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....

City of Light

Barrière du Trône. (LoS)

The radicals of the French Revolution were ambitious fellows.  They not only sought to overthrow a regime and its accomplices, but to export this revolution around the globe.  Most audacious perhaps was the goal of redefining consciousness itself via the cultivation of reason and a new way of perceiving reality.  If the senses were the gateway to the mind, how they processed that sensorial input, how they measured and categorized it, would need to be reworked.  For this reason the French revolutionaries adopted the metric system, changed the calendar and reorganized the administrative lay of the land, all towards a goal of establishing a radiant citadel of reason.  Paris, if not the geographical center, was nevertheless the center of this beacon.  La Ville-Lumière....The City of Light.

Every man and woman could be a star, but they needed a city to reflect this....and magnify it.  Thus Paris itself is a kind of temple to the principles the revolutionaries wanted to instil...not within its subjects, but its citizens.

Architecture and urban planning became a crucial weapon in this struggle.

The Triumph of the Republic.  Aimé-Jules Dalou, 1889. LoS

Paris's Place de la Nation features a massive bronze sculpture which represents the Republique and its virtues in allegorical form:  The Triumph of the Republic.  At the eastern entrance stands a pair of massive columns, surmounted by globes, marking the Barrière du Trône.  These colums were erected in 1787 and designed by architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux.  Ledoux is believed to have been part of a Rosicrucian order and a Freemason, attending the Loge Féminine de la Candeur.  Perhaps this influenced his design.  Two freestanding colums  have marked the entrance to sacred space since antiquity:  the Egyptians used two obelisks and the Phonecians used pillars, a design reproduced by Hiram of Tyre in Solomon’s Temple, the model for the use of pillars at the entrance of a Masonic Lodge (see previous stuff here and here).  In any event, Ledoux was considered a rigorous Neoclassicist and utopian whose designs reflected the ideas of architecture parlante (both Ledoux and "ap" previously on LoS).

The columns and two nearby pavilions were originally part of the Mur des Fermiers généraux, a series of towers, wall and barriers used to enforce the octroi.  This tax on goods entering the city has ancient roots, but it was certainly a gripe for many.  Tax farming was essentially privatized tax collection, a neat deal in which tax farmers at the head of private companies reaped colossal fortunes at public expense.  The Parisian wall was very unpopular, it was said, "Le mur murant Paris rend Paris murmurant".  (Loosely: "The enclosing wall has Paris grumbling").

There was also an epigram:

Pour augmenter son numéraire (To increase its cash)
Et raccourcir notre horizon (And to shorten our horizon),
La Ferme a jugé nécessaire (The Farm judges it necessary)
De mettre Paris en prison (To put Paris in prison).

The architectural style of these buildings, "dens of the Tax Department metamorphosed into palaces with columns" according to Louis-Sebastien Mercier, highlighted the oppression which the wall represented for Parisians.

The toll on goods was removed on May 1st, 1791 in the early stages of the French Revolution, but was restored in 1798 by the Directory.  The tolls persisted under Napoleon, but the majority of the barriers were destroyed during the expansion of Paris in the 1860's and the octroi that had been collected at the wall was abolished.

Perhaps because this place was so emblematic of the abuses of the Ancien Régime, a guillotine was set up here.  A sculpture was created to honor the centennial of the Revolution : The Triumph of the Republic.  The central figure of liberty, herself mounted atop a globe, looks towards the hated place where the Bastille prison once stood, while four paths (in the four cardinal directions?) and then streets radiate outwards like rays of light.

Placing the columns in the east is also interestng, coincidence or otherwise,  for the east has alway been associated with light and the rising Sun, which as we have seen, was a Revolutionary symbol of both Wisdom (Illumination) and regeneration.  We have also seen this represented by columns themselves.

The columns are a perfect illustration of competing political agendas.  During the Restoration, the globes were fitted with a pair of rather severe statues of Philippe August (1165-1223) and Saint Louis (1214-1270), deftly celebrating both the monarchy and the church.  They separate the avenue de Trône from the Place de la Nation, whose previous names reflect the upheaval of  the Revolution :  place du Trône (Place of the Throne) became place du Trône-Renversé (the Throne Overturned) during the Revolution.  Its less aggressive moniker dates from the Bastille Day festivities (July 14th) of 1880.

from Wikipedia

Post-revolutionary Paris became a series of gateways into new spaces.  Napoleon created the Arc de Triomph on the Place de l'Étoile, so named for the symbolically-laden 12 streets radiating thenceforth like beams of light.  Napoleon's arch is echoed in the La Grande Arche de la Défense.  This arch in perfect alignment wih the Arc de Triomph along the "axe historique" which radiates westward from the Louvre and includes the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde.

