Guest Post: The Wickedest Street in Britain

Regular readers will know that I do these guest posts when we pass some significant or round figure in total page hits. 162,330 is not perhaps round or significant but it's certainly satisfying so the time is here. 

This is about the history of a road in Balsall Heath. The subsequent clear up of the area is a total other history and the city's red light district subsequently moved to Edgbaston before moving onto the internet and any odd corner. The Hound thinks licensing sex work is the way ahead, but nobody listens to me.

The piece is called Revisiting the Wickedest Road in Britain and is by Professor Val Williams. It is about the photographer Janet Mendelssohn.

'Mendelsohn was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University   from 1967 to 1969. Having studied Social Relations at Harvard’s all-women Radcliffe College, Mendelsohn became interested in documentary photography; in Birmingham she decided to study social conditions in the inner city, and began to work in and around Varna Road in Balsall Heath.

Originally a sedate and elegant nineteenth century middle- class suburb, by the 1960s, Balsall Heath had become known as Birmingham’s major red light district and as a centre for migration from South Asia. The once-elegant houses fell into decay, and were subdivided into rooming houses and shabby flats. Corner shops, pubs and cafés formed the social hubs of the community, and life on the streets was hectic and crowded. The combination of vitality and cheapness meant that, for a time, Balsall Heath became a draw both for Birmingham’s artistic bohemia and for students, as well as a centre for prostitution. Balsall Heath was a highly visible example of British post-war society in transition, with a complex mix of groups, new populations engaging with the more traditional. Balsall Heath was about to  undergo a relentless process of slum clearance and Varna Road, along with many other streets in the area, would cease to exist.

Mendelsohn’s Varna Road photographs focussed on the life of ‘Kathleen’ – sex worker, mother and Balsall Heath resident. These remarkable photographs, are intimate and collaborative, as Mendelsohn observed  ‘Kathleen’ in her day-to-day life. At the heart of the project are Mendelsohn’s photographs of Kathleen and her family at home.  Though Kathleen’s life was a challenging one, and her circumstances extremely straitened, Mendelsohn’s photographs of her are rich and poetic. Intimate, collaborative. Shot in available light, the gloomy, dishevelled interiors of Kathleen’s rooms assume a kind of grandeur, as with Kathleen as a gaunt but sublime Madonna.  These are photographs full of warmth and compassion, photographs made by a woman about another woman’s life. No two people could have been further apart than the high achieving Radcliffe student and the impoverished Birmingham prostitute, but there is real connection here.

Outside, on the street, in the café, outside the pub, the photography changes and becomes much more of an observation of life in Balsall Heath as reflected through Kathleen and her circle. Mendelsohn accompanies Kathleen as she chats with friends on street corners, pushes her pram, and visits the launderette; she even photographed the broken down bed where Kathleen took her clients. She observes Kathleen with her children in photographs of great poignancy. This is a many-layered study, where empathy meets sheer inquisitiveness on a massive scale.

Source.

A picture gallery of 1960s Varna Road can be found here

Further insight as well as wonderful period shots of the Second City can be found in the film Prostitute.

Spirit of Place: the Birmingham Grand National

 

You may not believe it that the Grand National was held in Birmingham so it's lucky there is film evidence. You also get to see the horses come out of the previous Register Office (now demolished) and glimpses of the Central Library (ditto).

Who is the African Despot in Etteilla Tarot Decks?

I love the wildness and oddness of Etteilla style decks compared to newer ones. They carry the atmosphere of traditional fortune telling rather than the esoteric society vibes of both Waite and Crowley. One card which can give people difficulties is Le Despote Africain, number 21, because while it is obviously related to the Chariot it's well off the wall.

I have three in my collection. A standard Grimaud Grand Etteilla (centre), the Lo Scarabeo Book of Thoth Etteilla tarot (left) and the Lo Scarabeo Tarots Egyptiens from the Anima Antiqua series (right). I am not equipped to tell you clearly what order they were originally published in but can tell you for certainty that none of them was actually designed by Etteilla himself. I love tarot history, don't you?

