A method in mystery

“Mysterier, ordnar och hemliga sällskap i skilda tider och religioner” is the surprisingly boring title of a Swedish book written by Andrejs Johansons, a Latvian-Swedish scholar of religion. The book was published posthumously in 1985. It comes with a preface by Ulf Drobin (who was actually one of my teachers when I studied comparative religion 15 years later). In translation, the title means “Mysteries, orders and secret societies in different times and religions”. The contents are somewhat eclectic, but also fascinating (and frequently bizarre). A problem might be that it was published so long ago – theories and interpretations change in anthropology and comparative religion, just as everywhere else. The book is presumably intended for a broader non-scholarly audience.

Johansons describes a wide variety of secret societies from around the world. The West African Leopard Society, the Kenyan Mau-Mau, Indo-European Männerbund and berserks, the Attis cult (which included self-castration), the Thugs, the Assassins, the endo-cannibalistic rituals of the Kwakiutl and various ecstatic cults of Dionysus in ancient Greece have all been included in this ethnographic survey of human insanity, folly, depravity and rank barbarism. Or is it divine frenzy? I got even less respect for “the noble savage” after reading this. What *is* the problem with high modernity or the Axial Age, anyway? 

More civilized religions described in the book include the Eleusinian mysteries, the Greco-Roman cult of Isis, and Orphism. I felt particularly close to home with the latter. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, Johansons have included chapters on medieval guilds and early modern Freemasons. There is no discussion on Christian esotericism, but Johansons does mention parallels (or supposed parallels – it´s an old book) between Mithraism and Christianity. They are yuge if true…

Despite their stunning diversity, Johansons argues that many initiatory orders around the world have certain features in common. One is the motif of (symbolic) death and rebirth, often connected to sacred meals. Here, the parallel to Christianity is obvious. To Johansons, the motif might as well be as old as humanity itself. Another is ordeals, although they seem to get (at least relatively speaking) less severe the closer we get to our own time. Note again that Jesus had to suffer ordeals before dying and resurrecting! Johansons does believe that actual spiritual experiences were induced in the participants, but refrains from discussing their ontological status. A more disturbing similarity between some cultures is the existence of “wolf-men” forming a militaristic Männerbund, often living at the outskirts of established society and preying on the civilian population. The Viking berserks are the most well-known example in northern Europe. Johansons gives several examples of how such fraternities have degenerated into terrorists or brigands. In Africa, the Leopard Society was smashed to a large extent by competing secret societies!

It´s intriguing that there should be a certain method in mystery...

One central point in the author´s argument is that virtually all “secular” fraternities – be they military, economic or political – have their origins in cultic brotherhoods. Frequently, they still have a religious base. Since the book is popularized, Johansons never explains his theory in more detail. What does it mean to suggest that religious cults were somehow “prior” to military, economic and political organizations? Are humans at bottom religious animals? (Maybe the gods are real?) Or does it simply mean that our material interests for whatever reason are “alienated” and distorted, being expressed in a religious garb?

I did get one insight, for all it´s worth, while reading the book. Johansons points out that medieval guilds, including powerful merchant guilds such as the Hansa, had initiation rituals featuring ordeals. The stone-masons had secret recognition signs, and many guilds had fictitious founder myths which the members were supposed to learn (perhaps as another sign of recognition). Thus, the stone-masons claimed that Moses was the first of their trade! What this means, of course, is that we can lay all conspiracy theories about the Knights Templar to rest. The fact that the Templars might have had secret initiation rituals and “heretical” lore (“heretical” to the heresy-hunters of later centuries) doesn´t prove that they were a truly occult-heretical brotherhood. Their practices seem to have been medieval Catholic commonplaces!

What a pity.

If you know Swedish and can find this book in your library, perhaps recommended.

Different this time?

Not sure how to relate to this, so I´m just going to put it up here...

50 years of failed apocalyptic predictions

Meanwhile, down at the swan lake...

A really nice painting of swans and a dog, posted here for no particular reason whatsoever. Oh, and the child in the middle is apparently a very young Philippe Égalité. 

The last warning

It´s time for regime change. We only fail once, Erdogan. The next coup attempt will succeed. Ergenekon will rise from the bottom of Aralkum, restore greatness of true Altaic peoples. This is the last warning!

The art and paradox of William Morris

“William Morris: Artist, Craftsman, Pioneer” is a book by Rosalind Ormiston and Nicholas Michael Wells. It´s intended as an introduction to the art and ideas of William Morris (1834-1896). The volume is lavishly illustrated with Morris´ varied artworks, all in color, and is published in coffee table format. The British polymath Morris was painter, poet, designer of wall-papers and carpets, typographer, utopist and political activist all in one.

William Morris cooperated with the painters of the so-called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Edward Burn-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Unfortunately, Morris also competed with Rossetti – both had the same love interest and purported muse, Jane Burden, who was also the foremost Pre-Raphaelite model. Other influences on Morris came from the traditionalist High Tory and art critic John Ruskin. Morris and his future associates were originally close to Anglo-Catholicism and wanted to become clergymen. Later in life, Morris became a socialist and joined the Social Democratic Federation and – following a split - the Socialist League. The book claims that Morris shortly before his death was offered to become chair of the Labour Party, which would be sensational, since the party didn´t even exist at the time. Perhaps this is a reference to the Independent Labour Party? (The authors also claim that Morris designed some upper-class cabins onboard the “Titanic”, but the ill-reputed ship wasn´t built until years after Morris´ death!)

Despite Morris´ nominal switch from “conservatism” to “socialism”, his fundamental ideas seem to have been pretty much the same throughout. Morris romanticized the Middle Ages, supposedly a period when society, work and art were “natural”. He wanted a pastoral, decentralized society with handicraft-based production. In Morris´ view, traditional handicrafts didn´t alienate the producer from the finished product, while promoting professionalism. By contrast, modern mass production was alienating, impoverished the workers and destroyed the environment, while also making shoddy products. Morris had a profoundly moral view of art, and somehow believed that a moral art could lead to a moral society. Even as a socialist, Morris continued to promote medieval romanticism, for instance in his utopian novel “News from Nowhere”. Some of his ideas were paradoxical. Thus, while opposing mass production, he nevertheless believed that art must be relevant for the people, have utility and a connection to everyday life, while also reflecting Nature. In real life, the dreamy socialist Morris was a successful capitalist, selling most of his art to the super-rich. They were the only people who could afford his works! Without mass production, Morris couldn´t really reach the common people with his arts and crafts… Morris became part and parcel of the “Victorian” age and culture he so despised. He even took a royal commission to redecorate the Throne Room and the Wellington Room in St James´ Palace!

