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steelgeneral said:
What is truth?

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"Your society will be our shield and the doubting of your wisemen will be our sword." (Count Dracula)
Rosey

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Jakin1941 said:
Which one Dan Brown is he writing about ?

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Ask one of the people cashing in on the book before its release; they obviously know.

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Dazzle said:
I don't, as I've not read what the observers have written.

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So, your opinion on us 'casher-inners' is therefore worthless? Makes sense to me.

Greg

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= News on The Solomon Key?
= The Cryptex - Dan Brown central

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Dazzle said:
I don't, as I've not read what the observers have written.

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So, your opinion on us 'casher-inners' is therefore worthless? Makes sense to me.

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I'd rather it made sense than cents for you.

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Greg, I doubt I'd even bat an eyelid if you had something about the Key of Solomon. It's the fact you've titled it The Guide to Dan Brown's Solomon Key which I just don't get: you , like everyone else, have no idea what it's about - how could you possibly write a guide?

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Dazzle said:
It's the fact you've titled it The Guide to Dan Brown's Solomon Key which I just don't get: you , like everyone else, have no idea what it's about - how could you possibly write a guide?

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Hi Dazzle,

As I've pointed out previously on this forum, I didn't choose the title - my publisher did. As most any author will tell you, the author has little say in the title.

For the record, when I self-published the book I titled it DaVinci in America. The title was changed when the new publisher picked it up.

Additionally, I should also point out that Brown did leave clues to the content - so we do know, to some extent, what it is about. The Da Vinci webquest basically stated that Freemasonry and Washington, D.C. will be part of the book, as will the Kryptos statue at CIA headquarters. In interviews Brown has also suggested that the Founding Fathers (and their link with Freemasonry) will also play a part. If we trust Brown and his publisher's word, we therefore do have an idea what it is about (to paraphrase you). In my book I explore those topics and point out relevant pieces of information that would likely be associated - e.g. the Scottish Rite 'House of the Temple' which would make quite an ideal location considering the topics above.

Of course, guessing at plot is exactly that - being a fiction book which is still being written (or not even started perhaps?) I'm the first to admit that I don't know the plot. And I don't really want to provide that anyhow, as that's what makes a novel enjoyable, discovering the plot page-by-page. I simply try to provide a primer on the subjects Brown and his publisher have said will be in the new book - so that readers can be at least a little educated on these topics as Brown takes them on a tour.

People taking sniping shots at my motivation does irk me though. I've spent 10 years researching and writing about these topics, and I was a moderator on the 1000-strong Priory of Sion mailing list a good five years before Brown even wrote The Da Vinci Code. I've provided free essays and news updates on my website ('The Daily Grail') for the past 8 years, and I try to contribute freely here. As such, I hardly feel like I'm jumping on a bandwagon...I've been riding it for a while, even well before it was in the popular consciousness.

Peace and Respect,
Greg

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= News on The Solomon Key?
= The Cryptex - Dan Brown central

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Sol said:
Greg - if it's any consolation at all, I, for one, find your research most useful, and very much appreciate the time you're devoting to this, as well as the fact that you share many of your findings for free. Just recently been getting some more good ideas from one of your latest, about Dan Brown and the KKK.

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Thanks Sol. I've just added another essay to the website, this one on the Masonic Foundations of America (and also the influence of Deism on many of the Founding Fathers). Makes for an interesting topic of exploration, no matter whether Brown discusses it or not - not least because of the impact that Christian Fundamentalism currently has over politics in the U.S.

Peace and Respect,
Greg

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= News on The Solomon Key?
= The Cryptex - Dan Brown central

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Belfegor said:
I've just added another essay to the website, this one on the Masonic Foundations of America (and also the influence of Deism on many of the Founding Fathers).

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Greg, that essay is great stuff, another interesting summary of the whole thing. I especially like your development of Manly Hall's idea about America being the step towards the Ultimate Free State.

If by chance you hadn't encountered this one, Richard Hoagland from the Enterprise Mission makes a pretty good case of another famous Deist, John Dee, as being behind Washington DC's "Masonic" layout. ( http://www.enterprisemission.com/millenn4.htm ) Possibly more little tidbits that DB may include in the new book.

