Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant joins Establishment after accepting Knighthood from Prince Charles

Rock ‘n’ roll royalty: Robert Plant receives his CBE from Charles

But old rockers never die – they just end up at Buckingham Palace.

Daily Mail | Jul 11, 2009

By Simon Cable

He was the bare – chested screamer who embodied the phrase sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

Robert Plant was almost as renowned for his hellraising behaviour as for his performances with Led Zeppelin.

But old rockers never die – they just end up at Buckingham Palace.

Yesterday 60-year-old Plant became the latest in a long line of popular musicians to be honoured when he received his CBE from Prince Charles.

And rather than discuss his days of outrageous behaviour throwing TVs out of hotel windows watched by gaggles of admiring groupies, he chatted about global warming.

Plant’s award was for ’services to popular music’.

He arrived at the palace with his blond curls tied into a ponytail and wearing a plain blue suit, although he could not resist a number of heavy silver rings on his fingers.

Plant denied that the award meant he was now part of the establishment.

‘The diversity of people who have moved through here this morning prove there is no real establishment here,’ he said.

Part of the Establishment? Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant displays his CBE which he received from Prince Charles

‘I owe everything to the musicians I work with. From the UK to Africa to Tennessee, it is their brilliance that I bounce off. Alone I’m nothing.’

Plant’s date at the palace came after Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Elton John and Cliff Richard all received knighthoods.

His Led Zeppelin bandmate, guitarist Jimmy Page, was awarded the OBE four years ago.

Plant has enjoyed a successful solo career since the group split in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham. His latest album, Raising Sand, recorded with country singer Alison Krauss, won five Grammy awards after it was released in 2007.

After the ceremony, he said he and Charles discussed the Dimbleby lecture the prince gave this week on global challenges and the environment.
Plant became notorious during the 1970s for his wild behaviour. During the band’s stays at the Hyatt House hotel on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, it was nicknamed the Riot House.

Led Zeppelin have sold more than 200million albums worldwide.

In December 2007 the band reunited to play a one- off show before nearly 20,000 fans at London’s 02 arena with Bonham’s son Jason playing the drums.

Spanish documentary plumbs the depths of the secret world of Freemasonry

Kevin Williams Associates uncovers freemasons

Screen Daily | May 15, 2009

By Geoffrey Macnab

With Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code continuing to stir up controversy, Madrid-based sales outfit Kevin Williams Associates has just picked up a new feature documentary that explores in depth the secret world of freemasonry.

Masons – The Sons Of The Widow, screening in the Marche, is written and directed by Santiago Lapeira. The film – made through Black Flag Productions and Verne Films – tells the story of Marta, a young university professor who discovers that her father belonged to the Freemasons.

She resolves to find out more about the organisation, embarking on a journey that takes her to Rome, Istanbul, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Colliure. She learns about the relationship between Gaudi’s architecture and masonry and also delves into the rites, symbols and internal lives of the lodges of orders.

KWA’s slate also includes projects such as Colombian director Victor Gaviria’s long-gestating Black Blood – The Hour Of The Traitors; Aitzol Aramio’s drama A Bit Of Chocolate; and Guillermo Sempere’s black comedy Dead Birds.

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Related

Verne Films

Maçons: Els Fills de la VÍdua

American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse

The Georgia Guidestones may be the most enigmatic monument in the US: huge slabs of granite, inscribed with directions for rebuilding civilization after the apocalypse. Only one man knows who created them—and he’s not talking. Photo: Dan Winters

Wired | Apr 20, 2009

By Randall Sullivan

The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it’s hard not to think immediately of England’s Stonehenge or possibly the ominous monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Built in 1980, these pale gray rocks are quietly awaiting the end of the world as we know it.

Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground—which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars—and the “guides” themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and reflect a peculiar New Age ideology. Some are vaguely eugenic (guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity); others prescribe standard-issue hippie mysticism (prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite).

What’s most widely agreed upon—based on the evidence available—is that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the dazed survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization. Not everyone is comfortable with this notion. A few days before I visited, the stones had been splattered with polyurethane and spray-painted with graffiti, including slogans like “Death to the new world order.” This defacement was the first serious act of vandalism in the Guidestones’ history, but it was hardly the first objection to their existence. In fact, for more than three decades this uncanny structure in the heart of the Bible Belt has been generating responses that range from enchantment to horror. Supporters (notable among them Yoko Ono) have praised the messages as a stirring call to rational thinking, akin to Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason. Opponents have attacked them as the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.

