The Pilgrimage Day 4 - Part 1 We began our day by leaving Dunkirk and driving through lovely rural areas. First we headed through the burned over district of New York State, back on the pilgrimage trail, where Spiritualism, Mormonism, the Shakers and the suffragette movement all began. It was called the “burned over district” due to the many rapid movements of social and religious change that came from this area. Winding along narrower rural lanes we arrive at Hydesville Memorial Park and the Fox family cottage where the Fox sisters lived for a time while their house was being built. The family had moved back to the area from Consecon, Canada where Kate and Margaret Fox were born. While communication between the Spirit and humankind had existed in some form for thousands of years, it was March, 31st 1848 that became the defining ‘Facebook’ moment of Modern Spiritualism. The foundation of the old cottage itself is surrounded by a structure with a roof and glass windows on all four sides - it is rarely opened to visitors and so we were very grateful to be let inside by the wonderful ‘ Fox Cottage Caregiver’ Tracy Murphy. Tracy kindly gave up her time to share her knowledge of the cottage and local history. We placed a wreath in honour of the Fox sisters and sang God of the Granite by Lizzie Doten, one of our great Spiritualist inspirational mediums or improvitrice. When we ended the song we bathed in a profound and reverent silence; the vibration from our voices rippling out into eternity. We walked over to the unmarked grave of the previous caretaker of the cottage, and his wife. The caretaker was a Canadian carpenter by the name of Mr Drummond. This little known Canadian felt a strong urging to take care of the site and so he did and we are grateful to him. For all of us on the Pilgrimage this was indeed a sacred and holy place. Here in this area the events of March 31st 1848 reverberated around the world and changed all our lives. To the Family Fox we are in Gratitude. We then continued on to….
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 08:35:00 +0000
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