Order of Chaeronea

The Order of Chaeronea was a secret society for the cultivation of a homosexual moral, ethical, cultural and spiritual ethos. It was founded by George Cecil Ives in 1897, as a result of his realisation that homosexuals would not be accepted openly in society and must therefore have a means of underground communication.^[1] The society is named after the location of the battle where the Sacred Band of Thebes was finally annihilated in 338 BC.

Nature of the organization

In the 1860s, a German lawyer named Karl Heinrich Ulrichs may have been the first modern European to publicly declare his homosexuality. Ulrichs wrote dozens of books and pamphlets that made a crucial argument: The preference for same-sex love is hereditary; therefore it should not be a crime. He introduced the word "Uranian" as a synonym for homosexual relations, and even demanded that homosexuals be granted the right to marry. Slightly less radical thinkers in Germany, Austria and France began to argue that sex between men was a psychological disturbance to be treated by physicians, rather than a crime to be punished by the courts. As a result, by 1876 "psychological" had become a term that Wilde and his peers used to describe anything pertaining to gay sex. At the same time, McKenna writes, "aestheticism seemed to spring to life, fully formed, towards the end of the 1870s." It was "a heady mix of art, idealism and politics, which sought to propagate a new gospel of Beauty." And in 1893, shortly after meeting Wilde, George Ives, a friend of Wilde's whose diaries contain many new details of the writer's life, founded a secret society called the Order of Chaeronea, named "after the battle where the male lovers of the Theban Band were slaughtered in 338 BC." New members of the Order were required to swear "That you will never vex or persecute lovers" and "That all real love shall be to you as sanctuary." Ives and other members dated letters and other materials from the year of the Battle of Chaeronea, so that 1899 would be written as C2237. An elaborate system of rituals, ceremonies, a service of initiation, seals, codes, and passwords were used by the members. The Secret Society became a worldwide organisation, and Ives took advantage of every opportunity to spread the word about the "Cause."

The Order, according to Ives' notebooks, had a specific purpose, distinct prescriptions and philosophy, and its particular symbolism: the "sign-word" AMRRHAO and "the seal of the double wreath."^{[clarification needed]} The prerequisites of membership are indicated to be "Zeal, Learning and Discipline." The principle of secrecy is conveyed by the metaphor of "The Chain" underlining that one should never reveal any information about the order or its members.

In Ives' words: "We believe in the glory of passion. We believe in the inspiration of emotion. We believe in the holiness of love. Now some in the world without have been asking as to our faith, and mostly we find that we have no answer for them. Scoffers there be, to whom we need not reply, and foolish ones to whom our words would convey no meaning. For what are words? Symbols of kindred comprehended conceptions, and like makes appeal to like."

Notes

1. ^ Cook, London and the Culture of Homosexuality 1885-1914, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp.137-40