The Virgo Constellation and Washington DC
Ovason makes an attempt to connect the city of DC with the Virgo constellation may times. His contention, concerning the August 10th sunset, is that following the setting of the sun that evening, the constellation Virgo is just above the western horizon, highlighting it. On page 347 of "The Secret Architecture", we read, "This, then, is the Mystery of Washington, D.C. - that it was designed with it's main avenue to point to a sunset that would reveal in the skies the constellation Virgo". Actually the whole of the book is an attempt to prove that "the city was intended to celebrate the mystery of Virgo", what ever that might mean. If by that he means that the entire design of the city centered around pointing to the Virgo constellation in the West in August, I don't buy it. I especially don't buy the one sunset notion, since the sun sets in the same place in May as well. It is hard for me to believe, after looking at the view to the west from the Capitol Building that features Pennsylvania and Maryland Avenues marking four stations of the sun (solar arc), that the planners intended to feature just one of those stations. Individuals Interested in Astrology Ovason tells us, in his book "The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital", that his main thesis is that: Washington, D.C. was designed by individuals interested in astrology and astronomy. (page 354) He suggests that, "The angels ... in medieval diagrams ... are the spiritual powers who control the movements of the planets, and ensure that the creative enterprise of the cosmos is kept alive, and in good working order" (page 357) and that "the begnign power of (these) celestial beings may be invited to participate in the spiritual life of a city by means of astrolgy". (page 374). Ovason's foregone conclusion is that "who ever arranged things" in DC, was "inviting some archetype, or spiritual being, to direct the destiny of the city" (page 361), just like a priest blessing fishing fleets. On page 375 we read, "The majority of esotricists who were involved in the construction of Washington, D.C., must have asked themselves frequently how it would be possible to invite the power or virtue of Hamaliel - of the intelligency of Virgo - into the life of the city". One way that they did this, he asserts, is to guarantee that "images of Virgo should predominate in the public zodiacs" in DC, and that Virgo was "consistently operative during foundation and cornerstone ceremonies". (P 361) That is by use of electional astrology. foot note The Big Mystery of the layout of the Capital, however, relates to the alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue, and the triangular hub of the city, which, according to Ovason, reflects "in it's form and symbolism", the nature of the Virgo constellation. The Alignment Arguement His arguement in relationship to Pennsylvania Ave. is that if we look toward the White House from the Capitol on or about August 10, we will see the sun setting over the end of the avenue and the WH. He asserts that Penn. Ave. was designed with a crook in it, specifically to take advantage of this one sunset alignment; we will call this the alignment arguement. The reason for the alignment, according to Ovason, is that following this sunset, we can see the Virgo constellation in the evening sky over west DC. The problem with this arguement, as I have already pointed out, is that the sun also sets there in early May every year. If the avenue was aligned to just one sunet, what are we to make of the fact of the May sunset there? As a matter of fact, if you look to the west from the Capitol, you can see that Penn Ave aligns with the May and August sunsets, while Maryland Ave aligns with the February and November sunsets; yet the May alignment of Penn Ave and the Maryland Ave alignments are never mentioned in the book. [You may note that February, May, August and November are the times of the Celtic Cross-Quarter days, or the witches sabbats.] The Analogy Arguement The arguement about the triangle and the Virgo is a bit more complicated. It is the analogy arguement used earlier, by others, to tie the stars in Orion's belt to the placement of the three pyramids at Giza, about which we will say more later. Federal Triangle The short version of this arguement is that the L'Enfant Triangle, formed by the Capitol Building, the White House, and the original proposed position for the Washington Monument (due south of the WH and due west of the CB), as well as the Federal Triangle (contained with in the L'E. Triangle) are analagous to the triangle formed in the sky by Spica (in Virgo), Regulus (in Leo) and Arcturus (in Bootes). On page 262 he plainly states, "My assumption is that the earthly triangle... was intended as a reflection of the stars around the constellation Virgo". There is no need to prove anything, as he has already assumed this; what remains is to make the facts appear to fit that assumption. Supposedly, this mapping of the skies onto the ground "was designed to unite the celestial realm of the stars with the Earth". This, of course, recalls the old hermetic notion of "As above, so below"; the idea being that the upper, ideal or spiritual realm is reflected in the lower, material realm. [Note that this comparison fails initially because 1) spatial metaphors do not apply to the spiritual realm- the spiritual is not above the material in a spatial sense, and 2) the celestial sphere is not the spiritual realm, but only another physical realm.] Almost the Same As It would seem that any attempt to replicate a stellar configuration within a map layout, in order to tie the earth to the heavens, would at least make the earthly equivalent look like the celestial one; but this does not seem to be the case here, inspite of what it says in Ovason's book, where we read: "The L'Enfant triangle, with it's three primal buildings at it's corners, is almost the same as a right-angled triangle which may be traced in the skies, around the constellation Virgo." (p 255) In that statement we have three assertions: 1) that the earthly triangle is almost the same as the celestial one, 2) that these are right triangles, and 3) that the stellar triangle is traced around the Virgo constellation. On the same page we see, "a less obvious triangle, set in the stars around the constellation Virgo". Then later, "This same triangulation is reflected in the stars gathered within and around the constellation Virgo", "the triad of stars surrounding the constellation Virgo", "Virgo is encased in a stellar triangle", and "a stellar triangle enclosing Virgo". All of this makes it sound as if the Virgo constellation lies completely within a right triangle outlined by the three stars Spica, Regulus and Arcturus; and that idea is encouraged by the illustation on page 256 of the book. As you can see, the triangle being depicted is a 