2- Genevieve, and the Creeper Under the Stairs
Hello, and welcome, my Ghost Story Lovers! This is Beyond the Veil Paranormal Tales, and I'm your host, Becca. You can also find us in Podcast form, if you’d like me to read these stories to you!
If you're new to the podcast, while you should be able to pop in and enjoy any individual episode on its own, I do explain some things that make me different, as I go along, here. So, you might want to hop back to Episode 1 and start there, but as always, follow your heart.
Join me here as I sit beside the crackling fire, beneath my fuzzy blankets, and listen to real people's spooky stories, told in their own words. Some of these spooky stories may contain adult language. Listeners, be advised.
Names of affected parties and some personal details may be changed, to protect the privacy of the storyteller, but you have my word: All stories told here are real, to the best of my knowledge.
So, start your own fire, grab your own blanket, and settle in. Make yourself cozy, maybe with a cup of tea or hot cocoa, and take a breather with me, as we take a peek at the world that lies... Beyond the Veil.
Tonight is Episode #2: Genevieve, and the Creeper Under the Stairs
My old friend, Genevieve*, or Viv, and I were chatting about random shit one afternoon, via text, like usual. Life with little ones is hectic, to be sure, and as a result, we keep in touch that way more often than not, especially since we both moved away from our old neighborhood.
That afternoon, we were chatting about a ghost hunt I'd dragged my husband to, the night before our recent 18th anniversary. I laughed as I told Viv about it, said he doesn't believe in any of this ghost weirdness, and I had fun arguing with him about it all evening.
He's a good sport, and it was a fun evening, wandering the old disused trains at a museum in Denver, in the dark. He says there's nothing strange out there and it can all be explained away if you just look hard enough. I don't totally disagree that many things can be explained away, but not all things can be. That's where we differ.
I laughed and said it's funny because he's had an experience, where he was followed by an unseen presence years ago, back when he worked at the Briarhurst Manor in Colorado Springs. He'd brushed it off and then said he'd felt the same thing at our house as he walked up the stairs.
I'd just stared at him, then said, “Yeah... we have shit at our house.” He insisted I'm full of it. I scoffed and nearly suggested he go wander our unfinished basement and then tell me there's nothing weird under the stairs. But I also don't want to scare him, so I didn't say what I was thinking... Well, I didn’t say it to him. I did laugh as I typed it out to Viv, though.
She suddenly asked if I'd ever felt anything when I was at her house, and before I could answer her carefully, I heard an unseen voice say, “basement...”
Truth be told, I hadn't been feeling for anything while there, but I did remember kinda disliking the basement when we were moving her in. I also thought back to a tarot reading we had done in her dining room a few months back. I'd used my dowsing rods at one point, to talk with some of her deceased family members.
They were pretty typical messages from the dead, that day: They're proud of you, your children are beautiful, and yes, they watch over you and your family. I reminded her of that day, hesitant, unsure if I was supposed to do more.
As if on queue, I heard, “She's another one,” from one of my spirit guides. I heard another one chime in, “You need to help her.”
So, yeah, sometimes, I'll get a very distinct impression of what I'm meant to do for someone, but It's rare for me to actually hear words. And… the way I heard it wasn’t with my physical ears. It's more of a clairaudience thing, where I'm hearing with a sixth sense, almost.
It's hard to explain to those who haven't experienced it, but the closest I think I can come up with is, and I'm dating myself here... think, how Jiminy Cricket whispers in Pinocchio's ear all the time, as his conscience. It's like that, only I can't see my guides. I almost never see anything, other than occasional movement out the corner of my eye.
In this case, with the guides telling me to help my friend, I didn't need any additional convincing, like I might need with a stranger. I just had to figure out how to bring it up, or explain, and I worried I was jumping the gun on offering help... but Viv's question to me told me I was probably on the right track.
“Have I ever felt anything while at her house?” Have I...?
