Jock Brocas is a spiritual author and teacher with books published internationally. Jock is also the president of the charity organization assmpi and works tirelessly to he others develop spiritually and live a more rewarding life. Join Jock Brocas on a spiritual journey.
http://jockbrocas.us
Everyone has thoughts and feelings, many of these are influenced by the outside world, and some from deep within. It’s those thoughts and feelings that arise from deep within us we want to explore. There will be times in everyone’s life when a strong feeling or emotion arises to encourage us to either remain still, or to take a step forward or a step back, often to re-evaluate or change something. This is what we call a psychic feeling or intuition.
All too commonly we ignore or dismiss our psychic awareness because it does not make sense or it even seems rather illogical. We often ignore our sixth sense because we cannot see a rational reason for following it, e.g., “Why should I take the long way to work, there is no benefit and I will waste time’’, not realising that if we follow this psychic thought, the outcome of our day, week or even year will be improved in some way. We should always keep the butterfly effect in mind!
Is It Your Intuition?
Sometimes we all have that feeling in our stomach, a hunch. This can also be described as our intuition and developing psychic ability is really about taking this much further whilst also enabling us to help others.
Like the entire Universe, all thoughts, actions and events are made of energy and energy vibrates. Each event that happens is linked to several causes and this will, in turn, also affect the outcome. This is known as cause and effect. Someone who has a developed psychic awareness is able to naturally sense and interpret these vibrations and is therefore able to gain a deep understanding into the timeline of an individual’s life.
A professional psychic has personal responsibility and should be thoughtful and not give any information that may lead to unnecessary fear or anxiety. They should always aim to be kind whilst being supportive and professional.
A powerful psychic ability may be seen and recognized from an early age, or it may remain unrecognized or misunderstood. Everybody has different experiences in this world and sometimes these experiences can bring out inner knowledge and abilities, or conversely, they can make them seem further away.
It is often those who have led a life full of varied experiences, both good and bad, that have the potential to become more sensitive and therefore more psychic. It is often when people are faced with life’s hardest lessons that they realize how strong they are and during these periods can also develop powerful feelings of empathy and compassion.
It is commonly known within psychology that people like to feel they are in control of their lives; we feel safer and much less anxious if we believe that. Part of this inherent need for control is really about us feeling reassured that we know what will happen in our future. In some ways, this is positive because it helps us plan and develop successful, happy, and balanced lives. It’s not very common that someone can build a happy family home without planning. It takes planning in order to build a career and of course we need to plan when to have a time off for relaxation and holidays; this is a basic example.
If somebody is constantly looking into their future, then sadly they leave no energy to enjoy the here and now, to be mindful. We can focus too much on what we want therefore not always appreciating what we have. Another issue here is that by constantly fixating on certain outcomes, one can limit the potential of more fruitful opportunities and therefore more successful or fulfilling outcomes.
Mindfulness and Living In The Moment
Living in the moment makes life more of an adventure and full of surprises. Sometimes joy and excitement come from not knowing what will happen, to wait and see. There is an important concept within Daoism known as Wu Wei, this means ‘non-action’ or ‘non-doing’, many misunderstand this to mean laziness or having a lack of personal direction. What this really means is to not act with prior judgement. Often, we visualize anticipated future situations and how we think they will play out, and also how we will emotionally react to them when they do, well before they even take place. Wu Wei, is about choosing to be calm and act spontaneously in each situation as each new situation arises.
This is when we can sense our psychic ability in a more natural and undisturbed way. This is partly because we have not already preconditioned our mind and made it rigid within the particular context. It is not always possible to achieve this state due to our busy and chaotic lives, and sometimes because of our ‘monkey mind’, named after monkeys that often don’t sit still. Sometimes just simply reminding oneself of this can also remind us to relax our minds and to be at peace within.
Personal desire greatly clouds psychic clarity because it often fills us with a range of thoughts and emotions. At times, people experience a positive feeling or sense of knowing about a particular outcome, for example, about something they want to happen. However, the difference between wishful thinking, being optimistic, and psychic intuition is very subtle. It’s not easy to look into the future and see clearly when we have a strongly defined perspective regarding our hopeful outcome. To be aware of this combination of mind, emotion, and energy is beneficial. This can stop us being too attached to what we may consider psychic thoughts and feelings before fully understanding and validating them. Learning the difference between a psychic feeling or thought, and something arising from a simple desire or optimism can take many years of refinement. When working with clients, one has to be careful not to become energetically attached to their hopes and desires because this can weaken or mask true psychic awareness.
If, for example, a psychic person is often faced with a negative feeling about a particular event in life, they will be able to understand if this is caused by a basic level of normal human anxiety or is in fact a premonition. To learn to develop one’s psychic or mediumistic ability, it can also be helpful to gain at least a basic insight into evolutionary psychology. In doing this, one can learn about the mind’s negativity bias and why it will often try to hold us back when venturing into unknown territory. Learning about mindfulness is also a wonderful way to study the human mind and our thought patterns. This helps us rediscover clear and acute awareness, in essence rediscovering our true nature, which is often described in Buddhism as ‘Buddha nature’ or ‘beginners mind’. The more somebody learns about their true self, the more natural is the flow of their psychic awareness.
