Archive for the ‘Calvary Cemetery’ Category
Tales of Calvary 6
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looming, in this place, is the megapolis. Here lies Tammany, gazing eternally upon their work. The city. The great city.
The greatest and last of their projects is promontory above the shield wall of Manhattan, a familiar vista of Calvary Cemetery offered as an iconic representation by most.
The tower called the Empire State building was built, almost as an act of pure will, by a former newsboy from South Street.
from wikipedia
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The people buried here arrived in and encountered a very different city- a divergent concept of a city- than the one we imagine. They were fleeing religious war and famine, and even the hazardous journey to an unknown country was better than staying where they were. The first surge of them was Catholic, they came from Poland, Germany, Italy, and like that newsboy from South Street – Ireland.
Especially Ireland.
(the Jews were present as well, but were subsumed by larger descriptions of nationality, and they would describe themselves as Germans or Poles before bringing up religion)
Before the Civil War, New York was ruled by the “knickerbockracy“, a social elite who were labeled “the 400” by Samuel Ward MacAllister. Greedy poor and useless, immigrant mouths to feed were dumped by the courts of Europe on New York’s docks, where they instantly took to crime and profligacy. The dregs arrived like ocean waves, and the disgusted Anglophile and Dutch elites saw to it that these wretched masses would be excluded from power and opportunity in the protestant republic.
also from wikipedia
The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio (designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates) as a basis. Every year the staff of the Empire State Building sends a Father’s Day card to the staff at the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem to pay homage to its role as predecessor to the Empire State Building. The building was designed from the top down. The general contractors were The Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed primarily by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ethnic associations formed amongst the new immigrants, who were victimized by discriminatory policies of government and racial prejudice. One of these ethnic clubs began political organization amongst the immigrant grass roots, and registered voters began to appear in the river front slums, and especially in the Five Points in Manhattan.
from wikipedia
Tammany Hall (Founded May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society, and also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order), was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants (most notably the Irish) rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It usually controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O’Brien in 1932. Tammany Hall was permanently weakened by the election of Fiorello La Guardia on a “fusion” ticket of Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents in 1934, and despite a brief resurgence in the 1950s, it ceased to exist in the 1960s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Impeachable offense was just part of doing business back then, and the ethnic associations could muster significant and reliable turnouts on election day for whoever was willing to pay. Soon, the associations began to congeal into ethnic blocks. The largest one of them all was called Tammany Hall, and it began to pick its own people to run for office instead of supporting the landed gentry or the degenerate Dutch.
also from wikipedia
Despite occasional defeats, Tammany was consistently able to survive and, indeed, prosper; it continued to dominate city and even state politics. Under leaders like John Kelly and Richard Croker, Charles Francis Murphy and Timothy Sullivan, it controlled Democratic politics in the city. Tammany opposed William Jennings Bryan in 1896.
In 1901, anti-Tammany forces elected a reformer, Republican Seth Low, to become mayor. From 1902 until his death in 1924, Charles Francis Murphy was Tammany’s boss. In 1927 the building on 14th Street was sold. The new building on East 17th Street and Union Square East was finished and occupied by 1929.[6] In 1932, the machine suffered a dual setback when Mayor James Walker was forced from office and reform-minded Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. Roosevelt stripped Tammany of federal patronage, which had been expanded under the New Deal—and passed it instead to Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx. Roosevelt helped Republican Fiorello La Guardia become mayor on a Fusion ticket, thus removing even more patronage from Tammany’s control. La Guardia was elected in 1933 and re-elected in 1937 and 1941. He was the first anti-Tammany Mayor to be re-elected and his extended tenure weakened Tammany in a way that previous “reform” Mayors had not.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That boy from the South Street water front, who watched as the East River Bridge being built, lost his father at age 13. He left school and went to work, first at an oil company and later at the Fulton Fish Market- which netted him the astounding salary of $15 per week. He developed a certain celebrity in the 4th ward because of his good fortunes, and came to the attentions of the Tammany men, who discovered a certain “likeability” in him.
from pbs.org
Built during the Depression between 1930 and 1931, the Empire State Building became the world’s tallest office building — surpassing the Chrysler Building by a whopping 204 feet. The design of the building changed 16 times during planning and construction, but 3,000 workers completed the building’s construction in record time: one year and 45 days, including Sundays and holidays. The Empire State Building is composed of 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By 1895, the young man was appointed a clerk to the Commissioner of Jurors and was noticed by Thomas F. Foley- the boss of Tammany. Shortly, He was an assemblyman in Albany, and spent 12 years gathering patronage and clout in the capital of New York State. By 1913, he had become Speaker of the House and the most influential man in Albany. As a reward for his services, Tammany appointed him Sheriff of New York, a lucrative position in those days. By 1918, He was elected Governor of New York State and came to national prominence during his 4 terms in office.
