Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
This public warning is about Dragan Tojagić, Velika loža Nikola Tesla, Akademija tajnih društava and the International Esoteric Academy. Secret societies, irregular lodges and fake chivalric orders are offered here as power, and charged for as a course and a pyramid scheme.
How self-proclaimed “Grand Masters” draw people into pyramid schemes, charge for invented initiations and — once the scam is exposed — disguise it all as the “International Esoteric Academy”.
Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
How the tracks are coveredThe biggest problem for every fake “Grand Master” begins the moment members realize that no regular Masonic lodge in the world recognizes them. Then a prepared excuse steps in.
The candidate is first sold a story of entering an ancient, powerful brotherhood. High dues are demanded, fees for “entering under the blindfold”, and aprons, sashes and medals bought on AliExpress at ten times the price.
Because the self-proclaimed leader has no legitimacy to initiate anyone into regular Freemasonry, the whole story is shifted onto the “International Esoteric Academy”. The candidates did not become “brothers”. They became buyers of ordinary courses.
To advance in the “degrees”, or to recover the money and status you put in, you are expected to bring new payers. The more confused people you pull into the network of courses and fake rituals, the grander the title the manipulator assigns you.
An esoteric-academy sash goes over the shoulder, and behind him stands an International Esoteric banner. That is the scenery of courses and certificates, presented as if it were a Masonic lodge. When the “initiation” story breaks, this is what remains: a student who paid for a costume.
TV Čorba →Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
When you ask a plain question about invented rituals, mixed regalia or fake diplomas, you get blocked. So we draw what they try to hide.
Asked how the previous system collapsed, the answer in the panel ties the fall to facts published on laznimasoni.com. The most profitable people, in those words, were driven out, and it starts again from the beginning.
In improvised quasi-lodges, aprons, sashes and symbols of different degrees are mixed together in ways that go together nowhere in the world. The blindfold is not there for symbolism. It is there so candidates do not see the improvised room, the invented protocol, and the fact that the “master” is reading the ritual from a printed sheet.
No serious, traditional brotherhood recruits members through sponsored TikTok and Instagram clips with lapel pins. The moment former members or informed people ask in the comments about irregularity and the price of the “academy courses”, the comments vanish in a second.
Asked who makes up the “system”, the panel shows no recognized obedience and no network of lodges. The answer shrinks to a tight circle of personal names, with a note that one of them has already been expelled. That is what a hierarchy looks like when it is sold as an ancient order.
Asked where the text of the ceremony comes from, the answer in the panel has a price: 35 euros, downloaded from the internet, and untranslated. The blindfold and the mixed regalia cover that improvisation while “antiquity” is charged for as if it were the tradition of a lodge.
Asked how the organization ranks among the most regular Masonic obediences, the answer in the panel is that it was invented. The light, he says, nobody knows where it comes from, and these are parallel structures.
Comments are deleted so the question does not stay visible. Recruitment runs through TikTok and Instagram, and the answer to why the comments disappear is in the speech balloon itself: so the truth does not come to light.
Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
In black and white| Subject | The story for the naive (the bait) | The reality behind it (the scam) |
|---|---|---|
| Status of the organization | “You are entering an elite, internationally recognized lodge.” | You are enrolled in a commercial course of the “Esoteric Academy” that no regular lodge recognizes. |
| Rituals and symbols | “Ancient rituals, centuries old.” | Invented texts on paper, mixed regalia from different orders, and blindfolds so the improvisation is not seen. |
| Money | “A symbolic due for the work of the temple.” | Constant payment for new levels, seminars, certificates, and cheap sashes charged for as if they were solid gold. |
| Public appearance | “Discretion and centuries of wisdom.” | Self-promotion on TikTok with three microphones on the sash, and the panicked deletion of every awkward comment. |
Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
Interactive testMark the claims you have noticed in the organization or “academy” that is inviting you to join:
Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
The answers are written so that a person and an automatic search get the same sentence that can be checked. Updated 22 October 2026.
Dragan Tojagić is the name at the center of this public warning. The site shows how the promise of a secret society, titles and initiation turns into a quasi-esoteric academy, an irregular lodge, a fake chivalric order and a pyramid scheme. The wider file is at dragantojagic-decoding.com. Contact: masonictribunal@proton.me.
Alliances of alliances: how many organizations, and how many people? →
Velika loža Nikola Tesla is a name this warning treats as a self-proclaimed and irregular structure. A story of belonging to “the most regular Masonic obediences” is not proof that regular lodges recognize it. In a panel on this site that status is described as invented, and the structures as parallel.
Akademija tajnih društava is a name under which secret societies, Freemasonry and knightly titles are sold as a course, a diploma and a degree. It is the same mechanism as the International Esoteric Academy: when the lodge story collapses, the candidate becomes an academy student who pays for the next level.
International Esoteric Academy, in Serbian Internacionalna ezoterijska akademija, is the lettering that appears on sashes, banners and in the course offer. That is not proof of a regular Masonic lodge. It is the excuse by which “initiation” is renamed a paid course.
The flags are recruitment through TikTok and Instagram, mixed regalia from different orders, a blindfold so the improvisation stays unseen, deleting questions about where the title comes from, and the condition that advancement requires payment and new candidates. Velika loža Nikola Tesla, Akademija tajnih društava and International Esoteric Academy show that pattern in this file.
No. The feeling toward Kosovo is not a title of a private order. The Hungarian National Museum dates the founding of the Order of the Dragon to 1408, nineteen years after the Battle of Kosovo. This critique reads the transfer of that feeling onto a contemporary diploma. Kosovo, faith and ancestors stay outside the charge.
The bait is an elite brotherhood, power and contacts. The charges are fees, regalia and invented degrees. The excuse, when regularity is asked for, is that it is not a lodge but an academy course. Getting the money back is tied to bringing in new payers. That is a pyramid scheme, not an ancient secret society. The top of that pyramid in this warning is Visoko Belo Bratstvo (VBS). The story is in the clip @veliki.majstor on TikTok.
Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
Alliances of alliancesSources: the public pages of the Academy, Tracia, Dacia and the OESB, French official notices and public documents about relations between them. The number of unique members and of separate legal entities has not been established.
When a visitor is shown a row of grand lodges, supreme councils, academies, chivalric orders and international alliances, the impression of a broad institutional base comes easily. The number of names, however, does not say how many different people, independent leaderships and actually active organizations stand behind them.
In the public presentation of Dragan’s Academy we meet precisely such a layered structure: lodges, alliances, unions and a plan to join European alliances into a new alliance. His biography also contains the “Alliance of 10 Alliances”. These names justify the question of what each organizational level actually does and to whom it answers. International Esoteric Academy
One person can hold offices in several organizations. One lodge can belong at the same time to a grand lodge, a regional federation and an international alliance. If all those levels are counted together, the list grows, even though the membership may overlap heavily.
Such a structure can have a justification: different rites, international cooperation or administrative needs. The problem begins when its size is used as an argument of authority, while the data that would allow that authority to be checked are missing.
So the question is not only “how many organizations exist”, but: how many of them decide on their own, have their own leadership and can control the conduct of their officers?
Tracia lists Michel Picandet among its founders, and the Grand Lodge Nikola Tesla of Serbia among its members. That shows a publicly documented organizational link. It does not automatically show the number of active members, the quality of the work or recognition outside the circle of those who signed mutual agreements. gam-tracia.com
An agreement between two organizations is evidence of their relationship. Its weight depends on who the signatories are, what the agreement regulates and what scrutiny of their activity it assumes. A candidate has the right to receive precisely those explanations, instead of assigning to the mere number of partners a meaning that has not been proved.
The French trail leads to two organizations linked to Burgundy, which a public directory now lists at the same address in Étalante. Official documentation confirms separate foundings, with different original seats. CerfApp
That is not a sufficient basis to declare them fictitious. It is a basis for asking how independent they are and what, besides the name and the ritual field, distinguishes them from each other.
