The Bohemian Grove Conspiracy Meeting of the New World Order

Each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a two-week encampment of the most powerful men in the world.

Bohemian Grove is a 2,700 acre campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club.


Summer Camp for the Rich and Powerful

In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a two-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world, somewhat like the even more secretive Bliderberg Group does in Europe (see my post, The Bilderberg Group Conspiracy, from Wednesday, January 26, 2011).

The Bohemian Club's all-male membership includes government leaders, even royaly such as the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf and many former U.S. presidents, such as Herbert Hoover, Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and both George Bush Sr. and Jr., government officials such as Robert F. Kennedy, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld, movie and music celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jimmie Buffet, senior media executives including Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation and the management of Time Warner, as well as many prominent business leaders, such as the Rockefeller and Rothschild banking  family dynasties.

Members may invite guests to the Grove although those guests are subject to a screening procedure. A guest's first glimpse of the Grove is typically during the "Spring Jinks", in June, preceding the main July encampment. Bohemian club members can schedule private day-use events at the Grove any time it is not being used for Club-wide purposes, and are allowed at these times to bring spouses, family and friends, though female and minor guests must be off the property by 9 or 10 p.m.

After 40 years of membership the men earn "Old Guard" status, giving them reserved seating at the Grove's daily talks, as well as other perquisites.

Illustration of rumored ritual child offerings

The Club motto is "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here", which implies that outside concerns and business deals are to be left outside. When gathered in groups, Bohemians usually adhere to the injunction, though discussion of business often occurs between pairs of members. Important political and business deals have been developed at the Grove.

The Grove is particularly famous for a Manhattan Project planning meeting that took place there in September 1942, which subsequently led to the atomic bomb. Those attending this meeting, apart from Ernest Lawrence and military officials, included the president of Harvard and representatives of Standard Oil and General Electric. Grove members take particular pride in this event and often relate the story to new attendees.

The tradition of a summer encampment was established six years after the Bohemian Club was formed in 1872. Henry "Harry" Edwards, a well-loved founding member, announced that he was relocating to New York City to further his career. On June 29, 1878, somewhat less than 100 Bohemians gathered in the Redwoods in Marin County near Taylorville (present-day Samuel P. Taylor State Park) for an evening sendoff party in Edwards' honor. Freely flowing liquor and some Japanese lanterns put a glow on the festivities, and club members retired at a late hour to the modest comfort of blankets laid on the dense mat of Redwood needles.

This festive gathering was repeated the next year, without Edwards, and became the club's annual encampment. By 1882, the members of the Club camped together at various locations in both Marin and Sonoma County, including the present-day Muir Woods and a redwood grove that once stood near Duncans Mills, several miles down the Russian River from the current location. From 1893, Bohemians rented the current location and, in 1899, purchased it from Melvin Cyrus Meeker who had 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 basin in which it resides.

Since the founding of the club, the Bohemian Grove's mascot has been an owl, symbolizing knowledge. A 40-foot (12 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports stands at the head of the lake in the Grove; this Owl Shrine was designed by sculptor and two-time club president Haig Patigian, and built in the 1920s. Since 1929, the Owl Shrine has served as the backdrop of the yearly Cremation of Care ceremony.

The Club's patron saint is John of Nepomuk, who legend says suffered death at the hands of a Bohemian monarch rather than disclose the confessional secrets of the queen. A large wood carving of St. John in cleric robes with his index finger over his lips stands at the shore of the lake in the Grove, symbolizing the secrecy kept by the Grove's attendees throughout its long history.

Writer and journalist William Henry Irwin said of the Grove:

"You come upon it suddenly. One step and its glory is over you. There is no perspective; you cannot get far enough away from one of the trees to see it as a whole. There they stand, a world of height above you, their pinnacles hidden by their topmost fringes of branches or lost in the sky."

