Americangoy answers: Do powerful secret societies exist?

Do Secret Societies exist?

I mean the real deal, weird rituals, weird costumes, just general weirdness all around gatherings which powerful men (and women) attend.

The answer is YES.

Proof?

Here's Richard Nixon, perhaps my favorite president, discussing the "Bohemian Grove".  He is discussing that organization in no uncertain terms, calling them "fags", because the Nixon Tapes (research the term if you're not familiar) were recorded and were not meant to be released to the public.

So the president could and did discuss all kinds of topics in an honest way.

And what is crucial, he, as a US president, has first hand experience of this society and has attended its meeting(s).

What is the "Bohemian Grove"?

Wikipedia educates us.

The Bohemian Club's all-male membership and guest list includes artists, particularly musicians, as well as many prominent business leaders, government officials (including U.S. presidents), senior media executives, and people of power.

All male, eh?  As usual, Nixon was right.

The membership list has included every Republican Party and some Democratic Party U.S. presidents since 1923, many cabinet officials, directors and CEOs of large corporations including major financial institutions. Major military contractors, oil companies, banks (including the Federal Reserve), utilities (including nuclear power) and national media (broadcast and print) have high-ranking officials as club members or guests.

Almost all presidents, major CEO's and bankers are members.  No conspiracy here, nope.

Bohemian club members can schedule private day-use events at the Grove any time it is not being used for Club-wide purposes, and are allowed at these times to bring spouses, family and friends, though female and minor guests must be off the property by 9 or 10 pm.

Women are off the property by 10PM, eh?  What happens at night, then?  I am sure it is surprisingly normal and wholesome, errr....

Since the founding of the club, the Bohemian Grove's mascot has been an owl, symbolizing knowledge. A 40-foot (12 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports stands at the head of the lake in the Grove; this Owl Shrine was designed by sculptor and two-time club president Haig Patigian, and built in the 1920.  Since 1929, the Owl Shrine has served as the backdrop of the yearly Cremation of Care ceremony.

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.

So, non-christian, but pagan symbolism, alongside an obscure (Bohemian - now part of Czech republic) saint.  The finger over the lips symbolizes secrecy, obviously, as to what happens in the Grove.

Especially after, say, 10PM?  Between the all-male attendees?

What's this Cremation of Care ceremony?

Wiki on Cremation of Care

The Cremation of Care is an annual theatrical production written, produced and performed by and for members of the Bohemian Club, and staged at the Bohemian Grove near Monte Rio, California at a small artificial lake amid a private old-growth grove of Redwood trees.
The dramatic performance is presented on the first night of the annual encampment as an allegorical banishing of worldly cares for the club members, and "to present symbolically the salvation of the trees by the club" but the secretive nature of the Bohemians, and the political power of some of its members, has attracted notice from conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones, who characterized the Cremation of Care as a ritualistic shedding of conscience and empathy, and an "abuse of power".

Obviously Alex Jones is an insane ranting crazy person, but.... but.  But.

The banishing of worldly cares CAN be taken as glorifying psychopathy, a ceremony by psychopaths celebrating their "lack of worldly care".

I am speculating.  But the symbology here, to me at least, is obvious.

In the earliest productions of the Grove Play, several restrictions were imposed upon the Sire (the master of ceremonies) including that the stage setting be the natural forest backdrop and that the "malign character Care" be introduced in the plot, to wreak havoc with the characters and then be faced down and vanquished by the hero

Caring - i.e. human feelings about others, empathy, you know, normal human emotions and feelings - is shown in the play staged every time the Bohemian Grove society meets as something malign, as something evil, to be PURGED, EXPELLED from the ego.

Those were the earliest performances of the ceremony, performed by a "high priest", and by 1923 it was changed.

Perhaps it was a tad bit too obvious and blatant?

Here's how the ceremony is (supposedly, according to wikipedia) now:

The ceremony involves the poling across a lake of a small boat containing an effigy of Care (called "Dull Care"). Dark, hooded figures receive from the ferryman the effigy which is placed on an altar, and, at the end of the ceremony, set on fire. This "cremation" symbolizes that members are banishing the "dull cares" of conscience.