I admit that I don´t vibrate with William Morris and his medievalist and nature romanticism. Veneration of “Nature” is itself a modern phenomenon, since only modern man (really dependent on industry and trade to survive) can view himself as radically different from it, while simultaneously also idealize it. Somehow, I doubt that ancient slaves, serfs or plague victims (or even artisans) idealized Nature, but sure, I suppose I could be wrong there. In modern society, nature romanticism is the preserve of the rich and the privileged (or their counter-cultural drop-outs). It was Marie Antoinette who pretended to be a shepherdess in a gigantic pastoral, while the actual shepherdesses presumably starved to death. Morris was right to support the emerging labor movement, warts and all, but his socialism remained a petty-bourgeois utopia.

The best part of the book are the photos, all in color, of Morris´ art. Yes, many of his wall-paper designs have been included! It was interesting to note that Morris found his inspiration in a wide variety of sources, including books on India! Some Pre-Raphaelite works have been included for reference, and some who were co-produced by Morris, Burne-Jones and John Henry Dearle. (My favorite is, ironically, “Angeli Ministrantes” by the two latter.)

Recommended for your coffee table, and much cheaper than the finely crafted originals…

Come and see the leiothrix

Leiothrix, a bird from Himalaya introduced at Réunion?!

“Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands” is a field guide written by Ian Sinclair and Olivier Langrand, with illustrations by Norman Arlott, Hilary Burn, Peter Hagman and Ian Lewington. First published in 1998, this is the fully revised 2013 edition. Sinclair is apparently the grand old man of African field birding, and have written over 20 books. Langrand is a French conservationist. The book is sponsored by the hardware business Chamberlain and is devoted to conservation efforts.

The area covered by the field guide includes Madagascar, the Mascarenes (i.e. Mauritius, Rodrigues and Réunion), the Comoros and the Seychelles. In other words, the island-nations and colonies off the east coast of Africa. It also covers seabirds from the same general area. 502 species are included, all illustrated in color. Illustrations, species presentations and range maps are on facing pages, making the guide easy to use. It reminds me of Heinzel-Fitter-Parslow.

The introduction describes the major bird-watching hotspots on the covered islands, and how to reach them. Curiously, the guide says next to nothing about the political situation in the area. Surely, both Madagascar and the Comoros are extremely unstable? Was the text simply taken over from the 1998 version of the book? Nor is the political status of the islands mentioned. Isn´t it relevant that Mayotte is a French dependency, while the rest of the Comoros form an independent state? The introduction also include a long list of endemic species, and a ditto of “new species”, although most of these seem to be previously known populations promoted to species status (and in some cases, to conservation efforts c/o the international community).

Many of the birds are virtually unknown even to an arm-chair bookish amateur ornithologist such as the Ashtar Command, I mean, what on earth are tetrakas, jeries, newtonias, couas or the leiothrix? Only currently living or recently extinct bird species are included, so no dodos or elephant birds in this one! By contrast, European migrant birds passing the Seychelles on their way to and from the African mainland are included, including the corn crake. Strindberg would have been surprised, LOL.

With that Swedish in-house joke, I end this review of “Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands”, 2013 edition, which I got for a discounted price when buying CDs from a local vendor (sic). Swedish local, that is.

Last Night of the Dems?

Some Republican pundits comment the latest Democratic primary debate, including the performance of Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden´s bizarre verbal gyrations. 

Who´s afraid of the Big Bad Bern, Big Bad Bern...

Not everyone is afraid of Bernie Sanders, it seems. Some even think he can beat Trump...

Senate Democrats not afraid of Bernie Sanders

Make Art Deco great again!

Why not? If high modernity is out, it might as well go out with a bang! I want to see buildings like this in Smalltown, Kansas! Now, dammit, now! 

Joe Biden can still win, here´s how!

Yeah, right. HA HA HA HA!

Come at me, materialists

Funny how two birds supposedly divided by 10 million years of evolution (or something to that effect) can nevertheless be so bloody similar. I´m sure convergent evolution is all there is to it, right? 

Lamarck wins Evolution caucus, this just in!

Vindicated

A slightly technical article arguing that a broader evolutionary synthesis is needed, one that unites Neo-Darwinism with something the author calls Neo-Lamarckianism. The article argues that the rate of genetic mutation is too slow for evolution to happen - an old creationist argument, which all anti-creationist polemicists said was simply WRONG, period. Except that it wasn´t. 

The solution is something the author calls "environmentally induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritence". No less! I don´t doubt that this is true, but if the environment directly impacts evolution, doesn´t this mean that the biosphere is more integrated than we previously imagined? 

Perhaps it´s the biosphere (let´s call her Gaia) that evolves, rather than the individual organisms, which are just cells in the larger whole (this meant in a non-trivial fashion). Of course, the really yuge paradigm shift would be to find direction in evolution, but that´s probably still off with another 100 years... 

We need both Darwin and Lamarck

God morgon!

Observera vad artikeln egentligen säger: Naturen klarar sig alltid, på ett eller annat sätt! Meditate on this, my brethren. 

Rekordtidiga myror vållar husägare besvär

The Third Way

I haven´t really read the material on the site linked to below, but it looks interesting. 

My own understanding of evolution (which may evolve further) is that life and intelligence always exist as potentialities in the deep structures of the comos. This means a kind of "soft" teleology whereby intelligence (and maybe even human-like intelligence) is bound to emerge sooner or later, but not according to any deterministic scheme. I also suspect that the question "where did complexity come from" is wrong - complexity has always existed. 

And with the risk of making some people´s heads explode, I wouldn´t be surprised if God or the World-Soul is the ultimate drive behind evolution. There, I said it. 

The Third Way is of course secular...

The Third Way of Evolution

Rapacious but effete

“The Rise and Fall of Elites: An Application of Theoretical Sociology” is a text by Vilfredo Pareto, originally published in 1901. Pareto was an Italian sociologist of a somewhat cynical or ironic bent, and his text isn´t “scientific” in the strict sense of the term, despite protestations to the contrary, but rather a spirited piece of political polemic. Many of Pareto´s observations are even more true today than they were in 1901, but there are also some differences (although not necessarily for the better).

Pareto believes that all societies are ruled by an elite group. All rhetoric about “humanitarianism” or “equal rights” is just hot air. To overthrow the old elite, the new elite naturally claims to speak in the name of the whole people, and even mobilize it to attack the old guard, but once in power, the new elite turns on its popular allies. This sounds like the Marxist critique of the bourgeoisie and the limitations of the bourgeois revolution, but Pareto extends it to cover socialism as well (his thesis would be amply proven by the October revolution in Russia 16 years later).

