Before the Pyramids: Cracking Archaeology's Greatest Mystery (36 page)

Constans is asked what he requires and he replies that he wishes to be admitted as a fellow soldier and servant in the Grand Masonic Army of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret. He goes on to suggest that he wishes to shield the oppressed, guard the weak, protect the innocent and combat the enemies of God and humanity.

After a few more lines of dialogue the person playing the part of the Engineer and Seneschal rises. This is what he says:

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.

In turn, five separate and distinct characters now explain what the five corners of the pentagon represent. Each corner is symbolic of a different lodge, council or chapter. The first corner is the Symbolic Lodge and the second is the Lodge of Perfection. The third angle of the pentacle represents the Council of the Princes of Jerusalem and the fourth is the Chapter of the Knights Rose Croix. The final angle is that of the Kadosh. (The word Kadosh is taken from a Hebrew word that means ‘Holy’, and the degrees of Freemasonry termed as the Kadosh contain a great deal of mystical material.)

Practically the whole of the ceremonial part of the 32nd degree is taken up with the explanations of the five corners of the pentagon, after which the degree is inferred on those seeking it. Beyond this the Allegory takes place. All those who have received the 32nd degree are seated and the play begins.

Constans reappears, and we are told that he seeks knighthood and that he is to stay alone by the altar in a cathedral throughout a whole night prior to his investiture. His armour and weapons are given to him and placed on the altar. All the actors present now leave the stage and for a short time Constans remains alone. After a while a character named Florio enters. He is the first of the tempters who will try to persuade Constans to leave his vigil. Florio urges Constans to come to a dance and to meet his sweetheart.

Constans refuses and Florio eventually retires. The next tempter is a man called Urban. He offers Constans power and influence in the world – the chance to have everything he desires in a material sense. Once again Constans refuses and is eventually left alone.

The next tempter is Rufus, a peasant who tells Constans that his castle has been attacked by a traitor knight. He urges Constans to come directly. Once again Constans refuses.

The final tempter is a monk called Ignatius. He urges Constans to leave his vigil and to seek a contemplative life. Constans falters for a while but he wants to know what will become of the service he has promised to humanity. Ignatius points out that service to God and a monastic life might be preferable but even at this stage Constans remembers his promises to the world and his brothers and so refuses to leave his vigil.

For a moment Constans is left alone again but soon he hears the blast of a trumpet and the call to arms. He hears cries of ‘The enemy’, ‘Save us’ and ‘To the Walls’. He realizes that the city is under attack and that the lives of all the men, women and children within it are in peril. He then learns from the voices off stage that the leader of the army is slain and that defeat is imminent.

Constans wrestles with his conscience because he has promised on his honour to keep his vigil, no matter what happens. Despite this he is in little doubt and so shouting ‘How can I stay while children may be murdered and women ravished?’ he eventually arms himself and rushes off.

Darkness prevails for half a minute or so and then the various commanders and the bishop reappear on the stage. It is obvious from their conversation that although their leader was severely wounded, the battle was saved by the arrival of a new commander, who turned the tide of fighting and helped to defeat the attackers. Nobody knows who this saviour was but it suddenly occurs to those present that Constans is no longer at the altar.

It is assumed he has run away like a coward and scorn is being heaped upon him when four men enter. They carry a bier upon which is the body of Constans. Everyone now realizes that it was he who saved the day by abandoning his vigil and taking part in the fight.

The Prince Commander utters the final words of the Allegory:

Constans our Deliverer. How vain is human wisdom! How blind is human judgment! In our hasty anger we said, ‘Never shall Constans be created by us a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret’. His martyr victory has made of our unjust judgment his eternal glory. It was not for mortal man to create Constans a prince. He was a prince, dubbed and created by the King of Kings whose son he is. It was not for mortal man to reveal to Constans the Royal Secret. It was enshrined in his own unconquerable soul, incarnate in that Love which was his divine inheritance. When he forsook his vigil here, Constans was true to the highest meaning and deepest spirit of his vow. He obeyed the dictates of his conscience and, in loyal response to his country’s call, rushed to its defence.

Can this strange ceremony have anything to do with Washington DC or, in particular the creation of the Pentagon? Indeed it can, but to fully understand what the connection is we must first look at what was taking place in the United States when the Pentagon was planned and built.

Partly because of the horrors of the First World War, but also on account of its geographical isolation, there were many Americans who wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the war that had begun in Europe in 1940. When France fell in May 1940 Britain was, for some time, facing the threat of Nazi Germany alone. The natural instincts of President Franklin Roosevelt were to help America’s old ally, Britain, but the weight of public opinion was against him. Nevertheless Roosevelt found ways in which to be of assistance to Britain, by offering armaments and food.

The building of the Pentagon began in September of 1941 but the United States did not come into the Second World War officially until December of the same year, after the attack made on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. This means that at the time the Pentagon was planned and building had started, the United States, though helping Britain in all sorts of ways, was still not officially involved in the war. It was, in a figurative sense, like Constans at the altar of the cathedral, maintaining its own vigil.

