Spinal Fire Scientia Est Potentia

Reader Weekly
Issue 327, July 14, 2005

Every year, on the Ides (15th) of July, a conclave is summoned to Northern California to an ancient redwood copse named the Bohemian Grove. From far and wide over two thousand men make their yearly pilgrimage as their forefathers have done for over a century. As the sun sets a hooded cadre of intoxicated occultists pay obeisance to a 45-foot tall stone idol in the form of an ancient owl god, Moloch. It is this Canaanite god, which the Bible warns against sacrificing children to by burning them alive. It is this god, which these elite necromancers ritually sacrifice “care” to as they kick off their two and a half week retreat in a ritual entitled “the Cremation of Care.”

Just who attends this yearly bacchanal ceremony? The Crem de la Crem of American society, from senators, congressmen, Supreme Court justices, five star military generals, policy wonks, and past and future presidents of the United States, to leaders of industry including CEO’s, lobbyists, world famous entertainers, religious leaders, foreign dignitaries, and famous scientists. Members of this illustrious club include every republican president since Calvin Coolidge and many of their cabinet and closest advisors. Powerful members in the Bush Whitehouse include the president himself his vice president (Cheney) and his secretary of defense (Rumsfeld).

What are all these elite persons doing in the remote wilderness of northern California acting like frat boys and engaging in odd occult behavior? There are no easy answers yet the truth lies somewhere between the history of the club, its connection to other elite organizations and the occult symbolism, which has become its mainstay.

The City Club

The Bohemian Club of San Francisco was founded in 1872 as a bastion of civility in the post civil war boomtown. Local Artists inspired by the “Spirit of Bohemia” borrowed from the 1930’s French artistic movement that sought to pool the efforts of the artistic and intellectual community in a communal manner. The French movement consisted of mainly penurious artisans who had adopted the term “bohemian” on the mistaken belief that the gypsy homeland was the historical province of Bohemia. which composes the majority of what is today known as the Czech Republic.

This Bohemian/Gypsy spirit was fused with the structure of the English gentlemen’s club. As English culture spread with her empire so did the elite stratifications. The English Clubs fostered a haven of sorts for England’s royal, wealthy, and landed gentry providing an atmosphere of stratified noblesse oblige. The Gentlemen’s club was a place where elite white men could congregate with their “equals” and bask in their station in life. Social Darwinism was the norm as these men saw themselves as the enlightened genetic superiors of the human race.

As the United States culture was by and large a transplant of it English parent, Americans sought to recapture a bit of that culture by attempting to import the caste of “gentleman” to the American frontier. The Bohemian’s of San Francisco were one of the few saplings which took hold in the fertile American soil reaching her roots deep into American culture forging a cancerous symbiotic relationship.

Originally erected in 1879, The City Club of the Bohemians has gone through many incarnations, every one of them more sumptuous and opulent than the last. The current clubhouse located on Post and Taylor Street in San Francisco is complete with the archetypal overstuffed leather chairs, thousand dollar cigars, and a picky sommelier approved wine list. The Bohemian’s boast a 750 seat fully functional professional theater, a 700 person formal dining room, and a private library complete with first editions by famous Bohemians (London, Twain, Wouk, etc…). Bohemian Club visitors can meditate over Herbert Hoover’s Fly fishing pole, and ponder over an Egyptian Mummy dubbed “Lady Isis.” The decorating theme is replete with owls coupled with photos and artwork that catalogue the club’s long history.

This convivial atmosphere attracted the writers and artists from around the west including Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Jack London, and Ambrose Bierce. Even the notoriously flamboyant Oscar Wilde paid a visit to the Bohemian Club and reportedly drank his hosts under the table. With famous members and guests the club grew rapidly and soon became the unseen hand behind the local arts seen.

Unfortunately for the Bohemians this artistic raison d’etre was to wither to a façade thinly veiling its elite patronage as businessmen were allowed into the fold and rapidly began to swell in ranks and power. Originally “men of use” (wealthy elite) were allowed to join the club as “supporters of the arts.” This allowed the “men of talent” more capital to build the club; however it quickly began to dilute the artistic bent of the Bohemians. Fortunately for the starving artists the monthly dues were slashed in half ($3 in 1887 to $120 in 1994) as they helped the businessmen meet keep the appearances of the club’s original intent. These artists, considered “associate” members, are also spared the initiation fee, which started at $100 in 1887 and has climbed to at least $10,000 since 1994. It is stunningly ironic that artists who took pride in their poverty would give birth to one of the most elite men’s group in the world. John van der Zee, who infiltrated the Grove for research in his groundbreaking book on the Grove, opines on this sea change in the Bohemian’s philosophy:

“It is common for founding principles to become institutional embarrassments. What political movement or religious faith cannot be damned in the words of its prophets? Yet in American history few social clubs can have made such a total turnabout in so short a time as this ‘Bohemian Club.’” (van der Zee 1974, p.17)

The Grove

In the summer of 1878 a group of Bohemians ventured out of their comfortable little clubhouse and held a campout in the remote forests of Sonoma County. Thus began a tradition of the yearly Bohemian retreat. In 1893 the club rented a copse of old growth redwood forest along the banks of the Russian river from the Sonoma Lumber Company. During the 1800’s vast swaths of virgin forest were destroyed in the name of progress as the rail system cut its way through the American frontier, and centuries old forests were cleared to aid the progress of the nascent nation. The Sonoma Lumber Company had the foresight to set aside certain beautiful plots in the hopes of a greater return for their profit at a future date. It was just such a plot, consisting of 160 acres, that the Bohemians Rented and finally purchased in 1899. Over the years the holding would increase to its present day size of 2,712 acres.

