We wish you a scary Halloween!

You are here: Real Ghost Stories :: Haunted Places :: Moonlight Encounter

Real Ghost Stories

Moonlight Encounter

 

After the experience of my first encounter (Sleep over visitor) I became friendly with an older sister of another friend who was at the time delving into White Witchcraft which I knew very little about but I was fascinated by her stories of going to cemeteries late at night and doing little rituals which were based on trying to contact the deceased. Maybe because I was still only 11-12 years old or maybe because I just didn't understand the whole White Witchcraft thing, I was hesitant in being drawn totally into what she was doing but going to the cemetery at night did pique my interest.

The first time I went with her, there was just the two of us and she drove out to some random, middle of nowhere, small but old cemetery, the kind with an old rusted steel picket fence with maybe 4-5 large old trees spread throughout the grounds that you could see the entirety of just by standing at the clichéd creaky front gate. It was surrounded by empty fields which were well lit by the moon which was sitting high in the clear sky and there was a warm but gentle summery breeze blowing the long grasses from side to side. The surroundings would have made a great backdrop to many a horror flick.

I was strangely calm and just hoping that we would have some sort of communication. My newly found friend stood at the entrance gate with her arms held up and widespread and told me she was trying to get permission from one of the "occupants" to help us communicate with them. I was a little bemused by the whole thing to be honest but figured, in my naivety, that if that was needed to get the end result then so be it.

My friend ushered me to a particularly grand old grave where she gave her "thanks" to the spirit who she told me had agreed to help us. She told me to sit cross legged and facing her on top of the grave, which I didn't think was really respectful but she assured me that the person had given permission so I did as she asked. We went into trying to read each other's minds, shapes and colours etc., which we seemed to get right the more we did it but I remember at the time thinking this is not for me and I just wanted to leave. We were having "quiet time" so basically just sitting there meditating which I had barely even heard of at the time never mind actually done before, so she was sitting in front of me with her eyes closed and I was just looking around, thinking to myself that this all seemed like overkill when I saw "someone" running, but about 3 feet off the ground, from behind a headstone to behind a tree then with an almighty crash a large branch which would have been 10-15 feet up the trunk of the tree came crashing down into the night. Needless to say this brought my friend around very quickly and I told her that I just saw someone run behind the tree. Not knowing if it was someone alive, which scared me more, or if it was a spirit we walked cautiously over to the tree and had a look around but could see no-one. We decided it was time to leave but on the way out took a look at the headstone from which this "person" came from and while I can't remember the name, it was a boy of 16 years who had passed over in the early 1900's.

While there was no certain proof that this wasn't an actual person I saw, the fact that we were literally in the middle of nowhere and he didn't seem to be touching the ground as he was running has always left me wondering. I don't believe that whatever I saw had anything to do with the whole WW ritual and after a few other uneventful visits to other cemeteries I was almost sure of it. I participated in a séance with this same friend a few months later which was very eventful and will stay with me forever but made me move away from this particular friend as I wanted to explore the afterlife in my own way. More about the séance (which I would never do again!) another time.

Other hauntings by Aprilsnanny35

Hauntings with similar titles

Find ghost hunters and paranormal investigators from Australia

Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Aprilsnanny35, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

generalchaos (2 stories) (141 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-26)
[at] Nysa - have you heard of photograver.com? Http://www.photograver.com/

