Southern
Necropolis
.
Glasgow's Southern
Necropolis is an eerie place at the best of times but when two local policemen
answered a call there in September 1954 they encountered a bizarre sight.
Hundreds of local children, ranging in ages from 4 to 14, were crammed
inside, roaming between the crypts. They were armed with sharpened sticks,
knives stolen from home and stakes. They said they were hunting down "A
Vampire with Iron Teeth" that had kidnapped and eaten two local boys.
The policemen dispersed the crowd, but they came back at sundown the next
night and the next. The local press got hold of the story and it soon
went national. There were no missing boys in Glasgow at that time, and
press and politicians cast around for an explanation. They soon found
one in the wave of American Horror comics with names like "Astounding
Stories" and "Tales from the Crypt" which had recently
flooded into the West of Scotland. Academics pointed out that none of
the comics featured a vampire with iron teeth, though there was a monster
with iron teeth in the bible (Daniel 7.7) and in a poem taught in local
schools. Their voices were drowned out in a full-blown moral panic about
the effect that terrifying comics were having on children. Soon the case
of the "Gorbals Vampire" was international news.
The British Press raged against the "terrifying, corrupt," comics
and after a heated debate in the House of Commons where the case of Gorbals
Vampire was cited, Britain passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful
Publications) Act 1955 which, for the first time, specifically banned
the sale of magazines and comics portraying "incidents of a repulsive
or horrible nature" to minors.
This chart is important not only because of this story but because it is also the Libra Ingress chart, the Autumn Equinox the time when things start to die, and what died after this event when new censorship laws where implemented was the death of choice.
Spurred on by reports that two children had been killed by a vampire, the masses, the Moon in the 8th house of death in the sign which traditionally rules the 5th house of children is applying to Pluto (the vampire) by conjunction.
Comic books are ruled by Mercury which is conjunct Neptune,(fantasy and delusion) whispers are also ruled by Mercury the moon applies by sextile first to Mercury and then to Neptune,the hunt is on and continues for 3 days while Mercury passes over and separates from Neptune.
Before reaching Pluto the Moon entering the 9th house of law makes a semi sextile to Jupiter (the establishment the censor) and a semi sextile to Uranus ruler of the 3rd house of publications.Our comic Mercury having delighted us with the fantasy then meets the censor (Jupiter) by square culminating in a square to Uranus our publisher.
So there was no vampire found but perhaps they where looking in the wrong place because in Capricorn the sign of teeth there is a man of iron in the house ruling necks so perhaps our monster was just a man.
The time I have taken for the chart is the time when school finished for the day and the children made their way to the cemetery to hunt the vampire.
