Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Knights Templar in the New World - How Henry Sinclair Brought the Grail to Arcadia by William F Mann, published by Destiny Books.
Did Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and a Scottish Prince, in 1398 sail to the New World of Nova Scotia and was this recorded by Micmac legends about Glooskap? Did the same Prince offer refuge to the Templar Knights after their persecution by Philip the Fair of France at the beginning of the fourteenth century? What do the archaeological sites reveal? Was there a refuge for the Templar Knights and their followers and did they have in their possession the sacred Grail cup or bloodline connecting Jesus and Mary Magdalene to the Merovingian dynasty? What are the indigenous legends? Was sacred geometry handed down to the Freemasons? These questions are answered, using original research by the author, Wm F Mann. Bill is an esteemed Officer of Canadian Order of Knights Templar with many accolades and credentials to his name.
Mind Body Soul Ezine Book Review: Nostradamus and The Lost Templar Legacy by Professor Rudy Cambier
Rudy Cambier is a linguist of ancient languages including Picard, and researched the verses of the Nostradamus opus for a decade. He noticed they were relevant on three levels. One conclusion was that these are not words from the time of Nostradamus, nor are they from the region of Provence. His studies show that the stanzas - reputed to be from the pen of the French visionary - were written by a Cistercian monk, in the era of between 1323 and 1328, and from the borders of the area of Belgium - and Rudy Cambier reveals the site of Knights Templar treasure.
The author translated the Nostradamus 'prophecies' and discovered that a Prior by the name of Yves de Lessines had waited many years for someone - known as the l'attendu' - to collect the treasures of the Knights Templar but he failed to arrive. In order to record where the treasures were kept, the Prior wrote this cryptic lay which was stolen by Michel de Nostradame. The author is said to have traced the instructions and found a hoard of Knights Templar treasures!
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Templars History & Myth - From Solomon's and Herod's Temples to the Freemasons, a Guide to Templar History, Culture and Locations by Michael Haag, published by Profile Books, 384 pages with black and white diagrams and photographs. "The Templars have something to do with everything!" A factual and readable account of the building of Solomon's Temple to the instigation of the Knights Templar, including the many crusades, their castles, banking empire, successes and failures, alleged conspiracies, trials and exiles, to the capture, imprisonment, torture of members, and to the eventual burning at the stake of their Last Grand Master. Details of the Chinon Parchment - which proved their innocence - and their escape to various countries, under various guises and denominations.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Goddess, The Grail & The
Lodge – The Real Da Vinci Code and the Origins of Religion by Alan Butler, paperback 360 pages £12.99 published by O Books
With a foreword by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince,
this book has excellent credentials. I loved Alan Butler’s last book ‘Rosslyn Revealed’. ‘The Goddess, The Grail and The Lodge’ does not disappoint!
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: Temple
Antiquities – The Templar Papers II By
Oddvar Olsen Published
by O Books Paperback
260 pages
This
is book II and follows ‘Templar Papers: Ancient Mysteries, Secret Societies and the Holy
Grail’ and is compiled by Oddvar Olsen as a collection of essays by a
number of writers, some very well-known in their field and with a love of
research into the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon
(known as the Knights Templar). This was a Mediaeval Western Christian military
and religious order (1129-1312) that guarded pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. They were the most important figures of the Crusades and began a banking system so that pilgrims
could deposit money in one place and collect it in another. Philip IV of France
borrowed large sums of money from them and the Pope of the day declared the Order was heretical and many were tortured and put to death, and it is said some escaped.
Mind Body Soul Ezine Book Review: The History of the Knights Templar: The Temple Church and The Templars by Charles G Addison, 332 pages, reprinted and published. Hardback, paperback and Kindle.
Written by a member of London’s Inner Temple (ie and licensed to practice law), the author, Charles Greenstreet Addison, refers to Latin, French and Early Modern English citations and source material, and describes the origin of the Templars, their popularity, their rivalry with the Knights of Malta, (Hospitallers), their activities in the Holy Land, eye witness accounts of the battles' wins and losses, the 1312 suppression of the Order, their arrest, accusations of heresy and secret rites, their torture and the execution of the the last and highest of the Order. The London Temple Church, their headquarters in the UK, its architecture and history and how the area became the centre of the legal profession, a hostel and school for lawyers. All is detailed, with the culmination of the survival of their legacy. Expertly written and researched.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: Dungeon, Fire and Sword - The Knights Templar in the Crusades by John J Robinson, 494 pages.