The Great Quest of Bacon, Raleigh and other Deists was of course to overthrow the tyranny of the church and bring about the Enlightenment, what they largely suceeded in doing. The American Constitution is seen in the history of Law as the direct descendant of the Bill of Rights written by the Levellers in England, who saw themselves as Baconites. And the US did become the first "real" attempt at democracy in the modern world, obliterating at least some of old world class system.

I agree with Rosey that the Deist-Rosicrucian doctrines of those 16th -17th C. people stem from much earlier Gnostic and Manichean teachings, which promoted religious tolerance and a unification of faiths. My own little contention is that the ideas of Bacon et al were later fulfilled strangely by people like Baron of Culpeper and Governor William Berkeley, staunch royalists and loyal to the deposed and beheaded Catholic King, Charles I Stuart. They ruled the early lands of Virginia and ultimately prepared it for the American Revolution. The heir to the Culpeper estate, Thomas Fairfax, is the guy who "discovered" both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

By the way, I would appreciate if you could give a small comment about my thoughts on the DVC movie trailer on your blog, which probably missed your attention ( http://solomon.dailygrail.com/node/23#comment ).

Best wishes,
Sol

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Sol said:
The American Constitution is seen in the history of Law as the direct descendant of the Bill of Rights written by the Levellers in England, who saw themselves as Baconites. And the US did become the first "real" attempt at democracy in the modern world, obliterating at least some of old world class system.

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Whether that attempt was genuine or not is debatable, however. Among the Founding Fathers, guys like Jefferson were well-known for their high-sounding phrases on the subject, intended to form a "false legacy" for themselves. The reality was that Jefferson and his ilk despised and mistrusted democracy. He (and others) believed that the Bill of Rights was great advertising copy, but the idea that those rights might ever be enforced incensed him, threatening his comforts as a slaveholder and aristocrat.

The right to vote, let's remember, was granted only to white men who owned substantial property--effectively less than one percent of the post-Revolution population. That was the main protection at the time against the will of the uneducated masses ever being realized.

The later advent of the Senate was a further mechanism to allow the aristocracy to remain the gatekeepers of power. In Britain the House of Lords served this function, and in later democracies that allowed non-aristocratic members to stand as candidates for election, a "House of Commons" risked letting commoners run the country. An aristocrat-controlled Senate, however, with the power to oversee that body of plebs could keep power in the ultimate control of the aristocracy while allowing the commoners the illusion of real representation. In many democracies with Senates, in fact, a senatorial candidate was required to own a substantial amount of "real property" (i.e. real estate), such that it was assured that the Senate would be composed entirely of wealthy landowners.

In hindsight, it doesn't seem that the Founding Fathers really wanted to do away with the "old world class system." Rather, it seems that they wanted to dress it up differently and resell it as a different product under a more popular name. Certainly promising the masses a voice in government was new and interesting, but with severe limitations on who the electors would be, and what kind of real power they would have with an aristocratic Senate to "prevent their folly," it begins to look more like a continuance of the same aristocracy beneath a new layer of populist deception.

Whether the situation has improved much over the past couple of centuries is also debatable. Virtually all American citizens can vote now, and in theory any American-born citizen can run for public office, but in practice (with a few notable exceptions) the game remains a sport for rich white men. It takes so much money these days to mount an effective election campaign that financing becomes a filter in and of itself, assuring that whoever gets elected is either wealthy or backed by wealthy sponsors/lobbyists. Sure, the people can choose from any of the candidates on the ballot, but it's a vote for big-money interests no matter which way they vote--not much different from the sham elections in dictatorships where there's only one name on the ballot.

The aristocracy is firmly entrenched, it seems, even beneath the veneer of modern democracies (this is true not only in the United States, let's be clear). What we see today is more like aristocratic rule-by-proxy, with wealthy families and individuals using their corporate wealth to support politicians who will champion their interests in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, or even the Oval Office. As long as the aristocrats determine who can become a politician, and how those politicians vote once elected, the great uneducated masses can have all the democratic illusions they want.

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Arras said:
What we see today is more like aristocratic rule-by-proxy, with wealthy families and individuals using their corporate wealth to support politicians who will champion their interests in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, or even the Oval Office.

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Arras, great show on the very thoughtful article, I thouroughly enjoyed the read.

Everything you say is sadly only too true, and the old class system is still very much in control of world politics today. One doesn't have to be a pinko commie like myself to see that. Yet it's important to remember when studying the motivations of these historical peple, that our understanding of "equality" today is vastly different from theirs.

