On Opening Doors and Forgetting to Close Them

In my post, The NeverNever Part 2 I theorized that some of the seemingly random high strangeness occurring in our world could be due to the following:

So, we have a perfect storm – one part freely available magical lore (some of it from quite old sources), one part people who may be emotional about a subject and willing to use magic to remedy it and one part natural talent.  Shake, stir and wave a wand and you have a circumstance that could open a portal quite easily but only for a limited period of time.

In that article, I provided a rather extensive theoretical example but something occurred in my own practice recently that has really driven this point home to me.

In one of my shamanic journeys, I was shown, very clearly, the importance of the Ancestors in my work so I have looked at a number of ways to honor the Ancestors and develop a relationship with them. I settled on the idea of developing an ancestral altar where I light candles, offer water and incense and meditate several times a week. The Ancestors have responded quite favorably to this invitation from my side and, while much of what I have learned has been deeply personal to me, I will say that They have helped me discern a path in life that I had not seen.

As part of fine tuning this work, I have sought ways to make the two way communication easier so, recently, I borrowed a technique from Jason Miller and began each Ancestor session with a version of his Rending of Space. Basically, this entails opening a door between this world and the Otherworld via a series of simple gestures.

In my view, this technique worked quite well and allowed me to commune more fully with those Ancestors who love and support me. For those who might be interested in actually trying to commune with their Ancestors, I highly recommend listening to The Online Ceremony of Ancestral Communion for an excellent pathworking that will take the listener into the presence of his or her ancestors.

So, all was well – I established contact with the Ancestors through shamanic work and meditation, I fine tuned the process and the Ancestors were responding kindly. There was only one problem. Last week, I forgot to shut the door when I concluded my ancestral communion.

It was such a beginner’s mistake that I am embarrassed to admit it but I allowed myself to be distracted as I was coming out of meditation (one of the pets required my attention) and went to attend to that distraction without closing out my little rite properly. Then, to compound my stupidity, I promptly forgot that I had not closed out properly, leaving an open ancestral altar/portal in my bedroom (I need to move that altar, too, the bedroom is not the best place for ‘feeding’ spirits). Suffice to say that I had a very interesting night, filled with wild dreams full of people running up to talk to me, some of them quite wild eyed and insistent. I puzzled over the cause of my restlessness for a few moments as I awoke but, when my eyes fell on the altar, I knew. I closed the portal as soon afterward as I could and have been very diligent about doing it since.

I paid for my inattention with a restless night full of spirits trying to get my attention in the dream world. My little portal is not meant for anything more than communing with my ancestors. Imagine, for a moment, what might happen if a group of inexperienced magic users opened one of these portals in a quest to invoke or evoke any of a range of powerful entities and then failed to properly close that portal before leaving the area. Essentially, if they have any ability at all, they will have lit a powerful beacon in the Otherworld with a sign over the top that says “Door to the Earth Plane here – free passage”.

As I have said, I think that there are many reasons for the manifestation of seemingly random occasions of high strangeness. One of the things that I would be looking for, as an investigator, would the presence of magical practitioners in the area. If a fairly experienced walker between the worlds can make a rookie mistake like the one described above, it is well within the realm of the conceivable that this type of incident has happened elsewhere and perhaps with stronger results.

Types of Spirits – A Small Primer

I mentioned, in my last post, the extraordinary diversity of the Otherworld. As with this consensual reality, the Otherworld has its own form of bio-diversity and part of the magician’s task is to acquaint him or her self with some of those Otherwordly inhabitants and to work with them. Even limited experience in the other realms causes one to quickly realize that there is no way that one will ever know about all the spiritual entities that inhabit the worlds beyond our own. In my more awe-struck moments, I am convinced that even the mages have only explored a certain portion of inner space and that there are untold numbers of beings that we have not even imagined yet.

Nevertheless, being human and having that innate desire to catalog things, magicians throughout the ages have tried to enumerate the spirit world. When one looks at the various lists of spirits, it quickly becomes apparent that those who set about this task often end up like the field biologist in a rain forest trying desperately to fit each new creature into an existing category. Sometimes those categories work and sometimes they seem more than a little contrived.

Given the above, one might think that I am opposed to the cataloging of spirits or that I think it is a useless endeavor. Quite to the contrary, I think such exercises are very useful despite the limits of human knowledge in these realms. Without these attempts, our knowledge of the spirit world would be even more limited than it already is. I think that it especially behooves the investigator of the paranormal/Fortean to have a working knowledge of spirit types so that they can begin to diagnose and deal with situations when they come up. If nothing else, the investigator should be familiar with spirit types so that they know when to head for the nearest door.

