Discussion Main / TheIlluminati

I disagree with The Illuminatus Trilogy spoiler being "not necessary". Since it its the Trope Codifier in this case, it has to bexplained somewhere. So, dumping it here for the moment:

• Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus trilogy helped spread the name. The books are a Mind Screw told by Unreliable Narrators, but it probably boils down to this: Thousands of years ago, Atlantis was home to a non-human (albeit primate) Precursor civilization, which was destroyed when an Eldritch Abomination from Cthulhu Mythos they imprisoned got loose. Around the same time, a small splinter faction led by Gruad the Grayface strived to reform the Atlantean society by exploring the hidden potential of the mind. They called themselves "Illuminati" and, ironically, were the only Atlanteans to survive the catastrophe. After holing themselves up in an underground ocean underneath Himalaya mountains and disappearing from recorded history, they began covertly advancing human civilization in accordance with their ideals. However, in the millenia that followed, many secret societies claimed the name of "Illuminati", most recently, Adam Weishaupt's circle. Weishaupt rediscovered some of the real Illuminati's mind-altering techniques by chance, and was persuaded to use them to Take Over the World. These new Illuminati are opposed by the Discordians, Erisians, and other apprentices of the old Illuminati, and their Evil Plan culminates in the events described in the trilogy. The above explanation may be utterly wrong.
  • Also, the "eye in the pyramid" symbol comes from a primal fear of all Terran lifeforms: the Leviathan, a gargantuan single-cell life form slumbering in the deepest oceans, which grew from one of the two cells, into which the first ever living cell on Earth divided (we all come from the other one, which continued dividing, eventually evolving into multicellular organisms). Leviathan looks like a giant pyramid with tentacles at each corner and a glowing nucleus at its core (the proverbial eye).
  • The Atlanteans were human; just human from before the time we lost most of our body hair, so they were furry.
  • The novel is infamous for giving complex explanations for the origins of the Illuminati, and then subverting them later on, sometimes with information that is equally wrong. It doesn't help that there have been several groups throughout history under that name.

Somebody ever noticed that the Illuminati seems to be pitted against the Freemasons? According to the Dan Brown line of thought, the Masons (the Rosencreutzians) arguably regretted The French Revolution, while The Illuminati "orchestrated" it. Some political Fridge Logic may occur.