Re: "Da Vinci" Debunking

The book, I understand, made great use of a book called "Holy Blood, Holy 
Grail," one of a series out of which the BBC has made special programs.  I have 
HBHG, though I haven't picked it up for 10+ years.  It was a hoot.  Very 
sincere.

DW



>
> > I gather
> > it also presents a very skewed picture of Greco-Roman paganism,
> > offering it as a kind of Never-Never-Land of woman-friendly,
> > tree-hugging values overthrown by the evil Constantine and his
> > goons.  Have others noted this sort of thing in the book?
>
> Yes, I've read the book and was disappointed. I think DL's
> assessment is
> essentially right, though the goodies are presented as underground
> neo-Templars and Rosicrucians rather than pagan nostalgists. The
> 'woman-friendly' aspect is the familiar story that Mary Magdalene
> was Jesus'
> wife (and that she is the red-haired person of uncertain sex who
> sits next
> to Jesus in Leonardo's Last Supper). All this agreeable aspect of
> Christianity (including 76 Gospels that didn't make the cut) is
> thrown out
> by the bad, bad bishops at the Council of Niceaea.
>
> The plot proceeds at a cracking pace, but the vital clues to the
> location of
> the Holy Grail (yes, I know) are encoded in puerile riddles, too
> conveniently in English, whose solutions merely lead to another
> dramaticconfrontation at some carefully researched historical
> site. All this is
> reminiscent of Denis Wheatley, if anyone remembers him.
>
> Ralph Hancock
> hancock@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> www.users.dircon.co.uk/~hancock/antioch.htm
>