| Episode number | MB18 (Part 18 of 42) |
|---|---|
| Original air date | May 12, 1993 |
| Broadcast | Hour of the Time, WWCR shortwave |
| Chapter title | Lucifer Worship |
| Primary text read on air | Chapter nine of The New World Order by A. Ralph Epperson (1990) |
| Listen | Stream the series on archive.org |
Episode Summary
Episode 18 aired on May 12, 1993, roughly six weeks after the Bibliography broadcast, and marks the series’ most sustained direct argument that Freemasonry at its highest levels constitutes a religion of Lucifer worship. Cooper reads nearly all of chapter nine of A. Ralph Epperson’s book The New World Order, interweaving his own commentary throughout. He opens by reminding listeners that the previous night’s bibliography episode was the reason to go out and verify the claims independently, and that his rule of not asking anyone to believe him blindly applies with particular force to tonight’s subject.
The chapter Epperson has written begins with the biblical portrait of Lucifer drawn from Isaiah, Luke, Peter, and Paul. Isaiah 14:12 identifies Lucifer as one who desired to ascend above the throne of God and was cast down; Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:14, writing around AD 57, warns that Satan is capable of transforming into an angel of light; John’s Revelation, written around AD 90, describes Satan as a dragon. Epperson then turns to Albert Pike’s counter-position in Morals and Dogma that Lucifer is not evil but a force created for good. Cooper interjects to remind listeners that he forgot to include Morals and Dogma in the previous night’s bibliography and asks them to write it down now.
The centrepiece of the episode is a disputed letter Pike allegedly wrote on July 14, 1889 to the 23 Supreme Councils of Freemasonry worldwide. Epperson quotes from the letter as reproduced in A. C. de la Rive’s 1894 French book La Femme et l’Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie Universelle, and as retranslated in Edith Starr Miller’s 1933 book Occult Theocracy. In the letter, Pike is alleged to have told the Supreme Council heads that the Masonic religion should be maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine, and that the public should be told Masons worship a traditional God to prevent outsiders from discovering the truth. Epperson himself explicitly acknowledges that the authenticity of the letter is disputed and that the only evidence for its existence is the de la Rive citation; he says he accepts it as genuine because Pike’s other writings support the same conclusion. Cooper endorses this reasoning, noting that Pike’s position as Supreme Commander of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the United States and head of all world lodges made such a communication plausible.
The argument then shifts to Manly P. Hall, the 33rd degree Mason and founder of the Philosophical Research Society, whose works Cooper has already recommended in the bibliography. Epperson quotes Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages, in which Hall writes of a Solar Deity slain by evil and restored through mystery ritual, and Hall’s The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, in which Hall writes that the seething energies of Lucifer are in the Mason’s hands once he has learned the mystery of his craft. Cooper uses both passages to argue that Masonic symbolism consistently encodes sun-god Osiris worship as Lucifer worship, a thread he has been building since the earliest episodes of the series.
Cooper broadens the frame by quoting from Epperson’s chapter on secular parallels. Mikhail Bakunin, the Russian anarchist, wrote that Satan is the eternal rebel and first freethinker, the emancipator of worlds. Louis Feuerbach, the nineteenth-century philosopher idolised by the early Communist movement, wrote that man alone is our God, our father, our redeemer. Frederick Engels himself confirmed in writing that all the Communists of 1845 were followers of Feuerbach. Cooper seizes on this to restate his recurring thesis: Socialism, Communism, and the Mystery Religion of Babylon are the same system operating under different names. He adds a personal note that he had been withholding his claim about the Stelle Group, a mystical organisation from whose leadership Lars Hanson and Tom Valentine emerged, until he had independent verification; Epperson’s chapter, which quotes the Stelle Group’s own Eklal Kueshana describing Lucifer as head of a secret Brotherhood of Spirits, now provides it.
The final section draws Shirley MacLaine into the same frame. Epperson’s chapter quotes MacLaine’s New Age writing, particularly her declaration from Dancing in the Light that she is part of God, and reports that her 1987 speaking tour charged $300 per admission and drew more than 10,000 attendees across fifteen cities. Cooper diverges sharply from Epperson here, objecting to Epperson’s implicit criticism of MacLaine’s commercial success. Cooper argues at some length that making money from one’s ideas is consistent with American principles, that Epperson himself earns a living selling books and lectures on the same circuit, and that criticising MacLaine’s earnings while doing so constitutes a form of Socialism. He promises to raise this inconsistency with Epperson when he appears as a guest on the show. The episode closes with Epperson quoting Nesta Webster’s summary of the war between those who believe man reaches up to God and those who believe man is God. Cooper identifies this as the same formulation he has been using since the opening episodes of the series.
Key Claims Made in This Episode
Documented from the broadcast. The site records these claims; it does not endorse them. Dated claims also appear in the series timeline.
- Cooper claims that Albert Pike, in a letter dated July 14, 1889 to the 23 Supreme Councils of Freemasonry, instructed top Masons to maintain the Luciferian doctrine and to publicly deny Lucifer is their god when outsiders discover it.
- Cooper claims that Pike’s Morals and Dogma independently confirms that the true and pure philosophical religion of Freemasonry is belief in Lucifer as equal to Adonay, the God of Christians and Jews.
- Cooper claims that Manly P. Hall’s The Lost Keys of Freemasonry states that the seething energies of Lucifer are in a Mason’s hands once he has mastered the mystery of his craft.
