Part I

Mythology and Related Mysteries

1 - What Is a Secret Society?

In this book we will concentrate mostly on the origin of secret societies and what lies behind the beliefs and rituals of many of the world's religions.

In the beginning, this will lead us through seemingly unrelated material, such as electromagnetism and cyclic phenomena, but all will become apparent as we discover that this natural world relates entirely to our belief systems. These belief systems are similar the world over and are the basis of the esoteric side of secret societies.

However, we need to understand the language of secret societies and exactly what a secret society is. This is a hotly debated subject and is open to various interpretations, as we shall discover.

There are tales of secret societies throughout history. The first question we have to ask is why they had to remain secret. According to popular belief, it is because those meeting in secret were "men of renown" or "standing" and were plotting to change civilization - whether this be through destroying the Church or the royalty or through defending the same.

According to this popular belief, one of the original secret societies was called the Brotherhood of the Snake (or "dragon" or "serpent"). Although no real historical records of an ancient Brotherhood of the Snake, first mentioned by Madame Blavatsky, is in existence, it is a fact that the rituals and beliefs of this supposed secret organization are similar to many that do exist and are strangely related to the serpent.

This is no surprise to me, of course, as one of the so-called experts of ophiolatraea (serpent worship). In Secrets of the Serpent I discovered that there had been an ancient and worldwide serpent religion. Merged with solar, lunar, and cosmic belief systems, this ancient faith did, indeed, take on a worldwide aspect, utilizing the serpent on many levels.

Eventually, these beliefs crept in to secret cults and societies and became hidden.

Almost in every instance these secret societies are playing a religious role - contacting god or the gods in ways that the state religion cannot or will not.

This, in itself, gives us a good insight. It is a stark fact that religion or beliefs are excellent ways of drawing in members and utilizing a heightened state in the individual for their own ends - whatever they may be. As with most religions, the members of secret societies are chosen ones, members of the few. A clear example of this is the way that Christians say - without knowing the real meaning of these phrases - that the way is narrow, or that it is easier to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter the kingdom of God.

This, in turn, makes the initiate feel more important when accepted - even though precious few are turned down at the initiate stage. This chosen way is universal, and not just the remit of secret societies or religion. It is also found in normal everyday clubs and organizations where you still have to pass tests that are blatantly measured to allow everybody to enter, but at different levels.

The idea of there being different levels then moves the process on and ensures that the new initiate strives to become an adherent or full member by learning the ways of the club or society - and thus the initiate becomes fully engulfed in the world of the society.

Secret societies take this membership a step further by including certain devices within the "knowledge bank" that the initiate must learn. These devices include secret handshakes and words, special days of the year known only to the few, and insights into standard texts. All this, and more, makes the initiate feel ever more important. In all instances, the ultimate enlightenment experience seems to be kept back for the very highest levels of initiation - lower levels of illumination are permitted and used for the lower degrees.

There is also a build-up of comradeship through regular meetings.

This allows the member to feel part of a wider family and thus more important. Speak to any serving military personnel and you will find that one of the major factors in the success of their unit is credited to camaraderie. This leads the member down a path into the secret society of such emotional depth that to leave would feel like losing a member of the family. The comfort zone the initiate finds himself in is such that he does not wish to leave.

The initiation of any institute is the most important part. Generally, it involves a ritual built around a seemingly impossible-to-understand myth.

There are levels to the initiation, just as there are in any religion. It actually starts earlier than most people would understand, with just being chosen or selected to join. This selection process appears to have a plan, and the fact that the word "chosen" is used implies that not all can enter. In fact, from studies of societies, the process is almost random, the true selection coming much later.

Those not selected for the higher levels are still members and do the bidding of higher members without actually knowing it, and without knowing that they are often on a lower level.

During the initial stages of any initiation, the new member is cleaned, or cleared, of any thinking that would not benefit the society or religion. This can be seen in the world in general with the military, learning especially from this psychological battle of wills.

By breaking down the spirit of the recruit, the army is clearing him or her of any preconceived ideas and allowing the full mind-bending techniques to appear unsullied in the mind of the new soldier.

The same is true of secret societies as the new recruits are told to leave the world behind, including family and friends, who are called distractions or are of the world or devil. The initiates are then given as a replacement the new family of the church or society - who, at this stage of the process, are always forthcoming with help and love to such an extent that the recruit is overwhelmed with joy. This remains in the new recruit's mind, deeply entrenched due to the cleaning process previously carried out.

This process inspires loyalty and a desire for more. The church and society alike supply the demand with mystical insights that can only be supplied to those who pass tests. These tests are created to deepen the bonds of the initiate further. With each new learning process the adherent feels more and more special and is, indeed, given special status.