La Défense

The Arche is almost a cube (width: 108m, height: 110m, depth: 112m).  It was inaugurated in July 1989 with military parades to mark the bicentennial of the French revolution...just as the The Triumph of the Republic was created to celebrate the centennial.  It is is turned at an angle of 6.33° on this axis. The most important reason for this turn was technical, but the turn emphasizes the depth of the monument, and is similar to the turn of the Louvre at the other end of the Axe historique.

Even as is drives the nation's motors of commerce and finance, Paris remains a kind of ceremonial space, both rational and mystical, organized along various significant axes, boulevards and plazas.  Washington D.C. is such a "ceremonial" city in an even stricter sense.  Unlike Paris, it has only one function:  to house the government and the monuments that glorify its values and accomplishements.  It is a hieratic city, a kind of city/temple and funerary monument.  It is not the home of a significant cultural, financial or commercial industry, aside of course from the very significant governmental or quasi-governmental organisms which partake in those sectors.  I've always thought it quite like Paris in its physical arrangement.  Perhaps this should come as no surprise when we consider the original design stems from the hand of a Frenchman.

Indeed, there is a book called Paris on the Potomac dedicated to exploring the influence of Paris on the US capitol.  Apparently in 1910 John Carrère, consulting architect for the US Capitol complex, said "learning from Paris made Washington outstanding among American cities" and that both plans should "underlie all city planning."  I've only glimpsed through its "Google booked" contents, but it seems clear Washinton was consciously modeled on Paris, a city which didn't become fully rationalized itself until the 1860's, and this at the expense of the medieval clutter which had been growing organically for centuries.

America provided the rationalists with a new and fresh start, not only in forms of government, but in the neat little grids they plopped down and which are characteristic of American cities and which one only finds rarely in Europe.

On the square, as it were.

They hide in a luminous cloud

In our last post (A man a plan a canal etc.) we looked at the place on the Canal du Midi where scientific prowess meets mythological resonance.  Briefly put, there is a monument built upon seven great boulders at the watershed of the canal, which legend states will one day come together and herald the end of the world by a great flood or tidal wave.

It wasn't too great a leap to then briefly discuss the flood myth archetype and its Biblical variant....the story of Noah and the Ark.  From floods and Noah I thought of NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.  Visiting their website, I was amused to see the lead story on their page was titled "Be careful about floods."

An anymous commenter wrote, "Don't be alarmed.  It's only the universe winking at you."  Well, if the universe is going to wink at me coyly, I can't just let it slide past, no?  Basically, I've gotta flirt with the universe.

It would be interesting to learn to what extent the bureaucrats who put the NOAA together were aware of the Noah connection.  Did they notice it after the fact, an utter yet happy coincidence?  Or perhaps they were brainstorming name ideas and Noah suggested itself, so they tweaked the words until they came up with a fitting acronym.  Or perhaps someone had the idea from the get-go and the entire name was developed to fit around it.

Whatever the case, it's a great name.  After all, Noah saved himself and his family and all those animals, ensuring the continuation of life on earth, because he had been forewarned.  For an organization who has a mission to predict the weather (short and long-range forecasting) and plan accordingly, a fitting metaphor indeed.

Forecasting is only part of its mission, performed by the National Weather Service.  NOAA's broader mission is to "to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet our nation's economic, social, and environmental needs."

Just as the Canal du Midi is a masterpiece of engineering and hydraulics, but motivated by commerce, so goes NOAA; it isn't a bastion of pure-science, with lab-coated geniuses gazing at clouds.  The NOAA is part of the United States Department of Commerce.  It's strategic vision  is "an informed society that uses a comprehensive understanding of the role of the oceans, coasts, and atmosphere in the global ecosystem to make the best social and economic decisions." (emphasis added).

Applied science at its finest.

NOAA was formed in1970 by Richard Nixon, who proposed it "...for better protection of life and property from natural hazards...for a better understanding of the total environment...[and] for exploration and development leading to the intelligent use of our marine resources..."

At this time, NOAA absorbed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (1807), the Weather Bureau (1870) and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (1871).

