Tag Archives: hoaxes

Anthropology, Economics, Religion & Spirituality, Uncategorized

Freemasonry and the Great Seal on the Dollar bill

dollar bill photo: Dollar Bill before dollarback.jpg

The intriguing imagery of the Great Seal on the back of the United States’ one dollar bill is cause for much curiosity and speculation.  This has been a discussion amongst fans of the occult for decades, but in recent years the success of the movie “National Treasure” has brought the subject to the attention of popular culture and revived the myth that the symbols on the Great Seal represent a secret Masonic code.  While it is true that several of the United States founding fathers were in fact Freemasons, it is not true that the United States One Dollar Bill contains any symbolism adopted from or inspired by Freemasonry.  The true meanings behind the symbolism of the Great Seal on the dollar bill, while having a great depth of meaning is not so mysterious or esoteric.

The Symbolism

The Great Seal of the United States consists of a bald eagle spread with 13 arrows held tightly in his left talon. His right talon clutches an olive branch with thirteen leaves. Supported on the eagle’s breast is an escutcheon or shield containing a representation of the United States Flag-a blue field and 13 alternating red and white stripes. In his mouth he carries a banner which contains the Latin Phrase “E pluribus Unum.” Above his head is a radiant six-pointed star composed of 13 five-pointed stars.

On the obverse side of the Great Seal, found on the left side of the dollar is a representation of an Egyptian style pyramid with 13 layers and a flat, truncated top. Just above this sits an eye inside a triangle. At its base are inscribed the Latin numerals indicating the year 1776, the year of American independence from Britain. Circumscribing the image are the Latin phrases “Annuit Coeptus” above and “Novus Ordo Seclorum” below.

The Explanation

The repetition of the number 13 on the Great Seal and the United States Flag is a subject of great interest to conspiracy enthusiasts and occultist speculators who parrot inaccurate resources claiming the number 13 has special meaning to Freemasons. The fact is that the number 13 has no special significance to Freemasonry and never has. Freemasonry does place special emphasis on certain numbers such as 3, 5, 7 and 15, but not on the number 13.  The number 13 does however, have a rather special significance to American history. The number 13 happens to be precisely the number of the American colonies who rebelled against Britain, becoming the United States. This is why the designers of the Great Seal emphasized the number time over again.

The bald eagle, the national bird of the United States was adopted from interaction with Native Americans. Many traditional Native American communities have considered the bald eagle the most sacred of all birds and a symbol of the Creator. The founders of the United States in imitation of their Indian neighbors adopted the bald eagle as the greatest symbol of freedom and liberty and the highest aspirations of the new nation.

The escutcheon resting on the eagle’s chest contains the symbol of the American flag. The last man who worked on the seal’s design, Charles Thomson described the meaning behind the colors of the flag and the other symbols in this manner;

“The colours of the pales are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the colour of the Chief signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice. The Olive branch and arrows denote the power of peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress. The Constellation denotes a new State taking its place and rank among other sovereign powers. The Escutcheon is born on the breast of an American Eagle without any other supporters to denote that the United States of America ought to rely on their own Virtue.”*

It is also interesting to note that the colors red and white are often used by Native Nations of the Eastern United States to represent war and peace respectively. Many of the Muskogean towns were historically divided into red-military and white-diplomatic communities which were loosely united under various confederacies. It should come as no surprise that the seal of the United States contains so much Native American symbolism when one considers the fact that many of these same founders had stormed a British ship during the “Boston Tea Party” dressed in war paint and feathers just a few years earlier.

           

The arrows and the olive branch held in the eagle’s talons represent two diametrically opposing principles that help to establish and maintain a nation; war and peace. The symbol of the arrows held together was adopted from the Iroquois Confederacy which influenced much of American democracy.  The Iroquois used the image of seven arrows which represented the seven different ‘tribes’ who composed the Iroquois League.  The symbolism teaches that one arrow alone (a single tribe) is easily broken, but all seven held together in a single common defense are much more difficult to break. The Founders of the US used the same symbolism, altered slightly to account for all the 13 United States.  This coincides with the Latin motto displayed on the eagle’s banner; “E pluribus Unum” which translates as “Out of many, One,” illustrating the Union formed by these States. The United States is after all, many states which make up a single nation.

