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In England, many castles are reputed to have ghosts that haunt the premises.  We don�t have many castles in America; so instead, we apparently try to match the haunts overseas with our own version of ghostly buildings�our abandoned Lighthouses.

So many of our abandoned lighthouses have a reputation of being haunted that statistically the numbers seems greater than that of other abandoned buildings--although all abandoned buildings MAY seem to be a bit strange.  There is something odd about a building that once knew human laughter and pain, which shared in moments of love and sorrow, that housed families and pets, or that once looked upon other human endeavors.

Of course, buildings can�t �look� or �share� because they aren�t living things�just like physical objects can�t hold magic power�according to some magicians.  But some magicians know that you can imbue objects with your power�which then become a sort of storage battery for that magic.  And the act of naming Athames, Ritual Swords, and other magical instruments can give these devices a type of �personality�.  

So is it any wonder that a building that has been filled with the generated emotions and passions of the people that lived inside them for many years are not brimming with the aura of the past?  Is this why these buildings sometimes seem so lonely when they are empty?

So why are so many Light Houses are haunted?  Is it because of their shape and construction?  Usually such buildings contain a spiral staircase within a tube, where your footsteps, and the phantom footsteps of others, from ages past, echo up and down the vertical tunnel of the towering building.

Russian physic studies have hinted at the possibility that objects of certain shapes are capable of not only storing strange energies but of containing them to begin with�because of their innate shapes.  Perhaps this is why there are female statues on some altars because these same studies have shown that the female shape can be a reservoir of unusual forces.

Could not the repetition of the faithful lighthouse tender climbing the stairs every night to light the lamp build up a depository of sound from ages past?  Add in other factors, like the waves of the mysterious ocean crashing against the rocks surrounding the lighthouses--waters where glowing ghost ships have been seen, where ships have disappeared, where ships empty of their crews have been found floating serenely�without a reasonable reason for their being abandoned.  Then add in the mournful cry of the foghorn and wrap the lighthouse in a mantle of peculiar fog.  Lastly, add in the prayers of sailors straining to see the comforting beam of light so they can figure out where they are and which way they need to steer to survive the stormy, wind-tossed waves near the shoals, and you can begin to see that lighthouses are a focal point for mystifying energies that are integrated with humanity.  

You can stand in the fog near the still operating Oregon Umatilla lighthouse and watch its strong while light beam through the night, out to sea, then back into the shore, sweeping by and lighting up the trees behind it for just a moment.  Then its two red beams�a signal that identifies it, also beam through the foggy darkness.  It is a sight of utter beauty that soon will be gone because GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) will soon make all lighthouses obsolete.  

Then find access to an already abandoned lighthouse and slowly climb the rusting iron spiral staircase upward, listening for echoes of other steps, not your own--perhaps those from olden times--and watch for the phantom shadows of the lonely people that manned those towers so long ago.  

Spend some stormy night watching a long abandoned lighthouse.  Perhaps you will see, as hundreds of other people have witnessed over the years, a sudden beam of light circling, circling as it did in times long past�at the top of the tower�even when the light and its lens have been removed!  And why does this happen?  Do long dead lighthouses hear the sound of long dead ships with long dead crews, blowing phantom horns in distress and respond to them?  And where is the lighthouse leading its dead charges?  Then let those delicious shivers run coldly up your spine and you will understand that we recognize little and understand less.