Category: Events

Saturday 23rd January 2021, arrive 6.45 for 7pm Vigil

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85624178240
Meeting ID: 856 2417 8240
Passcode: 377295

The 200th Cross Bones 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.

At 7pm on the 23rd of every single month since 23rd June 2004, we’ve gathered at the gates of Cross Bones Graveyard. Since March 2020, we’ve held the Vigils “on the Astral” with friends joining in from around the world.

The online Vigil is hosted by Mistress Bee in the Zoom studio, bringing us in to play our parts.To help us all to fully participate, and commune on The Astral, with or without the livestream, here’s the ‘Order of Service’ for the 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 an act of mutual healing taking place within a single, undivided consciousness. Breathe deep, relax and connect… Remember the Secret History and Vision…

Crossbones is a pauper’s graveyard and the final resting place for the Winchester Geese, sex workers who worked in brothels owned and licensed by the Bishop of Winchester in Southwark’s ‘Liberty of the Clink’. Many skeletons were dug up here during work on the Jubilee Line Extension (1992-96).

On 23rd November 1996 John Constable had a vision in which The Goose led John Crow to the site of the Crossbones Graveyard. Here she revealed The Southwark Mysteries, which in turn gave rise to The Halloween of Cross Bones and to these Vigils, held on the 23rd of every month since 23rd June 2004.

Thanks to our collective magical and activist works 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 in Time and Eternity. Remember the Outcast Dead of Crossbones Graveyard, and all who are shut out, along with your own ancestors and loved ones.

For this act of remembrance, 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.”

When we’re together in the Vigils, one speaks and all echo the words in our own time. We do this on the livestream, our whispering voices evoking our collective emanation.

4. Bardic offerings.

The January Vigil marks the Portal to Imbolc, when we collectively perform the triadic poem for Bridie (or Brigid) from ‘Spark In The Dark’ (John Constable):

“… Bridie I am here with my goose-feather quill
To trace the lucent songs of the Ancients.

Bridie I am here with the chalice and snake
To receive and transmit your healing benediction.

Bridie I am here with the bellows and tongues
To tend your sacred fire of transformation.”

If you wish, you can perform a poem or song from ‘The Southwark Mysteries’, or present your own Imbolc offering to The Goose and her Outcast Dead.

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!

>><<

When performing the rituals and channelling The Goose spirit, the trick is to “get out of the way” so as not to obstruct with our own psychological or emotional states. There are various ways to achieve this: e.g. by reminding ourselves that “I am nothing” that it’s The Goose who does the magic, not “I”.

>><<

Rumours persist of small gatherings of rogue spirits. Under present circumstances we don’t encourage crowds to gather at the gates. Many of us choose to be here, communing on the Astral. If you feel the need to be there in body on the night, remember you’re responsible for your own health and for others. Please practice social distancing and take sensible precautions.

In shining emptiness.
JC

Friday 23rd October 2020, 7pm

The 197th Cross Bones 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. For more than sixteen years, at 7pm on the 23rd of every month, we’ve gathered at the gates as incarnate spirits, sometimes ten or twenty, occasionally more than three hundred!

During the past months, the Vigils have been held on ‘on the Astral’, with some of us tuning in from all over the world, creating our own altars and conducting the rituals in their our homes. Crow and other Friends of Cross Bones have livestreamed the Vigil from our own homes and altars, and encouraged others to do likewise.

This month’s Vigil is here:
Time: Oct 23, 2020 06:45 PM LondonJoin Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85624178240
Meeting ID: 856 2417 8240
Passcode: 377295

To help us all to fully participate, and commune on The Astral, with or without the livestream, 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 an act of mutual healing taking place within a single, undivided consciousness. Breathe deep, relax and connect… Remember the Secret History and Vision…

Crossbones is a pauper’s graveyard and the final resting place for the Winchester Geese, sex workers who worked in brothels owned and licensed by the Bishop of Winchester in Southwark’s ‘Liberty of the Clink’. Many skeletons were dug up here during work on the Jubilee Line Extension (1992-96). On 23rd November 1996 John Constable had a vision in which The Goose led John Crow to the site of the Crossbones Graveyard. Here she revealed The Southwark Mysteries, which in turn gave rise to The Halloween of Cross Bones and to these Vigils, held on the 23rd of every month since 23rd June 2004.

Thanks to our collective magical and activist works 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 in Time and Eternity. Remember the Outcast Dead of Crossbones Graveyard, and all who are shut out, along with your own ancestors and loved ones. For this act of remembrance, 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.” (1)

When we’re together in the Vigils, one speaks and all echo the words in our own time.

3 + Halloween Portal

At the 23rd October Vigils, we say:

“Here, the veil between the worlds
dissolves:

the living, the dead
share the brew, break the bread.

Ancestor souls
converse and commune,

this samhain night,
by the light of a bone-white moon.” (2)

This is followed by reading the names of the Cross Bones outcast dead and/or of our own lost loved ones. After the reading of the names , we say:

“Here where the bones are crossed
be hallowed ground.
Here let the names that were lost
be found.

