A Rock of Ravens

As regular readers of this blog may be aware, your humble writer is in the process of moving. This adventure began on September 9, 2016, when I departed Florida, my home for nearly a quarter of a century. It entered into a new stage on October 31 when I purchased a new house (yes, the closing was on Halloween). While I don't normally do blogs that revolve around myself, I've been rather struck by a lot of the history and curious synchronicities surrounding my new home.

Of course even the dating is rather apt. Over two thousand years ago September 9, 9 A.D. witnessed the storied defeat of Varus by a confederation of Germanic tribes under the control of the Roman-trained military officer Arminius at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This was one of the most stunning defeats the Roman Empire ever experienced, one that had a profound effect on the course of the Empire. This battle would later play an enormous role in the emerging German nationalism of the nineteenth century and would develop a practical cult around it during the Nazi era (Himmler and several of his mystics in the SS were obsessed with the battle). Given the amount of time this blog has dedicated to exploring esoteric Nazism, I suppose there is a certain symmetry to the date. And Halloween needs no explanation.

The character I purchased the house from has a certain spooky air about him. I shall refer to him as "Pete" due to his striking similarity to the character of Pete Martell (Jack Nance) in the soon-to-be-revived Twin Peaks. This individual is a dead ringer right down to the look, the voice and the outdoors man air to the point that I was tempted to ask him if he had ever met anyone named David Lynch or Mark Frost a time or two.

Pete Martell

"Pete" is a well traveled individual who had had filled the house with various treasures from around the world. He has a special interest in Buddhism and Hinduism and owned many exotic religious pieces from the Far East. During the turbulent 1960s he had been drafted, went to Vietnam and then ended up in San Francisco in 1967, right on Haight-Ashbury no less. He claimed that no less than Janis Joplin had babysat his daughter for a time. I was rather dubious of this bit, but he could certainly spin a yarn.

Pete can tell many others about his travels around the world, which were frequent. The house was littered with pictures of him across the Far East, before the Great Pyramid of Giza and at Al-Khazneh, among man others. My girlfriend and I asked him several times what he had done for a living and he skillfully evaded the question every time. We had begun to suspect something spooky when one of his former neighbors, who had lived near him for nearly thirty years, made a curious unsolicited statement: Pete had worked for the government, had traveled frequently and had never offered any details concerning his work. While he was well liked, many neighbors suspected his work was highly classified.

While doing my own digging, I realized Pete had lived in Arlington, VA during the 1980s while the cabin we purchased from him was being built. His old address did not appear to be far from the Pentagon. Certainly the possibilities are endless. But moving along.

The house is located a little off of U.S Route 50, which stretches from West Sacramento, California to Ocean City, Maryland, and features such destinations as Kansas City, St. Louis and even Washington, D.C. The stretch through Nevada is known as "The Loneliest Road in America" while the one in my new location runs through the Appalachian Mountains, with much of it paralleling the historic Northwestern Turnpike. The turn off is between Romney, West Virginia and Winchester, Virginia. This was one of the bloodiest stretches of the Civil War, with both towns be hotly contested by the Union and the Confederacy.

Interestingly, Romney features the largest of the remaining Indian mounds in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle in the form of the Indian Mound Cemetery. It is believed to have been to have been constructed by the mysterious Hopewell peoples. As I've noted before here, West Virginia has witnessed a lot of high weirdness, and Indian mounds frequently appear against the backdrop.

The land that Recluse's new home resides upon was originally owned by Lord Fairfax and was deeded to Dr. James Craik in 1766. Craik was George Washington's personal physician while Fairfax had first encountered Washington when the future president was but 16. Fairfax employed him as a surveyor for three years. Naturally both Fairfax and Craik were prominent Freemasons. There is some speculation that Fairfax first introduced Washington to Masonry.

Lord Fairfax (top) and James Craik (bottom)

"Pete," the former owner, dubbed the cabin "Ravens' Rock." This was allegedly due to the rocks at the top of a nearby mountain barring this same name. This would apparently not be the only rock formation on a mountain or location in West Virginia being named Raven Rocks. Curiously, there is also a highly secret military facility in Pennsylvania called Raven Rock Mountain Complex. Effectively it is a nuclear bunker that serves as an "underground Pentagon." It contains emergency operating centers for the US Army, Navy and Air Force. Allegedly, the "War Room" is located here.

Beyond the potential intelligence allusions, the raven itself is also littered with symbolism. The great Tech-Gnostic provides some interesting insights:

"Throughout the ages, birds have been harbingers of fortuitousness... of consequence. Owls, crows and especially the crow’s big brother… the Raven… have foretold of ominous events. It is widely known that a gathering of crows is known as a 'murder of crows.' It may not be as well known that a gathering of Ravens is called a 'Conspiracy of Ravens.'...

"Common ravens have coexisted with humans for thousands of years. Over the centuries, they have been the subject of mythology, folklore, art, and literature. In many cultures, including the indigenous cultures of Scandinavia, ancient Ireland and Wales, Bhutan, the northwest coast of North America, and Siberia and northeast Asia, the raven has been revered as a spiritual figure or 'Trickster' god."

Here are some more insights into the associations of the raven in folklore:

"In Ancient Greece, too, the raven was a solar bird sacred to Apollo. Although Puharich says that the eagles determined the sitting of the omphalos at Delphi, Strabo states that this task was performed by ravens. At least both birds have this in common, that they acted as messengers of the gods and performed prophetic roles. Ravens were also attributes of Mithras, and these were believed to be endowed with the power of casting evil spells.

"Ravens are common features of Celtic legend, in which they played prophetic roles. The Psuedo-Plutarch was undoubtedly based himself upon Gaulish tradition, translated Lugdunum (the Celtic name for Lyons) as 'Ravens' Hill' rather than the accepted 'Lug's Hill', since a flight of ravens had shown the city's founders where to build.

"In Ireland, the war-goddess took the name of 'Bobd' or carrion-crow and often appeared in this shape. The crow is the nocturnal aspect of the raven and in Ancient Greece was sacred to Athene while, as we have seen, the Raven was Apollo's bird. 

