Latter-day Saint Temples/Inverted Stars on LDS Temples

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Criticism

Some extreme critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claim that the inverted five-pointed stars that decorate some LDS temples are occultic or even Satanic in nature. These detractors also argue that since the disciples of Jesus Christ have never used this ‘evil’ emblem in the past, its prominent display by the LDS Church is yet another evidence that “Mormons” aren’t Christians. [1]


Response

These charges can be easily dismissed by taking a careful look at historical records.

The Early Latter-day Saints

The Prophet Joseph Smith informed William Weeks, who served as the architect for the Nauvoo Temple, that he had seen that building in a vision [2] and intended to construct it according to the “pattern” that he had been shown.[3]“ Wandle Mace, who was the foreman for all of the framework in the Nauvoo Temple, describes the pattern that the Prophet saw in his vision. He states,

The order of architecture was unlike anything in existence; it was purely original, being a representation of the Church, the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. John the Revelator, in the 12 chapter [and] first verse of [the book of Revelation,] says, “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” This is portrayed in the beautifully cut stone of this grand temple. [4]

Figure 1. Detail from original Nauvoo Temple architectural drawing

The starstones on the Nauvoo Temple are unique because their bottom rays are elongated. This exact same style of star was used to decorate the towers of the Logan Temple. James A. Leishman, who was present in 1880 when one of the starstones was secured in its place on the east tower of the Logan Temple, reveals what this symbol meant to the 19th century Saints. He said, “Carved upon the keystone is a magnificent star, called the Star of the Morning, being in an elevated position, it looks out in bold relief upon the rising sun.” [5]

It is interesting to note that after John the Revelator saw the vision of the woman who represented the heavenly Church he also heard Jesus Christ call Himself “the bright…morning star.” [6] The writings of early Latter-day Saints confirm that they recognized Jesus Christ as the Morning Star [7] and they also reveal that for them the star that heralds the dawn (Venus) was a symbolic harbinger of the thousand-year span when the Savior would reign personally upon the Earth. In 1840 Parley P. Pratt of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote in a Church periodical: “Now the bright and morning Star / Spreads its glorious light afar / Kindles up the rising dawn / Of that bright Millennial morn.” [8] Thus, even before the Nauvoo Temple began to rise out of the ground the Latter-day Saints viewed the Morning Star as the Millennial Star [9] and associated it with the Lord Jesus Christ. Far from being an emblem of evil, President Brigham Young commented that “the ‘stars’ [would] add much to the beauty of the [Nauvoo] Temple.” [10]

Once Brigham Young had led the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley he decided to decorate the Salt Lake Temple with the same type of symbolic emblems that had adorned the exterior of the Nauvoo Temple, with some modifications. The earliest architectural drawings for the Salt Lake Temple (1854) show that initially the plan was to utilize the elongated star design [11] but it was ultimately decided that the star rays would all be equal in length. Despite this decision, in 1859 President Young adorned the Eagle Gate that led into his property with the elongated star design from the Nauvoo Temple. [12]

Cultural Context

It should be noted that during the lifetimes of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the inverted five-pointed star was utilized in American society without any association with the occult or with Satan. Some anti-Mormons might be shocked to learn that from 1777 to 1876 a variety of American flags displayed inverted five-pointed stars on them. Of particular interest is the “Great Star” flag that flew from 1837 to 1845. This flag displayed a large upright star in the center of the blue field with numerous smaller stars around it that were arranged so as to create one enormous inverted star. [13]

Figure 2. “Great Star” flag (1837–1845)

Also relevant to this discussion is the fact that in 1861 the inverted star design began to appear on some of the uniforms of the United States Navy. Then in 1862 it was decided that the inverted star would be the most prominent feature on the Navy’s Medal of Honor. Today this design has also been incorporated into the Medal of Honor for the Army and the Air Force.[14]

Figure 3. United States Medal of Honor

The Early Christians

Some critics of the LDS faith emphatically declare that Christians have never used the inverted five-pointed star as a symbol—but this is simply not true. The early Christians believed that Jesus Christ was the “Star” that was prophesied to rise out of the House of Israel. [15] After 312 A.D. the Emperor Constantine had the Chi-Rho cross engraved on one side of his official royal seal—a symbol he claimed to have seen in a vision—and on the other side he placed an inverted five-pointed star. [16]

Figure 4. The royal seal of Emperor Constantine

While it is not known why Constantine chose to combine the cross of Christ with the inverted five-pointed star, it is interesting to note that the official seal of the city of Jerusalem from 300–150 B.C. also displayed an inverted pentagram. [17] Perhaps there is a connection between these two seals since Jesus Christ’s crucifixion took place in the city of Jerusalem.