There are tests put in place to determine whether the initiate has the ability to move further. The deeper aspects of these organizations are as ever more and more secret, and at the highest level they have to be, as this is where the true secret or purpose of the society or religion lies.

The Knights Templar tested the initiate with spitting on the cross. The reason is simple and has nothing to do with the irreverence spoken of by the Church.

On one level, if the initiate fails to spit upon the cross as requested, he is rewarded for his true faith with membership, and believes he has made it. On the other level, if he does spit upon the cross, then he has shown true discipline and will be led by the masters' authority wherever that may take him - this initiate will move further up the scale that is hidden to the first who failed to follow the command.

As soon as the proselyte arrived at the ninth degree he was ripe to serve as blind instrument to all passions, and above all to a limitless ambition for domination… We thus see those who should have been protectors of humanity abandoned to an insatiable ambition, buried under the ruins of thrones and altars in the midst of the horrors of anarchy, after having brought misfortune upon nations, and deserving the curse of mankind.
(Von Hammer quoted in The Trail of the Serpent)

The effects of the ways of the society are seen to the outside world as strange and unusual.

However, these can eventually become the norm and accepted by the general population. Take for instance Christianity: In the early years of its existence, it was classed as a cult or secret organization due to having to remain underground.

The reason being that the state religion believed itself far removed from the Christian cult's creeds, when in reality they were the same solar beliefs. Roman philosophies were then what we now class as Pagan, but were followed by the majority.

Even Pagans had been underground at one point in their existence. Eventually this underground stream of Christianity grew and grew, with members in positions of "state authority" joining. This, in turn, made it more and more acceptable. Yes, there was a lot of "state" hatred for this cult on the surface because of its secret ways and its threat to the state religions.

Christianity had secret signs, secret handshakes, special myths, and rituals, just as any secret organization. And this is the nub of the "secret society" question - it has to remain secret because of the state that makes it a secret society.

Eventually, Christianity ruled the majority of the globe and was then fighting against other underground streams, which retained the mysteries of ancient myth, as we shall discover.

Amazingly, exactly the same can be said of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and even communism - all of which began as secret and clandestine organizations seemingly against the state. Just like the secret society of the Nazis in the 1930s, all these now standard organizations or religions began within secrecy and ended up taking power - a goal mocked by anti-conspiracy theorists across the globe.

The fact remains that history has shown, in every generation, that secret societies have gained power and become church and state - as was their goal. Today we have secret societies across the world in each country - all with their own goal and all being watched, as ever, by the state.

The Arabs and some Christians believe that the Jews are in charge of worldwide conspiracies to take over the world.

Mary the Mother of God or copy of Isis

The Druze and Yezidis in Syria and elsewhere are seen as threats to the norm.

The fabled Illuminati are seen as a hidden league of gentlemen by many and are believed to be at the heart of Christian American power. The Christian community believes that global terrorism is funded and carried out by worldwide networks of Islamic secret organizations.

What history has shown is that eventually these underground streams do alter the power balance of the world. Just look at September 11 and the disgusting attacks on America - they were carried out by clandestine organizations and did indeed alter the world. Another example was the revolt in America against the British Empire, which was backed, led, and inspired by the secret society of the Freemasons.

In Russia and France, the revolutions were similarly created by secret organizations.

This does not mean that every attempt by every secret society will work, and history is littered with hundreds of such failed attempts. Others have managed to claim power only fleetingly.

Another interesting point to note, and something that relates to our understanding of secret societies, is that many of the greatest minds the world has ever come to know were members of secret organizations.

Plato was an initiate into the mysteries of Eleusis and he even tells us in his writings how he was initiated. He claimed that he was placed in a pyramid for three days where he died symbolically, was reborn, and was then given the secrets of the mysteries.

There is no wonder that the Great Pyramid was claimed to be part and parcel of the mysteries - the names given to it - Ikhet and khuti - meant "glorious light" or "shining."

So what is a secret society?

It is simply a group of individuals, basing their origin in the mists of time or in the celestial and solar dance of the cyclic universe, who come together to affect change. Sometimes they are successful, sometimes they are not, but in most cases, they affect some kind of change in society at large. They are, on the whole, spiritually based, and there is a major thread running through those who have been successful, and that thread is illumination, which gave rise to the name "The Shining Ones."

In 1863 Le Couteulx de Canteleu writing in Les Sectes et Societes

Secretes said:

All secret societies have almost analogous

initiations, from the Egyptian to the Illuminati, and

most of them form a chain and give rise to others.

