Cosmic Witch - Magic, Witchcraft and the Supernatural

A short video in English highlighting my book Cosmic Witch.  

Feeling so much love and gratitude to Greg Bishop for the amazing drone work, Miguel Romero for dressing the Cosmic Witch and La Strega with his breathtaking artwork, Claudio Selleri and Le Due Torri for believing in this project, and my husband Massimo Teodorani aka Totemtag for the chillin' witchy music that weaves its cosmic spell throughout this video. Thank you! 

Cosmic Witch: Magic, Witchcraft, and the Supernatural

I am so happy to announce the English version of my book Cosmic Witch (The Witch - La Strega in Italiano) is now available on Amazon. Feeling, excited, accomplished, nervous, happy, and relieved.

There is a strong autobiographical component to this book where I recount my experiences with mysterious lights, and other paranormal phenomena, and how those encounters shaped who I am, both as a researcher of exceptional human experiences, and as a witch.

I am an introvert, it has never been easy for me to be so open, and I am fully aware of how strange what I write about will sound to most people, but I believe in my heart that my initiation as a witch occurred when I first experienced the strange, mystical lights in the sky, which some people identify as UFOs. The encounters I write about occurred mostly in Canada and around the Great Lakes.

In a spiritual sense, I view them as messengers from the star goddess, and throughout my life they have extended to me their cosmic invitation, and allowed me to participate in their magic.

This book came about through a series of synchronicities that brought me together with my publisher Le Due Torri in Bologna Italy, and lays the foundation for future planned projects where I discuss some of the experiments I have conducted in conjuring UFOs, including a reworking of the famous 1970s Toronto "Phillip" sessions. Its is a book written from my heart and perhaps guided occasionally by unseen hands.

The beautiful artwork is by Miguel Romero aka Red Pill Junkie, who captured the spirit of Cosmic Witch with this breathtaking image.

COSMIC WITCH: magic, witchcraft, and the supernatural Available through Amazon in English and Le Due Torri in Italiano

Synchronicity, Terror, Technology, and Angela

Our world has been plunged into a very liminal state during these last six months, and as a consequence the veil is much thinner so to speak. I was discussing this with a friend from New York who is a professional psychic, and she agrees with me that these strange times are producing many more stranger experiences. UFOs are flying, ghosts are appearing, and I am noticing synchronicities more often than I usually do, and I am a person who sees the symbolic dream-like language of our collective reality quite readily.

In the last couple of weeks we've experienced a number of odd things here in our mountain village, which I wanted to write down before their memory becomes blurry. 

On July 20th we decided to attempt to photograph comet Neowise. It was not easy to do as the comet was very faint, and while awaiting for it to get sufficiently dark enough I downloaded the Randonautica app. This is something I wanted to try out for a while and for me the timing seemed good. I have linked to the Ranonaut homepage for those who are unfamiliar with it and want to learn more, but in a nutshell it is an app that gives geo-cords based on intentions you set. The idea is to venture to potentially new and random places where synchronicities may be produced with your own intention.

This is our comet photo. 

My intention that night was to see UFOs, which is no surprise to anyone who knows me. The co-ords given were somewhere in the middle of a forest close to where we live. It was very late, and at night the forest here is populated by wild boars, and wolves, and other creatures I prefer to avoid while giving all due respect IE: no way were we going at night. 

So, we waited until going home and used Google Earth to check out where this place is, and make a plan to visit there during the day. What we saw surprised us because right at that location exists the ruins of a large church that we had no idea was there. You literally have to hike into this location to find it, and you can bet we will do so when the weather is a little cooler. The photo below was found on the internet and has the photographer's name below.

Photo: Francesco Marucci

I tried using the Randonautica app the next two nights in a row with the same UFO intention and it sent us first to our local cemetery, and then a bakery! What to take away from that, but the UFOs are related to the hungry dead?!!  

I haven't used the Randonautica app since, but it is a lot of fun, and if you are into synchronicities, and random adventuring its worth trying out in my opinion.

