I was just wondering if anybody had encountered strange events that hint at something warning or foretelling bad events. This happened to me and my boyfriend over the past month or so:

My boyfriend's nan was sick, fighting off bowel cancer, to give you the necessary background info. She'd been dealing with it for 7 months after initially being told she only has about a fortnight to live. She was TOUGH and awesome.

One month ago, I had a dream with a banshee in it. I am certain that's what it was, and it's the most horrific sound/sight I can safely say I've ever seen/heard.

Then, a little while after that, my boyfriend was around my house. I mentioned something about the sidhe to him- I don't remember what. We both have had several weird little experiences with them. Anyway. The clock flew off the wall at him, landing at his feet, and stopped dead, the time reading 11:30. It hasn't worked since.

Three days later, when he was at home, the clock in his living room stopped dead as well, reading 11:30.

On the ninth day, his mum rang at 11:30 to tell him that his nan had passed away.

When I hear of these things happening I often think "what is the point of the warning"? If there is nothing that you can directly do to prevent the bad event from happening, then why would the gift of forewarning have developed? For instance, say a plane crashes in the Andes, and someone in France who has no link to the flight says "Last week I had a dream about a plane crashing in mountains".

When bad things happen we can start to look for reasons why, and also for reasons why we should have known that something bad was going to happen.



Sorry to hear that - cancer is a horrible thing to go through.



That seems like quite a long time frame, normally I think the banshees are supposed to do their wailing three days or less before the death occurs.



Back to my opener of "what is the point". Why would something try and warn you something bad was going to happen at 11.30? What could you have done to stop it? Certainly in the case of terminal cancer there's nothing that you can do and there are fairly clear signs that happen when someone has only a couple of days life left in them which you may have picked up on subconsciously or consciously.

If it was something like XXXX was about to get hit by a runaway bus and you had forewarning and ran out and stopped them before the bus hit them, then premonition begins to make more sense.

If we take a broadview of anyone person's life, there will be fairly frequent bad events in there. Some of the events are the really awful ones, death of a parent or child, death of a partner and some are the not so bad events, a bill when you're short of money, or a parking ticket, etc. Given that these events occur frequently and randomly, then any premonition or sign could be said to have foretold a certain event.

Anyway, I think I rambled, but that's why I don't believe in precognition or paranormal 'warnings'.

bb
Rhiannon

What Rhiannon said.
Some things i think arise as symbolic explanations and are not meant to be taken literally.
I was always of the opinion that the banshee and particularly the wailing of such, was one of these and fruit more of irish historical literature than reality, a bit like the angle of death etc.
But as usual i may be wrong.

Or how in heathenry one's fylgja is supposed to appear physically before death.

Yes. Funny you should mention that lol

Me and my fella have just busted up and he arrived home last night to an argument. En route back from where he was coming from one of his shoes had fallen out of his bag, so he arrived with one half of a pair of shoes.

After the heat had blown off we were standing in the doorway, him with a joint and me with my thoughts - both very quiet for a long while, then he looks at me and quietly asks 'do you think...'

And yes, I'm right there thinking it too.

'Are you superstitious?' he asks.

'Very I reply.'

And we both smile. 'Seemed so funny,' he laughed 'just one shoe.'

So, yeah, bad omens. Although maybe it was just a warning for him to watch his step when he got through the door. *shrug*

Ahwell, pass the waragi. Gonna go to salsa tonight and work it off. Hope I haven't misplaces my dancing shoes

Last April we had come back from holiday in spain and my sister collected us from the airport in a car she had bought via ebay. On the way home the car was making a funny noise and i didn't feel safe and i had this thought of the front wheel coming off the axis and the car crashing. I suggested we stop and i use my breakdown cover but the other two said i was worrying too much and i figured maybe they were right and i was being paranoid. I made sure everyone was wearing their seatbelts and asked my sister to drive slower because i was feeling nervous. I also put protection in place around us and the car and asked Morrigan to watch over us.

As we went over the flyover bridge in Cardiff on the A48 the front left wheel came off the axis causing the front of the car to go into the tarmac of the road tearing strips of metal off the body of the car, gouging a strip out of the road with sparks flying everywhere. i thought we were going over the edge but somehow she corrected the steering, kept us on the road and stopped the car. We all got out safely against all probability, although seriously shaken and a bit bumped and bruised (including my littlun). It caused chaos and the police had to come and close off the road and take away the car etc but we were alright.

