HOLIDAY AKA HIPHOP HEAD's blog: "freestyle"

For conspiracy theorists in particular (and also for those who like to see doggies and horsies in puffy cloud formations), it's a wonderful symbol on which to fixate: the Great Seal of the United States being part of some huge secret 'sign' that Freemasonry rules everything - and proven by the United States' one dollar bill. Curiously, it's a theory which is sometimes reinforced by naive Masons repeating an oft-heard (but totally erroneous) claim that Masons did, in fact, design the seal. Reality, however, is quite different. Only one person involved in the initial (not the ultimately approved) design was thought to be a Mason; the man who did the design (Hopkinson) - yet there is no proof whatsoever of his Masonic membership! The designing of a seal of the U.S. was first commissioned by the Continental Congress immediately after the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. A committee consisting of Benjamin Franklin (a Mason), John Adams (not a Mason), and Thomas Jefferson (not a Mason although sometimes erroneously identified as one) submitted a design that was deemed unacceptable, as were designs submitted by two succeeding committees. In 1782 (nearly six years later!) these designs were submitted to Charles Thomson, Secretary to the Continental Congress, (and NOT a Mason) who prepared a design which, with some alterations, was adopted by the congress on June 20, 1782. The United States Department of State has an excellent publication titled The Great Seal of the United States which you can download in Adobe PDF Format and print on your own printer. It's available right here (the second option down). There are also some specific items in the Great Seal that attract attention, specifically the eye in the pyramid. For more detailed information on that, please see our separate page here. Here's some additional, detailed information about the Seal, all of which is thanks to the research of Texas Mason Bill Maddox to whom this site's author is grateful for being a valued resource. In a book titled THE EAGLE AND THE SHIELD - A History of the Great Seal of the United States (1976), on Page 529: "Did Freemasonry Influence the Great Seal Design?" "Because membership records for the Revolutionary period are scattered and imperfect, it is not possible to ascertain with certainty which persons among the 14 who participated in the designing of the Great Seal were Masons and which were not. Conrad Hahn, Executive Secretary of the Masonic Service Association of the US has furnished the following: 1. Definitely a Mason: Bro. Ben Franklin. 2. Definitely not: John Adams and Charles Thomson. 3. No firm evidence of a Masonic connection, although allegations of such a connection have been noted: Jefferson, Lovell, Hopkinson, Middleton, Rutledge. (Masonicinfo note: Based on more current research, it is now accepted that Jefferson was not a Mason!) 4. No record at all, so presumably not Masons: Du Simitiere, Scott, Houston, Lee, Boudinot, and William Barton (although he has at times been confused with another William Barton who was a Mason). Although Washington was a Mason, he played no role in designing the Great Seal. And although Benjamin Franklin, a Mason and Past Grand Master of Pennsylvania, was a member of the first seal committee, his proposal (P14) had no influence on the final designs, and he was in France when those designs were drawn up. The only individual listed who has been said to be a Mason (with no firm evidence) is Hopkinson, whose pyramid design for the Continental currency's $50 bill clearly influenced the final reverse of the Great Seal. The pyramid, the eye, and the radiant triangle have often been considered to be of Masonic origin. Writers who are Masons have also seen Masonic symbolism in the eagle, in the number of feathers on the eagle's wings, etc. It should perhaps be noted that some of the details studied and interpreted by these writers are those of comparatively recent realizations of the Great Seal, details which are not stated in the blazon itself and are not to be found in the Great Seal die of 1782. Without questioning the fact that element of the Great Seal design are also to be found as Masonic symbols, one may question whether the designers of the seal intended it to be given a specifically Masonic interpretation. Since there is no evidence that either Thomson or Barton was a Mason, and as they were the two individuals responsible for the final design, the presumption would be that they did not intend their work to be given a Masonic interpretation. Were there sources other than Freemasonry from which symbols such as the all-seeing eye and the unfinished pyramid could have been taken? The answer is yes. Use of the eye in art forms, including medallic art, as a symbol for an omniscient and ubiquitous Deity was a well