Order of the Illuminati
Excerpt from
Final Warning : A History of the New World Order Illuminism and the Master Plan for World Domination
by David Allen Rivera (1994)
Contents
1
Adam Weishaupt and the Order of the Illuminati (1776)
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When you talk about tracing the origin of an organization that is controlling the destiny of the world, it’s obvious that you have to start at a period that would allow a movement of this magnitude, time to ferment. Changes like the ones that have, and are occurring do not take place overnight. We are dealing with a group that must have been growing for a long period of time, in order to obtain the power and influence necessary to achieve the global control now being exercised. When you think of it in that context, there is such a group: The Illuminati.
The leader of the Illuminati was a man named Dr. Adam Weishaupt who was born on February 6, 1748… . When his father died in 1753, he was converted to Catholicism by Baron Johann Adam Ickstatt, who turned the early training of the boy over to the Jesuits. Ickstatt, in 1742, had been appointed by the Jesuits to be the curator of the University [of Ingolstadt] in order to reorganize it. He had retired in 1765, but still controlled its policies.
Although Weishaupt later became a priest, he developed a distinct hatred for the Jesuits, and became an atheist. Given access to the private library of Ickstatt, his godfather, the young man became interested in the works of the French philosophers, and studied law, economics, politics, and history. One such philosopher, Voltaire (1694-1778), a revolutionary who held liberal religious views, had written in a letter to King Frederick II (‘the Great’), a Mason:
“Lastly, when the whole body of the Church should be sufficiently weakened and infidelity strong enough, the final blow (is) to be dealt by the sword of open, relentless persecution. A reign of terror (is) to be spread over the whole earth, and … continue while a Christian should be found obstinate enough to adhere to Christianity.”
It is believed that Weishaupt got his ideas concerning the destruction of the Church from Voltaire’s writings. He studied in France where he met Robespierre (who later led the French Revolution), and became friends with a few people in the French Royal Court. It is alleged that through these contacts he was introduced to Satanism.
He graduated from the University of Ingolstadt, [Bavaria] in 1768. He served four years as a tutor until he was promoted to Assistant Instructor. In 1772, Weishaupt was made Professor of Civil Law. In 1773, he was made Professor of Canon Law, a post which had been held by the Jesuits for 90 years. They had founded most of the Universities, and kept strict control of them in order to eliminate Protestant influence.
In 1770, he was chosen by Meyer Amschel Rothschild to develop an organization that he could use. [Source? –ed]
In 1773, Weishaupt got married, against the wishes of Ickstatt, who denounced him. Two years later, at the age of 27, he was made Dean of the Faculty of Law. The Jesuits, worried about his quick progression, tried to thwart his influence by secretly plotting against him, and his liberal thinking. Not wanting to become a martyr for his free-thinking ideas, he began focusing on establishing his organization. To confuse his detractors, he based the organizational structure on the one used by the Jesuits, however, his intention was to have a secret coalition of liberalism.
He studied the anti-Christian doctrines of the Manicheans, whose teachings revolved around astrology, medicine, and magic. He had been indoctrinated into Egyptian occult practices by an unknown merchant named Kolmer, from Jutland (the area around the border of Denmark and West Germany), who had been traveling around Europe since 1771. He studied the power of the Eleusinian mysteries and the influence exerted by the secret cult of the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras was a 6th century B.C. philosopher who taught that men and women should combine their belongings, which became the basic philosophy behind Communism. Weishaupt also studied the teachings of the Essenes, and acquired copies of the Kabala, The Major Key of Solomon, and The Lesser Key of Solomon, which revealed how to conjure up demons and perform occult rituals.
He studied the various Masonic writings after meeting a Protestant Freemason from Hanover. At first he thought about creating a superior Masonic-like organization that would be made up of men possessing superior abilities in all fields but concluded that Masonry was too open.
Weishaupt spent five years working out a plan through which all of his ideas could be reduced to a single system which would be used to fight the oppression of religion, thereby loosening social ties. He wanted to replace Christianity with a religion of reason. An initial idea was to form an organization comprised of ‘Schools of Wisdom,’ whose goal was to “make of the human race, one good and happy family.” They were to strive for the perfection of morals, so he thought about naming the group the ‘Perfectibilists,’ but it lacked the air of mystery and intrigue that he sought.
