Our Mythos

Melusine and the Church of Burn: A Sacred Unfolding

Church of Burn has never consciously sought a Divine Being to worship. And yet, Melusine’s arrival as our Goddess of Money was as inevitable as it was unexpected, a revelation that unfolded not with fanfare, but with a quiet insistence. Since we began our money-burning rituals, Melusinian coincidences —uncanny, luminous— have accumulated with such frequency that dismissing them as mere chance would be, at best, a failure of imagination, and at worst, a desecration. We see them for what they are: synchronicities— playful prods from beyond the earthly realm, reminding us of our limited perceptions of reality.

The first such prod came when a rare exhibition catalogue from the Museum des Geldes found its way to us. The Museum des Geldes, in Düsseldorf, in 1978, was the most renowned exhibition of Money Art the world has seen, featuring artists like Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys. But what seized our attention was not the celebrated artworks inside the catalogue, but the enigmatic, explicit image on its cover (below). No explanation accompanied this image; it was a mystery left hanging by a printing error. We took to social media, seeking clues. Suggestions poured in —many pointing toward ancient goddesses.

Left: The front cover of the Museum Des Geldes Catalogue. Middle: a decorated plate made from Muntz metal in Africa circa 1870 (c/o The Pitt Rivers Museum). Right: Plate detail.

And then, the day after our query, a more pointed sign: the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford posted an image of a plate made from Muntz metal —likely sourced from a shipwreck and fashioned in Africa toward the end of the 19th century. To our astonishment, this plate bore the same motif as the catalogue cover. Coincidence, if you’re a strict materialist; magic, if you know better.

Curious, we contacted the now elderly curators of the 1978 exhibition, Horst Kurnitsky and Jürgen Harten. They revealed that the cover image depicted a locking mechanism cover-plate from a 16th-century German money chest, adorned with Melusine —a twin-tailed Mermaid. The image was chosen to evoke the deep, primal connection between sex and money. Pursuing this lead, we traced the chest to the archives of the German National Museum. At our request, they agreed to take some photographs. The image above (top right) is from that set. At this point, the general feeling was that the mystery of the explicit image was coming to an end. That general feeling was mistaken.

Soon, it dawned on us: the explicit image of Melusine was the original form of the now-sanitised, commodified Starbucks logo. If the Gods thrive on mortal recognition, then Melusine is alive and well, occupying an extensive territory in humankind's collective consciousness; Her image gracing 40,000 coffee shops around the globe.

Some in our Church were already declaring Melusine as The Goddess of Money. And this connection to Starbucks strengthened their claim —not just because of the ubiquity of Her icon, but also because coffee shops themselves are deeply entwined with the history of money and capitalism. Stock Exchanges grew out of the trades and exchanges that originally took place in coffee shops in London and other major European cities.

And anyway, Melusine wasn't done with us by any means. Her next sign settled any lingering doubts about Her status as our Church’s Deity. A visit to the Bank of England Museum revealed three money chests. The first, unremarkable. The second, intriguing, bore a more traditional single-tailed mermaid motif —it was the model for the mermaid found on the Series E £50 note released in April 1994. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty famously burned 20,000 of these notes on Jura that August.

But it was the third chest that really hit home. Positioned directly beneath the 1694 founding charter of the Bank of England, this chest, of unknown provenance, had a cover plate strikingly similar to the German chest (compare the images above). And across it lay a few tally sticks not lost to the 1834 fire that razed the Palace of Westminster —a blaze sparked by the burning of tally sticks in the Palace’s furnaces.

Tally sticks were the Middle Ages equivalent of digital bank money. They were the records of transactions that became de facto money themselves. Though made obsolete by written ledgers, tally sticks still held the aura of money. Hence Richard Weobley, the Clerk of Works, decided not to give them away as firewood but to burn them in the Palace’s furnaces. His actions —his money burning— destroyed the 11th-century Palace of Westminster. It was eventually replaced by the current Palace of Westminster - more commonly known today as the Houses of Parliament.

