Owl Symbolism in the Illuminati’s Minerval Assemblies

AS WITH MANY SCHOOL INSTITUTIONS, I TOO ADOPTED THE PALLAS ATHENA OR MINERVA as a symbolic “patron of knowledge and the arts.” It reminds me of what we all stand for and helps me hold myself accountable. However, we sometimes also find Minerva accompanied by an owl, and this symbolism enters the Illuminati Order. Owl veneration signals the adoration of wisdom (WISDOM of the Supernal), rather than mere worldly knowledge; and the worship of that god through whom the LIBERATION OF SOULS (The Liberator-God in Ancient Religion: Salvation and Resurrection of the Initiated) was expected. In this idea, is the perfectibility of man, and the hopes of the PURIFICATION and IMMORTALITY of the soul. In “The Secret School of Wisdom: The Authentic Rituals and Doctrines of the Illuminati,” it is explained to us that when first considering the design of a signet for the Minerval degree of the Illuminati, Adam Weishaupt thought of a flawny tawny owl before a starry sky, “together with the motto ‘Quantum est, quod nescimus’ (How much it is that we do not know)” (Markner and Wäges 18).

The idea of a little owl was inspired by a page in a famous baroque collection of emblems, Nucleus emlematum selectissimorum (1611), and as a pun on the etymology of vigilance, speaking to the significance of nocturnal contemplation in the regular assemblies of the Minervals in the order. It reads, “Etched by the Dutch artist and publisher Chrispijin de Passe, the pictura was accompanied by a distich from the German author Gabriel Rollenhagen that might be translated as ‘He who carefully studies the words of the wise is deservedly considered a learned man’ (Markner and Wäges 19).