Special: Secret Societies and Cults part 1
Added 2020-10-20 12:49:32 +0000 UTChttps://blasphemoustomes.com/2020/10/20/special-secret-societies-and-cults-part-1/
We’re back with a special interview episode about secret societies and how they might relate to Call of Cthulhu.
In our recent episodes about cults, we briefly touched on how the representation of cults in Call of Cthulhu sometimes more resembled secret societies or magical orders. We thought it might be interesting to dig into what the differences are between these types of organisations. If nothing else, this may offer some inspiration for how we portray them in our games.
Once again, we have called upon expert help. Robert Howells is an author and researcher into secret societies. He has written books about the Priory of Sion and the Illuminati, and worked on a number of related television programmes.
This is a long and discursive discussion, drifting into many esoteric and occult areas, so we have split it into two episodes. Join us in a fortnight for the conclusion, when Rob and Scott tie all of this further into cults and Call of Cthulhu.
Links
Things we mention in this episode include:
- The Order of the Silver Twilight
- Inside the Priory of Sion by Robert Howells
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
- Watkins Books
- Priory of Sion
- Alchemy
- Sufism
- Freemasonry
- Order of the Knights Templar
- Order of Saint Lazarus
- Royal Dragon Court
- Freemasons’ Hall
- Kabbalism
- The Last Pope: Decoding St. Malachy’s Prophecy on the Fall of the Vatican by Robert Howells
- The Illuminati: The Counter Culture Revolution-From Secret Societies to Wilkileaks and Anonymous by Robert Howells
- Illuminati
- Anonymous
- Secret Societies
- Morality plays
- Magical orders
- Tongs
- Lazarus of Bethany
- Horus raising Osiris
- Isaac Newton and alchemy
- The Louvre and Freemasonry
- Chartres Cathedral labyrinth
- Gnosticism
- The lost feminine archetype
- Jesus as a rabbi
- Lineage of Jesus
- Parsifal
- Nag Hammadi library
- The Gospel of Mary
- Carl Jung
- Theosophy
- Thule Society
- Ku Klux Klan
- Long-time nuclear waste warning messages
- Hieronymus Bosch
- Sacred geometry
- Paintings of medieval priests with concubines
- Tantra
- Canonbury Lodge
- Michael Baigent
- Order of Assassins
- Aga Khan
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- Rosicrucianism
- The Goetia
- The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley
- Ordo Templi Orientis
Comments
I hope there's some kind of dark humor or irony behind inviting Robert Howell right after the conclusion of the conspiracy theorist episodes..
Jacob Ohlin
2020-11-03 19:58:04 +0000 UTCI found this episode somewhat disappointing, as well - especially after the rather excellent special looking at online conspiracy theories, which I found fascinating. Too many of Howell's claims were made without any kind of evidence to back them up; and trying to portray the Priory of Sion as anything other than a hoax fabricated entirely in 1956, renders Howell's credibility on the rest of his wild stories somewhat suspect.
Jon & Fi Devon
2020-10-27 05:02:47 +0000 UTCI usually really enjoy discussions about secret societies and such even when they push the boundaries of credibility, however I took a bit of exception with your guest's explanation as to why he had joined the Freemasons. Claiming it was because "some lodges aren't well regulated and might harbor pedophiles" is beyond amusing speculation and becomes slanderous. It's also regrettable that the righteous indignation with such crimes among others is channeled away from institutions and individuals who have been publicly proven to promote such crimes (eg. Epstein and Maxwell) and misdirected toward speculative and baseless conspiracies. While not completely devoid of some scandal as many institutions are, Freemasonry is one of the least "secret" societies out there and while often I enjoy the wild speculations of those who are not members, to suggest that as large as the organization is and still be able to harbor something as sinister as a rogue lodge engaged in heinous acts is beyond the pale and undermined the credibility of your guest with regard to the rest of the discussion for me. Again, I rarely feel compelled try to dispel the various claims about the "Craft" as they're fun to play with. But when it comes to ascribing anything as evil as pedophilia being protected within our ranks at an institutional level is insulting and demonstrates an extreme lack of knowledge about the organization. There's plenty of real fodder for this sort of accusation, but very rarely with Freemasonry. I could go on about how many of the ills that organized religion and governments try to cover in their own ranks are done by besmirching contemporary Freemasonry, which was born out of the Enlightenment, in an effort to promote free thought out of the eyes of oppressive dogma and nationalism, but I'll encourage others to do their own research as there's plenty of much more factual knowledge out there available if one just thinks a bit critically about their sources. Otherwise a great show, but I now feel compelled to vet everything Mr. Howells claimed. Thanks for the opportunity to ramble. (The views expressed here are not necessarily the views of ACC~ES...although they likely are).
Arkham Community College ~ Expeditionary Society
2020-10-23 14:11:25 +0000 UTC
