THE SYMBOLS OF THE GREAT SEAL OF THE U.S.

Is the American eagle actually a Phoenix ?  Selection of the fabulous bird
of the ancients seems to have been the intention of the designer of our nation's Great Seal.
The Phoenix is the symbol of the Reborn in wisdom. ... The design
on the reverse of the Great Seal is even more definitely related to the Order of the Quest.
The pyramid and the all-seeing eye represent the Universal House surmounted by the radiant
emblem of the Great Architect of the Universe .... These three symbols in combination is more than chance or coincidence.

WHEN the time came to select an appropriate emblem for the great seal of the United States of America, several designs were submitted.  These are described by Gaillard Hunt, in The History of the Seal of the United States, published in Washington, D.C., in 1909.  Most of the designs originally submitted had the Phoenix bird on its nest of flames as the central motif.  One of the designs now familiar to us was finally selected, and Benjamin Franklin was asked for his opinion of the choice.

Franklin gave his immediate approval, observing naively that it was very appropriate to select the wild turkey as the symbol of the new country:  The turkey was a bird of admirable quality, hard working and industrious, and of good moral character, and a fowl also with a marked adversion for the color red, at that time unpopular among the colonists.

When it was explained to Franklin that the bird on the seal was intended to represent an eagle he was bitterly disappointed;  and he insisted that the drawing did not look like an eagle to him, and furthermore, an eagle was a bird of prey with few of the respectable qualities of the wild turkey.

It has been said that the designer had drawn a Phoenix.  Its selection would of course have been appropriate.

Among the ancients a fabulous bird called the Phoenix is described by early writers such as Clement, Herodotus, and Pliny;  in size and shape it resembled the eagle, but with certain differences.  The body of the Phoenix is one covered with glossy purple feathers, and the plumes in its tail are alternately blue and red.  The head of the bird is light in color, and about its neck is a circlet of golden plumage.  At the back of its head the Phoenix has a crest of feathers of brilliant color.  Only one of these birds was supposed to live at a time, with its home in the distant parts of Arabia, in a nest of frankincense and myrrh.  The Phoenix, it was said, lives for 500 years, and at its death its body opens and the new born Phoenix emerges.  Because of this symbolism, the Phoenix is generally regarded as representing immortality and resurrection.

All symbols have their origin in something tangible, and the Phoenix is one sign of the secret orders of the ancient world and of the initiate of those orders, for it was common to refer to one who had been accepted into the temples as a man twice-born, or re-born.  Wisdom confers a new life, and those who become wise are born again.

The Phoenix symbol is important in another way, as an emblem among nearly all civilized na tions of royalty, power, superiority, and immor tality.  The Phoenix of China is identical in meaning with the Phoenix of Egypt;  and the Phoenix of the Greeks is the same as the Thunder Bird of the American Indians.

In the accompanying drawing, the head of the bird as it appeared on the great seal of 1782 is compared with the present form.  It is immediately evident that the bird on the original seal is not an eagle, nor even a wild turkey as Franklin had hoped, but the Phoenix, the ancient symbol of human aspiration toward Universal good.  The beak is of a different shape, the neck is much longer, and the small tuft of hair at the back of the head leaves no doubt as to the artist's intention.

But if this design on the obverse side of the seal is stamped with the signature of the Order of the Quest, the design on the reverse is even more definitely related to the old Mysteries.

Here is represented the great pyramid of Gizah, composed of 13 rows of masonry, showing 72 stones.  The pyramid is without a cap stone, and above its upper platform floats a triangle containing the All-Seeing Eye surrounded by rays of light.

This design was not pleasing to Professor Charles Eliot Norton, of Harvard;  he summed up his displeasure in the following words.  "The device adopted by Congress is practically incapable of effective treatment;  it can hardly (however artistically treated by the designer) look otherwise than as a dull emblem of a Masonic Fraternity."  The quotation is from The History of the Seal of the United States.

If incapable of artistic treatment, the great seal is susceptible of profound interpretation.  The Pyramid of Gizah was believed by the ancient Egyptians to be the shrine tomb of the god Hermes, or Thot, the personification of Universal Wisdom.

No trace has ever been found of the cap of the great pyramid.  A flat platform about thirty feet square gives no indication that this part of the structure was ever otherwise finished;  and this is appropriate, as the Pyramid represents human society itself, imperfect and incomplete.  The structure's ascending converging angles and faces represent the common aspiration of humankind;  above floats the symbol of the esoteric orders, the radiant triangle with its all-seeing eye.  The triangle itself is in the shape of the Greek letter D, the Delta, the first letter of the name of God--the divine part of nature completing the works of men.

