Cremation of Care
Encyclopedia
The Cremation of Care is an annual theatrical production written, produced and performed by and for members of the Bohemian Club
, and staged at the Bohemian Grove
near Monte Rio, California
at a small artificial lake amid a private old-growth grove of Redwood trees.
The dramatic performance is presented on the first night of the annual encampment as an allegorical banishing of worldly cares for the club members, and "to present symbolically the salvation of the trees by the club", but the secretive nature of the Bohemians, and the political power of some of its members, has attracted notice from conspiracy theorists
such as Alex Jones
, who has identified the Cremation of Care as a focus of an 'abuse of power'.
of San Francisco first took to the woods in Taylorville, California
(present-day Samuel P. Taylor State Park
) for a summer celebration that they called Midsummer High Jinks. Poems were recited, songs were sung, and dramatic readings were given; the practice was repeated each summer other areas, primarily near the Russian River
in Sonoma County
. In 1881, the ceremony of the Cremation of Care was first conducted after the various individual performances, with James F. Bowman as Sire. The ceremony was further expanded in 1893 by a member named Joseph D. Redding, with a Midsummer High Jinks entitled The Sacrifice in the Forest, or simply "Druid Jinks", in which brotherly love and Christianity
battled and won against paganism
, converting the druid
s away from bloody sacrifice. Redding formed the framework of the ceremony but the main actors, including George Tisdale Bromley as High Priest, were asked to supply their own major speeches.
In 1904, the prologue to William Henry Irwin
's Grove Play The Hamadryads included text such as "Touch their world-blind eyes with fairy unguents." The play depicted the intrusion, the battles, and the symbolic death of the maleficent Spirit of Care.
In the earliest productions of the Grove Play, several restrictions were imposed upon the Sire (the master of ceremonies) including that the stage setting be the natural forest backdrop and that the "malign character Care" be introduced in the plot, to wreak havoc with the characters and then be faced down and vanquished by the hero. In these early productions, the Cremation of Care immediately followed, and lasted until midnight. The end of the ceremony was signaled by a lively Jinks Band rendition of There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
, and the club members sat down to a late dinner and revelry.
From 1913, the Cremation of Care was disengaged from the Grove Play, and rescheduled for the first night of the summer encampment. The Grove Play was set for the final weekend. A different Sire was appointed for the Cremation, and some concerns were raised in subsequent years that the Cremation of Care was growing into its own secondary Grove Play. Some Sires experimented with a satirical treatment, or topical themes such as a patriotic World War I
treatment in 1918 and an unpopular Prohibition
script in 1919. "Care" was not killed, let alone cremated, in the 1922 version. In response to member complaints about the unpredictable quality of the opening night fare, Charles K. Field was asked in 1923 to standardize the script for what became the basis for every subsequent Cremation of Care ceremony.
of Care (called "Dull Care"). Dark, hooded figures receive from the ferryman the effigy which is placed on an altar, and, at the end of the ceremony, set on fire. This "cremation" symbolizes that members are banishing the "dull cares" of conscience.
The ceremony takes place in front of the Owl Shrine, a 40 feet (12 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports. The moss- and lichen-covered statue simulates a natural rock formation, yet holds electrical and audio equipment within it. During the ceremony, a recording is used as the voice of The Owl. For many years the recorded voice was club guest Walter Cronkite
. Music and pyrotechnics
accompany the ritual for dramatic effect.
-based filmmaker Alex Jones
and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, infiltrated the Bohemian Grove expecting to uncover the owl statue being worshiped as Moloch
, with human sacrifices thrown into its fiery interior. With a hidden camera, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ceremony. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones' documentary Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones claimed that the Cremation of Care was an "ancient Canaan
ite, Lucifer
ian, Babylon
mystery religion ceremony." The Grove and Jones' investigation were covered by Jon Ronson
in Channel 4
's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World
. Ronson documented his view of the ritual in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists
, writing "My lasting impression was of an all-pervading sense of immaturity: the Elvis impersonators, the pseudo-pagan spooky rituals, the heavy drinking. These people might have reached the apex of their professions but emotionally they seemed trapped in their college years."
Bohemian Club
The Bohemian Club is a private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco...
, and staged at the Bohemian Grove
Bohemian Grove
Bohemian Grove is a campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club...
near Monte Rio, California
Monte Rio, California
Monte Rio is a census-designated place in Sonoma County, California along the Russian River near the Pacific Ocean. The town of Guerneville lies east of Monte Rio, and Jenner is slightly north-west. The population was 1,152 at the 2010 census, up from 1,104 at the 2000 census...
at a small artificial lake amid a private old-growth grove of Redwood trees.
The dramatic performance is presented on the first night of the annual encampment as an allegorical banishing of worldly cares for the club members, and "to present symbolically the salvation of the trees by the club", but the secretive nature of the Bohemians, and the political power of some of its members, has attracted notice from conspiracy theorists
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
such as Alex Jones
Alex Jones (radio)
Alexander Emerick "Alex" Jones is an American talk radio host, actor and filmmaker. His syndicated news/talk show The Alex Jones Show, based in Austin, Texas, airs via the Genesis Communication Network over 60 AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations across the United States and on the Internet...
, who has identified the Cremation of Care as a focus of an 'abuse of power'.
