Opening the Ark of the Covenant: The Secret Power of the Ancients, the Knights Templar Connection, and the Search for the Holy Grail
288
Opening the Ark of the Covenant: The Secret Power of the Ancients, the Knights Templar Connection, and the Search for the Holy Grail
288Paperback(1ST)
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781564149039 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 01/26/2007 |
| Edition description: | 1ST |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Sales rank: | 678,449 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.66(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
The World's Most Valuable Object
Yet, what mysteries! The more difficult to clarify, because there is a hiatus between the men of that time and ourselves, a gulf in which a form of civilization has disappeared. What was a civilization has gone up in a dust- cloud of particulars.
— Louis Charpentier1
The great city gleamed white in the desert sun. Stucco structures, clean, but small and indistinguishable from each other, clustered haphazardly together, remininiscent of herds of sheep waiting around the base of the mountain and partially climbing its slopes. A maze of unmarked streets — more alleys than thoroughfares — snaked their way into the urban center like a ceremonial labyrinth challenging pilgrims to enter its ritual path. Once inside, noisy crowds of wary buyers and animated sellers mixed amid a swift current of passing men and women urged on by their own personal agendas, while heedless children played underfoot.
Emerging from this din of everyday concerns, a well-trodden track led up the mountainside, the busy sounds of the capital growing increasingly muted, until travelers could look down on the tops of its scrubbed buildings and beyond to the vast extent of its metropolitan limits, stretching far toward the sandy horizon. The upward trek was not difficult, even on a windless, summer morning, and there were many travelers, young and old, coming and going, all of them light-hearted, along the same trail.
Progress was nonetheless slow, deliberately so, to impart a sense of sanctified pilgrimage as the low, powerful murmur of many voices grew more distinct. At the top was a paved plaza spreading far in all directions, and vast enough to accommodate throngs of visitors from all over the world. It was as though the entire mountaintop had been sheared off, its former place perfectly leveled to make way for this immense public square. It held a 30-ton basin, 12 feet tall and 20 feet wide at the lip, mounted on the life-size representations of a dozen cast-bronze bulls. The basin itself was burnished bronze, and almost too bright to behold directly in the reflected sunlight of high noon. A priest atop an abutting platform scooped water from the brim of his gargantuan receptacle with a bucket, which he handed to an attendant for pouring into several wash-bowls mounted on metal stands, each pushed about on four wheels. The imposing temple of polished stone at the center of the expansive precinct was 135 feet long, 35 feet wide, and stood upon its own platform, which elevated the entire structure to 50 feet above the plaza.
A broad staircase of 10 steps led to its recessed entrance, flanked on either side by a pair of ornate pillars, each nearly 6 feet thick and 27 feet tall. The capitals on top of each column were 8 feet high and decorated with a lily motif. Nets of checkerwork covered each capital, which was festooned with rows of 200 representational pomegranates, wreathed in seven chains for each capital, and topped by lily designs. Both columns were brass, in bold contrast to the pale white blocks of stone before which they stood on either side of twin, cedar doors 23 feet tall and inlaid with gold images of cherubim. Through these imposing portals visitors passed into the Temple's small anteroom, where they paused to adjust their vision.
Another, equally imposing set of doors opened to the main hall. Exposed beams criss-crossed the ceiling just above five square windows on either wall adorned with golden lily motifs ending near the cedar floor in oversized images of cherubim. The high windows allowed shafts of sunlight, clearly defined by translucent clouds of frankincense rising from a large censer, to angle down through the sacred space. At its center was a low table bearing 12 loaves of bread, while 10 tripods hung with oil lamps stood around the hall for evening ceremonies.
At the far end, a final fight of steps rose to another pair of gold-inlaid doors. These were locked 364 days each year, and perpetually guarded by armed sentries under strict orders to forbid approach by anyone, save only the high priest, on pain of death. After sunset each October 1st, he donned a protective, full-length garment, while attendants shackled his right ankle with a heavy manacle. They attached it to a length of chain with which his body might be retrieved in the event of a mishap when the priest stepped behind the doors leading to the otherwise forbidden chamber.
