The Asiatic Brethren

According to Albert Pike, a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Mason, and American Civil War general, the successors to the Illuminati were the Asiatic Brethren, a secret order created by Moses Dobrushka, Jacob Frank’s nephew and successor.62 The Asiatic Brethren, also known as the Fratres Lucis, or the Brotherhood of Light, comprised chiefly of Jews, Turks, Persians, and Armenians, and purportedly represented a survival of the same “Johannite Christians” rescued by the Templars, that is, the Sabians. Their full title was The Knights and Brethren of St. John the Evangelist.

The Grand Master of the Asiatic Brethren, and leading member of the Illuminati, was Prince Karl of Hessen-Kassel, the brother of Wilhelm, and cousin to Frederick II the Great of Prussia. Another member of the Asiatic Brethren was the Comte de St. Germain, a notorious charlatan and alchemist, whom many believed to be immortal. He continues to be regarded by many as the leading figure of modern occult history. St. Germain was a Grand Master of Freemasonry, and had become an acquaintance of Louis XV King of France and his mistress Madame de Pompadour. St. Germain was a permanent houseguest of Karl’s, who called him “the greatest philosopher who ever lived,” and nicknamed him “Papa”. ⁶³

St. Germain was in St Petersburg, where he participated in a conspiracy when the Russian army assisted Catherine the Great in usurping the throne from her husband Peter III of Russia. Catherine the Great is remembered as one of the “Enlightened Monarchs”, because she implemented several political and cultural reforms on behalf of the Illuminati. Voltaire, with whom she maintained regular correspondence, called her “Semiramis of Russia”, in reference to the ancient Babylonian queen, on whom the worship of the goddess Astarte was based. Catherine was succeeded by her son Csar Paul I. In her memoirs, she strongly implies that his father was not her husband Peter III, but her lover Sergei Saltykoff, one of many aliases of the Comte St. Germain.⁶⁴

Leading Illuminati like Saint-Martin, Swedenborg and Cagliostro, were all members of the Asiatic Brethren. Following the order’s demise, the title of Illuminati was given to the Martinists, founded by Saint-Martin. In 1771, an amalgamation of all the Masonic groups was effected at the new lodge of the Amis Réunis. A further development of the Amis Réunis was the Rite of the Philalethes, formed by Savalette de Langes in 1773, out of Swedenborgian, Martinist, and Rosicrucian mysteries.

Emmanuel Swedenborg became interested in the teachings of Dr. Samuel Jacob Falk, known as the “Baal Shem” of London, who was reputed to exercise miraculous powers through his supposed mastery of the magical names of God. Falk, according to Nesta Webster, was a crypto-Shabbatean, who collaborated with a network of Frankists in England, Holland, Poland, and Germany.⁶⁵

In Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, Webster explained, “Falk indeed was far more than a Mason, he was a high initiate – the supreme oracle to which the secret socieites applied for guidance.” According to Savallete de Langes, “some people believe him to be the Chief of all the Jews and attribute to purely political schemes all that is marvelous and singular in his life and conduct.”⁶⁶

Cagliostro, whose original name is thought to have been Giuseppe Balsamo, was a magician and charlatan who enjoyed enormous success in Parisian high society, in the years preceding the French Revolution. By to his own admission, Cagliostro’s mission “was to work so as to turn Freemasonry in the direction of Weishaupt’s projects”. According to famous revolutionary Louis Blanc, in his History of the French Revolution, 1848, Cagliostro was initiated into the Illuminati at Frankfort, 1781. From them he received instructions and funds to carry out their diabolical intrigues, through the famous “affair of the necklace” against Marie Antoinette, in preparation for their eventual seizure of power in 1789.

Just prior to the French Revolution, the Illuminati had been conspiring to bring about the American Revolution of 1776. Both Washington and Jefferson were ardent defenders of Adam Weishaupt, while Jefferson even referred to him as an “an enthusiastic philanthropist”.⁶⁷ Finally, among the fifty-six American rebels who signed the Declaration of Independence, only six were not Masons. The American constitution itself was inspired by the French Revolution, and the ideals of Freemasonry. It enshrined “Liberty”, meaning freedom from the yoke of Christian morality, rules which it attempted to replace with “unalienable rights”, a concept originally discussed among the secret meetings of the Illuminati.

Footnotes:

63 Melanson, Terry.

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64 “

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65 Schuchard, Marsha Keith.

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66 Webster, Nesta. Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, p. 189.

67

: Fisher, Paul.

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