It's Friday! Are you excited about Friday? I'm excited about Friday. Or I'm telling myself that anyway.
Right. Let's get to this awesome post I have planned for us.
Right. Let's get to this awesome post I have planned for us.
5 Things You Didn't Know About Bath-Bombs.
No, I kid. I did seriously consider trying to come up with some kind of post about bath bombs just because it would be quick and then I could go back to all the things I should be doing (in other news, we're down to seven days until Briane Pagel's new book Codes comes out, you can pre-order it here).
Instead, we're going to try something novel. We're going to talk about my five favorite secret societies. But wait for the novel part.
I'm not researching. I'm going to give you 5 societies and everything I know about them off the top of my head. You can come along behind me and fact check, and the person so tells me the coolest new thing gets a prize. Sound fun?
Here we go.
#1: The Golden Dawn
This one is short. I remember it quasi started as a spiritualist group in the 1800's. I remember there were lots of super important members, like Arthur Conan Doyle and I think Charles Dickens was briefly too. This was a lot of turn of the century science meet occult religion. The coolest thing? There's still a functioning temple in England, supposedly.
#2: The Black Hand
Or possibly the White Hand, depending on who you ask. This is the group that supposedly set up the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Only they kind of didn't? No one seems to be very clear on anything, which is always good for a secret society. I read whispers somewhere that they were the nemesis of our next group...
#3: The Thule Society.
Because nothing says evil and secretive like Nazis right? So what do I know about the Thule Society? Well, A--they weren't actually Nazis. In fact I recall Hitler not actually being all that fond of them. B, I'm pretty sure they were the inspiration for Hydra in the Marvel Universe, so that's kind of cool, right? They were pretty obsessed with the Hyper-Boreans, which were these supposedly ancient precursors to man who probably came from Atlantis. At least according to the Thule society they were. Everybody else just thought they were ancient proto-Norse gods.
#4: The Freemasons
These, like #5 are kind of crowd favorites, so I'm not generally super interested in them, but I find them more plausible than a lot of others who could make the list. I know most of the founding fathers were either Freemasons or Stonemasons. I know despite what conspiracy theorists say this was probably because it was basically a secret guild and those were pretty important, in a closed-loop rich society. I've never gotten a good answer for when they might have actually started, no matter that they keep leaking they've been around since ancient Egypt. My favorite freemason pop culture reference is Dirk Pitts (or Clive Cussler's--tomato, tomato) that they snuck Abraham Lincoln into the African desert in an ironside warship so the confederates could win the war. You don't get that particular gem from the movie, you have to go read the book.
#5: The Knight's Templar.
The only good thing I have to say about them is what everybody knows from Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Holy Grail. They were supposed to have found the cup of Christ. They also, in one account I remember, liked to punish theves by melting down the gold equivalent of what they'd stolen and then feeding it to them while it was molten hot. This wasn't wasteful though, because a monk is never wasteful. They just cut it back out once they were done.
So. That kind of ended on a downer, hu? Well, that's all I've got. What've you got for me? Bring it on. I'll find some kind of applicable prize.
Monday will either be Miscellaneous, or a book cover reveal (shhh, it's a secret).
Instead, we're going to try something novel. We're going to talk about my five favorite secret societies. But wait for the novel part.
I'm not researching. I'm going to give you 5 societies and everything I know about them off the top of my head. You can come along behind me and fact check, and the person so tells me the coolest new thing gets a prize. Sound fun?
Here we go.
#1: The Golden Dawn
This one is short. I remember it quasi started as a spiritualist group in the 1800's. I remember there were lots of super important members, like Arthur Conan Doyle and I think Charles Dickens was briefly too. This was a lot of turn of the century science meet occult religion. The coolest thing? There's still a functioning temple in England, supposedly.
#2: The Black Hand
Or possibly the White Hand, depending on who you ask. This is the group that supposedly set up the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Only they kind of didn't? No one seems to be very clear on anything, which is always good for a secret society. I read whispers somewhere that they were the nemesis of our next group...
#3: The Thule Society.
Because nothing says evil and secretive like Nazis right? So what do I know about the Thule Society? Well, A--they weren't actually Nazis. In fact I recall Hitler not actually being all that fond of them. B, I'm pretty sure they were the inspiration for Hydra in the Marvel Universe, so that's kind of cool, right? They were pretty obsessed with the Hyper-Boreans, which were these supposedly ancient precursors to man who probably came from Atlantis. At least according to the Thule society they were. Everybody else just thought they were ancient proto-Norse gods.
#4: The Freemasons
These, like #5 are kind of crowd favorites, so I'm not generally super interested in them, but I find them more plausible than a lot of others who could make the list. I know most of the founding fathers were either Freemasons or Stonemasons. I know despite what conspiracy theorists say this was probably because it was basically a secret guild and those were pretty important, in a closed-loop rich society. I've never gotten a good answer for when they might have actually started, no matter that they keep leaking they've been around since ancient Egypt. My favorite freemason pop culture reference is Dirk Pitts (or Clive Cussler's--tomato, tomato) that they snuck Abraham Lincoln into the African desert in an ironside warship so the confederates could win the war. You don't get that particular gem from the movie, you have to go read the book.
#5: The Knight's Templar.
The only good thing I have to say about them is what everybody knows from Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Holy Grail. They were supposed to have found the cup of Christ. They also, in one account I remember, liked to punish theves by melting down the gold equivalent of what they'd stolen and then feeding it to them while it was molten hot. This wasn't wasteful though, because a monk is never wasteful. They just cut it back out once they were done.
So. That kind of ended on a downer, hu? Well, that's all I've got. What've you got for me? Bring it on. I'll find some kind of applicable prize.
Monday will either be Miscellaneous, or a book cover reveal (shhh, it's a secret).
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