Spirits and Ghosts

The dictionary¹Oxford University Press Dictionary defines ghost

Ghost – an apparition of a dead person that is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image.

The dictionary also defines the term spirit as 3 things.

Spirit – those qualities regarded as forming the definitive or typical elements in the character of a person, nation, or group or in the thought and attitudes of a particular period. – Oxford Dictionaries

Example: Team spirit and morale.

Spirit – strong distilled liquor such as brandy, whiskey, gin, or rum. – Oxford Dictionaries

And of course the last one

Spirit – as the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul. – Oxford Dictionaries

I however disagree with the last one. Well, partially. I do not believe that it is necessarily a person that the spirit comes from. Animals have spirits, plants. Then there are of course the spirits. Spirits of fire, water, air, earth, perhaps there are even more spirits.

I have seen things that most would swear could be explained, however, as a firm believer, I know they can’t.

When I wasn’t much older than 12, I saw my great-uncle, standing in my door way the first time I was home alone at night. He had died 6 months before.

When I was 15, I was in the attic when I saw yellow cat eyes, like those of a big cat. Easily the right size for a tiger. I watched them move from one end to the other as I descended back into the house. Not 3 days later I saw those same eyes watching me from the dark weight room in my school. Those eyes still follow me. Never once have I felt endangered or threatened by whatever possesses those eyes. In fact I have felt safe. Perhaps they belong to my guardian angel or guardian spirit.

When I was a little girl, I could never sleep in my grandmother’s house unless my grandparents were still up and I was listening to my grandmother’s Walkman, some nice new age music, Enya if I recall correctly. If it wasn’t those, I was in bed with my grandmother, up until I was 12. I was always scared of the things I saw out in the hallway. My grandmother has two cats. They always watch the same spot in the hallway. I knew 2 generation of cats that my grandmother had, and while never having met each other, they have always  watched that spot. My father tells me that he remembers each set of cats watching that spot. But I recall seeing all manner of strange things in that hallway.

I saw what looked like one of the cats walking on its hind legs with its fore paws out (think classic zombie), and the other cat dragging along behind it on it’s belly, legs out. I recall seeing a woman of what to me was old style clothing that I always picture women of wealth wearing back in the time of western expansion and the old wild west, and women in gloves and parasols and calico dresses.

I have seen things in this world that could not be explained by anything else besides spirits or ghosts. Floating objects and flickering lights, and disappearing things.  But one story always stands out in my mind.

Visiting Soldiers

I had a friend. She could see and hear the dead. She could hear them better than seeing them. Her boyfriend’s home was in the center of an old battle field from the revolution and his house was full of ghosts. I could feel them, although I could not see them.

We were swimming in the pool at night when we were approaching the witching hour. The yard was lit with yard lights and pool lights. We were enjoying the warm water on the cool late summer night.

One of the lights suddenly turned off – the end light down by the end of the flower bed, closest to the fence. We thought nothing of it. Lights fail. Bulbs die. But after it died, I started to see this beautiful blue light, bright and enchanting. But always out of the corner of my eye. By the Time I turned to look, it was gone. Down on the other side of the fence behind the diving board. It was midnight when it started to happen.

I was looking for the light, when the atmosphere around the pool drastically changed. It had changed when that light when off, but it changed even further when another light turned off. And began to flick on and off. And every time it turned off, something happened. There was a skimmer resting on the fence. It suddenly started bobbing up and down. When my friend got out of the pool to find out what was going on, to take a look, I saw the blue light dead on, and the skimmer, it suddenly flew towards her.

The light came back on and the atmosphere changed yet again. All was well. But it was tense. And she said the Soldier who had been with us, was gone. He had been sitting in the chair off to the side, I could feel his presence despite not seeing him. And It was gone.

When the light started to flicker again, we started seeing shadows in the blackness beyond the fence. I am a water elemental, so I felt safest in the water, and she, was so afraid she wouldn’t leave the water until the shadow went south.

I saw the blue light yet again, and when I turned to tell her I saw it, she started screaming, completely petrified. I turned to see what she was looking at, but I saw nothing. In fact, what I didn’t see scared me. Scared us both right out of the pool. Right where she saw something terrifying, I saw a black void. The fence post that should have been there, wasn’t, in fact, there wasn’t even the wiring leading to it.

We ran from the pool yard, and the moment we did, all the light there flickered wildly, and I cried out for all the ghosts I knew, begging for someone to help me. We ran all the way down the drive way to stand under one of the old lamps. But we couldn’t go any further. She was scared of the old woman we saw floating at the end of the drive in a gauzy dress. She was what you picture when you say old crone.

I wasn’t afraid of her though. I recognized her in my soul. She was a guardian spirit. She protected the land. But she was afraid of her. She said she represented death. So we stood in a circle of light where we chanted incantations of protection, waiting for our significant others to arrive, and for us to be safe. In the end we were waiting for 20 minutes. The world calmed down and the old woman smiled and went away, and we went back to the pool yard to relax. It was over.

She may not know it, but that old woman protected the land and us. And the soldier came back, this time with a friend.

Guardians

I have met a few spirits who were guardians of their land. Although, perhaps met, is a strong word. Another friend, a trucker, whom I will call Bear, lives in a home a beautiful piece of farm land. He is at least the 3rd generation of his family to live there. And he always has bonfires during the summer and fall.  His parents are there in the house with him. His mother and her floral perfume, and his father and his cane. Both of whom I hear or smelled during one of his Bonfires. But they are not the story I am about to share with you, but the guardian of the land.

Bear called it a ouji. It looked like a troll, or goblin. short and leaned over, scrawny, with red eyes. And it’s cry, is high and shrill. It made me think of a woman’s shriek almost, and at another point like drunk people laughing.  While I did not see it myself, I heard it and he told stories. That as long as he gave you permission to be on the land, you were fine, but if you didn’t that’s when things happened.

He had a niece who pulled up on the back of the field with a friend and they laid in the bed of the truck to watch the night sky, when they heard something scurrying up to the truck, making loud snorting and grunting noises and slammed into the truck scaring them witless. Bear didn’t even know she was there.  And they thought it was him pranking them.  My boyfriend at the time did see it though.  It chased away more than a fair share of intruders.

There are bad spirits and ghosts, and there are good ones.  My experience thus far have had the bad ones far and few in between, but they are there. And my ability to protect myself from them, gets better as time passes.