The
Illuminati
by
TempleofMysteries.com
Copyright 2012 TempleofMysteries.com
Smashwords Edition
Degrees
Anarchy
Militants
Revolution
Roots
& Offshoots
The
Great Beast
Protocols
of the Learned Elders of Zion
Aristocracy
of Money
Pathways
Conspiracy
The
Illuminati in Cyberspace
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Whether or not The Illuminati – an elite body claiming an ancient pedigree – does exist, it is important that growing numbers of people nonetheless do believe it exists. So does it exist? If so, is it a force for evil or a force for good - or, as some would have it, a conspiracy aimed at making us believe there is a conspiracy? Was the Bavarian Illuminati of Adam Weishaupt the true inheritor of more ancient knowledge?
A FORCE for evil or a force for good? A movement whose benevolent aim is human advancement, or whose sinister purpose is the enslavement of mankind to the capricious whims of a self-perpetuating elite?
A left wing conspiracy or a right wing conspiracy, a mysterious esoteric cabal whose lore of occult knowledge is based on ancient mystery cults - or simply a gigantic hoax, a fabrication stemming from the over-heated imaginations of conspiracy theorists?
Such is The Illuminati - a subject which has attracted vociferous claims and counter-claims down through the centuries. It has been blamed/credited - depending on who is grinding which particular axe at which particular time - for everything from wars and revolution to assassination and manipulation of global economies. ‘The Illuminati’ is conspiracy theory par excellence – as a subject it is the mother of all conspiracy theories.
Complex in the extreme, it is yet possible to discern a thread running through the subject of The Illuminati – a thread which establishes a link among The Illuminati, Freemasonry, ancient rituals of death and resurrection – and a mysterious warrior cult whose origins lie deep in the snow-capped mountains of Afghanistan.
GENESIS
To attempt to unravel the Gordian knot of The Illuminati a convenient starting point is Ingolstadt, Bavaria on May 1 1776. It is on this date that the former Jesuit Adam Weishaupt is recorded as having founded a New World Order - The Illuminati.
Born in 1748, by the age of 25 Weishaupt holds the chair of canon law at Ingolstadt University. Known to his contemporaries as a rather authoritarian figure, he will tolerate no dissension from his views. Disillusioned with both secular and profane authority he decides to set up his own organisation - an organisation that emphasises reason and rationality. A firm believer in "the despotism of superiors", a secret inner elite will control the organisation.
On founding The Bavarian Illuminati Weishaupt takes on the 'illuminated’ name of Spartacus.
Strongly republican, anti-monarchy, and anti-established religion in character, by 1780 The Illuminati has attracted the Freemason Freiherr von Knigge - better known as Philo - to its ranks. Borrowing heavily from Freemasonic ritual, by late 1782 The Illuminati is peddling its own brand of "Illuminated Freemasonry”. The aim is to take over the entire Freemasonic body.
Society, The Illuminati propounds, should be guided by reason - in particular through secret schools of wisdom. Of these secret schools, Weishaupt claims they had always been " ... the archives of nature and of the rights of man; through their agency man will recover from his fall; princes and nations, without violence to force them, will vanish from the earth; the human race will become one family, and the world the habitation of rational beings."
Prominent Freemasons from throughout Europe flock to join the ranks of The Illuminati. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick joins in 1783, to be followed later by other luminaries such as Goethe. There is speculation that Goethe's great work Faust may be a 'concealed’ history of an initiation by a disillusioned member of the Order. Goethe had been initiated into Freemasonry in 1780.
The star of The Illuminati is in its ascendancy, but from approximately 1784 onwards its fortunes are on the wane. Weishaupt and Philo come to angry verbal blows - with Philo suspecting Weishaupt of being a Jesuit in disguise and attacking his authoritarian manner.
Alarm over what is seen as the order's anarchistic leanings inevitably leads to it finally being banned by the Bavarian government in August 1787 - death being the penalty for anyone caught trying to recruit for the organisation.
Weishaupt settles in Gotha, where he dies on November 18, 1830. At the time, it was recorded he died " ... reconciled with the Catholic Church, which, as a youthful professor, he had doomed to death and destruction".
But this was not to be the final, ignoble, end of The Illuminati.
The Order of Illuminati, as devised by Adam Weishaupt, had its own initiatory system and rituals - which bear striking similarities to not only the rituals of Freemasonry but also appear to borrow freely from earlier mystery cults. Ceremonies for the Order were divided into three classes, or stages, with separate degrees in each group.
STAGE 1 – THE NURSERY
Where following the submission of a preparatory essay, the candidate would pass through the following degrees:
1.
Novitiate
2. Minerval
3.
Minor Illuminatus
4. Magistratus
STAGE 2 – SYMBOLIC FREEMASONRY
In which the candidate would pass through the following degrees:
1.Apprentice
2.
Fellow Craft
3. Master
4. (a) Scots Major Illuminatus and
(b) Scots Illuminatus Dirigens
STAGE 3- MYSTERIES
1.
Lesser (a)
Priest and (b) Prince
2. Greater (a) Magus and (b) King
SECRECY
Novices had to swear a binding oath of secrecy and complete obedience to their 'superiors'. The Order's authoritarian structure also has uncannily close parallels to that of the Jesuit Order. The writer Ellic Howe wrote that the Order was based on "an extraordinary system of mutual espionage”. At the end of every month the Novice had to deliver to his proposer a sealed letter. This contained a detailed report on every aspect of his relationship with his mentor, who sent it unopened and unread to Weishaupt through an appropriate channel. The proposer, in his turn, had to furnish similar information about the Novice. Weishaupt devised printed forms for these 'intelligence reports'. An incredible volume of information had to be supplied ... this mutual espionage was a feature of all the Illuminati grades", he wrote.