Strange, Unexplained Beings – Adventures of A Mage In Miami

The Spirit of Death is loose in the year 2023 : Otura Niko

Yes this is a year ruled by Obatala and Oshun (or by Exu and Oxum if you practice Quimbanda). But the sign of the year is what seems to truly be reigning this year. Already, it seems that the Ajogún are on the move bringing with them misfortune and death. Yesterday, my friend got into a car accident. A little while later, I learned that my great uncle had died suddenly.

Between yesterday and today, some of my magical charms for protection against death, started to become overwhelmed. I had to call on the spirits to reverse whatever it was that was sending death this way. And I had to cleanse, re-bless, and recharge all of my charms. And right now as I am writing this, I found out that my neighbor whom I always talked with, died from a heart attack recently. Either just before or after New Years.

I didn’t want to ask the date because that’s disrespectful and insensitive to his poor wife. But it was recent. So either just before or just after New Years. This year is not a good year. It’s not a year that we should all be cheering for.

It is the year of Otura Niko, the Foreman of the Dead.

Friends, things are only going to get worse from here. Before in 2020, COVID was the force used by the Ajogún to spread terror and disharmony. But this year they are mixing the tactics up. Now it’s more like a mix of 2020 with 2019. In 2019 it was more personalized attacks sent to different people.

Personal problems. And 2020 was a massive problem that struck us all. This seems to be a hybrid of both those years. It has all the force if not more, of 2020. But disseminated in ways that will effect us directly.

A friend of mine who has mixed white and native ancestry told me something recently. Now his magic is strong. He works with indigenous spirits. And when my ass has been in danger, he’s protected me. But he has this thing.

He says odd numbered years are bad luck.

And he had the feeling before I even knew it, that this year would be bad. And now here we are. But it gets worse. Last month a fellow blogger named Librarian of the Multiverse had also had a conversation with me. That she sensed that death would be coming this year as well.

In my head I was like, fuck because that’s really what we need now. Maybe it is. Because clearly humanity refuses to awaken from this walking coma we’re all in. I wonder if we have fallen so deeply asleep that the Ajogún have seen us as easy prey. That we’re being targeted now because they see us as dumb sheep that are easy to take out. But now I want to move on to something else.

The Divination (letter of the year) says to stay away from lakes and rivers and even rain water. A friend of mine who is a seer told me something that spooked me. You see, she had no idea what the letter of the year had said. I didn’t have the time to tell her. But she said that something is in the water.

That something is in the water that’s going to kill people this year. No, she’s not a nut job. No, she doesn’t normally say stuff like that. For the very first time in my life, I understood the true meaning of the term “my blood ran cold”. Because I felt ice in my veins hearing her say that.

I feel a rising death wave like in 2020. But this one is worse. Part of me feels like I’m on a roller coaster. I want off of and I am screaming my head off into the void. But no matter what no one is going to save me.

So with that said, I think I am going to give you all a simplified version of the Ebbos or karmic cleansings for this year. Along with some additional advice that may come in handy.

The Ebbos given for this year include animal sacrifices. Which I am against. But I also understand traditions and what not.

I am no one to judge my people and how they follow the ways of the ancestors. I just don’t like or agree with all the ways of our ancestors. I don’t always follow those ways. I actually considered saying nothing for fear of being rebuked by other Santeros saying I am “exploiting our religion”.

Or some other horseshit that the zealots in my faith come up with to silence dissent.

My spirits and my Orisha do not care about whether or not I kill an animal. They accept fruits and vegetable offerings. But they also accept cooked animals. In other words, instead of giving them an animal that is being sacrificed and discarded I give them food. If the Ebbo asks for a roaster, I go out and find a cooked roaster.

It’s not impossible to find. There are some animals that are sacrificed in Africa that don’t exist here. So with divination and research I find what they would accept and grant them that dinner. In places that are sacred to them. I also add the fruits and vegetables anyway as an added offering.

If blood is what they want that isn’t a problem either. There are butcher shops that are willing to grant the meat and the blood. As long as they get paid they don’t care. Again, this is how I do it because my Gods and spirits allow me to. Because my Orisha allows me to.

Do a divination, meditate, and find what works for you. And if any Santeros out there have an issue with how I approach our faith, I don’t care. It has served me well up until now. And until they (the Orishas) or my spirits tell me otherwise I will continue. I am accountable to them, not to you.

Now the offerings in IFA, you can skip because that’s for the order of IFA. The practitioners of IFA divination and magic under Orula. I am going to give you a simplified version of the regular Santero offering. A medium rooster and seven colored strips.

The seven colored strips symbolize the Seven African powers. The other ingredients are only for Santeros. So this simplified version is to ask the Seven African Powers for help. Tie them into different parts of the house. Such as door knobs and in windows to ward off death.

In fact consider making a bracelet of these seven strips for yourself. As an amulet. The cooked roaster is the sacrifice that will empower the charms. They will work against death. Which will be very important because there is an article I wrote which is about charms against death.

In addition to that :

– Honey for Oshun, Brandy for Eshu, Incense or anything holy for Obatala because he’s the King of Heaven. And because Santeria is mixed with Catholicism, Christian things like blessed white candles or incense for him will do.

– And you could get another roasted chicken for Orula, his wife Odu, and the spirits of IFA and ask for their blessings and protections. If you approach them with respect, they won’t care what faith you belong to.

Leave these offerings at a crossroads with three pennies for Elegua so that he will send the offerings to the Orishas. Also this is very important, to a point even more important than the offerings mentioned before.

Offerings for the dead

Praying before the tile of the dead in Santeria

You need to use any form of protection the dead can give you. Sacrifice to your ancestors. Light candles and incense to them, give them Hades Money, etc… don’t be stingy. And if you don’t already have an ancestor shrine to them, now is the time to make it happen. Because our primary protection comes from the dead.

And also our non human spiritual guides such as Angels, Nature Spirits, etc..we need all of their protections. So when you have a chance give offerings at a cemetery to Oya.

– Nine Purple Grapes

– 9 Red Roses

– Nine Pennies

– A Bottle of Red Wine

For her and for all the dead. You don’t have to enter the cemetery. Oya brings the dead to the front gates. Leave the offerings there and she will share it with the dead. Ask them and her for protection and blessing.

And for mass purification in all its forms. And dedicate that entire cemetery to her and the Gods of the Dead. You should feel different. As if something negative left your body when you pray to her. When you are done, leave a candy offering to Elegua in his Eshu form.

And ask him to send these offerings to Oya and the dead. And then leave without looking back.

Now it’s important to also work within your own religion. If you don’t believe in Santeria but want protection, research these Deities and find someone in your own religion who matches them. For instance, if you’re Christian, the Archangel Gabriel is the Messenger of God (Elegua is the Messenger of the Gods) and he’s one of the Angels of Death.

So he’s perfect for this. And instead of a crossroads or all these offerings, you make a massive donation to your church for him in Jesus name. And Jesus died and rose again. So any offering to him works. And he’s the intercessor between humanity and God which makes him a messenger as well.

Any offering you give to him, give with an open heart and perfect love. If you’re Hindu, do this with Ganesha. And look up who the God of the Dead is. One you are comfortable with and work with them instead. If you are Celtic, work with Morrigan.

She hangs out at the crossroads and she’s associated with the dead. There’s so many options out there. Protect yourself well. But most importantly of all is this.

– Personal offerings to your spirit guides

Whoever your guide is. A God. An Angel. A Faerie. A Ghost. As well as all of your ancestors.

Whoever it is, divine with them and ask what they want and keep giving it to them all year long. By feeding your spirit guide, you are keeping yourself safe. And sacrifice to your loved ones Spirit guides as well. Even do it for your pets. I am.

Finally, I leave you with this. These were special warding rituals I did when the pandemic hit. They kept me and my family safe at the height of the pandemic. We survived 2020 without getting the disease. Even though my Mom is a healthcare worker and she had to enter places that weren’t safe.

Meanwhile people around us were dropping dead. Even those who were supposed to be safe. This protected us. So please, read this old blog carefully. And adapt the rituals for what’s happening now.

Angry with the Gods – My Blog during the 2020 Pandemic

Just like on that blog I will keep you updated on events with updates here. Do offerings to all those spirits and Gods. And make the same kinds of charms. Do the same things I did back then. Just adapt them to whatever fresh hell we are going to suffer this year.

– M

The Noumenia : Day 1 Hekate’s Deipnon

I have been meaning to write about the ancient monthly lunar festival of the Noumenia for a few years now. But I have never really had the time to talk about it. Today I am taking time out to write an article on how I do it. I will mark the areas that are my own inventions to my personal ritual. That way you know what’s real and what isn’t.

I’m warning you now. This is going to be one of those long, drawn out articles. And my opinion is in it. And you may not agree with everything I say. If you’re one of those people who get butt hurt, slowly walk away now.

If you find long drawn out articles boring now is your time to go. If you have no patience for them, now is your chance to go. If you triggered by anything involving necromancy, souls of the dead, or really creepy pictures, now is your time to go. Okay? We good? I hope so. If you have any questions regarding any of this you can always comment below.

Today is the first day of the three day festival of the new moon of the ancient Greeks. The first day being Hekate’s Deipnon or “feast”. It’s done once every month near the end of the full moon. Now, the Greeks calculated New Moons very differently than we do. In my case, Hekate showed me via divination when to do it.

