Still Running Off at the Keyboard

CATHOLIC ADVOCATES OF SAME SEX MARRIAGE

Coming out of weekend mode to blog an article sent in by a reader.

From WorldNetDaily:

An opponent of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts says he was barred from a public event at the State House in Boston in which two Catholic lawmakers were honored by a homosexual advocacy group.


Event hosted by homosexual advocacy group at Massachusetts State House (Photo courtesy Brian Camenker)

Brian Camenker of the group Article 8 Alliance tried to attend the ceremony Thursday hosted by Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. But he told WorldNetDaily a police officer angrily ordered him to leave after he was recognized by homosexual-rights advocates in attendance.

At the event, state Rep. Marie P. St. Fleur and state Sen. Marian Walsh told the audience their Catholic faith inspired them to support same-sex marriage, despite clear pronouncements against it from Pope John Paul II and Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley.

THE WORK OF ROGER HAIGHT, S. J., THEOLOGIAN

has been condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fr. Sibley has linked Oswald Sobrino's analysis of Haight's theology. It's that throny problem of interreligious dialogue manifesting once again, and undermining the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. The blog is well worth the time it takes to read it. Go take a look.

WAS GURDJIEFF - CREATER OF THE CONTEMPORARY ENNEAGRAM -

a follower of Aleister Crowley?

That's the question. Here are the results from a web search.

Ordo Templi Orientis website dedicated to the music of musicians of interest to OTO members:

GURDJIEFF, G.I.:
Gurdjieff was contemporary with Crowley, and one of the true spiritual tricksters of his day (with AC). Besides choreographing his famous dances, he composed music and drank. This is a recording of some of his very beautiful music, played by one of his present followers, the famous jazz pianist KEITH JARRETT.
1. Sacred Hymns. ECM, 1980.

QuartaVia.org was linked in a Golden Dawn website. It isn't OTO, but it's certainly interesting. Dante? Not the first time he has come up in this research.

A booklist on esoteric systems mentions both Crowley and Gurdjieff.

The Gurdjieff Sacred Dances website is interesting. Is this where the push for liturgical dance is coming from--Gurdjieff? Anyway, down at the bottom of the website is a section of links which also includes Crowley. It includes Benedictines and Bede Griffith as well.

Oh my! This is an excerpt from a website about Jack Parsons--Jet Propulsion Lab scientist and follower of Crowley:

Isn't the Great Work, the cosmic perfection of mankind, the final goal of the alchemists? Just as the rocket scientist Parsons was willing to play dice with heavy explosives, Parsons, the nuclear age warlock was willing to play with fire of a very different sort. Parsons rests firmly in the tradition of the fraternity of Western Magi who include Moses, Solomon, Jesus Christ, John Dee, Adam Weishaupt, Crowley, Gurdjieff and Timothy Leary - great revolutionaries and liberators all.

Parsons wrote in his Manifesto of the Anti-Christ: "An end to the pretence (sic), and lying hypocrisy of Christianity. An end to the servile virtues, and superstitious restrictions. An end to the slave morality. An end to prudery and shame, to guild and sin, for these are of the only evil the sun, that is fear. An end to all authority that is not based on courage and manhood, to the authority of lying priests, conniving judges, blackmailing police, and an end to the servile flattery and cajolery of mods, the coronations of mediocraties, the ascension of dolts."

Someone sure didn't like Christians.

The Book Forum offers:

On the mystical front Rene Guenon, Gurdjieff, and Aleister Crowley run the spectrum of esoteric-metaphysical-occult-black magic of the region, as well as the skills of the ashokh (G's father was one) who holds druid-like clan memory. I've read just about everything these three wrote, though Gurdjieff above all likes to obfuscate and make things seem more mysterious than they really are.

I wasn't able to find any direct connection with Crowley. It does seem, though, that Gurdjieff and Crowley were operating in the same venue.

WHAT IS AN ARCHEPISCOPAL CHURCH?

Whatever it is, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church has become one.

The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church was today elevated to the status of Major Archiepiscopal Church and its Metropolitan as the first Major Archbishop Catholicos.

Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, the Apostolic Nuncio to India, read out the Papal Bull in this regard at the St Mary's Cathedral here.

