On the night of Wednesday, the first of May 1776, three men gathered at the house of a young law professor, Adam Weishaupt, in the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt and established a secret society called the Order of the Illuminati. Weishaupt was the Professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, part of Germany.
It was secret order to undermine the social system, at first called the Orden der Perfektibilisten (The Order of Perfectibilists). Weishaupt had been working on the plans for this order ever since 1770. Among the three guests were two of Weishaupt’s students: Prince Anton von Massenhausen, who had helped work out the rules of the Order, and Franz Xaver Zwack, only registered as a member on the 22nd of February 1778. There was also another man who later went under the pseudonym Tiberius, though nothing more is known about him. The historian Nesta Webster (actually Julian Stern) claimed that the French Count Honore Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau, a member of a Dutch Masonic Lodge, was also among the founding members.
All the members used pseudonyms in connection with their work. Weishaupt called himself Spartacus, Massenhausen became Ajax and Zwack, Cato. The historical Porcius Cato had demanded the total destruction of the city-state of Carthago. Mirabeau was called Arcesilas, but in 1786 his alias became Leonidas (Nesta H. Webster, “Secret Societies and Subversive Movements”, London, 1924, p. 205).
Mirabeau was a famous French orator who had contracted enormous debts. Weishaupt came into contact with Mirabeau through certain Jewish bankers. Mira-beau was blackmailed into joining the Illuminati. (Nikolai Dobrolyubov, “Secret Societies in the Twentieth Century”, St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 23.)
Cities and areas that were important to the Illuminati were given ancient names: Ingolstadt was called Ephesus, Munich Athens, Bavaria Achaia, Vienna Rome, Landshut Delphi, Austria Egypt and so on.
With the help of confiscated documents, it can be seen that the Illuminati used the Persian calendar, where October was called Meharmeh, November Abenmeh, December Adarmeh, January Dimeh, etc. The lawyer Franz X. Zwack received his doctor’s degree and became advisor to Count Salm in Landshut where a great deal of the Illuminati’s archives was brought.
Not long afterwards, in 1779, the Order was renamed Orden der Illuminaten. Their primary watchword was: “The Illuminati must control the world!” But first Adam Weishaupt wanted a German unification. In 1779, Spartacus (Weishaupt) had written a letter to Marius (Jakob Anton von Hertel) and Cato (Zwack) and suggested a change of name.
They intended to call themselves “Bienenorden” (Order of Bees) but they kept in “Orden der Illuminaten” in the end. (“Einigen Originalschriften des Illuminaten-ordens” / “Collected Original Writings of the Illuminati Order”, Munich, 1787, p. 320.) The Illuminati (“The Illuminated Ones”) eventually became a powerful and despotic organization in Bavaria. Its members included Baron von Thomas Bassus, Marquis Constantin Costanzo, Baron Mengenhoffen, Friedrich Munter and other influential people.
The Order was founded on approximately the same principles as the Jesuit Order.
Adam Weishaupt had worked five years to develop a system, which suited him. The Order was divided into three classes (the Jesuits had four). The first class was for novices and the lesser illuminated (Minerval), the second for freemasons (including the Scottish Knights), and the third, the mystery class, was comprised of priests, regents, magicians and a king (the Jesuits had a general).
Their goal was to impose Novus Ordo Seclorum: the New World Order.
After a few years and with powerful connections, the Order became a major political force across the world. Influential deciders, rich industrials, powerful noblemen and mysterious occultists joined the Order and participated in its conspiratorial objectives. Some historians claim that the Order’s quick rise to success was due to a secret meeting between Weishaupt and a mysterious figure named Cagliostro, the most powerful occultist of the time.
In Ingolsstadt, Cagliostro is believed to have met Adam Weishaupt, professor of philosophy and canon law at the university, who in 1776, had founded the sect of Illuminati. Calling themselves heirs to the Knights Templar, they declared their interest in using celestial intervention as achieved by Cagliostro for the furtherance of a program of worldwide religious reform, but one more radical than Cagliostro’s, “committed to avenging the death of the Templar’s Grand Master Molay by reducing to dust the triple crown of the popes and disposing of the last of the Capet Kings.”
