The legends of the all-pervading and omnipotent Masonic organizations are among the oldest and most enduring in the history of modern civilization. Articles about invisible world governments that have taken upon themselves the task of governing countries with a multimillion population appear in the press of different countries with enviable regularity. In Russian, even the term "Freemason" itself has turned into an abusive, although nowadays somewhat forgotten word "Freemason". Much more often the word "Zhidomason" sounds now, which does not leave the pages of some printed publications and has entered the popular consciousness at the level of folklore: "I had a terrible dream that I was a Zhidomason, looked in my passport as soon as possible, it says - … no". And much more.
How easy it is to be known as a Freemason in Russia can be judged at least from the novel by Alexander Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". For this, the main character found it enough to speak in the provincial society in the correct literary language and drink red wine instead of vodka:
He's a freemason; he drinks one
A glass of red wine;
He does not fit ladies' hands;
All yes yes no; won't say yes
Or no, sir."
That was the general voice.
So who are these elusive and mysterious Masons, where did they come from on the mountain to patriots of all countries of the world and what goals do they pursue? We will try to answer this question in the article offered to your attention.
Painting by the Italian artist Alfredo Di Princio dedicated to Masonic symbolism
The term "Freemason" is a word of English origin, which in translation into Russian means "master mason". Franks were also called persons released from duties to the seigneur or king. Thus, "Freemasons" are "free", "free" masons. As for the Masonic lodges, they first appeared in 1212 in England and in 1221 in Amiens (France) - that was the name of the buildings that served as a temporary refuge for wandering craftsmen who lived in small communities of 12-20 people (French loge, English lodge). Later, as a loge and lodge, masters often used taverns, inns and pubs, which were named after the "primary" Masonic organizations: "Crown", "Grape Branch" and so on.
Masonic symbolism
"Freemasons" were the elite of the construction world, they wanted to solve really important issues among themselves, in a narrow circle of real masters - outside the guild organization. To get to know each other, to distinguish a real master from an apprentice, the Masons gradually acquired a system of secret signs. In 1275, the first secret congress of Masons was held in Strasbourg - it is difficult to say how representative it was, and who its delegates were: craftsmen from the nearest regions of Germany and France, or their brothers from other countries managed to get to Strasbourg. As you know, any government is suspicious of secret organizations, so it is not surprising that the first impulse of all governments that learned about Masonic societies was to prohibit their activities. The English parliament, for example, did this in 1425. But the Masonic organizations survived, they were saved by the fact that they did not remain narrowly professional corporations: representatives of the aristocracy, clergy, and the learned world, who acted as patrons, and priests, and chaplains. From this arose the concept of a practical freemason, i.e., a bricklayer proper, and a spiritual freemason - a person of a different profession. The first documented report of the entry of a non-professional bricklayer into the lodge dates back to June 1600, when Lord John Boswell was admitted to the ranks of the Freemasons in Scotland. Since then, the number of bricklayers in the lodges has only decreased, while the number of aristocrats and people of "free" professions has grown rapidly. According to the composition of the participants, the Masonic lodges were divided into lodges of students, apprentices, and masters. Women also did not stand aside: although initially the Masonic lodges were closed to them, later the so-called "adopted" ("adopted") women's lodges were established, which were to be under the patronage of "legitimate" men's lodges. The lodges of one district or one country were subject to a general government called the Grand Lodge or the Great East. The main board member was called a great master (grandmaster).
Individual lodges also bore certain names, in the 17th century most often associated with some historical person, or by the name of a Masonic symbol or virtue. The bed itself was now traditionally a room in the form of an elongated rectangle, located in the direction from east to west and having three windows - to the east, west and south. The highest officials of the lodge were located in the eastern part of the hall. The goals declared by the leaders of the Masonic organizations were very vague and, as a rule, boiled down to the desire to improve the situation in society by observing certain moral norms by the "brothers". The famous British Freemason James Anderson wrote in his "New Book of Rites" (1723):
"A Mason, by its very position, obeys the laws of morality … Only one religion is obligatory for everyone - it is an all-embracing religion that unites people, which consists in the duty of each of us to be kind and faithful to duty, to be a man of honor and conscience."
