Its true. And now I feel it’s time to tell my secret. I was a child member of a strange cult down in Cornwall. My parents were members, my father charged with the responsibility of stewarding the musical procession of a pagan god through the streets. They would dress in white, decorate themselves with flowers, and sing and dance through the streets every May Day morning.
How it happened I don’t really know. My mother was a good Christian, my father a policeman and a pillar of the community. But you know how these cults operate, and I guess we all got sucked in. One minute there we were, normal people, the next minute behaving erratically, singing and dancing to the hypnotic beat of the heathen drums.
I was only two. Well, two, three and four, then we moved away. But for those three years, every May 1st I’d be dressed in white clothes with a little neckerchief, have flowers pinned to my chest and brought down into the main square of the fishing village where the cult had their headquarters, a little place called Padstow.
I never knew whether my parents were offering me up to the god, but I would always be pushed forward to the front, right up close.
The strange image resembled a lion with a ferocious mouth full of sharp white teeth, sharp, pricked up ears, wearing a large headress, and riding on a black horse. It came running out of a place called ‘The Golden Lion’. All the cult members – hundreds of them – would lift up their arms in welcome and begin singing their strange songs. And the drums…oh those drums…I can still hear them now.
All the elders would smile and pat me on the head, happy to see that I’d joined the cult at such a young age. Whether it was some form of hypnosis or brainwashing I can’t really say. I was far too young. All I know is that every May Day morning, even today, I wake up with ‘that song’ in my head.
Anyway, I now feel its my duty to warn all my friends about this cult and the long-lasting effect it may have on you and your children. The god they worship is called Obby Oss. I have attached a video so that you can recognise them. Please watch it – but don’t get taken in by them.
The Vaishnava Voice 
Don’t the public think about the Hare Krishnas the same? One day, they were normal Christians, the other, they wear robes, sing on the streets and worship Golden Lion.
I don’t get the point of this article.
Hialrious ! I wonder what they would make of us though ?
PAMHO. How wonderful it looks, just like Lord Jaganatha, a black disc with a smiling face. You were very privileged to be part of it so young. Haribol!
PAMHO. Great tongue in cheek expose of your lurid past. At least Lord Nrisimhadeva was present in the guise of the Obby Oss !
My own father hung out with the Whirling Dervishes for a while, and I was part of a huge cult of Halloween worshippers !
Sounds like Lord Nrisimhadeva wanted to make sure you chose the right path in this lifetime.
Hare Krishna
I too feel that this article is a tongue in cheek expose. Having a hard time understanding the purpose though, unless it is ‘reverse psychology’ promotion of the May 1st Festivities!
How lucky you are to have been ‘exposed’ to Lord Nrisimhadeva at such an early age! How sad if this article is for real and you really do believe that what you experienced as a young child, was cultish fanaticism and not an early step to spiritual liberation.
Thanks to you all for your friendly, quizzical, or concerned comments. You are all correct, and I am very pleased to see you were all so attentive. This was a fun post for me. I remember these Mayday events with affection and smile. I’m also struck at the strange karma involved, considering that for the best part of my life I have continued to sing and dance in the streets to the sound of ‘heathen’ drums.
PAMHO, I hope recent comments wont cause you to hesitate in sharing your experiences, thoughts and realizations with us.
Thanks Jereme, there’s always a lot more I can write, and these days I seem to be writing a lot less than before. Some of what I write is for an audience that actually knows me, and some for those – mainly devotee readers – who don’t know me at all. Other people read the things I write because it pops up on a Google search for them.
I am trying to write things that would offend no-one; there’s enough of that on the internet as it is and I think it needs to be toned down.
Occasionally though, I do want to write something just for my friends, so maybe I’ll have some ‘private postings’ accessible just by password.
Thanks for a very illuminative post.I have always wondered about the religion followed in the western world prior to Christianity.
I am finding a lot of common-ness amongst people around the world in their expressions of culture-like the ‘Kolam” and “Celtic knot designs”.Not really surprising that it is so in worship,too .