(Since you are interested in cemeteries)
They try to transcribe gravestones, before time and weather render them unreadable.
Aprilsnanny35 (3 stories) (35 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-25)
Nysa, thank you for your cemetery etiquitte info. 😊
My sister and I regularly visit cemeteries but are always very respectful 😊
Nysa (4 stories) (685 posts)
+2
13 years ago (2011-09-24)
I care a great deal about cemeteries so I have to post my opinion on some of the things said in the story and comments. There is a kind of etiquette to visiting graveyards. Like all kinds of etiquette different people will have slightly different opinions about what is proper. The Association for Gravestone Studies has published pretty good guidelines. Generally speaking it is ok to do anything in a cemetery you can do in a city park, in the not so distant past it was not unusual to picnic in a cemetery or read a book there. Obviously you do not dig there or treat gravestones as playground equipment. Walking and sitting on the ground is fine anywhere. So Aprilsnanny you were not doing anything wrong when you sat there. You are welcome in a cemetery any time day or night unless open/closed hours are listed. There is nothing shady about going at night as long as you aren't using the cover of darkness to hide illicit actions. On that subject it is inappropriate to have sex or party at a graveyard. But some people do make offerings of liquor to ancestors or loved ones, this is generally fine but not allowed in cemeteries owned by the city or federal government. Having a seance is probably one of those gray areas. Some would say you are "fooling around" & shouldn't do it in a graveyard, while others would say respectful communication of any kind is acceptable. Those of us with a passion for cemeteries would object to the suggestion that going to a graveyard for any peaceful activity is somehow dark or sacrilegious.

As for the "white witchcraft" people can mean many different things when they use terms like that so I won't try to guess what she meant, except to say she was clearly trying to say she had good intentions, thus she referred to it as white. Sorry this got long but I do like people to know that they are welcome in cemeteries.
DragonStorm80 (1 stories) (440 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-15)
Tazzicles ~ Yeah see I was wondering the same thing about white witches and fluffing about in graveyards seems a bit of a contradiction in beliefs to me, but as Aprilsnanny35 said maybe she was trying to find her own groove?

A good story here, I know the exact kind of graveyard you are talking about too, there are few around Perth I have been past and I wonder just what sort of occupants are still hanging around there, although I'm not about to do a ritual at night to find out, well not without a box of adult diapers with me and possibly a bottle of vodka! 😆

Looking forward to your next story 😊
Aprilsnanny35 (3 stories) (35 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-14)
Hi! Thanks for your comments. I am still as ignorant about "White Witchcraft" now as I was back then and honestly it just doesn't interest me personally but everyone to their own. You may very well be right that my friend was a little mixed up about what she was doing, she was 18 and I think she was a bit of a loner and was maybe looking for her own "thing"? I hope she has found whatever she may have been looking for anyway.

I definitely saw something that night and as I mentioned it has always left me wondering. As far as the tree branch I can't say I saw it clearly enough to distinguish if it was rotting, it very well could have been but I am not a big believer in coincidence, which is just a personal thing, the fact that it was the tree to which this "person" ran to, to me, signifies some sort of message but what that is I will never know.

Thanks again. Wishing you well. 😊
Miracles51031 (39 stories) (5000 posts) mod
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-14)
Aprilsnanny - maybe the term "white witchcraft" had a different meaning for your friend's sister than it does now.

I have Wiccan friends and they would never go to a cemetery and try to contact the deceased. Are you sure the older sister of your friend wasn't just trying to scare you?
taz890 (12 stories) (1380 posts)
+2
13 years ago (2011-09-14)
hi there aprilsnanny got to ask where had this friend got her ideas from? I have known a white witch personaly and she never had anything to do with spirit contacting in graveyards! Yes she would contact the spirits but that sounds a bit sacriligious to go to a graveyard. And being white I don't think that would be even thought about.
Not trying to cuss your story but I do think your friend had gotten a little mixed up with her information.
Looking forward to the story on the seance though
Carl
BlueTurtle (3 stories) (176 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-14)
This is really fascinating! I don't know much about Wiccan, so I can't say if, in the grand scheme of things, it is something you should avoid or if it's mildly harmless. If it's White Wiccan... I don't know, I'll leave it at that. 😜
But it certainly sounds like you saw the spirit of that boy. I don't know what the significance of the branch falling meant; perhaps he wanted to grab your attention (it's definitely more than coincidence that he ran to the very tree where the branch fell - although do you remember if the branch looked rotted? You said they were old trees), or he may have even been sending a message to tell you to leave.
I think your curiosity surrounding Wiccan and seances is understood, I'd feel the same way, and I think your hesitancy for something that you didn't quite understand was mature of you; you didn't want to go over your head. Thanks for sharing! 😊

To publish a comment or vote, you need to be logged in (use the login form at the top of the page). If you don't have an account, sign up, it's free!

Search this site: