Interview with Priory of Sion Ambassador Nicholas Haywood on Night Vision Radio

Nicholas Haywood

Last night Priory of Sion Ambassador Nicholas Haywood was interviewed on Rene Barnett's Night Vision Radio.  Even as cryptic as Haywood is, there are a a few revelations that can be gleaned from the chat.  First off, there seems to be a rift between different factions within the Priory.  Haywood seems to be quite put out with the fact the Priory isn't releasing information to the public in a timely fashion. Secondly, Haywood  admits that political power broker/industrialist Armand Hammer was a member of the Priory.  For those interested in the Priory, it is defiantly worth a listen... The interview with Nicholas Haywood can be listened to by clicking this link.

Shugborough Hall and the Discover of a Paper Cross of Lorraine

Over the weekend, various news sources have reported on the finding at Shugborough Hall. According to the Sunday Mercury on 16 May 09, a Cross of Lorraine fashioned out of a newspaper dated 20 May 1794 was found "this month" in a roof space of the mansion house. The discovery marks yet another chapter in the potentially esoteric links with the Estate.

Those who are delving into the Rennes-le-Chateau / Priory of Sion mysteries will no doubt be familiar with the Staffordshire Estate. A garden in the Estate holds a mirror image reproduction in stone of Poussin's Shepherds at Arcadia painting. What intriguing about this reproduction is a line of letters, "D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M.", inscribed beneath the carving. Since the statue was commissioned by Thomas Anson in 1748. Since then, the Ansons and the monument were linked to the Priory of Sion by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

The monument and code has proven so tantalizing over the years, that in 2004 Bletchley Park issued a challenge to code breakers around the world. On 11 May 2004, Bletchley Park held an media event at the "Shepherd's Monument" where the public and media could question these code breakers on how they were going to translate the string of letters. It turned out to be a nice little media event with a German Enigma machine on display to remind the everyone of Bletchley Park cracking that code during the Second World War.

After a couple of months of sifting through the attempts at solving the riddle, Bletchley announced on 21 Nov 2004 that they someone had finally made sense of the cipher. The answer came from an American whose answer was "Jesus (As Deity) Defy" A news release on the Bletchley Park web site promised that in December all the answers and methods used to crack the code would be published. To date, and to my knowledge, this has not happened. It's odd that Bletchley Park didn't finish cashing in on the press they had gotten from the code contest by publishing all the answers.

Flash forward to this weekend's news stories of the Cross of Lorraine. It is unusual that such an object would be found on an Estate linked with RLC and the Priory of Sion. What's even more unusual is the Mercury got it all wrong. The cross was not found "sometime this month", but according to the Shugborough Hall web site's press release it was found "in the early 1990's". (I've found over the years that the British Press is horrible about getting facts right in articles of an occult nature.)

A simple Google news search for news articles pre-1999 with the terms " Shugborough Hall cross" comes up with no news stories about the discovery. This would tend to make me believe that the folks at Shugborough Hall held on to the discovery of the paper cross until now. With the release of Angels and Demons this month, it does seem like a good time to parade a new mystery in the public's eye.

Or is May just been deemed public relations month for Shugborough? After all they put the cross on display almost five years to the date of the Bletchley Park press conference. Oh, and the merry, merry month of May was the month of the newspaper the cross was made on too.

If Shugborough Hall is trying to make the world think there's deeper meaning behind their actions and objects found on the grounds, they're doing a bang up job. What is it about May? If I figure it out, I'll let you know.

Pope Lifts 20 Year Excommunication of Four Priests

News came through on the wires today that Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the 20 year-old excommunication of four bishops. Normally, actions like this make headlines as big as Governor issuing a low level pardon. However, the Pope's choice of Bishops to bring back into the fold has outraged the Jewish community and will raise questions for Priory of Zion watchers.

The fours Bishops in question were all consecrated by the controversial Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent. Lefebrve was an outspoken member of the Church that came into clashes with the Holy See over efforts to modernize the Catholic Church. To marshal likeminded individuals within the Church, Lefebvre created the International Priestly Society of Saint Pius X in 1970. The formation of the Society was a direct response to opposition over changes in the Catholic Church dictated in the Second Vatican Council. In a 17 July 1976 letter to Pope Paul VI, Lefebvre believed that the Church was collaborating with Freemasons to set the Second Council's reforms into place.

