4. Skull and Bones
You may be familiar with this one if you heard of Yale’s big three societies before. Not really a secret, but full of secrets inside, Skull and Bones is an undergraduate secret society that carefully chooses its members and it’s not regarded as a cultural institution. Also known as, The Order, Order 322, and sometimes as The Brotherhood of Death, the society is full of conspiracy theories and powerful alumni.
There are two other powerful secret societies at Yale, the Scroll and Key, and the Wolf’s Head, but this one is the most notorious. Alongside a getaway located on a secluded island, the society is highly secretive and they only recently started accepting women, they are also known for stealing keepsakes from other societies on campus.
A lot of presidents and highly influential people were part of it and even now, there are people who think they are part of a global conspiracy to take over the world.
5. Priory of Sion
The original name is in French, Prieuré de Sion, and it was made and dissolved in France by its founder, Pierre Plantards. Probably one, if not both versions of the name will ring a bell if you have read the book or seen the movie The DaVinci Code. It was Plantards failed attempt at creating a neo-chivalric order, but it was all exposed as a hoax by journalists and scholars in France.
The order to gain recognition and respect from the cleric and esoteric circles, Plantard invented the puzzle that framed his society as a remnant of an older one made by a crusader on the mount of Zion, hence the name. The story goes that he wanted to install a secret bloodline at the throne of France and the rest of Europe. To the man’s surprise, someone stole all his claims and fused them to create a speculative nonfiction book about a supposed bloodline of Jesus Christ, which would later influence Dan Brown when writing his story.
Despite being exposed as a farce, there are still people who believe it was all real and this secret society still exists underground to conceal a religious subversive secret. They must have read one too many fictional books.
6. Knights of the Golden Circle
The KGC (Knight of the Golden Circle) had been a very real and dangerous secret society, made in 1854 in the Southern States of the U.S. The reason why they were scary has nothing to do with any mystery conspiracy or hidden motif, long lost religious secrets, but a very upfront and real ideology.
The founder and his followers wanted to create a new country out of the southern states, parts of Cuba, Mexico, Central, and South America, where slavery would be legal and the rich slave-owners of the South could continue to be rich while oppressing others. This new country would be called the Golden Circle, potentially to represent their wealth.
Due to the increasing unrest of the time and the Civil War, their stance changed their stance and slowly lost their grand ideas of annexing other countries completely, focusing on the Southern states. Their plan was to make them so powerful they could not be dislodged and they even attempted to seize President Lincoln in a grand coup that was uncovered before it came to fruition. Thankfully nothing came out of any of their plans and the society, which was not a secret despite being labeled so, is thought to have dissolved in 1863.
You left out the KKK. Or did you?