Freemasonries: David Henry X°, Clandestinity and Recognition

I began this post months ago -- when it was more relevant -- and have only just tidied it up and readied it for posting.  I'd like to thank Fred Milliken, who read an earlier draft and corrected some of my errors regarding recognition issues and my misuse of the words "irregular" and "clandestine".  Any mistakes that have persisted in this post are entirely my fault and should not reflect adversely on Bro. Milliken.  I'd like to thank him for his time and consideration for helping me out.  My appreciation and respect, always.

Update 11 Aug.:  My site stats show significant traffic from a reddit discussion about this post in which a couple of participants criticize what they see as its lack of clarity vis-a-vis Prince Hall Masonry.  I think understanding these "Masonic Police" requires providing as much context as possible, which to my mind means that an explanation of Prince Hall and it's relationship to other duly-chartered Grand Lodges is necessary.  That said, I'd like to point out that while David Henry, his cohorts, and his "Masonic" associates identify themselves as Prince Hall Masons, they are considered to be clandestine, or Masonically "illegal" (and thus not recognized) by the legitimate Grand Lodges of California and the United Grand Lodge of England.  Although I think a modicum of attention while reading this post makes that clear, I add this preface so that if you're skimming (as I often do) you won't think I'm identifying this "Police Dept." -- or the Lodges associated with it -- as legitimate Prince Hall Lodges.  Though costumed as Cops and Freemasons, they are, in the words of The Phylaxis Society, bogus.  But please, read on and judge for yourself.  I know it's a long post, but knowledge is bought with time.  Fair enough?

When news of the Masonic Fraternal Police Department broke a few months ago (see Grandmaster Flashy), Freemasons everywhere rolled their eyes and sighed "here we go again."

David Henry X°

Many people hear the word "Freemasonry" and think that one Lodge is the same as any other.  For the general public, Masonry is a monolithic structure, controlled from on-high by a single, secretive cabal of old dudes in top hats.  

But any Mason will tell you that this is simply not the case.  Freemasonry has its rivalries, factions, competing Grand Lodges and Orients, with disputes as noisy and fractious as any number of national parliaments one can witness jeering and hissing on C-SPAN.  The difference is that these disputes usually aren't carried out in public.

There are several different traditions within Masonry.  Christianity has its Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox adherents.  Islam, its Sunni, Shiite and Sufi varieties.  Buddhism is divided into Theravada, Mahayana, Zen....etc.  In Masonry we can speak of both "Anglo-Saxon" and "Continental" Masonry, as well as Lodges who are neither one nor the other (such as the Scandinavian Rites).  Very (very) simply put, Continental (aka Liberal, Dogmatic or "Red") Masonry is organized into Grand Orients and derives from a French model.  Anglo-Saxon, ("Blue") Masonry is organized into Grand Lodges and based on the English model.

There are significant ritual differences between the two traditions, and even many Masons may not be aware that relations between "Red" and "Blue" Masonry are sometimes strained; while they might recognize each other as legitimate forms of Masonry -- and even this is not always the case -- diplomatic relations are sporadic.  Their differences are also related to politics, but for the purposes of this article let it suffice to say that Lodges are not directed from on high by a single Masonic authority.

In Anglo-Saxon Masonry, each country is governed by an independent Grand Lodge with its own officers, rules, ritual particularities and diplomatic protocols.  In the U.S., each state has its own Grand Lodge and accordingly, there are variations within their practices.  More importantly, they are all independent, none of them beholden to or under the authority of another.  What holds all these Lodges together is that they are recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England.  If a Mason visits any (U.G.L.E.-recognized) Lodge and presents a dues card issued by a Lodge recognized by the U.G.L.E., he is considered a "non-clandestine" Mason and welcome to participate in the Lodge.

This patchwork of authorities is not without its problems.  Recognizing the "legitimacy" of  a Lodge is considered to be of critical importance.  If I cross state lines and want to attend a Lodge meeting, the host Lodge must be certain that my "Mother" Lodge is not clandestine.  This is quite easy, because there is a directory of recognized Grand Lodges and Lodges to which the Worshipful Master can refer.  For the public however, it's not so simple; anybody can buy Masonic regalia, find the rituals and present themselves as a duly recognized Mason.  As far as practice and ritual goes, they may in fact be genuine; given the sorry state of ritual I've witnessed in some mainstream Lodges, some of the "clandestine" Lodges may even be superior in the quality of their practice. 

For many years, a controversy has existed within Freemasonry -- tied up with the issues of regularity and recognition -- and it's still being worked out today.  I'm speaking about Prince Hall Masonry.

I'm no expert in Masonic jurisprudence and there are people far more informed about this topic than I, but indulge me for a few moments while I try to sum up the history and problems involved.

At some point prior to the onset of American War of Independence, an African-American educator and intellectual named Prince Hall led a group of African-American petitioners to Boston's St. John's Lodge, with the ultimate goal of creating a charter and forming their own Lodge.  St. John's refused their petition.

