HAUNTING THE CHAPEL, PART 1.
For the 2025 Halloween season, Uncle T is HAUNTING THE CHAPEL.
Say what? Did someone drop an acid tab into his apple cider because what the hell does that mean?
Allow me to explain. Sometimes the first blast of what I like to call “Autumn power” hits you at the most unexpected moments. It could be in the middle of harvesting crops and swinging your scythe on a late September day and a chilly breeze fills the air. Suddenly it hits you. Or while browsing the drug store with your bratty kid sister on a back-to-school errand, you catch a glimpse of that beautiful, mouth-watering box of Cadbury Screme Eggs on display. Or it could be as simple as going for a walk! These small but powerful moments are the table setters. The sneak preview before the feature presentation and grand finale. Summer days might be care free, but Autumn is when we feel most alive.
It began when I hit the road this week to visit my ol’ Grandpappy who lives up north. I was driving his ’76 Ford Country Squire to drop it off because he was fixing my motorbike, which I planned to ride home after dropping off the station wagon and having a smoke with ol’ Grandpappy on his front porch. He likes to sit on his rocking chair all day, smoking his corn cob pipe and yelling at 18-wheelers that drive by.
For these types of excursions, I take to the back roads which are far more interesting than the interstate. Passing through villages and rolling valleys is like driving through a countryside portrait. Stone walls, pumpkin patches, colonial homes, rotting cornfields, a murder of crows, ancient cemeteries, apple orchards, old barns and every so often, that farmer standing in the middle of a field, wearing dirty overalls and giving me that “look”.
I drove through a mountain town called Sugar Hill and came to a bend in the road. When looking to my right, I laid eyes on the most stunning, little old chapel that made me drop my lit Winston onto my lap, almost driving Grandpappy’s rusty wagon into a large maple tree. I stopped dead in my tracks at this breathtaking but slightly ominous, forbidding structure that stood before me like a painting. It was as though I had arrived at something I had been searching for even though I wasn’t searching for anything.
I got out of the car and walked around the property, the sound of my boots crunching over the first fallen leaves on the ground. Not a single person was in sight and the town itself felt completely empty. I gazed in awe at the immaculate-looking chapel as the late afternoon sun mixed with a chill in the air. Goosebumps raised on my arm. The harvest moon hovered faintly over the chapel as dusk approached. I could smell smoke from a wood burning stove nearby, probably some old timer in a house down the road. This was my Autumn moment of power.
Unfortunately the chapel was closed at the time because I really felt like exploring inside its primitive walls. Searching for sacred objects. Forbidden passages. Secrets kept concealed for centuries. I would be instantly transformed into Father Malone from The Fog as I made my way around the church, looking for journals that reveal haunted tales of the past.
This Halloween season I plan on Haunting the Chapel which means locating and visiting the oldest houses of the holy (or unholy) that I can find. Cathedrals, churches, crypts, mausoleums, crematoriums, temples, tombs, catacombs, sacrificial pits and more! This quest will hopefully result in feeling what I felt when stumbling on this shrouded chapel in the mountains of New Hampshire.
Especially when bathed in the light and darkness of Fall colors, these medieval-like structures are something to behold. If by the end of the month we end up conjuring the dead or conducting an exorcism or two, so be it!
Truth be told, ‘Autumn power’ can come from something as simple as going for a walk. It’s another reason to love Halloween because often times the smallest, mundane activities become enhanced during the season. Whether it be the trees putting on a show of color or finding spooky cereals at the market.
Now go find yours. Or let it find YOU.
uncletnuc.com 
I LOVE YOU TNUC
Thank you! SUMMON THE WAGONS.
this is exactly what I needed. Autumn power!
FEEL IT
Ah, yes… the time has come, devoted Disciples of TNUC. Gather close, for the turning of the season is no accident, no mere change of weather. It is a summons. The veil grows thin, and what was hidden now stirs restlessly beneath the skin of the world.
Feel it in the wind—the cool breath of something ancient brushing against your neck. Smell it in the decay—the rot of fallen leaves and the sweetness of fruit surrendered to the soil. Hear it in the silence between heartbeats, where whispers rise in a language of dust and ash.
This is no ordinary autumn. This is the Season of Witchcraft, when the Harvest Moon climbs high to watch, swollen and pale like a lidless eye. Its light does not comfort. It reveals. It feeds. It burns away the lies of daylight and bares the truth of shadow.
Look upon the pumpkin altars, their carved faces ablaze with hunger. These are not decorations—they are offerings, gateways, mouths through which the old ones drink our fear. The air itself carries our chant, pulling closer the shapes that linger beyond the treeline.
And so we gather, bound by oath and blood, to give ourselves to the night. We do not fear what comes. We welcome it. For in the blackness beyond the veil lies power, lies eternity, lies the dark harvest promised to those who kneel beneath the silver eye of the moon.
The season is here. The rite is upon us. Step forward, Disciples… and let the shadows take their due.
Powerful words…where does it come from? Ray Bradbury? Edgar Allen Poe? A Swedish poet living in Florida?
Thank you so much for what you do, Uncle TNUC. Your entire site is glorious, and especially posts like this that capture that magical mood, that atmospheric shift between the summer haze and the falling leaves, that occurs each year.
Long live Uncle TNUC.
Thank you. Happy to hear people still read the site! Sometimes I really wonder!
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Still too hot here in the Midwest for autumn, but ‘the harvest’ is on and offers its own charms…
Living in Florida means October is nothing more than slightly less hotter days that are a bit shorter too. Your words and voyages put me in a place I can’t really experience anymore. Your love for the chill autumn times actually warms my heart. Thanks Unc.
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In my part of the world, Halloween night turned out be cold and wet, marked by intermittent gusts of howling wind.
At first, the streets appeared deserted, as though everyone had decided to seek refuge in the comfort of their dwellings.
Then, out of nowhere, hordes of eager and hungry little monsters in costumes showed up, demanding the sugary and salty treats they have come to expect this special and mystical time of year.
And, as soon as they appeared, they vanished into the shadows, leaving the streets as desolated as they were only a few hours ago.
In case you’re still wondering; YEAH, we still read your site but we don’t always have time to mark our presence in the comments section.
Your posts are not unlike those treats I handed out on this last day of October; we just can’t get enough of them (especially the HAUNTING THE CHAPEL trilogy and GRAVE ROCKING).
But, enough of that now!
Back to the lair; there’s some plastic skeletons and foam tombstones that need sorting out.
thank you!!