Oracle Of The Green Sight

Thomas Becket: The Martyr Who Haunted a Kingdom From Royal Servant to Restless Spirit 1. A Priest Made Out of a Courtier The story of Thomas Becket is one of the most astonishing transformations in medieval history. For years, he was King Henry II's most trusted confidant and Chancellor—a lavishly dressed courtier, a skilled politician, and a notorious hunter. The King believed that by elevating his friend to Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, he would finally bring the English Church under royal control. But Becket, once consecrated, became a new man. He shed his silk robes for sackcloth and began a life of ascetic piety, shocking his contemporaries who saw him as "reborn," 1 which only intensified the friction with the Crown. Becket’s resolve was absolute, setting the stage for one of history's most gruesome confrontations. 2. The Murder in the Cathedral The escalating conflict culminated on December 29, 1170, when four of Henry II’s knights stormed C...

When the Veil Grows Thin If there’s one thing you should know about me: I have loved Halloween since I was born. 🎃 The scent of fallen leaves, the glow of jack-o’-lanterns, the thrill of costumes, the whisper of ghosts in the cool night air — I adore all of it. Halloween, to me, is a season of atmosphere and imagination, equal parts playful and mysterious. Note: If you’ve been following along with my paranormal timeline series, you know we’ve been moving step by step through history. This post marks a seasonal special edition for Halloween — a little lantern-light detour into the traditions and folklore of All Hallows’ Eve. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing multiple posts in this series alongside our main journey. But here’s something worth saying at the outset: what most people think Halloween is, and what it really is, are not the same thing. We live in an era of costumes, candy, and haunted houses — but underneath the fun and the commercial flash is ...

Just last night, I wandered through the bright lights and spinning rides of the North Georgia State Fair at Jim R. Miller Park, taking in the scents of funnel cakes, popcorn, and sweet treats drifting through the warm evening air. I was intoxicated—not just by the food, but by the sheer magic of it all: the laughter of children, the calliope music floating over the crowd, the shimmer of lights reflected in the Ferris wheel's mirrors. Amid all the joy and chaos, though, I couldn’t help but wonder: what if the echoes of the past never really leave? What if the fairgrounds held secrets beyond the flashing lights, shadows that moved when no one was watching, whispers of stories long forgotten? That thought stayed with me as I explored, and it inspired this collection of chilling tales from real-life fairgrounds across the South. Special Edition: Carnival of the Cursed: Fairground Ghost Stories The old saying goes, "The show must go on." But what happens when th...

Saint Hildegard of Bingen: Visionary, Mystic, and the Greening Force Saint Hildegard of Bingen: Visionary, Mystic, and the Greening Force Before returning to our exploration of witchcraft, I couldn’t resist pausing to share the story of Saint Hildegard of Bingen . She was a woman ahead of her time—visionary, healer, musician, and mystic—whose influence stretched far beyond the cloister walls. To know Hildegard is to glimpse the living pulse of medieval spirituality, one that spoke of creation’s beauty, healing power, and divine mystery. Visions and the Voice of the Divine From childhood, Hildegard experienced vivid visions—intensely colored, symbolic, and filled with light. At first, she kept them secret, fearing ridicule. But eventually, under pressure from spiritual advisors, she wrote them down. The result was Scivias (“Know the Ways”), a sprawling record of cosmic images that she insisted were divinely inspired. [1] The Greening Force (Viriditas) Hil...

Relics, Saints, and Miracles: Sacred Power in Medieval Christianity When we think of the medieval world, we often imagine stone cathedrals, chanting monks, and knights in shining armor. But for the people who actually lived in that time, daily life was alive with the sense that the holy was never far away. Relics, saints, and miracles weren’t abstract doctrines — they were concrete presences, shaping everything from politics to medicine, pilgrimage to punishment. In many ways, these sacred forces were the medieval version of the paranormal: unseen powers breaking into the world in ways that demanded belief, fear, and awe. Relics: Bones, Blood, and the Tangible Sacred Relics were the physical remains of saints — bones, hair, clothing, even drops of blood. To medieval Christians, they were more than keepsakes: they radiated divine power. Cities and monasteries competed fiercely to acquire them, believing relics could protect against invasion, bring prosperity, or heal...

The Hidden Hierarchies: Angelic Imagination in the Medieval Imagination The Hidden Hierarchies: Angelic Imagination in the Medieval Imagination The Hidden Hierarchies: Angelic Imagination in the Medieval Imagination Angels in the medieval world were not mere decoration. They were power, presence, and explanation — guardians that hovered at the edges of the visible world, messengers who intervened in battle and plague, and beings who sometimes came so close that men and women spoke of them as if they had touched them. When we strip angels down to ribbons of gold and cherubic postcard figures, we lose what made them vital to medieval faith and fear. If you want to understand how earlier people experienced the unseen, you follow the angels: into battlefields, into plague wards, into the solitary ecstasies of mystics, and into the whispered folklore of villages. Below I trace that landscape — theology and story braided together...

The Queen of Shadows: The Djinn Legacy of Sheba By now, we’ve already crossed paths with the djinn. Back in Demonology 101 , I touched on them alongside angels and demons, and later in Not of Heaven or Hell: The Mysterious Djinn , I explored what sets them apart — beings made of smokeless fire, living neither in heaven nor in hell, but in their own hidden world. But the djinn don’t just belong to folklore whispered in the desert wind. Their presence stretches into the legends of kings and queens, threading itself through some of the most powerful stories of the ancient world. And few tales capture this shadowy connection more than the encounter between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba . Solomon and His Spirits Solomon — or Sulayman , as he is remembered in Islamic tradition — wasn’t merely a wise king. He was a ruler of the seen and the unseen. The Qur’an describes how djinn were forced to serve him: they built his palaces, carried his treasures, and bent their fire-bo...

A Magical Adventure on Lookout Mountain: Cravens House and the Whimsical Cottage Beside It A Magical Adventure on Lookout Mountain: Cravens House and the Whimsical Cottage Beside It Discovering Cravens House Sometimes the best adventures aren’t the ones we carefully plan, but the ones that surprise us along the way. That’s exactly what happened the day I set out with three of my girlfriends to explore Lookout Mountain . We had been craving something different — something fun, close enough to home that it wouldn’t turn into a long trip, but still far enough to feel like an escape. Lookout Mountain seemed like the perfect choice. We wanted big views, a little history, and just the feeling of being somewhere out of the ordinary. When we arrived, though, it wasn’t quite what we pictured. The mountain was crowded, much more crowded than we wanted to deal with. Tourists, families, cars filling every available space — even the overlooks were packed so tightly that ...