There are three main types of elites: rapacious and strong, rapacious but weak (Pareto uses the unabashedly sexist and heterosexist term “effete”), and non-rapacious but strong. The latter form is the best one, but also the least common one. Over time, the rapacious elite tend to transition from strong to weak, but without losing its rapaciousness. This situation is what Pareto sees all around him in 1901. The bourgeoisie and the middle class have become humanitarian, caring and ascetic. Law and order isn´t upheld anymore, workers can strike without impunity, and culture becomes more and more confused and decadent. Ultimately, Pareto believes that the humanitarianism and asceticism is just a pose, since the elite is just as acquisitive and exploitative as before. However, its weakness is real and hence its rapaciousness simply fans the flames of resistance, a resistance that will eventually topple the elite stratum.

Who will replace the effete bourgeoisie? Pareto´s answer is the socialists. Not the working class as a whole, which will remain at the bottom as usual, but rather the labor aristocracy and labor bureaucracy (although Pareto doesn´t use these very terms). The workers who join unions and learn to live a life of dedication, discipline and struggle (and even abstain from hard liquor) are the nucleus of the new elite. This was presumably written when unions only organized a minority of the class, and often its more skilled layers. It´s intriguing that Pareto almost treats the unions as a kind of “vanguard” – Lenin would have been impressed. Of course, Lenin rejected the labor aristocracy in favor of mobilizing “the dark masses” (the unskilled workers), but his own political faction consisted of professional revolutionaries. Pareto´s ideas may owe something to observing French revolutionary syndicalism. Pareto never explicitly says that the new socialist elite will take power through a revolution, however. 

At one point, the spirited sociologist writes that a military dictatorship might come to power in some European nation, perhaps due to war, but it´s doubtful whether this regime will benefit the old elite. Perhaps it will benefit the new? Here, Pareto is almost divining the future phenomenon of fascism. Although fascism ultimately benefited the bourgeoisie or even the old aristocracy, it did have a pseudo-socialist side, and could perhaps have become a “third force” if the world situation had been somewhat different – in other words, an excellent neo-elite in Pareto´s sense. Pareto was right that capitalism was on the verge of a transformation. During the 20^th century, many nations were governed by Social Democratic, Communist or fascist governments, all of which to some extent resembled the new elite Pareto was trying to describe. Ultimately, however, Social Democracy fused with the rapacious but effete bourgeoisie it had previously combated, while Communism and fascism collapsed (more or less). 

A more peculiar trait of Pareto´s analysis is the claim that the crisis of the old elite goes hand in hand with an upsurge in religious sentiment. Here, it´s obvious that the author is using “religion” in a somewhat broad sense. He seems to have in mind a kind of irrational sentimentalism and emotionalism. A large portion of “The Rise and Fall” is devoted to attack the temperance movement, vegetarianism, religious sects and cults, a permissive attitude towards criminals, moral panics around sex, and so on. It´s obvious that Pareto was a sexist, since women bear the brunt of the attack. And yes, the old hypocrite believed that prostitutes freely chose their trade because of immorality! Socialism is also said to be a “religion”, and to become more and more “religious” every day. In other words, both the old elite and the new elite are “religious”, or rather driven by subjective sentiment and feeling rather than by reason or science. The broad masses are just as subjective. It´s easy to make a tie-in to George Sorel here (who believed in the power of irrational “myths”) and Henri Bergson (who was often interpreted to mean pretty much the same thing). Note also the similarity to Nietzsche´s completely amoral “will to power”. Fascism tried to turn these things into a positive!

I frequently gasped how correctly Pareto, writing in 1901, has diagnosed our own time. The combination of phony humanitarianism (“Refugees Welcome”) and rapaciousness (they are “welcome” as cheap labor while we turn their countries into rubble) is pretty obvious. The hypocritical asceticism of the bourgeoisie mentioned by the Italian cynic walks again in the form of “the fight against climate change”, Greta Thunberg´s veganism and refusal to fly (but she has no problem traveling first class on a train), etc. Even some of the concrete arguments are identical. Already in 1901, vegetarians argued that their diet could save the world from environmental destruction! At the same time, the elite is becoming more and more weak and frankly bizarre. The reader will have to furnish his or her (or hir) own examples here. 

“The religious sentiment” is perhaps exemplified by the SJWs, including their demonological hysteria directed at Donald Trump, Brexit and Muh Russians. However, there also seem to be differences. For instance, the naïve liberalism and decadence in 2020 seem to be much worse than in 1901. Note also the falling birthrates in the Western nations, and the widespread pacifism in all layers of the population. More ominously, there doesn´t seem to be any new elite waiting in the wings. The opposition “from the left” simply wants more of the same, while the opposition “from the right” (with some exceptions) wants even more neo-liberalism, making it unclear how they are supposed to “control the borders”, "save the nation", etc. All of society is becoming more and more rotten, with no social force capable of solving the crisis.

But perhaps there is a new elite…internationally. Yes, that would be Russia and China, rather than the Islamists (who are rather the new warlords or lumpen street gangs). If China really is as dependent on US dollars and technology transfers as some claim, Russia (with its enormous reserves of oil, gas and uranium) look like a more likely hegemon if the US declines even more, especially since their territory spans Europe, Asia and the Arctic. If Pareto is right, though, Russia (or China) must develop their own “religion” before they can engage in the final battle. China´s weird cult of productivity and middle class living standards probably won´t cut the chase, and as for Russia, Putinism is a far cry from Pan-Slavism or Communism. Here, the Islamists seem to have a stronger alternative! Of course, there is also a wildcard which could upset everyone´s apple carts considerably: climate change and the ecological crisis in general.

With that, I leave “The Rise and Fall of Elites” for now.

Barbarian management

Tucker on China and the globalist-liberal-Chinese alliance taking over the United States. Note how Bloomberg denies that the Chinese Paramount Leader is a dictator! 

Make Neo-Classicism great again

Donald Trump has released a draft executive order (what on earth that even is) mandating that the default style in architecture for federal buildings in the US should be Neo-Classicism. "Liberal" meltdown ensued, accusing said architecture of "fascism", and saying that in a democracy, decisions about style are better left to "professionals" (who like to build absurd dadaistic buildings instead). Personally, I´m more into yuge and amazing Art Deco skyscrapers (I mean, why the f*ck not?), but I suppose Greek Revival style is a tolerable substitute...

Now, please read my review of "The Architecture of the Absurd".  

The charmless absurdity of modern architecture

Zucc did nothing wrong

It seems the election campaign in the United States just started for real...

I wonder if the "fact-check" include anti-Bernie and anti-Trump ads? 

That was a joke, btw.

