ep. 25 - Druids, Demons & Teddy Ruxpin

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Ancient Celtic Druids base their holidays on the wheel of the year.

The Celtic year was divided into 2 halves the light and the dark. Within The halves, there would be 4 fire festivals. Samhain was the name of the fire festival that marked the beginning of the dark half of the year.

During Samhain, it is said that the world of the gods and goddesses is made visible, and spirits from the otherworld return to earth. To keep these spirits happy the Celts would put offerings and sacrifices outside of the town for their enjoyment.

The people would wear skins and costumes of animals to confuse the spirits from knowing who was who in case they had a beef with someone.

Bonfires would be made and the shamanic druid priests would give psychic readings to the people.

Often during this time monsters and demonic spirits would come by and kidnap and kill people.

Phere was Phookah which is a shape-shifting creature typically rabbit-like or horse-like.

There was Lady Gyn who was a headless woman who chased people around with her trusty demonic black pig.

The Dullahan which you might recognize better as the headless horseman would carry his head and ride a black horse with deep red eyes. If you saw him that was a death omen.

Then There was the faery host which was a group of hunter fairy spirits who kidnapped people.

Generally, people feared the spirits, and for good reason. But as time went on people became enthralled with spirits, the occult, Gnosticism, Wicca, and so on.

In the Middle Ages Dumb supper came about where people would leave all the doors and windows open for the spirits to come in and take part in the feast, children would play games to entertain the spirits and the family would update the invisible visitors on how life was

Mumming came out of that, which was caroling door to door on Samhain to entertain the spirits who were participating in dumb supper. In return, cakes would be given to those carolers.

Put it all together and you can see where we get our modern secular "holiday" Halloween.

I got a great show for you today I'll tell you about the Druids of California, I'll give you the stories of Dyer Lane and its true history, We'll look into the Esoteric Fraternity up in Applegate and check in on the Bohemian Grove near San Francisco and then we'll travel all the way up to Seattle for a mass murder story. Plus some other stuff.  Sit back relax and get ready to learn.

Every time I have driven around or through Placerville there's a strange pillar in the middle of the street with what looks to be a flame on the top.

One day while driving by, I noticed on the plaque that it says Druids of California.

I don't know about you but I had never heard of a druid but it sounded kinda weird. I didn't think much about it after that but then I heard a preacher mention druids one day and I remembered that pillar. I still never looked into it, I didn't care all that much. Just a passing curiosity, you know.  I bet at least one of you has been curious if you have seen it, and those that haven't are at least slightly intrigued now that I mentioned it.

So, I spent a few hours researching all I could for you, and here's the story.

The pillar is a memorial to a guy who is the man who successfully brought druidism to the state of California. His name was Frederick Sieg. A German who immigrated to the States and lived in St. Louis where he was introduced to the ideas of druidism.

He eventually caught gold fever and moved to California, he slaved away as a miner for a little bit until he settled over in Hangtown "Placerville".

In Placerville, he made it his mission to bring The United Ancient Druid Order to fruition in California. Two others had tried, once in Sacramento and once in San Francisco but there wasn't much interest, and Sacramento in particular had a big fire that spread the potential members in all directions.

Frederick did well and got a whole, 2 people on board and soon more until there was enough demand that he made 2 more "groves" which is the druid’s name for their meeting place, One in Coloma and another in San Francisco.

Now, The pillar monument was installed back in 1926, thirty-eight years after Frederick's death.

On the Pillar, there is a druidic emblem which in their words "shows a flaming pyre surmounted by a crossed spear and a long-handled sickle. Oaks, Mistletoe, Daffodil, and the all-seeing eye in the triangle.

So that answers what the heck that thing is, but it begs the question...

What is a druid?

Well, that depends on 10 billion different things. Druidism isn't like other religions where they all believe the same general thing with some differences within denominations based on theology. Druids are like snowflakes, no two are alike,

There are even differences in whether it’s a religious druid or a social druid.

But generally speaking, Druids are a secret society like the Freemasons. They have very similar rituals and beliefs and can be religious or more social,  based on the grouping.

The kind that the pillar in Placerville memorializes is more of the social club type. They are like the Rotary Club in a way from what I was able to figure out.

