Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Blog

Sorry to Be Gone for So Long

2010-05-24T17:58:00.002-04:00

I am sorry to say that a combination of unfortunate health and family circumstances have kept me off my blogs for a long time. I am happy to say that my health is much improved, and so I look forward to returning to my blogging with renewed vigor.

Mark Koltko-Rivera on Masonic Central Podcast--Tonight!--Discussing His Dan Brown Book

2009-12-13T05:15:00.000-05:00

Mark Koltko-Rivera will be on the Masonic Central podcast tonight, Sunday, December 13, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. (You can link to the podcast here.) Mark will be discussing his book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Freemasons, Magic, Mystery Religions, Noetic Science, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. In the latter part of the broadcast, listeners can call in with live questions. See you then! (Well, not see you, exactly ...)

Last Chance! "Hunting The Lost Symbol" on Discovery Channel, Today

2009-11-01T05:41:00.002-05:00

The documentary "Hunting The Lost Symbol" will be broadcast today, Sunday, November 1, on Discovery Channel, from 4 pm to 6 pm (Eastern time; check your local listings).

Of course, this documentary focuses on Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol. There are prominent segments about George Washington, the missing cornerstone to the U.S. Capitol building, Freemasonry, noetic science, Aleister Crowley (mentioned in the novel as an inspiration for the villain), and other topics related to the novel. I myself am one of several experts who are interviewed for the documentary. Enjoy.

Two Salt Lake Tribune Articles on The Lost Symbol

2009-10-17T00:07:00.001-04:00

Two articles by Peggy Fletcher Stack in the Friday, October 16, 2009 issue of The Salt Lake Tribune discuss The Lost Symbol.

In one article, “Psst! Let’s Talk About Masons,” Ms. Stack writes about Freemasonry as it is depicted in The Lost Symbol, and describes aspects of her visit to the Salt Lake City Masonic Temple. She quotes John Liley (Grand Senior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Utah), Dan Burstein (editor of Secrets of The Lost Symbol), and myself.

In another article, “Mormons Off the Hook in Brown’s Book,” Ms. Stack notes that a major theme of The Lost Symbol, apotheosis, or the potential for human beings to become gods, is an echo of the Latter-day Saint (‘Mormon’) doctrine of exaltation. (I consider this matter in some detail in an earlier post on this blog.) I am quoted in the article.

Shameless Plugs

Basic questions about Freemasonry can be addressed to the author, either through a comment here, or through the “Freemasonry 101” blog.

I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which will shortly be available again through Amazon; interested readers may ask to be notified of this availability through leaving me an e-mail at freemasonrybook@yahoo.com . I shall have a great deal to say about Freemasonry in The Lost Symbol in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol.

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Dan Brown Explains Why He Wrote About the Freemasons

2009-10-09T15:45:00.000-04:00

[Click the image at left for a larger image of Dan Brown's letter.]

We interrupt our series regarding Maureen Dowd’s review of The Lost Symbol to report some late-breaking news.

The publication of Dan Brown’s novel, The Lost Symbol, provoked a wide range of reactions, judging from the comments left on the Dan Brown Facebook fan page. Many people who left comments were overjoyed, and really loved the book.

On the other hand, a significant fraction of commenters—I’ll call them ‘the star theorists’—were less than pleased. Several individuals had predicted for months that The Lost Symbol would address one or another theory regarding such topics as the line-up of Washington DC streets with certain stars, supposed charts with kabbalistic or other mystical significance encoded in the street layout of DC, the decoding of ancient mystical manuscripts associated with King Solomon, even the type of theories about ancient astronauts long linked to the name of Erich von Daniken.

But that’s not what they got.

Instead, readers of The Lost Symbol got an adventure story that was deeply steeped in the symbolism and values of Freemasonry. This bothered the star theorists no end, even though Brown had said for years that his book would involve Freemasonry.

And so the grumbling began. Some of these people said that the Masons must have ‘gotten’ to Brown somehow, to keep him from revealing the important star map secrets that are supposedly held by the Masons. Some used accusatory tones to claim that Dan Brown himself was a Mason, as though that were some kind of crime.

Well, now the mystery of Dan Brown’s choice is solved. As reported in a post on Christopher Hodapp’s excellent blog, “Freemasons for Dummies,” Dan Brown sent a letter that was read out at a gathering held in connection with the biennial session of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Southern Jurisdiction, held earlier this week in Washington, DC. (Some of the meetings were held in the very Temple Room at the House of the Temple that plays such an important part in the beginning and at the dramatic climax of The Lost Symbol.) As I understand it, the background of the letter is that Dan Brown had been invited to address the biennial session in person, but with Dan Brown having a heavy travel schedule, a personal appearance was impossible; he sent the letter instead.

In his letter of October 6, 2009 (photo above), Dan Brown said the following, in part:

In the past few weeks, as you might imagine, I have been repeatedly asked what attracted me to the Masons so strongly as to make it a central point of my new book. My reply is always the same: “In a world where men do battle over whose definition of God is most accurate, I cannot adequately express the deep respect and admiration I feel toward an organization in which men of differing faiths are able to ‘break bread together’ in a bond of brotherhood, friendship, and camaraderie.”

Please accept my humble thanks for the noble example you set for humankind. It is my sincere hope that the Masonic community recognizes The Lost Symbol for what it truly is … an earnest attempt to reverentially explore the history and beauty of Masonic Philosophy.

This is the reason why Dan Brown made Freemasonry central to The Lost Symbol. He respects the fact that Freemasonry encourages tolerance of religious differences, that Masonry fosters fellowship and even friendship across the lines drawn by different religious affiliations. He expresses thanks for the “noble example” that he says Masonry sets “for humankind.” In a sense, by depicting this example, he is trying to improve the world.

So that’s the story, folks. Dan Brown is not engaged in some kind of rule-the-world conspiracy. I see no evidence that he deliberately suppressed evidence that would have supported or propagated the ideas of the star theorists. He had something more important in mind:

Encouraging peace in this world.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

Shameless Plugs

Basic questions about Freemasonry can be addressed to the author, either through a comment here, or through the “Freemasonry 101” blog.

I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which will shortly be available again through Amazon; interested readers may ask to be notified of this availability through sending me an e-mail at freemasonrybook@yahoo.com .

I shall have a great deal to say about Freemasonry as it is depicted by The Lost Symbol in two places:

• one of my two chapters in the forthcoming book edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, Secrets of The Lost Symbol, which you can read about here;

• my own forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Magic, Masonry, Noetic Science, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Publishers’ and agents’ inquiries are welcome!)

[The image of Dan Brown’s letter was obtained through a post, “Dan Brown and Why Freemasonry,” dated October 8, 2009, on the "Freemasons For Dummies" blog, which is authored by Christopher Hodapp.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

How Accurate Is the Contemporary Catholic Perception of Freemasonry?: One of a Series on Maureen Dowd’s Review of The Lost Symbol and the Truth About Freemasonry

2009-10-08T22:17:00.003-04:00

My dad always said in his day that the Masons were not welcoming to Catholics. The Catholic Church once considered the Masons so anti-Catholic, Catholics who joined were threatened with excommunication.

In that earlier post, I addressed the matter of Freemasonry’s attitude towards Catholics. (As I explained there, Freemasonry is entirely welcoming to Catholics, and is not anti-Catholic at all.) In this post, I put the shoe on the other foot, and take up the matter of Catholicism’s attitude towards Freemasonry.

The Official Catholic Attitude Towards Freemasonry

The official attitude of the Roman Catholic Church has changed over time. Freemasonry has been addressed by the Vatican in a number of papal pronouncements over the last three centuries. The current official Catholic attitude towards Freemasonry is quite negative (as explained recently in a presentation made at a Masonic lodge by the Rev. Mr. John J. McManus, JD, JCL. There are two aspects of this attitude that are especially noteworthy for my purposes here today:

The current official Catholic attitude towards Freemasonry is based on a wildly inaccurate image of Freemasonry.
The classic papal statement on Freemasonry, Humanum Genus (1884), is based on a highly negative attitude towards values that are now commonly accepted, such as democracy and freedom of religion.

In this post, I shall focus on the contemporary Catholic attitude and its inaccuracies. I shall address the classic Catholic attitude, as expressed in Humanum Genus, in my next post.

The Inaccurate Contemporary View of Freemasonry Within Catholicism

Several Catholic writers who have addressed the Catholic position on Freemasonry make reference to an official statement made in about 1980 by the German [Roman Catholic] Bishops’ Conference. In turn, this statement is summarized in an article by Monsignor Ronny E. Jenkins, “The Evolution of the Church’s Prohibition Against Catholic Membership in Freemasonry” (The Jurist, vol. 56, pp. 735-755), which itself is summarized in the McManus presentation which I have mentioned above.

I was stunned by the degree to which the image of Freemasonry portrayed by the German Bishops varied from Freemasonry as I had studied for many years, and as I have known it from the inside for some time. Consequently, I began a series regarding the Roman Catholic Church and Freemasonry on another blog that I author, “Freemasonry: Reality, Myth, and Legend”; the first part of that series is here. Although incomplete, the seven parts of the series currently on the blog are very revealing concerning the inaccuracy of the German Bishops’ (and many other Catholic leaders’) perceptions of Freemasonry. To be specific:

The German Bishops stated that Masonry promotes a relativistic approach to reality where one should avoid commitment “to any one set of revealed truths.” As I explain in Part 2 of my series, this is a serious distortion of Freemasonry. The Masonic practice is to give respect to a variety of religious positions, but Freemasonry does not teach that one should avoid committment to one!
The German Bishops stated that “the Masons deny the possibility of an objective truth, placing every truth instead in a relative context.” As I explain in Part 3 of my series, this is simply false from beginning to end. In fact, the Masons teach a number of objective truths, although part of the genius of Freemasonry is that it does this while still maintaining respect for different religious positions. Somehow, it seems, the German Bishops made such respect into something bad.

The German Bishops stated that “the Masonic teaching holds a relative notion of religion as all concurrently seeking the truth of the absolute”; they seem to imply that Masons teach that all religions hold equal value. As I explain in Part 4 of my series, no branch of Freemasonry of which I have any knowledge teaches anything like this.

The German Bishops stated that “the Masons hold a deistic notion of God”—which includes the notion that God does not intervene in the human world—a notion which “precludes the possibility of God’s self-revelation to humankind,” thus undercutting any idea of biblically based religion. As I explain in Part 5 of my series, Freemasonry does not teach Deism. If anything, Freemasonry seems to have a prominent Theistic slant (tending towards the notion of the Divine Being as revealing important things to humankind). Although there were Deists (such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin) who were prominent Freemasons in the days of the American War of Independence, that has no relevance: Freemasonry welcomes Deists and Theists alike.

The German Bishops stated that “the Masons promote a principle of toleration regarding ideas,” and that “such a principle … threatens the Catholic position of objective truth … [and] also threatens the respect due the Church’s teaching office.” As I explain in Part 6 of my series, yes, Masons actually do teach toleration of different ideas—but, for that matter, the Catechism of the Catholic Church does the same. (In essence, the Bishops exhibited an attitude that is outmoded even within their own church.)

The German Bishops stated that “the rituals of [Freemasonry] have a clear sacramental character about them,” which of course would intrude on the mission of the Catholic Church as having, in the Catholic view, exclusive authority over the sacraments of grace. As I explain in Part 7 of my series, this is completely untrue, based on what the Catholic Church teaches about the sacraments, and what Freemasonry teaches about its own rituals.

The German Bishops stated that Freemasonry claims to lead to the perfection of humankind, a position that would thus usurp the role of Christ in human life. However, the truth of the matter is that Freemasonry makes no such claim, and offers no program for the salvation of humankind.

The German Bishops stated that “the Masonic Order makes a total claim on the life of the members.” This is nonsense; the existence of many clergy of Christian and other faiths who are Freemasons shows that the German Bishops are inaccurate.

The German Bishops state that Masonic lodges “seek merely to adapt Christianity to the overall Masonic world-view.” This is simply inaccurate; Freemasonry teaches men to follow the precepts of their own religions, rather than adapting those religions to Freemasonry.

The German Bishops state that Masonic lodges “are not compatible with Catholic teaching.” However, the Bishops demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of Masonic teaching and practice, and so entirely fail to make their case.

I have not yet completed the series on the Roman Catholic Church and Freemasonry. (After I posted Part #7 in the series, on June 6, 2009, I had to focus on moving my household to a different residence, after which I became caught up in the matter of interpreting Doubleday’s Dan Brown clues.) However, you can see where I am going with this. The current Catholic position on Freemasonry is based on an utterly inaccurate image of Freemasonry.

However, that is not the entire story.

There is, in addition to the contemporary Catholic position articulated by the German Bishops, a more classic Catholic position on Freemasonry, articulated in the papal pronouncement known as Humanum Genus (1884). That pronouncement criticizes Freemasonry on entirely different grounds from those used by the German Bishops, and it is to that pronouncement that I shall turn in my next post.

Conclusion

At least over the last 30 years or so, the Catholic position on Freemasonry has not been so much about a supposed anti-Catholic bias on the part of Masonry (as Ms. Dowd states), but has rather been about Freemasonry as a supposedly relativistic, deistic, alternative religion—none of which is true about Freemasonry at all. With all due respect to Catholicism and Catholics, the facts as I have described them above demonstrate that the contemporary Catholic position on Freemasonry is based on a perception of Masonry that is fundamentally and deeply flawed and inaccurate.

Basic questions about Freemasonry can be addressed to the author either as a comment on a post here, or through the "Freemasonry 101" blog.

Shameless Plugs

I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which will shortly be available again through Amazon; interested readers may ask to be notified of this availability through sending me an e-mail at freemasonrybook@yahoo.com .

I shall have a great deal to say about Freemasonry as it is depicted by The Lost Symbol in two places:

one of my two chapters in the forthcoming book edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, Secrets of The Lost Symbol, which you can read about here;

my own forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Magic, Masonry, Noetic Science, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Publishers’ and agents’ inquiries are welcome!)

[The photo of St. Peter’s Basilica in the early morning was taken on May 21, 2004 by Andreas Tille. It was obtained from Wikimedia Commons and is used here under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Are Freemasons Anti-Catholic? One of a Series on Maureen Dowd’s Review of The Lost Symbol and the Truth About Freemasonry

2009-10-08T01:52:00.003-04:00

[The photo of Whitby Abbey was taken by Stephen McCulloch, and is used here under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 License. (For source details, see the end of this post.) Whitby Abbey was one of hundreds of Catholic monasteries destroyed in England during the Reformation. Is this what Freemasonry wants for Catholicism? No. Please read on.]

On Sunday, October 11, 2009, The New York Times Book Review will publish a review by Maureen Dowd of Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol. That review is available on-line here. (The weekday edition of the Times previously published a review of The Lost Symbol by Janet Maslin; that review, which appeared on Monday, September 14, is available here.)

Ms. Dowd’s review contains much inaccurate or misleading information about Freemasonry. This blog post is one of a series in which I address the inaccuracies about Freemasonry that occur in Ms. Dowd’s review. Links to the rest of the posts in the series may be found here.

What Ms. Dowd Has to Say

At one point in her review, Ms. Dowd states the following:

My dad always said in his day that the Masons were not welcoming to Catholics. The Catholic Church once considered the Masons so anti-Catholic, Catholics who joined were threatened with excommunication.

Is this true? Are Masons unwelcoming to Catholics? Are Masons anti-Catholic, in any way?

Masons Are Entirely Welcoming to Catholics

I would have a very hard time finding any evidence in my own experience for the proposition that Masons were somehow ‘unwelcoming’ to Catholics. This is because the Master of my home Lodge when I became a Master Mason—the senior executive officer, as it were, of my home Lodge—is himself a Roman Catholic. The Master in my home Lodge changes every year at the annual elections (often the case in Masonic lodges; some lodges do give two-year terms to their Masters). At least one of the Masters that my home Lodge has had in subsequent years is a Roman Catholic, as well.

Freemasonry forbids Masons to consider someone’s religious affiliation when deciding whether to admit that person to the Fraternity. In fact, in most Masonic jurisdictions (certainly every one with which I am familiar), it is actually forbidden for Masons even to ask about the religious affiliation of a candidate. Yes, it is a strict and absolute requirement that a successful candidate for Freemasonry must believe in a Supreme Being. (In many jurisdictions, the precise requirement is a belief in the existence of a Supreme Being, and a belief in the immortality of the human soul.) However, candidates are free to believe whatever they wish about that Supreme Being, without jeopardizing their candidacy for Freemasonry. Candidates are also free to hold any religious affiliation that they wish, or none at all—Freemasonry simply considers such things a matter of individual conscience.

Indeed, Freemasonry forbids any discussion of sectarian religion or partisan politics in the Lodge. (I am speaking of North American lodges; some Masonic organizations in other parts of the world have different practices.)

In sum: Freemasonry is entirely welcoming to Catholics, whether they seek to learn more about Freemasonry or not.

Masons Are Not Anti-Catholic in Any Way

What does it mean to be ‘anti-Catholic’? Let’s consider some possibilities.

Would it be anti-Catholic to teach that Catholic doctrine is incorrect? That seems a bit harsh as a judgment, given that different people will have different beliefs, but it really does not matter: Freemasonry does not do this. Any discussion, pro or con, regarding sectarian religious doctrine is forbidden in the Lodge. Freemasonry takes no position on the truth or falsehood of specific religious doctrines, beyond a basic belief in the existence of a Supreme Being and a belief in the immortality of the human soul. (Of course, individual Freemasons are welcome to their own opinions—something that is the very essence of freedom of conscience—although they are to keep those opinions to themselves, in the Lodge.)

Would it be anti-Catholic to try to restrict the freedom of Catholics to practice their faith? Would it be anti-Catholic to discriminate against Catholics in terms of civil rights? Certainly either of these practices would be anti-Catholic—but Freemasonry does not do either of these things. In an indirect way, 18th century American Freemasons—through their support of the Bill of Rights—showed a strong support for freedom of religion in the United States. That’s just the Masonic way.

Would it be anti-Catholic to discriminate against Catholics who wish to become Masons? Sure it would be—but Freemasonry does not do this. As I mentioned in the previous section of this post, Freemasons are actually forbidden to consider a candidate’s religious affiliation in making decisions about admitting someone to the Fraternity.

Would it be anti-Catholic to teach religious doctrine that is un-Catholic—that is, simply different than what Catholicism teaches? That also seems a bit harsh as a judgment, given that freedom of religion should not be considered a threat to Catholicism, but it really does not matter: Freemasonry does not do this, either. Freemasonry teaches no specific religious doctrines in the Lodge. Contrary to an opinion that one sometimes comes upon, Freemasonry does not teach Deism, which is a non-Catholic form of religion. This is a point I explain comprehensively in a post on another blog, which you may read here.

It is true that Freemasonry, by and large, has shown a great deal of support for public education. In both Europe and the United States, one can come up with several examples of either Masonic Lodges or prominent individual Freemasons founding or supporting institutions of public education. However, support for public education is a long way off from anti-Catholicism, by any rational measure.

In sum: Freemasonry is not anti-Catholic. Rather, Freemasonry is entirely neutral with regards to Catholicism. (Of course, if a person thinks that religious neutrality or freedom of conscience are somehow ‘anti-Catholic’—well, then, we all have a more serious problem to deal with than the religious stance of Freemasonry.)

Conclusion

Ms. Dowd is simply wrong, plain and simple, about the stance of Freemasonry towards Catholics and Catholicism. Although I mean no disrespect to Ms. Dowd’s father, it seems that he was poorly informed about Freemasonry to start with. It is unfortunate that Ms. Dowd—a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who, frankly, ought to know better—simply seems to have accepted her father’s statements at face value, without checking into the facts of the matter.

Of course, this all raises the question of why Ms. Dowd’s father would have had these misconceptions about Freemasonry to start with. I shall deal with that in my next post, in which I will discuss the roots of the inaccurate perceptions that some people have had over the years regarding Freemasonry, specifically in relation to Roman Catholicism.

Basic questions about Freemasonry can be addressed to the author through the "Freemasonry 101" blog.

Shameless Plugs

I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which will shortly be available again through Amazon; interested readers may ask to be notified of this availability through sending me an e-mail at freemasonrybook@yahoo.com .

I shall have a great deal to say about Freemasonry as it is depicted by The Lost Symbol in two places:

one of my two chapters in the forthcoming book edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, Secrets of The Lost Symbol, which you can read about here;

my own forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Magic, Masonry, Noetic Science, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Publishers’ and agents’ inquiries are welcome!)

[The photo of Whitby Abbey, at Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, was taken on January 28, 2008, by Stephen McCulloch. It was obtained from Wikimedia Commons, and is used here under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

About Your Comments

2009-10-05T23:12:00.002-04:00

I have gotten seriously behind in responding to comments--mea culpa. As of now, I have been through every post from September 15 to the present, and I shall try to stay on top of at least that much of the comments from here on.

The Oaths of Freemasonry: One of a Series on Maureen Dowd's Review of The Lost Symbol and the Truth About Freemasonry

2009-10-05T20:10:00.008-04:00

On Sunday, October 11, 2009, The New York Times Book Review will publish a review by Maureen Dowd of Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol. That review is available on-line here. (The weekday edition of the Times previously published a review of The Lost Symbol by Janet Maslin; that review, which appeared on Monday, September 14, is available here.)

Ms. Dowd’s review contains much inaccurate or misleading information about Freemasonry. This blog post is the first of a series in which I address the inaccuracies about Freemasonry that occur in Ms. Dowd’s review. The rest of the posts in the series may be found here.

Freemasons Do Not Murder Those Who Expose Their Rituals

Ms. Dowd writes of Dan Brown, “During the five years he researched this book, did Brown begin to believe those sensational stories about how, if you expose the secrets of the Masons, they will slit your throat?”

If Masons actually murdered those who exposed their rituals or other secrets, Freemasons would do little else but murder people, and the body count would have reached into the thousands quite some time ago. The ritual secrets of Freemasonry have been exposed many times over the last three centuries. We Masons may think poorly of those who expose our rituals and secrets—yes, we will de-friend them from our Facebook accounts—but we do not murder them or do them other harm.

The Oaths of Freemasonry

Stories like the kind that Ms. Down mentions have their root in an aspect of the oaths involved in becoming a Freemason. As part of the process of initiation, a candidate takes several solemn oaths. For the most part, these oaths involve commitments to moral behavior. In addition, candidates swear not to reveal Masonic secrets, such as signs of recognition, and other ritual details. The candidate swears that he “binds” himself to various bloodcurdling penalties if he breaks these obligations.

Over the years, a lot of people have been put out by the fact that Freemasons bind themselves to these bloodcurdling penalties, However, very few of the people who have commented on these oaths over the centuries have pointed out certain basic truths:

Masons are never put under oath or asked to carry out these penalties on anyone. Indeed, because Masons are committed to observing the civil law, it easily could be argued that Masons themselves are actually forbidden by Masonic ethics to inflict these penalties on anyone, Mason or not.

Candidates for Freemasonry take their oaths and pronounce their obligations at sacred altars (depicted above) and in the presence of Almighty God, each man using a Volume of the Sacred Law that is sacred to him. (Some men use the Jewish Bible, some a version of the Christian Bible, some the Muslim Quran, and so on.) The obvious conclusion to draw is that the penalties to which Masons bind themselves are penalties that they expect Almighty God shall inflict on them for breaking their word.

The One Possible Time a Murder Might Have Been Committed

In all of history, there is only one instance in which it could credibly be the case that someone who exposed the secrets of Masonry might have been murdered by Masons. This was the famous Morgan incident of 1826, where William Morgan—a non-Mason who pretended to be a Mason, gained admission to lodges, and then published Masonic ritual—is alleged to have been murdered in upstate New York by Masons. This incident has a complicated history, the essentials of which are available here, courtesy of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon.

The occurrence of actual murder in the case of William Morgan is questionable. Morgan’s body was never recovered. Some have said that Morgan was paid to go into exile in Canada; some say that they sighted him, towards the end of his life, in the Caribbean. There are those, such as Stephen Dafoe in his recent book, Morgan: The Scandal That Shook Freemasonry, who maintain that Morgan was indeed murdered by Masons; for me, the jury on that case is still out.

If William Morgan was indeed murdered by Masons, this is a horrible thing that should never have occurred, and those who were responsible should have been punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, even if this murder had occurred, its very rarity proves that Masons do not make it a practice to murder, execute, or assassinate those who expose their rituals.

