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The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:16am On Aug 16, 2016
The supersecret society called the Illuminati seems to be everywhere you look in the world of conspiracy theories. This group supposedly consists of the ultimate world-dominating evil geniuses. Their universal logo, the All Seeing Eye and the unfinished pyramid, is on the back of the U.S. dollar bill, along with their motto, “A New World Order.” One of their earliest members, Thomas Jefferson, wrote their criminal influence into the Declaration of Independence. They created all that is evil, including the European Union, barcodes, injected microchips, Paris Hilton’s career, and ATM fees. The Illuminati are somewhat unique in the catalog of secret societies because in all probability, they don’t exist. Sorry to let you down like that. There was one famous group called the “Illuminati” in the 18th century. It lasted less than eight years, and its membership was very, very small. Many other groups followed, even to the present day, claiming the mantle of the original Illuminati, or having that moniker stuck on them without their having asked for it. In fact, in the alternate universe of the Internet, accusations about the “vast influence” of this little-known secret society get thrown around constantly. If you first heard of the Illuminati in Dan Brown’s novel, Angels & Demons (Pocket), the truth is a lot more interesting than the fiction. This Thread explains who the real Illuminati were, where they came from, and just why their legacy continues to capture the public imagination.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:17am On Aug 16, 2016
The Original “Illuminated Ones”
The Enlightenment, a period that lasted roughly throughout the hundred years of the 1700s in Europe and America, was an intellectual, scientific, and philosophical movement all rolled into one. It was a time when the scientific method of experimentation and reason replaced the more superstitious attitudes of the Middle Ages a time of revolution, scientific discovery, and invention. The very term enlightenment was chosen as a contrast to the Dark Ages, and light and illumination became a metaphor for knowledge and republicanism (meaning governments free of kings, popes, and their “divine rights”). In fact, late medieval adepts at alchemy or the sciences were sometimes called “the Illuminated Ones.” The first group to be associated with the term Illuminati was known in Spain as the Alumbrados. Appearing in the late 1400s, not much is known about this sect of Christian mystics. They apparently believed in trancelike meditation to the exclusion of all other thoughts in order to commune with God, and they developed decidedly un-Catholic beliefs, such as the notion that female adepts copulating with priests released souls from Purgatory. Not surprisingly, the Spanish Inquisition came crashing down on the Alumbrados like a ton of evangelical bricks. What really brought down the wrath of the church on the Alumbrados was their belief that man could achieve enough perfection through meditation and prayer to become sinless. Where they got into hot water was the belief that if you achieved sinless perfection, you would no longer have to fast or even pray, and you wouldn’t have to deny your physical body anything anymore. Your mind would become divine, so whatever you did with your body was of no consequence. See if your partner buys that story. A French group appeared in the early 1600s known as the Illuminés, and they seem to have been an offshoot of the Spanish Alumbrados. But these groups have no real connection to the Illuminati that’s at the center of so many conspiracy theories today, apart from the same name.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:18am On Aug 16, 2016
The Bavarian Illuminati:
Short Life, Long Legacy In 1776, just before the Continental Congress declared American independence from England, on the other side of the world a new “secret society” that was to become the Illuminati the real Illuminati was born in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. First called The Perfectabilists, the group was the brainchild of a young university professor named Adam Weishaupt.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:19am On Aug 16, 2016
Adam Weishaupt
The man who founded the Illuminati had an unlikely background for the leader of such a radical organization. Adam Weishaupt was born in Ingolstadt in 1748. When his father died seven years later, Adam was placed in the care of his grandfather, Baron Johann Adam Ickstatt, who was curator of the University of Ingstadt. The University of Ingstadt was a Catholic school, and the majority of the administration and teaching staff were Jesuit priests. Weishaupt graduated from the university in 1768. He spent another four years there as a tutor, and in 1772 he became a full professor of civil law. What makes all this important in his development is that, a year later, Pope Clement XIV had an explosive disagreement with the Jesuits and completely dissolved the Order. As a result, the young Weishaupt was appointed to the chair of canon (Catholic) law, the first non-Jesuit and layman to have the position in almost 100 years. What made this appointment ironic is that Weishaupt was privately very anti-Catholic. He spent years studying the philosophies and beliefs of the freethinking Enlightenment writers and had no patience with superstition, miracles, or sacraments. Unfortunately, he was in the sticky situation of earning his livelihood at a Catholic university, teaching canon law as proscribed by the Vatican!