Shut out in days of old,
the outcast dead…
Here bring them in from the cold
to be watered and fed.

Here let the ties that bind
against forgetfulness
light candles, build shrines
in the wilderness.” (3)

4. Bardic offerings.
As a Goose Rhapsode, you can perform a poem, song or text from ‘The Southwark Mysteries’, or present your own offering to The Goose and her Outcast Dead.

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.” (4)

then:

“Goose may you never be hungry!
Goose may you never be thirsty!
Goose may your Spirit fly free!” (5)

And so she does…

Open pathways!

>><<

When performing the rituals and channelling The Goose spirit, the trick is to “get out of the way” so as not to obstruct with our own psychological or emotional states. There are various ways to achieve this: e.g. by reminding ourselves that “I am nothing” that it’s The Goose who does the magic, not “I”.

It’s rumoured that, even during lockdown, some rogue wraiths have been informally gathering “in body” to hold Vigils at the gates in Redcross Way. The Crossbones page isn’t involved in this. We don’t condemn anyone, though at present we don’t encourage crowds to gather at the gates. If you feel you need to be there physically on the night, remember you’re responsible for your own health – and for others. Please practice social distancing and take sensible precautions.In shining emptiness.

JC

>><

Footnotes: original texts used in the Vigil
(1) “Here lay your hearts…” from The Southwark Mysteries by John Constable (Oberon Books)
(2) “Here the veil between the worlds…”
& (3) “Here where the bones are crossed”
from Spark In The Dark by John Constable (Thin Man Press)
(4) “Life. Health. Happiness. Open pathways…” from Mensagem do Caboclo by Baixinha
(5) Unconditional Goose blessing

Photos by Katy Kaos, Max Crow Reeves, Angella Dee

Wednesday 23rd September 2020 at 7pm

The 23rd September Vigil falls at the Autumn Equinox, a time for rebalancing, for gathering what we need to sustain us through the coming winter and letting go of what we no longer need.

Some wild souls will doubtless risk a meeting at the gates; many more of us will be conducting the Vigil from our home altars or joining us via livestream.

Nicholas Greaves writes: ‘… This month Jennifer Cooper and Nicholas Greaves will be holding the Virtual Vigil on Zoom, to enable more people to take part, present their offerings ‘in cyber person’ and to include those without Facebook accounts to also be able to take part. We hope to stream live to Facebook from Zoom, but this is yet to be tested out!

Zoom link and details; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85624178240 Meeting ID: 856 2417 8240 Passcode: 377295

To help us all to fully participate, with or without the livestream, 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 an act of mutual healing taking place within a single, undivided consciousness. Breathe deep, relax and connect… Remember the Secret History and Vision…

Crossbones is a pauper’s graveyard and the final resting place for the Winchester Geese, sex workers who worked in brothels owned and licensed by the Bishop of Winchester in Southwark’s ‘Liberty of the Clink’. Many skeletons were dug up here during work on the Jubilee Line Extension (1992-96). On 23rd November 1996 John Constable had a vision in which The Goose led John Crow to the site of the Crossbones Graveyard. Here she revealed The Southwark Mysteries, which in turn gave rise to The Halloween of Cross Bones and to these Vigils, held on the 23rd of every month since 23rd June 2004. Thanks to our collective magical and activist works 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 in Time and Eternity. Remember the Outcast Dead of Crossbones Graveyard, and all who are shut out, along with your own ancestors and loved ones. For this act of remembrance, 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.”

When we’re together in the Vigils, one speaks and all echo the words in our own time. We can do this with the livestream, our whispering voices evoking our collective emanation.

4. Bardic offerings.
As a Goose Rhapsode, you can perform a poem, song or text from ‘The Southwark Mysteries’, or present your own offering to The Goose and her Outcast Dead.

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!>><<

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.

Our last four ‘lockdown’ Vigils have been 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. You’re warmly invited to do so again on 23rd July.

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 passed down by Mary Magdalene, transmitted 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, 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, 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.

Remind yourselves that Crossbones is a pauper’s graveyard, the final resting place for the sex workers (Wichester Geese) who worked in brothels owned and licensed by the Bishop of Wichester 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 / 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!

>><<

In 2016, Vanessa Woolf (London Dreamtime) and John Constable / John Crow  (Southwark Mysteries / Crossbones) devised ‘UNRIPPED’
a performance in poetry, song, storytelling and ritual.

It was performed in the churchyard of St George In The East, a Hawksmoor church. Now we’re reviving the show for this one-off online production.

‘UNRIPPED’ explicitly subverts the fetishisation of ‘The Ripper’, dismissing ‘Jack’ as a pathetic, inadequate, cowardly serial murderer, whilst celebrating the lives of his so-called victims as real women, daughters, lovers, wives and mothers. Some of these women chose sex work as a way of earning a living, others may have turned a trick when needs must – there was much more to their lives than is suggested by the lazy, dismissive, catch-all term “prostitute”.