Author: Kaoscrow

Crossbones Vigil and Isis-Magdalene Festival

23 July 2026

The 266th Crossbones Vigil for the outcast dead and alive, held at 7pm on the 23rd of every month. This one was conducted by John Crow during his recent return visit to London.

Love and gratitude to Jacqueline Durban who has hosted these online Vigils, often linking to the Vigil at the gates of Crossbones (as she does on the video / reel below). Since their founder, John Constable aka John Crow, completed his 23 years of  active service for The Goose and moved to Glastonbury, Jennifer Cooper has held space at most of the Vigils, for which and more, love and gratitude.

Goose may your Spirit fly free!

video by Andy Lok. The Vigil begins 2 or 3 minutes into the recording.
You may need to cut and paste the link
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1561060475499024

Crossbones Vigil and Isis-Magdalene Festival

Thursday 23rd July, gather 6.45 for 7pm portal at the shrine in Redcross Way, SE1

At 7pm on the 23rd of every month since 23rd June 2004, we’ve conducted the Crossbones Vigil – to honour the Outcast, dead and alive; to renew the shrine; and to reclaim the Secret History as revealed by The Goose to John Crow on 23rd November 1996.
 
This month John Constable aka John Crow is back in London and will once again be conducting the Vigil in person on 23rd July 2026.
 
Vigils are also held ‘on the Astral’ with people tuning in from all over the world, creating their own altars and conducting the rituals in their own homes. Some of us connect online via the Zoom Vigil hosted by Jacqui, with people linking up from all over the world. Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85624178240
Meeting ID: 856 2417 8240 Passcode: 377295
 
This month is traditionally our Isis-Magdalene Vigil. Around this time in Ancient Egypt, the Goddess Isis was honoured, along with other members of the Divine pantheon. The rites of Isis, who literally ‘re-membered’ the body of her murdered and mutilated brother-husband Osiris, are reiterated in ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ and in the July Crossbones Vigil.
 
The 22nd July is Mary Magdalene’s Feast Day. At Crossbones we celebrate her both in her orthodox form as the ‘Apostle of the Apostles’ and in her Gnostic manifestations as the disciple to whom Jesus imparted his secret teachings. ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ places itself in an oral tradition of hermetic teachings transmitted by by Mary Magdalene and passed down by the actors and whores of the Southwark ‘Liberty’.
 
If you’re conducting your own Vigil, you may like to perform parts of ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ that relate directly to Isis or Mary Magdalene, an appropriate text from the Nag Hammadi Gospels, or the New Testament scene where Mary encounters the risen Christ “supposing him to be the gardener” (John 20:15).
 
Once again, to help you participate fully, here’s our basic ‘order of service’ for every Vigil:
 
1. Opening (on the stroke of 7pm)
Light a candle, incense. Ring seven chimes. Say:
 
‘Spirits of The Dead, Spirits of the Living, Kindred. Welcome!’
 
As you say these words, be aware that you are connected with all Spirits, incarnate and disincarnate, and with the transforming agency of The Goose, in this act of mutual healing taking place within a single, undivided consciousness.
 
Crossbones is a pauper’s graveyard, the final resting place for the sex workers (Winchester Geese) who worked in brothels owned and licensed by the Bishop of Winchester in Southwark’s ‘Liberty of the Clink’. Thanks to our work over the past 23 years, this once despised, desolate site has become a holy place for pilgrims from all over the world – a shrine and a garden of remembrance ‘for the Outcast, dead and alive’.
 
2. Hold the candle for one minute’s silence, as you imagine lighting the open pathways for all beings to make their individual journeys. It helps to cultivate a state of “shining emptiness”, in which all sounds, sights and other sense impressions can arise and vanish, with nothing for anything to attach to.
 
3. “Binding and loosing”. Imagine tying a ribbon to Crossbones Gates. Invest the ribbon with all that you would wish for yourself, and as you tie it, release that blessing for others, saying five times:
 
“Here lay your hearts, your flowers,
Your Book of Hours,
Your fingers, your thumbs,
Your “Miss You Mums”.
Here hang your hopes, your dreams,
Your Might Have Beens,
Your locks, your keys,
Your Mysteries.”
 