When using one’s psychic ability to help others, the psychic is able to blend with the person’s aura. Some psychics can see the aura which often contains many different colors. The different colors (and the brightness of each color) represent a different facet of one’s mind, energy, and life. A massive amount of information can be observed and the level of the psychic’s awareness will determine how deeply they are able see into a person’s life. Sometimes our problems overwhelm us, and we cannot see any clear pathways forward. This is when a skilled psychic can help provide clarity, advice and support. Developing a high level of empathy helps the psychic naturally and objectively feel another person’s emotions, often with more clarity than the individual can themselves. This should also make the client feel at ease. A psychic should not disempower a client by only highlighting shortcomings and problems, they should also help the client find understanding into the cause and help them to feel their inner strength and find practical solutions to move ahead.
Psychic Awareness and You
Martin James
Is everybody psychic? The answer is yes, but does everyone understand their ability? The answer is no. It’s a bit like saying every person has some level of ability to communicate with other people, but not everyone can do it well and only a few will master it. A skilled teacher can feel a student’s energy and gain insight into their ideas and thought patterns. They may also see any mental blocks or fears that may be hindering progress and gently help them along the way to achieving their full potential. Always remember, having an open mind and a kind heart will make you a good student of life.
First Published In Trinity Magazine Japan, then The Afterlife Magazine which has since integrated with PDN.
How could there be no ectoplasm in physical mediumship?
Back in the 1980’s, some very unusual physical mediumship phenomena was being reported by those lucky people who experienced séances with Leicester-based Physical Medium Rita Goold. Results included regular ‘materialisation’ of spirit personalities and evidential messages from those spirit ‘friends’ who visited Rita’s séances. Interestingly, although there was no doubt whatsoever of the ‘solid’ presence of these spirit visitors, there was no evidence whatsoever of the substance known as ‘ectoplasm’ which virtually all Spiritualists at that time claimed was ‘absolutely vital’ for the purposes of allowing spirits to ‘materialise’.
In fact, the lack of ‘ectoplasm’ during Rita’s séances caused many skeptics and die-hard Spiritualists alike to cry fraud where these unusual séances were concerned. The consequences of this were extremely shameful, coming – as they did – mainly from the Spiritual community themselves!
It is a fact that Rita Goold was on the receiving end of frightening anonymous telephone threats warning her of dire consequences if she went ahead with the séances and scientific experiments. Vicious lies were also being spread to discredit and blacken her character. Rita was deeply hurt because she had dedicated her gift to bringing enlightenment to humanity. She had flatly refused to take one penny for the incredible inconvenience that she was subjected to. In fact, she and her circle hosts, Barry and Pat Jeffery, were out of pocket every time a demonstration took place, and all the visitors were fed.
In 1983, I had already been researching and participating in Physical Mediumship and its phenomena for around 10 years, and had experienced many of its forms. I had belonged to active circles, and Sandra and I were running our own circle in Harold Wood. In my work, I travelled around the UK, and was fortunate enough to meet Rita Goold herself whilst I was in Leicester, where I had once lived. We had a very interesting conversation but unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to sit with her in her circle.
It was really only after ‘The Scole Experiment’ in the 1990’s that I fully realised the similarities between Rita’s séances and our own Scole sittings. There was no doubt in my own mind that the phenomena which took place under Rita Goold’s mediumship must have been energy-based, just as ours was at Scole!
Testimonies about Rita Goold’s energy-based mediumship
Recently, I have discovered more worthwhile testimonies to the nature and value of Rita’s mediumship, and I would like to share some of those with our readers. A good friend of ours – Medium Christine Morgan (who sat with us at Scole on the day that Princess Diana’s death was announced) – spoke of Rita Goold’s mediumship in 2011, when she recounted what her father, UK medium Eddie Grenyer, had told her of his own personal experiences of ‘materialisation’ in séances with Rita.
Eddie Grenyer met Alan Crossley whilst they were both working as mediums in the 1980’s, and they became good friends. At this time, Alan was investigating physical mediumship himself, as he had done for many years before. Sandra and I came to know Alan Crossley well ourselves as a friend who was very knowledgeable in the field of physical mediumship and its phenomena. In fact, Alan became the second President of the Noah’s Ark Society, which I personally founded in 1990.
One of the frequent ‘solid’ Spirit visitors in Rita’s séances was the famous materialisation medium Helen Duncan. Alan knew her for many years and had often arranged and/or hosted her séances himself whilst she was still alive. After her death, Alan was the author of the book: ‘The Story of Helen Duncan – Materialisation Medium’. Following Helen’s death, as Alan told us many years later, Helen Duncan ‘telephoned’ him on a number of occasions (ringing his normal home telephone!) from the Spirit World.
During one of the Rita Goold séances, Helen Duncan asked the circle to ‘find Alan Crossley, and invite him to sit with the circle’. Alan was duly found and invited to Rita’s. He sat with them and became a regular sitter. On one occasion, he sat with the circle 7 times on 7 consecutive nights, staying with Rita during the week. Years later he told us that he had been totally convinced of Rita’s genuine psychic abilities when, whilst conversing casually with her, he watched a child’s soft toy in full light, ‘walking up the wall to the ceiling!’
Alan Crossley’s visits to the Rita Goold Circle eventually led to Eddie Grenyer also being invited along on eight or nine occasions. Mr Grenyer spoke of the wonderful phenomena and evidence provided by the communicators at these sittings, and of the many discussions about them that he had with Alan Crossley right up to the time of Alan’s passing to Spirit himself in the late 1990’s.
Helen Duncan was one of the main controls of the circle, together with Laura Lorraine (Rita’s own grandmother). Rita’s séances, like those at Scole, were all held in the dark and NO ectoplasm was used. Helen Duncan herself said that the reason for Spirit’s ‘no ectoplasm’ policy was the fact that ectoplasm could be dangerous. Helen herself had died after being harmed by inappropriate police action during a raid at one of Helen’s séances in Nottingham.
