Unwelcome, But Gone

While talking to Jackie from the congregation in the alleyway that runs past the Rectory a couple of weeks ago I happened to cast my eye on the wall supporting the fence that separates my garden from that of a long-unoccupied adjoining house and spotted this thing. Jackie said she'd noticed it a day or two before. I may be traducing the maker, but I couldn't help but think it one of the most hideous and baleful objects I have ever seen. I hesitate to inflict it on you but it did make an impression with its goggly eyes, half-formed nose, apparently detached lips and warts, if that's what they are. It was clearly there to gaze out on passersby and, presumably, unnerve them. It achieved its aim as far as we were concerned. Now, I remember Ms Formerly Aldgate once remarking that 'most people choose objects and decorations to make their houses more homely and comforting. You pick yours to make it more unsettling', which I thought was an exaggeration, but even so I don't like unsettling things suddenly appearing out of nowhere that I have had no hand in procuring. Later that afternoon I made some holy water, took my purple stole, and sprinkled the mask while saying some appropriate prayers against malign intentions and reciting the Prologue of St John. I didn't want to destroy it; something nagged at me that that's how horror movies start. 

Now, despite a former Staggers colleague of mine saying that a similar thing had appeared in his churchyard once and thoroughly discombobulated everyone who saw it, I wasn't expecting the Adversary to manifest himself nearby as a result, even if I was reading Jeremy Harte's Cloven Country at the time (about which I may say something on another occasion). But if there are malevolent intents about, even perfectly human ones, I do think they attract more and so they need to be recognised and defused in some way. 

Yesterday I discovered that the mask had gone. Perhaps I was being too sensitive and someone was simply showing off their pottery skills (Ms Kittywitch commented that it was better than anything she ever produced in pottery class - 'the best I ever managed was a creepy hedgehog'). Professor Abacus asked 'Will it return?' and that would be really unsettling. LiberFaciorum did its best to add to the mood by posting on my timeline the banner 'Suggested for You' and then a picture of Patrick Troughton as Fr Brennan in The Omen skewered by a pole. How encouraging in my ministry.