I can not possibly elucidate the world of spirits in a thousand word blog but I do want to give the investigator or would be investigator something to think about in that regard so here are my basic categories of spirits:

1) Ghosts – yes, Virginia, there are ghosts. In my definition, a ghost is a part of the human soul complex that has either chosen to remain in this world, usually as the result of unfinished business or extreme attachment to a person or place. It is the case that ghosts may be trapped in a place by magical workings (usually curses) but such cases are, thankfully, rare.

2) The in between – technically, ghosts are in between since they have not moved completely into the Otherworld, but this category refers to those beings who exist on the periphery between this world and the Otherworld. These beings are usually called vampires and are most often humans who have managed to avoid the Second Death (First Death = death of the physical body and the process of loosening the soul from that body; Second Death occurs when the pieces of the soul complex have gone to their respective places in the Otherworld) and who continue their semi-existence by feeding off the energies of the living.

3) The dead/Ancestors – once a soul has reached the Otherworld, it is still possible for that “person” to reach out to and effect this world. If one looks at the rich lore of ancestor work in the African Traditional Religions, as an example, and Hoodoo, as another example, one sees that the dead can still be with us even after they have crossed over.

4) Elementals – classical Western magic recognizes four elements – earth, air, fire and water – and each of those elements is characterized by a magical creature – gnomes, sylphs, salamanders and undines, respectively. Encounters with these beings are usually limited to psychics and magic workers who are actively seeking them out but they are often confused with . . .

5) The Faery – simply, the faery (and I include the djinn here) are the beings that inhabited this world before human beings came along. Since the advent of the human race, they are said to have been driven underground or into the vast wildernesses and deserts of the earth. A little over a century ago, knowledge of “them ones” was common and humans went out of their way to co-exist peacefully with these beings. If you want to know more about this vast swath of races in the Otherworld, look to the myths of the worlds cultures, and look at books such as W Y Evan-Wentz’s The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. The important thing to remember about the faery is that they are not Tinker Bell. Many possess enormous power and the Scots recognized two courts of Faery – the Seelie Court that was indifferent to humans or might actively aid them and the Unseelie Court that carried active malice to humans.

6) Daemons – I could lump the daemons in with the faery but these beings have a different feel to them in my experience so I put them in a separate category. As you can see from the name, these are the beings that became the demons of Christianity, not because they are innately evil but because they were well accepted throughout the classical realm in early Christian times. Since they did not fit into the Christian pantheon as angels, they had to be working for the other side. The interesting thing about daemons is that they are said to work closely with people – either guiding them along a beneficial path or tempting them away from virtue. If I were pushed, I would give the opinion that the daemons are an intermediate class between the faery and our next class . . .

7) Angels – Please forget everything that you have ever read about angels. 99.9% of it is BS. As with all things we fear (see the faery and Tinker Bell), angels have been disempowered in our culture to the point that we have bumper stickers about not driving faster than your guardian angel. Bah. The next time you are tempted to think in a foo foo way about angels, remember that this is the being that supposedly laid waste to all the first born of Egypt and is alleged to have slain an entire army in one night in separate Old Testament texts. Angels are extremely powerful beings who serve one purpose – they are messengers of the Most High, God, the Source of All Life or whatever you want to call it. As such, they should be treated with the extreme respect and reverence that they deserve. There is nothing wrong with calling on the aid of a favorite angel; just remember who you are talking to.

8) “Demons” – Most of the so-called “demons” are actually daemons or faery/djinn of the Unseelie variety busily working out their malice toward human kind. However, if one deals with the darker aspects of the paranormal/occult, one will eventually run up against a creature which seems to be the exact opposite of an angel. Rather than being a creature of radiant light, totally aligned to the will of “God” (however you see that), these beings seem to gather darkness around them and to delight in the destruction, on all levels, of human beings. Forget the pitch forks and pointed tails (another example of how humans seek to disempower what they fear), forget the holy water and prayers from a book, the only way to intervene in a case where a demon is seeking to destroy a person is to get a qualified exorcist involved. Even then, there are no guarantees.

So there you have it, a quick overview of the Otherworld as I know it. Many of these spirits are quite capable of producing phenomenon of one sort or the other so figuring out what you are dealing with is often most of the challenge. My hope, in writing this little piece, is that it will get the investigator or would be investigator thinking and researching so that they have a deeper understanding of the spirit world.

Book Review: The Vengeful Djinn by Guiley and Imbrogno

A while back, an interesting vision prompted me to do some research on the djinn and I noted interviews and articles on The Vengeful Djinn: Unveiling the Hidden Agenda of Genies by Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Philip J. Imbrogno. I decided, after looking at some of the material about the book that I wanted to read it, since it appeared that the authors were attempting a sort of unified field theory of the supernatural i.e. putting forward the thought that most, if not all, paranormal events could be explained by the presence of the djinn. I found such an idea to be erroneous but I wanted to read the book before drawing any conclusions.

The Vengeful Djinn is exactly what I feared it would be: a book that takes one particular sort of spirit and tries to push, pull and stretch that spirit type to fit all the known categories of the paranormal from UFO sightings and abductions to werewolves to hostile hauntings. The djinn can, according to these authors, even explain Bigfoot sightings and, of course, the djinn were responsible for the wave of craziness that enveloped Point Pleasant, West Virginia, surrounding the sightings of Mothman.

The authors have taken a single type of spirit, the beings of smokeless fire found in the Q’uran and other Islamic sources, and turned them into the be all and end all of the paranormal. I was particularly incensed by the authors’ presumption in assuming that the djinn were actually the spirits evoked in the Goetia. I think, before one makes that sort of assumption, as a non-practitioner of the Arts Magical, one might want to consult with someone who has actually worked the Goetia and ask them what sort of spirit they are working with. Hint: the answer is not djinn.

Do I believe that djinn exist? Most certainly. I suggest a reading of Legends of the Fire Spirits by Robert Lebling for more detailed information on these spirits. They are a recorded part of Middle Eastern folklore that goes back to the time before Mohammed. Do I think that the djinn are powerful? Absolutely, again, the folklore and the witness of magicians in the Middle East attests to the fact that these spirits pack a punch and that they can be mischievous or outright dangerous. Do I feel that the djinn are responsible for a great deal of paranormal activity in the Middle East and other areas of the world? While I am certain that these spirits do still “act out” in various ways, I am not convinced that they are as widespread as the authors would have us believe. I think that the djinn, like the faery, have an attachment to the place, people and culture that recognized them.

The djinn, in Islamic thought, seem to hold the same sort of position that the demon holds in Christian thought; the djinn is the spiritual being that is responsible for all things that cannot be explained by the presence and intervention of angels and it is sometimes difficult to tell the two types of spirit apart. It seems to me that Christians and Muslims have developed their own unified field theory of the paranormal that specifically excludes the input of outside sources; if it is not specifically of their god, then it must be evil and be the work of a demon or djinn. Such a position is in no way congruent with the complex reality of the Otherworld as viewed by magicians throughout the ages.

Open any grimoire or decent book on ceremonial magic or paganism and one of the things the reader will encounter is lists of spirits. Angels, demons, spirits of the four elements, the faerie, genii loci, the ancestors and so forth. The magician truly is a walker between the worlds and, as such, has extensive contact with beings on both sides of the veil. He or she recognizes that the world of spirits is populated by various and multudinous races and that each of these beings has a different “feel” to them, a signature by which they can be recognized. Different magicians may attach different names to these signatures but all agree that each “feel” represents a different type of entity and that these entities vary wildly in their appearance to the magically inclined and in their tolerance for human beings.

I did not come to write this article by accident. While I have done work in the faery realms, I had never encountered a djinn until several months ago when I had a hypnagogic vision of a being of fire speaking to me from a cloud of smoke – a common appearance for the djinn, as I learned while researching what this being might be. Like the faery, the djinn seem to be adverse to being maligned and my research on this creature led me to the Lebling book and then on to the subject of this review. While this article will likely not reach a wide audience (unless the djinn decide to lend a magical hand), I think that these beings of smokeless fire simply want us to recognize that the paranoia evident in The Vengeful Djinn – the djinn were removed from our world and they want it back – is just that, paranoia. While there are djinn that detest human kind, there are also plenty of other spirits out there that share that sentiment. I do not see an organized plot by the djinn or any other spirit group to take our world for themselves.

I understand that writers have to make a living and that, in order to do so, they have to find items that appeal to the public. I understand, too, that research into a particular type of being can result in a sort of tunnel vision. Humans so want there to be an “easy” explanation of the paranormal, even if the explanation scares the heck out of them. I’m sorry to say though that the things that go bump in the night are always going to elude those who are not willing to take the plunge and begin walking through the worlds and really experiencing the diversity of the Otherside.

