Our Weekend in New England: Swan's Perspective
This blog post was written by Sierra Swan, one half of Two Halves of a Soul.
On Saturday, October 29th, 2022, Whitney & I traveled from central Wisconsin all the way to the New England area for our final investigation of October. We were to be staying with our friends Jake & Christina at their Aunt Jacqui & Uncle Sean’s house in Litchfield, NH, attending Jake & Christina’s Baby Shower, & ending our trip spending Samhain in Salem, MA. What we did not expect was how well we would connect with their friends & family through life stories, spirituality, & paranormal talk.
I don’t quite remember how we got on the subject of the paranormal during our conversation at the baby shower that Sunday, but one of their friends brought up how they went through 3 babysitter’s that were scared out of their house due to their son talking to or about things that were not there. Aside from the babysitters, she had experienced things herself in that house, but nothing compared to what her son endured. She specifically remembered one night she was saging her home to try & remove whatever spirit or entity was in the house. She was not aware that you needed to open a window/door while saging to allow the spirit to exit the home, so there was not one open this night. After she was finished, her son woke up from a dead sleep and began vomiting everywhere in his room. She & her friend ran to his room to tend to him, & while her friend was with her son in the tub she opened his bedroom window. Instantly, her son was no longer ill & went back to sleep without any trouble. We continued sharing stories back & forth with the baby shower guests, & before we knew it the sun had set. People began departing, & the rest of us moved inside out of the cold. Seeing as the baby shower carried on throughout the evening, we were not able to investigate much in New Hampshire, no biggie at all! After a few more hours of stories & learning New England lingo, Whitney & I decided to turn in for the night in preparation for our trip to Salem the next day.
Beautiful fall foliage & historic houses lined the tracks as we headed south on the train into Salem. The closer we got the heavier it felt, and more lightheaded we got. Tingles resonated throughout my body from my chest as I filled with excitement & anticipation. As we got off the train, we were both vibrating from head to toe. The streets, though we have never walked them in this lifetime, felt unexplainably familiar & welcoming.
Our first mission was to find Christina a bathroom, then we could begin adventuring around the town of Salem. We were shocked that we did not feel overwhelmed by the thousands of people we were passing in the streets; we felt rather comforted. We walked around the streets looking at the centuries old buildings, feeling energy beneath our feet every step of the way. Time just seemed to stand still as we gazed at our surroundings. After wandering around the town for a while, we decided to grab some food from a vendor. While Jake was waiting in line, we stepped aside & turned on the iOvilus while we waited for him. As soon as I turned the device on we received:
AGENT. STRANGE. SURELY. FOOT.
Typically when they say “AGENT” they are referring to us as mediums; agents for communication in many ways. At first, I assumed the spirit was referring to us wandering all around town on foot. Before I could fully get my next question out, the device said:
OCEAN. FAST. STRANGE.
We then asked if the spirit could give us their name if they still remembered it. One minute later, he revealed his name. The device then said:
RON.
I did not get the feeling that this was a spirit from the Salem Witch Trial times, but suddenly had the urge to look to my right. As I did, my eyes met a large WWII memorial & my heart sank. Instantly I felt my legs get both very hot & very cold at the same time, with a strange pain radiating through them & they went slightly numb. My eyes filled with tears & I hesitantly asked “Did you pass while serving in a war?” A voice in my head immediately said “Yes, I did.” No sooner after I heard this response in my head, the iOvilus device confirmed as well:
YES.
We both thanked Ron for his service, & snapped a picture of the memorial to look at later to see if we could find a “Ron” listed anywhere before we continued to wander around the town. We were stunned to find there was only one person on the entire memorial with a similar name; Ronald DeForrest listed under Vietnam. I happened to come across his obituary during my research once I got home. Ronald was born on March 27th, 1947. At the young age of 22, he was an Airman First Class in the US Air Force. His life was tragically cut short on April 25th, 1969 while overseas in Thailand where he & his crew of 18 men crashed during non-hostile action. It is believed that intense winds (around 60 knots) caused the plane to crash into the ground. He was laid to rest in the Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Salem, MA. Their entire service, sacrifice, & dedication to our country will forever be cherished & remembered.
As we made our way back through all the vendors, Jake pointed out a cemetery off to our left. It had been crowded with people & hard to see, but explained the extra heaviness that we had been feeling in that area. We had come across Charter Street Cemetery, established in 1637. Whitney & I grew silent as our eyes scanned the dark, foggy cemetery in the middle of town. As I was taking pictures of the headstones within the cemetery, Whitney motioned over towards the entrance; what appeared to be granite benches along the perimeter of the cemetery turned out to be memorials for the innocent that were hung in the 1600’s during the Salem Witch Trials. I felt my chest tighten & my stomach jump into my throat. The further we moved away from the entrance the heavier the air felt. We began reading the engravings on the granite slabs:
BRIDGET BISHOP. HANGED. JUNE 10, 1692.
ELIZABETH HOWE. HANGED. JULY 19TH, 1692.
SARAH WILDES. HANGED. JULY 19TH, 1692.
REBECCA NURSE. HANGED. JULY 19TH, 1692.
SARAH GOOD. HANGED. JULY 19TH, 1692.
We tried our best to keep our composure as we read each name, & my heart sank when I came across Sarah Wildes. I cannot explain why, other than a possible connection in a past life. Whitney had the same experience, but with Rebecca Nurse. As we were silently paying our respects to the innocent, one of the town’s Salem Witch Trial tours was coming towards us & we happened to hear the tour guide mention the tree we were standing beneath was used in some of the hangings. We turned to leave the center of town to continue exploring, we asked if anyone recognized us or our souls; while it all felt too familiar, we didn’t expect their response to be:
We felt this was confirmation that one or some of the spirits we had communicated & connected with recognized our souls as old friends, and were shocked themselves. We then received the words:
SHEPPARD. GIVE. COFFIN.
Whitney then asks “were you never given a proper burial?”, the device responds:
YET.
We believe this was one of the innocent killed, as most of those who were hanged were buried in shallow graves without a coffin or marker & most of them had their limbs poking out of the ground. After the trials, many families of the wrongfully accused dug up their bodies from the “Witch Pits” & buried them in familial plots.
Before we left, we stopped in one local shop called Crow Haven Corner, which happened to be the Oldest Witch Shop in Salem. It was our goal to find Nicole a tarot deck while in Salem as it would be her very first deck. As we were scanning the wall of decks in the shop, I reached up to grab one to look at & the Thoth Tarot Deck by Aleister Crowley happened to fall directly into my hands as if he was saying hi. We laughed, & I said “Hi Aleister” & put the deck back. It was after that, both our eyes set upon the Margarete Petersen Tarot Deck. The artwork just screamed Nicole, & when we gave it to her after we returned home we realized the descriptions were also perfect for her; poetic & beautiful.
Once we found the deck, it was finally time for us to depart as one of the last trains was departing from Salem for the night. Our time in New Hampshire & Massachusetts truly felt too short. We felt welcomed, calm, & a sense of peace while walking around both states. The New England area truly felt like home & continues to call our names back. We cannot wait to return to the East Coast & see what else we can explore.
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