The recent popularity of The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown has brought secret societies to the forefront of popular imagination. The Illuminati, or sometimes the Masons, the Kabbalah, or even the Jesuits, are said to be engaged in secret plots to take over the world - or have they already?

Masonic symbols are seen daily in American culture. The dollar bill has a picture of a pyramid with an eye above it (the eye of the Grand Architect, another term for God), along with many other items which are Masonic in origin.

Some people have these societies tied in with world domination financially. Some say they will wait until they are firmly ensconced in power and announce their allegiance to Satan. Just about everyone agrees the ultimate goal is a rise in power. Whether this is accomplished in the same way the Rotarians do it or how the Crusaders did it is left as an exercise for the reader.

Perhaps even more interesting is the idea that even these secret societies are fronts, facades for other even more elusive and unidentifiable groups. Another of Dan Brown's books, Angels and Demons, is built around the idea that one of these ancient secret organizations, long thought dead, has covertly infiltrated many other secret societies in order to escape persecution and achieve its true goals.

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