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"Begone, dull Care! I prithee begone from me! Begone, dull Care! thou and I shall never agree." - Playford: Musical Companion, 1687. John Playford was the foremost publisher of music in England from 1651 to the end of the Interregnum and beyond (to 1686).
Lady MacBeth: "Fill the cup with the choicest wine. Give life to pleasure And death to sorrow. Let hate and scorn fly from us and let love alone reign here. Let us savour the balm for every wound which gives new life to the heart. Let us cast dull care from our hearts; give life to pleasure and death to sorrow." All: "Let us cast dull care" - Lady MacBeth in Giuseppe Verdi's adaption of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. The original was from 1604 and did not include the 'dull care' theme. Verdi's version went in premiere in 1847.
"Begone, dull care, I prithee be gone from me, Begone dull care, you and I will never agree: Long time hast thou been tarrying here And fain thou would'st me kill, But i'faith, dull care, Thou never shall have thy will. Too much care will make a young man turn grey, And too much care will turn an old man to clay: My wife shall dance and I shall sing, So merrily pass the day, For I hold it one of the wisest things To drive dull care away." - Broadside ballad entitled 'Begone Dull Care.' Estimated period of publication is from 1850 to 1870. Possibly a complete copy of John Playford's version.
"And let bonfires be kindled on every hill And let her subjects dance around them at their freewill; And try to drive dull care away By singing and rejoicing on the Queen's Jubilee day." - William Topaz McGonagall (1830 - 1902)
"A little whiskey now and then Is relished by the best of men; It surely drives away dull care, And makes ace high look like two pair." -Unknown
"Wherefore to me,- and many others of us, these two seemed not to be human beings, but veritable demons, and what the poets call vampires: who laid their heads together to see how they could most easily and quickly destroy the race and deeds of men; and assuming human bodies, became man-demons, and so convulsed the world. And one could find evidence of this in many things, but especially in the superhuman power with which they worked their will… For when one examines closely, there is a clear difference between what is human and what is supernatural… Thus not by human, but by some other kind of power they accomplished their dreadful designs. And they say his mother said to some of her intimates once that not of Sabbatius her husband, nor of any man was Justinian a son. For when she was about to conceive, there visited a demon… One man said that the Emperor suddenly rose from his throne and walked about… and immediately Justinian's head vanished, while the rest of his body seemed to ebb and flow; whereat the beholder stood aghast and fearful, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him. But presently he perceived the vanished head filling out and joining the body again as strangely as it had left it. Another said he stood beside the Emperor as he sat, and of a sudden the face changed into a shapeless mass of flesh, with neither eyebrows nor eyes in their proper places, nor any other distinguishing feature; and after a time the natural appearance of his countenance returned… Furthermore some of Theodora's lovers, while she was on the stage, say that at night a demon would sometimes descend upon them and drive them from the room, so that it might spend the night with her… And when he arrived there (a monk), he forthwith secured an audience with the Emperor; but just as he was about to enter his apartment, he stopped short as his feet were on the threshold, and suddenly stepped backward… like a man who has had a stroke staggered back to his lodging… And when some followed to ask why he acted thus, they say he distinctly declared he saw the King of the Devils sitting on the throne in the palace, and he did not care to meet or ask any favor of him. Indeed, how was this man likely to be anything but an evil spirit, who never knew honest satiety of drink or food or sleep, but only tasting at random from the meals that were set before him, roamed the palace at unseemly hours of the night, and was possessed by the quenchless lust of a demon? If anyone tried to propitiate him and in suppliance beg him to forgive his victims, he would grin like a wild beast, and woe betide those who saw his teeth thus bared!" - Procopius of Caesarea, council to Byzantine Emperor Justinian and officially recognized historian. This text is excerpted from his book, 'The Secret History', which was only published after his death in 560.
"Melqart was part of the triad of deities worshipped by the Phoenicians. El, the supreme protector of the universe, Melqart, the son of El, and Astarte, the mother-goddess." "The rites of Melqart were attended by barefoot priests wearing caps and white linen robes, ungirdled... Many items are recorded as sacrificed to the god Melqart; birds and animals, food and drink, even humans at times. A human was ritually immolated in an annual festival. This practice is later found to be part of the Druid rites in Britain also. Evidence of sacrificial rites similar to Moloch, where children are ‘passed through the fire’, imply that Melqart and Moloch are the same, or that Melqart took on some of the practices of the Ammonite god, Moloch." "A religious sanctuary, or sacrificial temenos, has been found at Motya in Sicily, and at Hadrumentum in North Africa, which supplies ample evidence of child sacrifice. This area was called the ‘topheth’ in ancient literature. The victims were usually infants, although older children and adults are also found. Depending upon the purpose, the victims could be of either sex, and the first-born son was considered the most effective." "Many inscriptions from grave stele at Carthage mention infant sacrifice, and adults are also mentioned, although much rarer. The practice of immolating one adult each year to Melqart is attested also." "The Temple of Melqart was similar to that built by Solomon in Jerusalem... The temple area of the Phoenician god Melqart generally was an open area centered around an altar or betyl (rough hewn stone pillar)... " "As mentioned before, the practice of Druidism and the rites of the Phoenician Melqart have a lot in common. However, the Phoenicians did not arrive in Britain in any large numbers. The religion of Melqart was spread to the Iberians and Celts, who then were forced to flee ahead of the Romans when the Druidic religion was banned by the Romans. The Druid priests traveled to Britain, carrying their religious practices with them." "The High Priests were often married, occasionally to priestesses, and the priesthood remained in particular families for many generations, handed down from father to son. The priests did not generally hold political offices at the same time, although they surely had much influence in the political arena." - 2002, Rodney R. Baird for his website Ancient Routes.