Dark hooded figures sending a boat containing a burning effigy which symbolizes "caring".

That's as chrisitian as one can get, eh?

Of course, it is claimed that:

At the time the script was developed, the primary meaning of the word 'care' (< O.E. cearu, "anxiety, anguish") was synonymous with 'worry', having more negative connotations than in modern times when it tends to be associated more positively with compassion.

Riiiight.  Of course, caring means "worry", it's oooooooobvious.

Right?

Looking at the wiki linked article which is used as a source, History of Care:

Ancient literary, mythological, and philosophical sources form the roots of the "Cura" tradition of care, named after a mythological figure. The background for this tradition is found in the ambiguity of the term cura (care) in the Latin literature of ancient Rome. The term had two fundamental but conflicting meanings. On the one hand, it meant worries, troubles, or anxieties, as when one says that a person is "burdened with cares." On the other hand, care meant providing for the welfare of another; aligned with this latter meaning was the positive connotation of care as attentive conscientiousness or devotion (Burdach, 1923).

So from ancient times, "caring" had two meanings - being burdened by a worry or worries or anxieties, and on the other hand "caring" meant caring about another's welfare, such as a mother caring about her child or an employer caring about his employees well being.

Lets tackle both meanings as they relate to the Bohemian Grove society.

Supposedly, claims the idiot educated fool from History of Care, there is a conflict between the two.

Lets put this idiot, Warren T. Reich, in his place.

First, the "care" as worldly worries, for example, worrying about your financial situation, or a "care" about what OTHERS, other people, might think of your actions...

That's also a "care", right?  A woman going to a party at her friend's house will "care" or worry about what dress she should wear there - she wants to be pretty but not slutty, look good and be noticed but not to go TOO far...

That "care" is burned there on that boat on the lake by the dark robed figures...  So no one cares what you do here, senator, we are all men, POWERFUL MEN, the rulers of the world, and we can DO WHAT WE WANT without a "care", after 10PM.


The second meaning of "care" is pure empathy - worrying about others' well being and welfare.  Obviously, this "care" is not burned by the dark robed figures in a ceremony presided over by a "high priest", right?  It's not as if unfeeling psychopaths are ruling this world, right?

But even if we go with the first meaning, I have just shown that they do overlap into one another, don't they, now?

Because acting without any worries, without any "care" (the first meaning) means NOT thinking about consequences, the "just do it" philosophy without any consideration nor "worries"... acting without "care"... is unhuman.

At least, without copious amounts of alcohol or other drugs.

It is called HEDONISM and is frowned upon.

This is a celebration of selfishness - of "us" being above ordinary worldly concerns, or "cares".

Above that pesky thing called "morality".




But basing a whole rule over our society on "acting without care", especially for our rulers and owners, is terrifying.

There are ALWAYS consequences, whether one chooses to acknowledge them or not.

It is pure psychopathy on display.

It is the celebration of psychopaths.

Only the Gods (and the members) know what happens at the Grove.  Not, not ALL the members - not the ones invited there to make up the numbers.

The select few real members, the ones who matter.






But the question was asked for the plural, for secret societies, not any one society.


Fine, we have proof that the Bohemian Grove really exists, and it does fit the bill - weird symbolism, occult ceremonies, strangeness, weirdness, secrecy, powerful members who rule the world.

And since we have president Nixon on tape - where he was recorded speaking plainly and without fear of it getting out - we SHOULD accept it as truth.

But since (my bias) I believe that an American president speaking about a secret society IS a proof, lets find yet another secret organization that presidents have spoken about or belonged too.

It is surprisingly easy.

CBS News: Skull And Bones Secret Yale Society Includes America's Power Elite

As opposite as George Bush and John Kerry may seem to be, they do share a common secret - one they've shared for decades, and one they will not share with the electorate.

The secret: details of their membership in Skull and Bones, the elite Yale University society whose members include some of the most powerful men of the 20th century.

Bonesmen, as they're called, are forbidden to reveal what goes on in their inner sanctum, the windowless building on the Yale campus that is called the Tomb.

