Radnor Memorial Library lecture, 2019

Malachi Martin Creates a Crisis at Crisis

Malachi Martin Creates a Crisis at Crisis

I have read many books by Malachi Martin and have researched his work carefully. Years ago, I wrote a piece on a Black Mass that Martin claimed took place at Saint Paul's chapel near the Vatican. A description of this Black Mass is in Martin's novel, Windswept House. He also makes many references to this Black Mass in interviews and other essays. My piece on Martin's claim and its effect on the Catholic Church since Vatican II was quoted by many Catholic periodicals after its publication in the Philadelphia Free Press. Recently, I decided to resurrect the piece and send it to Crisis magazine (online) when I began to read Crisis. I liked Crisis magazine and was glad when the editor, Michael Warren Davis, said that the essay would be published on the Crisis site. The essay was indeed published by Crisis but lasted on the site for barely 4 or 5 days. I wrote Mr. Davis and asked him what became of the essay since it was no longer on the site.. I record my emails to Mr. Davis and his responses to me. Apparently, outside Catholic 'scholars' (Crisis readers) objected to some of the things I said. I was never presented with a list of specific objections or "inaccuracies," which suggests that the main objection here was my giving Malachi Martin such a major platform.    (Read from the bottom up)

 Dear Mr. Nickels,

Thank you for your understanding. 

As for the cremation piece, I'm afraid it falls outside Crisis's purview–that is, timely commentary on current events. Crisis will also no longer be re-publishing articles that have already appeared elsewhere.

Pax et bonum,

MWD

On Mon, Aug 19, 2019 at 10:07 AM <thomnickels1@aol.com> wrote:

Dear Michael,

In all fairness, the piece was presented as a question. Did the Black Mass really take place or did it not take place? I think it is a fair question and one shouldn't be afraid to ask it. Either way, I realize that it is an unpleasant thought--if it did take place-- to contemplate. I also realize that one cannot write about Malachi Martin these days--or quote from his extensive works-- without unleashing a fiery opposition. Martin stirs up a lot of feelings both pro and con. Different scholars have different views on him, from E. Michael Jones to Michael Davies, etc, etc.  Certainly these scholars could have disagreed with me in print. It would have made an interesting editorial exchange. In any event,I think my piece contained all the regular criticisms of the liturgical abuses, etc. (stemming from the spirit of Vatican II), so nothing there was invented or out of alignment. With that said, you are the editor and this is your province. So be it.

Going forward, I am curious about the cremation piece.

Thanks,

Thom Nickels

  

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Warren Davis <mwdavis@sophiainstitute.com>
To: thomnickels1 <thomnickels1@aol.com>
Sent: Mon, Aug 19, 2019 8:47 am
Subject: Fwd: Author Inquiry

Dear Mr. Nickels,

Thank you for your note, and my apologies for the confusion.

A number of scholars wrote with concerns about your piece's theological and historical veracity, and so our editorial and publishing teams decided to withdraw the article from the site. From what I've read of those scholars' responses, my colleagues' decision was fully in keeping with Crisis's editorial standards.

Please let me know if I can clarify anything further.

Pax et bonum,

MWD

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <thomnickels1@aol.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 12:43 PM
Subject: Re: Author Inquiry
To: <mwdavis@sophiainstitute.com>

Dear Michael Warren Davis,

Writing to you because I cannot find my Black Mass article on the Crisis site.

Has it been archived? Hidden? 

Please let me know.

I did send you another submission.

Thanks,

Thom Nickels 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Warren Davis <mwdavis@sophiainstitute.com>
To: Crisis Editor <editor@crisismagazine.com>; thomnickels1 <thomnickels1@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Aug 13, 2019 10:17 am
Subject: Re: Author Inquiry

Dear Mr. Nickels,

My apologies that you haven't heard back. I'm on my honeymoon and my colleagues are handling Crisis through the end of this week. I asked them to post your submission, but I don't know when exactly. If you'd like to follow up, please feel free to email Tom Allen <tallen@sophiainstitute.com>

Yours sincerely,

Michael

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 3:03 PM Crisis Editor <editor@crisismagazine.com> wrote:

This is an author inquiry from a new contributor. --J.V.

On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 10:34 AM <thomnickels1@aol.com> wrote:

Hello,

Any news on my submission?

