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Syd: Okay, that all sounds pretty reasonable so far. Now there has been some controversy surrounding a ceremony that takes place at the Bohemian Grove known as the Cremation of Care ceremony. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about the Cremation of Care?
Paul: Alright, well, here we go… the Cremation of Care, it’s the introduction ceremony for the opening weekend of the Grove, and on our site we’re gonna have video from Alex Jones’ documentary of the ceremony so you can watch it for yourself and see what takes place. But basically what happens is you have these cloaked, hooded figures who are carrying torches and they’re all standing before the previously mentioned stone owl and they have this funeral precession where they lead this human effigy in a coffin down to this altar, this druidic altar and they set it on fire and there’s speeches given, monologues if you will. |
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Now the effigy is called “Care,” that’s where it gets its name from, the Cremation of Care, or “Dull Care”. And the official reason for the symbolism of the ceremony is that it’s supposed to be this metaphor for that now you’ve gotten to the grove you can do away with your cares and your troubles, the cares of the daily grind rat-race of work and your career and now you can have fun. That’s the official reason for it.
And even though the ceremony has changed and developed a little bit over the years, for the most part, the script of what the characters, performers, are saying during the ceremony has been relatively unchanged for a many number of years. There’s actually someone playing the voice of Care, of Dull Care, who is a character. And he will always say as they’re trying to banish him or cremate him, he’ll always say, “Lifting your puny shouts of triumph to the stars, when again you turn your faces to the market place, do ye not find me waiting as of old?” And that’s supposed to illustrate that Care is associated with the market place, with, like I said, the daily grind of the work week. And we’re also going to have the script available that I just read from that comes from the ceremony that Alex Jones filmed, in case you don’t actually want to watch the Cremation of Care ceremony, on our website you can just read the script of what the actors say in the ceremony. |
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But, anyway, I guess it’s pretty obvious that the conspiracy theorists don’t buy into the official reasons for the ceremony. They see the Cremation of Care ceremony as an occult or satanic ritual.
And one of the most common things you will find that’s said by the conspiracy theorists is that the stone owl is actually a representation of the god Moloch or Molech. Now, I do not know where this came from and in my research I have been trying to track down who originally made this claim. I mean, clearly people like Alex Jones and people like David Icke have popularized it, but I can’t find where it originated. But from what I’ve been able to ascertain, it’s just simply bullshit, because the god Moloch has never been symbolized by an owl. I’ve never been able to find that in my research. If somebody can point it out to me, I’d love to see it. I’ve seen owl symbolism with Athena and Minerva and Ishtar, but I've never seen it with the Phoenician, Canaanite deity known as Moloch. Moloch was always represented by a bull. So, I don’t know where this came from, but it seems to be pretty obviously untrue. |
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a depiction of Moloch |
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I kind of have this one really out-there theory that perhaps the reason why people associate today this conspiracy theory and Moloch with an owl, is actually from the graphic novel by Allan Moore, the Watchmen, because there is a character in the Watchmen called Moloch and there is also a character called the Niteowl. It’s probably a bit of a stretch, but that’s just one of my own weird theories of perhaps where this association came from, because I simply can’t find any other association of an owl and Moloch ever, so, who knows.
The owl is the symbol of the Bohemian Club and it has been since the club’s inception. And the official reason that I've found, was that when the club first started- There’s a couple of reasons for it, one is that it represents wisdom, but also when the club first started when they were in the Astor Hotel, they would stay up really late talking, and they considered themselves “night owls”. And there’s also a lot of owls out there in the Sequoia Valley. Anyway, well I will certainly concede that the Cremation of Care ceremony on its surface is very creepy. There’s no question about it. It does have the appearance of an occult ritual, or something with occult overtones. But when you delve into this a little further and start reading about the history of it, the reality is much more mundane. |
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The Cremation of Care ceremony was created in 1893 by grove member Joseph D. Redding. Now, Redding, he was an attorney, but he was also really well renown in the San Francisco music and opera scene. In fact, he co-wrote and produced a couple of operas. He co-wrote Natoma, and then he also co-wrote and produced an opera called Fay-Yen-Fah. And Fay-Yen-Fah was actually based on a grove play called the Land of Happiness, and you can download the Land of Happiness from our site. But Fay-Yen-Fah was the first American opera produced in France and it was co-written and produced by this guy who was a grove member who created the Cremation of Care ceremony.
And when you look into the history of the ceremony what you will find is that it was always considered to be a piece of theater. There were no delusions whatsoever by the people participating in it and observing it that this was an actual occult ritual.
