Since this is the second official full-length video episode of Homepsun Haints, you can watch it on YouTube.

Or audiophiles can listen right here:

About the Guest: Stacey Williams-Ng

Stacey is a versatile visual artist whose work ranges from intricate, palm-sized images on cards, to fleeting temporary chalk art, to breathtaking, three-story-tall murals. She’s also a self-proclaimed rabid ancestry buff. Craving a better way to communicate with the spirits of her ancestors from the American South, she created the Southern Gothic Oracle deck. And, after researching how to publish an oracle deck, she realized that the best way to keep the printing local and the quality tip-top would be to found her own publishing company. Thus was born La Panthere Studio, a hub for indie oracle card decks and other uncommon divination tools.

Stacey has been interviewed by other media, including MemphisVoyager and Radio Milwaukee. She is a frequent speaker at events like Staarcon.

Find out more about Stacey’s artwork at her website, staceywilliamsng.com. Her most recent oracle deck, Roses, Dust & Ashes, won “Best Indie Deck of 2023” by the World Divination Association. That’s the deck that comes in a coffin-shaped box with a velvet pillow! You can shop for your next ancestor communication oracle deck at La Panthere Studio. For updates, follow the oracle deck publishing company on IG @lapantherestudio. Or you can follow Stacey specifically @southerngothicoracle.

Communicating with Ancestors

Pop quiz time! What tarot cards would you use to communicate the message “your great uncle Filbur buried a box of gold coins under the big red oak at the edge of the woods”?

Even if you’re able to cobble together an answer, this quiz isn’t for you. It’s for the ancestral spirit of your great aunt. What’s that? She never learned to read tarot cards?

Hmm…sounds like you might need an oracle deck.

What is an Oracle Deck?

An oracle deck is a divination tool made of cards with images (and sometimes words) that represent different concepts. Unlike tarot cards, the meaning of each oracle card is usually somewhat intuitive. Depending on the oracle deck, interpreting these cards might also be easier for beginners to learn than tarot.

They might also make more sense to the ancestors you’re trying to communicate with. The Southern Gothic Oracle is based on traditional imagery and legend from the American South. Stacey designed it that way so that her ancestors—most recently American Southerners—could communicate with her in symbols they were familiar with.

How to Use an Oracle Deck for Ancestor Communication

• Choose your oracle deck; there are many out there! If you’re wondering how to choose, just remember Stacey’s epiphany. Talk to your ancestors in a language they’ll understand.
• Queue up your oracle deck playlist. Stacey actually created a playlist to use while reading the Southern Gothic Oracle Cards.
• Do whatever it is you do to juice up your mojo: gather your coven, cast a circle, take a deep breath, stuff like that.
• Address your ancestors. You might be interested in speaking with a specific ancestor, but Stacey tells us this path is a little misguided. After all, the ancestor you are trying to summon might not be available. Better to ask for a volunteer.
• Can’t figure out which ancestor is communicating with you? Use a family tree and a divination pendulum to quickly get a name. In today’s episode, Stacey shared her journey of figuring out she was communicating with her great grandmother Angela. Fortunately, Angela basically smacked her in the head with the information.

Ghost Hunting with a Spirit Box App

Stacey also told us a ghost story about her séance at a grand Victorian mansion in the Mississippi Delta. Built in 1890’s, the huge house is currently an AirBnB that sleeps 18. Stacey and some friends got to spend the night in the haunted mansion, all alone. There, they encountered an entity who might have been named Doreen. Maybe. After all, they were relying on information from one of those notoriously hokey ghost hunting apps.

Is the Ghost Hunting App Real or Fake?

It was difficult for Stacey to put her faith in the spirit box app that evening. Especially after it started spouting nonsense that seemed planted to freak out tweens at a slumber party. Then, the messages started to change; started to make sense and form a cohesive story.

Stacey’s conclusion from this experience was a revelation. Even if a ghost hunting app is programmed to give fake answers, why couldn’t an actual spirit take it over to offer real communication?

How Do You Communicate With Your Ancestors?

So now we want to hear from you, Hainted Loves! Submit your true ghost story here, and you could be a guest on a future episode of Homespun Haints! What were the best spooky experiences you’ve had with a ghost-hunting app? Has any ghost detector convinced you that it can really work to talk to the dead? Have you been able to use divination tools like a spirit box app or an oracle deck for ancestor communication? How did you determine which ancestor was communicating with you, and did you find out any juicy family secrets? Be careful who you summon, because when you’re a spooky witch practicing divination in the Bible Belt, you’re just asking for a spooky day!