Book Review: Psychic Shield by Caitlin Matthews

In my time in the esoteric world, I have read many books by many different authors. Some of those books I immediately consigned to the rubbish heap, others had bits and pieces that were interesting to me while yet others were gold mines of information that I found useful in my search or, at the very least, quite interesting.

Caitlin Matthews and her husband, John, wrote Walkers Between the Worlds: The Western Mysteries from Shaman to Magus (re-released under that title in 2004 – had previously been a two volume set), one of the best overview books ever written on the Western Mystery traditions, so I was excited when I found a copy of Caitlin Matthews’ book Psychic Shield: The Personal Handbook of Psychic Protection in my local library. I’ve read some of Ms. Matthews’ other work and have found her to be a calm, clear voice in a field that often seems filled with the strident raspings of the poorly informed. I find Ms. Matthews’ work particularly interesting since she does approach much of what she does from a neo-shamanic point of view.

I will start this review by saying that this is not a book for those in the midst of psychic emergencies (hostile hauntings, curses, magical attack, etc). The work in this book takes time, a lot of patience and the willingness to be truthful with oneself and come to know oneself better. The basic premise of the book is that of nurturing ones souls. Ms. Matthews, like the Norse, views the “soul” as a complex of different parts with different functions and creates a very nice working model for dealing with those different soul parts, recovering their power and even, in some cases, recovering soul parts that have been lost due to trauma. As one would expect from an author with a shamanic practice, Ms. Matthews places a lot of emphasis on meeting and developing a relationship with the “advocates”, those spiritual beings that are willing to work with humans and the various areas of their soul.

As I said, such an approach takes time and patience but, if done with care and attention, will produce a more balanced person who is less likely to be knocked off balance and who has access to techniques that will assist in re-centering and calling on the protective advocates who can help with the situation. If I were running a school of psychic self defense, I might use this book as a primer for the first six months to a year and have my students work through the material methodically in order to put them in a place where they could go on to more advanced study. By the time a student works their way through this book they should be in a place where they have a better understanding of themselves psychologically, an awareness of and ability to work with the spirit world and some basic techniques to assist in times of what Ms. Matthews calls psychic disturbance. In addition, the student should have begun developing a connection to what Ms. Matthews calls the Source of Life, the ultimate protection against anything that goes bump in the night.

That said, as I noted earlier, this is not a book for someone who is in the midst of a psychic emergency. The best thing to do in the event of such an emergency is call in professionals who can assist. Given the difficulty in finding such assistance though it seems to me that one might want to practice an ounce of prevention rather than having to seek a pound of cure. There are, as I have noted throughout this blog, elements of the Otherworld that do not care for humans. Just as one hopes that one never has to use self-defense skills in a real world scenario but still studies martial arts, so one should invest some time and effort in learning how to defend oneself in the Otherworld. Ms. Matthews book is one good place to start and I hope to present reviews of other texts that will be helpful as I go along.

In Memorian for the victims of the Boston Marathon Attack

I am not given to commentary about current affairs on this blog. There are plenty of other bloggers and news sources out there doing a creditable job of keeping the world abreast of what is going on. Sometimes, though, an event strikes too close to home to ignore, even if one has dedicated one’s blog to more esoteric subjects and conjectures.

I am a runner. I’ve been out of one of my favorite pastime for several months due to a recurring problem with my foot but prior to that I had just managed to run my personal best in a 5K run. I can tell the reader that every distance runner, no matter how hard he or she denies it, would love to run a marathon.

The 26.2 mile race is the pinnacle of distance running. Steeped in history, the marathon is, for many who plod the paths, the runner’s Mount Everest. Anyone who has completed one or more of these monster runs will wear the t-shirt they got from the race with considerable pride and will be viewed with something akin to awe by those of us who have only managed 10K (6.2 miles).

Of the many marathons available for runners these days, Boston is one of the largest and most well known. It has a long tradition going back to 1897. As Wikipedia says “the Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon, and ranks as one of the world’s best-known road racing events”. It is also an event that runners compete in with great pride since one has to meet the qualifying standards to even be accepted to run in the event. As an example, if one were an 18 – 34 year old male, one would have had to run a marathon course certified by one of the track and field governing bodies in under 3 hours and 5 minutes. This would be a pace of a little over 7 minutes per mile . . . for 26.2 miles. In my younger days, I actually managed a sub seven minute mile. Once. And the rest of my run for that day was done at a very sedate pace.

