The Talisman : Sacred Cities, Secret Faith

Talisman is a roller-coaster intellectual journey through the back streets and rat runs of history to uncover the traces in architecture and monuments of a secret religion that has shaped the world. The story takes us from Heliopolis to Luxor, Alexandra, Toulouse, Florence, Rome, Paris, London, Washington DC, New York and, finally, to the global pandemonium following 9/11/2001. It is a tale filled with romance and intrigue, heroism and faith, peopled by Ancient Egyptian astronomer priests, Christian Gnostics, Hermetic sages, learned Jews, Arab savants, Occitan Counts, Cathar perfecti, Knights Templar, Renaissance magi, Rosicrucian invisibles, Bavarian illuminati and Freemasons." "Pivotal historical events and processes, not least the Renaissance, the birth of scientific rationalism and the French and American revolutions, are radically re-evaluated in the light of new investigative evidence presented for the first time in Talisman. Even the belief that the United States has a global mission, so obvious today, may ultimately prove to be less the result of a short-term reaction to terrorism than the inevitable working-out of a covert plan originally set in motion almost 2,000 years ago.