1. Solstizio d'Inverno 2007

Solstizio d'Inverno 2007

 

     A:.U:.T:.O:.S:.A:.G:.

ORDO AB CHAO

 

ANCIENT and ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE

 

JURISDICTION ITALY

 

To the reserved Convent required in Malta

Document of the

Supreme Council of the A:.A:.S:.R:.

Jurisdiction Italy

at the Winter Solstice on the 27th December 2007

 

 

 

 

FREEMASONRY IN THE NEW NETWORK

IN A LARGE GLOBAL ADVICE

 

Dearest and most powerful Peers,

 

…..on the occasion of the feast day of St John the Evangelist, the visible part of the works of our Supreme Council gathered together exactly on the 27^th day of the month of December of the year 2007 Anno Domini.

 

Today and with this document we forcefully interrupt our silence. This silence, which we imposed upon ourselves at the time, was adopted in order to allow our most powerful brothers of the RSAA of the Supreme Mother Council to intervene and guide with their prestige and competence the project of worldwide reorganization, a project in which we humbly participated.

 

It is evident that in breaking our silence we, as a consequence, put an end to the boisterous silence of our brothers from across the Ocean. We were the first to sound the trumpets and ring the bells announcing a common danger for these brothers. They did not show any sign of assent or dissent, hatred or brotherhood. They simply widened the void even thought they had received from us various assurances and proofs of what is expected of us and of our loyalty.

 

We have called upon our brothers because we stand before an announced and perilous common danger. We have turned to them because we are gravely worried about their loss of leadership. We would like for them to continue to be, even from afar, our true and recognized authority. At this point, however, we fail to comprehend, and even to perceive, where they might stand.

 

Unfortunately the time at our disposal, to breach these considerable obstacles, has run out. We can no longer afford to do nothing. We must remind our brothers who have read our documents that an abundant 5 years have passed since our first detailed signals of alarm.

 

For a long half-decade we have warned the upper, international echelons of the RSAA. For years we have described the negativity of the occult and deleterious Western division between those of the Atlantic and the British. Now in the event of the ever closer, unprepared international conflict we find ourselves forced to immediately find a speedy getaway from this chaos. With things as they are we will have to make this move alone.

 

The facilities at our disposal allow us to do so: certainly we will not be as effective as we could have been if we had been able to operate with our American brothers. Our Masonic duty dictates that we must do this alone in order to guarantee the future of our country, our population, our brothers and our children.

 

In this age of the globalization of national, and nationalistic institutions if the Freemasonry were truly held by all to be universal there would no longer be anyone trying to take over ever increasing slices of international power, not realizing, in fact, that all attempts are futile.

 

Things have reached absurd levels: some noble Freemasons believe to have such privileges at their fingertips that they save us, alone of course, from the killer, savage wave of the knights of Chinese power. They are grossly mistaken because the first to fall will be our most affluent brothers, and then, behind them, all of us.

 

We believe these to be valid, sufficient motives for us to interrupt, with this document, this steady waiting. In this way, using Pythagorean methods, we can continue with the construction of the work we have assigned for ourselves. Regretfully we do so alone, without our most prosperous brothers. They did not want to jeopardize their privileges, stupidly unaware of the certainty that they will loose these privileges soon anyway.

 

The fear of some petrol companies to provisionally reduce their profits from black gold while waiting for new profits generated by their new alternative energy producing companies compels them to hold steady, so as not to loose out on the last fists-full of oil-dollars. For this reason the very important implementation of new systems of world energy, that we know to exist, fail to take off.

 

Warning, however. The price of the aforementioned greedy profits could be very, very high. This time we are not faced with the usual seasonal economic crisis. This time we have before us a veritable war or enormous proportions, in which, at a certain point, nobody will be able to control anything.

 

Indeed someone has thought to toy with the inopportune idea of overcoming this worldwide impasse in profiting from the creation of a massive international conflict between the West and the Middle East. It will be too late when this person will realizes that this duel is soon to turn into a battle involving the West and the entire East.

 

The power of the East, of the Chinese mould, is far stronger than anyone can imagine at this time.  As well as the usual weapons this power will add to the mix a strong desire for ideological consumer and ideological communist compensation.

 

In order to achieve its goals this power will do everything possible to eliminate freethinking. The first to fall, and to be subsequently eliminated one by one, will be our Freemason Brothers, to be followed, in turn, by the churches of the West.

 

There will even be a violent clash between organized crime of the East and the West. The latter will fall to an unexpected Russian-Chinese alliance.

 

We believe the time has come to reveal the truth regarding the real motives that prompted the Americans to accept the English proposal to go to war in Iraq. This war was undertaken, not to tap undisturbed into the Iraqi wells, but to limit Chinese expansion in the oil communities of the Middle East and Africa, to safeguard the last reserves of the oil fields in question, in order to remove them from the dangerous Chinese influence. From this point of view the Iraqi conflict has failed because now, more than ever before, the Chinese expansion is particularly strong in those areas.

 

Using diplomacy and enormous sums of corrupt money, added to the capacity of having exponentially exposed the dollar in its own territories, China has managed to seriously weaken the American dollar. Furthermore, in order to guarantee the same profits on the sale of their product the oil producing countries are considering leaving behind the American currency as their currency of reference. In fact, paradoxically, we are at a point where the Chinese reminbi is considered to be one of the two or three future petro-currencies of reference to be used in the oil trade, to be applied first to the Arab area, and then to the rest of the world. In this way the American dollar has been forcefully pushed to one side.

 

This state of affairs will just be the beginning of a real revolution of world power.

 

The game of “go” that the Chinese are applying to the weak Russians, blackmailed by the only voice of active balance available to them – crude oil, has allowed them to gain an incredible geo-strategic military force. This does not take into account their cynical use of the power to veto, held by them within the Security Council of the UN.

 

Consider this: the Americans waged war in defence of Kuwait and now Kuwait is the first oil country in the world to experiment with anchoring the price of oil to a collective basket of currencies. The Americans should begin to realize that such a reality could in fact very quickly expose the precarious, vertiginous decline of their dollar.

 

Unfortunately our analysis must continue, more assured than ever, to describe to you how the might of Chinese economic power, at the beginning of the month of November last, carried out a most brilliant move of capitalization in favour of its main oil company. It was taken from the Shanghai lists and in a few short hours was in first position in the world, after almost a century of American market dominance. Almost contemporaneously the Chinese Central Bank issued a forecast statement regarding the American dollar: stating that it would loose its world supremacy. If China, with over $1400 billion in reserve, were to decide to abandon the American currency for America it would be another Pearl Harbour, just without the loss of human life. Many believe that this will never happen. Let’s be careful not to make the same mistake as was made at that time with the Japanese. Let’s not forget that when the Japanese bombers arrived in Pearl Harbour that the crews of the American ships were all sleeping.

 

The meeting point for the so-called Axis of Evil, as coined by the Bush administration, certainly has a director, but it’s probably not the fake Bin Laden but Chinese power. China is developing strong friendships, of real world power, with Chavez, with Sudan, with Teheran, with the entire Persian Gulf, with Peru, and even with the Canadian state of Alberta. Within six years the Chinese requirement for oil will have far surpassed that of America. Over the past few years the White House, a true democratic power, has gone crazy trying to manage oil resources. So what will happen to a country with a dictatorial regime like China when the supply and demand of oil are no longer compatible? And if the Chinese game of go where to continue to both Teheran and Malaysia, not stopping with Russia? Considering that Malaysia has become the world leader in the proposal for a new international currency, the gold dinar, what would happen?

 

According to the Malaysian government this currency, which would have a fixed weight of gold, a metal of which the Arab countries have vast reserves, should become the legal tender in the Islamic commercial area. The instability of today is inversely reminiscent of that of thirty years ago when the last gold standard, of the American dollar, was abandoned. Since then, in one way or in another, everyone has been trying to get it back. Paradoxically it could be Islamic finance to reinstate it. Bearing in mind the concerted effort the Chinese Central Bank has made over the past few months to buy up extensive quantities of gold bars on the world market, we should immediately realize that this game of go also involves Malaysia.

 

Let’s not underestimate Iran who last November celebrated an important victory regarding their experiments on uranium, suitable for the construction of atomic bombs, and possibly nuclear power stations. Iran has, in fact, exceeded the now notorious threshold of three thousand uranium centrifuges, and could produce enough uranium to build their first atomic bomb within a year.

 

Have our American brothers, who, for better or for worse, remain our brothers, understood what is happening behind the closed doors of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization? Or do they continue to believe that it is merely the sitting room of a new and powerful lobby, serving only to close commercial proceedings? Has nobody realized that the theatrical regional conflicts, in a naval setting will be a veritable trap for the Americans?

 

Dearest and most esteemed Brothers, what can we do in the face of such a complex situation? The construction of a new Freemasonry is the only way out. A fraternity that immediately addresses the problem of a new world leadership and that of a contemporary and genuine concept of universality. We are duty bound to immediately create a network of willing Freemason brother volunteers throughout the East and West, who can, within a short time and with immediacy, conduct a census on the available forces in order to predispose a Pythagorean reaction. Soon it will no longer make any difference if you belong to an important Lodge or to an Orient. All that is small, national, or with circumscribed territories will no longer be able to have the force necessary to manage an economic or social international level movement of any description.  Only the networks of effective and efficient men will be able to meet and/or stem the dangers of a world without boundaries, without rules, with the giants of anti-libertarian monopoly. This is demonstrated by the logic of the defence and attack of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: a network established to oppose the USA as “super police man” without borders and sometimes without rules.

 

We Freemasons have an immense strength unknown to others: freedom of action, freedom of thought, freedom in the evolution of conscience, the freedom to meet with the Great Architect of the Universe. For the sake of humanity we must guarantee and not squander this marvellous strength. We must give every man the possibility to live with dignity, without any coercion. If nobody else wants to make this type of intervention we will begin alone, convinced that soon other Freemasons, who are truly free, will join us.

 

We must construct an operational programme of defence and a project with a network-like structure with models of authority in an open-ended network. In this way whoever wants to is free to intervene, create, design and build with their own ideas and decisions, thereby we will not loose any of the qualities of the progress of mankind.

 

Given the gravity of an impending enormous international conflict, now gone beyond control, our Supreme Council, as of today, is willing to interface with all Freemasons. All Great Lodges, Orients and /or Rites who recognize the grave danger we have described here can join us in a coalition, without loosing anything of their own order, to stem the expansion of the Chinese conquests. We will begin from the beginning and start with our website, which today we make interactively interfaceable for anyone wishing to consult it, from anywhere in the world. Eventually we aim to define a site common to all.

 

Our appeal also applies to those Freemasons who may want to join on a personal level, without loosing anything of their own personal experiences. It is important that all realize that they must bring about objective influential resources from wherever they might be from in the world, in order for us to be able to confront the common cause together.

 

We can no longer remain on the outside looking in: our appeal is to everyone in the East and West, Freemasons of the free world, in particular to Europe, to Latin America, to Africa, to North America, to Japan, and to the Middle East.

 

The quarks of physics have taught us that mass and energy vibrate in a ten dimensional space; in this way they can simulate the physical universe beyond itself. Leonardo da Vinci taught us that the aesthetic is the lowest form of perception of reality, and that man has the faculty and the possibility to bring his awareness to ever more subtle levels. Thus man can spiritualize the sensation without limiting himself to the modest realms of the five senses. He must awake his internal eye, something all men possess in order to probe the otherwise impenetrable depths of the soul, as it is only the internal eye that perceives the truth and therefore knowledge. Mastery of the ten dimensions will only be possible with the surmounting of the reign of the five senses, which can only be conquered with knowing how to see through the value of the eye of the soul. The true freedom of man is obtained in the freedom of all that limits the sense of connection with the divine, and then in the perfectibility that comes from infinite knowledge.

 

The consciousness to insert every creative action of mankind in a context of EVERYTHING, in a rational system, where a point is always the beginning and/or the end of a process is an elevation of mankind that Chinese culture, with its neo-system of power, could never reach and/or guarantee.

 

This is the only way for our world to stem the new dictator. All of this, meantime, should make us aware that we must fight bitterly in order to guarantee the new liberty for ourselves, and moreover for our children. Despite the conflict between East/West and the Chinese, the very application of these new, and at the same time old, thoughts will deviate or assailants and vanquish the inertia of our Brothers who have fallen to the perils of sloth.

 

In order to pose a true and concrete obstacle to the perilous and violet Chinese expansion, we want to construct a network of Freemasons operating as the Grand International Council of Freemasonry. Access will be granted by authority and spiritual election, and will work for a Pythagorean census of resources, to build together and to continue with the project of communal and new world order.

 

This “public” document is the first “open” document in the history of the Freemasons in so far as it is remains unfinished. Every Freemason, provided he has the suitable administrative rank, is free to add, if he so wishes or sees fit, his ideas, his contribution, his own chapter of the project thus reaching out and extending this document. If, however, a Freemason does not have the required rank he may contribute his proposals via email* thereby contributing, in a different way, to the building of a new international Freemasonry.

 

*Email.

Please send your proposals to our Forum (in your own language): your opinions will be integrated and discussed in the document.

 

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

RITO SCOZZESE ANTICO E ACCETTATO

GIURISDIZIONE ITALIANA

 

  DAL CONVENTO RISERVATO TENUTO A MALTA

DOCUMENTO DEL

SUPREMO CONSIGLIO DEL R:.S:.A:.A:.

IN OCCASIONE DEL SOLSTIZIO D’INVERNO

27 DICEMBRE 2007 A:. D:.

 

 

LA NUOVA MASSONERIA IN RETE

IN UN GRAN CONSIGLIO MONDIALE

 

 

 

Carissimi e Potentissimi nostri pari,

                                   nella grande festa dedicata a San Giovanni l’Evangelista, la parte visibile dei lavori del Nostro Supremo Consiglio riunitosi proprio nel giorno 27 del mese di dicembre dell’Anno Domini 2007.

Oggi con questo documento interrompiamo con forza il nostro silenzio,

auto impostoci a suo tempo, il quale era stato adottato per consentire ai Potentissimi Fratelli del RSAA del Supremo Consiglio madre di poter intervenire e guidare con il loro prestigio e la loro competenza il progetto di riordino mondiale a cui anche noi avevamo umilmente partecipato.

            E’ evidente che il Nostro rompere il silenzio, di conseguenza, pone fine alla chiassosa quiete proprio dei Potentissimi Fratelli di oltre Oceano. Fratelli a cui abbiamo voluto suonare per primi le trombe ed i campanelli del comune pericolo, ma i quali non hanno dato segni né di assenso, né di diniego, né di odio, né di fratellanza: hanno semplicemente elargito il vuoto pur avendo ottenuto da Noi varie assicurazioni e prove su ciò che ci sta prepotentemente attendendo e sulla Nostra fedeltà.

            Li abbiamo chiamati in causa perché siamo di fronte ad un annunciato e rischioso comune pericolo, e ci siamo rivolti proprio a loro perché fortemente preoccupati della loro perdita di leadership: desideravamo che Loro continuassero ad essere, anche da lontano, la Nostra vera e riconosciuta Autorità, ma, a tutt’oggi, non riusciamo a capire, E nemmeno a percepire, dove essi siano.

            Purtroppo il tempo a Nostra disposizione, per arginare questi grandi ostacoli, non c’è più, non ci concede più spazi vuoti, e dobbiamo ricordare ai nostri Fratelli che hanno letto i nostri documenti che sono passati ben cinque anni dai Nostri primi e dettagliati allarmi.

            E’ da un lungo lustro che abbiamo messo in guardia i vertici internazionali del RSAA, sono anni che descriviamo la negatività della occulta e deleteria divisione occidentale tra atlantici e britannici, ma adesso l’avvicinarsi repentino del conflitto internazionale ci impone la individuazione immediata di una rapida via d’uscita da questo caos, nella quale, stando così le cose, saremmo obbligati ad immetterci da soli.

            Gli strumenti a Nostra disposizione ci permettono di poterlo fare: certo non saremo efficaci come se avessimo potuto operare insieme ai Nostri Fratelli americani, ma il dovere massonico ci impone di farlo anche da soli, per garantire il futuro delle nostre terre, dei nostri popoli, dei nostri Fratelli, dei nostri figli.

            Se la Massoneria fosse veramente da tutti ritenuta universale non ci sarebbero più in questa epoca di globalizzazione delle strutture nazionali, e per giunta nazionaliste, che tentano di impadronirsi di fette sempre più ampie di potere mondiale, non rendendosi conto, invece, che ogni tentativo sarà sempre un naufragio.

            Siamo all’assurdo: qualche nobile massone ritiene di avere tanti di quei privilegi da potersi salvare, ovviamente da solo, dall’ondata sterminatrice e barbara dei valvassori del potere sinico, ma si sbaglia di grosso, perché i primi a cadere saranno proprio i nostri Fratelli più abbienti e poi, dietro, tutti noi.

            Questi sono i motivi, secondo Noi più che sufficienti, per poter interrompere, con questo documento, l’immobilismo attendista e così poter procedere, con metodi pitagorici, alla costruzione dell’opera che ci siamo dati, rammaricati di essere da soli, senza i Nostri Fratelli più abbienti, i quali non hanno voluto mettere a repentaglio i propri privilegi, scioccamente inconsapevoli che comunque presto li perderanno ugualmente.

            La paura di alcune società petrolifere di ridurre limitatamente i loro profitti provenienti dall’oro nero, in attesa dei nuovi introiti creati dalle loro nuove società produttrici di energie alternative, impone loro di tenere ferma, in modo da non perdere le ultime manciate di petrodollari, l’importantissima nascita del nuovo sistema energetico mondiale che sappiamo già esistere, ma che viene da queste impossibilitato a decollare.

            Attenzione, però, che il prezzo di questi ultimi ed ingordi utili potrebbe risultare molto, ma molto alto, perché questa volta non siamo di fronte alla solita crisi economica stagionale, ma, invece, abbiamo davanti una vera guerra di proporzioni enormi di cui, ad un certo punto, nessuno controllerà più niente.

            Infatti qualcuno ritiene di accarezzare l’improvvida idea di superare questa impasse mondiale approfittando della creazione di un grande conflitto internazionale tra occidente e medio oriente e si accorgerà troppo tardi che questo scontro si tramuterà presto in una battaglia tra sì l’Occidente, ma con l’intero Oriente.

            Il potere orientale di stampo sinico è ben più forte di quanto nessuno in questo momento possa immaginare, perché alle consuete armi questo potere aggiungerà la gran voglia di rivalsa ideologico consumistica ed ideologico comunista.

            Questo potere per ottenere tutto ciò farà ogni cosa possibile per eliminare il libero pensiero, ed i primi ad essere perduti, e poi cancellati ad uno ad uno, saranno i Fratelli Massoni, seguiti a ruota dalle Chiese religiose occidentali.

            Ci sarà uno scontro forte persino tra le organizzazioni malavitose orientali ed occidentali, e queste ultime soccomberanno per l’inaspettata alleanza russo sinica.

            Noi crediamo che sia arrivato il momento di togliere i veli anche nei confronti della vera motivazione che ha spinto gli americani ad accettare la proposta inglese di fare la guerra all’Iraq. Una guerra che è stata condotta non per attingere indisturbati dai pozzi iracheni, ma per arginare l’espansione cinese nel mondo petroarabo e petroafricano a salvaguardia delle ultime riserve dei giacimenti in questione, in modo da toglierli dalla pericolosa influenza sinica. Il conflitto iracheno è proprio da questo punto di vista che è stato un enorme fallimento, in quanto mai come ora l’espansione cinese è così forte in quelle aree.

            La Cina è riuscita con la sua diplomazia e le ingenti somme di denaro corruttore, sommate alla capacità di aver fatto esporre il dollaro in modo esponenziale nei propri territori, ad indebolire la moneta americana in modo molto forte, e a far sì che i Paesi petroliferi, per garantire gli stessi guadagni sulle vendite del loro prodotto, sentissero il bisogno di uscire dalla tutela della valuta statunitense come moneta di riferimento. Infatti siamo paradossalmente giunti al punto che il reminbi cinese sia visto come una delle due o tre future monete di riferimento di eventuali panieri atti a garantire le vendite petrolifere, prima nell’area araba e poi nel resto nel mondo, scalzando così prepotentemente il debole dollaro.

            Questo stato di cose sarà solo l’inizio di una vera e propria rivoluzione mondiale del potere.

            Il giogo del “go” che i sinici stanno applicando con i deboli russi, ricattati dall’unica voce di bilancio attiva che possiedono, quella del greggio, fa sì che possano assumere una forza militare geostrategica incredibile, senza considerare il cinico utilizzo della potente arma di veto da loro posseduta nel Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’ONU.

            Se pensiamo che gli Stati Uniti d’America hanno fatto una guerra a favore del Kuwait ed oggi è proprio questo il primo Paese petrolifero al mondo che sta sperimentando di ancorare il prezzo dell’oro nero ad un paniere di valute, gli americani dovrebbero cominciare a rendersi conto che tale situazione denuderà di fatto molto presto la precarietà e il vertiginoso declino del dollaro.

            La nostra analisi purtroppo ha l’obbligo di continuare, più ferma che mai, descrivendovi come il grande potere economico sinico, all’inizio del mese di novembre ultimo scorso, ha effettuato la più brillante operazione di capitalizzazione a favore della sua principale azienda petrolifera ponendola, dai listini di Shanghai, in poche ore, al primo posto nel mondo dopo oltre un secolo di dominio americano. Quasi contemporaneamente la Banca Centrale Cinese ha rilasciato un commento di previsione sul dollaro in cui si dichiarava che la moneta statunitense perderà il suo primato mondiale. Se la Cina, con ben 1400 miliardi di dollari di riserve, decidesse di abbandonare la valuta americana, per gli Stati Uniti sarebbe una vera e seconda Pearl Harbor senza spargimento di vite umane.  Molti ritengono che ciò non sarà mai possibile, ma attenzione: sarebbe fare lo stesso errore che fu consumato a quell’epoca nei confronti dei Giapponesi. Non dimentichiamoci che quando i bombardieri giapponesi arrivarono a Pearl Harbor gli equipaggi delle navi americane dormivano.

            La linea di congiunzione dei cosiddetti Paesi del male, redatta dall’Amministrazione Bush, ha sì un regista, ma forse non è il finto Bin Laden, quanto il vero potere sinico. La Cina sta intrattenendo forti rapporti, da vera leadership mondiale, con Chavez, con il Sudan, con Teheran, con l’intero Golfo Persico, con il Perù, persino con lo stato di Alberta in Canada. Nel giro di sei anni il fabbisogno petrolifero della Cina supererà di gran lunga quello statunitense, e se la Casa Bianca in questi ultimi anni, pur essendo una vera potenza democratica, è impazzita a causa della gestione delle risorse del petrolio, cosa potrà mai accadere ad un Paese con regime dittatoriale come la Cina quando domanda ed offerta dell’oro nero non si incontreranno più? E se il gioco del go sinico invece di fermarsi alla sola Russia proseguisse con Teheran e la Malesia insieme, cosa potrebbe accadere, visto che la Malesia è diventata il Paese leader nella proposta di una nuova moneta internazionale, il dinaro d’oro?

            Questa moneta, secondo il governo malese, dovrebbe divenire la valuta della zona commerciale islamica, ancorata all’oro giallo, metallo di cui i Paesi arabi detengono forti riserve auree. L’instabilità di oggi ricorda, all’inverso, quella di trent’anni fa, quando l’ultima parità aurea, quella del dollaro, fu abbandonata. Da allora, in un modo o nell’altro, tutti cercano di riconquistarla. Paradossalmente, potrebbe essere la finanza islamica a farcela ritrovare. Se ora ricordiamo il grande impegno profuso negli ultimi mesi da parte della Banca Centrale di Cina per acquisire nel mercato mondiale grandi quantitativi di lingotti d’oro, ci dovremmo subito rendere conto che ormai il gioco del go potrebbe interessare anche la Malesia.

            Senza sottovalutare l’Iran che nel mese di novembre ultimo scorso ha ottenuto la sua grande vittoria sugli esperimenti riguardanti il trattamento dell’uranio atto alla costruzione di bombe atomiche e, forse, di centrali nucleari: l’Iran, infatti, ha superato la famigerata soglia delle tremila centrifughe, così da poter produrre uranio in quantità sufficiente a costruire, probabilmente entro un anno, la sua prima bomba atomica.

            Ma allora i Nostri Fratelli americani, perché, per Noi, pur sbagliando, rimangono, i Nostri Fratelli, si sono accorti di quello che sta accadendo dentro le segrete stanze dello Shanghai Cooperation Organisation? Oppure ancora credono che sia solo il salotto di una nuova potente lobby atta solo a chiudere accordi commerciali? Nessuno si sta accorgendo che la preparazione dei conflitti regionali di teatro, in ambito marittimo, saranno una vera trappola per gli americani?

            Carissimi e Potentissimi Fratelli, di fronte ad una situazione così complessa come ne possiamo uscire? Solo con la costruzione di una nuova Massoneria, che si ponga immediatamente il problema di una nuova leadership mondiale e di un nuovo e vero concetto di universalità. Abbiamo il dovere di creare immediatamente una volontaria rete di Fratelli Massoni di buona volontà che sia presente in tutto il mondo occiorientale, perché in breve tempo e con rapidità si possano censire le forze disponibili per predisporre una pitagorica reazione. Presto non conterà più l’appartenere ad una Gran Loggia o ad uno Oriente massonico, perché ciò che piccolo, nazionale, con territorio circoscritto, non potrà più avere la forza di gestire un qualsiasi movimento economico o sociale di livello internazionale. Solo le reti di uomini efficaci ed efficienti potranno soddisfare e/o arginare i pericoli di un mondo senza confini, senza regole, con i colossi del monopolio antilibertari. Ciò è dimostrato dalla logica di difesa ed attacco dello Shanghai Cooperation ed Organisation, rete costruita per arginare gli Usa “superpoliziotto” senza confini e a volte senza regole.

            Noi massoni abbiamo una grande forza ad altri sconosciuta: la libera azione, il libero pensiero, la libera evoluzione della coscienza, la libertà dell’incontro con il Grande Architetto dell’Universo e abbiamo il dovere verso l’intera Umanità di garantire e non disperdere questa meravigliosa forza. Dobbiamo dare la possibilità ad ogni Uomo di vivere la sua piena dignità, senza coercizioni di sorta, e se nessuno vorrà intervenire in tal senso inizieremo da soli, convinti che molti Massoni, liberi veramente, si congiungeranno presto con Noi.

            Dovremo costruire un programma operativo di difesa ed un progetto a struttura reticolare con modelli di autorità a network aperti alla sorgente, per poter permettere a chiunque di poter intervenire, creare, progettare, edificare con le proprie idee e decisioni, in modo tale da non disperdere nulla delle grandi qualità di progresso dell’Uomo.

            Il Nostro Supremo Consiglio, data la gravità e l’approssimarsi di un enorme conflitto internazionale non più controllabile, è da oggi disponibile ad interfacciarsi con tutte quelle realtà massoniche, Gran Logge, Grandi Orienti e/o Riti, che, sensibili al grande pericolo da Noi descritto, vogliano con Noi coalizzarsi, aggiungendo senza nulla perdere del loro, per arginare concretamente l’espandersi delle conquiste siniche, cominciando anche dall’utilizzo del nostro sito web, che da oggi renderemo interfacciabile interattivamente, con chiunque lo richieda e da qualunque nazione provenga, per poi nel tempo definirne uno comune a tutti.

            Tale appello vale anche per quei Massoni che desiderino aderirvi anche a livello personale, senza nulla lasciare della propria esperienza, purché si rendano conto che ognuno deve apportare oggettive risorse di influenza da qualsiasi parte del pianeta egli provenga, per poter tutti insieme far fronte alla comune causa.

            Non possiamo più stare a guardare: il nostro appello è rivolto a tutto il mondo libero massonico-occiorientale, con particolare riguardo all’Europa, ai latino americani, agli africani, ai nord americani, ai giapponesi, ai medio orientali.

            I quark della fisica ci hanno insegnato che massa ed energia vibrano in uno spazio a dieci dimensioni ed in tal modo riescono a simulare cosa sia l’universo fisico al di là di sè stesso. Leonardo da Vinci ci ha insegnato che l’estetica è la più bassa forma di percezione del reale, ma che invece l’uomo ha la facoltà e la possibilità di portare la sua consapevolezza a livelli sempre più sottili, così da poter spiritualizzare la sensazione, senza limitarci al modesto regno dei cinque sensi, ma risvegliando quell’occhio interiore posseduto dall’Uomo per sondare il paesaggio dell’anima, altrimenti imperscrutabile, poiché è solo l’occhio interiore che percepisce la verità e quindi la sapienza. L’appropriarsi delle dieci dimensioni sarà possibile solo con il superamento del regno dei cinque sensi, conquistabile solo con il saper vedere tramite la valorizzazione dell’occhio dell’anima. La vera liberalizzazione dell’Uomo si ottiene con la libertà da tutto ciò che limita il senso di connessione con il divino, quindi con la perfezionabilità proveniente dalla infinita  sapienza.

            La consapevolezza di inserire ogni azione creatrice dell’Uomo dentro il contesto del TUTTO, in un sistema relazionale, dove un punto è sempre l’inizio e/o la fine di un processo, è un tale elevamento dell’Uomo che la cultura sinica, con il suo neosistema di potere, non potrà mai raggiungere e/o garantire.

            Il Nostro mondo solo così potrà arginare il nuovo dittatore. Tutto ciò, nel contempo, ci deve rendere consapevoli di dover lottare molto per garantirsi la nuova libertà per sè e soprattutto per i nostri figli. Sarà proprio l’applicazione di questi nuovi, e contemporaneamente vecchi, pensieri, pur inseriti nel contesto di questo atroce scontro in atto tra occioriente e sinici, a far sbandare gli assalitori e a sconfiggere l’inerzia dei nostri Fratelli caduti nella pericolosità dell’accidia.

            Vogliamo costruire una rete di Massoni liberi che operi come Gran Consiglio Internazionale della Massoneria, dove si accede per autorità ed elezione di spirito, per un pitagorico censimento delle risorse, per un vero e concreto argine al pericoloso e violento espansionismo sinico, per edificare insieme e parimenti portare avanti il progetto del comune e nuovo ordine mondiale.

            Questo documento “pubblico” è, per la prima volta nella storia della Massoneria, “aperto”, cioè non terminato, per cui ogni Massone, purché avente un grado amministrativo idoneo, può aggiungere, se lo desidera e lo ritiene opportuno, le proprie idee, il proprio contributo, il proprio capitolo del progetto, in modo da stendere ed estendere più ampiamente il documento stesso. Se invece non avesse i gradi richiesti, contribuisca via email * con le sue proposte e anche lui, ma con modalità diverse, comunicategli ad persona, parteciperà alla costruzione reale della nuova Massoneria Internazionale.

   

* email:

Vi preghiamo di esprimere le Vostre proposte inviandole al Forum: 

le Vostre opinioni saranno tutte integrate e messe a confronto nel  documento .

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

| 369 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

2. AN AUSTRALIAN SECRET SOCIETY IN THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

| 251 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

3. AN ILLUMINATI OUTLINE OF HISTORY

AN ILLUMINATI OUTLINE OF HISTORY


Alpha and Omega -- Immanentizing of the Eschaton.

20,000,000 BC -- Recent Epoch of geeology begins; Ice Age ends; human beings spread to all parts of the world.

30,000 -- First Illuminatus, Gruad, rules in Atlantis.

20,000 -- Mythical Lloigor inhabit continent of Mu.

