The Curse of Oak Island - Part 2
Professor Barry Fell and the Celtiberians
Besides British and French involvement with Nova Scotia in the 17th Century, the Lagina brothers’ investigations have also provided evidence that the Romans and even the Aztecs visited Oak Island in the distant past. One of the most extraordinary finds they have made is that of an ancient Roman sword. Their investigations have also unearthed the presence of coconut mat fibres, which was something unknown to Europeans until the early 16th Century when Portuguese and Spanish explorers first encountered the palm trees and their fruit in the Pacific Islands of South-East Asia (although Marco Polo had first discovered them when he visited Sumatra during his long sojourn in Asia). As Marty Lagina has said, their investigations may cause the rewriting of American history to show that Europeans long had knowledge of North America centuries before Columbus’ epic voyage of discovery in 1492. Indeed, one archaeologist has even claimed that North Africans had visited Oak Island.
One of the many skilled and smart explorers of the Oak Island mystery was a man named
Barry Fell. Fell was a Harvard zoologist by trade and an amateur archaeologist who claimed that the carvings discovered on Oak Island originated from the
Coptic Christians of North Africa who may have visited the site during ancient times. Please note that Fell was also a leading expert in epigraphy, the study of ancient alphabets.
Fell argued that there was a lot of contact between the Native Americans and the people of the old world. To prove his point, he used a stone with intricate carvings on it as an illustration. Does this mean that Africa played a significant role in the hidden treasure? Was there any nation that didn’t have a stake in Oak Island at some point in history?
It is worth recalling at this stage that a delegation of Ethiopian Coptic Christians visited and met with the Pope prior to the arrest of the leading Knights Templar in France by King Philip IV. When Laura queried the purpose of this visit with the C’s, they responded by saying that it was to ensure that plans were being taken forward. Hence, from this statement we may deduce that the Coptic leadership was in on the plot to bring down the Templars. Could it be that they knew the Templars had possession of the Holy Grail or what they thought was the Ark of the Covenant? If so, could the Coptic Christians of North Africa have visited Oak Island seeking the Holy Grail/Ark of the Covenant in the belief the Templars had hidden it there after their suppression?
Indeed, had some people in the ancient world, including the Romans and Phoenicians who originally came from the land of Canaan but settled in Carthage and Southern Spain (Cadiz being originally a Phoenician port), long-held knowledge of something extraordinary being buried or hidden on Oak Island? Was this knowledge to be found perhaps in the Great Library of Constantinople in Alexandria before its destruction?
I have now read Barry Fell’s book
America BC, which, if he is correct in his suppositions, completely transforms our world view of the European settlement of North America. Through stone megalithic monuments and carvings displaying
Ogham script, which are found all over the North and East of America (and even as far West as New Mexico and California), Fell and his colleagues have deduced that
Celtiberians (i.e., Basques, Spanish Celts and Phoenicians from the Iberian Peninsula) settled extensively in America and traded with the Native American Indian peoples. He places the earliest Celtiberian settlements as far back as 800 BC. Since the Celts of Spain were renowned miners, this might also explain the largescale mining operations that took place in US states like Wisconsin and along the shores of Lake Superior in antiquity. No doubt they were mining copper, which was the key metal of the Bronze Age. It would also explain the high incidence of the B- blood group among some Native American peoples of North America, as it seems likely now that their ancestors bred with settlers of Basque descent, the Basques having amongst the highest incidence of B- blood type individuals in the world.
Moreover, wherever the Celts settled, their druid priests would go with them. A curious thing about Oak Island is that it is supposedly named after the red oak trees that were found there. However, I have read that the red oak is not indigenous to that area of the Atlantic seaboard. So, who was it that planted these oaks and when were they first planted? Could it have been druids, to whom the oak tree was sacred? There was a lot of excitement at one stage amongst the archaeologists during season 9 of the
Curse of Oak Island when they thought they had discovered a serpent mound on the island. Apparently, serpent mounds have been found in Ontario, Canada and there is, of course, the famous Serpent Mound in Ohio (See:
Serpent Mound - Wikipedia), which the C’s have commented on in the transcripts. Archaeologists claim that it was built by the Adena Native American culture circa 320 BC. Although this is possible, it overlooks Barry Fell’s findings that the Native American peoples were heavily influenced by the Celtiberians who had settled in North-East America prior to this time. Hence, I would not rule out such serpent mounds having been constructed by the Celtiberians, no doubt with Native American assistance. Unfortunately, the archaeologists on Oak Island came to the conclusion that what they thought may have been a serpent mound was in fact just spoil from digging operations.
I intend devoting a whole article to Barry Fell’s book since it contains a wealth of information including details of one stone inscription, which he claims makes a strong and compelling connection between the Celtic god
Bel and the Canaanite god
Baal. However, for the time being I will just add that Fell believes that the Canary Islands were an important stopping off point for trading expeditions between Celtiberian Spain and the New World. This might in part explain the C’s comment to Laura when they said of Tenerife: “…
but do you know the history of this place?” If Fell is right, then the Canary Islands were a key part of the Celtiberian trade route to and from North America, no doubt because of the favourable trade winds that blow westwards from there. Indeed, Christopher Columbus used this route on his famous voyage of discovery in 1492.
