Transcript of recorded audio
“Um, it’s funny. Every single adult that I talked to, right before I went to Santa Cruz, told me not to go into the forest at night. But that, like, consensus, isn’t really upheld up by the students at UCSC, mostly because I think the forest is like around us like literally everywhere. Right, there’s no like don’t go into the forest at night, but there are some pretty serious like, respect the forests at night. Obviously there’s a pretty big like Wiccan culture at UCSC, and like I get it, like, when I first went into the forests at night, like you could definitely feel like you’re not alone there. You know, and whether that be like animals or spirits or whatever it’s… it’s noticeable, right? So at UCSC, there’s not this idea of don’t go into the forest at night, but there is this idea of respect the forest, especially at night. Because, you know, like you hear strange shit going on in the forest, you hear laughing and screaming and, just like noises that are very very haunted, but as long as they are reasonably far off, you don’t really have to worry about them, but you do kind of have to be on the top of your game. Right? So like never liter in the forest, never fuck with the forest, always respect the forest and the forest will respect you. Like I said like, cougar attacks happen. People fucking died on campus. Um, so, respect the fucking forest, you know? I guess that’s a legend in it of itself.”

Background
The person telling this story goes to UCSC, and is very into the superstitions and folklore. They’ve provided quite a few examples of legends and magic pertaining to the campus. But what’s interesting is how this story is coming from two separate places: one version from the students and one from the adults. It should also be noted that this same informant has placed a considerable amount of emphasis on how scary the forest is at night in a lot of her other stories.

Context
This story is part of a set of voice memos, sent by a student at UCSC Santa Cruz. Most are ghost stories concerning the campus. For context, Wiccan culture is referencing old pagan traditions. But what’s interesting is that this is the first time I’ve ever heard her mention these traditions on campus. It’s treated as obvious knowledge, but in all honesty, this is the first time I’m really hearing about is specifically.

Thoughts
This story in particular ties together a lot of the notions that have been formulating in my head about Santa Cruz lore. It’s very concerned with nature, specifically with the forest surrounding campus. And in doing so, it’ll often treat nature as a magical entity, one who’s general nature is benevolent, but hold the potential for savagery if the wrong actions are taken. Like with the story about the buddha and the wishing stones, we see what we might expect to be very positive and wholesome rituals take on a more threatening edge. I wonder if this has to do with the idea of ‘nature willing out,’ so to speak. UCSC has a very ecologically conscious environment, so the idea of nature being mostly seen as a force of good, but also as one which can wipe humanity off the face of the earth (say through global warming) doesn’t seem to fall too out of step from these interpretations in their lore.