A secret society is a social organization that requires its members to conceal certain activities—such as rites of initiation or club ceremonies—from outsiders. Members may be required to conceal or deny their membership, and are often sworn to hold the society's secrets by an oath. This term is often used to describe fraternal organizations (i.e. Freemasonry) that may have secret ceremonies.

Secret societies are often the subject of suspicion and speculation from non-members, and as such have aroused nervousness from outsiders since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. Often, secret societies are featured in Conspiracy theories that ascribe to them immense power and ill-intentions and accuse them of harboring secret (and often satanic) beliefs and either self-serving financial or political agendas. While some conspiracy theorist claim secret societies desire to institute a "New World Order," others claim that these organizations are harmless or overestimated, dismissing them as over-glorified fraternities.

Contents

1 Secret Societies in History 1.1 Organized Crime 1.2 Student Societies 1.3 Political and Cultural Backlash 2 List of Secret Societies 2.1 Business, International or Non-Governmental Organizations 2.2 Student Societies 2.3 Fraternal Organizations 2.4 Criminal Organizations 2.5 Historical Secret Societies 2.6 Revolutionary or Underground Organizations 2.7 Alleged secret societies 2.8 In Works of Fiction and Popular Culture 3 External links

Secret Societies in History

(more to come)

Organized Crime

(more to come)

Some—though certainly not all—secret societies may strive for secrecy for reasons of illegal activity. This is an unfortunate label, however, since numerous societies exist and are struggling due to their "bad name" which is not deserved.

Student Societies

(more to come)

Many student societies established on university campuses[1] (http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/marin_greek_letters.htm) have been considered secret societies, including, most notably, Skull and Bones (1832) at Yale University, the Order of the Bull's Blood (1834) at Rutgers University and the Bishop James Madison Society (1812) at The College of William & Mary. The first collegiate secret society was the FHC Club (1750), followed by Phi Beta Kappa (1776), both founded at William & Mary. In England, the most notable secret society is The Most Ancient and Most Noble The Order of Purple at the University of Durham.

Political and Cultural Backlash

(more to come)

Secret societies are illegal in several countries. In the European Union, Poland has made the ban a part of its constitution. Article 13 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland states:

"Political parties and other organizations whose programmes are based upon totalitarian methods and the modes of activity of nazism, fascism and communism, as well as those whose programmes or activities sanction racial or national hatred, the application of violence for the purpose of obtaining power or to influence the State policy, or provide for the secrecy of their own structure or membership, shall be prohibited."

List of Secret Societies

Business, International or Non-Governmental Organizations

While these following groups do not style themselves as secret societies, they qualify through a quantative denotative interpretation.

• Bilderberg Group
• Club of Rome
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Royal Institute of International Affairs (also known as Chatham House)
• Society of the Elect
• Round table groups
• Trilateral Commission

Student Societies

• ANAK (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Berzelius (Yale University)
• Bishop James Madison Society (College of William and Mary)
• Book and Snake (Yale University)
• Brotherhood of the Golden Dagger (Rutgers University)
• Cambridge Apostles (University of Cambridge)
• Capitolo Otto (Yale University)
• The Conscience (Oxford College of Emory University)
• Episkopon (University of Trinity College)
• Flat Hat Club (College of William and Mary)
• Iron Arrow Honor Society (University of Miami)
• Michigamua (University of Michigan)
• Mountain (West Virginia University)
• Order of the Bull's Blood (Rutgers University)
• Owl Society (University of Pennsylvania)
• Phi Beta Kappa (National, began as a secret society, but eliminated secrecy in 1831)
• Porcellian Club (Harvard University)
• Quill and Dagger (Cornell University)
• Scroll and Key (Yale University)
• Seven Society (University of Virginia)
• Shifters (Wittenberg University)
• The Wizards (Wittenberg University)
• Skull and Bones (Yale University)
• Society of the Pacifica House (Brown University)
• Sphinx Head (Cornell University)
• Sword and Serpent (Rutgers University)
• Tabard (University of Pennsylvania)
• Theos (University of Pennsylvania)
• The Machine (University of Alabama)
• The William Penn Society (Whittier College)
• Wolf's Head (Yale University)
• Z Society (University of Virginia)

• Prophets of Providence (Culver Military Academy)

Fraternal Organizations

• AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis)
• Confraternity of the Rose Cross
• Freemasonry (also known as Free & Accepted Masons)
• FUDOFSI
• FUDOSI
• Order Militia Crucifera Evangelica
• Order of DeMolay
• Order of the Eastern Star
• Order of the Solar Temple
• Ordo Templi Orientis
• Perfect Masons
• Rosicrucians

Criminal Organizations

• Camorra
• Mafia (also known as La Cosa Nostra)
• Tong
• Triad
• Yakuza

Historical Secret Societies

• Black Panthers
• Illuminati
• Know-Nothings
• Ku Klux Klan
• Wide Awakes
• S.P.K.

Revolutionary or Underground Organizations

• Carbonari
• Fenian Brotherhood
• Germanenorden
• Mau Mau
• Narodnik
• Society of Harmonious Fists
• Vihan Veljet

Alleged secret societies

• The Elders of Zion
• Priory of Sion
• Kom'Royza

In Works of Fiction and Popular Culture

• Aes Sedai Ajahs in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, particularly the Black Ajah
• Angelic Society
• Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
• Cabal, in the works of Robert A. Heinlein
• Central Anarchist Council in G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday
• Committee to Unelect the Patrician in Discworld
• Darkfriends, in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time
• Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night in Discworld
• House of Flying Daggers (in the movie of the same name)
• Illuminati in Tomb Raider (movie)
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• Millennium Group in the television show Millennium
• The Patriots in the Metal Gear series
• S.P.E.C.T.R.E., in the works of Ian Fleming
• Order of the Phoenix, in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series
• The Stonecutters, from The Simpsons
• Second Foundation, in The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
• Sisters of the Dark in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
• The Trust, in the Vertigo/DC comics series 100 Bullets
• In the Mike Myers film So I Married an Axe Murderer, a character speaks of a secret organization called the Pentaverate, consisting of "the Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds and Colonel Sanders," which controls everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meets triannually at a secret location in Colorado called The Meadows.

External links

• A Survey of Secret Societies (http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/marin-fraternities.htm)

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