kisma Johnson's blog: "The Lost Ark"

The Holy Grail is an enduring mystery. However, it is often difficult to define just what it is. Traditionally, it is thought to be the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper, but its meaning has gone far beyond this physical artifact. Rather, it is often seen as symbolic of enlightenment in the mind. It is the quest for the mystical experience, and a connection with the God-head. By connecting, you reach a state of purity. Many myths have gathered around the Grail. Typical are those concerning King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. In this respect, the Grail Quest becomes one of aspiration, purity and bonding. Of course, such myths and ideals are said not to play a large part in our lives. After all, it is just make-believe. But could it be that the purpose of Grail myths was to form a distinct mentality within society? The Grail became synonymous with chivalric purity. This was the ultimate way to be in Medieval times. The whole lifestyle of the Knight was geared around it. In this sense, it was a specific politicism. Arguably, this was the purpose behind the writing of the Grail romances, such as those by Chretien de Troyes, slowly changing the original legends to represent the Medieval Knightly purpose. In a way, this is quite worrying. One of the most beautiful mythologies of Christianity actually turned into a form of social control. But then again, it could well have been remebered for this reason in itself. The important point about the Grail quest is the idea of ‘purity’ or ‘perfection’. It is something to aim for in life. But there is a simple fact about perfection. It cannot ever be attained. We are human, and always have faults. Icons have always appeared displaying perfection. Typical is the ‘saint’. Such an icon was lauded in Medieval times to show what the person should aim for. Knowing it was impossible, this confirmed in the person the idea that he was a sinner. In this way, the person at least tried to better himself. But this was only achievable in a system that confirmed the idea of perfection to be attained. Thus, the authorities behind the ideal had, in the idea of perfection, the ultimate form of control over the person. We can, of course, say we’ve left such things behind. Yet, today we have a ‘celebrity’ culture, populated by people who we class as having the ‘perfection’ of lifestyle or beauty. And it is the purpose of the typical western citizen to aspire to this ideal. This is done through consumerism, where the celebrity urges us to buy, buy, buy. And of course, deep down we know we cannot really be like them, thus we are imperfect, the modern equivalent of the sinner. Thus, we have an impulse towards social control still active today after some 2,000 years, and just as potent as it ever was – albeit, represented in very different cultural clothes. In personal terms, the Grail can be of great benefit to the person in finding themselves. But in wider society the process turns into something much more malign. We are often told that such subjects are of no value today. The above suggests different. We maybe need to understand such concepts even more, for they can be the root to subservience.

The Oxford laboratory that declared the Turin Shroud to be a medieval fake 20 years ago is investigating claims that its findings were wrong. The head of the world-renowned laboratory has admitted that carbon dating tests it carried out on Christendom's most famous relic may be inaccurate. The Turin Shroud on display in Turin's Cathedral Carbon dating tests carried out 20 years ago on the Shroud of Turin suggested that the relic was a forgery Professor Christopher Ramsey, the director of the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, said he was treating seriously a new theory suggesting that contamination had skewed the results. Though he stressed that he would be surprised if the supposedly definitive 1988 tests were shown to be far out - especially "a thousand years wrong" - he insisted that he was keeping an open mind. The development will re-ignite speculation about the four-meter linen sheet, which many believe bears the miraculous image of the crucified Christ. The original carbon dating was carried out on a sample by researchers working separately in laboratories in Zurich and Arizona as well as Oxford. To the dismay of Christians, the researchers concluded that the shroud was created between 1260 and 1390, and was therefore likely to be a forgery devised in the Middle Ages. Even Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, the then Cardinal of Turin, conceded that the relic was probably a hoax. advertisement There have been numerous theories purporting to explain how the tests could have produced false results, but so far they have all been rejected by the scientific establishment. Many people remain convinced that the shroud is genuine. Prof Ramsey, an expert in the use of carbon dating in archeological research, is conducting fresh experiments that could explain how a genuinely old linen could produce "younger" dates. The results, which are due next month, will form part of a documentary on the Turin Shroud that is being broadcast on BBC 2 on Easter Saturday. David Rolfe, the director of the documentary, said it was hugely significant that Prof Ramsey had thought it necessary to carry out further tests that could challenge the original dating. He said that previous hypotheses, put forward to explain how the cloth could be older than the 1988 results suggested, had been "rejected out of hand". "The main reason is that the contamination levels on the cloth that would have been needed to distort the results would have to be equivalent to the actual sample itself," he said. "But this new theory only requires two per cent contamination to skew the results by 1,500 years. Moreover, it springs from published data about the behavour of carbon-14 in the atmosphere which was unknown when the original tests were carried out 20 years ago." Mr Rolfe added that the documentary, presented by Rageh Omaar, the former BBC correspondent, would also contain new archeological and historical evidence supporting claims that the shroud was a genuine burial cloth. The film will focus on two other recorded relics, the Shroud of Constantinople, which is said to have been stolen by Crusaders in 1204, and the Shroud of Jerusalem that wrapped Jesus's body and which, according to John's Gospel, had such a profound effect when it was discovered. According to Mr Rolfe, the documentary will produce convincing evidence that these are one and the same as the Shroud of Turin, adding credence to the belief that it dates back to Christ's death.