The Holy Land was considered to be the centre of the world and the Christian Warrior Monks known as the 'Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon', were created to ensure safe passage for pilgrims, and to defend the area against attack. Sacrificing their ordinary life, these men vowed to maintain poverty, chastity and obedience, and with expectations to be martyred on the battlefield abroad, they devoted their life to their religion and their duties to the Papacy. Land in Jerusalem was donated to them by King Baldwin, and after many successful battles which increased their wealth and prestige, their doom was sealed by failure to maintain a Christian enclave far from Christendom, where Sunni, Shi-ite, Kurds, Arabs and Turks out-manouvered them.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Templar Revelation - Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, published by Corgi Books. Visit: www.picknettprince.com Exciting research and interesting speculations about the Order of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon! Why is St John the Baptist so important? Who was Mary Magdalene and was she Mary of Bethany? What is the connection between St John the Disciple and Mary Magdalene? What is the 'John gesture'? Are there Mysteries encoded within Leonardo's work? Whose image is on the Turin Shroud? What did the Templars discover in the Holy Land? What is special about Friday 13th? Was Mary the 'Ark of the Covenant'? How important was alchemy to the Templars, the cathedral builders, Leonardo and others?
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: Rex Deus - The True Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and The Dynasty of Jesus by Marilyn Hopkins and the late Tim Wallace-Murphy, published by Element Books.
A work of the late Tim Wallace-Murphy, Founder of the European Templar Heritage Research Network, suggesting Jesus Christ lived after the crucifixion to travel with Mary Magdalene to France where his descendants have retained a pure blood line to this day. It describes Jesus as the founder of a wisdom based dynasty originating with 24 Jerusalem kings, and follows how descendants joined forces to found the Knights Templar. What is the symbol on the Rex Deus ring? Links are made with the Cathar, Rosicrucians and Freemasons.
Mind Body Soul Ezine Book Review: The Templar Treasure of Gisor by Jean Markale, Published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. Paperback 304 pages, £15.99 Using source documents, this controversial author, the late Jean Markale, considers that Templar treasures were hidden within the Cathedral at Gisor, possibly within the many underground chambers and passageways that are held to be too dangerous to investigate by modern archaeologists. The author accepts that the original confession of the Templars to heresy (conducted under extreme torture) was true and ignores their following retraction. Jean Markale (1928 - 2008) was the pen name of Jean Bertrand - described by himself as a Celtic and mediaeval scholar at the Sorbonne. Here he suggests that within the Knights Templar Order was a secret band of knights who had access to knowledge and wealth, spiritual and material, that is still to be found. This author has been discredited more than a couple of times!
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review - The Square & The Circle - The Influence of Freemasonry on Wicca and Paganism by Payam Nabarz, published by Avalonia Books. paperback £10.99
Wow! Connections between Freemasonry, Christianity, Mithraism, ritual Wicca, Sufism, Zoroastrianism, paganism, esotericism, and more! We might think that the great minds behind religious movements are inspired by revelations, but they borrow more from the ancient past than we think! If a set of moral codes, rituals and beliefs has survived for millennia, why not add and take from established literature and use what works!
Of interest to all levels, from historians to the general reader. It reads like a written painting, with broad brush strokes, a revelation in every sentence! How imperative it is for those who develop religious, spiritual and social networks, brotherhoods, etc., that they declare where their ideas originate, and what they have absorbed from other dogmas.
Mind Body & Soul Book Review: Rosslyn Chapel Decoded - New Interpretations of a Gothic Enigma By Alan Butler and John Ritchie, paperback, £10.99 US $21.95 Published by Watkins Publishing, 262 pages. This is an outstanding book by two prominent authors in current esoteric investigation who are specialists in the enigmatic Scottish architectural masterpiece known as Rosslyn Chapel. What new is there to say? Evidently lots! Why was the Chapel built? What is so very special about the building? What ancient knowledge was used in its design? Was an ancient religious movement involved? What special information do the authors insist is given to visitors to the Chapel? When all is silent, what can be heard? Is there a scent in the building, and what is that scent?