Whoever the anonymous architects of the Guidestones were, they knew what they were doing: The monument is a highly engineered structure that flawlessly tracks the sun. It also manages to engender endless fascination, thanks to a carefully orchestrated aura of mystery. And the stones have attracted plenty of devotees to defend against folks who would like them destroyed. Clearly, whoever had the monument placed here understood one thing very well: People prize what they don’t understand at least as much as what they do.

The story of the Georgia Guidestones began on a Friday afternoon in June 1979, when an elegant gray-haired gentleman showed up in Elbert County, made his way to the offices of Elberton Granite Finishing, and introduced himself as Robert C. Christian. He claimed to represent “a small group of loyal Americans” who had been planning the installation of an unusually large and complex stone monument. Christian had come to Elberton—the county seat and the granite capital of the world—because he believed its quarries produced the finest stone on the planet.

Joe Fendley, Elberton Granite’s president, nodded absently, distracted by the rush to complete his weekly payroll. But when Christian began to describe the monument he had in mind, Fendley stopped what he was doing. Not only was the man asking for stones larger than any that had been quarried in the county, he also wanted them cut, finished, and assembled into some kind of enormous astronomical instrument.

What in the world would it be for? Fendley asked. Christian explained that the structure he had in mind would serve as a compass, calendar, and clock. It would also need to be engraved with a set of guides written in eight of the world’s major languages. And it had to be capable of withstanding the most catastrophic events, so that the shattered remnants of humanity would be able to use those guides to reestablish a better civilization than the one that was about to destroy itself.

Full Story

Secret Societies and The Military

“[Their god is] the Brotherhood. It’s very German, it has Masonic leanings. They’re all Masons. This Brotherhood — Opus Dei — they’re the Mob. The Marine Corps are the hit men. They’re mercenaries. They’ll work for anybody. They’ll switch hats. My husband said it’s no big deal. I’ll go work for the State Department.”

- Kay Griggs

The Kay Griggs Interviews

By Pastor Rick Strawcutter

Kay Griggs was a Southern divorcee who rented a room to Marine Corps colonel George Griggs in the late 1980s. She was impressed by his clipped manner, his education, his good looks. Two months later she married him. What she found out about world affairs as George Griggs’ wife was astounding.

Colonel Griggs was a Marine Corps Chief of Staff, as well as head of NATO’s Psychological Operations. He was also, his wife realized, entirely mind-controlled. Kay, a self-declared Christian, became privy to the real workings of the United States military, leadership training, drug-running and weapons sales, and the secret worldwide camps that train professional assassins.

These interviews with Pastor Rick Strawcutter of Adrian, Michigan were conducted in 1998, before September 11th and the installation of U.S. President George W. Bush. Kay Griggs’ report of world events and the power elite paints a picture that begins to explain the hows and whys of our current global scenario.

Quotes from Kay Griggs:

“They took with them the most perverted aspects of Nazi Germany and brought them over to the United States.”

“They get rid of the good guys. The Marine Corps are the assassins for the Mob. The military is run by the Mob. The military IS the Mob.”

“He told me what they did. They nurture–they cultivate–the sons of prominent families. They’re called “rising stars.” They rope them in. Then they “turn” them.”

ON ASSASSINS: “What my husband does for a living is train mercenaries — young boys from countries like Romania, Dominican Republic, Haiti. They’re training them to be murderers, and the taxpayers’ dollars are paying for this. They psychologically profile them. The profile is similar to my husband’s and Lee Harvey Oswald’s and [Timothy] McVeigh’s, and others who were all part of this program. Jeffrey Dahmer was part of this program. They’re all Army. They were all picked out because they were perverted or twisted. [The military profiles for] strong mother, weak father, no father, poor. Because these guys are looking for security, so they will stay in the military and do anything for that security.” (Interviews, Disk 1)

