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The Shining Ones: A Chronicle of Light and Shadow Within the Illuminati
Rev. Kat Carroll
Introduction
Those who have read the Bible may be familiar with angels known as the Shining Ones. In fact, there are nine choirs—or orders—of angels, each with a specific purpose and realm they watch over. [Source: https://www.catholic.org/saints/angels/angelchoir.php]
The ones that intrigue me most are the Seraphim, also known as the Shining Ones. They stand highest among the angelic orders, serving as attendants before the throne of God.
But how did this celestial hierarchy, or an ancient order calling itself the Shining Ones, evolve into the hidden hand guiding kings, governments, and society? What is the earliest recorded mythology of their presence on Earth?
Upon deeper study, I found that Shining Ones is not a direct translation, but a poetic echo of the Hebrew word Helel, meaning “shining one.” It appears in Isaiah 14:12 in reference to the King of Babylon, described as a being who fell from heaven, a once-glorious light now cast down. This figure became associated with Lucifer, the morning star or light-bringer. The illuminated one.
Perhaps the very word illumination has always held two meanings: one divine, one defiant. Are there two sides to this luminous coin, divine revelation and fallen ambition? To find out, we must trace this shining lineage through myth and history alike.
When the Gods Descended
Every civilization remembers a time when the sky opened, and beings of light stepped down to shape the world. In Mesopotamia they were the Anunnaki, architects of kingship and measurement. In Egypt, the Neteru, gods whose temples mirrored the stars. Across the northern seas came the Tuatha de Danann, radiant people of the goddess Danu—bringers of magic and craft to the Celts. According to legend, they arrived in Ireland in ships cloaked by mist, then burned them to ensure no retreat. To modern eyes, the description reads like a UFO sighting wrapped in myth.
Each story begins with illumination and ends with withdrawal. The visitors teach, then vanish, leaving stewards who guard the mysteries. What remains is not the light itself, but institutions built to remember it: priesthoods, calendars, laws, mystery schools, and symbols that promise access to lost brilliance. Thus, the first pattern is set…
knowledge as hierarchy, and power inherited through secrecy and blood lines.
The Custodians of the Flame
The Catholic Crusades ignited Europe, and along the blood-stained roads to Jerusalem rode the Knights Templar, warrior monks bound by vows of poverty and obedience yet soon managing the treasuries of kings. They develop sophisticated financial systems that mirror modern banking, charging administrative and management fees in place of forbidden interest, or usury, which was not allowed by the church. Their network of preceptors becomes the world’s first international bank. When their wealth rivals that of the papacy, they are accused of heresy and dissolved, their secrets scattered like sparks in the wind.
One question lingers like smoke over the ashes of their pyres: what happened to the Templar treasure? Some say it was spirited to Scotland or hidden beneath cathedrals or the Vatican; others believe it transformed, not vanished, re-emerging later as the invisible capital of new banking houses. Still others point to legends of it being spirited across the Atlantic and buried in locations such as Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. Modern excavations and television documentaries continue to search the island’s labyrinth of tunnels and flood traps, hoping to uncover relics or gold said to have been concealed there centuries ago. Whatever its fate, the current of wealth and knowledge did not end with the Templars; it merely changed form, flowing quietly into other hands.
Centuries later, that invisible current surfaced again through new banking dynasties.
Who started the first international banking system? The Rothschild family line is credited with establishing it. Founded by Mayer Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main, the family expanded its operations across Europe by establishing branches in London, Paris, Vienna, and Naples by the 1820s. The family still manages much wealth and power.
The motto on the bottom of the coat of arms says: Concordia, Integritas, Industria, Latin for Harmony, Integrity, Industry. Yet the Rothschilds remain at the heart of many conspiracy theories.
