By Timothy Fitzpatrick
March 29, 2026 Anno Domini
There are two prevailing beliefs about the Illuminati that both misunderstand what the term really means.
Probably the most common belief is that the Illuminati is just a conspiracy theory that mentally unstable people use to describe a shadowy, faceless group of world conspirators they believe are after them. The other prevailing belief says that the Illuminati is an umbrella term for elite men who rely on occult means to subvert and control the world.
The former is your typical dismissive skeptic that tends to think that conspiracies are rare, if present at all in this world, while the latter is actually the partially correct belief.
Through the use of Jewish Gnosticism and its various strains—Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, etc.—the Bavarian Illuminati of failed Catholic Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830) sought to influence those holding power so that the group could eventually gain control of the world—the cartoonish “plotting for world domination”. As corny as that might sound, it seems that really was/is the plan.
The Illuminati were perhaps the first Communists, in a sense, as they realized ways of subverting society that mirror some of the ways modern Communists subvert society: deconstructing religion (especially Christianity), promoting immorality, internationalism, and abolishing private property. I won’t get too deep into the history of the Bavarian Illuminati, because there are better men who have written a great deal more about it and it’s not the focus of this article (for more on the Illuminati, see Jesuit priest Augustin Barruel’s Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism [1797], the quintessential book exposing the Illuminist conspiracy). While encyclopaedias of the world admit the existence of Weishaupt’s Illuminati as some group of those believing themselves to be enlightened, they further obscure the true meaning of this term by leaving it ill defined.
So, what exactly is the Illuminati?
The Illuminati are a group who use illuminism to achieve their ends. Therefore, the Illuminati are those who adhere to the method or tactic of illuminism. But what is illuminism? It’s a system. The method of illuminism is quite simply what is known today as blackmail (the criminal act of coercion using threats). Weishaupt allegedly came up with the idea of a systematic form of blackmail by observing the Catholic sacrament of penance (confession) and adapting it to a form outside of its sacramental Catholic use. Instead of having men’s secrets (sins) confessed to a priest and dissipated into the air of the sacramental chamber (confession booth) and ultimately absolved by God, why not, Weishaupt must’ve though, extract these secrets so that they could be used against men to get them to do what the Illuminati want them to do, through exploitation or extortion? What was forgotten and forgiven sins in the Catholic confessional could now become compromising material for ongoing use.
Late British author Nesta Webster quotes Weishaupt,
“Every person shall be made a spy on another and on all around him…friends, relations, enemies, those who are indifferent—all without exception shall be the object of his inquiries; he shall attempt to discover their strong side and their weak, their passions, their prejudices, their connections, above all, their actions—in a word, the most detailed information about them.”[1]
If illuminism means blackmail then the Illuminati ought to mean the blackmailers.
Weishaupt and his successors likely first experimented with illuminism on their own members (the Hollywood film The Skulls portrays this brilliantly) and then later brought it out into the general population for its ultimate use. Blackmailing chiefs of police, magistrates, monarchs, even clerics, must’ve become common wherever the Illuminati slithered about.
Initially, Weishaupt created the group the Perfectibilists, which was later renamed to the Illuminati. The Perfectibilists adopted the owl of Minerva as their symbol. Minvera (Athena, to the Greeks) was a Roman goddess associated with strategic warfare. She is sometimes depicted with an owl on her shoulder.
“To the Romans, an owl feather placed near sleeping people would prompt them to speak in their sleep and reveal their secrets,” writes author Cassandra Eason.[2]
As an example of Minerva’s prowess, she is said to have devised the Trojan horse strategy that fooled the Trojans and paved the way for the Greeks to enter and conquer Troy. It seems likely that this strategic genius of Minerva’s was one of the reasons for the Illuminati’s adoption of her symbol.
(The American secret society known as Bohemian Grove adopted the symbol of the owl based on its wisdom. Could it also be related to Minerva and her strategic intelligence?)
While various secret societies throughout history have likely used blackmail to achieve their objectives, in the legacy of Weishaupt’s Illuminati, there is really only one power that has systematized and honed the concept of illuminism (blackmail) down to a science, and that is the Soviet Union, specifically it’s security forces, the CHEKA-NKVD-KGB-FSB. Just as Weishaupt used compromising material on his targets as his primary method of gaining control over them, the Soviets also have used compromising material (from which the Soviet Russian term kompromat [компрометирующий материал] derives) to achieve their strategic ends. Although kompromat has been going on since the Soviet Union was founded, what better proof of its continued and successful use is there than of the present controversy of the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal, a kompromat operation that is global and seems to involve just about everyone in the power structure of the West?
Kompromat is illuminism.
Illuminism is Kompromat.
The KGB and its predecessors were known for secretly arresting or murdering enemies of the Revolution in the middle of the night. Proto-Communist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who was alive during the formation of the Bavarian Illuminati and may well have been a member, in his Philosophy of Right (1820) writes, “the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.” Although the KGB doesn’t use an owl in its emblem, it does use a sword-on-shield symbol that could be related to Minerva and her sword and shield. The shield and especially the sword are prominent symbols in Freemasonry and the Kabbalah. The flaming sword (pointing downward like the KGB’s sword), according to the Kabbalah, represents divine energy’s dialectical path through the Tree of Life (Sephiroth).
