Fast-forward from ancient Rome about twenty-five hundred years. If you followed the tumultuous battle over the results of the 2020 American presidential election, you’re aware that a group of protesters forced their way inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, resulting in some property damage and the death of Ashli Babbitt, a thirty-five-year-old Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer when she tried to vault over a barricade into a restricted area inside the building.
The media has consistently described the events of January 6, 2021, as insurrection, an attempted coup by “domestic terrorists.” It was not. The Capitol rioters were a disorganized, ragtag mob that had no agenda other than venting frustration at America’s political class as Congress convened to certify the results of the contentious presidential election. But, as my wife Sharon K. Gilbert noted in a chapter she contributed to the recent Tom Horn anthology, Zeitgeist 2025, the responses by our elected officials were eye-opening:
Very shortly after the so-called coup failed, Senator Chuck Schumer described the January 6, 2021 incursion into the House of Representatives this way:
It is very, very difficult to put into words what has transpired today. I have never lived through or even imagined an experience like the one we have just witnessed in this Capitol. President Franklin Roosevelt set aside Dec. 7, 1941, as a day that will live in infamy. Unfortunately, we can now add Jan. 6, 2021, to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.
This temple to democracy was desecrated, its windows smashed, our offices vandalized. […]
And Senator Schumer’s alarmist battle cry was taken up two weeks later at the inauguration by Senator Amy Klobuchar:
Two weeks ago, when an angry, violent mob staged an insurrection and desecrated this temple of our democracy, it awakened us to our responsibilities as Americans. [Emphasis added][1]
Senators Schumer and Klobuchar were not alone in depicting the Capitol as hallowed ground:
This is a special place. This is a sacred place. This sacred place was desecrated by a mob today on our watch. This temple to democracy was defiled by was defiled by thugs, who roamed the halls—sat in this chair, Mr. Vice President—one that you vacated at 2:15 this afternoon.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)[2]
“Members of the U.S. Capitol Police and across law enforcement are heroes. We saw their heroism in action on January 6 when they defended the most sacred space in our Republic against violent insurrectionists who attempted to prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutional duty.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY)[3]
On Sunday, it was a great—my great honor to be sworn in as Speaker and to preside over a sacred ritual of renewal, as we gathered under this dome of this temple of democracy to open the 117th Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)[4]
Now, it’s easy to dismiss these remarks as rhetoric to score political points against Donald Trump, who was not only blamed for the riot but impeached for allegedly inciting it, even though barricades around the Capitol were breached while the former president was still speaking to a crowd a mile away. But this characterization of the Capitol as “a temple” and “sacred space” was echoed by political commentators and religious leaders across the country after January 6. Those who wrote and spoke about the Capitol in religious terms may not even realize that they’re very close to what the Fallen would have us believe about the nature and purpose of America’s “Congress House.”
Tom Horn has written at length about the occult world’s purpose for the Capitol in Apollyon Rising 2012 and its revised and expanded edition Zenith 2016. In short, occult adepts believe that a future world leader, the Antichrist, will be engendered in America’s “temple to democracy.” At the risk of being indelicate, the Washington Monument, the world’s tallest obelisk at just over 555 feet, 5 inches (6,665 inches),[5] represents the missing male member of the Egyptian god of the dead, Osiris. The dome of the Capitol, at the other end of the National Mall, represents the womb of his sister-wife, Isis.
The spatial relationship between the monument and the Capitol echoes the layout of St. Peter’s Square in Rome, where an ancient Egyptian obelisk was erected by Pope Sixtus V in 1586 opposite St. Peter’s Basilica, which, like the Capitol, is topped by a dome. The obvious difference between the two is that the obelisk in Rome is only eighty-four feet high.
Tom’s research revealed that the occult purpose of the Capitol is to facilitate the return of Osiris, the Egyptian form of Apollo. This reincarnate entity would be the Antichrist—a resurrected Nimrod. I humbly suggest that there is another piece to this puzzle.