90 degree right triangle, and the Virgo constellation appears to lie within that triangle. Now compare that image with the one from page 347, which clearly shows the Virgo constellation cut in half by the triangle; meaning that the location of the Virgo can be located by means of the figure, and not that it encases it, as stated in the book. But this is just the beginning of Ovason's deceptions. More or Less First he proclaims that, "The fundamental triangle visualized by L'Enfant ... may still be traced between the three most important architectural structures on his plan - the Capitol, the White House and the Washington Monument... In the early map of the city, these three points formed a right-angled triangle ... The three structures... have been erected in more or less the same position which he suggested in 1791." (p 253) This implies that lines connecting the three structures still produce a right triangle, more or less; meaning that their positions remain analagous to the positions of the three stars above. Then he asserts that, "The stars of the Virgoan Triangle correspond with the L'Enfant triad", with Arcturus falling on the White House, Regulus on the Capitol and Spica on the Washington Monument. (p 257) This statement implies a one-to-one correlation, a literal mapping of one to the other. But then on page 261 he reveals that the three earthly elements "are not united by a perfect triangle at all", because the monument was displaced 371.6 feet east and 123.17 feet south of it's original planned position; a lot more than less it seems. After having said that the three had been placed in more or less their original places, he now wants to describe "just how far removed the monument is from the site originally envisaged" (p 262) "These (distance) figures may not seem to be eccessive, but there is one way to see just how massive they are in terms of orientation." He goes on to describe how far out of line the Monument is from the north-south line running through the White House, so that "the original right-angled triangle designed by L'Enfant is no longer a perfect right angle". Hmm. Almost Exact Having first stated that the L'Enfant triangle was a right triangle, and that it was almost the same as the Virgo Triangle which he also characterized as right-angled, then telling us that the earthly triangle no longer features a right angle, he next reveals that, "the truth is that the stars that I have used to symbolize this triangle - Arcturus, Spica and Regulus - are not themselves arranged in a perfect right-angled triangle". According to Ovason, "the deviation from the right angle made by the siting of the monument is consistent with that found in the stellar triangle round Virgo", and "When the triangle is measured against the Earth triangle, the correspondence between the two is almost exact". (p 262-3) OK, let's review. The team of L'Enfant, the designer, Ellicott, the surveyor, and Banneker, the astronomer, in their combined genius, came up with a plan of the city, who's grand mystery was that it reflected the layout of stars around the Virgo constellation, in order to higlight that in the sky on one evening in August, by the alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue. The original plan featured a right triangle, in spite of the fact that the stars that they were supposedly mapping do not form one in the sky. But at a later date, when the actual place for the Washington Monument was selected, it was correctly placed so that "the correspondence between the two is almost exact"; as if L'Enfant, Ellicott and Banneker had been mistaken originally. The Facts Here is an image that depict the stars of which he speaks, with the angles between them noted. This is a screen capture from astronomical software. You will please note that what was presented initially as an almost right angle actually measures 75 degrees, that's a difference of 15 degrees. The next image compares the actual star distribution with the illustration taken from Ovason's book; and as you can see the numbers of the angles do not match. He has mis-represented the distance between Regulus and Arcturus in order to increase the size of the angle located at Spica to nearly 90 degrees. This, of course, reduces the apparent size of the other two angles. Looking at the following image of central DC, we can see the L'Enfant triangle in blue. You will please note that the acute angle at the Capitol is 19.5 degrees, and nowhere near the 30 degrees of Ovason's illustration; and about half of the magnitude of the real triangle in the sky. The displacement of the Wash. Mmt. makes that angle 20 degrees. As to the asssertion that "the siting of the monument is consistent with that found in the stellar triangle round Virgo", I would like to point out that the change in position resulted in a larger angle at the monument (about 97 degrees), not a smaller one. Ovason's comment makes no sense, and the correspondence is anything but exact, as you can easily see. Intellectually Dishonest Reviewing the facts, we find that Ovason's depiction of the stellar triangle features angles measuring 85, 65 and 30 degrees, while astronomical software shows us that the angles are closer to 75, 69 and 36 degrees, with the angles in the DC map measuring 97, 20 and 63 degrees. As you can see, none of Ovasons angles in his illustration (I have added the numberical values) agree with what goes on in the sky; that is he has fudged his drawing. But he has done a lot more than that. A Direct Projection of Stars to Earth Leaving aside the fact that the angle at the Capitol, formed by rays to the White House and the Wash. Mmt. is 20 degrees, rather than the 36 degrees angle that we see at Regulus in the sky, and the fact that the angle at the monument is close to 97 degrees rather than the 75 degrees that we see in the sky, let us turn to the general orientation of the two triangles. Imagine that it is March, and the Virgo constellation can be see on the meridian during the night time. If we stand south of the L'Enfant triangle with a map in our hands, we see that the layout on the ground ahead of us corresponds to the map; now if we turn around and look at the sky, we see that the stellar triangle is oriented the same as on the map in our hands; that is a mirror image of that on the ground behind us. In other words, a direct projection of stars to earth does not produce the pattern of buildings encountered on the ground in Washington, D.C. The Orion Mystery This, of course, reminds us of the book "The Orion Mystery" in which Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert identified the three main pyramids at Giza as a symbolic representation of the three stars in the Belt of Orion. The problem with that, as pointed out by Ed Krupp, is that "When you project the stars from the sky directly to the earth, the 'Belt' of pyramids is angled the wrong way". Continue

