The Great Seal's mottoes come from Virgil, chosen by Charles Thomson (Philadelphia, 1782)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenCode: a stated code
Year: 1782 · Places: Northeast
SUMMARYThe Great Seal's mottoes come from Virgil, chosen by Charles Thomson (Philadelphia, 1782) [Connections: Word coding & Masonic method, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDGreatSeal.com says Charles Thomson, "chosen by the Continental Congress to produce the seal's final design," suggested both mottoes in 1782. Annuit Coeptis comes from Virgil, Georgics I.40: "Da facilem cursum, atque audacibus annue cœptis" ("give an easy course, and nod to bold undertakings"). The site also cites a similar line in Aeneid IX. Thomson's remarks say: "The Eye over it & the Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause," and that "the words under it signify the beginning of the new American Æra" (the 1776 on the pyramid). The site translates Novus Ordo Seclorum as "A New Order of the Ages."
MASONIC QUESTIONGreatSeal.com says Franklin was "Definitely a Mason." It says Adams and Thomson were "Definitely not Masons." It finds "No firm evidence" for Hopkinson and Lovell, and "No records at all" for Du Simitière and Barton. It calls the pyramid and eye "a uniquely American, not Masonic, icon," saying Masons adopted the eye "after Congress had adopted the seal."
WITNESSGreatSeal.com is a private reference site, not a government or Masonic body. Its "definitely not" for Thomson is stronger than this research could confirm. On the records seen this session, Thomson's Masonic membership is not established
CODEThese are stated meanings from the designer's own remarks
PATTERNThe mottoes' meaning is documented by the man who chose them. "New world order" is a later reading of Novus Ordo Seclorum, not Thomson's
LENS (WW9)Read the seal through Thomson's own 1782 remarks first. Masonic readings of it are Lens unless a document ties a designer to a lodge
OPENRead Thomson's full "Remarks and Explanation" (20 June 1782) in the Journals of the Continental Congress. Confirm the Eclogue IV source line ("magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo") on a Virgil text. Look for any lodge record for Thomson
SOURCEGreatSeal.com, Annuit Coeptis; Virgil source; Novus Ordo Seclorum; Is the pyramid & eye Masonic?.