Decoded (by member Ulysses)

I am posting this for a new member who wished to discuss this. After this discussion, he should have his 20 posts.

As a new member to ATS, I'm not allowed to create new threads but seeing as how this thread concerns masonry I thought I'd go ahead and post here. I saw an episode of Brad Meltzer's "Decoded" last night on the History Channel and was intrigued by what I learned. The episode was about the missing cornerstone of the White House and the suspected theft of it by the Masons. Brad's team of investigators were allowed to meet with a 33rd degree mason at the Scottish Rite of Masonry to conduct an interview. While there. one of the things they saw was a stone with some Masonic symbols on it. They thought it might have been the missing cornerstone, but the 33rd degree mason they spoke to said it was just a stone that President Truman sent them but said nothing about the origin of it. Why would Truman, a 33rd degree Mason himself, just carve Masonic symbols into a stone with no significance and send fragments of it to every Masonic temple in the country? Granted it could be a stone with naturally appearing symbols, like a potato that happens to have the face of Elvis on it's skin, but nothing was said to that effect. Then they went to the library where another member of the team was looking at photographs from the Truman excavation. It appears that Truman did actually look for the stone when he was President. Apparently, he was using a metal detector or something to find the brass plate that covered the stone. He must have thought it was buried, which is the most likely scenario. When they got down to a certain level, Truman searched with his detector and got a ping. Oddly enough, he called an end to the investigation! The strange thing about this is that a similar excavation was conducted by an air conditioning technician at the capital building in the eighties. They did mention that the cornerstone of that building was missing as well. In the eighties, a guy named Scala conducted this excavation in secret. Supposedly, the missing stone was buried beneath the Senate floor. Scala's exavation was discovered by some senators who were Masons themselves, but they allowed Scala to continue. Now when Scala got to a certain location, the senators suddenly decided it was time to move it to the House side. On the program I saw last night, one of the Masons who was not a 33rd degree mason said that the stone was probably buried 8 or 10 feet from where they had ceased to dig on the Senate side! So we have two missing stones that are probably buried just a few feet from where they were originally located and both excavations to find them were suddenly stopped just before uncovering them. If they were satisfied that the stone was still there, why not just tell everyone rather than just call a halt to the excavation. There are two points of interest here. First we have a part of a rock with Masonic symbols in it with no explanation as to its origin or why it has the symbols in it, and second we have excavations to unearth the missing cornerstones of both the White House and the Capital building that were suddenly cut short. Another odd thing I noticed was that at the end of the program they said that Mason's always lay the cornerstone in the northeast corner of the building, yet at the beginning of it I am certain that I heard Meltzer say that the White House cornerstone was located in the southeast or southwest corner. I know I heard sout-something. I don't know where Truman was looking but I know Scala was looking in the northeast corner. It's almost as if Meltzer and his team were told to overlook these details. They did discuss the Masons murdering people to protect their secrets, but the 33rd degree Mason denied that the society had ever sanctioned any murders. I don't want to believe that they have ever killed anyone, but then again so many judges have been Masons that cover-ups are a possibility. After watching the program and identifying these oversights, I created a few possible scenarios of my own.

1. The Masons did hide the cornerstones to protect secrets from the British.

2. The Masons inscribed the cornerstones with their plans for a NWO, and later decided to hide them.

3. The stones were stolen by the Illuminati. I know that Illuminati were also involved in the creation of this country. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was one.

4. This one is really far-fetched. One cornerstone (or possibly both) is hidden in the Great Pyramid of Giza. Consider that the back of the one dollar bill shows an incomplete pyramid with the Eye of Judgement descending onto it. Both the eye and the triangle that surrounds it are Masonic symbols. I make no speculation as to how they would move a 2-ton rock half way around the world before airplanes existed, and I'll admit it seems impossible. The choice of artwork is interesting though. edit on 7-12-2010 by ulysses because: add a hypothesis

I will say that in a masonic building dedication a stone (the first one) is placed in the north east corner of the building. It is a public ceremony and most often the stone has engravings on it. Usually something about date and members involved. You can find a lot of public buildings that have a masonic stone in them. Court houses, other government buildings. Some churches. We have a bible college that has a masonic stone in it. It's the type of thing easily missed unless you are looking for it. They hold no special powers, but they do hold sentimental value to the people involved. And historical significance as well.

Yeah I saw the show too.

Among the glaring errors was the representation that the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite speaks for Freemasonry, or that it is somehow in charge of masonry.

OH and the part about Masons being murderers.

Oh and I think the correct answer was:

F- The cornerstone is a supporting structure in the foundation of a building that is laid many feet below grade because IT HOLDS THE BUILDING UP and this particular cornerstone is about three stories down in the ground and weighs 3600 pounds.

Originally posted by network dude
I will say that in a masonic building dedication a stone (the first one) is placed in the north east corner of the building.

In the program they made it clear that this was not always the case and their was no unified opinion on where to lay the corner stone in Washington's time.

reply to post by emsed1


Or when talking about the Scottish Rite, why do people always refer to the Southern Jurisdiction? As far as I am aware, the North has more members. Perhaps because the South is more.. "occultish"?

Anyways.. I've noticed two different types of Masonic cornerstones.

1. Being the foundation, literally the first stone placed and is usually bellow ground level (not buried, just how construction is)

2. Decorative cornerstones that are not literally the first stones but are placed above the foundation and are public. These ones are more prevalent and you see them on public buildings.

I wasn't even aware though that the two cornerstones were missing? I can only assume they are at the foundation level.

And the History Channel, for those that don't know, sucks when it comes to history. Utterly horrible. They don't care about history so much as they care about mainstream and what gets ratings.. I've seen very few historical shows on there that are worthy to be considered historical.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Or when talking about the Scottish Rite, why do people always refer to the Southern Jurisdiction? As far as I am aware, the North has more members. Perhaps because the South is more.. "occultish"?

Well, the Northern Jurisdiction got their charter from the Southern Jurisdiction. The Southern Jurisdiction styles itself as "Mother Supreme Council of the World."

As far as population goes, there are ~120,000 Blue Lodge Masons in Pennsylvania, ~110,000 Blue Lodge Masons in Ohio, and ~100,000 Blue Lodge Masons in Texas. Those are the top three states as far as regular Masonic membership goes. You'll note that two of those three are in the Northern Jurisdiction...

reply to post by JoshNorton


The South does have more states by far than the North, I don't know where I read the North had more members though. But anyways, Just because the North was established by the South, the North is it's own jurisdiction and has it's own governing bodies.. I don't think the South has any actual control over the North.

Most states received their charters from other states, but those Grand Lodges don't have jurisdiction beyond their states borders.