I’m really liking the wet hybrid look. Especially for someone with fine/sparse lashes. #wetlashes #hybridlashes #cammynguyenllc #lashedlaine #lashextensions #hermosabeach #lashtech #lashboss #lashlove #lashpro #lashqueen #blacklashtech #latinalashtech (at Hermosa Beach, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckw4590OZmr/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Your ask won't let me submit a question.

It says you’re from the East Coast of the States. WHat spirits do you “work” with(for lack of better term) and how did you come into contact? I ask because I live in Northern California and although I have Cherokee ancestry there are little references to local spirits save the wetlash and the tribal spirits are not ones of my Nation.Besides I’m mostly European.

[We’ll look into why it wouldn’t let you send an ask!]

Mother Mercy here, speaking as someone with tangential Cherokee heritage myself. I would not count myself as Cherokee unless you can name the ancestor in your bloodline who makes you so. This is the basic requirement to gain your tribal card. (Even with the ability to get my tribal card personally, I hesitate. I haven’t lived on a reservation. I don’t know the language. There is no current relationship with that heritage for me.) If you’re “mostly European,” and don’t or can’t trace that heritage with confidence, I’d say let it go. Regardless, pursuing a connection to Northern Californian spirits with Cherokee heritage is fruitless. The Cherokee Nation never lived so far west or north.

Father Farthing here! Mother Mercy covered the native blood part, which is something I have no experience with, so I’ll focus on the other. The spirits I work with – which, I personally would consider “work” to be an appropriate term, because our relationship is one that is based on reaching goals – are land spirits. These go by a variety of names, the most popular of which are genius locii and landvaettir. The latter is a Norse term, the former with Roman origins and more commonly used.

Each place is influenced deeply by its ecology, environment, and history – both human and natural, and these shape and give character and form to the spirits that inhabit and oversee them. They are everywhere, in every city and every field and every biome. A land spirit may be that of a forest or of a single city block, and are tied to an animistic perspective of the world. Just as each stone, book, card, and home has a spirit, so does every place.

I’ll be publishing a post on calling and courting spirits in my practice sometime soon, as my work allows, but the shorter version is two-fold. 

First, I have (and you have) always been in contact with land spirits by virtue of living, working, sleeping, and interacting with the places you do on a day to day basis. You share the same home. You have never truly been alone.

Second, to call and formally meet for the very first time, I had spent a great deal of time researching and reading texts on spirits and in particular familiar spirits. I purchased a small jar of local honey and some full fat milk and mixed a portion of the former into the latter. I chose my place, with the spirit I felt closest to from my affection for the area and for my learning and understanding of it and its seasons and processes, and I sat in a place where water met land and sky.

 I poured half of the mixture to the earth and offered it, and sipped the other half myself, a sharing and a savoring. I fell into a trance state after a couple of attempts at meditation, watching the ripples on the water, until I felt the spirit come. A pressure that welled up, and shadows across my mind’s eye, and an unmistakable presence. I greeted it, and I claimed kinship with it and I bound it by things we shared and things we did not share. 

I asked it for three gifts and I made it three promises.

I also shared and gave away a piece of my soul for a piece of its own. I tell you this as a cautionary point. Land spirits are not so easily researched and read as Goetic ones, and some would argue that they are not so strong. I personally disagree, based on my experiences. I would warn those who seek land spirits that while they can offer great gifts, it must always be remembered that they are and will always be first and foremost of their land. 

They are wild. Some are more human in mannerism than others; some are more curious or more bold or more apparently friendly; some are malicious. I do not regret the deal I made with my devil, but it has had consequences and continues to have consequences sometimes when I least expect them. I was significantly younger, and more foolish. I am still humbled by the things I did not and do not yet know, so I tell you this: be bold and seek them out if you wish! Bring milk, and honey, and eggs, and apples, and sweet things or fresh meat or strong drink – coffee, tea, or liquor dependent upon the spirit in question – or smokes. Ask and receive. But take care to know what exactly you have traded away for your power and your sovereignty, and learn how to manage the consequence. 

I currently work with two land spirits, primarily. One presides over my bioregion, and the other is sunken deep in a very human place near my home, seeped into the earth and pervading the air and pounded in by the intensity of human life during World War 2.  They are very different creatures. Others I have met and greeted and started and been startled by on my travels and around my home, and we pass amicably or one of us respectfully keeps our head down. The world is wide and deep and rich, and I love it. Find your ancestral roots if you wish, and learn about the ways that they went about interacting with spirits – look to the myths and legends and little scraps of folklore and idiom that you have lived with and never thought twice about! Or grab a book or three and see how people you don’t know have done it, and dare to try.

Fair fortunes.

