Tag Archives: sage

Paranormal Halloween

Merry meet all

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 2Samhain Secrets, Untimely Frost-Poetry Unthawed, One Night in Salem, Wax & Wane: A Gathering of Witchy TalesThe Dark Ones: Tales and Poems of the Shadow Gods, and Witches and Pagans Magazine.

Blog: https://theparanormalquill.wordpress.com

Twitter: magicka66

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghosts.spiritsandapparitions

Blessings, Spiderwitch

1 Comment

Filed under Paranormal and Witchy Fiction

October Harvest

 

Merry meet all,

October is here!! I am so excited I hope you are too. I have a small pumpkin dwarfed by my  HUGE pumpkin. I am storing them for Samhain. I’m busy prepping for Samhain I look forward to reading the honking’ huge October newsletter produced by the Horror Writers Association. My blog post about doing a paranormal investigation goes live on October 11th, as part of the Halloween Haunts blog event. I was interviewed by Amanda for the Feminine Macabre interview. That went live on the 29th. Lots happening!!!

This is the time to stock up on root veggies! I have a few squashes, pumpkin in chunks, applesauce, elderberry jam stored away. Yup the cold season has arrived. Like it or not though, it does entice us with the gifts it brings, such as ciders, stews, foods to keep us warm and healthy. I have to puree the pumpkin, which I will do tomorrow. The rind on the squashes is so hard it’s like wood. I have no idea how to cut through that. Pumpkins can be cooked into breads, soups, pies and cookies. I buy smaller pumpkins for cooking – and roasting seeds. I get larger pumpkins for carving. Pureed pumpkin can be stored in the freezer. Once you puree squash, you have a variety of healthful options available for you. Butternut squash also makes good soups. Add ginger, cayenne, and lemon for some tantalizing flavour. 

 

I want to harvest the remaining herbs from my garden before the heavy frost sets in. I have to collect all the lemon balm ( a huge task in itself(, the oregano, some thyme, lavender, and mint. I’m letting the tomatoes ripen on the vine. There is a risk of mildfrost tonight. Later in the month, the frost will be heavier. I bought a huge herb drying rack to dry my herbs. I am grateful for the space but it is too big. I figured it would cost too much to return it to Amazon. I nailed in a big hook in the wall. I need to store away a lot of herbs. The size of it helps. That is the only corner where I can hang it up. I’m just anxious because of the resident overly curious cat who may snoop and sniff out the herbs. Here is a photo of the rack:

 

But it will prove useful this fall and many years to come. I love fall. It is the most beautiful and magical time of year. The leaves are turning, pumpkins regal front decks and store baskets.This is a good time to harvest the herbs you grew with care all summer. Harvest herbs in the morning after the dew has dried but before the frost kills them. Let them dry completely before storing in jars to prevent mold from ruining the herbs. Put them in brown perforated paper bags, tie them upside down to dry or arrange them on cookie sheets to dry. Then, once totally dry and crisp, you are free to use them for tincture making, syrups, teas, cordials or whatever suits your fancy. Know the herbs from each other too. It is so easy to mistake lemon balm from mint. They look and smell alike when dry. It’s easy to confuse yourself. 

I went to the Farmers Market this morning. I forgot a turnip, but I did come home with carrots, leeks, basil + oregano sea salt, and parsnip. – and alcohol cider.  I love parsnip and crunchy sweet carrots. Later, I bought hamburger meat. I can now make stew. Yum!! The farmers market at the Forum was smaller than the market at Seaport. But since we are in a pandemic, a smaller market pleased me. I loved the cider. Oh my gosh it tasted so good. That man is a master at brewing cider wine. Wow I never tasted anything so fine. I am all set for fall. The people at the market ( forum) were so pleasant. I may return there. 

Last night, I removed mullein seed pods from the stalk. Unfortunately for me, the seed pods were hard as rock. I stored the seeds in a labeled jar. The seeds are toxic so I was careful. I am truly blessed with a harvest of herbs, veggies, seeds, and flowers. This is an ideal time to focus on what we harvested and to thank those who bestowed it upon us. Besides Mother Nature and Father sky, we can take the time to reflect who else is so generous to us. It’s a good time to give as generously to those who were good to us. That is an exchange of good energy and is a way of ensuring good energy follows you!!! The Universe hears everything you ask for, so keep sending out good energy and it will reciprocate. 

