Knight and Butler believe that ancient peoples possessed scientific knowledge. While this isn’t news to many who have read much of the history of our distant past, the authors provide further evidence. Stonehenge and certain other old structures, according to the authors, are sacred observational ritual places. After spending time in many Native American ruins in the US and seeing their knowledge of the planets and stars, I find the fact that these were connected to the stars to be a reasonable explanation.

I read this book just after I read Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, not realizing the close connection of some of the material. I assume Brown knew of Knight and Butler’s research, since they mention that he used some of their work in his previous novel, The Da Vinci Code. Whether he did or not does not detract from either work, nor is the focus the same. What is striking, however, are the similarities of both books seeing the importance of Washington DC and some of the buildings within that city.

What is just as fascinating is the importance of the past that permeates both books. Is there knowledge we have simply forgotten that is gradually coming to light through these various books, both in fiction and nonfiction? Do we need to go back to the past as we move forward? Signs seem to be pointing in that direction.

Knight and Butler mention the importance of the planet Venus and the star Sirius to early civilizations. Are there revelations we are to find that link our past to two of the most prominent lights in the sky? I won’t be surprised if further research finds that to be true. The Freemasons, the mysterious group that is receiving so much press these days, seem to have a connection to Venus and its relation to the Sun in their rituals. The authors claim this shows an importance of the feminine and astrology in Freemasonry. Future research may also confirm that.

There are other observations in the book:

1) The authors mention the importance of astrology, not just astronomy in their findings. They point out that Newton and other scientists studied astrology.

2) The ancient British were more advanced in astronomy than the Egyptians.

3) Sumerians, in the area that is now Iraq, arrived in approximately 3250 BC and no one seems to know where these technologically and intellectually sophisticated peoples came from.

4) Rosslyn, the chapel so often connected to the Freemasonry past and also prominent in Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, is an observatory similar to Stonehenge and the pyramids, not a church.

5) Washington DC is another observatory site similar to Stonehenge, the pyramids, and Rosslyn.

This book has much scientific data about a Megalithic Yard that can be traced back to the pyramids and beyond. While one can get lost in the technical descriptions, they do provide validation to these ideas that might otherwise be just interesting. Perhaps the authors go too far when they suggest that all major sites in Washington, DC are linked by a web measured in the Megalithic Yard, bringing the Freemasonry mystique to the United States. The authors suggest the possibility “that Washington DC is a continuation of knowledge held by an advanced culture from the extreme past. And there is still an elite group of people who fully understand this” (208).

They claim that the Sphinx and other Egyptian standing structures “prove beyond doubt that the emergence of civilization…took place long before orthodox history has ever considered” (209). And they suggest that now is the time to “look again at ideas of the past” (211). Are their conclusions correct? I don’t believe there is enough information available. But their findings pose questions of a past far more exciting than any fiction, and I do believe that the best is yet to come.

This is not as easy reading as Brown’s novel, yet it poses related questions. How helpful, however, for readers that these two books arrive on the market at same time, providing similar knowledge in varying forms. Perhaps we need to pay attention.

Cheryl A. Chatfield, Ph. D. invites you to visit her nonprofit organization at http://NottInstitute.org to download a free copy of Seven Spiritual Books To Read For 2009. These will help in your quest for a Practical Spirituality. See the Free Material.

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