TRAPPED IN A MASONIC WORLD

- 400 -
numerical limits in many of these societies, as one of the advantages of such low numbers, is that it permits
a more dedicated kind indoctrinating to be established between the leaders of the society and the initiate.
Extensive mortuary imagery is associated with many secret societies, i.e. a skull and bones, and again
following Yale, clubhouses are often called tombs.
The typical selection process for entry into a collegiate secret society began at Yale University by a
process called tapping. On a publicly announced evening, Yale undergraduates would assemble informally
in the College Yard. Current members of Yale‘s secret societies would walk through the crowd and
literally tap a prospective member on the shoulder and then walk with him up to the tapped man‘s dorm
room. There, in private, they would ask him to become a member of their secret society, of which the
inductee had the choice of accepting or rejecting the offer of membership. During this process, it was
publicly known who was being tapped for the coming year. [2]
Today, the selection process is not quite as formal, but is still public. Formal tapping days used to exist
at Berkeley, and still exist in a much more formal setting at Missouri. A very similar system of tapping
and dorm room visits, take place in other colleges and universities around the world and in places such as
Eton, Oxford and Cambridge etc., here in the UK.
There are various common traits among these kinds of societies, such as the pattern for many of these
societies, was set by the same practices at Yale. For example, many societies have two part names which
follow a pattern set by Yale‘s oldest society the Skull & Bones, Wolf‘s Head [WHS], or Scroll and Key
Society, founded in 1841 at Yale University and the second oldest secret society there, - these groups are
also known as the ‗big three societies‘ at Yale. The WHS society was founded when fifteen members of
the Yale Class of 1884 choose to abet the creation of ‗The Third Society‘, later known as Wolf‘s Head
Society, by the Phelps Trust Association in 1883.
The Skull and Bones secret society is known informally as Bones, and as we know members are known
as ‗Bonesmen‘ and was founded in 1832 after a dispute among Yale‘s debating societies, the Linonia,
Brothers in Unity and the Calliope, over that season‘s Phi Beta Kappa awards; its original name was the
‗Order of Skull and Bones‘. During the senior year each Skull and Bones class meets every Thursday and
Sunday night. The emblem of Skull and Bones is a skull with crossed [X] bones, over the number 322. [10]
As we all know, Grand Father Prescott Bush, President‘s George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, and
the latter‘s 2004 Presidential opponent Senator John Kerry are all ‗Bonesmen‘. In 1873 The Iconoclast, a
once-published student paper, advocated for the abolition of the society system. It opined: ―Out of every
class Skull and Bones takes its men...They have obtained control of Yale. Its business is performed by
them. Money paid to the college must pass into their hands, and be subject to their will....It is Yale College
against Skull and Bones. We ask all men, as a question of right, which should be allowed to live?‖
Founded at Wesleyan University in 1870 as a chapter of Skull and Bones, the Theta Nu Epsilon [ΘΝΔ,
commonly known as T.N.E.] is a sophomore [2nd year] class society that accepts members regardless of
their fraternity status.
Again, our old mate Freemason Simon Cowell is fully aware of the ―X‖ symbolic meaning. The X
represents many things, i.e. ‗Cross your heart hope to die‘ – both ancient and modern day bodies are
buried with the arms crossed across their chest. The Masonic Order uses the X, not only for the revelatory
17th degree of Knights of the East and West, but Simon Cowell seems to be having a laugh with its
symbolism, you may have seen them at the auditions for the X-Factor, thousands of contestants crossing
their arms in the X shape, have unknowingly been hoodwinked into symbolising the Royal Arch‘s Super-
Excellent Master‘s Degree, the first sign given is the crossing of the hands over the breast/chest. This sign
refers to the penalty assessed if any secrets learned are ever divulged. Then, in the ritual ceremony for the
Select Master Degree, the Second Sign is made by crossing the hands and arms just below the neck and
dropping them downward quickly. Again, this is a reminder of the disclosure penalty, which is to have the
body drawn and quartered, with your heart ripped out and flung to the wild animals.
In the ritual for the Intimate Secretary Degree, an X pattern is employed. Richardson‘s Monitor of
Freemasonry reveals what happens in the Lodge: ―The brethren now fall, each on his right knee, and they
cross their hands and hold them up so that the thumb of the right hand touches the left temple and the left
thumb the right temple‖. In ancient Egypt, the mark of X and the symbol of cross-bones in the symbol of
an X was very prominent in religious contexts. You can find the X on the walls of a number of ancient
Egyptians temples and pyramids... It‘s the sign of Osiris, the great sun God... and the X meanings such as
the cross swords, and many, many other Masonic linked connection to the X sign can be found in many
symbolic references, - for more examples Google; Codex Magica.