Blog of international best selling author Philip Gardiner. For more see www.gardinersworld.com or www.gnosisbookdvd.com
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Film-maker claims Jesus tomb found
Well, regardless of whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jew or atheist (or anywhere in-between) you have to be fascinated with the latest news about the "discovery" of Jesus' tomb. The following is the story as outlined on ananova and it makes the point that I just did a moment ago on radio when questioned about it - that there were zillions of people called Jesus and Mary back then. It was more common than Jason and Kylie in the UK back in the 80's and 90's. And it was more common for a longer period of time. It doesn't bother me one way or the other whether it is Jesus (the Jesus) or whether it is "a" Jesus, because I don't think the man was physically resurrected anyway - although he may have been spiritually reborn like a great many other wissends. My guess is that Cameron is very cleverly using the "story" to sell his film and who can blame him, its a good story and its better than having war and darkness on the news all the time - not to mention reality tv shows and blummin celebrities! That said, he may start a war himself!
Here's the story:
Film-maker claims Jesus tomb found
An Oscar-winning film director claims to have evidence Jesus had a son named Judah and was buried alongside Mary Magdalene.
A new documentary by James Cameron claims a tomb found near Jerusalem in 1980 belonged to Jesus and his family.
Speaking in New York, the Titanic director said statistical tests and DNA analysis backed this view.
"It doesn't get bigger than this," he said. "We've done our homework; we've made the case; and now it's time for the debate to begin."
Israeli construction workers working in Jerusalem's East Talpiot district uncovered 10 limestone coffins in a tomb in March 1980.
Six were marked with the names Mary; Matthew; Jesua son of Joseph; Mary; Jofa (Joseph, Jesus' brother); and Judah son of Jesua.
Another grave marked 'Mariamene', said by producers to be of Mary Magdalene, convinced researchers of the truth of their find, Mr Cameron said at a New York news conference.
Unveiling his documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus, Mr Cameron said it was like finding a grave marked Ringo next to others marked John, Paul and George.
"Mariamene is Mary Magdalene - that's the Ringo, that's what sets this whole film in motion," he said.
The documentary asserts that tests on samples from two of the coffins show Jesus and Mary Magdalene were likely to have been buried in them and were a couple.
The film-makers used this finding to claim that the coffin marked 'Judah son of Jesua' contains the son of Jesus and Mary.
Mr Cameron's claim has been attacked by archaeologists and theologians who say the names were common among Jews at the time.
As I outlined in Secrets of the Serpent, the story of Jesus, Mary and the apostles is however based upon much more ancient astrotheological concepts and rooted in the worship of the serpent. The discovery of the actual "man" if true does not alter this, as Tutankhamun led the life of a god! But for many of us, the words "prove it" spring to mind and a great many archaeologists are already shooting it down in flames - not least because the tombs were very expensive things and were only for the most wealthy. Maybe the Jesus clan were very rich after all and he bought his passage into heaven the old fashion way?
Fantastic review of Secrets of the Serpent DVD just in from George Rideout of Sacred Space Radio
"Inspiring and shocking, in a good way. Phil Gardiner, Secrets of the Serpent is a ray of light that cuts through the darkness of illusion. One wild ride on the road to enlightenment. Phil is truly a Truth-Sayer! The music, the visuals and the words of Phil himself combine to create an experience like no other. The best thing I could possibly say is thank you for being you and doing what you do!" George Rideout, host of Sacred Space
To Order the DVD in the UK go HERE To Order the DVD in the USA go here
Forbidden Knowledge Conference Glastonbury - the line up
Forbidden Knowledge Conference Glastonbury - the line-up
All day on July 14th from 10am in Glastonbury Town Hall the Forbidden Knowledge Conference featuring top authors and researchers.
PHILIP GARDINER (Gnosis, Secrets of the Serpent, The Ark, The Shroud and Mary) http://www.gardinersworld.com/ NICK POPE (Former UK government UFO investigator - the UK's own Fox Mulder!) http://www.nickpope.net/ PAUL DEVEREUX (TV Presenter, author and expert on Leylines, earth energies and ancient sites) http://www.pauldevereux.co.uk/ TIM WALLACE-MURPHY(The world's leading authority on The Knights Templars and Rosslyn) PETER KNIGHT (Local author of the new book 13 Moons and expert of local ancient sites and mysteries) http://www.stoneseeker.net/ ANN ANDREWS (Mother of the alien abductee known as The Indigo Child) http://www.biggyboo.com/reviewjasonmyindigochild.html RAEL(Leader of the Raelian Movement who hit the headlines recently by claiming they had the world's first human clone baby - it is extremely rare to see Rael talking at this type of event so this is a MUST NOT MISS event!) http://www.rael.org Hosted and campared by Ross Hemsworth of Now That's Weird and nettalkradio.co.uk.
To book tickets in advance email michael@real2can.com or phone 07990 797979 This is a sure sell-out event and we advise people to book early. Local accommodation can be found at http://www.glastonbury.co.uk
Well, todays news is quite interesting. There is actually a modern Serpent Cult been started in the North East of England and they even have their own website! Would have been useful a few thousand years ago to the original worshippers of the serpent as outlined in the book Secrets of the Serpent and dvd. Here's what they say on their website:
The Serpent Cult is a cult started up in North Eastern England. It was created by Harry Murrell and Andrew Howson, and worships the Serpent God, true heir to all things. It gathers followers from around the globe, and will not stop until the Serpent God commands it. The current aim of the Serpent Cult is to expand it's empire across the universe and beyond. Each member is a combatant, training in sword combat, martial arts and any other things that enhance the cultists performance in combat. Becoming a true disciple takes discipline, courage and wit, but the rewards are great. Here's the link
Fascinating stuff, I wonder what they get up to?
Secrets of the Serpent Now Available as an Audio Book
Secrets of the Serpent: In Search of the Sacred Past is now available exclusively from audible.com as an audio book. I spent a day at Alchemy Werks studio in LA late last year and recorded the book. I drank bucket loads of a lovely lemon tea that Jo the engineer produced as if by magic and we watched the lovely Californian sun lower in the sky over the LA hills. It was a magical time for a poor author from Nottinghamshire and one that shall remain with me. This book I believe captures some of my emotion on the day in the voice! Not something I would want to do every day, nor could I, because it is very hard work and I admire the pro's who can do this for a living.
Serpent Worship/Propaganda and just plain nonsense
Thought I'd gather some interesting bits and pieces on serpent worship that has sprung up around the net in the past couple of years since I released my research in the book and dvdSecrets of the Serpent: In Search of the Sacred Past.
I found this website interesting, not because it was pretty well-researched, but because it was using the serpent as a tool for Christian propaganda yet again - as if time hadn't moved on. In this instance it is using the serpent again as an image of the devil/satan and implicating the Freemasons in the worship of the serpent, almost without mention that the serpent was a symbol of inner wisdom. Here's a few quotes: "Imagine our shock and disbelief when we stumbled on to the fact that Freemasonry adores and worships the Serpent..." "This serpent worship absolutely proves Freemasonry is Satan worship . But, Masons also consider the S erpent to be the Savior of the World!" Apparently, these naughty Freemasons are sinners of the worst kind (like there's a good one?) and they are DOOMED!: "But, Albert Pike, the most revered 33 Degree Mason of all time, has more blasphemy. Listen to him describe the Ouroboros, the symbol of the serpent devouring his own tail. "It is the body of the Holy Spirit, the Universal Agent, the Serpent devouring its own tail." [Morals and Dogma , p. 734, teachings of the 28th Degree, Knight of the Sun, or Prince Adept]
Thus, Freemasonry blasphemes both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. What did Jesus Christ say about this type of situation? "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." [Matthew 12:31-32]
Bible scholars call this sin, the Unpardonable Sin. Congratulations, Masons, you have just committed the Unpardonable Sin! This is very serious, because, once a person commits the Unpardonable Sin, the Holy Spirit stops working in his heart, convicting him of sin and trying to get him to ask forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, that person is doomed."
No matter what we think, and this stuff always makes me role around laughing, this is simply just another way of man building yet more hatred against another man. What good purpose does it serve? Let man believe what he wants, live and let live, turn the other cheek, love thy neighbour. Nope, it seems in the 21st century, precious little has changed and we still have Christians bombarding us with more rubbish and misunderstanding the words of the past.
I am pleased to announce that with the help of Reality Films and Real2can.com I will be interviewing and directing a special DVD with the great Tim Wallace-Murphy (author of Rosslyn and Rex Deus amongst other great books). Tim's books were used by Dan Brown for the Da Vinci Code and he has been on a great many documentaries. In this DVD I want to get to the heart of his wisdom and knowledge in a personal and frank way. More will be posted as and when, but filming will begin in April.
You can now download Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed the film from amazon! This is a new way amazon have decided to sell films and Gnosis was the very first world-wide make on demand DVD that amazon did and now its one of the very first downloadable films too!
Product Description Philip Gardiner is a best selling UK author who has been researching the world of the esoteric for over 15 years. His critically acclaimed books include: "Proof, Does God Exist?", "The Shining Ones", "The Serpent Grail" and "Secrets of the Serpent, In Search of the Sacred Past". With his new DVD, "Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed," Gardiner proposes that not only didn't Solomon's Temple exist as we know it, but in fact had a much deeper significance. Gnosis, the Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed- Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, reputed to be the source of the most esoteric knowledge in human history-has fascinated scholars, seekers and dreamers for centuries. For generations, scholars and researchers have tried in vain to discover the fabled Temple of Solomon, only to be confronted by one problem after another. From the Queen of Sheba and the arcane secrets of the Christian Gnostics to the Muslim Sufi and Hindu Avatars, Gnosis weaves a tale that is both profound and precise. Gardiner declares that the truth of Solomon's Temple has been known all along within the realm of esoteric understanding. Only one question remains: Is the world ready for the truth? Find the true secret of the Knights Templar and the mysteries of the ancients. Find the truth for yourself in Gnosis. This is the story that has been kept from the ears of mankind for too long. You cannot truly live until you have Gnosis. * Reveals the real secrets brought back by the infamous Knight's Templar * The truth at the heart of ancient Freemasonry * The truth behind the real Grail and the Da Vinci Code * Who were Solomon and Sheba? * The secret of Solomon's Temple * The ancient and sacred nature of our quantum existence Gnosis, the Secret of Solomon's Temple DVD, 57 minutes, RYE 1001
Onboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza in the Southern Ocean - campaigning against an illegal whaling hunt - we find ourselves in an unexpected situation. The vessel we had been searching for, the Japanese factory whaling ship Nisshin Maru, has issued a distress call after a serious fire broke out on board. The blaze is thought to be under control, but tragically, one crew member has been lost.
The Nisshin Maru is now disabled and drifting 100 nautical miles from the largest Adelie penguin colony in the world. The ship is carrying approximately 1,000 tons of oil. An oil spill would be a major ecological disaster in the Antarctic, and there may be bad weather soon.
The Esperanza is now on the scene. To help avoid further tragedy, Greenpeace has offered to tow the whaling ship out of the Southern Ocean. We'll keep you posted as the situation unfolds.
The whale hunt is most likely over for the season, but the whales still face a serious threat. The government of Japan has been lobbying hard to overturn the 20 year old ban on commercial whaling, and this May the International Whaling Commission is voting in Alaska.
Now, more than ever, we need YOU to defend the whales.
Be a Whale Defender! Check out whales.greenpeace.org/us!
TAKE ACTION: Register for free on the new I GO online community site and you'll have a chance to communicate with Greenpeace campaigners on the ship, meet other whale defenders, suggest and vote on campaign ideas, see excellent videos, and keep up with the news from the front lines. You'll learn about things you can do to make a difference during this critical moment for the whales.
You don't have to be on the ship in the Southern Oceans to help save whales. Sign up, create a profile and introduce yourself in the US Whale Defenders Forum.
Whales are an amazing and irreplaceable part of the ocean world. By the 1980s, many species of whales were driven to the brink of extinction by rampant commercial whaling. Winning the ban on commercial whaling, in effect since 1986, was a major victory for marine life.
The ban on commercial whaling is under threat. The whales need us now more than ever. From now until the International Whaling Commission's vote in May, whale defenders must take action to prevent the return of commercial whaling.
Become part of the online whale defender community today, and play a role in saving the whales once and for all. I'll look for you on the US Whaledefender's Forum.
Collector accused of forging 'James ossuary' says old photos prove authenticity By Amiram Barkat
Mysterious photographs from the 1970s are to be brought as evidence to prove that the so-called ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus, is authentic. They are to be presented by attorneys for Oded Golan, the antiquities dealer charged with forging the item, which when it was made public, was dubbed "the most important archaeological discovery from the beginnings of Christianity."
The photographs, copies of which have reached Haaretz, have already been examined by an American expert and are to be submitted as evidence in court. But they do not remove doubts about the item, which touched off a storm in the archaeological world.
In December 2004, after a lengthy police investigation, the State Prosecutor's Office indicted Golan and three other Israelis for what they called the most serious case of antiquities forgery ever uncovered in Israel.
Golan, 55, a Tel Aviv resident, was charged with allegedly masterminding a ring responsible for the fabrication of antiquities over a period of more than 15 years. According to the charge sheet, the group stands accused of attempting to sell items to museums and wealthy collectors for millions of dollars.
The indictment states that in 2001 or shortly before, Golan forged the inscription on the ossuary (bone receptacle) and that at approximately that same time, also forged the so-called "Joash inscription."
The ossuary was unveiled in a press conference in Washington, D.C., in October 2002. It was inscribed in Aramaic with words interpreted as "Yaakov the brother of Yeshua," alluding to the fact that the individual whose bones it held was Jesus' brother, James, mentioned in the New Testament. A geological test commissioned by the owners of the ossuary and confirming the authenticity of the find was presented at the briefing.
A panel appointed by the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Shuka Dorfman, determined in June 2003 that the inscription on the ossuary was "added recently," while the ossuary itself was authentic.
In the defense's photographs, dated 1976, the ossuary is shown on a shelf, apparently in Golan's home. In an enlargement, the whole inscription can be seen with great difficulty. The photo was examined by Gerald Richard, a former FBI agent and an expert for the defense. Richard testified that "Nothing was noted that would indicate or suggest that they were not produced in March 1976 as indicated on the stamps appearing on the reverse side of each print."
Golan's attorney, Lior Beringer, told Haaretz that the photos support the defense's position. "The prosecution claims that Golan forged the inscription after the beginning of 2000. But here is a detailed report from an FBI photo lab that states that the inscription existed at least since the 70s," Beringer said. "It is unreasonable that someone would forge an inscription like this in the 70s and suddenly decide to come out with it in 2002," he added.
The date of the photo is also significant legally because any antiquity discovered in Israel since the passage of the 1978 Antiquities Law belongs to the state.
The IAA refused yesterday to comment on the new finds and would say only that the matter was being dealt with by the state prosecutor.
