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IMAGE BY UNTERBERGER, IGNAZ (1748-1797)/WIEN MUSEUM KARLSPLATZ, VIENNA, AUSTRIA/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
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So much of their world was occluded. From secret handshakes to hidden deals, societies like the Freemasons and Knights Templar wielded outsize power in their age, but only bits of their business came out of the shadows. (Pictured above, a depiction of a Masonic initiation in Vienna in 1784.)
From murky origins, Freemasons established chapters worldwide, and their secret efforts have prompted speculation for centuries, as well as plot points for novelists like Dan Brown. Members have included George Washington, Mozart, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.
“As a nonreligious, nonpolitical society, Freemasonry defined a new set of moral and spiritual values,” writes Jean-Pierre Isbouts, who also charts groups such as China’s Tiandihui, ancient Greece’s Oracle of Delphi, and the Cult of Mithras.
Read the full story here.
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