Mind, Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Hiram Key - Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas
Written in an easily understandable style with a summary every few pages. This book of discovery and expose took six years of research and unravels the story of Jesus and the earliest Jerusalem church. Were there initiations practised by early Christians that were similar to Freemasonry initiations? Could these initiations originated in Egypt? Did the early Christians have connections to other religious groups such as those mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls? There are secrets of Freemasonry initiations and their possible connections to Gnostics and Templars. Parallels between Mithras, Attis, Indra, Adonis, Dionysius and others. And revelations of the origins of the Hiram Abiff story.
The lost story of Jesus is described. Was he from a town called Nazareth, or was he a Nazorean, a word meaning 'fish'? Was he the Messiah? What do the apocryphal Gnostic books state? Who was Jesus Barabbas? Was Jesus a rebel who was an Essene of the Qumran Community and what power had they in the Jerusalem Church? What is special about the white robe? What is the association with the rebuilding of Solomon's Temple, the Essenes, the Knights Templar and Freemasonry?
Mind, Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: Rosslyn Revealed - A Library in
Stone by Alan
Butler and John Ritchie, Hardback at £19.95
Rosslyn
Chapel is a most extraordinary building but so much is known about it already: I wondered what Alan Butler and John Ritche would be able
to add to my knowledge. Alan Butler is a Templar expert and an astrologer, and he joined forces with a
local expert on Rosslyn, John Ritchie to explore the chapel.
Mind, Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Sign And The Seal - A Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant by Graham Hancock.
Graham Hancock is a wonderful story-teller and I love his writing, especially on this fantastic adventure.
He visited Ethiopia in 1983, a few years after the overthrow and assassination of the reigning ancestral monarch, Haile Salasse. The Red Terror had unleashed death squads which executed people and then claimed the cost of the bullets before the corpses were released to their relatives for burial! Haile Salassie claimed he was the 225th generation in an unbroken line of succession from the Queen of Sheba who visited Jerusalem and returned to Ethiopia bearing King Solomon's son, Menelik. Menelik visited his father and is said to have returned to his mother with the Ark of the Covenant which is guarded in the Church of St Mary of Zion in Axum. The original measurement defined in Exodus is 2.5 cubits x 1.5 cubits x 1.5 cubits (a cubit thought to be 18 inches). Many Ethiopians have similar religious practices to the ancient Jews, and celebrate their sabbath on Saturdays. In every church throughout Ethiopia, a replica of the Ark is positioned in the holy of holies. The Ark is said by the guardian to have raised massive stone blocks with the aid of celestial fire.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Murdered Magicians - The Templars and their Myth by Peter Partner, hardback, published by Crucible. This is an interesting study which is balanced, realistic and well researched. Is it possible to explain the Templars as great rogues, heroic yet ordinary men involved in a blame game by the King Philip 'the Fair' of France with the reluctant collusion of Pope Clement V? The Order began with a dream of Saint Bernard and ended with a mythic curse from the tortured and dying Jacques de Molay. This book does not artificially praise the Order, due to accusations of avarice, pride and other sins of their day, yet we are made aware of their honour and of their suffering. Most interesting, the court cases are described in detail along with the privations of their incarceration. 54 were burned to death in 1310 and the two Templar leaders burned to death in 1314. All went to their deaths claiming their innocence. What was their wrongdoing? They had no money and they failed to have further successes in the Holy Land. Were they really stupid to keep the secrets they were accused of?
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: Templar Sanctuaries in North America - Sacred Bloodlines and Secret Treasures by William F Mann, Foreword by Scott F Wolter. Published by Destiny Books, 419 pages Paperback: £14.99 Also available in Kindle format.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Templars - The Dramatic History of the Knights Templar, the Most Powerful Military Order of the Crusades by Piers Paul Read.
The Templars were a multinational force of religious warriors, the first uniformed standing army in the Western world. They owned and managed vast estates and were pioneers in many fields, including fighting, travel, banking and building. Were they guilty of the charges to which they pleaded guilty under torture of blasphemy, heresy and sodomy yet withdrew their guilty plea knowing that death by fire awaited them? What relevance has their story for our modern times?
