Jay Kinney – författare

The Truth RevealedFreemasons have been connected to the all-seeing eye on the dollar bill, the French Revolution, the Knights Templar, and the pyramids of Egypt. They have been rumored to be everything from a cabal of elite power brokers ruling the world to a covert network of occultists and pagans intent on creating a new world order, to a millennia-old brotherhood perpetuating ancient wisdom through esoteric teachings. Their secret symbols, rituals, and organization have remained shrouded for centuries and spawned theory after theory. The Masonic Myth sets the record straight about the Freemasons and reveals a truth that is far more compelling than the myths.

From Egyptian mythology to Jewish mysticism, Rome and Greece to the druids and the gnostics, Tim Wallace-Murphy exposes a fascinating lineage of hidden mysteries and secret societies, continuing through the Templars, Rosicrucians, and Freemasons to our modern visionaries. This hidden stream of spirituality and that of sacred knowledge are inseparably entwined to form the single most important continuous strand in the entire Western esoteric tradition. This tradition exerted a seminal influence on the thinking of the builders of the great cathedrals; leading teachers in ecclesiastical schools; philosophers; playwrights; poets such as Shakespeare, Goethe, Blake, and W. B. Yeats; and on artists and Renaissance giants such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. It is also the root from which sprang alchemy and modern science. Now, as more people are looking to find information on the alternatives to dominant religions and dogmas that have told us what to think and how to behave, as faith has been questioned by religious scandals, economic meltdowns, and an increasingly sick planet Earth, Wallace-Murphy reveals the secrets of the masters, including invaluable spiritual insights into everyday life that have been hidden throughout the ages. He shows us who kept this spiritual tradition alive despite appalling persecution, so that we in the twenty-first century might benefit from its accumulated fruits and ennoble our lives. Hidden Wisdom will be of immense interest to readers of the number one bestseller The Lost Symbol as it explains much of Dan Brown's focus on the ancient mysteries.

The founder of the influential Gnosis magazine collects essays by some of today''s finest spiritual writers to explore the West''s magical and esoteric traditions. Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Gnosticism, The Knights Templar . . . Even before the success of The Da Vinci Code, many readers knew of these and other aspects of Western esoterica. But few understand their true meaning. In The Inner West, more than twenty essays by seventeen leading authors shine a light on some of the most mysterious and closely held aspects of the Western tradition. Its authors bring to life the symbolist and occult philosophies that populate the history and beliefs of the Western way. These same philosophies-which include variants of Christian and Jewish mysticism, and the teachings of figures like Rudolf Steiner and G. I. Gurdjieff-can present a deep and different spiritual path for today''s seekers. Spiritual seekers have often looked to the East for inspiration and guidance. Yet increasing numbers of people are discovering that many helpful wisdom traditions have existed right here in the West. With the Kabbalah and Tarot cards more popular than ever, and alternative spirituality from Wicca to Sufism gaining a new audience, The Inner West is a timely book for this expanding audience