4. Bardic offerings.
Perform a short poem/song/text from ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ inspired by and / or dedicated to Isis or Mary Magdalene. Or another text relevant to them and their festivals.
 
5. Closing.
Close the ceremony with a libation of gin. Say:
 
“Life!
Health!
Happiness!
Open Pathways!

Health in the Body.
Peace In the Spirit.
Love In The Heart.

It is this that we wish,
for ourselves,
for our friends and family,
for all our Brothers and Sisters,
for The Goose and The Crow,
and for all Humanity.
May it be so.”
 
then:
 
“Goose may you never be hungry!
Goose may you never be thirsty!
Goose may your Spirit fly free!”
 
And so she does..
.
Open pathways!

>><<

Crossbones Vigil

https://fb.watch/HXZ09gbLSI

St John’s Eve blessings to all – and especially all who gathered at Crossbones gates or this Zoom Vigil, as we embark on our 23rd successive year of Vigils held at 7pm on the 23rd of every month 🙏💞

Crossbones vigil, 23rd June 2026, conducted by Jennifer Cooper.

Filmed by Andy Lockwood

SUMMER SOLSTICE RITUAL in Saatchi Gallery

Sunday 21st June, 2026. John Constable (aka John Crow of Crossbones) conducts the summer solstice ritual for the Saatchi gallery’s ‘The Sun and The Moon’ exhibition’. Filmed by Max Reeves

https://www.facebook.com/reel/3079353648931405

At the climax of the ceremony, we ‘circulate’ the light of the sun chanting:

In the Spirit, in the Flesh, in the Fire, in the Water,
Where the Sky and Earth mesh in the Son, in the Daughter.

Hark! Hark! A Spark in the Dark
In the Dance of Death and Rebirth,
The Son of the Sky is arisen on high
With the beautiful Bride of the Earth.

The circle is closed with Baixinha’s ‘Message of the Caboclo’
‘Life! Health! Happiness! Open pathways!’

Blessing and Bards

Sunday 19th July from 12 noon – Crossbones Graveyard and Garden of Remembrance

Over the last decade this has become an important annual event in the Crossbones calendar. The ‘Act of Regret, Remembrance, Restoration’ in which the church repents its own failure to protect the women of Crossbones and pledges to do better, is conducted by The Dean of Southwark on a Sunday close to St Mary Magdalene’s Feast Day.

The procession from Southwark Cathedral arrives at the graveyard around 12.45. The Service takes place around 1pm and is followed by Bardic Offerings by poets, musicians and other creatives from among the Friends of Crossbones. It’s free (donations welcome) but places are restricted. Please click on the link to register for yours!

Friends of Crossbones invite you to Crossbones Graveyard for: Blessings & Bards

The Clergy of Southwark Cathedral process to Crossbones Graveyard to perform their annual Act of Regret, Remembrance and Restoration. Honouring the Winchester Geese and blessing the estimated 15,000 men, women and children buried here.

The Blessings are followed by The Bards – performances of songs, music and poetry led by George Hoyle. Audience members are invited to offer a performance to honour the garden’s outcast dead, all are welcome to participate.

Event timings:

12.30pm: Clergy leave Southwark Cathedral

12.45pm: Arrival at Crossbones Graveyard

1-2pm: Act of Regret

2-4pm: The Bards

4.30pm: Crossbones Graveyard closes

The Sun and The Moon – art inspired by the celestial


This Sunday 21st June at 2.30pm John Constable (aka John Crow of Crossbones) is conducting a summer solstice ritual in the ‘Sunrise ‘ gallery at this exhibition. 

 
The exhibition looks pretty amazing in itself – with work by contemporary artists like our friend Ben Edge exhibiting alongside modern masters like Barbara Hepworth and Joan Miró. On now until 8th September.

Or if you’re in London on Sunday 21st June at 2.30pm and fancy a trip to the sun, moon, stars… see you in Space! 🙂 ❤

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