''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is a
series of three novels by American writers
Robert Shea
Robert Joseph Shea (February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994) was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy '' Illuminatus!'' It became a cult success and was later turne ...
and
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...
, first published in 1975.
[''Illuminatus!'' was written between 1969 and 1971, but not published until 1975 according to Robert Anton Wilson, '' Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977), p. 145. ] The trilogy is a
satirical,
postmodern,
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
–influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magic-laden trek through a number of
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
, both historical and imaginary, related to the authors' version of the
Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
. The narrative often switches between
third- and
first-person perspectives in a
nonlinear narrative. It is thematically dense, covering topics like
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
,
numerology, and
Discordianism.
The trilogy comprises three parts which contain five books and appendices: ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' (first two books), ''The Golden Apple'' (third and part of fourth book), ''Leviathan'' (part of fourth and all of fifth book, and the appendices). The parts were first published as three separate volumes starting in September 1975. In 1984 they were published as an omnibus edition and are now more commonly reprinted in the latter form.
In 1986 the trilogy won the
Prometheus Hall of Fame Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newl ...
.
[Libertarian Futurist Society]
. Retrieved 21 February 2006.
The authors went on to write several works, both fiction and nonfiction, that dealt further with the themes of the trilogy.
''Illuminatus!'' has been adapted for the stage, as an audio book and has influenced several modern writers, artists, musicians, and games-makers. The popularity of the word "
fnord
"Fnord" () is a word coined in 1965 by Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill in the Discordian religious text '' Principia Discordia''. It entered the popular culture after appearing in '' The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (1975) of satirical and parody consp ...
" and the
23 enigma
The 23 enigma is a belief in the significance of the number 23.
Origins
Robert Anton Wilson cites William S. Burroughs as the first person to believe in the 23 enigma. Wilson, in an article in '' Fortean Times'', related the following anecdote ...
can both be attributed to the trilogy.
Narrative
The plot meanders between the thoughts,
hallucination
A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
s and inner voices, real and imagined, of its many characters—ranging from a squirrel to a New York City detective to an artificial intelligence—as well as through time (past, present, and future), and sometimes in mid-sentence. Much of the back story is explained via dialogue between characters, who recount
unreliable, often mutually contradictory, versions of their supposed histories. There are even parts in the book in which the narrative reviews and jokingly
deconstructs the work itself.
Plot summary
The trilogy's story begins with an investigation by two
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
police detectives (Saul Goodman and Barney Muldoon) into the bombing of ''Confrontation'', a
leftist magazine, and the disappearance of its editor, Joe Malik. Discovering the magazine's investigation into the assassinations of
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
,
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
, and
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
, the two follow a trail of memos that suggest the involvement of powerful
secret societies
A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...
. They slowly become drawn into a web of conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, the magazine's reporter, George Dorn—having been turned loose without support deep in
right-wing Mad Dog,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
—is arrested for drug possession. He is jailed and physically threatened, at one point hallucinating about his own execution. The prison is bombed and he is rescued by the
Discordians, led by the enigmatic
Hagbard Celine
Hagbard Celine is a central protagonist in the ''Illuminatus trilogy'' of books by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, named after the legendary Viking hero Hagbard who died for love. In the ''Schrödinger's Cat trilogy'', written after ''Il ...
, captain of a golden submarine. Hagbard represents the Discordians in their eternal battle against the
Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
, the conspiratorial organization that secretly controls the world. He finances his operations by smuggling illicit substances.
The plot meanders around the globe to such locations as
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
(where a potentially deadly, secret U.S. government-developed mutated
anthrax epidemic has been accidentally unleashed);
Atlantis
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...
(where Howard, the talking
porpoise, and his porpoise aides help Hagbard battle the Illuminati);
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
(where someone resembling
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times an ...
was killed many years ago); and to the island of
Fernando Poo (the location of the next great
Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union, China and the United States).
The evil scheme uncovered late in the tale is an attempt to ''
immanentize the eschaton
In political theory and theology, to immanentize the eschaton is a pejorative term referring to attempts to bring about utopian conditions in the world, and to effectively create heaven on earth. Theologically, the belief is akin to postmillenniali ...
'', a secret scheme of the ''American Medical Association'', an evil rock band, to bring about a mass
human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
, the purpose of which is the release of enough "life-energy" to give eternal life to a select group of initiates, including
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. The AMA are revealed to be four siblings (last name Saure) who comprise four of the five mysterious Illuminati Primi. The identity of the fifth remains unknown for much of the trilogy. The first European "
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
" festival, held at
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Ba ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
(place of origin of the ''real'' historical Illuminati, also known as
Bavarian Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
), is the chosen location for the sacrifice of the unwary victims, via the reawakening of hibernating
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
battalions from the bottom of nearby (fictitious) Lake Totenkopf (literal translation to contemporary American styled English- "dead head"). The plot is foiled when, with the help of a 50-foot-tall incarnation of the goddess
Eris, the four members of the AMA are killed: Wilhelm is killed by the monstrous alien being
Yog-Sothoth
American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) created a number of fictional deities throughout the course of his literary career. These entities are usually depicted as immensely powerful and utterly indifferent to humans who can barely begin to c ...
, Wolfgang is shot by John Dillinger, Winifred is drowned by porpoises, and Werner is trapped in a sinking car.
The major protagonists, now gathered together on board the submarine, are menaced by the
Leviathan
Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some ...
, a giant, pyramid-shaped single-cell
sea monster
Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are of ...
that has been growing in size for hundreds of millions of years. The over-the-top nature of this encounter leads some of the characters to question whether they are merely characters in a book. This
metafictional note is swiftly rejected (or ignored) as they turn their attention to the monster again. The threat is neutralized by offering up their onboard computer as something for the creature to communicate with to ease its loneliness. Finally Hagbard managed to defeat the Illuminati Primi and went to
Alpha Centauri in 1999.