In 1775, the group tried again with a military Lodge under the aegis of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. This time they were successful; Hall and his fellows were initiated and went on to found African Lodge No. 1.  Unable to create a charter without the assent of a Grand Lodge, African Lodge No. 1 applied to the Mother Grand Lodge of England, who issued a charter as African Lodge no. 459 in 1784.  Prince Hall then helped to establish Lodges in Philadelphia and Rhode Island.  These Lodges were generally excluded from the (white) mainstream.  The Prince Hall Masons understood that integration with the mostly-white was unlikely so they focused instead on being recognized.  In 1808, still excluded from mainstream Masonic society, they formed African Grand Lodge to oversee the Lodges they had created. 

In 1813, the Mother Grand Lodge merged with another Grand Lodge to form the U.G.L.E., thus ending a schism in England that had arisen from ritual differences and that had led to the existence of what was called "Antient" and "Modern" Freemasonry.  As a result of the merger, the African Grand Lodge was stricken from the U.G.L.E.'s rolls due to a lack of contact between the African Grand Lodge and the Mother Grand Lodge for many years.  Newly independent, they petitioned for recognition from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts but were refused.  So in 1827 they formally declared independence from the U.G.L.E. and all other American Grand Lodges, who had themselves already declared independence from the English Grand Lodges after the Revolution.  This formal separation led to a separate and independent tradition of African-American Masonry, which today we call Prince Hall Masonry.  Freemasonry, like the rest of American society, was segregated, and most Grand Lodges viewed the African Lodges as irregular and clandestine. 

In 1994 the U.G.L.E., recognizing that racism had in effect forced the African Grand Lodge into a separate tradition, ruled that the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts "should now be accepted as regular, and be recognised."

While many Masons in both mainstream and Prince Hall Lodges had been pushing for some sort of reconciliation for decades, the U.G.L.E.'s decision set the gears in motion for concrete action.  For if the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was recognized, then the Lodges it chartered could also be considered as recognized; and if they were recognized by the U.G.L.E., one could no longer use the issue of clandestinity as a justification for not recognizing them.

Merging

At this point, one might ask why the Prince Hall Lodges and mainstream Grand Lodges didn't consider merging, thus eliminating the grotesque spectacle of a racially-segregated brotherhood.  This was indeed considered, but it quickly became apparent that this "solution" was anything but.

First of all, what would happen to the leadership of each Grand Lodge?  Each Lodge had its own officers and those administrations would either have to be dissolved and new elections held, or one administration would have to give up their offices and defer to the other.  Obviously, given human nature, this would be a thorny issue.  Not to mention succession.  What would happen to the Masonic veteran who'd worked his way through the Grand Line with the hopes of becoming Grand Master?  Both Grand Lodges would have Brothers who risked having the carpet yanked from under their feet.

There's also the question of identity and ritual differences  Prince Hall had a 250+ year history and over time has developed its own identity, customs and traditions.  Why risk losing all that in a merger?

Then there's the issue of property.  The Masons own buildings, sponsor charities, own retirement homes, hospitals etc.  How would this be handled?  Not impossible, companies merge all the time, but it's still a complex and expensive process.  Contrary to popular belief, most Grand Lodges are not rolling in piles of cash.  Would the Grand Lodges have the money to effectuate a merger?

Needless to say, no Grand Lodges and Prince Hall Grand Lodges have merged.

Mutual Recognition

For practical reasons, the best solution has been mutual recognition.  Each group maintains its leadership structure and preserves its individual identity, its ritual differences and traditions.

In some  ways, this has been easier for Prince Hall Lodges.  There is in each state a Grand Lodge that all Lodges in that State report to.  They are chartered by that Grand Lodge and must respect its decisions in matters of jurisprudence and ritual, suspensions, visiting rights, etc.  The criteria for determining the legitimate Grand Lodge is clear; one need only look to see which one is recognized by the U.G.L.E.  But on the Prince Hall side things are a bit less clear.  Prince Hall Masonry has historically seen more schisms and the creation of clandestine Lodges than non-Prince Hall Masonry.  In some jurisdictions, there is more than one Prince Hall Grand Lodge; some of these have equally large numbers of Brothers and can trace their origins back to the original African Grand Lodge.  So the issue facing the non-Prince Hall Grand Lodges is that it isn't always clear which one to recognize.

There is also a supposed legal question.  Some Masons in America have interpreted Masonic jurisprudence to mean that there can only be one Grand Lodge per jurisdiction (The Right of Exclusive Territorial Jurisdiction, a.k.a. the American Doctrine).  They would argue that recognizing another Grand Lodge is Masonically "illegal".  But clearly the U.G.L.E. disagrees, or they would not have recognized the Prince Hall Lodges.  In fact, without going into the technical details, the U.G.L.E. has stated that two Grand Lodges can in fact operate in the same jurisdiction.  The principal caveat being that a Lodge can only declare loyalty to one Grand Lodge and that a Grand Lodge has no authority over a Lodge that has declared loyalty to another.  It also is clear that raiding -- where one Grand Lodge sets itself up and tries to poach member-Lodges from another -- is strictly forbidden.

Personally, I'm one of those people who think mutual recognition with full visiting rights was something that needed to be done years ago and Lodges which haven't done it yet should make this their number one priority.  Lodges have long accepted black members and Prince Hall has long accepted white members.  The groups are not officially racially segregated.  The reality may have lagged behind due to racist attitudes, but these attitudes have changed and you'll find fewer and fewer Lodges that would refuse to admit a black man.  Thing is, a lot of black men prefer to join Prince Hall Lodges.  After all, the Prince Hall Lodges have a long history and are held in high regard in many black communities.  Black men are often simply more comfortable in a Prince Hall Lodge.  Still, when you look at this map from Paul Bessel's website about recognition issues, it's clear that all of the Grand Lodges which have not recognized their Prince Hall counterparts, except for West Virginia, are states which belonged to the Confederacy.