My investigation is also solely based on the resources available to me - I find the French of Etteilla's own writing to be so old fashioned it is well beyond my schoolboy French. But let's start off anyway. I have three prime candidates to be the African Despot.

The text on the right hand deck identifies him as Busiris, who it turns out was a probably legendary founder of Egypt featuring in some Greek legend:

a son of Poseidon and Libya or Lysianassa,^[4]was the ancient founder of Egyptian civilization, with an imagined "model constitution" that Isocrates sets up as a parodic contrast to the Republic by Plato. Plutarch says that his mother is Anippe,^[5]daughter of the river-god Nilus.^[6] The monstrous Busiris sacrificed all visitors to his gods. Heracles defied him, broke his shackles at the last minute and killed Busiris.

In Diodorus Siculus, Busiris appears as the founder of the line of kings at Thebes, which historically would have been the 11th Dynasty.

According to Hyginus, Busiris was the father of Melite who became the mother of Metus by her grandfather Poseidon.^[7]

This part of the mythology concerning Herakles appears to have origins in a corruption of an Egyptian myth concerning Osiris' sacrifice by Set, and subsequent resurrection (see Legend of Osiris and Isis). Source

Theck does give mythological names to the various characters, which was very common at the time. Busiris has the advantage of being African and also connected to the notional Egyptian origin of the tarot.

The LWB of the central fecd identifies the despot clearly as Rehoboam. I would note that that deck tends to take a more biblical approach to the characters depicted, and sure enough Rehoboam was a rather hopeless king of Judah. You can read more about Rehoboam here. I personally don't think he comes across as that much of a despot - certainly not in the Mugabe mould.

So what I have actually found out is that there are two streams contributing to the modern 'Etteilla' decks, one more biblical and the other a mythological reading of Egypt through Greek eyes. Since Etteilla's main thing was that the tarot was supposed to be Egyptian I feel Busiris fits better with the myth.

My Altar Again

I have had various altars in various locations since I came into the power. Not being a very ceremonial witch, I'm not a great one for ceremonial altars and they more serve a purpose of focus for me.

Currently my altar is on top of a heater behind the door in my bedroom. I don't tend to use the heater, partly because of its odd placement and partly because I like my bedroom cool. Plus I like altars in corners!

The picture of the goddess is decorated with lucky heather given to me by a friend. I realised he was fairly unboundaried and despite claiming to be gay and in a civil partnership he has several children by different women, but I was surprised to find him snared on a paedophile hunters website for chatting with a 14 year old boy. The heather is partly there for cleansing, protection and judgement.

The book is my book of shadows and the little pouch contains a tarot deck given to me by my goddess mother. Blood makes you kindred but loyalty makes you family and I do think a reminder of the red thread is necessary on an altar.

The little round picture is actually the back of a mirror decorated with my spirit animal Divine. You can't see it but it says Eat shit, which is exactly the way to respond to much of what happens in our world.

My Lent Book

 

...is the one illustrated. Counting the omer is a kabalistic practice which I had never heard of until I chanced across this book. Of course being me I'm not following the practice exactly but am already finding the book illuminating about the Tree of Life.

You can read an excerpt and get more details here.

St Valentine Again

A repost of one I did several years ago about St Valentine's bodies and heads. I have a lovely picture in mind of how he looked!

