PART TWELVE—Read It Before It Is Banned By The US Government

Editor's note: All notations will be cited when this series of articles have concluded. The information is based on research contained in Tom Horn's upcoming new book:

APOLLYON RISING 2012
The Lost Symbol Found And The Final Mystery Of The Great Seal Revealed
A Terrifying And Prophetic Cipher, Hidden From The World By The U.S. Government For Over 200 Years Is Here

THE FIRST PART OF THE FINAL MYSTERY OF THE GREAT SEAL BEGINS

“Not only were many of the founders of the United States Government Masons, but they received aid from a secret and august body existing in Europe, which helped them to establish this country for a peculiar and particular purpose known only to the initiated few. The Great Seal is the signature of this exalted body—unseen and for the most part unknown—and the unfinished pyramid upon its reverse side is a trestleboard setting forth symbolically the task to the accomplishment of which the United States Government was dedicated from the day of its inception.”—Manly P. Hall, 33rd Degree Freemason

Of all the “Masonic symbols” associated with the founding of America, Manly Hall viewed the design of the Great Seal of the United States as the highest signature of occult planning by Freemasons. This was not only due to the repetition of the number 13, the pentagram shapes, the uncapped pyramid or the Phoenix-Eagle, but Hall, like other experts in mystical literature and Western esoteric tradition understood the “mass of occult and Masonic symbols” on the Great Seal represented both the tangible ambitions of a new society and a metaphysical concept attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which means that visible matter is mirrored by unseen reality, or, “as above, so below.”

Hall believed what this meant practically was that only students of archaic or esoteric symbolism would be able to decipher the true meaning hidden within the subterfuge of the seal’s design and that the symbolism was thus intended to convey two sets of meaning—the first for non-illuminates having to do with certain natural or historical issues perceived to be important to society; and the second deeper occult truisms meant for comprehension by members of the exalted Order.

While examining the mountains of literature publicly available on the Great Seal including its history from the original resolution in 1776 to its final approval in 1782, it is important to note that general harmony exists among researchers concerning the superficial interpretation of the primary symbols.

For instance the obverse side of the Great Seal portrays a Bald Eagle clutching a bundle of arrows in its left talon, while in its right claw it grips an olive branch. The eagle is looking to the right, indicating that, while the United States prefers peace, it is always ready to go to war if necessary. The original 13 colonies are said to be represented in the 13 leaves of the olive branch, 13 olives on the branch, 13 bars and stripes in the shield, 13 letters in the phrase ‘E Pluribus Unum’ and the 13 stars above the eagles head (which, as researchers point out, forms a hexagram). On the reverse of the seal the number 13 continues in the stone layers of the pyramid and the 13 letters of ‘Annuit Coeptis.’

Yet according to esotericists like Hall, the extraordinary truth about the number 13 so affixed to the Great Seal was actually more than representation of the original colonies. It was a marker for those who understood it as a Masonic ‘power number,’ sacred to the Moon among other things and representative of the head of Isis, while the Eagle, Hall wrote, was a shrewd masquerade for the mythical Phoenix so important to Masonic mysticism. Hall partly came to this conclusion based on the early seal prototype of William Barton showing a Phoenix in its nest of flames.

“Most of the designs originally submitted had the Phoenix bird on its nest of flames as the central motif,” Hall said. “Its selection would of course have been appropriate…. [because] the Phoenix is one sign of the secret orders of the ancient world and of the initiate of those orders, for it was common to refer to one who had been accepted into the temples as a man twice-born, or re-born. Wisdom confers a new life, and those who become wise are born again.”

Hall went on in The Secret Destiny of America:

The Phoenix symbol is important in another way, as an emblem among nearly all civilized nations of royalty, power, superiority, and immortality. The Phoenix of China is identical in meaning with the Phoenix of Egypt; and the Phoenix of the Greeks is the same as the Thunder Bird of the American Indians…

It is immediately evident that the bird on the original seal is not an eagle… but the Phoenix…. The beak is of a different shape, the neck is much longer, and the small tuft of hair at the back of the head leaves no doubt as to the artist’s intention. [1]

Hall then acknowledged that if the design “on the obverse side of the seal is stamped with the signature” of the Masons, the design on the reverse was even more related to the Order’s “mysteries,”casting the United States within the society’s secret scheme to fulfill the Baconian dream of a New Atlantis by establishing America as the capital of the New World Order.

Hall continues:

Here is represented the great pyramid of Gizah, composed of 13 rows of masonry, showing 72 stones. The pyramid is without a cap stone, and above its upper platform floats a triangle containing the All-Seeing Eye surrounded by rays of light…

The Pyramid of Gizah was believed by the ancient Egyptians to be the shrine tomb of the god Hermes, or Thot, the personification of Universal Wisdom.

No trace has ever been found of the cap of the great pyramid. A flat platform about thirty feet square gives no indication that this part of the structure was ever otherwise finished; and this is appropriate, as the Pyramid represents human society itself, imperfect and incomplete. The structure’s ascending converging angles and faces represent the common aspiration of humankind; above floats the symbol of the esoteric orders, the radiant triangle with its all-seeing eye…

There is a legend that in the lost Atlantis stood a great university in which originated most of the arts and sciences of the present race. The University was in the form of an immense pyramid with many galleries and corridors, and on the top was an observatory for the study of the stars. This temple to the sciences in the old Atlantis is shadowed forth in the seal of the new Atlantis. Was it the society of the unknown philosophers who scaled the new nation with the eternal emblems, that all the nations might know the purpose for which the new country had been founded?

…The combination of the Phoenix, the pyramid, and the all-seeing eye is more than chance or coincidence. There is nothing about the early struggles of the colonists to suggest such a selection to farmers, shopkeepers, and country gentlemen. There is only one possible origin for these symbols, and that is the secret societies which came to this country 150 years before the Revolutionary War. Most of the patriots who achieved American independence belonged to these societies, and derived their inspiration, courage, and high purpose from the ancient teaching. There can be no question that the great seal was directly inspired by these orders of the human Quest, and that it set forth the purpose for this nation as that purpose was seen and known to the Founding Fathers.