Characters
* Carmel – a pimp living in Las Vegas
*
Freeman Hagbard Celine – leader of the Discordians and a central protagonist in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''
* George Dorn – reporter for ''Confrontation''
* Saul Goodman – New York City detective
* Rebecca Murphy Goodman – Saul Goodman's wife
* Howard – a porpoise
* Joe Malik – editor of ''Confrontation''
* Mao Tsu-Hsi – Illuminati recruiter
* Simon Moon – anarchist
* Barney Muldoon – New York City detective
* Tarantella Serpentine – an Illuminati-trained prostitute
* Markoff Chaney – a midget on a cross country mission to spread chaos
* Fission Chips – a British secret agent
* Harry Coin – a perverted assassin
* Robert Putney Drake – a mob boss obsessed with the occult
Titles
The titles of the three volumes or parts (the front covers were titled ''Illuminatus! Part I The Eye in the Pyramid'', ''Illuminatus! Part II The Golden Apple'' and ''Illuminatus! Part III Leviathan'') refer to recurring symbols of elements of the plot.
''The Eye in the Pyramid'' refers to the
Eye of Providence
The Eye of Providence (or the All-Seeing Eye of God) is a symbol that depicts an eye, often enclosed in a triangle and surrounded by rays of light or glory, meant to represent divine providence, whereby the eye of God watches over humanity. ...
, which in the novel represents particularly the
Bavarian Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
, and makes a number of appearances (for example, as an altar and a tattoo).
''The Golden Apple'' refers to the
golden apple
The golden apple is an element that appears in various national and ethnic folk legends or fairy tales. Recurring themes depict a hero (for example Hercules or Făt-Frumos) retrieving the golden apples hidden or stolen by a monstrous antagonist. ...
of discord, from the
Greek myth
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of d ...
of the
Judgement of Paris
Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle ...
. In the trilogy it is used as the symbol of the Legion of Dynamic Discord, a
Discordian group; the golden apple makes a number of appearances, for example, on the cover, on a
black flag, and as an emblem on a uniform.
''Leviathan'' refers to the
Biblical sea monster
Leviathan
Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some ...
, which is a potential danger to Hagbard's submarine ''Leif Erickson'' (from the name of the
Icelandic discoverer of America). It also refers to
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...
' seminal work of political philosophy,
''Leviathan'', as a metaphor for an all-encompassing, authoritarian state – a common metaphor used in libertarian discourse.
Publishing history
The trilogy was originally written between 1969 and 1971 while Wilson and Shea were both associate editors for ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'' magazine. As part of the role, they dealt with correspondence from the general public on the subject of
civil liberties, much of which involved paranoid rants about imagined conspiracies. The pair began to write a novel with the premise that "all these nuts are right, and every single conspiracy they complain about really exists".
[The Illuminatus saga stumbles along by Robert Anton Wilson]
Retrieved 21 February 2006
In a 1980 interview given to the science fiction magazine ''Starship'', Wilson suggested the novel was also an attempt to build a myth around
Discordianism:
There was no specific division of labor in the collaborative writing process, although Shea's writing tended towards
melodrama, while Wilson's parts tended towards
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
. Wilson states in a 1976 interview conducted by Neal Wilgus:
According to
Ken Campbell
Kenneth Victor Campbell (10 December 1941 – 31 August 2008) was an English actor, writer and director known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre".
Campbell achieved notoriety in the 1 ...
, who created a stage adaptation of ''Illuminatus!'' with
Chris Langham
Christopher Langham (born 14 April 1949) is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC sitcom '' The Thick of It'', and as presenter Roy Mallard in '' People Like Us'', first on B ...
, the writing process was treated as a game of one-upmanship between the two co-authors, and was an enjoyable experience for both:
The unusual end product did not appeal to publishers, and it took several years before anybody agreed to take it on. According to Wilson, the division of ''Illuminatus!'' into three parts was a commercial decision of the publisher, not the authors, who had conceived it as a single continuous volume. Shea and Wilson were required to cut 500 pages to reduce printing costs on what was seen as a risky venture,
although Wilson states that most of the ideas contained therein made it into his later works. The idea that the top secrets of the Illuminati were cut from the books because the printer decided to trim the number of pages is a joke typical of the trilogy.
Dell Publishing first released these individual editions (with covers illustrated by Carlos Victor Ochagavia) in the United States in
1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
, to favorable reviews and some commercial success. It became a cult favorite but did not cross over into large mainstream sales. In
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
,
Sphere Books
Sphere Books is the name of two British paperback publishers.
History
The original Sphere Books was launched in 1966 by Thomson Corporation. Sphere was sold to Pearson PLC in 1985 and became part of Penguin. The name was retired in 1990.
In 19 ...
released the individual editions (with different cover art by Tony Roberts) in
1976
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 ...
. The individual editions sold steadily until
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
, when the trilogy was republished in a single omnibus volume for the first time. This collected edition lost the "what has gone before" introduction to ''The Golden Apple'' and the "Prologue" to ''Leviathan''. Some of the material in that foreword, such as the self-destruct
mynah
The myna (; also spelled mynah) is a bird of the starling family (Sturnidae). This is a group of passerine birds which are native to southern Asia, especially India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Several species have been introduced to areas like ...
birds (taught to say "Here, kitty-kitty-kitty!"), appears nowhere else in the trilogy, likely a result of the 500 pages of cuts demanded by Dell. The omnibus edition gave a new lease on life to flagging sales, and became the most commonly available form of the trilogy from then on.
The trilogy was translated and published in German, again both as separate volumes (the three covers of which formed a
triptych
A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...
) and an omnibus. The face of
J. R. "Bob" Dobbs was split across the first two volumes, despite the
Church of the SubGenius
The Church of the SubGenius is a parody religion that satirizes better-known belief systems. It teaches a complex philosophy that focuses on J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, purportedly a salesman from the 1950s, who is revered as a prophet by the Church. SubG ...
not being featured in the novel (although Wilson had become a member). The Church was founded by ''Illuminatus!'' fans, and the image of "Bob" is widely considered to be a representation of Wilson himself.