When 60 Minutes first reported on Skull & Bones last October, conspiracy theorists, who see Skull and Bones behind just about everything that goes wrong, and even right, in the world, were relishing the unthinkable - the possibility of two Bonesman fighting it out for the presidency.

Over the years, Bones has included presidents, cabinet officers, spies, Supreme Court justices, captains of industry, and often their sons and lately their daughters, a social and political network like no other.

That's literally the first duckduckgo result for the search.

It's literally in our faces, all of the time.

Skull and Bones, with all its ritual and macabre relics, was founded in 1832 as a new world version of secret student societies that were common in Germany at the time. Since then, it has chosen or "tapped" only 15 senior students a year who become patriarchs when they graduate -- lifetime members of the ultimate old boys' club.

"Skull and Bones is so tiny. That's what makes this staggering," says Robbins. "There are only 15 people a year, which means there are about 800 living members at any one time."

But a lot of Bonesmen have gone on to positions of great power, which Robbins says is the main purpose of this secret society: to get as many members as possible into positions of power.

"They do have many individuals in influential positions," says Robbins. "And that's why this is something that we need to know about."

President Bush has tapped five fellow Bonesmen to join his administration. Most recently, he selected William Donaldson, Skull and Bones 1953, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Like the President, he's taken the Bones oath of silence. 

Duh, stupid conspiracy theorist! Secret societies do not rule the world, duh! Idiot!

"It's this sepulchral, tomblike, windowless, granite, sandstone bulk that you can't miss. And I lived next to it," says Rosenbaum. "I had passed it all the time. And during the initiation rites, you could hear strange cries and whispers coming from the Skull and Bones tomb."

Despite a lifetime of attempts to get inside, the best Rosenbaum could do was hide out on the ledge of a nearby building a few years ago to videotape a nocturnal initiation ceremony in the Tomb's courtyard.

"A woman holds a knife and pretends to slash the throat of another person lying down before them, and there's screaming and yelling at the neophytes," he says.

Robbins says the cast of the initiation ritual is right out of Harry Potter meets Dracula: "There is a devil, a Don Quixote and a Pope who has one foot sheathed in a white monogrammed slipper resting on a stone skull. The initiates are led into the room one at a time. And once an initiate is inside, the Bonesmen shriek at him. Finally, the Bonesman is shoved to his knees in front of Don Quixote as the shrieking crowd falls silent. And Don Quixote lifts his sword and taps the Bonesman on his left shoulder and says, 'By order of our order, I dub thee knight of Euloga.'"

Again, not very christian symbolism.  It is very pagan - it has nothing to do with christianity as we know it.

Obviously, by my own secret society standards - weird symbolism, occult rituals, powerful membership which rules over us - it checks out.  It is out in the open, it exists, powerful men belong to it and they do some... very strange stuff to each other.

"Prescott Bush, George W's grandfather, and a band of Bonesmen, robbed the grave of Geronimo, took the skull and some personal relics of the Apache chief and brought them back to the tomb," says Robbins. "There is still a glass case, Bonesmen tell me, within the tomb that displays a skull that they all refer to as Geronimo."

"The preoccupation with bones, mortality, with coffins, lying in coffins, standing around coffins, all this sort of thing I think is designed to give them the sense that, and it's very true, life is short," says Rosenbaum. "You can spend it, if you have a privileged background, enjoying yourself, contributing nothing, or you can spend it making a contribution."

How can one sum it up?

"I think Skull and Bones has had slightly more success than the mafia in the sense that the leaders of the five families are all doing 100 years in jail, and the leaders of the Skull and Bones families are doing four and eight years in the White House," says Rosenbaum.

Indeed.

Oh, and as for proof...

Notice how the interviewer is making it a bit of a joke, and also notice that there was no answer other than "it's a secret" therefore I won't talk about it - lets change the subject.

BONUS
One sentence caught my interest in the CBS News article, and I have stopped reading it and re-read that sentence multiple times.

Skull and Bones, with all its ritual and macabre relics, was founded in 1832 as a new world version of secret student societies that were common in Germany at the time.

