The Black Dog

The Treffry Family come from Cornwall.

The Treffry Family, in medieval times, dominated the region around Foy from a castle called Place, otherwise known as the Treffry Castle. 

The Treffry’s appear to be a genetic mixture of English aristocracy and Jews. This was typical of the times. 

I have begun to embrace my Jewish side, and I am very interested in Jewish Kabbalah and King Solomon. The magick contained within this knowledge is real. 

My grandfather, John Treffry, had a father who was a Freemason. Freemasonry and Kabbalah have affinity. His name was also John Treffry, and he married my great grandmother Else Green(berg).

My great grandfather, the Freemason John Treffry, left Cornwall and started managing banks around Australia. My own father, Mark Treffry, tells stories of seeing John Treffry’s Freemason swords mounted in the living room of the family home.

But then a break happened.

My father and grandfather, Mark and John, decided to make a complete break from the Treffry clan. There was something in the Treffry atmosphere that they didn’t like. I don’t really know what it was. 

My father had travelled to Cornwall to visit the Treffry Castle, which still is inhabited by Treffry's to this day. My dad saw something there that made him want nothing more to do with the noble Treffry Family ever again. He forged a new future in Newtown, Sydney with my mother, and told us almost nothing of the Treffry’s and our noble past. We grew up humble. 

My dad, Mark Treffry, grew his hair long and embraced the 70’s as a proper Newtown hippy. A total break from the past and a new era of hope was before him.

My grandfather, John Treffry, was a great presence in my life. He was a strong, calm and loving man at all times. John always had pockets full of butter menthols and fisherman’s friends mints. John flowed with stories about old battles and war. He loved the Napoleonic Wars. He also loved Sean Connery and Roger Moore-era James Bond. I watched them all with him. 

I am writing about John Treffry now, in light of the many spiritual things that have happened to me recently.  

John Treffry, just prior to Covid lockdowns, developed cancer on the back of his neck. The cancer quickly spread and left John to waste away slowly in his bed at home. He was eventually a mere skull on a pillow. It was a very slow process of wasting away for John. 

As John’s state deteriorated, and within his final few weeks where he was in terminal agitation, an incredible thing happened.

A black dog, belonging to no one we knew, appeared in the room. It bounded to the foot of John’s bed and sat there, staring at him. 

Everyone was shocked. 

Eventually, the owner of the dog called out. The black dog had broken free from the owner outside and ran into the room, apparently, to visit John Treffry just before his death. 

Mary Treffry, John’s wife, would constantly talk about Black Dogs when I was a child. It was her favourite story. When my brother Eddy would get angry, Mary would often remark that he was overcome by the Black Dog. 

I have since researched the Black Dog and have discovered it is a well-known omen of Death in old England.

I now believe that the Black Dog came all the way from Cornwall to visit John Treffry just prior to his death. I also believe that perhaps all Treffry’s get this same visit when our time has come. 

Maybe something happened to the Treffry’s a long time ago. Maybe a Treffry, long ago, was attached to a Black Dog. That Black Dog is now passed down through the family as a signal to prepare for the end of life.