With hind sight i wish i had insisted she stop instead of just suggesting it and i know now how important it is to pay attention to a sign even if it seems a little paranoid. What would have happened if she hadn't slowed down or if someone hadn't had a seatbelt on? I wondered for a while if we were just really lucky but i'm pretty sure asking for protection saved us and meant we were being watched over. it could have been really nasty. When we got home i lit the candles and made an offering to say thank you. Divine intervention i think?

BBs Lantern_Light

Whether it's in the form of a forewarning - as in Ath's case, or as a sort of confirmatory "telling" as in the Brenna's situation, I do believe in that second sight/sense, and also in visitations from whatever one chooses to name the presence/s delivering the message/s.

Always, listen to your gut.

As to the why's and wherefores - well, I tend not to worry about that aspect of things. It's just something that happens.

To Rhiannon-

Does everything in life have a point and purpose? My personal belief is that some things that affect us send little ripples of forewarning and aftershock backwards and forwards through our lives.

Is it worthless to have foreknowledge of an unpleasant event that you can't avoid? I don't know, but my thoughts are this:

After the banshee dream, I told my boyfriend, and he made an effort to spend more time with his nan. A few more days seems pretty valuable to me. And although she was old and suffering from cancer, she'd been recently doing really well- gaining weight and eating for herself again- so yes, the death was sudden and unexpected.

About the bus example- that all depends on how you view fate, whether you see your life as a set thread or a long branching of choices. I tend to believe some things are set and unchangeable- so perhaps we can't avoid the bus, but we can do our best to live full and brilliant lives up until the bus.


Sorry if I'm coming across garbled, I'm mulling this over myself.

In heathenry we believe (or most of us) in the Wyrd, some would say fate but it's more than that. But because we are all connected via the wyrd, and indeed so is everything, then every event anywhere has an effect everywhere else, even if it is only a minimal unnoticed one. Every decision we take shapes our future and as a consequence the future isn't set but can change from minute to minute.

However, it may be more complicated than that because there are the Norns - Urdr, Verdandi and Skuldi who weave our fates at birth. So how far things are set I am unsure. Perhaps the major events that could occur are fated to occur but the timing of them can be delayed by our actions and the actions of those around us.

So when it comes of warnings and the foretelling of the future I'm not sure how much trust to put in them because if the future isn't set then that warning or prophecy is only relevent for this moment in time because something you or someone else does five minutes later may change that future. It's far more complex, I suspect, than we often realise.

Three days before my father died, I felt his shadow pass through me. I've seen such things appear before, but normally preceding sudden and untimely death. Rather, he was 83 and severely debilitated since a massive stroke in October 2003. Under the circumstances I have to wonder if this was some part of his spirit lost in the stroke- that finally, in the imminence of death, was drawn hitherto reunion with the rest?

I had similar Quasi. Not long before my mother went into hospital, I had an urge to get in touch.
The day she passed over, I was heading home to swop cars (OH's is faster for a long drive) and knew the instant she passed. I was at a traffic lights, and as Quasi said, her "shadow passed through me".
She was terrified too, and I also knew the exact* cause of death When I got home I rang the hospital and was about to be given the bad news - only I pre-empted the doctor. I said I knew she had died, and also told him the cause - an aortic aneurism. He was shocked. I ended up calming HIM down!

Why did this happen? I don't know, though I put it down to the Western Islander's feyness/second sight thing. Despite it having happened before, it's still disconcerting - for that moment, you have NO control over what is happening. I was driving at the time too. Very bizarre experience. As was speaking with the doctor. When we met later that day at the hospital, he questioned me again closely about it, and gave me some very searching looks.

*Because I felt it.

Of course it happens, no witch would ever question that!

'Why' is not always clear as hindsight is often needed as much as foresight. Just accept it and say thanks, do what you feel about it and you will work out for yourself overtime whether it has import and is usable by you. The more you accept it, the more it happens.

The fact you are connected to some-one or to your own time-line and feel their passing or imminent passing, or foresee an event doesn't mean there is any choice involved, why would it? You can look out the train window and see two cars coming toward a junction and know they are going to crash but that doesn't mean you have the power, in all cases, to stop it. But no reason why you shouldn't try!

Vision and such gifts aren't necessarily linked to purpose and path.
In simple terms there is a relationship if you see the vision or witness and participate in an event BUT that relationship is NOT necessarily causal.