“When you work in the White House, you work under the Army. The Marines have no overlord, as such. They can float. They’re run out of New Orleans, just like Oswald was. Oswald was homosexually recruited by Jack Rubinstein, who was Jack Ruby. All of the funding for these operations goes through the “joint” — the Mob. Oswald was a loner, brilliant — and a perfect candidate. His [profile] and my husband’s profile almost look alike.” (Interviews, Disk 2)

ON TRUTH TELLERS: “St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, like the Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, has Army intelligence people in there. They’re targets — people who have decided to tell the truth. People who believe in the American dream, who are Christians, who are trying to get things straightened out. If they transgress that line where they upset somebody in high command — just like in Germany — they all of a sudden move from being a person to being a target. Therefore, the enemy. Why are good people silenced, why are their papers gone through?” (Interviews, Disk 3)

ON THE CIA: “This CIA thing, from my experience, is bogus. Every person I’ve known who was in the CIA was in military intelligence first. For example, my husband. He works under the Army. He’s a Marine Corps high-level intelligence officer, but he’s under all these Army people.” (Interviews, Disk 3)

ON LOYALTY: “Now these generals in the Marine Corps and Army, according to my husband, they are ordered. My husband, being Chief of Staff, told his men it was like this: It’s the Marine Corps first — the Brotherhood, the Cherry Marines, the bonding that goes on. The Marine Corps comes before God, before Jesus Christ, before the country. My husband is not a Christian, he’s an existentialist, and most of these guys are. [Their god is] the Brotherhood. It’s very German, it has Masonic leanings. They’re all Masons. This Brotherhood — Opus Dei — they’re the Mob. The Marine Corps are the hit men. They’re mercenaries. They’ll work for anybody. They’ll switch hats. My husband said it’s no big deal. I’ll go work for the State Department.

“The Marine Corps is just a smoke-and-mirrors thing. On [my husband's] level, he said we’ve never been an enemy to the Soviet Union. They work with these Communists. The man who started this whole intelligence operation — OSS [Office of Strategic Services] — he was recruiting known Communists who were involved in subverting Spain. They’re not Americans. They’re not Christians. They’re German existentialists. Now what are they doing running our nation? They have more affinity for the State of Israel than they do our nation. They don’t care about American citizens. The judges now in the courts are all military officers following chain-of-command orders. They’re not independent judges.” (Interviews, Disk 4)

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Related

Kay Griggs Homepage

Time: A Brief History Of The Skull & Bones Society

Time | Feb 23, 2009

By M.J. Stephey

The Skull and Bones Society Building

On Feb. 17, the 100th anniversary of Geronimo’s death, descendants of the Apache warrior filed a federal lawsuit against the secretive Skull and Bones society of Yale University demanding that the group — which it claims is in possession of Geronimo’s remains — return them to his family. “I believe strongly from my heart that his spirit was never released,” Geronimo’s great-grandson Haryln Geronimo, 61, told the National Press Club.

As legend has it, Prescott S. Bush — the father of President George H.W. Bush and grandfather to President George W. Bush — dug up Geronimo’s grave in 1918 with the help of several other “Bonesmen,” as members of the society are known, and stole the warrior’s skull, two bones and some riding gear from his grave at Fort Sill, Okla. The society allegedly put the remains on display at the “The Tomb,” an imposing, windowless crypt in New Haven, Conn. that has served as the group’s headquarters since its founding in 1832.

Conspiracy theories about the Skull & Bones Society are almost as old as the society itself. The group has been blamed for everything from the creation of the nuclear bomb to the Kennedy assassination. It’s been aped in bad teen horror films and satirized, along with fellow conspiracy-group targets the Freemasons and the Illuminati, in The Simpsons. Even CNN has done a segment on the Prescott grave-robbery saga.

Prescott Bush stole Geronimo’s Bones – CNN Report

A young Yale junior named William Russell founded the group after spending a year abroad in Germany among members of some of the most mystical and elite clubs in the world, including organizations that mimicked the Enlightenment-era Illuminati. Russell returned to the U.S. determined to found a secret society of his own and “tapped” Alfonso Taft, whose son would later become President William H. Taft, to be among the first members of “The Brotherhood of Death,” or as it was more formally known, “The Order of the Skull and Bones.” Members worshipped Eulogia, a fake goddess of eloquence, glorified pirates and reportedly hatched schemes of world domination at the “Tomb” — which is rumored to have a landing pad on the roof for the society’s private helicopter.

