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     It was this book that inspired Dan Brown to write The Da Vinci Code, whose theme is about the role Mary Magdalene played in the life of Jesus, and the feminine role in general, which Jesus foresaw in implementing his wisdom on the planet. Now, with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices and other lost books of the Bible, it is becoming more and more obvious that what has been recorded in the "official" Scriptures is a manipulated and corrupt version of the role Jesus played while he walked the earth. During Da Vinci's time, however, to embrace such disparate views would have still been dangerous, and certainly considered lunatic, except to those with enough wisdom to understand the truth.
     In this volume, Picknett and Prince have recorded the results of years of research and discovery, not just concerning Da Vinci, but also secret societies, the Knights Templar, and other hidden truths, waiting to be brought to light when the time for revelation had arrived. I would say that is probably about now, since it is getting more and more impossible to continue life in the midst of such lies and myths as have been perpetrated for so many centuries, not just about religion but life in general, and especially the truth about who, or what humans really are.
     Da Vinci was certainly recognized as a genius in his day, but he was also an eccentric, a rebel and gay, and seemed to delight in going against the status quo and pissing people off. But as the authors state, he was privy to arcane and occult knowledge that subtly worked its way into his art in a kind of "hidden in plain view" sort of way. If one knew about it, the symbolism leaped into one's face. Otherwise, it was barely noticed. The first chapter of the book reviews a bit about Da Vinci and some of his art, including his thing with John the Baptist, and the pointing finger which has become known as the "John Gesture" by some. Much of the information in this chapter is also what Dan Brown used in his novel. The authors also believe that it was Da Vinci who created the Shroud of Turin, which was proven to be fake by a carbon dating done in 1988.
     This is a thick book containing a great deal of information. There is no way I can cover it all in the course of a review, so I will just mention points of interest here and there.
     Along with the quest for the truth about the Priory of Sion, and the Knights Templars' interest (and Da Vinci's) in John the Baptist, the other person of greatest importance here is Mary Magdalene: the truth about her relationship with Jesus and her assigned role in spreading his message. The authors discuss how she is portrayed by the church as a "repentant whore," but yet they also point out that it was she who remained with Jesus at the cross, and it was also she who was first to see him emerge alive at the tomb. Furthermore, she was a woman of means, and it is suspected that she literally supported Jesus and his disciples. The authors state:

She was also the first disciple to receive a direct apostolic commission from Jesus by being instructed to take the news of his resurrection to the other disciples. Curiously, perhaps, the very early Church recognized her true place in the hierarchy and gave her the title Apostola Apostolorum (Apostle of the Apostles), or even more explicitly "The First Apostle."

     They later say:

It was only when the Church became a formalized institution—under the influence of St. Paul—that the role of women was minimalized. And the process was also retrospective. In other words, although women had not been minor characters in the primary Christian drama, Paul and his henchmen made sure that they would be pushed to the margin throughout history.

     And here again:

She, it appears, was the one person who was effectively the bridge between Jesus and all his other disciples, and it was she who interpreted his words for their benefit. In these texts it was not Peter who was Jesus' chosen second-in-command, but Mary Magdalene.