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:20am On Aug 16, 2016
Spartacus and the Areopagites
On May 1, 1776, Weishaupt formed his secret society, with just five original members, who were referred to as the Areopagites (named after the hill in Greek mythology where Ares, the God of War, was tried and acquitted of murder). Weishaupt had a big goal in mind for such a small bunch. He believed that a group dedicated to mutual aid, intellectualism, and philosophical free thought could help change the world by influencing the movers and shakers of society. In addition (at first, anyway), they had no interest in recruiting anyone much over the age of 35 or so, because such “old” men were too creaky and set in their ways. This attitude would change over time, as they discovered they needed important, well-placed men who were already in positions of some influence to infiltrate the military and halls of government. Because of his position at a Catholic university, which would undoubtedly be less than ecstatic over one of its professors writing anti-Catholic essays, Weishaupt and his organizers communicated using code names. At least two of the other four members were students at the university, known by their secret names Ajax and Tiberius. Writing as Spartacus (the name of a slave who led a massive revolt against Rome in 73 BC), Weishaupt outlined a secret plan to infiltrate the Freemasons’ lodges, and then overthrow governments of nations and churches, take over the world, and create a new world order of tolerance and equality. It was as simple as that. But a peaceful social change wasn’t really what Weishaupt had in mind. In order to alter society, kings and princes, as well as church leaders, all had to be, well, gotten rid of first. These folks were the foes of his brand of enlightenment and republican thinking. And, of course, because he and his four young friends saw themselves as being superior to most of the common herd, they would remain in control of this new, improved society. The name of the organization itself changed over time from Perfectabilists to the Bees and finally the Illuminati. In code, the organization was represented by a dot within a circle. The symbol was meant to represent the Sun illuminating all bodies in its orbit.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:22am On Aug 16, 2016
The Masonic connection
In 1777, Weishaupt joined a Masonic lodge Munich’s Lodge Theodore of Good Council and began looking for like-minded brethren to recruit into his circle of the Illuminati. Unlike the overwhelming majority of so-called secret societies that sprung up all over Europe in the 1700s, Weishaupt’s Illuminati was definitely not preoccupied with occultism, mysticism, esotericism, or hidden knowledge. At least, not the medieval, alchemical kind of stuff that groups like the Rosicrucians were hunting. In fact, anything that seemed to have been influenced by Judaism, Kabbalah, and Catholicism in particular, wasn’t allowed to seep into the Illuminati rituals. What there was plenty of was secrecy. Major concentration centered around the memorization of ciphers secret writing codes. As the years progressed, Illuminati members were instructed in how to mix poisons, prepare for suicide in case of discovery, and even construct “infernal machines” in which to hide their secret papers (infernal machines are explosive boxes that self-destruct if tampered with). The Illuminati created groups of members who were supposed to infiltrate Masonic lodges and take control of them. Code-named the Insinuators, they quickly invaded the membership of Munich’s Lodge Theodore of Good Council and totally controlled it by 1779. A friend of Weishaupt’s, Baron Adolf Franz Friederich Knigge, was a wellknown diplomat and Freemason in Bavaria and assisted Weishaupt with developing ceremonial rituals for the new Illuminati, roughly based on the Masonic model. He became a member of the Illuminati in 1780. Eventually, Knigge crafted 12 degrees in all for the group, divided into several groups:
Nursery:
These initiatory degrees were designed to determine whether new members shared the group’s philosophical beliefs and to impress upon the candidate the importance of secrecy.