The Battle of Morbihan Gulf
The question then arises why Europe forgot about North America apart from the fabled Viking voyages of exploration led by Leif Erikson in the 11th Century AD, which may have reached Newfoundland and beyond. The answer probably involves the Roman conquest of the Celtic world that saw first Spain and then Gaul (France) and Britain conquered and absorbed into the Roman Empire. The defeat of a joint Gallic and British fleet off the coast of Brittany at the Battle of Morbihan Gulf in 52 BC saw the Celtic fleet of 220 vessels annihilated by Brutus (yes, the same Brutus who would later kill Julius Caesar), which, without their boats, meant the Celts had no means to continue trading with the North America settlements. With this crushing victory, the Romans allowed their own war fleet to decline, as they no longer had any significant naval adversaries left to fight. Moreover, their oar powered galleys were not suitable for transatlantic voyages unlike the Celtic craft that were high sided sailing ships that could take advantage of the prevailing Atlantic winds and were far more seaworthy. However, saying that, a sunken Roman galley has been located off the coast of Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, although the Brazilian government inexplicably will not give permission for its exploration, even though Roman coins frequently wash ashore on the tide. And then there is that Roman sword found on Oak Island. How did that get there?
The Gaels
The one group of Celts who may have retained ocean-going sailing ships after the Battle of Morbihan Gulf and the subsequent Roman subjugation of the British Celts in AD 43 were the Irish Gaels who the Romans called Hibernians (the name denoting their Iberic roots) who were otherwise known as the Milesians or Goidelic Celts who had conquered Ireland and would go on to invade and conquer Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is possible the Gaels may have kept up some intermittent contact with the Celtiberian settlements in North America for a while but eventually all contact seems to have been lost. This could explain why there may have been people in Ireland and Scotland who retained some knowledge of North America, probably through oral transmission passing down through the generations.
One of these people may have been Sir Henry Sinclair whose descendant, Sir William Sinclair, would build the famous and enigmatic Roslin Chapel near Edinburgh. Part of the mystery surrounding Oak Island is that Sir Henry Sinclair may have conducted a voyage to Nova Scotia in the 14th Century, which could have included a visit to Oak Island. The Sinclair family had long had links with the Knights Templar. Henry Sinclair, the first earl, fought alongside the first Grand Master of the Templars, Hugh de Payens in the Holy Land in the early 12th century. The Knights Templar may also have had secret knowledge of North America, which the surviving Templars in Scotland passed on to the Sinclair family. One book I have read recently on Roslin Chapel even goes so far as to claim that Sir William Sinclair was a proto-Rosicrucian who may in fact have been the model for Christian Rosencreutz. In his time, he was almost certainly one of the most well-read and best educated men in Britain. However, I will leave this interesting topic for a later article.
I wish now to return to Sir Francis Bacon’s involvement in the mystery of Oak Island. The fact that the C’s have made several direct references to him and the Rosicrucians within the transcripts suggests that he may have been one of the key players involved in the burial of the TDARM on Oak Island. Bacon was an alchemist, scientist, lawyer, statesman, writer and a leading Rosicrucian. He also had good connections in Europe and was a man of great influence as his career at the English court steadily took off, leading him eventually to hold some of the most important offices of state. He was also heavily involved, as we previously learned, in the creation of the first English colonies in North America. I have also discovered that one of Bacon’s mentors, Sir William Cecil or Lord Burghley, the most powerful statesman in Elizabethan England, had a keen interest in alchemy and wished to make use of it in order to enrich the state’s coffers (viz. The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley by James Stuart Campbell). This may explain why Burghley took such keen interest in John Dee’s scryer (trance medium), Edward Kelley, who after his split with Dee remained behind on the Continent becoming an alchemist in the employ of Rudolph II. Interestingly, after his death, Dee’s papers ended up in the hands of Elias Ashmole (creator of the famous Ashmolean Library in Oxford) who was one of the first known Freemasons in England.
Going forward, I will rely heavily on a three-part article which Peter Dawkins wrote on The Oak Island Mystery for the Francis Bacon Research Trust, since he makes a good case for Bacon having a key role in the mystery. I referred to the third part of the article in an earlier post since it dealt with Rosicrucian esoteric beliefs that would have guided Bacon, including the ancient practice of geomancy that was an art the Rosicrucians shared with the Druids. The website addresses for all three parts of the article are set out here:
The Mystery of Oak Island – Part 1: The Treasure Hunt (fbrt.org.uk)
The Mystery of Oak Island, Part 2: The Navigators (fbrt.org.uk)
The Mystery of Oak Island, Part 3: Swan Secrets - fbrt.org.uk · PDF fileThe Mystery of Oak Island – Part 3: ... Author: Peter Dawkins ... THE MYSTERY OF OAK ISLAND – PART 3: SWAN - [PDF Document] (vdocuments.site)
Part 1 of Dawkins article serves the purpose of providing a background and history to the Oak Island Mystery. The second part, the Navigators, deals more with the history of the colonisation of Acadia and Nova Scotia by the French and English and the role of Francis Bacon in the mystery. Dawkins makes the claim that the Rosicrucians were known as ‘Navigators’ – “as the ones who planned the routes, mapped the stars and steered the ships on their journeys of exploration. The journeys, however, were not just worldly journeys on Earth but also metaphysical journeys of the mind.” This is interesting since the three authors of the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail claim that the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion were called ‘Nautonier’, which in old French means helmsman or navigator. The C’s have suggested that the Priory of Sion is, in reality, a cover story for something else. I would suggest that something else is the Rosicrucians. Dawkins also points out that the oldest European name of what is now Nova Scotia was Arcadia. He then alleges that Arcadia allegorically is known as the ‘land of the Rosicrucians’ – a land inhabited by shepherd-knights and poets, and famous for its harmonious landscapes and oak tree woods in which boars hunt for acorns. This is, of course, exactly what Nicolas Poussin depicts in his painting ‘The Shepherds of Arcadia’. Could Poussin have had Oak Island in mind when executing his painting? Remember that the first version of his painting showed a skull resting on a tomb or sepulchre. Intriguingly, there is a stone found on Oak Island which has a human skull carved on it. This stone forms part of what has come to be known as ‘Nolan’s Cross’, named after Fred Nolan who first discovered it in 1992. I shall return to this subject later in the article, since it suggests once again a masonic and/or Rosicrucian involvement in the mystery.