Cagliostro obliged, and described in prophetic detail the decapitation of Louis XVI, an event hardly to be envisaged at that time as anything but improbable. [8. Tompkins, op. cit.]
Dr. Adam Weishaupt wrote: “The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment. Let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name and another occupation.” -Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy, Robison, pg. 195.
The Illuminati seek to establish a New World Order. Their objectives are as follows:
- Abolition of all ordered governments,
- Abolition of private property,
- Abolition of inheritance,
- Abolition of patriotism,
- Abolition of the family,
- Abolition of religion, and
- Creation of a world government.
The actual character of the society was an elaborate network of spies and counter-spies. Each isolated cell of initiates reported to a superior, whom they did not know: a party structure that was effectively adopted by some later groups.
The Bavarian Illuminati was originally comprised of three primary grades: Novice, Minerval and Illuminated Minerval. Each grade was designed to achieve particular objectives while assuring complete control and dominance to the apex of the pyramid. Here’s a brief look at each grade.
1. Novice
Entry-level members of the Bavarian Illuminati were attracted and introduced to the Order using attractive vocabulary (the quest for wisdom and betterment) and occult lore. They were however introduced to a highly monitored and controlling hierarchy, one that resembles the system of the Jesuits. There was no mention of the Order’s political aims.
“Once enrolled, the instruction of each Novice was to be in the hands of his enroller, who kept well hidden from his pupil the identity of the rest of his superiors. Such statutes of the order as he was permitted to read impressed upon the mind of the Novice that the particular ends sought in his novitiate were to ameliorate and perfect his moral character, expand his principles of humanity and sociability, and solicit his interest in the laudable objects of thwarting the schemes of evil men, assisting oppressed virtue, and helping men of merit to find suitable places in the world. Having had impressed upon him the necessity of maintaining inviolable secrecy respecting the affairs of the order, the further duties of subordinating his egoistic views and interests and of according respectful and complete obedience to his superiors were next enjoined. An important part of the responsibility of the Novice consisted in the drawing-up of a detailed report (for the archives of the order), containing complete, information concerning his family and his personal career, covering such remote items as the titles of the books he possessed, the names of his personal enemies and the occasion of their enmity, his own strong and weak points of character, the dominant passions of his parents, the names of their parents and intimates, etc. Monthly reports were also required, covering the benefits the recruit had received from and the services he had rendered to the order. For the building-up of the order the Novice must undertake his share in the work of recruitment, his personal advancement to the higher grades being conditioned upon the success of such efforts. To those whom he enrolled he became in turn a superior; and thus after a novitiate presumably two years in length, the way was open for his promotion to the next higher grade.” [9. Stauffer, op. cit.]
When a Novice proved to his superiors to be worthy of advancement, he was initiated to the grade of Minerval.
2. Minerval
The term Minerval is derived from Minerva who was the Roman goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic, and the music. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl, which symbolizes her ties to wisdom. An ancient symbol of the mysteries, Minerva is prominently featured in places such as the Library of Congress and the Great Seal of California.
The second grade of the Illuminati was one of indoctrination. The initiates were lectured on the spiritual principles of the Order but had little information regarding the true aims of Weishaupt and his close circle of administrators.
“The ceremony of initiation through which the Novice passed into the grade Minerval was expected to disabuse the mind of the candidate of any lingering suspicion that the order had as its supreme object the subjugation of the rich and powerful, or the, overthrow of civil and ecclesiastical government. It also pledged the candidate to be useful to humanity; to maintain a silence eternal, a fidelity inviolable, and an obedience implicit with respect to all the superiors and rules of the order; and to sacrifice all personal interests to those of the society.” [10. Ibid.]
Minervals were permitted to meet some of their superiors (Illuminated Minervals) and to engage in discussions with them. This privilege alone was a great source of motivation for the new initiates.
