Secret History #5: The Birth of Evil

To understand secret societies, we must first explain the history of religion in the Western world. There have been three major stages of religious development, and for the purpose of clarity, this will be a simplified version of that history. The three major stages of religious development in the Western world are the Mother Goddess, polytheism, and monotheism.

Polytheism means you believe in many gods. Monotheism means you believe only one god exists.

The Three Stages of Western Religion

The Mother Goddess Civilization

The Mother Goddess civilization came about because of agriculture. In an agricultural world, you have two problems. The first is to make sure your crops are healthy and can be harvested in time. The second is to give birth to as many children as possible to work the fields. Because of these two problems, a religion developed to facilitate both, called the Mother Goddess civilization.

At the center of this religion is the womb. The woman's womb is considered a divine portal from the spirit world into our world, almost like a cave from which the spirit world can come out and manifest itself. As such, women are in control. What's really important to understand is that in this world, everything is interconnected, harmonized, and balanced. The womb is the center of this world, but then you have the stars, which gives rise to astrology. Astrology is the study of the movement of the stars to understand its impact on our world. Then, of course, you have the crops.

In an ideal world, all three are aligned. By studying the stars, you know when to best plant the crops and when to best have children. In this world, it is the women who are in control. They have a high status in society because they are believed to be direct representatives of the Mother Goddess who rules the world.

Usually, in this society, the Mother Goddess is represented as a bird. Why? If you study all the animals in nature, it's the bird that has dominion over the sky. If life comes from the sky, it makes sense that the Mother Goddess must be a bird of some sort. But the Mother Goddess is also paired with a bull. A bull is a symbol of virility and energy. A woman cannot get pregnant by herself; you need a man to do it. So the bird and the bull are the two symbols of worship in this world.

This world is very strange from our perspective because there is no property; everything belongs to everyone. There is no hierarchy; everyone is the same. And there is no such thing as sex by yourself. Sex is a community act. They have rituals called fertility cults in which they have sex together. In fact, many men will have sex with one woman. It makes sense because, as a woman, you want to have the best DNA, the best sperm. You don't know who's going to have the best sperm, so you have sex with everyone, and whoever has the best sperm will give it to you.

The Rise of Polytheism and War

The switch from the Mother Goddess civilization to polytheism happened because of war. For the first time in human history, as populations increased, there was a struggle for resources. The most important resource in this world was women because it is females that give birth.

With war, we have a new concept called property. To get men to fight wars, you have to give them something as a reward. They get to have a woman, a wife, and this wife belongs to them and only them. In this world, you now have property, hierarchy, and marriage. The role of the woman decreases, and the role of the man increases.

At the same time, these different societies have a god in order to fight wars. When they go to war, it's like the gods are going to war. If you lose the war, it means your god is inferior to their god. Now you have a hierarchy of gods. To maintain peace, if you lose the war, you admit that your god is weaker than their god, and you must now obey their god. This is what we call the pantheon.

Remember in the Greek pantheon, Zeus is at the top, and you have Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite, and everyone else as a lower god. Before, they were separate gods. In a series of wars, the people who believed Zeus was the best god won out against the other gods. As a result, the other gods became Zeus's children.

Why do men go to war and not women?

In the Mother Goddess world, women are in control and have all the status. But over time, as populations increase, you have young men with no families who are discarded from their societies because of a lack of resources. These young men have a problem: they need to find wives to survive. So, these young men start to raid other societies to capture women. In this society, it's never young women who are discarded because they have value. It's always young men who are discarded, and as a result, these young men become like wolves, a wolf pack who then go and pillage other villages. That's how you have the origin of war.

The Shift to Monotheism and Empire

Then we make the switch from polytheism to monotheism because of a new idea called empire, specifically the Roman Empire. They introduced a new religion called Christianity. There's a lot of debate as to what was the first monotheistic religion. Some people say Zoroastrianism, some people say Judaism. I will show you later that the first religion that was truly monotheistic is Christianity.