I told Viv that I wasn't really sure about her house, beyond the people we talked to during her last reading, but said I could come do a walk-through and feel it out if she wanted. I said I keep being pushed to help people with this kind of stuff, and another friend of mine is as well, so the two of us decided to start a little no-charge spiritual cleansing service to help those who really need it.
I said if it's a strong need, both Beth and I can come down and make it an official case, if Viv is worried about anything. We can assess and cleanse in the same visit, if it's needed. Genevieve quickly agreed to our coming out to her place, if we were open to it, and then explained why she asked.
She said when her family first moved to Colorado in 2006, her current house belonged to her parents. Her parents bought the place back then, when she and her brothers were all in their late teens or early twenties, and they all still lived at home. Her parents kept that house for many years, waiting until Viv and her husband were ready for home ownership. Her parents sold the two-story home to Viv and Parker* back in January of 2019, and then bought a ranch-style home for their final home to grow old in.
Back when they first moved in and it was a new house to the family, Viv's mom was in her younger brother, John’s* room. It was the only bedroom in the basement of their new home, just at the bottom of the stairs. She walked in to gather laundry one day, and found all of John’s metal band shirts and jewelry laid out on his bed. All the shirts were black, with pentagrams and goat’s heads on them, and the jewelry was a similar shocking style.
It scared Viv's mom, because she knew it wasn't something the boy had done himself. And it seemed to her the items all had a Satanic look to them, and they must have been brought out for a reason. Her Catholic mom freaked out, of course, and took it as a sign.
Viv's parents, being quite superstitious, immediately called a priest out to bless the home, and hopefully cleanse it of the evil presence that was moving things around. The priest came out, and Viv said he exorcised the spirit from the home, and she said the house felt different for a while; felt better.
Now, nothing ever touched Viv, her father, or her brothers. But her mother was another story. After the priest's cleansing, her mother began to be scratched. The scratches always came in streaks of 3, and often appeared in places the woman could not reach, which ruled out her having done this to herself.
The family called on the priest who had blessed the home, and he said sometimes an entity can shift from a home to a person instead, under certain circumstances. Like, if a person is in a depressive pattern already, they are more susceptible to demonic influence.
And, as it happened, Viv’s mom wasn’t handling the recent death of her own father well. The family had moved to Italy when Viv’s dad was stationed there, and her grandfather died while they were gone. Her mom started into a depressive spiral, and her mental health caused enough worry, they all came home early, to seek help for her. She was still reeling from all that change and loss and she turned to alcohol to numb her pain. Then all this happened with the shirts and the demonic house infestation... It made sense that the woman might be afflicted.
The priest didn't ever, to Viv's knowledge, come back to try to help her mom. And over time, she started her spiral down into terrible pain, which then led to opiate abuse. She had a doctor who was over-prescribing pain medications to her, enabling her drug abuse, for a few years.
After a while, that doctor lost his DEA number due to his prescribing practices, and her mom's new doctor was much better. The woman’s mental health improved significantly when she could no longer drown her sorrows in her pain meds. It was good to see her return to herself again.
But then, Viv's younger brother, John, began to have problems with his own mental health, and with impulsivity and terrible decision-making, just as his mother began to improve. He was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and was put on prescription medications to manage it, but they never did seem to help him fully. He stopped his meds and spiraled for a few years, and eventually did begin to right himself and look after his needs.
He pushed back, and then Viv's older brother, Marc*, began making a string of terrible choices, though different types than his younger brother. Marc was more like their mother, and he went into a drug-related spiral, though his drugs were off the street rather than out of a pharmacy. His friends since then have been... less-savory, and Viv wishes she could have her brother back again.
The family's issues all felt connected, to me, but I wasn't sure how, exactly. I'd need to see the house and feel it out to know more. I told Viv not to talk about this stuff at the house or suggest we were coming over, because forewarning the entities of a coming cleansing can make things worse.
I suddenly remembered Genevieve had mentioned having her friend Rachel* sage her home, when they first moved in. I asked Viv if they'd ever done that cleansing, and she said no, they never had. Life got busy and time got away from them. But her friend did set up a spirits-for-spirits altar in her dining room, as she was visiting the house daily for a few weeks.
