Santeria – The saint of good health, St Lazarus

In the Santeria religion in Cuba, St Lazarus is widely worshiped, and he is one of the most worshiped saints in the religion.

St Lazarus appears as a fragile old man with a ragged appearance who may resemble a beggar.  He is covered in cuts and other wounds, walking with crutches, dressed in rags and clothes made from sackcloth, and followed by dogs.  His day of the week is Wednesday, and his day of the year is the 17^th of December, and many people make him a ceremony and give him offerings on this day.

St Lazarus is highly worshiped because he is believes to be a spirit who controls everyone’s health.  Devotees praise him and give him offerings with the belief that he will grant them good health, cure them of their current health problems, avoid any future medical complications, and curse their enemies by giving them ill health.

People can worship St Lazarus for various reasons such as, to ask him to bless them with good health, to undergo a religious initiation in order to overcome big health problems, or to become a santero (a spiritual priest) and consult and heal other people.  There may be slight differences to how people worship St Lazarus, but the objectives tend to be pretty much the same.   

Those who make a promise to St Lazarus may do things such as, promise him an offering, grow their hair for a prolonged length of time, or dress in clothes made from sackcloth.

Offerings for this saint include things such as a sacrificial meal such as a male chicken or goat, aguardiente rum, dry wine, coconut cakes, cigars, toasted corn, dark and sweet coffee, water, sugar water, and other sweets and treats.  It’s also good to light white candles and ring a small bell when you are going to say catholic prayers and spiritual prayers dedicated for St Lazarus.  All of these things are supposed to call the saint so that he will listen to you talking to him, and it will also give strength to him, and appease him so that it can then have the power and the will to help its you accomplish your goals.

People who seek the help of St Lazarus may have a statue of the saint which has been blessed, which they may dress with a purple or brown cloak, a Santeria leleke (bead necklace) which would be white with blue stripes.  A little container or plate may also be put beside the statue so that spare change may be placed into it in order for the saint to give people good luck and money, or it can also be used as a way of saving up money for food and rum for the saint.  People may also buy and prepare a bead necklace or bracelet which they will put on in order to have health and protection.

St Lazarus is a vary important saint because he blesses you with health, and as people say in Santeria in Cuba "When you pray and ask god or the saints for anything, always ask for good health before anything else, because with good health you can have the power to achieve anything that you want, but with bad health you can't do much." and I personally think that this statement is true because there is no point of having everything in the world, but being ill and unable to use any of it.  What do you think?

The Vengeful Ghost of Carl Pruitt

In Kentucky, June 1838, a carpenter named Carl Pruitt arrived at his house and he caught his wife having an affair with another man.  The other man managed to run away and escape by leaping out of a window, but carl went into a blind rage and he choked his wife to death with a metal chain.  When Carl's rage subsided, he then realised what he had done and that his life was ruined, so he decided to take his own life.  Unlike many couples who die, Carl and his wife were not buried beside each other.  They were not even buried in the same cemetery.

A few weeks after carl had been buried, residents noticed that a discolouration was developing at the top of his headstone and it looked like the shape of a chain.  Some of the locals suggested that it was a bad omen and that the headstone should be removed and placed somewhere else, but officials disagreed with the idea and they chose to let the headstone stay.  A month or so passed and a group of boys were passing past the grave on bicycles, and one of the boys named James Collins, stopped and threw rocks and chipped the supposedly "cursed"gravestone, probably to show that he wasn't scared of all of the hype that the grave had gained.  On his way back home, James lost control of his bike, as if it were being manipulated by an unknown force, and it began to pick up speed until he eventually crashed his bike into a tree.  To everyone's surprise, the bicycle chain not only came off of the bike, but it also managed to wrap itself around James's neck, strangling him to death.  News of the incident spread quickly, and when residents went to investigate the gravestone, they noticed that it was unharmed, despite James's friends saying that James had thrown stones at it. This event began to fuel rumours that Carl's Ghost was responsible for the boys death.

As expected, James's mother was heartbroken that she had lost her son.  A month after, she went to the graveyard with an axe, and enraged, she hacked away at Collin's gravestone until it lay on the floor in numerous pieces.  The next day, she was hanging her washing outside on a washing line made of chain instead of wire or rope, and she slipped and got entangled with the chain.  despite all of her struggling and her best efforts, she was unable to break free and she choked to death on the chain.  After her death, Carl's gravestone appeared to once again, be undamaged.

Rumours continued to circulate, and shortly after the incident, a farmer and his family were riding past the graveyard on their horse-drawn carriage.  The farmer began to boast how he wasn't afraid of ghosts, then he pulled out his pistol and began firing shots at the gravestone, damaging it.  The horses that were pulling the carriage got spooked and they began to run faster and faster.  The family managed to jump off to safety, but the farmer stayed on and tried to stop the horses from running.  The horses ran too fast round a corner, resulting in the farmer being thrown off of the carriage and getting his neck caught on one of the chains on the traces.  The farmer's neck was broken, and once again, another victim was claimed and the gravestone remained undamaged.

The police were eventually called to the cemetery to try and investigate the gravestone and all of the misfortune that it had caused, but there was nothing that they could actually do, and one of the officers laughed at the gravestone and at the townspeople's superstitions.  The officers eventually got into their car and began to drive away.  The officer who had laughed was driving the car and he glanced back towards the graveyard.  He saw a light rising from the graveyard and quickly fly towards the police car.  The officer suddenly lost control of the car and it began to pick up speed.  The car went off of the road and crashed between two posts and began to roll around.  The officer who was sitting in the passenger seat was thrown out of the car, but he only suffered minor injuries. The officer managed to get to his feet and he went to check on his partner.  His partner had been killed, but not due to the impact of the car crash itself.  There had been a metal chain hanging between the two posts, and as the car crashed, the chain broke off through the car's windshield, and wrapped around the officer's neck, and it almost took his head off!

After this incident, most of the residents became afraid and they decided to avoid the cemetery altogether.  One man named Arthur Lewis wasn't afraid and he was adamant that everything was superstitious gibberish, and he was determined to prove it to everyone.  He told his wife what his plans were before he left to go to the graveyard at night with a hammer and chisel.  Arthur began to chip away at the gravestone, and everyone who lived nearby could hear the noise.  Suddenly, the noise of the chiseling was replaced with a spine-chilling scream.  A group of men with lamps ran towards the cemetery where they found Arthur's dead body lying at the cemetery gate with the gate's chain wrapped around his neck.  Despite countless witnesses having heard the gravestone being chiseled, it remained undamaged.

Eventually, the graves from the cemetery were moved to somewhere else, but Carl's grave remained and was forgotten under weeds.  In the 1950s, a strip mining operation took place in the area, and Carl's grave was destroyed in the process.  No more deaths had happened as a result of this, but the 5 previous similar deaths still remain to be mysterious and unexplained.

Do you think that all of these related deaths were just caused by random unfortunate events, or do you think that they were caused by dark forces at work?  Let me know by commenting in the comments section.

The Vengeful Ghost from Indonasia - Sundel Bolong

A Sundel Bolong is a ghost from Malaysian and Indonesian mythology.  The ghost is of a woman with beautiful long black hair, and dresses in a white dress.  She has a hole gaping from her back, and her name means “prostitute with a hole in her back” and this refers to the hole in her back and her method of catching her victims, which tend to be male.

In folklore, there are several variations surrounding the life and death of the Sundel Bolong, but it is supposed to be the ghost of a woman who was forced into prostitution and eventually because pregnant.  The woman later either died and gave birth in her coffin; or died during childbirth and by some strange phenomena, the baby came out of her back instead of the usual process, resulting in the big hole in her back which she hides with her long black hair.  Legend has it that she roams the world looking for her baby, and she is also said to take revenge on men by seducing them with her beauty and scent of perfume.  She then shows the men the bloody and maggot infested hole in her back, and the scent of perfume changes to that of rotting flesh.  If a man is put off by this, she will castrate him, then kill him and devour his organs.

I know that sometimes, times are hard and a man can't be too picky with his women, but it would be a long time in hell, before I hook up with a woman with maggots coming out of a hole in her back! Castration and a grisly death would also be pretty bad, but I could probably escape while she looks for a big enough knife....  What option would you rather pick? Let me know in the comments section!

Mossi Dolls - An African Fertility Fetish

Many Mossi women and children carry dolls throughout a big portion of their early life.  These dolls are made from wood and they are carved to show hair, faces, and patterns which symbolise a rite of passage into adulthood.  These dolls are given to young girls, and they are treated like small babies, being given food, carried around, washed, and tended to as if they were a real baby.  These dolls are given to girls so that they can practice taking care of a baby, for when they eventually grow up and have their own.  The doll is also used as a way to help its owner with fertility so that they can have many children throughout their life. The doll is also believed to be a way to communicate with ancestors and spirits whom may be called upon by a woman who is married but unsuccessful in having a baby, so that she can be blessed with fertility.  While a woman is unable to successfully have a baby, she may also use the doll as a substitute for a child, so that it may grant her fertility.

Mossi Dolls stay with their owner into adulthood, and it is believed that the better that the doll is looked after, the better that the woman should be at looking after her babies when they are born.  If the doll is looked after properly, when a woman has a child, the doll is supposed to make sure that the newborn baby and it’s soul are properly bound together. The mother first feeds the doll by dropping some of her breast milk onto it, before feeding her baby for the first time.  The doll can then be passed down to a younger female family member, and she will then take up the responsibility of looking after the doll.

Mysterious Dogu Spirit Vessels

The actual use of the dogus continue to be very mysterious, but countless of them have been discovered in old graves in japan and they all appear to have been cracked on purpose, and this shows that they had a strong ritualistic use.  Many people believe that they were created by a strange race of aliens, but most believe that they have a less exciting background than that.

There have been over 18,000 of the clay figures found and they all come in the shape of people or animals and in all shapes and sizes ranging from big 1 meter tall ones to small ones that can fit in your hand, but they tend to have big faces with big eyes, a compact body shape, and small arms and hands.  The oldest ones are from the Jomon period in Japan and date as far back as 12,500-300 BC.  It’s hard to figure out what their exact use was for because many depict different groups of things such as women giving birth, people wearing masks, and other figures having heart-shaped faces.  Many believe that they were supposed to be talismans that represented spirits or gods who protected women and children and some were spirit guides who would be buried along with a person in order to aid them in the afterlife.  Since most seem to represent women, many believe that they were used with the belief that they would be blessed with fertility, and this also suggests that they may have believed in a mother goddess.  Some have even been found purposely broken, but it’s still unknown the purpose of this type of ritual.  

What's your opinion on these statues, and what do you think they were used for?