the ancient mysteries
“It’s buried somewhere out there” the antagonist (the bad guy in the story) keeps repeating in his thoughts. He believes there is a secret ‘portal’ in Washington D.C. that will lead him to ‘ancient mysteries’, and transform him into a god with unlimited power. And how does he think he’s going to find such a portal, if it exists at all? By getting the protagonist (the good guy and hero in the story) Robert Langdon to decipher for him the legendary Masonic Pyramid (which is a made up fiction in the story).
My guess is that he (the bad guy) first got the idea when he looked up at the ceiling of the US Capital dome (from inside of course) and saw the ‘Apotheosis of Washington’, a fresco painted by artist Brumidi in 1865. In it, George Washington (U.S. first president), draped in royal purple, sits in the heavens, having ascended and become a god (apotheosis).
And just what are the ancient mysteries? Well, to find out, you either have to join some secret society and achieve a high ranking status (degrees in the Masons, initiations in other organizations such as the Rosicrucians, etc), or, if that doesn’t quite appeal to you, you can try a different approach by practicing meditation or looking for a secret ‘portal’.
Since our bad guy, having got the 33d degree in the Masons, was frustrated as he was never revealed any ancient secrets or wisdom, he therefore decided to opt for a portal — perhaps he would have better luck there! And much easier than sitting for years in a meditative pose!
noetics and noetic science
Not only does Mal’akh (the bad guy) want to attain godhood and obtain unlimited power by acquiring ‘ancient knowledge’ but he selfishly doesn’t want any one else to have it! Thus he sets out in the story to destroy the work of Katherine, the character in the story who specializes in a new branch of philosophy and science called noetics and noetic science, respectively.
Noetics meaning has its origins in the Greek word nous meaning ‘mind’. So Noetics is the study of the mind and its untapped potential. Noetic science tries to show (or perhaps prove), through experimentation, just how powerful the mind is, that focused thoughts can actually alter physical space.
In part two of this series I will be discussing the ‘raison d’etre’ of secret societies and the ‘hand of the mysteries’. However, and for now…
I’m going to take a break from writing about topics to do with Dan Brown’s book The Lost Symbol. I’ll come back to this series with part two at a later time. Instead, starting with my next post, I’m going to focus on something which I deem most urgent, given recent events in world history. In case you haven’t guessed it yet, it has to do with the ‘scourge of fear’ that has been sweeping across nations around the world.
Next: Bokonamirus 2020 one — the day it started for me, and the days that followed