Masons rule America!
Well . . . that's what I was told.
Honestly, people did try to convince me of this back in the early 80s. The Masons were part of an Illuminati elite bent on subjugating the world.
Or maybe it was the other way around: the Illuminati were part of a Masonic elite bent on subjugating the world. Either way, some group behind the scenes was manipulating things to its own advantage.
My interlocutors had proof. They whipped out their wallets and showed me the American dollar with its Great Seal of the United States. I wasn't very impressed by this and dismissed it as mere symbolism.
Turns out, I was wrong. According to McDougall:
The Great Seal of the United States, adopted in 1782, was a Masonic amulet with the now sacred number 13. The obverse depicted thirteen stars, the thirteen letters of E pluribus unum, and an eagle (the highest stage of the soul) with a thirteen-striped shield. The arrows and olive branch in its talons invoked a fighting faith, but one whose purpose was brotherhood. The reverse depicted the all-seeing Eye, the thirteen-letter motto Annuit Coeptis (He favors these undertakings), and the unfinished pyramid of the Novus Ordo Seclorum (New Order of the Ages). (Freedom Just Around the Corner, 331)
And the man who in 1793 guided the procession to the groundbreaking ceremony for the U.S. capitol and led the Masonic ceremony declaring the unity of Freemasonry with the republic "in the thirteenth year of American independence . . . and the year of Masonry, 5793," was none other than George Washington (333).
Okay, so I was wrong about the Great Seal, but so what?
Many of the men on the maternal side of my family were Masons, and I recall one of my uncles performing a beautiful Masonic service at my maternal grandather's graveside after the Baptist minister had ruined the Church's funeral service through issuing an altar call for the benefit of any of those who wished to become Christians now that they had effectively had the hell scared out of them by the presence of death.
So, I don't worry about the Masons.
It's the Ultranomians that concern me because nobody has ever heard of them. Until now.
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 4:27 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Most of the people who formulated and signed the document of the Declaration of Independence were Masons. Freemasonry at the time was the organization to be in if you were of a liberal mind-set ( or progressive), although the movie "National Treasure" with Nicholas Cage is an enjoyable light romp, it is unusually accurate in its presentation of the facts about The Freemasons and the founding of the Republic.
From its inception, freemasonry was considered to be the fomenting ground of radical thinkers and has boasted such luminaries as Issac Newton and Jean Cocteau as members. If you would like to find out more, read "The Brotherhood" by Stephen Knight and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. The latter was the main source of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code rip-off.
Re: The All-Seeing Eye. “This is naturally a symbol of watchfulness, having the connotation both of solicitude and of detection. Thus, it has the idea of assurance to the good and true, but vengeance to the evil. Hence, it is a symbol of omnipresence and watchfulness of the Supreme Being. ‘The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good’ (Proverbs 15:3). It is a very old symbol and was used by the Egyptians to represent Osiris. In Preston’s Lecture of the Master Mason degree, the following appears: ‘The Sword, pointing to the Naked Heart, demonstrates that justice will sooner or later overtake us; and, although our thoughts, words, and actions may be hidden from the eyes of man, yet that All-Seeing Eye, whom the Sun, Moon, and Stars obey, and under whose watchful care, even the Comets perform their stupendous revolutions, pervades the inmost recesses of the human Heart, and will reward us according to our merits.’ Some have expressed different concepts, but Preston’s work of 1772 expresses the oldest Masonic doctrine that we have to this point.” Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia by Henry Wilson Coil, 33 Degree. Note: Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia is considered by many US Freemasons as the seminal reference to all that is Masonic.
I’d suggest “The Freemasons” by Jasper Ridley (a Brit) and “Born In Blood” by John J. Robinson (an American). Both books are very well researched and incredibly interesting; most importantly, each book offers a distinctly different viewpoint on the origins of Freemasonry. Ridley is not a Freemason; Robinson was Raised to Sublime Degree of Master Mason years after “Born In Blood” was published. Adhering to the Grand Masonic Principle of Truth, I found both works to be very subjective, fair and candid. From a parochial viewpoint, I found it refreshing to read – from historians that are/were not Freemasons – the dismantling of many myths and allegations made by the anti-Freemasonry crowd.
