“The Masons have had very long and deep traditions of secrecy, they have drastic oaths of loyalty, and in the past they have had extensive and sometimes excessive influence in the power elites of many societies. And so, they have been uniquely successful in covering their tracks and in completely sanitising their past.” – B.Victor Preston

. . .

Did Dan Brown “sample” ideas for “The Lost Symbol” from a little-known Australian novelist who beat him to the punch? The claim that he may have done so, and other claims about Freemasonry, are likely to stir controversy among Brown fans, Masons and all those who love a good literary stoush.

Masonic Mystery Thriller Author Notes Similarities in Dan Brown Book

PressRelease

Earthtimes.org | Dec 4, 2009

Picture this. A mystery thriller is published in 2009 with a Masonic theme throughout. Near the beginning there’s a violent incident in Washington DC, critical to the plot. Much of the book consists of a hunt for a mysterious lost artefact, an object linked to super-secrets from the distant past known only to the highest level Freemasons. There is much reference to Masonic symbols and numerology, to past history, pyramids and to obelisks. In fact, an obelisk holds the final key to the book’s ending. The place name “Alexandria” comes up often, and so on, and so on.

Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”, surely? No, B.Victor Preston’s “The Lion and the Covenant,” published a full six months before Brown’s work, in March 2009. “It’s possible that Dan Brown borrowed a few ideas from my book,” says author Preston. “Reports indicate that he tore up the early versions of his own book, and references to recent technology such as the iPhone, to Twitter and tweeting and so on in “The Lost Symbol” show that some elements of his story were inserted very late in the piece.”

However, author Preston is not accusing the best-selling American novelist of plagiarism. Preston’s own “The Lion and the Covenant” runs to 530 pages by the way, a few more than Brown’s opus. “He hasn’t reproduced any of my sentences or anything like that,” confirms the Aussie writer. “And there’s no copyright in literary ideas. So there’s no suggestion of illegality on his part, even if he did borrow.”

Asked what he thinks of Dan Brown as a writer though, author Preston replies: “I think he has both great strengths and great weaknesses. He is a master of pace and suspense. His research is prodigious, although not always entirely accurate. On the other hand, his characterisation is paper-thin and some of his prose much less than glorious. But perhaps he doesn’t care about that. He writes cracking mystery thrillers that many people enjoy, and he sells extraordinarily well. It’s difficult to argue with that.”

How about Dan Brown and Freemasonry, though? “You get the feeling that he doesn’t actually know much about the subject in real terms, despite all his research,” says author Preston, who has Freemasonry in his own family. Two of his uncles were Masons, one a Master Mason. His English grandfather also bore the same name as one of the leading British Freemasons of the eighteenth century. That was William Preston, who wrote the seminal Masonic text “Illustrations of Freemasonry”, a book still in print more than two centuries later.

“Some families have hundreds of years of Masonic traditions,” explains Preston. “Dan Brown however seems to be looking in from the outside and believing nearly everything he’s been told by Masonic sources.” And what’s wrong with that? “It’s a little bit naive,” author Preston explains. “There’s good and bad in every group. However the Masons have had very long and deep traditions of secrecy, they have drastic oaths of loyalty, and in the past they have had extensive and sometimes excessive influence in the power elites of many societies. And so, they have been uniquely successful in covering their tracks and in completely sanitising their past.”

“The fact is, there was definitely some undesirable stuff that went on in previous eras, although they never admit to any of it these days. Instead a lot of double-talk is engaged in, as in yes we were very influential back then, but no, none of us ever ever did anything wrong whatsoever. You have to be very gullible indeed to believe that. Unfortunately, very few non-Masonic historians have written about Freemasonry, so that on the whole Freemasons have been allowed to write up all of their own past. Non-Masonic writers usually just quote from or summarise books and articles already written by Freemasons. The result is, inevitably, less than fully frank. The whole situation is lacking in objectivity; in fact it’s academically unsound and perhaps even a blot on scholarship.”

“This doesn’t mean,” Preston adds thoughtfully, “that people shouldn’t join the Freemasons if they’re drawn to them, or that they don’t aspire to high morality and practice charity and other good works – they do. It just means that as with every group that has had access to both influence and secrecy for long periods, stuff really did go on at times. My book points in particular at something almost unbelievable, something that will really astonish readers. Yet I’ve ferreted out a very large amount of evidence to suggest it may well be true. People who are open-minded enough and sufficiently independent of thought to read my book can form their own judgements on that. Hopefully they’ll enjoy all the lighter and romantic aspects of the novel too.”

