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.

Pittsburgh Scottish Rite Talk

I was invited to speak to the Pittsburgh Scottish Rite on 20 Apr 09 by Brother Tony Gennaccaro. Originally, I had planned on video taping the talk, but there was an issue with pressing the record button I think… The good news is that I took a pocket recorder for back-up and recorded it from there. The audio isn’t the best in the world, and it’s a little hard to hear some of the questions ask by the audience. So I’m not gong to win any Blog awards for this broadcast….

The event was a success and the Brothers in Pittsburgh were quite hospitable. Brother Tony took me around town and showed me the sites before the talk. It was an honor to be chosen as their key note speaker that night. Thanks for inviting me to your event guys. Hope you enjoy.

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The Templars and the Shroud of Turin: How the Pieces Fall Into Place

Suddenly it all makes sense....

Yesterday the Vatican announced that they believe a link has been found between the Knights Templar and the Shroud of Turin. Today's Times Online states that the proof of the link comes from the work of researcher Dr. Barbara Frale. Some of you might remember it was Frale discovered the Chinon Parchment. This document not only included a transcript of the trial of the Templars, but Pope Clement V's admission that the Order was not guilty of heresy.

Frale links the Templars to the Shroud by a 1287 document by Templar initiate Arnaut Sabbatier. In this document, Sabbatier states that the Templars held, in secret, a "long linen cloth on which was impressed the figure of a man” and instructed to venerate the image by kissing its feet three times." Furthermore the Times article goes on to say that, " They had rescued it to ensure that it did not fall into the hands of heretical groups such as the Cathars, who claimed that Christ did not have a true human body, only the appearance of a man, and could therefore not have died on the Cross and been resurrected." Unfortunately, the Times does not give us the benefit of a reference for this claim.

The Easter week claim from the Vatican is nothing short of incredible. The Church claims to have evidence of the Shroud's "missing years" from the fall of Constantinople in 1204 to its reemergence in 1353. Filling in a gap of 150 years of the Shroud's history is a feat, but to admit that the Templars held the Shroud is another matter.

The Times article mentions that Frale's "study of the trial of the Knights Templar had brought to light the document" of Sabbatier that connected the dots. One can only surmise that the Vatican has known of the link between the Templars and the Shroud since shortly after Frale's 2001 discovery of the Chinon Parchments. If this is the case, some moves on the part of the Vatican, and other groups, since 2001 start to fall into place.

A quote from Fred Thompson's character, Admiral Painter, in The Hunt for the Red October comes to mind: "The Russians don't take a dump without a plan"; the same could be said of the Vatican. The control of information, timing of announcements, and actions from the Holy See are as orchestrated as any government's. Let's take a look at the time line of events leading up to this revelation from the Vatican and see what emerges. The links on the dates are to articles supporting the time line. In cases where the links are dead, references are given.

September 2001 - Dr Barbara Frale discovers the Chinon Parchments in the Vatican's Secret Archives. The Parchments have been "misfiled" for the last 700 years and supposedly the contents were unknown by the Vatican. Also of note: the Times article on the Shroud/Templar connection claims that Frale found the Chinon Parchments in 2003. The Italian Magazine Hera ran an article Templars: The Flame of the Innocence in 2002 about Frale's discovery.

18 Mar 2003 - Dan Brown's book the Da Vinci Code is released in the United States. We all know what that did to the mythos and public awareness of the Templars.

29 Nov 2004 - A Hertfordshire group of Templars sends a letter to the Vatican seeking the Church to apologize for the persecution of the Templars. According to the article, one of the members said, "There have been some unofficial responses over the telephone and we have received certain indications from officials within the church that leaves us hopeful that an apology might be forthcoming,"

29 April 2005 - The Hertfordshire Mercury reports that before becoming Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, contacted a Dr Alan Thompson at the University of Hertfordshire about a Templar connection in the town.

23 May 2006 - The Vatican issues a letter in Germany that denounces claims that the Church is reforming the Templars. It is still unknown who was circulating a forged letter that made this claim and why the Church would take any position on this matter.

