afterlife
Bittersweet Is The Fall
Bittersweet is the fall in Maine. Literally. We have a vine here known as the ‘asiatic bittersweet’ (celastrus orbiculatus) that produces attractive red berries. They are yellow at first, but as they mature the outer shell cracks open to expose a magnificent crimson berry with a yellow coat.
Crafters here in New England traditionally use this vine to make holiday wreaths and decorate their homes. It also adorns the roads of Maine with the combination of fall leaves and green of pine trees.
But the bittersweet vine does its name justice in both sweet beauty and bitterness, life and death, because it is not only adored for its versatility as autumn décor this time of year, but it is also widespread, severely invasive and destructive. It suffocatingly twines high up around trees and sprawls over lower plants and vegetation.
It is not a native plant to the region and was originally brought here as an ornamental plant. As the vine begins to spread and grow to the top of trees it becomes the vine of death for the tree as it covers it completely. A bitter vine.
The fall is indeed a bittersweet time of the year. The natural cycle of life and death. The bittersweet time of year is the time to harvest food for the long winter ahead. Get our homes ready for the snow, darkness, and ice of winter.
In Maine the old timers say ‘button up the house’ for winter. The sweet part is people are thinking of the holidays ahead and gatherings with family and friends. There are traditional recipes. Who will make the best pie? Everyone has a favorite. Whose gravy is the most delicious? It’s a time of gratitude for everything that is good in life.
Cleansing Unwanted Spirit Energies In Your Home
Benevolent spirit energies are everywhere. Whether it be a loved one who has crossed over, or your spirit guides and angels. Spirit is simply around in every moment of our daily lives. However, there are also earthbound spirits who have passed, but not yet crossed over. They have unfinished business in this world, or they have difficulty leaving the people and physical spaces that they had a connection to in this life.
These restless, earthbound spirit energies can wreak havoc in our homes and families. When I was a child, I had horrible nightmares. While we only lived on the main floor in my childhood home, I was fine. However, after my father had built the upper level of the house and I was moved into my pretty, girly bedroom, the nightmares began.
I never felt comfortable or secure in my new bedroom. Also, whenever I had to go into the basement, I would have to run down and back up, because of the ominous, icy cold feeling I would experience through my entire body. The rest of the house however was never an issue.
I later inherited this house, after both my parents had passed. I did not really want to own it, because even as an adult that same feeling in the upstairs and the basement was still haunting me, while the main floor felt warm and comforting. I refused to go there alone at night, and rarely alone even in the daytime. It was confusing and frustrating to say the least.
Then I learned how to sage and energy cleanse a home properly. My method involves white sage and a small white candle. I go into each room of a house, starting at the furthest room from the door and smudge each corner of the room. I slowly cleanse each corner and ask all unwelcome spirit entities present to follow the light of the candle as we progress through the house, room by room, towards the outside door.
Things That Go Bump in the Night
I have never been one to base my beliefs on popular opinion, rumors, or superstition. My beliefs regarding the supernatural or paranormal come solely from my personal experiences, as well the trustworthy accounts of my immediate family. So, if I tell you there are indeed ‘things that go bump in the night,’ you can be sure that I am speaking of personal experience.
When I was a little girl, for example, my father was the first person to bring the supernatural to my attention with a story of his own paranormal experience back in 1946. His story was the first to whet my appetite for investigating the paranormal and the mystical.
The Second World War had just ended, and my dad was only 20 years old at the time. The United Kingdom was still recovering from the horrendous aftermath. As a result, people were seldom out and about after dark. In fact, from what my father told me, there was not much socializing in those days and at night the streets were mostly deserted.
One night, after my dad had walked my mom (his future wife) back to her house, he decided to take a shortcut to his grandmother’s place, where he was living at the time. It was around 11pm and the short route took him past the graveyard on a street called Columbus Ravine. It was here that he saw the strange sight of a lady walking up the road in what appeared to be a Victorian costume.
“That is odd,” he thought. “A woman out alone at this time of night and dressed like that? Maybe she attended a fancy-dress party?”
He did not want to alarm her. After all, she was all by herself, it was dark out, and there was no one else around. To put her mind at ease, he therefore thought it polite to greet her.
The Special Magic Of Autumn
I’ve often wondered if in a former lifetime I might have had a birthday in the fall? More specifically, I sense it must have been in the month of September, because I typically experience increased awareness and great change during this month.
Being a Gemini, born in June, this makes absolutely no sense, but I don’t always pay attention to what makes sense. I rather go with what feels right.
I feel a special magic in the air in the fall that I do not experience in any other season. In the autumn the world of the living seems to move closer to the afterlife and our deceased loved ones.
Traditionally All Hallows’ Eve on October 31st is believed to be time when the veil between the two worlds is most thin and we can more easily connect with our departed loved ones on the Other Side.