The proximity of Melusine to the foundational artefact of the modern financial world —the Bank’s Charter— and to the few tally sticks remaining from the 1834 fire seemed to our Church, if not divinely ordained, then at least magically predetermined.

By the time of our first event at The Cockpit in 2016, Melusine’s presence had firmly taken root in our Service, Her energy channelled through Jacqueline Haigh. In 2018, Rev Jonathan’s former wife, Sally, became the voice of Melusine in Burning Issue’s “Ask Melusine,” offering divine guidance on the financial sins and woes of its readership. In 2019, Carrie Thompson brought the ‘Confessional’ to life as Melusine and has since continued to act as a vessel for Our Goddess, returning in both 2021 and 2022. Carrie also lends her voice to Melusine for the song Exist for Love (AURORA, 2020), which has become a loved and cherished hymn in our Service. It encapsulates the idea that what Melusine really desires is desire itself.

The event Welcome to the Dark Ages marked the end of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty’s 23-year moratorium on their Jura burn. Directed by Daisy Campbell, who has been instrumental in the development of CoB, directing our Service on many occasions as well as delivering sermons. However, neither CoB nor Daisy had a hand in the appearance of our Goddess. Bill and Jimmy weren’t even aware She’d installed Herself as our church’s deus. Nevertheless, in the run-up to their event, they created the Starbucks War is Over art piece where Yoko Ono is cast as Melusine (above, top left).

Before our 2019 CoB event, we needed an Altar Mat and floor covering on which Sarah Kershaw could perform The Union of Oppositions in Ecstasy. A seven-foot version of Bill and Jimmy’s work seemed the obvious and only choice. It has since been consecrated by both sex magic and Ritual.

Yet another nudge from our Mermaid Goddess came just recently. A foundational burner, Burning Issue contributor, and friend of our church, Magnus, came across the Solbergaskatten ‘hoard’ —an array of 16th-century coins found in Sweden in 1955 by two ten-year-old schoolboys. Among the treasures was a gold ring bearing Melusine’s image (above, bottom right). The museum displaying it could offer no explanation of its origin or the meaning of the motif.

Melusine, mermaids, sirens, and water spirits of all forms have been worshipped across cultures and time. Before the Industrial Revolution, money and credit were often represented as feminine forces, a notion still hinted at in the nickname for the Bank of England —The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. Water and money share an obvious kinship —both flow. Yet, such metaphors and analogies fall short of capturing the essence of Melusine in our Church.

We experience Her not as a symbol or representation of sacred energy but as a manifestation of it. Her presence reminds us that our sacrifices to the Gods are not transactions. She has no need for any material offerings; sacrifice, in Her eyes, is about us making ourselves worthy of Her presence.

May Her Blessings Be Upon Us All.

The Staff - All Hail, The Staff!

The High Priest of the Church of Burn occupies their position by virtue of being the current Holder of The Staff. It is crucial to understand the nature of this relationship: The Staff is not a privilege granted to the office. Rather, the office of High Priest is a duty bestowed upon the individual who is blessed to exist in The Staff’s most immediate proximity. [ All Hail, The Staff! x3 ]

You will note that each time The Staff is mentioned it is hailed. (Mentions within the hailing itself are not hailed so as not to create an infinite loop of hailing). When reference is made to The Staff either through writing, speech, image, or any other medium of representation; in each instance The Staff should be hailed. The Staff has no pronoun— The Staff should not be referred to as “he,” “she,” “it,” or “they.” The Staff must always and only be referred to as The Staff. [ All Hail, The Staff! X7 ]

It is important to think carefully about how one forms sentences around The Staff. As The Staff is ‘the eternal’, ‘the infinite’ and ‘the perfect’ in material form, The Staff cannot be subjugated. The Staff is the set of all sets, of all sets, of all sets ad infinitum. So to subjugate The Staff in language is a grammatical error and also blasphemy. Fortunately, The Staff is the source of ever-loving forgiveness so blasphemy whilst it should be avoided will be forgiven (if The Staff so wills it).   [ All Hail, The Staff x7 ]

