Supernatural Friday: The Full Moon's Effect on the Supernatural

Just in time for the June full moon--the Strawberry Moon. About the Strawberry Moon: the name comes from Algonquin tribes of Native Americans. This full moon was their sign to harvest wild strawberries, so says the Old Farmer's Almanac. It is also known as the Hot Moon.

When I led a team to Petersburg, Virginia in July 2014 during a full supermoon, we had quite a bit of paranormal activity, including my camera in its case taken from my locked car for ten minutes, until I asked the spirits to return it if we leave those at the ruins of the Peter Jones Trading Post alone, and just investigate the Bistro at Market and Grove restaurant. The camera reappeared at my feet on the parking lot ground between my car and an investigator’s vehicle, when it hadn’t been there a minute ago. Freaky? Yeah, in a way, though I was more relieved to get my camera back, in one piece and working, to even get me a dancing shadow later that night in the restaurant. The next day, someone said that full moons can affect the paranormal.

Can it? I researched and found since ancient times, people believed this, along with activity being more noticeable during phases of the full moon. There were those who use these times to speak to the spirit realm. Could this be put down to Luna Madness, or could this really be happening? Some paranormal investigators say they have more ghostly activity around the full moon, while others say they get nothing.  

The moon’s gravitational pull affects the tides, but can it affect a person? If we look at what is known about the human body and how it is made up of 75-80% of water there is a strong chance that when the moon is full and at its strongest, it could, in theory, affect a person in terms of what they are thinking. 

Using one article’s theory that I found, it is possible that full moons could cause a person who is inclined to thoughts of the paranormal to believe they are experiencing something paranormal or quite possibly it could cause that individuals mind to trick itself into hallucinating and seeing what they believe to be an apparition. Personally, a person can hallucinate anytime, so I don’t think a full moon makes any difference. And I think there are those actually seeing a ghost, even photographs of them. I think it’s all about how much of the psychic is inside each person. That is why those who are parapsychologists do studies on the psychic and not just on spirits. Places like the Rhine Center and others at certain universities. One interested can take online courses to get an introduction to parapsychology. Like at the Rhine Center: Education.    

Whatever the truth behind the full moon and the paranormal, whatever you believe, there is still inconclusive proof to be sure. But it is still interesting to think about, maybe even try as an experiment. 

Supernatural Friday: Crimson Rush-original poem

                 Enjoy my original poem, "The Crimson Rush," but please do not copy it and paste it elsewhere, share the link instead so others may enjoy it.

Crimson Rush

By

Pamela K. Kinney

So much red;

Delicious, lip-smacking

Liquid,

I want it

No, I need it.

The fountain of life

Beneath the flesh,

Beckoning,

Taunting,

Calling me,

Until,

I can’t help it

But sink fang

Into the softness

Drinking;

Rush of crimson,

Of daylight and life.

Leaving behind

The husk,

Flying away

To sleep the sleep

Of the addicted.

Author Appearance at Indie Urban Lit Fest at Richmond Library June 23, 2018

I'll be at the Indie Urban Lit Fest this Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The free event will be held at the main branch of the Richmond Public Library, 101 Franklin Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. I will only have copies of my indie urban fantasy novel, How the Vortex  Changed My Life, for sale and signing. I will have copies of my other books in my tote with me-just ask me. But "Vortex" will be on the table only. Along with Larry--so do take a selfie with him and share on social media. 

 About it: The event will feature 50 independently published authors of urban fiction, romance, poetry, memoir, and motivational writing. Special guests include best-selling authors Nikki Turner, K’wan, and Silk White. Writing and publishing workshops, meet and greet with authors, book sales, and panel discussions will be held throughout the day, with live music by Tiara & Andrew and poetry performances in library park from 1-4. This event is free and open to the public. For more on it: http://rvalibrary.org/indie-urban-lit-fest/indie-urban-lit-fest/ or call the library at 804-646-4867. Map of area, with the library in middle. 

Supernatural Friday: Haunting Summer Solstice Battle (Original Poem)

Summer solstice is coming. Do ghosts wait for the dark of night, no matter how late? Or do they appear as usual? This original poem that I wrote (please share the blog link with your friends as the poem is copyrighted) is about one Civil War battlefield's nightly haunt on the upcoming solstice.

Haunting Summer Solstice Battle

By

Pamela K. Kinney

Only 19% visible;

the solstice moon

looks down

on the battlefield.

Silence,

except for crickets

in the humid night.

From both sides

comes pale, wisps of

shades on horseback

and many on foot.

The noise of battle erupting.

