STB-1995-09
Music by Brother J. L. F. Mendelssohn.
THE EYE IN THE PYRAMID
By: S. Brent Morris, P.M.
In, at times, a strongly worded article Dr. S.
Brent Morris, a member and Past Master of
Patmos Lodge #70, Ellicott City, Maryland, has
"set the record straight" on the myth that the
Great Seal of the United States represents a
Masonic symbol. The facts are clearly presented,
together with several examples of the use of the
"All Seeing Eye" prior to any known Masonic
use. This straightforward article is being presented as a STB so that Freemasons may have an
answer when the question is asked "Is the Seal of
the United States a Masonic symbol? "
Historians must be cautious about many wellknown "facts." George Washington chopped
down a cherry tree when a boy and confessed
the deed to his father. Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball. Freemasons inserted
some of their emblems (chief among them the
eye in the pyramid) into the reverse of the Great
Seal of the United States. These historical
"facts" are widely popular, commonly accepted,
and equally false.
The eye in the pyramid (emblazoned on the
dollar bill, no less) is often cited as "evidence"
that sinister conspiracies abound which will
impose a "New World Order" on an unsuspecting populace. Depending on whom you hear it
from, the Masons are planning the takeover
themselves, or are working in concert with
European bankers, or are leading (or perhaps
being led by) the Illuminati (whoever they are).
The notion of a world-wide Masonic conspiracy
would be laughable, if it weren't being repeated
with such earnest gullibility by conspiracists like
Pat Robertson.
Sadly, Masons are sometimes counted among
the gullible who repeat the tall tale of the eye in
the pyramid, often with a touch of pride. They
may be guilty of nothing worse than innocently
puffing the importance of their fraternity (as
well as themselves), but they're guilty nonetheless. The time has come to state the truth plainly and simply!
The Great Seal of the United States is not a
Masonic emblem, nor does it contain hidden
Masonic symbols.
The details are there for anyone to check,
who's willing to rely on historical fact, rather
than hysterical fiction.
ù Benjamin Franklin was the only Mason on
the first design committee, and his suggestions had no Masonic content.
ù None of the final designers of the seal were
Masons.
ù The interpretation of the eye on the seal is
subtly different from the interpretation used
by Masons.
ù The eye in the pyramid is not nor has it ever
been a Masonic symbol.
THE FIRST COMMITTEE
On Independence Day, 1776 a committee was
created to design a seal for the new American
nation. The committee's members were
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jetferson, and John
Adams, with Pierre Du Simitiere as artist and
consultant.' Of the four men involved, only
Benjamin Franklin was a Mason, and he contributed nothing of a Masonic nature to the committee's proposed design for a seal.
Du Simitiere, the committee's consultant and a
non-Mason, contributed several major design
features that made their way into the ultimate
design of the seal: 'the shield, E Pluribus Unum,
MDCCLXXVI, and the eye of providence in a
triangle."' The eye of providence on the seal
thus can be traced, not to the Masons, but to a
non-Mason consultant to the committee.
"The single eye was a well-established artistic
convention for an 'omniscient Ubiquitous
Deity' in the medallic art of the Renaissance. Du
Simitiere, who suggested using the symbol, collected art books and was lamiliar with the artistic and ornamental devices used in Renaissance
art." This was the same cultural iconography
that eventually led Masons to add the all-seeing
eye to their symbols.
THE SECOND AND THIRD COMMITTEES
Congress declined the first committees suggestions as well as those of its 1780 committee.
Francis Hopkinson, consultant to the second
committee, had several ideas that eventually
made it into the seal: "white and red stripes within a blue background for the shield, a radiant
constellation of thirteen stars, and an olive
branch."4 Hopkinson's greatest contribution to
the current seal came from his layout of a 1778
50-dollar colonial note in which he used an
unfinished pyramid in the design. The third and
last seal committee of 1782 produced a design
that finally satisfied Congress. Charles
Thomson, Secretary of Congress, and William
Barton, artist and consultant, borrowed from
earlier designs and sketched what at length
became the United States Seal.
The misinterpretation of the seal as a Masonic
emblem may have been first introduced a century later in 1884. Harvard Professor Eliot
Norton wrote that the reverse was 'practically
incapable of effective treatment; it can hardly,
(however artistically treated by the designer),
look otherwise than as a dull emblem of a
Masonic fraternity.''5
INTERPRETING THE SYMBOL
The "'Remarks and Explanations" of Thomson
and Barton are the only explanation of the symbols' meaning. Despite what anti-Masons may
believe, there's no reason to doubt the interpretation accepted by the Congress.
