(10-28-2023, 11:48 PM)BodhisattvaStyle Wrote: That is a fantastic cautionary tale.
As far as the book of shadows, that's what I thought I was seeing. I never really could track down any one of them that looked "real" and not B&N (as you put it) fake or something for the "weekend warrior witch."
Now that you mentioned the passing that book down, and how jealousy it is guarded in secret, I am really starting to wonder if I have already observed one of them, in my family's possession a long time ago.
Something an aunt had one day that she quickly dismissed. And yeah, an odd looking journal of sorts with (wouldn't ya know it) symbols on it.
There was a time when the topic of getting rid of a "ghost" came up. I have all kinds of paranormal activities going on in my home (they don't bother me either. They will listen to me tho and leave when i tell them). Well, my aunt, in a snap a finger when the subject came up she knew exactly what to do and sprang into action.
She, herself was very much into the paranormal, but I know she wasn't a witch. I believe it was their granny.
So wow, you have a good bit of experience with this stuff as well.
Cheers to that lol
Some. I wouldn't describe it as "a lot". I don't think I've ever lived in a house that was not "haunted", going back to my earliest memories. "They" used to scare the hell out of me when I was little, but over time I've learned they are mostly harmless. Not all, but most of them. I've learned that coexistence is usually possible. I don't bother them if they're not bothering me, everybody happy thataway.
Several years ago, around 2005-2006, I lived in a house where a guy blew his own head off - in the kitchen of all places - with a shotgun. There was a brain-stain on the ceiling that would not go away, and the house was gotten for a song on account of that. We painted over it, but it would just "bleed" back through. We even painted over it with "Killz" once, but that didn't prevent it from bleeding through again, either. It was just a stain I learned to ignore.
It was in that house where I met the most recalcitrant and contrary "spook" I've ever run across. I don't think it was a "ghost" in the classic sense of that term - not a disembodied spirit of a once living human - I think it was something that had never been human to begin with, and probably never had a real body, either.
Odd things happened there - things flew off shelves and across the room, for instance. When it got too irritating, I told it to either calm it's ass down or leave. That seems to have pissed it off, and one morning shortly after that, I woke up feeling like I'd been dragged through a blackberry briar patch. There were scratches as if from thorns all over my right shoulder and upper chest, some a little deeper than others. It was as if something was telling me no, it wasn't going to leave, and trying to underscore that point.
It was a little creepy, but hell, I've been eat up by actual briars before, so it wasn't really that big a deal other than irritating me. So I escalated too, went a step higher than just insisting it go away, and did some other things, "smudging" the house with sage among them. Never had any more trouble after that with it. I don't know if it actually left, or just decided to lay low, and I don't care which it was. It wasn't bothering us any more, and that's all I was after. The little missus at the time - this was the hereditary witch mentioned elsewhere who didn't fool with witchery herself - suggested "salting" the house, a line of salt around it's perimeter, but I never had to do that. I find that less can be more. If, for example, I just quieted it down and it didn't actually leave, then locking it in like that wouldn't have been a good idea, in my mind. Locks work both directions - ingress OR egress, y'know? I didn't want to take a chance on locking it in there with us.
These things seem to have a sort of "escalation of force" built in to them. You start low, and if that doesn't work, you escalate until something does work, but in steps. That's why the Bible mentions, in relation to casting out demons, that "this kind only comes out with fasting and prayer" - a higher escalation of force. One I've not yet had to resort to... but I know it's there if I ever have to.
One house I lived in when I was a kid had something in it that would tie knots in electrical cords. You could plug something in - a radio, for instance - and walk out of the room, then when you returned, there would be a knot in the cord between the radio and the wall socket, and the radio never stopped playing the entire time. Not sure how in the world it did that, and it did it frequently, but it wasn't any sort of annoyance, just a curiosity. it was like something was just trying to say "hi! I'm Here!" and that was all.
Like I've said before, it takes all kinds. If they can get along or at least coexist with me, then I can get along and not bother them. Everyone, and every "thing", has to live somewhere, so I don't bother them of they don't bother me. We just coexist in the same space, and stay out of one another's way. Every now and then, someone will say "Hi! I'm still here!" in one way or another, and then get on with whatever occupies them that doesn't bother the Other.
"Fear", or more properly the lack of it, is the key I think. There are those spooks around who, if they find out they can get under your skin, will. If they find out they can't, then they just leave you alone or just plain leave for greener pastures. Either way, they seem to be less troublesome if they find they can't excite you in any way.
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