Three or four hundred years ago it would've been absolutely unthinkable for a person with white skin to think of himself as being on the same level of "humanity" as a black-skinned one. Or for somebody with "aristocratic birth" to consider that the landless peasants should have any say in ruling the country. Cromwell's revolution and the English Bill of Rights, which set up the later House of Commons, were not led by the people who actually worked the land, but by lesser gentry, all of them also landowners, who just sought to get a better deal from the King, and not voting rights for their farmers. Thomas Jefferson himself was a well known proponent of slavery and maintained that workers should know their place. And the US electoral system certainly appears to have been set up with a certain class of people in mind.

But I think it's debatable whether the Founding Fathers themselves saw democracy as merely a handy new way to fool the masses into giving popular support to what was essentially a continuation of the old social caste divisions. I think that many of them honestly beieved that what they're creating is about as "equal" as it can get. Certainly the principles of freedom espoused by their spiritual harbringers, the Baconites and their ilk, were very "modern" compared to the mainstay of Europe in that day. Nobody talked of equality in their day, and freedom for most people meant having enough to eat, or never saying anything bad about your political and religious leaders.

And so, despite the obvious sugar-coated hypocrisy of the original founding documents, America did become the first country in the Western World where a formerly moneyless and unknown person could one day acquire a fortune as an enterpreneur, which could gain him an entry into the formerly utterly unreachable "upper class". Thus, however crudely, were the earlier class boundaries somehow breached. That's the main reason why America was (and still is) widely known as "the land of opportunity" around the world.

So the "Grail in America" idea is still valid, in light of how those early guys saw the world. The modern Civil Rights Movement, also a product of America, was born out of the sentiments that people read from the Constitution, and not from the Vulgate. Anyways listen, you won't hear me singing too many praises to the US and the American Way of Life, but I still feel the historical achievements should be recognized and given their proper honor.

Regards,
Sol

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RoseyORyan said:
The relationship between Scottish Rite Masonry and the KKK is a subject of fierce debate among my people here in Scotland...abuse of Christian symbols and our national symbols.

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Well you know Rosey, the Devil plays with the best laid plans. After the division amongst the Grail Keepers in Scotland, following the tumultous events of mid 17th C., a great deal of bretheren embraced "the Dark Side" in many ways, lusting as always after Riches and Power instead of following their ancient commission.

This reminds me, that silly poem I posted here last summer about the Scottish succession, was supposed to be sung to the tune of a funny song from the seventies, called "the Cockroach that ate Cincinnatti", whose cadence is structured on old Scottish ballads. In my sick mind, the Cockroach was supposed to symbolize the current victory of the Dark Side - because "Cincinnatti" was the old symbol for mankind's nobler, or "higher", sentiments. The city of Cincinnatti, Ohio, was of course Washintgton's old baby and has its own lore of "Masonic architecture", most likely also a player of some sort in DB's postponed but hopefully still upcoming book (which brought us all here.)

Still looking for the meaning of "Magh Seanir" here... No clues so far, but "the Plain of Shinnar" would be in Sumer, which is Iraq.

Sol

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ItsTheReckoning said:
Whether the title was your decision or not, its purpose is obviously to tap into DB's fan base and draw readers that would probably otherwise never "stumble" across your material.

Thats my two cents (Warrented or Not)

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Hi,

Thanks for your thoughts. In reply, I would remark that it's a free world. Whether DB critics like it or not, there is a large section of the public who are very interested in both his book, and the subjects within it. As such, there is a legitimate 'cottage market' - over a million people bought Dan Burstein's anthology "Secrets of the Code" (and it is a very worthwhile read!), according to their own press release.

Your comment makes it sound like it is a crime, or somehow underhanded, to appeal to DB's readers. There is a genuine demand for more information on these topics - and I'm of the opinion that people are intelligent enough to decide whether they want a particular book or not, so I leave it in their hands whether they are interested in reading my material.

Is it 'making your own way' to publish a book like this? No, but then everyone needs to start somewhere, and also need to pay bills. This is my pet area, so it's a natural "popular" route for me to take (why leave it to others with no idea to fill the already present market?), which may enable me to write my more original material sometimes in the future (which will no doubt sell about 50 copies, but I think it's important).

Peace and Respect,
Greg

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= News on The Solomon Key?
= The Cryptex - Dan Brown central

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