Conclusion

It is time to put to bed the “sensational story” that Ms. Dowd mentions, that “if you expose the secrets of the Masons, they will slit your throat.” This has never been true, as the most basic research by Ms. Dowd would have revealed to her. This is not just a sensational story, but an irresponsible one, even a libelous and prejudicial one, and she should have known better than to spread it around in her book review.

Basic questions about Freemasonry can be addressed to the author through the Freemasonry 101 blog.

Shameless Plugs

I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which will shortly be available again through Amazon; interested readers may ask to be notified of this availability through leaving me an e-mail at freemasonrybook@yahoo.com . I shall have a great deal to say about Freemasonry as it is depicted by The Lost Symbol in two places:

one of my two chapters in the forthcoming book edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, Secrets of The Lost Symbol, which you can read about here;
my own forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Magic, Masonry, Noetic Science, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Publishers’ and agents’ inquiries are welcome!)

[The image is a stylized depiction of a Masonic altar. It is available on the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Introducing a Series: Maureen Dowd's Review of The Lost Symbol and the Truth About Freemasonry

2009-10-05T19:46:00.009-04:00

Ms. Dowd’s review contains much inaccurate or misleading information about Freemasonry. I am writing a series of blog posts to address the inaccuracies about Freemasonry that occur in Ms. Dowd’s review. The posts in this series are listed below. (The list will be updated as new posts become available.)

Posts in This Series

Masonic Oaths: Will Masons really "slit the throats of people who reveal Masonic secrets"? (October 5, 2009): post available here.
Are Freemasons Anti-Catholic? (October 8, 2009): post available here.
How Accurate is the Contemporary Catholic Perception of Freemasonry? (October 8, 2009): post available here.

Shameless Plugs

I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which will shortly be available again through Amazon; interested readers may ask to be notified of this availability through leaving me an e-mail at freemasonrybook@yahoo.com . I shall have a great deal to say about Freemasonry as it is depicted by The Lost Symbol in two places:

one of my two chapters in the forthcoming book edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, Secrets of The Lost Symbol, which you can read about here;
my own forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Magic, Masonry, Noetic Science, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Publishers’ and agents’ inquiries are welcome!)

[The image is a rare depiction of the Compasses with a Sector (a traditional symbol of a Past Master) with the All-Seeing Eye on a Disk. It was obtained on the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Pyramids, Freemasonry, and The Lost Symbol

2009-09-19T01:19:00.066-04:00

[Photo by Nina Aldin Thune.]

In The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown repeatedly brings up pyramid symbolism in connection with Freemasonry. This would seem to be a mistake, because the pyramid is not a Masonic symbol -- right?

Well -- it's not quite so clear cut.

Oh, I can hear the groans from here. Yes, I know: the various authors in our day who connect Freemasonry with pyramids are considered more than a little out on the fringe, especially by the more responsible Masonic historians of the so-called realistic school of Masonic history. It certainly is the case that, in the year 2009, Masonic ritual, symbolism, and mythic stories all have nothing to do with pyramids.

However, what is true of the early 21st century was not true of earlier days of Masonry, centuries ago.

The fact of the matter is that, at least as early as the 14th century, Masonic literature explicitly connected the Fraternity with Egypt, and (no later than the 18th century) even with the pyramids themselves. Controversial offshoots of Freemasonry in the 19th century associated Masonry with Egyptian initiatory practices.

Finally, the literature of the wilder regions of the conspiracy theory community connects Freemasonry with a very famous pyramid, a reproduction of which exists in virtually every home in America, and this connection should also be addressed when discussing pyramids and Freemasonry.

So, let's have at it.

Freemasonry and Egypt in
the Regius Manuscript

The Grand Lodge style of Freemasonry was established in London in 1717, with the founding of the premier Grand Lodge of England. However, Freemasonry existed before that time, in individual lodges scattered across Scotland, England, and Ireland, at the least -- perhaps for centuries. One of the earliest Masonic manuscripts in existence, the Regius (or Halliwell) Manuscript, dates from about 1390, and specifically draws a connection between Masonry and Egypt when describing the mythic history of Masonry -- in verse, no less. Beginning at line 55, the manuscript states:

The Clerk [i.e., cleric] Euclid in this wise founded
This Craft of geometry in Egyptian land,
In Egypt he taught it full wide,
In diverse lands on every side.

(This excerpt is taken from p. 293 of Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, rev. ed., 1995. The entire poem is available in a modern translation in Christopher Hodapp's excellent book, Freemasons for Dummies, Appendix A.)

So, Masons of over 600 years ago thought that the Greek mathematician Euclid was an ancient member of their fraternity, and taught geometry in Egypt. Being a Mason, of course, Euclid would have been busy building things. I don't think these would have been shopping malls or amusement parks, either. Thus, at least by implication, the Regius Manuscript leaves open the possibility of Freemasons being involved with pyramids.

Freemasonry and Pyramids in
Anderson's Constitutions

The Grand Lodge era of Freemasonry begins in 1717. The most authoritative document we have of that era is James Anderson's The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (original London edition 1723, republished in the United States by Benjamin Franklin himself in 1734). Anderson's Constitutions include a traditional history of Freemasonry, stretching back to Adam, the first man, as described in the Bible. In this traditional history, Anderson mentions the following, referring to biblical events after the Flood of Noah and the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel (Ben Franklin's edition, pages 10-11, modernizing the text a bit, omitting a footnote):

And, no doubt, the Royal Art [i.e., Freemasonry] was brought down to Egypt by Mitzraim, the second son of Ham [i.e., Ham being Noah's second son], about six years after the Confusion at Babel, and after the Flood 160 years, when he led thither his colony (for "Egypt" is Mitzraim in Hebrew); because we find the River Nile's overflowing of its banks soon caused an improvement in geometry, which consequently brought Masonry to be much in demand. For the ancient noble cities, with the other magnificent edifices of that country, and particularly the famous pyramids, demonstrate the early taste and genius of that ancient kingdom. Nay, one of those ancient Egyptian pyramids is reckoned the first of the Seven Wonders of the World, the account of which, by historians and travellers, is almost incredible.

Anderson, of course, was drawing on other source material concerning the mythic background of Freemasonry -- the legendary and hypothetical "Anderson Manuscript" -- of unknown age, and that is now lost to us. All we can tell for sure is that at least as far back as nearly 300 years ago, and possibly much earlier, Freemasons mentioned Freemasonry and the ancient Egyptian pyramids in the same breath.

(Incidentally, what did Anderson mean when he said that "we find the River Nile's overflowing of its banks soon caused an improvement in geometry"? The annual flood of the Nile washed away landmarks, and the land on both sides of the banks, for many miles, had to be resurveyed -- through the use of geometry, of course.)

Freemasonry and Egypt in
the Forbidden Rite of Memphis

The basic form of Freemasonry is a system of three degrees, or rituals of initiation. However, over the last three centuries or so, several systems of 'high degrees' have emerged, which offer additional sequences of degrees. In Masonic parlance, a system of degrees is called a Rite (as opposed to the common meaning of a "rite" as a specific ceremony). There are several such Rites in existence today.

In the United States, the main such systems are the Scottish Rite (which offers a system of numbered degrees up to the 33rd) and the York Rite (which offers about 10 degrees in a specific but unnumbered sequence). The York and Scottish Rites and a few other invitational organizations are each accepted by the Grand Lodge authorities in almost all of the 52 sovereign Masonic jurisdictions in the United States (comprising one Grand Lodge in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico).

But there are other Rites in Masonry -- literally forbidden Rites.

(Cue the creepy trumpet or organ music: DAA-DA-Da-dahhhhhhhhh.)

Over the last three centuries, many different systems of degrees have been put forth to Freemasons, some for the sake of propounding some esoteric knowledge, some for the sake of gathering initiation fees from gullible Masons. At present, in the United States, many Rites have been banned by the various Grand Lodges, although several such Rites have continued to exist on the fringes of Freemasonry for centuries. One such is the Rite of Memphis, originally established in Paris in 1814, a system of up to 100 degrees that has undergone many changes of name and administration and many incarnations over the last two centuries. Although condemned by American Grand Lodges, the Rite of Memphis is active in several parts of the United States today. (No, I am not a member.)

Even the name, "Rite of Memphis," shows some affinity for Egypt. Beyond that, the literature of the Rite of Memphis explicitly connects Freemasonry to Egypt and its wisdom. For example, in a lecture for one incarnation of the Rite, known as the "Antient and Primitive Rite," we find the following in the instruction for members between the 27th and 30th degrees, as published in London in 1882:

Q. What relation does Masonry hold to Egypt?

A. Masonry, considered as a secret society with peculiar ceremonies, having for its aim the conservation of knowledge, truth, and their laws, was received and perpetuated in Egypt by the Sages, who concealed attainments from the vulgar by clothing them in ingenious emblems; from the banks of the Nile the system was carried to the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations, where it more or less lost its character and primitive [i.e., original] aim. All the old operative constitutions of the Freemasons trace their origin to Egypt .... The wisdom of Egypt became the proverb of all nations. (Collectanea, 2000, vol. 17, part 2, pp. 85-86; published by the Grand College of Rites of the United States of America.)

A different group derived from the Rite of Memphis, Calvin C. Burt's Egyptian Masonic Rite of Memphis, similarly celebrated the connection between ancient Freemasonry and Egyptian wisdom. This is shown in a handbook published in Chicago in 1867, a portion of which focused in detail on supposed ceremonies of initiation in ancient Egypt, which the author considered Masonic in origin; the author then claimed that his own Rite was founded in France in 1694. (See pp. ix-xiii in Collectanea, 2001, vol. 17, part 3.)

The point here is that traditions on the outskirts or fringes of Freemasonry have connected Masonic initiation with the wisdom of Egypt.

Freemasonry and
the Pyramid
in Your Pocket

Things are so much simpler for the wild-eyed, undisciplined sector of the conspiracy theory community.* There is no need to consult ancient manuscripts, or the handbooks of off-ramp, qwinky forms of Freemasonry: one just needs to look at the paper money in one's wallet or purse, and that settles the matter. In the Anything Goes region of the conspiracy theory community, it is an article of faith that the pyramid shown on the back of the $1 bill, one side of the Grand Seal of the United States, is a Masonic symbol.

The fact of the matter is that this is simply untrue; I state the facts in my comments regarding Clue #35. However, the fact that the conspiracy community believes that the pyramid is a Masonic symbol may simply be enough for Dan Brown.

Conclusion

It is not entirely off-base for Dan Brown to connect Freemasonry with pyramids. In the 21st century, Masonry is not connected with pyramids. However, most of the association between Masonry and pyramids that is portrayed in The Lost Symbol is associated with events supposedly occuring during the days of the American Founding Fathers, roughly the 1770s to the 1790s or so. This was an era only about 60 years separated from the days of Anderson's Constitutions, the original publication of which was still (barely) in living memory. In that era, a connection between Freemasonry and pyramids seemed a bit more plausible.

Of course, it is entirely possible that Dan Brown is merely following the lead of the wilder regions of the conspiracy theory community, in attributing a connection between Freemasonry and pyramids.

I shall have more to say about Freemasonry and its symbolism, as well as the whole issue of pyramids, in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown, the Truth About the Freemasons, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Agents' and publishers' inquiries are welcome. Please contact me through the e-mail portal on my Web Page: see my Blogger profile.)

I remind you that comments are welcome. Feel free to become a Follower of this blog, to forward posts by e-mail, and to subscribe to the RSS feed.

My thanks to an Anonymous commentor on an earlier post, who raised this question.

[The image of the Great Pyramid is Copyright 2005 Nina Aldin Thune. The image was obtained from the Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia, and appears under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.]

*I recognize that there are rational, responsible, careful conspiracy theory researchers. I admire them greatly. However, I find it necessary to take their wild-eyed relatives to task at every turn.

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

"Dressed As a Master": Clothing in the First Three Degrees of Freemasonry

2009-09-18T08:36:00.010-04:00

The Prologue to Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol takes place during a ceremony, the ritual of the 33rd degree of initiation into the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. We'll go into those matters -- the Scottish Rite, the 33rd degree -- in future posts. What I'll focus on in this post is the fact that the Prologue mentions that the unnamed central character in this Prologue has been through other, earlier initiations -- initiations with distinctive clothing.

As the story mentions:

As was tradition, he had begun this journey adorned in the ritualistic garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows .... Tonight, however, like the brethren bearing witness, he was dressed as a master. (Page 3 of the English language edition of The Lost Symbol)

What is he talking about?

The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry

Freemasonry, of course, is a fraternal organization that offers men the opportunity to receive ritual initiations focused on the higher values of life. (My post giving a brief introduction to Freemasonry is here.)

The basic unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. This is a group of men who meet at regular intervals for Masonic business and ritual. (For example, the Lodge where I became a Mason, Winter Park Lodge #239 Free and Accepted Masons, in Winter Park, Florida, meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, at 7:30 p.m.) This level of Freemasonry is sometimes referred to (for mysterious traditional reasons) as the "Blue Lodge." It is the foundation of all forms of Freemasonry.

The Blue Lodge offers the first three degrees of Freemasonry:

The 1st degree, called "Entered Apprentice"

The 2nd degree, called "Fellow Craft"

The 3rd degree, called "Master Mason"

Some aspects of the initiation process are similar -- not identical -- across the degree rituals, including clothing.

The Candidate's Clothing

We'll have more to say about Masonic initiation in future posts. Today, it's all about the clothing.

The candidate for Masonic initiation appears in ceremonial clothing for the first three degrees. This is what Dan Brown alludes to as "the ritualistic garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows."

Brown is taking a page here from the fascinating book by the late John J. Robinson, Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry (now available in a new paperback edition from M. Evans). Robinson analyzed certain distinctive aspects in Masonic ritual language and practice, and came to the conclusion that Freemasonry had its origins in a society of men on the run: the medieval Knights Templar, who were condemned by the Papacy and subjected to mass arrests as heretics in 1307. The distinctive garb of the candidate in the first three degrees of Masonic initiation, in Robinson's view, would be a tradition to remember the Templars in their time of trial.

Robinson's conclusions are thought-provoking, although currently they are accepted neither by the mass of Masonic historians nor by most academic historians. Not that this would stop Dan Brown.

"Dressed like a master"

When Dan Brown writes that Mal'akh is "dressed like a master" during his ceremonial initiation into the 33rd degree, he means that Mal'akh was dressed the way a Master Mason dresses following his initiation. Masons typically come to lodge meetings formally dressed. Business suits are common; I know of Lodges that require black tie (that is, tuxedos). (Some Lodges are substantially less formal, but formality is a rising trend.)

Of course, a special apron is the badge of a Mason. The Masonic apron is a tradition that carries today's Masons back to the days of the medieval stonemasons. Today's Masonic aprons are done up rather more elaborately than a medieval stonemason's apron, though.

In the photo above, I am the fellow on the left. (Click on the photo for a larger image.) The occasion is my installation, in late December 2007, as the Marshal of the Lodge in Winter Park; for most lodges, like Winter Park, the annual installation of officers is a public event. (The Marshal is the most junior of Lodge officers.) I am here dressed in a tux, with the specific apron of my office. (Winter Park does not require black tie at its functions, but this was the formal installation, and all officers to be installed arrived in black tie.)

The regular member attending the Lodge would have a less elaborate apron. However, in most essentials, in the photo above I am "dressed like a master," in Dan Brown's phrase.

However, the novel purports to depict, not a Blue Lodge ceremony, but a Scottish Rite ceremony. Thus, I would expect that Mal'akh would be wearing a Scottish Rite cap and "jewel" (that is, a medal), probably the distinctive red cap and jewel of the Knight Commander of the Court of Honor.

So, that is what you should be envisioning Mal'akh wearing in the Prologue: black tie, with a red hat and ceremonial medal. (Head-to-toe tattoos under coverup makeup is entirely optional.)

[The photo above was taken by Ricardo Parente, the webmaster and photographer of Winter Park Lodge #239 F&AM. Thank you, Brother Ricardo, for making me look respectable.]

Mal'akh's Tattoos, Part 2: The Scottish Rite Double Eagle

2009-09-17T09:36:00.012-04:00

In an earlier post, I described the tattoos on the legs of Dan Brown's horrifying villain in The Lost Symbol, Mal'akh. Today, we talk about the 'main event,' as it were: the tattoos on Mal'akh's chest:

[...] his powerful chest was emblazoned with the double-headed phoenix . . . each head in profile with its visible eye formed by one of Mal'akh's nipples. [The Lost Symbol, Chapter 2, pp. 11-12 in the English language edition]

This sounds to me like one of the most famous symbols of what is called "high degree" Masonry: the double-headed eagle on the seal of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (one version of which is illustrated above).

In an earlier post, I describe the degree structure of Freemasonry, and I explain how the Scottish Rite figures into that. Here, I'll just mention that the Scottish Rite offers a set of ritual initiatory ceremonies ("degrees" of initiation) to men who are already Master Masons, that is, men who have received the three foundational degrees of Freemasonry. (More about that in a future post--probably my next one.)

Internationally famous Masonic scholar, Arturo de Hoyos, describes the double-headed eagle in his excellent reference, The Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide [2nd edition, 2009, available here]. (Incidentally, Scottish Rite brethren, this is the main text of the "Scottish Rite Master Craftsman" course of study.)

The double-headed eagle is the unique symbol of the Scottish Rite .... The motto of the Thirty-third Degree is Deus meumque jus (God and my right). [de Hoyos, 2009, p. 27]

As de Hoyos explains, the double-headed eagle was a symbol in the later degrees of now-extinct degree systems that were predecessors of the Scottish Rite (which was founded in 1801). The double-headed eagle appears on coats of arms, and so is an element or "device" of heraldry.

As a heraldic device its precise origin is unknown, but it is believed to be a modification of the [single-headed] Roman eagle, [a two-headed modification of] which was later used to suggest the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire. This device was subsequently adopted by the German, Austrian, and Russian Empires. Some writers assert an even greater antiquity, equating it with the Storm Bird of Lagash, an ancient Babylonian symbol. [de Hoyos, 2009, p. 28]

So, there is a political meaning to the double-headed eagle: it represents the union of East and West. However, there is also an esoteric meaning, associated with the transformation of inner opposing tendencies into a unified balance or equilibrium within the individual. This is an aspect of alchemy, and the double-headed eagle is a potent alchemical symbol, which explains part of its appeal for Mal'akh.

The black double-headed eagle was a principal motif in early alchemical literature .... At times it is equated with the philosopher's stone, the goal of the alchemical transformation, and may be understood as a symbol of the Great Work of perfection. [de Hoyos, 2009, p. 29]

Of course, this opens up the entire matter of alchemy and the Great Work. Alchemy is one of the wisdom traditions that are incorporated into the degrees of the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction of the USA (the organization that has its headquarters at the House of the Temple in Washington, DC--the site of the Prologue of The Lost Symbol).

Alchemy is a vast subject. At a high level, alchemy has to do with the management and direction of transformation -- a subject that is near and dear to the heart of Mal'akh, as readers of The Lost Symbol observe throughout the novel. There is an aspect of alchemy that is concerned with transformation of outer reality. (This is where the whole turning-lead-into-gold thing comes up.)

There is also an aspect of alchemy that is concerned with transformation of inner reality. The point of alchemy is to bring the opposing tendencies of human nature into balance and under the control of the individual. Through alchemical processes, the individual is to refine human nature, thereby bringing the individual to a new level of human consciousness, and a more perfect state of being.

Mal'akh's tattoo is described as a double-headed phoenix, a mythical bird also associated with inner rebirth. Again, transformation is Mal'akh's thing.

I shall have more to say about alchemy, as well as its relation to Masonic symbolism, in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown, the Truth About the Freemasons, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Agents and publishers inquiries are welcome; I may be reached by e-mail through my Blogger profile.)

Learning More About Alchemy

A fine brief introduction to alchemy is the chapter by Richard Smoley, "Hermes and Alchemy: The Winged God and the Golden Word," pp. 19-30 in an excellent collection of essays edited by Jay Kinney, The Inner West: An Introduction to the Hidden Wisdom of the West (New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 2004). The notes to this chapter constitute good suggestions for further study.

The interest of Sir Isaac Newton in alchemy is little-known to the public at large, but Newton wrote more about esoteric subjects like alchemy than he ever wrote about physics or optics. One can read about this in Michael White's biography of Newton, Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer (New York: Basic Books, 1997).

Alchemy from the point of view of a modern practitioner is described by Mark Stavish in The Path of Alchemy: Energetic Healing and the World of Natural Magic (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2006).

In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in the concept that Masonic ritual somehow is connected to alchemy. The most detailed recent treatment of this idea can be found in Timothy Hogan's The Alchemical Keys to Masonic Ritual (2007), which is available through lulu.com, as shown here.

A Small Point of Masonic Etiquette

2009-09-17T01:56:00.003-04:00

I removed a comment from one of the posts on this blog recently, because it ventured into the area of Masonic passwords, signs of recognition, and so forth.

The author of the comment has posted before, and seems to be a fine and upstanding individual, quite bright, even scholarly. The source cited was a fine, scholarly work, not anti-Masonic at all.

However, as a Mason, I have made a commitment not to reveal the Masonic passwords or signs of recognition. As I interpret that obligation, that includes not discussing purported passwords or signs of recognition, past or present, in a forum for which I have personal responsibility, such as this blog.

I realize that non-Masons typically do not know the contents of the Masonic obligations. I bear no ill will to the commentator. However, I do ask everyone who comments on this blog to steer clear of the matter of Masonic passwords and signs of recognition, out of courtesy to your blog author, a Mason. Thank you for your kind observance of this principle.

Mal'akh's Tattoos, Part 1: The Pillars, Boaz and Jachin

2009-09-16T10:16:00.006-04:00

In Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, the magnificently creepy villain called Mal'akh is tattooed on almost every inch of his body, except for a spot on the crown of his head. But these are not just any old tattoos. Mal'akh's tattoos incorporate all kinds of esoteric and mystical symbolism -- some of it Masonic in nature. Mal'akh may be a torturer, he may be a criminal sociopath, he may be the human equivalent of a demon -- but he aspires to all sorts of spiritual knowledge, and he reflects his spiritual aspirations in his tattoos.

Two of Mal'akh's tattoos are on his legs. As described in Chapter 2 of The Lost Symbol (page 11 of the English edition):

... his muscular legs were tattooed as carved pillars -- his left leg spiraled and his right leg vertically striated, Boaz and Jachin.

So, what is this about?

For almost three hundred years, it has been public knowledge that two important symbols in Freemasonry are the pillars Boaz and Jachin. Anciently, pillars with these names were part of the Temple built by King Solomon. In the Bible, the construction of the Temple is described in a couple of places, one of which is the First Book of Kings. The 7th chapter, verses 15 through 22, describe the pillars, at the conclusion of which we read:

And he [Hiram, the master builder] set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. (1 Kings 7:21)

The name Jachin translates to "God will establish"; Boaz translates to "in strength." Thus, one meaning of the pillars is that they signify that God established the Temple in strength.

There are ancient legends associated with the pillars, some of which have shown up in Masonic symbolism. One legend is that the pillars were topped with globes, one showing the globe of the Earth ("the terrestrial globe") and the other the globe of the heavens as seen from the Earth ("the celestial globe"). You can see these globes atop the pillars in the illustration above (from a 1920's edition of Albert Mackey's History of Freemasonry). Another legend is that there was secret wisdom written on records deposited within the pillars. Yet another legend (shown in Dan Brown's novel) is that one pillar was decorated with carvings horizontally, the other vertically.

What is the significance of the pillars in Masonic symbolism, and why are they of interest to Mal'akh? There is much that could be said about this, only a portion of which I can mention here.

The pillars Boaz and Jachin signify the entrance to the Temple built by Solomon and dedicated to God. Some representation of these pillars is found in most Masonic lodge rooms. Their presence helps to mark the Masonic lodge room as a sort of sacred space, where people take a different perspective on their lives than the everyday point of view. The "journey" of initiation into Freemasonry begins as the initiate symbolically enters the Temple built by Solomon.

The names of the pillars are a reminder to the Mason that, as the outward Temple was established in strength by God, so too the Mason invites God to establish his own life in strength. (Of course, if the Mason invites God to establish his life, he'd better be living the kind of life that God can support.)

As the globes atop the ancient pillars were representations of the heavens and the earth, so too the Mason seeks for knowledge of the natural universe, near and far.

As the ancient pillars were said to be repositories of wisdom, so too the Mason is on a journey in search of wisdom.

These are the values that Mal'akh was dedicating himself to: the search for wisdom. The tragedy of Mal'akh, in part, is that he did not understand that the search for higher wisdom requires kindness and respect for other human beings, in order to be a fully successful search.

