Houska Castle
Weird Dream, Time Slip or Premonition?
Hello dear friends,
How are you this week? I hope you are well, happy and safe. For those of you who have been caught up in recent storms and floodings, my prayers are with you, stay safe.
This week I thought it was time to bring back a little of the spooky side of life. I was listening to an episode of True Hauntings (a podcast from Anne Rzechowicz and Renata Daniel) a couple of days ago and thought it might be a good topic to discuss.
Houska Castle - *Czechia
Houska Castle stands high on a hill in Czechoslovakia, built in the 12th century, and it has had many weird things associated with it since then. Strange creatures from hell were supposedly seen emerging from a reputedly bottomless pit that is located in the castle courtyard (it apparently goes all the way down to hell…), weird experiments, the German army/Nazis in the Second World War and many other peculiar tales.
[*Czechia was confirmed in 2016 as the alternative short English name for the Czechoslovakian Republic.]
It is now open to the public and you can tour around the castle as a regular visitor or take a ghost tour, whichever takes your fancy. The tale which caught my eye was from 1836 when a young poet stayed in the castle while on a walking tour. The poet’s name was Karel Hynek Màcha, and he was 25 at the time. During his stay, he had an extraordinary dream, which he later detailed in a letter to a friend of his, Edward Hindle. In the dream, he said his soul descended into the pit and was transported to a terrible future.
From McGees Ghost Tours of Prague website
In 1836, during a walking tour of the region, Czechoslovakian poet Karel Hynek Màcha spent a night at Houska and supposedly in his dreams he was visited by a terrible vision which he later recounted in a letter to his friend Edward Hindle.
Macha described his soul descending into the pit and then being transported into a hellish mechanized future, Prague 2006, where he wandered in horror and despair. Among other unnerving experiences in the vision, Màcha wrote that he met a girl who showed him moving pictures in a small casket and that in darkness he walked among high sandstone cliffs riddled with holes that projected an eerie yellow light, uncannily similar to modern sidliště, the enormous blocks of flats which in the present day loom above the outskirts of Prague. And remember, Màcha was recounting all of this in 1836, so how did these visions of the future emerge from his subconscious? Was it really only a dream? Or is it possible that he was actually transported ahead in time?
The tower blocks could have been mistaken for cliffs, he would not have seen buildings like this in 1836. I’m not sure where the 2006 date which is referenced came from, but a girl who showed him moving pictures in a small casket? Mobile phone anyone?
Màcha is also reputed to have recounted seeing mechanized vehicles spitting fire on the streets of Prague - could this have been the tanks involved in the Prague Spring uprising of 1968?
Time slips are fascinating and relatively rare, there are reports of one in Bold Street, Liverpool that happened in 1996 where an off-duty policeman was transported back to the 1950’s and the bookshop he wanted to enter was a ladies' fashion shop... There is a story about this in the Liverpool Echo
The Uncanny podcast talks about the Bold Street, Liverpool time slips in Series 3, Episode 2 which can be found here and is featured towards the end of the TV Series 1, Episode 1 (time stamp approx. 47 minutes). Have you ever experienced something similar?
Same but different…
If you found this interesting you may like to investigate The Premonitions Bureau, a BBC program which ran for 8 episodes in 2022. In it, Richard Goulding reads the bestselling book by The New Yorker journalist and author Sam Knight about the true reported premonitions of disasters in the 1960s.
Do you know of any interesting podcasts? I would love it if you shared them in the comments.
Until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.
Love and Light,
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Until next time, bye for now.
Links:
Czechia - Short Name Change 2016
True Hauntings Podcast Episode 58 - Houska Castle’s Hidden Secrets - released February 2022
Houska Castle, The Brain Chamber Website
The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight - BBC program
Liverpool Echo - Timeslips article
Uncanny Podcast with Danny Robins - Series 3 - Episode 2
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