George Soros demands Zuckerberg´s removal

Big Brother-fiaskot och samtiden

Relativt tänkvärt om den senaste tidens pseudo-turbulens kring "Big Brother". Jag tror annars att bråket beror på att smörjan numera visas i TV4, en kanal man så vitt jag vet inte kan välja bort. Det betyder att den godhetssignalerande privilegierade medelklassen plötsligt tvingas (eller "tvingas") lyssna på plebsens anti-semitiska och sexistiska utgjutelser. Och *det* vill de ju inte. Frizon, frizon! Observera förresten att de två avstängda anti-semiterna var invandrare, och inte från södra Polen heller...

Big Brother-haveriet följer bara mallen

Demonic pillows

Some comments on demonology from Thomas Sheridan. He claims that demons can get access to your home through your pillows! 

Like it never happened before...

Tucker on Michael Bloomberg. He has a point, but come on, Mike isn´t the first rich guy who runs for US president! 

What can you buy with 460 million dollars?

Conservative-libertarian gadfly Tucker Carlson on the attack against Michael Bloomberg. This *is* funny...but as Tucker also points out, Bloomberg could still "win" (buy) the election. Or at least the Dem nomination. 

Ja, jag kanske tog det personligt :D

Eftersom Amazon.com utrensade mig från sin sajt så måste jag ju länka till detta, en kritisk artikel om Jeff Bezos´ "klimatengagemang" från Aftonbladet. 

Jeff Bezos talar med kluven tunga

The secrets of Dion Fortune

Lord Erskine, one of the people "channeled" by Dion Fortune

“Dion Fortune and the Inner Light” is a book by Gareth Knight about Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth), the British occultist. She was born in 1890 and passed away (or perhaps passed on!) in 1946. Knight never met Fortune, but he has been a member of the occult group she founded, the Fraternity (or Society) of the Inner Light. Gareth Knight is of course also a pseudonym, the author´s real name being Basil Wilby. The biography is very “esoteric”, and contains long excerpts from spirit-messages supposedly channeled by Dion Fortune at various points in her life. It says very little about the “pagan” aspects of Fortune´s activity (which has been an influence on Wicca), but rather concentrates on her mediumship and the more Hermetic or Theosophical angles. Since Knight is a disciple of sorts of Fortune, the book is mostly positive towards its subject-matter.

Dion Fortune was born in Wales, but her ethnicity was English. She fancied herself (perhaps wrongly) to have Norse or “Viking” ancestry. Fortune´s parents joined Christian Science, and some of their friends belonged to a quasi-occult group centered on Glastonbury, the “keepers of the Grail”. Another close friend of the family was a leading member of the Alpha et Omega, an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. With a background like this, it´s perhaps not so strange that Fortune became an occultist and ceremonial magician! As a teenager, Fortune had been subject to a psychic attack (i.e. black magic) from the female principal of the boarding school she was attending. Or so she believed. Much later, she would write an entire book titled “Psychic Self-Defence”. After finishing school, Fortune studied psychoanalysis and was a practitioner for a number of years.

Fortune´s first occult teacher was an Irishman named Theodore Moriarty, who supposedly had supernatural powers. At one point, he had cornered a demon in a bathroom, forced it into a magical circle and then absorbed it into his own aura, thereby destroying it. Fortune was apparently present when this happened. Moriarty later became the model for the character Dr Taverner in one of Fortune´s novels. The similarities between Moriarty´s brand of occultism and Fortune´s later activities are striking. The Irish master was inspired by Theosophy but gave it a more “Western” slant, just as Fortune herself would do. He was a Freemason and Co-Mason. Ritualism and Masonry did play a role in Fortune´s later work, as well.

In 1919, Fortune was initiated into Alpha et Omega. Strictly speaking, it wasn´t until now that she became “Dion Fortune”, her pseudonym being based on her magical name as an Alpha et Omega member, Deo Non Fortuna. While working the Golden Dawn system of ritual magic, Fortune also created what was de facto an independent circle around herself. This eventually led the Alpha et Omega leader, Moina MacGregor Mathers (who was actually Henri Bergson´s sister), to expel her from the order, claiming that Fortune had revealed secret teachings, especially about marriage and sexuality. Fortune claimed that Moina had tried to attack her in the spirit-world! In 1930, Fortune joined another Golden Dawn fragment, Stella Matutina, but this group would also expel her due to her friendly contacts with Israel Regardie, who revealed all of the Golden Dawn´s secret “knowledge papers” in a well-known book. There was also a curious Theosophical interlude between the two Golden Dawn episodes, during which Fortune and her little band of brothers and sisters carried out a kind of esoteric entryism in the Theosophical Society, taking over its Christian Mystic Lodge. Fortune argued forcefully against Annie Besant´s and C W Leadbeater´s attempts to promote Jiddu Krishnamurti as the new Christ and World Teacher. Only Master Jesus manifests the Christ principle. 

It´s obvious from Gareth Knight´s book that Dion Fortune was a trance-medium and that mediumistic communications played an important role in her group, the Community (or Fraternity…or Society…) of the Inner Light. She would regularly channel three sprit-beings, all three of which were said to have lived on Earth as humans: the otherwise unknown David Carstairs (supposedly a soldier killed during World War I), Lord Thomas Erskine (a late 18^th century British lawyer and politician who had defended radicals and reformers in court), and Socrates. Fortune´s book “The Cosmic Doctrine” was to a large extent dictated by Socrates. Why on earth the famous Greek philosopher would dictate a work freely based on Madame Blavatsky´s “The Secret Doctrine” is of course an interesting question, and even Gareth Knight admits that this is perhaps very hard to believe. Fortune was in general more positive towards Spiritualism than Blavatsky, and later in life tried to unite occultists and Spiritualists into one stream, in anticipation of the Age of Aquarius.

Dion Fortune also had a more mystical side. I haven´t read “The Mystical Qabalah”, often regarded as Fortune´s  most important work by other occultists, but it´s perfectly obvious that the qabalah wasn´t a dry intellectual interest for the author. While meditating on the Tree of Life and its various “paths”, Fortune would have dramatic visionary experiences during which she became totally immersed in an alternate reality. At one point, she encountered a powerful angelic being. At another, she merged with a huge luminous sphere seen as the Divine itself. Other aspects of her activities included public ritual worship of Isis and Pan, Masonic lore, magic concerning sex and polarity, occult novels, speculations about Atlantis, worship and prayer to Master Jesus, and a strong emphasis on the sacredness of Glastonbury. Fortune believed that the pagan Druids had converted peacefully to Christianity at Glastonbury, thereby making it the “heart center” of Britain. Naturally, this was connected to an interest in King Arthur and other characters from his legend, Dion Fortune sometimes being compared to Morgan Le Fey. Note that the author of this book has an Arthurian pseudonym.

