Bennett - 'Hermetic Histories'

Hermetic Histories: Divine Providence and Conspiracy Theory
Author(s): Brian P. Bennett

Source: Numen, Vol. 54, Fasc. 2 (2007), pp. 174-209
Published by: BRILL
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brill
Numen
54
(2007)
Histories:
Hermetic
Divine
Providence
and Conspiracy
Brian
Department
Niagara
NVMEN
www.brill.nl/nu
174-209
Theory
P. Bennett
of Religious
University, NY
Studies
14109, USA
bbennett@niagara.edu
Abstract
the writing
of history was closely connected with divination.
world,
In this essay I argue that two types of
the providential
and the con
historiography,
to uncover
have a distinct divinatory
dimension.
Divination
purports
spiratorial,
occult
the gritty flux of human
looks for the
influences behind
affairs. Providentialism
In the ancient
"hand
of God"
not with
are hermetic
events both
in historical
the "hand
of God"
histories.
but
Like
is concerned
small. Conspiracism
Providentialism
and conspiracism
concern
themselves with
they
tracking and
via sacred/secret texts, such as the Bible or The
great and
the "hidden hand."
divination
is deciphered
interpreting signs. History
In this mode
Elders ofZion.
Protocols
is akin to cryptography.
the
of
historiography
are hermetic
and conspiracism
Providentialism
also in the sense that they present
of past events. They are totalizing histories.

"airtight," all-encompassing
explanations
The purpose of this essay is to
connections
the discourses
between
of divina
highlight
I
and conspiracy
the
of
discuss
tion, divine providence,
illustration,
theory. By way
of Kievan Rus' and two articles written
in the post-Soviet
Primary Chronicle
period by
the late Metropolitan
and historical
detail
tion. Hence
The approach
taken in this essay foreshortens
textual
a kind of
in
favor
of
presenta
depth
Wittgensteinian
perspicuous
the value of formal links: the vaulting phrases of providentialism
resound
in the
Primary
Ioann.
Chronicle,
in the articles of Ioann,

between
in the Lebenswelt of divination;

yet the text seems grounded
a link
passes into conspiracism,
demonstrating
providentialism
the two hermetic discourses.
Keywords
divination,
historiography,
providence,
? Koninklijke BrillNV, Leiden, 2007
conspiracy
theory, Russia
DOI:
10.1163/156852707X185005

B. P. Bennett
/Numen
54
(2007)
175
174-209
are] seers upon the watch towers,

serene eye
upon the moral firmament,
the aspect
of the lights and shadows
[Historians
gazing
with
reading
which alternate
in the moral
heavens,
solving theproblems,
interpreting theprophecies,
and opening the
which are written
parables
history of man,
which
of society.
are
uttered
(Quoted inNye 1966:1).
In the ancient riverine civilizations,

was
historiography
the mantic
historical
arts.
According
to
J.J. Finkelstein,
in the
by the experience
intertwined with
"...omen
texts,
and
the
in them, lie at the very root of all

Mesopotamian
historiography" (1963:463). Archaic Chinese historiog
raphy originated in scapulimantic divination. Records of prognostica
tions inscribed on oracle bones constituted a
"primitive form of
legitimating historiography"
(Keightley 1988:373). As L?on Vander
meersch (1992:1?2)
explains,
information
imbedded
tous les actes

tous les ?v?nements
Puisque
importants de la vie sociale,
conjetur
ables propres ? affecter celle-ci, faisaient
le simple recueil
l'objet de divinations,
a pu tout naturellement
des notations
oraculaires
faire incidemment
fonction de
livre-journal
qui explique
fondue avec
devenu,
ce
ainsi prototype
des affaires du pays, devenant
des annales. C'est
se soit
con
que la fonction d'annaliste,
d'historiographe,
longtemps
et que le nom de cette fonction
celle de scribe des divinations,
soit
beaucoup
plus
tard, le nom
de Xhistoire elle-m?me:
shi.
historical writing are perhaps to

beginnings of ancient Roman
be found in theAnnales maximi, a divinatory record of
prodigies and
their expiations (Hartog 2000:388).
In the ancient world, historians
were "seers upon thewatch towers_"
Fran?ois Hartog puts it thisway:
two
"... the
disciplines, divination and historiography, seem to have shared
or inhabited
same intellectual space.
(peacefully enough) the
Surely, they
could be and were practiced by the same intellectuals" (387).
In this essay I want to propose that two kinds of historical writing,
the providential and the conspiratorial, have a divinatory quality. Divi
nation purports to uncover occult influences behind the gritty flux
in historical
of human affairs. Providentialism
seeks the "hand of God"
events both great and small.
turn
in
represents an
Conspiracism
The

176
B. P. Bennett INumen
54
(2007)
174-209
?
and reveling
"inverted providentiality" (Jameson 1992:1), revealing
?
not the "hand of God" but the "hidden hand."
in
Providentialism and conspiracism are both hermetic disciplines. Like
?
?
secrets, clues
divination, they traffic in recondite signs
calling for
a
as
great "semiological system"
interpretation. They picture the world
an
view dominated
world
"a
1996:15),
by
quasi-religious
(Winship
order of similarities and analogies" (Boym 1999:98). What Averil Cam
eron says about Christian providentialism pertains to conspiracy theo
ries: "History becomes a matter of revelation through signs, and signs
in thismode is
of history" (1991:211). Historiography
themechanism
akin to cryptography.
and conspiracism are hermetic also in the sense of
Providentialism
systems of thought. As Weber
comprising "airtight," all-encompassing
realized, the belief in divine providence is themaximal
(1964:143?44)
rationalization ofmagical divination, explaining every event in terms of
a
trumps even providentialism
single transcendent agent. Conspiracism
in its explanatory reach, for it is ultimately impervious to any kind of
counter
evidence.
Brian
Keeley
observes
that,
"conspiracy
theories
are
the only theories forwhich evidence against them is actually construed

as evidence in
favor of them" (1999:120).
The purpose of this essay is to draw out these and other connections
and relationships between divination, providentialism,
and conspira
cism. For tangible examples I turn to several texts composed a millen
nium apart: the Primary Chronicle of Kievan Rus' and two articles
in the post-Soviet period by the lateMetropolitan

Ioann. My
is
informed by Gabrielle Spiegel's idea of the "social logic of
approach
the text,"which she explains is
written
a term and a concept

in a
framework a
that seeks to combine
single but complex
a text's social site?
an embedded
the
its
within
for
of
location
analysis
protocol
of which
it is a product and inwhich
it acts as an agent ?
and
social environment
its own discursive
of language
and
character
as
thus demanding
"logos,"
that is, as itself a literary artifact composed
literary (formal)
analysis.
(1997:xviii).
The Primary Chronicle must be viewed in terms of the social situation

of Kievan Rus', a newly Christianized
agro-literate polity, and its cleri
cal authors, Orthodox monks from the celebrated Caves Monastery. A
discussion of its "logos" should make reference to the chronicle's com
structure as well as its intertextual relationships
plex compositional

B. P. Bennett /Numen
54
(2007)
174-209
177
texts. Ioann's articles need to

of Byzantino-Slavonic
be situated in relation to the tumult of a collapsed empire, the revan
chist and anti-Semitic discourses of the Russian right, the media mar
with a constellation
ket in post-Soviet society, Ioann's literary output and ecclesiastical career

(he was also an Orthodox monk), and so forth.
in
The approach
taken here purposely foreshortens this protocol
favor of comparison, pulling certain features forward, leaving others

in the background, displaying gradations of similarity and difference.
as Jonathan Z. Smith has emphasized, is always aspectual
Comparison,
and adventitious. But what this approach loses in historical depth and
textual detail, I hope it gains in clarifying perspective, bringing a cluster
of previously unremarked relationships into focus. The method owes
toWittgensteins
Remarks on Frazers Golden Bough (Witt
something
cf. Clack
as
highlighted by Smith (2004:61-79;
genstein 1979:8-9),
as it endeavors to lay out the
insofar
1999:53-78,
2004),
Ginzburg
material "so that we can easily pass from one part to another and have
a
a clear view of it?
'perspicuous [?bersichtlichen] way."
showing it in
"The
to
presentation makes pos
perspicuous
Wittgenstein,
According
sible that understanding which consists just in the fact thatwe 'see the
the importance of finding intermediate linksT
connections'. Hence
texts in question afford us a glimpse of such links. The vaulting

?
"An
resounds in the Primary Chronicle
cadence of providentialism
no harm toman, but instead, thinks constantly of his good"
angel does
a
anno
1015), "God in his wrath causes foreigners to attack nation,
(sub
are
the
crushed
thus
its
inhabitants
invaders,
when
and then,
by
anno
Sherbowitz-Wetzor
and
1068) (Cross
(sub
they remember God"
?
1953)
yet the text seems grounded in the Lebenswelt of divination,
as themonastic chroniclers record and puzzle out themeaning of omens
on Rus'. Their practice is a kind of "providential divination"
bearing
1999:15). One benefit of seeing things in this light is that
(cf.Winship
it can broaden our understanding of what counts as divination. Argu
of ancient Roman literature as it engages
ing for the religious dimension
in a dialogue with primary religious traditions, Denis Feeney (1998:42)
makes the following point:
The
in a ritual or performative
fact that this dialogue may not be taking place
it is doing. An analogy from the
does not derogate from the cultural work
tradition may be helpful. From Bach's B Minor Mass
of our modern musical
Mass
or sacramental,
not necessarily
Mass
is
musical
the
by virtue of
onwards,
liturgical
The
context

178
54
(2007)
174-209
of earlier portions of
its
musical
structures, and recapitulation
length, alternative
them incom
these liturgical licenses, which make
the liturgy out of order. Despite
in some worth
are still
the Masses
"religious"
patible with church performance,
sense of the word.
while
to push the analogy too far, I hope to show that,

wanting
historians constitutes a kind
although the providentialism of Christian
of scriptorial as opposed to ritual divination, it can nevertheless be called
sense of thatword. All those bulky medi
a
"divinatory" in worthwhile
eval Christian chronicles on sagging library shelves constitute a legiti
Without
mate
(and largely unfamiliar) body of data for the study of divination.

