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Bohemian Grove

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Bohemian Grove is a 2700 acre (11 km²) campground located in Monte Rio, California belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's fine arts club known as the Bohemian Club, which was founded in 1872. The club's membership includes many artists, particularly musicians, as well as many high-ranking business leaders and government officials.

The Bohemian Club holds a two-week encampment during July. Dozens of concerts, some scheduled and many impromptu are held at the grove's amphitheaters. Original plays, musical comedies and historical dramas are presented each year. There is also an ongoing art exhibit, and lectures and talks on a wide range of topics from current political affairs to music history are held.


History

Bohemian Grove was established over time, shortly after the founding of the Bohemian Club in 1872. For several years, the members of the club camped together at various locations, including the present Muir Woods, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and a separate redwood grove near Duncan Mills, down river from the current location.

The first parcel of the grove was purchased from Melvin Cyrus Meeker who developed a successful logging operation in the area. Gradually over the next decades, members of the club purchased land surrounding the original location to the perimeter of the basis in which it resides. This was done to secure the rights to the water, so that its water supply would not be affected by uphill operations.


Facilities

The primary activities taking place at the grove are entertainment, produced by the members of the club. Therefore, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues. There are also sleeping quarters, or "camps" scattered throughout the grove.


  • Grove Stage - it is an amphitheatre with seating for 2,000 used primarily for the Grove Play production, on the last Friday of the midsummer encampment. The stage extends up the hill side, and is also home to the second largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.
  • Field Circle - a bowl-shaped amphitheatre used for the mid-weekend, "Low Jinks" musical comedy, as well as for variety shows.
  • Campfire Circle - has a campfire pit in the middle of the circle, surrounded by carved redwood log benches. Used for smaller shows in a more intimate setting.
  • Museum Stage - A semi-outdoor venue with a covered stage. Lectures and small ensembles shows.
  • The Owl Shrine and the Lake - an artificial lake in the middle of the grove, used for the noon-time concerts and "Lakeside Talks." It is also the venue of the Cremation of Care, that takes place on the first Saturday of the encampment.

In addition, there is a common dining facility that serves breakfast and dinner to 800 diners simultaneously.


Symbolism and rituals

File:Bohemianlogo.png

Since the founding of the club, the Bohemian Grove's symbol has been the owl, long held as a representative of wisdom. A forty-foot concrete owl stands at the head of the lake in the Grove and, since 1929, has served as the site of the yearly "Cremation of Care" ceremony (see below). The club's motto, Weaving Spiders Come Not Here, is taken from the second scene of Act 2 from A Midsummer Night's Dream; it signifies that the club and the grove are not for conducting business, but exchanging friendship and free sharing of common passion, summarized in the term, "the Bohemian Spirit."


Cremation of Care

The Cremation of Care was devised in 1893 by a member named Joseph D. Redding, a lawyer from New York. The New York Times described the show in a June 25, 1899 article:

"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 was a symphony orchestra and a grand chorus. A Druids' altar and sacrificial stone lent an air of realism to the scenes. Mr. Redding served as High Priest of Bohemia. Then came a procession 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 [an effigy representing a personification of] "Care" from the catafalque [sacrificial pyre]. The devil made an impassioned address, saying that goodfellowship was a mockery and that "Care" could not be banished. Then the Druid leader drove them into the woods with a lighted torch, which he at once applied to the funeral pyre. After this came the "low jinks," a species of amateur minstrel show. Then the Bohemians retired to their tents and to such sleep as the wags and practical jokers of the club permitted them to take."

Today, the ritual consists of hooded members accepting the effigy representing "dull care" from a ferryman traveling across a creek. Music and fireworks accompany the ritual, for dramatic effect. The mock human sacrifice is placed on an altar and set on fire. The ritual represents the act of embracing the revelry of Bohemian Grove while setting aside the "dull cares" of the outside world.

Alex Jones' exposé

A better shot of the owl statue. Photo: Bohemian Grove Book.

