America’s Great Seal: Conspiracy magnet

Got a conspiracy? Want one?
Look no further than the Great Seal of the United States: A magnet for all things arcane from conspiracies of Freemasonry, secret plans, and even satanism.

The Seal didn’t start out to be mysterious. When the American revolutionaries, men like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, finished their revolution, they had to set up a government, and that included creating an official seal for documents.

According to the Great Seal’s official history, it took years and three committees before Congress could decide on a design that everyone liked. Franklin and Jefferson offered different models that included everything from Moses on the shore of the Red Sea to a depiction of Hercules.

Most everyone has seen the final product, though perhaps not everyone knows what it is. The Great Seal, adopted in 1782, appears on the dollar bill and passports.

On one side it features a bald eagle clutching an olive branch in one hand and a bundle of arrows in the other along with the famous saying E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one) motto on a banner in its mouth. The eagle is covered in a shield that looks similar to the American flag.

On the other side is an unfinished pyramid with the Eye of Providence above it and two mottoes in Latin: Providence Approved and New Order for the Ages.

And, enter the conspiracies:

* Freemasonry controls the United States. The Eye of Providence is said to be a Freemason symbol. But, in fact, the masons may have copied the idea from the Seal since the Eye was not a symbol of masonry until 1797. But Benjamin Franklin was a Mason. So, hey…

The Eye, especially, might seem cryptic to modern viewers, but it was a traditional symbol of God, found in paintings throughout Christian history.

* Satanists and other evildoers put the ‘New Order’ motto in as a map to their goal of establishing one government for the world. Either that or it was supposed to be hopeful.

* A Secret Society of Power, vested in 13 families. Think not? Well why are there 13 stripes on the eagle, 13 arrows in his talon, 13 leaves upon the olive branch, 13 olives on the leaves? Conventional explanation: They stand for the 13 colonies. Seems right. But hey…