I’m so excited, because I am enrolled in the Demonology course at the CAPRI’s Parapsychological Education Center. “This course delves into the intriguing field of Demonology and Religious Parapsychology, offering a comprehensive understanding of demonic entities, exorcism practices and the relationship between religion and the paranormal.” Wow. Plenty to love about this course. I received a 10% discount because I bought a ticket to attend the Paranormal Symposium. With a course syllabus like that, it is easy to see why I would be interested … and a little scared.
Demons? The fact that this course is being offered implies a little that they exist. I don’t want to think that they exist because demons are naturally evil. And I don’t believe that they exist. No one can say for sure. What I do know is that I will know more once I complete this course than I do now. I can’t wait but I have to wait till mid-October. I want to take the Parapsychology course as well. The Parapsychology course costs a little more but it is still affordable. I want to do both, hm, on top of my herbal studies and my writing, at least I won’t be suffering from boredom, far from it.
I have to write a case study about one of the following paranormal cases: The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, The Smurl haunting, the Enfield Poltergeist, or the Ammons Haunting. I would love to say these are all true cases but I can’t. I would love to say they may all have truth to them. It is hard for me to say. They all sound intriguing so I think I will have a hard time picking one out of those choices. I believe in the case of Anneliese Michel though. I read about that. That poor girl, she suffered from something. I am on the fence about the Ammons Haunting. I don’t believe the kid walked up the hospital wall because in the video, his mother or a relative is helping him up the wall. Now if he did it on his own and he looked way more creepy while he did it. I know there was lead and asbestos in the house which can lead to health complications and cause hallucinations. I am on the fence about the Enfield haunting and the Smurl haunting. It is so hard for me to say which is true and which is not. I have never been to those locations.
On the other hand, I have had more than my own share of legitimate paranormal encounters/ experiences. I try not to judge too harshly. I keep an open mind. So I really do look forward to taking these courses. It helps a lot that my herb course is for 2 years. I can achieve a lot of other stuff in the interim.
I am so happy that I found the Paranormal Phenomena Research & Investigation group. I feel better since I have been alone so long being a medium. It has come with challenges. I am up for meeting those challenges. I just don’t feel so alone now. It is a huge relief and they share my passions. It is a win-win!
October is shaping up already to be a lot of fun! And right now, it is only mid-September. I would love to hear about your own paranormal or Samhain plans! Let me know in the comments below!
March is now Women in Horror Month. That is cause for celebration! Although in my opinion, it’s every month. I opted to write a post for the WIHM- Women in Horror Month. I am reposting the article here and I am so happy to see it online! The topic of my post is Badass Women in Horror Movies.
So let’s hear it for these dangerous femme fatales! Enjoy
Badass Women in Horror Movies — Heddy Johannesen
Caution: May contain spoilers.
To celebrate Women in Horror Month, this post is about the most badass women in horror movies. This is a great roundup. Women in horror used to cower in the presence of murderers or gaze longingly at the male hero’s chiseled face. They often needed to be saved. Women now have the most central role in horror movies, evolving from the damsel in distress to becoming the final girl, or eventually even the protagonist. Most of these strong female characters began as bookish or timid then revealed their tougher true natures. You might feel as if you need to keep an eye out, sitting next to some of them in an auditorium.
Ellen Ripley: Alien
It can’t be the most bad ass women in horror list without including Ellen Ripley from Alien. She is the tough as nails protagonist who set a new standard for women in horror, sci-fi and action. She single-handedly braves a ferocious alien creature that murders her crew, saved her cat and escaped the vicious creature’s claws. She is the best final girl ever.
Imperator Furiosa: Mad Max: Fury Road
Charlize Theron plays Imperator Furiosa in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road. She stands up to toxic masculinity and sets out to rescue her young charges from a cruel man Immortan Joe and leads a rebellion against tyranny.
Clarice Starling: Silence of the Lambs
Clarice Starling is a young FBI agent working on a case to catch murderer, Buffalo Bill. She forms an unlikely friendship with the fierce cannibal, Hannibal Lecter (who had been caught years earlier) as she tries to glean the inner workings of the mind of a killer. She shows true courage and unparalleled determination.
Sarah Connor: The Terminator 1 & 2
Sarah Connor starts as a waitress destined to be a mother to John Connor. She fights against brutal cyborgs that want to kill her bloodline. Her protectiveness and her razor-sharp instincts were key in her transformation from waitress to warrior.
Lady Van Tassel: Sleepy Hollow
Double, double, toil and trouble! Lady Van Tassel is definitely trouble. She has a bad grudge and strong desire for money and dominance and will use her witch powers and intelligence to get exactly what she wants. Even if that means practicing necromancy in secret and summoning the cunning and deadly Headless Horseman to cut off people’s heads. Beware.
Helen Lyle: Candyman
Helen Lyle is a grad student who has a strong interest in myths and folklore. She moves to a town filled with fear about the legend of the Candyman. She doesn’t believe it (at first). But she is soon drawn deeper into the mystery, and comes face to face with the one-armed murderer herself.
