Again, this is only even mildly interesting if you are into the concepts of synchronicity and the like, so feel free to bail out if the minutiae of someone's life is NOT more interesting than whatever else you have going on at the moment. But if you agree that it's hilarious that a woman who grew up thinking as the Catholic Church as the literal Enemy™ is now collecting old items about an order of nuns then this might interest you.
Those of you that follow me on Twitter (where there are no rules and I just babble incoherently and overshare about everything) or Instagram (where I try to at least distill it down to local crap, bricks, and cats ha ha ha) know that I can't seem to stay away from the Providence Academy. During the COVID isolation going on, basically whenever I have to run what I call a "plague errand" I'll do a drive by if I'm close. If there's no one else there I'll get out and walk around. I have taken lunch there a couple times and just sat on the grounds and talked to Mother Joseph. Something about that place makes me feel anchored. Sometimes I just need to assure myself that it's still there and real.
 |
| View from my new favorite lunch spot. |
On April 15, the day before Mother Joseph's birthday, I came here to talk to her again (I just feel sad at her gravesite and would much rather be here) and sat outside the room where she died for a while. I'd recently been going through a rough transition and was feeling unmoored, like my life had lost focus completely. Not having a parent in my life, I decided she was mine now and unloaded my crap onto her and felt better.
After I ate my lunch with Mother Joseph, I walked over to the Laundry/Boiler room area, as I'm obsessed with documenting the decay, knowing that the building is slated to come down no later than 2022. The Historic Trust are trying to save the iconic chimney as part of the renovation and gentrification, but it isn't looking good. It has just decayed for too long, the roof is completely collapsed in.
Walking around and taking photos, a pine cone fell out of this tree and literally landed on my foot. The tree will soon be no more along with the rest of the grounds here according to the most recent restoration plan. I got a wild hair and decided to try to help the tree live on, planting seeds from it part of a ritual that had to do with new beginnings career wise. The timing of my plans that evening seemed too perfect not to incorporate this gift from the tree into my plans.
The tree got my attention when I was in the attic during the tour back in February also. It's kind out out there by itself in the parking lot.
 |
| Used to be the grounds of the St. Joseph Hospital. |
 |
| I spied an old path between the Academy and the old St. Joseph's site. |
The Comfort Inn and Black Angus are on the site of the old St. Joseph's Hospital, which used to look like this around 1916. Mother Joseph designed it but sadly died from cancer before it was built with Hidden bricks. I plan on staying there overnight and doing an investigation when life returns to somewhat normalcy. I would imagine the grounds likely have some interesting activity, given the history of the space there. This was also the hospital in use in the area during the 1918 flu epidemic, and timing with current events seems significant for me to discover this.
 |
| Postcard circa 1910 from my ever-growing collection. |
Initially I was going to try to sprout the pine cone itself, but then decided to do another ritual with it first involving Mother Gamelin. Overnight before the planned ritual for Mother Joseph's birthday, the pine cone opened and seeds fell out, so I decided to proceed a different way and planted them directly in the dirt with some crystal chips.
The reason I'm yammering about a pine cone is that it was a direct part of my ritual in which I asked for Mother Joseph's help in bringing my future plans to fruition, and I took the first tangible step on this day after my visit to the Academy. I planted these pine cone seeds on April 16th when I also honored her with a small art piece I did. Taking a hint from my friend Mark Obscura, who recently had the brilliant idea to incorporate some Boleskine House remains into some art projects, I then added Hidden Brick Dust under the varnish on this small canvas. I also painted a rock to look like a Hidden Brick, varnished it also with brick dust, and planned to bring it to Robert Hidden later.
 |
| This pinecone's seen some stuff this month. Ha ha |
 |
| My Birthday Offering |
I made the decision to spend some very limited funds on training that will get me back into the career that I suddenly had clarity to go back to, and incorporated these offerings to Mojo and Robert as part of my intentions. I planted these seeds from the Academy as a tangible symbol of my taking control of my new path. Feeling supported, I also made a very personal decision this day, and a month later I now can say I feel comforted that MoJo again had my back.
Yesterday my background check came back and I was officially hired for my new job, goal one on the Big Plan unlocked. If you read my last blog, about my maternal line the Sadliers, and how they helped Mother Joseph on her way out here, you already know why the fact that I was hired by a man whose last name is Saddler (so close) is interesting...
