Few days ago i came back from one of the most amazing places I've ever visited. Ohrid.. a city by a wonderful lake.. rich with its natural, cultural and spiritual treasures. Ohrid has been protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 1980.. and at the moment is a candidate to be one of the New 7 natural wonders of the world. The city is filled with Monasteries.. churches.. museums.. cultural events.. and a peaceful lake.. that u can look at for hours.
One of the monasteries located in the mountain few kilometers from the beach, took my attention more than the rest of the monasteries. Built in the 9th century, St. Stephan Monastery is a living reminder of the way monks used to live in the medieval time.
The church is isolated.. and in order to reach it.. you need to walk for 30 minutes into the woods.. and the mountain to reach at the end.. a huge rock. On top of this rock there is a big cross.. and under that cross.. an entrance to the tiny monastery. The rock actually is the Church... and next to the "rock" .. a small house were the monks who take care of it live.
and here is the entrance of the Church:
It's a very small church.. with just an altar.. and a smaller room where you can enter and pray.. and the rest of the space is the inside of the rock.. which surprisingly is hollow.
Things seemed fine.. until i noticed on the roof of the entrance chapel.. right under the small cross in the picture above, i noticed an interesting drawing.. of a yellow triangle.. and an eye in it.
If you have read Dan Brown's Angles & Demons.. u recongize a weird similiarity.. with this drawing.. and with the drawings in the churches or Rome.. having a Masonic symbol iside a church.. and for those who hasn't read A&D yet, the Pyramid Eye.. is of the symbols left by the Masonic movement.. this very same pyramid.. is found also on the 1 US dollar as u can see below:
The similarity is obvious.. there is no doubt that its the same symbol.. but the question why is it drawn there.. in a medieval Orthodox monastery that originally is built in the 9th century..?
I asked a nun who was cleaning the Church and asked her why does it represent.. and when was it drawn.. she answered that it has 2 meanings.. the first that it represents the third eye.. on our forehead.. which is one of the energy points in our body which connects our soul with spiritual life. The second theory states that it represents the eye of Lucifer or Horus. (According to the legend Horus has lost one of his eyes in a battle in which he killed Set). The nun didn't know when was it drawn on the wall.. but she says it has been protecting the monastery from the Turkish and Albanian attacks during the Ottoman empire.. which gives at least 200 or 300 years of existence if not more.
The icons drawn on the walls inside of the church.. were older.. and almost fading.. unlike the eye pyramid drawing.. i asked why is the difference.. does that mean that the icons are drawn thousand years ago.. and the eye is recent? She responeded that the church has been renovated many times.. the latest in the 70s ... so all the drawings that do not represent any Saints.. were redrawn.
She explained further.. that monks and nuns.. used to crush the bones of the saints.. and mix them with the color powder.. and use that same powder to draw on the walls.. so that the saint's body actually is on the wall.. this heritage and tradition.. actually explained in my head why in the Orthodox churches even in Jordan.. people kiss the icons.. and the walls.. which means that this tradition happened in all the places Orthodox Christianity spread.. including Jordan & Palestine. With that the nun also explained why the icons and drawings inside were not repainted.. to keep it authentic and holy as it was drawn when the monastery was built. Below you can see the drawings am talking about :
The question remained unanswered in my head.. what does masonic symbol do in a Orthodox church.. and was it "recently" painted.. or was it painted in the 9th century when it was built..
I guess this enigma will remain so.. but it is worth knowing.. that every drawing .. and painting.. has a particular meaning and reason.
The "all seeing eye" represented within an equilateral triangle is not Masonic in origin. It began appearing in the Renaissance as a symbol for God, with the triangle symbolic of the Trinity. The Masons, and the Odd Fellows by the way, adopted the symbol in the early 1700s as a non-denominational symbol for God, or the Great Architect of the Universe (a term which was also not created by the Masons, but by John Calvin). The Masons have never had the corner on the symbol, as it was a popular Enlightenment-era way to show God without it being overtly Christian, or specific to Catholicism, etc. Deists were fond of it. But the Masons did like the geometry aspect of the triangle.
ReplyDeleteMasons didn't put the symbol on the Great Seal—Enlightenment thinkers did. Franklin was the only Mason who gave input to the design of the seal, and the committee rejected ALL of his designs.
Good find! You must have felt like Peachey and Danny finding a Masonic symbol at the top of the world in "The Man Who Would be King."
Thanks Chris for your comment. I know that it has various meanings.. and different people have used that symbol for different reasons. The nun i asked in that church didn't mention any masonic or Enlightenment connection, she actually gave certain religious or better said spiritual explanation.
ReplyDeleteIt may be spiritual.. it may be artistic.. and it maybe Masonic.. we can't have a direct prove for any particular reason, and thats my friend what makes it pretty interesting to research it more.
and Yea :P it felt great finding it.. i've been reading about Symbolism for a while.. and i came across this symbol by chance in that Church. So u can imagine the excitement :)
Peace
Historian, thank you for writing this article. Original i'm from Ohrid but i live here in Canada. i know what church you are talking about back then probably i saw that Masonic symbol and back then i didn't know the meaning or i just didn't pay any attention. this is very new to me and very surprising and most of all because this very small church is an Orthodox church and why this particular symbol exist in this church. Thank you for saying good things about my birth city of Ohrid.
DeleteI see this symbol often in the architecture of Christian Orthodox churches. Even today, in my willage in Serbia, I noticed the same symbol for the first time, above the entrance. I think it is naive to just go along that it symbolises God.. intuitively you don't combine the Sun, the eye, and a triangle just to say: ok this also means God. I am no expert but it would be interesting to research more, and I don't mean the fiction literature.
ReplyDeletein no way shape or form does it symbolise god it is the symbol of satin do ur research u will be enlightened
ReplyDeletethe reason its on the american dollar is because the politicians r devil worshipers striving for the new world order that being under the power of satan. i urge u do ur research and warn all who r not aware of a one world order.
ReplyDeleteMasonic traditions date back to the crusades,the all seeing eye is that of Lucifer(the light bringer) or shepperd of the morning and is a key part of Lucifarian lore which is Pagan, also seen in Egyptology. There is reason to believe that Lucifer was incorectly called the sun of Satan by Christians to convert people to christianity
ReplyDeleteThe symbol of the split pyramid does however have dark implications. The bottom half represents the masses,u and i. the top represents the allseeing eye of the enlightened ones or the elluminati,the very people who control the world and its governments today, the referance to world order above just scrapes the surface. The problems the world population is facing today has been in orchestration for centuries and is part of the big plan of the continuing bloodline of the illuminati.
The nights templar were nearly whiped out by order of the pope early in the last millenium but some escaped and eventually set up the Scottish Rite of freemasonry.
Read about Albert Pike who allthough american was an influential figure in the rite along with an Italian called Guiseppi Mazzini.
What many people dont know abuot Mazzini is he started an organisation called Mazzini Autorizza Furti,Incendi Avvelenamenti. The acronym of which is MAFIA. The very same.
There is still plenty of info on the web,you may not like what you read but it is interesting. Read it now before the web is collapsed then sensored(This will happen, youll see)
The Eye is Lucifarian and not satanic.
ReplyDeleteLucifarians do not believe in Satan or God, their beliefs lie within elemental and celestial deities.
Many Alchemists in the dark ages accepted Lucifarian lore,many of their symbols and Masonic symbols can be traced to the middle east and arabic countries.
Higher degree masons use the Bible and the Koran in their rituals but pledge alegance to neither
Enlightened is never found on the internet articles written by anonymous.
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