The moment building work started on the Pentagon the triangle formed between it, the Ellipse and the Capitol was created and in a symbolic sense this was extremely important. As we have already noted the 33rd degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry is not an ‘earned’ degree. Rather it is offered to those 32nd-degree Freemasons who are thought especially worthy of it. Whilst the geometric figure associated with the 32nd degree is a pentacle, the one especially associated with the 33rd degree is a triangle! As we suggested earlier, the triangle formed between the Ellipse, the Capitol and the Pentagon connects Washington DC’s geographic heart (the Ellipse), its democratic heart (the Capitol) and its military heart (the Pentagon). What is more, this triangle could not exist until the Pentagon was begun, just as surely as the 33rd degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry cannot be achieved until the 32nd is held first.

Such is the connection between the symbols and ceremonies of the 32nd and 33rd degree and the planning and positioning of the Pentagon that there simply has to be a direct connection. For years the United States kept its own vigil, as did Constans in the 32nd-degree ceremony. It did not respond to events that were unfolding in Europe during the 1930s, and even when Western Europe was plunged into war the United States did not become directly involved. Meanwhile President Roosevelt struggled with his own conscience, not least of all his Freemasonic conscience. Many of the men closest to the President in Government were also Freemasons but, Freemasonic or not, it must have become evident by 1941, to all but the most diehard isolationists, that the United States would not be able to avoid being drawn into the conflict eventually.

Just like Constans in the 32nd-degree ceremony they could eventually no longer stand in contemplative isolation, and by the careful positioning and building of the Pentagon in a figurative sense the whole of Washington DC, and ultimately the United States of America, passed from the 32nd to the 33rd degree. The name of the 33rd degree is ‘Sovereign Grand Inspector General’. This is an administrative degree and just as surely as the 33rd-degree Freemason becomes the arbiter and leader of his Craft, so with its participation in the Second World War the United States became the arbiter and leader of the world. Now, in the year 2009 and after the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States is the only genuine superpower remaining.

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The United States Constitution was adopted on 17 September 1787 and the need for a Federal capital for the infant United States was already a consideration at that time. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 specifically mentions this fact. It specifies that an area not to exceed 10 miles square should be established and that it will come under the authority of Congress. A little later, on 16 July 1790 the new President, George Washington, was authorized to find an appropriate site for the new capital and on 1 December 1800, Washington officially became the capital city of the United States of America.

George Washington took the Constitution at its word and instructed a square to be surveyed, partly in Virginia and partly in Maryland, across the Potomac River. In reality, if compass bearings are born in mind, what resulted from the survey was not a square but a diamond. Each side of the diamond was 10 miles in length and a series of 40 boundary stones were set along the hypothetical lines delineating what would henceforth be the District of Columbia. The city of Washington DC began to grow close to the centre of the diamond.

There is little doubt in our minds that a slight mistake in surveying the city itself took place right at the beginning of the procedure because we are certain that the location we have itemized, at the very centre of the Ellipse, south of the White House, was considered to be the absolute centre of the District of Columbia. A line that would connect the top and bottom points of the diamond would have a longitude of 77° 02' 26"west, whilst a line connecting the eastern and western points of the diamond would have latitude of 38° 53' 35" north.

The meeting point of two such lines is slightly west of the Ellipse and also slightly south. Therefore the ‘true’ centre of the District of Columbia is actually around 345 m southwest of the centre of the Ellipse.

The centre of the Ellipse has a longitude of 77° 02' 11" west and latitude of 38° 53' 38" north. This amounts to a discrepancy of 15” of arc from the true centre of the District of Columbia in terms of longitude, and 3" in terms of latitude. Bearing in mind the laborious way surveying was undertaken in the 18th century these results are probably quite close to being considered accurate, but the slight mistakes that are present are related to the chosen location of the White House rather than with anything to do with the original surveying of the District of Columbia.

When Thomas Jefferson fixed the Washington meridian line during his presidency he was living in the White House. He personally marked a line that ran from north to south right through the middle of the White House. But why did he do this? Earlier suggestions for a Washington DC meridian had been one mile to the east of the Capitol, and later a line through the Capitol itself. We cannot prove the fact but it is our contention that Thomas Jefferson chose the north–south line through the White House because he considered that such a line would intersect with the top and bottom corners of the diamond that was the District of Columbia. As it turned out he was slightly wrong, but that was because the White House had not been built in exactly the correct position relative to the very centre of the District of Columbia. The centre of the White House was 322 m too far to the east and 100 m too far north.

There may have been practical reasons for this state of affairs, for example the state of the ground on the chosen site. We cannot know, but the most likely explanation is a mistake in plotting the ‘exact’ position for the White House so that the magical spot that is now the centre of the Ellipse would also be the centre of the District of Columbia. This task would not have been easy and it is telling that the mistake is three times as bad in terms of longitude as it is in terms of latitude. At the time the White House was built, plotting longitude was still a fairly difficult procedure. It was only in 1761 that John Harrison, an English clock maker, had managed to produce a chronometer accurate enough to be used to establish longitude at sea, but if the White House had indeed been intended to straddle the north–south line between the northern and southern points of the District of Columbia, even John Harrison’s timepiece would have been of little use in setting its position.

Measuring distance over undulating ground was difficult. The true centre of the diamond in an east–west direction could have been found through laboriously surveying the distance from the eastern corner, but is more likely to have been undertaken in the same way our megalithic ancestors undertook it, by use of the stars. In fact the problems any would-be surveyor would have had were extremely similar to the problems that faced the people who built the Thornborough henges and Stonehenge. The centre of the diamond in a north–south sense would have been easier to find and could have been judged by the height in the sky of the North Star at the southern corner of the diamond, the northern corner of the diamond, and then in the middle.