Secret Societies

Secret societies are organisations characterised by exclusive membership, initiation rituals, hierarchical degree structures, and the selective disclosure of knowledge reserved for those who have advanced through the ranks. From the ancient mystery schools of Egypt and Greece to modern elite coordination bodies such as the Bilderberg Group and Council on Foreign Relations, the tradition of organised, semi-secret influence over public affairs represents one of the most persistent and consequential threads in recorded history. Researchers examining the New World Order thesis argue that far from being relics of the past, secret societies continue to function as the connective tissue of a global power structure — coordinating policy, placing members in positions of influence, and advancing a long-term agenda that the general public is not invited to scrutinise.

Historical Origins: The Ancient Mystery Schools

The roots of the secret society tradition are typically traced to the mystery schools of the ancient world. In Egypt, the temples of Amun and the priesthood of Osiris maintained bodies of esoteric knowledge — cosmological, mathematical, and spiritual — that were transmitted only to initiates after a process of ritual preparation and testing. The Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece similarly offered initiates a transformative religious experience centred on death, rebirth, and hidden knowledge about the nature of the soul.

These early institutions established the template that would persist for millennia:

A public face acceptable to broader society
A hidden interior doctrine reserved for the initiated
Ritual as a mechanism of psychological transformation and loyalty formation
A hierarchical degree structure controlling the flow of information
A theology or cosmology distinct from — and often at odds with — mainstream religion

Neoplatonic, Gnostic, and Hermetic currents in the late Roman and early Christian periods carried this tradition forward. The occult philosophy that animated these movements — the belief in hidden laws governing reality, accessible only through initiation and inner development — became the philosophical foundation for virtually all subsequent secret societies in the Western tradition.

The Medieval Orders: Templars, Jesuits, and the Rosicrucians

Knights Templar

The Knights Templar, founded in 1119 CE ostensibly to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land, became one of the most powerful financial and military organisations in medieval Europe. Their sudden suppression by King Philip IV of France in 1307 — accompanied by accusations of heresy, blasphemy, and secret idol worship (the Baphomet) — has made them a permanent fixture in discussions of secret tradition. Many researchers argue that the Templar network was not destroyed but simply went underground, with its esoteric traditions resurfaces in later organisations, particularly Freemasonry.

The Jesuits

Founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) operates with a quasi-military internal structure and has historically been accused of exercising hidden political influence far beyond its stated religious mission. The order was suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 — partly due to its alleged meddling in the affairs of European monarchies. Researchers in the NWO tradition point to Jesuit influence across intelligence agencies, banking networks, and academic institutions, and note that Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope.

Rosicrucians

The Rosicrucian manifestos, published anonymously in early 17th-century Germany (Fama Fraternitatis, 1614; Confessio Fraternitatis, 1615), described an invisible brotherhood of enlightened initiates working behind the scenes to reform European civilisation. Whether or not the original order existed, the Rosicrucian current gave rise to numerous successor bodies and exerted a profound influence on the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment — and, according to some scholars, on the formation of modern Freemasonry.

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is the most widely documented and discussed of all Western secret societies. Emerging in its recognisable form with the founding of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717, it draws on imagery from the medieval stonemasons' guilds and a mythology centred on the building of Solomon's Temple by the architect Hiram Abiff. Its degree structure — from Entered Apprentice through Fellow Craft to Master Mason in the Blue Lodge, and extending through 33 degrees in the Scottish Rite — is explicitly designed to progressively reveal deeper layers of esoteric doctrine.

Freemasonry's influence on the founding of the United States is well-documented. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, and numerous other Founding Fathers were Freemasons. The layout of Washington D.C. incorporates geometric patterns associated with Masonic symbolism, and the reverse of the Great Seal — featuring the unfinished pyramid and the Annuit Coeptis motto — appears on the US one-dollar bill. The Latin phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum ("New Order of the Ages") inscribed beneath the pyramid is cited by many researchers as an explicit statement of long-term intention.

Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma (1871), the most famous exposition of Scottish Rite philosophy, describes the higher degrees as an increasingly explicit engagement with Gnostic and Hermetic ideas. Pike's often-quoted (though disputed in full context) statement that "Lucifer is the Light-bearer" is central to claims about the Luciferian orientation of upper-degree Masonry.

The Bavarian Illuminati

The Bavarian Illuminati was founded on 1 May 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, a professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt. Weishaupt's stated aims included the abolition of monarchy, organised religion, and national sovereignty — to be replaced by a rationalist world government guided by an enlightened elite. The order recruited heavily from existing Masonic lodges and at its peak claimed several thousand members across Europe, including, allegedly, Goethe and various European nobles.