"In any case, ravens play a fundamental part in the Welsh tale, 'The Dream of Rhonabwy': when Arthur's men slaughtered Owen's ravens, the surviving birds reacted violently and in their turn hacked the soldiers to pieces. Ravens still occupy a respectable place in folklore... The birds were sacred to the Gauls and in German mythology were the companions of Wotan (Odin).

"In Scandinavian mythology, two ravens perched on Odin's throne, Hugin {Mind} and Munnin {Memory}, and a pair of wolves crouched beside the god. The two ravens stand for the creative and the two wolves for the destructive principle..."

(Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, pgs. 789-790)

The raven clearly has an extensive association with prophecy and creation. Many Native American Demiurges also take on the form of the raven. Beyond this, ravens also figured prominently in the symbolism of alchemist.

"Alchemists have always associated the stage of putrefaction, where matter becomes black, with the raven. They call this stage 'the Raven's Head': it is leprous and must be bleached by 'bathing seven times in the waters of Jordan'. These are imbibitions, sublimations, cohobations or digestion of matter, all practiced under the lordship of fire alone. This is why the black bird is so often depicted on the pages of ancient treatises of Hermetic lore..."

(Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, pgs. 790-791) 

Putrefaction, in the form of nigredo, is the first stage of alchemy's "Great Work." The Great Work is symbolically supposed to represent the journey of rebirth. The nigredo stag represents the death of the old self so that something new can spring forth. Certainly this is rather apt for my present situation. One stage of my life is finished and another is just beginning.

The world may be going more and more mad every day, but even dreams can shine forth in these dark days. I've long dreamed of writing before a roaring fire and I fulfilled it this evening. It is a small dream, but big things often have small beginnings. This is good to keep in mind as the final days of the US Election come upon us. Be wary dear reader but remain hopeful all the same.

NOTE: New posts on this blog may be scarce for the next month or so. The process of getting settled into my new home will be time consuming and will seriously cut into my writing time, but I shall do my best. Certainly there may be more than a few current events in the near future that will warrant comment. At worst, regular posts should be back again by early December. Until then, stay tuned.

Echoes of the San Bernardino Working?

Another day, another mass shooting in these United States. Apparently the one that unfolded on December 2, 2015, was the deadliest in this nation since 2012's Sandy Hook shooting. The December 2nd incident unfolded in San Bernardino, CA, at the Inland Regional Center.

When it was all said and done, fourteen unfortunate souls lost their lives while an additional 17 were wounded. The alleged shooters were a husband and wife duo known as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and twenty-seven year old Tashfeen Malik. Both Farook and Malik were Pakistani, according to the present reports. Farook was a US citizen born in the state of Illinois while Malik was here on a visa, having apparently come to the United States with Farook after he had been traveling overseas over a year ago.

The specter of terrorism has already been raised due to Mr. Farook's company and travels in additional to how he met Mrs. Malik. MSNBC reports:

"Mr. Farook, a United States citizen, was born in Illinois to Pakistani immigrant parents. Family members said he had been a devout Sunni Muslim, and on a dating website several years ago, he listed Urdu as his mother tongue. He had gone to Saudi Arabia multiple times, including a 2013 trip for the annual hajj, the trip to Mecca that all Muslims are expected to complete at least once, federal officials said.

"Mr. Bowdich said that Mr. Farook visited Pakistan last year, and that he and Ms. Malik entered the United States from Pakistan in July 2014. She traveled on a Pakistani passport and entered the United States on a K-1 visa, a 90-day visa given to fiancés planning to marry Americans. The couple applied on Sept. 30, 2014, for a permanent resident green card for Ms. Malik, which requires passing pass criminal and national security background checks using F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security databases, and she was granted a conditional green card in July 2015."

The same article implies Mr. Farook may have also been in contact with radicals:

"The F.B.I. has begun treating its inquiry as a counterterrorism investigation, two law enforcement officials said Thursday. The suspects’ extensive arsenal, their recent Middle East travels and evidence that one had been in touch with people with Islamist extremist views, both in the United States and abroad, all contributed to the decision to refocus the investigation."

Farook

No doubt this will send most researchers scrambling for more Saudi links, though these avenues are becoming increasingly dated.

While the Saudis have given ample backing to Sunni extremists (the branch of Islam both Farook and Malik adhered too) over the years, they have become increasingly alienated from these factions in recent years. Indeed the Kingdom, at least publicly, had a full on break with the Muslim Brotherhood (the chief backers of Sunni extremism for decades) this past year. US foreign policy has played a key role in this break.

"All these recent developments are especially disconcerting because of the visible deterioration of governmental relations between Washington and the Gulf states, and the emergence of strong disagreements concerning the Muslim Brotherhood and the future of the region between the Gulf states themselves, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qater.

"Saudi-U.S. relations frayed after the Bush administration's adoption of the neocon agenda of change in the Middle East, particularly by the plans, which King Abdullah publicly oppose, for an Iraqi war in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein...

"In March 2014 Saudi Arabia designated the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists, along with two al-Qaedist groups (the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham) backed by Qater in Syria. This was after Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, in alliance with Qatar, hailed the Muslim Brotherhood as an ally for creating an emerging new order in the Middle East."

(The American Deep State, Peter Dale Scott, pg. 80)

the logo of the Muslim Brotherhood

Indeed, Turkey has emerged as a major backer of ISIS, as Russia has made abundantly clear during the past week.  Turkey is of course in the midst of controversy after it downed a Russian jet towards the end of November after it allegedly violated Turkish air space. Interestingly, Turkey has recently approached Pakistan for help in its war against ISIS and Kurdish guerrilla group PKK (of which the bulk of Turkey's military actions have been geared towards).

the Russian jet after it was hit

No doubt much will be made about the possible links to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks in regards to Farook and Malil's possible radicalism, but this researcher believes a probe of possible Turkish contacts would be far more revealing.

Ultimately, to little evidence is available to judge the true nature of this event in depe political context at present.

There are, however, some striking synchronicistic associations to the shooting spree that I would now like to address. These largely relate to a series of books that first began to be released in 2011 by former FBI and Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) agent Walter Bosley dubbed Empire of the Wheel. This researcher finds this series, which presently stands at three parts, rather dubious as well as the background of the writer.

