Architecture and city planning are spiritually significant. It matters whether the tallest building in town is a cathedral, or a corporate office high rise. It matters whether the town center is a church or a courthouse. And when a city is first built, if the city planners laid out occult symbols in the streets, that would seem to be a cause for concern.
Is it just a coincidence? Did it happen by accident? Let us consider the evidence . . .
In many Russian towns and cities, an Orthodox church is built at the center, and the rest of the town is built around it. When you drive into town, the main highway points directly to the church, focusing your attention on the spiritual center of the community, only curving away at the last moment, so you can drive past. The town also has shops, markets, and government buildings, but they are not the focus, and are not located at the center.
In America, it is less common to find cities built around a church. Instead, the city center either has large government buildings (suggesting that the government is the most important part of our existence), or else the road leads us to a large complex of stores (suggesting that commercialism is central).
It is bad enough to remove the church from city center, replacing it with stores and government buildings. But what are we to think when a new city, from the very beginning, is built in the shape of occult symbols? If the very streets at the heart of town are built in the form of a pentagram, what sorts of demonic spiritual forces are being invited?
Architecture and city planning are spiritually significant. It matters whether the tallest building in town is a cathedral, or a corporate office high rise. It matters whether the town center is a church or a courthouse. And when a city is first built, if the city planners laid out occult symbols in the streets, that would seem to be a cause for concern.
Historically, the pentagram has been used in both positive and negative ways. When the pentagram is complete, and is drawn right-side-up, it can symbolize protection, and some people have used it without reference to demonic forces. When the pentagram is used in the occult, they generally change or distort the pentagram in some way, either failing to draw a complete pentagram, or turning the pentagram upside down, or both.
Occult expert, Manly P. Hall, explains the reasons in more detail:
The black magician cannot use the symbols of white magic . . . He must therefore distort the hierograms so that they typify the occult fact that he himself is distorting the principles for which the symbols stand. Black magic is not a fundamental art; it is the misuse of an art. Therefore it has no symbols of its own. It merely takes the emblematic figures of white magic, and by inverting and reversing them signifies that it is left-handed.
A good instance of this practice is found in the pentagram or five-pointed star, made of five connected lines. . . . The Pentagram is used extensively in black magic, but when so used its form always differs in one of three ways: The star may be broken at one point by not permitting the converging lines to touch . . . It may be inverted, by having one point down, and two up. When used in black magic, the pentagram is called the 'sign of the cloven hoof,' or the footprint of the Devil."
— Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, p.104
Of course, the Orthodox Church rejects all forms of magic. So-called "white magic" and "black magic" are equally forbidden. Nevertheless, it is instructive to consider the logic used by occultists.
Not content with mere "white magic", full-blown occultists corrupt the symbols of white magic, distorting them into forms which maximize the opportunity for demonic influence.
In the late 1700s, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote his famous play, Faust, about a man who made a deal with the devil. Goethe was a Master Mason, and also was a famous member of a group called the Bavarian Illuminati. He was known to incorporate Masonic principles and symbolism in his writings.
It is important to remember that the Orthodox Church has formally condemned Freemasonry. Orthodox bishops have stated that "Christianity is incompatible with Freemasonry", and have instructed Orthodox Christians to have nothing to do with it.
George Washington was a Freemason, as well as many presidents after him. A large number of Freemasons signed the Declaration of Independence. Freemasons even laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building, using a Masonic ritual. These points are not disputed, and are a matter of historical record. The documentary, Riddles in Stone, explores the Masonic influences in the founding of America. It is a video worth watching.
In Goethe's book — published in 1790 — consider the following dialogue between Faust and the demon Mephistopheles:
Mephistopheles: "Let me go up! I cannot go away! A little hindrance bids me stay."
Faust: "The pentagram? That's in your way? You son of Hell, explain to me, If that stays you, how came you in today?"
Mephistopheles: "Observe it closely. It is not well made. One angle, on the outer side of it, is just a little open, as you see."
The demon references the incomplete pentagram, saying that it made it possible for him to arrive. And while the broken pentagram enables the demon's appearance, it does not permit him to leave.
Between 1791 and 1792, a man named Pierre L'Enfant — also a Freemason — drew up the plans for a major American city. This took place a year or two after the publication of Faust. And sure enough, the streets stop just short of forming a complete pentagram. Instead, the original street plans formed a broken pentagram:
Not only is the pentagram broken, it is also inverted. Both of these attributes have significance within the occult world. Keep in mind, this city was not built recently. These plans were drawn up around 1791 or 1792.
Writing a few decades later, in the mid-1800s, a number of books were published, calling attention to the significance of upside-down pentagrams:
"A reversed pentagram, with two points projecting upwards, is a symbol of evil and attracts sinister forces because it overturns the proper order of things and demonstrates the triumph of matter over spirit. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns, a sign execrated by initiates."
— Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual
"The flaming star, which, when turned upside down, is the hieroglyphic sign of the goat of black magic, whose head may be drawn in the star, the two horns at the top, the ears to the right and left, the beard at the bottom. It is the sign of antagonism and fatality. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns."
— Éliphas Lévi, The Key of the Mysteries
In this context, we may take special interest in the location of the pentagram's downward point. Does it point to something of no consequence, such as a pond, or a park? Or when a satanic inverted pentagram is formed, does the downward point rest on something significant?
If a pentagram points to nothing in particular, then perhaps a person could argue that it was created by accident, by mere coincidence. Instead of laying out the city streets in a normal grid pattern, they just happened to make the outline of an inverted five-pointed star. Accidentally.
There are numerous websites which make this very claim. They say only "conspiracy theorists" believe this was done on purpose. There is no pentagram. Of if there is, it was by accident. No one did it intentionally. This is what they say.
People can look at aerial photos of this American city, and decide for themselves. Is there a pentagram? Is it inverted? Were all the streets laid out in this formation by mere accident, without any planning? Here is an untouched photo, without any overlays. Regarding the probability that this is all a coincidence, the reader can decide:
The widest main streets form thick lines, drawn in the form of an upside-down pentagram. And not only is it inverted, it is also broken. One small fragment of a line is missing from the bottom left, leaving the pentagram just barely short of completion. This pentagram almost looks like it could have been designed by the author of Faust.
If you think this is normal, then try looking at photos of Denver, LA, or New York City. Review the street maps of London, Paris, or Moscow. See how many inverted pentagrams you find. Streets in square grids are normal. Diagonal streets making triangles are normal. Circular overpasses are normal. We see those things all the time. Pentagrams are not normal.
This is the capital of the United States of America. This is an aerial photo of Washington D.C.
And the downward point of the inverted pentagram? It doesn't point to a park or a pond. As the city was designed from the very beginning — since the 1790s — the downward point of the pentagram lays directly on the White House.
Make of it what you will. Call it a coincidence. Call it an accident. Say it was unintentional. Explain it away, using any reasons that you like.
As for me, I would rather live in a town that is centered around a church.