Showing posts with label 33. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 33. Show all posts

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Queens of the Ice Age

As every decent American knows, or should know, Baseball is a kind of elaborately coded symbol for Freemasonry.  I believe this was first revealed by Occam-sharp scholar Randy Lavello, who wrote an article on the topic entitled Occult Symbolism: As American as Baseball (date unknown).

Unfortunately the article is mostly a sad rehash of the usual band of accumulated factoids about the Illumino-Masonic "hell bentery" (Davidson, Tautology by Candlelight, p. 27) regarding world domination.  Yet among the chaff, one may still find some wheat.  This is brilliant poetry: 

Baseball was obviously created by Freemasons, as it bears the unmistakable marks of Freemasonry. The field, from home plate to the left and right field wall forms a compass; the entire outfield wall is the semicircle which this compass draws. Upside-down, overlapping this compass, the bases form the square. Thus, the baseball field is the emblem of Freemasonry. Three strikes and three outs were assigned because three is the principle sacred number of Freemasonry. Four is a number of significance because it represents a square (the shape) and deals with the four directions, thus: four balls, four bases. 

And then, in the immortal words of the King of Siam:  "Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."  Or, as the "Free-Mason" might cry into the four dark corners of the Lodge Room, its floor a checkered field of play: 

"Owa Tagoo Siam!"  

(Say that, three, five or seven times aloud and see what happens).

At the climax of the sex-rituals conducted in such places: 

"Shāh māt!" (شاه مات):  "The King is Helpless." 

Lavello concludes:  This further explains the near obsession with numbers surrounding baseball averages, home runs, ERA’s, etc. It is truly a game for numerologists.  One might even add a game for practitioners of the Assyro-Babylonian system known as gematria, which so enthralls Kabbalists steeped in the Mishnah and Talmud. 

Needless to say the baseball bat is the lingam (लिङ्गं,) and the glove, the yoni (योनि).  Hand in Glove?

Baseball isn't the only sport used by the Illumino-Masonic conspiracy to indoctrinate us through dazzling veils of numbers and distraction.  Freemason Neil Laird (Kneel, Lord!) details the early "links" between the Craft and Golf.  Somewhere along the line these "links" will undoubtedly lead us to sausages and shirt cuffs, but for now, let it suffice to say that yes, early golf clubs (the social organization and not the tool) had their origins in Masonic Lodges.  As a Tiler might ask a suspected cowan (but not a Cohen (כֹּהֵן)):  "Are you on, or off?"  Links in a chain like the cars of the Express Kundalini, links in a chain chugging through the same cross-referential mirror-system in which the chain is the cable-tow, the serpent around the spinal column and the rod of Aesculapius.  And more. The un-schooled hobo gives the bull the wrong response and is sent hurtling off into the speeding darkness. 

But the Masons have a tool to revelate the method even more insidious than Twilight Language, Lady Gaga or Sports.

Snowmen. 

You may have heard of A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman's brilliant take-down of Frozen (Feb. 2014): 

The gay agenda to normalize homosexuality is woven into Disney's movie Frozen not just as an underlying message - it is the movie. 

She discusses some of what I will extrapolate upon in this post; what she glosses over, however, is the snowman.  I pegged that dude as gay from the moment he first opened his swishy mouth.  A discussion at Film Colossus tries to answer the question: Is Olaf, the snowman, in "Frozen", gay?  No one actually seems to be discussing it though, which proves that there is no need to discuss it.

Let's start with the name of the snow golem:  Olaf.  An anagram for "Loaf".  This brings us immediately back to golf and baseball, hours of which are televised and broadcast across the planet in order to ensnare the idle spectator.  Lulled into a lazy hypnotic state in which the "imprintability [sic] of Masonry's numerological symbolism can be facilitated and homosexuality inscribed behind the eyelids, the dark side of the liminal"  (Ronson, The Nine-Inning Ritual, p. 72).

"Olaf" also a palindrome:  Falo.  As in "phallus" or "fellatio."  Is it any surprise that in one scene of Frozen, "Falo's" penis-like carrot nose ends up in the grinning mouth of the male reindeer, Sven? (A clear allusion to "seven"--yet another Masonic programming number).