In 1928 he ran for President of the United States, this Irish kid from South Street, and a young Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored with placing his name before the convention. He lost to Herbert Hoover, whose many supporters publicly voiced concern about the Tammany contagion spreading into Washington and across the nation. In 1932, he lost the nomination of his party to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
from wikipedia
Horses were used for transportation in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. There were 200,000 of them in the city, producing nearly 2,500 short tons (2,300 t) of manure daily. It accumulated in the streets and was swept to the sides like snow. The smell was quite noticeable. Introduction of motor vehicles was a profound relief.
The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the New York City Subway, as the separate Interborough Rapid Transit Company and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation systems, and the later Independent Subway System, and the opening of the first IRT line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge 1903 and the Manhattan Bridge 1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community in Brooklyn. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal opened as the world’s largest train station on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. It was preceded by Pennsylvania Station, several blocks to the south.
These years also saw the peak of European immigration and the shifting of that immigration from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and burned in the East River, marking the beginning of the end of the community in Little Germany. The German community was replaced by growing numbers of poorer immigrants on the Lower East Side. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 145 mostly Italian and Jewish female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city’s fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Disgusted with politics and betrayed by the last of the Knickerbocker elite, the newsboy governor turned to private business. Amongst other ventures, he became president of that company which would construct the Empire State Building at the height of the Great Depression. One or two of his friends also came in on the venture.
That iconic structure is located, incidentally, on the former site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel– a regular haunt and preferred meeting place for the elite “four hundred”.
from greatbuildings.com
The architectural, commercial, and popular success of the Empire State Building depended on a highly rationalized process, and equally efficient advertising and construction campaigns. Skillful designers of Manhattan office buildings, architects Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon were familiar with the imperatives of design and construction efficiency that maximized investors’ returns by filling the building with tenants as soon as possible. …
The Empire State Building, like most art deco skyscrapers, was modernistic, not modernist. It was deliberately less pure, more flamboyant and populist than European theory allowed. It appeared to be a sculpted or modeled mass, giving to business imagery a substantial character…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As Governor, this Tammany man rewrote the labor laws after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and, oversaw the creation of much of modern New York. As a private citizen, he used his extensive patronage and political muscle to build the Empire State Building in an astounding 410 days. President Herbert Hoover cut the ribbon on opening day, however.
His name was Alfred E. Smith. Al the happy warrior to his constituents.
Governor Smith died October 4, 1944 at 6:28 AM.
Click here to listen to a history.com audio file of Al Smith speaking “on New York”.
Click here to access a google map with the actual location of the monument, which doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else on the web.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
He lies in Calvary next to his wife, Catherine A. Dunn Smith.
Alongside them are those generations that came to a city -of wooden clapboard walls rising from unpaved roads – and died in a shining metropolis of glass and steel towers accomplished by their labors. The great city of the age was built by those that lie in Calvary Cemetery, here in the muladhara of the Newtown Pentacle.
note: the view of the Empire State Building, from the gravesite of Governor Smith, is obscured by more modern mausoleum monuments.
In 1918, to the surprise of many, he was elected Governor of the State of New York. Although he lost the 1920 election, he ran successfully again in 1922, 1924, and 1926 – making him one of three New York State Governors to be elected to four terms. While Governor, he achieved the passage of extensive reform legislation, including improved factory laws, better housing requirements, and expanded welfare services. Additionally, he reorganized the State government into a consolidated and business-like structure.
Governor Smith won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 1928. During his campaign he continued to champion the cause of urban residents.
Tales of Calvary 5- Shade and Stillness
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the past, the desolating loneliness and isolation which define my internal dialogue have been described to you simply – I’m all ‘effed up.
Shunned by those considered normal, my human– all too human- nature forces visceral desires for companionship. Lacking fellowship amongst the the living, one instinctively reaches out for those things which are no longer- or have never been- alive. That odd man in the filthy black raincoat that you might glimpse as you drive past the graveyard, scuttling along taking pictures of sewers and odd boxes in the Cemetery Belt- might very well be your humble narrator.
I was at Calvary Cemetery, intent on investigating the puzzling knots I had observed, beneath a hilltop tree- fed by some morbid nutrition, when I came across the Sweeney monument.
The Association for Gravestone Studies makes available this pdf file of a 19th century monumental bronze catalog, incidentally, as well as this discussion of “White Bronze“.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unlike the celebrated O’Brien clan, whose final destination is found closer to the apex of Calvary’s hills, the Sweeneys are shadowed by time. Social standing and class status drove the generations buried up here to seek a favorable and expensive bit of real estate, away from the common rabble and poor being laid into marshy trenches at the shallow of the hill in their thousands, and to lie for eternity with “their own kind”.
The princes of the City, and their courts, lie in Calvary Cemetery– not far from worm scarred timbers whose titan bulk restricts an elixir of extinction known as the fabled Newtown Creek from mingling with the blessed soils of Calvary. Unguessable springs of subterrene putrefaction percolating with horrors beyond the grave’s holding flow still beneath the streets of Newtown- vestigial streams and waterways that are imprisoned in masonry and brick tunnels. Directly mixing, in hideous congress, the liquefied effluvia of the long dead found in the hydrologic column of Calvary with the exotic chemistries of Newtown Creek? Who can guess would result?
