Secret Societies: Inside the Freemasons, the Yakuza, Skull and Bones, and the World's Most Notorious Secret Organizations

Early Christians were not admired by Roman politicians - their refusal to worship the emperor was a bit of a problem, and became a much bigger one when Christians began converting others to their point of view. Roman leaders encouraged stories of their scandalous activities, employing them as a weapon to suppress the movement. It didn't help that Christians kept to themselves, did not admit strangers to their ceremonies without the approval of a known member, and demanded new members undergo a test of faith before being admitted. On the other hand, declaring yourself to be a Christian following Christ's crucifixion was akin to signing your own death warrant. Another problem arose from Christians rescuing abandoned Roman infants left outside to die by families unable to feed them - it became assumed that, given their practice of consuming flesh and blood, gathering abandoned babies was a source of raw material for their disgusting ceremonies. That they were cared for and raised as Christians was not considered plausible. 'Incest' became another widely spread rumor about Christians - growing from their practice of referring to each other as "Brother" and "Sister." Using an instrument of torture as a symbol and identity added to Roman's initial view of Christians as a menacing secret society. The underlying precept was 'anything that is good should not be kept secret, and anything kept secret cannot be good.'In 1191, Conrad of Montferrat became King of Jerusalem, appointed by Richard the Lion-Hearted, celebrated hero of the Crusades. Conrad planned to glorify his reign by driving Muslims from the Holy Land forever. Before getting started, however, he was stabbed to death by three Muslims posing as Christian monks. Henry, Count of Champagne, hoped to become Conrad's replacement and almost immediately married Conrad's widow, hoping to inherit the title that had eluded him. Instead he was given an administrative position requiring several trips from Jerusalem into Persia. During one of those journeys, he encountered the source of Conrad's demise - the Assassins.Their actual power lasted little more than 100 years, waning with the advance of the Mongol hordes. Spiritual descendants of that group formed a small secret society that terrorizes the U.S. today - it's called Al Qaeda. The group grew out of a 7th-century schism among Muslims in 632 that produced Shiites and Sunnis. No event in any other religion, even the Christian Reformation, produced the enmity created by this division. Battles between Shiites and Sunnis usually ended in defeat for the Shiites, always outnumbered about ten to one.In the period leading up to the Crusades, individual Shiites living among Sunnis risked death upon discovery. Forced to live in a clandestine manner, they became adept at maintaining secrecy and demanding that members be totally obedient to instructions from their leaders. Two of the most significant splinter groups were the Twelvers and Ismailis. The Twelvers believed only twelve true imams (leaders) existed and the twelfth has remained alive and in hiding for the past thousand years. The Ismailis are further split into various segments including the Seveners and the Nizaris, who insist that the imams will never vanish from the earth and identify the Agha Khan as their imam. While the Twelvers are substantially larger in number than the Ismailis (90% of the current population of Iran and about 60% of Iraqis), the Ismailis have tended to be more violent in response to their minority status within a larger minority.Many secret societies and religious cults tend to be organized at the epicenter of a series of concentric circles, with ultimate power residing somewhere in the hub. From the foot of a pyramid, you can see the summit, but from anywhere within a circular organization you can never accurately measure proximity to authority. Thus, Circular organizations better conceal and protect their leadership more effectively than pyramid structures.Who are the most dangerous members of the various secret societies? According to sources claiming inner knowledge of the group's true purpose, they are Freemasons. When anyone questions this assertion, conspiracy theorists bring out an impressive array of proof, beginning with a recital of influential men through history who were undeniably associated with Masonry - including many signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. More recent members include Truman, Ford, Churchill, and Duke Ellington. To a few fanatic historians, almost all Masons, at the root of their achievements is a historic andlink with the Knights Templar, who began as Defenders of the Christian Faith, became the bankers of medieval Europe, and succumbed to the machinations of a greedy king and a complicitous pope.The Knights Templar safeguarded pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land and battled Islamic armies for control of Jerusalem. they obeyed rules of chivalry and asceticism, dedicating their lives to the glory of God and the protection of Christian pilgrims.During the period between 800 and 1300, European kings claimed wide authority over lands now known as France, Germany, Britain, but the countryside was effectively ruled by individual lords and barons. The lords dispensed justice, levied taxes and tolls, minted their own currency, and demanded military service from occupying citizens. Many could field larger armies than could the king. Around 1050, making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was considered a duty for every able Christian as a means of assuaging guilt and appeasing God. In 1096 the first of nine crusades set off.Taking part in a crusade meant at least two years of travel across rugged and often hostile country. Vows of poverty, chastity and obedience not only suited their obligations to chivalrous behavior, they also were assumed to facilitate their entry into Heaven. This evolved into their receiving substantial assets from patrons, as well as booty seized from defeated Muslim fighters.Kindle Problem: When I tried to resume reading the Kindle reader requested I log in a 2nd time, then reset my current page at 0. Using the Index to find the location to return to wasn't helpful - no page numbers on the Kindle version.

