Influence of Secret Societies on Enlightenment

And so you get a rise of these secret societies.

This is where some of the first speculative Masonic lodges start to pop up in

the 1500s, 1600s in Europe.

But you also had a very interesting confluence of Hermetic and Kabbalistic groups

that were popping up,

particularly Spanish rabbis that were very popular in Spain seemed to be

involved in some of the rise of Kabbalistic influence in the West.

And that I think contributes in part

to the Rosicrucians who, according to,

there's a great book by Dame Frances Yates called Rosicrucian Enlightenment.

She actually argues that the Enlightenment itself was heavily influenced by

Rosicrucian ideology.

So they were Neoplatonists, they were into magic, alchemy.

So they were really interested in the idea of transmuting metals into the

philosopher's stone,

which some people thought was a real thing you could do and others thought,

well, that's just an allegory for how to undergo

transformation into your better self.