Ioann's texts have a divinatory quality to them as well, as I hope to
show, but they also demonstrate a passage from providentialism to con
spiracism. He speaks in the language of divine providence, but easily
moves
into conspiratorial harangues about ominous plots hatched by

secret cartels.
us
something important about the
Seeing this may tell
nature of conspiracy theories. Ours is an age of
perfervid conspiracism,
yet the topic has not yet received the attention itdeserves from students
of religion. Conspiracy
theories about religion flourish, as the phenom
enal success of The Da Vinci Code demonstrates. This paper argues that
is in certain respects like religion. Conspiracy
theories,
suggests Timothy Melley, "require a form of quasi-religious conviction,
a sense that the
conspiracy in question is an entity with almost super
conspiracism
natural powers"
(1999:8).
According
to Brian Keeley
(1999:123),
in an ordered uni
theorists are, I submit, some of the last believers
Conspiracy
verse.
that current events are under the control of nefarious agents,
By supposing
theories entail that such events are
In an
conspiracy
capable of being controlled.
earlier
God
time,
itwould
and other
have
been
supernatural
natural
agents
to believe
exercised
in an ordered world,
significant
influence
in which
and control.
theories may be usefully viewed in relation to providential

Conspiracy
ism and other "occult cosmologies," that is, "systems of belief in a world
animated
by
secret,
mysterious,
and/or
unseen
powers.
Occult
cosmol
in the world than

ogies suggest that there is more to what happens
meets the eye_" West and Sanders also raise the question of whether
such cosmologies "potentially contain within them theories of conspir
Ioann's articles offer a suggestive linkage. Yet, again to
acy" (2003:6?7).
followWittgenstein
(1979:9),

B. P. Bennett
/Numen
54
(2007)
in our case an
link is not meant
hypothetical
to the
between
similarity, the connection,
internal relation of a circle to an
ellipse by
179
174-209
to do
anything except draw attention
the facts. As one might
illustrate the
an
gradually
ellipse into
transforming
came
but not in order to assert that a given
in
ellipse
fact, historically,
from
a circle
to
our
a formal
of
but
for
eye
(hypothesis
development)
only
sharpen
connection.
a circle;
My focus will be on the formal relationship between the circle of prov

to those more
identialism and the ellipse of conspiracism,
leaving it
to
out
work
the hypothesis of development.
qualified
In the remainder of this introductory section, I delineate a model of

text-based divination. The next two sections treat the Primary Chronicle
and Ioann's articles as examples of providential and conspiratorial his
some comparative reflections
toriography respectively. I conclude with
and pose questions requiring further study.
is a problem-solving discourse. People resort to itwhen
Divination
a crisis or worrisome
are
faced
with
situation, pending or past. In
they
such
cases
divination
provides
answers,
reassurance.
certainty,
It does
so
or
a
purports
insight. Divination
by offering special kind of knowledge
to go beyond mundane appearances to the hidden structure or significance
of events. It entails the discovery and disclosure of spiritual forces or
occult realities operative in human affairs.Cicero (De divinatione 1.1.1.)
as "the
foresight and knowledge of future
famously defined divination
but
events,"
that
is
restrictive.
overly
Seen
in cross-cultural
perspective,
divination has as much to do with the past as with the future.

to Cicero
1.5.2), there are two kinds of
(De divinatione
According
on
the
other on nature. "Artificial"
first
the
divination:
art,
depends
divination involves human skill and ingenuity in the reading of signs.
Our
a
a form of artificial, retrospective, text-based

This typically involves the following ensemble of elements:
interest will be with
divination.
problematic
situation
arises
(e.g.,
an
illness,
an
eclipse,
famine);
client consults a diviner; the diviner has recourse to a specialized Instru

mentarium (a textual "toolkit"); working with this instrumentarium, an
"fits" the situation; the hidden

interpretation is constructed which
or causation of the problem is revealed; and a plan of action
significance
to David Zeitlyn, in such systems,
is enjoined on the client. According
The
results of divination
arcane
and erudite).
The
are believed
text is selected
to lie in a
text (which
particular
a series of
operations which
by

is
typically
themselves
180
B. P. Bennett
may
be
selected,
current
/Numen
54
(2007)
174-209
or to some
inspired,
degree consciously
shown
the text must be interpreted or otherwise
issue. (2001:225)
random,
Once
to the
of relevance. The diviner must
somehow
the text "fit" the situation of the client; he must provide a "plau
?
?
the client's
and therefore relieves
sibility structure" which explains
The interpretation must match the
distress (cf. Smith 1982:49-52).
situation at hand. Providing this "plausibility structure" is always a rhe
torical endeavor. The diviner must persuade his client that he is able to
elucidate the problem, that his interpretation is pertinent and satisfac
Critical
here
is the notion
manipulated.
to be relevant
make
cannot be understood
tory. Ingenuity is required. Divination
simply
as the mechanical
to
of
particular circumstances.
application
dogmata
The diviner's authority is not a given; itmust be created (Akinnaso
This is so in part because divination takes place in a
1995:254-55).
competitive atmosphere. For one thing, as Zeitlyn (1999:237)

points
out, other diviners may well be familiar with the same texts and this
puts pressure on the diviner to prove that his reading is the correct one.
Their divinations may also compete with alternative explanatory sys
tems, such as secular medicine or comprehensive theodicies like karma
1992).
(e.g., Nuckolls
We see this text-based discipline in the ancient Roman form of divi
nation based on the enigmatic Libri
an unusual or dis
Sibyllini. When
as
a
event
or
such
occurred,
invasion,
turbing
plague, foreign
prodigy
a
was
a
as
the
of
it
birth
(e.g.,
hermaphrodite),
interpreted
sign of divine
in the pax deorum. In response to the crisis,
displeasure, a breakdown
were
the keepers of the book
instructed by the senate to consult the
Libri Sibyllini in order to determine itsmeaning and chart a course of
action
(Parke 1992:136-51;
190-215). The senate in turnmight order
the performance of a particular rite or the establishment of a new
we do not know much more than
religious institution. Unfortunately,
this, because the Libri themselves are lost and the scribe-diviners leftno
records of the interpretive process.
The ensemble comes into view more
clearly in the cache of letters

for
scribe-diviners
the
produced by
Neo-Assyrian kings (Parp?la 1970?
1983). First, an anomaly or portent would be observed and reported to
one of the
then consult the canonical
royal scribes. The scribe would
omen
to
in
material
order
which
find
would help decode
compendia

54
181
174-209
(2007)
itsmeaning. When
the portent had been deciphered, the scribe would
a
or
letter
compose
report to the king that contained a record of the
the
occurrence,
portent's
of
interpretation
the
and
portent,
any
other
relevant information, such as the need for an apotropaic rite. The letters
had to demonstrate a "fit" between the texts and the
happening. To that
end they included
...
tions
to
pertinent
culled from the traditional omen collec
"quotations
these
events.
As
rule,
string
of
such
omen
is given, each
to a
quotations
corresponding
special feature of the event
such as timing, accompanying circumstances, etc." (Oppenheim
1969:98;
cf. Rochberg 2004).
There are obviously important differences between these cases. For
one
case
a
signs and omens have
thing, in the Roman
diagnostic signifi
in the
whereas
cance,
case
Neo-Assyrian
they
have
predictive
value.
But in both situations we are dealing with what may be termed "public"
divination. The concern iswith phenomena which had a bearing on the
welfare of the state, which seemed to put the realm in danger. Further
more, the phenomena were interpreted by authorized scribal experts on
behalf of the political leaders. The Roman senate was directly involved
in the Sibylline consultations;

letterswere composed
theNeo-Assyrian
not
out
is
for private reasons, for
for the king. This
divination carried
the determination of success in love or business.
It is my
less?
contention
that we
see
a similar
pattern
in the genres of providential and conspiratorial

I turn now to textswhich illustrate this connection.
Providential
now
more,
now
historiography.
Historiography
is a historical discourse. Derived

from Classical
and
sources, the Christian discourse of divine providence posits one
deity who creates and governs the universe and all within it.History is
Providentialism
Biblical
the outward expression, the working out, of God's divine providence.