Not long after the Club's establishment by newspaper journalists, it was commandeered by prominent San Francisco-based businessmen, who provided the financial resources necessary to acquire further land and facilities at the Grove. However, they still retained the "bohemians"—the artists and musicians—who continued to entertain international members and guests.

Past and Present Members

The Bohemian Club is a private club; only active members of the Club (known as "Bohos" or "Grovers") and their guests may visit the Grove. These guests have been known to include politicians and notable figures from countries outside the U.S. Particularly during the midsummer encampment, the number of guests is strictly limited due to the small size of the facilities. Nevertheless, up to 2,900 members and guests have been reported as attending some of the annual encampments.

The membership list has included every Republican U.S. president since 1923 (as well as some Democrats), many cabinet officials, directors and CEOs of large corporations including major financial institutions. Major military contractors, oil companies, banks (incl. the Federal Reserve), utilities (incl. nuclear power) and national media have officials as members.

The members stay in different camps at the Grove, which have varying status levels. Members & frequent guests of the most prestigious camp (Mandalay) include: Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, S. D. Bechtel, Jr., Thomas Watson Jr. (IBM), Phillip Hawley (B of A), William Casey (CIA). and Ralph Bailey (Dupont). George Bush resides in a less prestigious camp (Hillbillies) with A. W. Clausen (World Bank), Walter Cronkite, and William F. Buckley.

Other well known members include both the Rockefeller and Rothschild families, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, former US presidential advisor Karl Rove, former US Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, former Chancellor of Germany, Helmut Schmidt, former Consul General of Japan, Makoto Yamanaka, even the King of Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett, and the list goes on.

For a list of most past and present Bohemian Grove members, see my Players page. Note, that due to the secrecy surrounding the Bohemian Grove membership, it is impossible to be sure of each and every member, regardless of what some sources may claim.

Activities

The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expansive entertainment, such as a grand main stage and a smaller, more intimate stage. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

The Cremation of Care ceremony was first conducted in the Bohemian Grove at the Midsummer encampment in 1881, devised by James F. Bowman with George T. Bromley playing the High Priest. It was originally set up within the plot of the serious "High Jinks" dramatic performance on the first weekend of the summer encampment, after which the spirit of "Care", slain by the Jinks hero, was solemnly cremated. The ceremony served as a catharsis for pent-up high spirits, and "to present symbolically the salvation of the trees by the club..." The Cremation of Care was separated from the Grove Play in 1913 and moved to the first night to become "an exorcising of the Demon to ensure the success of the ensuing two weeks." The Grove Play was moved to the last weekend of the encampment.

Photo by Mike Hanson
Picture secretly taken of actual ceremony ritual 

The ceremony takes place in front of the Owl Shrine, a 40-foot (12 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports. The moss- and lichen-covered statue simulates a natural rock formation, yet holds electrical and audio equipment within it. For many years, a recording of the voice of club member Walter Cronkite was used as the voice of The Owl during the ceremony. Music and pyrotechnics accompany the ritual for dramatic effect.

Each year, a Grove Play is performed for one night during the final weekend of the summer encampment. The play is a large-scale musical theatrical production, written and composed by club members, involving some 300 people, including chorus, cast, stage crew and orchestra. The first Grove Play was performed in 1902; during the war years 1943–1945 the stage was dark. In 1975, an observer estimated that the Grove Play cost between $20,000–30,000, an amount that would be as high as $122,000 in today's dollars.

The culmination of this event ends with this all-male “Club” wearing red, black and silver robes and conducting a ceremony in which a human effigy is ritualistically burned at an altar beside a forty-foot concrete statue of an owl. The owl itself is said to be connected to wisdom and the occult symbolism of the Illuminati. A depiction of an owl figure, the “Great Owl of Bohemia,” can be seen within the architecture of the streets surrounding the United States Capital in Washington D.C.

