(From
Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Spirit & Folklore, p. 257)
Deriving its name from the last battle fought by the
Sacred Band of Thebes in 338 BCE, this clandestine British homosexual
spiritual organization was founded in the 1890’s by George Cecil Ives
(1867-1950), a criminologist, poet, essayist, and early homosexual rights
activist (co-founder of the British Sexological Society). A friend of Oscar Wilde and Edward
Carpenter, Ives used texts by them as well as by Walt Whitman the
construction of initiation ceremonies and other rights. Ives also employed passages of his own work
in these rites, some of which appear in “A Book of Chains” (1897), “Eros’
Throne” (1900) and “The Greco-Roman View of Youth” (1926).
The primary goal of the Order was to
form a global chain of lovers, building upon the Platonic ideal of the “army of
lovers” first realized by the Theban Band.
The “bibles” of what amounted to a
homosexual-centered (or proto-Gay/Queer Spiritual) faith included Ives’ own
books of ritual as well as the Greek Anthology and Whitman’s ”Leaves of Grass”
(1855). The god of the Order was Eros,
that “gay, capricious angel of night” with “vast wings” of Ives’ poem “With
Whom, then, Should I Sleep?”(1896).
The messiah, or prophet of the faith
was Whitman, the disciples or saints Wilde and Carpenter, the missionaries Ives
and the other members of the Order.
Another prominent member of the
Order was Laurence Housman (1859-1936), the brother of poet A.E. Housman
(1859-1936).
It has been suggested that while the
Order was comprised primarily of men, the lesbian writer Radclyffe Hall
and her lover Una Lady Troubridge (1887-1963) also may have been members.
While Ives appeared to have
preferred intergenerational love, he and members of the Order honored same-age
relationships (which they linked to the warrior-comrades of antiquity as well
as to medieval knight-pairs) and transgendered relationships. At the time of initiation, the novie was
entreated to “love someone, for as the prophet Whitman says, ‘that is the
beginning of knowledge.’” The initiate
was then instructed to follow a set of guidelines based primarily in
self-esteem and respect of others, after which he joined others in reciting
quotations from Whitman, Wilde, and others.
He then formally agreed to struggle against the oppression of others
like himself. This was apparently
followed by a love-feast, including a tongue-in-cheek recitation of Wilde’s
dictum, “Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling.”
The seal of the Order is comprised
of: a double wreath of calamus (sacred to Whitman) and myrtle
(sacred to the Greeks), a chain signifying the “great chain of lovers;” the
number 338 referring to the Sacred Band; the letters “D” (for discipline), “L”
(for learning), “and “Z” (for zeal); and the mystical word AMRRHAO.
While, beyond the seal, some of the
correspondence of members and a copy of the text used at the initiation
ceremony also still exist, the Order remains a mystery in many respects.