The Master Game

by Graham Hancock

  Continuing with the hypothetical sephirothic scheme of L’Enfant's Washington, DC, we note that the location of the gigantic obelisk of the Washington Monument corresponds to the sephirah known as Tipheret, which means ‘Beauty’. This sephirah, as we saw in Chapter Fifteen, represents the Sun, the centre of things, from which emanates all life and light. The analogy intended by the ‘Egyptian’ obelisk that stands in Washington therefore seems obvious. Towering more than seven times as high those in Rome, Paris, London and New York, this powerful solar talisman is today the emblem of the capital city of the new world order.

  Echoes

  If we overlay Christopher Wren's plan for London with L’Enfant's for Washington we find that the Royal Exchange in the former corresponds with the US Capitol in the latter. Since we know that the laying of the cornerstone of the US Capitol was an intensely Masonic affair involving George Washington himself, the juxtaposition of the Capitol and the Royal Exchange raises an obvious question: was any similar Masonic ceremony ever held in London for the Royal Exchange?

  The Royal Exchange was founded as the bourse by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566 and received its present name by royal proclamation in 1571. On 3 September 1666 it was engulfed by the Great Fire and totally destroyed. Soon afterwards, however, Charles II commissioned new plans from the architect Edward Jarman for the rebuilding of the Royal Exchange120 and work began in mid-1667. Just as Washington, Freemason and president of the United States, participated in the Capitol ceremony in 1793, so too, as we shall see, did Charles II, suspected Freemason and king of England, participate at the equivalent ceremony at the Royal Exchange 126 years earlier.

  Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange, died in 1579. But his name has been persistently linked to Freemasonry and his legacy continued to play a role in its development long after his death. In 1660 his London residence, Gresham's house at Bishopsgate – by then Gresham College – became the first home of the Royal Society. The reader will recall that many of the original protagonists linked with Gresham College such as Sir Robert Moray, John Wilkins, Christopher Wren, Elias Ashmole and John Evelyn were, in some way or other, associated with either the Invisible College, the Royal Society or the early Masonic lodges in London. Though harder to specify there was also a strong Masonic ‘ambience’ at Gresham College, as Robert Lomas shows in his study of the Royal Society. This ‘ambience’ can be sensed in Gresham's own decree that ‘seven readers’ or scholars should be appointed there to lecture on each of the ‘seven liberal arts’.121 Indeed Lomas goes so far as to argue that the college was ‘the main centre for Freemasonry in Restoration London … which Sir Thomas Gresham had set up to support his Masonic ideals of study’.122

  We have also seen in Chapter Fifteen how Christopher Wren, unlike John Evelyn, had retained the original location of the Royal Exchange in his plan for London, giving it a pre-eminent position in his overall layout. This is what historian Adrian Tinniswood has to say about Wren's decision: The real pride of place went to the [Royal] Exchange piazza with its radial vistas and its surrounding complex of commercial buildings. The absolutist ideology underlying the planning of Sixtine Rome, which Louis XIV and André Le Nôtre were currently putting to such good use in the laying out of Versailles, was here called into service to pay homage to mercantilism. Trade was to be the new religion.123

  The ‘new religion’, in Wren's mind, might well have been a concoction of the new scientific ideologies coming from Royal Society, Freemasonry and Templarism – all of which extolled the virtues of commerce and trade. For all their possible dualism at a late stage of their history let's not forget that the Templars were at the very root of the banking and investment systems of Europe. As for the Freemasons, they would eventually insinuate themselves into the trade guilds and into the banking, investment and insurance institutions of the city of London. Thus the Royal Exchange becomes the symbol or talisman of mercantilism and all it stands for.

  The confirmation that Masons and their rituals were involved in the rebuilding of Gresham's Royal Exchange after the Great Fire comes in the diary of Elias Ashmole where a cryptic note reads as follows: King Charles his position of the first stone at the Royall Exchange uppon its Restauration October 23rd, 1667, 23h. 7m. a.m. P. Esq. Ashmole et Dm. Bernard [sic].124

  Elias Ashmole's pre-eminent role in the origins of Freemasonry in England requires no further emphasis. It should not surprise us, therefore, that according to historian C. H. Josten, a specialist on Elias Ashmole who examined this enigmatic entry, it is perhaps telling us that King Charles II laid the ‘first stone’ i.e. the cornerstone of the Royal Exchange ‘in true Masonic form, and that for this reason Ashmole, the Freemason, was asked to determine the most propitious time for the ceremony.’125 It is known that Ashmole was frequently asked by Charles II to ‘cast horoscopes’ for various stately functions and, more particularly, after the Great Fire of 1666, to select favourable dates for the laying of the cornerstones of important buildings. We know he did precisely this in 1675 when, for example, he participated in the cornerstone ceremony for St. Paul's (see next section). Indeed, the tradition of casting horoscopes or selecting propitious astrological dates for the laying of cornerstones of important buildings and monuments was then, and remains today, a common practice in Freemasonry. So we may well ask what was so ‘favourable’ about the date of 23 October selected by Ashmole?

