bajang or Langsuir seems to be somewhat hereditary, as the familiar of each is handed down, heirloom style, from one family member to the next- very similar to the supposed witch-possessions of European lore.



Still another version of the story has the Langsuir depicted as a great owl with giant claws that perches itself in trees or upon rooftops, hooting it's melancholy tune (similiar to a Banshee).



Pontianak or Langsuir, which is which?



Now, the Pontianak, or Madi-anak,or demon-vampires also has a few variations. As stated before, the popular reference to the Pontianak is as the stillborn child of the Langsuir, and it takes the form of an owl; just as the mother does in the last variation. Other versions have the stillborn corpse shrieking a maddening cry and flapping its arms and flying about. To prevent this, the same procedure with the beads, eggs, and needles must be performed.



Through some misinterpretation, the Pontianak has also taken on the role of the Langsuir that is in the form of a beautiful woman who died in childbirth. The people of Java refer to the Pontianak as the spirit of a dead virgin, who feeds upon unsuspecting suitors with the hole in the back of her neck; unless they are quick and can loose a single strand of her magnificent hair.



In Java and the rest of Indonesia the names of the Languisar and the Pontianak are reversed such that the Pontianak is the mother and the Langsuir is the baby. Here they also are night flying vampires. But on Java the Pontianak also wails at night like a banshee for the loss of her child.



The origin of Pontianak?



Otherwise known as 'Hantu Kuntilanak among the Indonesians', there are many stories of the Malay vampire, commonly known to the locals in Malaysia as Pontianak. They have long hair and are usually thought of as females. They kill their victims and then suck their blood. There are, however, different opinions on the origins of this Pontianak.



The most common belief is that the Pontianak is usually the ghost of a woman who died during childbirth, and she returns as a vengeful spirit who hates to see other women have what she couldn't. So these spirits would seduce men by appearing to them as a beautiful woman, and once they've lured the unsuspecting males, will proceed to suck the life out of them. They are also known to turn up at a childbirth and 'steal' the new-born baby away. They do steal young women's life too as it is believed that the latter's blood will keep them going.



An Indonesian informant said that Hantu Kuntilanak are actually victims of road accidents who had lost a lot of blood in those accidents. Therefore, they transform themselves into bloodsucking ghosts.



Perhaps the only reason they are called vampire is because they suck blood. Otherwise, Pontianaks do not have characteristic of the Western version of vampire. They have more characteristics possessed by ghosts but are much more violent. Hence, in my opinion, the term 'vampire' may not be such a suitable term to call them but 'Pontianak' should be a more appropriate term.



The Pontianak is the stillborn child of a Langsuir. Langsuir also sucks the blood of living infants and appears in the form of a night owl with long claws. The ways to prevent a stillborn child, whose mother also died at his stillbirth, from becoming a Pontianak match the ways his mother is prevented from becoming a Langsuir demon-vampires.

Precognition (What I have )
01:52 Jun 07 2011
Times Read: 661

The ability to see into the future is one of the most enigmatic areas of paranormality. To accept that it occurs we have to abandon our sense of ‘now’, and to accept a merging of all time, including the future, which rationally has not yet happened. This, however, has not stopped a whole host of theories regarding the subject. From pseudoscholars, to philosophers, to scientists, the existence of a ‘future’ has fascinated some of our cleverest minds.



PHILOSOPHISING TIME



To French philosopher Henri Bergson time is not in the world. Rather, Precognition is a subjective quality, needed for us to place order upon the world. English author J B Priestley went further, arguing that we had to be taught to appreciate time; and once taught, we were imprisoned by it. But these ideas actually tell us little of the mechanics of time. One theory to explain precognition is the ‘bow wave’ effects. As a boat ploughs through water, it leaves ripples which dissipate with the passing of time. Could time be similar, causing ripples that go back to the past from the future? Ripples of knowledge that we can intuit?



THE TIME SCIENTISTS



Prof Paul Davies suggests there are an infinite number of universes. Could we cross into other universes? And if so, could we re-enter the same universe at a different point in time? Cosmologist Thomas Gold suggested that the direction of time is a product of the universe expanding. But what if it is really contracting? If so, it is an illusion that time goes forward. It is really going backwards. Hence, we experience things that haven’t yet happened. A further idea is the block-universe hypothesis. Here, the four dimensions, including time, are really static. Movement is really consciousness moving through it, rather like a beam of light, illuminating and making it real. But if the unconscious is more like a searchlight, it will pierce deeper and wider, the unconscious appreciating events before they happen.



AN EXPERIMENT WITH TIME



British engineer J W Dunne was fascinated by the subject, keeping a ‘dream diary’ for many years. Once, in South Africa during the Boer War, he dreamt he was stood on a hill watching a volcano erupt. The number 4,000 was connected with the image. Later he heard of the eruption on Martinique which killed 40,000. On another occasion he saw a train disappear over an embankment in his dream. A couple of months later the Flying Scotsman plunged over an embankment not far from the Forth Bridge. Writing about his experiences in his 1927 book, ‘An Experiment With Time,’ Dunne argued time existed in layers, each slightly more advanced in time than the others. Alongside these layers were various selves, or states of consciousness, in the person. At times we can move into higher layers, thus appreciating the future.



