Now, with this comes the "secrecy" of the fraternity. What started as the "secrets of building" came into the "secrets of money" and the "secrets of influence." Just how much did they control? Who did they know? What did they do? Their legend grew.
The Masons ARE NOT evil. They are not Satanists, they are not "warlocks" or members of the Occult. But the mystery surrounding them causes us to believe that.
The Masons are all about symbol, ritual, intelligence and inspiration. Therefore, when building Washington (Masons built the U.S. Capitol Building and the Washington Memorial just for starters. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Benjamin Franklin were known Masons...) they left "secrets" of their glory. Lets examine.
This is Pierre L'Enfant's original map of Washington, D.C. before it was built. He was the original architect of D.C.:
Now, let's have some fun with this map.
- You have this map on the back of your National Mall map. You can also click on the image above to see it larger.
- The original "city" designed by L'Enfant is a geometric work of genius! It's perfectly proportional, intricately laid out, and designed for beauty. Pennsylvania Avenue was designed so that the president, who originally lived in a house other than the White House, could directly see the Capitol Building, thus keeping watch over his government members at work.
- Now, conspiracy theorists and lovers of deception have laid claim that there is a pentagram in the design of Washington. Let's locate the White House on the map.
- This map faces NORTH. Now, can you find the 5-sided pentagram? A pentagram looks like this:
- It's like a star, but the point is on the BOTTOM, not the TOP. Can you find it, NORTH of the White House? (HINT: The "points" of the star are street intersections...)
- Now...try your best. After you've given it your best shot, see if this helps. Look for the "dots". But don't scroll down until you've tried to find it!!!
DON'T CHEAT YET!! :-)
- Your completed "pentagram" should look like this:
- Now, the "pentagram" is NOT a Satanic symbol, although certain cults have adopted it as such. In fact, the first mention of pentagrams being "evil" appeared in Eliphas Levi's book, Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, published in 1855, 60 years after L'Enfant's design. The pentagram is NOT necessarily associated with Masons, although it does appear most commonly in the early 1800s as instruction for geometry. The symbol was used as far back as the Ancient Greeks and Sumerians, prized for its sense of "infinity", "wholeness", and even "motherhood" qualities. Makes sense that the Founding Fathers might (again, might) have planned it this way, huh? Are there any more shapes? Let's see...
- Take the southernmost tip of the star. Follow it down, southeast along that main road, until it dead-ends in front of the Capitol Building, shown below:
- Your map should now look like this:
- Now, draw another line, right at the Capitol Building connecting point, south and west down that rode, almost down at a 45 degree angle. The line should dead-end in the Potomac River.
- Do you see something "interesting" at the top of that new pyramid? What is it?
- If you were to continue to overlay symbols on the already-established road system, it would look like this:
- What does this symbol look like? (HINT: It's a tool you might use in math class...)
- Now, examine the symbol below. Now, THIS is the real symbol of the Freemasons. The "G" either stands for "God" or "geometry", depending on the source.
- Looks a lot like the symbol laid over the roads on the map, huh? Especially when you look at the map on its side. So, it's more common that the Masons left this symbol on purpose, instead of the "pentagram".