The photos join experts in Israel and other countries who have tried to disparage the credibility of the IAA panel, in what the IAA at the time described as a well-orchestrated campaign backed by interested parties. The accusation was leveled against Hershel Shanks, the editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, published in the U.S. Shanks' identification of the ossuary brought him credit worldwide. He funded the exhibition of the ossuary in a Toronto museum, from which money poured in from thousands of visitors to the organizers, including Shanks. Shanks has told Haaretz in the past that he is motivated by the desire to get to the truth in the matter.
But it is the way the ossuary was found that seems to raise the most doubts. Golan, whose friends say his knowledge is "phenomenal," said that for years he did not realize that he had of the most important archaeological finds in the world on his shelf. When asked by Haaretz about this in an interview, he explained, "It didn't set off any bells, I am not an expert in Christian tradition."
Temples that archaeologists have unearthed in the eastern Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria are about a thousand years older than the pyramids in Egypt and the Mesopotamian civilization, experts claim.
Archaeologists Ana Raduncheva and Stefanka Ivanova said in an interview for BTA that the whole system of temples in the Rhodope region dated back to the Vth millenium B.C. This is almost 4,000 years before the Thracian people settled on these lands.
At the end of the Chalcolithic Age, the rock temples were abandoned for a large period of time. The Thracians rediscovered them about 2,500 years later, the archaeologists claim.
There's a new website for the popular radio show Now That's Weird - hosted by Ross Hemsworth of nettalkradio. Check it out! NOW THAT'S WEIRD
On Friday 23rd Feb at 9pm (GMT) I will be joining Ross to talk about this years forthcoming Glastonbury Forbidden Knowledge Conference and much more! So tune in and have a laugh.
The Skull and Crossbones The Untold Tale of the Templar Shining Ones By Philip Gardiner www.gardinersworld.com
The enigmatic image of the skull and crossbones is deeply entrenched in the minds of millions around the world as the symbol of piracy, death and even poison. It was an image that has kept cropping up in my researches, whether Masonic or Templar or even as the symbol that the Christian Jesuits found themselves being inaugurated on, and so I decided that I needed to look deeper into the mysterious rise of this peculiar image.
Whenever we see a pirate ship on television, cinema or in comic books we also see an extremely ancient symbol ? the skull and crossbones. This however, was not a symbol of death or indeed poison but instead it profoundly symbolized life in so many aspects.
Many researchers of Templar and Masonic history have pointed out the links between this symbol and the one used by the Knights Templar on their ships. If we take into account the fact that the Templars had the world?s biggest fleet in the 13th century, and that they were well known for acts that we would call today "piracy" then there is no wonder. The latter Knights of Malta were also well known for piracy and we find that these Maltese Knights were in fact the very same as the Templars ? having been formed or joined by the remnant of the dissolved Templars. These new Templars or Knights of Malta were accused on several occasions of piracy and henceforth we have tales of piracy on the high seas. There is a direct link therefore between the creation or use of the skull and crossbones by the Knights Templar and our modern day idea of it being a symbol of piracy.
But, I wondered, what explanation did the Knights Templar give for using the symbol? Where did they get it from? I found a strange tale that is told by most Templar researchers to link the symbol to them and this tale surprisingly involves the number 9, a mother earth image and a skull.
In The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln tell the tale:
"A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, A Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him ?guard it Well, for it would be the giver of all good things, and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the order."
In another version this Lord of Sidon actually ritualistically marries the corpse.
I told this tale to several colleagues in-order to judge the response and in each case the response began with horror and disgust and ended with a lot of head scratching and bewilderment ? the reaction that the story in fact was intended to provoke.
Now such stories are naturally seen as macabre and the "hidden message" therefore still evades us ? which is the idea. But as I was to discover, what is really being conveyed in these stories, is the importance of the union or balance, which creates a state of enlightenment akin to that spoken of by the Gnostics, alchemists and mystics. [1]
But before I decided this to be the case I wanted to delve deeper and found myself in an ancient world of symbolism and secrecy. There were more nuggets of information in this text, which needed investigation and I decided that it was about time the code was broken. I turned firstly to the main character in the tale, the infamous Lord of Sidon.
As a Titular metropolis of Pamphylia Prima, Sidon, dates as far back as Neolithic times. In the tenth century B.C. Sidon had its own coinage that bore the head of Athena (also Minerva a serpentine, feminine deity linked with healing.) I found that Athena was indeed the patroness of the city even though its people were sometimes termed "a piratical horde" and Constantine Porphyrogenitus called Sidon a ?nest of pirates.? However the place did go on to play host to one of Alexander the Great?s garrisons for a while, which was used to subdue this piratical element for Alexander?s own purposes. Under his successors Sidon became known as the ?holy city of Phoenicia? and enjoyed relative freedom, with games and competitions attracting people from far and wide.
In 1111 AD the crusader Baldwin, who was later to become King Baldwin of Jerusalem, besieged the city and it was later to become one of the four baronies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
It was a very commercial, and in fact, warlike city, with a powerful navy ? something the Templars looked up to and emulated.
From early on, Sidon was a rendezvous for pirates, and even the slave trade continued after the fall of slavery elsewhere.
However, by the 14th century, and following the downfall of the Templars, Sidon was on the "way out" as a player on the world market. The lack of water and resources - added to Turkish invasions - led to lack of interest. Sidon was not yet dead in the water though and flourished again briefly in the 17th century when it was rebuilt by Fakhreddine II ? the then ruler of Lebanon. Under Fakhreddine?s guidance it became a base for French merchants who used it as a staging post to further their commercial conquests. Slowly however Sidon again declined until the late 20th century when again it has risen from the ashes to become an important commercial and agricultural centre.
So this was a brief but relevant history of Sidon and its relationship to my story was remarkable. The fact that it was well known as a "nest of pirates" was startling. I considered also the link of the skull and crossbones to piracy, especially as it was linked to the Templars, and the fact that the Lord from the skull and crossbones story was Lord of Sidon.
So was this Lord of Sidon mentioned in the Templar story really a pirate? The links between Sidon are strong: Templars were highly commercial and indeed linked to slavery, so was Sidon. It collapsed in the 14th century, and so did the Templars. It had a huge fleet, and so did the Templars. In fact they were one and the same in many respects ? both feeding from one another. The leaders of Sidon were linked with the Templars and would have seen the Templar?s banking system as highly important.
As the Holy Land finally fell to the Muslims in 1291 I found mention of a Templar knight by the name of Tibald Gaudin who is thought to have carried off the famous Templar treasure. When Gaudin finally arrived at the Templar port of Sidon he was elected the next Grand Master ? or Lord. It seems that there were ample financial reserves held at the Sidon Preceptory and so the treasure of the Templars cannot have been gold or otherwise it would not have been mentioned. I am of the opinion that the treasure was the secret of the Holy Grail as I pointed out in The Serpent Grail.
If Sidon had a hidden message in the text then it was simply that the Lord of Sidon was to get the Grail from the Lady of Maraclea ? as intimated in the story quoted above ? which reveals, and rather symbolically, the means through which he could claim it.
Having now established a link between Sidon and the Templars story I wanted to move on to the other name given that caught my eye ? Maraclea.
This peculiar name I found was taken from a site that the Templars had previously held in the 13th century. I wondered whether the name had a symbolic meaning ? a name with a hidden message in the language ? why else would she be from Maraclea and not Antioch or Acre?
Initially I found the site was called Maraclea because it simply means "Clear Waters" or "Sea." But I wanted to know why the Templars had used the term and began with the standard etymological practice of breaking the word up into two parts ? Mara and Clea. Taking the first part I delved into the world of etymology once more and found some remarkable "coincidences."
Mara in Hebrew means, "bitter" and was a common alternative for Mary ? whether the Mother of Jesus or the Magdalene. In Latin it equates to mare, which is "water," "lake," "sea" and indeed linked to "horse" (female horse.) In Anglo Saxon I found that the term mara meant "greater" or "more." In Buddhism Mara is "death" or "evil one." Mara is said to tempt us like Eve and indeed it was Mara who tempted Buddha on the night before his enlightenment experience. I found this rather intriguing as in the Garden of Eden it was the serpent whom supplied the fruit of the tree of knowledge to Eve and therefore he was supplying enlightenment just like Buddha (and Eve as Havveh is equated with female serpent.)
This Mara of the Buddhists I discovered was also closely related to Rama, where ma equates to black or dark, a term associated with beauty and a term also meaning "Great Mother."
Baffled, but also excited by these etymological results and their relationship to the story of the enlightenment or ?shining? I quickly moved on to the second part of the word ? clea.
When I did look at this word I felt rather stupid as it was perfectly "clear" what it meant. Clea means simply "to clean," "to clear," "to be clear," "to be pure," "to be bright" or "to shine!"
I also noted that this lady of Maraclea, according to theologians and scholars was thought to have come from Armenia. Rife in Armenia at the time was what is known as Paulician Christianity ? a Christianity that would not be recognised by most today. I decided not to delve too deeply into this theology, but did find that this spawned the Bogomils who have been linked to, and were even called the same as the infamous Cathars or "Perfect Ones" ? i.e., "Illumined/Shining Ones" or "Pure Ones." I then noted that other meaning for clea, - which was "pure." Could it be that this link was even well known in Templar times? It certainly is today, as I was to discover when I ran across the modern day version for the new book The Ark, The Shroud and Mary - but more on this in the book.
The feeling of stupidity quickly drained away as I suddenly realised what the term Maraclea meant ? a word that has been missed by thousands of Templar historians the world over and yet is a key to unlocking the secret of this peculiar text. I ran through the variants that were now possible:
Mary Pure ? well no, that didn't work. Water Bright ? this didn?t really relate.
In fact there were numerous configurations that I could have made. In the end I landed on two that just seemed to make perfect sense and related etymologically in the Anglo Saxon for both words - without mixing up the languages. The result sent a shiver up my spine as I realised the two meanings of Maraclea. The first one was, Black-Clear or Dark-Clear.
Well this was significant in the Gnostic sense, as the contradictory nature of the words revealed the duality spoken of by the Gnostics and Manicheans ? light and dark, male and female. These were the two sides of our minds ? a revelation of our own divided consciousness. It was in fact the very same element spoken of throughout time as the generative source of all religions ? for by overcoming this duality and finding balance and union, or a neutral state, we become enlightened to our own true self and often enter a spiritual state of illumination or ?shining?.
The other meaning of the name Maraclea was equally astounding and related even more to the concept of illumination. It was 'Greater Shining'.
However, there was even more meaning in this interpretation. Standing back for a moment I wondered about the whole thing.
Here I have a Lord of Sidon, possibly a Templar knight, if indeed not a Grand Master, coming into union with the 'Greater Shining.' What could it possibly mean other than this Templar was a 'Shining One' and therefore experienced the Holy Grail of enlightenment for himself? The result of his union would be the head or skull 9 months later (although another version says 9 years,) and as I was to discover in my researches into the Temple of Jerusalem, the number 9 was of paramount importance to the Templars. The head was also definitely being used as a metaphor for this internal process, which actually involved the head or something within it. This in itself gives us a greater insight to the argued over Baphomet head that the Templars were said to have worshipped.
Strange also then that 9 Knights set up the Templars and 9 years later return to Rosslyn Chapel with supposedly the Holy Grail tucked away in a bag. But, I decided maybe I should take another look at the number 9, which is a reversed P ? something, which would soon become strangely more relevant.
I decided in this instance to just take a look at language rather than numbers and so consulted the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson.
'Nine days' Wonder ? Minor marvels, things that cause great sensations for a short time and then pass into limbo? Kittens, puppies, and other young animals have their eyes closed for a number of days [9] and then open them and see the light?.'
Amazingly this is mirrored in folktales, myth and legend and therefore in the significance of the number we have here a period of 9 months where the female is pregnant (and thus rebirth); 9 months or years for the Lord of Sidon to receive his prize; and 9 days before the new born animals see the light ? it all made complete sense.
So, the skull and crossbones is linked to the number 9 and again, enlightenment and the Holy Grail ? which are both seen as good, pure and holy. Indeed, was not the Holy Grail said to be the giver of all good things, just like the head in the Templar tale, "guard it Well, for it would be the giver of all good things." If this Greater Shining were truly the Holy Grail then it would bring him good things for sure.
"It became his protecting genius." Others have found this part of the text very strange, however I understood what it meant immediately, and for confirmation I looked up the meaning in a standard dictionary and found perfect corresponding evidence for the Greater Shining.
Genius, inborn faculty. (L.) L. genius, the tutelary spirit of any one; also wit, lit. "inborn nature." Allied to genus.
So, this "Greater Shining," this "head," became his inborn faculty or inborn nature. The two were the same.
There is a subtle underground symbolism going on here. The Lord of Sidon (a Templar) mates with the Lady of Maraclea (a Cathar) and we have an inborn nature called genius. Suddenly the Skull and Crossbones symbol, as explained in the Templar text is revealed before our eyes.
At this point it crossed my mind that I had only gone back to the Templars. I wondered just how far back in time I could possibly go with this skull and crossbones image?
The earliest reference to the actual skull and crossbones I could discover was the Templar reference. However, taking the image as symbolic, which is what it indeed was, then we are looking for the shape ? a skull or head with a diagonal cross or saltaire below.
Amazingly, I found this in Ancient Egypt and on the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Carrying a staff or sceptre was, in ancient Egypt, a symbol of universal power. The Flail was used to beat animals (or indeed people) into submission and shows authority like the sceptre ? hence their interchangeable nature. The crook was a shepherd's tool, used to pull stray animals by the neck without hurting them. Here we have an image of push and pull. This shepherd aspect of the king is as old as Mesopotamia and possibly beyond.
These two symbols reveal the two opposites of the duality spoken of by the Gnostics, the push (positive/male) and pull (negative/feminine). Anyone therefore that mastered these symbols had mastery over the self and the enlightened connection or ?shining?.
Tutankhamun was seen with these devices held upon the chest in the diagonal cross form, making a replica of the skull and crossbones in form, whereas many other Pharaohs held them outwardly away from each other.
When dead, the king becomes Osiris, and I find that this same image is seen upon Osiris and is therefore his symbol ? a symbol of the ultimate universal power and borrowed by his earthly representative the Pharaoh.
The symbolism now becomes open to see.
Osiris is the archetypal resurrecting god ? a symbol of regeneration, akin to the power of the Templar in the text. So the Templar is symbolically the same as Osiris on Earth. No wonder that Christ is called the "good shepherd" ? as was Osiris who was called the "good god."
So here I was tracing back the image of the skull and crossbones back into ancient Egypt and even Mesopotamia. It should have been no surprise, as this is the home of the ancient and original Shining Ones. And yet, amazingly there was more to come. I turned my gaze even more laterally and found another symbol related entirely to both the skull and crossbones and the Egyptian influence.
This separate and more obscure image also closely resembled the skull and crossbones and over it a ?holy war? has raged for decades.
The symbol is now commonly known as the Chi-Rho ? so-called because it is composed of the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P).
The war over these two letters is fought between Christians and historians; between fundamentalists on both sides and yet both sides are missing the point.
The Christians claim that the Chi-Rho form the first two letters of Christ (Cristos) and the historians claim that the symbol can be found hundreds if not thousands of years before Christianity and was therefore usurped by them. I needed to look into this to discover the origins, meaning and why it so resembled the style of the skull and crossbones.