CAUSALITY AND FREE WILL



There is, of course, a problem with these ideas. None of them can be proved. Indeed, the idea that we can see the future flies in the face of logic, particularly concerning the law of causality. This simple law states that a cause must come before an effect. For instance, if you are shot, a gun must first be fired. It is ridiculous to surmise that you could experience the wounding (the effect) before the gun firing (the cause). Events simply must happen in order for the world to make sense. But if a definite future exists, then this order is blown. Philosophically, we also have a problem with free will. Fundamental to who we are is the idea that we can make choices. Such choices lead to actions, and it is those actions that will go on to form the future. However, if a definite future already exists, then those choices become irrelevant, and our free will is a fallacy. Such an acceptance of a future negates our ability to think and act. Rather, we would simply be mindless players of a universal tune. TOWARDS OTHER DIMENSIONS



As we can see, there seems to be severe problems concerning the possbility of the future already existing. Scientific theories are unproveable, and philosophically it is ridiculous. So should we forget the idea that a definite future is already there to intuit? The easy answer is yes. But there is the possibility that we haven’t grasped the concept yet because of our knowledge is not up to the job. Basically, it is us who let ourselves down. Maybe, in the future, this will change. But if so, where would the most likely theory come from? I’d put my bet on the possibility of other dimensions. At present, eleven dimensions are theorised to exist in the universe. Similarly, many theorists are beginning to argue that consciousness extends into the fundamental construction of the universe. If we thus see a possibility of a deeper form of consciousness existing in other dimensions, we can change our appreciation of what ‘time’ is.That would be Precognition.



THE ETERNAL NOW



To us, time flows in an orderly fashion. It may slow down or speed up, dependent upon Relativity Theory, but it does not go backwards - at least not in the universe we experience. But there is nothing to say that other dimensions have to exist in time. Indeed, ‘time’ is a dimension in itself. It is the fourth dimension, and length, breadth and height exist within it, as we experience the three-dimensaional world in time. Other dimensions are beyond our experience, so are likely, also, to be beyond time. But what does it mean to be ‘beyond’ time or Precognition? If time does not exist, then everything can logically be said to exist at once. There would be no past, present or future, but simply an eternal now. Perhaps we are cut off, in normal consciousness, from this eternal now. But at times when our consciousness changes, such as in an altered state, maybe we catch a glimpse of an eternal now, and perceive just a modicum of knowing of what will happen then.



(c) Anthony North



From Wikipedia



Precognition (from the Latin præ-, “prior to,” + cognitio, “a getting to know”) denotes a form of extra-sensory perception where in a person is said to perceive information about places or events through paranormal means before they happen. A related term, presentiment, refers to information about future events which is said to be perceived as emotions. These terms are considered by some to be special cases of the more general term clairvoyance.



Those skeptical of the existence of precognition and other forms of ESP believe it to be the result of fraud or self-delusion and contend that selection bias is the cause of the belief that one has precognition where individuals remember the "hits" and forget the "misses". Skeptics contend that the human memory naturally has a tendency to remember coincidences more often than other non-coincidences and thus individuals tend to remember more frequently when they were correct about a future event and forget the instances when they were wrong.

Enochian Magic
01:41 Jun 07 2011
Times Read: 662

Enochian magic is a system of ceremonial magic based on the evocation and commanding of various spirits. It is based on the 16th-century writings of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, who claimed that their information was delivered to them directly by various angels. Dee's journals contained the Enochian script, and the table of correspondences that goes with it. It claims to embrace secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch.



Origins



Dee and Kelley claimed they received these instructions from angels and wrote them down. This account is taken at face value by most Enochian occultists. However, some of them have pointed out remarkable similarities to earlier grimoiric texts such as the Heptameron known to Dee. Doubts surrounding Kelley in particular have led many non-occultists to the assumption the whole system was originally a fraud devised by Kelley in order to receive more financial support from Dee. The system claims to relate to secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch.



It is not quite clear how much of Enochian magic was put to use by Dee and Kelley. However, rediscovery of Enochian magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has sparked remarkable publicity for it in modern occultism. Enochian as an operative system is difficult to reconstruct based upon original manuscripts like the collection of Sir Hans Sloane in the British Museum, but contemporary occult organizations have attempted to make it usable. The Golden Dawn was the first, but their knowledge was based upon only one of Dee's diaries and their planetary, elemental, or zodiacal attributions have no foundation in the original sources.



Aleister Crowley, who worked with, and wrote about, Enochian magic extensively, has contributed much to its comparatively widespread use today. His first work on the topic was his Liber Chanokh, a brief account of almost the whole system as the Golden Dawn saw it, but his most famous work with Enochian focused upon the Calls of the Aethyrs. His visions from these calls formed a document called The Vision and the Voice, also known as Liber 418.



Today



Compared to other theories of magic, Enochian magic is strikingly complex and difficult to understand. Also, parts of the original manuscripts written by Dee have been lost, mainly due to a fire in his house after his death, thus key parts of the system are missing. This has allowed numerous interpretations to arise, some of which have solidified into schools of thought with individual bodies of interpretative literature.



Enochian magic forms the backbone of both the Crowley and Golden Dawn systems of magic. Latest theories include that John Dee knew of the Slavonic Book of the Secrets of Enoch, as well as the Ethiopic Book of Enoch. Many individual workers or very small groups prefer Enochian magic to other forms as the ceremonial scale required is smaller than needed for Masonic style ritual work.



