Monday, May 15, 2006

Gospel of Judas

This is another one in series of controversial text emerging from different sources. This one seems to be found in deep Egyptian deserts.
According to Gospel of Judas, Judas wasn't a traitor, indeed he was following what Jesus asked him to do. He is portrayed as the closest of all of Jesus's disciples.

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

This is the book that started all the controversy and what has evolved today as The Da Vinci Code.
In summary, the authors argue that there is evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had one or more children, and that those children or their descendents emigrated to what is now southern France. Once there, they established what became the Merovingian dynasty, which is championed today by a secret society called the Priory of Sion.
[Extracts from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Blood%2C_Holy_Grail]

Lets Break : The Da Vinci Code

Heard a lot about Da Vinci Code, seen lot of documentories on Dicovery. Its been talk of the town (or the world) for a while. Thought of writing a brief on what its all about.
Well, The Da Vinci Code, really is a novel writtn by Dan Brown. The reson this topic is got so hot these days is because of the upcoming movie starring Tom Hanks.
So what actaully is The Da Vinci Code, that makes it the most talked about topic today. Like some scholar in British University said, "We're in the middle of a war, to protect a secret so powerful, that if revealed, it would devastate the foundations of mankind... witness the biggest coverup in human history."
To summarize, the view of the book is that Christianity is a built on one giant lie, and the Church is trying to cover up this truth and its a big conspiracy to keep them in power.

The book concerns the attempts of Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University, to solve the murder of renowned curator Jacques Saunière (see Bérenger Saunière) of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the fact that Saunière's body is found in the Denon Wing of the Louvre naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a Pentagram drawn on his stomach in his own blood. The interpretation of hidden messages inside Leonardo's famous works, including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, figure prominently in the solution to the mystery.


Vitruvian Man, by Leonardo da Vinci.The main conflict in the novel revolves around the solution to two mysteries:

What secret was Saunière protecting that led to his murder?
Who is the mastermind behind his murder?

The unraveling of the mystery requires the solution to a series of brain-teasers, including anagrams and number puzzles. The solution itself is found to be intimately connected with the possible location of the Holy Grail and to a mysterious society called the Priory of Sion, as well as to the Knights Templar. The Catholic organization "Opus Dei" (a caricature of the real Opus Dei) also figures prominently in the plot.









Secret of the Holy Grail

As explained by Leigh Teabing to Sophie Neveu, the figure at the right hand of Jesus is supposedly not the apostle John, but Mary Magdalene. According to the book Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ and was in fact pregnant with his child at the time of his crucifixion. The absence of a chalice in the Painting supposedly indicates that Leonardo knew that Mary Magdalene was actually the Holy Grail (the bearer of Jesus' blood). This is said to be reinforced by the letter "M" that is created with the bodily positions of Jesus, Mary, and the male apostle (Saint Peter) upon whom she is leaning. The apparent absence of the "Apostle John", under this interpretation, is explained by identifying John as "the Disciple Jesus loved", allegedly code for Mary Magdalene (see also Second Apocalypse of James). The book also notes that the color scheme of their garments is exactly inverted: Jesus wears a red blouse with royal blue cape; John/Mary wears a royal blue blouse with red cape — perhaps symbolizing two bonded halves of marriage.

According to the novel, the secrets of the Holy Grail, as kept by the Priory of Sion, are as follows:

The Holy Grail is not a physical chalice, but a woman, namely Mary Magdalene, who carried the bloodline of Christ.
The Old French expression for the Holy Grail, San gréal, actually is a play on Sang réal, which literally means "royal blood" in Old French.
The Grail relics consist of the documents that testify to the bloodline, as well as the actual bones of Mary Magdalene.
The Grail relics of Mary Magdalene were hidden by the Priory of Sion in a secret crypt, perhaps beneath Rosslyn Chapel.
The Church has suppressed the truth about Mary Magdalene and the Jesus bloodline for 2000 years. This is principally because they fear the power of the sacred feminine, which they have demonized as Satanic.
Mary Magdalene was of royal descent (through the Jewish House of Benjamin) and was the wife of Jesus, of the House of David. That she was a prostitute was slander invented by the Church to obscure their true relationship. At the time of the Crucifixion, she was pregnant. After the Crucifixion, she fled to Gaul, where she was sheltered by the Jews of Marseille. She gave birth to a daughter, named Sarah. The bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene became the Merovingian dynasty of France.
The existence of the bloodline was the secret that was contained in the documents discovered by the Crusaders after they conquered Jerusalem in 1099 (see Kingdom of Jerusalem). The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were organized to keep the secret.
The secrets of the Grail are connected, according to the fictional novel, to Leonardo Da Vinci's work as follows:

Leonardo was a member of the Priory of Sion and knew the secret of the Grail. The secret is in fact revealed in The Last Supper, in which no actual chalice is present at the table. The figure seated next to Christ is not a man, but a woman, his wife Mary Magdalene. Most reproductions of the work are from a later alteration that obscured her obvious female characteristics.
The Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait by Leonardo as a woman. The androgyny reflects the sacred union of male and female which is implied in the holy union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Such parity between the cosmic forces of masculine and feminine has long been a deep threat to the established power of the Church. The name Mona Lisa is actually an anagram for "Amon L'Isa", referring to the father and mother gods of Ancient Egypt (namely Amon and Isis).
[Extracts from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code]

My new Blog Page http://confrere.blogspot.com/

Confrere

con·frere (kŏn'frâr')
n.
A fellow member of a fraternity or profession; a colleague.