Ghost – Page 4 – Living Library

Artist and Chief James Swan: on funerary rites, putting spirits to rest and the thunderbird (Part 3/3)

(Safe Journey. James UuKwaqum Swan*)

James, you were talking about letting the spirit of a person go after they’ve died by practicing what you called “dealing with things the right way…”

In our culture, we have a song called the yatsu-yatsu (sp?) and it lets the spirits go. We can’t have bad thoughts about a person, even from a photograph, or we will hang onto them. So we sing the yatsu-yatsu and it lets the spirit go.

We will also have a memorial ceremony, a potlatch. It’s really tough for people when a loved one has passed – to let them go – because we always want to have that person close to us forever.

Even with my dad’s death. He is always with me, my father (James Swan Sr). Half of what he was is always with me. Same with my mother, I am half of what she is. So my father, or my mother, will never be gone. I look at my daughter and I say to her, “Make (Grandpa) James” and she goes like this (makes a face). Jessie will make a frown on her face and when you will see it, it’s just the way he would look. So he’s always going to be around. All of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they know who he is from his pictures, as well. His memory will always be around.

By putting pictures away when someone passes on we let their spirit go as well. When my dad passed away, all of the pictures of him we put away for one year after the memorial service. Usually, this is for four years, but our elders said only to do it for one year because all of our songs and dances were really popular back then and they wanted to have them back. They didn’t want them gone for four years, so we took them back one year after he passed away.

We had a memorial potlatch and took the pictures and songs back after we did the yatsu-yatsu. After all of the songs and dances were finished, we did ours and took them back that day. This was after the songs had been gone for one year. It was one year after my dad passed away.

In our belief, if something was really loved by a person we would also send that item with them when they died. We would take that special item and we would put it in a grave or in a cave with them. Nowadays, even if you went to our cemetery there are items there like somebody’s sewing machine. The sewing machine will be sitting on top of the grave of the person that loved that item they cherished so much. It is not very often that this happens any more, though.

So do people in your culture bury the deceased?

We do now, but I’m not going to be. I am going to be put up in a tree for one whole year waiting for my body to decay. I then want my bones put into a cave.

A cave? Is this the traditional place to be buried?

In caves, yes it is. The cave I want to be put in is in Manhousaht territory.

The old way.

Yes, the old way. Some people might say it won’t matter because I’ll be dead but I want it done this way. It’s all in my will.

Ahousaht School Mural of Thunderbird. 2012

James, you’ve been telling me about the spirits, and funerals, but I also wanted to ask you another unrelated question. I wanted to ask you whether your people have any stories about people coming from the stars or gods that live in the stars or anything like that?

Not that I’m aware of.

I’ve noticed that a lot of places in Ahousaht have paintings of the thunderbird on them. Can you tell me a bit about that story?

What we are told, from a long time ago, is that when you hear the thunder rolling out – when you first hear that thunder – it is actually rolling out to the ocean. It means that the thunderbird is actually going out to capture its prey; the whale.

Shortly after, you will hear it rolling back in, so if you listen very carefully you will hear the thunder roll, or rolling. It will roll out towards the ocean and it will come back in after it captures its prey. Every time you hear the thunder going out, that is the thunderbird that is going out hunting.

(I found out later that according to Nuu-chah-nulth lore, the thunderbird sometimes carries the sea serpent with him out to sea, and it is he who creates the lightning in the sky. Lightning is not very common off of the coast of Vancouver Island)

One of the things that we’re told is that there was this man that followed the thunderbird. He went over four mountains following the thunderbird. He saw the thunderbird going into a cave. The man followed it into the cave. The man then saw another man coming out of the chest of the thunderbird. So that is one of the reasons why you will see a man’s face on the thunderbird’s chest in our First Nation art.

So the man, is that the spirit of the thunderbird or a separate being?

I don’t know what it could be. It could be anything from the first visions and sightings of airplanes or it could be something else. When some people talk about UFOs that’s something that somebody actually saw. That is where that legend or tale came from in regards to that man coming out of the chest.

Even when I think about it, I think about a hanger. I think about an airplane when they say he got out of the chest of a bird. I think of an airplane with wings. That is kind of what I think of when I hear that story.

A long time ago our people went down to Victoria. They got into a canoe and went that way before we had motorboats and everything else. This was in the 1800s or late 1700s when Victoria was just being made. They went down there and they got scared because they heard this loud whistle. They found out later that it was from the train. So that’s where that whistle came from.

Our people heard that whistle for the first time and it spooked them. They came back. They never made it all of the way to Victoria.

A lot of people in Ahousaht are Christian, or Catholic. There used to be two churches but your mom Mrs. Rosie Swan says that one burned down and now there is only one. Would you say that most people are now mixing the old beliefs with Christian traditions?

I think that there are a lot more coming back to the First Nation’s way. We don’t have a priest that stays in Ahousaht , but we have one that comes to Ahousaht. A lot of the old-timers, especially the ones who had it really rough in the residential schools had it shoved down their throat – Christianity and religion that is. My mom talks about it.

