The Final Fate of the Masonic Order

decided now to graft Illuminatism The ideology and system of the Order of the Illuminati. onto Masonry in such a way that the first levels of

the cited passage (Original Writings referring to the Einige Originalschriften des Illuminatenordens, the collection of secret documents seized and published by the Bavarian government in 1787. p. 297) is not the subject at all, and according to the same [source], he seems to owe everything he knew of Masonry to the conversation with Marotti. As far as Weishaupt is concerned, he indeed claims in the supplement to his justification (p. 43) that he became a Freemason in 1777. Based on several traces appearing in the Original Writings (p. 285 ff.), I consider this an empty pretense; and what he says on page 285—that he had included insight into the structure of Masonry (which is stated very vaguely) in his plan, but intended it only for later degrees—I consider a smokescreen original: "blauen Dunst," literally "blue haze," an idiom for a deception or illusion. that the ignorant master put up for the disciple who was [actually] better informed about Masonry. Had he already been a Freemason in 1777, how could he have found the discovery that Zwackh made regarding Marotti in Augsburg so exceptionally important, and how could he have encouraged the former to make the most of it? How could he have feared danger from Zwackh’s proposal? How could he have given such a foolish description of the parties among the Freemasons as is done on pages 300 and 301? How could he have said that he had intended Masonry for the higher degrees, when he later designated it as the nursery original: "Pflanzschule," meaning a training ground or breeding ground. for Illuminatism, which [he claimed] possessed more than the former? This shows that he previously knew nothing at all and had formed different conceptions of Masonry.