A Rose By Any Other Name? (Patreon)

Pennsylvania's Rose Valley is a magical place.

But what kind of magic, or more accurately, magick? Rose Valley, along with it's sister community of Arden, DE, have been on the fringes of conspiritainment for some time now. In such circles, it's whispered that arch Illuminati Satanists relocated from Philadelphia to Rose Valley and Arden at the turn of the last century. There, they crafted twin communities in which to conduct their dark occult practices.

The communities are said to be dominated by a cult centered around Andras, the Great Marquis of Hell. This is one of the infamous demons in The Lesser Key of Solomon. The 63rd of Solomon's 72 demons, Andras is described as having the body of an angel, the head of a raven or owl, and to ride upon a great, black dog. If you've followed any of my recent musings on the Koryos/Mannerbund, Andras' association with ravens (Odin), dogs (symbolic of a proto-wolf god later incorporated into the cult of Pan) and angels (hermaphroditic deities) should be quite striking, to put it mildly.

Andras has quite a fearsome reputation. Some accounts insist that this entity is capable of killing the conjuring magician and his assistant if proper precautions aren't taken. He's also central to the mindfuck that is the Rose Valley/Arden area.

Supposedly, this was a haven of Satanic ritual abuse. Over a thousand victims have been sacrificed in the woods of either community, as the story goes. Central to these practices were Arden's Candlelight Theater, where children are said to be led into for these dark rites at 11 am and 11 pm of each major occult holiday. One such date is January 14, the old Gregorian date for the Feast of Fools.

I was present at the Candlelight Theater at 11 am on that date during 2023. But the only fool present was myself. Aside from an Amazon driver delivering a very small package, nothing happened. Perhaps they were tipped off to my investigation and changed locales?

Really, I would love to dismiss this stuff out of hand as it reeks of the now-standard Satanic Illuminati Bloodlines conspiracy tropes. That Arden is practically within Wilmington, DE, the longtime stronghold of the DuPont family, allegedly one of the most evil of the Bloodline families (according to the great "scholarship" of Fritz Springmeier and the like), has no doubt helped fuel these notions.

They all appear to trace back to one particular individual: Jay Parker. For well over a decade, he has been pushing this narrative with the standard Fritz-isms throughout conspiritainment. The temptation to dismiss Parker as a crank is great.

And yet, there are certain things about this narrative that standout. Like Andras and the Feast of Fools. These aren't standard issues tropes in conspiritainment. In point of fact, this is the type of stuff serious occultists would be knowledgeable of. Curiously, in a celebrated antique store in Arden, with a whole room dedicated to books, the one grimoire I found was The Lesser Key of Solomon. It stood out amongst the used books as there were multiple brand new copies of it. It must be said though, the owners of this place are tricksters through and through, and may have seen a novel way to cash in on Parker's claims.

But there's no question that Arden, and especially Rose Valley, are places of power. Anyone who ventures there can feel it, regardless of whether they believe in such things.

So, what is the real story of these communities then? They're magical spots no doubt, but for good or ill? And, how did they get this way?

The Susquehannock Enigma

In many ways, the magick was baked. During the Colonial era, it's future location resided along the Great Minquas Path, a crucial 17th century trade route that initially linked Philadelphia with New Amsterdam (later NYC) and New Sweden (later Wilmington, DE). The route was the creation of the Susquehannock peoples, one of the most mysterious of the early tribes encountered by the Colonists. John Smith himself was among the first to depict them on his famous map. As far as this researcher is aware, the Susquehannock were the first indigenous peoples to be described as giants by European.

Rose Valley and much of the area around it were part of the historic "Welsh Tract," a region west of Philadelphia that was largely settled by Welsh-speaking Quakers during the late seventeenth century. Colonists secured land from William Penn with the intention of founding a Welsh-speaking Barony independent of Pennsylvania. It didn't work out, but many of the Welsh names and a distinctly Old World vibe remain from the original Welsh settlers.

In case you're wondering, the first tribe to be described as "Welsh Indians" go back to Smith's expedition. That would be the Monacan people. During the late seventeenth century, Thomas Lloyd, William Penn's Welsh lieutenant governor, described the Doeg people as having understood Welsh. Both tribes had links to the Susquehannock via trade. Relations between the Doeg appear to be especially close, as Colonists at times confused the two peoples.