The post Spooky Witch Divination in the Bible Belt appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Episode Summary

Some people avoid ghosts at all costs, and some people run to them. One person, in particular, also collects haunted objects (including haunted dolls), investigates haunted abandoned hospitals on her own, and does it all while living in a portable home so she can spend more time at these haunted locations.

Lady Teal is an artist, podcaster, writer, marketing specialist, collector, and haunted travel agent, and she has some very interesting stories to tell.

AI-generated transcript of this episode available upon request.

About the Guest: Lady Teal, AKA Katie Brittle

Katie is a full-time traveler and collector of haunted dolls and other oddities. She has a dream of someday opening a haunted museum. In the meantime, she’s been broadcasting live ghost hunts.

“Through photography, curiosity collecting, and podcasting, I try to unveil captivating stories and objects, while my day-time-job involves creative directing and crafting enchanting brand experiences. As an event and travel planner I organize immersive spectacles, and as a paranormal investigator, I love delving into the world of the unseen. I always encourage people to Stay Curious.” -From ladytealscurios.com.

Follow Katie on Tiktok @lady_teals_curios, IG @ladytealscurios, and Youtube @ladytealscurios.

Keep an eye out for Katie’s stories, published in The Feminine Macabre this Summer!

Episode Show Notes

“It literally felt like something was pushed through me.”

Can you intentionally mass-produce haunted objects?

With the number of Etsy listings for a “real haunted dybbuk box” skyrocketing, you can’t blame us for being a little skeptical that these haunted items are really so readily available. In a past episode, Katie told the story of supposedly haunted vodka that was aged near Annabelle the doll. Are these just gimmicks? Or do these shenanigans result in a reliably haunted object? Check out this episode where we explore this topic further.

How to get to know your new tarot cards

Katie never expected to be one of those tarot people who has 3 decks in her purse at all times, just in case. Yet tarot decks can be addictive, and one is rarely enough. Each deck has a different interpretation, and a different meaning. Some even have completely different cards.

Katie’s first deck was the Wild Unknown Tarot, which she calls “a good starter deck.” In this episode, she tells the story of how she bonded with the deck upon bringing it home with her. Becky has also had a strange experience with a new deck speaking to her audibly in the quiet language of shuffling.

Step 1: Introduce yourself to your new tarot deck

You can do this vocally, or with visualization and energy. Maybe flip through the deck. You could pull out the cards you really like the artwork on, or the cards you tend to draw over and over if you’re a seasoned self-reader.

Step 2: Tell the tarot cards your intentions

How do you plan to use the cards? This seems obvious sometimes, but there are probably some specific details you can come up with. Are you using these cards for paid readings? Just for friends? For your own private use? Are you seeking guidance through a current obstacle, to understand someone else’s motivations better, or to divine the future? Are you trying to talk to the deceased? Just want to draw a random card for daily inspiration? Explaining this to the deck might help with the next step, in which you can determine if this is the right choice for your needs.

Step 3: Do a reading only about the tarot deck

Allow it to tell you what it’s intentions are. Try asking aloud, “tell me about you, what I should expect from using this deck, and how would you prefer to be used?” This reading will be only about the deck and how it intends to interact with you on an ongoing basis.

If the reading is extra salty, maybe use a different deck when you’re feeling moody and vulnerable. Or, if the reading is obtuse and vague, maybe use a different deck when you need a quick, straightforward answer. And if the reading is super poignant, informative, interesting, and helpful, use this deck all the time! We all need more of these types of readings in our lives.

Step 4: Sleep with the new tarot deck under your pillow

Unless you find that uncomfortable; then sleep with the cards under your bed. You may just have a dream about how bonding with your new tarot cards is going to go.

Curious Haunted Places Mentioned in this Episode

Katie has collected some pretty amazing real EVP at some of these locations.

• Americus, GA, where Katie experienced the strange connection with her friend, and where there’s apparently a very haunted hotel.
• Ajo, AZ paranormal research facility built in an old hospital.
• Bradshaw Ranch in Sedona, AZ, home to cryptids, vortices, and and haunted ruins.
• Historic Scott County Jail.
• Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, GA.

Getting to know your new tarot cards and old haunted dolls

Well Hainted Loves, what do you think? Let us know how you get to know your new tarot cards in our Facebook group. If you have a story about a haunted doll, submit it for a chance to be featured on a future episode of Homespun Haints Podcast. And for goodness’ sake, if you give a friend a haunted doll, at least potty train it first, or you’re setting them up for a spooky day!

The post A Traveling Home for Wayward Haunted Dolls appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Episode Trigger Warning

This episode contains true stories involving domestic violence, child abuse, and suicide. Nothing excessively graphic, but be aware.