“As you contemplate the Flaming Sword’s path, you’ll notice it doesn’t follow a straight line but rather moves in a precise pattern that mirrors the flash of lightning. It’s a reminder that spiritual energy doesn’t manifest directly but transforms through various stages of consciousness.”[3]
The above explanation reveals that the flaming sword travels not in a straight line but in a zig-zagging pattern (dialectically). In the occult world, white and black magic or good and evil are used to bring about a desired end. The various stages of consciousness spoken by kabbalist gurus seem to be the same as the various alchemical stages of the dialectical method.
“Russia will become the capital of Kabbalah,” writes Russian rabbi Michael Laitman. “Marxism-Leninism prepared us for Kabbalah.”[4] Materialistic atheism in the Soviet Union was merely a stage (a zag) travelling down the flaming sword of the dialectical method. Laitman suggests that belief in Kabbalah was the ultimate end of this seeming Communist flaming sword.
We can see how this applies to the KGB’s use of controlled opposition (like the Soviet Trust[5]) to bring about a certain synthesis from the conflict between two seemingly opposing forces (in controlled opposition operations, the two sides are not naturally opposing forces, although they can be initially, but are manipulated by the power running the op). Similarly, the KGB’s offshoot, the Israeli Mossad[6], has as its motto by way of deception thou shalt do war.
“… there are three major ‘hooks’ for recruiting people: money; emotion, be it revenge or ideology; and sex,” former Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky revealed in his book By Way of Deception.[7] Reading between the lines here, Ostrovsky seems to suggest that those who can’t be bought or be exploited through appeal to their ideology are given sex, and when that fails, the sex can be turned into blackmail (likely how the KGB hooked Donald Trump to do their bidding). Where does Weishaupt’s network begin and the KGB/Mossad’s end?
Deception can be said to be a dialectical tactic (one lies [use of evil] to bring about a supposed good). Therefore, the Kabbalah’s flaming sword becomes even more realized in the KGB’s use of the sword in its emblem.
Furthermore, on top of the sword and shield in the KGB emblem are the Soviet five-pointed star (pentagram) and the hammer and sickle—both of which can have Kabbalistic meaning. Revolutionary Leon Trotsky (Lev Bronstein) associated the origin of Soviet five-pointed star with the Jewish false messiah Simon Bar-Kochba, according to historian Woflgang Akunov[8], and a standing member of the current Russian Duma belonging to the Russian Federation Communist Party, Vladimir Nikitin, oddly admitted, “a five-pointed star, even in the Jewish Kabbalah, is a symbol of activity and victory.”[9] What’s more, Russian rabbi Avraham Shmulevich claims that “the Communists (Soviets) used Kabbalistic symbolism…the hammer and sickle reproduces the letters of the (Hebrew) word ‘Shaddai’ with their shape.” Shmulevich concludes, “God (shaddai) is the father of the Revolution.”[10]
While the Soviet system has relied on materialistic atheism as a cover for its secret purpose[11], it seems likely that the KGB was instituted in the spirit of the Illuminati and its Kabbalistic occult forces, with blackmail and controlled opposition being among its primary tactics.
Notes:
- Webster, Nesta, World Revolution. The Plot Against Civilization, Small, Maynard & Company, 1921, pg. 14 ↑
- Eason, Cassandra, Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols: A Handbook, Bloomsbury Academic, 2008, pg. 71 ↑
- Mystiphora, 12 Kabbalistic Symbols And Their Hidden Meanings, Jan. 7, 2025 – https://mystiphora.com/12-kabbalistic-symbols-and-their-hidden-meanings/ ↑
- Laitman, Michael, ‘Russia will become the capital of Kabbalah…Marxism-Leninism prepared us for Kabbalah’: rabbi Michael Laitman, Feb. 24, 2003, IZ – https://fitzinfo.net/2024/02/22/russia-will-become-the-capital-of-kabbalah-rabbi-michael-laitman/ ↑
- Piper, Michael Collins, The Judas Goats: The Enemy Within, American Free Press, 2006, pgs. 64-66 – https://fitzinfo.net/2018/03/08/controlled-opposition/ ↑
- Aviv, Juval, Juval Aviv is the real Zohan, Youtube, Steve Hager, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOMHEHd8XtY&t=61s ↑
- Ostrovsky, Victor, By Way of Deception, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1990, pg. 91 ↑
- Akunov, Wolfgang, About the roots of Bolshevik symbolism, 2008, Proza – https://fitzinfo.net/forum/topic/trotsky-referred-to-origin-of-soviet-five-pointed-star-with-jewish-false-messiah-simon-bar-kochba-historian-akunov/#postid-2139 ↑
- Nikitin, Vladimir, Congratulations on the 75th anniversary of the Victory from the VSD “Russian Fad”, KPRF, May 7, 2020 – https://fitzinfo.net/forum/topic/a-five-pointed-star-even-in-the-jewish-kabbalah-is-a-symbol-of-activity-and-victory-russia-cprf-duma-deputy-vladimir-nikitin-on-soviet-victory-day-anniversary/ ↑
- Shmulevich, Avraham, Mysticism and world domination – HyperZionism is a social practical Kabbalah, APN, Nov. 23, 2009 – https://fitzinfo.net/2026/02/03/kabbalah-is-a-political-doctrine-a-political-weapon-rabbi-avraham-shmulevich/ ↑
- Sulam, Baal, Late Jewish sage Baal Sulman explains how Communism is the ultimate objective of Kabbalah – https://fitzinfo.net/2024/08/25/late-jewish-sage-baal-sulman-explains-how-communism-is-the-ultimate-objective-of-kabbalah/ ↑