As to the former, Bosley is knee deep in numerous Communistic-Masonic-NWO conspiracy theories, many of them dated as well as overly dependent on the research of his associate, Joseph P. Farrell, whose researcher on post-WWII Nazism at times borders on high camp. As to Bosley's background, this researcher will remind the reader of this researcher's chronicles of "former" FBI agents (such as here and here) who ran roughshod over the conspiratorial right for decades. The AFOSI has had a go at alternative researchers a time or two as well, especially in one spectacular instance chronicled on this blog before here and here.

So yes, Bosley's premise should be taken with a massive heaping of salt. Indeed, I am tempted to reject it outright had he not stumbled over several compelling threads concerning German WWI intelligence activities that correlated with research of my own. Presently, my view is that Bosely's take is badly mired by dubious sources, but may in fact have a basis in reality.

As to that premise, here is a brief rundown: Bosley became interested in a series of curious murders and suicides that unfolded in San Bernardino in 1915. Two deaths involved children who had been given poisoned candy while another was a suicide involving an enigmatic drifter who displayed his body in his Masonic regalia. Bosley essentially argues that these deaths were both related to WWI espionage activities as well as the dreaded occult ritual murder. Over the course of the series many of the usual suspects have made appearances: Aleister Crowley and the O.T.O, the Masons, Fabian Socialists, the Zodiac killer, Theosophists, H.P. Lovecraft, Spiritualists, UFOs, ley lines and even some of the lesser traveled paths such as Houdini and the mysterious Sonora Air Club (which some researchers have linked to the 1897 air ship mystery sightings).

Crowley

Properly addressing all of these threads and there varying degrees of legitimacy and probability are vastly beyond the scope of this present article so lets us focus on the foundation of Bosley's theory: that in 1915 a series of ritual murders (some of them labeled as murders, others as suicides) unfolded in and around San Bernardino at sites near telluric currents, which in occult traditions have long been mistakenly identified as ley lines (of which this blog has covered before here).

"... two of the lines passing through Disneyland continuing north and eastward into the Inland Empire. These lines pass within less than ten miles of downtown San Bernardino. A third line, emanating from another set of spiraling lines, passes along what used to be called Route 66, the legendary national highway. The ley energy that flows west-east along old Route 66 follows the road right into town along Fifth Street, bisecting the city with its energy path.

"If one accepts the notion of ley energy, the entire San Bernardino area is full of it, so to speak... an entire system of ley energy winds and loops throughout San Bernardino and neighboring areas. The main nodal point of power is to be found in the heart of our mystery: Urbita Springs Park...  

"... we propose that the perpetrator(s) of the deaths we suspect for murders were influenced by a belief in such a ley (telluric) power grid. Thus, we suggest Cora Stanton met her fate literally yards from what the perpetrator(s) believed was a ley nodal point. Their purpose was to prime the pump, so to speak, with the life energy of the victims to get the power grid going and serve their aim."

(Empire of the Wheel Book I, Walter Bosley & Richard B. Spence, pgs. 207-210) 

an example of possible ley lines

As for the current tragedy that unfolded in San Bernadino on December 2, 2015, it occurred at the Inland Regional Center. What Bosley believed was the key murder in what he dubbed the "San Bernardino Working" unfolded at a location known as Urbita Springs Park where the body of a mysterious woman known as Cora Stanton was found. Today the Inland Center Mall stands in the location of the former park. Inland Regional Center is only about two miles or less from the Inland Center Mall.

the Inland Center Mall

What's more, Farook and Malik met their ends during a shoot out with police in the nearby suburb of Redlands. Redlands also hosted several of the 1915 murder/suicides Bosley proposes. He notes:

"Orta Hedges died in Redlands, also crossed by leys and reputedly one of the most haunted towns in America known for rumors of devil worship as well as plentiful ghost stories. Her home sat upon an intersection of two telluric 'leys'.

"Likewise, the allegedly tormented E. P. Braid took his life in Redlands – his place of death also on the intersection of two such lines. Both telluric intersections where Hedges and Braid died included such lines following directly from the major nodal point in Urbita Springs Park."

(Empire of the Wheel Book I, Walter Bosley, pgs. 210-211)

One final synch that with Empire: Bosley believes that the Urbita Sprigs Park victim, known to posterity as Cora Stanton, was in fact the notorious Etta Place, the companion of Old West outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! It has long been speculated Place was married to Sundance (a notion Bosley dismisses), thus potentially giving us another armed husband and wife duo wondering around San Bernardino a century ago.

And with that I shall wrap up for now. If more compelling information turns up I shall weigh in. Until then dear readers.

Sundance and Etta Place

Fear and Loathing in St. Petersburg Part I

St. Petersburg, Florida, is a city that rarely concerns the American public at large. If they think about it all, images of smiling senior citizens living out their golden years in a quiet beach community just a little south of Tampa no doubt spring to mind. But St. Pete --as locals call it --has witnessed a curious string of characters biding their time in the largest city Pinellas County has to offer over the years. Indeed, the deep political implications of St. Petersburg, to say nothing of the influence some of the St. Pete crowd have had on conspiracy culture at large --is quite staggering if little noticed.

There is nothing especially noteworthy about St. Petersburg's history prior to the 1940s, in the wake of WWII. The town derived its name from one of its two, co-founders, Peter Demens (born Pyotr Alexeyevitch Dementyev), a Russian immigrant who spent part of his youth in the far more famous St. Petersburg. While Demens was of noble birth and seems to have left Russia under curious circumstances, this hardly constitutes the kind of intrigue behind the founding of numerous other American cities.

Demens

Of course, there is the Russian St. Petersburg and its founder, Czar Peter I (typically known in the West as Peter the Great). Peter is generally remembered for his military conquests (he essentially transformed Russia into an empire) and his Westernization of the nation. His crowning achievement was Saint Petersburg, a city founded upon Peter's concept of Westernization. Within some conspiratorial musings, Peter is described as having been initiated into Freemasonry during his historic tour of Western Europe.