Ginger Fitzgerald: Ginger Snaps
Two sisters flirt with death. On the night of a full moon, Ginger is bitten by a werewolf and she begins to change psychologically and physically. She kills off a janitor, counselor and a local drug dealer. Her struggle with her newfound identity is a poignant metaphor for adolescence and puberty.
Alice: Resident Evil
Alice wakes up with amnesia in a classy mansion. She slowly regains her memories and battles zombies, discovering who she really is along the way. As her identity is revealed to her, so is the secret information about dangerous illegal experiments. She defies the Red Queen, who released amnesia-causing nerve agents into the lab.
Lydia Deetz: Beetlejuice
The goth clairvoyant and troubled teenage daughter is the only one to see the recently deceased Maitlands in her new home. It had been theirs before they passed away. She befriends them and helps them scare away the living, but when the Maitlands summon Beetlejuice to boot the new residents out, Lydia helps the dead couple save the day.
Laurie Strode: Halloween
A high school babysitter who just wants a normal life encounters a knife-wielding madman named Michael Myers. She’s a survivor, and she outwits the seemingly unstoppable horror movie icon, demonstrates strength and bravery throughout.
Kirsty Cotton: Hellraiser
Kirsty Cotton may have accidentally summoned the Cenobites. Instead of running scared, she makes a deal with the demons to bring them to the skinless Frank who is back from the dead, willing to murder innocent victims. When the demons begin to prey on her next, she banishes the leather clad monsters back to their own hellish realm.
Meg Penny: The Blob
Meg is not your typical teenage girl. Though she catches the attention of a local football player Paul Taylor, she is a brave and determined young woman. A mysterious asteroid lands on earth near her town, which releases a strange gelatinous substance that munches on people. Meg rescues her loved ones, learning that the blob hates cold, along the way. Armed with knowledge that no one else could figure out, she saves the town.
Carrie White: Carrie
Is Carrie a victor or a victim? You decide. A teenage girl lives at the mercy of her religious zealot mother and the bullying schoolgirls. But things start to change when she discovers she has telekinetic powers. When she is doused in pig’s blood at the prom, Carrie unleashes her fury and powers in one of cinema’s most memorable scenes. No one gets out alive.
Thomasin: The Witch
Thomasin is a good girl at the beginning of Robert Eggers’ movie The Witch. But when her baby brother goes missing, and a series of tragic events cast her as the villain, Thomasin becomes the one thing her paranoid family accuses her of being: a Witch. Rather than run from the coven of satanic witches in the woods responsible for murdering her family, she makes a pact with the devil and joins them in a bold statement about female empowerment.
Annie Wilkes: Misery
The seemingly sweet and reclusive nurse, Annie Wilkes, loves to read romance novels. She rescues Paul Sheldon, a novelist who just survived a car accident and traps him in her home. He soon discovers help is never coming. Annie wields a sledgehammer and forces him to write a new novel.
Akasha: Queen of the Damned
Some doors are best left closed. When a vampire with a thirst for vampire and mortal blood resides behind those walls, it is clear why they should remain hidden. Lestat’s violin music reawakens Akasha, and she revels in a blood driven rampage.
Pamela Voorhees: Friday the 13th
Pamela is burdened by teenage pregnancy, mental health issues, single motherhood and a disabled son. It is all too much for her. After her disabled son drowns, she feels a strong compulsion to murder camp counselors whether they are innocent or not.
Lucille Sharpe: Crimson Peak
Lucille Sharpe is beautiful and darkly charismatic. But don’t let her fragile beauty fool you, she survived abuse as a child and turned to her brother Thomas for love. She is an insane murderous woman. Don’t get caught in her clutches.
Jennet Humfrye: The Woman in Black
Based on the novella written by Susan Hill, the woman in black is formidable. She forever mourns the loss of her own child. She haunts Eel Marsh House as a malevolent wraith and murders all the children in the neighborhood. Her story is a tragic reminder of the horrors that can befall women.
Grace Stewart: The Others
Ah motherhood. The joys – and sorrows. Grace protects her two light sensitive children from any threat, whether spectral or real. The beautiful home is cast in darkness and secrets. But it is soon discovered that the war and the isolation it inflicted on her is too much for her. So, she smothered her two children and killed herself. They are the ones haunting the home. But once the secrets are revealed, the ghost children can now play in the sunlight.