Thank you,

Thom Nickels

-----Original Message-----
From: thomnickels1 <thomnickels1@aol.com>
To: editor <editor@crisismagazine.com>
Sent: Thu, Aug 1, 2019 11:06 am
Subject: Fwd: submission

Hello,

This is my submission to Crisis.

I am a Philadelphia based author/journalist. 

I have included a short bio with the attachment.

Permission has been granted for re-publication since my submission was

published several years ago. I have since updated it.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Thom Nickels

215 291 9202

Philadelphia Free Press

Philadelphia Irish Edition 

City Journal, New York 

CRISISMAGAZINE.COM

Fetid Fruits of the Black Mass - Crisis Magazine

Some years ago a U.S. Catholic bishops’ meeting in Baltimore made a claim 

that there were far too few active Catholic priests familiar with the rite of exorcism. The old Exorcism rite, as it turns out, has fallen into disuse, and it’s no wonder. The modern age has redefined evil along abstract l...

Beryl Booker and Philadelphia's Walk of Fame

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Aug 14, 2019

The names are all there, from Pearl Bailey to Jim Croce. Philadelphia’s Walk of Fame, meant to commemorate famous-born Philadelphians who made it big in the music world, had its start in 1987 when the Philadelphia Music Alliance put into action a plan to create a Hollywood like star walk along the Avenue of the Arts.

In 2011 I wrote a piece for Huff Post in which I voiced some concerns about the Walk of Fame:

“While walking along Broad Street recently I made it a point to study the condition of the plaques near the Academy of Music. Not only are quite a few of the plaques partially sunken into the sidewalk, many are so dirty and eroded it makes you wonder if anybody in Philadelphia even cares about these bronzes anymore. Gone are the parties, the plaque galas, the onsite photo ops with fans reeling behind police barricades. In fact, the only people who pay attention to the Walk of Fame seem to be the people who manage to glance at them while flicking occasional cigarette butts on random plaques like the one commemorating The Oak Ridge Boys.” 

That is no longer true. The Walk of Fame is now a spit and shiny example of meticulous upkeep. The Walk of Fame is no longer a Walk of Neglect; it has become a national tourist attraction and yet there have been some changes. Instead of naming honorees every year, PMA reveals the new list of new inductees every other year. The 2019 honorees list was announced at the Independence Visitor Center. Hosted by PMA executive Board member Randy Alexander, representatives of some of the honorees were in attendance.

WMMR radio personality Pierre Robert (pronounced “row-BEAR”) is one of this year’s honorees, Robert came to Philadelphia from San Francisco in 1981 when the radio station where he worked made a switch to country and western music. Robert traveled to Philadelphia in a Volkswagen bus and once in the city he sent a demo tape to WMMR but his “application” was rejected. Some time after this he went to a palm reader on South Street who told him he was soon going to get an important letter. That letter turned out to be a letter from WMMR’s Joe Bonnadonna offering Robert a job.

Robert was not at the Independence Visitor Center (he was working) but he was represented by another WMMR DJ with “stand up” cauliflower hair who could not stop expressing his love and devotion to Robert. To prove his undying devotion, the zany DJ kept kissing a large cardboard cutout of Robert’s face that he carried with him to the podium. In true rockster- stream of consciousness fashion, the DJ’s comments were accompanied by a series of bodily jerks and gestures that gave added emphasis to his words. I found the performance fascinating and was a little disappointed when Alexander approached the podium as telling the DJ to wrap it up. Where the DJ’s heavy metal monologue was actually going was, of course, anybody’s guess.

Standing against a back wall where the broadcast media had its cameras was a tall lean WASP looking gentleman in a well tailored sports jacket. His carefully manicured Edwardian hair somehow reminded me of the Barnes Museum. “He’s definitely not a Philly musician type,” I thought. A few musician types in the room had their hair in wild ponytail knots but this man was pure F. Scott Fitzgerald. Who could he be? Later, when Alexander announced that one of the honorees was Dorrance Hill “Dodo” Hamilton, who during her life donated more than $47 million to a wide group of arts and musical organizations in the city, Alexander introduced the man as “Dodo” Hamilton’s grandson.