"... The reason that Peter's reign presents a problem is that Peter had repudiated the 'myth' of Russia, trading it for great power status and a certain 'acceptance' by the West. Peter's talented biographer, Lindsay Hughes, speculates that, during Peter's historic tour of western Europe, he was initiated into a Masonic sect. Giving the ideology of Masonry, such a view makes sense, in that the gnostic core of technology, at the expense of traditional Christian agrarianism, was a major prop in the Masonic ideal, or pseudo-ideal. That the western Lodges would have seen Peter as a weapon to use against the traditional order is nearly an irresistible conclusion..."

(The Third Rome, Matthew Raphael Johnson, pg. 111) 

a tool of Masonry?

So perhaps St. Petersburg, Florida was conceived as part of an ongoing Masonic agenda within the design and architecture of our nation's cities. But probably not, so let us move along to be more tangible things.

One of the most curious figures to arrive in the aftermath of WWII was "Count" Anastase "Annie" Vonsiatsky. The Count is quite a mysterious figure who crops up in a host of intrigues both before and after WWII. The Count was an enormous man, standing well over six feet tall (the great John Bevilaqua lists him at 6'6), who was fond of wearing military uniforms and swastika arm bands when out on the town. Vonsiatsky also attended Brown University for a time around 1928. Voniatsky would maintain close ties with Brown for the rest of his life, which is most interesting as the University would attract some curious individuals during that item period.

George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, and Watergate "plumber" E. Howard Hunt both attended Brown in the late 1930s. Another Watergate "plumber", Charles Colson, would make the scene there in the early 1950s. Colson would go on to found the Prison Fellowship and became a close associate of the elitist and intelligence-connected Christian sect variously known as The Family or The Fellowship (of which much more has been written before here). The overlap between the circles these men traveled in as well as their ties to Brown is most interesting, but the ultimate significance of this (or lack therefore of) connection is as yet unknown to this researcher.

from top to bottom: George Lincoln Rockwell, E. Howard Hunt, and Charles Colson; all Brown men, just like Vonsiatsky

On this topic, it is also interesting to note that the legendary weird fiction author HP Lovecraft was a long time resident of Providence, Rhode Island, home of Brown University. While Lovecraft never attended the school he maintained an interest in it throughout his life and may even have worked for it at one point. This would have been during the same time frame as Vonsiatsky became involved with the school. What's more, Providence is 35 miles or so from Thompson, Connecticut, where Vonsiatsky maintained a residence at "Nineteenth Hole" for many years.

Lovecraft

 Interestingly, Lovecraft and Vonsiatsky both appear as characters in Richard Lupoff's Marblehead (originally published in a shorter edition under the title Lovecraft's Book), a bizarre homage to Lovecraft that puts the author in the midst of fascist intrigues during the 1920s. Technically this work is a novel, yet it displays an extensive degree of research concerning the pre-WWII fascist underground. But moving along.

A full examination of Vonsiatsky's life is vastly beyond the scope of this present series (the curious reader is advised to pick up a copy of the great John Beviaqua's J.F.K. --The Final Solution for much more information on the Count and the circles he traveled in), but his pre-WWII activity is especially noteworthy as is his background. So let us start with the latter:

"Vonsiatsky (1898-1965) was of White Russian ancestry, born in Warsaw, whose family had a distinguished pedigree in the Czar's army, and who identified with the White Russian struggle against Communism. In the United States, he was an openly-avowed fascist who colluded with Nazi agents in the United States, and was a colleague of Father Coughlin, William Pelley, and the other American Nazis. His background was colorful and exotic, and he attracted a lot of interest from both the Nazi underground as well as from the US government. His estate in northeastern Connecticut was elaborate, filled with Russian and Nazi memorabilia, and served as the headquarters of his own political party organized for the liberation of Russia from Communism.

"Vonsiatsky had married well. After making his way from Crimea in 1920 to Constantinople to recover from war wounds (he had been shot in his back, his arm, and his stomach), he later made his way to Paris where he met the American woman who would become his wife. She was an heiress to the Nabisco fortune and his wealth came largely through her. He sailed to America in the summer of 1921, and by the following year he was married to the heiress, becoming a naturalized American citizen in 1927.

"After a period of relative political inactivity, Vonsiatsky decided that it was time to form a party that would prepare for the day when the Soviet Union would fall and Russia would be free of Bolshevism. He admired the political philosophy represented by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and in May 1933 (four months after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany) Vonsiatsky formed the Russian National Revolutionary Labor and Workers Peasants Party of Fascist. The aim seemed to be to gather together all the Russian émigré groups that were proliferating throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe under one umbrella with Vonsiatsky as its leader. The headquarters of the All Russian National Revolutionary Party, as it was not for short (!), was called the Center and was located at Vonsiatsky's estate.

"The Count's involvement with other fascist organizations is well-known and documented..."

(The Hitler Legacy, Peter Levenda, pgs. 98-99)

Marion Ream, Vonsiatsky's heiress wife, is the woman in the center

Indeed. What's more, it has long been alleged that Vonsiatsky was knee deep in espionage in the years leading up to the Second World War. The chief source for a lot of the accusations against Vonsiatsky was a Ukrainian priest named Alexei Pelypenko. Initially Father Pelypenko had been a dedicated fascist and had collaborated with the Gestapo in South America during the 1930s. But after the Hitler-Stalin pact he became disillusioned with Nazism and was recruited as an informant by the FBI. His infiltration of Vonsiatsky's circle is his most noted act of espionage.

"Vonsiatsky himself welcomed the Ukrainian Father Pelypenko to The Center and they talked for hours concerning the state of the world and the threat of world communism. Pelypenko's bona fides were established early on: he knew what names to drop and what references to make, as he had been, after all, a devoted Nazi for years until the  demoralizing Hitler-Stalin pact. He had worked in South America for the Gestapo, and was considered loyal to the cause. Only the FBI knew otherwise.

"The Count felt comfortable enough to reveal some sensitive information to the priest, including his connection with Dr. Wolfgang Ebell. Ebell was a German national (b. 1899) who served in the German army during World War One and who went to medical school in Freiburg. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1939 after first working for a while in Mexico (1927-1930). He was then based in El Paso, Texas and while there was discovered to be running Nazi agent south of the border. Also involved in the Mexican operation was Gerhardt Wilhelm Kunze, who had  taken over control of the German-American Bund. Kunze was in fact working for Nazi intelligence at the same time he was the Bund's figurehead. In that capacity he was in contact with Japanese agents in Mexico on behalf of the Reich, and to Pelypenko's  surprise he was informed the Kunze was shortly to go to the Pacific coast of Mexico to make contact with Japanese submarines.

