The Temple and The Lodge

by Michael Baigent & Richard Leigh

The origins of Freemasonry are explored in this book by the authors of the bestseller, Holy Blood, Holy Grail. The history of Freemasonry is charted from its mysterious beginnings in the fourteenth century through the currents of thought and political upheavals surrounding the organization in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thirty-six black-and-white photographs are included in the book.

From the Back Cover
Dispelling myth and reevaluating European and American history, The Temple and the Lodge is the most illuminating investigation yet published into the evolution of Freemasonry. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh recount the events that led to the strange and sudden disappearance of the Knights Templar in the fourteenth century and their reappearance in the court of excommunicate Scottish king Robert the Bruce. Theorizing, and documenting, the survival of Templar traditions through the birth of the Masonic lodge, the authors chart the history of Freemasonry through its medieval roots and into the modern era. They demonstrate the order's contribution to the fostering of tolerance, progressive values, and cohesion in English society, which helped to preempt a French-style revolution in England. In addition, they show how Freemasonry contributed to the formation of the United States as an embodiment of the ideal "Masonic Republic."

From Publisher's Weekly
George Washington, Ben Franklin and Edmund Randolph-all framers of the Constitution-were active Freemasons, as was John Marshall, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In this riveting and careful study, Baigent and Leigh (co-authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail) suggest that Freemasonic lodges served America's Founding Fathers as a working model for our federal system. Freemasonry's doctrine of universal brotherhood and tolerance, they assert, had a liberalizing influence in England and France, in particular on Voltaire, Hume, Rousseau, Montesquieu as well as their disciples in what was to become the United States. Early, largely conjectural chapters link Freemasonry to remnants of the Knights Templar, a medieval society of European warrior-monks, some of whose members appear to have found refuge in Scotland. This jigsaw's pieces include Grail romances; the Scots Guard, personal bodyguard to the French king; Scottish freedom-fighter Robert Bruce; Rosicrucians; and the British Royal Society.

Excerpt:
Page 218
Thus Freemasonry pervaded both the British Army and the rebellious colonies. It must be stressed at this point, however, that the evidence which follows does not attest to any kind of coherent, organized 'Freemasonic conspiracy'. Most historians of the American War for Independence have tended, so far as Freemasonry is concerned, to fall into one of two camps. Certain fringe writers, for example, have sought to portray the war exclusively as a 'Freemasonic event' - a movement engineered, orchestrated and conducted by cabals of Freemasons in accordance with some carefully calculated grand design. Such writers will often cite lengthy lists of Freemasons - which proves little more than that they have lengthy lists of Freemasons - which proves little more than that they have lengthy lists of Freemasons to cite, and there is certainly no shortage of such lists. On the other hand, most conventional historians circumvent the Freemasonic aspect of the conflict entirely. Philosophers such as Hume, Locke, Adam Smith and the French philosophers are regularly enough invoked; but the Freemasonic milieu which paved the way for such thinkers, which acted as a kind of amniotic fluid for their ideas and which imparted to those ideas their popular currency, is neglected.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail
by Michael Baigent - Henry Lincoln - Richard Leigh

Is the traditional, accepted view of the life of Christ in some way incomplete?
 

According to the authors of this extraordinary provocative, meticulously researched book, not only are these things possible - they are probably true! So revolutionary, so original, so convincing, that most faithful Christians will be moved; here is the book that has sparked worldwide controversy and promises to be the most talked about book of the decade.

The author demonstrates the link between mysticism, occultism and the Freemasons and shows how they are cooperating, and have been for years, to produce the New World Order and its man, Antichrist.

Excerpt:
Pages 409-410
"There are at least a dozen families in Britain and Europe today-with numerous collateral branches who are of Merovingian lineage. These include the houses of Hapsburg-Lorraine (present titular dukes of Lorraine and kings of Jerusalem), Plantard, Luxembourg, Montpezat, Montesquiou, and various others. According to the 'Prieure documents,' the Sinclair family in Britain is also allied to the bloodline as are various branches of the Stuarts. And the Devonshire family, among others, would seem to have been privy to the secret. All of these houses could presumably claim a pedigree from Jesus; and if one man, at some point in the future, is to be put forward as a new priest-king, we do not know who he is."
 

The Tomb of God:
The Body of Jesus and the
Solution to a 2,000-Year-Old Mystery

by Richard. Andrews & Paul Schellenberger (Contributor)

Synopsis:

It began as an attempt to solve an intriguing historical puzzle. But years of painstaking research revealed something more: the exact geographical location of Christ's tomb, in southern France. In The Tomb of God, Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger take you along step-by-step as they track down the most closely guarded secret of the last two millennia. Their starting point is Rennes-le-Chateau, a small village in France's Languedoc region that is at the center of legends about a fabulous treasure - the Ark of the Covenant, according to some; the Holy Grail, according to others. Late last century, a village priest discovered encrypted parchments secreted in the altar of the local church. What these parchments mean - and how they relate to the fabled treasure - has long been the subject of scholarly debate. But now Andrews and Schellenberger provide the answers - and in the process uncover Christianity's secret history.