Author Preston also found Brown’s letter sent to the 33rd degree Mason’s Council in Washington, subsequent to publishing “The Lost Symbol”, “a bit on the obsequious side.” ”Perhaps,” he speculates, “Dan Brown didn’t want to offend the Freemason elite the way he offended the Catholic Church with The Da Vinci Code. After all, there are still many powerful Freemasons around, including a number in the publishing industry, although not nearly as many as in the past. I guess he thought, time to stop making more enemies.” The effect? “The effect is that Dan tiptoes around most Masonic issues, and there are no real secrets in his book.” Preston adds that if anyone is interested in sensational Masonic secrets “they’re much better off with my book, in point of fact.”

Has author Preston in fact revealed too much for his own good? He acknowledges that a bank account of his in Australia was “hacked” three times on 09/09/09 from the United States and cleaned out, in what he describes as a “worrying” incident. The significance is that the Masonic numbers “3” and “9” feature prominently throughout his “The Lion and the Covenant,” novel, and in the discussions of hidden Masonic numerology that it contains (some of this information is also revealed in the book’s website at www.elecbk.com). Indeed, as described on the website, a meeting code of the Royal Arch order of Freemasonry, which is mentioned in the book in relation to a major secret, says that members of the group will recognise each other by “three times three”.

A defiant smoking gun? Asked if he thought any Freemasons might have been involved in this criminal act “The Lion and the Covenant” author replied, “You know, it’s difficult to believe in that level of coincidence, isn’t it? However, I think that if so it would have been the work of a rogue individual or just a few extremists, not behaviour any Masonic lodge would ever subscribe to. Freemasons swear to uphold very high moral standards. Of course, I probably have upset a few people in revealing what I have, I guess. But I’ve never taken any Masonic oaths myself, so they have no justifiable grounds under their own system for any punitive actions against me. I believe most Masons would reject that kind of behaviour altogether. It will be interesting to see if any Freemasons speak out about this, though. Organisational loyalty does often cloud proper judgement, that’s true for all kinds of groups everywhere. And Freemasons are as human as the rest of us, they are neither devils nor saints. We need to remember both points there”.

Readers queue to buy a novel on Freemasonry

“The Menace Dan Brown” – a hit at the International Book Fair

Standart | Dec 1, 2009

Impatient readers, Freemasons and politicians queued to buy the novel “33 – The Menace Dan Brown” by Dimitar Nedkov, a high-ranking mason himself. “In the last few days we have been making lists of the people willing to buy The Standart daily with the book,” newspaper sellers said.

“Our orders for the newspaper almost doubled,” they added.

The novel that for the fist time unveils secret rituals and initiation oaths of the Freemasons is already on the market. It can be found at newspaper stands and in bookstores. The novel is an intriguing adventure, which is read all in one go and would become a hit at the starting tomorrow XXVIII International Book fair in Sofia. Dimitar Nedkov’s “33 – The Menace Dan Brown” is expected to become one of the most fascinating premieres at the fair.

Sofia mayoress Yordanka Fandakova will open the most important event connected to literature and books. The book fair takes place in the National Palace of Culture and will be opened to public till November 6. Bulgaria’s minister of culture Vezhdi Rashidov is expected to visit the book fair.

The story of “33 – The Menace Dan Brown” is about how Bulgaria’s membership in NATO and the EU was hanging by a thread just because one of country’s PMs wanted to outlaw the Freemasons, the Illumini, Rozenkroizers and all Rotary and Lions clubs in Bulgaria. The director of FBI personally advised him that if he does that, the USA wouldn’t consider Bulgaria as its partner.

33 – The Menace Dan Brown challenges both historians and Masons by revealing that not the Priory of Sion but the Bogomils were the original forefathers of the Knights Templars. The evidence for this is kept in Bulgaria.

Mr. Nedkov’s novel further reveals that Pope John Paul II personally decided to arrive in Bulgaria in May 2002 and that his mission was a respond the message coded in the third secret of Our Lady of Fatima.

