Secret society > Related Articles
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
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Note about the following lists
By their very nature, secret societies are difficult to track and document. The following purport to be lists of secret societies. But many members of such societies would deny that they are, in fact, secret societies. Such denials might be well-founded; in that case, the Citizendium is simply mistaken to assert that an organization might count as a secret society. But in many other cases, such denials are required as part of the very nature of secret societies: not only is certain information about the organization secret, the fact that there is such a society and such secret information is itself part of the secret, and so should be denied by members.
International or non-governmental organizations
These groups are often considered and talked about in the context that they are secret societies.
- Bilderberg Group [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Council on Foreign Relations [r]: An influential "think tank", publisher, and facilitator of communications in international relations; based in the US but with an international membership and not associated with a specific ideology [e]
- Edelweiss [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Thule-Gesellschaft [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Land and Liberty [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Royal Institute of International Affairs [r]: Add brief definition or description (also known as Chatham House)
- The Club of Rome [r]: Add brief definition or description
Student societies
- Anak Society [r]: (1908) at Georgia Institute of Technology [e]
- Berzelius (student society) [r]: (1848) at Yale University [e]
- Bishop James Madison Society [r]: (1812) at the College of William and Mary [e]
- Book and Snake [r]: (1863) at Yale University [e]
- Cambridge Apostles [r]: (1820) at the University of Cambridge [e]
- Flat Hat Club [r]: (1750) at the College of William and Mary [e]
- Order of the Acropolis [r]: at University of Georgia [e]
- Phi Beta Kappa [r]: (1776) at the College of William and Mary, began as a secret society, but eliminated secrecy in 1831 and is now national [e]
- Quill and Dagger [r]: (1893) at Cornell University [e]
- Scroll and Key [r]: (1842) at Yale University [e]
- Seven Society [r]: at the University of Virginia [e]
- Skull and Bones [r]: (1832) A fraternal organization at Yale University, many members of which have been extremely influential, as in six generations of the Bush family; sometimes called a secret society [e]
- Society of the Pacifica House [r]: (1824) at Brown University [e]
- Sphinx Head Society [r]: (1890) at Cornell University [e]
Fraternal organizations
- The Masons [r]: An institution, often regarded as a global secret society, present in many of the world's settlements. [e]
- The Shriners [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Order of DeMolay [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Order of the Eastern Star [r]: Add brief definition or description
- AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis) [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Confraternity of the Rose Cross [r]: Add brief definition or description
- SRIA (Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia [r]: Add brief definition or description
- National Society of Pershing Rifles [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Order Militia Crucifera Evangelica [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Order of the Solar Temple [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Ordo Templi Orientis [r]: Ritual magic organization founded in Germany around 1904, which found its inspiration in the medieval Knights Templar, who were suppressed through most of Europe in the fourteenth century. [e]
Historical secret societies
- Afrikaner_Broederbond [r]: A South African secret society devoted to the advancement of the Afrikaner community [e]
- Beati paoli [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Black Dragon Society [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Illuminati [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Knights of the Golden Circle [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Know-Nothings [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Ku Klux Klan [r]: Add brief definition or description (exists at present with very small membership)
- Gladio Society of the Elect [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Mau Mau [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Mithraism [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Righteous Harmony Society [r]: Add brief definition or description ("Boxers")
- Thule Society [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Tiandihui [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Wide Awakes [r]: Add brief definition or description
- White Rose Society [r]: Add brief definition or description
Revolutionary or underground organizations
- al-Qaeda [r]: International islamist terrorist network. Responsible for the 9-11 attack and other terrorist attacks. [e]
- Armed Islamic Group [r]: An apparently dormant Algerian jihadist movement, formed in 1992 when the secular government outlawed the Islamist party that won the legislative elections; members now may be affiliated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [e]
- Aryan Brotherhood [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Black Hand [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Carbonari [r]: Add brief definition or description
- East Turkistan Islamic Movement [r]: A militant Islamist group, not the only one in the area, which calls for secession from China's Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region, usually called Turkestan, and the creation of an Islamist state [e]
- Fenian brotherhood [r]: 19th century Irish nationalist organization based in the USA. [e]
- Germanenorden [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [r]: A Central Asian jihadist movement, centered on the Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzistan, and Tajikistan meet; affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaeda and may be based in Afghanistan [e]
- Jemaah Islamiya [r]: A jihadist group in Southeast Asia, affiliated with al-Qaeda in the common goal of establishing a caliphate [e]
- Jamaat al-Islamiyya [r]: An Egyptian jihadist organization, derived from the Muslim Brotherhood, which conducted terror operations primarily in Egypt in the 1990s; it has renounced violence but members have affiliated with al-Qaeda and other groups [e]
- Katipunan [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Muslim Brotherhood [r]: An Islamic political group, formed in Egypt and increasingly part of the political system there, which has worldwide branches; it may be moving from a Salafist ideology to a more mulilateral one [e]
- Narodnik [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Red Turbans [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Sons of Liberty [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Tongmenghui [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Vihan Veljet [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Walhalla-orden [r]: Add brief definition or description
Secret society — alleged secret societies
Either existence, or secret society status, is subject to significant doubt
- The Elders of Zion [r]: Add brief definition or description
- The Green Man [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Majestic 12 [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Priory of Sion] [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Rosicrucians [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Vril Society [r]: Add brief definition or description
Religious
- The Assassins [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Bwiti [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Cathars [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Compagnie du saint sacrement [r]: Add brief definition or description
- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Knights of Columbus [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Knights of Malta [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Knights Templar [r]: Medieval order of chivalry suppressed in the thirteenth century. [e]
- Ordo Templi Orientis [r]: Ritual magic organization founded in Germany around 1904, which found its inspiration in the medieval Knights Templar, who were suppressed through most of Europe in the fourteenth century. [e]
- Order of the Solar Temple [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Scientology [r]: Controversial religion based on the teachings of American author L. Ron Hubbard. [e]
See also
- Illuminati [r]: Add brief definition or description
- Freemasonry [r]: An institution, often regarded as a global secret society, present in many of the world's settlements. [e]
- Skull and Bones [r]: (1832) A fraternal organization at Yale University, many members of which have been extremely influential, as in six generations of the Bush family; sometimes called a secret society [e]

