Supernatural Friday: Stygian Fiends (Original Poem)

Enjoy this original poem I wrote for the next to the last Supernatural Friday of September 2017. Do not share the poem, but do share the link to friends, so they can read it too.

Stygian Fiends

By

Pamela K. Kinney

The world is

not as it

should appear.

There is a

hidden, dark truth.

Dead things 

among us,

hunt us,

wanting us,

so, they can

feed upon

our souls.

Eat us,

Become us,

Their darkness

Overcoming our essence,

sucking us dry,

until, no more

do we exist.

Supernatural Friday: If a Vortex Opens in Your Neighborhood; RUN!

What is a vortex? Someone asked me that today. I looked up at Dictionary.com to see how they defined it,

A whirling mass of water, especially one in which a force of suction operates, as a whirlpool. A whirling mass of air, especially one in the form of a visible column or spiral, as a tornado.

A whirling mass of fire, flame, etc. (in Cartesian philosophy), a rapid rotatory movement of cosmic matter about a center, regarded as accounting for the origin or phenomena of bodies or systems of bodies in space.

In other words, a whirling mass of something. So, I take Hell wanting to take over the Earth and they use a vortex so they can send demons and other nasty things through it.  Of course, in paranormal circles, they talk about vortexes opening and causing spirits and demonic forces coming through, more than the norm. 

VORTEX: A concentrated yet brief area of high electromagnetic energy often found in photographs taken at paranormally active locations. The often appear as sold (opaque) white or silver tubes, rods, or elongated ovals. They can also appear to be braided like a rope or chain (care must be taken to ensure it is not a rope, chain, camera strap, etc…). A vortex is not an entity. However, some paranormal researchers believe a vortex is a momentary doorway or portal to another realm that allows entities and other paranormal phenomena to come into our world. Some researchers also believe vortexes are linked to the Earth's own electromagnetic field which at least in part help determine when these portals open/close. It is also believed that some locations are more prone to having active vortexes due to the alignment of the Earth's magnetic field and local geological structure.

An excerpt from How the Vortex Changed My Life (beginning of the novel) for your pleasure. Enjoy, and no vortexes were harmed in writing this blog.   :- )

Some days, a girl just can't get a break. I wanted to get married, have kids, and a career that I loved. Instead, I married Jeff, who had an affair with his secretary, and divorced me so he could marry the bimbo. As for the kids, he didn't want any. Of course, last week I got the news from his snide mother that his bimbo was pregnant. Of course, she'd always blamed me for us not having kids. As for that career—working a window at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles wasn't quite what I'd dreamed about.

At age thirty-three my life was boring. Then the vortex opened.

* * * * *

Friday at the DMV bulged with people. I took money for license renewals and fielded the same old questions I've always gotten about why some folks' licenses were revoked. "Next!" I called out, slumped over my counter, little devils jackhammering away at my brain into a growing tension headache.

My eye on the hands of the wall clock as they drew closer to five o'clock, I swore one more person who wanted to know why her little teenaged darling hadn't passed the road test, I would scream.

When five o'clock rolled around, I escaped to my car. I didn't know why I hurried; no doubt it would be another tedious weekend for me.

The cranky old junk heap did its usual old ritual of coughing and backfiring before finally the engine gave up and turned over. I just wanted to get home, soak in a hot bath, and order a chicken mushroom pizza from my favorite pizza delivery.

But just as I was about to turn into my driveway, a gigantic quadrilateral of swirling neon colors—reds, purples, and hot pinks—appeared out of nowhere right smack in the middle of the street. It created a gale that blasted the neighborhood. Trees uprooted and flew into it, along with a couple of cars, a bicycle, and one yodeling cat. People ducked into their homes. That's when my car decided right then and there to break down. My heart pounded so hard, I thought it might break through my chest. I tried to restart the engine, but it remained dead. I leaped out and bolted for my house. Unfortunately, that path happened to be in alignment with the destructive force. I never made it.

Besides available on Kindle a few days ago, it became available in trade paperback. Find that version HERE.

Book blurb:

Cat Viggolone just can’t get a break. She'd gotten married, but that ended when the husband left her for his younger secretary. She'd wanted children. That flew out the window along with the cheating husband. There’s the career, but working a window at the Virginia DMV can’t really be classified as a great career choice. At thirty-three, her life had become positively dull. Then the vortex opened. Sucked up into a corridor just outside of Hell, she meets Connor, a werewolf, and Larry, a demon that looks like a blue-eyed eyeball. They escape back to earth, only to find that the vortex has opened up in downtown Richmond. The town is going to hell, literally. Besides a grayness seeping out and turning all living things into zombies, monsters and demons are invading Cat’s world. Will Cat and her new friends (including an angel named George) be able to stop the vortex before it claims the entire planet? Cat’s life is definitely no longer humdrum and ordinary.

My Urban Fantasy Novel, How the Vortex Changed My Life is Live on Kindle!