An energy as old as time itself
Instead, Rita’s Spirit team explained that they were using an ‘energy’ as old as time itself. They said that Rita Goold was rare in having an abundance of this energy, so that it was possible for it to be used for the ‘materialisation’ of actual Spirit People during séances.
Spirit actually produced some of the ‘spirit lighted’ conditions themselves on occasions for sitters to see the ‘materialized’ visitors (reminiscent of the spirit lights we had at Scole for the same purpose). When this happened, the silhouette and solid form of the Spirit person could be seen. Sometimes, however, without the spirit lights, evidence could only be given through the Independent Direct Voice of the visiting spirit themselves.
Eddie Grenyer was present on one occasion when Raymond Lodge visited the circle and conversed with the sitters. There were spirit lights produced, and sitters could see the clear outline of Raymond’s boots and army uniform. He did not look completely solid, but there was no question as to the fact that he was indeed materialized and completely solid as he stood in the room.
Laura Lorraine was a very significant Spirit character at the séances. She had actually died giving birth to Rita’s mother, aged just 22. Before that, she had been a young singer in the music halls. This was confirmed by the beautiful quality of her singing in the séances.
In fact, Eddie Grenyer stated that on two occasions he had been pulled from his chair by the solid form of Laura Lorraine, who then proceeded to waltz around the room with him! Once Laura had also asked him to run his hand down her body to prove that she was quite solid and, furthermore, was a female with feminine curves! Whenever Laura was there, sitters were treated to the strong smell of her favourite old-fashioned perfume, too.
Helen Duncan’s materialization and apports from Spirit
Helen Duncan materialized and conversed many many times with Alan Crossley, and Eddie Grenyer was a witness to this – as well as having direct conversations with Helen himself in his capacity as a medium.
There were quite a lot of apports during the séances, with Spirit saying they were experimenting. A friend of Eddie’s was given by Spirit the apport of a small furry toy mouse. He was told to give this to children to hold whilst he was giving them healing, which he did, and several of the young patients reported that the mouse gave off heat and energy when this happened.
For Alan Crossley specifically, the sittings he had with Rita Goold represented a totally new style of physical phenomena, which he found extremely comfortable and evidential. Alan himself described this feeling:
“Gone are the cabinets, black draperies and semi-religious trappings,” he explained. “The sittings are notable for their informality. From my point of view, the new methods and techniques used by the spirit operators mark the greatest turning point in psychic history. Void of all mystique, there is none of the spooky atmosphere so common in former years.”
The absence of ectoplasm in evolving materialisations during Rita Goold’s seances was seen by Alan Crossley as a new development in mediumship. He stated at the time:
“There are many features concerning the new phenomena which clearly distinguish them from all previous methods,” he said. “This shift away from old techniques can only help rather then hinder progress towards a better understanding of the whole subject. The question many will ask is: ‘How do they do it?’ That is, of course, too complex a question at this stage and one that has not so far been revealed.”
Ten years later, in the 1990’s, another Spirit Team (working with us at Scole) went on to replicate much of the phenomena that had been witnessed during the sittings in Rita Goold’s Circle (whilst working ostensibly in the same way), and expanded on the work they had done there. Luckily, during the five years of ‘The Scole Experiment’ our Spirit Team were able to explain the mechanics of the energy-based phenomena in depth to us, so we could pass that information on to others.
But what all of us should remember is that it happened through Rita Goold’s mediumship FIRST. Rita is truly the First Modern Pioneer of Energy-Based Physical Phenomena!
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the Afterlife Magazine which has since been integrated with the PDN group.
Have you ever considered the role karma plays in relation to the importance of the job you do as a medium and how much responsibility you carry? I often wonder how many mediums actually think about the weight of their responsibility, and those who miss it because they are too caught up in the evidence or desire to perform and make a living.
I have lost count of the times when a grieving individual has made contact, only to tell of the terrible reading they had with another medium and how upset they were. I know that some of you will be wondering how awful the so-called evidence was, or if the person was actually communicating with spirit at all. Words used in a mediumship sitting are often used frivolously, without thought. While the actual reading by most standards may be great, and many would be happy to receive the information, how it is delivered and how the words are chosen, must be carefully considered – or they will cut like a knife which is the very last thing a grieving man or woman needs.
Try this exercise. Have someone like your partner or even a member of your circle stand in front of you with their hand and arm outstretched in front of them. Place two fingers lightly, but firmly on the top of their hand, and start to push down as you say amazing wonderful and complimentary things. You will notice the person is still fairly strong and nothing will move them. Then take a moment, and do the same thing, but this time, say horrible, nasty things to them and about them. You will now find they are powerless. You have taken and affected their personal energy by firing and charging negative energy and forcing it upon them. This small exercise exemplifies how words can hurt and destroy someone’s joyful spirit.
Now let’s get back to the sitting with the medium and how the wrong word choices may cause more damage to the sitter than one could imagine. Statements like, “He’s not happy with you” or “You should not have done that” may sound innocuous but in actual fact, do more damage than good to the person’s spirit. In fact, there are so many examples that could be given, such as how the person passed etc. One must consider how frail the sitter’s spirit is and the amount of turmoil they are in. It is, therefore, a great responsibility on the medium to be able to deliver messages in a caring, respectful and responsible way.