An identical symbol to the Chi-Rho has been found inscribed on rocks dating from 2,500 BC Sumeria, and was interpreted as "a combination of the two Sun-symbols" ? symbols of the ancient shining ones. It was also used on the coins of Ptolemeus III from 247-222 BC, as well as being an emblem of the Chaldean sky/sun god and has the definition ?Everlasting Father Sun? (From An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols.)
According to Sir Flinders Petrie - the Egyptologist - the monogram Chi-Rho was the emblem of the Egyptian god, Horus, thousands of years before Christ and is therefore a link between Horus the saviour, and Christ the saviour. I had already noted on several occasions the links between these ancient characters and so this was highly believable and conclusive. [2]
To others it is in this second century B.C. where the secret of the monogram lies with the Greek Ptolemy?s who are said to have "borrowed" it from the Africans. In this scenario the Greeks called their version of Horus, Herecles or Hercules and applying the Greek Xpnc (Chres) to him. This suddenly gave the ancient Horus the title of Lord, Chrestos, and inevitably "Christ." This, if true, shows again the direct link between Horus, the Chi-Rho monogram and Christ.
Indeed many European scholars have actually identified Heracles or Hercules as none other than an emblem of Jesus Christ. I had to bear in mind that the name Heracles, is related to Hero and Hu, which means, "shining," but are also related etymologically to Christ, showing that these titles of the Messiah are directly derived from the word Heru which is of African origin and can be found the world over as a word for the sun.
But there were even more links, as I discovered. The Greek title Christ is, like Heru, also derived from an Egypto-African word Karast, and Kristos or Christos is the KRST (Karast). Karast is a person who is anointed (enlightened or shining) as a Heru (Hero) during his or her own lifetime. It is only when deceased that one receives the great term "a KRST" or Ausur. This Ausur is none other than Osiris, the same Egyptian god I found with the skull and crossbones symbol with the flail and sceptre.
The anointing, in the physical sense, (as the anointing also applies in the spiritual sense,) derived from the body or cadaver being anointed with spices, oils, and resins to preserve it. The body is then wrapped in bandages, placed in a coffer, which is then placed upright to symbolise resurrection. It was believed that in the plural, the Herus (Heroes) or Krst?s (Christs) would rise again to save the world as fully divine beings and thus become the ?once and future king.? It seems then that this tradition came out of Africa, through Egypt and into Greek and Christian legend and brought with it the original symbols of Osiris.
So, amazingly we have a link between the Chi-Rho and the symbol of Osiris ? god the father of Horus or Christ. No wonder that a philological and historical war rages and that Christianity refuses to accept this remarkable link.
So, I wondered, what do the Christians believe this Chi-Rho to derive from? Well, I found that it goes back to Constantine and was an amazing propaganda device to establish the new Roman, and therefore to become, Catholic Empire.
The story goes that Constantine had a vision before a great battle and was told that with the symbol of the Chi-Rho, which they called the Labarum, he would gain victory ? "By this sign, you will conquer." Using the new Labarum as his battle standard, which would relate to everybody, Constantine took the field and the Empire was ?born again.? In fact, the Christians had been using this symbol secretly as a sign of their faith and Constantine (or somebody who advised him) simply picked up on the fact that this symbol and the whole saviour process was as ancient and widespread as I am outlining here ? and according to some ? it was used to plunder the treasuries of the pagan temples. Amazingly, on the coinage during and after Constantine?s death, we see the Laburnum or Chi-Rho, underlined with the serpent ? a symbol used throughout time and especially by the Gnostics for wisdom and the enlightenment process.
Strangely, just as the biblical term, Elohim, is a plural word used for God, and in reality means the "Shining Ones," the X part of the monogram is also plural (X=10) and is the number of Yahweh. Chi also has another meaning ? "Great Fire" or "Light" or even "Shining." The P (Rho) part is more difficult but has been related to "Pen" (pen means, "head") in etymology thus implying that the loop on the top of the P is a head, in the very place that a skull would be on the skull and crossbones. [3]
I found that the symbol of the skull and crossbones then, stretches back over thousands of years and relates entirely to the ancient Shining Ones ? and directly to Osiris, the Egyptian version of the original Shining Father incarnated on earth. Not only that, but geographically it goes right into the heart of original Shining territory.
But, I again had questions: Why the X? I believe that the X marks the spot in more ways than can be imagined. It is the crossing point of the two dual energies and it is the centre where the true enlightenment is supposedly engaged ? where the two opposites meet - something Gary Osborn eruditely points out in our books together. With the upright world axis running through the X we also have a dividing line, but it is also a six-pointed symbol and is akin to the Star of David or Seal of Solomon, which is also an ancient symbol with much the same meaning. The six points are important, as they reveal the seventh point and most holy ? the centre of the X.
I was tempted to look into the infamous Skull and Bones secret society of Yale University so famously joined by Bush Senior and Junior, as well as many other extremely powerful individuals, but decided I was straying too far into the world of conspiracy theories that had little or no substance and so I left well alone. However, as I was to discover with the Jesuits, who swear an oath upon the symbol of the skull and crossbones, I found that the Freemasons also have this symbol and utilize it without too much knowledge of its origin ? or so we are led to believe. However, what was intriguing was the degree that utilized the symbol ? the Knights Templar.
In the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Virginia, USA, there is an anteroom with a large portrait of the Colonial period Grand Master Lafayette wearing the Templar Apron bearing the skull and crossbones. The same apron images have also been found elsewhere, such as Michigan, Detroit and Jackson and I am sure that these are not the only ones, as several members have also pointed out to me that they too have seen the aprons.
According to Masonic history the apron can only be dated back to the late 18th century and to the revisions carried out by Thomas Smith Webb where he pointed out that ?The flap black, and a skull and cross bones embroidered in silver thereon.?
On another apron is described by Cornelius Moore in 1859, "An Apron of black velvet of a triangular form, trimmed in silver lace. On the top or flap is a triangle, with twelve holes perforated through it; in the centre of the triangle is a cross and serpent; on the centre of the apron is a scull and cross bones, and at equal distance from them, in a triangular form, a star with seven points; in the centre of each star a red cross." (From The Craftsman and Freemasons Guide, 1859.)
The reasoning behind having this skull and crossbones on the Masonic apron, is revealed in a story with which I began ? the story about a Lord of Sidon . . .
Philip Gardiner is an international best selling author of numerous books - including Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed, The Ark, The Shroud and Mary and Secrets of the Serpent: In Search of the Sacred Past. He has several highly acclaimed DVD's out, available from amazon and other retail outlets. His website is www.gardinersworld.com
Notes 1 For more on this see Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon?s Temple Revealed by Philip Gardiner, New Page Books, 2006 and the DVD from Reality Entertainment 2006 2 For more on this see Secrets of the Serpents: In Search of Our Sacred Past by Philip Gardiner, Reality Press, 2006 ? a book and DVD. 3 One thing is sure, Rho stood for "Pater" or "Patah" (the Egyptian god Ptah), which is ?Father.? Together they therefore make ?Shining Father? (Dyaus Pitar) ? which later became the Roman "Jupiter" (Hu Ptah=father sun) ? the Roman version of the Greek father-god Zeus.
Ever notice the similarity in the way people act? Patterns of behavior that repeat certain characteristics and involve similar lessons to be learned? The author presents theoretical personality patterns as guidelines for recognizing and understanding some of the basic patterns of awareness we deal with every day, in ourselves and in others. When we view various stages of growth as patterns, we can deal more effectively with side effects each patterns produces with less emotional involvement and stress.
The challenge. . .to recognize and consciously alter our own ego behavioral patterns that block expression to our talents and abilities.
Written in Lansün?s inimitable style that appeals to both the mind and the mystic in all of us, it will add insight and spice to your view of yourself and others.
You?ll read with relish. . .and occasionally a little ?pickle? when it hits close to home.
Review by Philip Gardiner of www.gardinersworld.com
"Well, I have now finished this book after taking way too long to read it. In fact, I wanted to let the words settle in my mind before moving on because this book is very gentle and yet often profound. I can see obvious traces of Carl Jung in here with certain understandings and even the Dalai himself, but in truth this is an individual book that will be most welcomed by many people who are trapped in one level or another of the patterns that this book represents.. . .this book is very gentle and yet often profound. . . .people will see themselves in there . . .like a mirror. I would highly recommend it to everybody, both young and old, for even if you are well-versed in psychology and therapy you will still have a good laugh at some of the funny comments and humorous writing techniques."
Discount Online www.newagepublications.com
Incidentally, if they tune in to www.newagepublications.com the discount price is $17.00 for Patterns and $14.00 for Dream book.
Secrets of the Serpent Now Available as an Audible Book
Secrets of the Serpent: In Search of the Sacred Past is now available exclusively from audible.com as an audio book. I spent a day at Alchemy Werks studio in LA late last year and recorded the book. I drank bucket loads of a lovely lemon tea that Jo the engineer produced as if by magic and we watched the lovely Californian sun lower in the sky over the LA hills. It was a magical time for a poor author from Nottinghamshire and one that shall remain with me. This book I belive captures some of my emotion on the day in the voice! Not something I would want to do every day, nor could I, because it is very hard work and I admire the pro's who can do this for a living.
Many of you will now know of the rave new band Soul Path (see www.soulpath.info) and their wonderful enchanting music. Well they just did an interview with Kala at Explore Your Spitit on the radio, you can listen here!
I highly recommend listening - these are set for big things. In fact they are currently recording a new video for release with their first single and it's gonna be amazing I can tell you. These are good, honest, sound people and I fully back their wonderful music which comes not just from the heart - but the very heart of the universe.
I recently watched Concert for George (2002) with lots of brilliant musicians such as Jeff Lynn, Paul McCartney and others, just wonderful. They all played music by George - one of my all-time favourite musicians. These are my favourite lyrics, because they mean a lot to me both in personal life and in general with the earth and our history.
Isn't it a pity Now, isn't it a shame How we break each other's hearts And cause each other pain How we take each other's love Without thinking anymore Forgetting to give back Isn't it a pity
Some things take so long But how do I explain When not too many people Can see we're all the same And because of all their tears Their eyes can't hope to see The beauty that surrounds them Isn't it a pity
Isn't it a pity Isn't is a shame How we break each other's hearts And cause each other pain How we take each other's love Without thinking anymore Forgetting to give back Isn't it a pity
Forgetting to give back Isn't it a pity Forgetting to give back Now, isn't it a pity
So right and I have been as guilty as the next man! Nobody can say they are free of this and nor should they - for by accepting that we fall short of what Christians call the "glory of God" then we start to learn something about ourselves - and therein the discovery of the true self can arise.
The renowned author, researcher and broadcaster, Paul Devereux has been confirmed as a speaker at the Glastonbury Forbidden Knowledge Conference on July the 14th at the Glastonbury Town Hall starting at 10am.
Tim has been confirmed as a speaker at the Forbidden Knowledge Conference in Glastonbury on 14th July. He's a great speaker and his books are gems of inspiration and highly researched.
First Americans Arrived Recently, Settled Pacific Coast, DNA Study Says
This will be interesting to a lot of people! I know Crichton Miller will be interested due to the navigational skill of ancient man. Take a look and see:
First Americans Arrived Recently, Settled Pacific Coast, DNA Study Says Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News
February 2, 2007 A study of the oldest known sample of human DNA in the Americas suggests that humans arrived in the New World relatively recently, around 15,000 years ago.
The DNA was extracted from a 10,300-year-old tooth found in a cave on Prince of Wales Island off southern Alaska in 1996.
The sample represents a previously unknown lineage for the people who first arrived in the Americas.
The findings, published last week online in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, shed light on how the descendants of the Alaskan caveman might have spread.
Comparing the DNA found in the tooth with that sampled from 3,500 Native Americans, researchers discovered that only one percent of modern tribal members have genetic patterns that matched the prehistoric sample.
Those who did lived primarily on the Pacific coast of North and South America, from California to Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America (see map).
This suggests that the first Americans may have spread through the New World along a coastal route.
Brian Kemp, a molecular anthropologist who sequenced the DNA, said the discovery underlines the importance of genetic research in understanding human migration.
"I think there's a lot of information in these old skeletons that's going to help us clarify the timing of the peopling of the Americas and perhaps where Native Americans originated in Asia," said Kemp, a research associate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
On Your Knees Cave
When and how the first people came to the Americas has been a subject of intense debate.
The prevailing theory has been that the first to arrive descended from prehistoric hunters who walked across a thousand-mile (1,600-kilometer) land bridge from Asia to Alaska.
This migration probably occurred at least 15,000 years ago?the oldest human remains discovered so far are 13,000 years old?but some scientists have proposed that the first Americans arrived up to 40,000 years ago.
The Alaskan tooth was discovered in a cavern called On Your Knees Cave, named by the explorer who first crawled inside it.
Using material taken from the tooth, Kemp isolated fragments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed down from mothers to their offspring, and Y chromosome DNA, which is passed from father to son.
From a genetic database of 3,500 Native Americans, Kemp found 47 individuals in North and South America who exhibited the same genetic markers as the caveman. Some of the samples were drawn from living people and others from ancient bones.
He then compared the tooth DNA with the matching, modern samples and tracked the mutations that had occurred in that DNA over time.
By measuring the rate of mutation, Kemp found that so-called molecular evolution?the process by which genetic material changes over time?had taken place two to four times faster than researchers believed mtDNA could evolve.
That, Kemp said, suggests people entered the Americas within the last 15,000 years, because the DNA has evolved too fast for the arrival to have occurred any earlier.
"I would say that humans were probably not here much before that date," said Kemp. "A 15,000-year-old entry is [also] much more consistent with the archaeological record."
Genetic Markers
All of the mtDNA lineages among Native Americans are associated with five founding lineages believed to have originated in Asia.
But the caveman DNA turned out to be an independent founding lineage.
Of the 47 samples that matched the tooth DNA, 4 were from descendants of Chumash Indians living along California's central coast.
"The distribution of people exhibiting this [genetic] type today are all distributed in the western Americas," Kemp said.
"More or less the individuals are smack down the coast. It's a very neat western distribution."
John Johnson, an archaeologist and ethnohistorian at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in California, collected the Chumash DNA samples.
To Johnson, the matching of the Chumash samples to the On Your Knees Cave man is indirect evidence of an ancient coastal migration that may have occurred very rapidly.
"We're interested in who were those first people to arrive here at the Pacific coast," Johnson said.
"I believe the Chumash descended from a very early coastal migration that resulted in the distribution of people down to the tip of South America."
Fishing Cultures?
But where did these coastal migrants come from?
DNA samples of people living in Japan and northeast Asia show some of the genetic mutations found in the cave-tooth and Chumash samples.
"I think that's a clue that there could be a genetic connection," Johnson said.
He said the Chumash ancestors may have been skilled fishers before they arrived in the Americas.
"Your techniques for exploiting coastal resources are easily [transferable] and something that maybe can allow you to migrate more quickly than people who are hunters and gatherers, who must get used to new environments as they move into uncharted territory," Johnson said.