The reader can then imagine my horror when I heard about the sickening attack at the Boston Marathon. Not only have the perpetrators of this bombing injured dozens of people. Not only have those responsible killed three people, including an eight year old boy, as of this writing with the possibility of more deaths in the days ahead. Not only have these people committed an act of barbarity against innocent people but they have desecrated one of the shining lights of sports.

Every person who runs the Boston Marathon has a story. To be in condition to run such a race, to meet the qualifying standards, each person there has sacrificed. For some it has been the pain of hauling themselves up that last hill on their training course for the umpteenth time. For others, it has been smoothing relationships with a spouse who does not quite understand the running obsession. For still others, it is overcoming an injury or illness that would have stopped most ordinary mortals. Attacking those people and the spectators who come out to cheer them on is the lowest form of villainy.

And so, this day, it is my fervent wish that the perpetrators of this act be plagued by guilt and remorse for what they have done. May it pursue them like a coursing hound wherever they go and no matter what rationalization they use to defend their actions. May they come to the firm realization that their hands are soaked in the blood of innocents and may they fall firmly into the hands of Justice.

So may it be.

Opening Consciousness

So, when you’re thinking of changing consciousness, avoid the psychedelic drugs because they pitch you into a condition where you don’t know where or what you are. You may strike beautiful scenes (some do, we know). These are the least destructive drug experiences. Nevertheless they are not good for this reason: you may see this lovely scene in your consciousness, but the drug also affects the chemical rhythms in your physical body. And upon those rhythms depend how closely you are in touch with the physical plane, how much you can control your body . . .

From W.E. Butler in Lords of Light: The Path of Initiation in the Western Mysteries

Occultists place a lot of stock in the ability to change consciousness. In fact, the late Dion Fortune actually defined magic as the ability to change consciousness at will. Every magical practitioner, no matter their style, understands that the ability to change consciousness readily is a prerequisite for magical work and each style of magic has its “trademark” ways of bring about changes in the level at which the mind functions.  When people who are not students of the esoteric begin to look at magic and perhaps even view it as a partial explanation for some paranormal events, they will invariably come across this concept and begin to wonder: what would happen if I really opened out my consciousness?

This thought on the part of the erstwhile investigator is often followed by the idea for a quick solution: well, such and such tribe in deepest darkest equatorial Pongo Pongo has “shaman” who open their consciousness by partaking of the root of Kirawaka tree, a hallucinogen that is said to open consciousness and give the “shaman” access to other worlds. Why could I not try that?

I would answer that question with a series of questions of my own:

1) Are you willing to go to prison? Given the drug phobia in the U.S., it is very likely that this hypothetical hallucinogen is illegal.
2) Are you a native of Pongo Pongo? If you were, you would likely know that the use of this hallucinogen is not something that a native would do on his own but only under the guidance of one of his or her own medicine people – an individual who has undergone extensive training in the use of the drug and who is, in fact, able to join the traveller in the Otherworld and guide them.
3) If you are willing to take your chances and use this substance outside its cultural milieu or if you think a dose of LSD will do it for you, are you willing to open doors in your consciousness that you may not be able to shut. Occultists talk a good bit about the Guardian at the Threshold. Even if you avoid this traumatic confrontation with your dark side (so to speak), there are still plenty of other areas of your mind or of the Otherworld that you might not really want to go trolling in. If you choose the drug route, you have no control of where you end up.
4) Finally, while this is a matter of some controversy, it is my feeling, based on having been around people who have done or are doing hallucinogens, that these drugs can cause alterations in the auric field that make is easier for low level (and not so low level) astral parasites to gain a foothold in the person’s aura. Are you willing to take the risk of opening yourself to unwanted incursion from the Other Side, especially if you happen to be sensitive already?

In my view, making the decision to try this method of consciousness opening is a simple cost/benefit analysis and the costs/risks far outweigh the benefits, especially when there are a plethora of perfectly, safe, effective techniques for accomplishing the same effect being taught by any reputable esoteric school. These are not the old days when one had to first find an occult order or group of witches or a local cunning man and then beg to be trained. Now, information on magical arts is freely available in books and even online and, if you have the spine to know, to will, to dare and to keep silent, as the old esoteric schools recommended, such information can carry you far and often, if it is your will, the information will carry you right into a “chance” meeting with a group of people who will train you further.

