Before the Pyramids: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery (29 page)

Figure 20.
The Scottish Rite Masonic camp with pentagon and triangle

The following explanation is given in the ritual:

The camp of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a nonagon enclosing a heptagon, within whose lines is a pentagon which encloses a triangle in the centre of which is a circle. Thus do we find the mystic numbers, 3, 5, 7 and 9, all emanating from the circle of infinity. As these numbers symbolize Divine attributes and Masonic principles, so should Masonic labour emanate from Divine love, be directed by Divine wisdom, and be exercised in Divine power for the good of mankind and the glory of God.

The second emanation from infinity is denoted by the pentagon, each angle of which represents a division of the Scottish Rite Army. Take heed while their attributes are now rehearsed.

Practically the whole of the ceremonial part of the 32nd degree is taken up with the military explanations of the five corners of the pentagon after which the degree is conferred on those seeking it. Interestingly, the United States armed forces are made up of five components: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard and, since 1947, the Air Force.

As the ritual of the 32nd degree develops, a rallying cry is made calling upon loyal men to fight the coming battles. There is a trumpet blast followed by a call to arms. The candidate hears cries of ‘the enemy’, ‘Save us’ and ‘To the Walls’. He realizes that they are under attack and that the lives of all the men, women and children within it are in peril.

Can this strange ceremony have anything to do with Washington DC or, in particular, the creation of the Pentagon?

The degree obviously long predates the decision to build a great building to orchestrate warfare, but the men who conceived it would have been pleased to have used the symbolism of their high-level Freemasonic ritual. Naturally they could not tell anyone but their own elite, but it would have made perfect sense to those who knew. The power of symbolism can never be underestimated – and for people whose lives centre around Free-masonry this would have been a wonderful idea. It is well attested that Franklin D Roosevelt was also fascinated by, and very knowledgeable about, architecture. He designed buildings for Warm Springs, a health spa in Georgia that he bought in 1926; houses and two post offices in Dutchess County, New York, where he lived; as well as his own presidential library. It is also known that he had a taste for the past, remodelling his own home in the Georgian style. Many of Washington DC’s buildings of that era, including the Jefferson Memorial, owe their neoclassical style directly to Roosevelt’s preference.

Franklin D Roosevelt was also a Freemason. He was initiated at Holland Lodge No. 8, New York City on 11 October, 1911. And he was a 33rd-degree Scottish Rite Freemason. Could he have been influenced to move the Pentagon into its exact position? It seems likely that the idea of using the military symbolism of the pentagon form – as used in the ritual 32nd degree – as the inspiration for the new military HQ of the USA would have appealed to Roosevelt’s instincts.

If anyone still doubts a connection between the Pentagon and the ritual of the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite, there is one other very significant aspect of the architectural design to consider. The ritual states that there is a triangle inside the pentagon. If one draws an equilateral triangle inside the plan of the Pentagon it fits in an unexpectedly neat manner. Placing the tip of the triangle inside one of the points of the Pentagon (as shown in the diagram used in the ritual) the base of the triangle forms the line of the inner wall of the building. That inner wall could have been placed at any level but it has, unquestionably, been designed as the base of a triangle inside a pentagon.

An equilateral triangle drawn from any one of the points of the Pentagon matches the building line of the inner pentagon.

Figure 21.
The Pentagon with an equilateral triangle

The chances that the design of the Pentagon was not directly influenced by the rituals of the Scottish Rite appear to be extremely small. But we were to find yet more evidence that would persuade all but the most ostrich-like of individuals.

We were not short of evidence to support our claim that Megalithic Seconds were used as integer units for the planning of Washington, but there were more to be found. There is an extremely accurate megalithic connection between the Ellipse centre and one of the most important memorials on the National Mall. This is the Second World War Memorial, which is situated nearly half a kilometre west of the Washington Monument. The distance between the centre of the Ellipse and the centre of another ellipse that forms the focal point of the Memorial is a very accurate 2 × 366 MY. This was an extremely surprising result because, of course, the Memorial could not have been completed until after 1946. In fact it is very much more recent than that. The site for the Memorial was dedicated by President Clinton on Veterans’ Day in 1995 and the Memorial was not finally opened to the public until 29 April 2004. We also found that the distance between the centre of the Memorial and the all-important location under the dome of the Capitol is a very accurate 9 × 366 MY, or 9 Megalithic Seconds of arc.

Megalithic planning is very much alive and well in Washington DC.

As we have seen, the penultimate degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry states that the shape inside the pentagon is a triangle – and this shape is at the heart of the final degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry.

To recap, we had established that the distance from the centre of the Pentagon building, straight out through the front door, across the Potomac and to the Capitol, is a straight line exactly 15 Megalithic Seconds long. The distance from the Capitol to the centre of the Ellipse is 8 Megalithic Seconds, and back from the Ellipse to the Pentagon is 10 Megalithic Seconds. That creates a giant triangle across the face of Washington that has a length of 33 Megalithic Seconds (just over 6.22 miles and representing 33 × 366 MY).

Needless to say, the idea of 33 units was already familiar.

