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Difference between revisions of "Question: Why is the Masonic symbol of the "All Seeing Eye" present on the Salt Lake Temple?"
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==Question== | ==Question== | ||
| − | The Masonic symbol of the "All Seeing Eye" was at one time displayed by the character of Satan | + | The Masonic symbol of the "All Seeing Eye" was at one time displayed by the character of Satan , along with the Masonic square and compass. Does this suggest that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young was trying to teach that Masonry was evil, or was imitating Masonic ritual? |
==Answer== | ==Answer== | ||
[[Image:All_seeing_eye_USD.jpg|right|frame|Detail of US dollar bill, showing the All Seeing Eye.]] | [[Image:All_seeing_eye_USD.jpg|right|frame|Detail of US dollar bill, showing the All Seeing Eye.]] | ||
| − | The All Seeing Eye, as well as the Square and Compasses and many other similar symbols, were displayed by the Satan character | + | The All Seeing Eye, as well as the Square and Compasses and many other similar symbols, were displayed by the Satan character |
| − | Why would these images be used | + | Why would these images be used ? FAIR is aware of no writing which addresses this matter, but it seems logical to conclude that the symbols were used to show how Satan can usurp the symbols of good. In this instance, these symbols are used by the Mason to teach a variety of principles: |
* the All Seeing Eye (of God) represents God's omniscience | * the All Seeing Eye (of God) represents God's omniscience | ||
* the Square represents virtue or rectitude | * the Square represents virtue or rectitude | ||
| Line 47: | Line 47: | ||
==Endnotes== | ==Endnotes== | ||
| − | + | ||
| − | |||
#{{note|interpret1}} "The tools also point allegorically to God, "The One Great Architect of the Universe," to the act of creation, and the building principles of geometry and architecture. To Masons, the square and compass as describers of lines and implements of proof also stand for morality and judgment. The square teaches Masons to, square our actions and to keep them within bounds.' The compass, which draws a perfect circle, also serves to remind that the passions should be bound. The circle, long a symbol of divinity, also suggests eternity without beginning or end, and the infinite, perfect, limitless mind." - {{Sunstone1|author=Allen D. Roberts|article=Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?|vol=4|num=3(Issue #15)|date=May 1979|start=31}} {{link|url=http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/searchable/mag-text.asp?MagID=15}} | #{{note|interpret1}} "The tools also point allegorically to God, "The One Great Architect of the Universe," to the act of creation, and the building principles of geometry and architecture. To Masons, the square and compass as describers of lines and implements of proof also stand for morality and judgment. The square teaches Masons to, square our actions and to keep them within bounds.' The compass, which draws a perfect circle, also serves to remind that the passions should be bound. The circle, long a symbol of divinity, also suggests eternity without beginning or end, and the infinite, perfect, limitless mind." - {{Sunstone1|author=Allen D. Roberts|article=Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?|vol=4|num=3(Issue #15)|date=May 1979|start=31}} {{link|url=http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/searchable/mag-text.asp?MagID=15}} | ||
#{{note|roberts3}} {{Sunstone1|author=Allen D. Roberts|article=Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?|vol=4|num=3(Issue #15)|date=May 1979|start=32}} {{link|url=http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/searchable/mag-text.asp?MagID=15}} | #{{note|roberts3}} {{Sunstone1|author=Allen D. Roberts|article=Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?|vol=4|num=3(Issue #15)|date=May 1979|start=32}} {{link|url=http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/searchable/mag-text.asp?MagID=15}} | ||
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Question
The Masonic symbol of the "All Seeing Eye" was at one time displayed by the character of Satan , along with the Masonic square and compass. Does this suggest that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young was trying to teach that Masonry was evil, or was imitating Masonic ritual?
Answer
Detail of US dollar bill, showing the All Seeing Eye.
The All Seeing Eye, as well as the Square and Compasses and many other similar symbols, were displayed by the Satan character
Why would these images be used ? FAIR is aware of no writing which addresses this matter, but it seems logical to conclude that the symbols were used to show how Satan can usurp the symbols of good. In this instance, these symbols are used by the Mason to teach a variety of principles:
- the All Seeing Eye (of God) represents God's omniscience
- the Square represents virtue or rectitude
- the Compasses circumscribe our passions[1]
The lesson here was that just because someone has the appearance of Godliness, just because he comes before you with the symbols of good does not make him Godly or good. One should, as the endowment teaches, look for true messengers from God, having genuine authority and not merely the outer trappings of such.
In the end simply having the symbols is not enough.