The olive branch is an ancient symbol of peace and vitality from western cultures. It was used widely by the ancient Mesopotamians, Greeks, Egyptians, Hebrews, Romans and Persians. The olive has been a widely adored fruit, the oil of which was anciently claimed to have many healthful and spiritual properties. The many designers of this seal used these two images of both the “Old World” and the “New World” to symbolize the integration of the new nation, based on both European and Native American ideals.

The pyramid side is sometimes called the spiritual side of the seal. The pyramid design was chosen as a symbol of duration, a nearly eternal nation and of the West’s ancient heritage, much of which has its roots in Ancient Egypt. It is important to note that people during the Enlightenment Era marking the democratization of the West were heavily involved in speculation upon ancient symbols and histories. This is also the era that birthed the remarkable discipline of archaeology.

The Eye of Providence sits at the pyramids zenith. Historically the All-seeing-Eye motif has been used by countless civilizations on all continents but interested parties who promote the Masonic Dollar theory like to point out that a very similar motif is in fact used by Freemasons today. This is true however; those who promote this theory often fail to recognize that during the Enlightenment the eye motif was used repeatedly by many different artists and organizations unassociated with Freemasonry. It is also often overlooked that the Eye motif had been an element of the design on the Great Seal since the seal was first proposed on August 20th, 1776 and finally adopted by Congress on June 20th 1782. Freemasons did not begin using the all-seeing-eye emblem until 1797 in “The Freemasons Monitor of Thomas Smith Webb” fifteen years after the Great Seal was finalized. In fact it is more likely that Freemasons adopted the motif from the Great Seal rather than the other way around.

The Latin phrase “Annuit Coeptus” means “He has favored our undertakings,” which refers to the founding belief that the success of the American revolution was a matter of divine Providence as can be found written in the Declaration of Independence. The next phrase is another point that conspiracy enthusiast enjoy kicking around like a rusty old tin can, telling themselves it’s actually a football.

“Novus Ordo Seclorum” does not mean “New World Order” as so often incorrectly translated. It means “New Order of the Ages.” It refers to the Founders recognition that they were creating a new order in a new era. They recognized that they had begun an age of reason, logic, and spiritual and practical liberty from dogmatic institutions. The new order was liberty, democracy and republicanism in opposition to the old order of submission to monarchical regimes.

The seal of the United States is a proud symbol of our heritage, our determination and our history. The symbolism reveals that we are one nation of many different people, unlike any other, striving for peace but prepared to go to war to protect each other. We are free and strive for more freedom. Our nation is divinely inspired and protected by God and its legacy will survive for as long have the ancient monuments of the past. The quest for freedom is not a conspiracy. That is the propaganda of tyrants. The quest for freedom is the nature of the human soul and our natural state, eternal and can never be crushed by the illegitimate rule of dictators.

* http://www.state.gov/www/publications/great_seal.pdf

-http:// masonicinfo.com/eye.htm

-Exiled in the Land of the Free; Democracy, Indian Nations and The US Constitution by, Lyons, Mohawk, Deloria Jr., Hauptman, Berman, Grinde Jr., Berkey, Venables
-http://en.wikipedia.o rg/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

-The Federalist by Hamilton, Madison and Jay


Religion & Spirituality, Uncategorized

Freemason Albert Pike and the Luciferian Quote

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Conspiracy theories are popular on the internet.  A simple web search on almost any government agency or religious organization is bound to turn up at least a few web sites dedicated to “exposing” some secret government agenda that’s all a part of the “illuminati” master plan.

Albert_PikeA favored subject for these conspiracy enthusiasts involves a man and Freemason by the name of Albert Pike.  The story goes; Albert Pike was the Head of Freemasonry in the 1800’s and that he wrote a book called Morals and Dogma which spells out the regulations of being a Freemason.  There is a passage that is recited over and over by conspiracy enthusiasts that “reveals” that the god of Freemasonry is none other than Lucifer himself!

