The Twilight Language: Masons and the Orders of Saint John

These are strange and incredible times friends and the signs and portents are no less so. I began to detect an especially curious bit of twilight language some weeks ago (though it feels like its been several years) in regards to the protests unfolding in Michigan's state capital. In a post from then, I remarked upon the strange juxtaposition of militia men standing upon, checkered, Masonic-like black and white floors in the capital building.

Since then, the hits have just kept coming. The great Christopher Knowles of The Secret Sun recently posted about the staggering amount of 33s that have been appearing in the media of late. Of course, the number 33 is highly significant in Freemasonry, especially the Scottish Rite variety, in which the thirty-third degree is the highest grade in the system. Whats more, the use of the number 33 in alleged "psychodramas" (mass rituals effectively played out in the media) has a long and robust history, or so it is claimed in certain circles. More on those circles in a moment.

The Masons hardly seem to be the only players in the game as far as twilight language is concerned, however. Trump's reelection campaign briefly placed adds on Facebook featuring a bizarre inverted red triangle. These adds were quickly deactivated after it was realized that the red triangle was used bu Nazi Germany denote a host of groups, most notably Communists, but also social democrats, liberals, and.... wait for it.... Freemasons.

the red triangle used by the Trump campaign (top) and a red triangle badge from a Nazi concentration camp (bottom)

And just in case the message wasn't coming through clear enough, the Trump campaign ran precisely 88 of these red triangle ads. In white supremacist circles, that number holds a lot of significance. "H" is the eighth letter in the alphabet. The two eights together represents "HH," which in turn stands for "Heil Hitler." Cute.

But its not just the Nazi symbolism that Trump's been mining of late. A most disturbing one appeared at the beginning of the month during Trump's now infamous photo op. You know the one I'm talking about, the one in which a host of security forces were used to clear protesters so that Trump could pose before a church brandishing a Bible in what was described to the public at large as symbol of law and order.

Far from it. But let us first consider the interesting cast of characters surrounding him. There was General Keith Kellogg whom, as I noted before here, has been one of Trump's major national security backers from the beginning. He also has deep ties to Fort Bragg, which was a haven of white supremacy during his last tour there. Naturally Stephen Miller, the administration's link-man for white nationalism, was also present.

Kellogg

Even more interesting was the presence of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both have since distanced themselves from the photo op, with Milley even offering an apology over a week later. Apparently, they just didn't realize the bad optics of the whole thing.

Bullshit.

General Milley is the most senior uniformed military officer in the entire Pentagon. And not only did he opt to join Trump for this photo op, but he decided to do so wearing not a dress uniform, but battle fatigues. 

Are we to believe that no one thought to inform the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that his attire was effectively declaring that he was in a war zone? If you believe that, I've also got some prime oil deposits in the Arctic for sale. Just shoot me a bid via the email.

Trump (left), Esper (center) and Milley (right)

In other words, General Milley knew exactly what his presence and attire there was saying and he was all right with it. And that should scare the hell out of everyone. Because the military is effectively announcing that the view the American public as insurgents. And the military and intelligence community has used some novel methods to deal with insurgents over the years.

One such method were the infamous stay-behind armies that were established across Western Europe at the onset of the Cold War. In theory, they would only be used in the event of Soviet invasion so as to wage a rear guard action. In actuality, they appeared connected to acts of terrorism with disturbing frequency in European nations that may have contemplated leaving the NATO bloc. This effectively made large chunks of these nations insurgents in the eyes of these United States and they were dealt with accordingly.

This was especially true in Italy during a period known as the "Years of Lead." At the center of this carnage appeared to be a mysterious secret society known as Propaganda Due (P2), nominally a Masonic lodge that appears to have been controlled by far right Catholic groups at the highest levels. Much more information on Propaganda Due and the secret armies can be found in my epic series on the P2.

Is it possible that something like the P2 exists in these United States with its own stay-behinds? Well, there is a certain mysterious chivalric order that historically featured numerous "former" senior military and intelligence officers, has had longstanding ties to the American militia movement, and dealings with groups and individuals implicated in terrorism for decades. It is known as the Sovereign Order of Saint John (SOSJ) and still exists to this day via numerous successor organizations.

What was the name of the church used for this photo op?

Saint John.

Real subtle, right? Kind of like an event that unfolded this past weekend. While the mainstream media has had a field day with Trump's failed Bund rally in Tulsa on the 20th, something far more significant happened the day before. Something many have said would never happen.

The Albert Pike statue in Washington, D.C. was taken down.

And not politely either. It was torn down and burned. As I'm sure many of you are aware, Albert Pike was one of the most famous (or infamous, depending upon one's point view) Freemasons of them all. He was the Sovereign Grand Commander (hence, a 33rd degree Mason) of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite. He was also the author of the famed Masonic tract Morals and Dogmas. Pike was also the only Confederate general to have an outdoor statue in all of D.C. Hence, the persistent claims Pike's statue would never come down no matter the clamor to remove every last vestige of the Confederacy.

Predictably, the likes of Michael A. Hoffman II at beside themselves with joy. Hoffman, the likely originator of twilight language (along with his longtime associate William Grimstead), has hailed this event as "humiliating optics for the masonic Cryptocracy" while acknowledging this was hardly a spontaneous one. Some of his readers maybe confused by this, but Hoffman clearly sees the signs. He even dropped them a hint by pointing out that Pike's statue came down on the eve of the Summer Solstice. Midsummer Night's Eve has been imbued with significance since pagan times (for more information on this, check here). Historically it was celebrated one the eve of June 23rd but its origins lay with the Summer Solstice. And wouldn't you know it that, during Christian times, it was known as Saint John's Eve.

And that is a powerful symbol indeed, especially in light of the psychodrama that began on the first of June. I suspect Hoffman sees these symbols as clearly as I, though we certainly have a different perspective.