As the retreat grew and permanent structures were erected, the Bohemian Club’s reputation grew with it. The Bohemians became well know for their unique mix of an urban gentlemen’s club mixed with a woodland summer camp. This blend attracted elite from across the county and the world many of which came as guests and stayed as members. During the early part of the 20th century the Bohemian Club expanded rapidly creating a range of accommodations from tent platforms to sumptuously decorated redwood cabins. Throughout the years the Grover’s have tirelessly improved their modest abode. Adding, miles of paved roads and meandering trails, a post office, museum, civic center, grocery store, hospital, barbershop, art studio and gallery, fire station, 1500 capacity dining area complete with professional kitchen and chefs, two outdoor theaters, a café and innumerous bars.

As the membership of the club had expanded with the popularity of the midsummer retreat the grove was divided into separate camps, which consisted of campers from roughly the same socio economic strata and career backgrounds. The number of these camps varies in number from year to year as some camps die with their members or merge with other camps, while new ones are occasionally formed. The membership of each camp can vary as well from 6 to 130 members. Each camp has a unique name that ranges from the jovial to the esoteric. Many progressives may grin when they learn that the Bush clan “pitches its tent” with the “Hill Billies” camp while the elders predecessor, Reagan, was a member of “Owl’s Nest.” Though, all camps have hot running water and bathroom/shower facilities, approximately 1/3 of the camps are forced to “rough it” and go without the live in valets, which cater to the every whim of the upper 2/3’s of the Bohemians.

The grove is notorious for its fraternity house atmosphere where overindulgence is the rule and drinking at breakfast is far from the norm. Different camps specialize in different drinks, which have become their trademark over the years. The most infamous of these is the concoction whipped up at the Fore Peak camp, which is a rum and cocoa drink, served warm and purportedly “rumored to contain a powerful white powder barbiturate provided by an executive from a drug company” (Phillips 1994, p.65).

All of this drinking (and drug use) inevitable leads to an urgent need to relieve oneself. Rather than using the fully functional washroom facilities, the tradition in the Grove is to simply urinate on an ancient redwood tree. In fact this tradition is so beloved that one Grove infiltrator reports the nuisance: “we were immediately confronted by the sight of old men relieving themselves on trees... They almost peed on our shoes as we walked by! And everybody was doing it, so by now; the whole place just reeked of urine. There was so much of it that it was literally running down the sidewalk.” (Hanson 2004, pp.237-238).

Aside from drinking and pissing on nature, the Bohemians love their theater. The Bohemians stage an elaborate production involving hundreds of actors written specifically for the Grover’s and seen only once at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars. They also stage musicals, comedy, and variety acts of many different flavors. These events are, more often than not, racist and misogynistic as old rich drunken men in drag play all of the female parts.

Cremation of Care Ceremony 1915

All of this revelry is kicked off in the annual Cremation of Care ceremony on July 15. In this ceremony a body is ferried across the lake to the foot of a 45-foot tall stone owl representing the Canaanite god Moloch to whom it is ritually sacrificed. The effigy is supposed to embody “dull care” and is intended to help dispel the connection to the “real world”. This is the official explanation fails to hold water when the complex symbolism is unmasked to reveal a complex esoteric ritual.

After the scheduled events are finished for the evening the men go their different ways and the real party begins. Rumors abound as to what actually goes on after dark in the Grove. They range from the outrageous (ritual sacrifice of mind controlled slaves) to the innocuous (further drinking, drugs, and whores). Members with other inclinations stumble out of the camp and into town to another yearly encampment of high priced prostitutes who are purportedly bussed in for the occasion. In the early 70’s a local bar was investigated by the county District Attorney for prostitution. The practice of busing in high class hookers purportedly dates back to the 1920’s. This tradition wasn’t to be quashed by the minor inconvenience of a local investigation and thus the inquiry was killed. Without going into the sordid details, which are obviously spuriously documented at best, it will suffice to say that this isn’t your average Boy Scout camp.

Taken as a whole, the rumors of laced drinks, the prostitutes, and the occult ceremonials paint a rather curious picture. Who are these men and why would they put their fortunes and the running of our government on hold just to get drunk and possibly sleep with prostitutes?

