SACRED GEOMETRY AND THE GREAT SEAL OF THE U.S.
The following image is a reproduction I made from an image that I found in the book "Secret and Suppressed" edited by Jim Keith. I found the image most illuminating, and was inspired by it to find further, similar correspondences within the US Great Seal.
The alignments between the two images ("front" and "back" designs for the Seal) in the original configuration given here interest me somewhat less than the initial researcher's choice to offset the two circles in the standard "Vesica Pisces" design. This implies only a minor, working knowledge of sacred geometry, but nothing compared to what I am about to show you.
First let me show you the original idea I had following the examination of the (unattributed) "Vesica Pisces" configuration from "Secret and Suppressed." By aligning the two circles, one directly on top of or over the other, and reducing the transparency of both by fifty percent, we arrive at the following overlapping, the correspondences of which between the elements of the two pictures (front and back of the "Seal") becomes much clearer than the original Vesica PIsces configuration.
Here the alignments of the graphic elements in the twin pictures of the "front" and "back" of the "seal" are much more obvious. Here we see, from the bottom upwards, the dual elements both vertically and horizontally in each picture, and how they align between both.
To begin with we see the "Novus" and the "Seclorem" of the "motto" on the "standard" at the based of the "Great Seal" ("back" side, with the pyramid, symbol of financial authority) and the olive branch and the clutch of arrows in the tallons of the eagle ("front" side, symbol of governmental, military authority) overlap.
The "Novus" (meaning "new" in latin) overlaps with the olive branch (representing "peace" but connotative also of the covenant of the world-flood) and the arrows (of which there are thirteen, the "unlucky" number of the Knights Templar) overlap with the "Seclorem" (meaning "world" in latin, but having the connotation of "secular" as opposed to "religious," or "temporal"), respectively.
Also, the central array of the eagle's tail feathers overlaps with the latin word for "Order" (as in the latin saying "Ordo Ab Chao" used among the 32nd degree Scottish Rite Masons, meaning "order out of [or from] chaos"). I'll return to the symbolism of these feathers briefly in a moment.
Likewise, above the "standard" on the pyramid side and the tallons of the eagle on the "front" side, the (again in Roman numerals) year at the base of the pyramid and the "stars and stripes" shield (the primary component of a heradlic crest). I won't bother to explain these, as their symbolism should be obvious: the 15 stars and 13 stripes of the US flag occupy the shield and the year 1776, America's founding.
The "upper" standard (reflecting the "lower" standard beneath the pyramid) in the eagle's beak rises from either side at about the same scale as the "missing capstone" of the pyramid and reads "E PLuribus Unum" (latin, meaning "All for one," the saying of the Three Musketeers in the famus story by Victor Hugo).
Above the "missing capstone" (usually thought to be a Free Masonic symbol itself, although playing a heavier role in the York than the Scottish Rite), we see the "eye in the triangle" (usually believed to represent philosophical "Illuminism") aligns with the 13 stars arranged in a hexagram on the opposite side of the "seal." This may be taken to represent "God" (the eye being the "All-Seeing" aspect while the stars represent the 12 Apostles of Christ), however this is only a shallow interpretation, the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak. In point of fact, this might be thought to symbolise the ancient Egyptian belief in the transubstantiation of the soul of the Pharoah into the constellation of Orion via the Great Pyramid as their tomb.
Above the entire motif, and corresponding to a further horizontal reflection, is the final component, the phrase "ANNUIT COEPTIS," latin for "fortune favours," a shortened version of the old Greek saying "fortune favours the bold."
The following arrangements are just ones to bear generally in mind, and I will not make such extensive commentary on them. Also their symbolism should be remembered to be "adverse" or negatively oriented between the two figures because one is right-side up and one is upside down relative to one another.
On the left we see the nine tail-feathers of the eagle surmounting the eye of the pyramid, which appears behind the "bars" of the flag's stripes on the shield. Here we see the meaning could be interpreted as "adversity" or "hostility" to those who view or who value a pantheon (the exalted "feathers") above or over the monotheism (the eye).
On the right we see this image rotated around 180 degrees opposite. The eagle's genital region (or, more appropriately, it's muladhara chakra) is associated with the eye in the pyramid, with "E Pluribus Unum" reading left to right and "Novus Ordo Seclorem" reading right to left above.
On the left we see the double eagle, one right-side up and one upside-down imposed on one another. On the right we see the double-pyramid, likewsie oriented and superimposed over top of itself. I will make no comment on these arrangements at this time but to say that, to my eye, the double-eagle seems indicative of the "angel with the flaming sword" that guards against re-entry to "Eden," and that, similarly. The double-pyramid has particularly precise horizontally relative geometry, and opposes nicely with the seeming "chaos" of the eagle's vertical axis-line of symmetry. It is also reminiscent, to me, of the geometry of the swastika, however I will not comment on that anymore at this time.
