Secret Societies: In the Shadows

Is the Illuminati a New World Order? Although the ultimate secret order was disbanded in 1785, some claim this elite group continues to control power from behind closed doors. What started as a Bavarian group of revolutionaries hellbent on infiltrating powerful institutions has now become the stuff of legend. Who were these powerful men? What strange rites brought them together? What kind of world did they hope to build? And do curious triangle sightings and mysterious building projects betray a still-active Illuminati presence?

Perhaps the hardest society to crack, Le Cercle goes all the way to the top. Heads of state. Intelligence operatives. Chiefs of industry. Vatican envoys. All have a seat at the table for meetings of the ultra-secret Le Cercle. What started in the post-war years as a Catholic conservative group built to broker European rapprochement now operates as a shadow intelligence agency that is rumored to control world politics. Thought to be rooted in secret religious sects like the Opus Dei and Knights of Malta, its aims are now mostly political. Its members have funded coups and installed world leaders, all while they sit elbow-to-elbow with names like Rockefeller, Kissinger, and Rumsfeld. Le Cercle operations circumvent traditional governments and all accountability.

What kind of society includes Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and H.P. Lovecraft as a member? The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a secret society that dabbled in the occult. It laid the groundwork for modern Wiccanism and esoteric practices and its members studied alchemy and astral travel. Were initiates witnessing magic or smoke and mirrors in the strange temples of this fringe society? Were the orders most famous members engaged with the paranormal or searching out new material for purely commercial purposes?