Just one of the hundreds of hauntings reported every year - a typewriter and a snowplow... heaven's that ghost needs to get a life, haunting work? now, that is hell !

Every so often I find myself so busy with my life that I can barely sit down in front of the computer before I begin to feel guilty that I am not working. I will not write a post today. It is late by my standards, though it is early evening.
Here are a few things I am considering for future posts :
"In praise of cats"- the news that Beijing is killing its cats to 'prepare' for the Olympics has me on the war path. I am ready to go over there and curse a few Chinese leaders. Oh, well, that being implausible as well as impossible (who would feed MY cats & husband while I was gone?) I will settle for writing an essay about the cats I have known and loved. With a few notes about what I think we can all do to effect China's stupidity. I will not be watching the Olympics,  I will not buy any thing advertised during the Olympics, I will not buy anything with the word Beijing Olympics on it.. . I am upset - and that is putting it mildly ... oh, by the way, China - very few cat diseases are passed to humans and cats do not carry SARS or any other disease if you keep them clean and healthy. (But you don't do that for your humans do YOU?) I live in a house with cats who have chlamydia and I have never come down with it. I have nursed cats with all kinds of diseases and have never come down with any of their diseases.  If you want to upset Americans you are doing all the right things. Killing the dogs, first, cats second. I hope your Olympics are a bust.

"Science Fiction or Fantasy?"  some news about my novel, how I write, struggles with composition and dialog and the laptop computer that, well, landed in my lap this week. Even the admission that I don't plan to actually publish the silly thing !

"Yard work and Gardening"  I don't know anything about them but they sound like fun.

"Ghosts - what to do about them when they get pesky." Some thoughts about how I cleared this house of one particularly annoying spirit, etc. Ghosts can be fascinating visitors. They  seem to be part matter in the way we mean matter and part spirit. They are also hard to ignore if you really have an experience of them. But alas, They can be damn annoying, also. Dealing with them kindly or harshly depends on whether they are getting pesky.

A little after-Halloween confection (no calories, I swear) a few ghost stories written by people for the coast to coast website. Love stories written by just average people, they are the absolute best!

Tonight, the old master of weird Radio nights, Art Bell, is going to host his Ghost to Ghost show. It starts somewhere between 10 -12 midnight mattering where you live. I would check the website. Its an AM show. Here in the Seattle area its on AM570 -so, if you can, check it out. People call in with REAL ghost stories, great radio!

The picture of the tree and swirly thing is from Christmas 2 years ago. I noticed it didn't transfer from its old home. The old house is a wonderful ghost picture from the web. I really suggest googling "ghost " someday. There are a lot of sights, discussion of not only legends and folklore, but, also, modern paranormal and many everyday experiences of the paranormal .  The swirly thing is considered a fast moving orb or a spirit tunnel among those who study the paranormal. If it was a ghost I have no idea who was paying us a call. More than likely a family member.

 Multiply is new to me and I am still learning how to make it do what I want it to do, so I beg patience. I brought over most of old articles from Yahoo 360 because I am just egotistical enough to like what I write and wish to preserve it. I am going to keep my old blog and convert it into a place to post recipes and needlework, even posting my own patterns up there if it lasts. I don't know if Yahoo is going to survive, though and I hate wasting my time and effort.
More Ghost Stories :
Nearly a ghost story, first : My husband and I were camping. I had begged to go. Leon had bought all the gear and prepared us for the trip. I was laying in my sleeping bag and couldn't sleep. I had been terrified walking in the dark to our camp site Friday night. I saw monsters and gigantic creatures, heard owls.. and, well - you know what a city girl can become when she is actually in the country for the first time -- I mean, really, really, in the country. .. no ghosts, just total hysterical fear and I wasn't about to tell Leon, either. About half way through a sleepless night I decided to try soul travel, hadn't done it in a while but what the heck anything would be better than the terror I felt. I concentrated (and there is a way to do it, trust me.) and started to rise from my body when I saw a form standing over me. It was a guardian I had seen several times before. "YOU KNOW THAT THIS ISN'T GOOD FOR YOU !!!!!! Stay ! " his hand pressed down on my chest and I went back down to my uncomfortable and sleepless body.  "But... But... but, well.what right have you...?" I stammered. Bossy people even in eternity. Here is the freaky part of the story: my chest hurt the next day where his hand had pressed.

