Hundreds of conspiracy theories about Freemasonry have been described since the late 18th century.[1] Usually, these theories fall into three distinct categories: political (usually involving allegations of control of government, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom), religious (usually involving allegations of anti-Christian or Satanic beliefs or practices), and cultural (usually involving popular entertainment). Many conspiracy theories have connected the Freemasons (and the Knights Templar) with worship of the devil;[2][3] these ideas are based on different interpretations of the doctrines of those organizations.[4]
Of the claims that Freemasonry exerts control over politics, perhaps the best-known example is the New World Order theory, but there are others. These mainly involve aspects and agencies of the United States government, but actual events outside the US (such as the Propaganda Due scandal in Italy) are often used to lend credence to claims.
Another set of theories has to do with Freemasonry and religion, particularly that Freemasonry deals with "the occult".[5] These theories have their beginnings in the Taxil hoax.[6][7] In addition to these, there are various theories that focus on the embedding of symbols in otherwise ordinary items, such as street patterns, national seals, corporate logos, etc.
There are Masonic conspiracy theories dealing with every aspect of society. The majority of these theories are based on one or more of the following assumptions:
That Freemasonry is its own religion, requires belief in a unique Masonic god, and that belief in this Masonic god is contrary to the teachings of various mainstream religions (although usually noted in terms of being specifically contrary to Christian belief)[8]
That the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite is more than an honorary degree, coupled with the belief that most Freemasons are unaware of hidden or secretive ruling bodies within their organization that govern them, conduct occult ritual, or control various positions of governmental power[9]
That there is a centralized worldwide body that controls all Masonic Grand Lodges, and thus, all of Freemasonry worldwide acts in a unified manner
List of conspiracy theories associated with Freemasonry
That the British judiciary is heavily infiltrated with Masons, who give fellow Masons "the benefit of the doubt" in court, subverting the legal system[10][11]
Some conspiracy theories involving the Freemasons and the Illuminati also include the Knights Templar and Jews as part of the supposed plan for universal control of society. This type of conspiracy theory was described as early as 1792 by multiple authors, beginning in France and Scotland.[1]
That Freemasonry is a Jewish front for world domination or is at least controlled by Jews for this goal. An example of this is the anti-Semitic literary forgeryThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Adolf Hitler believed that Freemasonry was a tool of Jewish influence,[12] and outlawed Freemasonry and persecuted Freemasons partially for this reason.[13] The covenant of the PalestinianIslamist movement Hamas claims that Freemasonry is a "secret society" founded as part of a Zionist plot to control the world.[14]Hilaire Belloc thought Jews had "inaugurated" freemasonry "as a bridge between themselves and their hosts"[15]
That Freemasonry is tied to or behind Communism. The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco had often associated his opposition with both Freemasonry and Communism, and saw the latter as a conspiracy of the former; as he put it, "The whole secret of the campaigns unleashed against Spain can be explained in two words: masonry and communism".[16] In 1950, Irish writer Denis Fahey republished a work by George F. Dillon under the title Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked as the Secret Power Behind Communism. Modern conspiracy theorists such as Henry Makow have also claimed that Freemasonry intends the triumph of Communism[17]
That Freemasons are behind income taxes in the US. One convicted tax protester has charged that law enforcement officials who surrounded his property in a standoff over his refusal to surrender after his conviction were part of a "Zionist, Illuminati, Free Mason [sic] movement".[18] The New Hampshire Union Leader also reported that "the Browns believe the IRS and the federal income tax are part of a deliberate plot perpetrated by Freemasons to control the American people and eventually the world"[19]
Religious
There are a number of claims, predominantly made by conservative Protestants,[20] that Freemasons at higher degrees deceive those at lower degrees, and gradually reveal a separate, occult religion:
The Syrian-Egyptian Wahhabi scholar Rashid Rida popularised anti-Semitic and masonic conspiracies across the Arab world and which would later be embraced by various Islamist movements in the 20th century. In Rida's worldview, Freemasonry was invented by Jews. Rida's views would be adopted in the 1988 Charter of Hamas[23]
That some prominent murders involved Freemasons, including the cases of the Italian banker Roberto Calvi,[27] and the U.S. president John F. Kennedy.[3] A conspiracy theory about the death of the Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is that he was poisoned to death by the Freemasons due to the closure of Masonic lodges[28] in Turkey in 1935. In 2015, Yeni Şafak claimed that his former prime minister İsmet İnönü was in charge of planning the murder.[29]
↑ Robinson, John. A Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right. M. Evans, 1993. ISBN0-87131-732-X
1 2 Hodapp, Christopher L. and VonKannon, Alice, Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies, Wiley, 2008, ISBN978-0-470-18408-0
↑ Addison, Charles G.; David Hatcher Childress (1997). The History of the Knights Templars: The Temple Church and the Temple. Adventures Unlimited Press. pp.19–20. ISBN0-932813-40-2.
