Secret societies and subversive movementsWebster, Nesta Helen
History
Secret societies and subversive movements
Webster, Nesta Helen
Secret societies
The organization of _Clarté_ thus approximates more nearly, to the
system of Weishaupt than that of the other societies described in this
chapter. Although in the strictest sense a secret society, it is in no
sense occult and therefore possesses no ritual of its own, but, like the
earlier Illuminati, recognizes the utility of working through
Freemasonry. _Clarté_, in fact, forms an adjunct of the Grand Orient and
owns a lodge under its jurisdiction in Paris. It would be interesting,
however, to know whether the idea of the alliance with the Grand Orient
occurred as an afterthought to the _Clarté_ group or whether the
original inspiration of _Clarté_ emanated from an inner circle of the
Grand Orient. We shall return to the question of this inner circle in a
later chapter.
Such, then, are the principal secret societies at work in Great Britain,
but amongst minor secret or semi-secret movements may be mentioned the
strange sect the Faithists, said to have some affinity with the Druses,
inhabiting a singularly unromantic London suburb, whose "Ancient
Founder" is the author of a series of tracts urging man not to be misled
by false Gods, but to worship "Jehovih the Creator only," and at the
same time advocating nationalization as a cure for all social ills; or
again The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at
Fontainebleau, led by Gurdjieff and Uspenski which combines esoteric
meditation with an extremely meagre diet and strenuous manual labour. It
is interesting, by the way, to notice that the art of movement known as
Eurhythmy--not to be confounded with the system of M. Dalcroze which is
known in England only as Eurhythmics--forms an important part of the
curriculum of the last society, as also of Herr Steiner's Order, of the
Stella Matutina, and of the Russian Bolsheviks.[728]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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