“Dan Brown is away from the truth, he does not know everything about the lost symbol,” the outstanding expert in Masons’ history in Bulgaria, Dimitar Nedkov, writes in his book. He believes the American writer may learn the true story in Bulgaria.

The holders of the Bronze Lion 2009 award will be announced tomorrow at the inauguration of the Book Fair in Sofia. This year the award will be given for the best publisher’s project and for a publisher’s project which produced widest social significance. Over 120 Bulgarian publishing houses and 8 foreign ones take part in the exhibition. The honorary guest at the Fair this year is Serbia. In these lines a delegation of the European network for books and literature – TRADUKI arrives. The network involves wherein Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, Serbia and Slovenia.

Pope John Paul II making the sign of fidelity to the Craft.

An initiated Mason throws the gauntlet: Fatima Prophecy Brings John Paul II to Bulgaria

Bulgarian priests used to work in the Vatican’s most secret archives, Dimitar Nedkov reveals in his novel

Standart | Nov 27, 2009

“Pope John Paul II took the decision to visit Sofia at his sole discretion in order to dissolve completely any suspicions of the Bulgarian trace in the attempt on his life. His councilors were absolutely against the idea but he refused to listen to them. This was one of the few cases when the Pope would not take their opinion in consideration.”

This is the gauntlet high-ranking Mason, Dimitar Nedkov throws in his first novel 33 – The Menace Dan Brown.  The book will be released together with the December 1 issue of the Standart. In the book, Nedkov, who is recognized as one of the notable experts in the history of the Freemasons suggests that the mission of John Paul II to Bulgaria was coded in the third prophecy of Fatima. This has been one of the most jelously kept secrets of the Vatican. The Pope was the only person who knew its contents.

The mysterious story began on May 13, 1917. Then three young shepherds witnessed the apparition of the Virgin Mary in the vicinity of a small Portuguese town of Fatima. The vision reappeared on every 13th day of the month till October. Thus the children learnt about the First and Second World War, about the onset of Communism as an official state power.

On her last appearance, Our Lady of Fatima spoke fateful words. In her third prophecy Our Lady said things that were later related by little shepherdess Lucia and written down. Lucia’s writing was put into an envelope and handed to the Bishop of Leiria. Lucia became a nun; her request was the envelope to be opened after 1960. The bishop sent it to the Pope.

After the envelope was opened, the Vatican surprisingly refused to reveal the secret to the general public. The same was the response of Pope John-Paul II. “This is a spiritual message which doesn’t concern any concrete events. It is unnecessary to make a sensation of it,” the Pope explained his decision.

“The third prophecy of Our Lady of Fatima is one of the reasons why the Pope -Freemason John Paul II – was so persevering in his efforts to rehabilitate the Freemasons before the world,” Dimitar Nedkov continues to send challenges in his first novel.

The author hints that the Third Secret of Fatima refers to the Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Knights Templar and the Bogomils. The author claims that it’s the Pope, along with the Grand Commander of the Masons and a monk from Mount Athos, who are the real guardians of the Brotherhood’s greatest secrets.

“Bulgarians have worked in the Vatican’s most secret archive chambers,” Nedkov reveals in his work.

The author alleges that representatives of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church have had access to documents about Pythagoras, Galileo Galilei and the Mysteries of Fatima.

Lord Rothschild with Lord Mandelson at a routine suare’ in Corfu. Mr Gaddafi was said to be the best shot while Lord Mandelson did not pick up a gun.

Lord Mandelson attended shoot with Gaddafi’s son

Lord Mandelson, the First Secretary, was last night at the centre of fresh controversy after it emerged he had recently socialised at a shoot with the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Telegraph | Nov 26, 2009

By Andrew Porter and Rosa Prince

Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi attended the event at a stately home in Buckinghamshire, along with the financier Nat Rothschild, who is a friend of Lord Mandelson.

The extent of Government relations with Libya were exposed when, to widespread condemnation from victims’ families and President Barack Obama, the Lockerbie bomber was released in August.

Ministers had appeared happy for Abdelbasset al-Megrahi to go free on compassionate grounds in exchange for fostering closer business and trade links with the former rogue state.

Related

Cherie also joined the Rothschild family for dinner during Mandy’s stay.

