“The appalling thing in the French Revolution is not the tumult, but the design. Through all the fire and smoke we perceive the evidence of calculating organization.”—Lord Acton

This book is an invitation to the secret world behind the veil of daily events. In its pages you will meet the legendary Cagliostro and the Comte de Saint-Germain as they travel through the royal courts and Masonic lodges of eighteenth-century Europe, fomenting Revolution and working to overturn the social order of their day. Alchemists, magicians, Illuminati adepts, mystics, and Freemasons joined forces with politicians, journalists, scientists, writers, philosophers and libertines in a movement that forever altered the cultural landscape of Western civilization.

Inaugurating two centuries of revolution and upheaval, the French Revolution of 1789 put an end to the concept of the divine right of kings, led to the formal separation of church and state, destroyed the remnants of medieval feudalism, and heralded the values of the Enlightenment as the triumphant banner under which the modern world would be born. Yet it was accompanied by a level of violence whose ferocity spoke more of an exorcism than a political restructuring.

What lessons does the Revolution hold for us today? Do the forces of secret societies and silent conspiracies continue to influence the world?

Historian Una Birch’s classic account was originally published in 1911. Her proximity to and sympathy with the events offer a unique perspective.  Secret society expert James Wasserman has made this work accessible to the modern reader with extensive annotations, a history of the Revolution, an introduction that places the Illuminati in context, and biographical sketches of the main participants.

* Highlights the secret activities of the Bavarian Illuminati and the Freemasonic lodges in organizing the French Revolution.

* Traces the influence of the mysterious Comte de Saint Germain as he traveled through the courts of Europe as an Illuminati agent.

* Offers a unique perspective on the Revolution by an author who supported the Illuminati war against Tyranny and Superstition, yet does not shrink from examining the darker side of that event.

* Will help the reader to understand the goals and methods of secret societies operating in the world today.

The Bavarian Illuminati have long been regarded as the secret society most responsible for the ideology and organization of the French Revolution in 1789. The Illuminati declared war against Church and State a decade earlier,  and worked feverishly to spread their new gospel of Liberty and Reason. Although they were officially suppressed on the eve of the Revolution, their efforts appear not to have been in vain.

Illuminati recruiting efforts were focused on the powerful and influential — government ministers, educators, the press, authors and philosophers, booksellers and publishers, even religious leaders open to agnostic or atheist views.  Many such men belonged to the Masonic lodges of Germany, Austria and France. The greatest success of the Illuminati conspiracy was the French Revolution. Its effects are felt to this day in the political destinies of millions of people.