Help needed: A growing maelstrom of ickyness

[Calzaer]

I live near the South Carolina botanical gardens. It's always had a sort of strange energy taste to it, and it's apparently been getting ickier by the year. One of my graduate-student friends tells me that back when she was an undergrad, the place felt safe enough for her to take boyfriends out at night under the new moon and have sex; now she doesn't even like going more than four steps past the entrance even under a full moon.

When I got here, it was certainly an interesting place. The ickieness I refer to is the sort of feeling that triggers minor primal fear responses: breathing elevates, hair stands up, adrenaline starts pumping, but only to varying degrees dependant on certain factors. For instance, the moon cycle. Most of the park was perfectly safe-feeling during the full moon. During the new moon, only the parking lot and entryway (which is a concrete sort of plaza with a big old bell in the middle and some benches) felt even remotely safe, and even then a sensitive person would have the impression of things just outside the plaza watching them. I've never been attacked for wandering around close to the plaza on the new moon, but it's never been pleasant.

Another factor was location. There are two specific locations, on either end of the part of the park that's most often trafficked, that trigger full-on fight-or-flight reactions for no good reason. Of course, I've never been all the way out to the more powerful one at night because its influence is felt a good distance away. There's a certain point in that direction you just don't pass, even on the full moon

So that was the situation last time I was out there. I hadn't been out there at night for a little under a year, until just about half an hour ago, because I live farther away now, and the campus police have been seriously enforcing the "this place closes at dusk" rule since there was a bit of unspecified vandalism in the entry plaza.

Well, tonight, I was dropping off a friend who lived almost directly across the street. I pulled out of his parking lot and, in my car, from across an intersection, I looked out at the gardens and felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I was both intrigued and disturbed. I drove down the driveway and turned around back out to the main road before I even got to the parking lot. The energetic feeling coming from the gardens was THAT powerfully negative.

Let me try to put it in perspective a bit better.

About 18 months ago, my friends and I felt safe enough to hold ritual inside the gardens, well beyond the plaza, as long as the moon was any phase other than new. During the full moon, I've actually made love out there, again, well beyond the plaza. Even during the new moon, the plaza was ALWAYS safe. Always.

Tonight, during a full moon, I couldn't even bring myself to DRIVE THROUGH THE PARKING LOT.

Something is definitely hideously wrong out there. I spent nearly five years informally training to combat malevolent astral entities and counteract the havok they wreak on areas, and my brain *still* refused to let me anywhere close to the place tonight.

I'd also like to point out, for the sake of thouroghness, that the human element is a non-factor. The worst people have done out there in recent memory is TP the old bell and smoke weed in a gazebo a bit farther down. Waaaay back in the annals of city history, people tell me (so it's hearsay, I haven't actually researched it) that one of the victims of a string of similar killings was found out there near one of the fight-or-fight places. Can't confirm it, though. That's the worst I've ever heard of. The negative energy streaming out of the place tonight doesn't feel like human negative energy. Drug fiends and potential rapists and other human scum all have a specific type of undercurrent to the energy the produce (and I'd like to think my sample size is certainly large enough), which wasn't present. Also contributing to my conclusion that this problem isn't human-centered is that I have an easy human-centered well of evil to compare it to; one of my friends lives on land that was at one point a Civil War hospital (I don't go out there anymore). The feelings differ both in degree (hospital-land is MUCH MUCH MUCH worse) and taste.

I've come to the end of the line on what I can figure out through direct observation. I need some advice on how to proceed. I live very close to this place, and have friends that live even closer; leaving it alone seems dangerously short-sighted. Anyone have any suggestions?

[TYRRHENUS]

Ok, I actually do know what you are talking about. And it is good that you have already ruled out the human factor.

I went to college in a small town north of Philadelphia which had the same problem/s. There were these areas that had 'dark-spots' for lack of a better term. I'd be walking along just fine, I'd stop dead in my tracks, then something would tell me to get the heck out of there. There were some places that were just evil. Not disturbed, out-of-sync or a collection of destructive emotions. Real evil.

