Author: A Solitary Pagan
Types of Ghosts 6, Hitchhiking Ghosts (Attachers)
Types of Ghosts 6, Hitchhiking Ghosts (Attachers) You’ve heard those creepy stories about people pulling over to the side of the road to give a girl in a prom dress a ride home? And then they find out later on that the girl is dead? This is the classic story of the hitchhiking ghost. There are many variations of the story including with hitchhiking men, as well. When I refer to the hitchhiking gho...
Types of Ghosts 3, Wandering Souls.
Types of Ghosts 3, Wandering Souls. While also apparently a Spanish flamenco song, wandering ghosts are a type of ghost that I am all too familiar with. I don’t know the song, but I know the ghost. I call this type of spirit a wandering soul or wandering ghost because any time I’ve had contact with them, they seem lost. Not just in the typical way we assume a ghost is lost but like…literally lost....
Types of Ghosts 5, Doppelganger and Fetch Spirits.
Types of Ghosts 5, Doppelganger, and Fetch Spirits. Now the doppelganger is a ghost that could be the soul of a dead human being OR the fetch of a human being. This spirit is the “spiritual twin” of a living individual. What is a fetch, you ask? A fetch spirit is a person’s astral double that may separate from the human’s body ad may go out to do the person’s bidding. Sometimes they might have a m...
Types of Ghosts 4, Residual Energy or “Imprints”.
Types of Ghosts 4, Residual Energy or “Imprints”. This type of ghost isn’t intelligent, meaning it isn’t a sentient being with its own thoughts, feelings, or form, necessarily. A residual energy ghost or what I also call an “imprint” is more of a supernatural phenomenon instead of an actual spirit. This is when something so traumatic or intense happens that the situation itself is imprinted on the...
Types of Ghosts 2, Intelligent Ghosts and Classic Hauntings.
Types of Ghosts 2, Intelligent Ghosts, and Classic Hauntings. This is probably the most iconic type of ghost or what we also call a “classic” haunting. This spirit is the disembodied soul that once inhabited a human body. That can’t seem to find its way onto the next phase of the afterlife. There are likely different reasons for this phenomenon, including the individual might have died an unexpect...
Types of Ghosts 1.
Types of Ghosts 1. It’s midnight. Someone calls your name from down the hall. You peak from your bedroom door and notice that everyone is sound asleep in their own beds. You turn to go back to your bed and catch a glimpse of a shadow out of the corner of your eye. So you figure you’re being haunted. But the question is, by what? Believe it or not, there are multiple types of ghosts, and what type ...
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft1
Bellarmine jugs, bottles, and drinking mugs were produced by the potteries of the Rhineland area, from the sixteenth century onwards. They were exported in large numbers to this country, where they became very popular. These handsome stoneware vessels take their name from the fierce, bearded face embossed upon them, which was supposed to be that of Cardinal Bellarmine. They are also sometimes call...
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft2
When used as a witch-bottle, these vessels have been found with highly unpleasant contents, such as human hair entangled with sharp nails, cuttings of human finger-nails, a piece of cloth in the shape of a heart and pierced with pins ; and sometimes human urine and salt. The bottle was well sealed up, and then buried in some secret place, or thrown into a river or ditch. One of these bottles was r...
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft3
Believing that a magical link existed between the witch and themselves, they tried to put the magic into reverse, and turn it back upon the sender. They used their own hair, nail-clippings, urine, etc., as the magical link ; and a heart, cut probably from red cloth, to represent the witch’s heart, which they pierced with pins. Sharp nails were added, to nail the witch ; and salt, because witches w...
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft4
In Christian times, sculptors tried to work it into Church decorations by calling it a symbol of the Holy Trinity; but in the sixteenth century, it was banned by the Council of Trent, who declared it to be pagan. It is in fact one of the ways in which the Celtic Horned God, Cernunnos, is depicted. Probably because of its old associations with paganism, the triple face was one of the attributes oft...
Benandanti 1
Participants in the lingering remnants of an ancient agrarian cult in northern Italy, which came to the attention of the Inquisition in the late 16th century because of the cult’s nocturnal battles with witches and warlocks over the fertility of the crops and livestock. The term benandanti means “good walkers.” The cult flourished in the Friuli region of Italy, an isolated area where Italian, Germ...
Benandanti 2 The Unknown Origans
The origins of the benandanti cult are unknown; the roots are probably ancient. The leaving of the body and doing battle in spirit, in the guise of animals, is shamanic in nature. The benandanti may be an offshoot of the cult of Diana, which was known in Italy from the end of the 14th century. Followers of Diana held peaceful sabbats at night and were not associated with diabolical rites until lat...