High strangeness and the paranormal and synchronicities tend to manifest spontaneously and when you least expect them. Therefore it was not too surprising to me when a few days after the randonaut, comet chasing adventure, we had a very strange event in our car while out doing some morning errands. 

We had just finished grocery shopping, something that really ranks high up there in the mundane, and routine. When we opened the car doors to put our purchases inside we were both assaulted by an extreme smell of perfume. It was so strong it was as if someone broke an entire bottle of the stuff in the car! I could literally taste it. 

Neither Massimo or I could come up with a reasonable explanation for it, and as the car began airing out the scent was clearly identifiable as roses.

This type of paranormal smell is not new to me. I had a similar occurrence in a house I lived in during the 1990s. The appearance of the rose scent at that time heralded the beginning of a three period of intense high strangeness that at times was frightening for me and my children, and others who came to our house and witnessed these weird things. 

I have to wonder if this new out of place rose smell will spark the beginning of similar cycle of high strangeness... 

The mysterious smell of roses is associated with Catholic Saints, so when it happened I immediately thought of Saint Catherine of Bologna. She was a mystic, artist and visionary and so her life story, and shrine intrigued me. 

I visited this incorruptible saint twice in 2018, and the photo above is one I took of her.  You can read about her and my visit here.  

Later that day I received a DM from an American friend who said she had a very vivid and highly symbolic dream about me, which would have roughly coincided with the timing of the mysterious perfume in our car. Her first name along with 5 generations of women in her family is a variation of the name Rose. Was she bi-locating to me with the scent of roses? 

And even later that night, we were sitting outside and I kept hearing what I thought was church bells. This might not be so unusual, but the bells which started out melodic turned more and more into a cacophony, AND it was 9 pm on a Tuesday night! Of course I thought of the nearby abandoned church and wondered if what I was hearing was coming from some other reality. Massimo who was sitting with me did not hear them the way I did. 

Riding the weirdness wave, I decided to try a little impromptu ghost hunting. After a few minutes of quiet meditation I turned on the GhostTube app, which was created by my favourite ghostly Youtubers at Amy's Crypt, and is free to download.  Almost immediately it  said the name Angela. It repeated the name Angela a few times, also the words peaceful, and sailor. I had no idea what this might have meant. The only Angela that both my husband I know is the lady at the cat shelter where we adopted Pixie and Merry, and she seems to be alive and well.

After getting ready for bed I opened up my phone for one last check of messages and news and this was the first image that popped up. It startled me so much I got Massimo to take a pic of my phone screen with his. This is what we saw....

The article is about the worst terror attack in the history of Italy. On the morning of 2 August 1980, Fascist terrorists planted a bomb in the waiting area of the Bologna Centrale railway station resulting in the death of  85 people and wounding over 200 more. It is known as the Bologna massacre. The poignant image above depicts a memorial at the station and a hand touching the name of one of those victims... Angela. 

My husband had been scheduled to arrive at the train station 2 hours after the bombing occurred. He had been visiting his sweetheart in Finland and was taking the train from Milan's airport to his home in Bologna. In those days there were no mobile phones, no social media, and no easy way to communicate, so at the time his family were in anguish not knowing if Massimo had been caught up in the horrific events of that day. I can only imagine my husband's horror when he was able to get back to Bologna.

The synchronicity between the Ghost Tube session, and the photo of the memorial is striking to me.  Angela's full name was Maria Angela Marangon and she was 22 years old when she died, almost the exact same age as my husband was in 1980 at the time of the bombing. 

Clearly my husband is tied to that event, as are all the people of Bologna within living memory, and this is our home. Along with the name Angela the word peaceful came up more than once in my session. I hope that she and her loved ones, and all those who have suffered such an immense and senseless tragedy have found some peace. I honestly don't know if I ever could, and I plan to bring a flower for Maria Angela to the train station memorial the next time I am there. 

I cannot with 100% confidence say this was a message from the other side, or know how deeply inter-connected these strange experiences over the last couple of weeks are to each other. But I do strongly suspect they are connected on some deeper level. 

My take away from the Angela synchronicity is that this was a reminder of the preciousness and fragility of all of our lives. 