AI-generated transcript of this episode available upon request.

Show Notes

What is the trick to telepathy?

Leon recommended to mentally become the other person, see/hear them, visualize yourself using their lips to speak in their voice. Give them a firm command. Then, purposefully forget all about it. Leon says you’ll know you’re doing it wrong if the person doesn’t get your message.

Diana sees this theory of telepathy as a form of communication, whereas Becky sees it as a form of mind control. How do you see it?

Is it telepathy or precognition?

How can you tell the difference between making things happen with your mind, and just knowing what is going to happen? Leon says it’s all about control and making decisions. But there’s some evidence nowadays that some things that we believe we are making decisions about (like muscle contractions) actually start happening before the conscious decision is made. Diana thinks in light of this new fascinating evidence, this is worth more discussion.

Does magical ability wane as you grow up?

Appropriately to his own Robinson Age, teenage Leon had two witchy friends named Jim. One had a penchant for light magick, and could control flames with his mind. The other had a penchant for black magick, and made a plan to sell his soul. As time went on, Leon gravitated to one Jim over the other. But perhaps the choice would’ve eventually been made for him, since the supernatural abilities waned as the friends matured.

What about the race car that Leon helped build?

It did indeed make the world’s fastest U-turn, and possibly the world’s largest skid mark. Leon worked with Craig Breedlove to build the car that made history. You can watch more about it here:

Does it mean something to find a lot of rocks while digging a grave?

Stay tuned—we are working on a bonus episode about grave-digging superstitions. We’ve heard that it’s unlucky to dig a grave in one day, but also to leave an open grave empty overnight. It certainly seems you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Where are those photos?

Would you try this telepathy trick?

We hope you learned a lot about how to practice telepathy, how to tell the future, and how to choose your Jims wisely. Don’t miss the bonus episode associated with this episode, where we’ll hear even more stories of strange magickal coincidences. If you have a personal experience with telepathy, please tell us all about it on our Facebook Group, in the comments, or consider submitting your story to be our next guest on the show.

The post A Tale of Two Jims: The Trick to Telepathy appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Listen right here:

Then scroll to the bottom of this page for a bonus episode about fungal funerals.

Episode Summary

We all make stupid mistakes when we’re teenagers. Forgetting to turn off the lights when we leave a room. Making friends with demons. Accidentally pissing off a decades-dead witch. You know, the uzh. We talk to podcasters Amber and Maddie of Witches Talking Tarot, who relay their paranormal teenage mistakes that forever changed their lives today, on Homespun Haints.

About the Guests: Maddie and Amber of Witches Talking Tarot

Maddie grew up in a string of haunted houses and may have gotten an incubus attachment. Amber was a clairaudient teen runaway. Both of them are witches. The pair do on-air tarot readings and podcast “about tarot, the occult, cryptids, aliens, myths, and MANY other topics”. Like us, they’re not afraid to get weird. Here is their podcast in audio and video format. Enjoy! Be sure to keep up with their latest developments on Twitter @ClassiestWtches, Instagram @witchestalkingtarot, or Facebook.

Sponsored by The Smell of Fear Candles

The Smell of Fear candles at TheSmellOfFear.com are the perfect scents to burn to deepen the ambiance while watching a favorite horror film. No doubt there’s a candle here for yours. Each scent is thoughtfully crafted to make the…smeller? victim? innocent bystander?…feel deeply entwined in the most iconic scenes within the most iconic scary movies.

Episode Show Notes

Can an attachment be an incubus?

Maddie may have a scary supernatural attachment. It started when she was 13 and obsessed with Twilight. Even after growing up and moving out of her spooky house, she’s still having dreams of…something…sexy? Could a dream egg cleansing help? What about a spiritual chastity belt made of incense? A spiritual restraining order? It does seem this purported incubus is attempting to lure her back to her former home.

Would you get buried in a mushroom?

What is a mushroom coffin? Tune in below for a whole bonus episode on these fascinating new uber-eco-friendly burial options. In the meantime, have a spooky day!

The post Mr. Darcy the Incubus and a Minivan Full of Dead Witches appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Listen to this episode here:

Episode Summary

Why do those shadow ghosts Joelle sees in her peripheral vision always disappear when she looks straight at them? Is it that they shy away from eye contact, or does looking directly at them somehow limit her ability to perceive them? And what do they have to do with the invisible visitor that shared her childhood bedroom?