Lefebvre created the Society in such a way that it sidestepped normal Vatican protocol. The Society was never officially recognized by the Vatican. Because of his actions in the creation of the Society; Lefebvre was suspended from his duties as a Priest by Pope Paul VI in 1976. This did not stop Lefebvre from conducting ordinations or mass. The four Priests that had their excommunications lifted were all members of the Society of Saint Pius the X and ordained by Lefebvre himself.

The move by Pope Benedict was an effort to reach out to members of the Society to bring them back into the Catholic fold. On the surface this would seem to be something that a Pontiff would want to do. Mending old wounds and being inclusive seem to be high on Benedict's list of things to do.

Such actions come with a political price when one of the Priests you have brought back into the fold has highly questionable theories on the Holocaust. British Bishop Richard Williamson was recently on an interview on Swedish TV as saying, " that historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed."

I'm a free speech sort of guy, but such horrid nonsense such as that really has no place in the reality most of us live in. While not wishing to debate those who take Williamson's stance, I can safely say that such statements are unconscionable. Those at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris have also denounced Williamson's statements as indefensible. I would have added reckless to that list.

Now for you Priory of Sion watchers out there. You might remember that Lefebvre is thought to have been at least an associate if not a member of the Priory. The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail cite a 1977 pamphlet entitled Le Cercle d'Ulysse written by a Jean Delaude. This work discusses a number of Priory related topics and names Lefebvre as being associated with the Priory. Le Cercle d'Ulysse alludes to a partnership between the Priory to take on the Vatican with Lefebvre's ecumenical clout. This partnership, evidently, was to secure the return of a King to the French throne and make Lefebvre the Pope.

While the validity of any document that surfaces on the Priory is immediately suspect for fraud or misdirection, one thing is not in question. That is Lefebvre's flock in the Society of Saint Pius X was filled with members of the Action Française organization. This counterrevolutionary group espoused the return of the monarchy and abolishment of the French departmental system. Both measures would politically have decentralized the entire French government and returned France into its pre-Revolutionary provinces. The party is also felt that France should be a thoroughly Catholic nation.

Should the Le Cercle d'Ulysse and the political underpinnings of members of Society of Saint Pius X be accurate, is there some hidden reason for bringing those four excommunicated Priests back to the Church? Pope Benedict would have know of the political consequences of Bishop Williamson's stance on the Holocaust. Given the troubles in Gaza as of late, it further seems that it would not be the time to embrace a man with such ideas.

The flip side to this could be the Priory connections in the Society of Saint Pius X and Benedict's steps in reaching back in history to open glimpses into the Knights Templar. Could there be other forces at work here that would outweigh the political fallout for Benedict's actions? You Priory of Sion watchers let me know.

Bloodline Movie Review

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.

Proverbs 25:2 KJV

Albeit a little on the tardy side, which seems to be my lot these days, I’ve decided to come full circle with the Blooline issue. I finally got an advance copy of the film a few weeks back from a fellow Grail Seeker. The ripped copy came a full week before the release copy I preordered came in the mail. I guess anything in the shadowy Grail world is possible.

Since then I’ve watched the film at least three times. I searched the footage for minutia that would assist me in coming to a conclusion on the film’s veracity, but to quell questions within myself. Since going to New York for the initial press conference held at the Jewish Museum in May, I’ve had doubts about continuing on with my work here. The range of reasons stem from a spectrum of thoughts ranging from “If this is real, what is there really left to search for” to “If this is an elaborate hoax, why should I waste my time picking through the chaff of charlatans?”

Given this mindset, in watching Bloodlines, it was as if our Mulder and Scully from X-Files were having a running dialogue in my head. Given the theme of the recent X-Files movie, this didn’t seem too far a stretch. Their internal dialogue seemed a fitting, if not goofy, way to structure my review.

Scully: Are we done watching that self aggrandizing hoax yet? It’s the third time he’s made us sit through it. This Kannard fellow is nice enough, but a grown man displaying Dogs Playing Poker in his home is a greater mystery than that film.

Mulder: Come on Scully, he calls it his War Room; it’s obviously his version of the Fortress of Solitude. The whole thing isn’t a hoax; you saw the body this Hammott fellow found in the cave. Besides you could tell Nicholas Haywood believed what he was saying was true. There were none of the classic tells, no breaking eye contact when ask a question, no nervous ticks, no poker face tells. You’ve interviewed enough suspects to have seen that.

