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Midnight in Paris is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter and aspiring novelist, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialistic fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and their divergent goals, which become increasingly exaggerated as he travels back in time to the 1920s each night at midnight.[3]
In 2010, disillusioned screenwriter Gil Pender and his fiancée, Inez, vacation in Paris with Inez's wealthy parents. Gil, struggling to finish his debut novel about a man who works in a nostalgia shop, finds himself drawn to the artistic history of Paris, especially the Lost Generation of the 1920s, and has ambitions to move there, which Inez dismisses. By chance, they meet Inez's friend, Paul, and his wife, Carol. Paul speaks with great authority but questionable accuracy on French history, annoying Gil but impressing Inez.
Intoxicated after a night of wine tasting, Gil decides to walk back to their hotel, while Inez goes with Paul and Carol by taxi. At midnight, a 1920s car pulls up beside Gil and delivers him to a party for Jean Cocteau, attended by other people of the 1920s Paris art scene. Zelda Fitzgerald, bored, encourages her husband Scott and Gil to leave with her. They head to a cafe where they run into Ernest Hemingway and Juan Belmonte. After Zelda and Scott leave, Gil and Hemingway discuss writing, and Hemingway offers to show Gil's novel to Gertrude Stein. As Gil leaves to fetch his manuscript, he returns to 2010; the cafe is now a laundromat.
The next night, Gil tries to repeat the experience with Inez, but she leaves before midnight. Returning to the 1920s, Gil accompanies Hemingway to visit Gertrude Stein, who critiques Pablo Picasso's new painting of his lover Adriana. Gil becomes drawn to Adriana, a costume designer who also had affairs with Amedeo Modigliani and Georges Braque. Having heard the first line of Gil's novel, Adriana praises it and admits she has always longed for the past.
Gil continues to time travel the following nights. Inez grows jaded with Paris and Gil's constant disappearing, while her father grows suspicious and hires a private detective to follow him. Adriana leaves Picasso and continues to bond with Gil, who is conflicted by his attraction to her. Gil explains his situation to Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Luis Buñuel; as surrealists, they do not question his claim of coming from the future. Gil later suggests the plot of "The Exterminating Angel" to Buñuel.
While Inez and her parents travel to Mont Saint Michel, Gil meets Gabrielle, an antique dealer and fellow admirer of the Lost Generation. He later finds Adriana's diary at a book stall, which reveals that she was in love with Gil and dreamed of being gifted earrings before making love to him. To seduce Adriana, Gil tries to steal a pair of Inez's earrings but is thwarted by her early return to the hotel room.
Gil buys new earrings and returns to the past. After he gives Adriana the earrings, a horse-drawn carriage arrives, transporting them to the Belle Époque, an era Adriana considers Paris's Golden Age, they go to the Moulin Rouge where they meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and Edgar Degas, who all agree that Paris's best era was the Renaissance. Adriana is offered a job designing ballet costumes; thrilled, she proposes to Gil that they stay, but he, observing the unhappiness of Adriana and the other artists, realizes that chasing nostalgia is fruitless because the present is always "a little unsatisfying." Adriana decides to stay, and they part ways.
Gil rewrites the first two chapters of his novel. He retrieves his draft from Stein, who praises his rewrite. Still, he says that on reading the new chapters, Hemingway does not believe that the protagonist does not realize that his fiancée, based on Inez, is having an affair with the character based on Paul. Gil returns to 2010 and confronts Inez, who admits to sleeping with Paul but disregards it as a meaningless fling. Gil breaks up with her and decides to move to Paris. The detective following him takes a "wrong turn" and ends up being chased by the palace guards of Louis XVI just before a revolution breaks out. While walking by the Seine at midnight, Gil encounters Gabrielle. As it begins to rain, he offers to walk her home and learns that they share a love for Paris in the rain.
