We make New Year’s Resolutions with the best of intentions of course, but let’s be honest, how many resolutions are actually kept for the whole year?  I would do well with my past resolutions until maybe March.  But a word…that’s simple, easy to remember, easy to reach for when life gets in the way of our focusing on our own needs.  The beauty of this language is that one little word can hold so much meaning.

Last year my word was DIG, which you can read more about here.  And I’ll tell you what – it worked!  I did work the concepts and goals I associated with this word throughout the year.  Did I wander off my path here & there along the way?  Sure.  I’m human, or so they tell me. But when I recognized that I was off track, all I had to do was say to myself, “Dig damnit!” and all that meaning and intention came back to my conscious thinking.  

It took me awhile to find my word for 2012.  Inspired by the book “Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter” by Josh Gates, released in October of 2011, I wanted my word to be travel related, but to also hold other goal-related meanings to me.  

Photo via Twitter @joshuagates

Then, gazing at the above picture, it finally hit me.  So, Happy New Year folks!  

My word for 2012 is SAIL.

Aside from the fact that I love sailing, I see this word as an acronym for Self-Acceptance Is Life, or alternatively, Self-Acceptance Is Love.  Though I’m not quite the perfectionist I used to be, I still often struggle with what REBT therapists call USA, or Unconditional Self-Acceptance.  (Boy, did I mentally beat myself up around my 40th birthday in September 2011 for various reasons, and admittedly I’ve often felt rather adrift in the fog since.)

Being that I see some circumstances coming up this year that are, in part, beyond my control, and are going to be difficult to deal with, this word reminds me that while “I can’t change the direction of the wind, I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”  (Thank you James Dean.)

SAIL also serves as a reminder to me to keep working toward and saving for my goal of taking a Halloween cruise with my friends at Haunt Jaunts this year.  (Bermuda Triangle, I’m coming for you!  But please let me come home again as I have more travel dream destinations to reach before I’m done with this life.)

Thoughts of sailing bring back happy childhood memories of several summer trips with my folks aboard the Schooner Stephen Taber, and all of the life lessons I learned on them.  

And the serene imagery of a boat on a sunset sail can be called up in meditations to calm troubled thoughts, to help me keep myself even-keeled.

Yes, storms are inevitable along my journey, but I have the skills to navigate the rough seas and sail smoothly back to my safe harbor.

Anybody care to come SAIL away with me?  

Miss Mollie girl

November 2, 1996 ~ July 21, 2011

Rest in Peace

I begin this series with a hat-tip to my Spirit Sister, Ocean, of Deaf Pagan Crossroads, for having introduced me to this lovely lady.

While Nydia is rather new in my life and I have not met her in person (though I sure hope to some day!), I have gotten to know her via online communications, and through her beautiful blog, Bringing Up Salamanders.

I affectionately jest, “Bewitched meets Brazil” here, though Nydia’s little witch is her little boy Lucas (who is absolutely adorable!) and they are both brunettes instead of blondes.  ;-)  Lucas, as you will learn from Nydia’s blog, obviously inherited his Mom’s creative and witchcrafty genes.  I see a bright and blessed future ahead for this boy.

Nydia handcrafts a variety of goddess and god dolls that are simply stunning.  Among her dolls are her visions of goddesses and gods from the mythology of various cultures, Sabbats, seasons, and other spirits. My first purchase, as recommended by Ocean, was this baby ferret goddess doll (pictured below).  She brings to my home the fun and friendly spirit of the ferret, along with fond memories of my own ferret Riker, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge in March of 2003.

This picture just doesn’t do her justice, but she is about 9″ tall and 5″ wide, perfect for adorning an altar or even hanging over it with her attached ribbon and ring, but she can also just be delightful decor.

Though I’d love to collect them all, she has such a super selection that I’ve been struggling to curb my choices to my top three favorites that I will order this year.  This is no easy task, and I may well end up with more if my budget allows.

Nydia also blogs occasionally about a great give-away, with the chance to win one her wares, or those of her own creative cronies.  While I’m a little late in informing you about this one, as Nydia’s New Year give-away is quickly coming to a close – check it out by clicking HERE.  Hurry, you still have time to enter today!

With her first give-away of 2011, she has challenged her friends and followers to suggest a goddess or god doll that she has not yet created.  My votes were for Quan Yin, in honor of my Chinese friends, and Danu, a goddess of my pagan Irish ancestors.

The winner of this give-away will have one of their suggested goddesses or gods made for them, as interpreted by the Carioca crafter.  I look forward to seeing this new addition to her already ample assortment of deity dolls.