Figure 5. Official seal of Jerusalem. The letters YRSLM begin at the right of the bottom ray and move around to the left

Another example of the inverted star being associated with the Christian cross can be seen in the architectural portfolio of a man named Villard de Honnecourt (1230 A.D.). This man, who worked for the Cistercian Order of monks, drew a “tabernacle” in his sketchbook that encloses an inverted star with an elongated ray on the bottom. [18] This shrine is surmounted by the three crosses of Golgotha, which implies the inverted star was considered an orthodox Christian symbol.

Figure 6. Villard de Honnecourt portfolio

There are other examples connected with mainstream Christianity, as well. For instance, there is an enormous, and intricately carved, inverted star in the center of the north transept rose window of Amiens Cathedral in France. [19]

Figure 7. Amiens Cathedral, France

This house of worship was built between 1220 and 1410 A.D., and surely those who constructed it would be considered disciples of Jesus Christ. As would the residents of Hanover, Germany who, during the fourteenth century, placed a huge inverted (and encircled) five-pointed star on the steeple of their Marktkirche, or Market Church. [20]

And then there are the numerous inverted stars that surround a statue of Mary and the Christ child in Chartres Cathedral (circa 1150 A.D.). Why would the ancient Christians place this symbol in such close proximity to the Savior if it was an emblem of evil?

Figure 8. Chartres Cathedral, France

Certainly anti-Mormons cannot ignore early Christian artworks that depict the Star of Bethlehem (the “Star in the East”) as an inverted pentagram. The interlaced star depicted in the “Berthold Missal” is a particularly striking example. It was drawn in a Benedictine Abbey in Weingarten Germany sometime between 1200 and 1232 A.D. [21] Another inverted nativity star can be seen in the sculpted capital of a cloister pillar from the twelfth century A.D. [22]

What did the inverted five-pointed star mean to the early Christians? A clue may be found in some of the artworks of the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. In some paintings that illustrate the Mount of Transfiguration, various artists from these denominations show Jesus Christ standing before a large, inverted five-pointed star (some with an elongated bottom ray). [23] The apostle Peter said of the three apostles who witnessed the manifestation on this mountain that they received the “more sure word of prophecy” and because of this the “day star” arose in their hearts. [24] Both the NIV and NASB translations of this verse render “day star” as “morning star.” [25]

Figure 9. Mount of Transfiguration

The Inverted Star and the Devil

How did this ancient Christian symbol become associated with Satan, the arch-enemy of Jesus Christ? It appears that the person who made the first formal connection between this symbol and the Adversary was a Frenchman named Alphonse Louis Constant (1810–1875). He was ordained a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church in 1835, but he had to abandon his plan to be ordained a priest the next year because he was defrocked. This drastic action was taken against Alphonse because he was deeply involved in studying the occult.

Alphonse eventually decided to give himself a pseudonym (Eliphas Levi Zahed) and publish books on occultic subjects. Alphonse indicates in his writings that he was aware of the Day of Atonement ritual where goats became symbols of sin [26] and when he published his first book in 1854 he used this biblical imagery to take a jab at the Roman Catholic Church. In this volume he printed a drawing of a priestly hand making “the sign of excommunication” and fashioned it so that its shadow looked like a demonic goat’s head and vaguely followed the outline of an inverted five-pointed star. [27]

The first time that Alphonse made a written connection between the inverted five-pointed star, the goat, and Satan was in a book he published in 1855 [28] and the first time that he made a pictorial connection between Satan and the inverted star was in a book he published in 1861. [29]

Even though Eliphas Levi is consistently credited with being the first person to associate the inverted five-pointed star with Satan, one commentator makes this important observation: “The inverted five-pointed star, with its single point downward, originally had no demonic meaning, but over the centuries it has mistakenly come to represent evil.” [30]

Conclusion

The information presented in this paper leads to the conclusion that Latter-day Saints cannot be excluded from calling themselves Christians simply because they use a symbol whose history anti-Mormons do not understand. The inverted five-pointed star had a sacred meaning among the ancient Christians and it also has a sacred meaning among the Latter-day Saints.

