Subj : Re: ANy secret societies or are they just that secret? To : k9zw From : DustCouncil Date : Tue Aug 02 2022 23:48:34 Secrecy is nearly impossible in the age of samizdat; the amount of, for example, Masonic research and publications is considerable if you're really interested. Masonry has "due guards" which are modes of recognition, which include secret handshakes and codewords (Boaz - Jachin - Mahabone are three of them). You can find endless leaks of this data online if you're interested, and the texts of Masonic degrees are also out there. But the Masons like to clarify that they are more a "society with secrets" rather than a "secret society," in recognition of the fact that the exoteric information is widely available now, indicating that the esoteric understanding of things is something which must be experienced and, some say, is difficult to put into words. But more than this, many of the rationales for secret societies have faded. At one time you could be arrested or even killed for having heretical beliefs (see, for example, the famous Templar Jacques de Molay who had a very, very bad Friday the 13th). Nowadays you can be an ONA-style Satanist talking about "culling" (murder) and get away with it, at least in the West. We are then left with esoteric secret societies patterned after the occult (the various Rosicrucian groups, Golden Dawn, etc.) which also aren't so secret if you go digging. Even the rites of the Bavarian Illuminati have been published. Two books which provide insight into this "queen mother of all secret societies" are "Philo's Reply to Questions Concerning His Association with the Illuminati" which you can buy on Amazon, and, I don't recall what it is called, but a Masonic publishing house in the UK published the degrees of the Illuminati a few years ago. And by Illuminati I mean the one from the 1700s, Adam Weishaupt, etc. The secrets of these groups are in between the lines and ordinarily, so far as I understand, left up to the petitioner to figure out for him or herself (mostly himself; these groups are sausagefests.) It is said of the compass and square that it has different meanings you only become privy too the further you get into masonry, but a lot of what is written about masons in particular, is written by nuts. Freemasonry is an Rorshach blot onto which people project, usually, their worst nightmares, without much proof. The masons themselves engage in their own bullshittery, with their attempt to link their own history back to the Knights Templar (see the book, Born in Blood - it's a blast!), or further. Many groups really want you to believe their roots are in ancient Egypt (AMORC, the most media-friendly Rosicrucian group, is really into this.) The second kind of secret society is the "already rich and powerful people meeting to run the world" kind of group and these don't really have the connection to the occult groups a lot of people think. A fun exception to this is Propaganda Due (P2), a rogue, clandestine, irregular Masonic Lodge. If you've never heard of this, the Wikipedia article is a gas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due See also: The Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, etc. But we all know of these; we are just not always privy to what goes on inside them. The kind of participants in these groups are not exactly esoterically inclined, and I highly doubt black robes are involved, although this makes for very entertaining Internet conspiracy forums (ahem). Even truly dark groups like Order of Nine Angles are fairly explicit and publish their stuff fairly openly. Who knows what they do when they meet...if they meet. Imagine what most people do on a Saturday night, say, then saying, "Oh hey Frater Gloomcookie, what're we gonna do tonight?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0c0psu7Uh0 After years of collecting these texts, archiving stuff I can find online, I tend to agree with the artist Alan Moore's take on everything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgSbaKpCjq4 I thought about starting a secret society once because I *am that bored.* But I couldn't think of what to do with it. I have no power, and don't particularly want it. I have no wisdom other than that which is widely accessible in books, and I have little to add. And most importantly I don't trust myself to take the reins of history. I have self-knowledge enough to know I'd screw it up entirely. I am a member of one cult, and one cult only, and it's not secret and you can get in for like 35 bucks. I'll let you fill in the blank. --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64) * Origin: Shipwrecks & Shibboleths [San Francisco, CA - USA] (700:100/72) .