This was the holy-of-holies, a dark, windowless, cube-shaped room 30 feet high, wide, and long, with olive wood-paneled walls of inlaid gold floral designs. Its only source of illumination was the main hall's lamplight streaming through the annually opened portals, behind which attendants crouched in fear for the fate of their high priest. Entering the shrine, he was confronted by a colossal pair of winged sphinx. Masterfully sculpted from olive wood and set with gold, their outstretched wings brushed the walls of the chamber and met 17 feet overhead.
Between them, sitting alone on the floor, was a rectangular chest nearly 4 feet long, and more than 3 feet high and wide. Its acacia wood frame was entirely sheeted in beaten gold, including two carrying poles slipped through a pair of rings on either side of the casket. An identical pair of cherubim, the tips of their arching wings almost touching each other, bent over a shallow platter mounted in the middle of the coffer lid, which no one ever dared to remove. From this small, seldom-seen tabernacle, not only the temple building but also the entire mountaintop derived their unique sacredness.
The source of its pervasive mystical potency appeared irregularly and beyond human control, when the gold container unexpectedly shone with a bright radiance, and an otherworldly flame danced above the lid, between the shallow dish and the outstretched wings of the kneeling cherubim. These were moments when the Deity himself was said to appear in the form of light, and make his will known to the high priest in a spiritual experience without parallel. Occasionally, the Lord showed his displeasure with mankind by striking his servant with a blast of power from the glowing vessel. Then his assistants, watching from behind the doors of the main hall, would have to heave on the chain to which his ankle was fastened, pulling the current high-priest's unconscious — sometimes lifeless — body from the shrine room, then close and bolt the great doors of the holy-of-holies, locking it in utter darkness for another year, until the next high priest would enter alone to learn the will of God. As is the natural world he made, the Creator is at once beautiful and terrible.
So a visitor to King Solomon's temple might have described the Ark of the Covenant nearly 3,000 years ago, a portrayal based almost entirely on the Old Testament. Some three centuries after the object was installed atop Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, it vanished, never to be seen again.
Perhaps.
While most modern scholars believe the Ark did actually exist, they are unsure of its real identity. They are puzzled by its biblical description as nothing more than a depository for the Ten Commandments (also known as the Decalogue), a characterization at odds with its reputation depicted by the same source as a weapon of mass destruction and a direct communication hookup to heaven. These diametrically opposed functions are usually dismissed by conventional investigators as mythic qualities the Old Testament writers undoubtedly wove around a mundane item to imbue its memory with an air of potent, if ambivalent, mysticism. But this supposition is superficial, because it assumes, without looking further into the subject, that the Ark, admittedly important for its preservation of the Decalogue, was, after all, just a fancy container.
A glimpse behind the veil of assumption, however, reveals something vastly more significant than previously imagined. The resultant insight is truly mind-boggling, a multifaceted revelation that throws our origins and potential into a bright new light. The discovery is, to put it bluntly, the most important of its kind ever made. Appreciation of its consequences for human understanding and destiny alone is life-changing. Once comprehended, we are never the same afterward, and for the better. By merely beginning to understand the world's supremely important object we tune into its eternal energies. It grabs hold of us, and we begin to possess it, as much as we are possessed by it. It touches many faiths, but none may claim it as sole owner. It is mankind's foremost spiritual power, but it is entirely nondenominational, even nonreligious. It is extremely ancient, yet far in advance of anything today's technology has so far produced — although, as we will see, 21st century science has achieved a degree of proficiency allowing for its present replication — the reason, perhaps, why the "Perfection of Paradise," as it was once called, has not been forgotten. It is most famous as the Ark of the Covenant, but was known by many other names in different lands long before it passed to the Hebrews, and for centuries after they lost it. If used as designed, it still has the power to save our civilization from catastrophe, heal our bodies, expand our consciousness, and transform our souls. If abused, it will cause cancer, kill, and drive us mad. It has caused all these things in the past, and it still has the undiminished capacity to repeat them.
