Customer Reviews

Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries: Uncovering Mysterious Sights, Symbols, and Societies

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Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries is a book about, well, secret places and hidden sanctuaries, many of which generate quite a hullabaloo. The authors have have opted here to out the truth, and during the process more than a few cultural icons are smashed and burned, but many are saved, depending on the facts of the case. Some of the stories are light-hearted and some are downright ghastly. The thread holding all this together is the authors sharp-witted running commentary laced with acerbic wit.

The wide-ranging global tour begins at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland and winds up at the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles, or, rather, from the smoke and mirrors of Dan Brown's DaVinci Code to the cigar smoke of George Burns. The tour is all the more enjoyable because the authors have worked hard to find information not readily available anywhere else. I consider myself fairly well-versed, but I still picked up at least one new factoid per page. The volume dresses out to 251 pages, so that's a lot of factoids.

I would like to see more pictures, perhaps posted on the companion blog ([...]). I hope a sequel is being planned. I hear the Scientology people have built a secret prison up in Happy Valley ...

A rewarding read, with a running time of about 10 cigars.

I'm the first to admit that I'm a skeptic and more than a little cynical when it comes to books purporting to unveil secrets, hidden things, and mysteries. Not only is my personal library well stocked with promising titles, but as a member of more Masonic organizations than I can count I've learned that the word "secret" in a book's title is a near guarantee that the contents are ho-hum, and the sources out-of-date. Happily, this book is like a breath of fresh air. When it uses the word "secret" in its title it actually delivers--and does so in a big way. Make no mistake: this book is no catchpenny riding on Dan Brown's coattails; don't expect scandalous revelations of the "Illuminati" in Rome or Washington, D.C., nor lurid tales of depravity among the rich and famous (well, maybe a few). Rather, authors Klimczuk and Warner take the reader on an intriguing and fascinating tour of real places in the world which often have a surprising, bizarre, secretive, and even mysterious history to them.

The authors skillfully walk a careful line between debunking and titillating, and in so doing demonstrate the difference between sense and nonsense. Written in an engaging and entertaining style they explore many sites which have attracted the attention of less responsible authors. They dispel credulous notions foisted upon the gullible and uninformed, and replace them with truths which are compelling and satisfying. They reveal, for example, that at Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland, authentic medieval scholars see stylized representations of wheat, strawberries or lilies, rather than the alleged carvings of "corn" (maize) touted in The Hiram Key. In treating Rennes-le-Château they cut away at the mystery of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and reveal the truth about Saunière's wealth--he was a crook. But Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries is not an exposé in the popular sense of the term. Rather, it introduces the reader to some very interesting nouns--people, places and things--which s/he may have never known existed, or may have encountered in rumor or fiction.

The book's (coincidental?) thirteen chapters investigate a myriad of shrines, holy sites, unholy sites, citadels, secret government installations, curious islands, totems, secret bankers, secret societies, and private clubs. The plans behind Himmler's "Nazi Camelot" (Wewelsburg, in Westphalia, Germany) are laid bare, as is the U.S. government's emergency home-away-from-home at "Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center" in Bluemont, Virginia (a scant hour from my home). Other secret locations, such as Area 51 and Menwith Hill (America's super-secure "listening post" in Yorkshire, England, for SIGINT satellites) are among the big fish caught in the net.

But I confess a peculiar interest in the "secret" societies and clubs. One of the most peculiar was Walt Disney's exclusive (and non-Masonic) "Club 33," a kind of high-powered getaway. Although this book is good, it's not perfect. In discussing Freemasonry, for example, the authors assert that "Hiram Abiff [sic] is absent from the Swedish Rite, which is based on other figures and other legends." Well, yes and no. Adoniram or Adoram--he's called both in the Swedish Rite's lecture of the Third Degree--is merely a different name for Hiram Abif, an artifact inherited from using the text of Abbé Pérau (Gabriel-Louis-Calabre), L' Ordre des Francs-maçons Trahi (1745), in the creation of its rituals. Change the names and the stories are virtually identical. But this is minor and forgivable. However, the statement that a system of high-degree Freemasonry known as "The Scottish Rite (Rit Ecossais) ... originated with Catholic, royalist, Jacobite Scottish Exiles in France" is just wrong. The authors need to read Lobingier's The Supreme Council, 33° (1931), Harris's and Carters's History of the Supreme Council 33° (1964), or Fox's Lodge of the Double-Headed Eagle(1997). A good deal of the Scottish Rite's ancestry was in France, but the system was created in Charleston, South Carolina, and boasted several Jews among its founders. Scottish Rite Grand Commander Albert Pike (1809-91) is called "a different kind of occultist" and a "prolific esotericist." Surely, Pike was interested in esoteric symbolism, but his book Esoterika: The Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry (1888) dismissed the "pretended knowledge" of the Theosophists. He even called Balsamo (Cagliostro) and Blavatsky "charlatan[s]." The authors cast such a wide net that we should forgive them for pulling in a few worthless fish.

