The ‘owl of Minerva,’ a bird, eventually became its major symbol. Some Illuminati members joined the Freemasons to attract new members. The group’s goals eventually shifted to influencing political choices and destroying institutions such as the monarchy and the Church. Five guys established the rules that would govern the hidden order here. The Bavarian Illuminati’s inaugural meeting is thought to have occurred on May 1, 1776, in woodland near Ingolstadt. The Illuminati inspired Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum.

However, the Bavarian Illuminati’s demise did not end to rumors about its covert operations, and conspiracy theorists have connected the society to everything from the French Revolution to JFK’s assassination. The Illuminati prospered until Karl Theodor of Bavaria issued a proclamation in 1787, making membership in the Illuminati punishable by death. All communication was done in cipher, and members were given classical aliases (Weishaupt’s was Spartacus, for example). Members of the Bavarian Illuminati, known as “Perfectibilists,” were divided into three levels of growing authority drawn from social elites such as former freemason Baron von Knigge and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He aggressively recruited from the latter category, entering masonic lodges in his effort to attract some of Europe’s richest and most powerful men. He relied on concepts espoused by the Jesuits (of whom he was a former member), The Mysteries of the Seven Sages of Memphis, the Kabbalah, and freemasons. He was inspired by the rise of the Enlightenment throughout Europe. Weishaupt, dissatisfied with the authority of the traditional Catholic Church and the Bavarian monarchy, aspired to replace established religion with a new kind of “illumination” through reason. On May 1, 1776, professor Adam Weishaupt formed the Illuminati in Bavaria.

The term is derived from the Latin Illuminatus, which means “shown” or “enlightened.” Illuminati, a term used since the 15th century, refers to different groups of people who claimed to be exceptionally enlightened.

The secret society of illuminati