A history of Masonic Conspiracy Theory?

I just finished watching a TED talk about ngrams. Basically, by mining all the books that have been scanned by Google, we can determine the frequency of different words or phrases as they've been published over the last few hundred years.

So out of curiosity, I decided to map the phrase "Masonic charity" vs "Masonic conspiracy". Both seem to come active around 1810, so I focused the chart on 1810 to 2008 (the most recent in the system).



What's interesting to me is where these lines cross—1932/1933, right with Hitler's rise to power. Of course Mein Kampf famously espoused that the Freemasons were helping the Jews, but I'm wondering if the zeitgeist of Freemasonry as a conspiratorial force may actually stem from Hitler's propaganda? (Or, perhaps more accurately, the downplaying of the charitable works Freemasonry does…)

Also curious to see the sharp rise in the conspiracy aspect that coincides with Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson's fiction The Illuminatus! Trilogy around 1975…

(and it looks like around 1994, the belief in Masonic conspiracy begins to decline, and the belief in Masonic charitable works begins to rise again.)

Link to the ngram viewer.

Thats a very telling plot, Josh. I've often wondered myself when the masonic conspiracy started to take hold and it makes a lot of sense that Hitler had his hands in it.

Hitler was no lover of Freemasonry. While the elimination of Freemasonry in Nazi Germany was not a top priority many Lodges in Germany at the time were heavily pressured into "voluntary" dissolution. At the same time, if known Masons did not sever their Masonic connections and way of life, they were not allowed to join the Nazi party, essentially branding them as enemies. Along with this was violence directed at Freemasons from the SS.
Officially in 1934 Lodges were declared enemies of the Nazi State.

Holocaust Museum Article

IMO, Nazi propaganda was probably a key factor into the Anti Masonic sentiments that are prevalent today. Along with the fact that many charitable causes and functions carried out by Masonic Lodges go largely unreported on, except for the lodge records.

Cool thread, Josh. Thanks for puting this together!

A detail shot:

There are a few ways this could be interpreted: active institutional censorship of any text referring to "Masonic charity" from 1939 to 1940; perhaps combined with Masonry actually going into hiding as it and its members became persecuted.

Others of note:
The rise and fall (and rise and fall and rise) of Albert Pike


The popularity of Albert Pike in comparison with the Scottish Rite as a whole


And the popularity of both of the above with Freemasonry as a term

Very fascinating. Best thread in this Forum in a long time. Hitlers Propaganda Machine is the source of a lot of anti-jewish as well as anti-masonic sentiment. Secondly, as mention of Charity decreased, mention of conspiracy increased. Maybe the decline in charitable activities negatively effected the publics perception.

Other observations, the Bavarian Illuminati was not labeled as such in English texts until 1850, 75 years after it was created in Germany.

Adam Weishaupt was written about in German the most in 1794, whereas in English, he's most popular in 1831 with a steady rise again since 1943.

People started actively paying attention to the Bilderberg Group in 1992.

Etc.

reply to post by JoshNorton


Fascinating.

I'm not surprised that the cross-over occurred around the 1918/1920 mark. This was when numerous allegations were made against Freemasonry from the likes of Rudolf Steiner and Karl Heise who both regard the Masons to be responsible for WW1 as well as upcoming wars, now obviously WW2.

Whether true or not, the first world war does seem to have been the trigger event for this sudden change in the way people viewed Freemasonry.

Great work

reply to post by JoshNorton


Excellent thread JN! (S&F!) Very interesting.

People started actively paying attention to the Bilderberg Group in 1992.

Seems consistent with the rise of the internet. Jim Tucker and the now defunct Spotlight were probably the only ones covering the Bilderbergers in the English press. (with their usual slant)

We can also see the rise of the anti-masonic party soon after 1828 in the OP's graph.

reply to post by LiveForever8


It's also when the Protocols of Zion gained popularity in the Western world.

See ngram here

Wow! This is a great tool!

I am not quite sure what to make of it yet, but here is possible proof that we don't worship Lucifer in a graphical format. Cool tool Josh.

Sorry to go off topic, but it looks llike John Lenon was wrong.

Nice and steady growth too. If Jesus was a stock, I'd invest in it.

Originally posted by ConspiracyNut23
Sorry to go off topic, but it looks llike John Lenon was wrong.

Not so fast!

Originally posted by Masonic Light

Originally posted by ConspiracyNut23
Sorry to go off topic, but it looks llike John Lenon was wrong.

Not so fast!

Sadly, the engine that produces these is case sensitive

You're all ridiculous with your graphs.

reply to post by JoshNorton


I would say the moment Mason's went from simply stone builders who put there signature/symbol on something they made to speculative Freemasonry in the sense of a secret society is the moment conspiracies became abound.....

As far as Hitler and there being a rise in the discussion of such conspiracies there could be truth there but he is by no means the sole cause of this, good topic tho.

reply to post by King Seesar


Oh, I know it's not a direct causation/correlation. It's one thing to make an observation of trends, but something else entirely to figure out why they were like they were.

As to the historical, I would say even the operative Masons were probably not trusted by those who didn't know their secrets. Their skill with math and geometry allowed them to build better, longer-lasting structures than anyone else around them. These trade secrets were valuable to their livelihood, and closely guarded. Outsiders who didn't know better may well have cried "witchcraft" or any number of other accusations of deviltry, simply because they were ignorant of the science/math involved and were looking for alternate explanations. (Things haven't changed that much in a thousand years, have they?)

The Catholic Church was first to label Freemasonry as conspiracy much earlier than 1810.

Catholic priests throughout the 18th and 19th centuries wrote about the Masonic conspiracy.

reply to post by czqjtohypmdu

Does your research take you to around 1737? I have found that there has been some condemnation as early as Ramsey's Oration.

What I find interesting is that conspiracy pops up as charity declines. If it were the opposite, I'm sure some people would come up with something to say about it.

a la, "Masons preform Charity when they are under scrutiny."

Except it is the opposite. The conspiracy comes out as charity declines. Perhaps people were mad they stopped?