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What Is a Secret Society?
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n this book we will concentrate mostly on the origin of secret societies and what lies behind the beliefs and rituals of many of the world’s religions. In the beginning, this will lead us through seemingly unrelated material, such as electromagnetism and cyclic phenomena, but all will become apparent as we discover that this natural world relates entirely to our belief systems. These belief systems are similar the world over and are the basis of the esoteric side of secret societies. However, we need to understand the language of secret societies and exactly what a secret society is. This is a hotly debated subject and is open to various interpretations, as we shall discover. There are tales of secret societies throughout history. The first question we have to ask is why they had to remain secret. According to popular belief, it is because those meeting in secret were “men of renown” or “standing” and were plotting to change civilization— whether this be through destroying the Church or the royalty or through defending the same. According to this popular belief, one of the original secret societies was called the Brotherhood of the Snake (or “dragon” or “serpent”). Although no real historical records of an ancient Brotherhood of the Snake, first mentioned by Madame Blavatsky, is in existence, it is a fact that the rituals and beliefs of this supposed secret organization are similar to many that do exist and are strangely related to the serpent. This is no surprise to me, of course, as one of the so-called experts of ophiolatraea (serpent worship). In
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