Legacy of the Bavarian Illuminati - Part 1

Separating Fact From Fiction

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The Order of the Illuminati has supposedly been traced back to the Knights Templar, to the Greek and Gnostic initiatory cults, to Egypt, and sometimes even to Atlantis (obviously, these claims are unprovable). The one safe generalization one can make is that founder Adam Weishaupt's intent to maintain secrecy has worked; no two students of Illuminology have ever agreed totally about what the "inner secret" or purpose of the Order actually was (or is . . .)

There is endless room for spooky speculation and paranoia, once one really gets into the literature on the subject; and there has been a wave of sensational "ex-poses" of the Illuminati every generation since 1776. If you were to believe all this sensational literature, the damned Bavarian conspirators were responsible for everything wrong with the world, including the energy crises, the failure of one’s preferred sports team, and the fact that banks are closed on the weekends.

The above paragraph is the most honest a succinct representation of the Illuminati you will find across the internet in this author’s humble opinion.

The term “Illuminati” gets thrown around like monkey caca out there in conspiracy land; it’s typically inaccurately used as a catch-all term for any and all groups operating in a clandestine fashion and tends to carry more baggage than more precise terms like “Deep State” or “Cabal.” In our ignorance, we tend to see the Deep State as a single secretive institution, when in reality it is more accurate to think of it as a loose-knit amalgamation of groups reluctantly working hand in glove with one another to achieve full-spectrum dominance of humanity, or what is also known as synarchism.

It very well could be true that everything we know about this group is either disinformation or the work of imagination. Since many researchers disagree about the origin and intention of the group, we will simply look at what people claim to know, what mainstream historians acknowledge, and what some of the gnostic and New Age defenders of this group have to say.

It is important we are all on the same page, so I will take time to make sure we are not thinking about separate groups. The group in question is the 18th-century Bavarian Illuminati of Adam Weishaupt and is not to be confused with the Alumbrados of 15th- and 16th-century Spain or its cheap modern imitation. 

In regards to the cheap imitation linked above, the idea that somebody can just come along and revive the name of something is not the same as actually being of that thing. It is no different than if I were to start a group called the Pequot Indians and claim to be the same as the tribe from Massachusetts; the actual Pequot Indians were decimated ages ago and will not exist again simply because I say that they do, no matter how convincing a website I might erect. Though the aims of the original Illuminati do seem to continue today, we’ll show that that group was only one in a long series of fraternities and orders hidden within the veiled world of Freemasonry.

Origin and Discovery

The purported and widely held date of origin for the group was May 1st, 1776. Though it is contested as to whether this is indeed the true date of origin or simply the date when the public first became aware of the group's existence, regardless, May Day is a date long honored by communists, whose philosophy some claim may have been based on the Illuminati doctrine. 

The Bavarian Illuminati was an Enlightenment-era secret society. The group’s stated goals within their own statutes read as follows:

"to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them."

The man most credited with the creation of this group was a Jesuit named Adam Weishaupt, who was a professor of Cannon Law at Ingolstadt University in Bavaria, Germany.

Adam Weishaupt, code name: SPARTACUS

Weishaupt was born in 1748 to Jewish parents but grew up in the Catholic faith. After his father, George Weishaupt, died in 1754, the young Adam was turned over to be raised by the Jesuits by his godfather, Baron Ickstatt, who was curator of the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. Weishaupt would eventually convert to Protestantism while at Ingolstadt, but would eventually rebel against the Abrahamic religions altogether (rebellion against religion seems to be a common theme with prominent ex-Jesuits, a la Karl Marx).

Weishaupt famously wanted to replace Christianity (as well as Judaism and Islam) with a global religion of “reason,” and the members of his society would eventually come to call themselves “Perfectibilists.” Weishaupt’s recruitment efforts spread across the cities of Bavaria, and he also made connections with a number of Masonic lodges, where his group often managed to gain a strong foothold in the same fashion that other powerful institutions have had success within the secretive confines of the various European lodges (La Cosa Nostra, Young Italy, Jocobins and Jocabites, Dutch East India Company, etc.). 