"From the age of seven onwards my father told me about our ancestry, an ancestry steeped in royal blood and most significantly of all in what is termed Royal Witchcraft, which is a major, ancient, draconian, druidic facet continuing within the later history of the Dragon tradition and within the Vere family." "In brief the recorded Dragon lineage starts with the Annunaki and descends through the proto-Scythians, the Sumerians in one branch and the early Egyptians in another; the Phoenicians, the Mittani, back to the Scythians again through marital alliance, along to the Tuatha de Danaan and the Fir Bolg; down through their Arch-Druidic, Priest-Princely families to the Royal Picts of Scotland and the high kings of the Horse Lords of Dal Riada; through to the Elven dynasty of Pendragon and Avallon del Acqs, and down to a few pure bred families today." "To say that Dragons are the rightful rulers of the world's governments today might raise some contention. Perhaps it would be more realistic to suggest that they may well be the rightful rulers of the world's governments in the future." "... the notion that I would demean myself by making a bid for the throne is utter nonsense. We have standards to maintain in this family." - Nicholas de Vere, a cousin of the extinct Earls of Oxford and a former high ranking officer in the Dragon Court, explains that certain royal and noble families are of the opinion that they have a few additional genes which gives them the divine right to rule.
"O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you." "There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes." "... nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis." "... Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe..." "... there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent." "... afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea." "And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples." - A [seemingly serious] story told by Critias to Socrates, Hermocrates, and Timeaus around 360 BC. As Plato often did for Socrates, he wrote down the conversation. Critias was told by his grandfather Critias, who's great-grandfather, another Critias, was told by Dropidas. Dropidas was told by Solon (±640-558 BC), a well known ruler of Athens who was told the story by Egyptian priests in the city of Sais.
"In the year 6 Kan, on the 11th Muluc in the month Zac, there occurred terrible earthquakes, which continued without interruption until the 13th Chuen. The country of the hills of mud, the land of Mu was sacrificed: being twice upheaved it suddenly disappeared during the night, the basin being continually shaken by volcanic forces. Being confined, these caused the land to sink and to rise several times and in various places. At last the surface gave way and ten countries were torn asunder and scattered. Unable to stand the force of the convulsions, they sank with their 64,000,000 of inhabitants [8060 years before the writing of this book]." - Translation of the Troano Manuscript by the decorated scientist Augustus Le Plongeon, although it is generally considered 'a fraud'. The Troano Manuscript was found in the Yucatan and is estimated to be older than 3500 years. Le Plongeon and his wife did the first detailed and systematic photographic recording at Uxmal in 1875 and were the first to excavate the ruins of Chichen Itza. The manuscript is said to be on view at the British Museum.
"The videotape, made by an unmanned submarine, shows massive stones in oddly symmetrical square and pyramid shapes in the deep-sea darkness... " Sonar images taken from a research ship 2,000 feet above are even more puzzling. They show that the smooth, white stones are laid out in a geometric pattern. The images look like fragments of a city, in a place where nothing man-made should exist, spanning nearly eight square miles of a deep-ocean plain off Cuba's western tip... "Nature couldn't have built anything so symmetrical," Weinzweig said, running his finger over sonar printouts aboard his ship, tied up at a wharf in Havana harbor. "This isn't natural, but we don't know what it is." - October 10, 2002, Washington Post, 'Atlantis In Cuban Depths or Anomaly?'. The site, located between Yucatan and the western tip of Cuba, had already been found the year before, but no further research had (or has) been carried out. Many Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek artifacts have been (and continue to be) reported in the seas around Cuba, the Mississippi river and the Grand Canyon, although nothing has been officially recognized.
