Archive for the ‘Pickman’ Category
Mt. Zion 1 – imps of the perverse
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What would appear to be a Jewish section of the vast funerary complex that is 2nd and 3rd Calvary Cemeteries, is actually a distinct cemetery organized as and referred to as Mount Zion.
It made a convenient hiding spot for me one day when a group of children on Maurice Avenue took notice of me and began to follow me around. The possibility of some vaguely malign intention toward me, on their part, caused a near faint and I ran away- here’s what happened.
Narrow, juvenile faces, their appearance and aspect were dominated by a toothy grimace- much wider than the usual proportion- and oddly jowled chins. The corners of their mouths stretched to mid cheek and passed well beyond the bulging center point of those widely set and unblinking milky blue eyes- which I attribute to the possibly mutagenic qualities of the chemical pollution of that nearby extinction of hope called the Newtown Creek.
A little girl amongst them, barefoot and carrying a polydactyl calico which was buzzing with attention, pointed me out and all the other odd looking children turned and stared in my direction. A vast physical coward, and unable to withstand even the thought of defending myself against a crowd of 10 year olds, your humble narrator screamed a shrill shriek and broke into a clumsy run to make an escape to hallowed ground.
Mount Zion Cemetery encompasses an area of 78 acres. This cemetery is located in Maspeth, Queens near the Manhattan Border. When this cemetery was first established the surrounding area was considered to be rural. There was an ongoing need for burial spaces to accommodate the explosion of the immigrant population in not only Queens, but also the nearby neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Mount Zion Cemetery has more than 210,000 burials on its 78 acres making it one of the more interesting burial grounds.
note: Mount Zion has come up once before, in the shot above from a Newtown Pentacle post of June 22- called Newtown Grafiti
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once within the iron gates of Mount Zion, I enacted an old Brooklyn “run away and hide from pursuers strategy” which basically boils down to running around at full speed in a completely random manner and finding something to hide behind or in. Luckily, the tightly packed environs of this Cemetery make for good cover, and I was dressed in a black fedora and black raincoat- making the perfect camouflage for blending in with other visitors at Mt. Zion.
Once, this panic stricken series of turns and circles was called “cheese it”, and the modern English would call it “Leg it”. I knew a guy who once fled from the cops through 4 blocks of brooklyn backyards, hopping a six foot chain link fence every 30 yards, ran across Flatbush, through a golf course, then ran across the Belt Parkway, and dug himself a sand dune hole to spend the night in near Plum Beach. Brooklyn thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are distinct sections in Mount Zion, organized by burial society. Jewish Burial Societies are usually connected either to a Temple Congregation or Secular Association. The Secular ones would often be organized by a labor union, or by a brokerage business that sought to buy a large number of plots at a discount and sell them at a profit. Much information is available online about these societies if one can read hebrew or yiddish. There is also a modern and ancient division.
Some parts of the place date back to the 19th century, others have fresh interments. Unlike other faiths represented nearby, Jewish tradition calls for a single occupant in a grave. As such, the organization and placement of funerary rite and remains demands much lateral sprawl, and like most older Jewish cemeteries- Mount Zion seems crowded and claustrophobic.
But, it’s a good place to hide from those weird Maspeth kids, if you lords and ladies of Newtown don’t mind- let’s just hang out here a little while- OK?
That little girl with the maladapted and curiously 9 toed cat, she said something to the oldest boy that sounded like a name… Y’ha-nthlei?
from wikipedia
A headstone (tombstone) is known as a matzevah (“monument”). Although there is no Halakhic obligation to hold an unveiling ceremony, the ritual became popular in many communities toward the end of the 19th century. There are varying customs about when it should be placed on the grave. Most communities have an unveiling ceremony a year after the death. Some communities have it earlier, even a week after the burial. In Israel it is done after the “sheloshim”, the first thirty days of mourning. There is no restriction about the timing, other than the unveiling cannot be held during certain periods such as Passover or Chol Ha’Moed.
At the end of the ceremony, a cloth or shroud covering that has been placed on the headstone is removed, customarily by close family members. Services include reading of several psalms (1, 23, 24, 103), Mourners Kaddish (if a minyan is available), and the prayer “El Malei Rachamim.” The service may include a brief eulogy for the deceased.
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”.
misty water colored memories… but with blood
Long Island City, mouth of Newtown Creek, Greenpoint stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
Note- I’ve got a turmoil in me right now.
Your humble narrator is pissed off, and this ape is standing at the edge of his personal forest, hurling invective at an unfamiliar thing hanging in the sky called Moon. Rambling ahead, with a few reminisces of New York in “the good old days”.
The disturbing incongruity of modern skyscrapers in the Newtown Pentacle’s panoramic skies, whether commercial spire or residential tower, is horrifying to the residents of victorian relicts such as Long Island City and Greenpoint. All along the rotting infrastructure of the malodorous Newtown Creek, nearly the geographic center of the City of Greater New York, the arrival of a pregnant moment is apparent.