1. SO HOW OLD IS IT? This whole thing started when Fred (my neighbour) plopped down on my porch. And he asked me, "Did you see that TV program that said the Amazon jungle was several million years old?" "Yes," I responded. "But, Fred, what if it's only 3,000 years old?" "You're having me on," he laughed. "Why, everyone knows..." No, I'm not kidding. Were you aware that huge stone cities, very ancient, with paved streets and tall pyramids choked with forest, have been sighted in the Amazon jungle by several explorers in recent years? These mysterious cities were built when the climate in the Amazon basin was more temperate and the rivers drained a fertile area, but BEFORE the jungle took over. (By the way, that's the very climatic situation one might expect in the aftermath of a global Flood.) Did you know that when cities were first built in South America, the whole Amazon basin was a shallow inland sea? And some Brazilian scientists say they have evidence that this Amazon Sea existed AS RECENTLY AS 1200 BC? BEFORE THE JUNGLE GREW In those early days, when South America was still free of jungle, the human race had already settled and built a civilisation. Perhaps you have no idea how wonderful and elaborate these cities were. The citizens wall-papered their houses with thin sheets of beaten gold. You can see further details in the book Dead Men's Secrets - available at http://beforeus.com The cities were built by people with fine features. They used gold coinage and operated fleets. Their buildings were of shining white stone. Their cities boasted magnificent plazas, paved streets, ornamented temples, round-topped pyramids, mansions and fountains. They erected lighthouses and used lenses and reflectors, the elements of the telescope. And the cities were walled - not against savages, but the mighty gulf, or sea, of the Maranon (the Amazon Sea). Some of their ruins have been seen, so this is not fantasy. Many of their alphabetic letters are identical with those of the Phoenicians and Greeks, 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. According to native traditions, they used a light source akin to our electric bulb. "EXPERTS" IN DENIAL Recently a scientific "expert" wrote that the Amazon jungle has been there for millions of years, that only primitives have lived there. Traditional "experts", I fear me, often constitute near tragedy. Little of what is known has found its way into textbooks. Our sacred theory of evolution is at risk if this information gets out. The truth is: Overwhelming evidence exists that South America was well known in antiquity. Before the jungle took over, it was resplendent with great cities. Mighty empires spanned the continent. They knew how to write. And global communication in the distant past equalled that of modern times. It is abundantly clear that history needs to be rewritten. 2. CITIES DESTROYED - SURVIVORS DEGRADE This raises THE SECOND QUESTION: why do primitive tribes worldwide have NO traditions of having evolved UP from a sub-human past, but rather that they DE-volved from superior ancestors? Here is the truth. After the cities were destroyed by earthquakes, volcanism or war, the survivors degenerated into a primitive lifestyle. Before long, the green forest covered the whole landscape. Many ancient traditions survive of an advanced culture which flourished thousands of years ago to the north and west of the Brazilian highlands. Their descendants are now scattered as primitive tribes throughout the jungle. PRIMITIVE DESCENDANTS RETAIN LEGACY Again, traditional "experts" tell us that writing was unknown in South America. Wrong again! Books of wonderfully executed paintings and hieroglyphics have been found among naked Panos savages of the deep Peruvian forests near the gorge of the Ucayle, in the Amazon headwaters, in the eighteenth century. The Indians explained that the books, handed down, contained a history of events in the days of their ancestors. The pages of fine cotton, in external appearance resembling modern quarto leaves, were bound with a cover, glued together and fastened by agave threads. One of these ancient books was acquired by Fray Narcissus Gilbar and sent to Lima to be inspected by P. Cisneros, compiler of a periodical called El Mercurio Peruano. A number of people inspected it. Every page was covered in paintings and organised lines of hieroglyphic style characters. So here we have modern savages, living in a primitive state, but with a heritage passed down from superior ancestors.

When last we saw the lost Ark of the Covenant in action, it had been dug up by Indiana Jones in Egypt and ark-napped by Nazis, whom the Ark proceeded to incinerate amidst a tempest of terrifying apparitions. But according to Tudor Parfitt, a real life scholar-adventurer, Raiders of the Lost Ark had it wrong, and the Ark is actually nowhere near Egypt. In fact, Parfitt claims he has traced it (or a replacement container for the original Ark), to a dusty bottom shelf in a museum in Harare, Zimbabwe. As Indiana Jones's creators understood, the Ark is one of the Bible's holiest objects, and also one of its most maddening McGuffins. A wooden box, roughly 4 ft. x 2 ft. x 2.5 ft., perhaps gold-plated and carried on poles inserted into rings, it appears in the Good Book variously as the container for the Ten Commandments (Exodus 25:16: "and thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee"); the very locus of God's earthly presence; and as a divine flamethrower that burns obstacles and also crisps some careless Israelites. It is too holy to be placed on the ground or touched by any but the elect. It circles Jericho behind the trumpets to bring the walls tumbling down. The Bible last places the Ark in Solomon's temple, which Babylonians destroyed in 586 BC. Scholars debate its current locale (if any): under the Sphinx? Beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount (or, to Muslims, the Noble Sanctuary)? In France? Near London's Temple tube station? Parfitt, 63, is a professor at the University of London's prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies. His new book, The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark (HarperOne) along with a History Channel special scheduled for March 2 would appear to risk a fine academic reputation on what might be called a shaggy Ark story. But the professor has been right before, and his Ark fixation stems from his greatest coup. In the 1980s Parfitt lived with a Southern African clan called the Lemba, who claimed to be a lost tribe of Israel. Colleagues laughed at him for backing the claim; in 1999, a genetic marker specific to descendents of Judaism's Temple priests (cohens) was found to appear as frequently among the Lemba's priestly cast as in Jews named Cohen. The Lemba — and Parfitt — made global news. Parfitt started