“I am the eye in the sky

Looking at you

I can read your mind

I am the maker of rules

Dealing with fools

I can cheat you blind”

- The Alan Parsons Project, Eye in the Sky

Symbols can be extraordinarily powerful. They can be simple or complex and frequently hold a deeper history than what people may understand. In various occult circles, magical rites and alchemy symbols were used because of their “magical” properties and power.

Today some of our most galvanizing symbols include the swastika, the five or six pointed stars, the pentagram, the cross, the peace sign and that is just to name a few.

The disembodied eye has been a symbol human beings have been using for thousands of years in many cultures across the planet. Most articles trace the free floating eye symbol to ancient Egypt but a quick view of petroglyphs across the world shows plenty of eye symbols, some free floating and others making up the bodies of animals. One might rightly assume then that the human eye has a significant and powerful place as a symbol in our evolution.

Check out the articles on the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra on Wikipedia. (that is where this image comes from)

A more refined understanding of the disembodied eye as a symbol come from ancient Egypt with the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra. The Eye of Horus being a symbol largely representing healing and resurrection and the Eye of Ra being more of a symbol of the subjection of one’s enemies is more aggressive in nature.

As Christians became fascinated with Egyptian art and hieroglyphs in the Italian Renaissance they did what humans have done throughout history and coopted the disembodied eye and interpreted it as the “all seeing eye of God”. Neatly placed within the pyramid or triangle they were able to represent the triune nature of the Christian God and thus a new symbol was born.

This symbol first appears in 1525 in a painting called the Supper at Emmaus by the Italian painter Jacopo Pontormo. The painting was based on Supper at Emmaus which is part of the Small Passion, a series of 36 woodcuts and a frontispiece by Albrecht Dürer. One quickly notes that the All Seeing Eye is not present in Albrecht’s work. Another artist, Jacopo da Empoli, created a copy of Pontormo’s painting but used a three-faced representation of the triune God. He later painted the All Seeing Eye in place of this as it was banned by the counter reformation at the time.

Supper at Emmaus by the Italian painter Jacopo Pontormo. Pontormo should be credited with the invention of the sandwich/hamburger as well. (look closely)

Eyes are often attributed to being the “windows to the soul” and that idea really makes us a little unsettled when we see the eye detached or seeming to live as a free-roaming entity. How powerful this symbol has been for Christians since the renaissance who believe in in an omniscient God.

Over time the symbol comes across the ocean and finds its way onto the back of The Great Seal of the United States and, eventually, onto the back of the dollar bill. Often the symbol is associated with the founding of the United States as the unfinished pyramid has 13 steps which symbolize the 13 (original) colonies. The unfinished top most likely refers to the unfinished nature of the building or expansion of the nation. Atop the pyramid is the All Seeing Eye of God also known as The Eye of Providence. This eye, housed within a glowing triangle or pyramid, looks over the pyramid symbol for the nation and is surrounded by two Latin phrases. The first phrase located above the eye reads “Annuit Copts”. Annuit translate as “to nod’ or “to approve” and coeptis translates to “undertakings”. So, roughly translating the desired meaning is that God approves of the undertakings of the United States, or at least to its founding. Then again could we not translate it to something like “God approves of (all) undertakings of the United States”?

Below the pyramid we find the phrase “nous order seclorum” which translates as “new world order”. Commonly this is meant to understand that the United States, free from British rule after the revolutionary war, begins an era where the US is independent.

Things get really interesting when one sees that this new world order phrase is often linked to both the Illuminati and the Freemasons. That is where, in our modern American society we super charge this ancient symbol with myth, conspiracy theories (a term coined by the CIA), and further coopting by everyone from fashion companies to graffiti artists.

While conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and the Freemasons are tantalizing the credulity of the theories is questionable and often argued amongst writers, political pundits and conspiracy theorists not to mention representatives of various religious institutions. Ironically those same religious institutions have their own conspiracy theories that they in turn attempt to combat through the centuries.

So what the heck was I thinking when I put The All Seeing Eye in a painting of a wave surrounded by flying saucers? Well, symbols have meanings and as we can see those meanings change with the usage. Often when we, personally, coops a symbol for our own use we “make it our own” by infusing it with our own interpretations, history or personal ideologies.

I am not a one-for-one type of artist where every single element of my work has a distinctive meaning that when understood reveals some kind of cohesive message. That being said I think the important part of this image, in my mind, is Sophia or wisdom. Sophia (Koinē Greek: σοφία sophía "wisdom") illuminates a world with light and living energy. Personified to a degree she gazes upon the ever changing landscape of our thoughts. Today, in this painting, those thoughts are predominantly on the idea of the (Jungian archetypical) ufo. An expression of something deep within our collective unconscious that emerges as myth, entertainment, conspiracy or religion.

It’s not lost on me that the silhouetted flying saucer somehow harkens to the disembodied eye. This fluid idea (pardon the pun) of the emergence of something new from old ideas of flying saucers and disembodied eyes intrigues me. The saucer as the eye in the sky has so many possibilities for interpretation and mythology.

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Eye in the Sky