ON THE TRAIL OF THE SIGN OF THE SERPENT

Baphomet is a name of unestablished origin, but later appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 1300s.

However, in the 19th century the name came into popular English-speaking consciousness with the publication of various pseudo-history works that tried to link the Knights Templar with conspiracy theories elaborating on their suppression. The name Baphomet then became associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Lévi.

History

The name Baphomet traces back to the end of the Crusades. Around 1250, in an Occitan poem bewailing the defeat of the Seventh Crusade, Austorc d'Aorlhac refers to "Bafomet".

When the medieval order of the Knights Templar was suppressed by King Philip IV of France, on Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip had many French Templars simultaneously arrested, and then tortured into confessions. The name Baphomet comes up in several of these confessions, in reference to an idol of some type that the Templars were said to have been worshipping. The description of the object changed from confession to confession. Some Templars denied any knowledge of it. Others, under torture, described it as being either a severed head, a cat, or a head with three faces.

The charge was notable because it was different from usual forced confessions. Over 100 different charges had been leveled against the Templars, most of them clearly false, as they were the same charges that were leveled against many of King Philip's enemies. For example, he had earlier kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII and charged him with near identical offenses of heresy, spitting and urinating on the cross, and sodomy. However, the charges about the worship of an idol named Baphomet, were unique to the Inquisition of the Templars. As Karen Ralls has pointed out, "There is no mention of Baphomet either in the Templar Rule or in other medieval period Templar documents".

The name Baphomet also appeared in the essay by the Viennese Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall's Mysterium Baphometis revelatum as The Mystery of Baphomet Revealed, which presented an elaborate pseudohistory constructed to discredit the Freemasons by linking them with "Templar masons". He argued, using as archaeological evidence "Baphomets" faked by earlier scholars and literary evidence such as the Grail romances, that the Templars were Gnostics and the 'Templars' head' was a Gnostic idol called Baphomet. In the 19th century some European museums acquired such pseudo-Egyptian objects, which were catalogued as "Baphomets" and credulously thought to have been idols of the Templars.

Some modern scholars such as Peter Partner and Malcolm Barber agree that the name of Baphomet was an Old French corruption of the name Muhammad, with the interpretation being that some of the Templars, through their long military occupation of the Outremer, had begun incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system, and that this was seen and documented by the Inquisitors as heresy. Peter Partner's 1987 book The Knights Templar and their Myth says, "In the trial of the Templars one of their main charges was their supposed worship of a heathen idol-head known as a 'Baphomet' ('Baphomet' = Mahomet = Muhammad)." Partner's book also provides a quote from a poem written in a Provencal dialect by a troubadour who is thought to have been a Templar. The poem is in reference to some battles in 1265 that were not going well for the Crusaders: "And daily they impose new defeats on us: for God, who used to watch on our behalf, is now asleep, and Muhammad [Bafometz] puts forth his power to support the Sultan."

In the 19th century, the name of Baphomet became associated with the occult. In 1854, Eliphas Levi published Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ("Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic"), in which he included an image he had drawn himself which he described as Baphomet and "The Sabbatic Goat", showing a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns (illustration, top). This image has become the best-known representation of Baphomet.

Levi's depiction is similar to that of the Devil in early tarot cards, but it may also have been partly inspired by grotesque carvings on the Templar churches of Lanleff in Brittany and St. Merri in Paris, which depict squatting bearded men with bat wings, female breasts, horns and the shaggy hindquarters of a beast.

Lévi considered the Baphomet to be a depiction of the absolute in symbolic form and explicated in detail his symbolism in the drawing that served as the frontispiece:

"The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of hermetism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyn of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it. The beast's head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life, the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyn arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences."

Levi called his image “the Baphomet of Mendes”, presumably following Herodotus' account that the god of Mendes — the Greek name for Djedet, Egypt — was depicted with a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were held in great reverence by the Mendesians, and how in his time a woman publicly copulated with a goat. However the deity that was venerated at Egyptian Mendes was actually a ram deity Banebdjed (literally Ba of the lord of djed, and titled "the Lord of Mendes"), who was the soul of Osiris. Levi combined the images of the Tarot of Marseilles Devil card and refigured the ram Banebdjed as a he-goat, further imagined by him as "copulator in Anep and inseminator in the district of Mendes".

Egyptian connections aside, Lévi's depiction, for all its modern fame, does not match the historical descriptions from the Templar trials, although it is akin to some grotesques found on Templar churches, or, more specifically, to Viollet-le-Duc's vivid gargoyles that were added to Notre Dame de Paris about the same time as Lévi's illustration.

Levi's now-familiar image shown here as a "Sabbatic Goat" shows parallels with works by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, who more than once painted a "Witch's Sabbath"; in the version ca 1821-23, El gran cabrón now at the Prado], a group of seated women offer their dead infant children to a seated goat.

Aleister Crowley

The Baphomet of Lévi was to become an important figure within the cosmology of Thelema, the mystical system established by Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century. Crowley agreed that Baphomet was a divine androgyne and "the hieroglyph of arcane perfection". He called Baphomet a form of Harpocrates, along with Bacchus Diphues, because of their supposed combination of male and female. He also identified the goat-headed figure with what he called the Lion-Serpent. In The Law is for All Crowley identifies the Lion-Serpent with one's "Secret Self", which he also called the Holy Guardian Angel.

In Magick (Book 4), Crowley writes, "The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God... 'The Devil' is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation. He is 'The Devil' of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection... He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty."

For Crowley, Baphomet is further a representative of the spiritual nature of the spermatozoa while also being symbolic of the "magical child" produced as a result of sex magic. As such, Baphomet represents the Union of Opposites, especially as mystically personified in Chaos and Babalon combined and biologically manifested with the sperm and egg united in the zygote.

Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek Χάος, Chaos) typically refers to unpredictability, and is the antithesis of cosmos. The word χάος did not mean "disorder" in classical-period ancient Greece. It meant "the primal emptiness, space" (see Chaos (mythology)). Chaos is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ghn or ghen meaning "gape, be wide open": compare "chasm" (from Ancient Greek χάσμα, a cleft, slit or gap), and Anglo-Saxon gānian ("yawn"), geanian, ginian ("gape wide"); see also Old Norse Ginnungagap. Due to people misunderstanding early Christian uses of the word, the meaning of the word changed to "disorder". (The Ancient Greek for "disorder" is ταραχή.).

Scientific and mathematical chaos

Mathematically, chaos means an aperiodic deterministic behavior which is very sensitive to its initial conditions, i.e., infinitesimal perturbations of initial conditions for a chaotic dynamic system lead to large variations of the orbit in the phase space.

Chaotic systems are systems that look random but aren't. They are actually deterministic systems (predictable if you have enough information) governed by physical laws, that are very difficult to predict accurately (a commonly used example is weather forecasting).

Furthermore, the word gas is probably an alteration of chaos. Particles in gases exhibit chaotic motion, although this was unknown to Jan Baptist van Helmont, the inventor of the term. He is instead believed to have been influenced by the concept of chaos in the occult theories of Paracelsus.

Babalon—also known as The Scarlet Woman, The Great Mother, or the Mother of Abominations—is a goddess found in the mystical system of Thelema, which was established in 1904 with Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law. In her most abstract form, she represents the female sexual impulse and the liberated woman; although she can also be identified with Mother Earth, in her most fertile sense. At the same time, Crowley believed that Babalon had an earthly aspect in the form of a spiritual office, which could be filled by actual women—usually as a counterpart to his own identification as To Mega Therion (The Great Beast)—whose duty was then to help manifest the energies of the current Aeon of Horus.

Her consort is Chaos, the "Father of Life" and the male form of the Creative Principle. Babalon is often described as being girt with a sword and riding the Beast, with whom Crowley personally identified. She is often referred to as a sacred whore, and her primary symbol is the Chalice or Graal. As Crowley wrote, “She rides astride the Beast; in her left hand she holds the reins, representing the passion which unites them. In her right she holds aloft the cup, the Holy Grail aflame with love and death. In this cup are mingled the elements of the sacrament of the Aeon” (Crowley 1981, p. 94).

The three aspects of Babalon

Babalon is a complex figure, although within Thelemic literature, she has three essential aspects: she is the Gateway to the City of the Pyramids, the Scarlet Woman, and the Great Mother.

Gateway to the City of Pyramids: The Seal of Babalon

Within the mystical system of Thelema, after the adept has attained the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, he then might reach the next and last great milestone—the crossing of the Abyss, that great spiritual wilderness of nothingness and dissolution. Choronzon is the dweller there, and his job is to trap the traveler in his meaningless world of illusion.

However, Babalon is just on the other side, beckoning. If the adept gives himself totally to her—the symbol of this act being the pouring of the adept’s blood into her graal—he becomes impregnated in her, then to be reborn as a Master of the Temple and a saint that dwells in the City of the Pyramids.

[S]he guardeth the Abyss. And in her is a perfect purity of that which is above, yet she is sent as the Redeemer to them that are below. For there is no other way into the Supernal mystery but through her and the Beast on which she rideth.

and from The Vision and the Voice (12th Aethyr):

Let him look upon the cup whose blood is mingled therein, for the wine of the cup is the blood of the saints. Glory unto the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, that rideth upon the Beast, for she hath spilt their blood in every corner of the earth and lo! she hath mingled it in the cup of her whoredom.

She is considered to be a sacred whore because she denies no one, and yet she extracts a great price—the very blood of the adept and his ego-identity as an earthly individual. This aspect of Babalon is described further from the 12th Aethyr:

This is the Mystery of Babylon, the Mother of Abominations, and this is the mystery of her adulteries, for she hath yielded up herself to everything that liveth, and hath become a partaker in its mystery. And because she hath made her self the servant of each, therefore is she become the mistress of all. Not as yet canst thou comprehend her glory.

Beautiful art thou, O Babylon, and desirable, for thou hast given thyself to everything that liveth, and thy weakness hath subdued their strength. For in that union thou didst understand. Therefore art thou called Understanding, O Babylon, Lady of the Night!

The concept contained within this aspect of Babalon is that of the mystical ideal, the quest to become one with All through the annihilation of the earthly ego ("For as thy blood is mingled in the cup of BABALON, so is thine heart the universal heart."). The blood spilling into the graal of Babalon is then used by her to "flood the world with Life and Beauty" (meaning to create Masters of the Temple that are "released" back into the world of men), symbolized by the Crimson Rose of 49 Pedals.

In sex magic, the mixture of menstrual blood and semen produced in the sexual act with the Scarlet Woman or Babalon is called the Elixir Rubeus (abbreviated as El. Rub. by Crowley in his magical diaries), and is referred to as the "effluvium of Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, which is the menstruum of the lunar current" by Kenneth Grant.

The office of the Scarlet Woman

"This is Babalon, the true mistress of The Beast; of Her, all his mistresses on lower planes are but avatars".

Although Crowley often wrote that Babalon and the Scarlet Woman are one, there are also many instances where the Scarlet Woman is seen more as a representative or physical manifestation of the universal feminine principle. In a footnote to Liber Reguli, Crowley mentions that of the “Gods of the Aeon,” the Scarlet Woman and the Beast are “the earthly emissaries of those Gods.” (Crowley 1997, Liber V val Reguli). He then writes in The Law is for All:

It is necessary to say here that The Beast appears to be a definite individual; to wit, the man Aleister Crowley. But the Scarlet Woman is an officer replaceable as need arises. Thus to this present date of writing, Anno XVI, Sun in Sagittarius, there have been several holders of the title.

Individual Scarlet Women

Aleister Crowley believed that many of his lovers were playing a cosmic role, even to the point of fulfilling prophesy. The following is a list of women that he considered to have been (or might have been) Scarlet Women (quotes are from The Law is for All):

• Rose Edith Crowley , Crowley's first wife. —Put me in touch with Aiwas; see Equinox 1, 7, "The Temple of Solomon the King." Failed as elsewhere is on record.

• Mary d'Este Sturges . —Put me in touch with Abuldiz; hence helped with Book 4. Failed from personal jealousies.

• Jeanne Robert Foster . —Bore the "child" to whom this Book refers later. Failed from respectability.

• Roddie Minor —Brought me in touch with Amalantrah. Failed from indifference to the Work.