JOSEPH'S LATEST ARTICLE IS UP AT FRONT PAGE

He makes some rather strong accusations against the Latin Patriarch and the Orthodox Patriarch. He may be right. He may not be right.

Frankly the Mid-East is such a political rabbit warren that I won't claim to be able to sort out Joseph's charges. I'm not even sure God can sort it out at this point!

The bottom line seems to be war, no matter how the politics are pigeonholed. Which would mean, I guess, that war on terrorism will never end. Sigh.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

ARCHBISHOP WAS A COMMUNIST AGENT

A reader sent in this article from News Scotsman:

A Roman Catholic archbishop was an agent for Slovakia’s communist-era secret service, a government official said today.

Jan Sokol, now the head of the Bratislava-Trnava archdiocese, was registered by the secret service as an agent in spring of 1989, just months before he was appointed archbishop in then-communist Czechoslovakia, said Miroslav Lehky of the Institute of the National Memory.

Prior to that, the service had marked Sokol as a ”candidate for cooperation” for many years, Lehky said.

Bella Dodd would be happy to read that article! She would probably ask how many more?

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

WHO IS MAKING THE DECISIONS ?

Crux News has linked a story from newkerala.com describing the shift in decision making that has taken place in the Vatican due to the Pope's debilitating illness. It leaves one with the nagging concern that we don't really know who is running the Church.

This state of affairs could end tomorrow. None of us knows how long God will give us. It also could drag on for a lot longer.

The Church is in a state of chaos. Vulnerable. And now without leadership, it would seem. Perhaps we are nearing the time when Christ will intervene? Or is it that a window of opportunity has been opened for the opposition?

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

VIRGINIA MAKES THE BRITISH NEWS

If we led the world to adopt the lowest common denominator, can we turn around and lead the world on an upward spiral? It is just possible that the BBC News senses a trend is developing. I hope so.

The Virginia state house has voted to outlaw the trend of wearing trousers so low that underwear hangs over the top.

Delegates said the habit, popular across the US and in other Western countries, was "coarsening" society.

But others hit back, urging legislators to remember their own "fashion follies" and saying the law would be used mostly against black people.

The house adopted the "droopy drawers" bill by a margin of 60-34.

If the state senate also approves, youngsters in Virginia showing too much of their boxer shorts or G-strings could be fined $50 (£26).

The last line in the article kills me!

"This is going to be a bill that targets blacks. You know who they are going to stop," he said.

Delegate Lionell Spruill is so sensitive to maintaining black rights at any cost that he has managed to brand black people as more uncouth, more unmannerly, and more disordered in their style of dress than the white folks. Give the black folks a break Delegate Spruill. Some of them put the white folks to shame by their style of dress, especially when they are going to church. What's wrong with calling the rest of the black community to follow their example? Not all black people are slobs, for goodness sake. If I were black, I'd take offense at his statement. Black people are just as capable of having standards as white people.

Blogger credit to Crux News.

THE COURAGE OF A TRUE LEADER

ST. LOUIS, February 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said that as Catholics continue to speak out on life and family issues they will face persecution. “There is going to be a persecution with regard to this, that’s clear,” said the Archbishop.

The media has painted the St. Louis church leader as a mean-spirited bully, yet in person he is soft-spoken and kind with a keen sense of the truth and an urgency to convey it for the salvation of souls. Rather than using high-sounding platitudes which coast over the heads of many, Archbishop Burke speaks plainly the teaching of the Church on matters of central importance, without fear of being labeled politically incorrect.

During the debate in the US about refusing communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion, Burke issued a pastoral letter explaining that, although the refusal by a pastor or bishop to distribute holy Communion to anyone is a “source of great sorrow . . . What would be profoundly more sorrowful would be the failure of a bishop to call a soul to conversion, the failure to protect the flock from scandal and the failure to safeguard the worthy reception of Communion.”

Blogger credit to Spirit Daily.

BISHOP GRILLO OF CIVITAVECCHIA

A Zenit article speaks of the 10-year experience of pastoring near the weeping statue of Mary in his diocese--a portion of the discernment process that the Church uses to determine whether an apparition is truly from God.