How I calculate the New Moon

I go online and I find when it’s the fourth or last quarter of the moon. She told me that was the new moon. So the festival starts the day before at sunset. Why? Because for the ancients of several cultures, the day ended and began at sunset. Sunset was their version of midnight.

So the day of the new moon technically starts at sunset the day before.

House Cleansing (Traditional Deipnon Ritual)

Before the Deipnon even starts, Hekate does a cosmic cleansing. She takes all the negative or dirty energy everywhere to the crossroads to be destroyed. A cleansing for all of creation. So likewise we must do the same. You have to clean your home as thoroughly as possible.

Remove every speck of dust that you can. And throw all the garbage out early. In the old days, you would put all the dust and dirt into a cloth sack. Then go to a cemetery and dump all the dust there. So that Hekate could remove the negative energy in your home and send it to die at a cemetery.

But the cleansing isn’t just a physical one. You should always do a spiritual cleansing as well. Cleansings in general actually. On every energetic level. Even cleanse the physical energies themselves.

I also recommend doing the laundry.

Folk Magus and Spiritual Worker Matthew Venus and his friends doing a cleansing

Finally cleanse yourself and your pets. Make sure that all the negative energy stays out of all of you.

Avoid going out like the plague if you can help it. Imagine the pandemic lockdown and do that again, but for just one night. Try not even to order out. Whatever you have to do, get it done before sunset. Now I know that not everyone can do that.

But if you plan ahead and do activities around the Deipnon, you can do things that work for you. I take up to a week of preparation for it. Instead of doing it all the same day as tradition dictates, I break up into days. One day is for the laundry. The next is the house cleansing.

And if I want I can take another day for the spiritual and magical cleansings. I do this all before the actual day so that when the day comes I am not overwhelmed. Another part of the tradition that you may or may not want to follow is : paying all your debts. Debt is considered a sign of negativity. It’s almost like a vacuum of sorts.

So the ancient Greeks choose this time to make sure whatever money they owed was paid back. As an offering to Hekate. Paying your landlord, roommate back, anyone you have a financial debt to. By paying it back you were cleansing yourself. It was a form of expiation.

Expiation

The Rites of the Priestess for Hekate. Notice it’s actually a modern room. But just because we live in modern times, doesn’t mean our Gods can’t appear to us in our modern houses as they did their own temples thousands of years ago. For a God worshipper of any tradition, the home is the first and central temple.

This is also a time for an expiation of negative energy. Forgiveness of sins is one of them. I personally pray to Hekate before the Deipnon and ask for forgiveness of things I have done wrong. I also ask her to guide me. Even if it was by mistake.

This again has to do with the spiritual side of the holiday. The cleansing of the home. And of the self. The removal of all bad or sinful energy. Although Hellenic practitioners don’t call it “sin”.

We focus on all bad energy, not just things that we believe our against our own morality or that of our Gods. A lot of bad energy you may have in your house probably isn’t even yours. You’re exposed to it every day. Dirty energy on the streets. Stressful energy at work.

People throwing the evil eye at you or even the evil tongue by speaking against you. Or other forms of curses. Or maybe you visited a place that was unclean in the energetic sense. A cemetery, a crossroads, a haunted house. Sometimes even a neighborhood full of nasty people is enough to contaminate your own energy.

And negative energy attracts negative beings. Like the dead who would normally be gathered on Hekate’s Deipnon.

Emptying the Kadiskos

Zeus Ktesios is an avatar of Zeus. One of two of his household aspects. In this form he is the bringer of plenty. He is the “Zeus of the Pantry” and keeps the kitchen well stocked. The image above is an example of his idol, the Kadiskos (small bucket) and how to make one for yourself.

Essentially, every Hekate’s Deipnon, the jar is emptied. You toss the food and what’s inside into the earth. Specifically a place close to your home. Because this is a way to “seed the earth” with prosperity. Good luck to come to you.

You wash it out and clean it nice and good. Then the next day at Sunset at the Noumenia, you refill it again. Until the next Noumenia festival. When you refill it you do prayers to Zeus Ktesios asking for prosperity and abundance to grow in your home. Then you place his idol in the pantry, sealed.

It’s a living good luck charm. Because Zeus is inhabiting that vessel and bringing the luck to you. Meanwhile your prosperity grows as “spiritual crops” everytime you empty it into the Earth near your home.

The Feast on the Crossroads

Don’t get caught on a crossroads after dark

Hekate doesn’t normally call forth just any ghosts on the crossroads in her Deipnon. Hekate specifically brings with her all the ghosts of murder victims and suicides. And I can tell you personally that isn’t all. Even regular people who died regular deaths but were nasty in life come back as dark, nasty, ghosts.

The type of Ghost that could easily be confused with Demons sometimes.

The Feast of Hekate on the Crossroads is meant to pacify the spirits. They eat a nice hearty meal and as a result they feel satisfied and don’t bother humans. But you see, I live on a crossroads already. One that is mystically charged because of all the people who come here to my neighborhood to leave offerings for the Orishas. Or to leave behind completed spells.

It’s why I don’t pick up the trash where I live. Any brown paper bag could have who knows what inside of it. I have seen large bags of used jar candles left on the sides. Sacrificed animals. And even broken Saint statues that were left as offerings to the crossroads.

So having a dark ghost come once a month to eat is not a good idea. We already have lots of nasty residual energy left behind from all this stuff. So as a fellow Santero and magic user, I do mass rituals to clean this stuff up spiritually. It occurred to me that now I had to do something about this as well. So I made a slight alteration to the ritual.

Timing and Crossing over the Dead

First you need to check your phone for sunset in your time zone. About an hour or so before sunset try to go there to leave the offerings. Tradition states you go at Sunset to leave the offerings. I say, I am not going to a spiritually changed place full of dark miasmic spirits to get ganged up on just to feed them. I do what I call a timer spell or timer prayer.

This part is very important : You have to wash your hands with Lustral water before giving the offerings. The Greek Gods will not accept offerings unless you are clean spiritually. Normally we take a bottle and draw a letter “A” on it. And offer it to Apollon Noumenia. Apollo of the Noumenia festival who acts as a cleanser.

The holy water is blessed in his name with a single bay leaf. You burn the bay leaf to bless the water. Be careful because the bay leaf turns into a mini fire cracker when set a blaze. You toss it into the water as it burns and say,

“Ekas, ekas, ostis alitros,”

(All things wicked out of the water!)

Then let the half burnt bay leaf stew in the water. Releasing it’s essence into the water. Leave it there maybe for four minutes. Then take it out. You have yourself some Lustral waters.

Tip : Keep the half burned bay leaf. It’s blessed and you can use it for anything now. From protection amulets to good luck talismans. You can even use it as a seal of protection you tape behind a door.

Now to the offerings.

I ask a God or spirit to “activate” the offering at a specific time even though it’s already at the area. They seal its energy so that until that time, it can’t become an offering. I have watched and noticed that in most cases before the appointed times, the food isn’t even touched. And in rare times when it is, it doesn’t effect the ritual. Being eaten by an animal ahead of time just means that part of the ritual was done.

The physical part. But the spiritual version of the food remains at the offering place. And the animal or animals often act as an intercessor for the dead to cross over. The offerings for Hekate are as follows : Cheese, Bread, and Raw Garlic as well as red wine if you can. If not grapes will do.

A Necromancer in black robes using a candle to give light to the dead

So one of the things I agree with Christianity on, is the use of funerary rituals. Ensuring that the dead are properly protected and kept safe in the afterlife. People are under the mistaken assumption that once you’re dead, that’s the worst thing that can happen to you. No, it isn’t. There’s a lot worse things that can happen.

The wrong religious ritual could trap you in a time-space limbo of sorts. The lack of any ritual could mean you wander the world aimlessly. Hungry and alone. Cold and without rest. There’s a reason a lot of hauntings by ghosts are violent.

Imagine the torment of being hungry, without being able to die of hunger. It just keeps getting worse and worse and worse without the sweet release of death. Because you’ve already died remember? And imagine that as a spirit you literally have no rest. If funerary rituals are done right, even if the spirit is conscious of all things, they are still in a resting state. But if nothing is done for you, you wander the spirit world sleep deprived for eternity.

Until you lose your mind and become a violent animal. One that attacks living humans without reason or remorse in order to lash out. A spiritual madness brought on by the lack of true rest. There’s a reason a lot of ghosts become angry when they’re awakened from deathly sleep. And usually by some idiot doing a ritual the wrong way or trying to control forces that can’t or shouldn’t be controlled.

Or by someone who has no scruples and is using magic to control a spirit and force it from its rest. But I digress. In my necromancy I actually do something different. I don’t summon the dead. I have my own Ancestors and non human spirit guides to aid me.

No, what I use my necromancy for is the opposite. I cross the dead over. I use my shrine at the crossroads for the roaming, unnamed, and forgotten dead. My offerings there constantly cross them over. But on certain holy days it’s stronger.

When I do my offerings to Elegua, Hekate, and other Crossroads Gods, I ask them to share them with the dead and help them. So I do a kind of Pagan mass for the dead. Sometimes I use Orphic hymns in my work. I believe it’s a necromancer’s job to aid the dead. Not manipulate them.