Each of the Jerusalem temples are detailed, the founding of the Templar Order, their daily lives and responsibilities, each of their battles, including Acre and its fall, and the many colourful characters, Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, Louis of France, etcetera are covered. The author provides a balanced account, and documents some interesting scandals, errors and tragedies. Each success and defeat is described and the many complex circumstances that led to their demise are detailed, including a major internecine dispute about the marriage of a Princess in Tripoli. A tracing attempts of the Templars to protect their treasure takes it from Sidon then to Cyprus, with many lost battles along route. An interesting piece, page 249, about Roger of Flor, son of a falconer of Emperor Frederick II, extortionist, commander of the Falcon galley and the Olivetta, expelled from the Templar Order, he sailed to Marseilles, then Genoa, making vast sums through piracy, leading Catalan mercenaries, in 1302 he commanded 32 galleys and a force of 2,500 men, and was eventually assassinated. He was one of the very few recorded renegade Knights Templar.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Second Messiah - Templars, the Turin Shroud and the Great Secret of Freemasony by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, published by Fair Winds Press, paperback 260 pages $18.95 This book is well researched by the authors of The Hiram Key and ties up many loose threads. From after the death of Jesus, the Jewish members of the royal House of David, a hereditary priesthood, have largely been forgotten, or perhaps intentionally hidden, maybe killed, by the early leaders of the emerging Christian sect. These blood relatives would have been the real Popes in a true succession, unlike the modern claims of apostolic succession from Peter. Was there a bloodline that was protected until the time of the creation of the Knights Templar Order, when 11 selected, related, French knights under Hughes de Payen, searched under the Jerusalem Temple for possibly scrolls, valuables, relics or other finds, hidden for safety and left to them by their ancestors when Jerusalem fell in AD 70?
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: The Coming of the Holy Grail - The Exact Location of Heaven's Treasure and the Promise of Retrieval by Claire Nahmad and Michael Revill, paperback, 341 pages, published by Cygnus.
The text provides an investigation of the creation of the Grail, why it was stolen and why it has been kept secret, and by whom, where it is now, and how it is ready for exposure. From the Mary Magdalene church in the remote village of Rennes-Le-Chateau, Father Berenger Saunier, the priest, discovered the mountain retreat of the Chief Guardian of the Grail and the last of the Morovingian royal dynasty, King Dagobert II. He was kidnapped and held captive in Ireland in his youth due to his holy bloodline, and was eventually murdered by Pepin the Fat. The Grail was buried in the crypt of the church which was once King Dogobert's private chapel. During the Crusades, it was taken to the newly created Lincoln Cathedral, built on an ancient shine to Mary Magdalene in AD60. It was kept in the Lucy Tower - the Tower of Light - where Knights Templar were imprisoned and inscribed their fate on the walls.
Mind Body Soul Card Deck Review: Odin & The Nine Realms Oracle by Sonja Grace. Published by Findhorn Press. Boxed set of 54 cards plus book. Quality magnetic flip top box containing a set of cards and instruction book. Biographical information is provided about the author, who is also the artist of this deck. The images are hand drawn and painted and have a beauty and power within their simplicity. Sonja Grace is a visionary, a 'spirit traveller', and channels many topics from Spirit. Included in the book is information about the Norse gods and goddesses, and the runes. Each card offers a message of life wisdom. There is a short message for several reversed cards. There is a lot to learn about Norse myths, the deities and rune energies. An interesting deck! For those of Viking ancestry and interests who will learn how to pronounce the deity names and runes correctly!
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Card Deck Review: The Tarot of Light and Shadow by John Matthews and Andrea Aste. Boxed set of explanatory book and two sets of tarot cards. Card size: 4.inches by 2.5 inches. Published by Watkins Publishing.
This pack contains a double deck and all the information you need to use them in readings. Using both decks allows the reader to see both sides of a question. This is a unique pack of the two decks, one for positive situations and the other for a more challenging situation. Certainly, you will be enabled to give extraordinary readings from this double deck. No-one else will be able to give readings like this! If you want to be a one-off reader, like no other, this pack will provide it.
Mind Body Soul Card Deck Review: Black Moon Astrology Cards by Susan Sheppard. A boxed set of 52 cards plus guidebook. Published by Blue Angel Publishing. £17.99 The cards are divided into 3 sections, planets, constellations, houses, elements and additional astrology aspects. Each card carries an image, number, title and subtitle. The guidebook provides information on how to use the cards which provide an easy method to get involved with astrology. No previous knowledge is required. Key words and a quotation are provided for each card with both a brief and extensive explanation. The cards correspond to the tarot. Several spreads are suggested: 15 cards, Here, Now, Later; 12 cards, Astrology Wheel; 5 cards, Black Moon; 4 card, Planetary; 4 card, Course of Action, 7 card, Black Moon Romance.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Card Deck Review: The Dion Fortune Tarot Cards by Dion Fortune.