Bohemian Grove symbolism Main article | Membership list | Camps list Deeper meaning, or not a deeper meaning? That is the question Note: Most of the information from Nicholas de Vere and the "Dragon Court" he has been talking about has been taken off-line, just as the information on the rather eccentric New Age practices of some prominent Anglo-American politicians. For a better summary of the place of mystery religions in Anglo-American culture and church life read the Pilgrims Society article. For descriptions of cultic ritual abuse, read Beyond the Dutroux Affair. This article now just explores the history of the Bohemians, the inspiration of some of the founding members, and the meaning behind the Grove and the Cremation of Care.
|  | Although the Bohemian Grove concept is obviously inspired by ancient pagan customs it's hard to define who came up with the original ideas or for what reason. The people first involved with the Bohemian Club and the Bohemian Grove were a group of writers and artists who had a love for nature and were usually very opposed to the business ways of the robber barons. Nobody seems to have investigated it in the first place, but at this moment there's no indication that any of the more important members of the Bohemian Club had an unusual interest in pagan rituals or practices. On the other hand, Joseph D. Redding, the founder of the Cremation of Care and a president of the Bohemian Club, was very well connected to the elite Anglo-American families, so
who knows where he got his inspiration from (more about him later). There is also the prominent Bohemian Club member Ambrose Bierce who spent 3 years in England before he came to San Francisco. Bierce wrote 'The Devil's Dictionary', a book that shows us that at least some of the early members had a bit of knowledge about pagan customs. In both cases we really need to know more about these individuals before we can reach any conclusions. What I know about them has been included in their bios, which can be found in the membership list. Following are excerpts of Bierce's 'The Devil's Dictionary':
BAAL, n. An old deity formerly much worshiped under various names. As Baal he was popular with the Phoenicians; as Belus or Bel he had the honor to be served by the priest Berosus, who wrote the famous account of the Deluge; as Babel he had a tower partly erected to his glory on the Plain of Shinar. From Babel comes our English word "babble." Under whatever name worshiped, Baal is the Sun-god. As Beelzebub he is the god of flies, which are begotten of the sun's rays on the stagnant water. In Physicia Baal is still worshiped as Bolus, and as Belly he is adored and served with abundant sacrifice by the priests of Guttledom. BACCHUS, n. A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk. CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin. DRUIDS, n. Priests and ministers of an ancient Celtic religion which did not disdain to employ the humble allurement of human sacrifice. Very little is now known about the Druids and their faith. Pliny says their religion, originating in Britain, spread eastward as far as Persia. Caesar says those who desired to study its mysteries went to Britain. Caesar himself went to Britain, but does not appear to have obtained any high preferment in the Druidical Church, although his talent for human sacrifice was considerable. Druids performed their religious rites in groves, and knew nothing of church mortgages and the season-ticket system of pew rents. They were, in short, heathens and -- as they were once complacently catalogued by a distinguished prelate of the Church of England -- Dissenters. FREEMASONS, n. An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II [ruled from 1649 to 1660], among working artisans of London, has been joined successively by the dead of past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embraces all the generations of man on the hither side of Adam and is drumming up distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants of Chaos and Formless Void. The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucious, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian Pyramids -- always by a Freemason. Always by a Freemason, according to Bohemian Bierce. MALTHUSIAN, adj. Pertaining to Malthus and his doctrines. Malthus believed in artificially limiting population, but found that it could not be done by talking. One of the most practical exponents of the Malthusian idea was Herod of Judea, though all the famous soldiers have been of the same way of thinking. MAMMON, n. The god of the world's leading religion. The chief temple is in the holy city of New York. MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earh and Canada. SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Sylphs were allied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively, in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious. Sylphs, like fowls of the air, were male and female, to no purpose, apparently, for if they had progeny they must have nested in accessible places, none of the chicks having ever been seen.
Well, what do you know? Respect for Christians and an aversion to human sacrifice, malthusian genocide, greed, and pollution of the environment. Not bad for a Bohemian Grove participant, now is it? The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical work written over a period of about 25 years. Although you might get that impression, it has very little to do with the occult, satanism, or the devil, as some might fear at this moment. You won't find many other words in the book dealing with this type of subject. Still, the combination of Baal, Bacchus, the Druids, and Freemasons ("secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes") is quite interesting in relation to the Bohemian Grove. Many people claim that Baal is worshipped during the opening ceremony and the ritual certainly shows some parallels with the rites associated with this ancient god. Bacchus has also been associated with the Cremation of Care, just as the Druids (the Celtic music, for instance). Peter Martin Philips, who has attended a Grove meeting and talked to many of its members, wrote in his 1994 Ph.D dissertation (1): "The Cremation of Care Ceremony was produced as a play in 1920, wherein a High Priest standing before a huge pre-historic alter, is confronted by Dull Care wrapped in the chains but not dead because Bacchus, the only warrior Care fears, is truly dead... Care responds: 'Call Bacchus from the grave... long as he is dead. I sneer at Great Bohemia! Aha! Aha!'... Good Fellowship then takes the torch from the priest at the alter and burns Care in his prison, thereby purging the 'demon Care from the sacred Grove.' This ceremony has been rewritten on several occasions but the theme is still the same." [The date given, 1920, seems to be a typo as the ceremony was first created in 1893. He also lists two separate dates for the addition of the owl shrine: 1920 & 1929]
|  | The Roman Bacchus is the same as the more well known Greek Dionysus, the god of wine, sexual and ecstatic freedom, fertility, and celebration. The purpose of their rites was quite similar to the Bohemian Grove concept, i.e. the participants were to leave behind any worries about their daily lives. Although I have not been able to find the exact origin or meaning of Dull Care (he's
unhappy because of the death of his brother Don't Care), the poem above, written by a poet from the Roman Empire and the earliest reference I could find, shows it has a strong connection to wine also, just as Bacchus and Dionysus.