Weishaupt was guided by the model of the Republic as laid out by Plato sometime between 428 and 347 B.C.E. (the initiates of the mystery religion of the cabal have all maintained an affinity for Plato, as well as Pythagoras). The society was carefully structured and divided into three main classes—coincidentally, Plato provided for three classes of people in his Republic as well. Its highest class was a mystery class, which comprised grades of membership consisting of Priest, Regent, Magus, and King; versions of this hierarchical system exist within various occult groups throughout history and are carried on today within groups like the Rosicrucians, Ordo Templi Orientis, etc.

Getting back to Plato, his three classes consisted of the ruling (mystery) class, the working class, and the military. Plato also called for the complete elimination of marriage and the family, so that all women would belong to all men, and all men would belong to all women. Under Weisaupts hypothetical utopia, children born from promiscuous unions would be raised anonymously by the state. The state would eliminate all defectives, an idea that would be carried on by future globalists like John D Rockefeller and modern individuals who will not be named here.

In the modern Communist Party, these three classes still exist. The general public tends to think of Communism as an order catering to the working classes and does not realize that very powerful, wealthy, multinational men living in free societies around the world today are its kings and priests.

The story (or myth) of how the group was first discovered is quite sensational.

An Illuminati courier named Johann Jakob Lanz, a former Catholic priest is killed by lightning in 1785 while riding through the city of Regensburg. Examining the contents of his saddle bag, the cops discover the existence of the Illuminati Order and find detailed plans for the upcoming French Revolution, though this story has been refuted by the masonic lodges.

Over time, the movement acquired a rigorously complex constitution and internal communication system conducted in cipher. At its apex, the Bavarian Illuminati operated in a very large area, extending from Italy to Denmark and from Warsaw to Paris. The movement was ultimately banned, and Weishaupt was stripped of his professorship at Ingolstadt. No evidence of the Bavarian order appears in the historical record after 1785, though non-affiliated groups have tried to resurrect the name in recent times.

There are two major critics of the Illuminati: John Robison (the author who tried to warn George Washington) and Abbé Barruel; both published their accusations, theories, and "histories" in English, though it has only been in the last few years that the source documents have been translated, allowing the English-speaking world additional perspective on the shadowy group (though, these translations are being gatekept by Freemasons, who knows if they are depicted honestly).

[If you are interested in a more favorable dive into the group, consult Amelia Gill's 2008 translation of Weishaupt's Die Lampe von Diogenese, Peggy Pawlowski’s 2004 doctoral thesis, ‘Der Beitrag Johann Adam Weishaupts zur Pädagogik des Illuminatismus.]

Since Masonry is itself a secret society, the Illuminati was a secret society within a secret society—a mystery inside a mystery, so to speak. In 1785 the Illuminati were suppressed by the Bavarian government for allegedly plotting to overthrow all the kings in Europe and the Pope to boot. This much is generally agreed upon by all historians. (#)

Everything else is a matter of heated debate.

It’s all but confirmed that Dr. Weishaupt was an atheist, a Cabalistic magician, a rationalist, a mystic; a democrat, a socialist, an anarchist, a fascist; a Machiavellian amoralist, an alchemist, a totalitarian, and an "enthusiastic philanthropist." (The last was the verdict of Thomas Jefferson, by the way. Take that how you will; I still dig Jefferson.)

As we already mentioned, the Illuminati have also been credited with managing the French and American revolutions behind the scenes, taking over the world, being the brains behind Communism, continuing underground up to the 1970s, secretly worshipping the Devil, and being lizard-like extraterrestrials from the Orion system. Some even claim that Weishaupt didn't even invent the Illuminati, but only revived it. These claims remain unproven.

At this time, Age of Enlightenment was in full swing, and by the end of the Eighteenth Century an explosion of natural philosophy, and science, the resurgence of hermeticism, and occult experimentation, all competed directly with the traditional teachings of the Church and the Jesuit monopoly in the Universities and Colleges. Numerous ideologies owe an intellectual and political heritage to this period: skepticism, rationalism, atheism, liberalism, humanism, reductionism, modernism, communism, nihilism, and anarchism, among the most apparent.