Protests and controversies

With its combination of wealth and power, Bohemian Grove's secrecy has been a target for protest for many years. The Bohemian Grove Action Network of Occidental, California organizes protests and has aided journalists who wish to penetrate the secrecy surrounding the encampment. Over the years, individuals have infiltrated the Grove then later published video and claimed accounts of the activities at Bohemian Grove.

Infiltrations

In the summer of 1989, Spy magazine writer Philip Weiss spent some seven days in the camp posing as a guest, which led to his November 1989 article "Inside Bohemian Grove". He wrote about uninhibited behavior he witnessed: "You know you are inside the Bohemian Grove when you come down a trail in the woods and hear piano music from amid a group of tents and then round a bend to see a man with a beer in one hand and his penis in the other, urinating into the bushes. This is the most gloried-in ritual of the encampment, the freedom of powerful men to pee wherever they like..." Weiss noticed "hundreds of cigars whose smokers had ignited them in defiance of the California Forest Service's posted warnings."

On July 15, 2000, Austin, Texas-based filmmaker Alex Jones and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, walked into the Grove. With a hidden camera, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ceremony. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones' documentary Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones claimed that the Cremation of Care was an "ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremony," and that the owl statue was Moloch. The Grove and Jones' investigation were covered by Jon Ronson in Channel 4's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World. Ronson documented his view of the ritual in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists, writing "My lasting impression was of an all-pervading sense of immaturity: the Elvis impersonators, the pseudo-pagan spooky rituals, the heavy drinking. These people might have reached the apex of their professions but emotionally they seemed trapped in their college years."

Also filmed for The Order of Death was Jones' return to the entrance of the Bohemian Grove in 2005 where he filmed a protest organized by the Bohemian Grove Action Network that took place at the Grove's entrance on Bohemian Highway, only to discover a majority of the protesters engaging in an "occult counter-ritual" known as the Resurrection of Care, supposedly a counter-ritual against the Cremation of Care. Jones' narration for the film lambasted the protesters' actions and motivations from a religious standpoint. In 2005, Chris Jones (no relation) walked into the Grove when hired as an employee, and videotaped the Owl Shrine in daylight, even venturing inside the hollow statue. He also got footage of effigies, the lakeside, and select camps; as well as stealing a membership list. Chris Jones said he was propositioned for sex several times by the Grovers. Chris Jones was subsequently sentenced to three years in state prison for a lewd act with minors. Alex Jones included Chris Jones' video in "The Order of Death".

Actor/writer Harry Shearer (This Is Spinal Tap, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons), who has attended at least one Bohemian Club event, wrote and directed The Teddy Bears' Picnic, a parody of Bohemian Grove mock pagan pageantry and drunken revelry.

Now, for the First Time in History, an Outsider Has Infiltrated Bohemian Grove with a Hidden Digital Video Camera and Caught the Ritual on Tape. That Man is Alex Jones, an he released an awesome digital video about the encounter, called Dark Secrets: Inside the Bohemian Grove.

You can watch Alex Jones's full-length, 2 hour 2 minute and 56 seconds long video bellow. Enjoy!

Facilities

The main encampment area consists of 160 acres (0.65 km2) of old-growth redwood trees over 1,000 years old, with some trees exceeding 300 feet (90 m) in height. The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expansive entertainment, such as a grand main stage and a smaller, more intimate stage. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

There are also sleeping quarters, or "camps" scattered throughout the grove, of which it is reported there were a total of 118 as of 2007.

These camps, which are frequently patrimonial, are the principal means through which high-level business and political contacts and friendships are formed.

Since there are lots of different venues and activities at Bohemian Grove, several different buildings were constructed to accommodate the gatherings. They included:

Grove Stage—an amphitheater with seating for 2,000 used primarily for the Grove Play production, on the last weekend of the midsummer encampment. The stage extends up the hillside, and is also home to the second largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.

Field Circle—a bowl-shaped amphitheater used for the mid-encampment "Low Jinks" musical comedy, for "Spring Jinks" in early June and for a variety of other performances.

Campfire Circle—has a campfire pit in the middle of the circle, surrounded by carved redwood log benches. Used for smaller performances in a more intimate setting.

Museum Stage—a semi-outdoor venue with a covered stage. Lectures and small ensemble performances.

Dining Circle—seating approximately 1,500 diners simultaneously.

Clubhouse—designed by Bernard Maybeck in 1903, completed in 1904 on a bluff overlooking the Russian River; a multi-purpose dining, drinking and entertainment building; the site of the Manhattan Project planning meeting held in 1942.

The Owl Shrine and the Lake—an artificial lake in the middle of the grove, used for the noon-time concerts and the 12:30 p.m. daily "Lakeside Talks." These significant informal talks (many on public policy issues) have been given over the years by entertainers, professors, astronauts, business leaders, cabinet officers, CIA directors, future and former presidents and have been the subject of ongoing controversy.

The transcripts of these talks are rarely released to the public (though have been known to be used for such mundane purposes as reading for the lecturer's graduate students).

Women

Though no woman has ever been given full membership in the Bohemian Club, the four female honorary members were hostess Margaret Bowman, poet Ina Coolbrith (who served as librarian for the Club), actress Elizabeth Crocker Bowers and writer Sara Jane Lippincott. Since Coolbrith's death in 1928, no other woman was made a member. These honorary members and other women guests have been allowed into the Bohemian "City Club" building and as daytime guests of the Grove, but not to the upper floors of the City Club nor as guests to the main summer encampment at the Grove. Annual "Ladies' Jinks" were held at the Club especially for spouses and invited guests.

What's wrong with this Picture?

When rich and powerful people get together, they form alliances to become even more rich and powerful. The Grove membership is wealthy, and becoming more so, while the middle class is steadily becoming poorer and the poor is constantly struggling to eat. By their control of the banking system, money supply, and markets, this close-knit society determines when prices rise and fall. They determine our rights and make laws that do not apply to them, by controlling the whole judicial system. They decide among themselves who is to be in office, from our mayors, our governors, congressmen, senators, to even our president, then selling candidates to us through the very media they own. Important issues are omitted and facts are hidden from discussion or slanted to suit their agenda, but believe you me, they are discussed at the Grove.

There has never been a true democracy in America. It was founded as a republic, which is by definition ruled by the rich and powerful elite. By definition, our forefathers never disguised the fact that the upper class was to rule America. All you have to do is look at who our Founding Fathers were. They were the same sort of people who still run our country today.

When talking about a democracy, it is implies direct rule by the people, all of whom are supposed to be equal, whereas a republic implies a system of government in which the will of the people is mediated by representatives, who might be wiser and better educated than the average person.

In the early American republic, for example, the requirement that voters own property and the establishment of institutions such as the Electoral College were intended to cushion the government from the direct expression of the popular will.

That is why the popular majority does not always get its way. That is why the will of the rich and powerful prevails. It has been as such since the beginning of society, even since the beginning of America, and it isn't about to change anytime soon. True democracy is an illusion. 

It is the members of Bohemian Grove who write the rules, make the money and get their way.  

Do you believe that Bohemian Grove is just a social club for the rich and powerful, or do you believe its something more sinister? Are there power-plays being made, alliances being formed and conspiracies being hatched at Bohemian Grove or is it nothing more than a glorified fantasy camp?

My readers and I would really like to know your opinion. Please leave your take on the The Bohemian Grove Conspiracy in the form of a comment, bellow.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Bohemian Grove: Cult Of Conspiracy
Mike Hanson is a journalist and activist who, with Alex Jones, secretly infiltrated Bohemian Grove with a hidden video camera, the footage of which became the basis of this book.
Paperback, 446 pages, by Mike Hanson
Best Price $23.50
Buy HERE

Sources

Bohemian Grove (wikipedia) 
Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove (apfn.org)
2010 Bohemian Grove members list pdf download (Scribid)
Bohemian Grove Action Network (Sonoma County Free Press)