These notions originate with the mythos around the Welsh Prince Madoc and the belief that he discovered the New World during the twelfth century. During the Elizabethan era, this legend was popularized by John Dee, also of Welsh stock. Incidentally, the most popular location for an ancient Welsh settlement established by Madoc is placed at the Devil's Backbone, a peninsula along the Ohio River, about 14 miles from Louisville, KY. The island it's located upon is known as Rose Island.

But that's not the rose we're concerned with here, though such recurring symbolism is no doubt highly relevant. As I'm sure many of you are aware, Philadelphia, and much of the surrounding area, has a rich Rosicrucian tradition that dates back to the seventeenth century. Truth be told, Eastern PA may be the most Rosicrucian spot in the entire United States.

The Mysterious Mr. Price

But before I get to sidetracked, let's return to the Rose in question: Rose Valley. The Rose Valley Association has a fine history of the community literally hanging from the wall of the Thunderbird Lodge. As I can't top it's conciseness, I'll simply defer to the picture I took of it:

That William Lightfoot Price guy was quite a character, alright. It's been speculated that had he lived as long as Frank Lloyd Wright, they would be equally revered. And indeed, there are some interesting parallels between the two. Price was an acolyte of celebrated Philadelphia architect Frank Furness (who spent the latter part of his life in the neighboring community of Media, PA). Another of Furness' protégés was Chicago's Louis Sullivan, who was Wright's mentor. Further, the would-be utopian communities established by Price at Rose Valley and neighboring Arden, DE, appear to have greatly influenced Wright's multiple attempts to turn the region around Taliesin into a utopian community throughout the first half of the twentieth century.

As I hope many of you have begun to discern, architecture, and the folks who design it, are crucial to geomancy. It's not a coincidence that the same milieu of architects turn up over and over again in these sites. Price's most famous work is the Woodmont, which is modeled upon the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate. The latter is easily one of the most occulted structures in the United States. The tiny town in which it resides, Asheville, NC, is awash with such structures. Price designed at least one of them (the Kenilworth Inn), which apparently led to his knowledge of the Biltmore.

Price's other inspirations included the British Arts and Crafts movement. Inspired by the ideas of William Morris, Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin, it centered around the traditional craftsmanship in Medieval, Romantic or folk styles of decoration. Unsurprisingly, furniture and home decorations from Rose Valley became quite celebrated during the early 20th century.

Price was also an ardent "Georgist." This was the basis for the modern single tax movement, though the original incarnation was far more progressive, being chiefly concerned with shifting taxes on labor to land and rents. Price envisioned Arden as a utopia centered around Georgist economics. Incidentally, Frank Lloyd Wright was equally smitten with Georgism and planned to use it as the basis for his own utopian schemes. Arden came after Price had failed to take over the political machinery of Delaware with his single tax ideology. Supposedly, it would serve as a model for the future.

Instead, Price seems to have become bored with Arden and shifted his focus to Rose Valley. And, who can blame? Rose Valley is far more mystical.

The Thunderbird

Easily Price's most celebrated architectural contribution to Rose Valley is the glorious Thunderbird Lodge. Nestled right off of the historic Great Minquas Path (arguably at a crossroads....), the structure was once a stone barn built circa 1790. Price restored it in 1904 and added a three-story stucco-and-field stone house. The most striking aspect of this structure is the octagonal stair tour that connects all stories and wings of the building together. 

By the 1950s, the Thunderbird became a center of leftist activism after it was procured by Mildred Scott Olmstead and her husband. Hubby Allen, an attorney, helped establish the ACLU while Olmstead worked with the American Birth Control League and served as the longtime US director Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Both were highly active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. During the Civil Rights struggle, Thunderbird Lodge was often used as a "safe" meeting spot for such leaders as James Farmer, George Washington Carver, and Martin Luther King Jr. 

The prior owners were far more interesting, however. That would be the Stephens clan ---Charles H. and Alice Barber Stephens, along with their son, D. Owen Stephens. They were a family of artists, with each possessing a floor of the main house as a studio. Each is on top of the other, with the octagonal staircase leading the way to all three. 