• Marie Rohling . —Helped to inspire Liber CXI. Failed from indecision.

• Bertha Almira Prykryl . —Delayed assumption of duties, hence made way for No. 7.

• Leah Hirsig —Assisted me in actual initiation; still at my side, An XVII, Sol in Sagittarius.

• Leila Waddell

The Great Mother

Within the Gnostic Mass, Babalon is mentioned in the Gnostic Creed:

And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name BABALON.

Here, Babalon is identified with Binah on the Tree of Life, the sphere that represents the Great Sea and such mother-goddesses as Isis, Bhavani, and Ma'at. Moreover, she represents all physical mothers. Sabazius and Helena (1998) write:

BABALON, as the Great Mother, represents MATTER, a word which is derived from the Latin word for Mother. She is the physical mother of each of us, the one who provided us with material flesh to clothe our naked spirits; She is the Archetypal Mother, the Great Yoni, the Womb of all that lives through the flowing of Blood; She is the Great Sea, the Divine Blood itself which cloaks the World and which courses through our veins; and She is Mother Earth, the Womb of All Life that we know.

Origins

Babylon and Ishtar

Perhaps the earliest origin is the ancient city of Babylon, a major metropolis in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah in Iraq). Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu (bāb-ilû), meaning "Gateway of the god". It was the "holy city" of Babylonia from around 2300 BC, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian empire from 612 BC.

One of the goddesses associated with Babylonia was Ishtar, the most popular female deity of the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon and patron of the famous Ishtar Gate. She is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and the cognate to the northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. The Greeks associated her with Aphrodite (Latin Venus), and sometimes Hera. Ishtar was worshipped as a Great Goddess of fertility and sexuality, but also of war and death, and the guardian of prostitutes. She was also called the Great Whore and sacred prostitution formed part of her cult or those of cognate goddesses. Many have associated Ishtar with the figure in the Book of Revelation of Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots and Abominations.

The Book of Revelation

Babylon is referred to in several places in St. John's Book of Revelation in the Bible (which certainly had an influence on Thelema—Aleister Crowley says he read it as a child and imagined himself as the Beast). She is described in Chapter 17:3-6:

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Babylon is also addressed as a city, usually as an image of a once-glorious paradise that has fallen into ruin, a warning against the evils of decadence:

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Aleister Crowley recorded a revelation of his own in The Vision and the Voice, Second Aethyr, which suggests a non-Christian origin for some of this symbolism:

All I get is that the Apocalypse was the recension of a dozen or so totally disconnected allegories, that were pieced together, and ruthlessly planed down to make them into a connected account; and that recension was re-written and edited in the interests of Christianity, because people were complaining that Christianity could show no true spiritual knowledge, or any food for the best minds: nothing but miracles, which only deceived the most ignorant, and Theology, which only suited pedants.

So a man got hold of this recension, and turned it Christian, and imitated the style of John. And this explains why the end of the world does not happen every few years, as advertised.

Enochian magic

Another source is from the system of Enochian magic created by Dr. John Dee and Sir Edward Kelley in the 16th century. This system is based a unique language, Enochian, two words of which are certainly relevant. The first is BABALOND, which is translated as harlot. The other is BABALON, which means wicked.

Crowley and Germany

Crowley led many German followers of the occult in ceremonies at the Brocken Peaks and Hartz Mountains. During this time he made contact with the major German occultist and second wife of General Erich Luddendorff, Matlhilde. Mathilde was a valuable contact for Crowley among rich dilettantes of the Continent. General Luddendorff, who shared many of his wife's supernatural beliefs, had been head of German Intelligence in Bavaria in the dangerous days of post WWI Germany. It was Luddendorff who sent the young corporal Adolf Hitler, recently demobbed, to spy on the German Soviet forming in Munich. There Hitler was filmed marching in the funeral courtege of Kurt Eisner of the German Soviet, assassinated in a counter-putsch by the Thule Society which member Luddendorff was also a major player in.

Hitler filmed marching in Kurt Eisner's funeral courtege whilst spying on German Soviet for German Intelligence under Luddendorff.

THE THULE SOCIETY

The Thule Society (German: Thule-Gesellschaft), originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum 'Study Group for Germanic Antiquity', was a German occultist and völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend. The Society is notable chiefly as the organization that sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which was later transformed by Adolf Hitler into the Nazi Party. However, there's no evidence Hitler ever attended the Thule Society before its transformation into the Nazi Party.

Origins

The Thule Society was originally a "Germanic study group" headed by Walter Nauhaus, a wounded World War I veteran turned art student from Berlin who had become a keeper of pedigrees for the Germanenorden (or "Order of Teutons"), a secret society founded in 1911 and formally named in the following year. In 1917 Nauhaus moved to Munich; his Thule-Gesellschaft was to be a cover-name for the Munich branch of the Germanenorden, but events developed differently as a result of a schism in the Order. In 1918, Nauhaus was contacted in Munich by Rudolf von Sebottendorff, an occultist and newly-elected head of the Bavarian province of the schismatic offshoot, known as the Germanenorden Walvater of the Holy Grail. The two men became associates in a recruitment campaign, and Sebottendorff adopted Nauhaus's Thule Society as a cover-name for his Munich lodge of the Germanenorden Walvater at its formal dedication on 18 August 1918.

Sebottendorff later claimed that he originally intended the Thule Society to be a vehicle for promoting his own occultist theories, but that the Germanenorden pressed him to emphasize political, nationalist and anti-Semitic themes. The fact that this claim was made while the Nazis were in power and Sebottendorff had little to gain by denying anti-Semitism lends credibility to this claim.

Black Sun logo

Black Sun symbolism formed a central doctrine to the pre-Nazi secret society, the Thule Society. The symbol of the Black Sun also has an alternative design that has no relationship with Nazism, Himmler or Wewelsburg. This Black Sun (image) was also adopted as an emblem for von Liebenfels' New Templars. Scholar Joseph P. Farrell states that in contemporary German Federal Law forbids it to be displayed.

Beliefs

A primary focus of Thule-Gesellschaft was a claim concerning the origins of the Aryan race. "Thule" ((Greek): Θούλη) was a land located by Greco-Roman geographers in the furthest north. The term "Ultima Thule" ((Latin): most distant Thule) is also mentioned by the Roman poet Virgil in his epic poem Aeneid. This was supposed to be the far northern segment of Thule and is now generally understood to mean Scandinavia.

Said by Nazi mystics to be the capital of ancient Hyperborea, they identified Ultima Thule as a lost ancient landmass in the extreme north: near Greenland or Iceland. These ideas derived from earlier speculation by Ignatius L. Donnelly that a lost landmass had once existed in the Atlantic, and that it was the home of the Aryan race, a theory he supported by reference to the distribution of swastika motifs. He identified this with Plato's Atlantis, a theory further developed by Helena Blavatsky, the occultist during the second part of the 19th century. The Thule-Gesellschaft maintained close contacts with Theosophists, the followers of Blavatsky.

Activities

The Thule Society attracted about 250 followers in Munich and about 1,500 in greater Bavaria. Its meetings were often held in the luxury Hotel Vierjahreszeiten ((German): Four Seasons Hotel) in Munich.

The followers of the Thule Society were, by Sebottendorff's own admission, little interested in his occultist theories. They were more interested in racism and combatting Jews and Communists. Nevertheless, Sebottendorff himself planned and failed to kidnap the Bavarian socialist prime minister, Kurt Eisner, in December 1918. After the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, they were accused of trying to infiltrate its government and of having attempted a coup on April 30, 1919. During this attempt, the Soviet government took several members of the Thule Society into custody, and later executed them.

Münchener Beobachter newspaper

In 1918, The Thule Society bought a local weekly newspaper, the Münchener Beobachter (Munich Observer), and changed its name to Münchener Beobachter und Sportblatt (loosely, Munich Observer and Sport Report) in an attempt to improve its circulation. The Münchener Beobachter later became the Völkischer Beobachter ((German): People's Observer), the main Nazi newspaper. It was edited by Karl Harrer.

Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

On 5 January 1919 Anton Drexler, who had developed links between the Thule Society and various extreme right workers' organizations in Munich, together with the Thule Society's Karl Harrer, established the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), or German Workers' Party. Adolf Hitler joined this party later in the same year. By the end of February 1920, the DAP had been reconstituted as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), or National Socialist German Workers' Party, generally known as the "Nazi Party"

Sebottendorff had by then left the Thule Society, and never joined the DAP or the Nazi party. It has been alleged that other members of the Thule Society were later prominent in Nazi Germany: the list includes Dietrich Eckart, Gottfried Feder, Hans Frank, Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg. (Eckart, who coached Hitler on his public speaking skills, had Mein Kampf dedicated to him.) Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke has described such membership rolls as "spurious" and "fanciful", noting that Feder, Eckart and Rosenberg were never more than guests to whom the Thule Society extended hospitality during the Bavarian revolution of 1918, although he has more recently acknowledged that Hess and Frank were members of the Society before they came to prominence in the Nazi party. It has also been claimed that Adolf Hitler himself was a member. Evidence on the contrary shows that he never attended a meeting, as attested to by Johannes Hering's diary of Society meetings. It is quite clear that Hitler himself had little interest in, and made little time for, "esoteric" matters. (See also Hitler's speech of 6 September 1938 on his disapproval of occultism.)

Other members were Karl Fiehler, Wilhelm Frick, Michel Frank, Heinrich Jost, Wolfgang Pongratz, Wilhelm Laforce, Johann Ott, Hans Riemann, Max Seselmann, and Hans-Arnold Stadler. Two well-known aristocrats in the group were Countess Heila von Westarp, a young woman who functioned as secretary, and Prince Gustav von Thurn und Taxis (both of these were among those abducted and executed by the Communist government in Munich on 26 April 1919).

Dissolution

Early in 1920 Karl Harrer was forced out of the DAP as Hitler moved to sever the party's link with the Thule Society, which subsequently fell into decline and was dissolved about five years later, well before Hitler came to power.

Rudolf von Sebottendorff had withdrawn from the Thule Society in 1919, but in 1933 he returned to Germany in the hope of reviving it. In that year he published a book entitled Bevor Hitler kam ((German): Before Hitler Came), in which he claimed that the Thule Society had paved the way for the Führer: "Thulers were the ones to whom Hitler first came, and Thulers were the first to unite themselves with Hitler." This claim was not favourably received by the Nazi authorities: after 1933, esoteric organisations (including völkisch occultists) were suppressed, many closed down by anti-Masonic legislation in 1935. Sebottendorff's book was prohibited and he himself was arrested and imprisoned for a short period in 1934, afterwards departing into a lonely exile in Turkey.

Nonetheless, it has been argued that some Thule members and their ideas were incorporated into the Third Reich. Some of the Thule Society's teachings were expressed in the books of Alfred Rosenberg. Many occult ideas found favour with Heinrich Himmler who, unlike Hitler, had a great interest in mysticism, but the SS under Himmler emulated the ethos and structure of Ignatius Loyola's Jesuit order rather than the Thule Society.

HIMMLER AND THE OCCULT SS

Himmler, the leader of the SS, was the chief architect of the Final Solution. The SS Einsatzgruppen death squads, formed by Himmler, murdered many civilian non-combatants, mostly Jews, in the countries occupied by Germany during World War II. Himmler was responsible for establishing and operating concentration camps and extermination camps in which millions of inmates died of systematic mass gassing, inhumane treatment, overwork, malnutrition, or medical experiments. After the war, the judges of the Nuremberg Trials declared part of the SS, the SD, a criminal organization responsible for the implementation of racial policies of genocide and committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

SS Origins

The SS (‘or Schutzchstaffel’ or ‘Protection Squads’) was first formed in 1923, as a company of the SA tasked with protecting senior leaders of the Nazi Party at rallies, speeches, and other public events. Commanded by Emil Maurice, and known as the Stabswache (Staff Guard), they were nicknamed the "Brown Shirts" according to their dress. The original group consisted of eight men and was modeled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade, a violent Freikorps of the time.

