Please be advised of two things. First, regarding Freemasonry: it is old, but not that old. It is not cosmic. And it is most definitely not organized. DeWitt Clinton organized the Erie Canal. he then tried to organize Freemasonry in New York State. He gave up.
Second, regarding the Illuminati: Yes, there was a group back in the 1700s (IIRC) who called themselves that, and, yes, they definitely claimed superior insight into the human condition. So did Jack Kerouac and the other Beats in the 1950s. The original Illuminati were the 1700s equivalent of the Beats.
There may be people today who call themselves Illuminati, and they may do various clandestine things. But they have no connection with the original group. And there may be people who claim connection with Freemasonry who do clandestine things. Anybody can put together a lodge and ceremonies. But official Freemasons do not claim them as their own, and consider them a bunch of wackos.
Around here nobody wants to be a Mason. The local lodge that's composed of mostly aging Sriners is desperately looking for young people to come into The Craft. Nobody seems all that interested.
I have some friends in the UK who are masons and there it seems to be more of a family oriented thing. Grandpa, dad, and the son go to the lodge together.
Lot's of conspiracy theories. I know someone who used to belong to the Council on Foreign Relations. He resigned his membership because it was just a bunch of people (mostly old) sitting around and talking about dated concepts that the world had moved on from.
Is there collusion with rich and powerful people? Absolutely. The Rockefellers were well known to have formed lots of organizations that tried to consolidate power. When the Bilderberg Group in Europe told David Rockefeller they had no interest in bringing Asians into their group, David and Zibinew Brezinski started the Trilateral Commission that was and attempt to unite Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Nothing much came from it. The founders are dead and the whole thing kind of fell apart.
It's hard to consolidate power and the powerful don't always agree with each other. No one entity runs the world. The world is a dynamic and changing place and is a slippery pig to try and grab onto.
The LDS Church in Utah has had a history of ups and downs. The have a history of thriving and then going broke. They have managed to survive over the years mainly due to Brigham Young isolating the church headquarters and aggressively growing the church. The church got it's foot in the door but Utah is changing. The church made a lot of money in commercial real estate but real estate will take a huge hit in the next financial collapse. We can't keep bailing out the banks forever and easy credit is what causes these bubbles.
Will the LDS Church be around in a 100 years. Hell. I don't even know if the United States will be around that long.
Well, yeah, Mormonism, in and of itself, is pretty much over-the-top wacko Freemason/Illuminati. The temple rituals for the dead, the secret oaths and secret handshakes, naked touching with holy oil, the "second anointing" ceremonies, sacred underwear--Mormon more than satisfies the authorities' cravings for clandestine, occult stuff! Yikes, Mormon men even self-anoint each other with "Holy Priesthood power", for men only, and claim to have revelations from God! (Cue the theme music from "The Twilight Zone" Do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do...Bum bum bum buuuuuummm!)
exminion Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well, yeah, Mormonism, in and of itself, is pretty > much over-the-top wacko Freemason/Illuminati. The > temple rituals for the dead, the secret oaths and > secret handshakes, naked touching with holy oil, > the "second anointing" ceremonies, sacred > underwear--Mormon more than satisfies the > authorities' cravings for clandestine, occult > stuff! Yikes, Mormon men even self-anoint each > other with "Holy Priesthood power", for men only, > and claim to have revelations from God! (Cue the > theme music from "The Twilight Zone" Do-do-do-do, > do-do-do-do...Bum bum bum buuuuuummm!)
My college fraternity had the same exact handshakes and our swearing in ceremony was very masonic. The LDS Church just created it's own fraternity. A special insiders group. That's what the temple is. The church has to have something to sell and they sell ordinances and in a very sick way, turned temple weddings into a way to strong arm funds from family members. When I went inactive my wife's biggest fear was I could not go to our daughter's temple weddings. Well my wife and daughters left the church and that is no longer an issue.
I doubt any are -- for a long time, Utah Freemasonry banned mormons from membership. That changed in 1984, but there still aren't that many mormon Freemasons in Utah.
This is ten years old (2008), but it might shed some light on the situation...
makes sense. mormonism is allegedly a reformed version of masonry, as allegedly, smith was supposedly a mason, so it is said. (anyone can research this) so, it is logical that the temple rituals align.
the dogma teaches socialism (law of consecration) which the masons are all for...essentially globalists.
and many, especially upper-rank, mormons rise easily into upper-echelons of media, industry, politics, etc.
(outside the church, you have to be a mason or other society in order to rise up the 'pyramid of power' or, you are part of the masses at the bottom, working-class or poor.)
moi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > (outside the church, you have to be a mason or > other society in order to rise up the 'pyramid of > power' or, you are part of the masses at the > bottom, working-class or poor.)