And if you're not tired of these musings yet, be sure to listen to John Brisson and I discussing them on The Farm. Elsewhere, if you want to get a sense of how far back the connection with secret societies and stay-behinds go, be sure to listen in on my epic discussion with University of Idaho professor and Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence, and the Occult author Richard B. Spence on La Cagoule. It can be found here.

And with that, I shall sign off for now. As always, thank you so much for reading and listening. Until next time, stay tuned.

The Secret History of Special Operations Forces

As long time readers of this blog are well aware, Recluse has quite the obsession with what are known as special operations forces (SOFs) in these United States and simply special forces in most of the rest of the world. These elite units first began to captivate the public mind during the Second World War. This conflict witnessed the birth of the Special Air Services (SAS), the first modern special operations forces unit (including the likes of the US Army Special Forces (more commonly known as the "Green Berets" and the even more elite Delta Force), as well as the emergence of "frogmen," who served as the model for the Special Boat Services (SBS), Navy SEALS, and other such outfits.

The history of special operations forces is a murky one. Certainly, there are precedents from the ancient world such as the Praetorian or Varangian Guards. As far as modern units are concerned, their origins are often placed in various European colonial wars that unfolded during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of the earliest "commandos" (which are often considered the direct predecessors to modern special operations forces) were Boer forces that employed proto-guerrilla techniques as far back as the early eighteenth century.

The British fought several brutal conflicts with the Boers, climaxing with the genocidal Second Boer War (1899-1902). While the British ultimately prevailed, they had to commit a tremendous amount of forces to counter the significantly out numbered Boer forces. No doubt these experiences strongly influenced Britain's later special operations forces. Another crucial influence was no doubt the Irish Republican Army. Other noteworthy inspirations included Orde Wingate, who helped set up what became the Haganah (later the Israel Defense Force) and Lawrence of Arabia himself.

T.E. Lawrence, more commonly known as Lawrence of Arabia

Virtually everyone agrees that the modern special operations forces we all know and love (or not) emerged in earnest during the Second World War. But many of the most celebrated units, which have inspired virtually all modern SOFs, feature some very curious and aristocratic figures lurking in the background. Two such instances shall be examined over the course of this blog.

Roman Frogmen

First up is the legendary Decima Flottiglia MAS, some times known simply as X'MAS (har har). In English written accounts it is often referred to as the Tenth Light Flotilla, though this translation is a bit off. Regardless, the X'MAS was the most feared unit within the Italian Army by a large margin. Given how notoriously poor the Italian military performed under Mussolini, it is somewhat surprising that it crafted such an elite force. 

The X'MAS essentially pioneered Naval special operations. Contemporaries such as the SBS and SEALs all trace the origins back to this particular unit and its easy to see why. In three years, the X-MAS produced quite an impressive track record:

"... On many of the 10th's operations, special assault teams entered harbors riding underwater torpedo-shaped submersibles known as Chariots, and attached explosives to the hulls of Allied ships at anchor. The crack assault teams brought devastation in Crete's Suda Bay and Alexandra harbor, sinking or severely damaging several British capital ships, including the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant.

"The group's most audacious coup was its campaign of sneak attacks against Allied shipping in Gibraltar. A derelict freighter, the Olterra, was seemingly abandoned off the Spanish coast. But the Olterra was a Trojan horse. Her hold served as a clandestine workshop where the frogman could repair and rearm the Chariots. Access in and out of the ship was afforded by a sliding door six feet below the waterline. All told, the Italians sank 42,000 tons of Allied ships anchored at Gibraltar; the British never discovered the secret of the freighter."

(Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs, Patrick K. O'Donnell, pg. 131)

the insignia of the X'MAS

Things became even more interesting in 1943, after Italy was pushed out of North Africa and the Allied invasion of Sicily began. Mussolini was briefly deposed by the Grand Council of Fascism, who then sought to negotiate with the Allies. Mussolini was arrested, but soon rescued by the Germans, who set him up as the puppet head of the Italian Social Republic. What it amounted to is that by the end of 1943, Germany effectively controlled all of Northern Italy while the Allies held the south.

The loyalties of Italians were divided between these two entities, and the same appears to have been the case of the X'MAS. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the WWII-era predecessor of the CIA) had attempted to develop their own frogmen units on the basis of the Marine Raiders, but without much success. Realizing that they would be hard pressed to top the X'MAS, the OSS opted for the only sensible choice: enlist the unit.

insignia of the OSS

While many X'MAS men opted to side with the Nazis, enough veterans were retained to form the Grupo Mezzini d'Asalto. It was put under the control of the Duke of Aosta. The OSS wasted no time in putting them to use. Joint OSS-X'MAS missions began as soon as June of 1944. Soon, the X'MAS forces had become the OSS's go-to Naval commandos in the European Theater. In addition to sabotage operations, the X'MAS men were also enlisted to gather intelligence and train Italian partisans in the arts of "unconventional warfare" deep behind enemy lines.

The results were so impressive that the OSS wanted to dispatch the X'MAS/Grupo Mezzini d'Asalto to the Pacific Theater once things began to wind down in Europe. The OSS was largely barred from that Theater by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz, both of whom despised the agency. As such, the order for a transfer never came through.

Unwilling to let such available assets simply disperse, some X'MAS veterans were enlisted to provide consulting to the Navy's postwar underwater operations program. No doubt this included the Underwater Demolition Teams which, along with the OSS's Maritime Units, are considered the direct predecessors to the modern Navy SEALS. And it just so happens that the X'MAS collaborated with and/or trained both.

insignia of the Underwater Demolition Teams

Elsewhere, the X'MAS men who opted to side with the Nazis had a similar experience. Upon conclusion of the operations to occupy Northern Italy by German forces, the bulk of the X'MAS offered their services to the Nazis. As such, this faction retained the Decima MAS identification. However, its ties to the Italian Social Republic (RSI) were nominal at best. Indeed, the unit reported directly to SS Obergruppenfuhrer Karl Wolff, the supreme commander of SS forces in Italy. Nor did it swear an oath of loyalty to the RSI.