After the failed 1923 Putsch by the Nazi Party, the SA and the Stabswache were abolished, yet they returned in 1925. At that time, the Stabswache was reestablished as the "Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler", tasked with the personal protection of Hitler at Nazi Party functions and events. That same year, the Stosstrupp was expanded to a national level, and renamed as the Schutzstaffel (SS). The new SS was delegated to be a protection company of various Nazi Party leaders throughout Germany. Hitler's personal SS protective unit was later enlarged to include combat units and received the name "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" (LSSAH). After Germany mobilized in 1939, the combat units in the LSSAH were mobilized as well, leaving a small honor guard behind to protect Hitler. It is these SS troops that are seen at Hitler's Obersalzberg estate in his personal 8 mm movie.

Development

Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered merely a battalion of the SA and numbered no more than 280 personnel. On January 6, 1929, Hitler appointed Himmler as the leader of the SS, and by the end of 1932, the SS had 52,000 members. By the end of the next year, it had over 209,000 members. Himmler's expansion of the SS was based on models from other groups, such as the Knights Templar and the Italian Blackshirts. According to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS, Karl Wolff, it was also based on the model from the Society of Jesus of absolute obedience to the Pope. The motto of the SS was "Treu, Tapfer, Gehorsam" (Loyal, Valiant, Obedient).

The Bush Family and Aleister Crowley.

Pauline Pierce, mother of Barbara Bush and lover of Crowley.



Pierce with Barbara, born nine months after an extended stay with Crowley.

Crowley, Pierce's lover and impregnator.

Barbara Bush's mother, Pauline Roberts Pierce, was a follower of Alistair Crowley and travelled to Europe to spend some time with him there. Returning to the U.S., she had Barbara nine months later. Alistair required any women around him to have sex with him, so there is a possibility that he is Barbara's father. In fact, many have noted the striking resemblence between Barbara and Crowley.

SERIAL KILLER TED BUNDY THE BASTARD CHILD OF GEORGE H. W. BUSH?

George H. W. Bush may have been been the father of his bastard son, Theodore Robert Bundy, famed serial killer. Bundy’s mother was seduced in 1946 by a mysterious ‘Jack Worthington’ who as a rakish war veteran who hinted at an old money pedigree and prep school. She lived in Philadelphia where George H. W. Bush, recently released from the US Navy as an officer aviator, frequently travelled to at this time on business. George H. W. Bush matches the description of ‘Jack Worthington’ given by Louise Bundy who bore Ted.

Bush Affiliations with Hitler

Fritz Thyssen with Adolf Hitler

There were little warning signs but few were paying attention when George Bush the poppy ran for president in 1988 and 1992. First during the campaign it surfaced that one of his campaign staffers was a distributor of pro-Nazi propaganda. Before the ink was dry on the individual’s resignation, further revelations showed there were in fact a number of ex-Nazis on Bush’s campaign staff including Laszlo Pastor and Yaroslav Stetsko. Pastor was a member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross during WWII and served as an envoy to Germany. The Arrow Cross was known to be excessively brutal even to their Nazi allies. Stetsko served as the prime minister of the short lived Ukrainian puppet government. During the short reign of this puppet regime over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered in Lvov. George Bush’s insensitivity towards victims of the holocaust is underlined by his employment of Fred Malek, a well-known collaborator with former Nazis in both his presidential campaigns.

Upon winning the presidential race, George Bush, the poppy placed his assets in a blind trust headed by his close friend William Stamps Farish III. That appointment should have triggered alarm bells that something very dark and sinister is buried in the Bush family’s past. His grandfather William Stamps Farish sold the Japanese the gasoline used in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Likewise, the elder Farish supplied Hitler’s war machine with oil and tetraethyl lead. George Bush’s father, Prescott was close friends with the elder Farish and remained so even after the elder’s testimony before congress provoked Harry Truman to cry out "This is Treason."

In fact, during the war, Prescott had three companies seized from him for trading with the Nazis. To understand the web of intrigue and follow the money from the Holocaust to the Bush family we need to start with the period immediately surrounding WWI. By 1916 August Thyssen could see that Germany had already lost the Great War and he needed to protect his fortune. His eldest son had been groomed to run the family steel business in the Ruhr. His second son Heinrich discreetly changed his citizenship from German to Hungarian and married the Hungarian aristocrat Baroness Margrit Bornemisza de Kaszon. Near the end of the war August Thyssen opened the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart in Rotterdam. Holland was a neutral country during the war and the new bank would serve as the perfect location to launder funds from the Thyssen Bank in Berlin and protect his fortune from allied financial demands. At the end of the war Heinrich now going by the name of Baron Thyssen Bornemisza de Kaszon moved to Rotterdam and became the principal owner of the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart. All that remained to be done in August Thyseen’s plan was to set up an American Bank.

In 1922, Averell Harriman traveled to Germany to set up a branch of W.A. Harriman in Berlin. Harriman had hired George Herbert Walker, George Bush’s grandfather to run both the New York and Berlin branches of his expanding investment firm. During his stay in Germany Harriman had met the Thyseen family and agreed to help the Thyssen’s set up an American bank.

In 1923, Germany was in economic shambles and Thyssen met with his friend General Ludendorff, who advised him that Germany’s hope lied with Hitler and the Nazi Party. Thyssen soon became a financial backer of the Nazis and Hitler.

Early in 1924, Hendrick J. Kouwenhoven, the managing director of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, traveled to New York. Meeting with Walker and the Harriman brothers, they founded the Union Banking Corporation. In 1926, August Thyssen died the eldest son Fritz expanded the Thyssen empire by creating United Steel Works. Thyssen also brought Fredich Flick on board. The Thyssen-Flick union was designed to suppress the union movement. As a result of the merger of Thyssen and Flick, George Walker hired his son in law Prescott Bush to manage the United Steel Works account. One division of United Steel Works consisted of both Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation and the Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Company. Both were located in the mineral rich Silesian area of Poland. The arrangement was extremely profitable for all four men: Thyssen, Flick, Walker and Bush until the depression started in 1929. Congressional investigations after the war showed that United Steel had supplied 50.8 percent of the pig iron in Nazi Germany and likewise was a major supplier of all other ferrous based metal products needed by Hitler’s war machine. Hence, one of the largest munitions makers in Nazi Germany was funded by Prescott Bush, the father and grandfather of two future US Presidents.

Due to the depression, Harriman merged with Brown forming the Brown Brothers and Harriman firm. Internally the stock of Consolidated Silesian Steel Company was held by the Harriman 15 Corporation formed by Harriman and Bush. Two thirds of the stock was owned by Flick. By 1934, with Hitler in solid control of Germany the profits from the Thyssen-Flick union soared to over a hundred million. Both Union Bank and the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart were overflowing with money. Prescott Bush became managing director of Union Bank and took over the day-to-day operations of the German plan.

In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland ending a dispute over taxes between Consolidated and the Polish government. The Nazis original plan was to replace the workers in Polish factories with Soviet prisoners. However, that portion of the Hitler-Stalin agreement was never implemented. Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation was located near the Polish town of Oswiecim. When the plan to use Soviet prisoners as forced labor fell through, the Nazis began shipping Jews, communists, gypsies and other minority populations to the camp the Nazis had set up. This was the beginning of Auschwitz. The reason Auschwitz was located there was because of the abundant supplies of coal which could be processed into aviation fuel. I.G. Farben soon built a plant near Auschwitz to take advantage of not only of the nearby coal deposits but also of the slave labor supply available at Auschwitz. According to a Dutch intelligence agent, Prescott Bush managed a portion of the slave labor force in Poland.

Thyssen and Flick sold Consolidated Steel to UBC. Under the complete control of Harriman and Bush’s management, the company became Silesian American Corporation, which became part of UBC and Harriman's portfolio of 15 corporations. As the 1930s progressed and it became clearer that war was imminent, Bush and Harriman hired the Dulles brothers to conceal the Nazi money and ownership in Union Bank. In concealing the involvement of the Nazis in Union Bank, Prescott Bush and Harriman undoubtedly knew that they were already engaged in an activity that was probably illegal and certainly not in the best of interests of their country. Once war broke out however, Bush’s activities on the behalf of the Nazis through Union Banking became tantamount to treason.

The reader should understand that the concealing of Nazis assets located in the United States through a maze of corporate shells often based in Switzerland was an integral part of the German battle plan. In fact, the Nazi had a word for it, tarnung or to camouflage. The primary aim of these concealed Nazi corporations was to wage economic warfare by creating production bottlenecks for their adversary. The reader should also be aware that two Americans were present during the secret meeting of the German elite that brought Hitler to power. Those two Americans were John Foster and Allen Dulles.

Two of the directors of Union Banking Groninger and Kouwenhoven, were Nazi directors of the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, formerly the von Heydt Bank. Von Heydt was also a Nazi and has been identified as the intermediary between the Guaranty Trust and Adolf Hitler. Both Groninger and Kouwenhoven contributed lavishly to Himmler’s Circle of Friends. There were over forty firms around Auschwitz using slave labor from the death camp. Soon the Nazis had a massive store of gold from dental fillings, glasses and jewelry. The Nazis extracted the fillings of its victims after being informed by Degussa that the company could refine it into marketable gold bullion. Degussa was awarded an exclusive contract with the Nazis to refine all gold. The company was also joint owners with I.G. Farben of Degesch, a firm that produced Zyklon-B cyanide tablets used in the gas chambers. Due to the hoard of gold fillings stacking up at Auschweitz, Degussa built a smelter there. The bullion was then shipped back to Berlin and commingled with the Nazis gold stash. Undoubtedly some of it made its way back to the banker in charge of United Steel Works, Prescott Bush.

On October 20, 1942 the United States government seized Union Banking under the Trading with the Enemy Act. During that summer, The New York Tribune had exposed Bush and Thyssen whom it called Hitler’s Angel. Union Bank’s books revealed a myriad of Nazi money and holding companies. Officials realized they had only scratched the tip of the iceberg. On November 17, 1942, the government seized Silesian American Corporation and placed its operation under the Government Alien Property custodian office.

Following the war, authorities seeking to locate the Dutch Royal family’s jewelry discovered the transaction papers of the Silesian American Corporation in the books of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart. The bank manager, H.J. Kounhoven came under intense scrutiny and was shocked by the discovery. Soon Kounhoven traveled to New York to inform Prescott Bush. Dutch authorities date the meeting as soon after Christmas 1947. Two weeks later, the otherwise healthy Dutch banker died of a heart attack. Coincidentally, this was the method of choice of the Gehlen network for liquidating people. The Nazis had perfected a method of inducing heart attacks that autopsies could not detect.

On February 8, 1951, Thyssen died in Argentina. Following his death, the Alien Property Custodian released the assets of the Union Banking Corporation to Brown Brothers Harriman. The remaining shareholders quietly cashed in their remaining shares. Prescott Bush received $1.5 million for his share in Union Banking’s blood money.

This brief article has only scratched the surface of the sordid association of Prescott Bush with the Nazis as he had yet a third company seized from him during the war. In his first run for senator, Prescott was defeated after his position within the eugenics movement was disclosed. George the poppy has followed in his father’s footsteps and retained many of the same family connections with the Nazis. For instance, as chairman of the Republican Party he presided over the formation of the Ethnic Heritage groups of the Republican Party. This was a reward for the Nazi quislings from Eastern Europe for helping in the election of Nixon as president. When two or more ethnic groups were vying for control over a particular group invariably the group with close ties to the Nazis won out. George also shows the same intense interest in population control. Perhaps it was for his beliefs in eugenics, George appointed Draper as his expert on population. Or perhaps it was more of a reward for past services rendered by Draper to the Bush family. Draper was the former general placed in control of the military government‘s economic division after the war. Draper was a rabid racist and member of the Eugenics Society. He was also a former employee of Dillion and Reed, the large Wall Street brokerage house that floated the largest German bond offerings including one for United Steel Works. In his position as economic czar of Germany, he stopped the dismantling of an I.G. Farben plant and was in the ideal slot to protect his former clients that armed Hitler, including Bush.

The same close associations are apparent with Bush junior. One interesting pattern in international relations is ready observed that the Israeli government moves to the hard right whenever a Bush is in the Oval Office. Considering, Israel has one of the best intelligence agencies in the world and a perhaps the most extensive data base on the holocaust, could the Israeli hard-liners be blackmailing the Bushes? Do they have a smoking gun that would at once end the political aspirations of the entire Bush clan as well as place the family wealth at risk for damages suffered during the Holocaust? One researcher already says the family wealth is at risk in such suits; the ties are that strong.

