Post by fEAlEAtArO on Oct 25, 2006 1:05:57 GMT -5
The number 13 is represented several times in the design of the Great Seal. It is specifically called for in three instances: the number of stars, stripes, and arrows.
The official explanation of the shield makes it clear that 13 represents the 13 States "all joined in one solid compact entire, supporting... Congress. The Motto alludes to this union."
That motto E Pluribus Unum happens to have 13 letters. So does one of the mottoes on the pyramid side: Annuit Coeptis.
NOTE: The official description of the Great Seal does not specify the number of olives, olive leaves, or eagle feathers. These details are determined by artists and engravers. The number of steps on the pyramid is also not specified, although it is usually depicted with 13 because the third committee (1782) suggested: "A Pyramid of thirteen Strata, (or Steps)."
Colonial paper money often had emblems with 13 elements.
There are 13 full moons in a year, which may be why the number 13 has traditionally been associated with transformation, renewal, and regeneration. The founders believed the American Revolution was the beginning of a new order of the ages.
Musings on Thirteen
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President in 1932 and died in office 13 years later in 1945. The 13th president to serve more than one term, he's the one who had the Great Seal put on the one-dollar bill (1935).
Prohibition under the Eighteenth Amendment was in force for 13 years, from 1920 to 1933.
During the 1962 Cuban missile crises, 13 days of intense negotiations averted a nuclear apocalypse.
The scandal surrounding President Clinton lasted 13 months and involved 13 Republican House Managers.
A 13-minute video was the only surviving film from Columbia, the first space shuttle. The recovered piece of its left wing showed significant damage to 13 tiles.
It took 13 years to completely sequence the human genome (1990-2003).
A pyramid has 8 edges and 5 surfaces,
for a total of 13 elements.
"It was a bright cold day in April,
and the clocks were striking thirteen."
This is the opening sentence of George Orwell's prophetic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book's hero, Winston Smith, rewrites history at the Ministry of Truth, or Minitrue as it's called in the official language known as Newspeak.
"The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits . . . but to make all other modes of thought impossible."
The Minitrue building "was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, three hundred meters into the air."
Of Biblical Proportions...
Only one book in the Bible has a 13th chapter with exactly 13 verses – First Corinthians. Furthermore, its 13th verse is a timeless message: "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
In the first book of the New Testament, Matthew, the 13th verse of its 13th chapter says: "This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." The Great Seal is a kind of pictorial parable – understood on different levels.
©1998-2006 GreatSeal.com
This page updated October 13, 2006.
The official explanation of the shield makes it clear that 13 represents the 13 States "all joined in one solid compact entire, supporting... Congress. The Motto alludes to this union."
That motto E Pluribus Unum happens to have 13 letters. So does one of the mottoes on the pyramid side: Annuit Coeptis.
NOTE: The official description of the Great Seal does not specify the number of olives, olive leaves, or eagle feathers. These details are determined by artists and engravers. The number of steps on the pyramid is also not specified, although it is usually depicted with 13 because the third committee (1782) suggested: "A Pyramid of thirteen Strata, (or Steps)."
Colonial paper money often had emblems with 13 elements.
There are 13 full moons in a year, which may be why the number 13 has traditionally been associated with transformation, renewal, and regeneration. The founders believed the American Revolution was the beginning of a new order of the ages.
Musings on Thirteen
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President in 1932 and died in office 13 years later in 1945. The 13th president to serve more than one term, he's the one who had the Great Seal put on the one-dollar bill (1935).
Prohibition under the Eighteenth Amendment was in force for 13 years, from 1920 to 1933.
During the 1962 Cuban missile crises, 13 days of intense negotiations averted a nuclear apocalypse.
The scandal surrounding President Clinton lasted 13 months and involved 13 Republican House Managers.
A 13-minute video was the only surviving film from Columbia, the first space shuttle. The recovered piece of its left wing showed significant damage to 13 tiles.
It took 13 years to completely sequence the human genome (1990-2003).
A pyramid has 8 edges and 5 surfaces,
for a total of 13 elements.
"It was a bright cold day in April,
and the clocks were striking thirteen."
This is the opening sentence of George Orwell's prophetic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book's hero, Winston Smith, rewrites history at the Ministry of Truth, or Minitrue as it's called in the official language known as Newspeak.
"The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits . . . but to make all other modes of thought impossible."
The Minitrue building "was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, three hundred meters into the air."
Of Biblical Proportions...
Only one book in the Bible has a 13th chapter with exactly 13 verses – First Corinthians. Furthermore, its 13th verse is a timeless message: "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
In the first book of the New Testament, Matthew, the 13th verse of its 13th chapter says: "This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." The Great Seal is a kind of pictorial parable – understood on different levels.
©1998-2006 GreatSeal.com
This page updated October 13, 2006.