The difference between a society based on war and an empire is that in the former, humans are still the most precious resource. Therefore, it is not in your best interest to kill everyone. But when you have an empire like the Roman Empire, you don't have to worry about killing other people. In fact, you can go and destroy entire societies, which is what the Romans did. As an empire, you can now impose your reality, your god, on everyone else. That's how you have monotheism.

A Shift in Worldview

Our understanding of the world changes over time. In the Mother Goddess civilization, there are two things about their world that are very different from ours.

Mind vs. Matter

The first major difference is they understood that mind leads to matter. In our world, we believe that it's matter that leads to mind. In science class, you're taught we have a brain, and the brain, because of synaptic connections, creates the mind.

Even though we're taught this, it actually doesn't make any sense. How does our small little brain do so much processing, which is the mind? How are we able to imagine? How are we able to dream? It's really confusing. If you talk to the very best neuroscientists in the world, their response will always be, "Don't ask this question." This question is forbidden to ask in neuroscience.

Throughout most of human history, we believed it was the mind that led to matter—that it's the mind that creates the brain in order to understand the world. That makes a lot more sense than matter leading to mind.

Metaphorical vs. Literal Worlds

The second major difference is that this was a metaphorical world. They spoke using metaphors and understood the world through metaphors. Today, we live in a literal world.

What's the difference? Let's say you and I fight. We would say that I became angry, the emotion overwhelmed me, I hit him, then he got angry and hit me back. This is a literal interpretation. But back then, the metaphorical understanding was that Anger is a god who seized me and propelled me into the fight. Then Anger unleashed the god of Vengeance, who fought back by seizing the other person to fight me.

For most of human history, we believed we were controlled by forces outside our control. Today, you may believe the literal world makes more sense. But if you think about it from the perspective of human thought—how you understand and interpret what goes on in the world—the metaphorical understanding is actually much more useful. That's why back then, they were much more creative than we are today. The things they were able to do are beyond our imagination. For example, we've never really figured out how the Egyptians created the pyramids. Our explanation is that aliens did it because their mind is beyond our imagination.

The Polytheistic Worldview

When we go to the polytheistic world, this system still continues, but they add more elements to make it more complex.

First, they believe that we are controlled by gods; we are the playthings of gods. What's really important to understand is that these gods—Zeus, Apollo, Ares—are no different from mortals. The only difference is they live forever. For example, if you're a king, what do you like to do? You like to go around and chase young girls. What does Zeus do all day? What does Apollo do all day? These gods go around and chase young girls. There's actually no difference.

Above the gods are the older gods: Fortune and Fate. The belief was that even though these are gods, they're still controlled by forces beyond their understanding. What mattered in this world was not to be good; what mattered was to be lucky, to be fortunate, because that showed that the gods favored you.

The last and most important element is the unwritten and immutable laws of the universe. Think of a concept like justice. Just as gravity gives structure to the universe, they believed that at the most fundamental level, there were concepts that existed like justice. You could have the favor of the gods and be very lucky, but if you did things that were unjust, then eventually you'd be punished for it because you were breaking the structure of the universe.

The Monotheistic Revolution: Truth, Evil, and the Individual

When you go to the monotheistic worldview, all this changes because you have a new concept that never existed in human history before: one true god. This changes everything. Before, humans thought in a very complex, sophisticated, diverse, and imaginative way about the world. But now, with the advent of Christianity, it's only one true god. As such, you have three new concepts that become dominant. These concepts existed before, but now they're dominant.

1. Truth: If there's one true God, then there must be one truth to the universe. When we move towards the truth, that is good. But when we move away from the truth, that is evil.
2. Evil: Now you have a new concept called evil that didn't really exist before. You did good things in the old world because it was to your advantage. Now, in this world, if you defy God, that is evil.
3. The Individual: Before, what mattered was your family, your community, your society. Now, with the advent of one true God, the community and family don't matter. What matters is your loyalty, your faith in the one true God. You can step outside your community and do what you believe is right as long as you have faith in the one true God.

These three concepts—truth, evil, and the individual—are important because they underpin modernity. The world we live in is controlled by these three forces. What's important to understand is that these three concepts are beyond human intuition. You cannot logically deduce or come up with them by yourself. The world of the Mother Goddess is intuitive. The polytheistic world is also intuitive. But the Christian world is counterintuitive.

