Behind the Veil Interview (part 1)

Interview with White Raven - Behind the Veil

Some of you may recognize her from the internet, forums or boards.  White Raven is a wealth of knowledge, walking between worlds that many people can barely imagine.  I was lucky enough to catch up with her and ask her some questions that many wonder about, whenever the subject of "ghosts", "deceased loved ones", "spirits" come up.

First of all, I wanted to thank you for taking the time out of your day to be with us! I know you're very busy! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? When did you first receive your gift of being sensitive?

I'm nearly 30 years old. A mother of three and married eleven years. I'm a natural pagan, not a neo pagan. Nature and what I observe therein is what I believe in. So really, it has nothing to do with "faith". Unlike most people, I have observed quite a lot more on the spiritual level and don't feel the need to trust in someone else's experiences. I have enough of my own. 

I was raised around Christianity, even attending Christian schools, so I am extremely familiar with it. But my own experiences prevented me from adhering to any religion. My mother and grandmother taught me the Cherokee (Tsulagi) ways that were passed down through our family and that is where I began in magic and spirituality. But I was also exposed to the philosophy and perspective of many religions growing up. I was taught divination early, beginning with the pendulum around the age of six and moved up to teach myself more set forms of divination such as cards and even the IChing around 12. I decided to study Traditional Witchcraft as a teenager and then ceremonial magick a little further down the line. 

I'm a research-aholic, and I have a very serious case of it. My thirst for knowledge is never quenched. But despite what I read or what I am told, my practise only changes through my personal experiences, not second hand information.The one thing most peopIe ask is what makes me sensitive. I honestly can't answer that with 100% certainty, but I have a few theories.

I grew up in Chicago. What most people don't realize is the history behind many areas of Chicago. There is a very understandable reason why it has so many "haunted" sites. Everyone knows about the Chicago Fire, which in itself killed many, but what they don't know is that when the city was rebuilt and expanded, many cemeteries were moved to build over. My childhood home was a house over 80 years old, built on the property of what was originally a church yard and cemetery. It sounds like something out of a horror movie, and honestly, my house was a serious hot spot. My neighbor's house had much of the original concrete foundation of the church itself (which burned down) incorporated into it. She even had a coffin sized cubby in her basement wall that she showed me once. When we renovated my house, we found a rosary and holy pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus IN the single wall that was torn down. What else was placed in those walls when they were built and why? They knew what troubles could occur from that property. I lived there with spirits of the dead and "paranormal activity" everyday of my life from the age of 3 to the age of 18 when I moved out on my own. 

The ability to sense and see spirits has been in my family for as far down the line as I know of. It was normal to talk about hearing a voice, smelling a displaced scent (like roses), seeing a figure, or having dreams of the dead. However, my ability was a little stronger and didn't fade at all as I grew up. This is likely because of the extreme spiritual activity going on in my house consistently. What the rest of my family lacked was growing up in that type of environment, so their experiences with spirits was far less intense and constant. It was sink or swim. It wasn't like I could deny it or escape it. If I tried to ignore it, my books flew off my shelf or a frame fell off my wall. It wasn't going to go away. I just learned to accept it and figured out how to cope. Later still, I decided to listen to Bugs Bunny "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I was a kid after all, where else was I to go for simple words of wisdom? 

Once I learned how to protect and defend myself through magic and gained a sense of control over my personal space, I no longer feared any of it. It came to a point where I was unfazed. When stuff was tossed from my shelf, I would humor myself by asking the spirit to pick them back up again (although unfortunately, they never did). When a door opened, I thanked them and walked through it. When I saw or sensed a spirit watching me, I said hello and asked how they were doing today. Eventually, some of them began to respond and I gained a good relationship with them.

Could you describe what it's like when you communicate with spirits? Do you see them with your eyes, hear them with your ears? Or does it take place on the astral plane? Are your eyes closed, open?

My ability to hear and feel them is the most prominent. Sometimes it is a very loud voice in my mind but many times I will hear them physically too. Other times it's a combination of both. If I don't consciously stop it, my lips will also mouth the words they are saying and if I let myself go completely, I'll talk for them and even take on their mannerisms. In this way, I can actually repeat words and names that aren't within my knowledge, language, or vocabulary. It's not possession though, it's only through linking. I can shut it off anytime I like and just hear them again.

When I was a little girl, spirits would talk to me as if they were my dolls and stuffed animals. I honestly didn't realize that they weren't supposed to talk back. I thought all toys did that for children. It was all over TV after all. Christopher Robin talked to his bear Pooh and the list of examples goes on and on. It was totally natural to me. My mother told me that I would speak for my toys as an adult would and didn't sound like myself. I no longer sounded like a preschool child until my name was called and I turned my attention toward the adult that called me. Then the little girl that I was showed through again. I have to say, if my kids did that, I would be creeped out! But that just goes to show that my ability as a medium was innate.