The monogram of the new Atlantis reveals this continent as set apart for the accomplishment of the great work—here is to arise the pyramid of human aspiration, the school of the secret sciences. [2]

Besides Manly Hall, late scholars that recognized the occult symbolism of the Great Seal as pointing to this ‘secret destiny of America’ included Rhodes Scholar James H. Billington and Harvard Professor Charles Eliot Norton, who described the Great Seal as hardly other than an “emblem of a Masonic Fraternity.” In 1846, 33rd Degree Freemason and noted author James D. Carter inadvertently confirmed this as well when he admitted the Masonic symbolism is clearly known whenever “an informed Mason examines the Great Seal.”

But for all the volumes that were written in the early years about the arcane meaning behind the obvious symbols on the Great Seal of the United States, it was not until the 1930s that, perhaps by providence, the significance of the Great Seal started finding its defining moment.

It happened when occult minded 32nd Degree Mason, Henry Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture for the United States in 1934 became intrigued with the meaning behind the Great Seal. Wallace had been a disciple of Agni Yoga Society founder and theosophist, Nicholas Roerich, whose devotion to mysticism was increasingly focused on apocalyptic themes surrounding the coming of a new earthly order. This came to light publicly when Wallace ran as Vice President in the 1940 presidential election and was threatened with embarrassment by the Republicans, who had come into possession of a series of letters written by Wallace in the 1930s. The letters were addressed to Roerich as “Dear Guru” and described the anticipation Wallace felt for “the breaking of the New Day,” a time when a mythical kingdom would arrive on earth accompanied by a special breed of people. The Democrats barely kept the letters from the public by making threats of their own, and Wallace went on to become 33rd Vice President of the United States under the 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a 32nd Degree Mason with an equal thirst for mysticism.

Stay tuned…

1. Manly Palmer Hall, The Secret Destiny of America, chapter 18, Philosophical Research Society, 3341 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles 27, California, 1944

Ibid

PART ELEVEN—Read It Before It Is Banned By The US Government

Editor's note: All notations will be cited when this series of articles have concluded. The information is based on research contained in Tom Horn's upcoming new book:

APOLLYON RISING 2012
The Lost Symbol Found And The Final Mystery Of The Great Seal Revealed
A Terrifying And Prophetic Cipher, Hidden From The World By The U.S. Government For Over 200 Years Is Here

I ended the last entry making the point that acknowledgment to pagan gods through the use of images and symbols by Masons is interesting given their avowed consecration of the Bible, a book that clearly forbids this type activity as devotion to demons. Yet metaphysicians that do not rely solely on the Bible for authority nonetheless often agree that powerful non-human energies including evil ones can emanate from symbols and, once released, take on a mind of their own. Writing about the Masonic involvement in the French Revolution, Gary Lachman makes an extraordinary and important observation about immaterial destructive forces—which had unseen plans of their own—released as a result of occult politics:

Cazotte himself was aware of the dangerous energies unleashed by the Revolution…. Although Gazotte didn’t use the term, he would no doubt have agreed that, whatever started it, the Revolution soon took on a life of its own, coming under the power of an egregore, Greek for “watcher,” a kind of immaterial entity that is created by and presides over a human activity or collective. According to the anonymous author of the fascinating Meditations on the Tarot, there are no “good” egregores, only “negative” ones…. True or not, egregores can nevertheless be ‘engendered by the collective will and imagination of nations.’ As Joscelyn Godwin points out, ‘an egregore is augmented by human belief, ritual and especially by sacrifice. If it is sufficiently nourished by such energies, the egregore can take on a life of its own and appear to be an independent, personal divinity, with a limited power on behalf of its devotees and an unlimited appetite for their future devotion.’ If, as some esotericists believe, human conflicts are the result of spiritual forces for spiritual ends, and these forces are not all “good,” then collective catastrophes like the French Revolution take on a different significance. [4]

In addition to egregores or demons by any other name being drawn—like flies to a lightbulb—to men, and energized through symbols, statues and rituals, Ovason says the dedication of the US Capital Building cornerstone in particular had to be done at a certain astrological time related to the Zodiacal constellation Virgo (Isis), while Jupiter was rising in Scorpio, because “the cornerstone ceremonial was designed not only to gain the approval of the spiritual beings, but also to ensure that these were content that the building was being brought into the world at the right time.” [5] Ovason later adds more directly, “…whoever arranged for Virgo to be so consistently operative during foundation and cornerstone ceremonies, must have been alert to the fact that they were inviting some archetype, or spritual being, to direct the destiny of the city” (itallics in the original, pg 361). Finally Ovason hints who the “spiritual being” governing the Capital of the United States is: “… a medieval esotericist…. Would have said that Washington, D.C., was governed by the intelligency Hamaliel, the spiritual entity which ruled Virgo, and which worked hand in hand with Mercury” (pg 373). Hamaliel is an evil adversary of the cherubim of God, serving under Lilith, whom earlier we wrote about concerning her devotees, which gather annually to honor her at the Bohemian Grove.

Every Aug. 10, an astrological event reoccurs in the sky above Washington, tying the city to the pagan Virgo—known in ancient Egypt as the goddess Isis. “At dusk, as golden light turns brick facades a dusty rose, the shimmering sun floats a few degrees just to the left of Pennsylvania Avenue, gradually inching to the right until it sets directly over the famous street,” writes Julie Duin. “If the horizon remains cloudless, three stars are visible in a straight line from the Capitol to the White House to the skies in the west. Known as Regulus, Arcturus and Spica, the stars form a right-angled triangle framing the constellation of Virgo.” [6] Such mysticism incorporated into the design of Washington, DC, by Freemasons for summoning the timing, presence and approval of these “invisible agents” was a formula perfected in pagan Rome. John Fellows explains why:

“…they consulted the gods, to know if the enterprise would be acceptable to them, and if they approved of the day chosen to begin the work… they invoked, besides the gods of the country, the gods to whose protection the new city was recommended, which was done secretly, because it was necessary that the tutelary gods should be unknown to the vulgar.” [7]

It may come as little surprise then that when George W. Bush in a speech the day before his second inaugural said the United States had “a calling from beyond the stars” (a disturbing statement taken directly from the satanic Necronomicon fiction concerning alien creator gods) that the Capital Building had been intentionally set in the head of a Masonic Owl Figure, which in turn stands atop the White House, located on the chin of the Pentagramic Goat of Mendes. The upside-down pentagram or “baphomet,” clearly visible in the D.C. street layout, represents the goat’s head and is considered the most powerful symbol in Satanism, while the owl figure is a well-known representative of the Masonic, Illuminati, Bohemian owl of wisdom incarnation of Athene, Minerva, Lilith and Hecate.