[Bill Forman, Metro Santa Cruz August 12, 2005, available a]
rawilson.com
. Retrieved 21 February 2006.
Themes
''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' covers a wide range of subjects throughout the book. These include discussions about mythology, current events, conspiracy theories and counterculture.
Conspiracies
![Eye](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Eye.jpg)
Although the many
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
in the book are imaginary, these are mixed in with enough truth to make them seem plausible. For example, the title of the first book, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'', refers to the
Eye of Providence
The Eye of Providence (or the All-Seeing Eye of God) is a symbol that depicts an eye, often enclosed in a triangle and surrounded by rays of light or glory, meant to represent divine providence, whereby the eye of God watches over humanity. ...
, a mystical symbol which derives from the ancient Egyptian
Eye of Horus and is erroneously claimed to be the symbol of the
Bavarian Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
. Some of
America's founding fathers are alleged by conspiracy theorists to have been members of this sect.
[See e.g. Rivera, David Allen. ]
Illuminati Spreads to America: Final Warning: A History of the New World Order
'' which alleges Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
were members. Such theories are alluded to in the Illuminati Project Memo #7 in ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' which alleges Jefferson and George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
were members.
The books are loaded with references to the Illuminati, the
Argenteum Astrum, many and various
world domination
World domination (also called global domination or world conquest or cosmocracy) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single political authority holds the power over all or virtually all the inhabitants ...
plans, conspiracy theories and pieces of
gnostic
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
knowledge. Many of the odder conspiracies in the book are taken from unpublished letters to ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'' magazine, where the authors were working as
associate editor
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
s while they wrote the novels. Among the oddest was the suggestion that
Adam Weishaupt
Johann Adam Weishaupt (; 6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830)''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'Vol. 41, p. 539Engel, Leopold. ''Geschichte des Illuminaten-ordens''. Berlin: H. Bermühler Verlag, 1906.van Dülmen, Richard. ''Der Geheimbund der Ill ...
, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, killed
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
and took on his identity as
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
. This is often noted in Illuminati-conspiracy discussion.
[For instance, se]
Do The Illuminati Really Exist? by Massimo Introvigne
Center for Studies on New Religions . Retrieved 3 March 2006. Proponents of this theory point to Washington's portrait on the
United States one-dollar bill
The United States one-dollar bill ($1), sometimes referred to as a single, has been the lowest value denomination of United States paper currency since the discontinuation of U.S. fractional currency notes in 1876. An image of the first U. ...
, which they suggest closely resembles the face of Weishaupt.
Fnord
The
nonsense word
A nonsense word, unlike a sememe, may have no definition. Nonsense words can be classified depending on their orthographic and phonetic similarity with (meaningful) words. If it can be pronounced according to a language's phonotactics, it is a ps ...
''
fnord
"Fnord" () is a word coined in 1965 by Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill in the Discordian religious text '' Principia Discordia''. It entered the popular culture after appearing in '' The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (1975) of satirical and parody consp ...
'', invented by the writers of ''
Principia Discordia
The ''Principia Discordia'' is the first published Discordian religious text. It was written by Greg Hill ( Malaclypse the Younger) with Kerry Wendell Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) and others. The first edition was printed allegedly usi ...
'', is given a specific and sinister meaning in the trilogy. It is a
subliminal message
Subliminal stimuli (; the prefix ' literally means "below" or "less than") are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception, in contrast to stimuli (above threshold). A 2012 review of functional magnetic resonanc ...
technique, a word that the majority of the population since early childhood has been trained to ignore (and trained to forget both the training and that they are ignoring it), but which they associate with a vague sense of unease. Upon seeing the word, readers experience a panic reaction. They then subconsciously suppress all memories of having seen the word, but the sense of panic remains. They therefore associate the unease with the news story they are reading. Fnords are scattered liberally in the text of newspapers and magazines, causing
fear
Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...
and
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...
in those following current events. However, there are no fnords in the
advertisements, thus encouraging a
consumerist
''Consumerist'' (also known as ''The Consumerist'') was a non-profit consumer affairs website owned by Consumer Media LLC, a subsidiary of '' Consumer Reports'', with content created by a team of full-time reporters and editors. The site's foc ...
society. ''Fnord'' magazine equated the fnords with a generalized effort to control and brainwash the populace. To "see the fnords" would imply an attempt to wrestle back individual autonomy, similar to the idea of
reading between the lines, especially since the word fnord was actually said to appear between regular lines of text.
[''Fnord'' magazine, #1, Neurolinguistic Hacking for Dummies, available a]
What is a Fnord?
. Retrieved 3 March 2006.
The word makes its first appearance in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' without any explanation during an
acid trip
Trip may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Trip (''Pokémon''), a ''Pokémon'' character
* Trip (Power Rangers), in the American television series ''Time Force Power Rangers''
* Trip, in the 2013 film ''Metallica Through th ...
by Dr. Ignotum Per Ignotius and Joe Malik: "The only good fnord is a dead fnord".
[''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 280] Several other unexplained appearances follow. Only much later in the story is the secret revealed, when Malik is hypnotized by Hagbard Celine to recall suppressed memories of his first-grade teacher conditioning his class to ignore the fnords: "If you don't see the fnord it can't eat you, don't see the fnord, don't see the fnord..."
