What might link the Yorkshire Mallorys with Le Morte d Arthur is a document discovered in an old hide trunk at Ribston Manor, near Walton, itself close to Studley. In the trunk was found a copy of the French prose romance Merlin. The pages of this document, now residing in Cambridge, contain some words in a hand other than that of the copyist:

Ci commence le livre que Sir Thomas Malori Chr reduce in Engloys et fuist emprented par Willm Caxton.

Here begins the book which Sir Thomas Malore (Knight) translated into English and first imprinted by William Caxton.

In itself, this is proof of nothing, but another interesting discovery was made by a visitor to the library of Ripon Cathedral in the late nineteenth century. The visitor was the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin, an expert on ancient books. In the library catalogue, the Rev. Dibdin took particular note of two books. These were English Chronicle, Antwerp, 1483 and Boetius Old Engl. The two books were listed as being in folio. Dibdin and the Dean searched for the volumes. They eventually found only one, or at least that is htw it seemed. What they discovered was a "forrell," which is a white sheepskin covered folio. It contained an original copy of William Caxton's imprint of Boethius, one of the earliest works to be published by Caxton. A further inspection revealed a great surprise. Bound into the back of Boethius was a copy of Caxton's Book for Travellers.

The discovery of these very early works of Caxton surprised and delighted both men. Nevertheless, they could not understand when Fountains was first founded. It was most probably named after his birthplace of Fountainne, in Dijon, Burgundy. There is no record that St. Bernard visited England but it is known that he had a special interest in the abbey. He was a careful administrator and would have watched its evolution from a distance, with great interest. By the time Thomas Mallory wrote Le Morte d Arthur, Fountains was at its zenith. Being one of the foremost monastic houses in the realm it would have possessed an extensive library. Experts in the field are quite emphatic that this library would have certainly contained both religious and secular books. It is highly likely that amongst these were the work of Chretien de Troyes and other Grail romances from the intervening period. We must bear in mind that the Grail legends had surfaced first in Troyes, France, which was the practical heart of Templarism and the spiritual home of St. Bernard, leading light of the Cistercians. Fountains owed allegiance to Clairvaux, St. Bernard's abbey, which is close to Troyes. As far as research material for the Grail stories is concerned, no library in England at the time would have been more likely to offer the works that Mallory needed for Le Morte dArthur than that of Fountains Abbey.

Presumably the Yorkshire Thomas Mallory was living at Studley when Le Morte d Arthur was created. It is likely that the Mallorys kept good relations with their neighbors the Cistercians. If so, Thomas would probably have had access to most, if not all, of the research material he needed. It is therefore likely that much of the book was compiled within the abbey scriptorium itself. It is also virtually certain that this Thomas Mallory came into contact with William Caxton, the publisher and printer, at Fountains Abbey. Caxton had originally been a high-powered wool merchant. The monks of Fountains not only raised many thousands of sheep themselves but acted as agents for many other sheep farmers in the locality. So important was Fountains to the wool trade of England that Caxton is virtually certain to have visited the abbey himself on numerous occasions. The monks there could easily have introduced Caxton to Mallory, who was their closest secular neighbor. (Time and again in my research, I found "operatives" of the Golden Thread to be associated with sheep rearing and the wool trade generally, as attested by dozens of references in this book.)

Many of Mallory's tales of King Arthur have a distinctly "northern English" feel to them. For example, he identifies Camelot as being synonymous with the town of Carlisle, just across the Pennines in Cumbria. Carlisle is positioned very close to the 2 degrees 51 minutes West longitudinal salt line. The northern approach taken by the author of Le Morte dArthur may be further proof that the Thomas Mallory in question was from the Yorkshire branch of the family. A Mallory from much further south and west would surely have placed his Camelot in one of the more favored southern locations, such as CadburyCamelot.

There were many poems relatirfU to both King Arthur and the Holy Grail already being created, or at least transcribed in the Yorkshire-Lancashire-Cheshire region at least a century before Le Morte d Arthur was written. One of these was actually entitled "Morte Arthur." Mallory must have had access to these and it is likely that their creators placed a local slant on the tales, which is reflected in his own work. However, the finished Le Morte dArthur contains a high proportion of material that is of singularly French origin. Failing Mallory's own prolonged visit to, or residence in, France, this material is most likely to have been researched at Fountains Abbey.

More than one expert has asserted that Mallory is originally a Welsh name, so its survival within this part of Yorkshire would not be at all surprising. The region had been known as "Elmet." It survived as a Celtic conclave well into Anglo-Saxon times. The writer Guy Ragland Phillips suggests that it may be related to a Celtic tale concerning a race of people, known by the name of their leader, "Mailor." Mailor was a giant who belonged to a race of people the Celts believed to have inhabited Britain at the time of their arrival. It is just conceivable therefore that both the Celts, and later the Saxons, retained some superstitious reverence for the Mallorys, as being representatives of the "magical" people who had once inhabited Britain. This could explain why, with the exception of the period of the Wars of the Roses, the various branches of the Mallory family retained their ancestral seats through all the vicissitudes of English history. The Yorkshire Mallorys were certainly salt line dwellers par excellence, and the judicious marriage of William Mallory and Dionysia Tempest consolidated this fact.

The Mallorys may have retained bardic traditions even older than those attributed to the Celts. Certainly, there are stories concerning King Arthur tftat appear in Le Morte dArthur and nowhere else. Many of these are from very old sources that must be considered Welsh or pre-Welsh in origin. Thomas Mallory may well have been familiar with the Grail's earlier counterparts.

Le Morte dArthur by Thomas Mallory certainly wasn't the first of the Grail romances, but it remains the most complete. What is more, it appeared at the most crucial time of all, when the struggle between the Golden Thread and the repressive forces of Church and state was at its strongest. Although the Church quite naturally tried to hijack the symbol of the Grail, specifically relating it to the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper, to a whole skein of people across western Europe, it meant very much more.

In closing this chapter, it is worth mentioning a further fact relating to the timing of Mallory's book. It is possible that by the time Le Morte dArthur came to print, Mallory himself was already dead. However, the existence of the Caxton manuscripts from Ripon Cathedral library appear to suggest that this was not the case. Either way Le Morte d Arthur was published at a pivotal moment in English history. In the middle of 1485, when Caxton was putting the finishing touches to the book, the king occupying the throne of England was Richard 111. Just three short months after Le Morte d Arthur reached a ready readership, Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth. The English throne came to a Welshman and a Lancastrian supporter, Henry V11. Neither Mallory nor Caxton could possibly have known about these events. After all, Richard might easily have defeated Henry Tudor and retained the throne. But a knowledge of Henry Tudor's imminent arrival could easily have affected the publication date of the book.

Richard III was not a popular king in the eyes of everyone, but he was the last of the Plantaganet king. He certainly had the same family blood as that of Godfroi de Bouillon flowing in his veins. This was the blood that belonged to the line of David and to Jesus himself. But Richard was essentially French in origin, as were all the Norman kings. Henry Tudor, on the other hand, although a man with Norman ancestry too, was at least partly of genuine Welsh blood. What Henry became, and the way his dynasty altered Britain, is a matter of fact. However, at the time of his accession to the throne of England, he must have been greeted with enthusiasm by those of true indigenous stock.

It would appear that the habit of publishers choosing the most auspicious moment to launch a book is not at all a new phenomenon. This does certainly seem to have been the case with Le Morte dArthur. Supposedly, Caxton finished his edition on the last day of July 1485. On the very next day, 1 August 1485, Henry Tudor landed in Wales with his small army, determined to wrest the throne from Richard Plantaganet. Had Mallory's Le Morte d Arthur been deliberately kept back to coincide with the arrival of this "New Arthur," in Britain? Alternatively, was it rushed through the printing process at very short notice? It appears that either Sir Thomas Mallory's Lancastrian sympathies were shared by his publisher or, at least, that Caxton was an extremely astute businessman.

Some authorities have noticed that Caxton's handling of Mallory's work is clumsy, and this is offered as proof that Mallory must himself have been dead before Caxton received the manuscript. For what other reason would Mallory have allowed his book to go to press with so many mistakes. Actually, this state of affairs is quite understandable. Speed was suddenly of the essence if the book was to be available to coincide with Henry Tudor's imminent arrival. Perhaps in those last frenetic days Thomas Mallory was elsewhere. As a Lancastrian supporter he was probably happy to contribute his genius to the coming struggle, even if that genius was somewhat tarnished by clumsy publication.

The book may have been very important. Richard's fortunes swung in the balance and in the end relied almost entirely on the behavior of one family - the Stanleys. They were powerful barons, and their lands lay predominantly in the West Midlands and in the northwest of Britain. There they had many salt line manors. Their influence was predominant in exactly those locations where Mallory places so many of the Grail legends. The Stanleys had been Richard III's uneasy allies. But on the day Richardjoined in battle with Henry Tudor at Bosworth, Leicester, they changed sides. It was their troops whose blows put paid to the Plantaganet line.

Sir Thomas Mallory, a descendant of the ancient "Mailor's people" was the legatee of a book replete with mistakes - but it may have helped to gain him a British king. What is more, the Tudor kings made much of their indigenous British heritage. Along with the Mallorys and the Stanleys, the Tudors most probably retained elements of the lineal Megalithic priesthood.

And if the reader still doubts either this geographical placing of Sir Thomas Mallory, or his salt line Fraternity credentials, then Caxton's preface to Le Morte dArthur might be the clincher. Caxton tells his readers that a book concerning Arthur is well overdue because he considers King Arthur to have been the first of the three most virtuous men since the birth of Jesus. The second of these he states to have been the Emperor Charlemagne, and the last and most recent - Godfroi de Bouillon. As the reader will realize immediately, we have here three characters whose lives are crucial to this unfolding story. Caxton's mention of Charlemagne was undoubtedly meant to be ironic, as all those who were party to the secrets of the Golden Thread would have instantly realized.

Prior to Philip IV's attack on the Templars in October 1307, the substantial Templar fleet disappeared from its home port of La Rochelle. Authors have suggested numerous destinations for the Templar sailors, who had clearly been given notice of what was to come. The most plausible destination for the Templar fleet, or at least elements of it, remains Scotland."

There were and always had been strong dynastic connections between those who created the Templar Order and certain elements of the Scottish nobility. Hugh de Payen, who is named as being the first Grand Master of the Templar Order, is shown in historic documents to have been married to Catherine St. Clair, whose family held lands around Edinburgh. However, the St. Clairs were not originally from Scotland. St. Clair (later Sinclair) was a Norman French family, from Pont I'Eveque, a longitudinal salt line location. The family took its name from a village dedicated to a somewhat mysterious ninth-century monk and recluse, who was known as St. Clarus. St. Bernard may well have had this saint in mind when he named his own Cistercian monastery Clairvaux, which can be interpreted to mean "The Valley of Clarus."