One of the most fantastic sighting of ghosts I ever had was on a trip down to St. Augustine Fl. in the summer of 1970. (I was 18/19) I was with my whole family and was pretty much trapped into whatever itinerary they wanted but  I did enjoy the fort in St. Augustine, Fl. - well, most of it.

I wasn't thinking of ghosts that moment but got a shock when I walked into one of the rooms. On the walls were men manacled and starving - their clothes hanging off their emaciated bodies, torn and even bloodied. I felt that they had been tortured. I think I saw 4 or 5 men. I was so stunned I could not but stare in horror. Was anyone else seeing this?   I was not in the formal tour so I just had walked into the room, alone. I didn't see them with my mortal eyes... but with my spiritual. I felt pity but knew I was seeing what had been a very long time ago. I didn't run. I just walked out of the room to begin breathing again. The formal tour was out there and the park ranger was explaining how prisoners had been walled up and left to die in that room. I knew that already so I walked up to the allure to see the sun and breath fresh air. I could have sworn I smelled the foul odors of men dying in their own wastes.
In Halloween 1979 we moved into our present house after moving to the Northwest in the year before. When we toured the house I didn't feel anything so I did not think it was haunted in any fashion. I was careful about that sort of thing because while ghosts can been the spice in the sauce they can also be damn annoying and even dangerous. The next spring I was laying in bed around 8 AM (always being a late raiser!) I saw in my mind the ghost of the woman we bought the house from walk through the front door... didn't hear any material world sounds - just saw her do it. I didn't get up to greet her. I had known she was dying and I realized she must have done so recently. I don't see ghosts, I perceive them and even 'hear' them most of the time.
"Hello Fay, you must have died of your illness. I'm sorry."
"I couldn't leave.." she said "Are you happy with the house.?"
"Oh, yes, Fay, very happy... we love it. Our first home. Thank you... Go to God, now and rest. You don't belong here. Don't worry about earth, the house is fine, you don't belong here any more."
 She just stood in the door way and nodded, turned and walked out the front door as if she was still in material body.
Poor lady! worried about the house? I didn't hear this through my ears but in my mind. The front door was not open, by the way. I checked. I saw her in February, later I saw her son. She had died in December of brain cancer. I wanted to tell him but I knew he was a Protestant Christian and would be upset so I didn't. (Chicken!) I would have been comforted if someone said my mom was doing well in eternity... but a heavy-duty protestant? Wasn't so sure it would be belief, fear or hope he would feel.
Without the house being haunted most of my experiences back in the 1980's were outside of the home - until something arose out of the yard that I will talk about in a moment.  There is a corner in Seattle - I would pass it going to the main library for research on my novels and later on my foray into higher education. Its directly across the street from the main library on 4th & Madison (I think the new one is further north?) Well, every time I walked past that corner I would see and hear things from the 1800's. Some of them scandalous, others very violent and at least one murder. Pike Street market is also haunted. Noticed it immediately. I would call it the first basement floor. There used to be a bead store there. I am not sure quite who, my mother said she saw a woman. I have read it is the daughter of  the Indian chief Seattle is named for. We felt several spirits in the floors beneath the main market.
There was a haunting here, in the house, later in that decade. I think I caused it by giving a very ancient spirit, my energy. I was experimenting during that time with all kinds of spirituality & psychic disciplines : meditation, Tarot, candle watching, a little witchcraft, reading a tremendous amount of ancient and modern occult literature, I even studied other religions, looking for a Spiritual Path... something deep in the earth awoke and invaded the house. It was an evil Indian shaman whose body is partly buried in this very mundane yard of mine. I was honestly scared stiff. It is one thing to read about evil - another thing to encounter it. And totally terrifying to have to defend yourself.  I still don't like to talk about it because, well, I blamed myself... if I hadn't been dabbling in mystical or occult things he would not have gained as much power as he had. I was also researching the Christian Path, by the way and that irritated him more than anything else I was doing. I think He attacked me for that reason, alone. Some of the haunting were very mundane things ... His face in the bathroom window ... or in the wash room window that looks in the same direction - His hand would appear also and try to grasp mine when I was closing windows. He attacked me in my bedroom one night. I won't tell you how but I have always believed he meant me real spiritual harm, perhaps, even physical harm. It was like something out a really bad movie. I was way over my spiritual head and knew it. I asked for help and used everything I knew, everything my mom had told me,even asked a priest to come over for prayers and began to pray to Christ very sincerely for one of the first times in my adult life. There is an old saying about there being no atheists in fox holes, goes double when the battle field is a spiritual one.  My husband admitted to me that he was seeing the same things I was. Even a neighborhood friend saw him sitting under my cherry tree on a bear skin rug.  How do you lay a ghost ? - not a friend or a family member - but something nasty? I asked Christ for help and every time I did, He came through for me.
 ( Believe or not, I am only reporting to you my own experiences.Christ is a choice. )
  Slowly, the haunting faded. Every so often I feel something but its a shadow of a shadow... easily mistaken for a memory of a fear I once had. Sometimes knowledge comes to us easily. Sometimes, it comes the hard way. That haunting was definitely knowledge coming the hard way to your's truly! 
 I even grew herbs that were supposed chase evil spirits away. Most of all I learned how to keep my energy to myself - to block its use by others - building psychic walls is not easy but very necessary. I learned a mighty spiritual law - one of the major ones. Ghosts don't have a lot of power in and of themselves. They must feed off the living or from the environment. That is why there are so many reports of cold spots in haunted houses and drained batteries from paranormal investigators. Why there are so many reports of lights flickering, electrical appliances turning off and on, even telephone calls from the dead. I have even heard of several ghostly events on computers, though these are still very rare.