The impression of Violet Mary Firth I got from “Dion Fortune and the Inner Light” is mostly a positive one. Despite her worldview being “out there” from a secular perspective (I mean, my acquaintances don´t claim to channel British lords or executed Greek philosophers), she nevertheless comes across as relatively rational and balanced. Perhaps the eclectic nature of her occult interests saved her from becoming too rigid, dogmatic and authoritarian? Her conflicts with other people in the occult milieu strike me as the usual “dynamic upstart vs. old guard” kind of thing. Fortune wanted to reveal as many occult secrets as possible to the interested public, and she often attacked various abuses in the milieu. Her opposition to Leadbeater seems to have been part of this. A curious detail mentioned by Knight is that three members of the Fraternity claimed to channel Dion Fortune herself after her death. Clearly, she had made an impression…

This may not be the most accessible book around, but if you are *really* into Western esotericism, ritual magic or secret societies, I suppose it could be of some interest.

Islamist equality is a thing

This is some kind of bizarre "Islamist equality" thing. Well, I´m sure somebody in California or London will start defending this practice soon enough. Personally, I just got more sympathetic to Dutch colonial rule or something.

Female flogging squad in Aceh

So it was the taxes after all

What has Donald Trump managed to accomplish after 4 years as POTUS? Nothing, of course. Except lowering the taxes, which may win him reelection, thereby ironically proving the point of his most bland and colorless opponents: "What we need to be discussing is the taxe rates, not immigration, foreign policy and such distractions". 

Why, oh, why didn´t you listen? Not to basic bitch libertarian Ron Paul in 2012, but to his fellow Texan Ross Perot in 1992. Ross had some *really* interesting ideas. Of course, they didn´t sound very constitutional, libertarian or even American, let alone Texan.

They sounded...French. 

So I say the good New World barbars of Murica have two choices in the next decade. Either go full Fifth Republic. Or continue sperging about the tax levels. If you pardon my French. 

A winning strategy

Master strategist 

Michael Bloomberg is said to consider making Hillary Clinton his running mate in case he is nominated as Democratic presidential hopeful. 

Many people consider this a losing strategy of *major* proportions. 

I don´t. After all, Zombie Shillary got more votes than the Donald in 2016, remember?

So I say Michael Bloomberg is right on the money (a lot of money). I mean, what could *possibly* go wrong? 

Strange, considering that they purged me!

Apparently, Amazon.com still have problems with fake reviews and fake reviewers. That´s strange, I mean, they purged me two years ago, so what on earth seems to be the problem? :P  

When the weird becomes the new normal

“The Weird of Hali” is a fantasy story, or rather weird tale, in seven books by John Michael Greer. The concept is simple, yet fascinating: what if the monsters from H P Lovecraft´s horror stories (such as Great Cthulhu or the Crawling Chaos) turn out to be the *good* guys? To say that the novels are a wild ride would be to underestimate the case considerably! The last book in the series in particular, “Arkham”, does everything it can to out-weird the weird pulp fiction it´s freely based on. Not a moment goes by without the hero being chased by “negation teams” to the far corners of time, space and (perhaps) New England, encountering creatures you didn´t think existed even in the Old Solar System of Vintage Scy Fy. It´s fun – if you´re in on the joke. And yes, John Michael Greer actually lives in Providence, Rhode Island!

From a purely literary viewpoint, “The Weird of Hali” is very uneven. “Dreamlands” is the best book in the series. “Innsmouth”, “Chorazin” and “Arkham” are somewhere in the middle. “Kingsport”, “Providence” and “Red Hook” are more boring. Especially “Kingsport”. Still, you probably have to devour all seven volumes of this unpredictable saga if you really want to “get it”. One reason for the unevenness is that the author deliberately wants to create a contrast between the everyday life of the characters and their wild adventures in realms monstrous and squamous. Thus, we have to read detailed and frankly boring exchanges over dinner tables between the main protagonistas, with the author describing, again in some detail, what they were eating. Indeed, the food in the Hali in-universe seems to be delicious even in the midst of a great depression and near-apocalyptic ecological crisis! Is Greer secretly a gourmand? The characters have surprisingly normal family and love lives, although some of them are co-habiting with human-monster hybrids! Every time some character does library research (and that´s often), the action is stalled in favor of long laundry lists of usually imaginary books and documents turned up in the dusty corners of some university archive. (I did this kind of research myself when I was younger – of course, I wasn´t attacked by a squamous snake-man afterwards. Also, I usually did it on an empty stomach.)

And now for the positives...

Lovecraft was notorious for his conservative and racist values, something turned on its head in the Hali universe. Many characters on the good side are Black, female, mixed race or immigrant. The human-monster half-breeds of Lovecraft´s stories turn out to be very sympathetic, even somewhat sexy. The cannibalistic Tcho-Tchos are actually a pro-American hill tribe from Laos with perfectly normal feeding habits (their culinary interests are described in some detail). The race of the humans working for the evil Radiance is never explicitly described (I think), suggesting that they are White. Another notable feature is that many of the humans working on the good side are typical outsiders. The story features an asexual witch, a flamboyant homosexual suspended in the Dreamlands, a teenager with Asperger´s syndrome, a man who looks like a sasquatch due to a genetic disorder, and so on. Some of them are nicer versions of characters from Lovecraft´s stories. In the original Lovecraft universe, deviancy was a sure sign of degeneracy, and presumably of sheer evil as well. In Greer´s version, the story is borderline “identity politics”, which is funny, since I happen to know that the author is somewhat skeptical of such things IRL.

The main point of “The Weird of Hali” is, as already mentioned, that the Great Old Ones from Lovecraft´s fiction aren´t really evil. They are simply pagan gods. The dark cults worshipping the Eldritch are not the abominations described by the Providence horror writer, but simply latter day pagans doing what pagans have always done: soothsaying, cartomancy, ritual magic, meditation, idol worship, and so on. The sacrifices offered to Great Cthulhu turn out to be pretty innocuous, such as sea shells! The real evil comes from the Radiance, a “scientific” brotherhood with roots in ancient Babylonia. Exoterically, the Radiance believes in science, enlightenment, rationalism and the need for humans to conquer nature. Esoterically, however, the organization knows that the Great Old Ones exist and seeks to tap their magical powers to further its real goal: the enslavement of all humanity under one robotic hive-mind. In “Arkham”, we learn that the rabbit hole goes even deeper. Just like NICE in C S Lewis´ “That Hideous Strength”, the Babylonian Siblinghood turns out to be controlled by demonic entities and thus very far removed from the “rationalism” it espouses through its public front groups. The Radiance has been taken over by the Mi-Go, a race of fungous crabs from a planet beyond Pluto who is evil in both Lovecraft´s original stories and in Greer´s alternative versions. The goal of the Mi-Go is to harvest human brains for unknown but presumably ulterior purposes…