***
Heddy Johannesen is a conjuror of Gothic Fiction. She has written for many horror magazines such as Polar Borealis, Handbook of the Dead, The Feminine Macabre, Paranormal Chronicles, Untimely Frost, Samhain Secrets, One Night in Salem, Wax & Wane: A Gathering of Witchy Tales, Witches and Pagans Magazine, Horror Novel Reviews: One Hellacious Halloween. Heddy Johannesen has 14 years of experience as a freelance writer and a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She successfully graduated from an online Copyediting Certification course through Writer’s Digest University. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association. She attended the virtual Horror Writers Association StokerCon writing convention in 2021 and in 2022. She’s a writer with a fascination for the paranormal. Find her on Twitter at @magicka66
Happy Earth Day!!! Every single day should be Earth Day, in my opinion. But I am glad to celebrate it today. I’m sipping herbal tea. I have no lights turned on, the kettle is unplugged. Well OK I’m on the computer but I have to be to type this post. I watered my many green seedlings this morning. My kitty is perched on a pile of papers, watching everything that moves. Mmmm this herbal tea of chamomile, meadowsweet, lemon balm, passionflower and vervain is delicious!
I successfully completed the latest section on the nervous system in the Intermediate Course with a perfect grade – 100%! I have other good news. My poem, The Frightened Spirit, is slated to be published in the upcoming issue of Polar Borealis #21! I’m attending StokerCon 2022 which is on May 12-15th and I can’t wait! I even submitted an author reading of me reading my published short story The Grimm Pumpkin. This is all good news.
I have to practice my botanical drawings more. Once spring really is here, and flowers are in bloom, like when the weather actually warms up and stays warm, I will draw more. Spring in Nova Scotia is like an extended winter season. The Herbal Academy wants me to go foraging. It’s not time here for that yet. I’ll be patient. Speaking of wild flowers, the sunny flowers are coltsfoot not dandelion. I thought they were dandelions but my app identified them as coltsfoot. They are two different plants. Dandelion is safe to consume and coltsfoot has a toxin.
This website says more about it here:
Coltsfoot preparations have liver toxic alkaloids that may have the potential to cause cancer. Some sources, such as RX List, report that “Coltsfoot is considered UNSAFE. It contains chemicals called hepatotoxic (toxic to the liver) pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) that can damage the liver or cause cancer.”Mar 22, 2020
I’m mentioning this to show you how easily one plant can be mistaken for another. I use the app Seek to aid me in identifying plants. I almost harvested the coltsfoot but I may be reluctant to do so now. There is insufficient evidence to support whether it is a safe herb to consume. I hope the bees enjoy coltsfoot. Power to them!
A book came in the mail that I am so excited to get to read. The book’s titled Poltergeist: A New Investigation into Destructive Haunting by John Fraser. This book focuses way more on poltergeists than on ghosts. The author aims to prove the existence of the more noisy spooky poltergeists. I think I will enjoy this book. That debate can go on for forever. It is hard to prove both exist let alone one over the other. The book is nonfiction.
I hope you all enjoy spring. Blessings to all, Spiderwitch
Now we are past the mind blowing fun activities of October 31st, it’s time to turn our attention to other equally as fun matters. The sun is shining this morning. A chill lingers in the air. Colourful leaves are strewn over the sidewalks, lawns, gardens. It’s like Mother Nature took a paintbrush to the trees. I took that photo yesterday when I was on the nature trail. I know, the beauty of the trail stuns me too.
The energy of autumn is still present. I am excited to share another Canadian paranormal story with you, dear readers. So grab a mocha, get comfy and enjoy!
Paranormal investigators check out old hotel in southeastern B.C.
VANCOUVER –
Paranormal investigators were at a hotel in southeastern B.C. over the weekend, checking for evidence of activity.
The group from True North Paranormal arrived at the Three Valley Gap Lake Chateau and Heritage Ghost Town in Revelstoke Friday.
Hosts of the show, from Thunder Boyz Productions, Inc., planned to make stops in the ghost town including at the historic Hotel Bellevue and the Train Roundhouse.
According to those behind the production, which airs on Amazon Prime and Paraflix, both buildings “have a huge history of paranormal activity.”
The hosts said they felt something almost as soon as they entered the hotel, which was built in 1898 in Sicamous, but has since been moved to the Three Valley Gap Ghost Town and restored.
“As soon as I entered, I had a sense of going upstairs and what I believe I’m feeling is the feelings of a lady that spent a lot of time here. She didn’t like to come upstairs,” host Karina Kozuska told CTV News.
But those behind the show say it’ll be up to those who watch the episode to decide what they think.
“We want the viewers to make up their own mind as to what we found – whether they believe it’s haunted or not,” host Jon Kozuska said.
“We’ll tell you we found stuff we can’t explain, but it’s up to you to decide.”
The husband-wife team is based in Kamloops, and say Canada is a “hot-bed” of paranormal activity. Through the show, the Kozuskas investigate reports at abandoned gold rush towns, old theatres and more.
Previous episodes include the Powerhouse and Vernon Towne theatres in Vernon, B.C., and the Kamloops Indian Residential School. They’ve also filmed in the Falkland Museum and Heritage Park, Sagebrush Theatre, city hall in Sandon, Caetani Centre and other spots in B.C.