17 July 2007 - BBC reports that the Vatican has closed its main library until September 2010 for restoration work. Until that time, any of the printed resources of the library will be off limits to the rest of the world.

4 Oct 2007 - The Vatican announces the 25 Oct 2007 release of the Chinon Parchments in Processus contra Templarios. The limited edition book will include information that "clears" the Templars of heresy. The release of the text "just happens" to fall within 12 days of the 700th anniversary of the Templar's arrest in Paris on charges of heresy.

24 Nov 2007 - An archeological survey by the modern day Templar Organization Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (OSMTH) in Bulgaria is announced. The dig was codenamed “Nisovo Project” and has been headed up by the “Indiana Jones” of Bulgarian archeology Nikolai Ovcharov. The goal of the dig was to find evidence of the Templars in Bulgaria. The region the group is searching in would have been an overland path used by Crusaders returning from the sack of Constantinople in 1204 when the Shroud "disappeared" from history.

21 Aug 2008 - Dr. Frale announces that she's found a prayer written by a Templar while in prison. The prayer appeals to the Virgin Mary to free the order, "despite all the lies that have been thrown at us by liars," and guide the order's enemies toward "truth and charity"

While this has been a long way around the bend, here's my conjecture. The Vatican has known, at least since 2001, of the contents of the Chinon Parchments. With public awareness of the history and pseudo-history of the Templars growing since the release of the Da Vinci Code, the Church has decided to use this to its advantage. While the position of the Church has not "officially" changed on the trial of the Templars, an information campaign has been waged to publically clear them of heresy charges.

Since the Templars were supposedly protecting the Shroud from heretical groups, how could they be a part of their heresies? By extension, we have a set up for casting some doubts of the Templar's involvement in covering up the theory of Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene. The bonus to all of this is the steadfast Templars lend some legitimacy to the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. Not to mention that the connection between the Templars and the Shroud coming before Easter services...

It's interesting that the Church decided to close its main library down till the middle of last year, before making any of these announcements. By releasing the Chinon Parchments and the library being closed, they control the rate and timing of information. There is no chance that someone might wander into some other discovery on the Templars or anything else.

Finally, we have some evidence that the Church has been interested in active neo-Templar groups. I was told a year ago by a senior member of one of these groups (who wished to remain anonymous and I know how that sounds) that they were in contact with the Vatican and that calls for exoneration of the Templars. He mentioned that the time might not be right to upset the apple cart for too many public outcries for justice for the Templars and that "things are forthcoming." Once again, getting the "buy-in" from these organizations lessens them exerting public pressure on the Vatican to do anything except on the Pope's time table.

The big question now is what is next? What other secrets is the Church holding and what is their plan to make the information public? I've got a good feeling we haven't heard the end of this.

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.

The Power of Faith

In the last 24 hours I have been contacted by a number of people who had seen an episode of Unsolved Mysteries on the Nanteos Cup. In June of 2006, I had written an article about the history of the Cup and the theory that it could be Holy Grail. Along with the Nanteos Cup's history, healing powers have been ascribed to the vessel. The persons who contacted me all have ailing loved ones and feel that the power of the Nanteos Cup can in some way ease their suffering.

At present, I have never spoken with the present owner of the Cup. From my understanding the Mirylees family has taken the Cup out of the public's eye and have placed it somewhere for safe keeping. Never the less, I would like to assist those who have contacted me about their loved ones.

I generally keep my religious beliefs out of this blog. I do have a faith that there is a Higher Power and that his presence works in and around us every day. In keeping with that thought, for those of you out there that believe in the power of prayer; please ask whatever aspect of your Higher Power to assist these people:

Shannon's mother in Clearwater, FL

Scott's brother in Sacramento, CA

Ti's relative in Riverside, CA

Jessica's family member

Tracy's father

Rose's church member that needs a kidney transplant

Marianna and her husband from Facebook

Justus' father in Moreno Valley, Ca

Chris' sister-in-law in Arizona

I hope that you will focus your energies on offering a request to the Almighty for these folks recovery. Hopefully, in some way this will help these folks out.