[''The Golden Apple'', p. 255]
Numerology
Numerology is given great credence by many of the characters, with the
Law of Fives
Discordianism is a religion, philosophy, or paradigm centered on Eris, a.k.a. Discordia, the Goddess of chaos. Discordianism uses archetypes or ideals associated with her. It was founded after the 1963 publication of its "holy book," the ''Pri ...
in particular being frequently mentioned. Hagbard Celine states the Law of Fives in Appendix Gimmel: "All phenomena are directly or indirectly related to the number five." He gives away the secret when he adds, "given enough ingenuity on the part of the demonstrator. That's the very model of what a scientific law must always be: a statement about how the human mind relates to the cosmos." (Late in the work, Celine demonstrates the meaninglessness of the Law of Fives by showing another character a picture of a young girl with
six fingers on each hand and saying, "If we were all like her, there'd be a Law of Sixes.") Another character, Simon Moon, identifies what he calls the "
23 synchronicity principle", which he credits
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
as having discovered.
[''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 250] Both laws involve finding significance in the appearance of the number, and in its "presen
eesoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...
ally because of its conspicuous
exoteric
Exoteric refers to knowledge that is outside and independent from a person's experience and can be ascertained by anyone (related to common sense).
The word is derived from the comparative form of Greek ἔξω ''eksô'', "from, out of, outside". ...
absence."
[''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 111] One of the reasons Moon finds 23 significant is because "All the great anarchists died on the 23rd day of some month or other." He also identifies a "23/17 phenomenon." They are both tied to the Law of Fives, he explains, because 2 + 3 = 5, and 1 + 7 = 8 = 2³.
[''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 237] Robert Anton Wilson claimed in a 1988 interview that "23 is a part of the cosmic code. It's connected with so many
synchronicities and weird coincidences that it must mean something, I just haven't figured out yet what it means!".
[David A. Banton interview of RAW 1988 for KFJC, 89.7 FM in Los Altos Hills, California]
Wilson discusses the 23 enigma, and states his intention for the ''Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'' to be a "pentology" therein. Retrieved 10 March 2006
Counterculture
The books were written at the height of the late 1960s, and are infused with the popular
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
ideas of that time. For instance, the
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
slogan "
flower power
Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsbe ...
" is referenced via its German form, ''
Ewige Blumenkraft'' (literally "eternal flower power"), described by Shea and Wilson as a slogan of the Illuminati, the enemies of the
hippie ideal. The book's attitude to New Age philosophies and beliefs are ambiguous. Wilson explained in a later interview: "I'm some kind of antibody in the New Age movement. on the rewrite we deliberately threw in a couple of references to it, but we had worked out the structure on our own, mostly on the basis of the nut mail that Playboy gets".
The prevalence of
kinky sex in the story reflects the hippie ideal of "
free love
Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern ...
"; characters are both liberal-minded and promiscuous. The authors are well aware that it also provides an excuse for mere titillation: in a typically
self-referential
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philoso ...
joke, a character in the story suggests the scenes exist: "only to sell a bad book filled with shallow characters pushing a nonsense conspiracy". Similarly, the books espouse the use of
mind-altering substances to achieve higher states of consciousness, in line with the beliefs of key counterculture figures like
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...
, who is mentioned throughout the three novels. Dr. Leary himself called the trilogy "more important than ''
Ulysses'' or ''
Finnegans Wake
''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...
,''" two novels by author
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
—who appears as a character in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' and is a favorite author of
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...
. This quote is
blurb
A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust jacket of a book, and are now also fou ...
ed on the covers or front page of its various printings.
Cognitive dissonance
Every view of
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
that is introduced in the story is later derided in some way, whether that view is traditional or iconoclastic. The trilogy is an exercise in
cognitive dissonance
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environmen ...
, with an absurdist plot built of seemingly plausible, if unprovable, components.
[''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is listed as "further reading" on excommunicate.net's article entitled ]
Cognitive Dissonance
'' (URL accessed 11 March 2006) . Wilson offers a definition of "cognitive dissonance" in ''Cosmic Trigger'' as an "abrupt contradiction of a person's reality model." Those who experience cognitive dissonance become either "very flexible and agnostic" or "very rigid and schizophrenic." Ultimately, readers are left to form their own interpretations as to which, if any, of the numerous contradictory viewpoints presented by the characters are valid or plausible, and which are simply
satirical gags and
shaggy dog jokes. This style of building up a viable belief system, then tearing it down to replace it with another one, was described by Wilson as "
guerrilla ontology".
["A term that I picked up in the Physics Consciousness Research Group. I forget who coined the term and nobody in the group seems to remember who coined it either. It was just going around the group. It could have been Fred Wolfe, ]Jack Sarfatti
Jack Sarfatti (born September 14, 1939) is an American theoretical physicist. Working largely outside academia, most of Sarfatti's publications revolve around quantum physics and consciousness.
Sarfatti was a leading member of the Fundamenta ...
, or maybe Nick Herbert"
1995 CCN interview, available a
Deep Leaf Productions
Retrieved 11 March 2006.
This
postmodern lack of belief in
consensus reality
Consensus reality is that which is generally agreed to be reality, based on a consensus view.
The appeal to consensus arises from the idea that humans do not fully understand or agree upon the nature of knowledge or ontology, often making it unce ...
is a cornerstone of the semi-humorous
Chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements
* Chaos (''Kinnikuman'')
* Chaos (''Sailor Moon'')
* Chaos (''Sesame Park'')
* Chaos (''Warhammer'')
* Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy''
* Cha ...
-based religion of
Discordianism. Extracts from its sacred text, the ''
Principia Discordia
The ''Principia Discordia'' is the first published Discordian religious text. It was written by Greg Hill ( Malaclypse the Younger) with Kerry Wendell Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) and others. The first edition was printed allegedly usi ...
'' by
Malaclypse the Younger
Gregory Hill (May 21, 1941July 20, 2000), better known by the pen name Malaclypse the Younger, was an American author. He is listed as author of the ''Principia Discordia'', which was written with Kerry Wendell Thornley (a.k.a. Lord Omar Khayy ...
