The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital: The Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C.
by David Ovason
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Book Summary Information
Author: David OvasonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-03-26
ISBN: 0060953683
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital: The Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C.
Book Review: MORE VIRGOAN THAN MEETS THE EYE
Summary: 5 Stars
David Ovason has spent more than a decade researching the architecture and zodiacs of Washington, D.C. He teaches astrology in Britain and most recently has published The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill. Although not a practicing historian, Ovason has written a valuable, however unconventional, thematic history of Washington, D.C.'s architecture, from the time of its founding. in the context of the meaning and significance of the Masonic vision influencing its direction. Ovason persuasively demonstrates that Washington, D.C. is a city inspired by the mythologies and imagery of the constellations and their stars, and in particular, Virgo and the star Spica. It becomes evident in the number of consecrating ceremonies conducted by the Masons with a sensitivity to timing and location. In numerous zodiacs, in marble, plaster, concrete, glass and paint facades of the Federal Reserve, the Library of Congress and other landmarks, Ovason uncovers the evidences that they appear to be designed to emphasize the role of Virgo, which as zodiacal sign, he declares, rules over this federal city. The Virgoan symbolism is not restricted to the details of statuary and architecture; it is evident as well in the city's original plan. The Virgoan symbolism of the stars is evident in the L'Enfant triangle, with the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Washington Monument as its corners, as earthly replication of the stellar triangle framing the constellation of Virgo, the stars being Arcturus, Regulus and Spica, respectively. Ovason doesn't doubt that the designers of Washington, D. C. intended to draw a connection between this segment of the skies and the underlying federal city. From here on, in the remaining six paragraphs, a major implication of Ovason's Virgo thesis is explored, to further substantiate Ovason's findings on the role of Virgo in the 'chosen' symbolism for the formative architectural events of Washington, D.C.'s history.
The author's thesis, Washington, D.C.'s symbolic design orientation to Virgo, takes the analysis through a brief but effective discussion of the history of the events leading up to the nation's birth in July 1776. Ovason relates the timing of this July event to the fixed star Sirius, the dog star, and its place in the Eqyptian calendar and in the myth of Virgo-Isis, the Egyptian Virgin Queen, and her guardian dog, Anubis, the dog of the dog star. In doing so he explodes one longstanding American myth, the one that has America born on the 4th of July. Uncontroversially, observe that most mundane astrologers have long accustomed themselves to an uncritical acceptance of the popular and traditional vision of the U.S.A. born when American Independence is commonly thought to have been declared, at the moment of the alleged July 4th signing of the historic State paper dated July 4, 1776, of edition #2 or possibly both editions #1 and #2: [edition #1] "A DECLARATION of the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled," [edition #2] "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America." The author re-visits the question of identifying the nation's birth, working outside the box in dealing with the events of the Declaration, in order to address the question of which event should be acknowledged as the basis of the true horoscope of the U.S.A. After an illuminating and critical discussion of the work of British astrologer Ebenezer Sibly, Ovason goes on to explain why he has opted for July 2, 1776 as the true event date of the American nation's birth, when Congress first declared sovereign Independence for what had been the United Colonies of North America. Remarkable that July 2 was the very day when the Sun made its annual conjunction with the star Sirius, the dog star, as it did throughout that era.
What makes Ovason's choice of this little recognized date all the more remarkable in its significance, is that it accords with the settled findings of the scholarly historical profession, 'settled' because of the undisputed-by-historians consensus on this historic question, a consensus now at least 100 years old, and which findings indeed confirm that by an actuating resolution of Congress sovereign Independence was declared on July 2, 1776, when it was so voted "Resolved" ('Resolved' = 'legislative signature'). This historic resolution, as the renouncement ('renunciation') of allegiance to the Kingdom of Great Britain, was affirmatively voted, on July 2, 1776, and so then was Independence declared. Three days later the accomplished fact was first made public by the broadside announcement ('annunciation') of the declared resolution of July 2, as documented in the famous State paper, dated July 4. [Or, equivalently, in the words of historian Carl Becker, "On July 4 Congress once more declared what it had already declared on July 2."]
Apparently, very few astrologers have made themselves aware of this historic/historical fact, as first reported in July 1776, accurately, in two Philadelphia newspapers, wherein the archive record shows, in "The Pennsylvania Evening Post, July 2, 1776:" that on "This day [July 2] the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States;" and, the day after, in "The Pennsylvania Gazette, July 3, 1776:" that just "Yesterday [July 2] the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States." As to the how and why of this official confusion of July 4th for July 2nd, historian David Freeman Hawke captured the moment by explaining how the the Declaration was finished in printed form: "The official printer [John Dunlap] placed July 4 at the top of his copy of the broadside of A DECLARATION ['The Declaration of Independence'] and thus accidentally that day came to be celebrated with the pomp and ceremony John Adams expected to be given over to July 2, the day Congress declared independence." [P.S., Mercury was then retrograding, June 28 to July 21, 1776.]