In any case, Dull Care is "a mocking spirit" that needs to be banished from the Grove. This is an ancient tradition going back to the Sumerians. The Sumerians used the word 'barra' (begone) to banish unwelcome spirits from the land. These traditions were spread to Babylon, Greece, and Rome. After the Middle-Ages poets and play writers occasionally picked up on it and incorporated it in some of the works they wrote. The term was used quite frequently since at least the late 17th century in Britain as the poems in the left column show. The first reference since Horace that I was able to find was the 1687 play 'Begone, Dull Care' of [John] Playford: Musical Companion, located in England. The emigrating poets and writers took the term to the United States and many of them ended up in San Francisco. It could well be that the term Dull Care was already in use at the time of the Francis Bacon group in the late 1500s and early 1600s, which consisted of Sir William and Robert Cecil, John Dee, his student Edward de Vere, Edmund Spenser, Bacon himself, Elizabeth I, James I, and several others. Why am I interested in them? These people were (largely) responsible for the creation of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and Enochian Magic. The de Vere family allegedly was involved in the practice of Royal Witchcraft (2) and his family considered themselves members of the Archdruid-Dragon race. Bacchanalian practices were well known within this group and the Bohemian Club's primary motto, "Weaving Spiders, Come Not Here," also originated from them. It was taken from the second scene of Act 2 from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', written by Shakespeare, who got at least some of his inspiration from Edward de Vere (whose lateral descendant we coincidentally quoted throughout this article), although a case can be made that de Vere wrote pretty much all of the stuff that has been attributed to him (3). The theme of Dull Care, however, was not part of Shakespeare's original MacBeth, but in the 1847 version of Giuseppe Verdi a reference to Dull Care was made by Lady MacBeth (which you can find in the column on the left). And to get back to the Bacon group, they have been responsible for the British colonization of the United States, which Bacon thought was 'The New Atlantis' (4), while especially the Cecils and many of their blood relatives played a major role in creating the British and later Anglo-American empire. As you'll see a bit further in the article, the elite Anglo-American families could well have had a hand in the creation of the Cremation of Care ceremony. Bohemian Bierce also described the Druids in his dictionary, which have an interesting connection to groves. The word 'grove' usually means 'a small wooded area', but it can also refer to a 'pagan way grove' or a 'pagan grove', which is a learning center for different pagan religions. Probably not by accident, the word 'grove', as a learning center, is most often used by pagans involved with the Druidic traditions. Examples are the 'Celtic grove' and the 'Druid grove'. Robin Wood, a magic-enthousiast explains it a bit further (5): "Pagan Grove: An outer circle, normally set up for teaching purposes, and led by a Wiccan High Priestess and High Priest. This is where folks start in many traditions (including mine) and learn what the Craft is about, and whether it is the right Path for them. This is the place you study for a year and a day before becoming an Initiate." "Initiates Circle: A Circle for Initiates only. These may vary in form from non-initiates circles (often called Pagan Groves) or not. In my own tradition, magic is practiced only in the Initiates Circle, because a number of folk in our Grove cannot yet ground and center reliably, and would get terrific headaches from energy use." Under normal circumstances one might not contemplate the alternative meaning of the word 'grove', especially not when newspapers referred to a 'redwood grove' ever since the day the Bohemians bought their initial 160 acres in 1899. Still, the decision to hire a piece of land in the redwood grove was made in the early 1890s under the Bohemian Club presidency of Joseph D. Redding. At the same time he created the original Cremation of Care ceremony and acted as its High Priest. Redding had a completely different background than the average Bohemian Club artist. His father was a land agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, which was owned by the elite Anglo-American Pilgrims Society families, Harriman (chair of Southern and Union Pacific was Edward Henry Harriman, who was financed by Jacob Schiff) and Harkness (major shareholders of Rockefeller's Standard Oil; intermarried with the Stillmans, who also intermarried with the Rockefellers; partners of J.P. Morgan; co-founders of the Commonwealth Fund and the Pilgrim Trust). Redding went to Harvard Law School and became a wealthy lawyer for Southern Pacific. Southern Pacific is a great example of the reported schism that happened within the Bohemian Club between the original middle class artists and the wealthy businessmen. In May 1898 Southern Pacific created Sunset Magazine, which dealt with the outdoors, artistic writings, and things about everyday life. In 