Templar personnel could easily have found refuge in Scotland after 1307, since the rulers of the country *ere reticent to outlaw the Order. It has been suggested, though never proven, that Templar knights fought for Scotland against the English at the battle of Bannockburn, in June 1314. The relationship between the Templars and Scotland had been a long one. The first Templar presbytery outside of France had been at a place still called Temple, which is east of Edinburgh. The ruins of the Templar properties there can still be seen.

Meanwhile, on the west coast of Scotland, in Argyll, there are many Templar-style graves, dating to a period after 1307. Argyll has been cited as one of the most likely destinations for the fleeing Templar ships. Whether or not this story is true, there is one specific building in Scotland that is definitely associated with the Knights Templar, but which dates from a period over a century after the Templar institution had supposedly ceased to exist. This is Rosslyn Chapel, which stands a few miles south of Edinburgh.

Rosslyn Chapel is a small, architectural masterpiece. It was built between 1446 and 1486. The building to be seen today is said by some experts to be only the Lady Chapel of a much larger projected building, which would have formed a collegiate church. On almost any day of the year buses carrying passengers from all over the world alight at the end of the lane leading to Rosslyn Chapel, and with good cause. This ornate and enigmatic little building carries more clearly than almost any other location an indication of the direction Templarism ultimately took in Britain. Rosslyn Chapel is a virtual shrine to Freemasonry.

Rosslyn Chapel is built in the Gothic style, a form of architecture that first appeared in France in the twelfth century. Nobody is certain where the idea for Gothic architecture arose but it has some distinguishing featurd that set it apart from earlier building techniques and it hides a wealth of secrets that formed part of the Grail knowledge held by the Golden Thread. Gothic architecture is distinguished by the use of arches with pointed tops. These are known as "ogives." This form of arch is incredibly strong and is used almost exclusively in the great Gothic masterpieces to form very tall buildings, ill which the arches soar, one on top of another, to great heights. Internal stresses from the walls are carried outside the building to the very distinctive "flying buttresses," allowing walls to be relatively thin, and to have huge windows, which as a result of early and exquisite Flemish stained glass makes the interior of such buildings a blaze of color.

An author who probably best understood the knowledge that underpinned the sudden rise of Gothic architecture was Louis Charpentier. In his book The Mysterie of Chartres Cathedral, he concentrated on one of the earliest of the Gothic Cathedrals. My own research added to Charpentier's observations and turned up some further interesting facts.

The town of Chartres is situated on neither a longitudinal nor a latitudinal salt line. However, it does have a strong geographical relationship with Jerusalem. Chartres occupies a latitude of 48 degrees 29 minutes North. Jerusalem is at 31 degrees 47 minutes North. This means that in a latitudinal sense, and looking at things through Megalithic eyes, the two locations are 17 Megalithic degrees apart.

Even fairly accurate estimations of the dimensions of the huge Gothic cathedrals are notoriously difficult to obtain. Charpentier measured Chartres extremely carefully, using chains, and produced results that could be checked against Megalithic models, which makes it a good case for stucly. Chartres was also the resting-place of a Black Madonna and was one of the preferred resorts of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

There has been a church of some sort on the Chartres site for a very long period of time. Prior to this, by common consent, the location was sacred to our pagan ancestors. The cathedral, as we see it today, was constructed after 1194. A great fire had destroyed the previous church. The two towers that grace the present site had been built much earlier, around 113 4. Strangely, these were not in keeping with the church that then stood on the site. They were geometrically in tune with the later building of 1194, so it seems as though the cathedral as it appears today was already conceived during the first part of the twelfth century. The fire of 1194, which virtually destroyed the former cathedral, was the incentive necessary to erect the present structure. It was completed in an almost unbelievable 26 years. Many authors have suggested that Chartres was Templar inspired and that they may have supplied both the money and much of the manpower to build it.

In the world of sacred architecture Louis Charpentier is famous for having made a startling find relating to both Chartres and a number of other Gothic cathedrals. He discovered the "local cubit." The local cubit is a specific linear measurement that was used on each particular site. This unit is different for each cathedral but remains constant within a specific building. Charpentier claimed that the various local cubits were not arbitrary at all, and that they had been derived in an ingenious manner. He demonstrated that the local cubit for Chartres was equal to I/ 100,000th part of 1 degree of the Earth's circumference at the latitude of Chartres. Charpentier showed that there had also been a local cubit at both Amiens and Reims. These fitted the same criteria. In both cases, the local cubit was 1 / 100,000th part of 1 degree of the Earth's circumference at the latitude of the locations in question.

In the case of Chartres, the local cubit was 0.738 meters. Most of the measurements of the finished building conform to this measure. It had originally seemed to me that the existence of the local cubits in Gothic cathedrals made the idea of the continued use of Megalithic mathematics in their construction rather less than likely. The local cubit is based on modern geometry, of the 360-degree variety. Megalithic geometry responds to a 366-degree circle. In the case of Chartres at least it turned out my initial assumption was incorrect.

Charpentier did not content himself with measuring the cathedral of Chartres as it looks today. Rather he took it to pieces on paper, to try and understand the ideas, knowledge, and skills that went into its design. He discovered that the whole building had been planned around three geometric shapes, which he called tables. There was a square one, a rectangular one, and a round one. Everything that the finished building became was responsive to these three geometric patterns. Charpentier claimed that the first of the tables to be constructed was the rectangular one. He showed that the dimensions of this had been deterinined by the width of the "sacred mound" upon which Chartres stands, a mound that has probably been sacred since Stone Age times. A study of the three tables throws up some remarkable facts.

Although Charpentier could demonstrate the continued use in the finished cathedral of what he claimed to be the local cubit, this measurement of 0.738 meters is not related to the size of the geometric tables themselves. The unit used to create the tables was just over 0.82 meters.

The Megalithic Yard of 0.8296 meters is strikingly close to the measurement used to construct the geometric tables for Chartres Cathedral. Charpentier is at pains to point out that his original assessment of the 0.82 meters measure could be short of the mark by some millimeters. The reason for this is simply that the cathedral is so hard to measure accurately. The fact that a unit of measurement so close to the Megalithic Yard cropped up at all in conjunction with the building of Chartres was immediately of interest to me.

And here the puzzle really begins, because there is a close mathematical relationship between 0.82 meters and the final local cubit of 0.738 meters. A casual observation will show that 100 local cubits of 0.738 meters, is the same as 90 units of 0.82 meters. It can therefore be shown that every major proportion of Chartres Cathedral is also an expression of the Megalithic Yard. For example:

Width of choir 20 local cubits 18 Megalithic Yards Length of choir 50 local cubits 45 Megalithic Yards Length of nave 100 local cubits 90 Megalithic Yards Length of transept = 90 local cubits 81 Megalithic Yards.

In the case of Chartres, the intrinsic relationship between the local cubit and the Megalithic Yard seems to have been engineered into the very matheAnatical base that underpins the building. This must have been done at the time of the building of the new cathedral, beginning with the towers that were constructed in 1134 and the obvious conclusion is that whoever built Chartres understood Megalithic measurement.

The true "magic" of Gothic architecture is not simply expressed in one great example such as Chartres. It exists within the most basic arch upon which all Gothic buildings stand. Each and every Cathedral. Charpentier is at pains to point out that his original assessment of the 0.82 meters measure could be short of the mark by some millimeters. The reason for this is simply that the cathedral is so hard to measure accurately. The fact that a unit of measurement so close to the Megalithic Yard cropped up at all in conjunction with the building of Chartres was immediately of interest to me.

And here the puzzle really begins, because there is a close mathematical relationship between 0.82 meters and the final local cubit of 0.738 meters. A casual observation will show that 100 local cubits of 0.738 meters, is the same as 90 units of 0.82 meters. It can therefore be shown that every major proportion of Chartres Cathedral is also an expression of the Megalithic Yard. For example:

Width of choir 20 local cubits 18 Megalithic Yards Length of choir 50 local cubits 45 Megalithic Yards Length of nave 100 local cubits 90 Megalithic Yards Length of transept = 90 local cubits 81 Megalithic Yards.

In the case of Chartres, the intrinsic relationship between the local cubit and the Megalithic Yard seems to have been engineered into the very mathelilatical base that underpins the building. This must have been done at the time of the building of the new cathedral, beginning with the towers that were constructed in 1134 and the obvious conclusion is that whoever built Chartres understood Megalithic measurement.

The true "magic" of Gothic architecture is not simply expressed in one great example such as Chartres. It exists within the most basic arch upon which all Gothic buildings stand. Each and every Goddess is demonstrated in a very special way. As explained earlier, there are many examples of the ribbed ogive doorways of Gothic cathedrals and churches that have a rosebud carved into the very point of the arch. This is quite clearly meant to represent the clitoris, just as surely as these great doorways represent the vagina of the Goddess, whose womb is signified by the body of the church itself. All are tied, symbolically and practically, to the dog rose, which is capable, like the Great Goddess, of virgin birth.

Gothic architecture is undoubtedly an inspiration of the Golden Thread and began to appear during the lifetime of one of its greatest representatives, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. On more than one occasion in his life he described God as being "Height and breadth and depth and width." This declaration demonstrates St. Bernard's own fascination for numbers and sacred geometry. He was also interested in the "geometry of music," which Charpentier showed to be reflected in the ratios of Gothic buildings.

Rosslyn Chapel is an example of Gothic architecture festooned with sumptuous carvings and, to the trained eye, is also a positive explosion of paganism, all of which points to the survival of Goddess worship.

Slightly behind and to the right of the altar (if indeed Rosslyn Chapel can be said to have an altar) is a fabulously carved spiral pillar, like the twisted roots of a great tree. From this emanates a riot of lively carved foliage, which wraps and entwines itself around most of the interior of the building. All of this was originally painted and would have represented a riot of color to those visiting the chapel. Particularly intriguing in this regard is the fact that some of the examples of plants, so realistically captured in stone within Rosslyn Chapel, such as aloe and maize, were supposedly unknown to Europeans when the chapel was built. Within this realization lies another part of the Grail secret - that of navigation.

Rosslyn Chapel was built by the Sinclair family, that same dynasty that had originally been known as 'St. Clair' and which had been allied to Templarism from its very inception. The builder of Rosslyn was Earl William Sinclair and we now know very well why examples of American plants are contained within the carvings of his masterpiece. The Sinclairs were Earls of Orkney. They had strong Nordic ties and were excellent sailors. One of their number, Henry Sinclair, set off on an epic journey in May 1398, some four decades before Columbus made his more famous voyage in 1492.

