23 being the Day, Mrs Crowys and myself put ourselves at the disposal of Mr Constable and his good wife Katharine, our kind hosts. In truth, we are all, like our exemplar John Crow, in the service of The Goose.
And so, the hour of six found yours truly watering the ivy and the flowers at the shrine, and helping Mrs Crowys affix the Chinese mirror with the hexagram of protection to the top of the gates bound with ribbons and magical totems.
Mr Constable welcomed to the crowd to this, our Whit Sunday Pentecost Beltane vigil. He explained that the vigils are held on the 23rd of each month, that we have been observing this act of remembrance for almost six years and that the shrine itself is twelve years old.
Our dear friend went on to testify as to his own involvement in the reawakening of Crossbones: how on the night of the 23rd November 1996 The Goose and John Crow had appeared to him in a vision, how she led John Crow on a journey through all the ages of her secret herstory, then, in the middle of the night, led the three of them up Redcross Way to these very gates of what was then a desolate, brutalised works depot and there revealed The Southwark Mysteries:
For tonight in hell they are tolling the bell
For the Whore that lay at The Tabard.
And well we know how the carrion crow
Doth feast in our Crossbones Graveyard.
How he (Constable) was subsequently doing some bibliomancy in his Local Studies Library, opened a book at random and read the affirmation that Crossbones was the Victorian name for a paupers’ graveyard linked to the ‘Single Women’s burial ground’ for prostitutes mentioned by the late 16th century historian John Stow. And soon thereafter discovered that this self-same site had but recently been unearthed, and skeletons removed, or worse, during work on London Underground’s Jubilee Line Extension.
And that The Goose had revealed her secret teachings in The Southwark Mysteries, in three parts: her Vision Books, Mystery Plays and Glossolalia. The Mystery Plays were performed in Shakespeare’s Globe and Southark Cathedral on 23rd April 2000.
This April past, indeed a month ago today, on 23rd April 2010, those same Mysteries were enacted in Southwark Cathedral. Today, at the Crossbones gates, the author explained that at the heart of this magical work was the invocation of The Sisters of Redcross to open the heart to bring in the outcast, to recreate a spiritual connection between Crossbones and the Cathedral, the old church of St Mary Overie.
Our host reiterated that, although he is known to channel the spirit of John Crow at these 23rd vigils, and although many people believe that HE IS John Crow, that John Crow is to be regarded as an autonomous spiritual entity, like The Goose. He reminded us all that, in the recent performance of The Southwark Mysteries, the part of John Crow was played by Charlie Folorunsho.
To drive home his point he (Constable) led us back down to the junction with Union Street, to the window of the old Ragged School, where Zanna and Natalie are exhibiting John Crow’s coat, as worn by Charlie in Southwark Cathedral.
I confess I was beginning to lose him in these arcane pronouncements as to the importance of releasing entities, our own and others – of being the pathway for them to complete their own journeys.
Fortunately, at this point, and despite the Constable’s prior protestations, the proximity of the coat in the window seemed to trigger a spontaneous incorporation. John Crow, for twas he, then called on the Sisters of Redcross, that apocryphal order of whore-nurse-nuns to manifest and perform the blessing By The Grace of Our Lady Mary Overie, as but lately invoked in Southwark Cathedral.
By magic, Mistress Jennifer opened a box full of Sisters of Redcross habits, with the red cross of healing and mediumship emblazoned on virginal white, all freshly laundered by her good self. Much hilarity as the Sisters donned their habits in Union Street. John Crow helpfully explained that the Goose teaches the sacred is revealed in the profane.
Irene, Joanna, Kim were trained for their parts in The Southwark Mysteries. Jennifer and Aileen were in the play – though as Doctor and Devil respectively, not as Sisters. Then there was Raga, a long-standing friend of Crossbones, and Lucy, who weren’t in it, but know the forms. And there were two young French women, on their first vigil, who were up for it – so they all got kitted up.
As we processed back up Redcross Way the mood became charged. The Sisters began intoning By The Grace of Our Lady Mary Overie, breaking into the full invocation at the gates. There followed the rituals of Hear lay Your Hearts with the tying of ribbons and tokens to the gates, the Open Pathways and Goose May Your Spirit Fly Free.
To honour the outcast, dead and living, in communion. Reclaiming the public spaces in our beautiful south London.
And what a gathering. Old friends and new: Jennifer, Sarah Scarlet, Alison, Ion still very weak from his recent illness but very much part of it all, Jonathan, Julie and Nigel, Lisa newly married, Raga visiting from the Parliament Square Democracy Village, Dan who so recently played a magnificent Satan in The Southwark Mysteries and tonight is just our friend Dan relaxed and very present, two people down from Oxford where they’d heard Shona’s comparative religions talk on our work at Crossbones, Sarah the founder of Mental Fight Club and Michael who was only last night touched by the spirit of this place, Cliff who we haven’t seen for a while, Jody from Eulogy magazine who is writing a piece about all this and Steve who photographed us for it, some students from LCC recording us, Ivan with his camera and ancient dreads, and Ed and Pete and Eric and Leslie – all in the Mysteries, the Tunnellers who dug up the bones of The Goose, Jim who I knew back in the early 90s and Vicki who I knew as Bumi back in The Warp and their friend, and Irene, Joanna, Kim, Aileen, Jane, Lucy.
And our very own John and Katharine. There were some there who I saw but didn’t get to speak to. Forgive me if I’ve left someone out – blame it on my weariness. That last paragraph, I relaxed my defences and presto! I find myself channelling Mr Constable’s own informal style.
It isn’t supposed to work that way round. He’s supposed to be channelling me. You see what a pother that John Crow can awake, when he starts shape-shifting.
Enough, sir! I know my place and my station. I am Mr Crowys, thank you and good night.
– and the giant Mexican toad, bufo merinus, who excretes an hallucinogenic substance and was believed to represent the Goddess.