1911 Charles K. Field, a member of the Bohemian Club, became its editor. Bohemian Club writers like Ina Coolbrith, Jack London, Bret Harte, and John Muir contributed to the magazine, but as time progressed all these writers became increasingly critical of the business ways of the robber barons. Because of this development Southern Pacific had to do away with the magazine in 1914. And by this time the Cremation of Care founder was living in New York, surrounded by members of the Pilgrims Society. The term 'Bohemian', by the way, has very little to do with the East-European region of Bohemia. The original Bohemians were a group of pennyless rebellious young artists living in 19th century France. Among them were Victor Hugo (wrote 'Hunchback of the Notre Dame' and is today an inspiration for the elite European Institute), Arthur Rimbaud, Alfred De Musset, and Paul Verlaine. Those who referred to these people as 'Bohemians' meant that they thought of them as Gypsies (low life). The first accusation we know of was made in 1834 by Felix Pyat in a Parisian publication called 'Nouveau Tableau de Paris au XIX Siecle'. It read: "alien and bizarre... outside the law, beyond the reaches of society... they are the Bohemians of today." The Frenchman Henry Murger was the first to popularize the term in his 1849 novel 'Scenes de la Boheme', which was turned into a play 2 years later. In this book the main character, together with a few newly found friends, is involved in creating a small unofficial Bohemian club at a local Parisian tavern. Murger's description of a Bohemian is someone who purely lives of the art he creates. Bohemia, according to him, was located in Paris. So, I guess it's pretty obvious to see where the San Francisco artists got their inspiration from when they established the Bohemian Club in 1872. And they might have been totally different persons then those who inspired the creation of the Cremation of Care. The Owl The Bohemians adopted the owl as their mascot right from the beginning, but it is doubtful that they attached any serious mystical values to it at that moment. Today, when the average person sees pictures or videos of the Cremation of Care ritual they will usually get away with an entirely different impression. Who would ever have imagined that the president of the United States, together with a large chunk of America's elite, attends a yearly gathering where an ancient Babylonian (mock) human sacrifice is carried out in front of huge stone owl? The original Bohemians were quite eccentric (and the absolute opposite of today's Grovers), but this is just too bizarre. So whatever the owl meant for the early Bohemian Clubbers, it is quite reasonable to philosophize a bit about what the owl is supposed to represent these days. After all, the Cremation of Care was devised by a not-so-average Bohemian and the giant stone owl was only put into place in the 1920s when the Grove already was an elite gathering for at least 10 to 15 years. In fact, the nationwide coverage of the Cremation of Care ceremony around the turn of the century seemed to have drawn in lots of important people. Traditionally, at least in conspiracy land, the owl in the Grove is associated with Moloch, although more and more people start to ask questions about that assumption. The reason for that is if you compare the above images with the descriptions and depictions of Moloch (below) you'll find that there's quite a difference. I have never seen a non-Bohemian Grove related article in which Moloch is associated with an owl. That includes the bible. But even though I don't interpret the Bohemian owl as Moloch/Baal, the Cremation of Care is very similar to the ancient rites associated with this sun god. In the left column you can find a detailed transcript of the rites of Melqart, the Tyrian version of Baal and Molech, and how these spread to the Druids. More information about similar rites can be found further down in this article. Anyone who does a bit of research in European and Middle-Eastern mythology will see that the owl is always associated with a female deity. In all the civilizations between Sumer and Rome (and even the Celts) you have a few recurring gods with often the same symbols associated with them. I tend to throw the important gods and goddesses together and define only two simple classes, the first one being the male sun gods, followed by a group of female mother-moon goddesses. The simple reason is that mythology is a mess. Stories are completely incoherent and often you can make anything of it that you want. Each new civilization copied the gods from the previous one and it is obvious that many mistakes (or deliberate changes) were made during this process. This is the reason that modern mythology, to a large extent, is nothing more than making "best guesses" in defining which deity is associated with which earlier deity. That also seems to go for the initiates of secret societies. The sun gods, who normally have one or more sons, are usually depicted as (or with) bulls, goats, fire, and sunlight. Examples are the Egyptian Amun-Ra, the Carthaginian Baal-Hammon, the Babylonian Marduk, the Canaanite Baal and Molech, the Tyrian El and Melqart, the Akkadian Adad, and the Greek Zeus. Then