In the Northern Hemisphere September is the time of year when Mother Nature is shedding her leaves as the cooler air moves. Might this also be a time for us to let go of the aspects of our lives that no longer serve us? And could it be that our deceased loved ones in Heaven support and help to facilitate this need for us to surrender and let go?
The energy of September is an in-between state of transition that will ultimately spark us into new beginnings. But sometimes we need a little bit of extra magic, as it takes much courage to let go of the old and familiar to step onto a new path.
Our family and friends in Heaven want to see us progress and grow while in the Earth realm. Our loved ones who have crossed over to the Other Side can see forward and backward in time. They have the ability to open doors for us who are still in this life.
When Spirit Comes To Say Goodbye
Many people assume that their loved ones will say goodbye to them before they leave this earth plane. I beg to differ. In my experience this is not always the case. I know this without a doubt from personal experience.
In 2010, for example, my favorite sister became very ill. She was taken to the emergency room with kidney and liver failure in early August. She was admitted on a Monday, and by the Wednesday around dinner time, I received a phone call from her husband telling me that she had passed away.
Seconds after receiving this awful news, as I turned to my left, I saw her sitting next to me. Her apparition was looking at me, as if to say, “Are you okay? How are you taking this?”
Indeed, she appeared to be more concerned for me than herself. After all, where she was going now, she wasn’t going to have any more health problems or human suffering. Once her spirit saw that I had regained my composure, she left my side and continued her spiritual journey to Heaven.
My dearest sister had merely come to say goodbye, until we meet again. Rather than despair about her passing, I was suddenly relieved her soul was heading to God’s Holy Kingdom. There is after all no finer a place in the entire Universe!
In the summer of 2012, my other sister informed me that she was having difficulty breathing and was seeking medical advice about it. Sadly, at the same time, my mother was also having medical issues. Soon after, my phone rang very early one morning. My heart raced as I ran to answer the call, fearing that my mom had taken ill.
Instead, a man’s voice was saying, “Where is your mother? I need to speak to her urgently!”
Grandma’s Love Was The Best
I remember what Grandma was wearing when she passed away. I also recall exactly what she said and everything else that happened that day, right down to the violets I picked in the backyard to place in her hand. She was wearing an oversized Winnie the Pooh T-shirt that could have been a night dress, I’m not sure. She had her red robe on and black slippers lined with greyish fluff.
She was told she was being taken to the nursing home, but it was actually hospice she would be going to. She could no longer walk and had fallen, and no one was able to pick her up. Not even myself. I wish I could, but I just was not able to.
I sensed she wasn’t to going be with us very much, and I was very upset about it. But constantly having to give her blood transfusions and her being in so much pain, it was the right decision at the time. I have made peace with that now.
Settling her into the hospice, Grandma was adamant the bed be taken out, as it was unbearably uncomfortable. She kept saying, “I just want to go home and die. This is no way to live. I’m ready to go.” She also told me, if I ever needed her after she had gone, all I would have to do is call her name, and she would be there for me. Grandma kept her promise to me. To this day I still feel her around me all the time, especially when I think of her and call her name.
I think the worst thing I ever experienced in my entire life was walking into that hospice room after she had passed and seeing her shell of a body. She was no longer there, obviously, but she was still around. I felt she was somewhere in the room looking at us and saying her goodbyes.
Pain had made her very bitter towards the end of her life. She wasn’t herself anymore because she was on so many different strong medications and invasive treatments. I sensed that she longed to be with her departed husband and her dear mother who passed when she was just a young girl. Her mom was also a psychic and apparently really good with things like Numerology and dreaming lucky numbers. I loved hearing all those stories.
The Who’s Who Of The Spirit Realm
Communicating and working with Spirit can become confusing when you need to discern who exactly it is that you are engaging with. Terms like Spirit Guides, Ascended Masters, Angels, Ancestors, among other, are often used in this context, but the distinction between these entities is not always made clear. It can be very confusing. For this reason, I have compiled a quick guide to the ‘who’s who’ of the spirit realm, and how to best work with each group of spirit energies.
Angels
Angelic beings are pure Love and Light. Angels have never experienced a human incarnation. They serve as our guides and protectors. Angels are our constant guides, steering us on our journey through life and helping us to achieve our dreams and goals.
They gently nudge us forward along our life path and deliver to us unconditional love from the Divine, but only if we ask for their support.They never overstep the Law of Free Will, unless it is a life-threatening situation that demands divine intervention.
You know you are in contact with an Angel if you feel warm ‘tingles,’ and a sense of unconditional love, inner peace and well-being.
Ascended Masters
Unlike Angels, the Ascended Masters are loving teachers. They are guides who have experienced human life on Earth. These beings have achieved self-actualization, enlightenment, or an ascended state of being. They have come into full alignment with their Higher Self.