It would take him to Nova Scotia (New Scotland) and then on down the east coast of North America to the region now known as Massachusetts. At Westfield, Massachusetts there is a Templar grave, dedicated to one of Henry's knights who died in that location. A round tower was built at Newport, Rhode Island, and this has survived. The official settlement of Newport was established much later, in 1636. Records there, from four years previously, had indicated the presence of the round tower. They had suggested that a European settlement had once existed in the area.

Henry Sinclair's Nordic blood was probably an asset. According to old sagas the Vikings too had visited America. The Norman French themselves were of Viking blood, and their name actually means "Norsemen." Normans were prominent in the salt line Fraternity of the twelfth century and beyond. It is certain that their seamanship added to the success of the Templar fleet. Henry Sinclair's direct knowledge of the Atlantic sea routes was Templar in origin. Assertions have regularly been made that much of the early Templar wealth came from silver. This, it is suggested, was transported across the Atlantic from the shores of central and South America. These rumors were rife long before information relating to Henry Sinclair ever came to light.

The original Sinclair trips to America made the later journeys of Columbus and other explorers possible. An officer called Drummond was listed as being one of Henry Sinclair's officers. Drummond's grandson, John, lived for some time in Madeira. There he became closely associated with the man who would become the father-in-law of Christopher Columbus. Bartholomew Perstellow had been a friend of John Drummond's father and John himself was an intimate of Columbus. Perstellow was a past Grand Master of the Knights of Christ, which was merely a branch of the post-1307 Templar Order under a different name.

Prior to his ownjoumey, Columbus had to Prove his credentials o Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. It was these monarchs who were to equip and finance his fleet. Columbus was in possession of certain charts. He called John Drummond before the Spanish monarchs to attest to their authenticity. In all probability the charts originated in the Drummond family. The little fleet set out under the command of Columbus in 1492. The sails of all three ships carried the red cross of the Templars and it is quite likely that Columbus himself was somehow associated with the Knights of Christ.

The foliage, carved in solid stone within Rosslyn Chapel, proves conclusively that the American continent was well understood by the Sinclairs in the fifteenth century and it seems unlikely that Henry Sinclair's journey was the first made by the family to the New World. The strong inference here is that the Sinclairs were in direct possession of Templar navigational know-how and that they were most likely simply undertaking a journey that had been commonplace to Templar sailors.

Rosslyn Chapel is suffused with mysteries. Some authors have suggested that the building is actually a copy of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, which had been found by the first Templar knights to visit the Holy City, not long after the First Crusade." It is known that there is a sealed crypt beneath the chapel and many suggestions have been nPade as to what archeologists might find buried within it - everything from secret documents relating to Templar knowledge, to the head of Jesus himself.

My own feeling about Rosslyn Chapel is that if any visitor wishes to see the true secrets of the building, it is merely necessary to open one's eyes and look around. Rosslyn's shape, form, and carvings show it to be a testimony to the survival of a naturebased, feminine-oriented religion, which was already thousands of years old when Christianity originated. Except for very recent additions, there is absolutely nothing to be seen at Rosslyn to indicate it was ever intended to be a place of Christian worship. What is more, the suggestion that Rosslyn Chapel is truly the Lady Chapel of what was intended to be a much bigger church doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Although there are places in which the building seems to stop abruptly, with ragged stonework and doorways that do not lead anywhere, more than one architect has borne testimony to the fact that Rosslyn Chapel was never intended to be more than it is. It would have suited the Templar, Golden Thread priests of the Sinclair family to have people "believe" their remarkable chapel would eventually form part of a true Christian church but it is, in reality, what it is suggested to be - a Lady Chapel. The Lady in question is the Great Goddess, a fact the Sinclair family understood only too well.

There almost certainly is a connection between Rosslyn Chapel and the Jerusalem Temple and I reach this conclusion for a number of reasons. Not least of these is the realization that Rosslyn Chapel stands exactly 39 Megalithic degrees West of the Jerusalem Temple. Another strong indication comes within the practices of Freemasonry, which I hope to show was the true legatee of Golden Thread knowledge from the fifteenth century onwards. Many of the rituals of Freemasonry revolve arouid Solomon's Jerusalem Temple and they were undoubtedly played out amongst the pillars and carved foliage of Rosslyn Chapel. The true seeker of the Holy Grail is just as likely to find it in this remarkable building, with its curious history, as if it were actually packed into some precious golden casket far beneath the floor of the chapel's unyielding granite.

tories of the Holy Grail were a positive inspiration to the knightly classes around the time Rosslyn Chapel was being constructed, but it is likely that only relatively few individuals had any inkling of what really lay behind them. One of the most potent of the Grail romances, which was still popular in the time of William Sinclair, and certainly the most enigmatic, is one that was contemporary with that of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (circa 1190). We don't know much about Wolfram as a historical character, but in the case of Perlesvaus, we know even less. The author of this work chose to remain absolutely anonymous. He was almost certainly a high-ranking Templar knight. If we are to approach the Grail in any way, it may be through Perlesvaus that this is best achieved.

Like the writers of the ancient Celtic tales that comprise parts of a fascinating medieval Welsh book, The Mabinogion the writer of Perlesvausll spends pages describing the nature of fighting in the medieval period. He does so with such precision and detail that one is left with the impression that the author had a detailed knowledge of the military conventions of his period. This is not history at a distance. The writer graphically describes not only the manner of fighting, but the nature of wounds sustained as a result of it. The Perceval of this tale finds himself at a castle where all the inhabitants appear to be-Templar knights. All wear the Templar white tunic, and the red cross is also present. Perceval is told that he is descended from Joseph of Arimathea, though the story itself is a Dark Age, Arthurian invention.

There are many alchemical references in Perlesvaus, such as men made of copper. One of the Templar-type knights tells Parceval that "There are heads sealed in silver and heads sealed in lead." This extract is particularly interesting in Templar terms.

At the fall of the Templars in 1307, parts of a female skull were found in a silver reliquary in the Templar headquarters in Paris. It carried the legend. "CAPUT LVIIIM." The skull was incomplete and the bones that did remain were wrapped in white linen. The white linen was itself further wrapped in a red cloth. Although the legend carried by the reliquary has never been understood it is possible that the Templars believed these to be either the bones of the Virgin Mary or, more likely, those of Mary Magdalene. The skull and its reliquary disappeared but later representations of it show the "M" to have been of a particular form. It actually looked like IT, which is the astrological symbol for the constellation of Virgo - the Virgin.

Aspects of king sacrifice are mentioned in Perlesvaus. These mesh well with the Isis myths that seem to have abounded in the deepest recesses of Templar practice. In addition, Perlesvaus refers to the roasting and eating of children. The accusation of this practice was leveled at the Templars in the trials after 1307. In reality, they were surely innocent of this heinous crime. However, this does smack of the legend of Dionysus, mentioned earlier in this book. The Dionysus myths were associated with a mystery cult similar to that of Isis - in this case Demeter.

Another intriguing passage from the same work seems to indicate that this transcript may have been used in part as a foundation for other accusations leveled at the Templars. In one part of the story, Perceval watches a priest beating a red cross with a staff, over and over again. The reader will recall that spitting on the crucifix and stamping it underfoot was one of the practices for which the Templars were dissolved and excommunicated.

In Perlesvaus, the Grail is not totally synonymous with the holy cup of the Last Supper. The writer clearly indicates that the Grail is a secret of great importance. Certainly, this secret is in some way connected with Jesus, for the Grail, on at least one level, is a kind of vision, or series of visions, some of which deal with the crucifixion. Only much later does the Grail become a chalice. Visions of the Grail in Perlesvaus are five in number. The first is that of a crowned king, crucified. The second image is that of a child. The third vision is of a man wearing a crown of thorns, bleeding from his forehead, his feet, his palms, and his side. The fourth image is not specified - probably for a very good reason. And the final vision is that of a chalice. What connects all these visions is a very strong light and a wonderful fragrance. All of this imagery has Kabalistic and quite possibly alchemical symbolism. It probably meant something quite specific to a certain proportion of those reading Perlesvaus.

Most of the Grail stories indicate that whatever the Grail might actually be, it is lineal. In other words it has something to do with a specific family or a group of people. Often characters are informed that they are "of the Grail." Since they invariably respond with surprise, it is obvious that they were not aware of this fact previously. Generally speaking the Grail, as "an object" is impossible to tie down. Perhaps the fact that the stories often revert to referring to the Grail as a chaltce is most revealing. In this form, it encapsulates so much of the mystery religions and the aspects of nature and fertility that underpinned them.

Even in their Christian symbolism, there is significance to the Grail stories. Churches of the period during which these story cycles were being laid down often had wall paintings or stained glass windows depicting Jesus sandwiched between the boards of a winepress. The explanation of this habit so commonly trotted out is that Jesus is "the Vine" of New Testament speak. Supposedly, his blood is that of the sacrament, spilled to cleanse the sins of the world. But it would be just as applicable in this context to view the body in the winepress as the harvest of nature. It could be seen as the life-giving bounty of nature being pressed into the wine that would sustain humanity through the following year. It is simply a variant on the theme of "John Barleycom," in which the barley is killed and beaten to make beer. The wine spills forth from the chalice, which is the "sacred womb." In this context, it would seem that the imagery portrayed by the Last Supper is very telling. As we have seen, it smacks more of the heart of the Vegetation god and the mystery cults than it does of any variant of Orthodox Judaism.

This alone could be the enduring message of the Grail. A yearly event played out symbolically, with Christ likening himself to the Vegetation gods of old. His resurrection is therefore synonymous with that of both Osiris and Dionysus. The missing image from Perlesvaus, which the author is very careful not to reveal, is almost certainly that of the Goddess herself. Through her intervention the sacrificed king does not die, since he is reborn through her. He becomes a legacy of the seed of his dead counterpart. On and on, year by year, and for eternity. If so, the images have been slightly juxtaposed, probably intentionally so. The writer of Perlesvaus might have wished to remain anonymous but a Church ready to punish heresy at a stroke may well have been able to track him down.

The real order of the Grail visions is as follows. The child, the scourged man with wounds, the crucified king, the Goddess, and finally the chalice, the womb of the Goddess through which the child will appear once more.

The only part of the myth that the Christian Church has managed to eradicate from this age-old story, in connection with the Christian mystery, is the presence of the Goddess. In Christian terms, it seems most likely that this role was intended to be split between the two Marys, the Virgin and the Magdalene.

In this context the widowed mother of the hero of the Grail cycles, most usually Perceval, is also understandable. Perceval is often told that he is a legatee of the Grail family. Symbolically this means that he represents the god reborn. In all the ancient story cycles, the old god must die so that the new one can take his place. This is why the widowed mother is so common in Grail stories.

The heritage of all the Grail stories lies at the heart of forgotten "initiations." The evidence that this is the case is still to be found in ancient British and Irish legends. We have seen that the Grail is, as often as not, a cup of some sort and that this imagery comes to us direct from Celtic mythology, which was almost certainly borrowing such tales from an earlier people in Britain. Once again, this brings us to the fabulous tales of "magic cauldrons."