"I think that may have allowed a more rapid migration along the Pacific margins of the Americas."
Kemp, meanwhile, said rapidly advancing DNA technology will help scientists piece together the story of the first Americans.
"No expert in morphology could look at the bones and say this person resembles a Tierra del Fuego person. It was only the DNA that could seal the case," Kemp said.
"This really highlights the importance of adding a molecular component to the study of these really ancient remains."
With the forthcoming book and DVD - The Ark, The Shroud and Mary, I thought I'd pop some links and acknowledgments on for people to do their own research!
Firstly I'd like to acknowledge the great many people who helped me write the book and make the DVD. Graham Phillips was very kind and allowed me to use material he had found in his book The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant - thanks Graham! Gary Osborn (co-author on Serpent Grail and Shining Ones will forever be one who influenced me and opened my eyes more to the metaphysical elements of specifically the hypnagogic and his work deserves full credit (which for my fault entirely I missed in The US version of Gnosis and has been prepared for future runs - sorry again! The kundalini aspect is Gary's concept fullstop). Graham Hancock - for the marvellous work he did in The Sign and the Seal. Stuart Munro-Hay - thanks to your spirit! My Sufi friend and Brother Juan - whatever your real name may be. To Dr John Jay Harper for his further deep insights into the Shaman of our past and clarification on all things kundalini. Warren Croyle - my friend and guide in many things. Michael Bourne - for being a brick! Steve, Julie and Mike of Soul Path for creating enchanting music from the heart of the universe. The great Ian Wilson and his books on the Shroud. Crichton Miller for his insights into the ancient mind. Hamish Miller for making contact with Mother Earth! My friends at the university for helping with the electrical elements and my psychologist friend for the insight into the physical brain and mind. Astrid my wonderful editor, Michael and Laurie of New Page - consumate professionals. And to all those numerous people who have spoken kind words and helped me along the way.
On July 14th we will be holding a special Forbidden Knowledge Conference in Glastonbury. Some great speakers being lined up for the event and lots of great people involved. Myself, Ross Hemsworth (of nettalkradio) and Graham Robertson are organising the event so if you'd like to book tickets or have a stall then let us know at info@philipgardiner.net or ross@nettalkradio.co.uk and we'll reserve them for you. The event will be all day and its a great place to hold it of course!
Has the Temple of Solomon finally been found? This latest news article claims that "the" Temple is found, but not necessarily the Temple of Solomon. The Temple was without doubt built, but the Temple of Jerusalem. To attribute this to Solomon himself (if he existed in reality) is stretching it too far. Pinpointing the new location here shown for the Temple is however a great step forward if this new discovery is confirmed. For more on the Temple see my book Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed
Study of ancient cisterns pinpoints sacred site, ? Muslim Dome of the Rock outside confines Posted: February 11, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
Using maps created in 1866 by a British explorer and passages from the Jewish Mishnah, an Israeli archaeologist and professor at Hebrew University says he has pinpointed the location of the sacred Jewish Temple, twice built and twice destroyed in ancient times.
While popular consensus places the Temple, built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. and rebuilt by Jews who returned from Babylon in the 5th century B.C., on the site of the present Muslim Dome of the Rock, Prof. Joseph Patrich says archaeological remains show its exact location ? and the consensus is wrong.
According to Patrich, the Temple, its corresponding courtyards, chambers and gates were oriented in a more southeasterly direction, sitting diagonally on what is the modern Temple Mount. The difference in orientation and the placement further eastward varies from the east-facing orientation of other scholars who believe the Temple was closer to today's Western Wall.
However, that difference is why, Patrich says, the Temple did not sit over the rock believed by Jews to be the site where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac and where Muslims believe Muhammad ascended into heaven.
Patrich's siting of the Temple is derived from information collected by British engineer Sir Charles Wilson in 1866 on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Wilson mapped a series of ancient cisterns below the present Temple Mount platform. One of those, Patrich says, preserves a vestige of the Temple that stood until it was destroyed by Rome in A.D. 70.
The cistern mapped by Wilson, approximately 15 feet wide, 170 feet long and 45 feet deep, was located near the Temple Mount's southeast corner. It was oriented in a southeasterly direction with branches extending north and south.
Patrich's reconstruction of Temple in 1st century A.D., facing northeast. Courtesy Hebrew University. (Drawing by Leen Ritmeyer)
"Until now no one has ever thought that the location of the cistern on the Temple Mount and its unique shape were derived from the shape and location of the altar and sanctuary," Patrich told YNetNews.
According to the archaeologist, this cistern is the only one found on the Temple Mount that corresponds to descriptions in the Jewish Mishnah ? the rabbinic oral tradition compiled in the 3rd century A.D. ? of daily purification and sacrificial duties carried out by the priests on the altar in the Temple courtyard.
The Mishnah says water was drawn by a waterwheel mechanism from a cistern and held in a large basin, or laver, for daily purification by the Temple's priests before they ascended the nearby ramp to the altar to offer sacrifices.
Patrich's reconstruction of Temple in 1st century A.D. overlaid on modern Temple Mount. Octagonal feature is Dome of the Rock. Diagram is oriented east up. Courtesy Hebrew University. (Drawing by Leen Ritmeyer)
Patrich believes the placement of the waterwheel and laver can be reconstructed from Wilson's map of the giant southeast-trending cistern and from that, the location of the altar and the Temple itself.
Patrich's siting has the Temple further east and south of locations proposed by other scholars and diagonal, rather than perpendicular to the Temple Mount's eastern and western walls. It also leaves the rock in the Dome of the Rock outside of the confines of the Temple itself.
Patrich said his research on the Temple's location is strictly academic, and political connotations should not be attributed to it.
The fact is that there is no evidence whatsoever proving this to be THE Solomon's Temple, but instead all the evidence suggests that it is the Jerusalem Temple - something I pointed out in the book Gnosis.
Archaeologists Uncover 3 Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagi
11:15 Feb 11, '07 / 23 Shevat 5767. (IsraelNN.com)
Japanese archaeologists uncovered three ancient Egyptian sarcophagi at a location about 30 miles south of downtown Cairo, announced the director of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on Saturday.
Zahi Hawass said two of the finds were significant in that they dated from the ?Middle Kingdom?, around 2,000 BCE. One of the two was inlaid with black glass and contained in a colorful exterior box dedicated to a man named Sabak Hatab. The second one was apparently built for a woman named Sint Ayt Ess.
The third sarcophagus dated back to the ?New Kingdom?, around 1,500 BCE, was colored black and decorated with images of four sons of an Egyptian god.
Excavations in the Saqqara necropolis, as it is called, have been taking place for decades. Teams from Poland, Italy, Germany, France and Egypt were joined by the most recent group, the Japanese, in the late 1990s.
The build up to the publicity for the new Book and DVD has begun in earnest I am told by Michael (www.real2can.com) who has been doing some pre-launch work. Several BBC radio stations in the UK have booked, nettalkradio, Gnostic radio, Kala Spirit talk in the US and a major UK television production company have started talks about a broadcast documentary. All good stuff (so I'm told!). Really looking forward to the challenge of this because the book and DVD are so very different and quite at a tangent to what has previously been stated by just about everybody. I went through a lot to get this project done - including meeting up with some very secretive people in Europe who wanted to let me know a few things. I wasn't prepared for what they had to say I can tell you and it led me down a path I was simply not expecting to go.
If any press/radio etc want to get a press pack then they can email michael@real2can.com . Same goes for anybody who wants first edition prints or DVD's.
This is an economic world. It is structured around money and anything that gets in the way of the machine is more often than not moved or eradicated. There is no room for anything to oppose this. Each one of us is in the system whether we like it or not and we believe there is often precious little we can do about it. But how did all this begin? And who was the originator of the system?
In the beginning mankind was mainly nomadic. For a period so long that it staggers the mind we travelled along coastlines, around lakes and traversed river systems. We simply could not travel across land because most of it was covered in trees and vegetation. We did so purely to hunt and collect foodstuffs and then returned to our boats. This is the way and form mankind evolved his mind over vast periods of time. But how was man able to navigate over the sea? This is an open question and is the subject of much debate. He certainly watched the stars, sun and moon. He placed markers along the way, but he also had an inbuilt homing mechanism ? a sense of direction ? now mostly lost to us due to the confusion of the modern society and modern mind. There are many scientific test results, which confirm that man does have the ability, probably via his pineal organ, to judge direction intuitively [more on this in the forthcoming DVD Quantum Mind of God]. This ability is due to the electromagnetic energy of the earth and the magnetic connection between it and the pineal organ within the brain in exactly the same way that a bird uses magnetite within its pineal organ to pick up the electromagnetic resonance. In short, mankind had connection to the world around him and this is just one way in which we were more in-tune with our environment. But we were in-tune in other ways too ? we were in-tune with our needs and natures larder. We followed herds as they migrated; we knew which plants were safe to eat and we only took what we needed because we simply could not carry an overabundance of produce. All the anthropological evidence reveals that mankind was more peaceful and even lived longer lives than his later descendents who would settle down.
There is evidence from author Crichton Miller, that mankind developed tools for navigation too. Miller found that for thousands of years mankind watched the stars and developed specific tools in the form of circles and crosses to map the planets, stars and constellations and this became a holy writ. Evidence of this is found in stone circles, carvings in ancient caves and religious icons such as the Celtic Cross. Anybody who wishes to understand this ancient knowledge at a deeper level should read Miller?s extraordinary book, The Golden Thread of Time and now his DVD The Cross of Thoth. But the point is, that man needed to navigate, because it was his way of life for eons and today?s static and settled situation is in stark contrast to this natural in-tune order.
Eventually it appears that populations grew and nomadic cultures began to partly settle down. These settlements were probably originally staging posts for extended stays during winter or other such times and eventually the rot set it. Remaining in one location for extended periods brought with it all-manner of problems. Firstly it brought the need to cultivate the land and to store provisions because the animal larder would carry on moving and natural vegetation would carry on and follow the seasons. Secondly it brought disease because of human and animal waste and all kinds of other filth. And thirdly it brought strife in ways that the nomadic smaller groups would not have foreseen. These settlements would be attracting more and more people into one single location ? forcing people together for longer and longer periods of time, in cramped and rapidly unnatural environments. Mankind was growing apart from nature and had to learn a whole set of new skills, from building to being more socially oriented. Structures of wood and structures of society brought with them hierarchy and alpha dominance in a different way to the previous nomadic lifestyle. Groups were now bigger and so conflicts between those who would be in dominance would have been more frequent. But it was too late, the old ways were rapidly being forgotten. It is amazing how quickly the skills of the past generation can disappear. For example, today there are people who do not even know how to cook because their lifestyle has simply never called for the skill. We are constantly battling the balance between the income stream and the spending stream and we find very little room for such trivial matters as cooking, let alone time for our children and loved ones. But cooking is only one of the many skills that we are losing due to mass production of ready-made meals and lifestyle habits. In England, and I am sure this is true of many nations, even schools had to be legislated to bring back real cooked food.
Eventually though our new-found settlements had to find ways to deal with their new social problems and the mind of man has a unique tool for the purpose ? imagination. Man developed, from within his own imagination, new social structures of tribal leadership and those who had maintained or learned new skills important for the group would become dominant. These were not always the strongest and best fighters or hunters, but more often than not those who knew how to heal and gel the community. We call these people medicine men, shaman and latterly priests. As the Old Testament so eruditely informs us, it was the priesthood who would guide the people and even crown kings. The Royal family of England is still to this day crowned by the Church as a direct result of this same ancient power structure ? uniting religion and State.
With this new advent of power came many new ways of manipulating the growing masses who were herded into the new imaginative religious structure and given rules in the form of dogma, doctrine and tradition. Now power was from the gods and nobody could argue with such imagined power. The knowledge of navigation, of the stars, of the seasons and of course of the reality of the mind of man became powerful tools in the armoury of the Church. To know the seasons enabled the priest to appear magical and in-touch with god. To know how to read the stars for navigation enabled the tribe to trade and invade. To know the mind of man allowed the priesthood to manipulate and control. All of this was truly a powerful knowledge. This knowledge was passed down within the brotherhoods in symbolism, latterly in texts and certainly in tradition.
Tradition is not simply something we imagine our grandparents had. It is not just something those stuffy looking pompous Englishmen re-enact everyday in Parliament or that wonderfully colourful changing of the guard outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.
Our English term tradition comes from Traditio, a Latin word meaning the 'delivery of doctrine' and 'surrender', but more pertinent to us it means 'something handed down.' There is depth here as many will know, for this 'something handed down' is not just the old pocket watch that our ancestors sported in the 19th century and has been passed from one generation to another. No, tradition is also the continuance of something much more profound, much more in-tune with the Da Vinci Code concept of the bloodline.
In the very first usage of the word we find that it was in fact used for the passing on of doctrine and religious dogma - a sacred act itself and something which became symbolic. The word 'sacred' itself comes from Old Latin saceres meaning to bind, restrict, enclose and protect. And this is where much of the truth lies - in symbolism and sacredness, for both are binding and surrendering to something being passed down. The acts of those parliamentarians and the guard at Buckingham Palace are symbolic and sacred acts, representing something other than the physical and literal things we see. The same is true of religious tradition. There is no truth that the taking of the bread and wine at the Eucharist ritual - a tradition seen across the world - actually is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. No, the act is symbolic and solemnly reminds the religious initiate of the fact that he is part of a greater Christian brotherhood; that he is accepting Christ and that His body was broken and blood spilt for us and that he is a continuation of a long line. Whatever ones opinion on that religious act, the fact remains that it is a very powerful tool for reminding the masses of their place in the world via an act that is emotionally strong. This is a manipulating tradition, kept alive to keep the sheep in the fold.
As we can now see, tradition can be a very strong device when allied to emotion and psychologists have discovered that allegorical tales are very often absorbed better than any literal telling.
In this allegorical or symbolic respect there are other words that also relate and of which we should take note. These words now often hold mystery to us, because we have lost the meaning of them, as we have all too often lost the meaning of tradition. Myth, fable, tale, story - all these, and more, are used in the 'traditional' way to pass on hidden or esoteric knowledge from one generation to another. And this is a 'tradition' going back in time for thousands of years - the custom of the storyteller, whose job it was to keep alive the truths of the tribe. From the medicine man and shaman to druid, Brahman and later Catholic priest, we have entrusted our social history and religious emotional beliefs to the wise-man of the tribe or culture. Held within the many myths, fables, tales and stories are a great many truths awaiting the key to unlock them again. And many of these truths are symbolic codes, hiding a secret belief that the contemporary religious authority would have looked down upon.