But there are very different kinds of druids. Historically they were cannibalistic mass murderers, in fact, The Burning Man over in Nevada kind of takes after a practice the druids would do. Druids would build a massive cage in the form of a man out of wicker and fill it with people to sacrifice and would light them all on fire. They would grab as many criminals as they could but if they needed to throw innocent people in there to fill it up, they would.

Modern religious Druidism is essentially New Age and Wiccan most are pantheists meaning they believe their gods and goddesses are in everything. Many believe in reincarnation similar to the Hindu but in particular they believe souls are not unique and that once a person dies they are reborn in the other world and then when they die in the other world they are born in this world. whether that be as a human or some kind of animal.

For example, they have records of a guy named Tuan Mac Coriall who they say lived 100 years a man, 300 a deer, 300 a boar, 300 a bird, and 300 a salmon... but other records show he lived 100 years a man, 20 a hog, 30 a stag, 100 an eagle and 30 a fish.

Simply put, Druidism in terms of ancient times was a pagan religion, very shamanic and secretive, it takes about 12 to 15 years to become a druid and they have hardly any verifiable history. Druids were written about in literature in medieval times both in a positive light and a negative light.

historically, Julius Caesar is quoted as saying that the druids were in charge of public and private sacrifices they refused to pay taxes and were pacifists.

The Druids say they built the Stonehenge but there's no telling if that's true or not.

But let's go back to that pillar.

These druids from what I could tell, have nothing to do with the religious type.

1781 in London a social club for men formed and was called The Ancient Druidic Order. They operated secretly as the other clubs of those days did. As time went on, The organization split in two creating The United Ancient Druidic Order in 1833. This offshoot then made its way to Boston and then to St. Louis where Frederick Sieg became a member.

The religious Druids claim Merlin as one of theirs. as you could figure.

The social club kind of druid from England has its own celebrity, Sir Winston Churchill.

Now you know what that pillar is, who it memorializes, The History and distinction of which kind of Druids. But one thing I should point out is that just because there is a distinction doesn't mean a person can't be a member of both. Late at night, it is said you can find druids gathering at the pillar.

Some of you guys send me things to check out, read, and add to my enormous list of people and topics to cover in future podcasts. I do this show on my downtime which there isn't much of which is why I don't post episodes often or keep a schedule. Well, Back when I was doing the episode on E. Clampus Vitus I was messaged about a group called The Esoteric Fraternity, I added it to my list and chose it for one of the stories for this episode.

So... What the heck is The Esoteric Fraternity?

Some would say it was and is some kind of new-age Christian science sex cult. Members of course would argue so let’s dive on in.

There was once a man named Hiram Erastus Butler. He was in the Union army during the Civil War building roads and bridges not for the cause of the North. He was stationed at a hospital where he met a gal and they got married. As soon as she bore him two children he went to get some milk at the store and must have forgotten that he had 2 kids and a wife because they never saw him again.

He worked at a sawmill for a little while until he lost 3 of his fingers, one for each of the people he deserted I guess.

After this, he went into the woods for 14 years. some records say only 40 days so I'm not sure which. Either way, he appeared in Boston Announcing that he was a prophet of Occult Wisdom and he was now calling himself the Adhy Apaka The Hellenic Ethnomedon

He was a student of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and also Pascal Beverly Randolf who taught sex magick rituals for a higher consciousness and spiritual knowledge, which is also what inspired famed occultist Aleister Crowley.

Mr. Butler eventually came to the conclusion that semen retention and celibacy were the way to a heightened consciousness and immortality. Which is interesting because his group initiated women often, which the initiation… well let’s say wasn't very celibate.

The Boston Herald reported in 1889 this...