However, the concepts of "natural equality, brotherhood of humanity and tolerance, which constituted the" trinity "of Masons, were hardly taken seriously by the aristocrats, who by the middle of the 17th century had ousted real masons everywhere from their lodges. And in the 18th century, Masonic society became so respectable that joining lodges became a sign of good manners both for the representatives of the noblest nobility and the richest bourgeois families, and for the "masters of thought" - famous scientists, writers, philosophers. As a result, in the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. in England in the ranks of the Freemasons were such outstanding figures as the historian Gibbon, philosopher D. Priestley, writers R. Burns and W. Scott.
In the high society of France, the fashion for Freemasonry was brought by the officers of the Irish Guards Regiment, who remained loyal to the deposed English King James II and went with him to the continent in exile. Freemasonry in France became one of the manifestations of Anglomania that swept the country at the end of the 17th century. At first, the French police tried to "kill" the Masonic organizations with laughter: there were many stinging pamphlets, dancers performed a "Masonic dance" in the theater, and even in the Puppet Theater, Polichinelle began to call himself a Freemason. However, two dozen agents who were introduced into the Masonic environment by the police did not find anything suspicious in their meetings, and gradually the persecution of "free masons" came to naught. In addition, the fashion for Masons did not escape the royal family: in 1743, Prince of the Blood Louis de Bourbon de Condé became the Grand Master of the Masonic lodges of France, and the Duchess of Bourbon later became the Grand Master of the women's lodges. An important role in the activities of the Freemasons was also played by the closest friend of Marie-Antoinette, Princess Lambal, who in 1781 became the master of all women's "Scottish" lodges in France. Under her "leadership" then there were several thousand noble ladies, among them - the Marquise de Polignac, the Countess de Choiseul, the Countess de Mayy, the Countess de Narbonne, the Countess d'Afri, the Viscountess de Fondoa. As one of the rituals of initiation through which the candidate for "Masons" had to pass was a kiss … of a dog's backside (!)
Princess Lambal
On the eve of the revolution, Masonic lodges in France turned into a kind of secular salons. Historians note that "French courtesy then perverted the institution of free masons." Some of these Masonic (or already - near-Masonic?) Organizations in Paris had very extravagant goals and objectives. The Order of Happiness, for example, preached refined debauchery. And the "Society of the moment", on the contrary, proclaimed its task "the elimination of all gallantry in love."
Masons entered Italy together with English merchants in the thirties of the 18th century, and in the middle of the same century branches of French Masonic lodges appeared in this country. Almost everywhere in this country, Freemasons enjoyed the patronage of local aristocrats. In the middle of the 18th century, Masonic lodges also appeared in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Holland, Denmark and other European states.
Freemasons came to the USA with English settlers. Historians had little difficulty in determining that the constitution of the United States has a number of references to the book of the already mentioned James Anderson "The Constitution of Free Masons" (1723), which was published in 1734 in the overseas colonies by Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin
Of the 56 people who signed the Declaration of Independence, 9 were Masons. Of the 39 who signed the US Constitution, 13 were Masons. The already mentioned B. Franklin - an outstanding scientist, publisher, publicist, authoritative political figure of the United States of those years, and, concurrently, a freemason of high degrees of the Philadelphia Lodge of St. John, became the only person who put his signature on both documents and the Paris Treaty of 1783 (on recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain). Perhaps even people far from politics have heard about the Masonic symbols on the US seal and the one dollar bill (truncated pyramid, "all-seeing eye", eagle).
Truncated pyramid and "all-seeing eye" on the US one dollar bill
It is known for certain that the Bible for the oath of George Washington as President of the United States was delivered from the New York Masonic Lodge St. John's. In addition to Washington, members of the Masonic lodges were presidents Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, E. Johnson, Garfield, McKinley, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, F. Roosevelt, G. Truman, L. Johnson, J. Ford. This all sounds alarming and threatening enough, but it is easy to see that membership in Masonic organizations did not prevent the above presidents from adhering to different, often opposite, views on many issues of US domestic and foreign policy. And it is completely inadmissible to speak of them as puppets brought to power to carry out any far-reaching Masonic plans.