10,000 -- Approximate beginning of agriculture.  Estimated date of inscriptions on stone disks by the Dropa tribe, a diminuative
  people of the Bayan-Kara-Ula Mountains on the border of China and
  Tibet; disks describe how the tribe came to earth in flying
  machines; ancient Dropa graves contain human remains with huge
  heads and small bodies.  Earliest estimated date of carving of the
  Crystal Skull found at Lubaantun in the Yucatan.  Hyborian Age in
  Europe.
9,000 to 10,000 -- Date of Plato's Atlantis.
6,000 -- Picture writing develops.
5,000 -- First alphabet begins to develop.
4,000 -- Approximate date of discovery of metals, beginning of
  cities, constellations of stars first recorded.  Egyptians begin
  placing small pieces of crystal on the forehead of deceased prior
  to mummification.
3,000 -- Approximate date of building of the Sphinx and Great
  Pyramid at Giza and other pyramids elsewhere in Egypt.  Indus
  Valley civilization develops complex government, writing and well
  planned cities.  Minoan civilization flourishes in Crete.
  Earliest parts of the Bible written.  Beginning date of Olmec
  calendar from Central America: 3113 BC.  Trephination (cutting a
  hole in the skull) practiced by people all over the world.
  2,500 -- Sarmoung Brotherhood of Babylonia flourish according to
  Gurdjieff.
2,100 -- Egyptians record star configurations on which the 24 hour
  day is based.
2,000 -- Stonehenge and other stone circles built in England.
1,800 -- Huge Silbury Mound constructed near Stonehenge.
1,700 -- Babylonian Enuma Anu Enlil, early roots of astrology
  based on celestial phenomena.
1,500 -- Approximate date of the destruction of Thera, on which
  Atlantis legends are probably based.  Early references to
  Mithraism on cuneform astronomical tests.  Quadrants of the moon
  recorded in China.
1,360 -- Akhenaton's monotheistic sun worship in Egypt.
1,344 -- Tutankhamun, Akhenaton's successor who revived
  polytheism, buried at Thebes; curse reading "Death comes on swift
  wings to he who opens this tomb," written on tomb doorway.
1,300 -- Approximate date "I Ching" written in China.
1,184 -- End of the Trojan War, Illium falls to the Greeks.
1,000 to 2,000 -- Legendary Thule civilization in the Gobi region
  destroyed by a catastrophe, "possibly of an atomic nature,"
  survivors migrating to Agarthi and Schamballah.
1,000 -- Huge Sacrificial Table built at Mystery Hill near North
  Salem, New Hampshire.
950 -- Approximate date of building of Solomon's Temple in
  Jerusalem, traditional origin of the Masonic fraternity; alleged
  assassination of Temple master-mason Hiram for refusing to reveal
  masonic secrets.
900 -- Approximate time settlers from Europe and the Middle East
  established colonies in North America.
800 -- Twenty-two "moon stations" in monthly lunar cycle
  recognized in Babylonia, India and China.
753 -- Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus.
700 -- Jordanian city of Petra is carved out of sandstone by
  unknown culture.
600 -- Approximate beginning of money with first coins in Lydia.
575 -- Nebuchadnezzar completes building Tower of Babel in
  Babylon.
500 to 600 -- Time of Buddha, Lao Tse, Confucius, Zarathustra,
  Orpheus, Pythagoras, Zachariah and Daniel--an Illuminated century.
500 -- Sun-Tse's "Treatise on the Art of War," first intelligence
  manual.
485 -- Execution of Spurius Cassius in Rome.
450 -- Development of the 12 constellations of the zodiac in
  Mesopotamia, recognizing the importance of the plane of the
  elliptic through which the sun, moon and planets move.
440 -- Assassination of Spurius Maelius.
400 -- Druidism in England.  Astrological ideas from Enuma Anu
  Enlil transmitted to India.
390 -- Approximate date Plato's "The Republic" written, featuring
  such Illuminoid images as the Philosopher Kings, the Divided Line
  and the parable of the Cave.
355 -- Plato's "Timaios" and "Kritias," earliest accounts of
  Atlantis.
300 -- Invention of Mayan calendar in Yucatan, based on advanced
  astronomy.  Fabius family of Rome reaches its greatest heights.
275 -- Approximate date Greek poet Aratus makes first sytematic
  record of star constellations in "Phaenomena."
273 to 232 -- Rule of Asoka, king of India who allegedly founded
  the Nine Unknown.
212 -- Archimedes uses burning-glass to set fire to Roman fleet at
  Syracuse, early use of lens as weapon.
133 -- Land reformer Tiberius Gracchus murdered and hundreds of
  his followers killed by followers of powerful Roman patricians;
  death of Scripio Africanus a few years later.
121 -- Gaius Gracchus and 3000 of his followers massacred by
  patricians.
100 -- The Great Teacher of the Essenes.  Essentials of modern
  astrology worked out.
95 -- Approximate date of assassination of Saturninus and Glaucia.
92 -- Assassination of Rutilius Rufus.
91 -- Assassination of Livius Drufus.
73 -- Revolt of gladiators led by Spartacus.
44 -- Assassination of Julius Caesar.
4 -- Birth of Jesus of Nazareth, accompanied by various Illuminoid
  trappings: three early Men-In-Black disguised as the Wise Men;
  strange lights in the sky; miracles such as visits from angels,
  prohpecy and suspension of time are reported.
0 -- Carnation-Painted Eyebrows Society, Copper Horses, Iron Shins
  and other secret societies active in China.
AD 30 -- Assassination of the radical Jesus, allegedly on
  Illuminati orders; more Illuminoid trappings; an eclipse; an
  earthquake; visitorsfrom the sky roll away the stone from the
  sepulcher and liberate the crucified Jesus.
100 -- Hero of Alexandria devises primitive steam-engine.
125 to 150 -- Simon Magus, Menander, Valentinus and others develop
  Gnostic religious doctrines of esoteric knowledge (illumination).
135 -- Approximate date Ptolemy records 1,022 stars in "Almagest";
  also recorded astrological ideas from Enuma Anu Enlil in his
  "Apotelesmatika."
150 -- Roman Mithraism competes with Christianity.  Yellow Turban
  Society subdues northern China, Triad cult formed in opposition.
200 -- First book of the cabala, "Sepher Yetzirah," compiled.
216 to 276 -- Life of Mani, the Illuminator, who founded
  Manicheism, based on ideas from Judaism, Christianity,
  Zoroasterism, Gnosticism, etc.
325 -- Council of Nicaea in which Christian begins to rigidify.
400 -- Estimated date of carving of stone statues found on Easter
  Island.
500 -- Chinese use of gunpowder.
570 to 632 -- Life of Muhammad, founder of Islam.
670 -- Callinicus invents Greek Fire, primitive incendiary bomb.
673 to 735 -- Life of the Venerable Bede, the greatest scholar of
  Saxon England whose "Ecclesiastical History of England" (731)
  contained many occult and unexplained occurances.
700 -- Sufi mysticism begins.
730 -- "Al Azif" written in Damascus by Abdul Alhazred.
772 -- Charlemagne allegedly established Holy Secret Tribunal
  which becomes the Holy Vehm.
850 -- Ismaili and Fatimid missionaries throughout Islamic Empire
  preach revolution against the ruling Sunni order and Abbasid
  state.
900 -- Beginning of the Bogomils of Bulgaria, a Manicheian sect,
  roots of Cathari.
909 -- First Fatimid caliph in Egypt.
920 to 1003 -- Life of Pope Sylvester II who allegedly visited the
  Nine Unknown in India.
950 -- "Al Azif" translated into Greek as "Necronomicon."
1000 -- Approximate founding of Yezidi cult by Sufi Sheikh Adi in
  Iraq.  Abode of Learning active in Cairo.  Spread of Cathari
  Manicheism throughout Europe.  Leif Ericson explores North
  America.
1034 to 1124 -- Life of Hasan-e Sabbah, founder of the Assassins
  of Persia.  Member of the Ismaili sect, Hasan seized fortress of
  Alamut in Daylam in 1090; split with Fatimid dynasty in 1094;
  Assassins flourished for next several centuries.
1050 -- Approximate date of founding of the Order of Hospitallers
 in Jerusalem.
1058 -- Member of the Abode of Learning sect gains temporary
  control of Bagdad.
1092 -- Assassins murder Persian minister Nizam al-Mulk.
1095 -- First Crusade.
1100 -- Approximate date Sufi Gilani founds Arabic school of
  Illuminati, Kadiri Order of Sebil-el-ward, in Bagdad.  Assassins
  infiltrate Thug cult of India.  Bogomil leader Basil burned in
  Constantinople.  Albigensian Cathari sect flourishes near Albi,
  France.  Avengers and Beati Paoli active in Italy.  Joachim of
  Floris founds primitive Christian sect, Illuminated Ones.  Robin
  Hood active in England.
1119 -- Knights Templar founded in Palestine.
1123 -- Abode of Learning suppressed by Turkish Vizier Afdal.
1140 -- Rapid growth of Cathari sect begins.
1149 -- First Cathari bishop established.
1162 to 1227 -- Life of Genghis Khan, conquerer of China and
  Russia, invader of Europe and Islamic Empire, destroyer of
  Assassin power.  Approximate beginnings of the wandering of the
  Gypsies of North India.
1167 -- Cathari council near Toulouse.
1170 -- Assassination of Thomas a Becket.
1171 -- Last Fatimid caliph dies.
1176 -- Peter Waldo founds the Poor Men of Lyons.  Sultan Saladin
  invades Assassin territory, gains truce.
1184 -- Waldenses excommunicated, suppressed.
1200 to 1300 -- House of Wisdom in Cairo, roots of the Afghan
  Roshaniya.  Origin of the Mafia in Sicily.
1208 -- Albigensian Crusade begins suppression of Cathari heresy.
1212 -- The Children's Crusade.  Genghis Khan invades China.
1233 -- Founding of the Inquisition to suppress Cathari and other
  heresies.
1235 to 1315 -- Life of Dr. Illuminatus, Ramon Llull (Raymond
  Lully) in Spain.
1241 -- Mongols invade Europe through wise use of intelligence
  information and strategy, introduce gunpowder from Asia.
1244 -- Massacre of Cathari at Montsegur, France.
1250s -- Approximate beginning of Holy Vehm in Westphalia.
  Approximate time of Hulagu Khan's defeat of the Assassins.
  1254 to 1324 (?) -- Life of Marco Polo, early European traveler in
  China, Persia.
1258 -- Hulagu Khan destroys Bagdad; Mongols destroy Mesopotamia,
  the mother of civilization.
1260 -- Mongol invasion of Islamic Empire turned back.
1270s -- Cathari hierarchy fades.
1275 -- Assembly of traveling mason guilds in Frankfort. "Zohar,"
  second book of the cabala, compiled by Moses de Leon in Spain.
1280 -- Roger Bacon, deviser of early eyeglasses, independently
  invents gunpowder.
1291 -- Hospitallers retreat to Cyprus.
1300 -- White Lotus Society founded in China.  Inquisition begins
  suppression of witches and other pagan groups.
1307 -- Philip IV of France suppresses Knights Templar for
  witchcraft and heresies; de Molay imprisoned in the Temple in
  Paris.
1308 -- Assassination of Holy Roman Emperor Albert I.
1309 -- Hospitallers acquire the isle of Rhodes.
1313 -- Knights Templar dissolved by papal decree.
1314 -- De Molay and others burned in Paris.
1327 -- Assassination of King Edward II in England.
1329 -- First appearance of the Tarot in Germany.
1360 -- Approximate date of the earliest known Satanic cults;
  black masses celebrated in France.
1369 -- Timurlane becomes Great Khan.
1375 -- Another assembly of traveling mason guilds in Frankfort.
1379 to 1482 -- Alleged life of Christian Rosenkreuz, fictitious
  founder of Rosicrucianism.
1390 -- Gypsies begin to appear in Europe.
1400s -- Cathari sect dies out.  Concave lenses developed.
1404 -- King Robert revises code of Holy Vehm.
1410 -- Secret society formed in Italy which eventually joins with
  Rosicrucianism.
1437 -- Assassination of King James I of Scotland.
1456 -- Gutenberg Bible begins modern printing.
1458 -- Abramelin's "Book of Sacred Magic" translated from Hebrew
  to french according to followers of the cult of the Guardian
  Angel.
1471 -- Assassination of King Henry VI of England.
1472 -- University of Ingolstadt founded.  Fernando Poo discovers
  Fernando Poo.
1483 -- Assassination of King Edward V of England.
1492 -- Rodrigo Borgia, head of the powerful Borgia family,
  becomes Pope Alexander VI.  Columbus sails the ocean blue.
1493 to 1541 -- Life of Paracelsus, possible founder of
  Roscrucianism; discover of zinc around 1530; model of the Faust
  legend.
1500 -- Approximate date of Roshaiya, Illuminated Ones, in
  Afganistan.  Beginning of Alumbrados in Spain and Charcoal-
  Burners in Scotland.  Cesare Borgia has his brother-in-law
  assassinated.
1502 -- Cesare Borgia arrests and executes enemies who have
  conspired against him.
1503 to 1566 -- Life of Nostradamus, visionary prophet.
1507 -- Fra Dolcino's version of Joachim's Illuminism suppressed
  by the Bishop of Vercueil.
1510 -- Beginning of systematic importation of African slaves into
 the West Indies.
1513 -- Machiavelli's "The Prince" published.
1519 -- Spanish conquest of Mexico, enslavement of Amerindians.
1522 -- Hospitallers lose Rhodes to the Turks.
1530 -- Hospitallers given Isle of Malta by Charles V, become
  Knights of Malta.
1537 -- Assassination of Alessandro de Medici, Duke of Florence.
1568 -- First Inquisition edict against the Alumbrados.
1574 -- Second edict against Alumbrados.
1575 -- Approximate date of founding of British Intelligence
  services.
1575 to 1624 -- Life of Jakob Bohme, visionary mystic, illuminated
  one.
1584 -- Assassination of William I of Orange in England.
1587 -- English colony established at Roanoke Island, Virginia; no
  trace of the "lost colony" was found when supply ships returned
  three years later.
1589 -- Assassination of King Henry III of France.
1590 -- Janssen makes first compound microscope in Europe.
1597 -- Anonymous alchemist seeks to start Rosicrucian-like
  society in Europe.
1605 -- Rosicrucian constitution published.
1607 -- Italian secrect society headed by Count Bernard of Germany
  merges with Rosicrucianism.  First permanent English settlement in
  America, Jamestown, Virgina.
1608 -- Apprentice to Dutch spectacle-maker Lippershey discovers
  principle of focusing lenses; Lippershey builds first telescope.
1609 -- Galileo independently builds telescope, begins study of
  astonomy.  Spanish settlement at Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded.
1610 -- Assassination of King Henty IV of France.
1614 -- "Fama Fraternitatis" published, fictional story of
  Rosenkreuz by Johann Valentin Andrea.
1619 -- First slave ship in America, Jamestown, Virginia.
1620 -- Plymouth Colony, second English settlement, arrives on
  Mayflower.
1622 -- Posters appear in Paris warning that the Rosicrucians are
  "amongst you...visibly and invisibly."
1623 -- Final papal edict against Alumbrados; Guerinets appear in
  France.  First submarine built by Cornelius van Drebbel in
  England.
1638 -- Milton meets Galileo.
1640 -- Beginning of subliminal persuasion when Rembrandt imbeds
  the word "sex" in a painting.
1642 -- Civil War in England between King Charles and Parliament.
1646 -- Earliest known Masonic Lodge to allow non-professional or
  "free" masons, in Warrington, England.
1647 -- Alleged correspondence between Cromwell and Ebeneezer
  Pratt plotting the overthrow of King Charles.
1649 -- King Charles convicted and beheaded by Parliament.
1654 -- Illuminated Guerinets come to public notice in France.
1667 -- Milton's "Paradise Lost" published.
1675 -- Leeuwenhoek discovers "animalcules" through the
  microscope.
1676 -- Sperm discovered by Leeuwenhoek's student Ham.
1680 -- Madame Le Voisin, innovator of modern Satanism, executed
  in Paris.
1682 -- Tamanend, sachem and chief of the Lenni-Lenape tribe,
  welcomes William Penn to America, traditionally considered the
  beginning of the Tammany Society.
1689 -- William III of Orange becomes king of England, allegedly
  through the plotting of the Illuminati.
1694 -- Bank of England founded.
1700 -- Quietism of Fenelon and others.
1701 -- Earliest record of "operative" or professional Masonic
  Lodge in Alnwick, England.
1702 -- First daily newspaper in England.
1717 -- Founding of modern Freemasonry with the Grand Lodge of
  London by Desaguliers.  Voltaire imprisoned in the Bastille.
1721 -- British King George I cracks down on the flourishing Hell
  Fire Clubs, popular Satanistic cults.
1723 -- Anderson's "Constitutions of the Freemasons" published.
  "Ebrietatis Enconium" and other early anti-Masonic works
  published.
1724 -- Publication of the anti-Masonic "Grand Mysteries of the
  Freemasons Discovered."
1731 -- Benjamin Franklin initiated into Freemasonry.
1734 -- Franklin elected Grand Master of Pennsylvania.
1736 -- Death of the last leader of the Afghan Illuminated Ones.
1749 -- Rousseau's spontaneous "enlightenment" launches the
  Romantic Movement.
1750 -- Hell Fire Clubs continue to flourish in Dublin and London.
  Fictional alchemist Joseph Curwen writes letter stating "I laste
  Nighte strucke on ye Wordes that bringe up Yooge-Sothothe,"
  perhaps the real power behind the Illuminati.
1754 -- Six year old Adam Weishaupt is orphaned and goes to live
  with the Jesuits.
1757 -- First year of Swedenborg's "New Era."
1759 -- Voltaire's "Candide" published.
1760 -- St. Germain founds chemical dye factory in Holland, fore-
  runner of I.G. Farben; disappears with 100,000 guilders.  Franklin
  invents bifocals.
1761 -- St. Germain discovered living in Russia.  Chinese Emporer
  issues edict against secret societies.
1762 -- Illumines of France founded.  Sandwich invented.
1763 -- Swedenborg's "Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem"
  published.
1764 -- Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary" published; he begins
  a prodigious attack on dogmas of church and state.
1765 -- British Stamp Act imposed to help pay for the French and
  Indian War debt.  Sons of Liberty clubs formed to resist the tax.
1767 -- Townshend Revenue Act, another British tax on the
  colonies.  Kunta Kinte kidnapped into American slavery.
1768 -- Virginia's legislature dissolved for its opposition to the
  Townshend Act.  Weishaupt graduates from the University of
  Ingolstadt, becomes tutor and catechist.  Macfarguhar, Ball and
  Smelie begin compiling the "Encyclopaedia Britannica."  Mesmer
  commissions 12 year old Mozart's first opera, "Bastien and
  Bastienne."
1770 -- Boston Massacre: British troops fire into a crowd.
  Townshend Act repealed.
1771 -- "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published.
1772 -- Weishaupt becomes professor at University of Ingolstadt.
1773 -- British Tea Tax on colonies.  Boston Tea Party in protest.
  Weishaupt marries.  Alleged meeting of Meyer Rothschild and others
  to plan a world revolution.  Suppression of the Jesuits.
  Franklin's "Rule by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small
  One" published.
1774 -- Britain's "Intolerable Acts" designed to punish rebellious
  colonies.  First Continental Congress.  Washington begins training
  troops.  Louis XVI becomes king of France.  Casanova becomes
  secret agent for the Inquisitors of Venice.  Catherine II shuts
  down satiric journals in Russia.  Jefferson's "Summary View of the
  Rights of British Americans" published.
1775 -- Second Continental Congress authorizes naval warships,
  sets up secret committee to procure weapons, names Washington
  commander-in-chief of the new American Army.  George III proclaims
  America in open rebellion.  Initial battles of the Revolutionary
  War: Lexington, Bunker Hill, Toconderoga.  Bushnell's first
  experimental submarine and torpedo tested.  Prince Hall lodges
  (for blacks) chartered by Grand Lodge of London, rejected by
  American lodges.
1776 -- Illuminati founded by Weishaupt.  American Declaration of
  Independence, written by Jefferson, adopted by Continental
  Congress.  Battles of Long Island, White Plains and Trenton.
  Nathan Hale executed as spy by British.  Franklin becomes
  ambassador to France, is affiliated with French Masonic lodges.
  Opening of Freemasons' Hall, permanent headquarters of English
  Masonry.  Cagliostro initiated into Masonry.  Saigon captured by
  Tay Son brothers.  Aaron Burr serves as assistant to Benedict
  Arnold.  Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and "The Crisis" widely
  read.  Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" published.
1777 -- Weishaupt joins Munich Lodge of the Order of Good Council.
  Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental Congress.
  Battles of Bennington, Brandywine, Germantown, Princeton and
  Saratoga.  Washington has his mystical vision of the future of the
  United States while at Valley Forge.  War of Bavarian Secession
  begins.
1778 -- France recognizes American independence, signs treaty and
  provides aid.  Franklin assists in initiation of Voltaire into
  Masonic Lodge of Paris.  Masonic Convention in Lyons organizes
  Knights of Benficience.
1779 -- John Paul Jones says "Damn the torpedos!"  Benedict Arnold
  becomes a traitor and spy for the British.  War of Bavarian
  Secession ends.
1780 -- John Andre, British agent, captured with secret documents
  from Arnold; Arnold escapes to join British; Andre hanged as spy.
  Weishaupt's wife dies.  Illuminati begins rapid growth.  First use
  of the title Odd Fellows.  Order of the Brotherhood of Asia,
  Rosicrucian off-shoot, founded.
1781 -- Battle of Guilford Court House, surrended of Cornwallis at
  Yorktown.  John Hanson becomes first President of the United
  States in Congress Assembled.  Weishaupt seeks abortion for his
  sister-in-law while awaiting dispensation to marry her.  United
  Masonic Lodges of Hamburg headed by Fraximus, a secret
  Rosicrucian.  Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" published.
1782 -- British cabinet agrees to recognize American independence,
  preliminary agreement signed in Paris.  Hanson commissions the
  "Eye in the Pyramid" Great Seal, finishes term; Elias Boudinot
  elected second President of Congress Assembled.  Illuminati
  dominate European Masonry.  Casanova retires as secret agent.
1783 -- Treaty signed between America and England.  Washington
  disbands army, resigns.  Hanson dies.  Thomas Mifflin third
  President of Congress Assembled.  Ex-Illuminati Utschneider sends
  letter denouncing the Order to monarch of Bavaria.  Rite of
  Swedenborg founded by Marquis de Throne.  Eclectic Rite founded by
  Baron Knigge in Frankfort.  Webster's "American Spelling Book"
  published.
1784 -- Treaty with England ratified by Congress.  Richard Henry
  Lee fourth President of Congress Assembled.  Bavarian Monarch Carl
  Theodore outlaws secret societies.  Cagliostro moves to Lyons from
  Bordeaux to found the Mother Lodge of Egyptian Masonry.  Royal
  Commission in Paris, including Franklin and Guillotine as members,
 investigates Mesmerism and returns a negative report.
1785 -- Weishaupt flees to Gotha; new edict outlaws Illuminati;
  High-ranking Illuminatus Lanz killed by lightning and Illuminati
  papers found on body by police.  French "Diamond Necklace" affair.
  Napoleon graduates military school.  Franklin returns to America;
  Jefferson becomes French ambassador.  Rosicrucian Order suppressed
  in Austria.  Anonymous pamphlet appears in Germany revealing
  secrets of ancient Egyptian ceremonies.
1786 -- Wisdom Lodge founded in Virginia.  Secret congress in
  Frankfort where Louis XVI and Gustavus III of Sweden condemned to
  die by Illuminati.  Italian Illuminatus Buonarroti's library of
  Masonic and subversive books confiscated by state authorities.
  Nathaniel Gorham fifth President of Congress Assembled.  Napoleon
  writes pamphlete defending Rousseau.
1787 -- German authorities publish letter by Weishaupt admitting
  he sought abortion for his sister-in-law; Weishaupt replies,
  blaming "extenuating circumstances."  German Union (extension of
  outlawed Bavarian Illuminati) founded by Bahrdt.  Washington
  elected President of Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia;
  new constitution adopted by the convention.  Arthur St. Clair
  sixth President of Congress Assembled.  Jefferson meets secretly
  in Paris with Brazilian rebel to discuss American aid to
  revolution in Brazil.  Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts to
  protest unfair taxes.  Goethe visits Cagliostro's family in
  Palermo.  Swedenborgian Church founded in London.  Society for the
  Abolition of the African Slave-Trade founded in London.
1788 -- American Constitution ratified by the states.  Individual
   American states begin to outlaw slavery.  Cyrus Griffen seventh
  President of Congress Assembled.  Paine visits London and Paris.
  "The Federalist" essays published by Hamilton, Madison and Jay.
1789 -- Washington elected President of the United States; first
  Congress under new Constitution.  Jefferson returns to U.S. to
  become first Secretary of State; Hamilton becomes first Secretary
  of the Treasury.  French Revolution begins.
  1790 -- Rebellion and massacre throughout France.  Cagliostro
  arrested by Inquisition of Rome.  Bavarian edict against Reading
  Societies.  Blake's "Marriage of Heaven and Hell" published.
1791 -- Napoleon joins the Jocobin Club.  First Bank of the United
  States chartered.  Burr begins converting Tammany Society into a
  political machine.  The anonymous "Vie de Joseph Balsamo" (Joseph
  Basalmo was Cagliostro's name before he joined the Masons), first
  recorded link of the Illuminati and the French Revolution, appears
  in several European countries.  Mozart's "The Magic Flute,"
  containing Masonic elements, performed.
1792 -- Washington re-elected.  War between France and Austria.
  Louis XVI imprisoned in the Templars Temple tower.  Massacres of
  September, in which priests, bishops and others are killed.
  Elections for the National Convention, a triumph for Robespierre
  and his followers.  France declared a Republic.  First
  Swedenborgian church in America.  Catherine II outlaws Masonry in
  Russia.  "Life of Joseph Balsamo" translated into English in
  Dublin.  Assassination of Gustav III at the Stockholm opera.
1793 -- Year One of the French Republic; the year of the Terror,
  Louis XVI found guilty of conspiracy, condemned to be executed.
  French government kills thousands of its citizens.  France
  declares war on England and the Dutch United Provinces; war breaks
  out with Spain and Austria; Russia and Prussia begin partition of
  Poland.  French food riots.
1794 -- Year Two; France passes laws distributing confiscated
  property to the poor, leads victorious battle against Austrians.
  Would-be assassin of Robespierre fires on Collot d'Herbois
  instead; the next day a young girl arrested as suspected assassin;
  she and 40 others sent to guillotine. Other attempts of
  Robespierre's life; his enemies accuse him of attempting to have
  himself declared divine by Catherine Theot, an old woman who
  preached a mystery religion; Robespierre guillotined.  Monroe
  becomes minister to France.  Whiskey rebellion in Pennsylvania to
  protest liquor taxes.
1795 -- France makes peace with Prussia and Spain, invades
  Holland.  Napoleon suppresses revolt in Paris and goes to Italy as
  Commander-in-Chief.  Yazoo land fraud: bribed Georgia legislators
  sell Mississippi.
1796 -- Adams elected President.  Paine publishes letter critical
  of Washington.
1798 -- Illuminati scare in New England.  Knights of Malta lose
  their island to Napoleon.
1800 -- Death of Thomas Waley, one of the last Hell Fire Club
  leaders.  Napoleon comes to power, allegedly through Illuminati
  manipulation.
1805 to 1881 -- Life of Auguste Blanqui, French socialist, founder
  of numerous secret societies modeled after Buonarroti.
1815 -- Napoleon's Waterloo.  Secret societies which eventually
  become the Decembrist Movement formed in Russian Masonic lodges.
1817 -- Suppression of the Lodge of Jupiter the Thunderer begins.
  Irish immigrants force entry into Tammany Society, changing its
  direction.
1818 -- Mar Shelley's "Frankenstein" published.
1819 -- American Independent Order of Odd Fellows founded.
  Founding of National Freemasonry, the most important of several
  Polish secret societies devoted to ousting the Russians from
  Poland.  Liberation of Columbia by Bolivar.
1822 -- Russian government suppresses Masonry.  Equador liberated
  by Bolivar.
1825 -- Decembrist movement suppressed in Russia after brief
  uprising.  Bolivar liberates Bolivia.  Founding of Vienna bank by
  Solmon Rothschild and Naples bank by Carl Rothschild.
1828 -- Tammany Society backs Andrew Jackson for President.  Anti-
  Masonic Party founded, first third-party in America.  Attempted
  assassination of Bolivar.
1829 -- Alleged Illuminati meeting in New York decides to unite
  Atheists and Nihilists into Communist movement.
1830 -- Anti-Masonic conventions in Massachusetts and Vermont find
  evidence linking Masonry with Illuminism.  Book of Mormon
  published.  Weishaupt and Bolivar die.
1831 -- Anti-Masonic Party runs Wirt for President, assuring that
  Mason Andrew Jackson would be re-elected.  Poe dismissed from West
  Point.
1833 -- Jackson orders U.S. funds withdrawn from Bank of the
  United States, effectively killing the institution.
1835 -- The socialist League of the Just founded in Paris, later
  becoming the Marxist Communist League.  Attempted assassination of
  Jackson with two single shot pistols, both of which jammed.
  Revolver invented.
1844 -- Morse builds first practical telegraph.  Bahai religion
  begins when the Bab proclaims his mission in Persia.
1848 -- Fall of monarchy in France.  Republic established in Rome.
  Abdication of Ferdinand I in Austria.  Revolts in Denmark,
  Ireland, Lombardy, Schleswig-Holstein and Venice.  Germany briefly
  united in a parliament at Frankfort; unity destroyed by the King
  of Prussia.  Marx and Engles publish the "Communist Manifesto"
  (allegedly commissioned by the Illuminati) and travel in France
  and Germany encouraging discontent with the Establishment.
  Woman's Suffrage Movement gets underway in Seneca Falls, New York.
  Spiritualism born in Wayne County, New York, when the teenaged Fox
  sisters communicate with poltergeists.  Fortean tidbits: moon
  turns "blood-red" during total eclipse; a great comet fails to
  return at the time predicted; visions and "phantom soldiers" seen
  in the skies of France and Scotland; Captain M'Quahae of H.M.S.
  Daedalus reports seeing a "huge, unknown creature" in the ocean.
  Gold discovered in California.
1849 to 1936 -- Life of Sir Basil Zaharoff, "mystery man of
  Europe," who made a fortune as an armaments dealer and financier,
  selling weapons to both sides in World War I and other conflicts.
1852 -- Benjamin becomes first professed Jew elected to Congress.
1859 -- Oil wells invented.  Darwin's "Origin of Species"
  published.
1860 -- Lincoln elected.  Electric storage battery invented.
1860s -- Attempts to suppress the Mafia in Sicily are
  unsuccessful.
1861 -- Confederate states secede; elect Jefferson Davis
  president; Benjamin appointed Confederate Attorney General, later
  Secretary of War.  American Civil War begins.  Emancipation of
  serfs in Russia.  Jacolliot writes about the Nine Unknown in
  Calcutta.  Gatling gun patented.
1862 -- Benjamin appointed Confederate Secretary of State.
1863 -- Rockfeller builds his first refinery.
1865 -- Assassination of Lincoln; Andrew Johnson becomes
  president; "Booth" killed; coded message found among his effects;
  the code key later found in possession of Benjamin, alleged
  Rothschild agent.  Civil War ends.  Thirteenth amendment abolishes
  slavery.
1866 -- Ku Klux Klan founded as a social club in Pulaski,
  Tennessee.  Benjamin flees to England.  Death of Phineas Quimby,
  magnetic healer, founder of Free Thought movement, teacher of Mary
  Baker Eddy.
1867 -- Ku Klux Klan reorganized along political and racial lines
  near Nashville, Tennessee.
1868 -- Assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, first Canadian
  political assassination.
1869 -- St. Germain allegedly completes 85 years in the Himalayas
  after his "death."  Mendeleev composes first periodic table of the
  elements in Russia.  U.S. transcontinental railroad completed.
1870 -- Standard Oil Company incorporated.
1875 -- "Whiskey Ring" conspiracy of distillery owners revealed.
  Madam Blavatsky founds Theosophy Society.  Mary Baker Eddy's
  "Science and Health" published.
1875 to 1947 -- Life of Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast, Golden
  Dawn leader and occult figure.
1876 -- Disraeli again warns about dangers of secret societies.
  Battle of the Little Big Horn.  Bell patents telephone.  Otto
  builds four-cycle gasoline engine.
1877 -- First of seven wills in which Cecil Rhodes leaves his
  money to establish a secret society to expand British rule
  throughout the world.
1878 to 1945 -- Life of Edgar Cayce, visionary, trance-channeler
  who spoke of reincarnation, Egyptian mysteries, and Atlantis.
1881 -- Garfield assassinated.  Czar Alexander II assassinated by
   secret society.  Disraeli publishes "Lothair," a novel about
  secret societies and European politics.
1884 -- Fabian Society founded in London by Sidney and Beatrice
  Webb and others.
1885 -- First practical horseless carriage built by Daimler.
1887 -- Golden Dawn founded in London by Mathers and others.
  Mitchelson-Morley experiement disproving ether theory.
1888 -- Unsolved murders of London prostitutes by "Jack the
  Ripper," suspected of being one of those implicated in the
  Cleveland Street Affair involving high-society Victorians and
  their patronage of a brothel staffed by messenger boys.
1889 -- Second Communist International organized.
1890 -- Biologist Yersin visits India, purportedly to recieve
  plague and cholera serum from the Nine Unknown.  Wounded Knee
  massacre.
1891 -- Rhodes gains control of 90% of world's diamond supply.
  The Round Tables, a secret society allegedly funded by Rhodes and
  the Rothschilds to gain financial and political power, founded in
  the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand.
  Rockefeller grant founds University of Chicago.  Nikola Tesla
  invents Tesla coil, becomes U.S. citizen.
1892 -- Rockefeller trust transferred to holding company: Standard
  Oil of New Jersey.
1893 -- Assassination of Chicago Mayor Harrison.
1894 -- Assassination of President Carnot of France.
1896 -- Maconi's patent No. 7777 for radio.  First "flap year" for
  UFOs: wave of sightings of unidentified airships in U.S.
1897 -- Assassination of Premier Canovas of Spain.  Zionism
  founded in Basil, Switzerland by Theodore Herzl.
1898 -- Assassination of Empress Elizabeth of Austria.  Pavlov
  begins study of conditioned reflex in dogs.
1899 -- Tesla discovers terrestrial stationary waves which can
  produce electricity; reports receiving signals from another
  planet.  Alleged meeting in England at which the Morgans,
  Rothschilds and Warburgs become affiliated.
1900 -- Assassination of King Umberto I of Italy and Kentucky
  Governor-elect William Goebel.  Tesla suggests alien beings might
  be living "in the very midst of us."  Boxer rebellion in China.
  Approximate date Adolf Lanz founded the Order of New Templars, a
  fore-runner of the Nazi mentality.
1901 -- Assassination of McKinley and Russian Education Minister
  Bogolepov.  Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
  (Rockefeller University) founded in New York.  First trans-
  Atlantic radio broadcast: Marconi sends the letter S.
1902 -- Assassination of Russian Minister of Interior Sipyagain.
  Paul and Felix Warburg immigrate from Germany to the U.S.
  Rockefeller General Education Board founded.
1903 -- Assassination of Bogdanovich, Governor of Ufa. "Protocols
  of Elders of Zion," alleged plan for Jewish world takeover,
  published in Russian newspaper.
1904 -- Assassination of Russian Premier Vischelev von Plehev.
1905 -- Assassination of Grand Duke Sergius and Idaho Governor
  Steunenberg. Abortive revolution in Russia. Expanded version of
  "Protocols of Zion" published.
1906 -- Assassination of Russian General Dubrassov.
1907 -- Financial panic and depression allegedly caused by J.P.
  Morgan to gain support for the central bank concept.
1908 -- Assassination of King Carl of Prussia and Crown Prince of
  Portugal. FBI founded. Founding of the Armanen Initiates, another
  proro-Nazi secret society.
1910 -- Attempted assassination of Mayor Gaynor of NYC. Secret
  meeting of bankers and politicians at Jekyll Island, Georgia,
  results in Federal Reserve Act.
1911 -- Assassination of Prime Minister Staliapin of Russia by
  police double agent. Standard Oil of New Jersey broken up as
  illegal monopoly.
1912 -- Assassination of Primier Canalegas of Spain. Attempted
  assassination of Teddy Roosevelt. Colonel E.M. House, adviser to
  Woodrow Wilson, publishes "Philip Dru: Administrator," a political
  romance which proposed modern social legislation. Founding of
  Germanen Order, another pre-Nazi secret society.
1913 -- Assassination of George I of Greece. Rockefeller
  Foundation founded.
1914 -- Attempted assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
  by Masonic agents, followed an hour later by successful
  assassination; in Russia, Rasputin stabbed the same day. World War
  I begins.
1915 -- Sinking of the Lusitania by German submarine; allegedly
  carrying secret munitions for the Allies, the ship supposedly
  sacrificed by British and American authorities to drum up war
  hysteria in U.S. Alfred Wegener proposed theory of continental
  drift, receives ridicule and contempt from his fellow scientists.
  Ku Klux Klan revived.
1916 -- Assassination of Rasputin.