The Virgo Constellation and Washington DC

Ovason makes an attempt to connect the city of DC with the Virgo constellation may times. His contention, concerning the August 10th sunset, is that following the setting of the sun that evening, the constellation Virgo is just above the western horizon, highlighting it.
On page 347 of "The Secret Architecture", we read, "This, then, is the Mystery of Washington, D.C. - that it was designed with it's main avenue to point to a sunset that would reveal in the skies the constellation Virgo". Actually the whole of the book is an attempt to prove that "the city was intended to celebrate the mystery of Virgo", what ever that might mean.
If by that he means that the entire design of the city centered around pointing to the Virgo constellation in the West in August, I don't buy it. I especially don't buy the one sunset notion, since the sun sets in the same place in May as well. It is hard for me to believe, after looking at the view to the west from the Capitol Building that features Pennsylvania and Maryland Avenues marking four stations of the sun (solar arc), that the planners intended to feature just one of those stations.

Individuals Interested in Astrology
Ovason tells us, in his book "The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital", that his main thesis is that: Washington, D.C. was designed by individuals interested in astrology and astronomy. (page 354)
He suggests that, "The angels ... in medieval diagrams ... are the spiritual powers who control the movements of the planets, and ensure that the creative enterprise of the cosmos is kept alive, and in good working order" (page 357) and that "the begnign power of (these) celestial beings may be invited to participate in the spiritual life of a city by means of astrolgy". (page 374).
Ovason's foregone conclusion is that "who ever arranged things" in DC, was "inviting some archetype, or spiritual being, to direct the destiny of the city" (page 361), just like a priest blessing fishing fleets.
On page 375 we read, "The majority of esotricists who were involved in the construction of Washington, D.C., must have asked themselves frequently how it would be possible to invite the power or virtue of Hamaliel - of the intelligency of Virgo - into the life of the city".
One way that they did this, he asserts, is to guarantee that "images of Virgo should predominate in the public zodiacs" in DC, and that Virgo was "consistently operative during foundation and cornerstone ceremonies". (P 361) That is by use of electional astrology. foot note
The Big Mystery of the layout of the Capital, however, relates to the alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue, and the triangular hub of the city, which, according to Ovason, reflects "in it's form and symbolism", the nature of the Virgo constellation.