Endnotes

  1. [note] In 1985 Church Architect Emil B. Fetzer stated that the inverted stars on early LDS temples were not sinister but were “symbolic of Christ.” He said that when the LDS Church “uses the pentagram or sunstone in an admirable, wholesome and uplifting context, this does not preclude another organization’s using the same symbols in an evil context.” ("The Public Forum," Salt Lake Tribune, 13 November 1985, A–15.)
  2. [note] See D&C 124:42.
  3. [note] “In the afternoon, Elder William Weeks (whom I had employed as architect of the temple), came in for instruction. I instructed him in relation to the circular windows designed to light the offices in the dead work of the arch between stories. He said that round windows in the broad side of a building were a violation of all the known rules of architecture, and contended that they should be semicircular—that the building was too low for round windows. I told him I would have the circles, if he had to make the temple ten feet higher than it was originally calculated; that one light at the center of each circular window would be sufficient to light the whole room; that when the whole building was thus illuminated, the effect would be remarkably grand. ‘I wish you to carry out my designs. I have seen in vision the splendid appearance of that building illuminated, and will have it built according to the pattern shown me.’” [Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 6 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1978), 196–197, emphasis added.] The Prophet evidently saw, in vision, the details of the symbols that he used to decorate the Nauvoo Temple. Josiah Quincy reports: “Near the entrance to the temple we passed a workman who was laboring upon a huge sun, which he had chiseled from the solid rock… ‘General Smith,’ said the man, looking up from his task, ‘is this like the face you saw in vision?’ ‘Very near it,’ answered the prophet.” [Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past From the Leaves of Old Journals (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883), 389, emphasis added.]
  4. [note] Wandle Mace, Autobiography, 207, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, emphasis added. Joseph Smith revealed the connection between the heavenly woman and the Church in his revision of the Bible. He modified Revelation 12, verses 1 and 7, to read: “And there appeared a great sign in heaven, in the likeness of things on the earth; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars… [T]he woman… was the Church of God.” (JST Revelation 12:1, 7.) The New Testament refers to the heavenly Church as the “Church of the Firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23) and when Joseph Smith introduced the ordinances that were to be practiced in the Nauvoo Temple he made it known that they pertained directly to “the Church of the Firstborn” (Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 5, 1–2). Elder Franklin D. Richards said that the woman being “clothed with the sun” had reference to her “putting on her royal robes of the Priesthood” [Collected Discourses, edited by Brian H. Stuy (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987–1992), 4:374.] Compare with the old Nauvoo Temple weathervane [angel dressed in priestly robes]. A poem about the Morning Star—published in the Millennial Star in 1843—combines the elements of the “Morning Star,” the “Millennial morning,” and the “Bridegroom” coming to wed His Bride (Millennial Star, vol. 4, no. 7, November 1843, 112). It should be apparent from the foregoing that the sun, moon, and stars on the Nauvoo Temple do not represent the three degrees of glory. They are not arranged in the ascending order of the post-resurrection rewards (stars [telestial], moon [terrestrial], sun [celestial]) but rather in cosmological order as they would be seen from the earth (moon, sun, stars).
  5. [note] Deseret Evening News, vol. 13, no. 228, 20 August 1880, 3. The architectural drawing of the original Nauvoo Temple façade shows that in the early stages of construction the designers planned to place inverted stars with equal-length rays on square stones. These stars would have matched the size of those found in the round stained-glass windows. Over time it was decided that the starstones would be rectangular in shape and the architect revised the form of the stars so that the bottom and top two rays were elongated. This configuration may be related to the notion that “the bright and morning Star / Spreads its glorious light afar” (Times and Seasons, vol. 1, no. 7, May 1840, 111). It may likewise correspond to Parley P. Pratt’s poem called “The Morning Star” which says, “Lift up your heads—behold from far / A flood of splendor streaming! / It is the bright and Morning Star / In living lustre beaming” (Millennial Star, vol. 4, no. 7, November 1843, 112). Ultimately, it was decided that the bottom ray of the star would be the only one lengthened. The careful observer will notice that the starstones of the Nauvoo Temple are located directly above depictions of the “rising” or morning sun (Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 7, 323–324), and the elongated ray of each star is pointed down toward the sun as if the star were drawing its light from that source (just as Venus / the Morning Star actually does).
