More than ever, the public at large is
mistrusting of large organizations, and no
more so than that of secret societies.
A secret society is an organization whose
ongoing activities, inner functioning, and
membership are shrouded in mystery
and concealed from the public.
Often, but not always, these societies
attempt to conceal its existence, leaving
any investigation of their ongoings and
even their very existence in question.
They often include the richest and most
powerful people in the world, gathering in
meetings to create agendas that further
their own interests, some of which
translate to a global scale.
Some believe that these organizations
are part of a coming New World Order
that would only see the most powerful
people across the globe rule over
everyone else.
Some are ancient, and some are
relatively new, but they all leave us with
more questions than answers as to
why they actually exist.
Here are 5 Secret Societies that remain Shrouded in Mystery!
#5: The Bilderberg Group
The Bilderberg Group is a group of extremely
high-powered leaders in the areas of finance,
industry, academia, and the media.
They're believed to be a relatively small
secret society consisting of only between
120 and 150 people, but don't
let their size fool you.
The individuals in this organization are
extremely powerful and connected in society.
Publicly, the group uses their power and
influence for various agendas.
Originally, their formation was to prevent
another World War, but privately, it's
believed that their interests
go far deeper than that.
The group meets at an annual conference
that was established in 1954 at the
"Hotel de Bilderberg" in the Netherlands,
from which the organization gets its name.
Former guests and members include
President Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher,
Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, and
Henry Kissinger.
Attendees are not allowed to share what
actually happens in meetings, which gives
the group an air of mystery;
Journalists are even barred from
reporting on it. Meetings minutes
are never released.
And it's this level of secrecy surrounding
the Bilderberg meetings that have given
rise to many conspiracy theories, which
include but are not limited to,
that Bilderberg attendees are behind the
creation of the European Union,
The invasion of Iraq and bombing of
Serbia, and as previously mentioned,
plotting a New World Order.
Their official website states:
"Thanks to the private nature of the
Meeting, the participants take part as
individuals rather than in any
official capacity, and hence are not bound
by the conventions of their office
or by pre-agreed positions."
In other words, individuals who attend
are there for their own interests and for
the interests of the group as a whole,
not the public's. However, due to some
anonymous leaks, some known topics of
conversation that occurred in 2019 were
Brexit, cybersecurity, and climate change.
What exactly happens behind the closed doors
of the Bilderberg Group meetings
remains a mystery, and what their true
agenda is will continue to be fodder
for conspiracy theorists.
#4: The Skull and Bones Society
The Skull and Bones Society, also known as
The Order, Order 322, or the Brotherhood
of Death, is a group of Undergraduate
senior students at Yale University in
New Haven, Connecticut.
But don't let the fact that the
secret society are merely made up of
students fool you.
Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 by
William Huntington Russel, an American
businessman and politician, and
Alphonso Taft, the father of President
William Howard Taft.
Publicly, the society was founded after
a dispute among Yale debating societies
over that season's Phi Beta Kappa awards.
But the truth goes much deeper than that.
William Huntington Russel was inspired
by an occult society he'd visited
in Germany to start a secret society
that grooms future leaders of the free world.
It was this occult society that inspired
the symbol that they still use to this day:
the skull and crossbones with the number
322 below it, referring to 322 BC, the
year Alexander the Great died.
Alexander the Great was a man known for
his conquest of the world.
Former members, known as Bonesmen or
Members of the Order include the
following: 27th POTUS William Howard Taft,
41st POTUS George H. W, Bush,
Secretary of State and former US Senator
John F. Kerry, 43rd POTUS George W.
Bush, the founder of FedEx Fredrick Wallace
Smith, other Fortune 500 elites, as well as
members of the CIA, among several other
prominent members who have gone on to
be powerful leaders in society.
Every year, 15 seniors at Yale are
recruited to join the Skull and Bones.
Only their names and the fact they're
chosen is public knowledge, not the
reasons why or what happens behind closed
doors once they become initiated.
Those closed doors have become known as
The Tomb, a windowless meeting space
where Bonesmen gather twice a week,
and has remained shroulded in mystery
since its inception.
This is because members take an Oath
of Secrecy, and not one member has
yet to have broken it, likely because the
consequences would be so grave.
Graduate members are referred to as
Patriarchs, those undergoing initiation are
called Knights, and anyone outside the
society, meaning You and I, are
referred to as Barbarians.
The fact that this societies very symbol
represents Alexander the Great's conquest
of the world and that its members often
come from very powerful families and
often become powerful leaders themselves,
has led to several theories.
Those theories are that the society plays
a role in a global conspiracy for
world control, that they are a branch of
the Illuminati, or that society itself
controls the CIA.
Whatever the truth is, it's not something
you will not likely be privy to anytime soon.
#3: The Freemasons
The Freemasons are one of the oldest
and largest secret societies in the world.
Their heritage goes deep, in fact 13 of
the 39 men who signed the US
Constitution were Masons.
Founding Fathers of the United States
George Washington and Benjamin Franklin
as well as John Hancock and Paul Revere
all counted themselves as members
of the Freemasons.
The first formation of the society was in
1599, tracing Freemasonry's roots to the
Middle Ages in Europe.
Originally, they were cathedral builders,
and by nature of their profession,
travelled a lot.
They identified each other via the
symbols of their trade, such as the
builders square and compass, which
are both in the Freemasonry symbol
that they still use today, over 500 years later.
But the Freemasons that we know of today
that are a secret society were
truly formed in 1717.
This, when four London lodges merged to
form London's first Grand Lodge.
Although not a religion, each member is
encouraged to believe in a supreme being or
grand architect of the universe.
However, it was their secret rituals
and growing power that brought them into
the shady world of secret societies.
