Albert Pike is probably one of the most colorful Masonic figures of the 19th Century and one of the most controversial. From his first use of Lucifer the Light Bearer in “Morals and Dogmas” to being falsely accused of forming the KKK after the American Civil War, he has led the conspiracy theorists to the brink of euphoria.
Born in Boston in 1809 and later moved to Arkansas where he joined the U.S. Army. He served as Captain and fought in the Mexican-American War.
Politically active, he voted against secession and wanted to take a more compromising view. However, when the first shots were fired, he joined the Confederate States Army and quickly became a Brigadier General. At the conclusion of the American Civil War, he was imprisoned and later released when Andrew Johnson became President. Johnson was also a Freemason.
During his lifetime, he was an avid Mason and prolific writer. Pike became the Grand Sovereign Commander of the Scottish Rite’s Southern Jurisdiction in 1869 and served until the time of his death. He is credited for spreading Scottish Rite Masonry across North America.
Albert Pike died in Washington D.C. in 1891. Pike is the only Confederate to have a statue in the capital to this day.
One of the most controversial theories about Albert Pike surrounds a letter he supposedly wrote to Giuseppe Mazzini, the Italian Revolutionary, on August 15, 1871. The letter was held in the British Museum Library according to William Guy Carr, a former British Intelligence Agent. Carr wrote a book in 1925 based on another book by Cardinal Caro y Rodriguez of Santiago, Chile, entitled “The Mystery of Freemasonry Unveiled”, also written in 1925.
Caro falsely quotes the Pike letter in his book and later Carr claims that he never actually saw the letter and got the information from Caro. To date, no conclusive proof exists to show that this letter was ever written. Nevertheless, the letter is widely quoted and the topic of much discussion.
According to Carr and Caro, the letter was a description of a vision had by Pike. Following are extracts of the letter taken from the Caro book, showing how Three World Wars have been planned for many generations. This was supposedly written in 1871.
“The First World War must be brought about in order to permit the Illuminati to overthrow the power of the Czars in Russia and of making that country a fortress of atheistic Communism. The divergences caused by the “agentur” (agents) of the Illuminati between the British and Germanic Empires will be used to foment this war. At the end of the war, Communism will be built and used in order to destroy the other governments and in order to weaken the religions.”
Students of history will recognize that the political alliances of England on one side and Germany on the other, forged between 1871 and 1898 by Otto von Bismarck, were instrumental in bringing about the First World War.
“The Second World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences between the Fascists and the political Zionists. This war must be brought about so that Nazism is destroyed and that the political Zionism be strong enough to institute a sovereign state of Israel in Palestine. During the Second World War, International Communism must become strong enough in order to balance Christendom, which would be then restrained and held in check until the time when we would need it for the final social cataclysm.”
After this Second World War, Communism was made strong enough to begin taking over weaker governments. In 1945, at the Potsdam Conference between Truman, Churchill, and Stalin, a large portion of Europe was simply handed over to Russia, and on the other side of the world, the aftermath of the war with Japan helped to sweep the tide of Communism into China.
“The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the “agentur” of the “Illuminati” between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion…We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”
There are many inconsistencies in the description of this letter. The use of the word Illuminati is highly suspect. The Illuminati or Bavarian Illuminati as it is also known, was the brainchild of Adam Weishaupt , himself a Freemason. It was formed in 1776 taking many of its precepts from Freemasonry.
At its zenith, the organization had as many as 2,500 members but by 1790 it had conflicts with the Prussian Rosicrucians. The Illuminati created a lodge system much like the Masons. By 1800, the Illuminati was banned by many European countries and eventually closed its doors during the Anti-Masonic sentiment of the 1820’s and 1830’s. So in 1871 when the Pike letter was purported to appear, he had to know that the Illuminati did not exist. A note to the reader: there are many “Illuminati” type organizations in existence today, however, there is no direct link to the original organization.
Another inconsistency is the use of the words “Zionism” and Nazism”. The use of the word Zionism did not take place until after Pike’s death and Nazism was not used until the 1920’s. Also, Muslims were more often referred to as Mohammedans and Islam was not in the common vernacular.
Even though it is clear that Albert Pike never authored this letter, there is a questions that historians must ask. How could both Carr and Caro see into the future? In 1925, there was no indication that the State of Israel would be formed after WWII or that there would even be a WWII. How did they know that Communism would be a major player when it was only existent in agrarian areas in 1925? How did they know in 1925 that Nazism would later come to power in Germany? And finally, how did they know that Islam would rise to its current levels? This is just more fodder for the conspiracy theorists and YouTube enthusiasts.