by Joël van der Reijden
December 24, 2005

from ExposureOfHiddenInstitutions Website

Although the Bohemian Grove concept is obviously inspired by ancient pagan customs it’s hard to define who came up with the original ideas or for what reason. The people first involved with the Bohemian Club and the Bohemian Grove were a group of writers and artists who had a love for nature and were usually very opposed to the business ways of the robber barons. Nobody seems to have investigated it in the first place, but at this moment there’s no indication that any of the more important members of the Bohemian Club had an unusual interest in pagan rituals or practices.

On the other hand, Joseph D. Redding, the founder of the Cremation of Care and a president of the Bohemian Club, was very well connected to the elite Anglo-American families, so who knows where he got his inspiration from (more about him later).

There is also the prominent Bohemian Club member Ambrose Bierce who spent 3 years in England before he came to San Francisco. Bierce wrote ’The Devil’s Dictionary’, a book that shows us that at least some of the early members had a bit of knowledge about pagan customs. In both cases we really need to know more about these individuals before we can reach any conclusions. What I know about them has been included in their bios, which can be found in the membership list.

Following are excerpts of Bierce’s ’The Devil’s Dictionary’:

• BAAL, n. An old deity formerly much worshiped under various names. As Baal he was popular with the Phoenicians; as Belus or Bel he had the honor to be served by the priest Berosus, who wrote the famous account of the Deluge; as Babel he had a tower partly erected to his glory on the Plain of Shinar. From Babel comes our English word "babble." Under whatever name worshiped, Baal is the Sun-god. As Beelzebub he is the god of flies, which are begotten of the sun’s rays on the stagnant water. In Physicia Baal is still worshiped as Bolus, and as Belly he is adored and served with abundant sacrifice by the priests of Guttledom.
   

• BACCHUS, n. A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk.
   

• CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.
   

• DRUIDS, n. Priests and ministers of an ancient Celtic religion which did not disdain to employ the humble allurement of human sacrifice. Very little is now known about the Druids and their faith. Pliny says their religion, originating in Britain, spread eastward as far as Persia. Caesar says those who desired to study its mysteries went to Britain. Caesar himself went to Britain, but does not appear to have obtained any high preferment in the Druidical Church, although his talent for human sacrifice was considerable. Druids performed their religious rites in groves, and knew nothing of church mortgages and the season-ticket system of pew rents. They were, in short, heathens and -- as they were once complacently catalogued by a distinguished prelate of the Church of England -- Dissenters.
   

• FREEMASONS, n. An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II [ruled from 1649 to 1660], among working artisans of London, has been joined successively by the dead of past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embraces all the generations of man on the hither side of Adam and is drumming up distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants of Chaos and Formless Void. The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucius, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian Pyramids -- always by a Freemason.

  

  Always by a Freemason, according to Bohemian Bierce.
   

• MALTHUSIAN, adj. Pertaining to Malthus and his doctrines. Malthus believed in artificially limiting population, but found that it could not be done by talking. One of the most practical exponents of the Malthusian idea was Herod of Judea, though all the famous soldiers have been of the same way of thinking.
   

• MAMMON, n. The god of the world’s leading religion. The chief temple is in the holy city of New York.
   

• MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.
   

• SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Sylphs were allied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively, in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious. Sylphs, like fowls of the air, were male and female, to no purpose, apparently, for if they had progeny they must have nested in accessible places, none of the chicks having ever been seen.

Well, what do you know? Respect for Christians and an aversion to human sacrifice, malthusian genocide, greed, and pollution of the environment. Not bad for a Bohemian Grove participant, now is it? The Devil’s Dictionary is a satirical work written over a period of about 25 years. Although you might get that impression, it has very little to do with the occult, satanism, or the devil, as some might fear at this moment. You won’t find many other words in the book dealing with this type of subject.

Still, the combination of Baal, Bacchus, the Druids, and Freemasons ("secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes") is quite interesting in relation to the Bohemian Grove. Many people claim that Baal is worshipped during the opening ceremony and the ritual certainly shows some parallels with the rites associated with this ancient god.

Bacchus has also been associated with the Cremation of Care, just as the Druids (the Celtic music, for instance). Peter Martin Philips, who has attended a Grove meeting and talked to many of its members, wrote in his 1994 Ph.D dissertation ⁽¹⁾:

"The Cremation of Care Ceremony was produced as a play in 1920, wherein a High Priest standing before a huge pre-historic alter, is confronted by Dull Care wrapped in the chains but not dead because Bacchus, the only warrior Care fears, is truly dead... Care responds: ’Call Bacchus from the grave... long as he is dead. I sneer at Great Bohemia! Aha! Aha!’... Good Fellowship then takes the torch from the priest at the alter and burns Care in his prison, thereby purging the ’demon Care from the sacred Grove.’ This ceremony has been rewritten on several occasions but the theme is still the same."