Anton LaVey's book The Satanic Bible includes a section of "Enochian Keys" purported to have been part of the lost manuscripts of Dr. Dee's, though this has been proven to be false. LaVey simply took the original enochian keys but gave them another translation that fitted more into his satanic view of the world



Enochian magic is the system of theurgy, or angel magic, communicated to the Elizabethan mathematician, geographer, astrologer and magician, Dr. John Dee (1527-1608) through the medium of his crystal scryer, the alchemist and necromancer Edward Kelley (1555-1595) by a hierarchy of spiritual intelligences who identified themselves as the same angels that had instructed the biblical patriarch Enoch in the occult wisdom of heaven.



Enoch is the fabled author of a number of mystical and magical texts that deal largely with the fallen angels of God, known collectively as the Watchers, whose task it was to watch over humanity from the four Watchtowers at the corners of creation. These Watchers observed that human women were beautiful and lusted after them. A group of Watchers, led by an angel known by a variety of names, among them Azazel, descended to the earth and adopted material forms so that they could dwell with mortal women. Their consorts bore them sons and daughters who were half-human and half-angelic.



The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.... There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:2,4)



What the Bible neglects to say is that in return for the pleasure of their company, these fallen Watchers taught the women they loved, along with their half-breed descendants, the beginnings of all the arts and sciences that have so transformed the world in the modern age. They also taught enchantments, spells, the making of talismans and amulets, bewitchments, fascinations, glamours, the knowledge of the occult use of herbs and stones, astrology, and other esoteric arts. The use of cosmetics by women is ascribed to the teachings of the Watchers, who presumably wished their consorts to be more alluring.



More destructively, the Watchers taught their descendants the arts of warfare in order that they could rules as kings over all the lands of the earth. The mighty sons of the Watchers fell into contention with each other, and chaos reigned. The sons of the fallen angels, of which the first generation were known as giants because of their great wisdom and power, were regarded as devils by ordinary human beings. From the union of the daughters of the Watchers with those same Watchers, mortal men and women of great power and intelligence were born; from the union of the sons of the Watchers with those same Watchers (who are both male and female, being angels) spiritual creatures of male and female appearance possessing the power to rule over the earthly elements came forth.



The rule in magic is that from the sexual union between a spirit and a man, a spiritual creature with human qualities is born out of the womb of the spirit; but from the sexual union between a spirit and a woman, a human child with spiritual qualities is born out of the womb of the woman. Merlin falls into the second category -- he was the product of a union between a mortal woman and a spirit. As a practical matter, the offspring between an angel and a mortal woman must have a physical matrix or basis to inhabit before it can fully become flesh -- it must possess an embryo within its mother that was conceived in the usual way with a mortal man.



In this passage quoted from the Book of Enoch, the author explains these matters, though not so clearly as I have done, to his readers by having God speak to the fallen Watchers:



"But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits upon earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offenses. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them. From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants, from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgement -- thus shall they destroy until the day of the consummation, the great judgement in which the age shall be consummated, over the Watchers and the godless, yea, shall be wholly consummated."



The biblical Flood was caused to cover the earth by God in order to cleanse it of the tragic creations of humanity, who used the occult arts taught by the Watchers to bring about chaos and destruction. However, Noah and his family survived, the animals and plants survived, and so did a number of the spiritual children of the children of the Watchers.



The Enochian angels informed John Dee that they intended to instruct him in the same magic they had taught to Enoch after his living ascent into heaven. This was similar to the original angel magic taught by the Watchers to the daughters of men and their children. However, the angels informed Dee that their magic was pure, whereas the magic taught by the Watchers had been tainted black magic.



The following was spoken by the Enochian angel Ave to John Dee through the voice of Edward Kelley on Monday (the Enochian sabbath), the 25th day of June, in the year 1584, immediately prior to his delivering to Dee through Kelley the Great Table of the Watchtowers, and the explanation of the use of the Watchtowers. I have transcribed it from page 174 of Meric Casaubon's A True and Faithful Relation.



"The Lord appeared unto Enoch, and was mercifull unto him, open his eyes, that he might see and judge the earth, which was unknowne unto his Parents, by reason of their fall: for the Lord said, Let us shew unto Enoch, the use of the earth: And lo, Enoch was wise, and full of the spirit of wisdom.



"And he sayed unto the Lord, Let there be remembrance of thy mercy, and let those that love thee taste of this after me: O let not thy mercy be forgotten. And the Lord was pleased.



"But behold, the people waxed wicked, and became unrighteous, and the spirit of the Lord was far off, and gone away from them. So that those that were unworthy began to read. And the Kings of the earth said thus against the Lord, What is it that we cannot do? Or who is he, that can resist us? And the Lord was vexed, and he sent in amongst them an hundred and fifty Lions, and spirits of wickednesse, errour, and deceit: and they appeared unto them: For the Lord had put them between those that are wicked, and his good Angels: And they began to counterfeit the doings of God and his power, for they had power given them so to do, so that the memory of Enoch washed away: and the spirits of errour began to teach them Doctrines: which from time to time unto this age, and unto this day, hath spread abroad into all parts of the world, and is the skill and cunning of the wicked.



"Hereby they speak with the Devils: not because they have power over the Devils, but because they are joyned unto them in the league and Discipline of their own Doctrine.



"For behold, as the knowledge of the mystical figures, and the use of their presence is the gift of God delivered to Enoch, and by Enoch his request to the faithfull, so thereby they might have the true use of God's creatures, & of the earth whereon they dwell: So hath the Devil delivered unto the wicked the signs, and tokens of his error and hatred towards God: whereby they in using them, might consent with their fall: and so become partakers with them of their reward, which is eternal damnation.



