In regards to ghosts and hauntings, It is important to note that there are many schools of thought on this supernatural phenomena. As such, it is not uncommon to find researchers, psychics, mediums, all with varying thoughts, opinions and experiences. This is why I bring you today’s blog, not as a documented source of ‘facts’ but as one person’s lifetime of experiences, conclusions and beliefs. I throw my hat into the ring with the many other psychics and occultists to share my knowledge and thoughts on this vast and somewhat controversial topic. By all means, read this blog with discernment, compare it to your own experiences, other occultists, etc and then formulate your own conclusions from there.

What Are Ghosts?

Ghosts are believed to be the spirits of the dead, this can be human or animal (and possibly plant too, if like me you hold animistic beliefs). The etymology of the word ‘ghost’ is said to come from the old English ‘gast’, which in turn likely comes from the old Germanic for ‘geist’, where we also source our words for bargeist (now boggart) and of course, poltergeist. Similar variations of this word also appear in Dutch and old Saxon as ‘Gest’. All of which mean spirit.
There are many theories as to what creates an earthbound ghost over say, a spirit in visitation. Some of these include the following:
1) The the deceased suffered a traumatic or sudden death.
2) The person has “unfinished business”.
3) They simply don’t want to cross over.
4) They are scared or anxious about crossing over – sometimes fearing they may end up in Judaeo-Christian inventions of Hell or Purgatory.
5) The spirit does not know that they are dead. (Which is an interesting notion as it would suggest that potentially the personality held within the spirit can experience similar psychological crises that the living can; for example, dissociation due to shock and trauma, or cognitive dissonance).

This list is by no means exhaustive, but is enough of a list to begin with.

When A Ghost Is Not Just A ‘Ghost’.

Note that I do not use the term “communing with the dead”. I find this an unfortunate term that seems more applicable to the practice of necromancy then it does to the actual practice of communing with spirits, especially when people like myself do not just communicate with spirits of the dead, but all manner of spirits who may or may not have lived a human existence.

Within my own personal practices, and lived experiences of almost a lifetime of communing with spirit, I have found there to be three types of spirits that would potentially fall under the umbrella category of ‘ghosts’. They are as follows:

1) Earthbound spirits: Your typical ghost that causes hauntings.

2) Spirits in visitation: Spirits that have crossed over into the spirit world, but choose to come back and visit loved ones. A good example of this would be when the ancestors draw near.

3) Echoes: These, strictly speaking, are not ‘ghosts’, but are almost like a holographic memory replay played over and over again. Instances like this are usually caused from high trauma events where the energy of the event gathers in the location and plays either repeatedly, or on certain days, dates and times associated with the traumatic event.

Earthbound Spirits.

Earthbound spirits are your stereotypical ‘ghosts’ and are, for some reason or other, avoiding crossing over into the realm of spirit. As discussed above, this can be for a variety of complex reasons, but sometimes, just like their living counterparts, they just need closure before moving on in their existence. This is where some psychics, mediums, priests or shamans come in, as they can occasionally assist the dead by helping to guide them towards a resolution which helps the spirit cross over.
There appears to be two types of earthbound spirits, the first being those who can travel from place to place and haunt several locations. One example of this would be Queen Anne Boleyn who is said to haunt Hever Castle, Hampton Court Palace and the tower of London. Interestingly, I have been to Hever Castle several times as I grew up not far away, and I did see a ghost of a Tudor woman. Whether she was Anne Boleyn or not, I cannot say and will not speculate. But it was intriguing to see that this ghost was not interested in communicating or looking at any of the tourists in the room. Instead she slowly walked from the central piece on display in the room and then to the window. This could mean she was either ignoring the many people visiting, or, that she was unaware and possibly re-living moments of what used to be her life.

Click here to see a link of the supposed ghost of Anne Boleyn at Hampton Court Palace. I’m not convinced though, are you?