The Masonic movement also received a certain influence in Russia: there is a legend that Peter I was ordained to the Masons by the English architect Christopher Wren.
Christopher Wren
It is known for certain that one of Peter's closest associates, Franz Lefort, was a Freemason.
Zhukovsky R. K., portrait of F. Lefort, Hermitage
In 1731, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of London, Lord Lovel, appointed Captain John Phillips as Master of the "for all of Russia." In 1740, the captain of the Russian service, Yakov Keith, was appointed master, and the first entry of Russian people into Masonic lodges is also attributed to this time. One of the first Russian Masons was Elagin, who "wanted to learn how to make gold from Cagliostro." However, during the alchemical experiments, the mysterious count was caught in deception and received a slap in the face from the Elaginsky secretary, and so the matter ended.
Ivan Perfilievich Elagin
Since 1783Masonic lodges began to open in the provincial cities of Russia - in Orel, Vologda, Simbirsk, Mogilev. In the same year, three printing houses were opened by Russian masons - two vowels and one secret. And in 1784 a Printing Company emerged from the Friendly Society, the soul of which was the most famous Russian freemason - the publisher and educator NI Novikov.
D. Levitsky, portrait of N. I. Novikov
Novikov suffered not so much for freethinking, but for the attention to his person on the part of the heir to the throne - Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. In fact, Catherine, who had usurped power, did not forgive such things to anyone, as a result, in 1791, the Printing Company was destroyed, and its head in 1792, on the personal instructions of the Empress, was imprisoned without trial in the Shlisselburg Fortress, from where he was released in 1796 by the one who ascended the throne Paul.
Moscow, admission to the Masonic Lodge of a new member, engraving
Around 1760 Martinetz de Pasqualis founded in Paris the "Brotherhood of Choice Clergy", which later transformed into the Martinist Order, which, unfortunately, played a certain negative role in the modern history of Russia. In 1902, the head of the Parisian Martinist Lodge Gerard Encausse, better known as Doctor Papus, who arrived in St. Petersburg, introduced Nicholas II to the medium Philip Nizamier, whom the Empress later referred to as one of two friends "sent to us by God" Grigory Rasputin). Nicholas II granted the Lyons adventurer the post of medical officer at the Military Academy. It is known about the seance of Monsieur Philippe, at which the spirit of Alexander III "very successfully" advised Nicholas II to maintain an alliance with France to the detriment of traditionally warm and friendly relations with Germany (the tradition of kissing the hand of the Russian emperor, which appeared among Prussian generals after the Napoleonic wars, existed until World War I). At the same session, the spirit of Alexander III, through the lips of a visiting magician, diligently pushed Nicholas to war with Japan.
Philip Nizamye
Count V. V. Muravyov-Amursky became the first Russian Martinist and the first head of the Martinist Lodge in Russia. Other famous Martinists were Constantine and Nicholas Roerichs (father and son). Moreover, Constantine Roerich had a cross of the highest degree of initiation.
