This article was written after almost a year of research into the secret society of Freemasonry. Unfortunately most of the printed media I researched were written from a pure Christian perspective, and therefore seems biased towards the Christian belief system.

It is however not my intention to make Freemasonry out to be a Satanic cult, but rather to show the links between Freemasonry, mystic occultism and the governmental conspiracies related to the New World Order(NWO).

My theory is that Freemasonry is much more intricately connected to the NWO organisations, than is publicly known. Being an inherent secret society themselves, finding unbiased and objective info relating to FM proved to be an almost impossible task.

The only disclosure of "secrets" regarding FM and their initiations can be found in books written by former Masons, of whom most are now, confessed Christians. So you see my dilemma?

FM is also known as "The Order of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, Symbolic Craft and Craft Masonry". Some Masons claim an ancient connection to the Bible's Adam and Eve, stating that the aprons worn during initiations are symbolic of the fig leaves worn by the former in the Garden of Eden.

The first Masonic Lodge were birthed in a tavern in England in 1717, and was named the Grand Lodge. George Payne, James Anderson and Theopholips Desaguliers were present at the "inaugural" meeting.

On July the 3rd, 1733, the first American lodge were founded in St. Johns, Boston, Mass., and the second in Savannah, Georgia in 1734. Thousands of lodges were subsequently founded throughout America, and the world. These lodges have been very much involved in political affairs ever since, even to this day.

The Skull & Bones, from Yale University, is but one of theses Masonic based secret societies and through them numerous Presidents and vice-presidents of the United States were elected to office. Apparently three of the current (2004) candidates for presidency have definitive Skull & Bones ties.

Of the former presidents 15 were Bonesmen, and of the former vice-presidents, 19. Currently literally hundreds of high ranking American and world government officials are Masons or are intimately connected to the Masonic Order.

To enter into a lodge one have to be nominated by a current upstanding member of the third degree (Master Mason) or higher.

While researching different writings on FM I noticed that religion and a declared belief in the existence of God, is a prerequisite to initiation into the lodge. FM literature, however, opposes this view, and declares FM as an agnostic philanthropic organisation. A Freemason admitted, "The most important aspect of the symbolism regarding the compass and set square is the letter 'G' in the middle, representing God, but we do not kneel and we do not worship".

Although FM are known to the general public as an organisation who supports numerous philanthropic organisations and gives generously to support welfare organisations, such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army and local welfare agencies, a large volume of evidence shows that the core of FM relies heavily upon religious beliefs, specifically the Christian belief system.

All Masons are first initiated into the Blue Lodge, which are made up of three levels or degrees:

1. Entered Apprentice
2. Fellow Craft
3. Master Mason

Moving from level to level initiates undergo horrific rituals and take numerous oaths of secrecy and truthfulness towards the lodge and their fellow members. A Master Mason has the option to choose between two branches from this level onwards. These are called "The York Rite" (also known as the "American Rite" and the most popular) and "The Scottish Rite" (also called the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite").

The York Rite consists of ten degrees which is divided into three categories:

1. Royal Arch Chapter
2. Council of Royal & Select Masters
3. Commander of Knight's Templar

The ten degrees of the York Rite include the three degrees of the Blue Lodge, as its first three followed by seven others, named:

4. Mark Master
5. Past Master
6. Most Excellent Master
7. Royal Arch Master
8. Royal Master
9. Select Master
10. Super Excellent Master

From the tenth degree you can enter into one of another three degrees:

1. Order of the Red Cross
2. Order of the Knights of Malta
3. Order of the Knight's Templar

Knight's Templar is the highest in the York Rite.

The Scottish Rite

The Scottish Rite is divided into four lodges or chapters:

1. The Lodge of Perfection
2. The Grand Council of the Prince of Jerusalem
3. The Grand Chapter of Rose-Croix
4. The Grand Consistories of Divine Princes

Two additional titles are connected to the Scottish Rite:

1. Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret
2. Grand Elect Perfect and sublime Mason.

An additional 29 degrees can be entered into in this rite, of which most follow the same name structure as that of the York Rite. The 33rd degree is the highest, in the Scottish Rite, and is called Knight Commander.

Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, known as the Shriners, who supports and operates three children's hospitals in Boston, Galveston and Cincinnati.

The Order of the Eastern Star. Specifically for woman with five degrees:

1. Adah
2. Ruth
3. Esther
4. Martha
5. Electa

Daughters of the Eastern Star. For daughters, aged 14 to 20, of masons or eastern stars.

The Order of the White Shrine of Jerusalem. Part of the Eastern Star of which one degree is called Supreme Worthy High Priestess.

The Order of DeMolay. For sons, aged 14 to 20, of masons and eastern stars.

The International Order of Job's Daughters.

The International Order of Rainbow of Girls.

The Order of Amaranth.

Masonic Fraternities

Acacia The Square and Compass - Sigma Mu Sigma
Order of the Golden Key - Tau Kappa Epsilon
Prince Hall Freemasonry - for black masons (previously barred from Masonry)

The word occult is described as "deliberately kept hidden" or "to not reveal to others". Masons are forbidden by an oath not to reveal any of the secrets regarding the lodge and their doings, even to his wife or friends. The Masonic book, "the Royal Arch: Its Hidden Meaning, published by the Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company agrees that all Masons have at one stage participated in occult activities.

