Hello, I am Frog, and this is my bit of cyber-earth.
But from it what will grow? My hope is truth. Dear reader, I have a gap in my memory. One that curiosity's cat bites down firm upon the very knape of whilst I lay awake at night, or in the wee small hours of the morning, or anytime I smell gin. You see, in the early 1970s I briefly joined a group who called themselves the Castle. I had recently been discharged from the army, and found myself on somewhat of a wayward path. This group happened to patronise a bar I had been visiting religously. They arrived like angels I'd been waiting for, taking me in, hearing my woes... and then offering to take me away, give me purpose.
This memory lives in the penumbra of my mind's eclipse by the Castle. I know that I joined, I know that I enjoyed myself quite thoughroughly, and then one day it all collapsed. Collapsed probably isn't the best word choice, as it implies a drama that did not exist. My exit from the Caslt was quite uncerimonious actually. The Castle has only a handful of rules, one of them being a very strict limit on sugar. I accidentally broke this rule one afternoon, and without hesitation or grief, I was removed. It was a rather odd experence; suddenly, as I held the glass in my hand- liquid-resin bubbling, a sticky-sweet schellaked upon my molars- I felt it: I was out. The flame of my connection to those around me snuffed out. I felt shoved from reality in a way, like being awoken from a soft dream by a harsh alarm. They were kind to me still, the Castle. Dropped me off somewhere I could get a job, save a little money. Eventually I decided to go back to school. I became employed, teaching art within the walls of my alma mater, and found knowledge a very satsfying drug. I've taken a class every semester that I've worked at the college, and frequently attended guest lectures hosted on campus, at the library, wherever. I found myself spending afternoons learning about everything from carniverous plants to properly filing a 1099. That is how I met my peer and confidant, my Toad. Toad gave a seminar about his old work, specifically the time he assisted on a missing person's case. One that had involved the Caslte. Since that day we have been bound by our shared curiosity. We do not always see eye to eye when it comes to the Castle or Goyle, but Toad and I both have an insatiable desire to answer the many questons propogated by one's awarness of the group.
The Castle was a private, spiritual community who briefly established a permanant residence before dissapearing sometime in 1998. Spiritual duties included veneration of a concept reffered to as as the "Task". This Task was meant to inform all of one’s actions and choices, which one could only do with certainty by following the guidance of a figure known as the Gargoyle, affectonatley called Goyle by followers. Perplexingly, I can not recall what the Task specifically was despite having confidence that at one point I was devoted to it at a quantum level. I had never felt such clarity pursuing anything like that. In the fallout of my excommunication I desperatley sought a north star like whatever the Task was.
Evidence suggests that the Castle were active long before settling in the foothills of the Ozarks. Many accounts suggest the first members were initiated sometime in the mid to late 60s. Thhey then embarked on a roughly 20 year journey all across North America, finding new members everywhere- slowly, but steadily increasing their numbers. As a means of supporting themselves the Castle made and sold a variety of health and hygiene products. Once stationary, they were known to use ingredients grown on their own compound. They sold their goods throughout Northwest Arkansas during much of the 1990s.
A former employee of Information Galore visited their compound to connect them to the internet in '94 and said that they provided wonderful hospitality, but noted a palpable reservation from the group. Perhaps they were hesitant to leap into modernity, or maybe having an "outsider" in their newly acquired home evoked an unease.
The Castle produced health and hygiene products using botanicals while following what were ostensibly family recipes, passed down to the Gargoyle. Frequenting farmers markets and selling roadside, they usually offered some type of seasonal produce alongside their soaps, balms, tinctures, and tea. They claimed to grow all ingredients themselves, including juniper which they were particularly partial to incorporating. In fact juniper trees were said to dot the landscape around their compound, but attempts to locate this juniper-pocked-piece-of-land have proven unfruitful on my personal trips to NWA. During their nomadic years the Castle still peddled goods, but they had no land to grow ingredients, and relied on what was locally and readily available. What may seem like a capital pursuit, was likely meant to somehow further goals associated with the Task.
It is of minor note that the Castle did not just sell their goods in person, they also fulfilled custom orders received via email (gargoyleofthecastle@aol.com)
There is an initiation process for joining the Castle, it has not changed since the beginning. The "ritual" (let it be noted that Castle members did not use this term) involved ingesting a liquid known as the "Tonic" that was allegedly a family recipe of the Gargoyle's. The initiate would fast for three days, drnking nothing but Tonic. At the end of the 3rd day they would take a small black supplement known as a "seed". I endured this process, but can not recall my experience with clarity, as is the case for most of my time with the Castle.
Toad believes that the tonic was merely alcohol, and the seed some type of hallucinogen. At one point in my life I would've been very inclined to agree. After all, there is evidence that the Castle were brewing their own backwoods gin. And at first, as a confused, former member I was ready to accept this. Wouldn't it make sense that the Gargoyle, like so many before them, used the influence of drugs and alcohol to not only keep members close and dependent, but contrive some esoteric, spiritual, bonding experience? Sure. The overwhelming intoxication of the Eleusinian Mysteries' initiation rites have, by many, been attributed to ergot in the kykeon. A Millenia of divine interaction nothing more than fungus in the barley. It would make sense that a contemporary approach to religious occultism might intentionally rely on such a tried-and-true method of convincing practitioners. But it would fail to account for very insidious loose ends that defy such an explanation.
The Gargoyle's origin is subject to speculation, as very little can be confirmed about them. "Gargoyle" is not a position that can be passed down or awarded, but is rather the specific indivdual. This individual was very private, not a total recluse, but quite precious with their time. We also know that they used an alias, Avery Wormwood, sometimes Avery E. Wormwood. This name first popped up during my investgations when I received a tip to chat with a mechanic in Lancing Michigan. His father had serviced the Castle's van in the late 70s and still had a document on file with the name handwritten upon it. I have since come across this same pseudonym several times, sometimes with slight variance such as "Wurmwood" rather than "Wormwood", and on older documents instead of the "E" a full name, Etidorpha, was used.
As part of the Castle, we only reffered to the Gargoyle as such or, like I mentioned before, an affectonate "Goyle". I wish that at the time had thought to press for Goyle's name, but the thought was so irrelevant to me then.
I have a few memories of the Gargoyle myself from the early 70s. That same person, as if untouched by the prevous quarter of a century, was pictured in a local paper during the 90s. Should we assume they are the same one I met, the same one who was initiating their first followers in the late 60s than we must ask ourselves: How? Perhaps the photo in the paper was older than I think.
However, other first-person accounts of the Gargoyle consistently describe an individual who appears in their mid to late 20s, even when these interactions took place 15, 20, 30 years apart from one another. Now the word of strangers may not be convincing, I understand (and laud your skepticsm), but there is also an image Toad found on one of his escapades that is most definitley Goyle, but the photo (according to Toad) is from 1948. I can not confirm this detail with hard evidence, but Toad is deftly methodical in his approach, would be hard to slip something past him. And so this, to me, is the greatest mystery. Who is this ageless being:
I have heard numerous recountings of experiences with the Castle wherein the witness notes that any members of the Castle they met appeared relatively youthful. Claims have been made that the Castle's homeopathic approach to health contributes significantly to this peculiar vigor. But even the strictest of regimes coupled with complete abstinence from harmful substances will not allow one to escape time and gravity completely.
I have decided to share my ideas as to who, or what The Gargoyle really was.
Despsite disparaging remarks from peers regarding these hypotheses, for example discrediting them as "pet theories", I believe that something paranormal was afoot.