We have looked at the history of Nova Scotia’s colonisation in an earlier post on this thread and in part one of this article we saw the potential involvement of Sir William Alexander and the Plymouth Colony (the Pilgrims) in the mystery. Here, however, I wish to concentrate on Randall Sullivan’s claim that Francis Bacon was involved in the construction of the Money Pit and its sophisticated flood defences through what may have been a deliberate, if rather enigmatic, admission he made in his last written work, Sylva Sylvarium.
Artificial Waterworks and the Preservation of Bodies and Manuscripts
Peter Dawkins also buys into this theory and goes into detail how Bacon may have acquired the knowledge and skill to construct the Money Pit and the flood traps that treasure hunters on Oak Island have encountered during their excavations. In part 2 of Dawkins article on Oak Island, he shows how Francis Bacon in his books Sylva Sylvarium and New Atlantis, makes clear that besides his interest in and knowledge of mining, he was also concerned with and had an experimental knowledge of underground water courses and the preservation of bodies and manuscripts. Dawkins points out, however, that Bacon was merely reporting some methodologies or inventions already known and practised by others. Dawkins suggests though that there are clues that Bacon wanted people to take especial note of these things.
Dawkins indicates that Bacon would have picked up his knowledge of mining after inheriting his father’s shares in the Company of Mineral and Battery Works, one of two mining monopolies created by Queen Elizabeth I. Other important shareholders included Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley), Robert Dudley (the Earl of Leicester, a favourite of the Queen) and Sir Henry Sidney.
Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarium begins “Century I” (i.e., the first 100 of 1000 experiments), entitled “Experiments in consort, touching the straining and passing of bodies one through another; which they call Percolation”. Significantly, the very first experiment refers to the seashore, the tide, the high water and low water marks, and the digging of a pit:
“Dig a pit upon the seashore, somewhat above the high-water mark, and sink it as deep as the low-water mark; and as the tide cometh in, it will fill with water, fresh and potable. This is commonly practised upon the coast of Barbary, where other fresh water is wanting. And Caesar knew this well when he was besieged in Alexandria: for by digging of pits in the seashore, he did frustrate the laborious works of the enemies, which had turned the sea water upon the wells of Alexandria; and so saved his army being then in desperation. But Caesar mistook the cause, for he thought that all sea-sands had natural springs of fresh water: but it is plain, that it is the sea-water; because the pit filled according to the measure of the tide: and the sea-water passing or straining through the sands, leaveth the saltness.”
Bacon’s private chaplain and literary executor, William Rawley, in his introduction “To the Reader” of Sylva Sylvarium says that he looks attentively into the particulars (experiments) “shall find they have a secret order”. Dawkins claims that this is a big hint that we should take note of the experiment numbers and the page numbers, which using cyphers that Bacon employed elsewhere. Dawkins states that the number ‘1’ is equivalent to the letter ‘A’ in Simple Cypher, corresponding to Alpha in the Greek alphabet and Bacon’s Abecedarium Cypher. He proposes that this gives a particular clue as to what to look for.
He then turns to page 7 of the book and
Experiment 25 “Experiment solitary touching the making of artificial springs”:
“
… It was reported by a sober man, that an artificial spring may be made thus: Find out a hanging ground, where there is a good quick fall of rainwater. Lay a half trough of stone, of a good length, three or four foot deep within the same ground; with one end upon the high ground and the other upon the low. Cover the trough with brakes a good thickness, and cast sand upon the top of the brakes, you shall see, saith he, that after some showers are past, the lower end of the trough will run like a spring of water: which is no marvel, if it hold while the rainwater lasteth; but he said it would continue long after the rain is past: as if the water did multiply itself upon the air, by the help of the coldness and condensation of the earth, and the consort of the first water.”
