The Spring Festivals of Imbolc

This entry is from Jose Prado, thank you Jose for another most interesting entry in the Paranormal Corner. Note even though this entry contains instruction for a spell The Paranormal Corner do not endorse uses of spells and are hear by not responsible for any effects or use of the instructions in this entry.

The ancient Celts (peoples of Scotland, Ireland, and even some parts of England and the Iberian Peninsula) believed the year and seasons (like all things) existed as a Circle. A Cycle of life and death with no end similar to to the Gnostic concept of the Ouroboros, the serpent who devours his own tail. The Celtic wheel of the year is symbolized by the eight armed sun cross, a symbol sacred to many cultures from Native Americans, Norse peoples, to Gypsies. In fact the Gypsy flag is an eight armed carriage wheel representing their caravans from times past when they (as well as other mystic nomads like the Irish Tinkers) used them for travel.

Currently we fall under Imbolc, the Celtic spring festival. Now, the day changes by year based on atmospheric conditions, but many modern Pagans who do not have time (or in my case, lack the skill) to determine the proper conditions for when to celebrate this feast choose the designated St. Brighid's day (February 1st). St. Brighid is the Christian name of the Goddess who's original names some say were Brigantia (the most high) and Briganti, an ancient Goddess worshipped by the Celts and Gauls (ancient French peoples) and eventually adopted by the Romans.

The word Imbolc is old Gaelic for "in the belly" the season when various animals including the Ewes became Pregnant. In our Cosmology, this is because the Horned Lord (the God force, creator of all) and his wife the Radient Lady (The Goddess, Creatrix of all) mate and upon Imbolc gives birth to Spring. Similar to the idea of the New Year being symbolized by a new born baby. This is where it comes from. Many have tried to synchronize the Horned Lord with Kerrunos or Pan, the Radiant One with Persephone or Brighid but in reality we don't know much about them.

Though future advances in Archaeology and Anthropology could yield fruit in the days to come. And if that fails we have no shortage of Re- constructionists who zealously attempt the recreation of the Old Religion. While Imbolc is popular among Celtic oriented Pagans, one can find various Spring holidays dedicated to many Deities other than Brighid.

The Norse Goddess, Idun and the Greco-Roman Goddess Persephone. Not to mention (we must not leave out) the male aspect to the season such as the Kemetan (ancient Egyptian) God Khepri who brings about renewal and rebirth , or Leshi the Slavic God of nature from the Ukraine. The Eastern European version of the Green Man. One needs both the male and female aspects of nature to understand and correctly channel the energies of this day.

This is also the time to say farewell to the dead as Samhain (sow-en) and Yule (the Winter Solstice) are now over and it is time for the dead to rest and return to their own realm for us to move on with our lives. It is because off this, that doing a little spiritual spring cleaning (as well as the physical variety) is in order. Remove all you find that you do not use and has no sentimental value to you. Which includes former ways of thinking and old energies you no longer need.

This is where spring cleaning comes from. So get out a trash bag and be sure to throw out anything that can not be used or recycled or donate it to charity. By doing so you are clearing yourself of old, unwanted energy. Just be sure to ring a bell nine times over it or pass it through incense smoke (if it's cloths, wash it) to loose the old energy up and make it nice and clean before giving it to someone else. You do not want to give someone bad or stale energy.

Once you've done that now is the time to clean your home which includes moping and sweeping the floors. In magical tradition, Pagans would use enchanted besom brooms and use them to clear out negative forces. The fact that they were once made with stalks of Lithe only made them stronger. After sweeping the negativity out of your home it's time to mop the floors with a consecrated liquid. In Hoodoo (the folk magick of Voodoo) we use a variety of different potions or plant extracts. The most used is called Chinese Floor Wash and will cleanse and bless the area. Another option is holy water mixed with sea salt, lavender, and white flower petals.

Then to purify the air one must light either a stick of Uncrossing incense or Frankincense-Myrrh to banish the old energy and bring in good energy. Now you are ready to perform your ritual for Spring. The following ritual can be applied to any religion. Mine (since I am Gnostic) combines Celtic religion with Vodoun religion. I see all faiths as one so I don't need some fanatic coming in to annoy me with their Gospel of what they were raised or taught to believe 'genuine' Celtic or Vodoun practices are. This also contains Witchcraft so you will be practicing magick from both religions.

If you are a male, use only female Deities because as a man one have the energy of Gods inside. But women doing this should only call on Gods since they have Goddess energy in them. You can either call on the Cailleach Bheur (old blue lady) or Maman Brigitte to send away the old energy. The Cailleach is the old Crone Goddess of Europe, Maman Brigette is the Goddess of Healing and Death. Wife of the Cemetery God, Baron Samedi (or Ghede). You can also either call on Brighid or Asherah (the Canaanite nature Goddess, feminine aspect of God) or whoever you like to work with in general.

Ingredients : Mortar & Pestle, Crossroads dirt, a white votive candle, Frankincense-Myrrh for the Cailleach and Rose scented incense for Brighid on a white oil burner.

