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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Aside from a few swift assumptions made by the authors...,
By Gerald "book and music junkie" (El Cerrito, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Book of Hiram: Freemasonry, Venus and the Secret Key to the Life of Jesus (Hardcover)
I thought that this was a great read. After reading all of the authors previous books, I opened this one knowing that they were going to make some mistakes, which they would try to correct in the next book (or that other scholars would give them hell for). However, I think that these kinds of mistakes are forgivable in a process where new ideas are introduced and where the bar is being pushed beyond what has already been agreed upon in popular theory. Research, in my opinion, is always in some capacity about disproving the most recently "proved" theory or else about providing a foundation from which the truth about a new theory can be discovered. That's what this book does very effectively.
To my knowledge, this book is the first to so completely tie ancient traditions, stories, and histories together as far back as 7000 B.C. The continuity of Venus worship and sun worship (even with glossing over the cultural differences) from the Grooved Ware People, to the formation of Christianity in Rome, to the treasured beliefs of secret societies is particularly intriguing. Yes, the authors sometimes get over zealous with tying things together. And yes, they sometimes overemphazise the role of Free Masonry's connection to the ancient world (as another reviewer pointed out, the Masonic Testament section of this book should not so swiftly be taken to be info passed down for thousands of years - although it's not definitively proven that this knowledge doesn't have a tie to some ancient source, either). Once you acknowledge that there are definitely generalizations and a few misteps, you can dig into the new ideas and concepts that make this book so enjoyable. Another thing: after reading this book, I went back to reread the Hiram Key (their first book), and I would definitely recommend this book INSTEAD of the Hiram Key. This book is like a major facelift to the Hiram Key. Because so many related discoveries are still being debated, translated, and analyzed, I'm sure that the new ideas and discoveries in this book will be trumped at some point. After all, the authors do not touch on the Cro Magon or Grimaldi peoples who migrated to Europe prior to the building of megalithic sites. And they do not go into depth about the roles of John the Baptist and Mary Madalene at Qumran. For now, this book is a breath of fresh air because of it's willingness to go against dogma with an open mind and freeness that traditional research lacks. Read this book, along with Uriel's Machine (their third book) and Civilization One (the fifth book), for a more complete view of the author's revolutionary ideas. And read the Templar Revelation by Lynn Picket, plus related books, for counter ideas and to fill in some of the gaps. I'm off to find another book...
78 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating and illuminating read.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Book of Hiram: Freemasonry, Venus and the Secret Key to the Life of Jesus (Hardcover)
In the last ten years many books have come onto the market that explore and expose Freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the ancient connections that these groups have had in our distant past back to the time of the Egyptians. The Book of Hiram is the fourth in a series explored by Chrsitopher Knight & Robert Lomas. In this title, Knight & Lomas take us even further back, to the Stone Age where sites such as Stonehenge and Newgrange in Ireland were astronomically aligned to the movements of the stars and the rising and falling of Venus as the Morning and Evening Star in particular. As always, I was rivetted by the work and detailed research presented by both these authors. Both are themselves Freemasons and both have an intense desire not only to fully understand the seemingly strange rituals held in Freemasonry but also to trace the origins of these rituals and reasons for the secrecy which surrounds them. Today, many in the twenty-first century take the liberties of Democracy, equality, a justice of liberty and religious tolerance for granted. The world was not always so, and in order to achieve these goals, many thousands of years and many lives had to be sacrificed, often under the cloak of secrecy in order to wrest away power from those who advocated autocratic states and a trail by ordeal. The French Inquisition, the American War of Independence, the French Revolution and the Second World War are cases in point. Whether you regard the Freemasons as a demonic order or not, after studying their history, their basic precepts as laid out at the end of this book and the goals that they set out to achieve over many centuries, one has to admire their tenacity and determination and perhaps....... even take some time to thank them for once instead of denouncing them? Much like all orders and groups, there are those who would use their connections for humanitarian aims and those who would use them for selfish acquisitive purposes. The recent exposure of homosexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church is a case in point. Not all Roman Catholic priests are sexual child abuses, not all Roman Catholics are bad people. Mother Theresa was a nun under the order of a Roman Catholic church and her life was a testament to human kindness and caring. So to I believe it is with much of Freemasonry, which in some instances has been connected to the Illuminati, much denounced in recent times for their apparent attempts at world domination and global control. These were not the aims of the Knights Templar or those of Freemasonry in general, though I am sure that some used and are possibly still using these orders to achieve such aims. I believe that Knight & Lomas have only the highest ideals in mind and their willingness to share their truth and the riddles that they have solved against all odds and much criticism, is admirable to say the least. Should you wish to explore Freemasonry, then these authors are the best place to start, not only in The Book of Hiram but in all their works. Gail Evans. author of THE FIRSTBORN OF GOD.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Full of potential, but fails to deliver.,
By Matthew Bryde (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Book of Hiram: Freemasonry, Venus, and the Secret Key to the Life of Jesus (Paperback)
I bought this in hope it would resolve where the "The Hiram Key" left off, however, the whole treasure-under-Rosslyn-Chapel theory remains just that, as permission to excavate was withdrawn for some reason.
This book just like previous ones, journeys all over the place. It's main theme appears to be on mankind's past and ongoing relationship with the planet Venus. Terms and customs we use today all relating to the appearance and position of this planet in our early morning skies. This then progresses onto the scientific validity of astrology, and so on it goes... A large portion at the end of this book is "The Masonic Testament" - a compilation of stories "reassembled from across the rituals of the 160 degrees of Freemasonry", adopting "the chapter and verse convention of other testaments". "The Hiram Key" was a good read, full of uncited wild theories. "The Book of Hiram" improves on this by including sources of reference to their quoted research, and yet, still has me scratching my head about what's going on.
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