Not enslave them. But to serve and protect them. I have been told by friends that this is extremely naive. And yes it’s true that most modern necromancers seem intent on using ghosts like toys. Forgetting or ignoring that these are still human beings.

Some even abuse the spirits of dead animals. Which disgusts me to no end. So I do a Hellenic version of the Catholic Masses and the Hungry Ghost Festival of Buddhism. I bless food before I offer it up.

Mass at the Crossroads

Attendant Spirits or Spiritual Guides in nature

All Gods have attendant spirits. Specifically they all have Priests in the spirit world. Some are dead people. Others are non human priests who lead their worship services on the other side. I like to work with them.

Take the food and do an incantation over it. Ask the prayer spirits or priestly spirits to bless the food with all the prayers of all creatures who need their help. That way, the food can be charged as a proper offerings to the Gods. They get something out of it besides just the physical offerings. I also infuse my own prayers into the food.

And sometimes I place them in plastic containers on my shrines to absorb the prayers I send. And the prayers of my guides. This has a double purpose. It’s not just sending worship to the Gods. It’s also connecting to them so they can help us. Because they will hear the prayers when taking the food.

And will reply with help. Then I perform a shorter ritual the next day over the food. And I wave my left hand (receiving energy) over it and pray,

“My Gods, please bless this food with your own power. So that as the spirits feast upon it, they will feast upon the food and drink of the Gods. Let them become enlightened by the food and cross over to where they must go,

Yammas,”

Normally I perceive the food as becoming heavier. Charged with divinity. Like a Pagan version of the Christian Eucharist. The food becomes the body of the Gods. And when the spirits possess or influences an animal to eat, they are eating divinity.

Not only does this cross them over immediately, but it also creates what I call a Prayer Bridge. A bridge between the Gods and their creations. The Gods eat by also influencing the animals. But they absorb the prayers. When the spirits eat, they absorb the divine power of the Gods.

So both work together. When you are charging the food on your shrine, this can also act as a cleansing. Ask your guides to take everything bad out of your home and into the food. Bad luck, curses, bad relationships, anything you want or need to get rid of. Even diseases.

Now go to the crossroads like I said, an hour or so before sunset. Just to be on the safe side. Take a portion of the food and separate it for Hestia. Drop one portion for her and say,

“Hestia, Goddess who is first and last and gatekeeper of all Gods, intercessor, intercede on our behalf with Hekate the Queen of the Crossroads and Goddess of Magic and All the Dead. I leave this offering to you and to all the Priestly Spirits that they may come here with you and attend to this ritual with Hekate,”

Drop Hestia’s offering near where Hekate’s will be. She will appear with her own priestly spirits. Then, before you take Hekate’s food, right before you leave the food at the crossroads say,

“Queen Hekate, may you bless this food and make it your Divine Ambrosia for all the dead. May the dead go wherever they are supposed to go. And to whatever religion, God, or land, or wherever else. And may all of their uncrossed relatives no matter who or where, be invited to cross over and enjoy this feast as well.

Yammas,”

Now drop Hekate’s food in the crossroads. Then drop the final portion for Hestia and the Priestly Spirits and say,

“Hestia, intercessor of humanity before the Gods. Goddess of home and hearth and bringer of fire, ever virgin, I call to you to prepare this ritual to be activated at the very moment of sunset. Please ensure that the spirits of the dead go here and no where else. That they may only enter the crossroads of all countries and the cemeteries and any liminal spaces you deign fit for use. Watch over us and protect us and guide these souls to Hekate along with all the Priestly Spirits,

Yammas,”

Yammas for those wondering is the Greek word for cheers. It’s how you end a prayer. Our version of “Amen” in Greek practice. Now you turn around and do not whatever you do, turn back for any reason. If you do, the negative energy you left behind will come back at you.

Or a negative spirit may follow you back home.

Final Cleansing

This is also very important : you have to ground and cleanse after going to the crossroads. Because those are naturally dark and unclean places. And you don’t want that energy following you home. So before you get home, you need to be cleansed. For this we go back to the Lustral Waters we talked about before.

You keep the water you dedicated to Apollon Noumenios (the bay leaf water) inside a container called the Khǽrnips. This can be any kind of water bottle or pitcher. Make sure it’s something that’s easy to carry. Now you take it to the crossroads with you and you pour it over your head and face. And wash your hands with it too.

You can pray out loud or in your head saying,

“Water of the Gods, keep all that is impure out and away from me,”

When you feel lighter that means you are or have been cleansed and blessed. Now you can go home. Do this whenever you are praying to ancestors or doing any kind of cultus to a God or spirit of the dead.

Honoring the Ancestors

Deipnon also means you celebrate the spirits of your own ancestors. This part of the celebration is in doors. At your own personal ancestor shrine. You give them their usual offerings and you pay them your respects. While also asking them to protect your home from evil spirits. You can charge their offerings with a blessing of the Gods as mentioned before.

This will feed them and make them stronger. And they can use the offering to pray to the Gods and connect to them. They will guard and ward your home while you feed and honor them. But it’s also a nice time to spend at night at home with your people. Maybe read to them, dedicate a poem to them.

Tell them about your month. And ask for their guidance. This is also a good time for meditation and divination. Planning projects and other things with the ancestors. And remember, when you’re done praying, cleanse with the water.

With the dead we typically don’t cleanse before offering to them. But we always cleanse afterwards. I do it before and after in the case of my ancestors. You can also do protective prayers before and after to be on the safe side. Also, I don’t know if this applies to farm stores in other places.

But farm stores in Miami have Cheese bread. Cubans love it. Take some heated cheese bread. Then add garlic seasoning to it. And you got yourself a creative and tasty offering for Hekate.

She loves it. Before that I also used to make her grilled cheese sandwiches cut into triangles. Upside down triangles are sacred to her. I added the garlic seasoning and again she loved it. You can make your offerings modern and creative.

And if you don’t have those three basic ingredients offer to her whatever you do have. Regular bread, crackers, etc..sometimes I have given her fruit and or cake. I gave her an all chocolate offering once and she had a field day with it. Remember this isn’t some stale old idea. Gods are living sentient entities.

Sometimes you have to introduce them to new stuff.

Sometimes instead of food what I offer up is money. Quarters usually. They aren’t exactly like Ancient Greek coins but they are close enough that she’s willing to take them. And the dead can use money to buy things in the afterlife as well. There’s a whole tradition called burning Hell Money for the dead to help them.

So that’s it! That’s how you celebrate the first day of the Noumenia festival. Tomorow I will write about the actual Noumenia day.

– M

Happy Hallowe’en Everybody! Special Random Links of the Day!

Hello everyone! Celebrating the Catholic Feast of All Hallows’ Eve as we approach All Hallowsmastide. November is the time of the holy souls in Purgatory. Remember that the Real Samhain isn’t until two weeks from now in November (you can thank the Gregorian calendar for that). So this is a Catholicised version of the holiday. So we are in the Catholic feast.

Not Samhain. I made a special post for links to everything from articles to Creepy pastas on YouTube and more! Enjoy!

The Demon Cat of Washington DC

Today’s Cars for Halloween : Light a Lamp in Remembrance

The Fear Lab

6 Cursed Objects (One of them is from here in Florida)

Cemeteries for the Stars

The Strange Tale of a Mother’s Love : The Grave with a Staircase (Grave of Florence Irene Ford)

Llyn Barfog and the tale of King Arthur killing the monster Afanc

Conjuring Kesha : The Ghost Tv series starring Kesha

The Hardy Tree of St. Pancras Old Church, London

Atlas Obscura Halloween!

Piglet & the Bacon Ghost! A Winnie the Pooh Halloween Story

The Devil’s Bridge in Spooky Lane, Hertfordshire

LA’s Horror Car Wash (Video)

Creepy Halloween Background sounds

Creepy Halloween Stories

Celtic Pagan Origin of Halloween

The Walt Disney Skeleton Dance

Strangeness in the Countryside

Horror Stories in the Snow

– M

Random Links of the Day : Halloween Edition

Today is a special edition of Random Links of the day. Filled with creepy goodness! In this edition we take a look at everything from suspected real world Vampires, Jack of the Lanterns, King Charles being related to Vlad the Impaler, Real World Zombie Bunkers and more!

So let’s get to it!

Vampires before Dracula

Five Vampire Stories you have never heard of, and the Indian inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula

King Charles III is related to the Historical Dracula (somehow I’m not surprised I always knew the Monarchy were bloodsuckers)

A female Vampire Skeleton Found with a Sickle over its neck

History’s Real Dracula

Jack of the Lanterns, also known as Jack the Smith and Jack the Sprite (spirit). A man who defied the Devil himself, and was cursed for it

The Lost History of the Jack-o’-Lantern

Halloween Spooky Stories – The Legend of Jack O’Lantern! A story – picture book, printables, worksheets, and a craft

How the Jack-O’-Lantern came to be

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The original Lantern used by Jack was a Turnip, not a Pumpkin

Now the following Ghost Story Anthology comes from an amazing occult writer on here named Neptune’s Dolphins. Neptune’s Dolphins is the best at all the subjects he writes about. And I guarantee if you follow this writer you will not regret it!

