In Krampus celebrations, they do something that I think people should do more consciously. In the Krampus celebrations, some young men dress up as demons and wander the streets. They are Krampus for the purpose of the celebration, and they act out a bit so that people can watch them. They try to be scary without actually hurting anyone, but things did notoriously get out of hand from time to time, as the Krampus figures often got somewhat drunk, as mall Santa’s are often found doing today.

But I think there is value in showing our young people a controlled amount of human darkness, so they can see what they are heading into and understand on a heart level why they would want to avoid it. In our efforts to be politically correct, we delude ourselves we can persuade without getting our hands dirty. I say dirty hands make for planted gardens.

Even if the dark spirits that people believed wandered the winter season (angry fey and vengeful ghosts) aren’t to blame for the poor luck that happens during that time of year, we still experience what we do in our dreams and fears and nightmares during the winter for a reason. That and the time of year Grandpa died would remind us again of Grandpa.

So much of any of this stems from within our sensibilities. Even our sense of outer influence, we still interpret. An experiment was done with today’s mental health system. They did something very simple, but it underscores something relevant to the holiday season.

They went to various psychiatric wards, and they reported only one symptom. They told them they heard voices, otherwise acting entirely normal. No horror stories in their life, no drug abuse problems, nothing to suggest they were deranged other than reporting hearing voices. They were promptly given a diagnosis of schizophrenia or manic depression and admitted to psychiatric care where they didn’t behave out of sorts. They even had those who did suffer from mental illnesses call them out and say they were faking.

The officials eventually discharged them as not being a danger to themselves or others, but they didn’t withdraw their diagnosis. One of the things they did while in the looney bin was write in their journals, and the staff interpreted that as insane behaviour. They logged that they were engaged in “writing behaviour”. It was these journals that were used to make the report that started the experiment in the first place.

So, I was thinking, they really should just forget the concept of insanity (even according to neuroscience, it would seem we are all insane), and instead focus on how functional we are.

They used to think the insane were “possessed“ didn’t they? They did, way back when. They also thought the physically ill were likewise possessed. There is even a little bit of evidence to perhaps back that up some, as some viruses are being shown to have a psychoactive component. Poor spirits do compromise the immune system. Chronic bad mood can even do nerve damage.

So how this relates to spooks and the season in general, whether you experience contact with creatures out of ancient legend and lore or not, I would say is not the issue. It’s whether you remain functional. Can you see to your own well being or at least understand that it needs seeing to?

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~