Engagement

A sculpture called Engagement in Helsinki, Finland, continues the pattern of masonic and tarot symbolism hidden in plain sight all over the city. Designed by Dennis Oppenheim, the esoteric themes are not only in the details of the sculpture, but also in the location.

Helsinki art museum introduction:

Dennis Oppenheim's Engagement comprises two diamond rings attached to each other. The rings are painted steel and the house-like diamonds are made of acrylic plates and have an electric light inside. The rings symbolize marriage while the houses symbolize the home and family. The dynamics of marriage requires that a balance be struck between two people with different backgrounds. Also, every union includes the possibility of a break up. In Oppenheim's piece, this dynamic arises from the small distance separating the rings, which lean away from each other.

Dennis Oppenheim is an American avant-gardist whose career began in the 1960s. He is known especially for his Land Art and performances, but his work includes installations and sculpture, many of which can be seen in public locations. Works from his Engagement series have also been temporarily shown in New York and Leoben in Austria. The Helsinki City Art Museum acquired Engagement in 1998. Nine metres high piece was erected in the central square in Ruoholahti by the canal and unveiled in the artist's presence on October 10, 2000. Ruoholahti is a new housing district near the city centre, built in the 1990s in a former industrial zone.

Engagement

Isn't it funny how the tops of the "diamond-houses" look like the masonic pyramid?

Masonic pyramid in the one dollar bill

Although the sculpture has this masonic motif, the main theme of the hidden in plain sight symbolism is once again about tarot.

The exoteric symbolism is obviously about marriage. This is a little hint for the esoteric level of the symbolism. Another hint is in the positioning of the rings. If you look at it from a certain angle, it resembles a pair of horns.

Marriage and horns, what have you got?

In tarot, the card of marriage is The Devil. The ruler of the card is Capricorn, the sign of Saturn. Horns and rings, get it?

Horns and rings

The location of the sculpture is carefully selected. There are two other Devil sculptures in Helsinki, Elias Lönnrot memorial and Work (one of the four pedestal statues of the Statue of Alexander II). On map, these three sculptures are exactly on the same straight line.

From left to right: Engagement, Elias Lönnrot memorial and Work

Elias Lönnrot memorial (upside down Devil)

Work

More examples of hidden in plain sight tarot statues on page Esoteric statues.

Cult of Aton - part 2: The horned Moses

Previous part of this series: Akhenaton and the Hyksos kings.

Have you ever wondered why the Michelangelo's famous Moses statue is depicted with horns?

Moses by Michelangelo

Moses by Michelangelo

Michelangelo was not the only one to put horns on Moses' head:

The exoteric level for the horns is explained in Wikipedia like this:

The depiction of a horned Moses stems from the description of Moses' face as "cornuta" ("horned") in the Latin Vulgate translation of the passage found at Exodus chapter 34, specifically verses 29, 30 and 35, in which Moses returns to the people after receiving the commandments for the second time. The Douay-Rheims Bible translates the Vulgate as, "And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord." This was Jerome's effort to faithfully translate the difficult, original Hebrew Masoretic text, which uses the term, karan (based on the root, keren, which often means "horn"); the term is now interpreted to mean "shining" or "emitting rays" (somewhat like a horn).

Just a little error in translation, nothing to see here!

The esoteric level for the horns tells us another story.

First, you need to know that the true identity of Moses was pharaoh Akhenaton. Second, you need to understand what the horns represented in his home-country Egypt. Third, you need to understand where this "conversation with the Lord" that grew horns on his head took place.

The horns have been associated with deities in many cultures around the world. In Egypt, one of the most famous deity with horns was the goddess Isis. Being a goddess of the Moon, she wore horns, which represent the crescent moon.

Isis with horns

Interestingly, the scene of the "horned Moses" took place at Mount Sinai. The name Sinai refers to the ancient Moon god Sin.

Moon god Sin

So why all these references to the Moon?

The "translation mistake" mentioned in the Wikipedia article is not really a mistake. It's a typical play on words in esoteric symbolism. Both translations, "horns" and "emitting rays" are correct and refer to the same thing - the Moon.

The Moon doesn't shine its own light - it's just an illusion. The light we see is a reflection of the Sun. In esoteric traditions the Moon represents an illusion and hidden secrets.

Tarot card the Moon - card of illusions 

Illusion and secrets. You begin to see Michelangelo's joke? He was in the know. He knew that the biblical "Moses" was nothing but a cover-up story, a hidden in plain sight secret, to hide the true identity of the leader of the "Israelites". He knew, that "Moses" was just an illusion - a reflection of Akhenaton.

The Sun and the Moon - Akhenaton and Moses.

Moses (the Moon) and Akhenaton (the Sun)

"As we assert, the biblical Israelites were followers of renegade Akhenaton, the biblical Moses, and their powerful descendants have sought to keep this fact from the world." - Michael Tsarion (The Irish Origins of Civilization, vol. 2)

Rest of the series on the page Cult of Aton.