Etymology is the study of the history of words, where they are from, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. The words we use everyday, the words we hear or read in the media, often have multiple meanings and it’s up to us, based on context, to decide which meaning is appropriate. But there are other meanings to words, hidden, or occult, meanings. Meanings that give away the truth inadvertently. These meanings are not necessarily official definitions, you will not find them in a dictionary. But, if you break the words down into their fragments and study the roots you will find a whole world of meaning you may have never known existed.
Disillusioned. You may hear on the news that this or that group of voters has been disillusioned. What does this mean? The anchor means that the voters no longer believe in the candidates, or the cause, or simply the whole system. What do the anchors words imply, perhaps accidentally? Dis-, a negative prefix, means to do the opposite of. Illusion is a false belief or impression of reality. So when one becomes disillusioned with the system one does away with the illusion that the system benefits them. When one was “illusioned” one believed the people one voted for would help, they believed that the established institutions were there for their benefit. Something has happened, a harsh collision with reality perhaps, and now the people are disillusioned, or sometimes, disenchanted.
Disenchanted has a similar meaning. The prefix dis- we already covered. Enchant means to cast a spell. To become disenchanted is to break the spell that has been cast. Who has cast this spell and how?
In ancient times Druid priests would use the wood of the holly tree to fashion staffs which they used to perform magic or cast spells. If we were to call this wood by its name we might call it holly wood. That sounds a lot like Hollywood.
Media, including movies, is used to change or guide culture. Could it be that Hollywood was named after the magical tree because the modern priests use it to cast spells on the people, controlling their minds?
Mind control, control of the mind. The Latin word ment is the origin of the English word mind, hence mental, mentality, etc. The Latin gubernare means to control, or steer, and is the origin of the English word govern. We combine the two words, gubernare and ment, which have a combined meaning of control or steering of the mind. These two roots are the origin of the modern English word we all know so well, government.
In order to be in the business of government one usually needs to have a degree. The word degree comes from the Latin prefix de-, meaning from, down, away, remove, and the Latin gradus, meaning status or rank. From degradus to degree, meaning, literally, a downgrade. We also can combine the Latin de- with the word gree, which means superiority or goodwill. This combination has a similar meaning, a negation to one’s superiority.
Once you’ve gone through college and received a degree you’ve become sophisticated. The Sophists were an ancient Greek school of philosophers who were skilled in elaborate and devious argumentation. Something sophistic is something clever but based on shallow thinking or logic, or plausible but fallacious. The suffix -ate as a verb means cause to be modified or affected. So to be sophisticated is to be first downgraded from your natural status of superiority and modified to become like a Sophist, someone who seems intelligent, but is indeed shallow.
So now that you’re sophisticated and have a degree, it’s time to buy a house. To do that you need a mortgage. Mortuus, Latin for dead, and gage, a pledge, gives you mortgage, a pledge of death. Or, more accurately, a pledge to pay to the death. But in order to be allowed to receive a mortgage one must have a good credit score. In order to have a good credit score, one must first get into debt. Who is it that tells us the importance of a good credit score?
The media, they stand between you and the truth. That’s why they are called media, like medium or median, they are in the middle.
The ancient brotherhood of the Freemasons dates back to pre-history and it’s terminology has thoroughly influenced our language. Although most take the term to originally mean a guild of stone masons, an alternative, and equally accurate understanding of the origin of the word are the ancient Egyptian terms Phre, meaning the Sun, or perhaps light, and -mas or -massen, meaning child or children. So we get Phre-massen, or Sons of Light, alluding to the ancient origins of modern religion in Sun worship. The Masons and their many branches consider themselves to be illuminated, meaning to be brightened with light, or enlightened, meaning to be furnished with knowledge or have spiritual insight.
A degree, a word covered earlier, has meaning in Masonic language. There are generally understood to be 33 degrees in American Masonic initiation. Upon completion of each degree, the individual Mason moves to a higher one. If Phremassens holding degrees are illuminated, is it a coincidence that sophisticated graduates are called alumni or alumnus, which both hold a meaning in Latin of foster son? Although these students have not gone through the ritual initiation, they have attended university, uni- meaning one or singular, -verse, meaning to familiarize by study, and the suffix -ity, meaning quality, state or degree. The foster sons of light have received an alternative initiation into the singular, or standardized, body of information and received a degree, or a negation to their natural status, replaced by one better suited to the goals of the international priesthood. So while they are not true Sons of Light, they are foster sons, and do serve a purpose. But before they can be used their natural inclinations and intuitions must first be brought under control and standardized at university.
This is why graduates, students who have received degrees, wear a mortar board at their graduation, or conferring of degrees. A mortar board is a tool used by Masons when building. It’s purpose is to hold the mortar for the bricks, or stones, which are being placed. The two definitions for mortarboard are a board about three feet square for holding mortar, and an academic cap. The cap, like the tool, is square for a reason. When something is square, it is perfect. A square is also a Masons tool for perfecting angles, for perfect standardization.
If the mortar is used by the Masons to hold together the stones, the graduates are the standardized stones. Before they received their de-gree, they were in their natural, or rough, state. The Masons refer to a natural human as a rough ashlar, an ashlar being a type of stone. According to a Masonic dictionary, a rough ashlar is “a stone in its rude and unpolished condition, is emblematic of man in his natural state---ignorant, uncultivated, and vicious.” But after having been de-greed, the ashlar, the student, is now standardized and ready to be placed as “another brick in the wall,” which is really, all in all, what you are.
The terms we use in court, such as rule and gavel, etc are Masonic terms. The gavel is “the stonemasons hammer. It is to be made with a cutting edge, as in the engraving, that it may be used to break off the corners of rough stones.” So, you see, in court, the judge, dressed in ritualistic robes, sitting in a room setup according to Masonic ritual, uses the gavel and rules to shape the rough stone in order to better fit it into the “Wall”, or Great Work.
When Malcolm X told his audience that they’d been hoodwinked, whether he knew it or not, he was spot on. The term hoodwink, originating from Masonic ritual means, “A symbol of the secrecy, silence, and darkness in which the mysteries of our art should be preserved from the unhallowed gaze of the profane.”
The Masons and the other branches of the ancient priesthood call the masses the profane. Profane, from the prefix pro-, meaning before, and -fanum, meaning temple. Before the temple, meaning uninitiated into the light.“The uninitiated were deemed Profane, unworthy of public employment or private confidence.” The profane live in spiritual and intellectual darkness, unlike the Sons of Light.
Mater is a good one, Latin for mother. It is the root of mother, matter, material, etc. It's not a coincidence that we say mother earth, as opposed to a "spiritual father". The ancient mystery religions break the whole of the universe(s) into two opposing forces, male and female. The male force is considered the spiritual, generative and intellectual force (represented in mystery religion symbolism as the compass of Freemasons and the upward pointing triangle of the Jewish star). Female is considered the earthly, receptive and emotional force (represented in mystery religion symbolism as the square of the Freemasons and the downward pointing triangle of the Jewish star). The mostly male dominated ancient religions viewed women as material to be used, as simply receptive of the male force. So, that's why I find mater to be an interesting word.
And it just occurred to me that considering a university to be a bountiful mother fits right in with my original post. As the source of material enlightenment it makes sense that the school would be the mother and spiritual enlightenment, given in an altogether different set of degrees, the father.
On reading your desription of the media I was reminded of the quote attributed to Ernie Kovacs "Television: a medium, so-called because it is neither rare nor well done."
I have one to add:
