The Illuminati.

Nothing brings people together quite like a secret. Keeping a secret, being one of the select few that’s in on a secret, speculating about a secret, exposing a secret – it can keep us busy for hours. If you want to see some folks really go off the rails, just toss a secret society into any casual conversation. Everybody has an opinion whether it be complete skepticism or whipping out a tin foil hat.

Some secret societies have managed to stay somewhat secret, but there is one name that everybody knows – the Illuminati, possibly the least secret of all secret societies.

If conspiracy theorists are to be believed, the Illuminati are everywhere. We see them in movies, books, PC games, television shows, and comic books. Their symbols are plastered all over currency, monuments, and music videos. For a secret society bent on world domination, they’re not very subtle.

Known as a super-conspiracy, the Illuminati have become a catch-all for a host of smaller conspiracies, but where did it all start? Are they a real organization, the villains we all secretly want them to be, and just what have they been up to?

The Enlightened Ones

The organization that set the ball rolling on the Illuminati conspiracy theories we have today was the Bavarian Illuminati; however, the name Illuminati had been around long before the Bavarian Illuminati was ever founded.

The word ‘illuminati’ is plural for the Latin word ‘illuminatus’ meaning ‘one who is enlightened’. Of course, anyone who thinks they’ve seen the light – be it the light of some higher power, their own intelligence or the light at the end of the tunnel – could be considered part of the Illuminati, a group of people who are enlightened.

The name first appeared in Spain in 1492. The Alumbrados, which is Spanish for enlightened, practiced a form of Christian mysticism and claimed that the human soul can reach a degree of perfection that allows one to fully understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity and comprehend the very essence of God. One of the earliest leaders of this group was Maria de Santo Domingo, the daughter of a labourer, so both a woman and a person of limited wealth and influence.

Apparently these guys were really enlightened and well ahead of their time. She became known as a prophet and mystic who could chat to both Jesus and the Virgin Mary directly. This didn’t sit well with the Catholic Church, or the Inquisition for that matter, but the lady had friends in high places, among them Ferdinand II, King of Aragon, so she was cleared of all charges in 1510.

Not a lot of people facing the Inquisition got that lucky though, and many followers of the Alumbrados were imprisoned, tortured and killed in a most imaginative fashion.

However, the light wouldn’t be doused that easily and around 1623, the movement, now called the Illuminés, reached France from Seville and attained some prominence in Picardy when one Pierre Guerin, vicar of Saint-Georges de Roye, got involved. The powers that be weren’t impressed though, and Guerin and his followers were suppressed with great enthusiasm in 1635. The movement surfaced again in the south of France around 1722 and seems to hang around until 1794.

After the Bavarian Illuminati, who we’ll get to in a bit, were shut down, in theory anyway, the Illuminati title passed on again, this time to the French Martinists, an order which included elements of Kabbalism and Christian mysticism, founded by Martinez Pasqualis and Louis Claude de St Martin, an influential Christian mystic. This version of the Illuminati apparently spread all the way to Russia, so it seems they were somewhat more successful than the Bavarians.

The Rosicrucian Order, who claimed to have originated around 1422 but was only really noticed in 1537, also considered themselves as enlightened but their belief was a proper mix and match from a whole host of different beliefs including Egyptian Hermetism, Christian Gnosticism, Jewish Kabbala, alchemy and a whole lot of occult practices. The Rosicrucians soon realized that the Bavarian Illuminati’s idea of recruiting among the Freemasons was quite a smart move and, apparently, they followed the example so the two groups became rivals. The Rosicrucian Order declared the Illuminati as a masonic sect trying to undermine Christianity by being the worst thing you can possibly be – atheists with revolutionary tendencies.

However, the Illuminati weren’t restricted to Europe. In the 16th century, the mountains of Afghanistan were the home of Roshaniya, another organization of enlightened people, founded in 1560 by Bayazid Ansari. Initially, the organization was religious in character with followers worshipping the ‘Supreme Being’ which could bring them enlightenment. However, the ideology of the group changed from religious to political and military.

Members were trained in the art of combat and began hunting down those who didn’t agree with their beliefs and belonged to their order – a tale as old as time apparently. The group even managed to defeat the Mongolian army at Chora despite being few in number without the best equipment. Of course, all this managed to do was make the Mongols aware of the order and they were soon crushed.

Clearly, the idea of being enlightened wasn’t exactly new by the time the Bavarian Illuminati was founded, but it was the Bavarian Illuminati that ignited the imagination finally giving us such gems as Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code and the National Treasure franchise. So just who was the Bavarian Illuminati?

To the Heart of Bavaria

It is the year 1776. On May 1st, in a dark forest outside the city of Ingolstadt, five men are huddled together, quietly talking amongst themselves. I’d like to imagine them wearing long, sweeping cloaks with elaborate masks, holding candles and chanting mysterious oaths in Latin. This was, after all, the night the Order of Perfectibilists was born. That doesn’t really roll of the tongue though so, thankfully, it was soon changed to a name we’re more familiar with – The Order of the Illuminati.

This isn’t a history channel, but a little context is necessary. Bavaria, like most of Europe at this time, was controlled by the Catholic Church who were happily enforcing traditional creationist values on the citizenry, whether they were into it or not. However, the Church was facing a bit of competition for this is also the time of the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, with scientists spending their time studying the natural world and engaging in rational thought rather than contemplating their sinful existence and repenting their heretical ideas. Figures like Rousseau and Voltaire advocated for the principles of reason, science and individual rights, challenging the established religious and political systems of the day.

In the midst of this battle between the Church and science, we find the main protagonist of our tale. A Professor of Law at the University of Ingolstadt, at the time controlled by the Jesuits, Adam Weishaupt was the only non-clerical member on staff. Fascinated by the work of the enlightenment thinkers and philosophers and frustrated by the church’s narrow-mindedness, Weishaupt finally decided to take action.

He tried joining the Freemasons, but either he wasn’t accepted into their ranks due to a lack of sufficient funds or was accepted but found them lacking; the sources don’t quite agree on this. However, whether he was a mason or not, he admired their discipline and secrecy and decided that there was only one possible way forward. It was time for him to establish his own secret society.

Weishaupt’s secret society is at the root of Illuminati conspiracy theories today, and it’s not difficult to see why. Weishaupt wanted to promote the pursuit of knowledge, rational thought and enlightenment in general. He had very progressive views regarding equality within education, democracy as opposed to monarchy, and limiting the power and influence of the church on institutions of learning and government, among other ideals.

