(Investigated in 2007, 2008 and 2011 )
HISTORY
The Mizmaze at Breamore is one of the 8 turf labyrinths
which have survived in
The Breamore Mizmaze is not a maze with many dead ends; the turf path eventually leads to the little mound in the centre.
A labyrinth is an ancient symbol relating to wholeness. Labyrinths have been historically used for meditation and Pagan celebration. The labyrinth coalesces the imagery of the circle and the spiral, into a twisty but purposeful path. If one starts from the outside, the walker's journey may represent a journey into their own centre and by walking back out again, they may be walking back out into the world.
Although the Breamore Mizmaze has the word 'maze' in it's title, it is a labyrinth and not an actual maze. A maze symbolises a puzzle which needs to be solved. To walk it, one would find that they would be twisting, turning and ending up inside blind alleys. A labyrinth has only one path and the way into the middle, is also the way out when reversed.
I have been going to the Mizmaze at Breamore for many years. I go there to communicate with the ancestors and I always find my visits there, positive and rewarding. I have cast fertility spells at the Mizmaze and so far each request for fertility has been granted. My requests have always been for people who are experiencing difficulties with conception.
I have had some very strange experiences at the Mizmaze and other people that have accompanied me there, have mentioned that they did not feel we were alone. Were the ancestors joining us or other spirit people? Some people felt very uncomfortable and could not wait to leave, feeling as we walked away that we were being watched?
I do not feel uncomfortable at the Mizmaze. I know it is used by other witches (witches that I do not know but who leave the most subtle evidence that sometimes only a fellow witch may notice). I thought the Mizmaze would be an interesting place for the Twilight Shadows Paranormal team to experience.
REPORT
On
We arrived at the Mizmaze just before twilight and waited for darkness to fall. We stood gazing at the labyrinth and marvelled at the accuracy of the workmanship of our ancestors. The boys went off to explore and the girls stood chatting for a while. I felt as if someone tapped me on the shoulder but I was not completely sure so I did not bother to say anything. About 30 seconds later Vikki exclaimed that someone had tapped on her shoulder with two defined taps. So perhaps I had not imagined it at all?
We walked into the woods which surround the Mizmaze. These woods seem especially dark even in the daylight. At night they appear even more dark and murky but the feeling and energy is not unpleasant. We decided to sit on some logs and soak up the atmosphere. We found a witches marker so we positioned ourselves around that.
We sat for a long while just chatting. We did hear several strange noises, some we could account for, others noises remained a mystery but we did not think were particularly attributed to the paranormal. We did hear and feel some thumps on the ground surrounding us but we have no idea of the cause. James, Vikki and I all thought we saw a figure in the trees. It was moving around in between trees. We could not decide whether we thought that it was one figure or several. We stopped talking, sat still and observed the area. Every now and then it seemed that the figure/figures dashed between one tree and the next. However the darkness is a strange thing and we all wondered if it was just our eyes playing tricks upon us.
As the area of the Mizmaze is a sacred place for Pagans, I was already tuned in to the ancestors and I could feel their presence. Although I do not practice my Sabbat rites here, I am aware that others do and the energy was almost vibrating in the ground beneath us.
Eventually we decided to have a walk around the area. We headed back towards the Mizmaze and it was at this point that Vikki experienced the biggest shock (and excitement) of her paranormal investigating so far. As we reached the Mizmaze perimeter fence, Vikki thought she saw a figure on the opposite side of the labyrinth. She quickly shone her torch towards it and she saw a young person with long hair staring across at us. 'His' gender was indistinguishable but she intuitively felt it was a male. He was young but looked old. He was approximately 5 ft tall and had long, mousy coloured brown hair. Vikki said that his most prominent feature was his nose as it was very large. She only saw his top half and he was wearing grey/silver coloured clothes.