Dawkins points out that if you were to substitute coconut fibres for brakes (i.e., ferns, bracken, brushwood etc.) and sea for rainwater, you have here a virtual description of the beach drainage system found on Oak Island, which feeds a continuous supply of sea water via underground tunnels into the Money Pit. He adds that the number 25 is equivalent to a Double Alpha or ‘AA’ in Bacon’s Abecedarium Cypher. He states that this is the call sign or signature of the Rosicrucian Society and mystery school. Therefore, one should make special note of this experiment, and also the fact that it naturally follows on after the Single Alpha of Experiment 1 referred to above. The number 7of page 7 is the simple cypher for the letter ‘G’, the special letter that stands for both Geometry and God in Freemasonic symbolism. As was noted above, a stone carved with the letter G was found on Oak Island, at the mouth of Smith’s Cove underneath which five enclosed drainage tunnels are meant to combine into one.
Dawkins then refers to page 33 of the book and Experiment 100, “Experiments solitary touching the impossibility of annihilation,” where Bacon describes how to preserve paper or parchment in quicksilver (mercury). You can read his description of the experiment yourselves on page 16 of the second part of his article. What is important to note is that a pile of flasks, which had contained quicksilver was found on Oak Island and core drilling has revealed not only quicksilver in the so called ‘treasure vault’ part of the Money Pit but also bits of gold, pieces of manuscript and leather bookbinding.
Dawkins points out that Bacon was very concerned about the preservation of things of worth, especially wisdom knowledge, so that such things would survive over the dark times which he foresaw coming. Apparently, several times he refers to the preservation of book or manuscripts, as if this was of particular importance to him. Perhaps he had in mind the fate of Atlantis or the loss of the Great Library of Alexandria, which robbed mankind of so much ancient knowledge. Interestingly, Bacon in his book New Atlantis associated Atlantis specifically with North America – the Atlantis that was “utterly lost and destroyed” by a particular deluge, or inundation”.
Dawkins thinks that the fact that the description of preserving manuscripts in quicksilver is listed as Experiment 100 and placed on page 33 of his book provides a very pointed cryptic message to take especial note of this particular experiment. This is because 100 is not only the ‘Omega’ (i.e., the end) of the first 100 experiments (Century 1) but 100 is the Simple Cypher of FRANCIS BACON, whilst 33 is the Simple Cypher of BACON. Moreover, 100 is a cypher denoting the All (i.e., God), whilst 33 is a cypher denoting the Thirty-Third Degree of Freemasonry, which is also written as ‘TT’, a signature to be found on many Masonic and Rosicrucian books and memorials (ref. the Shakespeare Memorial in Westminster Abbey in London as just one example). [MJF: I would also refer the readers back to what the C’s had to say in the transcripts about the significance of the number 33.]
Dawkins goes on to discuss what Bacon had to say about the preservation of bodies in Experiment 771. He lists experiments referring to large and deep caves used for refrigeration and the conservation of bodies, some of them dug under great hills and mountains and being up to 3 miles deep. Dawkins ponders whether Bacon had actually carried out such experiments or learned from those who had or whether these were just his vision or ideas of future experiments to be carried out, or even possibly a mixture of both. I even wonder to myself whether there were in fact any mines that where up to three miles deep in Bacon’s age since that is very deep for non-electric winches to convey men to such deep galleries. However, the same thought also led me to wonder whether Bacon may have seen (possibly through an unrecorded encounter with the enclave of alchemists in the Pyrenees) examples of such physical preservation involving the type of high technology (e.g., the cryogenic freezing of living human beings) that the C’s spoke of in connection with the underground civilisation, which they referred to as the Nation of the Third Eye. The other though that occurs to me is whether the TDARM on Oak Island may have been used to regenerate something or somebody before it was reburied by the alchemists? If so, could that somebody have been Nicholas Flamel, who supposedly died in March 1418 at the age of 88? Apart from appearing in the Harry Potter book and film of the same name ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ it was claimed that he and his wife had been seen in Paris well into the 18th Century. However, the C’s made specific reference to Flamel and suggested he was still alive in the 16th century.
Dawkins argues that in many ways and for many reasons Sir Francis Bacon can be seriously considered as the primary designer and instigator of the Oak Island Mystery. If this is the case, the only caveat I would introduce here is whether he received any assistance from the STS Lizards, since the C’s mentioned to Laura that the construction of the Money Pit was beyond known human technology at that time. If he did, then was he one of those consciously communing with “higher” powers? Afterall, you could make out a case that the Rosicrucians (who have a very ancient pedigree according to the C’s) have always communed with higher powers. Moreover, if the modern Freemasons who emerged in Scotland in the Middle Ages can be viewed as an offshoot of, or splinter group from, the Knights Templar (a religious order rather than a denomination), then they too might fulfil the definition of a sect as envisaged by the C’s.
Geocosmology and the Rosicrucians
I previously referred to Part 3 of Peter Dawkins article (‘Swan Secrets’) in one of the earliest posts on this thread. I focused on Dawkins’ belief that Bacon and his fellow Rosicrucians used the science of ‘geocosmology’*, a science of heaven and earth, which involved projecting the heavens (a star map) on to earth. He states that “Landscape zodiacs are the result of such a marriage of heaven and earth … this is an ancient science, utilised from prehistoric times but particularly used by the Celts and Ancient Egyptians in ways that we can still use today. Both John Dee and Francis Bacon were knowledgeable in this science, which includes local landscape zodiacs, national landscapes, and even the whole world. In the British tradition, the British landscape zodiac is the real Round Table of King Arthur and his queen, Guinevere (‘the White Lady’, i.e., virgin pure), reflecting the archetypes in heaven.”