Like I usually do in these cases, I went to Wikipedia for a bit of background on NOAA, which is responsible for the details above.  What led me to write this post, however, is the flag:

NOAA flag.  Wikimedia Commons

The triangle is a long-standing obsession of mine, and this one struck me as particularly worthy of comment (obviously).  It's not a very elegant design but it does resonate.  The triangle with a circle inside (as with the triangle alone or with an eye) is an old Christian symbol for Divinity, evoking as it does the Trinity (see here).  Freemasons also use the triangle, or delta, alone or with the Eye of Providence to represent Divinity.  Triangles with circles have also become associated with the Illuminati (founded 1776).  The circle in the conspiratorial context is taken as a stylized eye and the triangle is more or less interchangeable with a pyramid.  Conspiracy hunters have dozens of sites wherein dozens of logos with variations on the triangle and circle are said to be Illuminist sigils.  This symbol existed well before the Illuminati, but that doesn't stop the conspiracy theorists; it merely proves the Illuminati is much older than "they" are telling you.

The triangle in the circle is another symbol with a long and storied lineage.  Google it and you'll find it in a staggering array of contexts.  It's mosly known as being the AA logo where the triangle represents "Unity, Service and Recovery".  Interesting here is that on the flag we have both the triangle within a circle and circle within a triangle. (The bird is a seagull, representing the ecosystems of the oceans and coasts.  Not only does this reflect the use of a bird as the national symbol, it harmonizes nicely with the Biblical flood narrative in which Noah uses a dove to determine if the floodwaters have begun to recede....)

I don't want to trace the various uses of this symbol, it's simply too vast.  But I would like to link it to a number of previous LoS explorations.  But first things first; the NOAA flag is based upon an earlier flag, that of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey.

US Coast and Geodetic Survey.  Wikimedia Commons

This flag was in 1899 and remained in use until the creation of NOAA in 1970, at which time the design became incorporated into the new organization's flag.  The NGS was preceded by the United States Coast Survey, created by Congress in 1807 to conduct a "Survey of the Coast".  As Wikipedia says:  "This organization represented the Jefferson administration's interest in science and stimulation of international trade." (my emphasis)

Unsurprising.  As I have already written, Enlightenment intellectuals such as Jefferson linked the development of science, laissez-faire economics and representative democracy as interconnected expressions of "Reason".   Jefferson was also responsible for the expedition which left us the Mason-Dixon line.  The accurate measurement and definition of geographical space was crucial to fostering a society which fulfilled this ideal and allowed its expressions to function correctly.

And that is exactly what the flag represents:  "It symbolized the use of triangulation in surveying."  The following link (Sea Flags) has a bevy of historical and contemporary NOAA flags which feature the red, white and blue, the triangle and stars.  For more on the link between this revolutionary tricolor, the star, the circle and triangle see our post ¡Viva la Revolución!

 

I was struck here by a similarity to the logo of Météo France, another topic I've written quite a bit about.  It features the red white and blue, a circle and a triangle.  Here the triangle penetrates the circle but is not circumscribed by it.  The colors, as in the the NOAA/NGS flags, refer back to the French national colors.  The circle perhaps represents the globe and the triangle both the revolutionary values of France (more on this to follow) and the triangulation mentioned as the inspiration for NOAA flags.  As a symbol of both Divinity and Reason, it redefines God within a Deist framework and implicity exalts Reason as a means of knowing what hitherto only God could know.

If you're rolling your eyes at this point, stop and consider that predicting the weather is akin to seeing a hazy glimpse of the future, knowing beforehand would be like having an inkling of the intentions of God.  Which brings us back to Noah: “Praemonitus praemunitus”.

Now, I was pondering all this stuff on Saturday and I realized that the circle/triangle symbol is used in a painting I'd been meaning to write about: L'Arbre de la liberté by Bernard Prosper Debia, an obscure 19th century painter from Montauban and a friend of Dominique Ingres.

Dig if you will the detail I photographed back in April, currently the wallpaper on my cellphone:

Detail from Debia's L'Arbre de la Liberté

The symbol of divinity here is inscribed withe the words "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité".  This supports my interpretation of the triangle in the Météo France logo.  Here the values of the Revolution have replaced values which had previously been used to justify the power of the Church and the aristocracy, that of divine right.  The laws of Reason and the Citizen replace those of the Church and King.  Here they shine down on a bare-breasted woman, perhaps a version of the Marianne, who, with a kind of mirror or magnifying glass, amplifies this "light of reason" and directs it onto the proceedings below:  the planting of a Liberty Tree.