- Cooper claims that Frederick Engels, writing about the Communist movement of 1845, confirmed that all Communists of that period were followers of Louis Feuerbach, whose philosophy placed man in the position of God.
- Cooper claims that Mikhail Bakunin identified Satan as the eternal rebel and first freethinker and that Socialists recognise one another by invoking the one to whom the great wrong has been done, a reference to Lucifer.
- Cooper claims that the Stelle Group, as stated in its own publications by leader Eklal Kueshana, worships Lucifer as the head of a Brotherhood of Spirits responsible for abolishing Eden to advance human spiritual evolution.
- Cooper claims that Senator Joseph McCarthy was correct that a subversive movement was operating inside American institutions, but that he misidentified it as Communism when the real enemy is Mystery Babylon, of which Communism is merely one name.
- Cooper claims that Masons at the 32nd degree have taken a minimum of 32 blood oaths of secrecy and that any Mason asked about the secrets of the lodge will by necessity lie, making their denials of Lucifer worship meaningless as evidence.
- Cooper claims that New Age doctrine and Masonic doctrine share the same core belief: that Lucifer was wronged, that Eve did mankind a favour by eating the forbidden fruit, and that human beings can evolve toward godhood through initiation.
Primary Sources Cited in This Episode
| Source | Status | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| A. Ralph Epperson, The New World Order (1990), chapter 9 | Not public domain; read at length on air, treated here under quotation only | Library copies; see sources hub |
| Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871) | Public domain | Search archive.org for scans |
| Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928) | Public domain (1928 first edition) | Search archive.org |
| Manly P. Hall, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry (1923) | Public domain | Search archive.org |
| A. C. de la Rive, La Femme et l’Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie Universelle (1894) | Public domain; cited by Epperson as source for Pike letter | Search archive.org |
| Edith Starr Miller, Occult Theocracy (1933) | Public domain | Search archive.org |
| Nesta Webster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements (1924) | Public domain | Search archive.org |
| Isaiah 14:12 and Isaiah chapters 43, 45 (King James Bible) | Public domain | Available at every library and archive |
| Shirley MacLaine, Dancing in the Light (1985) | Not public domain; quoted briefly via Epperson | Library copies |
Notable Quotes
The Masonic religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine.
Cooper, MB18, May 12, 1993, reading from Epperson’s quotation of the disputed Pike letter of July 14, 1889
You may repeat it to the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees — the Masonic religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine.
Cooper, MB18, May 12, 1993, reading Epperson’s second citation of the same alleged Pike letter
Historians’ View
The Albert Pike letter of July 14, 1889 is the most disputed document in Masonic conspiracy literature. Historians of Freemasonry regard it as a fabrication. The only known source is A. C. de la Rive’s 1894 book, and there is no copy of the original encyclical in Pike’s papers or in any Masonic archive. The passage attributed to Pike is now widely attributed to Leo Taxil, a French anti-Masonic hoaxer who publicly confessed in 1897 to fabricating or embellishing material about Masonic Satanism. Epperson acknowledges the single-source problem in the very passage Cooper reads on air. The quotation from Manly Hall’s The Lost Keys of Freemasonry about the seething energies of Lucifer is genuine, but scholars of esotericism note that Hall was using Lucifer in the original Latin sense of light-bearer, not in the sense of the Christian devil. Equating the two is Cooper’s and Epperson’s interpretive step, not Hall’s. Cooper’s account of Marx, Engels, and Feuerbach accurately reflects the record that the early Communists were influenced by Feuerbach’s humanism, but the claim that this makes Communism and Lucifer worship the same system is not a position found in mainstream historical scholarship. We record all claims as broadcast; we do not endorse them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mystery Babylon episode 18 about?
Episode 18 presents what Cooper calls the central secret of Freemasonry: that the god worshipped at the highest degrees is Lucifer. He reads chapter nine of A. Ralph Epperson’s The New World Order, built around quotes from Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma, Manly P. Hall’s writings, and a disputed 1889 letter attributed to Pike. Related material appears on the Luciferian Doctrine and New Age hub and the Freemasonry hub.
Is the Albert Pike letter of 1889 real?
Its authenticity is disputed. Cooper reads Epperson’s own acknowledgment that the letter’s only source is a 1894 French book, and Epperson says he accepts it because Pike’s other writings are consistent with its contents. Most historians of Freemasonry attribute the passage to Leo Taxil, a hoaxer who confessed in 1897 to fabricating similar material. Cooper’s position is that because Masons are sworn to deny their secrets, denial does not constitute evidence against the letter’s authenticity.
What is Morals and Dogma and where can I find it?
Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry was published in 1871 and is public domain. It is available via archive.org. Cooper cites it throughout the series as a primary insider source for Masonic philosophy. Full context and notes are on the sources hub.
Where can I listen to episode 18?
The series is preserved at archive.org. The site never hosts or distributes the audio; see our content policy.
Continue the Series
- Previous: MB17: Bibliography
- Next: MB19: Fundamental Laws Rose Cross
- Topic hub: Luciferian Doctrine and New Age
- Related hub: Freemasonry
- Albert Pike sources: Mystery Babylon sources hub
- Every dated claim from this episode: series timeline
- Full index: Mystery Babylon complete episode guide
- Background: Who was William Cooper?
