Crossbones: the Secret Herstory

On 23rd November 1996, John Constable wrote ‘The Book of The Goose’ as revealed by the spirit of a mediæval sex worker. The Winchester Geese were licensed to work in church-owned brothels, yet buried in the unconsecrated Crossbones Graveyard.

John’s poem grew into The Southwark Mysteries (Shakespeare’s Globe and Southwark Cathedral) which inspired a body of magical works to reclaim the burial ground – including The Halloween of Crossbones, the Vigils held on the 23rd of every month, the shrine on Redcross Way and the opening the garden of remembrance in 2015.

To mark the 30th anniversary of ‘Goose night’, John’s talk takes in the history, the rituals and the spirit-healing works which created this urban sanctuary, the embodiment of ‘the Sacred revealed in the profane’.