I didn't know what that meant, a spirits-for-spirits altar, so I asked, and Viv explained it as Rachel had explained it to her. Rachel made an altar to burn incense and she would always leave a shot glass of alcohol on it. “Spirits for Spirits,” Rachel said. They would toss the alcohol westward and fill the glass again each day.
“Oh! It's an offering,” I thought, understanding. This is a practice some who work with or worship the dead use, though it appears calling it “Spirits for Spirits” is not terribly common, and it might be Rachel's pet name for the practice. Once I understood, I was less thrilled by it, but mostly because it was being done by someone who did not live in this home. This kind of practice should generally be kept in the practitioner's own personal space, and Rachel was a daytime visitor, not a house guest.
“So Rachel was attracting things into the home, but not didn't cleanse first, or put up any protections,” I thought, and shook my head, and groaned.
Usually, if this type of practice is for you, you cleanse your space, protect against negative things that might want to come and take advantage of the offering, and then you set your altar up. Rachel just jumped straight to the altar, and I was really confused why she wasn't setting up her offering space in the hotel where they were staying. But... done is done, and there's nothing to do about all of that, now, besides clean up the mess the temporary altar may have left behind.
I agreed Viv's home needed a good cleansing, as well as the people, and probably the animals in it. Her 18 year old cat was very sick, having been to the vet 3 times in the previous week, for breathing issues and general lethargy. He was on his second round of antibiotics, was still just sleeping all day, and was refusing to eat. With everything else going on, she suspected it might be more than just old age.
Viv said her oldest dog had been scared and on-edge ever since they adopted him years ago, and she's wondered if maybe something was attached to him. He's been better since they moved to Colorado, but still, the question lingered, and smudging them couldn't hurt. I nodded and agreed animals can definitely be sensitive to stuff.
I admitted I hadn't really been feeling for anything intentionally when I was there the last few times. But, I did mention that basements can be creepy in general, whether they've actually got something in them or not. I was trying to be casual about it, trying to not amp her up. But I couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling, and something tickled at the back of my mind, as she continued her story.
Viv said she always felt “off” when she lived down there, in the basement space, as a young adult. She'd wake up in the pitch darkness and be immediately terrified. But, not from dreams or anything, just waking up, frozen in terror, and she couldn't remember where she was for a long moment. She said she always felt like she was being watched when she was downstairs.
Nothing has really happened in her home since Genevieve took over the mortgage from her parents, but the memories still bug her. And she worried that the thing with her mom might be detached and be lurking down there again, back where it started. I nodded along as I read, and replied, saying her feelings are probably nagging for a reason.
She also said her 10 year old daughter, Rose*, is TERRIFIED of the basement. “She won't go down there alone, even with all the lights on.” Rose has never been scared of a basement before this, and, in fact, loves the basement at her grandparents' new house. “That's very interesting...” I thought.
I asked Viv about her 2 cats and the basement, remembering they were down there when we were moving things in, and she said the cats shredded the carpet trying to get out, so they had to move all their stuff upstairs. “VERY interesting,” I thought, nodding as I read her messages.
I said cats are super sensitive, and all of the other info together suggests the basement is definitely a focus spot. Then, as life happens, she had to run and deal with kid stuff at that point, but we scheduled a day to drop by and help her sort out the house's issues.
When that day came, Beth, my cohort in cleansing, and I, met up after we were done with our day jobs, and headed down to Genevieve's house together. I asked Beth if she was picking anything up off the house, from a distance. She was, and asked if there were stairs in the home. I said yes, and she said she was feeling something under the stairs.
I nodded, and I bit my tongue to keep from spilling anything accidentally before we got there. We are trying to have one or the other of us go on each spiritual cleansing case, blind, to confirm any findings we may have. The idea is usually for that to be me, but I had all the info on this case, since Viv is a friend of mine and it came up naturally in conversation. So this time, Beth was going to be the one going in without any up-front information.