I am not saying that following an esoteric path is easy. There are a lot of different ways that you can go and it will take you some time to sort out what you want to do. But all of that experience is invaluable and will, in the end, serve you well, if only because you begin to realize the things which do and do not work for you. You also begin to understand as you explore and walk a path or two that the methods that you are learning for opening up your consciousness are measured and, if done with the proper attention and without trying to rush, produce excellent results that you can verify for yourself without any of the side effects and drawbacks of mucking about with drugs.

So, if you really want to see the world as magicians do, if you want your world to be one of wonder and to include things that are not a part of Horatio’s philosophy, if you want to be able to understand the things that go bump in the night, as well as the things that will lift you into exalted states, walk away from the idea of an easy fix using drugs and into an esoteric discipline that works for you.

Cycles of the Year

A while back, I re-read John Keel’s book Operation Trojan Horse. While the book is basically about the UFO phenomenon, Keel draws some conclusions that are interesting to paranormalists of all types. One of many things that Keel brings up in this book is the idea that UFO phenomenon seem to occur more often at specific times of the year, on specific days and even at specific times. This discovery came about as the result of his statistical analysis of a mass of sighting data over the course of a significant period of time.

His conclusions:

1) sighting are most likely on the 24th of June, April, September, November and December
2) additionally, these events are most likely to occur on Wednesday or Saturday
3) sighting times are most likely to be between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. local time

I found this statistical correlation interesting since 24 June is close to the Summer Solstice, 24 April is within 6 days of the great Celtic Cross Quarter day of Beltane (May 01), 24 September is in proximity to the Autumnal Equinox and 24 December is, of course, in the heart of the Winter Solstice. The only one of these dates that does not easily correspond to one of the great tides of the year is 24 November but, interestingly, it is balanced almost exactly halfway between the other great Celtic Cross Quarter of Samhain (October 31/Nov 01) and the Winter Solstice on December 21 or thereabouts. Samhain and Beltane are both well known in magical circles as times when the veil between the worlds is thin but it is well recognized that any of the solstices, equinoxes and cross quarters are auspicious times for working. It is said that the “magical tides” simply run more strongly during those times.

Wednesday is named for the Norse god Odin (Woden’s Day) and is said to be ruled by Mercury – the planet of communication (Odin is a communicative sort when he is not claiming the battle dead or creating ulfhednar). Amongst Odin’s followers in the modern day religion of Asatru, you will find practitioners of oracular seidhr (pronounced sayth), a style of divination based strongly on the idea of walking between the worlds to communicate with spirits of all sorts seeking answers to the querent’s question. I have some experience with the Valfather and I can personally attest that, when his influence is felt, life can get . . . interesting in very unexpected ways. Odin views the veil between the worlds as more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule so it seems to me that this energy, combined with the magical tides mentioned above could make any weak places in the “Veil” even weaker.

In like manner, Saturday is actually named for the planet that rules it, Saturn. One of the notable traits of Saturnine magic is an ability to communicate with spirits. Many magicians avoid work with Saturn since it is the magic of constriction and even death (in the sense of old things dying so that new things may be born – a painful process but one that is necessary) but that “death” also opens one out to the spirit world in a way that is not possible in normal consciousness. I’ve noticed that, under the guise of convenience, many magical gatherings are held on Saturdays. I wonder if this is not because, subconsciously at least, the energy of that day and that planet, make it just a little easier to reach into the Otherworld.

The business with the hours of 8:00 to 10:00 could simply be explainable by the phenomenon choosing to operate under cover of darkness but there are also, in ceremonial magic, tables of magical hours that purport to tell the magician what time of day would be best for a specific working. I suspect that one might find that energies for communication between the planes ran heavy during these times periods on those specific days.

Statistical verification of what magicians have been saying for centuries? Probably not since I have no idea how good Mr. Keel’s math was. But it is interesting that these times came up in his research and I would love to know if some of the other paranormal phenomenon out there pop up more frequently in these times.

Snarly Yow – An American Phantom Black Dog

Haunted Ohio author Chris Woodyard had an interesting article on his blog the other day. While the story of the lightning stuck tower (shades of the Tarot!) was interesting, I found most fascinating the several reports of the Snarly Yow, a species of the Phantom Black Dog, in the area.

Phantom Black Dogs (PBD) are a well known phenomenon in Great Britain and author Simon Burchell has even traced them into pre-Hispanic Latin America (see this link). When one begins to look for stories of the PBD in North America, however, information begins to get sparse. Since I am fascinated by the lore of werewolves and Black Dogs, I am grateful to Mr. Woodyard for publishing this information.