On July 15, 2000, Alex Jones and his assistant, Mike Hanson, successfully infiltrated the Grove with two hidden video cameras and filmed the Cremation of Care ritual. In his documentary about the infiltration, Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove, a large group of members engage in, in Jones' words: "Canaanite, Luciferian Babylon... rituals" involving a 45-foot statue of an owl deity called "Moloch", a figure from the Bible, particularly the Book of Leviticus. Jones warns that although he is personally a Christian, "even an Atheist should be concerned."

In the documentary, Alex Jones implies that then-Texas governor George W. Bush was at this particular event and claims that he was able to get through the grove's considerable security by telling the security personnel that "we're with the hillbillies," -- a reference to Bush's coterie -- reasoning that their Texas accents made the claim believable.

In 2004, a man purported to be a former employee of the Bohemian Club and calling himself "Kyle" was able to film much more than Jones and Hanson did during their 2000 infiltration. For instance, "Kyle" was able to film the interior of the Moloch statue and the metal framed effigy of Care. The new footage was presented on several of Jones' websites.

However, many question Jones's claims as extremist. Other insiders deny that the owl is named "Moloch" and assure that the effigy is not a real human, as Jones implies. Jones is also noted for being an extremist by many scholars, and his websites are not usually respected as impartial.

Past Attendees

The Bohemian Club is a private club; only active members of the the club and their guests may visit the grove. Particularly during the midsummer encampment, the number of guests is strictly limited due to the small size of the facilities.

Reportedly, notable past attendees have included former American presidents George W. Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and William Howard Taft, as well as Dick Cheney (current Vice-President,) Alan Greenspan (former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank,) John Kerry (Massachusetts senator and former presidential candidate,) Arnold Schwarzenegger (actor and current governor of California,) and Bob Novak (political commentator) and Harp (A conspiracy enthusiast)

Controversies

The private nature of the club and its membership has attracted some attention and suspicion. Over the years, individuals have infiltrated the grove then later published video and accounts of the activities at Bohemian Grove.

German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt wrote about the Grove in his autobiography Men and Powers. He stated that Germany had similar institutions, some of which included such rituals, but that his favorite was the Bohemian Grove.

Harry Shearer of This is Spinal Tap fame has made a movie with the same parody concept about Bohemian Grove, called Teddy Bears' Picnic.

Below are some of the controversies that have been discussed about Bohemian Grove:

Mock human sacrifice rituals

During the Cremation of Care ceremony, a mock human sacrifice representing "dull care" is cremated to symbolize the liberation of the participants. It can be argued that its symbolism is analogous to that of the Burning Man which has often been compared to the Midsummer Encampment at the Grove.

Allegations Child Snuff Porn

In the Franklin Coverup Scandal of 1989, investigators of that case discovered that Paul Bonacci wrote in his diary that he had been flown into the Grove by republican leader Lawrence King and was forced into sexual acts with other boys including snuff films and BDSM.[1] Paul Bonacci later testified to these charges in court with U.S. Senior District Judge Warren K. Urbom presiding. Bonacci won the court case and was awarded $1 million by Judge Urbom.[2]

Allegations of homosexual prostitution

Spy Magazine in the 1989 Issue reported about the grove and its busing in of homosexual prostitutes from surrounding towns and the problem with members contracting AIDS.

In 2004, the New York Post mentioned in its Page 6 column that a gay porn star was working at the retreat as a waiter.[3]


Quotes

"The Bohemian Grove, that I attend from time to time — the (inaudible) and the others come there — but it is the most faggy goddamn thing that you would ever imagine. The San Francisco crowd, it's just terrible. I can't even shake hands with anybody from San Francisco." -President Richard M. Nixon , Bohemian Club member starting in 1953 (Domhoff, p 15)


Further reading

  • Domhoff, G. William, The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: a study in ruling class cohesiveness, Harper and Row, 1974, ISBN 06-131880-9
  • Field, Charles K. , The Cremation of Care, 1946, 1953
  • Fletcher, Robert H., The Annals of the Bohemian Club, Hicks-Judd, 1900
  • Ickes, Harold L. , The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, Vol 1. The First Thousand Days, 1933-36. Simon and Schuster, 1953. Ickes was Secretary of the Interior during the New Deal.
  • Van der Zee, John, Power at Ease: Inside the Greatest Men's Party on Earth, Harcourt Brace Javonovich, 1974

See also

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