Graveyard in the woods: Abandoned Nova Scotia logging village so spooky skeptic won’t visit alone
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The scorched, leafless Inspiration tree is one of the milestones hikers can use to measure their progress when hiking to Roxbury, an abandoned logging village in Annapolis County. – Contributed
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS
Leafless trees close in and choke out the midday sun as David Whitman and his daughter, Lori, tread further into the dense forest.
The two are exploring the remains of Roxbury, an abandoned Annapolis County logging and farming village described as “lost in the woods” by locals.
“At first glance, there is not much to see,” says Whitman.
Whitman, a retired schoolteacher, is now referred to as the ‘Mayor of Roxbury’ after writing his first self-published book about the area called ‘Lost in The Woods: The Lure and History of Roxbury,’ which came out in 2005.
David and his wife Paulette Whitman are both writers that aim to preserve local Nova Scotian history. – Contributed
His interest sparked in the once-thriving settlement destroyed by a forest fire and abandoned in 1904, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was here where he spent hours fishing at a nearby river with friends.
“I was always intrigued by Roxbury as a kid. The village is about four miles off the main road, in the middle of nowhere. And when I began teaching school in Halifax, I started to research the area where very little is known.”
Over the years, he went digging for facts, church and school records, deeds, newspaper reports, and interviewed descendants of those that had once called the area “home.”
Whitman discovered a mysterious and tragic past.
The dirt trail that leads to the Roxbury settlement deep in the woods. – Contributed
Originally, he says, Roxbury was known as Durland’s Settlement, named after Thomas Durland, the first English Loyalist settler in the early 1800s. His brother Charles followed with his family, and by 1865, there were 15 families in the settlement, with a population around 60.
But the settlement stretches further back. The Mi’kmaq were the first inhabitants, followed by French Acadians fleeing from British soldiers after refusing to pledge British allegiance – known as the Expulsion from 1755 to 1764.
“About 60 French Acadian exiles took to the river and hid on South Mountain,” Whitman says.
“The Mi’kmaq became their allies, but many Acadians did not survive the freezing winter.”
Remains of stone walls from the Loyalist days. – Contributed
Acadian gold?
Rumours persist, says Whitman, that the Acadians, while fleeing, left stashes of gold under Mile Rock on Roxbury Road.
“There have been some treasure hunters over the years, but nothing retrieved or at least made public.”
While piecing his second book together on the area, Whitman says he interviewed many who reported “strange voices” while alone on Roxbury Road.
“Legend has it some of the French Acadians were planning to come back and get this gold, so I think it plays on the imagination which can run wild out there when no one is around,” he dismisses with a nervous laugh.
When the Loyalists arrived (1775 to 1783), they built permanent structures over the Acadian nomadic-style homes using rocks from the mountain.
Shreds of lumber remain from the former logging and farming village. – Contributed
“By 1904, most of the residents had moved out with the lumber industry depleted and the serious forest fire.”
Whitman explains to produce blueberries, they burned the land, but a fire got out of control and spread over hundreds of acres, torching Roxbury.
Today, the scorched, leafless Inspiration tree echoes this history.
“The tree is aptly named Inspiration because if you make it that far, you might as well keep going,” says Whitman.
There is an 18.7-kilometre in-and-back trail described as “difficult” on All Trails, which features a lake and cuts through the settlement.
Roxbury lay dormant for several years, attended only by nature. Then, in the 1920s, families set up homesteads, including Whitman’s father.
“Roxbury had a school, church, post office, sawmill and grist mill. The last family moved out in 1927,” notes Whitman.
Andrew Rosengren and the Thygesen family were the last homesteaders.
“Then in 1948 through to the late 1950s, lumbering activities by J. H. Hicks and Sons and Max Napthal interrupted the settlement’s slumber. And in the 2000s, forestry work from Bowater Mersey and Lafarge Canada Inc.”
Lost in The Woods: The Lure and History of Roxbury, by David Whitman, published in 2005. – Contributed
Haunted woods
So, what’s left there now? Stone foundations, deep round wells, shreds of lumber.
“But people go there a lot to hike,” says Whitman.
Yet Whitman says he will “never walk there alone.”
The supernatural skeptic that claims, “there is a scientific explanation for everything” admits he has heard “through the trees,” a sound the resembles the “wailing of a man.”
Other interviewees of Whitman reported “strange noises” or “figures.”
It is not a place for the faint of heart, he says.
Roxbury: A return to a ghost town, by David Whitman, published in 2015, with a foreword by John DeMont. – Contributed
“I have not been back there for a while. Not by myself, especially to the graveyards. There was always something about them. There is one graveyard where a man lost his wife in childbirth, and he would visit and cry on their graves.”
In one cemetery, a headstone peeks through the vegetation with just one bold word, “Baby.”
“In my second book, ‘Roxbury: A return to a ghost town,’ I interviewed people that say they could feel or even see someone watching them. It gave them an intense feeling that they should not be there,” he adds.
The book, published in 2015 with a foreword by John DeMont, includes photographs by witnesses, capturing “blurred images of a young girl in a white dress” floating through the cemetery and disappearing into the trees.
