Rosslyn Chapel

For 600 years cymatic music has been hidden in plain sight in the arches of the Rosslyn Chapel. The cube carvings deciphered by WWII cryptogropher Thomas J. Mitchell have revealed the beautiful Rosslyn Motet. Enjoy!

Halloween in New Orleans!

For the first time in eons I’m as excited as a kid about Halloween. We’re spending Halloween afternoon, evening and night in New Orleans! Normally we do the laid back tour of Jackson Square and the Garden District, trolley car ride, walk along the levy, dine here, nibble there, do the full tourist indulgence.

But I intend for Halloween to be a smorgasboard of nothing but the paranormal!

Visiting the graveyards just before dusk; leaving a tribute to Marie Laveau. Visiting Reverend Zombies for candles and incense. Eating a gourmet version of a burger just next door to Rev’s at Yo Mama’s. Yo Mama’s is really a tequilla bar with too many varieties to name, so the essence of Party Central lives on at that establishment, but with yummy extras.  Not sure what the venue upstairs will be that night, but I’m sure it will be good as usual.

Have to visit Mimi at Esoterica. I’m always looking for new (or old!) books to add to my reference library. Plus that is one wise witch! I’m hoping to run into one old friend in particular, so if you’re watching, Storm, keep an eye out for us!

And no trip to New Orleans is complete for me without a stop at the Dungeon. It doesn’t even open until midnight, but I just love the energy in all three levels in that place. And being the city’s vampire hangout, Halloween night there will be fantastic! . One of my favorite long-sleeved T shirts is from there. It asks “How do you get to the Dungeon? F*** the Queen!” After a visit there I come home so inspired that I write, and write, and write for days!

And of  course we’ll be taking pictures. I’ve never made a trip yet that I didn’t have some form of paranormal evidence show up on film. So with the ghosts taking advantage of Samhain to mingle with the rest of us, there’s no telling what I’ll come home with this time!

Jackson Square will be teeming with all the metaphysical people, artists and vendors. The water xylophone man, palm readers, Tarot readers, Voodoo priests and priestesses, Druids, magic shows, vampires and their ladies, plenty of interesting leather with the S & M crowd, the ultimate in goth attire– and just us ordinaries in costume.

We’ll have beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde two times while there; once that evening and again the next morning.

So if any ghosts are listening, please come out and play with us Halloween night. I promise to put your pictures and antics in the blog immediately after Halloween!

                                      Runere

Playing With the Ghosts

Every child has had an imaginary friend.

But were they really all that imaginary; or did encroaching adulthood deprive us of something very real? We’re here  to try and  find an answer.

This blog is going to be open-minded, light-hearted and often tongue-in-cheek in its approach to the paranormal. And this close to Halloween what could be more fitting than an interview with a professional paranormal investigator? I’m keeping her identity a secret for now simply for the sake of suspense, but her name and website will be listed in the interview. This is one fine lady who not only runs her evidence through computer programs to detect tampering, she has professional photographers examine her photos for authenticity before posting them on her website. She goes so far as to keep a permanent skeptic as part of her staff, one who’s sole purpose is to debunk any evidence found during their investigations.

There is quite an array of finely tuned, expressly purposed, expensive equipment involved in ghost hunting, and I’m hoping promoting the technical aspects and purpose of each piece will increase paranormal readers’ understanding and enjoyment in future books.

The interview will be posted in about two weeks, so if you have any specific questions feel free to shoot them my way in the next couple days and I’ll try to have them included in the discussion.

In the future we’ll be visiting notable haunted Mississippi and Louisiana sites, providing readers and writers with a rich background of local flora, fauna and information.

And to pique your interest–I really want you visiting again–I’m posting two photos taken a second apart during a New Orleans Haunted History Tour.  We were in front of the officially documented as haunted Andrew Jackson Hotel at 919 Royal Street in the French Quarter. The first photo shows a typical building front. The second shows streaks of light shooting in front of and behind the palm plant and support post, as well as what seems to be the ghostly image of an old long-gun, the butt in the lower right side and extending across the picture.

         So until we meet again, Happy Ghost Hunting!

         Runere                             (Top photo enlarged to show detail)