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Chaplain's Message for July/August, 2009
(6/25/2009)
THE REAL ILLUMINATI
George Black, Chaplain
The new movie “Angel’s and Demons,” from Dan Brown’s book of the same name, centers upon a shadowy and mysterious organization known as The Illuminati. The bizarre and violent actions of a central character have raised many questions about this old, unusual and ultra secretive group. The main concern for us seems to be “Is this really a Masonic organization? And also “Has it ever been so?” The 2009 Spring Issue of The Journal of The Masonic Society has a well-documented paper by Brother Christopher Hodapp, with the above title, addressing these very questions. The following is a synopsis of this article.
The first thing to clear up: The Illuminati do not exist – however, the Bavarian Illuminati did have a brief life-span of less than fifteen years and the membership was small. This radical organization was occurring right along with many other new ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700s. Many other groups followed in their path, even up to the present time, claiming the same name or unfortunately having the name applied to them.
The Illuminati and Freemasonry are tied together, but not in the way Dan Brown tells the story in “Angels and Demons.”
A little history may be in order here. The “Age of Enlightenment”, an intellectual, scientific, and philosophical movement lasted for about a hundred years during the 1700’s. The term was chosen in contrast to the Dark Ages and signified illumination i.e. desire for a Republican form of government free from the ‘divine right to rule’ of kings and popes.
The man who founded this ultra secret society, Adam Weishaupt, was a closet anti-Catholic teaching in a Catholic University, in Ingstadt, Bavaria, staffed mostly by Jesuit priests. Because of his position as a professor of Cannon Law at the University, Weishaupt and his organizers held very secret meetings and communicated by code names and secret cipher. The name, Illuminati, was represented by the symbol of a point within a circle. The symbol was a representation of the sun illuminating all the bodies in its orbit. It is also a Masonic symbol known to all Freemasons.
Weishaupt joined Munich’s Masonic Lodge Zur Behutsamkeit in 1777 and immediately began looking for like-minded brethren to recruit into The Illuminati.
Unlike the Rosicrucians and other so-called secret societies throughout Europe, Weishaupt’s Illuminati was not preoccupied with the occult mysteries. In fact, anything influenced by Judaism, Kabbalah, Christianity – particularly Catholicism - was not in the rritual.
The Bavarian Order of The Illuminati died out completely by the mid 1790s. It’s secrets and plans for a world takeover were discovered, published and ridiculed worldwide. However the essence of the Illuminati survived in the public’s memory. Because of its ties to many European Freemasons of the period, the two groups became intertwined in the public’s imagination. Most present day anti-Masonic vitriol includes this rather ephemeral relationship from the 1700s.
Thomas Jefferson’s association with the Illuminati and Dan Browns version of the Order, were not included in this brief excerpt. Additional information is to be presented about the Illuminati at our July Masonic Formation (Education) meeting prior to the Stated Meeting Dinner. Please join us at 5:30 in the Legion’s Library.
Sources: Hodapp, Christopher L, The Real Illuminati. The Journal of the Masonic Society. Pp 14-19, Spring 2009, Indianapolis, IN 45260-2103
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