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Secret Societies and Subversive Movements

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The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes. -Disraeli.

_Secret Societies and Subversive Movements_ by the British patriot Nesta H. Webster is a fascinating account of the various secret and subversive movements which have plotted against both throne and altar from the most ancient times to the modern day. The book relies on Webster's previous research regarding the French revolution and the "World revolution" as well as various documents by individuals such as the Abbe Barruel and Professor Robison outlining the growth and development of secret societies. The book is cleanly divided into two halves, the first focusing on the past and the second focusing on the present day (the book was written in 1924 following the horrors of the First World War). Webster's book makes for fascinating reading, explaining fully the rise of secret societies and subversive movements from their most ancient origins in various mystery cults until her time.

The first section of this book focuses upon what Webster regards as "the past". The book begins by noting the role of the ancient secret tradition in various mystery cults which existed in ancient times. The book focuses particularly on the Jewish cabala (which Webster argues has been distorted by the Talmud, the Sephir Yetzirah, the Zohar, and other ancient texts). Webster quotes from individuals such as Eliphas Levi and Gougenot de Mousseaux regarding the role of this ancient system. Webster then turns her attention to the coming of the redeemer, foreshadowed perhaps in the ancient world traditions, though brought to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Webster notes the various modern day distortions which have been claimed about Jesus including those which argue for a "Christian" socialism and those which claim that Jesus was influenced by the Essenes. Webster thoroughly refutes both of these claims by reference to Holy Scripture. Webster also shows how Christianity became distorted by both the Gnostics and the Manicheans as well as other heretics after Christ's death and resurrection. Following this discussion, Webster turns her attention to the revolt against Islam. Here she notes particularly disturbing instances within Islam of various subversive movements which advocated outright materialism and atheism. She shows how these movements claimed to be part of the Islamic tradition; however, upon reaching the higher grades the initiate was informed that he had been duped by religion which was regarded to be a sham. Webster also notes such notorious Islamic societies as the Assassins, who played an important role in the ancient and medieval world. Webster next turns her attention to the Templars, noting the blasphemies of which they have been accused as well as their relationship with various Islamic societies. Webster claims that the beliefs of the Templars bear a striking similarity to those of the false Cabala; in particular, she notes the various distortions of Christianity present in both the Talmud and the lies about Christ present in the Toledot Yeshu. Webster next turns her attention to occultism, noting the presence of Satanism and Rosicrucianism, particularly as these relate to freemasonry. Webster also shows how freemasonry has actively conspired against throne and altar, particularly Continental masonry (though she denies the influence of malevolent elements to such a great extent within Anglo-American masonry). Webster also explains the rise of the Grand Lodge within masonry as well as German templarism and French illuminism. The influence of Swedenborgianism as well as the influence of various mysterious recurring individuals such as the Comte de Saint-Germain keep recurring within the masonic literature. Webster also shows the rise of the Jewish cabalists distinguishing between the false cabala (of the Talmud and the Toledot Yeshu) and the true cabala which may have been a precursor of Christianity (in particular the Trinity). She also shows how Jewish beliefs in a coming Messiah play an important role in their tradition. Webster also examines the role of the Bavarian Illuminati, a secret society started by Adam Weishaupt, a professor of canon law, in Ingolstadt, Bavaria and modeled after the Jesuit order in many respects. The Bavarian Illuminati actively plotted against the monarchy, and they became adherents to a rationalist/materialist philosophy upon reaching the higher grades. Another important figure in the society of the Illuminati was that of Baron von Knigge, referred to as "Philo" by his Illuminati compatriots. Webster suggests that the roots of the Illuminati philosophy are to be found in the Jewish cabala, along with the tight linkage between cabalists and various other freemasonic groups. Webster also notes how Jesuitism and British masonry may provide suitable sources for reaction against subversive elements.

Webster next turns her attention to the modern day. Here, she explains the role of freemasonry in bringing about revolution. In particular, Webster shows the errors of socialism, a system which claims to be for the working class but which in fact operates against the interests of workers. Indeed, socialism may be a viable alternative for the finance capitalist. Webster links several groups which may play a role in the coming revolution. These include pan-Germanism, Illuminism, Bolshevism, International Finance, British Socialism, and the Jewish peril. The real initiates may be members of any of these various groups. Webster also shows the subversive elements within such movements as those surrounding Aleister Crowley and the Theosophical Society. Finally, Webster traces the role of the Jewish cabala through the many secret societies up until the modern day.

This book provides an excellent historical perspective on the inner workings of various secret societies and subversive movements which operate behind the scenes seeking to obtain power over the lives of billions.