I shall have a great deal more to say about Masonic symbolism as it appears in Dan Brown's novel in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown, the Truth About the Freemasons, and the Idea That We Can Become Gods. (Agents' and publishers' inquiries are welcome.)

The Secret Behind the Final Secret of The Lost Symbol

2009-09-15T04:25:00.017-04:00

[HEAVY DUTY SPOILER ALERT: In this blog post, I reveal the conclusion of The Lost Symbol. If you want the pleasure of experiencing the surprise of the conclusion, then do not read this post until after you have completed reading the novel.]

At the conclusion of The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown gives extended attention to a remarkable set of spiritual concepts. However, the casual reader might not know that there is a real-world group that espouses something very much like these concepts. Thus, in this post, I describe what I think is the unstated backstory to the conclusion of The Lost Symbol.

Early on in The Lost Symbol, Robert Langdon looks up from inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building, and sees the 1865 painting by Constantino Brumidi, The Apotheosis of Washington (shown above; click on the image for a larger depiction). The ancient Greek word "apotheosis" has no single-word equivalent in English; it indicates the event of a human being becoming a god. (See the last page of Chapter 20, and all of Chapter 21.)

Throughout the novel, one of the subplots is that the leading female character in the story, Dr. Katherine Solomon, is engaged in research involving a field called noetic science. In the novel, we learn that Dr. Solomon has uncovered a variety of paranormal, even godlike capacities in the human mind -- capacities that can be developed here and now.

Much later, at the conclusion of The Lost Symbol (Chapter 133 and the Epilogue), Robert Langdon is taught some fascinating philosophical, religious, and spiritual concepts by Dr. Solomon. One of these concepts is the idea that the destiny and birthright of human beings is to take on the role of divine Creators. We join these two in discussion in Chapter 133, with Dr. Solomon speaking:

" ... We've been reading the Bible too literally. We learn that God created us in his image, but it's not our physical bodies that resemble God, it's our minds. ... [O]nce we realize that we are truly created in the Creator's image, we will start to understand that we, too, must be
Creators. When we understand this fact, the doors will burst wide open for human potential.

... Langdon gazed up again at the image of The Apotheosis of Washington--the symbolic ascent of man to deity. The created . . . becoming the Creator. (Page 501, American English edition.)

Langdon then reflects on the Hebrew word Elohim:

"Elohim," he repeated. "The Hebrew word for God in the Old Testament! I've always wondered about it."

Katherine gave a knowing smile. "Yes. The word is plural." ...

"God is plural," Katherine whispered, "because the minds of man are plural." (Page 505, American English edition)

In essence, Katherine Solomon is teaching Robert Langdon the ideas that (a) human beings have the potential within them to develop into gods, and (b) such a development would result in a plurality of gods. The "Lost Symbol" of the novel's title reflects the notion of God as a symbol for the highest potential of humankind. (By implication, Dan Brown is teaching the same ideas to his readers.)

Wow. This sure sounds different!

This is certainly going to make for controversy in this, the world outside the book, our world. As there were those who condemned The Da Vinci Code because they considered it heretical, so too there will be those who condemn The Lost Symbol for what they consider heretical teachings.

As it happens, there is a backstory to this concept, the idea of the human being becoming god. This concept is actually a religious doctrine of one of the largest religious organizations in the United States: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known popularly, if unofficially, as 'the Mormons'; their official website is here). It is not widely known in the general public that this doctrine is central to Latter-day Saint (LDS) belief. It is, however, a doctrine with which I am familiar.

That is because I am a Latter-day Saint.*

It is not my purpose here to go into a lengthy consideration or defense of this doctrine. (I have another blog for discussions of LDS doctrine.) However, for the benefit of the fans of Dan Brown, I shall just sketch out the broad outlines of this doctrine.

The LDS scriptures include not only the Bible but other sacred books as well. In one of these, the following is written concerning those who make sacred covenants with God and keep those covenants throughout their lives. After their deaths in this world, at some undefined time, the following happens:

Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them. (The Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132, Verse 20)

Such individuals are permitted to maintain their family structure throughout the eternities. This is the highest blessing possible, and it is the essence of eternal life, the kind of life that God has. (Some further basic information about the LDS doctrine of exaltation is available here.)

The LDS doctrine of exaltation (as it is known) is certainly different from the concept that Dan Brown portrays in The Lost Symbol. For Dan Brown's characters, the notion that humanity is made in the image of God is figurative ("it's our minds" that resemble God, as Dr. Solomon says); for the LDS, it is both figurative and literal (that is, God has a body in whose image humans are made). In Dan Brown's novel (p. 79 of the American English edition), Robert Langdon also claims that the LDS account of the origin of the Book of Mormon, a distinctive LDS scripture, does not stand up to scientific scrutiny. (I beg to differ, but that discussion is for another time and place.)

However, for all that, it is worthwhile for the Dan Brown fan to realize that there is a body of spiritual doctrine that has remarkable similarities to the concept that Dan Brown portrays in his novel.

We could just stop here. However, surely this question arises: How can we account for these remarkable similarities?

Dan Brown visited Salt Lake City's Temple Square complex (the LDS equivalent of the Vatican in Roman Catholicism) in 2004 and 2006, as reported on local television. During his 2004 visit, as his host noted, Brown was specifically interested in the Masonic-like symbols on the Salt Lake LDS Temple: "He was ... very interested in the symbology on the Mormon temple ... the pentacles and the suns and the moons and the stars and all that. So, I gather his primary interest was to ... see the Mormon embellishment of Masonry as it exists, in his mind ...." (Of course, the LDS Temple is deeply connected with the LDS doctrine of exaltation; the purpose of LDS Temples is discussed here.) In 2006, as reported on TV, Brown was granted access to certain LDS historical archives.

Thus, for whatever reason and in whatever way, Dan Brown has had a certain interest in the Latter-day Saints and their most important and distinctive spiritual practices and doctrines. I think that he saw fit to adapt the LDS doctrine of exaltation for literary purposes in The Lost Symbol.

I will have more to say about the connections between (1) the concepts that Dan Brown puts forth in the conclusion to The Lost Symbol, (2) LDS belief and practice, and (3) Freemasonry in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown and the Truth About the Freemasons. (Agents' and publishers' inquiries are welcome! My e-mail address is on my Blogger profile.)

{*I am an active, temple-attending Latter-day Saint. I am a returned missionary, and have served as a counselor in two bishoprics and as a stake high councillor. After several years teaching recently as the teacher of the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School, I now serve as a family history consultant. I have published articles in the two major organs of the independent LDS press, Sunstone and Dialogue, and a brief piece in the Ensign.}

[The image of Brumidi's "The Apotheosis of Washington" is from pictures taken by Raul654 in 2005. It was obtained from Wikimedia Commons and is shown here under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license.]

Solution to the Puzzle on the Back Cover, Lower Left

2009-09-15T02:04:00.006-04:00

I picked up my copy of The Lost Symbol at 12:01 a.m. at the Lincoln Center Barnes and Noble in Manhattan, here in New York City. Now, at a little after 2:00 a.m. Eastern time, I've dealt with a few other matters, and I am looking at something that many of us have been wondering about for months: the back cover, which does indeed have puzzles! This blog entry is the solution to one of them. (If you don't want to know, don't read on!)

[Incidentally, for those of you interested in the technical vocabulary and concepts of cryptography, the type of puzzle that we will be working with is a transposition cipher. This means that the letters of the message are all there in plain sight--but they are in a mixed-up order. How can one put them in the correct order? That is the challenge. I think you are seeing cryptographic history made here in The Lost Symbol; I think that forever afterward, this will be called a "magic square" or "Durer" cipher. Read on to see why.]

The lower left-hand corner of the back cover has a 4 x 4 grid of letters, like so:

Y U O E
M S T D
I I N H
R E K Y

This relates to a similar puzzle in The Lost Symbol that Robert Langdon struggles with. At one point, Langdon realizes that the solution to the puzzle is the magic square in the artwork, Melencolia I, produced during the German Renaissance by Albrecht Durer. (Durer was the subject of Clue #9; a reproduction of Melencolia I, magic square and all, is above.) Durer's magic square is a matrix of numbers:

16 3 2 13
5 10 11 8
9 6 7 12
4 15 14 1

The trick is to put the letters of the first matrix in the order indicated by the numbers of Durer's magic square. The lower right-hand corner of Durer's magic square is 1; this corresponds to the letter "Y" in the letter matrix, so "Y" should go in the first position (where there is already a "Y," no doubt just to confuse us all). But you get the idea. Sort the letters so that they fit into the following matrix of numbers:

1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16

and when you do this, you get the following matrix of letters:

Y O U R
M I N D
I S T H
E K E Y

which leads to the phrase:

"YOUR MIND IS THE KEY."

What a powerful statement! But what might it mean, in the context of this book? I think it means two things.

Certainly all the many challenges that Robert Langdon has to face in his adventures have to be solved through the use of his mind. In this world, where the forces of irrationality and superstition fight for supremacy, where irrational arguments are used to mold global politics, it is important to remember that our minds are the key.

Secondly, the conclusion of the novel, Chapters 133 and the Epilogue (which I will not spoil here), have some interesting things to say regarding the potential of the human mind.

Finally, the phrase "YOUR MIND" is almost certainly the key in a Caesar shift cipher (a transposition cipher) using the Freemason's cipher (a substitution cipher) that is another puzzle on the back cover. But that is another blogpost.

You can read more about Caesar shift ciphers, transposition ciphers, the Freemasons cipher, and substitution ciphers, in one of my forthcoming books. Australian puzzlemaster Denise Sutherland and I are publishing Cracking Codes and Cryptograms for Dummies in October or November (Wiley Publishing). I'll say more about it in this blog later on, but if you enjoy cryptography, codes, and puzzles, you'll like this book.

Now on to that other puzzle on the back cover . . . .

[I dedicate the solution of this puzzle to my wonderful wife, Kathleen Koltko-Rivera, who encouraged me to go out to pick up The Lost Symbol tonight, and accompanied me on a lovely nocturnal walk to do so. I love you, sweetheart. L., M.]

After the Clues--Comes the Book! The Future of This Blog

2009-09-14T19:03:00.005-04:00

The big event for which so many readers of this blog have waited is about to arrive: the official release of Dan Brown's novel, The Lost Symbol, for purchase by the general public.

As I write these words (7:21 p.m., EDT, Monday 14 Sept. 2009), the world is about 40 minutes away from the release of the book in England. In less than 5 hours, many bookstores on the East Coast of the United States will hold "12:01 a.m." sales events. Indeed, the Prologue and first two chapters of the book have already been released to the public through some news outlets.

With the publication of the book itself, it can be argued that the clues issued by Doubleday about the content of the book become something of a moot point. So, what is to become of this blog, which was established to investigate the clues?

The public release of The Lost Symbol is an occasion to reposition this blog, and redirect its mission. This blog is now focused on illuminating the contents of The Lost Symbol itself.

What do I mean by that controversial word, "illuminate"? For one thing, I will describe the meaning and context of the issues that Dan Brown brings up. For another, I will help the reader discern between the world as described in The Lost Symbol, and the real world.

Consider a few recent examples. Dan Brown's novel addresses a host of subjects, many of them quite controversial. In the Prologue, Dan Brown describes what is supposed to be the ritual of the 33rd Degree of initiation in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Of course, this raises the question of what the Scottish Rite is, and what the 33rd Degree is, as well -- subjects that I address in an earlier post. The matter of drinking out of a skull during the ceremony marks this depiction as the portrayal of a ritual, not of the legitimate Scottish Rite, but of a renegade Masonic group -- which I explain in another post.

The review of Dan Brown's novel published in today's New York Times (see the link in another post) indicates that the female lead in The Lost Symbol is involved in the study of a subject called "noetics." This is a real field of study, but one that is little known by the general public, one that is not widely understood even by most professionals or academics in psychology -- and that means I will be describing it in this blog.

Chapter 2 (available in yesterday's British newspaper, The Mail) indicates that the villain in The Lost Symbol calls himself "Mal'akh." This raises questions about the meaning of this name, and its connotations -- and I will address that in this blog.

And on and on it will go. Dan Brown will touch on many arcane areas: the history, symbolism, and philosophy of Freemasonry; little-known incidents of the American Revolutionary War; the significance of the architecture and layout of Washington, DC; Rupert Sheldrake's principle of morphic resonance -- and dozens of other such fascinating items of knowledge, rumor, lore, and legend.

In brief, the public release of The Lost Symbol means that I now have more to blog about than ever before. And that is exactly what I plan to do.

Please feel free to return to this blog frequently as you read The Lost Symbol. You may become an official "follower" of the blog, or subscribe to its RSS feed. You should also feel free to submit questions through the Comments section of each post, which are open to all. I can't promise to answer each question, but I will answer a lot of them -- quite a few, I think, with individual blog posts.

So it is that this blog, originally titled "Key to The Lost Symbol Clues," now takes on a larger mission, reflected in its new title: "Discovering The Lost Symbol." It's one thing to read a book; it is another thing altogether to discover the depths of its meaning. That's what I hope to help you do.

In addition to blogging about many subjects here, I will be addressing much of this at greater length in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown and the Truth About the Freemasons. (Agents and publishers are welcome to inquire! My personal e-mail is found on my Blogger Profile.) I'll tell you more about this book and its availability through this blog.

Here we go. Thanks for joining me on this ride.

[The image above was obtained from Wikimedia Commons, and is in the public domain.]

The Thirty-Third Degree and the Skull Oath

2009-09-14T01:28:00.020-04:00

The Prologue to The Lost Symbol (available online) is full of melodramatic touches. The narrator is not named in the Prologue, but in Chapter 2 he is revealed as a villain who calls himself "Mal'ach," the Hebrew word for 'angel' or 'messenger.' In the Prologue, Mal'ach goes through a Masonic ceremony of initiation, which we learn in Chapter 2 is the 33rd degree, the final degree of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.) And, in the course of the ceremony, Mal'ach is given wine to drink--from a real human skull. In the ceremony, he states takes an oath that says, in part:

"May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me ... should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath."

Does anything like this really happen in the Thirty-Third Degree ritual? That is, does anyone (a) drink from a real human skull, (b) with an oath that wishes death on themselves?

No.

Although I have only received the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite, I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that what you read in the Prologue to The Lost Symbol is not an accurate depiction of the 33rd degree.

"But how could Dan Brown do that?" you might ask. After all, in the front of his book, he specifically says that "all rituals ... in this novel are real."

Yes, he does say that--but we need to be careful how we understand that statement. Let me explain.

Over a century ago, a renegade Masonic group did indeed have its candidates drink wine from a human skull. This was the Cerneau group, a renegade form of the Scottish Rite. Albert Pike (head of the legitimate Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction in the late 19th century) did his very best to discourage the practices of the Cerneau group. However, the Cerneau group was powerful, especially in New York City.

Why do I call them "renegade"? Because the Cerneau Supreme Council was never properly chartered; it was essentially the creation of a group of guys who simply decided to have a Masonic group, and took on the mantle of the Scottish Rite, without bothering to have the actual Scottish Rite authorities give them their permission. This would be like folks in, say, New Milford, Connecticut, deciding to have their own alternative U.S. federal government. I once lived in New Milford; it's a lovely little town. But having some people simply designate it as the seat of the U.S. government does not make it so.

As part of the Cernau ritual of the 33rd degree, a human skeleton was used, as well as a human skull. During the Cernau ritual of the 33rd degree, the candidate for the degree states the following (with material in parentheses indicating actions):

I furthermore solemnly swear that I will hold true allegiance to the Supreme Council of the United States of America, its territories and dependencies. And that I will never acknowledge any body or bodies of men as belonging to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, claiming to be such, except such as hold allegiance to this Supreme Council, or those who recognize this Council. To all these I do most solemnly swear, calling upon the Most High God to ratify my oath.

And should I knowingly or willfully violate the same, may this wine I now drink, become a deadly poison to me, as the hemlock juice drank by Socrates. (Drinks wine out of skull.) And may these cold arms forever encircle me. Amen. (Skeleton's arms enfold him.)

(This oath, and the illustration above, are found on p. 470 of Volume 2 of John Blanchard's book, Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated, originally published 1887-1888. A reprint edition of this book is available from Kessinger Publishing.)

This is the ritual that Dan Brown is showing in the Prologue to The Lost Symbol. Thus, Dan Brown took a ritual from a 19th century renegade Masonic group, an alternative "Scottish Rite," and portrayed it as the ritual of the legitimate Scottish Rite of the Southern Jurisdiction in the 21st century. It's a colorful ritual, to be sure. As Dan Brown claims, it is even a "real" ritual--just not the real ritual of the group that he shows in the book. What you see in the Prologue is not an accurate reflection of the Masonic group who is supposed to be conveying this degree.

Use of the Skull in Masonic Symbolism

The skull is a potent and obvious symbol of human mortality. As such, it appears in a number of Masonic degrees, in some way or another. The intent in these degrees is neither to threaten the candidate (as is the case in the ceremony shown in the Prologue), nor to celebrate death, nor to mock it. The intent, rather, is to be a forceful reminder to the candidate for initiation that life is short, that one's relatively brief life must be used well, and that one should focus on the important things in life, rather than the superficial. This is a respectful and appropriate use of a symbol of mortality.

Conclusion

I'll have much more to say about Masonic ritual, legitimate and otherwise, in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown and the Truth About the Freemasons (agents' and publishers' inquiries invited).

A New Name for This Blog

2009-09-14T00:27:00.002-04:00

With the release of the Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol in the media, and with the publication of the novel itself imminent, it seems wise at this moment to shift the emphasis of this blog from a consideration of the clues issued by Doubleday to a consideration of the novel itself. Thus, I have renamed the blog, "Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Blog." I specifically add the last two words of subtitle to distinguish this from my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown and the Truth About the Freemasons. (Agents' and publishers' inquiries are welcome.)

I anticipate keeping up this blog for at least a few months, as I address the many issues in the book that call out for illumination and clarification. Stay tuned.

The New York Times Book Review of The Lost Symbol -- Online Now!

2009-09-13T21:37:00.004-04:00

Janet Maslin, one of the book reviewers for the daily (Monday through Saturday) edition of The New York Times, has just posted her review of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Although her review will appear on page C1 (the first page of the Arts section) of tomorrow's (Monday's) print edition, you can read the article online on the website of the Times, here.

Maslin's piece is not the very first book review published in the world; that particular honor belongs to May Grethe Lerum in the Norwegian paper VG, as I mentioned in an earlier post. However, Maslin's review has many pleasures to enjoy -- not the least of which is that Maslin, who has several books to her credit, is a writer's writer, and a dream to read.

Enjoy.

And, if this entices you to read the print edition of The New York Times -- one of the finest newspapers on the planet -- well, that would be just fine, too.

The Prologue of The Lost Symbol and the Thirty-Third Degree

2009-09-13T06:39:00.009-04:00

Today (Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009), Parade Magazine (an insert in many American newspapers, such as the New York Post) published the Prologue to Dan Brown's forthcoming novel, The Lost Symbol. The Prologue is also online, here, along with Chapter 1. (This publication occurs with Brown's blessing. The magazine also carries an interview with Brown--always a rare occurence.)

Readers of the Prologue must be stunned. The Prologue describes a ceremony of initiation into the Third Degree of Freemasonry, full of dramatic imagery. However, even Masonic readers must be stunned, because there are some interesting differences between the ceremony described in the Prologue and the ceremony with which most of us Freemasons are familiar.

In addition, the Prologue describes the ceremony as taking place at the Temple Room (pictured above) of the House of the Temple, the headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, an impressive site in Washington, DC. (Hey, folks, if you get to DC, take the free tour! Until then, you can take an online virtual tour.)

What degree is Dan Brown trying to show here? The two basic choices are the Third Degree, and the Thirty-Third Degree. Let's consider each possibility.

What Kind of Third Degree Is This?

Some of the language of the Prologue suggests that this is supposed to be the Third or Master Mason degree, the last of the three foundational degrees of basic Freemasonry.

The unnamed narrator of the Prologue (whom we learn in Chapter 2 is the villain Mal'akh) specifically mentions that he his journey "had begun at the first degree." The symbolic journey of the Mason begins at the first degree, and, in a sense, ends at the third. Other degrees are elaborations on that journey, or new journeys altogether.
The narrator talks about special ritual clothing, suggestive of the first three degrees of Masonry, and then says "Tonight, however, like the brethren bearing witness, he was dressed as a master." This suggest the third degree, again, although the candidate does not dress as a Master Mason until after taking the ritual oath of the Third Degree.

Overall, this does seem a bit odd. Beyond that, since when does one receive the Third Degree in the Scottish Rite House of the Temple? And what is up with the whole business of drinking from a skull?

I must admit that at first I was confused about this issue. I thought that perhaps the Prologue was referring to a form of the First Degree that is administered under the somewhat different format of the Scottish Rite, very rarely, although it can be observed in New Orleans. It was only after Chapter 2 was released through the British paper The Mail that I understood that what I was seeing here was a version of the Thirty-Third degree. (I cannot supply a link to The Mail at present.)

So let's go into the Thirty-Third degree.

The Thirty-Third Degree of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Let me state at the outset that I address the whole drink-from-a-skull thing in a separate post. Here, I'm just dealing with the issue: What is the 33rd degree? To do that, I need to discuss the degree structure of Freemasonry--which involves correcting some widely held inaccuracies about Freemasonry.

The Degree Structure of Freemasonry

Freemasonry is built around ceremonies of initiation, ceremonies known in Masonry as "degrees." There are three foundational degrees in Freemasonry, the First Degree (Entered Apprentice), the Second Degree (Fellow Craft), and the Third Degree (Master Mason). One is never more a Mason than when one is a Master Mason, a brother of the Third Degree.

There are a variety of Masonic organizations that offer further collections of degrees to enhance the Masonic experience. Some of these offer but one or two additional degrees. The York Rite offers ten. The Scottish Rite offers 29 additional degrees to the Master Mason, the Fourth through the Thirty-Second Degree. I am proud to say that I am both a York Rite Freemason (holding the degree of Knight Templar) and a Scottish Rite Freemason, of the Southern Jurisdiction (holding the 32nd degree). (There is also a Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite in the U.S., with different rituals. Washington, DC, where The Lost Symbol is set, is in the territory of the Southern Jurisdiction, so I'll focus a bit more on the Southern Jurisdiction.) We'll get to the Thirty-Third Degree in a minute.

The important thing to understand here is that Freemasonry is not like a thermometer, running from the First to the Thirty-Third Degree. Rather, it is like a wagon wheel, with the basic or Blue Lodge and its first three degrees as the all-important hub, and other Masonic organizations--like the Scottish Rite--as spokes offering different experiences.

The Thirty-Third Degree and the Scottish Rite

Masons who have shown a great deal of devotion to Freemasonry in general, and the Scottish Rite in particular, over the course of many years, may be invited to receive the 33rd and final degree of the Scottish Rite. It is important to understand what this is, and what it is not.

The 33rd degree is the highest degree of the Scottish Rite alone. It is not "the highest degree of Freemasonry." That status is actually held by the Third Degree, the Master Mason degree. The Scottish Rite is one "appendant organization" among many that are available to Master Masons. Each of these has its own "highest degree" that is only the 'highest' with respect to that group. For example, I am also a member of the York Rite, and I hold the highest degree within this group, the Knight Templar degree. But this is only the highest degree for the group known as the Commandery within the York Rite Masons; there are even subgroups within the York Rite for which other degrees are the "highest."
The 33rd degree is a real ritual initiation. However, it is reserved for a small number of Scottish Rite Masons who have shown real devotion to their Masonic work over the course of many years.
A very small group of 33rd degree Masons -- thirty-three of them, to be precise -- comprise the Supreme Council, or governing body of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. They rule the Rite, but they do not rule the world. Nor do they run conspiracies from the House of the Temple to try to run the world.

The ceremony shown in the Prologue of The Lost Symbol is supposed to be an initiation ceremony for the Thirty-Third Degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. However, there are several inaccuracies here.

For one, the 33rd degree is rarely, if ever, conferred upon a single individual, or in the House of the Temple! The House of the Temple is used to govern the Rite; the Temple Room is where the Supreme Council meets. The 33rd Degree is conferred upon a large number of candidates at one time, drawn from all across the Southern Jurisdiction, usually at a separate facility that is used for ritual initiations, the Scottish Rite Temple in Washington, DC. In fact, there will be such an initiation on Tuesday, October 6, 2009--something publicly announced in the pages of the Scottish Rite Journal, the largest-circulation Masonic magazine in the United States (see page 3 of the September-October 2009 issue). The publicly available online announcement is here.