*The word “geocosmology” was invented as a combination of two words, ‘geomancy’ and ‘cosmology’, and refers to the science and art of geomancy and cosmology and their interrelationship or interface. See:
FBRT | Geocosmology: the Hermetic Science and Art of Geomancy and Cosmology
Dawkins goes on to state: “
To project heaven on to earth and know where you are navigating to, and what that area the world corresponds to in terms of the symbolism associated with the stars, was of key import. And this is where Oak Island and Nova Scotia show up in their importance, as well as helping to explain why Queen Elizabeth I of England was likened to the Virgin Queen, who in the sky is represented by the constellation of Cassiopeia, the Enthroned Queen (i.e., equivalent to Isis, the Egyptian goddess queen).”
Dawkins then makes a connection between the supernova that appeared dramatically in the sky from 1572 to 1574, which was taken as a sign of the birth of a child to the Virgin Queen, or the appearance of a great light in that part of the world representing the Virgin Queen, Cassiopeia. At that time the part of the world corresponding to Cassiopeia was the British Isles – England in particular – and an earthly queen always equates in tradition as personifying the land. Readers of my earlier articles on John Dee may recall how amazed Dee and his fellow English and European astronomers (many of whom were astrologers too) were by the supernova, the first witnessed in many centuries.
Dawkins goes on to state that Robert Fludd (an English scientist and perhaps one of the ‘Philosophers of Dancar’) wrote, in his Tractatis Apoligetica (1617), that the “new star” of 1572 marked the beginning of the Rosicrucian work, which continued to be prepared in secret until the 1603-04 planetary conjunctions and appearance of the ‘new stars’ in Cygnus and Ophiuchus, which was a sign to the Rosicrucian Fraternity for them to emerge from their period of secrecy, expand their membership and begin the restoration of the world. Furthermore, in his Silentium Post Clamores (1617), the Rosicrucian apologist, Michael Maier, states that the Brother R.C. were a school or philosophical society (again perhaps alluding here to the ‘Philosophers of Dancar’ since Maier is alleged to have stated that the Society or Fraternity of the Golden and Rosy Cross had been founded circa 1570 by members of a group whose origins lay in a ‘community’ founded in 1510 in London by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim) that existed to advance inspired arts and sciences, including alchemy, and to discover the mysteries hidden in nature. Maier explains that they and other such groups in Europe were the continuation or revival of ancient societies such as that of the Ancient Egyptians, the Greek Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries, the Pythagoreans, the Samothracian Cabiri, the Magi of Persia, the Brahmins of India and the Gymnosophists of Ethiopia. We have, of course, considered the links between some of these groups before and I would also include the ancient Druids in this list since they were almost certainly the holders of ancient knowledge and may well have been the original teachers of some of the aforementioned societies and groups.
However, imagine my surprise when I originally read Dawkins’ comments and compared them to what the C’s had had to say about the supernova in Cassiopeia and the new stars in Serpentarius (Ophiuchus) and Cygnus in the following extracts from the transcripts:
Session 7 June 1997:
Q: Supposedly, Christian Rosencruetz was initiated by the 'philosophers of Dancar.' I want to know where this blasted place is! Okay, skip it. One of the Rosicrucian manifestos said: 'God has sent messengers and signs in the heavens, namely the new stars in Serpentarius and Cygnus, to show that a great council of the elect is to take place.' What do they mean by a 'great council of the elect?'
A: Pyrenees.
Q: Okay, the purported enclave of the alchemists... Why was it signified by new stars in Serpentarius and Cygnus? What do they represent?
A: Novae.
Q: In reading the Celtic legends, I discovered that Cassiopaea was equated with Danu, or Don, as in Tuatha de Danaan, or the court of the goddess Danu. So, in other words, the supreme goddess of the Aryans was Cassiopaea. And, Cassiopaea is found in the zodiacal area of Aries, the 'lamb,' where Cephus the 'rock' and 'king' is also found, as well as Perseus, 'he who breaks' and serpentarius. {Just noticed that the previous question about the supernova in Serpentarius could be a reference to the supernova in Cassiopeia by this grouping method.} The image is of Perseus overcoming the serpent, and the ancient Celtic engravings of the horned god show him gripping two serpents by the throat. I would like to understand the symbology here...
A: You are on the right track.
Session 5 September 1998:
Q: (L) Having done my homework on supernovas to some extent, and having discovered that either supergiant red stars are in the process of going supernova, or supergiant blue stars are getting ready to be ready to go supernova, as well as eruptions of massive interstellar clouds, I note that Betelgeuse, in the right shoulder of Orion, is a red supergiant, and Rigel, in the foot of Orion, is a blue supergiant, both of which could go supernova. Am I going in the right direction?
A: You have begun to trek down the right path.
Q: (L) We noticed that the supernova that occurred in Cassiopaea 300 years ago did not seem to have been widely noticed by people on earth. What is the reason for this?
A: Distance.
Q: (L) Now, formerly I asked about the ‘two new stars in Cygnus and Serpentarius’ that were written about in the Rosicrucian Manifesto of about this period of time, and you said they were talking about ‘novae.’ But, it seems that there are no new stars in either of these constellations. Yet, at approximately this time, was the supernova in Cassiopaea.