 

[The date given, 1920, seems to be a typo as the ceremony was first created in 1893. He also lists two separate dates for the addition of the owl shrine: 1920 & 1929]

The Roman Bacchus is the same as the more well known Greek Dionysus, the god of wine, sexual and ecstatic freedom, fertility, and celebration. The purpose of their rites was quite similar to the Bohemian Grove concept, i.e. the participants were to leave behind any worries about their daily lives. Although I have not been able to find the exact origin or meaning of Dull Care (he’s unhappy because of the death of his brother Don’t Care), the poem above, written by a poet from the Roman Empire and the earliest reference I could find, shows it has a strong connection to wine also, just as Bacchus and Dionysus.

In any case, Dull Care is "a mocking spirit" that needs to be banished from the Grove. This is an ancient tradition going back to the Sumerians. The Sumerians used the word ’barra’ (begone) to banish unwelcome spirits from the land. These traditions were spread to Babylon, Greece, and Rome. After the Middle-Ages poets and play writers occasionally picked up on it and incorporated it in some of the works they wrote. The term was used quite frequently since at least the late 17^th century in Britain as the poems in the left column show. The first reference since Horace that I was able to find was the 1687 play ’Begone, Dull Care’ of [John] Playford: Musical Companion, located in England. The emigrating poets and writers took the term to the United States and many of them ended up in San Francisco.

It could well be that the term Dull Care was already in use at the time of the Francis Bacon group in the late 1500s and early 1600s, which consisted of Sir William and Robert Cecil, John Dee, his student Edward de Vere, Edmund Spenser, Bacon himself, Elizabeth I, James I, and several others. Why am I interested in them? These people were (largely) responsible for the creation of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and Enochian Magic.

The de Vere family was involved in the practice of Royal Witchcraft ⁽²⁾ and his family considered themselves members of the Archdruid-Dragon race. Bacchanalian practices were well known within this group (more about that later). The Bohemian Club’s primary motto, "Weaving Spiders, Come Not Here," also originated from them. It was taken from the second scene of Act 2 from ’A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, written by Shakespeare, who got at least some of his inspiration from Edward de Vere (who’s lateral descendant we coincidentally quoted throughout this article), although a case can be made that de Vere wrote pretty much all of the stuff that has been attributed to him. ⁽³⁾

The theme of Dull Care, however, was not part of Shakespeare’s original MacBeth, but in the 1847 version of Giuseppe Verdi a reference to Dull Care was made by Lady MacBeth (which you can find in the column on the left). And to get back to the Bacon group, they have been responsible for the British colonization of the United States, whom Bacon thought was ’The New Atlantis’ ⁽⁴⁾, while especially the Cecils and many of their blood relatives played a major role in creating the British and later Anglo-American empire. As you’ll see a bit further in the article, the elite Anglo-American families could well have had a hand in the creation of the Cremation of Care ceremony.

Bohemian Bierce also described the Druids in his dictionary, which have an interesting connection to groves. The word ’grove’ usually means ’a small wooded area’, but it can also refer to a ’pagan way grove’ or a ’pagan grove’, which is a learning center for different pagan religions. Probably not by accident, the word ’grove’, as a learning center, is most often used by pagans involved with the Druidic traditions. Examples are the ’Celtic grove’ and the ’Druid grove’. Robin Wood, a magic-enthusiast explains it a bit further ⁽⁵⁾:

"Pagan Grove: An outer circle, normally set up for teaching purposes, and led by a Wiccan High Priestess and High Priest. This is where folks start in many traditions (including mine) and learn what the Craft is about, and whether it is the right Path for them. This is the place you study for a year and a day before becoming an Initiate."

"Initiates Circle: A Circle for Initiates only. These may vary in form from non-initiates circles (often called Pagan Groves) or not. In my own tradition, magic is practiced only in the Initiates Circle, because a number of folk in our Grove cannot yet ground and center reliably, and would get terrific headaches from energy use."

Under normal circumstances one might not contemplate the alternative meaning of the word ’grove’, especially not when newspapers referred to a ’redwood grove’ ever since the day the Bohemians bought their initial 160 acres in 1899. Still, the decision to hire a piece of land in the redwood grove was made in the early 1890s under the Bohemian Club presidency of Joseph D. Redding. At the same time he created the original Cremation of Care ceremony and acted as its High Priest. Redding had a completely different background than the average Bohemian Club artist.

His father was a land agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, which was owned by the elite Anglo-American Pilgrims Society families, Harriman (chair of Southern and Union Pacific was Edward Henry Harriman, who was financed by Jacob Schiff) & Harkness (major shareholders of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil; intermarried with the Stillmans, who also intermarried with the Rockefellers; partners of J.P. Morgan; co-founders of the Commonwealth Fund and the Pilgrim Trust).

