(Courtesy of Robert A. Barnhart, K.Y.C.H. L.E.O. of Temperance Lodge 73)

It's hard to know what leads some to see Masonic conspiracies behind world events, but once the 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 misinterpretation, and some Masons are as guilty of the exageration as many non- Masons.

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 The Eye of the Pyramid

By: S. Brent Morris, PM 

In, at times, a strongly worded article Dr. S. 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 the 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 well-known "facts". George Washington chopped down a cherry tree when a boy and confessed to his father. Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball. Freemasons inserted some of their emblems (chief amonf them the eye in the pyramid) into the reverse of the Great Seal of the Inited States. These historic "facts" are widely popular, commonly accepted, and equally false. 

On Independence Day 1776, the first of three committees created to design a seal for the new Ameican nation was appointed by Congress. The committee members were Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams with Pierre Du Simitiere as artist and consultant who by the way was non-Mason.

Du Simitiere contributed several major design features that made their way into the seal: the shield; E Pluribus Unum; MDCCLXXVI and the Eye of Providence in a triangle. "The single eye was a well-established artistic convention for an 'omniscient, Ubiquitous Deity' in the medallic art of the Renaissance." Du Simitierre was familiar with the artistic and ornamental devices used in Renaissance art.

Congress declined the first committee's suggestions as well as those of a second committee appointed in 1780. Francis Hopkinson, consultant to the 1780 committee had several ideas that made it into the seal: "white and red stripes in a blue background for the shield; a radiant constellation of thirteen stars and an olive branch." Hopkinson's layout of a 1778 50-dollar colonial note in which he used an unfinished pyramid was borrowed by the 1782 committee members Charles Thompson, then Secretary of Congress and William Barton, artist and consultant. Their sketches were used in what at length became the United States Seal.

Despite what non-Masons may believe, there's no reason to doubt the interpretation accepted by Congress. The Pyramid signifies Strength and Duration; the Eye over it & the Motto alude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favor of the American cause.There being only one Mason (Benjamin Franklin) on any of the design committees, the only possible Masonic design element among very many on the seal is the eye of providence, and the interpretation of its meaning by the designers is different from that used by Masons.

The first "official" use and definition of the all-seeing eye as a masonic symbol seems to have come in 1797 from Thomas Smith Webb - 14 years after Congress adopted the design for the seal. He explained the symbol: 

"And although our thoughts, words and actions may be hidden from the eyes of man, yet the 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, will reward us according to our merits".

The all-seeing eye thus appears to be a rather recent addition to Masonic sybolism, It is not found in any of the Gothis constitutions written from about 1390 to 1730. The eye-sometimes in a triangle; sometimes in clouds; but nearly always surrounded by glory- was a popular decorative device in the latter half of the 18th century. Its use as a design as a design element seems to have been an artistic representation of the omniscience of God rather that some generally accepted Masonic symbol.

As Masonic ritual and symbolism evolved during the 17th and 18th centuries, many of the symbols common to, and understood by, general society made their way into Masonic ceremonies. Masons 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 of God, but this happened toward the end of the eighteenth century, after Congress had adpoted 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.

(Exerps taken from the L.E.O. presentation to Temperance Lodge on January 5, 2012 by Robert A Barnhart K.Y.C.H.)