Out of sync,

no reality

Blue against gray,

Union against Confederate,

cannons booming and guns blasting.

The ectoplasmic war began late,

All due to the

longest day

of the year

Dawn,

the cock crows

and phantoms

vanish with the sun.

Until the next night…

Supernatural Friday: Tribute to a Dreamer of Halloween, October, and Martian Landscapes.

With a busy day, and since it was June 6th that Ray  Bradbury passed away, plus a remake of Fahrenheit 451 has been on HBO, I thought it would be nice to reshare this tribute I had written back in 2012. He is one of the few authors who inspired me to be a writer. Ray, a toast to you with a glass of dandelion wine.

Ray Bradbury

August 22, 1920 -June 6, 2012

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

~Ray Bradbury

Just a few days ago, a great teller of fantastic tales passed away, leaving us for that October Country beyond. When I heard the news, I was in shock, One of the authors I read since I was younger, who was one of those who inspired to keep on writing, no longer stepped on the ground of the same planet as me?  Memories of the few times I met him at conventions back in California assaulted me. No doubt now, he is able to walk along the Martian canals and see the planet with his own spirit that he told tales of in The Martian Chronicles. He will be able to be a boy again in that distant October Country, visit the mysterious carnival come to town, and climb that Halloween tree. Visit the vampires. See if the Illustrated Man still traveled the dusty roads. Taste dandelion wine again with angels.

He left us a legacy of stories that will never grow old, ones we can read over and over. I plan to read them again this summer in his memory. What better tribute I figure. He painted pictures for me with his words. Hook me with a hook better than any hook used by a young boy or girl going fishing along a creek on a hot summer afternoon. There’s comfort in his tales for me. A belief I can travel anywhere. That fantastical things do exist. Most of all, he pushed me even further to pen my own tales. I hope that one day when I step upon my own path to that October Country, I too will have left behind a legacy of words for others to cherish. It’s the only real tribute I feel I should give to him as a thank you for writing for us readers. For entertaining me and others.

Thank you, Ray Bradbury, you will never be forgotten. You will always be there with the others who inspired me years ago: Edgar Allan Poe, HP. Lovecraft, Anne McCaffrey, JRR Tolkien, and Shirley Jackson, plus others.  Most of all, thank you for giving us all the gift of your imagination; a most precious gift indeed.

Supernatural Friday: So, June Is More than a Hot Month

Where did the first month of summer, June, get its name? In Old English, this month was often referred to as simply “midsummer month.” Today being June 1^st, there is more to the month than the end of spring and beginning of summer.

In Greek mythology, the month may come due to Hera, known in Roman as Juno. In Roman myth, she is the patron goddess of Rome. She is shown alternately as a cruel goddess in Virgil’s Aeneid, and the goddess of marriage and childbirth. In fact, summer weddings are still very popular, and they may have started because of the blessing that this goddess bestowed on those who got married in her sacred month.

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is Connected to the month June too.  The relationship between Janus and  the Greek goddess Juno is defined by the closeness of the notions of beginning and transition and the functions of conception and delivery, result of youth and vital force.

This Roman god is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. In other words, sounds like Gemini twins in the zodiac, which is connected to birthdays end of May through a portion of June. Gemini people are thought to be two-faced in their personalities.

Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The gates of a building in Rome named after him, not a temple as it is often called, but an open enclosure with gates at each end, were opened in time of war, and closed to mark the arrival of peace (which did not happen very often). As a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth and to journeys and exchange, and in his association with Portunus, a similar harbor and gateway god, he was concerned with travelling, trading and shipping. The ancient Greeks had no equivalent to Janus, whom the Romans claimed as distinctively their own.

The function god of beginnings has been clearly expressed in numerous ancient sources, among them most notably Cicero, Ovid, and Varro. As a god of motion, Janus looks after passages, causes actions to start and presides over all beginnings. Since movement and change are interconnected, he has a double nature, symbolized in his two headed image. He has under his tutelage the stepping in and out of the door of homes.

According to myth Janus was the first to mint coins and the as, first coin of the liberal series, bears his effigy on one face.

Representing time, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as at marriages, deaths and other beginnings. He represented the middle ground between barbarism and civilization, rural and urban space, youth and adulthood. Having jurisdiction over beginnings Janus had an intrinsic association with omens and auspices.

The birthstone of June is the pearl. Arabian legend say pearls are drops of the moon that the oyster has fallen in love with. The Chinese believed that the pearl came from the brain of a dragon. 

As we forge ahead into June, thinking of the end of school, summer, end of spring, summer vacation, the beach or pool, and amusement parks, it is interesting to learn there is more to June than the mundane.