Now, as much as Ovason's book should be admired, the author comes up short to point out why the story he tells so well is, in the main, not about the zodiacal sign of Cancer, but the sign and constellation of Virgo. What has Ovason overlooked in answering one of his major questions ? "Why would the Americans of the late 18th century wish to associate this celestial Virgin with their new federal city.?" (p.160) Let me point out that the answer, in short, is that the celestial Virgin, as the sign of Virgo, symbolizes the chosen aspirations of America's governors, just as the Virgin's celestial guardian dog, Anubis, as the dog star Sirius in the sign of Cancer, symbolizes the aspirations of America's governed. Understandably, the aspirations of a mistress and her dog may not always converge. Concretely, the federal city is fundamentally the "seat of government," and the nation has been not simply represented there, but increasingly, governed by the State, as well. Furthermore, the author appears not to have grasped that there is not just one, but a number of significant Virgoan event dates, before the time of the founding of the federal city, which events augured the federal city's predominant zodiacal symbolism for Virgo. Of course, the story of the July 2, 1776 birth of the U.S.A., which is America as civic nation, the 'nation', necessarily must precede as background the story of the more relevant start of it all, the birth of the nation's State as established by Congress. The State, the United States, was formally adopted on September 9, 1776 [and by which date 11 of the 13 States had necessarily ratified (i.e., 'legalized') the July 2 resolution of Independence, as embedded in the final paragraph of the July 4 'Declaration of Independence']. This nation-State conducted itself as Congress, with a pre-constitutional remit to govern defense and diplomacy on behalf of the U.S.A., through and beyond the following year when constitutional government was at last established under the authority of the Confederation. So, in not addressing the events giving rise to the nation State [see the list in the last paragraph, here below] it becomes understandable that Ovason devotes only a relatively few pages to the U.S.A., the civic nation, as such, before returning to the discussion of Washington, D.C. After all, the more comprehensive story of the occult architectural orientation that served Washington, D.C.'s founding and formative years should entail a recounting of the symbolic history of the results of the birth of the U.S.A. AND it's State, to be understood as the nation-State, namely, the "United States" (the "U.S."). [In point of emphasis, the "United States," as the name of America's nation-State, must be understood to be categorically other than the "United States of America" which is America as the civic nation]. In short, the Nation is not the nation-State. And all the more as this real conceptual and legal distinction of U.S.A. vs. U.S. was precisely understood in Congress during the time of these formative events, as representing the difference between the Nation (born under Cancer), and the nation-State (born under Virgo).
As Ovason observes (p.142): "This chart dominated by Virgo (for the First Continental Congress), points to the first concerted attempt to turn a group of individualistic colonies into a federation. Would this help explain why the city which was built to serve this new federation, and which was first called "the federal city," should also be ruled by Virgo.? The designers of the city have always emphasized Virgo in its zodiacal architecture, and we must presume that this concern with the sign has some origins in the chart relating to the cosmic conditions which tied the states together in federal union." (p.148) So now, in the revised light of David Ovason's findings, one can appreciate the eventual ratified births of three American Unions through five historic documents: [1] in 1775, The Grand American Continental Association. [2 (a), (b), (c)]: in 1776, the Declaration of Independence; in 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union; and, in 1787, the Northwest Ordinance. [3] in 1788, The Constitution of the United States (for the United States of America). Here below, just consider the following thirteen [13] American timeline events, over an elapsed time of 153 years, from 1643 to 1796: One event occurred in late August; the other 12 in the second or third weeks of a given September; each of the 13 under the Sun in the sign of Virgo. A timeline tracing the historical realities not of nationhood, as such being the NATION, but the nation's STATE. All this strongly suggests deliberate Masonic planning underlying the eventual establishment of the "United States," the so-named nation-State, and its constitutional governments. The choices of timing of these events were repeatedly, over the period in question, of the 'Sun in the sign of Virgo'. From here on, these 13 events are summarized, as #s [01] thru [13]:
[01] SEPTEMBER 7, 1643 (September 17, Gregorian calendar): On this day in Boston, Massachusetts was convened the first meeting of the members of the New England Confederation; a "firm and perpetual league of friendship and unity for offense and defense, . . and for their mutual safety and welfare." This was the only inter-colonial union in British North America prior to 1775; this union lasted from 1643 until 1685;
[02] SEPTEMBER 17, 1774: The first official act of the First Continental Congress, the Suffolk Resolves in defense of colonial rights, was passed on this day. This "Grand American Continental Congress" was convened in Philadelphia from September the 5th, in order to chart a unified course of defensive action in pursuit of a redress of constitutional grievances against Crown ministries and Parliament. [And so it should be noted here, Ovason does point out the significance of this First Continental Congress for his Virgo thesis;
[03] AUGUST 23, 1775: On this day North Carolina became the 13th colony to ratify the Articles of "The Grand American Continental Association." This event marked the ratified birth of America's first of three formally adopted (duly constituted) Unions; this first, born of commitment to an American-wide trade boycott under the terms of these Articles, henceforth in force throughout the United Colonies of North America. And, too, this ratified birth of America's first Union marked the very same day that a Royal Proclamation of King George III declared Great Britain's American colonies in a general state of treasonous rebellion. 86 years later, Lincoln famously and truthfully declaimed, in his first Presidential Inaugural Address, that: "The Union was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association;"
[04] SEPTEMBER 13, 1775: The United Colonies had become on May 26, 1775 the official name of the Second Continental Congress, when it assumed the exercise of certain executive capacities sponsored by the member colonies of "The Grand American Continental Association," as the Association in turn became the United Colonies of North America. On this day the United Colonies were first convened by its full membership, as "The Thirteen" United Colonies;
[05] SEPTEMBER 9, 1776: It was duly resolved in Congress that from this day forward, resolutions and ordinances of governance passed by the (however pre-constitutional) General Congress of the representatives of the United States of America, were designated henceforth as officially those of the, quote "United States" unquote. As background, by this date a 'provisional' draft of the Articles of Confederation had been agreed and was under further review in Congress, and Congress's Declaration of Independence had been ratified by 9 of the eventual 13 States to do so.