The Snarly Yow, as this beast is so colorfully named in the region, is a classic PBD, a dog on unusual size, jet black in color and often depicted with glowing red eyes. As the article mentions, such beings, in Great Britain at least, are often associated with watercourses, bridges and ley lines. Given the fierce appearance of these creatures, one might think that they would fall into my Intruder category but, honestly, I think the PBD gets a bad rap.

If one looks carefully at the stories of the PBD, whether in Great Britain or the US, one quickly begins to discern a pattern. The PBD is feared not so much for its actions but for its associations. While it is true that a PDB is said to have slain several people during a lightning storm in Bungay in 1577, I would note that there is at least one nasty faery species that can manifest as a black dog and black dogs are also known to manifest as the visible appearance of certain demonic entities. So, the Black Dog of Bungay might not even have been our critter at all. Rather, the classic PBD is creature that appears, seemingly from nowhere, often gives someone quite a fright and then disappears. Interestingly, there is a subset of PBD stories in which the dog appears as a guardian for an innocent traveler, often just before the traveler runs into some unsavory characters on the road.

While having a dog the size of a yearling calf with glowing red eyes appear on the road next to you in the night is certainly enough to frighten most people, it is the aftermath of a PBD sighting that really makes this creature one of the beings people do not want to encounter. Often, it seems, the PBD is a harbinger of death. Shortly after the sighting of a PBD, either the percipient or someone close to him or her passes over. Given the long time association of dogs and other canids with death (think Anubis and Cerberus, for a couple of examples), this is not surprising.

If I happened to venture across a PBD in my travels, I would certainly be concerned, given the creatures association with death, but I have read enough of the lore of this being to know that many people see one without anything happening to them or those close to them. This leads me to wonder if the PBD, despite its fearsome reputation, is not a guardian of some sort that appears in certain instances to encourage people to travel an alternate route or perhaps slows them down to avoid an incipient disaster. We have all heard the stories of an apparition stopping someone for a moment only to have something heavy fall in the place where that person would have been. I conjecture that something similar might be operating with the PBD. Heaven knows that, during much of the time period covered in PBD lore, traveling was not the safest occupation one could engage in.

Case in point: the Snarly Yow outlined in the link above. In none of the stories of this beastie included here do we find the slightest notion that sighting the creature had any more effect than sighting Bigfoot. No one appears to have died; the worst that happened was that people got a fright. One fellow even tried to put a bullet (or several) through the Yow with zero effect.

Mr. Woodyard does note that the whole area around the monument that headlines the article is a Fortean “hot zone”. Given all strangeness there, I wonder if anyone has considered that this mountain might be a ley line intersection. PBD and many of the other phenomenon that Mr. Woodyard describes are often associated in Britain with intersections of several straight tracks (places often marked by stone circles as well). Additionally, I would wonder how the Native people of the area viewed that spot. If this was a site used for some of their sacred rites and was disturbed by the influx of Europeans, this could have a lot to do with opening a “window” in the area.

Werewolves – A Magical Persective

While I am on the subject of upright bipedal canids . . .

I’ve noted that I have a strong interest in the lore of werewolves and their modern day cousin the Manwolf, ably researched by author Linda Godfrey. In my own research, I have come across a number of theories to explain the werewolf. While I wholly agree that the werewolf may, in some instances, be a creature of the Other Side and that much of the werewolf myth might be rooted in the hallucinations caused by ergot poisoning and/or cases of clinical lycanthropy, I completely disagree with author Nick Redfern when he states:

However we might (or might not!) term “the paranormal” or “the supernatural,” I’m inclined to conclude that these “things” – presumed by many to be shape-shifting werewolves – are actually nothing of the sort, but are entities in their own right that originate somewhere within those two unearthly realms.

While such an explanation does cover a lot of ground and certainly does explain some of the werewolf/Manwolf sightings detailed by people like Linda Godfrey, it does not fully explain the werewolf lore in which we are repeatedly confronted with the notion that a person is able to change into a wolf or a wolf like creature and then change back again (or actually be ‘stuck’ in that form for a while until released by magical means).

I would argue that there has to be some phenomenon that supports the multitude of stories that speak of this transformation and, indeed, describe very specific ways in which the transformation may be effected. From my perspective, in addition to incursions from the Other Side and madness of varying sorts, there is also a distinctly magical event that explains some of these tales.