And I remember the first time I watched- and you know, at full disclosure, when I first saw Alex Jones’ documentary, I think the first time I saw it was back in 2001, I was a little bit sold on it. I was like, “Wow, this is pretty creepy, this kind of does look like an occult ritual. I don’t know if I like the leaders of the world participating in this.” But I also noticed even the first time I watched it, even though it’s strange and bizarre, it does kind of seem like a play. You know, there’s people playing different parts in costumes, there’s a script, they have memorized lines, there’s musical accompaniment. It definitely gives off the appearance of a theatrical production. |
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In my research on this, I was actually able to track down a New York Times article from June 25th, of 1899. Now, remember the Cremation of Care ceremony was created in 1893. So, this only the sixth time that this ceremony was ever produced. And we’re actually going to have this article available on the website for you to download and read yourself. But I'm going to read a little bit from it right now, and I'm going to start towards the end of the article here. But, okay:
“The Midsummer High Jinks is a beautiful open air ceremony held in the night in the natural amphitheater of the grove. The members usually plan to present some spectacular play, in which frequently several hundred performers take part. The most noteworthy performance of this kind occurred in 1893 when Joseph D. Redding, now a lawyer in New York devised a beautiful spectacle the Cremation of Care. Great attention was paid to all the details and the Druid priests who figured prominently in the show bore all the insignia of their order on their vestments. Over 500 persons figured in the spectacle and electric and calcium lights were used to illuminate the tableaus. There were a symphony orchestra and a grand chorus. … Mr. Redding served as High Priest of Bohemia, then came a precession of eight Druid priests bearing six chained captives, a Gaul, a Celt, a Roman, a barbarian, and two men from the far north. Each captive was in costume and each in turn pleaded his cause before the assembly but was condemned to death. Only the Gaul who represented Bohemia was able to make a defense that lifted the sentence from the heads of the captives. A loving cup was then drunk by Druids, Captives and Bohemians. Mephisto and a number of devils rushed in and attempted to rescue Care. The devil made an impassioned address saying that good fellowship was a mockery and that Care should not be banished. The devils swooped down to seize Care, but the Druid leader drove them into the woods with a lighted torch which he at once applied to the funeral pyre.” |
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Now this was one the earliest incarnations of the Cremation of Care ceremony, and one of the reasons I read this is not only to illustrate that it was described as a play in this article, but also, there’s this idea that this a satanic ritual. Well, if you’ll notice what is said in one of the earliest times when this ceremony was performed, that once Mephisto, and Mephisto is short for Mephistopheles who was the devil character in Faust –Faust is that old German legend that was made into a famous play by Johann Wolfgang Goethe called Faust– Mephisto represented the Devil. So, Mephisto and these devils come in and they attempt to save Care. And the Druids and the Bohemians banish the devil and chase him off. So, even in its earliest incarnations, this was seen as something against the Devil. The Devil was portrayed as the villain in this play. And the Bohemians were seen as the good guys. So, this is the absolute antithesis of a satanic ritual.
But regardless this was always conceived transparently as a piece of theater, that any way you slice it, this was considered a theatrical production. And the idea that this is an occult ritual, or an esoteric, satanic ritual, I think is pretty absurd. You know, it’s kind of funny, because I've also studied freemasonry a lot over the years. And I used to, in a metaphorical sense, I used to characterize –well, I still do I guess– characterize most Masonic rituals and freemasonry in general, as a bastardized amalgamation of Qabalistic and Hermetic mysticism, except with all the esotericism pretty much sucked out of it. That it’s the empty shell of magickal ritual. And I used to characterize freemasonry rituals as theater, but I did that as a metaphor.
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Well, the Cremation of Care ceremony is quite literally, obviously a piece of theater. I mean it was written by a guy who wrote operas.
So, okay, let’s talk about the owl again for a moment. You’ll see, people like Alex Jones and other conspiracy theorists, actually claim that the Bohemians worship this owl. Well, this 45 foot stone owl wasn’t even built until 1929, and the Cremation of Care ceremony was created in 1893. You wanna know what they used instead of an owl in some of the first productions of this ceremony? … They used a 70 foot statue of Buddha. And I have pictures of this Buddha on the website that you can see. And I don’t know how many times they actually used the Buddha in the ceremony, but before it was an owl, it was a statue of Buddha. So, by that same token, do they also worship Buddha? Or is this a prop? |
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70 foot statue of Buddha which used to be at the Grove |
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Okay, well let’s say that my characterization is accurate, that this is a piece of theater. Well, can we at least admit that the Cremation of Care ceremony has occult overtones? Well, sure, one could make that case. But to characterize it as something with occult overtones is really panting with a broad brush, because you could basically label anything that has either religious or mythological symbolism in it as something containing occult overtones. I mean, Macbeth or a Midsummer Night’s Dream has occult overtones in it. If you look into the history of Mardi Gras, you’re going to see a lot occult overtones in its conception. But, if you're taking part in a Mardi Gras parade you’re not performing an occult ritual; if you’re performing Macbeth you're not performing an occult ritual. So, there really is a very specific difference between something that has occult overtones and something that is an actual occult, esoteric ritual.