We arrived at the family's home, a typical Colorado suburban, built in the early 1990's. The front door opens into the living room, with stairs leading up to the right. Three bedrooms and the main bathroom are up those stairs. The dining room is along the back wall of the house, beyond the living room. The powder room and basement doors are tucked away underneath the nook at the top of the stairs, across from the dining room. The galley style kitchen is around the corner from the dining room, and there’s a door that leads into the garage, off the far wall. Downstairs is another bedroom, a family room, the laundry space, and another full-sized bathroom.
Beth and I arrived as Viv’s kids were having dinner. Rosie, the oldest, had a friend over for the evening. Leroy*, age 3, was distracted, but needed to eat so he could go to bed. Melly*, age 5, was eating and also excitedly trying to show me funny things on the tv.
I split my attention between the kids and Viv, giggling with Melly, reminding Leroy to eat his food and stop petting their younger kitty. Their younger friendly dog was sneaking around behind Leroy, trying to steal his dropped food bits. The older kids had finished eating and were stared at their phones, giggling over something or other.
Genevieve was running around the house trying to get everything done for the evening so we could get started. She felt frazzled, to me, as she bustled about, trying to wrap up all those loose ends from the day. She is, after all, caring for 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 aging cats alone while her husband is overseas for his job. There’s never enough time in the day to do all the things. Overall, it just felt like a lot of chaos was swirling around her in her life, and I made a mental note of that as I kept helping with the kids, like I always do when I’m there.
Their old neurotic dog kept barking at Beth, his typical self, and their sick old cat was in the bathroom in his bed, still not feeling well or eating. The younger cat and dog both gravitated toward Beth and I. They demanded pets and cuddles from us, and while they wriggled on laps, Beth texted me to say she feels the animals mitigate the stress for the family, but it's getting hard for them to keep it up. It did seem to calm the animals down after they cuddled with the two of us, who had come from the outside.
Melly finished her Spaghettios quickly, and was snuggling into the couch, and I could see her eyelids start to droop. I asked her if she was tired, and she nodded gravely. I asked if I could take her to her bed, and she said she was too tired to walk, so I offered to carry her. She said yes, so I scooped her up like she was a little baby, and cooed over her as I carried her up to her bed. She giggled in my arms and snuggled in until we got there. I put her in bed, wished her good dreams, told her goodnight, and followed her instructions for how she likes the room when she sleeps: light off, door open.
Little Leroy slowly finished his food and Viv took him upstairs to get him to settled down for the night, her neurotic dog on her heels. While we waited, Beth texted me again, “Something's in the dining room, in that corner by the door to the yard,” and I knew exactly what she was talking about. Nothing was over there at the moment, but that corner was where Rachel the friend's spirits-for-spirits altar was set up.
I nodded, thinking about how Rachel had used the other woman's home for her altar, and how Genevieve only continued the practice for a short time after Rachel went back home. And thinking back, that corner did feel pretty active, when we did our reading in that room, but I assumed it was the family members present. Nothing felt bad, necessarily, just... something was there.
It still irked me that Rachel had set up the altar without explaining it all to Viv. Usually, once you start something like that, you need to keep it up long term. Maybe Rachel thought it was no big deal because she was appeasing things that were attached to her, while she was there. But the altar acted as an open invitation to other entities, instead of just serving to appease Rachel’s own spirits.
And now that the altar is gone, some of the entities that came in to the space because of that set up are upset that things have changed. They're still there, and now they're upset. If they were taking from the alcohol offering before, what are they taking from now?
As far as Viv is concerned, you know, she's just reclaiming her space now that her friend went back home. And that's good! If it's not for her, she should discontinue the practice.
After a few minutes of waiting and feeling the house out from the living room, Beth said she wanted to go ahead and get started. I asked if there was anywhere she was drawn to, and she pointed to the basement doorway. We got out our things, and I got things started with holy water: I anointed myself with it, Beth, and then the 2 girls in the living room, then the younger cat and the friendly dog.