Good luck to all who have entered.  And as for my friends and readers, please do visit Nydia’s blog and browse her Etsy shop.  Enjoy your exploration and may you find, as I have, that Nydia is truly a treasure to the witchcraft community.

Brightest Blessings,

Crystal

After a brief stroll, breathing in the brisk air and admiring the magnificence of the morning, Miss Mollie and I made our way back into the building and upstairs to our apartment.  With me I carried a cup of freshly fallen snow I had collected to add to my altar as the element of water, because it wouldn’t be long before it melted!  It would also symbolize to me the coming thaw of Spring.

I lit the main candle I had purchased weeks ago with Imbolc in mind.  It is a grayish-blue candle that had me thinking of blue skies to come, and the scent, though rather difficult for me to describe, is what had truly given me an inkling of Imbolc.  Had I only known how timely this particular candle would be.

Created by my friend Annie, of Annie’s Candles, it is called “Storm Watch”.  Indeed a snow storm did arrive yesterday with a snow/sleet mix following for today…and yes, we New Englanders were keeping a close eye on the storm’s path in order to plan accordingly.

Offering up a libation of milk, I paid homage to the goddess Brigid and spoke my Sabbat prayers before going about my day, further honoring the goddess of the hearth with my own domestic duties – laundry, cleaning the kitchen, getting supper starting to simmer in the crock pot, etc.

My altar as of early this morning.

Even Miss Mollie celebrates the Sabbat, settling down on our pentacle rug for some morning meditations. 

“If Imbolc day be snowy and gray,
Winter soon will melt away.
If Imbolc day be sunny and bright,
Winter shall retain it’s might!”

If we are to believe the Imbolc lore as recited in the above rhyme, coupled with the announcement that Punxatawney Phil did not see his shadow at this morning’s Groundhog Day festivities in PA, it would seem that Spring is not too far away.

My Mollie girl heading back in from a quick afternoon outing.

Our day has certainly been snowy and gray!

Dare I disagree with Phil and predict Spring to come round about March 20th, which is in fact the Spring Equinox?  Apologies to my fellow New Englanders who are growing winter-weary and are sick of snow-shoveling at this time.  While Mother Earth may now be stirring from her slumber, I don’t think we saw the last blast of winter today.

For me, daylight has now surrendered to the dark, though my altar candle still burns brightly, and my creamy crock-pot creation calls.  I hope that an incredible Imbolc was had by all, and may Brigid bestow her blessings upon you.

I leave you with this lovely video I found on YouTube, that shares a mix of this Sabbat’s lore along with some awesome Imbolc artwork…just click on the picture below and it will take you to the video!   Enjoy!

Death Card of the Radiant Rider Waite Tarot Deck

While the imagery of this card may appear ominous and alarming, with the Tarot one must not take things at face value.  Not everything is as it seems on the surface. Keep in mind the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  The Tarot requires us to delve deeper into the symbolism of the cards to reveal their intrinsic messages for us.

The Death card is the 13^th card of the Major Arcana.  Though I am no expert on numerology, from my Tarot studies I have gleaned that the one delivers me the message of opportunity, and the three indicates completion.  Thus I see here one cycle of my life reaching completion, with new opportunities ahead.

I must say that my life has remained pretty stagnant for just over a year, despite my many efforts to make positive changes.  The key messages of the Death card are of rebirth, welcome changes, new beginnings, emotional growth and transformation.  In order to transform, to grow, to begin anew, we must let go of old habits, old ideas, and old emotions that no longer serve us well.

There is loss involved with the Death card, but in my case, that which I am losing is what has been holding me back; negative programming, thoughts and emotions that I kept tripping over with each attempt to march forward.  It became clear to me that I had to cast these away entirely in order for those positive changes to take place.

Of course, when we suffer a loss, we go through a mourning period.  Change can be scary, leaving behind that which is familiar (even if unpleasant) for the unknown ahead. I believe that I am currently coming out of that mourning period in letting go of the old in my life, and am better prepared to start a new chapter. The Death card being my year card validates this line of thinking for me.

As I type this I find myself singing a popular pagan chant and feeling the energy of it:

“Hoof and horn, hoof and horn

All that dies shall be reborn

Corn and grain, corn and grain,

All that falls shall rise again.”

Fall I did, a little over a year ago, and in a spiritual and emotional sense, landed in a fiery crash.  I then retreated inward and worked self-help, personal empowerment and self-improvement tools over the last year. I am now emerging energized, with a new outlook on life, a new way of thinking.  The Death card brings me hopefulness as it indicates that my continued efforts will pay off in this year ahead.