Redding went to Harvard Law School and became a wealthy lawyer for Southern Pacific. Southern Pacific is a great example of the reported schism that happened within the Bohemian Club between the original middle class artists and the wealthy businessmen. In May 1898 Southern Pacific created Sunset Magazine, which dealt with the outdoors, artistic writings, and things about everyday life. In 1911 Charles K. Field, a member of the Bohemian Club, became its editor.

Bohemian Club writers like Ina Coolbrith, Jack London, Bret Harte, and John Muir contributed to the magazine, but as time progressed all these writers became increasingly critical of the business ways of the robber barons. Because of this development Southern Pacific had to do away with the magazine in 1914. And by this time the Cremation of Care founder was living in New York, surrounded by members of the Pilgrims Society.

The term ’Bohemian’, by the way, has very little to do with the East-European region of Bohemia. The original Bohemians were a group of penniless rebellious young artists living in 19^th century France. Among them were Victor Hugo (wrote ’Hunchback of the Notre Dame’ and is today an inspiration for the elite European Institute), Arthur Rimbaud, Alfred De Musset, and Paul Verlaine. Those who referred to these people as ’Bohemians’ meant that they thought of them as Gypsies (low life). The first accusation we know of was made in 1834 by Felix Pyat in a Parisian publication called ’Nouveau Tableau de Paris au XIX Siecle’. It read:

"alien and bizarre... outside the law, beyond the reaches of society... they are the Bohemians of today."

The Frenchman Henry Murger was the first to popularize the term in his 1849 novel ’Scenes de la Boheme’, which was turned into a play 2 years later. In this book the main character, together with a few newly found friends, is involved in creating a small unofficial Bohemian club at a local Parisian tavern. Murger’s description of a Bohemian is someone who purely lives of the art he creates. Bohemia, according to him, was located in Paris. So, I guess it’s pretty obvious to see where the San Francisco artists got their inspiration from when they established the Bohemian Club in 1872. And they might have been totally different persons then those who inspired the creation of the Cremation of Care.
 

The Owl

The Bohemians adopted the owl as their mascot right from the beginning, but it is doubtful that they attached any serious mystical values to it at that moment. Today, when the average person sees pictures or videos of the Cremation of Care ritual they will usually get away with an entirely different impression. Who would ever have imagined that the president of the United States, together with a large chunk of America’s elite, attends a yearly gathering where an ancient Babylonian (mock) human sacrifice is carried out in front of huge stone owl?

The original Bohemians were quite eccentric (and the absolute opposite of today’s Grovers), but this is just too bizarre. So whatever the owl meant for the early Bohemian Clubbers, it is quite reasonable to philosophize a bit about what the owl is supposed to represent these days. After all, the Cremation of Care was devised by a not-so-average Bohemian and the giant stone owl was only put into place in the 1920s when the Grove already was an elite gathering for at least 10 to 15 years. In fact, the nationwide coverage of the Cremation of Care ceremony around the turn of the century seemed to have drawn in lots of important people.

Traditionally, at least in conspiracy land, the owl in the Grove is associated with Moloch, although more and more people start to ask questions about that assumption. The reason for that is if you compare the above images with the descriptions and depictions of Moloch (below) you’ll find that there’s quite a difference. I have never seen a non-Bohemian Grove related article in which Moloch is associated with an owl.

But even though I don’t interpret the Bohemian owl as Moloch/Baal, the Cremation of Care is very similar to the ancient rites associated with this sun god. In the left column you can find a detailed transcript of the rites of Melqart, the Tyrian version of Baal and Molech, and how these spread to the Druids. More information about similar rites can be found further down in this article.

Anyone who does a bit of research in European and Middle-Eastern mythology will see that the owl is always associated with a female deity. In all the civilizations between Sumer and Rome (and even the Celts) you have a few recurring gods with often the same symbols associated with them. I tend to throw the important gods and goddesses together and define only two simple classes, the first one being the male sun gods, followed by a group of female mother-moon goddesses. The simple reason is that mythology is a mess.

Stories are completely incoherent and often you can make anything of it that you want. Each new civilization copied the gods from the previous one and it is obvious that many mistakes (or deliberate changes) were made during this process. This is the reason that modern mythology, to a large extent, is nothing more than making "best guesses" in defining which deity is associated with which earlier deity. That also seems to go for the initiates of secret societies.

The sun gods, who normally have one or more sons, are usually depicted as (or with) bulls, goats, fire, and sunlight. Examples are:

• the Egyptian Amun-Ra

• the Carthaginian Baal-Hammon

• the Babylonian Marduk

• the Canaanite Baal and Molech

• the Tyrian El and Melqart

• the Akkadian Adad

• the Greek Zeus

Then there are mother and moon goddesses. The first one is usually associated with the dove or a lion (and is the partner and mother of different sun gods).

