Kees Zoeteman

It was around 1970 that I became acquainted with the National Mall of Washington D.C. As a young researcher, I had received a scholarship from the German Marshall Fund to spend 5 weeks visiting laboratories all over the U.S. that were working on the effects of water pollution. I landed in Washington and had to wait a few days there for the program in the form of a fat bunch of airline tickets that would help me get over my fear of flying right away. During the days, while waiting for the itinerary, I frequently visited the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial including the rectangular Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It was an ideal park for walking and getting used to America a bit. 

Capitol Hill overlooking Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

That peaceful place was the site of major riots on January 6, 2021, when thousands of followers of Donald Trump, who was defeated in the election, stormed the Capitol Building and took possession of it. All those stormers were bundled into one figure that made it to all the news sites because of its symbolic attire: the horned man.

The horned man with attributes in the corridors of the Capitol Building. 

We can read that this man, with his attire, was conspicuously in the front row at many of Trump’s meetings, repeating a symbolic statement that begs to be unraveled. Who is this man? What does he have to say? What does he symbolize?

An apocalyptic setting?

Usually such an event is news for a few days and then sinks back into the collective unconscious. But the more I pondered these images, the more intrigued I became by their symbolic meaning. There seemed to be a couple of things coming together here that referred directly to the Apocalypse. The man with the two horns, was that a reference to the beast with the two horns rising from the abyss? And the Capitol Building, does that have a similar meaning as Mount Zion with King David’s palace in Jerusalem?  And the Washington Monument, is it not a symbol of the human self, which must always mirror the high moral values that Abraham Lincoln promoted, sitting on his throne in the temple named after him? Was there suddenly a piece of Apocalypse depicted here in reality? Could this be more than a coincidence?

I decided to investigate and see if I could substantiate this conjecture.

The symbolic meaning of the location

In all the commentaries on the events of January 6, 2021, the characterization occurs that the rioters had gained access to what Americans consider “sacred ground”. This refers not so much to the grass between Washington Monument and the Capitol Building, but to the steps around the Capitol and the corridors in the government building.

The first thing to notice about the whole design of the National Mall is that the three main buildings (Capitol Building, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial) are aligned. From Capitol Hill, straight lines run across the city along which lie the major avenues, such as Pennsylvania Avenue which leads to The White House. The White House also overlooks the Washington Monument but the line of sight is at right angles to the direction in which the three main buildings are situated. Across from The White House on the opposite side of the Tidal Basin is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Thus, the five defining buildings are situated in the shape of a cross, with Capitol Hill and Lincoln Memorial lying on the vertical axis of what is thought to be an upright cross, and The White House and Jefferson Memorial on the horizontal axis, with the George Washington Monument as the intersection.  How did this come about? Who was the architect of this landscape along the banks of the Potomac River? Did he have a purpose for it?

 Map of The National Mall in Washington D.C.

The original architect

The design for Washington was created by Pierre Charles L’Enfant (1754-1825), a Paris-born engineer and architect. President George Washington hired L’Enfant in 1791 to design for the newly built U.S. federal capital at the mouth of the Potomac River. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson gave city plans of several European cities to L’Enfant to choose from. L’Enfant did not copy any of them, but took parts from these cities such as the baroque planning of Versailles, which André Le Nôtre had done, and parts from London by, for example, Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of the famous St Paul Cathedral. Architects in London were also heavily influenced by architecture in Paris and Rome in those days. L’Enfant made a new placement of the elements taking into account the differences in height of the landscape.  Although George Washington had to remove the wayward L’Enfant from his post as early as 1792 due to problems he caused with the city’s notables, his design was largely followed thereafter.    

William Thornton then designs the Capitol Building for which George Washington lays the foundation stone on September 18, 1793. In 1800, Congress began meeting here after which the building was further expanded in stages. During Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, work continued on the current dome, a symbol of national unity, and was completed in December 1863. The dome is very reminiscent of that of St Paul Cathedral in London and that of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The Washington Monument stands in the center of the original territory of the District of Columbia cleared for the capital, and was already envisioned by L’Enfant at this location as a tribute to the first President of the US. However, the monument was not completed until 1884 due to a variety of problems, including construction in this swampy area. At its inception, the 169-meter obelisk, referencing the Egyptian temple at Karnak, was the tallest structure in the world until it was overtaken by the Eiffel Tower in Paris a few years later.   

