The Real Meaning Of The Rockefeller Center

December 15th, 2015

Awake Goy

One of the main artistic symbols of the Rockefeller Center in New York is the entrance relief of the central GE Building. (Fig. 1)

It is made by the American sculptor Laurie Lee (1877-1963) in the Art Deco style and represents the figure of an old man with a long beard, called “Wisdom”, in connection with the statement underneath: “Wisdom and knowledge shell be the stability of thy times.”

This expression does not sound abstract, but as if addressed to a particular individuality, namely the Old man. His body is solid and massive, with his left knee bent forward. His left finger is pointing to the side with a strict, solemn and unruffled expression.

He has a golden halo, which penetrates the upper side of the entrance frame. The Old man is located as if in the Heavens, surrounded by clouds.

Fig. 1 The three door main entrance of the Rockefeller Center

Most striking is the golden compass the Old man is holding in his right hand. The compass is pointing downwards covering the entire upper frame of the golden stained glass. One of its legs is reaching the upper corner of the golden stairs rising above from the lower side of the stained glass. It crosses through the middle of a large sphere, which occupies most of the surface of stained glass. The other leg of the compass is fixed on the opposite side, in the centre of a second, smaller sphere. The sense of this iconography is a transition from the lower, earthly sphere to the one above, connected by the golden compass.

Especially remarkable is the gesture of the forefinger of the right hand of the Old man which is pointing down to the place through which most of the visitors enter the GE building of the Rockefeller Centre. It seems as if the Old man gives a note to everyone that the entering in the building means a symbolical ascent from the lower to the upper level. His left hand powerfully points aside! In other words, every visitor of the Rockefeller Center is given the call to rise up from the earthly sphere to the higher one, inhabited by the Old man. The latter is located in the clouds, which means that he is a Divine one or God Himself!

The relief at the Rockefeller Center seems to bear similarities with the Christian iconography of God the Father. The latter is an ancient one and the first examples of which appeared around 5 century AD. One of the main attributes of God is the compass. (Fig. 2 and 3) He seems to be measuring the Earth with one hand and because of this he is often called the Creator. With his free hand he is pointing aside as in the case of the Rockefeller’s Old man!

Fig. 2 French manuscript, end of 14th

Fig. 3 French manuscript, 13th

A second attribute of God is the throne on which he is sitting. (Fig. 4 and 5) It is differently shaped and often decorated with bestial heads and feet. Normally God sits on it and looks like an Old man with long beard and serious expression. A third attribute is the sphere, which God holds in his hand! (Fig. 5 and 6). Another type of God’s iconography is the one where God the Father is located sitting on clouds. (Fig. 7 and 8).

Fig. 4 Manuscript, 9th

Fig. 5 German Renaissance statue

Fig. 6 Italian manuscript, 14th

What is essential for all this iconography images of God is the gesture with his hand pointing aside or up into an indefinite direction. This gesture is the main, distinguished features of God the Father’s figure.

Fig. 7 God in Heaven, Cima da Conegliano, 16th

Fig. 8 God in Heaven, Pala Baglioni, 16th

The iconography of the “Wisdom” above the entrance of the Rockefeller Center in New York combines features of all presented types of images of God the Father – such as the compass, the earthly sphere (in this case there are two symbolical spheres, which is an original author’s point of view), the clouds, the semblance of God as an old man with white beard and the pointing aside hand gesture. The so called Wisdom figure in the Rockefeller Center is a synthetic presentation of several iconographic God the Father’s images. It is not the abstract concept of “wisdom”, but a living image of the Supreme God, who is of a central importance in the Christian religion, but also in the ideology of the Freemasonry. In the ancient Egyptian religion his role is played by the god Osiris. Both the Christian and the Egyptian Gods point to the figure of the Architect or Creator of the Universe, who plays a central role in the Freemasonry, by which John Rockefeller J. probably was inspired.

The throne like form of the GE building

The idea of the construction of the Rockefeller Center in New York was conceived around the end of the 20s of the 20th century by John Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960) and his team of architects led by Raymond Hood (1881-1934). Its main architectural symbol is the central GE Building, which has a specific stepped form at the front and the side parts. (Fig. 1) However its plan was preceded by the plan of building a new complex of the Metropolitan Opera in 1928 at the same place of the architect Benjamin Morris (1870-1944). (Fig. 9) This was not achieved because of the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 and the subsequent financial crisis. The realization of this idea was taken by John D. Rockefeller Jr. who decided to build his own center at the freed space. He stated: “It was clear that there were only two courses open to me. One was to abandon the entire development. The other to go forward with it in the definite knowledge that I myself would have to build it and finance it alone.” (Okrent, Daniel, Great Fortune, Penguin Books, p. 70) This gave the start of the construction of the Rockefeller Center, which according to some ratings is the largest privately funded construction project of the 20th century.

Fig. 9 The initial three dimension plan of Benjamin Morris in 1928

Fig. 10 The plan of the Rockefeller Center in 1931

The initial plan of Rockefeller Center was unveiled to the press on March 5, 1931. (Fig. 10) Later on it was redesigned; however the comparison with the unfulfilled Benjamin Morris’ plan for a new Metropolitan Opera suggests that the idea of the stepped form of the GE Building does not belong to the team of Raymond Hood, but seems copied from the form of the two front buildings of the original Morris’s plan. The stepped form at the front and the side sections is the only element which remained unchanged from the initial plan for the GE building from 1931, which shows its utmost importance.