A: Yes, those with foreknowledge were looking.
Since Dawkins’ article primarily concerns the role of Sir Francis Bacon in the mystery of Oak Island, which the C’s seem to do also, it made me take more note of what he had to say. His arguments may not all be correct. However, I think we should still take notice of them since he has established links relating to Bacon that others haven’t. For example, Dawkins draws our attention to the Oak Island link with the constellation of Cygnus the Swan and the celestial star map, which he was first made aware of by the American researcher and alchemist Betty McKaig in the 1970’s. McKaig’s researches into various renowned alchemical writings and those of prominent Freemasons such as Mackey and Albert Pike as well as the plays of Shakespeare and other masque works by and for Bacon had led her to discover, amongst other things, a map of the stars that describes a highly significant pattern laid out across the heavens. She believed that a number of intriguing links were to be found in various parts of the Fama and Confession of the Fraternity of R.C. (one of the three Rosicrucian Manifestos) but she particularly paid attention to one passage from Cygnus, the enigmatic Swan:
“
Yea, the Lord God hath already sent before certain messengers which should testify his will, to wit, some new stars which do appear and are seen in the firmament in Serpentario and Cygno, which signify and give themselves known to everyone, that they are powerful Signacula of great weighty matters.”
It is, of course, this passage in the
Fama that Laura was discussing with the C’s in the sessions dated 7 June 1997 and 5 September 1998 referred to above.
The alchemical text, once decoded by McKaig, told her to construct a particular diagram, a star map, on a map of the heavens. She claimed that it told her which stars to link together to make the diagram and gave her particular positions for the Sun, the Moon and planets. Following these instructions, she projected her star map on to the globe of the world as it would have been in the early part of the 17th century. The stellar diagram depicted what is known as the Celestial Compass, sometimes called the Masonic Compass (read page 7 of Part 3 of Dawkins Article for more on this). The apex of this Compass lay on the star Deneb (part of the constellation of Cygnus) and its two points lay on the stars Spica (Virgo) and Regulus (Virgo). The location of Deneb turned out to be an area adjoining Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia where Oak Island is situated. In fact, McKaig visited Oak Island, where she felt the discoveries of the Welling Triangle, the stone inscribed with the letter ‘G’ found at Smith’s Cove and Nolan’s Cross all confirmed that Oak Island was the correct island and that the treasure in the Money Pit might be genuine. Dawkins subsequently inherited this star map and McKaig’s notes after her death.
The problem here is that we are completely reliant on a deceased researcher for identifying clues to an alleged star map that were deduced from diverse works by different esoteric writers published at different times. Even if there is something to her theory, can we be certain that she correctly identified all the appropriate clues and is it possible that she could have missed relevant clues in these and other works that she should have but did not read or failed to take notice of? Moreover, there is always the danger that a researcher can impose their own fixed ideas on texts to establish links that don’t really exist (consider what the C’s had to say on the ‘
Bible Code’ for example). Having questioned her methodology, I must in fairness concede that it is well known and accepted that many famous alchemists did indeed conceal clues in their alchemical writings to be recognised by those in the know (e.g., Fulcanelli). Moreover, the same point is also true of the Rosicrucians, many of whom were alchemists themselves. This was especially true of Sir Francis Bacon, who was a skilled cryptographer and may have been the author (or at least the main light behind) the works of William Shakespeare, which, as I mentioned in an earlier post, are full of hidden meanings and esoteric knowledge (think of
The Tempest for example, which McKaig used as a key source for her theory by linking a reference to Bermuda (“Bermoothes”) to Oak Island).
Hence, whilst calling for caution, I would not completely dismiss McKaig’s theory, since I think there is something to her central idea that the Rosicrucians/alchemists may have used ancient concepts such as geocosmology or geomancy in locating or positioning things, as perhaps did the Knights Templar (see below Travis Taylor for more on this theory). Indeed, this concept was nothing new in Britain where millennia ago the Ancient Britons had constructed a zodiac on the ground using natural features around what is now Glastonbury (for more on the Glastonbury Zodiac see
Glastonbury Zodiac | Paul Weston Glastonbury). Moreover, the C’s have intimated a link between the Rosicrucians and the Enclave of the Alchemists in the Pyrenees. Dawkins also makes out a strong case for Sir Francis Bacon using such concepts in the lay out of his estate at Gorhambury in St Albans, which is located on a powerful ley line (see Dawkin’s arguments for this set out under the heading
287° Navigation Line: Gorhambury Ley Line in Part 3 of his article). If Bacon could have used such methods in relation to the lay out of his estate at Gorhambury, why could he not have used them on Oak Island as well?
Dawkins makes much of the 287° navigation ley line running from Bacon’s Mount in Saint Albans to Oak Island and Jamestown (The Virginia Company’s first settlement) and he believes it makes the connection of Francis Bacon with St Alban (Bacon’s title as Viscount St Alban was in fact linked to the martyr saint who was reputedly by tradition the proto Freemason in Britain and therefore not to the town of St Albans as many think), Father CRC as used in the Rosicrucian Manifesto
the Fama, the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, Oak Island and Jamestown absolutely clear. Could the C’s have been trying to draw our attention to this 287° ley line in the following passage from the
Session dated 28 June 1997:
A: St. Albans.