Even the church itself condemned the
Freemasons in 1738 and went on to
issue 20 decrees against them.
In fact, as recent as 1985, the
Roman Catholic Church restated over
200 years worth of condemnations
on the Freemasons due to the increased
number of Catholics joining the order.
Unlike other organizations where it's
difficult to join and all secrets are
revealed rather quickly but with a heavy
initiation, the Freemasons are different.
They have one simple recruitment slogan to join:
"All you have to do is ask."
This means that they are able to gain the
resources of the many, while only
revealing their deepest secrets
to the few, or highest level of
masonry: the Third Order or 33rd Degree
of Masonry: the Master Mason.
Millions of Masons exist across
the globe, but only the chosen few
become Master Masons, privy to
the organization's true agenda.
The identities of these individuals are
kept closely guarded in secrecy, as they
are believed to be the most powerful
elite in society.
There are theories that these individuals
conduct occult rituals, control various
positions of governmental power, and
are helping to establish the New World
Order, among countless others.
Having strong ties to the IRS, Bohemian
Grove, Skull and Bones, and the Illuminati,
they have vast and essentially limitless
resources to carry out
whatever their agenda is;
An agenda will not become public until
it's carried out in full.
#2: The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar, also known as
The Order of Soloman's Temple, was
founded around 1118 AD when
Hugues de Payens, a French knight,
gathered warriors dedicated to protecting
Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land
during the Crusade.
Their original name was The
Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and
The Temple of Soloman.
Headquartered at the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem, each member pledged to live
a life of chastity, obedience, and poverty,
abstaining from gambling, alcohol,
and even swearing.
However, as time went on, their
members and their power grew, so much
so that the Knights Templar became known
more for their military prowess, power,
and wealth more than anything.
They eventually set up a bank in
Europe, which made their influence
explode around 1139, and with the
Pope exempting them from taxes,
their wealth grew exponentially.
But with money and power
inevitably comes corruption.
After the Crusades, they decided to
focus their efforts on banking, a
far cry from their original calling.
On October 13, 1307, King Philip IV
of France had the knights arrested
and tortured, as dozens of Knights Templar
were burned at the stake for
their alleged crimes.
Seeing this, Pope Clement V dissolved the
Knights Templar permanently,
disbanding the remaining knights.
However, It's believed that some Knights
Templar survived, and even revived the
order, which many believe
still exist to this day. and is
more powerful than ever before.
Existing in the shadows for over 700 years,
the Knights Templar are believed
to be a major force in the banking system
that we use today.
With centuries of secrets on political
leaders and the church, combined with
untold wealth and being in possession of
what many believed to be legendary
artifacts, such as the Spear of Destiny,
the Holy Grail, and the Shroud of Turin,
nobody dare cross them or
reveal their existence.
Interestingly, their symbol is the Cross
of Lorraine, a double-barred cross that's
featured prominently in their coat of arms.
And if it looks somewhat familiar, that's
because it can be found on the logo of
many powerful, multi-billion dollar
corporations that you use everyday.
Everywhere from ExxonMobil, the massive
oil and gas giant, all the way down to
Nabisco and even simple snacks,
like where you can find it stamped
on Oreo cookies.
The Knights Templar have proven that
sometimes, the best way to hide
is in plain sight.
#1: The Illuminati
Perhaps the most famous secret society
of all time, the one that permeates almost
every conspiracy theory and even our
popular culture is the Illuminati.
It was originally founded on the First
of May, 1776 as the Bavarian Illuminati,
an Enlightenment era secret society.
The society's goals were to oppose
superstition, obscurantism, religious
influence over public life, and
abuses of state power,
Its members were numerous and
included many influential intellectuals,
such as Wolfgang Von Goethe.
It also included various powerful
politicians and some of the wealthiest
and most influential men in Europe.
However, the Illuminati and all other
secret societies along with Freemasonry
were outlawed, through edict by
Charles Theodore, elector of Bavaria with
support of the Catholic Church in 1784.
But many believed they continued their
works in secret, being responsible for
clandestine activities, such as the French
Revolution, the assassination of JFK, and
many other major world events.
More so than any other secret society,
the Illuminate is said to conspire to
control world affairs by masterminding
events and planting agents in
government and corporations in order
to gain political power and influence and
an order to establish a New World Order.
But as with the example of the Knights
Templar. they also seem to hide
in plain sight. Countless examples of
their influence can be seen in popular
culture, with some of the most powerful,
wealthy, and popular people in society
showing their well known symbol:
The Eye of Providence...
This disembodied eye has become
synonymous with the society, and even
appears on the US $1 bill for all to see.
The Illuminati is believed to have more
wealth, power, and control over every
aspect of our world than
any other organization.
They might be working closely with
the Knights Templar, the Freemasons,
Skull and Bones, and others to establish
a one-world currency, a one-world
government, and ultimately,
a New World Order.
So in the end, the real question is:
Why do we care about secret societies?
I think JFK put it best when he famously
addressed the American Newspaper
Publishers Association on the 27th
of April in 1961:
"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a
free and open society; and we are as a
people inherently and historically opposed
to secret societies, to secret oaths
and to secret proceedings.
For we are opposed around the world by a
monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that
relies primarily on covert means for expanding
its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead
of invasion, on subversion instead of
elections, on intimidation instead of
free choice, on guerrillas by night instead
of armies by day. It is a system which
has conscripted vast human and material
resources into the building of a tightly
knit, highly efficient machine that
combines military, diplomatic, intelligence,
economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not
published. Its mistakes are buried, not
headlined. Its dissenters are silenced,
not praised. No expenditure is questioned,
no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed."
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