3. Illuminated Minerval
Selected from among the Minerval, the Illuminated Minerval were given specific tasks to accomplish in order to prepare them to take action in the “real world”. Most of their work consisted in the study of mankind and the perfection of methods to direct it. Each Illuminated Minerval was entrusted with a small group of Minervals who were scrutinized, analyzed and lead towards specific directions. Lower-grade members of the Order therefore became test subjects for techniques that might be applied to the masses in general.
“To the grade Illuminated Minerval were admitted those Minervals who in the judgment of their superiors were worthy of advancement. Elaborate initiatory ceremonies fixed in the candidate’s mind the notions that the progressive purification of his life was to be expected as he worked his way upward in the order, and that the mastery of the art of directing men was to be his special pursuit as long as he remained in the new grade. To accomplish the latter, i.e., to become an expert psychologist and director of men’s consciences, he must observe and study constantly the actions, purposes, desires, faults, and virtues of the little group of Minervals who were placed under his personal direction and care. For his guidance in this difficult task a complicated mass of instructions was furnished him.
In addition to their continued presence in the assemblies of the Minervals, the members of this grade came together once a month by themselves, to hear reports concerning their disciples, to discuss methods of accomplishing the best results in their work of direction and to solicit each other’s counsel in difficult and embarrassing cases. In these meetings the records of the assemblies of the Minervals were reviewed and rectified and afterwards transmitted to the superior officers of the order.” [11. Ibid.]
From this basic structure, the Illuminati began its expansion. Everything was in place for Weishaupt to achieve an important goal: the infiltration of Freemasonry.
Infiltration of Freemasonry
In 1777, the year following the creation of the Illuminati, Weishaupt joined the Masonic lodge of Theodore of Good Counsel in Munich. Not only did he successfully propagate his views into the lodge, he also managed to get the lodge to be”virtually absorbed into the Illuminist order almost immediately”. [12. Hall, op. cit.]
A definite alliance between the Illuminati and Freemasonry became possible in 1780 when a prominent figure by the name of Baron Adolf Franz Friederich Knigge was initiated into Weishaupt’s Order. The German diplomat’s Masonic connections and organizational skills were promptly put to use by the Order. Knigge would go on to accomplish two important tasks for the Illuminati: He revised the hierarchy of the Order, created new higher grades and allowed the full integration of Masonic lodges into the system.
“Two weighty consequences promptly followed as the result of Kinigge’s advent into the order. The long-sought higher grades were worked out, and an alliance between the Illuminati and Freemasonry was effected.” [13. Ibid.]
He used Freemasonry to recruit for his own quasi-masonic society through re-education to achieve a communal state with nature, freed of government and organized religion. Presenting their own system as pure masonry, Weishaupt and Adolph Freiherr Knigge, who organised his ritual structure, greatly expanded the secret organization. (ref: Catholic Encyclopedia)
Knigge’s influence upon the Order was profound and immediate. The new system he devised attracted Freemasons and other powerful figures, which gave the movement great momentum. Here’s the system devised by Knigge:
Knigge’s kept the Order’s original grades untouched but added new grades above them. The second level of the Illuminati incorporated the grades of Freemasonry making therefore the Brotherhood simply a part of the wider Illuminist superstructure.
“The grade Novice (a part of the system only in a preparatory sense) was left unchanged by Knigge, save for the addition of a printed communication to be put into the hands of all new recruits, advising them that the Order of the Illuminati stands over against all other forms of contemporary Freemasonry as the one type not degenerate, and as such alone able to restore the craft to its ancient splendor. (…)
The three symbolic grades of the second class seem to have been devised solely for the purpose of supplying an avenue whereby members of the various branches of the great Masonic family could pass to the higher grades of the new order.” [14. Ibid.]
The highest grades of the Order were restricted to a select few and included powerful individuals and influential figures. The grade of Prince held within its ranks National Inspectors, Provincials, Prefects and Deans of the Priests. At the top of the pyramid were the Magus (also known as Areopagites), which comprised the supreme heads of the Order. Their identities were safely guarded and are still difficult to confirm today.