When I previously read this passage, I made links with John (Jack) Dee, William Cecil (Lord Burghley), St Albans, and the death by hanging of a young Elizabethan man called Richard Hesketh, which I wrote about in my article The Strange Case of Richard Hesketh. However, I am also conscious that Laura also made a link between the plains of San Augustin where a UFO crashed in 1947 and Tenerife in the Canary Islands, which was mentioned elsewhere in the same 28 June 1997 session:
Q: So, it is another part of the disinformation program of the Consortium/Beast complex to distract and mislead. Okay. Now, I have found this strange connection with Springe, Germany, near Bielefeld, and the strange crop circle that appeared with the buried plates; connected to the actual location of the "Roswell," UFO crash, the plains of San Augustin, the Order of Preachers, Mary Magdalene, Tenerife, and the Virgin of Candelaria. Is this all related as I am thinking?
A: But of course! But, you are not yet finished. Wait until you get to the point where you can begin to connect what you have learned from all the various clues!
When I looked at the map Peter Dawkins provided in Part 3 of his article (see page 15) to display the 287° ley line running from St Albans in England through Oak Island and Jamestown in Virginia, I noted that with the curvature of the Earth, the ley line might well run very close to another St Augustine, this time
St. Augustine in
Florida, which is south of Jacksonville (See:
St. Augustine, Florida - Wikipedia). This town holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the continental United States, having been founded in 1565 by the Spanish admiral, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Florida's first governor. He named the settlement "
San Agustín ", as his ships bearing settlers, troops, and supplies from Spain had first sighted land in Florida eleven days earlier on
August 28, the feast day of St. Augustine.
I could certainly be wrong about this, but might the C’s have been trying to draw attention to this 287° ley line when they mentioned St Albans (the town and not Francis Bacon’s title, which was Viscount St Alban) in connection with St. Augustine and Oak Island? If so, this may be their way of validating Dawkins’ theory and lends support to his argument that Sir Francis Bacon was associated with the mystery of Oak Island.
For Betty McKaig and Peter Dawkins, Nolan’s Cross is a near perfect representation of the Northern Cross, otherwise known as Cygnus the Swan. Dawkins goes into some depth in Part 3 of his article on the significance of the swan in classical tradition. For example, it was sacred to both Apollo and Aphrodite, whose chariots were pulled by swans and Zeus who made love to Leda in the guise of a swan giving rise to two sets of twins, one set mortal and the other immortal, namely Helen (later known as the beautiful "
Helen of Troy"), Clytemnestra, and Helen (later known as the beautiful "
Helen of Troy"), Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux, the latter being the Gemini and members of the Argonaut crew. We have previously considered the possible significance of Castor and Pollux in connection with the figures of the two identical looking young shepherds in Poussin’s painting of the Shepherds of Arcadia. It is noticeable that the sole woman depicted in the painting is pregnant, so could she be Leda?
Dawkins points out that the star Deneb (meaning “tail”) represents the tail or root chakra of Cygnus, the Swan but at the same time marks the crown chakra of the Northern Cross. As previously mentioned, Deneb acts as the apex of the Celestial Compass, which in church tradition is normally depicted with God, the Divine Architect (or Great Architect of the Universe to the Freemasons), using the compass to lay out and measure the universe.
To Dawkins, Nolan’s Cross, which consists of six large stones laid out in the shape of a cross, is symbolic of the Northern Cross, Cygnus the Swan. The four ends of the Cross are marked by four cone-shaped stones, whilst a stone marking the centre of the cross has the shape of a human head. This head-shaped stone was found buried in the ground. A fifth conical stone lies on the main axis, between the head-shaped stone and the stone at the foot of the Cross. Each of the cone-shaped stones is about 8 feet wide at the base and 9 feet tall. It is extremely unlikely that any of these stones Dawkins points out that not only do conical stones stand out as markers but the white cone is a particular emblem of Dionysus (a ‘Son of Zeus’) and represents his heart. Orpheus was considered to be the human and mortal embodiment of Dionysus. According to Dawkins, Dionysus was symbolised as the Cross whereas Orpheus was symbolised as a swan or rose. Hence, we can see in this combination the rose-cross emblem of the Rosicrucians. Dawkins also points out that the fact that there are five conical stones making up the Cross is highly significant as the number 5 is representative of the rose and also of the human being, as the form of both are based on five-fold (pentagonal) geometry – think here of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, as previously discussed on this thread. Dawkins believes that the head-shaped stone, which is also said to look like a rose, adds the symbolism of the Crucifix, where the head of Jesus is set at the heart of the Cross. However, if we follow the rose-based theme, this is more likely to signify once again the involvement of the Rosicrucians.
