“A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.” – From Wikipedia
“The number twelve frequently occurs among ancient peoples, who in nearly every case had a pantheon consisting of twelve demigods and goddesses presided over by The Invincible One, who was Himself subject to the Incomprehensible All-Father. This use of the number twelve is especially noted in the Jewish and Christian writings. The twelve prophets, the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes, and the twelve Apostles – each group has a certain significance, for each refers to the Divine Duodecimo, or Twelvefold Deity, whose emanations are manifested in the tangible created Universe through twelve individualized channels.”
-Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages
In the ancient mysteries there is a ritualistic procession which describes the path from confusion and despair to enlightenment and exultation. This process places the individual, or groupings of individuals, such as nations, on a journey of hardship and suffering, only to come out the other end liberated and illuminated.
It is perhaps symbolic of the birth into the material world and onset of suffering and confusion which ensues. When the righteous path is followed through life the spirit is able to rise up out of the ashes of despair and ignorance, and become one with the universal power of creation.
Or so the story goes.
In the song Carry on Wayward Son, the band Kansas sings:
“Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion, I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high.”
Patience with the process of initiation in this life is a key element of the journey itself. When we reach too high, and too far, we falter and fall victim to the entrapments of the false self. Most stumble through this life never realizing that life itself is an initiation.
When we come to understand, and accept the reality that life is an initiation, the pieces begin to fit and purposeful meaning fills our hearts and minds with a quiet wisdom which does not need to be spoken.
Borrowing from Thomas Armstrong and his Human Odyssey: Navigating the Twelve Stages of Life, we find that each of our lives can be segmented into the following categories:
- Pre-birth: Potential
- Birth: Hope
- Infancy (Ages 0 to 3): Vitality
- Early Childhood (Ages 3 to 6): Playfulness
- Middle Childhood (Ages 6 to 8): Imagination
- Late Childhood(Ages 9 to 11): Ingenuity
- Adolescence (Ages 12 to 20) : Passion and Rebellion
- Early Adulthood (Ages 20 to 35): Enterprise
- Midlife Ages (Ages 35 to 50): Contemplation and Seeking
- Mature Adulthood (ages 50 to 80): Benevolence
- Late Adulthood (Age 80+): Wisdom
- Death and Dying: Life and Knowing, otherwise Gnosis
The obvious and immediate pattern which jumps out at us is that each subsequent period in the procession becomes longer in duration, when measured in years, or orbits around the Sun. Each period also becomes deeper and richer in experience. But only when we’re paying attention.
Whether Armstrong intended this as a structural component of his thesis is not known, but I would like to add my own thesis – that consciousness is not allegorically static, in that consciousness perceives each period within the same volume of space. Or each period takes up the same volume of conscious space as the period before and the period after.
Allow me to explain.
When we’re children the days pass as fast as a dragonfly. But as we age the days, months, and years are perceived to be moving at an ever quicker pace. Life speeds up and goes by faster and faster as we get older and older.
But is time really speeding up? Or is this the way consciousness breaks down and perceives each of the twelve periods in a person’s life cycle procession?
The older we get the longer each period lasts in years. But if consciousness can only perceive each period in the same volume of space, then it is conceivable that as each period becomes longer in years, consciousness will perceive that period in the same volume of space as the ones which came before it. Thus, time appears to be speeding up.
The other obvious point which can be made from Armstrong’s life structure is that each of the twelve segments make up the one whole. Each segment contributes to the completion of the Great Work.
This structure of twelve segments, or channels, making up the one whole, can be found throughout history and different cultures. It is as if consciousness subliminally understands the meaning of this structure and we work it into all human frameworks and machinations.
Pythagorean philosophy considered the dodecahedron to be the foundation of the material world. A dodecahedron is a twelve faced symmetrical geometric solid. All twelve sides make up the one whole solid.
In order to accept that this concept of twelve plus one has real symbolic meaning, I offer the following:
- Twelve Signs of the Zodiac (procession of the Sun)
- Jesus and 12 disciples
- King Arthur and the Twelve Knights of the Roundtable
- Twelve tribes of Israel
- Twelve apostles spreading the church
- Twelve kings of Israel
- Twelve old testament prophets
- Twelve great patriarchs
- Twelve judges of Israel
- Twelve brothers of Joseph
- Twelve knights of Charlemagne
- Twelve followers of Quetzalcoatl
- Twelve followers of Buddha
- Twelve Bedesmen
- Zeus and twelve Olympians
- Pan and twelve Lupercal Priests
- Romulus and twelve sons
- Odin and his twelve holy and ineffable names
- Alexander and his twelve Cheders
- Twelve great adventures of Izubar of Ancient Babylon
- Hercules and his twelve labours
- Himmler and his twelve SS knights
- Twelve Masonic signs of recognition
- Twelve months of the year
- Twelve hours of the day
- Twelve hours of the night
- Twelve inches in a foot
- Twelve days of Christmas
- Twelve grades in school
- Twelve jurors
- Twelve notes before the octave
- Twelve in a dozen
There are endless more, but let’s not forget the twelve Knights Templar who escaped arrest in 1307 and made their way to Switzerland with the famed treasure. Followed by twelve more, just like day follows night.
Each of the above stories are symbolic and allegorical tales which provide hints on the path and procession of our individual initiation in this life cycle – the completion of the Great Work. As such, each segment within the twelve has occult significance. The word occult is loaded with misunderstanding, and should be considered a process of thought. Each of the twelve segments creates a thought field.
In all cases the twelve are combined to make the one whole. This whole is the 13th and purposeful dodecahedron, which is represented as the completion of a process and the attainment of the whole. Hercules had to complete his twelve labours to ascend further. King Arthur and the twelve knights went on a quest to find the Holy Grail. The Grail was said to have held the blood of Christ. Christ and the twelve disciples describe a process which is meant to help us understand the ascent of consciousness and the completion of the cycle.
Like the Sun completing its cycle through the Zodiac.
After twelve hours of night the Sun rises.
Oh, I almost forgot, the Holy City has twelve foundations and twelve gates. The Tree of Life bears twelve fruit.
Moving on.
The Federal Reserve (you thought I’d never get to it) is structured in the same allegorical and symbolic way which has been described above. There are twelve Federal Reserve Districts with Federal Reserve Banks. They are:
- Boston
- New York
- Philadelphia
- Cleveland
- Richmond
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- St. Louis
- Minneapolis
- Kansas City
- Dallas
- San Francisco
And of course all twelve make up the Federal Reserve itself. Just like the Sun acts as the 13th culmination of the twelve with dominion over the whole Earth, the Federal Reserve has dominion over wealth accumulation.
In the picture which accompanies this post, we see the Federal Reserve Gold Symbol Seal embedded in the wall of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas. This symbol shows a bird sitting above twelve stars. We can assume that the twelve stars represent the twelve district banks and the bird represents the Federal Reserve System as a whole.
This close up picture of the seal gives us a better image of the stars and the bird. The bird can be interpreted as the American eagle, but can just as easily be interpreted as the phoenix, the mystical bird which rises from the ashes of its previous self. Regeneration.
But that is not all it represents. If it was all that innocuous than the above information would not exist. The reality and frequency of twelve plus one throughout history and vastly different cultures is not a coincidence.
Manly P. Hall wrote in The Secret Destiny of America:
“Philosophy teaches that the completion of the great work of social regeneration must be accomplished not in society but in man himself.”
Do you see?
“Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion, I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high.”