"These they call Characters: [blank space in the text, where the evil characters should have been printed] a lamentable thing. For by these, many Souls have perished.



"Now hath it pleased God to deliver this Doctrine again out of darknesse: and to fulfill his promise with thee, for the books of Enoch: To whom he sayeth as he said unto Enoch.



"Let those that are worthy understand this, by thee, that it may be one witnesse of my promise toward thee."



The above is an extremely important passage in the Enochian conversations, because it ties Enochian magic to the myth in the Hebrew Book of Enoch of the fallen angels or Watchers who descended to Earth to sin with the daughters of man. In the Hebrew Book of Enoch the only explanation given for the descent of the Watchers is lust, but Ave reveals that the Watchers were allowed access to the Earth in order to sow confusion among the kings of the Earth, who otherwise would have become godlike in their power through the perverted use of the magic delivered to Enoch from God, and passed on with God's permission by the deathless Enoch to humanity.



God could not simply erase Enochian magic from human memory, so he introduced a flawed black magic that was more seductive than Enochian magic. This black magic was a fool's trap. Those who used it to enhance their worldly power damned their souls, and became prey to the demons of the Abyss.



Ave does not explicitly state that the introduction of this false magic and its wanton misuse was followed by the biblical Flood, but by connecting the Hebrew myth of Enoch with the myth revealed by the Enochian angel Ave to Dee, we may make this link. We may even speculate that the misuse of the black magic introduced by the fallen Watchers, the 150 "Lions, and spirits of wickednesse, errour and deceit", is what precipitated the Flood, or even more radical a thought, that the black magic of the Watchers is what enabled God to bring about the Flood.



It may well have been necessary for mankind to trigger the Flood through the abuse of this black magic, perhaps by using it in concert with the incredibly powerful original angel magic of Enoch. By this I mean that the power of destruction may not have resided directly in the black magic delivered to mankind by the 150 lions of wickedness, but rather this black magic may have induced the kings of the Earth to pervert the pure magic of Enoch into destructive channels, causing Enochian magic itself to bring about the Flood. Perhaps the black magic of the Lions was akin to a computer virus introduced into the source code of the original Enochian magic.



There are interesting echoes in the Enochian mythos with the story of Atlantis, which intimates that the people of Atlantis gained access to a powerful knowledge they were unable to control, a knowledge that ultimately caused the destruction of the continent of Atlantis by its submergence beneath the waves of the sea -- in other words, destruction by a great flood. The knowledge of Atlantis that was misused is usually called a science in modern commentaries on the Atlantean myth, but in the time of Plato, who recorded the main features of the myth, there was no such thing as science. The knowledge of Atlantis was a form of magic, not a science.



Dee was not strongly psychic. He needed a medium in order to communicate reliably with the Enochian angels. Edward Kelley was one of the greatest, if not the greatest medium of the Elizabethan Age. In return for Dee's help in creating the red powder of alchemy that turns lead and other base metals into gold, and also for the sum of fifty pounds a year, Kelley acted as Dee's psychic.



From 1582 to 1587 these men were in communication with the Enochian angels on an almost daily basis. Dee's practice was to sit at a table and write down exactly everything Kelley described seeing in the crystal ball, as well as all the words spoken between Kelley and the angels. Since Dee's diaries have, for the most part, survived, we possess a priceless and fascinating record of the angel scryings that have the accuracy of a court transcript. The latter part of Dee's diaries were published in 1659 by Meric Casaubon in A True and Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and some Spirits.



One of the angels took the non-threatening form of a golden-haired little girl in a green and red dress, who called herself Madimi. Her name indicates that she was a spirit of Mars (the Hebrew name for the sphere of Mars is Madim), and therefore a spirit of warfare and conquest, but she was careful to conceal her martial nature from Dee, who over the years grew so fond of her, he came to regard her almost as one of his own children. Indeed, Dee actually named one of his little girls Madimia after this spirit. Madimi was also quite fond of Dee, and treated him with the love and respect a dutiful child might accord her father.



The other Enochian angels were less endearing. If they can be characterized under a single term, it would be businesslike. They set about conveying the Enochian magic to Dee and Kelley as efficiently as possible. The most important teachings took place on successive Mondays -- Monday, the day of the moon, is the sacred day of the Enochian angels, just as Sunday is the sacred day of Christians and Saturday the sacred day of Jews. This indicates that Enochian magic is lunar in its fundamental nature, in contrast to Christianity which is a solar cult.



The angels who gave the teachings to Kelley so that he could pass them on to Dee called themselves by various names, among them Michael, Gabriel, Auriel and Raphael, the names of the four archangels associated with the four elements. The most powerful of the Enochian spirits was Madimi's mysterious Mother, who appeared rarely. Kelley was not able to see her directly, nor did she speak directly to him, but only through Madimi or another of her children. The Mother of Madimi appears to have been a moon goddess of great potency. She gave as her name only the words "I AM." It is significant that this is the same response given by God to Moses when Moses asks God for his name. In Hebrew the response of God was "Eheieh asher eheieh" (I am that which I am).