The 72 stones are the 72 arrangements of the Tetragrammaton, or the four-lettered name of God, in Hebrew.  These four letters can be combined in 72 combinations, resulting in what is called the Shemhamforesh, which represents, in turn, the laws, powers, and energies of Nature by which the perfection of man is achieved.

The Pyramid then is the Universal house, and above its unfinished apex is the radiant emblem of the Great Architect of the Universe.

There is a legend that in the lost Atlantis stood a great university in which originated most of the arts and sciences of the present race.  The University was in the form of an immense pyramid with many galleries and corridors, and on the top was an observatory for the study of the stars.  This temple to the sciences in the old Atlantis is shadowed forth in the seal of the new Atlantis.  Was it the society of the unknown philosophers who scaled the new nation with the eternal emblems, that all the nations might know the purpose for which the new country had been founded ?

The obverse of the great seal has been used by the Department of State since 1782, but the reverse was not cut at that time because it was regarded as a symbol of a secret society and not the proper device for a sovereign State.  Quite rare are discoveries of the use of this symbol in any important form until recent years.  Most American citizens learned for the first time what was the design on the reverse of their seal when it appeared on the dollar bill, series of 1935A.

So far as anyone may know, the use of the seal in 1935 was probably without premeditation or special implication.  But it is interesting that its appearance should coincide with great changes affecting democracy in all parts of the world.  As early as 1935 the long shadows of a world tyranny had extended themselves across the surface of the globe.  Democracy was on the threshold of its most severe testing.  The rights of man, that Thomas Paine defended, were being assailed on every hand by selfishness, ambition, and tyranny.  Then on the common medium of our currency appeared the eternal emblem of our purpose.

The combination of the Phoenix, the pyramid, and the all-seeing eye is more than chance or coincidence.  There is nothing about the early struggles of the colonists to suggest such a selection to farmers, shopkeepers, and country gentlemen.  There is only one possible origin for these symbols, and that is the secret societies which came to this country 150 years before the Revolutionary War.  Most of the patriots who achieved American independence belonged to these societies, and derived their inspiration, courage, and high purpose from the ancient teaching.  There can be no question that the great seal was directly inspired by these orders of the human Quest, and that it set forth the purpose far this nation as that purpose was seen and known to the Founding Fathers.

The monogram of the new Atlantis reveals this continent as set apart for the accomplishment of the great work--here is to arise the pyramid of human aspiration, the school of the secret sciences.  Over this nation rules the supreme king, the Ever Living God.  This nation is dedicated to the fulfillment of the Divine Will.  To the degree that men realize this, and dedicate themselves and their works to this purpose, their land will flourish. 

To depart from the symbol of this high destiny is to be false to the great trust given as a priceless inheritance.

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19.  THE PROPHETIC DREAM OF GENERAL MC CLELLAN
In a dark hour of military apprehension the General of the Union forces was visited by a vision
in a dream.  A voice spoke and a map came alive with troop movements
as the enemy forces moved into the very positions he had intended to occupy.
The voice told him that he had been betrayed;  he raised his eyes and looked into the face
of George Washington ... When McClellan awoke his map was covered with marks
and signs and figures, indicating the strategy that prevented the capture of the nation's Capitol.
... Also included in the dream was the warning of the Father of Our Country
that we would wage still another struggle for existence "ere another century shall have gone by" against the "oppressors of the whole earth."

THE vision of Constantine changed the course of the Roman Empire.  The visions of Joan of Arc preserved France in an hour of darkest need.  And the vision that came to General McClellan was a powerful force in preserving the Union of the American people.

The story of General McClellan's dream, preserved in the General's own words, seems to have appeared in print for the first time in the Portland (Maine),Evening Courier, of March 8, 1862.  Had the story not been true, it is almost certain that McClellan himself would have made some statement of disproval or demanded a retraction.

General McClellan's career as a soldier was not exceptionally brilliant;  he was a good organizer, but made many enemies because of certain fixations of temperament;  but there can be no question of his sincerity and his dedication to the cause of the Union.  In the interests of brevity here we will give a digest of parts of the story of the dream, with the General's own words preserved in the more significant passages.

At two o'clock of the third night after General McClellan's arrival at Washington, D.C., to take command of the United States Army, he was working over his maps and studying the reports of scouts.  A feeling of intense weariness came over him, and leaning his forehead on his folded arm he fell asleep at his table.  He had not been sleeping more than ten minutes when it seemed that the locked door of his room was suddenly thrown open, and someone strode up to him and in a voice terrible with power spoke:  "General McClellan, do you sleep at your post ?  Rouse you, or ere it can be prevented, the foe will be in Washington."