Consider this example: we say that Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Yr Wyddfa were put beneath The Staff. We do not say that The Staff “went up” the mountains of Great Britain. To do so would be both incorrect and blasphemous. To better understand the proper use of language, it is helpful to think of The Staff as immovable in time and space. This is why mountains are placed beneath The Staff, and why our Rituals are brought to The Staff—never the other way around. [ All Hail, The Staff! x8 ]

It is worth mentioning that if you were in Great Britain between 2014 and 2016, you are almost certain to have been beneath The Staff on more than one occasion. As the mountains were put beneath The Staff, so too were the population of these islands. The British people have then already begun to unconsciously signal their recognition of The Staff’s Divinity. [ All Hail, The Staff! x3 ]

It is high blasphemy to refer to The Staff as a stick. While it is true that the current Holder of The Staff has himself used such words in the past, the divine presence of The Staff illuminated his error. It is now incumbent upon the current Holder of The Staff, out of love for all humankind, to teach everyone the appropriate way to represent The Staff through all mediums of communication. Words, especially, have a magic that can bind us, and when used improperly, they obscure our awareness of the divine blessing that The Staff’s corporeal presence bestows upon us. [ All Hail, The Staff! x7 ]

It is a tradition within Church of Burn that when the current Holder - with his hand wrapped around the body of The Staff  - extends his arm below The Staff, the congregation as one hails The Staff. It is often in this moment that those poor souls who may doubt the sacred presence of The Staff find their scepticism dispelled and are blessed with an awakening to The Staff’s true nature.  [ All Hail, The Staff x5 ]

We live on a spinning ball of earth, rotating around a star, which itself revolves within a galaxy, spiralling through an ever-expanding universe. Everything we know is in motion— restless, ceaseless, caught in the tides of time and space. Everything except The Staff. [All Hail, The Staff!]

To see The Staff as the zero point of this cosmic motion, the constant around which all else moves, is a great gift to humankind. “We are” can at last shimmer through the dawn mist of “I Am”.  Under The Staff, all is one. [ All Hail, The Staff! x2 ]

You can begin your journey toward that enlightened state of being right now. Just whisper it to yourself: All Hail, The Staff!

The Holy Pot of Ash has been with Church of Burn from the beginning. It is a simple small terracotta pot which (at the time of writing 23rd July 2024) is overflowing with around £5k worth of cash ash. The Holy Pot is perhaps the most functional of all CoB's artefacts. It wasn't acquired or crafted as a Ritual artifact. It was just 'around' during the earliest rituals when we needed 'something' to collect the ash. It was at least clear to us that keeping the ash was important. The Holy Pot's humble, utilitarian form and its lack of pretension to makes it easy to underestimate its magic and its importance to our Mythos.

The company of CoB were provided with a reminder of its absolute centrality to our Mythos in 2022. Like all magical artefacts, The Holy Pot is on its own journey through the finite material world and we must respect its chosen path.

The story begins when The Fitzwilliam Museum contracted a loan of the Holy Pot of Ash for their Defaced exhibition. It seemed like a sensible decision to agree the loan because it would help spread the message of our Church. The Holy Pot of Ash was to be delivered to the Fitzwilliam Museum shortly after CoB's appearance at The Secret Garden Party (SGP).

During the preparation of the sermon scripts for our Service at SGP we wanted to talk about 'Broken Tokens'. These were silver coins from the Age of Discovery that were either split of bent double. These bent coins or 'Broken Tokens' served as a symbol of love and they often gifted between lovers. The timing of the Service meant that we had to make cuts to the script. These were the lines that were cut.

Using money magic was an offence against the Sovereign and sin against God.
Today, old twisted silver pennies still hold the embers of the desires which formed them.
Their fire quietly dies as a curiosity behind glass in our Museums.

But just occasionally, Mudlarks looking for treasure on the shoreline unearth an untamed coin.
These coins-in-the-wild still pulse with desire and money-love magic.