A cautionary tale

Let's get back to the Masonic Fraternal Police Force.  In addition to saying something to the general public about not looking at Masonry as one monolithic entity, it can also be instructive to Masons about the pitfalls of non-recognition.

The ringleader of the M.F.P.F. is a guy who goes by the name of Grandmaster David Henry X°.

A quick look at Henry's Google + profile immediately raises red flags.  Henry claims degrees and titles that don't even exist in Freemasonry or are presented in a very odd manner.  He calls himself a Illuminati Grandmaster and Absolute Most Illuminated Sovereign Grand Baphomet.  (He forgot "Grand Wazoo", but that's another story.)  Then there are his degrees: 32°, 33°, 90°, 96°, 98°, X°, 360°.

For the edification of the non-Mason out there, this is pure nonsense.  In the Scottish Rite a man can earn the 32°, and the 33° is awarded for outstanding contributions to the Craft.  But a 33° Mason will only identify himself as 33°, not 32° as well.  The Rite of Misraïm did have 90 degrees but this Rite no longer exists independently.  It merged with the Rite of Memphis, and as of 1980 the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm did indeed have 99 degrees.  So, it's possible Henry did the 98 degrees, but the same question remains, why list 90° and 96° as well?  As for 360°, the only place I've heard tell of something similar is among the 5 Percent Nation.  He may have been a 5 Percenter, I can't say otherwise, which is fine by me.  But it's not exactly Masonry.  As for an X degree, I suppose he's referring to the O.T.O., whose X° (tenth) degree is called Rex Summus Sanctissimus (Supreme and Most Holy King!)  Llewellyn states "It is the title held by the National Master General of the O.T.O. in a particular country."  I'm sure the O.T.O. would beg to differ.

Thing is, researching this guy I came across the following video:

In this video, made in the wake of the demonstrations following the Zimmerman verdict, a group of Masons stands with an L.A.P.D. spokesman to call for peace and calm.  Are all these Masons members of Henry's group?  In the preview image you see here (click to see video), Henry is the guy on the far left with the killer beard and the shades.  By what authority is Henry there?

On 19 June 2014 the L.A. Watts Times reports on the 10th annual St. John's Day ceremony in L.A.  In attendance were several Masonic leaders, including Brandon Kiel, the Justice Department staffer arrested along with Henry in connection with the the Police Department imbroglio.  Surprisingly, also present was one Van A. Hibbler (sic), who Henry thanks for "making [me?] a Grand Master years ago." 

Interesting.  While researching my first post on this subject, I came across an article in the L.A. Weekly written after Henry and Kiel were arrested, in which Hibler distanced himself from Henry.  He says "a while ago" Henry approached him about forming a new Lodge, and he'd insisted that he go through proper channels.  After the new Lodge didn't pan out, he came back and talked about his police department scheme.  Hibler said he wasn't interested.

I wonder if these meetings occurred before or after the St. John's Day ceremony in 2014, where Hibler was in attendance as Henry thanked him for making him a Grand Master....

Henry is on the far left, Hibler is second from right.  June 3, 2014

The LA Sentinel also ran an article on this event, mentioning that it was organized by the

The Southern California Conference, founded by Honorable Grand Master Willie G. Gauff, Sr., 33°; was designed to create unity among the Grand Lodges in Southern California.

Are all of those who participated in this conference clandestine Masons?  Outside of this article, I can't find a single online reference to the conference and references to Hibler are likewise sparse.  Outside of the  interview in the L.A. Weekly and various reprints of the L.A. Watts Time article, I can only find one other reference to him as a Masonic leader, also in the LA Watts times from 7 February 2013

The M.W. Illustrious Scottish Knights Grand Supreme Council under the leadership of M.W. Grandmaster Hon. David Henry 33rd (giving honor to his M.W. Grand Master Hon. Van A. Hibler 33rd) presented the Della Smith Queen Sheba Legacy Award to Wilma Smith Kiel. Grand High Priest Brandon Kiel 33rd, Deputy Grandmaster Kevin Briley 33rd, and Illustrious Assemblyman Mike Davis (ret.) 33rd, were also in attendance to present this award.

There is also reference to the VH Hibler Youth and Outreach Corporation, a non-profit organization incorporated in 2005 which appears to have been suspended by the California Secretary of State.  This may have resulted from not filing a Statement of Information listing officers and directors.

According to the Phylaxis Society, a Prince hall research organization

There are more African American Bogus Grand Lodges in the United States than there are Legitimate Grand Lodges around the World.