↑ Here used to denote a particular range of the occult involving Satanic or anti-Christian beliefs.
↑ S. Brent Morris, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry (2006), pp. 171-172; ISBN1-59257-490-4
↑ Christopher Hodapp, Freemasons for Dummies (2005), pp. 160-161; 298-299; ISBN0-7645-9796-5
↑ Kristen Senz, "Ed Brown says Feds have no jurisdiction in New Hampshire," New Hampshire Union Leader, June 8, 2007 Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Kristen Senz, "Browns say they will either walk free, or die," New Hampshire Union Leader, June 19, 2007 at Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine .
↑ McHugo, John (2013). A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE ARABS. The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013: The New Press. pp.162–163. ISBN978-1-59558-950-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
↑ "TURKISH BAN ON FREEMASONS. All Lodges To Be Abolished". Malaya Tribune, 14 October 1935, p. 5. The Government has decided to abolish all Masonic lodges in Turkey on the ground that Masonic principles are incompatible with nationalistic policy.
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to various fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 14th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. Freemasonry is the oldest fraternity in the world and among the oldest continued organizations in history.
The New World Order (NWO) is a term used in several conspiracy theories which hypothesize a secretly emerging totalitarian world government. The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually achieve world domination and rule the world through an authoritarian one-world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—and an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history's progress. Many influential historical and contemporary figures have therefore been alleged to be part of a cabal that operates through many front organizations to orchestrate significant political and financial events, ranging from causing systemic crises to pushing through controversial policies, at both national and international levels, as steps in an ongoing plot to achieve world domination.
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales, and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic Grand Lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron Tavern in London, it is considered to be the oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in the world, together with the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, or simply Morals and Dogma, is a book of esoteric philosophy published by the Supreme Council, Thirty Third Degree, of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. It was compiled by Albert Pike, was first published in 1871 and was regularly reprinted thereafter until 1969. An upgraded official reprint was released in 2011, with annotations by Arturo de Hoyos, the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction's Grand Archivist and Grand Historian.
Jahbulon or Jabulon or Jahbuhlun is a word which is allegedly used in some rituals of Royal Arch Masonry and derivations thereof.
Anti-Masonry is "avowed opposition to Freemasonry", which has led to multiple forms of religious discrimination, violent persecution, and suppression in some countries as well as in various organized religions. However, there is no homogeneous anti-Masonic movement. Anti-Masonry consists of radically differing criticisms from frequently incompatible political institutions and organized religions that oppose each other, and are hostile to Freemasonry in some form.
Nesta Helen Webster was an English author who revived conspiracy theories about the Illuminati. She claimed that the secret society's members were occultists, plotting communist world domination, through a Jewish cabal, the Masons and Jesuits. She blamed the group for events including the French Revolution, 1848 Revolution, the First World War, and the Bolshevik Revolution. Her writing influenced later conspiracy theories and ideologies, including American anti-communism and the militia movement.
William James Guy Carr was an English-born Canadian naval officer, author.