...and as a btw, it doesn't have to always be bad events you know! Or of any major import. Yesterday I had passing thought about getting a digital camera. No reason at all. Absolutely nothing to do with anything recent or relevant. I ignored the thought as it came from no-where but noticed it was exactly 12.00 noon because I decided then not to waste more time in idle thought and looked at the clock. Falling asleep last night the same thought came up - and I decided when they fell to 20 quid ($40aus) I would get one. I thought probably never! Today I looked at my credit card on-line thinking of buying a sword and found I was completely skint, at 11.00. am. Bugger, I thought. At 12.noon I got an email saying I had received a refund of $40 aus for a purchase out-of-stock on an item. I went on-line to my bank to check, clicked absolutely accidentally on the bookmarked 'daily cheap purchase website' which changes the offer at 12.00 noon, and there was a digital camera for $40 aus. which I got.

So what does that lot mean? Someone won't die because I won't slice 'em up with the sword I didn't get yet? (nah, I have two others, lol). I will take a photo in three months of an alien landing in my paddock and become a millionaire, travel back to UKP land and meet some of you lot? Sod only knows, we shall see.

As I said, it ain't always dark and gloomy or particularly important.But it is certainly real and in my life, always about and worth noticing for its own sake.

Aye, it was an aching emptiness that chilled me to the bone. Very strange as most people I knew who passed beyond, did so with a resolved sense of completion. This one was more like a gaping wound questing for closure. It's experiences like this that make me leery of medical efforts that only prolong the course of death. There's definitely something about it that violates natural order.

Not justthe aching emptiness, but also a desperate fear, and a sort of "ripping". As if my soul was being torn in some way. I also knew EXACTLY what it was, and oddly, felt resignation/acceptance/calm right after.

Not something I'd want to repeat in a hurru though!

I too disagree with prolongation of the inevitable. Nature takes it course naturally - and should be allowed to do so naturally.

No sense of ripping or fear, just a dire searching. No doubt what you described is more typical of sudden death. I had a similar experience of that when a lifelong friend of ours died of a massive heart attack. Mind you, I thought I was the one having the seizure until the pains left as dramatically as they came. It was only then I realized it was someone I knew.

Poor your mum.
Do you think the being frightened part was just a temporary reaction to the physical death, or more a fear of the unknown?

Hard to say - she was not one of the world's nicest people I am sorry to say. My own take on it is that she was experiencing the knowledge of the inevitable, and that it scared her, even although she had a very deep faith (xian) and belief in God etc.

She was always very selfish and ALWAYS had to get her own way in everything. And woe betide ANY one who got in the way of what SHE wanted. She was capable of being extremely nasty and cruel if thwarted.

So, in this case, I think she had the awful realisation that she now had to accept what was happening. And it scared her. Sad way to have lived, and an even sadder way to have had the passing over.

Awhile ago my sister in law phoned and my husband was talking with her. I hadn't heard any of what was being said and had no idea she might be pregnant (in fact is wasn't planned) but I just thought "She's ringing to say she's had a miscarriage". And yes she was. I don't consider that a warning, because what would be the reason, but I must have picked up something.

A friend of mine had an experience when driving. She was going fast down a hill and unbeknown to her was about to shoot across a crossroads which she heard a loud voice from the back of the car shout "Stop!". She automatically jammed on the brakes just as a car speeded across the junction in front of her. She was a Xtian and interpreted it as God saving her from the accident, which obviously isn't my view, but there was definately something going on!

warnings can be good or bad. i have this uncanny sense of knowing who is calling the house as soon as the phone rings i shout a name and sure enough im normally right as to the caller much to my kids delight. friends also say that i always seem to phone when they need me the most for me itsd just a case of thinking oh ive got to phone so and so.
i have also had other type of warnings when i need to get something done and ive put it off to the last moment i can smell my grandmothers perfume.
are they really warnings tho or are they just vibrations that we are more prone to picking up.
like the case of feeling when someone has died i can relate to this but i tend to feel the symptoms and as soon as they stop i know that the suffering has ended. yes i feel very sad but i dont see it as a warning i see it as my bond with that person breaking as they move on.
can it be said as well that dreams are also warnings be it good omens or bad.
now im wandring off sorry

Dear Tas,

I can relate to what you are saying. My mother is still alive and well but I have very little to do with her. She is also a very strong xian and I wonder if you ever resented the time and effort your mother spent on praying, good works etc.... whilst being a real so and so to her own? I sometimes think that very devout people only see the long view and their own children fall off the radar. What do you think?

all the best

Thanks Eagle.
As regards the time spent on worship etc, she stopped churchgoing after my father died, but was nonetheless a very strong believer.
I think some people will use religion (or needlework, gardening, etc) as a means of not having to deal with things. Not just xians that do this. Though it kind of goes against what they say they are...

A way of escaping responsibilities?
Maybe another thtread here...