There are other inaccuracies. My basic point is two-fold:

Freemasonry in general, and the Scottish Rite in particular, are not really what one would call a secret society. Secret societies typically deny their very existence. By contrast, the initiation into the 33rd and final degree of Scottish Rite Masonry is a matter of public record. The list of individuals made into 33rd Degree Masons is publicly available from the Scottish Rite.
There is a technical word for what Dan Brown is writing: fiction. Don't expect to come away from The Lost Symbol with a technically correct understanding of Freemasonry. Enjoy the ride, and if you do happen to learn something, be grateful.

In my blog post on Freemasonry, I give a number of resources regarding places where one might find reliable information about Freemasonry. Enjoy.

The New York Post Interviews Mark Koltko-Rivera About Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol

2009-09-13T06:10:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by telephone by Ms. Annie Karni of the New York Post (a major newspaper in New York City founded in the early 19th century by Alexander Hamilton, an American Founding Father and the subject of Clue #36). The article recounting the interview appears on page 3 of today's (Sunday, September 13) edition of the Post. The online version of the article (somewhat edited from the print version) appears here.

Much of the article involves my predictions regarding the kinds of conspiracies and other elements that I think will appear in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Those who have read this blog over the last two months will recognize my references to many of the Doubleday clues that I have discussed in the blog.

Enjoy!

Yes, I Really Think May Grethe Lerum's Got An Advance Copy of The Lost Symbol

2009-09-12T17:52:00.004-04:00

In a post to this blog yesterday, I reported that a fan of this blog had contacted me to say that a book review of The Lost Symbol had been published in Norway in advance of the novel's publication. (You can read the post, with a link to the book review, in English and Norwegian, here.)

I can now say that the fan who informed me of this was the author of the book review, May Grethe Lerum (pictured). There has been a great deal of discussion in the comment section of my earlier post regarding the legitimacy of Ms. Lerum's claim. I can say the following:

Ms. Lerum has supplied me with scans of the title page and copyright page of the book. (The scans are for my eyes only and I am forbidden to share them. Don't ask.) Either she is an accomplished forger (or knows one), which I doubt, or she really has the book.
Ms. Lerum has posted her scan of the copyright page on her blog, which is available here.
Ms. Lerum repeatedly expressed to me her concern that she did not wish to ruin the reading public's pleasure regarding the book. I believe that this explains why she was so vague in her review, and why she was so sparing in her details of the book's contents.
I have no explanations for many other items: the discrepancy noted in the comments to the previous blog post regarding the train station; why the image is reversed above; why Ms. Lerum has creepy looking mice on her blog.
On balance, I'd say she has the book. This would imply that her review (for which, see my previous post) is accurate in its synopsis of the novel.

Exclusive! Dan Brown's Novel, Reviewed in Norway!

2009-09-11T17:36:00.004-04:00

You heard it here first.

Okay, so Amazon has its copies of The Lost Symbol behind double-locked fences in a warehouse. Okay, so, allegedly, Doubleday's teams of translators are placed in windowless rooms without Internet access. There's one thing they forgot about:

The book reviewers.

May Grethe Lerum has published a review of The Lost Symbol in VG, Norway's largest newspaper. You can read it in the original Norwegian here. The Google translation into English -- available here -- is not perfect, but it is at least largely intelligible, and good for endless fun; I love the way that it translates the review as saying that The Lost Symbol is "a luminous bastard of a suspense story." (I hope someone says that about one of my novels some day.)

Lerum's review is respectful, in that it does not give away major plot points. We do, however, learn the following:

The novel revolves around Robert Landon's attempt to save his beloved mentor, Peter Solomon. (So that's where "The Solomon Key" comes in.)

As in The Da Vinci Code, there is an important truth that mankind must learn, and a sicko pain-loving enemy, "with a hidden past and ... many faces" who must be dealt with.

Freemasonry is prominently featured in the novel, and it looks as if the Masons are the good guys.

In the Dan Brown universe, Freemasonry includes such luminaries as Albert Einstein and Albrecht Durer.

Famous physicists from history make appearances, including Isaac Newton, Erwin Schrodinger, and Neils Bohr.

The reviewer hints at a religious outlook in the novel to the effect that no religion has a monopoly on the truth.

So, there's enough here to really whet one's appetite for the book, and yet not so much that it will spoil the experience of reading it.

Many thanks to the informant who notified me about this review.

Announcing a Video Series on Youtube: Dan Brown and 'The Lost Symbol', Part 1: What Is This Series About?

2009-09-07T23:25:00.004-04:00

Tonight I uploaded the first of a series of videos to YouTube regarding my take on the Doubleday clues and what they say about the content of The Lost Symbol. Enjoy. The first video itself is above; I also give links to the videos in the series here:

Part 1: What Is This Series About?

Beliefnet article, "New Dan Brown Novel Means Extra Scrutiny for Masons"

2009-09-05T20:17:00.003-04:00

I was recently quoted in a Beliefnet article, "New Dan Brown Novel Means Extra Scrutiny for Masons." You may read the article here.

Clue #110 Revisited--The Next Level

2009-08-09T19:42:00.007-04:00

In my previous blog post, I incorrectly stated that the term "AURORA" had not shown up as a puzzle solution over this past week; I was unaware that a Doubleday official had confirmed that as the answer to Clue #97. In addition, I asserted that the term "WICKHAM" referred to John Wickham; I was unaware that an official at Doubleday had confirmed that the name as it came up in Clue #107 referred to William Wickham. I am very grateful to the community of readers on this blog for setting me straight on the official answers, and I shall redouble my efforts to provide careful commentary regarding the Dan Brown clues sent out by Twitter. I also apologize to the fine folks at Doubleday for suggesting that they were practicing disinformation.

Having said that, I thought it worthwhile to take each of the puzzle solutions mentioned in Clue #110 to "the next level": that is, to give the background of the entities mentioned in each puzzle solution, and show their connections to other Twitter clues. Additionally, I thought I'd take a stab at showing how each clue might connect with The Lost Symbol. As always, your comments are welcome.

Clue #110

Posted at 4:21 p.m. (PDT) on Friday, August 7th:

Hint: AURORA BABINGTON PLOT BLACK HAND BONIFACE VIII CRYPTONYM DOUBLE CROSS SYSTEM MONOPOLY ROBERTO CALVI SURVEILLANCE WILLIAM WICKHAM

The use of the word "Hint" suggests that all of these items are to be considered as a whole, not just as individual clues. I'll return to that notion later in this post. For the moment, though, let's consider each of these puzzle solutions individually.

Aurora

As I mention in my post about Clue #97, a Doubleday executive, Frank Nelson, confirmed that the answer to this puzzle is "Aurora," explicitly mentioning that this refers to the hypersonic aircraft, the existence of which has been rumored in the aeronautical community for years. In addition, as Sandy Tamayo mentioned on the Dan Brown Facebook fan page, in 1992 Steven Douglas photographed the distinctive 'doughnuts on a rope' contrail that seems to be characteristics of the Aurora; this sighting occurred in Amarillo, TX (the coordinates of which show up in Clue #97), and Sandy mentioned that Douglas' description of the engine noise appears in the May 11, 1992 edition of Aviation Week and Space Technology. (There is also another possibility that I mention below.)

Babington Plot

The Babington Plot was mentioned 'way back in Clue #15, and was mentioned this past week in Clue #95. I have just restored my post on Clue #15, where you can read about the plot itself, and the themes that it brings up -- the most notable one being the theme of failed or broken codes that bring about the downfall of conspiracies.

Black Hand

As I mention in my post about Clue #96, the Black Hand were a real political conspiracy in early 20th century Serbia, a conspiracy that committed a political assassination that set in motion World War I. I hypothesized that, in The Lost Symbol, a group going by the same name might be involved in a conspiracy that could result in global warfare.

Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII (1235-1303), as I mention in my post about Clue #98, held very strong opinions against the separation of Church and State. These opinions were shared by some subsequent popes, including Pope Leo XIII, who in his letter Humanum Genus (1884) faulted the Freemasons for their support of the separation of church and state; in turn, the famous Scottish Rite Masonic leader Albert Pike wrote a response defending Freemasonry from the many criticism of Freemasonry found in Humanum Genus.

I speculated that The Lost Symbol might feature a face-off between some conspiracy that supported theocratic rule (that is, rule of the nation by religious authorities), on the one hand, and some component of the Scottish Rite, on the other.

(There is also another way that Boniface VIII might turn up in The Lost Symbol, as I describe below.)

Double Cross System

The Double-Cross System, mentioned in Clue #92, was the famous system created during World War II by MI5, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), which is parallel in its function to the American CIA. In this system, almost every German spy sent into British territory during WWII was turned into a double agent, supposedly working for the Germans against the British, but actually working for the British against the Germans.

Double agents have shown up in the Twitter clues before, including Benedict Arnold (Clue #30), Edward Bancroft (an associate of Silas Deane, Clue #42), Robert Hanssen (Clue #51), and Aldrich Ames (Clue #55). In a sense, then, what Clue #92 does is further establish that one or more double agents will show up in The Lost Symbol.

Monopoly

Clue #105 indicates that the "conspiracy objective" -- that is, presumably, the objective of the conspiracy in The Lost Symbol -- is monopoly. Monopoly, of course, means "sole control." However, this leaves up in the air whether this is a monopoly of a commodity (like, say, gold--which is often hinted at in the Twitter clues), or a monopoly of power.

Roberto Calvi

Robert Calvi was found dead, hanging by the neck from Blackfriars Bridge in London, which is shown in the surveillance camera feed featured in Clue #101. Calvi was a member of a renegade pseudo-Masonic lodge in Italy, P2, and featured prominently in a banking scandal where an enormous amount of money vanished, bringing down an Italian bank.

There are at least two points of potential relevance for The Lost Symbol. There may be some renegade Masonic group involved. In addition, the novel may well feature a conspiracy involving a vast amount of money -- such as the Confederate gold supposedly stashed away by the Knights of the Golden Circle (Clue #34). (I mean, come on -- how could you have a vast, powerful, high-stakes conspiracy without a pile of cash to fund it all? Let's be practical here!)

Surveillance

Clue #94 indicates that Surveillance is directed "everywhere, to everyone, at all times." (In passing, I note the use of the ancient Atbash cipher in this clue, which dates back at least as far as the composition of the Jewish Bible.)

Surveillance is a frequent theme in the Twitter clues. The question is: does the Conspiracy merely use surveillance as a method to pursue its ends, or is surveillance itself the very heart of the Conspiracy?

William Wickham

In my response to Clue #107, I present the case that the solution to the puzzle posed in that Clue was John Wickham, a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War who was forced to move to the South after the War, and who went on to defend Aaron Burr in his trial for treason, when Burr tried to found an empire in the West--an example later emulated by the real-life Knights of the Golden Circle.

However, I have had it presented to me on good authority that the Wickham of Clue #107 is actually William Wickham, a British spymaster who worked against the French Revolution. Indeed, perhaps both Wickhams make an appearance.

In either case, the implication for The Lost Symbol involves espionage and back-stabbing galore. There is also another possibility, which I describe below -- immediately below, in fact.

Cryptonym

A cryptonym (as mentioned in Clue #103) is a code name used to disguise an intelligence operation; instead of saying "our plot to restore the Merovingian kings to the throne of France" in your communications to your associates, you can simply say, "Operation Sophie's Choice" and leave your opponents scratching their heads in case they intercept your message.

Of course, cryptonyms can also be applied to places, and to people. As noted in Clue #92, the World War II-era British Double-Cross System pinned names like Brutus, Charlie, Garbo, and Zig Zag on its double agents. And it is in this connection that many of the puzzles summarized in this clue, Clue #110, might have a special meaning.

It is entirely possible that terms like AURORA (or AMARILLO!), BABINGTON, BLACK HAND, BONIFACE, CALVI, and WICKHAM will appear in The Lost Symbol as cryptonyms, code names for people, places, or plans that are of importance in some intelligence operation. ("Tell BABINGTON to report to WICKHAM in AURORA about BLACK HAND's progress on PROJECT BONIFACE." I put these terms in capital letters because the practice in an earlier generation was to capitalize cryptonyms in American intelligence reports.)

Putting the Hints Together: Relevance to The Lost Symbol

Here's one way to put it together:

A secret organization for whom assassination is not too far to go (a Black Hand-like group) is at work to further the cause of implementing a full-scale theocracy in the United States (a Boniface-like agenda), which would give them a monopoly on political power. They are infiltrated by law enforcement or the civilian or military intelligence community, but the infiltrators are themselves double-agents (the Double-Cross System) who use the surveillance capacities of their government agencies -- including the use of classified "Black Triangle" high-performance aircraft -- to further the aims of the Conspiracy. The plot requires immense funds (a la Calvi), and perhaps involves achieving a monopoly on the precious metals market. The Illuminati (either the foes or secret bosses of William Wickham) and/or the current incarnation of the Knights of the Golden Circle (once secretly supported by John Wickham) appear in the novel, either opposing the Conspiracy (the Illuminati) or supporting it (an element of the Knights?). However, the Conspiracy begins to fall apart when its code (perhaps patterned on the Atbash cipher? or the Aurora algorithm?) is broken (like Babington's code). (Of course, we haven't worked in the Revolutionary War era or Freemasonry yet.)

Or it might be nothing like this at all. However, you can see many major potential elements of the novel, summarized in Clue #110.

[Above you see the image of the staircase at St. Mary's Lighthouse on Whitley Bay. Supplied by FreeFoto.com. Copyright (c) FreeFoto.com. The image is used here under the first licensing option offered by FreeFoto.com: use permitted with "attribution to the image and a link back to FreeFoto.com."]

Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.

Clue #107: Wickham: John or William--Counter-Revolutionary Spy

2009-08-08T21:07:00.005-04:00

This is one of those clues where I believe there is still room for disagreement about the proper answer. I'll present both sides here.

Clue #107, posted at 12:23 p.m. PDT on Fri., Aug. 7th:

http://twitpic.com/d29gz - Counter-revolutionary spy

The link leads to a TwitPic that shows the name "wickham" in the form of an ambigram. Several people have noted that there are actually two Wickhams who might fit this clue: William Wickham, an English spymaster of the 19th century who tried to subvert the French Revolution, and John Wickham, an American attorney of the Revolutionary period who was accused of being a British spy.

William Wickham as a Solution

William Wickham took a law degree in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1786. Entering the British diplomatic service after law school, he was sent to Switzerland in 1794 as assistant to the British ambassador -- and chief spymaster. By the following year, England was fighting against the French Revolution; any movement that removed the heads of royal personages was perceived as a threat to a country, such as England, that was ruled by royal personages. William Wickham developed a spy network in Switzerland and directed it against the Revolution in neighboring France -- with no real success.

I am reliably informed by some of my readers who comment on this blog that they have received communication by Twitter from an executive at Doubleday who confirmed that the solution to the puzzle is indeed William Wickham, as is further confirmed by the text of Clue #110. One can see how Dan Brown would use William Wickham in The Lost Symbol: in the Dan Brown universe, as indeed in the universe of the more wild-eyed and fringe-y conspiracy theorists, the Illuminati were behind the French Revolution. William Wickham, in fighting the French Revolution, was therefore fighting the Illuminati itself; perhaps the reason for his lack of success was that he or his agents were actually double agents for the Illuminati.

That said, I still hold out for another candidate as a solution to this Twitter puzzle.

John Wickham as a Solution

John Wickham was a Loyalist in America during the Revolutionary War. That is, he supported the British Crown. After the war, he was accused of not only having been a supporter of the British, but of also being a spy for the British, a charge of which he was acquitted. He was, however, forced legally to give up his residence in New York, and move to the American South.

John Wickham seems to me by far the better choice for a Wickham who is likely to appear in The Lost Symbol. This is because of the chain of associations that this Wickham has to people and events mentioned in the Twitter clues. Consider this:

John Wickham was a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. Of course, The Lost Symbol focuses extensively on the American Revolutionary War, not the French Revolution.
After moving to the south, John Wickham was the defense attorney for Aaron Burr during Burr's trial for treason. Of course, Burr was the person who killed Alexander Hamilton (Clue #36) in a duel. Burr's alleged treason, years after the duel, involved Burr's efforts to form his own independent empire in the West, efforts that were said to have inspired the similar ambitions of the Knights of the Golden Circle (Clue #34) in later years. The attorney who prosecuted Burr for treason, and who thus struggled against John Wickham, was William Wirt (Clue #6).
John Wickham's descendents in the American South included prominent officers of the Confederate Army -- which was supported by the Knights of the Golden Circle (Clue #34).

Put all the connections together, and John Wickham is clearly the more likely of the two possible Wickhams to play some part in The Lost Symbol. And what might that part be?

John Wickham's connections could put him realistically at the center of a conspiracy to support the cause of the Knights of the Golden Circle, beginning decades before the time (the 1850s) that history reports their formation. In the world of the novel, John Wickham really had been a British spy during the American Revolution; after the Revolutionary War, he secretly maintained his connections, and provided a way for the British to lend support to these Knights of the Golden Circle, in the years leading up to the Civil War--and perhaps after.

Of course, there is a third possibility:

Perhaps both Wickhams show up in the novel.

Clue #98: Pope Boniface VIII

2009-08-08T21:03:00.003-04:00

Posted at 1:18 p.m. (PDT) on Wed., August 5th:

MCCCIII The death of this foe of Dante.

This is clearly a reference to Pope Boniface VIII born about 1235, died in 1303 ("MCCCIII," in Roman numerals). Why would he be of interest to The Lost Symbol? As it happens, there is a reason, and mentioning Dante's name in the clue pins that reason down.

Pope Boniface VIII had very strong opinions concerning the separation of church and state -- a concept to which he was utterly opposed. In his papal bull, Unam Sanctam (1302), he declared that "it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff." In another papal bull, Ausculta Fili (1301), he declared that "God has set popes over kings and kingdoms."

Today, Dante Alighieri is best remembered for writing his magnificent fictional trilogy, "The Divine Comedy" (the Inferno, the Purgatoria, and the Paradiso). However, Dante wrote other works, including a political treatise, De Monarchia ("On Monarchy"), composed at some time between 1308 and 1318. In this book, he argued against theocracy (that is, government by religious authorities), and essentially made a case for the separation of church and state. This position led to conflict between him and Pope Boniface VIII.

What might any of this have to do with The Lost Symbol? There are a couple of ways in which all of this might be relevant.

In his Langdon novels, Dan Brown likes to consider issues dealing with the Catholic Church, issues both centuries-old and contemporary (in Angels & Demons, the relationship of science and religion; in The Da Vinci Code, the nature of Jesus, and the divine Feminine). The issue of separation of church and state has always been a touchy one; indeed, it has been a hot-button issue in American politics for almost 30 years, although not by any means exclusively involving the Catholic Church. I expect that one of the plot devices to appear in The Lost Symbol will be a conspiracy to exert religious influence over the political process -- maybe even a full-blown theocratic conspiracy.

There is an interesting aspect on this theme that involves another facet of The Lost Symbol. We do know that the novel is set within the world of Freemasonry. The separation of church and state has long been embraced by Freemasonry, which has long had a policy of not discussing sectarian religion or politics in their lodge rooms, and who are generally forbidden to consider a candidate's religion or politics when considering someone for membership.

It is not generally known these days that Freemasonry has been condemned for taking these positions -- by a Roman Catholic pope in the 19th century. Pope Leo XIII promulgated the papal encyclical Humanum Genus, which specifically criticized the Masons' support for the separation of church and state. The encyclical also criticizes Masonry for its support of public education and the right to civil (as opposed to solely religious) marriages.

(Humanum Genus also condemns Freemasonry for a variety of other reasons that betray a profound misunderstanding of Freemasonry, but that is a story for another time and place; my book on the subject is in process. I am in the midst of a series on my Masonic blog regarding Catholicism and Freemasonry; the most recent post, which links to earlier posts, is available here.)

At the time Humanum Genus was published in 1884, a response was issued on behalf of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by its famous leader, Albert Pike. The Scottish Rite has long emphasized several principles in its dramatic degree rituals that are relevant to resistance to theocratic rule. Prominent among these are such principles as:

a resistance to tyranny of all types, including religious tyranny;
support for religious and political freedom;
support for public education and free inquiry.

(One can find this described in detail in some books written for Scottish Rite Freemasons, including Rex R. Hutchens' A Bridge to Light and Arturo de Hoyos' Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide. No, I don't make a dime off sales of either book. Yes, I am a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Freemason.)

Thus, it is possible that, in The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown will feature a face-off between a theocratic conspiracy, on the one hand, and some component of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, on the other.

Clue #97: Texas: Aurora sighted in Amarillo

2009-08-08T21:02:00.010-04:00

Posted at 9:52 a.m. (PDT) on Wed. Aug. 5th:

Black Triangle sighted near here: 35.202187, -101.835552

Plugging the coordinates of the clue into GoogleMaps yields the address 299 SE 11th Avenue, Amarillo, Texas. Looking at the street photos in this locale, one sees not far off a black truncated pyramid of a building, currently housing Channel 7 television, which one might think could serve as the "Black Triangle" of the clue (although that's not it, as you will see). Amarillo also has the distinction of possessing the only facility for nuclear weapons assembly and dissassembly in the United States, owned by Pantex; surely this could be a plot point in an apocalyptic, highest-stakes-possible thriller -- such as The Lost Symbol could well be.

However, as it turns out, the solution to this clue involves, not the location mentioned in the clue, but the identification of the "Black Triangle" itself.

According to a long-standing and consistent set of rumors, the SR-91 Aurora is a hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft, developed for the U.S. Air Force to replace the famed SR-71 Blackbird. (An artist's conception of the Aurora aircraft is shown above; click for a larger image.) Hypersonic aircraft would be among the ultimate surveillance technologies.

As it happens, one explanation that has been given for years for UFO sightings is that at least some of them are glimpses of test flights of secret high-performance aircraft. In fact, as a reader on this blog -- Machine.Elves -- noted in a comment on another post that, some time ago, there was a famous sighting in Amarillo of evidence of the Aurora aircraft. This alerted my trusty research staff -- directed by, and entirely composed of, my brilliant imzadi y esposa, Kathleen Koltko-Rivera -- to discover Sandy Tamayo's comment on the Dan Brown Facebook fan page, noting that:

On March 23, 1992, near Amarillo, Texas, Steven Douglas photographed the "doughnuts on a rope" contrail and linked this sighting to distinctive sounds. He described the engine noise in the May 11, 1992, edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Thus, the "Black Triangle" of this clue refers to a glimpse of the Aurora aircraft, in Amarillo, Texas. As Machine.Elves also pointed out, what I call the more fringe-y part of the conspiracy community claims that Black Triangle aircraft are being used to further the aims of a grand conspiracy that is attempting to create a New World Order (a phrase which is mistakenly claimed to be the translation of "Novus Ordo Seclorum" on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States; see my comments on Clue #35). (And a great big tip of the hat to Machine.Elves for bringing this all to my attention, with thanks to Sandy Tamayo.) This solution, the Aurora aircraft, was confirmed by Frank Nelson, an executive at Doubleday, Dan Brown's publishers.

It's not hard to see how this might work into The Lost Symbol. As I mention above, the Aurora aircraft would be cutting-edge technology for surveillance -- for either the forces of good or evil. In addition, however unlikely it would seem to me to do this, the Aurora could be used to transport Robert Langdon around the country at Mach 5.

Incidentally, just to complicate matters further, it is worth noting that there is another way in which the term "Aurora" might work into The Lost Symbol. AURORA is also the name for a cryptographic algorithm, that is, a mathematical system to create a coded message. Developed by Sony and scientists at Nagoya University in Japan, the algorithm is said to have certain weaknesses. This is interesting, given that the Twitter clues for The Lost Symbol include several instances of codes that failed, that is, codes that were broken. These include the Enigma machine (Clue #46) and, especially, the code used in the Babington plot (Clue #15 and Clue #95).

[The image of the artist's conception of the Aurora was created on Jan. 6, 2008, by "Henrickson" with contributions from Bret Danielson. It was obtained from Wikipedia, and is used here under license from the Creative Comons Attribution--ShareAlike 3.0 License, and the GNU Free Documentation License.]

