Born on February 6th, 1748 in Ingoldstadt Bavaria of Jewish parentage, he was orphaned at an early age due to their untimely death. He was educated and raised as an orphan by the Jesuit Order (who held Adam in as much contempt as he them). His youthful ideals and free spirit upset the priests while gained the admiration of his fellow students. In 1772, at the age of 24, he received his professorship of law. Three years later, he became a Professor of Natural and Canon Law at the University of Ingoldstadt in Bavaria. This advancement made the clergy jealous and embittered as the office had only ever been previously held by an ecclesiastic. Weishaupt’s liberal views enraged the clergy, yet drew much favor and support from other staff, students and faculty. They began to meet in his private apartment where they would discuss philosophy, religion and topics of the day while drinking wine, listening to music and smoking. All of these meetings and parties soon turned into a formal society.

The Order was first called, “The Perfectibilists” yet subsequently gave rise to the name it is now universally known by, ‘The enlightened’ or ‘Illuminati’, a term Weishaupt bestowed upon members of the new society when they showed proficiency in intelligence and moral virtue. Due to the revolutionary nature of the organization, the Order gave its members coded names (of a classical nature). For instance, Weishaupt was known as Sparticus. The major cities were also encoded, Ingoldstadt was Eleusis, Austria was Egypt, Munich was Athens and Vienna was Rome. There was even a cipher calendar and all correspondence between members was made to be unintelligible to the profane.

Two years later he was initiated into Freemasonry at Theodore of Good Council lodge in Munich. Weishaupt instantly began to promote his own system within Masonry. Here is where he met Baron Knigge, (a.k.a. Philo) who aided in writing and expanding upon the degree system that Adam had created. He gained many associations within the Lodge as the basic framework of Freemasonry is religious tolerance, brotherly love and friendship. That many modern detractors claim a much closer connection between the Illuminati and Freemasonry is absurd. The slander is based on limited information that was proliferated by an already illegal ‘secret’ society, the Jesuits. Though the Jesuit Order was officially abolished some years earlier didn’t stop their power at influencing a new act that, on June 22, 1784, abolished all secret organizations by Royal decree.

The following year, Weishaupt lost his professorship at the University and was banished from the country. Leaving Bavaria, he found safety and a good patronage with Duke Ernst in Gotha. Here in this free town, Adam set pen to paper, writing quite a number of books, some of which were never published. Most of these books centered on promoting the ideals of Illuminism or Enlightenment. A Picture of the Illuminati 1786, History of the Persecutions of the Illuminati 1786, An Apology for the Illuminati 1786, An Improved System of the Illuminati 1787 were but a few of the titles along with the one I’m working on publishing, Diogenes Lamp. It’s an interesting title named after one of the first recorded cynics, Diogenes (student of Antisthenes, who was a student of Socrates). He would walk around the streets of Athens with a lamp. When spectators would ask what he was looking for, Diogenes would answer, “an honest man”. His performance art brought people to question their own actions and motivations and his name spread through the land as a wise philosopher. This work is full of questions addressed to us all. Do we each live in an isolated bubble of our own illusion? Have we looked within ourselves to find the Philosopher’s Gold, the truth of our own being as being a part of a global family?

In 1811, Weishaupt passed from this earth at the age of 63 to the Great Architect above. He was spoken highly of by his peers, pupils and fellow Illuminists, who regarded him as a scholarly genius and an outstanding advocate for human rights. Understanding the religious/political climate of the time makes it no wonder that the Catholic Church did everything in their power to destroy it. The Illuminati’s stated mission of human liberation and increasing moral virtue was an underground battle that, in the Americas, was playing out as the Revolutionary War and our fight for independence. That it worked in the now United States is a blessing that had a significant cost and yet a powerful result in the expansion of freedom and liberty. The many naysayers who have vilified and abused the name of Weishaupt have sadly claimed to be for freedom, yet they have used all the old propaganda of the past institutions of slavery.

It has been my dream the last four years of working to get, Diogenes Lamp published (with the talented translator Amelia Gill), to shed light on the most controversial topic of the last two hundred and thirty years. This work proves without a doubt that, though the illuminati wasn’t perfect, it was a positive vehicle for social change. The truth is Dr. Adam Weishaupt wasn’t some evil Luciferian magician, but a kind-hearted scholar who wished to improve the world through peaceful, philosophical conversation. Let us close with Dr. Weishaupt’s own words:

“Whoever does not close their ears to the lamentations of the miserable, nor their heart to gentle pity; whoever is the friend and brother to the unfortunate; whoever has a heart capable of love and friendship; whoever who is steadfast in adversity, unwearied in the carrying out of whatever has been engaged in, undaunted in the overcoming of difficulties, whoever does not mock and despise the weak, whose soul is susceptible of conceiving great designs, desirous of rising superior to base motives, and of distinguishing itself by deeds of benevolence, whoever shuns idleness, whoever considers no knowledge as unessential which they may have the opportunity of acquiring, regarding the knowledge of mankind as their chief study; whoever, when truth and virtue are in question, despising the approbation of the multitude, is sufficiently courageous to follow the dictates of their own heart, -such a one is a proper candidate.”