Occultists around the world understand the power of these D.C. symbols and rituals, and realize they are not only for conveying psychological concepts, but actually to coerce the mysterious and potent supernaturalism invited to take residence there. This belief is deeply preserved in all of the Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Kabalistic symbolism that is a part of Masonic history, and according to famous Freemason, Foster Bailey, these symbols intentionally hide “a secret… which veils mysterious forces. These energies when released can have a potent effect.” [8] Scottish Philosopher Thomas Carlyle once famously added: “By symbols, accordingly, is man guided and commanded, made happy, made wretched.” Masons as a result are under oath never to reveal the true meaning of their symbols, and when somehow they are compelled to offer explanation, they falsify the statement, even to lower degree Masons as explained by Sovereign Grand Commander Albert Pike in the Masonic handbook Morals and Dogma: “Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermetic, and Alchemy, conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it.” [9]

Substantial reasons exist for why the designer’s of Washington’s Government Center would have wanted to obscure the meaning behind the occultic layout of America’s capital. If the public in general had been prematurely convinced of the end-game prophesied in the D.C. symbolism, it would have been beyond the acceptance of prior generations who likely would have demanded change in leaders and facilities. But as time has moved forward and increasingly it has become necessary for public understanding of America’s heritage and intended purpose, little by little—either by providence, promotion, or even resistance—a clearer picture has emerged of what Manly P. Hall called “The Secret Destiny of America.”

According to the symbolism in Washington, D.C., the secret destiny of America includes future national and global subservience to the god of Freemasonry, a deity most Americans would not imagine when reciting the pledge of allegiance to “one nation under God.” In fact, the idea by some that the United States was established as a monotheistic ‘Christian nation’ by those who designed Washington, D.C., and that the ‘God’ referred to on American currency is a Judeo-Christian one, is a puzzling conclusion when reflected against the deistic beliefs of so many of the founding fathers (as perpetually viewed in the “Supreme Architect” deism of Freemasons and in the “Supreme Judge of the world” and “Divine Providence” notations in the Declaration of Independence) and the countless pagan icons that dominate the symbols, statues, buildings and seals carefully drafted under official government auspices. The Great Seal of the United States, which 33rd Degree Mason Manly P. Hall rightly called “the signature” of that exalted body of Masons who designed America for a “peculiar and particular purpose” bears rich symbolism forecasting anything but Christianity. In fact, when Christians in the 1800s argued that a hypothetical annihilation of the US would lead to “antiquaries of succeeding centuries” concluding that America had been a heathen nation based on symbolism of the Great Seal, Congress was pushed to create something reflecting the Christian faith of so many of its citizens. US President and Freemason Theodore Roosevelt strongly opposed this idea while other Masons were not as frustrated with the plan. Given the ambivalence of the term ‘God’ and the axiom that, interpreted within the context of the Great Seal symbolism this would certainly not infer a traditional Christian God, the slogan ‘In God We Trust’ (whoever you believe that is) was accommodated by Masons and other illuminatus and so approved as the official US motto.

To illustrate the point that one would not determine the ‘God’ in America’s official motto refers to the Father of Jesus Christ or a Biblical Trinity, imagine yourself as a space traveler who visits earth in a fictional post-apocalyptic world. Digging through the rubble of the once thriving planet, you come across a copy of a US One Dollar Bill with the two-sided Great Seal of the United States joined in the middle by the phrase “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Upon consideration, you ask yourself, “what GOD did this refer to?” With no preconceptions you allow the symbolism on the seal to speak for itself, from which you quickly determine that this had been a great culture who worshipped Egyptian and Greek deities, especially a particular solar one whose all-seeing eye glared from atop an unfinished Egyptian pyramid. Upon further investigation into the specific beliefs of the strange group whose members had influenced the Great Seal, you discover from their highest masters, including one “Illustrious” Albert Pike, that the Sun God they venerated so highly had been known to them at various times in history by the names Apollo, Osiris and Nimrod.

Then, you decode something even more important—a hidden divination in the Great Seal that prophesied a time when this “god” would return to Earth in a physical body. His coming, according to the information you gleaned from the draftsmen of the Great Seal, would herald a New World Order. In retrospect, you wonder: Was this prophesied advent on this Great Seal the fomenter of destruction that annihilated what at once was so beautiful a world?

Stay tuned…

PART TEN—Read It Before It Is Banned By The US Government

Editor's note: All notations will be cited when this series of articles have concluded. The information is based on research contained in Tom Horn's upcoming new book:

APOLLYON RISING 2012
The Lost Symbol Found And The Final Mystery Of The Great Seal Revealed
A Terrifying And Prophetic Cipher, Hidden From The World By The U.S. Government For Over 200 Years Is Here

WILL THE UNITED STATES GENERATE THE ANTICHRIST?

“America was designated as the New Atlantis that would lead the world to the Antichrist. The original national bird envisioned by our Masonic leadership in the late 1700’s was not the American Eagle, but the Phoenix Bird. This historic fact strongly suggests that, at the right moment in world history, with the world entering through the portals of the Kingdom of Antichrist, America might suddenly be immolated in fiery flames, burning to the ashes; out of these ashes, the New World Order would arise.”—David Bay, Cutting Edge Ministries

When US Representative Nancy Pelosi on January 4, 2007 assumed her roll as speaker of the House at the opening of the 110th Congress, she followed the pattern set by George W. Bush and his old man, infusing a loaded statement concerning the founding fathers, saying they were so confident in “the America they were advancing, they put on the seal, the great seal of the United States, ‘novus ordo seclorum’—a new order for the centuries.” Pelosi did not go into detail as to why she considered the phrase “Novus Ordo Seclorum” important dialectic during the momentous changeover of the control of congress, nor did she add why this expression exists beneath the unfinished pyramid and the All Seeing Eye (Eye of Horus/Osiris/Apollo) in the Great Seal of the United States in the first place. But her allusion to it was not coincidental, and the origins of the motto and the importance behind the increase in references to the cryptic passage by government insiders in recent years will become evident soon enough.

