‘Esoteric Grand Central’

     
Obscura Society New York wants you to take a walk. With author Mitch Horowitz. Through Grand Central Terminal to see the esoteric clues in its design and décor.

Magpie file photo

Mercury atop Grand Central Terminal.

The New York chapter of the Atlas Obscura Society, a group that unites those who are curious enough about cultural oddities and occult landmarks to actually visit and tour them, has a 90-minute walking tour of Grand Central Terminal planned for next month. From the publicity:

Occult Grand Central

Friday, October 10

Noon to 1:30

$60 per person

Meet at 11:50 on the southeast corner

of Park Avenue and East 41st Street

Every day thousands of travelers gaze in wonder at Grand Central Terminal’s vast zodiac ceiling and the figure of Mercury towering over Park Avenue, but few ever grasp their true significance.

After this tour you’ll understand the real meaning behind these and other cornerstones of Grand Central’s design. Indeed, this crowning edifice of the Beaux-Arts architectural movement can only be fully understood by appreciating the occult themes encrypted within its appearance.

In this lively and intellectually substantive journey, writer and historian Mitch Horowitz, whose occult walking tours have been called a “can’t-miss event” by Time Out, reveals the esoteric imagery and backstory of Grand Central’s design, including the station’s colossal exterior monuments, its interior symbols and insignias, and how its appearance shaped the gothic look and feel of midtown Manhattan. The tour also features wonderful stories of the Vanderbilt family, who oversaw the making of Grand Central, and explores the occult atmosphere of the late Victorian and Edwardian age.

Magpie file photo

Mitch Horowitz at Quest,
January 2014.

Horowitz, a modern day, nonfiction Rod Serling, has a passion for mysteries surpassed only by his desire to uncover the truth. Mitch is a PEN Award-winning historian and an acclaimed writer and speaker on alternative spirituality. The Washington Post says Mitch “treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.” Mitch has written on everything from the war on witches to the secret life of Ronald Reagan for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Salon, CNN.com, Time.com, and Boing Boing. He has discussed esoteric spirituality on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, NPR’s All Things Considered, The Montel Williams Show, Coast to Coast AM, and virtually every cable network. Mitch is the author of Occult America and One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life, and is vice president and editor-in-chief at Tarcher/Penguin.
     

‘Morbid Manhattan Monday, Obscura Style’

     

Courtesy atlasobscura.com

I am baffled to no end over not having seen this headstone before, but with all the hours I’ve spent over the years inside Trinity Church and on its grounds, actively seeking Masonic clues on headstones and elsewhere, the final resting place of Bro. James Leeson eluded me until Bro. Isaac shared it on Facebook a little while ago. The credit goes to Laetitia Barbier, writing today on the Atlas Obscura website of her experience visiting Trinity. Barbier is a student at the Sorbonne working on a dissertation about the artist Joe Coleman (or perhaps has completed it already).

What is Atlas Obscura? I think that is answered best by the group’s three-part philosophy spelled out at the bottom of its website:

     1. There is something NEW under the sun, every day, all over the world.
     2. Around the corner is something that will SURPRISE the hell out of you.
     3. Atlas Obscura is for people who still believe in DISCOVERY.

(Earlier this year, a group of Atlas Obscura folks visited Masonic Hall to see the Livingston Library.)

Anyway, click here to see Ms. Barbier’s reportage. She does a great job of explaining the Masonic significance of the headstone, especially what is sometimes called the Masonic alphabet. We’ll forgive her for not addressing the Pot of Incense, a symbol not very well known outside the Craft. And check out Atlas Obscura too, which I am sure you will find to be worth your time.
    

‘Regalia and Obscura’

    
An exciting week coming at the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library. First and foremost, do not forget Bro. Patrick Craddock’s lecture tomorrow night. The famous maker of bespoke Masonic regalia will speak on “Admit Him If Properly Clothed: The Evolution of the Masonic Apron in America, 1740 to the Present.” 6 p.m. Click here for more information.

On your way to lodge Thursday, if you happen to see a group of wide-eyed strangers gathering, they would be members of the Obscura Society taking an organized (and sold out) tour of the Library. An interesting group worth having a look at.

The Livingston Library is located on the 14th floor of Masonic Hall, at 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.