Episode Show Notes

About Joelle Velez

Joelle reads tarot, performs reiki, designs shirts, and crafts candles and oils for use in magickal practice. You can purchase her mystical goods and distance reiki on her Etsy store, or get yourself an early Halloween present from her online clothing shop. Connect with her on Instagram to keep up with her latest news.

Ectogasm discount

You can still use code HAINTS to save 10% off every order of $20 or more at ectogasm.net, and you really deserve more creepy couture. Thanks for helping to support our podcast!

Episode References about Shadow People

What’s the difference between shadow people in peripheral vision and spirits?

“Shadow people” is a phrase used to describe supernatural entities which appear as an absence of light. Physical objects cast shadows, but if you see a shadow that is not cast by a physical object, which appears to have agency—almost to cast itself—you might be looking at a shadow figure. The Hat Man is one famous shadow person with a sinister reputation. While previous guests have described shadow people as more sinister than spirits of the deceased, Joelle’s experience has been different.

Could anything else cause someone to see shadow people in their peripheral vision?

We’ve all seen things that we thought were eyelashes, stray hairs, or just plain shadows. But what if you eliminate all those “other” things and you still are seeing shadows in your peripheral vision. Could it be you’re seeing something that is supernatural?

Why do shadow people lurk in doorways?

Becky posits during this episode that doorways are liminal spaces, which always seem to be haunted. That comment led Diana deep down the rabbit hole of speculation, especially since she frequently saw shadows in her peripheral vision which darted through doorways while working at the haunted ski lodge. Catch up with Diana’s rambling thoughts here.

Can dogs sense spirits?

Joelle’s father recommended she bring the dog in her room to see if she would exhibit any strange behavior that could corroborate Joelle’s experiences. But throughout her stories, Joelle specifies multiple times that whatever dog was in the room had no reaction to what she was seeing.

It is indeed possible that, when a dog senses something that you sense, it’s not perceiving the ghost so much as perceiving your perception of the ghost. Smelling your fear, so to speak. It’s also very feasible that dogs just sense a lot of normal, rather than paranormal things that we cannot, and so they seem paranormal to us.

While the common trope of dogs’ superior sense of smell isn’t 100% scientifically accurate per-se, their hearing is demonstrably more sensitive, as is their night vision. With these heightened senses, there’s a good chance dogs can sense ghosts. And yet, as cat people, we just had to pose the argument that there’s at least one kind of companion animal that does it better.

What are spirit guides?

Joelle believes that everyone has a spirit guide. We’ve heard before that mediums have more of them, but that doesn’t mean that more are necessarily better. But what actually are spirit guides? Are spirit guides spirits of the deceased? If so, are they ancestors from this life, or friends from a past life? If not, are they guardian angels? Are they the same thing as spirit animals?

Based on an amalgam of the opinions of our diverse guests, my interpretation is as follows. Spirit guides are whatever you need them to be. They are equivalent to energy, a guiding force in our lives. Just because some people see a spectral wolf following beside them, while others see an angel of light descending from the heavens does not make either person wrong.

Even being able to see or sense this energy is a gift, or perhaps a talent that can be developed. but just because you may not see yours doesn’t mean it isn’t there. If you can’t sense yours, that may just mean its energy is taking a form that’s more amenable to you. You may sense it as a gut feeling. You may notice the recurrence of a particular number or image in the tangible world. They may just be those shadows in your peripheral vision.

How do you use a pendulum to communicate with ghosts and spirit guides?

A pendulum is a divining device used to answer yes/no questions. This can be complicated and meaningful, like an obsidian pyramid on a chain made of stones representing the colors of the chakras, and a board of potential answers, like yes, no, maybe, and undecided. You can watch how Becky used a fancy pendulum set to talk with some entities on a Civil War battlefield on our 2022 haunted Nashville trip. But a pendulum can also be Macgyvered out of your necklace by dropping a ring around it. Hell, a strand of hair with an earring or shoelace with a bead would even do the trick.

When using a pendulum for divining, the method is fairly simple. For your pleasure, here’s a quick primer on how to talk to ghosts with a pendulum.

How to use a pendulum to talk to ghosts and other entities:

1. Hold the dangling pendulum still.
2. Say (aloud, preferably) something like “give me your highest and truest ‘yes'”.
3. Wait patiently for the pendulum to sway back and forth. This direction now stands for “yes,” meaning the perpendicular direction would stand for “no”.
4. Completely still the pendulum with your other hand, and ask your yes/no question.
5. Wait patiently for the pendulum to swing back and forth, using the direction to glean your answer.
6. If the direction of sway is neither a clear yes or no, it’s either a “maybe” or your hand is jittery. You can always still the pendulum and try again.

Is pendulum divination real?