The second type of earthbound spirits are the ones who are grounded to one specific location. For example, the place where they died, or the place that they were living, had fond memories etc.
Unfortunately, these ghosts are quite common and it is not known why they cannot roam from place to place the way other spirits can. It could be that their sorrow at death coupled with their sense of unfinished business grounds them like a psychological block rather then some other unseen force of nature keeping them under some sort of supernatural house arrest.
I have encountered these spirits more than any other, and have noticed that more often than not that they are attached to residential houses. Usually the home in which they lived in with their loved ones, and after death they cannot face the idea of leaving home or loved ones behind.
Sadly, where it may seem like the ultimate romantic gesture, to stay behind in spirit to be with loved ones, it is not.
Earthbound spirits who decided to stay with loved ones can causes all manner of issues, such as:
1) Depression and psychotic episodes in the living who are trying to grieve, but their grief journey is being interrupted by spirit.
2) Haunting activity such as knocks, bumps, flickering lights etc, which only usually scare the family and encourage them to either move away or seek a spiritual counsel to help the ghost ‘cross over’.
3) Poltergeist-like activity – a step up from minor haunting episodes and a clear sign that things are escalating. This is a sign that the spirit of the deceased needs immediate help with crossing over to the realm of spirit.

Perhaps one of the most tragic consequences to being a grounded earthbound spirit is that the longer the spirit stays on earth, the harder it is for them to cross over, which often leads them to stay in a location long after their loved ones have moved on. This often means that a new person or family will move into a residence and the haunting only gets worse (or at least more obvious) because the spirit left behind is not just stuck, but without loved ones too. This must be extremely traumatic for the spirit.

I have often wondered if one of the reasons hauntings have become more and more documented since the mid eighteen hundreds is because British culture heavily shifted during the Victorian era. Not only was this period the height of culture, arts, new technology and industrialisation, it was also a dawn of new, more educated and less superstitious times. And despite the Victorians having a macabre fascination with the dead, seances, and the building of huge ornate necropolis cemeteries (such as Highgate Cemetery in London), actual folk customs and folk magic practices around death customs began to decline.
This was in part due to the fairly new profession of funeral directory and undertaking. Undertakers began to become more and more accessible and affordable during the mid-Victorian era, which meant the village Wise Woman or cunning folk were not as well sought to wash, dress and prepare the dead for the sacred and spiritual passage of death. As well as preparing the dead in a practical manner, the local Wise Woman or cunning folk would also carry out small rituals and acts of sympathetic magic to help the spirit of the dead cross over.
There were also practical methods employed on the funeral route to church, such as ensuring the coffin was carried foot first, so the spirit could see only in the direction of the church, and not be drawn towards home. Other customs included turning the coffin or ensuring the funeral route (often a coffin lane) crossed a source of water, such as a river or stream. This would prevent the spirit being able to follow the family home again and further encourage the spirit to cross over.
You can read more about Coffin lanes and customs in my blog titled Folk Witchcraft Series: Coffin lanes and Corpse roads.
If my speculation is correct, it would suggest there is a very specific need for funerary and death customs and certainly a place for a spiritual oversight of both death and the funeral that does not just include being placed into a box and carted off to a local crematorium.
Things are very slowly beginning to shift once again, as more and more people begin to seek to put a sense of sacredness back into the death journey. People are increasingly and actively seeking a ‘good death’ through the employment of death doulas, end of life companions, or even Pagan or Shamanic celebrants to carry out funerals.
Some branches of modern Paganism are even specifically teaching their seekers how to nurture and care for the dying and deceased, one such group would be the Priestesses and Priests of Cerridwen (part of Glastonbury’s Goddess temple). Within the Priestess and Priest of Cerridwen training, initiates train to be sacred end of life companions and funeral celebrants.
Hopefully, as death customs become more and more common and less and less stigmatised, earthbound spirits will become less common. After all, those who have a good death and feel they have a sense of resolution, are far less likely to stay earth side when they feel at peace with the idea of crossing over into the beautiful world of spirit.

