Grail Seeker Media Watch for the Week Ending 8 July 06

• The Lichfield Mercury News has an article announcing Clifton Powers has written a book about decoding the letters inscribed at the Shepherds at Arcadia monument at Shugborough Hall. “Mr Power's book, Arcadia: The Solution to the Templar Code, claims an acronymic code where each letter stands for a Latin word”; which has nothing to do with Grail mysteries. Of other note relating to this story, Bletchley Park held a contest in 2004 to solve this puzzle. At the time Bletchley Park promised further information on their findings, which has never come. As a matter of fact, I can find no reference to the project on Bletchley’s web site. I’ll report more on this aspect of this story when some of my feelers come back in.

• Zenit New Agency reported that when Benedict XVI is in Valencia on Saturday (yesterday), he will venerate the Valencia Chalice. This chalice is kept in the cathedral of Valencia and is yet another contender for being the cup used at the Last Supper. As of this posting, I have not been able to find confirmation that this veneration by the Pope happened.

• There’s been a lot of talk of a relic that was found in Colorado some 45 years ago. Originally, researchers thought that the mystery relic was part of a cross brought to the area by Spanish Explorers. Now the consensus seems to be that it is a sheath to a Masonic sword. Confused? So am I. Here are the articles that are relevant to this topic.

http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2006-07-06/personalspace.html

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4009747

http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2006-06-29/cover.html

• Michael Baignet was a guest on Dreamlands Saturday night. (Just hit the "Listen Now" link in the upper right hand corner of the page.) According to the site," Fresh from his epic legal battle with Dan Brown, author Michael Baigent (Holy Blood, Holy Grail ; The Temple and the Lodge ; and Dead Sea Scrolls Deception) tells the story of his new book The Jesus Papers : Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History , the outcome of years of research into the many secret archives that he gained access to as a result of writing Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
  

Fiction For a Grail Seeker part 2

For some reason, I couldn't tack this one on my last post. But without further ado..

While I have not read it yet, Grail Seeker friend Bob Freeman assures me that you horror fans out there will love his latest book.

Bob's blurb on Amazon states...

In the sleepy little town of Somerset an ancient evil awakens, hungering for blood and vengeance... Michael Somers is brought to Cairnwood Manor, an isolated estate in rural Indiana, to sit at the deathbed of a grandfather he never knew existed. But very soon he finds himself drawn into the strange and esoteric world of werewolves, vampires, witches... and a family curse that dates back to fourteenth century Scotland... If Michael is to survive he must face his inner demons and embrace his family's dark past.

Fiction Fit for a Grail Seeker

From time to time, even the most ardent of Grail Seekers has to take a break from his/her quest. I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite fiction works that would hold a Grail Seekers attention while on vacation.

The Chronicles of the Holy Grail

This Arthurian anthology collects stories of magic, mystery, and adventure inspired by the Holy Grail, in the form of the cup from the Last Supper, by such noted authors as Tanith Lee, Marion Zimmer Bradley, T. H. White, William Morris, and others. In all there are 22 Arthurian stories and 15 original stories. The authors also have a nice introduction to Grail Legend and Arthurian characters in the forward. The range of authors gives one a good feel for the influences and differing thoughts on the Grail.

Foucault's Pendulum

What list of books would be complete without mentioning Umberto Eco's classic Foucault's Pendulum? The story centers on a group of writers that invent a history of various events and tie it up in a nice package around the Knights Templar. The group concludes that the Knight's Templar real goal was to take over the world. Their manufactured history says the time is approaching when the Templar's plans are about to culminate. It was all fun and games for the trio until their fantasy starts to become true. Eco pulls every bit of esoterica out of the wood work for this one. I was amazed at how challenged I was grasping at references. Mathematic puzzles, physics, voodoo, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, metaphysics, philosophy and cultural mythology are all placed in the tale to challenge the reader. If nothing else, the text will challenge you to figure out the rich banquet of the occult.

