Author: William F. Mann Trade Paperback, 295 pages
Publisher: Destiny Books
Publication date: 2004
List: US$16.95, C$26.95
ISBN: 0892811854 Price & More Info: Click Here
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How, you might ask, could a group which had been officially suppressed
nearly two centuries before the official discovery of America (in 1307
A.D. - 185 years earlier, to be precise) have any connection with the New
World? This is a valid question. The answer, or actually one possible
answer is contained in this book.
If you are unfamiliar with the legend of the Holy Grail, this book may cause
some confusion, since most people assume that "grail" equals "cup." There
are other potential meanings of "grail" and this author explores some of
them.
This book, more than others I have been reading on the subject of the
Knights Templar, appears to rely more on intuition and assumption than on
hard facts and solid research. Apparently unrelated "facts" are drawn
together on the basis of nothing more than the author's belief that they are
connected. I am not sure that the apparent connections made in this book
are accurate. They may be. That is for you to decide for yourself.
I am sure that there is a wide variety of hints, clues, and facts drawn
together from a large number of sources. I am also reasonably sure that the
author is sincere in his beliefs and interpretations. These two items alone
make this an interesting book.
Mr. Mann makes connections between words based upon their apparent
relationships (e.g., d'or (French, meaning "of gold") and door; Hermetica
(Greek for "by Hermes" and hermit) which are, in my opinion, stretching a
point. While the connections may be apparent to him, they don't hold up
based on linguistic comparisons.
How well the author succeeds in convincing the reader of the
interconnections between such topics as the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians,
Masonry, Native American legends, sacred geometry, and various "clues"
hidden in paintings by Da Vinci and others, is up to you, the individual
reader, to determine. Personally, I still have doubts (but I also have
doubts about the theory of evolution, atomic structure, and the meaning of
life). The book is fun to red, and offers lots of ideas for further
exploration. While it is not an essential book in a collection of
Templar-related material, it was an interesting book.
Reviewed by Mike Gleason
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