Any reasonable person understands that the tragedy of 9-11 was allowed to happen. Only the White House can order the interceptors to stand down, once an aircraft deviates from its flight plan or contact is lost. Within 30 minutes of the time the golfer’s plane that decompressed failed to follow directions from the control tower a fighter was alongside and shadowed the plane until it ran out of fuel and crashed in the midwest. The story that no fighters were available is simply a lot of bullshit. There are probably no less than a dozen or more airports within range of New York and Washington DC with fighter squadrons on standby. Yet, Bush wants us to believe that the entire East Coast was left unprotected with no fighters to provide air cover including the restricted airspace over the White House. The 9-11 conspiracy was the Reichstag fire and the so-call Patriot Act, the enabling act for another fascist government.

Thus the link between the Bush family and Hitler’s Nazi Germany is easily established – just as firmly as the Bush family’s connection to Crowley. What was Crowley’s connection to Hitler? Deeply involved in the occult through the early philosophies of Guido Litz on Aryanism and Ariotheosophy, Hitler was sent by the secret Thule Society of Bavaria to initially spy on the formulating Nazi Party after World War One. During the closing stages of the Great War Hitler had been blinded in a gas attack and suffered periods of hysterical blindness. He was experimented on by a psychiatrist for two weeks during which Hitler later claimed in ‘Mein Kamph’ he experienced a revelation. This psychiatrist was assassinated by the S.S. in 1934 and had all his records destroyed. Once in power, Hitler swept away all occult organizations and imprisoned many important members in concentration camps. Many religions and sects were persecuted from the Jews to the Catholics to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Freemasons were also imprisoned and killed. Crowley’s representitive in Germany was Karl Germer, born 22 January 1885 in Elberfeld, who came over to America after being released from Nazi confinement. In 1942, Crowley appointed him as his successor as O.T.O, the office he filled after the death of Crowley in 1947. He died 25 October 1962 in Westpoint, California.

What is the connection between Crowley’s serpents, Scientology's Sea Org, Guardian Office and the German S.S. and Gestapo? This revelation from Hubbard's own son might provide part of the answer...

"As an interesting sidelight, the same individual that transmitted the various Magick tech to Adolf Hitler as a young man also transmitted them to Dad. And like Dad, Hitler, when he came to power, promptly had his teachers and the occult field in general wiped out. This might answer for you in some small way the similarities of the Sea Org and the Guardian's Office to the S.S. and Gestapo.

"Remember the old revolutionary rule which states one has to, the moment one comes to power, suppress those very things that achieved the power. You must not allow the populace or anyone else to do the things you did to get you there." -- L.R. Hubbard Jr.

Here is what Hubbard's son shares with us about his father's preoccupation with drugs, power and mind games:

"He first became involved in the Magick at the age of sixteen, when he read Aleister Crowley's book, The Book of the Law. And because of that Book of the Law, he also started his heavy drug usage trail which led to heavier and heavier use of drugs on himself and of course others in order to reach his goals - to be the most powerful being in the universe. If L. Ron Hubbard had a great deal of knowledge and very little wisdom, then Aleister Crowley did too. The difference between the two men was that Aleister Crowley had very little motivation.

"Aleister felt rather contented to just quietly be the Beast 666 instead of implementing the Magick for personal gain. This lack of drive and ambition, I think, pushed Dad onward, because to him the only reason and purpose for power was the exercising and the using of it.

"It was his goal to be the most powerful being in the universe. He came very close to achieving this goal. As you know, one is always greater than that which he creates. And if L. Ron Hubbard can create OTs, that makes L. Ron Hubbard what?

"When Aleister Crowley died in 1947 that's when Dad decided he would take over the mantle of the Beast and that is the seed and the beginning of Dianetics and Scientology." -- L.R. Hubbard Jr.

Thus a power struggle broke out over the Lion-Serpent position of Great Beast in 1947 between Hubbard and the recently Operation Paperclipped Germer until Germer's unexpected death in 1962.

FREEMASONRY & SERPENTS

Abraham the Israelite father of mankind, and Hiram of the Freemasons, are one and the same, and both are based upon serpent worshippers with Indian Naga or serpent deity backgrounds. A grand statement, but one that has been made by many.

Flavious Josephus said in his History of the Jews:

These Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers; they are named by the Indians Catani.

Megasthenes, sent to India by Seleucus Nicator, also said that the Jews were called Kalian and that they were an Indian tribe.

Clearchus of Soli said:

The Jews descend from the philosophers of India. The philosophers are called in India Albanians and in Syria Jews. The name of their capital is very difficult to pronounce. It is called Jerusalem.

If Abraham as the father of the Jewish race is therefore a legendary figure of India, then who is he? And did he exist at all? Its time to upset traditionalists.

The obvious person for an Indian Abraham is Brahma (A-Brahma) who just happens to have a consort and sister named Saraisvati ­ which is amazingly similar to the name of the Biblical Abrahams wife - Sarai. Indeed Abraham is said to have learned his trade in Ur (the Ur of the Chaldeans in the Bible ­ said to be in ancient Sumer), which is very close to the Persian border ­ being en-route to India.

It is also a fact that the name of Brahma spread throughout this entire area ­ so much so, that the Persians even adopted him as one of their deities. So, the very area where Abraham is said to have learned his priestly trade is the very area that the Indian Brahma was being spread and worshipped. What more can we find within this area of the Chaldeans?

The Chaldeans were called Kaul-Deva, and they were a priestly caste living in among other places, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Pakistan. (Kaul-Deva meaning the Shining Calani, hence these were enlightened Shining Ones, a group going back to ancient Sumeria and outlined in my book The Shining Ones).

So Abraham/Brahma learned his trade among the Chaldees, who were a priestly caste related to the Indian sub-continent and were the Shining priesthood or enlightened souls. In this respect then Abraham was simply a title given to the high priest or Lord of the sect of Brahma. But if, like in ancient Egypt, he needed to duplicate the life of the gods, then he too would have needed a wife/sister. The fact that Saraisvati was both Brahma consort and sister, also relates to the Biblical account of Abraham.

But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. (Genesis 20:12.)

This same pattern of hidden Gnosis would later become part of the Mary/Jesus myth. The complex twists and turns that modern writers such as Dan Brown in the Da Vinci Code seem to have to create to explain the seemingly peculiar nature of Jesus relationship with Mary the Mother and Mary Magdalene are really quite remarkable. In fact it is simple.

Like Sarai is Saraisvati, she is also Isis, the greatest of Egyptian goddesses. Mary too is a duplicate of Isis. You see Isis was the consort of Osiris, hence the wife part. She was therefore the mother of Horus the Saviour - hence the mother of god. But Horus was Osiris reincarnated and so Isis was also his sister. Mary the Mother, Mary Magdalene the lover/consort and Mary of Bethany the sister are really and truly the hidden aspects of a much older Gnostic tradition that has no literal element at all! The three Mary are in reality three aspects of the one feminine principle - the feminine trinity.

Of course, we could find ourselves in trouble here, as nowhere does it state that Mary of Bethany was the sister of Jesus. However, its does state that Mary of Bethany was the sister of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, or more pertinently was Jesus, raised from the dead.

You see, in Egyptian mythology it was the role of the son of God and saviour, Horus, to raise his father, Osiris, from the dead and in a sense resurrect himself, as Horus was Osiris resurrected.

However, Lazarus and Osiris are distinctly different names and so cannot be related. How wrong this is, although there is still much debate on the exact etymology, many believe that there is a proven link. How?

The ancient Egyptian designation for Osiris was Asar or Azar. Now, when the Egyptians spoke of their Gods they indicated them with the and so we would have had the Azar. This term the also meant Lord or God, like the Greek word for God The-os or Theos. One of the Hebrew terms for Lord was El and was applied to their many deities, such as El-Shaddai or El-hoim. So when the Hebraic writers included Osiris in their myths they put him in as El-Azar ­ The Lord Osiris. This in the later Latin translation was changed to El-Azar-us. This use of the us was the way that masculine names ended under the Roman language. In fact, in Arabic Lazarus is still spelt El-Azir, hence missing the us. So we now have El-Azar-us, which reduced further into Lazarus. In this way the Egyptian, or should we say much older mythos, became the literal truth of the Biblical record.

Horus therefore raised El-Azar-us or El-Osiris from the dead, just as Christ was to raise Lazarus. This story in itself is an allegory of the sun god Osiris being reborn but never the less gives us the remarkable fact that Mary of Bethany, as the sister of Lazarus, was in literary and esoteric reality, the sister of Jesus.

And so, as we find that Jesus and Mary were in reality based upon a much older Egyptian mythology, which itself stretches back even further in time to ancient Sumeria, we also find that the story of Abraham and Sarai are no different. In the Koran (6:75) we find that Abrahams father was called Azar (Osiris), and so Abraham was Horus, just as Jesus was Horus. Lo and behold, we also discover (Luke 16: 22-25) that Lazarus himself rested in the bosom of Abraham, just as Osiris as the crippled god, rested in his resurrecting son arms.

And it was this Abraham, this Brahma or Osiris, that is said to have spawned the very Children of Israel. Lets take a look at Abraham's sons and see if we can reveal the hidden serpent lineage or serpent secrets that we found elsewhere in The Serpent Grail.

Abraham's son Ishmael, by Hagar, his maidservant, also had children who lived in India, or Havilah (land of serpents), as it is in Genesis. Both famous sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac have names that revert back to the worship of that serpent Hindu deity Siva.

Ishmael is Ish-Maal in Hebrew, and in Sanskrit, Ish-Mahal means Great Siva. Isaac is Isaac in Hebrew, and Shah in Sanskrit ­ which means Friend of Siva. Most startling of all is the very name of Abraham himself, which could mean that Abraham was nothing other than a Naga King - Abs Ram - actually means exalted snake.

Hiram, the famous Freemasonic and Biblical builder of Temples was Ahi-Ram and it is time to take a look at this mythical character.

Hiram and the Temple

Hiram of Tyre, the son of a Jewish mother and a Phoenician father is credited with the decoration of the fabled Temple of Solomon. He was said to have been the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali . . . He cast two bronze pillars 1 Kings 7:13-15.

The standard of the Tribe of Naphtali, according to Jewish tradition is a serpent or basilisk and this could have come from the Jewish sojourn into Egypt, as Jewish tradition states that Naphtali was the brother of Joseph chosen to represent the family to Pharaoh. Hiram is also said to be a son of the Tribe of Dan (Chronicles 11) and even the tribe of Dan had an emblem, which was the serpent and the horse. Barbara Walker in The Womans Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets points out:

Writers of the Old Testament disliked the Danites, whom they called serpents (Genesis 49:17). Nevertheless, they adopted Dani-El or Daniel, a Phoenician god of divination, and transformed him into a Hebrew prophet. His magic powers were like those of the Danites emanating from the Goddess Dana and her sacred serpents. Daniel was not a personal name but a title, like the Celtic one.

Here we have a distinct conclusion, that Daniel of the Bible is related to the very same Danu or Dana goddess of Celtic Europe and that this goddess is conclusively related to serpents ­ in this case the serpents astrological sign as worshipped by the Danites. We also have confirmation that the Jewish people collected their belief system from those around them. Thus far, as we have gathered, they have melded the beliefs of India, Egypt and now Phoenician into their own growing system.

According to the book of Chronicles, this son of Dan, Hiram, was a cunning man, endued with understanding and skilful in the work of gold, silver, brass, stone and timber. He was also credited with certain tools, which could pierce stone. According to the book of Kings the Temple was prepared in stone before it was brought to the site ­ being something like a ready-made or prefabricated building. It was said that neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron was used in the building. So how was it built? At least, symbolically?

Well, in Exodus, Moses is told to build an altar to the Lord without tools, lest he should pollute it, and it seems the same symbolism was utilized here in the building of the Temple. According to Rabbinical teaching the prefabrication was performed by the Shamir, a giant worm or serpent that could cut stones. Not dissimilar to Norse and Celtic beliefs where Valhalla and Camelot were built with the fire of the dragon. According to the Islamic accounts of Rashi and Maimonides, the Shamir was a living creature. This is hardly likely, unless we understand this creature to be ourselves. Indeed what is more likely is that the idea of the wisdom of the worm (which evolved from the word orm for serpent anyway) or snake, Shamir, was used in the construction of the symbolic Temple of man - a Gnostic belief.