In 1774, he published a fictitious article called Sidonii Apollinarus Fragment, which he said was to prepare the people for the doctrine of reason. Weishaupt wrote:
“Princes and nations will disappear without violence from the earth. The human race will then become one family, and the world will be the dwelling of rational men.”
He wrote of their aims:
“To make the perfecting of reasoning powers interesting to mankind, to spread the knowledge of sentiments, both humane and social, to check wicked inclinations, to stand up for suffering and oppressed virtue … to facilitate the acquirement of knowledge and science.”
On May 1, 1776, under the direction of the newly formed House of Rothschild ([along with] Wessely, Moses, Mendelssohn, and the bankers Itzig, Friedlander, and Meyer) who instigated the American Revolution to weaken Great Britain, Weishaupt founded the “Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria” which became known as the “Order of the Illuminati”. Weishaupt said that the name was derived from Luciferian teachings, and means, ‘Holders of the Light.’ In Latin, it means, the ‘enlightened ones.’ In layman’s terms, it means ‘to illuminate,’ or ‘to give light.’ It refers to someone who is enlightened, spiritually and intellectually. Satan, when he was an angel, was known as Lucifer, the ‘Bearer of Light,’ and being that the group’s name evolved from this, we can see the underlying nature of its goals. In addition, May 1st [became] a great day for all communist nations, where it was known as May Day, and it is also known as a special day to witches.
2
Other “Illuminist” Groups
There were some earlier groups, with similar names, such as a group known as the ‘Illuminated Ones’ which was founded by Joachim of Floris in the 11th century, who taught a primitive, supposedly Christian doctrine of “poverty and equality.”
The Rosheniah, or ‘Illuminated Ones,’ … was a group in Afghanistan during the 16th century, who sought the ‘illumination’ from the Supreme Being, who wanted a class of perfect men and women. After reaching the fourth degree, ‘Enlightened One,’ the initiate would receive mystical powers, and when the eighth and final degree was reached, they were told they had achieved perfection. An Afghan scholar said that their purpose was to influence people of importance to establish harmony in the world, and were devoted to fight the tyranny of the Moguls, who were the rulers of India. The group survived until the 1700’s.
The Alumbrados (‘enlightened’ or ‘illuminated’) was a mysterious movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries that believed that when a person achieved a certain degree of perfection, they experienced a vision of God, and then entered into direct communication with the Holy Spirit. At this point the soul would enter a state of limbo — not advancing or going back. Once this level was achieved, a person didn’t have to perform any good works or get involved in any religious activity, because they had received the ‘light.’ Once they had received the ‘light,’ they would possess superior human intelligence.
Their members mainly came from reformed Franciscans, and the Jesuits. Their unusual claims caused them to be criticized and harassed, and the Inquisition issued Edicts against them in 1568, 1574, and 1623. Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, was put in jail for being a member. This condemnation forced the movement into France, where in 1654 they surfaced as the Illuminated Guerinets.
The ‘Illuminati’ was the name of an occultic German sect that existed in the 15th century that professed to possess the ‘light’ received from Satan. It was also the name of an organization that was influenced by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which was established in 1760 at Avignon. This Swedenborgian philosophy also produced the Illuminated Theosophists in 1766 at Paris, then later in London, but was short lived.
Although it would certainly make for a more interesting story, there is no documentation to suggest that Weishaupt’s Order of the Illuminati is a continuation of any of these groups. However, whether their teachings and philosophy had an influence on him is another question. Most assuredly, there is a spiritual lineage that ties them all together.
3
Organization of the Order
Starting with only five members (Weishaupt and his inner circle…), the Illuminati wasn’t fully operational until 1778. 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. None is fitter than the three lower degrees of Freemasonry; the public is accustomed to it, expects little from it, and therefore takes little notice of it… For the Order wishes to be secret, and to work in silence, for thus it is better secured from the oppression of the ruling powers, and because this secrecy gives a greater zest to the whole.””How can the weak obtain protection? Only by union, but this is rare. Nothing can bring this about but hidden societies. Hidden schools of wisdom are the means which we will one day free men from their bonds…”
The Order was made up of three degrees: Novice, Minerval, and Illuminated Minerval. It was organized in a manner similar to Freemasonry and the Jesuits. Even though he admired the structure of the Jesuit hierarchy, he wrote that no ex-Jesuits were to be admitted, except by special permission. He wrote that they “must be avoided as the plague.” Their rites and ceremonies were similar to that of the Masons. Their aim, he said, was to have a one-world government, to allow the elite to govern the world, thus preventing future wars. One of their early programs was to distribute anti-religious material to criticize clerical leaders, who they saw as obstacles to social progress, and to oppose the “enemies of the human race and of society.”
