As an active freemason in the "Benevolence" lodge, he introduced and tutored Mozart into the lodge. Born's essay "Über die Mysterien der Ägypter " (The Mysteries of the Egyptians), published in 1784 in the freemason periodical "Journal für Freymaurer", was one of the sources for the libretto for The Magic Flute written for Mozart by Emanuel Schikaneder. Born was also the regional head of the Viennese Illuminati lodge, and was a sympathiser with the enlightenment ideas of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. He published an anticlerical satire called "Monachologien" in 1783, in which he depicts monks as being of a distinct race that is a mixture between ape and man.