  6. [note] Revelation 22:16.
  7. [note] Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1, no. 10, July 1835, 160.
  8. [note] Times and Seasons, vol. 1, no. 7, May 1840, 111.
  9. [note] The Evening and Morning Star was first published in June, 1832. In the prospectus of this paper (written in February, 1832) W.W. Phelps stated that the Evening Star was “the forerunner of the night of the end” of the present age and the Morning Star was “the messenger of the day of redemption,” or the Millennial day. Furthermore, he said that his periodical would “borrow its light” just as Venus (the Evening Star and Morning Star) did. He also mentioned “the Lord’s house,” or temple, in the prospectus (Times and Seasons, vol. 5, no. 14, 1 August 1844, 609–611). In the inaugural issue of this paper Elder Phelps reiterated its Millennial connections (see Evening and Morning Star, vol. 1, no. 1, June 1832, 6). Parley P. Pratt made the connection between the “day star” and the “morning” of the Millennium in 1837 (Messenger and Advocate, vol. 3, no. 28, January 1837, 448). He continued making this connection when he wrote in the prospectus of the Millennial Star: “The long night of darkness is now far spent—the truth revived in its primitive simplicity and purity, like the day-star of the horizon, lights up the dawn of that effulgent morn when the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” He then wrote of “the tabernacle of God and His sanctuary [which] will be with man, in the midst of the holy cities.” (Millennial Star, vol. 1, no. 1, May 1840, 1, 9–10, emphasis added; cited in Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 4, 145, footnote.). It might be noted here that in some renditions of Ecclesiasticus 50:5–7 (also called Ben Sira or the Book of Sirach) there is a connection made between the Morning Star and the ancient temple of Israel (for one rendition see The Contributor, vol. 3, no. 2, November 1881, 55).
  10. [note] Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 7, 401.
  11. [note] Truman O. Angell’s 1854 architectural drawing of the east side of the Salt Lake Temple is on permanent display in the LDS Church Museum of History and Art. This drawing shows one inverted five-pointed star between two upright five-pointed stars in the top of the tall windows. Both of these types of stars were eventually moved to keystones (upright on the towers / inverted on the main body of the temple) and their rays were equalized in length. Notice that the New Nauvoo Temple is decorated with both upright and inverted five-pointed stars; so is the tower of the St. George Tabernacle (small inverted star in center of large upright star); so is the chapel on 1st West and 9th South in Salt Lake City; so was the Coalville Tabernacle.
  12. [note] Truman O. Angell was the architect for the Eagle Gate. Since he also worked as an architect on the Nauvoo, Logan, and Salt Lake temples it would be logical for the inverted and elongated star on the Eagle Gate to have a meaning similar to the temple stars. The Eagle Gate displays three symbols—an eagle, a beehive, and an inverted star with an elongated bottom ray. The early Saints saw the eagle as a representation of “American liberty.” [Parley P. Pratt, The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1985), 149.] The beehive, of course, represented the territory of “Deseret” (see Ether 2:3)—which the Saints viewed as “the kingdom of God” on Earth. [Heber C. Kimball, “Organization, Etc.,” Journal of Discourses, reported by G.D. Watt 2 August 1857, Vol. 5 (London: Latter-Day Saint’s Book Depot, 1858), 129; Heber C. Kimball, “Correction, Etc.,” Ibid., 164–165.] In 1849 some of the Saints decorated a flag with a beehive—the emblem of the proposed “State of Deseret”—and they also adorned it with a “rising star.” A toast was then offered: “May the new star Deseret be as the star of Bethlehem, a guide to the nations.” [B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 3 (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 434.] Orson F. Whitney made the connection between the “rising…star” and “Deseret” (The Contributor, vol. 11, no. 3, January 1890, 120) and so did Jedediah M. Grant, but he specifically linked “Deseret” to the rising “day star”—which is the Morning Star (The Contributor, vol. 4, no. 9, June 1883, 324). It is curious, and perhaps significant, that one reporter learned from “Mr William Weeks” that the moons on the pilasters of the Nauvoo Temple “represent the rising moon in its first quarter” (Springfield Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 19 October 1844). Another reporter was told that the sun on the Nauvoo Temple was a “rising sun” (Globe, Washington, D.C., 19 November 1844). Hence, the Nauvoo Temple was decorated with a rising moon, a rising sun, and a rising star (compare Isaiah 60:1; D&C 115:5–6).