From "The Illuminoids"  c. Neil Wilgus & various sources


ÿ


1917 -- United States enters World War I. Russian Revolution 
  begins; Cheka, secret police of Bolsheviks, founded.
1918 -- Assassination of Russian Czar Nicholas II and his family. 
  Attempted assassination of Lenin. New Thought lecturer David Van 
  Bush hires H.P. Lovecraft as a ghost writer.
1919 -- Founding of Thule Society in Germany; Hitler recruited. 
  League of Nations founded at Paris Peace Conference. Meeting at 
  the Majestic Hotel, Paris, between Wilsonian intellectuals (House, 
  Dulles and Dulles, etc.) and "like-minded Englishmen" to discuss 
  forming an organization "for the study of international affairs." 
  Royal Institute of International Affairs founded. Freud draws 
  attention to Austrian neurologist Poetzl's experiments with the 
  tachistroscope, an early device for studying subliminal 
  perception. Charles Fort's "The Book of the Damned" published. 
  Hitler joins the German Workers' Party.
1920s -- Assassination of estimated 400 German public figures 
  begins. U.S. entry into League of Nations blocked in Senate. 
  Development of modern advertising techniques emphasizing 
  manipulation rather than information.
1920 -- GWP becomes the National Socialist German Worker's Party.
1921 -- Council on Foreign Relations incorporated; founded by 
  Wilsonians House, Dulles and company upon their return from Paris, 
  with the help of the Round Table Group. Marconi states he believes 
  mysterious V code on pre-WWI radio came from space; Tesla recalls 
  seeing lights, vivid images, when he was a boy. Hitler takes over 
  the NSGWP.
1922 -- Mussolini, alleged British Intelligence agent, comes to 
  power in Italy, begins attempt to eliminate Mafia in Sicily. Cheka 
  reorganized as GPU, Russian secret police. CFR journal "Foreign 
  Affairs" founded. King Tutankhamen's tomb opened in Egypt, thus 
  invoking "King Tut's Curse"; 14 violent deaths in as many years 
  linked to the curse.
1923 -- Assassination of Pancho Villa in Mexico. Founding of 
  Hitler's National-Socialist (Nazi) Party in Germany. International 
  Police (Interpol) founded in Vienna. In the face of the Teapot 
  Dome and other scandals, President Harding visits Alaska and 
  receives a "long ciphered message" which visibly upsets him, 
  causing him to ask what a president could do when friends betrayed 
  him; he died soon after among conflicting rumors about the cause 
  of his death. Fort's "New Lands" published.
1924 -- J. Edgar Hoover takes over FBI. During Mars' closest 
  approach radios around the world went off the air in order to 
  allow interception of any possible messages from space; when 
  translated onto photographic tape, signals received produced 
  crudely drawn faces. Lovecraft ghostwrites for Houdini.
1925 -- Lionel Curtis organizes the Institutes of Pacific 
  Relations in at least ten countries for the Round Table Group.
1926 -- Suicide of synchronicity researcher Paul Krammerer, 
  biologist, freemason.
1927 -- Rise of the CFR due to Rockefeller and other foundation 
  funding. The Crystal Skull discovered in ruins of Lubaantun in 
  British Honduras.
1928 -- Nomination of Catholic Al Smith sparks last spurt of 
  growth for the KKK. Soviet produced film shows conditioned reflex 
  experiments on humans.
1929 -- CFR moves to Harold Pratt Building on 68th Street. Great 
  Depression begins. Quisling's "About the Matter That Inhabited 
  Worlds Outside Ours and the Significance Caused by It to Our 
  Philosophy of Life" published.
1930 -- Pavlov begins applying knowledge of conditioned reflex to 
  human psychosis.
1930s -- Mafia becomes integral part of the U.S. organized crime. 
  Continuing political assassinations accompany Nazi rise to power.
1931 -- Fort's "Lo!" published.
1932 -- Fort dies after publishing his last book, "Wild Talents."
1933 -- Attempted assassination of Franklin Roosevelt; Chicago 
  mayor Cermak killed instead. FDR orders use of Great Seal of the 
  U.S. on reverse side of the dollar bill. Reichstag Fire, set by 
  Nazis, used to suspend civil liberties.
1934 -- Assassination of S.M. Kirov, Soviet leader and Stalin 
  collaborator. Russian GPU renamed NKVD. Beginning of Hitler's 
  Black Order. Unexplained "ghostflier" broadcasts in Sweden.
1935 -- Assassination of Senator Huey Long. First lobotomy 
  performed by Egas Moniz in Lisbon.
1936 -- Beginning of Moscow Purge trials in which numerous 
  communist leaders were brainwashed into false confessions and then 
  executed.
1937 -- Spanish Civil War begins. First of 48 "Lost Colony" stones 
  found in North Carolina; stones supposedly tell the story of lost 
  Roanoke Island colony. Amelia Earhart Putnam, aviator, disappears.
1938 -- Assassination of Leon Sedov, Trotsky's son; first 
  assassination attempt against Trotsky. Nazi invasion of Austria; 
  Interpol exiled -- or taken over by Nazis; German expedition to 
  Antarctica stakes out 600,000 square kilometers, lands near the 
  South Pole. Electroshock treatment discovered. Orson Welles' 
  dramatization of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" scares American 
  radio listeners.
1939 -- Attorney Leon Cooke, friend of Jack Ruby and financial 
  secretary of the union which employed Ruby, killed by union 
  president Jack Martin; union subsequently taken over by Mafia. 
  League of Nations suspended. Germany invades Poland; World War II 
  begins. CFR offers it services to U.S. State Dept. Interpol 
  grouped with Gestapo. Amateur radio astronomer Grote Reber 
  receives dot-dash signal from space. Attempted assassination of 
  Hitler.
1940 -- Assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico. British secret 
  police renamed MI-5 and MI-6 for duration of war. Interpol moved 
  to near Berlin., with Reinhard Heydrich in charge. Nazis allegedly 
  begin building Hitler's secret hideout in Antarctica. Roosevelt 
  sends Gen. "Wild Bill" Donovan on info-gathering mission to 
  Europe; Donovan recommends a central intelligence organization. 
  U.S. State Dept. creates Division of Special Research headed by 
  CFR member Pasbolsky.
1941 -- Japan attacks U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor, allegedly 
  through the maneuvering of Roosevelt and his advisors to provide 
  an excuse to enter the war. Donovan made head of new Office of 
  Coordinator of Information. "The Books of Charles Fort" published.
1942 -- Assassination of Interpol chief H-ydrtch pn 
  Czechloslavakia. Donovan's OCI evolves into the Office of 
  Strategic Services (OSS).
1943 -- LSD-25 discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann. Nazi 
  Admiral Doenitz boasts the German submarine fleet has built "in 
  another part of the world a Shangri-La on land, an impregnable 
  fortress." Juan Peron and other pro-Nazi leaders take power in 
  Argentina. Pilots on both sides of the war report seeing "foo-
  fighters," unexplained flying objects, while flying war missions.
1944 -- Attempted assassination of Hitler. Nazis begin sending 
  millions of dollars worth of jewels, paintings and cash to 
  Argentina for safe keeping. Russian NKVD reorganized as MGB. 
  Donovan prepares plan for Roosevelt to establish a central 
  intelligence agency which is pigeonholed, later reconsidered by 
  Truman. American band leader Glenn Miller disappears on unarmed 
  flight over the English Channel.
1945 -- Alleged assassination (suicide) of James Forrestal at 
  Bethesda Hospital Neurological Ward, after his attempt to warn 
  Roosevelt of Illuminati plot. Roosevelt dies, Truman becomes 
  president. Mussolini killed. Hitler allegedly escapes from Berlin 
  after arranging for a fake suicide cover story; Hitler's death 
  announced, Admiral Doenitz takes command; submarines U-530, U-977 
  and others begin secret journey from Norway soon after Quisling 
  allegedly refused Hitler's offer to take him "aboard a submarine 
  to a safe refuge"; two months after Germany surrenders submarines 
  U-530 and U-977 give themselves up in Mar del Plata, Argentina, 
  after allegedly being lost from the submarine convoy taking Hitler 
  and others to their hideout in Antarctica; Nazi leader Martin 
  Bormann escapes without a trace from Berlin after supervising 
  Hitler's "suicide." First atomic bombs dropped. World War II ends. 
  General Gehlen, Head of Nazi Intelligence, captured by U.S. Army 
  and flown to Washington; other Nazi and British agents imported to 
  U.S., along wit` Werner Von Braun and other developers of the V-2 
  rockets. Interpol dissolved -- or reorganized with headquarters in 
  Paris, the story varies. OSS disbanded, its agents moving to 
  military intelligence agencies and the State Dept. CFR allegedly
  takes over State Dept. United Nations founded. "Official beginning 
  of Bermuda Triangle mystery," when Flight 19, made up of five 
  naval bombers, disappears off the coast of Florida; another plane 
  sent to investigate also disappears -- 6 planes and 27 men 
  vanished. An Air Force plane's engines fail over Iwo Jima as foo-
 fighters maneuver around it.
1946 -- Murder of wire service king James Ragen by Syndicate 
  friends of Jack Ruby; indictment dropped following additional 
  murders. John Kennedy and Richard Nixon elected to House of 
  Representatives. Truman's executive order sets up the National 
  Intelligence Authority and Central Intelligence Group. Gehlen 
  returns to Germany to continue intelligence work for U.S. Army. 
  Interpol reorganization meeting held in Brussels. Admiral Byrd 
  allegedly leads Naval "research" expedition to Antarctica to 
  attack Hitler's secret hideout; attempt allegedly fails and Hitler 
  and his "UFO scientists" continue their activities. Waves of 
  unexplained "ghost rockets" seen in Europe, especially 
  Scandanavia.
1947 -- Attempted assassination of Minneapolis Mayor Hubert 
  Humphrey. Partition of India receives "strong impetus from the 
  Round Table Group." National Security Act establishes Dept. of 
  Defense, National Security Council and Central Intelligence 
  Agency. France creates SDECE, similar to CIA. Second UFO flap 
  year; Kenneth Arnold reports flying saucers near Yakima, 
  Washington, and other reports soon follow. Maury Island "hoax": an 
  early Men-In-Black incident three days before the Arnold sighting, 
  in which a "donut-shaped object" dropped slag on a boat near 
  Tacoma, Washington; the next day an MIB visited Harold Dahl, who 
  was piloting the boat, and warned him not to discuss the sighting; 
  the boat's owner, Fred Crisman, was suspected of being a CIA 
  employee and was later called to give secret testimony at the 
  trial of Clay Shaw in New Orleans; pilot Dahl disappeared and 
  UFOlogist Arnold, who investigated the case, reported unexplained 
  failure of his own plane's engine soon after two Air Force 
  investigators were killed taking off from Tacoma's airport.
1948 -- Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Attempted assassination 
  of labor leader Walter Reuther. Beginning of Operation Ohio, a CIA 
  program responsible for one hundred European assassinations during 
  the next ten years. Beginning of CIA interest in UFOs as a 
  "security" problem. McCord employed by the FBI. Nixon gains 
  prominence in the Alger Hiss case as member of the House Un-
  American Activities Committee; goes to Miami where he meets Bebe 
  Rebozo and goes yachting with other underworld-connected figures. 
  Martin Bormann reported living in Argentina. New nation of Israel 
  creates Central Institute for Intelligence and Security. World 
  Council of Churches founded in Amsterdam.
1949 -- Report critical of CIA filed and forgotten, unread by 
  Truman; Central Intelligence Act exempts CIA from disclosure laws. 
  E. Howard Hunt becomes CIA agent; Clay Shaw becomes agent for 
  CIA's Domestic Contact Service. The Gehlen Organization 
  transferred to CIA control. U.S. Army begins 20 years of simulated 
  germ warfare attacks against American cities, conducting at least 
  239 open air tests. Interpol granted consultive status by UN. 
  Chaing Kai-shek flees to Formosa; mainland China taken by 
  communist leaders; Social Affairs Dept. and other Chinese secret 
  police created. Trial of Cardinal Mindszenty in Hungary following 
  his brainwashing and confession of conspiracy.
1950 -- Attempted assassination of Truman by Puerto Rican 
  nationalists. Korean War begins. Congress passes McCarran's 
  Internal Security Act setting up program for detention of 
  subversives. Hiss convicted of perjury; Nixon elected to Senate 
  after smear campaign against California opponent. U.S. Army 
  engages in "simulated" germ warfare in San Francisco and the 
  Pentagon. National Council of Churches founded in U.S. CIA 
  organizes the Pacific Corporation, a large holding company which 
  was the first of many CIA "private" enterprises. Alleged CIA plot 
  to introduce UFO contact ideas with "Little Green Men" stories and 
  radio contact "from space." Malcolm X receives visit from an MIB 
  while in prison. "Worlds in Collision" by Immanuel Velikovsky 
  proposes a catastrophic theory of ancient history in which a huge 
  "comet" of matter is ripped out of Jupiter, approaches Earth close 
  enough to cause universal fire/flood legends in primitive folklore 
  and the settles into orbit as a new planet, Venus; Velikovsky 
  receives ridicule and contempt from his fellow scientists, thought
  20 years later Jupiter is generally considered a "cold star" 
  rather than a planet and Velikovsky's prediction of a hot climate 
  on Venus is confirmed. Approximate starting date of building of 
  Mount Weather, secret American government fortress.
1951 -- Assassination of Ali Razmara of Iran, Riad Al-Sulh and 
  Abdullah of Jordan and Ali Knah Liaquat of Pakistan. Army 
  simulated germ warfare project in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. 
  Approximate date CBS begins active cooperation with CIA. McCord 
  moves from FBI to CIA. North Korean brainwashing of American 
  prisoners begins. TIME magazine popularizes the term 
  "brainwashing."
1952 -- Eisenhower elected president, Nixon vice-president; 
  Kennedy elected to Senate. Army germ warfare project in Key West, 
  Florida, and Ft. McCellan, Alabama. CIA agent Downey and Fecteau 
  captured while on spy mission in China. Third UFO flap year. First 
  UFO "contact" case: George Adamski meets Venusians in California 
  desert; alleged CIA plot to start UFO scare. UFOlogist George 
  Williamson, one of Adamski's witnesses, claims he also witnessed 
  ham radio operator establish contact with another world.
1953 -- Dr. Frank Olsen commits suicide after having been given a 
  secret dose of LSD by the CIA, under the direction of the 
  mysterious Dr. Sidney Gottlieb. CIA contemplates developing drugs 
  to cause amnesia in retired agents. CIA's Robertson Panel views  
  UFO reports as national security threat. Army germ warfare project 
  in Panama City, Florida. Return of Korean War prisoners, including 
  some who underwent brainwashing. 21 POWs defect. Mau Mau (Hidden 
  Ones) formed in Kenya to overthrow white rule. UFOlogist Albert 
  Bender closes down his International Flying Saucer Bureau after 
  being visited by three MIB.
1954 -- Attempted assassinations of several U.S. Congressmen by 
  Puerto Rican nationalists. First Bilderberger meeting takes place 
  at the Bilderberg Hotel, Oosterbeek, Holland. Condemnation by the 
  U.S. Senate of Joseph McCarthy following his charges of subversion 
  in high places. Hunt involved in CIA overthrow of communist regime 
  in Guatemala, Carlos Castillo-Armas becomes president. Richard 
  Bissell joins the CIA. Army germ warfare project in Point Mugu and 
  Fort Hueneme, California. Russian KGB created to replace earlier 
  secret police. Broadcaster Frank Edwards fired for discussing UFOs 
  on the air. Strange voice "from space" speaks from turned-off 
  radios in midwest U.S. and London, warns against preparations for 
  war.
1955 -- Assassination of Jose Antonio Remon of Panama and Adnan 
  Al-Malki of Syria. Bilderberger meeting in Barbizon, France. Lee 
  Harvey Oswald meets David Ferrie of the New Orleans Civil Air 
  Patrol. Doug Durham joins the Marines. The Office of Naval 
  Research allegedly receives a copy of Morris Jessup's "The Case 
  for the UFOs" with marginal notes in three different hands, 
  supposedly by "Gypsies" knowledgeable in UFOlogy; ONR reprints 
  several hundred copies for internal use; an MIB called "Carlos 
  Allende" is implicated in the affair.
1956 -- Assassination of Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua. 
  Bilderberger meeting in Frednsborg, Denmark. Clay Shaw's CIA 
  contact allegedly stopped. Oswald joins Marines. Durham receives 
  special CIA training. UFOlogist Gray Barker publishes "They Knew 
  Too Much About Flying Saucers" which reported numerous MIB 
  incidents.
1957 -- Assassination of Carlos Castillo-Armas of Guatemala. 
  Exiled Ukranian politician Lev Rebet assassinated by KGB agent in 
  Munich. Alleged assassination of Joseph McCarthy at Bethesda 
  Hospital Neurological Ward, after warning of Illuminati plot. 
  Bilderberger meetings in St. Simon Island, Georgia, and Fiuggui, 
  Italy. Oswald assigned to base at Atsugi, Japan, where CIA U-2 
  planes were launched; shoots self in elbow. General Edwin Walker 
  commands federal troops sent to enforce racial integration at 
  Little Rock, Arkansas. CIA helps Iran form SAVAK, secret police 
  later accused of assassination Iranian dissidents. Experiments in 
  behavior modification sleep-teaching take place at California 
  penal institution Woodland Road Camp. Fourth UFO flap year. Anti-
  atomic bomb propaganda disseminated by saucer clubs -- another CIA
  plot? Unexplained short wave radio signals received worldwide.
1958 -- Assassination of Abdul Llah, Faisal II and Nuri Al-Said of 
  Iraq. Bilderberger meeting in Buxton, England. Russia launches 
  first space satellites. Unidentified ex-Marine lives in Minsk, 
  USSR, apparently gathering information for the CIA. Oswald on 
  maneuvers in the Philippines involving U-2 flights. Francis Gary  
  Powers released from Air Force and assigned to covert CIA spying. 
  Kerry Thornley and Gregory Hill found Discordianism and publish
  "Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess and What I Did To 
  Her When I Found Her"; Thornley joins Marine Corps. John Birch
  Society organized by Robert Welch. Nelson Rockefeller elected
  governor of New York. Ham radio operators pick up a male voice
  claiming to be Nacoma of Jupiter and warning of atomic bomb 
  disaster in English, German, Norweigian and his own unknown 
  language.
1959 -- Assassination of Solomon W.R. Bandaranaike of Ceylon. 
  Exiled Ukranian politician Stephan Bandera assassinated by KGB 
  agent in Munich. Attempted assassination of Senator Bircher of 
  Ohio and Governor Almond of Virginia. Apparent suicide of UFO 
  researcher Morris Jessup who had received communications from 
  "Carlos Allende," one of the MIB and whose book was mysteriously 
  annoted by UFOlogical Gypsies. Bilderberger meeting in Yesilkov, 
  Turkey. Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba; Cuban Intelligence 
  (DGI) begun. Ruby visits casino owner in Havana. Kerry Thornley 
  first meets fellow Marine Oswald in California; Oswald released 
  from Marines, defects to Russia. Thornley assigned to U-2 base in 
  Atsugi, Japan. Durham discharged from Marines, stationed at CIA 
  base in Guatemala. UFO sighting at CIA headquarters after Naval 
  officer contacts "space people" while in CIA-observed trance. 
  Condon's "The Manchurian Candidate" published.
1960 -- Assassination of Hazza Majali of Jordan. Bilderberger 
  meeting in Burgenstock, Switzerland. Eisenhower authorizes 
  training and arming Cuban exiles, allegedly issues orders for the 
  assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Nixon, CIA 
  agent Bissell and others plan Bay of Pigs invasion, obtain 
  permission to use Guatemala as launching point. Bernard Baker 
  serves as conduit for Bay of Pigs funding. CIA buys Southern Air 
  Transport; contemplates development of "recruitment pills" and 
  other drugs; studies mysterious amnesia of Korean war prisoners 
  moved through Manchuria; contemplates giving truth serum to 
  brainwashed American POWs. CIA spy Powers shot down in U-2 over 
  Russia; summit conference cancelled. Kennedy-Nixon debates; 
  Kennedy elected president. Oswald assigned job in Bellorussian 
  Radio Factory in Minsk, USSR. Thornley discharged from Marines.
  Project Ozma, searching for intelligent signals from another part
  of the universe, receives unexplained signals from space.
1961 -- Assassination of Lumumba of the Congo, Rafael Trujillo 
  Molina of the Dominican Republic and Louis Rivagasore of Nurundi. 
  Attempted assassination of Castro by Hans Tanner. Michael 
  Rockefeller disappears in New Guinea. Bilderberger meeting in 
  Quebec, Canada. Thornley arrives to New Orleans; Slim Brooks gives 
  Thornley "the haircut" on his 23rd birthday; the same day, the
  CIA invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, launched from Guatemala,
  fails due to poor planning and cancellation of support by Kennedy;
  the CIA, the Mob, Cuban-exiles, right-wingers and Nixonites
  supposedly vow revenge against Kennedy. Kennedy develops
  extracurricular relationship with Judith Campbell, Sam Giancana's
  girlfriend; Giancana and John Roselli enlisted by CIA to attempt
  Castro assassination. George De Mohrenschildt on hiking trip 
  through Guatemala. Brooks introduces Thornley to his
  "brother-in-law," Gary Kirstein, allegedly an undercover E. Howard 
  Hunt; Thornley and "Kirstein" begin nearly three-year relationship 
  of discussing Nazis, mind-control, the status of philosopher-
  kings,  and plans to assassinate Kennedy. Robert Morrow, working  
  with Ruby, Shaw and Ferrie, allegedly smuggle weapons from Greece 
  to Central America for the CIA; also picks up information for CIA 
  from "Harvey" in the Soviet Union. Ferrie, Gordon Novel and two 
  others arrested in burglary of Louisiana arms bunker. Unidentified 
  Marine from Minsk divulges information to CIA agent in Copenhagen. 
  General Walker resigns after criticism of his anti-communist 
  indoctrination of troops. U.S. Military Advisor Group begins 
  defoliation project in Vietnam which eventually covers over 12% of 
  land area. Milgram's Yale experiments demonstrating dangers of 
  obedience to authority. Unexplained transmissions from space 
  monitored by ham radio operators worldwide; Bob Renaud, ham 
  operator, allegedly makes contact with aliens.
1962 -- Suicide of Marilyn Monroe under questionable 
  circumstances. Bilderberger meeting in Saltsjobaden, Sweden. 
  Oswald returns to America with his Russian wife, an alleged KGB 
  agent. Retired General Walker arrested on Attorney Robert 
  Kennedy's orders when Walker became involved in the racial 
  disorders in Oxford, Mississippi; Walker stripped naked and flown 
  to Springfield, Missouri, prison for examination; Walker reported 
  to be incompetent but was later released and ran against John 
  Connally for Governor of Texas. Hunt becomes head of CIA's new 
  Domestic Operations Division. CIA interference in Ecuadorian 
  politics. CIA allegedly pays a Canadian agriculture technician to 
  infect Cuban turkeys with Newcastle disease (though the technician 
  supposedly double-crossed them). Ruby allegedly flies from Mexico 
  City to visit Havana. CIA begins using secret terror teams in 
  Vietnam, roots of Operation Phoenix. Dr. Edgar Schein outlines 
  behavior modification programs for U.S. prisons, based on Korean 
  brainwashing techniques. Cuban missile crisis. De Mohrenschildt, 
  friend of the Kennedys, befriends the Oswalds in Dallas. Durham 
  employed by Des Moines Police Dept. UFOlogist Williamson 
  disappears in South America. Film version of "The Manchurian 
  Candidate" released.


Illuminati History, Part 3
 
From Neil Wilgus' ILLUMINOIDS and other sources
 

1963 -- Assassination of Sylvanus Olympio of Togo, Abdul Karim 
  Kassem of Iraq, Medgar Evers of US, Ngo Dinh Diem of South
  Vietnam and John Kennedy of US; Texas Gov. John Connally 
  wounded, police officer Tippit and Oswald killed.  Attempted 
  assassination of General Walker in Dallas earlier, allegedly by 
  Oswald; Oswald also supposedly threatened to kill ex-Veep Nixon, 
  or was it Veep Johnson? the Warren Commission wasn't sure.  
  Alleged assassination attempt of JFK in Miami but right-winger 
  Milteer spills the beans; another attempt in Chicago also 
  supposedly foiled.  Attempted assassination of Castro in which 
  CIA agent Rorke is killed.  Bilderberger meeting in Cannes, 
  France.  Johnson becomes president; almost immediately reverses 
  JFK's decision to withdraw from Vietnam.  CIA begins weather 
  modification project over Hue, Vietnam.  Equadorian government 
  overthrown.  Profumo scandal in England, involving sex and 
  spying, brings down Conservative government.  Russia sends first 
  woman into space.  Unexplained radio transmission interrupts 
  astronaut Gordon Cooper in unidentified language.  Numerous MIB 
  spotted in Dealy Plaza.
  

Oswald in New Orleans

Oswald's Fair Play for Cuba Committee established at same address 
as ex-FBI man Guy Bannister's private detective office, also used 
for E. Howard Hunt's (allegedly the "brother-in-law" Thornley met 
with several times over period 1961-1963) Cuban Revolutionary 
Council and other anti-Castro fronts; confrontation with Carlos 
Bringuier, another agent for CIA's Domestic Contact Service, in 
front of Shaw's International Trade Mart; Oswald asks Bringuier to 
hit him, pleads guilty when they are arrested, asks to see an FBI 
agent, is released and appears on radio and TV the next day to 
publicize his activities; Oswald allegedly meets Shaw, Ferrie and 
other operatives of the FBI and CIA; Oswald, Shaw and Ferrie 
allegedly attempt to register to vote in rural Clinton, Louisiana, 
attracting attention by arriving in a black Cadillac; Oswald and 
Thornley allegedly meet at nightclub; Thornley thinks it was a 
'look-alike'; Jack Ruby visits New Orleans to obtain "the services 
of a stripper known as 'Jada,' who became his featured performer."
 
 
Oswald in Mexico
 
Although Oswald was allegedly on a bus to Mexico at the time, 
someone calling himself "Harvey Oswald" appeared at the Selective 
Service office in Austin, Texas, to discuss his undesirable 
discharge; the next day Cuban refugee leader Sylvio Odio is 
visited in Dallas by two Latins and "Leon Osward" (whom they 
called "Leopoldo") to discuss violent anti-Castro activities and 
revenge against Kennedy -- though Oswald was supposedly on his way 
to Mexico City; Albert Osborne, who allegedly paid for 1000 Hands 
Off Cuba leaflets which Oswald distributed in New Orleans, 
allegedly rides the same bus with him to Mexico City; Oswald, or 
someone impersonating him, attempts to go to Cuba from Mexico 
City; while Oswald was in Mexico a second Oswald appeared at a 
Dallas rifle range to shoot bull's-eyes, have his scope adjusted 
and talk to people there; Oswald returns to Dallas on bus No. 332, 
or was it No. 340? which had the name "Oswald" added to the 
manifest after the trip.
 

Oswald in Dallas
 
Soon after returning from Mexico Oswald and his family allegedly 
drove to Alice, Texas, to talk with the manager of KPOY -- though 
Oswald didn't drive and the Warren Commission concluded he 
couldn't have been in Alice then; Oswald attends General Walker's 
John Birch meeting lecture and two nights later attends an ACLU 
meeting where he criticizes Walker's alleged racism; someone 
looking like Oswald visits a furniture store in Irving, Texas, 
with his family, looking for a part for a gun; the second Oswald 
visits the Irving Sports Shop to have three holes drilled in a 
rifle, though Oswald's only had two holes and they were drilled 
before he got it; the second Oswald cashes a $189 check at an 
Irving grocery store, buys groceries Oswald was unlikely to buy 
and gets a HAIRCUT accompanied by a teenager who allegedly 
exchanged leftist remarks with him; Oswald II visits the Lord-
Lincoln auto agency to look at cars, test drives one at 70 mph and 
brags about coming into money soon and returning to Russia; Oswald 
II begins visiting Dallas/Irving rifle ranges to demonstrate his 
marksmanship, shooting bull's-eyes and hitting other people's 
targets; Oswald I writes a letter to the Dallas FBI which is 
destroyed soon after the assassination; Oswald I writes to "Mr. 
Hunt" asking to "discuss the matter fully before any steps are 
taken by me or anyone else"; two days before the assassination 
Oswald II creates a scene in a Dallas restaurant where Officer 
J.D. Tippit "glowered" at him; Oswald I allegedly seen at the 
Carousel Club, plotting with Ruby, Tippit and/or Bernard Weissman; 
Oswald I or II allegedly ordered distribution of the anti-Kennedy 
"Wanted for Treason" leaflets in Dallas; Oswald, or was it Billy 
Lovelady? photographed standing in the doorway of the Book 
Depository building at the moment Kennedy was shot; Oswald II 
allegedly seen fleeing from the back of the Book Depository 
immediately after the assassination; Oswald II confronts Tippit, 
Oswald I arrested in the Texas Theatre; Oswald's voice prints show 
he told the truth when he said "I didn't shoot anybody, no sir."

  
Faces in the Crowd
 
Among the several hundred witnesses to the assassination were the 
following: the "umbrella man" who supposedly signaled 
assassination teams to fire by closing his black umbrella; the 
"Babushka Lady," who allegedly was introduced to "Lee Oswald of 
the CIA"  by Jack Ruby and who also filmed the assassination, only 
to have the FBI confiscate the film and never return it; Joseph 
Milteer, the National States Rights Party leader who had disclosed 
the Miami plot against JFK and who had links through the NSRP to 
James Earl Ray's brother Jerry; three tramps who were arrested 
soon after the assassination, two of them allegedly resembling E. 
Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis, the third possibly being Oswald II; 
Lee Harvey Oswald and George DeMohrenschildt who, so 
DeMohrenschildt told a hospital roommate just before his death, 
were together watching the parade when the shots were fired -- 
Oswald ran and that was the last time DeMohrenschildt supposedly 
saw him.


Some Nagging Doubts
 
Nixon, having attended a convention of Pepsi-Cola executives in 
Dallas, leaves for New York an hour before the assassination and 
was one of the few people who later forgot where he was at the 
time; J. Edgar Hoover also alleged to have been secretly in Dallas 
on the same day.  Texas oilman H.L. Hunt taken into protective 
custody by federal agents after the assassination and kept in 
another city for several days to avoid threats by those who might 
think he was involved. DeMohrenschildt, in Haiti, expresses belief 
Oswald was a patsy and that the FBI killed Kennedy (though later 
DeMohrenschildt claimed to have been the link between H.L Hunt and 
Oswald in a right-wing plot to kill JFK). Ferrie allegedly flies 
to Dallas on evening after assassination but his actual 
whereabouts remain unclear. Ruby, allegedly in hypnotic trance, 
shoots Oswald after an unexplained horn honk signal in the Dallas 
Police building basement. Cuban Bay of Pigs veteran named Ruedelo 
arrives in Madrid, Spain, five days after Kennedy assassination, 
jailed for invalid visa. Murder of Jack Zangetti, Oklahoma motel 
owner who told friends the day after the JFK killing that Ruby 
would kill Oswald and a member of the Sinatra family would be 
kidnapped soon afterward to distract attention from the 
assassination.  Frank Sinatra, Jr., kidnapped, released unharmed.

