OCCULT ARTS: Bohemian Grove, Society’s Capitalist Caste System & “The Parade of Power”
Into The Woods...
[Originally published on MEDIUM, 3March2020; Censored by Medium 30June2021]
It’s been long enough now that I can maybe tell this story without getting whacked. It’s about a very revealing 1904 photo taken at NorCal’s notorious all-male, mostly white, rich weirdo hangout Bohemian Grove.
The black’n’white photograph came from a late member of San Francisco’s Bohemian Club, which owns the 2,700 acre Grove in Monte Rio, CA, and annually hosts a half-of-July encampment that attracts some of the most prominent men in the world. Legend has it that wannabe presidents go there to get vetted, though Richard Nixon was recorded saying, “The Bohemian Grove — it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine,” so maybe they get more than just vetted.
The secret photo was intended and had been kept as part of the owner’s private collection. But after his number got punched and he started his eternal dirt nap, the rich dude’s family sold off a bunch of his possessions. Unknowingly to them (or so the story goes), part of those possessions were a bunch of secret photos from the early years of Bohemian Grove.
The Grove, deep in the Redwood Forest, is owned by the Bohemian Club, a longtime secret society of sorts that’s not so secret anymore. It started benevolently in 1872 as a gathering of journalists, artists, and musicians. But in only a few years, it was co-opted by wealthy businessmen and other power brokers. Ain’t that always the way?
Anybody who traces the backroom mechanizations of the so-called “elite” parasite-types pays close attention to who attends and what goes on at Bohemian Grove, although not much about the latter ever leaks out. In 2019, the dank Hollywood gossip site Crazy Days and Nights came up with the prior year’s guest list, and it’s…interesting. Senators, CEOs, late night chat show hosts, aging musicians, etc.
It was also in 2019, February, that I was in Mexico and attended the genius modern spirtual philosopher and former satanist Mark Passio’s paradigm-shifting presentation “Demystifying the Occult.” I won’t go on and on about how everybody should watch (or, better, try to attend IRL) this brilliant and soul-elevating all-day presentation, but I will write it once, right there. If there’s a more knowledgable American de-occultist living today than Mark Passio, I don’t know them (though I’m open to suggestions!). There are definitely quite a few less intense, however, so he may not be to your taste.
During his masterful presentation, Passio shared the photo I’m talking about. He explained the backstory, and told us to focus not on the men in the foreground, presumably the artists, but the etching that was nailed to a tree behind them.
The etching is a “Parade of Power,” explaining how the so-called “elite” see the world, with a hierarchical caste system of societal influence, moving from right to left and beginning with:
> Transient field peasants last; today, these would be the homeless
> Farmers and those who work the land next; honorable toil, but held in very low regard by oligarchs like Michael Bloomberg
> Then the messy masses: fat, disheveled, bunched together, similar, common, forgettable. Today’s cubicle dwellers, couch potatoes and smartphone addicts
> After that the creative types and middle class — authors, actors, dancers, white collar workers
> In front of them, the “strong men”: Cops, military, federal law enforcement, other authority figures.
> The strong men follow the money men — bankers, finance, Wall Street’s would-be “masters of the universe.” But…
> In front of them there’s the REAL power guys….who have what looks like a toad, or perhaps TOADY, holding an umbrella over their head. And what’s written on the TOADY’s hat? Why, it’s “PRESS”!
>>> Finally, at the front of the line, leading the parade with a magic staff, are the Mystics, the Magicians, the Seers. The most respected of all, the channel to the Spirit world, the visionary leaders whom even the most powerful have to follow as Mankind’s destiny is set. Or altered.
So there you have it, a picture worth 1,000 words (actually 840, looks like). Its official title is “13 Men Sitting And Standing In Camp, At The Bohemian Grove 1904.” Which is weird because we can count 14 men in the picture. Is one of them actually a woman? A mannequin? A child? A corpse? No idea.
Anyway, I took two pictures of the photograph on my phone when it popped up during Mark Passio’s “Demystifying the Occult” presentation. I confirmed I had these pictures numerous times, even showed them to people.
And yet…somewhere between me leaving the Acapulco airport and about 12 hours after getting home, those pictures were gone. Erased from my phone. They were the only pix from the 60 or so that I took that were missing, least as far as I can recall.
Now, a year later, with things more chaotic than ever and the real-life “Parade of Power” becoming clearer, figured I might as well get this info out there. I know where I stand in this equation. Do you?
[POSTSCRIPT: Since this piece was originally published, the title of the photo has been changed to “14 Men Sitting And Standing In Camp, At The Bohemian Grove 1904.” ]