The Club’s motto adopted in 1875, “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here” was lifted from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ostensibly to provide the appearance of the inappropriateness of conducting business during club functions. However as we shall see this is just a dream concocted for those on the outside of the looking glass.

Throughout the years the Grove has amassed quite a membership list which includes top level CEOs of major corporations who wait in line to become a member for an average of 15 years with special preference given to young men (possibly in an attempt to keep the institution young, although more nefarious reasons have been cited).

Dr. Peter Martin Phillips wrote his 1994 dissertation on the club, A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. In the dissertation Phillips studied various membership lists and created a database. According to his research the Bohemian Club draws its members primarily from the business and legal field with a surprising 73.5% of its members listing this area as their career. These businessmen and lawyers aren’t lower level managers or ambulance chasers either. It turns out that 11.89% of Bohemia’s active members (232) held $30.476 billion of corporate stock in U.S. companies! Philips himself admits that this figure is just a low level estimate based on the SEC filings, which are “but a small percentage of actual Bohemian Club members’ net worth” (Phillips 1994, pp.74-75). This overwhelming amount of corporate leverage is no doubt due to the fact that an alarming number of Bohemians are directors of major U.S. corporations.

Matching the active 1991 Bohemian list with the 1991 U.S. directors resulted in showing that 141 Bohemians hold 286 directorships in the top 1,144 U.S. corporations. The data indicates that 13.2% of all Bohemians are directors of Fortune 1000 or Forbes 500 corporations, or that of the top 1,144 corporations in the U.S. 17.6% have a one or more Bohemian directors. These 286 directorships were held in 201 corporations, so that eighty-five Bohemians had directorships with at least one other Bohemian in a top U.S. corporation. The 13 corporations with three or more Bohemian directors are as follows:

U.S. Corporation Number of Bohemian Directors [As of 1994]

Bank of America 7

Pacific Gas and Electric 5

American Telephone & Telegraph 4

Pacific Enterprises 4

First Interstate 4

McKesson Corporation 4

Carter-Hawley Hale Stores 3

Ford 3

F.M.C. 3

Safeco Insurance 3

Potlatch 3

Pope and Talbot 3

General Motors 3

Pacific Telesis 3

(Phillips 1994, pp.76-77).

This list merely concerns publicly traded companies and only takes into account boards with over 3 directors as members. This network of at least 201 companies forms a spider web of interlocking interests with the common bond being membership in the Bohemian Club. This network increases significantly when the guests of Bohemian Club members are taken into account. It turns out that at least 24-30% of elite U.S. corporations have directors as either guests or Members of the Bohemian Club visit the retreat yearly. These figures are based simply on directorships of major corporations; imagine if the field was widened to include all employees! In just one of the campgrounds (Los Angeles) you find representations from Colgate-Palmolive, Sears & Roebuck, Wells Fargo, Times Mirror Co., Atlantic Richfield, Mattel Inc., CBS, IBM, Phillip Morris, Northrop Grumman, etc…

Though the Bohemian Club shuns open business dealings in the Grove, it is clear that the club’s motto “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here” is a smokescreen for a gullible public willing to look the other way. In fact business is done at the grove as it has been done for a millennia: by getting your mark drunk and luring him into your web. Webs are not spun at the Grove, they are mass-produced. If somebody wanted to climb onto the elevator of success (thus bypassing the ladder) the summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove would be the place. Where else could you shake hands and get drunk with over 286 empire makers in two and a half short weeks? Aside from the outrageous claims of some researchers, even a conservative analysis of the Bohemian Grove is disturbing.

Benito Mussolini once said, “fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” As we have seen The Bohemian Club has many elite “men of use” to call their own and powerful politicians to make good use of these men. Never in the history of America has its government been so close to corporate interests. We now have companies like Haliburton running our army bases and fielding trigger-pulling mercenaries while reaping the benefit of billions of dollars in no bid contracts. This is made possible thanks in part to its ex-CEO (95-2000) and current U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Our war machine is supplied in part by our current president’s father’s employer, (the defense contracting company the Carlyle Group) while the destruction they cause is repaired by companies like Bechtel which make money as part of the military industrial complex that Eisenhower (also a Bohemian) warned us of.

Does the little fact that these men meet each summer in a secret retreat not raise concern for the health of our democracy? Does the fact that they engage in an elaborate ritual of sacrifice to the god Moloch not raise any concern in this “Christian” nation of ours? During the next couple of weeks when you see President Bush, ask yourself who his closest advisors are sharing a tent with and what their nocturnal activities might be.

Works Cited:

Hanson, Mike. (2004). Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy (Lincoln, NE. iUniverse, Inc. 2004)

Moore, Mary. (2005) Bohemian Grove Information Packet (Direct Mailing 2005) http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/

Phillips, Peter Martin. (1994) A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club (Davis, CA. Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, Davis 1994)

Van Der Zee, John. (1974). The Greatest Men’s Party on Earth: Inside the Bohemian Grove (U.S. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1974).