Debia's L'Arbre de la Liberté, Musée Ingres, Montauban.
Source: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/image/joconde/0070/m060704_0000721_p.jpg

According to the French Ministry of Culture website, this painting dates to some time before 1876, the date of Debia's death.  (b.1791).  In addition to the triangle and liberty tree, several other revolutionary symbols are pictured.  At least one historical personage is portrayed (Alphonse de Lamartine) but there may be others.  A classical structure in the background is on fire and if my memory isn't faulty a demon of some sorts is billowing away with the smoke.  I'm not sure what that symbolizes.  The quality of this image is pretty crappy, but if you look on the lower right, you see a small America delegation, represented by an American flag, a nod and a wink to the inspiration of the American War of Independence upon France, a depiction of shared values.

In another recent post (In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king) about the Temple de la Sagesse Supreme (aka the "Illuminati Pyramid"), I took Pierre Dortiguier to task for saying that the eleven-panelled bronze tablets at the front of the pyramid represented a rebellion against the Decalogue.  I should have added more clearly that by placing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen upon tablets in a form ususally reserved for the Ten Commandments, a reference to a famous painting from 1789, the designer was indeed suggesting that new laws, based upon Reason, were replacing the old, based upon blind faith and obedience.  My issue is with Dortiguier's faulty knowledge, reading symbolism into the vagaries of decomposition, finding "proof" therein of a link to September 11th.  But the idea that one law is replacing another is, I think, valid.  But this is due to the very presense of the Declaration on Decalogue-like tablets, not because of the number of panels comprising these tablets.

So all this is a roundabout way of saying that the flag represents, with a mixture of divine and rationalist precedent, the idea that scientific investigation and Reason have (or should have) replaced revelation.  Whereas Noah depended upon getting his info directly from God, modern man must find it via observation and reasoned analysis.    The scientist was regarded both as patriarch, prophet and steward, not to mention facilitator of commerce.

¡Viva la Revolución!

In my last post I promised to link the sun and triangle in the sculpture above the door of the National Black Theater to other triangles...and the eye.  I've wandered a bit in this task and not made any startling discoveries; I thus present this less as something insightful than as a sort of record of my wanderings.  Quite a few things have already been written on the topic.  I could have developed this post a lot more extensively but don't really see the point, so my cut-off point is therefore rather arbitrary.



Flag of Argentina featuring the Sol de Mayo

Having an Argentine wife and a large number of both Argentinian and Uruguayan friends, it's only natural that when thinking of the sun as a symbol of regeneration, I thought of the Argentine and Uruguayan flags, both of which feature a jolly sun referred to as the Sol de Mayo, or Sun of May.

The Sun of May is named for the May Revolution of 1810, the first salvo in the Argentine War for Independence.  Some point to it as a representation of the Incan sun god Inti, but I think it's more likely based on European precedents.  The "sun in splendour" is a long-standing European heraldic device, but I propose that its use here was inspired by its use during the French Revolution.  Dig this quote from Wikipedia:

Eye of Providence

The sun, like the phrygian cap on Argentina's coat of arms and the triband flag, was already used as an emblem of the French Revolution. It has been speculated that groups of deputies in the French revolution used a seal very similar to the current Argentine coat of arms, including a sun symbol. In France, the sun was used especially in relation to the Cult of the Supreme Being. The sun in the French Revolution was adopted as a symbol from Freemasonic representations of the all-seeing eye, in a triangle in a burst of sunrays.

Declaration of the Rights of Man featuring fasces, Phrygian Cap and the Eye of Providence in a Triangle

Coat of Arms of Argentina featuring the Sol de Mayo 

It was a particularity of the 17th century to depict the eye in clouds or in glory, but it was used throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, often enclosed by a triangle representing the Trinity--it began as a Christian motif.  This found its way into Freemasonry and from this use was transformed into a sun.  I would also argue that, as we can see in the examples that follow, it was also transformed into a star in glory or was reduced to the triangle alone.