A Secret Language

History is a lie.

History is, as Justice Holmes said,

"what the people who won say it is."

It has been warped over vast periods of time to fit with each generation's idea of what is fact and what is truth. Without the existence of the secret societies, our history would have been totally different.

The history of mankind is like a vast jigsaw puzzle.

Only when all the pieces are laid down in the correct order can we see the bigger picture. The result is quite startling. We will see a grand and enlightening picture of how mysteries of the ancient and not so-ancient world can now be solved, from megalithic standing stones, the Holy Grail, and alchemy, to the truth behind religion and our present political systems.

The story of secret societies hides the real history of mankind.

In much the same way that modern day genetic research is showing how recently interlinked we are as a human race, the research and subsequent conclusions set out in this book will show how our own political and religious belief systems are from the same source. ¹ There is, after all, nothing new under the sun. New religious systems are just renewed elder religions with different names and different settings - the underlying beliefs are the same.

We can learn from this history and understand the cyclical patterns of human behavior, which will help us to predict the future more easily - or so we are told. We will look at the existence of life and consciousness; trace where it came from and where it is going.

We will move over millennia of mysteries to reason an actual history based upon fact and evidence. We will see whether there actually is a worldwide conspiracy, and, if so, where it is leading us. We shall establish motives, seek out new data, view existing documents in a new light to gain an overview of vast periods of time and civilizations, and finally come to grips with the mysteries of faith.

One of the most disturbing aspects of secret societies comes from the clear understanding that we have been lied to for centuries by one historian after another. Yet we must not lose sight of the fact that these professionals are responsible for piecing together huge amounts of information and giving supposedly factual accounts based on their own belief systems, which are influenced by the time and location in which they lived or are living.

Without the hard work of these historians, a book such as this would have been impossible to write, even though its conclusions are in stark contrast to the accepted view. We must remember: many of the history books we read today were written, or at the very least researched, during a Victorian age of high Christianity - a time when every theory and fact was bent towards a Christian viewpoint.

For instance, when it was discovered that there were ancient crucified gods that predated Christ, these were hushed, destroyed, or even purported to be the God-given knowledge of the future crucifixion of Christ. This is, of course, utter rubbish, coming from a religion that itself was a creation of ancient cults - as we shall see.

We must also understand that many historians, artists, builders, politicians, religionists, and laypeople wanted to pass the truth on but could not. So they devised ciphers, codes, and symbolism for their own kind and future generations to decipher. The beauty of many of these symbols was that most were already known and already held orthodox significances and, therefore, the hidden meaning could easily be cloaked in mainstream religiosity.

Symbols are hidden all around us like a trail of clues leading toward treasure. We come into contact with them everywhere we go - from the symbolic architecture and stained-glass windows of medieval churches, to, for example, the logo on a company van. My own company logo was symbolic of Phase Transition, the changing of one substance into another. For a marketing company, this was ideal.

Only people who knew about such things would be able to see this, however.

Others would just see an arrow with a wavy line. I had hidden a symbolic device within an otherwise ordinary-looking company logo.

Mankind has used this subtle language for thousands of years. Through each generation, this alternative form of communication has developed and grown increasingly complex, making it more difficult to decipher. The only way to discover the secrets of symbolism is to break down each and every painting, building, or text into every possible meaning, and consider both the people who created these artifacts and the time in which they lived.

These finds must then be weighed against known historical data, such as archaeological information.

One of the greatest works of symbolism on every level is the Bible. To the scholar who knows the alternative meanings of some of the apocalyptic texts it has been obvious, for a long time, that there is truth hidden away. To many more the underlying principle of the whole book is astrotheological - Jesus as the sun, Mary the moon, and all 12 apostles are therefore members of the Zodiac.

But there are so many hidden layers that show that any number of meanings are possible, and we must remember that lies are also hidden in code. Of course, to add to this, there are hundreds of texts and so-called Gospels, written at the same time as the Bible, that simply never passed the test of the early Christian propagandists and were discarded from liturgy.

These are equally valid now to the history of man, or we shall again be susceptible to the manipulation of those who chose the contents of the Bible in the first place.

We must also be careful not to read too much into texts, as we could be in danger of perceiving them in the light of our own modern society. There have been many recent examples of books in which ancient structures and texts are being taken as evidence of "extraterrestrial visitations."

Regardless of any other more Earthly interpretation and a huge lack of understanding of the religious and cultural traditions of the time, this evidence is abused for a predetermined idea or theory.

