witches and polts

Witches

I think people may not be interested in witches as a topic. 

I expect that is partly to do with Wicca, as we look at witching as 

practically now an acceptable religious pagan practice.

But it was not viewed that way until very recently.

If you look through the history of the poltergeist for instance,

you'll see how often the poltergeist was claimed to be connected to 

a witch's activity, in past times. When a poltergeist manifested, 

even if the poltergeist agent was guessed at,

someone was bound to shout "witch".

It's in the John Wesley story, and the case of Wilmington Mill.

And, of course, the story of the Bell Witch.

 

There is probably another factor here. when we look back at old tales

of revenants, werewolves, vampires, etc, often the dead, which rise

might be also assume to have been witches.

 

In the more religious times, any "unwarranted bad luck,"

was seen as unholy, and the "witch" was a frequent scapegoat,

 because they defied holy writ.

 A spellcaster has always been sought for.

Still in places where religion still has a strong hold, Satanism

(Loosely applied to all magic) still gets blamed if demonic events occur.

I think this view is very important and it informs my stories.

Witches and spellcasting is about a lot more than paganistic practices,

and always was.

witches

Witches.

Okay, so you don't think witches are nearly

 as interesting as zombies and vampires?

I'll teach you, my lovelies!!

Witches are vicious, murderous and devious. They don't all 

Look like Glenda, (below)

Was she the real villain?

Well, you have to judge for yourself, don't you?

But she was the one, who placed Dorothy at risk, 

by spelling the ruby slippers on her feet.

She got rid of two rivals for her magical supremacy

at one fell swoop, the other wicked witch, and the wizard of Oz

With real guile and craft. She managed to set the wicked witch

against Dorothy rather than against her real enemy.

To point out as well, how did Dorothy get to Oz in the first place?

Because she sent out a twister to wreak havoc on the plains

And use Auntie Em's house as a weapon to kill the Wicked witch of the East.

So she got rid of three rivals really at one shot!

The Rollrights.and witches

 witches

The paganness of stone circles is something to dwell on. The one close

to where I spent my childhood, Long Compton,
was a traditional meeting place for witches

In 1875 this traditional association led to the murder of 
80 year old Anne Tennant byJames Heywood, her neighbour.

 He believed that he had been bewitched by Mistress Tennant.
As his neighbour kept toads in her garden, that was evidence for him,

But he was caught very quickly and confessed.
He said that there were 16 witches in Long Compton. 

Surely they come in groups of 13?

He said that he would like to kill them all.

He wanted to have the judge weigh Anne Tennant's body 

against the church bible.

But witchcraft by this date was not considered a punishable crime,

so he got the worst of it, and was adjudged insane.

He was detained in Warwick jail.

Still believing himself to be bewitched, he refused to eat and drink, and so 

passed a death sentence on himself.

I prefer to think of the witchkind, not as paganists

but as a human subspecies, or race. 

Like Samantha in "Bewitched" or looking a lot 

like Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, 

Well, who wouldn't?

Or as in The Craft, Robin Tunney as Sarah Bailey.

An "Other" Someone born with native powers, in a family line.

This association of witches with old pagan places needs exploring, 

though, with such characters as Mother Shipton,
and the old country lore of the wise woman (hedge witches,
as they seem to be called today. )

To be continued........

stone tapes II

The Stone Tapes

Most if our modern technology depends upon the idea 

of recording sound and images, and transmitting sound and images,

through a medium, and there's no difference between that 

and the storage and transmission of events years 

later than they either happened or, mark this,

 were thought, by someone else. 

Or racked by some great emotion, transfixed the pain or joy to stone or brick.

I don't see why it should be difficult to record a story 

that we imagine, so that we can bring it back to life, 

over and over again, when we wish to, or we gain a receptive

audience. After all, that is what writers have been doing since they 

were bards and oral story-tellers.

In the fabric of any building the hidden history of its inhabitants 

might be recorded in more detail, but only a fragment can be 

presented at any given time to a prospective audience.

In The Stone Tapes story something evil, infinitely darker,

lay hidden beneath the fragmentary haunting.

The secret of the house, which tells a fragmentary story,

is part of an underlying theme, which it might be better 

not to know.

 

The stone tapes

So, did our acestors know that stones held the memory 

of past lives, deep within them, 

or had they experienced the manifestations

 of living beings out of matter?

It's hard, in the case of a well attested ghost 

to quite be sure that a grey lady is 

Anne Boleyn, just because she walks where Anne Boleyn

once walked. A legend builds up around a haunting, 

but you don't know absolutely that the person

behind the apparition is the one, 

that it's popularly alleged to be.

I wonder about attributions, which are fixed by some claim 

made by a visiting medium, without any authentication at all, 

and probably no hope at verification. They

claim, standing in a haunted warehouse, that it's the spirit 

of a foreman named Harry.

Well, maybe it is or isn't but the name sticks

. Then everybody repeats it.

Under these conditions, it's more likely the working of the collective

consciousness, which is responsible.

The point of saying that is that the place that these

 visions come from, then, is our own minds picking up 

perhaps on the material produced by some more universal mind, 

or place, where those memories dwell.

Too abstract?  Isn't that what Charles Fort was hinting at?

A deep well of memories, a universal store of images
and experiences.

To be continued.....

water and stones

Water and stones

I think that i mentioned in an earlier post the theory

that stones were connected with the world of the dead.

That certain types of stone physically change, 

when dampened, makes them sacred.

I believe that there is a type of stone, which turns pink when moistened.

Maybe it is also associated with the way that stones can be

polished or worked to make crystals, which also have power.

Perhaps it goes further back into the beginnings of life itself, 

where the first living cells may have been closer to 

mineral to living. Minerals grow as well as living beings.

That our prehistoric ancestors, at least in Europe, saw

stones as signifiers in the land of the dead, 

led to our use of them as memorial markers.

Perhaps specifically from the use of them for megalithic tombs.

The stone tape theory seems to be important in the lore of the 

supernatural. Have you seen the television short called by that name,

about a team trying to learn about a haunting, 

who try to release the spirit, unleash a darker spiritual force 

lurking behind it, and get sucked in to the haunting itself?

Basically, what if images are recorded in stone? 

Or other materials? 

It could be that there is a great memory store out there somewhere,

and stone could be one of the doorways.

There could be a particular reason why playbacks would happen.

.....continuing.

the vril

The power of the Chi

I like the idea of calling it vril after Bulwer Lytton.

The force, which is conducted by water, and stone,

 a living force. Chi, which passes through everything, and needs not

to be obstructed.

Scientifically, if still on the fringe, is that what we call "resonance"?

The idea that something exists in advance of its actual 

happening, within what is simply matter, a vibration of the structure 

of existence, which maybe once resulted in life?

It persists, and still has a creative ability, at least to reawaken 

forces, or presences, that remain in an unfocussed form?

Gods, elemental energies, spirits, 

or maybe nothing more than memories?

It depends what you believe  a ghost is.

The energy flows in water, and it flows or maybe collects

would be a better word, in stones...

As in Stone circles.

If you have ever been to Stonehenge or Avebury,

Then you know what I mean?

Not far from where I was born  we have the Rollrights.

My family have roots in Long Compton.

 Generally in  Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, 

Which, like Sussex, have a pagan and mystic reputation.

The King's Men, Rollright.

There are those who believe that stones are the receptacles of energy...

More to follow..........