During the Nazi years, the scale of the X'MAS grew even as its naval operations largely ceased. As the great Jeffrey Bale notes in The Darkest Sides of Politics, I, it came to include several elite infantry battalions, s small naval sabotage unit, and police company with its own intelligence and interrogation center. Indeed, the X'MAS appears to have acquired quite an extensive intelligence network by war's end that went well beyond Italy. In addition to the police intelligence unit, it also had an espionage headquarters in Switzerland and a vast network throughout the RSI and even into the Allied-controlled south.

Frequently the X'MAS was deployed into the hottest zones. Often it was used to conduct counterinsurgency operations against partisans in the RSI. Some units were deployed to the Anzio front, where they reportedly fared well against US Army Rangers. Later, many of its forces were dispatched Yugoslavia, where it conducted further counterinsurgency against the partisans there. And finally, there were the X'MAS' "stay-behind" operations set up in Allied-controlled Italy. By all accounts, these stay-behind units were highly effective. It fell to the legendary counterintelligence master James Jesus Angleton to counter the X'MAS.

For our purposes here, the most interesting aspect of the X'MAS was its commanding officer, Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, sometimes referred to as the "Black Prince." In this day and age, Borghese is primarily known for his association with fascism, both during World War II and beyond. As I noted before here, he became one of the most prominent supporters of the far right philosopher and occultist, Julius Evola. Borghese also appears to have played a crucial role in establishing stay-behind networks in Italy after World War II as part of what is often referred to as Operation Gladio. Given the X'MAS' role in organizing stay-behinds during WWII, it is hardly surprising the CIA would look to the Black Prince at the onset of the Cold War. Later, these forces were linked to a neo-fascist coup Borghese attempted to launch in 1970. There is much dispute as to how serious this coup actually was and what its ultimate purpose was, however. The best account can be found in Bale's The Darkest Sides of Politics, I.

the Black Prince

For our purposes here, it is the Black Prince's origins that are of greatest interest. Borghese was a member of the famed Italian dynasty --the one that spawned at least one pope and numerous other high church officials; that married into the Bonaparte family around the time of the Napoleonic Wars; and which has remained a staple of the so-called "Black nobility" for centuries now. The phrase Black nobility became popular after the Kingdom of Italy defeated papal forces and took Italy in 1870. The Black nobility were the aristocrats who sided with the Pope.

Bizarrely, the army of the Kingdom of Italy was led by another storied family, the House of Savoy. The Dukes of Aosta are a branch of that family. As such, the Borghese and Aosta klans likely crossed swords during 1870. Later, their descendants would struggle for control of the Decima Flottiglia MAS during the Second World War. Indeed, it is likely that X'MAS veterans squared off against one another in the south of Italy after 1943 while the scions of longtime aristocratic rivals commanded both forces.

Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta, who vied with Borghese for control of the X'MAS

This is one of those instances that makes Recluse suspect that their was something deeper to the creation of modern special operations forces. To further illustrate this point, we now turn the next and even more bizarre example.

Clan Fraser

Of late, this researcher has been struck by just how many storied families in the British establishment were in fact Scottish. Some of these families --the Stewarts, Scots, Sinclairs, Flemings, Kerrs, and Bruces --trace their lineages back to the chieftains of the legendary Scottish clan system. Others like the Keswicks are of a more recent vintage, but no less influential. But perhaps none are more mysterious than Clan Fraser, especially those of Lovat.

It is generally agreed that Clan Fraser had its origins in France, specifically the area of Anjou. That particular province has quite a storied history in its own right. From the late ninth to the early thirteenth century, the territory was ruled by the House of Ingelger. That dynasty produced a King of Jerusalem, Fulk V. This particular monarch was also the grandfather of England's Henry II and great-grandfather of the legendary King Richard the Lionheart. Fulk V was apparently attached to the Knights Templar at one point while his great-grandson sold them the island of Cyprus. I bring this up as the Templars will crop up again in this saga.

Fulk V

But, back to Clan Fraser. The first mention of a Fraser in Scotland occurs in 1160, when a Simon Fraser is listed as owning land in East Lothian. At some point in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, the family moved to Tweeddale. From there, they spread out across the counties of Stirling, Angus, Inverness, and Aberdeen. For those Secret Sun fans who frequent this blog (and I know you are many), Cocteau Twins front woman Elizabeth Fraser hails from Grangemouth, which is located in Stirling. As such, Liz Fraser is almost surely a distant descendant of the original Clan Fraser. For those of you unfamiliar with the accounts of Liz Fraser published on the Secret Sun, a good starting point can be found here.

Liz Fraser

The Frasers first rose to prominence in Scotland during the Wars of Independence. It was against this backdrop that Sir Simon "the Patriot" Fraser established himself as one of the most noteworthy generals of that particular era. A contemporary of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace, Sir Simon's most noteworthy victory occurred at the Battle of Roslin in 1303. Over a century later, Clan Sinclair would establish the legendary Rosslyn Chapel in the same township. This site has long be associated with legends surrounding the Knights Templar and Freemasonry.

Simon the Patriot's luck ran out in 1306 when he was captured by the British and executed. The Frasers continued fighting, however. Sir Simon's cousin, Sir Alexander Fraser, was present at the famed Battle of Bannockburn, which decisively turned the war in the favor of the Scots. The Battle of Bannockburn has been at the center of much speculative history due to the allegations the Knights Templar assisted the Scots in achieving this crucial victory.