The Abraham Lincoln Memorial, located opposite the Capitol Building, is of much more recent date. It was built to honor the 16th president of the US for his virtues of tolerance, honesty, and steadfastness in humanity. The foundation stone was laid in 1915 and the temple was completed in May 1922. The design is by Henry Bacon and inspired by the Parthenon in Athens.  

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is designed like a temple and the president is depicted on a throne with almost divine status. It evokes a memory of the heavenly temple referred to in the letter to the Philadelphia community in the Apocalypse.  Because of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, there is a barrier between the rest of the buildings and this heavenly temple. That this is a heavenly reality, which may become earthly reality in the future, the visitor standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial becomes aware of. It is also reflected by the image of the obelisk of the Washington Moment which simultaneously mirrors itself in the surface of the water.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

The White House is the oldest building of the five. The foundation stone was laid in October 1792 and the second US President, John Adams, was the first to move into the building in November 1800.

The foundation stone of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, honoring the third president of the US, was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt in November 1939.  April 1943 saw the opening ceremony.

Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument and slightly to the left of it in the distance The White House

From the foregoing, it can be noted that the buildings that are normative for the cross were not realized as a whole. However, the first city architect L’Enfant did have a great influence on the siting of the Capitol Building, Washington Monument and The White House in relation to each other. The Memorials to Lincoln (completed 1922) and Jefferson (completed 1943) are of much more recent date. But the result is that they lie in the shape of a cross relative to each other, coincidence or not. A cross in which the three first presidents have a place and of which George Washington is the center.

The role of Freemasonry

Who was George Washington, the man who started the US and the city of Washington? He was born in 1732 to an English family that emigrated to the US. He played a major role in the War for Independence from British rule and, after the British recognized independence in 1783, he left the military. He enjoyed great authority and supported a strong role for the federal government that was enshrined in a new constitution for the US. Thereupon, in 1789, he was asked to become the first president of the USA. On April 30 that year, he and Vice President John Adams were inaugurated in New York. In 1791, he directed the siting and planning of the new capital city. In 1792 he was unanimously re-elected president for a second term. After that, he left national politics and died of laryngitis in 1799.

We see from this, that he played a key role in the establishment of Washington D.C. In addition, he made use of his knowledge of Freemasonry.  

A gift poster, lithograph reproduction from 1867; source: https://www.amazon.com/mason-president-george-washington-freemason/dp/b006nd0c7y

George Washington was initiated into a Masonic lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1752 at the age of twenty. The first American lodge had been founded in Boston in 1733 and found its roots in England and Scotland. In Europe, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, several Rosicrucian movements existed with views closely related to those of the Freemasons (Jean-Pierre Bayard, 1986, Les Rose-Croix, Paris: M. A. Éditions; E.J. Marconis de Negre (1849), Brief History of Masonry, http://www.esonet.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Ebook-Massoneria-ENG-E.J.-Marconis-The-Sanctuary-of-Memphis.pdf).

Against this background, it should come as no surprise that the Washington Mall can be seen as a representative of the rosy-cross, with the obelisk dedicated to George Washington in the place of the rose.

Relation of Washington Mall to rosy-cross

Masonic brothers pledged to support each other and provide protection when necessary. The fraternity embodied the European Enlightenment ideals of freedom, autonomy, and God as proposed by deistic philosophers.

The Capitol Building’s foundation stone was laid by George Washington in the form of a Masonic ceremony. Dressed in Masonic robe, he marched to the building site where members of a number of lodges awaited him.