I can see them but how well I see them varies. Sometimes it is perfectly clear, as clear as I see the material world. Most of the time it's bits and pieces, like a pair of legs walking for a second before it vanishes, or an outline of a shape made out of shadow, thick air, or light that sit, stand or walk around. At other times it is in my peripheral view. If I glance around a room, specifically searching for one, I can see spirit as a thicker air, like the heat rising from a scorching hot surface in the Summer time. If I focus on them, I'll begin to see the details slowly. Not all spirits stay still and pose for that though. They don't all like being seen.

Sight isn't exactly the best sense to use with spirits because they generally choose the way they want to look. That can be very deceiving. So, I always depend on my mediumship skills and ability to feel them and their presence. In a few moments, I can generally get a good idea concerning their emotions, intentions, and temperament. How they look is just a matter of my curiosity.I can project and interact with them outside of myself during spirit flight or dream walking but that isn't necessary to communicate.

So let's first understand one thing: the 'other side', meaning the spiritual world is VERY confusing and filled with many different kinds of spirits Could you tell us, mainly what kind of spirits it is that you work with? Are they humans who have passed on or something else? 

To me it isn't confusing at all. What makes it confusing is that people like to mix and match mythology and folklore from all around the world. It's the very idea of the Tower of Babel. Everyone spoke the same language and everything was clear. Then people were scattered to every part of the earth and communication fell apart, creating confusion. Translating information from one language and culture to another causes much understanding to be lost. With English especially, the word "demon" and "god" gets thrown around a lot, even when the original mythology intended something entirely different. When learning about spiritual matters from another part of the world, people have no choice but to compare it to their own to even begin to conceive it. But this is the best way to misunderstand, because the way one people sees spirit can be entirely different then the way another people interprets it. There are folkloric beings that supposedly could conceive children, marry, and die among humans. Sure, if they died they can be purely spirit now, but what about the ones that had babies and could bled? They certainly weren't "just spirits" equivalent to "ghosts" now were they? But ask any modern occultists and they'll spout that faeries are nature spirits. Are they really? Well, it really depends on what your definition of "spirit" is, and there are many.

Academic literature for the common public isn't trying to give us clarity into spirituality. They are purely there for the historical content. To them it doesn't matter if they don't accurately articulate the nature of a particular being and how to work with them. Comparison to what they are familiar with, is good enough. Only if you speak to someone with a theology doctorate or you study for one yourself, will you learn the spiritual perspective of these cultures. But most of the theology behind the spirits is lost to time. 

Personally, I like to use the internet to reach out to people that actually grow up in these cultures and talk to them. It's far different than any book I can pick up.Although I am a lover of literature, especially mythology and folk lore, I do not utilize the knowledge to classify spirit but rather use it to see how others experienced and perceived them. It's nice to be able to observe something with my own senses and then find an exact match in the pages of a book or literary website.

Now that I've bored you with all that, I'll answer your main question. I work with a variety of spirits. None of them are truly alike. I am an animist and therefore I believe in spirit as the essence of life that resides in everything in nature known and unknown. In that regard, we all have spirit and I work with that as a whole. You may prefer the word "energy". Of course, that covers a lot of ground. Although most of my practise involves higher beings (the overseers), beings of nature (including trees, stones, plants, land, water, etc.), or spirits of the living and dead, I don't limit myself. Unlike most spirit workers that seek out certain spirits, I prefer working with the spirits that are around me or that I meet along the way. In that way, I've met and experienced more than I ever could have imagined. 

Just when I think a being is just a thing of myth and fairy tales, one proves me wrong. For instance, I never believed in the "little people" of various cultures until I had children. Seeing a lot in my lifetime, I don't believe in anything that I don't observe myself. My first child attracted them and I was plagued with lost keys and missing jewelry until I started leaving out offerings of sweets and shiny objects. Then I began to see them once in a while myself.

With the popularity of ghost-hunting shows lately, the interest in the paranormal has increased. Do the spirits ever talk about this? Do they like being communicated with? Do they find the style of communication, such as in the shows, offensive?

The topic has never come up, to be honest. I don't really watch a lot of television, unless you consider the countless cartoons and animated films that I've been subjected to by my children over the years. I'm more of a movie person. But, I was a teenager once, and I used to enjoy "reality tv" when it first became a big thing in America. Wow, that makes me feel old! 

Just like the people we meet everyday in our world, some like to socialize and some don't. Nobody likes to be patronized. I notice that in some of those shows they talk to spirits like they're half deaf or morons. That isn't a good way to make friends. Just imagine if you were the one they were addressing. How would you feel?

I believe "ghost hunters" end up experiencing more egrigore or thoughtforms more than anything. That is, if the whole show isn't faked entirely. If you want to read about an interesting case where paranormal investigators actually created an egrigore that began causing poltergeist activity, look up the Philip experiment. 

Whenever I have tried to record my own experiences, my electronics mess up horribly or don't work at all. I've tried everything from the old audio cassette recorders to android devices. They all fail. My flashlight likes to stop working too. So how do they do it? 

You can read part 2 here