The Making of an Occult Circle

The Plan's believers gather through publishing, private networks, and ritual performance until the loose collection becomes capable of collective violence.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

Authors Gather

A Network of Readers and Writers Commercial invitations Garamond's publicity brings occult authors and readers into contact. Aglie becomes an adviser who can move easily among them, exploiting their shared hunger for recognition and secrets. A loose fraternity The participants do not begin as a unified order. Their many competing groups provide costumes, vocabulary, and audiences for the conspiracy that Casaubon and Belbo invent.

The Tres Is Named

A Joke Enters the Record An invented organization Casaubon suggests the name Tres to test Aglie's knowledge, and Diotallevi expands it into a plausible Latin title. The group records a society that does not exist. The test succeeds Aglie notices the name but cannot identify it. The fabricated label later gives the assembled occultists a ready-made identity and structure.

A Ceremony Turns Violent

Competing Claims to Authority Ritual escalation Bramanti, Madame Olcott, Pierre, and Aglie struggle for control of the gathering. Their claims of initiation and hidden knowledge become a contest over the prisoner. Sacrifice and death The crowd demands human sacrifice, Lorenza intervenes, and Belbo is hanged from the Pendulum. The fantasy of a secret order becomes physical violence.

After Project Hermes begins

During the group's historical reconstruction

On Saint John's Eve