  Those who don't believe (atheists, materialists) , those who are ignorant of spiritual matters (undecided, neutral souls who mean no harm but have not dedicated themselves one way or other.This includes the curious seeker.) , the innocent young (babies & children) those who take drugs of all kinds including alcohol and therefore are naturally opened to all kinds of influences (they aren't strong enough to face life how can they be expected to face multiple realities? and drugs opens the unconscious up like a dead clam.)  can all be easy targets to the stray spirit or the nasty ghost.
I could write about all the cat ghost visits (they tend to be very gentle and only short visits !) but it would make this article way too long.  And, Yes, it does happen! As recently as this week.
ONE more experience before I end this... one day, my husband, Leon asked me to go fetch something from the room I am writing from this morning. Our attic is nothing more than a crawl space - its opening is just outside this room in the hall ceiling. As I was walking past the attic opening (which was opened because it was summer!) I saw a gargoyle - yes, a gargoyle. No hair, looking ugly as sin, leathery body, large claws bending down looking at me curiously. Well,  a gargoyle. Scared, startled by such the sudden intrusion of the unexpected,  I said a quick prayer "Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!" quietly and told the beastie he had no welcome in our house... and fetched the object I was seeking... I didn't want Leon to know what I saw ... never sure if he could see it, too - He did and commented about the Gargoyle in our attic. I said yes, but I told it to go and it did. I saw in my mind that it flew away through the walls out towards the south. Odd, very odd. I really wonder sometimes how the universe works ... is that a spirit, my imagination or is it the denizen of some alternative dimension - but it couldn't be my imagination because my husband saw it, too -
SO WHAT WAS IT? Now that doesn't fit quite into my world view... !

