SPOOKY TIME!

Oh, it's been several years since I posted any good old fashioned HORROR & MAYHEM on my blog. It being Halloween, it's high time I caught the world up on weird goings on, and things that literally have gone *BUMP* in the night.

I shall begin with some of my personal stories of the sort no one with common sense is going to believe, but those with common experiences must.

It was two winters ago these incidents happened to me. Snug in my bed, I'd turn out the light, I would hear three loud raps by my bed. The knocks were startlingly loud, and it took a week or so before I realized the knocks were becoming startlingly regular as well.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

Not one knock, not two knocks, not four. Three. Always three. As the winter progressed, I would turn out the light, snuggle under my bedding, head tucked on my pillow and the damned KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK would sound. I brooded over it, trying my  damnedest to push the reality of the knocks into the plausible range. Maybe I was hearing my house's timbers shrinking with the cold. Yeah, that must be it, it's nothing, it's just...

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

Crap... the knocks were on my night table. It sounded like someone standing by the door to my room had rapped their knuckles on the night stand. It was not my imagination as I was as wide awake as a frightened woman can be. Maybe the knocks were... GAK! I dunknow. I mean, whattheeff? All winter long I would turn out the light and lie in wait of the knocking which either happened inside of five minutes or didn't happen at all. Either situation left me feeling annoyed. I knew if something wanted to harm me it would have done so already. Here I was - awake. Unharmed. Totally rattled.

The following winter was just as cold and I waited for the knocking to again commence. They did not. All winter long I puzzled how could the sound was gone. I mean, if the knocks were normal house rattlings, why didn't they start up again? I mean, WTF?  I surmised it wasn't my mother, as she had already visited and she had a calling card in the pleasant scent of a fresh cut flower. Was it my Father? My crazy Uncle Edgar (for some reason I thought of him a lot in connection with the knocks). Some other departed relative or friend?  I don't know. All I know is that freakn' knocking was as real as the hyper-beating of my heart every time I heard the sounds:

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

That's it for my own personal spooky bits. Over the past few years I've heard several spooky tales from others, and I no more doubt their tales than I am can doubt my own.

This past summer I was called upon to smudge the homes of acquaintances within my circle of friends. One was a new friend, who had recently bought the home of a deceased old lady. When I showed up at the new friend's home with my turkey feather, abalone shell and other accouterments, I asked her what made her ask for a smudging. She would only tell me that the old lady would not leave the house and that the old lady was driving her batty with unwanted... events. I could get no more out of her on the matter.

That same day I smudged a second home. It was the home of one of my extended family of friends. They lived in a house I have long known to harbor spooks of several sorts, two of which, sadly, were children, several of which were apparently just spirits that meandered in and seemed to be set on staying put.  Most horrifying I knew there of a 'shadow figure' that has been about for more than a decade, and which I had hoped to never hear about ever again.

After I'd smudged both homes, calling - respectfully - for all spirits and other beings to get the heck out of Dodge.  While smudging I called upon every ascended master and archangel I could think of to escort the beings that had yet to do so, to 'head into the light'. I mean, really, it was about time. I am happy to say - thus far anyway - post smudging, neither family were bothered again. Now, though I know I was of help, I know I wasn't necessarily the one that got the spirits out of the houses. I told both families everyone who lived in their houses had to ask the spirits to move along, and MEAN it. I told children in one home, that if they harbored feelings that the spirits were 'fun' and that the spirits were 'wanted' then the spirits weren't going anywhere and things might get, uh... disquieting. As far as I am aware, all took their situation seriously and were sure to vocally, with emphasis on politeness, ask their unwanted guests to leave. Their wishes along with the smudging seemed to do the trick. That is... as far as I know...