Moving on, I enjoyed their chapter "Islands of Mystery." From the real "forbidden island" Montecristo to Easter Island to Iona and others, there's enough to educate an intrigue. The reader who seeks totems will find not only a host of crown jewels, but the sword of Charlemagne, the lance of Longinus (a.k.a. the "Spear of Destiny"), and my favorite: Oliver Cromwell's head! On that high point I'll conclude this review by giving a little advice to potential readers: if any of these topics is of interest, then this book is for you. I enjoyed it, and believe you will too.

Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, Grand Cross, KYCH
Grand Archivist and Grand Historian
Supreme Council, 33°, S.J.
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Washington, D.C.

"Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries" is an eclectic cornucopia of the elite, the elusive and the esoteric. In just over 250 pages the authors have been able to collate and succinctly detail some of the most fascinating secretive sites from around the world. Ranging from ancient shrines to top secret military bases, we are taken on a tour of a wide variety of locations; some so secret that many readers will be reading about them for the first time.

Others have attempted to tackle this subject but no one commands the broad field with as much authority, knowledge or style. Through this entertaining and informative tome we are provided with privileged armchair admission through some of the world's most closely-guarded doors. "Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries" is the much-needed popular introduction to a world which some readers may inhabit and to which some may aspire, which some will envy and others will despise but about which we will never cease to be fascinated.

I heartily recommend this book.

Rafal Heydel-Mankoo
Co-Editor & Co-Author
Burke's Peerage & Gentry: World Orders of Knighthood & Merit

This book purports to give us entree into some of the world's most mysterious sanctuaries and refuges. Boy, it REALLY delivers. The places covered are wide-ranging, from the Vatican to Yale University; along the way, the authors deliver bite-sized chunks of history, far more informative than their brevity would suggest. In the cours of the journey, they thoroghly debunk a number of prized modern mythologies: the Holy Blood-Holy Grail cycle (from whence Dan Brown pilfered so much of his material); the survival of the Templars, and a number of others. But they are not mere deniers. Many of the places and items they visit, like Yale's Skull and Bones or Hungary's Holy Crown of St. Stephen, really do have an aura of the unexplained about them. Where possible, they explain; where not, they scratch their heads with the rest of us.

Never boring, the book manages to cram a lot of information in a short space, while maintaining the geniality of an old friend who happens to know a lot more than you do --- but really wants to let you in on it all. Even when dealing with sheer drivel, the author's are more bemused than derisive, and always with a hint of sympathy; after all, some people really do believe this stuff --- and some things do ineed appear to go bump in the night. May a sequel appear soon!

A very well-written book. Starts off by blowing off the Dan Brown hysterical history. Once the more prominent conspiracy theories of Brown and the people he copied from are disposed of, the authors present a whole host of far more interesting and factual oddities. Though not a deep read, it is thoroughly interesting and is just the sort of book to curl up with in the winter. It's interesting enough to be re-read a number of times. That's the highest recommendation I can give a book.

I love this book. It is literate and well-written; it is wide-ranging; it is full of fascinating insights into the wonderful weirdness of life, past and present. It's the kind of book I would have liked to have written, if I'd had the authors' ability to ferret it all out. It's a swift, enjoyable, thoroughly engrossing read, and I highly recommend this book for anyone that likes to delve into the nooks and crannies of human passion and eccentricity. A keeper; and a wonderful gift, I think.

Any book worth reading will leave you wanting to know more about the subject, setting, or characters. In "Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries," authors Stephen Klimczuk and Gerald Warner expertly guide readers through time and territory to over sixty-five mysterious and/or fascinating locations and persons. Knights Templars, Freemasons, Rosicrucians, various cults or religious and lay organizations are included--some debunked, some defunct, and some defrocked of their bogus "secrets." Divided into 13 Chapters with such titles as Mysterious Heritage; Shrines and Sanctuaries; Holies of Holies; (Very) Private Banking, and Jolly Good Fellowship, the material is presented with insider knowledge and subtle wit. In Scotland, the 15th century Rosslyn Chapel long has been credited with being a rich lode of Templar and Masonic lore, yet careful investigation of supposedly cabalistic symbols re-interprets them either as stock motifs used by medieval stonemasons, or wishful thinking by modern esotericists. More recent and sinister is Germany's Wewelsburg Castle, a kind of "Black Camelot" renovated with slave labor by SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler as the headquarters of his pagan order of "knights" steeped in Nordic mythology and occult theories. U.S. troops ended this Gothic nightmare in April 1945.
A chapter on secret U.S. locations includes the Federal Relocation Arc outside of Washington, D.C., and Area 51 in the Nevada desert. The Arc consists of over ninety secure facilities where key members of the government would be transported in an emergency such as 9/11. An alternate Pentagon is one of them. The popular notoriety of Area 51 comes from UFO conspiracy theorists insisting that dead alien bodies were taken there; are alive and working on flying saucers; or on vacation at their home planet of Reticulum 4. The truth of the facility is that it comprises a vast testing area for aircraft like the U-2 spy plane, A-12 Blackbird, and F-117 stealth fighter.
Some well-known locations--Easter Island, Malta, Istanbul's Hagia Sophia and St. Catherine's Monastery at Sinai--are featured along with more exotic sites such as the location of the Ark of the Covenant in an Ethiopian church, Mount Athos in Greece, the Stone of Scone, and sacred sites in France, Scotland and Italy. Banking institutions (Of particular interest today!), university secret societies and dueling corps are given their due, as well as venerable gentlemen's clubs in England, Europe and America, including the Hillcrest Country Club in L.A., which has admitted the cream of America's radio, film and TV comedians. LOL.
Klimczuk is a corporate strategist and world traveler who visited many sites in the book. Warner, a Scottish journalist, has authored six volumes on historical subjects, folklore, and curiosities.
Albert Noyer / The Ghosts of Glorieta; Getorius & Arcadia Mystery series

