Secret Societies: Inside the World's Most Notorious Organizations (10 page)

During the Illuminati's limited tenure, tales circulated that it was responsible for the outbreak and progress of the French Revolution, a claim that is almost laughable in view of the group's emphasis on reason instead of passion. Few events in history were propelled by raw passion more than the overthrow of the French throne.

The short-lived dance between the Illuminati and Freemasons launched a fable that persists among some conspiracy addicts to this day. Various anti-Mason commentators continue to insist that Masters of the Illuminati remain in control of the Freemasons and other secret societies, dedicated to bringing Weishaupt's original plan for world domination to reality. Yet, while the Illuminati appears as a shadowy presence within or among other secret societies, no one seems able to identify specific acts attributable to them. And, unlike every other secret society to be examined here, no one within the Illuminati has ever broken the oath of silence to reveal its inner workings. If you resort exclusively to logic, you suspect that the Illuminati is a phantom organization with neither goals nor members. If you fear secret societies, you believe they are powerful enough to deny their own existence.

FREEMASONS MURDERED U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON
. According to this theory, Washington resigned from the Freemasons and intended to expose the group's more reprehensible actions to the world. Supposedly, he was outraged at plans by the Masons to erect a monument in his name, in a form that the plotters called an obelisk but the president considered something quite different, referring to it as the Phallus of Baal. To silence the Father of His Nation, so the story goes, he was bled four times by Masonic doctors on the day he died. The Freemasons had already agreed that this would occur on December 31, 1799, the last day of the eighteenth century. In spite of Washington's objections, the phallic Washington Monument was erected, reaching a height of 555 feet—coincidentally equaling the code number signifying assassination in the Luciferian religion.

This fanciful idea is transparent enough to be almost amusing. Bleeding was an accepted medical procedure in the eighteenth century, Washington died December 14, 1799, not December 31, discussions regarding the Washington Monument did not begin until at least a week after his death, and no credible reference exists regarding either a Luciferian religion or its use of 5 as a symbol of death and 555 as a code for assassination.

THE STREETS OF WASHINGTON DC DEPICT MASONIC AND SATANIC SYMBOLS
. Like most of his colleagues, architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant was a Freemason when asked to design the seat of federal government in Washington D.C. in 1791. Various sources claim L'Enfant was pressured by both Washington and Jefferson to create a series of satanic occultic symbols representing Freemasonry and labeling its dominance over American politics forever. Among the symbols impressed on Washington's street layout are the evil pentagram, the classic Mason pyramid and a representation of the devil himself, all of them declaring the evil intentions of Freemasons and their absolute power over the United States.

The absurdity of such claims should be self-evident. The pentagram is not a uniquely evil symbol, nor does it play any
role in Freemasonry documentation. Moreover, how could its presence make any impact on U.S. affairs, let alone global concerns? Triangles—pyramids are three-dimensional forms that cannot be replicated on street plans—can be traced in the street plan of any community anywhere in the world, and the claimed replication of Satan might be at home in a kindergarten art class, but not among mature adults.

FREEMASONS MURDER THOSE WHO THREATEN TO REVEAL SECRET POLICIES AND AGENDA
. Not much is known about William Morgan, but it can be assumed that he was a man of many faults. Born in 1774 in Culpepper County, Virginia, he and his young wife moved to Canada, where they launched a distillery. A mysterious fire destroyed the operation, driving Morgan back to the U.S., where he settled in upstate New York and, after several failed attempts, managed to join the Freemasons. When he was turned down for membership in a new Freemason chapter in Batavia, N.Y.—he was accused, with some justification, of being a swindler—he took revenge by writing and publishing a book attacking Freemasonry. This launched a long chain of events starting with a mysterious fire in the print shop that produced the book, the imprisonment of three Freemasons charged with arson, a series of arrests involving threats against Masons made by Morgan, and an ongoing battle between him and the organization.

In an effort to prove Freemasonry's dominance of U.S. life, theorists find satanic images in the street plan of Washington D.C.

Morgan vanished in 1826, an event that apparently pleased most local residents who hoped life would return to normal. A month later, when a badly decomposed body was found floating in Lake Ontario, many citizens claimed it was Morgan's remains. His wife first denied it was her husband, then admitted it was, and finally denied it again before fleeing New York to become one of several wives claimed by Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church. Later, witnesses reported that Morgan was seen in Boston, Quebec City and other locations, having assumed a new identity and a new wife.

Whoever the floating corpse belonged to, the incident was enough to fuel claims that Morgan had been prepared to reveal deep, dark secrets of Freemasonry activities not mentioned in his book. Nothing captures the public's imagination like a good mystery, especially one that defies solution, and the mystery of William Morgan has been durable enough to support a belief in murderous Masons for almost 200 years.

FREEMASON RITUALS ARE SATANIC AND SUBVERSIVE
. To many people who do not share the fraternal goals of Freemasons, a more accurate description of their rituals might be silly and juvenile.

Masons chart their status by degrees ranging from 1 to 33, the 33rd Degree representing the pinnacle of personal achievements as a Mason. The 1st Degree, conferring membership, is granted after the initiate dresses in a particular fashion, submits to a blindfold, and is led to a locked door. His knock on the door and its entry to him symbolize his departure from the out-side
world and access to the Inner Sanctum of Freemasonry. After answering questions about his ability to follow Masonic principles, and promising never to reveal the organization's secrets, the initiate experiences the point of a compass being pressed against his chest, and he is asked, “What do you desire?” With the ritualistic reply “More light,” the blindfold is removed and the applicant can see his fellow members for the first time, again very symbolic.