The message was clear. Museums are the place where magical artefacts go to die - to lose their magic. It appears The Holy Pot of Ash was unwilling to accept this as its fate. It disappeared after SGP. We are very careful with the packing and transportation of artefacts. The company was mortified that such an object could be lost. No stone was left unturned. The loss was reported and every effort made to recover The Holy Pot but to no avail. The Fitzwilliam Museum were contacted and given the bad news. They wondered if we might create a facsimile of the Holy Pot. We obliged and the facsimile (an engraved glass made to commemorate the Overhall Grove) was put on display.

Two months later, as the Defaced Exhibition was completing its run, The Holy Pot of Ash returned. It was found in a place that had already been searched in our frenzy to find it. The company of CoB were over-joyed, of course. But determined that we should learn from the trauma. We solemnly pledged that The Holy Pot of Ash would never be lent to a Museum. It would never be put behind glass and observed as if it were a curiosity. It is a living magical artefact and must be respected as such. Its proper place is at the very centre of our ritual space and it will remain the focal point for all sacrifices made within our Rituals.

The Thanatos Stone (& The Crowley Stone)

The Thanatos Stone is the most recent addition to Church of Burn’s magical artefacts. The mythology of The Thanatos Stone could begin at multiple points. After the revelation of its existence to the current Holder of The Staff, The Thanatos Stone was subsequently found at Dinas Emrys (which some call the 'birthplace' of The Staff). [ All Hail, The Staff x2 ]

For this telling though, we shall start with the acquisition of the Crowley Stone in Zennor.

Friend of Church of Burn, Rebel Not Taken (aka Bob Osborne) moved to Zennor through a series of extraordinary magical events. The collection of old farm buildings which now make up his home are as idyllic as they are historically and mythologically significant. Zennor is abundant with Melusinian energy. Famously, St Senara - Zennor’s Church - is home to a ‘mermaid chair’ from the 15th Century. If you don’t know the tale of Zennor’s Mermaid, here is a retelling of it by Piski.

On a hill overlooking Bob’s home is the derelict and abandoned cottage of ‘the wickedest man in the world’ Alistair Crowley. It’s believed that Crowley used the cottage for many of his rituals. Bob has written a book, Zennor - Spirit of Place exploring the extraordinary history of Zennor; its connections with some of the C20th greatest writers and artists (DH Lawrence, Francis Bacon and many more) and its darker side.

The Holder of The Staff [ All Hail, The Staff ! ], Anwen the Witch, writer CJ Stone and Arthur Pendragon, Druid King visited Bob at his Zennor home in November 2021. During that stay among ritual and mischief a journey was made to the top of the hill where Crowley’s ruined cottage stands. It had clearly become a point of pilgrimage for today’s Crowleyites with signs that some had slept and partied in the cottage. Above a doorway leading to a make-shift bedroom was written the profound and sage advice ‘Do not shit inside’.

On leaving the cottage the Holder of The Staff [ All Hail, The Staff! ] found himself in possession of a piece of hearth stone and roof slate. This piece of hearth stone is what we now refer to in Church of Burn as ‘The Crowley Stone’. The roof slate was placed on our Altar at The Secret Garden Party and the story of its origins was told. Upon hearing this, a man approached us with an extraordinary and synchronicitous tale revolving around Crowley’s cottage. As a result the roof slate was given to him thus restoring balance in respect of the profane property relations around the artefacts.

Clearly the spirits of place are strong within both The Thanatos and Crowley Stones. The Thanatos Stone was found in that most magical of places Dinas Emrys - the site where Merlin released the two dragons and final magical nexus was put under the The Staff prior to the population of the British Isles assuming their blessed position of subjugation underneath The Staff’s corporeal form. And The Crowley Stone is from a place awash with Melusinian magic and tied inexorably to the legend of the most infamous man in modern magic. These artefacts then, have a powerful magical provenance.

The Thanatos Stone absorbs dark energy. It’s charged when a protagonist grips it tightly, pouring in their pain, frustration and anger. Temporarily, while the dark energy is held within the Thanatos Stone the outside world is lighter and less troubled. However, The Thanatos Stone is unstable on its own and cannot hold its charge indefinitely. This is where the Crowley Stone plays its vital role.