SECRET SOCIETIES by historian Nesta Webster is an excellent book if the topics of conspiracy theories, mind control, occult doctrines being imposed throughout the world and the notorious Jewish question happen to interest the reader. Webster remains very scholarly and does not jump to conclusions too hastily without examining the evidence first. She occupies an unusal position. She is Christian, but is opposed to the "neoconservatives" of her day as lacking the spirit to get her nation, Britain, back on track. Today she would probably occupy the position of Pat Buchannan. She also does not condemn Eastern religions and Islam the way most fundamentalist Christians today do. She recognizes the validity of their religious spokesment through time, but still believes that Jesus is God speaking most clearly to man.

The history of secret societies is traced from ancient Egypt, Persia, to the life of Christ, and on down to the point after the Russian Revoloution. The list of groups is endless: Gnostics, Manicheans, Assassins, Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Illuminati, Grand Orient Freemasonry to the Marx inspired socialists, anarchists, and communists. The Illuminati and the pseudo-Muslim Assassins are considered the best models of how secret societies operate. Some secret groups however, have not tried to combat revealed truth or well-ordered society, such as the Essenes, Jesuits and the British Masons (the Grand Orient ones from Europe are the bad ones).

As to the massive force behind the societies, Webster first takes and anti-German stance and investigates if the Germans are responsible, since the societies have damaged France and Britain and helped spread German nationalism. Although the Germans have used Freemasons, Illuminati, international bankers and Jews in order to further their national agenda, Webster points out the Jewish element as overriding the German one. Underlying many of these forces is the influence of the Jewish Cabalists. Webster documents the inordinate amount of influence that Jews have had over secret societies and of their doctrines in the Cabala and Jewish belief in their status of the "chosen people." She wrestles with the question of wether or not the Jews have been consciously involved in a millenia-old-conspiracy to destroy Christianity and its followers and whether or not the PROTOCOLS OF ZION is a forgery. She leans toward accepting the PROTOCOLS as legitemate and in this regard. Zionism was emerging as a potent political movement at the time this book was written and it is commented upon.

If you are trying to figure out how the world and the groups that work to change the world (for the worse, usually) then I can't reccomend this book enough. It is objective and even-keeled the whole way through. Learn why socialist policy is a sham.

If your are interested in getting started on the road to conspiracy then there is no finer book. This is the definitive reference book on pre-1920s conspiracy theory. Is there a vast conspiracy by the elite to defraud and enslave all the peoples of the world primarily through the international banking cartel. Webster, who clearly knows her stuff, says yes. Fact is a lot stranger than fiction and here she unmasks the true conspirators.

Originally published in the 1930s this book covers several known secret societies that made a mark in history. The Islamic assassins, the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, the Bavarian Illuminati among others are all explored. The big thing that this book does that other more recent books on secret socieites don't do is it explores the role of Jews, the Cabala and International Jewry in this age old conspiracy. This is something that is completely neglected in most recent conspiracy related books due to political correctness. While only a fool thinks that all Jews are somehow involved in this it takes an equally foolish person not to see that while the majority of them are not Jews, Jews are still disproportionately involved and the roots of most, if not all, of the ideologies and tools that move the globalist conspiracy forward spring forth from ideologies and ideas that have roots in the Jewish culture.

Although even the most patient reader will sometimes become weary while weaving their way through Nesta Webster's painstaking prose, there is, nonetheless, much here that is worthwhile and important. Writing in the period between the World Wars, the author undertakes a task no less than describing the history of secret societies and subversive movements from the very beginnings of the Christian era up to her present early twentieth century times. Having accomplished this is an amazing manner, she then proposes to describe the factors and forces at the helm of the world revolutionary conspiracy. To Nesta Webster, writing in the aforementioned time and context, these were as follows:

Grand Orient Freemasonry
Theosophism
Pan-Germanism
International Finance
World Jewry

This list is fascinating and does provide an interesting insight into the mind of this author. Nesta Webster always distinguishes between Grand Lodge and Grand Orient Freemasonry, the former, which she deems admirable, and the latter, insidious. Writing between the wars, as a patriotic Britisher, she did not foresee the later alliance of Theosophy and pan-Germanism against Grand Orient Freemasonry and World Jewry, with International Finance conveniently "playing both ends against the middle", that was the essential conflict of the second great war. Her blind spot for the intrigues of British Freemasonry and Zionism tarnishes her work, but are, at least, understandable in context.

In summary, this is an excellent and important work that must be taken in context. For any who would understand the conspiratorial aspect of history, this book is highly recommended.

This book written by Nesta Webster is not a typical sensationalistic book.
While this work is dated,it's also loaded with a lot of information about well-known and little-known secret societies.This author investigates the origin,founders,and in some cases the actions of these organisations.The French Revolution being one.
Not all of these societies are bad and that is expressed in this book.
This book is an excellent introduction to the study of secret societies and I recommend it.
It's written well and despite it's size,I found it hard to put down.

This book is an interesting read as long as you realize that the Writer is extremely biased and rather prejudiced. The Author makes many illogical leaps and then uses those unfounded decisions as further proof that their points are valid.
It has an extremely christian bias and if the beliefs do not conform to traditional catholic dogma then they are dismissed as wrong. The author even goes into the Church using Cabala but never lumps it into the midden heap every other Cabalistic practitioner is lumped into.
This book should be used in logic classes as an example of bad A priori arguments taken to bad extremes.
Given that I read the entire book and had several good chuckles at the attempts to link everything into one continuing chain of hidden knowledge.