?
all are
Wars, revolutions, the rise and fall of kingdoms and dynasties
to
and
directed by the "hand of God"
1973). According
(Meyer
Mayer
Averil Cameron
(1993:121),
... the idea of Christian

theory of everything.
in the formative period of late antiquity,
providence
It embraced
a kind of
a
totalising explanation,
the idea of a divine plan which
began with
constituted

182
B. P. Bennett
Creation,
Coming
Thus,
progressed
and the Day
the discourse
cosmos
to
INumen
54
(2007)
174-209
with the Second

and culminated
through the Incarnation
all history was subsumed.
and inwhich
of Judgement,
offers a sweeping view from
of divine providence
history.
offers this pr?cis of the "classic model"

Peter Hodgson
(1989:11)
Christian providential historiography:
of
interven
exerts causality
in world
of specific and decisive
affairs by means
events but also specific theophanies,
not
historical
only global
including
acts of
and rewards
miracles,
inspiration, and punishments
God
tions,
should add that the world is viewed as an arena inwhich

and his angels and saints do battle with Satan and his minions.
There is a divine plan for theworld, and God is active behind the scenes,
to achieve it,while
working through human agents and institutions,
the Devil works in a likewise manner to thwart it.
To
this we
God
look like in practice? In the monastic

What
does providentialism
to 1200 ce.,
chronicles of Latin Christendom,
produced roughly 800
are
events
historical
the visible manifestations of God's invisible master
plan. "The great task of medieval historiography," wrote Collingwood
"was the task of discovering and expounding this... divine
(1946:53),
to Ernest Breisach (1994:127),
"The historian's task
plan." According
was not to find the truth but to show how God works his will
through
out time." This task was
two
in
delineat
ways:
accomplished
firstly,by
ing the grand sweep of world history, and secondly, by a watchful
interest inmiracles and portents. The two modes correlate more or less
a
with different compositional
strategies, and so typical medieval chron
icle usually consists of two linked parts (cf. Breisach 1994:126-30).
The first usually begins with a cursory review of (in Hodgson's words)
?
starting with Creation, say, or the division
"global historical events"
of theworld after the Flood ?
derived from the Bible, Patristic sources,
ancient
and
chronicles. The second section will have to do with more
events,
contemporaneous
usually
composed
in an
annalistic
this section the focus is often on (again, inHodgson's
theophanies,
miracles,
acts
of
inspiration,
and
punishments
words)
and
style.
In
"specific
rewards."
it is here especially thatwe may see a kind of divination at work.

Christian chronicles are replete with reports of bloody moons, lactif
erous statues, and other such omina et curiosa (cf. Brandt 1966:52?59).
And

B. P. Bennett
/Numen
54
(2007)
183
174-209
to Nancy Partner (1977:214),

"the most frequent and cur
According
moments
of divine interference with theworld consisted of bizarre
sory
or
on natural
and were interpreted
unexpected variations
phenomena
as
of future
warnings
misfortune
or adverse
on
judgments
the
present."
invasions, and other forms of violent breakdown also loom large

Wars,
inmedieval
chronicles, where they may be interpreted as divine chas
tisements for sinful behavior. Such interpretation, however, is often
chronicles are well known for their reliance on
implicit. Medieval
parataxis. The chronicler puts together two events without

explicit
causal connection and leaves it for his audience to discern the role of
divine providence in their conjunction. We will

in the Kievan Primary Chronicle.
see all of these features
Kievan
(or Kyivan) Rus' is the name of the first East Slavic state. It
flourished from roughly 850 to 1250 c.e., when itwas overrun by the
It is the rootstock ofmodern-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Rus
Mongols.
sia, all three of which claim its legacy. Rus' converted to Christianity in
were
its Byzantine (Orthodox) form in 988 c.e. The monastic
clergy
the purveyors of the imported ideology. Itwas theywho mastered, not
Latin as in theWest, but the prestige language of Old Church Slavonic
and who were most associated with the production of texts. They did so
in close collaboration with the princes of Rus', for this was an era, as
says, "when Christianity was turned more
Andrzej Poppe (1997:337)
toward rulers, their courts, theirmagnates and courtly and armed reti
nue, and appeared in harmony with earthly strivings toward legal order,
building in stone, and education."
These
two
vectors
the
princely
and
the monastic
come
together
in the Primary Chronicle. The textwas largely produced at the famous

Caves Monastery, which had close familial ties with the best families
It is con
in Rus'. Princes patronized the work (Rukavishnikov 2003).
ceivable that they read the Primary Chronicle or had it read to them.
was
I.P. Eremin
(1966:52?54)
suggested that the Primary Chronicle
events
intended as a "table book" for the princes of Rus'. Historical
offered lessons for future conduct. Indeed, on several occasions
(e.g.,
sub anno 1019) the chroniclers say that such-and-such happened as an
to the Rus' princes. One

is reminded of Gellner's remark
that "themessengers of a universal and impersonal, trans-social redemp
and servicing personnel" of
tion gradually turn into the maintenance
new
structure
social
the
(1988:92).
admonition

184
54
(2007)
174-209
In its social location, its compositional

structure, its choice of topics
a
and methods of interpretation, the
Primary Chronicle is typical medi
eval Christian chronicle. The first part of the text consists of stories that
seek to place the Rus' in relation to the great
peoples and events of
salvation history. The overall thrust in the

section is cosmo
beginning
graphie and genealogical, with connective filaments established between
Rus' and theTower of Babel story, the distributions of
peoples after the
Flood, and the peregrinations of theApostles. After that the text settles
down into an annalistic format,
to
extending from the year 852 ce.
1110 ce.
on the redaction). The text is a

(depending
complex
and layered on, what Russian philologists call a svod, a
compilation. As
far as we can tell, the chronicle was composed in an open,
agglutinative
about
manner, by multiple hands (Timberlake 2001; Gippius

2001). Rele
vant here is the
as
status
a
kind of entrep?t, with
Primary Chronicles
different kinds of text "stashed" within its annalistic structure, such as
monastic vitae, quotations from biblical and
patristic sources, and size
able chunks from Byzantine world chronicles. The nature of the Pri
?
as a textual
mary Chronicles "logos"
depository and annalistic record
?
in
to
events
historical
will be an important fac
response
composed
tor in our consideration of the text's
divinatory qualities.
The Primary Chronicle is a specimen of
providential historiography.
Events are viewed as reflections or instruments of God's divine
plan.
Great attention is given to the conversion of Rus'
in 988 and the
fluorescence
of Christianity
in Rus' due to the labors of
princes and
is the good news. But there is also bad news ?
of terrify
raids
internecine
the
nomads,
ing
by
princes of Rus',
fighting among
the
infernal
of
native
tricks
pagan recidivism,
magi, and so on. A good
text
a
is
of
the
con
kind of medieval
portion
occupied with
"damage
trol." In this connection considerable attention is
in
the
annalistic
given
portion to signs (znameniid) such as comets or eclipses; and chastise
are
ments, such as invasions or jacqueries. These
happenings
deciphered
the
lens
of
the Bible, Byzantine world chronicles, and other
through
monks.
works
That
of
sacred
literature.
Let
chroniclers' hermeneutic most
us
consider
some
entries
where
we
see
the
on
fully
display.
The entry for the year 1065 registers three omens that occurred inRus:
... there was
bloody
a portent
in the west
in the form of an
exceedingly
rose
out of the west after sunset. Itwas visible
which
rays,
star with
large
for a week and

B. P. Bennett
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(2007)
185
174-209
no
this time, a child was cast into the Setoml'
good presage_At
fishermen pulled
it up in their net. We
I till eve
then gazed upon
cast it back into the water because
itwas malformed_Some
they
with
appeared
[river]. Some
ning, when
what before
the sun also
this moment,
bright, became
rather like the moon.
suffered alteration,
(Cross
and
instead
and Sherbowitz-Wetzor
of being
1953:144).
are said to presage an attack against the land of Rus'.

These phenomena
The chronicler's interpretation of them begins with a generalizing state
no
ment that such signs
"portend
good." He then introduces analogous
cases drawn from Christian salvation history. To do so he uses the Chro
an
and
abridgement of the Byzantine chronicles of Malalas
nograph,
are
to
Hamartolos.
Similar phenomena
said
have occurred during the
various
of
emperors: Antiochus, Nero, Justin
Roman/Byzantine
reigns
the Iconoclast. When mysterious riders appeared
ian, and Constantine
attack on the city.
throughout Jerusalem, this presaged Antiochus'
over the
a
star
When,
appeared
spear-like
during the reign of Nero,
same city, this portended the Roman
invasion. A shining star and a
dark sun foreshadowed various rebellions, pestilence, and general evil.
it is said that "a woman
the time of the Emperor Mauricius,
During
a fish-tail grew to his
a
and
bore
child without eyes and without hands,
back." After an earthquake in Syria, "amule issued forth from the earth,
a human voice and
prophesying the incursion of the
speaking with
which
pagans,
actually
1953:145).
took place"
and
(Cross
Sherbowitz-Wetzor
in the Primary Chronicle entry

The Byzantine precedents adduced
In both cases we are deal
from
Rus'.
the
reported
phenomena
parallel
ingwith occurrences
in the sky,malformed
are
occurrences
such
taken
of war
or
invasion.
the sun...
was
a star rose
not
lit
the sun
child
child
murders
attack
against
znamene
Rus
killing
assault
[was] without
light
on Jerusalem
byst'
vosiia zvezda
byst'
zvezda
ne
from Chronograph
occurred
sign occurred
a star
solntse...
signs
Precedents
in Rus'
many
warning
births, etc.; in both cases,
is driven home by specific lexical correspondences:
correlation
Events
as
byst' svetlo
solntse bez luch'

This
186
54
(2007)
detishch'
detishche'
se zhe
se zhe
proiavliashe
na
nakhozhene...
proiavliashe
na
nashestvie...
Russkuiu
174-209
Ierusalim
zemliu
(Likhachev
and Adrianova-Peretts
1950:110-11)
chronicler develops a point-by-point correlation. But this is

not done explicitly; the two sets of phenomena are basically juxtaposed
and it is left to the reader (or auditor) to make the necessary connec
tions. However, as noted above, such parataxis (juxtaposing as opposed
common inmedieval chronicles. Through
to
subordinating elements) is
this particular rhetorical strategy, the chronicler proposes a "fit" between
in Rus' and events catalogued in an authoritative text.
the happenings
The Chronograph is called upon to help explain some other puzzling
The Rus'
recorded in the entry for the year 1114 (Hypatian redac

phenomena
tion). The chronicler relates his journey to Ladoga (a town in the north
ern
near
region of Rus,
Novgorod):
the Ladogans
informed me that "Here, after a great
Ladoga,
find little glass eyes, both small and big, and bored through;
the water splashes out."
river,which
they gather up others from beside theVolkhov
When
I had
come
to
storm, our children
The
chronicler notes
that he obtained more
than a hundred
of these
little glass ^eye^r He also registers his amazement upon hearing of this
But the people of Ladoga tell him,
phenomenon.
is not amazing;
the Iugra
there are still some old men who
traveled beyond
and Samoyad'
and themselves saw, in the northern regions, how a storm descends
?
?
as if
and from that storm fall young squirrels
and, having grown,
just born
occurs another storm, and young deer fall
scatter about the land; or
there
again,
from it, and they grow and disperse
the land. (Likhachev
and Adri
throughout
This
anova-Peretts
1950:399-401;
my
translation)
testimony does not really diminish the remarkableness

of the glass beads; it only places that particular occurrence within a
wider range of startling incidents.
to
toKiev, the chronicler
Returning home
attempted
puzzle this out.
He found other canonical instances of items falling from the sky.As if
This additional
to head off the

incredulity of his audience,
he begins his account

by
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174-209
187
someone does not believe this, let him read the Chrono
saying, "If
semu very ne imet\ da
pochtef fronograf). What
graph" (Ashche li kto
follows are excerpts taken from this compendium
concerning unusual
a storm
once
from
learn
We
that
the
heavens.
during
objects falling
was
wheat fell,which
gathered up and filled large bins. Under Aurelius,
silver grains fell, while inAfrica three huge stones dropped from the
skies. The next excerpt talks about Hephaestus, who is euhemeristically
learn that, during his reign,
identified as an ancient ruler of Egypt. We
to
tongs fell from the heavens and he began
forge weapons with them.
are
Besides the obvious thematic parallels, there
again lexical correspon
and these
dences between the description of the Ladoga phenomena
cases
reported in the Chronograph.
Events
in Rus'
fell
a storm-cloud
in
Chronograph
storm-clouds
Precedents
great storm-cloud
occurs
tucha velika
great
fell
rain having occurred

tuchi velitsii
spade
spade
byvaet drugaia
tucha
dozhgtsiu
byvshiu
there is a "fit" between

again, this semantic parallelism suggests
incidents inRus' and sacred history.
in question, we can see that the chron
Stepping back from the entry
icler drew upon a tome from his authoritative corpus of texts and
to be relevant passages in order to solve a contem
applied what he took
in a nutshell, is that
porary problem (Franklin 1983:525). The problem,
?
?
not
the sky.When
from
fall
animals
do
beads,
normally
objects
the chronicler felt compelled to decipher
objects reportedly did do that,
the meaning of it. The chronicler acts like a diviner: he observes and
records anomalous happenings; he consults his textual instrumentarium
for analogues or precedents; he establishes a rhetorical fit between the
events "on the ground" (or rather "in the air") and his text. He also
as diviners do, when he directs
attempts to head off rival interpretations,
doubters to check the Chronograph for themselves.
Once
entry for the year 1096 also deals with troubling anomalies
whereas the occurrences
emanating from the edge of the world. But
a
the
fantastical tone,
listed in 1114 have
phenomena discussed under
The

188
B. P Bennett INumen
54
(2007)
174-209
In the entry we read that the nomadic Polovtsy

itself.According to the chronicle account
attacked theCaves Monastery
the invaders carried off
Sherbowitz-Wetzor
and
1953:183-84),
(Cross
1096
are doomful.
icons, burned down structures, killed some of the brethren, and berated
the Christian deity. After recounting these horrors, the chronicler shifts
into exegetical mode. "Of course," notes Khazanov
(1994:2), "the emo
tions and impressions ofmany of those who personally lived through or
the invasions of nomads scarcely differ from the feelings of
witnessed
Indeed, the vivid first-hand account by the
prophets_"
in his explicit
a
Kievan writer has
strong biblical resonance. However,
commentary, the chronicler resorts to the extra-biblical Revelation of
the biblical
Pseudo-Methodios.
is a historical-eschatological
throughout medieval Christendom,
content, the Revelation presents a
This
work
that enjoyed wide currency

In terms of
and West.
to
of the world from Adam
both East
history
theApocalypse. The various stages of the eschaton are delineated. Atten
tion is given in particular to the Ishmaelites, who were driven into the
Etriv desert and who will come forth again at the end of time, and to
the "unclean" peoples, who were locked up by Alexander the Great and
who will also be loosed upon theworld.

The Primary Chronicle author uses this text to make
sense of the
tries to "place" the Polovtsy in terms of eschatological

Polovtsy. He
came from the Etriv desert in
geography. He begins by noting that they
the northeast, and that four races have come hence: the Torkmens,
relates concerning them,"

Pechenegs, Torks, and Polovtsy. "Methodius
that
the
and
chronicler
Sherbowitz-Wetzor
1953:184),
(Cross
says
races
into
The
Gideon
drove
the
desert.
and
eight
slaughtered four
chronicler recognizes that "others say" the Polovtsy are the sons of
Ammon
(Lot's son), but "this is not true." Rather, these are the sons of
after they appear at the end of the world, the unclean
locked
the Great will issue forth.
up by Alexander
peoples
The passage is confused and confusing, yet the basic thrust of the
Ishmael. And
chronicler's
explanation
is clear:
the
Polovtsy
number
among
the
"sons"
of Ishmael driven into the desert and awaiting their return at the end of
to an
most likely from memory ?
time. The chronicler has recourse?
in order to dis
text, the Revelation of Pseudo-Methodios,
close the true significance of these people. He rejects the opinion offered
authoritative
by
"others."

B. P. Bennett
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189
174-209
The mention
of unclean peoples locked up by Alexander

the Great
into
leads
the second component of the 1096 entry (Cross and Sherbowitz
Wetzor
The chronicler states that he would
like to
1953:184-85).
recount what Gyuryata
of
of
A
the
him.
told
city
Rogovich
Novgorod
servant of Gyuryata went among the
in
the
North.
him
told
Iugra
They
of a "strange marvel." They had encountered a huge mountain which
reaches to the heavens. Cries and voices emanate from within
this
mountain ?
the people inside are trying to get out. A small hole is
bored through. But one cannot understand the language of those inside.
at
as if to ask for them. The road to thismountain
is
They point
things
access.
very difficult of
chronicle writer goes on, "I said to Gyuryata,
'These are the
He
the
Great.'"
Alexander
shut
up by Emperor
explains that,
people
when Alexander reached the eastern lands, he encountered the unclean
The
not
races ate every unclean
bury
thing. They did
their dead, but ate them instead. Alexander was fearful that theywould
were driven into the
corrupt the earth. So, by God's command,
they
barricaded by indestructible
North and enclosed in a great mountain,
doors. At the end of the world, the peoples from the Etriv desert shall
issue forth, as well as these peoples from themountain.
This is a good example of the chronicle's problem-solving, divination
races of
Japheth. These
is reported to the chronicler. The

A "strange marvel"
in
first
who
the
chronicler,
person, discloses the true nature of
speaks
in question. This interpretation is supported by a
the phenomenon
reference to an authoritative text, the Revelation of Pseudo-Methodios.
like discourse.
is a sort of triangulation between the "Old Rus' annalist," the

contacts" (Chekin
"bookish tradition," and the "experiences ofNovgorod
1992:17).
From a close study of the Primary Chronicle's "logos," it is clear that
was an
organizing force behind the text's pro
"providential divination"
duction. This claim is based not only on the fact that the chroniclers
take notice of celestial and terrestrial omens, very much in themanner
There
on the fact
disciplines. Nor, either, does it hinge
that the chroniclers apply relevant passages of sacred texts to contempo
is correct towarn that that cri
rary circumstances. Zeitlyn (2001:231)
terion alone would make all of religion in effect divinatory. Instead,
what is determinative here is the fact thatwe see in the Primary Chron
of the ancient mantic
icle
is an
ensemble
of components:
the notation
of ominous
occurrences,

190
54
sometimes based on first-hand observation;

tions
using
textual
patrons
or
clients.
Not
the
Instrumentarium-,
and on occasion
interpretations;
every
174-209
(2007)
themethodical
repudiations
the admonitions
element
is present
interpreta
alternative
of
directed
every
time.
at their
Sometimes
a
interpreta
just an omen is recorded; sometimes just that and minimal
as
tion. But insofar
the ensemble is realized, to that extent the text takes
on a divinatory quality. What
the chroniclers were doing in their Kie
van monastery was not unlike the hermeneutic
labors of the scribe
diviners
in ancient Rome
Conspiratorial
or Nineveh.
Historiography
conspiracy theories are "as old as historiography" itself (Laqueur

1993:34) or of more recent vintage, being only "connected to the great
events of European history since 1750" (Pipes 1997:171),
they consti
tute a form of historical discourse. Keeley (1999:116)
defines a con
spiracy theory as "a proposed explanation of some historical event (or
events) in terms of the significant causal agency of a relatively small
?
the conspirators ?
group of persons
acting in history." Conspiracism
is that discourse which posits that "conspiracies drive history" (Pipes
Whether
1997:42-43).
the following statement is about Russia, it provides a use
Although
ful starting point for parsing the phenomenon
of conspiracism:
events shock a country
cataclysmic
before
impotent
history's tidal wave, when
When
to its foundations,
feel
people
or
collapse,
political
era and...
mark
the end of a historical
the beginning
of an
disintegration
signal
uncertain
future, a certain segment of any society will turn to the comfort and
in order to
fantasies
the heretofore
easy, all-encompassing
explain
inexplicable
someone to blame. Disaster
and to find something,
is far easier to
if an
digest
is apparent.
(Allensworth
1998:120)
enemy...
a war,
when
economic
seems
To begin with, conspiracism
cataclysmic events_
at
times
of
is
flourish
disease
uncertainty and calamity, when there
When
to
in
the body politic (cf. Pipes 1997:178).

The subject matter of conspira
cism ranges from the global to the local. Conspiracy
theorists even
as earth
"look for a hidden hand behind such natural phenomena

B. P. Bennett
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191
174-209
?
the
quakes, storms, and abnormally warm weather" (Pipes 1997:45)
familiar stuffof medieval providentialism.
... when
people feel impotent.... Timothy Melley writes of "agency
sense that one's actions are
the
panic,"
ultimately ineffective and that a
historical situation is being controlled outside of oneself by
"powerful,
external agents"
cf. 5). Cataclysmic
1999:vii,
(Melley
standably produce agency panic.

... the
comfortand easy,all-encompassingfantasies
are
There
two
salient
here.
points
observers
First,
events under
in order to explain_
concur
that
conspir
acy theories provide certainty in times of trouble. "The conspiratorial

world view," says Keeley, "offers us the comfort of knowing that while
events
tragic
the event,
occur,
the greater
they
at
least
and more
occur
for a reason,
significant
the
and
reason."
that
the greater
Conspiracy
theo
ries provide an "odd sort of comfort" (Melley 1999:8). That is one point.
Second, conspiracism has an "all-encompassing"
quality. Conspiracy
in an untidy and big world where
theories provide "neat explanations
there is no great centre anymore" (Parish and Parker 2001:6). There are
no accidents, no chance events
In fact, conspiracism
(Pipes 1997:45).
even surpasses
in
its
grasp. As Keeley
encompassing
providentialism
explains,
virtue which
theories
and which
exhibit,
conspiracy
is
virtue
of their apparent
unified
the
of
strength,
explanation
or
is the sine qua non of conspiracy
reach_Unified
explanation
explanatory
more
than competing
theories. Conspiracy
theories always
theories,
explain
The
first and
accounts
because
account
foremost
for much
a
can
by invoking
conspiracy,
they
explain both the data of the received
and the errant data the received theory fails to explain
(1999:119).
But not everyone can grasp the unified explanation. Like providential
ism (and divination too), the discourse of conspiracism implies a privi
leged
observer,
disclose what
(Pipes
one
who
can
see
past
outward
appearances,
lift the veil,
is a kind of "double
really happened. There

a "select few...
at work.
1997:63)
Only
have
doctrine"
the capacity to
identify the real forces shaping historical events" (Laqueur 1993:180).

The rest remain on the "anodyne" level (Pipes 1997:63).
This privileged interpreter follows a discipline, a practice. Stewart
makes a crucial point about conspiracism:

192
54
(2007)
174-209
ideas were
(as if abstract, exegetical
a
a
that cries
practice born of world
a
obsessive
out for
theory is
skeptical, paranoid,
interpretation_Conspiracy
evidence for the missing
practice of scanning for signs and sifting through bits of
as it goes about
its
and obses
tracks: it channels
link_It
seemingly mundane
out the
It's a way of tracking events
smoking gun?
sively focused task of sniffing
in an 'information
and phenomena
(more than) a twist of trauma.
society' with
Think
what
of it not
as a
ruled the world)
ideology
prefabricated
but as a practice_It's
order altered)
(1999:14-17;
theories "scan" and "track" in and through thewritten word

Conspiracy
a
"texting" of theworld (Stewart 1999:17).
(Pipes 1997:50). They entail
a
matter
of books, textswhich function as a
is above all
Conspiracism
one see behind the fa?ade of external
kind of x-ray machine,
letting
events. Svetlana Boym writes (1999:99),
text?
The
The Book ofTlluminati,
there is a secret/sacred conspiratorial
Usually
militia
Diaries
Protocols of theElders ofZion, the Terence
(favored by the American
?
like a Bible and is read as a revelation or a prophecy
that functions
movement)
an individual
it invites incanta
rather than a text written of compiled
author;
by
tion, not critical interpretation.
As
text-based divination or the providential divination of

chroniclers, one makes sense of the traumas of life through
in classic
medieval
these special books.

By way of example,
I turn now to the specific case of conspiracy

in
theories
post-Soviet Russia. The first years after the collapse of the
USSR were a period of "shock and awe." Pundits and pensioners alike
were stunned by the
crumbling of the Soviet superpower. The collapse
of the Soviet Union has been called "the greatest political earthquake of
our time"
in the 1990s was a society in
1993:viii). Russia
(Laqueur
which societal and governmental structures collapsed or ceased to func
tion; crime, corruption, and poverty multiplied
(Devlin 1999:xvii). It
was an
time.
New
but
freedoms
abounded, but
exhilarating
unsettling
?
was
net
the
which
had
Soviet
gone
society
safety
provided
jobs, edu
cation,
health
care,
sands of women
etc.
Russian
society
became
"unanchored."
turned to the sex trade. Hundreds
Thou
of thousands
of
children languished in orphanages (Twigg 2002:152).
There emerged a
yawning gap between the rich and the poor, the poorest of which sub
sisted on a diet of cats, dogs, crows, and pigeons. In 1998, for instance,

B. P. Bennett
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193
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a
majority of Russians described their economic plight as either "bad
or very bad" or "intolerable"
Murder
and mafia
(White 2000:158).
?
and even a few isolated cases of cannibalism ?
shootings
grabbed
the headlines.
In the 1990s ardent debates
Russia
post-Soviet
out in newspapers,
about
the past, present, and future of

of the debates were carried
filled the media. Most
like the liberalMoskovskie novosti and the conserva

tive Sovetskaia Rossiia, as well as a plethora of smaller, more ephemeral
cf. Shenfield 2001:6).
Each interest
(Knox 2005:37-38;
publications
own
its
had
be con
and
there
could
papers
group
periodicals, although
mixtures
and
bed-fellows
Mos
(Lovell 2000:153-54).
strange
fusing
cow alone could boast
roughly 30 newspapers of "a fascist or antisemitic
orientation"
theories have flourished

(Moskovich 1999:87). Conspiracy
in these nationalist and "red-brown" publications. The regnant
theory,
articulated in different variations, was that the historical crisis of post
Soviet Russia, like all wars, revolutions, and historical crises before it,
was ultimately
ofZhidomasonstvo"
brought about by "themachinations
?
that
is,
1998:132)
(Allensworth
"Jewmasonry" (Laqueur 1993:38).
Itwas in thismilieu that the Protocols of theElders ofZion, the noto
rious forgery, "surfaced again from the subterranean"
"Russia's
contribution
major
to
twentieth-century
racial
(Boym
1999:98).
anti-Semitism"
this text, "the bread and butter source of

(Petrovsky-Shtern 2003:395),
anti-Semitic conspiratology," which has been translated into dozens of
seems to
languages and
keep re-appearing
throughout the world,
new
at
in
Russia
this time (Allensworth 1998:128).
enjoyed
popularity
For many the events of 1917 "proved" the validity of the Protocols-,
seemed once again to jus

similarly, the tumultuous events of 1990?91
text
in
one's
faith
this
cf. Levy 16).
tify
enigmatic
(Laqueur 1993:103;
was
on
in
Moscow
The Protocols
sold
from 1990
(Devlin 1999:28).
spent time in Russia during those hurly-burly years
Anyone who
remembers the kiosks and metro stalls peddling a hodgepodge
of litera
ture (cf. Lovell 2000:130?31).
This text,which is "not innocent litera
ture," was sold in innocuous settings, as Boym (1999:108)
captures in
a
pitch-perfect way:
The Protocols
side Yeltsin
to Succeed
[was] widely
(an un-critical
edition)
ofZion
Easter eggs with portraits of Nicholas
in Business, and the most
Buddhist
up-to-date
dolls,
sold on the streets along

How
II, Dale Carnegie's
manuals.

194
B. P Bennett INumen
54
(2007)
174-209
was also a connection

to the Orthodox
insignificantly, there
Church. The Protocols was reportedly distributed from church kiosks
and even read in church services (Pipes 1997:85).
(Shenfield 2001:69?71)
Not
The book was actively promoted by some Russian Orthodox

clergy.
The cleric most associated with conspiracy theories and the Proto
cols was Ioann, Metropolitan
of St. Petersburg and Ladoga,
the third
highest-ranking prelate in the Russian Orthodox
lived from 1927 to 1995, was one of the most
Ioann, who
outspoken figures in
A
Russia.
the
within
and without
post-communist
polarizing figure
Russian Church, he railed against Catholics,
Protestants, Americans,
in his view, singly and in concert
all of whom,
and Jews?
Masons,
have for centuries tried to attack and undermine Russia. His views
Church.
"were not official church policy, but they had broad resonance in the
was
a new national
early 1990s when Russian society
identity
seeking
to fill the void left by the evaporation of Soviet
ideology" (Slater
Certain rough parallels can be seen with Pat Robertson,
2000:314).
another divisive conspiracy-minded minister of political theology, or

in a previous era.
with Father Coughlin
In Ioann's worldview, Russia is both victor and victim. Russia is a
sacred land, chosen by inscrutable divine providence to be the ark of
salvation. Yet it is relentlessly attacked by protean and diabolical ene
mies. Russian history is that of unremitting struggle and suffering.
Ioann's writings are full of tenebrous litanies of wars and invasions.
a
case can be made that, in
Although he speaks of Holy Russia,
good
reality, Ioann
... was
cessor,
actually nostalgic
that great power
launched
suc
than Holy Russia,
namely, her
to China,
that
from Germany
of a military might
second to none-The
for something
that dominated
men
totalitarian
more
Eurasia
into space and boasted

state was Russia
in his eyes, and Russia,
reduced
to an abstraction,
his
god. (Allensworth1998:133)
Soviet Russia was his lodestar. Perhaps this iswhy Ioann's tirades were
able to find a home in a "red" newspaper.
In the early 1990s, Ioann wrote numerous short articles for the pro
communist paper, Sovetskaia Rossiia [Soviet Russia].
In a telling ideo
an insert
were
tracts
sermon-like
these
published in
logical convergence,
Rus
for that paper called
[Orthodox Rus\ Rus' being the
pravoslavnaia
mythistorical
predecessor
of modern-day
Russia].
They were

later col
B. P. Bennett
INumen
54
(2007)
195
174-209
lected and codified by Ioann's followers (e.g., Ioann 2000). Today there
is an active campaign for his canonization,
and his writings play an
I turn now to two articles in
important part in that (Slater 2000:317).
form of historiography.
Ioann's
hermetic
which
exemplify
particular
A good illustration of Ioann's discourse is an article called uRusskii
which means the Russian knot or focal
uzeF (= Ioann 2000:119?32)
an analysis of
point (cf. Steeves 1994). In this piece Ioann presents
Russia's parlous situation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He
an apparent
paradox: how is it that the Soviet Union
begins his with
could simply collapse after having survived seven decades of hunger,
war in human history, and incredible
terrifying repression, the fiercest
economic
course
pressure
of events?
To
from theWest? What

answer
these
questions,
forces are influencing

says
one
Ioann,
must
this
com
prehend the deep structure of the historical process in general and Rus
sian history in particular. Ioann's vision of this history is dualistic:
human existence is an arena where two hidden spiritual forces contend.
On one side is theDivine Law, which God has inscribed on the tablet's
of a person's soul; over against it; are the mutinous
impulses of pride,
two
within
each and every
These
contend
and
forces
hypocrisy.
greed,
not
to
is
be found
individual. But this antagonism
only on a personal,
individual level, but on a social and indeed cosmic level, for the human
is but a microcosm
of the whole, reflecting in his or her most secret
structure
the universe.
the
of
depth
Ioann moves
in
from these global principles to the case of Russia
particular. Ioann asserts thatGod, inHis incomprehensible providence,
appointed Russia to be the ark of his holy things. This explains why
Russia's history has been so difficult and confusing. For Christ predicted
that people would

fall from His teachings, and His enemies would
a
band together. This, proclaims Ioann, is the "solution" (razgadka ?
word with a divinatory timbre) to Russian history. As the earthly pro
tector of the Divine Law, Russia could not help but become the focal
point or nerve center of the universal struggle between good and evil.
laid bare the deep structure of world and Russian history,
Having
Ioann turns his attention to contemporary affairs. And here the dis
course
again,
of providentialism
says Ioann, Russia
satanic
malice.
Once
Ioann's
scheme
her.
In
again,
these
into that of conspiracism. Once

morphs
is undergoing
the ferocious onslaught of
the
enemies
present-day
of Russia
enemies
are
turn
out
ranged
to be

against
various
196
B. P. Bennett
international
bankers."
INumen
forces spearheaded
Their
are
goals
54
174-209
(2007)
by the "intellectual
a de-nationalization
of
elite and global
peoples,
an
interna
system, and a world government. The coding is clear.

But Russia alone stands in the way, frustrating their plans for global
hegemony. No religious confession except Orthodoxy has the spiritual
to counter such evil. No country except Russia possesses the
might
tional economic
cultural, scientific, economic,

nicious
and military prowess
to thwart their per
programs.
first attempt to weaken Russia was the Revolution

of
to
its
with
"international
Russian
obliterate
1917,
proletariat," designed
national consciousness.
That having failed, the enemies now try to
The
enemies'
overcome Russia
and
"market
its slogans of "democracy"
through "perestroika," with
economics."
Both
the
revolution
and
were
perestroika
Ioann ends with a call to spir

for the temptations, enticements
to enervate Russia.
deliberately designed
itual arms: "let us prepare ourselves
and wild urges of the dark forces."
In this article Ioann performs a divinatory act, arrogating to himself
a kind of vatic
a
authority. He proposes
plausibility structure formak
sense
time
He claims that the collapse
of
Russia's
latest
of
troubles.
ing
of theU.S.S.R.
occurred "without any visible causes"; that one needs to
fathom the "deep structure of the historical process"; that "secret and
are involved; and that this is the "solution"
concealed"
spiritual powers
to the riddle of Russia's turbulent history both past and present. He
ends
with
1999:236).
plan
of
action:
"let
us
prepare
ourselves..."
(cf. Bennett
An article called uBitva za Rossiiu" (Ioann 2000:63?74)

offersmore
of a text-based divination. (The titlemeans "The Battle forRussia," but
itwas translated in an abridged version as "The West Wants Chaos"
which I quote here.) The article begins again by
[Nielsen 1994:107?12]
course of world history" and more particularly
of
"the
whole
speaking
"the history of our fatherland." Russia's past, says Ioann, is "strewn with
thorns," its "ten centuries are filled with wars and unrest, of invasion by
own traitors" (107). He then traces
foreigners, and subversion by its
this history from Prince Vladimir's
the
centuries,
enumerating
the wars
havoc on the nation. The conclusion

the enemies of Russia
conversion
and
assaults
in 988 down
which
have
through
wreaked
he reaches is this: "Time and again

(108).
forged plans for the enslavement of Russia"