Spirits In Visitation.

Spirits in visitation is much less complicated and usually far more enjoyable to experience. These are the spirits of loved ones who have crossed over into the world of spirit and join the ancestors.
These spirits can come back and visit the living when there is a need too.
Good examples of this would be:
1) Significant life events such as weddings/handfastings etc
2) The birth of a new family member
3) During times of grief, despair or illness
4) During times of celebration etc etc

There have been many documented cases of people either seeing or sensing loved ones during key moments in life, and this usually brings comfort and even a sense of resolution for the family still living. To highlight some examples of spirits in visitation, I am going to share with you two examples of when I have personally experienced this phenomena.

Illness.
When I was seventeen, I came back from a holiday in Switzerland and was very unwell. I kept going to the Doctor and he kept fobbing me off saying that I was not ill, it was anxiety due to college A-level stress. Despite my protestations and stating I had just passed one of my exams with a distinction, I was ignored and sent away. Again and again. Over the weeks I got more and more unwell. I could barely hold any food down and was quickly losing weight. Eventually I ended up collapsing and being taken to the hospital. However, the night before I collapsed I had two strange experiences.
I had woken up in the middle of the night with a fever, and as I opened my eyes, I could clearly see my great grandparents sat on the bed beside me looking worried. Thinking it was a dream, I closed my eyes and went back to sleep. However, I woke up very suddenly about half an hour later with the odd sensation of someone blowing on my face. As I opened my eyes I could clearly see my Grandad sat beside me looking worried and urgent. I had been very close to my granddad, and he had only passed away a few months before. So seeing him so soon after his passing unfortunately startled me and I screamed. My Mum and Nan ran into the room to see what was wrong, but neither believed me. They chalked my experience up to a fever dream and I was encouraged to go back to sleep.
The next day, When I was in hospital I was told in no uncertain terms that I had quite an advanced case of C-difficile and if I had not got to hospital when I did, I may have been dead within twenty four hours…
I was put on antibiotics and IV fluids, and after a week or so, I made a recovery.
I truly believe that my grandad and his parents, my great grandparents, had come back to warn me, and encourage me to seek more medical attention.

The Birth Of A Child.
Tragically, my mother unexpectedly passed away on summer solstice 2012, when I was five months pregnant with my first child. It came as a huge shock as it was not only sudden and unexpected, but my mother was only forty nine. Sadly, it was also me who found her after she had passed. The shock of losing my mother so suddenly, finding her body, having to organise her affairs and funeral, while also organising my own wedding which was happening just weeks later, navigating move counties and giving birth later in the year meant I was not able to fully process my grief. I just just have the time or soul space to do so.
I put my grief on the back burner and focussed on getting the things done that needed to be done.
In the November that year, I gave birth to my first daughter. A daughter I named in part, after my mother.
About a week later, my now ex husband and I woke early one morning to find our entire bedroom reeked of the very pungent and unmistakable scent of Estee Lauder’s perfume ‘Youth Dew’. For anyone familiar with this perfume, you will know exactly what I mean, It has a very heavy musky scent. It was a perfume my mother used to spray so liberally, you would think it was air freshener!
My husband asked if I had broken a bottle and I explained that no, the one bottle I kept as a keepsake was in a box in the garage, still yet to be unpacked. I looked around the room, and although I could sense my mother, I could not see her. My husband and I got out of bed and instinctually walked over to our daughters cot on the other side of the room, and as we did, the smell of perfume got stronger and stronger. As I rested one hand upon the cot, and another upon my baby daughters face to check her, the smell suddenly vanished. There was no trace of the scent of perfume and it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
I truly believe that experience was my mother in spirit visiting both me, and the granddaughter she had been so excited to meet just a few months before.
Spirits who are not able to show themselves in a full manifestation, a form that requires a lot of energy will often try to use other signs to show they are near. Such as appearing in dreams, items moving, or the giving off of smells. This is sometimes called clairalience, and means to be able to smell the energetic vibrations that a spirit is sending.

