The fascination that secret societies exert upon people is easy to understand: nothing is more exciting than a secrecy and when this secret thing may have some important, even evil purpose, then the fascination touches the sky. Despite their fancy name, the secret societies listed below are not that obscure, as everybody knows about them. There are probably, in the world, many such organizations that truly stand up to their name, but until we will discover them as well, let us take a look at the ones that became famous for one reason or another:
1. The Freemasons
A worldwide web of secret clubs which display the same famous name, the Freemasons are required to be righteous and altruistic and they are also required to believe in some divinity, even though what and how they believe is their own choice. With 6 million members all over the world, it is easy to understand why we are aware about this secret society; There is even a huge wiki article on the subject.
2 . Cosa Nostra
Even though Mafia does not seem to be a secret society, it does however enter this category. Cosa Nostra was the original name of the Mafia, a secret organization which was created in the 19th century, for criminal purposes. Since then, it has grown so much that today there are today factions of the same original brotherhood who are not ashamed of fighting against each other.
3. Illuminati
Created in 1776, with the goal of promoting the social liberties, they were regarded with suspicion and this is not a surprise, since all secret things are possibly bad-intended. Famous people became Illuminati members but this did not seem to change public opinion about this very exclusive club. They were (and continue to be) suspected of trying to conquer the world.
4. Skull and Bones
The society with such a weird name could not have a nice and kind purpose, now could it? This is a Yale University brotherhood which saw many famous faces (such as President George H W Bush and George W Bush) and is held responsible for everything that goes bad in America, since its creation to this day. Chances are though that the Bonesmen are nothing than a bunch of boys who are trying to have a little fun, but this would not be as interesting as a Machiavelian organization trying to start World War III.
5. The Sons of Liberty
Having been founded in the American colonies, soon after the French-Indian war, this is one of the secret societies that really accomplished what they aimed to do- and they truly had an important goal: comprised of some of the most important revolutionaries, they gave up much of their secrecy in order to incite people to fight against the British Crown. The Sons of Liberty were responsible for the burning of the HMS Gaspee or the famous Boston Tea Party, and many other incidents which led the American colonies, step by step, towards the Independence War.
6. The Knights of the Golden Circle
After the name of their society, one would expect them to be a group of good guys, fighting for world peace. However, they are quite the opposite: in 1854, George Bickley created this secret society with the purpose of annexing the southern Mexico and the Caribbean, in order to transform these lands into slave states. They even tried to attack Mexico from Texas, but they failed lamentably and this started the decline of this evil organization.
7. The Black Hand
With a dramatic motto which stated “unity or death”, this society was anything but peaceful. It was founded in Serbia in 1911, with the aim of uniting all the South Slav nations, in order to fight against the Austro-Hungarian domination. The most notable of their actions, one that would have a huge consequence for the entire humanity, was that of murdering Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in 1914. Conducted by the leader of the Black Hand, Dragutin Dimitrijevic, this crime triggered the events that led to the beginning of the World War II.
8. The Thule society
One of the secret societies that changed the world as we know it was also the Thule Society. Even though it is not as famous as the previous ones, it had one very famous member: Hitler himself. Passionate about the occult, this group tried to discover the lost land mass somewhere in Iceland, which was, apparently, the original birth place of the Aryans. These deviating ideas were nevertheless taken in serious by Hitler and while he became a political leader, The Thule society came out of the shadow in order to support their hero.
9. Hashshashin
The Hassassins or Hashshashin, as you like, are a criminal group who emerged in 1092. Even though their reign of terror is long gone, they were not forgotten. The name of this secret society comes from their custom of using hashish before committing one of their notorious political crimes- and this is from where the term “assassin” entered into the English language- and in other languages as well.
10. The church of scientology
As many other secret societies in history, the church of scientology is based on religious believes. Being a church however, does not make it less of a secret organization, as its meetings may only be attended by initiates. Some of their practices are highly controversial, involving sometimes the forced separation of family members and other such cultish practices which do not fit into the modern society.
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