The gathering at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, is revealed by Charles Moore, a Daily Telegraph columnist, in this week’s Spectator magazine. The home was built for the Rothschild family and also at the shoot was Lord Rothschild, Nat’s father.

Mr Gaddafi was said to be the best shot while Lord Mandelson did not pick up a gun. Last night Lord Mandelson’s office confirmed that he had attended.

A spokesman said: “We do not offer a running commentary on Peter Mandelson’s social engagements, but we can confirm that he has never taken part in a pheasant shoot, and never will.”

But opposition MPs again questioned the close relationship between Mr Gaddafi and the Government.

Douglas Carswell, a Conservative backbencher, said: “I think it is pretty astonishing that a minister of the crown should be present at a pheasant shooting party with the son of Gaddafi.

“It is particularly concerning given what has already happened with the Lockerbie bombing. There is already suspicion about the closeness of the links between the Government and the Gaddafi regime, and this will fuel those fears even further.”

Lord Mandelson has defended the Government’s position on Megrahi and has previously met Gaddafi in August, shortly before the release of the Lockerbie bomber, at the Rothschild villa in Corfu.

He admitted that the two had briefly discussed Megrahi’s case during the gathering of the rich and famous. But his spokesman insisted that the peer had not been involved in the decision to release the bomber, and did not know that he would be freed before learning of it from television reports.

The spokesman said: “There was a fleeting conversation about the prisoner. Peter was completely unsighted on the subject.”

Despite Gordon Brown maintaining that the release of Megrahi was entirely a matter for Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister, the Conservatives demanded to know the extent of the meetings held in recent years between British ministers and Libyan counterparts.

It emerged that several meetings over trade and improved links between London and Tripoli had taken place.

Mr Gaddafi criticised the Conservatives for attacking Mr Brown over the release of the Lockerbie bomber. He called their behaviour “immoral.”

Waddesdon Manor was built for the Rothschild family in the late 19th century on farmland purchased by Ferdinand de Rothschild from the Duke of Marlborough, and resembles a French chateau.

Four generations of the banking family have lived there, and Queen Victoria visited in 1890.

Daily Mail | Nov 22, 2009

By Brendan Carlin

Secret geroes: Little is known about the SAS beyond their emblem

The incredible heroics of the Special Forces could be revealed for the first time under plans to lift their veil of secrecy.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that the Government may scrap the practice of never commenting on the clandestine operations of the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS).

A confidential Ministry of Defence review is considering dropping the publicity ban and shedding more light on the vital work of these forces. That could include the MoD confirming the names and details of members killed in action on operations.

But many within the MoD and the Armed Forces believe the publicity ban is vital for the elite soldiers’ security.

‘People are very divided on this. Some feel the forces don’t get the recognition for what they do. Others say that the rules are there to protect them,’ said a source.

Even the existence of the internal review, understood to have been ordered by Defence ministers, was being regarded as a State secret. The MoD yesterday said it was not aware that the policy was being reconsidered.

But authoritative sources later confirmed that officials had been debating the merits of bringing Special Forces’ work into the open – with the strict proviso it did not endanger them.

Some senior Government figures believe revealing more information about the forces could help win support for the war in Afghanistan.

One official said: ‘At present we cannot even name personnel if they are killed on operation.’

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is understood to be sympathetic to the idea.

But Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox warned: ‘War is not a PR exercise. If we can give our troops adequate praise without compromising them, that’s one thing, but we must never allow missions to become media-led.’

_________

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MI5 & the IRA

This report examines the role played by British intelligence and the BritishIRA Army in collusion with the IRA and other paramilitary terrorist organizations in supplying weapons and explosives, allowing bombings to go forward, and even committing murder in the name of “fighting terror.”

In Dan Brown’s latest thriller ‘The Lost Symbol’, Freemason Mal’akh gazes down the human skull cradled in his palms and looks into the crimson wine before drinking it in long deep, swallows to the last drop.

TNN | Nov 19, 2009

by Arun Ram

After the installation of Dr B Biswakumar as the grandmaster of Freemasons India on Saturday in Chennai, there will be wine, but champagne flutes will replace human skulls.