Not surprisingly there are quite a few in  California.  The specific Lodges the three people arrested claimed to have belonged to -- the Knights of Luxor Knights Templars Grand Lodge AASR (Henry, Kiel) and Lady Jewel of the Nile Grand Chapter (Hayes) -- are not on the list, but spokesmen for various recognized Prince Hall Grand Lodges contacted by the Guardian stated that the groups the individuals in question were unaffiliated with them.  Hayes also claimed to be a minister at L.A.'s Israel Missionary Baptist Church, but yet again, staffers there denied this when contacted.  Hibler was associated with the Prince of Peace Grand Lodge (here), and this site mentions him as a key figure in the Lodge and the president of the Youth and Outreach Corp.  Phylaxis specifically lists the Prince of Peace Lodge as clandestine, i.e., bogus.

So Henry appears to be a self-aggrandizing "Grand Master" of a clandestine Lodge, having been made a Mason in yet another clandestine Lodge, mentored by a man who despite appearing together in photographs as recent as last year, both as "Grand Masters", claims to have discouraged Henry from pursuing the creation of a new Lodge and Police Department.  But there's a lot more to this guy, if any of his claims are to be believed.  Judging from the articles we've read, he's certainly regarded as a community leader, at least in some communities and, unless it's all lies, seems to run in pretty diverse circles....

Given our recent post about our intention to write a piece about Freemasonry and the Illuminati in Hip-Hop, one video on his YouTube channel entitled ILLUMINATI GRANDMASTER HENRY X°, ICE T & SYNDICATE caught our eye.  I didn't see Henry but in a comment on that video he writes (it's always caps lock with this guy)

....YES I WAS A ORIGINAL MEMBER OF ICE T AND THE RHYME SYNDICATE I WAS WITH ICE T FROM 1983 TO 1991 MY NAME WAS (INKK) I'M THE SAME PERSON ON THE POWER ALBUM HIGH ROLLERS I'M THE YOUNG GUY STANDING NEXT TO THE DJ EVIL E ON THIS VIDEO ALSO ON HIGH ROLLERS I'M THE GUY IN THE RED SHIRT THAT ASK ICE ABOUT PEOPLE GETTING SHOT UP ON CRENSHAW!!! WE WERE ON THR DOPE JAM TOUR , PUBLIC ENEMY, EPMD, BIG DADDY KANE, N.W.A. , THE LIST GOES ON!!!

The photos page on his Google + profile do show him with a host of industry-looking types, so he may well have been involved in the game at one point.  This would be an interesting avenue to explore in my eventual post about Freemasonry and Hip-Hop.  It's actually not that far out an idea.  Masonry has always been popular among the police and the military (Prince Hall's entree into Freemasonry was via a military Lodge comprised of soldiers stationed in Boston), but it has also counted a number of entertainers among its ranks.  A large number of big stars have been members of the Craft since before the age of cinema.  Maybe this has something to do with why Masons are called "traveling men", either in the role of chicken or egg.

Henry does have bona fide entertainment creds, I think.  In 2002 he won a local Emmy for a story he produced entitled Info Thieves.  He was nominated again in 2005 for a segment called School Violence.  At least, a David Henry from L.A. was nominated.  Ya see, Henry?  Start spreading outlandish tales about who you are and people will even begin to question the true stuff.  If what he says is to be believed, he also designs some pretty badass Masonic bling.

Other photos on his profile are more relevant to this post, and shed some troubling light on Henry's purpose behind his police force.  Some have written him off as a deluded man with good intentions who did something incredibly stupid and naive.  Maybe all that is true.  He's clearly also a man with a need for power, recognition and obedience.

Here he is as Grandmaster with the text:  "Seek and Destroy all who broke their oath."  Other photos indicate he thinks he was at war with the hacker collective Anonymous, touting freedom, equality and justice.  But for whom, really?  Not oath-breakers.  One pictures wolves and says (caps lock always): "For Masons who forgot their obligation the Grandmaster the wolves are watching".  He's also pictured with Maxine Waters, Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown.

So who the hell is this guy?  He's (possibly) consorting with rappers and high-ranking politicians, collecting an Emmy, threatening apostates, recruiting an aide from the Attorney General's office, appearing with the L.A.P.D., at the inauguration of a street named after a local civil rights activist.  Is it all the same guy?  And if it is, does that make his Police Department, more, or less sinister?  A lot of Masonic imposters have been more or less ingenious and accomplished people, so it's not like this type of character is totally foreign to Masonic history.

There are some lessons to be learned from all this by Mason and non-Mason alike.  All this took me was a couple of hours of poking through the Internet, but most people aren't going to do that.  They'll just read the headline and assume that THE Masons are pulling some shenanigans yet again.  It also puts into sharp relief the reason why the mainstream Lodges have been cautious about recognition.  Years ago this was a convenient excuse, but the will just simply wasn't there to push very hard.  Now the Craft is changing; a few years ago the average age was 71.  That has since dropped to 65, which is still old, but it's expected to drop.  This article in the L.A. Times speaks about the resurgence in interest among younger people; one man interviewed will be the first black Worshipful Master in his Lodge's history.  As the average age of members decreases I think we'll see a more diverse group of men.  Prince Hall will still continue to attract its traditional membership but I also think we'll see more and more African-Americans in non-Prince Hall Lodges.