Now comes the time for me, like the phoenix, to be reborn from the ashes, to rise again and fly, and I am ready to take wing!  :-)

For more information on finding your own Tarot card for the year, and what it means, please see my Spirit Sister’s post on this subject at Deaf Pagan Crossroads by clicking HERE.

Well, once the warm and sunny spring weather arrived, I found myself wanting to be outdoors in my gardens rather than continuing to coop myself up in my living room.  Nature is often my muse, and when I am most inspired to write is usually when I don’t have anything handy to write more than a couple of reminder notes with.  Then the problem lies in remembering where I left my reminder notes.  

I also had a lot of problems with my desktop dinosaur last year that didn’t help.  Though for Yule I received a brand new MacBook Pro, so heck, when this winter is over, I can keep writing to my heart’s content while sitting out in my garden if I choose to. Watch out cyber world, you might just hear more from me now that I’m mobile!  But I digress.

The thing about New Year’s resolutions that bothers me is this – if there is a change that needs to be made in my life, a goal I want to work toward, or even a project I realize I’ve been procrastinating on, there’s no time like the present to get going on it.  I find it hard to believe that most folks don’t recognize what their resolution should be for weeks, maybe even months before the first day of the new year.

In late September through early October 2010, I read “Elemental Love Styles” by Dr. Craig Martin.  As one of the blurbs states, this book is “A guide to self-discovery that not only sets you on a path to understanding your own needs for love but also to finding the love inside yourself.”  I’m all for self-discovery and self-help.  In fact, my religion of Wicca is very much a path of personal growth. 

I’ve actually lost count of the number of self-discovery and self-help books I read in 2010.  Obviously I knew I had some inner-work to do. I had some changes to make to create a better, more positive me, that can actually achieve the goals I set for myself, but I wasn’t quite sure exactly what they were.  So I became like a sponge, soaking up as much as I could from numerous sources.

While reading Chapter 8 of “Elemental Love Styles”, it really jumped out and gave me a proverbial thunk upside the head.  The chapter focuses on DIG.

DIG is the author’s acronym for “Dynamic Inner Growth”.  As the author states, “DIG happens through introspection.  Simply put, DIG occurs when you take a look at your stuff.”  Well of course.  In reading all those self-help type books last year, I was learning about a lot of wonderful self-improvement tools, but at the same time, I wasn’t taking a good hard look at “my stuff” to determine which of those tools I really needed to work with in order to grow.   I had to really start digging into myself for DIG to happen.  The first tool I needed to use was a psychological shovel, so that’s what I started with.

Now when you decide to DIG, be forewarned that it is hard, messy work.  While you may find some treasures as you go, you can and will dig up some pretty nasty looking things as well.  We all have them, those character flaws, those unsavory little bits and pieces of ourselves that we often choose to bury deep down inside  and ignore.  DIG helps you to unearth them, to look at them honestly and recognize the opportunity and ability to change them, to make better choices.   When you fully understand the job that needs to be done, you are better able to choose the appropriate tools to use for it.

That said, I add this gentle reminder about self-improvement tools – think of them as actual, physical tools in a toolbox.  You may recognize a screwdriver, know its purpose, and understand how to use it.  But if you don’t physically take it out of the toolbox and work with it, nothing’s getting screwed.  (Hang on, that doesn’t sound quite right. LOL  Okay, well if not taken out of my intended context, you’ll understand what I’m saying.)

So while DIG was more of an autumn awakening than a New Year’s resolution for me, when my Spirit Sister over at Deaf Pagan Crossroads challenged her friends and readers to come up with a word of the year for themselves a few weeks ago, DIG was my response.  I have more work to do, thus I am digging into 2011.  I use the acronym as a short & sweet reminder to keep taking those tools out of my personal growth toolbox and work with them.

It won’t be so easy to push aside and forget about entirely come gardening season either, since I do a lot of digging there too.

And yes, eventually I will dig my way to China!  

Saturday, March 13, 2010, 9:30 am

My friend Rose and I stood on the platform awaiting the commuter rail train, thinking we must be crazy as the wind whipped and the rain beat down.

(The local weather report had claimed it was only going to be overcast for the day with a few periods of light drizzle.  Trying to think positive, I kept announcing, “it’s going to clear up some”.  Surprise surprise, the weather-men, and I, were wrong!)

The purpose of our trip – to meet up with Amanda Rosenblatt, volunteer fan ambassador for one of my favorite television shows.  Being the die-hard “Destination Truth” fan I am, I wasn’t letting the unpredicted unfavorable weather ruin this plan.  We had a schedule and we were sticking to it.