My latest release, How the Vortex Changed My Life,  is now live in Kindle at Amazon! Hopefully, in the next few days, the trade paperback edition will be available too. It is an urban fantasy novel, set in Richmond, Virginia. You can purchase it at AMAZON

Book blurb:
Cat Viggolone just can’t get a break. She'd gotten married, but that ended when the husband left her for his younger secretary. She'd wanted children. That flew out the window along with the cheating husband. There’s the career, but working a window at the Virginia DMV can’t really be classified as a great career choice. At thirty-three, her life had become positively dull.
Then the vortex opened.
Sucked up into a corridor just outside of Hell, she meets Connor, a werewolf, and Larry, a demon that looks like a blue-eyed eyeball. They escape back to earth, only to find that the vortex has opened up in downtown Richmond. The town is going to hell, literally. Besides a grayness seeping out and turning all living things into zombies, monsters and demons are invading Cat’s world.
Will Cat and her new friends (including an angel named George) be able to stop the vortex before it claims the entire planet?
Cat’s life is definitely no longer humdrum and ordinary.

• ASIN: B075PX4QLW

Supernatural Friday; Myths and Legends About Wind

With people talking about nightmarish winds connected to Hurricane Irma, it made me think, are there myths or legends about wind? Well. . . yes, there are.

The Kamaitachi—Japanese wind spirit—was traditionally classified as a wind yokai ("monster"). It is often associated with a trio of weasels with sharp claws, rides on a gust of wind and cuts peoples' skin on the legs. There are times that the three are described as brothers. Other times, as triplets. Yes, triplets can be brothers, but again, a female can be born among them, or all tree can be sisters.

A person walking in the mountains will be beset by a ferocious wind, and later discovered with deep but painless gashes in their skin as if by some very sharp instrument. The myth goes on to say that the first weasel knocked the unsuspecting victim down, the second cut the victim's flesh and the third applied medication to the wounds. By the time the victim realized what had happened, he/she were left only with painful wounds that weren't bleeding.

Now, Ysätters-Kajsa is a female wind-troll. People in the Swedish province of Närke used to believe in this creature. She was probably the only one of her kind in Scandinavia.

In Slavic mythology, the Raróg, sometimes also known as Zhar Ptitsa or Żar Ptak, is a hawk, falcon, or fiery dwarf, turning himself into a whirlwind. While in Lusatia and the Urals it is believe to throw a knife into a whirlwind, in order to kill the demon that resides inside it. Bulgarians, Russians, and Pommeranians cast themselves face down before a whirlwind, hoping to ward off misfortune and illness. As for Russians, they would shout "a belt around your neck!" in order to strangle the demon.

Shenlong literally "spirit dragon." This is a spiritual dragon from Chinese mythology that controls wind and rain. These giants floated across the sky and due to their blue color that changed constantly, made it difficult to see clearly. Shenlong governed the wind, clouds and rain on which all agrarian life depended. The Chinese took great care to avoid offending them. If the Shenlong grew angry or felt neglected, the result was bad weather, drought, flood or thunderstorms.

There was an Egyptian mother goddess, called the "Hidden One". She is the personification of the life-bringing northern wind, and often portrayed as a snake or a snake-head on which the crown of Lower Egypt rests.

The Anemoi were wind gods in Greek mythology. Each were ascribed a cardinal direction, from which their respective winds came, and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were sometimes represented as mere gusts of wind, at other times were personified as winged men, and at still other times were depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus, who provided Odysseus with the Anemoi in the Odyssey. Astraeus, the astrological deity sometimes associated with Aeolus, and Eos, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi, according to the Greek poet Hesiod.

Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Notus was the south wind and bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn, and Zephyrus was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early summer breezes; Eurus, the east wind, was not associated with any of the three Greek seasons, and is the only one of these four Anemoi not mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony or in the Orphic Hymns. Additionally, four lesser Anemoi were sometimes referenced, representing the northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest winds.

The first peoples of North America considered the wind to be a living force in and of itself. The wind to them is a god - a power that is capable of communicating a larger-than-life language to those who would hear it. Those who were certifiably authorized to interpret these cosmic messages were shamans, medicine men, and the wise and spiritual leaders among tribes.

The Inuit Indians had an Air Spirit among the ranks of their Sila (a term that means Wisdom and Weather). Their Air Spirit controls the seas, skies and wind. Although considered a kind and beneficial spirit, it strikes wrath against liars, beggars and theives in the form of illnesses. It is also blamed for bad weather and poor hunting.

Among the Micmac (a tribe belonging to the Wabanaki Confederacy native to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They also migrated to Maine, US) there is a story of a hero named (in English) Strong Wind who turned evil people (specifically the nefarious sisters of his beloved) into aspen trees, and to this day he makes them tremble in fear when he comes near the aspen forest.

Outside of the US, the Aztec wind-god, Ehecatle (a facet of Quetzalcoatl), was believed to blow the moon and sun into orbit.

The legendary Thunderbird in North American indigenous peoples' history and culture is considered a "supernatural" bird of power and strength. The Thunderbird's name comes from that common belief that the beating of its enormous wings caused thunder and stirred the wind.

From a Native perspective, the wind seems to be personified as divine messenger, able to manipulate unseen energy.

Next time, bad weather hits your area, or a strong wind passes through, think of how many people long ago thought of these as gods, monsters and spirits.  Maybe a little appeasement on your part might not hurt?