Be well and good to each other. ❤

High Strangeness at the Toronto Reference Library

In late November 1999, myself and two friends were doing some research on UFOs and lake Ontario at the Toronto Reference Library. The library is located in the very heart of the city, and the building is mostly open concept, as you can see from the photo above, and about 5 stories tall. From any given floor you can easily see below to the others.

While we were there we were followed over the course of three different floors by an impeccably well dressed man. His clothing of note was all black. It was getting late so when we first noticed him following us we thought he may have been part of the security staff, and was either getting ready to hustle people out for closing, or may have thought we stealing something from the special collections. We also thought he may have been just a creep because he was always standing just one or two shelves away from where we were or just behind a pillar or corner. All three of us noted that there was something off or weird about him.

Had this happened today I would have definitely grabbed a photo of him with my phone, but back then phones were just phones so no pics. I searched the web for a similar looking guy to add to this post, and came up with this dude, who is similar. Please note this photo could very well be a hoax of an M.I.B, but it does look very much like the guy we encountered.

Image source

When he followed us to our final stop, which was the map floor my friends and I decided to confront him, and ask him why he was staring at us and following us. When he was approx. 6-10 ft away we whirled around, and started towards him, and at that moment we looked down and really saw his shoes for the first time. They were old, with huge holes in them, could have even been two different ones covered in fresh mud and grass or hay! 

The photo below is just to illustrate what they looked like. 

Image source

It was very weird! The rest of him was perfect, very clean, very well-dressed, and normal .... but those shoes?!!  Not only were those shoes in no way a match to the rest of his outfit, but it was a cold November, winter in the center of a major metropolitan city, and nowhere near where one would expect to see muddy hay or tall grass as were stuck to his shoes. 

As we advanced upon him he bolted down a set of stairs and vanished. We were at the stairs within 1-2 seconds, and he was gone, just like that, with nowhere to easily hide in an open concept building. It was like he just disappeared in the time of a few seconds! 

We were a bit shaken by the experience to say the least. We kept looking for him as the library was getting ready to close, but with no luck. When we were safely in the car my friends and I started nervously laughing, and joking, and wondering if he had been a ghost or even a man-in-black because we were researching old UFO cases, and mapping out where they had been reported around our Great Lakes.

Would be interested in hearing from others who had similar experiences. Leave a comment. 

Top image source 

Signs Your House Is Haunted

Many years ago I used to live in a very haunted house, and one of the lessons that experience taught me was how to recognize the signs of a haunting. In hindsight most of the houses I have lived in were probably haunted, but in general the ghostly phenomenon was so subtle, and so rare, that had I not been very observant, or a believer in strange things, I may have just written them off as something mundane, and likely forgotten about it.

Most of us live busy and exhausting lives that take us away from where we live for the majority of our waking hours. The corona virus pandemic has changed all of that. Almost all of us are now either willingly or forcibly locked inside our homes, for who knows how long. These are anxious and turbulent times.  And now, as we are spending almost all of our time inside our houses, and apartments, and rooms I wonder how many people might be experiencing odd happenings that they may have not noticed before?

The following are some signs that your home may be haunted that I have learned through my personal experiences with ghosts, and through my many years of investigating hauntings. Its important to remember that since we are all living with a lot of anxiety and our routines have been upended a lot of what we may perceive as a haunting could have a natural explanation.

Strange Sounds: Are you hearing unusual sounds? Many hauntings do start out with strange sounds, knocks, loud bangs with no explanation, phantom footsteps, scratching sounds, disembodied voices, whispers, and even growls. Some sounds such as the house settling are normal, and you just might not be used to hearing them. If you can investigate the source of the sound you may be able to explain it.

Unusual Feelings and Sensations: Do you ever feel like you’re being watched when there is no one with you in the room? Have you ever had the sensation of being touched by unseen hands, or felt the temperature suddenly drop with no apparent explanation?  All of these have been reported by people who live in haunted homes, including myself.