The Masonic invention of sport and structured "loafing" given homage in the name "Olaf" is like totally, I mean so over-the-toply revelated in the following cartoon.  Dig this evil bit of mind-fuckery:


Have the masons no shame?  They're waving this stuff in our faces like a cock bulging in leather Speedos at a Gay Pride parade.  Clearly these phallus-nosed monstrosities with "frozen" hearts are lures to "reel in" children (no coincidence the word applies both to fishing and film).  Illuminati psy-ops experts used the love of adorable snowmen in Frozen to encourage "loafing" and "fellatio" and then had the gall to joke about it in a homoerotic cartoon with genocidal symbolism.  Look at the lower left of the pyramid:  KAR.  K.A.R.

Kill.  All.  Religion. 

Wake up sheeple!  Before you know it they'll have your children spitting on the cross and buggering one another like Knights Templar.  Led to the gay bar in (trance-) formation by the cable-tow!  Those who cannot be converted will be led instead to the killing fields.  Blood is thicker than water and the evil tree bears fetid "fruits."

Speaking of Templars, both Walter (meaning "rule" or "warrior") Elias (אליהו, Eliyahu, meaning "Yahweh is my God") Disney and Mickey (as in "slip someone a") Mouse were members of DeMolay.  DeMolay is a Masonic youth organization (for male youths aged 12 to 21--again with the mirrors) named after the leader of the "heretical, sodomitical [sic] Knights Templar known today as Freemasons" (Werther, Baphomet's Sucklings, p. 9).  About Jacques (Jock) DeMolay himself, noted web board poster StarLandVocalBand mentions that, "the least sympathetic [Non-Masonic historians] portray him as a power-hungry, bloodthirsty pedophile."  DeMolay, or Demon lay?  Disney's roots are in French soil; he was descendant of one Robert d'Isigny, reputed lover of William the Conqueror.  During the First World War, Disney would contrive to "return" to France, homeland of Jacques DeMolay, at the tender age of 17.

DeMolay, "the boy-love Internationale" (McCaw, Sinarchy, p. 13), programmed Walt Disney, Cathy O'Brien-like, with Masonic and Templar ideals from a young age, which helps explain why Disney ("On your Dis knees, boy!"), created Club 33 in the heart of Disneyland.  33 is the highest degree of Scottish Rite Masonry, which in America derives its cult practices and dogma from one Albert Pike, Confederate general and admitted Luciferian.  The highest six degrees of this Rite--including the 33rd--are Templar Degrees:  "Conferred only by the Supreme Council, 33°, the Degree of Inspector General is a Templar degree throughout, in both substance and symbolism" (here).  The final body of the York Rite is known as a Commandery and is comprised of three Templar orders and one degree.  Independent of both of these Rites, Templar Preceptories award yet three more degrees.  The Rite of Memphis (1838) was a blend of Templarism, alchemy and Egyptian occultism.  It merged with the Rite of Misraïm (pre-1738) in 1881; the resulting The Rite of Memphis-Misraïm exists to this day.

Masonry is not only at the heart of Disneyland, but of all Disney productions.  A club hidden in one of the most visited parks in the world, hidden in plain sight, is a metaphor for a club hidden at the heart of the world and a message hidden at the heart of its propaganda.  All the better to implant their message at the liminal line between consciousness and unconsciousness.  Club 33 is the only place in the park where alcohol is freely served, just as early Lodges first met in taverns and were infamous dens of drunkenness.  And in the Middle Ages, "Drunk as a Templar" was a common phrase.  The club's name refers to the 33rd degree of Freemasonry, but also to the 33 sponsors of Disneyland when the park opened; one look and you'll see this represents a cross-section of America's most powerful companies.

Perhaps this is also why two popular Disney Rides, Pirates of the Caribbean and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, are, as former Church of Satan High Priest Boyd Rice points out, symbolic voyages of death and resurrection, like Masonic ritual. 

"Shāh māt!" (شاه مات):  "The King is Helpless."

See Children’s shows are exploding with hidden penises (LoS 10 Aug. 2013) for an introduction to a less veiled glorification of numerology in Disney's Donald in Mathmagic Land.