The Ark is not just a container. Nor is it a biblical oddity whose questionable existence is of little concern. Instead, its powers are as vast as its history, which is as old as civilization itself. Consequently, understanding its origins, passage among various peoples, true identity, and ultimate importance to modern society is challenging. The magnitude of relevant information needed to appreciate its core significance can be overwhelming. Its enormous time-scale, far-flung interaction with disparate cultures, and sheer scale of operation are difficult to grasp.
To make sense out of so vast a subject, we present its story from its earliest beginnings to our own time. As such, Opening the Ark of the Covenant is that object's first, real history, in the course of which its actual functions, inestimable value, and present whereabouts become accessible. The result is a straightforward offering of an otherwise complex tale aimed at clarity of comprehension. We've used facts to support recurrent themes that more lucidly explicate the enigma, expose its secret workings, and make sense out of the continuing fascination countless generations have had for it.
Despite the title of this book, the artifact described here only appeared as the "Ark of the Covenant" when Moses descended from Mount Sinai. In fact, it existed long before that event, under different names, in different places. And after the Ark disappeared with the destruction of Solomon's Temple, it was referred to by new titles, in new lands. Accordingly, our investigation follows its pre-Near Eastern origins and progress in other parts of the world, sometimes far removed from its biblical settings in both time and geography. Throughout all its changes in name, place, and ownership, however, it remained the same powerful phenomenon. The various environments through which it traveled, and the human influences that carried it throughout the past all brought out its inner nature and defined it far better than any plain description — as ark or power stone — ever could.
In the process, many wonderful revelations — some apparently disconnected, but all ultimately interrelated — come to light. Just a few include the sacred object's medieval rediscovery, its role as part of the Great Pyramid, and its impact on Christianity. It affected not only millions of common men and women, but also some of history's most prominent players on the world stage. Along with Moses and King Solomon, some of the famous personalities surrounding it included such diverse characters as Herod the Great, Pharaoh Akhenaton, Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus, Saint Bernard, Nebuchadnezzar, Cardinal Richelieu, Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, and Sieur de LaSalle. It was supposedly carried along by Lemurians, Atlanteans, Canary Islanders, ancient Egyptians, Israelites, Ethiopians, Crusaders, Knights Templar, Cathars, Nazis, the Japanese, Jesuit missionaries, English monks, and American Indians.
But the fundamental purpose of Opening the Ark of the Covenant is to discover the secret of its power, as revealed in its history, and thereby suggest its likely whereabouts. For the Ark does indeed still exist, and it's much closer than we suspect.
CHAPTER 2The Jewel That Grants All Desires
Om mani padme hum. "Behold! The jewel is in the lotus."
— Tibetan Buddism's foremost mantra
Set like an almond-shaped opal in a turquoise ocean, the island of Yonaguni is last in a chain of isolated territories — known as the Ryukyus — extending southwest from Japan into the East China Sea, just above the Tropic of Cancer. But in 1986, the remote, 6-mile-long island with its 2,000 residents — mostly farmers and fishermen — was not an easy place for Kihachiro Aratake to make a living. As a teacher at the local scuba school, he was finding it difficult to attract students from faraway Tokyo or Kyoto.
One afternoon in early spring, he began cruising the seldom-visited waters off Yonaguni's southern coast for a new dive site. There, some 300 feet parallel to a rough, remote area known as Arakawa-bana, underwater clarity was extraordinarily good; an ideal place for new students or tourists. As Aratake completed his dive, he noticed a massive shadow just beyond the periphery of his 100-foot vision. Low on air, he nevertheless swam toward it, his curiosity peaked.