A Mesopotamian Ghost Story Part 1

A Mesopotamian Ghost Story Part 2

A Mesopotamian Ghost Story Part 3 (Final)

How Homes in Bali Are Designed for Harmony—and to Keep Demons at Bay

Jews and the occult: 5 myth-busting insights from a NYC museum exhibit proving Judaism is not “anti magic”

Summoning Ghosts During Sukkoth

Casting Lots During Yom Kippur

October when the 3rd Dimension and Spirit World Meets

Dead Man’s Bones : A Sweet Spiritual Tradition to honor the dead

Haunted New Jersey School set to be Demolished

The Ghost Lights of Colorado’s Silver Cliff : What are they?

A Shark, an Aquarium, and a Human Arm : The Murder Mystery that has endured

10 Secure Places to Wait Out the Zombie Apocalypse

Watch Night of the Living Dead in Color here!

The Stranger Things Halloween Decoration that floats : The Floating Max, what is it? It’s not a balloon, doesn’t use magnets, and has no wires. Internet is confounded

Zombie CSU:: The Forensic Science of the Living Dead by Jonathan Maberry is one of the best comprehensive books on what a real Zombie would be like. It goes deep into the Fringe Science of how such a creature could exist. From Folklorist, And Award Winning Novelist and Writer Jonathan Maberry

His novel on Zombies : The Dead of Night Series

Indigenous Australian Monsters

Stephen King’s House

Robert the Haunted Doll

The Gas Station from Texas Chainsaw Massacre is now a weekend Vacation Spot

New Zealand is going to Tax Cow Burps for Global Warming? Seriously? Why not do something that ACTUALLY works. Like banning tech that isn’t green?

The Pigeon Tower of Saudi Arabia

Peter Stumpp running amuck in Bedburg, Germany. Serial killer or Lycanthrope?

Beware of the Skinwalker

Peter Stumpp : The Werewolf of Bedburg

The Werewolf of Bedburg

Peter Stumpp | Lycan Foundation

Peter Stumpp | Werewolf.com

Peter Stumpp | Dark Histories

Germany’s brutal Werewolf Belt, and the gut wrenching execution of Peter Stumpp

Peter Stumpp : Werewolf or Political Scapegoat?

Sing for your Halloween Candy in Scotland

The Sin Eaters of England

The 9,000 year old Jericho Skull

Living with the Dead in Madagascar

The York Ghost Merchants

And

Strange Light Formations in the Sky

12 Forests That Offer Chills and Thrills

The Curse of the Viking Sally

Why do we Bob for Apples on Halloween?

Why are Black and Orange the colors of Halloween?

This is what a Wendigo actually looks like. One of the forms anyway. No they don’t have deer heads.

Beware the Wendigo

Alaska’s Windwalker or Wendigo

The Wendigo

The Wendigo: The Cannibalistic Beast of Native American Folklore

The Wendigo : It’s origin and Legend

The Wendigo a story by Algernon Blackwood. Here I have two different audio readings which I like very much because of the sound effects.

From Nightshade and from Weird Darkness

Have a great October and Hallowmastide everyone!

– M

Hallowed Tales : The Story of Gabriel Littlepage of Roan County

A rendering of Gabriel Littlepage based on descriptions. From American Mythology on YouTube

This is a new series I have created for the blog called Hallowed Tales. Which is for Hallowsmastide or the Catholic Halloween. Today we’re going to be looking at a historical mystery. At a local folk legend named Gabriel Littlepage of Roan County, West Virginia. I’m very sorry that we don’t know more about the man.

He’s fascinating to say the least. There’s not much I could say that isn’t already covered in this video. So sit back, relax. And turn the lights off. Maybe light a candle in the dark. And watch with delight.

And say a little prayer for old Gabe.

“And Qayn said to Adonai, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bare,’ ” – Genesis 4:13

Reports of a strange, Wolf like animal around that area. A phantom canine similar to the Wolf or wolf dog Gabe had, is still being reported roaming that area. And since this is Hekate’s Deipnon (Feast of Hekate) in which all dark souls to go the Crossroads to feed, I thought maybe Gabriel’s story would be an excellent addition. Pray for Gabriel and his Wolf Dog.

Have a good night 🎃

– M

It came with the Storm : A Wild Hunt During Hurricane Ian?

Hurricane Ian was the fifth most powerful storm in terms of speed to ever hit the US

The first time I had ever written an It came with the storm story was due to a hurricane that hit Honduras. The story was so fascinating and strange, I took time to transcribe it and translate it into English. I never thought I would end up creating a series on this. But here we are. And to make it stranger, it’s about something that happened here in Florida.

People say that “things” come with storms. That a storm is a doorway into another world. And spirits can hitch a ride on them to our world. That’s why the story from Honduras I translated didn’t surprise me. If anything it reaffirmed the old tales.

But most people don’t think anything like that could happen here in North America. The US and Canada are considered too modern for such superstitious fancies. Are they now? I’d argue there’s just as much strange activity in the Americas in our age as there is in our countries. And a series of such things happened during the Hurricane. So this is the story of, possibly, Florida’s Wild Hunt.

A Door Between Worlds

Some believe that storms or other weather phenomenon can bring things to this world. Picture.

For many years there have been stories of portals in the sky. Opening at odd times and showing strange lights. And that can happen even under normal weather. Storms can tear into the dimensional fabric even more. How this is possible is unknown.

Science dictates you would need the power of a small star just to power a small worm hole. Although a spiritual being is an entity of a higher universe. And in theory they could conjure up power at a greater level at their finger tips. Is that what’s happening here? Do they just call up a storm with their power?

Or do they hijack an already existing storm? We may never know.

What is known, is that many people have reported strange things happening in storms. Even seeing strange things. Specifically during hurricane or tornados. In Ancient Times, Gods and spirits traveled the skies on storms. Which leads us to the Wild Hunt.

The God, Arwyn Pen Annuvin (Arwyn of the Inworld or inner world) leading a Wild Hunt with his ghostly dogs. From the Celtic Oracle by John Matthews

Essentially, the Wild Hunt is a Supernatural Hunting Party. Sometimes in the sky, or sometimes even on Earth. Wild Hunts very. Some are led by Faeries, and other are led by the Dead. Some are led by Gods and Folk Heroes.

Everyone from Odin, Arwyn, and Arthur have led Wild Hunts. Sometimes they’re led on land with wild dogs.

Always led on Horseback

Some are on land

And others are in the Sky

Wild Hunts were normally considered bad by most non magical people. Because it was believed the Hunters were pursuing evil spirits. And people were scared that witches were astral projecting as spirits to join the Wild Hunt. (1) Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact it sounds like good fun!

And they appear in almost every culture. From Polytheistic religions to Monotheistic religion.

A Wild Hunt in Heaven, with Satan being cast out

The Hoofs on the Roof

But this time my family and I didn’t have to go through this. The storm went to Central Florida. A strange place to go to. The people there were so sure they would be missed, that even the authorities slacked off. Big mistake.

The Governor and local leaders didn’t bother issuing warnings to the populous until it was too late. And no one could do anything about it. And the storm roared forth. Like a giant wave of pain and darkness upon the land.

In addition to what you are seeing here, entire roads were either flooded or blocked by debris. But I won’t spend more time on this post on that. Instead I will talk about the strangeness. There was something weird about this storm.

Something the other storms never had.

The feelings in the air was just eerie. It wasn’t even Samhain yet and it felt like the dead were in the air. Some people think that when certain events are going to happen, spirits gather. Is that what was happening here? I wondered as I was throwing the trash out in the days preceding the landfall of Ian.

For many days we had all been feeling as if someone stepped on our graves. I prayed like crazy and left offerings wherever I could hoping we would be okay. In addition to all the weirdness we were all feeling in Miami, the storm seemed to be alive. I mean storms change courses all of the time. They are alive to a certain point.

But this was different. It seemed like it had a destination it was mapping out. And when it finally touched ground wreaking all that devastation, people talked about their experiences. A lot of people said it sounded like a freight train was hitting their houses. That’s to be expected.

Most hurricanes actually sound like that. Or they have this really deep whistle in the air. That’s how it was for me when I was a kid during Hurricane Andrew. It also sounded like the lightning was actually falling on the road. And it felt like a flood was about to crash through the barricaded front door of my house.

But then, weird stories started to come out of Central Florida. A few people were claiming that they heard what sounded like horse hooves running atop their houses. Now when I heard this, for some reason I felt this electric shock. Like that feeling you get when you know something. I felt like this was a sign of the Paranormal.

But just because I have a feeling doesn’t mean that I am going to come out and say “it’s the Wild Hunt,”. Obviously, that won’t ever be proven by science. What I can do is draw on my paranormal training to try and debunk what I believe. If I can disprove it then than means there’s at least a possibility that it’s nothing paranormal. And I would have to adhere to that unless I have proper proof.

I studied everything I could find online on storms.

*Jana Houser standing next to the Rapid X-Pol radar instrument, a new type of rapidly-scanning mobile radar system, during a storm chase on 8 May 2012. Credit: Jana Houser via AGU from this article*

I have been waiting since Ian and after Ian. I researched with the mind of someone who doesn’t believe in shit. Who believes there is a reasonable explanation for what happened. First I assumed it was that the storm sounded that way. So I looked up Hurricane sounds.