Masonry:
Patterned after the degrees found in Freemasonry, the initial “Masonry” degrees weren’t very different from what occurred in regular lodges. Again, as candidates climbed the ladder of degrees, the goal was to find out whether they would go along with the more revolutionary aims of the Illuminati. Lower Mysteries: Later degrees slowly exposed the candidate to more of the Illuminati’s anti-monarchial, anti-Catholic goals. Greater Mysteries:
The highest degrees were designed to teach new leaders how to bring in new members. With the new degree structure finally in place, and Knigge’s help in recruiting prominent and influential members, the Illuminati started to catch on in intellectual, Masonic circles. The German poet Johann Goethe became a member, and in a relatively short period of time, the group attracted at least 2,000 members in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Italy, and France. The Illuminati was designed to be a society of Enlightenment-era thinkers, first and foremost. In spite of the usual accusations that appeared after the group’s demise, Weishaupt conceived of the Illuminati to make society happier by enlightening the mind. It’s philosophy encouraged the end of superstition in both science and faith, and sought intellectual equality between the sexes. While Weishaupt was anti-Catholic, Knigge was a practicing Christian, and neither man intended the group to be anti-Christian.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:23am On Aug 16, 2016
The Congress of Wilhelmsbad
In 1782, a curious event occurred in the town of Wilhelmsbad, billed as a Congress of Masonry. Freemasonry was developed to enhance society by taking good men and improving their character, making them better citizens. Masonic secrecy was simply a demonstration of honor among its members. But Freemasonry developed very differently on the European continent than in Britain and the Americas. It took some strange and sinister turns, especially in the German states, with the Illuminati’s growing influence in Masonic lodges on the one side, and another German group called the Rite Of Strict Observance on the other. These new groups were something different, with a militant obsession over secrecy, and almost no interest in any of that character-building malarkey. Mainstream Freemasons were alarmed about the directions these new groups were taking them. Delegates came to the Congress of Wilhelmsbad from Austria, France, Italy, Holland, and Russia to discuss the matter. More than a few disgruntled Masons went home convinced that they had to do something to stop this new movement.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:24am On Aug 16, 2016
The Illuminati cracks up
While the Congress of Wilhelmsbad sowed discontent over the Illuminati’s influence among Freemasons, the Illuminati itself was also starting to crack from within. Weishaupt became bolder in his professional life, and he increasingly subjected his Catholic students at the University of Ingoldstadt to his anti-Catholic tirades. Meanwhile, Knigge became convinced that Weishaupt was really a closet Jesuit spy, and he came to completely distrust him. Knigge handed over all his Illuminati material in 1784 and walked out of the Order. Other defections soon followed for different reasons. Several ex-members went to the duchess of Bavaria, Maria Anna, with Illuminati documents and a membership list. Confronted with clear evidence of a group that was actively gunning for their regal positions, she took it to her husband, the duke of Bavaria, Carl Theodore. As monarch of Bavaria, he quickly enacted a law forbidding any and all groups, clubs, or societies that hadn’t been authorized by the state, and a year later clarified his position by naming the Illuminati specifically as the group he was really after. Weishaupt soldiered on, creating a flurry of anti-Catholic and anti-monarchial pamphlets. The duke at last issued arrest warrants against him and the Areopagites in 1785. Weishaupt fled the country to Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in central Germany, but left behind his incriminating papers, outlining the Illuminati’s ambitious, if not bizarre and downright silly, plans for world domination. They were widely published throughout Europe to expose the Illuminati and to flush out other members, many of whom were in government, military, and university positions. A large number of them wound up in prison, and more were banished from Bavaria altogether. he Bavarian Order of the Illuminati died officially in 1785, and its secrets and Evil Plans For World Dominatio were discovered, published, and ridiculed, eventually worldwide. The movement was never popular and died out completely by the end of the century. But the phantom of the Illuminati survived in the public’s memory. Because of its ties to many European Freemasons of the period, the two groups became intertwined in the public imagination. As for the Illuminati’s founder, Weishaupt became a professor at the University of Gottingen. He wrote several apologetic treatises about the Order over the years. And he promised to never, ever, ever try to take over the world again. Cross his heart.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:24am On Aug 16, 2016



Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:25am On Aug 16, 2016
Illuminati in America?