Sharon and I argued in Giants, Gods & Dragons that Apollo has been with us for millennia, riding the earth as the first horseman of the Apocalypse.[6] The god was well known in the ancient world, considered the ideal of Greek youth, and adopted as a personal god by Caesar Augustus, Nero, and other Roman emperors in the centuries that followed. Apollo, a plague-god, was worshiped more than two thousand years before John wrote the book of Revelation as Resheph in western Mesopotamia and as Nergal in Akkad and Sumer.[7] He was also adopted as the personal protector god by Amenhotep II,[8] convincingly identified by Dr. Douglas Petrovich as the Pharaoh of the Exodus.[9] This means two things: First, Resheph (Apollo) was well known in Egypt and considered distinct from Osiris; and second, the God of Israel convinced Pharaoh to let His people go by sending a series of plagues that the plague-god was powerless to stop.
Resheph is also mentioned in the Bible, most obviously by the prophet Habakkuk:
God came from Teman,
Habakkuk 3:3–5
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
Before him went pestilence [Deber],
and plague [Resheph] followed at his heels.
Deber, like Resheph, was a deity well known to the Semitic people of western Mesopotamia. Both were worshiped at Ebla at least a thousand years before the Exodus.[10] The point is that since Resheph/Apollo was following at God’s heels as He led the Israelites from Mount Paran (an alternate name for Sinai) toward the Promised Land, then Resheph/Apollo is not among the group of rebels chained in the abyss for the rebellion at Mount Hermon. Not only was this an act of humiliation, since God had just demonstrated His superiority over Resheph/Apollo to the Pharaoh, this means Resheph/Apollo is not “the angel of the bottomless pit” of Revelation 9:11. The similarity of the name “Apollo” to “Apollyon” does not mean the two are one and the same.
While Tom pointed us in the right direction with his analysis of the occult teachings and rituals he documents in Apollyon Rising 2012 and Zenith 2016, I believe the Capitol symbolizes a purpose other than the incubation chamber for the Antichrist. As I argued in Bad Moon Rising, it’s far more likely that the Son of Perdition will present himself to the world as a Jew, a deception far more devious and cruel than manifesting as the pope or the Muslim Mahdi (who will look very different to Sunnis and Shias anyway; one sect’s Mahdi will be the other’s Antichrist equivalent, the Dajjal—but I digress). Senators Chuck Schumer and Amy Klobuchar, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Liz Cheney, and others were far closer to the truth than they may even realize. The Capitol truly is America’s temple, where principalities and powers, at the bidding of Jupiter/Zeus/Satan, have influenced this country for more than two hundred years.
To be clear, America is not the only nation under the influence of the Fallen. Remember, Satan offered to trade Jesus all the kingdoms of the world for His worship, and our Lord did not rebuke Satan for overstepping the limits of his authority. But we Christians, who tend to be among the most patriotic Americans, must remember that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world—and the Capitol is a temple to the god of this world. More than that, it reflects the model of the cosmos as embodied by the Capitoline Hill: Jupiter (Satan) above and Saturn (Shemihazah) below.
As Tom Horn noted in his groundbreaking books, the room at ground level in the Capitol, one floor below the rotunda, is called the crypt. No one is buried there, but the plan was to move the body of George Washington, who died in 1799, to a chamber in the crypt, which was to serve as the entry to Washington’s tomb. Directly above the tomb, a ten-foot circular opening would have allowed visitors in the rotunda to look down on Washington’s final resting place. However, after delays in construction, not least of which was the need to rebuild the Capitol after the British burned it during the War of 1812, Washington’s descendants opted to honor the former president’s will and left him interred at Mount Vernon.
The symbolism of birth and generation embodied by the Washington Monument and the Capitol is clear. And I believe Tom Horn is correct in identifying the Egyptian god of the dead, Osiris, as the object of this long occult ritual. However, the Roman Osiris is not Apollo—it’s Saturn. Given the nature of the sin committed by Saturn/Shemihazah and his colleagues, commingling with human women, the symbolism of the obelisk is apt.
Why did Thomas Jefferson insist on calling our nation’s legislative building the Capitol when the original Capitolium was not a domed building? In other words, if Jefferson was dead set on creating an American temple named for the house of Jupiter, why doesn’t it look like the Capitolium? The Romans were the first to utilize domes for large buildings, but the dome didn’t become popular in Roman architecture until the first century BC, almost five hundred years after the Capitolium was dedicated. Why, then, does the American Capitol feature such a prominent dome?