Give a little back this Holiday Season

During this Holiday Season, many of us are looking for ways to give something back. Given the state of the economy and many of our personal situations, the thought of any sort of alms might not be something we think about this year. It is in these lean times that contributing to matters larger than ourselves is of prime importance. Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a rather large impact.

In thinking along these lines, I came across the BOINC project from the University of California, Berkley. BOINC uses a concept born from SETI @ Home project. SETI collects huge amounts of radio wave data from the star systems in search of signals from intelligent extraterrestrial life. All of this data has to be evaluated to see if these signals are created naturally or artificially. With the amounts of data SETI was collecting, the amount of computing power required to analyze this data would take hundreds of years using the resources SETI had on hand.

In 1995, a clever lad by the name of David Gedye proposed getting the public involved by using the public's PC's as a virtual super-computer. Users would be able to download an analysis program that would run in the background of their PC. Crunching numbers while you went about your normal on-line business, the turnaround time for SETI's data sets would be greatly reduced.

Flash forward a few years and the folks at Berkley that helped get the SETI project off the ground created the BOINC resource. Utilizing the same principle as the SETI @ Home project, BOINC supports large calculation experiments on projects ranging from particle physics to predicting malaria transmission vectors. Each project requires more computing power than the institution running the experiment could ever finance.

I decided to give a little of my CPU's time to the Rosetta Project from the University of Washington. Rosetta's goal is to examine how different proteins fold in on each other. This doesn't sound like exciting stuff until you realize that by understanding how proteins fold, you can create new and improved proteins that can help fight diseases. AIDS, cancer, malaria, and Alzheimer's disease are at the top of Rosetta's sights to understand and combat.

So give a helping hand this Holiday season to the research project of your choice. The BOINC site lists all the projects that users can currently plug into and assist. What else is your PC doing while you're not at home? Your calculations might be the one that saves a life one day...

 

 

Grail Seekers Hits the Podcast Waves Once Again

Just a gentle reminder that I will be taking the podcast waves tomorrow night on the Errie Radio show at 6:00pm CST. The show deals with all sorts of normal and paranormal topics. I've been slated to talk about the Grail Seekers blog and web site. In my experience with interviews of this type are concerned, one never quite knows where the conversation will lead to.

I've never been on this show, so I'm not quite clear on how their podcasing format works. I'm assuming that you will be able to listen in to the show live. In past shows I've listened into they've had callers, so that would tend to make me think that there is a live feed to the show.

So listen and call in if you can. I'm sure it will be an experience...

City of Secrets and Beyond, An Interview with Patrice Chaplin

Residing in a London neighborhood is a remarkable woman who carries with her the burden of a city’s secrets. To pass her on the street one could make the mistake many make of dismissing those approaching their twilight years. Scores of people walk side by side with her and never know there is an author, actress, and chronicler of a Grail story a shoulder width’s away.

The woman I am referring to is Patrice Chaplin, author of City of Secrets. Patrice graciously made herself available for a phone interview with me from her London home this Sunday. Many of you living in the States might not be familiar with Patrice and her story. The potential impact of her work on the mysteries of Rennes-le-Chateau seems to have been glossed over as of yet. However, she is a living historian who has wondered into and out of the lives of those that might have held the very essence of Berenger Sauniere’s secrets.

I hate to give away too much for those of you who will pick up the book. Let’s just say that the Tour Magdala in Rennes-le-Chateau is a near exact replica of a tower in Girona. That is just the beginning of Patrice’s investigations into the connections of all things Rennes-le-Chateau…

Patrice’s story beings as a simple tale of teenage wanderlust. While traveling in 1955 with a friend, Patrice found herself in the Catalonian burg of Girona. As in many stories of teenagers looking for adventure, Patrice found herself involved with a dashing Catalonian named Jose. It is through her connection with Jose, she was introduced to a cast of esoteric and politically underground characters

Patrice and Jose shortly after they met in Girona

Patrice was thrust into the world of Franco Fascism mixed with the ever present undercurrent of the esoteric. Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí and Umberto Eco intermingle in the micro chasm of her association with Jose and his seemingly ordinary friends. Interspersed in their talk of the banal are hints of rituals, guardians, hidden societies, elusive “materials” and how they somehow connect to a Frenchwoman who lived in town.

