Abstract

The research discusses the various forms of secret societies prevailing in the world, especially in America. The research also discusses the historical background of some of the secret societies, which include Skull and Bones, the Knights of the Golden Circle, Illuminati, Bilderberg Group and Freemasons. Furthermore, the research also discusses the influence of these societies in the politics of America and how the members plan to have control over the world.

Table of Contents

Abstracti

Introduction1

Discussion2

Background of Secret Societies2

Skull and Bones5

The Knights of the Golden Circle10

Illuminati12

Bilderberg Group14

Freemasons15

New World Order and the Role of Secret Societies20

Conclusion23

Works Cited25

Secret Societies

Introduction

Secret societies are groups whose members do not publicize their associations with respective groups and are known to practice rituals such as black magic and sacrifices. Secret societies exist throughout the globe and among both traditional and industrialized peoples, an in both ancient and modern times. Most of the secret societies are open to men only. These groups may be partly religious in purpose, and involve more or less elaborate rituals of initiation. Most of them combine spiritual functions with social, cultural, psychological, political, or economic ones, suggesting the close interrelationship between religious and secular activities. Indigenous American men commonly formed such societies, and they continue to exist in modern cultures. Most have been devoted to the development and transmission of sacred knowledge, healing techniques, and religious rituals, which are considered necessary for the well-being of the larger group. Secret societies are required to maintain secrecy in the interest of preserving the efficacy of their practices. However, there existence is mostly known to people, but their rituals, practices and members are debatable.

White Europeans founded secret societies, as well, which are devoted to spiritual wisdom—largely outside the Christian tradition—and were experiencing a proliferation when they colonized North America. Secret societies, from the outset, were an important part of American religious and cultural life, that drew on ancient gnosticism, Christianity, Renaissance mysticism, and Enlightenment rationalism, stemming from medieval Catholic confraternities and guilds. The Rosicrucian order, in particular, was familiar to English intellectuals and German pietists of seventeenth-century, but mysticism faded among literate colonists during the eighteenth century, and only in the twentieth the Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis was founded in Pennsylvania (1902) and the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis in California (1915). They continue to restrict their knowledge to members, but direct an active national advertising campaign to those seeking a spiritual alternative to mainline religions.

Discussion

Background of Secret Societies

It was through Freemasonry, imported from England, that Rosicrucianism and other forms of religious mysticism found an institutional home in colonial and nineteenth-century America. Though, the rituals of Masons and most American secret societies that followed, focused less on the sustained pursuit of higher wisdom than on the instillation of basic moral and ethical principles. First, established in the colonies by 1730, Masonry blended ancient paganism, Christianity, Enlightenment deism, and political republicanism into an ideology that spread among the urban middle classes and greatly influenced the founders of the nation (Ridley, 14-70). The symbol of the all-seeing eye atop an Egyptian pyramid, incorporated ...