"Mainstream" Grand Lodges have been ignoring Prince Hall for over two centuries but that hasn't stopped the latter from flowering, working with an enviable ritual quality and serving their communities to the point that Masonry is held in higher esteem among African-American communities than among whites, where it has become seen by many as something of an atavistic joke, full of racist, doddering old men in goofy hats and tiny cars.  Perhaps it isn't a coincidence that since recognition has had some years under its belt, the Craft is starting to attract younger men as described in the L.A. Times article.  This may also be part of the resurgence in so-called Traditional Observance Lodges, which aspire to return to the contemplative and esoteric aspects of the craft, rejecting the "instant Mason" formula of one-day classes in favor of taking one's time, not foregoing the memory work and even requiring candidates to research and present aspects of the Craft before going on to the next degree.  There is also an emphasis on perfecting ritual and often Lodge is held as a black-tie affair, as in times past.  I wouldn't be surprised to learn that these last two items, ritual excellence and more formal attire, might be a reaction to visits to Prince Hall Lodges, where Mainstream masons learned a thing or two about how ritual should be done.  For the most part, we can at least say that now we're doing it together.

Working together fosters openness, which in the future can only benefit the Craft.  Think of Henry David on the podium behind an L.A.P.D. officer, representing Freemasonry.  Recognition will help the public distinguish between the legitimate and the clandestine, hopefully with the result that they will reject the spurious and self-appointed Grandmasters that for the moment, it seems, can easily delude the public.  If Henry and his crew hadn't gone the extra step of playing police officer, they might still be up there among the "community leaders" in pursuit of whatever goals they were trying to obtain.

"Manifesto" of mass-shooter Elliott Rodger

For those who might be interested, this is the self-aggrandizing and self-pitying autobiography of the Santa Barbara mass-shooter.  Personally, I didn't get very far.  Dude loved his video games, that's for sure.  Given his father's Hollywood connections, you'll be hearing lots of Illuminati mind-control talk about this one, probably even Project Monarch.  I probably don't even have to say "probably" anymore....

My Twisted World: The Story of Elliott Rodger by Elliott Rodger

Son of Man Son

Mathew Roberts, lead singer of Rise of the Son, claims to be the son of Charles Manson, spawned during a LSD orgy in San Francisco. He was raised by adoptive parents in Rockford, IL, but when he grew up, he moved out west to CA, and his girlfriend convinced him to track down his birth parents.

He eventually got hold of his birth mother who said that she wasn’t sure who his dad was (remember the orgy)—until she took a look at him, and pegged Manson as papa. At some point, Roberts was suddenly hit by the realization that he was living quite close to Spahn Ranch[1] -- the Manson Family headquarters. “‘That blew my mind,’ Roberts says. ‘Here I am, right near where all that stuff took place. Here I am, playing in a band, dating strippers, conspiring to take over the world, and I’m like Oh, my God. Do I have any freewill at all? You know, I’m, like following in this guy’s footsteps completely! That really freaked me out. I was in a spot where you can’t really tell anyone because you’re gonna look like a crazy person.’” (Read the full interview here.)

It sounds like Roberts was especially freaked out by the realization that he had moved so close to the Mason family ranch. That was, after all, his first point of comparison (“Here I am, right near where all that stuff took place”)—but even beyond that, note all of his metaphorical comparisons to place: “here I am” in reference to current activities (playing in a band, etc.); “I’m … following in this guy’s footsteps” in reference to life’s pursuits; and “I was in a spot” in reference to a quandary.

This sense of geographically-induced epiphany really meshed with the LoS obsession with decoding "place"[2] -- so I’ve dwelt on this story a bit (so to speak). There are any number of ways to interpret this tale: perhaps Roberts is a lying publicity hound, or perhaps it's all true but there's a Manson-ic weirdness about it. Let's chase down a more interesting path: it's possible that Roberts is simply delusional -- and, well, as it turns out, there are handful of syndromes that are triggered by places. The French, for some reason, seem to have a better handle on describing this category of conditions (or at least it appears that way when I try to read about it on the internet); they call it syndrome du voyageur; specific syndromes include Jerusalem Syndrome, Florence Syndrome (more widely known as Stendhal Syndrome), Paris Syndrome, and Indian Syndrome.[3]

I’m going to focus here for a bit on Jerusalem Syndrome, because it feels to me like it is the most relevant to the son of Manson tale, as it is particularly wacky, particularly dangerous, and particularly malleable to my gross misinterpretation. This has been a bit of rabbit hole for me lately; jump on in and let me be your guide.

An article in the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJ of P) identifies three types of manifestations of the Jerusalem Syndrome. “Type III” Jerusalem syndrome is best suited for our purposes. It manifests itself among tourists who have no previous symptoms of psychopathology but apparently simply go crazy in Jerusalem. At first they feel anxious. Then they ask to leave their tour group, go back to their hotel room, excessively groom themselves (clipping nails, etc.), strip their clothes and don their bedsheets in the form of a robe, go outside shouting bible verses or singing hymns, and finally move on to preaching on a religiously significant site. At some point along this series of stages, they come to believe that they are a manifestation of some important religious character—perhaps John the Baptizer, or Jesus. The syndrome culminates in a psychotic rampage, as the would-be holy man injures and perhaps even kills people, sets buildings on fire, etc. Later, after a couple weeks away from walking about Jerusalem, they go back to normal and forget that the whole thing even happened.

In one notorious case in 1969, Denis Michael Rohan tried to set fire to al-Aqsa mosque and caused significant damage, leading to massive rioting and international political repercussions. The mosque is one of the holiest sites in Islam -- and it is also regarded by some to be in the way of the construction of the Third Temple, a key eschatological concern among some groups of fundamentalist Christians.

According to that BJ of P articled linked above, between 1980 and 1993, “1,200 tourists with severe, Jerusalem-themed mental problems were referred to” Kfar Shaul Mental Health Centre. And apparently this full series of steps (except, perhaps, for the last one) happened 42 times over a period of 13 years -- a figure that will cause the numerologically aware to sit up and listen (although I’m not going to tell you why, bwahh-ha, ha, ha!).

There are two widely accepted theories concerning the cause of Jerusalem Syndrome -- and a third theory that is less mainstream.

The first popular theory involves the idea that people are simply overwhelmed by being immersed in what they consider to be holy places -- compounded with the various stresses of travel like culture shock, lack of sleep etc. -- and they snap. This same basic interpretation is pretty much the same explanation given to the other syndromes du voyageur. You see, people go to Florence and are dumbstruck by the beauty. Or people (more specifically, Japanese women) go to France and are dumbstruck by the crassness and the lack of cobblestoned streets. Or people go to India and go nuts because it’s crowded.

The second theory is that it’s bullshit. There are two key arguments here. First, people go crazy everywhere, so do we really see a statistically significantly increase in tourists going batshit in Jerusalem? Second, nobody has fully documented the background of the “sufferers” of Jerusalem syndrome—so how can we be sure that all these people weren’t delusion before going to Jerusalem? Bolstering this argument is idea that Jerusalem serves as a magnet for people who were already suffering from religiously-tinged psychosis.

The third theory -- the one that’s not mainstream -- is much more interesting. Suppose that Jerusalem itself actually causes people to become (or believe that they have become) holy people -- completely independently of the cultural and religious significance of the area? That doesn’t make sense until you understand where the argument is headed: Was Jesus just a man who was struck by Jerusalem Syndrome which made him believe he was a holy man -- like Paul, thunderstruck on the road and suddenly, "Pow"! He's super evangelist!

Here LoS obsessions bisect the curious case of Roberts. And we have many questions.

For starters, is there a California Syndrome (not that one) that turns you all kookoo? We're treading here, I think, on Philip K. Dick's turf -- for he believed that modern day CA was actually ancient Rome, masked by aliens to confuse us poor souls. CA has certainly long been a magnet: conquistadors drawn to the seven cities, ‘49-ers drawn to gold, dust-bowlers and immigrants drawn to a land of plenty, hippies drawn to the summer of love. Each of these dreams has a nightmarish side: the genocide of the natives, ‘49-ers piled into make-shift towns full of violence, dust-bowlers and immigrants trapped into slavery, the Manson family murders.

One of the really disturbing things about Roberts is that I get the sense that he really *wants* to be Manson’s son. It’s like we are seeing in Roberts someone drawn to the dark side of CA. This is a complete reversal: Instead of a dreamer sucked in and shattered, we have someone actually drawn to the destruction. Maybe this is why it is almost comforting to think of Roberts as a lying publicity hound. Then we can pigeon-hole him as chasing the dream, seeking to be a rock star, and we can sense a “justified” fate in his future, where his lies lead to a dark turn. But if he is drawn to the darkness of CA … does this mean that the dream has changed and we’re a society seeking destruction -- or is does it just mean that Roberts is simply nuts?

Of course it’s much more fun to imagine a CA syndrome, to imagine that CA itself casts a spell, the actual place in-and-of-itself, completely separate from the cultural icon it has become. Maybe it’s the geography: The deep dark stillness of the red wood valleys up north, or the bleak deserts in the south, or the end-of-the-earth feel to the Pacific lapping the western shores. Or maybe it’s a curse, perhaps bloody genocide or slavery or nukes have drafted our true manifest destiny: To chase dreams but catch nightmares.

Okay, okay, I know that I’m writing all hamfisted, dunce and clichéd. I slob here, and I’m sorry. So let me end by looking to a wonderful passage by someone else: Thomas Pynchon’s “Mason & Dixon”:

Oops, sorry, lost my bookmark. You'll have to find it for me.


____

[1]Surely someone has made a XXX spoof off the Manson family called “Spawn Raunch” … or maybe that’s just entirely too tasteless…

[2]See for example, Platzangst, Sacred Waters, and Journey to the Center of the Earth" for starters.

[3]I'm aware of a handful of other "place" syndromes that are less place-specific including:
* Ruben's syndrome--which is characterized by inappropriately, publicly sexualized behavior while viewing "high" art (like masturbating in front of a Ruben's painting in the middle of an Italian museum)--and is arguably as localized in Rome as Stendhal's syndrome is in Venice.
* Airport syndrome, in which previously "normal" folk basically get all wacked out at an airport, bumping into people, temporary amnesia, etc.
* Mean World Syndrome is perhaps stretching the definition of "place" too far?

If you've heard of other geo-triggers or place-related-syndromes, let me know; I'm curious.

The dog is a domesticated form of the Gray Wolf

Seems like I bungled my post on the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping.... unable to see the forest for the trees, so focused on synchromystic jibba-jabba that I neglected to note the obvious.