Revelation

This film has gone mostly unnoticed by most esoteric minded folks out there, and it’s a shame. Centering on an object called the Loculus, Revelation weaves a 2000 year of an object and what mysteries it holds. Picking and choosing from many underground streams, Revelation visually and contextually well put together film. I hate to say too much of the plot or why the Templars or the bad guys. Check it out. If nothing else, Sci-Fi channel shows it from time to time.

The Adept

Also in the series: The Lodge of the Lynx, The Templar Treasure , Dagger Magic , The Death of an Adept

Authors Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris turn into the esoteric version of Nora Roberts in the Adept series. The books focuses around FBI shrink Sir Adam Sinclair who is a psychically/magically/esoterically powered Adept. The Adepts are charged with fighting evil in whatever form they find it through out the world. Sinclair, of course, surrounds himself with like minded and powered people to save the world from one evil plot after another. The group locks horns with Satan Worshipers, evil Druids, long gone Nazis, and the shadowy Lodge of the Lynx folks.

It sounds as though I didn’t like these books. On the contrary, they are easy on the mind fun adventures in the occult. They’re perfect for an in flight diversion or road trip read. Don’t expect to be too challenged by any of the references or plot points inside.

Tales of the Knights Templar

Also in the series: On Crusade: More Tales of the Knights Templar

I’ll follow up the Adept Series with another Kurtz extravaganza, the Templar Series. Each of the books presents fictional accounts of the Templar’s exploits. Kurtz has collected short stories from sci-fi and fantasy writers relating to the Poor Knights. As with any anthology, you take the good with the bad. Once again, solid historical fiction it’s not; pass the time mind candy it is.

The Word

Wallace’s, at the time it was published, controversial novel deals with a publisher task with presenting the lost gospel of Jesus’ brother; James the Just. Published in 1972, The Word weaves a conspiratorial tale of not only the religious implication, but that of business and academic concerns. I read this one early in college and remembered it opening my eyes to the possibilities of how fragile one’s belief systems can be.

PI

Director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream )presents what it’s like to be a half crazed mathematician who is trying to find the unifying answer in chaotic systems. The main character, Max, is courted by Hassidic Jews looking for the ineffable name of God and Wall Street spooks for his predictive formulas. Aronofsky’s direction and the cinematic style are almost as chaotic as the systems that Max is trying to unravel. But that turns out to be a visual strength. One gets the feeling of what it must be like to be a paranoid genius that really does have someone after him.

Japan, Jesus, and the Grail

MSN Mainichi via Playboy Weekly (thus proving that, if not truth, fodder for the Grail Seeker’s hunt is truly scattered…) reported on 9 Jun 06 on Japan’s bid for a Grail tradition. The full article can be found HERE. The bad thing is there is no real substance to article. Lore of a lost treasure, a second coming of a messiah, and banners showing the cup of Jesus are interesting; but not the stuff of Grail tradition. When one links this information with other Christian traditions in Japan, an unusual pattern emerges.

Japan has a long standing Christian community that calls itself the Kakure Kirishitan, or Hidden Christians. According to history, Christianity was first introduced in 1549 by missionary Frances Xavier. ( If you’re looking for the Cliff’s Notes version of how Christianity came to Japan, the New York Times did a good piece in 1997 that can be found HERE ) It would seem that the Hidden Christians were persecuted by the country’s Buddhist and Shinto, lost their revolt, and went further underground. End of story… I would have thoughts to if it were not for this. There are some traditions that link Japan with early Judeo-Christian persons and events.

The first two are that the Ark of the Covenant resides now in Japan and the lost tribe of Israel settled there. For purposes of this article, I’m not going to delve into these theories. (If you’re interested the above links will take you to articles that illuminate the subjects.) However, the traditions do exist and lend an amount of plausibility to the Grail side of the story.

Grail Seeker point of logic: Where traditions exist, there is one of these reasons for their existence.