John Michael Greer, in his fascinating book Monsters: An Investigator’s Guide to Magical Beings , gives us a working magician’s take on the werewolf:

In most cases of etheric projection, the etheric vehicle still retains the shape of the human body, just as it does after death. By certain techniques, though, the etheric vehicle can be reshaped into an animal form, and charged with etheric substance drawn from sources outside the body. If this is done in the right way, much of the animal’s power and perceptions will infuse the etheric vehicle . . .

Greer goes on to note that there are basically two ways this etheric projection can be accomplished. In one the subject is in deep trance and engages in a “more robust variety of out of body experience”. In the other variant though, we can see a definite source of the werewolf mythos that has a person changing from a human to a wolf. In this variant, the magician “formulates an animal body of transformation while remaining awake and active in his or her physical body. The body of transformation becomes a shell of etheric substance around the shapeshifter’s human form, adding its animal powers to the human capabilities of the shapeshifter”.

In other words, a person watching this formulation of “an animal body of transformation” might very well seem to see a human becoming a wolf or wolf like creature and the person who formulated this body of transformation would assume some very wolf like powers. While I have never experienced the formulation described here, in my Harner style neo-shamanic work, I have been overshadowed by the presence of Wolf and have had some very interesting sensory experiences as a result. Having done this, I don’t think it is a huge leap from being overshadowed by the wolf spirit’s presence to actually assuming a semblance of that shape and power. While I stress that we are not talking about an actual physical transformation here (the power outlay for something along that line would be enormous), such a Change would certainly appear real to an outside observer and would grant the werewolf some interesting powers.

In my opinion, we need to combine all these different “explanations” of the werewolf/Manwolf phenomenon in order to create a theory that expands to cover all exigencies of the lore and of modern day sightings.

Manwolves in the Bedroom

I am a fan of all things werewolf and shapeshifter and eagerly consume the works of Linda Godfrey whenever she puts out a new book on the manwolf phenomenon. I stumbled across this recording of a Coast to Coast AM interview with Linda Godfrey some tme ago and it seemed a good topic for a post.
At about the 27 minute mark in this recording, the host asks Ms. Godfrey what her most baffling case was. She has to think about that for a moment since she has heard some very strange witness reports and then decides that the cases that baffle her the most are what she calls the “home invaders”. These reports encompass seemingly solid, bipedal creatures with dog or wolf like heads that appear in people’e homes, often in the bedroom, and then, after their presence is noted, vanish.

Given that the percipients in these reports were often asleep or drowsing just before the incident, a researcher might be tempted to put these sightings down to dreams that carried over into waking reality for a time. I would gladly accept this theory if it were not for the fact that the witnesses in these events are all describing almost exactly the same creature. As Godfrey notes in the interview, the Manwolf that is seen outside, along the side of the road or cavorting in a field is distinctive in that it is a bipedal canid with a hunched posture and rough fur coat which varies in color from witness to witness. In contrast, the Manwolf seen indoors often appears in or near people’s bedrooms, stands more upright, has a uniformly black or dark coat and that coat is smooth to the point of resembling skin. A number of witnesses have likened the being to drawings that they have seen of the Egyptian god Anubis.

Now, I do not think that these folks are experiencing a visit from the god himself. I have stood in the presence of an Egyptian deity (quite by accident during a trip to visit an Egyptian display at a local museum) and I can tell you that, had these folks encountered Anubis himself, their reaction would have been a whole lot stronger than is recorded in Godfrey’s books. These sighting appear to fall more readily into the Phantom Black Dog category than the Manwolf category since they are clearly very solid apparitions that disappear once they are noted. I would also point out that PBD’s have been known to make bedroom appearances as well. PBD’s and Anubis are both, of course, associated with death. Interestingly, there is a lesser known jackal or wolf headed god form of Egypt called Wepwawet that is called by the moniker Opener of the Ways. He, too, was associated with movement into the Otherworld at death but he was also seen as carrying the standard of the pharoah into battle. So the question that I would love to ask all these percipients is: after your sighting, what significant events or changes occurred in your life.

It is easy to get fixated on death when dealing with phenomena like the PBD or an apparition of an Anubis type creature since there is a solid lore case to be made for the PBD, particularly, as an omen of death. People have seen Black Dogs, however, without dying or having anyone close to them die so we have to recall that death is just one of the major life transitions. Is it not possible that these sighting of Anubis look a likes and Black Dogs, in the home and at a close range, might be precursors of a major life event or at least a powerful warning to divert from a path that the witness is following?