Some very powerful people and organizations have played a major part in the modern day occultist revival and most of them have one thing in common, namely Freemasonry.

One of these powerful people is Anton LaVey, High Priest of the Church of Satan and author of the contemporary "Satanic Versus". He states: "…Masonic orders have contained the most influential men in many governments, and virtually every occult order has many Masonic roots."

Through the past two hundred years many Masonic orders have been the breeding ground for other deep occultist groups of which some of the most common and widely known will be discussed here after.

Probably one of the best known, but least known about organizations are the group of people calling themselves the Illuminati or Bavarian Illuminati. Officially founded by Adam Weishaupt, a professor of Canon Law at Ingolstadt University, on May 1, 1776, it was one of the first secret societies that used the Masonic Lodge as a stepping stone to form even more sinister secret societies.

In his book "Proof of conspiracy", published in 1798, author John Robinson, a professor of Philosophy at Edinburgh University, documented in detail how one order of the Masons, known as "The Illuminated" expressed their aim of abolishing Christianity and overturn all civil governments.

2. Helena P. Blavatsky

Blavatsky was a well known leader among the New Age Movement and is heralded as "The Mother of the New Age movement". She lived from 1831 to 1891, born in Russia . She travelled throughout the world lecturing on occultism and writing several books on the subject of which "The Secret Doctrine is probably one of the most foundational of all her works, regarding the occult. In this book she makes no distinction between God and Satan and states that Satan actually made man into gods.

"Once that the key to Genesis is in our hands, the scientific and symbolical Kabalah unveils the secret. The Great Serpent of the Garden of Eden and the Lord God are identical, … "

She goes on in the same book, saying:

"Thus Satan, once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious, dogmatic, unphilosophical spirit of the Churches, grows into the grandiose image of one who makes of a terrestrial, a divine Man, … "

The Scottish Rite journal of the Southern Jurisdiction was previously called the "New Age Magazine", until as recent as 1990. New Age and FM are very intimately connected.

L.F. Perkins, a Freemason, wrote a book entitled "New Age Youth and Masonry: What every high school and college student should know about Masonry.", published in 1972 by Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. Inc., together with another of his works entitled "Masonry in the New Age". Both these books were in the Macoy Publishing catalogue for 1991.

3. The Theosophical Society

Blavatsky helped to found the Theosophical Society in 1875 and "The Secret Doctrine " had a huge effect on the history of man on earth. "Secret Doctrine" was the first book requested by Sirhan Sirhan after he was jailed for the murder of Robert Kennedy.

Adolph Hitler kept a copy of "Secret Doctrine" at his bedside and as can be expected was largely influenced by it. Hitler was also a student of the Balvatsky teachings and was initiated into the meaning of her doctrines.

Heralded as "Freemasonry's greatest Philosopher", 33rd degree Freemason Manly P. Hall, held "Secret Doctrine" as one of his favourite books and spoke with praise of Blavatsky and her teachings:

"The Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled are Madam Blavatskys gifts to humanity, and to those whose vision can pierce the menacing clouds of imminent disaster it is no exaggeration to affirm that these writings are the most vital literary contribution to the modern world. No more can they be compared to other books than can the light of the sun be compared with the lamp of the glow-worm. The Secret Doctrine assumes the dignity of a scripture, …"

President of the Theosophical Society was FM Henry Steel Olcott, with the vice-president FM George H. Felt. Numerous high ranking Masons were members, some of which were Charles Sothern and Albert Pike, Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, one of the most powerful and influential Masons of all times.

Blavatsky was so highly acclaimed by Masons that she was issued with a Masonic certificate in the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Masonry in 1877.

4. Annie Besant

In 1907 Annie Besant became the president of the Theosophical Society and soon afterwards achieved a 33rd degree in Co-Masonry, a Masonic rite which admitted men as well as women. 33rd Degree mason C. W. Leadbetter were viewed by many as Besant's right-hand man. Some even claimed him to be a homosexual pedophile.

5. Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley, a 33rd degree Mason, is widely known as "the father of modern Satanism" and was called the most wicked man alive by the press during his lifetime. Crowley called himself "The Beast 666" and his mistress, Leila Waddell had the mark of the beast tattooed between her breasts. Crowley lived a largely perverted life indulging in drugs and perverted sexual acts as a sign of his hatred of Christianity. He said:

"To me, every dirty act was simply a sacrament of sin, a passionately religious protest against Christianity, which was for me the symbol of all vileness, meanness, treachery, falsehood and oppression."

6. Ordo Templi Orientis

Founded in 1895, by Austrian Freemason, Karl Kellner. After Kellner's death Theodor Reuss took over the reigns and published a magazine called Oriflame in 1902. In the 1912 jubilee edition the following excerpt explains the nature of their activities:

"Our order possess the key which opens up all Masonic and Hermetic secrets, namely, the teachings of sexual magic, and this teaching explains, without exception, all secrets of Nature, all symbolism of Freemasonry and all systems of religion."