Another example of this is how modern-day evangelists use the Biblical book of Revelation as "proof" of the Lord's imminent return. They point to hidden meanings regarding nuclear war and Middle Eastern dictators as if they have had some kind of divine revelation themselves. The truth is, as any historian will tell you, that every generation since the writing of Revelation has claimed the end was very close. That is partly the point of the solar cyclical Gospel, misinterpreted completely, as usual.

All of these false interpretations make it more difficult to break the code down into facts.

We shall begin by taking a look at our origins. The origin of life has always been a fundamental part of religion. The age of enlightenment, of Darwin and his contemporaries, drastically altered the religious outlook of the world. If we look at the truth behind the origin of mankind, we will see that Darwin was only "discovering" what was already known - that this age of enlightenment was planned, and that it had to happen for the required changes to occur.

We will see how ancient man and his religious beliefs were perfectly parallel to our current scientific beliefs - the difference being only in the terms used.

Take the following pattern, which has been simplified but is common to the majority of the world's religions:

1. Only the God exists. He is supreme and is alone.

2. The heavens and earth are formless. Everything is darkness and/or covered by primeval waters.

3. Then there is light.

4. Heaven and earth are split apart.

5. The land is separated from the waters. Day and night are created with the new sun.

6. The land brings forth vegetation and eventually creatures.

7. Birds and animals are created.

8. Man appears. ²

As you will note, this pattern is also common to the current theories regarding the origin of species without the acceptance of the existence of God.

It is completely in line with the so-called big bang theory and yet seems to have emerged thousands of years ago. These patterns were especially notable in ancient Egypt, one of the mysterious forerunners of the world's faiths.

Previously, religion was responsible for informing us of our origins. Now scientists tell us to look for facts about our origins rather than philosophize about them, while at the same time they create new theories, which are sometimes prejudiced and do not take into account all of our knowledge.

New facts come to light with every passing day. New ideas regarding mathematical equations of the laws of physics are proving some theories to be fact. We need to understand these facts and theories and must not be afraid to alter our own personal viewpoint once these new facts emerge. Our own personal truths must change or we risk becoming stale, inert religious fanatics.

It is unfortunate that religious fervor in all disciplines (including science) can stop us from seeing these marvelous breakthroughs, and prevents us from moving on and even evolving.

So many facts are hidden from us because of generations of prejudice and intolerance that some of them will be startling. No one will remain unaffected by the evidence presented here. Everyone who reads this book will have his or her own belief system or personal prejudice challenged and will not want to accept everything as fact.

Much of the evidence here can be taken in a number of ways, and, where this is known, each alternative viewpoint has been given. Where other views are required, these have been sought from original sources. I include in this all religious factions, whether classed as cult, occult, or mainstream.

In our search for the truth, we will examine everything that could possibly fit into one book. We will start from Adam and Eve and move through to modern science. We will then go on to see how our belief systems began and where some of the more paranormal explanations originated.

There will be factual evidence of how our belief systems have been used, abused, and manipulated by a secret and deadly group of individuals who have a history going back thousands of years. 

The glory of religion - gold

They had a name, they had a power base, and they had a secret, locked away within their initiated few, which had major implications for the future of mankind. We will discover the secret and reveal it.

There are thousands of best-selling books out there, which support mysteries that simply do not exist. This book will dispel those mysteries and put us back on the straight path. Why, in this supposedly enlightened age, do we still believe and feed off the controlling lies of those in positions of authority? The answer is simple.

Knowledge is power - therefore if you keep the knowledge for yourself, you keep the power.

When we come to leave old religions behind we are simply given a new one, more relevant to our age and to the political aims of the power brokers.

• Do we need the opium of religion or can we survive without it?

• Do we need the repackaged "New Age" religions, or the pseudo-scientific cults that look towards UFOs for the meaning of life?

This book will show how even the new belief systems are based upon the same old lies and the secret knowledge that we are supposedly "too simple" to understand.

The Shining Ones, under different names, have manipulated us over the centuries by many means, including psychology. Utilizing the story of our origins, they played on our desire to know who we are and where we came from, and controlled our belief systems from the start. They also understood some of the very basic and fundamental ways in which our brains work and are influenced.

They discovered that we were influenced not only by people, but also by the world around us in more ways than we today can even comprehend.

If you are ready for the truth, if you can honestly say you have an open mind and are prepared to let go of misconceptions, then read on.

Forget the false interpretations of myth and religion you have heard so many times, and know them for what they really are:

the secret language of the Shining Ones.

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Notes

^1. In the Blood by Steve Jones (Harper Collins) 1996.

^2. The Copper Scroll Decoded by Robert Feather (Thorsons) 1999.

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