54
(2007)
197
174-209
Then, he says, a most interesting (or "most curious": liubopytneishii)

document appeared: The Protocols of theElders ofZion. He briefly reviews
the document's publishing history. Although some dispute its genuine
ness, he says, it has given us "much to think about" in terms of world

follows are several extended quotations from the Proto
history.What
cols. The first has to do with violence and the rousing of the masses;
the second with the evisceration of religion; the third with control of
the press and the production
of "crazy, despicable
literature." He
then
concludes:
To
readers who
have predicted
the development
and numerous
(GUS)"
with
like to stick to concrete

the two world
of the world
other details
shattering
facts, we would
say that the "Protocols"
the political
forms of government
for decades,
the course of credit and financial politics,
economy,
wars,
of the life of the "Independent
Community
of States
exactness.
A final quotation
is proffered having to do with the intended destruc
tion of nation-states. "Compare
it," invites Ioann, "with what has hap
in
Russia today."
pened
This type of knowing remark recurs throughout the article. "Judge

for yourselves," he says (109). "Every intelligent person can draw his
own conclusion from what has been said" (110). "Let us look around"
(111). As in classic text-based divination, Ioann is trying to show that
there is a fit (of "shattering exactness") between the arcane text and the
situation on the ground. His juxtaposition of quotations
culled from
this "most interesting" document with descriptions of Russia's recent
is supposed to create a synaptic flash of recogni

tion. But no explicit links are actually enunciated by Ioann ?
his is a
parataxis of innuendo. He ends with a similarly oblique rallying cry: "Now
historical vicissitudes
is the time to take stock and to settle the score of the centuries" (112).
At a time of societal breakdown
the likes of which most non
can scarcely appreciate, the

high-ranking cleric presents his
?
a
his "clients"
with
divination-like
reading of historical
events, albeit of an "armchair" (or perhaps one should say "ex cathe
dra") variety. Divination works by making "concrete and simple those
"
Its power lies in the fact that it ... focuses
issues that are complex_"
a cause and cure
to define
on a
by which
specific issue and segregates
see
As I
the situation" (Mendosa
and manage
it, this is
1982:9?10).
Russians
?
flock

198
B. P Bennett INumen
what Metropolitan
visited upon Russia.
Ioann
does
54
in his
(2007)
174-209
"texting" of the humiliations
Conclusion
is an age-old link between divination and the writing of history.
In the ancient world, graphic inscriptions of divinatory happenings
or consultations provided a kind of rudimentary chronicle. The histo
rian and the seer might be one and the same person. I have tried to
show how providential and conspiratorial forms of historiography, as
a
exemplified in the Primary Chronicle and the articles of Ioann, bear
I
resemblance to classic text-based divination. By way of conclusion
on several connections between these disciplines
want to
("to
alight
There
lines joining the parts": Wittgenstein

questions for further research.
draw
1979:13),
and pose
some
First, it is good to remember that conspiracism and providentialism

are forms of historical discourse.
They are not about mysterious other
or
states
internal
of consciousness. As discourses they
worldly planes
com
have a hard texture, an unmistakable
this-worldly quality. They
prise a social-historical imaginaire. A classic providential history talks of
the blessed and benighted.
priests and peoples, monks and monarchs,
Its subject matter will be the fate of nations, the rise and fall of empires.
Biblical texts speak of God using different nations to fulfill his divine
plan. For the authors of the Primary Chronicle, the Rus', the Byzan
theo
tines, the Polovtsy, and others, continue this pattern. Conspiracy
ries have a similar outlook insofar as they focus on the role of certain
social groups ?
the Club of Rome,
Jews,Masons, Catholics, NATO,
etc. ?
events.
in the churning of historical
The dramatis personae
of Russian
conspiratology
Jewry,"
"spiritual
ness
enslavement.
occupiers,"
include "cosmopolitans,"
"puppeteers,"
"biorobots,"
"Zionists,"
and
"world
"nomads"
(Moskovich
1999). For Ioann it is the rapacious, technocratic West,
the hidden levers of history
and ultimately the Jews, who manipulate
and who want to subjugate and destroy Holy Rus'. Of course, a major
difference between the two discourses is that the trajectory of providen
tial history heads upward, arcing (despite some setbacks) ultimately to
to
redemption, while that of conspiracism tends downward,
powerless
or

B. P. Bennett
/Numen
54
(2007)
174-209
199
and conspiracism have a hermetic quality. Historical

incidents are the outward manifestation
of unseen forces. Things are
not what they seem. Beneath the surface there is a deeper meaning, an
interconnected system of causation. Medieval
historians think in terms
of a divine plan, while conspiracy theorists chant the mantra of secret
Providentialism
the plan or the plot is a divina

plots (cf. Stewart 1999:14). Uncovering
tion-like exercise. Conspiracy
theorists "depend heavily on the inter
tell-tale signs, and secret messages"
of
half-hidden
clues,
pretation
is
This
per signum.
(Melley 1999:16).
histonogv^hy
The starting point in divination, providentialism, and conspiracism,
is the particular. Divination

is about providing insight into specific
or uncertain situations. It asks not "Why do we die?"
problematic
this inventory from a frag
but "Why did that villager die?" Consider
as
text
the Volkhovnik or Book of theWizard
known
mentary Slavonic
(quoted inRyan 1999:140):
1. the house
creaks
2.
ear-ringing
3.
crow-cawing
a cock crows
4.
5.
the fire roars
6.
9.
a toad croaks
dog howls
7. mouse
squeak
8. a mouse
gnaws
clothes
10. a cat miaows

11. a muscle
twitches
a dream
frightens
12.
21.
a horse
neighs
ox
ox mounts
22.
a bee
20.
sings
Here we have an atomistic framework inwhich
each discrete occurrence
is thought to convey hidden meaning. Or consider this tongue in cheek

account of Soviet divination: "dreaming of matreshki (wooden nesting
dolls) meant the arrival of tourists, a new television meant a fire (based
on the propensity of Soviet televisions to explode), while woodpeckers
term for
meant night visitors (i.e. the KGB,
based on the popular
an informer stukach, the one who knocks)"
1998:168-69).
(Wigzell
?
is drawn toward "above the fold" events
Providentialism
eclipses,

200
B. P. Bennett
INumen
54
?
earthquakes, crop failures, invasions
thought to communicate his will. The
(2007)
174-209
is
the specific ways that God
annalistic format of medieval
(a distant echo of the Roman Annales maximi?) reinforces

for its part, latches on to certain
this episodic quality. Conspiracism,
?
?
like
of
focus," as Stewart calls them
"points
spectacular episodes
chronicles
or the downing of TWA flight 800.

Yet one recognizes in these discourses a totalizing impulse. The Volkovnik
seems to invest the whole environment with divinatory significance.
assassination
the Kennedy
The scribe-diviners ofMesopotamia

catalogued every conceivable kind
?
even ones that cannot physically occur (Rochberg
of celestial omen
event in terms of the
2004). Providentialism
registers every historical
of providence. A good expression of this point may be found

or Divine Providence
Read's The Hand
of God in History,
in
Extension
and
Illustrated
Establishment
the
Historically
ofChristianity
economy
in Hollis
(1862:11, 13):
an exponent
of Providence;
and it cannot but interest
history is but
in all the changes
and
of intelligent piety, to trace the hand of God
is
All
the
revolutions
of
of our world's
but
past history
history....
unraveling
All
veritable
the mind
God's
finally
our race. The whole

respecting
this one great purpose_This
its entire web_
eternal plan
to subserve
through
And
active,
hend
such
is Providence;
all-influential,
course
a
deep...
deep, unfathomable
that none but the infinite Mind
its
wonder-working
operations;
so
mighty,
of human
is the
golden
events
thread
so boundless,
can
ismade
that passes
every where
survey and
compre
all-controlling_
shares this hermetic, totalizing gaze, and indeed itwould

Conspiracism
not be too difficult to replace the words "God" and "Providence"
in
statement with, say, "Jewmasonry."
Read's
Seemingly unrelated epi
sodes can be graphed on the same line. There is a New World Order. It
is deep, cavernous, all-controlling. InMelley's view a conspiracy theory
is a "totalizing explanation"
(44), "a master narrative,' a grand scheme
numerous
capable of explaining
complex events" (Melley 1999:8).
For this reason conspiracy theories typically put great emphasis on
shapes
circles,
triangles,
systems,
networks,
webs,
or uzel
(cf.Pipes 1997:23;Melley 1999:8).
in Russian
Thus, there is a particularizing and totalizing dynamic atwork at the

same time, which I take to be fundamental to these discourses. They

B. P. Bennett
/Numen
54
(2007)
174-209
201
oscillate between the sweep of global events and isolated incidents of

an epiphanic nature. "The scanning
of
gaze," writes Stewart (1999:16)
?
?
of
"finds
that
combine
the
focus
conspiracism,
points
objects
mechanics
of 'system' with the mechanics
of eruption' or dramatic
the same could be said for providentialism.
'intrusion.'" Much
or "intru
sense of these
Privileged interpreters make
"eruptions"
sions" through certain sacred/secret texts. There is bookish quality to all
of these discourses. As in text-based divination, problems and calami
ties befalling the state are interpreted in light of special texts, texts
which may not be originally divinatory at all. The text will have an
its totality of graphic marks taken to
"aura of comprehensiveness,"
the physical world outside the text. The book "exhausts reality,
or exegetes
or at least covers all
significant situations that diviners
might
texts can be
encounter"
Sometimes
historical
(Henderson
1999:83).
put to divinatory use. Such is the case, for example, with the Confucian
match
to John Henderson,
"the assump
Spring and Autumn Annals. According
to transform theAnnals into
tion of cosmic comprehensiveness
helped
a natural set of
signs that could serve as a kind of instrument of divina
tion" (83). In medieval Christianity one recognizes a similar reverence

for referenceworks of all-inclusive scope (McArthur 1986:46). For the
Kievan chroniclers, like their counterparts throughout Christendom,
the Bible functioned as a kind of "Encyclopedia Christiana" (cf.McAr
was another his
thur 1986:37). The Byzantino-Slavonic
Chronograph
text
a
in
mantic capacity. It presented
torical
that likewise functioned
the Kievan bookmen with a panorama of strange and fascinating places
and personages, a capacious corpus of precedents which could be used
in the interpretation of specific events inRus' (Franklin 1983).
Ioann and numerous other conspiracy theorists,