• the Canaanite Astoreth

• the Tyrian Astarte

• the Phrygian and Roman Cybele

• the Babylonian Semiramis

• the Akkadian Ishtar are examples...

These are generally identified as the exact same goddesses. Goddesses associated with the moon, who are always closely related to the mother goddesses, are often depicted as an owl.

• the Roman Minerva

• the Greek Athena

• the Tyrian Anath are examples of this...

Going back further is hard, but we have a few leads.

There is a well known Sumerian clay tablet with a female deity depicted on it. She is standing on two lions and is flanked by two owls [1]. Generally, this tablet is said to depict Lilith, a demoness, but the connections are weak and many scholars doubt this is the correct interpretation. Lilith has vaguely been associated with the "screech-owl", but that doesn’t automatically mean the tablet depicts this semi-goddess. In my opinion the goddess Inanna would be a much better choice, because:

1) It is generally accepted that Innana became Ishtar, Semiramis, Cybele, and Astarte, which are all mother goddesses with the dove and lion as main attributes. This explains the ’mystery’ of the bird feet, the wings, and the two lions she is standing on

2) Deities with similar objects in their hands as the ones depicted on the Sumerian clay tablet have been associated with Ishtar, the Akkadian version of the Sumerian Inanna

Even so, the question still remains who the owls on the clay tablet are supposed to represent, because the later civilizations seem to have reserved the owl for a separate deity. Since Inanna’s parents were the moon god Nanna and the moon goddess Ningal, I guess I agree with those people that claim Inanna was also associated with the owl. But in the end we really can’t tell what the owl in the grove is supposed to represent.

Nicholas de Vere, a lateral inheritor of the Dragon title from the earlier mentioned extinct Earl of Oxford branch and a former head of the British Dragon Court ⁽⁶⁾, gives us another possibility of what the owl might mean to certain elite groups:

"The Dragons - and in the King James Version of the Holy Bible - the Daughters of the Owl (Lilith), are therefore - according to Isaiah - the true children of God;

 

"A Chosen Generation, a Royal Priesthood, an Holy Nation, a Peculiar People..."

"Astaroth is Ishtar, who was a draconian relation of Lilith the dragon queen, the ancestral grandmother of the Tuadha de Danaan..." ⁽⁷⁾

"The Garter was the ’witches belt’, the Devil’s badge and a dynastic emblem of the fairy race that descended from Lilith and Cain, who were the enemies of the Church and Mankind, according to the church, if not according to the fairies themselves." ⁽⁸⁾

Maybe you noticed that I never mentioned the Egyptian mother goddess Isis. The reason for that is the Egyptian pantheon often uses completely different attributes for the same deities than other parts of the ancient Middle-East. Although the owl could well represent Isis, we don’t need to worry about her, because she is certainly present at the Grove. Peter Martin Phillips again:

"Bohemians even own a 2,500 year old mummy donated to the Club by an Egyptologist, Jeremiah Lynch in 1914. The mummy, known as Lady Isis, rests in a glass case near the entrance to the Bohemian theater."

The goddess Diana is also present at the Grove. A picture of her statue, which is located near the ’Diana Circle’, has been among a few dozen photos ’Kyle’ has managed to snap in 2004 and 2005 as an employee at the Bohemian Grove. ⁽⁹⁾

I also didn’t mention the Celtic Arianrhod and the wife of her son, Bloudeuedd. Both had the owl as a main attribute. Arianrhod is a mother goddess and moon goddess at the same time. She is linked to Aphrodite and Isis, but also to Astarte (dove and lion; same as Ishtar and Inanna) and Diana.

I told you so, mythology is a mess.
 

The Mitre of the Bohemian Grove priest

Looking at the Bohemian Grove high priests [7-8-9] I noticed that they bear an uncanny similarity with a person known in the Netherlands as "Sinterklaas" [5], less commonly known as St. Nicholas of Myra, a bishop that lived in the 3^rd and 4^th century AD and was a member of the Council of Nicaea in 325. The Americans changed his appearance to the more fluffy looking Santa Claus early in the 20^th century. Not that I think the Bohemian Grove priest is Santa Claus, it’s just that the Catholic church has received all their inspiration from the earlier pagan religions.

The mitre, that also seems to reside on the heads of the Bohemian Grove priests, is one of the best examples of this. It represents the open mouth of the ancient half-man half-fish god that brought humankind civilization. It was worshipped under different names: Enki, Ea, Dagon, and Oannes. Apsu (supposedly the origin of the Dragon race) and Atargis are other half-man half-fish gods which are even older than the sun gods. In the pictures above you can clearly see how the process evolved.

So ironically, the Pope, St. Nicholas, the Bohemian Grove high priests, and even Santa Claus all have the same origin: The Sumerian-Babylonian high priests. This is also where their rods and capes have originated from ⁽¹⁰⁾.

