‘The Eye Of Providence’ or ‘The All Seeing Eye Of God’ has its origins in religious imagery occurring in Egyptian mythology (The Eye Of Horus), Buddhism and Christianity (The Holy Trinity). Since 1782 it has featured on the reverse of the ‘Great Seal Of The United States’ and since 1935 appeared on the US one dollar bill. Most people would generally make the association with the ‘Freemasonry’ but more specifically ‘Masonic Conspiracies’. These conspiracies generally centre on politics (One World Order), religion (accusations of satanic practice) and culture (numerology and Masonic symbolism in corporate logos and entertainment).

‘The Eye Of Providence’ is obviously a symbol steeped in history, loaded with religious and political subtext but I have also often wondered why the triangle as a symbol really resonates with people at a totally primary level? Could it be that triangles are the strongest geometric shape and occur commonly in architecture? Or perhaps it’s that the triangle has appeared since early civilizations as the symbol of the trilogy or the triad that makes all existence possible. For example -‘The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost’. Triangles and definitely Pyramids often symbolise hierarchy, especially in relation to societal structure and the distribution of knowledge, power and wealth. Regardless of whether you subscribe to the notion of a structured ‘Illuminati’, ‘pulling the strings’ it has to be said that a ‘Big Brother’ concept married with the idea of ‘The Haves’ dictating their will upon ‘The Have Nots’ is intrinsically intertwined with this symbol.

Some examples of Freemason-esque design in local logos:


Auckland City Council, NZ Made, NZX, North Shore City Council