, are extensively quoted throughout the trilogy. It incorporates and shares many themes and contexts from ''Illuminatus''. Shea and Wilson
dedicated the first part "To
Gregory Hill and
Kerry Thornley
Kerry Wendell Thornley (April 17, 1938 – November 28, 1998) was an American author. He is known as the co-founder (along with childhood friend Greg Hill) of Discordianism, in which context he is usually known as Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst or sim ...
", the founders of the religion. The key Discordian practice known as "Operation Mindfuck" is exemplified in the character of Markoff Chaney (a play on the mathematical random process called
Markov chain). He is an anti-social dwarf who engages in subtle practical joking in a deliberate attempt to cause social confusion. One such joke involves the forging and placing of signs that are signed by "The Mgt." (leading people to believe they are from "The Management" instead of "The Midget") that contain absurdities like "Slippery when wet. Maintain 50mph."
Self-reference
There are several parts in the book where it reviews and jokingly deconstructs itself. The fictional journalist Epicene Wildeblood at one point is required to critique a book uncannily similar to ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'':
Several protagonists come to the realization that they are merely fictional characters, or at least begin to question the reality of their situation. George Dorn wonders early on if he "was in some crazy surrealist movie, wandering from telepathic sheriffs to homosexual assassins, to nympho lady Masons, to psychotic pirates, according to a script written in advance by two acid-heads and a Martian humorist".
[''The Eye in the Pyramid'', pages 83–84] Hagbard Celine claims towards the climax that the entire story is a computer-generated synthesis of random conspiracies: "I can fool the rest of you, but I can't fool the reader. FUCKUP has been working all morning, correlating all the data on this caper and its historical roots, and I programmed him to put it in the form of a novel for easy reading. Considering what a lousy job he does at poetry, I suppose it will be a
high-camp novel, intentionally or unintentionally."
[''Leviathan'', p. 509]
Allusions to other works
For a work of fiction, ''Illuminatus!'' contains a lot of references to songs, films, articles, novels and other media. This is partly because the characters themselves are involved in doing research, but it is also a trademark of Wilson's writing.
The novel ''
Telemachus
Telemachus ( ; grc, Τηλέμαχος, Tēlemakhos, lit=far-fighter), in Greek mythology, is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, who is a central character in Homer's ''Odyssey''. When Telemachus reached manhood, he visited Pylos and Sparta in s ...
Sneezed'' by the character Atlanta Hope with its catchphrase "What is John Guilt?" is a spoof of
Ayn Rand's ''
Atlas Shrugged'',
[Wagner, Eric (2004). ''An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson'', p. 98.] the origin of the character
John Galt
John Galt () is a character in Ayn Rand's novel ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957). Although he is not identified by name until the last third of the novel, he is the object of its often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and of the quest to discover ...
. Ayn Rand is mentioned by name a few times in ''Illuminatus!'', and her novel is alluded to by Hagbard who says, "If Atlas can Shrug and Telemachus can Sneeze, why can't Satan Repent?" Rand is also disparaged in one of the appendices concerning property, ostensibly written by Hagbard, which serves as an explanation of anarchist
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...
's views on the subject. There are also references to
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...
's ''
The Crying of Lot 49
''The Crying of Lot 49'' is a 1966 novel by American author Thomas Pynchon. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-ol ...
'' and his ''
Gravity's Rainbow
''Gravity's Rainbow'' is a 1973 novel by American writer Thomas Pynchon. The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. In particular, ...
'', an equally enormous experimental novel concerning liberty and paranoia that was published two years prior to ''Illuminatus!'' Wilson claims his book was already complete by the time he and Shea read Pynchon's novel (which went on to win several awards), but they then went back and made some modifications to the text before its final publication to allude to Pynchon's work.
["Shea and I were finished with Illuminatus! when we read Gravity's Rainbow and then on the rewrite we deliberately threw in a couple of references to it, but we had worked out the structure on our own, mostly on the basis of the nut mail that Playboy gets" ]
Interview given to ''EST'' magazine in 1991, available a
ESTWeb
. Retrieved 4 March 2006. The phrase "So it goes" is repeatedly used in reference to death, a deliberate echoing of
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
's ''
Slaughterhouse-Five
''Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to h ...
''.
Author
H. P. Lovecraft is alluded to often, with many mentions of characters (e.g.,
Robert Harrison Blake
"The Haunter of the Dark" is a horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written between 5–9 November 1935 and published in the December 1936 edition of ''Weird Tales'' (Vol. 28, No. 5, p. 538–53). It was the last writte ...
,
Henry Armitage,
Klarkash-Ton), monsters (e.g.,
Tsathoggua
Tsathoggua (the ''Sleeper of N'kai'', also known as Zhothaqquah) is a supernatural entity in the Cthulhu Mythos shared fictional universe. He is the creation of American writer Clark Ashton Smith and is part of his Hyperborean cycle.
Tsathoggua/Z ...
,
Yog-Sothoth
American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) created a number of fictional deities throughout the course of his literary career. These entities are usually depicted as immensely powerful and utterly indifferent to humans who can barely begin to c ...
,
Cthulhu
Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was first introduced in his short story " The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the p ...
), books (''
Necronomicon
The ', also referred to as the ''Book of the Dead'', or under a purported original Arabic title of ', is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first men ...
'', ''
Unaussprechlichen Kulten
''Unaussprechlichen Kulten'' (also known as ''Nameless Cults'' or the ''Black Book'') is a fictional book of arcane literature in the Cthulhu Mythos. The book first appeared in Robert E. Howard's 1931 short stories " The Children of the Night ...
'') and places (
Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham, a fictional town in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River (also fictional). After first appearing in H. P. Lovecraft's 1922 story " Herbert West–Re ...
) from his
Cthulhu Mythos. He even appears himself as a character, as does his aunt Annie Gamwell and one of his acquaintances,
Hart Crane. Interest in Lovecraft reached new heights in 1975, with two full-length
biographies
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
published in the same year as ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''.
Reviews and reputation
The books have received laudatory reviews and comments from ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'', ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'', the
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...