established artistic convention quite apart from Masonic symbolism, and DuSimitiere, an artist, would have been aware of this. As to the Pyramid, there was widespread interest in Egypt in the 18th century. There was a detailed work entitled Pyramidographia which would have been available to both Hopkinson and Barton. This work included a drawing of the "First Pyramid", which was stepped, did not come to a complete point, and had an entrance in the center on the ground level-a detail also in Hopkinson's design. While these points are not conclusive, it seems likely that the designers of the Great Seal and the Masons took their symbols from parallel sources, and unlikely that the seal designers consciously copied Masonic symbols with the intention of incorporating Masonic Symbolism into the national Coat of Arms." Further from the same book: Use of the motto "In God We Trust" - P518 From the House Committee on the Judiciary (3/28/1956) This joint resolution establishes "In God We Trust" as the national motto of the U.S. At present the U.S. has no national motto. It is most appropriate that "In God We Trust" be so designated.... Further recognition of this motto was given by the adoption of the Star-Spangled Banner as our national anthem. One stanza ... is as follows: "And this be our motto -- 'In God is our trust.'" On page 75 are Charles Thomson's notes on his design - A pyramid unfinished - In the Zenith an Eye in a triangle ... Over the Eye these words Annuit coeptis ... and underneath [the pyramid] these words Novus Ordo seclorum." The pyramid was taken from an earlier design of William Barton (shown on page 67) that had a different motto DEO FAVENTE (God favoring) PERENNIS (through the years). This, in turn, was similar to the design of a Fifty Dollar bill designed by Francis Hopkinson. Thomson wrote the following: "The pyramid signifies Strength and Duration: The Eye over it & Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause. The date underneath is that of the Declaration of Independce and the words under it signify the beginnings of the New American Era, which commences from that date." P85. P89. "The two mottoes which Thomson suggested, and Congress adapted, for the reverse ... can be traced more definitely to the poetry of Virgil. Gaillard Hunt, in the Department of States first publisher on the seal in 1892, took official notice .... Annuit Coeptis, was described by Hunt as an allusion to line 625 of book IX of the Aeneid JUPPITER OMNIPOTES, AUDACIBUS ANNUE COEPTIS (All-powerful Jupiter favor [my] daring undertakings). The last three words appear also in Virgil's GEORGICS, book I, line 40: DA FACILEM CURSUM, ATQUE AUDACIBUS ANNUE COEPTIS (Give [me] an easy course, and favor [my] daring undertakings). Thompson changed the imperative ANNUE to ANNUIT, the third person singular form of the same verb in either the present tense of the perfect tense. The the motto ANNUIT COEPTIS the subject of the verb must be supplied, and the translator must also choose the tense. In his 1892 brochure, Hunt suggested that the missing subject was in effect the eye at the apex of the pyramid ... and he translated the motto-in the present tense-as "it (the Eye of Providence) is favorable to our undertakings." In later publication the missing subject of the verb ANNUIT was construed to be God, and the motto has been translated in more recent Department publications - in the perfect tense - as "He (God) has favored our undertakings". P90. NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, Hunt noted an allusion to line 5 of Virgil's ECLOGUE IV, which read in an eighteenth-century edition : "MAGNUS AB INTEGRO SECLORUM NASITUR ORDO". Hunt translated this line as "The great series of ages begins anew" and translated the motto as "a new order of centuries." More recently, "a new order of the ages." P91. Hunt stated that the words ANNUIT COEPTIS NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM had "commonly been taken as one motto, meaning 'the new series of ages is favorable to our undertakings'", but he pointed out that it was evident from Thomson's comments that the "intention was to have two mottoes." Because of the use of "seals" in official documents, the Great Seal of the United States appears in many places. Needless to say, conspiracy theorists see this as part of a huge cabal to send secret signals. In their zeal, they totally disregard history and how seals have been used throughout the ages. This object of their fascination now appears on a wide variety of documents, including presidential proclamations, instruments of ratification of treaties, and the commissions of cabinet officers, ambassadors, and other foreign service officers. The U.S. presidential seal is similar to the Great Seal, but differs from it in the border inscription "The Seal of the President of the United States."

