Walpurgisnacht, the Second Halloween

“Walpurgis Night was when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad—when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel.” ~ Bram Stoker, “Dracula’s Guest”

Walpurgis night, or as it’s often referred to in its German form, Walpurgisnacht is the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurgis, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Walpurgis Night falls on April 30th and is a traditional holiday celebrated in northern Europe and Scandinavia. 

It may surprise you to know this festival has little to do with either Saint Walpurga or Christianity. The origins of this festival may be found in the period before the arrival of Christianity in northern Europe. 

Instead, it is a spring celebration with striking similarities to Halloween. Walpurgisnacht, falls exactly six months from All Hallow’s Eve, or Samhain.

As the festival falls during the period when spring arrived, the pagans conducted rituals to welcome spring and ensure the fertility of the land.

Many of the ancient cultures divided the year into just two seasons, summer and winter. The dividing line between the two seasons were Beltane and Samhain, with Beltane being one of eight solar Sabbats in the pagan calendar, its date based on the sun.

For some reason, Walpurgis Night is also associated with witches..

Picture: “Walpurgisnacht. Der Aufbruch der Hexen” (Walpurgis Night. The Departure of the Witches) (1878) by Luis Ricardo Falero.

Hexennacht – Witches Night

Many practitioners of the magickal arts believe that Walpurgis Night is a great time for powerful ritual spell work. It’s considered a day that equals Samhain; when the barrier between the worlds is thin and easily crossed. Witches and sorcerers were more powerful on this night than any other night except Samhain. 

In Britain, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Beltane often begins at sunset on April 30 and continues through May day. 

Since the medieval era at least, it was believed that the night before Beltane equals Samhain; when the barrier between the worlds is thin and easily crossed. The night would be filled with ghosts of the dead, fairies, shapeshifters, lesser demons, and all sorts of feral magical beings, and in regards to Walpurgis, witches were at their most powerful.

Many practitioners of the magickal arts believe that Walpurgis Night is a great time for powerful ritual spell work.

"Witches, warlocks, and wizards gather for the Great Sabbath of the year. Some fly to the meeting places on their brooms or forks, others turn themselves into cats, goats, horses, and toads for the journey, some leave their bodies and attend the meeting in spirit, while others cover their bodies with a secret ointment to grow bat wings so they can fly to the gathering. In their place, they leave a vicarium daemonem, their demonic double. It doesn’t matter which method is used for traveling, as long as the meeting is honored by everyone’s presence.

They gather just before midnight at crossroads, mountain tops, and in forests, they light a roaring bonfire which they jump through and dance around, until their Horned God arrives in their middle and the true Night of the Witches begins!"

In German folklore it is said that witches from all over the land would gather for a great sabbath on top of the Brocken (also known as the Blocksberg), the highest peak of the Harz mountain range. Although not tall by Alpine standards, the peak stays very cold and is shrouded by mist and fog most of the time. The surrounding land is inhospitable with gnarly trees and strange moss-covered rock formations which have been given foreboding names such as Devil’s Pulpit or the Witch’s Altar. 

According to writings from the 16th and 17th century, witches were purported to hold a large gatherings on Walpurgis Night. This notion was first recorded during the 17th century in Johannes Präetorius’, The Blocksberg Performance, a tome about the history and geography of the mountain and the region. It was, however, during the 19th and 20th century that the witches’ sabbath on the Brocken became popular in art and literature, most notably in Goethe’s well-known play Faust.

Picture: Lewis Morrison as "Mephistopheles" in Faust! – "The Brocken". Poster for a theatrical performance of Goethe's play showing Mephistopheles conjuring supernatural creatures on the German mountain, the Brocken (or Blocksberg), which according to the tale is the scenery for the Walpurgis night, from 30 April to 1 May. 

Walpurgisnacht Traditions Around The World

Throughout Europe and the United States, Walpurgis Night is still celebrated. One common tradition seen everywhere is a bonfire. It was considered good luck to burn anything no longer useful on Walpurgisnacht fires. In many cultures, small scarecrow-looking dolls are made during the day and ritually imbued with all the back luck and ill will of the past year. They are then tossed on the Walpurgis bonfires that night along with worn-out, burnable household items.  Also, the arts of the cunning women, or wise women of the forest were especially potent during this time. Their magic often revolved around love, sexuality and fertility.