“A river of federal money will wash out the Newtown Creek, and all the poisons in the mud will be hatched out, or so say the G-Men” is my take on the EPA superfund listing of the Creek for now.
I still haven’t parsed everything, that was said in the November 5, 2009 Newtown Creek Alliance meeting at St. Cecilia’s. I made an audio recording of the presentation, and will be listening to it again. Its just that the EPA… the feds… gaining absolute control over a 4 long by half mile wide chunk of New York City for as long as 50 years… that’s 12.5 presidential administrations. 12.5 administrations ago was FDR’s first term.
Speaking of FDR, did you know that his second term Vice President- Henry A. Wallace (responsible for the very successful transformation of dustbowl era agri-businesses from rural homestead into their somewhat modern form) was a well known and public occultist?
Looking east from Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant catwalk stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
The New York that my father knew, the one built up in the late 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, is the one that began crumbling in the 70’s and came crashing down during the 1980’s. Contrary to what you may have read, the Reagan years were not a very nice time, and a soggy malaise hung over both the great city and the nation that exists because of it. Disillusioned by the failures of utopian city planners and those shambolic ideologies which were popularized by academic and journalist alike, the population of New York turned on each other in those days.
Here’s a few of my “new york stories”- I was there, I saw them.
Looking southwest from Queensboro Bridge stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
A tragedy of Russian scale and tone, “good old days” New York saw violent encounters between strangers became commonplace in a city always on the edge. Back then (late 80’s, early 90’s)- Williamsburg was a blasted out brick lot, blighted, and an island of extreme poverty.
West from Pulaski Bridge facing Manhattan, stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
Naked hookers plied their trade in Williamsburg on Bedford and Grand, while just beyond- a Motorcycle Club’s shanty was lit by oil drums filled with castaway lumber and litter. The Lower East Side (then known as Alphabet city) was where you spent your time, then, or way uptown above 96th street on the west side- and both neighborhoods had borderlines and “DMZ” areas.
The City belonged to the rats, and you either fought them or ran away. Cowardice was considered an intelligent option back then, just run away- don’t try to fight “them”.
East on Newtown Creek, Kosciuszko Bridge stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
Once, I saw a businessman 2 blocks north of Grand Central Station on Park Avenue, wearing an expensive vested suit which was the fashion at the time. He walked between two cars, dropped his suit pants, and defecated in the street. You used to pee wherever you wanted to, as well, “back in the day”.
You could smoke tobacco, in designated areas, within New York City hospital wards. There was a magical danish called the Bearclaw, which has since gone extinct in New York City, best quaffed with bitter black coffee. The last Bearclaw I had was in the “New York New York” casino in Las Vegas.
Skillman Avenue, Sunnyside Railyard fence line – photo by Mitch Waxman
Once, I saw a homeless guy junkie- during the early AIDS years- get hit by a cab. His head shot forward toward the asphalt in a parabolic arc with his knees acting as a fulcrum, shattering his face and killing him. This happened on 21st street and 3rd, down the block from the Police Academy. They left him there for 2-3 hours waiting for the morgue to show up because nobody wanted to get AIDS blood on themselves. The bulls set up traffic cones around him.
Sunnyside, Barnett Avenue looking west stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
That New York City- the one that was a national disaster long before it became the scene of a national disaster, a lamentable metropolis of blood, hate, and too much damn noise- is being built over and carted away. But this is the way of things, here.
Those farms and mills obliterated by rapacious rail barons and their quest to build Sunnyside Yards, do you know who the Payntars were, or their story?
Queensbridge Park, looking west toward Manhattan stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
The mansions of Ravenswood, gothic palaces built for the ultra rich who made their fortunes on Newtown Creek and in Long Island City, were casually eradicated to make way for mill and dock, and later bridge and housing project. Do you know the story of the Terracotta House?
From George Washington Bridge looking south on upper Manhattan and New Jersey stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
Once, back in ’93, on 99th and Broadway- some guy was talking on a pay phone in the middle of the night, during an ice storm. You know the kind- the sort of weather that coats every surface in a half inch of clear, slick ice. Urban misery, but quite beautiful.
Astoria 31st Avenue stormy sky stitched panorama- photo by Mitch Waxman
Unfortunately for this fellow on the phone, someone shot him a few times and he must have slumped forward with the phone in his hand. I walked by on my way to the 2 train the next morning and the wind had pushed him backwards, his frozen hand around the receiver and his corpse was swaying stiffly in the february wind. There were bloodcicles.
Long Island City, Hunters Point, mouth of Newtown Creek, Greenpoint stitched panorama – photo by Mitch Waxman
For more on this lost and forgotten civilization, buy an early Ramones album and play it very loud.
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…