I read Nesta Webster's "French Revolution" a few years ago and was extremely impressed. I found her narrative vivid and well written, her research impeccable and her conclusions illuminating. I felt that she successfully exposed the inner workings of the Revolution and traced its origins to the artificial machinations of secret societies. From my point of view it seemed like her assertions were well supported by primary source citations. I eagerly sought to read more of her books and was excited when I got my hands on this one. I mention my esteem for her other book only to establish that my disappointment with "Secret Societies and Subversive Movements" was not politically motivated, as many of her critics are. I found this book to be practically unreadable.

I don't recall ever reading such an impenetrably opaque, poorly written, disorganized and incoherent work of purported history. It gives one the impression of reading the jumble of Ms. Webster's working notes, rather than an organized historical thesis. The author's plan for this work was apparently to utterly deluge the reader with every tidbit of information- factual and theoretical, contradictory and consistent- ever written on the subject of secret societies and have us make sense of it somehow. That I was completely unable to do.

Apart from the book's lack of logical organization, the big problem is that there are few reliable primary sources on secret societies, which by nature are- of course -secretive and exclusive. They're not big on record keeping or publicity, especially if their aims are subversive. Therefore, Ms. Webster was reduced to presenting us with a ragbag of second and third-hand legends, unsupported assertions, rumors, occult conjectures and metaphysical theories. It wasn't surprising that once objective standards of historicity were abandoned, Ms. Webster found it easy to shoehorn every member of the conspiracist's enemies list into the mosaic and find a direct relationship between the lot of them: Babylonians, Druids, Egyptians, the Assassins, Templars, Gnostics, et al. It really became mind-numbing after a while. I am frankly surprised at so many positive reviews for this book, but judging from the extremely vague descriptions contained therein, I would have to conclude that most of the favorable reviewers didn't understand it any better than I did.

I believe in conspiracies. The people who don't believe that bad men of common conviction secretly join together to plan nefarious activities are the ones who need their heads examined. However, I think this book represents the opposite error of seeing a conspiracy behind every_event_and a spiritual and historical relationship common to every secret society down through time. I think that it's comforting in a way to blame all of history's evils on a single, identifiable group or groups of people, like the Masons, or secret societies in general. It gives us a tangible target to fight, against which we can conceivably win. It's much scarier to think that the real motive forces for history's events are simple human stupidity, chance, greed, and the inclination to evil that exists in every human heart.

I still admire Ms. Webster's work and will definitely read more of her in the future. However, I earnestly warn the reader away from this book. I don't know what other book to recommend on secret societies, but I think I can safely say that this one will utterly repel the objective reader.

This is a good book. Now I second everyone'se ratings with encorced acceptance BUT JESUS taught AGAINST ALL deception and any occultic movements and actions. I was in the Black Dragon and I will take a risk in saying that online but oh well. Believe me, they are very much occult and connected to illuminism. I do NOT support any of that. Any version of the Bible will clearly state this about the truth of Jesus and being a Christian. And no, it does NOT mean anyone is perfect. History books will not reveal what this book will reveal because secret societies do NOT allow their secrets to be taught openly in a way that will give anyone the power to stop them, expose them and otherwise defeat them. This is why they are called SECRET SOCIETIES. So even though you will see books and myriads of information on them through the net, you will never get a true list of all member's names, where they live and their own connections to groups like the Illuminat. And if they do that, they would be risking death for sure. The truest and darkest secrets that would damage them will not be revealed enough to allow the world to truly stop them save World War Three, and with the way things are going, I would not doubt that this will not happen in the future sorry to say:( This is what happens when you take the side of the occult in satanism via witchcraft and any occultic movement desiring a one world order under their sick, twisted and dark agendas. GOOD BOOK.

This book lays down the history of secret societies and subversive movements and ideologies from ancient times to the modern day. She lays down the ideas and ideologies of some subversive groups from antiquity and shows similarities with later subversive groups in history. The research and analysis is decent enough, but her writing style and presentation can leave much to be desired.

This book was written in the 1920's, and periodically she makes references to some of her previous works, which she assumes the reader is familiar with. Also, the author LOVES to quote passages in Latin or French without a corresponding English translation. After awhile, this can become very annoying.

The conclusion she reaches is that there are organizations that spring up propagating ideologies that are nihilistic and created to destroy belief in the existing social order. Such organizations often get used by influential people to use as political weapons. This can be very true, but the influence of such bodies in modern times I think is exaggerated. Before the creation of mass communication and media, the control or use of groups like the Masons, which had influential people in its membership would lend itself to successful subversive activity. In modern times, such influence pales in comparison to what control of media or finance allows.