Clue #96: The Black Hand of Serbia

2009-08-08T21:02:00.007-04:00

Posted at 1:37 p.m. (PDT) on Tues., Aug. 4th:

Set events spiraling out of control: {then, in Serbian using Cyrillic characters, the phrase} Unification or Death

The phrase "Unification or Death" (in Serbian) was the motto of an early 20th century political conspiracy group, known (in English) as the Black Hand. (Their seal is shown above; the Cyrillic characters around the top half of the seal are what was shown in the Twitter clue.) Like the real-world Illuminati, the Black Hand embraced assassination as an acceptable means to meet its objectives. Unlike the real-world Illuminati, the Black Hand actually killed people, most famously including Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, the heir presumptive to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Princess Sophie; their assassination was the match that ignited the global agony of World War I.

Okay. So the Black Hand was a secret conspiratorial organization. But would there be any special reasons to mention them in a clue about The Lost Symbol? There sure are:

The members of the Black Hand were assassins. Dan Brown likes to begin his novels with assassinations--in his Langdon novels, these are gory, bloody, nasty assassinations.
The Black Hand started a global war. The Lost Symbol takes place in Washington, DC, where decisions are made about global war and peace.
The name, "Black Hand," has been used by several groups in addition to the Serbian nationalists of a century ago: gangsters in Italy, Islamist militants in Palestine in the 1930s, Frisian noblemen's forces, and several other real and hypothetical groups. We already have seen the Twitter clues use one name that points to two distinct groups: "Sons of Liberty" (Clue 34).

Put it all together, and one might expect some group known as "the Black Hand" to be involved in some highest-of-all-possible-stakes conspiracy: something that could lead to global warfare, in Washington, DC. This group might only share a name with the Serbian group mentioned in this clue.

Then again, perhaps the Dan Brown version of the Black Hand that started WWI was only a front for another secret society, one that started (in the real world) in a state adjoining the Austro-Hungarian Empire where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, that is, Bavaria.

Where the Illuminati were founded.

(The name "Black Hand" shows up lots of places. I'm not even counting the band, the role-playing game villians, the comic book villians, or the inn--yes, the inn. Oh, all right, so it's a music album title. But if it were a real inn -- can you imagine making a reservation? "Hello, Black Hand Inn? Yes, I'd like to make a reservation for two, please, the Honeymoon Package: heart-shaped bathtub, candlelight dinner in the room, and complimentary assassination of all my sweetheart's former romantic interests.")

George Washington: Traitor to the Revolution?

2009-08-07T12:20:00.004-04:00

This morning, a post on Christopher Hodapp's excellent blog, "Freemasons for Dummies," alerted me to an article appearing in the online newspaper, The Scotsman -- an article that reports startling revelations about the plot of The Lost Symbol.

The Scotsman interviewed Robert Cooper, curator of the Scottish Masonic Museum and Library at Freemason's Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland. Cooper, a well-regarded authority on the history of Freemasonry, reported that he had received important information from an unnamed source regarding the premise of The Lost Symbol: the idea that George Washington was actually in league with the British during the Revolutionary War, and that he planned to betray the American Colonial rebels and hand American forces over to the British, until the exposure of Benedict Arnold as a traitor led Washington to embrace the Revolutionary cause.

All of this leads us to ask two questions:

Is Cooper's source likely correct? That is, could this really be the direction that The Lost Symbol is taking, based on what we know from the clues?
Could this possibly be true, in real life? That is, could Washington really have been on the brink of betraying the Revolution?

Is a "Traitorous Washington" Plot Element Consistent With the Twitter Clues?

Short of a peek at the manuscript for The Lost Symbol--which, I assure you, I have not had--the best source we have for the plot of The Lost Symbol is the set of clues being posted by Doubleday on Twitter and Facebook. Is the "traitorous Washington" plot consistent with the Twitter clues?

As a matter of fact, yes, it is.

Consider, for example, Clue #39:

http://twitpic.com/9wl9u - Who is this Redcoat commander?

The URL (a hot link, above) leads to the earliest known portrait of Washington -- a jarring image to modern American eyes -- showing Washington as a British officer during the French and Indian Wars. The more subtle message here may be that Washington remained a British officer, secretly, during the beginning of the Revolution.

(I would also point out that the very numbering of this clue may be a sort of subtle joke on the part of the clue's author. This being the 39th clue may be an homage of sorts to Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film about a foreign espionage network stealing military secrets in England, "The 39 Steps.")

The idea of Washington being a British agent would make sense of Clue #47 (" http://tiny.cc/GjfcP "), which shows the real-life headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)--caught on a surveillance camera!

The clues are full of references to real-life double agents and betrayals, including Aldrich Ames (Clue #55: "Market mailbox, 37th and R. He wants a meeting"), Robert Hanssen (Clue #51: "Betrayer of double agents: http://bit.ly/RuFxx "), and, of course, Benedict Arnold himself (Clue #30: "Braced Indolent was the Revolutionary War's most famous Can Trout": that is 'Benedict Arnold was the Revolutionary War's most famous TurnCoat').

In light of the leak about the novel's plot, perhaps the most interesting reference is Clue #42 ("An agent to France, + his host's "colors". VLODVGHDQH"), which decodes to SILAS DEANE, the name of an American emissary to France during the Revolution. Deane, of course, was spied upon by his own assistant, Edward Bancroft, who reported everything Deane did to the British. Bancroft's role as a double agent was not discovered until long after Bancroft's death, when the British declassified some intelligence papers that revealed his wartime activities. The subtle message in the clue may be that some people's two-faced nature is not discovered until years after their deaths -- perhaps many, many years after . . . .

In summary, the idea that Washington was secretly a British agent during the Revolution is entirely consistent with the clues. But how about real life?

Could Washington Really Have Been a British Agent?

There is absolutely nothing in the real-life history of Washington that is remotely consistent with the notion that he could have been an agent for the British during the Revolutionary War.

George Washington is one of the most intensely scrutinized figures in all of human history, a man who has had many biographies written about him over the course of over two centuries. (See, for example, Joseph J. Ellis's 2004 biography, reissued in 2008, His Excellency: George Washington, published by Knopf; this book made use of recently catalogued Washington papers at the University of Virginia.) No one--and I mean, no one--has ever mentioned the hint of a shadow of a rumor about this kind of duplicity on Washington's part.

In addition, we need to keep in mind that the British of Washington's era and afterwards had no special love for the United States or Washington's legacy, and would have revealed Washington as a British agent if they could have. In our day, after the U.S. came to Britain's aid in not one but two World Wars in the 20th century, after almost a century of comradery-in-arms, it is easy to forget that Britain was quite opposed to the U.S. for decades after the end of the Revolutionary War. Remember the War of 1812--when the British Empire actually invaded the United States, captured Washington, DC, and burned the White House?? In that era, there is nothing that the British would rather have done than demoralize the United States by revealing that Washington himself had been a British agent during the Revolution. The fact that the British did nothing of the sort would suggest that they simply had nothing on Washington.

I realize that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence": that is, the lack of evidence that Washington was a British agent does not prove that he was not one. However, let us consider another principle of evidence: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (Marcello Truzzi's notion, as popularized by Carl Sagan). Anyone who wants to make a claim about Washington as a British agent had better be able to cough up some very solid evidence for that idea -- and, right now, there's bupkis, nada, zilch, nani mo nai wa, and so forth, all euphemisms for the fact that there is absolutely nothing in existence to support this notion.

Summary

It may well be the case that The Lost Symbol has, as a plot device, the idea that George Washington was himself secretly a British agent. This idea is entirely consistent with the clues that have come forth so far. However, this idea is completely at variance with everything we know about Washington in real life.

[The image above shows Rembrandt Peale's portrait of George Washington, painted sometime during the period 1795-1823; it it currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. The image was obtained from Wikimedia Commons, which states that the image is in the public domain.]

Welcome to Version 2.0 of the "Key to The Lost Symbol Clues" Blog!

2009-08-06T08:17:00.002-04:00

After a couple of weeks filing posts on this blog regarding the Twitter clues about The Lost Symbol, on July 13 I removed all the posts. I did this because it had come to my attention that, essentially, I was doing the research work of other writers who were developing books regarding The Lost Symbol. However, at this point, I think I have more to gain by building this platform for my work than I have to lose by sharing it.

In order to protect my own contributions for future publication, I will not comment on every clue. Rather, every day or two, I will comment on a clue that is particularly intriguing, from among the clues that have been posted in the preceding 24 to 48 hours. In addition, I have reposted some of my previous responses to some clues. (Please note: links to posts that have not been reposted will not work.)

I am glad to be returning to this blog. I very much enjoyed the give-and-take of the comments, and the opportunity to be part of the public community commenting on the Twitter clues.

I invite new readers to take a look at my earlier posts, perhaps especially including the "Welcome" post and the orientation to Freemasonry. You may gain access to earlier posts through the "Blog Archive" to the right.

Clue #37: Deism, the Founding Fathers, and Robert Langdon

2009-07-09T21:44:00.006-04:00

The 37th Twitter clue, sent at about 1:15 p.m. PDT, Thurs., July 9th:

http://twitpic.com/9tc89

The URL in the clue is a hot link to a TwitPic, a detail of Michelangelo's utterly breathtaking work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, specifically a detail of the face of God in a section dealing with the creation of the Sun and the Moon (shown above).

However, in the TwitPic, the face of God is overlayed with five numbers in Roman numerals. John Stump reported the solution to this code on Dan Brown's Facebook fan page, within a few minutes of the clue's posting. (Congratulations, John Stump!)

The five Roman numerals represent the 4th, 5th, 9th, 19th, and 13th letters of the English alphabet, thus spelling out the word DEISM.

[I quote below, with some modifications, from one of my other blogs, "Freemasonry: Reality, Myth, and Legend," where I recently considered the matter of Deism in a post at some length.]

Theism vs. Deism

There are many ways to conceive of God. One set of ways comes under the heading of Theism, a group of ideas about God that encompasses Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

A theistic notion of God takes the position that God created the universe and is vitally concerned with its affairs, including the affairs of humankind; God watches over us, individually and collectively (part of the meaning of the 'Eye of God' symbol, incidentally). A theistic God communicates the Divine Will to people from time to time, for their benefit -- the process of revelation, which may result in the accumulation of scriptures as records of revelation. A theistic God may work miracles to serve divine purposes. Those who believe in a theistic notion of God are called theists.

A different way to conceive of God is the position of Deism. In the deistic perspective, God created the universe, but does not particularly intervene in the affairs of the universe or humankind. To some extent, humankind may come to know a deistic God through the workings of human reason, but a deistic God does not communicate through revelation; thus, whatever people designate as 'scriptures' are merely human creations and interpretations. A deistic God does not interfere with the workings of natural law, and so does not work miracles. A deistic God gave reason and compassion to all of humankind, but otherwise does not actively intervene in the lives of individuals. Those who believe in a deistic notion of God are called deists.

The Founding Fathers and Deism

Some prominent American founding fathers were deists. Certainly this is so for George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe; the case for their being deists is made convincingly by David L. Holmes, in his brief, excellent, and accessible book, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). (Of course, the French philosopher Voltaire was a noted deist. Voltaire was a major intellectual influence on the Founding Fathers, so much so that I have nominated him as the answer to Clue #29 as the French 'honorary founding father.')

Relevance to The Lost Symbol

It is clear that the U.S. Founding Fathers will play a major role in this novel in some way. As I have mentioned, several of them were deists. Dan Brown likes to bring up different positions on matters of faith, religion, and spirituality; no doubt he will address deism as a potential position, perhaps one agreeable to his hero, Robert Langdon.

One thing I hope Dan Brown does not do is perpetuate the oft-repeated falsehood that Freemasonry is inherently deist. It is not; if anything, Freemasonry is skewed in the direction of theism, a case I make here.

In any case, it will be a welcome experience to see religion addressed seriously in popular literature.

[The image was obtained from Wikimedia Commons via Wikipedia. It is in the public domain, at least in the United States.]

Clue #36: Alexander Hamilton -- and a Hint of Cryptography

2009-07-09T20:29:00.008-04:00

The 36th Twitter clue, posted at about 7:00 a.m. PDT, Thurs., July 9th:

Near the buttonwood's accord lies a field of Christ. His marker there would make even Khafra smile.

The solution to the fundamental elements of this clue was announced on Dan Brown's Facebook fan page by Cheryl Lynn Helm, about 30 minutes after the clue was posted. Good for you, Cheryl!

"Buttonwood's accord" is a reference to the Buttonwood Agreement of May 17, 1792, which established the New York Stock & Exchange Board (later known as the New York Stock Exchange, now the NYSE Group). The agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers under a buttonwood (i.e., sycamore) tree outside 68 Wall Street in lower Manhattan, New York City. Of course, the New York Stock Exchange was and remains fundamental to the development of American-style capitalism.

"Field of Christ" is a reference to a cemetery. U.S. Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, is buried in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery, perhaps a 5-minute walk or so from the location of the Buttonwood Agreement. His grave marker (the "marker" of the clue, of course, shown above) is in the form of a pyramid with a flat apex.

Khafra, or Khafre (also known as Khephren) is the Egyptian pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty (2650-2480 BC) who built the second largest of the 3 famous pyramids of Giza. In one of his best-known representations, he is represented as smiling. The author of the clue is remarking on how Khafra would be pleased to see a pyramid on Hamilton's grave.

The Next Level

One thing that has consistently shown up in the Twitter clues about this novel is that many clues are very subtle: the same word is meant to be taken in more than one way, and a seemingly off-the-cuff reference may actually be crucial to the novel. Such is the case here. For we must ask: what put Alexander Hamilton's body under that pyramidal grave marker -- that is, what killed him? And why even bring up Khafra, rather than half a dozen other pharaohs?

Warning: no matter how weird things get in this section of the post, I want you to remember: everything in "The Next Level" actually happened in real life.

Alexander Hamilton (b. 1755 or 1757--d. 1804) is on everyone's list of U.S. Founding Fathers. Like many of them, he was a Freemason. He was the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and as such ties into the financial theme that runs through this clue. However, it gets murkier than that, and intensely conspiratorial, in real life, very quickly.

Hamilton was mortally wounded by Aaron Burr, in a duel in Weehawken, NJ, just across the river from Manhattan Island. At the time, Burr was serving as the Vice-President of the United States, under Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson's first term as President. Burr came under intense criticism, especially among Northern voters, for killing Hamilton. Burr left the Vice Presidency at the end of his term (Jefferson entering a second term as President with a different VP), and then things really got weird.

Burr moved into what was then the West of the territories of the U.S., and apparently came up with a scheme that, if successful, would have left him as essentially the king of a separate nation, incorporating much of what is now Texas, northern Mexico, and nearby areas. (I should point out that these were the very areas later focused on by the Knights of the Golden Circle, or KGC, whom we met in Clue #34; see this article with its provocative map).

Burr was arrested and put on trial for treason, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. The team for the prosecution included the young William Wirt, whom we met in Clue #6. (You will recall Wirt as the Freemason who later abandoned the Masons, and ran against Jackson for the Presidency on the Anti-Masonic Party ticket; after his death, Wirt's corpse was beheaded, and his skull was stolen right out of his crypt in the Congressional Cemetery.)

(Incidentally, Burr was not a Mason. However, his defense attorney, the young Henry Clay -- distant relative of my wife, Kathleen -- was a very prominent Mason later in his life.)

Which leaves us with Khafra. I find it interesting that the alternate spelling of his name, Khafre, is also the name of a sophisticated block cipher developed 20 years ago. The publication of the cipher was originally blocked by the National Security Agency, but through a variety of mishaps it came to public attention anyway.

So there we have it: Founding Fathers, a fatal duel, a conspiracy to rule a chunk of North America, pyramids galore, and a code scheme so threatening that the NSA wanted to block its publication -- and all in real life. What's not for Dan Brown to love?

Potential Relevance to The Lost Symbol

So where might Brown be going with all this? A couple of things come to mind.

You can't have a good conspiracy without a hefty amount of cash. The clue points in passing at one of the most massive wealth-engines in human history, the New York Stock Exchange, founded in the earliest days of the American Republic -- hey, Washington was still in his first term. Perhaps the conspiracy that Dan Brown depicts in his novel has something to do with the NYSE. (Of course, the Confederate gold mentioned in Clue #34 might work in here, too.)

My guess is that, in the novel, Burr somehow has connections with the KGC, connections that somehow reverberate down to our own day. (Thus, the KGC would be the "bad guy" secret society in the novel. Would the Freemasons be the "good guys"?)

In the world of the novel, Hamilton's flat-topped pyramid may resonate with the unfinished pyramid of the Great Seal of the U.S., discussed in relation to Clue #35.

The Khafre cipher can encrypt small amounts of data very quickly, which, in Dan Brown's universe, could come in mighty handy . . .

Clue #35: The Great Seal of the U.S.

2009-07-08T19:52:00.014-04:00

The 35th Twitter clue, sent at about 2 p.m. (PDT) on Wed. July 8th:

Our favored endeavor in the language of the Tiber.

Of course, the language of the Tiber river area in ancient Rome was Latin. The phrase that is being hinted at in this clue is one of the two most reproduced Latin phrases in the world -- given that they are on the back of every $1 bill currently in circulation in the United States. The phrase is annuit coeptis, and it appears on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States (shown above). The phrase translates to "He [that is, God] has favored [our] endeavors"; it may also be translated as "he has approved [our] undertakings." (The front or 'obverse' side of the Great Seal is the side with the eagle on it.)

That is the surface solution to the clue. However, this being a clue about a Dan Brown novel, we need to consider what else this clue brings up. Of course, we also have to consider what this all tells us about The Lost Symbol.

To mention the one phrase, annuit coeptis, is to point a finger at the entire of the reverse side of the Great Seal. Let's take a good look at that, and consider its implications for the novel.

The Interpretation of the Reverse of the Great Seal

The reverse of the Great Seal of the United States has been the subject of more frankly bizarre and even paranoid writing than any other other single object or image that I can think of. This is so, even though the actual interpretation of the objects on the Great Seal is easy to find, in several places; one such place is this excellent article on Wikipedia. Let's go over the elements of the Seal one by one, and consider two different approaches to interpretation: the real life one, and the grossly paranoid one.

For the real life interpretation, I'll be using the explanation given by Charles Thomson, the man who actually designed the Seal at the request of Congress. Thomson was the Secretary of the U.S. Congress, to whom Congress gave all the material submitted by three prior committees who had been asked to submit ideas for the seal. Thompson received these materials on June 13, 1782, and submitted his own ideas a week later. (His full description is available in several places, including the Wikipedia article.) Incidentally, let me say at the outset: Thomson was not a Freemason.

For the grossly paranoid conspiratorial approach, I will use Nicholas Hagger's book, The Secret Founding of America: The Real Story of Freemasons, Puritans and the Battle for the New World (London: Watkins, 2007; paperback, 2009); I am focusing on pp. 136-139 of the hardcover edition. I do not mean to compliment the book, because it is a rat's nest of gullibility, rumor, truly wild fantasy, and nonsense -- but there is a lot of that going around these days, and someone has to respond to it. Hagger claims that the Great Seal of the U.S., both sides, was inspired by the similar seal of the Illuminati -- no example of which has been reported by legitimate historians, of course. (Looking at his footnotes and references, I think Hagger has simply taken other conspiracy writers' word for it. Read about the Illuminati in the posts here for Clues #5 and #33.)

So here goes.

The Pyramid

Thomson brought in the unfinished pyramid with 13 courses of stone, and the Eye atop it, from the designs of the third committee, who in turn had taken the pyramid, apparently, from the design of the $50 note. Thomson wrote that "the pyramid signifies Strength and Duration." Makes sense: the Egyptian pyramids have been there a long time. For a fledgling nation, having a pyramid as a symbol would be like a positive affirmation in our day: "Yes, I will endure."

Hagger states that Ben Franklin came into contact with the Illuminati in Paris, and looked at their symbol as an inspiration of the Great Seal of the U.S. "The Illuminati Seal's reverse side showed a Templar 13-layered, four sided pyramid with its capstone missing. ... The esoteric significance of the pyramid was connected with Atlantis. There was a belief that the university of Atlantis, where all arts and sciences originated, was housed in a pyramid with an observatory at the top where the stars could be studied."

Later, specifically in relation to the American seal, Haggar writes: "The Templar pyramid suggests there is a plan to build a New Atlantis in a New World and that it is America's spiritual destiny to complete its building. The Utopian pyramid is in fact a world government in which all nations are bricks ... a new Tower of Babel where all languages will be heard."

The Eye at the Apex of the Pyramid

Thomson: "The Eye over it [the pyramid] & the Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause." That is, the eye and motto signify the many times God came to the aid of the Americans in the war. Fair enough: the colonists had a lot of good breaks in their war against England, a far more powerful nation, and they attributed that to God.

Hagger on the Illuminati symbol, taken over for the American Seal: "Above [the pyramid] was a triangle in sun-rays and within it the All-Seeing Eye of Osiris and Sion, which some said represented Weishaupt's spying system." He considers this a symbol of both the Illuminati and Freemasonry.

The Date on the Pyramid

Thomson: "The date is that of the Declaration of Independence."

Hagger on the Illuminati seal: "On the bottom layer [of the pyramid] in Latin was a date, 1776, the year Weishaupt founded the Illuminati."

The Top Motto: Annuit Coeptis

As noted above, Thomson said the motto above the pyramid alluded to the help of God in favor of the American cause. The motto was the idea of Thomson, a former Latin teacher; the correct translation from the Latin is clearly along the lines of "he has favored our endeavor."

Hagger on the Illuminati seal: "The 13 letters in Annuit Coeptis ('Announcing the Birth') suggested 13 October 1307, when Templarism was first persecuted, and the 13 degrees of Templar initiation."

The Bottom Motto: Novus Ordo Seclorum

Thomson contributed the bottom motto as well; the correct Latin translation is clearly "A New Order of the Ages." (The word "secular," as in non-religious, does not work in here at all.) Thomson says that "the words under it [that is, the date 1776] signify the beginning of the new American Aera [that is, Era], which commences from that date."

Hagger on the U.S. seal: "The full Latin text on the reverse [that is, of the Great Seal] thus reads: 'Announcing the Birth of a New Secular Order' (or 'New World Order')."

How This All Might Work Into The Lost Symbol

I have gone into detail here to show that there are really two entirely different views of reality that can be applied to the reverse of the Great Seal. In the real life one, it is the symbol of the hopes of a new nation. In the fantasy one, it is the symbol of conspiracy and mind control. Where might Dan Brown be going with this symbol?

What do you think?

One Final Note: The Eye-in-the-Triangle, Freemasonry, and the Illuminati

This would be a good place to address an often-repeated but totally inaccurate set of claims, to the effect that the eye-in-the-triangle motif is a special sign of Freemasonry or the Illuminati.

This idea is certainly prevalent in popular society. For example, the eye-in-the-triangle is depicted as the sign of the Illuminati in the popular movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." However, the reality is that the real Illuminati, the Bavarian Illuminati founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776, did not use this symbol. The association between the Illuminati and this symbol is entirely in the imaginations of the more fringe-y parts of the conspiracy theorist community, who cite one another's fantasies as fact and claim to have done real "research."

As far as Freemasonry is concerned, the story is a bit more complicated. Yes, Freemasons have used the symbol of the eye-in-the-triangle for many years; I even give a rare example incorporating the eye-in-the-triangle with the Masonic compasses in the illustration to my post about Freemasonry. However, the symbol did not originate with Freemasonry. One can find it, for example, in Christian artwork, such as Jacopo Carucci's "Supper at Emmaus" (1525). It also occurs in the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (as noted Masonic author Christopher Hodapp and Alice VonKannon point out in the May 1, 2009 post regarding the Illuminati on their blog, "Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies for Dummies" -- with a lovely photo, too).

Thus, the most that one can claim about this is that the symbol occurs in Freemasonry, but it did not originate within Freemasonry.