It also sounds like many people are already using the same areas for drastically different purposes.

Remember also, college campuses are full of nit-wits who play around with conjurations and all sorts of things they should not do. So don't spread word too much, or those looking for trouble might flock there.

I know there are a lot of people on campus so what I would suggest is go to each of these trouble spots on a Sunday morning, when all the Christians are at church or sleeping off whatever they imbued the night before. Go as close to the full moon as possible, and perform a cleansing ceremony and then a consecration ceremony. First 'wash out' the bad stuff, then dedicate it to the Gods.

[ShadowCat13]

geez- :hairraise and i thought my critter was giving me the willies!

[Calzaer]

geez- :hairraise and i thought my critter was giving me the willies!

:)
Bah. Your critter should probably give me the willies too, but I'm way too irrational and full of myself for that. ;)
The rule of thumb around my group of friends used to be "If Cal is scared, we're all gonna die!"
Not because I'm a cool bigshot or anything, just because I'm too dumb/naive/curious to be scared when I should be. :)

[Seabhac]

Hmmm.

Since these are botanical gardens, the salt that I would ordinarily suggest is *right out*. No sense in killing plants that are probably nothing more than 'innocent bystanders'. Which brings me to my back-up: iron.

Not steel, and not your average kitchen knife/athame/replica sword type thing. We're talking things like an old style horseshoe or even iron nails, if things like that are available. I haven't checked hardware stores lately, but I think that most nails you can buy are galvanized steel, which unfortunately doesn't carry enough 'weight' behind it. Iron has the weight of history to it, an accumulated history of belief that makes it very powerful in situations like this. The trick here is not to become a lightning rod for these energies if the iron is enough to ground them. Which it may not be, considering how long this seems to have been going on.

Iron nails would probably work best for my next suggestion. As much as you can stand, go around the perimeter of the gardens and 'plant' those nails in the ground. On whatever level, you want those nails to ground the "maelstrom of ick", or at least create a barrier so there isn't as much spill-over. Make note of where you plant those nails for later removal.

Then get some of your magically inclined friends together, and do what you can to locate the center of this storm. It's going to be bad, and I'm inclined to agree with Tyrrhenus when he referred to 'nit-wits who play around'. In all likelihood, he/she/they have got the psychic sensitivity of a cube of Velveeta(TM) and are unaware of the environment they've created. [Side note. In case he/she/they *are* aware of what they're doing, be ready for some form of backlash. But I get the sense this is something you're already ready for.] When you find the center, take those iron nails and plant them into the surrounding terrain. Use as many as you feel necessary to disrupt/ground those energies. You might also look into stones like hematite, apache tear or smoky quartz - the ones that ground 'negative energy' - and make use of them as well. I got an interesting vision when typing that, something you may want to use. Most metaphysical stores sell hematite rings; buy some if you can, plant them where you're going to put the nails, and drive the nail through the hole of the ring. It seems appropriate somehow. :) And if the energies seem strongest at night, the day is probably the best time to try and counteract this energy. He/she/it/they probably do the majority of their 'work' at night, so that also reduces the chances of actually crossing paths with it/them.

In and of itself, this may not be enough to return the gardens to the way they were. But it may be a good first step towards breaking this energy up as well as short circuiting the efforts of whomever is causing this to happen. And if indeed things change around there, and the energy is dissipated, go back and collect those nails and rings. Use something non-conductive if at all possible to retrieve them and store them until you can dispose of them properly with as little harm to yourself or others.

I'm a big fan of the traditional ways when it comes to stuff like this, so YMMV. And if the iron doesn't do it, you may need to look into some of the history of the area or do a bit of 'other' research. For example, the one spot that may or may not have been the site of a killing may require an exorcist/shaman/medium or other person able to deal with the residues of an untimely death. And the other focus for all this energy could be something from further back than the recorded history of the area, or it could be very recent. I would *not* recommend going in there by yourself. Get your friends together, shield as much as possible, and do some gentle prodding. And even then, be ready to get out as quickly as possible if you all start feeling overwhelmed. Speaking as an empath, those primal feelings are sometimes the most difficult to get past. For dealing with people on a regular basis, I shield myself with the four elements and the World Tree; otherwise I get drained too quickly. But use whatever imagery and energy you're comfortable with.