All members were required to adopt classical names. Weishaupt was called ‘Spartacus’ (who had been the leader of the slave insurrection in ancient Rome). His right-hand man, Xavier von Zwack, a lawyer to Prince von Salm, was known as ‘Cato’; Nicolai, the bookseller, was ‘Lucian’;
Professor Westenreider was ‘Pythagoras’; Canon Hertel was ‘Marius’; Marquis di Constanza was ‘Diomedes’; Massenhausen was ‘Ajar’; Baron von Schroeckenstein was ‘Mohomed’; and Baron von Mengenhofen was ‘Sylla.’
Their headquarters was in Munich, Germany, and known as the Grand Lodge of the Illuminati (or Lodge of the Grand Orient) code-named ‘Athens’. Among their other four lodges: Ingolstadt was known as ‘Ephesus’, Heidelberg as ‘Utica’, Bavaria as ‘Achaia’, and Frankfurt was known as ‘Thebes’.
The calendar was reconstructed, and the months were known by names reminiscent of the Hebrew language: January was known as ‘Dimeh,’ and February as ‘Benmeh,’ etc. They dated their letters according to the Persian Era, named after the king who began to rule in Persia in 632 B.C., Jezdegerd. Their new year began on March 21st, which some sources say is New Year's Day for witches.
In 1777, Weishaupt joined the Eclectic Masonic lodge ‘Theodore of Good Counsel’ in Munich, and towards the end of 1778, he came up with the idea of merging the Illuminati and the Masons. Xavier von Zwack became a Mason on November 27, 1778, and working with a brother Mason, Abbe Marotti, he divulged the secret of the Order. By the middle of 1779, the Munich Masonic lodge was under the complete influence of the Illuminati.
During the first four years, about 60 active members had been recruited by a committee known as the ‘Insinuators’, and close to 1,000 had become indirectly affiliated with the Order. Soon, three more lodges were established.
Few knew the supreme direction of the Order. Only those within the inner circle, known as the ‘Areopagite’ (meaning ‘Tribunal’), were aware of their true purpose. To all others, Weishaupt said that he wanted a one-world government to prevent all future wars. The book World Revolution (by Nesta Webster) stated:
The art of Illuminism lay in enlisting dupes as well as adepts, and by encouraging the dreams of honest visionaries or the schemes of fanatics, by flattering the vanity of ambitious egotists, by working on unbalanced brains, or by playing on such passions as greed and power, to make men of totally divergent aims serve the secret purpose of the sect.”
Foolish, naive people, with money to burn, were especially welcomed. Weishaupt wrote:
“These good people swell our numbers and fill our money box; set yourselves to work; these gentlemen must be made to nibble at the bait … But let us beware of telling them our secrets, this sort of people must always be made to believe that the grade they have reached is the last.” Weishaupt explained: “One must speak sometimes in one way, sometimes in another, so that our real purpose should remain impenetrable to our inferiors.”
And what was that purpose? It was “nothing less than to win power and riches, to undermine secular or religious government, and to obtain the mastery of the world.”
Initiates were told that the Order represented the highest ideals of the Church, that Christ was the first advocator of Illuminism, and his secret mission was to restore to men the original liberty and equality they had lost in the Garden of Eden. Weishaupt said that Christ exhorted his disciples to despise riches in order to prepare the world for the community of goods that would do away with property ownership. Weishaupt wrote to Zwack:
“The most admirable thing of all is that great Protestant and reformed theologians (Lutherans and Calvinists) who belong to our Order really believe they see in it the true and genuine mind of the Christian religion.”
However, when one of Weishaupt’s followers would reach the higher degrees, their secret was revealed:
“Behold our secret … in order to destroy all Christianity, all religion, we have pretended to have the sole true religion… to deliver one day the human race from all religion.”
Women were also enlisted. He wrote:
“There is no way of influencing men so powerful, as by means of women. These should therefore be our chief study; we should insinuate ourselves into their good opinion, give them hints of emancipation from the tyranny of public opinion, and of standing up for themselves…”
He also wrote: “This sex has a large part of the world in their hands.” Female members were divided into two groups: one group of society women, to give the organization an air of respectability; and the other group “who would help to satisfy those brothers who have a penchant for pleasure.” The Illuminati also used monetary and sex bribery to gain control of men in high places, then blackmailed them with the threat of financial ruin, public exposure, and fear of death.
