The Illuminati is a name given to both a real secret society and a fictitious one. The latter has fuelled conspiracy theories for years, described as a secretive and mysterious worldwide organisation intent on world domination - as well as being behind some of history’s greatest revolutions and assassinations.
Joe Biden had barely been sworn in as US president when conspiracy theories about his ‘Illuminati bible' went viral on social media. As the story goes, Biden is part of a centuries-old secret society bent on world domination whose members include Jay-Z, Beyonce, Katy Perry, and the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Except...Biden’s Douay-Rheims bible dates back to 1893. Biden was actually sworn in using a family heirloom, a Douay-Rheims bible used by Roman Catholics worldwide. Jay-Z calls stories about his Illuminati membership ‘stupid’. Kanye West thinks they are ‘ridiculous’ and Katy Perry told Rolling Stone the theory was the preserve of ‘weird people on the internet’.
But then… the secretive Illuminati would say that, wouldn’t they? Δ.)So what, exactly, is fueling stories about an all-powerful sect of celebs and gazillionaires who use spy-like protocols to keep their identities a secret?Jay-Z said his signal is a diamond ‘Roc’ - not an Illuminati triangle - for Roc-A-Fella Records.
Let's delve into the origins and evolution of this enigmatic group, separating fact from fiction.
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The Eye of Providence, often associated with the Illuminati.
The Rise of the Illuminati
The original Illuminati was a secret society formed in Bavaria (now part of modern-day Germany) that existed from 1776 to 1785. Its members originally referred to themselves as Perfectibilists.
Adam Weishaupt, a Bavarian professor of canon law, started the radical Illuminati secret society in Europe in 1776 when he was 28 years old. The group was inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment and founded by professor of canon law Adam Weishaupt, who wanted to promote the education of reason and philanthropy and oppose superstition and religious influence in society. Weishaupt sought to change the way states in Europe were run, removing the influence of religion from government and giving people a new source of ‘illumination’.
Anti-clerical and anti-royal, the Illuminati aimed to infiltrate and upset powerful institutions. They created a plan for the global subversion of church, state, royalty, and society. Weishaupt aimed to abolish all religions and obliterate every government so mankind could live happily in a world of equality. He foresaw the economy operating under a ‘communism of goods’ structure overseen by an enlightened (illuminated) elite over which he presided.
It’s believed that the Bavarian Illuminati’s first meeting was held in a forest near Ingolstadt on 1 May 1776. Here, five men set out the rules that would govern the secret order.
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The society's stated goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power by monarchs.
Eventually the group’s aims focused on influencing political decisions and disrupting institutions like the monarchy and the Church. To join the Illuminati, you had to have full consent from the other members, possess wealth, and have a good reputation within a suitable family.
Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati.
The Illuminati Spy Structure
The Illuminati adopted antique codenames to avoid identification. Weishaupt was ‘Brother Spartacus’, named after the gladiator who headed the insurrection of slaves and kept Rome in terror for three years. The Order was represented by the Owl of Minerva, which in Greek mythology traditionally accompanies Athena the virgin goddess of wisdom. Another Illuminati emblem was a dot within a circle that symbolized the all-seeing eye which belonged not to God, but to a superior Illuminati watching over the lower ranks.
Weishaupt aimed to find young zealots - using Freemason lodges as a recruiting ground - and knit them together with secrecy. Initially, anyone over 30 wasn’t trusted.
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There was also a hierarchical system to Illuminati membership. After entering as a ‘novice’, you graduated to a ‘minerval’ and then an ‘illuminated minerval’, although this structure later became more complicated, with 13 degrees of initiation required in order to become a member. The term minerval was linked to the ‘owl of Minerva’ (Minerva being the ancient Roman goddess of wisdom), and the bird eventually became the group's main symbol.
The lower ranks were divided into hierarchies of Novices, Minervals, and Illuminated Minervals, and divided into cells. Weishaupt acted as their spymaster.
“When he could not persuade them by his own firmness... he employed Jesuitical tricks, causing them to fall out with each other, setting them as spies on each other, and separating any two that he saw attached to each other, by making the one a Master of the other; and, in short, he left nothing undone that could secure his uncontrolled command,” according to John Robison, author of Proofs of a Conspiracy.
Recruits had to supply the names of their ancestors, relations, friends, correspondents, and enemies. They were asked to recommend appropriate people to be received into the Order and to list those who might be unfit, justifying reasons for both opinions. They were told to pay attention to the conduct of other men around them and report back weekly about public or private occurrences.
Illuminati members didn't use their real names - pseudonyms were used to keep their identities of members a secret.
The Threat of Death
After three years of one-on-one study with their Illuminati tutor, recruits were asked to sign an oath to uphold the society’s goals upon the punishment of death. “A drawn sword is then pointed at his breast, and he is asked: ‘Will you be obedient to the commands of your Superiors?’ He is threatened with unavoidable vengeance, from which no potentate [monarch/ruler] can defend him if he should ever betray the Order,” Robison said.
Plans were underway for two sisterhoods, he added, both subservient to male Illuminati - one sisterhood made up of women of virtue, the other of women ‘who fly out of the common track of prudish manners’. Neither sisterhood was to know about the other.
The Power of the Illuminati
The Barvarian Illuminati insinuated themselves into public offices and courts of justice. Estimates about the group’s size vary greatly - some put the figure at 650, others at 2,500 - but, eventually, the secret society was exposed and persecuted.
Documents found in the homes of Illuminati like diplomat Franx Xavier von Zwack confirmed their dreams of world domination. The Duke of Bavaria, Karl Theodor, banned secret societies in In 1785 and instituted punishments for anyone who joined them. But did the Illuminati really dissolve?