Whoever the Sweeneys were, their family plot is located in a fairly exclusive area of the 19th century’s ex-population, and pretty close to the top of a hill. What’s odd here, and remarkable, is the enigmatic knots of this token affixed to the Sweeney monument- a trinket which had obviously weathered more than one change of season.
Unknowable implications are suggested by the urgency of this arcane reference found in the New York State Cemetery Law.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Symbolic gifts to the dead and the placement of totemic representations at graves are expected behaviors, when confronted with the brutal truth of mortality, from individuals who experience the death of a family or peer group member. Every cemetery in the area, the sheer acreage of which -in this case- can be observed from space, has posted regulations on appropriate and allowed markers and monuments. Certain obtuse expressions of grief are disallowed due to the necessary maintenance and landscaping of the grounds, and good taste is enforced.
Another odd set of provisions is found in the Penal Law section of the aforementioned codification of New York’s cemeteries.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Noticing that that the oddly complex knotting of the cord implied commonality with the nearby red and blue knotted cords, I decided to have a closer look. There was a second color of cordage in the knots, a dirty and weathered yellow which was only present in one spot. The pendulum which the arrangement supported was either cheap electroplated metal or some sort of ruggose plastic. It was a sort of cartouche, an amulet shaped in a manner commonly recognized as a heart, suspended by a twisted tendon of oddly knotted string.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Suspicious that this might be something other than innocent, and knowing the predilection of certain groups for the usage of bodily liquids in their rites, your humble narrator used a trusty all in one Leatherman brand tool to examine it further. It is important, when walking in the hallowed grounds of Calvary, to try not to touch anything lest something touch you back. Things found there, if they can catch the smell of you, might follow you home and demand to be fed.
Of course, I mean the hundreds of feral cats which stalk Calvary’s hills, and it is best that they stay here where it is always safe for them. Neighborhood gossips- their odd comment phrased with a raised eyebrow and knowing squint- hoarsely whisper the opine: In Calvary Cemetery, no man may kill a cat…
Also from New York State, a manual for the new treasurer, a business plan and model to follow for the mortuary industry’s promise of “Perpetual Care”.
Tales of Calvary 4- Triskadekaphobic Paranoia
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Near the crest of one of Calvary Cemetery’s hills, can be found what I’ve described in previous posts as “a tree that is fed by some morbid nutrition”.
A convenient afternoon vantage point for photographing the Johnston mausoleum and a frequent destination, a Hallowmas (nov. 1) stroll through Calvary revealed some interesting goings on beneath the swollen boughs of this loathsome landmark.
note: I returned the following Sunday (nov. 7) for further observations, to this alien vista of titan blocks and sky flung monoliths.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A summit on hallowed ground, at one of the highest elevations in the cyclopean landscaping of Calvary Cemetery, the tree juts out against the sky.
If you seek it, you’ll find it… but that’s the way of things- isn’t it?
Implications, remarks, all sort of obsequious comments will bubble forth when you arrive at it, and then- you’ll notice where its roots lead and the smile will drain from your countenance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Several monuments from heterogeneous eras – and representing disparate social classes- abut the tree, with its taproots squeezing into the ground between them. At once beautiful and shocking, the effect of the scene is macabre, and it is redolent with implied horror.
That’s when I noticed the stick affixed to the tombstone, and the multi-colored chords tied across the weathered monuments.
(Now, I’m not implying -what the links clearly suggest- what I think might be going on here, I’m just saying that it fits my worldview)
from donaldtyson.com
Knots were not widely employed by Renaissance magicians working in the tradition of high magic, but the magic of knots was known to them. Cornelius Agrippa made several references to the classical lore of knot magic in his Occult Philosophy.In Book I, Chapter 41, he wrote about a witch who was mentioned by the Roman writer Apuleius (2nd century AD) in his novel The Golden Ass. She attempted to attract the love of a young man by tying what she believed to be his hair into knots and burning it: “she ties those hairs into knots, and lays them on the fire, with divers odours to be burnt…”In Book I, Chapter 51, Agrippa referred to the Natural History of the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (1st century AD), writing: “It is said that some do cure diseases of the groin with thread taken out of the weaver’s loom, being tied in nine, or seven knots, the name of some widow being named at every knot.” The reference is to Pliny, Bk. 28, Ch. 12. Pliny added that the thread must be tied around the “part affected,” presumably around the base of the scrotum and penis; or perhaps around the hips.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I have a few theories about all this. Let’s start with the most likely- its some sort of perfectly ordinary groundskeeper practice… but…
This is kind of a weird thing, going on, here in Calvary Cemetery.
from sak-yant.com
A basic Love Spell
Items: 3 cords or strings (Pink, red, green)
Ritual: Take the cords and braid them together. Firmly tie a knot near one end of the braid, thinking of your need for love. Next, tie another knot, and another until you have tied 7 knots. Wear or carry the cord with you until you find your love. After you have found him (her), keep the cord in a safe place or give it to one of the elements.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Observe that the stick has been stripped of bark, its been worked. All the little nubbins and splinters are bark free, and it appears to have been scraped clean – carefully – with a knife.
