I’ve been a conspiracy buff my entire adult life. I cut my teeth on the Illuminatus! Trilogy, after all. Since my current work is going in a more occult direction, I thought I’d like to gather five interesting occult groups that inhabit the center of some conspiracy theories that may or may not make appearances in future works of mine.

Thule-Gesellschaft: The Thule Society (Thule-Gesellschaft) was an esoteric nationalist group formed in Munich after World War I, officially a study group for “German antiquity” but drew on Theosophy, runic mysticism, and the pseudo-science of Atlantis as the origin for a lost Aryan master race. Several early Nazi figures—such as Rudolf Hess, Hans Frank, and Dietrich Eckart—were members or affiliates. It’s suggested their influence led to Heinrich Himmler molding the SS into a full-blown esoteric order and that Thule acted as the ideological seedbed of Nazi occultism. The Vril Society : This is more Nazi occultism, though with much less documentation. The Vril Society supposedly were a secret inner circle of psychic mediums and esoteric engineers—including the mysterious Maria Orsic, a medium who received transmissions from Aldebaran. Through these communications, Orsic and the Vril Society supposedly received instructions to build advanced propulsion systems and anti-gravity craft. Some claim these “flying saucers” were hidden away in Antarctica after the war. The Bohemian Grove : Bohemian Grove, a private retreat in northern California, is the annual meeting site of the Bohemian Club, a highly exclusive gentlemen’s club composed of political leaders, corporate elites, media moguls, and military brass. Membership has included people like Nixon, Reagan, the Bush family, and Henry Kissinger. Rumors have swirled for decades about what actually happens behind the Grove’s heavily guarded gates. One concerning thing is the “Cremation of Care” ceremony, a nighttime ritual in which a robed procession burns an effigy called “Dull Care” in front of a 40-foot stone owl. It’s believed by some that the statue represents the ancient god Moloch and this is an occult ritual, rooted in Babylonian or Canaanite sacrifice rites. Skull and Bones : Founded in 1832 at Yale University, Skull and Bones is one of the more infamous secret societies in the United States. Its alumni include multiple U.S. presidents, senators, and CIA directors. While its rituals are secret, leakers and researchers have described bizarre initiations involving coffins, bones, mock death rites, and declarations of rebirth. Some consider it an occult lodge patterned after older mystery schools with links to the Bavarian Illuminati, Rosicrucianism, or even Egyptian funerary cults. Rituals there are said to condition members for control and manipulation. The Saturn Death Cult : The Saturn Death Cult is a modern mythos that ties together planetary worship, ancient apocalypse, and elite ritual control. According to proponents, ancient civilizations once worshiped Saturn as the supreme deity, the “Black Sun.”  Saturn was associated with time, death, and harvest—and eventually became the archetype of the devouring god: Kronos, El, Moloch, or Satan. According to proponents, a global cult has persisted since antiquity, devoted to Saturn and the values of entropy, sacrifice, and control. This cult supposedly encoded their symbolism (the black cube, the sickle, the ouroboros) into architecture, corporate logos, and religious iconography. It manipulates economic collapse, war, and social engineering as forms of mass ritual. The elite followers of this Saturnian order view human life as a resource to be harvested through sacrifice, suffering, and despair.

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