There is an area of upstate New York that has an energy that pulsates through the land harder than a restricted jugular. It vibrates in your steps, ricocheting your foot as soon as you place it it to the ground. It tingles in the air, the ozone molecules popping on your skin as if the atmosphere were a light champagne. It beats with a pulse that directs waves of intensity through the water, through the land and into your being.
I became increasingly inquisitive about this land and the lake that divides it. I began striking up conversation with people who were native to the area and I eventually met a local named Jim. He started to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge with his own story.
This area was founded in 1654 by two men named Lewis Miller and John Heyl Vincent, under the guise of being a retreat for Methodist Sunday School teachers. As the reputation of the area grew in the mid to late 1870's as place for enlightenment, supposedly unbeknownst to Miller and Vincent, the land drew a small group of white witches who used a Christian moniker to escape persecution from a village on Prince Edward Island in Canada, where it was found out they they deviated from the Holy Scriptures once that territory was ceded to England in 1871. (This group had arrived to the island in small numbers originally from England, but through Ireland, after the Druids were pushed out of the area through the onslaught of Roman Christianity around 150 AD.) However, after this small group was embedded within the community, they sent out a guileful call for others of their kind to join them, and the region became seen as a haven for those practicing in white magic and a place where these brothers and sisters could come worship the natural deities and practice their form free from the scrutinizing eyes of the Victorian repression, especially within New York City. However, all those witches who came to this specific land were held under oath to keep its true mission secret - an oath that holds to this day. In 1879, there was mistrust of the upper hierarchy of this group as they became to be known as the While Council, with a faction of the witches breaking away to form what is now known as The Mercurial Collective - the largest secret community of occult practitioners in the world.
Yet as the white witches' numbers grew, they began to integrate themselves more and more into the bureaucratic legislation of the Northern New York State region, albeit carefully and secretly. Soon they had great power within the realms of local government and saw their membership flourish through the covert initiation local townspeople. During this period, the Seneca Native Americans, who had originally inhabited the land in the ages before colonization, grew more and more suspicious of the White Council. The Seneca were aware of the White Council's heritage from their integration into nature for centuries on Prince Edward Island, but the Seneca also believed the hearts of the White Council had begun to be corrupted by an ever growing desire to hold power in the social hierarchies and normativities of the established community. Soon, at the White Council's underhanded direction, the Seneca were forcibly divorced from the land and henceforth banished from setting foot on their home grounds. It holds true today that it is very rare to have someone of an ethnicity aside from Caucasian able to withstand that powerful psychic break set forth by the White Council and subsequently able to enter and stay for longer periods of time on the grounds of the Institute. The removal of the Seneca left a lasting magical mark that has not been able to be erased since.
Because of the great turmoil suffered by the Native Americans, the White Council consecrated the land and, with great magical power, they banished from it any and all forms of evil or negative spiritual & psychic energy. While they did not realize this at the time, the local waterways absorbed this energy unto itself and acted as a conduit to filter that energy into the surrounding towns and villages. To this day, this county in upstate New York reaps the consequences of that action in the form of economic decay, as it remains one of the poorest counties in New York state. Where a local lake had been known to the Native Americans as a body of water that resembled a "bag tied in the middle," after the White Council's betrayal, the lake instead became known amongst the Seneca Tribe as the "lake of easy death." Every year, the lake claims numerous lives during both the summer and winter months' activities, from swimming and boating accidents to members of the community falling through the frozen lake surface on snowmobiles. The Seneca tribe further cursed the White Council, foretelling that their movement would be doomed due to their deception of claiming and mistreating the land that their ancestors had once lived in tune with, while in turn further damning the Seneca to live in restricted, impoverished territories . Today, as lasting proof of the White Council's greed, all visitors to the region must drive through the Seneca reservation land to see their destruction first hand - a lasting damnation so all around can witness what the avarice of the White Council sentenced unto the Seneca peoples.
When I first arrived in the region, I became instantly enamored with the lake. Water holds many properties within folklore, and while myths tell of its power of cleansing and rebirth, water also acts as a conduit to transmit energy. I began to document the lake and the way the density of the water both reflected and absorbed light. Each particle of light becomes its own transmission of information, running through the water molecules, blending with energies that are held within its body, along with the psychic bodies left behind by the souls that the water claims each season.
As the sunlight interacted with the water molecules, tiny vortexes started swirling, and like the popping of atoms, small portals began to develop with each beam of light the passed through - dark in the center, but ringed in bright gold, like thousands of eclipses happening right beneath the tension of the surface. Then, as quick as they were to develop, they disappeared. For a fraction of a second, I saw a black invitation into other worlds where the watery velvet blankets promised to keep me warm.
