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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Illuminati 'recruitment' in Illuminatus!

The comments are often the best part in the weekly Illuminatus! online discussions. There were a lot of good comments for episode 23. 

One that stuck with me was Oz Fritz's comment about Iluminatus! as a recruitment tool for the Illuminati. He wrote, "Speaking of eternal serpent power and the Illuminati Secret RAW writes of in CT1 recalls hearing a recent internet rumor that the Illuminatti are recruiting. They need more Illuminati and Illuminatus! tells you how. Maybe this book functions as a clandestine (or not so clandestine) recruitment algorithm?"

This is perhaps an example of a serious intent behind all of the Illuminati jokes. In Appendix Lamed, the authors write, "This book, being part of the only serious conspiracy it describes — that is, Operation Mindfuck — has programmed the reader in ways that he or she will not understand for a period of months, or perhaps years."

Adam Gorightly's new Historia Discordia has many documents that shed light on Illuminatus!, but one of the most interesting, for me,  is the "Constitution of the Illuminati" on page 109, which Gorightly attributes to Wilson and Shea. It lists "Five Rare Precepts" (perhaps playing off the Five Precepts of Buddhism?) Here are Shea and Wilson's "Five Rare Precepts," which I'm reprinting after asking Adam's permission:

1) We renounce and oppose the use of coercion in human affairs, whether for the purpose of monopolizing land or industrial property, resolving disputes, or that of advancing any political cause;

2) We renounce and oppose the use of deception and secrecy in human affairs, except for the purpose of an occasional harmless put-on now and then;

3) We adhere to the principles of participatory democracy, decentralism, and individualism within our association;

4) We give unqualified support to freedom of expression and freedom of belief;

5) Our specific purpose is to promote understanding and appreciation of anarchist ideas and practices in the political realm; we also encourage and support the cultural anarchism of surrealism and dada in the arts.

4 comments:

Oz Fritz said...

Great post, especially the Precepts!

Adam Gorightly said...

I might have been wrong about attributing that to Wilson and Shea. I'm leaning now more toward Kerry Thornley coming up with those precepts.

Much of my research and notes in HD are a few years old now, and as I review the material, I'm finding a few things here and there that will later need to be revised. Hail Eris!

Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson) said...

It sure sounds like Wilson and Shea to me. I think you were right the first time.

Adam Gorightly said...

I thought I was right the first time, too! In the upper right is a dating system that I saw Thornley use on a lot of stuff he wrote and I don't remember any of the other early Discordians using that...the font is also quite similar to the typewriter Kerry was using around this time..I also come across stuff that shows Thornley was using "Ewige Blumenkraft" very early on, and I think Shea and Wilson may have picked that up from him. Thornley was key in developing a lot of these Illuminati ideas over the years with RAW and Shea, so the influence of all three are definitely seen in this piece.