When I spent so much time on the name Dugard--"from the garden"--and thinking only of Jesus' night of anguish in the garden of Gethsemane, how could I have missed the Garden of Eden? Probably because I'm currently involved in a dispute with neighbors which has in fact left me sleepless and anguished. Although it is a matter of beams and nails, my crucifixion doesn't seem to be imminent.

If I could see beyond my own nose I might have noticed that Dugard's story can be seen in the terms of the Eden myth. Sexuality and the loss of innocence. It was the Gid who pointed this out to me so I leave it there, as a challenge to the Gid to lay it all out for us. Let the preacher's kid untangle it!

The second (at least!) point of neglect is the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. I warbled on about St. Thérèse and Anne Frank and forgot to go into this gem of a tale. Worst of all, I'd thought of it and then decided, nah, fuggit. Then this morning I awoke to read a story about Canadian folk singer Taylor Mitchell, a young woman of 19 who was killed by coyotes while walking in the woods and then after thinking "holy shit that's horrible," I remembered the tale.

So, here goes. Apparently the tale was told in the 14th c. by peasants in both France and Italy and may have roots in Eastern or "Oriental" tales with similar themes. There are many versions; sometimes the girl is eaten and sometimes she escapes; sometimes involuntary cannibalism occurs. Sometimes the wolf is a werewolf or an ogre. Sexual overtones abound.

The first written version was published by Frenchman Charles Perrault in 1697. In his version the girl is eaten and there the story ends. A moral tacked onto the end explains that the story is a warning to "good girls" to resist the sexual advances of men.

Since Perrault, many variations have appeared but most know the version as told by the Brothers Grimm.

The Grimm version is almost certainly a re-telling of Perault's except in the end, where a hunter after the wolf's skin saves the girl and her grandmother. In this version the grandmother and the girl are swallowed whole by the wolf, but emerge unharmed after the hunstman cuts the beast open. This ending sees to have been taken from yet another tale. The Grimms also wrote a sequel in which grandmother and the girl trap and kill another wolf with a cunning ruse: they drown him after luring him with a pot of water which had been used to cook sausages.

Many interpretations have been made of the fairy tale, only a few of which I'll mention here. Obviously, wolf attacks were a serious problem in the Middle Ages, so it may have simply began as a cautionary tale to young kids, much like stories of La Llorona are thought to have begun as a way to scare kids away from dangerous waterways.

Alan Dundes has analyzed the tale and interpreted it as the story of a girl who leaves home and in various actions crosses a threshold; she emerges from the belly of the beast as a woman. In another Freudian analysis, Bruno Bettelheim sees it as a rebirth; the child is reborn coming from the wolf, her emotions liberated.

Yet another interpretation sees the story as a warning against falling into the trap of prostitution; supporters of this theory note that the red cloak was a common symbol of hookers in 17th c. France. Less pernicious perhaps is the idea that the story represents sexual awakening. "In this interpretation, the red cloak symbolizes the blood of the menstrual cycle, braving the "dark forest" of womanhood. Or the cloak could symbolize the hymen....In this case, the wolf threatens the girl's virginity. The anthropomorphic wolf symbolizes a man, who could be a lover, seducer or sexual predator...."

We would argue that the pedophile and the kid-snatcher has replaced the Big Bad Wolf as the ultimate danger of our time, lurking in the forest after the sun goes down, ready to pounce; the former is the metaphor for the latter. Indeed the wolf has always had a connotation of sexual aggressiveness. The leering wolf-whistle as the statuesque blond walks past the construction site, Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf (I'm on the hunt I'm after you....) All of these sexual wolf metaphors may derive from this very tale or others like it; the wolf and sexual danger have become intrinsically linked. Wikipedia offers a brief summary of modern adaptations, such as popular songs, cartoons and fiction in which the sexuality of the tale is explored.

Blatant eroticism has been a trope of the vampire tale since Bram Stoker. Less so perhaps for the werewolf but nonetheless, there is clearly a brute sexuality to the lycanthrope. A normal man goes about his everyday business until the full moon appears. In the maiden-mother-crone cycle of pagan moon-lore, the full moon represents the point when the woman is most fertile, full, bountiful. "Mother" may be the appellation but the implication is fertility and thus sexuality. An in the presence of the full woman our mild-mannered lycanthrope turns into an uncontrollable beast with an immense hunger for flesh. While not universally true, the werewolf in European cultures is usually a man.

According to NASA, however, neither June 10, 1991 (Dugard kidnapping) nor November 22, 1976 (Callaway kidnapping) were full moons; though certainly a beast, we can rule out lycanthropy in Garrido's case!

Wikipedia again makes the point that certain modern interpretations of the tale resemble "animal bridegroom" stories such as The Frog Prince and Beauty and the Beast. This latter is perhaps even more telling than the tale of Riding Hood. In the popular Disney film, the Beast first holds young Belle's father as a prisoner but agrees to free him if Belle agrees to take his place. Although coarse and full of anger, the Beast treats Belle kindly, slowly revealing a more sensitive side. Given her freedom, Belle returns of her own volition to save the Beast from his tormentors. She has fallen in love with the Beast, and her tears transforms him back into a handsome young Prince. Cue the dancing candelabra; they live happily ever after.