One last thing. Samhain is *very* close by, and the full moon is tonight. These idjits may be trying to do something for Samhain, so as the moon wanes it may get worse and worse around that area. Just a hunch, however.

Bright blessings and good luck,
Seabhac

[Calzaer]

I drove past again tonight (it was only a little bit out of my way). I didn't actually drive into the parking lot, but that was more out of fear of tough-to-answer questions if any police are hanging around than anything else.

From inside the car on the road passing the gardens, they felt... bad, but more normal than it did on Tuesday. Makes me wonder if something was actively going on Tuesday night.

The nails sound like a good plan, but the "perimeter of the gardens" bit is impractical; the gardens are VAST. I've been hiking two hours in and two hours back out, and haven't come close to finding an end. I've identified two edges (One where it meets the highway, and another where an apartment complex backs up onto the forest, and that's a funny story).

Finding the center will be tough, too. Back when I last poked around, it seemed to have two centers; one with a more human-feeling taint towards the short end, and one with a rather inhuman-feeling taint about 10 minutes hiking in the other direction. It was rather odd; at the time, it felt like they were competeing against each other, and somehow being canceled out at the plaza (I credit the bell for that.. it's both loud and effective in energy dispersal.

I've specifically identified the human-feeling center, but not the other one. I *thought* I had, but I turned out to be wrong.

I would *not* recommend going in there by yourself.

Drat. :p

[oceans_embrace]

i'm very intrigued by this whole deal. here's what i'd do, sit and wait. if it's a "fight or flight" response you're feeling, maybe the choice you've been taking up to now has been the wrong one. Now I know it may be headstrong and foolish of me, but depending on how strong and confident in yourself you are, it may be just the thing to do. At the very least you might find out more about what's causing these feelings, because you really can't do much detective work if you keep hightailing it outta there whenever you get the heeby-jeebies. Oh and i totally agree with bringing others with you; strength in numbers. Good luck and keep us posted, this is a really interesting phenomenon.

[Laurelei]

I wonder if this strange feeling could be the prescense of an astral entity which might have taken up residence there. I'm not saying any evil creatures, no there aren't that many of them. I mean creatures such as dark elves, chaos dragons or angry spirits.
Just a few days ago I was about to go to sleep in my room when I get this awful scared, uncomfortable feeling. Anyway, suddenly I hear this playful voice but I don't like it one bit. Now, my house has become a bit of an Astral Entity gathering spot recently because I've been doing so much work on and with them, but I never met an entity which worries me like this. The creature climbs up the wall in a cocky way, like it's enjoying my worry. I argue with it a bit, get lost you're making me uncomfortable, e.t.c. but the creature gets more and more bold and starts swinging around on my lampshade. By this time I've had enough and I switch the lights on. The creature is scared of the sudden light and retreats.
Two days after that, I whip out my latest book on Astral Spirits and read about dark elves, little entities that cause uncomfortable feelings and like dark patches. Sounded like the creature I met. The darkest spot in my room is under my bed. I look down, and tell it to show itself. It replies, "do you really want to see?", I say yeah, I get the prickly feeling and this shadowy thing 6 inches tall climbs up the side of my bed and creeps me out.
To cut a long story short, after a sharp conversation it turns out this creature has 'taken a liking' to my room and refuses to go away. It's not a nasty entity, it just causes uncomfortable vibrations because of it's nature. So I gave in and decided I'd make it feel at home. I got a few old clothes and an empty bottom drawer, then arranged the clothes to make it comfortable the way it asked, like a very basic shrine. This evening, as I'm sat in the dark writing this, I'm not scared anymore, because the creature is quite friendly and promises to chase off anything that would do me harm.
Okay, that was a long story. I wouldn't tell that to my friends because they'd lock me in a loony bin, I'm glad I can tell a story like that to you lot :).