The most complete of the early cauldron references come to us from Irish story cycles. The reason that these stories have remained intact in the Irish traditions is probably twofold. Firstly, Ireland represents the westernmost extension of Celtic penetration. It is logical to assume that the Celts populated Ireland after their arrival in the British mainland. Probably for this reason, many stories older than the emergence of the Celts as a distinct people appear to have remained more or less intact. But there is a second and more important reason for the survival of the Irish cauldron legends.

Extant in Irish literature is an acknowledgment that the island has been subjected, in remote times, to successive waves of peoples from distant shores. Robert Graves was an author who dealt specifically with these matters. Irish culture, he asserted, was influenced by newcomers from southern Spain, Thrace, and pre-Hellenic Greece." These facts are no longer doubted, and particularly not the last. There are many Irish myths that find almost perfect parallels in the most archaic Greek cycles. I am personally certain, though it is impossible to prove the fact, that this was also the case with the mainland of Britain. However, further incursions of Germanic peoples, and latterly the Norman French, has purged many of these pre-Hellenic tales from Welsh legends. In the case of England, nearly all of them have disappeared. Ireland therefore remains the bastion of pre-Celtic thinking, religion, and folklore. In Ireland the magic cauldron appears regularly.

In fact all aspects and talismans of the later Grail are to be viewed in various parts of Irish mythology. This includes the Grail's power of providing food, its capacity to heal, its supervision by a beautiful woman, and its association with death and rebirth.

There was, the ancient Irish storytellers assert, a group of people in Ireland long before the Celts arrived. These people were known as the Tuatha De Danaan. They were powerful magicians and sorcerers. Some stories suggest that, forced on the defensive by successive waves of new arrivals into their midst, the Tuatha De Danaan were driven literally underground. D:ow they are the race of fable, the legendary people of the hollow hills. The alwayssuperstitious Celts never failed to offer the reverence due to such learned and mystical individuals.

It is said that the Tuatha De Danaan possessed certain treasures. Amongst these was the cauldron of Dagda. Dagda's cauldron represented thlee hom of plenty and as such has contributed to the Grail legends. In certain Welsh tales, Merlin had at least four such vessels. Bran, as we have seen, was also associated with the magic cauldron.

The other enduring motif of the medieval Grail cycles is the spear, present in most of the medieval stories and often seen by those glimpsing the Grail. The spear is inverted, so that its point faces the open mouth of the chalice, and it invariably drips blood into the Grail. A spear of this sort is also to be found amongst the treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan. Here it is the spear of Lug, and such weapons figure prominently in other ancient tales. Similar to the spear is the magical sword, which is one of the most enduring features of Arthurian literature. In the tales of Arthur the sword is called Caliburn or Excalibur, but it has a long and illustrious pedigree. Again, one of the treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan was a fabulous sword, known as the sword of Lug. In the Grail legends the sword is often broken, and has to be welded, or magically regenerated by the story's hero.

The association of the cauldron and the spear or sword is certainly a remnant of sexual symbolism. These objects have, with the passing of time, become the very-talismans that lie at the heart of the Grail romances. It requires little imagination to see the phallic and virginal associations of the inverted spear and the Grail. This is particularly relevant when the Grail itself is a relative of the cauldron of plenty, the womb of the Mother Goddess.

In ancient symbolism swords, spears, and lightning are often interchangeable at the level of the deity. There are enduring folk themes of lightning in the late summer representing the sexual union of the Sky God and the Earth Goddess.

The main thrust of the Grail stories remains roughly similar. The hero arrives at a castle where the Lord of the land is seriously injured in the groin; in other words, he is sterile. The hero views the Grail, which is usually in the possession of a beautiful woman, and this character frequently has a Christian name that can be identified with flowers or vegetation. The vision of the Grail is often accompanied by a view of the bleeding spear. If the hero asks the correct question, "Whom does the Grail serve?," or "Whom do these things serve?," the Lord of the land, who is identified as the Fisher King, is healed. As a result, the barren land returns to fruitfulness.

In many of the romances, the hero is later told that he is related to the Fisher King and himself becomes Lord of the land. There are variations in all the Grail romances, but the pattern outlined above is a broad synthesis of most.

It is likely that the Grail stories once represented a series of stages of initiation into a mystery rite. These are likely to have been played out symbolically at the creation of a new king. They may also have been relevant when a young man of noble birth came of age. Roger Sherman Loomis in Celtic Mythology and Arthurian Romance" deals with this subject, He envisages a situation were an initiate, who must be sexually pure, is brought into a dimly lit cave. There he sees an old man, groaning on a bed. Further off is a beautiful young woman, guarding the sacred cauldron and either the sword or the bloody spear. The initiate is told that the old man is injured and sterile and that only the correct procedure can allow him to recover. When he does, the land will become fertile once again. At this point the initiate is expected to walk to the maid guarding the cauldron ask the fish was an early, and at first secret, symbol of the Christian sect. However, this may be only part of the truth. The gods of Irish mythology, who seem to be the counterpart of the Fisher King in the Grail stories, were invariably "gods of the sea." They are the same deities to which fishermen would have paid homage. In mystical terms, the Fisher King, with his groin injury, is the old and dying god. There can be no fertility possible because the old god has lost his potency. In many of the Grail romances, the correct question of the Grail restores the Fisher King to full health. As a result the land returns to abundance. In some of the stories, he dies within three days and the hero assumes his mantle.

Finally the all-important question remains regarding the Grail. "Whom does one serve with it?" The question is never answered directly. The reason for this silence in the romances is twofold. Firstly the answer to the question is part of the great mystery and belongs only to the initiate. Secondly, the salt line Grail romancers were responsive to a group of people who moved within the circles of the orthodox Church, but who saw its symbols in a radically different way. These writers lived in deeply Catholic societies and were understandably anxious to preserve their own lives. They also had a responsibility to fellow believers in the alternative Christianity. They knew the answer only too well but they would hardly have c6-mmitted it to the written word.

"And who does one serve with it?" The Great Goddess personification of the Earth. Her consort died each year so that the world might live. In the following year she would bear the fruit of her womb, the wine of the chalice. This was the young god of spring.

This in part is an explanation of the Grail, its historical heritage, and symbolism. But it can only be a small section of the story.

Those people who kept the Grail stories alive by writing them down were aware that the Grail also represented knowledge of a more tangible and less esoteric sort. Knowledge is power and wealth - a fact that the Golden Thread recognized only too well and still recognizes to this very day. An acceptance of this fact led the Templars to create such an intricate and wide-ranging economic empire. It also encouraged the Sinclair family to maintain its contacts with the mineral-rich New World and it inspired them to build on the crumbling foundations of Templarism, something that would help to create the world we know today. 

Seen from the point of view of someone who has never encountered Freemasonry at all, the whole institution might appear somewhat bizarre. Freemasonry definitely has the overtones of a mystery religion - but a version from which the essential core has been removed. What remains are a series of moral imperatives that might appear laudable but lacking in any real spiritual imperative.

Masonic lodges are comprised of groups of men who meet on a regular basis. Any would-be Freemason must undergo a series of ceremonies before he has access to the ranks and privileges of full Masonic status. Specific tracts of obscure prose must be remembered and recited at such times. Officers of the lodge, many of whom have stylized titles, officiate in the ceremonies. The performance of these also demands specific items of clothing and they take place in carefully arranged surroundings in a room, often built for the purpose, known as a "lodge."

The three stages of initiation are known in the Craft of Freemasonry as "degrees." All of these relate in part to a semi mythical version of the building of Solomon's Temple. The degrees are said to represent various stages of induction through which would-be stonemasons once had to pass before being accepted as "Master Masons." Freemasons recognize that the modern version of the Craft is "speculative" and that no special knowledge of actual masonry skills is necessary as a prerequisite of membership.

Freemasonry is most notable for its supposed secrecy. Actually, this is a nonsense and is a point of view that has, in the main, been dreamed up and perpetuated by a mass media that loves to suspect mystery, scandal, wrongdoing, or downright evil almost anywhere. There is little or nothing that cannot be discovered about any Freemasonic ritual in any average public library. There are certain words used in Masonic rituals that Masons prefer not to have uttered by people who are not "brothers." However, the reader may be disappointed to learn that even when these are known very well, they are not particularly illuminating to the casual observer. In short, a full knowledge of all Masonic practice is more likely to bore the interested party than to inform them in any way.

On his way to the third degree, the prospective Master Mason has to endure some fairly gruesome threats of reprisals if he ever divulges any of the secrets of the Craft. These are entirely symbolic, though as we shall see, they probably meant something more sinister once upon a time. He will also be expected, at various times, to bare one of his legs and also his chest, as well as being blindfolded. A photograph of the proceedings, rather that causing gasps of wonder, usually elicits howls of laughter from non Masons.

To by far the largest percentage of its members, Freemasonry is little more than a fraternal social club. To most of these, the ceremonies attached to meetings are an irksome and slightly irrelevant diversion from an otherwise enjoyable meal and drink with "the lads." A small number of Masons do believe that the various ceremonies have some deep and probably highly symbolic meaning. An even tinier cross-section takes the trouble to try and discover what the Craft is really all about - if anything.

Though not a Mason myself I have studied Freemasonry very carefully. My aim has been to achieve as good an understanding as possible of the various social, historical, and perhaps religious components that comprise the Craft today. I had a head start because I am well versed in both astrology and astronomy.

These disciplines do help the researcher to gain some understanding of the rich symbolic base that underpins Freemasonic ritual.

A good knowledge of both ancient and more recent history at first seemed to be a distinct advantage to the serious student of Masonic ritual. But this soon proved to be a dubious assumption. Most of "supposed" Masonic history showed itself to be a fudge. At best, it appeared as a garbled version of pseudo history and the accumulated myth patterns of several distinct and different cultures. Anyone embarking on a close scrutiny of Freemasonry is likely to come to much the same conclusions - but first impressions can be very misleading.

To the unenlightened observer the Masonic Lodge looks like a badly arranged room filled with garish bric-a-brac. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every item of apparel, each piece of furniture, and every strange picture contains deep meaning. Some of it is biblical, much of it is cosmological, and a very small percentage is even a little sinister.

Those wishing to fully understand the intricacies of Freemasonry could do worse than studying the work of the authors Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas. In their first book on the subject, The Hiram Key, they sought to get to the bottom of the Craft themselves. As practicing Freemasons, they decided to discover whether the whole business was merely an eighteenth-century scam, or if it was indeed based on ancient traditions. Their discoveries are always interesting, often surprising, and sometimes unsettling.