The Origins of Secret Societies

For monotheism to triumph, because it is so counterintuitive, it must destroy the polytheistic world. The Romans spent centuries destroying the polytheistic world. But you can never kill an idea. If an idea is suppressed, it just goes underground.

From Fertility Cults to Mystery Schools

Remember, in the Mother Goddess civilization, the main instruments of religious worship were fertility cults run by women. Now that war has come and men have taken over, the women went underground to create new religious organizations called mystery schools.

What these mystery schools tried to do was maintain the best knowledge and traditions of the Mother Goddess civilization, especially the fact that we come from the mind—that we created the universe through our imagination. That's the main secret they were trying to maintain.

These mystery schools became extremely popular among the elite because they offered great sex. The elite joined these mystery clubs as sex clubs, basically. In the Mother Goddess civilization, sex was a mechanism to communicate with the universe and discover its secrets. They maintained these rituals in the mystery schools, and the most powerful people participated. They're called mystery schools not because they're secret, but because everyone is sworn to secrecy. If you ever divulged what went on in these mystery schools, you would be punished by death.

With the advent of Christianity, these mystery schools became a threat to the empire because they were where the local elite hung out. Now, they become secret societies. That's where they come from. Secret societies are an attempt to maintain the secrets of the universe against the advent of Christianity and empire.

The Great Secret: Mind Leads to Matter

Secret societies have been around for a long, long time. You may have heard of some, like the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, and the Freemasons. They're all very powerful and still around. But there are a lot more secret societies that we do not know about and who've been around for much longer. They are all trying to maintain the secret of the universe, which is that mind leads to matter. This is something that we've always believed and known, but with the advent of Christianity, it has been suppressed over time.

Two Views of Christianity: Orthodox vs. Apocryphal

Now I will explain Christianity and what these secret societies believe. First, I will explain what most Christians believe about their religion. This is called the orthodox or the canonical perspective—what you're taught officially by the church. Christianity has many different factions, but they all believe in a certain interpretation of the Bible. Then, I will show you the apocryphal view. Apocryphal just means hidden or secret—the esoteric knowledge kept within these secret societies.

The Orthodox View: A History of Covenants

The orthodox view comes from a reading of the Bible, which at its core is a story of the covenant between God and humans. A covenant means a contract or understanding. Throughout the Bible, there are a series of covenants.

• Adam: The first covenant is between Adam and God. In the Garden of Eden, God tells Adam and Eve they can live in paradise forever, but they must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Of course, they eat the fruit. God banishes them from the Garden, and now they're forced to work.
• Noah: God looks down and sees humans going to war and says, "I'm going to destroy everyone and start over." But he sees a human he likes named Noah and tells him to build an ark. God floods the world, and Noah lives. Then God makes a covenant with Noah, promising never to destroy the world again.
• Abraham: God sees that humans are still wicked and decides to find a good man to grow a nation that can be the light of the world. He finds Abraham, the father of Israel. This is the third covenant. God tells Abraham, "You and your children are now loyal to me. I see you as the chosen people, and I gave you the promised land."
• Moses: Over time, Abraham's people go to Egypt and become slaves. God appoints a man named Moses to free the Israelites. When Moses does this, God gives the Israelites his law, the Ten Commandments. This is the fourth covenant.
• David: The Israelites are back in the promised land, but they become wicked again and worship false gods. God punishes them and looks for a good leader. He finds David, who becomes king. God says to David, "You are the person I've been looking for. You are the best example of what it means to be a faithful follower of me." This is the Davidic covenant, which states that God will always favor Israel as the chosen nation and the house of David will rule Israel forever.
• Jesus: After David and his son Solomon, the Israelites turn wicked again, and God scatters them across the world. The last covenant is the arrival of Jesus. Jesus reasserts the law of Moses and then sacrifices himself to free the Israelites of the original sin—the first crime of disobedience against God. By killing himself, Jesus redeems humanity. Finally, Jesus creates a new covenant between humanity and God. Because he has freed everyone from original sin, anyone can now be with God. You don't have to be an Israelite or follow the Mosaic law. This, of course, starts Christianity.