If Brown has rekindled curiosity about the age-old secret society’ of Freemasons often associated with occult and witchcraft, the latest grandmaster of the fraternity in India is all set to demolish the shields of what he calls non-existent secrecy. For the first time, the installation ceremony will be open to people an invited few other than Freemasons. This, he says in an interview with TOI in his modest clinic in Madaveli, is part of an ongoing trend to slowly open up the fraternity steeped in furtiveness in popular imagination. More radical changes in the all-male community could be in the offing, as he says women Freemasonry and co-Freemasonry could be a reality in a decade.

Masons agree they are a society of “morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.” That sure smacks of secrecy. “We have our own signs, symbols and secrets, but they are just modes of recognition among Mason brothers. It is also aimed at generating curiosity in an apprentice Mason to learn the symbols and graduate to higher levels. A candidate has to be nominated by a Mason and we should be convinced that he is God-fearing, law-abiding and has brotherly love. We don’t tell anyone the charity we continue to do,” says the neurologist who has served in the Indian Army in the early 1960s during the Indo-China war.

In fact, no Mason tells anyone that he is one, till asked. “Though many consider Freemasons as practitioners of black magic, our real members include judges, doctors and bureaucrats. How many of you know that Swami Vivekananda, C Rajagopalachary, Motilal Nehru and Gemini Ganesan were masons?” says Dr Biswakumar. The fraternity encourages its member to practise his own religion, whatever it may be, but all believe in a Supreme Being.

What about Brown’s accounts of Freemasons drinking from the skull and meditating with bones, sulphur and salt? “Fiction,” says the grandmaster, who however likes Brown’s book which he says has brought out the basic tenets of Freemasonry on page 99. That’s where symbologist Robert Langdon tells CIA Office of Security director Inoue Sato: “For the record ma’am, the entire Masonic philosophy is built on honesty and integrity. Masons are among the most trustworthy men you could ever hope to meet.”

_______

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Ambarish Singh Roy ’s Public Gallery

Grand Lodge of India

Regional Grand Lodge of Northern India

Independent | Nov 10, 2009

By Ben Padley

Jack Straw’s decision to no longer force applicants for the judiciary to declare if they are Freemasons was today branded a “disgrace” by a Labour MP.

Gordon Prentice (Pendle) said there would again be a “cloak of secrecy” following the move by the Justice Secretary.

Mr Straw said last week that a review had shown no evidence of “impropriety or malpractice” as a result of a judge being a Freemason and it would be “disproportionate” to continue with the practice, introduced in 1998.

The United Grand Lodge of England made representations to ministers in May and indicated it might seek judicial review of the policy.

At Commons question time today Mr Prentice asked: “Is it not a disgrace that you have decided to allow judges no longer to have to declare if they are Freemasons?

“We know that one in 20 of our judges are Freemasons. Why on earth the cloak of secrecy?”

Mr Straw replied: “There was no secrecy about my announcement, I made the announcement by way of written ministerial statement last week in the light of a European Court of Human Rights judgment against the state of Italy, which was made in 2006, and to which our attention was drawn by the Grand Lodge of Freemasons.

“It suggested that a continuation of a compulsory register…was likely to be unlawful. After legal advice I accepted that. It is open to any judge to declare that they are Freemasons.”

He added that there had been “no evidence” of any “unacceptable behaviour by Freemason judges.

Ministry of Justice figures indicate there are 3,808 judges in England and Wales and 205 or 5.4 per cent are Freemasons. There are also 29,702 magistrates, of whom 1,900 or 6.4 per cent are Freemasons.

Illustration by Etienne Gilfillan/Photos from Getty Images

London still sees more than its share of buildings which seem to owe more to the occult than to strict practicality. Number One Canada Square, better known as Canary Wharf, is topped with a conspicuous pyramid with a flashing light at its apex. It could hardly be a more graphic embodiment of the familiar image of a pyramid topped by an eye, a symbol familiar from the back of the US dollar bill.

While Dan Brown looks for Masonic symbolism in Washington, DC, we journey through Masonic London, on a trail that takes in Isaac Newton and Jack the Ripper, St Paul’s Cathedral and Canary Wharf, conspiracy theories and occult forces…

Fortean Times | Nov 2009 Issue

City of Symbols

By David Hambling

Dan Brown’s latest novel sends symbologist Robert Langdon on a new quest. Having previously tangled with the Priory of Sion and the Illuminati, this time he’s pursuing the Freemasons; and once again he must follow a treasure trail of clues hidden in the urban landscape. Dan Brown is notorious for his loose approach to historical fact, and accuracy takes second place to keeping the plot moving. His location is Washington, DC, a city with plenty of Masonic connections. But Brown might have done better to start at the roots of Freemasonry in the City of London.