In the early part of the 19th century, Latin America was in a revolutionary tumult against colonial Spain.  A variety of short-lived republics popped up and fell apart, eventually settling into the more or less stable national configuration we see today.  These revolutionaries were inspired by the successful revolutions of France and the United States, so it is unsurprising their symbols popped up in the new flags and coats of arms. The Phrygian cap, for example, used extensively in US and French revolutionary propaganda, can be seen on the flags or coats of arms of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Argentina, Colombia, Haiti, Cuba, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Flag of Chile

Several flags reflect the US design (1777) of red and white bars, a blue canton in the upper left featuring white star or stars:  Chile (1817), the flag of the Liberating Expedition of Peru (1820), Texas (1839), the Confederate States "Stars and Bars", (1861) the first flag of Cuba had blue and white bars and a red canton (1868), the Brazilian state of Amazonas (1982).  At least five other Brazilian state flags have bars and upper left cantons with stars, but these are not necessarily red white and blue.  Other Brazilian flags feature the Phrygian cap.  The Bahia state flag is a variant upon the flag of Chile et. al., but instead of a single star, the blue canton features a triangle.

Flag of the State of Bahia

Interesting that the Sun of May (springtime) in the Argentine flag features 32 rays, perhaps symbolic of the points of the compass or the degrees of Scottish Rite Freemasonry.  Also interesting that the Argentine flag inspired that of Federal Republic of Central America (1823-1838), which has the same triband colors, but replaces the sun tin the middle with a triangle within a circle.  Within this triangle is the Phrygian cap in glory, coming out from under the mountains and under a rainbow, yet another symbol of regeneration.  This symbolism still appears in the coat of arms of El Salvador.

I have already mentioned  the Cuban flag with the star and bars, but recently came across an article about the flag of Puerto Rico.  It is essentially the same flag but the red, white and blue is in a different configuration.  The article has this interesting tidbit:  "The Cuban flag was designed by Narciso López, and the concept behind the design of the flag is based on that of a Masonic apron. López was a well-known Freemason (Solomon's Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M. -- Savannah, Georgia), adventurer and soldier, famous for his attempts to liberate Cuba from Spain in the 1850s."  The author then goes on to make many of the same conclusions and links between the triangle, the sun, the star and the Eye of Providence.

The Cuban government explains the flag thusly:

The equilateral triangle which outstands is the perfect geometrical shape, because of its equal three sides and three angles, which means equality among men.

The three colours (white blue and red) are related to French revolutionary triptych of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and besides they the ideals of justice expressed in white pureness, and altuism and highness of those ideals in blue, with the red, reflection of the blood shed in search of freedom. They also incarnate the new republican and democratic ideals that are synthetized in the citizen of the republic, free and equal, with full rights and duties, opposedly to king´s vassals, according to absolute monarchies´ conception.

Finally, the five-pointed star, with one pointing North to indicate steadiness, expresses the balance between moral and social qualities which must tipify the state, and shines by its own light, it is to say, the independent state.

So, the star symbolizes liberty, the triangle equality and the strips union, perfection and fraternity.

I'm not sure where to fit this in so I've plunked this fact down here.  I find it somehow fitting that one nickname for the U.S. flag is Old Glory.  I always thought that this referred to renown or great praise, perhaps beauty, but I can't help now but think it also refers to the glory we have been discussing, that is the representation of rays of light as from the eye, triangle, sun, etc.

If I can make another comments about another flag: that of the Philippines, another country to have thrown of the colonial yoke of the Spanish. The Katipunan (1892) was discovered in 1896, an event which sparked the Philippine Revolution. The Katipunan was an essentially Masonic revolutionary brotherhood; most of the founders were Masons and its initiation rites and hierarchy were based on Masonic models. The first system of initiation was a triangle system, whereby a member initiated two new members unknown to one another. After this proved too unwieldy, the Masonic system was established and the organization was divided into three degrees.

Flag of Puerto Rico; the Flag of Cuba has a red canton with blue and white stripes

Flag of The Philippines

The Philippines' flag is a variation upon the Cuban/Puerto Rican flag: red, white and blue, triangular canton....but instead of a single star there are three stars at each point of the triangle. A yellow sun adorns the middle. This sun is not at all out of line with our other revolutionary flags; the sun is also thought to be a reference to the flag of the Katipunan, the Masonic brotherhood that kicked off the Philippine Revolution.