In Sweden, it seems as if the entire nation is ablaze to celebrate Valborg. Across the country, citizens gather around massive community bonfires to sing welcoming songs to Spring. As the night goes on, there will be drinking, dancing, and even fireworks. One old custom, though no longer popular, would send the children into the woods to collected branches of greenery to decorate the village houses.

In Finland, the holiday is called Vappu and people have picnics and drink homemade mead during the day, but can be seen running through the streets at night wearing masks, drinking, and screaming as loud as they can. The Finns borrow heavily from the Germanic tradition of celebrating witches. It’s one of the four biggest Finnish holidays and is the biggest carnival day of the year.

Germans often leave out a piece of bread spread with butter and honey called an Ankenschnitt. This offering is left outside to appease the phantom hounds and to order to protect people from bad weather or bad harvests. They also celebrate around great bonfires and some of the youth are known to play pranks similar to the “tricks” played at Halloween.

In Bavaria, Walpurgis Night is known as a Freinacht or Drudennacht. Young people roam the neighborhoods pulling mischievous pranks, such as wrapping cars or trees in toilet paper.

Estonia refers to the holiday as Volbriöö, and celebrates witches. It precedes Kevadpüha, the day which marks the arrival of spring. Volbriöö still sees carnivals, celebration and drinking, often with people dressed as traditional witches.

In the Czech Republic, Walpurgis Night is known as Pálení čarodějnic, which translates to the “burning of the witches” in English. Witches made of rags and straw are burned in bonfires amidst plenty of drinking. Whenever a burst of black smoke is emitted from the blaze, a cheer goes up as the witch is said to have flown away.

In America, most pagans gravitate toward celebrating Beltane as it has a broader meaning. There are still some covens who use Walpurgis Night for serious spell work or other magickal rites.

Also read:

• Krampusnacht will give you the Christmas of your nightmares

Witch museum opens in Cleveland!

A witchcraft museum has landed in Cleveland.

The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick has set up shop in a storefront in the city’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood.

As curious as the collection is — and there’s some pretty strange stuff, including a vessel supposedly containing some fur of Lil Bub, a magical cat from outer space — the tale of how it ended up in Northeast Ohio is just as extraordinary.

Much of the collection now on display was either curated or created by the late Raymond Buckland, aka Robat, a writer and historian of Wicca and the occult, and a high priest in the Gardnerian and Seax-Wica beliefs.

In the 1960s, Buckland worked for British Airlines, which gave him an opportunity to meet collector Gerald Gardner, who had an occult museum in England.

They struck up a friendship, and Buckland set off on his lifelong path of dabbling and practicing in the occult. He began amassing odd artifacts ranging from ancient Egypt to the Salem witch trials.

He began inviting visitors to view — for a small fee — the collection housed in the basement of his home on Long Island, N.Y.

As his reputation grew, so did the collection, and he eventually moved it to New Hampshire. It was displayed in Virginia for a brief stint and then New Orleans, before that museum closed for good and the collection vanished.

Steven Intermill, whose full-time gig a couple of years ago was making sure everything was running merrily at the “A Christmas Story” House and Museum in Cleveland, wondered one day what became of Buckland’s collection.

Intermill said he grew up on a steady diet of comic books and those old paperback books about oddities and strange happenings, and he remembered reading about Buckland’s museum.

After a little sleuthing, Intermill found Buckland’s then-email address — “raymondbuckland@hotmail.com” of all things — and reached out to inquire about the trove.

Much to his surprise, Buckland answered the email right away, saying that some items unfortunately had been sold off, but what remained of the collection was sitting in totes in the basement of a friend who lived in Columbus.

Intermill said he drove down Interstate 71 right away, offering to restore the collection and put it back out on public display in a space near the “A Christmas Story” house that was featured in the beloved movie.

Parts of the collection were unveiled in 2017, but Intermill said the space he had in Tremont was simply too cozy. He acquired the new digs at 2155 Broadview Road so more items can once again capture the curiosity of visitors. The new museum space will celebrate its grand opening at noon Saturday.

On a recent day, Kristina Pellegrini of Minneapolis wandered in with her sister, Moriah Pfotenhauer, whom she was helping to move from Chicago to Washington, D.C.

She said they were looking on Google for interesting places to visit along the way, and the Buckland Museum popped up.