Blessings, Spiderwitch 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Paranormal and Witchy Fiction

Autumn Herbs

Merry meet all,

Tomorrow is October 1st. I have a new rolling cart to store my multiple jars of herbs. By. herbs, I mean of course seeds, bark, leaves, flowers. I had to assemble the cart and that was a nightmare. Are you all getting ready for Samhain? I am! I am also preparing for the Materia Medica course I am taking at the Herbal Academy in addition to the Introductory Herbal course I am already taking. That does involve getting more organized, which is why I bought the cart.

I ordered seeds from a company on Etsy. They are as follows; German chamomile, black swan poppy, Scott bonnet pepper, black cumin, purple echinacea, halloween calendula, Howden pumpkin, borage, sunflower, black tar poppy, chef’s pick parsley, Larkspur, anise, purple echinacea, purple salsify, Vietnamese cilantro, and foxglove blend. Next spring, I will be having fun planting all that!  I gathered the Chinese lanterns, burdock seeds, mullein seeds, and I will soon gather the nasturtium seeds from my garden. I gathered mullein in an empty field and it also grows on the nature trail. A witch hazel grows on the trail too! 

A materia medica means healing materials. It basically means a book about herbal profiles. The profiles are called monographs. I plan to have the most amazing material media by the time I am done studying. The material media course teaches you how to complete a herbal profile. I have access to the Herbarium. I can download any herb monograph I choose to. I ordered a herb journal – titled My Herbology journal, A Green Witch Journal from Amazon. I also ordered a paper making screen deckle and mold! 

Here is the link to the journal: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08TQ7DX6J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 Several herbs that I need for the course grow on the nature trail. Goldenrod, burdock, mullein, asters, raspberry, elderberry, chokeberry, coltsfoot, queen Anne’s lace, black elderberry, staghorn sumac, creeping juniper, perennial sow thistle, red clover, and  thistle all grow on the trail. I may have already mentioned this. I have an app on my phone that helps me identify plants. If you want to forage in the wild, bring gloves to protect you, a charged cellphone that has an app for identifying plants, wear something to protect you from bug bites and poisonous plants, a water bottle to stay hydrated, and scissors. It helps to carry a big plastic bag or cloth bag to hold the herbs you gather. Don’t consume anything if you are not sure. You could make yourself sick. I want to gather goldenrod next summer to dye a piece of fabric yellow. I just want to try it. !!!

I still have to dehydrate the elderberries. I brewed a jar of elderberry, rhubarb and blueberry am.  I should added cinnamon and clove. I am making a jar of elderberry tincture. The berries were dried and I added vodka. I labeled the jar and also lined the top of the jar with natural waxed paper. The metal can’t contaminate the mixture. I can’t wait to try it. But I do want to caution: elderberries contain cyanide, so please if you make a remedy using elderberries, use black or purple berries – not green, and be careful. I will make the tincture last a long time. I don’t plan to consume it every day. The berries are not cooked for making a tincture. Some cyanide could still be present in the berries. Everything in moderation. 

I gathered herbs for my first lesson in the materia medica course. They were lemon balm, goldenrod, thyme, lavender, mint and chamomile. It grows in the garden and on the nature trail.I need to study the herbs for the courses. (What a hardship, eh?) There are so many herbs to learn about and I live in the right environment. Fall is here. Many of the plants are winding down for the long cold rest. The nature trial is now full of the thistles, queen Anne’s lace, burdock, goldenrod all going to seed. The queen Anne’s lace seedbeds resemble bird’s nests. 

I have to collect the raspberries from my garden. The tomatoes are still ripening. The pumpkin patch is growing! I have tried for 11 years to grow a pumpkin patch and now I have! Hopefully the frost will hold off! I pickled my own cucumbers. The flavour is truly divine. I stored two jars of applesauce in the freezer too. I am well stocked. I have to puree the pumpkin. So much to do, so little time. 

I am enjoying my studies at the Herbal Academy. Well obviously right? I decorate my binder with butterfly stickers, protect the notes and printouts in sheet protectors, and do my best to keep it organized. I want to be a herbalist and work in a trade that involves herbs. It will be a long road but an interesting one!!

The link to the Herbal Academy- in case you want to study there!!

https://theherbalacademy.com/my-account/?awt_a=5cXw&awt_l=Bv79G&awt_m=mUTf3FOR61wS3Xw

Blessings, Spiderwitch

Leave a comment

Filed under Paranormal and Witchy Fiction

October Crafts

Merry meet all,

On this cool autumn morning, I took my big wreath and a can of black spray paint to the picnic table. I set the wreath down on the picnic table then painted it black using the spray can. It looks so cool now. I was careful to completely coat the wreath on both sides. Then I left the wreath to dry on my stone step and now it’s on the top of the bookcase. When it is fully dry in twenty-four hours, I will hot glue the black widow spiders, smaller spiders and the skull to the wreath. Note* I put a black plastic garbage bag under the wreath to avoid any stains or the wreath sticking to the bookcase. 