Undoubtedly upon reading the next few entries, low-level Masons who are intentionally kept in the dark by their superiors will write to complain about the stereotype of them as members in a secret plot toward global domination. Truth is, most Masons are moral people that know nothing about the goals of the Uber Echelon above them. Yet respected historians including some Masonic writers admit to what Gary Lachman in his book, Politics and the Occult called the most sensational historical association between Freemasons and American occult politics. Citing the works of professors like Robert Hieronimus, Lachman says, “the United States is—or at least was originally planned to be—the kind of utopia aimed at by the Rosicrucians.” Furthermore, Lachman writes, Washington, D.C. was laid out according to the precepts of sacred geometry “associated with Freemasonry.” [1]

That a Rosicrucian-Masonic brotherhood was involved in the American and French as well as European revolutions is indisputable today. As many as 44 (though probably a lower number) of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Freemasons. Numerous US Presidents were also part of The Craft, including Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, A. Johnson, Garfield, McKinley, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, F. Roosevelt, Truman, L.B. Johnson and Ford. Other elites in the Order included Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, and so on, and Thomas Jefferson was suspected but never proven to be a Brother in the Lodge.

Besides membership, the question of whether the Order of Freemasons engineered the US City named after America’s first president according to an occult grand-design is something that a growing body of historians and researchers are coming around to. David Ovason, who became a Mason after writing The Secret Architecture of our Nations’ Capital: the Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C., argues effectively that the city’s layout intentionally incorporated the esoteric belief-system of Freemasonry, especially as it involved astrologically alighning the capital with the constellation Virgo (Isis). In 1793 when George Washington sanctioned the laying of the capital building’s cornerstone, he did so wearing a Masonic apron emblazoned with the brotherhood’s symbols. For occult expert and 33rd Degree Freemason Manly P. Hall, this made perfect sense. “Was Francis Bacon’s vision of the ‘New Atlantis’ a prophetic dream of the great civilization, which was so soon to rise upon the soil of the New World?” he asked in The Secret Teachings of All Ages. “It cannot be doubted that the secret societies…conspired to establish [such] upon the American continent….’” Hall continued that historical incidents in the early development of the United States clearly bore “the influence of that secret body, which has so long guided the destinies of peoples and religions. By them nations are created as vehicles for the promulgation of ideals, and while nations are true to these ideals they survive; when they vary from them, they vanish like the Atlantis of old which had ceased to ‘know the gods.’” [2]

For those unfamiliar with this secret American-Masonic history or who do not have time to dedicate to the study, I cannot recommend highly enough an award-winning film series on the subject from Adullam Films now available on DVD (at places like SurvivorMall.com). The three films in “The Secret Mysteries Of America’s Beginnings” are a perfect primer for understanding the fascinating history behind the founding of America as the fulfillment of Bacon’s Rosicrucian New Atlantis and what this portends for humanity today. The three DVD series includes: Volume One—Secret Mysetries Of America’s Beginnings: The New Atlantis; Volume Two—Riddles In Stone: The Secret Architecture Of Washington, D.C.; and Volume Three—Eye Of The Phoenix: Secrets Of The Dollar Bill. Filmmaker Christian J. Pinto also kindly provided the Washington, D.C. street map included in this entry.

Involvement by Freemasons in the development of early America and the symbolic layout of Washington, D.C. as the Capital for the New Atlantis has been so well documented over the last two decades that even many Masons have ceased denying the affiliation. Daily Masonic tours through services devoted to this history are now offered of the city’s landmarks to illustrate the connection. For a fee, a guide will help you visit locations such as the George Washington Masonic National Memorial or the House of the Temple, the headquarters building of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Designed in 1911 (note the connection again between Masons and the numerological value 9-11), the House of the Temple hosts the Freemason Hall of Fame, an enormous collection of Freemason memorabilia including various artworks important to Masons, a library of 250,000 books, and is the location for the Rite’s Supreme Council 33rd Degree meetings. Upon leaving, you can exit the House of the Temple, walk down the street and take pictures of the enormous Masonic obelisk (phallic Egyptian symbol of fertility) in the distance known as the Washington Monument.

For obvious reasons, while modern Masons may openly admit these days to involvement by their Jacobite ancestors toward establishing the foundation for a utopian New World Order in Washington, D.C., most vigorously deny that the talisman-like layout of the streets, government buildings and Masonic monuments were meant for what researcher David Bay calls an “electric-type grid” that pulsates “with Luciferic power 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Notwithstanding this denial, the government’s own records explain otherwise, clearly stating that the Capital’s Design was “shepherded” by those who wanted it to reflect dedication to “pagan gods.” For instance the article “The Most Approved Plan: The Competition for the Capitol’s Design” on the Library of Congress’s website tells how, after advertising a competition for the design of Government Center in D.C., “Washington, Jefferson, and the Commissioners of the District of Colombia” were disappointed by the entries, and a design based on “The Roman Pantheon—the circular domed rotunda dedicated to all pagan gods—was suggested by Jefferson, who later shepherded it through several transformations.” [3]

Freemason David Ovason adds that when the Cornerstone of the US Capital building was laid; it was done through Masonic ritual meant to procure approval of the pagan gods. As recorded in two bronze panels on the Senate doors of the Capital, George Washington is seen standing in front of a Mason who holds two versions of the Masonic square, while he himself uses a Masonic trowel on the cornerstone. It is the apron Washington so famously wore that day that bears specific Masonic symbolism, which Ovason explains as designed to please the “invisible agencies” who watched over the event. “Undoubtedly, invisible agencies were present at the cornerstone ceremony,” he says, “but they were made visible in the apron’s symbolism. The radiant eye represented the invisible presence of the Great Architect—the high Spiritual Being who had been invited by prayer and ritual to oversee the ceremonial. The radiant eye was… the ‘sun-eye,’ or Spiritual Sun [Horus/Osiris/Apollo].”

Acknowledgment to such pagan gods through the use of images and symbols by Masons is interesting given their avowed consecration of the Bible, a book that clearly forbids this type activity as devotion to demons. In Acts 7:41-42 it explains that when men serve idols, they are worshipping the host or “army” of heaven. Psalms 96:5 adds, “For all the gods of the nations are idols” (‘elilim, LXX daimonia [demons]). Other references conclude that idols of stone or relevant imagery, such as permeates Washington, D.C., are ‘elilim (empty, nothing, vanity); but that behind these images exist the true dynamic of idolatry—demons. The Apostle Paul confirmed this in 1 Corinthians 10:20, saying, “the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.”

