America's Secret Establishment

An Introduction to The Order of Skull and Bones (condensed edition)
-- by: Antony C. Sutton, 1986, source: Liberty House Press
MHP hypertext version for non-profit educational use only

4.  The Secret Cult of The Order

The rituals and organization of the Skull and Bones society

An Introdution to the Secret Cult of The Order

Secret political organizations can be -- and have been -- extremely dangerous to the social health and constitutional vitality of a society. In a truly free society the exercise of political power must always be open and known.

Moreover, organizations devoted to violent overthrow of political structures have always, by necessity, been secret organizations. Communist revolutionary cells are an obvious example...

In brief, secrecy in matters political is historically associated with coercion... Freedom is always associated with open political action and discussion while coercion is always associated with secrecy.

[For example,] accidental discovery of Illuminati documents demonstrated that a secret organization was devoted to the overthrow of the Bavarian state and establishment of a world society run by elitist Illuminati.

In England...Freemasonry has become a self-serving organization always discriminating in favor of its own members when it comes to contracts, jobs, careers and promotions. Moreover, we now know that the Masonic movement in England was used by the Russian KGB to infiltrate, take over and finally head British intelligence organizations.

Given this background, The Order, a secret society also known as Skull & Bones, is a clear and obvious threat to constitutional freedom in the United States. Its secrecy, power and use of influence is greater by far than the Masons, or any other semi-secret mutual or fraternal organization.

How Secret is Skull and Bones?

The most careful analysis of the society is by Lyman Bagg in "Four Years at Yale", published in 1871 [and] still the only source of documented information on the cultic aspects of The Order. According to Bagg, The Order is intensely secret:

"They (the senior societies at Yale) are the only Yale societies whose transactions are truly secret... Their members never mention their names, nor refer to them in any way in the presence of anyone not of their own number, and as they are all seniors, there are no old members in the class above them to tell tales out of school."

This intense secrecy even extends to documents printed for internal use... If The Order has this intense secrecy, then how are we able to reproduce its documents and membership rolls? Simply because secrecy attracts attention. Secrecy creates suspicion of intentions. This in turn generates action to break the secrecy.

Information on the cultic aspects comes from a century-old Yale concern about the operations and intentions of Skull & Bones. This concern generated two pamphlets, one issue of a journal, and a chapter in a book [cited above]...

Pamphlet "Skull & Bones", 1876

This is an account of the 1876 break-in at the Bones Temple on the Yale campus. An extremely rare document, it is reproduced in full as an appendix to this book.

"Bones is a chapter of a corps in a German University. It should properly be called, not 'Skull & Bones Society' but 'Skull & Bones Chapter'. General R----- (Russell), its founder, was in Germany before Senior Year and formed a warm friendship with a leading member of a German society. He brought back with him to college, authority to found a chapter here. Thus was Bones founded.

Think about this: Skull & Bones is not American at all. It is a branch of a FOREIGN secret society. Presumably this is one reason why intense secrecy is vital. It also raises the question of just who and what this foreign organization is and whether its objectives are compatible with those of the Constitution of the United States.

Pamphlet "The Fall of Skull and Bones", 1876

This is an anonymous satire published in 1876 apparently in New Haven, Connecticut by a group calling itself The Order... The opening paragraphs are as in the pamphlet cited above, however the text continues with considerably more detail and appears to have been written by another member of the break-in crew.

"A light is always kept burning in the Jo (D) which is ornamented with a dilapidated human skull... here is also a tombstone marked SPERRY, seemingly taken from the same grave as the skull.

In the Pantry (F) are large quantites of dishes, each piece of crockery ornamented with a picture of a skull and crossbones, each spoon and fork marked S.B.T."

This suggests a preoccupation with skulls and human bones is built into the cultic structure of The Order. Then on page 4 we learn that each member of Skull & Bones (as well as Scroll & Key) has an "inside name" and these names bear a remarkable resemblance to those used by the Illuminati, e.g., Chilo, Eumenes, Glaucus, Prisaticus and Arbaces.