I mean the idea that the Cremation of Care ceremony could reasonably be compared as something akin to, let’s say, an Enochian invocation ritual… is patently absurd. Anyone with even a casual familiarity with occult and esoteric traditions and practices would just look at the Cremation of Care ceremony and just laugh if anyone was trying to seriously characterize this as an occult ritual. I mean, they would see it for what it obviously is, which is a piece of theater.
And furthermore, to illustrate how seriously the members of the club take the Cremation of Care ceremony. Here’s something I got from an article written by G. William Dumhoff, who has done some really incredible work on the Bohemian Club. He claims that in 1996 there was a little side piece right before they before performed the Cremation of Care ceremony. At the time in ’96, one of the most popular commercials on TV was that Budweiser commercial with the bullfrogs, the three bullfrogs that would go “Bud - WEIS - er.” And they did this mock-up and it was actually Walter Cronkite, Clint Eastwood and George H. W. Bush, and instead of saying “Budweiser” they were saying “cremation”, so it was “cre - MAY - shun.” And that really shows you how seriously even the people taking part in this ceremony actually consider this. |
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Okay, and here’s the thing. You wanna know what they really take seriously? From all the research I’ve done on the Bohemian Club, you wanna know what the real point of the grove is? It’s to drink your fucking face off, to get stone drunk, but in a sophisticated sort of way –these are men that can handle their liquor– and to hang out in a redwood forest for two weeks and listen to these Lakeside Talks, and hang out with powerful people, and watch plays and see music be performed. And apparently another one the tokens of the grove, there’s a lot of pissing in the woods going on; that seems to be one of the things it’s famous for, whole lot of pissing in the woods.
If there is anything to actually be concerned about the Bohemian Club and the grove, is that you could, I suppose, accurately characterize this as in a way, perhaps a secret think tank out in the woods; it’s kind of like the Council on Foreign Relations in a redwood forest. It is elitists getting together and having an off the record good time with each other, and perhaps talking policy. And if that concerns you, then so be it. That’s perhaps a reasonable thing to be concerned about. But if you’re concerned about occult rituals taking place here, well, you’re just gonna have to get over it, because it's not happening. Sorry, just not happening. |
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And what’s kind of frustrating for me about this whole thing and for a lot of conspiracy theorists in general, is that they are so quick to be paranoid and label things like the Cremation of Care as a work of Satanism or freemasonry as Satanism. And it’s sad, because not only is it demonstrably untrue, but there are actually people out there who are performing occult rituals. You can find them in every town and community in the world, basically. And I know because I've met them before, the small handfuls of people who are messing around with stuff like Goetia or some of the darker sides of Thelema, and even people who are at OTO lodges or Golden Dawn lodges are gonna be doing things like demonic invocations.
Let’s also get one thing very clear. We’re not here to debate the merits of esotericism or occult practices. You can think it’s all total bullshit if you want, and at full disclosure I'm an agnostic on the issue. Maybe at a later date we will actually discuss what may be the psychological or perhaps scientific implications of what’s going on within the mind of the practitioner who is involved with these occult, esoteric, Hermetic traditions. But right now it’s irrelevant; it doesn’t matter.
Because the point is that there actually people doing this. It’s just that where it’s taking place is in parent’s basements all across the country and where it’s absolutely not taking place is at the Bohemian Grove.
Syd: Okay, well I guess that concludes the first InsubordiNation podcast, when’s the next one going to be?
Paul: Well first of all we’re going to have to come up with another main topic. And hopefully in the future podcasts we’re going to have guests on and actual discussions and debates, rather than me just ranting the whole time. And we’ll diversify the topics and talk about more than just one item. We’ll see, hopefully maybe in April.
Syd: Very good, well once again I’ve been speaking with InsubordiNation managing-editor, Paul Smith, and I've been your host, Syd P. Eumon. Well, thanks for listening to our first podcast we hope you enjoyed it. |