It looks like this now:         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will post a photo when it is done. It will look really cool and spooky!

Tonight I plan to watch The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix. I do love a good ghost story! The wind is blowing hard here. That autumnal chill is in the air. The sky is grey and overcast. It’s October for sure. I plan to enjoy every minute of it. I don’t have to work too hard to decorate my home since it looks Samhain all year long in here. 

Samhain has hit me – well, technically it’s still Mabon, with an urge to be truly creative. I saw down to do sewing today. The wreath, changing my room around, the corn doll, and the desire to paint my furniture black. My only problem with painting is how to keep my kitty from it. I plan to barricade my bedroom, set down the drop cloth and start painting. I plan to do that once I finish the cosplay costume. One thing at a time. 

But today like the other time, something went wrong. That has been my week in a nutshell. The hot water was gone, this and that. Ugh anyway I hope the worst is over. So I will finish the costume once I buy more black thread. But doing one project at a time lets me focus on it more closely. 

Once the black stand the bookcase are painted black and the paint has dried, I want to add Halloween stickers. The black color will make the stickers look more natural. The Halloween skull faces will hopefully look like they are emerging from the bookcase- black paint. I have spider stickers to add too. Again, I promise pictures when I am done. 

I placed photos of my beloved late pets and of my grandfather on my altar today. I lit sage and a candle. I welcomed them to my space. It’s a tradition to acknowledge and honor those who have gone before us at this time. Here is a photo of my festive fall altar:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this time of year! I bought the skull hung above the altar at Spirit Halloween. I wish it was real! 

Tell me about your aspirations, traditions or crafts you do now. That voodoo you do!

Stay spooky!

Spiderwitch

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Paranormal and Witchy Fiction

Home Protection of another kind

CIMG2561

Merry meet all,

If you are having problems and think that you have negative energy or bad spirits in your home, it could be a good time to perform a banishing. You have a right to cleanse your home of bad energy and not have to live with it. But how do you identify the bad stuff? I’ll tell you. 

You should still use common sense when you want to deal with this matter. Logic rules over paranoia. Just because a shadow flickers on your floor from your big lamp that doesn’t mean your home is haunted. 

Signs your home is haunted: 

  • If you are seeing for sure dark shadow beings in your home that appear for a second then disappear through a wall.
  • The hairs on your neck stand on end when you are alone in the bathroom at night.
  • You experience sleep paralysis as you sleep.
  • You grab a doorknob only to feel something resist on the other side of the door.
  • Objects are moved or fall down without you or anyone else having handled them.
  • You hear something crash to the floor yet nothing has been moved. I can’t count how many times I have heard a mop or something fall and look and nothing happened. Explain that. 

I have experienced all of these things. It’s how I know. But there are actions you can take to stop it from happening. I used to believe that smudging your home with sage was enough. I have heard that the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram is supposed to be helpful. 

One night not too long ago, someone was over to help banish bad energies but a shadow person appeared in my apartment anyway. We did the reiki cleansing but I still saw the spirit. This makes me wonder how effective the person’s ritual was and if smudging a home with sage actually works. I shall try stronger methods of home cleasning. I plan to visit a farmers market for sage to steep and sprinkle from a teapot or garden jug all around the outside of the apartment. Then I plan to sage the house and perform a home threshold clearing ritual from the Hedge Witch book. I may also try the lesser banishing ritual. But I won’t be asking that person to help with another cleansing since it was ineffective. 

I know my home, You know your home. You know instinctively what would work or not. You know how each room ‘feels’ and you know the history of your home. This is why I think that performing your own rituals yourself is such a good idea. Regularly smudge your home with sage every Full Moon. Sprinkle salt on doorways and windowsills. Leave an empty bowl or two in a room to ‘collect’ energy. Relax and focus on filling your home with love and positive energy. I have a pet cat, my fur-miliar, and I have felt a lot safer since adopting Lady Cattarina Cutey-paws the 1st. Penny, for short. It should be no wonder why. Burn a lemon-scemted candle. Try the above suggestions. 

Always remember, you are in control. You have the upper hand. You can control what happens to you. And never become paranoid. Remain balanced and calm. 

I hope this all helps you to have a good loving home. Blessings

Lady Spiderwitch 

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized