Jump to content

Illuminati

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Yrgh (talk | contribs) at 12:13, 27 December 2006 (→Illuminati Claimants). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses, see Illuminati (disambiguation).

The Illuminati is the name of groups, modern and historical, real and fictitious, verified and alleged. Most commonly The Illuminati refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment secret society. However, it often refers to a shadowy conspiratorial organization which is reputed to secretly control world affairs, usually a modern incarnation or continuation of the Bavarian Illuminati. In this conspiratorial context, Illuminati is often used in reference to a New World Order (NWO). The Illuminati are believed to be the brains behind the events which will lead to a New World Order, in which the world will be run by a single, fascist government, and a large portion of the human race will be eliminated.

Origins

Pre-Weishaupt origins are given to the Alumbrados of Spain and Illuminés of France. This claim holds in name and mystical concerns, but no solid historical lineage is known. Their practice of mysticism and attempt to reinterpret communication with God through meditation, along with claims of enlightenment while living, communication with Lucifer, and sexual practices, all denote a seeming connection with later Illuminati groups, but claims of later connections of other organizations' familiarity with these early movements are unsubstantiated.

Adam Weishaupt


Rosicrucians

The Rosicrucians claimed to have originated in 1407, but rose to notice in 1614 when their main text Fama Fraternitatis appeared. As a secret society, they claimed to combine the possession of esoteric principles of religion with the mysteries of alchemy. Their positions are described in three anonymous treatises from 1614 (mentioned in Richard and Giraud, Dictionnaire universel des sciences ecclésiastiques, Paris 1825), as well as in the Confessio Fraternitatis of 1615. Rosicrucians also claimed heritage from the Knights Templar.

Martinists

Later, the title Illuminati was applied to the French Martinists, which had been founded in 1754 by Martinez Pasqualis, and to their imitators the Russian Martinists, headed about 1790 by Professor Schwartz of Moscow; both were occultist cabalists and allegorists, absorbing eclectic ideas from Jakob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg.

Predecessors

These societies are only of interest insofar as they have been claimed by anti-masons and conspiracy theorists to demonstrate a perceived long-term anti-christian conspiracy. There is no similarity between the objectives of these societies and the Bavarian Illuminati.

Hesychasts: Hesychasm is a form of Eastern Christian monastic life requiring uninterrupted prayer. Dating from the 13th century, it was confirmed by the Orthodox Church in 1341, 1347 and 1351, and popularized by the publication of the "Philokalia" in 1782.

Alumbrados: (Spanish : 'enlightened') A mystical movement, at one time lead by La Beata de Piedrahita (d. 1511); first recorded about 1492 in Spain (a varient spelling, aluminados, is found in 1498). They believed that the human soul could enter into direct communication with the Holy Spirit and, due to their extravagant claims of visions and revelations, had three edicts issued against them by the Catholic Inquisition, the first on 23 September 1525. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "some of its features reappear in the Quietism of the Spaniard Michael de Molinos". Although Ignatius of Loyola — founder of the Jesuits in 1534, and composer of the "Constitutions" of the Society of Jesus — was brought before an ecclesiastical commission in Alcalá in 1527 to determine if his teachings were heretical, he was cleared of any suspicion that he was an alumbrado, He wrote nothing that would suggest he accepted their beliefs. The name translates as 'illuminati' but the name is the only similarity with the later Bavarian Illuminati.

Guérinets: The alumbrados, under the name of Illuminés, arrived in France from Seville in 1623, and were joined in 1634 by Pierre Guérin, curé of Saint-Georges de Roye, whose followers in Picardy and Flanders, known as Guérinets, were suppressed in 1635 (Jean Hermant 1650-1725, Histoire des hérésies, Rouen : 1727). "Another and obscure body of Illumines came to light in the south of France in 1722, and appears to have lingered till 1794, having affinities with those known contemporaneously in this country as 'French Prophets,' an offshoot of the Camisards."

Illuminati Claimants

  • World League of Illuminati: Allegedly, the singer and journalist Theodor Reuss "re-activated" the Order of Illuminati in Munich in 1880. Leopold Engel founded his World League of Illuminati in Berlin in 1893. From these two sprung the Ordo Illuminatorum which was still active in Germany as late as the mid-1970s.
  • Illuminates of Stockholm: The Illuminated Chapter of Swedish Rite Freemasonry is currently composed of approximately 60 past or current Grand Lodge officers who have received the honorary 11th degree. It makes no claim to be related, historically or philisophically, with the Bavarian Illuminati and strictly speaking should not be included in this list.
  • Die Alte Erleuchtete Seer Bayerns: Alleged by Marc Lachance to have been founded in 1947 by employees of the Munich newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, there are unsubstantiated claims to a longer lineage. With some 100 members claimed in Bavaria, Baden-Wurttenburg and Thuringia, they have disavowed ritual, and keep organised structure to a minimum.
  • The Illuminati Order: Founded sometime prior to 1988, this Tallahassee, Florida based group was brought online in 2001 by Solomon Tulbure (1969/10/18 - 2004/11/1), one time Grand Master whose idiosyncratic behaviour later estranged him from the group.

The Bavarian Illuminati

History

A movement of freethinkers that were the most radical offshoot of The Enlightenment — whose adherents were given the name Illuminati (but who called themselves "Perfectibilists") — was founded on May 1, 1776, by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt (d. 1830), who was the first lay professor of canon law. The group has also been called the Illuminati Order, and the Bavarian Illuminati. In 1777, Karl Theodor, Elector Palatine, succeeded as ruler of Bavaria. He was a proponent of Enlightened Despotism and in 1784, his government banned all secret societies, including the Illuminati and the Freemasons.

While it was legally allowed to operate, many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members. Its members were supposedly drawn primarily from Masons and former Masons, and although some Masons were known to be members there is no evidence that it was supported by Freemasons. Indeed, membership in the Illuminati, unlike that in Freemasonry, did not require belief in a Supreme Being. As a result, atheists and agnostics, having only the former organization open to them, congregated disproportionately in it; this over-representation, taken along with the Illuminati's largely humanist and anti-clerical bent, likely accounts for many of the charges of atheism leveled at the alleged world conspiracy of which the Illuminati supposedly remain a part.

The Illuminati's members pledged obedience to their superiors, and were divided into three main classes: the first, known as the Nursery, encompassed the ascending degrees or offices of Preparation, Novice, Minerval and Illuminatus Minor. The second, known as the Masonry, consisting of the ascending degrees of Illuminatus Major and Illuminatus dirigens, the latter also sometimes called Scotch Knight. The third, designated the Mysteries, was subdivided into the degrees of the Lesser Mysteries (Presbyter and Regent) and those of the Greater Mysteries (Magus and Rex). Relations with Masonic lodges were established at Munich and Freising in 1780 by Alexander Gibson and Joseph Vincent respectively.

The order had its branches in most countries of the European continent; it reportedly had around 2,000 members over the span of 10 years. The scheme had its attraction for literary men, such as Goethe and Herder, and even for the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar. Internal rupture preceded its downfall, which was effected by an edict of the Bavarian government in 1785.

The Plan of Operation

The main features of the Weishaupt plan of operation required his Illuminati to do the following things to help them to accomplish their purpose:

1. Monetary and sex bribery was to be used to obtain control of men already in high places in the various levels of all governments and other fields of endeavor. Once influential persons had fallen for the lies, deceits, and temptations of the Illuminati, they were to be held in bondage by application of political and other forms of blackmail, threats of financial ruin, public exposure, and physical harm, even death to themselves and loved members of their families.

2. The Illuminati who were on the faculty of colleges and universities were to cultivate students possessing exceptional mental ability and who belonged to well-bred families with international leanings, and recommend them for special training in Internationalism. Such training was to be provided by granting scholarships, like the Rhodes Scholarship, to those selected by the Illuminati. All such scholars were to be first persuaded and then convinced that men of special talent and brains had the right to rule those less gifted on the grounds that the masses do not know what is best for them physically, mentally, and spiritually.

3. All influential people who were trapped to come under the control of the Illuminati, plus the students who had been specially educated and trained, were to be used as agents and placed behind the scenes of all governments as experts and specialists. They would advise the top executives to adopt policies which would, in the long run, serve the secret plans of the Illuminati's one world conspiracy, and bring about the destruction of the governments and religions they were elected or appointed to serve.

4. They were to obtain absolute control of the mass media (newspapers, magazines, national radio and TV channels etc) so that all news and inforation could be slanted to convince the public that a one world government is the only solution to our many and varied problems.

Original Writings: Order & Sect of the Illuminati

Copies of the entire conspiracy were sent to all the heads of Church and State in Europe. But the power of the Illuminati was so great that this warning was ignored. Nevertheless, The Illuminati became a dirty word, and it went underground.

At the same time, Weishaupt ordered Illuminates to infiltrate into the lodges of Blue Masonry, and form their own secret societies within all secret societies. Only Masons who proved themselves internationalists, and those whose conduct proved they had defected from God, were initiated into the Illuminati.

In order to infiltrate into Masonic Lodges in Britain, Weishaupt invited John Robison over to Europe. Robison was a high degree Mason in the Scottish Rite. He was a professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University and secretary of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Robison did not fall for the lie that the objective of the Illuminati was to create a benevolent dictatorship, but he kept his reaction to himself so well that he was entrusted with a copy of Weishaupt's revised conspiracy for study and safekeeping.

Because the warnings about the Illuminati were ignored, the Revolution broke out in 1789, as scheduled by Weishaupt. In order to alert other governments to their danger, Robison published, in 1789, a book entitled Proof of A Conspiracy To Destroy All Governments and Religions, but his warnings were also ignored.

The Napoleonic Wars

The men who had directed the French Revolution decided to engage in another international plot. This time they organized the Napoleonic Wars to topple several more of the Crowned Heads of Europe. One branch of the Financiers financed Napoleon, while another branch financed Britain, Germany, and other nations. Both branches received their orders from the masterminds of the Illuminati.

Immediately after the Napoleonic Wars, the Illuminati assumed that all the nations would be so desperate and so weary of wars that they would be glad for any solution. So, the Illumiati set up what they called The Congress of Vienna. At this meeting they tried to create the first League of Nations, their first attempted one world government. They held the theory that all the Crowned heads of the European Government were so deeply in debt to them that they would willingly or unwillingly seve as their stooges. But the Czar of Russia caught on to the plot, and completely torpedoed it. The enraged Financiers then vowed that some day they would destroy the Czar and his entire family. This very threat was later accomplished in 1917.

World Wars

WWI

The First World War was to be fought so as to enable the Illuminati to destroy Czarism in Russia, as vowed by the International Bankers after the Czar had torpedoed his scheme at the congress held in Vienna, and to transform Russia into a stronghold of atheistic Communism. The differences stirred up by agents of the Illuminati between the German and British Empires would be used to foment this war. After the war would be ended, Communism was to be built up and used to destroy other governments, and destroy Czarism in Russia.

WWII

The Second World War, when and if necessary, was to be fomented by using the controversies between fascist and political Zionists. During this war, International Communism was to be built up until it equalled in strength to that of the United Christendom. When it reached that point, it was to be contained and kept in check until required for the final social cataclysm.

WWIII

The Third World War is to be fomented by using the so-called controversy agents of the Illuminati would stir up between political Zionists and the leaders of the Muslim world. That war is to be directed in such a manner that all of Islam and political Zionism, Israel, will destroy each other while, at the same time, the remaining nations, once more divided on this issue, will be forced to fight themselves into a state of complete exhaustion - physically, mentally, spiritually, and economically. The stage will then be set to put the one world government into operation.

One World Government

In the final phases of the conspiracy, the one world government is to consist of a key dictator - the head of the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations (the Illuminati group in the U.S.), a few billionaires, the Communists, and scientists who have proven their devotion to the great conspiracy. All others are to be integrated into a vast conglomeration of monopolized humanity, becoming total slaves of the conspiracy.

In America, immediately after World War I, the Illuminati set up what they called the Council on Foreign Relations, commonly referred to as the CFR. This CFR is actually the Illuminati now operating in the U.S. Its hierarchy, the mastermind control of the CFR, to a very great extent, are descendants of the original Illuminati conspirators, even though many of them have changed their names to conceal this fact.

There is a similar establishment of the Illuminati in England, operating under the name of the British Institute of International Affairs. There are similar secret Illuminati organizations in France, Germany, and other nations operating under different names. All of these organizations, including the CFR, continuously set up numerous subsidiary or front organizations that are infiltrated into every phase of the various nations affairs. But at all times, the operation of these organizations were and are masterminded and controlled by the Illuminati.

Cultural effect

The Bavarian Illuminati have cast a long shadow in popular history thanks to the writings of their opponents; the lurid allegations of conspiracy that have colored the image of the Freemasons have practically opaqued that of the Illuminati. In 1797, Abbé Augustin Barruél published Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism outlining a vivid conspiracy theory involving the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, the Jacobins and the Illuminati, during the course of which Barruél blamed all of what he regarded as the disasters of his times such as the French Revolution on the said groups. A Scottish Mason and professor of natural history named John Robison started to publish Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe in 1798. Robison claimed to present evidence of an Illuminati conspiracy striving to replace all world religions with humanism and all nations with a single world government.

More recently, Antony C. Sutton suggested that the secret society Skull and Bones was founded as the American branch of the Illuminati; others think Scroll and Key had Illuminati origins, as well. Writer Robert Gillette claimed that these Illuminati ultimately intend to establish a world government through assassination, bribery, blackmail, the control of banks and other financial powers, the infiltration of governments, mind control, and by causing wars and revolution to move their own people into higher positions in the political hierarchy.

Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, claimed they intended to spread information and the principles of true morality. He attributed the secrecy of the Illuminati to what he called "the tyranny of a despot and priests."

Both sides seem to agree that the enemies of the Illuminati were the monarchs of Europe and the Church; Barruél claimed that the French revolution in 1789 was engineered and controlled by the Illuminati through the Jacobins, and later theorists even claimed that the Illuminati were responsible for the Russian Revolution of 1917, although the order was officially defunct prior to 1789. Few historians give credence to these views; they regard such claims as the products of over-fertile imaginations.

Conspiracy theorists highlight the link between the Illuminati and Freemasonry. It is also suggested that the United States' founding fathers — some being Freemasons — were rife with corruption from the Illuminati. The symbols of the All-seeing Eye and the unfinished pyramid in the Great Seal of the United States are cited as an example of the Illuminati's ever-present watchful eye over Americans.

While Weishaupt's group did not survive into the 19th century, several groups have since used the name Illuminati to found their own rites, claiming to be the Illuminati. Groups describing themselves as Illuminati say they have members and chapters (lodges) throughout the world.

About the time that the Illuminati were outlawed in Bavaria, the Roman Catholic Church prohibited its members from joining Masonic lodges, on pain of excommunication. This was done as a general edict, since the Church believed many lodges to have been infiltrated and subverted by the Illuminati, but was not able to accurately ascertain which ones. Cardinal Ratzinger (later to become Pope Benedict XVI) stated, in a document by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on November 26, 1983, that the "Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic associations remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and, therefore, membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful, who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."

According to Principia Discordia and several other Discordian works, the Bavarian Illuminati was revived or rediscovered in the 20th Century under the leadership of Mordecai Malignatus (Robert Anton Wilson, who also wrote about the group under the pennames Mordecai the Foul and Reverend Loveshade). In the original Steve Jackson Games card game Illuminati and in the trading card game Illuminati: New World Order that it is based on, the Bavarian Illuminati is an enemy organization of the Discordians.

See also

References

  • 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica: "Illuminati"
  • America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones — Antony C. Sutton (Trine Day, LLC, 2003)
  • Cooper, Milton William (1991). Behold a Pale Horse. Light Technology Publications. ISBN 0-929385-22-5.
  • The Cosmic Conspiracy — Deyo, Stan (Adventures Unlimited Press, Illinois, 1994)
  • The Illuminati 666 — Sutton, Josiah William (Teach Services, Inc, New York, 1983).
  • Proof of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe — Robison, John A.M. (New York, 1798)
  • Die Korrespondenz des Illuminatenordens. Bd. 1, 1776-81. Ed. by Reinhard Markner, Monika Neugebauer-Wölk and Hermann Schüttler. - Tübingen, Max Niemeyer, 2005. - ISBN 3-484-10881-9
  • Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750. Israel, Jonathan I. (Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition, 2002).
  • They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of essays on the Illuminati, revisionist history and suppressed technology — Desborough, Brian(Writers Club Press/ iUniverse.com, 2002) ISBN 0-595-21957-8
  • Nyarlathotep, Frater & Jesse Lindsay: Ardeth - The Made Vampire. Lulu Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-84728-516-4
  • Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-23805-2.
  • Freemasonry, EWTN Frequently asked questions
  • Abbé Augustin Barruel, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, second edition revised and corrected, English translation by Robert Clifford, (originally published 1797-1798, reprinted in one volume, Fraser, MI: Real-View-Books, 1995).
  • John Robison, Proofs of a Conspiracy—against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies, fourth edition with postscript, (originally published 1798, reprinted Boston: Western Islands, 1967)
  • Richard Hofstadter, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” in The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965).
  • Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, (London: Serif, 1967 [1996].
  • George Johnson, Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics, (Los Angeles: Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin, 1983).
  • Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, (New York: Guilford Publications, 2000)
  • Robert Alan Goldberg, Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001).
  • Herm. Gruber, "Illuminati," The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII, (New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company, 1910).
  • "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius", trans. by L.J. Puhl (1951); "The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus; Translated with an Introduction and a Commentary", by G.E. Ganss:1970.
  • Alumbrados: Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (1856/11/03-1912/05/19), Los Heterodoxos Espanioles, 1881, vol. v. ; aluminados : Francisco Lopez de Villalobos, Sumario de la medicina, 1498, reprinted in vol. xxiv of the publications of the Sociedad de bibliofilos espanoles, Madrid : 1886. Also see John E. Longhurst, "Alumbrados, erasmistas y luteranos en el proceso de Juan de Vergara," in Cuadernos de historia de Espana, vols. xxvii, 1958.
  • Johnson, George (1983). Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. ISBN 0-87477-275-3.

References


Template:Link FA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Illuminati&oldid=96728510"