Instructions : Write down what you want to manifest on a piece of paper and with Brighid's candle burn it and send it to the Universe to manifest. Ask the Cailleach Bheur to remove the old, unneeded things from your life while Brighid brings in the new.

Place Crossroads dirt in a Mortar to banish it. The Mortar will represent the womb of the Goddess and the Pestle laid across it the God, to seal it all away.The Crossroads dirt acts as a gateway to banish the old and seal the door closed (based on intent) so that nothing comes back, while the white candle ushers in the positive energy of that which is new to fill in the void.

An easier, less ceremonial way would be to write a letter to the Universe asking what you want it to manifest and what you want it to get rid of and burn it on midnight before Imbolc or at 1:11 am (111 in numerology carries the power to manifest). Plus the Archangel Metatron rules over Thursday and holds the power to manifest thoughts into reality so you can go ahead and ask him in prayer to help you out with this.

Have fun and although this is solitary ritual, you can easily use it for a larger gathering of Witches or even just to be with friends or make merry.

Enjoy.

My first Exorcism by Rev. Alaina Damewood

Illustration in cortesy of Wikimedia Commons 

"Healing of the Demon Possessed" medieval illustration of Jesus Healing the Gerasene. 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Healing_of_the_demon-possessed.jpg

The Following story is a true account of demonic possession and everything in it is based on what actually made me become curious and begin my studies in the occult and demonic, it made me the exorcist I am today. I am Rev. Alaina Damewood and I grew up in the small town of Princeton, West Virgina. I was in middle school at the time learning what I thought was Wicca from a friend who had been studying the occult for some time, she really was a black magic practitioner. 

We had a friend who had been studying black magic who came over for a visit to see what we where working on with meditations at a friends house in Princeton. The male friend name Derik came up and said Alaina some strange things have been happening to me I think I am possessed by something and I want it out of me and I am leaving the coven I am done with black magic and quitting. I turned and looked at Derik and asked him how can I help you Derik? He said Alaina can you remove it from me. I looked at Derik and said we can try. So I had my friends Jenn and Megan form a salt circle in the middle of the down stairs basement so we could start the ritual to try to remove the demon from Derik. 

When we all started to call the elements while standing in a circle surrounding Derik. I put holy water that I carried on me from the catholic church on his head. The girls and I began to chant louder and louder to the elements of earth, air, fire, water and spiritual beginning. Derik looked up at me and said you are not a exorcist while having a demonic sounding laugh and said you can not cast me out of him. I looked at the spirit and said in the name of god the father god the son and the holy spirit I have the rite to get rid of you, it laughed at me. I grabbed the holy oil out of my left pocket put it on my hands and continued to pray to god and the goddess to remove the spirit from within my friend. 

The spirit in him looked at me while I was praying and said oh it is you and I am in trouble. Please forgive me for what I have done to your friend. I said you know the consequences of your actions in the other plain and I am sending you back to the hell you came from. I put my hands on Derik's forehead and said in the name of all things good be gone. Just then I felt a coldness come through the air, the girls fell to the ground leaving only me and Derik in the circle of salt . He woke up out of the trance and said Alaina where am I how did I get here what is the day I said Derik it is Thursday and we are at Jenn's house do you not remember?  He looked and said no, I do not, but thanks for what ever you did, I feel much better. 

It has been over 18 years since this took place at my friends house in Princeton WV.  My friend Derik is now a Christan minster and I am now a licensed exorcist for the order of Saint Michel and the order Saint Benedict for the reformed catholic church. I am also a certified minster in the states of WV and VA and I also am a registered Wiccan clergy and believe that both the goddess and the Christian god can save peoples lives from demonic forces. I sometimes look back and remember that I saved my friend's life that day and he is now a stronger person for it. 

As for dealing with the difference between black and white magic there are several signs any one can use to tell if someone is practicing black magic . The first is that if you feel a harmful energy surrounding the person, Second is demonic spirits give off smells of unpleasant odors and some people even get sick or mad when the person walks into the room. The first tell of a good person who practices white magic is the factor you will feel completely relaxed around the person and in some cases you will feel your stresses and issues of the day go away when talking to them. 

People like my self who practiced Wicca do prayers just like Christians to help heal people Wiccans believe in the three fold law and that if we do bad it comes back to us three folds once while we are alive , once when we die and once in the next life if we are forced to come back to earth. We pray to the goddess or mother earth to help heal all who need healing. As a exorcist, I use these tools to identify if a spirit is good or bad every time I go to do a case on people who claim to be possessed by demonic forces. I believe my experiences as a child and studying other faiths has made me a strong reformed catholic exorcist. 

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The Blue Light Cemetery - Spring, Texas

Illustration by PJ "Blue Moon"

It was the summer of 2005, my friends and I were young and daring. I had known for years that there was a supposedly haunted cemetery in our area, but had never gotten around to checking it out. A friend had mentioned that there had been some cult activity their throughout the 70's and 80's, which only made it that more luring. On a typical boring afternoon I managed to talk a friend into making the 30 minute drive into the boonies to check this place out! It was a good thing that we found The Blue Light Cemetery during the day, due to its remote location deep in Piney woods. After a lot of searching, we found ourselves at an overgrown locked gate marked no trespassing. Well then we turned around and went home. No, I am just yanking your chain because this is where our story begins!