  

ÿ
 
From Neil Wilgus' ILLUMINOIDS and other sources
 
  1964 -- Assassination of Jigme P. Dorji of Bhutan. Deaths 
  associated with Kennedy assassination: Betty Mooney MacDonald, 
  former Carousel Club stripper who had met Oswald at a party and 
  provided an alibi for Darrell Wayne Garner (who was accused of 
  wounding Tippit-killing witness Warren Reynolds), found hanged 
  in her cell after being arrested for fighting with her roommate; 
  Garner disappears, later found dead; Hank Killam, whose wife 
  Wanda was also a stripper at Ruby's club and who was a friend of 
  John Carter who once lived in Oswald's rooming house, evades 
  police for several months, then found with a slashed throat in 
  Pensacola, Florida; Gary Underhill, former LIFE editor and CIA 
  agent who begged friends to protect him because he knew who 
  killed Kennedy, found shot in left side of head -- ruled suicide 
  even though he was right-handed; Bill Hunter, LONG BEACH PRESS-
  TELEGRAM reporter, who had met with Ruby's roommate George 
  Senator and Ruby's attorney Tom Howard at Ruby's apartment a
   few hours after Oswald's murder, shot to death by a policeman 
  in Long Beach, California, police station, accidentally; Jim 
  Koethe, DALLAS TIMES-HERALD reporter also present at the meeting 
  in Ruby's apartment, killed by karate chop to the throat as he 
  emerged from the shower; Mary Meyer, painter, niece of forester 
  Gifford Pinchot and one of JFK's lovers (who allegedly funneled
  LSD from an unsuspecting Timothy Leary to JFK), shot while 
  taking a walk in Washington, D.C. -- her secret diary 
  confiscated by her CIA friend James Angleton, later allegedly 
  destroyed. Robert Kennedy allegedly stalked in assassination 
  plot during his New York senatorial race by Frank Chavez, 
  associate of Ruby; Puerto Rican Teamster Ramon Ducos and Miguel 
  Cruz who was allegedly arrested with Oswald in New Orleans and 
  who claimed to have killed Kennedy; Chavez later killed by his 
  bodyguard, Miguel Cruz. Durham kills wife, terminated from Des 
  Moines police. Bilderberger meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia. 
  Congress passes the Tonkin Gulf resolution giving LBJ power to 
  make war on Vietnam. Virginia Miller, later known as "Blue 
  Dove," allegedly begins career as "disrupter" in the Amerindian 
  community; later serves as FBI informer on Indian activities. 
  REPORT OF THE WARREN COMMISSION ON THE ASSASSINATION OF 
  PRESIDENT KENNEDY released; Commission finds that Oswald, acting 
  alone, killed JFK.
  1965 -- Assassination of Pierre Ngendandumwe of Burundi, Hassan 
  Ali Mansour of Iran, Malcolm X of US and Mario Mendez Montenegro 
  of Guatemala. On the day Malcolm was killed Pio Ghana de Pinto, 
  who had been working with him to coordinate poor Americans and 
  Third World Africans, was machine-gunned at his home in Africa. 
  Deaths associated with Kennedy assassination: Tom Howard, Ruby's 
  attorney who met with Senator and others after Oswald's death, 
  died of a heart attack after "acting strangely" for two days, no 
  autopsy performed; Rose Cherami, another Carousel stripper who 
  told a psychiatrist Kennedy had to be killed two days before it 
  happened and who said she'd seen Oswald at Ruby's club many 
  times, killed in a hit-and-run car accident near Big Sandy, 
  Texas; Dorothy Kilgallen, columnist and TV panel-show figure who 
  had a private half-hour interview with Ruby and said she was 
  going to break the Kennedy case wide open, found dead in her 
  apartment of an apparent overdose of alcohol and barbiturates; 
  William Whaley, Dallas cab driver who took Oswald from the Book 
  Depository to his rooming house after the assassination, killed 
  in an auto accident -- the first on-duty cabbie death in Dallas 
  since 1937; Karen Bennett Carlin, another Carousel entertainer 
  who reported seeing hate-ad signer Bernard Weissman at Ruby's 
  club and was the last known person to speak to Ruby before he 
  shot Oswald, died of gunshot wounds in the head in Houston. 
  Bilderberger meeting in Lake Como, Italy. Fighting in Vietnam 
  escalates into major war. US Army explores sites in the Middle 
  East for potential locations for nuclear devices intended to set 
  off earthquakes. Early prison behaviour mod program, CASE, 
  begins in Washington, D.C., boys school. Durham involved in 
  various Mafia activities and acts as informer for police, 
  possibly CIA. Fifth UFO flap year. Three Russian scientists 
  report receiving unexplained signals from space. California 
  highway inspector Rex Heflin, who took pictures of UFOs, visited 
  by MIB who took the original photographs and left; NORAD denies 
  they were their men, as claimed. Another ham radio operator, 
  Sidney Padrick, makes contact with UFO aliens.
1966 -- Assassination of Sir Abubakar Balewa of Nigeria, J.T.V. 
  Ironsi Aquiyi of Nigeria and Hendrick F. Verwoerd of South 
  Africa. Attempted assassination of James Meredith in US.
  E. Howard Hunt serves as CIA contact in assassination plot 
  against Castro. Retired naval Lt. William Pitzer, who had 
  photographed the secret JFK autopsy and was beginning a job with 
  a TV station, found dead with a bullet in his head. Bilderberger 
  meeting in Wiesbaden, Germany. CIA begins weather modification 
  experiments over Cuba, later used in an attempt to ruin Castro's 
  sugar cane crop. Army simulated germ warfare project in New York 
  City.
  1967 -- Assassination of American Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell 
  in Virginia. Che Guevara killed in Bolivia after CIA 
  questioning. Deaths associated with Kennedy assassination: Jack 
  Ruby, whose lawyers charged Dallas authorities with neglecting 
  his health, died of cancer while awaiting retrial; David Ferrie, 
  who was to be a key witness in the trial of Clay Shaw, found 
  dead in his locked apartment in New Orleans, ruled suicide 
  though how the ruptured blood vessel which induced his brain 
  hemorrhage could be self-inflicted was unexplained; Eladio del 
  Valle, a friend of Ferrie's who had hired him to fly bombing 
  missions over Cuba, found shot through the heart in a parking 
  lot in Miami, Florida, the same day Ferrie was killed. Dr. Mary 
  Sherman, another friend of Ferrie, shot in New Orleans, her body 
  partially burned by her killer. Bilderberger meeting in 
  Cambridge, England. Beginning of Clay Shaw trial; DA Jim 
  Garrison subpoenas Allen Dulles and ex-CIA employee Gordon Novel 
  to testify; both escape testimony. CIA's Operation Phoenix, 
  which was to assassinate and torture over 40,000 in Vietnam, 
  officially launched. Beginning of CIA's $21 million rain-making 
  program over Indochina which would make 2,600 sorties by 1972. 
  Approximate date La Costa Resort hotel built near San Clemente, 
  California: meeting place of Mob figures, Teamsters, politicians 
  and other big-wigs. Winthrop Rockefeller elected governor of 
  Arkansas. Black Panther party formed. Military takeover of 
  Greece allegedly executed by secret Operation Prometheus. 
  Australian Prime Minister disappears while swimming. Jim 
  Thompson, ex-OSS commando and "Silk King of Thailand," 
  disappears on Easter Sunday; five months later his sister is 
  murdered. Rex Heflin again visited by MIB in connection with his 
  photos of California UFOs; similar MIB incidents in New York and 
  elsewhere; another MIB, Mr. Dixsun, allegedly visits Colorado 
  University UFO researcher Edward Condon and offers to help him 
  contact the space people.
  1968 -- Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, 
  Tennessee, and Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles, California. Dr. 
  Nicholas Chetta, who performed autopsies on Ferrie and Dr. 
  Sherman, died of an apparent heart attack; Richard Carr, JFK 
  assassination witness about to testify in the Clay Shaw trial, 
  learns police have arrested a man planning to shoot him. 
  Bilderberger meeting in Mont Tremblant, Canada. 
  King assassination: James Earl Ray begins international travels 
  thanks to "Raoul" who sounds very much like his younger brother 
  Jerry Ray; FBI begins search for Ray as lone assassin, ignoring 
  considerable evidence of a conspiracy with Ray as patsy -- 
  including reports of the mysterious "sausage and eggs man" who 
  was seen in the neighborhood of King's motel with a rifle before 
  and after the murder. Following King assassination black leader 
  Ron Karenga meets secretly with California Governor Reagan and 
  later with Los Angeles police chief Thomas Reddin. Spiro Agnew's 
  law-n-order handling of riots following King's assassination 
  brings him to national attention; Agnew allegedly chosen for 
  Nixon's vice-president to obtain CIA and Greek oil and shipping 
  firms' contributions. Robert Kennedy assassination: Sirhan 
  Sirhan, who wounded Kennedy in the shoulder pad, still doesn't 
  remember what happened but perhaps security guard Eugene Cesar, 
  who carried the same caliber gun as Sirhan, does; Kennedy was 
  shot in the back of the head at close range -- Cesar was close 
  behind him, Sirhan several feet in front; a "girl in the polka 
  dot dress," who earlier had been seen with Sirhan, reportedly 
  leaves the scene saying "We've shot him!" Nixon and Agnew 
  elected. Approximate date group called The Kaisers founded -- 
  60 German-Americans allegedly planning to make Nixon a dictator. 
  FBI begins secret Cointelpro campaign against New Left and black 
  radicals. New York police BOSS unit founds local Black Panther 
  party using undercover agents. FBI informer William O'Neal 
  infiltrates Chicago Black Panthers, becomes chief of security, 
  Los Angeles police establish Criminal Conspiracy Section which 
  employs Donald DeFreeze, Louis Tackwood, Ron Karenga, the 
  Steiner brothers and other agents to infiltrate prison reform 
  and black power groups. CIA penetrates the Students for a 
  Democratic Society at Columbia College; National Caucus of Labor 
  Committees (NCLC) formed within the SDS. Congress creates LEAA 
  to fund state and local police programs. Behavior mod token 
  economy program set up in West Virginia youth center. Mystery 
  ship Scheersberg disappears between Antwerp and Genoa with 200 
  tons of uranium believed to have been taken to Israel. 
  Astronauts circling the moon interrupted by unexplained voices. 
  Unexplained distress signals from the mid-Pacific received by 
  radio stations, no ships found during search. UFOlogists 
  Steiger, Whitenour and Keel smeared during MIB visits in UFO 
  flap area. Continental drift theory confirmed.
1969 -- Assassination of Tom Mboya of Kenya and A.A. Shermarke 
  of Somalia. Clyde Johnson, who had allegedly attended parties 
  with Ferrie, Ruby and Oswald and who was beaten up to keep him 
  from testifying at the Clay Shaw trial, shot to death near 
  Greensburg, Louisiana. Richard Carr, while visiting in Atlanta, 
  is attacked by two men with knives. Fifteen Russian generals 
  die in "unrelated" incidents within a month's time. CIA-linked 
  Professor Thomas Rika disappears from Boulder, Colorado. 
  Bilderberger meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. First manned lunar 
  landing. Chappaquidick accident involving Edward Kennedy; Mary 
  Jo Kopechne dies. Trial of Shaw for conspiracy to assassinate 
  JFK; with Jim Garrison's witnesses dead or discredited by CIA or 
  FBI and other government agencies, Shaw was soon found not 
  guilty. Nixon issues Executive Order No. 11490 establishing 
  plans for dictatorial control in the event of a "national 
  emergency." NEW YORK TIMES reveals secret US bombing of 
  Cambodia; Nixon authorizes phone taps of Kissinger's staff to 
  discover leak. Chicago police and FBI raid Black Panthers, kill 
  Fred Hampton and Mark Clark (who were possibly drugged by 
  O'Neal); a series of earlier clashes had left other Chicago 
  Panthers dead. Black Panther leaders killed in Los Angeles by 
  the Steiner brothers, members of Karenga's United Slaves; 
  Panther headquarters raided by SWAT team. New York Panthers 
  indicted for conspiracy. CIA's Colton Westbrook returns from 
  Phoenix program in Vietnam to become involved in Black Culture 
  Association (BCA) program in California prisons. DeFreeze sent 
  to Vacaville, California prison, begins to undergo personality 
  changes. Pentagon and Department of Interior researchers study 
  methods of inducing earthquakes by injecting fluids into deep 
  wells. Alleged CIA spy Humberto Carrillo Colon arrested by Cuban 
  government which seized his Very Low Frequency transceiver and 
  coded messages describing strange lights, a minisubmarine and 
  other unexplained items. MIB "Carlos Allende" visits UFOlogists 
  Jim and Coral Lorenzen in Tucson, gives them a copy of the ONR 
  reprint of Jessup's CASE FOR THE UFO. Woodstock rock festival
  in New York state draws well over half a million.
  
           
   

ÿ
 
From Neil Wilgus' ILLUMINOIDS and other sources
 
1970 -- Assassination of union leader Joseph Yablonski and his 
  family in Pennsylvania. Attempted assassination of Pope Paul VI. 
  Reuther dies in plane crash under suspicious circumstances. 
  Bilderberger meeting in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland. US Army experts 
  complete a "mock assassination" project against the president 
  and Congress, demonstrating that determined terrorists could 
  wipe out US leaders through use of chemical of germ warfare.
  US invasion of Cambodia; Kent State killings; massive protests. 
  Nixon staffers develop the Huston Plan and "Plumbers Unit" in 
  plot to use police and intelligence agencies at all levels for 
  political purposes. Attorneys Lefcourt in New York and Gary in 
  San Francisco are subject to the first of over 100 unsolved 
  break-ins which take place over the next five years; valuables 
  untouched but sensitive political information taken. FBI/police 
  attacks on Black Panthers in Seattle, Baltimore, New Bedford, 
  Philadelphia, New Orleans, Toledo, Detroit and Carbondale. 
  Westbrook meets DeFreeze; BCA at Vacaville encourages 
  revolutionary ideas and racial hatred in inmates. Personality-
  altering Prolexin administered to 1,093 inmates at Vacaville; 
  Special Programs Unit behavior mod program begins at Joliet, 
  Illinois, under Dr. Martin Groder; Bureau of Prisons requests 
  funds for Federal Center for Correctional Research in Butner, 
  North Carolina. Approximate date of the "Korea-gate" scandal: 
  Korean CIA undertakes massive influence-peddling campaign, 50 
  congressmen accept bribes, links made with Nixon Administration 
  and the Unification Church.
1971 -- Assassination of Wasfi Tal of Jordan. Daughter of 
  conspiracy investigator Mae Brussell killed in suspicious car 
  accident. Bilderberger meeting in Woodstock, Vermont. PENTAGON 
  PAPERS published. Hunt hired by White House to gather damaging 
  evidence against Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Kennedy and other 
  "enemies"; Hunt hires Barker and other Bay of Pigs veterans to 
  make break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Barker 
  attempts to get plans to building which will house the 
  Democratic Convention. Plumber chief David Young, former 
  Kissinger aid, contacts CIA for psychiatric profile of Ellsberg, 
  referred to Howard Osborn, a possible Oswald link. White House 
  agent Sergretti meets with FBI, Minutemen and others to plan 
  kidnapping of radicals during the 1972 convention -- a plan 
  later scrapped. FBI begins (or continues) illegal break-ins, 
  mail-openings and wiretaps, conducted by Squad 47 of the 
  internal security division in search of Weather Underground 
  fugitives. Future SLA members Camilla Hall and William Wolfe 
  move to Berkley, become involved in radical and prison reform 
  activities. Electroshock treatments given to hundreds of inmates 
  at Vacaville. Black Panther party in shambles; Cointelpro 
  supposedly disbanded. Zimbardo's Stanford experiments 
  demonstrating dangers of prisoner/guard role-playing. 
  "Deprogrammer" Ted Patrick begins kidnapping Jesus Freaks and 
  reconverting them to conventional behavior. John Keel's OUR 
  HAUNTED PLANET discusses more MIB cases.
1972 -- Assassination of Abeid Karume of Zanzibar. Attempted 
  assassination of George Wallace in Maryland by "loner" Art 
  Bremer who had more money than he should and had alleged 
  connections with CIA-types. Warren Commission dissident Hale 
  Boggs disappears on flight to Alaska. Death of E. Howard Hunt's 
  wife Dorothy in plane crash while carrying large amount of cash 
  -- alleged murder described separately under Flight 553. Other 
  alleged murders involving secret funds include Rep. William O. 
  Mills (suicide) and his assistants Col. J. Webster and James 
  Glover; a Mr. Taub, Kalmback employee; Dennis Cossini, alleged 
  CIA contact with Bremer; Lou Russell, security cop employed by 
  McCord Associates; and Mrs. Andrew Topping, wife of man alleged 
  to be plotting assassination of Nixon during 1972 convention.
  J. Edgar Hoover dies. Bilderberger meeting in Knokke, Belgium.
  A series of dirty tricks eliminates Muskie as presidential 
  contender; Humphrey and Jackson also smeared; Nixon aides and 
  west coast Nazis cooperate in attempt to keep Wallace of 
  California ballot; Hunt ordered to break into Bremer's apartment 
  but refuses. Watergate break-in; FBI official Charles Bates 
  placed in charge of investigation. Agnew allegedly meets 
  Brienguier (Oswald's buddy) in New Orleans. Tackwood alleges 
  that plans are made to disrupt Republican convention in San 
  Diego, declare martial law, assassinate Nixon (or make false 
  attempt). ITT scandal forces Republicans to move to Miami. CIA 
  attempt to crack columnist Jack Anderson's information source 
  fails. William and Emily Harris, Angela and Gary Atwood and 
  others move to Bay area, become involved in radical and prison 
  reform activities. Thero Wheeler, another alleged police agent, 
  meets DeFreeze at Vacaville; DeFreeze moved to Soledad prison. 
  BLACK ABDUCTOR, anticipating the Hearst kidnapping, published by 
  unknown California publisher. Exposure and defeat of planned 
  psychosurgery program at Vacaville; CARE behavior mod program 
  begins at Marion, Illinois; START program begins at Springfield, 
  Missouri; Joliet unit closed. West German authorities produce a 
  skull they say was Martin Bormann's a few days after articles 
  appear with evidence he is alive in Argentina.     


Flight 553
 
Chicagoan Lawrence O'Connor, who had used United Airlines Flight 
553 or its equivalent to fly from Washington to Chicago on Friday 
nights for years was warned by a White House source not to take 
this flight; among those killed in the crash at Midway Airport, 
Chicago, were: Dorothy Hunt who was carrying $50,000 in Watergate 
payoff money and close to $2 million she was attempting to place 
in foreign banks; Michele Clark, CBS newswoman who was to 
interview Mrs. Hunt on a story that could allegedly destroy Nixon; 
at least four people alleged to have knowledge of a large labor 
union "donation" to the Committee to ReElect the President 
(CREEP), paid to stop the indictment of a Chicago labor hoodlum; 
and a group of gas pipeline lobbyists, attorneys and gas company 
officials (Robert Moreau, Nancy Parker, Ralph Blodgett, James 
Drueger, Lon Bayer, Wilbur Erickson) who had allegedly gathered 
evidence against former Attorney General John Mitchell in an anti-
trust case involving El Paso Natural Gas Co.; also aboard was a 
"hit-man" using the cover of Harold Metcalf, of Drug Abuse Law 
Enforcement, who told the pilot, Captain Whitehouse, he was 
carrying a gun and was assigned a jump seat near the food galley 
and rear door; Captain Whitehouse and six of the Watergate-related 
passengers were found to have unexplainably high cyanide content 
after the crash, though the other 35 passengers killed did not; 
following the crash hit-man Metcalf, in a jump suit, walked out 
the cracked open fuselage; up to 200 FBI and CIA agents allegedly 
took over the crash site immediately, beating the fire department 
to the scene, refusing to allow in a medical team, confiscating 
Control Tower tapes, interviewing survivors and witnesses before 
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators had a 
chance to; CBS News requested immediate cremation of Michele 
Clark's body; evidence of sabotage includes possible tampering 
with altimeter and air data computer, malfunctioning of the runway 
visual range recorder and the Kedzie localizer which acted as the 
runway's outer marker, a series of misdirections from air traffic 
controllers and the failure of Flight 553's standby power system; 
an in-flight robbery gang known as the Joseph Sarelli mob 
allegedly came into possession of some of the Hunt money and 
Mitchell documents soon after the crash and reportedly fenced it 
for $5 million; the day after the crash Nixon aide Egil Krogh, 
Jr., of Ellsberg burglary fame, appointed Undersecretary of 
Transportation and placed in charge of the two agencies 
investigating the crash (NTSB and FAA); ten days later Nixon 
assistant Alexander Butterfield, a CIA-aviation liaison, appointed 
head of Federal Aviation Administration; a few weeks later Nixon 
aide Dwight Chapin becomes top executive with United Airlines.

1973 -- Assassinations of US diplomats Cleo A. Nobel, Jr., and 
  George C. Moore and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid by Palestinian 
  guerrillas in Khartoum; Richard Sharples of Bermuda, Mohammad 
  Ali Osman of Yemen, Salvador Allende Gossens of Chile, Luis 
  Carrero Blanco of Spain and Dr. Marcus Foster in Oakland, 
  California; assassination of an American Army officer by 
  insurgent group in Iran. Senator Stennis shot in Washington, 
  D.C. Bilderberger meeting in Saltsjobaden, Sweden. Trilateral 
  Commission founded under the direction of David Rockefeller, 
  with Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale among the founding members. 
  Agnew resigns. Sidney Gottlieb, head of CIA's LSD and other drug 
  programs, destroys records to hide details of program. Kissinger 
  and his deputy General Scowcroft order a series of CIA spying 
  operations in Micronesia. Hunt beaten in his cell before 
  testifying about the Bremer connection. Durham becomes FBI 
  agent, infiltrates American Indian Movement (AIM), becomes chief 
  of security. Liberation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, by AIM. 
  Blue Dove becomes an FBI agent. DeFreeze escapes from Soledad; 
  Wheeler escapes from Vacaville. "Race war" in Bay area 
  culminates in the killing of Dr. Foster which the SLA claims 
  credit for in its first communique. Experiments with implanting 
  electrodes in the brain carried out at Vacaville and elsewhere. 
  Behavior mod unit started at El Reno, Oklahoma, prison; START-
  type program introduced to Maryland public schools by Behavior 
  Research Institute. Sixth UFO flap year.

  
Flight 553 Revisited
 
Alex Botto, Jr., who had infiltrated the Joseph Sarelli air piracy 
gang for the Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts (CCCUC), 
seized by federal marshals, taken to the federal prison hospital 
at Springfield, Missouri, and held for 40 days without hearing or 
trial; Botto and another CCCUC agent, Joseph Zale, testified to 
seeing evidence from the sabotaged United Airlines Flight 553 in 
the Sarelli mob's possessions and turned over evidence on this and 
an earlier crash robbery to Nixon's Strike Force in Chicago; just 
before the reopening of the case Zale was indicted in an alleged 
frameup by federal agencies; CCCUC chairman Sherman Skolnich 
revealed at the 553 hearings that his group had stolen the entire 
government file, 1300 pages of documentation, and was presenting 
it as evidence of foul play in the Midway Airport crash.  

| 650 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

4. ANCIENT SYMBOLS IN MODERN MEDICINE: BUT WHY?

ANCIENT SYMBOLS IN MODERN MEDICINE: BUT WHY?

Does the ancient symbolism employed by the institutions that control modern medicine reflect the influence of secret societies such as the Freemasons? In order to fully understand the esoteric significance of modern medical symbolism, such as the cross, or Ankh, or the serpents and staff of Moses, or the winged staff of Hermes, it is helpful to begin by understanding that all doctors swear to pagan gods. The Hippocratic Oath, which is sworn by all doctors, begins with the invocation: "I swear by Apollo the Physician. By Aesculapius, Hygela and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods and goddesses..."[1] Dr Robert Orr showed in 1993 that 100% of American medical schools administer some form of the Hippocratic Oath to graduates.[2]
Dr James Appleyard, Chairman of the World Medical Association's medical ethics committee, supports the modern use of the ancient Hippocratic oath as "the continuation of a statement of fundamental ethical principles that could be affirmed at graduation by doctors worldwide".[3] The World Medical Association's logo[4] features a serpent wrapped around a staff, the symbol of the ancient Greek god Asklepios. Aesculapius, worshipped by the Greeks as the god of healing, who originated in ancient Egypt as Imhotep, high-priest, sage and minister to the pharaoh, Zoser. It is significant that this symbol is reminiscent of the Staff of Moses.[5] The World Health Organisation's logo[6] also contains the ancient religious symbol of the serpent and staff, which is superimposed over the United Nations emblem. In fact, the medical establishment is steeped in ancient religious symbolism. The British Columbia Medical Association coat of arms[7] includes the Rod of Aesculapius, a golden griffin where the substance represents alchemy, a medieval knight's helmet, and an ancient Egyptian Ankh (Crux Ansata or Handled Cross). The Insider approves of their official motto: "Always seek the truth." Paramedics also use the symbol of staff and serpent in the internationally recognised paramedic symbol[8], also called The Star of Life[9]. The resemblence between this sign and the early Christian symbol of the Pax Christi (Chi-Rho)[10], a cross-like monogram for Christ in ancient Greek, may be significant. The Wellcome Trust, a major medical charity, employs the winged staff and snakes of Hermes[11] as their official logo, and for no apparent reason there is a huge image of the ancient Egyptian religious symbols of the Udjat eye of Horus and the Winged Disc of Ra, etched into the glass above their entrance opposite Euston train station in the West End of London. The winged sun disc is an ancient symbol for the sun god, Ra. Well known examples of the winged solar disc symbol can be found in ancient Egyptian temples, for instance over the entrance to the Solar Temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak, or or over the Temple doorway in Medinet Habu on the West bank of Luxor.   The Royal Society of Medicine coat of arms[12] features the serpent of Moses on a Tau cross, and flowers which resemble the stylised Lotus frequently depicted in ancient Egyptian art. In this discussion about secret societies and the modern of ancient symbols it is pertinent that The Royal Society - the foremost scientific institution in the U.K., was founded by a prominent Freemason, Sir Robert Moray.[13] John Robinson explains in his popular book on Freemasonry: "When Freemasonry came public in 1717 ... it appeared that the Royal Society was virtually a Masonic subsidiary, with almost every member and every founding member of the Royal Society a Freemason."[14] An article in the leading Masonic magazine, Freemasonry Today, echoes this and mentions that "many masons were also members of the Royal Society".[15] The Royal Society remains associated with British Freemasonry today. The Red Cross was first associated with human welfare and medical help during the medieval crusades, when European Knights travelled overseas to help pilgrims and foreigners alike, such as the Knights of St John[16], the Knights Hospitaller, and the Knights Templar[17] which was the first organisation to officially adopt the red cross symbol. The Knights Templar[18] has been operating in secret for centuries, and traditions and inner mysteries are connected with those of the secret society of Freemasonry[19].

 

REFERENCES
1.	The Hippocratic Oath, from the Junior Doctors Association website.
2.	Orr RD, Pang N, Pellegrino, EJ, Siegler M., 1997. Use of the Hippocratic Oath: A review of 20th century practice and a content analysis of oaths administered in medical schools in the U.S. and Canada in 1993. Journal of Clinical Ethics, 8(4):377-388.
3.	World Medical Association website, press center, statement of support for the Hippocratic Oath.
4.	World Medical Association's official logo.
5.	Exodus (2 Moses) 4:2-3, & Numbers (4 Moses) 21:8-9, Christian Bible or Jewish Torah.
6.	World Health Organisation, official website.
7.	British Columbia Medical Association's coat of arms on their official website.
8.	Paramedic symbol from a major paramedics website.
9.	History of The Star of Light, North Virginia Emergency Medical Services Council website.
10.	Examples of Christian religious symbolism, Gospel Facts website.
11.	Irish Emergency Ambulance Service website, see Ambulance History page for information about ancient religious symbols used in modern medicine, such as the Rod of Asclepius and the Caduceus.
12.	Royal Society of Medicine coat of arms, featured and explained on their official website.
13.	Lecture on The Royal Society, by the author and Freemason Robert Lomas, on his official website.
14.	J. J. Robinson, 1990. Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry. New York, USA: M Evans & Co.
15.	An article from the official Masonic magazine, Freemasonry today, posted on their website.
16.	The History of First Aid, on an official St. John's Ambulance website.
17.	Knights Templar History website.
18.	An official Knights Templar website.
19.	Knights Templar page on the official Indiana Masons website.
NOTES & FURTHER READING
1.	J.S.M. Ward , 1940. Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods. Montana, USA: R A Kessinger Publishing Co.

| 525 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

5. Apollo Mission's Masonic Symbols

| 277 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

6. Ben Franklin, Rosicrucian Dragons and Trepanning

by Robert Bruce Baird

Ben Franklin will always appear to be a great man and he was that indeed. But he was not just the founder of America or The Enlightenment Experiment. He was one of the founders of the New World Order along with Pierre Dupont de Nemours who he negotiated the armistice to end the British campaign against their former colony. This in fact lead to a union and alliance that still rules the world but in a far more complete manner than the British Empire ever did. I have dealt with many intrigues he was part of and I have personally enjoyed conversing with his descendants. His drawing of the line to include Isle Royale as part of the United States is very important as any reader of my book on the Old Copper culture will know. He was a man who enjoyed his sex and the rituals of the Rosicrucian Dragons a great deal more than most. In the following quote from an article in The Guardian we see trepanning again. Of course the authors might think this is only part of some anatomical research but I suspect it is part of sexual and psycho-spiritual rituals just as I have shown occurred in these nether regions of esoteric behaviour for many millennia. The trepanned head of the Merovingian King Dagobert allowed him greater psychic attunement and despite Franklin having been part of the witch hunt against Anton Mesmer and his use or exposure of these secrets I know Franklin understood what trepanning really was suited to achieve. And I know they are reported to still eat human thalami at some meetings of the Skull and Bones Society. Sir Laurence Gardner makes it clear that store bought desiccated animal sources do not serve their needs as well as human brain parts do. Benjamin Franklin's house: the naked truth
Restoration reveals secrets of American campaigner
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Monday August 11, 2003 The Guardian Some time in 2005 visitors will be able to visit the tall narrow Georgian house in the heart of London where Benjamin Franklin once sat stark naked by the large first floor sash windows, "air bathing" and thinking about bifocals, electricity, economics, American politics, British diplomacy, or how to get the fire in his back room to draw better. It is a fair bet that however passionately interested the visitors are in the political history of American independence, and the intellectual history of the Age of Enlightenment, what will transfix them is the windowless basement room, once part of the garden. As restoration work by the Friends of Benjamin Franklin House began on 36 Craven Street, a Grade I listed house rescued from the brink of tottering collapse, a small pit was found in the basement room. A human thigh bone was found. The coroner and the police were notified. Excavation continued. More human bone surfaced. And more. And more, until more than 1,200 pieces of bone were recovered. Since the bones were too ancient to trouble Scotland Yard, they are now in the care of the Institute of Archaeology, where experts have already determined that they range from an old man to a human baby. Several skulls have been trepanned, and arm and leg bones chopped through. The most plausible explanation is not mass murder, but an anatomy school run by Benjamin Franklin's young friend and prot�g�, William Hewson. He had been a pupil of the most brilliant anatomist of the day, William Hunter, but the two fell out and Hewson started his own anatomy school - at the home of his mother-in-law Margaret Stephenson, just off the Strand, where Benjamin Franklin was also a lodger for 16 years. He had a rich source of subjects at hand: the resurrection men could deliver bodies stolen from graveyards to the Thames wharf at the bottom of the street, while there was a weekly public execution at the gallows on the other side of the garden wall. Benjamin Franklin, who was interested in absolutely everything - he was lucky to escape killing himself or his guests at the demonstrations of electricity he was wont to give during dinner parties - must have attended the public dissections. (For Dragons like the later Skull and Bonesmen who like Pierre Dupont de Nemours and Rufus King would be into the same ritual I trace and Gardner admits to.) Hewson died young of blood poisoning after he cut himself during a dissection. Franklin eventually returned to the United States, but was estranged from his abandoned family, and separated from the illegitimate son who shared his London years when Franklin declared for American independence and the son was exiled for his loyalty to England. The house was less than 30 years old when Franklin came to London and rented the best first floor rooms, where he was visited by all the leading figures in radical politics, science and philosophy.??? (2) Franklin was also a member of The Hellfire Club and you should know about John Dee and the Necronomicon as mentioned in this excerpt. John Montagu, Lord Sandwich (the face in the halo) and George Selwyn, (a close friend of Horace Walpole who visited in 1763) were among the inner circle of twelve. One of the female members, Lady Betty Germaine, became a particular friend of Walpole's; through her Walpole acquired one of Dr. Dee's celebrated scrying stones, the Angelic Stone, now in the British Museum. Mary Wortley Montagu, Lord Sandwich's grandmother and a member of the earlier Hellfire Club, was also said to have been a member. Satirized in the novel Chrysal, or the Story of a Guinea by Charles Johnstone, and referenced in Charles Churchill's The Candidate, these Medmenhamites were a probable influence on Matthew Lewis's The Monk. Benjamin Franklin joined the group on occasion and collaborated with Sir Francis to revise the Book of Common Prayer or Franklin Prayer Book still in use in America. Franklin was also associated with the radical Lunar Society which included Erasmus Darwin, Richard Edgeworth (Maria Edgeworth's father), and William Godwin's friend, Joseph Priestley.??? (2) Robert Bruce Baird is the author of Diverse Druids, World-Mysteries.com guest 'expert' and columnist for The ES Press Magazine. His Collective Works on CD (20 books including an encyclopedia) are now available from Amazon.com.

| 193 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

7. Britannia Rules The Waves?: Images of Empire in Elizabethan England

Lesley B. Cormack
University of Alberta
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cormack, Lesley B. "Britannia Rules The Waves?: Images of Empire in Elizabethan England." Early Modern Literary Studies 4.2 / Special Issue 3 (September, 1998): 10.1-20 http://purl.oclc.org/emls/04-2/cormbrit.htm>.

1. In a proposal written for Elizabeth's Privy Council in 1577,[1] John Dee stressed the potential power and supremacy of England, as well as her ability to achieve a great and lasting empire.

No King, nor Kingdome, hath, by Nature and Humayn Industry (to be used) any, more LAWFULL, and more Peaceable Means (made evident) wherby, to become In wealth, far passing all other: In Strength, and Force, INVINCIBLE: and in Honorable estimation, Triumphantly Famous, over all, and above all other.[2]

Elizabethan geographers and cartographers, led by such important and influential men as Dee, helped develop a set of attitudes and assumptions that encouraged them to view the English as separate from and superior to the rest of the world. Geography supplied the many students and politicians who studied it with a belief in their own inherent superiority and their ability to control the world they now understood.[3] Indeed, the study of geography helped the English develop an imperial world-view based on three underlying assumptions: a belief that the world could be measured, named, and therefore controlled; a sense of the superiority of the English over peoples and nations and thus the right of the English nation to exploit other areas of the globe; and a self-definition that gave these English students a sense of themselves and their nation.[4] This message of superiority and the possibility of imperial expansion was aided by the iconographic images present in many geographical works. Through the constant repetition of such messages, students of geography began to envisage a world open to the exploration and exploitation of the English.
2. Historians looking for the origins of the English and British empires have long examined theoretical tracts emanating from such moments as the Union of Crowns of 1603.[5] These have yielded much valuable information, but do not give a wider sense of the cultural interest in or proclivity towards these ideas. In order to understand the underlying attitudes towards ideas of empire, we must examine alternative discursive sites, for example, court masques, street processions, and illustrated frontispieces.[6] As historians such as Steven Shapin and Paula Findlen have shown, these cultural analytic spaces often provide a clearer sense of the interplay between intellectual ideas and their cultural and political applications.[7] In this article, I will examine the imperial messages of popular geographical texts, most particularly their illustrated frontispieces, in order to assess these underlying imperial assumptions.[8] While these frontispieces should not be seen as complete in themselves, they demonstrate the widespread interest in and acceptance of these imperial images.

3. The empire imagined in these geographical books and frontispieces, however, did not have a single focus or direction. While the Spanish had established a form of world dominion through conquest and the resulting mineral wealth, the English were less sure of their method of expansion, or the desired results. Thus the message of England's ability to venture forth, for profit, power, and fame, as Dee had maintained, was troubled by uncertainty as to just who should venture, what their goal should be and what profit would accrue. The iconographic formation of the English empire, while powerful for English readers of such geographical literature, was thus unstable and perhaps contributed to the rather erratic development of empire that was to follow.

