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| Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati |
As I write this blog post, it is Friday, May 1st. The first day of May is a date that means different things to different people: to some, it is just
a calendar date; to others, a day for folk celebrations of spring and summer.
But May the First is also the anniversary of the founding of an organization
that has proved to be even more famous in its death than during its life, a
group about which more falsehood has been published than perhaps any other. To some, the group is a historical footnote. To others, it is the hidden power behind every throne,
even today—and supposedly the secret masters of the Masonic fraternity.
So it is that today’s blog post is, if not in honor, in
acknowledgement of the establishment of that fascinating and sinister
organization: The Bavarian Illuminati, founded on this date in the year 1776.
The group was revolutionary in origin, seeking to overthrow
the power of aristocracy and monarchy in favor of a form of government
resembling democracy—largely through assassination, or so they planned. The group also sought to overthrow the political and
social power of the Roman Catholic Church, in favor of instituting reason and
logic as principles by which to govern the world and educate humankind.
The Illuminati were originally known as Perfectabilists,
reflecting their belief that people could achieve a sort of perfection through
rigorous devotion to reason and logic, rather than through supernatural means
(such as the atonement of Christ).
The Illuminati was a truly “secret society,” in that it
tried to keep its very existence secret. The Illuminati infiltrated dozens of Masonic lodges in central Europe,
where they sought to recruit members whom they hoped to lead, through a system
of ritual degree ceremonies resembling Masonry, from a position of belief in
God (a requirement for membership in regular Freemasonry) to a position of
atheism, devoted to the overthrow of monarchy and church. The leadership of the
group believed that, to further this endeavor, any means were justified,
including political assassination.
To understand the Bavarian Illuminati, it is important to
understand the political context of their times. American-style democracy had
not been invented, and people throughout central Europe in particular were
ruled by absolute monarchs who essentially held power of life and death over
the people they governed. Dissent was crushed. In addition, the major church of
the period held a significant degree of political power; in religious matters
as well as political ones, dissent was not tolerated. The emphasis that the
Illuminati placed on freedom of thought and expression was very appealing to
some people, including even members of the aristocracy, and German literary
figures such as Goethe and Herder; reportedly, the Illuminati reached a
membership of about 2,000 during the decade or so of its existence.
The Illuminati were strong on rhetoric, but weak on action.
They assassinated no one, despite their “ends justify the means” ethics.
However, when their aims became known to the governing authorities, they were
crushed by the rulers of several countries, beginning in 1784. By the early
1790s, for all practical purposes the Illuminati had ceased to exist.
And it was then, after the group known as the Illuminati
died, that it really got to work.
The Strange Afterlife of the Illuminati
The late 18th and early 19th centuries were a time of
monumental social change—which meant, not only positive changes like the rise
of democracy, but also social disruption that was experienced very negatively
by many thousands of people. In the mid-18th century, before the Revolutionary
War, many American colonists considered themselves loyal to the British crown;
after the war, thousands of these people left their homes and businesses and moved, to Canada, England, and elsewhere,
leaving behind thousands of relatives and friends who were quite unhappy about
losing their connections.
Loyalists and their
relatives were not the only people who were less than happy with the American
Revolution. A lot of clergy of “established” churches (that is, churches
formerly supported by the government) were troubled by the withdrawal of financial
support, which they took to be an attempt to undermine religion generally.
Overall, many people in the new United States—echoing even greater numbers of
people in Europe, still under the power of Crown and Church—were troubled by
the direction that the new Republic was taking, in denying aristocrats and
clergy their former privileged position in government.
Thus arose the rumor
that the inspiration of the new Republic was actually the Illuminati. In the
1790s and thereafter, American clergy preached sermons from their pulpits
against the supposed influence of the Illuminati in the United States. Books
originally published in Europe alleging the ongoing Illuminist conspiracy, such
as John Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy (1797), were widely
read in the United States, and fanned the flames of what amounted to hysteria.
The first novel by the first American to make his living as a novelist, Charles
Brockden Brown’s Wieland (and his unfinished Memoirs of
Carwin the Biloquist) involved the role of an Illuminati agent in America
impersonating the voice of God to convince a man to murder his wife and
children. In the real world, Thomas Jefferson himself had to answer charges
that he was an Illuminatus.
It gets better. The
1970s-era Illuminatus! trilogy of novels, by Robert Shea and
Robert Anton Wilson (two editors at Playboy magazine), put forth the rumor that Adam Weishaupt left Europe,
came to the United States, murdered George Washington and actually took
Washington’s place as first President of the U.S. Incredibly enough, there are
those who believe today that this actually happened!
No, it gets even better.
Current proponents of way-out-on-the-fringe conspiracy theories—people like Jim
Marrs, Texe Marrs, and David Icke—say that the modern world is under the secret
control of the Illuminati even today. For Jim Marrs, the Illuminati are
political powers; for Texe Marrs, they are Satanists; for David Icke, they are
reptilian space aliens. (No, I am not making this up.) All
of this is furthered by the appropriation of the name and supposed symbolism of
the Illuminati by some current entertainers, who use it to give themselves the
sheen of power that attaches to the paranoid version of the Illuminist legend.
The Illuminati have been the scapegoat of American politics
(and, to some extent, European politics) for the last 200 years. The horrific
excesses of the French Revolution were blamed on the Illuminati. The
suppression of American Freemasonry in the first half of the 19th century was,
in part, based on fear of the Illuminati. In our day, particularly since the
middle of the 20th century, the Illuminati have been blamed for everything from
AIDS and the Great Recession to the flouridation of public drinking water.
(Google “Illuminati” and you'll see what I mean.)
And it’s all a pile of hooey. The Illuminati died out in the
late 18th century. They are kept ‘alive’ in the minds of ignorant people today
because we, as a society, have done such a poor job of teaching critical
thinking skills.
There is a cost to all this wild-eyed attention given to the
Version Two-Point-Paranoid of the Illuminati. By projecting all of society’s
problems onto some supposed All-Powerful Others, people perpetuate the myth
that they themselves are not responsible, either for creating society’s
problems, maintaining them, or trying to solve them. Today, the myth of the
Illuminati lets people off the hook for taking charge—of their lives, of the
political process, of their own destinies.
I hope that my Masonic brothers will spread the truth about
the Illuminati, and lead the way in following the Enlightenment-era maxim that
should guide all Masons, and all people, “Follow Reason,” in evaluating
conspiracy theories, and in approaching the very real problems that our society
faces.
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[The image of Adam Weishaupt was obtained
through Wikipedia. The artist is unknown, but the image is in the public
domain.]
(Copyright 2015 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights
Reserved.)