I was enjoying this title and thought that I had learned a lot about history, up until the point where I had reached about one fifth of the way through. That was the stage where the subject began covering areas where I had done so much research and read/listened to hours of testimony from ex-secret society members, that it became obvious to me that an evidence-sparse, rebuttal-free whitewash had begun.You need only read the testimonies of Bill Schnoebelen or Leo Zagami (both Illuminati & Masons at one stage, tho Leo remained a Freemason from the books of his that I have read) and both clearly revealing the disturbing elements of one or both societies that they have turned their backs on. The author of this book claimed no appearance of the pentagram is in masonry, overlooking that the Order of the Eastern Star, unable to convene without a patron mason present, uses as its symbol the “Eastern Star” being a coloured in pentagram. This was the most basic of apparent fallacies or, to be more lenient, errors, within the text. The dates surrounding the seal of the USA as proof of its disconnection with Illuministic fraternities, again, is inaccurate and therefore misleading, not to mention the rest of the information. The pyramid on the back of the US dollar bill is not the seal, but the reverse of the seal of the USA that has always been present since the seal was designed, but never revealed because never in view to the public when viewing the front of the seal on a podium, etc, for example. Government historical records and minutes show that officials/leaders expressed some concern about featuring the rear of the seal on the note, especially the Catholic citizens. What concern could there be if the all-seeing-eye represents God’s watch over us, and the pyramid represents the trinity triangle? For the record, the Christian and Hebrew God has 2 eyes, just like us, because we are made in his image. The anti-Christ has one eye. Second, the pyramid is the world-wide known symbol of a pagan temple, in South America and Egypt and Iraq to this day, in various forms. The black vs white distancing that the author tries to convince the reader of requires something more than what this book and more than Chapter 2 can offer. In which case, I would suggest removing the faux outrage and unsupported denials and replacing it with a diplomatic summary and conclusion, free of errors.The fact so many errors and oversights appear line after line, with no genuine rebuttal evidence to the well-researched contrary positions out there, for me smacks of propaganda and a diversionary tactic to satisfy an agenda of continued plausible deniability, even when my own Mason friend admits, but as an irony by flipping it, that the Illuminati are the foot soldiers of the masons, when all intellectually honest students of truth know that it is the other way around. In fact, Prof Adam Weishaupt ordered that Illuminism use speculative masonry as a front so as not to be perceived by the public. He also successfully set about ejecting Jesuits from his University and all others that he could. An inspection of the Congressional record in USA features a reading of the Jesuit oath in which initiates vow on their lives and in literal blood to use all means possible to infiltrate and destroy Protestants and Freemasons, by murder and subversion. In fact, infiltration has been their number 1 tool, eventually causing many Protestant denominations to become Jesus-free & morality compromised, spreading their destruction as pretend new religious conviction. I myself have personally witnessed Uniting Church Reverand denying Christ rose from the dead, while giving the Easter sermon, no less!If we study the evidence and wake up out of our stupor of assuming people as being authentic innocents, then it becomes clear that the Society of Jesus has succeeded in keeping their blood-curdling oath of infiltration and destruction by any and all means... relevant in this case in the usurping of masonry, which was usurped by illuminism, the destruction of the Protestant church by spying and sabotage, revenge against the white pope by reversingtheir ex-communication decree, and now, finally, succeeding at acquiring the visible half of the papacy with their own white pope.I attended the most prominent Jesuit university in America’s capital, where the author says one cannot prove that the design of the city was based on pagan symbols, because, get this, a pyramid can’t be mapped because it is 3 dimensions. But just as it can be drawn on a flat one dollar note, so can it be mapped on flat terrain.I have only touched the surface on the blatant and shameless propaganda over the Illuminati & Freemasons. The author refers to well established and proven relationships & successful historical plots as “laughable,” when that term more aptly describes some of this book. Still interesting tho if u stay wary of propoganda!