The Book of Hiram: Freemasonry, Venus and the Secret Key to the Life of Jesus

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Sequel based on faulty premise
Review: As some of the other reviewers pointed out, these authors have had some success with their earlier works. The Hiram Key in particular was interesting and did quite well. My only problem with it is the assumption that the Legend of Hiram is somehow an ancient oral history that unlocks the key to understanding the roots of Masonry. Most actual researchers into the history of Freemasonry will tell you that the Legend of Hiram was not in the Lodges prior to the formation of the so-called Grand Lodge of London (later to become the Grand Lodge of England) in 1717. So, it cannot explain a connection going back to ancient Egypt by way of the 2 Temples in Jerusalem -- it was a substitution legend tacked on after the Grand Lodge decided to drop the legends associated with the Gothic Constitutions.

This book falls into the same trap, only does so in an even larger way. Attached and appended to the core of Freemasonry are dozens of additional degrees, each with it own rituals, symbols, signs, grips, etc. These authors looked for and found, or were given, copies of some of the oldest versions of these additional degrees. They were particularly interested in ones that were worked prior to 1813, when the 2 Grand Lodges in England merged into the United Grand Lodge of England and the new Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex had the rituals revised. What they fail to understand, and again, this is in the historical record, is that none of these degrees go back past the 1700s. There are apparently no records and there are no exposes or other evidence to support the existence of any elaborate rituals or legends of the sort that show up in these "higher degrees" before the Grand Lodge era began in 1717. Other Masonic researchers have pretty much established that there were 2 degrees worked in England and either 2 or 3 in Scotland and Ireland when the Grand Lodge was formed. So, while it is interesting to see the various rituals put together to tell a coherent story in chronological fashion, the resulting story is basically worthless as any sort of oral history.

In other words, the Masonic Testament that makes up the last third of this book is not a real source, it is a compilation of rituals that were developed in the 1700s, and NOT Masonic or other oral history. So, that leg of their story does not stand.

As for the connections between Venus worship and these various cultures that they claim worshipped Venus, I believe that only the Greeks or Romans would have used that name. Other cultures would have used other names and other concepts for the same astronomical events and bodies and these authors gloss over all the differences across time and culture.

They also repeat themselves a huge lot and make assumptions that they later claim were shown or proven to be true. In short, it needed better editing and it lacks logical rigor in many places.

Wait for it to come out in paperback and then look for the hardback on the remainder tables. It is worth reading only to see how far off the path of real history these folks have strayed and to be ready in case people interested in Masonry ask if you have read it -- but it has so many flaws, I could not recommend it otherwise.


Rating:
Summary: I was embarrassed reading this.
Review: I think you could probably make the correct assumption 99% of the time that if you hear someone make the claim that Freemasonry is somehow tied to the Knights Templar, that claim is being made by a Freemason.

Maybe's, possibly's, it is likely, not inconceivable, not beyond the realm of thought..... Everything is true when you can condition it. It's a pity no one who writes books on freemasonry/templars bothers to either read, or at least reference in any detail, Malcom Barber or Stephen Runciman, the most learned templar/crusad scholars of the 19th and 20th century. In fact, Mr. Barber, whose knowledge of the Templars far suprasses Knight, Lomas, Pickett, et al, has acknowledged that there is a nice little cottage industry of Templarism--which is a product of the innuendo, speculation and supposition.

Does anybody who writes about this Templar/Freemason connection bother to point out that just about 99 % of the Templars couldn't read or write? That Jaque de Molay, the last grand master, couldn't read or write and required assistance with any document that was presented to him during his inquisition and trial? What do you think these illiterate folks found and then tried to keep secret for all these years? I'm sure the sheep who follow this stuff will probably find this review not helpful, but do yourself a favor, open your eyes and put out the consiparcy garbage and read Malcom Barber's The Trial of the Templars; The New Knighthood : A History of the Order of the Temple and Stephen Runciman's History of the Crusades (It is pricy and 3 volumes, but it is acknowledged as the finest piece of work detailing the crusades). If you want to at least be honest with yourself and not cast your lot with revisionist history, read Barber

Rating:
Summary: Aside from a few swift assumptions made by the authors...
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and illuminating read.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Spoiled by Success?
Review: The BOOK of HIRAM is a sequel to the bestselling THE HIRAM KEY by Knight and Lomas. I point out that fact right away because in the interim the dynamic duo of authors have published several other titles such as THE SECOND MESSIAH, URIEL'S MACHINE, etc. Some of their works were more directly follow-up to THE HIRAM KEY than others, but fact is the whole reason for preambling my review with a pseudo-bibliography is to state I anxiously awaited a sequel to the HIRAM KEY. I loved that book, learning about freemasonry, ties to early Christianity and other fascinating topics. I eagerly bought THE BOOK OF HIRAM. These were after all authors I had in the past year and a half become very familiar with their writing style and research results, i.e. musings and theories put forth in their tomes as they tangentially thought about one mystery or another.
Therefore it saddens me to baldly state I did not enjoy this title nearly as much as I thought I would.
The authors continue with their religious/ritualistics questions and theories. Searching for further ancient ties to freemasonry in forgotten realms of antiquity. However by this time much of their writing is almost repetitive. In fact I counted too many footnotes that were self-referential. Apparantly most of the source material for this book was earlier titles written by the authors:O. Which led me to wonder if maybe their earlier success in the sales department spoiled them. Instead of searching for answers were they just milking previous success? Were their numerous footnotes subtle ads hinting at readers' to pick up any previously un-read titles put out by them? It was a little distracting and disappointing to have these thoughts as I tried to read what was as well written a book technically as any other Lomas/Knight book, even if their revelations and chapters were not nearly as interesting as in previous titles.

I finished this book not regreting reading it, only hoping it isn't quite a bestseller to spawn further sequels that further deteriotes the pleasure I had in reading THE HIRAM KEY.