It was revolutionary thinking and threatened the status quo. The exact goals of his society aren’t entirely clear. Some believe the society was simply meant to be a safe haven for enlightened men to share their thoughts and ideas, critique the government and debate philosophy and politics without censure or fear of persecution.

However, others believe that Weishaupt was playing the long game and had a far more ambitious goal in mind – infiltrating the government and clergy in order to bring about change from the inside, disrupting the order of things and eventually abolishing the monarchy and possibly even the church, putting more rational men in charge to lead Bavaria and, eventually, the world.

Weishaupt was enamored with all things Greek and Roman and chose the Owl of Minerva, or Athena, goddess of Wisdom, as the symbol for his new fledgling order. The society started out small, and Weishaupt was very particular about who was allowed to join. Initially, he only recruited amongst his students firmly believing that anyone over the age of 30 was just too set in their ways.

However, that changed when a German Diplomat Baron Adolf Franz Friedrich, Freiherr von Knigge, an impressive man with an equally impressive name, joined the society. Knigge took his recruitment drive to the Freemasons, infiltrating Freemason lodges and actively recruiting Freemasons to join the Illuminati. Many Freemasons were happy to join, finding this new society to be more radical in its goals and just all-round more exciting.

From there, the society grew rapidly, reaching a membership of around 2000 members throughout Bavaria, Hungary, France, Italy and even Poland – that’s a pretty big club considering that internet and social media wasn’t a thing yet.

Joining the Illuminati was a bit of a process – you couldn’t just show up at the club and learn the secret handshake. You needed the full consent of the other members, which I suppose must’ve been a challenge with 2000 members. You needed to possess a fair bit of wealth, because no-one wants to be part of a secret society that has to go to the drive-thru for year-end parties, and you needed a good reputation within a suitable family.

After all, the society needed some political clout and influence. Of course, women and Jews weren’t allowed to join; the Illuminati were progressive, but there are limits. As with all decent secret societies, there was a hierarchy.

You started off as a ‘novice’, and since Weishaupt was a professor, it should come as no surprise that in order to progress up the ranks, novices had to work through an extensive reading list on classical political philosophy. Once you managed to get through all of that, you would eventually graduate to a ‘minerval’ until you finally became an ‘illuminated minerval’. Under Knigge’s influence, the system became a little more complicated leading to 13 degrees of initiation before enlightenment could be reached.

Keeping your identity secret was important, so the Illuminati used pseudonyms. Weisthaupt himself went by the name Spartacus, the gladiator who led a rebellion of slaves and terrorized Rome for around three years; a fitting name considering his goals of obliterating the monarchy and the church. Members were encouraged to spy and inform on one another which was a great way to get rid of rogue elements quickly, but didn’t really do much to foster trust which would play a big part in the society’s eventual demise.

The Illuminati succeeded in attracting wealthy and powerful members – quite a few carried titles like duke and count, with some impressive names, like Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Count Metternich of Koblenz. I have no idea who any of these people were, but it sounds very impressive.

Of course, the more members you have, the harder it becomes to keep your society a secret, so it didn’t take too long for the Illuminati to become known to the government. A mere decade after its creation, the society was infiltrated by Bavarian authorities after some of the society’s more radical anti-state writings came to light. The ruler of Bavaria, Carl Theodore, didn’t like secret societies and he had a particular dislike for the Illuminati.

In 1784, he passed a law banning the creation of any secret society not authorized by law, which basically meant he banned all secret societies, including the Freemasons. In 1785, the Illuminati were declared a branch of the Freemasons. Not sure how the Freemasons felt about that but since they were illegal anyway, I doubt they had much of a foot to stand on.

Theodore really had it in for the Illuminati though because on top of declaring them a part of the Freemasons, he specifically passed a law banning the Illuminati. You know you’re upsetting the right people if you have laws made for you specifically. By 1787, just being a suspected member of the Illuminati could get you arrested and, if found guilty, the death penalty was now on the table.

A lot of arrests followed and a whole lot of compromising documents on topics like atheism, suicide and abortion, a detailed plan for creating an order for women, and instructions on creating invisible ink were recovered and even published to show the peasants how dangerous this society was. Personally, I’m thinking they should’ve used that invisible ink. Interestingly though, it seems that no-one actually served any jail time nor were anyone executed, not even Weishaupt who was known to be the founder of the order, so I have to wonder if, just perhaps, the Illuminati had a little more influence than historians give them credit for.

Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and eventually fled to the German city of Gotha, around 300 km to the north, where he finally died in exile in 1830. Between Theodore’s persecution and internal conflict and general mistrust within the order, it’s generally believed that the Bavarian Illuminati finally disbanded for good around 1787; however, many believe the society simply went deep underground.

Of course, at the end of the day, no amount of military might can destroy ideas and before the society was disbanded, all who belonged to it had been exposed to the philosophies and ideas of the enlightenment. The society was destroyed, but their ideas and, perhaps, their goals would live on. There are rumours doing the rounds that the Bavarian Illuminati still meets somewhere in Ingolstadt, the place where it all started, and members come from all over Europe to attend these meetings. Where exactly in Ingolstadt they meet remains a mystery though.

The Illuminati World Tour

The Bavarian Illuminati may have started in Germany, but an idea that grand can’t be confined to a single space, and it spread quickly throughout Europe and beyond. According to those in the know, signs of the Illuminati can be found everywhere if you know what you’re looking for.

The Illuminati in America

The story of the Illuminati in America actually begins in 1492, well before there even was a United States of America. To those who’ve been paying attention, this is the first time an organization named Illuminati appeared in Spain, the Alumbrados. For those who know their history, 1492 was also the year Christopher Columbus finally discovered the New World. Admittedly, he thought he was in India, but we’ve all gotten lost at least once.

Then, in 1776, Weishaupt founded his Bavarian Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Germany. However, 1776 also saw the birth of a new Nation – the United States of America. Even I have to admit that this is quite the coincidence but, of course, many believe that this was no coincidence, and while I hate to admit it, they might be on to something.

Back in Bavaria, before Weishaupt fled Ingolstadt for Gotha when his Illuminati was first declared illegal and then actively prosecuted, he actually managed to make contact with some leading figures in the fledgling United States. He wrote three letters to Benjamin Franklin, asking for permission to set up a colony in Elysium, the Illuminati’s codename for the United States. Unfortunately, the Illuminati records that remain, and we actually have quite a lot as Weishaupt was a prolific writer, have no record that Franklin, or anyone else for that matter, ever replied.

