The evil eye: the occult symbol chosen for the Orwellian Information Awareness Office has links to ancient paganism and modern revolutionary Communism. (Cover Story: On the Home Front).(Cover Story)

The all-seeing eye chosen for the logo of the federal Information Awareness Office (IAO) is an ancient symbol steeped in mystery and foreboding. Some commentators assert that the insignia, which first appeared on U.S. dollar bills in 1935, symbolizes the "eye of God" watching over all things. They cite passages such as Proverbs 15:3 to show the biblical basis for the sign: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good."

God, indeed, sees and knows all things. The eye-in-the-triangle symbol, however, has more often throughout history been associated with the occult, mystery religions, secret societies, and revolution. It is especially associated with the Egyptian deity Osiris, whose cult of followers has re-blossomed in the New Age movement and the current occult explosion. The symbol is most infamously associated with the Order of the Illuminati, the revolutionary conspiracy started by Professor Adam Weishaupt of Ingolstadt University in Bavaria on May 1, 1776. It was Weishaupt's hope, belief, and all-consuming ambition that one day his secret society, the Illuminati ("The Illuminated Ones"), would rule the world.

Foreshadowing Karl Marx in the next century, Weishaupt told his adepts: "We must begin by destroying all Religion, all civil society, and finish by the destruction of all [private] property." But he intended that the Illuminati would operate as the unseen hands directing the revolutionary action from behind the scenes. "When the object is an universal Revolution," Weishaupt said, "all the members of these societies aiming at the same point, and aiding each other, must find means of governing invisibly." (Emphasis in original.) This exercise of "invisible power" - and the necessity of "concealment," conspiracy, penetration, and infiltration--are constant themes in his writings. By placing Illuminists in governments, institutions, and positions of influence, Weishaupt said, "we may, in secret, influence all political transactions." "By this plan," he boasted, "we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest means, we shall set all in motion and in flames."

Before long, the Illuminati made good on Weishaupt's plan to "set all in motion and in flames," playing the key role in directing and coordinating the carnage and terror of the French Revolution. By that time, the organization had spread its malevolent network throughout Europe and had even planted cells within the fledgling United States of America. George Washington was aware of the Illuminati's subversive schemes, having read with approval Proofs of a Conspiracy, (1798), a scholarly expose of the cult by Professor John Robison of Edinburgh University. The great British statesman Edmund Burke, likewise, was greatly impressed and influenced by the four-volume expose of the Illuminati by Abbe Augustin Barruel, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, also published in 1798. The secret organization Weishaupt founded, however, continued its relentless drive for revolution, world government and a New World Order. Always, the group sought to remain hidden, following the dictum of its founder, Weishaupt, who stated: "The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment." No member of the Illuminati was ever to speak the organization's name publicly. They adopted the symbol of a circle with a dot in the center to refer to their Order in secret correspondence, a shorthand way of symbolizing the all-seeing eye.

The Dollar Bill

The Illuminati symbol found its way onto our currency by way of a very odd and subversive man, Henry Agard Wallace, who served in ...