So if you do find that it's an astral entity that's causing this wierd feeling, I suggest making a small, discreet shrine in it's honour. Well, if it IS an astral entity, PM me!

[Starry Di]

How cool, Laurelei!

Of course, I'd shake in my boots and high-tail my way away from that area that Cal is talking about. And i'd warn everyone else to do the same :$

[mothwench]

i strongly agree with the iron. out here when i go walking in the woods, i swear there is this one path i've never been down, my dogs don't want to go, when i take just a couple of steps along it i get the same sensations: chill, hair standing on end, the lot. if i don't take my protection mojo, which contains primarily bits of iron and iron sawdust, i can't even get myself to walk past the path. there is no difference in the actual forest, beech and alder and the occasional oak, so it's not as if the path were any darker than the rest of the forest, but it seems darker. my bf, who is totally insensitive to this sort of thing, says he doesn't know what i'm talking about, but strangely he's never been down it, either. btw, this particular forest is called the *odenwald*, which means, forest of odin. wonder if that has anything to do with it.

also, i'm trying to find out about LEY LINES and reading up a bit on geomancy, but it's all a bit confusing. does anyone here understand ley lines, and can you explain them in simple terms?

bb, the mothwench

[mothwench]

btw, i do agree with the iron, but not with why the iron works: i've heard it has something to do with magnetism and that the iron distorts the negative entities' magnetic fields. which again makes me think of ley lines. oh, i wish i knew what they were...

[oceans_embrace]

hey calzaer, any news yet on the spooky gardens?

[Calzaer]

No news, haven't been out there again yet. Too busy. Besides, can't afford the protective materials this month; I plan to take a bunch of hematite beads out there and see if I can locate the other epicenter. I'll have to go on a weekend and start early in the morning (so I can get back before dusk), but I won't have a free weekend until after Samhain. Might plant so mojo out around the first epicenter, tho.

The first one (closest to the entrance and has a more human-y feel) is a pretty odd thing. It's like a big stone igloo with a hole in the celing, almost. It's a sculpture called "The Crucible" and was intended to be an ecological statement; the dome part is set up so plants can grow on it, and it was originally seeded with endangered ferns and I suspect is supposed to look a bit like a chia pet in the summer, but I've never seen it work that way. It just looks like a stone igloo with dirt on the top and an occasional green plant growing on it. I have to duck to get inside (but then again, I'm 6'5"). The interior is very dark, the only light comes from the hole in the celing (which is too high up for me to reach, IIRC) and there's a circular pit in the middle about a foot and a half deep. During the day, it's just sort of odd, but at night it's very very disturbing. What's really bad is that it's just around a bend in the hiking trail and shielded from view (coming from that direction) by a big magnoila tree, so you're just happily skipping along under the full moon and go around the tree and BAM! wave of evil slaps you in the face. The thing seems to almost *breathe* at night. I suspect some local teens have been sacrificing grasshoppers or squirrels or something in there, but that's probably just my bias against the local teens. Durn kids. Get off my lawn! And take yer rap and yer drugs and yer baggy pants with ya!

i do agree with the iron, but not with why the iron works: i've heard it has something to do with magnetism and that the iron distorts the negative entities' magnetic fields.
I'm an avid reader of John Michael Greer, particularly his works on astral/etheral critters ("Monsters" being the most comprehensive). He's a bit too kabbalistic/ceremonial for my tastes in the magic department, but his entity research is very intriguing. His theory is similar to yours; iron and other conductive metals (like silver) distrupt etheral energy like a metal rod channeling a lightning bolt.

[Lunacie]

Hey Mothwench, just do a Google search for ley lines. Here are a few sites to get you started:

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMLeyLines.html (http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMLeyLines.html)

http://skepdic.com/leylines.html (http://skepdic.com/leylines.html)

http://www.keirle.freeserve.co.uk/page5.htm (http://www.keirle.freeserve.co.uk/page5.htm)

I have felt a few ley lines but have only seen one. That was in Picture Valley Canyon in southeastern Colorado just south of Springfield.

