"It was as if an occult hand had ..."

" ... This account comes from Larry Maddry in Hampton Roads Magazine: "It seems the phrase originated with Joseph Flanders, then an employee for the Charlotte News. He had typed: 'It was as if an occult hand had reached down from above and moved the players like pawns upon some giant chessboard.' "

This was in the fall of 1965. Newspaper colleagues "were so taken with Flanders' phrase they formed a society -- the Order of the Occult Hand -- and vowed to get the words ... into print as soon as possible." ... "

~ From Five things about the Occult Hand ~