Fraternal societies, the new Freemasons

In the last article on the Facebook IPO conspiracy there was a brief mention of the college fraternity system, and the timing is right to have a closer look at the way this strange and somewhat mysterious organisation operates. The first thing to be aware of is that there have always been groups of powerful men who have grouped together for mutual benefit, from the earliest temple priests, through the philosophical societies of ancient Greece and Rome and on through the Middle Ages with the foundation of Universities and groups of natural philosophers, alchemists and magical groups. With the coming of the enlightenment and rapid advances in science these groups became the meeting point for leading industrialists and businessmen. Groups such as the Lunar society and the Oxford and Cambridge University clubs began to exert influence on political opinion and the first conspiracy theories began to develop around them. This process caused many of them to retreat back into the shadows, leaving a network of less powerful, less influential groups in the foreground. It was also at about this time that emigration to the newly independent United States began in earnest and the American University system of fraternities was established.

Unlike the UK University clubs, the US system established networks of fraternities across Universities with an overt message of bonds of brotherhood linking members across the country with a system of initiations and oaths very similar to masonic rituals. A complex hierarchy of power and influence within these fraternal groups was established loosely based on the relative influence and reputation of the founding Universities. Of course, alongside the overt brotherhoods, and their vows of looking after fellow members, there are a far smaller group of covert brotherhoods, hidden within these systems. The most famous currently is the Skull and Bones, the group that has a remarkable tendency to provide Presidents and the most senior of business leaders, comparable with the Bullingdon Club in the UK, the fraternal club of choice for the most senior politicians. In both case the clubs are invitation only and are essentially hedonistic lifestyle clubs for the scions of the wealthiest families to indulge their appetites, safely hidden from the attention of the media.

This is where it gets really interesting. In the US there has been, since the Declaration of Independence, a policy of being open about masonic involvement. The Freemasonry organisation is a respected and accepted part of the fabric of American life and operates as a strong charitable institution alongside similar groups that are considered conspiracy fodder elsewhere. This openness means that there is an opportunity for maintaining the secrecy of less obvious groups behind the operations of these publicly acceptable groups. Whereas in the UK there is tremendous interest in Freemason conspiracies, in the US it is understood that Freemasons act generally in the public interest. This suggests that in Europe there has been a better job of misdirection by the real secret societies, the fraternal brotherhoods of the elite families. It is these brotherhoods that are the real powers behind the throne, and interestingly, unlike the staid and rather stylised and ritualised proceedings of the Freemasons, these brotherhoods owe far more to Francis Dashwood and the Hellfire Club, and its predecessors being much more interested in hedonism, and the “Do what thou wilt” attitude that characterises true esoteric and mystery groups.

It certainly throws some interesting light on the possibilities around the strange hedonistic rituals associated with the American groups attending Bohemian Grove and similar sites. More to come yet.