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Homonyms dude… what a rush. You see, before I was ever hooked on any of the intoxicants I pickle myself with every weekend, I was hooked on phonics, and that shit is HARD.

But let’s move on to another topic that’s always on the forefront of my mind — eyeballs.

You could say that my artistic eye has been somewhat fixed on eyeballs for a while now — they’re one of those cliche, beat-to-death icons that I just can’t seem to get sick of. Skulls, lightning bolts, hearts, stars… I love them in all their trite glory. Have all the beautiful symbols already been drawn? I don’t know, maybe I’ll stumble upon a new one in my daily doodlings, or maybe I’ll just keep beating the old ones farther into their graves. Oh, gravestones! That’s another one I like!

Now, of course the real backbone of any of these well-worn symbols is the fact that they’re so iconic. That’s precisely why they persist. They’re easily recognizable and they resonate strongly through time. Take the all-seeing eye, for example. While it may be a popular image in street wear today, it’s been chic for centuries. Literally. This shit was all the rage back in ancient Egypt.

Eye of Horus - image via Wikipedia

A million, trillion, fafillion versions of this symbol have cropped up throughout the ages. In Egypt, it was The Eye of Horus. Buddhists also had their own interpretation, as they refer to Buddha as the “Eye of the World”. But the eyeball didn’t stop rolling there.

The Eyes of Buddha - image origin unknown

In the United States’ toilet training years, the Eye of Providence was adopted as part of the Great Seal of the United States. You might have noticed it if you’ve ever seen a dollar bill.

Detail of the Great Seal on a dollar bill

Surrounding the eye are the Latin words Annuit Cœptis, which translate as “he approves our undertakings.” I’m not sure which one of the founding fathers had the direct line to Jesus fucking Christ, but apparently they was mad tight back in the day. Either way, obviously all that changed once we went and gave that guy Will and his boyfriend Grace their own TV show. Which is exactly why God didn’t let us beat Canada in the Olympics, in case you were wondering.

Today, the Eye of Providence is often associated with a much more insidious context — National Treasure. Jokes! Although, the reason the Eye was depicted in that Nicholas Cage masterpiece was due to its heavy usage by the Freemasons starting in the late 1700s. Similar to its purpose on the Great Seal, in Freemason iconography the Eye is meant to be a reminder to the little cult heard round the world that they are always being watched by God. Conspiracy theorists such as Nicholas Cage like to point out this similarity, suggesting that Freemasonry heavily influenced the founding of the United States and continues to wield its influence on current U.S. policies. While this is all probably true, Freemasons strongly deny any connection, so like, of course it was all just a coincidence.

Masonic Eye of Providence - image via Seattle’s Masonic Lodge of the Arts

Now, the Freemasons look to the Egyptian deity Osiris as their particular brand of “god,” teaching that everything good comes from Osiris, including order, harmony and the celestial periods (whatever the fuck that means). This following bit of information, however, is no coincidence — Horus is the son of Osiris in Eyptian mythology, and you might remember those guys named their particular version of the all-seeing peeper “The Eye of Horus.”

Like I said, people have been into this shit for years — I’m just trying to keep up with the trends.