The Battle of Bannockburn unfolded on June 23rd and 24th of 1314, the latter being St. John's Day, a date with much significance in Freemasonry. The Templar knights had been suppressed on a mass scale several years earlier by Papal decree, leading most mainstream historians to dismiss such allegations outright. But things were a little different in Scotland.

"In 1306, the King of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, had been excommunicated by the pope... This meant that he was under no obligation to obey any orders coming from the Holy See. Thus, when the Templars were finally ordered arrested and imprisoned the following year, and their property confiscated and turned over to the Hospitallers, there was no legal requirement for Robert to do the same. In fact, only to Templars were ever arrested in Scotland during the trials and there is no record of their having endured any hardship or punishment. Indeed, the Templars in question were two Englishmen.

"The order was officially disbanded by order of the Pope and 1312... and Jacques de Molay burned at the stake in March 1314. The Battle of Bannockburn took place only three months later. The English had cooperated in the arrest and imprisonment of the Templars and the confiscation of property; the Scots had not. Thus, it is not so far-fetched to believe that some Templars had fled to Scotland to avoid their fate on the Continent and in England, and sided with Robert the Bruce against the English at the famous battle.

"The Templars had, in fact, a long history in Scotland. David I of Scotland had granted some lands to the Templars in the twelfth century, at a town about four miles from present-date Roslin. The earliest known Templar charter is that of the town of St. Andrews, and is dated to 1160. The Templars were not the only military order in Scotland, in fact. The Knights Hospitallers also had property in Scotland. As did the Teutonic Knights. As in France, these holdings provided a source of revenue and recruits for the knightly orders. 

"In 1312 all Templar property in Scotland was granted to the Hospitallers, as was happening throughout Europe. However, there is no record that the Hospitallers actually took advantage of this in Scotland at the time. Indeed, although the two orders were merged legally, they seem to have maintained their separate identities for at least a century to come. We know that, in 1488, James IV of Scotland issued a statement in which he upheld the rights of both the Templars and the Hospitallers, referring to them as separate entities. This documentation implies a close relationship between the Scottish monarchy and the Templars. We do not know if this relationship was based upon common goals and agendas, or was more a reflection of the political (and perhaps economic) reality of the times. Nonetheless, there was a demonstrable Templar presence in Scotland that outlasted the papal edicts."

(The Secret Temple, Peter Levenda, pgs. 59-60)

Against this backdrop lurked Clan Fraser, which would soon rise to the pinnacle of Scottish society. In the aftermath of Bannockburn, Sir Alexander married Robert the Bruce's sister and became the Chamberlain of Scotland, at the time the third most powerful post in the Scottish court. The Frasers of Philorth, one of the most senior of the various modern Fraser clans, trace their lineage from Sir Alexander. It was Alexander's younger brother, one of many Simon Frasers, who would found what is arguably still the most powerful of the Fraser clans. This would be Clan Fraser of Lovat.

The Jacobite Era

Simon "the Fox" Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat was a pivotal figure in the Jacobite uprisings of 1715 and 1745. He was especially infamous for his doubling dealing. After Clan Mackenzie made a play to take over Lovat lands via marriage in the aftermath o the death of the 10th Lord Lovat, Simon the Fox departed for France in 1702. There, he made inroads with the exiled Stuart dynasty and leading Jacobite figures. By 1703, he was already involved with intrigues with the British in an effort to gain the Lovat title. At the time the French court had been supporting the Jacobite cause, and responded by having Simon exiled and then imprisoned. This state of affairs lasted until 1707.

In 1714, Queen Anne  died. This brought to power the First King George and the Hanover dynasty. A Jacobite uprising soon broke out in Scotland. Seeing his chance, Simon the Fox opted to side with the British and was rewarded with the Lovat title and lands after the revolt was put down.

When a second Jacobite uprising broke out in 1745, Lord Lovat opted to side with his countrymen. This proved to be a disastrous decision. The Scots were soundly defeated at the Battle of Culloden. Not long afterwards, Lord Lovat was arrested. After being imprisoned in the Tower of London for a little less than two years, he was executed via beheading on April 9, 1747. Allegedly, he was the last man to be beheaded in Britain. His body was reportedly taken back to a family mausoleum near Inverness, but recent evidence indicates that the body in his casket was one of a young woman. Like Simon the Fox, she was also missing her head. What became of Simon's body, or either's head, remains a mystery.

Simon the Fox, 11th Lord Lovat

As I'm sure many of you are aware, the Jacobites had a close association with a particular branch of Freemasonry as well as it alleged mythological ties to the Knights Templar. For the uninitiated, here's a brief rundown:

"During this time, Masonic lodges had functioned as underground meeting places for Jacobite supporters. While the lodges had struggled to maintain neutrality during the English Civil War the seventeenth century... the bonds brotherhood became more difficult to maintain. Into this romantic atmosphere of espionage, intrigue, and 'pretenders to the throne' stepped one of the major personalities of modern Freemasonry: Chevalier Michael Ramsay.

"Ramsay (1681-1743) was a Scot who had attended the Edinburgh University and the University of Leiden, and received a doctorate in civil law from Oxford University in 1730. For a while he moved in the same pious circles as Johannes Kelpius but, later converting to Catholicism and throwing in his lot with the Jacobites, he wound up in France and then in Rome (in 1724) as the tutor of the young Bonnie Prince Charlie. He was also Mason, and Grand Chancellor of the Paris Grand Lodge. His most lasting contribution to Freemasonry was a speech he made in 1737 in Paris, before a meeting of a Masonic lodge there. What he had to say caused reverberations down through the centuries, and Freemasonry is still struggling to come to terms with the ideas he presented there for the first time.

