Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Van Cortlandt Voodoo

Last week, on my walk to the 4 Train Woodlawn Station, I passed by Van Cortland Park and saw something bizarre:




This is a statue of a man, with red thread twined around its legs. I don't know the specific meaning of the thread, but a cursory knowledge of sympathetic magic, and multiple readings of The Face in the Frost, suggests to me that this is a charm meant to bind someone, possibly to keep a lover from straying. Perhaps it's a talisman meant to alleviate a leg ailment. I don't even know what tradition of "magic" this charm belongs to. This is not the first time I've found weird magical paraphernalia in this vicinity of the park. Maybe there's a Call of Cthulhu LARP going on in the park.

7 comments:

  1. Perhaps it is a sacrifice to the golf gods.

    Thunder knows that of which he speaks! Lew Rudin Voodoo!

    It's a serial killer's victim

    Or the victim of a bull in a china shop.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perhaps it is a sacrifice to the golf gods.

    Thunder knows that of which he speaks! Lew Rudin Voodoo!

    It's a serial killer's victim

    Or the victim of a bull in a china shop.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am going to read A Face in the Frost.

    ReplyDelete
  4. (Apparently Google doesn’t know we do "em" instead of "i" when we want to italicize something these days.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am going to read A Face in the Frost.

    I think you'll like it. If you've ever liked any of Bellairs' young adult stuff, you love it.

    (Apparently Google doesn’t know we do "em" instead of "i" when we want to italicize something these days.)

    What does Google know?

    ReplyDelete