FAMILY STORIES ON SALT
Salt 1)
Personal Experience
In the summer of 2012 activity began to stir up in my childhood home in Uncoway. The activity strangely seemed to be targeting me, which made me think it was possibly poltergeist activity. I was 17 at the time and recently graduated from high school. I was struggling with my mental health and decided to take a gap year before going to university. Tommy was working with my Dad that summer and with my Mom also working full-time, I ended up spending a lot of time at home alone. One morning I woke up startled because it sounded like someone had thrown a heavy book on the floor next to my head. The activity seemed to be constantly ramping up that summer, one day in the kitchen I heard the long cord from our 1970s landline that we still had attached to the wall. The cord started banging violently against the wall and I yelled at my kitten, Moishe, to stop playing with it. I got up and was shocked to see that both of my cats were outside, and yet the cord was moving in front of my eyes. I realized that something needed to be done, and being the witch of the family, I started reading the book from Heaven’s Grandmother, Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, for inspiration on getting rid of this paranormal activity.
I followed Cunningham’s advice and rubbed the walls in the most active hallway with fresh basil leaves from the garden. I burned rosemary and pine needles as incense, but it wasn’t enough. Sitting on the couch in our living room one day watching TV the door to the basement started to slowly creak open. I had passed the point from scared to fed up and started yelling at whatever it was that was invisibly opening the door, “Is that the best you’ve got? Really? You’re going to have to try a little bit harder!” The door seemed to respond to my cajoling and swung completely open before then quickly slamming shut. I returned to the Cunningham’s book and took his advice about spreading salt down the active hallway and at all the doors to the house. Every day I poured salt, rubbed basil leaves on the walls and burned rosemary and pine needles, I created strands of garlic cloves for protection on particularly active days, and I wore them along with my friends who came over. Eventually, the activity did settle down, but to this day our family home in Uncoway goes through periods of strange activity.