Fig. 11 GE Building

Fig.12 Ancient Egyptian statue of the throned Isis Lactanas

Fig.13 Ancient Egyptian statue of the throned Isis Lactanas

The stepped form of the GE Building is of essential importance for the Rockefeller Center because its external shape resembles a divine throne! (Fig. 11, 14 and 17) Its stepped form is similar to the throne form of the hieroglyph of the Egyptian god Osiris, who is the analogue of the Christian God the Father. In such cases behind the throne there can be also an all-seeing eye or an all-seeing eye and a sitting figure. The stepped facade and the stepped side sections of the GE building resemble namely this throne-like form and at the same time reminds about the throne attribute of God the Father, often to be seen in Christian art.

The God’s throne is related to Isis – the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus. Her name – Isis means “throne”! Her hieroglyph as ‘the one of Osiris’ is a throne, but complemented by a snake. A throne is her main attribute, which she wears on her head instead of a crown. (Fig. 12, 13, 15, 16 and 18) This means that when she sits on a throne with a throne on her head she herself becomes a embodiment of a throne. In another typical position for her – the kneeling one, her whole body also could be considered as a throne with a lower and medium sections. (Fig. 15 and 18) So everything in the figure of Isis is related to the throne – literally from head to toe. Normally she sits on a throne when nursing Horus in the role of Isis Laktanas or the Mother – Creator of man.

Fig. 14 GE Building in 1933

Fig. 15 Ancient Egyptian statue of Isis on her knees

Fig. 16 Ancient Egyptian statue of Isis

With its five front and four side stepped sections the Rockefeller’s GE building resembles namely the throne of God. This idea is even clearer expressed by the additional building placed in the left front side of the GE, the former looking like a smaller copy of the latter. (Fig. 11) Its side stepped sections are exactly 3 (no front stepped sections in this case) as the sections of the thrones of Osiris, Isis or the Christian God Father. In certain sense this smaller building can be called the “face” of the Rockefeller center and the GE building – its “heart”.

It is remarkable also that originally the total number of the buildings of the complex is 14. The same is the number of the parts of the dismembered body of Osiris, who according to the Egyptian mythology was murdered by his brother Typhonas. In the ancient treatise “On Isis and Osiris” Plutarch tells of the evil Typhonas, who lures Osiris, closes him in a coffin and discharges him into the sea. Isis seeks and finds the coffin with the corpse of her husband, but Typhonas takes it again and tears it to 14 pieces spreading them all over Egypt. Isis is again looking after the body of Osiris, finds all the 14 parts and buried them each in different place. It could be speculated that the Rockefeller center was built with the clear idea to resemble the dismembered body of the Supreme God Osiris with its throne in the middle!

Fig. 17 GE Building in profile

Fig. 18 Ancient Egyptian painting of the kneeling Isis in profile

Meaning of the location of Rockefeller Center

The location of the Rockefeller Center is of a great importance. It is designed and built so that its two central buildings in the shape of throne are located just opposite to the facade of the largest US Roman Catholic cathedral “St. Patrick “. (Fig. 19, 20, 21 and 22) This is especially true for the smaller one of them, which stands right in front the main entrance of the cathedral. At its foot is placed the statue of Atlas, who according to mythology was the brother of Prometheus, whose statue respectively is placed next to the big “throne” or the GA building. Thus both “thrones” are logically related and constructively confronting the cathedral.

Fig. 19 The symbolic confrontation of the two “throne” buildings of the Rockefeller Center to the Roman Catholic cathedral “St. Patrick “in New York

Fig. 20 The symbolic confrontation of the two “throne” buildings of the Rockefeller Center to the Roman Catholic cathedral “St. Patrick “in New York

The main GE Building is not located directly against the the facade of the cathedral, thus avoiding the feeling of opposition. However, ever since the opening day of the Centre (Christmas 1933), the Christmas tree is invariably placed in front of its main entrance. This also suggests that the advent of Christmas is celebrated in a manner dictated by the RF Centre but not by the cathedral, which is the biggest christian symbol in the USA. Thus every year Christ symbolically is “taken away” from the Church and “transferred” into the physical and idealogical space of the Rockefeller Center.

Behind the choice of this location of the main two buildings of the Rockefeller Center again the ideas of the Freemasonry are evident. It hints at one of the most remarkable and fierce confrontations in the history of mankind, namely that of the Freemasonry with the Roman Catholic Church. For many centuries, starting from the Middle Ages, the latter pursuea and threatened deadly the followers of Freemasonry, which was the external cause of the secret nature of the masonic organizations. It became necessary for their traditions to be transmitted only orally or by using secret symbols. This was done especially in the past, but continues today, despite the luck of threat.

Fig. 21 The small “throne” and the “St. Patrick ” cathedral, seen from a terrace of the GE Building

Fig. 22 The dominiarung central Manhattan’s landscape silhouettes of Rockefeller big (Osiris) and small (Horus) “thrones” in the middle of 20th century

Despite the fact that today Rockefeller Center is no longer owned by the Rockefeller family, it seems as it plays the role of a material document of the modern American Masonic ideology. A major factor in it is the figure of God the Father, Who for the authentic Freemasonry is not an abstraction, but a pillar and reality of a spiritual kind. He is the One with whom the Rockefeller’s fraction of the American Freemasonry under question tries to identify itself. In His name the Rockefeller Center was built!

At present the exterior space of the Rockefeller Center serves as a symbolical modern Masonic, public, cult center of importance not only for New York, but for the entire United States of America. Its role grows particularly at Christmas time, when under the relief of God the Father at the entrance of His throne – the GE building – the Christmas tree of New York is set up. De facto this is the most important annual, popular and mass media covered event in the US.

Article submitted by By Mart Аtanassov