Instead, let me begin to describe something that is far more advanced than the mere symbolisms implied by overlapping the twin sides of the Great Seal. Let us look at what the Free Masons, the admitted designers of the Great Seal, valued themselves in their conception of its design. Let us now look at sacred geometry.
Let's begin by applying sacred geometry to the measurements and ratios of one small portion of the Great Seal, but argueably the one that commands the most attention in the design overall: the eye in the triangle atop the pyramid with "no capstone." Most, wrongly, believe the eye in the triangle itself is the capstone of the pyramid, restored in the Masonic utopia, America, called by Francis Bacon the "New Atlantis."
The eye in the triangle is not, however, in perfect alignment with the shape of the pyramid. It cannot therefore be called its "capstone" because it is not an exact match for the top of the pyramid. In point of fact, the "eye in the triangle" is meant to represent a tetrahedron, that is, a four-sided shape formed of triangles, and this would mean the tetrahedron's base, a triangle, would not align with the square area at the top of the four triangular sided, plus square based, pyramid. We can, therefore, safely say the "eye in the triangle," ie. the tetrahedron, represents not the "original" capstone of the pyramid, but the capstone of the pyramid "restored," ie. changed from a fractal pyramid to the shape of a tetrahedron.
So, let us begin by studying the geometric proportions and ratios surrounding the "eye in the triangle," a symbol, like the Masonic "G" between the square and compass, of God. All the straight black lines I have added to this diagram myself, however these are only measures of ratios already represented in the drawing itself. I am not going to add any labels for the lines nor cite degrees per angle. All of this should be apparent to the trained geometre.
I would only like to call the attention to how the pupil of the eye occurs divided along a group of three, as indicated in the art by the three peculiar, concentric rings forming the iris. This division into thirds is indicative of the "Golden Ratio" (signified by phi). Also, a less obvious example of the "Golden Ratio" occurs in the form of the thirty-six degree angle implied at the triangle's apex by the side of the "pyramid" below, that is, the shadow in the lower left corner of the above clipping. The thirty-six degree angle is also indicative of Phi, the "Golden Porportion."
While the 1:3 ratio builds a rectangular fractal upon which the Phi spiral can be drawn, the 36 degree angle builds a triangular fractal upon which the Phi spiral can be drawn. First let me show you how the rectangular (or rectalinear) fractal shape occurs in the drawing. Then I will show you how the trangular aspect yields the Phi spiral upon the picture itself.
First, this is the rectangular portion of the above figure containing the 1:33 "pupil" ratio around the "eye in the triangle" (depicted as the three concentric circles of the iris by the original artist of this picture). Anyone familiar with the divisions of the "Golden Porportion" will immediately recognise this design.
Here we see across the base (heigth become length) between the apex of the "restored" capstone triangle and the flat, square top surface of the pyramid, truncated below its "lost" capstone. The apex, the "base" of the ("restored" capstone) triangle, and the upper base of the ("lost" capstone) pyramid form three equal parts. Each of the three portions is a "Golden Rectangle," however only the one in the middle has been divided down into its constituent porportions by which one can more easily recognise this famous design.
Also, as anyone familiar with the "Golden Porportion" can tell you, its most famous shape is as a spiral, the shape of a Nautillus shell. Using this pattern, next I will break the Great Seal's "eye in the triangle" design down into "Golden" spiral components, shaped like the Nautillus shell.
The shape I'm going to be usign to represent the "Nautillus shell" is actually the combination of the triangular Phi and rectalinear "Pi" spirals, and I discuss it more thouroughly on my basic introductions page here: http://www.benpadiah.com/basic_intro.html#PhiOverPi.
This depiction shows the "Nautillus shell" spiralling "left" from "above."
This depiction shows the "Nautillus shell" spiralling "right" from "below."
This depiction combines the previous two positions of the "Nautillus shell."
Of course, with all of these, the point is not necessarily to shed "new light" on the "eye in the triangle" depiction itself, but only to reveal certain accurate exactitudes of the geometric measurements it was based upon. Conside, especially in the last picture, the number of exact alignments there are between the original black lines and the blue rectangular- and green triangular-mounted red spirals.
The reason we are not seeing any particular interesting overlaps in the picture of the "eye in the triangle" itself yet, such as we will examine next, is because of the positioning of the twin Nautillus shells along a vertical axis, with their loci above and below the eye motif itself.
In fact, there are two placements for the twin Nautillus spirals implied within the geometry of the motif. The first, as we've already seen, is the double-loci above and below the eye itself. The second are the "twin" Nautillus shells overlapping each other, sharing one single locus at their mutual central point. If we take this second geometry shape, and place it directly above the centre of the eye, as the geometry of the depiction implies, then we can measure in even greater complexity and detail the same geometric ratios and porportions evident in the double-loci scale, only now, on the much smaller scale of the single locus. The result is this depiction of the "eye" very close up.
-benpadiah
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