The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar were warriors dedicated to protecting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land during the Crusades. The military order was founded around 1118 when Hugues de Payens, a French knight, created the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon—or The Knights Templar for short. Headquartered at Temple Mount in Jerusalem, members pledged to live a life of chastity, obedience and poverty, abstaining from gambling, alcohol and even swearing.
The Knights Templar were known for more than their military prowess and moral lifestyle. They became one of the most wealthy and powerful forces in Europe after setting up a bank that allowed pilgrims to deposit money in their home countries and withdraw it in the Holy Land.
The Freemasons
The freemasons loom large in American history—after all, 13 of the 39 men who signed the U.S. Constitution were Masons. Founding Fathers like George Washington, James Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and Paul Revere all counted themselves as members of the fraternal order. But who are the freemasons?
The freemasons can trace their routes to the Middle Ages in Europe, a time when most craftsmen were organized into local guilds. Cathedral builders, by nature of their profession, had to travel from city to city. They identified one another via signs of their trade, like the builder’s square and compass in Freemasonry’s now-iconic symbol.
The earliest reference to masons is in the Regius Poem, or Halliwell Manuscript, which was published in 1390, but Freemasonry as we know it today was founded in 1717, when four London lodges merged to form England’s first Grand Lodge. Freemasonry quickly spread across Europe and to the American colonies.The Illuminati
Members of the Bavarian Illuminati, referred to as “Perfectibilists,” were broken into three tiers of increasing power and drawn from societal elites including noblemen like former freemason Baron von Knigge and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. All communication was in cipher and members were given classical nicknames (Weishaupt’s, for example, was Spartacus).
Skull and Bones
The Order of Skull and Bones is a secret society founded at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1832. Skull and Bones founder William Huntington Russell was inspired by an occult society he’d visited in Germany. His co-founder was Alphonso Taft, future Secretary of War under President Grant and father of president William Howard Taft… who would also be a member of Skull and Bones. The prominent list of Bonesman includes several presidents and modern-day power brokers.
Each year, 15 seniors at Yale are tapped to join Skull and Bones. Their names are published in Yale Rumpus, though what happens behind the closed doors of The Tomb, the windowless meeting space where Bonesmen gather twice a week, is under wraps: Members take an oath of secrecy. Graduate members are referred to as “patriarchs,” while those undergoing initiation are called “knights.” Outsiders of the group are “barbarians.”
Bilderberg
The first Bilderberg Meeting was in 1954 and held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands, from which the organization gets its name. Convened by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, it was a gathering of powerful politicians from North America and Europe designed to foster warmer relations between the two continents among fears of growing anti-Americanism in Europe.
While not strictly a secret society like the Illuminati or freemasons, Bilderberg’s high-profile attendees—previous guests have included Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger—and its use of the Chatham House Rule blocking attendees from sharing what actually happens in meetings gives the group an air of mystery. Journalists are barred from reporting on it. Meeting minutes are not released. SOURCE: History.com
No comments:
Post a Comment