[06] SEPTEMBER 16, 1782: The Great "seal of the United States," as official coat of arms of America's nation-State, on this day was first impressed on a State document by General Washington. This seal was first adopted in Congress at noontime, on June 20, 1782, when the sign of Virgo was on the rising, under the Sun in the sign of Gemini. [Appropriately dated, the Great Seal has a Gemini persona, represented by two faces: an Obverse & a Reverse];
[07] SEPTEMBER 3, 1783: On this day in France two 'definitive' treaties were duly signed: the Treaties of Paris (morning signing ceremony) and Versailles (afternoon signing ceremony), which interrelated treaties, in the main, concluded the terms of peace between the 13 sovereignties of the U.S.A. and Kingdom of Great Britain;
[08] SEPTEMBER 17, 1787: On this day, exactly 13 years after the adoption of the Suffolk Resolves, the U.S. Convention in Philadelphia agreed to the proposed "Constitution 'for' the United States of America," devised in order to re-frame the federal government of the "United States," already, years previously, 'constitutionalized' under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union for the United States of America;
[09] SEPTEMBER 13, 1788: On this day the Federal government was born, exactly 13 years after the advent of the Thirteen United Colonies in Congress, as it was resolved by the "United States in Congress" that the establishment of the re-framed federal government had commenced, pursuant to the ratified Constitution 'for' the United States of America. This resolve fulfilled the official determination of July 2, 1788, that the re-framed Constitution had been ratified by the required nine states, and an appointed committee was to make preparations to establish the new federal government. [This September 1788 event, six months before the March 1789 start of the proceedings of the Congress in the re-framed federal government.];
[10] SEPTEMBER 16, 1789: On this day, exactly 7 years after the Great Seal's first use, the Constitution-originated federal government formally ratified its responsibility for the Confederation-originated Great Seal, and for which the U.S. Congress enacted the following legislation: quote "That the seal heretofore used in the United States in Congress assembled, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, the seal of the United States" unquote;
[11] SEPTEMBER 9, 1791: On this day the nation's capital was officially named: What initially had been designated "the federal city" in "the federal territory" was henceforth named the "City of Washington," in the "Territory [years later, the District] of Columbia." The Territory, now District, of Columbia is encompassed by the juridiction of the quote "United States" unquote. This enclave of the U.S. federal government is situated on lands ceded to the "United States" by the border states of Maryland and Virginia;
[12] SEPTEMBER 18, 1793: For the start of the construction phase of the Capitol Building, the home of the U.S. Congress, Masonic organizations in the D.C. area, with President Washington participating, on this day commemorated the moment by conducting a Foundation Stone ceremony [a Masonic event often described, but erroneously so, as a Cornerstone ceremony. See Ovason's illuminating discussion of the distinction between foundation and corner stones, on pp. 77-81.] And, last but not least:
[13] SEPTEMBER 17, 1796: On this day, exactly 22 years after the September 17 adoption of the Suffolk Resolves, and exactly 9 years after the September 17 creation of the U. S. Constitution, President George Washington's "Farewell Address" to the American people was published.
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Summary of The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital: The Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C.
Today, there are more than twenty complete zodiacs in Washington, D.C., each one pointing to an extraordinary mystery. David Ovason, who has studied these astrological devices for ten years, now reveals why they have been placed in such abundance in the center of our nation's capital and explains their interconnections. His richly illustrated text tells the story of how Washington, from its foundation in 1791, was linked with the zodiac, with the meaning of certain stars, and with a hidden cosmological symbolism that he uncovers here for the first time.
Fascinating and thoroughly researched, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation 's Capital is an engrossing book that raises provocative questions and otters complex insights into the meanings behind the mysterious symbols in Washington.
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