I ran up to Melly's room and found her fast asleep already, so I carefully swiped her forehead with a drop of holy water and tiptoed out again. While I was up there, Beth saged the corner in the dining room, where she felt the presence.
We grabbed the sage, palo santo, and dowsing rods, then headed downstairs. As we reached the bottom of the stairs, Beth's face lit up, and she pointed to a little door under the stairs, that led to a storage space. She said, “That's the cubby I was seeing. The under-the-stairs space.”
I nodded and stepped further into the room, dowsing rods out. The rods began to spin around like helicopters, as soon as I stepped into the family room. They don’t normally do that. Normally, they point forward, and cross or open wide, in response to yes or no questions. They spin only in response to high energy levels in a space, so this came as confirmation to me that a reasonably strong presence was down there.
Now, it didn't feel evil, by any means. It felt like... a trickster. A mid-level entity that could affect people's moods, or perhaps move things... but mostly it was just a big pest. Annoying, unless you let it in, somehow, which, thankfully, they hadn’t done. This entity was the kind of thing that makes the whole basement feel creepy, and just makes you want to stay out of there. If your bedroom is in that space, it could get uncomfortable.
For Viv's family, that bedroom that used to be her brother's was now being used as a music room. Her husband Parker has several guitars, a drum set, keyboard, and a few other assorted musical goodies stored away down there. So nobody is sleeping down there now, and that’s good, given the icky feeling in the space.
Beth saged around in the family room, and then got the laundry space, which is also under the stairs, and the rods spun faster than before. The entity felt more agitated to me, after the sage, so I suggested a switch to Palo Santo, which changed the feeling in the air. It suddenly felt like we were ready for negotiating, so we began talking to the entity under the stairs.
It's hard to say if it was there before, when Viv's parents lived there, or if it's newer... But it likes to creep around in the basement and go, “BOO!” at people. It thinks of itself as being very scary, and is the thing that's been bothering Rosie, when she goes down there.
We told the entity he's not allowed to stay in this house anymore, and he's not allowed to go bother anyone who had lived in the house before this either. He really didn’t like that, and argued he had to go somewhere. We suggested an alternative or three, hiding in an abandoned mine in the mountains, or wandering the rolling hills, or hanging out in one of Colorado's many ghost towns…. Something we suggested must have been acceptable, because the energy in the space changed suddenly, and the entity was gone.
The energy level in the room remained higher than average but I could feel it was starting to dissipate. Like… how a room changes how it feels, after an angry person walks out the door. The energy is still there, but it’s leaving, following the angry person.
Genevieve came downstairs just then, and apologized for how long it was taking to get the kids to bed, and we told her not to worry about it. We filled her in on progress so far, and Viv described to Beth how things had affected her mother, starting in the basement, and she mentioned her brothers’ troubles over the last few years.
I said it felt to me like something was shifting from one person to another. Beth nodded, saying it feels different than what was under the stairs... and this one feels... tentacle-y to her. I nodded as she said what she felt- that it feels like it's pulling what it can get from one person before moving on to the next, but never seems to let go of the earlier victims. I said it feels to me like it's not done reaching out for more, and I wanted to be sure it stopped grabbing up more people.
I envisioned it as a cord coiled around things that represented each affected person, and saw physically cutting those ties somehow. We debated how to proceed, and decided we could try smudging the family and cord-cutting from afar, at first. If that wasn't enough, we could do that in person instead, and move on from there. But first, we needed to finish the home cleanse, to be sure nothing else was lurking about.
I took a moment to anoint Genevieve with holy water and sage her, claiming her as my own. “You fuck with her, or anyone else in this house, and you deal with ME,” I declared to the house. It trembled, and acquiesced.
I took over saging the house at that point, getting the rest of the basement, the mirrors and windows, and every nook and cranny in the basement bedroom. Viv said they haven't really used the stuff in the music room lately, and she's barely down there at all. She told me, as if she was just now realizing she was avoiding that floor. “I'm only down here long enough to do the laundry, really,” she said.
I nodded, “It should feel better down here now,” and I waved the smoke around in the last corner down there.