Silliness is carried to extreme by Shriners, a group within Freemasonry whose origins date back to the late nineteenth century. Shriners just wanta-have-fun, and they justify their antics by performing charitable work on behalf of children's hospitals. Recently, their image has been tarnished by revelations suggesting that barely 25 percent of their $8 billion charity endowment is spent on actual charitable activities.

FREEMASONS ARE ADEPT AT DECEIVING THE PUBLIC
. “Deceiving” in this case means “hoodwinking,” and for once the charge is true, even if the reality is not what it appears.

The initiation ceremony that includes covering the candidate's eyes during interrogation originally involved placing a hood over his head. “Wink,” an archaic term for “eye,” was associated with this procedure; thus, initiates were said to be “hoodwinked.” Over the years, the meaning of the term has evolved to indicate a deception, spawning the claim that Freemasons consistently present themselves as something they are not.

The early success of Freemasons produced critics, who feared the aggregate power of so many Masons holding high political office, and imitators such as the Oddfellows, who adapted secret procedures of the Masons while ignoring their pseudo-historical and mystical origins.

Among the most vociferous of Masonry critics has been the Catholic Church, launching levels of enmity and suspicion between Masons and Catholics almost from the beginning. As
early as 1738, Pope Clement xii condemned Freemasonry, saying, “We command to the faithful to abstain from intercourse with those societies… in order to avoid excommunication, which will be the penalty imposed upon all those contravening this order.” Obviously the Church wasn't merely annoyed; it was outraged and, perhaps, threatened.

A few years later Clement's successor, Benedict xiv, identified six dangers Freemasonry posed to Catholics: (a) the Interconfessionalism (or Interfaith) of Freemasons; (b) their secrecy; (c) their oath; (d) their opposition to church and state; (e) the interdiction pronounced against them in several states by the heads of such countries; and, (f) their immorality.

This is no mere academic or theological difference; for almost 300 years the Catholic Church has practically equated Masons with a stampede of Satans. Leo xiii, in the late nineteenth century, described Masonic lodges as “Bottomless Abysses of Misery which was [
sic
] dug by those conspiring Societies in which the Heresies and Sects have, it may be said, vomited as in a privy, everything they held in their insides of Sacrilege and Blasphemy.” Obviously, Leo's concept of Christian charity had its limits.

This eighteenth-century acrimony is not diluted by twenty-first-century enlightenment, nor is it limited to traditional Catholic animosity. In November 2002 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, condemned Masonry as incompatible with Christianity due to its secrecy and “possibly Satanically-inspired” beliefs. An earlier statement by the U.S. Southern Baptist Convention accused Masons of conducting pagan rituals based on the occult, leading the 16-million-strong assembly to brand Masonry as “sacrilegious.”

Religious leaders are not the only people quick to condemn Masons. From a secular point of view, Masonry is also susceptible to charges of racial segregation and gender bias. Corners of the movement continue to maintain separate white and black lodges, with many white groups resisting not only integration but full recognition of their black brethren. They conveniently
ignore the fact that black Masons have included, in addition to Duke Ellington, such celebrated individuals as singer Nat “King” Cole, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, author Alex Haley, and political gadfly Reverend Jesse Jackson among their members.

Both black and white members dismiss any suggestion that Masons admit women to their membership rosters, as the Rotary Club has since been ordered to do by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. “Freemasonry is a fraternity,” sputtered Douglas Collins, a Texas Mason with Worshipful Master status. “‘Frater’ meaning male brothers. Period. Any mainstream grand lodge in the United States that pulls that stunt [allowing women], they're going to be dropped from fraternal relations by the rest of them. They're going to be an outcast grand lodge.”

Or maybe it will all die away on a rapidly shrinking vine. Membership in all service clubs for men peaked during the 1920s and 1930s in North America, entering a long decline in the years after World War ii. During the 1960s, the number of U.S. Masons was estimated at 4 million; by the year 2000 it had declined to about 1.8 million as society turned away from lodges in pursuit of other means of group identification such as professional sports teams and musical groups. In numbers, and especially in power, Freemasons are a shadow of the organization that wielded influence through the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries.

Despite their shrinking numbers and lower profile, Freemasons are still considered by some to be a threat to the world generally and the U.S. in particular, and they remain for many people the first organization that comes to mind when asked to define a “secret society.” Yet, how secret can an organization be when its various meeting places are clearly identified along with its more prominent members? And how deadly can the intentions of a secret society be when it boasts among the highest-ranking members in its history the great Duke Ellington, one of the least likely candidates for performing anything more subversive than a piano solo?

The distant association of Freemasons with Templars and Illuminati, along with the large number of members who have held high political office, fuels wild assumptions among those inclined to assume that anything concealed must, by definition, be evil. Yet this is nothing but extreme speculation. Almost no one claims evil deeds or intentions for the Shriners, elevated Masons whose antics may be tiresome to some, and whose charitable activities may be less all-embracing than its members suggest.

The mainstream media rarely address negative aspects of Masonry or claims of the global powers attributed to it. In fact, media coverage of Freemasonry occurs only in response to shocking events such as an incident that took place in the basement of a Long Island Masonic lodge in March 2004. On that evening William James, 47, gathered at the lodge with about a dozen confirmed Masons to initiate him into the order. Knowing the process would be designed both to frighten him and build confidence in his lodge brothers, James arrived that evening filled with excitement and anticipation.