My mom prays to god and Jesus and I don’t disrespect her for that because I’m 100% First Nations. I pray to Nas (sp?), I pray to the creator. I don’t have any disrespect for Jesus or for god. I don’t have any disrespect for Allah or for any other religion or belief that anyone else has. I’m not saying it’s wrong.

What I believe in, in my culture, I practice to the best of my ability. That is what I have.

Thank you James for answering all of my questions, for showing me Ahousaht and your home, and for introducing me to your mom Mrs. Rosie Swan and your family. It truly was an amazing experience. Thank you.

You’re welcome! Now I need a coke! You made me talk for way too long! (laughs)

Closing thoughts

James’ method of response to these questions was often layered and indirect. Each answer, however, would hold a great deal of information. When I first asked James Swan some of these questions, for example, he would sometimes seem to change the subject completely. He would then wrap around the topic slowly, before eventually responding to the question directly.

When I asked about Ahousaht ghost stories, James first explained his own scepticism – delicately – but seemed to be honor-bound by tradition to believe in the stories of the elders. Following this introduction and explanation, James then went on to tell me the original stories to the best of his recollection.

James would also usually include the original teller of the tale’s name. This method of storytelling allows the teller of the original story to be sourced. The story can then be linked to another person living or dead. It seems like a small thing, but it is this system of information-sharing that held many communities together for thousands of years. It’s easy to forget that reading and writing hasn’t existed on the west coast for very long. The Nuu-chah-nulth, like the Celts, had a strong surviving oral tradition instead.

As I wrote out these responses – from the recordings – I would sometimes suddenly realize that there were many things James had said that I hadn’t picked up on the first time. When talking about black magic, for example, he had a certain compassionate contempt for those who practiced this form of sorcery. Only later did I realize that James had listed out his own personal items (with his name on it) that a dark practitioner could steal to put a curse him, where those items could be found (usually unsecured), and how little he cared if they even tried to put a curse on him in the first place. I say “compassionate contempt” because contempt almost doesn’t suit the philosophical stance that James seemed to be taking. He had a genuine pity for these dark practitioners first and foremost. He knew that they would receive three times the negativity that they had directed at him. Much of the specific wording was edited out including where to find these personal items, but I included his response about the army labels to demonstrate his overall lack of concern, or perhaps his unshakeable faith.

There were a lot of topics we discussed that I couldn’t include due to the length of this post and the subject matter deviating too far from the original focus of the blog. Most fascinating to me were the conversations with Mrs. Rosie Swan and James regarding circle sentencing and criminals being sent to live in quasi-isolation on islands. We were also able to discuss the reasons for James joining the army, the return of the people to Ahousaht, the history of Manhousaht and the role of men in their culture. For good or for bad, the Nuu-chah-nulth truly are a male dominated society.

There has been a lot of suffering inflicted upon the people of Ahousaht and other First Nation’s people by agents of government in the not so distant past. Additionally, some Ahousaht families are said to be able to trace genetic differences in their family (like curly hair) to rapes committed by sailors aboard specifically named well-known historical vessels. The often-stated intentional spread of infectious diseases by early settlers is also well known… even outside of First Nation communities. There has also been a lot of publicity in recent years regarding the treatment of First Nation children in Catholic-run residential schools. Men in the name of religion, not so long ago, committed these atrocities on First Nations schoolchildren ranging from torture to rape. From the back of a boat, one of James’ aunts pointed out to me where the residential school was that they had all been forced to attend. My only response – unfortunately – on such short notice was, “I hear it was bad there?” She looked me directly in the eyes and silently nodded yes. There was no judgment there, but I felt guilty just the same.

According to James, the passing of time “has really brought a lot of healing” back to the people of Ahousaht. A return to the old ways seems to be helping a great deal as well. Problems like addiction or bootlegging become community issues to be dealt with by the elders instead of an excuse to cast members out of society forever. The Nuu-chah-nulth art, history, dancing, and storytelling must also give a whole new generation something to be incredibly proud of. At least they should be.

I feel honored that James trusted me enough to share these stories. With a new age moving in, much of the old lore might be forgotten or lost. James said that his mom, for example, is the last one in his family who remembers how to speak their language. This is a sad thing, for this is what the residential schools intended on doing in the first place. Children were beaten for speaking their own language. The ultimate goal, of course, was assimilation.

100 years ago a few writers went around the British Isles and asked other Celtic people about their beliefs while they shared their own. These same families changed over time, became modernized, and the world moved on. Fortunately, these early writers provided a snapshot into the belief and lives of the Celtic people of those times before most of it was lost. Hopefully, in this modern age of information, a greater amount of these stories will be written down and passed on from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation than those of other cultures like the Celtic Irish, for example. There seems to be many people committed to doing such a thing and in keeping the old ways alive. As we bear witness to this, I am sometimes left with a sort of longing, which seems to be wondering what my ancestors have long since forgotten?

