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Post by literarysnob on May 9, 2008 4:59:25 GMT -11
Sorry the pix is so big, but it needs to be this large to read the inscription!!! This has me wondering what the story is behind this!!! How about you???
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Post by amara1369 on May 9, 2008 5:09:33 GMT -11
Wow, yeah it does have you wondering....
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Post by bowl on May 9, 2008 8:06:06 GMT -11
Taken from Associated Content:
The legend, a synopsis: In the Salt Lake City Cemetery, there is a gravestone for a woman named Lilly E. Gray with an inscription that reads, "VICTIM OF THE BEAST 666." Many people have attempted to research this stone and Lilly, but strangely always hit a brick wall, as there is no information aside from her obituary, which states only that she died in a local hospital from natural causes.
Within the sublime Salt Lake City Cemetery, there is indeed a gravestone which has aroused interest and curiosity over the years, and has recently, with the advent of the internet, become the object of intrigue and fascination, amateur and oftentimes apathetic sleuthery. The stone is modest- a small, flat marker; the inscription is anything but: "VICTIM OF THE BEAST 666"
Cemetery legends abound. These stories, more often than not, especially when pertaining to specific gravestones and their inhabitants, tend to take on the attributes of the urban legend, mirroring societal fears, horror, and capitalizing on mystery; they usually have an associated thread of religious intrigue, including 'devil worship'. The legends also tend to arise from the most benign origins.
Part of the fascination with the Lilly E. Gray mystery could be due to its "legend in reverse" quality. The impetus is its blatant-ness, its in-your-face refence to satan, then an unravelling reveals "nothing". The strange lack of any story associated with Lily Gray's gravestone is its biggest mystery and also the not very festive centerpiece its own developing, unique legend. The stone's astonishing, provocative inscription begs for interpretation and meaning; where are all the suppositions? They are few, certainly. There are a couple websites that allude to the use of stone's image within a report by investigators of satanic ritual abuse hysteria. There are a few jokes in a thread about Lilly's husband perhaps being the 'beast.'
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Post by bowl on May 9, 2008 8:10:52 GMT -11
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Post by LCellini on May 9, 2008 8:54:19 GMT -11
maybe she like to hit the bottle...a little too much.
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Post by amara1369 on May 9, 2008 9:25:18 GMT -11
I had an aqquaintance that was into Thelema (That's the religion Crowley spawned) and he was...... well, different? It wouldn't surprise me if this woman got tangled in with that crowd, as one of the articles stated, he was in her area, and he did have quite a large cult. (Not that all Thelemites are horrible pple, I've met a few that are actually good people.) But I've heard quite a few horrible stories.... we're talking about a man that truly lived the sex and drugs lifestyle.
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Post by xXSpookyXx on May 9, 2008 13:35:30 GMT -11
Well I really don't think Crowley went as far west as Utah. From what I see from his biographies he went to New York (1915 to 1919)to Sicily. www.oto-usa.org/crowley.htmlwww.controverscial.com/Aleister%20Crowley.htmSo it is probably unlikely that she had met him and was tutored by him. I did have a less sinister theory about that headstone. I know that the Bible teaches that Satan afflicts people night and day on this earth and if it is recorded that she died of natural causes or illness, perhaps the illness was thought to have been a satan born illness so to speak. So maybe LDS group truly looked at her as a true victim of Satan's affllictions and didn't mean to make her sound like she was some kind of evil doer. Not saying this is correct but another possible theory.
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Post by literarysnob on May 9, 2008 13:44:10 GMT -11
Well I really don't think Crowley went as far west as Utah. From what I see from his biographies he went to New York (1915 to 1919)to Sicily. www.oto-usa.org/crowley.htmlwww.controverscial.com/Aleister%20Crowley.htmSo it is probably unlikely that she had met him and was tutored by him. I did have a less sinister theory about that headstone. I know that the Bible teaches that Satan afflicts people night and day on this earth and if it is recorded that she died of natural causes or illness, perhaps the illness was thought to have been a satan born illness so to speak. So maybe LDS group truly looked at her as a true victim of Satan's affllictions and didn't mean to make her sound like she was some kind of evil doer. Not saying this is correct but another possible theory. I don't think that the LDS Church fosters any belief that an individual can be possessed by another spirit, evil or other wise, other than their own. That is a fundamental belief of the LDS faith!
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Post by xXSpookyXx on May 9, 2008 16:09:35 GMT -11
That is true Lit, but I wasn't thinking in a possesed by satan sense. They believe that Satan was the jealous brother of Jesus (at least in the sense that both were spirtually begotten by the father) and that Satan seeks to wreck that of which was given to Jesus. In that sense he would inflict some one with an illness, or cause them to have an illness at least according to the Bible. So it was in that sense that I thought it could mean that the woman was inflicted with an illness, not that Satan had possessed her body.
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Post by amara1369 on May 10, 2008 5:56:57 GMT -11
Hrm, it said on the website bowl posted that he had made it as far as Utah, and I know the aquaitance goes there on pilgrimages.... Dunno? LOL Since there is so little record of why that was put there, it'll be a mystery forever
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Post by xXSpookyXx on May 10, 2008 9:23:46 GMT -11
The site that Bowl cited is ambiguos on if he lived in Utah or what not. It is all based upon a quote he (Crowley) had once made. However, going through biographies there is no record found of him inhabiting Utah at all.
The quote that ties him to Utah is the following: From this time on I lived in a perfect shower of diplomas, from Bucharest to Salt Lake City.
From that it would seem that he is referring to actually being in Utah, however, the following quote after that he says: I possess more exalted titles than I have ever been able to count.
So it may be just him bragging about all the titles he got from various groups of Masons (this was within text where he is talking about free-masons) from one place to another, but not having been there. He had contacts there it seems but no evidence of him physically there himself. To me this would fit the absense of Utah being mentioned in his biographies. However it is possible that she may have been mixed up with some people of his following, but at the same time I just hate to point a definite finger at a deceased person, especially to accuse them of evil doing when they can't defend themselves. Without evidence of her ever being involved with this, it would be a big huge guess.
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Post by amara1369 on May 10, 2008 10:20:55 GMT -11
Good points Spooky Maybe that was a possibly reason for having that on her stone? To make pple wonder, and curious? Who knows?
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Post by xXSpookyXx on May 10, 2008 10:28:57 GMT -11
Hehe that guess is as good as any. Too bad there wasn't a way to really slueth into her life and see if she was well liked or not, or had problems with people, or dabbled in anything that was disagreeable to the church there.
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Post by LCellini on May 10, 2008 11:42:04 GMT -11
Maybe she was married to a cowboy and rode bulls. And when she was 76 she decided to ride a bull that they had named beast and thought he was possessed by satan. And the bull killed her and they thought it would be unique to put this on her gravestone
I wonder is there are any other cowboys out there who have become victims of the beast : )
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Post by chrissy on May 12, 2008 14:21:58 GMT -11
Hmmm interesting , odd phrasing to have on your gravestone. Typically someone puts it on there for you, so maybe someone in her family was a very church going person, and she was not. And her passing was linked to something "evil" as the church would see it?
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