175 years ago today - 1845 23 Jan.

Young and Taylor supervise the construction of a woodcut for the "seal of the Twelve." It has a phrygian crown over an all-seeing eye, surrounded by nine stars, not twelve as one would expect in a symbol of the apostles. Rather than an original design, the "seal of the Twelve" is based on an illustration from Jacob Boehme's Theosophical Works, favored by Rosicrucians and Christian Kabbalists for two hundred years. The only part of this seal that would be familiar to Mormons of every background is the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord," which was also on the main magic-parchment ("Lamen") in Hyrum Smith's home at his death.

[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]

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