“This place can stir the imagination, especially in the graveyards that are in the middle of the woods,” Whitman says.
“People that do not know the history or have not read the books go back there and treat it just as a hike or a tour, but those that know the area are reluctant to go by themselves.”
Dormant wooden cottages in the area – designated by the province as a Provincial Park Reserve – have left a ghostly imprint on many people, including former students of Whitman, who he says will “never talk about what they heard or saw” because it was so frightening.
Whitman is part of Friends of Roxbury that gathered funding for interpretative signage to preserve the lumber settlement’s history. As a result, he no longer needs to give tours in a place he describes as “isolated and creepy.”
I am happy to share my blog post from the Horror Writers Association annual blog event. I hope you enjoy it!!
Halloween Haunts: Paranormal Halloween by Heddy Johannesen
Halloween casts a dark spell on us. October enchants the young and old as spirits roam free. The veil between the worlds is thinnest now. I have a keen and strong interest in the paranormal. I would happily work as a paranormal investigator if I could. I have researched the paranormal as much as I can. I also am clairvoyant and clairsentient. This has helped me to study the paranormal and spirit world.
I was sitting with a friend in my kitchen one summer night. We chatted for hours. The night was hot, so we drank colas to keep us cool. It was quiet and peaceful. Or so we thought. We had a good talk. I was holding a cola in my hand. I looked from Stefan to a spot in my kitchen. I don’t know why but something made me glance in that direction. I wish I didn’t to this day.
I glanced at the wall by my back door. It happened so fast. My heart leapt to my chest. A dark black shadow person with sharp pointed nails or fingers appeared and walked straight into my cupboards. Stefan saw the way I was staring. He didn’t see what I saw. He should be thankful. The dark shadow was wispy, transparent, and generated an aura of evil. It moved with speed and in an unusual way. This being was clearly not from our dimension. I have yet to learn where it came from and why it chose my apartment.
My heart jumped at the sight of the eerie shadow person. I wish I knew how it got in my home and what it was doing there. I haven’t seen the being since. I wish I knew why it chose my apartment. I may have to live with never knowing why and accept that I may not receive the answers to that in the way I want to. They don’t communicate the way that we wish they could. They are beyond death.
Stefan asked me what I saw. I told him. My heart pounded. We did an energy clearing to banish that bad spirit. I was and still am truly puzzled. I have no idea why the spirit chose my home other than that I am clairsentient. That attracts spirits and shadow people. That is the only explanation I can think of.
Stefan and I placed crystals above doors, and on window ledges. I smudged the house with sage. We sprinkled salt on the windowsills and below doorways. I privately don’t think that did any good. The shadow person entered my home. It may have helped to a small degree.
I have many questions. Is my home a portal for spirits? I have a strong feeling the Otherworld is not a place we would enjoy. They will exist for eternity. The more the veil between the world thins, they can cross over into our realm and even in our dreams.
Ghosts, demons and shadow people are attracted to people with low vibrational energies. If you are struggling with addictions, are abused, or depressed, you are a target for the lower vibrational spirits. If you use a Ouija board, you draw them toward you. They don’t hear your voice, but they can sense your vibrational signal from afar. You send an energetic signal. That is what the demons or earthbound ghosts’ sense from you. You may be unaware of it but they sense it. I own a few Ouija boards that I sprinkle with salt and know how to psychically defend myself from them.
The veil between the realms of the living and the dead is thinning. The most common times is Halloween. Paranormal investigations and ghost hunting tools are becoming popular.
I am trained in paranormal investigating. I live in a haunted town with a dark bloody history. I investigate haunted restaurants here and even my own home. If you are keen on the paranormal, you must shield yourself to avoid unwanted energies from attaching themselves to you. Once you have mastered psychically shielding yourself, you need faith and belief in a Higher Power. Call on your ancestors to help you. A strong heart is your greatest weapon should you encounter a malicious entity. Concentrate on a psychic shield around you. Set your intention that you will not be affected by an evil spirit.
Gather the tools you need that have protective properties. Hematite, labradorite, smoky quartz, clear quartz, or tiger’s eye are suitable. Pentacles, runes, gemstones, white and black candles, dragon’s blood ink and even black salt are potent tools for ghost hunting.
Be sure your batteries are fully charged. Entities drain the energy out of batteries so take extra with you. Bring a flashlight, cab fare, wear sensible footwear, and a good friend. Do not go alone. Ghost hunts occur at night. Be careful.
Other ghost hunting tools to add to your collection are a K-II EMF Meter, a spirit box, a digital camera, and a way to measure the temperature of a room. If a spirit is present, the temperature in a room can become ice cold. That is good evidence of the presence of a spirit.
If you do a ghost hunt at a location first obtain permission from the owners to visit the place. Ask them if they believe the home or business is haunted and what odd occurrences they’ve noticed. Take notes and be polite to the owners.