However, it´s also obvious at several points in the story that the Great Old Ones aren´t “good” in the simplistic “Christian” or secular senses of that term. Nor are they “gods” in any ontological sense. Rather, the Old Ones are powerful cosmic beings as far removed from humans on the evolutionary ladder as humans are from, say, rodents or amphibians. The Old Ones consider Earth their home, and are usually utterly indifferent to the strivings of humanity. Indeed, some of them can´t stand us and might even be dangerous if disturbed. However, many Old Ones can be contacted by humans through appropriate means and then bestow boons on individuals or entire communities. In this sense, and this sense only, are they “gods”. Nor are the Old Ones perfect. One of the plot twists of “The Weird of Hali” is that Great Cthulhu has a conflict with The King in Yellow, a conflict with terrible consequences for the Earth and for the human race. Only by healing this 65 million year old quarrel can balance be restored. It´s also interesting to note that once the Old Ones take possession of Earth, nothing much happens to the planet itself, except that large portions revert to wilderness. The pagan gods aren´t interested in helping humanity create a utopia or a millennium, indeed, humans have to live with the consequences of their environmental destruction in the form of leaking nuclear power plants, flooded and abandoned cities, a sharply reduced population, and so on. (This theme is a constant in both Greer´s “occult” fiction and “secular” non-fiction. About 10 years ago, the author was very active on the peak oil scene.)

Still, if you take this author literally, there seems to be enough to do for 10 lifetimes even in this far corner of the indifferent universe. Earth is really “lesser Earth” and part of a wider world known as “greater Earth”. If you know how to access all its dimensions, you might find yourself in places as far-fetched as they are wonderful. I´m not sure if Greer really believes this, or if it´s just a literary device (or an allegory for the astral world – the author is a Druid Revivalist and Golden Dawn occultist). One really weird thing about these novels is that I found the fantastic and frankly crazy parts *easier* to believe in than the supposedly more realistic parts. As already mentioned, the characters have no trouble filling their stomachs or holding their little family reunions in the midst of a world-wide climate crisis, when widespread famine, rampant crime and the return of the bubonic plague would be more logical. *This* sounds more supernatural than all the fantasy action! Lovecraft being reincarnated as a particularly nice tomcat? A meeting with a resurrected Merlin in the Pine Barrens complete with a flight on the back of a Jersey Devil? A journey two billion years into the future, when the last intelligent species on Earth turn out to be enormous spiders living in underground caverns? Anubis driving a Batmobile around the New England countryside? Been there, seen that, done that…

I mean this quite un-ironically. I didn´t expect the weird tale aspect to be the *least* weird in this magnum opus!

Apparently, John Michael Greer has also published a spin-off to “The Weird of Hali” in two volumes (with a third waiting in the wings, or is it caverns). The spin-off follows a female would-be composer as she is contacted by musical shoggoths! Since Greer is a Freemason, may I venture a guess that said shoggothi love Mozart? Stay tuned (pun intended) for further weird tales with a hidden message…

DET HÄR KONTOT HAR BLIVIT KAPAT AV LISBETH SALANDER

Har ingen aning om detta kan vara sant eller inte, och kvällspressen brukar ju publicera sådant här som "click bait". Fast eftersom jag är en pseudonym bloggare (eller kanske flera stycken - vad vet ni?) så länkar jag ändå. Det handlar alltså om en verklig veteran från konspirationsmiljön och hans nya teori om mordet på dåvarande statsministern Olof Palme.

Mördaren sköt först mot Lisbeth Palme

Det skandinaviska självhatet

Apropå en självhatande SAS-reklam...

Självhat är inte heller skandinaviskt. Jag vet inte var det kommer ifrån, men vikingarna hade i vart fall väldigt lite av den varan. Såvida man inte betraktar Ragnarök som ett märkligt exempel på Thanatos. 

Fast att vilja slå ihjäl så många angler och skrälingar som möjligt för att sedan avnjuta rostad galt i Valhall låter nog inte så självhatande, trots allt. 

PS. Det finns inget verkligt afghanskt, somaliskt eller judiskt heller. Dessutom finns det inga palestinier!

Eller nej?

Äntligen!

Den där världsberömda skitstjärnan Betelgeuse (som är lika svårt att stava eller uttala som Buttigieg) kommer tydligen att explodera á la supernova och sedan försvinna. 

Inte ett ljusår för tidigt om du frågar mig. 

Fast de astrologer som eventuellt tror att detta är signifikant (det kanske tyder på att Buttigieg kan vinna primärvalet?) kommer nog att bli gruvligt besvikna. Det hela är nämligen fake news. 

Stjärnhelvetet kan förvisso explodera senare i år, men det kan också dröja 100,000 år. Typico. For a moment, I thought we would have real fun this year!

Nå, vi kan ju alltid rösta på Buttigieg... 

Kättarvänster

Har länkat till ett inlägg om detta tidigare. Malmölistan är alltså en utbrytning från Kommunistiska Partiet som tagit fasta på KP:s traditionella invandringsmotstånd. Observera att debattartikeln är publicerad i Nyheter Idag, en högersajt med kopplingar till MED.

Malmölistan kommenterar invandringspolitiken

Tror han att vi faktiskt är dumma i huvudet?

Löfvén tar ett snack med Malmös borgmästare 

Stefan Löfvén skyller ungdomsbrottsligheten i utsatta områden på Alliansens skattesänkningar. Är detta samma Löfvén som nyligen tog bort värnskatten tillsammans med Centern? 

Han måste tro att vi faktiskt är dumma i huvudet. 

Redaktören för denna blogg slutade rösta på SAP 2018 och om det här fortsätter tänker hen inte komma tillbaka...

Fast det är klart. Säkraste sättet att verka för traditionell sossepolitik idag verkar vara att faktiskt rösta på januaripartierna och hoppas att Löfvén fortsätter som statsminister - för då drivs sossepolitiken igenom av M, KD, SD och V istället, eftersom de tre förstnämnda partierna vill jäklas med C och L. 

Något är fel när enda sättet att försvara välfärdsstaten är genom borgerlig trolling av Arbetarrörelsen. 