4. The concept of empire can be traced back to the Roman Empire. Anthony Pagden has identified three different usages of the term empire, all with classical roots and all current in sixteenth-century Europe.[9] An empire could in the first instance refer to a self-sufficient and omni-competent state, the concept first articulated in England in Thomas Cromwell's famous phrase, "this realm of England is an empire," in the Act in Restraint of Appeals of 1533.[10] Secondly, the empire could refer to the monarch who exercised imperium or command over an area. Finally, and most significantly for sixteenth-century Europe, empire referred to the extended control, usually of a Christian monarch, over more than one geographical area.[11] This last meaning, of course, encompassed the empire Spain claimed to have created and thus the empire that most interested geographical writers in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. And yet, the images of empire developed by those most interested in promoting the creation of an English empire were ambiguous in relation to this meaning. Many saw Elizabeth or James as integral to any imperial adventure, but the underlying message of these texts and images was much more haphazard and personal than monarchical. Merchants and trade seemed just as if not more important than conquest and glory. The creation of an English empire, while clearly arguing for England's ability to achieve supremacy in the geopolitical struggle, would not place Britannia on the ship of power and control. Rather merchants and personal adventurers were to gain by this venture.[12] As well, the tangible results of these early propaganda campaigns were less than nothing, since all the expeditions potentially inspired by the images and ideas I will discuss were unmitigated disasters.[13] Perhaps this was partly due to the very ambiguity of these images, which encouraged men in various governance and mercantile positions to think of empire, but did not give them a clear sense of what this meant. This troubled concept of empire would have far-reaching ramifications in the creation of the actual empire of the next two centuries.[14]

I The most overt iconographic example of imperial thinking came from Dr. John Dee. Dee, a Master of Arts from Cambridge, was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, and on occasion necromancer. Though in recent years Dee's name has become synonymous with occultist practices and Hermeticism, in his own time he was much better known as a learned and practical geographer.[15] His interest in astronomy, astrology, and geography was established while a student, and it was this initial spark that sent him on to Louvain to study with those great mathematicians and geographers, Gemma Frisius and Gerard Mercator, among others.[16] He later returned to England, where he set himself up as an astrologer and geographical advisor, becoming astrologer to Elizabeth (in which capacity he advised her on hydrographical and geographical matters) and advising the Muscovy Company, Humphrey Gilbert, and numerous other practical geographers.[17] He was equally an overt promoter of English imperialism, especially although not exclusively in General and Rare Memorials Pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation (1577).[18] Responding to a series of serious threats to maritime security, Dee proposed that Elizabeth establish a Royal Navy to protect England from pirates, the English fishery from incursions, and to aid in the establishment of a British maritime empire. Dee directed to the politically powerful men surrounding Elizabeth an overt message of imperialism and of the necessity of using scholarly knowledge for the good of the common weal. In less overt terms, these were the lessons to be gained from a variety of books of geography and from the study of geography itself.[19] The illustrated title page to Dee's book provides a visual representation of this message of power and hegemonic potential, while at the same time warning the English of the danger of ignoring this opportunity. (See Figure 1.) While some title-pages may reflect the printer's aesthetic or practical concerns (as we shall see, some title-pages were used for a variety of books), this title-page, present in both manuscript and printed copies, bears Dee's unmistakable imprint.[20] In this engraving, Elizabeth commands the ship of state, labelled Europa. The Royal coat of arms on the rudder indicates Dee's prophecy (and present claim) of England's supremacy and leadership of Europe. Elizabeth is receiving her advisors, but she looks toward naked lady Occasion (or Fortuna), standing on the fortress to the left. Elizabeth holds out her right hand to grasp Fortune's forelock and the laurel wreath she holds -- undoubtedly by founding her great Royal Navy. Britannia, kneeling on the shore, desires Elizabeth to seize her opportunity with a "fully-equipped expeditionary force," as her scroll states.[21] This navy is to be much more than a coast guard patrolling for pirates; rather it will begin the divinely sanctioned creation of an English Empire. God, Elizabeth, and St. Michael on the right fight back the darkness on the left and the naval force will soon capture the foreign ships at sea. There is also a more ominous warning here, since the skull on the right acts as a memento mori and may be related to the ear of wheat, a Hermetic symbol for man, here somewhat inauspiciously reversed. In other words, if the readers ignore Dee's perspicacious proposal, England's end may be less than felicitous. Indeed, there are a number of hints that magic may play a part in England's greatness, from the Latin motto surrounding the title, "Plvra: Latent: quam: Patent" (More things are concealed than are revealed),[22] to the Greek symbols in the four corners, which add up to Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica.[23] It is tempting to see a strong parallel between the discovery of the philosopher's stone and the creation of England as an imperial power. It is a mistake, however, to take this too far, since this text was intended for a select group of Elizabeth's advisors and some vague claim to mystical transformation would not have been particularly appropriate.[24]
5.

6. If there was any doubt of the imperial message on this title-page, Dee lays it out in the text.

Why should not we HOPE, that, RES-PVBL. BRYTANICA, on her knees, very Humbly, and ernestly Soliciting the most Excellent Royall Maiesty, of our ELIZABETH (Sitting at the HELM of this Imperiall Monarchy: or, rather, at the Helm of the IMPERIALL SHIP, of the most parte of Christendome: if so, it be her Graces Pleasure) shall obteyn, (or Perfect Policie, may perswade her Highnes,) that, which is the Pyth, or Intent of RES-PVBL. BRYTANICA, Her Supplication? Which is, That, [a fully equipped expeditionary force], may helpe vs, not onley, to [a citadel of safety, such as Fortune stands on]: But make vs, also, Partakers of Publik Commodities Innumerable, and (as yet) Incredible.

Thus Elizabeth, already commanding the imperial ship as a leader of Christendom, can employ this new Navy Royall both to defend the autonomy of England and, more importantly, to achieve wealth, power, and hegemony. Elizabeth's location in this picture is extremely telling. Dee first places her in charge of the ship as an "Imperiall Monarchy," an important position implying dominion over more than one country, both legislatively and spiritually.[25] He then corrects this to claim her greater place at the helm "of the most parte of Christendome." This implies an eschatological role as the Protestant saviour of Europeans and the newly discovered peoples alike.[26] Britannia herself, of course, kneels in a much subsidiary position, clearly beholden to this monarch, rather than in any way defining her. It is Elizabeth, not Britannia, who will make possible the safety of the country, and even more important, in the perhaps unconscious echo of the communion prayer of consecration, it is Elizabeth who will allow the development of new mercantile endeavours. Dee goes on to place divine sanction on these expansionist and mercantilist ambitions by continuing:

Vnto which, the HEAVENLY KING, for these many yeres last past, hath, by MANIFEST OCCASION, most Graciously, not only inuited vs: but also, hath made, EVEN NOW, the Way and Means, most euident, easie, and Compendious: In-asmuch as, (besides all our own sufficient Furniture, Hability, Industry, Skill, and Courage) our Freends are become strong: and our Enemies, sufficiently weake, and nothing Royally furnished, or of Hability, for Open Violence Vsing: Though their accustomed Confidence, in Treason, Trechery, and Disloyall Dealings, be very great. Wherein, we beseche our HEAVENLY PROTECTOR, with his GOOD ANGELL to Garde vs, with SHIELD AND SWORD, now, and euer. Amen.[27]

According to Dee, God takes up the cause of the expansionist English, through the intervention of his sword-wielding angel, Michael. By weakening its enemies and strengthening its friends, God has shown England that it is now time to act.
7. Dee's book provided a strong pronouncement of the imperial ideology present in geographical discourse, both in the imagery of the title-page and in the message of the text. The audience for General and Rare Memorials was undoubtedly small, but included some of the most influential privy councilors of the day.[28] Although the navy was never established, several of Elizabeth's key advisors appreciated and shared this imperial vision for England. Dee's picture of empire was a complex one, with Britannia subservient to Elizabeth's dominion, and Elizabeth herself supplying the wherewithal for private profit as well as national glory. For all its peculiarities, however, Dee's work shared with many other geographical treatises an overt desire for an imperial future for England.

8. These imperial messages, as well as geographical information about the wider world more generally, were read by a large group of men, some the principal politicians and investors of early modern England, and others destined for lesser political, judicial or church careers. This study of geography, often at university, provided them with a sense of English superiority and potential hegemony, as well as with examples of the heroic feats of those champions of English expansion who had gone before.[29] The vision of geography informed these men that England stood poised on the brink of a great imperial adventure, in which they could and should participate.


II Many of the geography books popular with university scholars in the period after Dee's book was published contained this message of English power and potential. The images of empire they conveyed, like Dee's, were multi-faceted, and many asked similar questions as to the real source of power, and the recipients of wealth. At the same time, they stressed the potential for England to achieve a greater empire, both materially and spiritually, than Spain or any other rival European power. Richard Hakluyt, for example, in a widely-read compilation of travel narratives and geographical descriptions published in 1598-1600, declared through the narrative of Richard Willes, that the English were most suited to explore and control the eastern trade.
9.

The rude Indian Canoa halleth those seas, the Portingals, the Saracenes, and Moores travaile continually up and downe that reach from Japan to China, from China to Malacca, from Malacca to the Moluccaes: and shall an Englishman, better appointed than any of them all (that I say no more of our Navie) feare to saile in that Ocean: What seas at all doe want piracie: What Navigation is there voyde of perill?[30]

10. Hakluyt's massive collection proved a very important source for English pride and imperial hope. Hakluyt perused historical sources to find long-forgotten English voyages in order to argue that the English had the right to foreign lands through first discovery.[31] He also included many modern voyages by the English (and others) and in this contemporary reportage he used the words of people who had been there, a style of reporting that lent great verisimilitude to his stories and allowed his readers to see the real passion and poetry, as well as hard-nosed business sense, of England's travellers.[32] His book let the English mariner or merchant develop a self-consciousness of his role in the world and so Hakluyt's book encouraged a view of a very personal and trade-oriented empire. There was no doubt that this would be an empire for the glory of Queen and country, but exactly who would have dominion was rather less clear. John Wolfe also supplied an imperial message when he published a translated version of Jan Huygen van Linschoten's Discours of Voyages in 1598. Linschoten, a Dutch adventurer, had written a book describing Dutch and Portuguese voyages to distant locations, including a description of the Congo by a Portuguese explorer and an analysis of the Spanish tax system, as well as his own travels to the East Indies. Wolfe had Linschoten's book translated by W. P[hillips], at the behest of Richard Hakluyt.[33] It was one of a number of geographical descriptions published by Wolfe, sometimes in Italian and often translated into English at Hakluyt's suggestion.[34] Little is known of Wolfe's motivations in publishing these books (aside from a shrewd assessment of the market), although when placed with his early struggles against the Stationers' Company over their monopoly on printing lucrative texts,[35] one is left with an impression of entrepreneurial savvy. By the time he published Linschoten's voyages, he was a successful senior member of the Stationers' Company and had achieved the prestigious title of Printer for the City of London, as the Linschoten title-page proclaimed. Near the end of his successful career, Wolfe exhorted the English in the introduction of the translation to take their rightful place as an ocean-going, imperial nation, both for the riches such action would bring to England and for the civility they would return to inferior parts of the world. Although Linschoten's Discours ostensibly talks of the imperial growth of other nations, Wolfe here reconfigures the book as a story to construct an English imperial identity.

I doo not doubt, but yet I doo most hartely pray and wish, that this poore Translation may worke in our English Nation a further desire and increase of Honour over all Countreys of the World, and as it hath hitherto mightily advanced the Credite of the Realme by defending the same with our Wodden Walles . . . So it would employ the same in forraine partes, aswell for the dispersing and planting true Religion and Civill Conversation therein: as also for the further benefite and commodity of this Land by exportation of such thinges wherein we doe abound, and importation of those Necessities whereof we stand in Neede: as Hercules did, when hee fetched away the Golden Apples out of the Garden of the Hesperides; and Jason, when with his lustie troupe of couragious Argonautes hee atchieved the Golden Fleece in Colchos.[36]

11. Proven by its successful defeat of the Armada, employing its famous "wooden walls," the English nation has here become like Hercules, the semi-divine, or Jason, with his great sea-faring abilities and divinely ordained success. These two mythic figures do seem to have been recreated as nascent mercantilists, arguing for the classical precedents of early modern plunder. Wolfe sees such unequal exchanges (Hercules and Jason, after all, did not pay for their prizes, except by personal sacrifice and hardship) as at least on a par with the need to bring true religion and civil conversation to the natives of foreign locales. Indeed, the civility and Protestantism of the English equip them particularly well to pursue the import and export trade for the further "benefite and commodity" of England itself. This is an imperial design, arguing for England's inherent superiority and ability to achieve dominion over other parts of the world, with a clear primacy of trade and commerce over conquest.

12. Indeed, the Englished Linschoten provides another important illustration of English imperialism, while expropriating the valorous deeds of another nation. Linschoten's book, in Wolfe's edition, contains the tales of Dutch and Portuguese adventure and profit, as well as evidence of Spanish wealth and power at home. Yet, on examining the illustrated title page, a tale of English supremacy is laid before the reader. (See Figure 2.) At the top, the royal coat of arms with the garter motto and Elizabeth's motto, "Semper Eadem," anchors the book firmly in an English, courtly context. The translation was dedicated to Sir Julius Caesar, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty and Master of Requests to the queen, thus directed as Dee's work had been to the powerful patronage circles.[37] Below the title, a large and very impressive carrack rides at anchor. The prominent flag jutting into the title space indicates English ownership.[38] The coat of arms on the left belongs to the City of London, announcing that this book was directed to merchants as well as courtiers. This also reminds the viewer of Wolfe's privileged position as the Printer of London, also mentioned in the text. Thus, although the book itself described foreign exploits and enterprises, the message of the illustrated title page and introduction show that even these were to be used to the glory of England and to aid in the creation of an English empire. Just as Hakluyt used tales of other nations' discoveries to spur on English adventuring and commerce, Wolfe too hoped that exposure to the exploration of new parts of the world would encourage the English to venture forth for glory and profit.[39] While England would certainly benefit from these potential imperial ventures, the glory and profit had personal implications as well.

13. Christopher Saxton's illustrated frontispiece, from his 1579 atlas, also contains an overt message of English power and the utility of the geographical sciences in achieving such power. Saxton's atlas was funded by government patronage in the guise of Sir Thomas Seckford, Master of Requests, and was based principally on Saxton's own surveying.[40] This atlas marks an important development in government interest in a visual representation of the country, providing as it does the first clear image of the entire span of England, county by county. In Saxton's frontispiece, Elizabeth sits enthroned in the centre of the image, patron and ruler over the men on either side of her canopy.[41] On the right stands geography with compass and globe; on the left is astronomy with his armillary sphere. The usual female personifications of these disciplines has been replaced by men in middle eastern garb, perhaps alluding to the two works of Ptolemy. In the cartouche above Elizabeth's head, Righteousness and Peace, both female, embrace under Elizabeth's rule. Below, the two aspects of map-making, geometric and panoramic, seem to set their sights on England and Elizabeth's patronage. Since Elizabeth's support was of utmost importance in the funding of this atlas, it makes sense that Saxton would acknowledge this on the title page. Indeed, Saxton had received Grigston Manor in Suffolk from Elizabeth in 1574, in recognition of his work and expenses.[42] The royal coat-of-arms crowned above confirms the importance to the queen and her government of mapping the English counties. Elizabeth reigned over all that could be measured and such mathematical control would enable England to triumph over its enemies.

14. As the maps of the atlas indicate, Saxton's recording of musters, lords lieutenant and places of fortification were matters of extreme importance to the Privy Council, concerned as it was with the coming war with Spain. Lord Burghley especially had been extremely keen on Saxton's mapping of the entire country, obtaining each map as it was completed and creating his own atlas for administrative use.[43] The image of empire created by this title page, and by the atlas it introduced, was that of a self-sufficient and omni-competent state, ruled over by the dominion of a wise monarch. While this was problematized by the increasing separation of crown and county found on the later maps of the atlas,[44] Saxton's work contributed to a growing identification with England and its sense of self-sufficiency.


III While Saxton's title page suggests a relatively stable view of England as an imperial nation, Sir Walter Ralegh's message in The History of the World (1614) is rather more complex. (See Figure 3.) The war with Spain is apparent as an important component in English self-definition in Ralegh's self-designed frontispiece.[45] That war had been a defining moment for Ralegh himself, as well as the source of much mythologizing for English imperialists. So it is perhaps no surprise that the map dominating Ralegh's frontispiece would depict a vigorous battle in the Atlantic between Spanish and English forces -- except for the fact that Ralegh's book deals with the history of the world to the second century BC.[46] The map, a truncated version of Ortelius' 1570 world map, has been oriented to place England and Ireland in the centre. Ralegh's ship seems once more venturing forth in search of El Dorado in the South Atlantic and both it and England are under the watchful eye of providence above. This masonic symbol suggests, as with Dee, a connection between the underlying magic of the world and the geographical control of that world. History herself holds the earth up to God's gaze, so that the actions thereon can be judged to have good or evil fame. With God watching over England and English deeds, how can her future be other than magnificent?
15.

16. Ralegh wrote The History of the World during an eleven-year imprisonment in the Tower of London. Although it deals with the history of the world from creation to just before the birth of Christ, the parallels with modern concerns were real and explicitly drawn.[47] Indeed, James' reason for suppressing its publication lay in the fact that Ralegh was "too saucy in censuring princes."[48] This book was written as part of a campaign by Ralegh to interest Henry, Prince of Wales, in imperial adventures in general and in supporting Ralegh's conquistadorial bid to find El Dorado in particular.[49] Unfortunately for Ralegh, Henry died before the book was completed, accounting for its rather abrupt ending. For Ralegh, the hope of a glorious English or even British empire to rival Spain died with Henry, and although he returned once more to Guiana, it was to face ignominy and execution on his return.[50] Thus, the message of his frontispiece is a curious mixture of bravado and fatalism. History, stamping out death and oblivion, will reveal to God and the English Ralegh's great vision of empire, first glimpsed through the victory of the "Wodden Walles" of the Armada (echoing Wolfe's earlier claim). As Ben Jonson explained in the accompanying poem:

From Death and darke Oblivion (neere the same)
The Mistress of Mans life, grave Historie,
Raising the World to good, or Evill fame,
Doth vindicate it to Aeternitie.[51]

Magistra Vitae, with her orb above her, bears more than a passing resemblance to an older iconographic image of Lady World, suggesting the vanity of all earthly ambition.[52] Ralegh, more than any other writer or explorer, represented the empire of conquest rather than commerce or settlement, although the predetermined failure of such a course must colour any viewing of this triumphal frontispiece, then or now.

IV Were these imperial messages, with all their multiple meanings, read by men intended for public office? Elsewhere I have argued that there is much evidence that they were.[53] Many students owned and read these books and many others with underlying imperial themes; a majority of these students went on to public careers of one type or another. This attention to geographical information and its message can be illustrated graphically as well as through content by an examination of a commonplace book owned by Sir Julius Caesar. Caesar was an English-born son of the Italian doctor, Caesare Adelmare, who was physician to Elizabeth and Mary. After receiving an MA. at Oxford, Sir Julius became a student at the Inner Temple and received his LL.D. from Paris in 1581. He became Judge of the Admiralty and Master of Chancery under Elizabeth. With James' accession, Caesar became Chancellor of the Exchequer and, in 1614, Master of the Rolls, both positions being held until his death in 1636.[54] As we saw, John Wolfe dedicated his translation of Linschoten to Caesar, believing him to be interested in geography and exploration. Wolfe claimed that Caesar, as the Judge of the Admiralty, was in a position to judge how important the information in Linschoten's book was to the promotion of the English Nation in imperial ventures.[55] Here then is one of the "new men" who achieved power in early modern English governance, aided by a university education. If images of geographical imperialism were absorbed by him, they had the potential to be translated into action.
17.

18. Caesar began compiling a commonplace book at Oxford in the 1570s and continued to add to it throughout his life. The book he used was a printed commonplace book: the Pandecte Locorum Communium. This book, published in 1572 with an introduction by John Foxe, contains a title page with edifying verse, running heads throughout the book, and an index at the end, while the majority of the book is left blank for the use of the owner.[56] Given John Foxe's hand in the production of this volume, it is no surprise to see the preponderance of religious and moral topics implied by the various headings. What is more interesting for our purpose is the large number of geographical headings, especially when combined with the illustrated title page, which suggests that the quadrivium generally, and geography particularly, were of prime importance to the student compiling his commonplace book. (See Figure 4.) This title page was first used by publisher John Day to illustrate William Cuningham's Cosmographical Glass (1559) and Dee and Billingsley's 1570 English translation of Euclid, so had wider currency than simply this commonplace book.[57] It was relatively common for printers to reuse title pages, since they were expensive to produce. As Day published a lot of mathematical and scientific material, such a title page was very useful. It is striking that John Day chose to use such a mathematically and geographically-oriented title page for this commonplace book, emphasizing the importance of these areas for all students of the commonplace. In the bottom half of the page sit the female personifications of the four mathematical arts: Geometria and Arithmetica on the left and Astronomia and Musica on the right. Each holds the instrument traditional to her art. In the absence of their sisters of the trivium, this certainly suggests a strong emphasis on those studies more closely identified with mathematical studies of the natural world. Mercury as the God of learning presides over their collaboration. Even more striking is the top of the page. We might expect the great classical authors, whose works the attending students would surely be recording. We are not disappointed -- except that these are all geographers, a fact made more evident by the instruments they hold. At the top, on either side of a terrestrial globe, centred on the Old World, stand Ptolemy and Marinus, considered to have been his predecessor. Below them are Aratus and Hipparchus on the left and Strabo and Polibius on the right. Strabo is even engaged in drawing a map, an interesting endeavour for the father of descriptive geography. Even more interesting, it is a map of England. Look at the stars, Ptolemy seems to say, but with Strabo you know where you are. This message of geographical emplacement, at the very start of an important published commonplace book, demonstrates the importance of geographical thought and study to serious students.

19. Caesar appears to have kept this commonplace book throughout his life; his first entry was made while at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1577 at the age of nineteen, and the last entry is dated 1636, shortly before his death.[58] In it he recorded a lifetime of citations, quotations, and ideas. He seems to have had relatively little to say on the pages devoted to theology and mathematics, but the sections of the notebook devoted to geography and navigation are closely filled. Indeed, he added several manuscript pages with the running heads "Cosmographia, Geographia."[59] He cited all the important geographical authors, including Ptolemy, Mercator, Strabo, and Pliny. He discussed navigation in terms of the care and design of ships, and included chorography in such entries as "The Singularities of England."[60] His descriptions of other countries were usually drawn from or referred to published authorities, although sometimes he recorded his own observations.

I was ownce in Italie my selfe: but I thanke god, my abode there was but 9. daies; and yet I sawe in that little time in the citie of Venice, more libertie to sinne, than ever I heard tell of in our noble citie of London in 9 yeare. I sawe, it was there as free to sinne, not onely without all punishment, but also without anie man's marking, as it is free in the citie of London, to chouse without all blame, whether a man hast to weare shoe or pantoche.[61]

Caesar's commonplaces, added to through out his life, show a man of substance interested in geographical issues. He read widely from the books we have been examining and saw such information as important. This information helped him develop a notion of England as a separate and self-sufficient country (as his note on Italy suggests) and to begin to think of ways to increase the possibility of England's foray into outward imperialism.

V From the late seventeenth century on, the English began to realize the potential of imperial thinking. The first step in such empire building was their subjugation of the Irish and union with Scotland, resulting in the creation of Britain by 1707. This was followed by a rapid expansion in influence and control over large segments of the world; the British empire was a reality by the end of the eighteenth century. But in order to conquer the world in this way, the English first needed a vision of themselves as an imperial nation. This self-image as an independent and omni-competent country, as well as one with the potential to control other countries and regions of the world, had to precede the acquisition of an empire and so the English needed an imperial ideology before they could begin to construct an empire in deed. The creation of this ideology of empire was aided by the study of geography. The images I have examined in this article contributed to this sense of superiority and separateness, although they were not unanimous in the message they communicated. While all were agreed that England (or the English) had the right to take their place as an imperial nation, they were much less united on the means to that goal, or just what the final imperial country would look like. With the exception of Ralegh, for whom conquest was less for personal gain than for the glory of his monarch, these geographical authors sought success in trade, in some settlement and in the transmission of "true Religion and Civil Conversation."[62] Britannia, as some coherent entity, did not rule even the iconographic waves, though the race for exploitation and hegemony had begun.
20.

Notes

1. William H. Sherman establishes the audience for this book in John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance (Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1995) 149-152. [Back]

2. John Dee, General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation (London, 1577) 63.[Back]

3. See Lesley B. Cormack, "'Good Fences make Good Neighbors': Geography in Early Modern England," Isis 82 (1991): 639-661, for a definition of geography in this period. I here follow David Livingstone's insistence on the "situated messiness" of the geographical tradition, The Geographical Tradition. Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992). For some interesting Scottish comparisons, see Charles Withers, "Geography, Royalty and Empire: Scotland and the Making of Great Britain, 1603-1661," Scottish Geographical Magazine 113 (1997): 22-32; "Geography, Science and National Identity in Early Modern Britain: The Case of Scotland and the Work of Sir Robert Sibbald (1641-1722)," Annals of Science 53 (1996): 29-73; and "How Scotland Came to Know Itself: Geography, National Identity and the Making of a Nation, 1680-1790," Journal of Historical Geography 21 (1995): 371-387. [Back]

4. Lesley B. Cormack, Charting an Empire. Geography at the English Universities 1580-1620 (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1997). [Back]

5. For example, Brian Levack, The Formation of the British State: England, Scotland and the Union 1603-1707 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987); Jenny Wormald, "The Creation of Britain: Multiple Kingdoms or Core and Colonies," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6 (1992): 175-194; and J. Robertson, "Empire and Union: Two Concepts of the Early Modern European Political Order," in J. Robertson, ed., A Union for Empire: Political Thought and the British Union of 1707 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995) 3-36. [Back]

6. Frances Yates, Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975); Graham Parry, The Golden Age Restor'd: The Culture of the Stuart Court 1603-1642 (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1971); Roy Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450-1650 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1984); and Withers, "Geography, Royalty and Empire." [Back]

7. Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1994); Paula Findlen, Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (California: U of California P, 1994). [Back]

8. These is a wide literature in the emblematic analysis of frontispieces, e.g. Peter M. Daly, Literature in the Light of the Emblem. Structural Parallels between the emblem and Literature in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Toronto, 1979). I have been most influenced by William B. Ashworth, Jr., especially "Natural History and the Emblematic World View" in Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, David Lindberg and Robert Westman, eds. (Cambridge, 1990), pp.303-332. See also Michel Foucault, The Order of Things (New York, 1970). Foucault's categorization of the sixteenth century as the "age of similitude" is very useful here. [Back]

9. Anthony Pagden, Lords of All the World. Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France. c.1500-c.1800 (New Haven: Yale UP, 1995) pp. 11-28. [Back]

10. Lesley B. Cormack, "The Fashioning of an Empire: Geography and the State in Elizabethan England," in Geography and Empire, Anne Godlewska and Neil Smith, eds. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994) 16-17. [Back]

11. Pagden, Lords of All the World 14. [Back]

12. Richard Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writing of England (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992) 171-181, discusses Hakluyt's tension between mercantile practicality and royal nationalism. [Back]

13. Jeffrey Knapp, An Empire Nowhere. England, America, and Literature from Utopia to The Tempest (Berkeley: U of California P, 1992), claims that by stressing England's otherworldliness and trifling with conquest, English writers idealized the colonial failures of this period. [Back]

14. Pagden argues that the lessons learned by Spain, England and France during what he calls the first imperial period changed the way that particularly England, France and the Netherlands dealt with the rather different eastern imperial expansion of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. 1-10. [Back]

15. Peter French, John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972); Richard Deacon, John Dee: Scientist, Geographer, Astrologer and Secret Agent to Elizabeth I (London: Muller, 1996); and Frances Yates, especially Theatre of the World (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969), have done much to encourage this tendency to see Dee as an Elizabethan "magus." While it is true that Dee was very interested in alchemy, numerology, astrology, and, in the end, crystal ball gazing, most of these activities were legitimate sixteenth-century pursuits and the focus on this has obscured his important geographical work. Even historians such as Sir Roy Strong, Henry, Prince of Wales and England's Lost Renaissance (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986), are not immune from this tendency, claiming Prince Henry's interest in Dee was neo-Platonic rather than exploring the more obvious geographical link. Clulee provides a much more balanced view of Dee's work, arguing in John Dee's Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion (London: Routledge, 1988) that as Dee grew more interested in natural magic, he became less concerned with natural philosophy. Sherman, John Dee, has begun to set the record straight on Dee, showing his close interconnection with court and government, and establishing the primacy of his geographical work. [Back]

16. Mark Curtis, Oxford and Cambridge in Transition 1558-1642 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1959) 242; French, John Dee 28. [Back]

17. John Dee, The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, and the Catalogue of his Library Manuscripts, J.O. Halliwell, ed. (London: Camden Society, 1842; New York: AMS, 1968), records many instances of these men coming to consult with Dee before undertaking hazardous voyages. [Back]

18. Sherman, John Dee, chap. 7, includes a close reading of General and Rare Memorials, as well as Of Famous and Rich Discoveries (ms. 1577) and Brytanici Imperii Limites (1576-78). In so doing, he makes explicit the link between Dee, imperialism, and the Privy Council. [Back]

19. Cormack, Charting an Empire. [Back]

20. Bodleian Ashmole MS 1789, ff. 116-17b, provides the manuscript version in Dee's hand. This image, together with the others in this article, is reproduced by kind permission of the British Library. [Back]

21. For standard interpretations of this illustrated title page, see Joseph Ames, Typographical Antiquities, Vol. 1 (London, 1810) 660-662; Margery Corbett and Ronald Lightbown, The Comely Frontispiece. The Emblematic Title-Page in England 1550-1660 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979) 49-58. French, John Dee 183-185, provides a Hermetic twist to this image. [Back]

22. Corbett and Lightbown, Comely Frontispiece 49. [Back]

23. John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica (Antwerp, 1564). David Livingstone, "Science, Magic and Religion: A Contextual Reassessment of Geography in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," History of Science 26 (1988): 269-294, sees a direct relationship between geography and magic, especially in Dee's work. I disagree with the proposition that magic was an integral ingredient in sixteenth-century geography. In fact, even John Dee seems to have kept the two relatively separate in his dealings with geographers and navigators. Still, the symbolism of this title-page argues for a closer relationship and the use of magic for the aggrandisement of the state. [Back]

24. Sherman, John Dee 149-150. [Back]

25. Pagden notes that the Spanish were the first to speak of the Spanish Monarchy rather than Kingdom, to show the king of Spain as an emperor through heredity. Lords of All the World 43. [Back]

26. Again, Pagden demonstrates that the Spanish placed great store in the fact that the Pope had appointed them to convert the natives, a position heavily criticized by English commentators, as well as some Spaniards. Lords of All the World, pp. 29-33, 44-62. See also Pagden, The Fall of Natural Man (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982). [Back]

27. Dee, General and Rare Memorials 53. [Back]

28. Sherman, John Dee 166-170. [Back]

29. Cormack, Charting an Empire. [Back]

30. Richard Willes, "Certain other reasons, or arguments to prove a passage by the Northwest, learnedly written by Mr. Richard Willes Gentleman," in Richard Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (London, 1598-1600) 3.28. [Back]

31. Pagden sees this as an important counter-argument to Spain's claim to empire through conquest. Lords of All the World 880-81. [Back]

32. Hakluyt, Principal Navigations 1. sigs. *4a, *5a. [Back]

33. Introduction to Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Discours of Voyages (London, 1598) sig. A1a. [Back]

34. Clifford Chalmers Huffman, Elizabethan Impressions. John Wolfe and his Press (New York: AMS, 1988) 36-41. Most influential was Wolfe's English edition of The Historie of the Great and Mightie Kingdome of China, by Mendoza (London, 1588), which remained the standard account of China for English readers for a generation. [Back]

35. Huffman, Elizabethan Impressions 129. [Back]

36. Introduction to Linschoten, Discours sig. A4a. [Back]

37. Introduction to Linschoten, Discours sig. A1a. Thanks are due to the British Library for permission to reproduce the illustration. [Back]

38. Corbett and Lightbown, in The Comely Frontispiece , 81-9, describe this title page. They claim the ship is Portuguese, but have clearly missed the significance of the flag. [Back]

39. Huffman, Elizabethan Impressions, 41, discusses Wolfe's explicit statement of this desire in many of his Italian travel books and in the Mendoza translation.[Back]

40. Sarah Tyacke and John Huddy, Christopher Saxton and Tudor Map-making (London: British Library, 1980) 25. I.M. Evans and H. Lawrence, Christopher Saxton: Elizabethan Map-maker (Wakefield: Wakefield Historical Publications, 1979) 9, 66 ff. P.D.A. Harvey, Maps in Tudor England (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993), also discusses Saxton and sees the publication of his Atlas as a cause of the map-consciousness of the later Elizabethan years. 84. Instead, I see both caused by the shared education in geography these gentlemen received as they increasingly attended Oxford and Cambridge. A reproduction of this illustration was not available for use in this article. [Back]

41. William Ravenhill, p. 15, introduction of Christopher Saxton's Sixteenth-Century Maps (Chatsworth Library, 1992). [Back]

42. Tyacke and Huddy,Christopher Saxton and Tudor Map-making 6.[Back]

43. Evans and Lawrence, Christopher Saxton 6. [Back]

44. Richard Helgerson, "The Land Speaks: Cartography, Chorography and Subversion in Renaissance England," Representations 16 (1986): 51-85. [Back]

45. C.A. Patrides, intro. to Sir Walter Ralegh, The History of the World (London: Macmillan, 1971) xv. The book was initially suppressed and on its release later in 1614, the title page had been removed. Thus, the image presented here, with no author's name, is a frontispiece, rather than a title page proper. [Back]

46. Sir Walter Ralegh, The History of the World (London, 1614). For a discussion of the frontispiece, see Corbett and Lightbown, The Comely Frontispiece 134. [Back]

47. Ralegh, "Preface," sigs. A1a-E4b. Stephen Coote, A Play of Passion: The Life of Sir Walter Raleigh (London: Macmillan, 1993) 340. [Back]

48. Quoted by Coote, A Play of Passion 341. [Back]

49. Coote, A Play of Passion 341-343. [Back]

50. For an interesting discussion of Ralegh's earlier failure in Guiana, see Knapp; as well as Charles Nicholl, The Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado (London: Cape, 1995), who discusses the potential Rosicrucian connections, especially with the naming of the Red Cross River, 309-318. [Back]