The Iconoclast, New Haven, 1873

Only one issue of this journal has been found, and only a single copy of that issue exists. It is reproduced as an appendix below. The editor of The Iconoclast considered Skull & Bones "a deadly evil" and emphasized their interest in political control. Moreover, The Iconoclast states that The Order obtained control of Yale...

"Out of every class Skull & Bones takes its men. They have gone out into the world and have become, in many instances, leaders in society. They have obtained control of Yale. Its business is performed by them. Money paid to the college must pass into their hands, and be subject to their will."

Other sources include an article in Esquire magazine by Ron Rosenbaum entitled "The Last Secrets of Skull and Bones", (Sep 1977)... According to a dossier obtained by Rosenbaum, the 1940 initiation ceremony went like this:

"New man placed in coffin -- carried into central part of building. New man chanted over and reborn into society. Removed from coffin and given robes with symbols on it (sic). A bone with his name on it is tossed into bone heap at start of evening. Initiates plunged naked into mud pile."

Again, we have a sordid preoccupation with coffins, skeletons and death.

Knights, i.e. the just recruited initiates, spend only one year as Knights. They become Patriarchs after leaving Yale and spend a lifetime as Patriarchs... Continual correspondence and meeting as Patriarchs continues after leaving Yale. In fact the Deer Iland Club (sic) is specifically for annual meetings of the Patriarchs and the Russell Trust Association is run entirely by Patriarchs.

The Organization of The Order

The Yale Senior society system is unique to Yale University... There are three senior societies: Skull & Bones, Scroll & Key and Wolfs Head. Each year 15 male Yale juniors are tapped for admission... Those who accept, presumably the greater number, are invited to attend the Bones Temple on campus to undergo an initiation ceremony.

Before 1953, juniors were herded into a yard and representatives from senior societies would circulate among [the] assembled students, selecting those wanted for initiation. In those days rejection by a senior society was considered social suicide, so Yale ordered tapping [to be] a private affair, to avoid the traumatic wait and fear of rejection...

Although the John Birch Society, the long time conservative promoter of conspiracy theory, emphasizes that these senior societies are merely recruting grounds, in effect the societies are the source of a vast establishment network -- a formalized "old boy" network that effectively shuts out the newcomers and the non-Yale talented from the halls of power. Because these are senior societies, the emphasis is not on campus activities but on post graduation ambitions.

Each annual class of new initiates forms a "club" consisting of 15 members. Initiates are called Knights in the first year and thereafter Patriarchs... Each club has a number (i.e. D 183 for 1984)... Further, one member is designated a "club chairman" or agent, with the function to act as liaison with the Secretary of the Russell Trust Association in New York.

Each member of The Order receives an updated annual catalog of members. At one time it was a single volume bound in black leather. The latest practice is to issue the catalog in two clothbound volumes: Volume One for living members and Volume Two for deceased members.

The Order's retreat is the Deer Iland Club [at] Alexandria Bay on the St. Lawrence River, New York. The island was donated in 1906 by Patriarch G.D. Miller and renovated over the years...

In brief, the organization of The Order both as Russell Trust Association and Deer Iland Corporation is essentially geared towards the post graduation world, the outside world. It is a senior society; Knights spend only one year as Knights. The rest of their lives are spent as Patriarchs in an active, influential organization able to guarantee wealth and [reward] ambition.

The Ritual of The Order

The ritual of The Order is a closely held secret. The most that anyone can do at this stage is piece together some elements of the ritual and their probable meaning. The extraordinary secrecy is itself part of the ritual. Members are sworn not to discuss the organization, its procedures or its objectives...

The secrecy is carried to extraordinary lengths. Members may not remain in the room if The Order is under discussion. Words spoken within The Order may not be placed on paper, even in letters to fellow members... The reader may consider this juvenile, and it may well be. On the other hand, these "juveniles" are the men today running the United States.