It was fabled that serpent-linked Nagas escaped their country and took this deep and seemingly, architectural, wisdom abroad. This linking of the esoteric and underlying principles of self-illumination manifested here in architectural symbolism eventually gave rise to modern Freemasonry.

The architect gods such as Thoth or Hermes are linked strongly with the serpent wisdom as we discovered in The Serpent Grail. Other references also link the Shamir to the snake, such as the Testament of Solomon, which calls it a green stone, like the Emerald Tablet, which obviously provides further evidence for the Shamir to have been serpent wisdom.

Returning to Hiram we find that the name Hir-Am actually means exalted head of the people: (Hir = Head, exalted, Am = people) ­ and is closely related to Abraham (Ab Hir Am).

However, it also has another and more telling meaning.

Ahi-Ram actually means exalted snake. So, in either meaning Hiram was the exalted head or snake, both meanings being paramount to the discovery of the thread of the snake cult and religious underlying beliefs - the mixture of the opposites within ones own head as shown in The Serpent Grail.

Hiram was also believed by some (according to David Wood in his book, Genesis) to be descended from Cain via Tubal-Cain who was said to be the only survivor of the superior race after the flood.

The race is supposed to be called Elohim (people of the snake) or the Shining Ones, also known as the serpent people. This tale is derived from a text known as E or Elohim from around 750 BC and also gives rise to the stories of the Dionysiac Architects - themselves also linked with the Freemasons.

No wonder therefore that the pillars of Hiram should be related closely to the worship of the snake. Rosslyn and especially one of its mock Temple pillars, as we are now so acutely aware, is entwined with the symbolism of snakes ­ not just as a direct relation to the Norse myths of Yggdrassil, with its gnawing serpent ­ but ultimately as symbols of the religious power of the Gnostic serpent.

On the Secret Scroll discovered by Andrew Sinclair one of the most important images is the sight of a large, coiled, Serpent beneath the Temple steps, with a crown, a pick and a shovel, as if pointing towards the excavation of the Temple itself.

There is a legend which may back up Andrew Sinclair's findings and which he does not mention.

This oriental legend tells how the Queen of Sheba was attracted to Hiram and that King Solomon became jealous ­ so jealous in fact, that he plotted the death of Hiram. Molten metal used in the casting of a brazen sea was going to be used to kill Hiram, but he was saved by the spirit of Tubal-Cain ­ his ancestor ­ who is linked with serpent worship - he was therefore saved by the serpent from death. Hiram threw his jewel down a deep well, but was then killed by Solomon's assassins by a blow to the head. It was said that three masters later found the body and venerated it. The jewel was found and placed on a triangular altar, which Solomon then had erected in a secret vault beneath the Temple. (Josephus, Antiquities V111, 3:4) What was the jewel of this builder, which caused so much veneration? Whatever it was, later crusader knights ­ under the guise of Knights Templars ­were supposedly to dig furiously beneath the Temple to discover. Of course the Templars are believed to have dug for other items, they and others, such as St. Bernard, thought were located there ­ like the Ark of the Covenant. It may be of course that even this is symbolic and Gnostic language - the eternal search for our own divinity.

Following these dubious excavations both the Templars and the Cistercians under St. Bernard grew in immense wealth. Great building works were carried out across Europe ­ all hiding secret symbolism of the snake, and all using the architectural skills discovered whilst on their travels in the Middle East. Greatest of all however is the symbolism that was brought back with them and which invaded European culture like a contagious virus, seeping into and onto our buildings and works of art and keeping alive an ancient tradition for us to one day rediscover.

The hollow and non-literal Brazen Pillars of Hiram became the twin pillars of the later Masons ­ who themselves, like Moses as the emergent serpent, emerged from the Templars. These pillars were said to be hollow and to contain secret manuscripts ­ which reminds us of the supposed discovery of the manuscripts from Rennes Le Chateau, also thought to have been found inside a pillar. In truth they do hold a secret, but not one that can be held in the hand.

Now it is time to take a look at another exterior source on the modern Freemasons to see if there are any parallel influences at play - the Dionysiac Architects we have just mentioned.

These are said by Masonic historians to be the prime originators of their guilds. A secretive group or secret society with doctrines said by Manly P. Hall (in Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy) to be similar to the Freemasons. They are thought to have been great builders, reminiscent of the idea of the great architectural Nagas who escaped India.

It was supposedly this secret society, under Hiram Abiff, who built the Temple of Solomon and erected the great brass pillars now seen as Boaz and Joachim in Masonry. They were also known as the Roman Collegia and were said to have wandered around like the Medieval Masons, building such fantastic places as the Temple of Diana at Ephesus (John Weisse, The Obelisk and Freemasonry.)

Weisse also points out that the Collegia influenced the Islamic building efforts, which were later to become a turning point in Western European architecture after the crusades and possibly via the Collegia's influence over the Templars amongst others.

These Collegia were also thought to have been known before the Romans in Greece and were said to have worshipped the serpentine Bacchus. Considering the Masonic fascination with the Druids, there is little wonder that the infamous historian and archaeologist William Stukely believed them to have been the builders of Stonehenge and other ancient monuments. Many Masonic writers love to associate themselves with the Druids and we find that they had a high veneration for the Serpent. Their great god Hu, was typified by that reptile. George Oliver, Signs and Symbols (Macoy Publishing New York.)

If it is true that the Dionysiac Architects and the Bacchus/Dionysius-worshipping Greek and Roman Collegia, were among the originators of the Freemasons, then it is highly likely that they were linked also with the serpent-worshipping Druids who were also known as Adders or Snakes. They were all in fact a later showing of the worldwide serpent cult ­ the same as those in India, Egypt and elsewhere, who all had fantastic building skills and held secrets of the true and hidden Gnostic traditions. Today we can still see a remnant of this great architectural, serpent-worshipping and secretive cult in the Masons. As George Oliver points out The Serpent is universally esteemed a legitimate symbol of Freemasonry and now we see its history is world-wide and some would say justifiably kept alive within the initiated Freemasons.

Notes:

1. Brahma is the subtle life-force or the spirit itself and Saraisvati was the River of Life. See The Wonder that was India by A. L. Basham, Fontana Ancient History, 1967.

2. Mahadeva, one of Siva's names, is often represented with a snake entwined around his neck, arms and hair. His consort, Parvati, is likewise represented. Bhairava, the Avatar of Siva, sits upon the coils of a serpent, whose head rises above that of the gods. According to Hyde Clarke & C. Staniland Wake in Serpent and Siva Worship, Siva is the same as Rudra, the healer, and is called the King of Serpents. He is depicted with a garland of skulls, symbolizing time measured in years, the changing of ages. He is called sometimes Nagabhushana Vyalakalpa or having serpents round his neck and Nagaharadhrik or wearing serpent-necklaces and also Nagaendra, Nagesha or king of Nagas is also known as Nakula, the mongoose which means one who is immune from the venom of the snake.

3. See Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed by Philip Gardiner due out March 06 under Radikal Books.

4. The word, Emerald comes from the Greek, smaragdos, which simply means green stone­ although true emeralds have been popular for well over 4,000 years. Cleopatra, the famous Queen of Egypt who died from the bite of an Asp, was fond of them ­ and more than any other gem! She had the emerald mined near Aswan. The emerald is found on Jewish breastplates and is used as Indian Talismans. Spaniards stole it during the conquest of South America and the Incas held it in high veneration. It is said to cure fevers, epilepsy, leprosy, dysentery, opthalmia, bleeding, liver problems and stings from venomous beasts. It was also strangely said to blind serpents.

The Emerald Tablet is a summary of alchemical thought - existing in Arabic and Greek - and mainly having roots in Roman and Greek alchemy, especially that of Hermes - thus bringing to mind that it must originate from the same source as the Dionysiac Architects or the Roman Collegia.

One of the earliest recordings of its existence is from an 8th century, Arabic work. Some relate the Emerald to the Sacro Catino of Genoa, the supposed Holy Grail, said to have been in the possession of the Queen of Sheba, which was made from green or emerald glass.

It was believed that a physician named Galienus who calls it the Table of Zaradi recovered The Tablet from the Thrice Great Hermes. Many believe Galienus to be the surgeon Galen, but others believe it to be a mistranslation of Balinas (Apollonius of Tyana.) If this is the case, then the Emerald Tablet of the great serpent deity, Hermes, would be coming directly from the sage who visited the Naga (serpent) kings of India and Kashmir and who is himself said to be long-lived.

The term, Zaradi derives from the word for underground cave or chamber and alludes to an otherworldly domain ­ possibly the Shamanic Underworld.

Other people said to have discovered the Tablet are equally incorporated into the serpent worship story. This includes Alexander the Great and Zara (Sarah) the wife of Abraham ­who is said to have taken it from the hands of Hermes just after the Flood.

BEWARE THE HALF-PIG (WO)MAN

CENTURIES I (by Nostradamus)

64

At night (they) will think (they) have seen the sun,
When (they) see the half pig man:
Noise, screams, battles seen fought in the skies,
The brute beasts will be heard to speak.

NOTE: Barbara Bush underwent heart surgery to replace her heart valve with that of a pig's. George H. W. Bush joked that she was making "piggy noises".

NOTE: The armored presidential limosine that both Bush Presidents and Barbara have ridden in on numerous occasions is known as 'The Beast' and has a loud speaker system that can broadcast to the surrounding area.

NOTE: G. H. W. Bush's secret Skull & Bones initiation name is 'Magog', a mythical beast-giant.

G.W. BUSH & THE "GOAT" (RAM) OF MENDES

On the morning of the 9/11 attacks, Bush was reading a copy of "My Pet Goat" upside down (classic Satanic symbolism) before a school class. Despite his country being under attack, he continued to sit there.

9/11 CULTURE OF DEATH & THE LION-SERPENT

NOTE: Freemasonry revolves around twin mystical pillars that need to be reconsecrated periodically. There is little doubt that today's high-rises and skyscrapers are the replacement for our earlier civilizations' pyramids and ziggurats. What was once built by the Egyptians and Aztecs serves as the model for our buildings today. Periodically they need to be destroyed to be reconsecrated. This is done by the high priests of the current civilization - in our terms the high priests of capital.

WHO ARE THE DRACONIANS?

VAMPIRIC LINKS OF THE ROYAL WINDSORS

Prince Harry's Direct Blood Connection to Vlad ('The Dragon') Dracul - 'Dracula'

VLAD'S CONNECTION TO BUSH AND KERRY (YALE SKULL & BONESMEN & BOHEMIAN GROVERS)

BUSH & KERRY'S BLOOD CONNECTIONS:

CULT OF THE REPTILIAN GOD

And Look What Happens When You Dare Ask About Skull & Bones Fraternity at Yale:

Skull and Bones is a secret society based at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. The society's alumni organization, which owns the society's real property and oversees the organization's activity, is the Russell Trust Association, and is named after General William Huntington Russell^[1] founding member of the Bones' organization along with fellow classmate Alphonso Taft. In conversation, the group is known as "Bones", and members have been known as "Bonesmen".^[2]

In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, both the Democratic and Republican nominees were members. George W. Bush writes in his autobiography, "[In my] senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society; so secret, I can't say anything more."^[3] When asked what it meant that he and Bush were both Bonesmen, former Presidential candidate John Kerry said, "Not much because it's a secret."^[4][5] In October, 1942, the US government (under America's Trading with the Enemy Act) seized a bank, the Union Banking Corporation and three shipping companies owned and operated by four members of Skull and Bones; Prescott Bush, Averell Harriman, E. Roland Harriman and Knight Wolley. The seizure was given a "classified" status until 2002 and thus had no effect on the subsequent elections and appointments of Averell Harriman or Prescott Bush to high government offices.^[6][7]

History

"Sometime in the early 1830s, a Yale student named William H. Russell —the future valedictorian of the class of 1833- traveled to Germany to study for a year. Russell came from an inordinately wealthy family that ran one of America’s most despicable business organizations of the nineteenth century: Russell and Company, an opium empire. Russell would later become a member of the Connecticut state legislature, a general in the Connecticut National Guard, and the founder of the Collegiate and Commercial Institute in New Haven. While in Germany, Russell befriended the leader of an insidious German secret society that hailed the death’s head as its logo. Russell soon became caught up in this group, itself a sinister outgrowth of the notorious eighteenth-century society the Illuminati."^[8]

Skull and Bones was said, in 1903, to be formed in 1832 as a result of a dispute among Yale's debating societies, Linonia, Brothers in Unity, and Calliope over the Phi Beta Kappa awards.^[9]

It was once referred to as The Brotherhood of Death,^[10] but a more common alternative name was Eulogia. The only "chapter" of Skull and Bones created outside Yale was a chapter at Wesleyan University in 1870. That chapter, the Beta of Skull & Bones, became independent in 1872 in a dispute over control over creating additional chapters; the Beta Chapter reconstituted itself as Theta Nu Epsilon.^[11]

The emblem of Skull and Bones is a skull with crossed bones, over the number "322". Some have speculated that 322 stands for "founded in '32, 2nd corps", referring to a first Corps in an unknown German university.^[12] Others suggest that 322 refers to the era of Demosthenes and that documents in the society hall have purportedly been found dated to "Anno-Demostheni".^[13]

There are others who link "322" to the Illuminati, Freemasons, and "666", the mark of the Beast, as described in the book of Revelation in the Bible.[4]

Members meet in the "tomb" on Thursday and Sunday evenings of each week over the course of their senior year. As with other Yale societies, the sharing of a personal history is the keystone of the senior year together in the "tomb".