The full secrets of the "inner circle," as the grade which students reached after a course of study was termed, will probably never be told to the public, and if all that is said about this "ring" is true, a description could not be printed in any newspaper. One married lady of social prominence in this city studied at the "college," believing its theories of occultism to be thoroughly trustworthy. After a course of investigation, she was believed to be worthy of introduction to the inner circle and was told to prepare herself for initiation. She claims that she was compelled to submit to indignities on the part of persons connected with the college, both by physical and psychological power, being told that such work was necessary to free her soul from the bondage of evil passions. The lady finally became so disgusted that she resigned from the college and its inner circle and devoted herself to her home; but a short time afterward her husband's suspicions were aroused in a startling manner, and his discoveries led her into a confession. The husband was almost heartbroken at the statement of his wife's unfaithfulness, and his first thought was to shoot the professor [Butler, who is calling himself Professor Hiram Butler]. Friends however advised him not to do so, as justification would be hard to prove before a jury, and it was thought that the offender could be reached through the court. Two papers were then made out against him; one on a criminal charge of adultery, and the other on a civil suit for alienating the affections of the wife [but the suits were, ultimately, not brought]....One young woman has said that after being prayed over for three or four days she was told to be ready to receive a visit from the Master Om in the astral body, he having journeyed from the Himalaya mountains especially to purify her. She was instructed to perfume her body with scented oils, and wrap herself in a long winding sheet, then pray unceasingly for delivery from passion. Perhaps the first night, she was told, the master would not appear, but on the second a man of extremely venerable appearance would enter her room, and after he should converse and pray with her she was to give herself up to the spirit....It is now reported that Prof. Hiram Erastus Butler has left Boston for parts unknown

The Parts unknown was the Bay area. He was found running some store in Oakland And the story still followed him.

The local Newspaper published this piece.

"a professional hypnotizer who was run out of Boston last year," and a man possessing "an occult influence over weak-minded young men and women, [who] is using his magic powers, under the guise of a species of theosophy, to secure funds with which he promises to build an esoteric college in the Santa Cruz mountains. How well he is succeeding no one knows, but Butler declares he has at least 500 converts in San Francisco."

Famous mystic, Helena Blavatsky said he was no better than a cheap pseudo-spiritual hustler then went on to accuse him of siring astral plane children, whatever the heck that means.

In truth Mr. Butler only had around 12 or so in his circle, He and his group bought a bunch of land over in Applegate, CA to build their self-sufficient monastic community commune.

There they built themselves a nice big 18-room 4-story house, a fruit business, and The Esoteric Publishing Company.

They put out a bunch of books and a magazine.

One of the books, Solar Biology was the most popular and is where we get modern astrology from. Those horoscopes you hear people talking about, what sign they are, and why a particular sign is why they are annoying is based on this guy’s book.

He believed that he was a reincarnation of someone and was one of the chosen to be of The Order of Melchizedek. That 144,000 just like him would bring about the Kingdom of God.

Though he believed or claimed to believe that being celibate would grant immortality and higher consciousness he died at the age of 75.

I grew up in Antelope, California. If you even know where that is then you'll know the road I'm about to talk about. For those who don't know. Antelope is a suburb near Sacramento. The road is known for being creepy, weird things happening, and being dangerous at night. It's off the beaten path, unkempt, and covered in graffiti.

This road has many rumors spread about it. Some may be true, some may not. As a Christian, I try to stay away from demonic places and things. But I know many people enjoy entertaining spirits. Back in High School a friend of mine with some of their friends on Homecoming night drove down this road and pulled out a Ouija board. They did some kind of whatever and soon one of the girls started screaming. She unzipped the back of her dress to reveal her back all of a sudden had a bunch of deep scratches some of which were bleeding.

I have no proof that actually is true. they told me about it and I never forgot. But the Scratching is very interesting because that is a commonly reported event that happens there. I'll talk about that in a minute.

The road I speak of is Dyer Lane.

Rumor or truth? You decide.

Back in 1932, there were about 6 witches in the area who would gather out in the field near the road and do spells or whatever. A group of boys followed them and were watching for a chance to pounce. They got two of the witches and raped them, the other witches ran away to get the cops and as they did cursed the boys. One boy after raping, strangled his victim. The other threw a rock at her head and killed her. Within 3 weeks one of the boys was hit by a truck and killed. 4 months later another of the boys was mugged and stabbed to death in LA. The third boy drowned in the river, the 4th died when skiing and hitting a tree on the way down.

Then there's the story of the police car.

It is said that on the road at night, you'll see a cop pull up behind you and flash his lights. You pull over and it suddenly vanishes.

Another story is that back in 1854 the KKK in the area would use the fields near Dyer Lane to burn the crosses and hang people. They say at night you might see the white hoods in the field in a circle, and a man hanging from a tree.

