From what I know the Illuminati is an organization recognized by many names, freemasonry, bilderberg group, order of the eastern star and many other names. The basic concept of freemasons/illuminati is to welcome all forms of spirituality and beliefs in order to maintain peace and prosperity especially with the situation with Iraq, Israel and Afganistan. They want to merge everything including religion and form one world. They believe that every religion worships the same God. Illuminati is latin for enlightenment and these members consider themselves enlightened but also the latin term for Lucifer is "enlightened one". The deception behind illuminati only applies to if your a christian because while many other religions can tell you that by doing good deeds and believing in a God, you will go to heaven christians believe that the only way to God is through Christ and you can't accept being a christian while adapting other forms of spirituality because that is a sin and it was the same thing that got Solomon in trouble and many other people in the bible. Now I don't want to turn this into a religious topic after that so I'll explain what the freemasons believe in. They accept all religions to an extent meaning the higher ranked freemason you are, the more you have to become more attached to their spirituality. These people believe in the baphomet which is a creature with the head of a goat, it has titties and has male body parts so it's supposedly a symbol of the union of everything and they worship this. In the early 1800's or sometime around there, they denied there cult being involved with the baphomet but if you look at some of the presidential pictures, you may find George Washington posing as the baphomet with robe around his waist and his right hand extended.
This is something like what the baphomet looks like:
Some celebrities sport a symbol or something of it and other subliminally put pictures of the goat's head in music videos and movies. In this picture Beyonce was in concert with the ring.
Or in a photoshoot:
Every president is a freemason, there's no way that you can be a president and not join the organization. Pamphlets and booklets are handed out to military officials, high ranked officials, celebrities and just certain individuals asking if they want to join. One of the reasons why they believe in this concept is because over the years, we've dealt with terrorist attacks, communism, spies and all kinds of things but by unionizing everyone and everything to accept one concept, we no longer have to worry about the issue of trust especially when they have all your information about you.
The freemasons is an all male organization that you go up in the ranks with (Grand Lodge mason, Shrine, Master mason, Scottish Rite, 33rd degree) and though women cannot join, they can be members of the order of the eastern star which is a fraternal organization consisting of both men and women which is part of the illuminati. The symbol is a basic star upside down which can also be found near the statue of liberty.
America was founded by freemason pilgrims and freemasons have existed far beyond that which is undated. Many believe they originated from the egyptians and many people have other ideas which I have no idea.