Freemasons had been active in building for some time in England and France, and by the eighteenth century had increasingly organized themselves into lodges and grand lodges. In 1776, Marquis de La Fayette left France for the newly independent America to spread his Masonic ideals of equality, liberty, and fraternity and to work for civil rights and the abolition of slavery. Broad enthusiasm for “Masonic democracy” emerged. After George Washington, some later presidents such as James Monroe, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman were also open supporters of Masonic principles, such as world brotherhood of all nations. However, there was also considerable resistance from Roman Catholics and Lutherans. 

When we look for spiritual ideas that played a role in shaping the “sacred grounds” of the Washington Mall, Freemasonry should undoubtedly come to mind, which lent itself ideally to shaping spiritual ideals in landscape architecture and structures.  

The pyramid and obelisk

Two striking examples, that still remind us of the ideals of Freemasonry today, are the Egyptian pyramid and the obelisk. The pyramid can be found on the dollar bill and on the top of the obelisk that adorns the Washington Monument. At the base of the pyramid on the dollar bill is the year 1776, the year of US independence. The top of the pyramid shows the all-seeing eye of God watching over the developments in the country and whether they are making progress toward the higher goal.

Pyramid and all-seeing eye on one-dollar bill

The Latin text Annuit Coeptis on the dollar bill means something like “God has favored our enterprise”.

This all-seeing divine eye with 7 stars below it can also be found on the Masonic apron that George Washington received from the aforementioned Marquis de La Fayette and which is now on display in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. With the seven stars, we are approaching the seven stars from the Apocalypse that the Son of Man holds in his hand. On the apron, the seven stars are arranged to symbolize a cube, the cube that refers to the seventh seal: the New Jerusalem. 

George Washington’s apron, given to him by Marquis de Lafayette, and displayed at the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge of the Freemasons.

The giant obelisk of the Washington Monument takes us back to the Karnak temple in Egyptian Luxor. What does the obelisk represent? The pyramid as well as the obelisk represent the awareness of the power that elevates man (Rudolf Steiner, GA 152, p.110). This was an important developmental goal for the Egyptians. Their culture was a replication of the much older Lemurian era in which man began to unconsciously raise himself up into an upright figure. This self-erecting spiritually must now be experienced much more consciously and lead to the ability to choose between spirit or matter. This reference to the world of spirit was expressed at the pyramid and obelisk by the application to the top of a layer of lime or gold (electrum) that reflected the sunlight. This symbolism is reflected in the U.S. in the pyramid on the dollar bill and the site of the Washington Monument.  

Storming the sacred ground

The above features of the Washington Mall show why this territory is called sacred ground. It depicts the highest ideals of the founders of the US. The attack on American democracy by Donald Trump and his followers, who stormed and occupied the Capitol Building, actually emphasizes all the more the importance of the great ideals that underpin America. How much Donald Trump was an opponent of these ideals is evident from numerous of his statements. His election slogan ‘America first’ is diametrically opposed to the ideal of world brotherhood. His attitude towards women ‘grab them by the pussy’ also speaks volumes and shows how he tramples on people’s equal rights. And his final accusation that the election was stolen, by electing Joe Biden and not himself, must conceal how controversial his own election had been four years earlier. Egocentrism (I first) and falsehood (alternative facts) and mass hysteria (stop the steal) are the phenomena made great by him. So, is the storming of the Capitol Building and the appearance of the “two horned man” as Trump’s alter ego so surprising? Does the same spirit that wants to reduce man to animalism speak through both men?

Who is the horned man?

The horned man is Jake Angeli and lives in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a supporter of conspiracy theories, actor, activist and author of two books: Will & Power: Inside the Living Library (Volume 1), from 2017 and published under the name Loan Wolf; and One Mind at a Time: A Deep State of Illusion, published in 2020 under the name Jacob Angeli.

He joined the US Navy in 2005 and left it back in 2007 after refusing to be vaccinated against anthrax. Starting in early 2020, he participated in protest demonstrations to spread the QAnon conspiracy theories in his horned outfit, which he calls a shaman’s outfit.