Grand Lodge, the body in London that claims to represent by far the majority of Freemasons in England today, claims that the pedigree of Freemasonry only goes as far back as the middle of the eighteenth century. This opinion is quite understandable. If Freemasonry really does extend back to the building of Solomon's Temple, or even to the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, Grand Lodge becomes nothing more than a very modern irrelevance.

Freemasons strenuously deny that their practices are in any way "religious." In this, they are clearly at odds with the truth. A prerequisite for any would-be Mason is a professed belief in the "Great Geometrician of the Universe."" However, with this simple recognition of a causative principle of some sort, any man can become a Mason, no matter what his religious or racial background.

There is no doubt at all that Freemasonry at least predates the formation of Grand Lodge in London, which opened its doors in 1717. It was already present in England for at least a century before this time and had existed in Scotland for longer still. Grand Lodge was simply an attempt to "Anglicize" a potentially dangerous institution. The Scottish Stewart kings were ousted from England in 1688 when the Catholic James II was deposed. This dynasty, whose supporters were known as Jacobites, tried to reassert its claim to the English throne on several subsequent occasions but always failed. By 1717 England had opted for a German-born king, George h-Freemasonry had always attracted the reputation of being a Jacobite institution. However, it remained popular and in order to "sanitize" the Craft a wholly English version was created, and one that presented no threat to the Hanoverian king. Hence English Freemasonry was born. My research shows that English Freemasonry was forged from Scottish rite Freemasonry, not in London, but much further north, at a double salt line location called Castle Howard, which I shall deal with more specifically in a later chapter.

The whole subject is full of controversy and it appears that the absolute origins of Freemasonry may never be known. The most likely explanation seems to be that it was established, in something like the form we see today, by William Sinclair, the man who built Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh.

It is generally accepted by researchers into Rosslyn Chapel that the building contains a number of secrets that are clearly of Templar origin. The chapel was built in the fifteenth century, just over a century after the French Templar arrests of 1307. William Sinclair was the legatee of a long Templar past enjoyed by the Sinclair family as a whole. Where these "secrets" lie is open to conjecture. Perhaps, as many researchers now suggest, there are documents carefully hidden in the vaults. On the other hand, the ornate stone carvings that adorn Rosslyn Chapel could, in themselves, represent some sort of code. If this were the case, only the "knowing" visitor could make any sense of them. Some of the carvings are from Old Testament sources, whilst others appear to be mythological. Yet more defy understanding altogether.

If there was a secret locked into the fabric of the building William Sinclair obviously wished to keep it to himself. This would have been an impossibility with stonemasons crawling all over the site for years. So, it is suggested, Sinclair devised a way to maintain their silence. At this period of history, Stonemasons' guilds already existed and had done so for some time. Guilds were common in most trades. They were a sort of cross between a trade federation and a trades union. Entrance to a particular craft also meant membership of the relevant guild. Stonemasonry was one of the oldest skills of all. The origin of its guilds is lost in the mists of time well before the fifteenth century.

William Sinclair built on this natural tendency of the stonemasons to retain their skills within an ordered and carefully selected group. He effectively turned the guild into something much more mystical and exclusive. On the way, he introduced the "oaths," which condemned guild members to the most horrible and lingering of deaths if they ever divulged any of the secrets vouchsafed to them. In this manner, he made certain that specific details regarding Rosslyn Chapel would never be known by the community at large.

With the passing of time the ceremonies became ever more elaborate, and gradually detached themselves from true stonemasonry altogether. Soon there were groups of 'speculative" Masons, men who had never wielded a chisel in their lives, but who found some sort of fraternal comfort in the rituals. Royal Charters were drawn up for these first speculative lodges and the Sinclair family remained at the head of emerging Freemasonry for many decades.

Freemasonry spread across Scotland and ultimately found its way into England. Perhaps British society had lost most of the "fraternal" componer4s that seem to be essential to any society and Freemasonry filled the void. The Craft became a magnet for the rise in interest in things archaic and esoteric that epitomized the period into which it had been bom. Elements of astrology, astronomy, mythology, and early Judaism came together to form a heady mixture. It was a sort of moral and pseudo-religious cocktail that clearly appealed to the educated male mind of the period.

None of this is to suggest that even the first Freemasons were entirely the brainchild of William Sinclair. It is highly likely that their rituals and practices were based upon ceremonies that had been well known to the secretive Templars. Thus, at the very core of the Craft, we might expect to find subject matter that is genuinely very much older than the fifteenth century. This seems to be the case and Freemasonry does indeed appear to have a very ancient pedigree. It contains elements that go back to as early as 10000 BC. Since these elements are Judaic and even preJudaic in content, they are most likely to have found their way into Freemasonry via the Templars.

Much of the original practice of Freemasonry has been distorted and even completely changed by Grand Lodge in London. However, in the old Scottish Rite forms of the Craft enough can be resurrected to indicate the sort of practices that originally did take place. Beyond the initial three degrees of the Craft there are a confusing array of further "side arches" and "degrees" that the would-be aspirant can take - but no Mason can embark on any of these until he is a third-degree Master Mason.

In order to achieve this status he is obliged to go through a symbolic "death and rebirth" ceremony. It is generally suggested that the symbolism behind this procedure is to indicate that the aspirant has "died" to his old life and been "reborn" into the full rights and privileges of Fre~masonry. This ceremony lies at the core of all Masonic practice and is common to all types of Freemasonry in the world today. The third-degree rite of Freemasonry is a direct descendant of one of the oldest forms of religious practice known to our species.

Something very similar to this ceremony certainly took place for many centuries at Eleusis, Greece, during the Mysteries of Demeter, which were celebrated there annually. These ceremonies him. So it remains in Freemasonry today. The only difference is that it seems unlikely that thisjourney leads anywhere these days - as it once did.

The logical conclusion seems to be that the Templar, having undergone every possible ritual, would by this time have reached an elevated status within the Order. Perhaps he would be the Master of a region or state. It is almost certain that at this time he would be given the final key - the few words or sentences that allowed him to make sense of all that he had learned across a number of years.

This is not half as preposterous as it might at first appear to be. We all carry information around with us that is learned by rote but which appears to be nonsense. I refer the reader to a little English nursery rhyme known as "Oranges and Lemons." Most British children learn the whole rhyme when they are very small. It is passed on to them by parents who have no comprehension of what the verse actually means.

Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St. Clements. I owe you five farthings say the bells of St. Martins. When will you pay me say the bells of Old Bailey. When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch. When will that be say the bells of Stepney. I do not know, say the great bells of Bow.

When the verse is learned, so is the tune that accompanies it. In reality, the verse and tune are a graphic description of the sound made by the bells of some of the most famous churches in London. However, the verse developed prior to 1666, at which time a great fire swept through London. Every one of the churches in question was destroyed at this time and had to be completely rebuilt. All the bells were lost, and these too had to be replaced.

It is a fact that anyone who knows the verse and its tune is in possession of a valuable piece of historical information that is now at least 3 50 years old. Those reading these words, who know the verse and its tune, have now been given the key to its meaning. Nothing has changed except the dawning of awareness.

If this is multiplied many hundred-fold, with stories, movements, and actions learned across half a lifetime - how much more significant might the eventual key actually be?

Within the various ceremonies and practices we find hints that the Grail knowledge and salt line awareness was retained by at least some early Freemasons. Unlike some modem writers on the subject I remain convinced that this was the case with at least some of the people responsible for creating English Freemasonry, the same men who built Grand Lodge in London in the eighteenth century.

High up on the wall of any Masonic Lodge is a representation of a five-pointed star - the star of Venus. I have demonstrated time and again in previous chapters that this symbol is closely related to the old fertility religions based upon an assumption that at the heart of all is the "Great Goddess" of old. The astronomical patterns shared by the Earth and Venus are the first prerequisites for accurately measuring the Earth year. They lie at the heart of all geometry. Their association with "Phi," the "Golden Mean," ally them to some of the fundamental principles of physics that govern the universe. In Freemasonry the deity is referred to as the "Great Geometrician of the Universe," and a virtual obsession with geometry and cosmology is inherent in all Freemasonic ritual. Since these were aspects of Grail and ultimately Golden Thread knowledge, we should perhaps also expect to find aspects of Goddess worship present in Masonic practices.

To this day Masons refer to their own meeting place as their "Mother Lodge." It is never referred to in the masculine. The place of death and rebirth at the time of the third-degree ceremony is as surely representative of the "womb of the Goddess" as is the chamber of Megalithic tombs such as Maes Howe in Scotland or Brynn Celli Ddu in Wales. In the case of Grand Lodge in London, the architect did nothing to disguise this fact. The Lodge itself is womb shaped and is approached via a corridor that resembles a birth canal. It shares this basic design with possibly thousands of Megalithic chambered tombs atross the British Isles and France.

The first English Freemasons were powerful men. They not only had the wherewithal to build Grand Lodge itself, they also named the street where it stands. To this day, it is called Great Queen Street. Early Scottish Lodges also had some telling names - for example, Mary Lodge. Of course England, by the seventeenth century, was staunchly Protestant. One of the main reasons for the formation of English Freemasonry was to expunge any Jacobite and Catholic components that shone through the Craft. I am in possession of a copy of a Masonic book from the Victorian period. It is entitled Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy" and was written by Robert Hewitt Brown. How I came by this document, I am not at liberty to say. This book deals specifically with the part astronomy and astrology plays in Freemasonic ritual. To anyone who has studied these subjects, the book makes a fascinating read, though it is of particular interest to me for a very specific reason. There are sections of the book that deal with the constellation of Virgo, to which I have referred previously. Some of these sections also hint at Goddess worship within Freemasonic ritual. Most telling is the fact that every one of these sections has been carefully scored out in the copy of the book I possess. By a happy chance, the act of photocopying the book has made it possible to read the text that has been so carefully defaced, which is not the case in the original document.

The question arises: why would anyone want to eradicate only these, specific sections? There are only a couple of possibilities that occur to me. I know that the original of the copy of Stellar Theology that I possess resides to this day in the library of an important Freemasonic Lodge in England. The sections relating to the constellati on of Virgo and to the Goddess obviously either offended someone, or else they did not want just "any" brother Mason to read them. Why should either be She case unless the almost certainly high-ranking Freemason who defaced the book knew what the pieces of text actually implied? Having read the sections many times myself, I am certainly of the opinion that the author, Robert Hewitt Brown, understood only too well the true religious imperative that lay within Freemasonry.

A close companion to the Craft of Freemasonry, though eminent Masons might still deny any tangible connection, was Rosicrucianism. Within its mysterious origins and practices, we can find another avenue through which surviving Goddess worship has been transmitted to the modem age.

