The Arcadian Mystique: Rebirth of the Golden Age.

"The Arcadian Mystique is the subculture that is currently developing in anticipation of [the] new Golden Age - Arcadia being a term applied by the Grail family to the paradise of this era. This subculture - which will one day become, we hope, the dominant culture - is one built upon the ideas of occultism and Hermeticism, with a distinctly elitist and pro-monarchical perspective. This culture embraces traditional values - values that have withstood the test of millennia - and stands in contrast to our current weak, degenerate, egalitarian, anti-intellectual pop culture."

- E.G.M. Tracy R. Twyman, in an interview with Wolfzeit magazine.

There is a new era dawning, a new occult revival brewing in the coffee shops and college campuses of the 21st century: one we have called the Arcadian Mystique. This spirit of the age is destined to overtake the world of art, music and literature within the next few years. In fact, it is already well underway. Witness the popularity of films like Eyes Wide Shut, From Hell, Skulls, Dogma, Stigmata, The Ninth Gate, Tomb Raider, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and The Matrix, all of which contain elements of the Arcadian Mystique. We are in an age in which Madonna studies the qaballah and Kelsey Grammar, who has named his daughter Mason , talks openly on television about Masonic mysteries. Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld, was featured on the cover of Scottish Rite magazine not too long ago. Arcadian themes show up in shows like Relic Hunter and The Adventures of Jules Verne, while the History channel is almost as dominated by images of the Freemasons, Templars, and Atlantean ruins as it is by images of WWII. High Times magazine recently featured a cover story about Aleister Crowley and the CIA, and a couple of years earlier, ran a story about the Priory of Sion, written by Robert Anton Wilson. Symbols, key words, and other elements are cropping up all over the place in popular culture. It is about to become mainstream without us even realizing it, and yet this subtle transformation is bound to have tremendous impact. It is nothing less than the rediscovery of the world’s most ancient tradition, the Arcadian tradition, symbolized by the Underground Stream.

Technically speaking, the Underground Stream referred to in occult parlance is the river Alpheus (from the Greek for source ), located in Arcadia, Greece. It really does go underground, too, re-emerging at the Fountain of Arethusa in Spain, and it was once believed to have been brought forth from the earth by the gods. The Greeks believed their gods had once ruled earth directly from their paradisal realm on the Arcadian Plains , during the fabled Golden Age , an era of peace, harmony, and enlightenment dictated by the mystical principles of Hermeticism. As this era came to a close, the human descendants of the gods, the Grail families , took on their Hermetic teachings and traditions, and passed them down to their own descendants through the rituals of secrets societies. To modern occultists, then Alpheus represents an underground stream of secret knowledge passed down from the gods of the Golden Age through the subterranean Grail families and the organizational offshoots of the Prieuré de Sion - the Templars, the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, etc. And of course, the OLE is helping to pass along this traditions as well.

Today, the Hermetic tradition of Arcadia has degenerated into a confused and conflicting collection of varied occult systems of practice and belief, most of which are more geared towards self-flattery than the continuance of a sacred tradition. And the importance of the Hermetic/Arcadian tradition has diminished as Materialism and other shallow ideals have gained prominence. Those who feel unfulfilled by the pursuit of modern ideals, and who feel something in their lives to be lacking often turn to corrupted versions of the Hermetic arts that end up doing more harm than good. As a member of the Priory of Sion, Paul le Coeur, once wrote in his book The Age of Aquarius:

...when a stream is polluted it is necessary, if you are to find the pure water, to go back to the source. It’s the same with tradition - it only remains pure at its origin.

It is the aim of the Ordo Lapsit Exillis to act as a beacon guiding worthy initiates back towards that ancient tradition, back to the source of the Underground Stream and to instigate the rebirth on the Golden Age on Earth once again. It is a process which any wise seeker of the truth would feel honored to be a part of. We hope that you will join us in this endeavor.