RAOB stands for the Royal Antediluvian Order of the
Buffaloes and is a masonic type organisation originally created for stage hands
and other theatrical types. John Lennon’s uncle Charlie was a long-time member
and, it would appear, Beyonce is now supporting the movement.
As can be seen she is proudly wearing the organisations
crest and displaying its motto, Justice, Truth and Philanthropy on her Roll of
Honour sash in the promotional video for her upcoming tour. The Beatles also
paid tribute to this obscure outfit with the inclusion on the Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band LP cover of the ‘Legionnaire of the Order of the
Buffaloes’ character who lurks behind the ‘Temple-Dors’.
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| RAOB medal |
So, what is it about this shadowy organisation that appears
so appealing to pop royalty? Well, the Beatles have long been fond of
furnishing us with masonic symbolism – the Pepper cover could well signify a
masonic initiation ceremony – and Beyonce and her husband, Jay Z, are fond of
using Illuminati style symbolism in their videos, so, perhaps they are letting
us, and their enlightened brethren, know that they have been illuminated?
It is perhaps telling that Beyonce is dressed up, in a
coronation style scenario, as a Queen. Queen Elizabeth I possibly? The good
Queen Bess was another character that was depicted on the cover of Sgt.
Pepper’s – though her image was obscured by George Harrison in the finished
piece but can be seen in some of the out-takes– though the representation
chosen was that of Bette Davis portraying the Queen from the movie ‘The Private
Lives of Elizabeth and Essex’. An actor in costume playing a role, just as
Beyonce is in the video and just as a masonic candidate is when initiated into
the craft.
That the Queen was hidden on the album cover was no
accident, it is a symbolic representation of hidden knowledge. Hidden knowledge
of the type possessed by Queen Elizabeth I’s trusted lieutenant – and possibly
also her son – Sir Francis Bacon: the true author of the works of Shakespeare, the
editor of the King James Bible, the arch exponent of hidden coded messages and
the archetypal Rosicruician, the father of the Illuminati.
This assertion can be backed up by the use of the word
Antediluvian in the Royal Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes. The Antediluvian
period – meaning "before the deluge" – is the period referred to in
the Bible between the Creation of the Earth and the Deluge (flood) in the
biblical cosmology. The Legionnaire character is a nod to the author Ignatius L
Donnelly. In 1882, Donnelly published ‘Atlantis: The Antediluvian World’, his
best known work. It details theories concerning the mythical lost continent of
Atlantis. Donnelly suggested that Atlantis had been destroyed during the same
event remembered in the Bible as the Great Flood.
Donnelly was also a great believer in the theory that Sir
Francis Bacon was the true author of the works of Shakespeare and in 1888 he
published ‘The Great Cryptogram’ in support of this belief. Bacon’s most famous
work, in his own name, was his tome ‘New Atlantis’ and it is a vision of a
Rosicrucian paradise. A paradise very similar to the one portrayed in the
Beatles film ‘Yellow Submarine’ in the domain of Pepperland, found, as I am
sure you will recall, 80,000 leagues under the sea.
The twentieth century’s greatest proponent of this sort of
hidden knowledge was, of course, Aleister Crowley. Crowley also appears on the
Sgt. Pepper sleeve and may well appear twice. His second incarnation? Disguised
as the ‘Legionnaire of the Order of the Buffaloes’ of course.
Beyonce knows this, Jay Z knows this and the Beatles know
this – now we do too!
For more information please read The Sgt. Pepper Code.
