The History of the Illuminati

This movement was founded on May 1, 1776, in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt (d. 1830),who was the first lay professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt. The movement was made up of freethinkers, as an offshoot of the Enlightenment, which writers at the time like Seth Payson believed was a conspiracy to infiltrate and overthrow the governments of many European states. Some writers, like Augustin Barruel and John Robison, even claimed that the Illuminati were behind the French revolution, a claim that Jean-Joseph Mounier dismissed in his 1801 book On the Influence Attributed to Philosophers, Free-Masons, and to the Illuminati on the Revolution of France.

The group's adherents were given the name "Illuminati", although they called themselves "Perfectibilists". The group has also been called the Illuminati Order and the Bavarian Illuminati, and the movement itself has been referred to as Illuminism (after illuminism). In 1777, Karl Theodor became ruler of Bavaria. He was a proponent of Enlightened Despotism and, in 1784, his government banned all secret societies, including the Illuminati.

During the period when it was legally allowed to operate, many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Xavier von Zwack, who was also the number two man in the operation and was caught with much of the group's documentation when his home was searched.[6] The Illuminati's members pledged obedience to their superiors, and were divided into three main classes, each with several degrees. The order had its branches in most countries of the European continent; it reportedly had around 2,000 members over the span of 10 years.[2] The scheme had its attraction for literary men, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder, and even for the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar. Internal rupture and panic over succession preceded its downfall, which was effected by the Secular Edict made by the Bavarian government in 1785.

From Wikipedia

[edit on 17/7/2009 by Conspiracyintheuk]

Xavier von Zwack, who was also the number two man

"WHO--DOES--NUMBER--2--WORK--FOR!!!!??"

This website has a lot of really interesting info:


Antiquities of the Illuminati: Who Was Adam Weishaupt? An Interesting History of the Illuminati, by Albert Pike





I wasn't aware until relatively recently that all of the following were also members of the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati:

Comte de St. Germain, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

And I believe that Franz Anton Mesmer was a member as well. Franz Joseph Haydn was also a Freemason, although I'm not sure if he was a member of the Bavarian Illuminati too.




I'm surprised that not many people have referenced the following quote by Manly P. Hall:

Manly P. Hall 33°: "Hermetic Marriage"


...(1) The Order of the Illuminati, represented by Mohammad, prophet of Islam; Roger Bacon, father of chemistry; and Paracelsus, father of modern medicine.

It is an interesting fact that the present buildings and school of Rudolph Steiner, the German mystic, are located in the grounds of the old estate of Hohenheim where Paracelsus lived.

(2) The Order of Freemasons, represented by the great Robert Fludd, master of symbolism and alchemy, and Elias Ashmole, the unique philosopher.

(3) The Rosicrucians, a sacred organization founded by the mysterious Father C.R.C. after his return from Arabia.

In the mythological city of Damcar he had been educated in alchemy and astrology by Arabian adepts.

After him came Sir Francis Bacon, the remodeler of British law. And then Count Cagliostro, the sublime adventurer. And last..., the great Comte de St. Germaine, probably the world's greatest political reformer, and Alchemist by Fire.

These superlative minds leavened the loaf of materiality. And, according to those who study The Mysteries, kept alight the flame of Hermes during the medieval centuries of religious intolerance and bigotry.

And:

Manly P. Hall 33°: "Rosicrucian and Masonic
Origins"

The smaller group of adepts that had withdrawn from the order remained inactive apparently, having retired to what they termed the "House of the Holy Spirit," where they were enveloped by certain "mists" impenetrable to the eyes of the profane. Among these reclusive adepts must be included such well-known Rosicrucians as Robert Fludd, Eugenius Philalethes, John Heydon, Michael Maier, and Henri Khunrath. These adepts in their retirement constituted a loosely organized society which, though lacking the solidarity of a definite fraternity, occasionally initiated a candidate and met annually at a specified place. It was the Comte de Chazal, an initiate of this order, who "raised" Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom while the latter was on the Isle of Mauritius. In due time, the original members of the order passed on, after first entrusting their secrets to carefully chosen successors. In the meantime, a group of men in England, under the leadership of such mystics as Ashmole and Fludd, had resolved upon repopularizing the ancient learning and reclassifying philosophy in accordance with Bacon's plan for a world encyclopedia. These men had undertaken to reconstruct ancient Platonic and Gnostic mysticism, but were unable to attain their objective for lack of information. Elias Ashmole may have been a member of the European order of Rosicrucians and as such evidently knew that in various parts of Europe there were isolated individuals who were in possession of the secret doctrine handed down in unbroken line from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians through Boetius, the early Christian Church, and the Arabians. [p 411]

The efforts of the English group to contact such individuals were evidently successful. Several initiated Rosicrucians were brought from the mainland to England, where they remained for a considerable time designing the symbolism of Freemasonry and incorporating into the rituals of the order the same divine principles and philosophy that had formed the inner doctrine of all great secret societies from the time of the Eleusinia in Greece. In fact, the Eleusinian Mysteries themselves continued in Christendom until the sixth century after Christ, after which they passed into the custody of the Arabians, as attested by the presence of Masonic symbols and figures upon early Mohammedan monuments. The adepts brought over from the Continent to sit in council with the English philosophers were initiates of the Arabian rites and thus through them the Mysteries were ultimately returned to Christendom. Upon completion of the by-laws of the new fraternity, the initiates retired again into Central Europe, leaving a group of disciples to develop the outer organization, which was to function as a sort of screen to conceal the activities of the esoteric order.

Samael Aun Weor:

"Master Rakoczi is the same Count Saint Germain, Roger Bacon and Francis Bacon. This Master directs world politics. He presently lives in Tibet, and possesses the same Physical Body with which he was known during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in all the courts of Europe. The centuries have passed over this Master without death having any power over him, because he is a Child of Resurrection. This Master is of the Ray of Jupiter."

[edit on 17-7-2009 by Tamahu]

Antiquities of the Illuminati: Who Was Adam Weishaupt? An Interesting History of the Illuminati, by Albert Pike


Albert Pike 33°:

"Of this Lodge at Munich, Dr. Adam Weishaupt was a member, and established the Order of Illuminati, under the inspiration of a bitter hatred of the Jesuits. He was of the Order of Strict Observance, and a Rosicrucian."

[edit on 18-7-2009 by Tamahu]