One might reasonably construe this as a glorification of the Stockholm syndrome. Given the prevalence of the fairy tale in our culture, it shouldn't be so surprising that Dugard never seemed to try and escape her captor. We speak of her as being imprisoned, but it seems she had some degree of freedom, working in Garrido's printshop, interacting with the public. Her children have been described as fairly well-adjusted and clever. Not exactly feral kids locked in a cage for years. Disney's celebrated version of the film was released on November 13, 1991. A week and a day before the Dugard kidnapping!

In both Little Red Riding Hood and the Beauty and the Beast, there is an explicit danger in the forest. Folklorists tell us that this is a trope dating back to the Middle Ages where the forest--place of darkness and danger--is juxtaposed against the village as a place of safety. Put in other words, between the wild and the domesticated, the savage and the tame. In French we can speak of the dusk, or at times the dawn, as "entre chien et loup," literally "between dog and wolf." The night and all its attendant dangers versus the safety of the light of day. These liminal periods put in stark contrast the nature of the wild and the domesticated; they are transitions between states of being. The Wolf in Riding Hood you will recall, dresses itself in Grandma's nightdress and bonnet in order to fool Little Red. And what is the Beast but a lycanthrope stuck in his animal state?

Hunter Thompson brought the following quote by Samuel Johnson to many peoples' attention: "He who makes a beast of himself avoids the pain of being a man." I always thought Thompson was explaining, even advocating, his particular kind of behavior. Now I'm not sure that it isn't merely scorn, or an impersonal observation. Men are dogs, they say. And they are right.

Half past three in the Garden of Good and Evil

We've been grappling with this one for a while and we're not sure if any of this means anything outside the fishbowl of idiosyncratic free-association.

On June 10, 1991 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped and was missing for over 18 years. In August 2009 she reappeared and her alleged kidnappers Philip and Nancy Garrido (née Bocanegra) were arrested. The pair are currently awaiting trial and Ms. Dugard seems to be adjusting to her new life--back with her family, including the two daughters she bore while living in a complex of tents and sheds in Garrido's backyard.

The details of this case are indeed remarkable and fascinating. But what is it about this case which drew our attention for LoS?

Let's start with the names. "Dugard" is a French place name meaning "from" or "of the garden." Dugard was born in Garden City, California and the family went to Antioch, where the crime took place, not long after. After her abduction, Jaycee Dugard lived in a backyard, or garden prison.

The name Jaycee is also unusual. According to some baby-name websites Jaycee is merely a name coming from the initials J.C. One even points out that it's an acronym for Jesus Christ. As if necessary. Hardly anyone in the English (or Spanish and French) speaking world could hear those initials and not think of Jesus.

Jaycee is also considered a variant of the name Jayce, itself short for Jason, a name of Greek origin meaning "healer." Jason also appears in the Bible as a possible variation of Joshua.

This brings us back to Jesus. Wikipedia:

The English name Joshua is a rendering of the Hebrew: יהושע‎ "Yehoshua," meaning "YHWH is Salvation," "YHWH delivers," or "YHWH rescues" from the Hebrew root ישע, "salvation," "to deliver/be liberated," or "to be victorious". It often lacks a Hebrew letter vav (ו) after the shin (ש), allowing a reading of the vocalization of the name as Hoshea (הוֹשֵׁעַ) - the name is described in the Torah as having been originally Hoshea before being changed to Yehoshua by Moses (Numbers 13:16).

"Jesus" is the Anglicized transliteration of the Hellenized transliteration of "Yehoshua". In the Septuagint, all instances of "Yehoshua" are rendered as "ιησου" (Iesou/Jesus), the closest Greek pronunciation of the Hebrew.

Jesus, of course, spent his own time of anguish in a garden--the Garden of Gethsemane (lit. "oil-press"), where "being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke 22:43–44. This was of course on the eve of his crucifixion.

Jaycee (J.C.) in the garden. By process of association we can link one little girl's captivity with one of the cornerstone myths of the Western edifice. In so doing Jaycee Dugard follows in the footsteps of a whole series of suffering little girls, now sanctified.

France, in particular, loves its little-girl martyrs. In the region of Toulouse, for example, every church has a shrine to Saints Jeanne D'Arc, Germaine of Pibrac, Thérèse de Lisieux and Bernadette Soubiros. These count among the most popular Saints in France.

Western literature has pitched in, giving us the sufferings of Alice and Dorothy. Anne Frank may as well be a saint in her own right.

Jesus never went to Antioch, but the city was an important center of early Christianity. Jews there were evangelized by no less figures than Peter and Paul and the converts were the first to be known as Christians. Antioch, California was founded by brothers William and Joseph Smith (not the Mormon prophet!) in 1850. As such it is one of the oldest cities of California.

Not surprisingly, Jaycee's liberation has been hailed as a miracle. Garrido believed he communicated with God, controlled sound with his mind (and vice versa) and kept a blog called Voices Revealed. Posts just before his arrest include: THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE SOURCE OF MIND CONTROL, A POWER THAT HAS BEEN KEPT HIDDEN, CULTURAL TRANCE....

How all this ties into the Jaycees remains a mystery. I'm sure we could we could somehow tie it all up to a revelation of the method, of mind control with sound, of a cultural trance woven into us via media overload and sympathy for the little children...."suffer the little children"....sympathy for the Jaycees, Proto-Gymnasium for New World Orderism. Etc.

But that would just be crazy....