The General then describes in some detail his strange feeling.  At the moment he seemed to be suspended in the center of infinite space, and the voice came from a hollow distance all about him.  He started up, but whether he was really awake he was never able to decide.  The table covered with maps was still before him, but the furniture, the walls of the room, and other familiar objects were no longer visible.  Instead, he was gazing upon a living map including the entire area of the country from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic ocean.

McClellan tried to see the features of the being that stood with him, but could discern nothing but a vapor having the general outline of a man.

As he looked upon the great map, McClellan was amazed to see the movements of the various troops and regiments, and a complete pattern of the enemy's lines and distribution of forces.  The General was immediately infused with a great elation, for he felt that the movements on this extraordinary map would enable him to bring the war to a speedy and victorious termination.

Then his elation changed to great apprehension, he saw the enemy's forces moving to certain points which he himself had intended to occupy within the next few days.  He quietly realized that in some way his plans were known to the enemy.

Then again the voice spoke.  "General McClellan, you have been betrayed.  And had God not willed otherwise, ere the sun of tomorrow had set the Confederate flag would have waved above the Capitol and your own grave.  But note what you see.  Your time is short."

His pencil moving with the speed of thought, McClellan transferred the troop positions from the living map to the paper map on his desk.  When this had been done, McClellan became aware that the figure standing near him had increased in light and glory until it shone like the noonday sun.  And as he raised his eyes he looked into the face of George Washington.

The first President with sublime and gentle dignity looked upon the bewildered officer, and spoke as follows:  "General McClellan, while yet in the flesh I beheld the birth of the American Republic.  It was indeed a hard and bloody one, but God's blessing was upon the nation and, therefore, through this, her first great struggle for existence, He sustained her and with His mighty hand brought her out triumphantly.  A century has not passed since then, and yet the child Republic has taken her position of peer with nations whose pages of history extend for ages into the past.  She has, since those dark days, by the favor of God, greatly prospered.  And now, by very reason of this prosperity, has she been brought to her second great struggle.  This is by far the most perilous ordeal she has to endure;  passing as she is from childhood to opening maturity, she is called on to accomplish that vast result, self-conquest;  to learn that important lesson, self-control, self rule, that in the future will place her in the van of power and civilization ...

"But her mission will not then be finished;  for ere another century shall have gone by, the oppressors of the whole earth, hating and envying her exaltation, shall join themselves together and raise up their hands against her.  But if she still be found worthy of her high calling they shall surely be discomfited, and then will be ended her third and last great struggle for existence.  Thenceforth shall the Republic go on, increasing in power and goodness, until her borders shall end only in the remotest corners of the earth, and the whole earth shall beneath her shadowing wing become a Universal Republic.  Let her in her prosperity, however, remember the Lord her God, her trust be always in Him, and she shall never be confounded."

As the spirit visitor ceased speaking he raised his hand over McClellan's head in blessing, and the next instant a peal of thunder rumbled through space.  McClellan woke with a start.  He was again in his room with his maps spread out on the table before him.

But there was one difference;  the maps were covered with the marks, signs, and figures which he had inscribed there during the vision.

McClellan walked about the room to convince himself that he was really awake.  He then returned and looked at the maps.  The markings were still there.

Convinced now that the experience was heaven sent, McClellan had his horse saddled and rode from camp to camp making the necessary changes in his strategy to meet the enemy's planned offensive.

His moves were successful, and he prevented the capture of the city of Washington.  At that time the Confederate Army was so close that Abraham Lincoln, sitting in his study at the White House, could hear the rumble of the Confederate artillery.

General McClellan concludes his account of the strange vision that saved the Union with these words:  "Our beloved, glorious Washington shall again rest quietly, sweetly in his tomb, until perhaps the end of the Prophetic Century approaches that is to bring the Republic to a third and final struggle, when he may once more, laying aside the crements of Mount Vernon, became a Messenger of Succor and Peace from the Great Ruler, who has all the Nations of the Earth in his keeping.

"But the future is too vast for our comprehension;  we are the children of the present.  When peace shall again have folded her bright wings and settled upon our land, the strange, unearthly map marked while the Spirit eyes of Washington looked down, shall be preserved among American archives, as a precious reminder to the American nation of what in their second great struggle for existence, they owe to God and the Glorified Spirit of Washington.  Verily the works of God are above the understanding of man !"