And while many articles and videos show that they can sound like freight trains or have those same whistle sounds I have heard, nothing about horse hooves. Nothing anywhere. And I used multiple search engines including DuckDuckGo. Nada. Zip.

Zilch. Next I tried psychology. And I tried to reason that because there is such a large farming community in Central Florida, people there reasonably associated storm sounds with sounds they might hear every day. Sounds they were used to. At first I went with that explanation.

But then I realized, that’s BS. We have many farms here in Miami. There’s a place called the Redlands. It’s an agricultural district with mostly wealthy families living there. Gigantic mansions and properties you couldn’t imagine.

Sometimes I just go there to watch the big houses and to buy fruit from the farms. And even in Miami, there are smaller farms and urban farms. Heck it’s not even outside of the normal to see random wild animals and farm animals in the city streets. I have a chicken that somehow made it into my apartment complex. We all feed her.

And I looked at the reports. None of the people who heard the horse hooves had farms. They were all regular people who lived in houses. I’ve probably been to more farms than they have. So it couldn’t be that.

And if living or being near farms would make us believe hear “horse hooves” in a hurricanes I would think we would associate those sounds the same way too. We have had hurricanes for years. And no one here or in any other part of Florida mentioned the hurricanes sounding like horse’s hooves. So that’s a bust too. After all this time researching and attempting to debunk it, it came up empty.

The only other explanation is Oh the Hurricane just happened to sound that way this time. Which is lazy thinking. I have heard half cocked bullshit explanations like that by skeptics and cynics alike. They always end up creating the most idiotic explanations and then pass them off as reasonable ones. I remember a Sheriff tried to tell a family that witnessed a UFO, that they had seen a large owl and became “hysterical,”.

And what’s worse is that the same BS is used by skeptics for that case. It’s a woman and her kids so they have to be hysterical. I am so tired of people who think that way. It’s a lack of intellect and just lazy reasoning. If you can even call it that.

Point is, there was nothing to debunk it outside of lazy reasoning and speculation. None of which holds up to scientific scrutiny. So it’s just as likely that it’s something paranormal as it is non paranormal. So debunking was a dead end. Time to do what I do best.

From the article *Lay That Ghost: Necromancy in Ancient Greece and Rome* by Daniel Ogden

As the description from the article says, the Gods of death, sleep, and dreams were considered Gods of Prophesy. Normally I call them and other beings to give me dreams to tell me about stuff. But right now I can’t. I lost a friend and am mourning his death. According to Greek tradition that means I have a 13 day mourning and purification period.

But my Druid Master has told me the Tuatha dé Danann have no such restrictions. But instead of a God, I decided to call the spirit of a Druid Seer. I thought this would be a nice concession to all sides of my magical life. After all, as a British witch once told me,

“Why call Gods to know or do things when your dead Aunt Tilly or one of the Fae can easily do the same? If not better?”

So I spoke to an old friend……Fedelm.

A depiction of Fedelm in the Celtic Oracle by John Matthews. She had blond hair that was braided, with black eye brows. And this was supposed to be what she wore.

Fedelm is a dead Druid poet and prophetess. She had exceptional powers when alive. And many people believed that her black eye brows were the sign of the triple iris. Showing that she was meant to be a Seer. Among her many powers is Imbas Forosnai.

A sort of trance state. Where one calls down the Gods to ask for answers to questions. I haven’t read about it in years. But I believe you need a triangular stone and raw ham and cheese that you chew in your mouth. Then you place the chewed up ham and cheese on the stone.

You put this behind the front door. And either sleep or enter a light lucid dreaming state. There you talk to the Gods and inquire what you will. Fedelm was a master of this ability, and probably didn’t even have to do this ritual all of the time to gain answers. She could predict anything at any time.

Even in death, a Prophet’s connection is strong. One would argue it’s even stronger. So I gave her an offering at my shrine for the dead. Invited her to come visit me. And went to bed.

My dreams were weird as fuck. It was like being in Woodstock. Sometimes in my sleep I was awake enough to know that I was talking out loud. Then I woke up and tried to piece together what I was dreaming. I remembered some bits.

*“Ghost Storm”* by Jeroen Van Valkenburg

I ignored the ones which were obviously my subconscious. But I paid attention to those things that were out of the ordinary. I dreamt of a tidal wave made up of people. But there was no water. Or rather there was.

They were hiding in the water.

In non-corporeal form. And yet they were still able to influence the physical world. I saw them rise up and create the storm from beneath the waters. They were restless. Some were just angry and wanted to destroy things.

And their faces were deformed. Some died of suicide and others of COVID. They were railing against the world. It’s not fair, I felt them saying. It wasn’t our time yet!.

And they just fused into this collective mass of dark water. And I could see lightning inside the water too. And hear many angry voices roaring from within it. And that’s when I woke up. My heart beating and me drenched in sweat.

I felt like I was there. Somewhere in the ocean. Like I had to be quiet so that I wouldn’t catch their attention. It was one of the most intense and fucked up visions I had ever had. Like these were people who died in 2020 and onward till now.

Or from the many suicides that happened in the pandemic. I waited, calmed down. And for the next few days I put it out of my head. And when I felt I was calm and centered enough, I tried normal divinations. And they all confirmed in one way or another what Lady Fedelm had told me.

Of course this is magical “evidence” for myself. I can’t expect any of you reading this to believe. And I’m sure other magic users in Florida have different opinions on the subject as well. But I know, and many of us here in Miami who felt it know, Ian wasn’t a normal Hurricane. Something did come with the storm.

And it’s wrath was terrible.

(1) The Wild Hunt by Frontier Partisans

Random Links of the Day : The March of the Future Dead on St. Mark’s Eve (And a lot of other weird shit)

On this night, starting at midnight the spirits come out

Boy, whoo! My ass is tired. If you’re an avid reader of my blog, then you know I’ve been writing almost non stop from these last two days. For Saint George’s Eve and also for Saint George’s Day. I’m too tired to write an in-depth expose on Saint Mark. But I can do the next best thing. I can do a random links of the day!

I haven’t done one of those in a long time. Essentially, sometimes I would get random information on strange things. The paranormal, or weird history. And I thought to myself that I bet my readers would love it. So what happened is I ended up inventing this type of blog post specifically to share articles.

Or even videos etc..

So today I’m making a random links of the day. All will be about St. Mark’s Eve and it’s Folklore. The main thing to know about Saint Mark’s Eve is that churches will have a parade of future dead people. You will see the Doppelgängers of people still alive marching to the doors of a church. And whoever you recognize from that march will die this year.

Sadly I can tell you this is true. I have observed the vigil myself. In 2020 I couldn’t actually go to a physical church due to COVID. But I performed a divination by casting the bones. And the person I knew who was going to die was my grandfather. And a few days after the divination he died.

So this is very real. The whole thing shocked me to my core. I wasn’t expecting it. The reason I tell you this story is 1) Be careful when doing this. Prepare yourself for the possibility it will be someone you know.

Beware of just sitting anywhere on the Eve of Saint Mark. You might see something you don’t want to see. From DeviantArt

And 2) There is an alternate way to find out who is at the procession. Moving on let’s start with my former articles on St. Mark’s Eve :

The Occult connections of Saint Mark and Saint George

My Divination on St. Mark’s Eve, the one in which I discovered my Grandfather would die

Now for the other links

The Mystery of St. Mark’s Eve | The Book of Days

St. Mark’s Eve by Robert D. Carter

St. Mark’s Eve and the Future Dead

St. Mark’s Eve Article from the Smell of Water WordPress blog!

English Folklore of St. Mark’s Eve

Spells for St. Mark’s Eve

The Wikipedia page of St. Mark’s Eve

Halloween in Spring : St. Mark’s Eve

St. Mark’s Eve – Tudor’s Society

The Legends and Mysteries of St. Mark’s Eve

The Doppelgängers of the future dead arise during this time

April 24, 2020 – St. Mark’s Eve

St. Mark’s Eve – Stephen Morris, Author

St. Mark’s Eve – Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Folklore : Divining Love & Death on St. Mark’s Eve

The Spooky Traditions behind St. Mark’s Eve

Does Saint Mark’s Eve rival Halloween as the Spookiest Day of the Year?

St. Mark’s Eve – Oxford Reference

When the Soon to be Dead Walk

Why did people spy on Future Ghosts on St. Mark’s Eve?

Watching for the nearly departed on St. Mark’s Eve

St. Mark’s Eve I missed it this year

The Saint Mark’s Eve Archives of the Tudor Society

It’s Saint Mark’s Eve! Fabulous Folklore with Icy Sedgwick Podcast!

English Residents prepare for the Spookiest Night of the Year

Diving who will die next

PDF’s on Saint Mark’s Eve

Confessions of a Teenage GhostHunter: Keeping the St Marks Eve Vigil and Looking for the Ghost of Sir Walter Calverley

St. Mark’s Eve – Faeries and all that stuff

Happy Saint Mark’s Eve everyone!

– M

St. George’s Eve (Don’t go out tonight)

All manner of Spirits, evil, neutral, and some good wander the night

The feast of Saint George the Dragon Slayer is normally a good Feast. But on the Eve or vespers of a Saint’s day, evil spirits and evil witches gain their strongest powers. It’s their way to mock holiness. But contrary to popular belief it isn’t just evil spirits out tonight. All sorts of beings are out.