"In his speech he connected the practice of Freemasonry not with the stonemasons' guilds of medieval Europe but with the nobles who conducted the Crusades in the Holy land. Ramsay claims – without actually mentioning the Knights Templar by name – that the chivalric orders that had operated in Palestine were the direct ancestors of the Freemasons; that their oath was not 'execrable' as have been claimed (and thus immediately connecting these orders with the accusations against the Templars); that they had only the highest ideals; that they recognized each other by passwords and signs in order to differentiate each other from the Saracens; and that later they had merged with the Order of St. John of Jerusalem... According to Ramsey, this is why the lodges were called Lodges of St. John.

"Ramsay was very specific in his speech about which Scottish nobles have been involved in protecting and supporting these Masonic forbears, and used 1286 as the date when the Kilwinning Lodge of Scotland was in operation as the only surviving lodge of the Crusader period.

"In other words, Ramsay claimed that Scotland – and only Scotland – had indisputable Masonic credentials, and he went further to claim that France would become the center of the restored Masonic order.

"The effect of his words was electric. He had single-handedly caused a sensation throughout France that elevated the reputation of Freemasonry and made it is noble as, if not nobler than, existing chivalric orders. Suddenly Freemasonry was no longer about stoneworkers in a quarry but about educated man, nobles, princes, and Crusaders. In his later works, he deliberately links Freemasonry with the Templars: a connection that has yet to be broken, no matter how hard many have tried...

"Thus was the Scottish Rite born."

(The Secret Temple, Peter Levenda, pgs. 101-102)

Chevalier Michael Ramsay

Contrary to what Levenda claims, the only Scottish noble family mentioned in Ramsay's 1737 speech are the Stewarts. Given how widespread and prestigious certain branches of Clan Fraser were, it would hardly be surprising if the Frasers were among those linked to the Templars. This connection could potentially go back to Bannockburn, where the Templars and Clan Fraser were reportedly both present at. Just how close Simon the Fox truly was to the Jacobite cause is highly debatable, but he reportedly took solace in dying a Scottish patriot at the time of his execution.

Another curiosity from this era is worth exploring for a moment: Boleskine House. This particular Scottish manor gained infamy in the twentieth century after being owned by Aleister Crowley and, later, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. The residency had originally been constructed as a hunting lodge during the 1760s by Colonel Archibald Campbell Fraser, a son of the 11th Lord of Lovat, Simon the Fox. After Simon's execution, the Lovat clan had lost their lordship, but Fraser's half brother Simon Fraser was still considered to be the Master of Lovat and chief of the Lovat clan. Reportedly, Archibald had originally built Boleskine, which was surrounded by Lovat lands, to annoy his brother due to his support of the English during the 1745 Jacobite uprising.

Archibald Campbell Fraser

When the Master of Lovat died childless in 1786, Archibald succeeded him as Master of Lovat and chieftain of Clan Fraser of Lovat. As such, Archibald ended up with all of the lands surrounding Boleskine in addition to the hunting lodge itself. Archibald would have sons, but ended up out living all of them. Hence, when Archibald died, there was some dispute over whom would succeed him. The honor eventually went to Thomas Alexander Fraser. By this time the titles had already been restored, making Thomas the twelfth Lord Lovat. He also appears to have inherited all of Archibald's lands, including Boleskine.

The twelfth Lord Lovat died in 1875, while Crowley did not purchase Boleskine until 1899. It is known that he procured the lands from the Fraser family, though this researcher has been unable to determine whom exactly. It is most likely that the Boleskine was still in possession of the Lovat branch by the time of Crowley's purchase, however. In his autobiography The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast notes that Lord Lovat was one of his closet neighbors to Boleskine, implying the Lovats still owned much of the surrounding land. It is also likely Crowley knew the Lord Lovat of the time, who would have been fourteenth one.

Boleskine House

It should be noted that Boleskine and the surrounding area already had a reputation for ample high weirdness even before Crowley purchased the property. Legend has it that the lodge was built upon the ruins of a church that had burned down during mass, killing the entire congregation in the process. There were also rumors of tunnels leading from the lodge's cellars to a nearby burial ground. And of course, the property is located right next to the legendary Loch Ness. This is yet another instance of the high weirdness that appears to follow the Frasers around like a shadow.

The Lord of War

For those you wondering what all of this has to do with special operations, your patience will hopefully now be rewarded. As one may have gathered from the preceding account, Clan Fraser of Lovat had a strong warrior ethos that translated into the modern era. The 14th Lord Lovat, neighbor to Aleister Crowley, had founded the Lovat Scouts, which were initially deployed during the above-mentioned Boer War. This researcher has been unable to determine how impressed Lord Lovat was with the Boer's commando tactics, but in the aftermath of that conflict the Lovat Scouts would shift their emphasis to "irregular warfare." 

Like his father and other ancestors, Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, was a fighting man. He joined the Lovat Scouts in 1930, at a time after that transition to irregular warfare had been made. Later, he served in another elite unit, the Scots Guard. As such, he found himself in a curious position when the Second World War broke out.

Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat

As was noted above, WWII is generally considered to be the conflict that spawned modern special operations forces. And the trailblazers of these units, in turn, was the British Empire. Unable to confront Nazi Germany directly at the onset of the war, the British would lean heavily on commandos and other special operations forces in the early years of the conflict. While such units have never really been tested against a modern military before, the British had one particular Scottish family that was ready to take on the task of creating a new type of commando.

In 1940, Lovat was one of the men charged with setting up a special forces training center to drill the next generation of commandos. He eventually settled upon Inverailort House, which was of course located in Scotland. Lovat and David Stirling, the future founder of the SAS, were the men who settled upon this location. Lovat and Stirling would go on to become major instructors at this school, which was overseen by Bill Stirling, David's older brother.

Inverailort House

Despite the last names, all of these men belonged to Clan Fraser of Lovat. The mother of both David and Bill was Margaret Fraser, the daughter of the 13th Lord Lovat. As such, 15th Lord Lovat and the Stirlings were all cousins. As such, Inverailort House appears to have been very much a family affair.