Amanda was catching the commuter rail from Providence, and would be arriving in Boston about an hour after Rose and I…or so it was supposed to be.  She called me en route to inform us she was delayed.  It seemed the inclement weather was wreaking havoc on the train schedules.  Rose and I chose to stay and wait patiently at South Station and have a chat over coffee, staying warm and dry.

Amanda finally arrived safe and sound and found us in the station.  Yay!  I had been anxious to meet Amanda in person, just hang out for a while and get to know her better, as well as I had wanted to treat her to lunch as a “thank you” for all the hard work she does.

Amanda has created and maintains what I consider a one-stop-shop for Destination Truth and Josh Gates fans, all on her own time.

For any fan who hasn’t found them yet, I highly recommend checking out her sites where you will find a wealth of information including interviews with Josh and other cast/crew members, photos, videos, links, updates, exclusives, etc.  Here are a couple of links to get you started:

Singularity: A Joshua Gates Fan Page

Destination Truth Fan page on Facebook

Amanda proposed a couple choices of casual places for lunch.  Being more familiar with the city than Rose and I, we trusted her judgment and let her lead the way.  We made our way to Boloco for some mighty tasty burritos – good choice Amanda.

So then what do three lovely ladies do out on the town in such weather?  Shopping, of course.  And mind you, I’m not a shopper, but what the heck, it was dry indoors, and it’s much more fun when poking around shops with some friends.  Mostly we were just browsing, discussing a bit about the show and the fan sites, and cracking jokes about stuff we found in the stores.  Seriously…who would wear those shoes?! 

We all agreed to make our way to Chinatown and check out a couple of souvenir shops.  Both Amanda and I actually had some things in mind we were looking for there.  And Rose, goddess love her – she’s adventurous – which is why I’ve been trying to turn her into a “Destination Truth” fan too!  Being totally new to “Destination Truth”, Rose didn’t get all the joking references Amanda and I made to witty Josh & crew comments from past seasons and extras clips, but she tolerated our amusing ourselves with them all afternoon.

Eventually we ended up at Essex Corner, the gift shop which I wanted to pop into while there to pick up a couple of wine bottle covers that look like little Chinese dresses.  (They add a little flare to giving a bottles of wine as a gifts.)  Lots of fun & interesting trinkets at this store.  But what ultimately captured the attention of Amanda and I?

The official name on the box “Porcelain Roly-poly Lucky Cat”

But I was calling them “Chinese lucky cat weeble thingies”.

Okay, so we were cold, waterlogged, and getting silly.  We had the ones on display wobbling and dancing all over the shelf  and were cracking ourselves up with them.  After a few minutes of this, as Rose was starting to inch away and pretend she didn’t know us, Amanda and I both decided we needed one of these to bring home for our desks. Amanda called them “bad mood erasers”.  Sure!  All I need do in the middle of a stressful day at work now is set my lucky cat weeble thingie a wobbling, and I’ll just have to smile as I’ll be instantly taken back to my first “Destination Truth” fan meet-up and what a whacky day it was.

Well, wouldn’t you know, one of the customers who had been close-by chuckling at us playing with these things decided she had to get one too.  I was sure we weren’t leaving that shop without Amanda getting a job offer to be a sales clerk.  LOL

The weather had gotten wilder for our trek back to the train station, and we were getting sick of the beating we were taking.  Amanda reminded me that the “Destination Truth” team hikes through jungles and up mountains, often facing inclement weather while carrying all of their packs of investigation gear and camera equipment.  Right!  So we shouldn’t be complaining!  Then she followed with, “but we’re not Destination Truth crew”.  LOL  Okay, I guess we’re not quite cut out for that, so devoted fans we will remain, living vicariously through the travels of “Team Truth”.

It wasn’t the best day for snapshots. By this point, we were all thoroughly soaked, windblown, and in a rush to catch our trains home, so here’s the one quick photo Rose managed to take of Amanda and I sporting our “Destination Truth” accessories before we bid Amanda farewell and Rose and I ran for our train.

Thanks for a good time gals – next time, we do this on a sunny day!

So, here I am at home now, reminiscing about my latest Boston adventure while watching Season 1 of “Destination Truth” which was just released on DVD today!  (As promised, I picked up a copy for Rose too – she has lots of catching up to do!)

Season 3.5 of Syfy’s “Destination Truth” begins tomorrow night, March 17th, 10:00 pm EST, and features what I’m sure will prove an entertaining episode, with footage from the team’s trip to Ireland, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

This is a question I see often in a couple of online spiritual forums I frequent, and one that confuses me.  What is this question really asking?  Is the SyFy show “Ghost Hunters” real?  Is the SyFy show “Ghost Hunters” actually a reality show?  Is “T.A.P.S.” a real-life group?  Or are folks who are asking this question really meaning, “Are ghosts real?”