The first five covenants are what Jews believe to be true. They believe someone will return to restore the kingdom of David, but not Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus is the final prophet; in fact, Jesus is God himself.

If you are a true Christian or a true Jew, there are lots of issues with this understanding. Why did God have to kick us out of the Garden of Eden? Was eating a fruit so bad as to banish us from paradise? With Noah, God destroyed the world because we were wicked, but after he destroyed it, we were still wicked. So why did he have to destroy the world in the first place? And finally, who was Jesus, and why did God have to send his only son to die for humanity?

The Esoteric View: Unraveling the Secrets

Now I will explain what the esoteric tradition—what secret societies—believe really happened. To understand this, I will use two books that are not part of the Bible but which give insight into this knowledge: the Book of Enoch and the Gospel of Thomas.

The Nephilim and the True Reason for the Flood

Why did God destroy the world? The reason is not because of humans but because of the Nephilim. The Nephilim are the children of angels and women. The angels who were supposed to watch humanity came down and saw that human females were beautiful, so they had sex with them. They had lots of children, and these children, the Nephilim, enslaved humanity.

Let's do a thought experiment. Imagine a group of superhumans like the Avengers save the world. Now they're bored, so they start to have lots of children. These children are like demigods, so they enslave humanity and then start fighting amongst themselves. That's basically what happened. God had to destroy the Nephilim because they are not natural. The problem, though, is the Nephilim are divine and therefore cannot be killed. You can get rid of their mortal bodies, but now they become demons who live underground and in the shadows. And guess what? They're still here today. These secret societies believe the Nephilim are real and still control the world. The richest people in the world are actually Nephilim because they've been around for thousands of years.

The Monad, Sophia, and the Demiurge: The False God

But why did Adam eat the fruit, and why did Jesus have to kill himself? This is where it gets complicated. Remember, secret societies believe that mind leads to matter.

In the beginning, the true God is called the Monad, the One. Think of this as the core of the universe, the divine sun. The Monad is so powerful that when he breathes, he vibrates divine energy. Over millions of years, this divine energy creates new life forms. The first are called the dyads, which are pairs, usually male-female, that are children of the Monad. They are able by themselves to create new universes as well. The entire universe is vibrational energy; it's the breathing of these cosmic beings. Over millions of years, these vibrations become atoms, which then lead to matter.

One of these dyads, named Sophia, decides, "I can be just as good as the Monad." The Monad is able to propagate by himself; he doesn't need to mate. Sophia says, "I'm going to produce something by myself to prove I am the Monad." She does this and creates a new being called the Demiurge. The Demiurge is a monster, a monstrosity, because it goes against the natural order.

Sophia realizes her mistake, abandons the monstrosity, and hides him in a sea of clouds. No one knows he exists, not even the Demiurge himself. The Demiurge does not know about the higher world of the Monad. Therefore, he believes that he must be the one true God capable of creating new life. So, what does he create? Us. He creates the planet Earth and then creates Adam and Eve.

That's what a monster would do. Look at this history. What kind of god would kick someone out of paradise for eating a fruit? A monster. What kind of god would kill a people for no particular reason? A monster. What kind of god would demand that a people be loyal to him? A monster. What kind of god would enforce his will on a people? A monster. What kind of god would say to someone, "You're the only person I like, everyone else I hate"? A monster would do that.

In other words, the true secret that these secret societies are trying to keep is that the god we worship today is the false god. We are actually in a prison created by this false god.

That's who Jesus was. Jesus was a cosmic being sent by the Monad to tell us the truth about the world. That's why he died—because the Roman Empire could not allow people to see the truth. If I told you the truth, you would know it right away; you would wake up. Therefore, the truth-tellers must be killed.

Jesus was sent to remind us that even though we're in a prison, there's still the Monad in you. There's a spark, a divine light in you that you can activate. If you activate it, you will return to the Monad. You will see the truth for yourself. When you die, your soul, which is part of the Monad, will want to return to the Monad and can escape this world. But to activate this light, you must be a good person. You must love one another. You must reject money, materialism, and grades. You must reject competition and material wealth to pursue spiritual happiness. That was the message of Jesus.