Skull and Bones formed at Yale University, the third-oldest school in the U.S. and an institution “known for its strange, Gothic elitism and its rigid devotion to the past,” according to journalist (and Yale secret society alumnae) Alexandra Robbins. Skull and Bones is not the only secret society at the school either: others include the Scroll and Key, Wolf’s Head, Berzelius and Book and Snake, all of which like keeping tabs on one another, some in the form of dossiers that include “reliability ratings.” Each group picks its members in a highly confidential manner and subjects them to rounds of occult hazing rituals — what pledging a fraternity might be like, perhaps, at Hogwarts.

But given the secrecy of the groups, whether a young Henry Luce (founder of Time magazine) really laid naked in a coffin and told the tales of his early sex life during his Skull and Bones initiation, or if William F. Buckley jumped into a mud pie as part of his hazing, or whether any of the three Bush Bonesman (Prescott, H.W., and W.) actually received a gift of $15,000 and the guarantee of a lifetime of financial security upon being selected — all these rumors, publicized over the years by Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times and numerous independent book authors, might never be known.

Minus the trappings of wealth, privilege and power, Skull and Bones could be a laughably juvenile club for Dungeons-and-Dragon geeks. But its rumored alumni have made up a disproportionately large percentage of the world’s most powerful leaders. (One historian has likened the society’s powers to that of an “international mafia,” for as another writer put it, “the mafia is, after all, the most secret of societies.”) Bonesmen have, at one time, controlled the fortunes of the Carnegie, Rockefeller and Ford families, as well as posts in the Central Intelligance Agency, the American Psychological Association, the Council on Foreign Relations and some of the most powerful law firms in the world.

During the 2004 presidential election, the Republican and Democratic candidates were both former Bonesmen, though neither would say much about the subject. “It’s a secret,” John Kerry said when asked about his membership; “So secret, I can’t say anything more,” George W. Bush wrote in his autobiography, as if to complete Kerry’s sentence.

The group has remained silent about the lawsuit from Geronimo’s descendants. But in a time when the Internet is opening up previously private information to the world and even Swiss banks are spilling their secrets, the activities of the Skull & Bones society might not be able to stay so clandestine for long.

Spoon-bender buys Scottish island with “links to the pyramids at Giza and the Knights Templar”

“It is one of the keystones to British mythology, and I am thrilled to be its owner.” – Uri Geller

BBC | Feb 11, 2009

The island is about 900 yards off the coast at North Berwick

Celebrity spoon-bender Uri Geller has bought a tiny Scottish island he believes has links to the pyramids at Giza and the Knights Templar.

Geller paid £30,000 for The Lamb, an uninhabited lump of volcanic rock in the Firth of Forth.

He claimed he felt a “strong instinctive urge” to buy it after reading it was for sale.

The self-proclaimed “mystifier” said he is convinced the island is one of the most significant sites in the UK.

The Lamb is the middle of three rocky islands – the others being Craigleith and Fidra – which are said to mirror the layout of the pyramids at Giza, in Egypt.

The island covers an area of just 100 yards by 50 yards.

Geller said: “I am fascinated by the connection between the pyramids and these islands.

“The connection has been known for centuries – you can read about it in a 15th century manuscript called the Scotichronicon by Walter Bower the Abbot of Inchcolm.

“So when I heard Lamb Island was for sale I felt a strong instinctive urge to buy it – and the more I delved into the history and the archaeological lore which surrounds it, the more certain I became that this is one of the most significant sites in Britain.”

The owner of the island is unlikely to gain planning consent to build on it as it is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area and has a colony of seabirds.

There are no landing facilities on the island, and access can only be gained by chartered boat – which can be hazardous as landing is only possible on the rocks.

Geller paid less than half the £75,000 asking price

The island was sold by Brazilian-born internet entrepreneur Camilo Agasim-Pereira, who owns the Barony of Dirleton.

He had been bequeathed it in 2002, but had never set foot on it.

The asking price was £75,000, but a figure of just £30,000 was settled on after negotiations.

“This island has links not only to the pyramids, but to King Arthur, King Robert the Bruce and to the ancient Kings of Ireland too,” Geller added.

“It might seem forbidding, and it is certainly uninhabitable, but it is one of the keystones to British mythology, and I am thrilled to be its owner.