For Metropolitan
the Protocols of theElders ofZion constitutes the "veritable Rosetta stone
of history, the single key that unlocks all the perplexing mysteries of the
or
modern world"
(Levy 1995:7). But unlike the Bible
Chronograph,
not by its
the Protocols seems to gain its "aura of comprehensiveness"
or
its
size
but
rather
scope,
imprecision. As Pipes
bulky
panoramic
by
?
almost no names, dates
observes, "The book's vagueness
(1997:85)
?
or issues are
has been one key to thiswide-ranging
success."
specific
antise
this
"Unlike
other
takes
almost
every
up
point:
Levy (1995:12)
mitic work, [theProtocols} has no national context or identity. It names

202
few names,
able
to
speaks
a
serve
54
(2007)
to no specific national
great
of
variety
174-209
problems,
If one
purpose."
and
wants
to
is therefore
read
Russia
the lines, the text offers little resistance.

The aura that surrounds the divinatory text, Iwould submit, is due
not
to size or
to origin. Like the famous story
only
ambiguity, but also
of how the Libri Sybillini were acquired by King Tarquin, the "notori
between
of their
circumstances"
(Petrovsky-Shtern 2003:399)
seem to endow the Protocols with a mys
and
composition
publication
terious quality. Where
did this text come from? Is it really a forgery?
This "most curious" document "came to light," says Ioann. And it is the
?
insinuation of being leaked?
themost sensational leak of all time
which is part of the frisson.
one
"They fit," proclaimed Henry Ford, automobile magnate and
on.
is
time purveyor of the Protocols. "They fitwith what
They are
going
ously murky
sixteen years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this
time. They fit it now" (quoted in Baldwin 2001:160).
For Ioann the
Protocols are eighty years old and they fitwhat has happened up until
his time with "shattering exactness." This is critical for the divinatory
textmust seem tomatch up with reality.
discipline: the
it does not just happen naturally.
The text must be made to fit?
That is, it has to be matched up with the circumstances by an inter
interpreter must demonstrate how a proper reading and

application of this sacred/secret text resolves the problem and makes it
at least makes it
In his analysis of Kalanga
disappear (or
manageable).
notes
that the diviner and
divination, Richard Werbner
(1973:1414)
his congregation "have to persuade each other, through highly stylized
preter. The
language, that certain meanings
unless
they
feel
that
fit together." People will not be satisfied
particular
interpretation
to
with,
"penetrates
so
events...
as to reveal the occult

own past and its implications
significance of their
for their future." But this is always done in a competitive atmosphere.
There
are
other
experts
contend
other
readings,
other
texts.
saidWeber,
transcends and therefore repudiates magi
Providentialism,
cal divination. Although
the Puritans boasted an "array of pious tech
for divining the hidden patterns of the world," they attacked

expressions of "village" divination (Winship 1996:2). Elsewhere I have
tried to show that the monastic
authors of the Primary Chronicle
niques
advance
providential
those of the indigenous
interpretations
Slavic diviners
of
disastrous
events
over
(Bennett 2005).

against
In
this
connection,
the
some
situation
54
of
(2007)
203
174-209
post-communist
Russia
raises
theories have flourished since

interesting questions. Conspiracy
the collapse of the U.S.S.R.,
but so has magic and divination. Reprints
of pre-revolutionary fortune-telling books have been widely sold in
sometimes the very same stalls that peddle
kiosks and metro stations?
is
in
Interest
theProtocols.
faith healing, and
high
astrology, ESP, UFOs,
other
Soi-disant
and clairvoy
wizards
sundry
paranormal phenomena.
ants abound
in post-Soviet Russia. In 1996 philosophy/religion/occult

the top-selling category in the non-fiction book market (Lovell
n. 54). Several observers have remarked on the fact that,
2000:196,
a
in language and
despite their mutual hostility, there is convergence
was
and neo-pagan or New Age

post-Soviet Orthodoxy
both
the
of
mind control, the evil eye,
power
recognizing
spirituality,
and other esoteric technologies (Shenfield 2001; Borenstein 1999).
outlook
between
Does
this far-flung interest in the occult (specifically, the belief in
hidden powers) contribute to the fluorescence of conspiracy theories in
Russia? Or should we look instead to the communist era? "If there is
one
to burn into
virtually every
thing that the Soviet regime managed
a
a
is
writes
Masha
"it
that
Gessen,
brain,"
good theory, really good idea
can
explain the world. The whole world with no exceptions save for
asserts that
those that prove the rule" (1997:70).
Pipes (1997:114)
many Russians
that had so long been imposed

the very conspiracism
come as a
surprise, for the former Soviet
complete
is the only place where
Union
the government
theories and
conspiracy
sponsored
on a
endlessly repeated them
daily basis for three generations.
have voluntarily
on them. This
maintained
should
not
their Soviet past predisposed Russians to be more willing conspir

acy theorists, more eager readers of the Protocols?
Or are the roots to be found in the Christian
tradition? Does
the
Has
supposed "medieval" quality of contemporary Russian Orthodoxy, with

its dualism and demonology,
nourish conspiracism?
Surely there is
some evidence of this at least in the case of Ioann:
saw Russian
little difference between
history in cosmic terms, and recognised
the tenth century and the twentieth: both were equally present to him, and he
in terms of the eternal
and her enemies.
interpreted both
struggle between Russia
He
(Slater2000:316)

204
54
174-209
(2007)
is it rather something to do with the very nature of providentialism?

After all, providentialism and conspiracy theories are both stout tradi
tions inAmerica
(Goldberg 2001). Of the theodicies enumerated by
Or
is it only providentialism, with its belief in an all-powerful per

Weber,
sonal deity acting behind the scenes of history, that leads to conspira
cism? "When we attribute events to the actions of God," acknowledges
Martin Copenhaver
"we claim belief in a kind of beneficent
(1994:811),
as
with
God
the
chief conspirator." Is this the link
conspiracy theory,
between
the ellipse? Do we not find home-grown

in
theories
the civilizational "footprint" of karma? We need
the circle and
conspiracy
studies of the religious and regional varieties of conspiracy
comparative
theory.
It is hoped that this wide-ranging

presentation may have at least
some relevant questions for further study, and to have contrib
posed
uted to an appreciation of the interconnections between divination,
and conspiracism.*
providentialism,
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Hermetic Histories: Divine Providence and Conspiracy Theory

Author(s): Brian P. Bennett

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

of past events. They are totalizing histories.

in the articles of Ioann,

in the Lebenswelt of divination;

? Koninklijke BrillNV, Leiden, 2007

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

are] seers upon the watch towers,

(Quoted inNye 1966:1).

In the ancient riverine civilizations,

in them, lie at the very root of all

tous les actes

historical writing are perhaps to

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

the only theories forwhich evidence against them is actually construed

in the post-Soviet period by the lateMetropolitan

a term and a concept

that is, as itself a literary artifact composed

The Primary Chronicle must be viewed in terms of the social situation

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

texts. Ioann's articles need to

ket in post-Soviet society, Ioann's literary output and ecclesiastical career

favor of comparison, pulling certain features forward, leaving others

texts in question afford us a glimpse of such links. The vaulting

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

to push the analogy too far, I hope to show that,

(and largely unfamiliar) body of data for the study of divination.

into conspiratorial harangues about ominous plots hatched by

theories may be usefully viewed in relation to providential

in the world than

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

My focus will be on the formal relationship between the circle of prov

In the remainder of this introductory section, I delineate a model of

divination has as much to do with the past as with the future.

a form of artificial, retrospective, text-based

interest will be with

client consults a diviner; the diviner has recourse to a specialized Instru

"fits" the situation; the hidden

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

of relevance. The diviner must

competitive atmosphere. For one thing, as Zeitlyn (1999:237)

clearly in the cache of letters

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

culled from the traditional omen collec

in the Sibylline consultations;

in the genres of providential and conspiratorial

is a historical discourse. Derived

the outward expression, the working out, of God's divine providence.

... the idea of Christian

in the formative period of late antiquity,

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

with the Second

offers a sweeping view from

offers this pr?cis of the "classic model"

should add that the world is viewed as an arena inwhich

look like in practice? In the monastic

this section the focus is often on (again, inHodgson's

it is here especially thatwe may see a kind of divination at work.

This content downloaded from 202.125.102.33 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:11:31 AM

to Nancy Partner (1977:214),

invasions, and other forms of violent breakdown also loom large

parataxis. The chronicler puts together two events without

divine providence in their conjunction. We will

Bennett - 'Hermetic Histories'

Bennett - 'Hermetic Histories'