Minggu, 11 Desember 2011

Illuminaty History

The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus, "enlightened") is a name given to several groups, both real (historical) and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776. In more modern contexts the name refers to a purported conspiratorial organization which is alleged to mastermind events and control world affairs through governments and corporations to establish a New World Order. In this context the Illuminati are usually represented as a modern version or continuation of the Bavarian Illuminati.

History

The movement was founded on May 1, 1776, in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria) as the Order of the Illuminati, with an initial membership of five,[1] by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt (d. 1830),[2] who was the first lay professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt.[3] It was made up of freethinkers as an offshoot of the Enlightenment and seems to have been modeled on the Freemasons.[4] The Illuminati's members took a vow of secrecy and pledged obedience to their superiors. Members were divided into three main classes, each with several degrees, and many Illuminati chapters drew membership from existing Masonic lodges.
Originally Weishaupt had planned the order to be named the "Perfectibilists".[1] The group has also been called the Bavarian Illuminati and its ideology has been called "Illuminism". Many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Xavier von Zwack, the second-in-command of the order.[5] The order had branches in most European countries: it reportedly had around 2,000 members over the span of ten years.[3] It attracted literary men such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder and the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar.
In 1777 Karl Theodor became ruler of Bavaria. He was a proponent of Enlightened Despotism and his government banned all secret societies including the Illuminati. Internal rupture and panic over succession preceded its downfall, which was affected by the Secular Edict made by the Bavarian government.[3] The March 2, 1785 edict "seems to have been deathblow to the Illuminati in Bavaria." Weishaupt had fled and documents and internal correspondences, seized in 1786 and 1787, were subsequently published by the government in 1787.[6] Von Zwack's home was searched to disclose much of the group's literature.[5]

Organisation

The most valuable secret of the Illuminati was their own moral system of authority, which was already practiced inside the order, but was now supposed to be applied on the outside world. The deceit and patronizing of the lower-positioned members soon provoked disagreements within the order. This was caused by Weishaupt's aim to perfect the individual by encouraging it to practice more self-discipline and covert leadership. He assumed that for the improvement of the individual the first necessary step was to know its secrets. Probably, he adopted this concept from his arch-enemy, the Jesuits, which were known for their slavish obedience and their gentle but still effective leadership by means of confession. Actually, according to Illuminati-expert Agethen, the order stayed in a dialectic entanglement with its opponents: they used Jesuit methods of investigating the conscience in order to emancipate the individual from the intellectual and spiritual domination of the church; they also used a ranking system and mystical fuss, similar to the enthusiastic irrationality of the Rosicrucians, to further the success of Enlightenment and rationality. They subjected their members to an utterly totalitarian monitoring and psychological techniques in order to ultimately free mankind of the despotism of princes and kings.

Members

This temporary success cannot hide the fact that the Illuminati order mainly consisted of quite subordinate academics who maybe joined the order especially in the hope of more career opportunities. Indeed their hope correlated with Weishaupt’s concept of infiltration. Of course new members were ignorant about those intentions. The order hardly achieved its actual aim, namely to form the intellectual and political elite of society. Apart from the mentioned exceptions (Goethe, Herder, Knigge), all the really important representatives of the German "Spätaufklärung" either completely absented themselves from the order (as Schiller, Kant, Lessing, but also Lavater whom Knigge unsuccessfully tried to convince of joining for a long time) or shortly afterwards quit, just as Friedrich Nicolai did, out of disappointment about the rigid structures within the order. “Bookworm Weishaupt and his companions, utopists in a good and a ridiculous way” were never considered a real threat for the state of Bavaria but “the challenge for the old regimes was of course still too strong, even in this moderate form.”

Barruel and Robison

Between 1797 and 1798 Augustin Barruel's Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism and John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy both publicized the theory that the Illuminati had survived and represented an ongoing international conspiracy, including the claim that it was behind the French Revolution. Both books proved to be very popular, spurring reprints and paraphrases by others[7] (a prime example is Proofs of the Real Existence, and Dangerous Tendency, Of Illuminism by Reverend Seth Payson, published in 1802).[8] Some response was critical, such as Jean-Joseph Mounier's On the Influence Attributed to Philosophers, Free-Masons, and to the Illuminati on the Revolution of France.[citation needed]
Robison and Barruel's works made their way to the United States. Across New England, Reverend Jedidiah Morse and others sermonized against the Illuminati, their sermons were printed, and the matter followed in newspapers. The concern died down in the first decade of the 1800s, though had some revival during the Anti-Masonic movement of the 1820s and 30s.[1]