“I might need a helicopter, but I am determined to set foot on my island soon.”

‘Goth Butcher’ and Accomplice Allegedly Ate Girl in Pie

Associated Press | Feb 6, 2009

By Irina Titova

Two young men — one of them a butcher — have been arrested on suspicion of killing and dismembering a 16-year-old girl and eating parts of her body, Russian prosecutors said Wednesday.

Media speculation has suggested that the suspects styled themselves as “Goths” or were part of the “emo” youth culture in which young people dye their hair, have face piercings and wear hoodies and drainpipe trousers.

“Goths ‘ate girl in a pie’” was a headline in Britain’s Mirror tabloid on Thursday.

The girl disappeared after leaving her home in St. Petersburg for school on Jan. 19, city prosecutor spokesman Sergei Kapitonov said. He said she was killed that night, and that body parts believed to be hers were later found in plastic bags scattered around the city.

Police arrested Yury Mozhnov, a florist, and Maxim Golovatskhikh, a street-market butcher and one-time psychiatric patient, Kapitonov said. Prosecutors believe they drowned the girl in a bathtub, cut her body into pieces and ate some of her internal organs.

“The arrestees said they ate the girl’s body parts because they were hungry,” Kapitonov said. They told investigators they baked some of her insides with potatoes in a stove, he said.

They allegedly then bagged up her remains and disposed of them in garbage containers and bodies of water. He said both men are being held on suspicion of murder.

The suspects, both 19, knew the victim, and she accompanied them voluntarily to an apartment rented by another acquaintance on the day she went missing, Kapitonov said.

They were arrested Saturday, a day after plastic bags — one containing a girl’s head and others holding other body parts — were found in at least two separate locations, he said.

St. Petersburg news web site Fontanka.ru cited a top city prosecutor, Andrei Lavrenko, as saying investigators believe the suspects decided to kill the victim after an argument erupted between her and Golovatskikh.

Prosecutors referred to the body parts as the girl’s, but Moscow-based tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday cited a department head at the St. Petersburg forensic medicine office, Vitaly Sysoyev, as saying they had not been positively identified as hers and that the alleged victim was still officially listed as missing. “Her father could not recognize her,” Sysoyev was quoted as saying.

Kapitonov said he was unaware of such information.

Without citing a source, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the suspects at first denied involvement. But, the newspaper said, after investigators found suspicious evidence at the apartment, they acknowledged drowning her and eating a calf muscle and part of her left hip — supposedly a Satanic practice.

Lavrenko said investigators found traces of blood when they ripped out plumbing and floorboards in the apartment, Fontanka.ru reported.

Mozhnov was convicted of robbery in 2005, while accusations against Golovatskikh of murder threats and cruelty to animals were subsequently dropped, Kapitonov said. He said Golovatskikh had been treated in the past at a psychiatric hospital.

Belgian creche attack ‘premeditated’

Canberra Times | Jan 26, 2009

BY CONSTANT BRAND

Belgian media outlets have identified the man who went on a stabbing spree at a Brussels daycare centre as Kim De Gelder, from a village about 30km away.

Authorities say the evidence points to premeditation.

The 20-year-old man has been charged with killing two infants and a 54-year-old woman at the creche.

Ten children and two staff were also wounded, some seriously, in Friday’s attack, which sent shockwaves across the country.

Prosecutor Christian Du Four said the man, who was arrested on Friday shortly after the carnage, was questioned by police and later that day appeared before a judge who charged him and placed him under arrest.

When questioned by police, the man officially named only as ”Kim D” was still in possession of a knife, a hatchet and a fake pistol, hidden in a backpack.

Mr Du Four said, ”He had a bulletproof vest under his clothes,” adding that the suspect appeared very docile during questioning.

Mr Du Four said police also found two other knives near the daycare centre where a nine-month old girl, a six-month old boy and the 54-year-old caregiver were killed.

Three judicial officials said on Saturday that police found the addresses of three other nurseries after they took the man into custody.

Mr Du Four said he would not comment on whether the suspect planned other attacks, but said the weapons found in his backpack ”point to premeditation”.

The accused, whose identity has not been officially issued, was also charged with attempted murder, the prosecutor said, as locals on Saturday left flowers and lit candles outside the creche.