And I am of the opinion that with a new set of eyes we can ourselves find the keys to unlock these historical conundrums ? as Crichton Miller uncovered the navigational truths of the cross and circle. We have to understand our ancestors were able to do this and we have to start by realising that they were humans just like us. They had fears, hopes and struggled to survive and to comprehend their very place in the universe. In the depth of understanding our ancestors discovered that they needed to find a way of passing on the knowledge they had uncovered and they formed tales. Our historical friends were not simple folk as we are led to believe. They had the same brain size as ourselves and in fact in many ways they were better attuned to the thing we now divisively call nature. You see, in our 'modern' materialistic state we forget that we are human beings that have come from and live in the natural universe. We forget, because we create things from within our own imaginations and surround ourselves with them, and hence we today find ourselves in an imaginary world of 'things.' This pc in front of me is formed from the imagination of thousands of individuals. In one respect it is not a natural item, but in another because it was formed from the mind of man then it is the result of that natural human factor - imagination. It is this ability of the mind to create a concept that has spawned stories and tales, myths and fables to explain to each new generation the knowledge of the last. And so what is the key we need to understand these concepts? It is imagination in tune with intuition or our connection to nature.
Tradition is a treasure chest of esoteric secrets awaiting the imagination of some bright spark to find the key and unlock it. If 'tradition' is that thing handed down from one generation to another, then it is our duty to find the key. And today that key lies in the quantum world. For within the all-too peculiar world of quantum physics what we shall discover is the connection through time of our own bloodline, our own thoughts and patterns, passing on through time and connected to the great matrix of the mind of the universe. As we share huge percentages of our DNA with our fellow animals and plants, so too we share a universal quantum connection - we are indeed entangled at the sub-atomic particle level to all reality - not just now, but for all time - and this quantum reality may very well be intelligent.
Tradition may have hidden this peculiar knowledge in symbolism and sacred texts and called it God. It is time to understand tradition afresh and to understand the sacred nature of humanity and consciousness. For in so doing we shall see all-manner of things hidden there by our ancestors and be better able to understand ourselves. It is not a bad thing to realise that we are in fact directly linked via genetics and maybe even quantum physics to the mind of the first man and woman.
These incredible and intuitive ?traditions? then, emerged from early man and his understanding of the world around him and how he survived. But all was not well in mankind?s early settled Eden?s and differences of opinion would often arise between settled groups or tribes and not least of these differences was jealousy. This distinctly negative element of the human mind would involve jealousy over land, produce, mates and of course the still relevant modern problem of jealousy over holy sites. However, trade also played a big part in the greater mix and so tribes grew steadily more and more wealthy in terms of possessions as each area had its own special supply of salt, gold, animals, plants and even access routes to the more distant lands. This was the birth of our modern system many thousands of years ago ? built upon an unnatural desire to remain in one location and yet also built upon the natural desire to be the best ? one of the strongest evolutionary drives.
Settlements became trading posts for vast quantities of goods and demarcation of roles emerged with blacksmiths, farmers, potters and all-manner of other roles. Trading went on like this for millennia, with the priesthood often controlling the process and growing in power themselves as their own communities prospered. They would take a percentage of the produce and offer it to the gods in-order to maintain the weather and good fortune of the tribe. The greatest of gods ? the sun ? would be worshipped and aided in its journey to reappear the following day. It was the giver of life and the destroyer. It mirrored the duality in the mind of man himself and so we were formed in his likeness. We were solar beings, formed and given life by the power of the golden orb and nothing became more important than ensuring its daily and yearly cycles. The priests of this great power were the alpha males, the medicine men or shaman of earlier times. It was they who gave authority to the king or pharaoh who himself must be the son of the sun on earth. He was the marketing tool of the priesthood and history is awash with the violent downfalls of the solar king when he stepped out of line and upset the priesthood.
Markets emerged near or even in Temples and bustled with people and produce of the wider world. Social commerce also emerged as priesthoods shared or traded knowledge with other cultures and soon belief systems across vast continents had little to set them apart. Much of this knowledge or tradition was very important and of value to the community and involved knowledge of astrology and astronomy to enable them to predict the seasons and for navigation. As the power base of trade grew, so the ability to navigate became extremely important and as the majority of the population had forgotten how to do this, it emerged as a special knowledge guarded closely by the elite.
Control of the trading markets, both of the land upon which it was carried out and the navigation required to operate it, grew so powerful over time that the priesthood would do almost anything to maintain control. This is why much religious literature is awash with rules and regulations for trade and commerce. The system of trading eventually needed organising differently because of lies. It all began because of deceit and it remains pretty much the same today. At the market a thing called a promise emerged whereby a man trading a goat for a pig would promise to bring his goat the following market day only to fail in his promise. The priesthood or leader who controlled the process realised that some new system was needed to come into play and so created money ? from the word monere, meaning ?to warn.?
This new money was very cleverly based upon the gods themselves adding incredible weight and fear to the promise. Gold was manifestly the solar divinity ? the sun. And silver was the lunar deity ? a mirror of the sun. Handing over a symbolic representation of the gods was a powerful promise and the gods would know if you reneged on your promise. The Church itself backed the promise and so became the bank. Power was well and truly in the hands of the few and the rest of us simply had no choice but to conform. This situation is almost unchanged and today many banks are at least still partly owned by various Churches ? not least of which is the Catholic Church.
Our lives are still and more so than ever run by money and we have no choice but to live in the world of commerce. Everyday we hand over our images of the solar deities, which are no longer even real gold but instead are promises of gold. There are more promises of gold in the world than there is gold and so the system, created because of lies and deceit, is itself a total lie. But it is the system we live in and individually we must make our own decisions on how to do so.
Philip Gardiner is the best selling author of Secrets of the Serpents, Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon?s Temple Revealed and the forthcoming The Ark, The Shroud and Mary. He has several DVD?s out including Secrets of the Serpent and regularly speaks around the world. In June he will speak in Sydney at the Metaphysical and Scientific Symposium and in November he will appear at lectures in Arizona. On October 13th he will speak to gatherings in Paris marking the 700th Templar downfall anniversary. With Michael Bourne he is currently producing a UFO documentary as well as helping to steer Real2can.com. His website is www.gardinersworld.com
Taken from the forthcoming book "Delusion" to be released via Reality Press.
CLINTON, Mich. (AP) -- Some people may call Alfie Carrington crazy or foolish.
How else do you describe a man who has spent more than half his life building a flying saucer?
By day a construction worker, Carrington spends his free time inside a rented storage garage in Macomb County's Clinton Township where he broods over a 14-foot-wide, carbon fiber, fiberglass vessel.
"Something genius is hiding away in Alfie's eccentricities," friend D.L. Bradley, a pastor in Clinton Township, said.
Thirty years ago, when Carrington was 27 and obsessed with science fiction, he set out to build a UFO look-alike. But something inside him cried out for more.
Inspired by ordinary Americans like Orville and Wilbur Wright, who piloted the first heavier-than-air aircraft 103 years ago, Carrington pored over books, magazines and studies about aviation. Never mind his lack of engineering experience.
He has spent nearly $60,000 for some of the materials he believes are needed to launch his creation -- a lot for a man who drives a rusted 1986 Mercury Cougar.
Carrington does it because he believes he has discovered a simple design for an aircraft that aeronautical engineers have spent countless millions trying to build.
"People are going to say I'm nuts," Carrington shrugged.
Unlike aeronautical engineers who have tried to build vessels for commercial flight -- most notably those who entered the X-Prize contest for a reusable, privately built suborbital spacecraft -- Carrington's aim is more terrestrial. He wants to replace the automobile with a Jetsons-style vehicle.
"Why drive when you can fly 500 mph?" he asked.
Carrington has two patents on the design and a company called Vertex Aerospace. His work caught the attention of NASA, which invited him to a conference in the mid-1990s where engineers scratched their heads when he confessed he knew nothing about computers.
His idea is to fire up the vessel with a rotary engine to stimulate a magnetic levitation system to rotate the ship's two discs. The discs would draw air into propeller blades.
"It's a simple concept," Carrington said. "There is no way this thing can't get off the ground because 40 percent of it is rotating."
Aeronautical engineers aren't so confident, especially considering the rotation speeds needed to lift the aircraft.
"Things spinning at those speeds are worrisome because of the stress from centrifugal force," explained Cornelis van Dam, professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering at the University of California-Davis, a leading aviation school. "If it's not properly designed and built, it will rip itself apart. I wouldn't want to stand next to it when it gets up to speed."
Even aerospace experts rely on other professionals to build such complex vessels, van Dam pointed out.
But Carrington doesn't have time for naysayers. In eight months, he hopes to launch his dream, assuming he can raise at least another $40,000 to complete the project.
"When he starts it up, we'll know either it was the biggest folly of all time, or one of the most ingenious inventions of all time," Bradley said.
Well, whatever you think about UFO's. Myself and Michael Bourne of book-of-thoth.com are midway through production of a DVD which has stuff that will blow your mind! Want to get on the list for when it's released? Then email michael@real2can.com
Orange snow with rotten smell in Omsk Region, Siberia
Well, the snow around my neck of the woods is normally yucky brown after a couple of hours - but never orange! See this news article from funnymos.com:
It snowed orange in five districts of the Omsk Region Wednesday, January 31st 2007. The snow area was 1,500 sq. m, 100 km in length. The snow ranged from light yellow to orange shades, ITAR-TASS reported. Moreover, the snow was covered with oil slicks and smelled rotten.
It snowed orange in five districts of the Omsk Region Wednesday. The snow area was 1,500 sq. m, 100 km in length. The snow ranged from light yellow to orange shades, ITAR-TASS reported. Moreover, the snow was covered with oil slicks and smelled rotten.
There are 49 inhabited areas in the five districts ? Tarsky, Znamensky, Tyukalensky, Kolosovsky Districts. The population in the suffered districts is more than 27,000 people. Local residents have not complained of any health problems yet. Rescuers have warned people of safety measures, recommending avoid using orange snow ?for domestic and technical needs?. Ministry for Emergencies also urged people to restrict walking their pets and staying outside themselves.
The snow was sent to Omsk chemical laboratory. Experts have flown across the polluted districts and taken a few snow samples for tests. The first results have shown the snow is not radioactive.
Omsk interdistrict prosecutor?s office initiated the inquest. ?We cannot define the reason of the snowfall due to lack of the test results. The snow is oily to the touch and has a strong rotten smell. We requested information about similar cases in Russia. There are similar facts, the causes ranging from man-caused to natural: seaweed, sand,? Omsk environmental prosecutor Anton German said.
I recently read that Bulgarian news had evidence that the US were going to invade Iran in April. Another source said that US troops were massing and ships were hovering in position. Are we going mad and going to start all over again? For a thousand years the West has been harrasing the East with one crusade after another and for a thousand years the East has been fighting back. There are many "excuses" and "reasons" on both sides and yet man - the supposed pinnacle of evolution - decides he can only overcome issues with warfare. Are we so super intelligent? Whales swim the ocean, feed, have children and don't even care about us, and then man comes along and harpoons it. What is intelligence? Is it the ability to create and use tools? Monkeys do that. Is it the knowledge of a Divine? Who can say that animals are not "in-touch"? Now we mass on Iranian boarders in the 21st century... Time to grow up?
Associated Press News: Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide "pretty good" evidence that Iran is providing either weapons or technology for militants there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Friday.
Offering some of the first public details of evidence the military has collected, Gates said, "I think there's some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found," that point to Iran.
At the same time, however, he said he was somewhat surprised that recent raids by coalition and Iraqi forces in Iraq swept up some Iranians.
Just last week, Gates said that U.S. military officers in Baghdad were planning to brief reporters on what is known about Iranian involvement in Iraq but that he and other senior administration officials had intervened to delay the briefing in order to assure that the information provided was accurate.
Speaking to reporters at a defense ministers conference here, Gates said Friday, "I don't think there was surprise that the Iranians were actually involved, I think there was surprise we actually picked up some."
He and other U.S. officials have said for some time that Iranians, and possibly the government of Iran, have been providing weapons technology, and possibly some explosives to Iraqi insurgents.
The improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have been a leading killer of U.S. forces in Iraq, where more than 3,000 servicemen and women have died in the nearly four-year-old war.
Gates: Iranian-involved IEDs 'extremely lethal' Gates, who is attending his first NATO defense ministers meeting, said Iran is "very much involved in providing either the technology or the weapons themselves for these explosively formed projectiles. Now they don't represent a big percentage of the IED attacks but they're extremely lethal."
Gates said the raids combined with the movement of an additional U.S. aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf have created a stir, but said the Bush administration has no intention of attacking Iran.
Meanwhile, the defense secretary has been getting a lukewarm response here to his plea for allies to send more troops and aid for a spring offensive in Afghanistan.
Gates said the U.S. made no additional commitments for more troops of its own. He recently extended the tour of a brigade in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has 27,000 troops -- the most since the war began in 2001.
U.S. and NATO military leaders in recent months have repeatedly called on alliance members to send reinforcements and lift restrictions on where their troops can serve. On Thursday, Gates secured smaller offers from some nations, but he met resistance from key allies.
Other countries question sending more troops France and Germany are questioning the wisdom of sending more soldiers, while Spain, Italy and Turkey have also been wary of providing more troops.
"When the Russians were in Afghanistan, they had 100,000 soldiers there and they did not win," German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters.
The meeting in southern Spain did produce some offers, however.
Lithuania, which already has 130 troops in Afghanistan, offered to send an unspecified number of special forces, helping to fill a key shortfall.
Germany says it will provide six Tornado reconnaissance jets but not significantly augment its 3,000 troops in the north. The Italian government said it would send a much-needed transport plane and some unmanned surveillance aircraft, but it is struggling to secure parliamentary backing for the finances needed to maintain a contingent of 1,950.
Spain also said it would send four unmanned planes and more instructors to help the Afghan army.
Gates said that after nearly five years at war with the Taliban, this spring will be critical because it could give the people of the country more hope.
"Each spring for the last several years, the Taliban have been more aggressive and there has been an increasing level of violence," he said. "There is a consensus on the part of the ministers that it is important that this year we knock the Taliban back."
The end of winter has traditionally brought an upsurge in attacks by Taliban militants in Afghanistan. U.S. commanders have already predicted that this spring will be even more violent than last year, when a record number of attacks included nearly 140 suicide bombings.
About 15,000 of the American troops are serving in the NATO-led force, which now totals about 36,000, while the other 12,000 are special operations forces or are training Afghan troops.
Israeli riot police stormed the Haram al-Sharif, Islam?s third holiest site, at the close of Friday prayers as demonstrations erupted against Israeli archaeological work at the site.
Jewish worshippers scattered from the Western Wall below the mosque complex as the sound of stun grenades and the occasional live round echoed from the adjacent Muslim compound.
The controversy, which has gripped the Muslim world in recent days, involves Israeli construction work of a new bridge to link the mosque complex and the Jewish Western Wall plaza below. Palestinian Muslims fear associated archaeological works are part of an Israeli effort to encroach on the Muslim sanctuary.
Witnesses inside the Muslim compound said there were a number of wounded as worshippers attempted to protect the entrance to the Aqsa mosque in a hail of stun grenades and tear-gas fire. Israeli security forces were seen carrying on stretchers what appeared to be their own casualties through the narrow Magrabi gate just above the Western Wall.