The earliest reference to Rosicrucianism is found around the commencement of the reign of James I of England (1603). It now generally accepted that Rosicrucianism came about as a result of the efforts of certain German princes. These men were anxious to heap scom on the Catholic Church as a whole and upon the Pope in particular. It was around this time that pamphlets began to appear in England extolling the virtues of a new philosophy, though one grafted upon the roots of ancient esotericism. The mythical founder of the sect was "Christian Rosenkreuz" and the primary object of Rosicrucianism was to overthrow tyrannical political and spiritual leaders and to establish a sort of "Utopia." That it was ultimately inspired by priests of the Golden Thread, there is no doubt whatsoever.

To search for the actual individuals responsible for Rosicrucianism is to set out on a journey that contains more twists and turns than an Elizabethan maze. Some authorities think that a German writer from Wurttemburg in Germany penned the pamphlets in question. His name was Johann Valentin Andrea. Little is known of Andrea, except for the fact that he was born in 1586 and died in 1654 and it is distinctly possible that we shall never fully understand where Rosicrucianism actually developed. It is telling, however, that Andrea's personal emblem was a red rose.

The Thirty Years' War in Europe (commencing 1618) saw the old hatred between Catholics and Protestants once again bringing mayhem and death to thousands of people. It also displaced many German Protestants who were sympathetic to Rosicrucian ideals. Many of these people found their way to Britain. They were assisted by the "Christian Unions," which were formed by Andrea and others with the express purpose of keeping Rosicrucian ideas and practices alive in Europe.

The Christian Unions were split into "Lodge" systems and may have been of a Masonic type nature. The arrival of these refugees into Britain could have eventually offered impetus to the rise in Freemasonry that attended the period. A fair proportion of the people in question came from Flanders. They were adept in the weaving of woolen cloth. This fact itself may prove to be very telling as our story unfolds.

Any connection between the original founders of the Rosicrucian brotherhood and sects which still carry the same name today seems to be tenuous. There are, however, plenty of people in the world who claim that a secret brotherhood of the Rosy Cross does still exist. It is suggested that this elusive faction still secretly protects the mysteries encapsulated within the original seventeenth-century ideals.

Rosicrucians clearly believed themselves to be associated with the Knights TemplaL It is not beyond belief that Templars who had managed to find sanctuary in Germany or the Low Countries had somehow survived the intervening centuries as a coherent "entity~" They certainly did so in Scotland. That Rosicrucian ideals should be ultimately adopted by Freemasonry is entirely consistent with what we know about the philosophy, which seems to be a natural bedfellow of the Craft.

Of particular interest is how closely some of the early Rosicrucian pamphlets, or manifestos, mirror the Grail legends. We find in early Rosicrucianism a sort of idealism, based on personal freedom of choice, that fits very well with known aspects of Templar and Grail thinking. Rosicrucians did not wish to punish the contrary beliefs of others, as did the Catholics and also many sections of the new Protestant faith. There is no doubt that it was Rosicrucianism, together with its close ally Freemasonry, that allowed the scientific discoveries (or often rediscoveries) of the period to flourish. Many of the original English Freemasons were also committed Rosicrucians.

After the first two, Rosicrucian Manifestos, a longer work, entitled The Chymical Wedding, appeared in 1616. This was a story filled with Grail type allusion. It detailed the adventures of one Christian Rozenkreutz, a character who has much in common with the Perceval of Grail fame.

The story of The Chymical Wedding is told in the first person, by Christian Rozenkreutz himself It begins with the arrival at his house, on the eve of Easter, of an angel. This heavenly messenger bears an invitation for Christian that bids him attend a royal wedding. Though shocked at the news, he gladly accepts. After a horrific dream, in which he is imprisoned and then released from a dungeon, the hero sets out on his journey. Christian must pass through a series of "gates" on his way to the magical castle where the wedding is to take place. He wears the white tunic of the Templar, with a red cross at its shoulder. In addition, he has placed four roses in his hat. He specifically states that to do so will mean he is better noticed (presumably by specific persons). Christian has had the presence of mind to carry with him bread, salt, and water. When he arrives at the divergence of four different paths, he is unsure of the correct direction. Fortunately he feeds some of his bread to a "snow white dove," which is chased by a large and aggressive raven. Christian follows the fleeing dove and soon discovers that he is on the right path. He has a compass and has been told that, no matter what byways lead from this straight track, he must continue to walk south. In my estimation, this is likely to be a salt line allusion.

Christian uses the salt to "buy" the various tokens he needs to gain entry to the magical castle. When he arrives at his destination, he meets a beautiful virgin. She remains the guide and mentor of Christian and his fellow guests at the wedding for the remainder of the story. The virgin shows a distinct preference for Christian and asks if she may have the roses from his hat.

Since all those arriving at the castle may not be worthy of attending such an important event, it is necessary for them to be weighed on magical scales. Only a handful pass the test, of which Christian is one. Those who fail, through being boastful or filled with deceit, are cast naked out of the castle. This section of the story echoes a known aspect of Egyptian Osiran religion in which the heart of a dead Pharaoh was weighed against a feather, before he was allowed to rule with Osiris in the abode of the dead.

There now follows a strange scene, in which all the royal personages present are decapitated, to the abject horror of Christian and his fellow guests. The next day the guests are taken to a mystical island, where a fantastic alchemical process is performed. This procedure is undertaken in order to recreate the "bride and bridegroom," from the distilled remains of the original bodies. Before this takes place, the guests are treated to a sort of tableau or play. They watch the performance of a drama dealing with a mysterious princess who has lost her kingdom. She is under the influence of a "Moor," which, at the period of the Chymical Wedding, would probably be taken to mean a Turk or at the very least someone of the Muslim faith. It was Muslims who fought against the Christians so long for possession of Jerusalem.

For a while the Princess must become the concubine of the Moor, but she is ultimately delivered from bondage. Her kingdom is restored by the' intervention of an equally mysterious prince. There seems to be little doubt that this drama is an allegorical playing out of the deliverance of Jerusalem from Muslims control by Godfroi de Bouillon at the time of the First Crusade. The princess in question is intended to represent the Holy City itself. She may also be the Goddess of the Golden Thread.

Wandering round the magical castle prior to the alchemical transmutation, Christian happens upon a sepulcher. This contains the lifeless, though perfect, body of Venus. He is told that anyone uncovering and looking at Venus has committed a terrible crime but he does not admit his transgression at the time.

Transported to the fabulous island by ship, the wedding guests now take part in the alchemical transmutation. This involves using the "essence" of the dead royals to create a large egg. From the egg springs a fabulous bird. Christian never refers to this bird as being the "Phoenix," but there isn't much doubt about its true nature. The hatched bird grows rapidly and is itself eventually sacrificed, in order to use its own essence to restore the bride and bridegroom. Only four wedding guests are present for this most sacred part of the ceremony. Christian is one of them. The remainder of those taking part are shielded from this, the deepest mystery. They are engaged in making gold, which Christian describes as a "lesser art."

With the royal couple restored, the guests return in triumph to the magical castle in twelve magnificent ships. Each of the ships carries a flag depicting one of the zodiac signs. Christian is troubled to learn that the keeper of the first gate, whom he met some days earlier, is, in reality, forced to remain at his post as a penance. He too had viewed the body of Venus. He can only be released when some other transgressor takes his place. Full of contrition, and as humble as he has been all through the story, Christian Rozenkreutz admits his crime. Already an old man, he prepares himself to become the keeper of the gate for the remainder of his life. At this time the narrative is cut short, but the final words tell us that Christian was allowed to return to his home.

A character who constantly appears during Christian's stay in the magical castle is Cupid. This impish little sprite constantly taunts the guests and the many virgins who are present. Cupid only disappears when he is angered by the knowledge that the body of Venus has been viewed by one of the guests.

There are many different themes running through The Chymical Wedding, but it does give us a good insight into the basic beliefs of the early Rosicrucians. It is just possible that the story is older than the early seventeenth century, because the date is mentioned several times as being 1459. This is a period contemporary with the building of Rosslyn Chapel and, vgry tellingly, it is also exactly 360 years after the capture of Jerusalem by Godfroi de Bouillon in 1099. Supposedly, Andrea admitted to having written The Chymical Wedding himself, though this is a supposition that no amount of research on my part can confirm.

So what can we glean from the story, no matter when it was truly created? Firstly, it is a tale full of alchemical symbolism. The various components at its start show that it was penned by someone familiar with the salt lines of Europe. The importance of salt echoes through a tale that is essentially of pre-Christian or only quasi-Christian origin. In fact, Jesus is rarely mentioned in the,,story. However, the Chymical Wedding does commence on the eve before Easter Day but it should be remembered that Easter is a festival "utilized" by Christianity, not invented by it. Easter is the time of death and rebirth and of pagan origin. The Chymical Wedding takes place across seven days. The magical number seven appears in every conceivable form throughout the whole narrative.

We learn that the Rosicrucians believe strongly that humility is the best approach to life. We are also instructed that compassion is essential. Those who commit transgressions in the story invariably receive light punishment, or else are completely forgiven. The Grail itself is never mentioned in The Chymical Wedding, but there are a host of "fountains" of one sort or another. These point once again to aspects of Megalithic belief and the "underground and emerging stream" that is the probably true explanation for placement of significant sites on the salt line system. It is almost certain that an "al" was originally understood to be such an emerging stream.

The whole tale bears a striking resemblance to the performance of mystery rites, such as those of Demeter at Eleusis. The Chymical Wedding is, at its heart, a story of death and rebirth. At the same time, it is deeply Hermetic in nature. It serves to instruct would be alchemists that the transmutation of base metal into gold is not the pinnacle of their efforts. Rather it leans in the direction of the "internal alchemy," mentioned elsewhere in this book.* Mythology in the story is mixed and somewhat confusing. The Latin Venus and Cupid are present, though Hermes, a Greek deity, is also mentioned. There are also mentions in The Chymical Wedding of the mysterious Greek deity - Eros.

In the very earliest Greek myth cycles the originator of all the gods and humanity was Eros. Eros was far more ancient than Cronos, Zeus, or any of the other divinities. By the time these in imagery and personifies the oldest descriptions of Eros.

The presence in The Chymical Wedding of Cupid is interesting. It is generally accepted that the Greek Eros and the Latin Cupid are one and the same. There are differences, however, since in early Greek legends Eros predated Aphrodite (Latin Venus). Meanwhile in the Latin tradition, Cupid was the child of Venus, to Mars the god of war. The purpose of Cupid in The Chymical Wedding is to be a taunt to the lords and virgins present, constantly teasing them and endeavoring to create romantic intentions.

In the creation of the fabulous egg of the Phoenix the reader of The Chymical Wedding might be put in mind of that first shining egg from which Eros himself sprang. However, the story of The Chymical Wedding is so convoluted that it is difficult to understand exactly what might have been in the mind of the writer. Almost certainly, The Chymical Wedding is meant to be confusing. The underlying philosophy is definitely reminiscent of known, original Masonic concepts. It is a fact that a proportion of those who founded what would eventually become the United States of America were Rosicrucians. 