[The image was obtained from the Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia. As a product of the U.S. Federal government, it is in the public domain.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Clue #34: The Sons of Liberty -- and the Knights of the Golden Circle

2009-07-08T16:11:00.012-04:00

The 34th Twitter clue, sent about 12:04 p.m. PDT on Wed. July 8th:
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http://twitpic.com/9ph81 - Who flew this rebellious banner?
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The URL is a hot link to a TwitPic showing a flag with 9 alternating red and white stripes. I'm sure a lot of people thought this was some just the right-hand edge of some kind of Colonial-era flag.
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No. It was the whole thing, as a really careful inspection of the TwitPic showed.
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In fact, this was the nine-striped flag of the Sons of Liberty, a Revolutionary War-era group (really, an association of local resistance groups given a common name) responsible for such activities as the Boston Tea Party. Their 9-striped flag (shown above) was called the "rebellious stripes flag," echoing the clue.
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However, this is not all. (Come on, guys -- this is Dan Brown. The surface answer is almost never enough.) There are two more connections to make with the Sons of Liberty, one of which is just devious, the other of which is downright inflammatory.
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First, there is a connection to Freemasonry. For over two centuries, the myth has been that a lodge of Freemasons, St. Andrew's Lodge of Boston, was behind the Boston Tea Party. The actual story is a bit more complicated. (Read the details in S. Brent Morris' excellent The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry.) Overall, my opinion is that a number of Masonic brethren discussed the upcoming demonstration, perhaps even in lodge, and then participated in it; thus, the Boston Tea Party was a production of Masons (and many others), but was not itself a Masonic activity.
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Now for the inflammatory part. The name, "Sons of Liberty," was appropriated over 80 years after the Revolutionary War by another group that is almost certain to appear in The Lost Symbol: the Knights of the Golden Circle.
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During the Civil War, some of Lincoln's political opponents also opposed the war itself. Such groups and individuals were derisively labelled Copperheads (for the snake) by Lincoln's supporters. Copperheads wanted an immediate truce to the war; some encouraged resistance to the Union draft, shielded Union Army deserters, and sometimes planned to help Confederate prisoners of war take over their prison camps.
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A large Copperhead group, the Knights of the Golden Circle, was actually organized in Cincinnati, Ohio, almost a decade before the war, in 1854. Gaining much sympathy in the South, their agenda was to take over Mexico as a slave-owning state of the Union; they raised armed groups to do so, although their attacks on Mexico were unsuccessful. With the outbreak of the Civil War, they changed agenda to work to help the Confederacy. The Golden Circle reorganized in 1863 as the Order of the Sons of Liberty, just before they officially dissolved as their support in the North evaporated the following year in the face of Union military victories.
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But did they really dissolve? Or did they just disappear from sight?
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Before the war, the Knights of the Golden Circle were very interested in bringing the territories of what is now in the Southwest into the U.S. as slave states. They had operatives in those territories, part of which was obtained for the U.S. in the Gadsden Purchase (a name we met in Clue #28; perhaps that clue was just left to put the name Gadsden out there).
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There have been rumors for years that the Knights of the Golden Circle endured as a totally secret society after the Civil War, and amassed a fortune in gold that they hid--and that is still out there somewhere, held in secrecy to help finance the rise of the Old South again, some day. (A commenter on this blog says he is Warren Getler, co-author of a book investigating these rumors, for which Getler is convinced he's found evidence. Getler is also convinced that Albert Pike of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry was a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle.)
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So, here's where this might all go in The Lost Symbol: one piece of the puzzle would involve a conspiracy dating from before the Civil War, as the Knights of the Golden Circle, underground as the Sons of Liberty, have hidden the Confederate gold for a century, with the help of Albert Pike of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Now, in our era, someone plans to use that gold -- but for some sinister purpose, no doubt . . .
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[The image of the flag was obtained from Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia, and is in the public domain.]
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(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)
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Clue #33: Adam Weishaupt, reputed honorary Founding Father

2009-07-08T11:12:00.011-04:00

We now delve deep into the aluminum-hat sector of the Land of Conspiracy Theory.

The 33rd Twitter clue, sent at about 7:30 a.m. PDT, Wed. July 8th:

Ehrenhalber gruendervater?

[Note: I cannot represent in Blogger the u-umlaut -- the "u with two dots over it" in gruendervater, and so, per the usual practice, added the first "e."]

This is German for "honorary founding father?"; however, in contrast to Clue #29, which was about someone who is acknowledged by legitimate historians as an 'honorary founding father' (the French philosopher Voltaire), this Twitter clue involves someone who is only claimed as an 'honorary founding father' by the most fringe-y of conspiracy researchers.

You see, there is no German intellectual who provided philosophical inspiration to the American Founding Fathers, no parallel to Voltaire. (Military leaders of any nation, like the German von Steuben, do not count for the status of "founding father"; among American Founding Fathers, only Washington was military.) However, for over two centuries, it has been rumored that there was a German -- actually, a Bavarian -- who acted as the secret force behind the American Revolution: Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, upon whom I focused in my consideration of Clue #5.

A lot of people were actually less than happy with the American Revolution. A lot of Loyalists (people who supported the English crown) were put out by being forced to leave the former colonies for their political position. A lot of clergy of "established" churches (churches formerly supported by the government) were troubled by the withdrawal of support, which they took to be an attempt to undermine religion generally. Overall, many people in the new United States -- echoing even greater numbers of people in Europe, still under the power of Crown and Church -- were troubled by the direction that the new Republic was taking, in denying aristocrats and clergy their former privileged position in government.

Thus arose the rumor that the inspiration of the new Republic was actually the Illuminati, the anticlerical, antiroyalist secret society, also founded in 1776 (although in Bavaria) by Weishaupt (pictured above). Although the Illuminati were suppressed beginning in 1784, and essentially extinct by 1793, it was in their afterlife that the Illuminati really got going.

In the 1790s and thereafter, American clergy preached sermons from their pulpits against the supposed influence of the Illuminati in the United States. Books originally published in Europe alleging the ongoing Illuminist conspiracy, such as John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy (1797), were widely read in the United States and fanned the flames of what amounted to hysteria. The first novel by the first American to make his living as a novelist, Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland (and his unfinished Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist) involved the role of an Illuminati agent in America impersonating the voice of God to convince a man to murder his wife and children. Thomas Jefferson himself had to answer charges that he was an Illuminatus.

It gets better. The 1970s-era Illuminatus! trilogy of novels, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (two editors at Playboy), put forth the rumor that Adam Weishaupt left Europe, came to the United States, murdered George Washington and actually took Washington's place as first President of the U.S. Now, looking at the portrait of Weishaupt above, you can see how this rumor began. However, incredibly enough, there are those who believe today that this actually happened!

No, it gets even better. Current on-the-fringe proponents of conspiracy theories -- people like Jim Marrs, Texe Marrs, and David Icke -- say that the modern world is under the secret control of the Illuminati even today. For Jim Marrs, the Illuminati are political powers; for Texe Marrs, they are Satanists; for David Icke, they are reptile-like space aliens. (No, I am not making this up.)

How will the Illuminati and Weishaupt figure into The Lost Symbol? Good question. In the Dan Brown universe, the Illuminati were a society of scientists founded in the 1500s in Rome; in reality, they were a society of anticlerical, antiroyalist conspirators founded in 1776 in Bavaria. Perhaps Brown will include Weishaupt and the Bavarian Illuminati as a later incarnation of his scientific society; after all, in Angels & Demons, Robert Langdon said the Illuminati had taken a "darker" turn. It looks as if Brown will be resurrecting the old rumors about the Illuminati being involved in the founding of the American republic. However, this being Dan Brown, you can be sure that he will add twists and turns and unforeseen developments galore.

Incidentally, it is a nice touch by the clue authors to make this the 33rd Twitter clue. Of course, the number "33" (in a triangle, yet!) figures into the newly released cover of The Lost Symbol (see the post on Clue #31). The ruling body of the Scottish Rite is described as the Supreme Council, 33rd degree. And, of course, in the fringe of the conspiracy theory community, Scottish Rite 33rd degree Freemasons supposedly rule the world.

Bonus "Clue 31 1/2": Facebook Post: The Six-Pointed Star

2009-07-07T16:29:00.011-04:00

Posted, not on Twitter, but on Facebook, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) on Tues., July 7th:

Dan Brown's publisher invites you to solve this:

43.027239, -85.634995

44.309355, -105.493126

30.335547, -97.711716

43.027239, -85.634995

47.960962, -97.021637

33.706063, -111.939697

33.819089, -84.355774

47.460962, -97.021637

To the best of my knowledge, it was one of this blog's followers, "Bad News," who originally came up with the interpretation that these were paired geographical coordinates of latitude and longitude (in decimal format), each pair of coordinates thus defining a point.

You will note that the first and fourth pairs (or points) are identical; this suggests to me that the reader is meant to draw a line from the first point to the second, from the second to the third, and from the third to the fourth (which is the same as the first point). In the same way, the fact that the fifth and eight pairs of coordinates are identical suggests to me that the reader is meant to draw a line from the fifth point to the sixth, from the sixth to the seventh, and from the seventh to the eighth (same as the fifth).

Connecting up the points in this fashion creates two intersecting triangles on the map of the United States, illustrated above. The first, downward-pointing triangle connects Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Gillette, Wyoming, and Austin, Texas. The second, upward-pointing triangle connects Grand Forks, North Dakota to Phoenix, Arizona and Atlanta, Georgia. The resulting shape, of course, looks like the largest Star of David or Seal of Solomon in the world.

Wow. Where do we go with this? There are at least two interpretations for this clue, one Masonic, and one technological. (Of course, with Dan Brown, these may both be correct.)

The Masonic Interpretation

It is worth pointing out that this shape recalls Clue #1, part of the solution of which is the phrase, "6 points of the Star of David" -- a shape shown here on a continental scale. In that clue, the phrase was encoded in an initial-letter cipher, a traditional Masonic code in use in the real world for almost three centuries.

Thus, perhaps the six points of the Star of David shown here are meant to have some sort of significance in the context of Freemasonry. Of course, all of these cities have at least one Masonic lodge in it, but that is nothing distinctive; almost every American city of any size has at least one Masonic lodge in it.

As it happens, The Lost Symbol clues indicate that the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry has a special place in the novel. The Scottish Rite offers an additional set of degrees beyond the three degrees of initiation in basic Freemasonry. Scottish Rite facilities are far fewer in number than the lodges of basic Freemasonry, although each of these meeting places ("valleys" in Scottish Rite vocabulary) has a much larger number of members than the typical lodge. We see the seal of the Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, of the Scottish Rite shown in the seal in the center of the cover of The Lost Symbol (Clue #31). In addition, some important symbolism of the Scottish Rite rituals of initiation are evident in some of the Twitter clues, such as the "Christogram" clue (Clue #18).

So, what might the Scottish Rite have to do with these six points of the map? As it happens, 4 of the points (Grand Rapids, Austin, Atlanta, and Phoenix) lie within a 15-minute drive of a Scottish Rite meeting place. A fifth point (Grand Forks) lies within a 45-minute drive. Only one point (Gillette, WY) lies a great distance from a Scottish Rite facility.

It also is noteworthy that 5 of the 6 points are in the territory of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite. (Only Grand Rapids, MI, is in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.) This is important because of a quirk in the Dan Brown universe.

Dan Brown uses a great deal of research and background sources to create the world of his novels. For example, in writing The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown created his world on the basis of ideas reported as fact in a work of alternative history: Holy Blood, Holy Grail (by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln). In writing The Lost Symbol, some Brown-watchers believe that Dan Brown is leaning on at least two other works of alternative or speculative history:

David Ovason, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital: The Masons and the Building of Washington, DC (New York: HarperCollins, 2000).
Warren Getler and Bob Brewer, Shadow of the sentinel: One man's quest to find the hidden treasure of the confederacy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003; the 2005 paperback is titled Rebel Gold).

Each of these books makes claims about a man named Albert Pike, who led the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction for many years in the 19th century. In particular, the Getler and Brewer book claims that Albert Pike was secretly in league with the Knights of the Golden Circle (Clue #34) a group that supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. According to Getler and Brewer, Pike helped conceal billions of dollars in Confederate gold for use in a future Civil War.

Getler and Brewer write that they build their case on evidence that is circumstantial. I do not think that this is true. In my estimate, their case does not ascend to the level of the circumstantial. Rather, as I see it, their case is essentially built on speculation, even fantasy. They present not a shred of actual evidence to support their case regarding Pike and his allegiances.

However, this might not matter to Dan Brown. Thus, what we may see in The Lost Symbol is a backstory like the following: During the 19th century, there was a conspiracy where Albert Pike helped the Knights of the Golden Circle to hide billions of dollars in Confederate gold at facilities of the Scottish Rite, especially of the Southern Jurisdiction, facilities that were widely scattered about the United States. In the current day, these billions are now about to be put at the disposal of some contemporary Conspiracy, no doubt for nefarious purposes.

The Technological Interpretation

Flashing forward to Clue #97, we find a reference to a classified hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft, the Aurora, described as a "Black Triangle." On our map above, we have two black triangles. How might these be connected?

The Aurora is estimated at being capable of speeds between Mach 5 and Mach 6 (roughly 3,300 to 4000 mph). If one is going to test fly a hypersonic aircraft like this, one must fly it over immense distances. Each of the triangles on the map above could be traversed in roughly an hour by the Aurora, flying at top speed; this would be a good period of time for a test flight.

Thus, it may be that the map is meant to show the flight paths of two test flights for the Aurora aircraft. In The Lost Symbol, the Aurora might be involved in high-tech surveillance -- or, perhaps in something that was more materially destructive. (How could you shoot down a hypersonic bomber that could outrun any missile sent against it?)

High stakes -- that's what I think will find in The Lost Symbol: the highest of stakes.

[The image of the United States with the intersecting triangles was created by the blog author, working with a public domain image of the map of the U.S. located by Kathleen Koltko-Rivera.]

Clue #31: The Cover of The Lost Symbol -- and the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

2009-07-07T13:06:00.016-04:00

The cat is really out of the bag now.

This morning, Doubleday released the cover art for Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (shown above, in the higher-resolution version featured on the website of NBC's "The Today Show").

Of course, having the cover feature the Capitol building (see Clue #8) confirms that Washington, DC is the setting of the novel. There are also alchemical symbols galore on the cover (three sets, in fact -- in the alchemically significant colors of black, red, and white), confirming that alchemy will be featured in the novel (see my comments on Clue #17 and #18). However, the really big news here involves the central element of the cover, the blood red wax seal, significantly (and sinisterly) set just above the Capitol building. On "The Today Show" website, the seal is described as follows:

The jacket also prominently features a wax seal, inside of which is a double-headed Phoenix, the No. 33, and the Latin phrase, "Ordo ae Chao," which translates to "Order from Chaos." These elements are tied to secret societies throughout history.

The producers and staff of "The Today Show" are to be thanked for doing such a good job of making out the elements of the seal. However, there are a couple of crucial corrections that I would like to make:

First, that is a double-headed eagle, not a phoenix. Second, the Latin is Ordo Ab Chao. Third, and most important, these elements in combination -- the double-headed eagle, the number "33" within a triangle, and the motto Ordo Ab Chao -- are associated with only one 'secret' society: The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry -- which includes what is perhaps the largest single Masonic organization in the world today. (And, yes: I am glad to be a member myself.)

Dan Brown has put, as the seal on his cover, a version of the seal of what is called, in a style typical of the early 19th century, "The Supreme Council (Mother Council of the World) of the Inspectors General Knights Commander of the House of the Temple of Solomon of the Thirty-third and last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America."

The Mother Council, from which all other Scottish Rite Supreme Councils around the world are descended, was established on May 31, 1801, in Charleston, South Carolina. Its current headquarters are in Washington, DC, in the magnificent House of the Temple. (Don't be surprised if the House of the Temple shows up in the novel. How could Dan Brown resist? It has two giant stone sphinxes in front, for heaven's sake -- you just don't pass that kind of thing up!)

The seal of the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction (SJ) shows these basic elements: the double-headed eagle, the "33" in a triangle, a crown (also seen on the seal shown on the cover of Dan Brown's novel), and a scroll with a motto, either Deus Meumque Jus ("God and My Right") or Ordo Ab Chao, or sometimes both, as shown here. A slightly different version of the seal of the 33rd degree may also be seen in the rightmost medallion on this page on the website of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite (the United States being unique in the world in having two sovereign jurisdictions of the Scottish Rite).

The point of all of this: Dan Brown's novel is not only going to be set within the world of Freemasonry (as, long ago, Brown said it would be): it will be set within the world of the Scottish Rite, a system of initiatory rituals that is drenched in the symbolism of esoteric spiritual traditions drawn from across history, including kabbalah, the Knights Templar, alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and more.

This is symbologist heaven. No wonder Dan Brown sent Robert Langdon there.

You heard it here first.

Updates

(12:24 p.m. EDT, Wed. 8 July:) The black symbols, the hardest to see, may include figures of code distributed by 19th century Scottish Rite leader Albert Pike. The red symbols in the circle appear to be astrological symbols. The white symbols, clearest to see, appear to be alchemical symbols. More updates as we roll along.

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)
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Clue #22: Albrecht Durer, Part 2

2009-07-06T21:30:00.019-04:00

The 22nd Twitter clue, sent at 8:50 a.m. PDT, Thurs., July 2nd:

His subjects are the first couple, horned ungulate, blessed Jerome.

Here we meet again the renowned German Renaissance artist, Albrecht Durer, featured in Clue #9 (life detailed here and here; reproductions of many pieces of art available at the latter site, and here). Among Durer's most famous artworks are his representations of Adam and Eve (the first human couple mentioned in the Bible; see his engraving of 1504 and painting of 1507), his engraving of a rhino (an "ungulate," or hoofed beast, with a horn), and his engraving of St. Jerome in his study (all shown above).

Why bring up Durer again? In my description of Clue #9, I focused on Masonic symbolism in Durer's work. However, there are other reasons for Durer to figure into The Lost Symbol, especially given the religious climate in which he lived. Durer harbored significant sympathies in favor of reforming the Catholic church, although he remained Catholic himself -- much like Michelangelo. Perhaps Dan Brown plans to portray Durer as a member of the Spirituali, the secret society for Catholic reform, of which Michelangelo was a member (Clue #19).

But why mention these particular pieces of art? The artworks themselves are certainly masterpieces. One might guess that, in the novel, they are specific pieces that will be at some sort of Durer exhibition or collection in or near Washington, DC. (Of course, many copies of a given print are struck off, so it is easy for a printmaker like Durer to have original prints on display or in collections all over the world.) In terms of the specific pieces, though, a few things come to mind.

Adam and Eve

The topic of Adam and Eve, of course, brings up the topic of human reproduction. As I have speculated with regard to Clue #11, conflict concerning reproductive technologies and their religious implications is a topic that might come up in the novel. This would be natural for Dan Brown, whose works combine centuries-old conspiracy with cutting-edge high-tech science. For example, in Angels & Demons, a significant plot device involves the creation of antimatter; perhaps The Lost Symbol involves a high-tech topic like human cloning.

Another issue that comes to mind is the idea of Adam and Eve as a married couple. In traditional belief, Adam and Eve were married by God in the Garden of Eden. (See, in the Jewish Tanakh or the Christian Bible's Old Testament, the passage Genesis 1:28.) Symbolically, however, marriage of male and female has sigificance in esoteric studies and alchemy (see C. G. Jung, Collected Works, vol. 13, "Alchemical Studies," and vol. 14, "Mysterium Coniunctionis"). Thus, Durer's Adam and Eve print and painting may touch upon alchemical themes that we have met in Clue #18 and shall meet again in Clue #25 (the Rosy Cross).

Rhinoceros

Durer made his 1515 woodcut of a rhinoceros without ever having seen one; he read a description and saw a quick sketch of one that had just been delivered to Lisbon. Nonetheless, and despite its scientific inaccuracies, this woodcut still appeared in the occasional German science textbook, into the 20th century. It's a stretch, but perhaps in The Lost Symbol the matter of Durer's Rhinoceros touches upon issues of observation and science; these are topics that come up prominently in the Twitter clue involving Francis Bacon (Clue #7).

Of its own, the rhino is a symbol associated with virility, strength, and invulnerability in combat. However, in earlier centuries in Europe, the rhinoceros was sometimes confused with the mythical unicorn, a creature replete with esoteric symbolism.

St. Jerome

Durer's woodcut of St. Jerome is universally acknowledged as one of his masterpieces. St. Jerome, of course, is particularly known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, which formed the basis for the Vulgate Bible that was declared the official Bible of the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent (1545-1563, a generation after Durer's death).

Jerome is a figure of the 4th century; interestingly, he is known as "Blessed Jerome" to the Eastern Orthodox Church, rather than the Catholic Church. One of his teachers was Apollinaris of Laodicea, noted opponent of the ancient Arian beliefs that we met in Clue #17; in turn, Apollinaris was condemned as a heretic in ancient Christianity for Docetism, the belief that Christ only appeared to be human. Here we have fertile ground for Dan Brown: conflicting beliefs about the nature of Jesus Christ.

The Council of Trent, a millenium after Jerome, overlapped with the lives of some people and groups mentioned in the Twitter clues. These include Francis Bacon (Clue #7), Michelangelo and the Spirituali (Clue #19), and the early Illuminati as they exist in Dan Brown's universe (Clue #5).

Dan Brown has focused before on an important Catholic Church council: the ancient Council of Nicea, which figures prominently in The Da Vinci Code. It would not be surprising for him to do so again, in focusing on the Council of Trent.

The concerns of the Council of Trent have resonances to some themes that have come up in the Twitter clues. The Council addressed a number of Protestant criticisms, and issued a number of reform decrees, the need for which had been claimed by the Spirituali (Clue #19). The Council helped define the Church's position on Original Sin, which is relevant to the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary, mother of Jesus (Clue #11).

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Then there is the print itself. In the print, we see one of the most famous of the symbols of 'high degree' Freemasonry: a human skull, which in Masonry is a reminder of mortality, much like the hourglass that we see both here and in Durer's Melancolia I, described in my interpretation of Clue #9.

Conclusion

Thus, in Durer's works named in the Twitter clue, on the surface alone we have a reference to an artist whose works are sure to be featured in The Lost Symbol. Scratch the surface, and we have references to other people, groups, ideas, and themes that are likely to appear in the novel, as well.

Shameless Plug

In my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol, I shall address the artistic and religious themes and figures that Dan Brown's novel focuses upon.

[The black-and-white images above are all from the website of ArtTattler. The color image of the "Adam and Eve" painting was obtained from Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia. All of the original artwork is in the public domain; images thereof are also all in the public domain, at least in the United States, per Bridgeman vs. Corel.]

Clue #18: The Christogram "INRI"

2009-07-04T23:35:00.009-04:00

The 18th Twitter clue, sent at 7:04 a.m. PDT, Wed. July 1st:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Christogram...

The clue is a hot link that leads to an article on the online edition of the New World Encyclopedia, titled "Christogram." According to this article, "A Christogram is a combination of letters (a monogram) that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ. ... [T]he most popular Christograms are IHS, INRI, and the Chi-Rho."

As the article goes on to explain, these three Christograms stand for, respectively, (1) the initials for the phrase In Hoc Signo (Latin for "in this sign," that is, the sign of the cross), or the first three Greek capital letters of the name "Jesus"; (2) Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum (Latin for "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," the inscription set above Jesus as he hung on the cross at the crucifixion; see, in the New Testament, John 19:19-20); and, (3) the first two letters in the Greek word Christos, "Christ."

This is the surface meaning, then: A Christogram shall appear in The Lost Symbol. However, this being a Dan Brown novel, surface meanings often are not enough. And, with one Christogram in particular, there are other meanings to consider.

An Alchemical Reading of INRI

Many medieval students of the esoteric, such as the alchemists, were essentially Christian in outlook and used Christian terminology. They sometimes gave alchemical meanings to Christian symbolism. (This was perhaps especially so with those who studied the documents of the legendary Rosicrucian fellowship, about whom we shall have more to say in regard to Clue #25.) The alchemists gave a different meaning to INRI: Igne Natura Renovatur Integra, Latin for "through fire nature is reborn whole," as noted here; alternatively, "all nature will be [or is] renewed by fire," as noted here.

Medieval alchemy is not the only esoteric discipline that has used an alternative interpretation for INRI. In modern times, the same is done by some branches of Freemasonry.

Masonic Readings of INRI

A 'higher degree' Masonic organization, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Southern Jurisdiction, has a total of 33 degrees of initiation, largely developed by Albert Pike in the latter part of the 19th century, working from earlier ritual sources. In turn, these rituals draw on a variety of sources for inspiration, including alchemy and the Rosicrucian fellowship. The 18th degree, titled "Knight of the Rose Croix" (i.e., 'Knight of the Rose Cross'), is particularly noteworthy for its references to alchemy and Rosicrucianism. (Note that the Twitter clue under consideration is the 18th tweet in the series!)

It is public knowledge that, in the 18th degree, "we learn the Masonic meaning of the initials INRI" (Rex R. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light: A Study in Masonic Ritual & Philosophy, 3rd edition, 2006, p. 137). Albert Pike's Lecture for this degree includes the following:

The True Word is an abbreviation of the Latin inscription said by John in his Gospel to have been placed above Jesus when He was crucified -- to wit: Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudeorum, meaning, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."