The similarities between the Nuu-chah-nulth and the Celts is sometimes eerily blatant. There are clearly cultural differences, true, but the respect for the natural world becomes a commonality between the two cultures that entirely prevails. It would seem that when people have to grow, gather, or hunt their own food that they are prepared to be more thankful – in general – and are able to find a greater meaning from the natural world around them. When a person relies on the life of a fish from the sea – instead of a breaded piece of flesh from a box – it comes with a certain sense of understanding, respect and gratitude. Idealistically, the animal or tree is thanked for its sacrifice and we humans can in turn remain humble.

I fully intend on incorporating some of the practices James described into my own life. Since I’ve returned from the trip, I’ve been saving the bones from the salmon we eat. I intend on casting them back into the ocean while giving thanks for the fish’s sacrifice. I like the idea of respecting my food in this way. It’s something I don’t focus on nearly enough.

The Nuu-chah-nulth teaching I take from this experience is simple, it’s environmental, and it’s profound. The law applies to all things from the spider to the wolf, from the darkest storm to the brightest day, from the twisted ancient tree to the brightest colored songbird. The teaching is Hishuk ish tsawalk, and it means:

Everything is one.

(Father James Swan Sr. and Grandfather Luke Swan*)

(Jessie and James Swan*)

* These images are not the author’s and are used only with permission from James Swan

The Skippy Experiment

Skippy Experiment

The Philip Experiment, discussed last week, has since been replicated several times. The most successful of these efforts, to date, has been the Skippy Experiment, which has also been referred to as the “Sydney Experiment.” This study took place in Sydney, Australia and is often said to be ongoing.

From the start, the Australian team focused on a fictitious character named Skippy Cartman. Skippy was a 14-year-old girl who had been murdered by an older man. According to the story, Skippy had been having an affair with her Catholic schoolteacher, Brother Monk. When the beautiful girl became pregnant, she went to this man – who she loved – for direction and advice. Fearing discovery by the church or other schoolchildren’s parents, however, Brother Monk murdered her by strangling her. He then buried Skippy in a shallow grave. This grave was beneath the floorboards of a work shed on her parent’s property. When the body was discovered, it had already suffered a year of exposure to earthly elements and decomposition. As a result, investigators were unable to determine that the young girl had been pregnant at the time of death. Also, Brother Monk had since moved to another community and did not fall under suspicion. His crimes against Skippy were never discovered.

With the fictitious story in hand, the six participants in the Skippy Experiment claimed to make headway in the creation of their own “ghost.” According to one source, the experimenters met with success only after they changed the type of table they were seated around during the experiment:

“The group met once a week for five months but saw no results. Frustrated, they dispensed with the agency Skippy and began sitting around a light, three-leg card table. Success! The first night, they heard a light tapping noise from somewhere inside the table. The second sitting brought startling results, as well. After 15 minutes, the table began to move seemingly of its own accord. Soon, it was spinning around, balanced on one leg, dragging participants behind it.”

This was a fantastical claim, and it could only be supported by hard evidence. The group – under the leadership of veteran paranormal researcher Michael Williams – reported a great deal of continued success including unexplained knocking and scratching sounds. As late as 2007, there were claims that experimenters would soon capture audio or visual evidence of these manifestations and share these with the public. No evidence from the Skippy Experiment, however, has ever been shared. We can only assume, after so many years, that all attempts to capture this evidence has failed.

Mathews, Rupert. Poltergeists and Other Hauntings. 2009.

http://www.articledestination.com/Article/Skippy-experiment/4887

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=193764

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa102201b.htm

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BolexH16.jpg

The Philip Experiment

“A poltergeist will usually claim to be whatever its human observers believe it to be” – Poltergeists & Other Hauntings (Rupert Mathews. 2009)

In 1972, Canadian Dr. G. Owen conducted the Philip Experiment. This was a study that would test his theory that, “Ghosts have an objective reality, but they are created out of the minds of those who see them.” A ghost, he proposed, was basically a hallucination created by those who believed in it.

In the Philip Experiment a group of individuals met regularly and began to focus on a fictitious character with the aim of creating a ghost. This “spirit” was named Philip and was given a complete life biography including a tragic end. According to the group, Philip’s wife had murdered Philip’s real love by having her tortured and burnt at the stake for being a witch. The man had then fallen into a deep depression before eventually killing himself.

For a period of time nothing happened to the experimenters. The group then decided to add the 19^th century practice of table turning, which was used by earlier experimenters to produce some interesting phenomena. All of the participants, it was agreed upon, needed to believe in the paranormal but not feel responsible for creating any phenomena themselves. If something unusual did occur, they all agreed that it would be met with a lighthearted acceptance.

After about a month into the Philip Experiment the table actually began to tremor. In the weeks that followed, the table then began to rock back and forth dramatically. Finally, a knocking sound was heard while they were seated around it.

The experimenters told the “ghost” to knock once for “yes” and twice for “no” and began to ask it questions. They always addressed this entity as Philip. Through the knocking communication, Philip gave a biography of himself that matched the fabricated story. This was complete to the smallest detail. Philip, however, continued to add unmentioned smaller details to the stories that had not been created by the group. When these details were checked, however, it would be determined that they were not always historically accurate.