It is not difficult to understand how a man who has been granted so strange an experience should come to realize that a secret destiny is overshadowing the country for which he fought.

The prophetic import contained in the vision is now apparent, and as the entire account was published in 1862 there can be no doubt that we are in the presence of a genuine example of foreknowledge.  It is now 80 years since Washington appeared to General McClellan, and within the century the powers of the earth have risen to destroy the concept of world democracy.  America is in the vanguard of the democratic nations, seeking to preserve its heritage from the encroachments of totalitarian powers.  Already it is obvious that in the postwar period of reconstruction America must become a leader of nations in the establishment of a commonwealth of peoples.  The purpose for which we are created is revealing itself through the long processes of time, and that purpose is indeed our most sacred heritage.

It is written in the old books that when the brothers of the Quest desire to bring about changes in the mortal state they send messengers and strange dreams and mystic visions and, accomplish their purpose by revealing their will to the leaders of nations in sundry and curious ways.  Whether we wish to believe that the spirits of the dead return to guide the living, or whether we choose to accept that man possesses faculties and powers which under great stress may bring his consciousness a little nearer to Universal Truth, one thing is certain:  Men unaccustomed to the spiritual ways of life have received visions, and have heard voices, and by obeying these mysterious powers they have contributed to the progress and security of their fellow men.

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20.  THE END OF THE QUEST
In America shall be erected a shrine to Universal Truth, as here arises the global
democratic Commonwealth--the true wealth of all mankind, which is designed
in the foundation that men shall abide together in peace and shall devote
their energies to the common cause of discovery. ... The power of man lies in his dreams,
his visions, and his ideals.  This has been the common vision of man's necessity
in the secret empire of the Brotherhood of the Quest, consecrated
to fulfilling the destiny for which we in America were brought into being.
Religion, science, and philosophy are the three parts of essential learning.  A government based upon one or even two of these parts must ultimately degenerate into a tyranny, either of men or opinion.  These three realize the unity of knowledge;  they are the orders of the Quest
 

PHILOSOPHY teaches that the completion of the great work of social regeneration must be accomplished not in society but in man himself.

The democratic commonwealth can never be legislated into existence.  Nor can it result from formal treaties or conferences.  This is clearly indicated in the tragedy of the League of Nations.  The League failed to prevent war because the nations which composed the League lacked the courage of high conviction;  they failed the very institution which they themselves had established.

Permanent progress results from education, and not from legislation.  The true purpose of education is to inform the mind in basic truths concerning conduct and the consequences of conduct.  Education is not merely the fitting of the individual for the problems of economic survival.  This is only the lesser part of learning.

The greater part deals with the intangibles of right motivation and right use.  No human being who is moved to action through wrong motivations, or misuses the privileges of his times, can be regarded as educated, regardless of the amount of formal schooling he has received.

The human mind is established in knowledge not alone by the reading of books or the study of arts and sciences, but by the examples set up by leaders and the personal experiences of living.  According to the Baconian system, there are three sources of learning.  The first is tradition, which may be derived from books.  The second is observation, by which we learn from the actions of each other.  And the third is by experimentation, which is a study of causes and consequences brought about by personal conduct.

The supreme human purpose is the perfection of man.  This must come first, and when this end has been achieved all good things will inevitably follow.

Only enlightened men can sustain enlightened leadership;  only the wise can recognize and reward wisdom.

In a democratic way of life the very survival of the State depends upon the intelligent cooperation of its people.  Where men make their own laws, they must live according to the merits and demerits of the statutes which they have framed.

The Greek law giver, Solon, declared that in the ideal State laws are few and simple, because they have been derived from certainties.  In the corrupt State, laws are many and confused, because they have been derived from uncertainties.  These corrupt laws are like the web of a spider which catches small insects but permits the stronger creatures to break through and escape.

Where there are many laws there is much lawlessness, and men come to despise and ridicule the restraints that are imposed upon freedom of action.  Corrupt laws, resulting from efforts to amend inadequate legislation by further inadequate legislation, reveal a general ignorance of right and wrong.  Where such ignorance exists the ideal function of democracy is impossible, and liberty degenerates into license.

The half-truth is the most dangerous form of lie, because it can be defended in part by incontestable logic.  Wherever the body of learning is broken up, the fragments become partial truths.  We live in a day of partial truths;  and until we remedy the condition we must suffer the inevitable consequences of division.