51. Ben Jonson, "The Minde of the Front," History of the World (1614), facing frontispiece. [Back]

52. Richard Helgerson suggested this image in his paper, "The Folly of Maps and Modernity," at the conference Paper Landscapes. Maps, Texts and the Construction of Space 1500-1700, London, July 1997. [Back]

53. Cormack, Charting an Empire, examines the geography books owned by students at Oxford and Cambridge, as well as following the public careers of those students with geographical interests. [Back]

54. See DNB, vol. 8. 204-207; and L.M. Hill, Bench and Bureaucracy. The Public Career of Sir Julius Caesar, 1580-1636 (Cambridge: James Clarke, 1988). [Back]

55. John Wolfe, "Dedication," Discours of Voyages sig. A1a. [Back]

56. Sir Julius Caesar's Commonplace Book. B. L. Add. MS 6038. This is described for some political and religious detail by Hill, Bench and Bureaucracy. Although Ann Moss, "Printed Commonplace Books in the Renaissance," Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Torontonensis, eds. A. Dalzell, C. Fantazzi, and R. Schoeck, 509-518 (Binghamton: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991) addresses the issue of commonplace books printed in their entirety (with no blank space for personal additions), she does not mention this form, with printed running heads and most of the book left blank. [Back]

57. S.K. Heninger, Jr., The Cosmographical Glass. Renaissance Diagrams of the Universe (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1977), was the first to describe in detail the iconography of this title-page, 1-3. [Back]

58. L.M. Hill, Bench and Bureaucracy, 6. [Back]

59. B.L. Add. MS 6038, f. 348a [Back]

60. B.L. Add. MS 6038, ff. 409b, 250a. [Back]

61. B.L. Add. MS 6038, f. 250a. [Back]

62. Introduction to Linschoten, sig. A4a. [Back]

Works Cited

* Clulee, Nicholas H. John Dee's Natural Philosophy: Between Science and Religion. London: Routledge, 1988.
* Coote, Stephen. A Play of Passion: The Life of Sir Walter Raleigh. London: Macmillan, 1993.
* Corbett, Margery and Ronald Lightbown. The Comely Frontispiece. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979.
* Cormack, Lesley B. "'Good Fences make Good Neighbors': Geography in Early Modern England," Isis 82 (1991): 639-661.
* ---. Charting an Empire. Geography at the English Universities 1580-1620. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1997.
* ---. "The Fashioning of an Empire: Geography and the State in Elizabethan England," Geography and Empire. Eds. Anne Godlewska and Neil Smith. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. 16-17.
* Curtis, Mark. Oxford and Cambridge in Transition 1558-1642. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959.
* Deacon, Richard. John Dee: Scientist, Geographer, Astrologer and Secret Agent to Elizabeth I . London: Muller, 1996.
* Dee, John. General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation London, 1577.
* ---. The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, and the Catalogue of his Library Manuscripts. Ed. J.O. Halliwell. London: Camden Society, 1842; New York: AMS, 1968.
* Evans, I.M. and H. Lawrence. Christopher Saxton: Elizabethan Map-maker. Wakefield: Wakefield Historical Publications, 1979.
* Findlen, Paula. Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. California: U of California P, 1994.
* French, Peter. John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
* Hakluyt, Richard. "Certain other reasons, or arguments to prove a passage by the Northwest, learnedly written by Mr. Richard Willes Gentleman," Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. London, 1598-1600.
* Harvey, P.D.A. Maps in Tudor England. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993.
* Helgerson, Richard. "The Land Speaks: Cartography, Chorography and Subversion in Renaissance England," Representations 16 (1986): 51-85.
* ---. Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writing of England. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992.
* ---. "The Folly of Maps and Modernity," Paper Landscapes. Maps, Texts and the Construction of Space 1500-1700. Conference. London, July 1997.
* Heninger, S.K., Jr. The Cosmographical Glass. Renaissance Diagrams of the Universe. San Marino: Huntington Library, 1977.
* Hill, L.M. Bench and Bureaucracy. The Public Career of Sir Julius Caesar, 1580-1636. Cambridge: James Clarke, 1988.
* Huffman, Clifford Chalmers. Elizabethan Impressions. John Wolfe and his Press. New York: AMS, 1988.
* Jonson, Ben. "The Minde of the Front," Raleghs History of the World. 1614.
* Knapp, Jeffrey. An Empire Nowhere. England, America, and Literature from "Utopia" to "The Tempest." Berkeley: U of California P, 1992.
* Livingstone, David. The Geographical Tradition. Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
* Moss, Ann. "Printed Commonplace Books in the Renaissance," Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Torontonensis. Eds. A. Dalzell, C. Fantazzi, and R. Schoeck. Binghamton: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991.
* Pagden, Anthony. Lords of All the World. Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France. c. 1500-c.1800. New Haven: Yale UP, 1995.
* Patrides, C.A. "Introduction," Sir Walter Raleghs The History of the World. London: Macmillan, 1971.
* Ralegh, Sir Walter. The History of the World. London, 1614.
* Ravenhill, William. "Introduction," Christopher Saxton's Sixteenth-Century Maps. Chatsworth Library, 1992.
* Shapin, Steven. A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1994.
* Sherman, William H. John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1995.
* Strong, Sir Roy. Henry, Prince of Wales and England's Lost Renaissance. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986.
* Tyacke, Sarah and John Huddy. Christopher Saxton and Tudor Map-making. London: British Library, 1980.
* van Linschoten, Jan Huygen. Discours of Voyages. London, 1598.
* Yates, Frances. Theatre of the World. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969.

| 240 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

8. CBC Conspiracy Theories

| 560 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

9. Christ or the Lodge?

A Report on Freemasonry

http://opc.org/GA/masonry.html

� Introduction

At the ninth General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, meeting at Rochester, New York, June 2�5, 1942, the Committee on Secret Societies presented its report. The Assembly instructed the Committee to send this report to the ministers and sessions of the Church for their study. The report deals with a matter of such timely importance that the Committee on Christian Education has decided to publish it in its series of �Tracts for Today.???

The Committee which drew up the report consisted of R. B. Kuiper, Chairman, Oscar Holkeboer, Arthur O. Olson, Robert A. Wallace, and Paul Woolley. The report is printed exactly as it appeared in the minutes of the ninth General Assembly, except that two introductory paragraphs have been omitted. The Committee on Christian Education is responsible for the title. I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

1. Masonry and Other Secret Organizations

The mandate given this committee speaks of oath-bound secret societies in general. The committee frankly admits that it has not attempted a detailed investigation of all such societies. To accomplish that would have required even more time than was devoted to the preparation of this report, and much more time than the members of the committee had at their disposal. It may also be doubted whether so comprehensive an investigation is necessary. In the main the committee has restricted its study to that society which is known as the Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Masons. It should be borne in mind that Freemasonry, which is the oldest of the larger secret orders in this country, is generally admitted also to be their mother. Such popular orders as the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, the Improved Order of Red Men, the Woodmen of the World and the Order of the Eastern Star are all of them in many ways similar to their earlier prototype, the Masonic order. Their rituals, secrets, terms of membership, objects and purposes have in varying degree characteristics like those of Masonry. It follows that, if the objections which have been taken to Masonry are well taken, then these same objections apply also in the main to the other orders mentioned and to whatever smaller orders of similar character may exist. 2. Is Reliable Information Available?

An objection frequently raised to any study of secret orders by non-members takes the form of the statement: You cannot get any reliable information. It may be said categorically that, in the case of the major orders, particularly the Order of Free and Accepted Masons, this statement is not correct. Reliable information concerning all points of major importance, and concerning many others that are not important, is accessible to any who will make a proper study of the matter.

The so-called secrets of Masonry constitute only a portion of the total activity of the order. The general ideals of Masonry and the history and philosophy of the order have been developed by numerous Masonic and non-Masonic writers in books designed for the general public as well as for Masons. Of course, even Masonic writers do not always agree fully with one another about these matters, but that is true of any field of research. On the whole the agreement among them is striking.

Much of the Masonic ritual is of a non-secret character, and handbooks concerning speeches, statements, prayers and similar matters are published without secrecy. A great mass of useful information concerning the relationship of the order to Christianity is available from volumes of this character.

Further, the so-called ceremonies, grips, passwords and such matters are very largely available through printings by recognized Masonic publishing houses in cipher code. These cipher codes, at least some of them, are not difficult to read. They can be used as original sources of information, and also as checks by which to determine the accuracy of the plain English rituals which have been published by non-Masonic sources. Among the texts and descriptions published by such sources are those emanating from individuals who, for one reason or another, have demitted their membership in the Masonic order. When their evidence agrees with that from Masonic sources something of a check in both directions is provided. This committee has had the privilege of personally interviewing and questioning a former member of the Masonic order who was anxious to provide as much information as desired about the body.

It is worth noting that a Mason, Eugen Lennhoff, who has written one of the most comprehensive and well-balanced books about Masonry, admits that the signs, words and grips, and copies of the Ritual and explanations of the symbols, are obtainable by anyone (The Freemasons, p, 18). And in his Introduction to Free Masonry, Carl H. Claudy, also a Mason, says: �There is no obligation of secrecy regarding the truths taught by Freemasonry, otherwise such a book as this could not lawfully be written??? (vol. I, p. 34).

Masonic libraries containing books by Masons of high degree and excellent standing are open to the public. One of these is the Scottish Rite Library of Chicago. Masonic literature may be purchased of the Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company of New York City.

For further information on these particular matters the following books, among others, may be consulted:

Eugen Lennhoff: The Freemasons. Translated by Einar Frame. London, Methuen, 1934. Theodore Graebner: A Treatise on Freemasonry. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1914. Theodore Graebner: The Secret Empire. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927.

3. Criticisms That Do Not Seem Weighty

Certain criticisms are sometimes offered with relation to secret orders which do not seem to this committee to be of such weight as to constitute valid reasons for objection.

One of these is the objection to secrecy as such. Obviously, there is nothing wrong in secrecy at the proper time and place. Every family has its secrets. Without secrecy in their preparation, academic examinations could hardly be conducted in our institutions of learning. The pastors and sessions of our churches often deal with personal matters which are much better not divulged to the congregation. Our Lord Himself occasionally commanded his disciples not to reveal to all men things which He told them privately. To be sure, in certain circumstances secrecy is sinful, but it may not be said that secrecy is evil in every instance.

Another objection in the minds of some is to the taking of any oaths whatsoever. Whether or not the oaths required of Masons are reprehensible will be considered at another point in this report. Just now the committee contends merely that the taking of an oath is not to be condemned under any and all circumstances. The Westminster Confession of Faith states that �a lawful oath, being imposed by lawful authority, in such matters, ought to be taken??? (XXII, 2).

Still another objection sometimes brought against Masonry concerns the alleged frivolous character of the symbols, garbs and ritualistic articles used. In particular instances criticism of such matters may be and, as will be pointed out later on, actually is well grounded. But a sweeping charge of frivolity should, in the opinion of this committee, be avoided. The actual meaning, significance and value of symbols, as measured in terms of emotional power, are difficult for a non-participant correctly to gauge. What seems frivolous to an outsider may in actuality not be so at all to the initiate.

Fault has been found with Masonry for barring from membership women, negroes and the physically deformed. The worst that can be said about this provision is that it belies Masonry�s boast of universalism. There does indeed seem to be an inconsistency here. But, apart from that, care should be taken not to stress this objection out of measure. Prominent Masons have founded the Order of the Eastern Star for women. The fact that some lodges offer certain insurance benefits to members may be one reason among others for restricting membership to reasonably �good risks.??? And it surely cannot be said that every organization is in duty bound to open its doors to men of any and every race.

There are those who interpret �the separated life??? so as to rule out the membership of believers together with unbelievers in any organization whatever. They customarily quote 2 Corinthians 6:14�18 to substantiate this view. But that is a serious error. The passage of Scripture just cited condemns the fellowship of Christians and pagans specifically in the matter of religion and worship. To assert that believers may not hold membership with unbelievers in a book club or an automobile club, for instance, savors strongly of Anabaptistic separatism. The apostle Paul took pains to tell members of the Corinthian church that he did not mean that they should have no company with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or idolaters, for then they would needs have to go out of the world (1 Corinthians 5:9). Therefore, to condemn membership of a Christian in the Masonic order on the sole ground that this order contains unbelievers, in unwarranted. II. THE RELIGION OF MASONRY

1. The Issue Stated

The foregoing paragraph has named the point on which this investigation must be centered. Is Masonry a religious order, or is it not? That is the crucial question. If it should prove that the answer to this question must be affirmative, then the further question, no less crucial than the first, will arise, what the religion of Masonry is. If it is Christianity, well and good. If it is anything but Christianity, the religion of Masonry is necessarily false, for it is axiomatic that Christianity is the only true religion. And in that case no Christian may have communion with Masonry. 2. Is Masonry a Religion?

On this score the evidence is overwhelming. There is no room for any reasonable doubt as to Masonry�s being a religion. Not only do the symbols, rites and temples of this order point unmistakably to it as a religion, but a great many Masonic authors of note emphatically declare it to be just that. Of almost numberless quotations that could be given here the committee has selected a few.

J. S. M. Ward, the author of several standard Masonic works, defines religion as �a system of teaching moral truth associated with a belief in God??? and then declares: �I consider Freemasonry is a sufficiently organized school of mysticism to be entitled to be called a religion.??? He goes on to say: �I boldly aver that Freemasonry is a religion, yet in no way conflicts with any other religion, unless that religion holds that no one outside its portals can be saved??? (Freemasonry: Its Aims and Ideals, pp. 182, 185, 187). T. S. Webb says in his Masonic Monitor: �The meeting of a Masonic Lodge is strictly a religious ceremony. The religious tenets of Masonry are few, simple, but fundamental. No lodge or Masonic assembly can be regularly opened or closed without prayer??? (p. 284).

Albert G. Mackey, General High Priest of the General Grand Chapter of the United States, and the author of numerous works on Masonry, has this to say: �Freemasonry is emphatically a religious institution; it teaches the existence of God. It points to the celestial canopy above where is the Eternal Lodge and where He presides. It instructs us in the way to reach the portals of that distant temple??? The Mystic Tie, p. 32). And in his Lexicon of Freemasonry the same celebrated authority asserts: �The religion, then, of Masonry is pure Theism??? (p. 404).

Extremely significant is the testimony of Joseph Fort Newton, a zealous advocate of Masonic principles. He deplores the fact that within the lodge there are many who regard it as �a mere social order inculcating ethical ideals and practicing philanthropy.??? He continues: �As some of us prefer to put it, Masonry is not a religion but Religion�not a church but a worship, in which men of all religions may unite??? (The Religion of Masonry, pp. 10, 11). With this agrees A. G. Mackey�s declaration: �The truth is that Masonry is undoubtedly a religious institution, its religion being of that universal kind in which all men agree??? (Textbook of Masonic Jurisdiction, p. 95). To be sure, H. L. Haywood says that �there is no such thing as a Masonic philosophy, just as there is no such thing as a Masonic religion??? (The Great Teachings of Masonry, p. 18). But on careful analysis it becomes clear that he means that Masonry is not to be put in a class with other religions; in a word, that it is a super-religion. For he asserts that Masonry has a religious foundation all its own and that its religion is universal (Idem, p. 99). No doubt, Haywood would agree with Newton that �Masonry is not a religion, but Religion.??? Such is the unmistakable testimony, not of critics of Masonry, but of Masonic authors who are recognized by Masonry itself as authorities. 3. The Religion of Masonry Evaluated

In seeking to evaluate the religion of Masonry our standard must be Christianity, the one true religion. That Masonry cannot be simply non-Christian is self-evident. Neutrality with reference to Christianity is an obvious impossibility. Either Masonry as a religion is in agreement with Christianity, or it must be at odds with Christianity. Either it is Christian, or it must be anti-Christian. A comparison on several important points of the religious teaching of Masonry with that of Christianity should reveal which of these two possibilities in the abstract is concrete reality.

a. The Origin of Masonic Religion

Christianity is based squarely upon God�s supernatural revelation in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Many Masonic authorities take pains to deny that Masonry is based upon the Bible. A. G. Mackey�s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry informs us that in Masonry the Bible is regarded only as a symbol of the will of God and is on a par with the sacred books of other religions (p. 104). And in speaking of the Blue Lodge, which is the foundation of all Masonry, both the York Rite and the Scottish Rite, Chase�s Digest of Masonic Law declares: �Blue Lodge Masonry has nothing whatever to do with the Bible; if it did, it would not be Masonry, it would be something else??? (p. 207).

Many authorities maintain that Masonry is rooted in ancient paganism. For example, J. S. M. Ward, who after fourteen years of research wrote his greatest book, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, traces the religious tenets of Masonry back to the religions of India and ancient Mexico and the mysteries of pagan Egypt and Rome (for example, p. 341). And A. T. C. Pierson, another celebrated interpreter of Masonry, says in his Traditions, Origin and Early History of Freemasonry that Masonic religion comes from the Orient and has reference to primitive religion, whose first occupation was the worship of the sun (p. 34). Several Masonic authors put forth the claim that Masonry represents the oldest religious system in the world and constitutes the common basis on which all the religious systems of history were founded. Whatever one may think of Masonry�s claims to antiquity, it is clear that James Putt, a critic of Masonry, states the case well when he concludes as to the origin of Masonry: �This, then, is the situation. Masonry claims to be the essence of all religions. It guards the most ancient esoteric worship. It aims at a universal religion on the basis of the religious aspirations of man. It is naturalistic and evolutionistic rather than supernaturalistic and revelationary??? (Masonry, p. 24). The God of Christianity is the God of the Bible, the Holy Trinity. Is He also the God of Masonry, or is Masonry�s God another? Recognized Masonic authorities themselves supply the answer.

Says T. S. Webb in his Masonic Monitor: �So broad is the religion of Masonry, and so carefully are all sectarian tenets excluded from the system, that the Christian, the Jew, and the Mohammedan, in all their numberless sects and divisions, may and do harmoniously combine in its moral and intellectual work, with the Buddhist, the Parsee, the Confucian, and the worshiper of Deity under every form??? (p. 285). This amounts to saying that the God of Masonry is that Deity which is worshiped by the adherents of all religions alike. That the Christian conception of God differs essentially from all other conceptions of God and that the God of the Bible is God alone�these truths are ignored and by necessary implication denied.

In perfect harmony with Webb�s teaching concerning the God of Masonry is J. S. M. Ward�s statement: �Freemasonry has taught each man can, by himself work out his own conception of God and thereby achieve salvation??? (Freemasonry: Its Aims and Ideals, p. 187). But Christianity maintains that only the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible is truly God and that all other Gods, products as they are of human speculation, are idols. The divine transcendence is boldly denied by J. F. Newton. After lauding as the three great rituals of the human race the Prajapati ritual of ancient Hinduism, the Mass of the Christian Church and the Third Degree of Masonry, he says: �These testify to the profoundest insight of the human soul that God becomes man and that man may become God??? (The Religion of Masonry, p. 37). In a pamphlet entitled The Relation of the Liberal Churches and the Fraternal Orders, and published by the American Unitarian Association, E. A. Coil, minister of the First Unitarian Society of Marietta, Ohio, and one-time Worshipful Master of the Masonic Lodge of that city, pleads for closer cooperation between the liberal churches and the fraternal orders. He bases his plea on the contention that both have essentially the same conception of God. Both, he holds, believe in the universal fatherhood of God (p. 9). With this agrees J. F. Newton�s assertion: �The basis of our Temple of Fraternity rests back upon the reality of the Divine Fatherhood??? (The Religion of Masonry, p. 116). Needless to say, the universal Father of all mankind is not the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and of those who through faith in Him have received the right to be called the sons of God (John 1:12). c. Masonry and the Word of God

As was already shown, Masonry disclaims being founded upon the Bible. Says A. G. Mackey: �Within a few years an attempt has been made by some Grand Lodges to add to these simple moral and religious qualifications another, which requires a belief in the divine authenticity of the Scriptures. It is much to be regretted that Masons will sometimes forget the fundamental law of their institution, and endeavor to add or detract from the perfect integrity of the building as it was left them by their predecessors. Whenever this is done, the beauty of our temple must suffer. Thus, in the instance here referred to, the fundamental law of Masonry requires only a belief in the Supreme Architect of the universe, and in a future life, while it says with peculiar toleration, that in all matters of religious belief Masons are only expected to be of that religion in which all men agree. Under the shelter of this wise provision, the Christian and the Jews, the Mohammedan and the Brahmin are permitted to unite around a common altar, and Masonry becomes in practice, as well as in theory, universal??? (Text-book of Masonic Jurisprudence, pp. 94, 95).

It is significant, however that in Masonic ritual in use in so-called Christian lands, as Great Britain and the United States, quotations from Holy Scripture abound. It cannot be doubted that this fact has blinded the eyes of many to the real character of the Masonic order. And yet, no keen discernment is required to penetrate this thin veil of seeming Christianity. Regarding itself as the essence of all religions, Masonry has no difficulty adapting itself to the prevailing religion of any land. Therefore, in a historically Christian country like America it employs the Bible in its ritual and by the same token it employs the Koran in Moslem countries. As a matter of fact, eminent Masons, such as A. G. Mackey, openly avow that for them the Bible and the sacred books of other religions are all in a class (Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, p. 104). Frequently in Masonic ritual the inspired Word of God is seriously mutilated, and in many instances this mutilation consists in the omission of the name of Jesus Christ. In Mackey�s Masonic Ritualist the name of Christ is omitted from 1 Peter 2:5 (p. 271), 2 Thessalonians 3:6 (p.348), and 2 Thessalonians 3:12 (p. 349). With reference to the elision of the Saviour�s name from 1 Peter 2:5 the following explanation is offered: �The passages are taken, with slight but necessary modifications from the First Epistle of Peter??? (p. 272). The reason for this modification is obvious. Masonry does not claim to be Christian but, on the contrary, purports to be the essence of all religions; therefore, its ritual has no place for distinctly Christian material. That the omission of the Name which is above every name is described as a slight but necessary modification speaks volumes. In view of the foregoing it is to be expected that the name of Christ would be omitted also from the prayers offered in the lodge. As a matter of fact W. P. Loveless, a former Masonic chaplain who seceded, has this to say: �As Chaplain in the Masonic Lodge I offered the prayers of the Lodge and heard many others offered, but never one in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is excluded??? (The Christian and Secret Societies, p. 14). Time and again in Masonic ritual portions of the Word of God are erroneously�and, it must be said, even blasphemously�applied. One striking instance may be cited. On page 286 of Mackey�s Masonic Ritualist is found an etching of the Masonic keystone. Above it and alongside of it one reads: �The following passages of Scriptures are here appropriately introduced:��This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head stone of the corner.��Acts iv. 11 �To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the hidden manna; and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.��Rev. ii. 17.??? The same blasphemous use of the Holy Scripture appears in the following quotation from J. S. M. Ward�s Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods: �Light is the key which opens the door to our mysteries, and it is the same Light which �shines in every letter of the Koran,� and is the Light of Mithra, who is the light of Ahura-Mazda. It is the same Light from which Moses shaded his eyes when it appeared to him in the bush, and the sign of a R(oyal) A(rch) is still made by an Arunta native of Australia when he returns from the final degree through which he passes in the mysterious ceremonies peculiar to that primitive people. It is that Light of which it is written in our Scriptures that �the Light shineth in the Darkness and the Darkness comprehended it not� ??? (pp. 61, 62). It is no exaggeration to assert that Masonry does most serious violence to the inscripturated Word of God and does the gravest despite to Jesus Christ, the personal Word. d. The Ethics of Masonry

In his Text-book of Masonic Jurisprudence A. G. Mackey is careful to explain that the moral law of Masonry is not the moral law of the Bible. We read: �Every Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey moral law. Now this moral law is not to be considered as confined to the decalogue of Moses, within which narrow limits the ecclesiastical writers technically retain it, but rather as alluding to what is called the lex naturae or the law of nature. This is the moral law to which the old charge already cited refers, and which it declares to be the law of Masonry. And this was wisely done, for it is evident that no law less universal could have been appropriately selected for the government of an institution whose prominent characteristic is its universality. The precepts of Jesus could not have been made obligatory upon a Jew; a Christian would have denied the sanctions of the Koran; a Mohammedan must have rejected the law of Moses, and a disciple of Zoroaster would have turned from all to the teachings of his Zend Avesta. The universal law of nature, which the authors of the �Old Charges� have properly called the moral law, is, therefore, the only law suited in every respect to be adopted as the Masonic code??? (p. 502).

H. L. Haywood in his Great Teachings of Masonry places Masonic ethics on an experiential, humanistic and utilitarian basis. Says this teacher of Masonry: �Human experience, both individual and racial, is the one final authority in morals. Wrong is whatever hurts human life or destroys human happiness. Acts are not right or wrong intrinsically but according as their effects are hurtful or helpful??? (p. 39). More blatant disregard of the law of God is hardly imaginable. In this connection reference must be made to Masonic oaths. According to Theodore Graebner�s A Treatise on Freemasonry (pp. 22, 23), the following is an example of the very first oath required in Masonry, that for a candidate being initiated as an Entered Apprentice Mason:

�I, ____________ , of my own free will and accord, in the presence of Almighty God and his Worshipful Lodge, erected to Him and dedicated to the Holy Saint John, do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear that I will always hail, ever conceal, and never reveal any of the secret arts, parts, or points of the hidden mysteries of Ancient Freemasonry, which have been heretofore, may at this time, or shall at any future period be communicated to me as such, to any person or persons whomsoever, except it be to a true and lawful brother Mason, or within a regularly constituted Lodge of Masons, and neither unto him nor them, until by strict trial, due examination, or legal information I shall have found him or them as lawfully entitled to the same as I am myself.

�I furthermore promise and swear that I will not write, print, paint, stamp, stain, cut, carve, make, nor engrave them, nor cause the same to be done upon anything movable or immovable, capable of receiving the least impression of a word, syllable, letter, or character, whereby the same may become legible or intelligible to any person under the canopy of heaven, and the secrets of Freemasonry be thereby unlawfully obtained through my unworthiness.

�To all of this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steadfast resolution to keep and perform the same without any equivocation, mental reservation, or secret evasion of mind whatever, binding myself under no less a penalty than that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots and buried in the rough sands of the sea at low water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, should I ever knowingly or willingly violate this my solemn oath or obligation as an Entered Apprentice Mason. So help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.???

From the viewpoint of Christian ethics this oath is open to serious criticism on more than one score. The Christian, bound as he is to maintain justice and equity before God and man to the best of his powers, has no right to pledge himself in advance to keep secret something the bearing of which on questions of justice and morals he cannot know. And, aside from the question whether an oath is not too solemn a transaction for a ceremony of such doubtful importance as reception into a mere human organization, it must be said without hesitation that the violence of this oath is plainly contrary to our Lord�s principles of speech as set forth in Matthew 5:34�37.

According to the cipher ritual a Master Mason takes the solemn pledge �that I will not have illicit carnal intercourse with a brother�s wife, his mother, sister or daughter, I knowing them to be such.??? In the opinion of the committee some critics of Masonry are too severe in their denunciation of this pledge. For example, it has been said evidently to leave �no closed season??? for other women and to protect even a Masonic brother�s women relatives only when they are known to be such. That seems to be an exaggeration. A promise to abstain from illicit intercourse with some women does not necessarily imply a reservation of liberty to engage in such intercourse with other women. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that this pledge does introduce a distinction which is not only foreign to Christian ethics, but even contrary to it. Christianity demands that a man respect the chastity, not merely of certain women, but of all alike. e. Salvation According to Masonry

Every religion has a doctrine of salvation, and to that rule Masonry is no exception. Is the Masonic teaching on this important subject in harmony with the teaching of Holy Writ, or are the two at variance with each other? The answer to that question may well be unequivocal.

Christianity claims to be the only true religion and to set forth the one and only way of salvation. Christ Himself declared: �I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me??? (John 14:6). �In none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved??? (Acts 4:12). But Masonry teaches that there is salvation in other religions as well. W. L. Wilmhurst, Grand Registrar of West Yorkshire District, says: �Our science in its universality limits our conception to no one exemplar. Take the nearest and most familiar to you, the one under whose aegis you were racially born and who therefore may serve you best; for each is able to bring you to the center, though each may have his separate method. To the Jewish brother it says: �Take the father of the faithful, and realize what being gathered to his bosom means.� To the Christian brother, it points to him upon whose breast lay the beloved disciple. To the Hindoo brother it points to Krishna, etc. To the Buddhist it points to the Maitreja of universal compassion. And to the Moslem, it points to his Prophet, and to the significance of being clothed in his mantle??? (The Masonic Initiation, p. 105). According to the July 10, 1940, issue of The Covenanter Witness, J. S. M. Ward has attempted to express the same thought in verse:

�Bacchus died and rose again, On the golden Syrian Plain; Osiris rose from out his grave, And thereby mankind did save; Adonis likewise did shed his blood By the yellow Syrian flood; Zoroaster brought to birth Mirthra from his cave of earth. And we today in Christian lands We with them can join hands.???

The Christian doctrine of salvation is heterosoteric; it teaches that man must be saved by another. Masonry�s doctrine of salvation, on the other hand, is autosoteric; it teaches that man must and can save himself. �Freemasonry,??? we are told by J. S. M. Ward, �has taught that each man can, by himself, work out his own conception of God and thereby achieve salvation (Freemasonry: Its Aims and Ideals, p. 187). And in his book, What Masonry Means, which is warmly recommended in an introduction by J. F. Newton, William F. Hammond says: �Masonry�s conception of immortality is something for which man must qualify while still in the flesh. Through the fellowship of a moral discipline Masons are taught to qualify for the fellowship of eternal life??? (p. 171). The Christian way of salvation is supernatural. But the Masonic way of salvation is naturalistic. According to Christianity the new birth is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. According to many Masonic authorities a person is born again through initiation into the lodge. H. L. Haywood, for instance, declares: �The whole process (of initiation) should be made one of the most crucial experiences of the candidate�s life, one that will change him to the center of his being. It is like the moral and spiritual change which comes over a man who passes through the religious experience known as �conversion� or �regeneration.� Masonic initiation is intended to be quite as profound and revolutionizing an experience. As a result of it the candidate should become a new man??? (The Great Teachings of Masonry, pp. 30, 31). Salvation by grace is the very core of the Christian doctrine of salvation. But Masonry boldly teaches salvation by works and character. Says William E. Hammond: �Masonry inculcates faith in immortality as indispensable to moral living and urges its members to qualify for eternal life by the practice of those qualities�integrity, fellowship and service�which may reasonably be expected to constitute the felicity of a future life??? (What Masonry Means, p. 175). At this point may be introduced two somewhat lengthy quotations from the pointed pamphlet, The Relation of the Liberal Churches and the Fraternal Orders, by E. A. Coil, a Unitarian minister and a Masonic Worshipful Master. Says this clear-headed writer: �That the fundamental difference in the principles embodied in the historic creeds of Christendom and those of our modern secret orders has not been clearly thought out is indicated by the fact that many pledge themselves to both. There are lodge men who, in the churches, subscribe to the doctrine that �We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, by faith and not for our own works or deservings,� and enthusiastically join in the singing of hymns in which that idea is embodied. Then in their lodge meetings they just as enthusiastically assent to the following declaration: �Although our thoughts, words and actions may be hidden from the eyes of men, yet that All-Seeing-Eye whom the sun, moon and stars obey, and under whose watchful care even comets perform their stupendous revolutions, pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart, and will reward us according to our merits�. A little child, once its attention is called to the matter, ought to be able to see that it is impossible to harmonize the creed statement here quoted, with the declaration taken from the monitor of one of our greatest and most effective secret orders, and found, in substance, in the liturgies of nearly all the others. If �We are accounted righteous before God, for the merit of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, by faith and not for our own works or deservings,� then it cannot possibly be true that the All-Seeing Eye �Pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart, and will reward us according to our merits.� One of those declarations excludes the other. Men cannot consistently subscribe to both??? (pp. 10, 11). Coil goes on to say: �I have been devoting much time to an investigation of the subject, and I say, without fear of successful contradiction, that the liberal churches, from their beginning, have been developing in thought and sentiment, along the same lines as those followed by most of our great modern fraternities. They have championed and advocated the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of Man, immortality, and salvation by character, and these are the very principles for which nearly all the great fraternities stand. Taught these principles in childhood, as they should be taught them in the Sunday schools and churches, people will not have to unlearn or deny them should they choose to identify themselves with almost any one of our present day fraternities, as those brought up in �Orthodox� Sunday schools and churches have to unlearn, deny or ignore much that has been taught them if they become members of a lodge??? (pp. 17, 18). f. The Brotherhood of Masonry

Scripture tells us that God �made of one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth??? (Acts 17:26). Therefore it is not amiss to assert that there is a physical brotherhood of all men. It may even be admitted that by virtue of such remnants in fallen man of the original image of God as reason and conscience, all men are brothers in more than a physical sense. But Scripture emphatically denies that the universal brotherhood of man is spiritual. On the contrary, it teaches that there is an absolute spiritual antithesis between believers and unbelievers. Spiritually they are opposites like righteousness and iniquity, light and darkness, Christ and Belial (2 Corinthians 6:14, 15).

Masonry boasts of the brotherhood of its members and glories in the universal brotherhood of man. Says J. F. Newton: �If one were asked to define Masonry in a single sentence, it would be to say: Masonry is the realization of God by the practice of brotherhood.??? He goes on to describe universal brotherhood as physical and intellectual and spiritual. It is spiritual, according to him, because, while religions are many, �Religion is One.??? He adds that the genius of the religion of Jesus was �the extension of the idea of the family to include all humanity??? (The Religion of Masonry, pp. 116, 123ff.). And E. A. Coil says: �It is becoming more and more clear to me as the facts relating to the subject are brought out, that the fraternities and churches called �Liberal� have been working along parallel lines; but, because the one puts the chief emphasis upon the fatherhood of God, and therefore emphasizes theology, while the other puts the chief emphasis upon the brotherhood of man, and therefore emphasizes sociology, they have not realized that they were occupying practically the same ground??? (The Relation of the Liberal Churches and the Fraternal Orders, pp. 9, 10). g. The Universalism of Masonry

There is a Christian universalism. God has His elect in every age and every nation. Ever since the fall of man the Son of God has been gathering the elect into His church by His Word and Spirit. In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, for all are one in Him (Galatians 3:28). John saw the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fall down before the Lamb and he heard them sing: �Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation??? (Revelation 5:9).