In Frozen, Olaf the snowman will never melt; he has his own personal climate, a control over nature that allows him to defy the effects of heat and time.  This is the ultimate goal of Freemasonry.  Immortality (immorality), with no more need to procreate and thus no real need for women:  an occult agenda which will encourage men, no longer subservient to the dictates of nature and biology, to become homosexuals.

The doctrine of mastery over nature is in full praxis in the construction of the city park, nature brought to leash....or cable-tow.  It's no coincidence that baseball, our numerological ritual, is played in a park.  Progress and mastering nature were major themes in the 19th-century zeitgeist, a result of the same Enlightenment ideals most perfectly embodied in Illumino-Masonic doctrine.  The first park built for the public is Princes (Disney films are rife with princes) Park in Liverpool, built on land purchased by Richard Vaughan Yates.  Yates is memorialized in the park by an obelisk that describes Yates as "Enlightened." So very Masonic.  So very phallic.  And to top it off, it's a water fountain.  One bends over before an enormous penis and drinks deeply from the fluid which shoots out when the "knob" is turned.  One isn't drinking from Farrah's faucet here; this is Adam and Steve, not Adam and Eve.  In the mirror language we've previously mentioned, it's worth noting that the first verbal exchange on the planet was a pair of palindromes:

"Madam, I'm Adam".
"Eve".

Back to Frozen.  Olaf is a flamboyant swish, but the other male figures are also homosexual.  First we have the the villain, Hans ("John", or a whore's customer), a Lothario who feigns to have feelings for Anna (a name meaning "Grace" in Hebrew, as in God's grace).  Hans' false feelings for Anna are such that he's willing to let her die in order to assume power.  Through his actions, Hans rejects women and God's grace simultaneously.  Kristoff, the rustic, was raised outside of normal society, among hermaphroditic trolls and anthropomorphized animals.  The film not only tries to legitimize this queer world but valorizes it above and beyond the normal, i.e. straight world!  Kristoff (Christ-off!) also rejects God because of his unnatural communion with the reindeer Sven.  He is shown serenading the animal to sleep before they share a bed.  "Sven" is the origin of the world "swain"--a young servant boy!  Masculinity is further undermined by to total inutility of Kristoff's profession:  he is an ice seller in a world of permanent winter.  He is redundant, impotent and unnecessary.

What about the female characters?  The homosexual thread marking our voyage through the labyrinth begins with the Queen.  Elsa (from the Hebrew for "My God is an oath") has shut out all suitors--a thorough rejection of men.  She is an Ice Queen, an expression we often use to describe a woman who has, like Elsa, shut out  all love and warmth from her heart, especially for men.  Incidentally, a "snow queen" is a gay black male who favors white partners, especially Nordic types!  The latter half of Frozen is built around the attempts of Christ-off to reunite with Anna, (Grace), so that she, and he, may be saved.  This is described as an act of "pure love".  Saved?  Pure Love?  This is clearly a reference to Christ's role as our savior.  But the act of pure love never occurs, because for ersatz Antichrist Christ-off,  "grace" remains frozen to his touch, dead.  The movie manipulates the viewer into thinking that Anna will be revived by Kristoff's kiss.  But no.  It is Elsa, her God an oath, who saves Anna in an incestuous act of lesbianism made all the more vile by it's cloak of innocence.

Frozen, regaled by many critics as one of Disney's best recent films, has its origin in an aborted biography of  Hans "Christian" Anderson.  The real Anderson had a history of falling in love with unattainable women, frozen to him so to speak, so that he never actually had to get together with one.  In life, he seem to have expressed more desire for men.  Is it any surprise that so many Disney films are based on Anderson's work?  The Disney world is one of talking animals, "bromances" and the normalization of eccentric and deviant behavior, of accepting those who are "different".

The Mormon I referred to a the beginning of this post lady is right.  To use the revelator words of Pink ("gay") Floyd bassist Roger ("sodomy") Waters, we are being "amused to death".  From the mincing and singing homos of Frozen to the homosocial domain of sport, from snowmen to the Georgia Guidestones (see population control), we are being programmed to accept the "sterility ideal" of a Malthusian zoo, one big Grand Lodge watched over by what Richard Brautigan ironically called "machines of loving grace".  No need to sterilize, no need to cull, when the park animals are programmed into homosexuality.