The Bavarian government officially suppressed the Illuminati in 1785. The organisation's infiltration of Masonic lodges and its alleged survival and transformation into successor bodies is the subject of John Robison's 1798 work Proofs of a Conspiracy. Whether or not the original Illuminati survived suppression, Illuminati has become shorthand in popular and research discourse for the alleged network of initiated elites coordinating the NWO agenda.

Skull and Bones

Founded at Yale University in 1832, Skull and Bones is arguably the most powerful elite-networking organisation in American history. Members — known as "Bonesmen" — have included Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Senator John Kerry, CIA Director Porter Goss, and a disproportionate number of senior intelligence officials and Wall Street figures. The order's tomb at Yale is strictly off-limits; its rituals reportedly involve detailed personal confessions (understood as a form of mutual blackmail insurance) and initiatory rites with death-and-rebirth symbolism. Skull and Bones is structurally a classic initiatory secret society, operating under the additional advantage of institutional access to the Yale establishment.

John Robison and 'Proofs of a Conspiracy'

Scottish physicist John Robison published Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe in 1798, making it one of the earliest systematic analyses of secret society influence on political affairs. Drawing on his experience as a Freemason and his access to Continental lodge documents, Robison argued that the Bavarian Illuminati had successfully infiltrated Masonic lodges across Europe and had been instrumental in fomenting the French Revolution as part of a long-term project to destroy religion and monarchy.

Though Robison's work was controversial at the time and has been dismissed by mainstream historians, it remains a foundational reference in NWO research for several reasons:

It demonstrates that concern about coordinated secret society influence on politics is not a modern invention but dates to the late 18th century
It documents specific mechanisms — lodge infiltration, political placement, controlled information flow — that remain relevant to contemporary analysis
It establishes the template of an initiated inner circle using Enlightenment-sounding language to pursue a radical political programme hidden from the general membership

Knights of Malta

The Knights of Malta (formally the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, SMOM) is a Catholic chivalric order with its origins in the Hospitaller knights of the Crusades. Today it operates as a sovereign entity recognised by over 100 states, maintains permanent observer status at the United Nations, and issues its own passports. Its membership historically has included a striking concentration of Western intelligence officials — CIA directors William Colby and John McCone, William Casey, and numerous other senior figures in the US and European intelligence and financial communities. Researchers argue that the Knights of Malta function as a cross-border coordination network for Catholic-aligned intelligence and financial interests.

Modern Semi-Secret Coordination Bodies

Several organisations founded in the 20th century are analysed by NWO researchers as operating in the same structural tradition as historical secret societies — exclusive membership, non-public deliberations, and coordinated influence over policy:

Bilderberg Group (founded 1954): Annual invitation-only conference of approximately 150 senior political, financial, media, and intelligence figures. No press access; no public minutes. Many major Western policy shifts have been anticipated in the year following Bilderberg meetings.

Council on Foreign Relations (founded 1921): New York-based think tank and membership organisation that has supplied a remarkable proportion of US Secretaries of State, National Security Advisors, and Federal Reserve chairs. Its journal Foreign Affairs functions as the intellectual framework document for US foreign policy.

Club of Rome (founded 1968): Elite think tank whose 1972 Limits to Growth report laid the intellectual groundwork for global population management and resource control policies. The Club has explicitly discussed the utility of manufactured existential threats — including climate change — as mechanisms for achieving global governance.

These organisations are not secret in the sense of being unknown, but their internal deliberations are carefully controlled, their membership networks are self-selecting and exclusive, and their collective influence on global affairs far exceeds their public visibility.

The Esoteric Doctrine: Gnosticism, Luciferianism, and the Deification of Man

A recurring theme across historical analysis of secret societies is the presence, in the upper degrees, of a theological orientation markedly different from conventional Christianity. Researchers such as Manly P. Hall — himself a 33rd-degree Freemason — documented in The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928) that the inner tradition of Western initiatory orders draws on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and what he called the "Ancient Mysteries."

Central to this inner doctrine, according to various researchers, is:

A Luciferian or Promethean mythology in which the light-bringer represents human reason and self-deification, in opposition to a limiting external deity
Gnostic cosmology in which material creation is the product of an inferior demiurge and the initiated human can transcend it through knowledge (gnosis)
The exaltation of human will and intellect above received religious authority
A long-term project of rebuilding Solomon's Temple — understood not merely architecturally but as a metaphor for a new world order organised around initiated wisdom

This theological current, researchers argue, provides the hidden coherence behind the Transhumanist Agenda: the aspiration to transcend human biological limitations, merge with technology, achieve immortality, and ultimately replace God with a human-engineered superintelligence is the technological expression of a much older Luciferian-Gnostic project.