Genevieve nodded slowly, “It already does feel different,” she smiled, and I smiled back.
We made our way upstairs, and then went through the main floor without incident. I did get the corner by the door with the Palo Santo to follow Beth's sage, just in case. It still felt ooky over there to me, so I shooed the residual energy away, and then we made our way up the stairs to the bedroom level.
Little Leroy, the only child in the house I hadn't anointed yet, suddenly started crying. Viv went in to comfort him, and he still seemed to be asleep. She said her oldest, Rosie, used to have night terrors, and what he was doing reminded her of that. While she settled him out, Beth sat on the stairs with the cuddly dog and cat, who had come up after us.
I continued saging the house, and sensed a low-level mischief-maker in Melly's room, and I took a minute to focus on him. I wanted to get a better look at him and what he does.
I got the feeling… He likes to toss toys around and make a mess. He’s the type that thrives on chaos, which would naturally accompany a young child, and he was hiding in the child’s closet. I feel like he does that a lot, and likes to peer out the open edge at night, hoping to catch Melly awake... He's the type that hides under the bed and wants to reach out and grab your foot... I've got no time for that nonsense, and Melly's my buddy. You don't mess with my buddy.
So I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, essentially, and tossed him out her bedroom window. He didn't even fight, he just scurried off into the night, to find someone else to bother. I nodded at his back, cleared the rest of her room, and told sleeping Melly she can really sleep now. She sighed in her sleep and I pulled her blanket up around her shoulder, then tiptoed out of the room.
Viv sat in her bed, holding Leroy, whose eyes were closed as he fussed in her lap, and I felt a very strong urge to go to him and anoint him. I really felt like something was bothering him, and it might help, so I crept in quietly and did the forehead swipe for him, and he didn't even seem to notice.
But, while I was in there, I noticed the closet doors were covered in mirrors, and they covered an entire wall of the room. I felt movement in them that wasn't any of the people in the room, and the mirrors kinda screamed at me. So I quickly saged them and closed them off, so whatever was using them could no longer do so.
I got the feeling something in the room really didn't like that, just as Leroy's crying increased suddenly, and he woke himself up. I ignored the rage I sensed from the corner, and kept going through the room to evict whatever was still lurking in there. This one felt like a lower level thing than whatever was in the basement, like Melly’s mischief-maker, so I wasn’t worried at all.
We opened the window to clear the air for Leroy, and to get the lurky thing out. It felt like at least one thing, something bothersome that can affect the dreams, maybe, was in there, poking at the boy while he rested.
These pesky sleep-interrupting fuckers piss me off, so I snapped at them, “You can’t harass these people anymore. Get out, you little bastards!”
“Messing with the wrong family,” I thought.
From there, I got the bathroom upstairs, and that mirror felt fine, and I realized the animals were no longer with Beth when I left that room. They had gone to Leroy.
The cat sat in the window above Viv & Leroy's heads, and the little dog was trying to kiss the toddler. I shooed the dog away, so Viv could get the little one back to sleep, and closed the door so he couldn't get back in there again. To me, this helped confirm the theory of the animals wanting to help the people.
I saged Rosie's room, the final room of the upper floor, last. Her room was mostly fine, but she did have a collection of old dolls, still in their boxes, in her closet. The looked like they might have been Genevieve's when she was a little girl, and she was passing them on to her own daughters. I saged in the closet, getting the boxes really well, and said, “Nobody can use these; They're not for you,” and I got the feeling something didn't like that. Minor gripes. I rolled my eyes at it and told it to get out. “Shoo!” It scurried away. Another little mischief-maker like Melly's.
Leroy woke up for a bit and Viv let him get up for a few minutes to get a drink. While she did that, I went around and placed protection stones around the house. Protective black tourmaline went over the doors into the home, and under the stairs, and cleansing selenite was also placed to keep those other protectors charged.
It should keep the basement creeper out, if he tries to come back. Some of these things can be sneaky and leave when the smudging is in effect, but creep back in after a few weeks, when the defenses have lowered. I told Viv to watch for that creepy feeling returning, and keep me posted. She promised she would.