wondering about another aspect of the Lemba's now-credible oral history: a drumlike object called the ngoma lungundu. The ngoma, according to the Lemba, was near-divine, used to store ritual objects, and borne on poles inserted into rings. It was too holy to touch the ground or to be touched by non-priests, and it emitted a "Fire of God" that killed enemies and, occasionally, Lemba. A Lemba elder told Parfitt, "[It] came from the temple in Jerusalem. We carried it down here through Africa." That story, by Parfitt's estimation, is partly true, partly not. He is not at all sure, and has no way of really knowing, whether the Lemba's ancestors left Jerusalem simultaneously with the Ark (assuming, of course, that it left at all). However, he has a theory as to where they might eventually have converged. Lemba myth venerates a city called Senna. In modern-day Yemen, in an area with people genetically linked to the Lemba, Parfitt found a ghost town by that name. It's possible that the Lemba could have migrated there from Jerusalem by a spice route — and from Senna, via a nearby port, they could have launched the long sail down the African coast. As for the Ark? Before Islam, Arabia contained many Jewish-controlled oases, and in the 500s AD, the period's only Jewish kingdom. It abutted Senna. In any case, the area might have beckoned to exiled Jews bearing a special burden. Parfitt also found eighth-century accounts of the Ark in Arabia, by Jews-turned-Muslims. He posits that at some undefined point the Lemba became the caretakers of the Ark, or the ngoma. Parfitt's final hunt for the ngoma, which dropped from sight in the 1940s, landed him in sometimes-hostile territory ("Bullets shattered the rear screen," of his car, he writes). Ark leads had guided him to Egypt, Ethiopia and even New Guinea, until one day last fall his clues led him to a storeroom of the Harare Museum of Human Science in Zimbabwe. There, amidst nesting mice, was an old drum with an uncharacteristic burnt-black bottom hole ("As if it had been used like a cannon," Parfitt notes), the remains of carrying rings on its corners; and a raised relief of crossed reeds that Parfitt thinks reflects an Old Testament detail. "I felt a shiver go down my spine," he writes. Parfitt thinks that whatever the supernatural character of Ark, it was, like the ngoma, a combination of reliquary, drum and primitive weapon, fueled with a somewhat unpredictable proto-gunpowder. That would explain the unintentional conflagrations. The drum element is the biggest stretch, since scripture never straightforwardly describes the Ark that way. He bases his supposition on the Ark's frequent association with trumpets, and on aspects of a Bible passage where King David dances in its presence. Parfitt admits that such a multipurpose object would be "very bizarre" in either culture, but insists, "that's an argument for a connection between them." So, had he found the Ark? Yes and no, he concluded. A splinter has carbon-dated the drum to 1350 AD — ancient for an African wood artifact, but 2,500 years after Moses. Undaunted, Parfitt asserts that "this is the Ark referred to in Lemba tradition" — Lemba legend has it that the original ngoma destroyed itself some 400 years ago and had to be rebuilt on its own "ruins" — "constructed by priests to replace the previous Ark. There can be little doubt that what I found is the last thing on earth in direct descent from the Ark of Moses." Well, perhaps a little doubt. "It seems highly unlikely to me," says Shimon Gibson, a noted biblical archaeologist to whom Parfitt has described his project. "You have to make tremendous leaps." Those who hope to find the original biblical item, moreover, will likely reject Parfitt's claim that the best we can do is an understudy. Animating all searches for the Ark is the hope — and fear — that it will retain the unbridled divine power the Old Testament describes. What would such a wonder look like in our postmodern world? What might it do? Parfitt's passionately crafted new theory, like his first, could eventually be proven right. But if so, unlike the fiction in the movies, it would deny us an explosive resolution.

"TELL ME" SHE BEGGED Kirsty was bubbling. "I only just heard!" she exclaimed."But I'm told you already know about this." She crashed onto a chair and looked me straight in the eye. "Well, what do you know about them - about those six Israelis dressed as Levitical priests who tried to get into the chamber?" I just looked at her. But she was not going to let go. "You've got to tell me," she pressed. "You know, the chamber that contains the Ark... the Ark of the Covenant. Well... what happened to them? Were they rabbis?" I paused for a few moments, studying her wide eyes, and wondering how much should be revealed. "We don’t know if they were rabbis or not," I replied. "However, we were in Jerusalem at the time. And we had direct inter-action with one person involved. "The Ark of the Covenant is calculated to be 370 feet north of the old city wall of Jerusalem - which would locate it in occupied Arab territory. "As you may be aware, the late Yasser Arafat had every intention of getting Jerusalem back, including this area. And the U.N. and the United States seemed to be intent on forcing Israel to accept that situation. Well, it seems the Israeli authorities wanted to move the Ark of the Covenant out of occupied territory, into their own territory. So, reportedly, they allowed or arranged for six men, who were dressed in the ancient Levitical garb, to go in and move the Ark." YOU DON'T ASK TOO MANY QUESTIONS This is a rather sensitive issue, I explained to Kirsty. In fact, in matters like this you don't ask too many questions. One learns from experience that it's best not to get too nosey. To put you, as well as Kirsty, in the picture, my wife Josephine and I had arranged to meet our archaeologist friend Ron in Jerusalem. However, on this occasion he was delayed in Nashville, Tennesseee, due to a minor operation. Our schedule demanded that we fly out before he arrived. On visits to Israel, Ron has quite often stopped by the Antiquities office and asked if there was anything he could help them with. He had some electronic equipment and some experience using it, so our team was able to help find things that they sometimes had problems locating. With electronics, one can, for example, see if there is something in a cave, before going to the bother of opening it. So the Antiquities guys have had the team do some of this. On this particular occasion they just said, “Well, yes, we do have a problem you can help us with.” So that night Ron was to meet them down at Zedekiah’s Cave. They went in. Once inside the cave, at the entrance to the tunnel that goes north, they stopped. WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? The