The
Dion Fortune Tarot Cards are based on the conclusions of Dion Fortune
as provided in her book 'The Mystical Qabalah'. The box includes 78
cards, divided into 22 Grand Arcana and 56 Lesser Arcana cards with a
booklet that explains about personal and spiritual development and
exercising the imagination. Card size: 6 inches by 3 inches. The deck has been devised and assembled by the long serving and esteemed member of her Society of the Inner Light, David Williams. The cards are primarily for meditation and reflection. The card backs show the deck should be read upright only and the information in the instruction booklet only gives basic, traditional and upright meanings which are based on her research of the Order of the Golden Dawn of which W B Yeats was a member.There are helpful titles printed on all the cards, and information on how the cards can be used for meditation, especially of the Major Arcana , where meanings and significance, pathworkings and numerology are provided with the Lesser Arcana, wands, swords, pentacles, cups, included. There is information on the Qabalistic tradition, such as supernal triangle, ethical and astral triangles of the Tree of Life. The cards rely on the reader's knowledge and little information is provided.
Mind Body & Soul Card Deck Review: Tarot Gothica by Janne Koivuniemi published by Schiffer Publishing. US $24.99 : UK £16.99
“Light to lighter - darker to darker!”
78 card deck and a guidebook are contained in this black and blue magnetic box. This Tarot is fashion conscious, modern and unusual. It’s the young goths party tarot reading deck - and ideal for Halloween! Unusually, the card backs are obviously showing which way they have been dealt. I would think no reversal readings, only upright.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Book Review: Hallowquest - Tarot Magic and the Arthurian Mysteries by Caitlin and John Matthews 254 page book to accompany the Arthurian Tarot Cards by Caitlin and John Matthews. This book contains black and white scans of each of the tarot cards in this deck, each of the Greater Powers has an extensive explanation, with archetypal and divinatory meanings, and there are comprehensive write-ups on the Lesser. The template for this deck are the Celtic myths and early mediaeval stories of King Arthur and the Round Table. Spear, Grail, Sword and Stone are the 4 Hallow suits and each have traditions, correspondences, archetypes of Kings, Queens, Knights and Maiden of four castles all described in a good level of detail.
Hallowquest Tarot Magic and the Arthurian Mysteries is the title of the companion book that accompanies The Arthurian Tarot Cards by Caitlin and John Matthews with artwork by Miranda Gray. This specialist deck and book style initiatory course in the Mysteries of Britain is based on the mediaeval stories from Britain and France of King Arthur, the Round Table and the search for the Holy Grail. They feature the personalities, places and events that will be well known to students of these extraordinary tales. The authors are specialist tarot creators and this is one of their best! It presents a coherent deck which features the Greater Powers (Major Arcana) and Lesser Arcana (Court cards and Minor Arcana). It corresponds to the four seasons and the traditional cups, swords, pentacles and staves. Black and white scans are provided of the cards in the book. There are rituals, meditations, occult explorations and shamanic journeys and Hallowquest provides a year's meditation course as a series of doorways into the archetypes and symbolism in order to provide a structure for personal self development.
Mind Body & Soul Ezine Card Deck Review: Astral Realms Crystal Oracle, boxed set of 33 cards plus information book published by Rockpool Publishing. Author: Leah Shoman. Illustrator: Paige McLeod. US: 21.95 : UK: 16.99 Card size: 5 inches x 3.5 inches.
Paige Mcleod of the Prism Fleur Design Studio and Leah Shoman who owns a crystal boutique have joined forces to produce this chakra and crystal deck. Card size: 10.5cm x 14cm. The chakra system is explained with placement, colour, meaning, additional crystals and mantras, and information on how to use the cards, for a single card pull, a spread of Three-Cards, and a Five-Card Guidance Spread. Each card has a number, title, stone, chakra, keywords and reading text.
Mind Body & Soul Book Review! Hunting the Nazarene - The Second Resurrection of Christ by John Koerner, published by Chronos Books, paperback 106 pages £8.99
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book with its strange title. The author, Professor of American History, is well qualified to write a fascinating and well researched examination of the controversial 21st chapter of John's gospel. This last chapter has had a great deal of exegesis over the years. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone has suggested that Jesus died and was resurrected twice. Historians have suggested this chapter was possibly added to an already completed gospel.
