Grail Seekers Media Watch for the Week Ending 28 Oct 06

On Audio:

• This week Dreamlands interviewed Graham Hancock on his new book Supernatural. Even though this has zero to do with the Grail, many of us became Hancock fans after reading Sign and the Seal. After clicking on the link Dreamlands above, hit the listen now link at the upper right hand corner of the page to listen to the interview.

• Monday 30 Oct 06 on Coast to Coast AM; Paranormal researcher and author Rosemary Ellen Guiley discuss her new book, The Encyclopedia of Magic & Alchemy. The book sounds like it would be of benefit to areas of Grail studies.

On the Web:

• Philip Coppens posts an article on his web site that explores the Neapolitan Chapel of Sansevero for all of you who are looking into clues in the symbolism of churches and cathedrals.

• Of general note, The History Channel has a number of Podcasts that you might want to check out. The page has an items segregated by topics and has a search engine.

In the News:

• The mystery of Rosslyn Chapel deepens a little as a light box is “rediscovered” in the Chapel that only is seen on 21 Sept or St. Matthew’s Day. The Scotsman reported on this on 27 Oct 06.

Tip Site of the Week:

• Not being a Catholic, I am not well versused in the patronage, feast days, or back stories of the over 5000 Saints. There are times that the Grail Seeker might need to check out a Saint or two. If you’re in the same boat, check out the Catholic Forum’s Patron Saint Index. This is a searchable database with over 7000 entries that will help cut to the chase when doing research in this area.

Grail Seekers Media Watch for the Week Ending 21 Oct 06

Folks, it’s been a pretty dry Grail in the media week. I’ve found one article that might be of interest to the Grail Seeker.

• For all of you that thought that Google Earth could be used for something other than Dutch sunbathers, a UNC professor is using the program to do armchair archeology.

To make this blog at least worth reading, I’ll throw out some web sites that I’ve found this week that might be of help to you and your quest.

Grail Literature References

Searchable database of Parzival, line by line

If you know Middle High German, Titus has supplied a line by line searchable database for you. This site is for the hard core thatare looking for occurrences of particular words within the text.

Grail Stories

A list and commentary on Grail literature in the Middle Ages. This is the short course on all the major Grail works is at your finger tips.

Dictionaries and Translation Sites

Foreign Language Dictionaries

Here’s a listing of free on line dictionaries. Latin, Greek, Hebrew, English, French, and German are all listed. There’s also a handy list of biblical dictionaries. A fun dream interpretation dictionary is listed as well. Remember these are not translation sites. But they are good for getting other possible nuances of words that translation software doesn’t quite get.

Lycos has created a means break down language barriers on the Web. Their Bable Fish (a nod to all of you Hitchhiker's Guide fans) translator will translate entire URLs or text string entries. Translation software, in general, has come along way in the last few years, but does have its limitations. Idiomatic expressions, subtitles of meanings, and tense are always a sticking point in any translation program. At very least, it will give you a much clearer picture that you had looking at a foreign language screen. Languages supported for translation into English are: French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian.

Word Lingos is another free translation site that supports all the languages of the Lycos translator as well as Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

Free Translation has a number of languages listed, but the special character tools listed are unique to this site. You can translate strings of text and change those pesky odd characters like vowels with umlauts in German with this version.

Thanks for the Link-Back

Another kudos goes out to The Quest for the Holy Grail blog for putting a link to Grail Seekers on their page. The Quest blog is taking the search through the Arthurian Romance texts. Check it out. Huzzah

Grail Seekers Media Watch Week Ending 15 oct 06

• History Channel has a number of specials of interest this week.

Sunday; 15 Oct 06: 6-7pm CST; Lost Worlds - Knights Templar.

Sunday; 15 Oct 06: 9-10pm CST; Strange Egypt

Monday; 16 Oct 06: 9-10pm; Lost Worlds - Atlantis

Saturday; 21 Oct 06: 6-7pm ; Modern Marvels - Da Vinci Tech.

