by Philip Gardiner
from
Scribd Website
Man collects into groups, like schools
of fish and flocks of birds. These groups become religions, secret
societies, governments and cults. The reasons for these groupings
are the same as it is for animals banding together. We come together
for protection against predators, for strength in numbers. Whether
you are a Freemason or a Boy Scout, the reason you join forces with
others of like-race and like-mind is to gain strength and
protection.
In the extensive research for my new book and DVD, Secret Societies:
Gardiner's Forbidden Knowledge, Revelations About the Freemasons, Templars, Illuminati, Nazis, and the Serpent Cults, I found that,
historically, the secret societies of the world are all connected
and all derive from a similar if not the same source, and that the
threads running through them all have been traced by scholars
throughout the ages.
As Le Couteulx de Canteleu said in his Les Sectes et Societes
Secretes published in 1863:
“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.”
According to an article published in the Patriot 1922 by G.G. or ‘Dargon’,
entitled “The Anatomy of Revolution”,
“For centuries there have existed certain schools of mystical
philosophy (with)... elements of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and
Egyptian occultism mingled with Grecian mysteries, Jewish Kabalism,
and fragments of ancient Syrian cults. Out of the hodge-podge of
Oriental philosophy, magic, and mythology arose... Gnostic sects,
and after the rise of Mohammedanism, heretical sects...
To the
same sources may be traced the ideas that inspired such
political-religious movements of the Middle Ages as the Illuminati, Albigenses, Cathari, Waldenses, Troubadours, Anabaptists, and
Lollards and the rise of early secret societies. The
Templars are
said to have been initiated by the Assassins into anti-Christian and
subversive mysteries, and we find similar traces of an old and
occult origin in the Alchemists, the Rosicrucians, and later
mystical cults... ”
This “analogous” form running through all secret societies is the
underlying belief in and worship of the stars. It is this element
which named them the shining ones and it is this element that is
still at the root of so much misinterpreted symbolism. Even the Holy Vehm were ‘wissends’ who had the sun and the stars as symbols of
power.
This worship of the stars was known as
Sabeism and the high
Mason, Albert Pike, pointed out:
“The seven great primitive nations,
from whom all others are descended, the Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks,
Egyptians, Turks, Indians, and Chinese, were all originally Sabeists
and worshipped the stars.”
The very power of understanding the stars was jealously guarded by
priesthoods around the world, from Aztec to Egyptian. The role of
the priest was to interpret the movements of the stars, sun, and
moon, in order to predict the future and for navigation. This
jealousy forged ciphers, codes and symbols and forced the hiding and
destruction of implements and tools of the trade. Many of the
Freemasonic symbols we see today were never meant for building, they
were meant for astrology and the logic of the stars.
These secrets of the stars were mystical to the early peoples who
could not understand the magic. Secrets were passed from one
generation to the next by initiates and adepts and this is how the
long thread was woven, by passing on knowledge and keeping it
hidden. Eventually, the secret brotherhoods no longer knew why they
kept their odd symbols secret and why they said strange invocations.
Yet, through tradition and dedication to their brothers, they kept
alive a rich tapestry, a tapestry that I and other scholars can
break down and interpret.
Hidden History
We must pull hard on the thread to unravel the tapestry, one
generation at a time. According to Le Couteulx de Canteleu, the
priests or leading men of the organizations followed the Egyptian
hierarchy. At the highest level, there was the priest, who alone
could do magic and contact the gods. At the second, we find the
greater initiates, those chosen from the people and who must
maintain secrecy at all costs and protect the priesthood. At the
third, the lesser initiates were only told things that were deemed
proper.
In this hierarchical trinity, we see the plan of most, if not all,
of the world’s secret societies. The majority of Freemasons today
fall into the category of the lesser initiates; they seek no more
because they know of no more. Only at the highest degrees in
Freemasonry are the real secrets revealed, and yet there have been
some who claim to have been higher-level initiates or indeed
‘priests’ and who have since ‘spilled the beans’. Anyone who has
seen these supposed secrets of white powdered gold and even Jewish
conspiracy plots will know that this is misinformation at best and
money-making at worst.
Lessons for Today
Each generation tends to look forward, forgetting that our past
holds intelligent and thought provoking answers to questions that
are and will always be relevant. Because we begin each generation
afresh, we do not see the thread running through each generation
from the one before––the thread of the secret society.
In the 20th century, psychology and psychoanalysis emerged, and the
clever new words that came with them. Yet, why are we arrogant
enough to believe that we discovered the root of human psychological
problems? This is utter rubbish––Psyche herself was a Greek goddess.
For thousands of years, man has sought answers to the conundrums of
his own inner reality––the only radical change is the wording. When
we say that a person is psychotic, our ancestors would have said
they were touched by the spirits. Are we more advanced than our
ancestors?
90% of the world’s population still believes in God, yet, we still
rage war in the name of religion and we pollute the environment and
destroy our own homes. There is anthropological evidence to prove
that ancient man was peaceful, living in harmony with his neighbor
and respecting the earth and living in balance with it. As
populations grew and more people occupied smaller spaces, minor wars
erupted and even, violent sacrifices. Small bands of men gathered
together to control those who fought, and these small bands emerged
as our kings and queens, medicine men and priests, and our secret
societies.
There is a lesson here for us all. Just 100 years ago, a billion
people lived on the planet. Now, there are six billion and growing.
Six billion people can do a lot of harm to themselves and the
environment, destroying the whole for everyone. Without balance,
without wisdom, without knowledge, where are we heading?
We may believe that some spark in the bio-chemical and electric
brain is enlightenment, yet, it is not. Our masters tell us what to
be like, what to buy, what to do and say. We no longer need to know
ourselves–-the TV has all the answers. And yet, what we see on TV is
a reflection of greed, money and capitalism and these can be
interpreted as the dark forces of human nature. Light and dark are
opposite sides of the same coin. Balance is wisdom, like a coin
placed upon its edge, and like a coin, it can easily be knocked
over.
I desire a good life that does not include a range of cars, a yacht
in every port or another million. I am a realist, and the reality is
that while one man has, another does not. My evolutionary instinct
is to gather goods, property and wealth for the bad times ahead, to
see me through the winter or the coming storm. The down side of this
is that we grow that divisive side of our nature, greed, and
somebody somewhere suffers. We join forces with others and hold our
newfound cabal in secrecy, protecting it until time matures the
original intention until it becomes unrecognizable––these are the
origins of the secret societies of the ancients.
The ancient Chinese texts tell us that mankind has been in this
situation before many times and that his greed and ‘noise’ has
brought his civilization crashing down to the ground.
How close are
we to doing it yet again?
How ‘noisy’ are we?
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