Is this practice vulnerable to faking or false-reads? Oh yes, absolutely. It’s ideal for the pendulum holder to attempt to relax, clear their mind, and focus on actually keeping their hand as still as possible. It’s tempting to try to hurry the pendulum up by giving it a little jostle, but if you consciously move your hand at all, you’ll never get an answer from anything outside your own conscious mind.

But with the fallibility of the human body, it’s easy to argue that your small subconscious movements influence the “answer” the “ghosts” are giving the pendulum. I’d like to reframe this objection with the response, “so what?” Our subconscious minds are amazing. Worlds worth of knowledge and information exist within our subconscious minds, that our conscious minds usually have very little access to. Some of this secret knowledge might come from the other side, or a higher power, who is really to say? I believe it’s fair to argue that, while the conscious mind is busy attempting to still the hand, the subconscious mind could be generating micro-movements that do actually answer our question. The pendulum is merely the amplifier which magnifies these tiny hints.

How do you use tarot cards to answer yes or no questions?

What if you don’t even have a hack pendulum, but you’ve got some cards? There are several ways card readers use the cards to quickly answer simple yes or no questions. One way is to pull any card as you usually do. If the card is upright it’s a yes, if it’s reversed, it’s a no.

Like a little more mysticism and well familiar with your deck? You could allow your own feelings about the card’s meaning to lean towards positive (“yes”) or negative (“no”). This technique allows for a third answer: “maybe,” for those cards that are neutral or unclear. It also allows the reader to use common playing cards, which may look identical when upright or reversed.

What can a parent do to help a haunted kid?

In this episode, Joelle laments that there was no right answer that her father could’ve known when she asked him about the entity in her bedroom. Really, “no right answer” is canon for being a parent in a lot of situations.

When your kids come to you saying they saw something that you can’t explain, our guests overwhelmingly advise reassuring your children that you believe they are telling the truth. Actually listen when they tell you about the entities they’re witnessing. And then go ahead and follow through on believing, because the kids are probably seeing more than you are. Those shadows you see in your peripheral vision might be images as clear as you and me to their young, impressionable eyes. Help them have the good kind of spooky day!

The post They Are Assigned To Us Before We Are Brought Earthside appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Listen right here.

Also, thank you so much to Hillbilly Horror Stories for having us on as guests! They’re another podcast about paranormal, and they interview us in the second half of Episode 253: El Paso High School. If you’ve listened to our first episode, some of the stories we tell may ring a bell. However, Diana tells a story our listeners have NEVER heard before, about the history of the original Hex House in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and her personal connection to it. (Later, we made this full episode out of this story about the Hex House in Tulsa.)

About Tera and Karly

Karly of Titusville, FL, reads tarot, and Tera is a clairsentient medium who reads the Akashic records. You can find Tera on Instagram @theoptimysticoracle, and Karly is @thevillagetarotwitch. But their forces combined make The Haunted Housewives Podcast! And, they’ve just started a YouTube channel; please show them some love and subscribe to it here.

Episode Summary: Scary Bathrooms

Beneath your home, your office, your neighborhood, is a network of pipes we never think about. But sometimes, things get into these pipes. Consequently, sometimes, those things come up the drain, into your home! For instance, the…thing…that surprised Karly while she was sipping wine in the bathtub.

We’ve featured a great deal of people who’ve had weird experiences in washrooms. For example, ourselves. Karly describes the bizarre being she saw in her “sorta haunted house.”

Then, Tera tells us about the ghost…or angel?…SHE saw in the bathroom while moving cross-country as a teen.

Above: The process video showing this episode’s painting in process

Episode Show Notes

The Akashic Records see you when you’re sleeping. They know when you’re awake.

Tera calls it “a database of your life’s journey.” Gaia.com describes them as “the repository of every thought, word, and deed of every living being, good, bad, and awful, in all times; past, present, future.” Becky likens it to the library in the show The Magicians, and she’s pretty spot-on. Except the records don’t exist physically; only on the spiritual plane. What Diana finds interesting about them is the idea that they seem in direct opposition to the Zen concept that “there is only now.” Specifically, that all of the past actually still exists somewhere, on some plane, not just as a flimsy impression in our fallible human memory.

A blanket statement about the blanket octopus

They’re incredibly rare, and incredibly bad-ass. This gorgeous, graceful octopus flies its rainbow flag as a defense. But it also brandishes another sea creature’s tentacles as an offensive weapon! Listen to the episode to learn why this diva of the seas gets the Detachable Penis song stuck in our heads. What a fancy way to have a spooky day!

The post It Came Up The Drain! appeared first on Homespun Haints.