This is the journey a person could make from a humble Entered Apprentice Freemason right up to Sovereign Grand Inspector-General – if they are so chosen. In the United States of America in particular there are large numbers of 32nd-degree Freemasons – but few of them indeed ever get selected to make the final step to the 33rd degree itself.

And the key symbol used for this degree – is the triangle. Whilst Freemasonry these days is generally very open about its activities and its structure, the 33rd degree remains somewhat shy about itself. All that is really said is that the 33rd degree is an honour that is granted solely at the discretion of the Supreme Council. We decided we should try and find out a little more about that happens at this elevated level of Freemasonry, so Chris contacted a friend who is a 33rd-degree member of the Scottish Rite – Southern Jurisdiction, which has its Supreme Council in Washington DC.

Figure 22.
Masonic symbol for the 33
^rd
degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry

The reply was astonishing:

All 33rds receive the same ritual degree. However, only a maximum of 33 are ‘active’ 33rds at any given moment in time, in that they have the right to vote in the Supreme Council that controls Scottish Rite. The Active 33rds are called Sovereign Grand Inspectors General. They run the Craft throughout the state in which they live … The rest of us are 33 honorary with no say other than how early we get up in the morning …

Scottish Rite is different from all other Masonic bodies in that it is a beneficent hierarchy. By that I mean that in all other Masonic bodies the membership elects the Grand Master, or whatever, and purports to control the organization. In Scottish Rite the Supreme Commander is a full-time paid employee that dictates all activity, most actions ratified, or at least not challenged by the Supreme Council. The vote of the Supreme Council is final and the membership only receives the effect of their activity, but has no say or right to challenge.

It is a dictatorship, but the beneficent argument is to provide credibility by saying it is the most efficient Masonic organization and can respond to needs and change instantly, whereas the Masonic fraternity controlled by autonomous Grand Lodges in each state, without any collective national body speaking for the fraternity is terribly inefficient, and is becoming archaic.

So the Scottish Rite does not even pretend to be democratic. There is one man who makes all the decisions and expects them to be ratified without question. Where does such a person come from? Whose will do they represent? If we are right in suspecting that even President F D Roosevelt was influenced by the desires of the Scottish Rite regarding the placing and dimensions of the Pentagon – what else could have been ‘guided’ during the 20th century?

We are concerned; not that there are bad things necessarily happening here, but that anti-Masons (with ignorance and prejudice in equal measure) will construe this as a Masonic plot. If there was any influence on President Roosevelt back then, we certainly do not believe that there was anything negative about this activity then or at any time.

If we are right – the motive of the Scottish Rite was simply to celebrate the Craft’s old knowledge and to make the United States all the stronger by adhering to the ritual of the ancients. But what exactly was the plan that they seem to have been playing out?

The story of Enoch that is at the heart of the Scottish Rite is associated with triangles. The great triangle formed between the centres of the Pentagon, the Capitol and the Ellipse is 33 Megalithic Seconds of arc long. As there are 366 Megalithic Yards to a Megalithic degree, one could symbolically divide each degree of the Scottish Rite in 366 parts. In old times, it had been normal to attain one degree per year, which means that an initiate would progress by one Megalithic Yard for every sidereal day (one revolution of the Earth on its axis). On this basis, after 36 years of diligent study the brightest and the best would have attained the final point of distinction.

So there is a fascinating correlation between the Neolithic idea of a geodetic Megalithic Degree of latitude and a degree of the Scottish Rite. One Megalithic Yard for every transit of a star such as Sirius across the sky. This is a perfect piece of Neolithic thinking. What else could the giant triangle on the ground be for? The importance of the Capitol and the Pentagon is obvious, but what makes the Ellipse so very special?

In considering this issue our minds turned back to the comment by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey, back in the 19th century, that he had control of the project to construct the Ellipse – except for an excavation that was taking place at the centre. This subterranean working was described as being under the authority of ‘District Commissioners’ – apparently concerning a sewer.

We knew that the idea of an excavation at a holy spot is of central importance in Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Chris has visited Scottish Rite temples in the USA and seen how underground chambers are routinely constructed for the purpose of conducting Enochian rituals.

Our suspicion was that this gigantic triangle (with its base connecting the structure that housed US military might with the centre of national government, and its upper point at the known excavation in the Ellipse) might be supporting something of high symbolic value; and, maybe, something much more than a symbol.

Of course, the hypothetical chamber at the centre of the Ellipse would have been planned at the same time as the Capitol, and both were developed to their present state at about the same time. But the third point of the triangle was nonexistent until Hell’s Bottom was cleared for the construction of the Pentagon. Therefore, if our theory is correct, the 33-degree triangle is a mid-20th-century embellishment to a pre-existent site at the Ellipse.

That would make perfect sense to us. Every generation seeks to build upon and enhance the achievements of its forebears. The Founding Fathers had quietly built in all of the physical values of Freemasonic lore that they could – and in the early 1940s a select group of 33rd-degree Freemasons did the same when introducing a new component into the fabric of their ‘New Jerusalem’.