"Vonsiatsky bragged that he was also in radio contact with the Nazi consul in San Francisco – Fritz Weidemann – who passed his messages on to Japan and for there to Germany in an effort to avoid the American censors.

"The importance of this information cannot be overstated and, indeed, it formed an essential part of the US government's case against the espionage ring. In one conversation, the German-American Bund and Vonsiatsky's Russian Fascists were all revealed to be working together with the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan in the months and years leading up to America's entry into the war. A spy ring in Mexico being run out of El Paso, Texas was connected with the Nazi consul in San Francisco and Japanese submarines, White Russian émigrés, and American Nazis...

"As it would later transpire, this group of conspirators would also extend to include Father Coughlin himself, as well as the Lutheran minister Kurt Molzahn of Philadelphia, and the head of the Chicago chapter of the Bund, Otto Willumeit. Pelypenko was urged to attend a clandestine meeting of the leading Nazis in Chicago at the Bismarck Hotel (where else?) in June, 1941. The meeting was bugged by the FBI.

"At the meeting – attended by Vonsiatsky, Kunze, Ebell, Willumeit and Molzahn in addition to Pelypenko – it was learned that Kunze was to quit the leadership of the Bund so that he could disappear into Mexico and rendezvous with the Japanese...

"In November, 1941 – only weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor – Kunze was waiting in Texas for the false documents he would need to cross the border into Mexico. The man arranging for the fraudulent paperwork was the Lutheran minister, Molzahn, who use the Lutheran Church's pruning office for this effort...

"Kunze had spent the previous few weeks touring America's west coast, identifying vulnerabilities in her defenses, and liaising with White Russians along the way. Once in Texas, he received the phony documentation and made it across the border into Mexico. He was on his way to be picked up by a German U-boat when FBI agents, posing as Mexican fisherman, arrested him just as the periscope breached the surface.

"Kunze's arrest – coming as it did only months after the attack on Pearl Harbor – was part of a broader sweep of Nazi agents. Molzahn, Willumeit of the Chicago Bund, Wolfgang Ebell of El Paso, and Vonsiatsky himself were all arrested and charged with espionage."

(The Hitler Legacy, Peter Levenda, pgs. 100-104)

the Bismarck

Vonsiatsky was ultimately sentenced to five years in prison in addition to a $5,000 fine in 1942. He ended up serving less than four years, however, and was released on February 26, 1946. Apologists have long depicted the Count as a rather buffoonish figure with delusions of grandeur who was used by prosecutor Thomas J. Dodd (who had his fair share of fascist ties as well) for political book. John J. Stephan, whose The Russian Fascists is about the closet thing we have to a biography of Vonsiatsky, attacked the credibility of Pelypenkos as well. Stephan seems to believe that the bulk of the accusations against Vonsiatsky were due to mistranslations of the Bismark Hotel meeting (which was apparently a mix of several languages), the Count's penchant for greatly embellishing his influence and Pelypenkos' own imagination.

Stephan also suggests that Pelypenkos immigration status (he was fighting deportation at the time of Vonsiatsky's trial) played a role in his narrative. But Pelypenkos was hardly the only informant who ended up interned during this timeframe --numerous Japanese-Americans who collaborated with the Army and FBI were later imprisoned as well. And certainly the FBI seems to have put credence in Pelypenkos' work, at one point even dispatching men to South America to eliminate an assassin the priest had warned them of. But moving along.

As for St. Petersburg, Vonsiatsky seems to have become enamored with it shortly after his release from prison. Vonsiatsky first seems to have become aware of the city when his older sister Natasha and her husband Lev Beck Mamedov (a former Muslim converted to Orthodoxy who hailed from Central Asia and had been an officer in the Czarist army prior to the Bolshevik Revolution) relocated there shortly after the war.

"Late in 1947, Lev and Natasha Mamedov closed down the Russian Bear and moved to St. Petersburg Florida. Both were attracted by the climate and, as Natasha admitted, by the name. While visiting the Mamedovs early in 1948, Alex encountered a restaurant hostess from North Carolina named  Edith Priscilla Royster. Priscilla, five feet seven inches tall, and 133 pounds, was a well-endowed beauty with auburn hair and gray eyes. The difference in their ages (she was twenty-four, he was just short of fifty) exceeded that between Alex and Marion but did not prevent their acquaintance from blossoming into intimacy. He nicknamed her 'Sweetsky.' She called him – probably in all innocence – 'Natsiya.'

"That autumn, Alex brought Priscilla north and lodged her not far from Nineteenth Hole at Webster, Massachusetts (the scene of Fritz Kuhn's 1939 'putsch'). Before long, Thompson tongues were waiting about 'that redhead from Webster', but Marion maintained a stiff upper lip. Perhaps she savored the irony that both her first and second husbands had taken mistresses name Priscilla.

"The eternal triangle lost its geographical cohesiveness late in 1949 when Priscilla  discovered that she was pregnant. Alex promptly moved her back to St. Petersburg, where, on July 2, 1950,  she gave birth to a boy: Andre Anastase Vonsiatsky. Little Andre inherited more than his grandfather's first name. His forehead bore a birthmark where, Alex said, Colonel Andrei Nikolaevich have been shot forty years earlier."

(The Russian Fascists, John J. Stephan, pgs. 357-358)

Vonsiatsky

Vonsiatsky had largely abandoned his political efforts, at least publically, after his release from prison. But upon his move to St. Petersburg he began to once again make his voice heard.

"Although he spent his twilight years in a city known as a mecca for the elderly, Alex was anything but sedentary. He always had some project in the works and was ever vigilant for any opportunity to make a grande geste. In 1949, he garnered publicity by challenging the professional cardplayer Oswald Jacoby to a $5,000 canasta match (it never took place). Two years later, he was written up in St. Petersburg Independent for having entertained Prince and Princess Dadiani, Georgian royalty related to Grand Duchess Leonida Bagration, wife of tsarist pretender Grand Duke Vladimir (son of the late St. Briac tsar, Grand Duke Cyril). In 1956, standing on a pier, Vonsiatsky  lectured at the crew of a docked Soviet vessel. Asked by the St. Petersburg Independent whether he thought that he was making an impression, Alex showed that he still retained his old touch: 'They pretended not to listen, but I've seen crewmen applaud me silently through the portholes.'