Strange Dreams and Night Terrors: I think right now we are all experiencing these, but in normal circumstances people living with ghosts occasionally report having nightmares, and sleep paralysis.

My girls Pixie and Merry

Pets Acting Strangely:  Right now our pets are likely feeling the anxiety we have due to the pandemic. My own cats Pixie and Merry are very clingy lately and seem to know something is not quite right. But in general animals might react to spirits and ghosts in ways that are unusual such as barking at something only perceptible to them,  or not willing to enter certain rooms.

Objects Disappearing: When I lived in that very haunted house I would routinely have objects moved around, disappear, and sometimes reappear in places I knew I never put them. Ghosts are definitely tricksters. If this is happening a lot and your not in general absent minded you may have a ghost in the house.

Poltergeist Phenomena and PK or Psychokinesis:  This is more rare, but would include things like unexplained water puddles, fires, furniture moving, doors slamming, lights turning off and on etc. Electronic disturbances including strange interference with radio, tv, internet, and phone calls, and batteries draining are another sign that a place may be haunted.

Unexplained Shadows: Do you see shadows lurking out of the corner of your eye that are not there when you look around? Do you see shadows where one should not be? Shadow people are a newer phenomenon, but masses or balls of black shadow date back for centuries in the ghost literature. If you experience any of these unexplained shadows your house could be haunted.

Light anomaly or reflection? Taken at a place that was reputedly very haunted. 

Balls of Light and other Light Anomalies: I am not talking about "orb" photos which are mostly explained, but visually seeing balls of light with your own eyes. These are frequently associated with hauntings and are described in many different colours.

Apparitions: These include shadow people or human shaped shadows, but often they are described as fully solid looking 3D people or animals that witnesses would never have guessed were a ghost until they did something freaky like vanish or appear to walk through a wall.

An abandoned cabin in the woods near my home, that has a dark, and tragic past. 

Haunted History: Many haunted houses have a tragic or violent past or are perhaps built on land that has a history of turmoil. The home itself may have a long history of ghostly activity This is not true with all haunted houses. I have investigated ghosts in brand new buildings with no history nor the land they were built on. In those cases it seemed the people were haunted and not the place.

If you are worried that you may be living in a haunted house please keep in mind that hauntings are never like they are portrayed in the movies or horror fiction. When I investigated haunted houses one of the main things I took away from talking with people is that they were more afraid of what might happen than what had actually happened ie: their imagination was driving their fear more than the ghosts were.

Most hauntings end as swiftly and mysteriously as they begin with no lasting harm, but there are some tried a true methods to either live with ghosts or send them on their way.  In a few days I will write about some of the methods I've personally used and found success with.

Are you living in a haunted house? Can you add something to these signs of a haunting? If so, please leave a comment. 

Some of the suggestions I've been given in addition to the signs listed in the blog:

* A history of addictions or tenants with a addictive personalities
* Religious Iconography and or an overtly religious household
*Location --- near a cemetery, church, ravine, wood...
*History of Trauma --- either in the home or on the land
*Ratio of females to males living on the property
*Objects appearing and disappearing
*Strange smells that cannot be accounted for

These came from members of the Paranormal Experiences and the Pandemic Facebook group. Thanks so much to everyone who added to this post and please feel free to join the group.

UFOs and the Supernatural in Times Of Crisis

“The phenomenon of UFOs is real. I know that there are scientific organisations which study the problem.” - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on 26th April 1990.

The quote above came at a time when the former Soviet Union was coming to an end, the Berlin wall had started to come down, Germany was reunifying, and millions of Russians and Europeans were living in a very liminal state. It was a time when UFOs appeared all over Russia and Europe particularly over NATO headquarters, and thousands more were experiencing strange paranormal events.

In troubling times UFOs appear, and the supernatural is more likely to be experienced, and reported.  This may be do to the amount of stress we are all under, or it may simply be a way to let us know that whatever is behind these strange magics, we are not alone.  I really don't know for certain why humans in crisis experience psychic phenomenon like poltergeists more often, but there is a lot of historical evidence that shows this to be the case.

