The Taxil Hoax and Satanic Freemasonry Part 1 (Premium E245) Sample
In the late 19th century a Frenchman pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes of all time and inspired countless conspiracy theories about Freemasonry that still circulate today. The man, who went by the pseudonym Leo Taxil, started his career by publishing several texts smearing the Pope and the Catholic Church. But then he switched sides and claimed he converted to Catholicism. To prove his devotion he started publishing anti-Masonic texts. These new works included wild stories about a secret satanic sect with freemasonry called Palladism. Despite the fact that these stories are far beyond the limits of believability, they were taken seriously by the Catholic Church. Taxil finally admitted that his multiple books about satanism in Freemasonry were all part of an elaborate, 12-year-long-hoax.
In part 1 of this series, we explore the childhood of “Leo Taxil,” his hoaxes in France and Switzerland, and the anti-Church writings that forced him to fend off lawsuits and criminal charges.
In part 2, we’ll get into the thousands of pages he wrote about secret satanism in Freemasonry, how the public swallowed these stories up, and his dramatic confession that it was all a lie.
REFERENCES
Dickie, John. The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World. Public Affairs, 2020
Ziegler, Robert. Satanism, magic and mysticism in fin-de-siècle France. Springer, 2012.
Van Luijk, Ruben. Children of Lucifer: The origins of modern religious Satanism. Oxford University Press, 2016
Mellor, Alec. A Hoaxer of Genius
https://skirret.com/papers/ahoaxerofgenius-leotaxil.html
Wikisource: The Works of Leo Taxil
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Auteur:L%C3%A9o_Taxil
Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
https://qaapodcast.com
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Welcome to the QAA Podcast Premium Episode 245, The Taxel Hoax and Satanic Freemasonry, Part 1.
As always, we are your hosts, Jake Rokitansky, Julian Fields, and Travis View.
Now I don't know about you guys, but I am personally comforted by learning about the ways in which previous generations or foreign cultures are just like us.
Because feel like we live in strange times that are moving too fast, it's easy to think that they're so strange that the people who were born and died before us could not possibly relate to anything we're going through as a modern society.
That's a very alienating lonely thought that our fairly recent ancestors would understand nothing at all about this current moment.
So it's always a delight to learn about how the past is weird in some of the same ways that the present moment is weird, and that some aspects of human behavior don't change with technological improvements or political upheaval.
Well, I assume that's a compliment, so thank you, Julian.
I think it sounds bad.
I think it's bad what he's saying.
and that their story can also be the story of humanity.
For him, it's just subhumans.
He fell into the Babel Wood, into the library.
No, no, Jake, you don't understand what you're saying.
You don't understand what I'm saying.
Well, I assume that's a compliment, so thank you, Julian.
I think it sounds bad.
I think it's bad what he's saying.
Yeah.
So in the spirit of, you know, learning about historical analogies,
I'm going to talk about a notorious 19th century case of a hoaxer who anonymously published incredible tales
of scandal, corruption, conspiracy, abuse, and satanic worship.
He did it for the lulz and he did it for money, and the consequences of this hoax are still felt today.
I'm talking about the Taxel Hoax.
A Frenchman who went by the pseudonym Leo Taxel published a lot of anti-clerical texts smearing the Pope and the Catholic Church and then very suddenly he switched sides.
He claimed that he converted to Catholicism and then started publishing anti-Masonic texts.
That included making up wild stories about a secret satanic sect within Freemasonry called Paladism.
Despite the fact that these stories are far beyond the limits of believability, which we'll get into, they were taken seriously by a bunch of people, including the Catholic Church.
Though Taxel's hoax was fully refuted by Taxel himself in the 1890s, its legacy lingers to this day.
Some evangelical Christians still oppose Freemasonry as a satanic cult.
Major figures in the 20th century, such as Pat Robertson and Jack Chick, have used details invented by Taxel to denounce the Freemasons.
Despite the fact that they are just totally false.
Well, I know that you said you, Julian Field, are going to President of the United States, Joe Biden.
I wonder what's in the middle there.
I don't know what the verb was, what you're going to do to him, but I figured out most of the rest.
As recently as 1995, there was a book called Cult and Ritual Abuse is History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America, which treats the hoax as a serious revelation.
So this is a hoax that literally is able to resonate more than a hundred years after it was finally exposed as a fraud.
It's also a presage to Operation Mindfuck, basically something where he's like, I'm gonna fuck with all this shit, and then he just ends up creating like a more paranoid and more bizarre situation for the whole world.
Yeah, he really is a proto-Discordian, definitely.
Yeah, when you use the tools of the conspiracy theorist, even if you are not one yourself, you end up creating the very thing that you're kind of poking fun of.
Although I bet Taxel would love that he still has an effect on, like, modern America.
I mean, I'm sure he would hate everybody involved.
Oh, he would.