What are those? Fishies? Brings back memories of that horror movie ’Dagon’, originally written by Lovecraft.
 

The problem with the Dionysiacs and Bacchanalians

The worship of Dionysus is generally considered to have started in Phrygia in Asia Minor between 1200 and 1000 B.C. after which it spread to Greece, Egypt, and as far as India. The cult became known for its extensive use of trance-inducing music, sex orgies, wine consumption, and the large amount of violent sacrifices, which, at least in the earlier stages, included humans. As a mystery cult it had public and secret rites.

One of the rites included the Maenads, a group of insane woman involved in bizarre blood rituals. This included the ripping apart of human beings and eating their flesh. During this time they were possessed by Bacchus who provided them with superhuman strength ⁽¹¹⁾. Nicholas de Vere, in his book ’The Origin of The Dragon Lords of the Rings’, adds:

"The Dionysic Rites were cannibalistic and vampiric and echo the era of the cannibalism and vampirism of the (Titanic) era of the sons of the Nephilim."

Theater of Dionysus

After the cult ended up in Athens in the 5^th century B.C. they build a theater in honor of Dionysus on the southside of the Acropolis. It was later remodeled in stone. In the Dionysic theaters of Greece and Rome many plays were held, usually centered around their respective mythologies. The beginning of every festival was always reserved for sacrifices. Most scholars are of the opinion that in those days the sacrifices didn’t include humans anymore, at least not publicly, but the amount of animals killed was quite substantial.

For instance, in 333 B.C. there was a single event in which 240 bulls were sacrificed to Dionysus ⁽¹²⁾. That must have been quite a blood bath. Much later, in 186 B.C., after accusations of human sacrifice, violent sex orgies, and the plotting of assassinations and other political conspiracies, the Roman Empire banned the ’Bacchanalias’ and executed a few thousand of its members. It is likely that some of these accusations were exaggerated, although most of these claims were fairly well documented in earlier times.

According to Manly P. Hall ⁽¹³⁾, the cult was composed of a secretive inner core of highly skilled architects who based their public buildings on sacred geometry and astrology (they often mirrored their structures with a particular constellation). Among the initiates were those that built the Tyrian Temple of Melqart, who in turn were employed by King Solomon to build the first Jewish temple at Mount Moriah in 969 B.C. Solomon has always been considered an important magician to the members of various secret societies and God is said to have given him control over the Jinn (elemental beings that can be conjured up). These helped him to build his temple and cities alongside his human employees.

In 206 B.C. another very prominent deity was imported into Rome from Phrygia: The mother-goddess Cybele, which used to be worshipped right next to Dionysus. Her orgiastic rites were very similar and the high priests were castrated, told to live as women, performed blood sacrifices (animal only as far as I have seen), bathed in blood, and cut themselves open during certain ceremonies ⁽¹⁴⁾.

Although the history of the secret societies is extremely complex, it isn’t very hard to link the Dionysic architects and Solomon’s temple to the Rosicrucian Knights Templar and their Rosslyn Chapel. The Templars had been digging underneath Mount Moriah in the early 12^th century. After they fled to Scotland in 1307, their descendents built a new version of Solomon’s Temple in the 15^th century. Not long after the Templars arrived, the Order of the Garter and the Dragon Court were (re)established in Britain, hints of Rosicrucian initiations started to surface, and Enochian Magic was born, followed by the birth of Scottish Rite Freemasonry (for the more common man). Even the Dragon Court, quoting the Catholic dictionary, accepts that the Templars fled to Scotland and gave rise to Freemasonry there ⁽¹⁵⁾.

The worship of Bacchus also went along within some of the secret societies. One of the most notorious pleasure-seeking Bacchanalians of British history was Sir Francis Dashwood of the Hellfire Club ⁽¹⁶⁾, who, in the mid-1700s, had reserved a central role for Bacchus/Dionysus in his own rituals. The "do what you will" quote, inscribed above the main entrance of the Medmenham Abbey (below images) where many of his rites were performed, served as an inspiration for Aleister Crowley.

Dashwood visited many European royal courts in his younger years, ultimately becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer and a member of the Privy Council (1761). Franklin, an occasional visitor of the Hellfire Club, eventually became a Founding Father of the New Atlantis, better known as the United States of America.

In Britain, it seems that Druid and Templar practices merged, followed in a later stage by Jewish bankers (probably kabbalists/hermeticists) who, just like the Rosicrucian Bacon and other hermeticists, were also inspired by Solomon and his temple. This last group, headed by the Rothschild family, decided in the 19^th century that it was time for the Jewish people to return to Palestine and allied themselves with the British Empire (in Quigley’s Round Table, headed by Robert Cecil, the 3^rd Marquess of Salisbury) ⁽¹⁷⁾.

