The Secret Zodiacs of Washingon DC. Was the city of stars planned by Masons? By David Ovason, Arrow Books (Random House), London, 2000.

The first thing to be said is that this book is about Washington DC. Make no mistake about this, it is doggedly, relentlessly, and endlessly concerned with it. If you have little or no interest in that city then it is not for you.
    Even a basic interest in things esoteric is, as I discovered, insufficient to sustain an interest in the face of the barrage of data and speculation. And, crucially for the reader, the book lacks discipline: pedantic, often irrelevant, digressions are permitted, to the detriment of the narrative.
    In one such example, speaking of the Capitol, Ovason muses: “Did Dickens [a visitor to Washington in 1842] perhaps find himself wondering why the architect…had designed some of the interior column’s capitals with a corncob and tobacco motif…? Probably not…”
    When it is on course, the book operates on two basic levels. On the first, it is a guide to the astrological, mythological and masonic symbolism integrated into the basic design of Washington DC and many of the great public buildings contained within it – particularly the 23 zodiacs on public display.
    The second level, and one which most readers will be wise to take cautiously, concerns the author’s conclusions drawn from the existence of this arcane symbolism. He insists: “that the masons introduced and controlled astrological symbolism in the building of Washington DC”.
    Certainly Freemasons were involved in the building of Washington. The first survey marker for the planned city was placed in position on 15 April 1791 between three and four in the afternoon by the Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22.
    According to Ovason, at 3.30pm that day, Jupiter was rising over the horizon, at 23 degrees Virgo (in fact, the correct time is 15:50:18 LMT). For astrologers, this would be a most propitious moment to found a city. Was the time deliberately chosen to coincide with the rising of Jupiter? It appears suggestive.
    The cornerstone of the White House was laid with masonic ceremony on 13 October 1792 (an anniversary of the arrest of the Templars, a point Ovason misses in an otherwise comprehensive trawl of symbolism), the Master of Georgetown Lodge No. 9 leading it. The Moon and Moon’s node were at 23 degrees Virgo. Does this relate to the earlier event? Ovason is certain that it does.
    Washington himself laid the cornerstone of the Capitol, with masonic ceremony, on 18 September 1793. Jupiter was rising, explains Ovason, with the Sun and Mercury in Virgo (but not at 23 degrees). However, although Ovason fails to mention it, three days earlier the Sun would have fallen exactly on 23 degrees of Virgo; furthermore, at 11.04.03 LMT on the same day, Jupiter would be rising. Why was the ceremony not held then? This seems a serious flaw in Ovason’s thesis of occult manipulation.
    Nevertheless, Ovason considers the (apparent) astrological correspondences both important and deliberate: “Symbolically such ceremonials ensured that there was a relationship between Heaven and Earth: architecture was viewed as an instrument for permitting the unrestrained influx of heavenly virtues into the locality where cosmically oriented buildings was erected”.
    For Ovason, the constellation Virgo is crucial to understanding the esoteric significance of Washington, as are the stars Spice, Regales and Arctutus which enclose the constellation of Virgo in a celestial triangle.
    Sirius, too, is marked as important: when the Washington Memorial cornerstone was laid on 4 July 1848 the Sun was conjunct Sirius which was then around 12 degrees Cancer; both were conjuct the midheaven at noon.
    When the monument was dedicated, on 21 February 1885, Sirius was rising in the east (at 13:34 EST); Ovason’s case rests. But is the evidence strong enough to justify his elaborate conclusions? I think not.
    To my mind, such evidence would require Sirius to conjoin the Sun and/or Midheaven on both days. We would also need evidence of deliberate timing, to the minute, however inconvenient this might be to the participants in the ceremonies. Thus, this evidence would include the sign and degree on the horizon or midheaven (which changes every four minutes or so), and perhaps the Moon (which passes through about 12 degrees each day).
    All this, in conjunction with Jupiter, Sirius, Spica or whatever else. A competent astrologer could readily discover a date and time to satisfy these criteria and such precise work would be immediately apparent to any later astrologer studying the event.
    In the above case, had the dedication ceremony of the completed Washington Memorial been delayed until 24 February 1885, at around 8:40 in the evening, then the Moon and Sirius would have been conjunct the midheaven at the significant 12 degrees of Cancer. Which event would certainly have given us pause for thought; but it did not occur. Unfortunately, if there is any astrological hand behind Ovason’s event, then it is a very sloppy hand indeed, surely incapable of working to any occult master-plan.
    Ovason’s problem is simple. If the city was designed specifically to include various celestial correspondences then these must be important; if they have occurred by chance, then they signify nothing.
    Ovason is committed to arguing that all the correspondences are deliberate and meaningful, that Washington is a city “built to celebrate a massive cosmic symbolism”, its designers having aimed at a “union of earth and skies”, in order: “that the power born of this connection between earth and skies would continue to beneficially influence the souls of those who lived in the city, even if they did not know…whence the power came.”
    He may be right, although the evidence he adduces is hardly sufficient to prove him so. Nevertheless, I should be very happy if he were. But wouldn’t the crime rate in Washington be lower?
    Michael Baigent