Scully: People with mental disorders believe they are Napoleon and are quite convincing at it, but that doesn’t make it true. There was no supporting documentation. No officials from the French government buying into the find, no time or date stamps showing a time line of events, blurred out faces and garbled non descript voices, boxes and bottles found throughout an area treasure hunters have combed for years, and associations with people who might well have faked or stolen documents. P.T. Barnum did a better job with the Fiji Mermaid.

Mulder: Scully, when was the last time the History Channel presented the documentation you were looking for? There is reputable scientific DNA, carbon dating tests, and archeological testing that has been done on various items they found and posted on their web sites. The History Channel doesn’t do that. One thing you have to remember about the folks involved in some of the interviews is they don’t want to be known. Maybe this Hammott guy is smarter than the average treasure hunter. Yes, I know his finds have been attacked as fakes based on the use of French grammar and the like. But maybe Sauniere’s housekeeper did all of this after he died and never divulged it to anyone. She supposedly was told his secret on his deathbed, maybe she was not that educated and parroted his writings for someone else to find.

Scully: Nothing of the sort, you just want to believe that all of this is true Mulder. For every argument I have you’ll have a “plausible” counter. So I’m wasting my breath.

Mulder: You’re right Scully; I do want to believe that it’s true. That will always be the difference between you and me.

That is the point of difference for everyone that watches the film. One falls into three camps: Those that believe, those that don’t believe, and those that think there’s something to this but not everything that has been presented is on the mark. View Bloodlines with an open mind and let your faith guide your decisions.

Bloodline Press Conference

I wasn’t quite prepared for what I walked into at Monday morning’s Bloodline press conference. Set up around the Jewish Museum’s Scheuer Auditorium were TV cameras and reporters from AP and Reuters milling about drinking coffee. I was definitly the little fish in the big media pond.

Running around the auditorium was producer Rene Barnett making last minute arrangements and jolly-glad-handing the media heavy hitters. Requests from reporters were flying past Rene, and from a distance sounded like adults talking in a Peanuts cartoon. I had to just sit back and observe the spectacle of the pre-event simply as an exercise in people watching.

Standing on the stage, next to the box found at the Cave of the Magdalene, in Rennes-le-Chateau, was an imposing figure of a man dressed in black with a Templar crest sewn onto his suit coat. I came to find out this man was a modern day Templar named Victor. He and his cousin Gloria Amendola had been tasked by the film’s crew to be the security detail for the relics that were about to be presented to the world.

Chest found in the Cave of the Magdalene

In making my way to introduce myself to Rene, I caught tid-bits from the media moguls gad-flying about the room. Their timbre was less than excited about what might be presented. One local reporter was grousing about having to be there. “Yea, I’ve got this to do then I go to the Met for the Superhero as art exhibit. But that kind of ties in, Jesus was the original superhero wasn’t he?”

Finally I got over to Rene and introduced myself. The rather gracious, if not harried native Oklahoman, thanked me for coming and offered to spend some time with me after the event was over. Almost before I could accept, she was drawn over to the stage for requests to take pictures of the relics.

Reverently, Victor took the chest from the panel’s table and laid it open for everyone to see. This slightly larger than a shoe box sized chest was opened and contained: 29 coins ranging in date from 100 BC to the Crusades (30 were found in the chest originally, but only 29 were on display), a small cup, an alabastra phial, a rolled parchment and long necked jar. Could I really be looking at the Holy Grail was all I could muster in my thoughts in observing the contents of the chest.

Shortly thereafter, the press conference began. Below is the video of Bruce Burgess’ presentation. I would urge you to go to the Bloodlines web site and check out the other video clips from the news conference. I’ve looked at them all and they give a good representation of what was presented.

I was impressed with the tone of Burgess’ message. The subtext to everything was that this is a beginning point. Burgess made clear that the finds need to have further examination. He is quite sure that the relics that were presented at the conference were from the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene because of the Bérenger Saunière documents found by Ben Hammott. As to the Templar Tomb, Burgess believes that someone of importance is buried there. Is it Mary Magdalene? Burgess believes it could be, but is waiting for further excavations to make a claim of the identity of the corpse.