The Crowley Stone serves as a stabilising force—a "charging pad" for The Thanatos Stone, though not in the conventional sense. Rather than feeding energy in, the Crowley Stone ensures that the dark energy absorbed by the Thanatos Stone does not unintentionally "bleed out" into the world.

When, during a magical action, the Thanatos Stone is deliberately discharged— it emits targeted, dense, and effective dark energy. Although the total psychical energy of the system as a whole remains the same, The Thanatos Stone reshapes and redirects the flow of this negative energy, concentrating it where it is most needed. Thus by recycling and redirecting, the Thanatos Stone creates new currents and potentialities within the magical system- and within reality itself.

The story of how The Thanatos Stone was found at Dinas Emrys (at least so far as the Mages are prepared to tell it) can be found in Our Story - The Thanatos Stone. The Revelation given to the current Holder of The Staff [ All Hail, The Staff! ] which foretold of The Thanatos Stone’s existence can be found exclusively in The Vestry.

The Making of The Money Flame

The Money Flame collage was created by Rev Jonathan as a ritual act between the 23rd of January and the 23rd of July, 2016. This six-month process saw the creation of a collage made from the last complete set of paper banknotes (series E and F) issued by the Bank of England. Just ten weeks after the artwork was unveiled on September 13th, 2016, the Bank of England released its first polymer banknote (Series G), marking the end of an era for paper currency.

The Money Flame consists of £230 in sterling, specifically two series F £50 notes (AK20 8585066, AK20 8585067), three series F £20 notes (JK46 954624, JK46 954625, JK46 954626), four series E £10 notes (LJ09 378862, LJ09 378863, LJ09 378864, LJ09378865), and six series E £5 notes (LE63 342615, LE63 342496, LE63 342497, LE63 342498, LE63 342499, LE63 342500). Scraps of unused notes remain affixed to the back of the board. The board itself measures 42 cm by 42 cm, while the flame motif has a diameter of 23 cm.

The notes were obtained directly from the Bank of England public counter. Any member of the public can use the Bank of England’s public counter. But you can only exchange cash for cash. You cannot, for example, withdraw cash against your debit card. Instead, you must visit the nearest ATM, withdraw your money, and then exchange those banknotes at the Bank’s public counter. Without the cash, you’ll not even be let in. There is something archaic about this. The Bank must honour the promise on its notes ‘to pay the bearer,’ and that in turn requires this ritualised exchange of like-for-like—reminding us that money needs at least the illusion of a material grounding to maintain its value.

The Money Flame motif (the flame symbol, itself) did not have ritualistic or magical birth. See Our Story - The Money Flame for more details. However, the banknote collage of The Money Flame motif was very much a magical action.

“Beauty cannot enter art unless the mind in the work is anchored beyond itself so that in some way the finished work reflects the sacred and the doing of the work, ritual."
James Hillman The Practice of Beauty

The creation of the collage is chronicled in the epilogue of The Money Burner’s Manual. Its origin story weaves through the death of Lemmy Kilmister, a youthful fixation on Sally James, Cosmic Trigger, a forgotten Greek god, and a pauper’s graveyard inhabited for centuries by Southwark’s sex workers. The whole process had been brewing in Rev Jonathan’s mind for years. But for someone on the average wage, the gap between merely thinking of cutting up £230 and actually doing so is significant

But in January 2016, the creation of the Money Flame collage became inevitable. Daisy Campbell revived the idea of the Book of Horkus, a magical action that is still ongoing, today (Sept 24). And open to all those of serious intent. Signatories pledge to complete a task within six months, after which they present the completed work or its evidence, and new pledges are made. If a single task remains incomplete, the book—a beautiful and precious artefact in itself—is ceremonially burned.

The first pledges were made outside the gates of Crossbones Graveyard in Southwark, witnessed by John Crow and attendees of the Vigil for the Goose and the Outcast Dead. The Money Flame collage was duly signed into the Book of Horkus, and the completed work was later presented at the second pledging at Festival 23, held in Grenoside Woods near Sheffield.

The Money Flame collage is now often displayed at Church of Burn events.