Stones placed, I anointed and did some energy work with the sick cat, drawing out his pain and “yuckies” and sending them away, and pouring calm into him, and healing into his frail old body. When I was finished, he laid his head down and went to sleep. I watched him sadly for a moment, hoping he would perk up soon.
I left the cat to rest, then chatted briefly with Rosie, saying her mom told me she doesn't like the basement very much, and asked if she could tell me why. She said, “It feels like someone is right behind me, when I'm down there, sneaking up on me.” She scrunched up her face like she's smelling something yucky.
I nodded and said, “That's totally fair, but it should feel better down there, now. If you do go downstairs and it feels creepy at all, you tell your mom, and she'll tell me.” She asked why, and I said, “Well, the creepy thing is why we're here, and we told him to go away. He did leave, but we want to know if he tries to come back.” She nodded seriously.
When we were all finished, we gathered our stuff up, said our goodbyes, and left for the evening, feeling a weight lifted from the property. On our way back, after the cleansing, Beth and I were chatting about the details she hadn't heard while we were there. When I told her about Rachel's altar in detail, and how many little things I felt all over that house, Beth nodded gravely.
Presumably, Rachel knew how to handle the spirits she's used to interacting with. She likely even knew what to do if something bad came in. But Genevieve wasn't aware of any of this stuff, and now Rachel’s left her friend in a pickle. I knew the whole thing was bothering me for some reason, and now that we were all done clearing the home, it all made a lot more sense. My worries weren't unfounded, after all. I was just glad we were able to easily clear the space for Genevieve again.
The next morning, I got an excited photo text from Viv, showing the sick cat up and about the house again. He ate his breakfast that morning, and had used his litter box instead of peeing on his bed like he'd done the last few days. Later that day, he was snuggling with their younger kitty in another photo, and he's improved back to his normal self again.
Later, Beth and I did the wrap-up cleansing work, to free the family from the tentacle-beast that was drawing their energy and affecting their health, and let Genevieve know when that was all done.
It's been 12 weeks since the cleansing, and everything in the house has been quiet and calm since we were there. The older cat is back to his usual grumpy self, crying for attention, and eating like normal. The house still feels much better, per Genevieve.
How her family is, after our work, only time will tell! We wish them all well.
Last time, I said I would explain sage smudging, and how to do it. First, you'll need to get yourself some sage. It is pretty readily available these days, in health food stores and at metaphysical shops, but you do want to be somewhat careful about your sourcing.
There's been talk in the spiritual community about being careful of your type of sage you are purchasing, and its sourcing, because some sage varieties have grown scarce and are considered endangered, or at risk.
To combat this, the best practice for those that sell, or, well, rather, those that buy, is simply making sure the sage we buy was specifically grown for harvest, which has become more common. Ask questions, and buy elsewhere if you're not comfortable. Be careful about your sourcing, and protect the future availability of this helpful plant product!
There are a lot of different types of sage. Each will has its own scent, and will smell differently when burned, as well. Some people have a strong preference for the type they like to burn. Find your type and go with it!
Sage comes in wrapped up wands, or sticks of leaves, and you light the tip of the stick on fire, and then allow the flame to catch the stick on fire. Then blow out the flame, and it will glow like the coals of a fire, or an incense stick. What you're after is the smoke. Take care not to drop glowing embers around in the house while you smudge. You will need a bowl or a seashell to catch your ashes in, as you work.
To smudge a person, wave the stick and its smoke around the person's whole body. I have them stand still with arms outstretched, and wave the smoke around the front of the body, head first, then down to the chest, out to the arms, getting in front of and beneath them, then down the front of the body to the feet. I have them lift their feet up, one at a time, and get underneath their feet.
Then, I have them turn around, and get to the back of the body, working my way, head to toe there too. I tend to focus heavily on the shoulders and neck, as that is where things that try to affect us like to attach.