This merging of the different elements, which is also what probably happened at the Bohemian Grove, is supported by Nicholas de Vere in ’The Origin of The Dragon Lords of the Rings’:

"The rituals of witchcraft were varied and contained syntheses of Catharist and Templar Dualism, Druidism and Bacchanalian practices."

Benjamin Disraeli, the first Jewish Prime Minister of England and a close friend to both the Rothschilds and the Cecils, used to refer to Queen Victoria as "the Faery", which is usually thought of as nothing significant. However, looking at Disraeli, a Knight of the Garter, a friend to the founders of the Round Table, and in the know of the influence of secret societies, it is probably a reference to Edmund Spencer’s story "The Faery Queen" (as he called Queen Elizabeth I) which also featured a "Red Cross Knight" (Rosicrucian).

Spenser was part of the Francis Bacon group and a close friend to John Dee, who is the founder of Enochian Magic and credited with writing ’The Rosicrucian Secrets’. Spenser dedicated several works to Dee’s student, Edward de Vere, who he is supposed to have visited on a regular basis (de Vere married Lady Anne Cecil and early on lived in the household of Sir William Cecil).

Nicholas de Vere, in ’From Transylvania to Tunbridge Wells’, adds:

"Castle Matres or Matrix as it is now known was said to have been named after the Matres or triple goddess. The castle rests on the banks of the river Deal in County Limerick and the library which was housed there is said to have contained singular works on Magic and Alchemy, works that Dee didn’t want, under any circumstances, falling into the Queen’s hands because, as Laurence Gardner has pointed out, Dr. John Dee, Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare et al were well aware that Elizabeth’s house were badly bred usurpers and despite the descent from Margaret of Anjou, the blood wasn’t pure."

"The dragon or fairy gene was very rare and true archdruidic, royal dragon families were rarer still... Ubaid Sumerian-Scythian in origin. These Dragon Kings and Fairy Queens weren’t extensive in number, didn’t breed outside their caste and weren’t nationalists or racists. How the Germans ever thought they were all descended from them is beyond understanding."

And in ’The Origin of The Dragon Lords of the Rings’:

"Given that the Fairies, according to Murray, were still around in Shakespeares time (Edward de Vere? -sic), it seems to me that at least one individual who is said to have been a member of the literary syndicate that produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream ["Weaving spiders, come not here"], diminuted the fairies, his own race, it could be argued, in order to alleviate the persecution that was raging against them..."

It’s hard to tell how many of these practices are still going on today. If we stick to the non-criminal aspects, all I have come across are some stories about Tony Blair, who gets his advice from ’the light’ ⁽¹⁸⁾, and his eccentric New Age wife, who likes to drag her husband into Aztec rebirth rituals ⁽¹⁹⁾ and other standard paranormal practices ⁽²⁰⁾. Then there are some reports about astrologers helping members of the royal house, which aren’t really worth repeating here (gossips). Keep in mind that these are/were the most prominent persons in Britain of the past 10 years.

The old dynastic blue blood families seldom reach the news in the first place. Another interesting fact is that politicians and Anglican church officials are regularly invited into Druid groves. When this is reported in the news the usual response is that "it’s perfectly Christian", although a detailed explanation is seldom, if ever given. I think it’s a bit strange that Christian leaders do not actively attempt to take away people’s concerns when they join certain organizations (formerly?) associated with pagan practices.

Nicholas de Vere, in ’The Origin of The Dragon Lords of the Rings’, wrote:

"In this is borne out, by the Druids ready acceptance of Celtic Christianity, the fact that Jesus’ original, undoctored Gnostic teachings were founded on Essene Magian Philosophy amalgamated with the mystical doctrines of Mithras and Dionysus. Alchemy, Cabala and Hermetics were the centre of Christ’s Anschauung. All the foregoing are components of that Eurasian "religion" we know as Druidism which, for the Indians is Hinduism and for the Persians is their Zoroastrianism which for the West eventually became our Celtic Christianity."

Make of it what you will. Among the more prominent officials that have been invited into Druid groves are:

• Winston Churchill (Prime Minister)

• David Lloyd George (Prime Minister)

• Queen Elizabeth II

• George Noakes (Archbishop of Wales)

• Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury)

• Daniel Mullins (Roman Catholic bishop of Menevia) ^{(21 & 22)}

Undoubtedly this is only the tip of iceberg, but individuals aren’t exactly forthcoming about these aspects of their lives. This is not at all to say that these people are wicked. After all, it is part of their history. It’s just that some of the publicly known groves have a lot of similarities with the Masonic groups of which a certain degree of secrecy and elitism is a basic ingredient.

In both cases the participants come to their groves and lodges to "discuss literature, poetry, music and art" and maybe to do a bit of tree-hugging or to perform a few dusty old rituals. In case of the Bohemian Grove a lot of these people come there to network, although they’re all pretending not do to that ("makes it easier to pick up the phone"). But all these groves, just as all the publicly known Masonic degrees, are only supposed to be outer circles anyway, part of the ’association of helpers’ so to speak, so who really cares what the participants think.