The Alignment Arguement
His arguement in relationship to Pennsylvania Ave. is that if we look toward the White House from the Capitol on or about August 10, we will see the sun setting over the end of the avenue and the WH. He asserts that Penn. Ave. was designed with a crook in it, specifically to take advantage of this one sunset alignment; we will call this the alignment arguement.
The reason for the alignment, according to Ovason, is that following this sunset, we can see the Virgo constellation in the evening sky over west DC. The problem with this arguement, as I have already pointed out, is that the sun also sets there in early May every year. If the avenue was aligned to just one sunet, what are we to make of the fact of the May sunset there?
As a matter of fact, if you look to the west from the Capitol, you can see that Penn Ave aligns with the May and August sunsets, while Maryland Ave aligns with the February and November sunsets; yet the May alignment of Penn Ave and the Maryland Ave alignments are never mentioned in the book. [You may note that February, May, August and November are the times of the Celtic Cross-Quarter days, or the witches sabbats.]

The Analogy Arguement
The arguement about the triangle and the Virgo is a bit more complicated. It is the analogy arguement used earlier, by others, to tie the stars in Orion's belt to the placement of the three pyramids at Giza, about which we will say more later.

Federal Triangle
The short version of this arguement is that the L'Enfant Triangle, formed by the Capitol Building, the White House, and the original proposed position for the Washington Monument (due south of the WH and due west of the CB), as well as the Federal Triangle (contained with in the L'E. Triangle) are analagous to the triangle formed in the sky by Spica (in Virgo), Regulus (in Leo) and Arcturus (in Bootes).
On page 262 he plainly states, "My assumption is that the earthly triangle... was intended as a reflection of the stars around the constellation Virgo". There is no need to prove anything, as he has already assumed this; what remains is to make the facts appear to fit that assumption.
Supposedly, this mapping of the skies onto the ground "was designed to unite the celestial realm of the stars with the Earth". This, of course, recalls the old hermetic notion of "As above, so below"; the idea being that the upper, ideal or spiritual realm is reflected in the lower, material realm. [Note that this comparison fails initially because 1) spatial metaphors do not apply to the spiritual realm- the spiritual is not above the material in a spatial sense, and 2) the celestial sphere is not the spiritual realm, but only another physical realm.]

Almost the Same As
It would seem that any attempt to replicate a stellar configuration within a map layout, in order to tie the earth to the heavens, would at least make the earthly equivalent look like the celestial one; but this does not seem to be the case here, inspite of what it says in Ovason's book, where we read:
"The L'Enfant triangle, with it's three primal buildings at it's corners, is almost the same as a right-angled triangle which may be traced in the skies, around the constellation Virgo." (p 255)
In that statement we have three assertions: 1) that the earthly triangle is almost the same as the celestial one, 2) that these are right triangles, and 3) that the stellar triangle is traced around the Virgo constellation. On the same page we see, "a less obvious triangle, set in the stars around the constellation Virgo". Then later, "This same triangulation is reflected in the stars gathered within and around the constellation Virgo", "the triad of stars surrounding the constellation Virgo", "Virgo is encased in a stellar triangle", and "a stellar triangle enclosing Virgo".
All of this makes it sound as if the Virgo constellation lies completely within a right triangle outlined by the three stars Spica, Regulus and Arcturus; and that idea is encouraged by the illustation on page 256 of the book. As you can see, the triangle being depicted is a 90 degree right triangle, and the Virgo constellation appears to lie within that triangle.

Now compare that image with the one from page 347, which clearly shows the Virgo constellation cut in half by the triangle; meaning that the location of the Virgo can be located by means of the figure, and not that it encases it, as stated in the book. But this is just the beginning of Ovason's deceptions.

More or Less
First he proclaims that, "The fundamental triangle visualized by L'Enfant ... may still be traced between the three most important architectural structures on his plan - the Capitol, the White House and the Washington Monument... In the early map of the city, these three points formed a right-angled triangle ... The three structures... have been erected in more or less the same position which he suggested in 1791." (p 253)
This implies that lines connecting the three structures still produce a right triangle, more or less; meaning that their positions remain analagous to the positions of the three stars above.
Then he asserts that, "The stars of the Virgoan Triangle correspond with the L'Enfant triad", with Arcturus falling on the White House, Regulus on the Capitol and Spica on the Washington Monument. (p 257)
This statement implies a one-to-one correlation, a literal mapping of one to the other.
But then on page 261 he reveals that the three earthly elements "are not united by a perfect triangle at all", because the monument was displaced 371.6 feet east and 123.17 feet south of it's original planned position; a lot more than less it seems.
After having said that the three had been placed in more or less their original places, he now wants to describe "just how far removed the monument is from the site originally envisaged" (p 262) "These (distance) figures may not seem to be eccessive, but there is one way to see just how massive they are in terms of orientation." He goes on to describe how far out of line the Monument is from the north-south line running through the White House, so that "the original right-angled triangle designed by L'Enfant is no longer a perfect right angle". Hmm.