Since most of them were also Freemasons, the crossover point between the two, at least in the early seventeenth century, is quite apparent. It has been suggested that the true meaning of The Chymical Wedding relates to the transmutation of Old World values into those necessary to create the New World.

That Rosicrucianism owes much to the Templar Order is also obvious. Templars were using roses in conjunction with crosses on tombstones back in the earliest days of their existence. The Chymical Wedding plays around all these themes. It displays a continuity of knowledge and a spiritual imperative underpinning a "search for science." In truth, the development of modem science owes much to both Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and many of its working practices were distilled from the steaming retorts of the alchemists' laboratories.

The Rosicrucian Manifestos, and in particular, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rozenkreutz, may not make specific reference to the Grail, though the rose is present at every turn. However, I believe that any student of the Grail legends must find the parallels between them and The Chymical Wedding so close as to make the difference academic.

It would require a lifetime of meticulous study and research to untangle the many complex themes that run through The Chymical Wedding. Despite this it would not take an expert to understand that Goddess worship, as well as the passing on of secret knowledge, lies at the heart of the original Rosicrucian movement. From the moment Christian, the hero of the story, encounters the snow-white dove, the symbolism within the story becomes obvious. The fact that Christian "sees" the body of Venus, is a strong indication that he has been made party to the most profound mysteries of the Golden Thread, which is why it is necessary for him to become the "gatekeeper" of the fabulous castle. The castle itself is a metaphor, symbolizing not only the religious beliefs of the Golden Thread, but also its store of very practical and extremely powerful knowledge. The more I study The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz, the deeper my understanding of the survival of the Golden Thread becomes, though this one story is worthy of a book in its own right.

The importance of the Rosicrucian movement, particularly during the seventeenth century, together with the rise in Freemasonic practice, cannot be overstated. Together, they ultimately led to the creation of something like the "New Jerusalem" the Cistercians and Templars had intended. From the crucible of Rosicrucianism and with the tools of Freemasonry, the United States of America was built.

A Ithough clearly intended and planned to destroy the power of the Catholic Church for ever, the religious Reformation that took place in Europe during the sixteenth century merely served to create religious dogmas and repressive institutions of its own.

In England especially, Anglicanism soon sought to guard its own position and began to show tyrannical tendencies. Those of Rosicrucian and other "fringe" persuasions were openly cnr1'c!iea:'en occasi6ns, Wey were even persecurea-ro-r rifelf beliefs. On mainland Europe the constant fighting between Catholic and Protestant allowed little room for a "third party" intent on pursuing a religion so old it made Christianity appear irrelevant. As a result, it must have seemed to many of the people holding to the ancient religion and values that the only way to achieve a settled life, where they could choose their own particular route to the Godhead, would be to leave Europe behind forever.

Templar-inspired voyages to the New World took place long before the more accepted voyages of mariners such as Christopher Columbus. There is no doubt regarding the journey to America undertaken by Henry Sinclair in 1398. As we have seen, this voyage encompassed not only the northern region, which would of the western seaboard of the presek United States to be presence of the foliage of indigenous American plants, such as the aloe and the seed heads of maize, carved into the stonework of Rosslyn Chapel, bear testimony to this and probably many other journeys to the New World. In the end, even the United States Constitution would be forged from Masonic and Rosicrucian ideals. There is no doubt that the New World was intended to represent the Utopia or New Jerusalem that the Templars and the priests of the Golden Thread had come to see as their birthright.

Probably the most famous group of travelers to the embryonic United States was the Leiden Brotherhood. Their arrival aboard the Mayflower is well documented and considered pivotal to the American story. The history of this group serves to illustrate very well the sort of people who forged the New World, and how they had been very much influenced by the old salt line knowledge and, almost certainly, the Golden Thread.

The Leiden Brotherhood was a group of Christian dissenters originally formed in Scooton, near Doncaster, England. This township lies in close proximity to the 53 minutes West longitudinal salt line, close to the strange village of Haxey, which is replete with ancient religious overtones. Also close by, and on the salt line, are to be found the origins of Methodism. In fact, the whole area was a hotbed of reformed religious zeal.

This part of England had always been "separate" and "different." In earlier times it was an isolated and wild place, where the flooded lowlands had formed an island of habitation along a ridge known as "the island of Axholme." A longitudinal salt line passes down Axholme and cuts through the modern village of Haxey. To this day, a strange ceremony takes place there each year on Plough Monday (close to the old midwinter festival). At this time, a ritual is enact ed which speaks of memories relating to nature worship. It is known as the festival of the "Haxey Hood."

Displaced from the Isle of Axholme the embryonic brotherhood settled for a while in Plymouth before setting off for the more religiously tolerant country of Holland. There they settled on a latitudinal salt line in the historic town of Leiden. Leiden is still famed for the scientific equipment made there. Its importance in this regard goes back many centuries and shows it to be a Templar inspired city. Leiden was always a place where freedom of expression was prized above all else. Rosicrucianism flourished there.

But even Leiden could not offer these idealists the sort of society they really craved. After a few years they returned to England and hired the use of the Mayflower. From England, they traveled to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, also a longitudinal salt line location. Here, they landed and formed their first community.

A leading light in all of this was Edward Winslow. His family came from Kerswell, on the Great Malvern latitudinal salt line of England. His family name shows the original point of origin to have been Winslow, on the 52 minutes West longitudinal salt line, near Northampton. Winslow was one of the leading lights of the community. His family were legatees of the selfsame type of ex-Norman minor aristocracy that proliferates all through our story. The other leader was William Bradford, who came from Scooten, also on the 52 minutes West longitudinal salt line in South Yorkshire.

The time the Leiden Brotherhood spent in Holland must have brought it into direct contact with proto-Masonic brotherhoods of the early Nonconformist sort. It is very likely that at least some of those sailing on the Mayflower considered themselves to be Freemasons. They would have' been more than familiar with Rosicrucian ideals, which were reaching their zenith at this time. The whole nature of their ultimate journey was undoubtedly affected by The Chymical Wedding.

The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth on 6 September 1620 and arrived off the coast of Massachusetts on 4 December. It is often stated that the original intention of the Pilgrim Fathers, as they have come to be known, was to join forces with a settlement forever a mystery. Even stranger is the fact that the existence of the abandoned European settlement was never mentioned again by the Pilgrim Fathers.

Little by little, Europeans strengthened their toehold on the American continent. Many if not most of the earliest settlers were of Masonic and Rosicrucian persuasion. Indeed, some of these people were encouraged to travel to the New World by none other than Sir Francis Bacon. Bacon was a man of impeccable salt line heritage, a known hermetisist and a Rosicrucian. 

But of course, the Rosicrucians, proto-Masons and members of the postTemplar brotherhood were not alone in seeking a new life, away from the religious and political restrictions in Europe. The new land they colonized was huge and it took time to carve out a viable nation. This did not become fully possible until some 140 years after the voyage of the Mayflower. By this time the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, many as representatives of the salt line families of Britain and France, held most of the positions of influence and power. With little more than their zeal and a genuine belief in the creation of a truly democratic and egalitarian nation, these people flourished. What is more, they managed to turn the raggletaggle collection of American settlers into an army capable of withstanding the might of a fearfully powerful Britain.

Christian Rozenkreutz, or whoever actually wrote The Chymical Wedding, would have been proud indeed of the first American Constitution. The story of how a desire for independence came about is well known. However, something that has not been noted until now is the fact that the list of those who led the revolt against England is replete with individuals who can be shown to have originated from salt line families in Europe. Nowhere is same principles that had caused St. Bernard of Clairvaux to place his own abbey in the precise location where its ruins still stand in France. There is nothing remotely arbitrary about Washington DC or its positioning. It was built in full knowledge of specific geographical facts and at the express wish of surviving members of the Golden Thread.

Washington DC occupies a position 77 degrees West of Greenwich. Jerusalem is at 35 degrees 10 minutes East of Greenwich. In Megalithic terms, the distance between these two locations is so close to exactly 114 Megalithic degrees that the difference is impossible to measure. Washington DC therefore also shares a Megalithic relationship with Knosses in Crete, Eleusis in Greece, Troy in modem Turkey, Heliopolis in Ancient Egypt, Stenay in France, and Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. In addition, it maintains the same relationship with dozens of other locations that were crucially important to the Bronze Age peoples.

Just as important is the latitudinal position of Washington DC, which is 38 degrees 52 minutes North. In Megalithic terms this places Washington DC exactly 9 Megalithic degrees north of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and in fact the whole Giza complex. The pyramid is a structure held to be deeply significant in Freemasonic and esoteric terms.

Of course, this might all be nothing more than a coincidence. 

But any reader who believes this to be the case should first take a look at an American dollar bill. It contains a representation of the "'truncated pyramid," a symbol of the "Old Wisdom." This connects Washington DC with the ancient site of Heliopolis, and the Giza pyramids. Also included on the dollar bill is the "allseeing eye" a most enduring symbol of Freemasonry. But this symbol is also closely connected to the ancient legacy of the in Virginia. This settlement had been established some thirteen years earlier. They were, the tale goes, driven off course by storms. In conference they decided to form their own community further north. This story is probably not true. It is known that the Mayflower stood off Plymouth Rock for some time. During this period members of the Leiden Brotherhood persuaded those amongst their passengers who were not of their community that they knew of a better destination than Virginia.

There is every reason to believe that the Pilgrim Fathers knew exactly where they wanted to go. This turned out to be Plymouth, Massachusetts. The site of disembarkation is located at 70 degrees 41minutes West, which places it within 1 minute of arc of a longitudinal salt line running at 70 degrees 42 minutes West. A cursory glance at the map shows that it would be difficult to find so good an anchorage anywhere on this part of the coast that was so close to a longitudinal salt line position.

Quickly establishing a temporary base for themselves near to the shore, they struck inland. Within three days they located the site of an earlier European settlement. Odds and ends were discovered there, such as a large iron cooking pot, but there was no trace of human life. The Leiden community nearly led itself to disaster. 

This was a virgin wilderness and there were few aboard the Mayflower with the requisite skills, even to use what implements they possessed. It now seems likely that the leaders of the expedition fully expected to find a flourishing community in the vicinity of Cape Cod. They must have been desperately disappointed to discover that it had, somehow, failed to survive. How old this settlement was and who had started it will remain forever a mystery. Even stranger is the fact that the existence of the abandoned European settlement was never mentioned again by the Pilgrim Fathers.

Little by little, Europeans strengthened their toehold on the American continent. Many if not most of the earliest settlers were of Masonic and Rosicrucian persuasion. Indeed, some of these people were encouraged to travel to the New World by none other than Sir Francis Bacon. Bacon was a man of impeccable salt line heritage, a known hermetisist and a Rosicrucian.

