Meet the Man Who Started the Illuminati

How did a Bavarian professor end up creating a group that would be at the center of two
centuries of conspiracy theories?

THE 18TH-CENTURY GERMAN thinker Adam Weishaupt would have been stunned if he had known his
ideas would one day fuel global conspiracy theories, and inspire best-selling novels and blockbuster
films.

Until he was 36, the vast majority of his compatriots would have been equally stunned to discover that
this outwardly respectable professor was a dangerous enemy of the state, whose secret society, the
Illuminati, was seen to threaten the very fabric of society.

How and why it all started

Adam Weishaupt was born in 1748 in Ingolstadt, a city in the Electorate of Bavaria (now part of modern-
day Germany), Adam Weishaupt was a descendant of Jewish converts to Christianity. Orphaned at a
young age, his scholarly uncle took care of his education, and enrolled him in a Jesuit school. After
completing his studies, Adam Weishaupt became a professor of natural and canon law at the University
of Ingolstadt, married, and started a family.

As a boy he was an avid reader, consuming books by the latest French Enlightenment philosophers in his
uncle’s library. Bavaria at that time was deeply conservative and Catholic. Weishaupt was not the only
one who believed that the monarchy and the church were repressing freedom of thought.

Convinced that religious ideas were no longer an adequate belief system to govern modern societies, he
decided to find another form of “illumination,” a set of ideas and practices that could be applied to
radically change the way European states were run. He created the Illuminati, a secret society
eponymously promoting enlightenment as well as moral progress.

The Founding Father

The Illuminati was founded by Weishuapt in the year 1776, an obviously significant year in American
history. It is pretty commonly known that many of the founding fathers were members of the
freemasons.

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock were notable masons, and the influence of
their membership can be seen in the philosophies they imbued in the Constitution as well as symbolism
in our currency.
The basic explanation is that they were simply freemasons who kept their philosophies secret because it
clashed with church doctrine, but some believe it to be deeper and linked to the Illuminati. The use of
the symbolism of the all-seeing eye above a pyramid on the dollar bill is said to have come from
Weishaupt. The Latin words encircling the pyramid translate to “it has favored our undertakings, new
order of the ages” or some take it to mean “the Announcement of a New World Order.”

The Illuminati aimed to create “a state of liberty and moral

equality.”

Conspiracy Theories

The Illuminati has become a household term now with its popularization in media and pop culture.
Conspiracies range as to the extent of the power of the Illuminati, but most maintain that the group is
made up of high-brow politicians, bankers, business moguls and celebrities. On the extreme end of the
spectrum, these members are thought to be an alien reptilian species controlling humanity.

Society of Secrets

Weishaupt was not against religion itself, but rather the way in which it was practiced and imposed. His
thinking, he wrote, offered freedom “from all religious prejudices; cultivates the social virtues; and
animates them by a great, a feasible, and speedy prospect of universal happiness.” To achieve this, it
was necessary to create “a state of liberty and moral equality, freed from the obstacles which
subordination, rank, and riches, continually throw in our way.”

On the night of May 1, 1776, the first Illuminati met to found the order in a forest near Ingolstadt.
Bathed in torchlight, there were five men. There they established the rules that were to govern the
order. All future candidates for admission required the members’ consent, a strong reputation with
well-established familial and social connections, and wealth.

Over the following years, Weishaupt’s secret order grew considerably in size and diversity, possibly
numbering 600 members by 1782. They included important people in Bavarian public life, such as Baron
Adolph von Knigge and the banker Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who provided funding. Although, at first,
the Illuminati were limited to Weishaupt’s students, the membership expanded to included noblemen,
politicians, doctors, lawyers, and jurists, as well as intellectuals and some leading writers, including
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. By the end of 1784, the Illuminati had 2,000 to 3,000 members.
THE ASCENT TO ILLUMINATION

The Order of the Illuminati’s complex, 13-grade structure was devised by Baron von Knigge, who applied
the model used in the masonic lodges of which he had been a member.

First Class

Each novice was initiated in humanitarian philosophy until he became a minerval. He then received the
order’s statutes and could attend meetings.

1. Initiate
2. Novice
3. Minerval
4. Illuminatus Minor

Second Class

The various degrees in this class were inspired by Freemasonry. The illuminatus major supervised
recruitment, and the illuminatus dirigens presided over the minervals’ meetings.

5. Apprentice
6. Fellow
7. Master
8. Illuminatus Major
9. Illuminatus Dirigens

Third Class

The highest degree of philosophical illumination. Its members were priests who instructed lower-degree
members. The lower orders of this class were themselves under the authority of a king.

10. Priest
11. Prince
12. Magus
13. King