Masonry also lays claim to universalism, but its universalism differs radically from that of Christianity in that it denies Christian particularism and exclusivism.

Christianity claims to have the only true book, the Bible. Masonry places this book on a par with the sacred books of other religions.

Christianity lays claim to the only true God, the God of the Bible, and denounces all other Gods as idols. Masonry recognizes the Gods of all religions.

Christianity describes God as the Father of Jesus Christ and of those who through faith in Him have received the right to be called the sons of God. The God of Masonry is the universal father of all mankind.

Christianity holds that only the worship of the God who has revealed Himself in Holy Scripture is true worship. Masonry honors as true worship the worship of numerous other deities.

Christianity recognizes but one Saviour, Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man. Masonry recognizes many saviours.

Christianity acknowledges but one way of salvation, that of grace through faith. Masonry rejects this way and substitutes for it salvation by works and character.

Christianity teaches the brotherhood of those who believe in Christ, the communion of saints, the church universal, the one body of Christ. Masonry teaches the brotherhood of Masons and the universal brotherhood of man.

Christianity glories in being the one truly universal religion. Masonry would rob Christianity of this glory and appropriate it to itself.

Christianity maintains that it is the only true religion. Masonry denies this claim and boasts of being Religion itself.

III. CONCLUSION

The committee finds that the evidence presented concerning the religion of Masonry permits but one conclusion. Although a number of the objections commonly brought against Masonry seem to the committee not to be weighty, yet it is driven to the conclusion that Masonry is a religious institution and as such is definitely anti-Christian.

Far be it from the committee to assert that there are no Christians among the members of the Masonic fraternity. Just as a great many who trust for eternal life solely in the merits of Christ continue as members of churches that have denied the faith, so undoubtedly many sincere Christians, uninformed, or even misinformed, concerning the true character of Freemasonry, hold membership in it without compunction of conscience. But that in no way alters the fact that membership in the Masonic fraternity is inconsistent with Christianity.

| 221 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

10. Clones, bio-plasmics and world leaders

Clones, bio-plasmics and world leaders

(with a short apology to certain factions in the intelligence and Masonic apparatus)

| 361 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

11. Illuminati Plan

"The secret societies were planning as far back as 1917 to invent an artificial threat ... in order to bring humanity together in a one-world government which they call the New World Order." (Page 27 Behold A Pale Horse )

I. British Intelligence announced, with great fanfare, that they had broken up a huge terrorist plot to destroy multiple passenger airliners in flight from London to American airports. While travelers were struggling with tremendous gridlock and were being badly terrified at such a prospect, articles appeared immediately which demonstrated that this great "terrorist plot" was undoubtedly a huge fovernment hoax.

First, let us address the bare facts of this bogus terror alert, and then we shall discuss the articles which demonstrate that the Illuminati staged this event in order to generate enough public support for the next generation of British dictatorial laws, scheduled to be introduced into Parliament this Autumn.

NEWS BRIEF: "British Police Thwart Aircraft Bomb Plot", My Way News, August 10, 2006

"LONDON (AP) - British authorities thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up several aircraft mid-flight between the United States and Britain using explosives smuggled in hand luggage, officials said Thursday. Britain's Home Secretary John Reid said the alleged plot was 'significant' and that terrorists aimed to 'bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life'."

Remember the name of the Home Secretary, quoted above, John Reid. His name will be very significant later in this segment. Home Secretary Reid was the point man in announcing this terrible near-tragedy. Now, let us return to this article.

"Police arrested a number of people overnight in London after a major covert counterterrorism operation that had lasted several months, but did not immediately say how many. ... British Airways said some flights were likely to be canceled. Laptop computers, mobile phones, iPods, and remote controls were among items banned from being carried on its planes." (Ibid.)

American reaction was swift.

"The U.S. government responded by raising its threat assessment to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States early Thursday. 'We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff'."

America's Homeland Security Chief Chertoff is the equivalent to Britain's Home Secretary Reid. Please keep this in mind as you progress toward the end of this segment.

"Chertoff added in the statement there was no indication of current plots within the U.S." (Ibid.)

Chertoff's statement means that this alleged plot is entirely a British affair. Please keep this fact also in your mind.

Travelers from London to American ports were traumatized -- instantly!

NEWS BRIEF: "US raises air security alert to red for first time", My Way News, August 10, 2006

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government raised the security alert on passenger planes to its highest level for the first time on Thursday after Britain said it had foiled a plot to blow up flights to the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was taking an unprecedented step by raising the threat level for commercial flights originating in the United Kingdom to 'severe', or red. The threat level for all other commercial aircraft operating in or destined for the United States would be raised to 'high', or orange, from 'elevated', or yellow, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement."

Homeland Security immediately matched Great Britain's prohibition on the new items which air travelers forbidden to carry on airplanes. Get ready for a shock, if you have not read this new list beforehand.

NEWS BRIEF: "Stuff You Now Cannot Carry On Board; Special Aviation Security Measures for Air Travel to and from the United States", Travel Mole, 11 August 2006

"The new measures, which apply to all airlines, relate to the carriage of liquids and gels by passengers on aircraft and the screening of passenger footwear. According to the Department of Homeland Security, liquids and gels include beverages (including duty free purchases), shampoos, suntan lotions, creams, toothpastes, hair gels and other items of a similar consistency ..."

All of us who will be travleing via airplane in the near future feel, at this point, like screaming! For the short term, at least, men will have trouble carrying their shaving and personal effects with them on flights! Since I have a trip to the Tahoe Film Festival already planned in a couple weeks, I have already called the hotel in Lake Tahoe to get the instructions on how to mail my "ditty bag" ahead of me so it will be waiting for me when I arrive.

Why are these types of items forbidden, based on this latest terror scare? Because the terrorists were reportedly ready to create explosives powerful enough to bring down airplanes in flight which were in gel or paste format! I am sure such stuff exists, but it does seem to be the stuff of which the fictional James Bond is made. One headline stated that the "U.S. is behind the Britain in gel explosives understanding".

How badly will this current terror scare hurt the airlines? That is a basic question for our economy, because airlines have just started coming out of bankruptcy, or the threat thereof, and can ill afford any terror threat which could send them back into the red.

NEWS BRIEF: "Experts: Plot won't damage airlines", Detroit News, August 11, 2006

"With the nation's airline industry finally back on an upward trajectory -- with full planes and profits rising -- the last thing it needed was another terrorism scare that could drive away fliers. While the timing of the foiled plot to blow up at least nine passenger jets flying over the Atlantic Ocean from London couldn't have been worse, experts and analysts said airlines should be able to weather the incident without lasting problems."

This article then lists specific reasons this terror scare should not have lasting financial impact:

1) The quick arrests of 21 suspected terrorists should reassure travelers that security procedures are working and keep them flying. Travel agents reported few cancellations Thursday.

2) The domestic airline industry is on track to fly a record 745 million passengers this year, a clear sign that air travel has recovered from the aftershocks of Sept. 11, 2001.

3) A Northwest Airlines spokesman said the federal recommendation that passengers check all baggage before boarding will have no effect on the carrier. 'Our luggage system can handle it without a problem', he said.

One analyst lamented in a fashion with which many future travelers will agree.

" 'All these terrorists have to do to disrupt the freedom we have is to come up with a new plot', Reyhaert said. 'Now we can't carry liquids on board planes and we have to take our shoes off for inspection. The terrorists have won another round and they didn't even kill anyone'. He said it hurts every single traveling American. 'Now I'm going to have to take a longer time going through security', Reyhaert said. 'That will probably add 30 minutes each way to my trip. And I can't even take my toothpaste with me'."

Thankfully, Americans are so hooked on airline travel, they will put up with this new inconvenience. Air traffic probably will not suffer any significant loss until and unless planes begin to blow up in the air.

II. Recognizing that this announced terror plot is bogus did not take long, nor did it take too much searching to find the answers as to why the British anti-terrorist task force created this scare.

NEWS BRIEF: "Anti-terror critics just don't get it, says Reid", The Guardian (London), August 10, 2006

"John Reid yesterday accused the government's anti-terror critics of putting national security at risk by their failure to recognise the serious nature of the threat facing Britain. 'They just don't get it', he said."

"The home secretary yesterday gave the thinktank Demos his strongest hint yet that a new round of anti-terror legislation is on the way this autumn by warning that traditional civil liberty arguments were not so much wrong as just made for another age. 'Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse and abuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms in the modern world', he said." (Emphasis added)

Home Secretary Reid sounds just like President Bush in the year after the 9/11 attacks. In the guise of protecting our freedoms, liberties and way of life, President Bush demanded, and got, the most dictatorial, draconian authority since the days of the dictatorships of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin!

Patriot Acts I and II form the foundation of this dictatorial authority, but hundreds of smaller individual bills have been passed since then which truly will completely eradicate all our guaranteed rights and privileges under the U.S. Constitution. The only reason most Americans do not understand this reality yet, is because the government has wisely decided not to enforce these new powers just yet.

You see, other countries, like Great Britain, and Australia, have not yet passed the terribly oppressive which the United States has already set in place. These governments have passed into law some provisions, but nothing as complete and thorough as the American Patriot Act. These countries need to be jolted into supporting such legislation.

What will jolt them? A terrorist act on the scale of 9/11, or a scare on a similar scale.

That, of course, is exactly the scale of this scare. Some headlines even read, "On The Scale of 9/11".

To make matters worse from the British government's point of view, the British Parliament has lately been digging in its heels against any further expansion of the government's police powers. Home Secretary Reid has already stated that civil rights was simply created for "another age", which must mean that they do not apply to unfortunate citizens living in this current era.

Listen as we now return to this Guardian article.

"Mr Reid said Britain was now facing 'probably the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of the second world war' and that the country was facing a new breed of ruthless 'unconstrained international terrorists'."

Mr. Reid does not "get it", does he? What good will it do any citizen to slip under the mantle of a severe dictatorship from within in the guise of protecting against a severe dicrtatorship from without? Just talk to the citizens of Nazi Germany, who fell under the dictatorship of the Satanic madman, Adolf Hitler, under the guise of being protected against the dictatorship of Communism.

Such is the reality facing us today. As the above quote from "Behold A Pale Horse" proves, the global leadership of the Illuminati reached the conclusion in 1917 that only a global crisis could force a reluctant humanity into the severe global dictatorship known as the "New World Order".

>From that theoretical conclusion, the Illuminati began to plot their global crises -- which started from World War I and has flowed through the attacks of 9/11, to the London bombing of July 7, 2005, to this current London bombing scare. What global crises has the Illuminati forced upon mankind so far -- since 1917 -- designed to force manking into this planned dictatorship with unparalelled power, authority and technological capability?

* World War I -- 1914-1918

* Great Depression -- 1929 - 1939

* World War II -- 1939-1945

* Worldwide Communist threat -- 1945-1991

* Worldwide terrorism - starting in 1982, with Palestinian's Yassir Arafat and extending through the attacks of 9/11

* Worldwide economic crisis which has never left us since the mid-1990's and has allowed pundits to declare every one of those years that people had better buy gold and silver because the planned economic collapse can only be months away!

* Worldwide oil disruptions and price increases, which began in earnest in 1992 after Al Gore published his book, "Earth In The Balance", in which Gore contended that the internal combustion engine was a much of a threat to our continued life on Mother Earth as nuclear weapons. Higher prices were hinted at as being one way to force people to dramatically curtail consumption.

Now, the Illuminati government of Great Britain -- Prime Minister Tony Blair -- is going to introduce more draconian legislation this Autumn!! When Prime Minister Blair's officials introduce this legislation, watch for them to bring up the specter of this "foiled" terrorist attack time and time again, to sway Ministers of Parliament to vote to place their countrymen one day under the yoke of the greatest dictatorship the world has ever seen.

Into which kind of global dictatorship is the Illuminati driving the world?

"Also he compels all alike, both small and great, both the rich and the poor, both free and slave, to be marked with an inscription stamped on their right hands or on their foreheads, So that no one will have power to buy or sell unless he bears the stamp (mark, inscription), [that is] the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is room for discernment - a call for the wisdom of interpretation. Let anyone who has intelligence (penetration and insight enough) calculate the number of the beast, for it is a human number, the number of a certain man; his number is 666." (Revelation 13:16-18; Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary)

Bible scholars have uniformly agreed for centuries that this Scripture is foretelling the most radical, complete, and thorough dictatorship in the history of the world. After all, only such a thorough, technologically-advanced dictatorship could not only forbid people from buying or selling without this mark, but be technically capable enough to stop even the smallest of transactions.

THIS is where the world is heading, and this false bomb scare is leading the way!

III. President Bush even declared war on Islamic extremists!

NEWS BRIEF: "Bush says US at war with 'Islamic fascists' ", Reuters News, August 11, 2006

"GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday a plot foiled by Britain to blow up flights to the United States was a 'stark reminder' that the United States is 'at war with Islamic fascists'. Bush said that the United States was safer than before the September 11 attacks, but it was still not completely safe and it would be a mistake to believe there was no longer a threat."

"Bush, speaking briefly on a visit to Green Bay, Wisconsin, said the foiled plane plot was "..a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation' ... Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Islamic militant group al Qaeda might have been involved ... 'This operation is in some respects suggestive of an al Qaeda plot, but because the investigation is still under way, we cannot yet form a definitive conclusion. We're going to wait until all the facts are in', he told a news conference."

"The United States said the plot involved liquid explosive ingredients, and U.S. Homeland Security barred passengers from carrying liquids, including beverages, hair gels and lotions, aboard planes."

This Bush statement is shocking because the President has always stated that the United States is NOT at war with Islam in any way, shape or form. Bush has seemingly understood that any declaration of war against any segment of Islam would soon be viewed as war against the main body of Islam, no matter how fine a line of distinction the President of the United States tried to draw.

Indeed, growing numbers of Muslims throughout the world are coming to the point where they believe the United States is waging war against Islam, based upon our growing disasters in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Guantanamo Bay, and now in Lebanon. Now that the President has declared war against a segment of Islam, it will be easy for propagandists to broaden that declaration of war to all Islam.

Indeed, there is a portion of the Illuminati Plan which sees that all of Islam must die before the Masonic Christ can fully establish his kingdom. In the late 1980's, when I was just beginning my study, I discovered that the Illuminati long ago decided to eliminate all followers of Monotheistic Religions, Islam, Jews, Christians. However, given the sheer numbers of Muslims throughout the world, and given their propensity to fanaticism, the Illuminati chose to build them up into that global threat they envisioned just so they could annihilate them all. Islam is the first of the Monotheistic Religions to be targeted for extinction.

The Western Illuminati is trying to so enrage the Muslims of the world that, one day, their armies will begin to march in waves against Jerusalem, in fulfillment of Zechariah 12. We have called this strategy the "Blood In The Streets" strategy. Please take a moment to read: NEWS1631 and NEWS1913). Once you understand this concept, events in the world will take on a very different meaning. Then, you will understand what we are doing, and to whom, and for what reason.

IV. Depleted Uranium is striking our soldiers dead as they return home from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan! While the U.S. Army fiddles and obfuscates, grieving widows and families are left without either an understanding as to what has just happened to their formerly healthy loved ones or without financial funds with which to survive.

This is the sad story of Windy Rogers, whose husband died suddenly from complications of Depleted Uranium and/or Toxic Vaccinations shortly after returning from duty in Afghanistan. Windy discovered Cutting Edge and our many articles on this horrific subject and realized that the facts we presented perfectly matched the facts of her husband's tragic death.

Windy is now struggling with raising 6 children, the oldest of whom is a Senior in high school. This is her story -- you can multiply it tens of thousands of times, for we have sent over one million men through the battlefields of Iraq and of Afhganistan; remember, over 75% of all American soldiers who served through the 100-hour war of Gulf War I in 1991-1992, are now dead or dying from this deadly combination of Toxic Vaccinations and Depleted Uranium poisoning.

You will realize that the Windy Rogers story is exactly what Cutting Edge has been warning since 2003.

Now, listen with your heart to Windy Rogers.

"Hi my name is Windy Harris-Rogers a 38 year widow of the late Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Rogers of Raleigh, NC who too died of MYOCARDITIS, INFLAMATION OF THE HEART MUSSLE ON 2/14/05, 9 months after returning home from Afghanistan in which he served 1 year. I'M JUST LIVID WITH THIS ENTIRE SITUATION HERE."

"I was reading an article on the Death of PI Christopher Abston, the 26 year old from Fort Bragg, NC that died in Dec. 05 14 days after he received the smallpox vaccine. The military is not telling truth, I reand another article where they stated '120 military personnel have developed myocarditis, or other similar conditions, after receiving the smallpox vaccination, but none have died' and that's just a BOLD FACE LIE!!! My husband's cause of death was Myocarditis, 1 week prior to his death another soldier out of Bragg died suddenly with flu like symptoms; he too had only been home a few months after serving time in Iraq before he suddenly became sick of flu like symptoms."

"On Dec. 26, 2004, another case, Soldier died with Flu like symptoms out of Fort Bragg, all three to include my husband were Fort Bragg Soldiers. In March of this year a National Guard Reservist, also a NEW JERSEY CITY COP, died suddenly as well with FLU LIKE symptoms. He had returned to home from Iraq in Nov.05 and his brother stated that he complained of having flu-like symptoms, high fever, etc. He was found dead in his apartment.

"I'm so angry with this entire process, and how they are not telling us the truth. There are no words to describe the pain I feel losing my husband. We have 6 children, with one entering into her Senior year in high school and the hurt, pain, and suffering they have had to endure because of our loss is beyond words. The devastation of our only son, age 9, not having his father anymore is so hard for him to except. Having to face not having his father to attend football, basketball and baseball practices and games was extremely hard on him when his teammates would have their fathers."

"I have had to fight since 2/14/05 to receive the Military Benefits that's rightfully due and it's so damn frustrating to have to file for claims wait for denial letters and go through appeal processing's before you can get medical benefits etc. This is so unfair to the families and I know for a fact that I'm not the only one. I still have claims pending after having them filed last Feb.05 & March 05.My husband served 19 years in the Army/Army Reserves, fought for this country until his death on Valentines day last year and his family is not being taken care of at this time. I would love to be able to get in contact with PI Christopher Abston's Parents, my heart really goes out to them as well as the other family members who have lost loved ones because of this."

"Our local news stations here in Raleigh, NC interviewed me and I've attached a copy of one of the articles for your review which will clearly show that the military is not telling the truth about this situation. An investigation out of Washington DC was ordered on my husband's death but not one Official or Personnel has contacted me with a status on the investigation and it's been well over a year now. I intend to seek Justice in this matter, I was ROBBED OF MY Marriage of only 3 1/2 years and out of those 3 1/1 years, 1 yr I had to spend separated from my husband because he was deployed to Afghan from 03 - 04. My children have to grow up without the support of their father and yet the military forces us to go through so much RED TAPE in order to receive benefits, PLEASE TELL ME WHERE IS JUSTICE IN THIS COUNTRY."

"My faith in God will not allow me to sit back and not fight back, I owe it to my husband and our children. He devoted 19 years of his time and gave his life to this country, I want justice!! GOD DOES HAVE THE FINAL SAY SO AND HE DOES HAVE ALL POWERS, HE CAN AND WILL EXPOSE the truth, my faith is too strong not to believe and my heart as well as our children's is too broken to give up. I'M A FIGHTER and certainly a "MOVER & SHAKER" and I intend to seek JUSTICE IN THIS MATTER."

I have put a call into Windy Rogers, to help her understand why our government is killing its own soldiers, and even of their family members as the wife has physical relations with her returning sick husband. We live in a most tragic era, that period of time following the return of Israel to her land, that era known as the "End of the Age". And, just as the Bible foretells, our leaders and too many of our people fulfill some very terrible prophecies:

"BUT UNDERSTAND this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble, hard to deal with and hard to bear. For people will be lovers of self and utterly self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate, greedy desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive, blasphemous, scoffing, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. They will be without natural human affection, callous and inhuman, relentless - admitting of no truce or appeasement; they will be slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good. They will be treacherous betrayers, rash, and inflated with self-conceit. They will be lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God." (2 Timothy 3:1-4;Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary)

As Windy is discovering, America's leaders -- both civilian and military -- are characterized by many parts of this description.

And, Windy herself is suffering from the prophesied "perilous times of great stress and trouble, hard to deal with and hard to bear". The really hard part Windy must deal with is that America's civilian and military leadership knew that over 75% of all soldiers sent to battle with D.U. weaponry would die in this manner, and they sent them anyway.

And, now, they are denying any personal culpability and even trying to deny this poor woman her rights as she struggles to support 6 children.

--------Concluding Inspiration ---------------

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father's arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou putte st thy full confidence in Him. Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God.

Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as He built the heavens and the earth, glorify Himself in thy weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus this closing day of the month. [[C.H. Spurgeon, "Morning and Evening Devotions"]

(C.H. Spurgeon, "Morning and Evening Devotions")

----------------------------------------------------------

May Jesus Richly Bless You,

David Bay, Director

| 326 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

12. John Dee and the Secret Societies

Ron Heisler

Man of science and magus extraordinary, and for two decades England's leading mathematician, it is only in recent years that John Dee's reputation has begun to properly recover from the obloquy attached by an age of militant rationalism to those notorious angel raising episodes in which he engaged in the 1580s. Meric Casaubon's poisonous 1659 edition of Dee's angelic diaries, which did not include all extant volumes, leaves us with little more than an impression of a rather pathetic Dee seeking to communicate with angelic spirits with frustratingly meagre results. What I am seeking to identify is the political and religious significance of these episodes and the clues they give to the secret society culture of the late Elizabethans. Dee's religious views have always been irritatingly opaque. That he was a Protestant of some sort is beyond dispute. In the time of Edward VI he associated with reformers. The curious affair in the reign of Catholic Queen Mary, when, during investigation by the Court of Requests (a committee of the Star Chamber) in 1555, he was accused of casting horoscopes of the Queen and her Spanish husband with evil intent, is ambiguous, for some of his companions in this possibly criminal venture subsequently proved lackeys of the Catholic monarchy of the most loyal kind. In any case, Dee was released, the official suspicions presumably dispelled. 1

Did Dee go through a Familist stage? We know of his strong links with the bookseller Arnold Birckmann, for a letter of 1604 written by Johann Radermacher refers to their meeting in Birckmann's shop more than forty years before. In 1577 Dee advised the cartographer Abraham Ortelius (a Familist) that correspondence could reach him via Birckmann's servants in Antwerp. 2 Birckmann has long been suspected of being a member of the Family of Love � a secret society with several grades of membership, which seems to have taken a spiritualist turn and which recruited indiscriminately from both Catholic and Protestant ranks in England, the Low Countries, Germany and France. In 1585 Birckmann's London shop passed into the hands of the Familist Arnold Mylius, who had married his daughter. 3 Dee was an avid explorer of all frontier territories of knowledge and a flirtation with Familism would have been characteristic of him. One of Dee's pupil-friends, Sir Philip Sidney, was fascinated by the sect: there is a letter to Sidney from his intimate friend, the French savant Hubert Languet, written from Antwerp, where Languet was a guest of the printer, Christopher Plantin, today the best remembered of all Familists. 4 Dee's greatest patron was Queen Elizabeth, and it has been surprisingly uncommented upon that after her death she was accused of being a favourer of the sect. 5

Was Dee ever initiated into freemasonry? There is nothing to indicate that he was, yet he seems to have been keenly interested in matters architectural, an area in which England was singularly deficient even by the mid-16th century, going by the paucity of published works available in the vernacular. Dee owned five editions of Vitruvius; his 1567 copy is laced with notes on architecture. 6 We have no direct evidence of any interest in the mysteries associated with King Solomon's Temple. On the other hand, he wrote the "History of King Solomon, every three years, his Ophirian voyage, with divers other rarities�" in 1576, of which fragments were published by Purchas years later. 7 These voyages had been undertaken by the sailors of Solomon, who had been taught seamanship by the mariners of Hiram of Tyre, without whose assistance, of course, the Great Temple at Jerusalem could never have been built, as all freemasons would have known. In the 1590s, having returned, quite prudently, from the uncertainties of Bohemia, where Kelley languished in gaol, accused of fraudulent transmutation, Dee's financial situation was precarious. He ceaselessly sought an office that would bring financial security. In his diary there is an entry for December 7 1594 stating "and on the 8th day, by the chief motion of the Lord Admirall, and som[e]what of the Lord Buckhurst, the Quene's wish was to the Lord Archbishop presently that I shuld have Dr. Day his place in Powles [St. Paul's]." 8 Charles Howard, the Lord Admiral, and Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, have a prominent role in James Anderson's The New Book of Constitutions (1738): both had been Grand Masters of the freemasons. To unlock the function of the notorious 1580s seances, I think we should first look to Dee's associates. Long overlooked is some correspondence between Dee and Roger Edwardes, whose credentials remain a trifle hazy. Edwardes was, nevertheless, exceedingly well connected: his patrons included the Earl of Hereford, Lord Burleigh and the Queen herself, it would seem. There is a letter to Burleigh of April 13 1574 in which Edwardes described the situation in the Low Countries. 9 His sole published work, A Boke of very Godly Psalmes (1570), was dedicated to Lettice Devereux, Viscountess of Hereford. The daughter of Sir Francis Knollys, she was the mother of the ill-fated Robert, future Earl of Essex. Edwardes mentions in his dedication that he was the "vassal" of the Earl of Hereford. On March 29 of the previous year Edwardes had written to Burleigh forwarding a treatise to be presented to the Queen. Two months later, on May 28, he was bragging to a Mr "Marche" that the book "had been well accepted" by her. 10 Edwardes's mind perpetually travelled the grooves of the apocalypse. In 1580 he wrote "A Phantastical Book", as a later owner of the manuscript entitled it, on the "Conversion of the Jews", the coming of the millenium being dependent on this particular event. Edwardes's manuscript found its way into Lord Burleigh's papers.11 His surviving correspondence with Dee dates from between July 13 1579 and July 16 1580. In one letter, Dee addressed him as "my lovinge friende R. Edwardes". This was one of several letters apparently belonging to a circle whose members included "Thomas Lincoln" (presumably the bishop of Lincoln) and a "W. Cestren" In a damaged letter with essential words missing, Edwardes alludes to "William Herbert", which leaves us in a quandary as to which William Herbert was meant: the Earl of Pembroke or the apocalyptic poet.12 It probably was the latter, William Harbert of St. Gillim, whom Dee records in his diary, in an entry for May 1 1577, as having passed him some notes on the Monas Hieroglyphica.13 Harbert, who chided Shakespeare and Samuel Daniel14 together in a poem, was a friend of Joshua Sylvester,the best translator of Du Bartas's Devine Weekes; Harbert himself produced a now lost translation of Du Bartas Uranus, which he presented to Lord Lumley. I argue elsewhere that the late Elizabethan popularity of Du Bartas was based on the Huguenot's masonic resonances: his Devine Weekes was a quasi-masonic text.15 In A Prophesie of Cadwaller, last King of the Britaines (1604) the Welsh poet depicted James I as a second Brute, who had returned to reunite the kingdom of Britain, which had so famously been divided into three parts by King Lear. As Harbert put it, "Disioynted.... by her first monarches fall", Britain will be restored by a king who "shall three in one, and one in three unite", thus inaugurating a new golden age in which war will be bound in chains.16 Similar millenial sentiments are never far from the mind of Roger Edwardes, as can be seen in Godly Psalmes, where he depicts the "holy citie newe Jerusalem" and projects "a newe heaven, and a newe earthe". Edwardes's influence on Dee is unmistakable, to whom a spirit discoursed freely on the 24th March 1583 on the course of nature and reason, telling how "New Worlds shall spring of these. New Maners; Strange Men...."17 The utopianism of Shakespeare's Tempest was perhaps forged to a degree in the spiritual workshop of the Dee circle. The apocalyptic ethos of the 1580s was exceptionally intense at the time � or virulent, for the overcoming of Antichrist, the Pope in Rome, was the cardinal priority in the scheme of things, coupled with the defeat of Spain. John Aylmer, who had become bishop of London, had years before assigned to Queen Elizabeth the messianic task of destroying Antichrist in Britain, and latterly James Sandford, in his 1576 translation of Guiccardini's House of Recreation, had developed the theme, seeing in Elizabeth "some diviner things" than "in the Kings and Queens of other countries".18 Her role was to inaugurate a new golden age. Sandford, who profoundly believed in a millenial age or "status", was probably the "Mr Sandford" who features in Dee's angelic diaries.19 He had translated Giacopo Brocardo's The Revelation of S. John (1582). Brocardo is rightly considered an important forerunner of the Rosicrucians: the 120 years that elapsed between the legendary Christian Rosenkreutz's death and the finding of his tomb is anticipated by Brocardo with his theory of three stages leading to the overthrow of Antichrist. The stages � each of forty years � represent Savonarola, Luther, and the struggle with the Pope/Antichrist.20 The goal was to be reached in the year 1600, but the Rosicrucian manifestos shifted goalposts to 1604, when the Rosicrucian vault was discovered. Fleeing from Venice to escape the Inquisition, Brocardo travelled in northern Europe, entering England in 1577, where he almost certainly made contact with the Dee-Sidney circle. We must now glance briefly at the occult setting that Dee was heir to, Societies with esoteric and secretive propensities were all the fashion in sophisticated Europe. The Italian Platonic academies had long flourished and continued to multiply. In France, poets and intellectuals had flocked to the Pl�iade, a hub of Platonism (a home to Daniel Rogers, ami of Dee and Sir Philip Sidney), whilst Henry III, the epicene Valois king, first of all set up his Palace Academy, of which Walsingham had word in February 1576, and then established in 1583 at Vincennes the mysterious "Confr�rie d'Hieronymites". Beginning with twelve members, it was said to be a hive of drug experimentation. It was a development of an earlier Order of the Holy Spirit, founded in 1578, to which belonged the French ambassador to England, the cultivated Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissi�re, who took into his London household Giordano Bruno for two years.21 The Family of Love, which had become alarming to authority partly because it recruited its secret membership largely outside courtly circles, possibly had as many as a thousand members in England in 1580. Regarding Dee, there is one important posthumous allegation. It was reported to Elias Ashmole some decades after Dee's death that he was "acknowledged for one of ye Brotherhood of ye R.Cr. by one of that Fraternity,....Philip Zeiglerus..."22 Philip Ziegler, the revolutionary Rosicrucian prophet, had arrived in England in 1626 and created turmoil. Dee had died in 1608. I have not encountered any evidence to confirm Ziegler's assertion. But that Dee knew Francis Thynne, the alchemically minded poet of the London "Rose" society, is probable. In his diary, Dee noted down for March 1 1598 that "I receyved Mr. Thynne his letter".23 Of Dee's close friend and admirer over many years, Sir Edward Dyer, John Aubrey wrote that he "labour'd much in chymistry, was esteemed by some a Rosie-crucian..."24 Dyer completed his mortal coil in 1607. Veracity was not the strong point of either Ziegler or Aubrey and their claims must be accorded some caution.

However, important links with Rosicrucianism can be made through two of Dee's servants. Roger Cook worked for the magus from 1567 till 1581. They quarrelled and split, but made up again, with Cook returning into Dee's employ in 1600. Now it happens that a "Roger Cock" is recorded as having been an assistant to the alchemist-inventor, Cornelius Drebbel, whilst working for the Emperor Rudolph II at Prague up to 1612. Almost certainly "Cock" was Dee's "Cook". Drebbel was among the most important of all Rosicrucians.25 From about 1603 till his death, Dee had a young pupil called Patrick Sanders, who acquired several of his manuscripts after his death. Eventually becoming a member of the London College of Physicians, Sanders edited Roger Bacon's Epistola � De Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae, which was published at Hamburg in 1618. Sanders dedicated the work to the Rosicrucian Brotherhood.26

To most effectively probe into the enigma of Dee we must look to the evidence provided by his contemporaries. We can make no better beginning than with Sir Philip Sidney's curious comment to Hubert Languet on February 11 1574. After disparaging Humphrey Lhuyd's Commentarioli Brittanicae, Sidney wrote: "But of course the important thing, �is for you to remember that our 'unknown God' [Dee] is of the same land and substance, and will take amiss your arousing so much laughter at the expense of his blood brother; otherwise in his anger he may perhaps brandish his hieroglyphic monad at you like Jove's lightning bolt � for such is the wrath of heavenly spirits."27 Sidney , who studied chemistry "led by God with Dee as teacher and Dyer as companion", was making a witty sally, at the heart of which stands a phrase � "our 'unknown God'" � which warrants being taken more seriously.28 The hint of the cultivation of the prisca theologia � of the original religion within conventional religion � is clearly given by Sidney, and we have to pose the issue of whether a Dee sect was already formalized by 1574? We can't be sure about this, but one thing is clear: a cult of John Dee was a fact of life. His insatiable egotism was leavened by an intelligence and learning which commanded the admiration of other minds of stature. It is a severe comment on the insularity of Spenserian scholarship that hitherto no Spenserian has recognized the portrait of Dee � and, by implication, the status accorded to him � to be found within the Castle of Temperance episode in The Faerie Queene's Second Book. Spenser describes three "honourable sages", the second of whom "could of things present best advize". Dee was certainly a practical man who organized programmes of exploration. This figure sits in the second room, its walls enlivened with "famous Wisards", as well as with "All artes, all science, all Philosophy". Spenser paints Dee as "a man of ripe and perfect age", who did "meditate all his life long, /That through continuall practice and usage, /He now was growne right wise, and wondrous sage." Dyer and Sidney's co-worker in the Areopagite poetry society was Edmund Spenser, who was at work on The Faerie Queene by 1580. What went on between Dee and the Sidney circle is unrecorded in detail. But with regard to others posterity has been blessed. The awkward tango that Dee danced with the alchemist and explorer, Adrian Gilbert, the half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, is well written down in the spiritual diaries. On March 26 1583 Dee enquired of a spirit "Must Adrian Gilbert be made privy of these Mysteries?" In his marginal note, Dee comments that Gilbert "may be made prive, but he is not to be a Practicer."29 The extent to which Gilbert was to be made "privy to our practice" was a perpetual worry for Dee. By the 1590s Dee had acquired a new set of intimates. We have notes by him on a book's flyleaf, dated May 31 1594, in which he bestowed on a "Mr Barker" (the physician Thomas Barker?) and a "Mr Alped" (undoubtedly Richard Alred) the title of "Discipulos" � disciples! Of Alred, Dee noted in the diary on March 23 the same year, "Magus disclosed by frendeship of Mr Richard Alred". Alas, Dee gives no further explanation.30

The greatest competing ego with Dee's within his own circle was that of the Florentine patrician, Francesco Pucci (1543-97), a utopianist of fluctuating and wayward opinions.31 Veering towards Protestantism, he entered England for the first time in 1572, taking an Oxford M.A. in 1574. The following year he was expelled from the University. Passing from the Italian church in London to the French church, he was soon embroiled in controversy again. His unruly personality and brand of anti-Calvinist Protestantism must have made this inevitable. Leaving England, he made his way to Fausto Socinus in Basle by 1577, but the town soon expelled him. Returning to London in 1579-80, he encountered further persecution and departed for Holland and the company of the great scholar Justus Lipsius, whose political thought was to influence Shakespeare and who was to be exposed for Familist tendencies a few years later. Pucci returned to London, and it is presumed that it was in the capital that he completed � or wrote out � Forma d'una repubblica cattolica in 1581. It was some centuries before his hand was recognized in this unpublished utopian text.

