Disclaimer

The author of this blog does not advocate hate or unprovoked violence against any group. The purpose of this blog is to provide the very best information regarding philosophy, mindset training, and technique for the Christian Martialist in their broader Biblical, theological and cultural contexts. Nothing posted here should be construed as promoting or excusing hostile speech or acts toward anyone.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

America's Pagan Establishment


Then said [God] unto me, "Son of man, dig now in the wall:" and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. And He said unto me, "Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here." 


So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 


Then said he unto me, "Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, 'The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.;" (Ezekiel 8:8-12)

Outwardly, the elders of Israel stood for God & country. But in the dark, they worshiped alien gods.

That was then, in Israel. This is now, in America.

As the sun begins to set in a secluded grove of trees, a sizable group of people gathers to behold a strange ritual. The centerpiece is a forty-foot shrine,  the image of an owl. Knowing spectators now focus on a particular tree.

Moments later an offstage chorus of "woodland voices" begins to sing.

Then a spotlight illuminates the tree . . . and there emerges from it a hamadryad, a "tree spirit," whose life, according to Greek mythology, is intimately bound up with the tree in which it lives. The hamadryad begins to sing, telling the supplicants that beauty and strength and peace are theirs as long as the trees of the Grove are there. It sings of the "temple-aisles of the wood" that are made for "your delight," and implores the [viewers] to "burn away the sorrows of yesterday" and to "cast your grief to the fires and be strong with the holy trees and the spirit of the Grove."[1]



A bit later in the ceremony, the high priest, in a cowled red robe stands before the image of the owl. He raises his hands and announces,

The Owl is in his leafy temple. Let all within the Grove be reverent before him.[2]

The owl was associated with the Roman goddess Minerva (counterpart to the Greek Athena). Minerva was the goddess of wisdom. This modern ritual makes the same connection between the owl and wisdom:


The high priest falls to his knees and lifts his arms toward the shrine. "O thou, great symbol of all mortal wisdom," he cries. "Owl of Bohemia, we do beseech thee, grant us thy counsel!"[3]


(The connection that various right wing conspiracy theorists make between the owl and Moloch seems to contain more imagination than verifiable historical research.)

As the ritual unfolds, it becomes clear that the drama is a metaphor. It represents the setting aside of the cares and responsibilities of everyday life in order to fully embrace what is to come next.

What immediately follows this demonstration of pagan nature worship is a period of drunken carousing pursued with moral abandon. It outdoes the Saturnalia, which lasted only seven days. This festival will go on for a little over two weeks.
From Biblical times nature worshipers have favored groves for their rituals and immoral pursuits. But the foregoing ceremony does not come from some musty archive that details the disgusting practices of ancient peoples. This ritual originated in California in 1893.

A private, all-male organization of 2300 members -- with a 33 year waiting list -- has gathered annually for this event ever since. You may think that this organization represents a fringe group of social outcasts. Are they some obscure neo-pagan religion, perhaps, or some satanic cult?

Then you find out that the participants revel in ओpen public urination, and that this seems to carry some symbolic phallic significance. Also, you discover that there is a strong homoerotic theme to the event's activities. You conclude that this group, which originated in San Francisco, is an organization of West Coast homosexuals expressing their contempt for God and social propriety.

That conclusion is entirely logical, but mostly wrong. The membership represents the major power brokers on the American scene. You can find corporate executives, investment bankers, military leaders (including members of the joint chiefs of staff) and politicians (including past and would-be US presidents) filling their ranks. They call themselves the Bohemian Club.

The Club owns 2,700 acres of redwood forest in California where, in mid-July, they hold the annual ceremony to kick off two weeks of immorality. Sociologist G. William Domhoff describes the aftermath of the pagan ritual:

As this climax approaches, some fifty minutes after the march began, the quiet onlookers on the other side of the lake begin to come alive. After all, it is a night for rejoicing. The men begin to shout, to sing, to hug each other, and dance around. They have been freed by their priests and their Owl for some good old-fashioned hell raising.[4]

Domhoff, however, writes the ritual off as a "harmless put-on" which members do not take all that seriously. The question for Biblical believers is whether the God we worship takes such ceremonies seriously. The Book of Numbers, chapter 25, indicates that He does.


[1] The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats, G. William Domhoff, Harper & Row, 1974, p. 3.
[2] Op. cit., p. 4.
[3] Op cit., p. 6
[4] Op. cit., p.7.

In the year 2000, right-wing journalist Alex Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove and videoed the ceremony I have described. As noted above, I do not agree with some of his interpretations & conclusions, including the sensationalist suggestion that babies are being burned in sacrifice. The ceremony itself, however, should give any Christian something to think about regarding his national political & business leaders.

For three generations, America's political & economic Establishment has participated in acts of outright idolatrous worship, followed by drunken dissipation & homoerotic behavior. Alex Jones' video follows:


2 comments:

  1. Very interesting...I must admit that I liked your information better than the video. I'd like to look into this further to make up my mind. Would you recommend the noted book?

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  2. Domhof, the author of the book, is a leftist sociologist, so if you read his book, you have to make allowances for his ideology. I think a good place to begin would be Wikipedia's article on "The Bohemian Grove". It is a longer article with a lot of detail.
    I used the video because it helps document that the ceremony actually takes place. Although Alex Jones tends to sensationalize everything, he's actually better than a lot of right wing commentators. You have to take him with a grain of salt.

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