It is not at all clear why the Enochian angels communicated their system of magic to humanity. They intimated to Dee that it was given to him as a reward for his piety, and was intended as a bountiful gift from the angels to humanity. However, there is every reason to believe that they were not being completely honest in their motives. We know why they chose Dee and Kelley -- together, these men were perhaps the only men of their time capable of receiving and making sense out of the angelic communications. As to why the angels decided to give to mankind a knowledge of what they claimed was the same magic that had been taught to Enoch, but which arguably might just as likely be the magic that was taught by the Watchers to their descendants before the Flood, we cannot know, but it may well have some bearing on the coming period of transition from the present Age of Pisces into the next Age of Aquarius, which will be a period of great suffering and destruction and which is generally known as the Apocalypse. It was the magic taught to mankind by the Watchers that caused God to cover the earth with the Flood in Noah's time -- it is quite possible that the similar (or identical) Enochian magic is intended by the angels to act as a trigger for the coming Apocalypse. The angels intimated that this was the case to Dee and Kelley, but they never declared it openly.



The Enochian angels are not bound to time in the same way that human consciousness is bound to it. They exist in time, at least while they are in the process of communicating or interacting with human consciousness, but they do not perceive time the same way human beings perceive it. Consequently, the system of Enochian magic was delivered by the angels in pieces that are out of their correct sequence. When fitted together in the right order, they create a seamless whole. More than anything else, this is proof that Kelley did not invent the Enochian communications. It would have been beyond the capacity of normal human intelligence to do so.



On the question of whether the Enochian magic is a genuine spirit communication, there can be no doubt that it is after studying it's beauty and complexity. The English text of the Enochian Keys is a poetry far beyond the talents of Edward Kelley, as Kelley's other attempts at verse very clearly demonstrate. Some writers have postulated that Kelley invented Enochian magic so that he could deceive Dee and remain in his employ. Apart from the fact that Kelley did not possess the talent or learning to invent the Enochian communications, it is significant that Kelley hated the Enochian angels with a passion and always believed that the angels were deceiving Dee and himself about their true intentions.



Kelley remained with Dee only because he hoped Dee, and the Enochian angels, would help him to learn the alchemical secret of making the red powder. Numerous times during their years together Kelley almost walked out on Dee over the messages of the angels, which seemed to him devilish. He was only with great difficulty persuaded to stay and continue the work of scrying by Dee, and ultimately he did so because he valued Dee's friendship and respected Dee's judgement. For the angels he never had any other feeling than loathing. The angels, for their part, held Kelley in contempt, regarding him as nothing more than an instrument of communication through which they could reach John Dee.



There is no question that Enochian magic is the product of the hierarchy of lunar spirits who identified themselves as the angels of Enoch. There is also no question that Edward Kelley was completely incapable of consciously inventing the angelic communications. At times Kelley was even incapable of describing parts of the system he saw in the crystal, so great was their degree of complexity. Enochian magic is genuine. As to what the Enochian angels really were, or are, the question remains unanswered.



Enochian magic has several main structures. The early communications concern the angels of the seven days of the week, and the magic that may be worked by them when they are correctly evoked and instructed. They also describe the making of the magic instruments by which Enochian magic is worked. The later communications delivered the Enochian alphabet of 21 letters, the four Enochian Watchtowers, and the Enochian language in the form of 48 evocations known as the Enochian Keys or Calls. They are called Keys because they can be used to open the locked gates of the four Watchtowers; they are called Calls because they call forth angels and spirits, chief among them the angels and spirits of the thirty Enochian Aethers or Airs, which are non-physical levels of reality or planes of existence that lie beyond those gates.



The four Watchtowers themselves have no physical existence, since they are not actually a part of the earth, but they can be represented by means of certain magic squares of letters that have a complex numerical structure. Woven into the letters on these four squares are the names of the most important Enochian spirits used in Enochian magic. Collectively, the four magic squares are known as the Great Table of the Watchtowers.



Many of the most important symbolic structures of Enochian magic were delivered by the angels to Kelley through a set of incredibly complex magic squares that collective were known to Dee and Kelley as the Book of Enoch. The angels would point to specific cells in these tables, and Dee would write down the letters repeated by Kelley one by one until a structure emerged. Other parts of the system were simply dictated, or were revealed by means of symbolic pantomimes presented to Kelley by the angels within the depths of the crystal, or more rarely in the scrying chamber.



A limited, modified form of Enochian magic was included in the documents of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and in this form entered into modern Western occultism. It was created by S. L. MacGregor Mathers in the year prior to the establishment of the Golden Dawn, which opened its first temple in London in 1888. Mathers spent all his time doing occult research in the Reading Room of the British Museum, where Dee's manuscripts were then kept. This truncated Enochian magic has a proven effectiveness, but it should not be mistaken for the true system that was communicated to John Dee by the angels. This true system has been partially reassembled in such books as The Enochian Magick of Dr. John Dee by Geoffrey James, The Heptarchia Mystica by Robert Turner, and Enochian Magic For Beginners by Donald Tyson, all of which are recommended for further study.



In the popular lore of modern Western magic, the Enochian Keys have a very dark and fearful reputation. Many magicians are afraid to speak them, even in English. When John Dee received them, the Keys were delivered backwards by the angels, word by word, so that Dee could not inadvertently speak them to himself as he received them. Enochian magic is known in occult circles as a form of the art not to be played with. Even the speaking of Enochian names of spirits can be dangerous, and can have unexpected or even tragic results. Perhaps we should be thankful that the exact way to pronounce the Enochian language, which was communicated directly to Dee through Kelley by the angels, has been lost. As a result, the Enochian Keys and the names of Enochian angels are less potent when uttered by the unwary.



