The Remarkable Story of the Occult Origins of Mormonism and the Rise of Mormons in American Politics, 2012, Ibis, Lake Worth, Florida, 191 pages
Thanks to Yeti Waters for the loan of this book.
In "The Angel and the Sorcerer," Peter Levenda does a balanced job of not doing a hit piece on the LDS but of discussing the nature of the founder and the world he so Prometheus-like rocked with his soaring hubris and charismatic genius. The book was done as a 2012 context piece for the American electorate who were largely ignorant of Mormon Society. In conclusion, Lavenda, an occult investigator comes away in agreement with then presidential candidate Mitt Romney [which most Mormons I know hate and call “Mitt the Twit”] was correct when he implied that there is nothing more American than Mormonism. The author was bothered that the LDS Church had made key concession to American Governance and that members were so prominent in Creep State law enforcement.
I had done some personal family history for a Mormon Scion concerning his Grandfather’s service in the Pacific War, in which he was a hero of record. I have also lived with a man raised in the LDS whose father drove Douglas MacArthur’s jeep in the Pacific Theater. During the examination of this Mormon American Warrior’s records, including the ship’s log of the PT Boat where he slew a Japanese swordsman in hand-to-hand combat, I came across a book issued by the LDS Church to its Mormon service men titled Sand Across the Rails, a call to war on behalf of the nation that the Mormons under Brigham Young tried to escape like Moses and the Isrаelites in the Exodus from Egypt. This reminded me of the many Amerindian nations, who after submitting to the U.S. sent out warriors who fought in its wars with distinction.
I had a relationship with a Mormon Mission House in Northeast Baltimore for about five years. The man who ran it, who I never met, would send his new elders to me to visit and gain the latest intelligence on the safety and perils of bus routes and areas in Baltimore. I was not surprised, upon living with Mormons in Utah for five summers running, to find among them the best men that I have known. For, in Baltimore, these 18-year-old Mormons were the only courteous and helpful folk in the entire town, helping ladies and children and elders on and off the bus. I can recommend "The Angel and the Sorcerer" to readers as a more impartial source than one is likely to find concerning this faith.
Below is a rough chronology from Lavenda’s exploration, which I will use as an investigative tool in the 13th Tribe, the Plantation America book dedicated to America’s religious foundations.
-A.D. 32-769, Celtic, Bat Creek, Tennessee, ancient Hebrew script carved in rock, confirmed in 1988
-100 B.C. to 500 A.D., Celtic ogham runes in Appalachia, confirmed, 1990, Review of Archaeology
-c. 1580s, Dr. John Dee, English magician and framer of Anglo-American Exploration-Plantation conduct
-1650, The Hope of Isrаel, Dutch Rabbi Menesseh ben Isrаel, published in London
-1617-92, Elias Ashmole, English alchemist
-1642-1727, Isaac Newton, English alchemist
-1654-1701, pirate William Kidd
-[date] John Winthrop, Founding Father of Connecticut, had more than 250 occult texts
-American Christian Occultism foci: Jacob’s Ladder, the Witch of Endor, Enoch (Gen. 5:24), merkavah mysticism, Elijah, Ezekiel, Metatron, Lucifuge Rofocale,
-1692, September 22, Samuel Smith of Boxford, ancestor of the Mormon founder, Joseph Smith Junior, testifies against Mary Easty, that she cursed him, and she is hanged in the Salem witchcraft trials.
-1796, a revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times by Richard Brothers of Canada, predicts end of the world in 1798
-1801, The Magus, by Francis Barrett
-1802, January 14, end of the word predicted by the Fraternity of Rodmen [diviners], does not occur
-1805, December 23, Joseph Smith Jr. born in Sharon, Vermont, 1 year after forced immigration is stopped by Congress, with Vermont a traditional sanctuary for fugitives
-1816, year without a summer forces the Smiths to move down to New York
-1817, young Joseph begins diving for water, Second Great Awakening in the Burned-Over District of New York
-1817, October, first mention in print of the Vermont Pilgrims, led by Prophet Isaac Bullard
-1823, September 22, Smith, 17, having been using “shew stones” in a hat for divination, has visions of golden plates.
-1825, Mordechi Noah attempts to found Jewish refuge named Ararat, in Erie County NY
-1826, May 26. In Smith’s home town of Palmyra, NY, warnings about Bullard’s grafter caravan of pilgrims appear in the Wayne Sentinel
-1826, Anti-Masonic hysteria in New York after abduction of Freemason whistle-blower William Morgan
-1827, September 22, after 4 years of seeking by Smith, the Angel Moroni finally lets Smith recover the plates of knowledge
-1830, Newell Knight is possessed by a demon, which is exorcised by Joseph Smith
-1830, March, the Book of Mormon is published, having been dictated to scribes by Smith
-1832, Mormon community in Missouri
-1836, Mormon quasi-bank in Kirtland, Ohio
-1837, Smith accused of committing adultery with a servant girl , with no historian concerned as to her non-free status or its implication
-1837, Discourses on the Evidences of the Lost Tribes of Isrаel by Mordechi Noah
-1838, Discourses on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, by William Henry Harrison
-1838, Mormon War in Missouri
-1842, Smith is initiated into Freemasonry
-1844, backed by the 3,000 man Nauvoo Legion in Illinois, Smith announced presidential candidacy
-1844, June 27, Smith is murdered in police custody at age 38
In conclusion, the vision of America as The Promised Land is a gathering of threads both Christian and Hebrew from various European nations, with the common transit point for making the idea real being London first and then New England, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Religious ideals did not play a significant role in Plantation America south of the Potomac River or the Chesapeake Bay, and in Maryland swiftly gave way to the nearly pure economics of Virginia and points south.