German secret societies in the XIX, eh?  That's what's worth emulating in the new world?

To examine the subject, do your own research and buy some books.  For example, Peter Levenda's "Unholy Alliance: A history of nazi involvement with the occult" is a good primer.


The book shows us that Germany (and by extension, the world at large) was a hodgepodge of secret societies, each pushing their own agenda and each fighting the ones opposed to it.

Research "The Thule society", for example, and see where the nazi occult believes originate and finally understand what the SS was really about.

But the Skull and Bones was founded in 1832, and while one can argue (and I certainly will do so) that the Thule Secret Society was basically an offshoot of the XIX German secret society mania (that is an apt word, they were extremely numerous), lets delve deeper and look at those XIX Century Germanic societies "worth emulating".

The main person, or persona, of the XIX Century secret societies was undoubtedly Madame Blavatsky.

Wiki on the Blavatsky phenomenon:
She travelled the world (or not), invented a whole new science (or pseudoscience) or a mystical movement or... however you define it.

In 1875 she founds the Theosophical Society.

Associating it closely with the esoteric doctrines of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, Blavatsky described Theosophy as "the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy", proclaiming that it was reviving an "Ancient Wisdom" which underlay all the world's religions.

You can read about her magnum opus, Isis Unveiled, as well as the full text online.

Anyways,

Fundamentally, the underlying concept behind Blavatsky's Theosophy was that there was an "ancient wisdom religion" which had once been found across the world, and which was known to various ancient figures, such as the Greek philosopher Plato and the ancient Hindu sages

Blavatsky connected this ancient wisdom religion to Hermetic philosophy, a worldview in which everything in the universe is identified as an emanation from a Godhead. Blavatsky believed that all of the world's religions developed from this original global faith.

Apparently, her three principles of her beliefs/occultism were these:

1. To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour.
2. To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
3. To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.

Which is all well and good, but what does all this have to do with the Germanic XIX secret societies, you may well ask?

Well, a German section of the Theosophical Society was duly established, and it was run a Dr. Wilhelm Hubbe-Schleiden.  If you want an online proof of such a chap, here you go.

If you read German, German Wiki page on the chap.

Thing is, the good doctor was at one time a German colonial administrator.

To understand what the German colonial policy in Africa was all about, please read about the Herero and Namaqua Genocide.  Now, I am not squeamish, but even the British sources at the time were appalled.

Hell, "Chancellor Bülow could only advise Emperor Wilhelm II that Trotha's actions were "contrary to Christian and humanitarian principle, economically devastating and damaging to Germany's international reputation".

Also, as you read about the Herero genocide, you will come upon the section entitled concentration camps.

There is also a section on medical experiments.

If you see a link between the concentration camps in Africa, and the ghastly medical experiments performed by doctors on racially inferior prisoners, and the later 1940's actions of the nazi regime, ding ding ding! You're not an idiot!

So our good doctor, the German leader of the TS branch of Blavatsky's, was a colonial administrator for German Africa.

Bear that in mind.

Using a translator, we also learn that Hubbe-Schleiden:
"In 1877, he was tried and convicted in Gabon for participating in a double murder.  However, he was able to successfully challenge the judgment and then returned to Germany".

A paragon of virtue, this man.

There were other secret mystical organizations in XIX Germany.  Like I said, it was a mania, which culminated in the nazis occult war.

There was the Ordo Templi Orientis (lets call it OTO in short).

'Order of the Temple of the East' or 'Order of Oriental Templars',

The early history of O.T.O. is difficult to trace reliably. It originated in Germany or Austria between 1895 and 1906. Its apparent founder was Carl Kellner (probably with the German spelling Karl), a wealthy Austrian industrialist, in 1895 (although nothing verifiable is known of the Order until 1904).

Theodor Reuss (1855–1923) collaborated with Kellner in creating O.T.O., and succeeded him as head of O.T.O. after Kellner's death. Under Reuss, charters were given to occult brotherhoods in France, Denmark, Switzerland, the U.S.A. and Austria. There were nine degrees, of which the first six were Masonic.