The table itself then began to demonstrate some very strange behaviors. All of the participants were frisked and the environment was controlled. The table began to move even when no one was touching it. At one point, it even became stuck in the doorway as it attempted to leave the room. When this entity, Philip, was asked to manipulate the lights he would do so and they would flicker.

The volunteers’ knocks were recorded and compared with the knocks produced by Philip. There were distinct differences, however, as Philip’s knocks did not vibrate as long.

This activity was recorded and later captured on film. The table was moved to various locations but the activity continued. At a later period of time, the experiment was replicated by a new group of participants.

Many have noted the similarities between Philip’s abilities and those of the poltergeist. These experimenters had tried to create a physical manifestation of a ghost, but instead were rewarded with a different type of haunting altogether: the Poltergeist.

There have been those who’ve claimed that the original results from the experiment were hoaxed, but this has never been confirmed. The usual criticism is that the experiment lacked the control factors, which would have made it scientific. Attempts by other groups to replicate the Philip Experiment have usually, but not always, failed. The most successful – though not as powerful – replication has been the Sydney or “Skippy” Experiment.

Interestingly, the Philip Experiment is often quoted as being the inspiration for the upcoming movie the Quiet Ones, which Hammer Films says is a “follow-up” to Woman in Black. The movie’s scheduled for release on April 25th, 2014.

The first Quiet Ones trailer was released on October 31, 2013.

Philip Experiment documentary with actual footage (7:40, 9:40, etc.).

Mathews, Rupert. Poltergeists and Other Hauntings. Arcturus. 2009.

Owen, Iris. Sparrow, Margaret. Conjuring up Philip. Harper and Row. 1976.

Schill, Brian. Stalking Darkness. IPRF. 2008.

http://ranprieur.com/readings/psychokinetic.html

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33673

Putting the Normal back in Paranormal

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Martin Schongauer. 1480-90

All over the world, since the beginning of time, people have been having experiences that have defied their understanding of the world around them. With the advent of science and reason, however, mysteries that had long been considered unsolvable were finally being exposed and explained once and for all. Somewhere along the line, however, the scientific mind was repressed. The last of the great mysteries were suddenly regarded as forever unexplainable or, worse yet, completely nonexistent. Nowhere are these current and all prevailing attitudes of ignorance more prevalent than in the study of those things that many deem “paranormal.”

The term paranormal can be defined as “pertaining to the claimed occurrence of an event or perception without scientific explanation[i].”

No great scientific mind has ever, not even once, claimed that people were not experiencing “paranormal” events. In fact, there are many theories as to why certain paranormal incidents occur. A common theory is misidentification of what is seen or experienced. Another is mental illness. Some have made claims that these experiences are related to energy and are some type of hallucination. Sometimes drugs are suspect. There has also been speculation that certain paranormal incidents occur because of an event in the brain similar to a dream. Others have said that the mind is far more powerful than we are aware, and that we are able to manifest unexplained events or energies subconsciously (sometimes called a tulpa). In fact, there have been many proposed theories for various incidents over the years such as those I write about in my post Science and Ghosts.

Of course, there are also those theories that I like to refer to as “the Paranormal Status Quo.”

The status quo for hauntings, for example, would be that a dead person’s essence is somehow visiting or present. The common belief about Sasquatch is that it’s an undiscovered ape. The term UFO – which simply means unidentified flying object – has come to represent a spacecraft of an unknown alien life-form from another planet. These status quo theories are usually based 100% on correlations found between accounts or on communal speculation. In a haunting, again, individuals claiming to see deceased individuals represent the bulk of the evidence for believers in the “spirits of the dead” theory. These status quo speculations are merely mainstream conjecture. They’re usually the result of blind acceptance to reported correlations.

A correlation is when two or more things are found to be related to one another. There is a correlation between overeating and weight gain for example. A correlation does not, however, necessarily mean that a cause has been identified. In certain geographic areas, for example, people have claimed that a person’s race is a determining factor in crime. Despite there being a correlation between race and crime, we now know that race is not the cause of criminality. The cause is most often social based and has to do with poverty and other factors such as the community norms accepted within a specific area. In short, correlation is not the same thing as causation. In a haunting, once again, simply seeing the image of someone deceased does not automatically mean that that deceased individual is really present. This correlation has led people to conclude that ghosts are the spirits of the dead. Case closed? I don’t think so. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I’m left to wonder, then, why can’t mainstream society simply accept that there are things in this world we cannot currently understand or explain? Worse yet, why are there only two sides presented in any of these arguments? Looking at hauntings one might determine that there are only two stances in North America: Either you believe in ghosts – as the spirits of the deceased – or you believe that all of these stories are make-believe. In my opinion, both conclusions are simpleminded and unscientific.

Until a “ghost” is somehow measured it will never officially exist. I tell you this as a person who has had my own experiences. I do not know if incidents such as hauntings are caused by the spirits of the dead and neither does anyone else. In fact, anyone who tells you that they do – including psychics – are only contributing to an ignorance of the collective. It is speculation at its best and we should all call it what it is.

