Secret Societies: In the Shadows

At the height of their power, the Knights Templar owned vast swathes of land, commanded fleets, and lent money to Kings. An ancient society of warriors, and one that has inspired so many societies that followed. From the original nine knights, that protected holy pilgrims, their powers expanded across Europe and left enduring mythologies in their wake. Can we unravel fact from the fiction? Did the Knights protect the Holy Grail and Turin Shroud? How were they selected, and what codes did they follow? And even though they were vanquished, are they truly gone?

Is the Illuminati a New World Order? Although the ultimate secret order was disbanded in 1785, some claim this elite group continues to control power from behind closed doors. What started as a Bavarian group of revolutionaries hellbent on infiltrating powerful institutions has now become the stuff of legend. Who were these powerful men? What strange rites brought them together? What kind of world did they hope to build? And do curious triangle sightings and mysterious building projects betray a still-active Illuminati presence?

Yale's ultra-secret society is a pinnacle of the elite. Its members have become Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, and heads of industry. To be tapped is to be welcomed into a line of power brokers with the promise of life-long membership and opportunities. But how do members get 'tapped'? And what happens in the bowels of their mysterious tomb? Rumors of grave-robbing and casket confessionals abound. What's the truth behind this hallowed secret order hiding in plain sight?

Perhaps the hardest society to crack, Le Cercle goes all the way to the top. Heads of state. Intelligence operatives. Chiefs of industry. Vatican envoys. All have a seat at the table for meetings of the ultra-secret Le Cercle. What started in the post-war years as a Catholic conservative group built to broker European rapprochement now operates as a shadow intelligence agency that is rumored to control world politics. Thought to be rooted in secret religious sects like the Opus Dei and Knights of Malta, its aims are now mostly political. Its members have funded coups and installed world leaders, all while they sit elbow-to-elbow with names like Rockefeller, Kissinger, and Rumsfeld. Le Cercle operations circumvent traditional governments and all accountability.

The Freemasons have been meeting since the 14th century and its members have included the likes of Winston Churchill and Rudyard Kipling. From an ancient stoneworker's guild through to the modern era, their mythologies, beliefs, and secret rituals have inspired countless works of fiction and speculation. What happens behind the closed doors of thousands of Masonic lodges? How are members initiated, and how do they move up through the ranks? How has a sect from the Middle Ages kept pace with the modern world?

What kind of society includes Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and H.P. Lovecraft as a member? The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a secret society that dabbled in the occult. It laid the groundwork for modern Wiccanism and esoteric practices and its members studied alchemy and astral travel. Were initiates witnessing magic or smoke and mirrors in the strange temples of this fringe society? Were the order's most famous members engaged with the paranormal or searching out new material for purely commercial purposes?