There are a few possibilities of course. Perhaps the letters never arrived in the US or the replies never made it back to Germany if Franklin ever sent a reply. It’s also possible that the letters between Franklin and Weisthaupt had been lost over the last 300 years or intentionally destroyed by Weisthaupt who wanted to keep the whole thing under wraps.

Weisthaupt might’ve decided to remain in Germany to orchestrate his underground movement from there, but is it possible that some members of the Illuminati escaped persecution in Europe and made their way to the New World?

According to conspiracy theorists, not only did some members escape to the US, but they also played an important part is setting up this brand new nation and the proof of their influence can be seen everywhere. As we know, secret societies use secret symbols to communicate with each other or just show their presence, much like vandals use graffiti to tag their turf, and the Illuminati was tagging everything starting with the Great Seal of the United States. It was first used in 1782 and appears on all kinds of official documents.

The front of the seal bears the image of the eagle carrying an olive branch and arrows and, above the eagle’s head, there’s a constellation of thirteen stars. The official explanation is that the United States started out with 13 states and each star represents one of the states. However, the Illuminati had 13 levels to progress through to reach full enlightenment, so perhaps the stars have a different meaning.

However, the seal also has a reverse side, which isn’t nearly as recognizable as the eagle, and that’s where things start getting somewhat more interesting. On the reverse side is an image of an incomplete pyramid with an eye hovering above it. We see the same image on the one dollar bill.

Known as the Eye of Providence, or the All-Seeing Eye, the symbol has also been associated with the Freemasons, and many of the founding fathers were definitely Freemasons. Apparently, this eye is supposed to remind us that ‘they’ are everywhere, watching and controlling us. Officially, it’s supposed to symbolize God watching and protecting humanity, but it’s not like the Illuminati puppets are going to tell the truth.

Underneath this unfinished pyramid is an inscription ‘novus ordo seclorum’ which is Latin for ‘New Order of the Ages’. Is this a reference to the Illuminati’s New World Order?

If you think the Great Seal is just covered in Illuminati symbols, take another look at the one dollar bill. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has been in charge of designing US currency since 1862, and it’s interesting that the one dollar bill looks pretty much the same. Along with the stars, the Latin inscription, and the All-Seeing Eye, the one dollar bill has even more symbols linking it to the Illuminati.

The bill boasts the image of a tiny owl which could possibly be the Owl of Minerva, or Athena, that we know was the symbol for the Bavarian Illuminati. We also find a date, 1776, written in Roman numerals. Once again, the official explanation is that 1776 was the year the American Declaration of Independence was written.

It also happened to be the year the Bavarian Illuminati was founded. Conspiracy theorists believe that it was Benjamin Franklin who was the main drive behind all these symbols. He wanted to educate people and what better way to do that than using all these symbols on a small denomination banknote that most people will use often.

Apparently, back then everybody knew what these symbols meant, which doesn’t make the secret society very secret, but I guess it’s been removed from the school curriculum since then. Whether Franklin was part of the Illuminati or not, it’s interesting that Weisthaupt decided to write to Franklin specifically. The Bavarian Illuminati had some powerful members, some outside of Germany, so I suppose one of the founding fathers isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility.

In 1798, George Washington, the first US President, added more fuel to the fire when he wrote a letter where he stated that he firmly believed the threat of the Illuminati had been avoided. However, instead of quelling rumors and confirming the destruction of the order, this actually gave more legitimacy to rumors that the order still existed, and it didn’t take long for books and sermons, condemning the Illuminati, to be published. According to some sources, while openly denouncing the Illuminati, Washington secretly shared some of their ideas, I’m guessing the anti-monarchy sentiment was a strong one, but it seems that while he was definitely a Freemason, there’s no real consensus regarding his status as an Illuminati member.

That changed with Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, and a long list of American presidents had been accused of either being part of the Illuminati themselves or being manipulated by the Illuminati from behind the scenes since then. In 2021, Joe Biden had the conspiracy community on high alert when he was sworn in using what seemed to be an Illuminati Bible. The Bible in question was actually a family heirloom, a Douay-Rheims bible used by Roman Catholics all over the world but, of course, this only proves that the Biden family has been part of this secret order for a very long time.

There are a few presidents who didn’t get the invite to the Illuminati club or they did and they threw it in the trash with some disastrous consequences – just ask John F Kennedy. Kennedy was trying to reform the Federal Reserve and apparently he was also cracking down on secret societies, reducing their power. Obviously, the Illuminati couldn’t let him go ahead with his plans, so he was assassinated in Dallas in 1963 at the behest of the Illuminati Lords and Masters.

If you want to visit the headquarters of the Illuminati, you can! Just go visit Denver International Airport, the not so secret headquarters of the Illuminati and the New World Order. Why they would choose Denver, I have no idea, but Danny did a fantastic video on Denver Airport so go check that out when we’re done here. However, let’s go back to Europe and see what other breadcrumbs the Illuminati left behind for us.

An Egyptian Temple in Paris

Some of the Illuminati members may have settled in America, but the birthplace of the Illuminati is still Europe, be it Spain, Germany or perhaps it all started with the enlightenment thinkers in France. Whereas the American Illuminati went and tagged everything they could find, like a bored New York teenager with a can of spray paint, the Parisian Illuminati went about it in a more tasteful fashion, hiding their symbols in art and architecture. Entire books, both factual and slightly more imaginative, had been written about this topic, so I’m not even going to try and cover all the examples, but there are two that I found particularly interesting.

Dan Brown is probably best known for putting Paris on the Illuminati map for us common folk, but conspiracy theorists have long known about the Illuminati and Freemason influence on the city. In many of these theories, the Illuminati and the Freemasons are considered to be one and the same and the names are often used interchangeably which is a bit confusing, but we’re still talking about the Illuminati. According to the more interesting theories, some of the members of these secret societies had, or still has, a collection of heretical texts and perhaps even alternative gospels and records that would turn Christianity on its head, tucked away under the mattress.

The church of St. Sulpice, founded by Catholic priest Jean-Jacques Olier in the 17th century supposedly houses a whole library of these heretical texts and books. Olier himself was apparently a member of several influential secret societies though you won’t find any of this in the history books.

On his deathbed, the priest made a most sensational claim – he stated that Christianity was based on a vast collection of lies, but sadly it seems that he died before he could elaborate. Of course, you’re not going to find that in the history books either. The church itself contains a painting with a hidden picture of Olier.