Robison and Abbé Augustin Barruel, authors of Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, argue that the Illuminati survived, having infiltrated a Berlin literary society and Masonic lodges. They point out that Weishaupt was banished but not imprisoned, so he carried on writing and working. Barruel even promoted a theory that secret societies, including the Illuminati, were behind the French Revolution.
Adam Weishaupt was eventually stripped of his post at the University of Ingolstadt. After being exiled from Bavaria, he spent the remainder of his life in Gotha, Thuringia, dying in 1830.
The American Illuminati
By 1798, fears about the dangerous sect had reached the US. George Washington wrote an open letter indicating the US had avoided the Illuminati threat, but just the mention of the secret society helped revive the topic and the fear. Rumors of secret alliances and double-crossings plagued early-American elections but it wasn’t until the rise of electronic media and the internet that conspiracy theories became a powerful force.
In the mid-1970s, the satirical Illuminatus Trilogy put the secret society back on center stage, and it has remained there since Dan Brown published his thriller Angels & Demons in 2009.
First president of the US, George Washington, then wrote a letter the following year in which he stated that he believed the threat of the Illuminati had been avoided, adding further fuel to the idea that the order still existed. Books and sermons condemning the group later sprung up, and third US president, Thomas Jefferson, was falsely accused of being a member.
The Illuminati Eye of Providence
Many Illuminati-watchers in America believe that the ‘Eye of Providence’ - the eye-in-a-triangle found on the back of the US dollar bill and Great Seal of the United States - is an Illuminati symbol linking the European sect to the highest echelons of US government and corridors of power. It appears on numerous churches and Masonic buildings worldwide and is linked to Freemasonry.
In fact, the all-knowing eye was originally a symbol of Christianity, found in religious art of the Renaissance period to represent God, such as in Pontormo’s Supper at Emmaus. Noone is quite certain who invented it, but it appears to be tied to religious motifs as the triangle is a symbol of the Christian Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But what about the eye?
Ancient Egyptians used the detached eye as a motif. Among the most famous of all Egyptian symbols is the Eye of Horus. The eye also appears as a symbol on some earlier editions of the Douay-Rheims Bible, the same bible President Biden carried on Inauguration Day.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Illuminati are planning to topple the world’s governments installing President Biden, Lady Gaga, Eminem, and other rappers as the new overlords.
A 19th-century depiction of an Illuminati initiation ritual.
How is the Illuminati connected to the Freemasons?
Some members of the Illuminati joined the Freemasons in order to recruit new members. The Freemasons are a fraternal order that evolved from the guilds of stonemasons and cathedral builders of the Middle Ages.
In some countries, especially the US, there has historically been a lot of paranoia about the Freemasons - in 1828, a single-issue political movement known as the Anti-Masonic Party was even established. Due to the original Illuminati recruitment of Freemasons, the two groups have often been confused for each other.
What were the Illuminati's rituals?
The Illuminati did use rituals, but most remain unknown . Those that we do know about (found in seized, secret papers) explain how novices could move to a higher level within the Illuminati’s hierarchy.
To do so, they had to compile a report on all the books they owned, write a list of their weaknesses, and reveal the names of any enemies they had. The novice would then promise to sacrifice personal interests for the good of the society.
Is the all-seeing eye linked to the Illumnati? The ‘Eye of Providence’ - a symbol resembling an eye inside a triangle - appears on churches around the globe, as well as on Masonic buildings and the US one-dollar bill.
In addition to being associated with Freemasonry, it has also been linked with the Illuminati as a symbol of the group’s control and surveillance of the world. Originally a Christian emblem, the all-seeing eye has been used in paintings to represent God’s watchfulness over humanity.
In the 18th century, it began to be used in new ways - for example, in Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier’s The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, an illustrated version of the human rights document adopted by France’s National Constituent Assembly in 1789. Here, it is depicted as an instrument of paternalistic reason, keeping a watchful eye over the newly democratic nation.
There is no official link between the all-seeing eye and the Illuminati - the proposed connection probably stems from the fact that the original group shared similarities with the Freemasons, who used the image as a symbol of God.
Were there any famous members Illuminati?
By 1782, the Illuminati had grown to around 600 members - these included German nobles such as Baron Adolph von Knigge who, as a former Freemason, helped shape the group’s organisation and expansion. Initially, Weishaupt’s students were the only members, but soon, doctors, lawyers and intellectuals joined. There were between 2,000 and 3,000 Illuminati members by 1784.
Some sources say that renowned writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also joined, but this is disputed.
The Illuminati Explained (Conspiracy Theories)
Why did the Illuminati disappear?
In 1784, Karl Theodor, Duke of Bavaria, banned the creation of any kind of society not previously authorised by law and the following year he passed a second edict, which expressly banned the Illuminati. During the arrest of suspected Illuminati members, compromising documents (defending ideas such as atheism and suicide) were found in their possession, as well as instructions for carrying out abortions.
This cemented the belief that the group was a threat to both the state and the Church. The Illuminati then seems to have disappeared, with some people believing that it continued underground.
Did the Illuminati succeed in world domination?
Some people believe that the Illuminati controls the world today, suggesting that they are so secretive that few are aware of it. From the moment they disbanded, conspiracy theories about the Illuminati began to take hold. In 1797, French publicist and Jesuit priest Abbé Augustin Barruel suggested that secret societies like the Illuminati had spearheaded the French Revolution.
Conspiracy theorists have accused the Illuminati of being the culprits behind numerous assassinations, including that of John F Kennedy.
The idea of a world-dominating Illuminati has never really left people’s minds, and still infiltrates popular culture today.
In 1963, a text called the Principia Discordia was published, promoting an alternative belief system known as ‘Discordianism’. Calling for anarchism and civil disobedience by perpetrating hoaxes, its adherents included writer Robert Anton Wilson.
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