Over the next fifty years, Patrice stepped into and out of the story of Girona. Each visit to the town or with its denizens brought her a little closer to piecing together their clipped conversations and sub-rosa activity. At the center of this wheel was always Jose. Patrice’s sometimes synchronistic meetings with Jose eventually brought into focus her understanding of how the activities of the “society” in Girona and their guardianship of a ritual that brings the Grail into our realm.

Notably, the “society” in Girona contained a cadre of women sometimes its avowed guardians. In many descriptions and crypto-historical accounts of secret societies, the role of females seems to be relegated to that of support or overlooked entirely. Patrice seemed to think that the veneration of the Magdalene and practical matters made women’s roles in so prevalent. Since many of Girona’s leading families were involved in the society, the men took on “traditionally” high profile social stations. This left their wives free to conduct the business of the society with less notice.

Patrice views her work as more of a journalist than an active participant in esoteric Girona. The people she had met over the years opened up to her because she was not viewed as an outsider. That trust seems to run both ways. Patrice commented that because of her long standing association with those involved, she has confidence in their story. “I’m a writer, I stand behind my work and what was told to me.”, she said.

So what’s next for Patrice? Currently she’s doing research into Salvador Dali’s connection to Girona, Mount Canigou and the Grail ritual. “The ritual changes people”, Patrice said. “Dali opened up a portal on the peak of Mount Canigou and went into another dimension.”

Best of luck with your new project Patrice, the Grail Seekers team will be waiting for it to come out.

Science and the Mystic

For anyone that has delved into any sort of crypto-history, the world is a wonderfully mysterious place. It seems natural that those interested in delving into underground streams, will eventually come across a litany of Fortean type phenomena. Psychics, ghosts, clairvoyants, mediums, past lives, synchronicity, and all other things mystical seem to float on the edge of many topics outside the “generally accepted”.

Trying to discern the validity of these events that fall outside of our everyday reality is something we all have pondered. What is even more curious to me is that there is a wedge between those that believe these phenomena are real and any talk of science. When one brings up a scientific reason for an unexplained event, the mystic tends to feel marginalized because there is a possible scientific explanation. Much in the same way a creationist gets a sour look on their face when one tries to link the Big Bang with God speaking the universe into existence with “Let there be light”.

I tend to be one that looks for a bridge between the mystical and scientific. Just as the scientist cannot explain the entire “why” for every normally occurring events, the mystic has faith in the unexplained. So why is there an invisible wedge between the two? Both groups are faced with the evidences of the unknown, but there seldom seems to be an attempt to come to a common solution.

Think about the reaction most have when learning that the Vatican operates an observatory. The tendency in most is to question why the world’s largest religious organization would have any interest in astronomy. The answer is as old as the true purposes of the alchemists. The true reason behind turning lead into gold was the search for the base material that God used to create the universe. Thus, the underlying search was for the divine itself. While the Vatican Observatory was created to create an accurate calendar for Easter, the underlying purpose is simply to seek evidences of God in the natural world.

The disconnect runs in the opposite direction as well. At a gathering a couple of years ago, I had a conversation with a friend that does tarot readings. The conversation wrangled its way around to past lives. She fully believed that in some regression sessions she had taken part of, that she could get in touch with those who had made up her past lives. She believed that this was possible because she had been reincarnated from those souls the regression sessions had shown her.

My question was how could she be so sure that these were reincarnated souls and not some form of genetic ancestral memory? One would have thought I had slapped her. I had introduced a possibility of giving a concrete explanation into her mystical experience. Her answer was firmly, “No the window I have is into those who have been reincarnated in me.”

