Riddles in Stone, Part 1: Symbols in Stone

Exhibit AKey Evidence

1. The film follows the Phrygian “cap of liberty” from ancient Rome and the French Revolution (the Jacobins) to U.S. state seals, the U.S. Army seal, the Capitol’s figures of Liberty and the carved window frames of the Library of Congress.
2. Fact check: the liberty cap is confirmed on the seals of New York, New Jersey and West Virginia, the U.S. Army seal (adopted 1778) and the U.S. Senate seal. Strictly, the Roman freedman’s cap was the pileus; it and the Phrygian cap merged into the “liberty cap” in the 18th century.
3. Ex-Mason William Schnoebelen, author of Masonry: Beyond the Light, argues that the Masonic use of the “eastern star” misreads Matthew 2.
4. Fact check: the Order of the Eastern Star is named for the Star of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:2). It was developed by Rob Morris in the 1850s.
5. The narration sets two views side by side: the magi followed Daniel’s prophecies, or, in the Masonic-esoteric reading, they were Zoroastrian mystics guided by Sirius.
6. Fact check: Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma links the Masonic “Blazing Star” to Sirius. But the claim that “Freemasons believe” the magi followed Sirius is the film’s characterization, not an official Masonic teaching.
7. The part ends on Sirius as one claimed origin of the Masonic pentagram, which Part 2 takes up.
8. Scripture already tells us what that star was for: “We have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”