He absolutely reveled in duping people, making fools out of people.
So yes, he would love it.
Ha ha ha, these American idiots!
To this day, I have destroyed them.
I have affected them, I have poisoned them.
Their culture is degenerating, rotting on the vineyard.
This episode was partly inspired by the fact that I've been reading some more about the history of Freemasonry recently.
And what's interesting about the history of Freemasonry is that it's not the world-controlling, Satan-worshipping
organization that the conspiracists claim it to be.
But there are ways in which Freemasonry has shaped history in some meaningful ways.
But generally, it's more subtle than a grand, top-down conspiracy of puppet masters.
Some of this is due to the networking effect that is part of any organization of educated and like-minded people.
In that sense, I would argue that the Freemasons are probably less influential and harmful than, say, the Harvard Alumni Association.
But it's not nothing.
The 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova once remarked, In this day and age, any young man who travels, who wants to get to know the great world, who doesn't want to find himself inferior to others or excluded from the company of his equals, must get himself initiated into what is called masonry.
Now let me tell you about the nipples on the mole people that I found in the hollow earth.
Oh, they are so suckable.
He's like, I have discovered the most enlightened group.
I encourage everybody who wants to live, really live, to join them.
And then I will proceed to write.
I mean, you do.
You do remember, right, Travis?
Yes, I do remember.
You do remember this is the same guy.
I like how you just called him an 18th century Italian adventurer, not a whack job who thought they were like sexy mole teats.
Well, that's part of the adventure.
That's a great adventure.
That's true.
And that's part of being Italian, too.
Where there's a nipple, there's a way!
And occasionally, the corruption and plotting among some Freemasons is real.
We saw this with the case in the 1820s with William Morgan, in which Morgan wrote a book purporting to expose the Masonic secrets, and a group of Masons retaliated by harassing, kidnapping, and possibly even murdering him.
One of those unsolved mysteries of history.
But generally, whenever people really attempt to investigate and dig into what Masons actually believe, and what their ceremonies actually consist of, and what they actually do, they always walk away feeling unsatisfied.
It might be strange and esoteric at worst, but investigators always expect something bloodier and more sinister.
So as a consequence, there's always a feeling that the real secrets are still being kept secrets, and the real expose is just around the corner.
It was in this environment that the man with the fake name of Leo Taxel stepped in and provided a paranoid public exactly what they were looking for.
He also took advantage of a long-standing hostility between Catholics and Freemasons.
The Church viewed the secrecy and potential influence of Masonic lodges with suspicion, fearing that they could harbor anti-clerical and revolutionary ideas.
The Catholic Church teaches that it holds the fullness of religious truths, while Freemasonry promotes a form of religious relativism.
Masonic lodges often welcome members of various faiths, emphasizing moral and ethical principles over specific religious doctrines.
This inclusivity was seen as undermining Catholic doctrine.
Freemasons take oaths of secrecy and allegiance to the fraternity.
The Church interpreted these oaths as potentially conflicting with a Catholic's primary loyalty to the Church and its teachings.
The Catholic Church formally condemned Freemasonry in several papal encyclicals and documents.
Pope Clement XII's 1738 encyclical was the first official condemnation, warning Catholics against joining Masonic lodges.
Subsequent popes reaffirmed this stance, and the Church maintained that membership in Freemasonry was incompatible with Catholicism.
In 1884, Pope Leo XIII issued the most damning and vitriolic of all papal attacks on Freemasonry, which was called the Humanum Genus.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law states "Those who join a Masonic sect or other societies
of the same sort, which plot against the Church or against legitimate civil authority, incur
ipso facto and excommunication simply reserved to the Holy See."
The beef between Catholics and Freemasons stands to this day.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law doesn't explicitly mention Freemasonry but does reaffirm that those who join associations that plot against the Church are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
Oh no!
See I didn't realize that this was a thing that like you know there were people that the church didn't allow to come up and receive communion and I discovered this because I was at a fairly religious wedding not too long ago and before he invited it up there was all sorts of kind of like exceptions of people who who you know couldn't walk up and receive communion you had to walk up with your arms crossed like over your chest which which was very interesting to me.
My man's trying to get baptized as a Catholic, like, as a Jew.
You've been listening to a sample of a premium episode of the QAA Podcast.
For access to the full episode, as well as all past premium episodes and all of our podcast miniseries, go to patreon.com slash QAA.
Travis, why is that such a good deal?
Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA Podcast for just $5 per month.
For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes, plus all of our miniseries.
That includes 10 episodes of Man Clan with Julian and Annie, 10 episodes of Perverse with Julian and Liv, 10 episodes of The Spectral Voyager with Jake and Brad, plus 20 episodes of Trickle Down with me, Travis View.
It's a bounty of content and the best deal in podcasting.
Travis, for once, I agree with you.
And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.com slash QAA.