Unrest rapidly spread to the West Bank towns of Hebron and Bethlehem and to a crossing point near Ramallah. Eyewitnesses in Bethlehem said Israeli forces fired on stone throwers near Rachel?s Tomb, a Jewish shrine in Bethlehem.
It was the most serious incident at the site, which Jews revere as the location of their destroyed Second Temple, since Ariel Sharon, former Israeli prime minister, entered the compound in September 2000 and sparked the Palestinian uprising.
Palestinians had warned that Israeli attempts to move into the compound ? upon which they alleged Jewish extremists planned to erect their third temple ? would spark a further Intifada against Israeli occupation.
The Israeli works at the site had brought protests from a number of Arab governments, including neighbouring Jordan, which acts as external guardian of the holy site that it ruled until the 1967 Middle East war.
The violence broke out hours after rival Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a national unity government to avert an internal war and open the way for fresh talks with Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority?s Fatah president.
ONE of Corbridge?s lost churches may have been unearthed by archaeologists working on what has been called Northumberland?s most important medieval site.
In recent weeks, archaeologists from North Pennines Archaeology Limited, based in Nenthead, have been working against the clock to record every aspect of the site behind the Angel Inn.
Wednesday was the last day of working on the site for the team and the remains are now due to be covered over.
Having already uncovered two skeletons, archaeologists this week found evidence of medieval bronze and iron working on the site, as well as what they say could be one of Corbridge?s lost churches, dating back to before the 13th century.
Archaeology supervisor Tony Liddell explained: ?We have found a number of substantial walls on the site, which we are dating back to the 13th century because of pottery remains on the site.
?Several of the walls cross over each other and are from different buildings; some are quite slight but others are very sturdy.
?It seems as if the older, sturdier building fell in to disuse and a new building was put up over the top of it, but slightly off centre.
?We have found iron working and bronze working associated with these structures, including a bronze cauldron handle.
?There are distinct burning areas with metal slag, all of which gives us an important view on what life was like during the period.
?We then have evidence, through domestic waste and domestic pottery, that suggests that the site was reused for domestic purposes shortly after this time.
?There are only about 30 sites across the whole country for medieval bronze working, and only two of these are in Northumberland. That makes this one of the most important medieval sites in the region.
?These are certainly the most important mediaeval remains found in Corbridge.
?We have taken some samples for carbon dating, but we would need additional funding to carry that out, so it may have to wait.
?One of most important things we have found is an even older and thicker wall, dating back before the 13th century.
?It?s the oldest l we?ve found on the site and the most substantial. It?s pre-13th century because some of the other walls we have dated cut across the top of it.
?Although we may never be able to determine the exact period the wall was built in ? due to a lack of artefacts relating to it ? we are speculating that it could be a lost church.?
The revelation, however, has not cast any new light on the two skeletons found on the site, as they date from a later period and at least one did not show signs of a Christian burial.
With the site due to be covered over, field archaeologist Kevin Mounsey has drawn a detailed plan of the site ? mapping it stone by stone ? and numerous photographs have been taken to record a part of Corbridge not seen in over 700 years.
Get out that permanent black marker and your 2008 calendar, because Paramount Pictures and Lucasfilm have officially announced the release date for the fourth "Indiana Jones" adventure.
The yet untitled, long awaited "Indiana Jones" sequel will be released on May 22, 2008. Best of all, Indy fans around the world will get to thrill to the return of the great adventure on the same day and date on May 22 since prints will be lighting up theater screens around the globe.
Celebrations are certainly in order!
But this is coming first!
To get on the list for first edition copies of the book or DVD email michael@real2can.com
The 700th Anniversary of the Great Suppression of Ancient Mysteries
On Friday the 13th, October 1307, Paris, France
Templar Downfall - Come and Learn the Truth
Join Philip Gardiner and other leading speakers in Paris for the journey of a lifetime. October 8-15, 2007
Itinerary & Tour Conditions www.powerplaces.com Followed By: Optional Extension Tour to "Mystical Sites of France" Chartres, Cathar Castles, Rennes-le-Château, (Holy Grail, "Da Vinci Code" sites) Plus more! October 15-22, 2007
ITINERARY
Day 1: Depart the U.S. from New York. (Flights from other places in the U.S. available. Please inquire.) Day 2: Arrival into Paris, and check into your hotel. Day 3: Welcome and orientation. Seminar and meeting today. Day 4: Enjoy a walking tour of historical old Paris, the "City of Lights," a city that was meant to be experienced on foot. Included in this easy paced walk are some of Paris? most famous landmarks. Visit The Place de la Concorde with its stunning obelisk from the entrance of the ancient Egyptian Temple at Luxor. Brought to Paris in the early 1800s one can still see the mystical hieroglyphs on the obelisk with their secret messages of potent power. Walk by the Louvre, and then experience Le Jardin des Tuileries laid out in a classic French style that offers a view of many major buildings and squares, built during the Louis XIV era. The garden?s sculptures are extremely varied with contributions from Marly, Van Cleve, Coustou, and Le Paultre. The spacious formal garden plan draws out the perspective from the reflecting pools one to the other in an unbroken vista. Continuing on along the Left Bank pass through the St. Germain-des-Prés area. Visit Saint?Germain?des?Prés Church, the oldest church in Paris and the original burial place of the Merovingian kings who figure so prominently in the Grail mystery. Continue through the famous Bohemian Latin Quarter with its wonderful cafes, boutiques, and historical buildings. Also today, enjoy a wonderful riverboat cruise on the River Seine. Highlights include viewing the Eiffel Tower, Orsay Museum, the historical bridges of Paris, including the "Pont-Neuf" and beautiful buildings in the neo-classical style. Day 5: Meeting and seminar time all day today. Free time in the evening. Day 6: (Today is October the 13th.) Enjoy a special "metaphysical" walking tour with Philip Gardiner, including the Glass Pyramid, the Rose Line Meridian and the Arago Markers in the courtyard of the Louvre. End up at the magnificent Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame, the most famous church in Paris. Note the symbolism found there. Almost all churches, cathedrals and great stone monuments have been built by Stone Masons, incorporating many of the ancient secrets of the Freemasons! An Invitation from Philip Gardiner: "Walk through the historical streets of Paris and visit some of the most mysterious and mystical buildings in France. Across time mankind developed a wonderful and mystical connection to the divine for which he has given many names. Today we know this connection as Gnosis - the knowledge of the divine within the self. In biblical times this was fostered by the Essene - the writers of many biblical texts and the protectors of sacred scripts. I will reveal through my own investigations the secret link between the Essene and earlier Egyptian and even Indian brothers right through early Christianity and Gnosticism, into alchemy and emerging once again in the works of Carl Jung and later researchers, specifically the Freemasons. This thread across time will reveal the truth behind a great many mysteries including the Ark, the Shroud, Jesus and Mary, the Temple of Solomon and much more. From the Glass Pyramid to Notre Dame, we will trace the physical presence of these mysteries of mankind."
Learn about the sacred Shroud; the Ark; Mary and their connections to the ancient Brotherhoods...
Note: Meeting will take place on 3, 5, and 7 of the travel program. Exact times to be announced on site. Later today meet at Nicholas Flamel?s 14th century home, which is now a restaurant, for a wonderful group lunch. (Due to the size and nature of the restaurant, some of the group may have their group meal at another time.) Nicholas Flamel was an alchemist who lived in the 14th century. He is alleged to have been the most accomplished of the European alchemists. Flamel is said to have purchased a mysterious book of 21 pages, which was filled with encoded alchemical symbols and arcane writing, including some texts in Hebrew. A book published in Paris in 1612 on the subject of Egyptian hieroglyphics claimed to be a copy of a Flamel book, in which Flamel's search for the Philosopher's Stone was described. According to it, Flamel made it his life's work to understand the text of the mysterious 21-page book he had purchased, and around 1378, he traveled to Spain for assistance with translation. On the way back, he reported that he met a sage, who identified Flamel's book as being a copy of the original "Book of Abraham." According to the story, over the next few years, with this knowledge Flamel and his wife allegedly decoded enough of the book to successfully replicate its recipe for the Philosopher's Stone, producing first silver in 1382, and then gold. Later today, proceed to the site chosen for the special gathering for the commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the closing of the Templar temples throughout France. Day 7: Final meeting day. Free time for exploring more of wonderful Paris, including strolling through its beautiful gardens, going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, or finishing up on some last minute delectable shopping! Day 8: Those not able to stay for the exciting optional extension tour to Southern France, including Holy Grail sites, Rennes-le-Château, and Cathar Castles, depart for your return flight to the U.S. arriving the same day. Note: Itinerary subject to change. www.powerplaces.com www.gardinersworld.com
New Movement Unites the World to Help Fight Poverty, Injustice
No matter what our beliefs and in what God or Goddess we may or may not have faith - fighting to end starvation and fostering world-wide peace has to be a great idea, so no fish and chips for me on Feb 21st!
Day of Fasting and Prayer Scheduled for Feb. 21
LOS ANGELES, Calif., Jan. 10, 2007 ? A worldwide movement has been launched to feed the poor, fight injustice and foster peace. Global Fast 2007, the brainchild of a young Harvard graduate, provides a unique opportunity for people of all faiths to unite for a common cause ? an international day of fasting and prayer for the benefit of those in need throughout the world.
Global Fast's "One Day to Change the World" is scheduled for Feb. 21, 2007 ? Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent and a traditional time of fasting for many Christians. With the intent of feeding the hungry both physically and spiritually, Global Fast seeks to change the world by creating real spiritual renewal and a huge charitable impact. It is a public challenge to bring together millions of people ? of all faiths ? for one day of fasting and prayer. On Feb. 21, participants will share their food with the poor and pray for the world. Fasters are asked to donate what money they would have spent on food that day, with the proceeds going directly to the movement's excellent charity partners.
Eric Lanier, vice president of the newly launched GodSpace.com, said, "The impact that Global Fast can have on the world, both physically and spiritually, shows the true power that exists in uniting Christians through prayer and self sacrifice. This is the power of a unified church at work!"
Fasting is a part of many religions across the world, most notably practiced around the time of Lent, when Jesus committed Himself in prayer to 40 days in the desert without food or water. Historically, nearly all religions recognize the spiritual power of fasting ? including Catholics, Jews and Protestants ? as well as Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Today, some of the most devoted fasting exists among Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians - who commit themselves or their churches to intense 40-day fasts.
Global Fast connects fasting with charitable giving. It seeks to create a common purpose across denominations, looking to Jesus' teaching of sacrificial love ? giving of ourselves so that others may live. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah taught "true fasting" as not just a day to be hungry, but a day to truly serve others, when he said, "The fast God desires is this ? to loosen the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free, to share your food with the hungry, and provide the poor with shelter."
Fasting can be defined as simply abstaining from all or some kinds of food or drink. Some faiths today still observe a rigid schedule of fasting on certain days. Other traditions do not place a great emphasis on fasting, but focus more on performing charitable deeds, especially helping those in physical need with food and clothing, or simply the giving of money to charities. Most Christian churches consider fasting as a time of repentance for failures and sin. Fasting can also be a time to seek wisdom, guidance or spiritual growth.
"Fasting is perhaps the most powerful and potent spiritual discipline," Global Fast Founder Rich Halvorson said. "When we deny our body its physical sustenance, we learn to rely on spiritual food. As Jesus quoted after His 40-day fast, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' Fasting is a declaration of the power of the Spirit ? and an invitation for real spiritual growth. We believe that fasting and prayer can create both individual and international change."
Through fasting and prayer, people have the power to bring about revival ? a significant change in the direction of our nation and countries all over the world. Global Fast 2007 is a means to unite under time and space ? February 21, 2007 ? to feed the poor, fight injustice and foster peace.
To get involved or learn more about the movement, visit the Global Fast website at www.GF07.com. Other information is also available to media at www.MaximusMG.com/GlobalFast.
First details on SG-1's 'The Shroud' by Darren Sumner
GateWorld has uncovered the astonishing first plot details on "The Shroud," an upcoming episode of Stargate SG-1! Beware of spoilers below -- though they currently cover only the teaser for the episode.
Mitchell, Carter, Teal'c, and Vala visit another world, where yet another village of humans has been approached by a Prior of the Ori. They talk with the village leader, Tevaris, who explains that a Prior has recently visited them and spoke persuasively about the Ori religion.
The team is curious to learn from Tevaris that this particular Prior has yet to make any threats that the village will face death and destruction if they refuse to follow Origin. Instead, he is using a "soft sell" method of evangelism, sharing only the benefits and positive merits of Origin as the one true path to salvation.
When it is announced that the Prior has returned for their answer, SG-1 takes cover to hide from him. The shrouded man walks into the village and asks Tevaris for his answer. At first SG-1 cannot see his face, but when they do they are stunned: With the white hair, a pale face, and milky eyes of a transformed Prior, it is Daniel Jackson.
Guest characters include Tevaris and several villagers.
While the full details of the episode's storyline have yet to be revealed, this stunning turn of events may be what executive producer Joseph Mallozzi was hinting at several months ago when he said that the writers were "kicking around a potentially very controversial Daniel arc for Season Ten."
"The Shroud" is expected to air early in 2007, as part of the second half of SG-1's tenth season. Learn more about what's to come in GateWorld's episode guide!
Having the Shroud on Stargate is getting too close to the new book/DVD for my liking - maybe somebody took a sneak preview.... or I copied Stargate? Who can tell? See below for the latest press release on the Shroud book.
Major New Discovery on the Shroud of Turin
Early in 2007 the Truth about the Shroud of Turin and the Ark of the Covenant will be Revealed
Following years of painstaking research and thousands of miles travelling across the globe international best selling author, Philip Gardiner, will finally reveal how the Shroud was made, whose image it portrays and its age. In addition Gardiner will reveal the links between it, the Ark of the Covenant and Mary herself.
The startling revelations will be shown in both a book and DVD documentary entitled The Ark, The Shroud and Mary due out at the end of March. The book will be published by the USA publishing house New Page books who last year released Gardiner's Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed which went best seller for them and has catapulted Gardiner onto the world stage with over 400 radio interviews and appearing on TV, newspapers and general media. The DVD will be released at the same time world-wide by Reality Films part of the world's largest independent entertainment companies, Reality Entertainment. Co-produced by Gardiner and the European wing of Reality, Real2can.com, the production sees Gardiner travel the globe to uncover the whereabouts of the Ark and much more. From Egypt, Ethiopia and India to Portugal, France and Rome, Gardiner unravels a mysterious thread.
The author then finds himself engulfed in a world of secret societies with clandestine meetings in far-off lands and discovers an ancient truth held sacred by the brotherhood for millennia. One author who has watched the film and read the book in advance said:
"A suspense-filled, fact-packed adventure story...an epigrammatic tale that needs to be told to the whole wide world...clearly the next blockbuster movie sequel in the ?Raiders of the Lost Ark? series." Dr. J. J. Harper, author, Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century
Nobody has gone to such depths to uncover the truth and nobody has come under such a dangerous situation. Is this is the final story in the Ark, the Shroud and Mary?
In March Gardiner will be appearing on radio and TV across the USA and world. In June Philip Gardiner will be flying to Australia to speak at the International and Scientific Symposium (www.auforn.com) as well as appearing on TV, radio and at book signings.