Modern conspiracy theory

Main articles: Conspiracy theory and New World Order (conspiracy theory)
Writers such as Mark Dice,[9] David Icke, Texe Marrs, Ryan Burke, Jüri Lina and Morgan Gricar have argued that the Bavarian Illuminati survived, possibly to this day. Many of these theories propose that world events are being controlled and manipulated by a secret society calling itself the Illuminati.[10][11] Conspiracy theorists have claimed that many notable people were or are members of the Illuminati. Presidents of the United States are a common target for such claims.[12][13]
A key figure in the conspiracy theory movement, Myron Fagan, devoted his latter years to finding evidence that a variety of historical events from Waterloo, The French Revolution, President John F. Kennedy's assassination and an alleged communist plot to hasten the New World Order by infiltrating the Hollywood film industry, were all orchestrated by the Illuminati.[14][15]

Modern Illuminati

In addition to the supposed shadowy and secret organization, several modern fraternal groups claim to be the "heirs" of the Bavarian Illuminati and have openly used the name "Illuminati" in founding their own rites. Some, such as the multiple groups that call themselves by some variation on "The Illuminati Order",[16][17] use the name directly in the name of their organization, while others, such as the Ordo Templi Orientis, use the name as a grade of initiation within their organization.

Popular culture

Main article: Illuminati in popular culture
The Illuminati in novels
The Illuminati are often illustrated in famous novels, for example in the “Illiminatus” trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, in “Foucault's Pendelum” by Umberto Eco or in “Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown. The authors mentioned above do not rely on serious sources which provide well proven historic information about the order, but rather on conspiracy theories which are in circulation about the order. This is why they are described as evil villains as well as mysterious and diabolic conspirators. However this speculative information about the Illuminati is often mistaken as the truth. Neither Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) nor Bernini (1598-1680) were members of the Illuminati, which they are said to be in Brown's novel, and they also did not follow the thousand year old tradition of Celtic druids, assassins and Templers, who had the intention to find the "umbilicus telluris" (lat. hub of the world).
The assumption that the Illuminati had owned certain symbols which they used to prove their existence to insiders and clever symbologists, can be widely found in novels. The following symbols are supposed to belong to those used by the Illuminati.
  • the all-seeing eye
  • the all-seeing eye as pyramidion (Great Seal of the United States)
  • the number 23
  • ambigrams
None of these symbols are historically related to the Illuminati. It is also highly implausible that an internationally operating conspiracy, as which the Illuminati are often labeled, would leave their symbols everywhere. The Illuminati only used one symbol for their "Secret School of Wisdom", the owl of Minerva.

References

  1. ^ a b c Stauffer, Vernon (1918). New England and the Bavarian Illuminati. NY: Columbia University Press. pp. 133–134. OCLC 2342764. http://books.google.com/books?id=nvY7AAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
  2. ^ Stauffer, p. 129.
  3. ^ a b c McKeown, Trevor W. (16 February 2009). "A Bavarian Illuminati Primer". Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M.. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w47O6KyR. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
  4. ^ Goeringer, Conrad (2008). "The Enlightenment, Freemasonry, and The Illuminati". American Atheists. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w47xrh7p. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
  5. ^ a b Introvigne, Massimo (2005). "Angels & Demons from the Book to the Movie FAQ - Do the Illuminati Really Exist?". Center for Studies on New Religions. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w48I6YlH. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
  6. ^ Roberts, J.M. (1974). The Mythology of Secret Societies. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 128–129. ISBN 9780684129044. 
  7. ^ Simpson, David (1993). Romanticism, Nationalism, and the Revolt Against Theory. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-75945-8. 88.
  8. ^ Payson, Seth (1802). Proofs of the Real Existence, and Dangerous Tendency, Of Illuminism. Charlestown: Samuel Etheridge. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZEMAAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
  9. ^ Sykes, Leslie (17 May 2009). "Angels & Demons Causing Serious Controversy". KFSN-TV/ABC News. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w48xQyH7. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
  10. ^ Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Comparative Studies in Religion and Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520238053. 
  11. ^ Penre, Wes (26 September 2009). "The Secret Order of the Illuminati (A Brief History of the Shadow Government)". Illuminati News. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w4qN1B4d. Retrieved 28 January 2011. 
  12. ^ Howard, Robert (28 September 2001). "United States Presidents and The Illuminati / Masonic Power Structure". Hard Truth/Wake Up America. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w4mwTZLG. Retrieved 28 January 2011. 
  13. ^ "The Barack Obama Illuminati Connection". The Best of Rush Limbaugh Featured Sites. 1 August 2009. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w4nMHN4J. Retrieved 28 January 2011. 
  14. ^ Mark Dice, The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction, 2009. ISBN 0967346657
  15. ^ Myron Fagan, The Council on Foreign Relations,. Council On Foreign Relations By Myron Fagan
  16. ^ "The Illuminati Order Homepage". Illuminati-order.com. http://illuminati-order.com/. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
  17. ^ "Official website of The Illuminati Order". Illuminati-order.org. http://www.illuminati-order.org/index2.html. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 

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