History
In 1878, the Bohemian ClubBohemian Club
The Bohemian Club is a private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco...
of San Francisco first took to the woods in Taylorville, California
Taylorville, California
Taylorville is a former settlement in Marin County, California. It was located on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad west-southwest of downtown Novato, at an elevation of 141 feet . Taylorville still appeared on maps as of 1914....
(present-day Samuel P. Taylor State Park
Samuel P. Taylor State Park
Samuel P. Taylor State Park is a state park located in Marin County, California. It contains approximately of redwood and grassland. The park contains about of old-growth forest, some of which can be seen along the Pioneer Tree Trail.-History:...
) for a summer celebration that they called Midsummer High Jinks. Poems were recited, songs were sung, and dramatic readings were given; the practice was repeated each summer other areas, primarily near the Russian River
Russian River (California)
The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...
in Sonoma County
Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
. In 1881, the ceremony of the Cremation of Care was first conducted after the various individual performances, with James F. Bowman as Sire. The ceremony was further expanded in 1893 by a member named Joseph D. Redding, with a Midsummer High Jinks entitled The Sacrifice in the Forest, or simply "Druid Jinks", in which brotherly love and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
battled and won against paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
, converting the druid
Druid
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
s away from bloody sacrifice. Redding formed the framework of the ceremony but the main actors, including George Tisdale Bromley as High Priest, were asked to supply their own major speeches.
In 1904, the prologue to William Henry Irwin
William Henry Irwin
William Henry Irwin was a U.S. author, writer and journalist. He is associated with the muckrakers.-Early life:...
's Grove Play The Hamadryads included text such as "Touch their world-blind eyes with fairy unguents." The play depicted the intrusion, the battles, and the symbolic death of the maleficent Spirit of Care.
In the earliest productions of the Grove Play, several restrictions were imposed upon the Sire (the master of ceremonies) including that the stage setting be the natural forest backdrop and that the "malign character Care" be introduced in the plot, to wreak havoc with the characters and then be faced down and vanquished by the hero. In these early productions, the Cremation of Care immediately followed, and lasted until midnight. The end of the ceremony was signaled by a lively Jinks Band rendition of There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
"A Hot Time in the Old Town" is an American ragtime song, composed in 1896 by Theodore August Metz with lyrics by Joe Hayden. Metz was the band leader of the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels....
, and the club members sat down to a late dinner and revelry.
From 1913, the Cremation of Care was disengaged from the Grove Play, and rescheduled for the first night of the summer encampment. The Grove Play was set for the final weekend. A different Sire was appointed for the Cremation, and some concerns were raised in subsequent years that the Cremation of Care was growing into its own secondary Grove Play. Some Sires experimented with a satirical treatment, or topical themes such as a patriotic World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
treatment in 1918 and an unpopular Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
script in 1919. "Care" was not killed, let alone cremated, in the 1922 version. In response to member complaints about the unpredictable quality of the opening night fare, Charles K. Field was asked in 1923 to standardize the script for what became the basis for every subsequent Cremation of Care ceremony.
Staging
The ceremony involves the poling across a lake of a small boat containing an effigyEffigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
of Care (called "Dull Care"). Dark, hooded figures receive from the ferryman the effigy which is placed on an altar, and, at the end of the ceremony, set on fire. This "cremation" symbolizes that members are banishing the "dull cares" of conscience.
The ceremony takes place in front of the Owl Shrine, a 40 feet (12 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports. The moss- and lichen-covered statue simulates a natural rock formation, yet holds electrical and audio equipment within it. During the ceremony, a recording is used as the voice of The Owl. For many years the recorded voice was club guest Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
. Music and pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science of using materials capable of undergoing self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions for the production of heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound...
accompany the ritual for dramatic effect.
Controversy
On July 15, 2000, Austin, TexasAustin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
-based filmmaker Alex Jones
Alex Jones (radio)
Alexander Emerick "Alex" Jones is an American talk radio host, actor and filmmaker. His syndicated news/talk show The Alex Jones Show, based in Austin, Texas, airs via the Genesis Communication Network over 60 AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations across the United States and on the Internet...
and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, infiltrated the Bohemian Grove expecting to uncover the owl statue being worshiped as Moloch
Moloch
Moloch — also rendered as Molech, Molekh, Molok, Molek, Molock, or Moloc — is the name of an ancient Semitic god...
, with human sacrifices thrown into its fiery interior. With a hidden camera, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ceremony. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones' documentary Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones claimed that the Cremation of Care was an "ancient Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite, Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
ian, Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
mystery religion ceremony." The Grove and Jones' investigation were covered by Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson is a Welsh journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author, whose works include The Men Who Stare At Goats. His journalism and columns have appeared in British publications including The Guardian newspaper, City Life and Time Out magazine...
in Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World
Secret Rulers of the World
The Secret Rulers of the World is a five-part documentary film, produced by World of Wonder Productions and written, directed by and featuring British journalist Jon Ronson. The series of parts was first shown on the British television network Channel 4 on April 2001...
. Ronson documented his view of the ritual in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists
Them: Adventures With Extremists
Them: Adventures with Extremists is a book by British journalist Jon Ronson published in 2001. The book accompanied Ronson's documentary series The Secret Rulers of the World, which covered similar topics and depicted many of the same episodes...
, writing "My lasting impression was of an all-pervading sense of immaturity: the Elvis impersonators, the pseudo-pagan spooky rituals, the heavy drinking. These people might have reached the apex of their professions but emotionally they seemed trapped in their college years."