Antiquities men announced: “Six men went down this tunnel to move the Ark to a safer place. And they didn’t come out. Would you go see what happened to them?” Well, the Israelis are not cowards, by any stretch of the imagination. As it was, the six missing men who entered the tunnel had walkie-talkies (two-way radios). Undoubtedly they were in contact with others at the entrance to the tunnel. We can only surmise that they must have made some horrifying noises as they died. Otherwise some people would have gone in to see what happened to them. Nobody would go in. Well, when Ron went in, there were the six men, all dead. From the beginning of the tunnel in Zedekiah’s Cave to the actual chamber containing the Ark of the Covenant is an estimated 370 feet (about 114 meters). The six men had progressed approximately 70 feet (21 meters) along the tunnel when they died. All of them died of stroke. In my subsequent investigation of the event, I was informed that every one of them was found with both eyes crossed – which a medical doctor assured me was evidence of a bilateral stroke ( a stroke occurring on both sides of the body). This allegedly befell all six of them. Anyway, when Ron saw what had happened, he went back out and told the Antiquities guys. They had brought along some rescue baskets made of light-weight alloy, with ropes tied to them, in case Ron was able to go in. So he took a basket, and picked up the bodies one at a time, and put them in the basket, holding it upright, as the men at the tunnel entrance pulled the basket out. When they got one to the entrance of the tunnel, Ron took another one, then went back and did another, until they got all six of the bodies out. Ron didn’t ask what they did with them. He didn’t ask anything. He was asked not to say anything. But this did appear in a couple of newspapers – that there had been six Israelis who had died in an effort to retrieve a national artefact. Because it was in the papers, some folk have asked if we knew about it. The answer, of course, is yes. For this reason I have shared the above information. This incident may remind you of some Old Testament accounts in which unauthorised men who approached, touched or looked into the Ark dropped dead. So apparently, nothing has changed. The Ark remains a very sacred object. And if you ask me, it will remain where it is and no one will move it. WALKING ON A KNIFE EDGE Of course, as you are aware, Israel today is on tenterhooks. The government is nervous. It does not want war. Neither do most of the people, whether Israeli or Arab. But it is against this background that we must view the current official attitude toward the reported Ark of the Covenant discovery. You won't get them to admit much. Whatever way you view it, that ancient golden chest from Solomon's Temple is potentially the most explosive object on earth… archaeologically, politically and religiously. The barrier of silence should not surprise us. In virtually every country, official denials of numerous matters are standard procedure. And in such cases, almost all personnel even in the department concerned are kept in the dark. CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE A classic example of the denials policy in action was seen in April, 1995, after Channel 7 radio in Israel broke the news that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had met with the Pope with a proposal to place the Old City of Jerusalem under Vatican control. Israel's ambassador in Rome, Shmuel Hadas, and Peres himself, denied such a plan. However, a copy of a telegram sent by Miriam Ziv to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, outlining Peres' planes, surfaced and was printed in the "Hatzofe" newspaper. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told the "Jewish Press" that: "This is similar to Peres' denial that there was ever a letter with promises to Arafat about Jerusalem and later the letter surfaced. Now this telegram was revealed. Who knows what else they are concealing from the public?" (Issue of April 14-20, 1995) IT'S TIME TO SPEAK UP Anyway, Ronnie, something has to be told. So, after much consideration, I'm about to rip apart a curtain of silence about the Ark. Yes, yes... I know. The Ark's been reported in Ethiopia... in Jordan... in Egypt... and a dozen other places. Indeed, there have to be replicas. But originals? There can be only one. And that's what we're talking about. You won't want to miss this incredible true story. Here are revealed the down-to-earth inside secrets about a lost treasure... a dangerous search... and an almost unbelievable discovery claim. And yet, when you face all the strands of evidence, what else could it be? I'll take you along a trail of archaeological surprises, through forgotten history and right up until now. Why did an Israeli ex-Secret service agent say to me, "you have just filled in the missing gaps in what I already knew"? What sinister secret associated with the Ark is being covered up?

At its most glamorous, the life of an experimental high-energy physicist consists of smashing obscure subatomic particles with futuristic-sounding names into each other to uncover truths about the universe—using science's biggest, most expensive toys in exciting locations such as Switzerland or Illinois. But it takes a decade or two to plan and build multibillion-dollar atom smashers. While waiting, what's a thrill-seeking physicist to do? How about using some of the perfectly good, and completely free, subatomic particles that rain down on Earth from space every day to peek inside something really big and mysterious, like, say, a Mayan pyramid? That's exactly what physicist Roy Schwitters of the University of Texas at Austin is preparing to do. High-energy particles known as muons, which are born of cosmic radiation, have ideal features for creating images of very large or dense objects. Muons easily handle situations that hinder other imaging techniques. Ground-penetrating radar, for instance, can reach only 30 meters below the surface under ideal conditions. And seismic reflection, another method, doesn't fare well in a complex medium. With muons, all you need is a way to capture them and analyze their trajectories. Besides probing pyramids in Belize and Mexico, physicists are applying the muon method to studying active volcanoes and detecting nuclear materials. The concept sounds out of this world, but it's really quite simple. When cosmic rays hit the Earth's atmosphere, collisions with the nuclei of air atoms spawn subatomic particles called pions that quickly decay into muons that continue along the same path. Many of the muons survive long enough to penetrate the Earth's surface. Because of their high energy, the particles can easily pass through great volumes of rock or metal or whatever else they encounter.