Conclusion

What have we learned about the Bohemian Grove in this article? Well, besides that the Anglo-American elite probably inspired the Cremation of Care, actually surprisingly little. We’ve gone all over the Middle-East, Mainland Europe, England, and the United States, but still some of the basic questions have not been answered (to most people’s satisfaction). Who or what is the owl supposed to represent and do the Bohemians themselves have any idea?

To some it might refer to ancient Greece (Athena), which has always served as a great inspiration to the western world. Others might be of the opinion that it is a reference to Ishtar or Inanna. Still others might be of the opinion that it symbolizes Lilith and her Dragon lineage. And still others undoubtedly think the owl is nothing more then the Bohemian Club symbol. Then again, is the owl surrounding the capitol building just a coincidence?

Other unanswered questions are:

• Who or what inspired Joseph Redding to put together the Cremation of Care?

• Do some of the observers of the Cremation of Care indeed go into a good old Bacchanalian ecstatic trance state during the beginning of the ritual, like Alex Jones and Jon Ronson have described ⁽²¹⁾?

• What is the opinion of the Bohemian Grovers of the flyer, obtained by Alex Jones and Jon Ronson, that clearly depicts a baby having been sacrificed in the Cremation of Care fire?

• Or what is the opinion in general of the Bohemians as they watch a pretty macabre openings ritual?

To be honest, I am not that interested in the Bohemian Grove all by itself and this article has largely been just an excuse to dabble a bit in the mystical aspects of the globalist movement and to look for the origins of some of its perversions (which we will focus on in the future). Western mysticism is elitist, seems to have great influence over the more mainstream religions, is hopelessly intertwined with politics, banking, law, and intelligence, and if you look below the thin layer of paint, you’ll see that most of the upper level people don’t seem to have any degree of spiritual enlightenment whatsoever.

My guess is that the Grove’s Cremation of Care is a visible aspect of a hidden hermeticist religion with very unconventional ideas. Poets and other artists often communicated hidden messages and double meanings within the works they wrote, especially when they were connected to high society. Even regular artists (take Iron Maiden) ⁽²⁴⁾ are fond of doing that, but this certainly has always been a specific trait of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Druidism, or any other mystery religion. Shakespeare, or the 17^th Earl of Oxford if you will, is often cited as an example and Joseph D. Redding might well turn out to be another one. But in the end your guess is as good as mine.
 

Quick note on magic
 

Masaaki Hatsumi, the only grand master of ninjutsu still alive, wrote ⁽²⁵⁾:

"People who perform genjutsu are called magicians, illusionists, and rainmakers. They are influenced by Mikkyo (secret teachings of Dainichi Nyorai) and dokyo or Taoism. In comparison with genjutsu, yojutsu is eerie and performs its tricks by borrowing the supernatural powers of the various spirits...

 

We must realize that these tricks, used to deceive people, were taught for that purpose; thus the performers gain a wicked heart by training in them... such tricks or miracles as making the wife of a samurai who had been dead for five years, appear in front of the widower’s eyes... [or showing] a man in hell being gruesomely tortured... [but] the ninja utilize yojutsu and genjutsu in inton jutsu (hiding techniques) and in intrigue."

From his writings it is clear that Hatsumi is no fan of magic and he once wrote it "leads to ruin," or something like that. On the other hand, even with all his personal experience, I get the impression that Hatsumi only spoke from a historical Japanese point of view, which was seemingly filled with mischievous magicians/illusionists who were only after personal gain (and now that I am thinking of it, how about our own past?). I think that a recent show like Mindfreak (a US illusionist) is great, because it gets people thinking and studying about things we all should be aware of.

If we exclude the theory that hundreds of witnesses have been bought for each individual episode (and no one has reported that yet), the show does provide serious evidence to everyone that the laws of reality can be bend to the extreme, whether that’s due to a ’what you see is what you get’ effect or due to a form of mind control. Think of the military potentials alone, the secrecy that would surround it, and how this would be maintained (by messing with one’s mind).

Hatsumi’s note, "borrowing the supernatural powers of the various spirits" (as opposed to developing a power, if possible, yourself), is also interesting because Western ceremonial magic is largely based on that: the interaction with elemental spirits. Solomon, who’s every magician’s inspiration (the two Masonic pillars refer to the two pillars of his temple), is reported to have been a master in it.

John Dee, a teacher of de Vere and associate of the Cecils, did this stuff together with Edward Kelley through their Enochian magic. In that case they definitely contacted the wrong beings who made them do things they weren’t exactly pleased with ⁽²⁶⁾.