The prosecutor’s office in Dendermonde, located north-west of Brussels, said the accused man lived in Belsele, a town north of Dendermonde.

Mr Du Four said he lived alone, was unemployed and had no criminal record.

He was identified by Belgian media as Kim De Gelder. Neighbours variously described him as discreet, ”eccentric” and a cycling buff.

Belgian newspapers are referring to the attacker as ”The Joker” killer because he had painted his face white with black patches around the eyes.

Investigators believe the suspect entered the ”Fabeltjesland” Fairytale-land creche about 10am local time on Friday with a 20cm knife and started stabbing and slashing the children.

Magistrate Jan Kerkhofs said, ”In every room, he tried to have the largest possible number of victims.”

The magistrate refused to comment on The Joker theory.

”He did not say anything at all so I cannot say,” Mr Kerkhofs added.

Mr Du Four said the suspect was refusing to cooperate with police after hours of questioning at a police station in Dendermonde, where he was being held.

Dr Ignace Demeyer, from Our Lady Hospital in nearby Aalst, said six of the 10 wounded children could be discharged from hospital at the weekend.

Two adults were also hurt. All those hurt were in stable condition on Saturday.

The man in question was charged on the basis of identifications by witnesses at the daycare centre, Mr Du Four said. Police had also searched his house and seized a computer.

”We don’t know anything in terms of motive, we also don’t know whether there is a link between the man and Dendermonde,” Mr Du Four said.

One worker tried but failed to disarm the suspect, who walked out of the building and rode off on a bicycle. He was later arrested in a nearby town.

Belgians were in shock after the brutal attack and many gathered outside the building on Saturday to leave flowers and teddy bears and light candles in memory of the victims.

The De Standaard newspaper described the rampage as ”madness,” while De Morgen headlined ”Cold, Bloodthirsty, Inhuman.”

Local resident Serge De Plecker said,”We thought that things like this only happened in the United States and now we see that in Belgium, in a small village like this … that such a thing could happen, it is very, very bad.”

Some 40,000 people joined a condolences and support page on Facebook.

A march and vigil was also planned for the coming days, Mayor Piet Buyse said. AP/AFP

Aristocratic occultist may have been model for Shakespeare’s Prospero

Prospero, The Tempest, RSC, Aldwych Theatre, 1983

Stewart was implicated in plots to kill the King and was rumoured to be heavily involved in witchcraft and sorcery. In 1590 he was said to have dressed as the devil during a witches’ sabbath, and cast a spell, summoning up a storm – just as Prospero did – in an attempt to wreck the king’s ship. He failed, and James survived to ascend the English throne as well 13 years later.

Exiled earl may have been the model for Prospero

The Times | Jan 24, 2009

Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, has always been one of Shakespeare’s most mysterious creations. Part mystic, part wizard, he weaves spells and conjures up storms. At the end of The Tempest he utters one of the great speeches in all the Shakespearian canon – “Now my charms are all o’erthrown; and what strength I have’s mine own.”

No one has ever been able to say with certainty what, or who, inspired the creation of Prospero, though many of Shakespeare’s characters were based on real people and events. Now, however, an amateur historian, rifling through the papers of an eccentric 16th-century Scottish Earl, has uncovered the life of a man he says may have given Shakespeare the idea for the character.

Brian Moffat, a 64-year-old retired policeman from Teviothead, in the Borders, said he stumbled upon the revelation after he and his wife bought an old chest that turned out to be the marriage trunk of Francis Stewart, the Fifth Earl of Bothwell, whose extraordinary antics and rebellious behaviour caused a political and religious scandal.

Mr Moffat decided to investigate carvings of Christian, pagan and satanic symbols on the trunk.

Stewart believed that his cousin, James VI, should invade England to avenge the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. When the King refused to consider it, he turned against him.

Stewart was implicated in plots to kill the King and was rumoured to be heavily involved in witchcraft and sorcery. In 1590 he was said to have dressed as the devil during a witches’ sabbath, and cast a spell, summoning up a storm – just as Prospero did – in an attempt to wreck the king’s ship. He failed, and James survived to ascend the English throne as well 13 years later. Stewart was imprisoned.

Mr Moffat believes that Shakespeare may have heard the stories of his eccentric behaviour from King James’s jester, Archie Armstrong, a high-ranking member of the king’s court who is thought to have inspired the character of the fool in King Lear.