Knot/Cord: Weaving intent into a cord, whether by braiding, knotting, etc.. Most often done on the self, so there’s limited ethical concern.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Then there’s the knots. Weirdly intricate knots, tied in some sort of semi translucent plastic chord. Mostly red, but the oldest stone had a blue one that just trails off (as you can see in the second photo, above).
from being0fthemist1.multiply.com
In mythology, we have the Fates who wove, knotted, and cut the strings of life. We also have the famous Gordian Knot which Alexander was said to have cut in two with his sword.
In not so long ago times, there were men and women who were called blowers of knots. They would recite incantations while tying knots. The most famous of these incantations were done for wind knots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These knots are overly complex and curiously suggest an unknown logic. Do the number of loops, or their shape, correspond to some numerical or allegorical theme?
from harborguides.com
Although they are widely considered the stuff of legends, Sea Witches are a true phenomenon and still exist today. The myths portray them as dark sorceresses who control the elements and associate with phantoms and other unsavoury creatures of the deep. But cast aside superstition and you will be closer to the truth.
Real Sea Witches practise the arts based in Moon Lore and weather magicks. This makes perfect sense as the moon, of course, controls the sea. Centuries ago it was believed that these women could, and would, raise winds and create storms. They were still being burned 200 years ago. However the truth is that Sea Witchery is a Pagan practice that actually works as one with the chaos of nature, not because they associate it with evil but rather because they recognise chaos as a major part of the environment. This is particularly true of the ocean.
They neither practice ‘white’ nor ‘black’ magick but what is termed ‘grey’ magick. This is where the balance between light and dark are maintained to establish control of or draw power from the elements at their disposal. Sea Witches are a solitary bunch as maintaining this balance is immensely difficult for most individuals. They are regarded as very powerful practitioners. Such is their strength that they can perform, using virtually any sized body of water from lakes, rivers and ponds to bath tubs, sinks and bowls of water.
There most famous power is their control of the wind. This is traditionally carried out by the use of magickal knots. Sailors would buy or be given a small length of rope with three specially tied knots in it. These were wind-binding knots and were tied to ensure safe passage. By untying one knot a sailor could release a gentle, south westerly wind, two would ensure a strong north wind and three knots would summon a storm.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These cords are wrapped purposely around the stones. For the blue one to just be hitched on with no purpose makes no practical sense.
from wikipedia
Knot spells have been created for cutting pain, binding love, and traveling safely. The string or cord can be made out of almost any material, but natural fibers such as hair, wool, hemp and cotton are preferred. Although ladders are often created for as part of a specific spell, many wiccans keep a personal ladder. In this case, the knots or beads are used to keep track of repetition in a spell or prayer, similar to Rosary beads.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just so you know what I mean when I say- “by a morbid nutrition”.
from stregheria.com
Witches are much sought after in affairs of the affections between lovers, and between husbands and wives, and to restore love between parents and children. They use an ” acqua della concordia ” and an ” acqua della discordia.” To bring back an unfaithful lover the witch goes at night to the cemetery, digs up with her nails the body of an assassin, with her left hand cuts off the three joints of the ring-finger, then reducing them to powder in a bronze mortar, she mixes it with ” acqua benedetta senza morti,” bought at the chemist’s. The lover is to sprinkle the road between his house and his sweetheart’s with this water, and this will oblige the beloved one to return.
Another very powerful powder is made by scraping the left humerus of a dead priest; the powder is then made into a small parcel and hidden on the altar by the server at a mass paid for by the witch. When the priest says: ” Cristo eleison” she must mutter: ” Cristo non eleison.” Such a bone was shown me by a witch; it had been purchased for fifty francs from one of the servants of a confraternity. It had belonged to the witch’s mother, who was also a witch, and had been stolen from the objects given by her before dying to the priest to be burnt. It must be the left humerus, ” the right having been used for giving the benediction.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some of these shots are from a week later, when I returned to the spot to see if things had changed, or if anything was missed. The first shots were done at the apex of a full Hunters Moon, which corresponded neatly with Halloween in 2009. The second were done a week later, when the moon had begun to wane gibbously indicating the transit from Samhain to Yule.
from catholicleague.org
January 11 & 12, 1997
Queens, NY – Almost 130 headstones were overturned at Calvary Cemetery. Police investigated it as a bias crime. Previously, on Christmas Eve, over 400 headstones were overturned along with statues, including one of Mary. In still another incident, more headstones were knocked over and a mausoleum window smashed with a sledgehammer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had blurred these angles badly, the week before, and wanted to include these knots in this post…
from time magazine, 1949
The 200-odd union workers of Calvary, one of the country’s largest Roman Catholic cemeteries, were bargaining for a raise of about 20%—a five-day week for the same wages ($59.40) they now get for a six-day week. Their employers, the trustees of Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, offered them a raise of about 3%. The gravediggers turned the offer down, and negotiations came to a stop. On Jan. 13, they went out on strike, and the coffins began to pile up at Calvary. After burial services, the coffins were laid down in shallow uncovered trenches. Last week when the number of unburied dead topped 1,000, the cardinal called out his seminarians.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the sun was on my side this time, and that’s when I noticed something.