Well, in honor of tonight’s season premiere of “Ghost Hunters International” on SyFy, I’m finally getting around to posting on this subject.  (Also because I’m growing rather tired of typing out my same answers in these forums over and over – now I can just provide a link to this page and save my wrists and fingers a little wear and tear!)

Here I’d like to respond to some common questions/comments I come across in the forums – from my perspective, my experiences, what I’ve learned about T.A.P.S., and the paranormal in my own studies.

Of course the television show “Ghost Hunters” is real.  That goes without saying – any of us can tune into the SyFy channel on Wednesday nights and watch it.  And yes, it IS a reality show.  The interest in this subject is far greater than some folks can seem to fathom.

T.A.P.S. IS a real-life paranormal investigation and research organization.   Based out of Warwick, RI, T.A.P.S. was founded by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson.  Having had paranormal experiences himself and wanting answers (and to know he wasn’t completely crazy), Jason had started a group called RIPS – Rhode Island Paranormal Society – which he started out to be a support group for people who had had paranormal experiences.  It was through this group and its website that Jason met Grant, who was working in the computer field at the time and offered to help with the design the RIPS website.  And, come to find out, Grant had a bit of an ulterior motive for volunteering his services, as he had had paranormal experiences himself and was also seeking answers.  To make a long story short, the two became the best of friends. They had discussed their theories and philosophies on the paranormal at length, and T.A.P.S. was born.  They decided to take a more rational approach in their search for answers, unlike other paranormal teams at the time that seemed to deem every location they investigated as being “haunted”.  As Grant said, “If you set out to prove a haunting, anything will seem like evidence.  If you set out to disprove it, you’ll end up with only those things that can’t be explained away.”

T.A.P.S. sets out in each investigation to disprove and debunk as many of the paranormal claims as they can find rational and normal explanations for.  Then they are able to focus further research on the actual paranormal – the currently unexplainable evidence and experiences.  Such things as EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomena), which I must admit, intrigues me.

Is the goal of the show to prove the existence of ghosts?  Well, not exactly.  The show is more about following a group of real-life paranormal investigators, a team that takes a skeptical and scientific approach in their continued study of this field.   To show how they conduct a paranormal investigation from beginning to end.  (Notice the cameras that are filming the show are most always focused ON the team members doing the investigating.  One complaint I’ve heard a lot is, “The film crew never have the cameras pointed in the right direction at the right time…they never catch anything that the Ghost Hunters are seeing.”  Quite simply, that’s not their job.  Their job is to film the investigation process.)

Of course, a complete case from start to finish couldn’t be aired as a whole, especially not in a one hour episode since the whole process can take several days and nights, so we are shown a highly edited version in a Ghost Hunters episode – highlights of the investigations.  From the acceptance of the case, to the travel to the location to be investigated, to the research put into the location, the set-up of equipment, investigation, breakdown, analysis of evidence, and the conclusions to be discussed with the representatives of the location.   Through “Ghost Hunters”, we learn about T.A.P.S. philosophies and theories, the equipment and technology they utilize, what the most common theories and beliefs about ghosts and hauntings are in the field of paranormal study, etc.

T.A.P.S. never claims their theories and beliefs to be absolute fact.  This field of  study is, after all, still a work in progress.  It is still being developed.  At this time, there is no commonly agreed upon proof of ghosts in the scientific community.  T.A.P.S. presents what they believe to be “closest to the truth” based on their education in the field, and their years of research and experience.

This is not to say that we will never have absolute, scientific answers.  Come on folks, there was a time in our history when people believed that a god rode a chariot through the sky towing the sun along, and this explained the daily travels of the sun above them.   There was a time when folks believed the Earth to be flat.  We humans have come a long way scientifically, in our understanding of many things about the world around us that were once mysterious to us.  But there are still things out there we have yet to discover, phenomena we have yet to be able to measure and explain scientifically.

At this point in time, it is up to each individual to decide for themselves whether ghosts are real, whether they exist.  And I can totally understand how difficult it is for someone to believe ghosts exist if they’ve never had any genuine paranormal experiences themselves.  (Keep in mind, paranormal simply means not scientifically explainable.  It does not equate to “supernatural” – death is a very natural part of life!)

Personally, it took several experiences, most always shared with others at the time, for me to develop my own interest in this study and set out on my own quest for answers.  I am thankful for folks like the T.A.P.S. team who have put as much energy and effort into it as they have.  Skepticism is good.  A completely closed mind on the other hand…well, let’s just say, if I’d have always kept my mind closed to new or different ideas, I would have missed out on a lot in life.