Werewolves

Werewolves are out and about on this night. Some of them are good and others are bad. Some of them are shape shifting witches who learned to transform. Some are people who were cursed. And some gained an ability from a relative to enter Wolf form.

Who knows what they’re up to tonight? At least the Romanian version of Werewolves. In North America they’re active on St. Mark’s Eve not St. George’s Eve.

The Blutbad Holly Clark, from the Tv series Grimm. It basically means “big bad Wolf”

Will-O’-the-wisps

Then of course we have Will-O’-the-wisps also known as Ignes Fatui (giddy flames). Also known as Ghost Lights and Corpse Lights. These are spirits that take on the form of the classic ghost orbs you have probably seen or heard of from television. Not only do they exist in European culture. But also in some indigenous American cultures.

But not all Will-O’-the-wisps are ghosts.

In Mexico they are normally Hags or Demon Witches. Practitioners of black magic who delved so deeply into the darkness that they became demons while still alive. In death they get even stronger. This is not to be confused with the title of Hag used by some Covens. This specific hag is not a human witch.

Hags in the form of fiery Will-O’-the-wisps

It refers to a whole class of formally human witches who became demons or demon-human hybrids through sinister practices.

But most of these lights are associated either with Faeries or with deceased human souls. The main belief in Europe, is as follows. When Saint George’s Eve comes around, the dead, and even spirits associated with treasures (which includes a few demons) will appear as flames or lights. These lights will then hover around places where there’s buried treasure. Really brave (or greedy) people will venture out at night hoping to find such spirits.

And then either dig up the treasure then and there. Or mark the place somehow to find it again the next day.

Corpse Lights, spirits of the dead in Orb form

Granted, this is a dangerous practice because the spirit could kill, curse, or even possess the would be treasure hunter. Something I recommend is to never steal treasures from spirits. My Native Shaman had been haunted by a spirit who buried money with her dead father. We never knew how they acquired this money together. But we figured it probably wasn’t legal.

But we let his soul stay with that money. My family had a similar run in with the spirit of a dead land owner from Spanish colonial times. The house they lived in had previously been his property. But the treasure was under some kind of Boulder. And no matter what was done, the rock wouldn’t break.

Not even with drills. My grandmother who practiced magic, correctly concluded that the treasure would never belong to us.

A Faerie creature with its ball of light behind it

Some of these spirits are dead pirates or road thieves who buried their treasures prior to death. Perhaps even being captured and hanged before they could enjoy their stolen bounty. Or sometimes regular people who hid their treasures to feed their families later. But had died before revealing their locations.

Vampires

Moroi, the human vampire born from two Strigoi

The Moroi are a type of Vampire that falls under two distinct categories. One is a physical psychic vampire that drains the energy of the living. The other is a non-corporeal Ghost Vampire. Much like the Asian Hungry Ghost, feeds on the energy of living creatures. Moroi are often the subjects of debate.

Moroi as a Parasitic Ghost. Image from DeviantArt

In one story they are mortal Vampires. In another a vengeful ghost who feeds off of energy. Sometimes the Moroi are said to be demonic spirits who possess the living. This includes animals such as Bears. Living Vampires also become undead Vampires in death.

This is probably why the Moroi appears as all three types of creatures. In death they may have the option to become a regular parasitic ghost. Or a demon.

Their Parents

Strigoi Mort are a type of witch vampire. In fact the word itself is actually for witches. Simply it has become so associated with these vampires that extra terms have been added to tell the difference. From the Latin word Strix for witch. Italian Strega.

And Slavic Shtriga. In order to differentiate from a human witch or wizard they use different terms. Such as Strigoi viu, or Strigele, living strigoi or living witch. The undead vampire witch are called Strigoi Mort or dead witch. In Romania dead evil witches tend to become vampires.

However, it’s all confusing. Because some argue that a Strigele is like a Moroi. That it is unholy and will become a vampire witch in death. But to me that’s just Christian bias. They think witches are all satanic.

Obviously not all Romanian Witches become these creatures. There are several types of benevolent witches that use sorcery to fight these creatures. And even create talismans and amulets for protection. In several legends, Romani people (Gypsies) have played key roles in fighting and defeating vampires and other demons. There are legends of Gypsy vampire hunters as a matter of fact.

But that’s a rabbit hole for another day.

Strigoi Mort are immortal and also have magical powers. They are said to control the Moroi. Some legends state that the Moroi are the living children of two Strigoi who mated. So these vampires are interrelated. Why the immortality isn’t passed on isn’t explained.

Because they are also witches, they have a wide variety of powers. From invisibility to shape shifting. The Strigoi are thought to originally have come from Dacian religion. The belief that these are condemned souls. They were unworthy to enter the heavenly Kingdom of the God Zalmoxis.

And thus spend their eternity as vampires. From the Dacians, the Romanians inherited these creatures.

Conspiracy

It’s said that the forces of evil meet at the boundaries of their cities or towns at sunset. These could be vampires, evil human witches, evil werewolves, or straight up fallen spirits from hell. Here they plan and plot what they are going to do to people until next St. George’s Eve. The Vampires steal life essence from people and animals to power themselves up. When doing this, they also steal skills or abilities the animals or human has for themselves.

For instance, if they feed on the energy of a venomous snake, they will produce the same venom. And the poor snake is left with nothing. If they feed on a computer programmer, they will gain his or her knowledge of programming. And the knowledge will vanish from the minds of their victims. And still yet it can be something else too.

Let’s say your talents are something else. Maybe you have a special charisma with someone of the opposite or same sex. This vampire can take away your charm for themselves to mate. And you’ll be as charming as a penny on the road.

“May.—I found that my landlord had got a letter from the Count, directing him to secure the best place on the coach for me; but on making inquiries as to details he seemed somewhat reticent, and pretended that he could not understand my German. This could not be true, because up to then he had understood it perfectly; at least,

He answered my questions exactly as if he did. He and his wife, the old lady who had received me, looked at each other in a frightened sort of way. He mumbled out that the money had been sent in a letter, and that was all he knew. When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, and could tell me anything of his castle,

Both he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing at all, simply refused to speak further. It was so near the time of starting that I had no time to ask any one else, for it was all very mysterious and not by any means comforting.

Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in a very hysterical way:

“Must you go? Oh! young Herr, must you go?” She was in such an excited state that she seemed to have lost her grip of what German she knew, and mixed it all up with some other language which I did not know at all. I was just able to follow her by asking many questions. When I told her that I must go at once, and that I was engaged on important business, she asked again:

“Do you know what day it is?” I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her head as she said again:

“Oh, yes! I know that! I know that, but do you know what day it is?” On my saying that I did not understand, she went on:

“It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that to-night, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?” She was in such evident distress that I tried to comfort her, but without effect. Finally she went down on her knees and implored me not to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting.

It was all very ridiculous but I did not feel comfortable. However, there was business to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere with it. I therefore tried to raise her up, and said, as gravely as I could, that I thanked her, but my duty was imperative, and that I must go. She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me.

I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind. She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round my neck, and said,

“For your mother’s sake,” and went out of the room. I am writing up this part of the diary whilst I am waiting for the coach, which is, of course, late; and the crucifix is still round my neck. Whether it is the old lady’s fear, or the many ghostly traditions of this place, or the crucifix itself, I do not know, but I am not feeling nearly as easy in my mind as usual.

– Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Abraham “Bram” Stoker’s Dracula

Things to watch out for

Beware of the things that hide in the deep shadow

There will be an influx of Calling Ghosts or Calling Spirits. This is an umbrella term for paranormal entities across a wide spectrum that are well known for calling out your name. Sometimes they even make themselves sound like people you know, women and children or animals in trouble. This is all to lure you away to a secluded spot for nefarious purposes. Don’t fall for it.

In Cuba we’re even warned to never answer a voice calling your name unless you know who it is. During this time, there are vampires who call out your name to try and get you to answer. Avoid being outside especially on the road or sidewalk. But as stated before, this is a time when evil spirits congregate and plan out what they are going to do for the rest of the year. So watch out.

This is the first Eve of Saint George. But there’s another in May. So be prepared. The best way to protect yourself is with garlic which wards off evil spirits. I use garlic salt.

Best of both worlds. Spirits try to enter homes through every nook and cranny. Vampires for instance can enter through keyholes. So make sure you have warded your home and yourself. If you think all of this is old superstitions and nonsense, then good luck.

– M

Sources :

1) Vampire Universe : The Dark World of Supernatural Beings that Haunt us, Hunt us, and Hunger for us by Johnathan Maberry (2006)

2) “Beware Saint George’s Eve” Supernaturally Speaking.com

3) “Saint George and the Powers of Witches and Vampires” from Daimonologia

4) Dixie Spirits: True Tales of the Strange and Supernatural in the South by Christopher K. Coleman (August 2008)

5) “Will-o’-The-Wisp: Bioluminescence or Otherworldly Spirits?” from A Little Bit Human

6) Moroi from the Vampire Encyclopedia

7) Strigoi Mort from the Vampire Encyclopedia

8) “Calling Ghosts” from Occult World

A Wave of Darkness Across The Land

Negative Forces are around us since before the end of last year

I didn’t want to comment on this. Largely because as someone who believed in the Paranormal, I am trained to debunk everything. I thought it was just me seeing something that wasn’t there. But I have since changed my mind. Last year, my dog Sheldon was attacked by an American Bulldog.