The idea with a person is to remove any attachments or maybe just negative energies that surround the body. I generally start a house cleansing by smudging the people in the home, and then I get the house. You can also cleanse the space with sound while you're at it. I like drumming tracks or singing bowls, for this. It's the vibrations that help.
For the home, if you have placed any protective things against spirits or entities up, you might want to pull them down for this cleansing work, so the evicted entities are able to leave. Smudge the edges of each room, focusing on any reflective surfaces like mirrors or windows, as well as the corners. Things do like to hang out in the corners of the rooms.
And mirrors can be a bit... portal-y, at times. For mirrors, usually smudging them is enough. Sometimes I end up doing energy work with them too, kind of pulling a psychic wall down just behind the mirror, blocking it off. That's what I did in Genevive's room with the wall of mirrors. She had other mirrors in her house too, but the master bedroom one was the only one that needed that level of attention.
As I smudge a home, I go room to room, focusing wherever I am drawn, getting the closets, and I clear one floor at a time. I generally tend to start in the basement and work my way up through the home, floor by floor.
I would say, as you smudge for yourself, do what you are drawn to do. If you feel the need to start in the attic space and work your way down? That's totally fine. Do as you are led. Always. Listen to that inner voice. It might just be your guides, trying to tell you something.
I also verbally state my intention for the smudge, as I go. I usually will say something like, “Anyone who is here, it is time to go, you are no longer welcome in this space.” I'm polite, unless I'm given reason to be firm, and then I talk to them like a scolding mother, if they act out.
I go through the house, room by room and send the energies off, until the whole house is clear. Once finished, if any protections were pulled down at the beginning, I place them again, at that point. Let the entities out, and then keep them out.
Overall, my goal is to cleanse and protect a space from unwanted entities and energies, and I clear the space so the family who lives there can fill it up with their own energy. How they do that is totally their choice!
If they are welcoming to their family's ghostly spirits, great! If they want a ghost-free space, that’s fine. If they want to commune with the fae in their basement, they can have at it. The point is for each person to take ownership of their own space. I simply help by clearing off any lingering things they don't want hanging around anymore.
If I happen to sense a darker presence in the home that needs evicting, or if I'm not if sure sage is having any effect, or if sage seems to make a situation worse, I do the whole process again with Palo Santo wood smoke.
Palo Santo is a holy wood, and again, some varieties are in decline due to illegal harvesting practices, but not all varieties are at risk. Some are being grown for cultivation, just like the sage is, and buying from those suppliers actually ensures continued tree crops. Again, just be careful of your sourcing, and ask questions before you buy.
To use Palo Santo, light the tip of the wood stick on fire, just like you do the sage or the incense, and wave the smoke around in the same way. Palo Santo smoke is stronger, and will clear things that sage just pisses off. Sometimes I'll just go ahead and burn both Palo Santo and sage together, if I'm not sure which I need.
But, for smudging, know the purpose of it is to clear whatever is actively in the home. For many instances, that is enough. Some places need 2-5 treatments before it really sticks. Some people need to do this regularly, if they are particularly active, or maybe if they do spirit work.
If you are an active person or draw the attention of the other side of the veil, you may also want to put up protections to keep malevolent entities out of your home, to keep your home a safe space for yourself and your family. And as I said before, you may just need to smudge more often. Once per full moon cycle is common, if the need is consistent.
I'll get into other helpful protections, like the black tourmaline and selenite I mentioned in this episode, and setting up ghostly or spiritual rules for your space, another time, soon.
To learn more about sourcing your Sage and Palo Santo, I found an article that has a lot of information, including links to the pages that explain it all in more detail! Check out: https://zennedout.com/why-its-ok-to-burn-sage-and-palo-santo-but-read-this-first/
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I think that about wraps it up, for tonight! You stay cozy by the fire there, and keep those blankets toasty! If you get brave and run to your bed, be safe! Watch for those ankle-grabbers by the stairs!
Until next time! This has been Beyond the Veil, Paranormal Tales, with Becca. Sleep tight!
*The names in this story have been changed to protect privacy. All other details of the story remain true to fact.