Vikki described the incident clearly and said that when she shone the torch at him, he seemed startled and he turned quickly (which made his hair flick out) and he ran. She said that he ran too fast for a normal person and he just disappeared in front of her eyes. He did not run into the woods, he was just gone. We were all with Vikki and not one of us heard any sort of running noise or footsteps. Vikki said that he made absolutely no noise when he ran, he was totally silent. It was such a shame that the rest of us were not looking the same way as Vikki and we did not see him and our camcorders were not filming at this time. Vikki was in total shock for the rest of the investigation. She just could not believe that she had seen this apparition so clearly and in the full beam of her torch. Her feelings ranged from total disbelief to excitement and she could hardly contain herself.
Eventually we decided to leave the Mizmaze and make the long trek back to our car. There is a strange area on the way back that we feel is quite sinister. There are stories attached to it which may provide us with pre-conceived notions but as we passed this area we felt very strange. Vikki and I could feel the presence of people behind us and it seemed as if they were escorting us safely past the alleged negative area. This place is menacing and because of the tales connected to it we decided not to investigate this particular spot. Vikki and I thought we heard a woman cry out as we passed but there was nobody near the origin of the sound. As soon as we had gone past this area it seemed as if the people behind us drew back and we continued our journey alone. We felt safe and protected.
We all enjoyed our experience and Vikki was excited and happy with her ghostly encounter. This area is an extremely beautiful and enchanting place.
Written by: Maria Williams
UPDATE: The following Monday after this investigation I received my copy of the 'Paranormal' magazine (issue 21 - 2007). Inside this issue is a feature called 'The Running Man'. The description of the 'Running Man' has amazing similarities to the man that Vikki saw by the Mizmaze. The only factors that make Vikki's man different is that he was not running by a car and he was 5 ft tall instead of 6 ft but we were at an ancient site which is apparently indicative of this spectre.
One of my colleagues was chatting to me about the Mizmaze as she knows it well. She had read the 'Twilight Shadows Paranormal' investigation report and she too had been tapped on the shoulder in the same place that Vikki and I had been tapped. She said that she feels watched when at the Mizmaze but not in a sinister manner. She also commented on the fact the woodland surrounding the Mizmaze is so much darker than any other woodland. We also got chatting about the area that the team walked back along towards our cars, where we felt very uncomfortable. My colleague thinks that this area may be the place in which the 'hanging tree' is situated but is not completely sure of this. I have no idea? I have heard other stories concerning this area but again I am unsure of their accuracy.
VISIT 2
On
We arrived at Breamore and parked our cars near the little Saxon church. We made our way to the public bridleway and walked to our destination. It is a considerable walk to the Mizmaze. We reached the track that is surrounded by woods and started the climb. We had not walked very far when we stopped in our tracks. Most of us had heard a growl very close to us from the right-hand side. It was a very loud growl and I think it made us all uneasy.
We eventually started walking again. As you walk up the track, there is an area on the right side which seems very sinister. Most people could feel the atmosphere change and then change again when we had left this part of the track. As I mentioned in the first report, there are unpleasant stories associated with this area. I do not know if they are true.
After a long walk up to the Mizmaze, we entered the woods. The atmosphere did not feel unpleasant. We stopped at the Witches marker. It does not seem to have changed since our last visit.
We left the witches marker and gathered at the perimeter fence of the Mizmaze. The atmosphere still felt pleasant. I told Jacky that I had felt taps on my shoulder on our first visit and that Vikki had also. Jacky just smiled and said "thanks for telling me that." She had a knowing look as if she had been touched since standing there.
The Twilight Shadow boys had gone off to explore and suddenly Matt called me over to the opposite side of the Mizmaze. He told me that he had found a tree which was covered in blood.
I looked at the tree with absolute horror and then I realised that I am very gullible. The tree was obviously oozing sap! It did look rather sinister though. We walked a little way into the woods and stopped for a chat. The atmosphere suddenly changed and Jacky said that she could feel a spirit 'coming forward.'