"In 1953, Vonsiatsky unveiled his most ambitious postwar enterprise: The Tsar Nicholas II Museum of St. Petersburg. 'Museum' sounded a bit grandiose for a few mementos from Nineteenth Hole's Military Room exhibited in a small house on the 5th Avenue North, but Vonsiatsky was never one to deny himself a little exaggeration. The museum's opening was timed to coincide with the two hundred and fifeith anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg by Tsar Peter the Great, and to Alex's delight, the local press gave the affair good coverage. In the place of honor hung a portrait of Nicholas II, which purportedly had once graced the walls of the Imperial Russian Embassy in Paris. Also displayed were papier-mâché regimental epaulettes cut out and painted in their original colors, portraits of aristocrats and generals, and a framed letter from the last tsar to his military cadets. Aligned on racks stood forty-five antiquated Remington and the Westinghouse rifles, the same weapons that had decorated the military room at Nineteenth Hole two decades earlier.

"Vonsiasky also took up the pen in St. Petersburg. A voracious reader of anything about Russia, he contributed articles on historical and religious subjects to émigré newspapers and journals such as Novaya Zarya, Nashe Vremya, and Bich ('Whip'). Occasionally, his letters, including one comparing the NKVD to the Gestapo, were published in the St. Petersburg Independent. Now an ardent monarchist, Vonsiatsky never alluded to having once been a self-proclaimed fascist vozhd."

(The Russian Fascists, John J. Stephan, pgs. 359-360)

Grand Duke Vladimir

Or at least publically, as compelling evidence has emerged that Vonsiatsky remained deeply involved with the post-WWII Fascist International. This will be briefly addressed in part two, but before wrapping up here, its interesting to note Vonsiatsjy's meeting with relations of Grand Duke Vladimir. Vladimir's father, Grand Duke Cyril, had been the figurehead of a mysterious secret society called the Sovereign Order of Saint John (SOSJ). Claiming ties to the historic Knights of Malta (though the organization was not, in theory, aligned with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta), the SOSJ would become deeply involved with the US military and intelligence community by the 1950s. Much more information on the SOSJ can be found here, here and here.

At the time of the meeting with Vladimir's relatives, the Grand Duke had succeeded his father as head of the SOSJ. This was at the same time its ties to the US intelligence community were being cemented. And here we see Vladimir's relations meeting with one of the most prominent pre-WWII fascist despite his alleged "retirement." But more on that during the next installment. Until then dear readers do please stay tuned.

The Wino Mysteries Part II

Welcome to the second installment in my examination of the career of doom metal pioneer Scott "Wino" Weinrich. As was noted in the first installment, Wino has had an enormous influence across a variety of metal genres, but especially those within the the so-called "stoner rock" community (which can include styles as diverse as doom and sludge metal, post-metal, drone, desert rock, heavy psych, occult rock, etc). I'e deemed this community to be very synchro-mystical before (such as here and here) and Wino played a key role in shaping said style. He would make ample use of mythological, occult and conspiratorial imagery and lyrical content from an early date, which helped give the broader stoner rock community a distinct identity from the generically Satanic forms of extreme metal.

Wino has played with a host of bands during his thirty-plus years playing out and has been recording for nearly as long. As such, I've confined my examination to bands in which Wino was the chief songwriter and visionary behind the group. Such outfits I've deemed to meet these qualifications include: The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, the Hidden Hand, Premonition 13, and Wino's solo work.

Wino (center) in an early 1990s version of The Obsessed

When last I left off I had just finished up considering The Obsessed, Wino's first band and the group he would reform in Los Angeles in the early 1990s after leaving the legendary Saint Vitus. After gaining some momentum with 1991's Lunar Womb (the debut of the reformed lineup), The Obsessed's big label debut, The Church Within (1994), was a commercial flop and the band was dropped from Columbia Records. The group fell apart not long afterwards and Wino spiraled into a vicious cycle of alcohol and methamphetamine abuse that left him homeless and destitute. It was only several years later that he was able to turn his life around. The singer/guitarist claims that this transformation was due to an entheogenic experience in our nation's capital. In 2004 during an interview with Arthur, Wino stated:

"So, yeah, I had decided to give up a lot of the things that had been bringing me down. It was a cleansing operation. My lifestyle in California had peaked: My use of methamphetamine and alcohol had led me to death’s door. I felt that some last vestige of survival somewhere inside me was telling me to get out. So I got the fuck out of California, and went back to my hometown. I was still drinking real hard, but I went home, beat on my parents’ door, and stayed with them until they were miserable. I finally reached the point where I knew that the next stop for me was to end up in jail. I was still a loose cannon.

"I decided that I had to do something. I had this big handful of mushrooms and I fuckin’ ate ’em. There I was, walking around D.C., around the Mall there. Historically, that entire area was laid out by the Freemasons. Before, that place was swamp-land. There’s something special about that area, and that’s why it was picked for our capital. There’s ley lines there, energy lines that cross in certain ways, and the Masons had the knowledge from the Egyptians from where they used the Earth’s energy to be harnessed for different purposes. They knew the importance of that sacred geometry. So, I just kind of wandered around until I felt 'lined up' with everything in one spot. I laid down in that spot and stared into the sky, and the sun became 'father' to me … I was experiencing a lot of dark and light thoughts, experiencing a kind of serpent-like energy, which in a way felt good, but also seemed to have nefarious feelings, too. And then on the other side, there were all these 'cat' feelings, where there was a jaguar spurring me on, which really felt very empowering. I was really feeling this incredible duality between the two, this position between light and darkness, which I took to mean the influence of the snake and the jaguar. I am so into the Mayan and Meso-American myths and stuff, and that was all having its effect on my psyche during this trip. That’s when I started to see these 'step' patterns all around me, and it felt to me as if the clouds and the heavens were putting on a show for me. My hands and my arms felt like they were being pulled into the right positions, as if I was walking in a trance. I really felt like I was aligned with everything: the Earth, the sky.