According to the Ancients, religion, philosophy, and science are the three parts of essential learning.  Not one of these parts is capable if separated from the rest, of assuring the security of the human state.  A government based upon one or even two of these parts must ultimately degenerate into a tyranny, either of men or of opinion.

Religion is the spiritual part of learning, philosophy the mental part, and the sciences, including the arts and crafts, the physical part.  As man himself has a spiritual, mental, and physical nature, and all of these natures manifest in his daily living, he must become equally informed in all the parts of his nature if he is to be self-governing.  "Unbalanced forces perish in the void," declared a prophet of old;  and this is true beyond possibility of dispute.

The Platonic commonwealth had as its true foundation the unity of learning.  In the midst of the philosophic empire stands the school of the three-fold truth.  Religion is the quest of truth by means of the mystical powers latent in the consciousness of man.  Philosophy is the quest for truth by the extension of the intellectual powers toward the substance of reality.  Science is the quest for truth by the study of the anatomy and the physiology of the body of truth, as it is revealed in the material creation.

These three, then, are the orders of the Quest.  Together they can bring about the perfection of man through the discovery of the Plan for man.

One of the great secrets of antiquity was this realization of the unity of knowledge and the identity of the Quest in all the branches of learning.  The great philosophers of the past were truly great because they approached the problem of life as priest-philosopher-scientist.  The title "The Wise" is properly applied only to those in whose consciousness the unity of knowledge has been established as the pattern of the Quest.

It was part of the ancient plan that has descended to us to build again the ideal university--the college of the six days work.  Here would be taught the same arts and sciences that we teach today, but from a different basic premise.  Here men would learn that the sciences are as sacred as the theologies, and the philosophies are as practical as the crafts and trades.  Those mystical extra-sensory perceptions viewed with suspicion by the materialist would then be developed according to the disciplines of the sciences, and all learning would be consecrated to the supreme end that men become as the gods, knowing good and evil.

This university is the beginning of democratic empire.  No longer would it be a secret school--the House of the Unknown Philosophers.  It would emerge from the clouds which have concealed it from the profane for thousands of years and take its rightful place as the center and fountain-head of the Ever Living Good.

When humanity willfully ignores the Universal laws which govern its destiny, Nature has devious ways of pressing home its lessons.  Civilization after civilization has been built up by human courage and destroyed by human ignorance.  We stand again on the threshold of a great decision.  Once more the workings of time have revealed the weaknesses of our social structure.  Once more we have come to a day of reckoning.

In the postwar world one of two courses lies before us.  Either we will make the old mistakes again, and try to force our own concepts upon the Universe;  or we will gather our strength for one heroic effort to put things right.

If we make the old mistakes we will be rewarded by the old pain.  But if we make the new effort, we can set up imperishable footings and bestow as a heritage the beginnings of a better way of life.  According to our choice the results will be in evitable, for Nature will never change her ways.  Let us consider her ways and be wise.

Centuries ago, one of the secret masters of the Quest wrote:  "The Eternal Good reveals its will and pleasure through the body of Nature and the motions of Universal Law.  Within the body of Nature and Law there is a soul which must be discovered by great thoughtfulness.  And within that soul of Nature and Law there is a spirit which must be sought with great understanding;  for verily I say unto you, my brothers, that it is this spirit concealed from the profane but revealed to the thoughtful, which giveth life."

This, then, is the design of our foundations:  that men shall abide together in peace and shall devote their energies to the common cause of discovery.

Man is greater than the animal, not in strength of body, nor in shrewdness, nor in the power of his senses, nor even in skill and patience; man is superior because he contains within himself the faculties and powers by which he can perceive his true place in a divine order of life.

His power lies in his dreams, his visions, and his ideals.  If these intangibles are left uncultivated, man is at best but a superior kind of beast, subject to all the ills and vicissitudes of an unenlightened creation.

But, as man has locked within him, hidden from the public gaze, this diviner part, so it is true that human society has within itself concealed from our common view a nobler part composed of the idealists and dreamers of all ages and of all races who have been bound together by their common vision of man's necessity.  This is the secret empire of the poets, this is the order of the Unknown Philosophers, this is the Brotherhood of the Quest.

And never will these dreamers cease their silent working until that dream is perfected in our daily life.  They are resolved that the Word which was made flesh shall become the Word made Soul.

The great University of the Six Days Work must be built here in our Western world, to become a guide unto the nations.  About this shrine to Universal Truth shall rise the democratic Commonwealth - the wealth of all mankind.

This is the destiny for which we were brought into being.  The plan, which was devised in secrecy long ago, and in far places, shall be fulfilled openly ... as the greatest wonder born out of time.