The 'Pagan Roots' of Halloween (Samhain)

[Ninurta]

The spooks are afoot here in the hills. I've been seeing them for a couple weeks now, and some few other folks around here are beginning to sense them as well.

Seems to be a strong year for them, for some reason.

If you're talking about the "ghostly" spooks, I agree they've come out early this year. 

Mine is/are in my house. They've been making noise in the back rooms for the last week or so.  One had the audacity to steal something from my kitchen... again! 

It's time to wave the smudge stick at them. That's usually all it takes to make them calm down.  

Yup, that's the ones I'm talking about. I really should have been more specific, or chose different words for clarification.

There is one here now that seems to be impersonating me. I know not why. I came home the other night and Grace's shoes were on my side of the bed, at the foot post. I thought nothing of it, figured she must have gone to check the mail and that's just where they got kicked off. No big deal. Grace woke up and found them there and sort of freaked out, wanted to know why I was moving her shoes around. T'weren't me, I tell ya. I got better things to do than just move shoes from here to there to flip folks out!

Last night, I came home after work and she wanted to know if I had come home early before while she was napping and stood at the lower bedpost (same place the shoes wound up) watching her nap - she was certain I was there, until she woke up from being stared at and realized the house was empty. It freaked her out enough that she cleared the house then, and then had me clear the house again after I got home to make sure there weren't intruders lurking. It's a small house, 'cause there's just the two of us, and pretty easily cleared, so it wasn't a problem... other than it freaking her out.

Then this morning when I got up, she went into the kitchen and I went into the bathroom (I'm old - that's what old folks do first thing in the morning!) and she came in there wanting to know what I wanted, because she SAW me in the kitchen - but it weren't me, as I was otherwise occupied getting myself all pretty for the day and whatnot.

I've told her not to let it scare her, else it might never leave (some of them get their sustenance from fear if they can induce it, and who leaves a free meal?). but it's tough to control visceral reactions. I might have to get rid of it, might not. That depends on whether it hangs around and becomes really bothersome or not. Time will tell. I generally leave them alone if I can and they can manage to coexist, because even haints have to have a place to be - and they're everywhere anyhow, whether you can see 'em or not. Life is too short to spend all of it purging haints away from you if they're not being too bothersome. Live and let live (or live and let be dead, I reckon) has been my motto for years now.

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