It is very difficult to separate what I have learned through study and reading and what my mother taught me during our conversations, sometimes. She never mentioned 'soul travel' - what is now know as OBE - out of body experience - though, at the time she was teaching me I had my first experiences in it and no, I don't know quite how to bring them on, they seem to happen when I am very tired, in pain and completely sleepless... also, extreme hunger seems have something to do with them but I am not sure what. Could Rosa have known about OBE - yes, I would guess she might have, there are traditions about witches flying, propagated by the church during the late Middle Ages... I would suggest what they were talking about was soul travel. I have only done it maybe 4 times in my entire life.
Though meditation was not spoken of in any clear fashion I think they did it as a form of prayer. Meditation was very discouraged in the church and it wasn't popular in the West until late in the last century. My mother did teach me to surround myself with light and to ask Christ to protect me at all times. I fell back on this training in my own spiritual life and found that it was very wise advice.
A lot of my mom's fear of witchcraft and of practicing witchcraft has rubbed off on me. It is very difficult to overcome such lessons of fear taught so very young - but I would suggest that witchcraft done with a pure heart and pure intent is no worse than any other tool or technology we use. I have always seen these mentally based tools - witchcraft,real magic, soul travel, magical herbalism, meditation, curses and removal of curses, etc as tools - a way to accomplish certain things and I approach them with the same curiosity and desire for understanding and learning that I approach modern science and this computer (for instance!) I don't see a great divide between the seen and unseen worlds - notice, please that I always call them "realms" - an old world that suggest kingdoms that stand side-by-side and have different worlds - and different rulers or kings. I see the universe - the cosmos - the entirety of all there is - as a place to learn and explore. I do not claim to know a 1/15 of what can be known - but I am willing to learn. I would suggest that all we call science is the study of the laws & nature of THIS universe. I would suggest that there other universes/dimensions/ states of being that exist simultaneous and nearly on the same plane as this one. I would also suggest that ghosts, alien visitations, crop circles, gods & goddesses, spirits, souls, soul travel, reports of big foot, massive birds, Loch Ness monster, dream worlds - and the rest we call secret, occult, supernatural, paranormal, etc... is NOT any of these things - instead, all these things or subjects are manifestations of these other dimensions that break either break through to our reality - or its us having a sensitivity to their existence. I think Vibration of our atoms... has a lot to do with it: the higher the vibration the more 'spiritual' a person is ... the lower, the more asleep/unaware/materialist a person is and it is the Kundalini fire which is the key to this part of the mystery of consciousness. Humans actually have to power within their grasp to be multidimensional in their nature and to step out of their bodies any time they want to, also our bodies are like cars or any other vehicle - take care of it, maintain it but it isn't ALL you are. There are not 5 senses : there are at least 10 - 5 for the body, 5 for the soul.
Personal Ghost Stories :
I was always capable of seeing spirits and ghosts. It was considered a normal gift in my family for the women. My earliest experience had to do with what could be called a vision. I saw Mary and Jesus walking up our stairs towards me when I was 7 or 8. I think they spoke to me but not in words of sound.
It is a very strange memory but I do not doubt it. When I was a teenager I worked as a sacristan. One day I was hanging the tabernacle veil back up. I looked around and saw a priest sitting in the first pew. Odd, I thought. I didn't recognize him. I felt embarrassed because no one knew I had to crawl on top of the altar to put the veil up ( a big no-no)... I nodded and then finished hooking the curtain rod up - turned back around and the priest was GONE. It was only a second - no sound, no foot steps, no doors opening and closing - just gone. There were stories of a monsignor haunting the church I knew well, but that was only time I saw him. That church was always a little creepy. The basement was especially so, though, I never saw anything down there. There was a passage way between the main buildings, not a crawl way but an actual paved, lit, Tunnel. It was deep and wide enough that it was considered a fall-out shelter, in case of Nuclear Attack . One of the main entrances was in the school, through wide double doors. As the custodian's daughter I had a chance to see a lot of the hidden areas of both church complex. I do not think it was haunted, though.

I always thought the church was just so very empty when I worked. It was nearly a hundred years old and beautiful. ( for anyone who would wish to know, Holy Redeemer church, Rochester NY. I understand it has closed down and may have been sold. )
The entire church grounds and even the house we lived in was known to be haunted - of these ghosts I actually saw, some I did not. Our house was particularly bad. Footsteps up and down stairs, walking back and forth above our heads in the middle of the night. It was easy to blame it on our fellow renters... my dad was the church custodian and we lived in the back apartment, the organist lived above and in front of us. The priest's maid & cook lived in the apartment directly under the organist and in the front of the house. It must have all been a one family house and the walls were often in odd places - ceiling lights were off center. The house was built in the early 2oth century maybe by 1910 and I do not know when it was made into apartments.
NOTE : I see no reason not to mention this house's address at this late date. 251 Alphonse Street, Rochester NY. I do not know if anyone still lives there or even, if its still standing.
The stairs for the organist's apartment shared a wall with our living room... he would leave with much noise and hubbub... a short time later someone else would leave and make a lot of noise - it was impossible to walk down those stairs quietly. We would hear his door slam but there was no one on his porch. NO one - I looked many times because some of the noises just didn't make any sense. There was a large, very roomy attic above our apartment that was shared with the organist. It was haunted by a man - a very upset and unfriendly ghost - nearly hostile, at times. He made a lot of weird sounds - and walked back and forth at night mostly, my mother, for some reason I never could understand refused to use the word ghost - in fact, was in denial that the house was haunted, though she was as sensitive as I was to such things. She claimed that John, the organist was walking on our side of attic and looking through our things. I do not know his story but I saw him once as a pillar of smoky gray. I had gone up the stairs when my mother asked me to fetch something... I wasn't feeling well and was apprehensive about going up there when it was dark. I saw him very vividly and instead of controlling my instinctual fears they overwhelmed me and I nearly fell back down the stairs as I ran down them. I slammed the door and locked it. My mom asked me if I had gotten the things she asked for and I said no, I didn't but I was afraid to say that I had seen the ghost because I knew she refused to accept the haunting. My impression of him was that he had committed suicide in the attic. I think it was one of the few times in my life when I could not control my fears... I would only say that I was coming down with a cold and was rather weak. I emphasize: the noises, foot steps and weird sounds were constant, this was just one of the major sightings of the ghost !