• On the Laura Lee Show; Wednesday 18 Oct 06 Gregg Braden talks about the wisdom to be found in ancient texts throughout the world.

• There were a ton of Friday the 13^th articles out this week here, besides mine here are just a few from my Google news search.

Friday the 13th
Belfast Telegraph - United Kingdom
... Also, recently brought to light by Dan Brown's ubiquitous The Da Vinci Code, is the role the Knights Templar may have played in enforcing the stigma attached ...

Calendar date superstitions are a numbers game
Blairsville Dispatch - PA, USA
Oct. 13, 1307. On that date, France's King Philip IV had the Knights Templar imprisoned and subjected to torture and execution

Locals profess little trepidation about Friday the 13th
EastOregonian.info (subscription) - OR,USA
"There is the theory that it became unlucky after the King of France executed the Knights Templar on Friday the 13th," said John Tillman, when asked where he ...

Happy Friday the 13th!
Cinematical - Santa Monica,CA,USA
For example, some feel the original Friday the 13th (or Black Friday) was when hundreds of Knights Templar were simultaneously arrested on Friday October 13 ...

Oooeer! It's Friday the 13th
OhmyNews International - South Korea
On that fateful Autumn day the king of France ordered the destruction of the Knights Templar. Hundreds were killed, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. ...

Why Friday 13th is so unlucky
News Shopper - UK
that the Pope of the Roman Catholic church, in combination with the King of France, sentenced a monastic military order known as the Knights Templar to death .

• Scholars discuss Sardinia being Atlantis in Rome this week.

• Gary A. David discusses Phoenix and it’s Masonic type city design in this Book of Thoth

article.

• The Society Perillos site posted an article entitled the Enigma of the Rennes-le-Chateau Cemetary.

• Other than that, there hasn’t been much activity this week. However, if you’re looking for a good movie next weekend, check out The Prestige. I had a chance to catch a press screening of it this week and reviewed it on my other, more free form blog Kannard’s Random Stuff. Enjoy.

Thanks for the Link-back

Thanks goes out to Grouchoghandi for the link back to the site. Check out his informative and pretty funny site above. I try to give kudos to those that link to the blog. If you link to us, let me know. Thanks again for every one's support.

Brian

A Day That is Unlucky; for Some

The Arrest of the Templars
from the British Library Web site

Tomorrow, in France the weather will be much the same as it was 699 years ago. A slight overcast sky and the first hints of a damp autumn chill in the wind. Tomorrow morning in 1307, a letter bearing the seal of Phillip the Fair was being opened by sheriffs. Upon penalty of death, the King’s men were not to open this document before sunrise. I’m sure this perplexed many of the simple men whose job was to maintain the rule of the King through out the country side. Many would have to have found someone to read the letter to them. Many more would not know what to make of it after they heard the contents. Phillip the Fair had ordered the arrest of all Templars in France under charges of heresy. This would have compounded the confusion of the sheriffs. The Templars involved in the black arts? The thought would have been like reading science fiction to many of the men.

An undertaking of this scope had never happened before. This was the world’s first large-scale coordinated police action. The plan was to keep the arrest order secret until the moment of the arrests. The logistics of even delivering the orders began on 9 Sept 1307. Thousands of men had to be trusted not to open the King’s orders. They would have had to be further trusted not to reveal the contents to a soul even if they had taken a peek inside.

As with most complex plans, something did not go as intended. What the leak in security was, the world will probably never know. By the time the main Templar preceptory was raided in Paris, nothing was left. The Templar fleet had vanished from the Port of Le Harve along with any documents or treasures the Order held. The number of Templars that were arrested that day is in dispute by historians. Numbers from a few hundred to 15,000 have been reported. Of whatever numbers were arrested, the one that should have escaped must have chosen not to. Jacque de Molay, the Grand Master of the Temple stayed behind and was arrested.