The 2019 honorees were referred to as having roots in “women’s empowerment.” Women’s empowerment, of course, is not same thing as the #METOO movement. Although a great philanthropist like “Dodo” Hamilton deserves special city honors, it occurred to me that the definition of what makes a PMA honoree might be beginning to change, A “Walk of Fame” for famous non-musician Philadelphians, for instance, would have to include writers, novelists, politicians, artists and humanitarians, people not necessarily associated with music but who still contribute to the lifeblood of the city.

Another honoree, Jody Gerson, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, seemed to be another strong indication that PMA is beginning to branch out in directions other than music. The plagues on the Walk of Fame are highly recognizable musical stars, some more famous than others, but all of them in the same general swim: people that “do” music. And yet here is an honoree from the administrative side of things. This to me is a radical change.

I was glad that Evelyn “Champagne” King was finally named as a 2019 honoree, although I had to ask: why did it take so long? ECK has been famous for decades, as have The Hooters, who were named as 2019 honorees also. The Hooters burst onto the Philadelphia music scene in 1980. Hooter Rob Hyman was on hand to thank PMA for the honor, as was a representative from The Philadelphia Orchestra to acknowledge the Orchestras gratitude for also being named a 2019 honoree.

Honoring the Philadelphia Orchestra is a lot like honoring the Atlantic Ocean for being a bridge between Europe and the United States. Individual Philadelphians should be the prime winners of a spot on the Avenue of the Arts, not a multi-award winning world-class institution with more accolades than violins.

I’m thinking about world class singers like Philadelphia-born William Thomas “Billy” Murray (1877-1954), one of the most popular singers in the early 20th Century. Billy Murray should have a plague on the Avenue of the Arts.

I’m also thinking of Beryl Booker, Beryl Booker (June 7, 1922 – September 30, 1978), an American swing pianist of the 1950s. Booker toured Europe with Dizzy Gillespie, worked with Dinah Washington in 1959, and even accompanied Billie Holiday throughout Europe. I did a long story on Ms. Booker that was published in several Philadelphia newspapers, including The Philadelphia Tribune.

If we’re talking about female empowerment, then Philadelphia’s Beryl Booker has to be part of the equation In an article entitled ‘The Outstanding Contributions of Beryl Booker’ by Ava Louise in ‘All About Jazz,’ Louise writes:

Beryl broke down a very large barrier in being accepted as a jazz musician in the male-centric genre. Jazz has been notoriously male-dominated, with most exceptions to that rule being vocalists rather than instrumentalists. Beryl most notably played with the Slam Stewart Trio from 1946-1952. She also collaborated with Miles Davis and Don Byas, among many others. Some highlights from her collaborations include: “Oh Me, Oh My, Oh My Gosh,” “Beryl Booker’s Byased Blues,” and Miles Davis with Beryl Booker—Birdland Live Recordings.

In the 1990s, at the height of the Walk of Fame hoopla, I wrote the Music Alliance and asked if they would accept a proposal for a commemorative plaque. Today the PMA has an online submission form for nominations, but in the 1990s that was not the case. Obtaining a nomination form then was more difficult.

I nominated Beryl Booker.

PMA asked for a discography of Beryl Booker’s work, so I sent them everything I had, including duplicate copies of the interview. I was told that the nomination process would take several months. The waiting period lasted over 2 years with intermittent phone during which I was asked to resubmit the Beryl Booker info because the original mailings were lost, etc. I waited another year, called again and was once again asked to resubmit. After that I was told that there was a freeze on nominations. I eventually threw in the towel—I just didn’t have the stamina-- although I contacted PMA a couple years later to get a progress report

“We remember something about Beryl Booker, but we cannot say definitely,” I was told. “Can you resubmit the package?”

I did everything one more time, but when there was no follow up after that I figured PMA was just too embarrassed to tell me that they thought that Beryl Booker just didn’t make the grade.

Of course, PMA is much more polished now, so what happened then in way colors what could happen now should I decide to resubmit her nomination. Beryl Booker is one of those artists whose star rises after death. Google her name and a host of Web pages and sites have multiplied exponentially in a short amount of time.

‘All About Jazz’ also detailed how Beryl formed her own Beryl Booker Trio.