Members are assigned nicknames. “Long Devil" is assigned to the tallest member; "Boaz" goes to any member who is a varsity football captain. Many of the chosen names are drawn from literature ("Hamlet," "Uncle Remus"), from religion and from myth. The banker Lewis Lapham passed on his name, "Sancho Panza," to the political adviser Tex McCrary. Averell Harriman was "Thor," Henry Luce was "Baal," McGeorge Bundy was "Odin.” George H.W. Bush was "Magog," a name reserved for a member considered to have the most sexual experience. George W. Bush, unable to decide, was temporarily called "Temporary," and the name was never changed.^[14]

Skull and Bones also owns a campground island in the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York named Deer Island. "The 40-acre (160,000 m²) retreat is intended to give Bonesmen an opportunity to 'get together and rekindle old friendships.' A century ago the island sported tennis courts and its softball fields were surrounded by rhubarb plants and gooseberry bushes. Catboats waited on the lake. Stewards catered elegant meals. Although each new Skull and Bones member still visits Deer Island, the place leaves something to be desired. 'Now it is just a bunch of burned-out stone buildings,' a patriarch sighs. 'It's basically ruins.' Another Bonesman says that to call the island 'rustic' would be to glorify it. 'It's a dump, but it's beautiful.'"^[15]

Lore

Bones "tomb" showing A. J. Davis' towers, north facade.

The first extended description of Skull and Bones, published in 1871 by Lyman Bagg in his book Four Years at Yale, noted that "the mystery now attending its existence forms the one great enigma which college gossip never tires of discussing."^[16] Brooks Mather Kelley attributed the secrecy of Yale senior societies to the fact that underclassmen members of freshman, sophomore, and junior class societies remained on campus following their membership, while seniors naturally left.^[17]

The secrecy surrounding Skull and Bones has been a fertile ground for speculation, and all sorts of conspiracy theories include Skull and Bones. One particular event was originally considered a conspiracy theory but was found to be a matter of American History when documents in several US. government archives' locations were de-classified and discovered by several media outlets. That was the internet theory which claimed that companies owned and operated by Skull and Bones members had financed and supplied Hitler's rise to power and war effort before and after America's engagement in WW2. In October,1942, the US government applied America's Trading with the Enemy Act to seize the Union Banking Corporation and three shipping companies owned and operated by Skull and Bones members; Prescott Bush, Averell Harriman, E. Roland Harriman and Knight Wolley. Information about the seizure was "classified" until 2002 and then was widely reported by several international news outlets. Subsequent to the seizures and secretization of same, Averell Harriman was elected Governor of New York and Prescott Bush was elected to the U.S. Senate.^[18][19] The society is alleged to have illicit connections to the CIA, Illuminati, Bilderbergers, and/or Freemasons. These theories were the basis of the fictional 2000 film The Skulls which concerns a highly elaborate secret society with clear parallels to Skull and Bones. Bones was also included, as well as the a cappella group the Whiffenpoofs, in the 2006 film The Good Shepherd, about the Central Intelligence Agency. Skull and Bones has also featured from time to time in the Doonesbury comic strips by Garry Trudeau; especially in 1980 and December 1988, with reference to George H.W. Bush, and again at the time that the society went co-ed.

Symbolism

The Skull and Bones society has chosen as its emblem the skull and crossbones. Perhaps best known as the Jolly Rogers, this symbol is the international symbol for piracy. This symbol was also chosen by Heinrich Himmler as the "Deaths Head symbol" to symbolize a return to prosperity for the members of the elite killing society of the SS. Additionally, the skull and bones is also the international symbol for poison. The chosen symbolism for this society is especially significant as Skull and Bones members will not talk openly about the moral and ethical positions of their organization. In other words, it is the only "face" of the organization that they will present to the public.

Motto

"Bari Quippe Boni"

Nature makes only a few who are good.

Skull & Bones Hall and its architecture

The Skull & Bones Hall is otherwise known as "Tomb". The architectural attribution of the original hall is in dispute. The architect was possibly Alexander Jackson Davis (1803–1892) or Henry Austin (1804–1891). Architectural historian Patrick Pinnell includes an in-depth discussion of the dispute over the identity of the original architect in his 1999 history of Yale's campus.^[20]

The building was built in three phases: in 1856 the first wing was built, in 1903 the second wing, and in 1911, Davis-designed Neo-Gothic towers from a previous building were added at the rear garden. The front and side facades are of Portland brownstone and in an Egypto-Doric style.

The 1911 additions of towers, (relocated from another Yale building), in the rear created a small enclosed courtyard in the rear of the building, designed by Evarts Tracy and Edgerton Swartwout, Tracy and Swartwout, New York.^[21] Evarts was not a Bonesman, but his paternal grandmother Martha Sherman Evarts and maternal grandmother Mary Evarts were the sisters of William Maxwell Evarts (S&B 1837). Pinnell speculates whether the re-use of the Davis towers in 1911 was evidence suggesting that Davis did the original building; conversely, Austin was responsible for the architecturally similar brownstone Egyptian Revival gates, built 1845, of the Grove Street Cemetery, to the north of campus. Also discussed by Pinnell is the "tomb's" aesthetic place in relation to its neighbors, including the Yale University Art Gallery.^[22] Additional data can be seen here. New Hampshire landscape architects Saucier & Flynn designed the wrought-iron fence that currently surrounds a portion of the complex in the late 1990s.^[23]

Bonesmen

Judy Schiff, Chief Archivist at the Yale University Library, has written: "The names of (S&B's) members weren't kept secret, that was an innovation of the 1970s, but its meetings and practices were. The secrecy seems to have attracted fascination and curiosity from the start."

While resourceful researchers could assemble member data from these original sources, in 1985 an anonymous source leaked rosters to a private researcher, Antony C. Sutton, who wrote a book on the group titled America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. This leaked 1985 data was kept privately for over 15 years, as Sutton feared that the photocopied pages could somehow identify the member who leaked it. The information was finally reformatted as an appendix in the book Fleshing out Skull and Bones, a compilation edited by Kris Millegan, published in 2003.^[24]

References

1. ^ The New York Times, "Change In Skull And Bones. Famous Yale Society Doubles Size of Its House - Addition a Duplicate of Old Building", published September 13, 1903
2. ^ Stevens, Albert C. (1907). 'Cyclopedia of Fraternities: A Compilation of Existing Authentic Information and the Results of Original Investigation as to the Origin, Derivation, Founders, Development, Aims, Emblems, Character, and Personnel of More Than Six Hundred Secret Societies in the United States'. E. B. Treat and Company. pp. 338.
3. ^ George W. Bush, A Charge to Keep, (1999) ISBN 0-688-17441-8
4. ^ washingtonpost.com: Bush, Kerry Share Tippy-Top Secret
5. ^ Meet the Press[1]
6. ^ "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar.
7. ^ "Documents: Bush's Grandfather Directed Bank Tied to Man Who Funded Hitler". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100474,00.html#.
8. ^ Robbins, Alexandra. Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Back Bay Books, 2003.
9. ^ The New York Times, "Change In Skull And Bones. Famous Yale Society Doubles Size of Its House - Addition a Duplicate of Old Building," published September 13, 1903
10. ^ Sutton, Antony C. America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. 2003.
11. ^ http://thetanuepsilon.com/03HistSoc/History.html
12. ^ Ibid Robbins.
13. ^ Stevens, Albert C. (1907). 'Cyclopedia of Fraternities: A Compilation of Existing Authentic Information and the Results of Original Investigation as to the Origin, Derivation, Founders, Development, Aims, Emblems, Character, and Personnel of More Than Six Hundred Secret Societies in the United States'. E. B. Treat and Company. pp. 340.
14. ^ The Atlantic Monthly http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200005/bush-skull-bones, May, 2000.
15. ^ Alexandra Robbins, TheAtlantic.com
16. ^ Yale Alumni Magazine: Old Yale at www.yalealumnimagazine.com
17. ^ Yale: A History, Brooks Mather Kelley, (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, Ltd.), 1974
18. ^ "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar.
19. ^ "Documents: Bush's Grandfather Directed Bank Tied to Man Who Funded Hitler". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100474,00.html#.
20. ^ Yale's Lost Landmarks at www.yalealumnimagazine.com
21. ^ "Yale University" 1999 Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 1568981678 [2]
22. ^ "Yale University" 1999 Princeton Architectural Press, p.42, ISBN 1568981678 [3]
23. ^ Fence information
24. ^ Fleshing Out Skull and Bones

Further reading

• Millegan, Kris, ed. Fleshing Out Skull and Bones: Investigations into America's Most Powerful Secret Society. Walterville, OR: Trine Day, 2003. ISBN 0-9720207-2-1
• Sutton, Antony C. America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. Walterville, OR: Trine Day, 2003. ISBN 0-9720207-0-5
• Begin, Jeremy. Fighting for G.O.D. (Gold, Oil, and Drugs). Walterville, OR: Trine Day, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9777953-3-8
• Tarpley, Webster, et al. George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography. Washington, D.C.: Executive Intelligence Review, 1992. ISBN 0-943235-05-7. Available free on the web: http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm
• Robbins, Alexandra. Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Back Bay Books, 2003. ISBN 0-316-73561-2
• "Whose Skull and Bones?," Kathrin Day Lassila '81 and Mark Alden Branch '86, Yale Alumni Magazine, May/June 2006
• "Geronimo's family calls on Bush to help return his skeleton." The Independent, June 1, 2006.
• Skull & Bones Society: A rare look inside Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society and sometime haunt of the presumptive Republican nominee for President, by Alexandra Robbins
• Cody Tedford. Powerful Secrets. Hannover, 2008. ISBN 1-4241-9263-3

External links

• Skull and bones
• Apaches accuse Prescott Bush of robbing Geronimo's grave
• Yale Old Campus, Skull and Bones "Tomb". opens in Google earth
• Skull and Bones property: Deer Island opens in Google earth
• Deer Island photos & information at NewRuins
• How the Secret Societies Got That Way (Yale Alumni Magazine)
• 2001 NEWS Report about Skull and bones ritual at YouTube - ABC News' Dan Harris reports on covertly shot footage that exposes the "Bonesmen" of Skull & Bones as they perform occult rituals at "The tomb" in New Haven. The video - shot with nightvision technology and a microphone - was secretly captured with a hidden camera on the evening of April 14, 2001 by New York Observer reporter Ron Rosenbaum. (This video is hosted by YouTube.com)
• Audio and transcript the April 23, 2001 ABC News segment: Behind the Closed Doors of a Secret Society - ABC News' Dan Harris reports on covertly shot footage that exposes the "Bonesmen" of Skull & Bones as they perform occult rituals at "The tomb" in New Haven. The video - shot with nightvision technology and a microphone - was secretly captured with a hidden camera on the evening of April 14, 2001 by New York Observer reporter Ron Rosenbaum. Link has additional pertinent information, as well.