Arthur Balfour, a relative of the Cecils, was holding seances at his house contacting god-knows-what ⁽²⁷⁾. Crowley, supposedly once a protégé of the Cecils ⁽²⁸⁾, was inspired by one of these beings and contacted numerous others. One of these other beings, Lam, looked an awful lot like a type of grey alien. There’s much more to this story, especially if you look at some of the reports that have been made in recent years, but that’s a whole other article.

More Mindfreak. In one of his episodes he turns water into beer. Now what does that remind you of?

It doesn’t have to be a liquid though. It is seemingly possible to change it in anything someone can imagine.
 

Endnotes

[1] 1994, Peter Martin Philips, ’A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club’ (Ph.D. dissertation)
[2] 2005, Project for the Exposure of Hidden Institutions, A chart that depicts some of political, economic, and occult connections of the Cecil bloodline.
[3] April 6, 2000, ’Mr. Schelle’, ’Shakespeare or De Vere: That is the Authorship Question’
[4] Early 17th century, Francis Bacon, ’The New Atlantis’

This unfinished roman was released after his death in 1626 and described how a group of sea explorers ended up on a previously unknown island which had superior technology and knowledge about all parts of the world. Solomon was considered the greatest king that had ever lived and the inhabitants themselves showed many similarities with the later Rosicrucian movement. According to the people of this island, Atlantis, one of their trading partners, was located in the northern half of the Americas and was destroyed in a catastrophe a long time ago.
 

[5] Robin Wood, Magic for Pagans & Wiccans FAQ
[6] 2005, Project for the Exposure of Hidden Institutions, Dragon article
[7] 2000, Nicholas de Vere, ’The Origin of The Dragon Lords of the Rings’
[8] 2002, Nicholas de Vere, ’From Transylvania to Tunbridge Wells’ (today known as ’The Dragon Legacy’)
[9] Ted Gunderson has uploaded the pictures to his site. A few have also appeared on the website of Coast to Coast AM.
[10] 1858, Alexander Hislop, ’The Two Babylons’
[11] A combination of Britannica Concise Encyclopedia & Wikipedia gives most of the facts about the Maenads
[12] 1999, Encyclopedia of the World Mythology (Dutch edition)
Although it’s quite a thick book it turned out to be useless in most cases, as a lot of mainstream books are that deal with this kind of subject. They focus too much on the myths and too little on the actual practices associated with these deities.
 

[13] 1928, Manly P. Hall, ’The Secret Teachings of All Ages’
[14] May 21, 2002, BBC, ’Dig reveals Roman transvestite’
[15] 2005, Project for the Exposure of Hidden Institutions, Dragon article (Includes the correspondence with the Royal House of Stewart)
[16] September 9, 2002, The Age, ’Libertine turned home into an orgy’
[17] 1981, Carroll Quigley, ’The Anglo-American Establishment’
[18] March 07, 2004, The Sunday Times, ’Conman Foster kicks PM in pants’
[19] March 2004, Book review of the book ’Pretty Straight Guys’
[20] September 20, 2005, London Independent, ’Witchcraft and nail clippings: the weird world of Cherie Blair?’
[21] July 19, 2002, The Times, ’Why The Archbishop Is Embracing Pagan’
[22] August 6, 2002, The Scotsman, ’Archbishop hits back in row over druid honour’
[23] September 6, 2005, Coast to Coast AM, Jon Ronson talks about the fanaticism during the Cremation of Care. Alex Jones and Ronson also talk about their tapes that got erased.
[24] You already guessed, one of my favorite bands. Maiden is a great example how uneducated everyone is about even the basics of the mystery religions. This band has countless of millions of fans all over the world, but at least in mid-2005 (last time I did an inet check) none of their fans had picked up on all the pyramids and eyes they put in their 1984 Powerslave tour. Over the years this influence has become more and more obvious, especially with their (amazing) album Brave New World in 2000 and Dance of Death in 2003. Earlier, Bruce Dickinson wrote songs like The Chemical Wedding, Book of Thel, Gates of Urizen, The Alchemist, The Magician, and Omega, while Iron Maiden (without Bruce) wrote the song The Sign of The Cross (The Name of the Rose). I don’t mind at all that they do this, but it’s quite amazing that nobody has pointed out the obvious yet. Maybe the 2003 song Montsegur is going to change that.
 

[25] 1988, Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, ’Essence of Ninjutsu’ (additional info below)
[26] 2002, Channel 4, ’Masters of Darkness - John Dee 1527-1608’
[27] Wikipedia, ’Society for Psychical Research’
[28] Red Flame, A Thelemic Research Group, Lord Tredegar bio

Additional References

[A] 2005, Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval, ’Talisman - Sacred Cities, Secret Faith’
[B] De Vere interview by Tracy R. Twyman
[C] 2001, Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi & Benjamin Cole, ’Words of Consequence - Understand? Good. Play!’ (Hatsumi on mind control - below insert)