Karmic Influence
I am sure that you have all heard the saying “What goes around comes around,” which is that basis of karmic law – saying in layman’s terms that all debts must be paid and your responsibility is not something that you can escape; what you sow, so shall ye reap or words to that effect. So is it wise to consider the reality that a medium may shoulder more karmic responsibility than one would think? If you are steeped in a bath of ignorance about Karma, you won’t escape the karmic responsibility because you did not know any better, but it may be to a lesser degree.
However, there is a hypothesis that suggests one who is spiritually aware, should, in effect know better. I am in no doubt that Karma acts quickly on an individual who has a high level of spiritual awareness. How the karmic debt is paid is of no consequence to anyone other than the relationship between the individual and the divine source or whatever they aspire toward. Nevertheless, the reality of checks and balances does have an immediate effect. As a consequence, perhaps from a developed medium’s perspective, this means that the responsibility of what they say and do has a greater effect and the scales of Karma may tip one way more than the other.
Mediums Beware
Let us now get back to the hypothesis of the mediumship reading. It’s very easy for a medium to reel off everything and anything they see, hear or feel without actually processing it properly. One sure sign of an untrained or undeveloped medium is following that pattern of “Just Say what you see.” In this instance, it is all too easy to cause more harm to the sitter because you are unable to discern what to say and how to communicate the message in a compassionate way. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard a medium give a graphic representation of how the spirit person passed, and though they mean no malice, it causes tremendous angst and upset to the sitter because they are faced with the visions or emotions that compounded the grief.
So, consider this as another aspect of the aforementioned hypothesis, if indeed karma has an immediate effect upon an individual who may be more spiritually progressed than another or who may have more understanding of spiritual law. Does that mean the individual could be the catalyst to immediate karmic balance, or, would there be no change? It certainly is something to ponder. If you do something against your spiritual knowledge or make up for your own personal gain, there will be a karmic balance, but where does that leave the medium, should the medium have that discerning power, because ultimately you have taken on a major responsibility of spirit and passing on information that can change a person’s life. If you knowingly give a grieving individual evidence because you feel it is strong and that evidence causes the individual to be further catapulted into grieving or indeed any other negative state, there could very well be an instant Karmic reaction. This also bears down on the old argument that mediums should not work too early until a sufficient amount of development and training has taken place.
It’s not about the evidence, it’s about the whole package and as mediums who are supposed to be more aware, we have a deeper responsibility and I would suggest, are subject to Instant Karma.
To many, the naughty sprite Puck (aka Robin Goodfellow) is best known from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596) as one of the main fairy characters that populate the play, significantly influencing events with his cheeky pranks such as replacing Nick Bottom's head with that of an ass.
Puck by Fuseli
Henry Fuseli, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Older readers may possibly recall Kipling’s novel Puck of Pook's Hill where Puck (“a small, brown... pointy-eared person”), who refers to himself as "the oldest Old Thing in England", recounts various scenes of English history/fantasy to two children from nearby Burwash, in the High Weald of Sussex. Kipling's Puck is extremely critical of the modern image of a fairy: “Can you wonder that the People of the Hills don't care to be confused with that pointy-winged, wand-waving, sugar-and-shake-your-head set of imposters? Butterfly wings, indeed!”
Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) by Rudyard Kipling
‘Pook’s Hill’ is thought to be the hill that can be seen to the south-west from the lawn at Bateman’s, Kipling’s charming rural residence. Its real name is Perch Hill.
Jonathan Whitesell played Robin Goodfellow in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2020):
Jack Gleeson (Joffrey from Game of Thrones) also essayed Puck in season two of The Sandman on Netflix last year.
Puck and Fairies, from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Joseph Noel Paton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In Amazon’s appalling fantasy series Carnival Row (2019, 2023), the Puck are a race of ‘fae’.
But who was Puck - and was he in any way ‘real’?
Puck associated place-names in England are relatively rare when compared to those commonly said to possess Norse and Saxon stems and originate from Gloucestershire, parts of Sussex, and the South-West, suggesting a possible Celtic origin. Names such as South Gloucestershire’s Pucklechurch ("Puck's Church") and various Puck- and Poke- prefixed woods, hills, and wells survive from early-medieval times to the this very day. Looking further back, Puck has been linked to the Greek God, Pan. In Anna Franklin’s Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the Summer Solstice (2002) she says, “Robin Goodfellow is sometimes described as having the head of a youth and the body of a goat. Like the god Pan, he has a lusty nature, small horns on his head, and carries musical pipes. It may be that he is the fairy remnant of the ancient horned god or nature spirits, since there originally seems to have been a race of pucks.”
There is also said to be a link between Puck, The Green Man and Robin Hood - all to an extent representing nature in its raw and wilful form. Mike Harding, author of A Little Book of the Green Man (1998), said in a 2010 letter to The Guardian:
Robin Hood and the woodland orgies
Of course there was no Robin Hood. The name is a corruption of Robin of the Wood or Robin in the Hood and refers to Robin Goodfellow/Puck, the spirit of the woods, a pagan nature god who lived on well beyond the Christianisation of this island (Robin is often quoted in witchcraft trials as the name the witches chose for their familiars). He was no "tricksy spirit" but a powerful green god – perhaps seen in one aspect in the images of the Green Man that adorn so many of our great medieval churches and cathedrals. Mayday (a movable feast dependent upon the first blossoming of the hawthorn) was the signal for all and sundry to hie them away to the woods for a mass orgy. Harsh winters and poor diet meant low fertility, so the best way to ensure a good stock of babies was for women to have as many sexual partners as possible.