The City of London, or Square Mile, is history and mythology made concrete, going right back to the celebrated London Stone itself. [1]  Settlement here dates to pre-Roman times, but the biggest influence on the City as we know it today was the rebuilding project that took place after the Great Fire of 1666. This gave London much of its present form and introduced many of its greatest monuments. Unlike the previous random sprawl, which had grown up organically over centuries, the rebuilding was carried out according to a deliberate master plan. Some claim that it was simply an attempt to build on more orderly and ‘rational’ lines, but if we peel back the surface the esoteric, Masonic and even magical aspects of the City are revealed.

We now tend to view the 17th century as a period of scientific progress when rationality broke free from the bonds of superstition. However, that rationality took many forms, and sacred geometry, numerology and astrology were just as respectable as astronomy and chemistry. The quest was on for the keys to the Universe. While we might now believe that science will provide all the answers, in those days the occult held an equal attraction for men of learning, and this is something we can see in their works.

The Freemasons emerged at just the right time for the great rebuilding project (see panel: “The Found­ations of Freemasonry”, p35). They were the latest group of seekers after ultim­ate knowledge, following hard on the footsteps of the “Invisible Coll­ege” of the Rosicruc­ians, which was either a conspiracy, an impenetrable secret society or a hoax, depending on whom you believe. The Royal Society, still an important organis­ation today, dates back to this era and is regarded by some as an extension of the Invisible College. Founded in 1660 as the “Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge”, it originally dealt as much with alchemy and astrology as what we now think of as science. There was a large overlap between membership of the Royal Society, Freemasons and even more secretive esoteric groups such as the Cabala Club.

The great architect of the new London was of course Sir Christopher Wren – astronomer, geometer, Royal Society founder member, MP and architect. He also appears to have been a Freemason. On 18 May 1691, the antiquary and bio­grapher John Aubrey noted: “This day… is a great convention at St Paul’s Church of the fraternity of the adopted masons, where Sir Christopher Wren is to be adopted a brother…”

Some discount this as hearsay, since Aubrey was simply repeating what he had been told by one William Dugdale. However, the theory is supported by an old trad­ition in the Masonic Lodge of Antiquity No 2 that Wren was Master of the Lodge, and to many Freemasons his membership of the Craft is obvious in his works, particularly in his greatest monument – St Paul’s Cathedral (see below: ‘Isaac Newton and the Temple of Doom’).

Working with Wren were two other notables, John Evelyn and the notorious Nicholas Hawksmoor. The latter was nicknamed “the devil’s architect”, and his Masonic credentials are not in doubt. Hawksmoor’s membership was recorded in 1691, when he became Wren’s assistant. Other acknowledged Freemasons include John James, the second surveyor appointed alongside Hawksmoor, and Nathaniel Blackerby, treasurer to the commission building new churches.

THE NEW JERUSALEM

To the builders of the new London, the city was to be the New Jerusalem. Rome was in the hands of Catholics, so London must succeed it as the capital of the true faith. This was reinforced by a popular theory that the English were the descendants of the Lost Tribe of Israel, who disappeared into the West after the destruction of the kingdom in 722 BC. Londoner William Blake – who had a tendency to employ Masonic imagery – was merely echoing this idea when he wrote of Jerusalem being “builded here” decades later. This belief was a help to those who believed that Britain should be a global empire, a true successor to Rome, with a temporal and religious capital to match it.

Several concepts were put forward for the new street plan. All of these did away with the warren of tiny streets and alleys and imposed some sort of regularity. Some, such as the plans put forward by cartographer Richard Newcourt, were simple grid patt­erns. But both Wren and Evelyn had more complex ideas, and it has been suggested that Evelyn’s plan bears a marked resemblance to the Sephiroth or Tree of Life from the mystic Cabala, “the best hieroglyph of the known and unknown universe”. Cabalism was a popular topic among esoteric philosophers of the day, with its mathematical and geometric approach, some of which was assimilated into Freemasonry.

