Open Veils · Answer
Were the US founders apart of secret societies?
The U.S. founding generation was demonstrably saturated with Freemasonic networks, Rosicrucian currents, and the shadow of European Illuminism. Washington and Franklin were lodge masters, not casual affiliates. Manly P. Hall argued the entire constitutional architecture bore Hermetic fingerprints — a thesis corroborated by the esoteric symbolism baked into the Great Seal. The fraternal web extended well beyond the nine verified Declaration signers.
Evidence
- Manly P. Hall's 'The Secret Destiny of America' lays the foundational esoteric case: that the republic was a deliberate occult project centuries in the making, with Rosicrucian and Hermetic adepts seeding the colonial landscape long before 1776.
- George Washington was initiated at Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 in 1752 and served as Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22.
- According to verified records, nine of the fifty-six Declaration signers had documented Masonic affiliation, with thirteen of thirty-nine Constitution signers confirmed.
- Albert Pike, later Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction, extended this fraternal power deep into the 19th century — and per Wikipedia's documented record, was linked to the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society accused of conspiring in Lincoln's assassination.
- Hall identified the unfinished pyramid, the all-seeing eye, and the motto 'Novus Ordo Seclorum' on the Great Seal as Masonic-Hermetic signatures, not decorative choices.