Echoes

Echoes or residual energy is a phenomena that can often be mistaken for a traditional haunting, but in fact is not a ghost at all.
A ghost is a spirit with memory of life and a level of intelligence in it’s actions and desires, whereas an echo is energy only and has not specifically led a human or animal existence. Everything in life is energy. Our lives, animal life, plants, trees, stones, water etc. And for those of us with animistic beliefs, we know that all things in existence not only have energy, but that energy can be moved and reshaped.
As Albert Einstein once wisely pointed out “Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another”.
Now obviously, Einstein was saying this in reference to the law on thermodynamics, but the principle can indeed be used for other energy forms too.
Let me explain in more detail…
When a person suffers a traumatic life event, it can cause an energy loss (or soul loss in some shamanic practices). Where an element of the self or spirit is lost or fragmented. This energy loss can be recalled later in life through either some form of Shamanic journeying or via some other healing modality, but while it is fragmented it can cause an echo. A force of it’s own that can replay the traumatic incident again and again. A force that is neither full soul or spirit, or completely divorced from them.
As well as this, the landscape or building can hold memory too. These energies can come together (or trauma bond) and create something that looks like a regular replay of a traumatic incident, almost like a video played on a loop. Unfortunately, this sad combination can also attract less positive entities that can attached themselves and feed from the combined energy.
Echoes seems particularly common in places such battle fields or scenes or tragic road traffic collisions, where death has been sudden, traumatic and involving more than one person.
The good news is, is that echoes can be dismantled fairly easily and in a way that is harmless. This can be achieved by doing a spiritual cleansing of the area, re-shaping the area in some way. For example, if an echo is an issue in a house, sometimes redecorating as well as cleansing the home spiritually can be enough to shift the energy. As well as this, I have in the past advised clients to ignore the echo or apparition and heal the home by creating lots of wonderful new and happy memories. The entrance of new joy, new life and so on can really help in re-programming a homes energy and dismantling the old memories. This combined with ignoring the echoes can weaken it’s influence.
In outside areas, a cleansing is still suitable, but it can be coupled with the planting of new trees, plants and so on. One couple who came to me for help a few years ago decide to hold a ‘garden blessing party’ on their land as they believed they were witnessing the residual energy of a woman who met a tragic end many years before.
Residual energies or echoes can be dealt with peacefully and in a way that does not harm anyone, it just takes patience and time. Especially if part if that energetic formulation is caused by an energy or a soul fragment by someone still living (yes, this can also happen and has been known to occur in cases where severe child or domestic abuse has occurred). It is important to not try and return any soul or energy fragments belonging to the living or the dead. This can have catastrophic consequences to the person or spirit. They have to be ready to receive back what has been displaced. And as individuals we don’t get to decide when that is. Instead, people such as myself deal with residual energy by carefully dismantling it. We cleanse the area to bring about healing or resolution. This begins a healing process for the immediate area and all of the things that make it up, for example, trees, stone, brickwork, earth, water and so on. All the natural elements that hold memory. Then we introduce new energy to the area, such as making new memories, introducing new plants, trees etc. Then, if needed, we can perform a banishing that can separate any negative energies that are clinging to the echo. From there, the only thing that is usually left is the initial energy or soul fragment that everything else initially clung too. This fragment is neither fully soul or spirit, it is an energetic memory, but should be treated with respect. You can encourage the energetic fragment to move on, offer it a blessing, or let it simply fade away.
Sometimes it is helpful to view echoes as a supernatural form of post traumatic stress disorder. Where instead of flashback being played within a persons mind, it is being played out energetically around a place of significant trauma.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog and I look forward to connecting with you again next week.

From the time, mists and distance between us, blessings from me to you.