He’s saved my mother from that dog. Fought like a champion to save her life. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just him. There has been an epidemic of attacks on dogs and dog owners since then. When I translated the Letter of the Year of the IFA Priests, I noticed something.

They said “dogs would bring good luck,” this year. And after that I have seen that all over Florida dogs and dog owners are getting attacked. As my mother and dog had been attacked. I began to see a pattern there. And I divined to ask the spirits for guidance.

Near as I can tell, the Ajogún (warriors of evil) which is what the Yoruba people call demons, are all over the place. Feeding off of the chaos of humanity. Most people believe that human activity is all caused by spirits. But sometimes the reverse is also true. What humans do in our world causes spiritual activity.

Like a massive tremor in the spiritual world. The conflicts in different countries, global food prices going up, inflation and political division. All of this is food for the Ajogún. Negative spirits feed off of negativity. It’s like food and steroids for them.

It increases their powers and gives them a larger foot hold in our world. The Ajogún consist of corrupted spirits. Some were once human.

And others are forces of nature that have become perverted. So these demons are not like the devils with horns you would see in movies. Not saying there aren’t horned versions of them. But they are living forces, or sometimes even nature spirits that have become bad.

Imagine gravity if it were evil. Imagine a force like the Devil, in a million forms at once. And just having this force visit you is enough to bring bad luck and death. One of the ways in which the Ajogún visit is when you have a “bad head”. If you are angry or depressed or generally have a negative attitude, that’s an invitation for them.

The Ajogún can actually see your negative mental energy from their shadowy world. It’s like a beacon to them

And it’s also food for them and other negative spirits. They will feed off of your energy. Increasing the bad luck and making things worse for yourself. It acts as an invitation for them to come visit you and run amok with your life. And because these negative spirits are forces of nature that are so massive, you wouldn’t know you had a spirit messing with your life. It certainly wouldn’t come out in most divinations. Unless you knew what you were looking for, you wouldn’t know what was going on.

These forces are also called Osorbos, Osobos, or Bears. Due to their aggressive and predatory nature. And those words are also synonymous with bad luck. It’s my opinion that based on this violent wave, and other factors, these entities are running amok this year. And one of the ways it’s doing this is by targeting people’s dogs.

This may sound ridiculous. But remember, they are trying to strike down the sources of our luck. That which protects us. And it won’t just be dogs either. Anyone or thing that protects you is up for grabs.

A person in your life who keeps you safe. Charms that protect you. More than likely any other animal that acts as your guardian which would substitute a dog. The Osorbos are on the attack and we must be ready and prepare to strike them down. Now you must be thinking, What the hell can we do? These aren’t even normal demons.

You’d be right. This is the equivalent of trying to use holy water and prayer to attack the Leviathan. It might effect a small portion of his skin cells, but he’ll barely feel it. No. You need to call in someone who can defeat them. These are the specific Osorbos I believe are involved in all of this :

1) Ofó (Loss)

The living embodiment of loss of loved ones, missed opportunities and so fourth.

2) Iku (Death himself)

Not a God of the dead, though he is a Deity of the Dead. He is the embodiment of death. Like Thanatos in Ancient Greece. It is he who is being used the most.

3) Arún (Disease)

Self explanatory.

4) Oran (Problems)

Again, self explanatory. A force that is the embodiment of problems and obstacles.

5) Ijá (hatred and war, conflict in general)

6) Eyo (tragedy) though I think this one is more a by-product or companion to the others mentioned before.

Now I am not a Babalawo. I am not even a full Santero yet. I’m just an apprentice in training. I have used what I do know to identify these things. I see patterns and I try to identify how to alter or stop certain things.

The only way to stop the Osorbos is with their opposite. The Orishas. So I would give a sort of feast to Elegua the Orisha of the Crossroads. A massive feast asking him to get all of the other Orishas involved to fight the Osorbos. It doesn’t have to be anything too ceremonial.

Elegua, the God of the Crossroads, Magic, Guardian of all dimensions. He is the Master of the Keys and Gatekeeper of all.

Just get a lot of food and drink. And offer it to him. And he’ll ensure the assistance of the Orishas in your general area and especially to you. And then your normal ways of protecting yourself should be empowered by them. Made stronger.

The Babalawos usually do their own ceremonies with tons of food and other offerings. But since not everyone can afford those services, I am giving you a simpler version you can use. Elegua loves lots of food. He also loves fruits like mangos and bananas, and he enjoys rum. His number is three.

He eats everything except pigeon. He will not touch that. And while Coconut is sacred to him, I don’t offer it to him because Coconut is supposed to be his head.

Offerings for Elegua

Elegua’s younger, child-like Avatars usually get candies and toys. But the older Avatars love hard candies, toasted corn or popcorn. Eleggua also eats goat, rooster and bushrat, as well as smoked fish. Now you don’t have to kill any animals. You can serve a cooked chicken dinner to him.

Smoked fish is easy to offer. That should be enough. Make sure you put all of these offerings at the crossroads or on a railroad track. Whichever is closer. Start the offering with a libation of rum, and finish with three pennies.

Three of each offering is good. And at your house, you can burn three candles and offer up three Abre Camino (road opener) incense sticks. Ask him fervently in prayer for help. To bring down the other Orishas to battle the Ajogún. And then finish with three pennies.

Then cleanse and bless your home as you normally would. Keep your head down, and your eyes open. And try your best to avoid conflict, negative attitude, or anything else that could screw you up. That sounds like a tall order. But it can be done.

Especially with prayer, focus, fasting, and meditation. May the Divine Powers protect us all.

– M

The Mourner

I was supposed to have written this account last year. But I was so busy with everything that I couldn’t write a single word. So here I am finally committing words to blog. This happened to my baby cousin. And I was called in to help her.

What I am going to talk about is probably one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had. It even tops the Witch Bird case from a few years back.

Let me start by saying that the term Mourning Women is an umbrella term for a special type of spirit. They are the opposites of the Llorona or Wailing Women, they can be good or bad, human and non-human. The good or at least neutral ones, are always human souls.

Women who for whatever reason have decided to stay behind because they are mourning another person. And they decide they have to perform funerary vigils for that soul even when they themselves are dead. There’s one famous Mourning Woman in Mexico called La Dama Enlutada from San Luis de Potosi, who visits several churches just to pray for the souls of the dead. This class of Mourner are obviously good spirits, and they may even be psychopomps (guides of the dead) who cross them over.

A Mourning Woman ready for a soul. From the fake “Spirit Photography” of William Hope. Still cool though.

However, there’s a second class of Mourning Woman who are demonic. Either human souls that have been demonized in death, or pure demons that have never been human beings. For whatever reason, they enjoy the motif of a mourning woman.

They take this form as a way to mock their victims. These tend to be what Paranormal Investigators call “Soul Collectors”, evil spirits that capture the souls of the dead who have not crossed over, and enslave them. These poor souls from that point on, are bound to the soul collector until someone is able to bind the entity and free the souls. Unfortunately, this was the type of Mourner that was haunting my cousin.

For a few weeks, I started to get a bad feeling about my cousin. The dread slowly began to build. Until I finally decided to text her. I figured I was being silly right?;

“Hola Mama, ¿Cómo estás?”

(Hey Mama how are you?)

“Eh more or less. Hanging in there,”

“What’s wrong?”

“I keep seeing this woman dressed in black. I don’t know if it’s for real or if I’m going crazy. But I can barely sleep. She’s in my nightmares too,”

Now obviously when she said that, I said screw the texting and called her. I asked her why the hell didn’t she pick up the phone and call me. She said she wanted to but couldn’t seem to find the time for some reason.

It should be noted, these beings can manipulate humans into forgetting. Making us too tired to seek help, or making us second guess ourselves. I have no doubt that’s what was happening here. Especially with how fatigued she sounded over the phone.

I got all the details surrounding this spirit. Which wasn’t much. It was just that it appeared seemingly out of no where and didn’t leave. Then my Mom, who doesn’t practice, but has the gift said the name of a deceased family member. A nasty family member.

“It’s Leona, she’s there for some reason,”. Now this family member was a witch in life. A bad one. She was my great aunt. Despite all her claims of being an Evangelical Christian, she was well known in our neighborhood and in our family as being a black witch. My mother’s side of the family are full of practitioners. So they don’t go around calling people “devil worshippers” unless they mean it.

They really meant it with her.

In pretty much every culture, when an evil witch dies, they can become these demonic or semi demonic spirits in death, then haunt the living. Some hurt the living by feeding off of their vital energy. Others just seem to be happy tormenting and killing people in strange ways.

They gave her a Christian burial thinking that would be enough to put her to rest. But even before she was buried, she had been causing trouble. Her spirit returned to haunt my cousin’s mother. It had violently pushed her to the ground.

It kept making trouble in her house with Poltergeist activity, all this before she was even buried. My older cousin suspected it was Aunt Leona. But she pretended it wasn’t real. It wasn’t until I told her that the strange activity was was due to Leona’s presence that she finally admitted she wasn’t imagining it. Leona had raised her.

So she loved her, but she also wasn’t a fool. She knew what kind of person Leona really was. Still she had no idea why Leona was attacking her in death. I had to do a major reading and call some of my strongest spirits. In life I’d never dared gone against her.

