From: vincent@reg.triumf.ca (pete)
Subject: Re: HOLY BLOOD and MESSIANIC LEGACY
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: dept. of theophysics and cosmogyny
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 11:12:00 GMT

In article <9207291819.AA28092@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, 
wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin) writes...
>I was wondering if anyone out there was familiar with and wished to
>comment on, these books by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry
>Lincoln:

>HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL (I've also seen this listed as "THE HOLY BLOOD &

>THE MESSIANIC LEGACY

>(There is also THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS DECEPTION, by the first two authors
>only.)

>I had never heard of these, but only yesterday saw an ad for THE MESSIANIC
>LEGACY in a new Barnes & Noble mail-order book-sale catalog; the
>description of it referred to it as being a sequel to HOLY BLOOD.  Now
>comes the really strange part -- I had just bought a book off the
>clearance-sale table at the Washington U bookstore: THREE-FISTED TALES OF
>BOB, by Stang, a SubGenius book.  In it is a short piece by Robert Anton
>Wilson, who I like, so I read it first.  In that, there is a reference to
>HOLY BLOOD!  This bizarre coincidence seems to be a Divine message to look
>at these Baigent et al books. (The hand of "Bob" works in mysterious ways! :-)
> 
>These books seem to be some sort of reference to conspiracy theories,
>but what I don't know is if they are serious or if they are spoofs, like
>Wilson's books are. I found them listed in the St. Louis public library
>on-line catalog, and have requested them, so should be getting copies
>next week. What can anyone tell me about these? 

Yup, thy're certainly serious, and lots of good clean paranoia inducing
fun. These guys are great researchers, and manage to come up with the
most astounding cross references about all sorts of stuff.

> 
>Are there other books in this same genre I should look at?

There is one more by Baigent & Leigh, `The Temple & the Lodge', about
the Templars and their connection to the Freemasons. It's been mentioned
here in the last couple of days re the Masonic symbols woven into the
architecture of Washington, D.C.

The order of the books is Blood, Temple/Lodge, Legacy, Scrolls, but
only Blood and Legacy (those including Lincoln) are sequential in
content. They hinge on the observation of the pun in the 11th cent.
French origin of the phrase holy grail. The word grail had no prior
usage, and appeared in a style of story called the `grail romance',
which became popular at that time. It initially had an unspecified
allegorical meaning, reminiscent of some sufi stories (this was at 
the time of the crusades - lots of moslem influences) but became
more concrete with time, first being some kind of box, then finally
taking the form of the chalice in later stories. (Who the authors
were is another interesting question.) At any rate in french,
holy grail is san greal; which sounds the same as sang real,
which means royal blood. The thesis is that the grail romances
hid a story of a lost french royal bloodline, the Merovingians,
who were overthrown by the family of Charlemagne. But this is
just the tip of the iceberg, as you'll see when you read it.
They manage to tie in everything from the treasure of Solomon's
Temple to the Cathar heresy to the toasting of Jacque de Molay.

Great fun!

>Thanks for any info anyone can provide regarding these!

No problem!
> 
>Regards, Will
>wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil
===========================================================================
A cynic's world is comprised                          Pete Vincent
of fools and other cynics

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