While many Christian denominations either allow or take no stance on their members joining Freemasonry, others discourage or prohibit their members from joining the fraternity.
The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Israel, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple, the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.
The Knight Kadosh is a Freemasonic degree or ceremony of initiation performed by a number of Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. It is the 30th Degree of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite for the United States of America, and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of Canada. The Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite, does not currently confer a degree with the name Knight Kadosh. Instead its thirtieth degree is entitled "Grand Inspector."
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776 in Bavaria, today part of Germany. The society's stated goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power. "The order of the day," they wrote in their general statutes, "is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." The Illuminati—along with Freemasonry and other secret societies—were outlawed through edict by Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, with the encouragement of the Catholic Church, in 1784, 1785, 1787 and 1790. During subsequent years, the group was generally vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that the Illuminati continued underground and were responsible for the French Revolution.
Christopher L. Hodapp is an American author and filmmaker, noted for his writings about Freemasonry, fraternalism, the Knights Templar, secret societies and conspiracy theories. He is the founding editor in chief of the Journal of The Masonic Society, the associate director of the Masonic Library and Museum of Indiana, and Public Relations Director for the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana.
The Judeo-Masonic conspiracy is an antisemitic and anti-Masonic conspiracy theory involving an alleged secret coalition of Jews and Freemasons. These theories are popular on the far-right, particularly in France, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Russia, Serbia, Eastern Europe, and Japan, with similar allegations still being published.
Continental Freemasonry, otherwise known as Liberal Freemasonry, Latin Freemasonry, and Adogmatic Freemasonry, includes the Masonic lodges, primarily on the European continent, that recognize the Grand Orient de France (GOdF) or belong to CLIPSAS, SIMPA, TRACIA, CIMAS, COMAM, CATENA, GLUA, or any of various other international organizations of Liberal, i.e., Continental Freemasonry. The larger number of Freemasons, most of whom live in the United States–where Regular Freemasonry holds a virtual monopoly–belong to Masonic lodges that recognize the United Grand Lodge of England and do not recognize Continental Freemasons, regarding them as "irregular".
Masonic ritual is the scripted words and actions that are spoken or performed during the degree work in a Masonic lodge. Masonic symbolism is that which is used to illustrate the principles which Freemasonry espouses. Masonic ritual has appeared in a number of contexts within literature including in "The Man Who Would Be King", by Rudyard Kipling, and War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy.
Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism is a book by Abbé Augustin Barruel, a French Jesuit priest. It was written and published in French in 1797–98, and translated into English in 1799.
Freemasonry in Germany started in several places during the second quarter of the Eighteenth century. After the extinction of the Rite of Strict Observance, which had a wide following and claimed Templar origins for its higher degrees, the several Grand Lodges in Germany defied all attempts at unification, although a largely ineffectual central organisation came into being with the unification of Germany. During the 1920s Freemasons were harassed alongside Jews by those taken in by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and blamed for the German surrender of 1918. This culminated with the suppression of Freemasonry by the Nazis in 1935, with many Masons in Germany and occupied countries being executed or sent to concentration camps. Freemasonry returned to Germany after World War Two. A single central body now represents five "regular" Grand Lodges. Liberal, women's, and mixed lodges also exist.
The Simonini letter is the earliest modern example of a document claiming a Jewish conspiracy and a Jewish coalition with the Illuminati.
The international Jewish conspiracy or the world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Although it typically claims that a malevolent, usually global Jewish circle, referred to as International Jewry, conspires for world domination, the theory's content is extremely variable, which helps explain its wide distribution and long duration. It was popularized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century especially by the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Among the beliefs that posit an international Jewish conspiracy are Jewish Bolshevism, Cultural Marxism, Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, White genocide conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial. The Nazi leadership's belief in an international Jewish conspiracy that it blamed for starting World War II and controlling the Allied powers was key to their decision to launch the Final Solution, which culminated in the Holocaust.
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