The life and death of the Illuminati in Europe has been well documented, and many of the organization’s papers were greatly publicized after Adam Weishaupt fled Bavaria. But the Illuminati’s time span coincided with the early days of the fledgling United States, during and immediately after the American Revolution. Trustworthy records of the group’s activities in America if indeed there were any are nonexistent. George Washington was sent a copy of John Robison’s book, Proofs of a Conspiracy, warning him of the spread of Illuminism, and the possible infiltration of Freemason lodges (of which Washington was a member). He believed that none of the Lodges were contaminated with Illuminati principles, but in a follow-up letter, he explained that he didn’t
. . . doubt that, the Doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more truly satisfied of this fact than I am. The idea that I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the Lodges of Free Masons in this Country had, as Societies, endeavoured to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first, or pernicious principles of the latter (if they are susceptible of separation). Some researchers have alleged that a Columbia Lodge of the Illuminati was started in New York City in 1785. Over the next four years, as many as 14 more Illuminati lodges sprung up in the 13 states, including one in Virginia that supposedly counted Thomas Jefferson as a member But there is no proof whatsoever that these lodges ever existed. The supposed Columbia Lodge of the Illuminati was claimed to have been the fraternal refuge of New York governor Dewitt Clinton, newspaper editor and future politician Horace Greeley, and New York politician Clinton Roosevelt. Roosevelt himself, it has been claimed over the years, used the philosophy of the Illuminati in his 1841 book, Science Of Government Founded On Natural Law. He was a distant cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), and some people claim that the book is a blueprint for both Karl Marx’s 1848 Communist Manifesto and FDR’s socialistic New Deal programs of the 1930s. Those folks looking under the rug for a conspiracy claim that the Illuminati, through Clinton Roosevelt, created Communism along with FDR’s New Deal programs. And as icing on the cake, FDR (who was also a Freemason, by the way) put the All-Seeing Eye and the unfinished pyramid, which are, as any good conspiracist knows, symbols of the Illuminati (or the Masons; or both), on the back of the U.S. one dollar bill. The All-Seeing Eye in a triangle that appears in the U.S. Great Seal really started out in the Renaissance as a Christian symbol for God, with the triangle representing the Holy Trinity.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:27am On Aug 16, 2016
Building a Boogeyman: The Illuminati as All-purpose Evil
After the death of the Bavarian Illuminati, a bewildering amount of literature poured out of Europe purporting to tell as many lurid details of the organization as authors could discover (or make up). Much like today, tales of a supersecret group engaged in conspiracies to overthrow the kings of Europe, especially during the aftermath of the bloody French Revolution, sold lots of newspapers and books all over the world. In spite of its small size, short life span, and publicly ousted officials and founders, the Illuminati captured the minds of the public in the early 1800s. After that, tales of the Illuminati slipped into obscurity.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:28am On Aug 16, 2016
The Illuminati and the occult
In the 1860s, a French magician and author named Eliphas Lévi wrote a series of books and pamphlets that became the centerpiece of modern occult lore. In his book, A History of Magic, Lévi mistakenly claims that the Bavarian Illuminati was occult and its members had “habitual communications with the dead.” The last thing Weishaupt’s Illuminati involved was the occult. Nevertheless, Lévi claimed that the Rosicrucians, the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, and the Illuminati were all secret magicians dabbling in occult practices. In the 1870s, a German named Theodor Reuss was busy dabbling in obscure, irregular Masonic organizations, and in 1880, he started his own Order of the Illuminati in Berlin and Munich. The group never managed to attract many members, so in 1895, Reuss decided to invent his own Masonic lodge that claimed to be a lodge of the Illuminati. Reuss would go on to create the Ordo Templi Orientis in 1906, and his successor Aleister Crowley took the claims of the Illuminati and the occult and embellished them
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:29am On Aug 16, 2016
Nesta Webster and the Illuminati’s conspiracy against civilization
In 1920, an English conspiracy theorist named Nesta Webster published a series of articles in the London Morning Post based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious piece of Russian anti-Jewish propaganda. The next year, she extended her articles and published them as The Cause of World Unrest. This influential work resurrected Barruel and Robison’s claims that secret society caused the French Revolution, making the strong charge that it and all the unrest in the world since the revolution were caused by a Jewish/Freemason/Illuminati conspiracy, using powers of the occult. Webster believed this was a conspiracy against civilization, and her theories became incredibly popular. Winston Churchill and Lord Kitchener (England’s Field Marshal in India) were fans of her theories.