There also was a very large basement - it was shared between us and the maid/cook. Her part was divided from ours with a cloth curtain. We had a second kitchen down there and would there in the summer, sometimes. My father had a work bench and tools down there and there was some old furniture. The place always 'spooked' me... I had to work down there a lot, our washing machines were there for a long time and I actually liked the place because the apartment was so small ... the attic and basement were blessings - or could have been. Both could have been seen as real helps for us but no one really liked, either. It was also haunted but it wasn't just one ghost. Let me explain, I would find out in the yard pieces of engraved marble and asked my father about them - he said they were tomb stones and even some of our walk way was made with them. As I mentioned Holy Redeemer was nearing its centennial, originally it had a cemetery as many of the oldest churches, do - this was moved out to Holy Sepulchre cemetery when the city ruled the bodies must be moved.
What I suspected and I think is very creditable : they missed some of the bodies. I would see faces in the windows in the basement. I think they did not like sharing their space with us. I would feel watched a great deal of the time. It got so bad and so unnerved me I decided to try a little ceremony. I brought a cross down and walked around with it asking the ghosts to leave us alone so we could do our work. As I said we cooked some down there and washed clothes until the late 60's. I think the ghosts were getting on mom's nerves, also, though she never admitted to me or mentioned them to me, directly. For some reason she gave up some of precious space upstairs and put the new washer and dryer up in the kitchen for while. I would iron up there instead of in the cool basement. I only know about the strange pieces of marble and the story my father told me about the old graves. I don't know if for sure if his story was correct, completely, but it was a rational reason for the faces in the windows of the basement. (Often they appeared as eyes.) I would feel watched , very often.
My goodness... found their website on line. Here is the history of Holy Sepulchre cemetery's history... it says a Bishop .. my dad said it was the city. Here is the history and mention of the transfer of the bodies to the cemetery!
My Bedroom :
It was my kind of luck that my bedroom was haunted. It was very small room for a growing teenager with a large book collection who needed a desk to do homework and a place to keep her clothes. The corner behind the door was the most active, though not always. Someone stood in that corner ... could never quite find out who. Never heard anything and I always felt his presence. (and yes, I thought of it as a male. ) I tried desperately to ignore him as much as possible. I moved my bed around so he was immediately behind me - a very big mistake. I woke up one morning with a large lump on the back of my head that I could not explain - my mom said she heard the kitchen furnitures being broken and slammed that night - but saw nothing in the morning. For some reason, she would rather blame the living and believed that my father had a gotten angry about something... I mentioned that I had not awoken during the night and heard nothing. I think it must have been the first time I said the "G...." word to her face ! My father was not an easy man to live with but he was no monster. He never attacked anyone physically, that I knew about and he never slammed furniture about at 2 in the morning either. I quickly and without explanation moved my bed back to its old position. The ghost sensed is better than the ghost who does things literally behind your back! I also put my stereo in that corner. It would turn on by itself and I moved it. I finally settled my set of drawers in the infamous corner (I figured he just as well might stand in the middle of my pantie drawer. He was certainly annoying me enough!) . Unless he took up residence in the mirror I had nothing to fear, further from him. I suspect some of the things going on may have poltergeist activity caused by yours truly - a young girl reaching puberty and beyond - especially one that had some spiritual gifts also blooming and an unhappy family life can be admitting a lot of stray energy ... well, it wouldn't be so surprising, would it? I think it may have been me that was feeding the ghosts, some with my own psychic energy. This is something to think about if you live in a haunted house - are you doing anything to make them stronger?
Continued tomorrow.

