On July 6, 2022, a right-wing Christian extremist set off an explosive device near the town of Elberton, Georgia, partially destroying the Georgia Guidestones. The remaining structure was later removed, as it had sustained enough structural damage to make it unsafe for investigators to work around. Only debris now occupies the place held since 1980 by “America’s Stonehenge”.
The Georgia Guidestones were a massive granite monument built to weather the collapse of civilization and the ravages of time, designed as a key to rebuilding after the apocalypse.
Like Stonehenge, the Guidestones were planned to incorporate the most important pieces of knowledge learned by humanity at the time. They were commissioned by a group of anonymous philanthropists with no motive other than to benefit human beings removed from themselves in time, and perhaps by a gulf of knowledge.
It has often been remarked that no good deed goes unpunished. So it is with the Georgia Guidestones: since their construction, ignorant and bigoted persons have spread malicious rumors attributing this humanitarian gift to the works of the devil. In the end, as we have just witnessed, these rumors had enough influence on weak-minded followers to inspire vandalism and destruction in physical reality. Most of the satanic-scare disinformation came from right-wing populist figures, including tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, terrorist sympathizer and fascist vulgarian Marjorie Taylor Greene, and loony religious extremist Kandiss Taylor.
Even after the fact, there is a lot of satanic-scare nonsense circulating about the Guidestones, using words like “occult”. Every effective lie contains a kernel of truth, and this is no exception. The Guidestones are indeed signed “R.C. Christian”, a pseudonym for the monument’s creator or creators and a plain reference to Christian Rosenkreutz, a symbolic character in Rosicrucian tradition. Rosicrucians are a Christian hermetic, or occult, order dedicated to healing the ills that beset humanity, which is perfectly in line with the stones’ message.
Many Americans think “occult” means devil-worship or some other ridiculous Hollywood trope. The word’s true meaning is simply “hidden”, in reference to the common psychological truths and therapeutic methods hidden behind the cultural symbols in all religions. Actual occultists seek and work to shed light on these truths. It is accurate to say that an occultist is one who understands that religious imagery depicts some aspect of human psychology, in a highly accessible form that can be memorized by a child as a story or an iconic image. It is not necessary to understand the meaning at the moment of absorption; rather, the imagery can be retained until the person’s mind has acquired the tools and general knowledge needed to decipher the symbol and apply the knowledge.
In the case of the Georgia Guidestones, there was nothing hidden in the stones’ dimensions, arrangement or inscriptions. The instructions for using the stones as an astronomical instrument are given as explicitly as the precepts for establishing a successful civilization.
The Guidestones consisted of a monumental main structure and an explanatory tablet set into the ground off to one side. The main structure was composed of a central standing stone, four inscribed monoliths radiating from the center, and a capstone connecting the five. The explanatory tablet held instructions for using the apertures in the central stone, as well as the spacing of the monoliths, to mark astronomical events as a basis for timekeeping. The four surrounding stones bore the inscriptions, two languages to each stone.
The inscriptions read as follows, and were inscribed in eight languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili):
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the Earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.
It is a tragic reflection on the state of ignorance and small-mindedness in the United States of America – the first nation-state founded on the secular humanist principles of the Enlightenment – that such a noble-minded gift as the Guidestones should be slandered, vandalized, and destroyed by the people they were intended to enlighten. As usual for reactionaries, the vandals have failed to understand that by destroying a physical object, they have only brought more attention to the ideas they hate – in effect, making the Guidestones more real than ever before and inflicting a humiliating self-defeat.
Socrates is supposed to have said “There is no good but knowledge; no evil but ignorance.” I hope the Guidestones are rebuilt, preferably out of reach of ignorant religious bigots. In fact, I hope that Rosicrucians in every state build a full-scale replica. I hope they sell scaled-down copies as garden statuary and shelf art. The Georgia Guidestones will be a part of popular culture regardless.