In the painting, Olier has his hand over his mouth which is apparently a masonic symbol for trouble and panic. He also has some documents, scrolls and books under one arm which, according to some, is evidence of the heretical texts that once was kept, or perhaps is still hidden, within this particular church. In the 1890s, Canon Alfred Lilley, a mysterious researcher who doesn’t even have a proper Wikipedia page, travelled to St Sulpice to decipher some unknown documents which apparently proved that Jesus was still alive after the crucifixion suggesting he didn’t die for our sins, was resurrected after three days and returned to heaven which is one of the pillars of Christianity.

It would be a bit of a blow for the Church if any of this was true. This story is actually a great example of conspiracies bleeding into each other because apparently these documents studied by Alfred Lilley were the same documents found by Francois-Berenger Sauniere at his church in Rennes-le-Chateau in the mid-1800s which is one of the places where the Knights’ Templar possibly hid the Holy Grail. I suppose it’s possible that the Illuminati, the Freemasons and the Knights Templar are all working together to hide this uncomfortable truth about Christianity, or perhaps they are all branches of the same organization.

However, the Illuminati isn’t just hiding some distasteful paperwork, they actually managed to hide an entire Temple in the heart of Paris. Apparently, the Freemasons and the Illuminati have a thing for ancient Egypt. They view ancient Egypt as a perfect time when everything was built perfectly according to the ideals of some Grand Architect. The Temple of Luxor in Egypt is of particular importance.

It represented the Temple of Man in which God resides. This is the kind of thing that makes Egyptologists weep into their pillows at night. Egypt was a polytheistic society. They didn’t believe in a single God, so I have my doubts regarding this interpretation, but accurate interpretation of archaeological finds and historical research is somewhat rare on this channel so let’s press on.

If you’re thinking that the best place to find an Egyptian Temple in Paris would be a museum, you are correct. Our first clue is the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre. The angles of this pyramid are an exact match for the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

According to conspiracy theorists, 666 panes of glass were used to construct this pyramid. The number 666 is associated with the devil according to the book of Revelations, but unsurprisingly the Illuminati also have a fondness for this particular number. However, good luck with getting museum staff to admit this.

They insist that 672 panes of glass were used in the pyramid’s construction. If you head towards the Place de la Concorde, situated between the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe, you’ll come across an obelisk, dedicated to Ramses II, that was actually brought all the way from the original Temple of Luxor in Egypt to the capital of France. When viewed from above, the layout of the Louvre museum and gardens, stretching from the glass pyramid all the way to the Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde, is very similar to the layout of the original Temple of Luxor in distant Egypt.

Apparently, the Freemasons and the Illuminati had some secret plan to reintroduce ancient Egyptian beliefs and mysteries to a modern day society. Part of this plan was recreating important Egyptian temples in the same way the Freemasons recreate Solomon’s Temple every time they build a new lodge. Building an Egyptian temple was meant to create a sacred space in the heart of Paris.

If you want to take this one step further down the road of madness, according to some conspiracy theories, the alignments of the buildings and other natural features, as well as patterns and symbols inscribed on the walls, all represent the direction of magical energy and even creates a portal into our dimension for either the energies or the gods and spirits, I’m not entirely sure. Regardless, the next time you’re wandering the gardens of the Louvre or admiring the Mona Lisa, just remember that you are in a sacred space and keep an eye out for the magical energies and all those gods and spirits.

Illuminati in the Heart of London

Paris isn’t the only city that’s been influenced by the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Templars. As with Paris, if you know where to look, London is filled with symbols, ancient geometry and occult references, often hidden in plain sight.

In 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed most of the city, and suddenly all the great thinkers, writers, architects and alchemists, who all belonged to secret societies of course, had a clean slate from which to rebuild the city. One of these great thinkers was Sir Christopher Wren, a man with some esoteric notions of his own, who saw an opportunity and he took it. He was put in charge of rebuilding 52 churches after the great fire with his crowning achievement being St.

Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill. All these churches seem to be built along a particular pattern. In fact, when you plot the positions on a map, you get a pentagram with St Paul’s Cathedral near the centre.

Was the positioning intentional to create an ancient symbol of power often used to designate a ritual space for magic ceremonies, or was it coincidence? According to some believers, the Illuminati or the Freemasons or both were attempting to recreate a New Jerusalem in the heart of London with a modern version of Solomon’s Temple, St Paul’s Cathedral, embodying the wisdom of the universe. The first Freemason Grand Lodge in London was established at the Old Goose and Gridiron Public house nearby in 1717, so basically on the porch of Solomon’s Temple in this New Jerusalem.

Of course, churches built to form a pentagram isn’t the only thing linked to the Illuminati. Adjacent to Christ Church in Spitalfields, we find the streets and alleys of Whitechapel which are famous for something far darker – the activities of Jack the Ripper who terrorized London in 1888. We all know the story that Jack the Ripper was a Freemason and he was never caught because he was protected by fellow Freemasons in the police force.

However, according to some theories, old Jack was actually a member of the Illuminati and the killings, and the locations where the horribly mutilated bodies were found, weren’t random. If you look closely, the lacerations on the victims are supposed to form some kind of geometric pattern though I will leave that investigation to the true crime buffs. If you plot the locations where the bodies were found on a map, you get a perfect parallelogram suggesting there was some plan.

Honestly, if you plot a couple of random points on a map, you are bound to find some kind of shape if you try hard enough, so this whole theory seems somewhat contrived to me. However, according to believers, Jack was marking out a sacred space for some black magic rituals to gain power. Of course, not everyone thinks Jack was part of the Illuminati, that’s just crazy, however, he did have a thorough understanding of the principles the Illuminati was working with.

He used these ideas to try and get some power for himself through bloody murder and black magic because that makes so much more sense.

One suspect in the case, Robert Stevenson, was a journalist and student of the occult who wrote a number of articles about the black magic connections to the Jack the Ripper killings. He was arrested and questioned on three separate occasions but the police could never prove that he had anything to do with the murders. He was released every time, but he still remains a pretty strong suspect even today.

Another suspect, according to writer Bruce Robinson who spent 15 years researching the case, was a musician, Michael Maybrick, who also happened to be a Freemason. Member of the Illuminati, Freemason or both – it would certainly explain why Jack was never caught.

The Illuminati Conspiracy – A New World Order

Building a temple in the heart of Paris, slapping your symbols on currency and great seals, and protecting serial killers suggest that we’re dealing with a very powerful, and very dangerous, organization. However, what exactly is the Illuminati planning on doing with all this power?