Aleister Crowley was recruited from masonry into OTO by Reuss and writes the following regarding Reuss:

"Although I was admitted to the 33rd and last degree of Freemasonry so long ago as 1900, it was not until the summer 1912 that my suspicion was confirmed. I speak of my belief that behind the frivolities and convivialities of our greatest institution lay in truth a secret ineffable and miraculous, potent to control the forces of Nature, and not only to make men brethren, but to make them divine. But at the time I speak of a man came to me, a man of those mysterious masters of esoteric Freemasonry who are alike its Eyes and its Brains, and who exist in its midst unknown, often, even to its Acknowledged chiefs … This man had been watching my occult career for some years, and deemed me worthy to partake in the Greater Mysteries."

In 1912 Crowley became head of the British OTO and forthwith called his cult of the OTO "the true Freemasonry". He said:

"I claim for my system that it satisfies all possible requirements of true freemasonry. It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood and for universal religion."

In the Royal Arch Degree Masons blaspheme the God of the Bible by uniting God's name to those of pagan gods. The secret word of the Royal Arch degree is Jahbulon. Jah meaning Jehovah, Bul representing Ba'al, a pagan god, and On representing the Egyptian sun god Osiris.

The Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, by Albert G. Mackey sheds some more light on the meaning of this secret word of the Royal Arch Degree. According to this book, Baal signifies Lord or master and occurs on numerous occasions in the bible as part of the names of various gods. Individually it refers to the sun-god, or supreme deity of the Syro-Phoenician nations.

Through Crowley the OTO has made public its doctrines in a book called "The Book of the Law". This book is seen by many followers of OTO and FM as a perfect translation of the divine and an enlightened vessel of truth for all men and women, which can serve as a guide to human conduct. Quoted from "The Book of the Law":

"24. The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a child, …
51. With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross …
60. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."

7. Rosicrucian Society

To be initiated into this society, and in particular that of the Rosicruciana of Anglia, you had to be a Master Mason or higher. Another very powerful and influential secret society to rise out of RS were the "Order of the Golden Dawn".

Founded in London in 1888, by Freemasons, Dr. W. W. Westcott, Dr. W. Woodman and S. L. MacGregor Mathers. Westcott were very much interested in occultism and freemason symbolism.

Helena Blavatsky were so overjoyed about the founding of the Golden Dawn that she called them "The Hermetic Students of the Golden Dawn in the Outer" in a 1889 issue of her Theosophical Society periodical, "Lucifer".

8. William Wynn Westcott

Westcott was an English mason, junior Grand Deacon of the Grand Lodge of England and head of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia as well as the Golden Dawn. Further titles include Knight Kadosch in Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Grand Standard Bearer, Secretary of the Rite of Swedenborg, Royal Arch to the Grand Lodge of England and Regent of the Illuminati. He also had very close ties with Theodor Reuss. It is also very notable that the OTO and Golden Dawn held very close ties throughout history and Aleister Crowley were a member of both these secret societies.

9. Eliphas Levi

Levi, a Master Mason, changed his name from Alphonse Constant and lived in France around the middle of the 19th century. Levi , considered by many as the "Michelangelo" of the traditions of black magic and occultism influenced 20th century Satanism considerably and has helped the notion that the Knights templar Degree bears towards diabolism. Levi was the creator of the "Satanist Mona Lisa" or Baphomet engraving, ultimately becoming the icon of the Knight Templar Degree.

Baphomet is introduced as a goat-headed figure with androgynous features, sitting on a cube, with a torch blazing between the goat's horns, representing cosmic intelligence and spiritual illumination.

In the "Satanic Bible" Anton LaVey explains the importance of the picture of Baphomet to Satanists:

"The symbol of Baphomet was used by the Knights Templar to represent Satan. Through the ages this symbol has been called by many different names. Among these are: The Goat of Mendes, The Goat of a Thousand Young, The Black Goat, The Judas Goat, and perhaps most appropriately The Scapegoat. Baphomet represents the power of Darkness combined with the generative fertility of the goat … The symbol of baphomet is placed on the wall above the altar."

Levi became a Freemason on March 14, 1861 and was the author of many books on occultism. Most of his views ha passed on to another occultist Freemason of great repute, called Albert Pike.

10. Albert Pike

From 1859 to 1891, Pike was the Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite in America and hailed by many of his peers as the most powerful and influential Mason of all time. Many of his teachings and views were expressed in his book "Morals and Dogma", published by the Supreme Council and are seen as having great impact on Freemasonry today.

Author wishes to acknowledge following sources for quotes and explanations used in this section called "Links to occultism & occult organisations"

· Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1976 G&C Merriam Co.
· G. H. Steinmetz, The Royal Arch, Its Hidden Meaning, 1946, Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. Inc.
· J. Robinson, Proofs of Conspiracy, Western Islands, 1798.
· L. F. Perkins, New Age Youth and Masonry, CSA Press, 1972.
· H. L. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Theosophical Publishing House, 1893.
· J. J. Carr, The Twisted Cross, Huntington House Inc., 1985.
· M. P. Hall, The Phoenix, An Illustrated Review of Occultism and Philosophy, The Philosophical Research Society, 1960.
· Lady Queenborough, Occult Theocracy, The Christian Book Club of America, 1933.
· C. W. Leadbetter, The hidden life in Freemasonry, The Theosophical Publishing House, 1928.
· Aleister Crowley, Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects, Time-life Books, 1989.
· Aleister Crowley, Satanic Extracts, Black Lodge Publishing, 1991.
· Kenneth Grant, Aleister Crowley and The Hidden God, Samuel Weiser.
· Francis King, Rites of Modern Occult magic, The MacMillan Comp., 1970.
· Hymanaeus Beta, The Equinox, Samuel Weiser, 1990.
· A. G. Mackey, Mackey's Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, The Masonic History Comp., 1946.
· Ellic Howe, The Magicians of The Golden Dawn, Samuel Weiser Inc., 1972.
· C. A. Raschke, Painted Black, Harper and Row, 1990.
· A. S. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, Avon Books, 1969.
· M. Howard, The Occult Conspiracy, Destiny Books, 1989.
· A. Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, L. H. Jenkins Inc., 1871.