It also produced many of the leading special operators on the British side of WWII. Two of the most notable were Neil "Billy" McLean, who became one of the leading paramilitary officers in the Special Operations Executive (SOE); and Fitzroy Maclean, another key early figure in both the SOE and SAS, whom married Lovat's sister.

Neil "Billy" McLean (top) and Fitzroy Maclean (bottom)

So, while it may not be totally accurate to say that Clan Fraser of Lovat created the Special Air Services, the world's first modern special operations forces, they were clearly an enormous influence, at a minimum. Nor were these the only special operations forces linked to the Lovats. While the Stirlings were setting up the SAS, Lord Lovat himself would personally command No. 4 Commando and, later, the 1st Special Services Brigade. 

And then there's the legendary Special Operations Executive. When Churchill commanded that Europe be set ablaze, it was the SOE that was tasked with carrying out this directive. The SOE oversaw virtually all covert operations during WWII for the British rather than MI6, which was largely just an intelligence gathering organization during that conflict. Among the most notably operations of the SOE was Jedburgh (naturally named after a town in Scotland), which carried out sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines leading up to the Normandy invasion. More information on the importance of the SOE can be found here and here.

the insignia of the SOE

The training SOE operators received was almost entirely based upon what Lovat and company had cooked up with Inverailort. Indeed, the school there appears to have originally been set up to train the SOE. Lovat himself would eventually take over the SOE as the war was winding down, when he accepted the post of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which housed the Ministry of Economic Warfare. It was this curious entity that oversaw the SOE. During this time, he fought to preserve remnants of the SOE, which was under siege by both MI6 and the Foreign Office.

So, to recap: the 15th Lord Lovat pioneered what would now be known as irregular and unconventional warfare, helping train the SOE in these dark arts. And the SOE were generally considered to be the unquestioned masters of such things during WWII. He also trained up and commanded many of the leading commando units during WWII. Elsewhere, his relations and in-laws helped set up the SAS, the first modern special operations forces. Sir David Stirling would later go on to set up Watchguard International, which is generally considered to be the first modern private military company (PMC). Much more information on the murky origins of PMCs will be presented in my forth coming book, including a bit about Colonel Stirling.

Colonel David Stirling

In other words, there doesn't appear to be much linked to modern, non-Naval special operations forces that the Lovats do not crop up in. While the Borghese family no doubt played a role in the creation of Navy SEALS and the like, the influence the Lovat clan had on modern special operations forces is simply unparalleled. It is also mysterious, given the family's potential links to the Knights Templar and Freemasonry.

This researcher is not fond of centuries old conspiracies. Indeed, far from it as this is the type of thing I love debunking. But the presence of long time aristocratic families like the Borghese and Clan Fraser of Lovat at the birth of modern special operations forces is curious, to put it mildly. Throw in the bizarre history of the Lovats, and one is left with quite an enigma. As such, it may not be so surprising to find such an obsession with chivalric orders among modern elite forces.  

And with that, I shall sign off for now readers. If you've made it this far, hopefully you've found my speculation rewarding, or entertaining at the least. Until next time, stay tuned.

The House of Mellon Part IV: A Death in the Family

Several years ago I published a series on the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, who for many decades have been one of the nation's wealthiest and most influential, if little acknowledged, families. While rarely mentioned by conspiracy researchers in the same breath as more notorious American families such as those of Morgan (which hasn't been a major power for nearly half a century) and Rockefeller (whose influence has been in decline since the 1970s and will likely fall off a cliff with David Rockefeller's death), the Mellons have wielded a considerable degree of influence for well over a century now. What's more, they've proven quite adept at straddling the lines between competing factions in the various  American Establishments.

The patriarch of the family was Thomas Mellon, who rose to prominence less than a decade after the conclusion of the American Civil War. In 1870 he established what became the Mellon Bank, which by the end of the nineteenth century had become the largest financial institution in these United States outside of New York City. The family later branched out into the oil business at the onset of the twentieth century via Thomas Mellon's grandson, William Larimer Mellon Sr., who established the Gulf Oil Corporation in 1907. Finance and oil would serve as the linchpins of the Mellon empire in the decades that followed.

Probably the most famous (or infamous) of the Mellon clan was Andrew Mellon (addressed before here), who truly turned the family's business concerns into an empire.

"But what was more important at the time was that Andrew also built a great business empire. He and his brother Richard created first a national bank, then a steel concern, and then an empire. Young Mellon cornered the bauxite market. He shared in the profits of Carnegie Steel... The Mellons together established the enormous Aluminum Company of America; later they picked up Bethlehem Steel. They invested in Spindletop, the Texas gusher that opened the Gulf Coast oil industry. By the time Hoover reached adulthood, the Mellons also were players in the steel, railway, construction, and insurance industries. Succeeding Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon ruled Pittsburgh in a way that not even the president ruled Washington."

(The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, pgs. 24-25) 

Andrew Mellon

Mellon is probably best remembered, however, for his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury. He held the post from 1921 until 1932, an eleven year period in which he oversaw the Roaring Twenties as well as the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. As such, Mellon's tenure as Secretary of Treasury remains highly controversial. During that era he received ample blame for the Depression and was routinely attacked by FDR up until his death in 1937.

The Occult, UFOs and Intelligence

For our purposes here, it is interesting to note that Mellon was also a prominent Freemason who contributed to the Masonic architecture in Washington, D.C. Probably the most well known instance of this the Andrew W. Mellon Memorial Fountain, approved by Congress ten years after Andrew's death and completed in 1952. The Fountain has some very curious features.

"... The fountain was completed by 1952, and located – as Congress ordered – in a triangular area at the eastern tip of the Federal Triangle. The water from the fountain's jets rains down into a raised inner bowl, which overflows to discharge into an even larger basin, whence it flows into a wide basin at ground level: thus, the water overflows three times from the central basin into the ground-level bowl. Below the lip of the second bowl, inset on the side so as to be obscured by the flow of water, are the 12 signs of the zodiac designed by Sidney Waugh.

"These zodiacal images were carved with considerable insight and feeling. It was probably the architect Eggers – aware of the Masonic tradition that permeated Washington architecture – who insisted that the image for the zodiacal sign Aries... should be oriented so that it received the first rays of sunlight on March 21, which marks the vernal equinox."

(The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital, David Ovason, pg. 281)

one of the zodiacal images found on the Mellon Fountain

The dedication for the Fountain was on May 9, 1952, and presided over by President Harry S. Truman, himself a prominent Freemason. On the whole, 1952 proved to be a banner year for high weirdness, especially UFOs. In March of that year, the Air Force launched Project BLUE BOOK to investigate the phenomenon. Three months later, rocket scientist and Crowleyite Jack Parsons (who is also alleged to have encountered a UFO while in the company of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard) blew himself up in a bizarre accident. Then in July Washington itself witnessed countless UFO sightings from the 12th through the 29th in what is considered one of the largest UFO flaps in recent history. The year then concluded with ARTICHOKE scientist Andrija Puharich making contact with entities he dubbed "The Nine" (noted before here), alleged extraterrestrials than now existed outside of time and space, in a seance held on New Year's Eve.

While this may seem a bit off topic, we shall be returning to UFOs in a moment and as such, I find it curious the highly occultic Andrew Mellon Memorial Fountain was unveiled in one of the most active years ever for UFO sightings. As was noted above, the Fountain was approved by Congress in 1947, another banner year for high weirdness that witnessed the Kenneth Arnold sighting and Roswell, which effectively ushered in the modern UFO era. Crowley also died in 1947 while the first wave of CIA/Pentagon behavior modification experiments were also begun in that year. But I digress.

Before moving along, it is worth noting that that Mellon Fountain is not the only piece of architecture associated with the family with strong occultic overtones. Consider the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh:

the Gulf Tower, which bares a remarkable resemblance to a ziggurat with a ritual complex at the top...

For years it was the largest building in Pittsburgh. As you can see, the top features a step-pyramid and mausoleum. Reportedly this design was inspired by the  Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Mausoleum was the last of the said wonders to be destroyed, surviving mostly intact till some point in the late Middle Ages. Its ruins were discovered in 1402 by the Knights Hospitaller, now known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), who used them to build a castle in what is now known as Bodrum. Curiously, the Mausoleum also inspired the design of the House of the Temple, the Washington, D.C.-based headquarters of the Scottish Rite branch of Freemasonry. But moving along.

The Mellon family and their in-laws also has a rich tradition in the netherworlds of the US intelligence community dating back to at least World War II. Both Paul Mellon and David Bruce, Andrew Mellon's son and son-in-law respectively, served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. After the war the relationship continued, with the CIA frequently using various Mellon family foundations as a source of funding for various projects.

One Mellon highly active in such pursuits was Richard Mellon Scaife (noted in length before here), who maintained a decades-spanning association with the CIA.

"... Scaife's ties to the intelligence community span many years – he owned and operated Forum World Features, an international CIA news outlet that supplied over 300 newspapers until its exposure 1975 – and he has been one of the most generous sugar daddies of the New Right, providing the seed money for the Heritage Foundation and for the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress..."

(Spiritual Warfare, Sara Diamond, pg. 194)

Richard Mellon Scaife

Scaife, whose father Alan Scaife had also served in the OSS. also provided funding for both US and UK-based organizations linked to the Le Cercle network (noted before here and here), which was essentially the far right's response to the Bilderberg Group. Compromised largely of reactionary European aristocrats, various Western military and intelligence officers and fanatical Catholic sects like the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Opus Dei, Le Cercle has been deeply implicated over the years in various acts of terrorism and elite pedophile networks.

On the other end of the spectrum there was William Mellon Hitchcock (noted at length before here), whose friends addressed him as "Mr. Billy." Mr. Billy came from the same generation as Dick Scaife, but he would use his share of the Mellon fortune for quite different objectives. Mr Billy, along with his sister Margaret "Peggy" Mellon Hitchcock, were major sponsors of the 1960s psychedelic movement. They became early patrons of Timothy Leary, with Mr. Billy offering up his estate at Millbrook to Leary in 1963 to carry on his research after Leary was kicked out of Harvard.

Mr. Billy is on the right

While Mr. Billy eventually became disillusioned with Leary, his interest in psychedelics remained strong throughout the 1960s. By the end of the decade he had become the financier for the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, which at the time was the largest LSD distribution network in the world. As was noted before here, during this time frame Mr. Billy also became a major investor in Resorts International, a gaming interest with extensive ties to the Syndicate and the US intelligence community. Eventually Donald J. Trump became the CEO of Resorts in 1986.

A Curious Death

The Mellon family has continued to wield considerable influence on both a national and international level into the twenty-first century, but they've generally avoided the limelight. But of late the family has turned up in the headlines again, most recently regarding a death:

"On Sunday, Matthew Mellon flew in a private jet to Cancun, Mexico, intending to check into a rehabilitation clinic. But the 54-year-old banking heir, who had been battling an addiction to opioid pills, never made it to the treatment facility.

" 'He never checked in,' says Alberto Sola, medical director of Clear Sky Recovery, a rehab clinic in Cancun. 'He was supposed to check in to the clinic on Monday morning. Then Monday morning they told us he had died.' "

Early reports, however, indicated that he had in fact died at the drug rehab center, which seems to offer an especially psychedelic brand of rehab:

"Mellon, who had faced substance abuse issues for decades, had decided to seek an experimental treatment in Mexico earlier this year, attracted to therapies with hallucinatory properties that are illegal in the United States. Clear Sky Recovery clinic specializes in ibogaine therapy, a plant-based medicine with psychedelic properties that’s derived from a West African tree. Clear Sky advertises itself as 'the world’s foremost experts in medically-based ibogaine treatment.' Sola said Mellon had died in his hotel room, but declined to comment on the cause of Mellon’s death. According to one report, Mellon was also experimenting with ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic drink, and died from a heart attack after taking it."

Matthew Mellon is from the same branch of the Mellon family as Peggy and William Hitchcock, all of whom are descendants of Gulf Oil founder William Larimer Mellon. Thus, his interest in psychedelics is hardly surprising.

Matthew Mellon

Prior to his death, Matthew Mellon had gained much notoriety for trading cryptocurrencies, beginning with Bitcoin in the early part of this decade, and then onto Ripple. At the time of his death, he had amassed a considerable fortune:

"In addition to leaving behind three children, Mellon’s death raises many unanswered questions, including what will happen to the estimated $500 million of XRP digital currency he owned. Mellon’s XRP had been worth well over $1 billion earlier in 2018 and he told Forbes in March he had been adding to the position as the price of the cryptocurrency plunged.

"XRP is the digital currency of financial payments company Ripple and Mellon had acquired a large amount of it, mostly from an initial investment of about $2 million, prior to the boom in cryptocurrencies. Mellon said he kept the digital keys to his XRP locked in cold storage in other people’s names at various locations around the U.S."

Forbes goes onto note that in his final months Mellon had had conversations with Donald Trump concerning cryptos while also becoming increasingly paranoid about his safety:

"He began the year in Los Angeles with great promise and a flurry of activity. Late last year, Mellon, who lived in New York, searched online for the most expensive rental house in Los Angeles and booked a futuristic looking home in the Hollywood Hills for $150,000 a month. With a massive cryptocurrency fortune and fearing for his security, Mellon got an armored car that resembled a tank and added a security detail while maintaining an active social schedule.

"... In late March, Mellon told a Forbes reporter, he dined with President Donald Trump.

" 'I shared with him that he should become blockchain friendly if he wants the next Millennial vote,' Mellon told Forbes in late March."

While no doubt many will link Mellon's sudden and bizarre death to his involvement with cryptos, its interesting to note that his brother, Christopher Mellon, had made some interesting statements of his own a little over a month before Matthew's death. Specifically, he called for greater defense spending in regards to UFOs in an Op-Ed that appears in the Washington Post:

"Lately, media coverage of the issue of unidentified aerial vehicles has focused on an expired $22 million congressional earmark for Bigelow Aerospace, a contractor with ties to former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.). The money mostly funded research and analysis by that contractor, without participation from the Air Force, NORAD or other key military organizations. The real issue, though, is not a long-gone earmark, helpful though it may have been, but numerous recent incidents involving the military and violations of U.S. airspace. It is time to set aside taboos regarding 'UFOs' and instead listen to our pilots and radar operators.

"Within a roughly $50 billion annual intelligence budget, money is not the issue. Existing funds would easily cover what’s needed to look into the incidents. What we lack above all is recognition that this issue warrants a serious collection and analysis effort. To make headway, the task needs to be assigned to an official with the clout to compel collaboration among disparate and often quarrelsome national security bureaucracies. A truly serious effort would involve, among other things, analysts able to review infrared satellite data, NORAD radar databases, and signals and human intelligence reporting. Congress should require an all-source study by the secretary of defense while promoting research into new forms of propulsion that might explain how these vehicles achieve such extraordinary power and maneuverability." 

Christopher Mellon, like many family members before him, has longstanding ties to the US intelligence community and the DoD. He spent nearly ten years as the Staff Director for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In 1998, he became the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Security and Information Operations. Then, in 1999, he became the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, a post he held until 2002. After leaving the DoD, he became a Minority Staff Director for Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member Senator Jay Rockefeller.

Christopher Mellon

Mellon is no minor figure in other words, by the scion of one of the nation's wealthiest and most powerful families, and a longstanding veteran of the US intelligence community. He is also involved with To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, a disclosure project launched by former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge. Another member of said organization recently exposed Robert Bigelow's secret UFO program. As was noted before here, this may have been part of the ongoing deep state civil war, as Bigelow is a major Trump backer.

Was Matthew Mellon's death related to his brother's work in the UFO disclosure, his exposure to cryptocurrencies, the deep state civil war or some combination of all three? Certainly this is a curious series of events, from a branch of the family that his been linked to strange intrigues in the past. Even more bizarre is the fact that the active psychedelic component of ayahuasca, which is what is presently being blamed for Mellon's death, is DMT. As I noted before here, DMT has been known to induce visions of extraterrestrial-like nonhuman entities while curious and tragic medical issues have at times followed.

It would certainly be interesting to know if cryptos were the only thing discussed in Matthew Mellon's March meeting with Trump. Several weeks later the financier was dead, under still murky circumstances that at least nominally are being blamed on some type of entheogenic-centric treatment for opioid abuse. Clearly, something does not add up here.

The waters are further muddied by where the Mellon family fits into the elite hierarchy. While nominally aligned with the Rockefeller-dominated globalist wing of the American Establishment, family members such as Richard Mellon Sciafe and even psychonaut William Mellon Hitchcock have been very at home with members of the far right. In terms of the Mellon brothers we've just considered, Christopher is clearly in the former camp while Matthew was a long time backer of the Republican Party and does not seem to have been especially uncomfortable with Trump. Of course, Matthew was also dating a member of the Kennedy family at the time of his death as well.

In conclusion, all I can come up with is phrase that is becoming more and more common every day: Truly, we live in incredible times.