I began to bathe in the lake as if it were the river Styx, allowing my body to form an in-between through from the physical world to a parallel underworld - baptizing myself in the light as it spread throughout the water.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
Drunk History : Harriet Tubman, Superspy
NYC Man Confirms Sea Serpent Sighting to New York Times in 1895 (via Gothamist)
02/03/16 New NASA Spacecraft Will Be Propelled By Light (via National Geographic)
Ghost Writing: UpState/NonState (all words are in the order in which they were received - words in bold denote artist made associations)
July 2, 2015 - 10:41pm-11:11pm
sent fast hello cement grid upstairs touch ed ticket under Gail compare may found carbon choose told deal house mason line sky left map state what long child chest cheat her away beach choose shot shave Brad used quarter cried white must multiple coffee agreed time strength very Cathy year it Gregg old consider land duty step right scream silent engine mission birth castle gender panel been gravity dig count Rebecca step inside worry find decided arrived lord hill except home cook clear jerk seat flat coin Harriet baby constant dug bike knife George coffee scream brown Dr. date effect Walter alter distance forest equal blind push park contract gold chain carbon enough came hat coast Gregg sister because baby happened center certain eye brother ever power amount bend carry see seat Monday hang leave crops smooth door girl build leg hot limit quick change show climb Dr. front just unit row gave once anti attack compound desert round England ground being force finish Robb trial show over axe cry they float only drawing eat attic affect map
July 4, 2015 - 12:04am-1:09am
lay highway video sent worm sent Karen Robb entire flower pastor because blood their mattress drink known grandpa body trap Larry business long didn't major separate bridge nail consider sign coin lamb happy Murphy born cost Adam decided 9 expect do plant our fade oar middle mind number desert flower tent express me life saw catch with hurry store real Lynn plan labor manual thousand stop Tim evening trench present snow mind error Peter block point from both tone news dinner ah gray nose broken grab talk increase glass add doesn't raid closet now is forward uncle tent memory grass heat stick except march fly machine beach Derrick cotton trail yes storm drop confess barrel children top spell drink smell James eight moist inches ear table carrier cried learn length time strong used heat factors wire flow language birth axe son down show daddy exit wrong age last Tina round coffee glove confess eleven home trial wood Jess study cent eat cool it's summer describe my hope Sally been middle feet care town quiet shoulder camera down America Paula grab highway lady eggs exactly enough ledge him east dark sister finally 5 disturb it Indian show shot among month force course not casket gone problem happened cat crystal ok confess forward shoes wife aunt barn spell eighty boy tent erase monitor bottom see knot freeze full mine allow Kansas by so Kate climb Beth pattern phone rest multiple again cube coat best increase Mira beware allow last nine Indian form bar goodbye wrong pulse think world Steven position panel cousin window melody master cement paper dug details drop bottom cost can it late enough clear spin room him woman steal now talk deal scratch be knee ok storm density feel send chance fifty used year cried Paula script details window fifteen scale mountain carry bed Ed teacher Lisa cross pencil plant casket British friend dam equal seek sent decided trial halt separate mist early curt ask copy England multiple distance window farm army easy exercise cane Chris happy increase any hour learn less master distance Jess cross castle listen about file hand machine Rebecca nose bury tell secret help dug British is Sandy if machine Noah opposite average moon move France few multiple forward seven hundred garden hi ground Kim dive deep general desk cake with moist glove happy electric and amount sent add during Shane entire dry lag decided 8 limp increase go
July 5, 2015 10:00pm - ???
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July 7, 2015 12:00am - 12:26am
fly soldiers quite zoo disaster story rabbit hold train chef art crash few lake cake creek same storm a open wood 2 high foreign alter move Cathy down now tall coffee Japanese neck Jon great James doesn't male finger cement same but forty problem right march she listen mouth top boy Lisa chair lamp father brown deal Lynn saw bottom over history bike bad noise strength third card rest attack labor late foot in Charles Frank chest flow fast Russ much attic strange even Lynn foreign believe man night people cry trial project puncture book country send alter melody candle park birth lord silent stch flow Nancy Bill lie cave enjoy stand around raid great cried cellar said baby key candle Gregg ground position heart
July 8, 2015 11:26 - ???