I am going to find this impossible to connect all this into coherent sentences, sorry, before hand. My spirituality seems more complex and more urbanized but it has been influenced by many things including Buddhism and Christian Gnosticism, though I accept certain aspects of it like reincarnation, precognition, seeing ghosts and spirits as perfectly normal things. I am a literate person and I wasn't really raised as a southern Italian, though, certainly, my home-life was a mixture of modern American & Italian culture ! My parents both spoke a dialect of Italian and my older sisters knew far more Italian than I ever did. I came late to my family and both of my sisters were nearly out of H.S. when I appeared. All of this was passed down to me through my mother.

A great deal was said about the 'evil eye' and the removal of it. I never quite got an explanation of what was meant but I suspect it had something to do with someone wishing a person ill and causing illness or emotional stress by doing so. I am sure there are better explanations of this concept. I do not think anything necessarily had to pass between two people - it seemed to be silent communication. I always imagined the kind of frown that seems a curse without words. My grandmother removed this by pouring some water into a bowl and dropping just a bit of olive oil into the water. If the oil formed an eye than she would remove the evil eye by rubbing her gold ring over the body part that was harmed or the face of the person. My sister J had frequent headaches and they were removed in this way. I think I may have seen this ritual once or twice but it is faint memory of events I did not understand. She recited a prayer to 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph...' during the removal of the evil eye.
Incense was used to purify. Evil does not like certain smells.
(Throughout this article everything I say should be prefaced with the words "My mother said, my mother remembered ...")
My grandmother was a herbalist. She searched for wild herbs on the hillsides near her home town and her children, particularly my mother hunted for them with her and she grew herbs in her garden both here in America and in Italy. She used simples as far as I know - meaning one herb for one thing ... Rue for women's complaints, to cause birth-pangs and ease my mother's Rheumatic fever during WWI, for instance. She made teas (infusion) and stronger mixtures but mom didn't remember how she did this. (She may have made a decoction which means you boil herbs, roots down and steep them with leafy herbs in hot water, afterwards straining them. ) She seemed to understand something about marijuana & used it for pain - helping friends with eye problems and a person dying of cancer with it. I do not know whether this was legal in Italy but it was during the war, and I don't think the modern laws against drugs were enforced that early in the 20 century. I would not do this because I do think it appropriate to disobey the laws of your time and place.

Most of my herbal knowledge comes from books. My mother knew very little about herbalism, in fact, she was surprised when I began to display a real interest in and knowledge of the subject.

She knew generally the herbs that grew best in her native soils. I don't think she knew about none- native plants and spices. I say this because she and the children were alone in Italy during WWI and nearly starved to death. Tragically, my mother had rickets which caused her legs to become slightly bowed - it speaks of a poverty that could not afford proper nourishment.
She used oregano, parsley, Rue, Rosemary, chamomile, Pepper, thyme & sage - she may have used Rose hips but I am not sure. I suspect she knew more than mother knew simply because mother was so very young when she immigrated to the USA. She never seemed interested in all of this. Gardening was always important to her. She gardened her entire life. I always saw flowers among her vegetables and she may have known something about how certain plants effect or protect against insects. (I did not know enough to ask in those days. google "plant companions" or companion gardening.)

She was honestly surprised I was. Grandmother also knew a great deal of folk lore and it seemed connected to her witchcraft and her religious outlook - many ancient legends, traditions and stories were passed down. These are not directly connected to her witchcraft but they seemed part of a whole fabric to me. Story telling seemed a very important way to pass knowledge down to the next generation. I begged my mother for all of these stories and she gave me all that were within her memory - many of them were close to what we now call fairy stories.

My mother claimed there were dark witches in our family - in the past and that the choice was always a personal one. Use your gifts for good, you were a good person. Use for ill...