Most people have heard of King Arthur, but how many really know what he really was? We know of a character half mythological in his existence, but is there more to King Arthur than meets the eye? Indeed, in understanding King Arthur, can we grasp a better understanding of other icons, such as those of the present day like Elvis Presley, or Marilyn Monroe, or Diana, Princess of Wales? I think the Arthurian Legend speaks volumes. CAMELOT AND CO The story is a simple one. A questioning boy realises his destiny when he pulls a sword from a stone, guaranteeing him invincible powers. This is the beginning of the story of the greatest of British heroes, King Arthur. And what we see is a representation of spiritual action leading to a form of charisma, as if young Arthur has transformed himself from a doubting wreck to a potentially great man. It is the story of all mythological heroes. Arthur goes on to establish Camelot and his Knights of the Round Table, assisted by the magician Merlin, and wife Guinevere. Slowly, a deeper spiritual quest manifests, imbuing each knight to transform himself. This is the quest for the Holy Grail, which will bring purity. And the search consumes them, puts them all on their own heroic path. This form of transition is vital to Arthur and the Knights, but also to society as a whole. For as the quest for the Holy Grail continues, the story of Merlin, the great pagan wizard, fades into its final outcome, as he becomes entrapped by his own magic. This is not only a story of the mythological character, but also the story of the times. For the story narrates known history, with a tranformation during the Dark Ages from paganism to Christianity. Merlin is that paganism, guaranteed to die out, whilst the Holy Grail represents the purity of the new Christian ideals arising. Eventually, Arthur is killed, and in his death a transformation appears in society, changing from a wasteland to the Medieval world. OF FOLKLORE PAST The story of Arthur has a folklorist beginning in the many tales in ancient Britain of the Fisher King, a wounded hero who transforms society by searching for his own cure - a cure that requires his death for society to change, thus encompassing all aspects of the modern icon, who changes society best if he dies young and tragically. However, Arthur is thought, also, to be based on a real person - a Roman general who stayed in Britain after the Roman Empire collapsed, helping the Celts to fight the Saxon invaders. A 6th century manuscript by a monk called Gildas mentions a great victory by the Britons at Mount Badon, an unknown location, but does not mention a leader. A later ‘History of the Britons’ by the Welsh cleric Nennius lists a further eleven earlier battles all won by the commander-in-chief, Arthur. Appearing in the early 9th century, it also mentions a certain miraculousness about him. In the poem, ‘The Spoils of Annwn’ a century later, he is going overseas in search of a magic cauldron, a similar concept to the future Grail. MEDIEVAL ROMANCE By the 1130s Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ appeared, Arthur portrayed as a weak character, but the centre of Medieval romance, elements of the Fisher King making a definite appearance. We also find here the mystery of Arthur’s birth and youth, the known infidelity of Guinevere with his knight Lancelot adding a touch of scandal, his defeat by Mordred and his mortal wounding and burial on the Isle of Avalon. Glastonbury was then to become the centre of Arthurian legend when, about 1150, the ‘Life of St Gildas’ appeared, detailing how the Abbot of Glastonbury once helped Arthur. In 1180, the monks of Glastonbury confirmed the importance of hoax in such stories, when they claimed to find Arthur’s grave in the Abbey’s Lady Chapel - the bones of a large man and a woman. A cross by the grave said: ‘Here lies the famous King Arthur in the Isle of Avalon buried.’ At the time, Glastonbury was separated from the sea by marshes, so could appear to be an island. Twelve miles away is an ancient fort on Cadbury Hill, often thought of as the home of Camelot. Over the couple of centuries following, other elements entered the story, including Excalibur, his sword, and the Round Table itself, the whole myth as presently told coming together in Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th century ‘Morte d’Arthur’, or Death of Arthur. Malory’s main source was the writings of 12th century Frenchman, Chretien de Troyes, which included the myth of the Holy Grail. Chretien himself was influenced by Christian mystic Bernard of Clairvaux, the force behind mystical chivalry and the Knights Templar, embodying what the Medieval world stood for. Hence, we find in Arthur a forever re-formulating story - a conspiracy, if you like - with the man being a reflection of his society; an embodiment and force-for-change in society - the ultimate icon. SOCIETY-CHANGING ICONS King Arthur is therefore an early template for the icon today. Whilst such icons may not be particularly religious, nor political in terms of what they do for history, the similar life pattern – going from average child, to questioning soul, to charismatic, and finally to icon - nonetheless results in similar social change. At a societal level the processes are identical. For instance, Presley invented modern youth, with all the consequent social changes involved. Diana embodied the new touchy-feeliness of society and validated it. The cultural interpretation may change and be very different, but the psychological and social mechanisms involved are timeless. Such concepts tie the psychology of an icon to the sociology of followers. And nowhere is this more obvious than in fashion. In a real sense a follower subverts his life to echo the life of his icon. He wears similar clothes, adopts similar language and follows similar traits. Although secular in nature, the followers of an icon are partially taken over and become devoted in the same way as a cult disciple or a Christian who follows the ways of the Bible. In other words, the process is identical to age-old religion, and represents a real mechanism of social control. The icon becomes a real expression of a Jungian archetype, literally getting under the skin of society, the process becoming almost unconscious in the way it affects us. CHANGING REALITIES Of course, the really great icons are those who die young and tragically. And it is here where conspiracy theory seems to play an important part in the process of iconography. In nearly all cases of modern icons - King, the two Kennedys, Monroe, Presley, Lennon, Diana - death was tragic, but the result of accident, over-indulgence, suicide, or assassination by a loner. But this is insufficient for the creation of a legend; the process by which immortality is assured. A legend must have mystery and a touch of the fantastic. Hence, just as Arthur’s life and death have been changed and embellished over time, an icon’s death must be changed. Facts must go out of the window, and the event becomes relative to interpretation after the event. The event, and its later perception, conspire to produce an event which rises the icon above normal humanity. The icon is turned, through mystery, conspiracy and a re-telling of the story, into a god. By Anthony North, December 2007