there are mother and moon goddesses. The first one is usually associated with the dove or a lion (and is the partner and mother of different sun gods). The Canaanite Astoreth, the Tyrian Astarte, the Phrygian and Roman Cybele, the Babylonian Semiramis, and the Akkadian Ishtar are examples. These are generally identified as the exact same goddesses. Goddesses associated with the moon, who are always closely related to the mother goddesses, are often depicted as an owl. The Roman Minerva, the Greek Athena, and the Tyrian Anath are examples of this. Going back further is hard, but we have a few leads. There is a well known Sumerian clay tablet with a female deity depicted on it. She is standing on two lions and is flanked by two owls [1]. Generally, this tablet is said to depict Lilith, a demoness, but the connections are weak and many scholars doubt this is the correct interpretation. Lilith has vaguely been associated with the "screech-owl", but that doesn't automatically mean the tablet depicts this semi-goddess. In my opinion the goddess Inanna would be a much better choice, because 1) It is generally accepted that Innana became Ishtar, Semiramis, Cybele, and Astarte, which are all mother goddesses with the dove and lion as main attributes. This explains the 'mystery' of the bird feet, the wings, and the two lions she is standing on. 2) Deities with similar objects in their hands as the ones depicted on the Sumerian clay tablet have been associated with Ishtar, the Akkadian version of the Sumerian Inanna. Even so, the question still remains who the owls on the clay tablet are supposed to represent, because the later civilizations seem to have reserved the owl for a separate deity. Since Inanna's parents were the moon god Nanna and the moon goddess Ningal, I guess I agree with those people that claim Inanna was also associated with the owl - but in the end we really can't tell who or what the owl in the grove is supposed to represent. Maybe you also noticed that I never mentioned the Egyptian mother goddess Isis. The reason for that is is that the Egyptian pantheon often uses completely different attributes for the same deities than other parts of the ancient Middle-East. Although the owl could well represent Isis, we don't need to worry about her, because she is certainly present at the Grove. Peter Martin Phillips again: "Bohemians even own a 2,500 year old mummy donated to the Club by an Egyptologist, Jeremiah Lynch in 1914. The mummy, known as Lady Isis, rests in a glass case near the entrance to the Bohemian theater." The goddess Diana is also present at the Grove. A picture of her statue, which is located near the 'Diana Circle', has been among a few dozen photos a certain 'Kyle' has managed to snap in 2004 and 2005 as an employee at the Bohemian Grove (9). I also didn't mention the Celtic Arianrhod and the wife of her son, Bloudeuedd. Both had the owl as a main attribute. Arianrhod is a mother goddess and moon goddess at the same time. She is linked to Aphrodite and Isis, but also to Astarte (dove and lion; same as Ishtar and Inanna) and Diana. I told you so, mythology is a mess. The Mitre of the Bohemian Grove priest Looking at the Bohemian Grove high priests [7-8-9] I noticed that they bear an uncanny similarity with a person known in the Netherlands as "Sinterklaas" [5], less commonly known as St. Nicholas of Myra, a bishop that lived in the 3rd and 4th century AD and was a member of the Council of Nicaea in 325. The Americans changed his appearance to the more fluffy looking Santa Claus early in the 20th century. Not that I think the Bohemian Grove priest is Santa Claus, it's just that the Catholic church has received all their inspiration from the earlier pagan religions. The mitre, that also seems to reside on the heads of the Bohemian Grove priests, is one of the best examples of this. It represents the open mouth of the ancient half-man half-fish god that brought humankind civilization. It was worshipped under different names: Enki, Ea, Dagon, and Oannes. Apsu and Atargis are other half-man half-fish gods which are even older than the sun gods. In the pictures above you can clearly see how the process evolved. So ironically, the Pope, St. Nicholas, the Bohemian Grove high priests, and even Santa Claus all have the same origin: the Sumerian-Babylonian high priests. This is also where their rods and capes have originated from (10). What are those? Fishies? Brings back memories of that horror movie 'Dagon', originally written by Lovecraft. The problem with the Dionysiacs and Bacchanalians The worship of Dionysus is generally considered to have started in Phrygia in Asia Minor between 1200 and 1000 B.C. after which it spread to Greece, Egypt, and as far as India. The cult became known for its extensive use of trance-inducing music, sex orgies, wine consumption, and the large amount of violent sacrifices, which, at least in the earlier stages, included humans. As a mystery cult it had public and secret rites. One of the rites included the Maenads, a group of insane woman involved in bizarre blood rituals. This included the ripping apart of human beings and eating their flesh. During this time they were possessed by Bacchus who provided them with superhuman strength (11).
