As this Sunday cannot seem to make its mind up on whether it wants to chuck it down or not I feel it is best not to risk getting wet and have planned to stay inside for now. The way this weekend is going it is probably a good thing. My back was giving me trouble on Friday and then yesterday I had a migraine in the evening so that did not help matters any. I am determined to have a better day today... shouldn't be too hard.
On a more positive note, I did manage to get as far as the market on Friday and did think that perhaps the buying of some more books would ease my pain somewhat. I bought three more books just to see if it would work ..... It didn't in the end but it was worth a try.
New total - books to be read: 154
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Hiram Key - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas
This is actually a non-fiction one so I guess it does not really require a spoiler alert. However, If you like to adhere to the generally accepted view of the Bible and Jesus' life then it is probably best you do not read this book!
I found this one interesting yet long-winded... or should that be the other way around? The book explores the connections between Freemasonry, the Bible, Knight Templar, Egyptian times and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It uses the rites that are used in Freemasonry and tries to discover where they come from. This quests leads them to stop of in various places in history. In the Egyptian time they trace the figure of Hiram Abif and show that what happened to him in his lifetime resonates through to today's Masonic rituals. As usual there is a secret that is to be guarded in the mix as well and apparently our boy Hiram died protecting a big secret which was consequently lost anyway. They then touch upon the actions of the Knight Templar and what they did to protect some secret knowledge. They then discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls as well and use them to show that event in the life of Jesus fit in with the trail of the Freemasons secret they are trying to discover. On reading all of it I did think at one time that it seemed a bit silly that all these groups have fight to protect a secret that is now not even the original secret any more.... because that was lost in the time of Hiram Abif (if I understand our authors correctly).
In a way it is not that surprising so me that the authors have managed to find parallels to the rituals of the present by looking at the past. Is that not what man has always done? Look to the past for inspiration and for patterns. Which culture in the world does not have the story of a big and all encompassing flood in it? Which culture does not have tales of human or superhuman heroes and deeds of great daring that took place? If you look at the old Greek myths are there not parallels with more recently written fairy tales? Part of me thinks that if you look hard enough you will find what you are looking for. You can make your theory fit if you look at the right evidence. I did think at one point that they were going to look at mythology and fairy tales as well to see if there was possibly anything in there that would afford them an explanation of where the Freemasons' rituals were based on. But maybe that will be the next book? I think it was Umberto Eco who once managed to propose a connection between Mickey Mouse and the Templars so who knows what is next?
As any good story that involves the Templars and Freemasons we end up in Rosslyn Chapel at one point. This is where the authors contend the answer to all our questions might be. The Chapel was "obviously" built as a replica of Herod's Temple and it said to have a secret vault somewhere that they believe holds the answers to the secret that has been hidden for so long. So far, I think no big secrets have been found.
Having said that, it is interesting to see how these two authors have ploughed their way through history looking for connections, and finding them. It was interesting to learn more about the Freemason rituals and about the additional stories that are in the Dead Sea Scrolls that put a slightly different spin on the life of Jesus and biblical history. All in all, good, interesting and intriguing!
Title: The Hiram Key
Author: Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas
481 pages
Arrow Books Limited
ISBN# 0-09-917562-2
Books to be read: 153
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