Here is the key: While the Capitol is named for the Capitolium, its design emulates another important religious structure in Rome, the Pantheon. While the Capitol dome as we see it today is much larger relative to the rest of the building than the dome atop the Pantheon, the Capitol’s original dome was much closer to the Pantheon’s in scale. The size and prominence of the Capitol dome grew as the structure was rebuilt and expanded in the nineteenth century. As the Capitol changed, the art and architecture of the building made its hidden purpose more obvious for those with eyes to see.
In Giants, Gods & Dragons, Sharon and I made the case that Apollo, as the first horseman of the Apocalypse and the symbol of Roman imperialism, went forth “conquering, and to conquer” by laying the foundation of Western civilization—Greek and Roman philosophy, law, art, literature, architecture, and systems of government. Little wonder that Jefferson insisted on calling the home of our nation’s new legislative body the “Capitol,” and that so much of our government architecture is inspired by, if not copied from, pagan temples of Greece and Rome. Indeed, the underside of the Capitol dome features the overtly pagan fresco titled The Apotheosis of Washington, a depiction of our nation’s first president ascending to the heavens and becoming a god:
Beside those pagan gods which accompany Washington inside the Capitol Dome, the scene is rich with symbols analogous with ancient and modern magic, including the powerful trident—considered of the utmost importance for sorcery and indispensable to the efficacy of infernal rites—and the caduceus, tied to Apollo and Freemasonic Gnosticism in which Jesus was a myth based on Apollo’s son, Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing whose snake-entwined staff remains a symbol of medicine today. Occult numerology associated with the legend of Isis and Osiris is also encoded throughout the painting, such as the thirteen maidens, the six scenes of pagan gods around the perimeter forming a hexagram, and the entire scene bounded by the powerful Pythagorian/Freemasonic “binding” utility—seventy-two five-pointed stars within circles.[11]
The fresco is viewed from the rotunda below through an oculus, a circular opening in the dome that creates the impression that Washington is in the heavens among the gods, having become one himself. This is borrowed from the oculus in the dome of the Pantheon, which opened to the sky. This feature served a spiritual purpose:
In topographical context, therefore, it would seem that the Pantheon operated as the focal point for an innovative religious system. It was a place of veneration of the principal Olympian divinities (probably including Romulus/Quirinus), along with the first divinized member of the gens Iulia, Julius Caesar.… The oculus in the dome presented that union of earth and sky that symbolized an apotheosis into the heavens.[12]
The Capitol not only features an oculus through which visitors can view the divinized Washington, but it includes a chamber at ground level intended to house the body of Washington, also visible from the rotunda above through an opening in the floor. It’s as though the Capitol was constructed around a portal for George Washington’s spirit to ascend into the heavens, just as the Pantheon in Rome was designed by Agrippa to symbolize the apotheosis of Julius Caesar and his successor, Caesar Augustus.
The seventy-two stars in the fresco represent the elohim placed by God over the nations after the Tower of Babel incident. There are seventy in the Bible, based on the number of people groups listed in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, but the symbolic meaning of seventy is the same as seventy-two, which explains the seventy-two (or seventy, depending on the translation) disciples sent into Galilee by Jesus in Luke 10:1–20. Numerologically, seventy and seventy-two represent the same idea—the complete set, or “all of them.” Seventy-two also happens to be one-fifth of 360—the number of degrees in a circle, hence the five-pointed stars.
All of these symbols points to a deeper meaning to the fresco on the Capitol dome: Just as the Canaanite creator-god El lived on Mount Hermon with his consort and their seventy sons, the gods of the nations, the divinized Washington is surrounded by seventy-two stars that likewise represent the heavenly host.
It’s also revealing that Washington is depicted with purple cloth draped over his legs, which hides them from view. Most interpret this as a sign of royalty, since purple was the color reserved for kings in the ancient world. As inconsistent as this is in a nation with no (official) royalty, the symbolism is disturbing on a deeper level: The legs of the statue of Saturn in his temple at Rome were bound with wool most of the year, representing his confinement in the netherworld. The wool was removed only during the annual Saturnalia festival. On the Capitol dome, Washington’s legs are covered (with the color of royalty) but unbound, apparently symbolizing the return of the king(-god) to his place in the heavens.
