The Secret Society!

Doesn’t “Secret” mean that no one should know?

For centuries, men and women have been trying to keep information from one another.

Paradoxically, many have come to the conclusion that the best way to keep a secret is to tell it to a bunch of other people and then swear them all to secrecy.

This effort is then unsuccessful, and we call the result a "Secret Society."

If the effort was intended to be successful, we wouldn’t call the result anything, because we would never hear about the effort to begin with.

Net, net . . . . the Society part is easy. The Secret part is hard.

In the past I have found information regarding these “Secret Societies in libraries around the world. Having to dig up the dirt in obscure places. Recently, all you have to do is “Google it.”

Most groups can arguably be included in more than one of the categories which follow, and probably all of them can be included under the final heading: Fictional, Fraternal, Political, Religious, and Ridiculous.

The aura of mystery surrounding the urban legend of secret societies has always been fodder for books and movies but what if it's all much ado about nothing? The smoke and mirrors game of men and women who need to be part of something.

Many secret societies have become somewhat public through their charitable contributions. However there is still the continued belief in the “secret” in “secret societies,” like the ones depicted in the “DaVinci movies." Do we need to wise up and realize that we are being fooled? Also, will these Societies never fade if people continue to dramatize the events to perpetuate these myths?

Secret societies go back to the age of Pythagoras who stated the importance of true friendship; “a friend should be ones other self, or better known in Latin, alter ego.” The movement very much resembled a mystery cult, or sect, and Pythagoras taught the immortality and transmigration of souls, himself remembering all his previous lives, including the one as Euphorbus - a warrior in the Trojan War. One of Pythagoras beliefs was that everything is based on numbers, and that true reality consisted of them. He also discovered that the tones in music are relative to the length of the strings. The Pythagorean astronomy was also important, since it stated that the earth was round and revolved around a central fire together with the other planets. This movement created a musical harmony that we are so used to that we cannot hear it.

Other more written about societies include; Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Skull and Bones, Knights Templar, Priory of Sion and numerous other groups that have formed as a social means of attaining some ideal or end.

Research has found accusations that range from the ridiculous to the sublime;

Freemasons run NASA and cover up the truth about aliens; at the same time Skull and Bones fund this country's wars, The Jesuits control the Vatican, the Bank of England, and are supreme over all Freemasonry, etc, etc . . . .

Let us not forget the Bilderberg group. The original intention of the Bilderberg Group was to further the understanding between Western Europe and North America through informal meetings between powerful individuals. Each year, a "steering committee" devises a select invitation list with a maximum of 100 names. Invitations are only extended to residents of Europe and North America. The location of their annual meeting is not secret, and the agenda and list of participants are openly available to the public, but the topics of the meetings are kept secret and attendees pledge not to divulge what was discussed. The official stance of the Bilderberg Group is that their secrecy enables people to speak freely without the need to carefully consider how every word might be interpreted by the mass media. (Media Moguls are invited but are sworn to secrecy and if details were leaked they would be banned in the future.) However, some consider the elite and secretive nature of the meeting adverse to the principles of inclusion in democratic societies.

The 2006 invitees included David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Queen Beatrix of Holland, New York Governor George Pataki, the heads of Coca-Cola, Credit Suisse, the Royal Bank of Canada, cabinet ministers from Spain, Greece. Attendees also included Bill Clinton's right-hand-man Vernon Jordan, as was his Mid-East negotiator Dennis Ross. The prime ministers of Britain and Canada — Tony Blair and Stephen Harper - have addressed the group before, as have former Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau, Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien. In 1991 the little known Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton was on the guest list.

I’m sure it is only a matter of time until this group and their “Secrets” will be turned into the next great movie; maybe all invitees are aliens. You never know. The closest way I can relate to the secret rituals of these societies was the scene in the movie Animal House, with fraternity initiation of new members involving black-robed elders paddling pledges who respond, "Thank you, sir. May I have another?"