In death she would be twice as powerful. I didn’t want to face her with just my normal spirits. I conjured some extra help. The spirits told me that Leona had made a pact with something nasty. It was never officially revealed to me what that was.

Not a demon per say, but something else. Maybe something that serves demons. Maybe some kind of mutated spirit. But whatever it was, it demanded one thing in exchange for the powers she sought. It wanted my cousin and her daughter.

At first, because she was my relative, my cousin asked me not to banish her. But to do special funerary prayers for her. Try to pacify her in death. For a few months it worked. But then she came back.

And this time she didn’t come back alone.

She had completely infested the house with scores of evil spirits. Some former humans and others were clearly never human to begin with. It was one room in my cousin’s house. A room, filled with Leona’s old things. It was shrouded in a dark field of energy.

As thick as pea soup even for my sight. I could not see through whatever was in that room. My cousin and her family was physically sickened just by being near it. Something attached itself to a teenage friend of my little cousin, and before you knew it she was being spiritually oppressed.

Again, it was fucking Leona whom I had seen there. With that nasty, smug, smile. Victory was practically written over her face. In death, she looked like she was in her twenties. Not the 80 yr old whom we buried months before.

The spirit was too strong to enter her friend’s body. But via oppression, it gave her enhanced strength. I had to call on the Hindu Gods and the Ancestors to force this entity to release her. She was finally freed. I told them they needed to dump all of Leona’s stuff on a crossroads far, far away from there.

That time, I had consigned Leona to hell in the name of Lord Shiva. I told her to stay there and be judged by King Yama, the judge of the dead. That time, I saw her spirit sucked into a vortex of infinite darkness. Finally she was gone. Or so I thought.

I finally know now why ancient peoples went to such extremes to keep the dead, dead. Putting boulders on their corpses. Placing blades around their necks to decapitate themselves. The whole nine. It’s because of people like her.

The dead who won’t stay dead.

My banishing and binding had worked for a few months to a year. But then, my older cousin died under mysterious circumstances. Without going into detail, we think foul play was involved. But an autopsy showed nothing out of the ordinary.

It was still a strange death though. We think to this day that it was murder. But we could never prove it with forensic evidence. So it was officially labeled an “accidental overdose” and the case was closed.

But soon after, her daughter, my little cousin began seeing that a tall strange women dressed in black mourners clothes was in her house. This happened out of the blue. It was always around her, she was afraid to sleep. Because when she did, this thing was in her sleep.

And as stated above, it was my mother who revealed the entity’s true identity.

Leona herself. But she looked so different. So different in fact that when I saw her in this form I had no idea it was her. I would never have known this was her. She had changed so much, looked so different.

When I saw Leona the first time as a ghost, she was in her younger form. She was 20 years old, dressed in a short black dress, with long reddish brown hair. She would have been beautiful if not for that sinister smile.

But that had been back when I banished her. This time was different. I had sent her straight to Hell where she belonged. Now I could see that the time spent in the abyss had perverted even more than before.

She was taller than she was in life. Unnaturally tall. Her face was covered by a black mourners’ veil. Human no more. Now she was something else.

I kept seeing her in my mind. And I couldn’t shake this horrible feeling. The feeling that if she lifted her veil, the face underneath would be something so ugly. So deformed, that it could scarcely pass as human. But then I had an even worse thought.

What if there’s no face under there? Not all Mourners have a face. The ones who are faceless, are the worst ones. More powerful for some odd reason. I think the ones who are faceless are given a higher authority. Maybe the lack of a face symbolizes the lack of humanity or compassion.

I know this sounds like a horrible thing to say about a relative. But I just wanted her to go to Hell and stay there. Permanently. So I called my cousin and we did a remote ritual together. First I sent her images of my indigenous spirit.

A near identical replica of the statue I have. I won’t take a picture of mine because the spirit inside doesn’t like it. This one was made by Samuel Lightfoot

He’s inside a statue. His soul resides there, I don’t actually know if he’s a warrior or not. I can’t tell. What I do know is he has powerful magic. He must have done many great deeds in life because he has many feathers in his headdress.

Regardless, he has never failed me. I sent an image of him and of a Animal Spirit that he has with him, a separate statue. I told her to look into his eyes and enter and accept him there with her. Moments later, she felt him and his animal appear.

The Mourner formally known as Leona was very angry. She started trying to attack my cousin. Which was a mistake. Both my spirits took the opportunity to absorb her attack and turn it on her. Restraining her in the process, but Leona wouldn’t leave.

Some power was allowing her to stay. So I needed to upgrade to an even stronger guide. I had them restrain her while I called him down. For this I used a sort of Jewish-Christian and Muslim ritual that I devised. All three religions worship the same God.

So I called on my Guardian Angel in the name of Jesus, Enoch, and Muhammad. I drew the symbols of all three faiths with Cascarilla chalk on the floor. And did separate prayers to God for each faith. Then I just sat kneeling and asking Yahweh for help. Yes, Yahweh.

The God El’s incarnation as a God of war. That’s the version of El that Christians worship. Hence why he’s kind of bloody in the Bible. But I digress. I beheld my Angel, he was cold and hot at the same time.

A warm heat on a cold day. But also a refreshing arctic wind on a hot day, an aura that reminds me of the aurora borealis. I told him the cliff notes version of what was happening, and he instantly departed.

When he did I heard my cousin give a huge sigh of relief.

This is the closest representation I could get to what he looks like. But his body is weird, he looks like a giant, like a human with the giant disease. That gives them a bigger frame.

His wings are golden and emit a kind of solar energy. But the center of his body emits a white and cold light. When he turns down his bioluminescence for me, I have seen that he looks like a dark skinned middle eastern man. His black hair slicked to the back. His eyes also glow golden.

“I can feel him,” she said as she sighed. “I feel so good right now,”. The Mourner tried to run. But even if my two other guides weren’t restraining her, she didn’t stand a chance. My Angel is too powerful.

My cousin said she felt his presence like a warm wave of positivity wash throughout the house. Like all the trouble and problems she had just washed away under that warmth. He removed her at once. This time for good. That’s what I should have done in the first place.

But I believed my necromancy and my banishing was strong enough to keep Leona down. No matter how strong in life she was. This time she wouldn’t be allowed to return. Since she had such fun in Hell and clearly had a lot of friends, we sent her somewhere else. I asked him where else in the afterlife could she be sent.

He replied.

“Her demonization must be lifted first. That will take some long time. And when it’s done, we can send her into the void of reincarnation. Let her live life times with her karma as judge and jury,”

So that’s where he took her. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Let her own sins become a burden to her when she comes back to Earth.

I also requested he stay with her for a week, healing her and removing all bad energy from her. She said she slept good for the first time in a long time. A few months had passed and she encountered another Mourner in her house. She thought it was Leona.

This one was weirder than Leona herself. But it wasn’t her. My guardian is too strong, and the place he sent her is sort of like Jewish Purgatory. Before she is to be reborn. See Jewish Reincarnation.

“The Curse of the Faceless Woman,” by Urban Legends Online

I interrogated the entity and discovered she was a familiar spirit to Leona. She told us Leona had worked with Mourner Spirits before. And that’s when they met. Shortly thereafter a pact was formed between witch and her new guide. But this guide like I said before, was strange.

Leona had ordered this familiar spirit to appear as her, to act like her, and to have all her memories. In case one day her spirit would be bound or banished somehow. It was interesting to hear this from her familiar.

That Leona had become so obsessed with immortality, that she ordered her Mourner to become a backup of her. Almost like a clone. Her mind and memories absorbed by another Mourner prior to death. And unleashed the moment Leona was taken out for good. I also learned that she kept setting her free every time I banished her.

Leona ordered her to hurt my cousin. To kill her in fulfillment of some pact. On the off chance that she didn’t finish it herself. I ordered her to tell me who the pact was made with and how to break it. And she told me the name of a Demon whose name I will not repeat.

But this entity is female and well known in Jewish lore. You probably already know just by that. She’s also a demon in ancient Sumer. So I called on the Angels Sanvi, Sansanvi, and Semangelaf to empower my curse breaking ritual. It’s the same ritual for breaking generational curses that I wrote about here.

The curse was broken. But something still felt off. Turns out my cousin still had some of Leona’s belongings with her. A cross or a Bible that turned out to be cursed, can’t remember which. I told her to bury them in a separate crossroads.

After that, the hauntings had stopped. No more Mourners. Everything went back to normal. But that was one of the strongest entities I ever had to banish before and I hope to never see one again.

If you see a Mourner, know this; prayers and the normal stuff you use, won’t work. These are really nasty, and really powerful demons. Even protection spells can fall short here. Because these are the children of that demoness that I won’t mention here. But those three Angels can banish and bind her and her children.

The Mourners serve her, they are a type of hag or demon-witch hybrid like she is. So you’ll need to step up your game if you’re going to face off against one of these beings. That’s why since then I have tried to learn all that I can about fighting them back.

The names of those three Angels and also the names of Adam and Eve can be called to drive her out. Especially when written around a Star of David. Of all the Hags or demon witches I have studied, Mourners seem to be the top tier ones. I don’t know why, but they are.

I will keep you updated when I find better defenses against them. But for now, my cousin is better.

– M