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Come to the Dark Side. We Have Yule.

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Come to the Dark Side. We Have Yule. -By Debbi Decker

Although the holiday season of Yule is generally associated with birth and light, the original festival as celebrated has a much darker side. Celebrated by Germanic peoples (the most familiar will be Norse and Anglo Saxon) in pre-Christian times, Yule not only encompassed feasting, reveling, and celebrations, it also featured death, sacrifice, and ghosts.

Yule was primarily a midwinter observance during the months of December and January, which, over time, was incorporated into the Christian celebration of Christmas. Some familiar practices that have come down from this observance include the Christmas ham (the Yule boar) and caroling. Some of the not so familiar Yule customs and beliefs are as follows.

With December 21st comes the shortest day of the year and along with that comes the Wild Hunt. It is believed that the Wild Hunt comprises demons or dead fairies, ghosts of former huntsman or the undead, called Drauger (possible zombie references here), raging across the sky in search of dark secrets and souls. It was considered most unlucky to see the Wild Hunt, and many lit fires or candles to keep the Wild Hunt at bay as the light would repel the dark and the spirits that reside there.

Christmas Eve as we know it was originally celebrated in January and was known as Mōdraniht, which is old English for Mothers-Night. This celebration references “dis” or spirits of fates. Sacrifices were made on this night and many practices centered around fertility rituals to ensure a bountiful new year to come as well as to celebrate the fertility of tribes.

Aspects of modern day Christmas festivities can be traced back to the reverence of the Norse god Odin. The ham we eat is a reference to the boar with an apple in its mouth. The Yule log is burned to revere the departed souls and also to keep the darker side with its ghosts and demons and ghouls at bay. And again, another aspect of the Yule log may be phallic in nature as the ashes were sprinkled in the fields to bring fertility to the coming harvest.

So, this Yule season, light your candles and Yule logs and keep the darkness and all it encompasses away. Pay tribute to your ancestors, and most importantly, if you hear a huntsman’s horn on Christmas night, remember to stay inside. If not, you might be carried off to the darker side of Yule.

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.

Set An Extra Plate at the Thanksgiving Table. Company May be Coming.

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Set An Extra Plate at the Thanksgiving Table. Company May be Coming.-By Debbi Decker

Halloween has come and gone, and for many it is a time to put away the decorations, and begin thinking about the next big celebration, that of Thanksgiving. No more spooks, no more worries of black cats, hobgoblins, witches and monsters. The door to the other side has closed.

But has it really? While there are two times of the year where the other side bleeds more readily into our everyday world (Halloween and Walpurgisnacht), the fact is that spirits can visit us readily at any time of the year. Especially when it’s a big family event such as Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today is a far cry from what it originally was. In far older times, it was a harvest festival celebrated by many cultures during all times of the year, depending on the growing season. A “last meal” was created using what was left over from the harvest, and everyone gathered to eat and share memories and stories from days past. In some regions, it was believed that the spirit of life remained in the last ear of corn harvested. Corn dollys or corn mothers were created using the husks from the last of the harvest, put in a place of honor at the table and kept until the next year’s harvest. Because so much depended upon nature, weather, and the will of the gods involved, harvest celebrations were a way to thank the forces for a good harvest, or in the case of a bad harvest, to propitiate the spirits in the hopes that they would look favorably on the next growing cycle and therefore bring about a good harvest.

Many of these celebrations were also a time to honor the ancestors. Food was given to effigies or placed on altars as a tribute to the ancestor or spirit. As western man and western civilizations grew, and different religious groups came together, other celebrations and rituals would spin off the harvest festival, giving birth to what we now know as Halloween, Day of the Dead, and All Saint’s Day, just to name a few. If you think about it, the holidays just mentioned are in reality a celebration of the dead and the harvest is simply the end or death of the growing season.

Honoring the dead is not uncommon in our culture today and Thanksgiving is another time where we can do so. Because we gather together and talk of times past, or events of the prior year, we bring an energy to the table that is easily tapped into by the spirit world. Simply telling our stories and the stories of our ancestors calls out to the dead and invites them in. How many of us have felt the presence of a long gone family member when sitting around the table and sharing memories?

So, set an extra plate that the table at this year’s Thanksgiving feast. Put a picture of a loved one on the plate and honor them by telling their stories. You never know. They might just stop in for a visit.

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.

May this Halloween bring you all good fortunes.

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May this Halloween bring you all good fortunes.-By Debbi Decker

Ever had your fortune told? No? Why not? Depending on who does it or how it is done, it can be illuminating and fun at the same time. Tarot and other types of card readings, tea leaves, crystals, and runes are some of the most popular ways of telling fortunes. Fortunetelling is related to divination, which has its roots in ancient civilizations. As an example, the ancient Greeks used oracles to “divine” the future and to predict for its followers. Divination is more aligned to ritualistic and religious practices, while fortunetelling has, over time, become more aligned to social and non-religious settings. Most of what we know today as fortunetelling has its roots in the European Renaissance era. It can be argued that present-day fortunetelling owes its arrival to the witchcraft persecutions. Those who practiced any form of fortunetelling or divination risked their life and the lives of their family and friends during this dark period of time. So, much like the early Christians appropriating pagan celebrations and cloaking them with Christian beliefs, the practice of fortunetelling and divination was given a “cover” of superstition, party games, and other social connotations. While still frowned upon by many during the burning times, it was still considered a pastime and not so much a religious practice.