“The trio featured all female musicians: Beryl on Piano, Bonnie Wetzel on bass, and Elaine Leighton on drums. To this day, all female instrumental groups are rare and even rarer are those that are commercially successful. Beryl’s trio was impeccable and was very well known by the late 1940’s. Her trio was also racially diverse, featuring both African-American and Caucasian musicians. In the age of segregation this was unusual and certainly controversial, but her progressive efforts led to the creation of one of the best-known female musical groups of her time.”

When I interviewed Beryl in the late 1970s she told me that when she traveled throughout the south during the days of segregation she was refused service in restaurants. Not one to be deterred, the ever mischievous and always inventive Beryl would bat her eyelashes at the waitress or restaurant manager and tell them that she was really an Indian princess traveling with her band, and that all she wanted was a a Coke and a hamburger.

The princess routine almost always got her that hamburger, but sometimes the great musician was told to leave the restaurant anyway.

The Cult of Yoga

City Safari: Yoga: The Flexing Flux Of Tight Pants

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Aug 07, 2019

In my Fishtown-Northern Liberties, Philadelphia neighborhood, many of the young women in their twenties and thirties wear tight black Yoga pants. Yoga pants have become a uniform of sorts like bell bottoms and love beads in the 1960s. Many, but not all, of the women who dress this way have incorporated Yoga into their daily lives. Yoga has become big business, big enough to accommodate hundreds in a rehabbed warehouse near the Market-Frankford El station at Frankford and Girard in Northern Liberties. The sign Amrita Yoga graces the front of the building like the identifying framed information board outside the city’s Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

The Fishtown-Northern Liberties neighborhood is also home to Grace & Glory Yoga, MotherHeart Yoga Sangha and Pacific Yoga. The Yogic Encyclopedia states that “Ananda Sangha also provides people with two options for formal renunciation as Brahmacharis or Sannyasi. Brahmacharis renounce family ties in an inward path of realization.”

On Girard Avenue not far from Amrita Yoga you are likely to spot smiling yoga proselytizers handing out colorful booklets entitled Yoga. This is a relatively new development in the neighborhood. The proselytizers tend to be young, some Indian and some not, but every time I’ve encountered them they have always been deeply engaged with one or more passersby unlike the stoic but bored Jehovah’s Witnesses standing under the El by their portable rack of Watch Tower magazines. Because yoga has broken the stratosphere of Super Cool status, the yogic street missionaries are almost always found in deep sidewalk conversational huddles.

I might add that the online video advertisements for these yoga workshops usually feature young women talking about yoga in that unique millennial way of ending each sentence with a question mark. Observing these trends, one is tempted to ask: are these angelic looking proselytizers advocating yoga as a form of physical exercise, or is there something else going on here?

Hatha yoga is mostly an umbrella term for all the branches of yoga that emphasize yoga’s physical practice. Other branches of yoga, like kriya, raja, and karma yoga are more meditative and interior. All yoga, of course, is at the heart of the New Age movement and it all comes from India. Yoga, it might be said, is the heart of Hinduism despite the many different schools of practice. Hatha yoga promises mental and physical health. At the outset in many of these yoga-as-exercise industries there are no mantras involved or instructors who appear to be wannabe gurus in waiting (called geshe’s in the yoga world.)

I say ‘at the outset’ because I have read of instances of how some yoga instructors assume more and more power among class attendees so that eventually the student practitioner comes to see the instructor as something much more than someone who shows them how to flex or stand on their heads. They become total life teachers with specific guidelines on how to live your life—food-sex, fasting, etc.-- outside the yoga class. This sneaky personal invasion happens so gradually it may not be noticeable at first, although the first red flag may be when the exercise instructor suggests a light mantra to accompany exercise.

One mantra leads to two mantras and after that might come a repetition of ‘OMs’ and before you know it you have a yoga class that’s tipping into the tenets of Hinduism. But Hinduism is cool because it has yoga, so who cares, right?

Besides the types of yoga already mentioned, there’s 1) Baby Yoga, 2) Mama Yoga, 3) Laughing Yoga, 4) Superbrain Yoga, 5) Beer Yoga, 6) Drunk Yoga and Yoga and Wine. Yoga covers the waterfront, so that by the time this column is published there are likely to be additional Yogas added to the list.