On the other hand, those that merely disbelieve for the sake of disbelieving are lost somewhere in the realm of misinformed scepticism or outright fear. If they’re spiritual or religious they believe in the paranormal already, but just have different theories or views as to what the causes of these experiences may be. If they see themselves as science-based then instead of merely stomping their feet in childlike protest why wouldn’t they choose a speculative theory like an actual science-based person would? If they thought we were all misidentifying what we’ve seen, for example, then they should say so. It sounds a lot smarter than contradicting what science has already accepted, that these incidents are perceived as real by the bulk of those experiencing them.

The problem with the Paranormal Status Quo is that these whimsical theories do have an impact on our ability to solve remaining mysteries. Most scientists today, for example, will not go anywhere near the study of anything that may be deemed supernatural or paranormal. Not only are controlled conditions very difficult or impossible to come by in the first place, there’s also a stigma attached. As a result, many scientists have claimed that a study in this realm is not worth the risk to their career. Likewise, funding from reputable sources is often said to be virtually non-existent for the same reason. Also of consideration – because of the difficult nature of the study – is that the likelihood of success is very limited. In other words, studying the paranormal’s not usually considered a respectable pursuit in the scientific community, or a lucrative one either. This is both unfortunate and problematic if we ever hope to solve some of these last great mysteries.

Things may not be so black and white, however. There is a third group that warrants consideration in any discussion of the paranormal. This is the community of hoaxers. Unfortunately, many individuals have chased fame by claiming the capture of evidence that had been contrived. Truthfully, trickery has likely existed just as long as legitimate experiences of paranormal events. The motivation for these individuals varies, but there’s usually some sort of financial reward involved. For example, spirit mediums and exorcists have always been able to ask for money, which can be seen as clear motivation for a hoax. Likewise, modern video and image evidence may lead to a career that involves book deals or even a documentary. There are also hoaxers that seem to find some sort of amusement or pleasure at the expense of others. Lying is easy. Unfortunately, we’re entering a technological age where we’ll no longer be able to accept video or images as evidence at all. CGI gets easier, photo manipulation technology gets better, and the ability to see evidence in its original unaltered state will be based on nothing short of blind trust. In a world of hoaxers, trust just isn’t enough anymore. Maybe it never was.

People who have had these experiences are often left extremely shaken. Some individuals become obsessed in proving to others that what they saw was real. Others become silent. Many have claimed to suffer a variety of symptoms that sound surprisingly similar to PTSD. Problems sleeping, fear of being alone, avoiding certain locations, terrifying dreams, anxiety, spiritual uncertainty, relationship collapse and feelings of “craziness” are all commonly reported. Rarely are paranormal experiences said to have been fun or desirable. In fact, most report that they wished that the paranormal event had never occurred in the first place.

So where does that leave us? Do we really need to accept that entities such as ghost are real? No, we do not. We merely need to accept, as the scientific community already has, that certain individuals have experienced these events. No one knows what the truth is despite what any one person may claim. That is why these types of events – such as hauntings – are considered unexplained.

No matter how crazy the truth may be, we can rest assured that a day will come where we’ll know beyond the shadow of a doubt what that truth really is. That answer may be a chemical imbalance, or it may be something far more significant such as proof of life after death. I do not know what that truth will be, and neither do you. Until then, all we have is speculation. At this rate, maybe speculation is all we’ll ever have? I hope not.

On a personal level, I can work within my own beliefs as I continue to grow and to evolve. I will try to keep in mind, however, that spiritual practices are viewed as faith-based for a reason. The only thing that I do know for sure, is that the older I get the more frustrated I become by people who claim to absolutely know the truth about anything. When it comes to the world of the supernatural, this is especially frustrating, because no one does. That’s why we use the term paranormal in the first place. These events are simply beyond scientific explanation… for now.

[i] Full definition http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/paranormal

The Cat in Celtic Lore: Demon, Witch, or Lover?

The Cat in Celtic lore is a beast both loved and abhorred. Those in pursuit of Otherworldly powers coveted him, but not in a way that lacked cruelty. For those who despised powers said to exist outside of the church, the cat was an indication the devil’s hand was near. This belief would become so prevalent that simply owning a cat would become a dangerous affair when the witch trials began to spread across Europe.

A study of the Celtic cat reveals an ethical dilemma, which will shortly become apparent. A list of sources will be given at the end of this post, but I will not attach them to any one individual statement. By doing this, I hope to provide some accurate broad information while simultaneously avoiding disclosing specific information as far as the ritual use of cats.

It is my belief that spells are symbolic gestures, a prayer embraced by metaphor. Like a New Ager’s ‘vision board’ or the church’s rite of communion. I make these statements not to cause discourse or debate, but to openly criticize anyone who believes that there could ever be a reason to harm an animal for ritualistic purposes. There are those who would obviously disagree with me, but the way I see it, any living being’s life is not worth one’s own personal gain, unless it’s as a source of food. Those who practice these types of rituals are rarely very old, and never very wise. The beings they do seem to attract – metaphorically or not – do not seem interested in the individual’s wellbeing either…

There is a great deal of Celtic lore, which still exists in regards to the cat. Individual body parts were used in a number of spells in several different ways. Additionally, there were love spells that required certain organs ritualistically prepared. There was also a type of divination that involved the slow killing and roasting of a cat in a very specific way. The cat that was used in these spells was usually black. The particular cat most often referred to is also male.

