2000
January 1:
Y2K didn’t end the world. New Year’s Eve almost did Dean in, though. He’s upstairs, immobile. I don’t feel good myself.
January 17:
1/5 Telsphorus
1/11 Hyginus
1/14 Felix de Nola
1/16 Marcellus I
1/18 Prisca —lion wouldn’t eat her
1/19 Marius, Martha, Audifax, Abachumm; Canute —Danish king killed by peasants
1/20 Fabian, Sebastian
1/21 Agnes —beheaded after fir wouldn’t bur
1/22 Vincent, Anastasius
1/23 Emerentiana —Agnes’s nurse
1/24 Timothy —stoned by pagans
1/26 Polycarp —tutor of Irenaeus
1/30 Martina
2/1 Ignatius —died in arena
2/3 Blase
2/5 Agatha
2/6 Dorothy
2/9 Apollonia —teeth pulled
2/14 Valentine
2/15 Faustinus, Jovita
2/18 Simeon —crucified
3/4 Lucius I
3/6 Perpetua and Felicity
3/10 Forty Holy Martyrs —frozen to death
4/13 Hermenegild
4/14 Tiburtius, Valerian, Maximus
4/17 Anicetus
4/22 Soter and Cajus
4/23 George
4/24 Fidelis of Sigmaringen
4/26 Cletus, Marcellinus
4/29 Peter —assassinated by Cathars
5/3 Alexander I, Eventius, Theodulus
5/7 Stanislaus —killed by King Boleslaw
5/12 Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla, Pancras
5/14 Boniface
5/18 Venantius
5/25 Urban I
5/26 Eleutherius
5/27 John I
5/30 Felix I
6/2 Marcellinus, Peter, Erasmus
6/5 Boniface
6/9 Primus and Felician
6/12 Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor, Nazarius
6/15 Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia
6/18 Mark and Marcellianus
6/19 Gervase and Protase
6/20 Silverius
6/26 John and Paul
7/2 Processus and Martinian
7/3 Irenaeus
7/10 Rufina, Secunda
7/11 Pius I
7/12 Nabor and Felix
7/18 Symphorosa and her seven sons —watched her sons killed
7/20 Margaret
7/23 Apollinaris
7/24 Christina
7/27 Pantaleon
7/28 Nazarius, Celsus, Victor I
7/29 Felix II, Simplicius, Faustinus, Beatrice
7/30 Abdon, Sennen
8/1 Holy Machabees
8/2 Stephen I
8/6 Xystus II, Fellicissimus, and Agapitus
8/8 Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus
8/9 Romanus
8/10 Laurence
8/11 Tiburtius and Susanna —walked on hot coals
8/13 Hippolytus and Cassian
8/18 Agapitus
8/22 Timothy and companions
8/26 Zephyrinus
8/28 Hermes
8/29 John the Baptist, Sabina
8/30 Felix and Adauctus
9/1 Holy Twelve Brothers
9/8 Hadrian —limbs cut off on an anvil, lightning killed executioners
9/9 Gorgonius
9/11 Protus and Hyacinth
9/15 Nicomedes
9/16 Cornelius, Cyprian, Euphemia, Lucy, and Geminianus
9/19 Januarius and companions
9/20 Eustace and companions
9/22 Maurice and companions
9/23 Linus, Thecla
9/26 Cyprian and Justina
9/28 Wenceslaus
10/5 Placid and companions
10/8 Sergius, Bacchus, Marcellus, and Apuleius
10/9 Eleutherius
10/14 Callistus I
10/21 Ursula and companions
10/25 Chrysanthus and Daria —buried alive
10/26 Evaristus
11/4 Vitalis and Agricola —Vitalis in arena, Agricola crucified
11/8 Holy Four Crowned Martyrs
11/9 Theodore
11/10 Tryphon, Respicius, and Nympha
11/11 Mennas
11/12 Martin I
11/14 Josaphat
11/19 Pontianus
11/22 Cecillia
11/23 Clement I, Felicitas
11/24 Chrysogonus
11/25 Catherine
11/26 Peter of Alexandria
12/2 Bibiana
12/4 Barbara
12/10 Melchiades
12/13 Lucy
12/16 Eusebiuds
12/25 Anastasia
12/26 Stephen Protomartyr
12/28 Holy Innocents
12/29 Thomas
Plants and herbs used in contacting dark spirits: acacia, devil pod, mullein, valerian.
Eucalyptus, salt, garlic, rosemary, bay leaves for protections.