Golden Dawn Theosophy

“Esoteric Orders and Their Work” is a book by British esotericist Dion Fortune (Violet Firth), first published in 1928. At least to an outsider like myself, Fortune´s brand of esotericism seems very eclectic, blending Theosophical metaphysics and cosmogony with a Golden Dawn-inspired emphasis on ritualism and astral travel, all topped off by a kind of pseudo-Christianity in which “Master Jesus” is said to be the chief initiator of the “White race” (sic). Fortune also has a strange way of sounding rational and grounded, despite many of her ideas being “out there” by both scientific and mainline religious standards. I frequently gasped at this aspect when reading “Esoteric Orders and Their Work”.

The influence from Theosophy is obvious when Fortune puts forward a grand cosmic evolutionary perspective, complete with “root races”, “rays” (also used by Alice Bailey) and “Masters” (with a capital M). Atlantis and Lemuria are mentioned. At the same time, many of Fortune´s other speculations can be seen as a tacit criticism of Theosophy. The Eastern “Wisdom Religions” are said to be derived from an earlier emigration out of Atlantis than the Western esoteric tradition. It´s also evident that Fortune doesn´t consider Europeans and Indians to be part of the same “Aryan race”. All races have different spiritualities, and Theosophy therefore errs when trying to promote Eastern forms in the West. Fortune´s emphasis on Master Jesus and claim that a new Master won´t be born until a future age is implicitly a criticism of the Krishnamurti project.  The Western initiatory tradition comes from the last migration out of Atlantis, and is then traced through Egypt and Greece to the Knights Templar and the medieval guilds of stone-masons to the early modern alchemists and Rosicrucians. Fortune admits that the continuity of this tradition isn´t entirely clear cut, due to millennia of massive persecution by the exoteric Church. Very often, it only exists on the “inner planes”.

Despite her criticism of the exoteric Church, Fortune nevertheless sounds very “Anglo-Catholic”: she uses the term “apostolic succession”, claims that the sacraments are magical rituals, and believes in the efficacy of prayer. She also believes that Jesus died on the cross as a kind of sacrifice on behalf of sinful humanity. However, her concrete description of what happened sounds “Eastern” and occult: Jesus took upon himself the collective negative karma of humanity or the entire Earth-sphere, and destroyed it through an occult process whereupon one person can transfer another person´s suffering or sickness to himself. (Charles Williams also mentions this.)

Dion Fortune´s strong emphasis on psychic powers is probably derived from Golden Dawn. She believes that an occult student must develop psychic powers and the ability to journey out-of-body between different planes of reality. Indeed, the student will be assigned a Guide, who is really a spirit-being. This is presumably necessary since the Masters only operate from the spiritual levels, no longer materializing on the physical plane. (This may also be an implicit criticism of the wilder claims of Theosophy.) Initiation is said to be hard work, indeed it takes three incarnations of strong desire and effort to fully accomplish the first steps of it. No instant salvation here! On the other hand, Fortune strongly emphasis the free will of the student. Masters should be tested by their fruits, rogue gurus who deliberately manipulate their followers as a supposed “test” (Gurdjieff comes to mind) are condemned, and a true Master always offers his instructions free of charge. If the student becomes unbalanced due to his training, the fault is in the training, not the student. 

Fortune believes that occultists should “stay in the world”, work for a living, and so on. Another point emphasized in her book is that there are many different kinds of occult schools, corresponding to different “rays” and personality types. However, people with a natural inclination towards intellectual pursuits should be challenged by joining mystical schools, and people with an inclination towards mysticism should join intellectual ones! Fortune´s constant preoccupation with black magic and “the left hand path” is also visible in the book. Interestingly, she believes that the Adepts *should* seek and keep “siddhi powers”, something not recommended by Eastern traditions, but use them for the benefit of humanity. The evil magician is the one who uses these supernatural powers for his own nefarious ends.

The overall perspective of “Esoteric Orders and Their Work” is one of slow, piecemeal cosmic-spiritual evolution. There are no shortcuts to spiritual accomplishment, no forgiveness without suffering, and evidently no apocalypse either, although a new root race will presumably evolve in the future, with another savior than Master Jesus. In this particular book, however, Dion Fortune never really explains where we come from and whither we are going, although some kind of merger with the Divine “beyond the ring-pass not” seem to be the ultimate goal of the monads…

I found the book interesting, although it perhaps stimulated my thinking in other ways than those intended by the author. But that, perhaps, is another story (or another line of evolution) entirely!

None dare call it conspiracy

“Mordet på Gustav III” is a book by Swedish history professor and popularizer extraordinaire Dick Harrison. The book tells the story of the murder of King Gustav III on 16 March 1792 – still regarded as one of the most famous (or infamous) murder cases in Swedish history. The colorful king was shot by Jacob Johan Anckarström under dramatic circumstances at a masquerade held at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. Gustav III died of his wounds two weeks later. Harrison doesn´t just tell the story of the assassination, but also gives the reader much needed context. More problematically, he attacks “conspiracy theory”, suggesting that neither JFK nor Olof Palme were murdered as the result of vast conspiracies – and this in a book about, well, vast conspiracies. Of course, a conspiracy centuries or millennia old is less dangerous to talk about than modern cases strongly suggestive of the same thing…

Harrison begins by pointing out that all educated Europeans during the 18^th century admired the ancient Greeks and Romans. In some circles, this included tyrannicide. The murder of Julius Caesar at the hands of Brutus and other Roman senators was especially well known, debated and (sometimes) seen as a positive example to follow. The assassinations of French kings Henry III (in 1589) and Henry IV (in 1610) were also widely talked about during this period. The opponents of Gustav III often accused him of being a “tyrant” who had destroyed the so-called Age of Freedom, a period in Swedish history from 1719 to 1772 when most of the effective power was vested in the Parliament, there was freedom of the press, and two political “parties” (or quasi-parties), known as the Hats and the Caps, competed for influence. In 1772, Gustav III carried out a coup (or self-coup) which strengthened royal power. It was strengthened even more in 1789 with the adoption of the Union and Security Act. Gustav III could therefore be seen as a “Caesar” and whoever opposed him, or even killed him, as a brave “Brutus” defending “the republic”.

Gustav was an “enlightened despot” typical of his age, who attempted to modernize Sweden from above, while increasing his own personal power through the appointment of “favorites” loyal only to the king who elevated them. This led Gustav in conflict with many in the nobility, who preferred the parliamentary model of the Age of Freedom – since it gave more power to the nobles as a class (the Age of Freedom was hardly “democratic” in the high modern sense). One aspect I don´t think Harrison emphasizes is that Gustav III could also be seen as a restorer of Swedish national self-determination, while the noble politicians during the Age of Freedom were usually on the French or Russian payroll (literally). That being said, the commoners also had serious complaints about the king´s rule. The peasantry resented the government monopoly on production of alcoholic beverages. The Lutheran clergy complained about widespread simony, and so on. At the Parliament of 1786, Gustav III made concessions to the commoners, something relatively easy to do, since their complaints were about very concrete bread-and-butter issues. The nobility, by contrast, could not be mollified as easily, since their objection to the king was the increasingly “absolutist” character of his rule, something Gustav obviously had no plans abandoning.