None the less, the Keys are quite beautiful as poetry. I will transcribe one of the shorter Keys, the Second Key, in the English translation communicated by the angel Nalvage to Kelley through the agency of the crystal ball that you see illustrated at the top of this page. This translation of the Second Key was given to Dee and Kelley on April 25, 1584, in the city of Cracow. I will reproduce the exact spelling from the book of Meric Casaubon, but will modify the punctuation for the sake of clarity:



Can the wings of the windes understand your voices of wonder, O you the second of the first, whom the burning flames have framed within the depth of my Jaws; whom I have prepared as Cups for a wedding, or as the flowers in their beauty for the Chamber of righteousnesse: stronger are your feet than the barren stone, and mightier are your voices then the many fold windes, for you are become a building, Such as is not but in the minde of the all-powerful. Arise, saith the first; Move, therefore, unto his servants, shew your selves in power, and make me a strong seething; for, I am of him that liveth for ever.

Unexplained Mysteries of Voodoo's power
01:38 Jun 07 2011
Times Read: 663

In the tiny West African country of Benin, voodoo has been practised for 10,000 years, but efforts to preserve its ancient oral traditions are exacting a harsh toll on its faithful, splitting families and pushing people deeper into poverty.



Benin is unique in recognising voodoo as an official religion, followed by two-thirds of its 7.6 million people. It involves a pantheon of gods and spirits whose intercession is sought through animal blood sacrifice. But to survive, voodoo needs a new generation to pass on sacred mysteries, so thousands of children are initiated by its priests every year. But the price of the ceremonies can be unbearable and some parents are selling their children to repay voodoo debts.



In the village of Djejbe, a nine-year-old girl shuffles, head down, issuing guttural chants. Stripped to the waist she stares at the earth scoured by her naked feet as she emerges into the courtyard of the 'voodoo convent' of Do Pa Tohizanli, one of many institutions for initiating children into the voodoo mysteries.



Thomas Azanaai, author of a report into the convent system, estimates that there are thousands of such convents. While at Do Pa Tohizanli this girl is 'dead' and has no name. Once initiated, she will be reborn and renamed once. Her mother, Adonosi Kpamegan, watches nervously. She cannot approach her daughter, who ends her song and prostrates herself before the high priest. It is forbidden for parents to have any communication with their children while they undergo initiation, a process, the priest says, that could take three months, but often lasts more than three years.



After five miscarriages, Kpamegan went to her priest 12 years ago to seek help having a child. He performed a fertility ritual for free, the Faustian bargain being that if she had a child she would bring it to the convent. But when her daughter was born, Kpamegan had no money to pay for an initiation so, she claims, they took the baby by force, only giving her back after she agreed to save the money and surrender her child later. Nine years on, she still had not saved enough. 'Then, voodoo took my daughter,' she says. 'She was possessed and ran screaming out of my house to the convent.'



The ceremonies will cost around £200, a fortune in a country where over half the population live on less than £1 a day. Kpamegan earns 12p a day as a firewood collector; her husband is unemployed.



The high priest denies enriching himself at the expense of the poor. 'The money does not come to me,' he insists. All the money, he claims, is used to buy goats and chickens and other ceremonial ingredients. The concept of reducing the cost of the sacrifices is laughable. 'When voodoo demands something of you, you cannot deny it.' Gap-toothed and elderly, he is unable to see a way forward, or even that there might be a problem.





Benin's poverty has been caused by factors including arid soil, over-population and disastrous financial management in 17 years up to 1990 when it was a Marxist dictatorship. At best, voodoo ceremonies strain the resources of rural communities who traditionally bartered goods, not cash, for rituals. At worst, it bankrupts and splits families, forcing them deeper into debt and destitution.



One way to mitigate the worst effects of poverty is to sell children, giving them up in lieu of the costs of initiation and other ceremonies. Other parents send their children to work as domestic servants or labourers in conditions that Souleymane Diallo, the UN Children's Education Fund representative in Benin, describes as 'a form of modern slavery'.



Diallo believes many families will pay for initiation debts by selling one or more children into bonded labour. Research suggests 40,000 children are trafficked into labour in Benin every year and also to quarries in Nigeria where they are routinely beaten, starved and work gruelling shifts breaking rocks.



One self-confessed child trafficker estimates his family run business has brokered the sale of more than 3,000 to work as servants and labourers in 'the last few years'.



Eric Abou, a Muslim, adds: 'My mother is undergoing initiation. It's very expensive, and she is not allowed to leave the convent until I have paid for the ceremonies.' The suggestion that he might leave her there and save some money - and sell fewer children - is greeted with a nervous laugh. Voodoo is serious business.



· Director James Brabazon was in Benin with reporter Evan Williams. Their film 'Unreported World: Voodoo Children' will be shown on Channel 4 on Friday



Voodoo is a religious tradition originating in West Africa, which became prominent in the New World due to the importation of African slaves. West African Vodun is the original form of the religion; Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo are its descendants in the New World.



Vodou (Anglicized: Voodoo) is a name attributed to a New World syncretistic religion, or family of religions, based on the faiths of the Fon, Ewe, and related peoples of West Africa (see West African Vodun), of the Kongo people of Central Africa (see Lemba), and of Christianity. It is found in areas of the African diaspora, especially Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Brazil. This article is primarily concerned with the form of the religion as it is practiced in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. See Louisiana Voodoo for the Afro-creole tradition of New Orleans, Santería and Arará for the forms local to Cuba, and Candomblé and Umbanda for Brazil.