In short, The Apotheosis of Washington depicts the man called the “father of our nation” as El/Saturn, who led America into a Golden Age represented by the scenes of commerce, agriculture, science, industry, transoceanic travel and communication, and victory over tyranny and kingly power.
The art and architecture of the Capitol make a clear statement: America is politically, militarily, and, most of all, spiritually Rome.
For American Christians, the implications are disturbing. Most of us have taken for granted that the pagan and occult symbols designed into our government buildings in general, and the Capitol, National Mall, and Washington Monument in particular, were simply artistic choices made for their aesthetic value. Our ignorance of those pagan symbols has led us to accept a false history that’s much more comfortable than the truth.
Now consider how many state legislatures across the United States meet in buildings that are likewise inspired by the Pantheon. Thirty-nine of our fifty state capitol buildings are domed. At least half a dozen, including our home state of Missouri, are topped by statues of pagan deities. As many more are adorned by statues that, if not pagan, are most definitely not Christian.
It’s worth noting that the same obelisk-and-dome imagery of the Capitol and Saint Peter’s Square is found at most mosques. The minarets are explained as necessary for muezzin to sing the call to prayer, but why stand-alone towers that look like modified obelisks? Why not a bell tower? Or, given the military history of Islam, why not a ramparted wall around the mosque? Digging into the history of Islamic architecture and symbolism is beyond the scope of this book, but it’s intriguing that symbols so closely linked to the centers of allegedly Christian religious and political power in Washington, DC, and Rome are also key elements of the imagery that defines Islam.
This is speculation, but is the worldwide distribution of obelisks and domes related to the return of old Saturn and his colleagues from the netherworld? (We’ll address the biblical prophecy of that event in an upcoming article.)
And what about the obelisks used as funerary markers all over the world—many of them for Christians?
Next: The dark side of Aquarius
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[1] Sharon K. Gilbert, “A Long Ritual, a Dark Winter, and the Age of Aquarius.” In Tom Horn, Zeitgeist 2025(Crane, MO: Defender, 2021), in press.
[2] CBS 2 Chicago Staff, “Sen. Durbin On Senate Floor: ‘This Sacred Place Was Desecrated’ During Capitol Storming.” CBS 2 Chicago, Jan. 6, 2021. https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/01/06/sen-durbin-on-senate-floor-this-sacred-place-was-desecrated-during-capitol-storming/, retrieved 4/24/21.
[3]“Cheney: The Capitol Police Are Heroes & We Saw Their Heroism in Action on 1/6.” Press release, Mar. 17, 2021. https://cheney.house.gov/2021/03/17/cheney-the-capitol-police-are-heroes-we-saw-their-heroism-in-action-on-1-6/, retrieved 4/24/21.
[4]“Pelosi Remarks Upon Reconvening of the House of Representatives.” Press release, Jan. 6, 2021. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/1621-1, retrieved 4/24/21.
[5] “Washington Monument: Frequently Asked Questions.” National Park Service,https://www.nps.gov/wamo/faqs.htm, retrieved 5/24/21.
[6] Gilbert & Gilbert (2020), op. cit., pp. 159–182.
[7] Paolo Xella, “Resheph.” In Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), p. 701.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Douglas N. Petrovich, “Amenhotep II and the Historicity of the Exodus-Pharaoh.” The Master’s Seminary Journal(2006). https://www.academia.edu/1049040/_2006_Amenhotep_II_and_the_Historicity_of_the_Exodus_Pharaoh, retrieved 4/30/21.
[10] Ibid. Also see Giovanni Pettinato, The Archives of Ebla: An Empire Inscribed in Clay. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1981), p. 247.
[11] Horn (2013), op. cit.
[12] Eugenio La Rocca, “Agrippa’s Pantheon and Its Origin,” in The Pantheon: From Antiquity to the Present, ed. by Tod A. Marder and Mark Wilson Jones (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 49–78. https://erenow.net/ancient/the-pantheon-from-antiquity-to-the-present/2.php, retrieved 4/29/21.
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