The topic of genetic memory is simply a theory; and one not ascribed by many geneticists. The prevalent argument against memories being passed along ancestral lines is that DNA changes little over a person’s life span. The problem is that science has few clues into how memories are captured and stored within an organism. A recent study has shown that certain memories can be “erased” by blocking a certain protein in mice. If memories are electro-chemical reactions, why couldn’t they be replicated? Furthermore, there has been little work done in with “junk DNA”. These are DNA strands that have no protein-coding functions. This week a study was published that this “junk DNA” could be more important to the evolutionary process than anyone had ever considered. Could a genetic memory lie here?

The question is not if genetic memory is real or if reincarnation is spiritually valid. The finer point is that is there any less wonder attached to a phenomena if there is an explanation? Conversely, is there any reason not to try to explain the mysterious simply because it does not fit into a belief system? If the answer is yes, then we stymie our ability to grow both science and understanding of the mystical.

Dan Green Visits Royston Cave

Royston Cave, outside Hertfordshire UK, has long been thought to have been linked to the Templars. Researcher Dan Green has put together a video of his explorations into the cave and its unique carvings. You can catch up on Dan's theories of what the carvings mean in his article posted at Far Shores.

Templar Dig in Bulgaria Continues

Last December, Grail Seekers reported on an archeological survey being funded by the modern day Templar Organization Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (OSMTH) in Bulgaria. The dig was codenamed “Nisovo Project” and has been headed up by the “Indiana Jones” of Bulgarian archeology Nikolai Ovcharov. Ovcharov, a member of the OSMTH himself, has made a number of fascinating discoveries this summer that has given us a hint as to the “Nisovo Project’s” goals. More to the point, a report reprinted on the Visit Bulgaria web site yesterday makes me think they might be close to their mark.

The avowed purpose of the Nisovo Project was to search for evidence of Templar activity in the Russe region of Bulgaria. Specifically, reports last year mentioned proposed digs in the cities of Russe, Nisovo, and one time capitol Veliko Tarnovo. There is little doubt, in my mind, that the Templars would have held interest in this region due to its strategic location. The city of Nisovo lays near an over land route Crusaders from Teutonic held regions would likely have taken into Constantinople.

View Larger Map

A series of finds at the 13th Century monastery of St. Ivan Rilski in Veliko Tarnovo hints at a possible unnamed goal for Project Nisovo. During the excavations of the monastery, Ovcharov’s team found a number of graves and random gold coins on site. The telling find was that of Tsar Ivan Shishman`s treasure. Shishman was the last Tsar of Bulgaria before the country was taken over by the Ottoman Empire.

Before the fine in June, Shishman’s treasure was simply a legend. In a 2007 Radio Bulgaria interview on the fortress of Urvich, Ovcharov mentions this legend and another related to the last Tsar’s reign. According to the interview, “Legends also tell about the existence of Tsar Ivan Shishman’s treasure and library hidden in the region. They, too, titillate the archeologists’ imagination. The scholars are hoping that the archeological exploration of the fortress [fortress of Urvich] could be launched by the autumn of 2007.”

While Shishman’s treasure was found over 150 miles east of Urvich, its existence was confirmed and a legend dispelled. Could this mean that after finding one piece of Shisman’s legacy, Project Nisovo aims to find the library as well? Within a Tsar’s library there is no telling what could be found. At very least, titles or land grants to organizations and citizens might be found. These records, if they exist, could possibly span back to the beginning of the Second Bulgaria Empire in 1186. What better way to track Templars in Bulgaria than finding out where their holding were.

The report in the Visit Bulgaria web site yesterday makes me think that they are looking for just that. Ovcharov’s team found, in Nisovo, a “medieval burial of a mother and a child. The bodies were laid to resemble those of the Virgin Mary and Infant as usually depicted on icons.” While this in of itself is highly unusual, it’s what the article goes on to say about the unknown origins of Nisovo that caught my eye.

