Freemasonry and Satanism in the 21st century: real beliefs or pop winks?

Yoga is satanism: its postures are, in truth, demonic invocations.

Stephen Hawking was a doll, pure satanic propaganda to deprive the masses of the idea of ​​the Creator.

The Big Bang, the theory of evolution, the thesis of the "rotating ball" of the Earth and the arrival on the Moon are versions of satanic freemasons to distort the word of God.

They are conspiracy ideas that denounce Twitter accounts such as Deniers Out of Context.

pic.twitter.com/wn3fShcMTH

– Denialists Out of Context (@EstoyAvisando) January 8, 2023

How much of real belief is there and how much of a pop wink in these nodes that weave these theories threaded into false news?

We cannot venture it, but we do know something: Satanists and Freemasons are the secret societies that in this 21st century —so technological and post-modern— continue to arouse irrational terror in many.

But, in turn, they are a source of fascination and entertainment for many more.

After all, honoring invisible brotherhoods and mystery cults is one of the favorite occupations of contemporary culture.

From

to

—a series about the Sevillian secret society La Garduña—, from the songs of The Cramps to the

of the Valencian band Obscure, from the novel

from Carmen Mola to the best sellers of Enid Blyton's

, there are many cultural artifacts that bring us closer to the elusive prism of secret societies.

Why?

Positivist, scientific and rational thought dominates and leaves out everything spiritual, the ineffable, generating different degrees of skepticism and even hostility, reflects the writer Enrique Juncosa in

(Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture, 2018).

But that effort fails to destroy that trail of shadows: "There is continuity in the secret traditions," Juncosa says.

camaraderie and secrecy

It seems true.

“We are fascinated by the hidden, the invisible part, the forbidden.

It is part of human nature," explains Servando Rocha, a writer specializing in counterculture and director of La Felguera, a publishing house that "under the guise of a secret society, is dedicated to revealing the best secrets of our time," as they define themselves. themselves.

For Rocha, people long for camaraderie, clandestinity, that "powerful feeling of belonging to a community of few, an alliance between brothers, another family."

Illustration of the alleged leaders of La Mano Negra, from the magazine 'Museo Criminal', dated September 1, 1904.Museo Criminal (La Felguera Editorial Archive)

La Felguera has just published

, a magazine-case with articles, illustrations, photos and a dictionary on secret societies such as Palladium, the Universal Association for the Destruction of the Social Order, The Sect of the Mysterious, The Black Hand or The Lone Star, among many.

And, like other times, Rocha and his team have celebrated the launch of their new publication with a secret meeting.

One night in mid-November, on the Segovia viaduct in Madrid, under the so-called suicide bridge, there was a clandestine act, with secret arrival instructions and a password that cannot be revealed.

More than 100 people attended the event, and there were people who were left out of the call, wanting to participate.

Surrounded by candles, using a megaphone and illuminated by a powerful light - which guided the participants to the meeting point - at that meeting they talked about secret societies.

Minerva García, vice president of the Association of Satanists of Spain, was one of the participants in the event.

In a telephone conversation it can be seen that she has a lot of fun in the association, while warning about that fear - old and blind - that circulates invisibly on the networks and in many other places.

'Burlesque' and blessings

In terms of Satanism, there are people who "remain in the literalness of things and do not have a pop view on these issues," says Minerva García.

And that's why blessings come to her via Twitter and sometimes also in person.

Half laughing, she remembers that three years ago they had a party in a bar in Malasaña to celebrate the launch of the association.

dances

and red confetti to symbolize a blood rite.

Suddenly, a group of people arrived at the door of the bar “who began to pray, throw holy water at us and perform an exorcism on us”, he explains.

Then it seemed to him that he was living one of the great moments of his life.

He felt “like a member of the Sex Pistols”, but he did not cease to be amazed by the credulity of those who tried to rescue him from his “fall” into satanic hands.

“There are people who believe in the devil.

That happens today, now.

It amazes me that people are incapable of documenting themselves a bit, of not understanding the joke of all this, ”he warns.