Furthermore, the All-Seeing Eye was a symbol which also had powerful positive associations for the Saints, and they used it frequently:
- Because the all-seeing eye depicts certain aspects of God's character, as well as an actual part of His physical person, the symbol proved useful to the Mormons. LDS symbolists created imposing eyes on early ZCMI signs, gold pieces, Nauvoo Legion flags, The Mormon and The Seer (newspapers), diplomas and certificates, Salt Lake Temple platters, plaques on the Manti, St. George and Ogden tabernacles, and the Washington Monument Stone. Mason W. H. Cunningham has described the eye as "sovereign inspection whom Sun, Moon and Stars obey, and under whose watchful care even comets perform their stupendous revolutions, pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart, and will reward us according to our merits."[2]
Attitude of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to such symbols
How did Joseph Smith approach these matters? One author remarked:
- Although Joseph Smith freely admitted relating Masonry and Mormonism, to assert that Joseph's Mormonism was simply the direct product of borrowed Masonry is too naive and incomplete a conclusion by itself. Joseph's Masonry was not a conventional one. He attempted to restore it in much the same way the gospel was restored. That is, he saw Masonry, like Christendom, as possessing some important truths which could be beneficially extracted from what was otherwise an apostate institution. Mormons, with the restored priesthood, had the "true Masonry,' even 'Celestial Masonry." Joseph claimed to have received some of the "lost keys" which would permit him to purify Masonry and return it to its state of ancient perfection. His free use of Masonic symbols, then, reflects Smith's feeling that he had a legitimate right to employ these divine emblems of antiquity.[3]
And Brigham:
- Symbolism continued in Utah through the efforts of Brigham Young who caused its usage to expand-both as to variety and frequency. While Young had been a Mason and personally owned Masonic handbooks, after Nauvoo troubles with Gentile Masons (including their probable participation in the martyrdom and subsequent persecution and expulsion of the Saints), he had no love for the group. Yet the ornamental trappings planned for the Salt Lake Temple (originally extensive but much diluted after his death in 1877) demonstrated a continuing implementation of Joseph's selected Masonic symbols...Even more dramatic was Young's extensive use of the all-seeing eye motif on signs of ZCMI stores during and after 1868. Though the parallel with Masonry is obvious, some say Brigham could have obtained his ideas from the Egyptian Book of Breathings. Orson Pratt and W. W. Phelps have also been considered possible sources for symbolism of the astrological type. Whatever the actual source, Young, like Joseph, was open in his use of symbols and did not feel that he was borrowing from Masonry (which did not exist in Utah for several years after 1847) but was rather employing metaphors belonging to the universal body of truth.[4]
As the Saints drifted further from an intensive use of symbols, the presence of symbols on the Salt Lake Temple (planned in Brigham Young's day) caused some concern and confusion near the end of the 19th century:
- Truman O. Angell, in response to an inquiry by Franklin D. Richards as to why the Salt Lake Temple had Masonic symbols on it, wrote that they had nothing to do with the Masons but were derived by President Brigham Young after an intensive study of scripture, particularly the Old Testament...That year as the temple was being pushed to completion, Elder Richards observed two things which disturbed him. Firstly, basic architectural changes had been made apparently without authorization, i.e. leaving out windows which appeared in the original design. More bothersome were certain symbols seemingly of Masonic design. Richards took the matter up with Truman O. Angell, Sr., the original architect, who by then was an old man in failing health. Angell defensively responded that all changes had been authorized by Brigham Young (who had died in 1877.)...He did not explain why certain symbols were left off entirely and denied that Freemasonry had anything to do with the designs. In a letter to John Taylor, Angell then denied even discussing Masonry with Richards, "I made no reference to Free Masonry when conversing with Brother Richards on the subject." Richards, however, mentions in a letter to President Taylor that part of Angell's reason for omitting certain windows was 'that is was not Masonic for light to be received from the North." Taylor, upon receiving that remark, clearly expressed his view that Masonic considerations should have no part in the temple's design: "It may be true, as he (Angell) says, that in Free Masonry the light comes from the East, but we can scarcely recognize that as a reason why our Temple built for the administration of the Ordinances of the Most High God should be erected according to its rules." Taylor instructed Richards to instruct Angell to follow faithfully the design in the 1850s steel engraving and not to make changes without prior approval. It was, however, too late to return to the earlier design. Ironically, such a reversion would have resulted in more, not less, Masonic symbolism (compass and square, saturn stones, etc. were planned) and consequently greater confusion as to origins.[5]
Decline of the symbols in the twentieth century Church
Today, of course, there is no reference to the All Seeing Eye and the other symbols. We no longer live in a world steeped in symbols, as was the case when the endowment was first developed. The decline of Masonry as a social institution means that (as this question demonstrates) such symbols confuse rather than enlighten the modern member of the Church. Therefore, these symbols are not used in the present endowment—as we have seen, the symbol is not the key, but rather the underlying message or truth being taught. If the symbol does not help teach the truth, it is of no real purpose.
Endnotes
- [note] "The tools also point allegorically to God, "The One Great Architect of the Universe," to the act of creation, and the building principles of geometry and architecture. To Masons, the square and compass as describers of lines and implements of proof also stand for morality and judgment. The square teaches Masons to, square our actions and to keep them within bounds.' The compass, which draws a perfect circle, also serves to remind that the passions should be bound. The circle, long a symbol of divinity, also suggests eternity without beginning or end, and the infinite, perfect, limitless mind." - Allen D. Roberts, "Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?," Sunstone 4 no. (Issue #3(Issue #15)) (May 1979), 31. #15) off-site off-site
- [note] Allen D. Roberts, "Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?," Sunstone 4 no. (Issue #3(Issue #15)) (May 1979), 32. #15) off-site off-site
- [note] Allen D. Roberts, "Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?," Sunstone 4 no. (Issue #3(Issue #15)) (May 1979), 25. #15) off-site off-site
- [note] Allen D. Roberts, "Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?," Sunstone 4 no. (Issue #3(Issue #15)) (May 1979), 26. #15) off-site off-site
- [note] Allen D. Roberts, "Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?," Sunstone 4 no. (Issue #3(Issue #15)) (May 1979), 26–27. #15) off-site off-site