Charles H. Stephens is from which the house derives it's name. He was an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts who also spent time living amongst the Blackfeet in Montana. During that time, he amassed an extensive collection of Native American artifacts. Many of these later ended up at the University of Pennsylvania, which seems to be a coveted destination for such things. It's Sumerian collection is equally impressive, for instance. For my money, it's the actual location of the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

Alice Barber Stephens was a celebrated illustrator during her life time. Probably her most well known work were the illustrations for Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women. She also did illustrations for the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Nathaniel Hawthorne's controversial The Marble Faun. The latter work is especially interesting. Inspired by the marble Faun of Praxiteles, Hawthorne completed this fantasy at the outbreak of the American Civil War. It's some times viewed as a proto-instance of weird fiction, The work has been cited as an influence on H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

In truth, both the Stephens pale in comparison to their enigmatic son, D. Owen, as artists. He was a draftsman for the architect Charles Klauder in addition to being a painter. What's more, Stephens had a specific subject for his paintings, one which he returned to over and over again: astronomy. In fact, he died suddenly in 1937 at the 43 upon returning from Peru in an expedition to observe a solar eclipse at 5000 feet above the sea level. An astronomy major, Stephens' paintings now hang in planetariums across the nation, most notably New York's Museum of Natural History. 

Personally, I can't help but feel Stephens' work was as influenced by astro-theology as astronomy. You be the judge:

Lots of other interesting stuff was present in his studio as well, least of all the fireplace:

The Stephens family's obsession with octagons is one of the most interesting aspects of the Thunderbird. As was noted above, the staircase connecting the entire house is octagonal. And D. Owens seems especially obsessed by it. In addition to the eight pointed star on his mantle, a few pictures appear to show him wearing the star on an armband. This is but one of many mysteries surrounding the Thunderbird Lodge.

Another is the dragon symbolism used in the lodge and throughout the community. Fittingly, it's often displayed on "Moravian Tiles."

Cos St. George, right? 

Exploring Rose Valley

After wrapping up at the Thunderbird, my compatriots and myself were able to explore Rose Valley proper. This is a rarer treat than one might imagine. Rose Valley is very private. There is virtually no public parking or sidewalks. The bulk of the houses are set back far on their respectable lots. Clearly, it's a community that values it's privacy. But, there is a remarkable series of nature trails that run throughout the town, connecting the community. I was most excited to explore those trails and they did not disappoint. While magical during the day time, they're probably quite different at night. As one of my mates observed, Rose Valley and its trails would be the idea location for a horror film. But during the day time, the experience was quite pleasant.

It's amazing how much of the community can only be accessed by these trails. There's no car parking at all for the community pool shown above, for instance. You can only get to it from the trails. 

There were also more instances of those striking Moravian tiles. And a dragon or two, for good measure.

In Arden/Rose Valley conspiracy lore, streets featuring these stately stone pillars at their onset are said to be the neighborhoods in which the Satanic Illuminati cultists reside. Do with that what you will. 

The Old Mill

For my money, easily the creepiest part of Rose Valley is also the oldest part of the town: the "Old Mill." Built initially around 1789 as a snuff mill, it was later turned towards the production of paper between 1825-1850. Price and company later turned it into a community center. It's about the only spot in Rose Valley open to the public on a daily basis. 

Off to the side of the mill is a wide, open valley surrounded by houses upon hills. Paths lead down into this opening, which is clearly visible to the entire community from their perch. Unfortunately, my camera was not able to do it justice.

Nor could it capture what literally appeared to be shrine to some type of demon along the descendent into the area where the Old Mill is located.

This was among the last things we encountered before departing. It was a fitting ending to what had been a truly special day. And it was a potent reminder that, despite the air of magic and mysticism, there was just something about this place that seemed off. 

No, not evil or sinister per se, but the distinct impression there was far more going on here than eccentric, aging liberals obsessed with antique furniture and the arts. 

None of this validities the musings of Jay Parker, which seem more and more like planted disinformation. And be assured, there may well be reasons to obscure this place from the public. The circles around The Nine grew up in this region. One of the biggest political scandals in modern American history began near here. And the longtime major of Rose Valley was literally a veteran of the Phoenix Program.

How many utopian communities have been led by an expert in counterinsurgency? These are the kinds of really interesting questions the likes of Jay Parker never ask. And for good reason: It cuts to the true heart of darkness in this region. We'll further explore these deep implications during this week's Zoom Party. 

Stay tuned.