Minerva García, who defines herself as "bisexual, feminist,

, satanist and trade unionist" in the networks, agrees with the interpretation of the figure of Satan according to Bakunin, who described the fallen angel as the first rebel, the first free thinker and emancipator of the worlds.

"You have to live as you want without harming anyone, believe in yourself," she explains.

That is why in the association they want to promote culture in these somewhat dark times: “It seems that in these times being ignorant is fine.

That power to speak from ignorance and to applaud ”, she denounces.

She became a satanist because others made her feel that way, she says: "I have always lived as I wanted and I have given my opinion freely, but if you are a woman and you do that, there are many who are still scared."

She is a vegetarian and an animal supporter, but they accuse her of making animal sacrifices: "There are people who really believe that we do all that!" She is amazed.

Cover of 'Freemasons and pacifists', by Juan Tusquets.Ediciones Antisectarias (La Felguera Editorial Archive)

A sensational

fake news

In the secret meeting that November night under the viaduct, one of the legends invoked was that of Leo Taxil.

Also known as Docteur Bataille —among many other pseudonyms—, Taxil was a prominent French atheist who produced one of the most successful

in history: the alleged secret union between Freemasonry and Satanism.

In 1884, through treaties, writings and meetings, Taxil faked his conversion to Catholicism and deceived the Church by inventing Freemason lodges allied with diabolical forces.

They were societies like Palladium, which he warned about their claim to dominate the world.

Taxil's claims were accepted by Pope Leo XIII —who even granted him an audience— and his conspiracy theories spread throughout Europe.

One of Taxil's most elaborate lies was Lucifera, the High Priestess of the Devil, the first great satanic and Freemason woman, who went by the name of Diana Vaughan.

In reality, Vaughan was the fictitious name of Taxil's own secretary and typist, who convinced her to participate in her invention.

Helped by a friend, she began writing letters to cardinals and bishops asking for "spiritual help" and was soon flooded with responses.

Taxil's inventions did not take long to reach Spain.

The farce generated countless followers of his thesis, and many religious leaders turned his inventions into violent anti-Masonic treatises.

The hoax spread over fifteen years until on April 19, 1897, Taxil held a press conference at the Geographical Society of Paris to put an end to his "joke."

He acknowledged that his revelations about the Freemasons were lies, that what he wanted was to laugh at the credulity of the people, and he "thanked" the Church for his contribution to the success of the deception by giving him propaganda and funds for his publications. .

The scandal was so big that the act ended in attempted aggression.

Cover of the magazine 'Mundo Gráfico' of March 11, 1936. Mundo Gráfico (La Felguera Editorial Archive)

emancipated lies

“The French writings were a very early case of guerrilla communication and

, passing off as true what was false.

It is when the lie emancipates itself and passes for truth”, explains Rocha.

That's how it went.

Years later, Francisco Franco revived the Taxil farce and under the pseudonym Jakin Boor wrote various articles on plots by Jews and Freemasons, arguments that as dictator led to paroxysm with the launch of entities such as the Special Court for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism.

Instructed by Taxil's work and the prejudice against Freemasonry, "we have grown in fears, misunderstandings, stereotypes and even a certain stigmatization of Freemasons and lodges, present in the course of our history, colored by political struggles", writes the historian Carlos Peláez, professor and researcher of Anthropology of Social and Cultural Policies at the Complutense University of Madrid, in his book

(Editorial Seneca, 2006).

Societies such as El Ángel Exterminador, from the 19th century, whose objective was to destroy the ideas of progressive liberalism through intrigues or assassinations, were born or developed in Spain.

A “pure hoax invented by Freemasonry” to discredit the absolutist and reactionary adversaries, according to the nineteenth-century historian Vicente de la Fuente.

Another secret group were the Carbonarios —from Naples and settled in Spanish lands, according to legend—, which emerged from the guilds of coal miners, a society that was said to use crosses, nails or crowns of thorns in their ceremonies to provoke the suffering of the powerful - landowners, nobles or kings - for their excesses against the humble.

It is no coincidence that in 1824, when the embryo of what would later become the Spanish police was created, one of its objectives was "to persecute secret associations, be they community members, Freemasons, Carbonari or any dark sect."

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