Blogger credit to Spirit Daily.

NO LONGER A SLEEPING GIANT

The Vatican has again come to life in defense of the faith. You can read about it at Catholic News Service.

Check out the comments in Dom's blog if this interests you.

WHEN CHRIST RETURNS...

I've only skimmed it and then printed it. Caldecott was a source I've trusted until reading an article of his recently that left me in doubt as to his Catholicism. This one clinches that doubt.

"In Search of the Miraculous" was originally published in Communio, the same organization that is sponsoring the Balthasar Conference in 2005.

Caldecott speaks favorably of Gurdjieff's disciple Ouspensky in this article, and of "esoteric Christianity." There is no such thing. Relationship with God is available to every person who has been baptised. We can all pray and God will hear us. We can all offer our lives to God on a day by day basis through the morning offering. God responds to that offering for you, for me, for the Catholics in India or in Africa, or in South America. If we seek relationship with God, He responds. There's nothing mysterious about that. There is nothing "esoteric". It's just the way humans are created. We are made for God and our soul is restless until it rests in Him.

Subscribing to an idea of an elite class of "esotericists" is so close to what the Nazis believed that it boggles the mind to find it within the Church. This is a prescription for disaster. For a repeat of the Holocaust. For the reign of the anti-Christ.

Gershom Scholem calls the concept of mysticism detached from doctrine "mystical Nihilism." How are so many being fooled? Through the sin of pride?

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

ARTICLE BY MICHAEL ROSE ON ROSSLYN CHAPEL

at Catholic World News. It's dated June 2003, but this is the first time I've seen it. He has a lot of interesting details included there. It's worth a read if you're interested in Rosslyn theories.

ARMS CROSSED OVER CHEST IN COMMUNION LINE

Thanks to a reader who was curious and did some digging. She turned to the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament with this question:

A question came up on a website regarding the "arms crossed over chest"
by those who will not be receiving communion when they are in the
communion line. Your website has two "answer" postings that are on
this subject but don't quite answer the question I have in mind.

I understand from my parish pastor, and confirmed by your answers
posted, that it would be best for those not receiving communion to
remain in the pews ... even children when possible. That communion
isn't the time for blessings for people not receiving communion.

But what about Catholic special ceremonies. When my children received
their First communion and their father, who is not Catholic,
participated in the ceremonies, he was advised to cross his arms across
his chest to alert the Priest that he would not be receiving communion.
Is this a "new" practice of recent times due to increase in
interfaith marriages, or has this "symbol/sign" been practiced from
some time within the Church? Just wondering.

If it has been a practiced or one that was practiced prior to Vatican
II, or one instituted after Vatican II, would you please provide
information on the documents that reference this practice. A history
on its development/purpose would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the response she received:

It seems to be "new" - like the later part of the 20th century - and
in the life of the church, that's pretty new. We did not have it in
my childhood--- I"m nearly 40. It was added as a sign of hospitality

yet, in rethinking the practice of the last 15 years, people are
starting to feel that it is not a helpful symbol.

I think it did start to help interfaith marriages -- however, it is
being discouraged.
Hope this helps.

Additionally there are these comments at the website:

There is no provision for blessing people who are not able to receive Holy Communion in the Eucharistic liturgy- in fact, in a few short minutes they will be blessed during the closing rites of the Mass. This makes the blessing repetitious, a concept that was removed with the renewed liturgy of Paul VI. (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy removed all useless repetition from the liturgy, which included multiple "signing of the cross," blessings, etc.).

The communion procession is very specific, representing that sign of the pilgrim people being nourished for the journey of faith. To come up for something that will not be received, or to join in something that one will not be participating further shows division and the feeling of being unnourished. A blessing and the reception of Holy Communion are not the same and are of different importance. Reception of Holy Communion means full membership and communion with the Church. This is a reason why people from non-Catholic churches are not able to receive - they are not a member of the Catholic Church.

Another reason, of late, why it is not helpful to have children blessed is the protection of them. Many who were abused as children, now as parents, frown on the practice of having strangers or Communion Ministers touching their children without their permission at church. The appropriate place for blessing objects or people is after the Mass. Children should want to be blessed and not forced to be touched by any one.

