> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.writingintheshadows.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Bohemian Grove and the Cremation of Care - URL: https://www.writingintheshadows.com/bohemian-grove-and-the-cremation-of-care/ - Published: 2026-08-12T14:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-13T07:44:29.000Z - Author: Ken Preston - Tags: Books, Movies ## There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight. Under a moonlit sky, the giant redwoods stand proud and strong. The wind whispers amongst them, the only sound here apart from the hooting of a solitary owl somewhere deep in the forest. Rows of collapsible wooden chairs have been set up in a clearing next to a lake, and sitting upon those chairs are men, mostly middle-aged, some elderly, but few younger than thirty. They are sitting in silence and wearing seersucker jackets and chinos. Among these men are presidents and professors, scientists and philosophers, artists and mathematicians, the rich and the powerful. There are no women. They sit facing Owl Lake, and upon its still, glassy surface is reflected the full moon. On the opposite shore of the lake is an altar, which stands in front of a giant statue (40 ft tall!) of a moss-covered owl. Later, during the ceremony, the owl will issue its commandments, but for now it says nothing. The silence is pregnant with expectation. At exactly 9:15 p.m. a procession of priests carrying a wooden box in which a body lies emerges from the trees on the east side. The priests are clothed in bright red, blue and orange hooded robes, and carry torches, the flames flickering bright in the darkness of the night. When they reach the lake they extinguish their torches. The assembled men sit in hushed silence. ‘Behold, the effigy of this, our enemy, is carried hither…’ The hooded Priest’s voice breaks the silence of the forest as he holds his hands high. ‘The Owl is in his leafy temple; let all within be reverent before him. Lift up your heads, O ye trees, and be ye lift up, ye ever-living spires. For behold, here is Bohemia’s shrine, and holy are the pillars of this house. Weaving spiders, come not here!’ The oblong box is placed in a gondola at the lake’s shore, and now the “body” can be seen more clearly, and is revealed as a simple skeleton construction of wood wrapped in a black muslin cloth. The High Priest descends to the water’s edge. ‘Hail Bohemians! With ripple of waters and the song of birds, do we invite you to Midsummer’s joy! Evening’s cool kiss is yours, the campfire’s glow. Shake off your sorrows with the City’s dust. And scatter to the winds the cares of life!’ A second priest approaches the gondola and its macabre load, and says, ‘Dull Care, arch-enemy of Beauty; not for thee the tender tribute and the restful grave, but fire shall have its will of thee. And all the winds make merry with thy dust! Bring fire!’ A third hooded priest proceeds slowly to the gondola, holding a flaming torch. Before he can touch the fire to the gondola though, a voice booms out across the forest. ‘Fools! Fools! Fools! When will ye learn that me ye cannot slay? Year after year ye burn me in this Grove, lifting your silly shouts of triumph to the stars. But when again ye turn your feet toward the market-place, am I not waiting for you, as of old? Fools! Fools! To dream ye conquer Care!’ The priests turn in desperation to the owl. ‘Oh thou, great symbol of all mortal wisdom, Owl of Bohemia, grant us thy counsel!’ And finally, the Owl speaks. ‘Be pure in heart, for it is only the pure eternal flame that burns within the Lamp of Fellowship that can cremate Care.’ And with this, the Priest touches his torch to the gondola and, as it is enveloped in orange flames, it is pushed out into the centre of the lake. The assembled men explode in cheers. Fireworks erupt at the lakeside, and a brass band in peppermint-striped jackets and straw boaters march out of the woods playing “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.” *That* is the official ceremony of the Cremation of Care, held every year at Bohemian Grove, where leaders of the world, amongst other powerful men of the the arts and sciences, meet for secretive meetings, talks, and general high jinks in the woods. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/0_nEEy5wLCxUydhPFX.jpg) The Bohemian Club was founded in 1872 and Mark Twain and Jack London were early members. Over the years it has turned into a club for rich conservative men to let loose in the woods. Former President George W. H. Bush was a member, and J. Robert Oppenheimer who headed the Manhattan Project, led a meeting in one of the clubhouses just a few years before the atomic bomb was set off over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And naturally it has inspired conspiracy theorists everywhere to out it as a secret front for the Illuminati. The UK’s favourite conspiracist and turquoise-tracksuit-wearing prophet of doom, former BBC Sports presenter David Icke, once refused an invitation to Bohemian Grove on the grounds that people ‘… disappear in those forests.’ That didn’t stop Alex Jones though, who smuggled his way into the Grove to film the Cremation of Care ceremony and [claimed that it involved human sacrifice](https://www.c-span.org/clip/booknotes/user-clip-c-span-from-2002-jon-ronson-talks-about-alex-jones-sneaking-into-bohemian-grove-and-how-alex-lies-to-his-listeners/4771335?ref=writingintheshadows.com). All of these world leaders getting together once a year in a giant redwood forest to partake in human sacrifices obviously means that they are the secret rulers of the world. That concept of a secret cabal who are actually in charge of what only seems like a chaotic world is the concept behind the Ms Vengeance series of books. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Ms-V1-3-FB-Pphoto-18-December-2025.jpg) It starts with a murder, and grows deeper and darker from there. Originally I came up with the idea of writing a female version of Jack Reacher. But I needed to put my own twist on it, and I liked the idea of this woman, fighting this secret cabal and their agents, starting off as an ordinary mom and having to learn all those special skills (the ones Jack Reacher has) as the books unfold. The Ms Vengeance books are on Amazon, in Kindle and paperback. Here is how it starts: > His job was killing people, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate culture and fine art. > He wasn’t a monster. > His fingers ran over the piano keys, and he closed his eyes as he played. Click the button below for the Kindle and Paperback copy on Amazon. [RECKONING](https://readerlinks.com/l/4452330?ref=writingintheshadows.com) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/9781915813374.png)](https://readerlinks.com/l/4452330?ref=writingintheshadows.com) Or, if you want to support an independent author by buying the paperback directly, go here: [BUY DIRECT](https://readerlinks.com/l/5068802?ref=writingintheshadows.com) ## Watching 365 Movies in 2026 ### Movies watched this week ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Woyzeck-2026-1.png) ****188\. Really don’t know what this was about.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Ipcress-File-2026.png) ****189\. British spy films don’t get any cooler than this.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Dressed-to-Kill-2026.png) ****190\. That DePalma is a sick puppy.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Sonatine-2026.png) ****191\. I just didn’t get it.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/The-Sting-2026.png) ****192\. Redford and Newman in the same film is just too much star power!** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Prisoners-2026.png) ****193\. Just as great the second time.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/The-Big-Heat-2026.png) ****194\. Hits all the noir beats like a Swiss watch.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Civil-War-2026.png) ****195\. Just wow.** That's enough of that for the moment! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Signature-1.png) ## Get your free book now. Send me my book We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime. [Built with Kit](https://kit.com/features/forms?utm%5Fcampaign=poweredby&utm%5Fcontent=form&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fsource=dynamic)