Greg :.
Part II
Re: Great Seal of the US. Again from Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia…“There have been many statements to the effect that Masonic symbolism is presented by the reverse side of the One Dollar Silver Certificate of the United States, where a truncated pyramid appears surrounded by two Latin mottos. It has, however, no Masonic implication or origin but is taken from the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. It does not resemble any Masonic symbol. The design was originally engraved by William Barton and as somewhat altered was adopted June 20, 1782 at the recommendation of a committee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, only the first named being a Freemason. The supposititious Masonic symbolism was probably based on the All-Seeing Eye, but that is not exclusively a Masonic symbol. The engraver explained that the pyramid signified strength and duration, the Eye over it and the motto were witnesses to the many signal interpositions of Providence in favor of the American cause.” Call me naïve, but I buy the conventional story…http://www.greatseal.com/ and http://www.heraldica.org/topics/usa/usheroff.htm#history.
Re: the number 13…can’t locate any Masonic reference to the number 13 as flavored in the passage you provided. Its “sacredness” is certainly not Masonic. The symbolism of numbers is not predominant over other Masonic symbolism. Both Geometry and Astronomy far exceed it. Since we’re speaking of numbers…even numbers may, in fact, have more presence in the Craft than odd numbers.
Re: the eagle…The double-headed eagle is more prevalent in Freemasonry than one as depicted in the Great Seal. And as a Masonic symbol, the DHE has not been traced in pictorial representation before 1802. Where used, very little – if any – explanation is given. For all intensive purposes, the use of eagles seems to have come about without any applicable Masonic symbolism.
From what you’ve presented, McDougal’s explanation to the Great Seal being a a Masonic amulet (at most) or made up from Masonic symbols (at least) is pretty thin. I’m very interested in seeing his references on this subject. To me, there are indicators of conspiracy theory websites.
If you hang your hat on what McDougal says, you may still be wrong.
Greg, you may be correct about the Great Seal of the United States not being of Masonic origin after all and about there being the whiff of conspiracy theory to this interpretation.
I've checked McDougall's source and suspect that it's not trustworthy. McDougall relies on the following work:
David Ovason, The Secret ARchitecture of Our Nation's Capital: The Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C. (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), pp. 217-240.
See Amazon on this:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060953683/qid=1124234005/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8868463-2656646
For a list of more of Ovason's books, see also Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-8868463-2656646
Whether there's a Masonic source or not, McDougall was not out to argue for a conspiracy theory, which he specifically rejects by saying:
"Where is this leading? To a sinister revelation of the gnostic origins of the United States, or some conspiracy theory? Not at all."
Part of McDougall's point is that the Masons were all so open about being Masons -- as the very public Masonic ceremony that laid the cornerstone for Washington, D.C. shows.
Understand. Thanks for the rest of the story. I’m in DC next week…I’ll pick-up a copy of McDougal’s book. Sounds like an excellent read.
No doubt, there’s an incredible amount of Masonic overtones/influence in DC’s architecture. As a Freemason, I am constantly alerted to subtle Masonic overtures when visiting our nation’s Capital…and would agree as you present, that such are not a result of a conspiracy. At least which could be labled “Gnostic”…I get more KJV in Lodge than some church services I’ve attended.
In my opinion, the “secret” accusation against Freemasonry is the most used and the easiest to refute. As we say, we’re an organization with secrets, not a secret organization. In the former, we have signs of recognition that we keep confidential (more from an exercise in tradition) among the Brethren. As to the latter, I’d say a secret organization would keep its membership/existence covert – hardly the case with Freemasons.
Greg:.
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