To mark Valentine's Day (a scrummy romp to all you lovers out there), one of my occasional weird shit postings, this time on the subject of the relics of the Saint himself. Those in the stalls will already know that the relics Roman Catholics have are authenticated by the Church, to prove they're the real thing. You would think they'd keep a not of what they've agreed to so that the situation that's arisen with St Valentine doesn't keep occurring. There are at least three full bodies of St Valentine venerated by the - somewhat credulous - faithful.
In keeping with the Hedge theme of this blog there's one right here in Birmingham:

Cardinal Newman who brought the body of St Valentine back from Rome where he found it in a catacombe but had difficulties with customs. At Verona they wanted to open the box containing the relics and at the Custom House it was recorded as a "mummy". It appears they wanted to charge duty on it. It is now found in a shrine at the Birmingham Oratory. At least it is genuine.There are it seems two other "bodies" claiming the name of Valentine enshrined. One is in the Carmelite Church in Dublin sent as a gift from Pope Gregory 16th in 1835 while a trip to Glasgow and a visit to the Church of Blessed Duns Scotus you will discover Valentine No 3 this time the gift of a French family in 1868.
(Source)

 The picture is of his altar in the Birmingham Oratory. This also accounts for the body in Glasgow. It can come as no surprise that families could give his bodies away, & surely customs officials must be used to him being carted through by priests. There is a contradictory story about the relics in Dublin, which is what makes me think more than one body has been authenticated, since it resembles the Newman story in having the ring of simple truth: 

Saint Valentine was a priest in ancient Rome, executed in the third century for performing Christian marriages, and buried there. But in 1835 an Irish Carmelite priest, John Spratt, so impressed and charmed Pope Gregory XVI that he was allowed to take Saint Valentine's remains home as a gift for his home parish.
(Source)

He seems to have a body in Athens as well:

After the martyrdom some Christians salvaged the body of the Saint and put a bit of his blood in a vile. The body of the martyr was moved and buried in the Catacombs of St. Priscilla, a burial place of most of the martyrs. Over the years somehow he was "forgotten" since almost every day there were buried in these catacombs new martyrs for several decades. The memory of Valentine's martyrdom however remained robust, particularly in the local Church of Rome. Officially the memory of St. Valentine was established in 496 by Pope St. Gelasius. Fifteen centuries pass and we arrive at 1815, at which time the divine intention was to "disturb" the eternal repose of the Saint. Then the relics were donated by the Pope to a gentle Italian priest (according to the custom of the time). After this the relics are "lost" again until 1907 where we find them in Mytilene in the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady. It seems that after the death of the priest that a descendant of his had inherited the relics who had migrated to Mytilene, which was then a thriving community of West-European Catholic Christians. There they remained until 1990 when they were moved to Athens in the Church of Saints Francis and Clara's Italian community, where they are today.
(Source)

He also has a skull in Madrid. Despite all this one of his heads appears never to have left Rome since the picture of a skull is his head in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmodin. On the other hand he seems to have been everywhere & been careless enough to leave parts of his skull in Chelmno in Poland.
The long & the short of this? It's got nothing to do with religion, it's a racket pandering to people's worries & loneliness.

What 2020/21 taught me

In the ongoing dumpster fire which is the past year or so I have realised I didn't know something I thought I knew. I claim to be relatively diversity aware but have realised that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. A turning point was reading an account by a Black doctor in the US who was wary about taking the Pfizer covid vaccine. Her reflection was prefaced with how her own father's medical needs and concerns were neglected because he was Black, and went on to describe how she felt she had to do her own research into the vaccine to make sure it was safe because of the apparent speed of its licensing.

Remember this is an actual *doctor* and not some insane antivaxxer. She only became reassured when she saw pictures of Black people involved in the research. Far from a paranoid rant, this brought it home to me how endemic racism is and how Black people are literally terrified for their lives.

This coming on top of the BLM protests and the attempted insurrection by white trash in Washington, which was majorly averted by a Black police officer and then the wreckage was cleaned up by Black janitorial staff, has really brought this home.

The rioters actually carried 'blue lives matter' flags with them. Firstly there is no such thing as a blue life, and if you are carrying that flag and overpowering police it means it's not about respect for the police, it's about racism.

The rise of far right, unreasoning, extremism is really scary. At the absolute least Trump needs to be tried and this needs to be tackled.