Category: Interviews

We’re back with the conclusion of our special interview with Robert Howells about secret societies, building on our recent episodes about cults. The first part of our discussion focused on how secret societies differ from cults and magical orders. This time, Robert offers some items from his research that he thinks may be of particular interest to Call of Cthulhu players.

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.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• The Men’s House by Bro. Joseph Fort Newton
• Freemasonry
• Canonbury Lodge
• Rosslyn Chapel
• Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Continental Freemasonry
• Order of Saint Lazarus
• Propaganda Due
• Order of the Solar Temple
• Jonestown
• Order of the Knights Templar
• Illuminati
• Priory of Sion
• Bletchley Park recruitment via crossword
• Cicada 3301
• Rennes-le-Château
• Menorah
• David Woods
• Ark of the Covenant
• Bloodline (2008)

• Alchemy
• Kabbalism
• Sufism
• Sicilian Mafia
• Tongs
• Wikileaks
• Anonymous
• Roswell UFO Incident
• Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment
• Zen archery
• Abramelin working

• Necronomicon
• Donald Tyson
• “The History of the Necronomicon“ by HP Lovecraft
• Picatrix
• John Dee
• Inside the Priory of Sion by Robert Howells
• 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 Wikileaks and Anonymous by Robert Howells

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More

This is the second part of our discussion with our good friend Bence Szlamka about the murky grey area between cults and conspiracy theories. Those of you on our Discord server will know Bence as TRNSHMN, one of our moderators. While Bence is clear that he is not a scholar, he has spent a great deal of time studying conspiracy theories.

Our last episode largely focused on QAnon, which dominates the modern conspiracy landscape. In this instalment, Scott talks to Bence about some of the weirder aspects of modern conspiracies, including, mole children, flat Earth adherents, and the role of Jesus in network security.

While we try to keep the tone relatively light, some of these conspiracy theories involve unpleasant ideas. QAnon, especially, embraces various beliefs about the abuse, trafficking and sacrifice of children. We avoid going into too much detail, but be warned that we at least touch upon these subjects. In the end, however, this is an RPG podcast, and our focus is to find inspiration for our games.

We will be back next week with a regular episode: the second part of our journey into the weird west.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Anti-vaccination movement
• Alex Jones
• Save the Children Rallies
• Thimerosal
• Mole children under Central Park
• Adrenochrome
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson
• “The Rats in the Walls” by HP Lovecraft
• Praying Medic
• John F Kennedy Jr conspiracy theories
• The murder of New York mob boss Franceso Cali
• Other violent crimes committed by QAnon followers
• Marjorie Taylor Greene
• The Omega Kingdom Ministry

• Dominionism
• Comet Pizza conspiracy theory
• Prosperity Gospel
• Bastard Operator From Hell
• The King in Yellow
• Flat Earth

• Mark Sargent
• Sovereign Citizens
• Bad faith rhetoric
• GamerGate
• Cambridge Analytica
• Internet Research Agency
• COINTELPRO
• Stuxnet
• Bot farms
• Apophenia
• “The Call of Cthulhu”
• Canadian Flat Earth Conference
• “The Broadsword” from Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
• Delta Green
• Control
• Global Frequency

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More

In our recent episodes about cults, we mentioned how social media has blurred the line between cults and conspiracy theories. Phenomena like QAnon display many cult-like attributes but lack formal leadership. We thought it would be interesting to dig into this a little more.

As none of us knows much about modern conspiracy theories, we turned to our good friend Bence Szlamka for help. Those of you on our Discord server will know Bence as TRNSHMN, one of the moderators there. While Bence is clear that he is not a scholar, he has spent a great deal of time studying conspiracy theories. Scott talked to Bence for a couple of hours, delving into the darker corners of QAnon, the anti-vaccination movement, flat-Earthers, and other cult-like conspiracy theories.

While we tried to keep the tone relatively light, some of these conspiracy theories revolve around unpleasant ideas. QAnon, especially, embraces various beliefs about the abuse, trafficking and sacrifice of children. We avoid going into too much detail, but be warned that we at least touch upon these subjects. In the end, however, this is an RPG podcast, and our focus is to find inspiration for our games.

This turned into quite a long discussion, so we have split it into two episodes. Join us in a fortnight for the conclusion, when Bence and Scott talk about some even stranger contemporary conspiracy theories.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Knowledge Fight podcast
• Alex Jones
• QAnon
• Bill Cooper
• The Satanic Panic
• The Shaver Mystery
• Theosophy
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
• David Icke
• 4chan
• Q clearance
• 8chan
• Sovereign citizens
• Moloch
• Witch panic
• Changelings in fairy folklore
• Blood libel
• Adrenochrome
• QAnon Anonymous podcast

• Sealed indictments
• PACER
• 2018 Horizon Air Q400 incident
• Apophenia
• Jim Watkins
• Sound of My Voice
• Project Looking Glass
• John Titor
• Art Bell
• Incels
• GamerGate
• Alt-right
• Love bombing
• Michael Flynn
• Michael Flynn’s QAnon influenced oath of duty

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More