One of the most notable and notorious Mason based secret society in the western world is the Skull & Bones , which came into the spot light very prominently, recently, when it was learned that four of the current US Presidency candidates have strong Skull & Bones links. The following were copied from the websites as mentioned at the end of the chapter. If any copyright exists on this info it would be duely removed from the script of this article.

The powerful men of Skull & Bones genuinely believe that they have a strategic and moral "right" to control world affairs. Consequently, they take upon themselves the authority to crush any rivalrous threat to U.S. imperial leadership, whether by current allies, such as Japan, Germany or Great Britain, or by Cold War adversaries, like the Soviet Union. The members of the Order, due to their narrow WASP upbringing, view with particular suspicion the maneuverings of Zionist Israel and its affluent, influential lobby in the United States.

Bush, his fellow Bonesmen and their like-thinking elitist allies in the American Establishment see themselves as New World Order warriors, an American samurai caste of sorts, whose mission is restoring American greatness. They intend to utilize the institutional networks of the U.S. government and key private agencies, such as the New York Council on Foreign Relations. to advance their purpose.

The Skull & Bones members believe in the idea of "constructive chaos". By keeping their true policy intentions secret, by constantly sending out mixed signals on all critical policy issues, they consciously seek to sow confusion among both their nominal "friends" and "enemies alike.

The fulcrum for the policy of constructive chaos is, at present, the Middle East situation. Although U.S. military action in the region has for the time being subsided, America's military power will remain a critical determinant in the future of that vital zone of conflict. American military power is aimed at securing undisputed control over the vast reservoir of oil-not at necessarily fostering any permanent alignment of local states or combinations of regional interests.

If President George Bush and his fellow true believers are successful. the United States will be first among equals in the New World Order. This is their goal. It is also the quest of the Bonesmen of the Order of Skull & Bones-America's warrior aristocracy.

Skull & Bones was founded at Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut in 1832. It is the oldest and most prestigious of Yale's seven secret societies. Among the others are: Scroll & Key, Book & Snake, Wolf's Head, Eliahu, and Berzelius. These fraternities serve as a recruiting ground for young men destined for careers in government, law, finance and other influential sectors of American life. Skull & Bones is the elite of the elite among these secret societies. Only Scroll & Key can claim a near equal influence on American affairs over the past 160 years.

Unlike the Greek fraternities on most other American university campuses, Skull & Bones and its similar secret societies exist exclusively at Yale. They are not part of any nationwide public association. The other elite Ivy League colleges, Harvard and Princeton have similar exclusive secret societies. Yet, even among these few universities, the secret societies of Yale-led by Skull & Bones-are unchallenged in their influence on American political affairs.

According to some accounts, the Skull & Bones secret society at Yale has an underground affiliation with two other societies which were simultaneously founded at two other locations. The number "322" that appears under the skull and crossbones on the Order's emblem is believed to indicate the year of its founding-1832-and the fact that it is the second lodge within an international system. By some accounts, the lodge holding the number "1" is in Germany and the lodge numbered "3" is based at another American college.

Since its founding, Skull & Bones has only inducted about 2,500 members. At any given time, only about 600 or so members of the Order are alive. This small number underscores the tremendous concentration of power in the hands of its members.

If the members of Skull & Bones were to select a Hall of Fame from among their own elite ranks, some of the people whose names would almost certainly appear at the top of the list would be:

* Alphonso Taft, a founding member of the Order who served as the Secretary of War under President Rutherford B. Hayes (1876-1880).

* William Howard Taft, the only man to ever serve as both the President of and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

* Henry Lewis Stimson, partner in the Wall Street law firm of Root and Stimson, Secretary of War under President Taft (1908-1912), Governor General of the Philippines (1926-1928), Secretary of State under President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) and Secretary of War under Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (1940-1946).

* Averell Harriman, investment banker with Brown Brothers Harriman, director of the Lend-Lease program of the U.S. State Department (1941-1942), U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943-1946), Governor of New York, Under Secretary of State for Asia (1961-1963), and presidential secret envoy to Soviet leaders Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov.

* Robert Lovett, partner in Brown Brothers Harriman, Assistant Secretary of War for Air (1941-1945), Deputy Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Defense (1950), leading member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations.

* Harold Stanley, investment banker, founder of Morgan Stanley.

* Robert A. Taft, United States Senator (1938-1950).