You can imagine that the powers that be, the Nephilim, did not like this. It's a direct threat to the Nephilim who now control the prison created by the Demiurge. It's also a direct threat to the Demiurge. That's why these secret societies have been repressed, executed, and massacred over the centuries. But they believe it is their duty to protect the secret because only by protecting the secret can humanity be ultimately saved.

Finding the Truth in Paradise Lost

This is a great theory, but how do we know it's true? We know because in poetry and literature, the members of secret societies have embedded the secret within their work. If you're able to analyze the poetry properly, you will see for yourself that this is true. We will study the greatest poem in the English language, Paradise Lost by John Milton, who was a member of a secret society.

Paradise Lost is the national epic of the British Empire. If you are an elite member of the Anglo-American Empire, which rules the world today, you memorize this poem. It was written by John Milton, a rebel, a freethinker, and a passionate advocate of free speech. He wrote Paradise Lost when he was blind. He had to speak it out, and his secretaries wrote it down for him. If a blind man is able to recite poetry, you must think he is a prophet, a messenger of God, revealing divine truth.

Paradise Lost is the foundational text of many secret societies. Within this text lies the secrets of the universe. But only if you understand the secrets yourself can you see them embedded in the poem.

The plot is simple: it reimagines the fall of man. Milton imagines the serpent who tricks Eve into eating the fruit as Satan himself. Satan was God's favorite angel, but they had a falling out. Satan rebelled, God won the war, and Satan and the devils were banished to hell. The poem begins with the devils discussing what to do. Satan is determined to seek vengeance against God, so he wants to go to the Garden of Eden and corrupt Adam and Eve. They all agree this is a great plan, but no one wants to go because it's dangerous. At this moment, Satan steps up and says, "I will go."

Satan's Heroic Vow

This is his speech.

O Progeny of Heav'n, Empyreal Thrones,
With reason hath deep silence and demurr
Seis'd us, though undismay'd: long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light;
Our prison strong, this huge convex of Fire,
Outrageous to devour, immures us round
Ninefold, and gates of burning Adamant
Barr'd over us prohibit all egress.
These passed, if any pass, the void profound
Of unessential Night receives him next
Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being
Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf.
If thence he scape into whatever world,
Or unknown Region, what remains him less
Then unknown dangers and as hard escape.
But I should ill become this Throne, O Peers,
And this Imperial Sov'ranty, adorn'd
With splendor, arm'd with power, if aught propos'd
And judg'd of public moment, in the shape
Of difficulty or danger could deterr
Mee from attempting. Wherefore do I assume
These Royalties, and not refuse to Reign,
Refusing to accept as great a share
Of hazard as of honour, due alike
To him who Reigns, and so much to him due
Of hazard more, as he above the rest
High honour'd sits? Go therefore mighty Powers,
Terror of Heav'n, though fall'n; intend at home,
While here shall be our home, what best may ease
The present misery, and render Hell
More tollerable; if there be cure or charm
To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain
Of this ill Mansion: intermit no watch
Against a wakeful Foe, while I abroad
Through all the Coasts of dark destruction seek
Deliverance for us all: this enterprise
None shall partake with me.

He's saying, "I'm your leader, and therefore I must go. You have trusted me to lead you, and I will risk my life to prove my worth." As you can see, this is heroic. Secret societies believe he's describing his ascent from hell as our souls leave our bodies to the heavens. Some believe that when you die, the first person you meet is Satan because he knows how to take you from this prison world to the light.

Secret societies also use this speech as an initiation ceremony. When you join, you must choose to fight for all of humanity by yourself. You must be the hero. You must know that people will hunt you and want to kill you for speaking the truth. Do you dare to go on this journey?

Satan's Speech to Eve: The Temptation of Knowledge

The second speech is much more important. This is where Satan, as the serpent, convinces Eve to eat the fruit.

O Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant,
Mother of Science, Now I feel thy Power
Within me cleere, not onely to discerne
Things in thir Causes, but to trace the wayes
Of highest Agents, deemd however wise.
Queen of this Universe, doe not believe
Those rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die:
How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you Life
To Knowledge? By the Threatner? look on mee,
Mee who have touch'd and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfet have attaind then Fate
Meant mee, by ventring higher then my Lot.
Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire
For such a petty Trespass, and not praise
Rather your dauntless vertue, whom the pain
Of Death denounc't, whatever thing Death be,
Deterrd not from achieving what might leade
To happier life, knowledge of Good and Evil;
Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunnd?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
Not just, not God; not feard then, nor obeyd:
Your feare it self of Death removes the feare.
Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,
Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,
His worshippers; he knows that in the day
Ye Eate thereof, your Eyes that seem so cleere,
Yet are but dim, shall perfetly be then
Op'nd and cleerd, and ye shall be as Gods,
Knowing both Good and Evil as they know.
...Or is it envie, and can envie dwell
In heav'nly brests?

At a university, you are taught that this speech shows how clever and evil Satan is. He's lying to Eve. God is invincible and omniscient; you can't eat a fruit and become God. But when you actually read the Bible, Satan is telling the truth.

Was Satan Telling the Truth? A Look at the Bible

Let's read the Bible together. This is the word of God from Genesis.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

This is exactly what Satan said. Eventually, God banishes Adam and Eve. You believe they were banished because they disobeyed God, but if you read the Bible, that's not what it says. For disobeying, God punishes them: Eve will suffer pain in childbirth, and Adam will have to work hard. The banishment is not the punishment. So why were they banished?

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened...

Satan was telling the truth. You will not die; you will learn. So why did God kick them out?

Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—

This is why there are two trees: the tree of knowledge, which gives you the mind of God, and the tree of life, which allows you to live as long as God. God is saying that if Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and then also ate from the tree of life, they would be like us.

Satan was telling the truth, and God was lying to Adam and Eve all along.

How Did Eve Know? The Inner Light

How did Eve know that Satan was telling the truth? The problem is, if you try once and you're wrong, you die. She was certain he was telling the truth. Why?

Because of the light in us. The true God still speaks to us today. The false god will lie to us, but inside your heart is the light that connects you back to the Monad. That tells you what is false and what is true. That's how she knew. Paradise Lost is showing us the lost secrets of the universe.

The Nephilim in the Bible

In the Bible, it says the Nephilim are the children of angels and women.

When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

This is really important because it introduces the Nephilim, who are still around today, but it's also telling us who the "heroes that were of old, warriors of renown" are. They're Hercules, Achilles, Theseus—all heroes from different mythologies. Where do they come from? The mating of angels and humans. The "sons of God"—who are they? They are the old gods: Zeus, Ares, Apollo.

This is the beginning of monotheism, where the Bible is trying to destroy polytheistic mythologies and create one universe where its god is supreme. In this universe, Zeus becomes a "son of god," and the children Zeus has with mortal women are now called the Nephilim. So, Hercules is a Nephilim. The Bible is a tremendous act of propaganda that tries to reinvent reality around one true God. But by doing that, it's denying our intuition and the history of humanity.

Praying to the True God vs. the False God

When you pray, are you praying to the true God or the false god? According to these secret societies, when you pray, you're praying to the false god. Where's the true god? It's inside you. Don't pray to an outside force. Look inside yourself and ask, "I know for a fact what is true." If you believe in yourself enough, you will find the truth.

That's a theme throughout Western poetry and literature. We will always be in conflict between the devil and God, between good and evil. What we must do is not surrender to God but believe in ourselves. Make mistakes, but know that you will eventually find the light because the light is in you. As long as you still believe in yourself, all the mistakes you make will become your strength because they become part of your wisdom. That's the divine truth these secret societies are trying to promote. It's okay to make mistakes, to do evil. But listen to the light, and the light will tell you how to redeem yourself. The possibility for redemption, for growth, for imagination is all in us because of our connection to the Monad. The Monad will reward you for believing in yourself, but you must first believe in yourself. And believing in yourself often means defying authority and transgressing against the rules of society. That's the ultimate secret.