The Davinci Code

[Aenlic]

Remember when reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail that the modern Priory of Sion was an elaborate hoax concocted by Pierre Plantard with the help of Gerard de Sede and Philippe de Cherisey. All of them, at one time or another admitted that the Dossiers Secrets which make up most of the source for the modern Priory were planted by them in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris in the late 1960's as part of the hoax. One of the authors of the book, Henry Lincoln (real name Henry Soskin, an actor) has also admitted to knowing all of this prior to writing the book.

That said, much of the rest of the book is very interesting, as long as you eliminate anything having to do with Plantard, the dossiers secrets and the modern Prioy of Sion. There is certainly enough mystery to go around.

How did a handful of knights supposedly dedicated to protecting pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem become powerful enough to have their headquarters on the grounds of the destroyed Temple of Solomon when other, larger and older, knightly military organizations existed? How did that same handful of knights transform themselves into the most powerful organization in all of Europe - the Templars? If you can cut through all of the BS, that alone is an incredible story.

Why is Rosslyn Chapel so chock full of obvious esoteric symbolism? What is the connection between the Freemasons and the Templars, if any? After all, it is certainly true that the papal decree dissolving and outlawing the Templars was never promulgated in Scotland. The Templars were only persecuted in France, for the most part. At the time, the Templars were powerful throughout Europe. The arrest and persecution of those Templars in France certainly couldn't have included all or even most of the Templars. Where did they go?

The cult of the Magdalene has a lot of interesting history. So does the Languedoc region of France. The people there certainly believe that the Magdalene came ashore there. It ties in interestingly with the Nag Hammadi manuscripts of the Gnostics. The so-called Gospel of Mary presents some interesting considerations regarding Mary. How does that change interpretations of her possible coming to France? What is the relation between the Gnostics and Mary, between Mary and the later advent of the Cathars in the Languedoc? Remember, at the time of the Cathars, the Gnostic manuscripts of Nag Hammadi were utterly unknown.

As far as Jesus and Mary being married. It certainly seems credible. Even those who take the Gospels as literal truth could see that if they applied their literal truth to ALL of the Gospels, and not just bits and pieces. If Jesus was, in fact, subject to Jewish law as claimed in the Gospels, then he was required, as a rabbi, to marry. Some early Christians, before Clement of Alexandria and Justin Martyr, certainly believed that Jesus was married. Hippolytus and Origen both write about the Song of Solomon being a prophecy of Jesus' marriage to Mary.

Lots of interesting stuff to investigate. Just be sure to toss out the modern Priory of Sion crap invented by Plantard, de Sede and de Cherisey. Sadly, it is that stuff which provides fuel for the "true believers" to toss out all of the good facts with the bad.