Others interpret these initials by the phrase Igne Natura Renovatur Integra, meaning, "All of Nature is Renovated by Fire," by which the sages of antiquity connected it with the greatest secret of nature, that of universal regeneration. (Source: Arturo de Hoyos, Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor & Guide, 2nd ed., 2009, p. 419)

The Masonic scholar, Leon Zeldis, wrote about alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and interpretations of INRI in relation to the 18th degree. He noted in one of his papers that, in various rituals of the 18th degree as these were conducted in different times and places, there have been at least a dozen esoteric interpretations of INRI.

One of the important messages of the 18th degree involves the idea that Nature witnesses the existence of God. From Pike's Lecture:

We apply reason to the Book of Nature and find a great truth written in letters of light: there is a living God. The great law that governs the universe is harmony; the will of the Almighty God, always acting as the expression of His infinite love. (de Hoyos, p. 419)

Ultimately, the message of the 18th degree involves the importance of love for and service to humankind. From Pike's Lecture:

The Knights Rose Croix practice charity, in all its senses, and we derive the strength to labor in the cause of humanity from faith and hope. (de Hoyos, p. 421)

These lessons and others are illustrated symbolically in the ceremonial "jewel" of the 18th degree, a French version of which is shown above.

Other Approaches

Other approaches to this tweet are possible. For example, the entire phrase, In hoc signo vinces, Latin for "in this sign you shall conquer," appears on a seal upon a written letter, at a certain place in the narrative in one of the central Rosicrucian documents (see Benedict J. Williamson's 2002 book, The Rosicrucian Manuscripts, p. 138). In addition, some have claimed that the streets of Washington, DC, form in one place a Chi-Rho.

Potential Relevance to The Lost Symbol

At this point, I'm sticking to the idea that this Twitter clue somehow references INRI as an alchemical phrase that also plays a role in the 18th degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry (the surface of which we have barely scratched). How could this work into The Lost Symbol?

We know that Dan Brown likes to use graphic images of words in his stories. (Think of how the ambigrams for "Illuminati," "Earth," and so on were used in Angels & Demons, and how an anagram like "how dark the con of man" was used in The Da Vinci Code.) Perhaps "INRI" shows up written in some important place as a clue. (Or even branded or carved onto someone's body -- Dan Brown has a way with his victims!) Then the alchemical interpretation (connecting up with the work of Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton) might be crucial to the proper understanding of the clue. Because the degrees of the Scottish Rite have their roots in rituals dating to the 18th century, there is plenty of opportunity to link up conspiracies dating from the time of the Founding Fathers to our own day.

I note that the Masonic lessons of the 18th degree, regarding Nature as an evidence for the existence of God, might be of some use to Dan Brown. The idea of Science as a way to read the Book of Nature as written by God is a theme one finds expressed by many early men of science, in many lands, including many of the scientists whom Brown places within his version of the Illuminati.

I should also say that INRI has another, symbolic importance here. The posting of the INRI sign is a crucial event in Christian history, in its own way. After all, it is what one believes about the truth of that message (was Jesus really the king of the Jews?), and what one believes happened after the message was posted (was Jesus really resurrected from the dead?), that really defines one's stance towards Christianity. It will be interesting to see how Dan Brown deals with this idea.

I must say, though: if someone really is referencing the 18th degree of the Scottish Rite by putting a clue in the 18th Twitter clue--well, these folks are a lot more subtle than I'd thought they'd be.

Shameless Plug

In my book, Discovering The Lost Symbol, I shall exhaustively explain the Masonic symbolism that occurs in Brown's novel.

[The image of the 18th degree jewel was obtained from Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia; it was created by user Cro-maat at the French Wikipedia site. Its use here is authorized under the GNU Free Documentation License.]

Clue #17: Diamond and Newton's Research

2009-07-03T22:06:00.016-04:00

The 17th Twitter clue, sent at 1:11 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, June 30th:

How could a precious stone burn 20 years of Isaac's research?

This refers to the most famous Isaac since the ancient patriarch mentioned in the Bible: Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), one of the most important scientists of all time. The story goes that Newton's dog, Diamond (the "precious stone" of the tweet), upset a candle that set manuscripts amounting to twenty years of Newton's research aflame (depicted above).

At this level, the tweet is simply a clue that Isaac Newton will make some appearance in The Lost Symbol, much as he did in The Da Vinci Code, although perhaps at greater length. However, this is only the surface level of the clue. The clue begs the question:

Just what research was destroyed in this fire?
For Newton was a man of many, many interests, the depths of some of which only became known in the 20th century with the rediscovery of some of Newton's previously neglected papers. As it happens, Newton privately conducted researches into esoteric spirituality (such as the precise dimensions of the Temple built by Solomon), and apocalyptic religion (such as the biblical prophecies of Daniel and John). He wrote theological works, never published under his name, in which he explained that the Christian church had gone astray at the Council of Nicea (which will certainly remind Dan Brown fans of The Da Vinci Code).

Newton himself held highly unorthodox ideas about religion, and was a closet Arian (a believer, not in the Trinity, but in God the Father as the actual creator of Christ). Arianism was condemned as heresy by Catholic and Anglican alike in Newton's day, and if his Arian beliefs had been known publicly, Newton could have been in serious trouble with the law. (In passing, I should note that I would not be surprised if Dan Brown turns out to have a soft spot in his heart for Arianism in his fiction, as Arianism provides just the sort of Jesus who could have a child with Mary Magdalene, as Brown alleges in The Da Vinci Code. There are other unconventional Christian beliefs that would accomplish this, too -- some with intriguing ties to Freemasonry, I might add -- but Arianism will do.) [Incidentally: the Arian faith has nothing to do with the Aryan racial theories of the European fascists of the 20th century.]

In particular, though, Newton was fascinated by alchemy, to which he devoted over a quarter-century of his life. Newton's involvement in alchemy was so deep and intense that one of his biographers, Michael White, titled his 1997 book Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer.

That there was a fire in Newton's laboratory, some biographers and historians doubt. No one can doubt, though, that Newton's health declined beginning in the autumn of 1692, culminating in some sort of "breakdown" in the summer of 1693, when he acted strangely and out of character, insulted former associates, was plagued with insomnia lasting five days at a time, and so forth. Some called him mad. Some attributed this to the effects of a fire that destroyed his manuscripts; to this way of thinking, what Newton lost in the fire was so important to him that it affected his mental and emotional stability.

Was it scientific research destroyed in the fire? One of Newton's 19th century biographers, fellow Fellow (!) of the Royal Society David Brewster, said that the loss of materials like this could never have had such an effect on Newton:

The loss of a few experimental records could never have disturbed the equilibrium of a mind like his. If they were the records of discoveries, the discoveries, themselves indestructible, would have been afterwards given to the world. If they were merely the details of experimental results, a little time could have easily reproduced them. (David Brewster, 1855, Memoirs of the life, writings, and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, vol. 2, p. 133. Available through Googlebooks here.)

Brewster makes this argument to undercut the idea that there had been a fire. However, what if there were a fire -- but it consumed, not the results of conventional scientific experiments and discoveries, but materials that really could not be reproduced easily, or without great trouble or risk?

Like the records of mystical visions? Or alchemical experiments, involving not a few hours of work as in Newton's optical experiments, but months or even years of careful distillation? Or meticulous calculations involving the dimensions of Solomon's Temple, or the Apocalypse of the last days, calculations twenty years in the making? Or 'heretical' Arian writings that Newton had composed secretly over the course of decades? Or the results of researches into ceremonial magic? Or Rosicrucian symbolism? (Experiments in optics, say, are easy to reproduce in a few hours. Historical, linguistic, or mathematical research -- that's another story altogether. Add in alchemical research, and it's entirely another story.)

Yes, there are quite a lot of things that Newton could have been working on, that, if destroyed, could not easily have been replaced -- arcane heresies of science and religion prominent among them. No wonder Dan Brown's publisher is dropping hints about Isaac Newton.

(My thanks go out to "UDbmas," a reader of this blog, whose comment on my post, "Sorry for the Brief Hiatus," directed me to Brewster's biography of Newton.)

[The image was obtained from Wikimedia Commons via Wikipedia. The original engraving was created by Morel in Paris in 1874. The original and its image are in the public domain, per Bridgeman vs. Corel.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Clue #15: The Babington Postscript and Cipher

2009-06-30T21:46:00.014-04:00

The 15th Twitter clue, sent at 7:42 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, June 30:

Everything is not as it seems in an early cipher: http://bit.ly/UFX9G

The URL given in the clue is a "short" URL, which connects the viewer with a web page at the National Archives of the United Kingdom -- specifically, one of the pages that describe their "Secrets and Spies" exhibition. That webpage displays a curious, ciphered document (shown above), titled "The Babington postscript and cipher, 1586." If one plays around a little bit with the URL in the browser, one can find a set of documents that tells a fascinating story about a real-life 500-year-old plot that had disastrous consequences for the conspirators involved. Ultimately, you wish to be at this page. Then the mystery is revealed--at least, this stage of the mystery.

Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

We enter the world of political intrigue surrounding the reign of England's Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth, a Protestant, was on the throne of England; Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic, was in Elizabeth's prison. Mary had supporters who were determined to dethrone Elizabeth and make Mary the queen of England. Mary communicated with these supporters through the use of coded letters, smuggled out of prison.

What Mary did not know was that Elizabeth's agents intercepted all the letters going in each direction, decrypted them all, and then sent the letters on their way. All of Mary's letters were falling into Elizabeth's hands.

One of Mary's supporters, Anthony Babington, wrote a long letter to Mary on July 6, 1568 (the anniversary of which was just a week after this clue was posted); the letter described a plot to assassinate Elizabeth. Mary's response on July 17 was intercepted by Elizabeth's agents -- who added a coded postscript to Mary's letter, asking Babington to send the names of the six men who were to accomplish the assassination. Babington, thinking the coded postscript as just another part of Mary's letter, did not realize -- as the clue states -- that all was not as it seemed.

Seven conspirators were executed in an horrific manner on September 20, 1586 (the anniversary of which falls just a few days after the publication date of The Lost Symbol). Mary herself was tried the following month, with her letters produced as evidence of her guilt. Mary was beheaded on February 8, 1587.

Relevance to The Lost Symbol

There are several ways in which this material might work into The Lost Symbol.
First and foremost, it is interesting to note that here we have the first really explicit mention of a code that was broken, leading to the collapse of a conspiracy. In fact, one could read this into Clue #5, concerning the Illuminati, which was suppressed after one of their messengers was intercepted by government agents; the encrypted Illuminati documents were then deciphered, leading to the uncovering of the Illuminati plots to dethrone the monarchies of Europe.

However, there are other Twitter clues that touch on incidents where failed codes led to the downfall of individual spies, conspiracies, or regimes at war. These include clues about Benedict Arnold (Clue #30), Nathan Hale (Clue #32), and the Enigma machine (Clue #46). Thus, we should expect the theme of broken codes to show up in The Lost Symbol.

The late 16th century was the age of Francis Bacon of Clue #7; it is conceivable that Bacon could even have been involved in intelligence work for Elizabeth, decrypting the letters between Mary, Queen of Scots, and the conspirators. (Bacon is known to have held political posts in Elizabeth's government.)

It is also conceivable that the cypher from the Babington plot (show above) itself appears in the novel.

We see in the Babington plot another place where there is a Catholic conspiracy involving a woman named Mary -- a prominent theme with Dan Brown, as readers of The Da Vinci Code can attest. Was Mary, Queen of Scots, more than she is known to be in history?

Finally, one must wonder if it is just coincidence that, in real life, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded, as was the corpse of William Wirt of Clue #6. Then again, in a Dan Brown novel, is anything really coincidental?

[The image of Babington postscript and cipher was obtained on the website of the National Archives of the United Kingdom. The Babington materials, and the image, are in the public domain, at least in the United States of America.]

Clue #13: Hell's Legionnaire (and The Solomon Key!)

2009-06-30T01:16:00.015-04:00

Okay: Now it gets especially creepy.

Perhaps fittingly for the 13th Twitter clue, this was sent out at 8:08 a.m. PDT, Monday June 29th:

Hell's legionnaire can turn iron to gold.

The "turn iron to gold" part would seem to suggest that this tweet refers to alchemy, an esoteric discipline dealing with different types of transformation.

And this would be wrong.

More precisely, this would be misleading -- because this tweet has nothing at all to do with alchemy, a multifaceted discipline that can have very profound spiritual implications.

The thing to focus on in this tweet is the odd phrase, "hell's legionnaire." Who is that? And what would any of this have to do with The Lost Symbol?

"Hell's Legionnaire"

A legionnaire is simply anyone who is a member of a legion, which means a large collection, usually of soldiers. (Organizations like the French Foreign Legion, the American Legion, or the ancient Roman legions, come to mind.)

However, in scripture, one of the most famous uses of the term 'legion' has nothing to do with an army at all -- at least, not a human army. Perhaps you will remember the biblical interchange between Jesus and the man possessed with an unclean spirit in the land of the Gadarenes:

And he [Jesus] asked him [the man with the unclean spirit], What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. (Matthew 5:9)

This incident is so famous that when William Peter Blatty was thinking of a name for the (excellent) sequel to his blockbuster novel, The Exorcist, he chose this simple title: Legion.

So, when the tweet says "hell's legionnaire," it is referring to a demon: a demon associated with a legion of demons, a demon who has the power to turn iron into gold.

But which demon would that be?

It matters, you know. To the magical mindset of, say, the 16th and 17th centuries, demons were not all-powerful, supernatural beings; demons were, like humans, created beings -- very powerful, to be sure, but not omnipotent. In addition, in that mindset, demons were specialized to some extent, some having powers over one domain, some over another. So, who had power to turn iron into gold?

There is an answer to this question in a medieval manual of ceremonial magic -- a manual of a distinctly demonological variety. It is known as the Goetia, and it has a sub-title with a phrase that is probably known to every reader of this blog:

"The Lesser Key of Solomon the King."

That's right: The Solomon Key shows up after all!

A large part of the Goetia is devoted to detailed descriptions of six dozen demons who can be invoked to fulfill a variety of magical purposes. One of them is described as follows (alluding to the ancient apocryphal legend that the biblical King Solomon "bound" spirits to do work for him):

BERITH. -- The Twenty-eighth Spirit in Order, as Solomon bound them, is named Berith. He is a Mighty, great, and terrible Duke. ... He can turn all metals into Gold. ... He is a Great Liar, and not to be trusted unto. He governeth 26 Legions of Spirits. ... (From p. 40 of The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King, translated by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 2nd ed., corrected 2nd printing, 1997, York Beach, ME: Red Wheel/Weiser.)

So: The demon Berith (whose magical "seal" is shown above) governs 26 legions of demons (and so is "Hell's legionnaire"), and can turn all metals (presumably including iron) into gold -- all as revealed in a centuries-old book that could reasonably be called The Solomon Key.

Dang.

(One little note of caution: Folks, not that you should need me to tell you this, but I must mention the following so that I can go to sleep with a clear conscience tonight: Do not go out and try to conjure up demons. This message brought to you by the Fellowship of the Right-Hand Path, protecting your karma for 40,000 years.)

Relevance to The Lost Symbol

How might all this work into The Lost Symbol? There are a couple of different ways that I see.

During the years of the Renaissance, as learned scholars across Europe were inventing experimental science in fits and starts, many early scientists were also avid practitioners of alchemy, ritual magic, or both esoteric disciplines. For example, although this is not well-known to the public at large, the scholarly community for years has known that Isaac Newton was a student of alchemy and esoteric spirituality; his writings in this area are more voluminous than his writings on optics and physics. Another scientist with alchemical leanings was our friend from Clue #7, Francis Bacon. Of course, both Bacon and Newton have been rumored for years to be Freemasons (although there is no strong evidence to support that conclusion for either of them).

What is fact, though, is that a number of Freemasons across the centuries (relatively small in any given generation) have had very strong interests in the esoteric. In the late 19th century, one of them, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, joined with a number of other like-minded Masonic brethren to form a group devoted to the practice of ritual magic: the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, perhaps the most important magical group of the 19th and 20th centuries. He also translated a number of important magical texts -- including the Clavicula Salomonis, or The Key of Solomon the King, as well as the Goetia, or Lesser Key of Solomon, from the latter of which I quote above.

Dan Brown could take this sort of material in any number of directions: secret magical groups dating back to the Renaissance; Found Father-era magical conspiracies; even modern sorcery. It's all good, as far as I'm concerned. I only have one question: if anyone in The Lost Symbol conducts dark, hideous rites of necromancy and sorcery --

-- do they get to use a skull?

Clue #9: Albrecht Durer

2009-06-27T22:02:00.026-04:00

The 9th Twitter clue, posted 2:15 p.m. PDT on Thurs., June 25th:

Albrecht Durer, whose father was a goldsmith,
was trained as a metalworker at a young age.

The clue refers to one of the great artists of the Renaissance in Northern Europe, the German, Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). (We meet him again in Clue #22.) Although Durer is known primarily for his prints made from woodcuts and, especially, his engravings on metal, the tweet mentions his early training as a metalworker. The content reads like a sentence out of an art history text, nothing really provocative.

This, however, is Dan Brown -- a man in whose novels many a famed artist is a member of some centuries-spanning conspiracy. And, as it happens, Durer actually has long been rumored to have been a member of a centuries-spanning secret society. This is because Durer has been rumored for years to have been some sort of a Freemason from the pre-Grand Lodge era.

The basis of this rumor is the fact that some of Durer's pieces contain depictions of objects that have either real or reputed symbolic significance to Freemasons. The most prominent example of this is his piece shown above, Melencolia I, a copper engraving dating from 1514 (background here). (If you are using Microsoft Explorer as your browser, I suggest that you go to the File menu, select "New Window," and on the second window of this post, click on the image above to view a much larger image of the artwork as you read the description that follows.)

Masonic Symbols in Durer's Melencolia I

In this piece, an adult-sized female angel sits in thought, holding, for no obvious reason, a set of compasses such as might be used by a stonemason, carpenter, or architect. (Of course, the Compasses are well-known to be an important symbol in Freemasonry.)

Although the bottom of the etching shows the tools of a carpenter (a reference to Jesus, the carpenter's son?), the most prominent finished products appear to be stone, including a sphere in the lower left-hand corner, and a polyhedral prism (the thing shaped like the Superman logo) just above the dog, next to the hammer. The polyhedral prism and the sphere are both portrayed as exquisitely finished pieces of work, smooth pieces of worked and polished stone that call to mind the smooth or polished ashlar that represents, in Masonic symbolism, the individual Mason after he has worked to perfect his character. (I have seen actual stones exemplifying the rough ashlar -- unworked stone -- and the smooth ashlar -- smoothly polished stone -- in every Masonic lodge that I have ever visited.)

But if there is a smooth ashlar, where is the rough? There is no rough ashlar visible in the etching, although there is, in a way, a cowan. The derivation of this peculiarly Masonic word -- used to describe a non-Mason who tries to sneak into a Masonic meeting -- is uncertain. However, it has been related to the Gothic word choin and the Greek word kuon, which each mean the same thing: a dog. Of course, a dog is prominently visible in the etching, perhaps significantly, right between the two polished stones mentioned above.

Above the adult angel's right wing (the viewer's left) is an hourglass, recalling to mind the hourglass mentioned in a lecture accompanying one of the three basic Masonic degrees, or rituals of initiation. This symbolizes the brevity of life, the realization of which should encourage us to use our time well while we have it. (The Masonic scholar Coil states that this symbol came into the Masonic lectures late in the 18th century, but seeing it here raises questions about that dating; the hourglass does seem a timeless symbol of the quickness with which our lives pass.)

Next to the adult angel sits a cherub on what appears to be a somewhat worn mill wheel. Directly above the cherub is a pair of scales, calling to mind Justice, one of the Four Cardinal Virtues, which also occur as symbols in one of the Masonic degree lectures (the others being Temperance, Fortitude, and Prudence).

To the left of the cherub one sees a ladder. Jacob's ladder (see Genesis 28:10-22) is a symbol used in the lecture of the first degree of Freemasonry. A ladder with symbolic significance also appears in the degrees of the Scottish Rite, which are based on 'high degree' rituals, some of which date back at least to the earliest days of Grand Lodge Freemasonry, and perhaps earlier.

Other Masonic Symbolism in Durer's Art

There are other pieces by Durer that show what could be Masonic symbolism. His 1504 title page for Messahalah, De scientia motus orbis (an illustration also known as "Astronomer") shows a man holding a set of compasses; he appears to be measuring distances on a globe, however. His 1506 portrait of an architect shows a man holding a square, such as might normally be used by an architect or a stonemason or a carpenter. Neither of these pieces is really compelling as a Masonic reference; one expects an astronomer to use a set of compasses, and an architect to use a square.

Melencolia I, however, is another matter altogether.

Is 16th Century Durer Plausible as a Mason?

Of course, one of the major objections to considering Durer as some sort of secret Freemason is the fact that he died in 1528, almost two full centuries before the formation of the premier Grand Lodge of England in 1717. The earliest record of Masonic initiation in England occurs in 1641 (the initiation of Robert Moray into a traveling Scottish military lodge), although David Stevenson convincingly has shown that Freemason's lodges were formed in Scotland as early as 1599 (see his books The Origins of Freemasons and The First Freemasons). However, Scotland in 1599 was a long way in both time and space from Germany in 1528. How could Durer plausibly have been a Freemason, or a member of some sort of proto-Masonic group?

Maybe the same way that Bosch was.

The late historian of Freemasonry, John J. Robinson, presents a convincing case for the idea that Durer's contemporary, the Flemish artist Hieronymous Bosch (about 1450-1516) hid Masonic symbolism in at least one of his paintings, The Wayfarer (background here). (See Chapter 11, pp. 118-119 of Robinson's 1993 book, A Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right.) In Bosch's painting, Robinson finds references to Masonic initiatory ritual, as well as other Masonic symbols. I find Robinson's argument quite intriguing.

If Bosch, as a Flemish painter in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, somehow had access to Masonic initiatory symbols, then perhaps Durer did as well in the Germany of that period, or during his travels. (His whereabouts during his 4-year Wanderjahre -- quite the 'gap year'! -- are poorly known.) I don't know how it could have happened. However, the enigmatic evidence in Bosch's The Wayfarer and Durer's Melencolia I makes at least a plausible case for these artists being some kind of Masonic initiates.

Durer and The Lost Symbol

It's not hard to see where this could go, as far as The Lost Symbol is concerned. Some artwork of Durer on display in Washington, DC, has some clue for Robert Langdon to follow -- a clue regarding some Masonic conspiracy.

Sounds good to me.

[The image of Durer's Melencolia I, above, was obtained from the Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia. The artwork and its reproduction are in the public domain.]

Clue #7: Certainties, Doubts, and Francis Bacon

2009-06-27T16:44:00.025-04:00

The 7th Twitter clue, posted at 7:05 a.m. PDT on Thurs., June 25th, is a quotation:

"If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties."
This is a famous passage from the works of Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626, pictured above). Bacon was a jurist and politician, but today is remembered for his philosophical works, particularly his contributions to the philosophy of science.

The choice of Bacon as a reference for the tweet opens some interesting possibilities for The Lost Symbol, as does the choice of this particular quotation itself. To understand those possibilities, we need to consider the relationships between Bacon, the Royal Society, and Freemasonry.

Bacon, Science, and the Royal Society

Bacon made no scientific discoveries. However, contributed to the philosophical foundations of experimental science.

Bacon wrote an incomplete draft for a utopian novel, New Atlantis, published the year after his death. In this novel, his European explorers discovered a sophisticated culture on an uncharted South Pacific island, one of whose inhabitants described an organization that one of their kings had established long before:

It was the erection and institution of an Order or Society which we call Salomon's House; the noblest foundation ... that ever was upon the
earth; and the lanthorn [i.e., light] of this kingdom. It is dedicated to the study of the Works and Creatures of God. ... For we have some parts of his [the biblical Solomon's] works which with you are lost; namely, that Natural History which he wrote, of all plants, from the cedar of Libanus [i.e., Lebanon] to the moss that groweth out of the wall, and of all things that have life and motion. ... [The island people's king established] that House for the finding out of the true nature of all things (whereby God might have the more glory in the workmanship of them, and men the more fruit in the use of them) ....