The Illuminati has been busy – they played a role in the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, they were behind the assassination of JFK and the death of Princess Diana, and even had a hand in the September 11 terror attacks in 2001. The financial crisis of 2008 is also blamed on them. In very simple terms, the Illuminati is a shadowy organization made up of the global elite who’s either trying to take control of the world or is already in control of the world depending on who you ask.

As with many other conspiracy theories, the Freemasons and the Illuminati are basically synonymous – anyone who’s a Freemason is, by default, part of the Illuminati as well. Apparently, you allow another society to infiltrate yours, 300 years ago, and you’ll never hear the end of it. We feel you Freemasons.

The goal of this secret order is to create a global government, a one-world religion, and centralize control of the world economy. Various global organizations, like the United Nations and the World Bank are all part of this secret society. The Illuminati, it’s believed, are infiltrating, or they’ve already infiltrated, every level of government, banks, media and corporate organizations all over the world.

They carefully fabricate inflations, recessions and depressions by manipulating the world markets while supporting political leaders who share their views and goals and undermining leaders they consider a threat, like John F. Kennedy. Basically, every powerful person you can think of, and a few you’ve never heard of before, are all members of the Illuminati, and these people control the flow of information, finances and the government.

According to newspaper articles, TV shows and documentaries, the Illuminati is simply a conspiracy theory, a myth. The Bavarian llluminati were disbanded 300 years ago and is long gone. Of course, most news outlets are under the control of the Murdoch family and they’ve been Illuminati members for decades, so we can’t trust them.

However, I think we can all agree that Social Media has become as much a tool for distributing the news as Fox and CNN. In many cases, Social Media is where a lot of people get their news and information from which probably explains why the world is in the state it’s in, but that’s a story for another channel. Unfortunately, Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Meta which powers both Facebook and Instagram, as well as Elon Musk, the man who bought Twitter, are both members of the Illuminati, so odds are that there are a lot of Illuminati stories that’s being lost in transmission thanks to the influence of these Illuminati puppeteers.

Of course, this particular argument doesn’t really make much sense if you think about it – all the information I dug up suggesting the Illuminati exists, I got from Social Media and documentaries, so it seems like Zuckerberg, Musk and the Murdochs are losing their touch. I can’t imagine the Illuminati being too happy about that.

Controlling the flow of information these days may be a lot harder than it used to be, but the true power has always been the money, and the Freemasons has a firm grip on the business world. There are millions of Freemasons sitting on the boards of banks and major companies around the world, working together and helping each other succeed. JC Penney and Henry Ford were both members of the Freemasons and there are even rumors that Walt Disney, the founder of the House of Mouse, was a member; there are all kinds of hints and symbols in the movies and even the layout of the theme parks that hint at a Freemason connection.

Jeff Bezos, another suspected Illuminati member, and Amazon, have taken over retail in many countries, not South Africa that much since our postal service is notoriously unreliable, so I guess we’re safe from the Illuminati influence. We only got Amazon in 2024. Of course, I would invite the Illuminati in for a cup of tea if it meant the postal service got back on its feet, but not even Moist von Lipwig can save the South African Post Office.

Another name that shows up a lot in Illuminati literature is George Soros, a Hungarian-American billionaire who made his money as a hedge fund manager and who has a huge influence on global money markets. He has a bit of an ominous legacy being known as ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’ after he shorted the British pound during the financial crisis of 1992 which later become known as Black Wednesday.

Many of these wealthy and powerful people openly support charity organizations and noble causes, including human rights, democracy, social justice and education. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, is very active in Africa, providing healthcare to thousands who simply can’t afford it otherwise. Of course, this is just a cover.

What they’re actually doing is implanting microchips into people under the guise of vaccinations to monitor and control the global population. How exactly the Illuminati is going to take over the world by monitoring the movements of people in rural Africa, who mostly can’t even afford food, is a bit of a mystery to me. However, according to conspiracy theorists, the people doing all this charity work are the same people orchestrating protest groups and social movements that destabilize communities and governments, presumably governments unwilling to bend to the will of the Illuminati, forcing open borders and undermining national sovereignty in order to create this New World Order run by a single global government.

Of course, unlike pop stars, billionaires aren’t necessarily recognized on the street by your average common peasant who doesn’t keep up with that sort of thing, making people like Soros the ultimate power behind the throne. It seems that the Freemasons and the Illuminati consist of some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet giving them access to a vast fortune to better build, or run, their New World Order.

Of course, if the Illuminati already succeeded, or they’re doing as well as everyone claims, why do we still have a Pope and the Catholic Church? For that matter, it their goal is to promote rational thought and create a ‘religion of reason’ and basically get rid of organized religion, why do we have so many different religions?

When it comes to the Catholic Church, there are two opposing theories. The first theory claims that the Illuminati already infiltrated the Catholic Church a long time ago and have been working steadily to destabilize and destroy the Church from within. The sexual abuse scandals plaguing the Church, making the headlines far too often, is actually the work of the Illuminati.

A second school of thought is of the opinion that the Illuminati infiltrated the church in 1958, to be exact, and the Illuminati now controls the Vatican, and the Pope himself is a member. However, others feel that while the Illuminati are certainly controlling the church, the power actually lies in the hands of the Jesuits and the Black Pope. The Jesuit Superior General, the leader of the Jesuit order, is often claimed to be the one who controls the Pope and, through the Pope, the Vatican.

The original founder of the Bavarian Illuminati did have a Jesuit upbringing and taught at a Jesuit-controlled university which, according to some conspiracy theorists, is all the proof you need that the original power behind the Bavarian Illuminati were the Jesuits. The fact that Weishaupt founded his order to oppose the Jesuits in particular, and even started using some of their own techniques against them, is apparently irrelevant. The Jesuits are sneaky though – they have infiltrated religions and religious societies across the world in order to either destroy them or bring them under the control of the Illuminati.

The proof you ask – well, the All-Seeing Eye of course.

The Eye of Providence is often associated with the Freemasons, but is has also been used by the Jesuits. In fact, the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, has been linked to the original Illuminati, the Alumbrados, in Spain. As an eager young preacher, he wound up in front of the Spanish Inquisition for preaching without a theology degree after three women, who were part of the Alumbrados order, acted suspiciously, getting a bit too excited about his preaching - must have been one heck of a sermon.