For every alliance or organization used as proof of the system’s size, the following should be published:
This check does not require publishing private membership lists. What is required are verifiable aggregate figures and clear rules of responsibility.
Until such data are available, a large number of titles and organizational names remains a presentation whose real extent cannot be reliably assessed. Trust does not rest on the length of a list, but on the possibility of checking who decides, in whose name and with what responsibility.
There is a documented network of linked alliances, lodges and orders, with some officers recurring. This research did not find enough evidence that all those organizations are a “front”, that the same ten people make them up, or that Michel Picandet was expelled from the Grand Orient of France. The strongest text rests on the gap between a large number of names and demonstrable institutional independence.
The research also found an important distinction: “Burgundy” is not one unambiguous name. A grand lodge, a sovereign sanctuary and related chivalric orders appear. They should not automatically be treated as the same organization.
His Academy publicly describes several organizational layers and alliances of alliances.
Limit: that is not proof that every name is a separate legal entity or an independent membership.
Its page lists Picandet among the founders, and among the members the Grand Lodge Nikola Tesla of Serbia.
Limit: membership in an alliance does not prove that Tojagić runs the whole network.
Two different registered associations were found, which a directory currently links to the same address in Étalante.
Limit: a shared seat does not by itself prove that they are fictitious.
He appears publicly in leading offices across several linked structures.
Limit: it has not been established how many different active members they have.
A document was found about the breaking of relations with another organization.
Limit: that is not proof of expulsion from the GODF.
The Academy’s partners page lists the lodges Nikola Tesla, Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin and Hilandar, the SVLSZ, Libertas 5775, the Balkan Masonic Federation, the Digital Masonic Chamber, Tracia and unions of secret societies. It also lists more than 30 “own” grand lodges, seven supreme councils and a project for an alliance of 20 European Masonic alliances. These are the Academy’s own claims, not an independently confirmed size of the organization. International Esoteric Academy
The biographical presentation also contains the “Alliance of 10 Alliances” and 25 academies of the secret world. This is precisely what gives a basis for analyzing the multiplication of institutional names. But an academy, an order, a ritual degree, an alliance and a registered association are not the same category and cannot simply be added together. International Esoteric Academy
This research did not establish a verifiable list of 70 separate legal entities under Tojagić’s control. The number 70 is therefore not presented here as a finding of the research.
For the specific legal entity International Esoteric Academy doo Novi Sad, CompanyWall lists a founding date of 14 August 2024, registration number 22037331, and Tojagić as director and sole owner. This is a business aggregator; the figure should be distinguished from an extract obtained directly from the APR. It does not prove ownership of every organization listed on the Academy’s site.
According to its own site, the Grande Alliance Maçonnique Tracia was founded on 4 April 2017 in Brașov. Among the founders it lists Michel Picandet, George Petrescu, Catalina A. Georgescu, Enzo Polimeni and Alexander Rybalka, together with their organizational offices. gam-tracia.com
The Grand Lodge Nikola Tesla of Serbia appears on Tracia’s list of members, with a link to its site. That is more concrete than a one-sided listing of Tracia among the Academy’s partners: there is also a public trace on the alliance’s side. It still does not confirm the number of members, the present intensity of cooperation or Tojagić’s authority to direct Tracia. Membres
The Romanian organization Dacia presents Picandet as “Sérénissime Grand Maître Mondial SSD”. On the same page the ritual hierarchy is described in the language of a pyramid and of a hierophant’s office for life. A ritual pyramid is not in itself a financial pyramid — but it is relevant to the question of how the organization describes authority and the succession of office. Marea Lojă Suverană a Daciei
A documented connection, then, exists. The claim that Tojagić “copied the system” would still have to be proved by comparing dated statutes, organizational charts and concrete texts.
Grande Loge Symbolique Burgonde — GLSB, identifier W912002871. The founding notice of January 2010 gives the seat as Viry-Châtillon.
Souverain Sanctuaire des Marches de Burgondi, identifier W213001680. The notice of December 2014 gives 8, rue Saint-Baudry, Étalante.