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Eliminating the Opiate

“Religion is the opiate of the people.” — Karl Marx, Introduction to Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right, (1844)

Contrary to popular belief, Karl Marx was not the true progenitor of the ideas put forth in the Communist Manifesto. Marx was paid and directed by a group called the League of the Just, which was known in Germany as the Bund der Gerechten, or more simply as the Bund. The Bund, which also existed as a secret society, was later to become known as the International Communist Party and would be the spiritual successor of, or work directly in conjunction with, the Bavarian Illuminati. (#)

The Bund existed as a means to not only infiltrate and eradicate most religions, but they targeted Judaism especially, which at that time was a far more unified people than what we see today. It is easier to control and eventually destroy a religion by splintering it into many competing sects, and that was one of the purposes that the Bund inherited from the Illuminati.

The true origin of the Bund appears to be lost in obscurity, but it is believed by many political scientists to have been influenced by the Bavarian Illuminati.

It is known that political scientists are divided as to the Illuminati and its relationship with the Communist Party. There is no argument about the relationship between the Illuminati and the Jacobins, who executed the terror of the French Revolution, and some believe they also had a hand in manipulating events during the American Revolution.

In regards to Judaism, there is also no argument among prominent Judaica scholars as to the continuum that existed between Jewish-born heretics who were followers of the false Messiah Shabbetai Tzvi (1626-1676) through his successors, the radical practitioners of the Sabbatian cult called the Frankists (named after their founder, Jacob Frank, who famously proclaimed “Since we cannot all be saints, let us all be sinners."), the Jacobins, and the Reform movement. The Sabbateans and Frankists believed that, rather than attempting to become saints, they would be able to bring about the messiah more quickly by perverting God’s creation (this appears to be the Deep State’s modus operandi even today, and explains why they have such a penchant for dark inversions).

(More on the Frankists and Sabbateans HERE.)

The Illuminati paralleled the Frankists in both time and geography, with the seat of both movements being in Germany—the Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, and the Frankists in Offenbach after 1786. From the Jewish historical perspective, there is a relationship between the Illuminati and the Communists.

(It is held by many that the “sacred orgies” and general degeneracy of the Frankists and Sabbateans are carried on to this day within the various cells of the occult elite.)

The eerie connection between the Frankists and Jacobins, and Frankists and the Reform movement has been brought to light by one of the greatest living authorities on the mystical Kabbalistic literature, Professor Gershom G. Scholem’ of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. In addition to Scholem, we have the testimony of John Robison in his Proofs of a Conspiracy, published in 1798, which details the development of the Illuminati and its rise to power.

Our nation’s founder, George Washington, read John Robison's book shortly before he died, and immediately opined:

“It was not my intention to 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 …” 

John Robison, among many contemporary and future researchers, was adequately convinced of the machinations of the Illuminati.

In his book, Robison details the development of the Illuminati and its rise to power, their connection with the Jacobins, and with the terror that took place during the French Revolution. The famous Count Mirabeau of French Revolution fame was, according to Robison, a member of the Illuminati.

Robison traces the Illuminati to an aberration in Freemasonry started by Adam Weishaupt and assisted by Baron Adolf Franz Friedrich Knigge (1752-1796).° Knigge is mentioned constantly throughout Robison's book. At the end of the first chapter of Robison's Conspiracy book, entitled Schisms in Free Masonry, he says Baron Knigge and other cosmo-political brethren formed a scheme for uniting radical Masonic lodges in Germany. Knigge was dissatisfied with all the degrees in Freemasonry, and he wanted to take things a step further.

Robison presents a list of lodges of the Illuminati existing primarily in Germany, with a few in England, Scotland, Poland, Switzerland, France, and Italy, as well as America; William Stewart seems to mirror this in his seminal work The Invisible College: the Great European Secret.

Robison also gives the names of the members:

Some of the more important Illuminati mentioned by Robison were given code names. These code names were based, for the most part, on classical Greek and Roman personalities who were known for their ruthlessness and cynicism. Weishaupt had the code name Spartacus; Knigge was called Philo; Count Mirabeau was called Cornelius Scipio; and Nicholai was called Lucian. The radicalism of the Illuminati manifested itself in public and in private. Their goal was not only to abolish Christianity but to overturn all civil government.

In 1783, four professors of Marianne Academy were summoned before a court of inquiry and questioned on their allegiance to the Order of the Illuminati. During these inquiries, it was brought out that the Order abjured Christianity and refused admission into its higher degrees to all who adhered to Catholicism's three confessions. (#)

According to Robison,

"Sensual pleasures were restored to the rank held in the Epicurean philosophy. Self-murder was justified on Stoical principles. In the Lodges, death was declared an eternal sleep; patriotism and were called narrow-minded prejudices, and incompatible with universal benevolence; continual declamations were made on liberty and equality as the unalienable rights of man. The baneful influence of accumulated property was declared an insurmountable obstacle to the happiness of nation whose chief laws were framed for its protection and increase."