  We've already pointed out that in 1667 England was still using the Julian calendar which, at that time, lagged behind the Gregorian calendar by 10 – 11 days. A scholar like Ashmole would have known that the Gregorian calendar must soon be adopted in Britain – since it was obviously based on far more precise scientific realities than the Julian. Should this happen, then 23 October Julian would align to 13 October Gregorian. In other words, in most of continental Europe and, more particularly, France, the date of the ceremony for ‘the first stone of the Royal Exchange’ was not 23 October but 13 October. To continental Freemasons, this date is immediately recognisable as a ‘Templar’ date, since, as we know, it marked the infamous suppression of the order on 13 October 1307. Ashmole was a Freemason with a keen penchant for heraldic chivalry. It is by no means out of the question that some sort of ‘Templar’ message was his hidden intent.

  If this hypothesis is correct then similar ‘Templar’ symbolism might be expected to turn up in other cornerstone ceremonies where Elias Ashmole was involved. This should be especially be the case for St. Paul's Cathedral which we will now show to be an intensely ‘Templar’ talisman.

  The Cornerstone of St. Paul's

  There ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone of the new St. Paul's is surrounded by a riddle. According to one diary entry by Elias Ashmole, the event was supposed to have taken place on 21 June 1675. It would also appear that it was Ashmole who decided the date by a horoscope cast.126 There is another entry in Ashmole's diary, however, that categorically states: 23 June 1675 6h. 30’ a.m. The foundation of St. Paul's Church London, layd. [sic].127

  Historian and astrologer Derek Appleby believes that the different dates (21 June and 23 June) for the ceremony were due to a change of plan caused by bad weather.128 This is possible. But there is another explanation. The prevailing calendar in England was still the Julian one, so that the date of 21 June – although evoking the summer solstice in the new Gregorian calendar – actually fell 10 – 11 days after the solstice in the Julian calendar and thus had no special significance in that respect. What 23 June Julian did denote, however, was St. John's Eve, the herald to the Masonic and Templar New Year celebrated on 24 June. There is no question at all that Elias Ashmole would have been acutely aware of the meaning of this date. The reader will also recall that when British Freemasons created the Grand Lodge they chose to do so on 24 June because it was St. John's Day. But then, in 1814, the Gregorian calendar had been long previously been adopted (since 1752 in fact). In Ashmole's day, however, the Julian calendar was still very much in force.129

  So what did Ash
mole really have in mind – a Julian date or a Gregorian one? …

  If we convert 23 June Julian to its Gregorian counterpart we get 4 July.130 How likely is it to be an accident, therefore, that in all history books on the Knights Templar, the date of 4 July is particularly highlighted. It is the date of the Templars’ massive defeat by Muslim armies in the Holy Land at the Horns of Hattin on 4 July 1187 which was followed by the loss of Jerusalem to Christendom. There could therefore hardly be a more evocative ‘Templar’ or ‘Solomonic’ date than 4 July – evocative, that is, of the aspiration to rebuild Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The reader will also be aware, of course, that 4 July is Independence Day in the US, commemorating the signature of the Declaration of Independence and converting the date forever into a powerful talisman that spells out ‘independence’ and ‘freedom’ for the New World and, now by and large, for a new world order.131

  It would be almost perverse in these circumstances to fail to examine more closely the dates of the cornerstone ceremonies of powerful talismanic monuments such as the US Capitol and the White House – and even the Pentagon – for possible astrological, Masonic and ‘Templar’ symbolism.

  The Virgin and the Star

  Masonic author David Ovason points out that when the cornerstone laying ceremony of the US Capitol took place on the morning of 18 September 1793, the Sun was in the constellation of Virgo, which, he argues, had special significance in the scheme of things.132 According to Ovason: The imagery of Virgo as ruler of Washington DC is reflected in the considerable number of Zodiacs and lapidary symbols which grace the city. The Virgoan connection has also been emphasized in a number of foundation charts which are of fundamental importance to Washington DC. The foundation of the city itself, and the three corners of the triangle which L’Enfant had marked out for its centre (the Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument) were each set down on the earth at a time when the constellation Virgo had a particular importance in the skies.133

  Not being astrologers or Freemasons ourselves, we cannot vouch for certain on Ovason's theory. What we can support, however, is the hunch that astronomy had an important part to play in the planning and symbolism of cities such as Washington, DC.134 Ovason goes on to make a particularly strong case that much of the symbolism surrounding events and monuments related to the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States can be linked to the ancient heraldic star Sirius, whose pictogram was the well-known five-pointed star.135 With this in mind, there is, we think, another astronomical matter to consider in connection to the Capitol.

  Astronomical software such as Starry Night or SkyMap Pro, makes it a relatively easy matter to reconstruct ancient skies for any epoch and any location with a high level of precision and realism. We can thus, quite literally, observe events that were going on ‘invisibly’ in the sky (invisible because they were obscured to the naked eye by the light of the Sun) when the cornerstone of the Capitol was laid on the morning of 18 September 1793.

  At Jenkins Heights, the location of the future Capitol, preparations had been going on through the night for the arrival of George Washington and his retinue of important guests. The White House (which had undergone its own Masonic cornerstone ceremony a little less than a year earlier on the now familiar ‘Templar’ date of 13 October 1792)136 was to be the starting point of the procession. From there the presidential party would travel in horse-drawn carriages along Pennsylvania Avenue to Jenkins Heights.