To book Gardiner for radio, TV or other media/book signing events, or for articles for magazines etc we strongly advise you contact us as soon as possible because Gardiner is already being booked up and we only have limited dates available.
For more information see www.gardinersworld.com, www.real2can.com, www.reality-entertainment.com/books.htm, www.newpagebooks.com.
Contact: Michael Pralin at michael@real2can.com for press packs, bookings etc.
Musical underscoring for the documentary was produced by the highly acclaimed new band Soul Path (see www.soulpath.info)
To be removed from this list please email michael@real2can.com and we will remove you and apologize for any inconvenience.
Check out the forthcoming DVD from Ross Hemsworth on Reality Films.
If you would like to be on the list to order this when ready then email michael@real2can.com with ORBS in the header. Available soon on www.real2can.com
British govt 'preparing for human flu pandemic' 04/02/2007 - 13:39:35
The British government is preparing ?very seriously? for the remote possibility of a human flu pandemic as officials battle to contain the first avian outbreak in the UK.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt spoke out as experts were continuing to cull 159,000 turkeys at a farm in Suffolk where the potentially deadly H5N1 strain, which can be transmitted to humans, was found.
Ms Hewitt said: ?We are preparing very, very seriously and thoroughly for the possibility of a pandemic flu.?
She added: ?It is a very remote risk but if it did happen it could be very serious indeed.?
The risk to humans posed by Britain?s first outbreak of the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu on a Bernard Matthews farm at Holton, near Halesworth, is ?negligible?. officials have said.
And experts are playing down fears that the highly pathogenic bird flu strain - which has caused the deaths of 164 people in Asia and the Middle East since January 2003 ? could ultimately mutate to a type easily passed between people.
However, the Health Secretary told ITV1?s The Sunday Edition that the Department of Health had conducted a massive preparatory exercise last week.
Ms Hewitt said the NHS had its ?normal stockpile? of masks for staff but the Government was considering whether it needed to order more.
The Department of Health has also stockpiled enough Tamiflu antivirals to cover a quarter of the population, as advised by scientists.
?We are taking the best possible advice on this,? she insisted.
Yesterday, tests at the European Union laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey, confirmed the avian flu which killed more than 2,000 birds on the farm in Suffolk is the highly pathogenic Asian strain.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has dramatically increased the area where restrictions are in force in East Anglia to control the H5N1 outbreak.
The Restriction Zone, in which poultry must be kept isolated from wild birds and movements must be licensed, covers 2,090 square kilometres (806 square miles) of east Suffolk and south east Norfolk.
It extends to the A47 just south of Norwich in the north, the A140 in the west, and almost to Felixstowe in the south.
The zone, which was introduced after consultation with ornithologists, is in addition to the 3km protection zone and the 10km surveillance zones already in place.
Around 159,000 birds on the farm where the outbreak was identified are being culled, Defra said.
Turkeys first began falling ill on Tuesday, and by Thursday Defra had been informed and restrictions were in place around the farm itself.
Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg said an investigation was under way to discover the source of the outbreak, whether there was another premises infected or if the disease came from wild birds.
?We are not complacent at all and hopefully we will be able to contain it,? Mr Landeg said.
?The countryside is not closed, the risks to the public are negligible.?
But he urged commercial poultry farmers to step up their biosecurity procedures to prevent spread of the disease.
?The industry must ensure it is trying to carry out the best possible biosecurity,? he said.
Former home secretary and MP for Norwich South, Charles Clarke, said the consequences for the local area could be ?devastating?, although he believed Defra had acted swiftly to contain the outbreak.
?We will have to analyse exactly what happened and the speed with which things took place,? he told Sky News.
?But at the moment it seems to me, and I am not an expert, that the action being taken by Defra is very fast, very expeditious and I hope it gets sorted out very quickly.?
Asked if it could be devastating for the region given the importance of Bernard Matthews, he said: ?It is devastating. He is a major employer here.?
He added: ?It (Bernard Mathews) has been an important contribution to life in this county so I hope it gets sorted out very quickly.?
Defra surveillance of wild bird deaths is ongoing, and members of the public are being asked to report single deaths of ducks, geese and swans, or groups of 10 or more dead birds of any one species in a single area.
"British Columbia and West Coast of USA Placed on High Alert for Huge Earthquake" - but relax, its all off?
VANCOUVER ? Scientists have alerted British Columbia's emergency-planning department to the possibility of a catastrophic earthquake striking the province's southwest coast next week.
Garry Rogers, a seismologist at the centre, compared the current earthquake odds to the dangers of driving a car.
?Everyone drives their car every day, and the probability of getting in a car accident is small,? Dr. Rogers said. But during rush hour, the probability of getting into an accident is much higher. ?Well, Vancouver Island is now driving in rush hour.?
What prompted the alert was a series of imperceptible tremors emanating from deep beneath the ocean, which scientists now recognize as ominous warnings that the earth is on the move again off Vancouver Island.
The tremors occurred on what is known as the Cascadia subduction zone, which lies beneath the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast and runs from Vancouver Island to Northern California. The rumblings began last week near Puget Sound near Seattle and made their way north to Vancouver Island in recent days.
The tremors ? known in earthquake-speak as an episodic tremor and slip ? monitor the ongoing strain between the solid earth on the West Coast and the offshore Juan de Fuca Plate.
The two plates are rubbing against one another, with the offshore plate continually pushing against and under the North American Plate.
The recent tremors mean that even more stress is building between the two, which scientists believe will one day rupture into a major earthquake the size of the one off the coast of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed thousands.
Dr. Rogers said the chances of a major earthquake striking southwestern B.C. spike during the tremor events. The current tremor session is expected to last for another week.
LATEST Earthquake risk lowered Episode of subterranean tremors stops Vancouver Islanders, stocking up on emergency supplies after warnings of increased chances of a major earthquake, can relax ? a little.
The latest episode of subterranean tremors has ended earlier than expected, seismologists at the Pacific Geoscience Centre in Sidney said Saturday.
?Things have quietened down very quickly. We don?t know why,? said Natural Resources Canada seismologist John Cassidy.
The tremors, measured by sensitive instruments, are caused by the slipping of the bottom plate in the Cascadia fault, which runs off the west coast of Vancouver Island, and beneath the Island.
Scientists at the Pacific Geoscience Centre discovered the episodes occur about every 14 months and add stress to the shallow, locked part of the plate, bringing it closer to giving way, which would result in a major earthquake. When the plate fails, it is expected the earthquake will measure about nine on the Richter scale
The next expected episode of tremor and slip will be about April 2008.
Usually, the rupture travels across Juan de Fuca Strait, up-Island through Lake Cowichan and on to the Alberni Inlet, but, this time, it appeared to stop north of Duncan, Cassidy said.
?This one has been a little bit different.?
Seismographs show the tremors have stopped, but data from other instruments does not yet show whether Vancouver Island is still being pulled towards Japan or if it is again moving in its usual direction towards Ottawa, Cassidy said.
Although the immediate possibility of a major earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone has subsided, there are other faults which cause earthquakes, and all Vancouver Islanders should remember they live in an active quake zone, Cassidy said.
The 1946 Vancouver Island quake and the 2001 Seattle quake had different causes.
The last massive Cascadia quake was Jan. 26, 1700. Information about it came largely from Japan, where a tsunami was documented, and from oral records of Vancouver Island First Nations.
The Dutch version of The Serpent Grail is out. For those of you who can read Dutch here's what it says:
Klik op de afbeelding om het hoge resolutie bestand te downloaden.
Titel : Slangengraal, De Auteur : Gardiner, P. en Osborn, G. ISBN-13 : 9789043909426 ISBN-10 : 9043909424 Prijs : ? 24.95
Omschrijving : Dit is het verhaal van een buitengewone ontdekkingsreis naar de ware betekenis van ?s werelds meest raadselachtige mysteries: de heilige graal, het levenselixer en de steen der wijzen. Het is het verhaal van een slangencultus, wijd verspreid in de Oudheid, waarvan de invloeden in alle belangrijke godsdiensten zichtbaar zijn. De centrale rite van de slangencultus bestond uit het vermengen van slangengif met bloed in een speciale mengbeker teneinde een genezend elixer te maken. De moderne wetenschap heeft inmiddels aangetoond dat dit mengsel de productie van afweercellen verhoogt en zo het immuunsysteem versterkt. Dit was in feite de grondslag van het ?levenselixer?; de speciale mengbeker werd de ?graal? genoemd.
So there.....
To order English versions of the book and other things go HERE
LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - An outbreak of bird flu on a farm run by Europe's biggest turkey manufacturer Bernard Matthews has killed 2,500 birds, government officials said on Saturday.
Government veterinary experts were called to the farm near Lowestoft in eastern England late on Thursday and preliminary tests show the birds were killed by the H5 strain of avian flu.
Further tests are under way to identify the strain more precisely, and restrictions are in place to stop the movement of birds to or from the site.
"All poultry farmers are in shock as we had no inkling that is had suddenly turned up in England," National Farmers' Union Poultry Board chairman Charles Bourns told Reuters.
"The last time sales dropped between two to three percent, but it was enough to affect the market place as there was a lot of discounting."
The farm has 160,000 turkeys, but only one of the 22 sheds that house the birds has so far been affected by the outbreak.
In May, 50,000 chickens at three farms in Norfolk, also in eastern England -- home to some of Europe's biggest poultry farms -- were culled and disposed of after the H7N3 strain of bird flu was detected.
A wild swan found dead in Scotland in March 2006 had the highly pathogenic H5N1 version of the bird flu virus which can kill humans. It was thought to have caught the disease elsewhere, died at sea and been washed ashore in Scotland.
Bourns said those two scares cost the British poultry industry 58 million pounds ($115 million) in 2006.
The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 270 people and killed at least 164 worldwide since 2003, most of them in Asia, and over 200 million birds have died from it or have been killed to prevent its spread.
An outbreak of H7N3 in the Netherlands in 2003 led to the culling of a third of the poultry flock. It also infected around 90 people, including a veterinarian who died.
"Any avian flu virus is contagious and this one is causing deaths in birds," said the President of the British Veterinary Association David Catlow.
"If it is H5N1, there will be plans to cull it out completely before it has a chance to spread to other farms. The most appropriate response is to have immediate plans for facilities to slaughter the birds if it turns out to be H5N1."
Avian flu expert Colin Butter of the Institute of Animal Health added: "This news is a bit surprising because it's not the time of year when we have a lot of bird migration.
"We would not expect this to happen in the middle of winter. If it was going to happen we would expect it to happen in spring."
Nick Pope - The Man Who Left the MOD The Cross of Thoth - Crichton Miller The Ark, The Shroud and Mary - Philip Gardiner Science of Soul - John Jay Harper Click here
MEXICO CITY -- A 2,500-year-old city influenced by the Olmecs -- often referred to as the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica -- has been discovered hundreds of miles away from the Olmecs' Gulf Coast territory, archaeologists said. The remains of Zazacatla are providing insight into the early arrival of advanced civilizations in central Mexico, while also providing lessons about the risks to ruins posed by modern development that now cover much of the ancient city. Archaeologist Giselle Canto said Wednesday that two statues and architectural details at the site, 25 miles south of Mexico City, indicate the inhabitants of Zazacatla adopted Olmec styles when they changed from a simple, egalitarian society to a more complex, hierarchical one. "When their society became stratified, the new rulers needed emblems ... to justify their rule over people who used to be their equals," Miss Canto said of the inhabitants, who may not have been ethnically Olmec but apparently revered the culture as the most prestigious. Zazacatla covered less than one square mile between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C. But much of it has been covered by housing and commercial development extending from Cuernavaca, a city popular with tourists just seven miles north. "There are 10 housing developments, a gas station, a highway and a commercial building on the site now," Miss Canto said. Authorities hope to excavate and preserve other pre-Hispanic sites before they are forgotten or covered over. Since excavation of Zazacatla began last year, archaeologists have unearthed six buildings and two sculptures of what appear to be Olmec-style priests. The sculptures appear to have headdresses portraying the jaguar, which the Olmecs revered, and other symbols of status and authority. The Olmecs dominated areas around the Gulf Coast states of Veracruz and Tabasco from 1,200 B.C. to about 400 B.C. Some had speculated that the signs of Olmec influence found at Zazacatla and other areas far from the Gulf Coast might suggest Olmec settlements, conquests or missionary sites. But Miss Canto said the Olmecs' most famous ceremonial center, about 250 miles east, was too far for direct contact, though trade links may have existed.
Washington - Scientific evidence released on Monday supports the theory that a 18 000-year-old "Hobbit" skeleton unearthed in Indonesia was a new species closely related to Homo sapiens.
Some scientists had theorised that the skeletal remains found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 belonged to a pygmy or a microcephalic - a human with an abnormally small skull.
But researchers from Florida State University who examined a three-dimensional computer reconstruction of the small but well-formed brain of the hominid, "classified it with normal humans".
"We have answered the people who contend that the Hobbit is a microcephalic," said world-renowned paleoneurologist Dean Falk, who is also chairperson of Florida State University's anthropology department, which conducted the research with Indonesia's Centre for Archaeology along with other international partners.
Her team's study of both normal and microcephalic human brains is published in Monday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
'Where did it come from?'
The computer model reproduced the surface of the brain, including its shape, grooves and vessels, revealing what Falk described as a "highly evolved brain".
The skeleton came to be known as "the Hobbit" after the diminutive characters in JRR Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The brain of the Hobbit - more accurately identified as "Homo Floresiensis" - was compared to those of 10 normal humans and nine people suffering microcephaly, a virus which stunts the development of the brain.
The complete skeleton and skull unearthed in a cave on Flores measures 1.06m, igniting a raging controversy among anthropologists, who until then had believed the extinction of the Neanderthal 30 000 years ago left Homo sapiens as the only surviving human species.
Archaeologists had found sophisticated tools and evidence of a fire near the remains of the three-foot-tall adult female with a brain roughly one-third the size of a contemporary human.
"People refused to believe that someone with that small a brain could make the tools. How could it be a sophisticated new species?" Falk said.
"It's the 64 thousand dollar question: Where did it come from?" she said. "Who did it descend from, who are its relatives, and what does it say about human evolution?" said Falk. "That's the real excitement about this discovery."
Now this reminds me of what I was doing some years ago!
Researchers will examine plant extracts found in ancient tombs British scientists are helping uncover the secrets of medicines used by the ancient Egyptians 5,000 years ago. A University of Manchester team is travelling to Sinai, Egypt, to shed more light on how the Egyptians formed their ideas on medicines.
They will compare modern plant species in the region with those used by tribes, such as the Bedouin, and plant remains found in ancient tombs.
The project is being carried out by the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology.
Researcher Dr Ryan Metcalf told BBC News: "Ancient Egyptians' medicine was remarkably advanced for its time. A lot of things they used we still use today.
"They certainly had some quite advanced herbal medicines and probably knew about cannabis as well for pain relief."