In Vodou [voo - doo], all Creation is divine and therefore contains divine power, which can be accessed by practitioners. The core functions of Voodoo are to explain the forces of the universe, to influence those forces, and to influence human behavior. Voodoo oral traditions carry genealogy, history, and fables. Adherents honor deities and venerate ancestors, both ancient and recent.



When the word Vodou is capitalized, it denotes the religion. In lower case, it means the spirits of the religion.

History of Mysterious Halloween
01:33 Jun 07 2011
Times Read: 664

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31, usually by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most commonly in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.



The term "Halloween" derives from Hallowe'en, an old contraction, still retained in Scotland and some parts of Canada, of "All Hallow's Eve," so called as it is the day before All Saints day (observed by some Christians, including Roman Catholics), which used to be called "All Hallows," derived from All Hallowed Souls.



In Ireland, the name was Hallow Eve and this name is still used by some older people. Halloween was formerly also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries (along with Christmas and Easter, two other traditional northern European pagan holidays) and given a Christian reinterpretation.



In Mexico, All Saint's Day, following Halloween, is the Day of the Dead.



Halloween is also called "Pooky Night" in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the puca, a mischievous spirit.



"Punkie Night" is observed on the last Thursday in October in the village of Hinton St. George in the county of Somerset in England. On this night, children carry lanterns made from hollowed-out mangel-wurzels (a kind of beet; in modern days, pumpkins are used) with faces carved into them. They bring these around the village, collecting money and singing the punkie song. 'Punkie' is derived from 'pumpkin' or 'punk,' meaning 'tinder.'





Though the custom is only attested over the last century, and the mangel-wurzel itself was introduced into English agriculture in the late 18th century, "Punkie Night" appears to be much older even than the fable that now accounts for it. The story goes that the wives of Hinton St. George went looking for their wayward husbands at the fair held nearby at Chiselborough, the last Thursday in October, but first hollowed out mangel wurzels in order to make lanterns to light their way. The drunken husbands saw the eerie lights, thought they were "goolies" (the restless spirits of children who had died before they were baptized), and fled in terror. Children carry the punkies now. The event has spread since about 1960 to the neighboring village of Chiselborough.

In the United Kingdom, the pagan Celts celebrated the Day of the Dead on Halloween. The spirits supposedly rose from the dead and, in order to attract them, food was left on the doors. To scare off the evil spirits, the Celts wore masks. When the Romans invaded Britain, they embellished the tradition with their own, which is the celebration of the harvest and honoring the dead.



These traditions were then passed on to the United States. Anoka, Minnesota, USA, the self-proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World," celebrates with a large civic parade.



Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when the spirit world can make contact with the natural world and when magic is most potent.



Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). It is the time between Samhain (pronounced "SOW-in" in Ireland, SOW-een in Wales, "SAV-en" in Scotland or even "SAM-haine" in non Gaelic speaking countries) and Brigid's Day "the period of little sun." Thus, Samhain is often named the "Last Harvest" or "Summer's End". The Earth nods a sad farewell to the God.



We know that He will once again be reborn of the Goddess and the cycle will continue. This is the time of reflection, the time to honor the Ancients who have gone on before us and the time of 'Seeing" (divination). As we contemplate the Wheel of the Year, we come to recognize our own part in the eternal cycle of Life.



While almost all Celtic based traditions recognize this Holiday as the end of the "old" year, some groups do not celebrate the coming of the "new year" until Yule. Some consider the time between Samhain and Yule as a time which does not even exist on the Earthly plane. The "time which is no time" was considered in the "old days" to be both very magickal and very dangerous. So even today, we celebrate this Holiday with a mixture of joyous celebration and 'spine tingling" reverence.

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their New Year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. They believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth.In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids,or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.



By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.



The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.



By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands.



In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st as 'All Saints' Day', a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday.



The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.



In 1000 A.D., the church made November 2 'All Souls' Day', a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England.



During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.



The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.



The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween followed European and Celtic roots and traditions. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the Earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes.To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.



As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there. It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.



As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.



In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.



In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.



By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time.



By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.



Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow.



Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.





Religious Viewpoints:



The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks and handing out candy. The secular celebration of Halloween may loom larger in contemporary imagination than does All Saints' Day.



The mingling of Christian and pagan traditions in the development of Halloween, and its real or assumed preoccupation with evil and the supernatural, have left many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards the holiday.



Some fundamentalist and evangelical along with many Eastern Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jewish believers consider Halloween a pagan or Satanic holiday, and refuse to allow their children to participate. In some areas, complaints from fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a pagan religion have led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes at Halloween.



Other Christians, however, continue to connect the holiday with All Saints Day. Some modern Christian churches commonly offer a "fall festival" or harvest-themed alternative to Halloween celebrations.



Still other Christians hold the view that the holiday is not Satanic in origin or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality actually being a valuable life lesson.



Ironically, considering that most fundamentalist sects are Protestant in nature, many Protestant denominations celebrate October 31 as Reformation Day, which commemorates the October 31, 1517 posting of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses.



Many mainline churches and religious schools, particularly Lutheran ones, meld the two holidays without worrying about "Satanic influences."

Jack-o'-lanterns may be carved with a funny face. Halloween's theme is spooky or scary things particularly involving death, black magic, or mythical monsters.