SAY YOU'LL BREAK OUT - YOU NEVER DO - YOU'RE JUST ANOTHER ANT IN THE HILL!

THE BILDERBERG GROUP.

The Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an unofficial annual invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are persons of influence in the fields of politics, business and banking.

The elite group meets annually at luxury hotels or resorts throughout the world — normally in Europe, and once every four years in the United States or Canada. It has an office in Leiden in the Netherlands.^[1] The 2008 conference took place in Chantilly, Virginia.^[2][3]

Origin and purpose

The original Bilderberg conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem in The Netherlands, from May 29 to May 31, 1954. The meeting was initiated by several people, including Joseph Retinger, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, who proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting understanding between the cultures of United States of America and Western Europe.^[4]

Retinger approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who agreed to promote the idea, together with Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and the head of Unilever at that time, the Dutchman Paul Rijkens. Bernhard in turn contacted Walter Bedell Smith, then head of the CIA, who asked Eisenhower adviser C. D. Jackson to deal with the suggestion.^[5] The guest list was to be drawn up by inviting two attendees from each nation, one each to represent conservative and liberal points of view.^[6]

The success of the meeting led the organizers to arrange an annual conference. A permanent Steering Committee was established, with Retinger appointed as permanent secretary. As well as organizing the conference, the steering committee also maintained a register of attendee names and contact details, with the aim of creating an informal network of individuals who could call upon one another in a private capacity. Conferences were held in France, Germany, and Denmark over the following three years. In 1957, the first U.S. conference was held in St. Simons, Georgia, with $30,000 from the Ford Foundation. The foundation supplied additional funding of $48,000 in 1959, and $60,000 in 1963.^[5]

Dutch economist Ernst van der Beugel took over as permanent secretary in 1960, upon the death of Retinger. Prince Bernhard continued to serve as the meeting's chairman until 1976, the year of his involvement in the Lockheed affair. There was no conference that year, but meetings resumed in 1977 under Alec Douglas-Home, the former British Prime Minister. He was followed in turn by Walter Scheel, ex-President of West Germany, Eric Roll, former head of SG Warburg and Lord Carrington, former Secretary-General of NATO.^[7]

List of Bilderberg attendees

Number of politicians who have attended one or more conferences organized by the Bilderberg Group.

The steering committee does not publish a list of attendees, though some participants have discussed their attendance publicly. Others have been legally required to declare their involvement. For example, members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom must declare their participation in its Register of Members' Interests. Historically, attendee lists have been weighted towards politicians, bankers, and directors of large businesses,^[8] but academics, journalists, and representatives from the non-profit sector are also invited to attend.

Heads of state have attended meetings, including Juan Carlos I of Spain^[9] and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands^[10]. While serving members of government do not usually attend, prominent politicians from North America and Europe are past attendees. In recent years, board members from many large publicly-traded corporations have attended, including IBM, Xerox, Royal Dutch Shell, Nokia and Daimler.^[10]

Criticism

The group is frequently accused of secretive and nefarious world plots by groups such as the John Birch Society.^[11] This thinking has progressively found acceptance within both elements of the populist movement and fringe politics. ^[12] Radio host Alex Jones claims the group intends to dissolve the sovereignty of the United States and other countries into a supra-national structure called the North American Union, similar to the European Union.

Jonathan Duffy, writing in BBC News Online Magazine states "No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted... In the void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around the group that alleges the fate of the world is largely decided by Bilderberg."^[13]

According to investigative journalist Chip Berlet, the origins of Bilderberger conspiracy theories can be traced to activist Phyllis Schlafly. In his 1994 report Right Woos Left, published by Political Research Associates, he writes:

The views on intractable godless communism expressed by Schwarz were central themes in three other bestselling books which were used to mobilize support for the 1964 Goldwater campaign. The best known was Phyllis Schlafly's A Choice, Not an Echo which suggested a conspiracy theory in which the Republican Party was secretly controlled by elitist intellectuals dominated by members of the Bilderberger group, whose policies would pave the way for global communist conquest.^[14]

Denis Healey, a Bilderberg founder and former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, denies the meeting determines government policy. He was quoted by BBC News as saying "There's absolutely nothing in it. We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg. It's simply a place for discussion."^[13]

Etienne Davignon, a former vice president of the European Commission and Bilderberg attendee, stated "this is not a capitalist plot to run the world."^[15]

Meetings

• 1954 (May 29-31) at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands
• 1955 (March 18-20) at the Hotellerie Du Bas-Breau in Barbizon, France
• 1955 (September 23-25) at the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany
• 1956 (May 11-13) at the Hotel Store Kro in Fredensborg, Denmark
• 1957 (February 15-17) at the King and Prince Hotel in St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA
• 1957 (October 4-6) at the Grand Hotel Palazzo della Fonte in Fiuggi, Italy
• 1958 (September 13-15) at the The Palace Hotel in Buxton, United Kingdom
• 1959 (September 18-20) at the Çinar Hotel in Yeşilköy, Istanbul, Turkey
• 1960 (May 28-29) at the Palace Hotel in Bürgenstock, Nidwalden, Switzerland
• 1961 (April 21-23) at the Manoir St. Castin in Lac-Beauport, Quebec, Quebec, Canada
• 1962 (May 18-20) at the Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden
• 1963 (May 29-31) in Cannes, France
• 1964 (March 20-22) in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
• 1965 (April 2-4) at the Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, Italy
• 1966 (March 25-27) at the Nassauer Hof Hotel Wiesbaden in Wiesbaden, West Germany
• 1967 (March 31-April 2) in Cambridge, United Kingdom
• 1968 (April 26-28) in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
• 1969 (May 9-11) at the Hotel Marienlyst in Helsingør, Denmark
• 1970 (April 17-19) at the Grand Hotel Quellenhof in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
• 1971 (April 23-25) at the Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, Vermont, USA
• 1972 (April 21-23) at the La Reserve di Knokke-Heist in Knokke, Belgium
• 1973 (May 11-13) at the Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden
• 1974 (April 19-21) at the Hotel Mont d'Arbois in Megeve, France
• 1975 (April 22-24) at the Golden Dolphin Hotel in Çeşme, İzmir, Turkey
• 1976 no conference. The 1976 Bilderberg conference was planned for April at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia, USA. Due to the ongoing Lockheed scandal involving Prince Bernhard at the time, it had to be cancelled.
• 1977 (April 22-24) at the Paramount Imperial Hotel in Torquay, United Kingdom
• 1978 (April 21-23) at the Chauncey Conference Center in Princeton, New Jersey, United States
• 1979 (April 27-29) at the Grand Hotel Sauerhof in Baden bei Wien, Austria
• 1980 (April 18-20) at the Dorint Sofitel Quellenhof Aachen in Aachen, West Germany
• 1981 (May 15-17) at the Palace Hotel in Bürgenstock, Nidwalden, Switzerland
• 1982 (May 14-16) at the Rica Park Hotel Sandefjord in Sandefjord, Norway
• 1983 (May 13-15) at the Château Montebello in Montebello, Quebec, Canada^[16]
• 1984 (May 11-13) at the Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden
• 1985 (May 10-12) at the Doral Arrowwood Hotel in Rye Brook, New York, United States
• 1986 (April 25-27) at the Gleneagles Hotel in Gleneagles, Auchterarder, United Kingdom
• 1987 (April 24-26) at the Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, Italy
• 1988 (June 3-5) at the Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol in Telfs-Buchen, Austria
• 1989 (May 12-14) at the Gran Hotel de La Toja in Isla de La Toja, Spain
• 1990 (May 11-13) at the Harrison Conference Center in Glen Cove, New York, United States
• 1991 (June 6-9) at the Steigenberger Badischer Hof Hotel, Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe in Bühl (Baden) in Baden-Baden, Germany
• 1992 (May 21-24) at the Royal Club Evian Hotel, Ermitage Hotel in Évian-les-Bains, France
• 1993 (April 22-25) at the Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel in Vouliagmeni, Greece
• 1994 (June 2-5) at the Kalastajatorppa Hotel in Helsinki, Finland
• 1995 (June 8-11) at the Palace Hotel in Bürgenstock, Nidwalden, Switzerland
• 1996 (May 30-June 2) at the CIBC Leadership Centre aka The Kingbridge Centre in King City, Ontario, Canada
• 1997 (June 12-15) at the Pine Isle resort in Lake Lanier, Georgia, United States
• 1998 (May 14-17) at the Turnberry Hotel in Turnberry, United Kingdom
• 1999 (June 3-6) at the Caesar Park Hotel Penha Longa in Sintra, Portugal
• 2000 (June 1-4) at the Chateau Du Lac Hotel in Genval, Brussels, Belgium
• 2001 (May 24-27) at the Hotel Stenungsbaden in Stenungsund, Sweden
• 2002 (May 30-June 2) at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia, United States
• 2003 (May 15-18) at the Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles, France
• 2004 (June 3-6) at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees in Stresa, Italy
• 2005 (May 5-8) at the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Überfahrt in Rottach-Egern, Germany^[17]
• 2006 (June 8-11) at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada^[18]
• 2007 (May 31 - June 3) at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel,^[19] in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey.^[20]
• 2008 (June 5-8) at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia, United States^[2][3]

See also

• Trilateral Commission
• Council on Foreign Relations

References

1. ^ The masters of the universe, Asia Times, May 22, 2003, accessed on August 18, 2007
2. ^ ^{a b} "Balkenende to Meet Bush in Washington". NIS News Bulletin. 2008. http://www.nisnews.nl/public/200508_2.htm. Retrieved on 2008-05-25.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Bilderberg Announces 2008 Conference". BusinessWire. 2008. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080605006246&newsLang=en. Retrieved on 2008-06-07.
4. ^ Hatch, Alden (1962). "The Hôtel de Bilderberg". H.R.H.Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands: An authorized biography. London: Harrap. ISBN B0000CLLN4.
5. ^ ^{a b} Valerie Aubourg (June 2003). Organizing Atlanticism: the Bilderberg Group and the Atlantic Institute 1952-63.
6. ^ Hatch, Alden (1962). "The Hôtel de Bilderberg". H.R.H.Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands: An authorized biography. London: Harrap. ISBN B0000CLLN4. "The idea was to get two people from each country who would give the conservative and liberal slant"
7. ^ Rockefeller, David (2002). Memoirs. Random House. pp. 412. ISBN 0-679-40588-7.
8. ^ Caroline Moorehead (April 18, 1977). "An exclusive club, perhaps without power, but certainly with influence: The Bilderberg group". The Times.
9. ^ Mark Oliver (June 4, 2004). "The Bilderberg group". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jun/04/netnotes.markoliver.
10. ^ ^{a b} "Bilderberg Meeting of 1997 Assembles". PR Newswire. June 13, 1997. http://www.prnewswire.de/cgi/release?id=42594.
11. ^ John Birch Society: “the Bilderberg” http://www.publiceye.org/rightwoo/rwooz9-04.html
12. ^ [RIGHT WOOS LEFT http://www.publiceye.org/rightwoo/rwooz9.html#P8_45
13. ^ ^{a b} Jonathan Duffy (2004-06-03). "Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3773019.stm.
14. ^ Chip Berlet (1994). "The New Right & The Secular Humanism Conspiracy Theory". http://www.publiceye.org/rightwoo/rwooz9-03.html.
15. ^ Escobar, Pepe (2005-05-10). "Bilderberg strikes again". Asia Times. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GE10Aa02.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-15.
16. ^ High-security fences surround resort town in preparation for summit, Edmonton Journal, August 18, 2007, accessed on August 19, 2007
17. ^ "Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy.". http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GE10Aa02.html. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
18. ^ Panetta, Alexander (2006). "Secretive Bilderbergers meet". www.thestar.com. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1149803410449&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
19. ^ What was discussed at Bilderberg?, Turkish Daily News, June 5, 2007, accessed on August 18, 2007
20. ^ Bilderberg 2007 - Towards a One World Empire?, Nexus Magazine, Volume 14, Number 5 (August - September 2007), accessed on August 18, 2007

• Ronson, Jon (2001). THEM: Adventures with Extremists. London: Picador. ISBN 0-330-37546-6.
• Eringer, Robert (1980). The Global Manipulators. Bristol, England: Pentacle Books. ISBN 0906850046.

