From a New Age point of view, these secret societies are agents of the "Dark" in the universal game of Polarity Integration. They manipulate and control world events and create religions to keep humanity enslaved. Lol these "secret societies" are mere puppets to real agents. They think they are all high and mighty. They don't want us to evolve spirtually, but if we evolve only materially, we will destroy ourselves. However, the trick to winning this game is to find value in the Dark. That is a whole other discussion. As the Gospel of Philip states, not everything that is evil is evil and not everything that is good is good. It all depends on the motive!