Ghost Chasers Episode 9 part 2
This episode is the one that still leaves me scratching my head. Our location was Kasteel Doornenburg a Dutch castle from the 13th century.
The castle is located in the eastern part of the province of Gelderland, near the village of Doornenburg. It is one of the biggest and most well-preserved castles in the Netherlands. It consists of the main castle and a front castle which are connected via a small wooden bridge.The castle was originally a fortified manor built in the 9th century. At this stage, it was known as the Villa Dorenburc. It wasn't until the 13th century that it was converted into a proper castle. Gradually, through the centuries, the castle was expanded further into its current form.
The front castle was built in the 15th century. It contains sleeping quarters, a chapel and a farm, the latter being quite a unique feature for a Dutch castle.Castle Doornenburg was occupied until the 19th century. After that it fell into disrepair and became a ruin. In 1936 the Stichting tot Behoud van den Doornenburg (literally: Foundation for Preservation of the Doornenburg) was created and the castle was restored between 1937 and 1941. Unfortunately, by the end of the Second World War it was almost completely destroyed. The Germans were thought to have blown it up, but it had actually been hit by a British bombardment in March 1945. The castle was completely rebuilt between 1947 and 1968.
What makes Castle Doornenburg unique was the discovery of the Sigilum Dei or 'Seal of God' The Sigillum Dei was a late Middle Ages magical diagram, composed of two circles, a pentagram, and three heptagons, and is labelled with the name of God and his angels. It was an amulet with the magical function that, according to one of the oldest sources 'The Sworn Book of Honorius', allowed the initiated magician to have power over all creatures except Archangels, but usually only reserved for those who can achieve the blessed vision of God and angels.
It is supposedly the product of a conference of magicians who decided to condense all their knowledge into one volume. In 93 chapters, it covers a large variety of topics, from how to save one's soul from purgatory to the catching of thieves or finding of treasures. It has many instructions on how to conjure and command demons, to work other magical operations, and knowledge of what lies in Heaven among other highly sought information. Like many grimoires, it has lengthy dissertations for proper operation and seals to be used.
We were excited about this location as we had reports of disembodied voices, footsteps, and heavy furniture moving by itself. The first of the activity started while walking downstairs where we had interference coming through on our radios although at this stage it was just static with no perception of any voices. Ian wanted to carry on the investigation upstairs and decided to use the call back facility on our cctv system. This time we appeared to get an intelligent response. One theory we thought was that it could be feedback coming from an echo into the transmitter however this had never happened on any other location so we have had to put the cause of this down as unknown.
It was at the final part of the investigation that things got really strange for me in particular. We had decided that we were going to do the final vigil in the form of a seance with the sigillum dei. Here is a reminder of the vigil from this episode.
From my perspective I remember everything up until the point Paul and Kay stepped out of the circle. My last memory of the seance is a sharp pain in my left arm and then Ian and Paul pulling me up against the side of the dungeon wall. I felt really drained and couldn't wait to get out of the area. I had no recollection whatsoever of being stood talking to Ian. What was also strange is the loud breath we all heard from the corner while we were waiting for the ladder to come down to us, just to top off an already strange encounter.
After I got up to to ground level I went straight outside and sat on a bench in the cool night air trying to gather my thoughts. In my mind I had simply fainted however Steve Robson our camerman had the footage on camera and I was astounded to watch back the whole vigil. This is one encounter that I will never forget and still cannot explain this brush with the supernatural. However, what freaks me out the most is how ill I looked while on the floor of the dungeon. I suppose I just need to put this one down to experience and thankfully with no lasting impression.
To Catch up on our adventures Ghost Chasers is available to view here:-