Out of those sparks rise successor orders: the Knights of Malta, the Rosicrucians, and the Jesuits, each claiming to defend truth, each developing its own discipline of secrecy. The Rosicrucians speak of inner alchemy and the divine light of Christ; others chase a colder illumination, intellect without compassion. The Jesuits, forged by Ignatius of Loyola, perfected the organization into an empire of schools and missions answering directly to Rome. Between them all, the dual current of service and control flows on.
Spiritual Lineage of the Light and Shining Ones
The trail does not end there. Each of these groups traces its spiritual lineage not only to Rome but further back, to the Essenes, who preserved hidden teachings in desert caves when early Christianity was being reshaped by imperial decree at the Council of Nicaea (in Rome). Before them came the Gnostics, seekers of inner revelation rather than institutional faith, and even earlier, the Zoroastrians, who taught that existence was a battle between light and darkness within every soul. All of these, in turn, echo themes from Sumerian and Persian cosmology, the same ancient source where gods walked among men and knowledge itself was guarded like fire.
Even among the Essenes there was division; a Brotherhood of Light and the Sons of Darkness or the army of Belial, those who broke their covenant, as described in the War Scroll found at Qumran. The Sons of Darkness, who follow Belial, aligned with the worldly and the political, while the Brotherhood of Light remained pure, withdrawn from society, and devoted to higher communion. Their writings mirror the same timeless conflict that surfaces again and again through history: those who guide, and those who wish to rule.
Reason’s Rebellion
By the eighteenth century, the torch passes to the Age of Reason. In Bavaria, scholar Johann Adam Weishaupt dreams of freeing humanity from superstition. His Order of the Illuminati borrows the initiation rites of Masonry but replaces the cross with the compass of intellect. When European monarchs outlaw the order, many adherents flee westward.
Across the Atlantic, a new nation is being born. Its founders are Masons, those who believe in a God, and mystics. They eventually engrave the all-seeing eye on the Great Seal, declaring that enlightenment and liberty will be their creed. Yet even George Washington worries that foreign Illuminist influences are infiltrating the lodges. Once again, the light splits: fraternity on one side, manipulation on the other.
Their symbology was easy to see in later years as it was placed on the dollar bill with Washington’s face on the front, and on the back, the pyramid with the All Seeing Eye.
The mysticism surrounding the pyramid and all-seeing eye, and the word, ONE – A possible attempt to seed consciousness with the thought of a One World Order? Or was it simply “Annuit Coeptis” above the eye and “Novus Ordo Seclorum” below it. “Annuit Coeptis” is Latin for “He [God] has favored our undertakings”, while “Novus Ordo Seclorum” translates to “A new order of the ages,” signifying the beginning of a new era for the United States. Is this an example of Money Magic, or simply marking the beginning of a new era for the United States in 1776, shown in the Roman numerals MDCCLXXVI.
The Great Catalyst
From the ashes of Enlightenment in Europe, the torch of ambition burns hotter. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 triggers a world already wired for conflict. WWI continued for 4 years, and in the process, secret treaties, arms contracts, and rival banking interests ensured that one death would ignite global war. Empires crumble, but financiers thrive; credit replaces conquest as the true measure of dominion.
From the ruins of World War I and World War II emerge new temples of coordination—central banks, intelligence bureaus, and round-table groups devoted to “world stability.” Ideals of peace mask the same ancient equation: out of chaos, order.
But I have to ask, why is shock and awe required before peace can ensue?
The Alchemy of Money
Long before the modern era, the Templars discovered that gold could move faster as paper. Their system of letters of credit evolved through Venetian bankers and the Bank of England into a trans-national craft: turning promise into power. By the time industrial nations marched to war, families of financiers and new consortiums of oil and steel held more sway than monarchs.
In 1913, the United States institutionalized this invisible empire with the creation of the Federal Reserve. Its charter promised stability; its mechanism ensured perpetual debt. Money became faith backed by signature rather than silver, a new religion of credit. The old priesthood of temple treasurers had merely changed vestments, almost as if timed to precede the next great conflagration.