Essay by Johnathan Gray There is a man in India who has been staring at the sun every day for 20 years! He went blind after six months of his sun staring, but he still gazes upwards with his ghostly, SIGHTLESS eyes! Poor man! But, guess what! It’s good news for some people. Oh, come on! Good news? What are you talking about? …I hear someone say. Very well, have you heard the name Lucifer? Just in case you were not aware, “Lucifer” means“shining, burning light”,and historically has been applied to the arch-rebel against the Creator, the sun being his symbol. In all my archaeology researches, one sure thing comes up – ancient civilizations were not dumb. In many respects, their technology surpassed ours. These ancient cultures had access to information that many of us don’t know about. And they were convinced that an entity known as Lucifer, and his band of deceivers, had hijacked this planet. They firmly believed that, behind the scenes, he controlled world governments and their people. And they were aware that the attitude of the Legion of Lucifer toward the human race was one of jealousy, hatred and sadism. Lucifer was also known as Satan, or the devil. And what a mean character! …obsessed with a passion that men and women would honor him, instead of their Maker. His sign was the writhing, creeping serpent, or snake. And this was ultimately to inspire the birth of a number of religious movements to worship the snake, even to our day. Oh, come on, I hear someone say. Why would intelligent people honor something so repulsive – a reptile that everyone feared and despised? Actually, the solution wasn’t so difficult, when you think about it. Would you like to know how the instigators pulled it off? CODED IN A PROPHECY You’ll find the key in the world’s oldest prophecy – a prophecy celebrated by the Greeks, the Mexicans, Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians and others. You see, all civilizations believed that the first man and woman had fallen under the power of this evil character and his crew. These civilizations also believed that the Creator had promised mankind rescue. The original prophecy was encoded in these terms: When the Deliverer (“the woman’s Seed”) comes, the serpent will wound him in the heel. However, the Deliverer will finally win, by crushing the serpent’s head. The expectation was BIG worldwide, concerning this Coming One. In the very earliest times, this expected Messiah was associated with the bringing of spiritual light to the hearts of men and women. THE IMPOSTER Now fast forward to the time of Nimrod, on the plain of Shinar, Mesopotamia, about 2200 BC. In those miserable climatic conditions following the Great Flood, the sun soon came to be looked upon with special regard. Combine that with a popular desire for physical images of the deity, and it was a simple matter for some to begin adoring the sun. Thus, under the influence of Nimrod, sun worship was instituted with comparable ease. Nimrod’s crafty theologians now began their twisting and turning. Their aim: to get Lucifer honoured. It’s so clever, you’ll hardly believe it! Whereas the expected Messiah, in the earliest times, was associated with the bringing of spiritual LIGHT, this symbolic meaning was now insidiously displaced by ‘actuality’, physical LIGHT, represented by the sun. This process of corruption began at Babel, in Mesopotamia. Then, as the people were ultimately dispersed over the earth, they took it with them. And so, all over this planet, sun-plates and sun-pillars began to arise. And the smoke of strange altars ascended to honor the sun god, who became the highest god. NOT AN INNOCENT INVENTION Was sun worship just an innocent thing, into which people might have naturally, and innocently drifted? Come on gang. It’s time to get real. It was a carefully engineered plan. Now watch the deliberate subterfuge. Are you ready for this? Here it comes… In the original world language, the sun was called “Shemesh” – “Servant”. One may suspect that this name was originally given, to keep in mind the fact that, however glorious was the orb of day, it was, after all, no more than a servant of mankind! So earth’s inhabitants looked into the sky and in the First Tongue of mankind called it “Shemesh”, the Servant. Then was engineered the Nimrod conspiracy – which was a conscious move to purposely put the servant in the place of the unseen Master, the Creator. To get popular support, it would never do to keep calling the sun “servant”. So the crafty priests came up with the decision to call the sun “Lord”. In their language, the word “Baal” meant Lord… the Supreme Master… a totally opposite meaning! So “Baal” was the new name given to the sun. A DELIBERATE change, you see! Centuries rolled on. And at dawn services, from Asia to Europe to South America, royal families, nobles and common people stood silent and still, their eyes turned toward the east, awaiting the great moment when the first brilliant red rays should shine forth above the horizon. In some countries, a human image representing the sun was worshipped by casting live children into the fire in its belly. And who was behind this devilish development? Who was giving orders for this to take place? It was coming from séance sessions, if you please! Someone was setting the people up! Some entities who loved to feed on human misery. THE SERPENT – LUCIFER’S OTHER SYMBOL In exploring the remotest archaeological sites on earth, the most consistent symbol I have found, apart from the symbol of the sun, was that of the snake. Sun worship and serpent worship went together. In the mythology of the ancient world, the serpent is universally the symbol of the sun. In Egypt, one