"Maybe it's an old shipwreck," he hoped. "What a terrific draw that would be!"
But the indistinct, solid black form less resembled any sunken vessel the closer he approached. He would have to descend deeper than safety precautions advised if he wanted to reach the hulking shape. From 20 feet, he dove to 40, then 60. "That's two atmospheres," he thought to himself (a term used to define increasing levels of pressure at depth). At 75 feet, in shadow more than light, the massive block suddenly emerged from its obscurity. Aratake stopped in mid-kick. Peering in disbelief through his partially fogged facemask, he found himself suddenly hovering near a full-size building sitting squat on the ocean floor.
The Place of the Ruins
In all his years as a dive-master, he had never seen nor heard of anything like this. It resembled an immense, flat-topped pyramid of stone steps only a titan could climb, together with a smaller staircase and broad, semicircular plazas surmounted by a pair of tall pylons. It seemed adorned with strange configurations resembling an oversized hourglass; a giant, sculpted human head; and a monstrous turtle carved in relief — each one eroded almost beyond recognition by unguessed centuries of swift currents. Nearby, a huge, egg- shaped boulder had been set on its own plinth (a low platform), similar to some megalith from Stone Age Europe. Slanting walls of fitted stone skirted a kind of loop-road going around the base of the structure through a colossal arch resembling photographs Aratake had seen of the pre-Inca "Gateway to the Sun," on the other side of the Pacific at Tiahuanaco, high in the Bolivian Andes Mountains.
Something near the north end of the building stirred, an indefinable form that first intrigued, and then alarmed him. The cloud-like apparition was an unexpectedly large school of hammerhead sharks. He drew in a deep breath, but it was the last his tank had to offer. His right hand fumbled around his back, anxiously feeling for the valve to the reserve tank. He found it, yanked the switch, and gratefully filled his lungs with a fresh gush of air. It was only enough to enable his escape, however, and he slowly ascended, eyeing the dozens of congregating killers that so far had failed to notice him.
Breaking the surface, he swam as quickly as he dared in the direction of his waiting dive-boat, and felt grateful to haul himself aboard in one piece. A mate helped him unstrap the empty air tanks and peel off his dripping wet-suit.
"See anything worthwhile down there?"
"You wouldn't believe it!" Aratake answered.
Believe it or not, Aratake's find electrified Japan, and news of it spread around the world. Yonaguni basked in a fame it had never known, as the divers he once hoped to attract now flocked to the obscure little island from as far away as Europe and America. They shared his initial awe of discovery, as Aratake personally escorted them in guided tours to the sunken structure. Most observers, Japanese and foreign alike, were struck by its evidently man-made appearance, and sure that it must be the remnant of some ancient civilization. Hence, the new name for its location: Iseki Point, or "Place of the Ruins."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Opening the Ark of the Covenant"
by .
Copyright © 2007 Frank Joseph and Laura Beaudoin.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Dedication,
Introduction,
CHAPTER 1 - The World's Most Valuable Object,
CHAPTER 2 - The Jewel That Grants All Desires,
CHAPTER 3 - Atlantis, Navel of the World,
CHAPTER 4 - The Great Pyramid: An Egyptian Home for the Power Stone,
CHAPTER 5 - Why Was the Pyramid Built?,
CHAPTER 6 - True Pyramid Power,
CHAPTER 7 - How Old Is the Great Pyramid?,
CHAPTER 8 - Son of the Sun,
CHAPTER 9 - The Pyramid's Stolen Secret,
CHAPTER 10 - Crusades for and Against the Ark,
CHAPTER 11 - The Perfection of Paradise,
CHAPTER 12 - Where Is the Ark of the Covenant?,
CHAPTER 13 - Is the Ark in America?,
CHAPTER 14 - The New Jerusalem,
AFTERWORD,
An Ark of the Covenant Timeline,
Dramatis Personae,
Glossary,
Notes,
Bibliography,
About the Authors,