Dissatisfied with the explanations of previous researchers, Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger applied mathematical logic to the enduring mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and the 'treasure' alleged to be buried there. They were sceptical. They assumed the enigma would wither under such scrutiny. It did not.

The quest began with an investigation into the activities of a group of nineteenth-century priests who had become embroiled in the legend. These priests had grown rich because of their involvement, and had resolutely maintained the anonymity of their paymasters, but in 1993 an extraordinary clue came to light which suggested the priests were engaged in activities markedly at odds with traditional Roman Catholic pastimes. Tentatively the trail was pursued. As the search progressed, a series of paintings was unearthed which incorporated a cryptic, obscure geometry; a set of interrelating shapes with a very direct link to the priests' habitat and spiritual role. Through the centuries an astonishing pattern emerged - a web of concealment on maps, in fine art, on tombstones - which defied coincidence and pointed to one very specific location.

Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger have combined their knowledge of archaeology, theology, geometry and surveying with plain common sense to produce a revolutionary account of the truth behind the most controversial of burials. Tackling one of the most hotly-debated questions in Christianity today, The Tomb of God moves from the shady half-world of dubious documents to the incontrovertible evidence of a celebrated painting by Poussin which, until now, millions have puzzled over but none has adequately explained. The authors also applied linguistic reasoning to the enigmatic phrase 'Et in Arcadia ego', and found not an allusion to a pastoral idyll, as commonly thought, but a revelation of mind-blowing import.

At the end of their long search, and having piled evidence on evidence, Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger ultimately picked up traces of long suppressed knowledge, a strand of Christianity which had not only known the nature of the cache, but had made it a central pillar of its teaching. And as they investigated further they found that this 'alternative' religion, based on individual responsibility rather than blind faith, possessed enormous potential for the late twentieth century.

The Tomb of God investigates the real religious stance of the guardians of the Secret, and asks why people went to such lengths to keep the truth so far underground. As the nature of the treasure becomes apparent, the question answers itself: the knowledge is dangerous, alarming, the greatest of heresies.
 

Spear of Destiny
by Trevor Ravenscroft

The Occult Power Behind the Spear which pierced the side of Christ...

... and how Hitler inverted the Force in a bid to conquer the World

For 2,000 years, since it pierced the side of Christ, the Spear of Destiny has been invested with amazing occult powers.

This book records the legend and its continuing fulfillment in the decline of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, and the 20th century. It tells the story of the chain of men who possessed the Spear, from Herod the Great to Adolf Hitler, and how they sought to change the face of history by wielding its occult powers for good or evil.

The Spear of Destiny is identified as the Spear of the Holy Grail mentioned in the sagas of the Dark Ages and shows the Grail to be a uniquely Western path to mind expansion -- as applicable today as it was at the courts of King Arthur and Charlemagne. The final chapters of this book describe a Manichean battle of worlds behind the changing scene of the 20th century. And for the first time the Satanic occult development and faculties of Adolf Hitler are described in authentic and documented detail, showing how he furthered his aims and his conquest of the world by black magic practices.

Trevor Ravenscroft was born in England in 1921. He was educated at Repton and Sandhurst Military College before serving as a Commando officer in World War II. He was captured on a raid which attempted to assassinate Field Marshal Rommel in North Africa and was a POW in Germany from 1941 to 1945, escaping three times but each time being recaptured. After the war he studied at St. Thomas`s Hospital, and later became a journalist. He studied history under Dr. Waker Johannes Stein for twelve years, carrying out extensive research for this book. Before his death in 1989, he also lectured on history in London and Edinburgh.

Author's Stated Purpose of Book:
Trevor Ravenscroft is a White Magic practitioner of the occult magic arts. As such, he explains what the Spear of Destiny means to the occultist, both White Magic and Black Magick practitioners. Then, he explains why the Spear of Destiny meant so very much to Hitler, an expose'. This book, written by a White Magic occultist in order to expose his hated enemy, Adolf Hitler, an Adept in the Black Magick arts, reveals much about the beliefs of members of the occult, and shows how these beliefs determine behavior. We learn much of the occultism of Hitler, as only another occultist could see.

