The Seal of the Grand Lodge of the United States (satire)

February 18, 2021 0 Comments

First of, there's no such thing as the Grand Lodge of the United States nor there is a United Grand Lodge of North America. Secondly, not because a Freemasonry lodge somewhere at some point in time used a certain symbol doesn't make it an exclusively Masonic symbol (all seeing eye, anyone?). Thirdly, the four men who actually contributed elements to the final design were NOT Freemasons— Brother Benjamin Franklin's ideas were not adopted at all. 

I turned 40 not too long ago and at this point I have been a professional graphics designer for more than half my life. Having a Christian background and being a DeMolay/Freemason for a good amount of time allowed me to develop a strong fascination for heraldry, iconography, symbology and even emojis.💀 

Two of the popular imageries that I really like can be found on the Great Seal of the United States. The obverse of the Great Seal depicts the national coat of arms of the United States, while the reverse depicts "A pyramid unfinished. In the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded by a glory, proper."

Together, the two sides of the Great Seal are a unique combination of images from nature (eagle, olive branch, stars, cloud, light rays, eye) and culture (pyramid, arrows, shield). But no one has an exclusive association with any of these symbols. —GreatSeal.com

On April Fools' Day last year, I announced on reddit r/Freemasonry that I was given the awesome honor and privilege to design the Official Seal of the Grand Lodge of the United States. I originally planned to design it with the pyramid with the all seeing eye an a globe icon background but the thought of conspiracy enthusiasts going crazy made me settle with a simple Square and Compasses in the middle. While a few missed the GL joke, most of the comments were actually quite encouraging. 

During the recent President's Day (3 days ago) I began working on the version 2 of the so called "Great Seal of the Grand Lodge of the United States". I know it's still not a good idea to use the obverse side of the Great Seal but I don't want to settle with just a simple Square and Compasses either so I worked on the reverse side instead. Today I finally finished and here's the result. 

Here's a detailed look:

In case you missed some of the elements, look for the sprig of acacia, chisel, the text on the ribbon, and the forget me not flowers.

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