There is this one as well:

It has become a custom in some churches to have those who do not receive communion do this practice and receive a blessing. Lots of times, it is done to children who have not received their First Communion.

It is not in the rubrics of the Mass, nor appropriate. (It is not envisioned in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal 2002.) In fact, it is rather patronizing. If anything it symbolizes more the division between those who may receive communion and those who may not. Receiving a "token" blessing at this moment also seems to become "superstitious" when all are blessed in a few short minutes with the "final blessing" of the Mass. Children in some places prefer the blessing to Holy Communion, and have stated that they "do not want to take communion because it doesn't taste good." They prefer the blessing to Holy Communion.

At one point in the history of the church and it's worship, those who were not Catholic would be dismissed after, what we call today, the "Liturgy of the Word." Then it was also called the "Liturgy of the catechumen." This was so that the divisions would not be highlighted around the table of the Lord. Also, in our day, with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Young People, it seems also inappropriate to add this ritual, sending a mixed message to children that it is OK for priests to touch them.

In some cultures, the parents present the infant or child after Mass for a blessing. This is appropriate because the parents are asking specifically and in a different context.

The question remains, where did this begin within the Roman Catholic Church. And why?

ANOTHER GRAIL BOOK

From a Masonic e-zine called the American Mason:

BLOODLINE OF THE HOLY GRAIL The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed
By Laurence Gardner

Reviewed by: Staff

This curious book by the internationally known chivalric geneologist Laurence Gardner argues that France’s Merovingian dynasty are descendant from Jesus and his brother, James. Unshrouded, Gardner contends that Jesus did not die on the cross, but was taken down alive, revived and recovered to marry Mary Magdelene and bear children, extending the Davidian line ( Jesus was descended) to today’s Merovingians.

What happened then? James became leader of one branch of Christianity, sometimes known as the Gnostic branch, while another leader emerged, Saul of Tasarsis who spread a resurrection version of Jesus dying on the cross throughout Europe and the Roman Empire. Saul became St. Paul and the father of Christanity as practiced today by Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians alike. James was stoned to death. Mary Magdelene was purposely obscured by parties unknown wherein Magdalene became someone else, and whenever reference was made to Mary they were as the mother of Jesus.
This approach persisted through the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Paulist Christianity prevailed and the Jamesian version went into carefully engineered obscurity. Those who want to pursue this line further can explore translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Himmaldi parchments for more on James and Gnostic Christianity. It gets complex. But Bloodline of the Holy Grail makes interesting speculative reading for brethren interested in Masonic antiquity—particularly involving those chapters on the Knights Templar of the early Crusades.

Laurence Gardner is a very busy man. His speaking schedule, radio events, and magazine articles are listed here. To say he gets around is putting it mildly.

Here is a Nexus interview with Gardner in which he responds to the question "Is Arch the same as Ark, then?":

In a certain context, yes. The Greek word ark, meaning "gathering box", is arc in English and arche in French. The Oxford Word Library defines the word ark as an obsolete form of the modern English word arc. It was equivalent to the Latin arca, a "chest", "box" or "coffer". Archaeology was about a quest for the Ark. Storage places are called archives. Ancient mysteries are called arcane. Ark-based construction, as used by the Templars, became known as architecture, from which we also get arch, architrave, etc. Masonic lore was based on arcane architectural geometry, and the term Royal Arch or Ark stemmed from this.
In Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark, I've included a colour plate of Templars in 1147, twenty years after they returned from Jerusalem. The painting, from the Château de Versailles, depicts them with the Ark of the Covenant at the Paris Chapter House.

At the History Channel website discussion board I found an interesting comment:

the real shame with this documentary is that the leading and trusted scholar of the topic laurence gardner wasn't
consulted

the catholics certainly didn't want this message out as another post said

most of brown's work is not fiction and the order of zion
existed even before stated unlike another post

At the Rosslyn Chapel Trust website which offers books for sale, Gardner's book Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark appears on the list. Genesis of the Grail Kings by Gardner is also there. The Da Vinci Code is there as well, along with more books by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail

Sort of helps to explain why the ossuary box that was attributed to the Apostle James was so significant, doesn't it?