from wikipedia
Rituals, such as these, were common practices associated with necromancy, and varied from the mundane to the more grotesque. Rituals in necromancy involved magic circles, wands, talismans, bells, and incantations. Also, the necromancer would surround himself with morbid aspects of death, which often included wearing the deceased’s clothing, consumption of unsalted, unleavened black bread and unfermented grape juice, which symbolized decay and lifelessness. Necromancers even went as far as taking part in the mutilation and consumption of corpses. Rituals, such as these, could carry on for hours, days, even weeks leading up the summoning of spirits. Often these practices took part in graveyards or in other melancholy venues that suited specific guidelines of the necromancer. Additionally, necromancers preferred summoning the recently departed, citing that their revelations were spoken more clearly; this timeframe usually consisted of 12 months following the death of the body. Once this time period lapsed, necromancers would summon the deceased’s ghostly spirit to appear instead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A fourth stone had been adorned.
from wikipedia
During the 20th century interest in witchcraft in English-speaking and European countries began to increase, inspired particularly by Margaret Murray’s theory of a pan-European witch-cult originally published in 1921, since discredited by further careful historical research. Interest was intensified, however, by Gerald Gardner’s claim in 1954 in Witchcraft Today that a form of witchcraft still existed in England. The truth of Gardner’s claim is now disputed too, with different historians offering evidence for or against the religion’s existence prior to Gardner.
The Wicca that Gardner initially taught was a witchcraft religion having a lot in common with Margaret Murray’s hypothetically posited cult of the 1920s. Indeed Murray wrote an introduction to Gardner’s Witchcraft Today, in effect putting her stamp of approval on it. Wicca is now practised as a religion of an initiatory secret society nature with positive ethical principles, organised into autonomous covens and led by a High Priesthood. There is also a large “Eclectic Wiccan” movement of individuals and groups who share key Wiccan beliefs but have no initiatory connection or affiliation with traditional Wicca. Wiccan writings and ritual show borrowings from a number of sources including 19th and 20th-century ceremonial magic, the medieval grimoire known as the Key of Solomon, Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis and pre-Christian religions. Both men and women are equally termed “witches.” They practice a form of duotheistic universalism.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another byzantine knot, exhibiting a complexity unnecessary for any common task. What can this all be about?
Nearby, a tugboat moving its cargo languidly across that gelatinous slick of black water- called the Newtown Creek- triggered its horns, and the marbles of Calvary reflected a choral scalar echo which reminded one of the hebraic ram horn trumpet called the Shofar.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
But, as always, Calvary Cemetery is not a place you want to be – when the burning thermonuclear eye of god dips behind the shield wall of Manhattan- in tenebrous darkness, here at the fossil heart of the Newtown Pentacle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator, shaken by psychic exsanguination, and possessed by that unshakable desire to just lay down upon the soft invitation of the grass… and rest… for just a little while… experienced after a stay of no more than 90 minutes in Calvary- began to move quickly toward the gates on Greenpoint Avenue.
Away from a city which is not dead, but eternal lies… dreaming… and after strange aeons…
Tales of Calvary 3
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Swirling, my thoughts.
A vast and byzantine pattern which extends beyond even the coming of the Europeans into the mist of olden days, traced by rail and road, reveals itself step by step as the burning eye of god itself leads me to and fro across the glass strewn Newtown Pentacle.
Bits of information, nuggets of pregnant fact, theosophical themes and mystic iconography obfuscating its truths and meaning, a maelstrom of barking black dogs crowds my mind. Cowardly and infirm, I run to the grave.
Solace is found amongst the tomb legions, and the nepenthe of their silence.
from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1880, via junipercivic.com
The extension of Calvary Cemetery by the addition of one hundred acres occasions the demolition of the Alsop mansion, of historic interest. The Alsop family was distinguished n the annals of Newtown down to recent date. Now but one descendant remains, and he long ago quitted his ancestral home. Thomas Wandell was the founder of the Alsop family, through Richard Alsop, his nephew, when be brought from England, while a mere boy, about the year 1665 and adopted his son and heir. The one act in mr. Wandell’s life in Newtown which serves to perpetuate his name in local history was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph Hall and his wife, and acquitted them…
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Researches into the hallowed grounds of Calvary Cemetery have hinted at a lost mausoleum, whose hidden entrance was last known in the 1900’s – and which served as an exclusive tomb for Catholic clergy.
Neighborhood gossips whisper of hidden rites and orgiastic meetings, conducted by caribbean cultists and drug crazed adolescents who dance in candlelight upon Calvary’s swollen ground, on moonless nights.