Excerpts:

Page 8-9:
"I knew with immediacy that this was an important moment in my life," said Adolph Hitler when he later recounted his first sight of the spear. "And yet I could not divine why an outwardly Christian symbol should make such an impression on me. I stood there quietly gazing upon it for several minutes quite oblivious to the scene of the Schatzkammer around me. It seemed to carry some hidden inner meaning which evaded me, a meaning which I felt inwardly knew yet could not bring to consciousness. The words of Richard Wagner's 'Meistersinger' ran through my mind:

 

And still I don't succeed.
I feel it and yet I cannot understand it.
I can't retain it, nor forget it,
And if I grasp it, I cannot measure it.

"It was a verse I had formerly believed to be an expression of the want of others to understand me and the meaning of my destiny, a daily exhortation and a never failing comfort in my darkest and most solitary hours."
And now this pale and sickly-looking youth, who had so quickly forgotten his earlier mood of hopelessness and despair, felt these mystic lines summed up his own incapacity to understand the illusive message that this ancient talisman of power brought to him and yet at the same time withheld from him.

"The Spear appeared to be some sort of magical medium of revelation for it brought the world of ideas into such close and living perspective that human imagination became more real than the world of sense.

"I felt as though I myself had held it in my hands before in some earlier century of history - that I myself had once claimed it as my talisman of power and held the destiny of the world in my hands. What sort of madness was this that was invading my mind and creating such turmoil in my breast?"

Pg. 91
 

"Follow Hitler; he will dance, but it is I who have called the tune!

I have initiated him into the Secret Doctrine, opened his centers in vision, and
given him the means to communicate with the powers.

Do Not mourn for me: I shall have influenced history more than any other German."

Thus spake Dietrich Eckart as he lay dying from the effects of mustard gas in Munich in December 1923. One of the seven founder members of the Nazi Party, this imposing Bavarian was outwardly known as a poet, a gifted writer and historian, a bon viveur and a lover of witty talk. Yet those who saw him apparently immersed in the gay social round of the Munich Bierkellers never guessed that behind the jovial facade of this veteran Army Officer was hidden a dedicated satanist, the supreme adept of the arts and rituals of Black Magic and the central figure in a powerful and widespread circle of occultists - the Thule Group.

The Templar Revelation
by Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince

THE MOST CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET OF THE WESTERN WORLD IS ABOUT TO BE REVEALED -- AND YOU WILL NEVER SEE CHRISTIANITY IN THE SAME LIGHT AGAIN.

In a remarkable achievement of historical detective work that is destined to become a classic, authors Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince delve into the mysterious world of the Freemasons, the Cathars, the Knights Templar, and the occult to discover the truth behind an underground religion with roots in the first century that survives even today.

Chronicling their fascinating quest for truth through time and space, the authors reveal an astonishing new view of the real motives and character of the founder of Christianity, as well as the actual historical -- and revelatory -- roles of John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. Painstakingly researched and thoroughly documented, The Templar Revelation presents a secret history, preserved through the centuries but encoded in works of art and even in the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe, whose final chapter could shatter the foundation of the Christian Church.

LYNN PICKNETT and CLIVE PRINCE are writers, researchers, and lecturers on the paranormal, the occult, and historical and religious mysteries. They are the authors of Turin Shroud: In Whose Image? Picknett and Prince live in London, England.

Excerpt:
Page 144:
The Levitikon, which had been translated from Latin into Greek, consists of two parts. The first contains the religious doctrines that are to be given to the initiate, including rituals concerning the nine grades of the Templar Order. It describes the Templars' 'Church of John' and explains the fact that they called themselves "Johannites' or 'original Christians'.

The second part is like the standard John's Gospel except for some significant omissions. Chapters 20 and 21 are missing, the last two of the Gospel. It also eliminates all hint of the miraculous from the stories of the turning of the water into wine, the loaves and fishes, and the raising of Lazarus. and certain references to St. Peter are edited out, including the story of Jesus saying 'Upon this rock I will build my church'.

But if this is puzzling, the Levitikon also contains surprising, even shocking material: Jesus is presented as having been an initiate of the mysteries of Osiris, the major Egyptian god of his day.

Page 249:
Many commentators have pointed out that the complete silence on the part of the New Testament about Jesus' marital status is very odd. Chroniclers of his time and place routinely described people in terms of what made them different from others - and for a man of over thirty not to have been married would have been virtually unique. It must be remembered that we rely on the picture of Jesus that was painted by the Gospel writers and their sources; their perspective was essentially Jewish. The Jews regarded celibacy as improper, for it suggested an unwillingness to father the next generation of the Lord's chosen people and was a matter for rebuke from the elders of the synagogue. Some second-century rabbis, according to Geza Vermes, 'compare deliberate abstention from procreation to murder.'