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Underground > Temple >

Bohemian Grove

  
  

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trouser the trouserian
19:27 / 26.11.07
Well, here's a "funny" thing. I looked up the description of the "Cremation of Care" ritual in Armistead Maupin's 1987 novel "Significant Others" and what did I find - it's on page 93 of the Black Swan edition. Really, what clearer message do you need that there's an occult significance to all this?
 
 
EmberLeo
20:53 / 26.11.07
I agree with whoever pointed out the secrecy aspect being a point of bonding, and actually I think that's most of it right there.

Sharing a secret - especially a secret that could be a danger to either or both of you should it come to light - is very bonding.

--Ember--
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
20:54 / 26.11.07
I feel that the genuinely inlightened magic(k)ian may gain some worthwhile insight if they conduct a numerological analysis (using the techniques/diagrams found in NF Stovold's seminal text, obvs) of the names

BOHEMIAN

AKELA

BADEN-POWELL

and

ARMISTEAD MAUPIN.

'Nuff said.

93
 
 
trouser the trouserian
07:17 / 27.11.07
The Ph.D thesis I linked to above makes interesting reading:

"1910 marked the first ceremonial burial of the cares of the world during the midsummer encampment and by 1913 Care was being cremated during the first weekend of the Grove (Annals, 1972) The Cremation of Care Ceremony was produced as a play in 1920, wherein a High Priest standing before a huge pre-historic alter, is confronted by Dull Care wrapped in the chains but not dead because Bacchus, the only warrior Care fears, is truly dead (18th Amendment was passed in 1919*). Good Fellowship arrives, but lacks the sword necessary to kill Dull Care, and can only imprison him and Care still sings out through the prison window. ... This ceremony has been rewritten on several occasions but the theme is still the same. The addition of the owl statue in 1920 allowed for the voice of the owl to be incorporated into the ceremony. Care is still dispatched yearly in a fiery death that symbolizes the initiation of Bohemian fellowship.

The cremation ceremony may mean different things to different Bohemians, but the consistent theme for eighty-four years is the release of everyday mundane concerns for the brotherhood of Bohemian friendship. The ritual continues to be an important event in the annual Bohemian trek to the redwoods."

and

"The Club strives to achieve a well-ordered gentlemanly atmosphere both at the Grove and the City Club. This atmosphere allows for the sentimentality of the Bohemian Spirit to be sustained and continue as an important factor in the depth of bonded friendships developed between members. Bohemian men share strong feelings about their Club. In short, there is an inter-club male culture that includes socially constructed traditions and ceremonies as well as deeply-held emotionally-based values and beliefs. The Clubs' 122-year history has established a pattern wherein these cultural understandings are religiously passed from generation to generation. More then one young Bohemian camps in the same location as his father and grandfather before him. In this respect the Grove takes on a sacred patrilineal quality that members seek to protect for future generations."

"The rituals and traditions at the City Club and Grove serve the function of maintaining a symbolic eternal vigilance against the rationality of a corporate/bureaucratic experience. Club members' strong retention of traditional ceremonies is a sharp contrast to external post-modern cultural conditions. The Grove experience has a mythic component that triggers the expression of the deepest held values in the men present, and allows for these feelings to intermingle with others' in the physical beauty of the Grove. Described as the Bohemian Spirit, these feeling-filled experiences have been a vital component of the Grove from its earliest inception to the present time "

(* a reference to Prohibition)
 
 
Quantum
07:51 / 27.11.07
In this respect the Grove takes on a sacred patrilineal quality that members seek to protect for future generations.

Thank goodness somebody is protecting the Patriarchy aginst all those oppressive wimmin.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
08:07 / 27.11.07
Yes, well that's something the author examines:

"The all-maleness of the Club reaches back into a patriarchal past that saw women as inferior humans and encouraged the celebration of male superiority in private associational settings. Despite contemporary "new age" male bonding cultural ideas, the Bohemian Club's patriarchal tradition belies any modern attempt to justify male exclusiveness as a separate but equal process. This is an issue the Bohemians in the future are going to have to face."

and, although he says:

"It seems, however, that the more the exclusivity of the Club comes under challenge, the more the members seek to demand absolute privacy from outside inspection. This becomes an escalating cycle of challenge and retreat that can even further compound negative external perspectives of exclusivity and eliteness."

He also suggests that the various "challenges" made to the Bohemians (by which he means people protesting outside the site, or legal challenges, rather than flogging "conspiracy" DVDs on the interweb) could act to reinforce the mutual self-perception of members' elite status.

I think a good deal of what the author says about the mutual reinforcement of "elite status" could be applied to magical groups who perceive themselves as "elites".
 
  

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