Almost Exact
Having first stated that the L'Enfant triangle was a right triangle, and that it was almost the same as the Virgo Triangle which he also characterized as right-angled, then telling us that the earthly triangle no longer features a right angle, he next reveals that, "the truth is that the stars that I have used to symbolize this triangle - Arcturus, Spica and Regulus - are not themselves arranged in a perfect right-angled triangle".
According to Ovason, "the deviation from the right angle made by the siting of the monument is consistent with that found in the stellar triangle round Virgo", and "When the triangle is measured against the Earth triangle, the correspondence between the two is almost exact". (p 262-3)
OK, let's review. The team of L'Enfant, the designer, Ellicott, the surveyor, and Banneker, the astronomer, in their combined genius, came up with a plan of the city, who's grand mystery was that it reflected the layout of stars around the Virgo constellation, in order to higlight that in the sky on one evening in August, by the alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue. The original plan featured a right triangle, in spite of the fact that the stars that they were supposedly mapping do not form one in the sky.
But at a later date, when the actual place for the Washington Monument was selected, it was correctly placed so that "the correspondence between the two is almost exact"; as if L'Enfant, Ellicott and Banneker had been mistaken originally.

The Facts
Here is an image that depict the stars of which he speaks, with the angles between them noted. This is a screen capture from astronomical software. You will please note that what was presented initially as an almost right angle actually measures 75 degrees, that's a difference of 15 degrees.

The next image compares the actual star distribution with the illustration taken from Ovason's book; and as you can see the numbers of the angles do not match. He has mis-represented the distance between Regulus and Arcturus in order to increase the size of the angle located at Spica to nearly 90 degrees. This, of course, reduces the apparent size of the other two angles.

Looking at the following image of central DC, we can see the L'Enfant triangle in blue. You will please note that the acute angle at the Capitol is 19.5 degrees, and nowhere near the 30 degrees of Ovason's illustration; and about half of the magnitude of the real triangle in the sky. The displacement of the Wash. Mmt. makes that angle 20 degrees.

As to the asssertion that "the siting of the monument is consistent with that found in the stellar triangle round Virgo", I would like to point out that the change in position resulted in a larger angle at the monument (about 97 degrees), not a smaller one. Ovason's comment makes no sense, and the correspondence is anything but exact, as you can easily see.

Intellectually Dishonest
Reviewing the facts, we find that Ovason's depiction of the stellar triangle features angles measuring 85, 65 and 30 degrees, while astronomical software shows us that the angles are closer to 75, 69 and 36 degrees, with the angles in the DC map measuring 97, 20 and 63 degrees.
As you can see, none of Ovasons angles in his illustration (I have added the numberical values) agree with what goes on in the sky; that is he has fudged his drawing. But he has done a lot more than that.

A Direct Projection of Stars to Earth
Leaving aside the fact that the angle at the Capitol, formed by rays to the White House and the Wash. Mmt. is 20 degrees, rather than the 36 degrees angle that we see at Regulus in the sky, and the fact that the angle at the monument is close to 97 degrees rather than the 75 degrees that we see in the sky, let us turn to the general orientation of the two triangles.
Imagine that it is March, and the Virgo constellation can be see on the meridian during the night time. If we stand south of the L'Enfant triangle with a map in our hands, we see that the layout on the ground ahead of us corresponds to the map; now if we turn around and look at the sky, we see that the stellar triangle is oriented the same as on the map in our hands; that is a mirror image of that on the ground behind us. In other words, a direct projection of stars to earth does not produce the pattern of buildings encountered on the ground in Washington, D.C.

The Orion Mystery
This, of course, reminds us of the book "The Orion Mystery" in which Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert identified the three main pyramids at Giza as a symbolic representation of the three stars in the Belt of Orion. The problem with that, as pointed out by Ed Krupp, is that "When you project the stars from the sky directly to the earth, the 'Belt' of pyramids is angled the wrong way".

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