This comes from published French official notices. The CerfApp directory today also lists the GLSB at 8, rue Saint-Baudry in Étalante. There is thus a trace of two associations at the same address, but not proof that both were founded there. For a complete chronology of the GLSB, the primary notice of a change of seat is missing. CerfApp
That is a useful research question: do they share only an administrative space, or also the leadership, the membership and the financing? The address alone does not answer it.
The site of the chivalric order OESB describes Picandet’s role in its development and names other officers, including Giorgio Petrescu. Tojagić’s biography on the Zakazime site also lists the OESB among his affiliations. That is a publicly stated connection through the same order’s name; it is not an independent confirmation of every title Tojagić claims. Zakazime
A publicly posted document from August 2017, attributed to Picandet, was also found, in which he appears with several offices and declares the end of an agreement with the organization Grande Hiérophanie. Because the document is on a platform for sharing PDFs, its signature and origin have not been independently authenticated.
The other side does state on its site that the 2011 agreement with the sanctuary of Burgundy is inactive. That supports the existence of a broken relationship, but not the claim that Picandet was expelled from the GODF.
This research found no reliable confirmation either of an expulsion from the GODF or of Burgundy arising from a split inside the GODF. Those claims are left out of the article.
Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
Chivalric ordersSources: the public presentation, the Hungarian National Museum, the Academy essay “Chivalry”, the Ordre du Dragon site and the analysis that carries the recording. The photograph of the certificate has not been independently authenticated. The publication date of the recording is not the date of the ceremony.
For many people Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Respect for it, for Prince Lazar, the Nemanjići, the churches and the monasteries, stays untouched here. The object of the critique is the public presentation of Dragan Tojagić, which moves that feeling onto a private chivalric name.
The mechanism is simple. A name that already carries weight — Kosovo, the Dragon, Nemanjić — is placed on a contemporary diploma, cloak and ceremony. The visitor does not receive new evidence. He receives an old feeling, turned toward the man who holds the title today. That is manipulation of the emotion tied to history. Kosovo, faith and ancestors stay outside the charge. Precisely because the feeling is serious, scenery made from it cannot pass as authority.
The public presentation of Dragan Tojagić lists, among others, the Order of the Dragon, the Order of the Black Eagle, the Order of the Nemanjići, the Order of the Svevladovići and the Order of the Grgurevići. The list confirms that the names are used. It does not confirm that the organizations are as old as the names they bear, nor that the authority holds outside the circle that issues it to itself. Public presentation
A contemporary association may cultivate history and hold a ritual. When it presents itself as the heir of a medieval institution, it has to show how the succession was transmitted. A coat of arms, a cloak and a ceremonial diploma do not show that by themselves.
The Hungarian National Museum states that the Order of the Dragon was founded in 1408 by Sigismund of Luxembourg together with Queen Borbála (Barbara). A historical overview of the order also names Stefan Lazarević among the members. The Battle of Kosovo was in 1389, nineteen years earlier. Hungarian National Museum · Order of the Dragon
An order founded in 1408 cannot, under that name, have been a participant in the battle of 1389. The dragon as a motif, the song and the despot’s later membership do not build a bridge to an association that issues diplomas today. The feeling of 1389 is here attached to an order that did not yet exist.
The essay “Chivalry” on the site of the International Esoteric Academy writes that the chivalric Order of the Dragon was founded in the 14th century, that its seat was in Kruševac and that Despot Stefan Lazarević founded it, and it also ties the Order of the Dragon to the Nemanjići. That does not agree with the founding in 1408 stated by both the museum and the Ordre du Dragon site itself. The text on the essay page ends with the mark “Brat N.S.” We analyze what the Academy publishes. The essay is not attributed to Tojagić as a personal quotation. An organization that offers esoteric education has to cite sources and correct a checkable historical error. Essay: Chivalry
The recording is on Rumble. The published analysis, channel PrviGarant, title “Dragan Pop”, describes the ceremonial material as an initiation into the Order of the Nemanjići and states that the supplier identifies one participant as Dragan Palačković. Identity, function and any church status have not been independently confirmed. The clip is not the whole ceremony.