Pucci proposed the organization of a secret "republic" of good people in all lands, who would prepare the world for a great council that would reunify Christianity. Borrowing from the notorious Anabaptists, whose implication in social and political revolution decades earlier had rendered their name anathema in all respectable circles, Pucci's scheme envisaged "Colleges" being established, whose principal officers would include a Provost, a Chancellor and a Censor, elected for terms of four years by males over the age of 25. There were to be central delegate meetings from time to time in friendly territories, which would take place incognito if necessary, using the guise of merchants. Outwardly the organization was to observe conformity to the laws of a land and to obey the civil magistrates, stipulations which indicate a Familist influence on Pucci's thinking. His objective was the unification of all peoples in a comity that reached even the mosque and the synagogue. His immediate target � the eradication of the Christian schism � would be effected by the calling of a general council of "spiritual persons" and "lovers of truth". At times he contemplated this council being called by the Pope.32 The rediscovery of Pucci in twentieth century Italy created a frisson of excitement in academic circles. Some have been surprised by the absence of obvious utopian precursors to Pucci within the Italian tradition without considering that his utopia may reflect English conditions and thinking. We know that Sidney and Daniel Rogers were strongly influenced by eirenist impulses in the 1570s, which were not completely erased by the St. Bartholomew massacre of Huguenots in Paris in 1572. They first sought to heal schism within Protestant ranks between Lutherans and Calvinists. The religious views of these thinkers, although having a Protestant foundation, could not be reduced to any orthodox straight jacket, Although no firm evidence has surfaced to establish that Pucci knew Dee by 1581, the serious possibility remains that his utopia may actually represent a compendium of the commonplaces being exchanged within the confidentiality of the magus's circle. What is beyond dispute is that by 1585 Pucci met up with Dee and the brilliant alchemical charlatan, Edward Kelley, at Cracow in Poland. Pucci accompanied the two on their journey to Bohemia. He was at Prague with them by August 20.33 In July 1586 Dee noted in his diary that he and Kelley had left Pucci behind in their lodgings at Prague. Dee's spiritual diaries are enlivened by periodic bouts of obvious paranoia, but on this occasion his apprehensions appear well founded. At Erfurt he wrote, "I was sore vexed in mind to think of Pucci his return to our company, as well for his unquiet nature in disputations, as for his blabbing of our secrets without our leave or well liking or any good doing thereby".34 Dee had become hypersensitive with good reason: the Papal Nuncio was baying for his blood at Rudolph II's imperial court. Of Pucci, the Welsh magus wrote, "he has laid such a bait for us with our mortal enemy, to entrap us by fair fawning words".35 Pucci was trying to convince Dee and Kelley that they should make their way to Rome to conduct their angel raising sessions in the presence of the Pope. They wisely rejected such a seductive offer. By 1587 the unstable Pucci had reconverted to Catholicism. One is baffled as to why Dee did not break off such a dangerous acquaintanceship immediately, assuming that Pucci's move was sincerely meant and not a mere ploy to deceive the Catholic authorities. But he did not and the uneasy relationship continued for some time. That Dee saw his own circle as being essentially a formal sect is implied by a later comment he made on Pucci, whom he dismissed as "being but a probationer, not yet allowed of, and to us known to be cut off."36 Clearly there was a grade of membership of a higher status than probationer. Dee himself had ambitions to enter a yet higher body. At a seance in Prague on August 20 1584 the Spirit Uriel had communicated with him, and Dee poured his heart out: he was "most desirous to be entered speedily into the School of Wisdom�"37 Pucci decidedly belonged to the school of unwisdom: he fell into the hands of the Inquisition, who at Rome had him decapitated and burned in 1597.

And what can be said of Dee's religious standpoint when in Bohemia? The Lutheran Budovec described his reception by Rudolph II at the time: he "was at first well received by him; he predicted that a miraculous reformation would presently come about in the Christian world and would prove the ruin not only of the city of Constantinople but of Rome also. These predictions he did not cease to spread among the populace." The Venetian ambassador wrote of Dee in June 1586 that "He does not profess a Christian life but declares he has revelations from angels�When the Pope was informed he rightly feared the appearance of a new sect." Pucci, who assumed he was witnessing divine revelation at Dee's seances, at the Actio Pucciana, in which an angelic spirit was activated, "received great confirmation of my hopes for an imminent renovation of all things which God will accomplish�" Dee recorded an angel's instructions in 1586, which underlined his non-doctrinal Christianity: "Whosoever wishes to be wise may look neither to the right nor to the left; neither towards this man who is called a catholic, nor towards that one who is called a heretic (for thus you are called); but he may look up to the God of heaven and earth and to his Son, Jesus Christ".38

R.J.W. Evans's summing up of Dee as a believer in a kind of mystical universal revelation strikes me as utterly inadequate, perhaps tending to indicate the magus was a quietist, a follower of a passive Christian route.39 To the contrary, we should regard him � particularly in view of his strong filiations with Roger Edwardes, a friendship which lasted till the late 1590s � as a full blown apocalyptic and millenialist, with a driving activist nature. His pursuit of angelic guidance was consciously functional, intended to steer his various enterprises � the explorations in the Americas, for example, or the rejigging of the political map of Central Europe, with Rudolph II seen as the great prize.

Dr Adam Clarke, Hebraist, alchemist, astrologer and kabbalist, was arguably the leading Methodist intellectual of the early 19th century. Tragically, his manuscript "Mysterium Liber" seems to have utterly vanished from the face of the earth. But at least we have Clarke's note describing this fascinating effort: "N.B. As it is assembd that the six books of Mysteries transcribed from the papers of Dr. John Dee by Elias Ashmole, Esq., preserved in the Sloan Library,.... are a collection of papers relating to State Transactions between Elizabeth, her Ministers and different Foreign Powers, in which Dr. Dee was employed sometimes as an official agent openly, and at other times as a spy, I purpose to make an extract from the whole work, and endeavour, if possible, to get a key to open the Mysteries. A.C."40

In tracing the origins of Rosicrucianism, commentators have often turned to the mysterious journeyings of Nicholas Barnaud, a Huguenot alchemist around whom an enormous mystique has gathered over the centuries.41 Barnaud's fame partly rests on his authorship of one of the most controversial of all Huguenot political polemics, Le R�veille-Matin des Francais et de leurs voisins (pr�tendus), whose first edition dates from 1573 and for which he used the pseudonym of Eus�be Philadelphe. This ultra-radical work, which was greatly expanded in subsequent editions, betrays a line of thought more consistent with the revolutionaries of 1789 than with the Huguenot aristocrats and their pet theologians of the 1570s. Virulently anti-church in sentiment, the author insists on the marriage of priests and the abolition of tithes, pursues the theme of a grand Huguenot alliance with the house of Guise to overthrow the Valois dynasty, justifies tyrannicide and the right of resistance to oppression, and outlines a novel form of political control for society with clear republican implications.42 Horrified, the great Calvinist writer Beza rushed to condemn the book at Geneva. Both John Dee and Gabriel Harvey owned copies of the work. Many pseudonymous works have been linked to Barnaud's name and no satisfactory biographical sketch has ever been produced. We know for certain that he was born at Crest in Dauphin�, visited Spain in 1559, was at Paris in 1572 and fled to Geneva, where he worked as a diplomatic emissary for the besieged Protestants.43 There his name was mispelt quite regularly as "Bernaud" or "Bernard". This raises an intriguing possibility, hitherto unnoticed by historians, for in the Return of Aliens for November 1571 in London we encounter "Jacques Taffyn, who was recejver to the kinge of Fraunce, borne at Tourney in Flanders.... Anne his wife, borne at Tourney. Guy Barnarde and Nicholas Barnarde, brothers to the aforesaid Anna,..., and cam for religion about ij yeres past, and are yet of no churche, but go to the French churche by occasion."44 Regrettably, we have no other information to clarify whether this was the same as our Barnaud or not. Settling in France in his autumnal years, he was excommunicated by his local church described as "that pest". His religious sentiments leaned towards those of Socinus � who rejected the Holy Trinity.45

We must now proceed from Barnaud the politician to Barnaud the alchemist. Two of his alchemical tracts were published in Holland by Christopher Raphelengius, grand-son of the Familist Christopher Plantin; the others were brought out at Leyden by Thomas Basson, an Englishman of the Familist persuasion. It was his son, Govaert Basson � also a Familist � who published Robert Fludd's very first Rosicrucian pamphlets. The Basson edition of Quadriga Auriferae Secunda Rota was dedicated to Sir Edward Dyer, although it is clear from Barnaud's preface of July 1599 that he did not know the English knight personally. But it is quite on the cards that Barnaud had known John Dee as early as 1583. Contrary to A.E. Waite's claim, Barnaud nowhere says that he witnessed Edward Kelley's feat of transmuting mercury into gold at the home of Thaddeus von Hajek in Prague.46 He does state, however, that he saw "projection" achieved by Hajek with the aid of his son at Prague in 1583.47 Now it happens that in that year Dee and Kelley were made most welcome by Hajek, who put them up at his Prague house. Hajek appears to have known Sir Philip Sidney a few years before: his son, who was sent to England to study, was put in Sidney's charge.48 We can infer that Barnaud probably met Dee in 1583, but we cannot prove it.

Barnaud's significance revolves around an alchemical tradition that he was a key precursor of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, although the evidence for this contention in remarkably elusive. The tradition seems to have crystallized with J.S. Semler's Unparteiische Samlungen zur historie der Rosenkreuzer of 1788, which alleged that in 1591 Barnaud, who is known to have travelled in France and Holland that year, founded an alchemical society. Semler goes as far as to claim that a great college of the fraternity of the Rosicrucians met in 1591 and 1597, the implication being that Barnaud was possibly associated with at least the former.49 Semler did not oblige posterity with documentation for these contentions. If they contain a particle of truth, however, Dee � who shared with Barnaud patron-friends in Bohemia and Poland � almost surely heard about such developments. But that Barnaud may have organized some alchemical sect is not quite beyond the realm of possibility, for in 1597 he produced his Commentariolum in Aenigmaticum quoddam Epitaphium, which contained the "alchemical Mass" originally written by the Hungarian, Nicholas Melchior. The more we know about the Renaissance alchemists, the more we have to respect them for their practical bent: what they wrote down, they attempted to carry out in their laboratories usually. Why did Barnaud edit this "Mass", as did Michael Maier two decades later, if it was not intended for collective use?"50 �

 

�

Notes

1. Public Record Office. Proceedings in Court of Requests Cat. I lxxvii 48.
2. J.E.Van Dorsten The Radical Arts p. 23. Ecclesiae Londino-Batavae Archivum vol. I (1887) ed. J.H. Hessels; letter of 7/17 January 1604, pp. 157-60.
3. Stephen Batman The Golden Booke of the Leaden Goddes (1577) describes three degrees of the converted: the cominalty of the holy ones; the upright understanding ones; the illuminate Elders. In England, they had bishops, elders and deacons. On Mylius, see article by A. Hamilton in Quaerendo vol. xi(1981) pp. 278-9.
4. J.A. Van Dorsten op. cit. p. 29.
5. A Supplication of the Family of Love....(1606) p. 46: "It appeareth that she [Elizabeth] had alwayes about her some Familistes, or favourers of that Sect, who alwaies related, or bare tidinges what was donne, or intended against them."
6. J. Roberts & A.G. Watson eds. John Dee's Library Catalogue p.13.
7. Samuel Purchas Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes vol. I (1905 ed.) 105-6. Dee's treatise ran to 70 sheets.
8. Private Diarv of Dr. John Dee (1842) ed. J.O. Halliwell.
9. British Library MS Cotton Galba C.V.
10. Calendar of State Papers (Dom.) 1547-1580 p. 332.
11. British Library MS. Lansdowne 353.
12. British Library MS. Cotton Vitellius C.V. II fs. 312-14, 325-28. On William Herbert: f. 312.
13. Private Diary of John Dee op. cit. p.3.
14. William Harbert Epicedium (1594) first stanza.
15. A.L. Prescott French Poets and the English Renaissance p.179.
I analyse Du Bartas in a forthcoming history of early English freemasonry.
16. C.A. Patrides & J. Wittreich eds. The Apocalypse p. 181.
17. British Library MS. Sloane 3677 f. 99v.
18. C.A.Patrides & J.Wittreich op. cit. p. 96.
19. Brit. Lib. MS. Sloane 3677 fs. 137v, 144v.
20. Johann Valentin Andreae 1586-1986. Catalogue by Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (1986) p. 27. Andreae's friend, Tobias Hess, who possibly part-wrote the Rosicrucian manifestoes, avidly studied Brocardo.
21. F.A. Yates The French Academies of the Sixteenth Century (1947) pp. 156, 157, 171, 226.
22. Peter French John Dee p. 14.
23. Private Diary of Dr. John Dee op. cit. p.61.
24. Dictionary of National Biography.
25. J. Roberts & A.G. Watson op. cit. p. 4. On Drebbel, see R. Heisler "Rosicrucianism: the First Blooming in Britain" The Hermetic Journal 1989 pp. 38-40.
26. Ibid. p. 38. J. Roberts & A.G. Watson op. cit. pp. 58. 60-2.
27. J.M. Osborn Young Philip Sidney 1572-1577 p.146.
28. Roger Howell Sir Philip Sidney p. 137 quoting Dr. Thomas Moffett's Nobilis. Moffett knew Sidney.
29. Brit. Lib. MS. Sloane 3677 fs. 104, 164(?).
30. Private Diary of Dr. John Dee op. cit. pp. 48, 52. J. Roberts & A.G. Watson op. cit. pp. 101, 28.
31. Useful comments on Pucci are to be found in E.Cochrane ed. The Late Italian Renaissance; also see Dict. of Nat. Biog. Biography in Francesco Pucci Lettere, documenti e testimonianze vol. II ed. L. Firpo & R. Piattoli.
32. M. Eliar-Felden "Secret societies, utopias, and peace plans: the case of Francesco Pucci" Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies vol.14 (1984).
33. On Rogers see J.E.Phillips Neo-Latin Poetry of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1965) p. 11 re. C. Plantin the Familist publishing his Latin poems in 1565. Rogers was related to, and knew, several Familists. A Familist himself? Who knows? Also pp. 13, 16, 18, 19.
34. True Relation of Dr. John Dee (1659) ed. M. Casaubon p.430.
35. F. Pucci Lettere, documenti e testimonianze op. cit. p. 182.
36. Ibid. p. 187.
37. True Relation of Dr. John Dee op. cit. p. 206.
38. R.J.W. Evans Rudolph II and his World (2nd ed.) p. 224. State Papers (Venetian) vol. VIII (1581-1591) p. 169. R.J.W. Evans op. cit. p. 103. P. French John Dee p. 120.
39. R.J.W. Evans op. cit. p. 224.
40. List of MS formerly in possession of the late Dr. Adam Clarke. Baynes & Son Sale Catalogue (1837), copy in British Library.
41. Nouvelle Biographie Universelle (1853). H. Hauser Les Sources de l'Histoire de France XVI Si�cle (1494-1610) vol. III. A.E. Waite The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross pp. 75-79. Useful fresh material in R.J.W. Evans op. cit. pp. 200, 208, 212-13, 283. But the most important survey still remains Prosper Marchand Dictionaire historique vol. I (1758) pp.82-87.
42. J.W. Allen History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century pp. 308-9.
43. R.M. Kingdon Geneva and the Constitution of the French Protestant Movement 1564-1572 pp. 185-6.
44. Returns of Aliens dwelling in.... London from Henry VIII to James I Part II (1571-1597) ed. R.E.G. Kirk & E.F. Kirk p. 38.
45. Dictionaire de Biographie Francaise (1951). Barnaud died in 1607.
46. Theatrum Chemicum vol III(1659) pp. 796-7. C. Nicholl The Chemical Theatre p. 21 quoting from Waite's edition of F. Barrett's Lives of the Alchemists.
47. Theatrum Chemicum vol III p. 749.
48. True Relation.... op. cit. p. 212. J.M. Osborn op. cit. pp. 242, 299, 313, 318, 435. Sidney was in Prague in 1575 and 1577. Hubert Languet appears to have made the introduction.
49. J.S. Semler Unparteiische.... der Rosenkreuzer Book I pp.89, 83, 90, 91
50. R.J.W. Evans op. cit. p. 200.

| 234 hits | Print | PDF |  E-mail | Report

13. Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition

No. 1, Autumnal Equinox 2001 � � John Dee
by Alex Sumner Introduction John Dee was (with the possible exception of Francis Bacon) the first great English Magus. Although the exoteric world mainly remembers him as the leading Mathematician and Intellect of his generation, his magical credentials were impeccable. He was an expert in Astrology, and in Hermetic and Neo-platonic philosophy. His writings show an affirmed grasp of Alchemy, and show that he was aware that it was so much more than the mere transmutation of metals. Most importantly he was responsible, through his crystal-gazing experiments, for giving the world the fascinating subject of "Enochian Magic," still studied by occultists today.^[1] I first became interested in Dee through my study of Enochian Magic. In the occult tradition of orders like the Golden Dawn, there is some detail about what Enochian Magic is, comparatively little about what it actually does, and even less about the circumstances in which it first appeared in the modern world. Least of all is known about the life of the man who first made it appear. This is a shame, because Dee is important to study as an example of a successful magician, and understanding him and his background helps us understand the legacy which he left us.

To understand Dee's influence on the Western Mystery Tradition, it is not enough to just know what he did: one must also understand his actions in the context of his life, and the times in which Dee lived. An examination of Dee's contributions reveals that he was influenced by his wide literacy; by his background as an intellectual generally, and a mathematician in particular; by the modes of thought which were peculiar to that period of history, including Hermetic philosophy and deductive reasoning; and by the political situation then occurring in sixteenth century Europe.

This article is not merely a retelling of the life of Dee: it is an analysis of how important his works are to followers of the Western Mystery Tradition throughout the ages, including to the present day. By presenting the significance in which he is held even by modern day occultists, I shall attempt to prove that Dee really does deserve the epithet of a "famous figure in the Western Mystery Tradition."

Birth, Education, Early Career

Dee was born in 1527 - the son of a civil servant at King Henry VIII's court. He was educated at London and Chelmsford before attending St John's College, Cambridge University, in 1542 at the age of 15, the typical age for a freshman in those days.

Constitutional upheaval gripped England throughout Dee's lifetime. In 1534, King Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. The position of Dee's father as a civil servant would have forced him to swear allegiance to Henry as head of the Church of England - Dee himself would have had to take this same oath at the age of 21. We must assume he did, for had he not he would have debarred himself from a career in public life, and laid himself open to charges of treason. The conflict between the Roman and the new Anglican Church would form the background to several key events in Dee's later life.

Dee's life as an intellectual really began at Cambridge - yet the curriculum at the University differed ultimately from the path that he eventually took. For example, many of Dee's writings display a typically Hermetic outlook on life: with the macrocosm subtly related to the microcosm and Man as the natural reflection of the Supernal deity. And yet, Dee could not have learnt Hermeticism in the University, which preferred the more humanistic philosophy of Aristotle. This has led one writer to speculate that Dee came into contact with Hermetic philosophers at Cambridge quite apart from his studies.^[2] However, Dee's "official" subjects of study would have included grammar, logic and rhetoric; as well as music, and the three philosophies - Moral, Natural and Divine. But most interestingly, for us, at any rate, he would have studied Mathematics.

The time of the Renaissance viewed Mathematics differently to now. It included not only arithmetic and geometry, but also Astronomy. Moreover, before the acceptance of the pioneering work by Gallileo and Newton, the study of Astronomy also comprised that of Astrology. We know that Dee mastered both geometry and Astrology, by his "Mathematicall Preface" to Euclid, and by the work which would gain him notoriety in the reign of Queen Mary, and acceptance with Queen Elizabeth.

We must also assume that Dee studied Greek, as Trinity College made him "Under Reader" in the subject after he received his BA in 1546. We also know of Dee's fluency in Latin, which he probably learnt at either Chelmsford or London, and Hebrew.^[3] From this point until 1553 Dee experienced an uninterrupted period of growing professional success. In 1548 he received his MA and took up a position at Louvain University in Belgium to lecture on Mathematics. In two years, still in his early twenties, he established himself as an international authority, so that when he came to Paris to lecture on Euclid in 1550, Dee started to receive offers of patronage from noblemen and even monarchs across Europe. However, Dee turned these all down: he had set his sights on a career back in England.

In 1551 he realised his ambition when, returning to England, he met the boy King, Edward VI. Dee obviously impressed the King, as he received an annuity from him. Dee also received offers of patronage from powerful noblemen, including the Earl of Pembroke and the Duke of Northumberland - who engaged him as tutor for his children. Northumberland explained that he wanted them to have "the best scientific education in England."

Thus, by the age of 26 in 1553, Dee had successfully established both his international reputation and his career.

"Conjuring Divils"

I have already mentioned that Constitutional upheaval gripped England during his lifetime. Because Dee had been determined to find a position at the English Court, he found himself right in the middle of it. In 1553, King Edward VI died, and England was fiercely divided between Catholic and Protestants. The Anglicans (i.e. Protestants) dominated under Edward VI. However, the next in line to the throne, Mary, was a Catholic, who would almost certainly try to undo all the Anglicans had done. Therefore, a number of noblemen hatched a plan to put a young noblewoman called Lady Jane Grey on the throne.

The plan failed. Mary, with an army, deposed Lady Jane Grey after just nine days. She then went about arresting and executing all the noblemen who had supported Jane, including the Duke of Northumberland, Dee's patron.

Dee therefore found himself in a dangerous position. The supporters of Queen Mary at Court regarded him with suspicion. To make matters worse, during the time 1553 - 1555 Dee did work for, amongst others, Princess Elizabeth - Mary's half-sister and rival.

In 1555 Dee cast horoscopes for Princess Elizabeth, the Queen, and the Queen's husband. As we have already mentioned, Mathematics at the time, and therefore Dee's expertise, included the study of Astrology. His enemies took this as their chance: they had Dee arrested for Treason, and accused him of "Conjuring Divils".

To understand Dee's predicament, one should realise that the Treason Act prohibited, and in fact it still does, "compassing the death of the sovereign". Henry VIII deliberately misinterpreted this clause so that it would mean "thinking about or mentioning the king's death" - instead of the more natural meaning of "plotting or conspiring". Thus, he had a number of his enemies executed, because they had allegedly mentioned that the King might pass away for whatever reason - even if it was just old age. Henry even executed his own very loyal doctor, because he mistakenly gave the wrong prognosis! Dee's enemies therefore argued that Dee had, by casting her horoscope, predicted Mary's death - they hoped the same thing would happen to him as to the enemies of King Henry.

However, they had not reckoned with Dee's intellect and eloquent tongue. During three months in 1555 - first the Star Chamber^[4], and then the Bishop of London interrogated him. Dee obviously impressed them with his sincerity, as they eventually released him. Dee even managed to remain on friendly terms with the Bishop after his release. However, the case attracted a lot of publicity, and left Dee with an air of notoriety that lingered around him from that point on.

The question arises: despite the fact that he convinced the authorities otherwise, might Dee have practised any kind of ritual magic or evocation around that time? It is certainly likely. The main clue comes from his time at Paris in 1550 - Dee's theories on Mathematics were strongly flavoured by what is known as "Mathesis". This was a kind of mystical approach to Mathematics. Numbers were seen as the basic language in the mind of God. Therefore Mathesis involved understanding the equations which governed the universe. An example: imagine a number is connected with something of mystical or religious significance, e.g. Christ chose 12 Apostles. From the Mathetic point of view one would say that where the number 12 occurred elsewhere in nature this pointed to another manifestation of the same force, e.g. God choosing 12 constellations to form the Zodiac.

Gematria, and its associated numerological practices, are thus prime examples of Mathesis which are in use by modern occult movements, e.g. the Golden Dawn.

One writer has suggested that Dee's lectures at Paris not only demonstrate a grasp of Mathesis generally, but the Mathematical theories of Henry Cornelius Agrippa specifically.^[5] Agrippa devotes a sizeable portion of the second book of his "Three Books on Occult Philosophy" to the magical properties of numbers. Agrippa's work contains a lot of Qabalistic theory, which the modern occultist would recognise from such works as Crowley's "777" and "Sepher Sephiroth".^[6] Agrippa's book also describes ritual magic practices, albeit in a general fashion, unlike the more explicit directions of the apocryphal "Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy". Nevertheless, it does constitute a large reference work for someone embarking on ceremonial magic. If Dee did derive his Mathetic theories from Agrippa, this would imply that already by his twenties he pursued an active interest in the Occult, which might extend beyond merely using "Three Books on Occult Philosophy" to spice up a Maths lecture. We know that Dee certainly had read Agrippa by the time he conducted his (in)famous Angel Magic experiments in the 1580s.^[7] The Elizabethan Era The death of Mary and the accession of Elizabeth in 1558 saw Dee return from "out of the cold" of the past five years. Queen Elizabeth looked favourably upon Dee: she began by setting the date of her coronation according to a horoscope he cast.

In this year, Dee himself published "Propaedeumata Aphoristica" - a set of aphorisms setting out Dee's view of cosmology, astrology, and the roles of science and natural magic. This book clearly shows Dee as a Hermetic philosopher - with its vision of the macrocosm linked to the microcosm by rays of divine influence proceeding from the cosmos.

During Elizabeth I's reign, Dee became f�ted by the court. The Queen often relied on Dee, once asking him to explain the secrets of Alchemy to her. Dee often found himself called upon by the noblemen. The Queen several times promised incomes to Dee, but most of these failed to materialise.

One of Dee's most remarkable achievements was the establishment of the largest and best library in England, at his own house in Mortlake, Oxfordshire. Dee spent most of the years 1560 - 1570 collecting large numbers of books and manuscripts. He even travelled through continental Europe between 1562 and 1565 looking for rare works.

The nature of the contents of Dee's book collection sheds some fascinating light on his character. They included works on all the Sciences, Hermetic philosophy, Alchemy (including works by Raymond Lully, Albertus Magnus et al.), classical Roman poetry, Neoplatonism, and much more besides. Dee also seems to have been acquainted with a large number of printed books, which he never listed as being in his library. For example, Dee seems to have had a collection of writings on demonology and witch-craft. He also had the works of Henry Cornelius Agrippa; not only his "Three Books On Occult Philosophy", but also "On the Nobility and Excellence of the Female Sex".^[8] In 1562 Dee procured a rare copy of Trithemius' Steganographia, at this time only a hand-written manuscript. It only first came into print in 1606. This book apparently contains a system of Angel magic, and methods to conjure spirits to allow the magician to know what occurs in various parts of the Earth as if by telepathy. Steganographia also contains, and conceals, a system of cryptography, which Trithemius purports was the method used by the ancient Greek philosophers to conceal their magical secrets from the profane. Dee by his own admission found himself very impressed with his find. Dee published very little of his own work, preferring to impart his teachings in private. Perhaps this air of secrecy fuelled the unpleasant rumours which continued to hang round him. However, he did publish two notable works - A "Mathematicall Preface" to Euclid's Elements of Geometry in 1570 and "Monas Hieroglyphica in 1564. The "Mathematicall Preface" demonstrates Dee's views on Mathesis, which I have already mentioned in the context of "Conjuring Divils" above. The Preface amounts to a synthesis of mystical thought from Agrippa back to the number theory of Pythagoras.

The "Monas Hieroglyphica" (i.e. "Hieroglyphic Monad") appears to be a more obfuse document, but in terms of modern occultism this book only just falls behind "Enochian Magic" as Dee's most influential work. The Monas Hieroglyphica at first sight contains a number of theorems relating to arbitrary exercises involving a symbol: the ancient alchemical sign for Mercury. Dee's approach appears rather oblique, but he manages to write a considerable amount of practical advice relating to Alchemy and the Qabalah - and indeed, some Mathetic speculations.

Dee writes a particularly interesting passage, in relation to the geometrical figure of a cross:

And I will not hide from you a further memorable mystagogy: consider that our Cross, containing so many ideas, conceals two further letters if we examine carefully their numerical virtues after a certain manner, so that, by a parallel method following their verbal force with this same Cross, we recognise with supreme admiration that it is from here that LIGHT is derived (LVX), the final word of the magistery, by the union and conjunction of the Ternary within the unity of the Word. (Theorem 17)

It appears that Dee prefigures the Golden Dawn teaching on LVX. We know that the founders of the Golden Dawn used Dee's Enochian material, so could they also have looked at Dee's other work, including "Monas Hieroglyphica"? But before we say "Yes" straightaway, we should also consider that Kenneth Mackenzie stated, some years prior to the Golden Dawn's creation, that "Rosicrucians believe that Light is the Philosophers' Stone"^[9]. However, Dee lived during the time that Christian Rosencreutz supposedly lay in his tomb! Mackenzie's remark therefore implies that the study of Dee's work had already established itself in Rosicrucian circles long before the Golden Dawn came into existence. It also implies that either Rosicrucians adopted Dee's work, or even that the Invisible Brotherhood included Dee in their fraternity!

Mackenzie, as a member of the Societas Rosicrucianis In Anglia, and a keen founder of quasi-Masonic esoteric fraternities^[10], remains one of the most likely candidates to have penned the Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscripts - which happen to contain Enochian words of power.^[11] The Duke of Canada Aside from Dee's activities as a bibliophile, he actively concerned himself with Navigation. As the foremost Mathematician, Astronomer, and intellect in the land, Dee established himself as the natural choice for advice for explorers wishing to go on long journeys. Much of the planet during the sixteenth century lay yet to be discovered, and Dee himself shared the fascination of these explorers. During this time, Dee published a treatise on navigation, which became the standard text for British seamen.^[12] Dee also conceived the idea that with the growth of exploration, and the increasing efficiency of ships to survive Trans-oceanic voyages, Britain could become a world power. Dee predicted the rise of the British Empire; not a particularly prophetic act, as all the other countries of Europe, especially Spain and France, wanted new colonies in the New World as well. Dee later urged Elizabeth I to take the opportunity, which was now presenting itself.^[13] However, Dee did not do this just out of patriotism, as he himself hoped to benefit financially from the new rise in world exploration. For example, Dee signed a contract with an explorer, whereby, in return for Dee's advice and instructions on Navigation, all land that the explorer discovered in the new world above 51� Latitude would become Dee's property. As it happened, the explorer failed to reach his destination, due to bad weather. Had he succeeded, however, Dee would have become the owner of most of Canada. The realms of possibility could even extend to Dee's elevation into the nobility as would have befitted a powerful land-owner of the time, perhaps even as a Duke.

Angels and Demons

We now turn to the part of Dee's life which holds the most fascination for modern students of the occult; his association with Edward Kelly, and his Angel Magic experiments. When Dee met Kelly in 1582, he had already been undertaking such experiments for some time, possibly since as early as 1569.^[14] The first entry in Dee's diaries of these sessions indicates that Dee was working with a Seer named Barnabas Saul, in 1581.^[15] Elias Ashmole relates that from the secret cache of papers which he eventually published, half had previously been destroyed by a maid, who not knowing their importance, used them as firelighters.^[16] Perhaps these incinerated pages contained the records of the twelve missing years of Dee's magical experiments. From the records that do survive, we can describe Dee's experiments as follows. Dee always worked with a Seer, who would look into Dee's "Shewstone," i.e. a crystal ball, or an Obsidian "magic mirror". Dee would usually begin each session by praying fervently. The Seer would then look into the Shewstone and describe the visions he experienced. All the while Dee recorded what the Seer said, and would often address questions to the entity which was supposedly within the crystal. The first recorded skrying session, in 1581, began with Dee praying that an angel called Anael would appear to Saul in the crystal globe. Dee writes the record of the session as if he converses directly with Anael, but we should assume that Saul acted as the "mouthpiece" for the apparition in the crystal.^[17] Dee first met Kelly the following March, whereupon they continued with the experiments. Again Dee did not skry himself, this time Kelly filled Saul's role. Kelly saw himself as an alchemist - and possibly also a Ceremonial magician. If we assume that the visions Kelly saw proceeded solely from his imagination, then that imagination seemed acquainted with grimoires such as the Lesser Key of Solomon. For example, on the 14^th April 1584, Kelly described the Angel Gabriel as praying, describing God as

"�before whom the Quire of Heaven sing, O Mappa La man hallelujah."^[18]

which appears remarkably similar to an entreaty to the Great God Jehovah,

"�whereunto the whole choir of heaven sings continually O Alappa-le-man Hallelujah�"

a prayer to invoke ones Guardian Angel, from the Ars Paulina.^[19] By far the most productive period of Dee and Kelly's magical experiments occurred between 1582 and 1584, up to the end of their visit to Cracow in Poland, and before they reached Prague in the modern-day Czech Republic, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. During this time, Dee and Kelly received a complete new system of ceremonial magic known to us now as "Enochian Magic". At first, the pair received the design of the Holy Table, a wax seal called the "Sigillum Dei Aemeth", a Lamen formed from the names of the "Heptarchic" Kings and Princes, a magic Ring, and seven tables of letters, forming the basis of the Tabula Bonorum and Tabula Collecta. From September 1583, they received revelations conce