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.

The Hellfire club conspiracy

From an occultist and former member :

To suggest that there is or was one original hellfire club is to misunderstand the principles and philosophies behind the formation of such societies. Essentially there was a movement in the early to mid 18^th century to create a group of societies for gentlemen of a certain standing in opposition to the puritanical nature of society as a whole. The guiding premise of these societies was Fais ce que tu voudras (Do what thou wilt) a principle later espoused by Aleister Crowley, the magician and occultist. This premise originated with the 16^th Century French monk Francois Rabelais who had left his monastic life to pursue a medical career. It is considered that Rabelais had gained access to Rosicrucian texts that caused him to question the Churches interpretations of biblical script in the context of how man might become closer to God. The motto suggests a move towards seeking divinity through an experiential route employing the principles of free will and self determination, essentially finding the truth of the divine through experiencing life in all its glory, both good and bad.

This philosophy was actively pursued in both France by the Marquis de Sade and others and in England by Sir Francis Dashwood and others. At the time, and to an extent currently a position that runs contrary to church teaching is heresy and therefore satanic in nature, although it is unlikely that protagonists in these clubs considered themselves as satanists. It is likely however that they knowingly explored Satanism as a route to further understanding of spirituality in general. From the outset the true purpose of these groups were two-fold. Firstly and primarily to give an outlet for the elite of society to express themselves without regard to social mores, morals and ethics, and secondly to engage in experiential activities to better understand humanity and its place in Gods creation. With any group of this nature there is always going to be a web of misdirection and misinformation as well as a fundamental misunderstanding of the reasoning behind the group.

In order to fulfil the requirements of these clubs it was essential that members be of a level in society that they were effectively untouchable. This meant in essence that members had to be extremely wealthy, to the extent that their activities could be covered up no matter how extreme they were, and that the members had sufficient power to silence any critics. Recent re-inventions of the Hellfire club have missed this crucial point, and are therefore ineffective in their purpose, the behaviour of members being limited to socially acceptable levels. Better synergies would be found in the elitist clubs found at certain universities, particularly Oxford Universities Bullingdon club, favoured by Conservative politicians, and Yale Universities Skull and Bones Club favoured by American industrial-military complex families. In both of these cases we see highly wealthy individuals who are encouraged to engage in absolute hedonism with the assurance that there will be no consequence, since any problems can be covered up with sufficient finances.

Certainly the Bullingdon club members have in the past paid for the complete renovation of an Oxford restaurant having rendered it unusable during a meal which became an orgy of violence and destruction, and if sources are to be believed, the Skull and Bones club has successfully averted the prosecution of at least two members for manslaughter in DUI cases. There can be little doubt that money buys power, and that power buys influence. Nor can there be any doubt that the hedonistic principles of “Do what you will” are the guiding philosophy of the Worlds leading families. The big question is, why? Is there some secret that can only be accessed by living a life of true hedonism as Crowley and others have suggested? Or is the real reason something even darker?