Of all the “Masonic symbols” associated with the founding of America, Manly Hall viewed the design of the Great Seal of the United States as the highest signature of occult planning by Freemasons. This was not only due to the repetition of the number 13, the pentagram shapes, the uncapped pyramid or the Phoenix-Eagle, but Hall, like other experts in mystical literature and Western esoteric tradition understood the “mass of occult and Masonic symbols” on the Great Seal represented both the tangible ambitions of a new society and a metaphysical concept attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which means that visible matter is mirrored by unseen reality, or, “as above, so below.” Hall believed what this meant practically was that only students of archaic or esoteric symbolism would be able to decipher the true meaning hidden within the subterfuge of the seal’s design and that the symbolism was thus intended to convey two sets of meaning—the first for non-illuminates having to do with certain natural or historical issues perceived to be important to society; and the second deeper occult truisms meant for comprehension by members of the exalted Order.
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