Then there's the Farmer on the tractor who appears then vanishes seconds later

Then we get back to the scratching I mentioned before. Back in 1967, There was a Satanic cult who would go out in the field near Dyer Lane. They wanted to summon a demon they worshiped who is called Amdusias.

They kidnapped a girl named Lin who was the sister of one of the members and they sacrificed her while chanting something to summon Amdusias. The demon appeared and soon a bunch of the members died of weird causes, one was found with a slit throat on a park bench. But From then on if you heard chanting late at night out on Dyer Lane you might just get some deep scratches from what seemed to be a three-clawed creature.

In 1969 a hitchhiker guy was out near Dyer Lane camping. All of a sudden he heard chanting and he started screaming and had some kind of seizure. People who heard the screams came to see what was going on and he lay there convulsing on the road screaming "The Chanting! The Chanting!" and then died.

Believe what you want. I think the cult story may be true but the rest probably not. but here's the absolute truth of this road.

Back in 1854, there was a man named John Dyer and his wife named Julia Dyer they had just come to California from Missouri. They started a ranch and lived the pioneer rancher life until they died. Their son took over the ranch and then sold it to Mr. Riolo which might ring a bell for those that know Cook - Riolo Road

That's all that is for sure true. The rest is up to you.

Real quick I wanted to mention something that was brought to my attention by one of you guys and this is not sponsored. In Auburn there's a post office known as Station A, It has been recognized as the oldest operating post office on this side of the Mississippi. Mail started to be delivered to to Auburn in 1849, a post office was created in 1853 which moved to this building in the late 1870s. Then back in September 2023 it closed up for good. The family who runs the Key shop and more in Rio Linda just bought it and have been fighting the Post office to keep the historical parts intact, from what I hear, they won the right to keep the 1870s installed PO boxes but they had to get rid of the sign out front. They are doing a soft opening today The Day I post this podcast October 31st, 2023 So if you are in need of a PO box in the Auburn area consider supporting this family-owned business. Get a cool PO box. not the ugly modernist one the government-run post office would give you.

The Key Shop and More at Station A.

1583 Lincoln Way in Old Town Auburn

I'm going to keep this story short because you can go down all kinds of conspiratorial rabbit holes and this is a history show. As you know, there are all kinds of secret societies. One you may have heard of, kind of made famous by Alex Jones back in 2000 when he snuck in and made a documentary about it. I'm talking about the Bohemian Grove.

Let’s stick with the historical facts though.

Over in Monte Rio California about 75 miles north of San Francisco is a campground that stretches around 2,700 acres. Every July there's a 2-week campout where the two thousand-plus members and their guests meet up and hang out.

Back in the day when it started, it was simply a going away party for a stage actor who was heading to New York in 1878 but the hundred or so artists and actors enjoyed it so much they made it a yearly deal, soon some businessmen came along and financed it and bought the property in the woods. which is when it exploded into a secret society where top executives of companies and pre, present, and past presidents would come and get drunk and do weird stuff.

Basically, it’s a “burning man” or a frat party for the rich, and since it's secret and no cameras or phones are allowed there's hardly any evidence to haunt them in the future.

Rich powerful men in drag wouldn't exactly be good press you know.

Some big deals and projects came from the connections made there, like Reagan promising Nixon to not challenge him in the Primary and then the Manhattan Project which was thought up out there. Walt Disney was a guest one year and parts of Snow White was inspired by his experiences there.

Now the creepy part is the big shabang on the first Saturday, there is the Cremation of Care ceremony. which, well, Simply put is a reenactment of child sacrifice to a god like Moloch. Their Idol is a 30-foot Owl which they burn the child-sized effigy to and the members all cheer.

Other than that, all kinds of little plays, speeches, and so on are made. Like I said before, It seems to me, to be a Burning man for the Rich and Powerful who don't want photo or video footage of what they do when drunk at night. Connections are made, deals are drawn but officially the motto is Weaving Spiders Come Not Here, meaning no business deals.

Either way, It’s a secret what goes on behind the scenes. The deals that were made and what has come out from these campouts. The Patron Saint for them is a man named John of Nepomuk who was executed by a Bohemian monarch when he refused to tell the secrets of the Queen.

As some of you know, back in 2020 I left California. So this last story is local for me here in the Seattle, Washington area.