Any children born of the woodland orgies that went under the name of the Robin Hood games became known as Robson, Robinson or Hudson (Robert Graves – The White Goddess). Men in tights might work very well for the film-makers and the tourist boards – green gods that encouraged fecund fornication probably wouldn't figure highly in the naming of airports. And Maid Marian? Mary the Virgin Mother, the maid, consort of the Green Man perhaps. Morris dancers? Well that phallic symbol the maypole was brought out of the woods accompanied by a gang of dancers – Morris men. (Mary's men?) Until Cromwell came along and did away with maypoles and bonking in the bower, England was a much more ribald and perhaps even merry place. Perhaps the Tories who want a Big Society and a return to merry England could revive the maypole and spontaneous and widespread woodland nookie – bit late to put it in the manifesto though.
Despite the comparative scarcity, at least 50 places in England feature the word "Puck," including:
Puckrup, Gloucestershire - the hamlet derives its name from Old English, meaning a "goblin-haunted farmstead". In local folklore, the locality is heavily associated with Puck (or Puca)
Puckaster Cove, Isle of Wight - mentioned frequently in local folklore regarding ‘fairy dances’.
Puckstye & Pockford, Surrey - relating to nearby fields and a centuries-old goblin/sprite-haunted pathway
Puckham Woods, Gloucestershire - associated with medieval witchcraft
Puckshipton, Wiltshire - strongly associated with sightings of goblins etc
According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898): Puck/Robin Goodfellow is both a "drudging fiend", and merry domestic fairy, famous for mischievous pranks and practical jokes. During late evenings Puck will sometimes perform small services for the family over which he ‘presides’. The Scots call this kind of domestic spirit a brownie; the Germans, Kobold or Knecht Ruprecht. Scandinavians called it Nissë God-dreng.
According to his mood, Puck would undertake minor housework, some fine needlework or butter-churning. He would assist housewives with their chores, in expectation of an offering of some fresh crusty white bread and creamy milk. If this were neglected, he would steal that which he believed was owed and enact other petty acts of retribution upon the householders.
After the Protestant Reformation, Puck became the subject of negative texts written by Protestant proselytisers, along with, of course, other supernatural entities. Edmond Bicknoll claimed he was born from the ‘fruit of infidelity’ and was a conspirator of the devil, whilst Reginald Scot referred to Puck as the ‘great and ancient bullbeggar’ and Edward Dering blamed the sprite for the ‘idle superstitions’ of medieval religion.
Contrary to the attacks from Protestant authorities, the belief in Robin Goodfellow and his fairy companions remained significant in early modern popular life, particularly in the realm of household. Indeed, in Bedfordshire, where I currently abide, local rustic families supposedly still give offerings and venerate the ‘Little Folk/Hobs/Lubber Fiends’ who will minister to their domiciliary needs, if appropriately placated.
The fear Puck could engenderer also led to other customs which were designed to prevent his punishments from occurring. For example, people would often leave out pails of water for the creatures to wash themselves. In 1731, George Waldron argued that this belief was still important, saying “a person would be thought impudently profane” to go to bed “without having first set a tub, or pail full of clean fresh cool water”, in order for “these guests to bathe themselves in”.
Which is nice. Maybe this accounts for the pails of water left by cottages in my locality; unless of course it’s meant for the squirrels and birds during the current heat wave.
Puck was portrayed as a cocky trickster who could also shape-shift to toy with the people he met, stating, “sometimes I meet them like a man, sometimes an oxe, sometimes a hound, and to a horse I turn me can.” His jolly japes ranged from ruining dinner parties by annoying guests, spooking people in their sleep and when in the mood, swapping human children for hideous elf-changelings.
Puck by Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Puck, as Robin Goodfellow, even appears in an 1856 speech by Karl Marx: "In the signs that bewilder the middle class, the aristocracy and the poor profits of regression, we recognize our brave friend Robin Goodfellow, the old mole that can work the earth so fast, that worthy pioneer – the Revolution."
In 1952, a woman named Mrs. C. Woods reported encountering a 3-foot-tall "elf" or sprite whilst yomping on Dartmoor. Apparently she initially mistook the peculiar little figure for an animal, but realized it was a "tiny man in brown" wearing a smock when she approached closer.
The Red Sprite, a form of upper-atmospheric lightning, is sometimes referred to as "Puck", a reference to mischievous nature spirits, inspiring the phenomenon's name. Whilst extremely rare, Red Sprites have been photographed and witnessed in the night skies of England during severe thunderstorms.
An Underworld Travel Guide - legendary ‘Gateways to Hell’ that still exist in Europe
The ‘Ploutonion’ at ancient Hierapolis (near modern Pamukkale in Turkey) was a religious site and a supposed entrance to hell dedicated to the grim god Pluto, he who ruled over the dead in Hades.
Discovered in 1965 by Italian archaeologists, and followed by studies carried out in 1998, the Ploutonion and the nearby Apollo's Oracle of Hierapolis are linked to a seismic fault, on which both sanctuaries were purposely built as part the Gateway to Hades/Hell/The Underworld. The site has been partially restored, with statues of Hades and his three-headed hound Cerberus now guarding the remains of the complex.
“Hellmouth” - Miniature from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, Morgan Library & Museum
Master of Catherine of Cleves, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Pluto’s sanctuary is built on top of a cave which emits lethal toxic gas; animals would be thrown into the cave and pulled back, instantly dead. Fumes emitted from the cavern are still fatal; passing birds have suffocated after breathing the fumes emanating from the site.