I’ve also seen many an accusation that “TAPS fakes evidence”, either of their own accord or at the prompting of SyFy to make the show more entertaining and keep their ratings up.  And they are accused of doing this “for the money” as well.

I have a few things to point out here.

Anybody who has watched “Ghost Hunters” from the beginning can clearly see that proceeds were immediately invested into the T.A.P.S. organization – to upgrade and purchase equipment, to be able to travel greater distances and investigate historical, reportedly haunted locations all over the country, to set up a decent sized home base of operations, etc.

One must also understand that this quest, along with doing the show, means taking a lot of time away from their families.  Both Jason and Grant are married with children – they have families to provide for, so why would anyone knock them for getting paid for doing the show or to conduct training workshops?  How many of us can afford to give all our time and energy away for free?  The T.A.P.S. team are regular folks who deserve to have a life too.  They do NOT charge clients for investigations.

As far as “faking evidence” – this serves no purpose toward their goal, which is still what it always was – to debunk the normal and focus further research on the paranormal, to try to find the answers they seek, and to be able to help others who may have had paranormal experiences.  Such experiences can be unsettling, and people need to know they’re not alone in dealing with such phenomena.

Heck, sometimes all Jay and Grant are able to do on an investigation is help with their plumbing experience and fix a small leak or a broken pipe for the client that may have been causing strange noises.  As they say, “we’re here to help”, even if that help means a little handy work.   The T.A.P.S. co-founders are the first to tell us that on at least 80% of investigations, they capture no evidence of paranormal activity and are able to do a lot of debunking.

About this time last year, I was afforded the opportunity to attend a lecture featuring Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, hosted by Bay State Paranormal Society which was held in Taunton, MA.  The lecture was also a sort of paranormal workshop, as the audience was presented with evidence collected on various cases and asked to do the debunking.  We had a pretty good group of debunkers there!

Jason and Grant, who claim that they are not professional speakers, certainly held our attention with their presentation, and kept us entertained with their humor.   In fact, these not-professional-speakers could easily be a stand-up comedy team.  I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard since.  They are a hoot!  Their good friendship and their ability to work well together certainly shows, which makes it all that much better. They are a dynamic duo for sure.

One of only two complaints I had about this event was that the lighting in this auditorium was horrible for photography – and I like to have a few photographs from my adventures, especially those that become most memorable moments.

Meeting Jason and Grant in person was a pleasure.  They are two down-to-earth, genuinely nice guys.  They were hanging around casually chatting with folks before the presentation, and they hung around after to meet folks in person, sign autographs (as everyone wanted them), and give everyone a few minutes of more personalized time.

And here I am, just after talking with the guys briefly, having shaken hands and thanked them both, provided a few of my feedback comments, now getting my copy of their first book autographed. Also from the looks of it, I was having a bad hair day.  LOL  Not that Jason could relate to that at the time. 

We were charged a ticket price of $25.00 to attend, but this was more of a fund-raising event with proceeds being donated to local animal shelters.  Being the animal-loving charitable pagan that I am, I was pleased with this.  Many attendees, including me, also brought dog and cat food to be donated to the shelters.

For folks in this area, like myself, who wish to delve further into T.A.P.S. style studies and investigation techniques, there are “Paranormal 101″ classes held right at the T.A.P.S. offices in Warwick, RI.  Though they are conducted by T.A.P.S. team members other than Jason and Grant, they are most certainly worthy of checking out – the other T.A.P.S. team members have a lot to offer, and they also have great personalities.

Believers (for lack of a better term) and skeptics alike, for further insight into Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, T.A.P.S., and “Ghost Hunters”, I would highly recommend reading both of Jay & Grant’s entertaining and informative books, “Ghost Hunting”, and “Seeking Spirits”.   These give you so much more than a few one hour episodes of “Ghost Hunters” are able to.  But also, keep watching “Ghost Hunters”, Wednesday nights on SyFy!

In addition, a plethora of information can be found on the The Atlantic Paranormal Society’s website, by clicking here.

As an aside for my Deaf friends, while settling into our seats awaiting the start of the presentation, my paranormal partner-in-crime, Evan (who actually paid both of our donations – thank you again! ), pointed out to me that there was an ASL interpreter across the room chatting with some Deaf folks.  At first I thought, “awesome, I’m so glad to see that access provided here”.  But soon after, I got a feeling.  Before leaving that day, I approached the Bay State Paranormal Society’s representative who had coordinated the event, and inquired as to who provided the interpreter.  As I had come to suspect, the interpreting services were not offered in advance or provided by Bay State Paranormal – she told me the Deaf group brought their own interpreter, who was of course not charged a donation fee for attending.  Okay, so the desire for but lack of provision of interpreting services was the second complaint I had.

