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Are The Illuminati Real?

The year was 1776. In Bavaria, new ideals of rationalism, religious freedom, and universal humanrights competed with the Catholic church’s heavy influence over public affairs. Across the Atlantic, a
new nation staked its claim for independence on the basis of these ideas. But back in Bavaria, law
professor Adam Weishaupt’s attempts to teach secular philosophy continued to be frustrated.
Weishaupt decided to spread his ideas through a secret society that would shine a light on theshortcomings of the Church’s ideology. He called his secret society the Illuminati. Weishaupt
modelled aspects of his secret society off a group called the Freemasons. Originally an elitestoneworkers’ guild in the late Middle Ages, the Freemasons had gone from passing down the craftof masonry to more generally promoting ideals of knowledge and reason. Over time, they had growninto a semi-secret, exclusive order that included many wealthy and influential individuals, withelaborate, secret initiation rituals.Weishaupt created his parallel society while also joining theTedEd-31

Are The Illuminati Real?

Freemasons and recruiting from their ranks. He adopted the code name Spartacus for himself, after
the famed leader of the Roman slave revolt. Early members became the Illuminati’s ruling council,or Areopagus. One of these members, Baron Adolph Knigge, was also a freemason, and became
an influential recruiter. With Knigge’s help, the Illuminati expanded their numbers, gained influence
within several Masonic chapters, and incorporated Masonic rituals. By 1784, there were over 600
members, including influential scholars and politicians.
As the Illuminati gained members, the American Revolution also gained momentum. ThomasJefferson would later cite Weishaupt as an inspiration. European monarchs and clergy were fearfulof similar revolts on their home soil. Meanwhile, the existence of the Illuminati had become an open
secret. Both the Illuminati and the Freemasons drew exclusively from society’s wealthy elite, whichmeant they were constantly rubbing shoulders with members of the religious and politicalestablishment. Many in the government and church believed that both groups were determined toundermine the people’s religious faith. But these groups didn’t necessarily oppose religion— they
just believed it should be kept separate from governance. Still, the suspicious Bavarian government
started keeping records of alleged members of the Illuminati. Just as Illuminati members begun tosecure important positions in local governments and universities, a 1784 decree by Duke Karl
Theodor of Bavaria banned all secret societies. While a public ban on something ostensibly secretmight seem difficult to enforce, in this case it worked. Only nine years after its founding, the groupdissolved, their records were seized, and Weishaupt forced into exile. The Illuminati would become
more notorious in their afterlife than they had ever been in their brief existence. A decade later, in
the aftermath of the French Revolution, conservative authors claimed the Illuminati had survived
their banishment and orchestrated the overthrow of the monarchy.

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Are The Illuminati Real?

In the United States, preacher Jedidiah Morse promoted similar ideas of an Illuminati conspiracy
against the government. But though the idea of a secret group orchestrating political upheaval is still
alive and well today, there is no evidence that the Illuminati survived, reformed, or went
underground. Their brief tenure is well-documented in Bavarian government records, the still-active
Freemasons’s records, and particularly the overlap between these two sources, without a whisper
since. In the spirit of rationalism the Illuminati embraced, one must conclude they no longer exist.
But the ideas that spurred Weishaupt to found the illuminati still spread, becoming the basis formany Western governments today. These ideas didn’t start or end with the Illuminati— instead, it
was one community that represented a wave of change that was already underway when it wasfounded and continued long after it ended.