As I have previously written he full moon in August was a time the Hindus honored their deity, Ganesha. Ganesha was triple form and connected to those uncanny intersection now as the crossroads. So, I am going to indulge myself and write on one of my favorite superstition which is the crossroads. Here in the Appalachia the crossroads have the nick name of spook-roads due to their long history of being connected to ghosts and goblins. Notably the crossroads connection to the supernatural is both ancients and universal. Among the ancient Greeks the crossroads is the place one might spot the witch goddess Hecate. And like Ganesha she was a triple form which allowed her the ability to look over three places at once. Hecate was also said to travel with a Wild Hunt of fairies, ghosts, and the undead, and several howling hell hounds who escort her around. The hounds are usually black as night with glowing red eyes. Hecate was such a terrifying apparition that she was sometime referred as ‘the nameless one’ to be brave enough to say her name was to bring about her wrath. The crossroad also has a great connection to voodoo and other Afro Caribbean faiths like Santeria. This became places to conjure many deities and spirits which can be traced to ancient African folk beliefs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the crossroads became associated with vampires and other spooks. One belief is held that vampires used the crossroads as a favorite hunting ground since these were places where travelers could easily become lost. But it was also a favored place to bury suicides, heretics, werewolves, and any number of people who may have died in a state of sin. These individuals were seen as likely to come back as angry ghosts or the undead. Vampires were a likely type of angry dead to return. So, burying these restless spirits would find burial at crossroads a place of confusion and be unable to know which direction to take. With this various association with the dead, it was customary for people to meet at a crossroads on New Year’s Eve to hear the spirits of the ancestral dead who might prophesy about the coming year. This was to foretell how harsh the coming year might be. And so, it goes.