While her theory that the Illuminati (largely Jewish) world conspiracy was the source of Bolshevism (Communism) in Russia was quickly accepted by prominent politicians, her viral anti-Semitism was less than admired after World War II ended. She strongly supported fascism and the Nazi persecution of Jews and said Hitler successfully managed to stop the Jewish plan to rule the world. Webster’s writings have influenced many conspiracists since the 1920s. She is frequently quoted by modern conspiracists who believe her every word.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:29am On Aug 16, 2016

Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:30am On Aug 16, 2016
The Illuminati today: All things to all people
Conspiracists say the Illuminati, or something like it, still exists today, acting as the puppet masters behind presidents, kings, banking, business, and the United Nations. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Three may keep a secret when two of them are dead.” Such a conspiracy that involves hundreds of evil geniuses is unlikely to have remained secret for all this time, yet there’s never been a snitch. The Illuminati has become a catchall name, a ghostly stand-in for businessmen who own too much, giant bureaucracies, and government secrecy. Over the years, the Illuminati name badge has been pinned by conspiracists on left-wing socialists and communists, multinational capitalists, and right-wing political pundits. Even politicians diametrically opposed to each other on virtually every socio-economic level are frequently lumped together as being “elites” who secretly think alike and are supposedly part of the Illuminati. The Internet has only fueled the growth of this theory. What makes the allegation of an Illuminati conspiracy for world control so comical is that the original aim of the Illuminati wasn’t totalitarian control of the world, but anti-Establishment revolution.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:32am On Aug 16, 2016
The John Birch Society’s Illuminati
The ultra-right-wing John Birch Society did much to resurrect the specter of the Illuminati in the 1960s and pin its tail to the backside of Communism. The society’s founder, Indianapolis candy manufacturer Robert F. Welch, believed everything he read in John Robison’s and Barruél’s books about the Illuminati, the European Freemasons, and the French Revolution and concluded that Adam Weishaupt’s Illuminati was the model for Marxism, Sovietstyle Communism, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the United Nations. Welch referred to the modern Illuminati as the “Insiders” and even alleged in his book, The Politician, that World War II general and republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower was an insider working for the Communists. Gary Allen’s 1964 book, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, was widely promoted by the Society, and it laid out a supposed roadmap of the modern Illuminati, combined with the financing of the Rockefellers and the Rothschild banking family. The book certainly struck a chord in America by selling 7 million copies
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:32am On Aug 16, 2016
Dan Brown’s Illuminati
Dan Brown, like many authors, resurrected the Illuminati as little more than boogeymen for his first Robert Langdon novel, Angels & Demons. Using the Illuminati allowed Brown to engage his characters in Enlightenment-style dialogues about the supremacy of science over religion. In the end (stop here if you haven’t read the novel), it turns out that the mysterious head of the Illuminati, Janus, has perpetrated a hoax and resurrected the name of the Order as a diversionary tactic to hide his own individual treachery. It’s a favorite Brown tactic use the bad guy to spout your most controversial ideas, so you have a back-door escape hatch. “The brotherhood of the Illuminati is also factual,” says Dan Brown in his “Author’s Note” in Angels & Demons. Not the way he wrote it, it isn’t. Brown’s fictional Illuminati was supposed to have been a group of scientists who rebelled secretly against church dogma in the 1500s. According to his story, scientists who failed to knuckle under to church teachings and demands were arrested, tortured, and branded on the chest with a superspecial branding iron identifying them as members of the subversive group, and their bodies pitched into the streets of Rome as a warning. According to Brown, astronomer Galileo Galilee was a member, and they met secretly in an underground Church of the Illumination. Eventually, in the 1600s, this Illuminati became dedicated to the toppling of the church and Christianity itself. They became Satanists and were referred to as Shaitan the Islamic word for Satan by the Catholic Church. Breathlessly, Langdon describes them as the “world’s oldest and most powerful satanic cult.” Brown even gave this Illuminati a spiffy logo, a clever bit of calligraphy that spells out their name, which looks identical upside down or right side up. Far from being an artifact from history, this “ambigram” as Brown calls it, is an invention of his friend, artist John Langdon, whose name he attached to his fictional hero Robert Langdon in gratitude. Brown uses a clever device in his books, dressing up old, secret, and often fictional societies to get in his licks against the church. The history of the Catholic Church’s activities is long, exciting, and sad enough without Brown exaggerating it to an absurd degree. And one thing is for certain: The one thing the real Illuminati was not was satanic.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:34am On Aug 16, 2016
Texe Marrs, ZOG, and the Illuminati
Former U.S. Air Force officer turned evangelical minister, Texe Marrs (no relation to conspiracy author and fellow Texan Jim Marrs) preaches a message of end-times prophecy, combined with anti-Semitic, ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government), and Illuminati obsession. He is one of the most prolific anti-Semitic conspiracists in America, and believes that the U.S. government is little more than a willing puppet of Israel. His bewildering pile of books, DVDs, CDs, tapes, newsletters, and other merchandise, along with a weekly radio show broadcast via shortwave, covers everything from American “gulags” (secret concentration camps for rounding up dissidents) and a supposed Jewish domination of American, European, and Soviet governments, to a crypto-Jewish/Masonic/Illuminati plan to destroy the world. Or Christianity. Or world banking. It gets confusing after a while. For those interested in kitsch, his for-profit Power of Prophecy “ministry” has a 192-page catalog available for a paltry $6, so you too can keep your ear to the ground to hear the onrushing train of worldwide destruction. He also sells water filters.