of the commonest symbols of the sun, or sun god, is a disc with a serpent around it. You ask, how did this link come about? Well, all nations had in their traditions the memory of the reptile serpent turning their first parents against the Creator. For this reason, the snake became a special emblem for Lucifer, or Satan, the tempter. Should it surprise us, then, to discover that a deliberate plan was hatched for snake worship to feature at the top of this new religious system being set up for the world to follow? HOW TO GET THE SNAKE ACCEPTED Wait a minute! Isn’t that a tall order? How on earth could you ever get the serpent revered? After all, human beings generally fear snakes… even hate them. Right? That’s true. So how to go about it? FIVE SHREWD STEPS Here comes the strategy. Stage One. Nimrod’s priests were already saying that the Great Flood had proceeded from the evil principle. So the great serpent (the evil principle) became a symbol of the Flood. So there is Step one – the snake became a recognised public symbol… even if it was for something bad. Now watch everything fall into place… Just follow these subtle changes… 1. LUCIFER (THE “SERPENT”) AN EVIL HIJACKER Firstly, the belief that Lucifer had taken maliciously over this planet was accepted worldwide. His team of fallen rebels were known by the Greeks as Teitans. In the Chaldean system, Teitan was just a synonym for Typhon, the malignant Serpent or Dragon, who was universally regarded as the Devil, or author of all wickedness. 2. NIMROD THE HEROIC “SERPENT CRUSHER” Secondly, in life the king of Babel, Nimrod, had been a hero. With his hunting bands, he had delivered the straggling populations from the fear of wild beasts. After Nimrod’s violent death, his widow Semiramus spread the word that Nimrod had been the promised Deliverer. And that her newborn child Tammuz was Nimrod returning as the promised Deliverer, to become the bruiser of the serpent’s head. This meant that he was going to destroy Lucifer’s rule over the planet. So it was that the Greeks would ultimately represent their great god Apollo as slaying the serpent Pytho; and Hercules as strangling serpents while yet in his cradle. In Egypt, in India, in Scandinavia, in Mexico, we find clear allusions to the same great truth. Later, in Egypt, the child-god Horus, known also as “the seed”, would be portrayed as standing on the head of a crocodile and as bruising serpents in his hands. Likewise in India, the malignant serpent Calyia is slain by Vishnu, in his avatar of Krishna. Again, the Scandinavian deity Thor was said to have bruised the head of the great serpent with his mace. All these can be traced back to the original prophecy – which is recorded in the book of Genesis. Concerning a similar belief among the Mexicans, Humboldt observes: The serpent crushed by the great spirit Teotl, when he takes the form of one of the subaltern deities, is the genius of evil – a real Kakodaemon. (Humboldt, Mexican Researches, vol. I, p. 228) In the legend of the Indian god Krishna, he is represented in pictures and images with his foot on the serpent’s head. (Coleman, Indian Mythology, Plate xii, p. 34) And then, after destroying it, he is fabled to have died as the result of being shot by an arrow in the foot. (Pococke, India in Greece, p. 300) Significantly, in almost all cases, when the subject is examined to the bottom, it turns out that the serpent-destroying god is represented as enduring hardships and sufferings that end in his death. Not so good for Lucifer and his mob. How on earth could this be twisted around so that Lucifer could receive worship? Easy. Get the pagan theologians onto the job. And they came up with this clever twist… 3. CONSOLE AND BEFRIEND THE SERPENT Step three: Give Lucifer himself a certain measure of respect, to “console him for the loss of his power,” and to prevent him from hurting them. And so that’s exactly what the pagans actually came to say. (Plutarch, De Iside, vol. ii, p. 362) 4. LINK THE SERPENT TO THE PRESTIGIOUS SUN Step four: A logical follow through was now to link the sun and serpent together. And here, apparently, was the reason given: that as the sun was the great enlightener of the physical world, so the serpent was the great enlightener of the spiritual. And why was that claimed? Well, wasn’t it the serpent that gave mankind the “knowledge of good and evil”? This, of course, referred back to Eve, the first woman, who was told in her first encounter, in the satanic séance, that if she turned her back on the Creator and instead followed the fallen Lucifer, she would “become enlightened to all the good things that God wants to conceal” from her. The introduction of the serpent into the Eastern Mysteries as the great enlightener was no innocent accident. On the part of the ringleaders, this was nothing less than a deliberate and daring perversion of a known truth. An ignorant move? Don’t kid yourself. It was well planned, deliberate and controlled. 5. RAISE THE SERPENT TO TOP POSITION Step five: And finally, this serpent-dragon, or Teitan or Satan, became the supreme object of worship. Hence the Titania, or rites of Teitan, eventually occupied a prominent place in the Egyptian Mysteries and also in those of Greece. Honestly, Ronnie, lately, so many emails have come in asking about these multiple messiah gods of Mexico, Egypt, Greece, India and everywhere else, that I just HAD TO pull together all the crucial data. If I can get some people thinking, it will be worth it. The questions are numerous: * Were there at least 16 avatars/saviors/messiahs before Jesus Christ – for example, Krishna, Mithra, Osiris, Thoth, Prometheus, Buddha, Quetzalcoatl? * Was Jesus just a fairy tale copied from pagan “christs”? * Why are the stories and teachings of Jesus Christ, Krishna and Buddha so remarkably similar? * Why do their mythologies have uncanny parallels – for example, virgin birth, a December 25 birthday, saviors of royal descent, a violent death, a resurrection, ascensions, and so on? * Is Christianity recycled paganism? * Is the Bible so unreliable, you cannot trust what it tells you? * Has it been tampered with? * Are churches covering up the truth? I had better alert you now, that someone is playing us for suckers. I think you and I deserve an explanation. We shall also find ourselves confronting issues such as these: * Are there endless cycles of destruction and reincarnation? * Is Satan (Lucifer) the real god? * Is 2012 the year of doom for this planet?