* Prescott Bush, investment banker and partner in Brown Brothers Harriman, United States Senator from Connecticut, father of George Herbert Walker Bush

* George Herbert Walker Bush, United States Congressman (1964-1970), Chairman of the Republican National Committee, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, first American Diplomatic Liaison to the Peoples Republic of China, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1975-1977). Vice President of the United States (1980-1988), President of the United States (1988- ).

* John Thomas Daniels, agro-industrialist, founder of Archer Daniels Midland.

* Hugh Wilson, foreign service officer, Counselor to Japan (1911- 1921), U.S. Minister to Switzerland (1924-1927), Assistant Secretary of State (1937-1938). Ambassador to Germany 1938), Special Assistant to the Secretary of State (1939-1941), Office of Strategic Services (1941-1945)

The members of the Order of Skull & Bones, true to their firm belief in "constructive confusion," have intentionally allowed a series of conflicting mythologies to spring up about the origins and history of their secret fraternity. According to one version of the Order's founding, it was an outgrowth of an earlier British or Scottish freemasonic grouping first established at All Soul s College at Oxford University in the late 17th century. Another version of the history of Skull & Bones is that it grew out of the German "nationalistic" secret .societies of the early 19th century. Still a third explanation is that Skull & Bones is an uniquely American institution which adopted some of the rituals of European freemasonry, but molded these rituals and beliefs into a new form.

Regardless of these conflicting accounts, it can be stated with certainty that the Order was first established on the Yale campus in 1832 It was officially incorporated only in 1856 under the name Russell Trust Association. According to virtually all the available biographical data on its early members, the money required to sustain the secret order's campus affairs and its broader role in placing its members into key positions of influence upon their graduation from Yale, derived from the opium trade in the Far East. That trade was set up by the British East India Company and was flourishing by the time the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 ending the American War for Independence. The East India Company during this period was controlled by the Baring Brothers Bank (Toward the closing decades of the l7th century, the British House of Rothschild would supplant the Baring Brothers as the controlling financial interests in the China opium trade.

Through the sponsorship of the Barings and also the Rothschilds, a number of leading New England families, some of whom had sided with Great Britain during the American Revolution, were brought into the opium trade as junior partners. These merchant families ran fleets of clipper ships and became in many cases fabulously wealthy as the result of their association with the British East India Company. Among these key New England merchant families were; Cabot, Coolidge, Forbes, Higginson, Sturgis, Lodge, Lowell, Perkins and Russell.

These New England merchant families founded the United Fruit Company and the Bank of Boston. The founding families of Skull & Bones included the Russell and Perkins families, Over several generations, however, all these families heavily intermarried and became, in effect, one extended power grouping.

William Huntington Russell incorporated Skull & Bones as the Russell Trust Association. Throughout the 20th century, the Russell Trust Association listed the New York City headquarters of Brown Brothers Harriman as its address.

Russell was valedictorian of his class at Yale in 1833. He and his Skull & Bones comrades considered themselves to be a special elite among the merchant banking and Puritan pilgrim elite of Yale. They took the Puritan beliefs of the early New England settlers, that they were "elected by God," and pre-ordained to rule North America.

The founding of Yale College in 1701 pre-dates the American Revolution by several generations. Many of the founders of Yale were righteous men of the Puritan heritage who devoutly believed in God and country. Some of these patriotic souls later made up the core of Benjamin Franklin's political coalition which ultimately broke with the mother country, Great Britain. Many graduates of Yale were active in the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.

Two critics of the Order, historian Anthony Sutton and investigative journalist Ron Rosenbaum (himself a Yale graduate), both concluded that Skull & Bones has degenerated since its founding and has taken on more of the occult and ritualistic trappings of the majority of European freemasonic and illuminati secret societies. Sutton charges that the Order is secretly known among its initiates as the "Brotherhood of Death" and has become an evil instrument in the hands of America's secret power elite. Rosenbaum claims that the society's Germanic origins are inherently wicked and pre-Nazi.

In a long 1977 article in Esquire magazine, Rosenbaum charged that the Skull & Bones building on the Yale campus houses remnants from Hitler's private collection of silver. While these stories cannot be dismissed out of hand, it must be noted that authors Rosenbaum and Sutton may be biased. As a young Jewish student at Yale, Rosenbaum was almost automatically excluded on religious grounds from the inner sanctum of the campus's secret societies. Sutton, a British-born eccentric historian, proudly admits his strong British biases, frequently citing philosopher John Stuart Mill as the spiritual mentor in his book on the Order.

Despite the possible personal biases in these two accounts of the history of the Order of Skull & Bones, it must be acknowledged that the membership of the society has tended over generations to converge upon a small group of New England families who have intermarried and then sponsored their sons and nephews into the Order. This kind of inbreeding always tends to produce narrow-mindedness and prejudice against outsiders, which can be a serious shortcoming, particularly among individuals responsible for charting the course of a nation as powerful as the United States.

It can be documented by comparing the family charts of the early Bonesmen that there is today a core group of no more than 20 to 30 families who form the nucleus of the Order. The majority are old-line Puritan families who came to North America in the very first wave of settlers in the 17th century. Among these prominent families are: Whitney, Lord, Phelps. Wadsworth, Allen, Bundy, Adams, Stimson, Taft, Gilman and Perkins. A second group of families in the Skull & Bones core earned fabulous fortunes during the 18th and 19th centuries and thus won a rite of passage into the New England elite, even though they were not among the earliest settlers. The leading Skull & Bones families in this second category are: Harriman, Rockefeller, Payne, Davison, Pillsbury and Weyerhauser.

