Cremation of Care

An annual ritual performed at Bohemian Grove, the private 2,700-acre encampment of the American political and business elite in Northern California, at the start of the summer encampment. Participants in robes process to the foot of a forty-foot concrete owl ("Moloch") on the lakeshore, where an effigy representing Care is symbolically cremated. The ceremony was filmed in 2000 by Alex Jones, who entered the grounds posing as a guest, providing the principal extant documentary footage. Interpretations differ on whether the visible ritual is the operational layer or the theatrical front of the gathering.