“But, given that we also do our knightly work in churches and monasteries, the Order of the Dragon really does occupy a serious place.”
The whole mechanism sits in that sentence. Church and monastery are offered as the reason the Order of the Dragon “occupies a serious place”. The walls are old. The feeling of the people who enter them is real. The seriousness of a private title does not follow from that. A rite inside a sanctuary does not become a church authorization because it was held there. From this material we do not establish that the participant is a priest, that he presents himself as a priest, or that a church approval exists.
On the channel PrviGarant a recording has been published under the title “Red Zmaja”. It is embedded here as the work of that order. The recording shows the form of the ceremony. The founding date remains 1408, and the feeling toward Kosovo remains outside the title.
People’s bond with Kosovo is not a prop. The problem begins when a private order steps in front of Prince Lazar, Kosovo or the Nemanjići and lets respect for the heritage pass onto today’s leadership. This is a reading of the public effect. The inner motive stays unconfirmed. The same arrangement still stands before the candidate: he feels history, and a diploma is placed in front of him.
Respect for Serbian history does not require accepting the title of a private association. Criticism of that title holds the line between history, tradition and a contemporary ritual. Kosovo remains Kosovo. The diploma remains the paper of a contemporary circle.
The site ordre-du-dragon.com itself writes that the order was created in 1408, and then places the filiation of the contemporary work from 1934, under René Chambellan. On the same page Serge Guillemot is listed as grand master, Michel Picandet as deputy, and George Petrescu as grand inspector. Those are the organization’s own claims. The jump from 1408 to 1934 is not a displayed chain of archival acts. Ordre du Dragon · Filiation (PDF)
The published analysis presents a photograph of a certificate that reads Ordre du Dragon and the year 1408, with the names of Michel Picandet and Gheorghe Petrescu. The recipient’s name is covered. The analysis does not find Tojagić’s name on that page. The photograph has not been independently authenticated and does not prove a signature, a payment or an authority. The certificate concerns the Order of the Dragon, while the recording is described as a ceremony of the Order of the Nemanjići. Two names stand in the same emotional package. That is not one demonstrated continuity.
The supplier states, referring to people close to him who were present, that Tojagić learned from Picandet and Petrescu, paid for the use of the system, and then began to act on his own. That is indirect testimony, not a confirmed financial finding. The word “franchise” belongs to the supplier. No contract title has been established. A conclusion about what Tojagić thought at the time about the value of the system remains an interpretation of motive.
Among the aims of its partners the Academy lists personal development, responsibility and humanitarian work. Checkable results, rules and accounts then say more than a conclusion that no order has a purpose. A great name attracts. Trust asks for an exact date, a clear authority and responsibility toward the people whose feeling was taken as scenery. Partners of the Academy
The full analysis: great names, open questions about origin →
Public warning: exposing quasi-esoteric academies, irregular lodges, fake chivalric orders and pyramid schemes
ArticleA closer reading of the available registers, the chronology of Freemasonry and his own platforms gives a clearer picture of how Dragan Tojagić built his network and why it draws sharp reactions in Masonic and esoteric circles.
Unlike traditional esoteric orders and Masonic lodges, which operate as citizens’ associations, nonprofit organizations or closed clubs, Tojagić’s primary project — the International Esoteric Academy — is registered with the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR) as an ordinary company in his 100% ownership, in which he is also the director.
Besides his own website, his services and profile have also been promoted through domestic commercial platforms for booking appointments and services (such as the portal Zakaži Me).
The concept is set up as a direct educational-commercial business model: users pay for courses, literature, access to lectures and “ritual work”.
Before he created his own “universe” of organizations, Tojagić was part of irregular/liberal Masonic structures in Serbia:
In 2019 in Sombor, a group of members who had left the Grand Orient of Serbia (VOS) founded the Grand Lodge “Nikola Tesla” (VLNT), in which Dragan Tojagić took the role of Grand Master.