Mint, hyssop, rue, sage, yarrow for breaking spells or malign influence.
January 24:
Dean turns twenty-one today. I’d buy him a beer if I thought it would be something new. He’s also old enough to buy his own guns now. I tried to raise him right, and looks like I did. He’s a scam artist, a ladies’ man, and an absolutely loyal son. He knows what’s right and doesn’t hesitate to do it. I’m proud of him. Now that he’s hunting on his own I don’t see as much of him, but I know he’s out there. When I call him in on a job, he’s right there every time. I’ve spent the last sixteen years afraid that I was going to screw him up somehow. Maybe now I can forget about that.
February 5:
NON TIMEBO MALA —inscribed on Colt? “I will fear no evil."
Agrippa: “The manner of making these kinds of Magical Rings is this, viz: When any Star ascends fortunately, with the fortunate aspect or conjunction of the Moon, we must take a stone and herb that is under that Star, and make a ring of the metal that is suitable to this Star, and in it fasten the stone, putting the herb or root under it —not omitting the inscriptions of images, names, and characters…”
So what Star was the Cold made under? If it’s iron, must be Mars. Tuesday. October 27, November 5, November 12. Davy Crockett leaves for Texas on November 1.
February 28:
Agrimony: protection, reversal. As infusion, sleep
Amaranth: dried flowers used in calling spirits, necromancy
Angelica: apotropaic, good luck
Asafetida: used in exorcisms, attracts wolves
Basil: used in exorcisms
Bay: visions, prophetic dreams
Belladonna: funerary rites, passage of souls
Betony: purifies
Bindweed: control
Buchu: divination
Carob: burned to repel poltergeist
Clove: exorcism, purification
Cubeb: repel demons
Devil’s bit: intensifier, control
Fennel: repels evil, unpredictable
Frankincense: exorcism, protection, divination, balance
Garlic: sacrificed to Hecate at crossroads. Protective, courage
Horehound: protection during exorcism
Mandrake: powerful because of humanoid shape. Homunculi made from it. Whole root protective in demonology
Mistletoe: exorcism, protection
Mugwort: divination, summoning
St. John’s wort: repels demons, evil spirits
Willow: protection, divination
Yarrow: divination
April 30:
REVENANTS
GHOUL. From Arabian/Persian legends, dwells in graveyards or uninhabited places. Ghul literally means demon, but the ghoul doesn’t behave in the way Judeo-Christian demons do. Sired by Iblis (primary devil of Islam, a jinn who rebelled against Allah and was allowed to roam the earth to test people by putting bad ideas in their heads). Also the name for a desert-dwelling shape-shifting demon, often seen as a hyena. Lures travelers into the desert to eat them, also kidnaps children. Ghouls rob and desecrate graves, eat the dead.
VETALA. Vampiric spirit from Hindu myth which animates corpses, haunts cemeteries, causes miscarriages. Can tell the future and reveal hidden secrets if captured. Destroyed by the performing of a proper funeral.
DRAUGR. Icelandic/Viking legend, undead beings who are
enormously strong and can grow or shrink in size. Escaped the grave
by turning into smoke. Unclear whether any of the dead person’s
personality survived in the draugr. Draugr can’t be hurt by regular
weapons, must be wrestled back into their graves. 
Final disposal methods
recall vampire-killing instructions: decapitate, burn, and scatter
the ashes in the sea. Some draugr (haugbui) stayed at their graves.
Others sometimes marauded through settlements. Related to the
draug, a Nordic sea-ghost and death omen. Spirit —sometimes
corporeal— of drowned sailor. One variant, the gleip, causes bad
luck —makes sailors slip on wet rocks. Draug can also change their
appearance to look like stones. Sometimes in this form they are
taken aboard ships as ballast, and when they reassume their natural
form they capsize the ship. As death omen, draug are said to scream
like banshee, and sometimes they are only seen by the man who is
about to die.
Also from Scandinavia, the myling or utburd (meaning something cast out) spirits or incarnations of children who died before being baptized, or were murdered. Leap on the backs of travelers at night, wanting to be buried in hallowed ground. Myling grows heavier the closer it gets to the graveyard, pressing its carrier down into the earth. Myling kills those who cannot complete this task.
May 2:
Sammy is seventeen years old today. I’m going to guess that he’s the only sophomore in the United States who has read the Clavicula Solomonis and made parts of it work. Bought him a new computer. He’s a zealot about having a Macintosh. Also he’s a walking dictionary of the occult and esoteric. There’s a lot of his mother in Sammy. God, I wish he had some way to know that other than me telling him.