“In 1590 Francis Stewart appeared in a pulpit at North Berwick Kirk dressed as the devil and summoned a storm to sink the King’s ship,” said Mr Moffat. “That incident is the starting point of The Tempest. There you have an exiled nobleman, who is also a necromancer, who summons up a storm to sink the ruling Duke’s ship. The similarities between the accounts and Shakespeare’s plot are striking. It is very likely Stewart is the inspiration for Prospero.”

Now Mr Moffat has written a book, Death, Resurrection and the Sword, in which he claims that Stewart’s link to Shakespeare’s play has been over-looked by scholars because, at the time, Stewart’s links to Freemasonry and the occult, along with his “dangerous” political beliefs, caused him to be “written out of history”.

He said: “This is an incredibly important piece of our history. Francis Stewart’s castle, Branxholme Castle, still stands. This is Prospero’s castle. This is Homecoming year, so we should really be celebrating this important link.”

Like Prospero, Stewart was finally exiled by his political rival, James VI. He was charged with treason for his part in a plot to abduct the King from Holyrood Palace in 1589, and also stood trial in 1591 on charges of witchcraft after the North Berwick Kirk incident. In 1594 he fell out with the King again.

He was finally exiled in 1595 and died penniless in Naples in 1612.

Dr Sarah Carpenter, who lectures on Shakespeare at the University of Edinburgh, said Moffat’s theory could not be proved beyond doubt, but a link with Stewart was possible.

Related

Francis Stewart Hepburn, 5th Earl of Bothwell

Francis Stewart, Earl Bothwell (b. c December 1562 – d. April 1612, Naples), was Commendator of Kelso Abbey and Coldingham Priory, a Privy Counsellor and Lord High Admiral of Scotland. Like his stepfather, Archibald Douglas, Parson of Douglas, he was a notorious conspirator, who died in disgrace.

Francis was son to John Stewart, Lord Darnley, Prior of Coldingham (d.1563), an illegitimate child of James V of Scotland by his mistress Elizabeth Carmichael. John Stewart’s wife was Jane Hepburn, Mistress of Caithness, Lady Morham (d.1599) sister to James Hepburn, the fourth Earl Bothwell. Francis is said to have been born in his mother’s tower house at Morham.

Francis Stewart Hepburn, 5th earl of Bothwell

Nephew of the 4th earl; by his dissolute and proud behaviour he caused King James VI of Scotland (afterward James I of Great Britain) gradually to consider him a rival and a threat to the Scottish crown and was made an outlaw. Through his father, John Stewart, prior of Coldingham, he was a grandson of King James V and was thus related to Mary, Queen of Scots, and the regent Moray.

Created earl of Bothwell in 1581, he became lord high admiral of Scotland and was a person of some importance at the court of James VI during the time when the influence of the Protestants was uppermost. He was eager that Mary Stuart’s death should be avenged by an invasion of England, and in 1589 he suffered a short imprisonment for his share in a rising. By this time he had completely lost the royal favour. Again imprisoned, this time on a charge of witchcraft, he escaped from captivity in 1591 and was deprived by Parliament of his lands and titles; as an outlaw his career was one of extraordinary lawlessness. In 1591 he attempted to seize Holyroodhouse, and in 1593 he captured the King, forcing from him a promise of pardon. But almost at once he reverted to his former manner of life, and, although James failed to apprehend him, he was forced to take refuge in France about 1595. He died at Naples in extreme poverty. He had three sons, but his titles were never restored.

The Devil & King James

Both ground breaking and revelationary, this book reveals the life, times and associates of Francis Stewart,”The King Devil” who has, until now, been almost entirely written out of history, although he came within an ace of becoming King of both Scotland and England.

Freemasonry: “Perfecting” the Imperfect

Sovereign Sentience | Dec 31, 2008

By Matthew D. Jarvie

One of the mottos in Freemasonry is “to perfect that which was left imperfect.” This has different meaning to the lowly initiates at the bottom of the proverbial pyramid, who merely serve as useful idiots, compared to what the adepts at the top of the pyramid believe. These adepts believe that the creator of the universe left the world — including mankind itself — in an imperfect state. The deviants at the top of the ladder, who run the stage show of consensus reality through their various levels of command and control, see themselves quite literally as Gods who, having reached perfection themselves, have the ability and natural right to shape and reshape the world according to their plan known as the “Great Work.” They see themselves as re-creators, above and at odds with the true creator of the universe.