The quote goes;

“That which we must say to the world is that we worship a god, but it is the god that one adores without superstition. To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees: The masonic Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the higher degrees, maintained in the Purity of the Luciferian doctrine. If Lucifer were not God, would Adonay and his priests calumniate him?

Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also god. For the eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without ugliness, no white without black, for the absolute can only exist as two gods; darkness being necessary for light to serve as its foil as the pedestal is necessary to the statue, and the brake to the locomotive….

Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy, and the true and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay; but Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil.”

When I first found this quote was I intrigued by it and wanted to look it up for myself.  Ever since my earliest college days I was taught to always double check my sources so this seemed natural to me.  The first thing I noticed was that although I could find the “quote” referenced in numerous places on conspiracy sites, always attributed to Albert Pike and Morals and Dogma, never once could I find a page number listed on any of these sites.  That’s because it’s not real.

          

Albert Pike was a Confederate General who led a brigade of Native American soldiers during the American Civil War.  Despite his confederate ties, Pike was credited as a crusader for justice for Native Americans, a prominent Washington lawyer and a philosopher.  He was also a Freemason.  He was not the head of Freemasonry.  For several years he was the head of one jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite, an organization subordinate to Freemasonry.  This was the was the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite, which includes most of the western United States as well as the South.  In 1871 he published a book called Morals and Dogma, in which he discussed a vast array of the worlds religions and tried to associate their mythic legends to the lessons taught in Freemasonry.  This book was given as a gift to Scottish Rite Masons in the Southern Jurisdiction for nearly 60 years.  It however, is not the “rule book” of Masonry as some people have claimed but rather the philosophical work of its author.  The infamous “Luciferian Quote” does not exist between its covers.

The origin of this “quote” is from a book entitled Woman and Child in Universal Freemasonry published by Abel Clarin de la Rive.  The “Luciferian Quote” in this book is credited in a foot note to a woman by the name of Diana Vaughan.  Diana Vaughan was a character introduced in the writings of a man named Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès who wrote under the pen name Leo Taxil.  For obvious reasons I shall use the pen name when referring to him from here on.

Taxil wrote what he called a history of Freemasonry, in four volumes which claimed to contain eye witness accounts of Masonic Satanic activity.  Another book written in 1894 by Leo Taxil and “Dr. Karl Hacks” was titled the Devil in the Nineteenth Century.  This is the book that introduced the character of Diana Vaughan who was supposed to have been involved in Satanic Masonry and an informant for Leo Taxil.

The “Luciferian” quote has ever since been repeated by anti-Masonic conspiracy enthusiasts even though its real creator Leo Taxil admitted his hoax.  That’s right!  On April 19, 1897 Leo Taxil called a press conference with the pretension of introducing Diana Vaughan to the public.  When the press was assembled, Taxil began a speech in which he admitted that he had in fact been perpetrating a hoax and that all of his secret information about Freemasonry was a fabrication.

For rational people, this ended the concern over the “Luciferian Quote.”  But the irrational and those who have a vested interest in hating Freemasonry still like to throw the quote around, attributing it to Albert Pike even though it is a well known fraud.  The myth has been perpetuated by the preacher Pat Robertson, and it has been republished by Jack Chick in his Christian comic books since 1991.  The quote can also be found splattered cross the internet on countless misinformed conspiracy sites.

An elaborate hoax, even when its creator confesses his misdeed carries on down through the generations by liars and imbeciles who’d rather believe in fantasy than take the time to investigate the facts.  It is no wonder they are so quick to condemn the hearts of others whom they don’t understand when they know full well the amount of deceit in which they themselves willingly participate.

It is important to remember that facts are things, things that are REAL.  They can be analyzed, scrutinized and proven.  They exist because they do, not because you want them to or because you believe they do.  So no matter how much they choose to believe otherwise and ignore the facts and the confession of Taxil, the infamous “Luciferian Quote”—often falsely attributed to Albert Pike is simply a fantasy.

UPDATE:

The image below was added in response to a commenter who claimed the quote exists on page 321 of Morals and Dogma.  As the reader can see, it does not.

Page 817 is offered too, because that was his initial (though admittedly wrong) page assertion.