A wall mentioned in the Bible's Book of Nehemiah and long sought by archaeologists apparently has been found, an Israeli archaeologist says. A team of archaeologists discovered the wall in Jerusalem's ancient City of David during a rescue attempt on a tower that was in danger of collapse, said Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research and educational institute, and leader of the dig. Artifacts including pottery shards and arrowheads found under the tower suggested that both the tower and the nearby wall are from the 5th century B.C., the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said this week. Scholars previously thought the wall dated to the Hasmonean period from about 142 B.C. to 37 B.C. The findings suggest that the structure was actually part of the same city wall the Bible says Nehemiah rebuilt, Mazar said. The Book of Nehemiah gives a detailed description of construction of the walls, destroyed earlier by the Babylonians. "We were amazed," she said, noting that the discovery was made at a time when many scholars argued that the wall did not exist. "This was a great surprise. It was something we didn't plan," Mazar said. The first phase of the dig, completed in 2005, uncovered what Mazar believes to be the remains of King David's palace, built by King Hiram of Tyre, and also mentioned in the Bible. Ephraim Stern, professor emeritus of archaeology at Hebrew University and chairman of the state of Israel archaeological council, offered support for Mazar's claim. "The material she showed me is from the Persian period," the period of Nehemiah, he said. "I can sign on the date of the material she found." However, another scholar disputed the significance of the discovery. Israel Finkelstein, professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, called the discovery "an interesting find," but said the pottery and other artifacts do not indicate that the wall was built in the time of Nehemiah. Because the debris was not connected to a floor or other structural part of the wall, the wall could have been built later, Finkelstein said.

They shall make an ark of acacia wood," God commanded Moses in the Book of Exodus, after delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And so the Israelites built an ark, or chest, gilding it inside and out. And into this chest Moses placed stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, as given to him on Mount Sinai. Thus Jews came to revere the ark as an earthly manifestation of God. The Old Testament describes its enormous powers—blazing with fire and light, halting rivers, blasting away armies and bringing down the fabled walls of Jericho. (Steven Spielberg's 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark provides a special-effects approximation.) According to the First Book of Kings, King Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem to house the ark. It was venerated there during Solomon's reign (c. 970-930 B.C.) and beyond. Then it vanished. Much of Jewish tradition holds that it disappeared before or while the Babylonians sacked the temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C. But through the centuries, Ethiopian Christians have claimed that the ark rests in a chapel in the small town of Aksum, in their country's northern highlands. It arrived nearly 3,000 years ago, they say, and has been guarded by a succession of virgin monks who, once anointed, are forbidden to set foot outside the chapel grounds until they die. One of the first things that caught my eye in Addis Ababa, the country's capital, was an enormous concrete pillar topped by a giant red star—the sort of monument to communism still visible in Pyongyang. The North Koreans built this one as a gift for the Derg, the Marxist regime that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991 (the country is now governed by an elected parliament and prime minister). In a campaign that Derg officials named the Red Terror, they slaughtered their political enemies—estimates range from several thousand to more than a million people. The most prominent of their victims was Emperor Haile Selassie, whose death, under circumstances that remain contested, was announced in 1975. He was the last emperor of Ethiopia—and, he claimed, the 225th monarch, descended from Menelik, the ruler believed responsible for Ethiopia's possession of the ark of the covenant in the tenth century B.C. The story is told in the Kebra Negast (Glory of the Kings), Ethiopia's chronicle of its royal line: the Queen of Sheba, one of its first rulers, traveled to Jerusalem to partake of King Solomon's wisdom; on her way home, she bore Solomon's son, Menelik. Later Menelik went to visit his father, and on his return journey was accompanied by the firstborn sons of some Israelite nobles—who, unbeknown to Menelik, stole the ark and carried it with them to Ethiopia. When Menelik learned of the theft, he reasoned that since the ark's frightful powers hadn't destroyed his retinue, it must be God's will that it remain with him. Many historians—including Richard Pankhurst, a British-born scholar who has lived in Ethiopia for almost 50 years—date the Kebra Negast manuscript to the 14th century A.D. It was written, they say, to validate the claim by Menelik's descendants that their right to rule was God-given, based on an unbroken succession from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. But the Ethiopian faithful say the chronicles were copied from a fourth-century Coptic manuscript that was, in turn, based on a far earlier account. This lineage remained so important to them that it was written into Selassie's two imperial constitutions, in 1931 and 1955. Before leaving Addis Ababa for Aksum, I went to the offices of His Holiness Abuna Paulos, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which has some 40 million adherents worldwide, to ask about Ethiopia's claim to have the ark of the covenant. Paulos holds a PhD in theology from Princeton University, and before he was installed as patriarch, in 1992, he was a parish priest in Manhattan. Gripping a golden staff, wearing a golden icon depicting the Madonna cradling an infant Jesus, and seated on what looked like a golden throne, he oozed power and patronage. "We've had 1,000 years of Judaism, followed by 2,000 years of Christianity, and that's why our religion is rooted in the Old Testament," he told me. "We follow the same dietary laws as Judaism, as set out in Leviticus," meaning that his followers keep kosher, even though they are Christians. "Parents circumcise their baby boys as a religious duty, we often give Old Testament names to our boys and many villagers in the countryside still hold Saturday sacred as the Sabbath." Is this tradition linked to the church's claim to hold the ark, which Ethiopians call Tabota Seyen, or the Ark of Zion? "It's no claim, it's the truth," Paulos answered. "Queen Sheba visited King Solomon in Jerusalem three thousand years ago, and the son she bore him, Menelik, at age 20 visited Jerusalem, from where he brought the ark of the covenant back to Aksum. It's been in Ethiopia ever since." I asked if the ark in Ethiopia resembles the one described in the Bible: almost four feet long, just over two feet high and wide, surmounted by two winged cherubs facing each other across its heavy lid, forming the "mercy seat," or footstool for the throne of God. Paulos shrugged. "Can you believe that even though I'm head of the Ethiopian church, I'm still forbidden from seeing it?" he said. "The guardian of the ark is the only person on earth who has that peerless honor."