*                *                *                *

I hope that at some point, preferably from the get-go, you realized that this post is a joke.

What you've just read is not the post I intended to write and it kind of mutated into what it is as I was writing it.  Which is just a fancy way to say I made it all up as I went along.  Hence the abrupt and rather nonsensical transition from sport into a discussion of Frozen.  I was being ironic, but not sarcastic, which can be a thin line.  I wasn't making fun of people who might see a gay agenda in this film.  This might sound ingenuous, but it's true.  I was pretty much just goofing around in a Downard-esque mode and poking fun at synchromysticism.

While it's not something directed by decree from the offices of GLAAD, I think it's fair to say there is something of a homosexual agenda in Hollywood.  Like the military is a bastion of conservatism, Hollywood is by and large a liberal sector of society.  A Hollywood villain may actually have some likable qualities, but if they really want to portray an incorrigible baddie, writers make the villain a racist, or a homophobe.  Discrimination against homosexuals is generally attacked and gay characters are portrayed as sympathetic.  I don't know if this qualifies as an orchestrated "agenda" but it does demonstrate a kind of solidarity between the Hollywood and the gay community.  Stating this does not imply a criticism of those efforts.  On the contrary, as far as I even care about the issue, I wince at anti-gay slurs and support the legislative efforts to legitimize civil unions, marriage or otherwise, secure rights for homosexual partners and allow gay couples the right to adopt.  In music, cinema and on TV, the trend is clear:  homophobia is seen as cruel and petty, while acceptance of homosexuality is lauded.  (Hip-Hop culture, for the most part, being the exception to this rule).  I think here of Dallas Buyers Club as a perfect example, in which the crudest homophobe's transformation into a tolerant and compassionate supporter of his homosexual clientele is an important part of the film's message.  In reality, the person depicted in the film was apparently not only not a homophobe, but was himself bisexual.

So maybe fiction is at times stranger than truth, but not always.  I had obviously read about the Mormon woman's theory (without actually reading the entirety of her text) before starting this post.  My post, a fiction, was largely written over two weeks ago, much earlier than when I first saw the following story, which was about a week ago.

Apparently some pastor with a podcast, invariably described as "conservative" or "right wing", denounced Frozen on his show.  Using some of the exact same points I did, this pastor expressed his belief that the film promotes homosexuality....and bestiality to boot.  Hey, I said that too.  But I was joking.

Pastor Kevin Swanson and co-host Steve Vaughn haven't seen the film but have criticized its "progressive" agenda anyway. 

TIME describes it like this:
The two claim that the movie’s Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” is a coming out song, marking the moment when Elsa realizes she was “born that way” and accepts who she is. [The Mormon lady also says this about the song.]  They point out that the fiercely independent Elsa never considers a male suitor and assume she is therefore probably gay. They also say that Jonathan Groff’s character has an “unnatural relationship” with his animal buddy, Sven. All these plot points, they say, open children up to homosexuality and bestiality at a young age. 
The podcast has the following summary:
Did millions of parents and children catch the homosexuality and bestiality reference in the last super popular Disney flick, Frozen? We wonder. Kevin Swanson quotes from a few websites maintained by our liberal friends. They're ecstatic over Disney's directions. But what about Christian parents?
(It appears that first link requires a log-in now, but you can hear the podcast here).
Further context can be found in this transcript, where Swanson describes the film as "evil" and a form of "indoctrination".  Honest, none of this was on my radar when I wrote my own post.

I thought I was just making stuff up.  I actually did get a feeling from this film that the snowman was a vaguely "gay" character, which is probably an indication that I'm falling prey to stereotyping more than anything else, but clearly there is some vibe in the film which leads other people to think this as well.  The Mormon woman is real.  Pastor Swanson is real.  The question posed on Film Colossuss (Is Olaf gay?) is real.  And oddly enough, I jokingly wrote about homosexuality and bestiality in Frozen before I'd even heard of Swanson.  My impressions about Olaf's "gay" personality came before I saw the question posed on Film Colossus.  All of which puts me in some odd company.

I don't know if there is a specific "gay-friendly" undercurrent to Frozen, but it is not entirely inconceivable.  Disney films tend to celebrate the underdog, the pauper, the outsider and people (or animals) who are "different".  All of this is a part of Frozen's message.  I don't object, but some people do; they are not on board with the program.

