How is Freemasonry related to illuminati?

The Bavarian Illuminati was not a Masonic society or rite, though its founder, Adam Weishaupt, borrowed the structural organization and degrees of Freemasonry after his initiation into a Munich lodge in 1777 121. Assisted by Baron von Knigge, a prominent Freemason who joined the Illuminati in 1780, Weishaupt incorporated symbolic Craft degrees and modified "Scottish" degrees into the Illuminati system to recruit members and infiltrate established Masonic lodges for his own political and philosophical ends 21.

While Freemasonry explicitly prohibits political conspiracy and mandates obedience to civil authority 1, the Illuminati aimed at human perfectibility through simple Deism, political revolution, and the destruction of monarchical and religious authority 2. The Illuminati used Masonic lodges merely as a convenient vehicle for propagation, without changing the fundamental nature of the Craft 21.

The primary historical link between the two groups stems from the backlash following the suppression of the Illuminati. Edicts issued by the Elector of Bavaria in 1784 and 1785 dissolved the Illuminati, causing it to collapse by the end of the eighteenth century 1. However, anti-Masonic writers such as John Robison and the Abbé Barruel conflated the Illuminati with Freemasonry, accusing the Craft of harboring political conspiracies and orchestrating events like the French Revolution 121. Mackey notes that these charges were exaggerated or false, as the Illuminati had no actual influence on the French Revolution and exercised no lasting influence on the Masonic institution itself 1.