“One of the hypothesis for the origin of the village [Nisovo] is that it was inhibited by the descendants of the Bulgarian aristocracy that fled Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian kingdom at the invasion of the Ottoman Turks in the 14th century. The expedition to Nisovo was carried out thanks to the exclusive financial support of the Priory of Knights Templars in Bulgaria.”

Now where better to find a lost library than the hiding place of the aristocracy after the Ottoman invasion? Anyone up for a trip to Bulgaria to find out?

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.

Holy Grail Quest in Iceland Ends

The Grail quest of Italian cryptographer Giancarlo Gianazza and architect Thórarinn Thórarinsson is officially over. The pair made headlines earlier this year by publicly presenting their theory that the Holy Grail was hidden in the Kjölur Mountain pass in Iceland. They ascertained the location of the Grail by unraveling “clues” obfuscated in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Da Vinci’s Last Supper, and various painting by Botticelli. All the evidence they amassed pointed to the Grail’s resting place being a secret underground chamber in the mountain pass.

Iceland Review reported this week that the team did in fact do some excavations the Kjölur Mountain pass this summer. Alas, the team came up with nothing more than water where the secret chamber should have been. The article goes on to report that Gianazza is still hopeful that the Grail lays in Iceland, somewhere…

Possibly the most disappointing part of the story is that while doing some research in Iceland prior to the excavations, a possible allusion in local records to a Templar presence in Iceland was uncovered. Gianazza went on record as saying, “He [Thórarinn Thórarinsson] has told me that in the official historic records of Iceland it is stated that in 1217, during the meeting of the Althing – the Parliament established in 930 – the leader and poet Snorri Sturlusson appears next to what the text defines “80 knights from the south, all dressed and armed in the same fashion” and is elected as commander for that year.” No evidence of these Knights being Templars has since surfaced in this summer’s excavations as well.

I have to applaud the group for following through with taking their research to real world tests and seeking the Grail. Few have the convictions of their armchair Robert Langdon dreams. Furthermore, the fortitude it took to announce to the world that they were wrong says something about Gianazza’s efforts as well. Maybe next time guys.

Modern Templar Group Files Lawsuit Against the Vatican

Yesterday, the Telegraph reported that a modern day Templar group in Spain has filed a unique lawsuit against the Vatican. The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ claims to be ultimately seeking an apology from the Vatican for the arrests and dissolution of the Order in the 1300’s. However, it’s the way in which the lawsuit has been filed that could bring about some interesting results.

The lawsuit claims that the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ is a direct descendant of the medieval order. As such, they are claiming damages to the tune of 100 billion Euros for the seizure of Templar monies and properties in the 1300’s.

The tactic is an original approach to getting the Vatican to apologize for past sins. One cannot file a lawsuit seeking a simple, “Gee guys, we’re sorry for what we did.” A lawsuit generally has to have some type of monetary damages attached to the claim. The lawsuit is tantamount to extorting an apology from the Pope. I can hear the lawyers now, “We’ll drop our suit if the Holy See admits their actions were wrong.”

Whatever you think of the tactic, it does raise an interesting question. In order to succeed in any lawsuit, one must prove some type of standing. This means that not only do you have to prove that damages were caused, but you have to prove that the damages directly affected you. If this lawsuit were ever to go to trial, The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ would have to prove that they were harmed by the actions of the Vatican 700 years ago. Simply put, they would have to prove to a judge that they are legitimate Templars.

Lawsuits against the Vatican seeking historical damages do have some precedent Alperin v. Vatican Bank was filed in a Federal Court in San Francisco in November 1999. The plaintiffs believe Croatian Nazis concealed concentration camp victim’s assets in Vatican run financial institutions. This is not to mention lawsuits filed against the Vatican for sexual abuse by priests and even for “acts of God” such as Hurricane Katrina.

If Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ has their ducks in a row, this could turn out to be a legal mess for the Vatican. A well funded legal team could be an annoying bee in the Papacy’s bonnet. I can imagine motions and subpoenas for access to the Secret Archives and requests for depositions from the Pope would be a start for a lawsuit of this nature.

I’m not sure if any of this could work, but it will be interesting to sit back and watch…