GRAIL LITURGY

Suzanne M. Rini introduces the "Grail Liturgy" in an online paper at the EWTN website titled "Hitler and the Occult: Nazism, Reincarnation and the Rock Culture." In speaking of the occult influence on Nazism, she writes:

[Edward C.] Whitmont claims that the lore of the swastika traces directly
back to the Knights Templars, who were routed by the Church for
allegedly satanic-like practices. The Templars were also
affiliated with the Grail myth, a major element of which was
worship of an ancient, Celtic/Teutonic god involving prescribed
rituals and prayers: "All this purportedly constituted a Grail
liturgy dedicated to reviving the ancient forgotten mysteries of
the old sacred tradition (ascribed to a legendary Aryan Thule)
from which the whole Indo-Germanic culture was supposed to have
originated."

She goes on to write:

Whitmont says...These new Templars claimed to guard and serve the Grail of the
racially pure blood and the Thule mysteries of the ancient Aryan root
race." Thus, the old god Cerannus would have had to be propitiated
with blood rites, upon which pagan renewal was always based. Hitler,
when he came to power, often had himself pictured in Grail regalia,
and set up some of his forces as "orders" of knights. It then becomes
possible to hypothesize that perhaps the ritual murders which took
place in the German concentration camps were seen, not figuratively
as they are by some historians, but literally as blood sacrifice.

Further into the paper she connects the Cathars with the Black Mass:

…Cathars are credited, even by the most Inquisition-hating historians as having been the first heretics to propitiate Satan as the god of matter. They are credited too, with being the first to celebrate the Black Mass and to offer human sacrifice, both of which were drawn upon by 19th century Satanists. It was the 17th century Cathars who introduced to devil-worship the ritualistic elements today passed off as ancient but which were unknown in both the early Christian centuries and in the Renaissance, when black magic became influential through the work of Pico de Mirandola, who believed that white magic was not efficient enough for the matters at hand. It was the ritualistic, propitiatory Cathar “tradition” which was adapted by the surge of Satanism that took place in the 19th century, well-described by Huysmanns in La Bas.

The paper conjures up visions of martyrdom which are unsettling to say the least. It is then not without concern that I discovered there is a "Grail Liturgy" online.

This liturgy is ecumenical in nature. The description of it that prefaces the liturgy itself uses the word "Catholic" in the sense of syncretistic "unity." The four directions make their presence known. A consecration is included. The service is patterned on the Roman Catholic Mass.

This liturgy is the handiwork of Jonathan Robinson, Director of the Grail Trust, and an Anglican priest with an M.A. in the study of religions. It has the approval of one Catholic priest who is quoted at the end of the liturgy saying:

"The Grail Liturgy has a cosmic dimension. It is a participation in God's communion with the whole Universe, and so of us with and in that Universe. What makes the Grail Liturgy unique is that it brings all the different dimensions of life into their relationship with the Christ.

An important feature of this liturgy is that it is not afraid of periods of silence as space for contemplative meditation. A priority of prayer is that we dispose ourselves to be open to God communing with us. The use of symbols in the liturgy, through which our senses are able to play a part, can lift us to a higher form of communion than any words.

For those who will take the risk of departing from the formula of the familiar parish Mass, their participation in the Grail Liturgy will be a nourishing spiritual experience."

Adrian B. Smith (Fr. Adrian Smith is a Catholic priest, and author of a number of books describing the interface between Christian beliefs and the emerging era of new consciousness.)

Are you ready to "take the risk"? The Grail Church is waiting for you. Among the options they offer:

...you can request a Letter of Recognition. This relationship is for people who are generally in agreement with us and want closer ties, but do not want to be structurally connected to our order - either because you are Desposyni yourself or you are connected with another ministry of Desposynic origin.

Desposyni? That would be Grail Christianity:

The Grail Religion might be best defined as a folk expression of the Messianic Christianity which existed among the Covenant Keepers of Davidic descent. They were known by ancient Church historians as the Desposyni: signifying that they were the Lord's kinsmen. Its theology was encrypted in the early legends of the Holy Grail and survives today in some branches of Celtic Christianity.