Though it didn’t seem as though the cost of providing interpreting services was the immediate concern of the BSPS’s coordinator – the coordinator admitted that she wasn’t aware of the need for such, and wouldn’t have known where to go to find such services.  I honestly don’t know if BSPS was contacted prior to the event about providing interpreting services or not, we didn’t quite have the time to discuss all that in detail.  In any case, once again, thanks to my Spirit Sister, Ocean of Deaf Pagan Crossroads, who keeps me well informed, I was able to point the coodinator in the direction of local agencies who could help her with setting up interpreting services for future events.

Though just tonight I was perusing their website, which I haven’t done in a few months, and it doesn’t seem the same lady is still with Bay State Paranormal Society…and I am unsure as to what they are doing for current events.  I will look into this further.

To “team T.A.P.S.” – thank you for all you do, and keep up the great work!  Happy Hunting!

 
But to paraphrase Robert Burns, the best laid plans often go awry.

I was just dozing off when I heard some seemingly scratching noises to the left of my bed near the outer wall of the room.  I sat up and checked for Mollie, who sometimes lays against that wall and kicks when she’s dreaming.  She was all curled up asleep in her bed in the opposite corner.  I assumed there must be a mouse or something inside the walls of the building, and made a note to myself to inform the landlord of this the next day.

Settling back down, I dozed off again.  About a half hour later, I heard more noises.  This time, they were clearly in the room.  It sounded as if something was moving things around on my bureau.  Alert again, I sat up, turned on the night stand light and scanned the room.  Nothing out of the ordinary was there.

This continued on throughout the night.  I would no sooner be drifting off to sleep when some odd noise would stir me up.  I would turn on the light, look around the room, check the dog (only to see she hadn’t budged an inch), turn off the light, and settle back down to sleep.  I wondered how much of what I was hearing was real vs. how much was all in my head because of the initial scratching noises at the beginning of the night.  Perhaps I was dreaming some of it.  Perhaps I was just psyching myself out and hearing things that weren’t really there.  Or perhaps, I had a spirit visitor?

Being as Samhain is just around the corner, a time of year when it is believed that the veil between the spirit world and the physical world is thin, allowing spirits the ability to travel easily between worlds – I pondered this possibility.  But no, let’s not overreact – while I’ve experienced my fair share of paranormal activity in my lifetime, it’s not been in my own house.  There has been a history of paranormal activity on the first floor of my apartment building, but never on my third floor.

I chalked this up to an overtired, overactive imagination at this point, rolled onto my side, and snuggled back up under the covers.  Then, before I even had the chance to start snoozing again…

Something grabbed my shoulder!

Whoa Nelly!  Okay, I did NOT dream or imagine that!  I was wide awake.  I jumped up, whipped off the covers, and flew to the light switch.  Again, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, except for…the stuff on the bureau that had indeed been moved around. I asked aloud, “is there someone here with me?” and waited for some kind of noise in response.  Nothing.  Not that I had an audio recorder at the time to catch an EVP, not sure what I was thinking.

So now I’m wide awake at 3:30 in the morning. I’m obviously not going to get any sleep in my bedroom.  I had awaken Mollie with my startled yelp when I felt my shoulder grabbed, and she was now giving me a disgusted look for disturbing her sleep.  I announced to her I was going to the living room. Being the good canine companion that she is, she immediately followed and found herself a suitable spot there to curl up and rest.   I grabbed a flashlight and my digital camera, and set off to do some TAPS style investigating.  I came up empty-handed on evidence, and by daylight, all was quiet.

Now we’ll flash forward to very late Monday night…stretched out on my couch in the dark, weary from a long, sleepless Sunday night, and a busy day at work, I now began to hear noises in the living room.  You have got to be kidding me.  What is going on here?  No sooner did I complete that thought out loud when something from my autumn altar fell to the ground – well, not fell exactly – it was pushed.  There was definitely some force behind it.  We’re not alone here Mollie!

I grabbed the camera I had kept by my side and began snapping pictures in that direction.

A few moments later, I reviewed the pictures.  I don’t know quite what I expected to see in the images, but this wasn’t exactly it:

Ahhh, so there’s my “ghost”!  LMAO now,  I just had to get a better shot of this.

Another case of possible paranormal activity DEBUNKED! 

“So you’re the culprit!  I wonder how you managed to make so much noise, actually jump on my shoulder, then scurry out of sight every time I turned on a light?  And for that matter, how the heck did you get in here?  Well, you’re awfully cute, but you can’t stay.”