The Victorians, with all their love of past pagan practices, brought another revival of the fortunetelling genre to family gatherings. Halloween parties and Yule gatherings saw a surge of such practices and the popularity is partly evidenced with all the different post cards created during this era that either reference a fortunetelling game or actually offer the reader a fortune right on the card.

One of my favorite fortunetelling games was taught to me by my Grandmother. She would give me an apple and a paring knife. The idea was to peel around the apple in a long strip, keeping as much of the strip as intact as possible. Once done or when the peel broke off, the peel was held gently in my cupped hand and thrown over my left shoulder, while wishing to know who my husband or next beau was to be. If I saw an initial in the way the peel lay on the floor, it was surely the initial of my next love! I must have done this every Halloween for years hoping to see the initial of the “one”!

Nuts were given the names of the persons of the opposite sex. Some would carve the initials onto the nuts, while others would choose a different type of nut for each person. The nuts would be then be thrown into the fire in a fireplace or bonfire, and the name of the first nut to pop would be the name of the nut owner’s bride or groom.

Victorian girls who were anxious to be married would walk down a flight of stairs at midnight, holding a candle in one hand and a mirror in the other, hoping to see the face of the man they would marry in the mirror!

A burning candle’s melted wax would be dripped into a basin of water and scrutinized for shapes of familiar objects and letters with the hope that a future would be revealed for the person looking.

These are only a sampling of the many games that were played throughout the Victorian age at Halloween. Why not try a few at your next Halloween gathering? And don’t forget to bob for apples. The first person who snags an apple from the tub will be the first person to marry. Already married? Well, I cannot help you there. Perhaps you will need to seek the services of a fortuneteller to get the answer to that one!

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.

The Clairs. Consider Them a Little Lagniappe.

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The Clairs. Consider Them a Little Lagniappe.-By Debbi Decker

The five senses. Smell, sight, touch, hearing, taste. Those are all we get. Or, do we? You walked down the hallway, and smelled roses. But you have no roses in the house and no roses in the yard. You were quietly reading a book, when you heard your name called, but you were alone in the house. Or doing dishes at the kitchen sink, when suddenly you felt arms around you and your family were all in another room. That face you saw in the mirror? It was the face of no one you know, and again, there was no around but you. You experienced a sudden craving for a food you have never tasted, much less heard of.

What is happening here?

Many paranormal experts believe strongly in what is called the sixth sense. It can manifest itself in many forms in connection with each of the five senses:

Clairvoyance = sight

Clairsentience = touch

Clairaudience = hearing

Clairalience = smell

Clairgustance = taste

All fall under the category of Extra Sensory Perception or ESP. Scientists agree that it exists but fall short of explaining the how or why of it. Studies of the subject have been going on for hundreds of years. And there remains strong opinions both for and against the subject at hand.

Personally, I believe that we all have this sixth sense and that it was an important and working sense that was a part of humans from the beginning of existence, but one that was slowly, over time, damped down in the human race through factors relating to civilization, social structures, and religious beliefs. You could liken this to our appendix, which is a part of our anatomical structure that at one time is considered to have had a specific function, but which has lost that function through evolution. Children still, to this day, exhibit many of the traits of having ESP, that is until they go to school, attend mainstream religious functions on a regular basis, and become socialized into the present day civilization. Which, to me, only argues in favor of my beliefs.

Those of us who exhibit any of the above “Clairs” (as I like to refer to them) have either maintained that connection from birth or we have managed to reconnect to a part of us, which, like the appendix, still exists in all of us. Some of us feel it is a gift, while others consider it a part of their makeup that they would rather be without and therefore block these connections.

So, how does any of this fit in with the paranormal? Remember that the word “paranormal” simply means above normal or outside of normal. The term paranormal could be applied to many subject matters, but for this instance, I use the term in connection with ghostly activities, hauntings, etc.

Paranormal investigators like to investigate in darkness. The darkness renders some of our senses useless (sight), and dampens down some senses while causing other senses to become stronger. This in and of itself is not a paranormal thing. It is an activation of the human sensors in a different manner. As an example, when the lights go out, we cannot see anything. Our brain is trying desperately to “see” something, anything. If we close our eyes in the darkness, a signal is sent to our brain that the eyes are not working. After a few minutes, other senses are heightened. Hearing and sense of touch are two that may report to become stronger in darkness.

Referring back to the idea that we all have a sixth sense, there would naturally be those who exhibit a certain “Clair” that is stronger than others. I might be able to feel the ghostly presence more strongly, while you may be able to see that presence, and another may hear it.