In this case the "Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail." Interesting website. They claim to be the "Desposyni", those blood relatives of Christ who believed they should rule. William H. Kennedy discusses them on p. 99 of Lucifer's Lodge:

The Desposyni believed they were the body, blood, and spirit of Jesus Christ and that they had the right to marry, to have children, to run the Church, and pass on papal leadership to their offsping. This heresy may have been where Celsus received the notion that Jesus was a sex fiend. Most likely this belief was a Desposyni tenet, which they used to justify their own sexual practices. Martin believed that they died out in the fourth century, but some may have survived and their congregations could have easily kept these sexual teachings alive in the Church by going underground.

The Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail mentions sexual teachings in the footnotes:

8. That Jesus Christ was phallic in marriage and had to be married, according to the Hebrew prophets, to be the true Messiah, [7]

9. That sexual union is meant to be sensual, fertile, and spiritual; it is not depraved nor is it Original Sin, [8]

10. That there are five religious rites: baptism, chrism, communion, redemption, and the bride chamber; and only in the Jamesian tradition can there be a completed liturgy, [9]

The Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail website does not offer a liturgy, but rather directs the believer to seek out the ligurgy in the didache Chapters 10 and 11. However for individuals who do not have the option of celebrating a Grail Liturgy:

If receiving Communion in a Church which does not acknowledge the Grail Church, make the sign of the double-cross (an X - "cross my heart and hope to die" by folding your arms across the breast or making the sign with your hand, and then make the crucifix) and say "Maranatha", a petition which means "My LORD [Jesus] has come; may my lord [a Desposynic head] come."

I have a vague memory of seeing someone receive communion with their arms crossed X-fashion across their chest. Whether they said "Maranatha" or not, I don't know. When I saw this done, I thought it looked odd and wondered what sect the person belonged to.

Jonathan Robinson's Grail Liturgy is linked at this Lutheran website, and at this Unitarian Universalist website. They offer their own version of it as well.

There is a Grail Centre in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth. This Centre is on the list of UK Christaquarian Groups. Here is the home page for the Christaquarians, "a growing resource for the study of New Age Christianity, Christian New Agers..."

It boggles the mind!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

POPE'S CONDITION MORE SERIOUS THAN WE WERE TOLD

After twice refusing to be taken to the hospital, the pope finally gave in and agreed to go.

News.com.au reports:

Inside the Vatican says the Pope was taken to the hospital's intensive care unit until his breathing spasms subsided - an action that also contradicted the account given by Vatican officials.

"We got him by a breath," one medico tells the magazine.

Another says: "If he had come in 10 minutes later he would have been gone."

Blogger credit to Spirit Daily.

HERE WE GO AGAIN...

An interview at Beliefnet:

Is the history of the Knights Templar disputed?

Oh, yes it is. There are two totally different views on this. One is that it was founded by devout Catholics to defend the faith—a view that I’m afraid we would dispute quite vigorously. The other is the view we’ve just given you, that it was founded for heretical reasons, by families trying to reclaim their patrimony--which was in their view the Holy Land, because they claimed descent from the high priesthood of Jerusalem.

Tell me about this family trying to keep its patrimony.

It wasn’t one family--it was a series of them. There were 24 hereditary high priests in the temple of Jerusalem, and after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 they scattered throughout Europe and the Far East. Their descendents kept in touch and only married within that group of families—keeping the bloodline pure and passing down their teaching in secret. Now, they knew that Jesus wasn’t God and that he had taught a form of spirituality which was totally in conformity with Judaic tradition and with the Egyptian tradition that preceded it.

How does that story connect with Gnosticism?

These families were Gnostics. The church required you to believe in a set of fixed dogma and accept it as fact. It said that if you are not a good boy down here then you’ll burn in hell for eternity; or you could conform to church belief and join the feathered choir in heaven. The Gnostic is a different animal. He follows a teacher who teaches an ascending path of initiation, whereby more and more is revealed until ultimately you attain union with God. Examples would be Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Egyptians or the Jewish Kabbalists. And the families we’re talking about were following something very closely akin to the Kabbalah and the Egyptian tradition.

You've heard the story before if you've read The Da Vinci Code or Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Naturally the authors fail to cite any authoritative source for their claims.

Sigh. I guess the money tree is just too good to resist.