As I contemplated a capture and release strategy, which wasn’t easy to do with a foggy mind trying to run on no sleep, I turned to Mollie who was resting on the floor and lifted her head to look at me.  “Hey dog, anywhere else you’re all about sniffing out and chasing critters, but when you’ve got one running about wreaking havoc in your own house, you totally ignore it?”

She simply sighed and wiggled a bit to get more comfy where she lay.

The next hour of my time was spent trying to shoe this little critter outside through my now opened living room window.

He wasn’t quite ready to go. He jumped to the floor and ran (right past Mollie, who could have cared less) into the kitchen where he proceeded to clamber up my stair-climber machine and perch on top of one of the handles.  Extremely amused now, I asked him if he really felt a workout was necessary at this time.  Surely he had gotten enough exercise running all over my house and rearranging my stuff for two nights!

I eventually coaxed my little uninvited house guest out the window, where he ran down the ledge to the cable wires and crossed to the trees, the usual squirrel route around here.

I must say though, I was slightly disappointed that my first solo paranormal investigation had a normal, albeit amusing, explanation.

But that’s the way it goes.

Special thanks to the TAPS team for their teaching good paranormal investigation and debunking skills on their SyFy show “Ghost Hunters“, and at their wonderful workshops. 

With my personal paranormal case solved, in the words of the TAPS co-founders:

“On to the next!”

And/or the middle:  Part II

X changes spiritual systems, and becomes an expert? in one day!
X posts this link:  Read this article: Wiccans.

And these were X’s words about Wiccans today:

“They have left the road of Christ. Christ is all a person needs to be successful with. Sometimes the Devil and Evil spirits tempt people to leave GOD. I’ve been tempted by Satan to fall down this road that I no longer want to go down to. If you believe in God and keep faith in him then everything will be good. Personally, Wiccans use the excuse that if one is a stranger then they will not cast spells for others. Or other excuses in which you must cast your own spells. PROVE that you religion is real if you claim it to be as good as you say. Simply put: It’s not real. If it were real they would prove to the World that the religion they follow is higher in power then God. But they don’t. They meet mostly in secrecy and do not have legitimate openings where other people can discover this religion. Churches, Kingdom Halls and etc. are known about. However, you do not hear about where Wiccans meet. Wiccans are never mentioned on the news about helping people. When was the last time you’ve ever heard on the news that someone who has cast a spell has helped someone? I was silly enough to believe that this was real. They keep to themselves and run in pacts. This is because they do not realize what is wrong here. They will get defensive and try to argue. However, I find that at least other religions can come out and let the world know what they are about no matter what happens. Until we see them actually cast their spells to help heal this world and make it any better then what they claim God hasn’t done, I believe that they should hush.. They prove nothing and will keep on scamming young teenagers to join them. The “KKK,” group was evil but simply had followers because evil people stick together. Pray to God to help us all.

How can mixing herbs and dirt together automatically help you?

Hmm . . . If you would like to argue with me about Christianity, E-Mail me personally. We can debate and I will prove you WRONG!”

Okay X, enough is enough – nobody tried “scamming” you into the religion of Wicca – YOU approached us, with a skewed idea of what Wicca is.  You also obviously have no idea what witchcraft is and what it is not, no basic understanding of the work involved in casting an effective spell, and you seriously lack a sense of ethics, not to mention your lack of good manners and respect for your elders.  Doors WERE opened for you – YOU are the one who slammed them shut.

Being a priest or priestess of Wicca does not mean one has to coddle you or do your bidding without question.   And it doesn’t mean we are obligated to tell you what you want to hear.  If you can’t handle honesty, that is your issue, not ours.

If you don’t wish to actually learn about what the religion of Wicca is (which for the umpteenth time is NOT all about spells), that’s fine, but you need not spread misinformation and lies about Wicca either.

By all means X, turn to Christianity if you feel that is better suited for you.  Personally, I don’t understand how anyone can go from believing in Wicca (a polytheistic religion) to Christianity (a monotheistic religion) in one day.  And I feel that joining one religion because you are angry with folks from another religion isn’t exactly the right reason – but to each their own.  I will warn though that you will not find Christianity to be all about granting prayers and getting  everything you want.   Both Christianity and Wicca are serious SPIRITUAL paths, and neither is about instant gratification.

And now you are actively looking to argue in defense of Christianity?  After one day of  “being Christian”.  Lovely.  I’m sorry, but the truth is that you are not showing any interest in any actual spirituality.

I can only hope that you will take more time to study and learn about your new-found path and its teachings than you did with Wicca, and that you will find the peace and happiness you seek.

But for goodness sake, would you please at least grab a dictionary and look up the word “stranger”, try to understand the context in which it was used and put it in proper perspective!