According to the history books, he had nothing to do with the Alumbrados, but conspiracy theorists disagree. The founder of the Jesuits, according to them, was a prominent member of the very first organization calling themselves the Illuminati.

As for the Eye of Providence, while it’s often associated with Christianity, the symbol itself is much older than Christianity, initially starting out as an Egyptian symbol, the Eye of Horus, according to some scholars. It shows up in most world religions and belief systems and can be found in Hindu Temples, Islamic texts, Jewish synagogues, Christian churches, the Vatican and even the Mormon Salt Lake Temple in Utah. There’s a particularly nice example on a Cape Dutch style house in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The only logical conclusion we can draw from this is that the Illuminati, controlled by the Jesuits, realized the power of religion when it comes to controlling the masses so, instead of destroying religion, the Illuminati simply branched out and took over all major forms of organized religion to use as a tool to bend the peasants to their will.

Of course, sermons, prayers and holy books aren’t the only ways people worship. If you really want to control people, the biggest tool at your disposal is entertainment. More people worship at the altar of pop stars than ever before in history, and if the stars are doing something or saying something is ok, millions of fans will follow without question. It should come as no surprise then that the Illuminati has most, if not all, of the world’s biggest stars in their pocket.

If you know what to look for, you don’t even need to look that hard to find evidence of the Illuminati. Jay-Z loves making a triangle sign with his hands. He claims the triangle represents his record label and symbolizes rising to the top and achieving success, but we all know that the all-seeing eye is supported by a pyramid.

Lady Gaga’s go-to move is covering her one eye, obviously referring to the one all-seeing eye. Apparently she also loves the number 6 and we all know that 666, the pentagram and the devil’s horns, which we see so often from performers all over the world, are all associated with the Illuminati. A Rhianna video features some subliminal messages while Katy Perry used ancient Egyptian symbols in one of her videos.

In 2015, a song titled ‘Illuminati’, by Madonna, leaked online. At first she claimed that she knew who the Illuminati were but she quickly backtracked on that and denied involvement which is not surprising since we all know the Illuminati killed Michael Jackson for not being willing to get with the program. Beyoncé, Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Bono, Nicki Minaj, and Eminem have all been accused of working for the Illuminati in exchange for their wealth and fame.

I suppose people have sold their souls for less. They all deny this of course, but it’s not like a member of the Illuminati is going to fess up in public is it? Of course, occasionally celebrities run afoul of the Illuminati or become sacrifices, like Heath Ledger and Whitney Houston.

Kurt Cobain refused to be used as a tool for mind control, so he had to go. And it’s not just music – movies, television shows, top-selling books, and even PC games, like the Deus ex series, are tagged with Illuminati symbols. They’re simply everywhere.

However, why would a secret society slap their symbols on everything if they’re trying to remain a secret? I’m glad you asked. Apparently, Illuminati symbols in movies, books and television shows, especially movies like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are used for mind control – we are being programmed by Alice, Dorothy and Toto. The symbols also act as a trigger to activate those already under Illuminati control, so the wrong Disney movie can turn you into a homicidal assassin. I can totally see that happening. The Catcher in the Rye is a great example as it supposedly triggered Mark David Chapman to kill John Lennon. The Illuminati is clever – they know that symbols in our favorite movies will make us curious and lure unsuspecting, innocent viewers into the occult. At the same time, the Illuminati can taunt those who are aware of them, making them seem crazy so that no-one will take their stories seriously. Clearly, the Illuminati are very devious. Musicians and celebrities throwing Illuminati symbols around are either communicating that they wish to join the society, or they’re pledging their allegiance to the society.

Since the people who control the information, money, entertainment and pretty much every aspect of our daily lives all belong to the same club, it makes it very easy for them to cover their tracks and very hard for the rest of us to find any solid proof. They are brainwashing the masses, fabricating and manipulating the world into one crisis after the other to guide the peasants toward the decision to elect a single world government. They will be in charge of this government and it will be called the New World Order.

Of course, if they’ve been working on this since the 1770s, they’re taking their sweet time. I would’ve expected to see a little more progress by now.

Aliens and Satanists or Satanic Aliens?

Like any proper secret society, the Illuminati have a whole lot of esoteric beliefs. No secret society worth their salt would forgo those. However, when you start looking at the stories of whistleblowers, who were all members of the Illuminati before finding Jesus and turning their backs on their Illuminati masters, a very dark picture emerges.

According to many of these whistleblowers, some who have clearly never read ‘Conspiracy Theories for Dummies’, the Lord and Master of the Illuminati order is either Lucifer or the Devil. You see, in some instances, they are one and the same; however, according to some more imaginative folk, we are dealing with two separate entities. Some of these first-hand accounts get really dark and disturbing; not for the faint of heart.

Many of these survivors claim they were subjected to occult and Satanic rituals, and they were tortured to induce multiple personalities which were then programmed to do the bidding of their lords and masters. Graphic stories of the physical and sexual abuse of children, child sacrifice, and drinking blood are pretty common.

Most of these born again Christians come from Illuminati families. Apparently, there are 13 bloodlines, mostly European, and these 13 bloodlines are the ones in charge of the Illuminati. New members are mostly recruited from among these 13 families since they already have supernatural powers, like levitation and mind reading, and have been indoctrinated from a very young age. If you have the right occult credentials, whatever the hell that means, you can join, but it’s a lot harder if you’re not somehow related to one of these original Illuminati families.

Being Satanists, it should come as no surprise that the Illuminati are trying very hard to get demons into your home. There are a few ways they go about doing this. Music labels attach a demon to each album they record and sell, so you can bring the demon home with you.

If you have multiple albums in your house, you’ve got a whole set of demons as well. JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, both Illuminati authors, we didn’t cover that at varsity, did the same with their books, so I am completely screwed. Dungeons and Dragons, the roleplaying game, is another vehicle for demons to get access to your home and program you to a life of servitude working towards the Illuminati ideal.

I’m doubly screwed. Oddly, Phillip Pullman doesn’t make an appearance despite all the demons supposedly in his books – according to one story I heard, you can use some of the rituals in his books to summon actual demons. I really need to read these books.

A few names also keep popping up in these tales, probably because they all read the same internet sites and books, but perhaps it’s because there’s a global conspiracy and these brave souls are the only ones telling the truth. Joseph Mengele shows up a lot; after the fall of Nazi Germany, he got a new gig when he joined the Illuminati and became the man in charge of mind control and programming. Another recurring character is Charles Manson who was sent to prison voluntarily to prepare for war.