's ''
Booklist
''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...
'' magazine, ''
Philadelphia Daily News'', ''
Berkeley Barb
The ''Berkeley Barb'' was a weekly underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers, covering such subjects as the anti-war move ...
'', ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' and ''Limit''. ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' called it "The ultimate conspiracy book ... the biggest sci-fi-cult novel to come along since ''
Dune'' ... hilariously raunchy!" John White of the ''
New Age Journal'' described it as:
''
The Fortean Times
''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the Anomaly (Forteana), anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Pu ...
'' was also enthusiastic, whilst acknowledging the difficulties many readers would have attempting to follow the convoluted plot threads:
''Illuminatus!'' even garnered some attention outside literary criticism, having several pages devoted to it in a chapter on the American
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
in ''Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics'' by George Johnson (1983).
[''Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics'' by George Johnson (1983) ]
In more recent years, it was complimented in the bibliography to the ''
New Hackers Dictionary
The Jargon File is a glossary and usage dictionary of slang used by computer programmers. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT AI Lab ...
'' as a book that can help readers "understand the
hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
mindset." The Dictionary described it as:
It was also included in the "Slack Syllabus" in ''The Official Slacker Handbook'' by
Sarah Dunn (1994),
[''The Official Slacker Handbook'' by Sarah Dunn (1994) ] a satirical guide aimed at
Generation X
Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s a ...
.
Follow-ups
Wilson and Robert Shea went on to become prolific authors. While Shea concentrated mainly on historical novels, Wilson produced over 30 works, mixing fictional novels with nonfiction. Although both authors' later work often elaborated on concepts first discussed in ''Illuminatus!'', the pair never collaborated again. The trilogy inspired a number of direct adaptations, including a stage play and a comic book series, and numerous indirect adaptations that borrowed from its themes.
Shea and Wilson
Wilson subsequently wrote a number of
prequels,
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
s and
spin-offs
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...
based upon the ''Illuminatus!'' concept, including an incomplete pentalogy called ''
The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'',
a standalone work entitled ''
Masks of the Illuminati'' and ''
The Illuminati Papers'', in which several chapters are attributed to the trilogy's characters. Many of Wilson's other works, fictional and nonfictional, also make reference to the Illuminati or the ''Illuminatus!'' books. Several of the characters from ''Illuminatus!'', for example, Markoff Chaney ("The Midget") and Epicene Wildeblood, return in Wilson's ''
Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy'', which also carries on some of its themes. The third book of the ''Cat'' trilogy, ''The Homing Pigeons'', is actually mentioned as a sequel to ''Illuminatus!'' in "Appendix Mem". In 1998, Wilson published an encyclopedia of conspiracy theories called ''Everything is Under Control'', which explains the origins of many of the theories mentioned in ''Illuminatus!''.
Wilson and Shea did plan to collaborate again on a true sequel, ''Bride of Illuminatus'', taking place in 2026. It was rumored that it would feature a resurrected Winifred Saure (the only female member of the American Medical Association) exerting her influence through
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
.
["Set 50 years after the original trilogy (2026; RAW has finally confirmed that the original trilogy takes place in 1976), it was going to feature a resuscitated Winifred (female member of the evil Illuminati-primus villains The American Medical Association, in the original trilogy) being reintroduced to the world, mostly through Virtual Reality"]
Comment from "buttergun"
Barbelith Underground
. Retrieved 5 March 2006. However,
Robert Shea
Robert Joseph Shea (February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994) was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy '' Illuminatus!'' It became a cult success and was later turne ...
died in 1994 before this project came to fruition. An excerpt was published in
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...
's ''Trajectories Newsletter: The Journal of Futurism and Heresy'' in spring 1995.
[''Trajectories Newsletter: The Journal of Futurism and Heresy'' Number 14, pages 16–23 (Spring 1995)] In a 1994 interview for ''
FringeWare Review'', Wilson suggested he may even "do a Son of Illuminatus later".
[''FringeWare Review']
RAW Circuits: Surviving With Robert Anton Wilson by Tiffany Lee Brown
. Retrieved 19 February 2006. In ''Intelligence Agents'' by Timothy Leary (1996)
[''Intelligence Agents'' by Timothy Leary (1996) ] he was credited with having already authored ''Son of Illuminatus'' in the 1980s.
Shea, meanwhile, never wrote another ''Illuminatus!''-related book, although many of his later novels include references to the themes of that work. ''
Locus
Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to:
Entertainment
* Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front
* ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine
** ''Locus Award' ...
'' describes Shea's
Saracen
upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens
Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...
novels as "Deep background for the ''Illuminatus'' trilogy".
Adaptations
![Nattheatrelondon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Nattheatrelondon.700px.jpg)
An audacious proposal by the English experimental theater director
Ken Campbell
Kenneth Victor Campbell (10 December 1941 – 31 August 2008) was an English actor, writer and director known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre".
Campbell achieved notoriety in the 1 ...
to stage ''Illuminatus!'' in its entirety at
The National Theatre in London was met with surprisingly open arms, particularly given its inordinate length: a cycle of five plays—''The Eye of the Pyramid'', ''Swift Kick Inc.'', ''The Man Who Murdered God'', ''Walpurgisnacht Rock'' and ''Leviathan''—each consisting of five 23-minute-long acts.
Sir Peter Hall, director of the National at the time, wrote of Campbell in his ''Diaries'', "He is a total anarchist and impossible to pin down. He more or less said it was a crime to be serious."
The adaptation became the very first production at the National's Cottesloe Theatre space, running from 4 March to 27 March 1977. It had first opened in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
on 23 November 1976. The first night of the London version featured Robert Anton Wilson, accompanied by Shea, as a naked extra in the
witches' sabbat scene. Wilson was delighted with the adaptation, saying: "I was thunderstruck at what a magnificent job they did in capturing the exact tone and mixture of fantasy and reality in the book. I've come to the conclusion that this isn't literature. It's too late in the day for literature. This is magic!"