She explained they are not followers of the occult but do collect crystals and spent a fair amount of time looking over those offered in the museum’s gift shop to see which ones “spoke” to them. Several did and they purchased them.

The sisters also forked over their $7 admission fee to hear Intermill weave the history of the collection and its curator, and even see a fork that supposedly twisted during a seance in New York.

“We wanted to make the drive memorable,” she said. “The collection was intense and even a bit scary. It was very different.”

Among the collection’s items is a sacrificial troll doll with human hair stuck in its back.

Buckland’s personal purple ceremonial robe holds court in the middle of the space not far from a predictable collection of tarot cards.

And tucked in a corner is a demon in a box.

The story goes that a magician friend of Buckland had a ritual go awry in the 1970s and unwittingly unleashed a demon in his New York City apartment. It took them three days to conjure up the right spell to lure the demon into the wooden box, where it has remained ever since.

Intermill, who readily admits he is not a personal practitioner of the occult, said he does have a healthy respect for the collection and each piece’s backstory.

One night, he said, he was sitting at the counter when a man barged through the front door, bolted into the museum without paying and started to try to open the Demon Box. Intermill said he told the crazed man that he was going to call the police.

“The guy told me he was driving by and something called out to him and said, ‘Hey, I’m trapped in here and I want to be friends,’ ” Intermill said. “It was just weird.”

Before Buckland died in September 2017, he visited Cleveland to look over the collection. Intermill asked Buckland about the Demon Box and what he should do with it.

“He told me to never open it,” Intermill said with a laugh. “OK. I never thought I’d end up being in charge of something like this.”

The Demon Box, wrapped in crude wire to keep it shut, has since been moved to a more secure display case that Intermill keeps a safe distance from those on tours.

The cool thing about this witchcraft collection, he explains, is the craft aspect to everything.

Each piece was handmade — most by Buckland himself, like the high priest ceremonial horned helmet. Buckland used things lying around the house and found at a hardware store, from the fur to the cow horn to the stainless-steel mixing bowl to the thimbles on top.

“Some see this as a witchcraft collection,” he said. “But I see this as an art collection. All this stuff was handmade.

“It was made with a passion and fury.”

ohio.com

Doctors explain how hiking actually changes our brains

While it may seem obvious that a good hike through a forest or up a mountain can cleanse your mind, body, and soul, science is now discovering that hiking can actually change your brain… for the better!

Hiking in nature can stop negative, obsessive thoughts

Aside from the almost instant feeling of calm and contentment that accompanies time outdoors, hiking in nature can reduce rumination. Many of us often find ourselves consumed by negative thoughts, which takes us out of the enjoyment of the moment at best and leads us down a path to depression and anxiety at worst. But a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that spending time in nature decreases these obsessive, negative thoughts by a significant margin.

To conduct this study, researchers compared the reported rumination of participants who hiked through either an urban or a natural environment. They found those who walked for 90 minutes in a natural environment reported lower levels of rumination and they also had reduced neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain related to mental illness. Those who walked through the urban environment, however, did not report decreased rumination.

The researchers noted that increased urbanization closely correlates with increased instances of depression and other mental illness. Taking the time to regularly remove ourselves from urban settings and spend more time in nature can greatly benefit our psychological (and physical) well-being.

Hiking while disconnected from technology boosts creative problem solving

A study conducted by psychologists Ruth Ann Atchley and David L. Strayer found that creative problem solving can be drastically improved by both disconnecting from technology and reconnecting with nature. Participants in this study went backpacking through nature for about 4 days, during which time they were not allowed to use any technology whatsoever. They were asked to perform tasks which required creative thinking and complex problem solving, and researchers found that performance on problem solving tasks improved by 50% for those who took part in this tech-free hiking excursion.

The researchers of this study noted that both technology and urban noise are incredibly disruptive, constantly demanding our attention and preventing us from focusing, all of which can be taxing to our cognitive functions. A nice long hike, sans technology, can reduce mental fatigue, soothe the mind, and boost creative thinking.

Hiking outdoors can improve ADHD in children

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is becoming more and more common among children. Children who have ADHD have a difficult time with impulse control and staying focused, they get distracted easily, and exhibit excessive hyperactivity.