Speaking of Freemasonry, it is impossible not to mention the so-called Rosicrucians, the first real information about whom appears in 1616. It was then that the anonymous treatise "The Glory of the Brotherhood of the Honorable Order of Rosicrucians" was published in Kassel. In this work, it was argued that for 200 years, it turns out, there is a secret society founded by a certain Christian Rosenkreuz, born in 1378, who, allegedly, studied occult sciences in the Arab city of Damkar. The task of this organization was declared to contribute to the progress and improvement of mankind. The first goal of the Rosicrucians is "reform": the unification of science, philosophy and ethics on the basis of metaphysics. The second is the elimination of all diseases, it was associated with the search for the Elixir of Life (alchemical experiments). The third goal, which was reported to a few - "the elimination of all monarchical forms of government and their replacement by the rule of the chosen philosophers." The structure of this organization was extremely similar to that of the Masonic, so most historians have come to a consensus: "Although not all Masons are Rosicrucians, Rosicrucians can be called Masons." As for Christian Rosicrucian, according to the researchers, he should be considered not as a real person, but as a symbol - "Christian of the Rose and Cross". Moreover, the mention of the rose in this case was very disliked by the hierarchs of the official Church, since in the Gnostic tradition this flower is a symbol of an inexpressible mystical mystery. The rose here is an allusion to the "double initiation" of the adept, who drew knowledge from both Christian mentors and the mysterious pagan sages of the East. The Vatican could not hide from the gaze of the Vatican theologians, skilled in the study of various heretical movements and well versed in such things, and associated with the Eastern Gnostic Mysteries, a hidden erotic basis - the rose and the cross, as female and male symbols.
Rose on the cross - emblem of the Rosicrucians
But some, less educated, mystics of medieval Europe, took all this "at face value" and tried to organize their own lodges of the semi-mythical Order. In this sense, they turned out to be very similar to the "cargo cult" inhabitants of some Pacific islands.
The islanders believe that if they build dummies of airfields and runways, one day a real plane will land on them with a lot of delicious stew on board. And the followers of the Rosicrucians, apparently, hoped that one day the door of the lodge they had created would open and the Grand Master would enter, who would reveal to them the innermost Secrets. Neither one nor the other waited for anyone.
Strictly speaking, it is still impossible to say for sure whether there really was an organization of Rosicrucians, or it was a hoax of a small group of German intellectuals. Since the end of the 18th century, there is no information about the Rosicrucians. They are remembered now only by the authors of tabloid novels and supporters of all kinds of conspiracy theories.
Even later, the Illuminati showed themselves. This term is usually used in relation to the members of the Bavarian society of the theologian professor Adam Weishaupt, founded in 1776. But in various conspiracy theories, the existence of a secret organization of the Illuminati is assumed, which again controls the historical process - apparently, there are too few Masons and Rosicrucians, and they cannot cope without the help of the Illuminati.
A curious story related to the Illuminati took place on December 12, 1972, when a scandalous private party took place at the Château de Ferrier, the French estate of the Rothschilds, photos of which were later provided to the press by one of its participants - Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Red, who had quarreled with the owners.
Chateau de Ferrier
The photographs were accompanied by comments, which indicated that a meeting of the Illuminati society was held at the Rothschild Palace. The guests had to go through the "Hell's labyrinth" made of black ribbons, then they were greeted first by a man in the guise of a black cat, then by another, with a hat on a platter, who saw off the Rothschild couple who arrived - the hostess had an artificial head of a deer crying with tears made of diamonds.
Guy de Rothschild and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild greet guests of the Château de Ferrier
Later, ritual sacrifices of a girl and an innocent child (dolls) took place.
"Innocent child" on the Rothschild table
Then the guests tried to summon the Templar demon - Baphomet.
The table offered not only alcoholic drinks, but also drugs. It all ended with an orgy, "at which no one looked, what gender the partner is."
Adepts of conspiracy theories were delighted: for the first time, the whole world was shown "indisputable proof" of the existence of a Masonic organization of bankers who govern the world. The fact that these bankers also turned out to be Satanists did not surprise anyone; moreover, it made everyone very happy: they say, we, of course, already knew about it, but it’s nice to be sure. It is a pity that the Reptilians did not come, but they, apparently, do not go to the Rothschilds, but to the Rockefellers. However, it soon became clear that the photographs showed a masquerade, a Halloween-style party, the author of the concept, as well as the scenery and costumes, was none other than Salvador Dali - he was the main star of the evening, pushing into the background all the "cats" and " deer ".
Salvador Dali at the Château de Ferrier
Perhaps because of this scandal, the Rothschilds transferred the compromised estate to the University of Paris in 1975.