"Now, right in the middle of this fucking trip, I heard this big ol’ voice in my head say, 'You know what, buddy? You’d better stop fuckin’ drinkin’!' This certainly wasn’t something that I didn’t already know. I wasn’t in any kind of denial prior to this trip, because sure, I knew that I had a serious problem, I knew that from day one. But the bottom line is, the trip became a supreme motivator. The next day I was very burned-out and hung-over. I remembered that I was screaming the name 'Quetzalcoatl' and trying to climb up sunrays. Just lying there, crying and screaming, just another fucking wino on the street to anyone passing by."

The notion that the design of Washington D.C. was influenced by Freemasonry has of course long fascinated unconventional historians.

"... the assumption that the layout of Washington, D. C., is somehow an encoded form of Masonic symbolism. Perhaps the most eloquent defender of this idea is David Ovason, whose book on Washington contains a forward by the head of the Scottish Rite in America, C. Fred Kleinknecht. This theory is denied by many Masons were quick to point out that Pierce L'Enfant – who designed the basic layout of the city – was not a Mason. Yet it could be argued that, by this time (1791), so much Masonic material had been published that to incorporate Masonic elements if one wished would not have been difficult. However, there is no documentation suggest that L'Enfant had any possible motivation for doing so unless, of course, it was at the suggestion of Masons themselves (such as George Washington or any of the other Freemasons active in government at the time). In addition, Ovason insists that the presence of so many zodiacs throughout the city and their suggested placement with respect to each other and to the heavens betrays another level of mystery.

"Ovason's erudition where hermeticism is concerned is impressive, and his argument for an encoded Masonic message and the arrangement of the city makes for compelling and fascinating reading. Of course, there statues to many important Masons in the capital, which is only reasonable once it is realized that many prominent Americans were, indeed, Masons. Do the statues represent their Masonic affiliation, or their contribution to American society as citizens? It depends, of course, on where you stand.

"Ovason does not seem to insist that Masons were directly involved in building the city or creating a Masonic code; but he does suggest that Masonic code is built into the city anyway. The only explanation for this seeming contradiction is that the encoding was somehow unconscious or that one layer of Masons did not know or understand what another layer of Masons was up to."

(The Secret Temple, Peter Levenda, pg. 71)

Whatever mojo the city has, it in conjunction with the magic mushrooms did the trick for Wino. He got his life back in order and bounced back with in new band in 1996: Spirit Caravan, originally called Shine.

Like the bulk of Wino-dominated projects, Spirit Caravan was a power trio filled out with bassist Dave Sherman (later of the great Earthride) and drummer Gary Isom. Spirit Caravan is easily the most mellow of Wino's projects, with the bulk of their compositions falling squarely in the mid-tempo range. Spirit Caravan took the deserty-vibe hinted at by The Obsessed (especially on the Lunar Womb album) and fleshed it out. Wino is still cranking out headbanging riffs soaked in a thick, Black Sabbath-y tone, but here he puts the desert rock and psychedelic flourishes only hinted at with The Obsessed on full display. The album cover of The Last Embrace, a career retrospective released after the group's demise, with its image of a setting sun and red sky over a forest perfectly captures the prevailing vibe of Spirit Caravan.

As the band name suggests, Spirit Caravan is deeply concerned with metaphysical topics lyrically. The title track from the 2000 E.P. Dreamwheel, for instance, reflects on the transient nature of life on Earth ("Perchance does anyone really live on Earth?") and ponders what lies beyond the "fleshless abide". Wino's life-changing magic mushroom trip clearly weighed heavy on the songwriter as well, as entheogens are celebrated throughout the group's discography. "Cosmic Artifact" off the group's 1999 debut, Jug Fulla Sun, is a call to open up the Third Eye while "Black Flower" from the 2001 followup The Eternal Truth seems to celebrate a Mesoamerican entheogen ritual. Meanwhile tracks such as "Fear's Machine" from Sun and "Futility's Reasons" from Truth began to to display more conspiracy theory-centric lyrics that Wino would later employ extensively with The Hidden Hand.

There are far to many esoterica-laden tracks in Spirit Caravan's discography to consider at length, so I shall try to restrict myself to two: "Sea Legs" from Sun and "The Departure (Of Quetzalcoatl)" from Truth. The former is practically a theme song for Wino in which he depicts himself as an initiate of the Mysteries wandering the Earth on a motorcycle in a bid to spread his wisdom. As far as heavy metal biker anthems go, its on par with anything ever done by Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, or Motorhead and even more far out.

From the warm unknown 

Into the cold beyond 

Message of spirit 

Is what's drivin' me on 

Climbing through the sea 

On a magic craft from a sacred tree 

Sea legs, Earthfin 

Bolt and hammer gonna do them in 

I've got a two wheeled sled of molten chrome 

A well done iguana and a real heavy gnome 

Gliding over fear 

The opposite of beyond is here 

From the paradise driven 

To escape the deluge 

Revealed the Mysteries given 

In exchange for refuge 

Climbing through the sea 

In my side car rides my Atlantean queen 

Trick it out!!

"Sea Legs" can almost be read as a strange cousin of Donovan's "Atlantis". Both songs seem to concern themselves with the destruction of the mythological content and the refuge sought by its former inhabitants. In some highly, highly speculative traditions, the priesthood of Atlantis was said to have been the inspiration for the ancient Mystery religions of the Mediterranean that appeared at a very early time in recorded history.

"From the Atlanteans the world received not only the heritage of arts and crafts, philosophies, and sciences, ethics and religions, but also the heritage of hate, strife, and perversion. The Atlanteans instigated the first war; and it has been said that all subsequent wars were fought in a fruitless effort to justify the first one and right the wrong which it caused. Before Atlantis sank, its spiritually illuminated Initiates, who realized that their land was doomed because it had departed from the Path of Light, withdrew from the ill-fated continent. Carrying with them the sacred and secret doctrine, these Atlanteans established themselves in Egypt, where they became its first 'divine' rulers. Nearly all the great cosmologic myths forming the foundation of the various sacred books of the world are based upon the Atlantean Mystery ritual."