  13. [note] Some of the early American flags that displayed all inverted stars (like the one flown by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854) are connected with the Navy. This may be relevant since in ancient times the “Star of the Sea” was sometimes depicted as an inverted pentagram. For an illustration from 1533 A.D. see Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism (London: Williams and Norgate, 1912), 1:257.
  14. [note] See Above and Beyond: A History of the Medal of Honor from the Civil War to Vietnam, edited by Gordon Hardy (Boston: Boston Publishing, 1985), 124.
  15. [note] See Numbers 24:17. “In Christian writings, the Messiah is seen in the star symbolism of Numbers 24:17 (as in the Messianic Anthology found in the Dead Sea Scrolls).” [Michael Green, The Second Epistle General of Peter and the General Epistle of Jude (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1987), 99.] Some of the Jews in the ancient world said that the “Star” of Numbers 24:17 “is the Messiah” (Rabbi Sohar Cadash [14th century], vol. 85, c. 340). The pseudepigraphical Testament of Judah (4:24) says of this “Star” that He will be found “walking with the sons of men in meekness and righteousness, and no sin shall be found in Him.” Alfred Edersheim notes that “the so-called Messiah Haggadah (Aggadoth Mashiach) opens as follows: ‘A star shall come out of Jacob [Numbers 24:17]. There is a Boraita in the name of the Rabbis [which speaks of the] heptad in which the Son of David cometh… [And it is said that] in the fifth [there will be] great abundance and the Star shall shine forth from the East, and this is the Star of the Messiah. And it will shine from the East for fifteen days.’” [Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1971), 1:211–212, emphasis added.] “Our Rabbis,” says a text written about 1760 A.D., “have a tradition that in the week in the which the Messiah will be born, there will be a bright Star in the east, which is the Star of the Messiah” (Pesikita, fol. 58, c. 1, emphasis added). The Joseph Smith Translation of Matthew 3:2 reads: “Where is the child that is born, the Messiah of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and have come to worship Him” (emphasis added). Thus, a star in the eastern sky was associated in ancient times with the Messiah. The Morning Star shines in the eastern sky but that is not to say that the star of Bethlehem was necessarily the Morning Star. Nevertheless, this loose connection may explain why some early Christians depicted the star of Bethlehem as an inverted five-pointed star (a symbol of Venus).
  16. [note] See Ernst Lehner, Symbols, Signs, and Signets (New York: World Publishing, 1950), 107. Why would the early Christians associate Jesus Christ with the five-pointed star? The Savior called Himself “the bright…morning star” (Revelation 22꞉16) which is the planet Venus. “The pentagram within a circle…can be called a design-iconic symbol for the planet Venus. This planet is the only one in our system that can clearly be identified with a graphic structure unambiguously derived from a plotting of its astronomical movements in space… If one knows the ecliptic…and can pinpoint the present position of the planets in relation to the constellations of fixed stars in the zodiac…it is possible to mark the exact place in the 360 degrees of the zodiac where the Morning Star first appears shortly before sunrise after a period of invisibility. If we do this, wait for the Morning Star to appear again 584 days later (the synodic orbital time of Venus) and mark its position in the zodiac, and then repeat this process until we have five positions of Venus as the Morning Star, we will find that exactly eight years plus one day have passed. If we then draw a line from the first point marked to the second point marked, then to the third, and so on, we end up with a pentagram. . . . ‘It was only the planet Venus that possessed the five-pointed star sign. Not one of the innumerable stars above us can by its orbit recreate this sign… Moreover, the points of the pentagram pointed to five different groups of stars or constellations… It was only later discovered that the five points moved slowly throughout the vault of heaven as if they were the hands of a giant clock… Over a period of four years each point of the pentagram was displaced one day, a 365th part of the zodiac circle… After 1,460 solar years the ‘hands’ stood at their original places.’” [Carl G. Liungman, Dictionary of Symbols (Denver, Colorado: ABC-CLIO, 1991), 333–334.] The five-pointed star would appear either upright or inverted depending on when a person began to observe and plot the positions of Venus. Another, and shorter, way to arrive at the star design would be as follows. In the same volume