I lived in an apartment overlooking 11th Ave., just South of E. Pike St. The road had been blocked off since the pandemic and it has unusually heavy foot traffic to this day. The historic Wild Rose bar is right around the corner on the crossroads of E. Pike & 11th Ave. While this area is one of the social epicenters of Capitol Hill, playing host to revelers, tarot readers, food stands, music, and other live performers on a regular basis, it also attracts a stranger element. The least weird thing I have experienced there was the semi-regular staging of a force of all black clad unmarked paramilitary troops carrying AR style rifles in the back parking lot of the Alfa Romeo dealership during the protests following the fall of the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone. It’s not the only sus thing that I’ve seen happen in that gated private lot and I suspect somebody there is very cozy with right wing reactionaries, but I have no proof. While fascism is scary, it’s tangible. However, a far more surreal and intangible weirdness permeates this area which seems to both attract strange people and affect folks who live or visit here. I’ve regularly seen a pair of witches that feed and talk to crows under an oak tree. They showed up every day for some number of months. An apparently homeless magician performed frequent hours long guttural chants and practiced gestures facing the road. This could be interpreted as mental illness, but the regularity and the vibe I got was not quite that. He appeared to be banishing or warding something off. Another standout regular was a man pushing a cart from which he threw handfuls of food for a flock of sometimes sixty gulls that trailed him like his own personal shit-bird army! I have also witnessed a distinctly out of place couple walking with an assuredness that I can only describe as godly who looked just like one would imagine a poorly disguised Odin and Thor would look on one of their mythological visits to Midgard. I don’t normally get intimidated, but I didn’t have the nerve to approach them and inquire as to their origins. They just had an overwhelming presence! It’s not just the characters of this area, but an electric unstable energy that invites even less explainable phenomenon. The most obviously paranormal encounter I had there was with an orb of light in my former apartment. Me and a guest of mine were both clear of mind, just talking to each other, when a pea sized ball of very bright blue-white light appeared between us. It was less than two feet away and we saw it from different vantage points. After it blinked into existence it moved around in gravity-defying smooth curves and sharply angled patterns before our very eyes! It looked nothing like a flying insect, nor an odd particle wafting through the air, not that the apartment even had a breeze. We watched it in awe for about five seconds before it just disappeared! This happened in a well-lit room, and we confirmed our experiences with each other right after. I must say, it felt like a positive spiritual presence had visited and made itself known, although its message beyond proclaiming its existence wasn’t clear. I have more stories I could share in my relatively short time living at that location, but this should give you an idea of just what a liminal hot spot it is.