Undoubtedly, the more serious part of the initiation process is peer pressure, [and] the conversion of juveniles into presumably responsible members of an unelected elite. As Rosenbaum comments, "the real purpose of the institution was...devoted to converting the idle progeny of the ruling class into morally serious leaders of the Establishment."

What happens in the initiation process is essentially a variation of brain-washing or encounter group processes. Knights, through heavy peer pressure, become Patriarchs prepared for a life of the exercise of power and continuation of this process into future generations. In brief, the ritual is designed to mold establishment zombies, to ensure continuation of power in the hands of a small select group from one generation to another.

Satanic Aspects of The Order

Even with our limited knowledge of the internal ritual of The Order we can make three definite statements about the links between The Order and satanic beliefs...

Photographic evidence exists of the use of the satanic devices of a skull and crossed bones in ceremonies of The Order. We reproduce...a photograph of the "Class of 1869". Fifteen members of the Club, thirteen standing and two seated, are grouped around crossed thigh bones and a skull... We also reproduce two other photographs of other classes seated around a skull and bones. According to other evidence, at least three sets of skulls and assorted bones are kept within Bones Temple on the Yale campus.

Artist Elizabeth Stucki has commented on the mask and the skull in modern art and the symbolic meaning. Says Stucki:

The Skull -- Mortality Unmasked

"The opposite of the mask is the skull. The face of the person is a fleshy skin worn between the two. People who deny the person as made in the image of God directly, and individually created and loved by Him, will seek either of these exits to being truly human -- the mask which covers the mortal man or the skull which is left after mortal man has departed..."

-- from "War on Light: The Destruction of the Image of God in Man Through Modern Art"

Is The Order Also The Illuminati?

The Illuminati was a group of Bavarian conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of government. The society was founded on May 1, 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, Professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt. The Order of the Illuminati presumably ceased to exist when it was raided by the Bavarian police in 1786 on orders from the Elector of Bavaria. The Order was dissolved and its seized papers published. Because the Bavarian state ordered the Illuminati papers published, we have authentic information about the organization and its methods of operation.

At this point we want to draw a comparison between the Order known as Skull & Bones and the Order known as the Illuminati in 18th century Bavaria. This is not the time or the place to draw final conclusions...[but] here are some parallels worth considering.

The German Origins of The Order

The Illuminati had its origins at University of Ingolstadt and recruited mainly from the student encorpos.

The Order had its origins at Yale in 1833, but Skull & Bones is a chapter of a German secret society. It was introduced into the United States by William Russell, later General William Russell, who brought a charter back from his student days in Germany.

The Structure of the Organizations

The Illuminati and Skull & Bones are both known internally as "The Order" or "Our Order". However...the structure is quite different. The Illuminati had a structure, apparently based on the Jesuits, where only two members were known to each superior member.

Skull & Bones has an entirely different structure... Each Club has 15 members chosen by the Club immediately preceeding [and] an "Agent" who is in communication with the Secretary of the Russell Trust Association, the legal entity for The Order.

Secrecy in Both Orders

We have already commented that Bonesmen are supposed to refuse to discuss even membership in The Order, and this unquestionably applied to the Illuminati... The following is from a private letter between members of the Illuminati and published by the Elector of Bavaria:

"The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let in never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name and another occupation."

Here's an extract from [another] Illuminati letter:

"The power of the Order must surely be turned to the advantage of its members. All must be assisted. They must be preferred to all persons otherwise of equal merit."

The membership catalogs [of The Order] are intended for internal use by members...[they] have always printed in one form or another, usually at the head of the page, the letters "P" and "D". Thus, the 1833 list has "Period 2 Decade 3"...

In brief, the organization started in the United States was in the third decade of the second period, so a sensible question is -- where does that place the start? ... The first period would have ended in the decade 1790 to 1800. That places us in the time frame of the elimination of the Illuminati by the Bavarian Elector.