A few of the Jewish banking families who made their way from Germany to the United States during the 18th and l9th centuries were eventually granted limited access to the WASP inner sanctums. Some families, like the Schiff, Warburg, Guggenheim and Meyer families were unofficially designated as intermediaries between the New England WASPs and their cousins in London. This was especially true after the Rothschild interests supplanted the Anglican Baring group as the most powerful financial cabal in the City of London. Some of these German Jewish families became so absorbed into the WASP or Anglican society that they eventually converted from Judaism to Protestantism and were gradually ostracized from the Jewish aristocracy.

The WASP families, however, never saw the prominent Jewish investment banking families of America as equals. The Jews were considered politically and culturally different by the WASPs, and have never been accepted into the latter's inner circle. For the most part, these Jewish merchant bankers are viewed with suspicion and distrust by the members of the Order. Moreover, the Jewish fraternal societies, such as B'nai B'rith, were formed out of the British-based Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Their sponsors in America, the Rothschilds and the Cecil Rhodes Trust (also known as the British Round Table Group), are connected with the British Foreign Office and its secret intelligence apparatus.

These rites of passage into the upper ranks of the WASP Establishment are capped by the experience the Bonesmen go through in their final year at Yale-the year in which they actively participate in the Order. For the vast majority of the initiates, the process of inculcation with the ideas of WASP supremacy, an American Calvinist version of what British imperialist writer Rudyard Kipling called the "White Man's Burden," began at prep school.

According to the biographical accounts of a number of the leading Bonesmen, the prep school experience is paramount. At prep school, intellectual pursuits are encouraged, but special emphasis is also placed on athletic performance. Future Yale Bonesmen are expected to excel in some team sport, such as baseball and football, both American inventions. (Members of Skull & Bones were involved in the development of both games.) Team sports supposedly prepare the future Bonesman to accept leadership responsibility, and more importantly, teach him to "respect the rules of the game."

According to one biographer, when George Bush was a Yale undergraduate he was a member of the university baseball team. Although he was apparently not a very good baseball player, he eventually became captain of the Yale team. One day during the Yale baseball season, he excitedly visited his mother to proudly proclaim that he had hit his first home run. She reportedly looked back at him with patrician coolness, and asked, "Yes, George, but did your team win the game?"

The particular emphasis on team sports during the prep school and Yale years is, according to several historians, part of the Spartan training that is so essential to the Skull & Bones philosophy. In the world of Skull & Bones, one of the greatest virtues is the ability to steer the nation into war and to successfully prosecute the war.

To the Bonesmen, the use of military power is a natural and essential corollary to political power. The Bonesmen are taught that, although ideas have their place, to truly transform history, military force is almost always required. Critics of the Order have pointed out that this philosophy of power and the imperial use of military force comes straight from the chronicles of the Roman Empire-especially the Roman Empire during its phase of decline and collapse.

The criticism may prove to be most prophetically true of the current generation of Bonesmen who are leading the United States under the presidency of George Bush. During the final phase of the Roman Empire, legions were deployed out around the world to conquer and subjugate vast territories, while back in Rome, there was a breakdown, a crisis in which the entire social and cultural fabric of the early Roman republic was eroding and giving way to something akin to the drug, rock-sex counterculture of today. The Roman imperial policy of attempting to gloss over the decadence at home-by engaging in constant wars of expansion led ultimately to the total collapse of Rome.

In this regard, the Spartan-Roman imperial outlook of the American WASP warrior caste, exemplified by Skull & Bones, cannot be precisely compared to the Japanese samurai code of Bushido. The Japanese Bushido code emphasized honor among the warriors and presumed a fundamentally moral or ethical vision of the world.

No such emphasis on morality and honor exists in the code of Skull & Bones. On the contrary, the Skull & Bones philosophy, according to several of its most astute critics and historians, emphasizes the "double-cross system." The "double-cross" is symbolically represented by the crossbones on the emblem of the Order. According to this philosophy, anyone who is not an initiate is inferior, and can be lied to and manipulated to further the power of the WASP Establishment. To the extent that Japanese leaders view their American WASP counterparts as men of honor whose word is sacred and whose intentions are presumed to be virtuous, they will miss the fundamental character of the American emporium. This is of special importance today, with a leading member of the Skull & Bones system occupying the White House.

Skull & Bones philosophy first manifested itself at the American national political level in the late l9th century. At that time, the men of the Order adopted all the critical features of the British imperial system, especially the belief in the Anglo Saxon God-given right to rule over all the other races. Even countries like Japan, which were never colonial possessions of the Anglo-American combination, were viewed as inferior nations to be treated no differently from the colonies in Africa, India or Latin America.

In 1898, President William McKinley, one of the last of the American presidents to manifest any of the early republican (anti-British imperialism) traditions of the Founding Fathers, was under enormous pressure from the Skull & Bones-led American imperialists Eventually, he went to war against Spain to "free" Cuba and seize the Philippines This was the first time that the United States entered a war through devious manipulation and purely in order to expand its territories It marked the beginning of a new epoch in American history which would forever alter the vision of the United States. It was the first evidence that the men of the Order were at the helm of the ship of state.