External links

• "Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group". BBC News. 2005-09-29. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4290944.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-05.
• "Elite power brokers meet in secret". BBC News. 2003-05-15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3031717.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-05. BBC News May 15, 2003
• Guardian article on the group - an excerpt from Jon Ronson's book Them
• CTV.ca - Shadowy group meets amid secrecy in Ottawa
• The world's most powerful secret society - 1998 article from Punch magazine

THE BOHEMIAN GROVE'S OWL & THE CREMATION OF CARE

Bohemian Grove is an 2,700-acre (11 km²) campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a three-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world.

The Bohemian Club's all male membership includes many artists, particularly musicians, as well as many prominent business leaders, government officials (including some U.S. presidents), and senior media executives. As a measure of the club's exclusivity, it is reported the waiting list for membership is from 15 to 20 years, though a fast track, three-year membership process is possible, but two current members must sponsor the prospective member. An initiation fee of $25,000 as of 2006 is required in addition to yearly membership dues. Elected members are allowed to prorate the initiation fee into equal annual payments until they reach the age of 45.

After 40 years of membership the men earn "Old Guard" status, giving them reserved seating at the Grove's daily talks, as well as other perquisites. Members may also invite guests to the Grove although those guests are subject to a rigorous screening procedure. Guests come from across America and overseas. Californian guests are generally limited to attendance at the "Spring Jinxes", in June, preceding the main July encampment.

The Grove motto is "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here", which implies that outside concerns and business deals are to be left outside. However, there is demonstrable evidence of political and business deals having been developed at the Grove. The Grove is particularly famous for a Manhattan Project planning meeting that took place there in September of 1942, which subsequently led to the atomic bomb. Those attending this meeting, apart from Ernest Lawrence and military officials, included the president of Harvard and representatives of Standard Oil and General Electric. Grove members take particular pride in this event and often relate the story to new attendees.

History

Bohemian Grove was established over time, shortly after the founding of the Bohemian Club in 1872. For several years, the members of the Club camped together at various locations, including the present Muir Woods, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and a separate redwood grove near Duncans Mills, down river from the current location. Regular July encampments similar to those held today began in 1899.

The first parcel of the grove was purchased from Melvin Cyrus Meeker who developed a successful logging operation in the area. Gradually over the next decades, members of the Club purchased land surrounding the original location to the perimeter of the basin in which it resides. This was done to secure the rights to the water, so that its water supply would not be affected by uphill operations.

Not long after the Club's establishment by newspaper journalists, it was commandeered by prominent San Francisco-based businessmen, who provided the financial resources necessary to acquire further land and facilities at the Grove. They still retained the "bohemians" however — the artists and musicians — who continued to entertain international members and guests.

The Grove itself consists of redwood trees over 1,500 years old. It is a spectacular nature preserve, untouched by logging, and containing many elevated walkways. This traditional "purity" underpins the Cremation of Care ceremony (see below).

Past attendees

The Bohemian Club is a private club; only active members of the Club (known as "Bohos") and their guests may visit the Grove. These guests have been known to include politicians and notable figures from countries outside the US. Particularly during the midsummer encampment, the number of guests is strictly limited due to the small size of the facilities and membership in the Bohemian Club does not necessarily confer the right to attend the annual encampment. Nevertheless, up to 2,900 members and guests have been reported as attending some of the annual encampments.

Facilities

The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expensive entertainment, such as an elaborate Grove Play (known as "High Jinx") and musical comedies ("Low Jinx") — where female roles are played by men in drag — produced by the members and associate members of the Club. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

There are also sleeping quarters, or "camps" scattered throughout the grove, of which it is reported there were a total of 118 as of 2007. These camps, which are frequently patrilineal, are the principal means through which high-level business and political contacts and friendships are formed. For senior corporate executives, the camps are said to be the pinnacle of socio-political networking in the US.

According to Joel van der Reijden (see External Links below for a full list of camps and substantive details on the past affiliations of the camps' members), the pre-eminent camps are:

• Hill Billies (Big Business/Banking/Politics/Universities/Media);
• Mandalay (Big Business/Defense Contractors/Politics/U.S. Presidents);
• Cave Man (Think Tanks/Oil Companies/Banking/Defense Contractors/Universities/Media);
• Stowaway (Rockefeller Family Members/Oil Companies/Banking/Think Tanks);
• Uplifters (Corporate Executives/Big Business);
• Owls Nest (U.S. Presidents/Military/Defense Contractors);
• Hideaway (Foundations/Military/Defense Contractors);
• Isle of Aves (Military/Defense Contractors);
• Lost Angels (Banking/Defense Contractors/Media);
• Silverado squatters (Big Business/Defense Contractors);
• Sempervirens (Californian-based Corporations);
• Hillside (Military — Joint Chiefs of Staff)

• Grove Stage — it is an amphitheater with seating for 2,000 used primarily for the Grove Play production, on the last Friday of the midsummer encampment. The stage extends up the hill side, and is also home to the second largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.
• Field Circle — a bowl-shaped amphitheater used for the mid-weekend, "Low Jinx" musical comedy, as well as for variety shows.
• Campfire Circle — has a campfire pit in the middle of the circle, surrounded by carved redwood log benches. Used for smaller shows in a more intimate setting.
• Museum Stage — a semi-outdoor venue with a covered stage. Lectures and small ensembles shows.
• Dining Circle — seating approximately 1500 diners simultaneously.
• Club House — built in 1903, it is the site of the Manhattan Project planning meeting held in 1942 (see above).
• The Owl Shrine and the Lake — an artificial lake in the middle of the grove, used for the noon-time concerts and also the venue of the Cremation of Care, that takes place on the first Saturday of the encampment. It is also the location of the daily (12.30pm) "Lakeside Talks." Professor G. William Domhoff (see below) states these significant informal talks (many on public policy issues) have been given over the years by entertainers, professors, astronauts, business leaders, cabinet officers, CIA directors, future presidents and former presidents; these have been the subject of ongoing controversy, as the transcripts of these talks are rarely released to the public (though have been known to be used for such mundane purposes as reading for the lecturer's graduate students).

Camp Valets

Camp valets are responsible for the operation of the individual camps. The "head" valets are akin to a general manager's position at a resort, club, restaurant, or hotel.

Symbolism and rituals

Since the founding of the club, the Bohemian Grove's symbol has been an owl, and a forty-foot concrete owl symbolizing knowledge stands at the head of the lake in the Grove and, since 1929, has served as the site of the yearly "Cremation of Care" ceremony (see below). The club's motto, Weaving Spiders Come Not Here, is taken from the second scene of Act 2 from A Midsummer Night's Dream; it signifies that the Grove is limited to exchanges about mutual concerns and is characterized by the term "the Bohemian Spirit."

The Club's patron saint is John of Nepomuk, who legend says suffered death at the hands of a Bohemian monarch rather than disclose the confessional secrets of the queen. A large wood carving of St. John in cleric robes with his index finger over his lips stands at the shore of the lake in the Grove, symbolizing the secrecy kept by the Grove's attendees throughout its long history.

Cremation of Care

The Cremation of Care was devised in 1893 by a member named Joseph D. Redding, a lawyer from New York. G.W. Domhoff, a sociologist, obtained access to the Bohemian Club's records and membership and was able to conduct extensive research about the organization and their activities. He was able to detail the Cremation of Care ceremony, along with the High and Low Jinx and other ceremonies and plays of the Club.

The ceremony involves the poling of a small boat across a lake containing an effigy of Care (called "Dull Care"). Dark, hooded individuals receive the effigy from the ferryman which is placed on an altar and at the end of the ceremony, is set on fire. This "Cremation of Care" symbolizes that within the Bohemian Grove members leave the care of the outside world

The ceremony takes place next to a 45-foot (14 m) high concrete owl statue, symbolizing knowledge. During the ceremony, the voice of the former-newsman Walter Cronkite, a member of the Bohemian Club, is used as the voice of The Owl. Music and fireworks accompany the ritual, for dramatic effect.

The ritual was also performed in 1913 at the world famous "Red Rocks" Amphitheater, along with a ceremony entitled "The arrival of the goddess of prosperity".

Alex Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove in 2000 and filmed the final portion of the ceremony for his film Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. The grove and Jones' investigation were also covered by Jon Ronson in Channel 4's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World.

Protests and controversies

With its combination of wealth and power, Bohemian Grove's secrecy has been a target for protest for many years. The Bohemian Grove Action Network organizes protests and has aided journalists who wish to penetrate the secrecy surrounding the encampment. Over the years, individuals have infiltrated the Grove then later published video and claimed accounts of the activities at Bohemian Grove.

On July 15, 2000, Austin, Texas-based filmmaker Alex Jones and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, became the first people to infiltrate the Grove successfully and make it out with documented evidence. With a hidden camera, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ritual. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones' documentary, Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones claims that the Cremation of Care is an "ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremony," and that the owl statue is Moloch, although ancient descriptions of Moloch suggest a human figure with the head of a bull rather than an owl.

Also filmed for The Order of Death was Jones' return to the entrance of the Bohemian Grove in 2005 where he filmed a protest organized by the Bohemian Grove Action Network that took place at the Grove's entrance on Bohemian Highway, only to discover a majority of the protesters engaging in an "occult counter-ritual", supposedly a counter-ritual against the "Cremation of Care".

A British journalist, Jon Ronson of Channel 4, documented his view of the ritual in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists. Ronson felt it was a startling, immature, and weird way for world leaders to spend their summer vacations, but did not see evidence of covert Satanism. According to his description of the account it was nothing more than a fraternity-esque ritual, and the only reason one could see it as Satanic was if one was looking for Satanism in it to begin with.

Actor/writer Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap, Saturday Night Live), who has attended at least one Bohemian Club event, wrote and directed The Teddy Bears' Picnic, a parody of the Bohemian Grove conspiracy.

Quotations

• (President Bill Clinton to a heckler): "The Bohemian club! Did you say Bohemian club? That's where all those rich Republicans go up and stand naked against redwood trees right? I've never been to the Bohemian club but you oughta go. It'd be good for you. You'd get some fresh air".
• "The club, which holds two-week outings outside San Francisco at the Bohemian Grove, where members run about in the woods naked, includes many former Republican officials...Editor's Note [from NY Times]: A brief article on June 11 reported the resignation of David R. Gergen, from the all-male Bohemian Club in California after his appointment as counselor to President Clinton. The article said the club holds two-week outings every summer at which 'members run about in the woods naked.' Although similar assertions have appeared in various newspapers over the years, The Times should have cited evidence or attribution to support that description of what the members do at the outings, or should have omitted it. Richard K. Arnold, a spokesman for the club, says it is not true." The New York Times
• "The Bohemian Grove, that I attend from time to time — the (inaudible) and the others come there — but it is the most faggy goddamn thing that you would ever imagine. The San Francisco crowd that goes in there, it's just terrible. I can't even shake hands with anybody from San Francisco." — President Richard M. Nixon, Bohemian Club member starting in 1953 (Domhoff, p 15);
• "If I were to choose the speech that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction in my political career, it would be my Lakeside Speech at the Bohemian Grove in July 1967. Because this speech traditionally was off the record it received no publicity at the time. But in many important ways it marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency." — President Richard Nixon again, in a more mellow mood, in his Memoirs (1978), cited by Domhoff below. (The rule that sitting presidents are not allowed to attend the Grove was sparked by a media clamour to cover a Lakeside Talk that Nixon wanted to give in 1971, but was forced by the directors of the Grove to withdraw).
• "The mood is reminiscent of high school. There's no end to the pee-pee and penis jokes, suggesting that these men, advanced in so many other ways, were emotionally arrested sometime during adolescence" — Philip Weiss, Spy Magazine journalist, who infiltrated the Grove in 1989

WHAT THEY WANT...

This anthology comprises the work of Captain Waste (below), Tim 'Son of Sam' Oswald (bottom) and other authors.