Heading in another direction, Dawkins refers to the investigative work of Petter Amundsen who guided by his deciphering of codes within the Shakespeare Folio has advanced the claim that Nolan’s Cross is representative of the cabalistic tree of life. Amundsen believes that all ten of the
Sephiroth of the Tree of Life were laid out as part of Nolan’s Cross but some are still hidden waiting to be found. According to Dawkins, Amundsen is indeed finding some of these
Sephiroth markers, each one a rounded stone cut in half, so that one face is flat. Again, this might suggest the involvement of the Rosicricians in the burying of the Treasure but could also indicate the involvement of the Knights Templar on the island (see more on this below). According to Amundsen, the measurements of Nolan’s Cross in Imperial feet (indicating a British involvement) reveal the length of each arm of the Cross as being 360 feet, whilst the main axis is 870 feet in total divided into three parts: 294 feet the lower part, 429 feet the middle part and 147 feet the upper part (head). When you add the middle part and upper part of the main axis together you get 576 feet. When you set that sum against the length of one of the arms of the Cross you get the ratio of 360:576 which is 5:8, the Golden Ratio of harmony or phi (ϕ). Intriguingly, 294 is the cipher number in Greek gematria for ροδον (rodon), the Greek for rose, and the rose is held to incorporate the geometry of ϕ. Amundsen also found the buried marker stone for
Sephiroth #10, which lay a further 282 feet from cone-marked base of the visible Cross, making the total length of the Tree of Life 1,152 feet. Since the total width of the Cross/Tree is 720 feet, the ratio of the width to the total length is 720:1152, which equals 5:8 or the Golden Ratio again.
I find it curious that in Nicolas Poussin’s (a contemporary of Bacon and a suspected Rosicrucian) first painting of the Shepherds of Arcadia, he depicted a skull on top of a tomb or sepulchre, which was not repeated in the second version of the painting. Could this skull have been an oblique reference perhaps to the head-shaped stone on Oak Island, which Dawkins and others think may act as a marker to the Money Pit, which could in turn be viewed as a type of tomb or sepulchre? In addition, we should remember that Abbé Bérenger Saunière, who was at the centre of the
Rennes-le-Château mystery, the answer to which is supposedly linked to the second version of Poussin’s painting of the Shepherds of Arcadia, deliberately created a cabalistic Tree of Life in his garden, a strange thing for a Roman Catholic priest to do.
Travis Taylor is a NASA astrophysicist and aerospace engineer. He has appeared on TV shows such as Ancient Aliens, The Curse of the Skinwalker Ranch and The Curse of Oak Island. Taylor has noticed that there were high numbers of individuals involved in the Oak Island mystery over the years who were Freemasons. He studied their traditions which he found included a Tracing Board from the Third Degree containing the symbols of Jacob’s Ladder, the Holy Grail and the Pleiades star group (aka the seven sisters). This led him to conclude that the constellation Taurus may have been overlaid on the island as a star map using the ancient hermetic principle ‘As Above, So Below’ in a literal sense. The Pleiades can be found within the large sprawling constellation of Taurus (the Bull). Gretchen Cornwall has pointed out that if Taylor’s theory is accurate, Taurus the Bull, may have represented one of the four gospels in the Templar mindset, i.e., the Gospel of Saint Luke who in Christian iconography is depicted as a winged ox or bull. The name ‘Luke’ is a variant of the root word in Latin for ‘light’ or ‘lux’ – Starlight in this case? (See:
A Star Map & Oak Island – Gretchen Cornwall)
Oak Island with Frog Island to the North-East and Apple Island to the East
Is Taylor suggesting that the Templars applied an element of astrology by utilising the Winged Bull of the New Testament?
Cornwall points out that aside from being the Winged Bull of the New Testament, Taurus is also the first constellation in Judaic astrology and is related to the first letter Aleph which begins the Ten Commandments. It is the element of air and the pathway of Intelligence between the two spheres of
Kether and
Chochmah at the top of the Tree of Life. Overlay the Tree of Life on a human being and the term ‘intelligence’ is apparent as this pathway leads right to the top of the head.
You will note that this notion ties in with Amundsen’s claim that Nolan’s Cross represents the cabalistic Tree of Life.
As for the Pleiades, Cornwall states that she cannot stress the importance of the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters highly enough. They represent the Seven Muses of the Liberal Arts. The shining seven stars in the night sky were meant to be the guide in the heavens of the complete and elevated human being. The Seven Sisters were highly prized in ancient Greece and by Freemasonry for their representation of the refined and accomplished mind, the gold standard of education, logic and spiritual understanding that if followed would develop an unstoppable and formidable human being. The Seven Liberal Arts were considered by Greeks to be a complete circle of: geometry, astronomy-astrology, arithmetic, rhetoric, music, grammar and dialectics. All Seven Arts were necessary in the Classical World for the complete understanding of the art of war and to be a good citizen. ‘Philosophia’, or the Wisdom of Philosophy, sits enthroned in the centre of the Seven Muses. The balanced mind with a grounding in all seven areas was considered necessary to function as a productive member of society. Linking this concept back to the Cassiopaeans, one wonders whether the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters in their guise as the Seven Muses may be the ‘
Court of Seven’ the C’s have spoken of in the transcripts.
When Taylor went with members of the Oak Island investigative team to check whether his theory had any substance, they did in fact find large boulders positioned close to places that he had identified with the stars of Taurus as marked on his star map of the island (see
The Curse of Oak Island: Travis Has a New Templar Theory (Season 6) | History - YouTube). A cynic might argue that the boulders could have been placed there for the purposes of the show, which is, after all, produced as entertainment. However, I would be willing to give Taylor the benefit of the doubt. If his theory is correct, then this may be further evidence of Templar and/or Rosicrucian involvement on the island.
Continued in Part 3