President McKinley's capitulation to the WASP warriors would prove to be fatal to himself and, some would say, for his country, too. The Spanish-American War of 1898 catapulted the Skull & Bones crowd into a position of dominance within the Republican Party. At the 1900 party presidential nominating convention, McKinley was forced to accept Teddy Roosevelt as his vice presidential running mate. The McKinley-Roosevelt slate was swept into office, in part as the result of the jingoist climate built up by the just-concluded Spanish-American War Those circumstances were not all that-different from the mood that prevails in America in the aftermath of the Gulf War of 1991.

According to a January 1991 article by the Washington syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, when President George Bush was making his final decision to use military force to crush Saddam Hussein and decimate Iraq, he spent most of the Christmas holidays closeted at Camp David reading a newly published biography of one of his true heroes, fellow Skull & Bones initiate Henry Stimson. While most White House advisers thought that the gulf crisis would be ultimately resolved through diplomacy, unbeknownst to them, President Bush had already decided on the use of devastating military force-regardless of what measures the world community or the Iraqi leaders took to avert war. Intimate Bush advisers described the president as being in a "mesmerized" state of mind as he walked around the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains with his Stimson biography, The Colonel: The Life and Wars of Henry Stimson, under his arm at all times.

Indeed, for most contemporary Bonesmen, Henry Lewis Stimson, the quintessential WASP warrior, was the very personification of the Order's full ascent to power during the period of World War II.

A member of the Order's class of 1888, Stimson served seven U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft (a fellow Bonesman), Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S Truman. As the Secretary of War under FDR and Truman, Stimson oversaw the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. Stimson personally decided on the use of that devastating weapon against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Years earlier, as the chairman of the American delegation at the London Naval Conference and as Secretary of State under President Hoover (1929-1933), Stimson had played a pivotal role in restricting the size of the Japanese Imperial Navy. He would be an architect of the FDR 's administration's economic provocations against Japan which ultimately helped induce Japan into the attack at Pearl Harbor, thus bringing the United States formally into World War II.And Stimson was also ultimately responsible for the FDR administration's decision to intern the Nisei (Japanese-Americans) after Pearl Harbor.

Yet, it was also Stimson who ordered American bombers to refrain from attacking the old Japanese imperial capital of Kyoto, a city rich in religious and historical tradition and artifacts. And, according to at least one of Stimson's biographers, it was also "the Colonel" who decided at the close of the war that the Japanese emperor should not be deposed. His sensitivity to Japanese culture and the importance of allowing Japan to retain honor even in defeat is widely to his close adviser, Joseph Grew, a longtime U.S. ambassador to Japan and an accomplished historian. Whether this report of Stimson's involvement in the decision to maintain the emperor is accurate or whether it underplays the role of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the fact remains certain that Stimson was the key policymaker overseeing the postwar occupations of both Japan and Germany.

To fully understand President George Bush's attitudes and policies toward Japan, one must first appreciate the overarching influence that Stimson had on the current occupant of the White House.

According to his British biographer Geofrey Hodgson, Stimson's membership in Skull & Bones was "the most important educational experience in his life." Unlike most of his fellow Bonesmen, Stimson earned his membership solely on the basis of his achievements at Yale-not through family money. His parents were not wealthy, although his forefathers did come to America as early Puritan colonists. But Stimson made up for his lack of financial credentials by his fierce competitive spirit. As he himself put it, the "idea of a struggle for prizes, so to speak, has always been one of the fundamental elements of my mind, and I can hardly conceive of what my feelings would be if I ever was put in a position or situation in life where there are no prizes to struggle for."

Although Stimson did not come from classic blueblood background, he married into wealth and power. His wife, Mabel White, came from a prominent Establishment family with longstanding ties to the Order. Thus, upon graduation from law school, Stimson became a partner in the law firm of Eliahu Root, President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of War.

Though Stimson and Roosevelt would have a falling out in later years, early on Roosevelt and Root provided "the Colonel" with the critical sponsorship and training required to succeed in the world of Establishment politics. According to Stimson's biographers, Roosevelt would frequently taunt the young Bonesman about the fact that he, unlike the president, had never been-in the military or fought in any wars. (Roosevelt had resigned as Under Secretary of the Navy to go off and fight in the Spanish-American War.) Thus, at the ripe old age of 44, Stimson joined the Army during World War I and served in the American Expeditionary Force in Europe.

Among the other lasting interests that Roosevelt would pass on to Stimson was his deep passion for the Pacific. Roosevelt was convinced that America's imperial destiny was dependent upon its domination of the Pacific Ocean and the Far East. The Spanish-American War, which marked the beginning of Ameriea's imperial phase-and the virtual abandonment of the republican principles upon which the nation had been founded-began the U.S. colonial occupation of the Philippines, which would continue through half of the next century. Ultimately, Stimson would himself serve as the American Governor General of the islands.

In 1900, Roosevelt wrote to Stimson: "Our people are neither craven nor weaklings, as we face the future high of heart and confident of soul, eager to do the great work of a great power . . . ~ wish to see the United States the dominant power on the Pacific Ocean."