Essentially, Bacon was describing what we would call today a scientific society, or even a 'think tank' -- institutions that did not exist in his time. Bacon's "Salomon" was Solomon, the biblical king of Israel who was renowned for his wisdom. Bacon's "Salomon's House" is said to be the inspiration for the British Royal Society, founded in 1660, which is perhaps the first scientific society at least in the Western world, and is certainly the oldest scientific society now in existence.
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Bacon and Freemasonry

Bacon died in 1626, nearly a century before the establishment of the Grand Lodge style of Freemasonry in London in 1717. We have no record establishing that Bacon was ever a Freemason. However, we do know of men initiated as Freemasons before the establishment of the Grand Lodge, and not too long after Bacon's lifetime, such as Robert Moray in 1641 and Elias Ashmole in 1646; thus, it is at least possible that Bacon was initiated into a pre-Grand Lodge-era lodge of Freemasons. The possibility that Bacon was a Freemason has been speculated about at least since the time of Christopher Friederich Nicolai (1733-1811); read about the dispute here.

Beyond the external historical evidence, however, there is an unmistakable Masonic resonance to be found in some of Bacon's works. For example, the scientific research establishment mentioned in New Atlantis -- "Salomon's House" -- surely perks up the ears of the Freemason who is used to hearing his lodge, during the three basic rituals of initiation, described as one portion or another of Solomon's Temple, or the House of the Lord. The dedication of Bacon's "Salomon's House" to science recalls to the Freemason the well-known Lecture of the Middle Chamber, given during the Second Degree, where study of the various arts and sciences are recommended to the new Fellow Craft Mason.

One could go farther, considering subtle aspects of Bacon's writing. The king of the island people in New Atlantis who established "Salomon's House" in honor of the biblical Solomon was himself named Solamona; today's Mason would find it interesting to have the leader of a group take the name or role of the biblical Solomon. "Salomon's House" is called the "lanthorn" or light of kingdom; the use of the symbolism of light in Freemasonry is well-known, even outside the Fraternity.

Perhaps this is just coincidental. However, the affinity of early English scientists for Freemasonry (see below), and the Masonic-sounding resonances in Bacon's New Atlantis, raise provocative questions regarding the possible Masonic affiliation of Francis Bacon.

Freemasonry and the Royal Society

There have long been rumors that the Royal Society was originally a sort of Masonic project. (Robert Lomas explores this at length in his 2003 book, Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science.) It is intriguing to note that the Robert Moray who was initiated a Freemason in 1641 may have been the same Robert Moray who was the first president of the Royal Society in 1660. The Elias Ashmole initiated a Freemason in 1646 was definitely a member of the Royal Society.

There certainly were an unusual number of early members of the Royal Society who were also Grand Masters of the Masonic Grand Lodge of England: 20 in all, as well as 6 Assistant Grand Masters, during the period 1719-1828, including the famous John Theophilus Desaguliers (see pp. 73-74 of Alain Bauer's 2007 book, Isaac Newton's Freemasonry: The Alchemy of Science and Mysticism). I find particularly interesting the proportion of all members of the Royal Society who were Freemasons, and the proportion of all London Freemasons who were members of the Royal Society, as Bauer describes it (p. 73):

In 1723, out of two hundred members of the Royal Society, about forty were also Freemasons, making up a fifth of the total. ... In 1725, forty-seven Fellows [i.e., members of the Royal Society] belonged to the [Masonic] Grand Lodge. (There were sixty-four Lodges with a membership of two hundred Brothers.)

Thus, 20% of the early members of the Royal Society were Freemasons, and about 23% of the early members of the Grand Lodge in London were members of the Royal Society. I find that a very provocative degree of overlap.

The Quotation

The quotation in the tweet is from Bacon's work, On the Dignity and Advancement of Learning (often referred to just as The Advancement of Learning), in Book I, which describes and refutes various objections to learning. Bacon responds to objections to learning that are raised by religious leaders ("divines"), by politicians, and by the mistakes of learned people themselves. He then addresses a number of errors that people can make regarding learning, and it is in this section that we find the quote (on p. 52 of Joseph Devey's edition).

Ultimately, in the tweeted quotation, Bacon is saying that, if we enter a course of investigation (in science or anything else) convinced that we know all there is to know, we shall run into many areas where we know nothing at all, and our progress shall grind to a halt. On the other hand, if we enter our investigations with a scientific, "show me" attitude, we shall know almost nothing at first; however, if we patiently test every bit of data that comes our way, over time we shall build up a great supply of proven knowledge.

Bacon and The Lost Symbol

What could all this have to do with The Lost Symbol? There are several ways in which all of this might be relevant.

For Dan Brown to bring Bacon into the picture at all is to point a finger in the direction of science, a passion for which Brown exhibits in Angels & Demons. Bacon's utopian scientific society, "Salomon's House," resonates with the notion of Brown's version of the Illuminati in the 1500s as "the world's first scientific think tank," as he calls them in Chapter 9 of Angels & Demons. In that same chapter, Brown describes how the Illuminati fled Italy because of persecution by the Church. It would certainly be plausible, in the Dan Brown universe, for some of the Renaissance-era Illuminati to have fled to England, where they could recruit Francis Bacon in the late 1500s or early 1600s, found the Royal Society in 1660 as the public face of the Illuminati's pro-science agenda, and infitrate Freemasonry before the Grand Lodge era even began in 1717.

Another thing to consider is the tweeted quotation itself. Dan Brown's hero, Robert Langdon, is going to be faced with some mystery to solve. Perhaps the quotation from Bacon is advice to Langdon: when we attempt to solve a mystery, if we think we know everything important to start with ("if we begin with certainties"), then we shall soon be overwhelmed by the things we actually don't know ("we shall end in doubts"). On the other hand, if we admit our profound ignorance ("but if we begin in doubts"), and if we patiently test the data that falls into our hands ("and are patient in them [that is, doubts]"), then we may ultimately find the truth ("we shall end in certainties"). Words to live by.

[The image of a portrait of Francis Bacon by an unknown artist, above, was obtained from Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia. The portrait and its image are in the public domain.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Clue #5: "Illuminati ... Perfectabilists"

2009-06-26T22:36:00.015-04:00

The 5th Twitter clue, sent at 1:45 p.m. PDT on Wed., June 24th:

Before they were Illuminati, they were Perfectabilists.

A great number of issues are bound together in this simple tweet--issues of fact, issues of fiction, and a great deal of dispute about which is which.

At present, I am working on a book, The Illuminati: The True History and Strange Afterlife of the Most Feared Secret Society in History. I have found the issues surrounding the Illuminati to be fascinating, as a mixture of real history and the psychology of conspiracy--a mixture that has influenced American national politics for over 200 years, down to our own day. Here, I'll mention just a few things that are most relevant to The Lost Symbol.

The Real History of the Illuminati

The Illuminati really existed; you may also read about them here. The organization was founded in Bavaria by Adam Weishaupt (pictured above, and featured in Clue #33) on May 1, 1776. (What a date! The pagan holiday of Walpurgisnacht, or Mayday, in the year of the American Declaration of Independence!) The group was revolutionary in origin, seeking to overthrow the power of aristocracy and monarchy in favor of a form of government resembling democracy. The group also sought to overthrow the political and social power of the Catholic Church, in favor of instituting reason and logic as principles by which to govern the world and educate humankind.

The tweet is technically correct. The Illuminati were originally known as Perfectabilists, reflecting their belief that people could achieve a sort of perfection through rigorous devotion to reason and logic, rather than through supernatural means (such as the atonement of Christ).

The Illuminati was a truly "secret society," in that it tried to keep its very existence secret. The Illuminati infiltrated dozens of Masonic lodges in central Europe, where they sought to recruit members whom they hoped to lead, through a system of ritual degree ceremonies resembling Masonry, from a position of belief in God to a position of atheism, devoted to the overthrow of monarchy and church. The leadership of the group believed that, to further this endeavor, any means were justified, including political assassination.

To understand the Bavarian Illuminati, it is important to understand the political context of their times. American-style democracy had not been invented, and people throughout central Europe in particular were ruled by absolute monarchs who essentially held power of life and death over the people they governed. Dissent was crushed. In addition, the major church of the period held a significant degree of political power; in religious matters as well as political ones, dissent was not tolerated. The emphasis that the Illuminati placed on freedom of thought and expression was very appealing to some people, including even members of the aristocracy, and German literary figures such as Goethe and Herder; reportedly, the Illuminati reached a membership of about 2,000 during the decade or so of its existence.

The Illuminati were strong on rhetoric, weak on action. They assassinated no one, despite their "ends justify the means" ethics. However, when their aims became known to the governing authorities, they were crushed by the rulers of several countries, beginning in 1784. By the early 1790s, for all practical purposes the Illuminati had ceased to exist.

And it was then, after the group known as the Illuminati died, that it really got to work.

The Strange Afterlife of the Illuminati

The late 18th and early 19th centuries were a time of monumental social change -- which meant, not only positive changes like the rise of democracy, but also social disruption that was experienced as very negative by a number of people. In the mid-18th century, before the Revolutionary War, many American colonists considered themselves loyal to the British crown; after the war, thousands of these people left their homes and businesses and moved, to Canada, England, and elsewhere, leaving behind thousands of relatives and friends who were quite ambivalent about losing their connections. Right after the Revolutionary War, several American states had "established churches" -- that is, churches that had special privileges under state law, perhaps including support by tax dollars; over the course of the ensuing years, this support was withdrawn (given that the Constitution of the United States, which became operative in 1789, provided for a separation of church and state).

Political changes, social changes, religious changes -- a lot of people had problems fully accepting this; for a lot of people, some of this was actually bad. And, when bad things happen, someone must be blamed; at the very least, a scapegoat must be found.

That's where the Illuminati came in.

The Illuminati have been the scapegoat of American politics (and, to some extent, European politics) for the last 200 years. In the early 19th century, clergy across the land, especially in the Northeast, preached about the dangers to society posed by the Illuminati. The horrific excesses of the French Revolution were blamed on the Illuminati. The suppression of American Freemasonry in the first half of the 19th century was, in part, based on fear of the Illuminati. In our day, particularly since the middle of the 20th century, the Illuminati have been blamed for everything from AIDS and the current Great Recession to the flouridation of public drinking water. (Google "Illuminati" and you'll see what I mean.)

At the moment, the Illuminati are mentioned primarily by the more wild-eyed-fringey portions of the conspiracy theory community, but these people have a greater following than you might think. (Consider the popularity in some circles of the writings of Jim Marrs, Texe Marrs, and David Icke.)

And it's all a pile of hooey. The Illuminati died out in the late 18th century. They are kept 'alive' in the minds of ignorant people today because we, as a society, have done such a poor job of teaching critical thinking skills. That, however, is a rant for another venue and time.

The Illuminati in Dan Brown's Fiction

Fans of Dan Brown will remember that fear of the Illuminati plays an important role in Angels and Demons. After touching upon the conflict between Renaissance-era science and religion, Robert Langdon and the scientist Kohler have a conversation, Langdon stating this:

"But in the 1500s, a group of men in Rome fought back against the church. Some of Italy's most enlightened men -- physicists, mathematicians, astronomers -- began meeting secretly to share their concerns about the church's inaccurate teachings. They feared that the church's monopoly on 'truth' threatened academic enlightenment around the world. They founded the world's first scientific think tank, calling themselves 'the enlightened ones.'"
"The Illuminati."
"Yes," Langdon said. "Europe's most learned minds ... dedicated to the quest for scientific truth."

(See Chapter 9 of Angels and Demons for Dan Brown's account of the Illuminati's backstory.)

So, in Dan Brown's universe, the Illuminati were founded in 16th century Rome, not late 18th century Bavaria (now part of Germany) -- a difference of about 200 years and 480 miles. Brown's Illuminati were primarily scientists, rather than political and literary figures. And, as his novel relates, they were ruthlessly suppressed by the church, rather than by the governments of central Europe. Hey -- literary license covers a lot of ground!

The tweet suggests that the Illuminati make some sort of appearance in The Lost Symbol. My guess is that Brown will portray the Illuminati infiltration of the Masonic lodges as having gone on in the New World, rather than (as actually happened) being confined to continental Europe. Brown's Illuminati would have no problem influencing the Founding Fathers, because Brown's Illuminati were founded over two centuries before the American Declaration of Independence -- rather than just over two months before July 4, 1776, as happened in reality.

[The image above of Adam Weishaupt was obtained from the Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia. Its source is unknown, but the image is in the public domain.]

Clue #1: "Codes of Ethics"

2009-06-26T14:35:00.014-04:00

The first Twitter clue, posted at 6:01 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, June 23rd:

Codes of ethics? T 10 C; 6 P O T SOD; 12 S O T Z

There are two aspects of this encrypted message to consider: the method of encryption, and the content of the message itself.

The Encryption Method: A Masonic Initial Letter Cypher

The key to deciphering this tweet is to know that, for centuries, Freemasons have concealed the content of their ritual initation ceremonies through the use of an initial letter cipher. This simply uses the initial letter of a word to stand for the whole word. Thus, the phrase "square and compasses" would cipher to "s a c." (Some versions of the cipher would put this as "s a cs.")

The use of this cipher presumes that both the sender and the receiver already know what the words in the message are to start off with. Huh? If both sides already know the message, why even cipher it? Actually, this kind of cipher is very useful, as an aid to memory.

The Masonic initiatory rituals are complex and time-consuming; the first degree, for example, typically takes about 90 minutes to conduct--all from memory. As an aid to assist Masons in practicing and memorizing the ceremonies, many Masonic jurisdictions (such as the Grand Lodge of Florida) publish enciphered ritual books, where the rituals of the three degrees are given in an initial letter cipher. The only people who are authorized to receive these books have passed through the initiation rituals themselves, and so they have at least some acquaintance with the ceremony already; they then practice the ritual with experienced members who help them to learn the rituals properly and thoroughly.

Noted Masonic author, Christopher Hodapp (Freemasons for Dummies), deciphered this tweet as follows:

Codes of ethics? The 10 Commandments; 6 points of the Star of David; 12 signs of the Zodiac

The Content of the Message

What is the significance of the message itself--the Ten Commandments, the Star of David, and the Zodiac? There are at least two ways to interpret the message--both of which may be accurate: the geographic interpretation, and the Masonic interpretation.

The Geographic Interpretation

Washington, DC (where, years ago, Brown said the novel would be set) has locations where these items are shown in art, architecture, and elsewhere. The tablets of the Ten Commandments probably show up in multiple pieces of artwork depicting Moses. In addition, the tablets may be 'present' in an artwork even when not visible; for example, their hidden presence is implied in Erastus Salisbury Field's circa-1865 painting "Ark of the Covenant" in the National Gallery of Art.

The Star of David is the shape of the thirteen stars above the eagle on the obverse of the Great Seal of the United States (look on the right side of the back of the $1 bill); this fact is pointed out by Christopher Hodapp in his book Solomon's Builders (p. 203), where he also mentions other esoteric and even conspiratorial theories regarding the Star of David, including the notion that a Star of David is built into the streets of DC, east of the Capitol (p. 205).

The Zodiac appears many times in or on official buildings in DC, including the Library of Congress (as noted in detail in David Ovason's The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital).

From this point of view, the point of the message is to provide clues regarding significant places in Washington, DC--places where Dan Brown's hero, Robert Langdon, might search for clues to uncover some mystery, much as he did in Brown's earlier Langdon novels, The Da Vinci Code (2003), and especially Angels and Demons (2000), where Langdon followed a string of clues across Rome.

However, the phrase "Codes of ethics?" suggests another, deeper interpretation. Freemasonry has long been described (however inadequately) as "a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." Issues of ethics are central to Masonic ritual. Are there possible connections between the contents of the message and Freemasonry? There are indeed.

The Masonic Interpretation

The original Ten Commandments, naturally, are found in the Bible, an open copy of which must be exhibited on the altar whenever a Masonic lodge is conducting business or ritual (as seen in the photo accompanying this newspaper article about a public lodge ceremony where new lodge officers were installed). Although a bit of a stretch, the "jewel" or ceremonial emblem worn by the lodge chaplain may resemble the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Of course, groups and individuals often publish "the ten commandments" of this or that; famous 19th century Masonic leader, Albert Pike, published a set of "ten commandments" for Masonry in his work, Morals and Dogma (1871, pp. 17-18)--published for the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Southern Jurisdiction, which has its headquarters at the magnificent House of the Temple in Washington, DC.

The Star of David (also known as the Seal of Solomon) has frequently been associated with Freemasonry by appearing in its ritual, jewels, and literature (see image above, described below). The symbol appears in the ritual initiation ceremonies of the 12, 14th, and 27th degrees within the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction. This symbol is an element of several different Masonic "jewels" for different offices in different organizations and jurisdictions; for example, it is prominent in Thomas Harper's Royal Arch Jewel, and in a jewel for the office of Commander-in-Chief for the Consistory of the Scottish Rite. Robert Macoy's 1853 Masonic Manual (see the last few pages of this online edition) show this symbol as a prominent part of a Royal Arch Jewel in England, and of the jewel worn by the Grand Superintendant of the Royal Arch in that country. I recently saw this symbol on the jewel of an Assistant Grand Orator in the Grand Lodge of New York.

The Zodiac is mentioned in Freemasonry little if at all. However, the Zodiac is mentioned prominently in certain Kabbalistic literature, which has been studied for centuries by more esoterically inclined Freemasons.

Overall, then, the content of the message may both point geographically to certain artworks and landmarks in Washington, DC, and may point symbolically to rituals and individuals associated with Freemasonry.

[The image was obtained from the website of the Masonic Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. The image was used in 1876 as the titlepage illustration of the report of their annual Grand Communication.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Before We Begin: Who Are the Freemasons?

2009-06-26T12:55:00.005-04:00

Much of Dan Brown's novel, as shown by his publisher's Twitter clues, involves Freemasonry. So, a few words about Freemasonry will help make sense of everything else.

Here is my own definition of Masonry: Freemasonry is a fraternity that uses ceremonies of initiation to teach symbolic lessons about philosophy, morality, and character. Now let's unpack that definition, phrase by phrase.

"Freemasonry is a fraternity ...": Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that has been in existence for centuries. Members meet in lodges, which can be found in all major cities and hundreds of towns in the United States, as well as in many major cities internationally throughout the free world. (For example, Masonic Hall in New York City is home to dozens of lodges.) Masonry is open to adult men of good character who believe in a Supreme Being. It is built around the ideas of the development of character, personal growth, responsibility, duty, service to God and humanity, and fellowship. Freemasonry is not a religion, but it is spiritual in nature.

"Freemasonry ... uses ceremonies of initiation ...": In brief, wherever initiatory ceremonies are found, initiation is a ritual activity through which men are imparted certain teachings confidentially, are made part of a group, and become people who are in some way different from who they were before initiation. A Masonic initiation ceremony is called a "degree"; there are three of them in basic Freemasonry, and dozens more are offered by 'high degree' organizations.

Through the initiatory experiences of Freemasonry, a man learns certain philosophical and ethical truths in a dramatic fashion. He obtains membership within the international fraternity of Masonry. The new Mason learns certain signs by which he can identify himself as a Mason to other brothers whom he meets in his travels, even when these travels take him around the world. In addition, the new Mason places himself under obligation to keep these signs of recognition secure, and to live according to certain high ideals.

In many cultures, around the world and throughout history, initiatory experiences have been a part of life for adult men of good character. Unfortunately, in the modern industrialized world, opportunities for real initation are few. By contrast, Masonry's ceremonies of initation have a history measured in centuries.

"... ceremonies ... [that] teach symbolic lessons about philosophy, morality, and character": Within the initatory experiences of Freemasonry, a man is exposed to many symbols that offer insight into several important issues: how men should live; towards what ends they should direct their efforts; the way in which people should relate to one another; their relationship to God.

This is Freemasonry. It conveys initiatory experiences to today's man, giving him a context in which to reflect upon his roles and his life in today's society.

To Learn More About Freemasonry

In a few months, readers should be able to purchase my book, Discovering The Lost Symbol, which describes Freemasonry in detail; also, a new edition of my book Freemasonry: An Introduction should be available soon. In the meantime, the following books are a good place to start in learning about Freemasonry (very roughly in the order in which someone determined to read them all should read them):

W. Kirk MacNulty (2006) Freemasonry: Symbols, Secrets, Significance (New York: Thames & Hudson).

Christopher Hodapp (2005) Freemasons for Dummies (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley).

S. Brent Morris (2006) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry (New York: Alpha / Penguin).

W. Kirk MacNulty (1991) Freemasonry: A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol (New York: Thames & Hudson).

Now--on to the clues!

[The image above is a somewhat unusual depiction of a central symbol in Freemasonry, showing a square and a quadrant, within which is an eye in a triangle, denoting that the Eye of the Divine Being is always upon us. The image was obtained from the website of the Masonic Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, which maintains one of the best websites in the world for information regarding Masonic history and other subjects related to Freemasonry, including anti-Masonry.]

Welcome to the "Key to The Lost Symbol Clues" Blog

2009-06-26T12:00:00.024-04:00

Dan Brown's forthcoming novel, The Lost Symbol, the long-awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code, will be published on September 15, 2009, with a first printing of 5 million copies -- the largest first print run in the history of Random House. As part of the marketing campaign created by Brown's publishers, beginning on June 23rd, a series of clues to the content of the novel is being sent out on Twitter. (These clues are collected on the novel's Twitter page.)

The "Key to The Lost Symbol Clues" blog takes each of the novel's Twitter 'tweets' and comments on them. I post solutions to the coded messages, describe the significance of the historical clues, and so forth. For many clues, I take the blog reader to "The Next Level," showing the material associated with the clue that might escape attention on a casual viewing. Finally, I show what each clue tells us about what direction The Lost Symbol might take.

Who I Am

I am Mark Koltko-Rivera, and I write a number of blogs regarding my areas of interest, including the fraternal society known as Freemasonry.

Yes, I am a Freemason. Because people occasionally claim Masonic membership falsely, please let me take a few moments to establish my Masonic credentials.

I am a member of Winter Park Lodge #239, Free and Accepted Masons, in the Grand Lodge of Florida. (That accounts for the "M:.M:." after my name, in the header to the blog; these letters stand for "Master Mason.")
I am also a 32nd-degree ("32*") Master of the Royal Secret in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, with membership in the Valley of Orlando and the Valley of District of Columbia.
In addition, I am a Masonic Knight Templar ("K.T.") in the York Rite of Freemasonry, with membership in the Orlando York Rite Bodies.

(Having returned recently to New York City, I am grateful for the hospitality shown to me as a visitor by St. John's Lodge No. 1, Ancient York Masons, F&AM -- the folks who care for the Bible on which George Washington took his oath as first President of the United States -- and by the Valley of New York, Scottish Rite, Northern Jurisdiction.) I have published articles on the origins of Freemasonry and on the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

This is all relevant to Brown's novel because The Lost Symbol is set within the world of Freemasonry, as Brown years ago said it would be -- and as shown by the clues!

[Additional note: As the U.S. cover unveiled on July 7 demonstrates, The Lost Symbol is not only set within the world of Freemasonry, it is specifically set within the world of the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction--an organization of which I am a member, and in whose research journal and major magazine I have published.]

Finally, I have a doctorate in psychology (NYU, 2000), and have been received recognition from the Division of Psychology of Religion in the American Psychological Association for my work in that area. Of course, a background in religion, especially esoteric religion, always comes in handy when it comes to considering Dan Brown's novels.

Why I Am Writing This

I am writing this blog for a couple of reasons. First, I have the background to explain the significance of a lot of the arcane history hinted at in the Twitter clues (and Dan Brown certainly is one for arcane history). Second, this is a way to promote my own book, Discovering The Lost Symbol, which will be the only book exploring the issues raised in Brown's novel, written by someone who is both a Freemason and a specialist in the psychology of religion. (Publication details will be forthcoming.)

Reboot ('Version 2.0') of This Blog on August 6

After a couple of weeks filing posts on this blog regarding the Lost Symbol clues, on July 13 I removed all the posts. I did this because it came to my attention that, essentially, I was doing other writers' research for them. However, at this point, I think I have more to gain by building this platform for my work than I have to lose by sharing it.

In order to protect my own contributions for future publication, I will not comment on every clue on this blog. Rather, every day or two, I will comment on a clue that is particularly intriguing, from among the clues that have been posted in the preceding 24 to 48 hours. In addition, I have reposted some of my previous responses to some especially interesting clues.

I am glad to be returning to this blog. I very much enjoyed the back-and-forth of the comments, and the opportunity to be part of the public community commenting on the Twitter clues.

The Rules

Anyone is welcome to comment on this blog. However, civility rules: I tolerate no vulgarity, and no personal attacks, especially on others who have commented on a post.

With those guidelines in mind -- have at it. Enjoy. Dan Brown has quite a ride in store for us, judging by the Twitter clues.