Mother Mercy here again. I just realized I’ve been sitting on this for a while like a derp. Sorry about that!

As for me, I’ve had great experiences with the Irish pantheon. But when I worked in Ireland, the deities that were loudest there were Norse gods. (I was in Dublin most days, so that made sense.) That experience illustrates an interesting point. You’re so used to the gods and spirits that already walk your world, you probably aren’t even noticing them. Open up your mind to what the sensation would be for you if you were able to look up and see writing in the tree branches. Don’t assume that everything will be loud and flash. You’ll know in your bones when you’ve made a connection. There is no denying it.

As for me now, I’m slowly building a good flow with the Black Man (or Man o’ Black, as I prefer to call him), the local devil around my neck of the woods. I definitely work more with historically attested gods and spirits right now, because of where I am in my research and practice. 

Not to plug books, but I’ve seen good reviews coming down the pike for Besom, Stang and Sword, which hopefully will speak to your plight. 

Best of luck!

A NEW issue of “Paranormal Underground” magazine is now online at http://paranormalunderground.net. In this issue we feature the haunted Orient Express, three amazing cases of USO contact, a Wetlash sighting, time machines, dream recall, grounding, and several paranormal experiences.

Dogman of Laguna Creek Wetlands

Ghosts & The Supernatural – Sacramento County actually has many cryptids. There are stories of giant salamanders that can be found along the Sacramento River and Laguna Creek Wetlands. There are stories of Mothman perching on top of the Tower Bridge. There is a story about a water sprite called a Wetlash in the Sacramento River and don’t let me forget, there are stories and sightings of a large (sea serpent) aka River Serpent in the Sacramento River. Sacramento is actually a hotbed of the paranormal. I’m not even going to mention UFO sightings, airship sightings in the 1800s and the many ghosts, shadow people, demons and poltergeist activity that haunt the homes of Sacramento County. Oops! I guess I did mention ghosts & UFOs. My apologies, let’s get back to cryptids.  Many times I have my ghost busting signs on my Kia Forte aka the Rusty Anomaly and people will ask for my HPI (Halo Paranormal Investigations) business card. While driving with my psychic dogs Hi-Pee and Princess Hannah, along with their poodle friend AJ and looking for a good place to walk in the Wetlands, I was stopped by Darion Wilcox who is visiting his friends in Elk Grove. Darion is actually from Seattle, WA and he is staying in Elk Grove for one week. Darion tells me that his grandmother used to live on a ranch in Elk Grove near Francesca and Franklin Blvd. He makes claim that his grandmother (known as Sarah) saw a Dogman type of creature in the fields. Sarah says at first she saw the unusual creature on all fours sniffing around the open field and then it raised up, it had to be at least 6’1″.

The Dogman type of creature now became bipedal and was walking around on two feet. The Dogman creature saw Sarah and turned around suddenly and let out a horrible screeching sound. Sarah ran back to the ranch terrified. This all happened in the Summer of 1962. Darion claims that he has heard reports from his friends that to this day, Dogman is at times seen in the Wetlands.

His friends claim that Dogman has red eyes, but if you look at him directly, his eyes seem to change to a bright silver color. Dogman’s face is somewhat like a German Shepherd with a distinct snout. I asked Darion if I could talk with his friends and he says that his friends would never want their identity to be known and associated with the Dogman, because people will think they are crazy. Darion says he does not mind if his name is published in this article, because he lives out of state. Darion even mentions that ghostly dogs have been seen in the Wetlands, but they look shadowy. What is interesting about what Darion says, is that I had two dogs, a black Chow named T-Rex and a Jack Russell Terrier named Pika, both are deceased and both dogs loved walking in the Wetlands.

My wife Deanna Jaxine Stinson, a sensitive picked up on both dogs in our home and has felt their presence in the Wetlands. After T-Rex died, I smelled him in the bedroom and Pika went crazy and kept looking at the patio door where he would hang out at. My former roommates have seen Pika in the garage. Some psychics in HPI claim that they have seen T-Rex and Pika walking together on the Laguna Creek trail. Is it possible that maybe people are seeing the spirit of T-Rex or even Pika and believe they are seeing the Dogman?

Since I have been a paranormal investigator and have been on over a 1000 investigations, I have never heard a report about a Dogman in Sacramento County, until now. I did a Google search on Dogman Sacramento and to my surprise, I found this: https://dogmanencounters.com/sacramento-county-ca-encounter/

It appears that Sacramento has one more cryptid. If anyone has any other reports of Dogman in Sacramento, I would like to hear about it.

Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective Halo Paranormal Investigations (HPI International) https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/HPIinternational/

Dogman of Laguna Creek Wetlands syndicated from http://ylangylangbeachresort.com/