Now this story is not news to anyone that has studied the history of the Templars. The day has been marred since then as an unlucky day. People that know nothing of the Templars will huddle themselves in their houses, simply because they know that Friday the 13^th is an unlucky day. It amazes me that the shadow of the Knights Templar reaches us even today.

The purpose of this article is not to inform, but to remind. Remind us that of the bravery of Jacque de Molay in staying behind to cover for his brothers. Remind us of the travesty of justice that occurred that day, and unless any populace is watchful could happen again. Remind us of one of the great mysteries of all time? The sometimes touted guardians of the Grail, what was taken away from their preceptory and where did they go? 

So for whatever your reasons are, just take a moment to remember. No matter what your thoughts on the nature of the Templars are, simply to remember their plight on this day is enough to keep the history alive for another year.

The Return of the Grail Seeker and Article Wrap up Since August.

After a long silence, I think things have calmed down at work enough for me to resume the work of a Grail Seeker… My apologies to all that have been reading the blog. Without further ado, here’s a recap of the Grail and Grail related topics in the media for the last few weeks.

This Week’s Media

• Monday night on Coast to Coast AM: Publisher of online travel journal, Mysterious World, Doug Elwell will discuss the Irish origins of Halloween, and provide info on fairies and leprechauns, as well as wizards, druids and cryptids.

• Thursday 12 Oct 06 at 9:00pm EST, the History Channel will premier a special entitled The Secrets of the Dollar Bill. This special will explore the symbolism of US currency and will take a look at the US Treasury Department.

Articles and Interviews from August to Present:

• Michael Baigent has an interview with Astraea Radio about his new book The Jesus Papers
• Thoth Web presents an interesting article on the Stone Circles.

• Edward O’Toole of Phenomena Magazine presents a unique theory about Lucifer, Jesus, and the Magdalene

• Dr. Sean Kingsley’s book: God’s Gold: The Quest for the Lost Temple Treasure of Jerusalem was released this week in the UK, and will be released in the US in May of next year. It addresses just where the loot that was hidden under the Temple Mount was taken before the Romans razed the place in 73 AD. Check out this Time On Line review for more information.

• The Guardian presented a good article on the melding of Masonic and Pagan symbolism in Nicholas Hawksmoor’s architecture. Hawksmoor was the architect of a number of Churches in London 250 years ago.

• Physorg reports that scientists from the US Department of Energy find anomalies in silver contents of pottery during the Second Temple period. What does this mean to the Grail Seeker? I’m not sure, but it’s interesting none the less.

• The Dead Sea Scrolls are now being tested for DNA to help piece more of the document’s fragments together.

• Those of you that follow Carl Jung and his wife’s interest in the Grail and mystics might be interested in this article on Jung’s more mystic bent.

• I’m guessing that the BBC read my article on Jesus in Japan and was inspired to report on it. Ok, maybe not. But if that interested you, check out their research here.

• National Geographic examines the Protocols of Zion.

• Yet another book on cracking the secrets of Rosslyn is available. The Secrets of Rosslyn by Roddy Martine was released in Edinburgh on 5 Sept 06., and is available only in the UK at present.

• Check out Andrew Gough’s blog on his travels around Rennes-le-Chateau. He also has a good interview with Henry Lincoln in his pages as well.

• Robert Cooper has a new book out called the The Rossyln Hoax. (Once again avalibe only in the UK at present) I met Robert at a Masonic conference at London’s Canonbury Masonic Research Centre in 1999. He’s not only a very knowledgeable guy, but he also is the Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Museum and Library in Edinburgh. A summary of the book can be found here.

• Was the Mona Lisa pregnant? I hope if it was Da Vinci’s reverse sex view of himself, this isn’t true.
  

• Archeologists dig at a Templar Priory site in York in September.

• In the realm of fiction, Johny Depp has been tapped in a film version of Dark Horse Comic’s Rex Mundi

• The New York Times spill the beans on Freemasonry. Here’s another article removing the veil of Freemasonry…. The tell all must be popular these days.