Do research on the history of the building. A ghost hunt does not involve the glamour and scares the way Hollywood portrays it. It often means sitting in the quiet dark with your equipment waiting for evidence of things that go bump in the night.
When you are at the location, it is important to seek evidence rather than an experience. There is a distinction between the two. Later, as you are analyzing what your EMF meter or spirit box detected, the memory of you screaming at a spirit to appear at your command is not considered evidence. The evidence that you collected based on scientific methods is far more valuable. It builds your reputation too.
It is acceptable to be objective of the homeowner’s claims that their home is haunted. They may like the fancy more than the fact. Offer to do the investigation anyway and be polite. Later, you can turn down an appointment or a follow up if it ends up the home was not haunted at all.
Respect the spirits. They cannot be conjured at will. If the ghost or negative entity is causing serious problems for people, then recommend a local church to aid in banishing the spirits from the home. Don’t attempt it yourself.
After you return home, cleanse yourself and your ghost hunting equipment of any lingering energies. Ghost hunts can stretch on for hours. It’s important to rest and ground and center yourself afterward.
Be careful when you use Ouija boards. Have salt and sage at hand and bid the spirits farewell when you complete your sessions. Believe in your power whatever faith you believe in. Your faith in your power is your most powerful tool. It will guide you on your new hobby or career exploring the paranormal. I hope you enjoyed this article. Keep an open mind to the paranormal. Have a deep faith in a Higher Power and faith in yourself.
I don’t know why the spirit was in my apartment that night. I may never know. I do know that spirit manifestations are on the rise. We can protect ourselves from any negativity and be curious about the Otherworld. It is the final frontier for all of us.
I’m a member of the Horror Writers Association. My writing has appeared in The Feminine Macabre, Handbook of the Dead, Ghosts, Spirits and Spectres Volume 2, Samhain Secrets,Untimely Frost-Poetry Unthawed,One Night in Salem, Wax & Wane: A Gathering of Witchy Tales, The Dark Ones: Tales and Poems of the Shadow Gods, and Witches and Pagans Magazine.
It’s that eerie time of year again. I bet you are all working hard at work yet working just as hard to be ready in time for Samhain. I hope you can take some out of your day to enjoy these blog posts. The Horror Writers Association hosts an annual blog event of which I”m participating in. The members of the organization all contribute their blog posts about their own experiences at Halloween. I find them fascinating to read and I hope you do too.
I will include the links here for your reading enjoyment. !! Have fun. My post is scheduled for October 11th.
This is plenty of scary yet heartwarming reading for your perusal!!!! I shall post more on this as the month passes. I hope you take some time to read this. It will inspire you to get in the mood for everyone’s favourite time of year.
I made apple chutney last night. Mmmm. I’m continuing in my awesome herbalism course. I received my mystery box of witchy items from Etsy. In the box was a divination cloth to use with pendulum, a lovely tarot card (Truth), a small BOS, a beautiful pendulum, a pentacle, bay leaves, palo santo incense cones, a tiny bell, loose herbs, an essential oil bottle – tiny, a red tealight candle, rose quartz, red jasper, a leaf sticker, a sunstone, and a smudge feather. Beautiful and in time for Samhain!!
Today I bought a porcelain doll, shown in the photo above. I went to Value Village with the intention of finding a doll with a weird vibe on it. I found it. Oh she cost ten bucks! I want to write a haunted doll story. I needed a muse. My witch friend, Pamela, who owns a witch shop and has the best most awesome shop and the brains to run it suggested I find a doll at the local thrift store. I flew to the shop on my broom (OK, OK I took the bus.) Once there, I strolled the aisles for the perfect doll.
I found the doll section. It didn’t take me too long to find the porcelain doll I was looking for. I brought her home. I combed her hair because it has many tugs. I cleaned her face with a warm washcloth. I fussed with her dress. I am unsure if I should sage her because that may rid her of the vibe she has. I will wash her outfit and put it back on her so she is clean.
Her name is Isabelle. Isabelle has a burgundy pouch that is sewn shut. I seam ripped the pouch open. I found two seeds that resembled garlic cloves in the pouch. My friend on Facebook is a medium. He sensed some bad vibes from her. She doesn’t want to be called Cordelia. It’s Isabelle. My friend Scott Lee Bower tells me she once belonged to a family who had a young daughter. The father was a vicar/ priest. Their daughter may have been murdered and the spirit of the girl moved into the doll. He (Scott) felt there was a child murder. I sure hope the doll’s past is not that tragic but who knows?
I feel lightheaded every time I hold her. I do sense that Isabelle is happier here. I know she was unhappy before at the store and in her other home. I hope she is happier here. Her eyes have something sad in them. I wonder if that will change as she lives here a long time.
The doll at the witch shop who resembles Anne of Green Gables is happier now. A woman brought her in because she didn’t know what to do with her. The doll has been cuddled, and fussed over and lived at the witch shop for a while now. She is a happy doll now. That doll was witness to a murder. The poor doll- and the victim! I will also coddle Isabelle too. No one will be mean to her anymore.
