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"Secret Society Buildings at Yale College", by Alice Donlevy^[1] ca. 1880. Pictured are: Psi Upsilon (Beta Chapter), 120 High Street. Left center: Skull & Bones (Russell Trust Association), 64 High Street. Right center: Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi Chapter), east side of York Street, south of Elm Street. Bottom: Scroll and Key (Kingsley Trust Association), 490 College Street.

A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, that hide their activities and memberships but maintain a public presence.

The exact qualifications for labeling a group as a secret society are disputed, but definitions generally rely on the degree to which the organization insists on secrecy, and might involve the retention and transmission of secret knowledge, the denial about membership or knowledge of the group, the creation of personal bonds between members of the organization, and the use of secret rites or rituals which solidify members of the group.

Characteristics

The Thuggee in India were a secret cult of assassins who murdered travellers in the worship of the Hindu goddess Kali.

Anthropologically and historically, secret societies have been deeply interlinked with the concept of the Männerbund, the all-male "warrior-band" or "warrior-society" of pre-modern cultures (see H. Schurtz, Alterklassen und Männerbünde, Berlin, 1902; A. Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, Chicago, 1960).

A purported "family tree of secret societies" has been proposed, although it may not be comprehensive.^[2]

Alan Axelrod, author of the International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders, defines a secret society as an organization that:

• is exclusive


• claims to own special secrets


• shows a strong inclination to favor its members.

David V. Barrett, author of Secret Societies: From the Ancient and Arcane to the Modern and Clandestine, has used alternative terms to define what qualifies a secret society. He defined it as any group that possesses the following characteristics:

• It has "carefully graded and progressed teachings".


• Teachings are "available only to selected individuals".


• Teachings lead to "hidden (and 'unique') truths".


• Truths bring "personal benefits beyond the reach and even the understanding of the uninitiated."

Barrett goes on to say that "a further characteristic common to most of them is the practice of rituals which non-members are not permitted to observe, or even to know the existence of." Barrett's definition would rule out many organizations called secret societies; graded teaching is usually not part of the American college fraternities, the Carbonari, or the 19th century Know Nothings.^{[citation needed]}

Politics

Because some secret societies have political aims, they are illegal in several countries. Italy (Constitution of Italy, Section 2, Articles 13-28) and Poland,^[3] for example, ban secret political parties and political organizations in their constitutions.

Colleges and universities

Many student societies established on university campuses in the United States have been considered secret societies. Perhaps one of the most famous secret collegiate societies is Skull and Bones at Yale University.^[4] The influence of undergraduate secret societies at colleges such as Harvard College, Dartmouth College, the University of Chicago,^[5] the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, New York University,^[6] and Wellesley College has been publicly acknowledged, if anonymously and circumspectly, since the 19th century.^[7][8]

British Universities, too, have a long history of secret societies or quasi-secret societies, such as The Pitt Club at Cambridge University,^[9][10]Bullingdon Club at Oxford University,^[10] and the 16' Club at St David's College.^[11] Another British secret society is the Cambridge Apostles, founded as an essay and debating society in 1820.

In France, Vandermonde is the secret society of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers.^[12]

Notable examples in Canada^{[citation needed]} include Episkopon at the University of Toronto's Trinity College, and the Society of Thoth at the University of British Columbia.

Secret societies are disallowed in a few colleges. The Virginia Military Institute has rules that no cadet may join a secret society,^[13] and secret societies have been banned at Oberlin College from 1847^[14] to the present,^[15] and at Princeton University since the beginning of the 20th century.

Confraternities in Nigeria are secret-society like student groups within higher education. The exact death toll of confraternity activities is unclear. One estimate in 2002 was that 250 people had been killed in campus cult-related murders in the previous decade,^[16] while the Exam Ethics Project lobby group estimated that 115 students and teachers had been killed between 1993 and 2003.^[17]

Internet

While their existence had been speculated for years, internet-based secret societies first became known to the public in 2012 when the secret society known as Cicada 3301 began recruiting from the public via internet-based puzzles.^[18][19] The goals of the society remain unknown, but it is believed that they are involved in cryptography and cryptocurrency.^[20][21]

The only secret society abolished and then legalized is that of the philomaths;^[22] it is now a legitimate academic association founded on a strict selection of its members.

Popular culture

Opposition

Many Christian Churches forbid their members from joining secret societies. For example, ¶41 of the General Rules contained in Discipline of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection teaches:^[23]

Further, by abstaining from membership in secret societies. We will on no account tolerate our ministers and members joining or holding fellowship with secret societies, as, in the judgment of The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (Original Allegheny Conference), it is inconsistent with our duties to God to hold such relations.

“Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing” (John 18:20). “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not” (Matt. 24:26).

“But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation” (Jas. 5:12).

Also see Lev. 5:4, 5; Isa. 29:15; Matt. 5:34–36; John 3:19, 20; 2 Cor. 4:1, 2; 6:14–18; Eph. 5:11, 12; 1 John 4:2, 3. ^[23]

See also

• Ancient Order of Druids


• Loyal Order of Moose


• Seven Society


• Secret societies in Singapore

References

Further reading

• 
  Heckethorn, Charles William (1886). The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries, Embracing the Mysteries of Ancient India, China, Japan, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Greece, and Scandinavia, the Cabbalists, Early Christians, Heretics, Assassins, Thugs, Templars, the Vehm and Inquisition, Mystics, Rosicrucians, Illuminati, Freemasons, Skopzi, Camorristi, Carbonari, Nihilists, and Other Sects (2nd ed.). Forgotten Books. ISBN 978-1-4400-8999-2. 
  


• 
  Whalen, William Joseph (1966). Handbook of Secret Organizations. Milwaukee: Bruce Pub. Co. LCCN 66026658. 
  


• 
  Axelrod, Alan (1997). The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-2307-7. 
  


• Harwood, W. S. "Secret Societies in America," The North American Review, Vol. 164, No. 486, May, 1897.


• 
  Hodapp, Christopher; Von Kannon, Alice (2008). Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies For Dummies. Wiley. ISBN 0-470-18408-6. 
  


• 
  Jacob, Frank (2012). Geheimgesellschaften: Kulturhistorische Sozialstudien: Secret Societies: Comparative Studies in Culture, Society and History. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. ISBN 978-3826049088. 
  


• 
  Kloosterman, Jaap (2013). Secret Societies. Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG). 
  


• 
  Roberts, J. M. (John Morris) (1972). The Mythology of the Secret Societies. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-12904-3. 
  


• 
  Robbins, Alexandra (2004). Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8859-8. 
  


• 
  Stevens, Albert Clark (1899). The Cyclopædia of Fraternities. New York: Hamilton Printing & Publishing Company. 
  


• Stephen Klimczuk, Gerald Warner (2009). Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries: Uncovering Mysterious Sights, Symbols, and Societies, New York: Sterling Publishing Company.

External links

Look up secret society in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Secret societies.

• 
  Secret Societies: a very short history — Documents of Freemasons, Jesuits, Illuminati, Carbonari, Burschenschaften and other organizations


• Stevens, The cyclopædia of fraternities (2nd ed.). A dated review of the subject.


• Secret Societies in Australia and English Freemasonry