[mothwench]

I'm an avid reader of John Michael Greer, particularly his works on astral/etheral critters ("Monsters" being the most comprehensive). He's a bit too kabbalistic/ceremonial for my tastes in the magic department, but his entity research is very intriguing. His theory is similar to yours; iron and other conductive metals (like silver) distrupt etheral energy like a metal rod channeling a lightning bolt.

yeah, something along those lines... though i'm not sure about the silver, i think it attracts certain entities. oh, and while we're on the subject of books, another book that shares this theory is (don't worry i didn't get my theory solely from this book, tho i admit it sparked off my researching this) *lords and ladies* by terry pratchett. i know, it's fantasy, but terry does research for his books in a similar way that j.k. rowling does for hers.

oh, and lunacie, thanks for the links!! what i've seen so far on ley lines was horribly hard to read scientific lingo. these ones are great! i'm gonna get me a map and start noting down points and ley lines in my area. :)

[Seabhac]

I think we can all agree that iron does what it does, no matter the ways that it gets to that point. :D I happen to see iron as one of those metals that changed the world, so at least for me, there's a great deal of psychic and spiritual resonance to it.

The "igloo" thing at the first epicenter is interesting. I've been trying to figure out why it's been ringing some of my bells, and then write it down so that it makes sense. I haven't been having much luck, so here's what I think, in no particular order.

* The Hopi of the southwest have a ceremonial structure called a kiva that represents their passage from an older world into this new one.
* This "igloo" building has some vague physical resemblance to the descriptions I've heard of a basic kiva.
* The kiva (from what I understand) is also considered to be along the lines of an umbilical cord from that older world to the new one.
* When I pull out my intuition and point it at this one epicenter, I get feelings/ideas that seem to be saying that someone is using this particular building for "bad things" that somehow are drawing on older fear, pain, and hurt.

My green witch wife has also thrown out a suggestion or two. In regards to the epicenter that is more 'human-based', she got a *very* definite case of goosebumps when I told her about the possible killing waaaay back in the day. That particular wound may have festered since then, and if someone is doing something in that particular area, it would only increase the problems. As for the other epicenter, she's almost certain that it has something to do with the plants in the area. She says it feels like those plants are older, whether in the actual age of the plant or that they are plants from an older era of the earth. As she puts it, the whole 'fight-or-flight' response feels like something old, something primal - basically from back in the days when we weren't much more than hairless apes. She says that without going there and walking around, she can't be totally certain, but it feels like the plants there may be putting this energy out as a way of protecting themselves because the environment is closing in on them.

Which sort of leads back to the whole iron thing. My wife did say that iron isn't necessarily good for plants either, especially if they're delicate or more sensitive to soil changes. So the hematite is probably a good alternative (even if it is iron based). You may also want to consider small bits of smoky quartz in place of the iron or hematite, if that's more available. We both agreed, however, that if you can get some, old railroad spikes would be almost ideal.

If you are or have any friends that are inclined towards dealing with the dead and the residue of death, you may want to get them to that first epicenter - but not right near Samhain or Dia de los Muertos. That time of the year isn't exactly fun for people with those gifts. :twitch:

Just my thoughts, YMMV.

Seabhac

[Calzaer]

My green witch wife has also thrown out a suggestion or two. In regards to the epicenter that is more 'human-based', she got a *very* definite case of goosebumps when I told her about the possible killing waaaay back in the day
It's kind of funny, tho... the dead body was found in the area closer to the primal epicenter and away from the human epicenter.

Allegedly (and I haven't been able, time wise, to track any of this down... microfische and I don't get along very well) there was a murder (or series of murders, I'm not clear) many years ago where a girl vanished from a laundromat late at night and turned up dead and mutilated and other nastieness in an area very close to what I originally thought was the primal epicenter. The area she was supposedly found does feel sufficiently creepy, I'll give it that, but the creepienes just gets stronger from there. Particularly at night.

...
Hmm. Samhain.... *must... fight... demon-hunter... urges*