Knigge’s strategy gave impressive results and allowed the Illuminati to become an extremely powerful movement.
“The new method of spreading Illuminism by means of its affiliation with Masonic lodges promptly demonstrated its worth. Largely because of the fine strategy of seeking its recruits among the officers and other influential personages in the lodges of Freemasonry, one after another of the latter in quick succession went over to the new system. New prefectures were established, new provinces organized, and Provincials began to report a steady and copious stream of new recruits. (…) Students, merchants, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, judges, professors in gymnasia and universities, preceptors, civil officers, pastors, priests — all were generously represented among the new recruits. Distinguished names soon appeared upon the rosters of the lodges of the new system. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, Duke Ernst of Gotha, Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar, Prince August of Saxe-Gotha, Prince Carl of Hesse, Baron Dalberg, the philosopher Herder, the poet Goethe, the educationist Pestalozzi, were among the number enrolled, By the end of 1784 the leaders boasted of a total enrollment of between two and three thousand members 106. and the establishment of the order upon a solid foundation seemed to be fully assured.” [15. Ibid.]
Weishaup, however, did not enjoy his Order’s success for long. Suspicions of Illuminati conspiracy against governments and religious arose across Europe. Seeing a credible threat against its power, the Bavarian government launched an edict outlawing all communities, societies and brotherhoods that existed without due authorization of the law. Furthermore, internal disagreements between Weishaupt and the higher ups of his Order lead to disputes and dissension. In the midst of it all, some members went directly to the authorities and testified against the Order, an opportunity that was not missed by the Bavarian government.
“Out of the mouths of its friends, the accusations which its enemies made against the order were to be substantiated. By the admissions of its leaders, the system of the Illuminati had the appearance of an organization devoted to the overthrow of religion and the state, a band of poisoners and forgers, an association of men of disgusting morals and depraved tastes.” [16. Ibid.]
By 1788, through the use of aggressive legislation and criminal charges, the Bavarian Illuminati was apparently dissipated and destroyed by the government. While some see here the conclusion of the story of the Illuminati, one must not forget that the tentacles of Illuminism had the time to spread way beyond to confines of Bavaria to reach Masonic lodges across Europe. In other words, the Illuminati was never destroyed, it simply went underground. A year later, an important event would prove that Illuminism was more alive and potent then ever: the French Revolution.
In 1797, John Robinson, a Scottish physician, mathematician and inventor (he invented the siren) published a book entitled “Proofs of a Conspiracy against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of the Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies”. This devout Freemason became disenchanted when he realized that his brotherhood had been infiltrated by the Illuminati. Here’s an excerpt of his book:
“I have found that the covert of a Mason Lodge had been employed in every country for venting and propagating sentiments in religion and politics, that could not have circulated in public without exposing the author to great danger. I found, that this impunity had gradually encouraged men of licentious principles to become more bold, and to teach doctrines subversive of all our notions of morality—of all our confidence in the moral government of the universe—of all our hopes of improvement in a future state of existence—and of all satisfaction and contentment with our present life, so long as we live in a state of civil subordination. I have been able to trace these attempts, made, through a course of fifty years, under the specious pretext of enlightening the world by the torch of philosophy, and of dispelling the clouds of civil and religious superstition which keep the nations of Europe in darkness and slavery.