The Pyramid signified Strength and
Duration: The Eye over it & the Moto, allude
to the many signal interpositions of providence in favor of the American cause. 6
The committees and consultants who designed
the great Seal of the United States contained
only one Mason, Benjamin Franklin. The only
possibly Masonic design element among the
very many on the seal is the eye of providence,
and the interpretation of it by the designers is
difterent from that used by Masons. The eye on
the seal represents an active intervention of God
in the affairs of men, while the Masonic symbol
stands for a passive awareness by God of the
activities of men.
The first "official" use and definition of the allseeing eye as a Masonic symbol seems to have
come in 1797 with The Freemasons Monitor of
Thomas Smith Webb-14 years after Congress
adopted the design tor the seal. Here's how
Webb explains the symbol.
"[A]nd 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 comets perform their stupendous revolutions, pervades the inmost
recesses of the human heart, and will reward
us according to our merits." 7
THE EYE IN THE PYRAMID
Besides the subtly different interpretations of
the symbol, it is notable that Webb did not
describe the eye as being in a triangle. Jeremy
Ladd Cross published The True Masonic Chart
or Hieroglyphic Monitor in 1819, essentially an
illustrated version of Webb's Monitor. In this
first "official" depiction of Webb's symbol,
Cross had illustrator Amos Doolittle depict the
eye surrounded by a semicircular glory. 8
The all-seeing eye thus appears to be a rather
recent addition to Masonic symbolism. It is not
found in any of the Gothic Constitutions, written
from about 1390 to 1730. The eye--sometimes
in a triangle, sometimes in clouds, but nearly
always surrounded by a glory--was a popular
Masonic decorative device in the latter half of
the 18th century. Its use as a design element
seems to have been an artistic representation of
the omniscience of God, rather than some generally accepted Masonic symbol.
Its meaning in all cases, however, was that
commonly given it by society at large--a
reminder of the constant presence of God. For
example, in 1614 the frontispiece of The History
of the World by Walter Raleigh showed an eye
in a cloud labeled "Providentia" overlooking a
globe. It has not been suggested that Raleigh' s
History is a Masonic document despite the use
of the all-seeing eye .
The eye of Providence was part of the common
cultural iconography of the 17th and 18th centuries. When placed in a triangle, the eye went
beyond a general representation of God to a
strongly Trinitarian statement. It was during this
period that Masonic ritual and symbolism
evolved; and it is not surprising that many symbols common to and understood by the general
society made their way into Masonic ceremonies. Masons may have preferred the triangle
because of the frequent use of the number 3 in
their ceremonies: three degrees, three original
grand masters, three principal officers, and so
on. Eventually the all-seeing eye came to be
used officially by Masons as a symbol for God,
but this happened towards the end of the eighteenth century, after congress had adopted the
seal.
A pyramid, whether incomplete or finished,
however, has never been a Masonic symbol. It
has no generally accepted symbolic meaning,
except perhaps permanence or mystery. The
combining of the eye of providence overlooking
an unfinished pyramid is a uniquely American,
not Masonic, icon, and must be interpreted as its
designers intended. It has no Masonic context.
CONCLUSION
It's hard to know what leads some to see
Masonic conspiracies behind world events, but
once that hypothesis is accepted, any jot and tittle can be misinterpreted as "evidence." The
Great Seal of the United States is a classic example of such a misinterpretation, and some
Masons are as guilty of the exaggeration as
many anti-Masons.
The Great Seal and Masonic symbolism grew
out of the same cultural milieu. While the allseeing eye had been popularized in Masonic
designs of the late eighteenth century, it did not
achieve any sort of official recognition until
Webb's 1797 Monitor. Whatever status the symbol may have had during the design of the Great
Seal, it was not adopted or approved or endorsed
by any Grand Lodge.
The seal's Eye of Providence and the
Mason's All Seeing Eye each express Divine
Omnipotence, but they are parallel uses of a
shared icon, not a single symbol.
NOTES
' Robert Hieronimus, America's Secret Destiny
(Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books, 1989), p. 48.
2 Patterson and Dougall in Hieronimus, p. 48.
1 Hieronimus, p. 81.
4 Hieronimus, p. 51.
5 Hieronimus, p. 57.
C. Thomas and W. Barton in Hieronimus,
p.S4.
7 Thomas Smith Webb, The Freemasons
Monitor or Illustrations of Masonry (Salem,
Mass.: Cushing and Appleton, 1821), p. 66.
8 Jeremy Ladd Cross, The True Masonic Chart
or Hieroglyphic Monitor, 3rd ed. (New Haven,
Conn.: By the Author, 1824), plate 22.
REFERENCES
Cross, Jeremy Ladd. The True Masonic Chart
or Hieroglyphic Monitor, 3rd ed. New Haven,
Conn.: By the Author, 1824.
Hieronimus, Robert. America's Secret Destiny.
Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books, 1989.
Webb, Thomas Smith. The Freemasons Monitor or Illustrations of Masonry. Salem, Mass.:
Cushing and Appleton, 1821.
Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source