Internal fighting soon developed because of Weishaupt’s thirst for power. Besides that, because only nominal dues were collected, the Order suffered financially.
4
Baron Knigge (1780)
In 1780, a new member, Baron Franz Friedrich Knigge (1752-1796), was recruited, and given the pseudonym of ‘Philo’. Knigge was born on October 16, 1752. He studied law at Gottingen, served in the courts of Hesse-Cassel and Weimar, and was a well-known writer of romance, poetry and philosophy. He joined the Masonic lodge of Strict Observance which was dedicated to the elimination of the occult sciences, which were widely practiced. Unable to do that, they were forced to accept it. Knigge achieved the rank of Brother Commander, and had the title of Knight of the Swan. He assisted in the establishment of a new Masonic lodge at Hanau. Because of his developing exposure and interest in the occult, magic and alchemy, he joined the Rosicrucians, a secret organization that dated back to the fourteenth century.
He later renounced alchemy, and devoted his studies to the development of a form of Masonry that would allow man to regain the perfection they once had before the fall of Adam and Eve. His idea was to reform Masonry, and he was going to make these proposals at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad. However, the Marquis of Constanza (known as “one of the most notorious of the Illuminati”) informed him that the Illuminati had already done that. In order to lure him, Weishaupt portrayed the Order as representing the greatest advancement in science, and dedicated to philosophical advancement. Since this fell in line with Knigge’s thinking, he was drawn into the Order.
Knigge was definitely a catch, because he had a talent for organization, and soon became the head of the Westphalia Circle. He was instrumental in pushing for a merger between the Masons and the Illuminati. Weishaupt wrote of him:
“Philo is the master from whom to take lessons; give me six men of his stamp and with them I will change the face of the Universe … Philo does more than we all expected, and he is the man who alone will carry it all through.”
Knigge was firmly supported by members of the Areopagite, who felt that Weishaupt’s supreme authority should be delegated to others, and they agreed with Knigge’s proposed modifications for the organization. They were adopted on July 9, 1781. Knigge was able to recruit the most effective propagandists, and from 1780 on, the growth of the Order was very rapid because its expansion was facilitated through its affiliation with the Masonic lodges. Their goal was now to achieve their aims by splitting mankind into opposing ideologies, and for them to fight among themselves, thus weakening national governments and organized religion.
5
The Congress of Wilhelmsbad (1781)
An understanding was finally reached between the Masons and the Illuminati, and on December 20, 1781, a combined Order was proposed which would add to the Illuminati organization the first three degrees of Masonry. It wasn’t until the Congress of Wilhelmsbad from July 16th to August 29th, 1781 (which was attended by Masons, Martinistes, and representatives from other secret organizations from Europe, America and Asia) that the alliance was official. Those at the meeting were put under oath not to reveal anything. Comte de Virieu, a Mason from the Martiniste lodge at Lyons, upon his return home when questioned about the Congress said:
“I will not confide [the details] to you. I can only tell you that all this is very much more serious than you think. The conspiracy which is being woven is so well thought out, that it will be, so to speak, impossible for the Monarchy and the Church to escape it.”
He later denounced the Illuminati, and became a devout Catholic.
Because of a movement begun by Dohm’s book Upon the Civil Amelioration of the Condition of the Jews in 1781, and a book by Mirabeau in London, a resolution was passed at the Congress to allow Jews into the Lodges. It was obvious that it was done for financial reasons, because the Illuminati moved their headquarters to Frankfurt, Germany, a stronghold of Jewish finance. As the Order spread throughout Germany, money was contributed from such leading Jewish families as the Oppenheimers, Wertheimers, Schusters, Speyers, Sterns, and of course, the Rothschilds. Gerald B. Winrod wrote in his book Adam Weishaupt: A Human Devil that “of the thirty-nine chief sub-leaders of Weishaupt, seventeen were Jews.” [However,] arguments that the Illuminati was solely of Jewish origin are completely unfounded.