Anyway, I'd vowed at some point to avoid politics and synchromysticism because I either sound too strident or too goofy.  Plus, arguing about politics over the Internet is always a depressing and pointless endeavor.  I've even created another blog (unused for now) to serve as a vehicle for over-the-top, satire-oriented pieces, but eventually decided to place this one LoS.  It does reproduce the methodology of the synchromystic and, as it turns out, just proves the old saw that if you can imagine it, it's already been done.  To have posted this stuff without addressing the fact that someone really believes it would have been impossible, hence this coda that undercuts the question ("Is he for real?") that might have been floating through your head.

On a related note, apparently there's a culture of Disney fans that trying to figure out how to place all the films into space/time continuum of the same universe....

Friday, May 24, 2013

Masonic Republics?

In a post entitled ¡Viva la Revolución! (3 March 2011) I looked at the influence of Freemasonry in 19th-century Latin America, a series observations and quotes about the Masonic influence on some of the many wars for independence against the Spanish Empire.  I mostly looked at Masonic symbolism on flags, state seals, coats of arms, etc.  We saw that in many cases, the Masonic symbols were indistinguishable from symbols of the French Revolution, which in turn mirror many of those found in Freemasonry.

In retrospect, my article is a rather flawed and superficial piece and represents the serious limits to my reading in the subject.  I hope that this post and others to follow will help flesh out what I've already written, but one should always keep in mind that I'm doing a lot of speculation, kind of like wondering about the subject out loud.

This sequel began as a result of my trip last year to South America, where I saw so many Masonic elements on public monuments my head began to spin.  Buenos Aires and especially Rio de Janeiro are rife with monuments that are either explicitly Masonic or dedicated to groups in accordance with Masonic ideals.  This was also true, to a much lesser extent, in Montevideo, where it nevertheless all started.

Artigas Mausoleum

The monument to José Gervasio Artigas Arnal in the Plaza Independencia bears many striking similarities to the Monument to Estácio de Sá, a monument I hadn't yet seen for myself in Rio, but had written about thanks to a photo and some description from my brother-in-law Alfredo Buendia.  These two monuments also have a lot in common with the Temple du Sagesse Suprême in Blagnac, about which I've written extensively and has since become a well-known object of vilification.

Artigas (June 19, 1764 – September 23, 1850) is called "the father of Uruguayan nationhood" just as George Washington is called the "father of our country" in the U.S.  In fact, there is a group of Founding Fathers, which is an essay unto itself: the implied paternalism of the state, its reflection of a thoroughly ingrained patriarchal society, etc.  But that's another story.

Normal then that the capital city Montevideo would honor the man in a way which is brilliantly symbolic.  His mausoleum is at the center of Plaza Independencia, just as the man himself was at the center of Uruguayan independence.  This Plaza also separates the old city from the new, not only diving pre- and post-revolutionary quarters of the city, but symbolically representing the division of the ancien régime and the new world order and thus Europe and the Americas.

Was Artigas himself a Mason?  He was part of a Masonic-like society called the Society of the Eastern Knights (Sociedad de los Caballeros Orientales), according to the Wikipedia page on compatriot Manuel Oribe. An article in El Pueblo (Salto, Uruguay) states:  Los representantes de la Escuela Hiram reiteraron que José Gervasio Artigas no integró la Masonería pero afirmaron que 'a su alrededor habían masones'.  Simply put, Artigas himself never joined but was surrounded by Masons; the article also traces the strong role of Masonry in the Uruguayan independence movement.

(For those who read Spanish, here's more about the quasi-Masonic Lautaro Lodges). 

In ¡Viva....! I proposed that the sun in the national flags of Uruguay and Argentina (among other countries) derives from Masonic sources.  I wouldn't want to make weirdo leaps of faith, but I couldn't help thinking that Uruguay's full name, the "Oriental Republic of Uruguay" refers to more than its place on the South American continent.  I don't think it's unreasonable to imagine that there was also a sly reference here to Oriental Masonry, the French-born Continental form of Masonry which dominates South American Freemasonry to this day, where each national jurisdiction is known as a Grand Orient as opposed to a Grand Lodge, and which have a number of doctrinal differences from Anglo-American Masonry.  Thus we also see a lot of French symbols among Latin American revolutionary symbols, many of which, as I stated earlier, are also Masonic.