The entrance to the place is an unkept dirt road, certainly not used for vehicle access due to it's narrowness and forest intrusion. At night time the forest around the road is pitch black. About half of a mile down, the road opens into a field where you get your view of the cemetery. My friend and I spent a few hours walking around checking graves and the area. It was interesting because some of the graves dates as far back as the late 1700's. There were many older graves in the forest along a network of old trails circling the cemetery. A few creepy things that we noticed during our day trip were a few rope nooses handing from random trees, a very large wooden cross that seemed anything but holy and a erie "alter" like platform high in the surrounding Ponderosa Pines. The platform must have been 100 feet of the ground at a height far to high for hunting or children playing. 

When we returned to the cemetery around eleven it was all dark! We noticed that as we entered the field the darkness lifted as the glow of the cemetery invited us. I don't know if blue is how I would explain it, but there was a fog that seemed to set in as we arrived. I have heard that the moon, swamp gas and bla bla bla can play tricks on the mind, but not here. If there was doubt in my mind, my best friend and my brother were along my side. It was creepy! The one thing that really caught our attention that evening was a small fold out chair that was placed in the corner of the cemetery. This chair was not there earlier! The chair was in a place overlooking the entire cemetery. We didn't see much that evening but should not have returned!

The second visit is not even worth talking about. A few guys wandering around the forest searching for a thrill that can't be explained. When you encounter something that has no logical explanation, it is a rush equal to doing over 150 mph or jumping of a 50 ft cliff. That is what led us back again.

The third visit was a little different. We arrived around 2 AM and decided that the cemetery was not enough. As we were walking through the trails we came to a place where it was still. Complete silence, and then voices..... Loud voices, not our voices! This also happened to be right by that "alter" I referred earlier in the trees. As we split, this thing followed us all the way tot he road. It chased us! chanting all the while. We all made it to my jeep thinking our troubles were over. Again we were in for a treat!

As I turned on my jeep, we instantly noticed that there was a big problem with my stereo. Instead of music there was white noise. The noise changed pitches from low tones to high pitched, back and forth. I kept switching from CD to radio, but there was nothing but white noise. This had never happened before and we were unable to find a logical explanation. At the time I had a very expensive after market stereo which never had any issues. I even asked an expert installer at the stereo shop and he said that he had never encountered an issue like this white noise. The noise continued until we got back into civilization and everything with the stereo went back to normal The noise that we heard was a warning to us for us to never come back. It was clear between the three of us that whatever chased us out of the forest that evening was present in the jeep on the way home. That was our encounter at the Blue Light Cemetery, which was much scarier if you were there.

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Salt: Mineral, Preservative, Religious Symbol and Spiritual Protector

 Illustration PJ 2011, Salt, upper left Black Hunza Stone Salt, upper right Hawaiian Sea Salt, lower left refined modern tablet salt and lower right Pink Himalayan Salt.

Few elements have had a longer importance in human cultures as regular table salt, both mined stone salt and sea salt has been the prime tool for preserving foods and adding flavor even long before recorded history. Salt also played an important role in many religions and faiths, it was considered one of the prime elements in the European medieval alchemy and therefore essential for the making of the philosophers stone. In Christianity salt is also a religious symbol. Salt is a symbol of the sanctity of Jesus, as a preserving value of his sanctity and, protection it is used to make holy water and also the more powerful exorcised water in the Roman Catholic Church. Salt is also used to make protective circles like described in My First Exorcism by Rev. Alaina Damewood. 

Salt as a sign of bad omens. According to some recollections salt was spilled by Judas Iscariot at the last supper, and since then is seen as a sign of omen and bad luck. If you spilled salt you could avert your bad luck by tossing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder, which was thought to be the devils side. By doing this one would advert any evils that the devils lurking at your left side had in store for you.

In many pagan rituals salt was also important, it is used in magical spells, cleansing rituals, charms and concoctions, and already in ancient Pre-christian Rome salt were a symbol of friendship and spilling of salt, a symbol of ill luck. Later with Christianity a deep faith and salt as a symbol of Jesus, one assumed incorrectly that the pagan witch sabbath everything was salt free. In fact this is a blurring of the terms for witches and demon witches, while a witch is still fully human and not affected by salt,  a demon witch (hag) has started to lose their humanity is such ways that salt would affect and ward them off just like it could ward of full demons.

In Norse mythology they thought that the gods came from a salty ice-block as the cow, Auðumbla brought  Búri the first god in Norse mythology, grandfather of Odin, out of the salty ice block over the course of four days. In general, other than its role as part of Norse creation myths salt had little importance other than a tool used to preserve and condition foods, though later Christianity brought in a lot of their beliefs in salt.

In Hawaii and Samoa sea salt is used for protection both by placing salt in each of the four corners of the house and by poring salt on the door threshold to prevent any spirits from crossing into ones home.

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