just cited [28:23, pentagon] it is stated: “If one plots the position of the planet Venus in the zodiac when it first appears as the Morning or Evening star after a period of invisibility, then waits until Venus disappears again, then repeats the procedure the next time Venus reappears either as the Morning or the Evening star, and does this for a period of 1,460 days (i.e., exactly four years), and a line is drawn between each of the positions, from the first to the second, etc. the design revealed when all the points have been joined together is that of an exactly regular pentagon.” If lines are then drawn to connect each of the interior points of the pentagon a five-pointed star is formed. Also notice that if each of the sides of an upright pentagon are extended in both directions, to a distance equal to the length of the side, the lines will touch and an inverted star will be formed.
  17. [note] See The Glory of the Old Testament, edited by Georgette Corcos (New York: Villard Books, 1984), 158.
  18. [note] See Hans R. Hahnloser, Villard de Honnecourt (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druk-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1972), plate #18; Theodore Bowie, The Sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1959), 88–89.
  19. [note] See Martin Hürlimann, French Cathedrals (New York: Viking Press, 1967), 149; Roland Bechmann, Villard de Honnecourt (Paris: Picard, 1991), 334.
  20. [note] See Christian Norberg–Shulz, The Concept of Dwelling: On the Way to Figurative Architecture (New York: Rizzoli, 1985), 74.
  21. [note] See Revell Bible Dictionary (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1990), 659; Gertrud Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art (Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society, 1971), 1, plate 271.
  22. [note] See Yves Christe, et. al., Art of the Christian World, A.D. 200–1500: A Handbook of Styles and Forms (New York: Rizzoli, 1982), 346.
  23. [note] See Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, The Meaning of Icons (Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Book and Art Shop, 1952), 213; Engelina Smirnova, Moscow Icons: 14th–17th Centuries (Oxford: Phaidon, 1989), figure 121; V. N. Lazarev, Moscow School of Icon Painting (Moscow: Ishkusstvo, 1971), figures 25 and 48; for some of the sources in the above notes see http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/pentagram_notes.html#3.13
  24. [note] 2 Peter 1:19, emphasis added; see also D&C 131:5. Joseph Smith connected the ideas of having “the day Star arise” in one’s heart, receiving the “more sure word of prophecy,” and “making [one’s] calling and election sure.” [The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph, edited by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook (Orem, Utah: Grandin Book, 1991), 207; compare Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1973), 3:356.]
  25. [note] See Revelation 2:26, 28.
  26. [note] See Leviticus 16:5, 7–10, 20–22.
  27. [note] This book was called The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic. For the illustration under discussion see Eliphas Levi, Dogma et Rituel de la Haute Magie, translated by Arthur E. Waite (England: Rider and Co., 1896), vol. 1, “The Candidate,” 2.
  28. [note] This book was called The Ritual of Transcendental Magic. For the text see Levi, Dogma et Rituel de la Haute Magie, 2:35–36. Alphonse’s first two books were published together as a single volume in 1856 under the title Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual, but this combined set was not translated into English (by Arthur Edward Waite) until 1896. In 1910 Waite and a woman named Pamela Coleman Smith altered Eliphas Levi’s tarot deck devil card image by inverting the pentagram on the devil’s forehead and elongating its bottom ray.
  29. [note] This book was called The Key of the Great Mysteries. For an illustration see Eliphas Levi, La Clef des Grands Mystères (Paris: La Diffusion Scientifique, 1976), 244. In 1861 Alphonse made a second visual connection between Satan and the inverted star when he published The Mysteries of the Qabalah. For an illustration see Eliphas Levi, The Mysteries of the Qabalah (Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Thorsons Publishers Ltd., 1974), 59.
  30. [note] Tom Ogden, Wizards and Sorcerers: From Abracadabra to Zoroaster (New York: Facts On File, 1997), 172, emphasis added.

Further Reading

FAIR wiki articles

FAIR web site

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External links

Printed material

  • Marilyn C. Barker, The Legacy of Mormon Furniture (Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith, 1995), 22.
  • Gilles Quispel, The Secret Book of Revelation (London: Collins, 1979), 44.
  • Christopher Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral, 1130–1530 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), 195.


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