Over the centuries, Freemasonry was periodically the subject of attacks in different countries, but until 1789.these bans were not systematic and were usually limited to formal bans that remained on paper. In 1738, Pope Clement XIII published a bull excommunicating all members of Masonic lodges. The fact is that the highest hierarchs of Rome were convinced that Freemasonry was only a cover for a new and extremely dangerous heresy. However, the days when such actions of the Roman pontiff made an impression in society are long gone. Many Catholic hierarchs joined the Masonic order and occupied a prominent position in its structures, in Mainz the Masonic lodge consisted almost entirely of clergy, in Erfurt the lodge was organized by the future bishop of this city, and in Vienna two royal chaplains, the rector of the theological institution and two priest. In France, the papal bull was never even published. The subsequent bulls of Benedict XIV, Pius VII, Leo XII, and Pius IX were even less successful.
In the 18th century, such well-known personalities as Saint-Germain and Cagliostro, who were described in the article by V. A. Ryzhov, appeared in the ranks of the Masons. "The Great Adventurers of the Gallant Age".
Younger contemporary of Saint-Germain - Cagliostro, was just an imitator of the "count". After being arrested, he confessed to the Inquisition court that during a personal meeting Saint-Germain had given him the following advice: "The greatest of secrets is the ability to manage people - you need to act contrary to common sense and boldly preach the greatest absurdities."
It was Cagliostro who, with his confessions of the Inquisition, greatly contributed to the spread of the great legend about the omnipotent Masonic lodges, secretly ruling nations and states. Then few of the truly knowledgeable people believed him. For example, French Foreign Minister Montmoren stated: "In France, the mysteries generated by Freemasonry seem to have led only to the ruin of a few fools."
However, over time, the fewer contemporaries of Cagliostro and Saint-Germain survived, the more talk about their mystical achievements and the power of the Freemasons headed by them appeared in society, and the more they believed these talks.
The relationship of Freemasonry to the Enlightenment was complex and ambiguous. On the one hand, d'Alembert, Voltaire and Helvetius were Masons. On the other hand, a lot of Freemasons turned out to be among the opponents of the encyclopedists. The lodges in Bordeaux hailed the success of the local parliament (then a judicial institution with certain administrative functions) in the fight against the royal power's efforts to limit its powers, and the lodge in Arras asked the Parisian Masons to support its protest against the expulsion of the Jesuits from France. Some lodges, especially the "9 sisters", played a role in the Great French Revolution - Mirabeau, Abbot Gregoire, Sieyès, Bayy, Petion, Brissot, Condorcet, Danton, Desmoulins, Marat, Chaumette, Robespierre were Masons. However, King Louis XVI and his two brothers, heads of almost all noble families of France, were also Masons. But the main engine of the revolution - representatives of the lower strata of the third estate, were not represented in the lodges. A rare exception was the admission of artisans to the Encyclopedia Lodge in Toulouse and peasants to the Ploermel Lodge. The revolutionary activity of the Masons was, most likely, an initiative on their part - indicative of the circulars that were sent out at that time by the "Great East" to the lodges subordinate to it: for the Brotherhood it is dangerous to interfere in matters that do not concern it. As a result, after the Thermidorian coup, many Republicans regarded the lodges as a refuge for the Royalists, and their opponents as a cover for the surviving Jacobins.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who came to power, initially tended to ban all Masonic lodges, but preferred to use the Masons in the interests of the new regime. Bonaparte's brothers Joseph and Lucien became Grand Masters; Cambaceres and Fouche occupied a prominent position in the boxes. Napoleon himself on the island of St. Helena spoke of the Freemasons as follows:
"This is a bunch of fools who are going to eat well and follow ridiculous quirks."