The Illuminati were planning on killing all the Christians in one fell swoop with Manson leading the charge. We’re still waiting for that to happen. The Rothschild family in Europe and the Rockerfeller family in the USA both also show up quite a lot as the two families with a whole lot of Illuminati connections.

According to some theories, they are actually the rulers of the Illuminati, the Final Boss, the ones the council of 13 report to.

Considering the Illuminati’s interest in the occult, witches, magic, druids and the like, it’s no surprise that they have a special school, the Outer Court, where Illuminati children are sent to learn about witchcraft. Considering that llluminati parents fail miserably at parenting, this is probably for the best. According to our brave truth-tellers, children as young as three and four are told about the great plan and initiated into the order.

By the age of thirteen, Queen Witches control thousands of witches and their word is law. I can’t remember anything from when I was three years old and placing teenagers in charge of thousands of witches and followers seem downright irresponsible in my humble opinion.

Many of these whistleblowers also claim to have a price on their heads. The Illuminati assassins have tried to get rid of them many times, but luckily Jesus protects them. Considering that some of these stories have been around since the late 1970s, and the brave whistleblowers who decided to tell their story to the masses are still alive, the Illuminati must be the most ineffective assassins in the history of assassination. If they are as incompetent in other areas, it’s now wonder they’ve been working on a New World Order since the 1700s.

There are a whole bunch of crazy stories related to the Illuminati – they have dragons, they control demons coming through to our dimension though where exactly they come from is unclear, they are aliens or they work with aliens trying to take over our planet. The aliens are either from outer space or from inside the earth. The Illuminati holds the key to Atlantis. Either it still exists or it did exist at one time or another, I’m not entirely sure.

There’s a whole lot of shape-shifting going on and one person even claimed that her alter, one of the alternate personalities that was induced through torture, would occasionally fly a space craft to the moon to meet with grey aliens who are very disappointed that humans are taking credit for the station on the moon after the greys put some much effort into building it. We have a moon station? How did I miss that?

Of course, one of my personal favorites is the cloning stations. The Illuminati also clone people, in fact, Queen Elizabeth wasn’t just a shape-shifting alien Illuminati member, she personally ran one of these cloning stations, where your favourite stars are cloned, and then killed, because clones are easier to control. The Queen was one busy lady. Another theory claims that clones are made of rich and powerful people in case the original ever needed a new liver or something – if that sound familiar, it’s the plot of the movie The Island which was produced by the Illuminati. Sharing your secret plot with the whole world is a typical mistake of movie villains; I wouldn’t have expected the Illuminati to make such a rookie mistake. Of course, they clone regular people too though why they would do that is anyone’s guess.

The Illuminati are aliens, witches, lizards or a combination of all of the above. They seem to have a particular fondness for the ritual sacrifice thing, so the death toll in America due to ritual killing must be staggering. Don’t act surprised, it was only a matter of time before we got back to shape-shifting aliens. If there’s one thing we’ve learned on this channel it’s that shape-shifting aliens are behind pretty much everything.

Why is the Illuminati Conspiracy so Popular?

It seems odd that an organization that disbanded 300 years ago would be the source of conspiracy theories today. However, other than the name and an apparent dislike for the close-minded monarchy and church controlling society, the Bavarian Illuminati and the Illuminati of today seem to have very little in common. That might be because the Illuminati we know today wasn’t actually influenced that much by the original Bavarian society created in the late 1700s, but rather by a movement that poked its head out in the 1960s, according to author David Bramwell.

In 1963, amidst all the loving and rebellion occurring during the Summer of Love and the hippie movement, a small text appeared: Principia Discordia. The book was a parody text for a parody faith, Discordianism, which worshipped Eris, the goddess of chaos. I can just imagine the weed-fuelled haze that gave some enthusiastic anarchists this bright idea. The goal of this movement was to cause civil disobedience through practical jokes and hoaxes. It’s doubtful that it was ever meant to be taken seriously, but quite a few sources seem to think that this was a dead-serious movement or religion.

One writer, Robert Anton Wilson, was intrigued by one of the tenets of this parody faith which was that miscreant activities, like hoaxes, could bring about social change and force people to question their reality and what they read in the media. Wilson, along with one of the authors of the Principia Discordia, Kerry Thornley, decided that the world was simply becoming too authoritarian, too closed and too controlled. They wanted to introduce a little bit of chaos again by spreading disinformation through all possible portals – counter culture, mainstream media, whatever they could manage. And their topic of choice you ask: the Illuminati. Wilson worked for Playboy magazine at the time and the two started sending fake letters to the magazine talking about a secret, elite organization called the Illuminati. Shortly after this, they would send in more letters completely contradicting the first letters. The idea behind this flurry of fake letters was actually pretty solid. They believed that if you give enough contrary points of view on a story, people following the story would pause and start questioning whether they can believe everything sold to them by the media. In an ideal world, people would start thinking for themselves instead of just accepting whatever they’re told - a noble idea that completely backfired.

Eventually, Wilson and another writer ended up writing The Illuminatus! Trilogy which attributed some of the biggest cover-ups at the time, like the JFK assassination, to the Illuminati. These books gave rise to a whole new genre of conspiracy fiction with Dan Brown probably being the biggest name. The books were such a hit that it was turned into a stage play first performed in Liverpool. A British electronic band called themselves The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, named after the band of Discordians that infiltrate the Illuminati in Wilson’s book, and then, in 1975, an Illuminati card game appeared based on the world of secret societies. What started out as a hoax to get people to think for themselves, and realize the whole thing is fake, became a full-blown conspiracy that’s still going strong almost 60 years later. The Internet has done more to propagate Illuminati conspiracy theories than the original creators could ever have imagined.

Are the Illuminati Real?

The Illuminati was definitely a real organization, and as we’ve seen, according to conspiracy theorists anyway, they are still going strong, working behind the scenes to take over the world. Historians, on the other hand, believe that the Bavarian Illuminati never gained much influence, and after they were disbanded, the order died never to be heard from again. However, clearly the concept was around long before the Bavarian Illuminati was even founded, and continued long after they vanished, with a revived Order of the Illuminati founded in 1880 by German writer and occultist Leopold Engel in Dresden, Germany.

While it used the same name, it didn’t actually have anything to do with the Bavarian Illuminati – it was another mystic order and by 1903, it had died a quiet death. I never knew there were so many Christian mystics. 1872 saw the formation of the Bohemian Club whose emblem is an owl and, according to some, the owl is very similar to the Owl of Minerva, used by the Bavarian Illuminati, giving rise to rumors that the Illuminati simply continued 100 years later under a new name.