Lethal gas said to be sent by Pluto, god of the underworld
The Ploutonion is a small cave, large enough for one person to enter. Behind the roofed chamber is a deep cleft, through which fast-flowing hot water passes, releasing the lethal gas, said to be sent by Pluto, god of the underworld. The fumes were so strong they could kill a human within just one minute of exposure.
Gelded priests of Cybele (‘the Galli’) descended into the chamber, crawling on the floor to inhale pockets of oxygen, or simply holding their breath. They then returned to the surface claiming a miracle had occurred and they were uniquely under Pluto’s protection.
In front of the ‘Gateway’ an enclosed area of 22,000 square feet was covered by the swirling, deadly gas, instantly killing many who dared to enter this area, except for the wised-up servants of Pluto who were aware the gases pooled closer to the ground, so kept their mouths and noses above the deadly clouds below; unlike the animals (including bulls) that were led to their deaths. The acquisitive priests naturally sold birds and other animals to visitors, who used them to test the deathly air as sacrifices. But their regular exposure to the CO2 in the surrounding atmosphere would have doubtless contributed to the hallucinations and eccentric behaviour displayed by the Pluto’s servitors.
Greek historian Strabo (63 BC – c. 24 AD) described the gate: “Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell.”
For a fee, supplicants asked questions of Pluto’s human oracle, again topping up the sanctuary’s coffers; but when Christianity came to dominance, the area was closed off, and in time largely forgotten. The temple was mostly destroyed by an earthquakes in the 6th century AD.
But Pluto’s shrine is still deadly to some foolish enough to test the god.
Other ‘Hellgates’
The Roman Forum - home to no less than two entrances to Hades’ realm:
The Lacus Curtius
I’m a regular visitor to Rome’s fascinating ancient Forum; two sites are of particular interest to the investigators of esoterica.
The Lacus Curtis is arguably the most mysterious monument of the Roman Forum. The name suggests it was a lake, becoming smaller as drains were constructed, until a small dodecagonal basin was all that remained, called the Lacus Curtius. The Romans had three stories explaining the name. The first was that in 445 BC, lightning struck the area, and consul Gaius Curtius Philo ordered the construction of a fence around it. Livy (59 BCE - 17 CE) tells us that after the Rape of the Sabine Women, war broke out between the Romans and the Sabines, Roman champion Mettius Curtius, drowned in the marsh during the clash which was thereafter called the Lake of Curtius.
The third and most popular account says in 362 BC a great fiery cleft to the Underworld opened in the Roman Forum; seers claimed that to seal the fissure, Rome must throw "that what constituted the greatest strength of the Roman people" into the ravine. If they did so, Rome would last forever. The knight Marcus Curtius mounted his horse, pronouncing that youth was the most important thing, and jumped into the chasm, which then promptly closed.
To the east of the Lacus, the skeletons were discovered of a child, a woman and a man that were bound together and drowned in the lake, perhaps the victims of an ancient ritual, in which people were sacrificed by drowning ; perhaps the three were the profaners noted on the inscription on the nearby Black Stone (Lapis Niger).
Whosoever (will violate) this (grove), let him be cursed. (Let no one dump) refuse (nor throw a body ...). Let it be lawful for the king (to sacrifice a cow in atonement). (Let him fine) one (fine) for each (offence).
The Lacus Curtius was the place where the aged emperor Galba was lynched by soldiers on the fifteenth of January 69.
When Romulus founded the city, he instructed a circular pit be dug in the Forum. The first fruits of the year were then thrown in as a sacrifice; apparently in archaic times all new citizens of Rome had to throw in a handful of dirt from their place of origin. The Mundus was an underground structure considered a gate to the underworld, ritually opened just three days each year. These days were dies nefasti—on which official transactions were forbidden on religious grounds, because evil spirits rose from the Underworld to wander the city.
Porta Alchemica, aka The Alchemical Door, The Magic Portal or The Alchemy Gate
A way not to the Underworld, but to somewhere else...the mysterious.
Porta Magica
Master of Catherine of Cleves, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Alchemical Door, also known as the Alchemy Gate or Magic Portal (Italian: Porta Alchemica or Porta Magica), was built between 1678 and 1680 by Massimiliano Palombara, marquis (nobleman) of Pietraforte, in his residence the villa Palombara, located on the Esquiline Hill, near Piazza Vittorio in Rome. This is the only one of five former gates of the villa that remains.
In a story collected by Francesco Cancellieri in 1802, a pilgrim suspiciously named ‘Stibeum’ (‘Antimony’ - a brittle silvery-white poisonous metal) was a guest in the villa for a night. That night, the pilgrim, identified later as alchemist Giuseppe Francesco Borri/Giustiniano Bon, scoured the gardens of the villa in search of an obscure herb capable of concocting gold. The next morning, he disappeared through a door, leaving behind flakes of gold and a mysterious paper full of puzzling symbols and equations, describing the ingredients and transmutative process required.
The marquis had these symbols engraved on the five gates of the villa Palombara and on the walls of the mansion, hoping that one day they would be translated. Another legend holds that between 1678 and 1680, the same Giuseppe Francesco Borri along with Athanasius Kircher and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, designed and built the gate for the marquis. The marquis Palombara developed a passion for alchemy in 1656, when he visited the alchemical laboratory in Riario Palace, now known as Palazzo Corsini. It was rumoured that Palombara, Bernini and Kircher were all poisoned on 28 November 1680, probably by Borri, for having revealed the secret formulas through the inscriptions on the gate. Cancellieri published his account in 1806, including his interpretation of the inscriptions on the Porta Alchimica. His work was published much later in June 1895 in French by Pietro Bornia as an issue of the periodical L'Initiation.