Once kings ruled by divine right; now nations borrow by economic rite.
At this moment, the US is 38 Trillion in debt, and government is frozen. Some Federal job holders are working without pay (such as Air Traffic Control, vital for the safety of moving passengers and cargo). It’s the 25th day of a Democrat standoff.
Is this one of those shock and awe moments that will serve as a catalyst for change, in our perspectives, and the monetary system itself? Perhaps it is time for change.
The American Mandate
The official spark for America’s entry into the Second World War came on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Yet many historians and military analysts have since questioned how such an assault caught the United States so off guard, given the intelligence available at the time. Whether by manipulation or miscalculation, that event became the emotional catalyst needed to unite a divided nation behind global conflict, the same pattern that echoes throughout history: crisis, consolidation, and expansion of power.
World War II finishes what the first began. Europe lies in ruins, and the torch passes west. Scientists and spymasters cross the Atlantic under new flags. A republic founded on liberty becomes the nervous heart of a planetary system: the dollar its blood, energy its breath. Behind its visible institutions rise councils, commissions, and agencies bound not by borders but by common interest. Some see benevolence; others, the shadow of the old imperium reborn.
President Eisenhower, in his 1961 farewell address, warns of a growing military-industrial complex and of the manipulation of academia by political interests, a veiled reference to the convergence of science, business, and power. His caution echoes through time: the machinery of secrecy, once theological, is now technological and Congress claims to have no control over it, while members are paid by the very industries to uphold their goals. What’s infuriating is that these private, non-government agencies are safe from the Freedom of Information Act inquiries as to what they do with their funding and their activities. This too needs to change.
You can listen to his farewell address and how the speech was created here:
Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex” Speech Origins and Significance
The Eternal Return
Through every cycle, the pattern repeats. A moment of revelation births hierarchy; hierarchy breeds secrecy; secrecy invites corruption; and corruption calls for a new revelation. The faces change: gods, prophets, kings, presidents, bankers, generals, technocrats. The choreography remains, even when the pace of the dance increases. Now we have 3i ATLAS, and other space bodies in our galaxy. As disclosures flicker across our screens and skies, the same question hovers:
Who holds the light, and who hides it? Are the “shining ones” returning to guide, or merely to remind us that the light was ours all along, hidden within us?
The Geometry of Power and the Myth of Balance
Through every empire and order, the symbols of light and shadow have traded places. The same star that once crowned the temples of Venus now crowns a fortress of war in the shape of The Pentagon. The same geometry that expressed divine proportion became the blueprint for military precision. Perhaps none of it was accidental. Maybe the builders were reminding us, whether consciously or not, that power without proportion collapses on itself.
You can also see a similar pattern in Washington DC, with the city looking very much like a pentagram, but incomplete on one side.
Baphomet, the goat-headed figure once called monstrous was never meant to be worshiped or feared. In Lévi’s sketch, it was a mirror: half male, half female; half angel, half beast; one hand raised to heaven, the other pointing toward the earth. Its message was simple and terrifying… balance or perish. Spirit and matter, reason and emotion, masculine and feminine, light and dark; each exists to temper the other.
And so it is with our civilization. We have tilted for centuries between extremes: faith without science, science without spirit; conquest followed by collapse; secrecy followed by exposure. The pendulum has swung as far as it can. The next evolution is not another swing but a still point, a quiet space for synthesis.
We stand in that still point right now. It’s palpable, like holding one’s breath. What’s next?
The task is no longer to choose sides but to hold both truths until they harmonize: science and spirituality, technology and nature, individual will and collective care. When these pairs cease to fight and begin to cooperate, the old war between dark and light ends of its own accord.
The true illumination is balance — an awakened mind anchored in a compassionate heart. The geometry of power becomes the geometry of peace, and the shining ones, within and without, find their reflection in each of us.
So use the light within you to co-create the peace and abundance that all souls long for… and remember to breathe! 😄
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