Evelyn had previously written about how a careful arrangement of the environment could “influence the soule and spirits of man, and prepare them for converse with good Angells”. In Cabalism, the angels are the messengers between the physical and metaphysical world.

In the event, practical considerations restricted the wholesale remodell­ing of London to more modest changes. But while they could not demolish streets at will, the architects of London arranged places of worship according to their plan. Wren realigned the axis of St Paul’s so it stood 2,000 cubits (914m / 3,000ft) from Temple Bar to the West and the same distance from St Dunstan-in-the-East in the other direction. Hawksmoor’s St George-in-the-East is 2,000 cubits from the London Wall, St John Horselydown was placed 2,000 cubits from the Monument and Hawksmoor’s St Mary Woolnoth is the same distance from his Christ Church Spitalfields.

The measure of 2,000 cubits is used in the biblical Book of Numbers in its rules for city planning: “[M]easure from without the city on the east side 2,000 cubits.” It had featured in modern studies of sacred geometry since 1662. John Wilkins, vicar of St Lawrence Jewry and the first secretary of the Royal Society had converted it into modern measures, creating the essential yardstick for a New Jerusalem.

THE DEVIL’S ARCHITECT

Christopher Wren is remembered as the chief architect of modern London, but his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor towers above him in occult circles thanks to his 12 churches built in accordance with the 1711 Act. These made a break from the trad­itional Gothic style and introduced a new and alien geometric vocabulary of obelisks, pyramids and cubes. His supposedly morbid interest in pagan cultures and pre-Christian worship have helped darken his reputation.

Hawksmoor’s churches are based on a layout of intersecting axes and rectangles, which he described as being based on the “rules of the Ancients”. His work borrows from Egypt, Greece and Rome – all revered by the Freemasons – and often in a grand manner. The nave of St George’s Bloomsbury church is a perfect cube, with a tower in the shape of a pyramid. Seven of the keystones are decorated with flames, the eighth bears the Hebrew name of God inside a triangular plaque surrounded by a sunburst; the symbolism of this is obscure.

Hawksmoor’s St Mary Woolnoth is based on the idea of a cube within a cube. This has represented the squaring of the circle from ancient times, which takes us back to the ideal proportions of Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man… and, of course, the Freemasons. [2]

But it is the alignment of Hawksmoor’s churches as much as their architecture that has provoked speculation, starting with the writer Iain Sinclair’s book-length prose-poem Lud Heat in 1975. This describes how Hawksmoor’s churches form regular triangles and pentacles, and “guard, mark or rest upon” the city’s sources of occult power. Sinclair even provides maps to prove the alignments, which are a clear sign of Hawksmoor’s true Satanic affiliation.

Sinclair was the first to connect Hawksmoor’s churches with some of the most shocking crimes in London’s history – the now largely forgotten Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 and Jack the Ripper’s killing spree in 1888. Sinclair suggests that the malign influence of Christ Church, Spitalfields, is so great that it attracts dark acts of violence to its vicinity.

The theme was taken up in Peter Ackroyd’s novel Hawksmoor in 1985, which switches between the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire and a modern serial killer case. Ackroyd, a great scholar of London, playfully names his modern detect­ive Hawksmoor, while the book’s 17th-century architect is Nicholas Dyer.

The idea of Hawksmoor as a manipul­ator of dark forces was further refined in Alan Moore’s hugely ambitious graphic novel From Hell. This involved a unified conspiracy theory linking Hawksmoor, the Freemasons and the Jack the Ripper killings. The Ripper murders, in this version, are carried out by Queen Victoria’s personal physician to conceal an illegitimate child conceived by her grandson, Prince Albert, Duke of Clarence.

Moore taps into an earlier strand of Ripperology connecting the killings with the Freemasons. The oath of secrecy taken by Freemasons includes a very colourful description of the supposed penalties, including mention of a cut throat and the statement “that my left breast had been torn open and my heart and vitals taken from thence and thrown over my left shoulder” and “my body had been severed in two in the midst”. Freemasons insist that this oath is symbolic and the penalties have never actually been inflicted on oath-breakers. A number of commentators, though, have suggested that the way the Ripper’s victims were mutilated closely parallels these specific injuries.