I appreciate it that Scott could clarify al that to me and sense that about Isabelle. Poor Isabelle. Spirits will move into a doll because the doll resembles a person. I fear mannequins. I dread them like I would dread a shark. They seem human but aren’t quite human. People can actually develop a phobia called Pediophobia, a fear of dolls. Dolls resemble people but aren’t quite right so that is why people, some people, have the doll fear. I can understand it but I have no fear of dolls. Well to be honest, the one thing that freaks me about dolls is their eyes. Those glassy eyes stare out at you, expressionless. Isabelle has an emotion in her eyes though: sweet and sad. I think the sad part is due to her unhappy past. If the doll at the witch shop can change, then I shall see if this doll can change too. Only time and love will tell.
I smudged Isabelle with a sage stick. I also hand washed her entire outfit and let it air dry. This changed her energy significantly. I’m not sure if she will still move on her own. I am sure I will see it soon and know when it happens. It’s possible that some love and tender care could have altered that. Hard to say.
On a happier note, the Summer Solstice is almost here! I can’t wait. A friend of mine heard of an interesting theory. The few days we experienced sweltering hot weather here caused or was related somehow to the solar eclipse. June has a lot going on celestially. Wow that is a cool theory I am willing to believe. How do you all plan to celebrate the Solstice? I plan to burn green candles, associated with the earth, drink herbal tea and honour the faeries in my garden. I will have fun and I hope you all do too!
The battle between winter and spring rages outside. The trees wave and bow to the strong winds. The grey skies hang low. It’s hard to say which will be the victor: winter snow storms or spring filling our hearts with hope upon spying a fresh green bud poking from the frozen earth.
I’ve been reading the excellently written novel Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D Barker. Oh my god the novel is such an eye opener. This novel is the prequel to the original Dracula by Bram Stoker. I love the book and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It’s a great novel to read to keep you out of the cold. Apparently Mina and Jonathan Harker, the characters immortalized in the famous novel, may have been real living breathing people. I won’t give away any more information about the novel. I can’t recommend the novel enough to al you dear readers.
I watched the scariest horror movie recently. The Conjuring and Insidious franchise had nothing on this one. It was called Veronica. I heard about the whole scary supposedly true haunted house story from a horror podcast. Oh my goddess there were some nightmare inducing scenes I am having a hard time forgetting. One example is when the teenage girl’s toddler aged siblings violently snack on their very disturbed older sister. That’s right they ate her. I can’t forget that scene. It was hard to watch, especially while eating, and very hard to forget. Oh my gosh. I will never watch that movie again. But for any true horror movie fans, I dare you to watch it at night alone with the lights off.
Speaking of spooky, here is an eerie tale for you, my dear readers. It deals with a haunted doll carriage that infests a family in their home.
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By Josh Carter|January 25, 2021 at 4:41 PM CST – Updated January 26 at 10:12 AM
BRANDON, Miss. (WLBT) – It sounded like someone was knocking on the walls.
That’s how Whitney Merritt describes the beginning of the nearly three weeks of alleged paranormal activity her family endured after receiving a Christmas present last month.
The present was a vintage doll carriage. Her mother had gotten it from a friend of a friend and had gifted it to Whitney’s daughter, where it sat by the Christmas tree for the first few days.
The knocking, Whitney says, began at the beginning of the year. They would hear it on the walls of their Brandon home which they have recently moved into. The sounds grew so loud that on two occasions, Whitney walked to the front door thinking someone was outside. It was midnight so Whitney called her husband, Michael, who works nights.
“I think someone’s at the front door,” she told him before turning on the porch light. When she opened it, no one was there.
“And then about the third or fourth night was when we started hearing, like, boom, boom, boom, in the attic,” she recalls as she rubs her chest, leaving it red. At first they simply wrote it off. The home was built in 1992, maybe it was just settling in?
“I don’t know. Logical reasons I’m trying to come up with in my head,” Whitney admits.
But soon the sounds above their living room became so frequent that they could no longer be ignored. So one weekend in the middle of the night, Michael went into the attic carrying a shotgun and a flashlight, expecting to find someone up there.
“We were out there making so much noise,” Whitney says. “People probably thought we were crazy. We thought there was somebody in the attic!” But no one was up there. And so ended week one.
Week two started with a bang.
It was around two or three in the morning when Whitney was awakened from what she calls a “dead sleep.” The noise was so loud, she says, that she thought their dog had crashed through the window of their door. She grabbed her handgun and walked around their home, but found nothing.
In the morning while walking into the kitchen was when she discovered the bag on the ground. In the bag were the coffee mugs she had recently purchased from TJMaxx. The bag was three to four feet away from the table. Both of the mugs were broken.
“There was no way that they could have fallen over at all,”Whitney says adamantly.“I mean, they weren’t on their side or anything… they’re not just gonna roll. You know what I mean? They just don’t roll.”