This inkling of mine about the word "Oriental" was reinforced when I saw the Plaza de los Treinta y Tres, or Plaza of the Thirty-Three.  These "33" are in fact the Treinta y Tres Orientales, a fighting force led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja (1784-1853),  a Freemason, whose insurrection against the Empire of Brazil "culminated in the foundation of modern Uruguay."

Funny thing is "The true number of the group has been the object of controversy, based on the existence of various lists of members, published between 1825 and 1832. Albeit thirty-three is the officially accepted number, the names differ from list to list".

I don't believe the number 33 is an average of those lists or scientific estimation, nor is it merely pulled from a hat.  I would wager that it is symbolically representing the 33 degrees of the Scottish Rite, like the the 32 rays of the Sol de Mayo on the Argentine flag and the 1828 version of Uruguay's flag.  This version was designed by Joaquin Suárez (1781-1861) who the GOFMU claims was a Freemason.  (Note that there are 32 degrees to be earned, and one honorary degree; thus both 32 and 33 can allude to these degrees).  Is it possible that Freemasons active in the formation of Uruguay could in this way symbolically lay claim to a Masonic foundation of the fledgling state?  I wouldn't wager my life on it, but grok if you will the following image.  The Estévez Palace, the former workplace of the Uruguayan President and now a museum, displays relics of its early presidents.  One of those articles:  a Masonic sash, with the 33 inscribed within a Delta in glory.  I believe it's Oribe's sash, but my memory fails me and I didn't take notes.  If anyone in Montevideo can confirm this I'd be grateful.

Treinta y Tres, by the way, is also the name of one of Uruguay's 19 provinces.  Its capital city bears the same name and "Together with Ejido de Treinta y Tres and the southwestern suburb of Villa Sara, they form a population centre of around 33,000 inhabitants." 

I was delighted to see on Wikipedia that the population of Uruguay is rounded to 3.3 million!
Oribe's (?) Masonic Sash.  Palacio Estévez.
Artigas' Mausoleum, opened in 1977, contains a great deal of Masonic symbolism.  The above-ground portion is a truncated pyramid, which, like the pyramid on the American one dollar bill, suggests that the nation's work is not finished; it must, like men and Masons, continue to progress in life towards perfection.  It is a symbol which implies betterment through education and walks hand in hand with the notion of scientific and social progress in addition to the fundamental assumptions of capitalism, which despite the negative connotation of capitalism among contemporary  "progressives", was then considered progressive during the Enlightenment; strange to many American ears, the word "liberal" in Spanish and French still implies the tendency towards laissez-faire politics in economics and law.


Truncated Pyramid
Related, or not?
The pyramid is open at the top, which allows a shaft of light, one of the foremost Masonic symbols, to shine upon Artigas' urn.  Two guards are stationed to either side like Jachin and Boaz, the silent sentinels of a Masonic Lodge, but this is certainly a poetic metaphor in my own invention rather than an intentional reference!

Illumination
As Mackey's Encyclopedia says:  "In the ceremonies of Freemasonry, we find the cavern or vault in what is called the Cryptic Freemasonry of the American Rite, and also in the advanced Degrees of the French and Scottish Rites, in which it is a symbol of the darkness of ignorance and crime impenetrable to the light of truth."

If this is an accurate reading of the cavern symbol, the architects of this monument have done well to allow the light to fall upon Artigas' remains.  He who led them out of ignorance and into truth, "illuminated" as one might say.  Hence the sun on the Uruguayan flag, as well as the appellation "Oriental" for the nation?  After all, the sun rises in the East, the direction revered by Masons as the source of light, or wisdom.

I tried to discern numerical symbolism in the number of panels and alcoves in the mausoleum, but didn't come across much, though I do find some meaning in the fact that it resembles the tessellated floor of a Lodge. 

The truncated pyramid, however, does have three layers of marble panels, so this may reflect the basic Masonic degree structure of three degrees.