Estructura detallada de los precolisionadores, colisionadores y aceleradores del LHC
El Gran Colisionador de Hadrones (LHC; en inglés: Large Hadron Collider) es el acelerador de partículas más grande y de mayor energía que existe y la máquina más grande construida por el ser humano en el mundo.12 Fue construido por la Organización Europea para la Investigación Nuclear (CERN) entre 1989 y 2001 en colaboración con más de 10 000 científicos y cientos de universidades y laboratorios, así como más de 100 países de todo el Mundo.3 Se encuentra en un túnel de 27 kilómetros de circunferencia y a una profundidad máxima de 175 metros bajo tierra, debajo de la frontera entre Francia y Suiza, cerca de Ginebra.
Las primeras colisiones se lograron en 2010 a una energía de 3,5 teraelectronvoltios (TeV) por haz, aproximadamente cuatro veces el récord mundial anterior, alcanzados en el Tevatron.45 Después de las correspondientes actualizaciones, alcanzó 6,5 TeV por haz (13 TeV de energía de colisión total, el récord mundial actual).6789 A finales de 2018, entró en un período de parada de dos años, que finalmente se ha prolongado hasta 2022, con el fin de realizar nuevas actualizaciones, con lo cual se espera posteriormente alcanzar energías de colisión aún mayores.
El colisionador tiene cuatro puntos de cruce, alrededor de los cuales se colocan siete detectores, cada uno diseñado para ciertos tipos de experimentos en investigación. El LHC hace colisionar protones, pero también puede utilizar haces de iones pesados (por ejemplo de plomo) realizándose colisiones de átomos de plomo normalmente durante un mes al año. El objetivo de los detectores del LHC es permitir a los físicos probar las predicciones de las diferentes teorías de la física de partículas, incluida la medición de las propiedades del bosón de Higgs10 y la búsqueda de una larga serie de nuevas partículas predicha por las teorías de la supersimetría,11 así como también otros problemas no resueltos en la larga lista de elementos en la física de partículas.
Túnel del Gran Colisionador de Hadrones (LHC) de la Organización Europea para la Investigación Nuclear (CERN) con todos los imanes e instrumentos. La parte del túnel que se muestra se encuentra debajo del LHC P8, cerca del LHCb.
Un "colisionador" es un tipo de acelerador de partículas con dos haces enfrentados de partículas que chocan entre sí. En la física de partículas, los colisionadores se utilizan como herramientas de investigación: aceleran las partículas a energías cinéticas muy altas que les permiten impactar con otras partículas.1 El análisis de los subproductos de estas colisiones, captados por los sensores, brinda a los científicos una buena evidencia de la estructura del mundo subatómico y de las leyes de la naturaleza que los gobiernan. Muchos de estos subproductos se producen sólo mediante colisiones de alta energía y se descomponen después de períodos de tiempo muy breves. Por lo tanto, muchos de ellos son difíciles o casi imposibles de detectar de otra manera.14
Nacido Napoleone di Buonaparte (Nabolione o Nabulione en corso), solo un año después de que Francia comprara la isla de Córcega a la República de Génova. Napoleone, años después, cambió su nombre por el afrancesado Napoléon Bonaparte. El registro más antiguo de este nombre aparece en un informe oficial fechado el 28 de marzo de 1796.
En mayo de 1625, el ejército franco-saboyano que invadió la República fue derrotado por los ejércitos español y genovés combinados. La plaga de 1656-57 mató a casi la mitad de los habitantes de Génova. En mayo de 1684, como castigo por el apoyo genovés a España, la ciudad fue sometida a un bombardeo naval francés, en el que se emplearon unas trece mil balas de cañón.
Génova continuó su lento declive en el siglo xviii. En 1742 la última posesión de los genoveses en el Mediterráneo, la fortaleza de la isla de Tabarka, fue tomada por el bey de Túnez.