We heard the voice of a woman. Although it was clearly a
woman's voice, we could not understand what she was saying. She seemed to be
chattering. Suddenly Jacky jumped with fright and spun around as she had been
touched. She had felt an arm being pulled across her shoulders. Nobody from the
group had touched her but I thought I saw a human shaped black shadow move
behind her. As I discussed this with
We started to 'call out' to the woman to see if she would speak to us.
Her voice was suddenly replaced by the sound of children's voices. It sounded like a school playground. This was very odd.
Jacky initially heard the children's voices and then other people started to hear them.
A few of us had the perception (at the same time) that the voices were the work of a trickster and that we were dealing with a male entity who was trying to entice us with a feminine voice and then the voices of children.
Jacky suddenly felt that we should retreat as she felt that the entity was drawing too close and was gaining power. Emma had not heard the voices and she said that she wanted to get closer and try to make contact. She walked a little way nearer to the sound of the children but she still did not hear them.
Eventually we decided to leave the area of the Mizmaze and start the long walk back to our cars. We obviously thought that the children's voices would disappear but they seemed to follow us with a surround sound effect. It was very eerie.
Emma had still not heard the voices and she stood still to listen with Kieran and suddenly she heard them. She was amazed by this audible phenomenon and pleased that she had heard them at last. We were now a long way from the Mizmaze and we were shocked that the voices had followed us. We heard them until we had passed by the sinister part of the track and then they disappeared. We all relaxed a little but Loretta did not loosen her grip on my arm. It is not like her to be so nervous.
We got back to the cars and stayed chatting for a while. We looked over the wall at the church and the cemetery.
We said goodbye and headed home. Emma, Kieran and Mark
headed for another location to conduct an investigation of their own. Twilight
Shadows Paranormal would like to thank Jacky and
Written by: Maria Williams
VISIT 3
On Sunday 30th October 2011, the Twilight Shadows Paranormal team met up for a Halloween walk to the Mizmaze in Breamore, Hampshire.
We walked up to the woods through the cemetery at the Saxon church nearby. The atmosphere seemed tranquil with no trace of spiritual activity. We walked up the path towards the wooded bridleway and this area also seemed calm and not remotely scary.
We eventually arrived at the Mizmaze without any strange events occurring and wandered around the little woodland before all standing by the labyrinth. We stood there for a long time in an extremely comfortable atmosphere, just chatting to each other. After quite a while, we noticed that the atmosphere began to change and we began to feel that something quite sinister was drawing near. It was quite a menacing feeling.
Jacky and I started to ‘call out’ asking that any spirits who may want to communicate with us would do something definitive so that we would know that they were there. Some of the team heard a woman’s voice but I did not hear it. We kept asking for spiritual activity but for a long time nothing happened and then we heard the faint sound of a conversation but as always, we could not decipher what was being said. It was just the sound of several people murmuring. The eerie feeling continued to surround us.
We thought we could see torchlight coming towards us from the opposite direction to the pathway upon which we walked. We wondered who else would be silly enough to brave the winter weather to walk to the Mizmaze on this dark, moonless night. However, it was the eve of Halloween and witches have been known to practice their rites there. We just hoped they were friendly (I had heard previously that they weren’t). We decided that we would walk towards the torches and then suddenly felt very silly as we realized that the lights were coming from a distance and the swaying branches of the trees were giving the illusion of people walking with torches. Actually, I think we were rather relieved.
We stayed for a while after this and all seemed quiet. We eventually decided to make our way back. We were happily chatting on the wooded bridleway when suddenly Daniel jumped and then froze. Tracy asked him what was wrong and he said “Did you not hear that loud growl?” None of us heard it but then suddenly we all heard a very loud growl. It was like surround sound. I realised that this was the exact same place that we had heard a growl previously on our second visit but that time we heard the growl on our way up to the Mizmaze. It was a terrifying sound and so loud!
We eventually carried on walking back to our cars and nothing else out of the ordinary occurred.
Written by Maria Williams