Inscriptions on the Porta Alchemica include alchemy symbols and incantations
Around the circle at top: “The centre is in the triangle of the centre.”
Also: “There are three marvels: God and man, mother and virgin, triune and one.” And the Hebrew inscription, Ruach Elohim, meaning “Spirit of God.”
Beneath: “The Hesperius dragon guards the entrance of the magic garden, and, without Alcides, Jason would not have tasted the delights of Colchis.”
There are six sigils on the jambs, each with its phrase.
Saturn/Lead:“When in your house black crows give birth to white doves, then you will be called wise.”
Jupiter/Tin: “The diameter of the sphere, the tau of the circle, the cross of the globe do not benefit the blind.”
Mars/Iron:“He who can burn with water and wash with fire, makes heaven from earth and precious earth from heaven.”
Venus/Bronze: “If you will make the earth fly upon your head, you will convert the waters of torrents to stone by its feathers.”
Mercury: “Azoth and Fire: by whitening Latona, Diana will come without dress.” Antimony: “Our son lives dead, the king returns from the fire, and enjoys the occult conjunction.”
On the base, Vitriol: “It is occult work of true wise to open the earth, so as he may germinate health/safety for people.”
In another plate, now lost, was the device VILLAE IANUAM TRANANDO RECLUDENS IASON OBTINET LOCUPLES VELLUS MEDEAE 1680 (Passing by opening the door of the villa, Iason obtained the rich fleece of Medea 1680).
And on the doorstep, “SI SEDES NON IS,” a palindrome, meaning both “If you sit, you do not go,” and “If you do not sit, you go.”
The Statues
The figures on both sides of the ‘door’ represent the Egyptian god/semi-divinity Bes. A patron of the home, childbirth, and infants in ancient Egypt, Bes was well-known in imperial Rome, where in pre-Christian age several people followed Egyptian cults.
Originally, the statues were found on the Quirinal Hill, where there once stood a huge temple dedicated to the Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis; over centuries its rich decorations, reliefs and small obelisks were dug up and ‘relocated’ to ornament different parts of the city.
In 1888, during the works for the opening of Piazza Vittorio, the statues were moved from their original location to the Porta Alchemica - and therefore were not part of the original design.
And briefly, some other European ‘hellmouths’
The lake at Lerna, Greece
Lerna was one of the entrances to the Underworld, and one could gain entry to the netherworld via the Alcyonian Lake. The lake is called "the Lake of Darkness" in Shakespeare's King Lear.
According to Pausanias (110-180 AD), “There is no limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake, and I know of nobody who by any contrivance has been able to reach the bottom of it since not even Nero, who had ropes made several stades long and fastened them together, tying lead to them, and omitting nothing that might help his experiment, was able to discover any limit to its depth. This, too, I heard. The water of the lake is, to all appearance, calm and quiet but, although it is such to look at, every swimmer who ventures to cross it is dragged down, sucked into the depths, and swept away.”
Cave of the Sibyl, Cumae, Italy
Entrance to the Cave of the Sibyl, Cumae
Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Cumaean Sibyl was a priestess who presided over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony near Naples. Her cave was discovered by Amedeo Maiuri in 1932, basing his identification on the description by Virgil in the 6th book of the Aeneid. The cave is a trapezoidal passage over 131m long, running parallel to the side of the hill and cut out of the volcanic tuff stone, and leads to an innermost chamber where the Sibyl was thought to have prophesied, aided by volcanic fumes direct from Hades, or perhaps additional pharmaceutical help. A younger Claudius consulted the Sibyl in I Claudius:
“What groans beneath the Punic curse and strangles in the strings of purse before she mends must sicken worse. Ten years, fifty days and three, Clau-Clau-Claudius shall be given thee a gift that all desire but he. But when he's done, and no more here, nineteen hundred year or near, Clau-Clau-Claudius shall speak clear.”
"The hairy sixth to enslave the State/ Shall be son, no son, of this hairy last./ he shall give Rome fiddlers and fear and fire./ His hand shall be red with a parent's blood./ No hairy seventh to him succeeds/ And blood shall gush from his tomb." (Referring to Nero)
A tunnel complex in nearby Baiae (part of the volcanically active Phlegraean Fields) leads to an underground, geothermally heated stream that conforms to the description in the Aeneid of Aeneas's journey to the underworld and back
Lake Avernus, Italy
Lake Avernus was once synonymous with Hell/the Underworld. Its name means ‘birdless’ in classical Greek, due to the toxic fumes (them again) seeping from the area, which, like Cumae, is part of the Phlegraean Fields of dormant/semi-active volcanoes. The ancient Roman believed Lake Avernus was the entrance to Hades, and its name grew to be a synonym for the underworld itself. In Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas descends to Hades through a cave near the lake.
St. Patrick’s Purgatory, Ireland
Christian tradition links Patrick to Ireland’s Station Island (Lough Derg, County Donegal), where Christ showed St Patrick a cave, sometimes referred to as a pit or a well, that was an entrance to Hell. Legend maintains that St. Patrick was depressed by the doubts of his potential converts, who demanded proof of the Creed. St. Patrick earnestly prayed to God to aid him in converting the heathen Irish, and in return, Jesus revealed to him the hole where Purgatory could be seen; a place in which the joys of Heaven and torments of Hell may apparently be glimpsed rather than actually experienced. This supposedly convinced those pagan-backsliders who gaped into the chasm. Not technically an underworld entrance to Hell, but more a spiritual peep-show of sorts.