Monument to Estácio de Sá


Let's compare the Artigas mausoleum to a monument I've previously written about, the Estácio de Sá monument in Rio de Janeiro.  Sá (1520-1567) , like Artigas, was a soldier and the "father" if you will, of Rio.  The monument is a pyramid which above ground is composed of 13 layers.  The American flag of course has 13 stripes the number appears in many places on the reverse side of the dollar bill.  It is also the number of layers in the pyramid in the Temple de la Sagesse Suprême, a monument I'll discuss in the next section.  I read the pyramid, like simpler geometric forms, as abstractions which, though based on naturally-occurring shapes, are not so commonly found in nature; they are "perfected" versions of mountains, fruit, rocks the sun and the moon.  You can see from this photo that in my original post I slightly misinterpreted its form due to the camera angle of the photo at my disposition, but I think this interpretation is essentially correct.

Like the Artigas mausoleum, light shines into the crypt

Before this pyramid is a triangular window, formed with smaller triangular panes of glass. Just like Artigas' monument, this aperture allows light to shine into the crypt below, shaped as a triangle, following the perimeter of the low wall which marks the boundaries of the exoteric monument above:  as above, so below.  This crypt serves as a small exhibition space, but also houses a reproduction of Sá's tomb.  A remarkable parallel.  Unlike the Artigas mausoleum, the pyramid continues underground for several more layers.  A sinister interpretation is that this represents the hidden forces below the surface of everyday politics, perhaps even echoing the cave-like effect produced in a Masonic lodge, where the ceremonial space is always windowless.  A less sinister interpretation as that this represents deeper forms of knowledge, higher values which ironically, are accessed by going into the deeper concerns of man beyond everyday living.

This above/below theme is reflected in the triangle of sand below these windows.  A quirky thought occurs to me:  sand is used to make glass.  Perhaps this is another metaphor for the powers of reason and enlightenment?  Sand is used to make glass, which in turn allows us to illuminate once-darkened spaces.  Here again though, I think we're entering the realm of the poetic imagination rather than objective analysis.

I should also mention that the small paved plaza around the pyramid is a triangle, as is the crypt itself.  Every form used in its construction, then, is a triangle, or based on one.

The triangle on the floor
As my brother-in-law discussed the symbolism with the monitor in Portuguese during my visit, I was able to make out one thing the monitor said, and that is the form of this monument had been inspired by the "fact" that Sá  was a Freemason.  This claim is possible but a bit of a stretch; the earliest indications of Masonic-like lodges date to Scotland and France in the 1530's, but more convincing references to Freemasonry were a century down the line .  Whether true or not, the claim that he was is significant, as well as that the form was chosen as an homage to Masonry.  The architect and people who paid him seem to have wanted to link the founding of their city with Freemasonry.  Indeed, the Flag of Brazil is a very natural green and blue, decorated with stars.  Above this nature symbolism are words, not shapes:  "Order and Progress."  This encapsulates Masonic values regarding the perfectibility of human nature and via democracy, society as a whole.

Pirámide de Mayo


The pyramid is also has a strong solar connection; as tombs of the Pharaohs, they were essential for survival after death.  Like the sun itself, they signify re-birth.  This in turn is one symbolic meaning of the New World, a fresh start, a perfection of the Old, a new day as it were.  We can here point to the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.  The pediment, a triangle naturally, depicts the reunion of Joseph with his father and brothers in Egypt.  Though it represents reconciliation, it also provided the sculptor an opportunity to depict the three pyramids of Giza in the background.  Buenos Aires' most prominent landmark is an enormous obelisk, after all, and I've never seen such a prolific use of the obelisk in miniature scattered throughout a city, except in Rio.  I also passed a small pyramid in a public park near the Recoleta cemetery, the cemetery of the city's illustrious and wealthy...and where explicit Masonic symbols abound.  The Sun and two hands shaking in fellowship derive from Masonry; the Phrygian cap was derived from the French Revolution.  All three symbols are ubiquitous in Argentina, as they form they principal elements of the country's coat of arms. 

These symbols are also displayed on the Pyramid of May  (1811), a monument in Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo.  The pyramid was ordered by the Primera Junta to celebrate the first anniversary of the May Revolution that led to removal of the Spanish Viceroy and the establishment of the Junta, the first local government on the path to independence.  The president of this Junta, its two secretaries and five of six committee members were Freemasons.