The Lautaro Lodges were secret, quasi-masonic Lodges and included such revolutionary leaders as: Bernardo O'Higgins (1778-1842) in Chile; José de San Martin in Argentina (1778-1850); Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) just about everywhere a revolution was to be found; Francisco de Miranda (1750-1816) in Venezuela.... It is difficult to escape the fact that Freemasonry inspired these men. It would not be surprising then that as in France, where the Eye of Providence was transformed by revolutionaries into a sun symbolising regeneration and illumination, it would appear in the New World as well. Note also how the sun finds itself replaced by a triangle, recalling its origin, and that in the Federal Republic of Central America, as in the Argentine coat of arms, the sun becomes a Phrygian cap in glory. Triangle, Sun, Eye, Phrygian cap....each one replaces the other.


Lodge Founder Miranda was said to have been made a Mason in 1783, in Philadelphia, at a Lodge frequented by Lafayette:

There is no irrefutable data concerning the exact day and month of his initiation. It appears that, due to contingencies derived from the war, the archives of the Lodge where Miranda received the Masonic Light, were lost. What is amply known, however, is that Lafayette was his Principal Recommender or "Godfather of Initiation". There are also numerous references citing his constant visits to Lodges in New York, and his fraternal meetings with George Washington at a number of Masonic gatherings.

Actually, a lot of doubt has been shed on this. Miranda's diaries only reveal two visits to Lodges, not as a Freemason but as a curious outsider. But this was only part of his wide-ranging interests. Such visits to a variety of incongruous places are multiple. It would appear that the repetition of this story has made it appear to be an ironclad truth when in fact, it is not.

It seems obvious that Freemasons played critical roles in the 19th century revolutions of Latin America, inspired by two 18th century revolutions where Freemasons played equally important roles.  Yet this is a far cry from saying Freemasonry orchestrated them.  The sun, although used as a symbol in Freemasonry--and one should ask here what symbol isn't?--is hardly its most important.  The Phrygian cap and Liberty Pole aren't Masonic at all.  (It occurs to me that the Liberty Pole is a version of the Maypole, a rather phallic component of springtime festivities naturally celebrating regeneration).  The recurrence of triangles and suns, evoking the eye of providence, certainly make it appear as though revolutionary Freemasons had some say in leaving their mark.  None of this is "hidden".  These symbols would have been easily recognizable in their day.  Today, Freemasons make no bones about advertising the Freemasonic affiliation of revolutionaries, even when this affiliation is unconfirmed.  Indeed, one can say the both Freemasons and their critics overstate the role Freemasonry played in these revolutions.  Which is not to say that individual Freemason and Lodges didn't play important roles.  But even here we must be careful to sort the accumulation of received ideas from historical reality.  And besides, the triangle and the sun have long non-Masonic traditions.

We have already discussed how the New World had been regarded as the regeneration of the Old as far back as Francis Bacon.  In the latter-half of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, several historical transformations came to a head.  I have identified three important historical threads.....the rise of capitalism, the beginning of the modern nation state and the development of the scientific method.  It seems clear that in business and modern diplomacy, as well as in scientific endeavour, competence needed to take precedence over privilege, and that competence needed to be cultivated.  In promoting reason over blind faith, the forward-thinking leaders of the day were in natural conflict with the Church.  In promoting capability over entitlement, they ran into conflict with the aristocracy and the nobility.  As young men, eager to make their way in society, found themselves blocked, their anger naturally grew.  As the desire to progress met resistance, something had to give. 

Naturally, some men grouped together to give history a push in the right direction.  One must also consider that the leader of the Revolutions were mostly men of means; I am always surprised to see how many Generals in the French Revolutionary Army were minor nobles.  Certainly a lot of the rhetoric was self-serving, applying equally to dispossessed masses as well as the minor nobles and bourgeoisie who, without the right name or connections, found their aspirations hampered.

Freemasonry became a tool in this struggle.  I think the doctrine of human improvement, if not perfectibility, runs counter to the idea of natural aristocracy:  the nobility saw themselves as naturally better than others, chosen by God.  The Catholic Church saw all men as born corrupt.  Various Protestant sects saw a man's fate as pre-destined.  But Masons saw things differently:  all men were created equal and can improve.  This would later be worded in the American Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I see the "pursuit of happiness" to be of special importance here.  Happiness isn't guaranteed, only the opportunity to achieve it.  I interpret this not in happiness as a mood, but as a state of fully-realized self, whether professionally, spiritually or mentally.  It is the guarantee that no social order will inhibit the industrious individual's right to realize their hopes and aspirations.  At least in theory.  Modern American Freemasons use the motto:  "Making Good Men Better."