However, during and after the French Revolution, the persecution of Freemasons began throughout Europe. In 1822, the first minister of Prussia, Gaugwitz (himself formerly a prominent Freemason) presented a memorandum to the heads of the "Holy Alliance" that the invisible secret leaders of the order were the inspirers and organizers of the French Revolution and the execution of Louis XVI. But the French authors, on the contrary, argued that not France, but Prussia, from the beginning of the 19th century, became a vassal of the Freemasons and thus received their patronage. They attributed the defeat of France in the war of 1870-1871 to the betrayal of members of the French lodges. Naturally, neither one nor the other was presented with any evidence. The twentieth century began with the next excommunication of Masons from the church, undertaken in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV. This prohibition, of course, did not have any consequences and did not prevent the Freemasons in their attempts to intensify their activities. Kaiser's General Ludendorff, after Germany's defeat in World War I, assured everyone that German Freemasons were kidnapping and giving England the secrets of the German General Staff. It is hardly worth taking these revelations of the general seriously, tk. at the same time he became seriously interested in alchemy, studied ancient manuscripts and set up experiments in order to obtain gold.
For a short time, many Freemasons found themselves in the leading circles of the parties of the Second International (which gave some Western historians a reason to talk about the inspiration of revolutions in Germany and Russia by the Freemasons).
According to some reports, the socialist Leon Bourgeois, the Prime Minister of France (November 1895-April 1896), the Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1920), the first chairman of the Council of the League of Nations, was also a freemason. But there is no evidence that this talented and charismatic politician received all the posts and awards thanks to the help of unremarkable and unremarkable "brothers in the bed" known by their names.
Leon Bourgeois
The leftist workers' parties in Europe were organizations immeasurably more effective and much more radical than archaic Masonic societies, revolutionaries did not trust the Freemasons and their activities were treated with contempt. So, in 1914, members of the Masonic lodges, as insufficiently reliable associates, were expelled from the ranks of the Italian Socialist Party.
There is evidence that some members of the Bolshevik Party had previously indulged in Masonic rituals. Among the former Masons, they call S. P. Sereda (People's Commissar of Agriculture), I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov (People's Commissar of Finance), A. V. Lunacharsky (People's Commissar of Education). The chairman of the Petrograd Cheka V. I. Bokiya was also a freemason. But the XI Congress of the RCP (b) passed a decision on the incompatibility of party membership with participation in Masonic lodges. In the same year, the IV Congress of the Third International, at the insistence of Trotsky, Radek and Bukharin, condemned Freemasonry as a hostile bourgeois organization and declared membership in lodges with the title of a communist incompatible.
The attitude towards Masonic organizations in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany was not entirely consistent and very contradictory. On the one hand, many high-ranking officials of these countries at one time were members of various occult societies. Many well-known leaders of the Third Reich withdrew from the ranks of the "Thule Society" which was founded in 1918 in Bavaria. Among the active members of this society were the "father of geopolitics" Karl Haushofer (who, after Hitler came to power, became president of the German Academy of Sciences), E. Rem, R. Hess, A. Rosenberg.
Karl Haushofer, while at the University of Munich, his assistant was Rudolf Hess
Retired corporal Adolf Schilkgruber, better known as Hitler, was also an ordinary member of the Thule Society. Hermann Goering was not a member of the Thule Society, but went through the "school" of the Swedish secret "Edelweiss Society", whose patron was Count Erich von Rosen. Hitler believed in horoscopes, Himmler - in the transmigration of souls, sincerely considering himself the reincarnation of the medieval German monarchs Heinrich the Birdman (10th century) and Heinrich the Lion (12th century). He planned to turn the SS into a kind of spiritual knightly Order.
On the other hand, after Hitler and Mussolini came to power, Masonic organizations were banned in Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary and Portugal. Even an appeal to Mussolini with an appeal to take the post of Grand Master of the lodges of Italy did not help the Italian Masons. In the occupied part of France, the Gestapo arrested about 7 thousand Freemasons. Himmler argued that "Masonic leaders took part in the overthrow of every government." Even attempts to revive the famous Thule society after the Nazis came to power were categorically suppressed. One of the active supporters of the "revival" J. Rüttinger was informed that he was deprived of the right to occupy any posts in the Nazi party "because of his belonging from March 1912 to May 1921 to the" German order "that" corresponds to the foundations of the NSDAP's attitude to Freemasonry. "The Gauleiters of the Reich territories were ordered to keep anthroposophists, theosophists and astrologers in concentration camps - except for those who were in the immediate circle of the leaders of the Third Reich.
