[Icelander]

Happily, there are few men so mundane, unimaginative or pedestrian that they may not be cast as Ascended Masters in an Illuminated campaign or at least, in my case, as aware of the re-emergence of the supernatural.

And HRH Prince Philip is not pedestrian at all, of course. But I'll admit that I was surprised when I found connections with the paranormal in his personal history. I shouldn't have been, of course. As Kenneth Hite would say: 'Connect! Always connect!' As long as you can link the names of two people, in any way at all, you can propose them as being involved in a conspiracy together.

And we can link the esteemed Duke, oh, yes, siree.

I'll even avoid all the easy and delightfully insane ones, like claims that he's the Anti-Christ*, a reptilian vampire elf dragon sorcerer, descendant of the Merovingians, one of the very highest of the Illuminati, member of the Bilderberg Group (and the Gnomes of Zurich, one presumes), a knight of the Thule Group and other occult Nazi doctrines and a Freemason extraordinaire, with control over all other Freemasons (and members of the Order of the Garter, apparently the inner circle of Freemasonry).

Not even people who are/were all too often quoted by mainstream media without mentioning that they are blithering idiots and/or babbling lunatics get a pass here; which is why I'll ignore Maureen Davies and her campaign against the Duke of Edinburgh's Award because of its association with witchcraft (and presumably the status of HRH the Duke as Supreme Witch). Delightfully, the evil and terrifying witchcraft in question consisted of the playing of RPGs, specifically D&D.

We'll also avoid the painful subject of his mother; beyond mentioning that it would probably have served to make HRH somewhat leery of ecstatic faith and passionate, deep-seated belief in the absence of evidence. While psychobiography is hardly a science, I don't find it implausible to postulate that if the Duke is perceived as rationalistic and hard-headed, it might have something to do with his mother.

Yet I shall maintain that for the purposes of my setting, such rationalistic leanings do not blind him to evidence to the contrary, once it becomes available through the discoveries of his wife, HM the Queen. Furthermore, even during that period in the setting when all claims of mystical powers were by necessity false (because the supernatural was entirely absent), Prince Phillip had some connection to figures that might have possessed paranormal knowledge that would again become relevant with the return of magic.

To begin with, he attended school in Salem and Gordonstoun under Kurth Hahn, a neo-Platonic philosopher of Jewish origin holding some views that we'd call New Age today and who certainly sound mystical enough. And half the esoteric magical systems claim a descent from Plato or use ideas from neo-Platonic thought, so there's that.

One of his teachers at Gordonstoun was Sir George Trevelyan, known as 'the Father of the New Age' for his involvement in pretty much everything esoteric in Britain during the 20th century. He founded the Wrekin Trust and had many connections into the Findhorn Foundation. Amusingly enough, Sir George was a pioneer in environmentalism and organic farming, long before such views became fashionable and it is not therefore unreasonable to assume a certain degree of rapport between boy and young tutor on that question**, if nothing else.

The Findhorn Foundation, of course, shares the focus on environmentalism and organic farming that serves to connect them to the Royal Family, but there is a more personal connection. Peter Caddy, one of the founders, met personally with Prince Phillip (as well as Clement Attlee after his premiership) and presented them with dossiers of his beliefs. At the time, serving as Equerry to HRH the Duke was Air Marshal Sir Beresford Peter Torrington Horsley KCB, CBE, LVO, AFC; British UFO-logist who claims to have had a close encounter with an alien in London while working for the Duke. As far as my source*** can tell, the Duke accepted Caddy's dossier.

While in reality, he probably did not read it, it is not such a big change to suppose that in this setting, they not only read them, but HRH the Duke of Edingburgh maintained some slight acquinstanceship with the Caddys afterwards. Peter Caddy, in turn, was a member of the Rosincrucian Order Crotona Fellowship along with Wica-founder Gerald Gardner, studying under the Theosophist and Co-Freemason daughter of Annie Besant, Mabel Besant-Scott. Personal links with founding figures in Neo-Paganism and Wicca, British Rosincrucianism, Theosophy and UFO-logy, all in one fell swoop through the valuable Peter Caddy.

Of course, in 2004, the other founder of the Findhorn Foundation, Eileen Caddy (Peter's ex-wife), received an MBE for 'services to spiritual enquiry'. One could imagine that once the Shadow Court came into existence and selected people started realising that the paranormal could influence events in our mundane world, figures within the court were well enough pleased that there was someone making research into the esoteric acceptable to the public, without ever actually trying to learn, let alone use, any harmful magic. The Findhorn Foundation might turn out to be a useful organisation once magic becomes public, even if most or all of what is taught there has limited utility as adventuring magic (or even as magic, full stop). It's fairly media-savvy and has a positive public image, for the most part, which is more than most esoteric organisations do, after all.

Friendly-seeming and long-accepted organisations which acknowledge the paranormal as a positive force, like the Findhorn Foundation, might turn out to be crucial for convincing the public that magic is not always a terrible and dark force, but can be simply another area for scientific study. It might be one which sometimes yields poisonous fruit, in the form of awful new dangers and powerful tools which can be turned to use as weapons of terrible frightfulness, yes, but the same might be said for mundane science.

Not flashy, perhaps, but I'm going for secret fantasy without Huge Capital Letters, one with only small and wordly conspiracies and an overall more plausible vibe than most games with magic in the modern world. I want my setting to make sense, beyond the One Impossible Thing which is the conceit of having the supernatural be real and returning to the world. As such, these connections are perfect.

I'm also thinking of making him the first to realise the potential risks of the supernatural and a leading figure in arranging for plans to be made for an eventual publication of the secret of the paranormal. He's the one who has had friends within the armed forces quietly making up intelligence estimates, proposals for changes within the defence establishment of Great Britain and other Commonwealth states and a modified training regimen for soldiers in a new world where the paranormal might intrue on the battlefield. Whatever government is in power when the secret comes out, there will be plenty of material for them to use if they decide to be smart and adjust instead of panicking immediately.

Does any poster have thoughts on HRH the Duke or any individual with connections to him that might be useful? Any friends from his military service that might have esoteric interests or, alternatively, useful connections and skills for being part of his network of planning officers for the future?

*Or more commonly, the father and John the Baptist figure for the tru Anti-Christ, Prince Charles.
**While Prince Phillip is sometimes considered opposed to the strong focus on certain environmental views and championship of organic farming on the part of his son, the Prince of Wales, the reality is that their views are much closer than is usually allowed. Prince Phillip disagrees with his son on certain points, it is true, and their approaches to lending their name and image to causes within environmentalism differ, but allowing for their generational difference in how they present their view, they have far more points of commonality than discord on environmental policy.
***A Brief Guide to Secret Religions: A Complete Guide to Hermetic, Pagan and Esoteric Beliefs by David V. Barret.