  The alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and Jenkins Heights is 22° south-of-east. Looking along this alignment it cannot be an accident that a few hours before sunrise on 18 September 1793 (cloud conditions allowing) observers would have been able to see the bright star Sirius rising directly over Jenkins Heights. It would slowly have gained in altitude as the world turned, so that by dawn it would have been positioned, quite alone, over the spot where the Capitol would stand. That such portentous astral symbolism could have gone unnoticed by the group of important Freemasons and astronomers who planned Washington and decided the locations of its principal structures, seems most unlikely. But if this is so, it would mean that the axis of Pennsylvania Avenue must have been deliberately set by Pierre L’Enfant and/or by his colleague Andrew Ellicott so that it would be directed towards the rising of the star Sirius.

  Is there anything to suggest that this is likely?

  We have already seen how Pierre L’Enfant, while a student of architecture and city planning in Paris, had been much influenced by the work of the 17th century landscaper André Le Nôtre. It was Le Nôtre who had been directly responsible for the famous axis of Paris running from the Tuileries Garden, on the west side of the Louvre, along the Champs-Élysées and all the way to Chaillot Hill – where today stands the Arc de Triomphe. This axis, as the reader will recall, was directed by Le Nôtre 26° north-of-west and 26° south-of-east such that it aligned, whether by coincidence or intent, to the rising-point of Sirius – also 26° south-of-east – as observed from Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. Because there is a difference of 10° of latitude between Paris and Washington, DC, the rising point of Sirius as observed from Washington is also different. We have seen calculations show that the star rose 22° south-of-east, and thus in line with Pennsylvania Avenue,137 when observed from Washington in the epoch of L’Enfant.

  It makes sense to suppose that L’Enfant would have been wellaware of this fact. And so would the respected surveyor and astronomer, Andrew Ellicott, the man responsible for physically setting out the axis of Pennsylvania Avenue. Being a Freemason as well, he could hardly have ignored the alignment with the rising of Sirius, the five-pointed ‘Blazing Star’ of the Scottish Rite Masons, which would have been very obvious for much of the year to anyone standing at the White House and looking southeast towards the site of the future Capitol …138

  So let us venture a little further in this direction and see what else comes up.

  Hidden in the sky

  While researching his book, The Secret Zodiacs of Washington DC, David Ovason noticed that when he looked back from the US Capitol westwards along Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House from 6 to 12 August he would see the Sun setting in alignment with this avenue: For a period of about one week, the sunset viewed from the Capitol seems to take place directly over the western end of Pennsylvania Avenue. From 6 to 12 August the disc of the sun cuts into the horizon above the avenue, with almost magical precision. Anyone who watches the sunset, on any of those days, cannot fail to realise that the designers of this city intended this period – or perhaps one day in this period – to be an important element in the city's design.139

  Ovason goes on to note that: In terms of the spherical geometry of astronomy, and the computerised programs available in modern times, there is no problem to establish a ‘theoretical’ date for the significant sunset. The Capitol is at longitude W 77° 01’, latitude N 38° 53’. The azimuth for Pennsylvania Avenue proposed by Ellicott and L’Enfant was 290 degrees. This points to sunset around 11 and 12 August.140

  If we use similar computer software to recreate the sky for the epoch of 1793 as seen from Washington, DC, and focus our attention on the period of 11 – 12 August, we will notice something most interesting not only regarding the Sun, as Ovason has observed, but also regarding the star Sirius. For on these very days Sirius rose heliacally, i.e. shortly before the Sun. The reader will recall that the heliacal rising of Sirius in ancient Egypt was the astrosolar event marking the beginning or ‘birth’ of the New Year and seems to have been the focus of much attention in Masonic esoteric lore. Let us recall also that the heliacal rising of Sirius was incorporated into the myth of the ‘solar’ birth of Alexander the Great and, if our theory is correct, into the myth of Louis XIV’s ‘Capetian miracle’, and also into the very axis of Paris itself.

  If you were both a land surveyor as well as a Freemason, like Andrew Ellicott (or, indeed, like George Washington himself), it would have been difficult under the
se circumstances not to associate the event of the heliacal rising of Sirius as viewed from Washington in 1793 with the ‘birth’ of the new Federal City and capital of the world's first true republic since Rome. It is perhaps pertinent also to note that the world's first ‘republic’ had been founded by Julius Caesar who, as it turns out, commemorated the republican era with the founding of the Julian calendar in 48 BC which had been calibrated for him in Alexandria in Egypt by an Egyptian astronomer who made use of the heliacal rising of Sirius.

  Can it be a coincidence, therefore, that on 15 April 1791 at 3:30 p.m., a congregation of Freemasons gathered in Alexandria near the future site of Washington, DC and enacted the Masonic ceremony of the ‘first stone’ presided over by the Master of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22?141 Let us also note in passing that the Sun was in Pisces, a Christic symbol, when the constellation of Leo (a ‘kingly’ symbol) was on the rise in the east.