Category Archives: Europe

The History of … the Illuminati

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                “You’re a conspiracy nut!  No you are!”  The charge of conspiracy is getting thrown around quite a bit these days.  However, it’s nothing new.  When conspiracy talk goes on long enough names like Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group, Freemasons and the Illuminati inevitably come up.

                The history of the Illuminati begins during the time of the Revolutionary War in the United States but in the Bavarian region of Germany.  Adam Weishaupt was a professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt.  He became interested in the ideas of the enlightenment that were against hierarchy and the power of the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church’s power in Bavaria was particularly strong.  Weishaupt knew his beliefs would not be well received so he came up with the idea of a secret society.  In his society reason would be the greatest virtue.   Members took Greek names to disguise themselves and used ciphers to correspond.

                The society grew slowly until Weishaupt got the idea to become a freemason.  He figured that freemasons were already secretive and some members hungered for more intellectualism than the partying lodges had a reputation for.  Weishaupt also recruited several aristocrats who in turn were able to recruit people Weishaupt saw as being worthwhile members.  These aristocrats helped him develop rituals and grading within the Illuminati.

                The Illuminati grew from 1776 until 1784.  However, members were not as secretive as intended and the Bavarian government became aware of their activities.   They were banned by the Bavarian government with the support of the Catholic Church.  The banning and internal squabbles about religious philosophy drove it apart.  The aristocratic members thought the Illuminati could get more members if it was less anti-religious.

                However, even as its practical life ended the legend of the Illuminati was just starting to grow.  Secrecy made the society mysterious and led many to ascribe more power to it than it held.  For example, two books were written after the French Revolution that made the case the Illuminati were behind the French Revolution.  These accusations got more wild and ridiculous as time went on.  Illuminati were falsely implicated in conspiracies about Waterloo and Napoleon’s final defeat, infiltration of Hollywood and even the Kennedy assassination.  There has never been any evidence of Illuminati activity beyond Germany in the late 1700s but their myth lives on.

The History of … Prometheus in Books and Movies

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I love the Aliens movies and was excited to go to see the prequel, Prometheus.  Watching it sparked my curiosity about the enduring use of the ancient Greek immortal Prometheus as a morality tale in film and literature.  I decided to refresh my memory of Prometheus and how and why he is repeatedly used as a cautionary reference.

In Greek mythology Zeus is the ruler of all the gods.  The Greek creation story has Zeus assigning the task of making mortal beings to two Titan brothers, Epimetheus and Prometheus.  Epimetheus means ‘afterthought’ and Prometheus means ‘forethought’.  True to their names, Epimetheus was not considered to be very bright and gave all the good gifts to the animals as they were created; swiftness, courage, strength, claws, wings, and shells.  When it came time to give gifts to man nothing was left.  Prometheus, who was considered to be the wisest of the Titans, realized that humans needed some gifts of their own so he gave them a unique form and allowed them to walk upright.

When he was done giving gifts to humans, Prometheus felt they needed one more thing to protect themselves, the gift of fire.  Fire belonged to the gods and was kept at the top of Mount Olympus.  Prometheus decided to steal some of that fire and took a stalk of fennel (a kind of hollowed out reed), concealed one of the embers from the sacred fire in the reed and gave it to man.

When Zeus discovered this he punished Prometheus by impaling him on a mountain.  When Prometheus defied Zeus further by refusing to give him information about the future, an eagle was added to the punishment that would come and eat Prometheus’ liver every day.  Since Prometheus was immortal, the liver would grow back at night and the horrific process would repeat itself daily.   In some tellings, like “Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus, Prometheus is eventually rescued by Hercules.  However, the crux of the story is the stealing of fire, giving it to man and the punishment received for doing so.

How does this tale apply to Western culture after Prometheus?  The story is generally used as a way of showing the joys and sorrows of self-awareness.  The fire that Prometheus steals is not just fire to cook things and keep warm.  It is fire from the sacred fire of knowledge so it imparts wisdom on its recipients.  The story is a kind of Adam and Eve tale (in the Bible Adam and Eve eat from the forbidden tree of knowledge, gain self-awareness and are thrown out of the Garden of Eden).  In references to Prometheus in literature and movies there is usually suffering and punishment for exploring forbidden enlightenment or taking on God-like power.  Much like the story of Adam and Eve this kind of morality lesson is an enduring one and explains why the legend of Prometheus lives on in Western culture to this day.

In Prometheus the movie (spoiler alert!) the creators of humans are a superior race called the Engineers.  Clues about who they are have been found at archeological sites of different ancient societies.  A group of scientists interprets these findings as an invitation to find the Engineers.  They seek enlightenment and take a voyage of discovery on the aptly named ship Prometheus.  In the end they receive the pleasure of wisdom but also the pain.  Most of the crew dies by the conclusion of the movie.

In literature the most commonly known reference to Prometheus is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein whose full title is Frankenstein:  or, The Modern Prometheus.   As we all remember, in the novel Victor Frankenstein seeks God-like powers in making his Creature.  He produces life but is eventually destroyed by his creation.

More obscurely (and for far more of a stretch), there are also references to Prometheus in Moby Dick.  Ahab can be seen as Promethean because he makes a God-like decision that the white whale must die.  There are disastrous consequences to his choice.  In Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment the main character Raskolnikov can be viewed as Promethean in his choice to plan and kill the old pawn broker to test his belief that murder is legitimate in pursuit of greater purpose.  Once again, a protagonist electing to ‘play God’ has bad results.

Incidentally, while Zeus’ punishment of Prometheus was very severe, he also decided that the mortals who had accepted Prometheus’ gift had to be penalized.  With the help of the other gods, Zeus formed a creature of great charm and beauty but also with cunning and guile.  According to the Greek writer Hesiod this creature was “an evil to mortal men with a nature to do evil.”  He called her Pandora meaning ‘all gifts’ and sent her to the mortals as the first woman.