It is an established fact that there are more women than men enrolled in Yoga classes, although that doesn’t mean that men have any objections to observing the high numbers of women walking around town in Yoga pants. Numerous articles on yoga point out that Yoga started with male sages 2000 years ago and that male leaders dominated the world of yoga until the 1990s, so that today it’s mostly a female-dominated practice. And while there’s been a tiny upswing in male participation, the truth is that Yoga is perceived as being much more conducive to the female body with its built-in ability to twist and turn in pretzel-like body discombobulations. Most men are just not that flexible and don’t see yoga as providing a sufficient workout routine. One Huff Post article explained that men “might also be turned off by various spiritual aspects of the practice, such as “OM’ chanting or naming poses in Sanskrit.”

But why are young and older women in yoga pants chanting ‘OM’ anyway? If yoga is supposed to be merely exercise and a way to loosen up, how does chanting ‘OM’ fit into the equation? One could say that the repetitious chanting of ‘OM” puts one in a transcendental state much like any chant, be it Hare Krishna, Make America Great Again or “Mary Had a Swarm of Bee’s.” ‘OM’ is said to approximate the vibrational sound of the universe, which might be perceived as a very neutral thing but yet there are fervent Christian practitioners of yoga who avoid saying ‘OM’ because they say it lends itself to more questions than answers. They might as well be saying that ‘OM’ opens the vestibule door to Hinduism.

The multidimensional work of Yoga also includes The Uniform.

An Op Ed in The New York Times in 2018 mapped out Why Yoga Pants Are Bad for Women. The writer questioned the necessity of going out and buying a uniform in order to “do” yoga. “Seriously, you can’t go into a room of 15 fellow women contorting themselves into ridiculous positions at 7 in the morning without first donning skintight pants? What is it about yoga in particular that seems to require this? Are practitioners really worried that a normal-width pant leg is going to throttle them mid-lotus pose?”

The writer is right, of course.

The one- must- have- a- uniform-infection virus has contaminated the world of bicycling and running so that participants in these once ad hoc casual activities now find it necessary to spend serious money on the right clothes in order to engage in the sport. Grown men have even taken to the soy fem boy practice of shaving their legs because they think that shaving off a few hairs will give them additional speed while pedaling or running.

Robert Hurst, in his book Cyclist’s Manifesto: The Case for Riding on Two Wheels Instead of Four, writes: “And then there are the bicyclists who wear the clothing for reasons having virtually nothing to do with practicality. They dress up in bike clothes so they feel and look like ‘real’ cyclists, because that’s what ‘real’ cyclists wear. A lot of unnecessary leg shaving occurs for this reason as well. There are those who are attracted to the look-at-me factor of a shiny, bright colored outfit.”

Aerobics, popularized in the U.S. by a physician named Kenneth H. Cooper, swept the City of Philadelphia in the 1980s, inspiring men and women alike to take classes so they could dance in the form of exercise to music by Pat Benatar, Kool and the Gang and Michael Jackson. For a couple of years, I took regular aerobics classes at the (now defunct) Maywood Dance Academy near 17th and Sansom Streets. The exhilarating hour sessions led to a heightened state of physical being so that all I wanted to do after class was continue dancing at a local disco. There was no ‘OM’ in aerobics and there was certainly no meditation.

The push with yoga today it to move it “off the mat” and to discover “a deeper understanding of who you really are,” at least according to Darren John Main, a yoga teacher. Main uses quotes from The Yoga Sutra, the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads to bring “these ancient Hindu texts to life in contemporary cities.”

So, yes, there does seem to be yogic missionary activity going on but it’s a lot more suave and cool than, say, those poor Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Alexandra Stein, a scholar of social psychology of ideological extremism, writes that a cult is, “A group that violates the rights of its members, harms them through abusive techniques of mind control . . . Or, a group that is adverse to adherents’ best interests.”

Is Yoga a cult?

Pope Francis seems to think so.

“You can take a million catechetical courses, a million courses in spirituality, a million courses in yoga, Zen and all these things. But all of this will never be able to give you freedom”, Pope Francis stated in a homily in 2015. The Greek Orthodox Church, reacting to the UN’s decision to designate June 21 as International Day of Yoga in 2014, reminded its adherents that the postures of yoga were created as adulation to 330 million Hindu gods. The postures are viewed in the Hindu faith as offerings to gods that in Christianity are considered to be idols.

But in today’s world, idols may be Yoga’s stellar selling point.