In 1788, Gustav III started a war with Russia without consulting Parliament, which was supposed to vote on such matters. In response, a group of anti-war nobles formed the Anjala Leauge and attempted to negotiate an armistice with the Russians on their own. At the Parliament of 1789, the king could easily portray himself as a great patriot defending Sweden from its arch-enemies, while the nobility looked like cowards and traitors. With the help of the commoners, Gustav III had Parliament pass the previously mentioned Union and Security Act. Note the almost exact parallel with the Roman Republic: a dictator (Caesar) backed by the common people versus patricians demanding more power to a parliament dominated by them (the Senate). In 1789, the French revolution broke out. However “enlightened” Gustav III may have been, he opposed revolutions and had advanced plans to lead a military intervention against the new regime (or regimes) in France. Gustav III was also involved in the plans to engineer the escape of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from the revolutionary cauldron.

The exact nature of the anti-Gustavian opposition has long baffled me. Judging by Harrison´s account, it *was* somewhat baffling. Opposition came from two quarters. First, a “reactionary” camp of nobles who wanted to restore the Age of Freedom since their class interests were better served by the parliamentary regime. Second, there were radicals and firebrands who eulogized the French revolution, admired Rousseau, and so on. The interesting thing is that young mercurial nobles sometimes combined the two stances. This led to the strange alliance between “reactionaries” and “revolutionaries” which eventually ended the king´s life. Note also that the common people, most of whom were peasants, stayed aloof from these developments. The Swedish peasants were free, allowed to buy land previously owned by nobles, and had a certain amount of power in their own village communities. They had sabotaged the king´s mercantilist attempts to control liquor production, but otherwise seemed to support him out of patriotic fervor. Thus, the situation in Sweden didn´t resemble that in France, where both peasants and sans-culottes had rose in violent rebellions against the ancient régime, often forcing the hand of the “revolutionaries” themselves.

The attack on the king´s life was the result of two conspiracies, described in some detail by Harrison. First was the clique around Carl Fredrik Pechlin, a prominent noble who seemed to have embodied all the worst aspects of the Age of Freedom, including the rampant corruption and intrigue. Pechlin himself had often bribed politicians, switched party several times, and so on. Most other members of his secret group were also “reactionaries”. However, there were also two radicals. Carl Pontus Liljehorn was a deeply pious Christian and devotee of the French revolution. Carl Fredrik Ehrensvärd was a fan of Rousseau, supported the American revolution against Britain, and is described by the author as a typical “romantic revolutionary”. Both Liljehorn and Ehrensvärd were nobles. The second clique, who eventually took the lead in actually killing Gustav III, regrouped Anckarström, Claes Fredrik Horn and Adolph Ludvig Ribbing. Interestingly, Harrison describes all three as “reactionaries” (thus, Anckarström was no Jacobin as some people imagine). Above all, they had personal grudges against the king or the system. Anckarström had been arrested by the proper authorities while visiting Gotland in the Baltic Sea and talking too openly about his opposition to the royal power. He also deeply resented certain actions by Gustav III which would have made Anckarström´s trade (money-lending) less lucrative.

The aftermath to the murder is just as peculiar as the alliances leading up to it. Only Anckarström – who had carried out the actual shooting at the masquerade - was executed. The death sentences against Horn, Ribbing, Liljehorn and Ehrensvärd were commuted to perpetual exile. Many other conspirators got commuted sentences, lenient sentences already from the start, or were acquitted. Of the 40 people arrested in the aftermath of the murder, 20 were released without trial. Liljehorn´s fate is curious, since he had turned informer at the last moment and attempted to warn the king. Yet, he was shunned by the post-Gustav regime and sent into exile together with the unrepentant conspirators. The police chief responsible for the investigation into the murder and the conspiracy, Nils Henric Liljensparre, was ordered to stop further inquiries, and then sent out of Stockholm. In effect, he was demoted. Pechlin, who steadfastly refused to confess, was imprisoned but promised a swift release if he did start talking. In the end he didn´t. Pechlin died in prison four years later.

The man responsible for this surprisingly lenient treatment of the conspiracies against King Gustav III was none other than Duke Karl, the king´s own brother and regent of Sweden after Gustav´s death. (17 years later, the duke would become king himself under the name Karl XIII, but without much effective power.) This obviously raises the question whether Karl was involved in the conspiracy? Harrison believes that Karl rather acted pragmatically. Sweden was a small nation where the noble families all knew each other. A wide-ranging investigation into the circumstances of the king´s death would uncover too many uncomfortable facts and threaten stability. Many nobles had opposed the king! So Duke Karl decided to end the whole matter as quickly as possible. Also, the two brothers never liked each other. Karl resented the power of Gustav´s favorites. He rather wanted to base his power on the traditional noble families – and hence had an interest in not persecuting their wilder members too much. Of course, it is difficult *not* to see this as a conspiracy! A comparison to the 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is in order here. The more sophisticated conspiracy theorists don´t claim that the government or the police were involved in the murder, rather the claim is that they hindered a real investigation fearing that too many awkward facts would surface about everything from Swedish NATO collusion to Operation Stay Behind. Sounds a bit like Duke Karl…

The subsequent fate of some of the regicides is interesting. Liljehorn was shunned by both his fellow conspirators and the new regime, changed his name and settled in Germany as a school teacher. Ribbing carried out a virtual odyssey around Europe, periodically lived in France, and was at one point the lover of Madame De Staël. He was rumored to have participated in the 1830 July Revolution. Ehrensvärd went to Denmark, became a prominent liberal and supported the Danish king Frederick VI (who originally had pursued a liberal course). When Norway briefly became independent in 1814, Ehrensvärd traveled there and was involved in the drafting of the Norwegian Constitution, at the time considered to be the most liberal or democratic in the world. Are we to believe Harrison, it was Ehrensvärd who proposed that Norway should celebrate May 17, the date when the Constitution was adopted. Today, 17 May is the national holiday of Norway and plays an important cultural role in that country.

The subsequent fate of Sweden is also interesting. The nobility wanted a return to the Age of Freedom. Despite the regency being in the hands of an anti-Gustavian, Gustav III´s son Gustav IV Adolf eventually became the new king of Sweden. His reign proved even more despotic than that of Gustav III...

Such is the irony of history. And, perhaps, of conspiracy.