Stephen Knight went even further in his book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution in 1976. Graffiti found near two of the murders read: “The Juwes are not the men who will be blamed for nothing”. Knight claimed that “Juwes” was not a misspelling of “Jews”, as usually supposed, but is actually a Masonic term referring to Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum. These are three murderers in Masonic legend who are linked with the gory penalties set out in the oath. Knight’s book received something of a mauling (or perhaps a disembowelment) from other Ripper experts, though it has proved influential, spawning numerous books and films.

Even if the Ripper killings were some sort of enactment of the Masonic penalties, it does little to solve the case. Were they a warning, or was there some other symbolic purpose? Was the Ripper a crazed Free­mason? Or is it all, as Sinclair suggested, down to the influence of Hawksmoor’s dark architectural patterns?

Full Story

In this Oct. 29 2009 file photo, Belgium’s Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy participates in a meeting prior to an EU summit in Brussels. Very soon, Europeans from Denmark to Bulgaria will wake up to the reality of having their very first president, one person world leaders can call when they want to talk to Europe. AP Photo

“New resources will be necessary for the financing of the welfare state. Green tax instruments are a possibility.”

Top candidate debates EU tax at elite dinner

EU Observer | Nov 16, 2009

by ANDREW RETTMAN

Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, a top candidate for the new European Union president job, laid out his views on future EU financing at a dinner of the secretive Bilderberg group last week.

The event took place at Val Duchesse, a former priory on the outskirts of Brussels, on Thursday (12 November), with guests including Belgian industrialist and Bilderberg chairman Etienne Davignon, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and luminaries from the worlds of international politics and business, according to Belgian broadsheet De Tijd.

The Belgian leader is reported to have said in a speech that: “New resources will be necessary for the financing of the welfare state. Green tax instruments are a possibility, but they are ambiguous: This type of tax will eventually be extinguished. But the possibilities of financial levies at European level must be seriously examined and for the first time the large countries in the union are open to that.”

Mr Van Rompuy’s official spokesman later told the Belga news agency that: “The Prime Minister … indicated that it is necessary to carry on thinking about structural financing at the European level.”

The leak to De Tijd, coming just days before the EU aims to choose its first permanent president, could damage Mr Van Rompuy’s chances.

Proposals about imposing fees on environmentally-damaging behaviour or skimming small levies off financial transactions have been mooted before. But the suggestion that the new EU president might interfere in national taxation policy is anathema to anti-federalists in EU countries such as the UK or Denmark.

Mr Van Rompuy’s participation at the Bilderberg dinner will also give ammunition to critics of the EU top job selection process, which takes place via confidential consultations between EU leaders and informal social events.

The Bilderberg group is an elite club of aristocrats, politicians and businessmen dating back to 1954, which likes to meet away from the public eye and which is widely disliked by pro-transparency campaigners.

EU parliament chief shows his cards

Meanwhile in a related development, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek over the weekend backed former Spanish leader Jose Maria Aznar to take the EU president post.

“As far as I know, Aznar is not currently interested in this kind of position. But I think it would be good for the EU if he changed his mind and submitted his candidature,” Mr Buzek told Spanish daily ABC in an interview published on Saturday.

Mr Buzek met Mr Aznar along with the current Spanish government on a trip to Madrid ahead of Spain taking up the rotating EU presidency in January.

The conservative Spanish politician is from the correct political family according to the prevailing wisdom that the centre-right will take the EU president job while the centre-left will take the EU foreign minister position. But he was a firm advocate of the Iraq war, which remains a highly-divisive topic in the EU.

The speculation is set to see an end on Thursday (19 November) when EU leaders gather in Brussels to decide the top appointments. Other names in line for the presidency post include Dutch leader Jan Peter Balkenende and his Luxembourg counterpart, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Britney — The Devil Made Me Do It!

TMZ | Nov 12, 2009

Britney Spears is admitting to being a devil-worshiping Satan fanatic who embraces a “new world order” … at least according to her Twitter page.

Turns out her Twitter account was hacked by a cyber-demonic force this morning … and we’re not talking about Sam Lutfi. Along with giving “Glory to Satan,” the background to her page has gone from images of her “3″ video … to pyramids inscribed with the name of the alleged secret society Illuminati.

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“I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that.”

- Britney Spears commenting on her absolute obedience to president George W. Bush, in a  CNN interview September 3, 2003

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