Personal observation has served a buffet of puzzling evidences, odd coincidence, and terrifying implication. If you dial the correct number at midnight, who – or indeed what- might answer?
from the Annals of Newtown
Mr. Wandell, according to reminiscence in the Alsop family, had been a major in Cromwell’s army; but, having some dispute with the protector, was obliged to flee for safety, first to Holland, and thence to America. But some doubt of this may be justly entertained; because Mr. Wandell was living at Mespat Kills in 1648, which was prior to the execution of King Charles, and when Cromwell enjoyed but a subordinate command in the parliamentary army.
Mr. Wandell, the widow of Wm. Herrick, whose plantation on Newtown Creek, (originally patented to Richard Brutnell,) he bought in 1659, afterwards adding to it fifty acres, for which Richard Colefax had obtained a patent in 1652. On this property, since composing the Alsop farm, Mr. Wandell resided. He was selected, in 1665, as one of the jury for the trial of Ralph Hall and his wife for witchcraft, (the only trial for witchery in this colony,) and shared the honor of acquitting the accused. Some years later, he made a voyage to England, returning by way of Barbadoes, and, it is supposed, brought with him from England his sister’s son, Richard Alsop, who, about this time, came to America, and was adopted by Mr. Wandell as his heir, he having no issue. He d. in 1691, and was interred on the hill occupied by the Alsop cemetery. Many years ‘after his death, the silver plate of his coffin was discovered, in digging a new grave.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Shrouded by ancient copyright and purpose driven obscurity, the building of Calvary was a gargantuan project.
Hints of some enormous underground water calvert electrify my imaginations. The notion of a tunneled world beneath the sepulchral depth, collecting storm driven torrents of rain that would otherwise carry this vast attempt at elysian splendor into the nearby Newtown Creek (in the manner of some macabre mudslide), and the anticipation of where- and what- this system of sewers might empty into fill me with an overwhelming and loathsome joy.
from “A history of Long Island” at archive.org
At ye Court of Assizes held in New Yorke ye 2d day of October 1665 &c.
The Tryall of Ralph Hall and Mary his wife, upon suspicion of Witchcraft.
The names of the Persons who served on the Grand Jury: Thomas Baker, fforeman of ye Jury, of East Hampton ; Capt. John Symonds of Hempsteed ; Mr. Hallet, Anthony Waters, Jamaica ; Thomas Wandall of Marshpath Kills ; Mr. Nicolls of Stamford ; Balthazer de Haart, John Garland, Jacob Leisler, Anthonio de Mill, Alexander Munro, Thomas Searle, of New Yorke.
The Prisoners being brought to the Barr by Allard Anthony, Sheriffe of New Yorke,
This following Indict was read, first against Ralph Hall and then agst Mary his wife, vizt.
The Constable and Overseers of the Towne of Seatallcott, in the East Riding of Yorkshire upon Long Island, Do Present for our soveraigne Lord the King, That Ralph Hall of Seatallcott aforesaid, upon ye 25th day of December ; being Christmas day last, was Twelve Monthes, in the 15th yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles ye
Second, by the Grace of God, King of Eng- land, Scotland, ffrance and Ireland, Defender of the ffaith &c, and severall other dayes and times since that day, by some detestable and wicked Arts, commonly called Witchcraft and Sorcery, did (as is suspected) maliciously and feloniously, practice and Exercise at the said Towne of Seatalcott in the East Riding of Yorkshire on Long Island aforesaid, on the Person of George Wood, late of the same place by which wicked and detestable Arts, the said George Wood (as is suspected) most dangerously and mortally sickned and languished. And not long after by the aforesaid wicked and detestable Arts, the said George Wood (as is likewise suspected) dyed.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Calvary Cemetery is very much alive, teeming with a population of wild cats, rabbits, migratory birds. A sort of ecosystem exists here, but disturbing subsidences are common, the soil collapsing into a familiar rectangular pattern.
At intervals throughout the cemetery, there are oddly shaped concrete pillboxes- clearly hollow- which are secured with heavy iron lids that are often padlocked. Once, I dared to look into an unlocked one, and the dread implications of a staircase allowing egress down into a corridor roughly 15 feet below the surface, and the fresh muddy footprints leading away into that underworld nearly brought on one of my nervous attacks.
But- hatches abound in the Newtown Pentacle, and it is best not to dwell on all it is, that might be lurking down there.
Samuel Dibble accused his father-in-law, William Graves of witchcraft in the death of his wife, Abigail. There was a history of disagreement between Samuel and his father-in-law over his wife’s dowry. Abigail suffered horribly during the birth of her daughter (with a condition now possibly diagnosed as eclampsia (toxemia)) and Samuel blamed William Graves and depositions were taken in his complaint against him. The outcome of these depositions is unknown, however, it is likely that there was no severe action taken against William Graves as he lived another twelve years and died in Newtown, Long Island.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Meditating on the oddly suppressed events that have occurred here at Calvary, my mind reels with implied meanings and unheralded imaginings.