There were spells that used living cats as well. Conducting one spell could transfer a disease from a sick animal to a hapless cat. Several other rituals allowed evil spirits to kill a cat so that the humans would be left alone. On the first Monday of winter, for example, the cat could be thrown outside of the home before the family had exited in order to placate any lingering hungry spirits.

“God save all here except the Cat.” – Irish saying.

There were many opportunities to divine the future by observing a Cat’s actions. If it jumped over a corpse, for instance, the next person who saw it would go blind. If it washed itself rain was coming. If the cat died in the house a human would also die shortly thereafter. If the cat jumped over food being prepared it was said that the person eating it would themselves conceive cats. A cat crossing the path of a bride, or anyone on New Year’s Day was considered unlucky for it warned of negative future events. If the cat crossed the path of a sailor, on the other hand, it was considered to be good luck. If a cat meowed for flesh it was believed that another animal was about to die.

The cat’s life was not highly valued, but the animal itself was treated with a great deal of caution. It was said that a witch’s cat was “endowed with reason.” These felines were also said to be vengeful, so great care was taken so as not to offend them. A cat could also be a spirit, an evil fairy, a shapeshifting witch, a demon, or the devil himself in disguise. For these reasons, the cat was often believed to be a spy for evil beings lurking outside the home. There was also a fairy cat that was known as the King of the Cats. Truthfully, he was much less a king than a vengeful protector spirit of the feline population in general.

Cat of Celtic Lore — *The Love Potion*. Evelyn de Morgan. 1903

There’s also an abundance of lore, which speaks of talking cats. These are often Aesop-like tales or stories of shapeshifting witches. The cats are usually given human characteristics to the extreme. They are bards, warriors, and even sentries. One common Celtic story, for example, is of a Cat who allowed some travelers to feast upon his table. When one of the men tried to take advantage of his hospitality by stealing a necklace, however, the cat became a flaming arrow and incinerated the would-be thief.

In myth, the Celtic cat is a much more ambiguous entity. The Tuatha De Danaan god Nuada had one of his eyes replaced with one of his pet cat’s eyes. Cuchulain and his companions fought three cats in one tale, and in another the Fianna would fight against Cat-headed and dog-headed warriors who were part of an invading land force. Across the water, one of Arthur’s men named Gogyfwlch was said to have had cat eyes. Arthur himself later battled a cat that almost killed him. Elsewhere, there’s the story of an enchanted princess who spent one year as a Cat, one year as a swan, and one year as an otter. This shapeshifting theme, as we’ve seen before, was quite common in the Celtic world.

In the more modern stories, Cats were often associated with ghosts and demons. In one tale, a troublesome cat was drowned with a garter around its neck. The cat would later be seen in a boat with the same garter around its throat. In one early poltergeist account, an apparition of a Cat with a man’s head was seen when a bed was inexplicably set on fire. Though often left out of published accounts of poltergeists, these types of apparitions – that defy logic – are not unheard of. The Bell Witch poltergeist, for example, was said to have first appeared as having had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit by at least one source. So maybe the apparition was a poltergeist? Then again, maybe the spirit was simply a leftover cousin of the cat-headed people who had fought the Fianna?

The 13^th century Irish witch Alice Kytler was accused of having relations with a succubus that sometimes took the form of a black cat. Elsewhere, a source claimed that “the devils” could take the form of a weasel, cat, greyhound, moth, or bird. One Irish witness of witchcraft claimed to have seen a cat-like creature that was three times the size it should have been. The story implies that the apparition was a demon.

In Welsh and French myth, there was also the Palug Cat who was so powerful a being that it was called “one of the three plagues of the Isle of Mona.” It was this cat which Arthur, or sometimes Cai, was said to have defeated in battle. Arthur would later die from wounds sustained in a separate fight, but as many know there are tales that speak of his return to the land. Perhaps, this should offer us some measure of solace, for as one text claims of the cat:

“The wether [goat] they had been fighting with was the World, and the cat was the power that would destroy the world itself, namely, Death.”

No study of the Celtic Cat would be complete, without the mention of phantom cats being reported throughout the United Kingdom today. Despite a lack of evidence of a large black cat ever having been released in England’s rural countryside, there have literally been thousands of sightings in recent years. This cat is usually described as a black panther. It’s the belief of many that these cat sightings can be explained, and there’s a lot of evidence to support this. Until such a time the cat is captured, however, the story remains a modern folkloric account – which just happens to take place on the lands of the ancient Celts.

Although sources seem to disagree with one another in regards to the cat’s nature, there is one level of consistency found throughout. All agree that the Cat harbored, or hid, great power. The Cat in Celtic lore truly was a beast both loved and abhorred, and it would suffer through the ages because of it.

Sources:

Campbell, J. F. Popular Tales of West Highlands. 1890.

Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica. 1900.

Crocker, Thomas Croften. Fairy Legends and Traditions. 1825.

Curtin, Jeremiah. Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World. 1895.

D’Este, Sorita & Rankine, David. Visions of the Cailleach. 2009.

Douglas, Sir George. Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales. 1773.

Ellison, Emily and Perry, Chuck. Liars and Legends: The Weirdest, Strangest, and Most Interesting Stories from the South. 2005.

Gregor, Walter. Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North East of Scotland. 1881.

Gregory, Lady Augusta. A Book of Saints and Womders. 1906.

Gregory, Lady Augusta. Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland. 1920.

Guest, Lady Charlotte. Mabinogion. 1877.

Henderson, George. Survivals in Belief Amongst Celts. 1911.

Jacobs, Joseph. Celtic Fairy Tales. 1892.

Jacobs, Joseph. More Celtic Fairy Tales. 1894.

Kuno, Meyer. The Voyage of Bran. 1895.

MacKillop, James. The Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 1998.

Mathews, Rupert. Poltergeists and Other Hauntings. 2009.

Moore, A. W. The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man. 1891.

Rolleston, Thomas. Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race. 1911.

Seymour, St. John. Irish Witchcraft and Demonology. 1913.

Seymour, St. John & Neligan, Harry. True Irish Ghost Stories. 1914.

Wilde, Francesca. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland. 1887.

*the top image is by Clement Percheron. It’s available for use through Unsplash.

The Banshee: Ghost of the Celts

The Banshee’s arguably the most famous ghost of them all, and probably the least understood.

“When the Banshee calls she sings the spirit home. In some houses still a soft low music is heard at death.” – George Henderson 1911 (Survivals in Belief Amongst Celts)

There’s an Irish tradition promoting the Banshee as only ever interacting with certain families. Although folklorists have also made this statement in the past, it’s entirely false. The Banshee’s known by many different names, was encountered in many varied forms, and was believed to have existed by a wide array of people[i].

In Ireland, the Banshee is also called Banshie, Bean Si, Bean Sidhe, and Ban Side amongst other names. A great deal of surviving Banshee lore comes from outside of Ireland, however. In Scotland, for example, the Banshee may be referred to as Ban Sith or Bean Shith. On the Isle of Mann she’s called Ben Shee, while the Welsh call her close sister Cyhyraeth[ii].

The she in Banshee, or sidhe, suggests and older source for the stories. The sidhe were the old gods who had fled the Irish invaders to live inside of the hollow hills. They were also known as the Tuatha De Danaan or “the fair folk.”

“Banshee: A female wraith of Irish or Scottish Gaelic tradition thought to be able to foretell but not necessarily cause death in a household.” – James MacKillop (Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology)

In the 1887 book Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland by Lady Wilde, we’re told that the Irish Banshee was more likely to be beautiful, while the Scottish Banshee was more likely to appear in the image of an older crone-like woman. Like most things in Celtic lore, however, this wasn’t always consistent.

The Banshee would usually warn of death by: wailing, appearing as an apparition, playing or singing music, tapping on a window in the form of a crow, be seen washing body parts or armor at a stream, knocking at the door, whispering a name, or by speaking through a person that she had already possessed – a host or medium[iii]. The noble families of Ireland generally viewed the spirit’s attendance as a great honour. Some sources do say that the Banshee served only five Irish families, but others say that several hundred families had these spirits attached to them[iv]. The five families usually stated to have had Banshee attendants are the O’Neils, the O’Brians, the O’Gradys, the O’Conners, and the Kavanaghs. Many stories, however, are of other families.

The Ó Briains’ Banshee was thought to have had the name of Eevul[v], or Aibhill as she is called in the book True Irish Ghost Stories. Likewise, a great bard of the O’Connelan family had the goddess Aine (sometimes called Queen of Fairy), attend him in the role of a wailing Banshee in order to foretell – and honour – his death[vi]. Cliodhna (Cleena) is a goddess-like Munster Banshee, who people claimed was originally the ghost of a “foreigner.” Most Banshees remained nameless, however.

The description of the Banshee varies a great deal throughout the many accounts. If she was young she often had red hair, but she could have “pale hair” as well. She was often described as wearing white, but sometimes she could be seen wearing green or other colors such as black or grey. Red shoes were sometimes mentioned, but so was a silver comb,[vii] which she either ran through her hair or left on the ground to capture some curious passerby. Most described her eyes as being red from crying, or keening, or to be menacing and evil looking. The eyes were also often said to be blue. In J.F. Campbell’s 1890 Popular Tales of the West Highlands, the Banshee was said to have webbed feet like a water creature. Sometimes she was wrapped in a white sheet or grey blanket – a statement that reveals an older funerary tradition and a possible source for the modern white sheet-ghosts of Halloween.

