What Are Corpse Candles & Counterspells?

 

 

Corpse Candles

 

“Corpse candles,” called canwyll corph in Gaelic, are phantom lights or Welsh portents of death.

Corpse candles have a long history and legend in Wales. Witnesses have described them as mysterious lights that hover over the body of a person shortly before he or she dies. Corpse candles are also alleged to waft over the roofs of houses when a death is about to occur inside the home or on the spot of a fatal accident. Many claim corpse candles often appear along a route or road the night before the funeral procession the next day. Legend tells that Saint David, patron saint of Wales, prayed that the people of South Wales would have a warning of their deaths, and this is the reason corpse candles are mostly in the regions of South Wales.

At Glyncorring, hundreds of corpse candles appeared before some miners where they later killed in a mining accident. Two lights were also reported at the mouth of Ogmore River more than a century ago. Later, two brothers were drowned while attempting to wade through the tides. Some believe corpse candles to be the same as Will’O the Wisps or Jack O’Lights – nothing more than strange, unexplainable lights appearing at the edges of swamps and bogs.

In 1880, in Carthmathenshire, a local sea captain was away in the Asian seas. One night, a dim light in his room was noticed. The captain’s cousin asked his mother, “Is Jack home now?” The mother shook her head “No.” “Who has a candle in his room then?” the man persisted. “No one,” she answered, “Why do you speak so?”

Later a man passing by the manor saw what looked to be a rushing taper being carried throughout the manor. When he rapped on the door, he found no one at home. Before long, the mother walked in on a strange light hovering over the captain’s bed. It soon dissipated.

Within days the family was notified that the Captain had fallen from his boat and drowned before docking in the bay at Singapore. Corpse candles, or corpse lights with a reddish tint implies a male will die while a white tint indicates a woman is about to die. A weak light generally indicates in the death of a child.
 

Counterspells

“Counterspells” are spells to counteract hexes or curses. They are used by people who believe they are victims of sorcery or some malicious form of magic. Sometimes a counterspell can be used to turn around bad luck or jinxes, or to return an instant karma back on the person who has sent negativity or psychic attack.

A common counterspell used by the Pennsylvania Dutch was tacking a horseshoe over the door of the
barn, and sometimes the home, to repel evil spirits and banish other troubles.  Even in our modern day, the horseshoe is a good luck talisman. Also according to the Pennsylvania Dutch, as a counterspell, a broom can keep a witch from entering your house.

Mental shielding, such as white-lighting exercises, where the hexed individual imagines himself surrounded by a white chrysalis of light, can thwart any harmful intentions or energies.

The best tool that can be used in a counterspell is a mirror. Sometimes it is as simple as hanging a mirror over the bed of the person who is the victim of the spell. The mirror tends to turn the energy around on itself, completely counteracting it.

 In English folklore, one counterspell to use if you believe yourself to be the victim of a curse is to walk around a graveyard three times counter-clockwise. This will rid your life of any jinx, bewitchment or hex.

Also in England, hag-stones, stones with a natural hole in them, are thought to be extremely powerful in warding off bad luck and bewitchments.

In the 19th century, those who felt they were bewitched would take an iron nail and drive it into the footprint of the person they believed had bewitched them. This was thought to bring an end to the curse entirely.

Cloves have extremely popular use in counterspells. It is believed in English households cloves should be kept in drawers, in pillows and arranged in the four corners of the houses to keep bad luck curses and hexes from invading the home.



Dark Phase of the Moon

Dark Phase of the Moon is the eleven to fourteen days following the full moon. This is traditionally the best time to banish spirits and do clearings.  The dark phase of the moon is also a good time to do ghost investigations and other research into hauntings. It seems to yield almost as many positive findings as the full moon does, traditionally the best time to investigate hauntings or communicate with the spirit world.

 



 

 

MoonSet Lily

Susan A Sheppard