On Christmas Eve of 1996, “vandals” overturned between 50 and 75 headstones.
Recently, Crows- the name I’ve coined for the large population of metal collectors who scavenge and pry to feed raw material to the recycling industry along the Newtown Creek – have been accused of stealing valuable copper ornaments adorning the mausoleums here.
Evidences of unwholesome activities may be found all along the great walls, adorned with the spear motif of the high iron gates that surmount and complete them, which seal the great ossuary off from its environs. In the waning years of the 19th century- 1866 to be exact- the Newtown Board of Health was forced to bring charges in courtagainst the cemetery for improper treatment of the bodies of the poor.
From nycgovparks.org
In the five years between 1793 and 1798, New York City suffered terrible outbreaks of yellow fever, and by the end of the crisis, the city had lost nearly five percent of its population. An investigation into the causes of the outbreaks found shockingly unsanitary conditions, and the City responded with sweeping health reforms. Those reforms effectively staved off yellow fever for several years, but in the summer of 1803, the disease struck again. In 1805, the City created the Board of Health, which used its powers to evacuate residents from all streets near the East River, where the epidemic hit the hardest. This successfully warded off the disease for another 14 years. In 1830, a Manhattan ordinance forbade burials below Canal Street, and land in the suburbs was set aside for cemeteries. Newtown, the region between Brooklyn and Queens, was the site of so many cemeteries that it was often called “the city of the dead.”
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Today, visual inspection will confirm the Review Avenue and Laurel Hill Blvd. fences as being a favorite spot for illegal dumping of both construction debris and deceased animals. Directly across the street from the Review Avenue gate, at the former Penny Bridge Calvary railroad stop- fascist iconography adorns the scene.
and from “The Annals of Newtown” at bklyn-genealogy-info.com
This cemetery, which is located at Laurel Hill, was set apart and consecrated in 1848. It is one of the most accessible rural cemeteries near New York, and it would be difficult to select a lovelier or fitter spot as a place of sepulture. The old ground comprised one hundred and ten acres, but in 1853 a charter was obtained from the State by the trustees of St. Patrick’s cathedral, New York city, for 250 acres; 165 acres of this are now enclosed. The artesian well in that part of the enclosure called New Calvary was sunk in 1879. It is 606 feet deep and 6 3/4 inches in diameter, and was bored in white granite for a large part of its depth. Last year 32,000 persons died in the city of New York, and of this number 15,500 were buried in Calvary. The cemetery keeps one hundred and fifty men regularly employed, and two hundred more are kept at work by the relatives and friends of the deceased. Here may be found some of the choicest of materials and the finest models in monumental structure; and here we may mention as worthy of note the vault and chapel built by John Johnston, at a cost of $75,000, and regarded as one of the finest to be found in any ground. This cemetery is to the Catholics of New York what Greenwood is to the Protestant population. Since 1872 Hugh Moore has been the general superintendent, and to his ability much of the beauty and attractiveness of the place is due; he has been assisted by Michael Rowen. The mortuary chapel, of fine architectural design and finish, was built in 1856. The present chaplain is Rev. M.J. Brennan.
Tales of Calvary 2- Veterans Day
-photo by Mitch Waxman
21 Roman Catholic Union soldiers are interred amongst the 365 acres of first Calvary Cemetery in Queens, nearby the cuprous waters of the much maligned Newtown Creek.
The wars of the 20th century, terrible in scope and vulgar in effect, cause us to overlook these men who vouchsafed the American Republic in the 19th century as we focus in on the veterans of the second thirty years war which modernity myopically calls World Wars One and Two. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed a federal holiday called Armistice Day in 1919, celebrating the anniversary of the legal end of the first World War in 1918. Congress agreed, seven years later, and then took six years to pass an act which made Armistice day an official United States federal holiday celebrated on November 11 annually.
Ed Rees, a populist Representative from the state of Kansas during the post World War 2 era, spearheaded a successful campaign in 1953 to have “Armistice Day” reclassified as “All Veterans Day” so as to include the veterans of WW2, and the ongoing conflicts fought by our “permanent government” on the world stage.
from nycgovparks.com
On April 28, 1863, the City of New York purchased the land for this park from the Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and granted Parks jurisdiction over it. The land transaction charter stated that Parks would use the land as a burial ground for soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War (1861-65) and died in New York hospitals. Parks is responsible for the maintenance of the Civil War monument, the statuary, and the surrounding vegetation. Twenty-one Roman Catholic Civil War Union soldiers are buried here. The last burial took place in 1909…
The monument features bronze sculptures by Daniel Draddy, fabricated by Maurice J. Power, and was dedicated in 1866. Mayor John T. Hoffman (1866-68) and the Board of Aldermen donated it to the City of New York. The 50-foot granite obelisk, which stands on a 40 x 40 foot plot, originally had a cannon at each corner, and a bronze eagle once perched on a granite pedestal at each corner of the plot. The column is surmounted by a bronze figure representing peace. Four life-size figures of Civil War soldiers stand on the pedestals. In 1929, for $13,950, the monument was given a new fence, and its bronze and granite details replaced or restored. The granite column is decorated with bronze garlands and ornamental flags.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Many of the combatant nations observe November 11th as Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day.