The cave has been closed since October 25th 1632, but descriptions by early pilgrims survive, referring to it as a cave or cellar or an enclosed pit. The entrance was narrow: about 0.6 m (2 ft) wide and 0.9 m (3 ft) high. Once inside there was a short descent of about six steps. The cave was divided into two parts: the first was about 3 m (9 ft) long, probably with banked sides and only high enough to kneel in; after a turn there was another niche about 1.5 m (5 ft) long.[5] The site has never been excavated, so we can only rely at this point on these descriptions of the cave. It was probably an ancient pre-Christian structure, likely an ancient sweat house. People would enter these enclosed places to inhale medicinal smoke produced by burning various plants, a place that people went to for physical or spiritual healing of some kind.
Cape Matapan Caves, Greece
The caves at Cape Matapan lie at the end of the Mani peninsula in Greece. The entrance to the caverns is located at sea level, leading to chambers under the cliff face; marked by the ruins of a Spartan temple on top of the cliff. The Ancient Greeks believed in several different entrances to the underworld, of which Matapan is the most famous.
Mount Etna
Etna was thought in ancient times to be the forge of Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire and blacksmithing. The rumbling of the volcano was assumed to be the hammer of Hephaestus striking his anvil. Etna was also believed to be a gateway to Hell.
In later times, the Devil left his footprint on the volcano and he whisked Elizabeth I there as she lay dying.
Hekla, Iceland
Iceland’s Hekla volcano was believed to be another ‘Gateway to Hell’. The activity at Hekla, which includes lava flows and fountaining, looking like a veritable Hell on Earth; birds that were seen flying in the area were thought to be damned souls queueing to enter the Pit. Hekla still carries an evil aura for the superstitious, for they claim it is where witches gather to meet Satan himself.
Houska Castle
Houska Castle in the Czech Republic is infamous for a legend claiming it was built over another toxic "Gateway to Hell". The gassy fissure was allegedly so deep that no one could see the bottom of it; animal-human hybrids supposedly crawled out of it, and dark-winged, otherworldly creatures flew in the vicinity. When construction began on the castle, prisoners that were sentenced to death were offered a pardon if they agreed to be lowered by rope into the hole, and reported back on what they saw. When the first person was dangled, he began screaming after a few seconds, and when pulled back to the surface, he looked as if he had aged 30 years. Houska’s inhabitants include a bullfrog/human creature, a headless horse, and an old woman as well as the remains of "demonic beasts who escaped the pit".
Fun Fact: the courtyard walls face inwards, as if to keep something in.
The castle was the inspiration for Michael Mann’s 1983 motion picture The Keep? - especially since in World War II, the Wehrmacht occupied the castle and the Nazis were said to have conducted occult experiments there.
Cresswell Crags
Creswell Crags is an enclosed limestone gorge on the border between the English counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Its caves contain the northernmost cave art in all of Europe, as well as hundreds of later ‘witch marks’ recently discovered there. One collection of scratchings, carved around a four-foot round hole in one of the caves, is said to warn of an entrance to the Underworld.
Hell’s Gate, the East Riding of Yorkshire
Close to the Cresswell Crags, but not really an entrance to Hell as such, but the burial place of thirteen decapitated Anglo-Saxon ‘criminals’. Their heads had probably been displayed on poles as warnings to others, a known practice in Anglo-Saxon England. The use of an ancient pre-Saxon barrow site for the mass grave indicates the executed were excluded from the community, even unto death. The site had been known locally as ‘Hell's Gate’ – suggesting an enduring folk memory from its days as a public execution site.
More Eerie Underworld Entrances
The are other entrances to Hades in the UK, including close to where I currently live.
Marston Moretaine’s (Bedfordshire) - Devil's Stone, marks the spot where Old Nick played a game of leapfrog with three foolish local lads. When they leapt over his back, an entrance to hell opened, and they were never seen again. The Horned One was showing off his muscles to villagers and lifted the tower away from the main body of the building, but had to drop it when his back hurt.
Not an entrance to hell as such - but of interest I hope to readers; standing outside the west side of St Giles-in-the-Fields in central London, is a gateway built in 1800 by William Leverton.
This is actually a cast of a much earlier original oak panel, kept inside the church, apparently carved in 1687 by someone called Love. It depicts the Resurrection, with Jesus standing in the centre while angels proclaim judgement day and cadavers clamber out of the graves to await their fate. One side shows the godly ascending to heaven (at the right hand of God), the other those fated to eternal damnation.
From Ornamental Passions:
The tympanum depicts Christ bursting onto the world in a blaze of light, announced by angels with trumpets filling the sky. Beneath his feet, a nasty little imp with bat's wings, tail and claws scuttles off to her master, Satan, who stands in the mouth of Hell at the bottom right hand corner (which is on Christ's left, or sinister, hand). Flames and smoke belch from the infernal regions, as sinners are dragged down to eternal torment. All along the bottom, graves spring open and the dead arise, some as skeletons, others as rather gruesome shrouded corpses. An angel holds a naked man with one hand, pointing heavenwards with the other. Another man grasps him by the leg, hoping to get a lift to glory. Two women sing and play the harp as they arise.
Extra:
Hellam Township in the US, near York, Pennsylvania, is the subject of a modern urban legend claiming that it contains the Seven Gates of Hell.
Plus some related motion pictures:
The Gate (1987)
Antrum (2018)
As Above, So Below (2014) - ‘The Gates of Hell’ scene