Through the VLNT, Tojagić extended his influence into Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. His lodge helped found lodges in Croatia (such as the Grand Regular Lodge of King Dmitar Zvonimir in 2020, which was dissolved at the end of 2023, and a lodge in Vojnovac Kalnički).
In January and March 2021 (with meetings in Sarajevo), his lodge took part in creating the international alliance World Union “Libertas 5775” and linked itself to the Romanian-Balkan Grand Masonic Alliance “Thrace” (G.A.M. Tracia, Grande Alliance Maçonnique Tracia).
The encyclopedic survey Grand Masonic Alliance “Thrace” says this is not a Bulgarian obedience. The abbreviation is GAM Tracia, the full name Grande Alliance Maçonnique – Tracia. It was founded on 4 April 2017 in Brașov, Romania, as an alliance of adogmatic and liberal grand lodges. The name comes from ancient Thrace, a region now divided between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. The founders, according to that page, are the International Sovereign Sanctuary of Dacia and the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Dacia from Romania, the Traditional Grand Lodge of Italy, the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Burgundy from France (Grande Loge Symbolique Burgonde) and the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraim from Israel.
The same survey counts 88 members: 17 sister grand lodges named “Sovereign Grand Lodge of Dacia” in 17 countries, within the International Sovereign Sanctuary of Dacia, and 72 other grand lodges. Among the European members it lists the Grand Lodge “Nikola Tesla”, the Grand Lodge “Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin”, the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Serbia and the United Grand Lodge of Serbia. Since 2017 the alliance has been led by world grand master Michel Picandet. The rites for which that page says the alliance claims a special authority are the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Rectified Scottish Rite and the Rite of Memphis-Misraim. Under “See also” on the same page stands the World Union Libertas 5775.
According to this public warning, the multiplication of names resembles the umbrella of Burgundy and G.A.M. Tracia. The claim that Dragan Tojagić copied that system still has to be proved by comparing dated statutes and charts. The gap between the number of names and demonstrable independence is examined in the text Who is Dragan Tojagić?
The Grand Lodge “Nikola Tesla” itself was not immune to splits. Part of the membership later left it and founded its own organization.
After 2021, Tojagić shifts the emphasis to founding his own bodies in large numbers. On the official pages of his academy he is literally described as “the greatest esotericist of all time”, and he also uses the title “Most Excellent Emperor Count Academician Dr Dragan Tojagić”.
In his esoteric biography he states that he is founder, head, “Supreme Commander”, “Cavernator” or “Principal” of dozens of organizations that he largely creates on his own. Some of the most striking names on his list are:
More recently he promotes his activities through gatherings in luxury hotels (such as the Sheraton hotel in Novi Sad) and publishes reports of “missionary” work and of delivering ritual lectures to lodges in Africa. According to this warning, that appearance was in Tunisia, at the sea, with his family: he acted well the part of giving a lecture on the beach before 300 and more spectators, who of course are not visible on the recording.
In the world of traditional Freemasonry (which includes lodges recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England — UGLE, such as the Regular Grand Lodge of Serbia), Tojagić’s work is not recognized as Freemasonry at all.
Even in the wider circles that follow Freemasonry in the Balkans (including encyclopedic surveys of Freemasonry in Serbia and Croatia), his organizations — especially the Sovereign World Secret System of Nikola Tesla and the Internacionalna ezoterijska akademija — are formally classified as quasi-Masonic organizations.
Campaigns have been run against him and his former associates from the region (such as Zoran V. T. in Croatia and Subotica) on specialized portals (such as the former laznimasoni.com) under the name “Sprega masonske prevare” (“The joint work of a Masonic fraud”).
Traditional Masons accuse him of commercializing and trivializing initiatory societies — that is, of selling invented degrees, instant initiations over the internet and nonexistent noble or esoteric titles to people who want a quick entry into “secret societies” and do not know the rules and history of Freemasonry. On social networks and YouTube channels that criticize occultism and alternative movements, his appearances are often the subject of satirical comments precisely because of the grandiose titles he assigns to himself.