Interestingly enough, this is quite in keeping with Weishaupt's own code name, ‘Spartacus,’ inspired by the man who headed the insurrection of slaves and kept Rome in terror and uproar for three years.

Following this expose of the Order, it was discovered that Weishaupt was its head. He was deprived of his professor's Chair and banished from Bavaria. He went to Regensburg, where he continued his activities. Along with him, two Italians, the Marquis Constanza and the Marquis Savioli, were also banished, together with a lawyer named Zwack, while some other members were imprisoned.

Robison further exposes letters of secret correspondence between members of the Illuminati in which he reveals how debased some of them were. For example, in a memo from Spartacus to Cato, which was from Weishaupt to lawyer Zwack, dated March 17, 1778, Weishaupt sets down a blueprint for engaging in espionage. In the writings of Zwack were the plans for a Women's Liberation movement.

Zwack states,

"It should consist of two classes: the virtuous and the free-hearted (i.e., those who fly out of the common tract of prudish manners) ... Proper books must be put into their hands, and such as are flattering to their passions."

These people operated in a similar fashion as modern CIA agents.

Found with Zwack's writings after his death are descriptions of a strong box which, if forced open, would blow up and destroy its contents; recipes for securing an abortion; a chemical composition which blinds or kills when spurted in the face; a recipe for invisible ink; a formula for making a tea which induces abortion; a method for filling a bedroom with poisonous gas; methods for forging seals of state, including a collection of several hundred such impressions, with a list of their owners, including princes, nobles, clergymen and prominent merchants; a copy of a manuscript entitled Better Than Horus, which was printed and distributed at a Leipzig fair, containing an attack and a bitter satire on all religion.

After this was exposed, the Illuminati said that all of these unusual possessions properly belonged in the hands of Zwack because, after all, he was a judge of the criminal court and it was his duty to know of such things, a lie that seemed to have worked. The same excuse was also offered for his collection of faux seals but, of course, the damning question really was, ‘Why were these things found among the papers of the Illuminati?’

When Weishaupt was confronted with this, his reaction was, "These things were not carried into effect, only spoken of, and were justifiable when taken in proper connection.”

In another memo from Spartacus to Cato, Weishaupt is rather verbose about his anti-religious philosophy. He felt that Freemasonry (the blue degrees) is essentially Concealed Christianity and that "Christ" should be substituted with the word "reason." He then calls for a new religion and a new state government, which explains Masonic symbols and combines them in one degree.

In another piece of correspondence from Philo (Knigge) to Cato (Zwack), Knigge refers to religious authorities as cheats who bow to superstition and fanaticism. He advocates a slow overthrow of religion so that the fanatics will not be alarmed and will not be aware of what is going on.

Of Jewish mysticism, he declares:

"The Jewish Theosophy was a mystery like the Eleusinsian, or the Pythagorean, unfit for the vulgar.”

The Illuminati also encouraged their members through machinations and intrigues to obtain positions or places of trust and influence. Robison mentions that, when the publication of a list of members came out in Germany, people were astonished to find themselves in every quarter "in the midst of villains that were plotting against the peace and happiness of the country and destroying every sentiment of religion, morality, and loyalty.”

Robison traces Illuminati activities through the German Union, and in his final chapter, he discusses their role in the French Revolution. He notes that during the Revolution, cosmo-political and skeptical opinions and sentiments were able to find full expression in the political occurrences in France. He delves into the intrigues of the famous Count Honore Gabriel Riqueti Mirabeau (1749-1791), not to be confused with his father Victor (1715-1789).

[I will be covering Jacobins in a future SubStack.]

There’s not enough space in this article to fully cover the ways that Illuminism and its adherents have worked to destroy Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but you can see today that their efforts seem to have paid off in some ways.

In Part 2, we will take a look at what some of the group’s modern liberal defenders have to say. We will also look at the timeline of known events that took place in relation to the Illuminati and look at some of its key players.

Continue on to Part 2.

Badlands Media articles and features represent the opinions of the contributing authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Badlands Media itself.

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