A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, membership, and sometimes also existence, are concealed. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla warfare insurgencies, that hide their activities and memberships but maintain a public presence.
Secret societies may be community-based or associated with colleges and universities. These societies exist in countries around the world.
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society or religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as those depicted in these pictures, is called an initiate.
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
Organizations may also operate secretly or illegally in the case of secret societies, criminal organizations, and resistance movements. And in some cases may have obstacles from other organizations (e.g.: MLK's organization).
Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa (lit. 'philosophy'), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and physics; and kalam (lit. 'speech'), which refers to a rationalist form of Scholastic Islamic theology which includes the schools of Ash'arism, Maturidism and Mu'tazilism.
Early Islamic philosophy began with al-Kindi in the 2nd century of the Islamic calendar (early 9th century CE) and declined with Ibn Rushd (Averroes) in the 6th century AH (late 12th century CE), broadly coinciding with the period known as the Islamic Golden Age. The death of Ibn Rushd effectively marked the end of a specific discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Islamic peripatetic school, and philosophical activity declined significantly in the west of the Islamic world, including al-Andalus and the Maghreb.
Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship (usually cordial) or social status (formal or informal) between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. Greetings are sometimes used just prior to a conversation or to greet in passing, such as on a sidewalk or trail. While greeting customs are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship, they exist in all known human cultures. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically, and often involve a combination of the two. This topic excludes military and ceremonial salutes but includes rituals other than gestures. A greeting, or salutation, can also be expressed in written communications, such as letters and emails.
Some epochs and cultures have had very elaborate greeting rituals, e.g. greeting a sovereign. Conversely, secret societies have often furtive or arcane greeting gestures and rituals, such as a secret handshake, which allows members to recognize each other.
The Brethren of Purity, also known as The Brethren of Sincerity, were a secret society active during the reign of the Buyid dynasty.
Presumably composed of Muslim philosophers centered in the Buyid port city of Basra, the structure of the organization and the identities of its members have never been clear. Their esoteric teachings and philosophy are expounded in an epistolary style in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā'), a giant compendium of 52 epistles that would greatly influence later encyclopedias. A good deal of Muslim and Western scholarship has been spent on just pinning down the identities of the Brethren and the century in which they were active.
A fraternity (from Latin frater 'brother' and -ity; whence, "brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western concept developed in the Christian context, notably with the religious orders in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. The concept was eventually further extended with medieval confraternities and guilds. In the early modern era, these were followed by fraternal orders such as Freemasons, the Rosicrucian Society of England, and Odd Fellows, along with gentlemen's clubs, student fraternities, and fraternal service organizations. Members are occasionally referred to as a brother or – usually in a religious context – frater or friar.
Today, connotations of fraternities vary according to context including companionships and brotherhoods dedicated to the religious, i.e., (Knights of Columbus), intellectual, academic, physical, or social pursuits of its members. In modern times, it sometimes connotes a secret society especially regarding Freemasonry, Odd Fellows, various academic, and student societies.
The Tongmenghui of China (Chinese: 中國同盟會; pinyin: Zhōngguó Tóngménghuì) was a secret society and underground resistance movement founded by Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others in Tokyo, Empire of Japan, on 20 August 1905, with the goal of overthrowing China's Qing dynasty. It was formed from the merger of multiple late-Qing dynasty Chinese revolutionary groups.
Alice Heighes Donlevy (7 January 1846 – 1929) was a British-American artist and writer on art, who specialized in wood engraving and illumination. She served as the art editor of Demorest's Magazine.