Theater of Dionysus |  | After the cult ended up in Athens in the 5th century B.C. they build a theater in honor of Dionysus on the southside of the Acropolis. It was later remodeled in stone. In the Dionysic theaters of Greece and Rome many plays were held, usually centered around their respective mythologies. The beginning of every festival was always reserved for sacrifices. Most scholars are of the opinion that in those days the sacrifices didn't include humans anymore, at least not publicly, but the amount of animals killed was quite substantial.
For instance, in 333 B.C. there was a single event in which 240 bulls were sacrificed to Dionysus (12). Much later, in 186 B.C., after accusations of human sacrifice, violent sex orgies, and the plotting of assassinations and other political conspiracies, the Roman Empire banned the 'Bacchanalias' and executed a few thousand of its members. It is likely that some of these accusations were exaggerated, although most of these claims were fairly well documented in earlier times.
According to Manly P. Hall (13), the cult was composed of a secretive inner core of highly skilled architects who based their public buildings on sacred geometry and astrology (they often mirrored their structures with a particular constellation). Legend has it that among the initiates were those that built the Tyrian Temple of Melqart, who in turn were employed by King Solomon to build the first Jewish temple at Mount Moriah in 969 B.C. Solomon has always been considered an important magician to the members of various secret societies and God is said to have given him control over the Jinn, elemental beings that can be conjured up. These helped him to build his temple and cities alongside his human employees. In 206 B.C. another very prominent deity was imported into Rome from Phrygia: The mother-goddess Cybele, which used to be worshipped right next to Dionysus. Her orgiastic rites were very similar and the high priests were castrated, told to live as women, performed blood sacrifices (animal only as far as I have seen), bathed in blood, and cut themselves open during certain ceremonies (14). Although the history of the secret societies is extremely complex, it isn't very hard to link the Dionysic architects and Solomon's temple to the Rosicrucian Knights Templar and their Rosslyn Chapel. The Templars had been digging underneath Mount Moriah in the early 12th century. After they fled to Scotland in 1307, their descendents built a new version of Solomon's Temple in the 15th century. Not long after the Templars arrived, the Order of the Garter and one or more Dragon Courts were (re)established in Britain, hints of Rosicrucian initiations started to surface, and Enochian Magic was born, followed by the birth of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. The (or should we say "a") Dragon Court also, quoting the Catholic dictionary, accepts the idea that the Templars fled to Scotland and gave rise to Freemasonry there (15). The worship of Bacchus also went along within some of the secret societies. One of the most notorious pleasure-seeking Bacchanalians of British history was Sir Francis Dashwood of the Hellfire Club (16), who, in the mid-1700s, had reserved a central role for Bacchus/Dionysus in his own rituals. The "do what you will" quote, inscribed above the main entrance of the Medmenham Abbey where many of his rites were performed, served as an inspiration for Aleister Crowley. Dashwood visited many European royal courts in his younger years, ultimately becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer and a member of the Queen's Privy Council (1761). Franklin, an occasional visitor of the Hellfire Club, eventually became a Founding Father of "the New Atlantis", better known as the United States of America. In Britain, it seems that Druid and Templar practices merged.
It's hard to tell how many of these practices are still going on today. One interesting fact is that politicians and Anglican church officials are regularly invited to Druid groves. When
this is reported in the news the usual response is that "it's perfectly Christian", although a detailed explanation is seldom, if ever given. I think it's a bit strange that Christian leaders do not actively attempt to take away people's concerns when they join certain organizations (formerly?) associated with pagan practices. Nicholas de Vere, in 'The Origin of The Dragon Lords of the Rings', may have given an explanation when he wrote: "In this is borne out, by the Druids |  |
ready acceptance of Celtic Christianity, the fact that Jesus' original, undoctored Gnostic teachings were founded on Essene Magian Philosophy amalgamated with the mystical doctrines of Mithras and Dionysus. Alchemy, Cabala and Hermetics were the centre of Christ's Anschauung. All the foregoing are components of that Eurasian "religion" we know as Druidism which, for the Indians is Hinduism and for the Persians is their Zoroastrianism which for the West eventually became our Celtic Christianity."