But of course, the Rosicrucians, proto-Masons and members of the postTemplar brotherhood were not alone in seeking a new life, away from the religious and political restrictions in Europe. The new land they colonized was huge and it took time to carve out a viable nation. This did not become fully possible until some 140 years after the voyage of the Mayflower. By this time the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, many as representatives of the salt line families of Britain and France, held most of the positions of influence and power. With little more than their zeal and a genuine belief in the creation of a truly democratic and egalitarian nation, these people flourished. What is more, they managed to turn the raggle-taggle collection of American settlers into an army capable of withstanding the might of a fearfully powerful Britain.

Christian Rozenkreutz, or whoever actually wrote The Chymical Wedding, would have been proud indeed of the first American Constitution. The story of how a desire for independence came about is well known. However, something that has not been noted until now is the fact that the list of those who led the revolt against England is replete with individuals who can be shown to have originated from salt line families in Europe. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of George Washington. In light of the heritage of this man, and the positioning of the capital that was named after him, there can remain absolutely no doubt that the United States of America was founded upon Rosicrucian and post-Templar ideals. These were funded by people with a good working knowledge of the Megalithic mathematical principles and fuelled by their deeply Masonic connections.

Washington was certainly not alone. It has been suggested that at least 50 of those signing the American Declaration of Independence, on 4 July 1776, were Freemasons, and an indeterminate, though almost certainly large proportion, also espoused Rosicrucianism.

As an example, the family of George Washington was Norman French in origin. Originally, the Washingtons had owned an ancient manor and lands in the northeast of England. Later, for more than a century, they held Sulbury Manor, between Banbury and Northampton in central England. One could hardly conceive of a more potent salt line location than this, for it stands on the 52 degrees 06 minutes North latitudinal salt line.

George Washington's Masonic roots are well known. They may have existed in the family for a considerable period of time. Washington, northeast England, is quite close to the Scottish Border. Freemasonry of the Scottish variety found its way to this location very early. The "Stars and Stripes" of the American flag owe their origin to the heraldic shield of the Wasbington family. None of the other advocates of independence had better, older, or more sound salt line credentials than Washington.

The new capital of the United States, which was to bear his name, was built upon the site of an old plantation. Nevertheless, it was strategically placed, in full knowledge of exactly the same principles that had caused St. Bernard of Clairvaux to place his own abbey in the precise location where its ruins still stand in France. There is nothing remotely arbitrary about Washington DC or its positioning. It was built in full knowledge of specific geographical facts and at the express wish of surviving members of the Golden Thread.

Washington DC occupies a position 77 degrees West of Greenwich. Jerusalem is at 35 degrees 10 minutes East of Greenwich. In Megalithic terms, the distance between these two locations is so close to exactly 114 Megalithic degrees that the difference is impossible to measure. Washington DC therefore also shares a Megalithic relationship with Knosses in Crete, Eleusis in Greece, Troy in modem Turkey, Heliopolis in Ancient Egypt, Stenay in France, and Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. In addition, it maintains the same relationship with dozens of other locations that were crucially important to the Bronze Age peoples.

Just as important is the latitudinal position of Washington DC, which is 38 degrees 52 minutes North. In Megalithic terms this places Washington DC exactly 9 Megalithic degrees north of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and in fact the whole Giza complex. The pyramid is a structure held to be deeply significant in Freemasonic and esoteric terms.

Of course, this might all be nothing more than a coincidence. 9

But any reader who believes this to be the case should first take a look at an American dollar bill. It contains a representation of the "'truncated pyramid," a symbol of the "Old Wisdom." This connects Washington DC with the ancient site of Heliopolis, and the Giza pyramids. Also included on the dollar bill is the "allseeing eye" a most enduring symbol of Freemasonry. But this symbol is also closely connected to the ancient legacy of the Old World. On the Great Seal of the United States we find the eagle, olive branch, arrows, and pentagrams. All these would be immediately recognized by occultists and Rosicrucians as enduring symbols of their art and a fair number of them relate directly to Goddess worship.

Forged from the representatives of many nationalities and across an incredibly short period of time, the United States of America represents the most powerful nation on earth. Its beliefs and ideals are not universally accepted as being truly democratic, or even "moral." Yet, for all this, to many millions of people beyond its borders the United States stands as an ideal.

It is telling that the huge statue guarding the entrance to New York harbor, undoubtedly the most important point of arrival and departure in the United States, is that of a woman. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France. It was created by Fredric Auguste Bartholdi, a known Freemason of salt line origin in Alsace, France. It is entirely appropriate that the Statue of Liberty originated in a part of the world that had been so important to the Golden Thread in former times. However, it pales into insignificance next to the most important of the structures that adorn Washington DC, which shows conclusively that the Golden Thread was alive and well as this "New Jerusalem" was being created.

Reade s could be forgiven for making the observation that knowledge of Freemasonry, proliferating amongst the Founding Fathers of the United States, is not necessarily proof of surviving Goddess worship. I may have been able to show that the seeds of a feminine-based religion lie at the heart of Freemasonic practice, but the average Freemason these days would have no idea that this is the case, and might even be appalled by the revelation. Perhaps the same was true as the United States took its first tentative steps towards independence. In reality, there are many reasons for thinking this was not the case and that at least some priests of the Golden Thread were present and influential when the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were being drawn up. Proof of the fact lies in Washington, which is, to this very day, much more than simply a capital city - its existence is the very epitome of the American ideal.

Land to build Washington was given to the new federal administration in 1791. It stood on the Potomac River and even the state of which it had originally been a part is very telling it was Maryland. A large section of the ten-mile square - that area where the Capitol now stands, had already been known for decades as "New Troy." In reality, the land for the Capitol and the city may have been earmarked long before 1791. (Readers will recall that the very center of Golden Thread activity in Europe from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries had been Troyes, Champagne, another city named after the ancient city of Troy, in present Turkey.) In the creation and building of the Capitol, we see the very aspiration and intention of the surviving priests of the Golden Thread who quite deliberately built America.

Washington was planned by a Frenchman with noted Freemasonic leanings, Major Pierre Charles I’Enfant, a follower of another Freemasonic Frenchman General, the Marquise Lafayette. Nobody doubts that every aspect of Washington was planned, designed, and constructed with Freemasonry at the forefront of its planners' minds, whilst the creation of the Capitol shows conclusively what the real religious imperatives of Washington's planners were.

That the capital city of the most powerful nation in the world was built on Christian precepts is dismissed as an absurdity when one learns the views of the men who were in charge of the fledgling country when Washington was planned.

Thomas Jefferson, the man who penned the American Constitution, and who later became President of the United States, is a good case in point. Some doubt exists as to his Freemasonic credentials, but none at all regarding his view of Christianity. He said:
 
 

I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature ... Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been bumt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the Earth.29

George Washington, after whom the capital was named, General and first President of the Unites States of America, also had very definite views regarding Christianity, even if he was more circumspect in public arenas. Thomas Jefferson once said of Washington:

Dr. Rush told me (he had it from Asa Green) that when the clergy addressed General Washington, on his departure from the government, it was observed in their consultation that he had never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address as to force him at length to disclose publicly, whether he was a Christian or not. However, he observed, the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly, except that, which he passed over without notice.

Washington, though obviously careful in his treatment of the subject, clearly had no religious bias, even if the religious leaders of the infant America would have wished it so.

We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition ... In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.

It is known that Grace was never said before meals in the Washington household and though the General accompanied his wife to church, he always abstained from taking part in Holy Communion. He strenuously fought against using the word "God," referring rather to "Providence," which he spoke of on occasion as "he" and "it," though most telling in this context, regularly as "she."

Neither were Washington and Jefferson alone in their attitude towards Christianity. Another of the important fathers of America, John Adams, is reputed to have said:

The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.

Adams made his views regarding the spiritual nature of the Government of the United States abundantly clear when he signed the Treaty of Tripoli. He supervised the construction of the document himself and article 11 states:

The Government of the United States is by no means founded on the Christian religion.

If this is not plain enough, perhaps we should hear from James Madison, another Founding Father and fourth President of the United States:

What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy.

It would have been quite easy to fill an entire chapter with statements of this sort, for almost every one of the Founding Fathers whose names and importance have come down to us made similar utterances. It is very plain that the first four and possibly the first five Presidents of the Unites States of America were anything but orthodox Christians. Might this simply be the case because most of them were also Freemasons? After all, a devotion to Christianity is not a prerequisite of the Craft, whose members merely have to admit a belief in the "Great Geometrician of the Universe." Once again, the answer might be an emphatic yes, were it not for the fact of the existence of the Capitol building in Washington, together with the obvious knowledge and intention of those who inspired and built it.

The Capitol was designed to be the legislative and democratic seat of the United States of America. Initially conceived, as was the original conception of the entire city, by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the Capitol stands at the elevated east end of the Mall. The site was, in L'Enfant's words, "a pedestal waiting for a monument." The architect who finally won approval for his design for the Capitol itself was Dr. William Thornton, a man of Scottish extract and a noted Freemason.

It is suggested that the floor plan of the Capitol Mall was based upon that of a Masonic temple - an east-west rectangle, attached to an unfinished triangle. In a lodge, the Grand Master would preside at the point of the triangle, which is precisely where the Capitol stands on the Mall. In essence, the Capitol is little more than a deliberately engineered temple and stands as an integral part of a street plan which is, itself, living proof of the knowledge of sacred architecture possessed by those who meticulously planned the city. Like so many buildings in Washington, the most telling aspect of the Capitol's true spiritual heritage lies in the state of the heavens at the time the comer stone was laid.

In the case of the Capitol this ceremony took place on 16 September 1793. The corner stone ceremony took place after a solemn and dignified procession, in which a number of Masonic lodges took a conspicuous part. At their head, and wearing full Masonic regalia, was George Washington himself.

The stone was almost certainly laid at midday. It is relatively simple to draw up an astrological chart for an event such as this and we can be in no doubt that to the astrologically minded Freemasons who had organized and planned the event, an auspicious chart of the heavens would be deemed necessary before the stone laying would have been arranged. In many circles astrology was still accepted as not just important, but crucial, at the end of the eighteenth century.

We are most familiar these days with personal astrology. The position of the stars and planets at the time of one's birth is said to set the seal on the sort of character a child will grow to enjoy, and is also said to play an important part in life events thereafter. Astrologers at the time of the founding of the United States of America believed wholeheartedly that any enterprise, or building, also responded to the positive and negative attributes of the time at which it was instigated. An astrologer would therefore seek the most providential planetary positions and aspects for something as important as the commencement of a building such as the Capitol. The day and time chosen are most telling. At noon on 18 September 1783, the sign of the zod