American Pyramid
"The Great Seal of the United States"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Great Seal of the United States is used
to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States
government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself
(which is kept by the U.S. Secretary of State), and more generally
for the design impressed upon it. The Great Seal was publicly first
used in 1782.
The design on the obverse of the great seal is the national coat of
arms of the United States and is officially used on documents such
as passports as well as for military insignia, embassy placards, and
various flags. As a coat of arms, the design has official colors;
the physical Great Seal itself, as affixed to paper, is monochrome.
The 1782 resolution adopting the seal describes the image on the
reverse as "A pyramid unfinished. In the zenith an eye in a
triangle, surrounded by a glory, proper." The pyramid is
conventionally shown as consisting of thirteen layers of blocks to
refer to the thirteen original states. There are also thirteen sides
shown on the ribbon. The adopting resolution provides that it is
inscribed on its base with the date MDCCLXXVI (1776) in Roman
numerals. Where the top of the pyramid should be, the Eye of
Providence watches over it. Two mottos appear: Annuit C?ptis
signifies that the Eye of Providence has "approved of (our)
undertakings."[1] Novus Ordo Seclorum, freely taken from Virgil,
means "a new order of the ages". It is incorrectly rendered as "New
World Order" by some theorists, and "a new secular order" by others.
The word seclorum does not mean "secular", as one might assume, but
is the genitive (possessive) plural form of the word saeculum,
meaning (in this context) generation, century, or age. Saeculum did
come to mean "age, world" in late, Christian, Latin, and "secular"
is derived from it, through secularis. However, the adjective "secularis,"
meaning "worldly," is not equivalent to the nominative plural
possessive "seclorum," meaning "of the ages."[2]. The reverse has
never been cut (as a seal) but appears, for example, on the back of
the one-dollar bill.
The all-seeing eye was a well-known classical symbol of the
Renaissance. The eye in a triangle design originally was suggested
by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, and later heraldist William Barton
improved upon the design. In Du Simiti?re's original sketch, two
figures stand next to a shield with the all-seeing pyramid above
them. The August 20, 1776 report of the first Great Seal Committee
describes the seal as "Crest The Eye of Providence in a radiant
Triangle whose Glory extends over the Shield and beyond the
Figures."
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 Abstract
of all elements counting thirteen
on
The Great Seal.
In honor of the fact that there were originally thirteen
States in the Union, items consisting of this number is a
common motif in the seal. There are:
* 13 stars (in the "glory" above the eagle's head)
* 13 stripes on the shield
* 13 arrows in the eagle?s talon
* 13 letters in the mottos "e pluribus unum" and "annuit
coeptis" (apparently coincidental; there are 52 letters on
the whole seal, which is itself evenly divisible by 13)
* 13 olive leaves (by custom, not by law)
* 13 olives on the branch (by custom, not by law)
* 13 brick levels of the pyramid (by custom, not by law)
* 13 sides showing on the ribbon (by custom, not by law) |
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