I bought this book (in eBook version) because I thought the idea behind it was interesting and that the authors were capable of deliver a good read. How wrong I was.

It contains the most appalling editing errors I've seen for a very long time. Just take a look at the subtitle of the book, as shown at the top of this page or on the photo. It reads, "Uncovering mysterious sights, symbols and societies." Now take a look at the official website of the book and you'll see the subtitle of the book is, "Uncovering mysterious sites, symbols and societies." Confusing "sights" with "sites" is inexcusable in a subtitle and this shoddiness in editing continues throughout the book.

By page 20 I was ready to give up, but I decided to struggle through the next dozen or so pages to see if it improved. Alas it did not.

How two apparently well-educated gentlemen could write "a single individual" (tautology) or "a frightening survey" (leaving me unsure if the survey was frightening or whether the authors were referring to the survey results) beggars belief. Measurements of area are given in square metres, hectares and acres, all within the space of a few pages, defying comparison. How these things got pass the editors--assuming the book was edited-- is even more disturbing.

But worse follows... Sentences of more than 50 words are common and often try to connect disjointed ideas. That shouldn't be a problem if the authors have a gift for communication, but unfortunately they don't, as these examples (all within a few pages of each other) show:

Example 1
Page 31. The sentence beginning "Contrary to popular superstition..." contains 4 commas, a pair of em-dashes, a pair of parentheses, a question mark and a period.

Example 2. This sentence below is reproduced exactly as it is written in the book. Note the capitalisation and the colons.

"But one thing is certain: There is no way it can be written off as lacking power and influence, considering its membership and the attendees it attracts to its meetings: They are not bogus Templars or esoteric fantasists--these are heavy hitters."

Example 3. I offer this example without further comment.

"As we shall see, truth can be stranger than fiction, for contrary to the "reasoned" view that the Templars were innocent of the charges made against them in the fourteenth century and no longer exist, the starling reality appears to be exactly the opposite: Some Templars may have been guilty, and they still exist--though not in a way you would expect."

The final nail in the coffin is that the authors are condescending about the conspiracy theorists behind stories such as the Templars and books such as Da Vinci Code. What they overlook is that the people they deride so openly write a darn good story. The effort of Klimczuk and Warners, on the other hand, is turgid and dull, and at times incomprehensible.

Stephen Klimczuk is listed on the back cover of this book as being"..a world traveler and corporate strategist"while Gerald Warner is supposed to be a"very popular"newspaper columnist in Scotland..Neither of these two are historians,and judging from the fact that they cite NO REFERENCES for thier data(much less thier conclusions)it seems fairly obvious that"Secret places,Hidden sanctuaries"is a work based almost entirely on the opinions of the two authors...
Objectivity ,while not essential in a work that alledgedly paints an historical picture concerning several sites associated with"secret" goings-on,would at the least be helpful,presenting the facts as the authors understand them,and then allowing the reader to decide if the conclusions made are valid..Apparently this sort of approach is not popular either in the corporate boardroom or in scottish "journalism",in that the authors repeatedly insist that the"secret places" and"hidden sanctuaries" of thier title contain little or nothing "secret" or "hidden" and that any opinion to the contrary is a"farrago of nonsense"..Along the way these two "writers" make it thier business to insult every other author that has ever written anything on the subjects covered in this book UNLESS said authors agree with thier own subjective viewpoints..On top of this the two authors have no writing style to speak of and are humourless in the extreme.
Since every "secret" tackled by these two is,alledgedly no "secret" at all I have to think that Klimczuk and Warner are the few remaining individuals who believe that a lone gunman really did take out JFK and that there really are"weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq...
Avoid this trash at all costs!