After the Congress of Wilhelmsbad, the Illuminati functioned under the following organizational structure:
NURSERY
- Preparation
- Novice
- Minerval
- Illuminatus
SYMBOLIC (Masonry)
- Apprentice
- Fellow-Craft
- Master
- SCOTCH (Masonry)
- Illuminatus Major (Scotch Novice)
- Illuminatus Dirigens (Scotch Knight)
- Presbyter (or Priest)
- Prince (or Regent)
- Magus
- Rex
THE LESSER MYSTERIES
THE GREATER MYSTERIES
6
The Growth of the Order (1781-1784)
From Bavaria, the Order of the Illuminati spread into the Upper and Lower Rhenish provinces, Suabia, Franconia, Westphalia, Upper and Lower Saxony; and outside Germany into Austria and Switzerland. Soon they had over 300 members from all walks of life, including students, merchants, doctors, lawyers, judges, professors, civil officers, bankers, and ministers. Some of their more notable members were:
- Adam Weishaupt (‘Spartacus’)
- Xavier Zwack (‘Cato’)
- Baron Knigge (‘Philo’)
- Baron Bassus (‘Hannibal’)
- Count Massenhausen (‘Ajar’)
- Marquis of Constanza (‘Diomedes’)
- Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick (‘Aaron’)
- Gabriel Victor Riqueti de Mirabeau (‘Leonidas’)
- Johann Joachim Christoph Bode (‘Amelius’)
- Baron de Busche (‘Bayard’)
- Francios Emile Babeuf (‘Gracchus’)
- Duke of Orleans
- Duke Ernst Augustus of Saxe-Weimar-Coburg-Gotha
- Prince Charles of Hesse-Cassel
- Johann Gottfried von Herder (a philosopher)
- Count Klemens von Metternich
- Catherine II of Russia
- Count Gabriel de Mirabeau
- Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (a poet)
- Joseph II of Russia
- Christian VII of Denmark
- Gustave III of Sweden
- King Poniatowski of Poland
By 1783, there were over 600 members; and by 1784, their membership reached nearly 3,000. By 1786 they had numerous lodges across the various German provinces, Austria, Hungary, England, Scotland, Poland, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Ireland, Africa, and America.
By the time of the 3rd Masonic Congress in Frankfurt in 1786, the Illuminati virtually controlled all the Masonic lodges, and at this meeting, their goals were stated as:
- Pantheism for the higher degrees; atheism for the lower degrees and the populace
- Communism of goods, women, and general concerns
- The destruction of the Church and all forms of Christianity, and the removal of all existing human governments to make way for a universal republic in which the utopian ideas of complete liberty from existing social, moral, and religious restraint, absolute equality, and social fraternity, should reign.
Students who were members of wealthy families with international leanings were recommended for special training in internationalism. Those selected by the Illuminati were given scholarships to attend special schools. Weishaupt wrote:
“I propose academies under the direction of the Order. This will secure us the adherence of the Literati. Science shall here be the lure.” He also wrote: “We must acquire the direction of education, of church, management of the professorial chair, and of the pulpit.”
Today, there are many such schools. Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, was educated at an Illuminati school in Gordonstown, Scotland at the insistence of Lord Louis Mountbatten (who became an admiral after the end of World War II, and had an uncle who was a Rothschild relative). Those trained at such schools were placed behind the scenes as experts and advisors to perpetuate Illuminati goals.
To insure that the activities of the Order would remain a secret, a warning as to the consequences of betraying the Order was including in the ceremony of initiation. They would point a sword at the initiate and say:
“If you are a traitor and a perjurer, learn that all our Brothers are called upon to arm themselves against you. Do not hope to escape or find a place of safety. Wherever you are, shame, remorse, and the rage of our Brothers will pursue you, and torment you to the innermost recesses of your entrails.”
Weishaupt, worried that his control of the Order was diminishing, argued repeatedly with Knigge. While he preferred to work in secrecy, Knigge wanted to move on to more substantial things. In January 1783, Knigge wrote in a letter to Zwack:
“It is the Jesuitry of Weishaupt that causes all our divisions, it is the despotism that he exercises over men perhaps less rich than himself in imagination, in ruses, in cunning … I declare that nothing can put me on the same footing with Spartacus as that on which I was a first.” He also
wrote: “I abhor treachery and profligacy, and I leave him to blow himself and his Order into the air.”
On April 20, 1784, Knigge quit, followed by Baron Bassus (‘Hannibal’), Count Torring, Prince Kreitmaier, and others. In July, Knigge signed an agreement promising to return all documents in his possession and to keep quiet on what he knew about their plans and activities. Some researchers believe that Knigge had also discovered that Weishaupt was a Satanist. He resumed his work as a writer, later becoming an inspector of schools at Bremen, where he died on May 6, 1796.
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