The 23-strong cast featured several actors, such as
Jim Broadbent,
David Rappaport
David Stephen Rappaport (23 November 1951 – 2 May 1990) was an English actor with achondroplasia. He appeared in the films '' Time Bandits'' and '' The Bride'', and television series '' L.A. Law'', '' The Wizard'' and ''Captain Planet and the ...
and
Chris Langham
Christopher Langham (born 14 April 1949) is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC sitcom '' The Thick of It'', and as presenter Roy Mallard in '' People Like Us'', first on B ...
, who went on to successful film, stage and television careers. Broadbent alone played more than a dozen characters in the play.
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...
designed sets for the show, and it was eventually seen (when it moved to London, with
Bill Nighy
William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with '' The Illuminatus!'' in 1977. There he ...
then joining the cast) by the young
Jimmy Cauty. Drummond and Cauty later went on to form the ''Illuminatus!''-inspired electronica band
The KLF
The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing ...
.
In thanks, Wilson dedicated his ''
Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977) to "Ken Campbell and the Science-Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool, England." The play was later staged in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
in 1978.
[Empty Space Uncommon Theatre: About the Space: Past Seasons]
Retrieved 15 March 2006.
No film or video exists of the performances at The National Theatre. However a full audio recording does exist and is available as a limited edition perk
in the
crowdfunding for the 2014 stage play of Wilson's book
Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati, adapted by Daisy Eris Campbell (Ken Campbell's daughter).
An attempt was made to adapt the trilogy in
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
form beginning in the 1980s, by "Eye-n-Apple Productions" headed by Icarus! Icarus! met with Wilson in 1984 and subsequently obtained permission from Wilson's agent to adapt the trilogy. ''Illuminatus!'' #1 was issued in July 1987, then reissued in substantially revised form later that year by
Rip Off Press
Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like '' The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' and ''Rip Off Comix'', as well as many other seminal publications from ...
(who had published the original 4th edition of the ''
Principia Discordia
The ''Principia Discordia'' is the first published Discordian religious text. It was written by Greg Hill ( Malaclypse the Younger) with Kerry Wendell Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) and others. The first edition was printed allegedly usi ...
'' in 1970).
A second issue followed in 1990, and a third in March 1991, after which the venture stalled (although several
ashcans of the as yet unpublished Fourth Trip were distributed at
comic book conventions in the Detroit and Chicago areas between 1991 and 2006).
Influence
The infamous 1980s computer
hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
Karl Koch was heavily influenced by ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''. Besides adopting the pseudonym "Hagbard" from the character
Hagbard Celine
Hagbard Celine is a central protagonist in the ''Illuminatus trilogy'' of books by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, named after the legendary Viking hero Hagbard who died for love. In the ''Schrödinger's Cat trilogy'', written after ''Il ...
, he also named his computer "FUCKUP", after a computer designed and built by that character. He was addicted to cocaine and became extremely paranoid, convinced he was fighting the Illuminati like his literary namesake. In 1987 he wrote a rambling seven-page "hacking manifesto of sorts, complete with his theories on Hagbard Celine and the Illuminati". The
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
German motion picture ''
23'' told a dramatized version of his story;
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...
appeared as himself.
A
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...
, ''
Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
'', inspired by the trilogy, was created by
Steve Jackson Games. Using the ''Illuminatus!'' books as "spiritual guides but not as actual source material", it incorporated competing conspiracies of the
Bavarian Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
and
Discordians and others, though no characters or groups specific to the novels. A
trading card game
A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in ...
(
Illuminati: New World Order) and
role-playing game supplement (''
GURPS
The ''Generic Universal RolePlaying System'', or ''GURPS'', is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting. It was created by Steve Jackson Games and first published in 1986 at a time when most such systems ...
Illuminati
The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...
'') followed. The instruction booklets' bibliographies praise the novel and Wilson particularly, calling ''Illuminatus!'' in part "required reading for any conspiracy buff". Robert Shea provided a four-paragraph introduction to the rulebook for the Illuminati Expansion Set 1 (1983), in which he wrote, "Maybe the Illuminati are behind ''this game.'' They must be—they are, by definition, behind ''everything.''" Despite this initial involvement, Wilson later criticized some of these products for exploiting the ''Illuminatus!'' name without paying royalties (taking advantage of what he viewed as a legal loophole).
["RAW recently criticised several games companies who have marketed products exploiting Illuminatus! and the Discordians, and are able to escape paying royalties through legal loop-holes." ]
From article ''In the RAW: Necessary Heresies'' originally published in REVelation magazine (#13, Autumn, 1995) pp. 36–40. Available a
Disinformation website
. Retrieved 28 February 2006.
''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is steeped with references to the 1960s popular music scene (at one point a list of 200 fictional bands performing at the
Walpurgisnacht
Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess ...
rock festival is reeled off (including a handful of actual bands of the 60s), and there are numerous references to the famous rock and roll song, "
Rock Around the Clock"), and has influenced many bands and musicians. One of the aliases of anarchic British band
The KLF
The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing ...
was named after a secret society from the trilogy.
They released much of their early material under the name "
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing h ...
"/"The JAMMs", cf. "The Justified Ancients of Mummu"/"The JAMs" from the trilogy, and much of their work was Discordian in nature. They mirrored the fictional JAMs' gleeful political tactics of causing chaos and confusion by bringing a direct, humorous but nevertheless revolutionary approach to making records. The American band
Machines of Loving Grace
Machines of Loving Grace was an American industrial rock band from Tucson, Arizona, best known for their song "Butterfly Wings".
History
Formation
Named after the Richard Brautigan poem "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace", Machines ...
took the name of a sex act performed by one of the main characters during a
Black Mass for the title of their song "Rite of Shiva" on their
eponym
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
ous album.
