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Friday, January 25, 2013

Fake Illuminati Exposed!

Salon has an article up today about "Illuminati symbolism" in popular music, and how essentially it's just a big publicity stunt on the part of stars who exploit conspiracy theorists to generate more press for their songs and albums. From a cynical standpoint this makes a lot of sense - the "Illuminati symbols" that show up in music videos are so well-known at this point that they've gone from esoteric to obvious, but they nonetheless generate breathless condemnation by crackpots obsessed with the group's supposed ongoing plan for world domination. But here's a clue - if you're really part of a secret conspiracy, I imagine that the worst thing you could possibly do is broadcast to the entire Internet a video that pretty much announces, "Hey everybody, check out my secret conspiracy!"

The fear of the entity known as the Illuminati is neither unique — Bey and Jay join Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Kanye West, and practically every prominent banker and politician on Earth is under conspiracy theorists’ microscope — nor novel. The original Bavarian Illuminati, a short-lived Enlightenment group devoted to overthrowing the local government, would likely have been forgotten, said “Occult America” author Mitch Horowitz, had Scottish physicist John Robison not speciously alleged in 1797 that the group had infiltrated the Freemasons and instigated the French Revolution.

“The Illuminati can be understood as the most radical edge of the marriage of avant-garde religious views and political views that sometimes found expression within Freemasonry,” said Horowitz. The movement, as redefined ex post facto to include practically every threatening and new development in American life, went on to resurface in rumors from the anti-Masonry fervor of the 1830s to the election of a Catholic president in 1960 to (did you need to ask?) the Obama presidency. Though the political goals of the Illuminati in Bavaria were locally minded, the avant-garde aspect lives on. Horowitz listed certain motifs: “skulls, serpents, eyes and pyramids, pentagrams. These were from a religious culture that had vanished after the Dark Ages; they’re alluring, dangerous, sinister.”


The funny thing is that there really is a global elite. The international finance establishment is intertwined with governments around the world and and its wealthy members certainly have a disproportionate influence on policy. However, the source of their power has nothing to do with shape-shifting aliens or secret occult rituals or fringe Masonic groups that died out by the nineteenth century, and everything to do with big money. Many of the musicians who have been accused of Illuminati ties don't even write their own songs; rather, they are composed by a collection of producers who understand what sells and what generates publicity. Does it really make any sense that a secret society would sanction a music video such as that for a recent Rihanna track, in which the words "Princess of the Illuminati" flash across the screen? That strikes me as a different definition of "secret" than what any reasonable person would employ. On the other hand, such speculation sure cranks up the views.

7 comments:

  1. What you don't realize is they ARE real, these stars really ARE in the group, and they ARE warning us. They want us to stop paying attention to them and stop giving them our money! In this way, we can weaken the illuminati's hold on their lives and souls and release the evil souls that are trapped inside of them. Then, with cryogenic processes, we can capture the souls, place them inside a space capsule, and fire it back to their home planet where they can be dropped inside a volcano where they will remain forever!!!! Join me in helping these poor stars be saved and alleviate them of the burden of making so much money!!!! Do them a favor and ignore them, just like they want :D

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  2. The rules for members of the alleged Illuminati (if they exist at all) would be quite similar to those of FIGHT CLUB:

    FIGHT CLUB rules:

    1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.

    2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.

    ILLUMINATI rules:

    (Rules for the true Illuminati Members - as in Synarchy):

    1st RULE: You do not talk about the ILLUMINATI.

    2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about the ILLUMINATI.

    Adesh!
    -Aghor Pir

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  3. @Aghor: Well, those certainly would be the rules if the Illuminati was an actual secret society. Because, you know, a secret society is supposed to be secret and all.

    One the other hand, if what we're looking at is a marketing ploy, the goal would be to talk about them as much as possible - hence the latest crop of Illuminati-themed music videos.

    @Hypnovatos: So could the real Illuminati be Scientologists? They certainly have as many celebrity members as are alleged to belong to the former group and the evil lord Xenu sounds pretty diabolical to me. That, and he looked like a Lovecraftian Elder God in the South Park Scientology episode.

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  4. The subject of the Illuminati is so vast and complex, I find this article does alot of injustice by simplifying to the extreme. Of course the multi layered identity called the Illluminati would want as much hollywood hype and personality cult like dogmas because that is exactly what discredits the Truth.
    For the very small percentage of the people who know the scope of the Illuminati and the reasons they are here it is so hard to explain.
    There are so many levels of Illuminati, many of them competing( depending on their race line)many of them not even knowing they ARE Illuminati.
    For the best understanding of the Illuminati I highly reccomend Asheayana Deane, The Voyagers( google it)
    Until then you can swim all day in the Matrix of this prison planet

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  5. here is the final truth about the Illuminaughty. WE are a club where you gain points within the system by getting as many people to know you are in the illuminaughty without actually telling them. I have now lost 1000 points by outright revealing it. You get extra points for creativity on how you attempt to get ppl to guess you are a member, hence all of the artists. You can then redeem the points for discounts on various websites and even airline tickets WITHOUT blackout dates. its pretty cool.
    oh wait... this is about the IllumiNATI.... sorry, please disregard my prior comments...

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  6. Why is it that whenever anybody sets out to describe the "real" Illuminati the description sounds exactly like the plot of Wilson and Shea's Illuminatus! novels? Could it maybe be that the whole thing is nothing more than a fictional account? If somebody set out to explain that the Earth was really protected by a super-strong guy in a blue and red suit with a cape who came from the planet Krypton, just about everyone would recognize that they were talking about Superman - a fictional character - and not take them seriously. Why doesn't that rule apply here?

    As I mentioned in a previous post, Ordo Templi Orientis incorporates the teachings of the Illuminati order according to its founding documents. Furthermore, Theodor Reuss, who founded OTO, first tried to set up a revived Illuminati order in the late 1800's. So that means OTO initiates are Illuminati, right? If you say yes, it means that you're talking to one right now. And I'll be the first to point out that the tall tales being peddled by David Icke, Texe Marrs, and others in the Fundamentalist community are nonsense. I suppose you might argue that's what I would say, but let's face it - if the Illuminati were really an all-powerful organization that controls popular culture my book sales would be a whole lot higher.

    Given the Thelemic philosophy of OTO, you can bet that I would love to see a world in which the order were as powerful as these wild claims make the Illuminati out to be. But we're not there yet, nor do I think we ever will be. Simply, that's in part because no organization could ever live up to all the hype, no matter how wealthy and influential they managed to become.

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  7. Couldn't have said it better... I hear so much about Crowley, the Illuminati, and the oto on the web it's ridiculous. Just about every "secret society" gives away their secrets to anyone who is willing to do what it takes to understand these "secrets" through the initiation process. Believe me, the people running this world are not Thelemites by any means. I wish it were, as this would solve many if not all of the problems in the world today.

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