placebo kiss records tree country worm lay award human carrier melody ran contract project match empty Sally gold post she Jon Mason Jim race forever dug Monday double children summer assault face two count gave glove fire cage neck carrier Chris away police script halt drive summer she sky multiple hurry that their grow camp sky fade park crystal separate always allow face bottom carry business murder found son past Harry certain practice multiple traffic branches children gravity jerk erase clean casket candle north bury cut lag correct jet Lisa trap knife throat cover straight contain Jon thousand far Betty band dresser assault band inside middle cried touch eggs hate history Tim Rodger force month ashes hidden after branches travel under mercury home Amanda Murphy oar mattress act horrible dog answer include mountain grace birth hundred clear carbon mist Rodger talk not desk during raid winter freeze round dog piece thousand war fight appear porch knot pen Nick cost long length young Betty gender doesn't piece straight steel list took porch a limit barrel supply across heart fact attack double stone being nation this Peter act before child Noah index English 0 Murphy death Tim horrible course do inside Mira foreign being push Charles hair labor wind cheat Betty look knife living am separate medicine believe bishop alive Dave dam below shift French room gender self ten port general old lamp effect provide British certain came 3 dinner eleven branches he's white crowd grace end smooth reason ceiling man port labor manifest lady average grain came eighty time dug much I dance British mirror assault Kim science Jess here barrel cook march creek chat point
July 9, 2015 10:14pm - 10:47pm
factors paranormal night squeeze rope provide job age steel Robb always sack Fay minute dust dawn total behind law Harry cheat spot moon drone amount six city William hello dance spell leave water gray Sally 5 cause hour creek lake confess bottle state arm fight inches branches feel our contract dash Tom Anna think point dry quick pulse average edge hour said can girl some exit king is shove speed cast crowd great feel contain ask Kate fifty river I'm night alone any Harriet some branches friend Japanese mattress sure nothing grandma compound evening uncle dive fatal Mason he's cable eat on hurry fight inches late wire paper William Jackie Randy think round highway mommy cool moon quick is alter may spot cut child include around hat four ten Randy river knot just morning share hurry fatal door school quiet no England hundred women touch electric grid port cook scrape pain moment disturb any express contain year big known feet low brown Mira mountain language Frank separate curt eye special grace no Peter birth spell tell god 1 had summer cloud Derrick peace cheat inches
July 10, 2015 11:24pm - 11:57pm
D rabbit over ceiling flower me details Sandy father mattress fell hear yell age allow far follow number doesn't cost dug gray disturb form end old honor plastic thirteen attack brass etch speak or crops twenty hour angel foot begin men train bridge chat disturb Betty shift alive freeze lake god dark Gail opposite always stick down nine wire beware electric hard need name ashes alive cement bear next science speak low brass mattress death count talk child cut crash finally evening our 3 Kate does file dime ceiling James climb to sack blaze blue door gold shoes summer life coast muscle class full shoulder what lag else drag enough pulse match inches feel pencil memories element dime easy while cut drop same major news ice hammer Frank head worry desk same star must dresser deal her because ago walk forward liquid thirteen curt even next body hammer other murder everyone because (!!!) fly British placebo lay foliage 0 lay country eat business Paul human story award worm light supper highway
July 12, 2015 11:37 - 12:00am
country highway to manifest dog memories describe french stove just pull halt beg before Mira piece heat drawing cement moment 2 quarter fade shave alter night goodbye close ear reason drift real ashes fatal right medicine watch count Chris Mira study crayon travel break west Bill knee Alice Paul odd certain today police free write male desk Peter bar 6 shift throat to ago attack book do hope Adam Kelly cool yell Curt house fraction William special climb create normal Noah person control Terry Murphy doctor strange sent consider free Sam shoulder share second hang dog open mother law puncture exciting head seek form attic 0 brave grid pain Sandra like room wrong drawing did eerie (30) month green chair carrier stuff arrived 4 medium compound assault master script mission think between ledge cheat
July 29, 2015 11:44pm - 12:20 (approx)
tree rabbit eat business highway Pluto country eat lay records mommy story worm sent Paul rabbit
Endnotes
(18) I worked with the wonderful Robert and Sandra Bandov of Bearfort Paranormal to explore and document any paranormal activity in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, in Alexandria, Virginia. The structure was used as a base to produce torpedoes for the US Navy during both World War 1 and World War 2 - to use against both the Germans and the Japanese. (25) Cross Castle is a former structure in West Milford, New Jersey and a significant part of the folklore surrounding my home town. More information on Cross Castle through Roadtrippers and the Clinton Road Wikipedia page. (30) Lake Erie is a massive influence in the area, running along the entire northwest landmass border of New York State. Similarly, Erie, Pennsylvania is also very close - a city made a prime example of a post-industrial community.