“This video will create chaos” (438). In The Lost Symbol the threat to the Republic is that certain policymakers in Washington will be identified as Masons and their participation in potentially embarrassing Masonic rituals will be made public. Moreover a video documenting secret Masonic rituals will be in the public domain. This is cause for the CIA to engage in a massive cover-up! The italicized fictional list is impressive: Two Supreme Court Justices … The secretary of defense … The speaker of the House … Three prominent senators … including the majority leader … The secretary of homeland security … And … The director of the CIA.” (436). Original capitalization notwithstanding, this grouping is noteworthy. But how powerful and omnipresent are Freemasons today?
Fourteen of forty-four U.S. Presidents have been Masons: George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Knox Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, and Gerald R. Ford, Jr. As many as forty of just over one hundred Supreme Court Justices were Masons, but none of the sitting Justices has been identified as a Freemason. There are no doubt senators, representatives, cabinet officials and governors who are Masons, but I have found no exhaustive list.
Unquestionably the Masons have participated, and continue to participate, in public service, even as there were countless Masons involved with the architecture and planning of D.C. The ritual laying of cornerstones of historical buildings and monuments also attracted Masons—from the White House and the Capitol to the Washington Monument, The Jefferson Memorial, and the House of the Temple. Even non-Masons have used a Masonic Bible in their inaugurations, including George H.W. Bush.
One frequently cited example of Masonic influence is the Great Seal on the U.S. one dollar bill approved by Franklin (Ben Franklin again?) D. Roosevelt in 1935, although the phrase “In God we trust.” on all bills and currency not until 1955. Dan Brown does the parlor trick of revealing the letters MASON in the Great Seal on our one-dollar bill and provides a commentary on the unfinished pyramid. The topic is also mentioned in Angels & Demons. But dozens of others have written about his, including Manly P. Hall and David Ovason.
Inoue Sato (shades of Senator Dan Inouye of Hawaii) succeeds in protecting the Masonic secrets. But most Americans might be surprised to learn that Buzz Aldrin, who brought back a moonrock for the National Cathedral, also presented a flag that flew on the moon to the House of the Temple. The House of the Temple also at one time exhibited a re-creation of the office of J. Edgar Hoover, complete with his desk, carpet, and Masonic Bible. Hoover, now largely forgotten, was one of the most powerful Washingtonian figures of the twentieth century as Director of the FBI from 1933 until his death in 1970.
Pyramid with all-seeing eye on one-dollar bill
Conspiracy theorists will always find coincidences to support their claims. But their creation of fiction from simple facts rivals the writing of Dan Brown himself.
FAMOUS MASONS
www.calodges.org/no406/FAMASONS.HTM
“IN SEARCH OF THE HILL’S FREEMASONS”
www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27639.html
HOW THE GREAT SEAL GOT ON THE DOLLAR BILL
www.greatseal.com/dollar/hawfdr.html