(The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall, pg. 85)

"Sea Legs", as the title implies, seems to hint at the Atlanteans as being some type of nonhuman creatures. In the ancient astronaut hypothesis of Robert K.G. Temple, fish-like mythological creatures such as the Nommo of the Dogon tribe are suspected of being aquatic extraterrestrial beings whom guided the development of humanity. I suspect this allusion is intentional on Wino's part as the man is a big ancient astronaut buff. He would delve into this topic in much greater depth with his next group, The Hidden Hand.

The line "bolt and hammer gonna do them in" could be a reference to some Nazi occult traditions concerning the Norse god Thor, who was commonly depicted with lightening bolts and a hammer. Nazi and fascist occult traditions of course have their own curious interpretation of the Atlantean myth, but such a topic is far beyond the scope of this article.

Elsewhere, the references to "a well done iguana and a real heavy gnome" seems to be an allusion to mythological traditions of elemental beings. In such traditions there are allegedly four types of elementals: those of the earth, the water, the sky, and fire. The mythological beings commonly known as gnomes were associated with the Earth while salamanders were typically linked with the element of fire. In this case an iguana seems to be used in place of a salamander. In the context of "Sea Legs", these beings are possibly being depicted as spirit guides.

a well done salamander in the alchemical tradition

"The Departure...", by contrast, is a celebration of the Mesoamerican myths surrounding the god commonly known as Quetzalcoatl. Riding the back of a sinister riff, Wino proclaims:

His departure on a raft of snakes  

Embodiment of earthly mistakes  

Visitors, they cannot feel  

Inquisitors must know that they're real  

From the lake a stranger rose  

Bearded, fair with priestly robes   

He taught about living  

To trust and be kind  

Life blood not given  

Just flowers and wine   

Iridescent plumes of light  

All behold the seed of life   

Still his wisdom they did spurn  

Hail Morning star his light returns   

May your gaze be filled with beauty  

May your words be strong and true  

May you understand your duty  

For living is a gift of love for you   

All extol the priest of light  

All extol the feast of life

The myths surrounding Quetzalcoatl would fascinate the metaphysically inclined by the early twentieth century. The legendary (or notorious, depending upon one's point of view) thirty-third degree Freemason Manly P. Hall notes:

"According to their own legends the Mayas owe their cultural superiority to a mysterious old man who came out of the sea riding on a raft of serpents. Among various tribes this man has different names, but he is best known by the title conferred upon him in the Mexican area. Here he was called Quetzalcoatl. He is said to have come from the east from the land of the many-colored rocks. Quetzalcoatl carried with him the symbol of the cross. His name means the 'feathered snake,' or the 'serpent covered with the plumes of the Quetzal bird.'

"The Feathered Snake taught the people of Central America all of the useful arts and raised them from a primitive state to one of an excellent civilization. He instructed them in agriculture, architecture, medicine, science, language, religion, and statesmanship. Having accomplished the civilization of the Indian tribes, he ruled over them for a time as a benevolent priest-king. Then he returned to the shore of the sea, called to his raft of serpents, and then floated away to the east, with the promise to return at a distant day to rule over his nation."

(The Secret Destiny of America, Manly P. Hall, pg. 86)

Quetzalcoatl

Hall also states that Quetzalcoatl was associated with the planet Venus, some times known as the Morning Star.  As noted above, Wino seems to have associated Quetzalcoatl with his life-changing magic mushroom trip, likely lending a bit of personal significance to this track as well.

After Spirit Caravan dissolved in early 2002 Wino briefly joined Victor Griffin's Place of Skulls before forming a new power trio towards the end of that year. This group became known as The Hidden Hand and featured Bruce Falkinburg on bass and a fair amount of the lead vocals. Dave Hennessy was the group's original drummer and appeared on their first two albums. Shortly after the release of 2004's Mother Teacher Destroyer (the group's second album) Hennessy left and was replaced Evan Tanner. Tanner sat in on 2006's The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote and departed shortly thereafter. Matt Moulis briefly joined the group behind the skins before it broke up in 2007.

the Hidden Hand, though I'm not sure which drummer this is

While many of Wino's bandmates in his prior groups contributed to the songwriting The Hidden Hand seems to have been the most democratic. Both Falkinburg and Hennessy contributed heavily to the writing of the first two albums and ... Whiskey Foote seems to have been as much Falkinburg's vision as Wino's. As a result, The Hidden Hand was easily the most psychedelic project Wino had been involved in up to this point in his career. That being said, it was also much heavier than Spirit Caravan, rivaling Wino's early work with The Obsessed in this department. The Hidden Hand was also more progressive than anything Wino had done up to this point, featuring some of his most complex arrangements (though the bulk of The Hidden Hand's work rarely went over five minutes, displaying the same efficiency Wino has possessed throughout his career).

As the group's name indicates, The Hidden Hand was also the most conspiracy-obsessed and politically expletive of Wino's career. It was formed toward the tail end of 2002 and was already rallying against the Iraq War and neo-conservatism in general even before the 2003 invasion. Indeed, much of the group's 2003 debut Divine Propaganda denounces the war and the Bush regime.

the group's debut, Divine Propaganda

Metaphysical concerns were not totally absent, however. The album's second track, "Damyata", is a Sanskrit word used at the end of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. It appears as part of trinity that at length reads : "Datta Dayadhvan Damyata." This triplet also appears at the end of the Hidden Hand song and means "give sympathize control." Meanwhile the album's closer, the drugged out "Prayer For the Night", was inspired by a Mayan prayer known as "Prayer to Hunab K'u for Nighttime." The group found this chant in Hunbatz Men's Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion.

Divine Propaganda even went so far as to include a reading list on the inside CD jewel case that put Wino's eccentric philosophy on full display. Its partly compelling, partly cringe inducing:

In Wino's defense, Jim Marrs was not as thoroughly discredited in 2003 that he is now and the Icke book apparently came out prior to the reptilians stage. Regardless, Wino's fusion of occult and Mesoamerican trappings with conspiracy theories and political rants would make for a potent combination that would really come into its own with the 2004 follow up album, Mother Teacher Destroyer. In the next installment I shall pick up with that work. Stay tuned.