Henry Stimson's towering influence on George Bush and many other current members and like-thinking allies of the Order was based not only on "the Colonel's" lifetime of achievements. It was also rooted in the fact that Stimson used the World War II period to groom a successor generation of young WASP warriors who would dominate American policymaking during the Cold War and beyond. Although not every member of what came to be known as the "Stimson's Kindergarten" was a member of Skull & Bones, or even a Yale graduate, many were. All were inculcated with the Skull & Bones philosophy and methodology of wielding power. It is through this alliance and patronage system that the influence of the Order has been extended far beyond its small membership roster.

Among the leading members of the "Stimson Kindergarten" were:

* John J. McCloy, who was Assistant Secretary of War and later served as the High Commissioner for Germany during the postwar occupation.

* Robert Lovett, a member of Skull&Bones and a partner in the Order's preeminent Wall Street investment house Brown Brothers Harriman. He became Stimson's Assistant Secretary of War (Air Section). Lovett remained an influential policymaker through the presidency of John F. Kennedy.

* Harvey Bundy, another Bonesman, who became Stimson's special assistant at the War Department. Harvey Bundy's two sons, McGeorge and William fresh out of Yale University and Skull & Bones, joined their father on Stimson's personal staff. McGeorge Bundy would co-author Stimson's memoirs In Active Service in Peace and War.

* Dean Acheson, Assistant Secretary of State, Yale graduate (he was not a member of the Order, but, rather, of one of the other Yale secret societies, Scroll Key) and senior policy adviser to FDR and Truman, who ultimately made him Secretary of State.

* Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the armed forces during World War II and later Truman's Secretary of State.

This group of high-powered policymakers of World War II and immediate post war period were known as the "Stimson-Marshall-Acheson Circle." They shaped America's Cold War containment policy against the Soviet Union and Communist China, including the involvement of the United States in the Korean War. It was also this group which, for better or worse, directed the postwar reconstruction programs in Germany and Japan.

Another influential member of Skull & Bones, Averell Harriman, was personally responsible for the sacking of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. It was Harriman, a banker, intriguer and former American Ambassador to Moscow, who convinced President Truman to fire MacArthur.

The predominant role that Averell Harriman would play over the course of 40 years of postwar American policymaking underscores the fact that not all leading members of Skull & Bones share the identical policy outlook. While some members of the Stimson inner circle were critical of Harriman, whom they considered to be too personally ambitious (he was also a liberal imperial Democrat in a secret fraternity dominated historically by moderate Republicans), Harriman nevertheless stands out as one of the Order's most active figures. The fact that he was a business partner and social intimate throughout his adult life of fellow Bonesman and Republican Sen. Prescott Bush Sr., the father of the current president underscores that point.

Henry Stimson died in 1950, leaving behind a core group of political offspring led by members of his old secret society, Skull & Bones. In the final years of his life he was involved in helping to shape a number of postwar government agencies which would become bastions of power and influence for the Order for years to come. Through this active role in shaping the key institutions of the Cold War era, Stimson was able to establish a continuity of power that would more than compensate for the fact that no single figure among his "kindergarten" emerged as a clear successor, and that several, like McGeorge Bundy, would prove ultimately to be rather disappointing students.

The National Security Act of 1947 transformed Stimson's old War Department into the Department of Defense, a sprawling civilian bureaucracy which would in future years house many of the most important members of the Order. Robert Lovett, for example, would become the Secretary of Defense in 1950. The 1947 act also established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as the permanent successor to the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In the early 1950s, the State Department's Office of Policy Coordination was merged into the CIA, giving the secret agency total control of America's clandestine operations Th National Security Agency (NSA) also was established, under the direction of the Department of Defense, vastly expanding America's signal intelligence capability.

Of all these agencies of the Cold War era, the CIA would stand out as a singular power center for Yale University alumni in general and Skull & Bones initiates in particular. The term "spooks," the well-known CIA term for a clandestine operator, was originally Yale campus argot for a secret society member. According to a recently published article in the Covert Action Information Bulletin, there is reportedly a "Bones club" within the CIA which helps promote the intelligence careers of members of the Yale secret society.

It should be pointed out that bureaucratic standing is not a real measure of power within the CIA. Very often, individuals in relatively insignificant positions within the organizational chart wield tremendous clout and maintain access to the most sensitive information and policy. Thus, for example, the present U.S. Ambassador to Beijing, James Lilley, a member of Skull & Bones and a career CIA man, is being suggested to replace William Webster as Director of Central Intelligence. For Lilley to step in as director of CIA would at this moment represent a demotion for the senior field operator. It is, however, a demotion he might accept as a personal favor to fellow Bonesman and longtime intimate pal George Bush.

The predominance of Yale graduates inside the CIA is also a part of the Stimson legacy. During World War II, many Yale students and even several leading faculty members entered the OSS. The X-2 Branch of OSS, the counterintelligence unit, was dominated by Yale students, as well as Yale English Literature professor Norman Holmes Pearson. One of the Yale men in X-2, James Jesus Angleton, went on to a legendary career as director of the CIA's counterintelligence staff.

Yale Skull & Bonesman and Stimson "Kindergartener" William Bundy assumed a senior post at CIA during the 1950s, as did Yale graduates Richard Bissell and Cord Meyer, and Yale professor Sherman Kent.

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