("terrorism and the mafia" continues.)
The thumb and index finger hand sign of the Masons has origins (that can be guessed at) other than that of the compass as a symbol. The Roman statue of Caesar Augustus entitled Augustus of Primaport, has the subject pointing into the distance with his index finger. This statue pairs up quite nicely with Julius Caesar's famous words "Veni, Vedi, Vici", which are Latin for "I came, I saw, I conquered". The Masons took note of the repetition of the "V"s in this statement about a campaign of the Roman army. The Masons also took note of the Roman practice of using the thumb to indicate either life or death at the concluding stages of the competitions of the gladiators held at the Colosseum in Rome, in ancient times.
For their main hand sign, the Masons straightened out the index finger of Augustus and added the thumb sign from the Colosseum to get a hand sign that could refer to the "V"s of Julius Caesar's statement as well as to a compass.
Besides this hand sign, another sign of bonding to the Masons that appeared in the early history of this group was that of a plain gold coloured earring in one ear, worn by a man. This sign, the meaning of which was secret, was perhaps inspired by the metal rings of the chain mail shirts (made up of many interlocking rings) that were worn by knights in medieval times. There were (and are) variations on the plain gold ring, such as in port towns (especially in England), where a more prominent gold earring was adopted.
It has been noted how historians believe that the initiation ritual of the mafia involving blood from a finger smeared on a saint had been adopted from the Masons. The earlier origin seems to have been the spitting and stamping on the cross by the Knights Templar. Both rituals had a sexual element (I believe). Records from the time assert that the Knights Templar included a homo-erotic element in their initiation ritual, akin to homosexuality. The symbol of the Templars, two knights riding on the same horse, may have had a sexual meaning also.
With the Masons (and the mafia who perform the blood initiation) the indications are that the blood smeared on the image of one of the saints is part of a vow that the initiated person (a male) will try to be the one to break the hymen of each of his daughters and be the first to perform a sexual act with them. He will also have sex with his mother. If circumstances, such as being in prison, do not permit any near opportunity to perform these acts that are socially prohibited, then a homosexual act can stand in their place. These acts have been, it would seem, one of the deepest secrets of the Masons (and the mafia) and have been considered an important element of the criminal bond. The individual feels he cannot leave the group, who have performed the socially prohibited acts also.
If we consider some more events and individuals from history we can see (or imagine) the way the Masons have tried to manipulate events through deception and secrecy, and terror.
With the Renaissance period, the Masons recognized the power of the idea of the "great man", and wanted to bond great men to them so greatness would reflect onto the group. In the Leonardo Da Vinci painting "Virgin and Child with St Anne and a Lamb", two of the toes of one of the figures are split in an unnatural way, such that they make the Masonic sign of the compass. And in the painting "Mona Lisa", there are also Masonic signs. In the background is a lake and rivers flowing from it, that appear to be a visualization of Marco Polo's description of the waters surrounding a city in China. The figure in the painting seems to have a mixture of the features of a young girl and those of a mature woman. And the figure has no eyebrows. This lack of eyebrows can be read as symbolizing the absence of pubic hair on a prepubescent girl. Viewing the position of Mona Lisa's fingers reinforces this interpretation. Two of the fingers are open. The coded message being that the Masons engage in incest with their daughters and their mothers. This then connects with the half smile of the figure. The sadness at being pulled into this practice is concealed by a half smile.
The slightly curving shape of Mona Lisa's smile connects also with meaning number 14. in The Oxford English Dictionary (Second edition) for the word "compass"(the verb), which is "To bend into a circle or curve; to curve, incurve." The overall entry for "compass" in this dictionary tells us there are similar words in the Romance languages also.
(A crooked smile or the pulling of faces that make the face or mouth circular or bend one or both lips in an extreme manner have been adopted as another form of Masonic/mafia sign. It is often children who are instructed to do the circular faces.)
The Masons saw the power of the focus on the individual person during the Renaissance period. It may be that they extended this idea of focus to the work of art also. Hence Leonardo Da Vinci's level of attention to the "Mona Lisa". His motivation for spending around fifteen years on the painting would then be seen as a competitive act, to try to raise himself above the other great figures of the Renaissance, notably Michelangelo, having been instructed to do this by the Masons.
Reading biographical matter on Da Vinci, one may get the impression that some other people of Da Vinci's time and after, were trying to build up the Da Vinci reputation, and that the level of acclaim that has been reached does not stand up to scrutiny.