May 15:
Barrett on a spirit book: This book being thus perfected, let it be brought, in a clear and fair night, to a circle prepared in a cross-way, according to the art which we have before delivered; and there, in the first place, the book is to be opened, and to be consecrated according to the rites and ways which we have before delivered concerning consecration, which being done, let all the spirits be called which are written in the book, in their own order and place, conjuring them thrice by the bonds described in the book that they come to that place within the space of three days, to assure their obedience and confirm the same, to the book so to be consecrated; then let the book be wrapped up in a clean linen cloth, and bury it in the midst of the circle, and stop the hole so as it may not be perceived or discovered: the circle being destroyed after you have licensed the spirits depart before sun-rise; and on the third day, about the middle of the night, return and make the circle anew and on thy knees make prayer unto God, and give thanks to him; and let a precious perfume be made, open the hole in which you buried your book and take it out, and so let it be kept, not opening the same. Then after licensing the spirits in their order and destroying the circle, depart before sunrise.
To be written in the double circle around the pentacle:
Ten general names —El, Elohim, Elohe, Zebaoth, Elion, Escerchie, Adonay, Jah, Tetragrammaton, Saday— together with versicle appropriate to the nature of the conjuration.
Astrological signs of planets desired to strengthen the summoning or binding.
May 17:
This would have been our twenty-second anniversary. Every year, the more I learn about communicating with the dead, the harder it gets not to talk to you, Mary. I dream about it, I stop myself at least once a week from digging out a ritual and bringing you to me, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Then what happened with Jim stops me. I don’t think I could stand to see that happen again. You’re alive to me because I think of nothing but avenging you. That’s the way it has to be.
June 3:
Pyromancy - fire
Aeromancy - air, wind
Aquamancy - language or running water
Cartomancy - tarot
Haruspication - entrails
Augury - birdsong
Oneiromancy - dreams
John Gaule’s Mysmantia, 1652, mentions others:
Alphitomancy - flour, meal
Antinopomancy - entrails of women and children
Arithmancy - numbers
Astragalomancy - dice
Astromancy - stars and planets
Axinomancy - saws
Botanomancy - herbs
Captnomancy - smoke
Carromancy - melting wax
Catoxtromancy - mirrors
Cephalonomancy - broiling an ass’s head
Chiromancy - hands
Crystallomancy - glasses
Coscinomancy - sieves
Dactylomancy - rings
Gastronomancy - sounds from the belly
Geomancy - earth
Lampadomancy - candles and lamps
Litholmancy - stones
Livanomancy - burning of frankincense
Logarithmancy - logarithms
Macharomancy - knives or swords
Oenomancy - wine
Omphilomancy - navel
Onomatomancy - names
Onychomancy - fingernails
Podomancy - feet
September 15:
October 11:
EVP: Can record voices of the dead, sometimes unintentionally. Not always intended as communication. Sometimes it’s more like eavesdropping. Worth a shot in most hauntings, from what I hear. Either you get nothing, so you lose nothing, or you hear something that helps identify the spirit. Spooky collection of recordings at the roadhouse, but it’s been, what… ten years since we were there?
November 2:
Mary has been dead for seventeen years. She’s watching. Time doesn’t pass in heaven.
Or in Hell?
December 8:
Names for Hell/afterlife: Hamistagan Aaru. Elysium, Hades, Tartarus, Valhalla, Hel, Niflheim, Sheol, Olam Haba, Gehenna, Shamayin, Raquia, Shehaqim, Machonon, Machon, Zebul, Araboth Jannah, Firdaws, Pardis, Johannam, Jahim, Zamharir, Hutamah, Ladza, Saqor. Bardo. Mictlan, Tlalocan. Naraka, Swarga Loka. Diyu, Tian. Duat. Yomi. Xibalba, Metnal. Adilvun, Shobari Waka. Gimokodan, Kalichi. Hetgwauge. Aralu. Anaon. Uffern. Manala.
Monikers and nicknames for Satan: Father of Lies, Prince of Darkness, Old Nick, Old Scratch, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, the Adversary, Old Harry, the Old Gentleman, Lucifer, Diabolos, Rex Mundi.
Tritone, augmented fourth, known as “the devil in musick” from early medieval times. Composers stayed away from it in sacred music. Now every half-baked metal band is in love with it.
NY archdiocese investigates 40+ per year
improvised exorcisms kill victims