Those who exhibit any of the “Clairs” are able to activate our human sensors differently, and use those senses in conjunction with the normal use of sense to feel, see, taste, smell, and touch the other side. A ghostly presence can use those senses to make their presence known without having to battle through the mental and physical blocks that our cultural heritages have placed upon us. Used in conjunction with paranormal investigating, these senses are an excellent and integral tool and should be used and accepted without prejudice.

Case in point. As a paranormal investigator, I cannot use my hearing as I am hearing impaired. However, my sense of sight and touch are greatly enhanced. On an investigation last year, while climbing a rickety set of stairs in total darkness with a fellow investigator, I “saw” and “felt” an architectural feature that my hand immediately reached for so I could steady myself. My hand met with a wall. I commented on it at the time as I was rather puzzled. Later that evening, we listened in on a discussion of the building itself and how it had changed over the years. That wall I touched was a recent addition. There was at one time an opening like a window with a deep sill. That was exactly what I saw and felt and that was exactly what I was reaching for. You can imagine the look I got from the other investigator with me on those stairs!

The next time you find yourself in a position of seeing, smelling, sensing, tasting, or hearing something that is out of the normal realm for you, try letting that experience play out. You are perhaps receiving a communication from the other side and the message might be of great importance. If you are investigating, don’t discount the smells or sudden tastes that might overwhelm you. There could be a reason that the entity on the other side is communicating in this manner. Perhaps the roses were their favorite flower. Or they liked that food you are tasting. Or even further, that food contained the poison they died from and they want to tell others what happened to them. It goes without saying that when investigating the paranormal, you have to accept the good with the bad, so to speak. Even if we are not aware of the Clairs, we all have them, and at any moment they could reasonably manifest themselves us and to others. Just equate it with having a little extra something special, or being given a little present or Lagniappe. After all, who doesn’t love receiving gifts? Even from the Clairs.

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.

It Just Speaks To Me.

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It Just Speaks To Me.-By Debbi Decker

When a good friend suggested that I write about haunted objects, I thought it a great idea and off I went to gather my ideas and how to present them. Halfway through the thought process, it occurred to me that I do not know, exactly, what I believe about this or even how to definitively define the idea.

Haunted objects are a popular subject. People search for these items, sell these items, there are museums that house these objects, and the televisions shows, movies, and stories are a dime a dozen. Paranormal investigators will swear to this phenomena.

The word “haunt” has different connotations. The presence of a ghost in a particular setting. The constant visitation or haunting of a particular place. The haunting memory that comes back over and over. The harmful effects of an action that we took that comes back to haunt us. These will suffice for the subject matter hand.

So, what exactly IS a haunted object? A commonly accepted explanation is that it is a tangible object, be it jewelry, furniture, books, dolls, personal effects, etc., that has a ghost or other entity attached to the object. The simple possession of the object in question brings with it a presence that manifests paranormal activity in proximity of the object. Strange noises, movements, feelings, illnesses are all reported in connection with objects purported to be haunted.

However, there is another equally commonly accepted explanation. That houses and land can be imprinted. Thoughts, emotions, etc., are all types of energy, and energy can affect its surroundings, to include the objects that are in those surroundings. Items from these locations could also be termed haunted.

An excellent example of the latter explanation would be a battlefield where people died and were left in situ. This type of event had enormous energy expended by the people there, so much so that it imprinted the land. The land becomes haunted. People report ghostly battles, see ghostly soldiers. Someone then comes along at a later date finds a button from a uniform or a bullet from a gun, and takes it home. Suddenly they experience feelings of pain, horror, fear, and sadness. And after investigation they realize that these feelings come to them through ownership of the button or bullet, so they get rid of it and then these feelings go away. That button or bullet had been imprinted with the same energy and emotions as the land it came from. The owner is haunted by the energy imprinted on the button or bullet.

The above explanations leave me a bit short, though, when trying explain the phenomena of an object that seems to call out to me. SOMETHING is communicating with me. Calling me to own that item for whatever reason. Which feels entirely different to me from experiencing a run of the mill haunting of a house or bit of real estate. I’ve touched “positive” items and bought them, and I have held “negative” items and put them down fast and walked away ignoring that call. For want of a better explanation I would have to say that the object is haunted.

So now comes my dilemma. Is it a ghost speaking to me? Will that ghost come home with me? Or, is it the ghost’s personality and emotions imprinted upon that object that speaks to my psyche and therefore imparts the feelings of being drawn to that object? I am sure that there were people who had such enormously strong attachments to their personal possessions that they would haunt in either a negative or positive manner the current owner. However, I imagine that as a ghost I would find other, more fulfilling activities to spend eternity on. Perhaps, it’s simply explained as a matter personal preference of the ghost involved. To haunt or not to haunt as it were.

I debate back and forth with myself regarding my personal convictions related to this phenomena so I can’t really offer a solid explanation for the idea of a haunted object. I have, however, adopted the expression that “it just speaks to me”. It is as good an explanation as any leaves me with less angst over my inner debate.

Debbi Decker is proprietor of twistedpixelstudio Art & Assemblage Emporium. Check out her artist page to find links to her shop and blog to read more of her writings. Visit again next month for the telling of hauntings and ghostly tales by Debbi Decker.