Quacks have been around forever; past, present, and future we will always have quacks. As individuals, we all make the right decision to not follow these people but just as there are quacks, there are ducklings that follow the quack wholeheartedly even when it hurts them.

So here's the story of an evil sadistic woman named Linda Hazzard.

There was a lady who was living somewhere in Minnesota married with two kids where she got the idea to become a sort of dietitian in Minneapolis so she abandoned them. She set up a practice without a license and had a patient come in for treatment. her treatment was a cure-all for any kind of disease imaginable. A fast.

Which, fasting isn't bad for you, religious fasting has been practiced forever. But you can overdo it, which is what Dr. Hazzard promoted. Her first victim arrived at the coroner and he deemed the cause of death to be starvation, tried to have Dr. Hazzard prosecuted but couldn't legally for some reason. She and her newfound husband fled to Washington State where she set up shop yet again.

Her first Washington Patient was a lady named Daisey Maud Haglund who had stomach cancer and thought Dr. Hazzard could heal it. Instead, Mrs. Haglund Starved to death within a few weeks leaving behind her husband and 3-year-old son Ivar.

Who, by the way, is THE Ivar of Ivar's Fish and Chips, here in Seattle.

After that, more and more people flocked to have the miracle cure treatment by Dr. Hazzard. and sure enough most of those who signed up for it, died.

Not only that, She would perform the autopsies and deem the cause of death other things like liver cirrhosis or whatever.

But there's more, these people for some reason would sign away their estate, give power of attorney and rights to their bodies after death to Dr. Hazzard!

The famous victims of this quack were two hypochondriac British sisters Dorothea and Claire. They were all into alternative medicine and though had nothing wrong with them chose to put their lives in the hands of Dr. Linda Hazzard.

The sisters came from British Columbia to Seattle and met with Dr. Hazzard who put them up in an apartment near downtown in the Capital Hill neighborhood.

They were put on 2 cups of tomato broth a day diet, daily hours long enemas in a bathtub which would have a canvas support for when they would faint. and would be given long "massages" beatings including on the forehead where Dr. Hazzard would scream "Eliminate! Eliminate!"

Within 2 months they were both around 70 pounds and one of them supposedly wrote a letter to their childhood nanny who was in Australia at the time the letter made absolutely no sense so she traveled across the globe to Seattle to find out what was going on. By the time she got there, Claire had died and Dorothea was 50 pounds and deemed insane, essentially a zombie.

Here's a before and after of her. (group pic - The one on the left is her)

While checking on Dorothea she saw other zombified people hobbling around begging for food and to be rescued.

Apparently some of these inmates, I mean patients would walk down the road and beg the neighbors and they wouldn't help because they were afraid of Dr. Hazzard.

You see, Hazzard was a very scary lady and was really into the occult so people said she was hypnotizing these people to starve themselves to death and more so. sign away all their rights and estates to Hazzard!

The nanny tried to take Dorothea away but was denied. She went and got the girl’s uncle who was forced to pay 1,000 dollars. and was not able to retrieve what was signed away.

After she was rescued they went and got the British Vice Consul and they set out to get Hazzard convicted, as they did their research for the case... they discovered a whole lot more deaths that can be linked back to Hazzard. At least 12 are proven but who knows the true number, probably north of 40 including one suicide.

Hazzard was arrested in 1911, during the trial Mr. Haglund, the Father of Ivar, and husband of Daisey who was the first Washington death came to support Dr. Hazzard during the trial and even admitted to taking little Ivar to Hazzard 3 times a week for treatments after Daisey died...

Convicted in 1912, she was sent to do hard labor in Walla Walla, Washington but Luckily for her, The frickin Governor of Washington pardoned her and told her to flee to New Zealand, which she did.

And guess what she did in New Zealand?

Starve more people, got found out, and returned to Washington in 1920

What happened in Washington you think?

You guessed it, she opened a sanitarium in a small secluded town called Olalla across the sound from Seattle and operated it for 15 years killing who knows how many more people because she had an incinerator on site. Until the place burned down.

3 years after it burned down, she got sick in her 70s and starved herself to death.

I really like to read old newspapers and I use them quite a bit in my research so I wanted to read you some of the headlines I found working on this episode.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this episode.  If you are new, be sure to subscribe.

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