This "parchment document in Hebrew" has never existed! The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is a fraudulent document which served as a pretext and rationale for anti-Semitism and for anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic propaganda in the first half of the 20th century. It still does in Islamic and Christian extremist circles which keep reprinting and distributing it. It is, however, a 'codeword' for anti-Semitic behavior and action. Mention of "The Elders" and there is no other plausible explanation, save that of inciting ill-will and racist thoughts, words, and deeds. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion purports to be the transactions of a series of 24 (in other versions, 27) meetings held in Basel, Switzerland, at the time of the first Zionist congress (1897). At that meeting, Jews and Freemasons (the old Judeo-Masonic saw) were said to have made plans to disrupt Christian civilization and create a world government (yes, that old saw too!) under their joint rule. Liberalism and socialism were to be the means of subverting Christendom; if subversion failed, all the capitals of Europe were to be sabotaged. The so-called Protocols appeared for the very first time in Russia in 1903, in abbreviated form, as an article in the newspaper Znamia ("the Banner") and subsequently (1905) as an addendum to a religious tract by Serge Nilus, a Tsarist civil servant. They were translated into German, French, English, and other European languages and soon came to be a classic of anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic literature. In the United States, Henry Ford's private newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, often cited them as evidence of an alleged Jewish threat to the United States and the world. The spurious character of the Protocols was first revealed in 1921 by Philip Graves of The Times (London), who demonstrated their striking resemblance to a satire on Napoleon III by the French lawyer Maurice Joly, published in 1864 and entitled Dialogue aux Enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu ("Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu"). Subsequent investigation, particularly by the Russian historian Vladimir Burtsev, revealed that the Protocols were forgeries compounded by officials of the Russian secret police out of the satire of Joly, as well as out of a fantastic novel (Biarritz) by Hermann Goedsche (1868) and other sources.

Whenever conspiracy theory is spouted, the mysterious "Illuminati" (along with the Bilderburgers, The Trilateral Commission, the Council of Foreign Relations, and others) are most often named as being responsible. Ironically, however, while people can name those ostensibly belonging to the other conspiracy groups, the "Illuminati" is always left hanging as some secret, shadowy entity which no one can quite describe. Interestingly too, no one can quite identify what specific acts can be attributed to them - and no one in 225 years seems to have left the organization to reveal its secrets. Pretty strange..... (If you're not hearing the theme music for the X-Files right now, it's a CONSPIRACY!!!) It is well established that by the end of the eighteenth century, the Illuminati had been effectively disbanded. Because of Freemasonry's inadvertent involvement and misuse by its founder, Adam Weishaupt, the legends of its continued existence (and influence) persist into the twentieth century. In the 1950s and 1960s, members of the John Birch Society made much of this 'shadow' organization, using it as an effective substitute for their anti-Semitism. Perhaps some of the confusion regarding the organization is due to the fact that over time, the word illuminati came to be used more expansively for many enthusiasts of Enlightenment, including but not limited to the followers of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Nevertheless, the Illuminati's connection with Freemasonry was date-specific (the late 1700s) and place-specific (what is now Germany); it had NO involvement in Freemasonry elsewhere despite fanciful claims. Even the oft-mentioned 'Proofs of A Conspiracy' written in 1797 by a Scottish professor (and the root cause of so much furor in the United States as a result of one Boston Minister's fanciful claims) notes that the Illuminati's brand of Freemasonry was NOT the same Freemasonry as found in England and from which all other legitimate Masonic lodges today can trace their ancestry. We've found an excellent summary of the entire Illuminati Conspiracy theory. We've placed it here with permission of the site owner on which it was found. You'll find this interesting.... The Illuminati Freemason Conspiracy From Public Eye and Political Research Associates: The Freemasons began as members of craft guilds who united into lodges in England in the early 1700's. They stressed religious tolerance, the equality of their male peers, and the themes of classic liberalism and the Enlightenment. Today they are a worldwide fraternal order that still educates its members about philosophical ideas, and engages in harmless rituals, but also offers networking for business and political leaders, and carries out charitable activities. The idea of a widespread freemason conspiracy originated in the late 1700's