The next night, another bang. It was around 3:30 in the morning. Whitney rushed into the kitchen to find another bag on the floor, inside another shattered mug. This time shards of glass had come out of the bag and so Whitney began sweeping it up.
At first they thought maybe one of their children had gone to use the bathroom, but the light never came on.
“So my husband opened up the door real quick and turned the light on and there was nothing in there,” Whitney says. “And he stood there messing with the doors in the hallway for a minute just trying to find a logical explanation, like, maybe it was the suction that’s slamming the door.”
But the door never moved again.
“Hey, is Paxton home?” Michael asked.
Whitney said no, that he was still at school.
When Whitney and her daughter got home, Michael explained the call. He said that he was in bed when he heard the front door close. Then he heard Paxton’s door close. Then he began hearing knocking on the walls.
He called Paxton’s name five or six times, but there was no answer. That’s when he got up and walked into his son’s room. Paxton’s bedroom light was on, his Xbox was on and a bottle of water was “actively” dripping on the floor.
After telling Whitney this story, they had a discussion about all of the strange occurrences at their home and when they had begun. “We were sitting here and [Michael] just fixated on that little baby carriage and we stuck it outside…”
Since then, everything has been normal. No more knocking, no more footsteps in the attic.
The carriage now resides in the garage and has been placed on Facebook Marketplace for $65. “Full disclosure,” the caption reads. “It’s definitely haunted. Sooo. Yeah.”
Whitney did say that she eventually received more backstory on the carriage from her mother, who told her that the owner’s husband had been killed in a motorcycle accident on the Natchez Trace a year ago. She believes that it’s possible that that’s who she saw walk past her in the kitchen.
“We both strongly believe there is a spirit attached to that doll buggy,” Michael wrote in a text message. “With what was going on, there’s no other explanation. It all started with all the knocking and banging on the walls out of nowhere and I knew.”
Whitney says that she wouldn’t argue with anyone who doubts their story and that she, too, is hesitant to believe people who claims to have seen something paranormal. “I didn’t want to say any of this out loud because it sounds, you know— I know how it sounds,” Whitney says. “I’m not stupid, I know how it sounds. But, you know, it is what it is.””
Indeed. A spirit attached itself to the doll carriage.
The Horror Writers Association is hosting its annual blog event, Halloween Haunts this year!! So far the blog post entries have been scarily good to read. I am participating in the blog event. My post will be up on October 11th. I can’t wait! I enjoy being involved in this event!! It is great to read what other like minded horror authors have to say about Halloween! Here is the link: http://horror.org/2020/10/halloween-haunts-barbasol-and-terror/
The leaves are turning, the wind is chillier, and pumpkins grace our decks and yards. It’s that magical time of year! I found two awesome magazines about Witches that I can’t wait to read. The first one is called Witches- Inside their Mysterious World. The magazine features a Witch walking through the woods with her back to the camera. Centennial Entertainment produced the magazine. The second magazine is about Witches too and it was produced by National Geographic. I can’t wait to read them!
I made a corn doll to represent my gratitude for all the blessings I have received over the year. I’ll tell you how I made the doll so you can make your own.
Gather together two skewers, Kleenex, rubber bands, a hot glue gun and glue sticks, corn cob husks (dried but not stiff), fabric for the dress, and yarn for the hair. If you want, you can watch a tutorial on youtube on how to make a basic corn doll. Here is how I made mine:
I glued two skewers together to form a T – for the body. I trimmed the skewer I laid across the first skewer. The horizontal skewer formed the arms. The vertical skewer formed the body of the doll. If glue doesn’t hold it together, use duct tape. Then, I used quilt batting to form the head and laid a Kleenex over the batting. I secured the Kleenex over the batting using a rubber band. I pushed that down the skewer till it reached the skewer laying cross ways. Then I layered on the corn husks which I first soaked in warm water. I used a hot glue gun and rubber bands to form the body of the doll. You can also try this cool trick for the hands of the doll. Twist a corn husk in itself then lay it over the doll cross ways. Tie it there with string or a rubber band. Then turn the husk over itself. This should give the look of those lovely billowing puffy sleeves. I trimmed the excess.
Once you have created the doll to your satisfaction and everything is lying securely, it is time to embellish the doll. I fashioned a witch hat for her. I also had a stash of orange yarn which I used to make her hair. I hot glued the yarn to her whole head to avoid any ‘bald’ spots then glued the witch hat on to her head. It looks so cool! I trimmed the long ends of her hair to keep it even. I bound her in a black tube dress. I stitched on black lace at the collar and pulled her body through. Then I stitched the sides of the tube dress and even stitched on an apron. Her husk arms show but I plan to embellish her hands and add a dress soon. This is my corn doll in the photo below:
I hope you like her as much as I do. It was a lot of work to create the doll. She is quite charming. I have yet to name her.
Please do not steal or copy from this blog. If you do, be prepared to be stomped on by the Fates and karma for your bad character. I can be reached at :
heddyjohannesen @ gmail.com
