I seen Christ at the Cross Bones
Conversing with the Shadow Man,
Brother to brother-man:
“No sweat, Brother.
I go take the rap,
For love of our dear old Dad and Mum.”
Conversing with the Shadow Man,
Brother to brother-man:
“No sweat, Brother.
I go take the rap,
For love of our dear old Dad and Mum.”
I seen the Priest
Contending with the Preacher Man:
“Christ is this! Not that!
If not One, then Other.”
I seen Christ go quietly about his work
In this Prime Real Estate riverside slum.
Contending with the Preacher Man:
“Christ is this! Not that!
If not One, then Other.”
I seen Christ go quietly about his work
In this Prime Real Estate riverside slum.
I seen Christ at the Cross Bones
Comfort and bless the Shadow Man
As in a prayer:
“Red Cross Mary, Merciful Mother,
Protect and empower Your exiled children
Until Your Liberty come.”
Comfort and bless the Shadow Man
As in a prayer:
“Red Cross Mary, Merciful Mother,
Protect and empower Your exiled children
Until Your Liberty come.”
‘Good Friday at The Cross Bones’ by John Constable
from ‘Spark In The Dark’ (Thin Man Press
from ‘Spark In The Dark’ (Thin Man Press
Photo by Katy Kaos: Red Cross Mary at Cross Bones Graveyard, 2012
What a powerful, gentle, shimmering, healing Vigil at Crossbones this evening! Big Up Mark Juhan, Nicholas Greaves and Jules Allen for conducting with such grace and a lovely light touch. Leslie held the light, and Nicholas led the echo poem ‘Here lay your hearts…’ as we renewed the shrine. The offerings kicked off with John Crow doing ‘The Book of th
‘Goose Night’ – 23rd anniversary of the night of 23rd November 1996 when The Goose revealed ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ to John Crow at Cross Bones Graveyard. 
The open pathways lit in shining emptiness. 138 ribbons (2 x 69 or 6 x 23) tied to the gates, renewing the shrine, and the remembrance poem ‘Here lay your Hearts, your flowers, your Book of Hours…’ echoed 11 times. There still weren’t enough ribbons to go around but everyone got to touch the portal and to look through the bars of the gate into the garden with the Mary shrine, lit up with a Grand Cross of candles, the lights flickering in the shadows of the graveyard.
Black Swan Border Morris danced before the beribboned gates, fit to wake the dead with their pipes and drums, their wild howls and clacking staffs, their top hats and swirling tatter-coats.
The self-styled Crow Shaman was ritually purified by veteran interventionist Raga with her African broom.
Cross Bones Graveyard has inspired many artists. On this special night, folk punk indie star Frank Turner stepped up to perform his new song ‘The Graveyard of the Outcast Dead’, sending shivers down spines.
And to top it all, Jules’ Spot. At pretty much every Vigil for the past couple of years Jules Allen has presented a different take on synchronicity and serendipity, riffing off various characters and stories linked with Cross Bones, Southwark and us. Tonight, he was on top form – even got 300 people joining on with his scintillating evocation of the number 23!
Gratitude to all of you, and to all of you who were here with us in the eternal now of our Goose Night – such a powerful communion, kith and kin, so many dear friends and family from so many phases of the twenty-three year site-specific performance and magical work, who have each in your own ways helped nurture and manifest the vision of our Cross Bones Graveyard.
Thanks to Natalie and Lucy for lighting up the shrine in the garden. Thanks again, Jules and Jenn, for your exemplary work as Goose Samurai, demonstrating true service to The Goose.
So many of you I want to thank, so many names spring to mind as I write this now, but like I said at the after party, the deeper you get into naming, the more hurting it is for the ones who accidentally don’t get name-checked. You know who you are, and how much you’ve brought to the great adventure!
Saturday 23rd November 2019 is the 23rd anniversary of this “Goose Night”, which inspired ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ and the magical works at Cross Bones Graveyard, The Halloween of Cross Bones and the Vigils held on the 23rd of every month since June 2004.
As ever, at the Cross Bones Portal to Halloween, we lit the open pathways and read out the Names of the Dead before tying their ribbons to the shrine.
We were deliriously amBUSHed by the appearance of The Green Man of Bankside aka 
Jules led us all on an illuminating drift from Halloween through Apples to Odin the Norse “god of poetry, divination and death” and the ravens of the Tower of London: “Although Odin is an uncommon name, one took up residence 23 years ago just over a mile as the crow files from where we are standing – a raven who guarded the Tower of London. That Odin has now departed for Valhalla, but two other ravens at the Tower, Huginn and Muninn named after the god Odin’s magical raven messengers ‘Thought’ and ‘Memory’, had chicks that hatched on 23 April this year, the first to be born at the Tower in 30 years.”
There were Friends from all phases of the work – including 
The atmosphere was numinous and crackling with psychic energy. We communed with the Dead, sharing our grief, our healings, our deaths and transfigurations. 
There were friends like Lisa, who was once a regular at the Vigils and who returned this evening after many years living in Canada, along with some who were here for the first time – and an American woman who’d com
I conducted this Vigil, with stalwart help from Jennifer, John Morrow, Thomas and the other heroic Goose Samurai. Hannah held the light and Jennifer oversaw the tying of the ribbons. Tommy and Michelle helped me carry the altar there and home, with a lift from Jenn. Behind the scenes, Katy Kaos was a star. We were pleased to see other good friends like Ross, Emma, John Higgs, Susanna, Ian Blake, Dave 500, Dave and Nidge, Sophie and Leigh, Roz, Andy Lok, Katie from GIVE, Louise who saw my ‘Goose and Crow: Urban Magic’ talk at Breaking Convnetion, Zanna, and Lesley aka ‘Old Ted’ from the 2010 production of ‘The Southwark Mysteries’, who announced, to loud applause, that there is to be a 2020 revival! All in one, the night more than delivered on its promise of magic made manifest. Thank The Goose! 
You may have signed the petition we started back in 2008, and we’ve already achieved those objectives, the protection of the shrine and the creation of the garden of remembrance.
The Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd. Andrew Nunn, performed the fifth successive ‘Act of Regret, Remembrance, Restoration’ for the women of Crossbones who over hundred of years worked in brothels licensed by the church yet were denied Christian burial and were laid to rest in the unconsecrated Crossbones burial ground.
The Dean wrote this special service to be conducted at Crossbones St Mary Magalene’s Feast Day. John Constable aka John Crow introduced the service, speaking of the deep ties between the Cathedral and Crossbones, how the Cathedral had invited in the outcasts for the performances in 2000 and 2010, and is now bringing its blessing out to Crossbones, to receive the outcast dead back into its communion. 
A newly ordained female priest read Malcolm Guite’s sonnet dedicated to Mary Magdalene. 
The Dean censed the burial ground and blessed it with holy water. 
After the service, there was a guided historical tour of Crossbones…
Followed by performances of songs and poetry by John Crow and Kirsten Morrison…
For the fifth successive year, The Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd. Andrew Nunn, conducts a special service at Crossbones, the unconsecrated outcasts’ burial ground. This ‘Act of Regret, Remembrance, Restoration’ expresses the church’s regret for the treatment of the ‘Winchester Geese’, the sex workers who worked in the Bankside brothels licensed by the Bishop of Winchester, yet were allegedly denied Christian burial. It’s also a powerful statement of the Cathedral’s support for the protection of Crossbones Garden.