There seems a very strong connection with ancestors... mother believed that grandmother inspired me to learn about these things - that her spirit was with me, even a part of me - this speaks of a very strong link between generations, perhaps even reincarnation, though I explained to her that grandmother and I were contemporary and could not be the same soul. I did not understand this as a teenager but as an adult I think she may have been very close to the truth concerning closeness. There was always the assumption that our ancestors were still with us and they prayed both with us and for us. They could inspire us and speak to us in our dreams. It was impolite to mention a dead relative (or any dead person !) without also adding 'God bless their good soul!' or something comparable to that sentiment ' May they rest in peace!' was the most often heard expression. I still say this in my head every time I mention a deceased family member.
Ghosts were an important issue and there were ways used to lay them, rid a house of them or chase them away - Rosemary should be prayed over and tied with a blue ribbon and then tied to the door frame. Rue was a herb of purity and evil did not like it. (I grow it just out my door still to keep evil away. It works. I think it also chases salesmen away!) Sprinkle holy water. Pray to Christ, the angels and Mary to protect you and your family. Ask God to protect your house and surround it with white light so no evil can enter within. Put pictures of Mary and Jesus throughout your house. These will protect you because they are an sign (to the darkness) that you belong to the light.

My mother was spiritually inclined and saw auras & ghosts. She was disdainful of the clergy and almost hated a few of them - often distrusted them. She seemed to believe that all churches were only interested in money... this seems to have been a strong component in what her mother taught her. This attitude was very basic to her world-view. She tried to translate a saying for me... something to the effect of "the Church only taxes us... Rome too far ... " This dislike for organized religion - yet devotion to God, Mary, Jesus, the saints, Joseph, the rosary, even to certain popes ... well, you get the point, was basic to her concept of how things worked. I always saw this as a reason why witchcraft survived in our family. "Don't do as the priests do, but do what they tell you to do..." is another paraphrase of my mother's viewpoint of the church, which was often a very mixed affair of love/hate. She really believed in personal religion and spirituality as the best path to being a good person. Organized religion was run by men. She never spoke of this to others, only immediate family, also.

I see both, also, but I do not see auras in color. Grandmother saw auras, also.
The spiritual realm isn't above or beyond ... it is among us. Ghosts are not a rare - they walk in the same places we do. The spiritual realm is here. What is different is they are different in vibration.
The souls of good people are like clean flowing water... crystal clear, beautiful with a lovely smell. The souls of evil people are clouded and dark like a festering pool of sewage. They may smell bad. The souls of the saints, Mary, Joseph and Jesus were the purest of all.
Animals know their master and recognize the light faster than human beings do.
Be careful for what you say - words have power. Evil words bring evil, good words bring good.

There was a lot of confusion in mom's mind about reincarnation. I think grandmother may have believed - mom seemed to but I was never sure. I came up with reincarnation as a fact in my own life at the age of 16/17. I just knew though all the implications were not immediately clear.
Vinegar was used to cleanse the body. Grandma poured a few drops in water and drank it.
Grandma Rosa was an adviser, at least, to some some of her friends and family. She suggested a deformed child be sent to a nunnery. She may have been seen as a wise woman.

E.S.P. seemed to be an important component of her witchcraft - seeing the near future even a few moments ahead (precognition) - mother, me and 'J.' all manifested this ability, also. The kind of thing that causes me to walk to the front of the house to accept a delivery just as the UPS truck turns the corner of our street. My mother showed this kind of communicative ability many times and it was impossible to hide much from her for very long - she just sensed - had gut feelings and they were rarely totally wrong. She said this gift was inherited from Rosa. The ability to read objects - psychometry - was another skill that could be manifested by the women in my family. I do not know if Rosa had it.
I was taught to fear witchcraft and those things that seemed to be connected to it - though, perhaps fear is too strong a word... respect, might be closer to the truth. It offered power and could corrupt me if my heart was not pure. Work always for a pure heart was a constant theme in our conversations. Human nature could be so easily corrupted that witchcraft could bring as much ill as good - prayer was an important part of knowing that we did not sin with our powers - and all powers are Gifts... Disinterest is a word that comes quickly to mind. Mother told a story of an ancestor who fled to Italy escaping persecution. I tend not to dabble in witchcraft, greatly - it isn't that it doesn't tempt me and its not that I don't believe in it, necessarily but I am not looking for mere power - and the gifts are natural though never quite under my complete control. I have always been drawn toward mysticism which is almost the direct opposite of witchcraft - the love of God and the desire for union with Him is far more a passive experience, something that comes - all I can do is work to become a person worthy of the experiences I seek. I think Rosa, though, would be thrilled to know, that I cared and have not forgotten her or what gifts she passed down to me.