It is hard for we moderns to conceive of the psychological pathologies of the post Victorian era, as our “end of the world scenario” is played out as either an expanding cloud of nuclear fire, or some “romeroesque” dystopia populated by hordes of disease maddened and resource starved ghouls- either way- it involves the apocalyptic ascendance of one of the “ism’s”.
Have no doubts though, that the world which created Calvary ended in an apocalypse, and our modern world was built upon the ashes of the Fin de Siècle.
from wikipedia
In many parts of the world people take a two-minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. as a sign of respect for the roughly 20 million people who died in the war, as suggested by Edward George Honey in a letter to a British newspaper although Wellesley Tudor Pole established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
The soils of Calvary, a vast cocktail of loathsome and ghoulish ichor, contain many Civil War dead- as well as citizen soldiers from every conflict since. Forgotten and long neglected, the obelisk and its attendant bronzes are in a tremulous condition, etched at by a century of pervasive industrial pollution arising from Newtown Creek, and the greater city beyond.
from a newtown pentacle post, from july 31 of 2009, titled “Up and through Calvary”
Daniel Draddy was an irish speaker from County Cork, and the son of John Draddy- a stonecarver and prolific author in the Irish language who hailed from a family on Quaker Road. In context, they came from what modernity would describe as “an oppressed religious underclass involved in an ethnic and cultural war with an aggressive and powerful neighbor willing and and able to actively engage in state sponsored genocide and ethnic cleansing“ but which they would have called the Irish Potato Famine.
Daniel maintained his marble studios on 23rd street in Manhattan, near the east river. Known as a cultured and gracious host, he was beloved by the Tammany men. Contemporaries describe him as a first class carver, mechanic, historian, and he had the ability to write in the Irish language “druidically”.
Resemblance of the monuments to the tombs of ancient Egypt is no accident. The men who built this were Free and Accepted Masons.
This is masonic iconography, with its obelisk splitting the solar wisdom into the four cardinal directions and the four deities of the spaces found between standing watch at intersecting 45 degree vectors. Such falderol was quite in vogue after the Civil War, look at the Capitol Dome or Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. for similar thematic elements.
Don’t forget- Draddy was a stonecutter, from a family of stonecutters. That made him a Free and Accepted Mason, who’s existential threat was the subject of much Catholic liturgy. The Masons, especially after their successes in the Lowlands and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, were considered a dangerous fifth column in the power structure of Europe. In the United States, the origins of the mythology surrounding them was beginning to form. In the 19th century men like Draddy would have been considered as subscribing to an “ism”, and its odd to find such iconography in a Catholic cemetery. The Church bore a special antipathy toward the Masons in this period of time, and even today they officially shun members.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
The statues here at Calvary’s Soldiers Monument seem to have been the original castings of a much reproduced statuary design. Placed here in 1866, they predate the identical statues found at Green-Wood Cemetery, and exact issuance of the mold has been confirmed in New England, North Carolina, and all over New York State. As early as 1875, fumes from a nearby Ammonia Factory at Newtown Creek were graving pitted marks into them.
Check out this amazing nytimes.com report of the ceremonies held, at this very spot- on Memorial Day, June 1, 1875.
In accordance with a resolution to celebrate the ceremony of decorating the graves of their dead comrades with more impressiveness than had attended that event in the past, John A. Rawlius Post, No. 80, with the members of the veteran corps of the old Sixty-ninth Regiment, Meagher’s Irish Brigade, Corcoran’s Irish Legion…
Observation, Speculation, and musing- the thinking out loud section
During the Civil War, the United States Union organized its troops by State, City, and town- hence the “XXth New York Regiment” or the “XXrd Illinois”. What this meant, in a meat grinder conflict like the Civil War with its high casualties, was that an entire neighborhood or town could lose ALL of its sons in a single battle.
The long economic decline of upstate New York, New England- especially Massachusetts- began soon after the Civil War partly because of this depopulation- and a generation of widows it created (the decline of “green energy” powered cotton cloth production in area textile mills is a major factor as well). The population important to politicians ceased being the rural mill town or agrarian producer and shifted to the newly crowded urban centers. In “the country”, a fascination with Spiritualism took hold while “the cities” set about building concrete cathedrals.
Radical politics, moralist movements, and fringe religion ruled in a depopulated countryside. The worn out land of the family farm wound inexorably toward a dust bowl, and there was no way to keep your sons and daughters from moving to “The City” and its possibilities. Stricken by endemic poverty, disease, ethnic violence, and starvation, the reality of “the good old days” before the Fin de Siècle is something that just doesn’t jibe with “you could leave your doors unlocked when you went to sleep, back then” that my grandfather used to proclaim.
The next generation of women that came along, who saw their widowed mothers and aunts running businesses and farms and participating in government– they were the Suffragettes.
The Newtown Pentacle 