Adam Weishaupt and the Illuminati

What's a German Canon Professor Doing Masterminding the World?

Adam Weishaupt was baptized, born, and raised a Roman Catholic.  He became a professor of canon law at a university in Bavaria, a state in southeastern Germany.  His lectures were always suspect by the orthodox clergymen.  However, in his own private life, he went a little further than that.

Prof. Weishaupt was not only an educator, but also was leader of the chairman of the fear-inspiring organization known as the Illuminati, Anti-Jesuit (typical) in nature and claiming specific enlightenment that gave them exculsive access to the illumination of Jesus.

Often exaggerated, at first the membership comprised of 5 members.  Weishaupt sent out secret publications to the members under the alias of "Spartacus", the Roman gladiator.  He believed that he and his groupies could undermine all the religious and state governments and rule the world, thus installing a utopian regime on all earth.

The society soon increased beyond its origin 5 members to, at one time, about 2,500.  Weishaupt decided that the organization should infiltrate their brother in fraternities (no put intended), the Freemasons.  After all, they claimed common values of tolerance and understanding between people of different religious views.

The Freemasons, however, had no intention of becoming world dominantors, and resented their association with the Illuminati.  Most Freemasons Lodges were just gentlemens' clubs throughout Europe and the colonies with memberships comprised of reknown intellectuals and political and military leaders with an excuse get together and go to the local Irish pub.  There probably weren't any conspiracies behind it - that's just Dan Brown's vivid imagination and the influence of historical spoof movies like National Treasure and Tomb Raider (those are fun movies, but not exactly plausible).

In all honesty, the Illuminati were most likely just a bunch of whack-outed conspirators.  The result is the persecution of the innocent Freemasons, the majority of whom resented their connections with the Illuminati anyway.

The Illuminati society was done away with in 1785, but there's still a Rosicrucian group in California that is sometimes referred to by the name Illuminati.

Below is the picture of the All-Seeing Eye/Eye of Divine Providence on the back of the U.S. dollar bill.  This symbol has inspired  a great amount of speculation among theorists, with outlandish concepts such as masons secretly controlling the U.S. government.  In reality, the unfinished pyramid probably represents the incomplete work of nation-building.  The eye has been a representation of an omniscient God long before Freemasonry (the organization wasn't founded until the early 1700's) and into Italian Renaissance art.

Also, the commonly mentioned Latin phrase "Novus ordo seclorum" has created a lot of rumors.  It is commonly mistranslated into "New World Order", but correctly it means "The New Order of the Ages".

Throughout history, Freemasonry has been considered by many anticlerical or antireligious, however it's never been any such thing.  If anything, it's a religiously tolerant, intellectual and spiritual guild devoted to a get-together at a cafe every other Wednesday, not some demonic and sinister cult as it's usually portrayed.

Tags: Life, Religion, History, Books, Movies, Conspiracies