The Weirdness: Proofs of a Conspiracy...pp. 60-64

Whenever I read these conspiracy theories, the same thought runs through my head: what would Weishaupt think of them? Defending Weishaupt is like defending one of the new Star Wars titles. They're not great, they're fine, but you end up having to pick a side because disliking them puts you in the same camp as a bunch of extremist nutters who think that a black woman ruins the franchise. While I generally agree with the Illuminati's goals, I agree with Robison's initial complaint against Masonry that the ceremony and pageantry are just silly. Let's just meet up, talk, and plan; I don't need or want all the rest of the trappings.

I don't know if the 18th century was just more boring, or that the wealthy classes had nothing to do; but even though Masonry had its trappings, Weishaupt's group was going to add to that. There might a cultural atmosphere that we are missing now. I've mentioned that mystical spirituality was in vogue at this point in history. Alchemy as a practice is on the way out, and chemistry is taking over. What chemistry doesn't have is the esoteric spiritualism that alchemy does. While chemistry produces reliable results it's not as...fun. Chemistry's symbolism isn't open to interpretation and is perfectly explainable. The esoteric nature of alchemy, Cabbalah, or the strange rites of the Masons are not and thus it gives it a certain appeal. I remember swinging the monstrance in Catholic mass knowing that god couldn't smell it, but it had this ancient feeling to it; which was entirely the point. Rituals lessen stress and create feelings of closeness with the other members in the ritual. Weishaupt was correct in his assertion that no one knew what those rituals meant (from the last post) so he can adapt them however he wants. 

Yet, weirdness for weirdness's sake still comes in. Robison reports that the members took "antique names." Yep, this boy's club (I have yet to see evidence that women were admitted) was still a literal boy's club because they took code names. Weishaupt was "Brother Spartacus," Knigge was "Philo," and Zwack was "Cato"--no indication whether he was Cato the Younger or the elder Cato. Robison notes that with the exception of the two members that picked Cato and Socrates; no one picked a name of someone who was an eminent teacher or "practice of virtue. On the contrary, they seem to have affected the characters of the free-thinkers and turbulent spirits of antiquity."

I don't know what is so surprising to Robison, this is the exact kind of thing they sought to do in the first place: upend the social order. 

Now we get to an exciting part. A letter allegedly from Spartacus to Cato (Weishaupt to Zwack) dated 6 February 1778. The letter lays out the plan for the Illuminati as far as membership is concerned. Anyone who is not a devout "religionist" can be admitted. There will be different academies within the group, and they should be careful about exposing new people to higher-order works so as to not scare them off. This part is interesting because it implies that there is a group of people who cannot handle certain works, not because they are too difficult but because certain writings are "fit only for the strongest stomachs." 

It reminds me that I have difficulty understanding the impact of poetry. Lucretius' "De Rerum Natura" I get, but that's because it's straight-up Philosophy. I get Homer, Beowulf, Virgil, and Dante; but those are epic poems and they tell a story. I cannot fathom why Kubla Kahn is important or revolutionary. I love Shelley's Ozymandias, but that's because I first encountered it in the pages of an Avengers comic where a little kid is playing with the defeated head of Ultron (Avengers #57). I've always loved that page, but if you were to discuss the poem's impact, I'd be a bit lost. I used to live with an English major and her friends would discuss people like Coleridge and I, the philosophy grad student, would just nod along lost. When Weishaupt claims that certain writings require strong stomachs, I cannot relate to this idea. If my 6-year-old wants to read Plato, I'll hand it to her. I've been taking my older Daughter to Shakespeare since she was 8. 

The other catch is that we don't really know if this letter was written by Weishaupt. The two letters place us in a unique place that is confined to this kind of research. I don't believe that Robison is lying here, I believe that he believes they are legit; but there's so far, no accompanying story about where they came from. 

As a side note, Robison tells us that there were plans for a women's Illuminati too (so that answers the earlier question of it being a boy's club) but that would remain underneath the men's Illuminati. I guess they were progressive for the 18th century which is not that progressive for today. Amongst the papers, the Bavarian elector confiscated was a dissertation on suicide, which I'm guessing is based on their quasi-adoption of the Stoic philosophy and a recipe for an abortive tea. I've heard the abortion story before and figured that it was a fictional story by their modern-day detractors to make them seem evil. I supposed it could be true, amongst the papers was also a description of the various royal/aristocratic seals and how to remove them without damaging them; and a bitter satire on religion that I would like to read. 

Is any of this damning? I don't know because I'm unfamiliar with the area's laws. Given this list, I am beginning to guess that none of it was illegal but was shocking to the conservatives of the time. Zwack would claim that they were his, and that he had the right to own them because, as a judge, he had to know about them. This may be the case, but Robison asks the right question, "then how did they come to be in the hands of the Illuminati?" 

Weishaupt himself denies that he has done anything wrong. He denies the abortion recipe, he denies the suicide dissertation, and he claims that he no more brought Deism into Bavaria than he did into Rome; where instead he merely found it in Bavaria already. 

So far, we've been offered nothing new by these letters. They merely portray a group of individuals that have been pushing a different kind of reading amongst their members, with grand plans for how the membership is to conduct themselves as well as attract others. For two centuries this book has formed the basis for countless super-conspiracies and all Robison has it portrayed as, is a group of Enlightenment Deists. Never meet your heroes I guess is the lesson thus far.