1. The tradition is as true to the situations/conditions described as possible. Oddly enough this is the hardest to prove. In most instances this is hard to believe that any tradition, in any social group, does not mutate some. Tiny deviances in a tradition’s factual basis can sometimes cast a shadow over its’ validity. The other issue with totally true traditions is that why should evidence be preserved to verify a story that a society knows is “true”? The best example here is one most of us have seen in real life. You walk into a bar one night and talk to someone expounding on their military service record. Most of what this person says is basically true. The person did serve in the military and all of his basic facts are correct. But, the introduction of alcohol into the situation creates variations in otherwise true events.
2. The tradition is totally false and was invented by someone with an agenda. . Whether the reason was to sell a bill of goods to social group or for the “greater good”, it doesn’t matter. The only good thing about totally false tradition is that it may be able to be totally disproved, and thus discarded for any logical considerations. Take the case of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree. Every school child in America would tell you that this story is totally true. The truth is that Mason Locke Weems invented this story for a biography of Washington. Since there was no reason to doubt Weems account, the story has stood almost to this day as a valid American tradition.
3. The tradition is a mixture of the above statements. This one really stinks for us looking to the past for answers. Oral traditions get muddled, names change spellings, authors own prejudices obscure some facts and shine on others, and are all reasons for fact and error to mix. It is then a most difficult job to pull apart the fact from the errors. This is especially true when two groups of people merge. Either through misunderstanding of the other’s language or culture, or divergent evolution the groups tales get interwoven.

The Japanese Christian tradition that dovetails on the 9 June 06 MSN Mainichi article is that Jesus actually resided in Japan. The village of Shingo claims that Jesus, and his brother, are entombed there. According to village tradition, at the age of 21 Jesus traveled to Japan and returned to Judea 12 years later. Events then unfolded as per the Gospel accounts, with the exception that he escaped crucifixion. Jesus’ brother Isukuri took his place on the cross in Jerusalem. Jesus then fled back to Japan, married there and eventually died there at the age of 106.

In 1935, Sajiro Sawaguchi, a native Shingoite claimed to be a descendant of Jesus. (For a complete article on this topic visit HERE.) Supposedly, Mr. Sawaguchi had documents proving that his blood line claim was factual. These documents were destroyed in WWII and exist only in second hand form. There is a copy of this document in Shingo today. The tradition of Jesus living in Japan is long standing and should be far removed from the influences of Western Traditions. I have seen references on the web that link Kakure Kirishitan oral history to the above story. I am hesitant to even mention this because I can in no way verify this fact. I do know that there is a Hidden Christian holy text: The Beginning Heaven and Earth. Having to keep their faith underground, their sacred thoughts were not in writing until recently. These links exist between Shingo and the Hidden Christians exist, could the “treasure” of the Hidden Christians have a Grail implication?

It is interesting that the Shingo legends have the ring of some of the Gnostic Gospels. Those that subscribe to the “Underground Stream of Knowledge” being the Grail this raises questions of how was the Gnostic influence introduced into early Japanese Christianity? Was it through a source prior to the 1549 missionary trip of Frances Xavier, or was it through one of Xavier’s party for their own ends? Or is there no link at all to Gnostic thought and the similarities are due to divergent evolution?

Those of you out there that lean towards the Holy Blood, Holy Grail line of thinking have just to transpose Japan with the south of France for all of your questions this raises.

As usual, there are no answers. Just a pile of questions and abstract Grail thoughts.

Grail Seeker Media Watch for the Week Ending 1 July 06

This is all the news that I found of any interest this week. If you know of any additions, please let me know.

An interesting article on the Book of Thothweb site entitled The Nature of the Holy Grail explores what the Grail could be.

The Fortean Times Issue #212 has articles on The Priory of Zion and the musical cipher in Rosslyn Chapel. (At least I scooped the Fortean Times on this one…)

Andrew Gough’s Arcadia has an interview with long time Grail researcher Phillip Coppens

History Channel announces Lost Worlds: The Knights Templar Special that will air on 10 July 06 at 9pm EST. The special will focus on their HQ at the Temple Mount, The Temple Church in London, and excavations in Syria.

Bucharest Daily News announces the opening of the first Romanian York Rite Masonic Lodge. At least the first public opening of one. I have no doubt that there were a number of underground Lodges that operated behind the former Iron Curtain.