In 2014 I worked on research with Dr Eric Ouellet that demonstrated how UFOs may in fact be parapsychological in nature, and part of that research included examining UFO events that occurred during times of liminal states.

The most obvious being the Belgium UFO wave and the Russian waves of the late 80's and early 90s, which is why I quoted Gorbachev. It was a very uncertain time for many Europeans and Russians, and there were numerous types of UFOs, and paranormal events being reported and investigated by both civilians, police and military. The cooperation between military and civillian UFO researchers at that time was unprecedented in the Western world.

In total more that 13, 000 people officially reported experiences with UFOs, UFO pilots, and other paranormal encounters, but the true number is probably much higher.

Once again we are living in an uncertain and turbulent time. This time the whole world is in crisis over the Covid 19 pandemic, and never before have so many people been plunged into a liminal state, all at once. As I write this a quarter of the world's population, over a billion people are quarantined. And, I have to wonder if this general state of anxiety, sickness, and uncertainty will produce mass paranormal phenomena including UFO waves?

I have reached out through social media asking if anyone hears of any increased UFO or paranormal activity to please let me know as I would like to document any large scale events that may occur.

Greg Bishop and I have created a group on Facebook that aims to explore contemporary accounts as well as historical cases of paranormal outbreaks at times of human crisis such as Covid-19. Please feel free to join us. Or leave a comment for me here.

Join us here: Paranormal Experiences and the Pandemic

This is a very scary time for many of us, and it may help to give us some insights into how human beings experience the paranormal during times of mass crisis.

Many good wishes to us all. Be well and safe my friends.

My Star Child

A lost memory that came back to me while doing some research for a book that I'm writing.

It was a sunny winter day when I first met him. I felt the warm rays of the sun streaming through the window, and like the dust particles in the air, he too became illuminated by the sun beams.

I must have been about four or five years old at that time. It was very cold outside with a lot of snow on the ground that I could see on the other side of the window pane. And I had to stay indoors to play. I was an only child at that point so maybe it was out of boredom or loneliness that I conjured him up.

He was a little boy and he hid behind the curtains of the big bay window in the front room of the very first house that I had grown up in. I called him blue boy, because although he was a normal looking kid of the 1970’s in every other way, his skin colour was very white with a tinge of blue, and his mischievous eyes were a bright blue colour.

I remember being so happy to have a friend to play with behind the big dark curtains at the house on Cottonwood Drive. We would meet there, behind the voluminous drapery and when out of sight of any of the grownups, we would fly!

Even as a child I understood that stepping behind the curtain was a means of magical transport. It was there where I first began my little experiments in bilocation that continue to this day. With my stuffed teddy bear clutched tightly in my hands, the blue boy and I travelled beyond the stars to strange forgotten spaces.

Sometimes after these long shamanic dream-like travels my Mom would find me asleep, tucked away behind the curtains of that big front window.

Decades later when I became acquainted with the 12th century account of the green children of Woolpit I wondered if there was any connection to that story and my own experience with the little pale blue boy.

The green children, a brother and sister were found by farmers working their fields at harvest time near some ditches that had been excavated to trap wolves at St Mary’s of the Wolf Pits also known as Woolpit in England.

Intriguingly European witches in later centuries who I feel a strong connection to were known to shape-shift into wolves when they conducted their night battles.

Were the green children little witches who got caught by the wolf traps?

Their skin was green, their clothes were made from unknown cloth, and initially their speech was unintelligible to the people who found them. Eventually when they learned to communicate in English they claimed to have come from a faraway land and that they were magically transported to Woolpit after wandering into a cave.

Were they travelers from behind the curtain like we were? Made up of imagination, and bits of dust, and starlight?  Maybe... but unlike the green children who emerged from a dark underground cavern, my imaginary travelling companion rode in on a sun beam.

I never knew the name of this star child, nor do I fully recall the strange places that we visited or the weird language that we spoke only between ourselves. I do remember how happy I was to have a magical friend.

He stopped appearing to me sometime after my sister Diana was born.

Please have a look at my newly updated online cupboard Out of My Mind's Eye

Susan
xo