Cemetery Statues And Their Meaning

CEMETERY 6 Comments »


cemetery-statuaryI recently took some pictures in an old cemetery and found the statuary both beautiful and sad. I preferred the grave statuary to blocky tombstones.

A tombstone is a fitting symbol for death.  It is an impersonal, abstract representation of death.  The angular shape suggests annihilation and oblivion.  Gravestones are rock, and stone is similar to bone.  Stones could be called the bones of the earth.  Rock is an apt symbol for the skeleton.  Both rock and death are permanent.

Statues in cemeteries bring the illusion of life to stone.  A statue seems to say death is not oblivion.  Giving human form to stone hints we endure beyond death.  It is a more hopeful symbol then just a square block marking the deceased’s location.  Statuary suggests the immortality of the human personality.  Statues are an act of creativity that endures beyond death.  I prefer that symbolism!

In this cemetery I noticed statues of female angels, mourning women and children.  I did not see statues of adult male figures.  What could this mean?  I’d guess society thinks the female is considered more emotional then the male and is a better symbol for mourning.  Men are not supposed to cry, and a statue of a man mourning might be considered an uncomfortable symbol of weakness.  It is curious how culture influences even grave statuary.



Mason Symbols on Tombstones

CEMETERY, MASONS 13 Comments »
Mason and OES symbols on a tombstone

Mason and OES symbols on a tombstone

I was checking out an old non-denominational cemetery looking for unusual gravestones and symbols on tombstones.  Always of interest are the Masonic symbols.  This cemetery has numerous headstones etched with them.  One symbol might take a bystander aback, like the gravestone pictured above.  Some stones have pentagrams!

Pentagrams are widely recognized as occult, Wiccan or pagan symbols.  When the upper point is aimed upward, it is considered positive.  If it is used as a symbol of diabolic intent, then the point is aimed downwards.  On some stones are these downward pointed pentagrams.  To the casual observer, there would appear to be satanic symbols in the cemetery.

However, all is not as it might first appear. Around this pentagram are the letters OES.  This stands for the Order of the Eastern Star.  It is a Masonic fraternal organization where both men and woman may join.  This is apparent in the tombstone pictured above, where both spouses have their own symbol.  The husband has the traditional Masonic symbol of the compass and level.  The wife has the pentagram with the letters O E S in the rays of the pentagram.  Unlike the diabolic inverse pentagram, this pentagram symbolizes the Star of Bethlehem, the “star in the east” which appeared at the birth of Christ.  Here the ray points down towards the birth site of the Christ child in Bethlehem.

Another intriguing tombstone (pictured below) has the same Masonic symbols representing the husband and wife.  But underneath is a rare sight.  It is a plaque stating “IN HOC SIGNO VINCES”.  The meaning is “with your standard you shall have victory”.  It shows a cross tilted in a crown.  This symbol is associated with the Knights Templar Freemason organization.  This organization differed from most other Masonic associations in that they required belief in Christianity and not just a Supreme Being.

Images of pentagrams and Knights Templar conspiracy theories give some religious folk reason to scorn Masons.  I think this comes from a misunderstanding of what they are all about.  Or more likely, some religion people don’t want any competition from any fraternal organization that is non-denominational.  Such institutions might encourage people to think for themselves and we can’t have that happening, can we?

In hoc signo vinces on a masonic tombstone

In hoc signo vinces on a masonic tombstone

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CEMETERY, ORBS 4 Comments »

Forest Home Cemetery UAOD Druid Monument




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Will Burr Oak Cemetery become haunted?

CEMETERY, GHOSTS 10 Comments »


In the news has been the historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip IL, a cemetery outside of Chicago.  It is the scene of a gruesome and unsettling series of cemetery crimes.  Four cemetery workers allegedly dug up existing graves and dumped the bones in a mass grave to make space for others to be buried. This was grave robbing for profit. I know someone who has relatives buried there, I just talked with him. He told me that since the cemetery has been closed, he does not know the status of his relatives’ graves. I wished him good luck with this. What a terrible thing, who would have imagined such a thing could ever happen?

Here is a link to the complete story:

Here is a NBC news video summing up the event.

I will approach this ghoulish story from a different perspective.  Can a cemetery’s desecration cause it to become haunted?  There is a belief that by ruining a cemetery the spirits of the dead will become unsettled leading to a haunted environment.  A prime example is the infamous Bachelor’s Grove, an old cemetery that has long been abandoned. It suffered terrible desecration over the decades and developed a reputation for multiple hauntings experienced by first-hand witnesses.

Will the dark deeds at Burr Oak Cemetery give it a similar dark reputation in the future? Shall it become the source of ghostly legends years from now?  Will Burr Oak Cemetery become haunted?

I’d suggest that the idea of a haunted cemetery is misunderstood.  A cemetery is actually the last place we’d expect to encounter the ghost of a deceased human.  Ghosts behave as we would in life, but often act as if they are trapped in a dreamlike state, with varying levels of consciousness.   A ghost is most likely to be present at the source of the trauma that resulted in their unwillingness to disconnect from the physical world.  Ghosts frequent places they were intimately familiar with in life.  Just like you or I would not want to roam a cemetery, neither would a ghost.   Once a ghost truly “dies” and leaves this world, they leave it permanently and don’t come back.   Outside of human criminals, Burr Oak Cemetery is safe.

However, there is another side to the concept of the haunted cemetery.   A handful of cemeteries are actually haunted.  What is going on with those?  Bachelor’s Grove is a perfect example.  In these situations, I believe we are not dealing with human ghosts, but with non-human negative entitles.  Cemeteries that suffer from desecration are usually abandoned.  What happens with these abandoned cemeteries is they attract the attention of those who wish to use the cemetery for their own purposes.  This includes practices such as necromancy and the darker visions of sorcery.  If an abandoned cemetery is frequently used as a location for the evocation of the demonic, it could eventually create something like a portal where negative entities will linger.  The same idea could apply to some other locations like a “haunted” house where an imprint, a stain was left behind.

The state is taking over Burr Oak and it will not be abandoned.  The authorities will make sure the cemetery is properly managed.  The grave robbing crimes at Burr Oak are terrible and disturbing, but in themselves won’t awaken the dead, nor cause a gateway to lower spiritual entities.  Unless the criminals responsible also practiced necromancy or even worse over the years.  Then we might have a problem. I wonder if there is more to this story then meets the eye.

I talked with my friend Brad. His mom and other relations are buried in Burr Oak, and he has no idea what is going on. He is really disturbed. He is getting calls form his relatives from out-of-state asking, “What the hell is going on in Chicago?” He has no answer. He is watching the situation in the news, but the cemetery is closed now. Here is a video that someone took before the cemetery was closed. It shows how important we value our deceased loved ones.

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