The following article concerning "the pursuit of happiness" is instructive:

Properly understood, therefore, when John Locke, Samuel Johnson, and Thomas Jefferson wrote of “the pursuit of happiness,” they were invoking the Greek and Roman philosophical tradition in which happiness is bound up with the civic virtues of courage, moderation, and justice. Because they are civic virtues, not just personal attributes, they implicate the social aspect of eudaimonia. The pursuit of happiness, therefore, is not merely a matter of achieving individual pleasure. That is why Alexander Hamilton and other founders referred to "social happiness".

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" also form a neat trinity, bringing us back to the triangle.  This trinity of inalienable rights can also be seen in the French Revolutionary motto:  "Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité".

Still, as I said earlier, one must be careful not to overstate the role that Freemasonry played in Revolutionary movements; we should instead speak of individual Freemasons.

In Freemasonry's Contribution to South American Independence,  Leon Zeldis (Freemason) writes:

Paradoxically then, the interests of masonic and non-masonic authors have coincided in trying to exaggerate and enlarge the role played by Freemasonry in the independence of Chile and other South-American countries. Wishful thinking replaced the critical apparatus of the historian, and the indiscriminate use of the word ‘Lodge’, without distinguishing between masonic and non-masonic organizations, has compounded the confusion.

The documentary evidence as well, has often been of a sort that raises serious doubts about its validity.  Spanish historians, some of whom are inclined to discover the hidden hand of Freemasonry in any place where Spanish interests have been affected....enthusiastically embraced the theory that the Lautaro lodges (which, for them, were regular masonic Lodges in all respects) were the root and soul of the Latin-American independence movements.

This simplistic view ignores, of course, the other factors operating at the time, such as the growing antagonism between ‘criollos’ and ‘peninsulares’, the weakness of the Spanish crown at the time, the profound influence of the ideas of philosophers such as Rousseau, Saint-Simon, Locke and Hume and the example of the North-American colonies who gained their independence from England.

Did Freemasonry then play no role in the independence of Latin-America? The answer depends, to a large extent, on what we mean by independence. If we refer only to the military actions that led to the final defeat of royalist Spanish armies and their expulsion from the continent, we must admit that the direct influence of Freemasonry was minimal. This does not mean, of course, that we should adopt a radical scepticism on this subject. There is a well-documented participation of individual freemasons in the independence struggles of all American regions, north, centre and south. For some of them, their masonic background and experience was a determining factor in their libertarian efforts. For others, masonic membership was only a minor component of their personal history and view of the world. Since we cannot enter into the hearts of men, we have no way of evaluating the true importance that ‘being a mason’ held for men such as Bolívar.

Complete independence is a long and complicated process, involving many aspects, that may take many decades to come to fruition. In this sense, the contribution of freemasons towards expanding and completing the independence process of which political independence is but the first stage cannot be overstated.

Which seems to be the most sensible view of things; after all, it supports the conclusion I had come to previously!  I was also pleased to find this article by (Freemason) Alex Davidson entitle The Masonic Concept of Liberty:

In summary, we can say that Freemasonry was one of the channels, perhaps the main channel, by which the values of the Enlightenment were transmitted from Britain to America, France, the Netherlands....The essentials of the message were liberty, tolerance and sociability, and.....the idea that through reason, all men could find a way of life that is satisfying and fulfilling.

Secondly, we can show from history that Freemasonry was inevitably the bearer of revolutionary Enlightenment ideas where liberty did not exist. We know with reasonable certainty that the French lodges did not practice politics, yet their philosophy could not but cause many of their members to be active participants in the politics of revolutionary liberation movements. Freemasonry may have been officially neutral, but its members were not. And finally, we can remark that we are all, indirectly, the beneficiaries of Freemasonry and the Enlightenment: we now regard their general political values as so normal that we tend to take them for granted. Secularism, constitutionalism and parliamentarism are their heritage, obviating the need for revolutionary action to achieve liberty.

So.  I think this concludes what I wanted to get at in this article.  A kind of meandering and at times contradictory train wreck of a post that's gone a long way from suns and triangles.  I consulted The Gid on where to go with this, and he had some good ideas, but even his sage advice wasn't enough to save us here.  Like the battery bunny, I just keep going and going and going.  And just because I'm tired of this beast, I'll plant my flag here and cry "¡Ya basta!"

See Also:  Masonic Republics