Make of it what you will. Among the more prominent officials that have been invited into Druid groves are Winston Churchill (Prime Minister), David Lloyd George (Prime Minister), Queen Elizabeth II, George Noakes (Archbishop of Wales), Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury), and Daniel Mullins (Roman Catholic bishop of Menevia) (21 & 22). Undoubtedly this is only the tip of iceberg, but individuals aren't exactly forthcoming about these aspects of their lives. This is not at all to say that these are bad people. After all, this is an aspect of their culture and history. The problem is that some of the publicly known groves have a lot of similarities with the Masonic groups of which a certain degree of secrecy and elitism is a basic ingredient. In both cases the participants come to their groves and lodges to "discuss literature, poetry, music and art" and maybe to perform a few dusty old rituals. In case of the Bohemian Grove a lot of these people come here to network, even though many pretend not to do that. But all these groves, just as all the publicly known Masonic degrees, are only supposed to be outer circles anyway, part of the Round Table's 'association of helpers' so to speak - so who really cares what the participants think. Most of them probably don't even have a clue about the things practiced in the "irregular" lodges of the Memphis Misraim (34-99º) or the Martinist and Synarchist Order. Conclusion What have we learned about the Bohemian Grove in this article? Well, besides that the Anglo-American elite probably inspired the Cremation of Care, actually surprisingly little. We've gone all over the Middle-East, mainland Europe, England, and the United States, but still some of the basic questions have not been answered to most people's satisfaction: Who or what is the owl supposed to represent and do the Bohemians themselves have any idea? To some it might refer to ancient Greece (Athena), which has always served as a great inspiration to the western world. Others might be of the opinion that it is a reference to Ishtar or Inanna. Still others might be of the opinion that it symbolizes Lilith and her Dragon lineage (Nicholas de Vere). And still others undoubtedly think the owl is nothing more then the Bohemian Club symbol. Then again, is the owl surrounding the capitol building just a coincidence? Other unanswered questions are: Who or what inspired Joseph Redding to put together the Cremation of Care? Do some of the observers of the Cremation of Care indeed go into a good old Bacchanalian ecstatic trance state during the beginning of the ritual, like Alex Jones and Jon Ronson have described (23)? What is the opinion of the Bohemian Grovers of the flyer, obtained by Alex Jones and Jon Ronson, that seems to depict a baby having been sacrificed in the Cremation of Care fire? Or what is the opinion in general of the Bohemians as they watch a pretty macabre openings ritual? To be honest, I am not that interested in the Bohemian Grove all by itself and this article has largely been a way to make mythology a little bit interesting. What we do know is that western mysticism is elitist, seems to have considerable influence over the more mainstream religions, is hopelessly intertwined with politics, banking, law, and intelligence, and if you look below the thin layer of paint, you'll see that most of the upper level people don't seem to have any degree of spiritual enlightenment whatsoever. Endnotes
[1] | 1994, Peter Martin Philips, 'A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club' (Ph.D. dissertation)
[2] | 2005, Project for the Exposure of Hidden Institutions, A chart that depicts some of political, economic, and occult connections of the Cecil bloodline.
[3] | April 6, 2000, 'Mr. Schelle', 'Shakespeare or De Vere: That is the Authorship Question'
[4] |
Early 17th century, Francis Bacon, 'The New Atlantis'
This unfinished roman was released after his death in 1626 and described how a group of sea explorers ended up on a previously unknown island which had superior technology and knowledge about all parts of the world. Solomon was considered the greatest king that had ever lived and the inhabitants themselves showed many similarities with the later Rosicrucian movement. According to the people of this island, Atlantis, one of their trading partners, was located in the northern half of the Americas and was destroyed in a catastrophe a long time ago.
[5] | Robin Wood, Magic for Pagans & Wiccans FAQ
[6] | -
[7] | -
[8] | -
[9] | Ted Gunderson has uploaded the pictures to his site. A few have also appeared on the website of Coast to Coast AM.
[10] | 1858, Alexander Hislop, 'The Two Babylons'
[11] | A combination of Britannica Concise Encyclopedia & Wikipedia gives most of the facts about the Maenads
[12] |
1999, Encyclopedia of the World Mythology (Dutch edition)
Although it's quite a thick book it turned out to be useless in most cases, as a lot of mainstream books are that deal with this kind of subject. They focus too much on the myths and too little on the actual practices associated with these deities.
[13] | 1928, Manly P. Hall, 'The Secret Teachings of All Ages'
[14] | May 21, 2002, BBC, 'Dig reveals Roman transvestite'
[15] | 2005, Project for the Exposure of Hidden Institutions, Dragon article (Includes the correspondence with the Royal House of Stewart)
[16] | September 9, 2002, The Age, 'Libertine turned home into an orgy'
[17] | -
[18] | -
[19] | -
[20] | -
[21] | July 19, 2002, The Times, 'Why The Archbishop Is Embracing Pagan'
[22] | August 6, 2002, The Scotsman, 'Archbishop hits back in row over druid honour'
[23] | September 6, 2005, Coast to Coast AM, Jon Ronson talks about the fanaticism during the Cremation of Care. Alex Jones and Ronson also talk about their tapes that got erased.
[24] | -
Additional references
[A] | 2005, Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval, 'Talisman - Sacred Cities, Secret Faith'
[B] | De Vere interview by Tracy R. Twyman
Author: Joël Written: December 24, 2005 Shortened: November 23, 2008