PART NINE—Read It Before It Is Banned By The US Government

Editor's note: All notations will be cited when this series of articles have concluded. The information is based on research contained in Tom Horn's upcoming new book:

APOLLYON RISING 2012
The Final Mystery Of The Great Seal Revealed
A Terrifying And Prophetic Cipher, Hidden From The World By The U.S. Government For Over 200 Years Is Here

A ‘NOD’ FROM THE CRAFT & THE ALTAR OF ZEUS

It would be pleasant to think that using the Bible during the US Presidential Oath of Office actually means something to those who place their hand on it and swear to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States… so help me God.” But Obama, who had to repeat his swearing in ceremony after the word “faithfully” was garbled by Chief Justice John Roberts during the inauguration, did so the following day in the Map Room of the White House before a press pool and a small group of aides, and this time, the Oath was administered without the use of a Bible, insinuating to some that the Good Book was only public “eye-candy” in the first instance and also that the Oath of Barack Hussein Obama was biblically invalid.

While this may seem trivial to the average person, what it means to secret orders is consequential. Groups such as Masons (who honored Obama with the first-ever-inaugural ball in Washington, DC, January 20th, 2009) esteem rituals, gestures, the use of books such as the Bible, and Oaths taken by heads of State to be of the highest mystical importance. This is why everything they do is administered through appropriate rituals, initiations and incitations. Ethereal power—including supernatural agents—can be manipulated, bound and released to execute blessings or curses as a result of proper oaths. Breaking an oath can likewise result in dire repercussion in their opinion. Because this is not taken lightly by occultists, members of the Craft would have a difficult time believing the Oath of Office of the President of the US—one of the most hallowed American traditions—was so easily flubbed. The very beginning of the Oath, “I do solemnly swear,” is a spiritual petition. The word ‘solemn’ means ‘an invocation of a religious sanction’ or entreaty before deity to witness, sanction and bless the binding nature of the ceremony to carry out the office or duty. The oath also binds the individual before “God” to faithfully execute the covenant. Thus government representatives make an oath before taking public office, and witnesses in a court of law take an oath to “swear to tell the truth” before offering testimony.

These principles are deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian faith as well as most other religions. Though there is no way of knowing what the Presidential Oath of Office deeply means to Obama or whether the blunder and redo of the swearing in ceremony was anything more than an accident, the unprecedented gaffe was suspicious to some as possibly representing important hidden meaning. Misgivings over it were additionally compounded when reflected against other curious activities and declarations by Barack Obama, which most of the media missed, downplayed, or simply refused to report on, that strongly connected his emergence with occult mythology identified in the Bible as both prophetic and demonic.

An extraordinary example of this was when Obama gave his speech in Berlin, Germany, on July 24th, 2008, titled “The World that Stands as One.” More than a few students of occult history took notice of the symbolism and location of the event, even causing some who until then had rejected any “antichrist” labels hurled at Obama to reconsider their position. This included respected Catholic writer Michael O’Brien, best known for his apocalyptic novel Father Elijah. O’Brien had received numerous letters and emails from subscribers and visitors to his website wondering if Obama was the Antichrist. At first O’Brien wrote that this was not possible. Then a friend that had seen Obama’s speech in Berlin called him, talking about how mesmerizing the speech was and that an announcer over German radio had said: “We have just heard the next President of the United States… and the future President of the World.” By now Obama was conveying an unusual likeness to the Antichrist character of his novel. After watching the Berlin speech several times for himself, O’Brien sent out a newsletter in which he admitted that, while he still doubted Obama was the prophesied ruler of the end times, he had come to believe he was “a carrier of a deadly moral virus, indeed a kind of anti-apostle spreading concepts and agendas that are not only anti-Christ but anti-human as well.” O’Brien finally conceded Obama could be instrumental in ushering in the dreaded Great Tribulation period, and worse, that he was “of the spirit of Antichrist.” [34] After Obama’s term of office was underway, O’Brien pointed out the numerous foreign and domestic problems Obama was facing, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the possibility of a new war with Iran, and issues related to the crumbling financial systems, saying these obstacles could overshadow Obama and lead to his defeat in the next presidential election. O’Brien then added in what was a clear reference to the coming of Antichrist, “Alternatively, he could become the ‘Great Facilitator,’ negotiator, peacemaker, working marvels throughout the world as he moves from one seemingly unsolvable problem to another.” [35]

Because it is true that any significant public political event requires both forethought and symbolic meaning, the location where Obama gave his Berlin speech in front of Berlin’s Victory Column contributed to O’Brien’s conclusions. The site was offensive to educated Germans as well as to Christians and Jews because of its ties to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. It was nevertheless oddly appropriate, for it was upon this exact location that Hitler had planned to enthrone himself in the Welthauptstadt Germania—the new “World Capital” upon winning World War II.

During the 1930s, Hitler commissioned Albert Speer “the first architect of the Third Reich” to design the new capital. As part of the plans, the “Siegessäule” or Berlin Victory Column—a 226-foot monument topped by a golden winged figure representing Borussia, the female personification of Prussia, and Victoria, the cult goddess of military victory—was removed from its location in front of the Reichstag building in 1939 and relocated to its current location in the Tiergarten, a 495 acre park in the middle of Berlin where Obama gave his speech in front of the Nazi symbol.

Rainer Brüderle, deputy leader of the liberal political party Free Democrats in Germany complained to the newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “The Siegessäule in Berlin was moved to where it is now by Adolf Hitler. He saw it as a symbol of German superiority and of the victorious wars against Denmark, Austria and France.” This represented a serious question In Brüderle’s mind as to “whether Barack Obama was advised correctly in his choice of the Siegessäule as the site to hold a speech on his vision for a more cooperative world.” [36] Another German politician named Andreas Schockenhoff was equally disturbed, saying, “It is a problematic symbol.” [37]

Evidently it was not problematic for Obama, who stood in front of it and saluted the German audience in a way eerily similar to what Adolf Hitler used to do, followed by thousands returning the salute, which is against German law. When Obama ended his speech in front of the war goddess, he said, “With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.” This is exactly what Hitler had promised to do and exactly where he had planned to memorialize it.

Of greater significance and not far from where Obama delivered his rousing speech, is the Great Altar of Zeus in the Pergamon Museum. According to several reports, Obama visited the Great Altar while in Berlin, which is especially important given what he did on returning to the United States. Before we examine Obama’s revealing actions, consider carefully what the Bible says about the Altar of Zeus in the letter to the church in Pergamos (Pergamum, Pergamon).

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and has not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth” (Rev. 2:12-13).