QAnon

QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory. It acts as an umbrella under which all other existing conspiracies are tied together (see Nienke Schipper,Trouw (Dutch newspaper), November 3, 2020). There is said to be an American ‘Deep State’ directed against Donald Trump and his supporters that must be overthrown. The pseudonym Q is used on various internet forums by an individual or a group of individuals who first surfaced in 2017 under the name Q Clearance Patriot, when the mysterious ‘Q’ posted his first clue on the American far-right internet forum ‘4Chan’. The username suggested that the anonymous author(s) had so-called Q status, an authorization issued by the U.S. Department of Energy that is required for accessing classified information about nuclear weapons and materials (Randall Colburn, There’s a new, insane conspiracy theory tearing up 4chan. AV Club, December 19, 2017).

QAnon stands for Q and Anonymous, the participants do not make themselves known in order to avoid the tentacles of the ‘Deep State’. The ‘Deep State’ is akin to what Trump called the ‘swamp of Washington’ in his first election campaign, the existing establishment of leftish wealthy people and media magnates. People who adhere to the movement call themselves Q-Anons and believe that all known conspiracy theories, from the assassination of JFK to the spread of the coronavirus via 5G radiation, are part of a huge package of lies that have been fed to humanity for centuries by ‘the cabal’, an evil liberal elite (see, for example, https://www.ellaster.nl/2020/03/26/wie-is-de-cabal-herziene-versie/). The cabal includes pedophile Satan-worshippers who run the ‘Deep State’, a parallel reality that the ‘Sheeple’, the common people, have no knowledge of. They run an international pedophile network where children are abused. But, they also believe, the end is in sight. Soon ‘The Storm’ will begin and all the lies will come out. This will be followed by ‘The Great Awakening’ and the Sheeple will also wake up. A key role in this was played by President Trump, who is seen as the great Messiah. Therefore, when Trump called for storming the Capitol Building, it fell on fertile ground.

Q regularly posted messages on bulletin boards and Internet forums that the Q-Anons call “crumbs” or “Q-drops”. These are small chunks of cryptic information, usually in the form of questions like “How are people informed?” or hints like “Disney is a distraction”. The idea is that they follow the crumbs and “connect the dots” themselves. Because Q-Anons reject traditional media, they naturally end up on shadowy websites with conspiracies and disinformation, such as the controversial and anonymous 8Kun where neo-Nazis are also regularly found. Sociologist Jaron Harambam says in the Trouw article of November 23, 2020, that part of QAnon’s appeal also lies in the requested personal sleuthing. He sees a real feeding ground for the idea of child abuse and corruption among elites, referring to the widespread abuse in the Catholic Church and the Jeffrey Epstein affair. QAnon fulfills a need to resist a corrupt system. The people who are now turning away from society do find each other through social media in a movement like QAnon. The number of Q-drops decreased dramatically end 2020 (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2021/01/29/the-qanon-timeline/)

Jake Angeli

Angeli had no criminal record with Arizona police until the storming of the Capitol Building. He claimed during his questioning by the FBI to have come to Washington on January 6, 2021 with a group of “patriots” from Arizona in response to Donald Trump’s call for all patriots to gather in Washington DC. At the Capitol Building, he says, he was able to walk right in through an open door.  

Should we see this Jake Angeli as the personification of evil because of his appearance? It is not clear from the above that he is acting as a leading figure. He has lived with his mother since his discharge from the army and earns a living from acting and voice-over work. His acting skills and his ability to stand out with his shamanic outfits have enabled him to attract the attention of cameras. His guide to action were Q’s hints and Donald Trump’s calls. One wonders if Q is not also a Donald Trump invention or if Q’s expressions came across to Trump that he gleefully hopped on when they proved to be such a success.

I hold that Jake Angeli is an easily influenced actor who unwittingly portrays the beast with the two horns on the hallowed ground of the American republic.

But the setting of the hallowed Washington Mall with its promise for the future, the storming of the Capitol Building, and the mysterious Q who doesn’t reveal himself but has many followers in the U.S. and also in Europe and the Netherlands, produces an uncanny shadow. It should wake us up and make us alert to what is going on in our society and is too much neglected by the leading institutions such as governments, media and large corporations.

After all, it was the sixth day of the year when all this manifested itself, a day of decisive denouement.