I asked the question in the conference what was to become of the relics and the stance of the French Government on the finds. Burgess’s answer was that everything has been done with the full knowledge of the French authorities and he would like to see all the relics on display for full public access.

After the conference was over, I ended up having lunch with producer Rene Barnett. In between phone interviews Barnett and I talked about everything from the process of “birthing” the film to the Priory of Sion. It was clear from our conversation that she and Burgess had sunk every last dime they had in getting this story out. “There were times Bruce was flying to Europe and we didn’t have the money for a hotel room for him.” she said. “Somehow we would mange to scrape together the money to put in the account for him on each trip”.

On the film’s detractors, Barnett was not too worried. In recent articles, the veracity of the film’s claims and the authenticity of the finds have come into question. Not batting an eyelash, Barnett said they had e-mails, pictures, and video to document each part of their story. Her tone was one of a person that would not associate her name with an elaborate hoax. “The film is dedicated to my daughter that passed away as filming began. Do you think I would dedicate this film to her if this were a hoax”, she said.

I then asked her about the Priory of Sion and the allusions in the trailers to their lives being in danger during the filming. “Oh, Ben’s brake lines were cut on his rental car at one point and film was stolen out of his camera. Not the camera itself, just the film.” Barnett said. I then ask if she thought they were in danger in New York. With a wistful grin, Barnett said, “If we were a little smarter we probably should be.”

I parted with Rene heading to another interview and I was left with the feeling I had just talked to a true believer. With the rest of the day on my hands, I made my way to play country come to town in the Big Apple. During my sightseeing, I was contacted by Erika Jones from the production company inviting me to dinner with Barnett, Burgess and a majority of the panel from the press conference. Well, who was I to say no?

I made my way to Harlem and Patsy’s Pizzeria for the engagement. Present was Dr. Gabriel Barkay and wife from Bar Ilan University in Jerusalem, retired Scotland Yard Homicide Detective Colin Taylor; Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe and his wife. The talk throughout dinner was of the finds, their importance, and the press conference. There wasn’t anything conspiratorial about the meeting. Everyone’s conversation was more of old friends chatting about a day at the office.

Which brings me to my conclusions about everything I had seen that day. I have no doubt that everyone I came in contact with, that had anything to do with the film, are open and honest. Everyone had the air of acting on the good faith of the evidence that had been presented to them and what they had found and examined. Now the possibility exists that Burgess and Barnett have been duped by outside forces. Then again, that’s always a possibility when dealing with anything in the underground stream. Never once did my spider sense tingle that I was being led down the primrose path by Burgess or Barnett.

So I will take the same approach that Burgess did in the press conference. Bloodlines should be a beginning point and not the final solution to the Rennes-le-Chateau mysteries. The Templar tomb, when excavated might very well be that ending point. But for now, I will wait with the rest of the world to see what the next chapter in the Bloodline story holds.

Grail Seekers to Cover Bloodlines Press Conference

I just got finished making my final travel arraignments for a very quick visit to New York on Monday and Tuesday of next week. My avowed purpose for making this quick jaunt is to cover the Bloodlines Documentary press conference at the Jewish Museum on the 5^th.

Now why would I take the time, effort, and energy required to make such a trip? You see fellow Grail Seekers, the producers of the film are making the claim that they will be showing the Grail on Monday.

According to the press invite I received, “Among the relics are a simple pottery drinking cup and a small ointment vase that were said to have been used at the wedding of Jesus and Mary Magdalene over 2000 years ago. According to the priest who hid them away a century ago, they have been passed down from generation to generation as sacred relics - the true Holy Grail - which symbolized this secret wedding.”

I will not speculate on the validity of this claim at this time. In truth, it still up to the individual to recognize what they believe the Grail is, and I have no wish to influence your views. However, if everything is on the level, this is big…

I’m planning on dropping audio blogs about the press conference so everyone can get the first news about the event. For those of you who follow on the My Space feed, the audio blogs will only be available on my Blogger page and on the Grail Seekers web site feed page. I’m using the Utterz service for the audio blogs. As I post the audio blogs, they might not show up with a title or any text. Simply hit the play button on the post and the audio should magically spring forth.

Keep checking back on Monday for any other developments as they unfold. With 48 hours in New York, there’s no telling what adventures I’ll find myself getting into…