In the Greek, the phrase “where Satan’s seat is” literally means, “where a throne to Satan is.” Scholars identify this throne or ‘seat’ as the Great Altar of Zeus that existed in Pergamos at that time. So important was the worship of Zeus in ancient Pergamos that perpetual sacrifices were offered to him upon the towering and famous 40-foot high altar. Antipas, the first leader and martyr of the early Christian church is believed to have been slain on this altar, slowly roasting to death inside the statue of a bull, the symbol and companion of Zeus. The phrase in Revelation 2:13 “wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth” is considered a citation of this event.

Approximately two-thousand years after Revelation 2:13 was written, German archeologists removed the massive altar of Zeus from the ruins of Pergamos and took it to Berlin, where it was restored as the centerpiece of the Pergamon Museum. It is here that Hitler first adored it, later building an outdoor replica of it from which he gave a series of speeches that mesmerized many Germans.

“Fast forward about another 75 years,” says blogger El Gallo. “Another charismatic young politician mesmerizes huge German crowds with a rousing speech in Berlin. Barack Hussein Obama…. [and] did Barack Obama visit… the Great Altar of Zeus…? Presumably he did.” [38]

Whether Obama received inspiration from the throne of Satan while in Berlin or not, what he did next was astonishing. Upon returning to the United States, he immediately commissioned the construction of a Greek-columned stage from which he made his acceptance speech for his party’s nomination. Because Greek temples such as those built to honor Zeus were thought to house the patron deity, the GOP ridiculed Obama, mocking him as playing Zeus of “Mount Olympus” and accusing his supporters of “kneeling” before the “Temple of Obama.” The New York Post ran an enlightening Convention Special supplement on August 28th, 2008 with the telling headline: ‘O’ MY GOD: DEMS ERECT OBAMA TEMPLE blazoned across the front cover. But it was not until blogger Joel Richardson pointed out how the design of Obama’s stage was a dead ringer for the Great Altar of Zeus [39] that Obama’s campaign managers tried to explain away the design as being a conglomeration representing the portico of the White House with the U.S. capital building. “But experts agreed with Richardson,” Gallo wrote, “it was a replica of the Great Altar of Pergamum.” [40]

Thus, incredibly, like Hitler, Obama had honored the goddess Victoria with his presence before ordering a replica of the biblical throne of Satan built, upon which he accepted his date with destiny.

A final troubling disclosure at the conclusion of this entry may cast light on why Obama seemed fascinated with such anti-Christian symbolism in the lead-up to his election victory. A Hadith (tradition) sacred to Shiite Islam from the 17th century contains a prophecy from Ali ibn Abi-Talib, which predicts that just before the return of the Mahdi (the end-times redeemer of Islam), a “tall black man will assume the reins of government in the West.” This leader will command “the strongest army on earth” and will bear “a clear sign” from the third imam, Hussein. The prophecy concludes that: “Shiites should have no doubt that he is with us.”

Does this Islamic prophecy identify Obama as the “promised warrior” who comes to help the savior of Shiite Muslims conquer the world? Amir Taheri asked this very question for Forbes Magazine in October, 2008, pointing out how “Obama’s first and second names—Barack Hussein—mean ‘the blessing of Hussein’ in Arabic and Persian” while his “family name, Obama, written in the Persian alphabet, reads O Ba Ma, which means ‘he is with us,’ the magic formula in Majlisi’s tradition.” [41]

Leap forward to 2009, and Barack Hussein Obama on June 4 gave an unprecedented speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt declaring that he is launching a new era between the United States and the Muslim world. For the first time, Obama was forthright about his Muslim heritage and stated that the United States—which he is on record as saying is “no longer a Christian nation”—is now “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Newsweek editor Evan Thomas followed the president’s speech with a declaration reflected in the opinion of many, that “Obama is standing above the country, above the world, he is a sort of God.”

PART EIGHT—Read It Before It Is Banned By The US Government

Editor's note: All notations will be cited when this series of articles have concluded. The information is based on research contained in Tom Horn's upcoming new book:

APOLLYON RISING 2012
The Final Mystery Of The Great Seal Revealed

ENTER THE ERA OF OBAMA

Should the world continue, historians will undoubtedly record how the messianic fervor surrounding the election of the 44th president of the United States reflected not only widespread disapproval for Bush administration policies, but how, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 the American psyche was primed to accept expansive alterations in political and financial policy with an overarching scheme for salvation from chaos. Among these historians, a few will undoubtedly also argue that, as National German Socialists did in the years following World War I, Barack Hussein Obama appealed to the increasingly disenfranchised voters among American society by playing on their understandable fears in order to posture himself as the essential agent of change. What most of these historians are not likely to record, however, is the involvement before and after the U.S. presidential election by unseen shapers of the New World Order. If they did, the vast numbers of people would not believe it anyway, the idea that behind the global chaos that gave rise to Obama’s popularity was a secret network, a transnational hand directing the course of civilization. Yet no account of history including recent times is complete or even sincere without at least acknowledging the behind-the-scenes masters who manipulate international policy, banking and finance, securities and exchange, trade, commodities, and energy resources. Numerous works including scholarly ones have connected the dots between this ruling superclass and the integration of policy handed down to governing bodies of nation-states and supra-national organizations.

The Economist Newspaper in April 2008 pointed to research by academic David Rothkopf, whose book, Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making documented how only a few thousand people worldwide actually dictate the majority of policies operating at a global scale. The Economist described this comparatively small number of elites as being “groomed” in “world-spanning institutions… [who] meet at global events such as the World Economic Forum at Davos and the Trilateral Commission or… the Bilderberg meetings or the Bohemian Grove seminars that take place every July in California.” [8] Long time radio host and author of Brotherhood of Darkness, Stanley Monteith says such persons are part of an “Occult Hierarchy” that rules the world and directs the course of human events. “The movement is led by powerful men who reject Christianity, embrace the ‘dark side,’ and are dedicated to the formation of a world government and a world religion,” he writes. “They control the government, the media… many corporations, and both [US] political parties.” [9] Interestingly, Pope Benedict XVI may have referred to the same group when in 2008 he warned United Nations diplomats that multilateral consensus needed to solve global difficulties was “in crises” because answers to the problems were being “subordinated to the decisions of the few.” His predecessor, Pope John Paul II may have acknowledged the same, believing a One World Government beneath the guidance of a ruling superclass was inevitable. Before his death, it was prominent American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington who brought the uber-echelon behind the push for global government up from “conspiracy theory” to academic acceptability when he established that they “have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite’s global operations.” [10] In other words, according to experts, international affairs, foreign and domestic politics and taxpayer funded investment economics are being largely decided by a privileged cadre of families who are dedicated to a New World Order and One World Government.