     It is believed that there were two levels of knowledge within Jesus' circle, and the disciples were not in the center one, though Mary was. The disciples actually appear to be dim, and most often do not grasp the true meaning of what Jesus says.
     It is known through several of the Gnostic Gospels that Mary and Peter fought, and that the other apostles hated or resented her. The authors also point out that, while so many modern Christians gasp at the thought that Jesus could have been married and had sex, in fact, celibacy was considered unlawful to Jews (and Romans). It would be more likely that Jesus would have had a wife.
     Goddess worship was part of religious life for Pagans. The patriarchal Christian Church, however, eradicated goddess worship, and of course relegated women to a position of servitude rather than leadership.
     Incidentally, it is believed that sometime after Jesus arose from the dead, (or recovered, because there is evidence he never died on the cross), Mary Magdalene went to the south of France by herself, and remained there until her death. The authors of this book did a great deal of investigation in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, where devotion to her is fervent. They began to connect quite a few dots, such as the fact that, what is known as "Black Madonnas" were always nearby the places dedicated to the Magdalene. These were believed to be associated with the Egyptian Goddess Isis. In addition, this area still holds anger for the massacres during the Inquisition. Interestingly, a "heretical" Christian group called the Cathars also populated this area, but the Knights Templar, also centered here, acted as protector to them. What was common between the Knights and the residents of this part of France is that they all held the feminine principle in high regard. Some other odd coincidences were discovered, One was the devotion these people also had, not to Jesus, but to John the Baptist, and some people believe there is a relic of his finger which had been saved. Now, consider the paintings of Da Vinci, and what has become known as the "John Gesture"—the pointing finger, (see below). Another discovery is that the Priory of Sion, if it really existed, or exists, broke off from the Knights Templar and formed their own secret society. Every Grand Master was called John. Jean Cocteau was supposed to have been a member of the group, and he designed a chapel at Villefranche-sur-Mer—beautiful, but very odd, in 1958. (See below.)
     When the Pope ordered the torture and massacre of the Knights Templar, many escaped, and it is believed a boatload landed in Scotland. Rosslyn Chapel, which appears in The Da Vinci Code, was built by Sir William St. Clair from 1450-1480. The books states, "The St. Clairs (later their name became Sinclair) were to be the hereditary protectors of Freemasonry in Scotland from the fifteenth century onwards." They were also connected with the Templars who had escaped France. The chapel is completely covered with carvings, and the symbolism is "not classically Masonic or Templar," but lots of Pagan and even Islamic, a stature of Hermes and the Green Man, who is a Celtic vegetation god.
     The authors visited a descendent, Niven Sinclair, who has done a great deal of research into the chapel and the family. He believes the lost Templar knowledge was encoded in the fabric of the chapel "at a time when books could be burnt or banned." He also said he has been there hundreds of times, and always finds something new.
     It is at this point that the writing becomes extremely complicated, as the authors attempt to tie in all the people, all the Templar branches, plus the Freemasons, bringing it all up to present time. Plus they speak of the connection to the Priory of Sion, which we actually still do not know for certain if that is real. The authors have used information obtained through Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, who died in 2000, after testifying in French court that he had made up the entire story as a hoax. This book was written in 1997, and I don"t know the year that Plantard actually went to court, or if the book came out before that event. However, toward the beginning, the authors state that one of the great abilities of the members of these secret societies was to fill the population with tales of disinformation to divert them from the real truth.
     GOSH!, Does that sound familiar or what? Our criminal bankers, corporations, government, and military has perfected that technique!
     But, in any case, in the end, the authors are led back to where they began, in the Languedoc region of France, where there is most definitely a secret hidden. And that brings us to the conclusion of Part One, The Threads of Heresy.
     Part Two is The Web of Truth, where discoveries are made concerning the truth vs. myth about Jesus, and for closed-minded Christians, actually any Christian, the information gets rather uncomfortable. And while it may seem that the authors have drawn hasty or contrived conclusions, in fact, they have a lengthy bibliography from which they have obtained information which confirms their own research. Interestingly, there has been a great deal of research done on the authenticity of Jesus, and similar conclusions have been reached by disparate investigators.
     The thing we must remember, and which "Christians" mostly don't want to face is that the Roman Church, which determined from the very beginning what myth the Bible would promote, was a political institution, and an extremely powerful one at that. No matter what Christian denomination one belongs to, if the standard Bible is used, the books of the New Testament that are included were decided by the Council fo Nicaea during the fourth century. Of the Gospels, the four that were chosen were picked out of fifty-some possibilities. Add to that fact that the remaining ones were edited, and the result is truly a patriarch-made myth created which contained what the men of the time wanted the flocks to believe.
     The discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices in Egypt during the mid-1940s has drastically altered biblical scholars' perception of who Jesus was, and what really happened during his time. Unfortunately, Christian churches, for the most part continue in a state of denial. It is unfathomable to me that the top-level leaders would still be ignorant concerning the truth about Jesus, but to allow this information to leak out would be devastating to the entire Christian institution. Still, we are on the cusp of an immense awakening, and the truth will come out. And soon, I suspect. It seems now, whatever I am reading about Biblical history, references to the Nag Hammadi codices keep popping up. I have them in eBook format, so they are readily available to the public for free. People think that it will be disclosure about the government, banking, of course, chemtrails, and even known communication with ETs that will rock the world, but in truth, it will be the revelations about Jesus that will shock and stun the unsuspecting, as we usher in the New Age. I suspect this will be a quite cataclysmic event.
     I mentioned above, this book contains SO much information that I cannot possibly even begin to condense it, so I will mention just some of the areas covered.
     We know that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a sexual relationship, and maybe a marriage. There is speculation that the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned the water into wine, may have been theirs. It would make sense, since Mary, the mother of Jesus believed that he should be responsible for assuring that everyone had enough wine.
     But they may not have been married at all. The main conclusions drawn from vast research seems to state that neither Jesus, nor John the Baptist were Jewish either. Jesus may have been ethnically Jewish, but there is more evidence that he was Egyptian, and a Pagan at that: a follower of Isis, who was the most powerful goddess at the time. It was through a sexual ritual that a man became "awakened" (because it was the woman who carried the divine spark). Mary Magdalene, while the standard Bible calls her a whore, may have been the initiatrix of the divine for Jesus, thus their sexual relationship.
     Furthermore, he was known as a sorcerer. Ok, now, I've been saying that for years, though I never used that word. But my belief in him was of his mastery of the physical world, and his ability to perform miracles, which was part of the Egyptian religion. Incidentally, the wise men who supposedly visited the infant Jesus were magicians. (That's what the word magi really means.)
     However, that's all a moot point, because the story of Jesus' birth is totally fabricated—drawn from pagan myths. There is absolutely nothing historical to support the story. And add to that, we know nothing about Jesus during his childhood, nor is he mentioned in any contemporary writings, outside the Bible. That doesn't mean he didn't exist, it just means that he wasn't perhaps as important as most people think he was. John the Baptist, however, is a different thing all together.
     A good deal was also said here, concerning John the Baptist, and the mystery about him grew from the Knights Templar and their reverence toward him, and not Jesus, beginning with careful study of Da Vinci's artworks. There is evidence that it was he who was the true Messiah. Jesus was one of his disciples, who then broke off and started his own following. In fact, many of his followers were "stolen" from John's group. Despite what the few Bible passages about John say, there is even greater evidence that he and Jesus had a rivalry, and most likely a strained (if not worse) relationship. The Jewish Talmud calls him evil, and there are still remnants of a "Christian" sect who consider John their leader, and Jesus as an evil one. There are even those who wonder if he, or his followers were not part of the scheme to have John murdered.
     Wow! There's lots to think about, and anyone who seeks the truth and rejects the delusion will do themselves a favor by reading this book and the vast body of other materials related to it. And anyone who is seriously on the path to awakening certainly needs to understand the damage the Christian church has done to keep us in a state of ignorance and slumber. Everyone owes it to themselves to know the truth. I am not saying that Jesus was bad, I'm just saying that he is not what most people think he is, and WE are not what we think we are either. In order to claim our true and rightful power, we need to separate myth from actual history and get back on the path to spiritual evolution, the way it was intended.

Da Vinci: Saint John the Baptist

Chapel at Villefranche-sur-Mer

Chapel at Villefranche-sur-Mer

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