The secular humanists and high priests of science have largely taken over from the control mechanism of organized religion, instilling a belief in people’s minds that the material world is the extent of all truth, and that all truth is to be found through the understanding of science. As with organized religion, Freemasonry and other such organizations, what the “profane masses” at the bottom are given to believe is far different from that which the controllers at the top know and use against us lowly, “lesser-evolved” types, who are seen as nothing more than cannon fodder for the rebuilding of Solomon’s (Sol-Om-On) Temple, which itself is exoteric allegory for the Great Work; the “perfection” of mankind and everything else under the sun.

Science fiction writer and futurist, Arthur C. Clarke, stated in his “laws” of prediction that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and it’s this “magic,” which is the science behind the advanced technology unknown to the general public, that is being developed and perfected, not to free humanity but enslave and ultimately destroy it.

People in the Western nations are constantly being beat over the head with well-funded propaganda designed to instill in their minds hope of a cure for cancer and AIDS. Well-meaning but painfully naive people driven by fear and emotion will then donate their hard-earned money to what they think is a noble cause, not knowing that these donations are going to the very same government-linked institutions that gave us AIDS and are working to create — not cure — even faster-acting cancer viruses and plagues; the former being unleashed from the tip of a needle, with the latter waiting in some government laboratory to be released at a time seen fit by the psychopathic controllers on an oblivious public (no doubt to be blamed on some Middle Eastern patsies).

NASA spends billions of dollars on a PR campaign aimed at enthralling us with the wonders of space travel and future missions to Mars, but how many people know about the satellite technology that can spot a penny on the ground and even see through people’s walls? What about the technology that evolved out of the Star Wars program, which has more than likely since been further developed and weaponized to control the weather, control people’s minds, torture and harass people, strike targets on the ground, and even create nuclear-like explosions anywhere on the earth using directed-energy and other satellite-based electromagnetic weaponry?

The big agribusinesses like Monsanto, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) have for years been leading the push in the peddling of genetically-modified crops under the banner of feeding the third world population, “ending starvation” as their New World Order minions work to exterminate these same people with World Health Organization vaccination campaigns sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But we already know this is a big lie because the evidence is overwhelming that these GM crops don’t help, but sicken those who consume them and the foods made from them. It is estimated that over 70% of the processed garbage that passes as “food” found at the grocery stores is made from genetically-modified ingredients. Meanwhile, hardly a week passes where we don’t hear something in the establishment media about the obesity epidemic and rising rates of childhood diabetes. Of course no connection is made to the organ-damaging, blood-altering GM waste that’s in the junk they’re eating.

So above is just a few examples of how the “new” religion of the masses — the religion of humanism and science — which is yet another exoteric version of the ancient religion of the Kabbalistic/Freemasonic controllers, is leading us into the darkness instead of into the light, as they would have us believe. We are lead to believe that humans today are on the cutting edge of technological discovery, and this technology is being developed to only help benefit the average person that is in fact a target for extermination by the same cryptocracy behind the development of this same technology that it also controls, administers and directs to meet its own agenda. Through flattery and reliance on the ignorance of a deliberately dumbed-down public oblivious to real history, the controllers, via their media, lead the people to believe that they’re the most advanced people to ever walk the earth. By placing science above creation, this cements the flawed idea that man himself can become God through the understanding of science, and thus is the key to salvation in the material world, which we are supposed to believe is the extent of all existence. However, this salvation will not be for the many but rather the select few at the very top, who seek immortality in the material world through the mastering of science and the understanding of nature.

The controllers’ “perfection” of the world is nearing completion. They already have control over the planet’s weather and crops with HAARP, scalar technology and GMO seeds. The metaphorical capstone will be added to the pyramid once humanity has been “pefected” with the emergence of the “New Man,” which was frequently mentioned by the communists as being the peak of human evolution. However, this is to be an engineered evolution born in a laboratory and designed to serve its masters with total efficiency once the majority of the world’s population, after serving its purpose, is eliminated to make way for the utopia of the chosen few.