Guided By Angels: Part 2 of 3: There Are No Goodbyes, My Tour of the Spirit World. Paddy McMahon

of spirit. Of course, this brings up the question of why any soul bothers to be born into such challenging situations. But, clearly, it’s all to do with raising levels of consciousness or awareness. An effective way to do this is to be forced up against a wall, so to speak, so that we have no choice but to try to liberate ourselves and find freedom in the way we think. Trying circumstances often bring out the best in people, and always teach a lesson.

      Forebodings of death

      Many of us fear death, even when we are reassured that there is something profoundly wonderful that follows. There are multiple stories of people who have had premonitions or forebodings of imminent death – and not usually their own death, either. In Ireland there used to be (maybe there still is) a tradition surrounding what is known as a ‘banshee’. My dictionary describes this creature as a ‘female spirit whose wailing warns of a death in a house’. Literally, the word ‘banshee’ means a ‘woman of the fairies’. As far as I know, it’s a mythical tradition that applies only to certain families.

      There was a road leading to the house where I was brought up. At one of its turns, the banshee was believed to sit combing her hair. I remember hearing a story about a foolish man who snatched her comb and ran as fast as he could into his house. Hot on his heels, the banshee pursued him, and arrived wailing at the door. Realising the mistake he had made, he was about to hand her the comb, but the woman of the house stopped him. She placed the comb on some tongs and handed it to the banshee. As the banshee took the comb, the tongs broke in half. I expect the man was very grateful he hadn’t handed them over directly, and that he suffered no ill effects after the risk he took.