I have to admit when writing this series it was difficult to resist the temptation to compile at length the names, dates and organizations that form the goals of the ruling elite. Having accumulated thousands of pages of research material concerning the CFR, the Trilateral Commission, Bohemians, Masons, the Bilderbergers and other Illuminatus subgroups, my original intention included several chapters on the memberships past and present of the largely unknown powers working behind public affairs. In the end I determined that enough of this type material is already available to the public and that this work would be better served in raising awareness beyond the machinations of financiers and occult ideologues who direct global institutions, by showing that behind their matrix of illusion—which most citizens perceive as reality—is an arena of evil supernaturalism under which these human ‘conduits’ are willingly organized. In more than thirty important biblical texts, the Greek New Testament employs the term kosmos, which describes an invisible order or “government behind government.” It is here that human ego, separated from God, becomes hostile to the service of mankind while viewing people as commodities to be manipulated in the service of fiendish ambition. To some, the origins of this phenomenon began in the distant past when a “fire in the minds” of angels caused Lucifer to exalt himself above the good of God’s Creation. The once glorified spirit was driven mad by an unequivocal thirst to rule, conquer, and dominate. His fall spawned similar lust between his followers, which continues today among human agents of dark power who guard a privileged “cause and effect” relationship between diabolical forces and the opportunity for lordship over societies.

The objectives of the secret orders and the very real forces they serve is seldom perceived by citizens of democratic societies who choose to believe national officials actually rule their countries and represent their interests. Yet according to sacred texts, not only does an active collaboration exist between unregenerate social architects and fallen angels, but politicians in particular are vulnerable to “principalities and powers.” According to well-known exorcist Gabriele Amorth who has performed over 70,000 official exorcisms, “Evil exists in politics, quite often in fact. The devil loves to take over… those who hold political office.” [11] As a result, it is not difficult to see how “fleshy gloves” such as US Presidents may be unaware of their role as chess pieces on a terrestrial game board sliding in and out of position as they are moved by “the god of this world” toward the phantasmogoric end game (see 2 Cor. 4:4). If researchers like Dr. Monteith are correct and world governments are to this day influenced by such dark angelic powers, the elite who head the current push to establish a New World Order are directly connected with an antichrist system whether they know it or not. With vivid testimony to this, Satan offered to Jesus all the power and glory of the kingdoms of this world. He said, “All this power [control] will I give thee, and the glory of them [earthly cities]: for that is delivered unto me: and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine” (Luke 4:6-7).

Signs and evidence of such supernatural involvement in the current move towards worldwide totalitarian government have been increasing in political commentary, occult symbolism and numerological ‘coincidences’ over the past decade. As public opinion is engineered toward final acceptance of the international subordination, we would expect to see these ‘mirrors of occult involvement’ continue. Recently there have been so many semiotic messages (visible signs and audible references that communicate subliminal ideas) in the open that it is starting to feel as if the ‘gods’ are mocking us; challenging whether or not we will willingly admit their involvement. This has been exponentially true since the election of US President Barack Hussein Obama, the ‘President of the world’ according to news services around the planet. While the grandiose title “President of the world” granted Obama by euphoric crowds on election night remains to be prophetic, the glorified ideal behind it reflects the global hunger for, and movement toward, the arrival of ‘the one’ who represents the invisible agencies mentioned above and who, for a while, will appear to be the world’s answer man.

Consider the unprecedented messianic rhetoric that reporters, politicians, celebrities and even preachers used in celebrating the ‘spiritual nature’ of Obama’s meteoric rise from near obscurity to US President. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford characterized it as “a sort of powerful luminosity.” In Morford’s opinion, this was because Obama is “a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to… help usher in a new way of being on the planet…” [12] The dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Lawrence Carter, went further, comparing Obama to the coming of Jesus Christ: “It is powerful and significant on a spiritual level that there is the emergence of Barack Obama… No one saw him coming, and Christians believe God comes at us from strange angles and places we don’t expect, like Jesus being born in a manger.” [13] Dinesh Sharma, a marketing science consultant with a PhD in Psychology from Harvard appraised Obama likewise: “Many… see in Obama a messiah-like figure, a great soul, and some affectionately call him Mahatma Obama.” [14] It would have been easy to dismiss such commentary as the New Age quiverings of loons had it not been for similar passion on the lips of so many people. The following is a brief list of like expressions from a variety of news sources:

“Barack’s appeal is actually messianic… he… communicates God-like energy… What if God decided to incarnate as men preaching ‘hope and change.’ And what if we… let them slip away, not availing ourselves… to be led by God!” Steve Davis, Journal Gazette [15]

“This is bigger than Kennedy. . . . This is the New Testament! I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often. No, seriously. It’s a dramatic event.” Chris Matthews, MSNBC [16]

“Does it not feel as if some special hand is guiding Obama on his journey, I mean, as he has said, the utter improbability of it all?” Daily Kos [17]

“Obama, to me, must be not just an ordinary human being but indeed an Advanced Soul, come to lead America out of this mess” Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times [18]

“He is not operating on the same plane as ordinary politicians…the agent of transformation in an age of revolution, as a figure uniquely qualified to open the door to the 21st century.” Former US Senator Gary Hart, Huffington Post [19]

“He is not the Word made flesh [Jesus], but the triumph of word over flesh [better than Jesus?]…Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves.” Ezra Klein, Prospect [20]

“Obama has the capacity to summon heroic forces from the spiritual depths of ordinary citizens and to unleash therefrom a symphonic chorus of unique creative acts whose common purpose is to tame the soul and alleviate the great challenges facing mankind.” Gerald Campbell, First Things First [21]

“Obama was… blessed and highly favored…I think that… his election… was divinely ordered… I’m a preacher and a pastor; I know that that was God’s plan… I think he is being used for some purpose.” Janny Scott, New York Times [22]

“He won’t just heal our city-states and souls. He won’t just bring the Heavenly Kingdom — dreamt of in both Platonism and Christianity — to earth. He will heal the earth itself.” Micah Tillman, The Free Liberal [23]

“The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.” Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Politico [24]

