All-seeing eye
An open eye, often in a triangle with rays around it. In Freemasonry it stands for the watchful eye of God.
Meaning
Masons use the all-seeing eye, sometimes called the eye of providence, to represent the omniscient eye of God, the Grand Lodge of California explains. George Thornburgh's 1903 monitor places it among the emblems of the third degree, the All Seeing Eye that 'pervades the inmost recesses of the human Heart, and will reward us according to our merits'. Albert Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry called it 'an important symbol of the Supreme Being, borrowed by the Freemasons from the nations of antiquity'. It was never only Masonic: when the United States designed its Great Seal in the 18th century, the symbol was common among non-Masonic groups too.
The eye on the dollar bill
The eye above a pyramid on the Great Seal of the United States, and so on the dollar bill, is often taken for a Masonic emblem. Masonic bodies say it is not. The Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction states that the Great Seal is not a Masonic emblem and was not designed by Masons: the only known Freemason involved at any stage was Benjamin Franklin, whose design showed Moses at the Red Sea, and the eye of providence in a radiant triangle came from the committee's consultant, Pierre Du Simitière, who was not a Mason. Combined with a pyramid, the Rite adds, the eye has no official Masonic meaning, and the Grand Lodge of California notes that the pyramid does not appear in regular Masonic ritual or symbolism.
Write in the Freemasons’ cipher
stringmash.comPigpen cipherThe grid cipher once used for lodge records, drawn from any text you type.See also
Square and compasses, The letter G, Double-headed eagle, Boaz and Jachin, Checkered pavement, Rough and perfect ashlars.
Sources
- Freemasonry Symbols, Masons of California (Grand Lodge of California)
- Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason, George Thornburgh, 1903, approved by the Grand Lodge of Arkansas, Project Gutenberg, Master Mason degree, emblems
- Freemasonry and the All-seeing Eye, Albert G. Mackey, Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (1873, 1878), Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon
- Is the “eye in the pyramid” a Masonic symbol?, Scottish Rite Myths and Facts, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A.
Last reviewed September 25, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research