Then, in the 1950s, the Bilderberg group was formed, comprising of heads of state, senior members of the military as well as leaders in business and commerce. Officially, the idea was to create a joint venture between Europe and America to exchange information and advance co-operation between the various nations. The group meets in secret, never publishing the minutes of their meetings, which has led many to suspect that they are just a front for the Illuminati.

Conspiracy theorists claim their meetings are actually all about running the world and dictating business and politics to ensure the power remains within the hands of the global elite, the Illuminati and other secret societies associated with the New World Order. Illuminati or not, this conspiracy theory does have some substance. The Bilderberg group consists of the richest and most powerful men in the world, and yes, it’s mostly men.

They claim to come together to discuss the world’s problems, but I doubt these people are going to do much to radically change the system that put them in charge and they are benefitting from.

With the idea of the Illuminati starting as early as 1492, and secretive groups like the Bilderberg group still going strong, it certainly seems somewhat plausible that there is a group that’s been working towards a specific goal for hundreds of years. Some believe that the Illuminati and the Freemasons are just the visible tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface is something much older and deeper, a secret group of guardians or guides, going back millennia, carefully manipulating events to set the world on a specific path.

Of course, it’s also possible that these secret societies have a completely different agenda. Instead of shadowy organizations bent on world domination, these societies allow those belonging to them to have a little fun and pay homage to ancient traditions, many of them long lost. They’re quite possibly completely harmless, simply trying to keep pre-church and pre-religious beliefs and traditions alive.

Who knows, perhaps you can find God in sacred geometry and other spiritual elements after all. This really doesn’t make for a good conspiracy theory though, so I can see why this explanation never gained much traction.

Despite all the supposed evidence, there’s no actual proof that the Illuminati are real and that they are working to take over the world. Weishaupt apparently believed that changing the world would be a long term plan that could take up to 200 years, but we’re well past the 200 year mark and we still don’t have a single world government, world currency or one world religion. In fact, while people have been suspicious of the Illuminati since the Bavarian Illuminati disbanded in the 1700s, the image we have of the Illuminati today only really started in the 1960s. It seems to me that if the Illuminati are real, they aren’t very good at keeping a secret nor are they very efficient at taking over the world, so I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

Conclusion

The Illuminati is everybody’s favorite bogeyman, but, like most conspiracies, it mainly targets those with wealth and influence. These people seem to be living in a realm unimaginable to us poor sods who consider pizza night a treat, so it’s no wonder that people think they are part of some secret society that helped them along the path to power and greatness. However, you don’t need to be rich, famous and powerful to join the Illuminati.

Simply Google “Illuminati” and you’ll find a long list of organizations claiming to be the Illuminati or descended from the original Illuminati. All you need to do is fill in a form, providing enough information for easy identity theft, pay a small fee and you are enlightened.

The image we have of the Illuminati today is so far removed from the ideals of the original Bavarian Illuminati that Weisthaupt is probably spinning in his grave like a cat in a tumble dryer. I believe Weisthaupt genuinely wanted to make the world a better place for everyone, not just the elite few, and he would be horrified to see what his creation had become. Some critics have suggested that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written with the Illuminati in mind and that analogy isn’t too far off the mark. What was supposed to be a vehicle of common sense and reason had become a monster bent on world domination with the power in the hands of a select few, a new version of the monarchy, the very thing Weisthaupt sought to dismantle.

However, I think Weishaupt’s ghost can rest easy. While there certainly are conspiracies afoot, and there definitely are groups of powerful people manipulating events in their favor, at the expense of the common peasant, the Illuminati, especially the Satanic alien version of the Illuminati, is probably not real. Of course, if they are real, you know too much now so it would be a wise idea to change your name, number, and perhaps move to a different country, just in case.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the word ‘Illuminati’ mean?

The word ‘illuminati’ is plural for the Latin word ‘illuminatus’ meaning ‘one who is enlightened’.

When and where was the Bavarian Illuminati founded?

The Bavarian Illuminati was founded on May 1st, 1776, in a dark forest outside the city of Ingolstadt.

Who founded the Bavarian Illuminati and what was his goal?

Adam Weishaupt, a Professor of Law at the University of Ingolstadt, founded the Bavarian Illuminati. He wanted to promote the pursuit of knowledge, rational thought, and enlightenment in general, with progressive views regarding equality within education, democracy, and limiting the power and influence of the church.

What was the symbol of the Bavarian Illuminati?

The symbol of the Bavarian Illuminati was the Owl of Minerva, or Athena, goddess of Wisdom.

How did the Bavarian Illuminati grow in membership?

The society grew rapidly after Baron Adolf Franz Friedrich, Freiherr von Knigge, joined and recruited Freemasons, reaching a membership of around 2000 members throughout Bavaria, Hungary, France, Italy, and even Poland.

What led to the downfall of the Bavarian Illuminati?

The Bavarian Illuminati was infiltrated by Bavarian authorities after some of the society’s more radical anti-state writings came to light. The ruler of Bavaria, Carl Theodore, passed laws banning secret societies, leading to arrests and the eventual disbanding of the Illuminati around 1787.

What is the Great Seal of the United States and how is it connected to the Illuminati?

The Great Seal of the United States, first used in 1782, features symbols like the Eye of Providence and the incomplete pyramid, which conspiracy theorists link to the Illuminati. The Eye of Providence is associated with the Freemasons, and many founding fathers were Freemasons.

What is the significance of the one dollar bill in relation to the Illuminati?

The one dollar bill features symbols like the Eye of Providence, the incomplete pyramid, and the date 1776 in Roman numerals, which conspiracy theorists link to the Illuminati. The owl on the bill is also associated with the Bavarian Illuminati’s symbol, the Owl of Minerva.

What is the New World Order according to Illuminati conspiracy theories?

The New World Order is believed to be a global government controlled by the Illuminati, aiming to centralize control of the world economy and establish a one-world religion. Various global organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank are seen as part of this secret society.

What are some of the esoteric beliefs associated with the Illuminati?

The Illuminati is associated with beliefs in Satanism, occult rituals, and the manipulation of demons. Some theories suggest that the Illuminati are aliens or work with aliens to take over the planet, and that they control demons coming through to our dimension.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: The Illuminati.
• Hero image source by DarkMoMo / openverse, by-sa.