But also yesterday, this happened. Timing...
 |
| We have pinecone life! |
I also have recently been to the Old City Cemetery and visited the Hidden plot, where it became apparent that their involvement with the Masons went deeper than I realized. I'm now down a deep rabbit hole about esoterics in brick making and architecture and plan to visit the local Masonic Lodge to discuss the temple the Hiddens built and all the goods involved with that venture.
 |
| The "OG" Brick Master |
 |
| The 2nd Generation |
And finally, my other local hero, Robert - who tried so very hard to save many more of the Hidden Brick buildings here in Vancouver. Here's an image I purchased from Historic Images of him with a court order trying to save the High School back in 1973.
 |
| Literally stopped destruction once. Amazing. |
Third generation Robert opted for a Cross instead of the Masonic symbols of his ancestors on his gravestone. He was a devout Methodist by all accounts I've read thus far. Hope he's cool with an offering from a witch.
 |
| 3rd Generation Badass Right Here |
 |
| An offering... thanks for saving the Academy, Robert. |
I also had a crazy synchronicity on a ride into Portland recently. We were in the neighborhood of the last apartment I lived over there when I was single about 15 years ago, immediately prior to moving to Vancouver to move in with Dave. I had a sudden burning need to see the old building, even though I hadn't been there in 15 years. I got out to photograph the building for nostalgia's sake and immediately started laughing hysterically to the confusion of my spouse.
Sitting outside what used to be my apartment window there was some new landscaping. They've gentrified the area and it looks really great. It's what they have obviously dug out of the ground and painted white to surround the new trees they just planted that had me screaming...
"Well, clearly the bricks were going to get you one way or the other," my very rational, non-spooky spouse upon seeing this outside the old apartment.
Every day I find some other new nugget of synchronicity that continues to point me down the path of digging into these nuns, the Hidden Family, and the Providence Academy. There's no escape for me so I've decided to fully embrace it - I'm writing a book.
I've got a five page outline of ideas, yet every twist and turn I take leads into an entirely different offshoot and this project continues to grow. At this point I've realized this is going to take years for me to truly dig down into the meat of what is going on here, and for some bizarre reason I'm the person to do it. I have no idea how to distill any of this down to any meaning, but I'm pulling a page from MoJo and assuming it will all work out.
Going forward, much of this blog will likely be chronicles of me trying to literally follow in Mother Joseph's footsteps, visiting as many places as she herself went, focusing on the places that have been built from Hidden bricks and continuing to uncover the truths of this fascinating and complicated woman and the impact her works had. There is so much to be understood about her as a person. Again and again I am reading in original sources about her unique (particularly for the times!) gender expression, a story that I do not feel has ever been adequately examined, let alone celebrated as it should be.
Additionally, my working hypothesis is that the Hidden bricks themselves are indeed charged with energy from how they were themselves constructed in a Masonic manner. The combination of where and how what I feel are the two contributing themes intersect is what's so fascinating to me. Catholics were NOT supposed to be hanging out with Masons when these buildings were built. In fact, hanging out with Masons around this time could actually get you excommunicated, so how in the world did a Catholic nun end up teaching Masons how to make bricks? Whatever they did, it's unique.
These bricks are physical objects we can still hold that are absolutely still dripping with energetic intention from both parties. They are a snapshot of a moment in time where things were Beginning. Does this make them "haunted?" What is the cocktail necessary to make an object haunted? What does it mean to be haunted? Are the bricks doorways to the past? Are the bricks hypersigils? Is ANY of this real or am I just finally losing it in the halls of my own subconscious?
Additionally, my working hypothesis is that the Hidden bricks themselves are indeed charged with energy from how they were themselves constructed in a Masonic manner. The combination of where and how what I feel are the two contributing themes intersect is what's so fascinating to me. Catholics were NOT supposed to be hanging out with Masons when these buildings were built. In fact, hanging out with Masons around this time could actually get you excommunicated, so how in the world did a Catholic nun end up teaching Masons how to make bricks? Whatever they did, it's unique.
These bricks are physical objects we can still hold that are absolutely still dripping with energetic intention from both parties. They are a snapshot of a moment in time where things were Beginning. Does this make them "haunted?" What is the cocktail necessary to make an object haunted? What does it mean to be haunted? Are the bricks doorways to the past? Are the bricks hypersigils? Is ANY of this real or am I just finally losing it in the halls of my own subconscious?
Just a nugget as to where I am trying to go with this...doing basic research on Masonic terms, subjects of mystical knowledge (what some call "Occult") they call "Esoteric"...
...Hidden in plain sight. Words and symbols have power.
 |
| Oh look its the Carnegie Library in 1919. I just wanted to throw one more vintage postcard your way cause I have a problem. |
Travel Plans:
Fargher Lake - THE RETURN (probably next with St. Vincent's Hospital in Portland)
Astoria - THE RETURN (Yeah, guess what? She was there too! Are we surprised at this point? Nope.)
Olympia
Tacoma
Seattle
Walla Walla
Colfax
Spokane
and f*ck it, I'm manifesting it, even if its years from now - NYC & Montreal.
 |
| Providence Mother House Asile, Montreal, my collection, original photo dated 1912. |