In 1902, Reuss, along with Franz Hartmann and Henry Klein, purchased the right to perform the Rite of Memphis and Mizraim of Freemasonry, the authority of which was confirmed in 1904 and again in 1905. Although these rites are considered to be irregular, they, along with the Swedenborg Rite formed the core of the newly established Order.

They are mostly famous because that idiot, Alistair Crowley, was a member.

What they should be famous for was that they used sex for their magic power - literally, using sexual energy to cast spells.  You might smirk, but where do you think "tantric sex" comes from?  Do you think ancients did not do this (Newsflash - they did.  Also they had what's called "sacred prostitutes" in ancient temples).

There was also the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Reading the descriptions, online, in my book collection, is to come upon the realization that while Blavatsky may or may not have been a charlatan (or perhaps she was a true believer in her own brand of mysticism, but "cut some corners" and had done a few things to nudge her movement/mystical organization along), the majority of the Germanic secret society members were deadly serious.

They really did want to practice magic, to gain power, through the means of study, of practice of sex, or/and of tapping into the powers of the ancients.

Per the CBS article, it was these organizations that our American "boys" wanted to emulate - and which they do, to this modern day.

As to whether it is mambo jumbo, just symbolism a la "Greek fraternity" on any American college campus... Well...

Rituals involving bones of Geronimo, caskets, shrieking, using a knife in a ceremony...

We might as well call the rituals performed in every catholic church each Sunday "mumbo jumbo" - but it is NOT that to the millions of people who flock to churches worldwide every seven days.


The main theme of Levenda's "Unholy Alliance" is that the nazi organization was NOT a political party, nor was it a secular organization that wanted to grab power.

It was a cult - a new religion for a new world order.

It was born from the XIX Century Germanic secret societies, such as the ones I listed here.

The other thing to keep in mind was that while these secret societies were international with branches in different countries, the Germans broke with their "secret masters" and plowed on ahead in their own path.

Into this cocktail of Germanic secret societies, came a certain chap named Guido von List who created his own society (yet another one!).

His organization promoted Aryan i.e. Germanic/Teutonic race as superior to ALL others (sorry, Poles, Italians, French - you are not the White/Aryan, apparently), and apparently only the Germans were worthy enough to be considered the "true" Aryans.

This then was the climate in Germany, of secret societies, a veritable cocktail of people who at first believed in ancient magic and wisdom, who as Madame Blavatsky has taught wanted humanity to respect the elders, learn from them and to establish a "Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour"...

Which was then morphed by Germans in the XIX into "Aryans are supermen", to "We Germans are the Aryan children and all others can go fuck themselves" (Deep thoughts, I know, but hey, Germans are truly wacky people).

One of Guido von List's students was one "Anton Drexler, a member of the Thule Society, founded the German Workers’ Party (DAP)".

We all know where that path lead - the wholesale slaughter of men, women and children - mostly WHITE men, women and children.  A cataclysm, a holocaust of unimaginable proportions - a biblical size catastrophe.

And all this sprang from the XIX Century Germanic secret societies.



Which, apparently, the founders of "Skull and Bones" wanted to emulate and did so, successfully.

Which explains a lot about the direction in which this country (and the world) is heading.



BONUS
To all so called White Supremacists who admire hitler

Are you fucking insane?

This man is literally responsible for perhaps the biggest (percentage wise) White people genocide since Ghengis Khan.

It was a blood sacrifice unlike any other.

And you admire this man?  For what, killing a record number of White men, women and children?

Anybody who proclaims him/her self a "White supremacist" or a "Proud White"

(a term I prefer, because I identify with my European people but refuse to follow the XIX Century Germanic path of "Aryan uber alles" which leads to violence and White blood sacrifice- also, I DO believe that while my race, the White race IS superior, this does not mean that we should be overlords over other races, or slavemasters, or take advantage of them in any way)

... and is an admirer of hitler is an idiot.

That the biggest mass murderer of Whites (after Ghengis Khan and stalin), a man who was literally a dupe of stalin, is admired by people proclaiming themselves "White supremacists" or some such literally blows my mind.