Casey Drake (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} warriorheart) wrote,@ 2008-01-13 21:28:00 |
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Ghost 101
Also known as “So You have a Ghost Problem”…
Spirits come in all kinds, and they can be provoked to stay in the world of the living by any kind of emotion: love or hate, sadness or confusion. A spirit is tied to a material object. More often than not, that material object is the spirit’s own remains. A spirit can also reside in jewelry, dolls, picture frames, you name it.
After death, some spirits don’t want to go. They think their work on earth isn’t down, or they feel they have to right some wrong or avenge some injustice. So they don’t go. They hang around the material world, unable to touch anything or talk to anyone, and their only company is other spirits as lost and confused as they are. It doesn’t take Dr. Phil to figure out that eventually all of that feeling is going to turn bad.
When it does, you’ve got a spirit that might be evil, or might be angry, or might just be lashing out from pure anguish. Whatever the reasons, these spirits tend to be fatal to the people who get in their way, and it’s time to see them back on their path to the afterlife.
Dispelling a spirit is pretty straightforward, even though it’s not always easy. You find the remains, or the object the spirit is using as a focus to stay active in the human world. When you’ve found it you salt it and burn it. End of spirit. Maybe it lacks a little finesse, but it gets the job done. Sometimes you can even get away with just giving the body a proper burial. That works if the spirit hasn’t had time to go crazy in the limbo between this world and the next. And if it turns out to be a death omen-well, they’re satisfied just being noticed.
Why salt, though? Folklore about our favorite mineral compound goes back thousands of years, and it’s always represented purity. The Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews all sacrificed it, considered it powerful, and ate a lot of it. The Romans even salted their wine. Hunters have been known to salt their beer- this comes from an old Scottish tradition in which a pinch of salt was added o a batch of mash to keep witches out of it. Romanian legend has it that pregnant women who don’t eat salt will give bitch to vampires. In Japanese folklore, troublesome ghosts are packed in jars of salt. Salt also symbolizes permanence, and in the Old Testament refers to the ‘covenant of salt” between Yahweh and his wayward children. Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, from 1584, tells us that “the Devil loveth no salt in his meat.”
And spirits loveth no salt blasted out of the barrel of a gun into their ectoplasmic mugs. It doesn’t kill them, but it does get them out of your way for a while. It might also keep them out of your house if you place it along doorways and windowsills, but it doesn’t work for long.
Another trick is that most spirits don’t like iron. The Greeks and Romans kept iron out of their temples and cemeteries because they wanted the spirits around and knew that iron would chase them away. Cold iron-iron that isn’t smelted out of ore, but hammered pure without heating-is best, but any iron will do in a pinch.
Taken from The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls
Also known as “So You have a Ghost Problem”…
Spirits come in all kinds, and they can be provoked to stay in the world of the living by any kind of emotion: love or hate, sadness or confusion. A spirit is tied to a material object. More often than not, that material object is the spirit’s own remains. A spirit can also reside in jewelry, dolls, picture frames, you name it.
After death, some spirits don’t want to go. They think their work on earth isn’t down, or they feel they have to right some wrong or avenge some injustice. So they don’t go. They hang around the material world, unable to touch anything or talk to anyone, and their only company is other spirits as lost and confused as they are. It doesn’t take Dr. Phil to figure out that eventually all of that feeling is going to turn bad.
When it does, you’ve got a spirit that might be evil, or might be angry, or might just be lashing out from pure anguish. Whatever the reasons, these spirits tend to be fatal to the people who get in their way, and it’s time to see them back on their path to the afterlife.
Dispelling a spirit is pretty straightforward, even though it’s not always easy. You find the remains, or the object the spirit is using as a focus to stay active in the human world. When you’ve found it you salt it and burn it. End of spirit. Maybe it lacks a little finesse, but it gets the job done. Sometimes you can even get away with just giving the body a proper burial. That works if the spirit hasn’t had time to go crazy in the limbo between this world and the next. And if it turns out to be a death omen-well, they’re satisfied just being noticed.
Why salt, though? Folklore about our favorite mineral compound goes back thousands of years, and it’s always represented purity. The Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews all sacrificed it, considered it powerful, and ate a lot of it. The Romans even salted their wine. Hunters have been known to salt their beer- this comes from an old Scottish tradition in which a pinch of salt was added o a batch of mash to keep witches out of it. Romanian legend has it that pregnant women who don’t eat salt will give bitch to vampires. In Japanese folklore, troublesome ghosts are packed in jars of salt. Salt also symbolizes permanence, and in the Old Testament refers to the ‘covenant of salt” between Yahweh and his wayward children. Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, from 1584, tells us that “the Devil loveth no salt in his meat.”
And spirits loveth no salt blasted out of the barrel of a gun into their ectoplasmic mugs. It doesn’t kill them, but it does get them out of your way for a while. It might also keep them out of your house if you place it along doorways and windowsills, but it doesn’t work for long.
Another trick is that most spirits don’t like iron. The Greeks and Romans kept iron out of their temples and cemeteries because they wanted the spirits around and knew that iron would chase them away. Cold iron-iron that isn’t smelted out of ore, but hammered pure without heating-is best, but any iron will do in a pinch.
Taken from The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls
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