In True Irish Ghost Stories we’re told that the Banshee could not by seen by “the person whose death it [was] prognosticating.” This statement is not consistent with all of the stories either:

“THEN Cuchulain went on his way, and Cathbad that had followed him went with him. And presently they came to a ford, and there they saw a young girl thin and white-skinned and having yellow hair, washing and ever washing, and wringing out clothing that was stained crimson red, and she crying and keening all the time. ‘Little Hound,’ said Cathbad, ‘Do you see what it is that young girl is doing? It is your red clothes she is washing, and crying as she washes, because she knows you are going to your death against Maeve’s great army.’” – Lady Gregory 1902 (Cuchulain of Muirthemne – retelling of 12^th CE)

The Banshee – who’s often said to have her roots in stories of Morrigan the Irish war goddess[viii] – could also follow families abroad. One famous story regarding the O’Grady family takes place along the Canadian coastline where two men die[ix]. St. Seymour shares another tale in which a partial Irish descendent sees a Banshee on a boat in an Italian lake. In Charles Skinner’s 1896 Myths and Legends of Our Own Land we’re also told of a South Dakota Banshee living in the United States.

The Banshee could also be a trickster of sorts. She was said to mess with “the loom” in Alexander Carmichael’s 1900 Carmina Gadelica. There’s even a blessing in the section, which is chanted over the item. In W.Y. Evens-Wentz’ 1911 Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries we’re told of a Banshee who could be placated by giving her barley-meal cakes on two separate hills. This action reminds us of the tithes often left for other trickster fairies, and doesn’t seem to be a customary gift one would leave for a ghost. As Katherine Briggs once said[x], however, fairies fall into two categories, “diminished gods and the dead.” Unfortunately, our modern conception of fairies does little to remind us that either one of these forms would be considered as a spirit-being today. As Evans-Wentz further explains:

“It is quite certain that the banshee is almost always thought of as the spirit of a dead ancestor presiding over a family, though here it appears more like the tutelary deity of the hills. But sacrifice being thus made, according to the folk-belief, to a banshee, shows, like so many other examples where there is a confusion between divinities or fairies and the souls of the dead, that ancestral worship must be held to play a very important part in the complex Fairy-Faith as a whole.” – W.Y. Evans-Wentz 1911 (Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries)

The Banshee being attached to a certain family could be extremely beneficial and would have not been seen as a negative. As already stated, any family would’ve been seen as extremely important if a Banshee (or several) attended them. In George Henderson’s 1911 Survival in Belief Amongst Celts, a Banshee, or Maighdeann Shidhe, even gave the “Blue Stone of Destiny” to the Scottish hero Coinneach Odhar. In return for favours, however, it would’ve been extremely important to honour these spirits whenever possible, either out of respect for the Banshee, or from a place of fear in order to placate them.

In modern times, the Banshee became associated more and more with evil. As a portent of death she shared many things in common with the approaching Carriage of Death, the death candles, Ankou[xi] or even with the Grim Reaper. In her more ancient visage, she could easily be compared to the Norse Valkyrie (as the Morrigan often is) or to any other Shieldmaiden whose task it was to collect the dead[xii]. To the commoner of modern times, such a role was reserved for the Angels of God and for the Holy Church alone.

Furthermore, the Banshee – like other mystic beings of Celtic lore – was also able to appear in various non-human forms. A fact which would later make her seem in league with the devil:

“The Banshee is dreaded by dogs. She is a fairy woman who washes white sheets in a ford by night when someone near at hand is about to die. It is said she has the power to appear during day-time in the form of a black dog, or a raven, or a hoodie-crow.” – Donald MacKenzie 1917 (Wonder Tales From Scottish Myth & Legend)

Whether the Banshee does, or ever did, exist is a matter of conjecture. One thing is certain, however, the most famous ghost of them all is the one in which few people actually know anything about. The Banshee was more than a shrieking omen of death. In fact, individual Banshees appeared and behaved quite differently from one another in different stories. Her attachment to a particular family was a relationship that was embraced by the Celtic people with pride, and with honour. Her haunting of a particular place, on the other hand, was met with wary bribes. An unknown Banshee – like a stray dog – could have been seen as something quite different altogether. It would have been this Banshee that brought with it fear – which was usually seen as nothing short of a greeting from death itself.

The Banshee in Celtic folklore seems much more interesting, when we realize that many of our modern ghost stories share the exact same elements. A deceased female relative forewarning death, a disembodied voice, a spirit attached to a particular family, or a haunted landmark may not seem to have anything to do with a Banshee today, but none of these stories are really all that different from the old ones at all. Like it or not, in modern folklore the Banshee still remains. It’s only our terminology that has changed.

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[i] James MacKillop. Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 1998.

[ii] (ibid)

[iii] St. John Seymour and Harry Neligan. True Irish Ghost Stories. 1914.

[iv] James MacKillop. Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 1998.

[v] Thos Westrop. Folklore. 1910.

[vi] W.Y. Evans-Wentz. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. 1911.

[vii] This may be an overlap with the mermaid, which history likewise seems to have forgotten was also a spirit.

[viii] James MacKillop. Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 1998.

[ix] This would most likely be referring to the east coast but could also be the west coast, as well.

[x] Katherine Briggs. The Fairies in Tradition and Literature. 1967.

[xi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankou

[xii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shieldmaiden