While raising children who have ADHD can be difficult for parents, the usual solution — opting for prescription medication — may be doing more harm than good, particularly when natural solutions can work just as well. A study conducted by Frances E Kup, PhD, and Andrea Faber Taylor, PhD, found that exposing children with ADHD to “green outdoor activities” reduces symptoms significantly. The results of this study suggest nature exposure can benefit anyone who has a difficult time paying attention and/or exhibits impulsive behavior.

Hiking in nature is great exercise and therefore boosts brainpower

We already know that exercising is fantastic for our overall well-being. Hiking is an excellent way to burn between 400 – 700 calories per hour, depending on your size and the hike difficulty, and it is easier on the joints than other activities like running. It has also been proven that people who exercise outside are more likely to keep at it and stick to their programs, making hiking an excellent choice for those wishing to become more active on a regular basis.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that aerobic exercise increases hippocampal volume — the part of the brain associated with spatial and episodic memory — in women over the age of 70. Such exercise not only improves memory loss, but helps prevent it as well. Researchers also found that it can also reduce stress and anxiety, boost self esteem, and release endorphins. Many people take medication to solve each and every one of these issues, but the solution to these ills may be a lot simpler than you think!

How can you begin to start hiking?

Luckily, hiking is one of the easiest and least expensive sports to get involved in, and it can have great benefits for the whole family, including grandma! Start out small and test your abilities. Do what works for you — if that means just walking through trails in a park, that’s fine. Any exercise outdoors is better than none. You can easily find maps of trails around your home online, and there are plenty of smartphone apps to map them out, too. I recommend turning off your signal and your phone while hiking though, so you can reap the most benefits of the hike (though it may be wise to at least carry it with you in case of emergency).

Make sure you have some good sturdy hiking shoes, a hat, and a water bottle, and be sure to layer your clothing so you can take things on or off easily as you warm up and cool down. You may want to consider using trekking poles as well, which can increase your speed and take some of the pressure off your knees. Now, can you just do one thing for me?

Go take a hike!

Also read:

• Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Bathing Therapy
• Where Do You Find Your “Waldeinsamkeit”?
• Silence is much more important to our brains than we think

Russia's Soldiers with Telepathic powers revealed by Defense Ministry Magazine

An article in the official magazine of Russia's Defense Ministry has claimed that the country's military works in tandem with psychics, employs paranormal tactics to aid soldiers and has used dolphins in telepathy experiments.

A piece in the magazine Army Collection headlined “Super Soldier for the Wars of The Future” described how the military has conducted strange experiments, such as one in which psychics managed to read documents that were locked in a safe.

The article was first published in February, but came to prominence this week after reports in the Russian magazine RBC, opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and the website Meduza. Commentators were surprised that such claims would be made in a publication sanctioned by authorities.

According to the article's author Nikolai Poroskov, who served in campaigns in Chechnya and Sierra Leone, Soviet scientists developed paranormal techniques in the 1980s with the aim of the military being able to "extract information from a state of so-called altered human consciousness."

He wrote how the method was even used during the campaigns in Chechnya "to reveal the enemy’s plan and the composition of the forces and means involved."

He said that Russia has specialists that use telepathy to quiz prisoners, skills honed in experiments on dolphins.

“They mentally gave the animals the commands that they performed... It turned out that the technique also applied to humans,” he wrote.

The article stated that paranormal tactics have helped soldiers learn foreign languages, treat wounded troops, detect ambushes and even crash computers.

He said telepathic, non-verbal interrogation can help soldiers decide if enemy soldiers are receptive to recruitment. So-called “psychic countermeasures” also taught special forces soldiers how to hold up during enemy interrogation.

Anatoly Matviichuk, the head of the Analytics Department at the magazine Soldiers of Russia, told RBC that Soviet scientists did some work in these fields, especially between the 1960s and 1980s.

“Combat parapsychology really has a place...the technique was developed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences in an attempt to discover the phenomenal characteristics of a person.”

However, the chairman of the commission to combat pseudoscience at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yevgeny Alexandrov, told RBC that "combat parapsychology" is a pseudo-scientific invention.

“Such works really existed and were developed, and were classified... But, as in many countries of the world, such studies are recognized as pseudoscientific, all this is complete nonsense. No parapsychology exists at all, it’s a fairy tale,” Alexandrov said.

Also read:

• Evidence of dream telepathy between people
• Army Funds ‘Synthetic Telepathy’ Research
• Psychonaut: Sailor of the Mind