gravestomp, ritual,

Gravestomps: The Faerie Lights Cemetery

Here in the DFW metroplex, we have a small graveyard on a two lane, gravel topped road that has been popular for decades. Locals call it the “Faerie Lights Cemetery”. I first heard about it about in the early ’80s, when I met a new friend who lived up the road from the cemetery. He, Jeff, said the local people told his parents stories about it when they bought their home there several years before he was born. The stories say that for the past several decades, lights will appear to some people, but they do not appear to all. Unlike most paranormal events, many of the locals seem to end up seeing them eventually, if they live close by for a long enough time, usually a few months for some or years or for others.

This is a popular cemetery for gravestomps, We have had groups where some saw the lights and some of others we were with thought we were crazy. One thing we have noticed, the more of a seeker the person is, or the more spiritual the person, the more likely they are to see the lights. We have also noticed that some people, those who are sensitive to the unexplained things around us, see them very easily the first time they visit. The least likely to see the lights are those people whose dogma prevents them from having an open mind to unexplainable events.

The last large group gravestomp we took to the “Faerie Lights Cemetery”, our entire party was made up of pagans, witches, Wiccans, Druids, an Eternalist, and other people who were new to seeking out some form of spirituality that made sense to them. It was very exciting because that night, everyone present was able to see the lights and participate.

The standard practice for gravestomps to this cemetery is to go when there is no moon at all. The reasoning being that this rules out the possibility of reflected moonlight being a cause of the sightings. We go late at night to rule out headlights passing on the gravel road and reflecting off headstones, as causing the effect. It is an extremely small town, anyway, with less than ten thousand citizens, so there is never very much traffic on this small back road. Late nights there is also less of a possibility that one of the few houses in the distance will have outdoor lights on, and as such, less chance of the lights reflecting off the headstones to produce any odd effects. These are all precautions taken for the benefit of the skeptical ones among us trying to see the lights for the first time. Those who do see them and are open to the experiences of the unexplainable can tell you that these lights are not caused by any kind of reflection at all.

The lights appear as slightly flickering flames. They are a bright and glowing blue, an almost neon blue shade which seems to be about 3 or 4 inches in height. You see them from a distance but when you approach the spot where they were… they are no longer there and they will appear behind you, instead. They show up on empty plots and occupied plots alike. There is no reason or rhyme to the placement of the flames, even though there have been decades of experimentation in this cemetery.

In the past, many people have tried to out-think the lights but it has yet to work. As for our groups, we have begun in the center of the cemetery as a whole all facing out toward the lights. They always seem to be just 30 or so steps away and scattered throughout the cemetery. We have one person count off steps away from the center, as we each take one step forward for each number called out. By the time we are 15 steps out, the lights have either blinked out or moved back from the location where they originally were. Some are still 30 steps away while others are simply gone. When the caller reaches 30, we have turned and looked back toward the center, lo and behold, they are several lights now behind us in the center of our circle, No-one could remember seeing them as we passed them though obviously, we had passed them or they had passed by us, sight unseen.

The last time we went to “Faerie Lights Cemetery”, I stood still with a couple of other people and tried to guide some of the others toward the lights. We had them circling around behind the lights in an attempt to sneak up on them. (” No… No! Go back about another ten feet, take four steps to your left and then come back toward us about fifteen feet. You’re almost there, almost there, almost… AAARRRGGGHHH! Don’t step on it!) Though it seems that we were able to see them from a distance still, Lysander and even Nightshade with his size 13 clodhoppers could not see the light, which was less than two feet in front of them. Yet, from where we were standing, it glowed as brightly as ever. However, as they were looking right down upon it as they loomed over it; they could not see a thing other than the empty plot they stood on.

Meanwhile others of the party were elsewhere in the cemetery doing their best to sneak up and catch the lights unaware. As usual, no luck was had by anyone trying to catch up to the lights and view them close up. No one that I am aware of has ever gotten a close look at the elusive “Faerie Lights” in all the decades that groups have been trying.

2 thoughts on “Gravestomps: The Faerie Lights Cemetery

  1. Pingback: Az: On Using Runes | Sacred Hands Coven

  2. Pingback: The Celebration of Gravestomps | Sacred Hands Coven



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