Commonly-associated Halloween characters include ghosts, witches, bats, black cats, owls, goblins, zombies and demons, as well as certain fictional figures like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Homes are often decorated with these symbols around Halloween.



Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. In modern Halloween images and products, purple, green, and red are also prominent.



Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, are also reflected in symbols of Halloween.



The jack-o'-lantern, a carved vegetable lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols. In Britain and Ireland, a turnip was and sometimes still is used, but immigrants to America quickly adopted the pumpkin because it is much larger and easier to carve.



Many families that celebrate Halloween will carve a pumpkin into a scary or comical face and place it on the home's doorstep on Halloween night for fun. Traditionally, something like this was done in order to scare evil spirits away.





Observance of Halloween faded in the South of England from the 17th century onwards, being replaced by the commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot on November 5. However it remained popular in Scotland, Ireland and the North of England. It is only in the last decade that it again became popular in the South of England, but as an entirely Americanized version.



The custom survives most accurately in Ireland, where the last Monday of October is a public holiday. All schools close for the following week for mid-term, commonly called the Halloween Break. As a result Ireland is the only country where children never have school on Halloween and are therefore free to celebrate it in the ancient and time-honored fashion.



The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have evolved from the European custom called souling, similar to the wassailing customs associated with Yule. On November 2, All Souls' Day, beggars would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes" - square pieces of bread with currants.



Christians would promise to say prayers on behalf of dead relatives helping the soul's passage to heaven. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits at the Samhain.



In Celtic parts of western Brittany, Samhain is still heralded by the baking of kornigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemorate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the Otherworld.

We all wear different costumes in the various roles we play in this reality and others. Sometimes they fit - but can become outmoded as we move thrugh different aspects of our lives. Halloween is a time of magic and mystery in which we can explore some of the costumes we wear in this lifetime and others.



Close your eyes and prepare as you would for Meditation.



You prefer a dark room lit only by candle light.



Imagine yourself in a store buying a Halloween costume.



You look around at the many selections.



Take your time.



Find a costume that calls to you.



Now try it on.



Look in the mirror. What do you see in your reflection?



How does the costume make you feel?



Become that person and walk out into the world wearing the costume and being that person.



If that person is you in this lifetime - in which you felt afraid and volunerable - use this experience to move beyond your fears as you grow stronger. If you are the frightened child of Halloween - realize your power to create.



You can try on other costumes on Halloween - or any other day - to explore other aspects of who you are.



This visualization can be used for healing - fun - or personal enlightenment.



You can also see yourself in the costume before you go to sleep and ask for more information on how that aspect of your soul can help your awaken in your present journey.

Necromancy
13:55 Jun 05 2011
Times Read: 668

The blackest of all the black arts is undoubtedly necromancy, the ancient method of communication with the dead. The art of raising the dead and controlling their spirits takes its name from Greek words meaning "dead" and "divination".



Necromancy can be divided into two main branches:



Divination by means of ghosts, and divination from corpses. The second method leads to the disinterment of corpses and rifling of graves for grisly charms which magicians and witches consider necessary for the effective performance of the magical arts.



Necromancy is a universal practice of great antiquity, only the profoundly initiated, brave and single-minded magician has any chance of success in such a venture, always considered to be extremely dangerous, for not only is a pact with the Devil necessary, but it is thought that the "astral corpse" has an intense desire to live again and could, by absorbing life-energy from living creatures, prolong its life idenfinitely, thus, unless he has taken adequate precautions, the magician might be in great danger.



To evoke the dead the magician needs to obtain the help of powerful spirits, both for his own protection and to compel the corpse or ghost to submit to his will. A spell from ancient Greece calls upon the powers of the mighty Kore, Persephone, Ereshkigal, Adonis, Hermes and Thoth, to bind the dead. According to a ritual described by Seneca, the Roman dramatist, the summoning of the dead involves not only a burnt sacrifice but a blood-drenched aItar.



Scent and odours must be carefully produced from burning substances for their powerful influences. Elaborate preparations include careful study of the positions of the planets, and especially of the moon and the influence of Saturn.



The site for the operation has to be chosen with care, the most favourable is some lonely crossroads, a vault, a ruin, an unfrequented forest, or a blasted heath.



Once a time is decided upon for the operation, a series of concentric circles of power must be drawn on the ground within which are inscribed crosses and other symbols, together with holy names of God. The circle must be blessed and consecrated, with the magician and his assistant standing at its centre, protected by the holy names from all danger. Then, wand in hand, the magician summons the dead to rise, using names of power.



Eliphas Levi and other magicians have suggested the need for some attempt at identification between the living and the dead, as for example the presence of a portrait, and a portion of bread which the ghost would be invited to consume. In his evocation, the magician summons the dead by name and, if he is successful, he has to face the frightening ordeal of a phantom screaming and gibbering with rage at having been compelled against its will to return to the realms of the living. Sometimes the dead appears in the shapes of furious beasts raging about the circle and threatening to tear the sorcerer to pieces.



When the dead finally decides to submit to the magician's will he often becomes transformed into a naked men who is willing to answer the questions put to him.



After the operation it is necessary to dismiss the dead, who usually vanishes amid clouds of sulphur. Under no circumstances the magician should leave the protection of the magic circle before this. He also has to remove all flowers from the place and after burning them, to bury the ashes deeply in the earth.



The whole operation is fraught with terrible dangers, for the slightest departure from the rites could involve the destruction of the operator and even inflict injuries upon his soul.