Just as there are deliberate attempts to avoid ghosts and haints, there are also those individuals who invite interaction with the dead. People who seek to communicate with  spirits and specters actively do so in séances, candle magic and occult entertainment, such as using a Ouija board. These individuals often open doors to the Spirit world and neglect to close them due to carelessness and/or a lack of experience. As a result, all kinds of spirits are believed to be given access to the place where the door is opened. Spirits who pass through the opened door can attach themselves to participants, follow them around and wreak havoc in their lives and in the lives of those close to them. Finally, there are those individuals who go a step further and intentionally conjure up spirits,  calling forth specific entities for very specific reasons.

SIGNS OF SPIRITS    
According to lore, if there are paths newly-made in the morning through the grass which do not show any footprints, it is a sign that a ghost has walked there in the night. In Virginia, they say that if a ghost is present, there is a feeling of heat as it approaches you. If at the same time you notice a peculiar kind of smell, it will warn you that you will be a ghost within a year (Daniels & Stevens, 1908).
 
AVOIDING GHOSTS
The old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” can easily be applied to practices and traditions for avoiding ghosts, haints, specters and boo hags. For example, placing cobalt blue bottles in a tree in the front yard, much like painting a porch ceiling, door or window frame haint blue,  is believed to keep evil spirits out of the home. These bottle trees have their roots in the Congo region of Africa. The practice was brought over by slaves who hung blue bottles from trees and huts as talismans to ward off evil spirits. It is believed that the spirits become mesmerized by the colors of the bottles in the sun and unwittingly go inside the bottles. Once they enter the bottles, they can't find their way out—sort of like roach motels—and are stuck there for as long as the bottles remain intact.
    
In the past, bottle trees littered the Southern landscape with their spectacular colors and creative arrangements; however, over time, the practice has become much less common. There appears to be somewhat of a recent resurgence, however, as they can be seen cropping up in people’s yards again. For many folks, the meaning of the practice is  either unknown or of little consequence; rather, it is the beauty, color and quirkiness that gives them an aesthetic appeal that is hard to resist.
    
There are also behaviors and taboos observed that are said to ensure a life free of meddlin’ spirits. For example, one must not mention before morning whether one has seen a specter, or one will be pressed and spit blood. And, to keep off haints, fill an old sock with salt, mullein, sage, tansy, and any other spirit repelling herbs you can get, combine with a dried cow patty and bury it under the front steps as an effective ward. If that doesn’t work or as added insurance,  boiling prickly-pear roots in stump water and sprinkling the yard with the water is said to stop wandering spirits and hauntings.
 
Haints Be Gone! products are designed to assist you with restoring peace in the home when restless spirits abound. From conjure oils to room sprays, incenses and powerful witch's salt and witch bottles, Creole Moon has an array of cultural heritage items to assist those who believe in ridding their homes and lives of unwanted spiritual entities and negative energies.

The above article is excerpted from Hoodoo Almanac 2013 Gazette, "Southern Folk Beliefs about Ghosts, Specters, Haints, & Boo Hags" by Denise Alvarado, copyright 2013, All rights reserved worldwide.

JULY GARDENING TIPS July is a good time to plant pumpkins, eggplants, corn, cabbage and cilantro. Plant more basil. Thin seedlings. Dead head faded flowers unless you will be collecting seeds. Cut and dry lavender flowers and cornflower. Harvest peas, lemon balm, summer savory, hyssop, tarragon, thyme, lavender, marjoram and most other herbs. Begin gathering angelica and caraway seeds.

Find a green pea pod with exactly nine peas in it and hang it over the door of a room or entryway without letting any person know you have done so. You must then watch the door sand see who goes through it first: if it is a bachelor or an unmarried young man, you will positively be married before the current crop of peas in disposed of; if it is a woman, you will have to sigh in single blessedness another year; is a married man be careful and not allow your lover too much liberty in his attentions.

On the first night of the new moon in July, take a red rose, a white rose, a yellow flower, a blue one, a sprig of rue and rosemary, and nine blades of long grass; bind all together with a lock of your own hair; sprinkle the nosegay with rosewater and some common salt; wrap the flowers in a white handkerchief and lay it under your head on the pillow when you go to rest. Before morning you will see your fate as clear as if you had your nativity cast by the best astrologer in the world, not only in respect to love, lovers or marriage, but in the other most important affairs of your life. Storms, in this dream foretell great trouble; and graves or churchyards are fatal tokens and so is climbing steep and dangerous places.

This month is the perfect time to use those fresh herbs to make a wonderful Angel Spiritual Oil. Dry your lavender, hyssop, thyme and angelica and add some of each to olive oil.

If it rains on July 10th, it will rain for 7 weeks. If you sit between 2 fires in July you will be purified (Daniels & Stevans, 1903). If ants increase the size of their mounds at the beginning of July, they are enlarging the tunnels of their nests in expectation of an early and severe winter (Hyatt, 2002).

*The above article is excerpted from the Hoodoo Almanac 2014-2015.