Though he tried to keep it subtle himself, Obama encouraged such public perception of him as an ‘anointed’ one whose time had come. Officially produced Obama campaign advertising consistently used such words as ‘faith,’ ‘hope,’ and ‘change.’ Republican nominee John McCain picked up on this during his run for office and put out a cynical video called “The One.” Using some of Obama’s own words against him, the video mocked Obama’s play as a Christ-like figure, showing him in New Hampshire saying, “a light beam will shine through, will light you up, and you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack!” The video failed to mention that having an “epiphany” actually means the sudden realization or comprehension of an appearance of deity to man. Another part of the video included Obama during his nomination victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota, saying, “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Anybody that followed the presidential campaign would have picked up the same nuances—angelic children organized to sing about Obama, logos depicting rays of sunlight beaming out from his ‘O’ shaped hand sign (a gesticulation Hitler used as well), books such as Nikki Grimes “Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope” (Simon & Schuster), comparisons to Plato’s ‘Philosopher King’ without whom our souls will remain broken, comparisons to the ‘spiritually enlightened’ Mahatma Gandhi, comparisons to the Solar Hero Perseus, comparisons to Jesus Christ and even comparisons to God Himself.

The world is “looking for a superstar,” wrote Prophecy in the News founder J. R. Church. They want a man “who can solve the problems of our planet. That elusive dream of a world without war, poverty, and disease has always been just beyond our reach. Most politicians are perplexed—overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem. They are convinced that the dilemma cannot be solved by commerce or systems, be it democracy or socialism. Most believe they can only be solved by a man—a superhuman superstar!” [25]

Will Obama become the superhuman superstar the world has been waiting for? If symbolic gestures are any indication, there certainly were plenty of religious folks during his march into the White House that thought he was or that at least he was a forerunner of ‘The One.’ Dozens of churches and faith groups including mainline Protestants organized activities to mark Obama’s inauguration as a ‘spiritual’ event. Randall Balmer, professor of religion in American history at Columbia University admitted he had never seen anything like it before. [26] CNN went so far as to compare Obama’s inauguration to the Hajj—the journey by Muslims to the holy city of Mecca, an obligatory pilgrimage that demonstrates their dedication to Allah. [27] In Des Moines, Iowa, an inaugural parade for Obama included a simulation of the triumphant entry of Christ in which a facsimile of Obama rode upon a donkey. As the reproduction made it’s way down the streets, palm branches were handed out to onlookers so that they could wave them like Christ’s adorers did in the 21st chapter of Matthew. [28] Several ministries including the Christian Defense Coalition and Faith and Action came together to perform what was heralded as a first for US presidential inaugurations—applying anointing oil to the doorposts of the arched doorway that Obama passed through as he moved to the platform on the West Front of the Capital to be sworn in. Congressman Paul Broun (Georgia) was part of the ritual and joined Reverend Rob Schenck, who said, “Anointing with oil is a rich tradition in the Bible and… symbolizes consecration, or setting something apart for God’s use.” [29] Not content with just using sacred anointing oil to consecrate Obama for God’s use, approximately two-thousand New Agers, Wiccans and Shaman’s gathered at Dupont Circle—chosen because it is considered the ‘gay center of Washington DC’as well as being the point of the left ear of the Masonic street Pentagram north of the White House—to participate in a cleansing ceremony to purge the White House of evil spirits (which they said were brought there by Bush) for Obama. A Shaman officiated the event, lighting bundles of sage, which smoldered and gave off thick blue aromatic smoke. Saging, as it is called, is believed by Wiccan tradition to drive away evil spirits. [30] Even the conventional inaugural prayers, which have been historically offered during US presidential installation ceremonies, carried an unparalleled New Age flavor this time around. Rick Warren, considered America’s Christian pastor, rendered a blessing in the name of the Muslim version of Jesus (Isa), while the Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson invoked the “God of our many understandings.”

While all this was highly unusual, even unprecedented, it was not surprising. Obama had spent significant time during the campaign distancing himself from conservative Christians, evangelicals and especially the Religious Right (which had held prominent sway over Republicans since Ronald Reagan held office) countering that his faith was more universalist and unconvinced of Bible inerrancy. In a 5-minute video available on YouTube, a pre-election speech by Obama was highly cynical of Bible authority and even derided specific Old and New Testament scriptures. “Whatever we once were,” Obama says on the video, “we’re no longer a Christian nation,” adding, “Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific values… this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible as many evangelicals do.” [31] Consequently, the conscious effort by Obama to reorient America away from conventional Christianity was widely embraced by people who identified with the man who carried a tiny idol of the Hindu god Hanuman in his pocket—whose blessings he sought in the race to the White House—together with a Madonna and child. For Obama, who grew up in a household where the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagvat Gita sat on a shelf side by side, organized religion was best defined as “closed-mindedness dressed in the garb of piety,” but a useful political tool nonetheless. And so he used it masterfully, and earned a cult following while doing so. By February 2009, Obama had replaced Jesus Christ as America’s No. 1 hero according to a Harris poll, and dedication to his come-one come-all mysticism has continued to spread, with evangelists of the new religion calling for the ‘tired’ faith of our fathers to be replaced with a global new one. Terry Neal, writing for the Hamilton Spectator is such a disciple, and proclaims boldly: “The faiths of our fathers are tired now… only a global world view will suffice. The marriage of a believable faith with the husbandry of government is the union that must be contracted.” This has to occur under Obama, Neal concludes, for only then will there be “peace on earth and goodwill toward all.” [32]

Although it is more difficult to understand the broad appeal of Obama’s New Age philosophy to the many evangelical and Catholic voters who supported him, the phenomenon can be explained to some degree as the result of a changing culture. Over the past 50 years and especially as baby-boomers listened attentively to pastors telling them to focus on human potential and the “god within us all,” eastern philosophies of Monism, Pantheism, Hinduism, and Self Realization grew, providing Americans with an alluring opportunity to throw off the “outdated ideas” of fundamental Christianity and to espouse a more “enlightened” monistic worldview (all is one). Aimed at accomplishing what the builders of the Tower of Babel failed to do (unify the masses of the world under a single religious umbrella), God was viewed as pantheistic and humans were finally understood to be divine members of the whole “that God is.” Pagans argue this principle of inner divinity is older than Christianity, which is true. The gospel according to such New Age concepts—a gospel of “becoming god”— is as old as the fall of man. It began when the serpent said to the woman “ye shall be as gods” (Gen. 3:5), and it will zenith during the reign of the anti-Christian god-king.