And, again, in persecuting the Masons, the Nazis actively used their symbols and signs, such as the swastika, the "death's head", and the Nazi greeting "Heil" itself was borrowed by them from the occult "Arman Order" (ancient Germanic priests). A lot was allowed to the "official" occult structures of the Third Reich. It's hard to believe, but in 1931 A. Rosenberg sent a certain Otto Rahn in search of … the Grail. In 1937, on the orders of Himmler, an organization called Ahnenerbe ("Legacy of the Ancestors") was incorporated in the SS, in which 35 departments were created. There was a rather serious department of genetic research, but there was also a teaching and research department of folk legends, tales and sagas, a department of occult sciences research (research in the field of parapsychology, spiritualism, occultism), a teaching and research department of Central Asia and expeditions. The last department organized expeditions to Tibet, Kafiristan, the Channel Islands, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Greece, Crimea. The purpose of the expeditions was to search for the remains of the "giants" who were allegedly the ancestors of the Aryan peoples. Of particular note are the expeditions to Tibet, which lasted until 1943 and cost the German treasury 2 billion marks. The fact is that, according to the mystical ideas of Theosophy, the remnants of the former race of giants, which died as a result of natural disasters, settled in a huge system of caves under the Himalayas. They were divided into two groups: one followed the "path of the right hand" - the center in Agharti, the place of contemplation, the hidden city, the temple of non-participation in the world; the other - "by the left hand - Shambhala, the city of violence and power, whose forces control the elements, the human masses. It was believed that it was possible to conclude an agreement with Shambhala through oaths and sacrifices. According to some researchers, the massacres committed by the Nazis were aimed at defeating indifference Shambhala, to attract the attention of the Strong and get their patronage Interestingly, the largest sponsors of Ahnenerbe were BMW and Daimler-Benz.
After World War II, the Freemasons restored their lodges in Western Europe. The most famous Masonic organization of our time was undoubtedly the Italian lodge "Propaganda-2" ("P-2"), which included large industrialists, ministers, leaders of the army, navy and intelligence. Licho Gelli, the Grand Master of this lodge, called himself "half Cagliostro, half Garibaldi."
Licho Jelly
After the accidental discovery of the lists of P-2 members in May 1981, the Italian government was forced to resign, and Licio Gelli fled abroad. It is interesting that an overly trusting attitude to the moral values of the Freemasons cost the life of the President of Chile, Salvador Allende: this politician did not attach importance to the information about the conspiracy of the military, tk. I could not believe that General Pinochet, who was in the same box with him, was capable of inflicting harm on his "brother".
Brothers Masons - Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet
Summing up, it should be said that historians have no facts at their disposal, on the basis of which it would be possible to draw conclusions that this or that event occurred solely due to the will of a certain Masonic center. At the same time, we can safely say that people whose affiliation with the Freemasons does not cause any doubts, once in power, always made decisions and acted on the basis of the interests of the structure headed by them, and not at the behest of their "brothers" in the bed - otherwise they simply would not have held their post. History is replete with examples of the ineffectiveness of Masonic organizations.
In a number of cases, members of the same lodge were political opponents and even personal enemies, which ruled out any possibility of concerted action. Real, and not fictional, Masons, not only did not have the opportunity to really influence the course of history, but, as a rule, could not even protect the life and freedom of their supposedly omnipotent Grand Masters, and in the confrontation between the Freemasons and the authorities, the power invariably won. Nevertheless, in some cases it is beneficial for the authorities to maintain the existence of the Masonic legend, since any mistakes and blunders of the country's top leadership can be attributed to the intrigues of internal enemies. How exactly (Masons, cosmopolitans, Trotskyists or red-brown) are called in this state the mythical enemies of law-abiding citizens, reforms, the national football team, etc., does not matter.