and flourished in the US in the 1800's. Persons who embrace this theory often point to purported Masonic symbols such as the pyramid and the eye on the back of the dollar bill as evidence of the conspiracy. Allegations of a freemason conspiracy trace back to British author John Robison who wrote the 1798 book Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, collected from good authorities. Robison influenced French author Abbé Augustin Barruel, whose first two volumes of his eventual four volume study, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, beat Robison's book to the printer. Both Robison and Barruel discuss the attempt by Bavarian intellectual Adam Weishaupt to spread the ideas of the Enlightenment through his secretive society, the Order of the Illuminati. Weishaupt was appointed a professor at the University of Ingolstadt in Germany around 1772 and elevated to the post of professor of Canon Law in 1773 or 1775 (sources conflict), the first secularist to hold that position previously held by clergy. Weishaupt began planning a group to challenge authoritarian Catholic actions in 1775, the group (under a different name) was announced on May 1, 1776. This group evolved into the Illuminati. The Enlightenment rationalist ideas of the Illuminati were, in fact, brought into Masonic lodges where they played a role in a factional fight against occultist philosophy. The Illuminati was suppressed in a series of edicts between 1784 and 1787, and Weishaupt himself was banished in 1785. Weishaupt, his Illuminati society, the Freemasons, and other secret societies are portrayed by Robison and Barruel as bent on despotic world domination through a secret conspiracy using front groups to spread their influence. Barruel claimed the conspirators "had sworn hatred to the altar and the throne, had sworn to crush the God of the Christians, and utterly to extirpate the Kings of the Earth." For Barruel the grand plot hinges on how Illuminati "adepts of revolutionary Equality and Liberty had buried themselves in the Lodges of Masonry" where they caused the French revolution, and then ordered "all the adepts in their public prints to cry up the revolution and its principles." Soon, every nation had its "apostle of Equality, Liberty, and Sovereignty of the People." Robison, a professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, argued that the Illuminati evolved out of Freemasonry, and called the Illuminati philosophy "Cosmo-politism." According to Robison: "Their first and immediate aim is to get the possession of riches, power, and influence, without industry; and, to accomplish this, they want to abolish Christianity; and then dissolute manners and universal profligacy will procure them the adherents of all the wicked, and enable them to overturn all the civil governments of Europe; after which they will think of farther conquests, and extend their operations to the other quarters of the globe, till they have reduced mankind to the state of one indistinguishable chaotic mass." Robert Alan Goldberg, in his book Enemies Within, summarizes the basic themes of the books by Barruel and Robison: "Writing in the aftermath of the French Revolution, these monarchists had created a counterhistory in defense of the aristocracy. Winning the hearts and minds of present and future readers would assuage some of the pain of recent defeat and mobilize defenses. The Revolution, they argued, was not rooted in poverty and despotism. Rather than a rising of the masses, it was the work of Adam Weishaupt’s Illuminati, a secret society that plotted to destroy all civil and religious authority and abolish marriage, the family, and private property. It was the Illuminati who schemed to turn contented peasants 'from Religion to Atheism, from decency to dissoluteness, from loyalty to rebellion.' " The major immediate political effect of allegations of an Illuminati Freemason conspiracy in Europe was to mobilize support for national oligarchies traditionally supported by the Catholic Church hierarchy. Across Europe authoritarian governing elites were coming under attack by reformist and revolutionary movements demanding increased political rights under secular laws. The ideas of the Enlightenment were incorporated by the leaders of both the French and American revolutions, and in a sense, these Enlightenment notions were indeed subversive to the established social order, although they were hardly a secret conspiracy. The special status of the Catholic Church in European nation-states was actually threatened by the ideas being discussed by the Illuminati and the rationalist wing of the Freemasons. Several common conspiracist themes emerge from these two books. The Enlightenment themes of equality and liberty are designed to destroy respect for property and the natural social hierarchy. Orthodox Christianity is to be destroyed and replaced with universalism, deism...or worse. Persons with a cosmopolitan outlook--encouraging free-thinking and international cooperation--are to be suspect as disloyal subversive traitors out to undermine national sovereignty and promote anarchy. Shortly after the Barruel book was published, conspiracy theories about the Illuminati Freemasons were mixed with antisemitism in Europe. This confluence took place much later in the US.