This blog collects together “Glasgow’s Gideon Keys”, a number of weird areas, artefacts and personalities in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The origin of the Keys is unknown, their purpose can only be speculated at, and their history is obscure, macabre, and often stained in blood.

The Keys

“There are seven words in every Gideon’s Bible – y’know, the ones they stuff in every hotel room – that can’t be found in any other bible. If you repeat those seven words to yourself while grasping the doorknob to your room, the door will open to any hotel room in the world. Of course, if you want to control where you’re going, you’ll need to know the Gideon’s Key – one more inserted word, unique to each copy, that acts as an index for each room.”

“The Gideon Keys” is the name given to a number of strange objects, locations, people, practises or other phenomena that make up the occult history of particular regions of the world. The cities of Calgary, Canada and Glasgow, Scotland, are two cities where acolytes (people with more than casual knowledge of the Keys) have documented the Keys in that area to some extent (though they exist in other cities, such as Atlanta and Lagos, if not in every major city in the world) . Calgary’s Gideon Keys – often considered the first definitive collection of the phenomena – were shared by an individual dubbed “calganon”, who found a notebook detailing 200 Keys in the city. In deference to this document, named “200 phonomena in the city of Calgary”, the Gideon Keys of Glasgow are similarly numbered – though it is unknown if there are only 200 Keys in Calgary, or if only a selection of the city’s numerous Keys was compiled.

The Index

New Keys will be added irregularly. The Keys are not posted in strict numerical order, but an Index of the Keys can be found here, which places the Keys in an appropriate sequence.

The Author

I’m a person living in Glasgow, and could liberally be described as an “acolyte” (or “seeker”, if we’re using the Calgary terminology). I’ve taken the name “glasganon” in respect and reference to “calganon”, the person who posted the Gideon Keys of Calgary, and I am making it my mission to document 200 phenomena in Glasgow that are related to the Gideon Keys and the city”s occult history. I have a Twitter account, glasganon, where I make periodic updates about my research into Glasgow’s Gideon Keys.

Please note that I am not personally responsible for anyone breaking the law while exploring the Gideon Keys: all individuals are to be held accountable and responsible for their own actions. I do not advise anyone pursue investigation of the Gideon Keys unless they are prepared to take full accountability for what they do.