occult religion crime conspiracy Levenda

August 1, 2005 12:46 AM

Sinister Forces: A Grimoire of American Political Witchcraft is the 3 volume culmination of author Peter Levenda's 25 years of research into the strange and bizarre undercurrents of American political, cultural and religious history. In his previous effort, Levinda focused on the occult roots of Nazism in an utterly fascinating and unerving book called Unholy Alliance which is discussed in this interview. A radio interview with Levinda is available here.
posted by thedailygrowl (15 comments total)

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posted by hortense at 1:09 AM on August 1, 2005

I am actually interested in listening to the interview!
And the Manson secret? The late Mae Brussell, claimed that Charlie was part of a plan to discredit the 60's youth movement.
posted by hortense at 1:33 AM on August 1, 2005

Does he explain all the creepy shit on the US one dollar note? That's what I want to know.

But seriously. 25 years research?!!! Holy smoke, that's impressive. So if he's not a total crank, this would be compelling reading, yes?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 1:44 AM on August 1, 2005

I love the tag line from Norman Mailer's foreword:

"...The first of these three volumes of Sinister Forces is already ten books in one. Depending on one’s reading inclinations, this is either a disaster or a great bargain."
posted by paulsc at 3:28 AM on August 1, 2005

Mod note: fixed the links in the post
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:09 AM on August 1, 2005

The interview is very good! thanks for this post.There is more of this sort of thing over at WFMU, for those of us who enjoy connecting the dots.
posted by hortense at 10:09 AM on August 1, 2005

For the record, the nazis persecuted Freemasons in Germany, looting lodges and murdering officers in response to their alleged complicity in the "global Jewish conspiracy" as described in the slanderous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. (Interestingly, Hamas includes masons on their hit list based on those Protocols to this day.)

It utterly misrepresents Freemasonry to lump it in with all those victorian occult groups. Masons are, and have been for at least 400 years, the good guys.
posted by Toecutter at 5:48 PM on August 1, 2005

(and in fairness, the interview link does mention nazi persecution of freemasonry -- I was just (over) reacting to the inclusion of masons in the list of "occult" groups in the Unholy Alliance link). It's a touchy subject for me because some anti-masonry sites rant both about the occult nature of freemasonry and its ties to the nazis, both of which are untrue.)
posted by Toecutter at 6:45 PM on August 1, 2005

Toecutter you are right to point this out. In Holy Alliance Levenda goes into detail of the Nazi persecutions of the Freemasons. Although the subjects he covers are certainly fodder the "conspiracy club", Levenda's research and mastery of the subject is what sets him apart from most authors trying
to cover these subjects.
posted by thedailygrowl at 8:08 PM on August 1, 2005

So Toecutter, might we make the obvious assumption about you, trowels, and aprons? If so, is there a virtual lodge?
posted by mwhybark at 8:25 PM on August 1, 2005

* extends hand to mwhybark *
I am also a Freemason, as is rough_ashlar (duh!) and a few others I can't remember offhand. Maybe we should start a virtual lodge!
posted by yhbc at 8:33 PM on August 1, 2005

Oh, and uncanny hengeman - it's all Masonic symbolism, as you suspected, except for the specific allusions to the original 13 colonies.
posted by yhbc at 8:38 PM on August 1, 2005

I would like to point out that Masonry hasn't been all good guys, all the time. The P2 scandal in Italy leaps to mind. Sure, it's simple corruption, but Masonic ties were involved.

Don't take any of that the wrong way. My grandfather was a Mason--buried in his apron, actually--and I'm petitioning sometime in the next year.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:28 PM on August 1, 2005

Yup, Freemason here. This is my lodge (founded in 1736, it's the oldest continously operating lodge in the Americas).
posted by Toecutter at 2:20 PM on August 2, 2005

er, sorry for the boast about the lodge and digression, just kinda proud of it.
posted by Toecutter at 7:32 PM on August 2, 2005