The Pyramid was originally crowned by a ball finial and encircled with 12 pillars, also with ball finials.  The number 13 appears yet again!  This original Pyramid was renovated and significantly modified in 1856 under the direction of Prilidiano Pueyrredón, a Freemason.

As for the sheer number of obelisks and pyramids, however, Rio has Buenos Aires beat, but I think I'll compile that list for another post.

Temple de la Sagesse Suprême


A third monument I'd like to touch upon is the pyramid monument located at the heart of Blagnac's (France) Place de la Revolution named the Temple de la Sagesse Suprême.  A thirteen-layered pyramid sits at the center of the plaza, as if literally at the heart of not only the Revolution, but the subsequent State, represented by an abstract form of a house from within the center of which pokes the tip of the pyramid.  Its symbolic position at the heart of the Revolution is echoes in both the Pyramid of May and the Artigas Mausoleum.  The pyramid rises with the state, from the masses at the bottom to the President at top, which actually rises about the state itself.  The Sun is metaphorically represented by a circular pathway which radiates outwards.  Here the Sun may represent a new day, but also France's self-proclaimed role as a beacon of Liberty, radiating its revolutionary principles throughout the world.  In fact, a tessellated map of world once lay beneath the pyramid, which is a working fountain.  The pyramids of Sá and Artigas are within view of the sea, perhaps this fountain replaces that natural watery setting.  Why that would be I'm not sure, as water is not really a Masonic symbol, although both the anchor and the ark are.  Perhaps then this refers to the story of Noah, whose story is important not only to Freemasonry, but esoteric circles in general.  As we've seen in previous posts, Noah's story represents....a new start for the world.

The light however, is not just symbolic.  In the ensemble of sculptures that flank the pyramid, a dog-like belvedere can emit a beam of light through a hole in the pyramid.  This too is reminiscent of the eye in the pyramid; because this "eye" also serves to transport light, it's not at all "conspiracy theory" to believe it represents a wink in the direction of Enlightenment, if not a direct homage to the Bavarian Illuminati.  After all, Weishaupt did envision a small elite of enlightened men pulling the levers of the state; the pyramid with the eye is thus called the Temple of Supreme Wisdom.  The clincher is a bronze panel which quotes eccentric architect (and Freemason) Jean-Jacques Lequeu: "Happiness is in the angle where the sages gather."  These sages are of course, enlightened, that is to say illuminated men.  Masons of course, meet on the square, a perfect equilibrium of four angles, a perfected microcosm of the natural world's four directions, its winds, its elements....


Templo da Humanidade —  Rio de Janeiro
France's self-image as a beacon of these values is not arrogance.  The beam of light passes through the eye to hit a crystal set within a tri-colored shield held by a stylized revolutionary carrying a halberd and wearing a Phrygian cap, the symbols repeatedly found in Latin American post-revolutionary heraldry, proof perfect that in fact the ideals of the French Revolution did indeed shine upon the world.  There is, for example, a positivist church in Rio, the Church of Humanity, oriented not towards Jerusalem, but Paris!  Positivism as a church values rationality and promotes universal fraternity; order is its foundation and progress is its aim.  There are some really good articles about the link between positivism and Freemasonry and their use of compulsory public education as means of achieving their goals of order and progress. Many positivists were  Freemasons, including fellows like Jules Ferry, who is primarily responsible for the first laws regarding compulsory education in France.  The most Masonically-festooned tomb in the Recoleta is that of President Domingo Sarmiento, the "father of the Argentine education system" and obviously a Freemason.  I wholeheartedly recommend the articles here and here for a history of positivism, Freemasonry, public education and Latin America. 

This little comparison of these monuments is fitting for a fraternity rich in ideas expressed in architectural metaphors, for these monuments express those ideas not with metaphorical architecture, but in real stone.  The link between Freemasonry and independence in Uruguay and Argentina, as well as in France, is I think clearly expressed in the symbols on these monuments.  A quick look at the people honored by them and who had a hand in making them also demonstrate a number of Freemasonic personalities that cannot be ignored.

So, a lot more could be written here, but for now I've hit a wall, the very same upon which I've just laid another brick.  There'll be more to come....