The Freemasons aren't the only ones to use the pinecone.

There is a giant pinecone on the lawn at the vatican, and you will frequently see pics of the pope's staff with a pinecone on the tip of it.

There are said to be some pinecones in northeastern america that can only open by fire. This being also symbolic of the pineal gland which is represented by the pinecone which is said to open through the fire up the spine.

There is also an ancient carving depicting Ahura Mazda as holding a pine cone, pointing it away from himself.

Humans have a pineal gland just above our brain stem, that is in a sense a third eye. It senses light without vision by receiving signals originating in the retinas of our eyes.

The pineal gland secretes a hormone called melatonin. Like the process that controls flowering in plants, the pineal is stimulated to produce melatonin by darkness rather than light. In the 1990's melatonin enjoyed brief popularity as a miracle drug that would help you sleep and aid against jet lag. There is however little evidence that it's effect is anything more than the placebo effect.

The pineal gland not only recognizes seasonal variations in light and darkness, but also the daily variations which are important for producing the rhythms in the body's chemistry called circadian rhythms.

The several biological clocks inside our brains are constantly counting time, probably regulated by the pineal's ability to sense the coming and going of light and darkness. What counts for the pineal gland is sunlight. Most artificial lighting is too low in intensity to have much impact on it.

The pineal gland is one of several alarm clocks within the brain that tells the pituitary gland, one of the body's master glands, when to wake up and catalyze the development of our secondary sexual characteristics.

So next time, remember your third eye, which enables the brain to see more than meets the eye!
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