Re: The Real Illumimati by Nobody: 12:35am On Aug 16, 2016
David Icke’s version of the Illuminati
Former British soccer player, self-proclaimed Messiah, and professional conspiracist David Icke has concocted his own theory of the Illuminati, and they aren’t of this earth. It’s probably true that Ickes has done more than any other conspiracy author to promote the concept of an all-controlling cabal of elites who are working secretly behind the scenes to dominate the world. Icke believes the Illuminati are actually several races of alien reptiles who live underground, and who can change their outward shape to resemble humans. Icke claims these alien Illuminati make up the British royal family, the Rothschild banking family, the family of both Bush presidents, the Freemasons, the Jews, and country singer Boxcar Willie, among many others.
Re: The Real Illumimati by EyeHateGod: 2:56pm On Aug 30, 2016
Illuminati in America? The All-Seeing Eye in a triangle that appears in the U.S. Great Seal really started out in the Renaissance as a Christian symbol for God, with the triangle representing the Holy Trinity.

Re: The Real Illumimati by shaibuemma1414: 5:55pm On Sep 26, 2016
Dan Brown’s Illuminati
Dan Brown, like many authors, resurrected the Illuminati as little more than boogeymen for his first Robert Langdon novel, Angels & Demons. Using the Illuminati allowed Brown to engage his characters in Enlightenment-style dialogues about the supremacy of science over religion. In the end (stop here if you haven’t read the novel), it turns out that the mysterious head of the Illuminati, Janus, has perpetrated a hoax and resurrected the name of the Order as a diversionary tactic to hide his own individual treachery. It’s a favorite Brown tactic use the bad guy to spout your most controversial ideas, so you have a back-door escape hatch. “The brotherhood of the Illuminati is also factual,” says Dan Brown in his “Author’s Note” in Angels & Demons. Not the way he wrote it, it isn’t. Brown’s fictional Illuminati was supposed to have been a group of scientists who rebelled secretly against church dogma in the 1500s. According to his story, scientists who failed to knuckle under to church teachings and demands were arrested, tortured, and branded on the chest with a superspecial branding iron identifying them as members of the subversive group, and their bodies pitched into the streets of Rome as a warning. According to Brown, astronomer Galileo Galilee was a member, and they met secretly in an underground Church of the Illumination. Eventually, in the 1600s, this Illuminati became dedicated to the toppling of the church and Christianity itself. They became Satanists and were referred to as Shaitan the Islamic word for Satan by the Catholic Church. Breathlessly, Langdon describes them as the “world’s oldest and most powerful satanic cult.” Brown even gave this Illuminati a spiffy logo, a clever bit of calligraphy that spells out their name, which looks identical upside down or right side up. Far from being an artifact from history, this “ambigram” as Brown calls it, is an invention of his friend, artist John Langdon, whose name he attached to his fictional hero Robert Langdon in gratitude. Brown uses a clever device in his books, dressing up old, secret, and often fictional societies to get in his licks against the church. The history of the Catholic Church’s activities is long, exciting, and sad enough without Brown exaggerating it to an absurd degree. And one thing is for certain: The one thing the real Illuminati was not was satanic.

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