Biodiversity project
Dr Metcalf said the Egyptians used natural remedies, such as chewing willow bark - which contains properties similar to aspirin - and honey on open wounds to kill bacteria.
The focus of the project will be trying to find out where they got their ideas from.
"We know that the ancient Egyptians had extensive trade routes and it is entirely possible that both medicinal plants and the knowledge to use them effectively were traded between regions and countries," Dr Metcalf said.
"By comparing the prescriptions in the medical papyri to the medicinal plant use of the indigenous Bedouin people we hope to determine the origins of Pharaonic medicine."
Papyri, the forerunner of modern paper, is sheets of laminated material made from thin strips of the Cyprus Papyrus plant.
Researchers will work with the Egyptian Medicinal Plant Conservation Project in St Katherine's, Sinai, which is working to preserve the biodiversity of the region through co-operation with local Bedouin.
They will be able to supply the Manchester team with seeds and information that covers the Sinai peninsula.
For more on ancient medicine see my own discovery of the ancient and widespread use of snake medicine across the world in Secrets of the Serpents book and DVD. HERE
Well, how is a man expected to do his job properly without a decent whip? I ask you, what were they going to give him? Mind you, I bet he's got a few tucked away somewhere. Bless.... anyway, here's the story.
Harrison Ford has stated that he will pull out of the new Indiana Jones movie if he is not allowed to use a real whip. The sixty-four-year-old actor who plays the heroic archaeologist was told that "weapons" like whips are no longer used in films because of the danger they pose and that he must pretend to use a whip which will then be digitally imposed after shooting.
Ford is having none of this and has called the rule "ridiculous," and that he wouldn?t be playing Indiana if the rule was enforced.
Indiana Jones 4 is due for release next year.
Funny, I have done 400 or more radio shows in the last year and loads of them called me the Bristish Indiana Jones. I can see only one option now, I have to get myself a real whip. Wonder what my sweet little English wife will say....
For articles, books and DVD's from the "British Indiana Jones" (makes me cringe every time I hear it)see www.gardinersworld.com and click on the links on the left. To ORDER BOOKS and DVD's by yours truly click here
By Corey Binns Special to LiveScience posted: 02 February 2007
Male nudes are the norm in Greek art, even though historians have stated that ancient Greeks kept their clothes on for the most part. New research suggests that art might have been imitating life more closely than previously thought.
Nudity was a costume used by artists to depict various roles of men, ranging from heroicism and status to defeat.
"In ancient Greek art, there are many different kinds of nudity that can mean many different things," said Jeffrey Hurwit, an historian of ancient art at the University of Oregon. "Sometimes they are contradictory."
Hurwit's newly published research shows that the Greeks did walk around in the buff in some situations. Men strode about free of their togas in the bedroom and at parties called symposia, where they would eat, drink and carouse. Nudity was also common on the athletic fields and at the Olympic games. (Because there are so many images of Greek athletes, some lay people have assumed the Greeks were in their birthday suits all the time.)
Battling nudity
However, nudity was often risky for the Greeks.
"Greek males, it is generally agreed, did not walk around town naked, they did not ride their horses naked, and they certainly did not go into battle naked," Hurwit said. "In most public contexts, clothing was not optional, and in combat nakedness was suicidal."
Warriors and heroes are often, but not always, represented in the nude. Artists demonstrated the physical prowess men used to defeat their enemies. But, as Hurwit said, if you can go into battle naked, you've got to be pretty good.
However, heroes weren't the only men disrobed by ancient artists.
Here's looking at you
Hurwit's research, published in the Jan. issue of the American Journal of Archaeology, also found examples of defeated, dying and dead naked men. In these cases, nudity was chosen to represent the subjects' vulnerabilities.
Meanwhile, common laborers were also drawn undressed, illustrating their sweat and muscles to show how hard they worked. Gods and people of higher social class were sometimes?but not always?depicted in the buff to demonstrate their place in society.
Hurwit's research of these nuances of Greek art also offers a glimpse into the cultural source of our civilization today.
"We can try to understand ourselves and our conception of what it means to be a hero and to exceed normal expectations," Hurwit told LiveScience. "The more we know about other cultures, the deeper we will be able to understand our own culture and ourselves."
The avian influenza A (H5N1) epizootic (animal outbreak) in Asia and parts of Europe, the Near East, and Africa is not expected to diminish significantly in the short term. It is likely that H5N1 infection among birds has become endemic in certain areas and that human infections resulting from direct contact with infected poultry and/or wild birds will continue to occur. So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person-to-person has been rare , limited and unsustained. No evidence for genetic reassortment between human and avian influenza A virus genes has been found; however, this epizootic continues to pose an important public health threat.
There is little pre-existing natural immunity to H5N1 infection in the human population. If these H5N1 viruses gain the ability for efficient and sustained transmission among humans, an influenza pandemic could result, with potentially high rates of illness and death. In addition, genetic sequencing of influenza A (H5N1) viruses from human cases in Vietnam and Thailand shows resistance to the antiviral medications amantadine and rimantadine, two of the medications commonly used for treatment of influenza. This would leave two remaining antiviral medications (oseltamivir and zanamivir) that should still be effective against currently circulating strains of H5N1 virus. Efforts to produce vaccine candidates that would be effective against avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses are under way. However, it will likely require many months before such vaccines could be mass produced and made widely available.
Research suggests that currently circulating strains of H5N1 viruses are becoming more capable of causing disease (pathogenic) in animals than were earlier H5N1 viruses. One study found that ducks infected with H5N1 virus are now shedding more virus for longer periods without showing symptoms of illness. This finding has implications for the role of ducks in transmitting disease to other birds and possibly to humans as well. Additionally, other findings have documented H5N1 infection among pigs in China and H5N1 infection in felines (experimental infection in housecats in the Netherlands and isolation of H5N1 viruses in tigers and leopards in Thailand).In addition, in early March 2006, Germany reported H5N1 infection in a stone marten (a weasel-like mammal). The avian influenza A (H5N1) virus that emerged in Asia in 2003 continues to evolve and may adapt so that other mammals may be susceptible to infection as well.
Science Daily ? The brain mechanism underlying the mind-bending effects of hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin has been discovered by neuroscientists. They said their discoveries not only shed light on the longtime mystery of how hallucinogens work, but that the findings also offer a pathway to understanding the function of drugs used to treat neuropsychiatric disorders, which are now being used largely without an understanding of their fundamental mechanism.
Stuart Sealfon, Jay Gingrich, and colleagues published their findings in the February 1, 2007 issue of the journal Neuron, published by Cell Press.
Researchers have long known that hallucinogens activate specific receptors in the brain, called 5-HT2A receptors (2ARs), that are normally triggered by the neurotransmitter serotonin. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that one brain cell launches at receptors on another to trigger a nerve impulse in the receiving cell. However, a fundamental mystery has been why other compounds that activate the same receptors are not hallucinogenic.
In their studies, the researchers compared the differences between the effects of LSD and a nonhallucinogenic chemical that also activates 2AR receptors on the mouse neural machinery. Since the animals could not report the kinds of perception-altering effects that humans experience on hallucinogens, the researchers determined hallucinogenic properties by measuring a head twitch response the mice characteristically showed when under hallucinogens but not when under nonhallucinogens.
The scientists concentrated their studies on the cortex of the brain, which earlier studies had shown to be the center for action of the hallucinogens. Their analysis revealed that LSD produced genetic, electrophysiological, and internal cellular signaling responses that were distinctively different from those induced by a nonhallucinogenic compound.
They also explored whether 2ARs were central to the hallucinogenic effect of LSD by producing mice lacking the receptors, but in which receptor activity could be selectively restored in the cortex. The researchers found that mice without functioning receptors showed no hallucinogenic response to LSD, but restoring the receptors rendered LSD hallucinogenic in the animals.
The researchers wrote that "These studies identify the long-elusive neural and signaling mechanisms responsible for the unique effects of hallucinogens."
They also concluded that "The strategy we developed to elucidate [hallucinogen] action should be applicable to [central nervous system]-active compounds, with therapeutic potential in other disorders. Thus, our findings may advance the understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders that have specific pharmacological treatments whose mechanisms of action are not fully understood."
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Cell Press.
From the blog of John Jay Harper! http://blog.johnjayharper.com/
Breaking News Bulletin Delta Airlines Cancels 200 Flights Ahead of Ice Storm POSTED: 6:28 p.m. EST, January 31, 2007 Story Highlights ? Rain, sleet, freezing rain expected across north Georgia ? Delta canceling about 200 flights to avoid passenger delays ? Delta reservations is calling passengers to re-book flights
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Delta Air Lines planned to cancel about 200 flights into and out of Atlanta late Wednesday and early Thursday as freezing rain and sleet were forecast for Georgia, a Delta spokeswoman said. The airline is attempting to mitigate flight delays for travelers, said Betsy Talton. By canceling the flights late Wednesday, she said, Delta reduces the number of Atlanta flights that will require deicing.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday afternoon upgraded a winter storm watch to a winter storm warning that included the northern half of the Atlanta metro area. The warning was is in effect from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday.
Is there any truth to the dire predictions about the coming ice age; the 2012 end of man's world and the doomsayers? I'd love to know what everybody thinks! Are we causing global warming? Or is the power of the sun to blame? Let me know your thoughts info@philipgardiner.net
For more see www.johnjayharper.com www.gardinersworld.com www.crichtonmiller.com www.beyondthecosmos.com
To order books and DVD's go to www.reality-entertainment.com/books.htm
The concept of time-travel is laden with uncomfortable paradoxes If you went back in time and met your teenage parents, you could not split them up and prevent your birth - even if you wanted to, a new quantum model has stated.
Researchers speculate that time travel can occur within a kind of feedback loop where backwards movement is possible, but only in a way that is "complementary" to the present.
In other words, you can pop back in time and have a look around, but you cannot do anything that will alter the present you left behind.
The new model, which uses the laws of quantum mechanics, gets rid of the famous paradox surrounding time travel.
Paradox explained
Although the laws of physics seem to permit temporal gymnastics, the concept is laden with uncomfortable contradictions.
The main headache stems from the idea that if you went back in time you could, theoretically, do something to change the present; and that possibility messes up the whole theory of time travel.
Clearly, the present never is changed by mischievous time-travellers: people don't suddenly fade into the ether because a rerun of events has prevented their births - that much is obvious.
You go back to kill your father, but you'd arrive after he'd left the room, you wouldn't find him, or you'd change your mind. Professor Dan Greenberger, City University, New York
So either time travel is not possible, or something is actually acting to prevent any backward movement from changing the present.
For most of us, the former option might seem most likely, but Einstein's general theory of relativity leads some physicists to suspect the latter.
According to Einstein, space-time can curve back on itself, theoretically allowing travellers to double back and meet younger versions of themselves.
And now a team of physicists from the US and Austria says this situation can only be the case if there are physical constraints acting to protect the present from changes in the past.
Weird laws
The researchers say these constraints exist because of the weird laws of quantum mechanics even though, traditionally, they don't account for a backwards movement in time.
Quantum behaviour is governed by probabilities. Before something has actually been observed, there are a number of possibilities regarding its state. But once its state has been measured those possibilities shrink to one - uncertainty is eliminated.
So, if you know the present, you cannot change it. If, for example, you know your father is alive today, the laws of the quantum universe state that there is no possibility of him being killed in the past.
It is as if, in some strange way, the present takes account of all the possible routes back into the past and, because your father is certainly alive, none of the routes back can possibly lead to his death.
"Quantum mechanics distinguishes between something that might happen and something that did happen," Professor Dan Greenberger, of the City University of New York, US, told the BBC News website.
"If we don't know your father is alive right now - if there is only a 90% chance that he is alive right now, then there is a chance that you can go back and kill him.
"But if you know he is alive, there is no chance you can kill him."
In other words, even if you take a trip back in time with the specific intention of killing your father, so long as you know he is happily sitting in his chair when you leave him in the present, you can be sure that something will prevent you from murdering him in the past. It is as if it has already happened.
"You go back to kill your father, but you'd arrive after he'd left the room, you wouldn't find him, or you'd change your mind," said Professor Greenberger.
"You wouldn't be able to kill him because the very fact that he is alive today is going to conspire against you so that you'll never end up taking that path leads you to killing him."
Greenberger and colleague Karl Svozil introduce their quantum mechanical model of time travel on the ArXiv e-print service.
There will be much more on paradigms in the new DVD Quantum Mind of God. For advance notice email michael@real2can.com with Quantum in the header.
Scientist Provides Evidence That God Does Not Exist
This breaking news about yet another new book proving that there's no such thing as God. I found it interesting as there seems to be a band wagon rolling down the slippery slope at the moment into plain atheism and especially as I am currently producing a new DVD called Quantum Mind of God which shows completely the opposite in SCIENTIFIC terms! Using the latest science and information provided by some of the top scientists and cutting edge thinkers Quantum Mind of God will not prove that the Christian, Jewish or Islamic gods exist, but that we need to rethink and revisit some much more ancient concepts. See trailer below and to get notified when the DVD is ready please email Michael at real2can (michael@real2can.com) with Quantum in the header.
New Book Examines Existence of Divine Creator Using Scientific Method
Amherst, NY ? Books on God and science, religion, and nonbelief have enjoyed unprecedented popularity in recent months?a trend Time magazine called an ?atheist literary wave??demonstrating the interest of American readers in intelligent debate on these topics.
The God Delusion by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins is number nine on the New York Times Best Seller List dated February 4, 2007; Sam Harris?s atheistic response to critics, Letter to a Christian Nation, sits at twenty-six. In interviews, both men have directed readers to an additional work that continues the ?new atheism? trend: God: The Failed Hypothesis (Prometheus Books, January 30, 2007.)
In God: The Failed Hypothesis, physicist Victor Stenger argues that science has advanced sufficiently to make a definitive statement on the existence or nonexistence of the traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. He invites readers to put their minds?and the scientific method?to work to test this claim.
After evaluating all the scientific evidence?the studies done by reputable institutions on the power of prayer; the writings of philosophers who have puzzled over the problem of God and of good and evil; the efforts of biblical scholars to prove the accuracy of holy scriptures; and the work of biologists, geologists, and astronomers looking for clues to a creator on Earth and in the cosmos?Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God. He convincingly shows that not only is there no evidence for the existence of God, but scientific observations actually point to his nonexistence.
Victor Stenger, always ready to engage in rational discourse with believers, is encouraged by the mainstream success of Dawkins and Harris because it shows a renewed public willingness to intelligently and openly debate these subjects. To interview Victor Stenger, or to request a review copy of God: The Failed Hypothesis, contact Prometheus Books at 800-853-7545 or publicity@prometheusbooks.com.
For more on ancient concepts of the divine see www.gardinersworld.com and to order copies of current dvd's and books go to www.reality-entertainment.com/books.htm
Author and researcher of several books including The Shining Ones, The Serpent Grail, Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed, Secrets of the Serpent and Proof: Does God Exist?, The Ark, The Shroud and Mary.
Also several DVD's, hosting Forbidden Knowledge Conference, lecturing around the world from USA, UK and Australia to Universities and Pagan Moots.