["It's taken right out of the illuminatus trilogy, basically it was a sex act that was performed at a black mass at one point. The idea behind Rite of Shiva was to get this obscene sex act on the radio without them knowing what they were playing. It seemed to work out pretty well."]
Scott Benzel talking to Jon Bains in a 1993 interview fo
Children of Sores
Retrieved 11 March 2006. UK chillout maestro
Mixmaster Morris
Mixmaster Morris (born Morris Gould, 30 December 1965) is an English electronica DJ and underground musician who has also recorded as The Irresistible Force. His work in the 1990s blended ambient music and chill-out influences with UK dance ...
also named his band
The Irresistible Force after one that appears at the festival in the last part of the trilogy. Together with
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, ...
he organised a huge Robert Anton Wilson Memorial Show at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 18 March 2007.
In general, ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' can be credited with popularizing the genre of
conspiracy fiction
The conspiracy thriller (or paranoid thriller) is a subgenre of Thriller (genre), thriller fiction. The protagonists of conspiracy thrillers are often journalists or amateur investigators who find themselves (often inadvertently) pulling on a smal ...
,
[For example, "Robert Anton Wilson is the undisputed king of conspiracy fiction ..there's a wealth of conspiracy-oriented science fiction and horror ..In fact, there's probably too much. Robert Anton Wilson pretty much has the field cornered, and has deliberately blurred the lines of fact and fiction. But conspiracy lends itself to thriller fiction, because writers can pick up on a plot that's already familiar to readers. "]
Rick Kleffel writing i
The Agony Column for 26 August 2002
. Retrieved 11 March 2006. a field later mined by authors like
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of th ...
(''
Foucault's Pendulum
''Foucault's Pendulum'' (original title: ''Il pendolo di Foucault'' ) is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988, and an English translation by William Weaver appeared a year later.
''Foucault's P ...
''),
Charles Cecil (
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars) and
Dan Brown
Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), '' The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), ''The Lost Symbol'' (2009), '' Inferno'' (2013), ...
(''
Angels & Demons
''Angels & Demons'' is a 2000 bestselling mystery- thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published by Pocket Books and then by Corgi Books. The novel introduces the character Robert Langdon, who recurs as the protagonist of B ...
'', ''
The Da Vinci Code
''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Lang ...
'', ''
The Lost Symbol
''The Lost Symbol'' is a 2009 novel written by American writer Dan Brown. It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C., after the events of ''The Da Vinci Code'', and relies on Freemasonry for both its recurring theme and its major characters.
Rel ...
''), comic book writers like
Alan Moore
Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...
(''
V for Vendetta
''V for Vendetta'' is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing serial in the British anthol ...
'', ''
From Hell
''From Hell'' is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published in serial form from 1989 to 1998. The full collection was published in 1999 by Top Shelf Productions.
Set during the Whitechapel murders of ...
''),
Dave Sim
Dave Sim (born 17 May 1956) is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, best known for his comic book '' Cerebus'', his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creators' rights, and his controversial political and philosophical ...
(''
Cerebus
''Cerebus'' (; also ''Cerebus the Aardvark'') is a comic book series created by Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim, which ran from December 1977 until March 2004. The title character of the 300-issue series is an anthropomorphic aardvark who takes on ...
'') and
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, humanist philosophy and countercultural leanings. Morrison has written extensively for th ...
(''
The Invisibles
''The Invisibles'' is a comic book series published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication.
The series loosely ...
''), and screenwriters like
Chris Carter (''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...
'') and
Damon Lindelof
Damon Laurence Lindelof (born April 24, 1973) is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, and producer. Among his accolades, he received three Primetime Emmy Awards, from twelve nominations. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named him one of the ...
(''
Lost'').
[All at sea about Lost? Read on ]
by Benji Wilson, ''The Observer'', Sunday 12 November 2006 (URL accessed 16 May 2007) In particular, the regular use of the
Illuminati in popular culture as shadowy central puppet masters in this type of fiction can be traced back to their exposure via ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''.
["The main groundswell of interest in the Illuminati and the assertions that it exists today began after the publication of The Illuminatus trilogy"]
UK Skeptics Association
. Retrieved 11 March 2006.
Editions
Major English-language editions
[Major editions culled from four primary sources:
]
(URL accessed 20 February 2006)
*
ABE Books
(URL accessed 20 February 2006)
Retrieved 21 February 2006. include:
* 1975, US, Dell, Separate editions, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' , ''The Golden Apple'' ''Leviathan''
* 1976–77, UK,
Sphere
A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is th ...
, Separate editions, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' , ''The Golden Apple'' ''Leviathan''
* 1980, US, Laurel, Separate editions, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' , ''The Golden Apple'' , ''Leviathan''
* 1984, US, Dell , Paperback (collected edition)
* 1986, UK, Sphere, Paperback (separate editions), ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' ''The Golden Apple'' ''Leviathan''
* 1988, US, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group , Paperback (collected edition)
* 1998, US, MJF Books , Hardback (collected edition)
* 1998, US, Constable and Robinson , Paperback (collected edition)
See also
*
Celine's laws
Celine's Laws are a series of three laws regarding government and social interaction attributed to the fictional character Hagbard Celine from Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's ''Illuminatus! Trilogy''. Celine, a gentleman anarchist, serve ...
References
External links
Robert Anton Wilson's website– features excerpts from ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''.
Robert Shea's website– features historical information about the book and its writing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Illuminatus Trilogy, The
1975 American novels
Book series introduced in 1975
Anarchist fiction
Atlantis in fiction
Cthulhu Mythos novels
Discordian texts
English-language novels
Libertarian science fiction books
Metafictional novels
Novels about computing
Novels about secret societies
Novels by Robert Anton Wilson
Novels by Robert Shea
Postmodern novels
Science fiction novel trilogies
Secret histories
Submarines in fiction
Works about the Illuminati
Dell Publishing books