I have observed these doctrines gradually diffusing and mixing with all the different systems of Free Masonry; till, at last, AN ASSOCIATION HAS BEEN FORMED for the express purpose of ROOTING OUT ALL THE RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS, AND OVERTURNING ALL THE EXISTING GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE. I have seen this Association exerting itself zealously and systematically, till it has become almost irresistible: And I have seen that the most active leaders in the French Revolution were members of this Association, and conducted their first movements according to its principles, and by means of its instructions and assistance, formally requested and obtained: And, lastly, I have seen that this Association still exists, still works in secret, and that not only several appearances among ourselves show that its emissaries are endeavouring to propagate their detestable doctrines, but that the Association has Lodges in Britain corresponding with the mother Lodge at Munich ever since 1784. . . The Association of which I have been- speaking is the order of ILLUMINATI, founded, in 1775 [sic], by Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of Canon-law in the University of Ingolstadt, and abolished in 1786 by the Elector of Bavaria, but revived immediately after, under another name, and in a different form, all over Germany. It was again detected, and seemingly broken up; but it had by this time taken so deep root that it still subsists without being detected, and has spread into all the countries of Europe” [17. John Robinson, Proofs of a Conspiracy]
Augustin Barrel, a French Jesuit priest also published in 1797 a book linking the French Revolution to the Bavarian Illuminati. In “Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du Jacobisime”, he traced back the slogan “Liberty and Equality” back to the early Templars and claimed that, in the higher degrees of the order, liberty and equality is explained not only by “war against kings and thrones” but by “war against Christ and his altars”. He also provided details pertaining to the Illuminist take-over of Freemasonry.
“Barruel charged that not only the lower order of Masonry were duped by Weishaupt, but also those of Weishaupt’s own Illuminati, for whom he had provided another top-secret level of direction known as the Aeopagus, a withdrawn circle of directors of the whole order, who alone knew its secret aims. To Barruel, such revolutionary leaders as La Rochefoucauld, Lafayette, and the duc d’Orléans, had become Illuminati agents and dupes of more extreme radicals such as Danton, provocateurs who sparked the Illuminati-directed rebellion. Barruel further charged that the entire French Masonic establishment had been converted to Weishaupt’s revolutionary ideas, its lodges turned into secret committees which planned bloodshed.” [18. Tompkins, op. cit.]
A documentary of the Bavarian Illuminati below:
A presentation on the New World Order Conspiracy 1996 by John F. McManus:
Recommended Books:
Secret societies have both fascinated and frightened people for hundreds of years. Often the infamous Illuminati is mentioned as the core of conspiracies which span the globe. The Illuminati is actually a historical secret society which had goals of revolutions and world domination dating back to the 1770s.
Since then, rumors and conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati continue to spread, sometimes finding their way into popular novels like Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and Hollywood movies like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. More recently, music videos, award shows, and sporting events are said to be somehow connected. Some men have even come forward claiming to be former members, offering details of what they allege are the inner workings of the organization.
When you sift through all of the information available on the subject, you may be surprised that the truth is stranger than fiction. In The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction, conspiracy and occult expert Mark Dice separates history from Hollywood and shows why tales of the secret society won’t die.
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This book is a primer for anyone who wishes to understand the basic workings of the global network of Insiders that is determined to wield power over all of mankind in the coming New World Order. The Special Edition is updated with illustrations and charts for 2013. Introduction by U.S. Congressman John G. Schmitz: The story you are about to read is true. The names have not been changed to protect the guilty. This book may have the effect of changing your life. After reading this book, you will never look at national and world events in the same way again. None Dare Call It Conspiracy will be a very controversial book. At first it will receive little publicity and those whose plans are exposed in it will try to kill it by the silent treatment. For reasons that become obvious as you read this book, it will not be reviewed in all the “proper” places or be available on your local book stand. However, there is nothing these people can do to stop a grass roots book distributing system. Eventually it will be necessary for the people and organizations named in this book to try to blunt its effect by attacking it or the author. They have a tremendous vested interest in keeping you from discovering what they are doing. And they have the big guns of the mass media at their disposal to fire the barrages at None Dare Call It Conspiracy. By sheer volume, the “experts” will try to ridicule you out of investigating for yourself as to whether or not the information in this book is true They will ignore the fact that the author about to conjecture. They will find a typographical error or ague some point that is open to debate. If necessary they will lie in order to protect themselves by smearing this book. I believe those who pooh-pooh the information herein because psychologically many people would prefer to believe we are because we all like to ignore bad news. We do so at our own peril.