Génova entró a regañadientes en la Guerra de Sucesión Austríaca en 1745. Los genoveses apoyaban a la facción francesa de los Borbón y a España con el fin de evitar que su enemigo mortal, el Reino de Cerdeña, se anexionara la Marca de Finale Ligure; lo que partiría en medio a la república. Esta decisión dio lugar a una serie de desastres, la derrota frente a los austríacos el 6 de septiembre de 1746 y a la ocupación de la ciudad. Hubo una gran insurrección popular en diciembre de 1746, precipitada por un chico llamado Giovan Battista Perasso y apodado Balilla, que arrojó una piedra a un funcionario austríaco y se convirtió en un héroe nacional para las generaciones posteriores. Los austriacos fueron expulsados, pero regresaron para un infructuoso asedio de Génova en 1747. Al menos Génova retuvo Finale por el Tratado de Aquisgrán (1748). Fue incapaz de mantener su regla en Córcega, donde la rebelde República Corsa fue proclamada en 1755. En 1768 Génova fue obligada por la rebelión endémica a vender su reclamo sobre Córcega a los franceses y así Córcega fue cedida en el Tratado de Versalles de 1768.
Una reactivación económica en la década de 1780 se llevó a cabo.
En 1797 la República de Génova fue ocupada por el ejército revolucionario francés de Napoleón Bonaparte, quien derrocó a las viejas élites que habían gobernado la ciudad durante toda su historia, y la sustituyó por una república popular conocida como la República de Liguria, bajo el cuidado estricto de la Francia napoleónica. Una constitución más conservadora fue promulgada, pero la vida de la República de Liguria fue corta, en 1805 fue anexionada por Francia, convirtiéndose en los departamentos de Apeninos, Génova y Montenotte. Tras la toma de la ciudad por las tropas británicas, entre el 17 y 22 de abril de 1814, las elites locales alentadas por el agente británico lord William Bentinck proclamaron la restauración de la antigua República, pero se decidió en el Congreso de Viena que Génova se debía ceder al Reino de Cerdeña. Las tropas británicas suprimieron la república en diciembre de 1814 y luego evacuaron la ciudad, que se anexionó a Cerdeña el 3 de enero de 1815.
It gets even more intriguing when Pan Am 103 is added to the correlation. First, it needs to be mentioned that the same Quatrain VI-97 had been very closely associated to another notorious plane crash - TWA 800 (as shown in 'Babylon Matrix'). And again, somehow, another major and equally notorious place crash, Pan Am 103, comes to relate to the same quatrain. Besides the timing (i.e. coinciding with the bombing of Novi Sad), an interesting correlation can be made with VI-97's fourth line, "When they want to have proof of the Normans", as one of the Scottish prosecutors for the trial is named 'Norman' (McFadyen) as mentioned in the news article. Obviously, the "proof of (the) Norman(s)" is to be a key part of the trial, thus nicely fitting the line.
Next, the involvement of Scotland in the Pan Am 103 incident turns out to be significant through Scotland's strong historical connection to the Masonic/Templar tradition from which the stories of the Ark/Grail cannot be separated. What fills the gaps between the issues (Pam Am 103/Scotland, Ark/Grail, VI-97, etc.) is yet another plane crash, the crash of Swissair 111 (Sept. 2, '98) off Nova Scotia, Canada, which was en route from NYC to Geneva, Switzerland. It is one of the most recent major airplane crashes. It is rather congruent that a recent major plane crash, Swissair 111, is to be linked, as we will see, with both TWA 800 and Pan Am 103, as both of those two airplane incidents made the headlines recently (the story of TWA 800's crash itself, and the story about the handover of the suspects of Pan Am 103) and both are hypothesized to be connected to Quatrain VI-97.
The link between TWA 800 and Swissair 111 is insinuated by the fact that both crashed mysteriously soon after taking off from NYC. Those incidents were only about 1 year apart (July '97 and Sept. '98). The connection between Swissair 111 and Pan Am 103 is first suggested in the name 'Nova Scotia' (where the Swissair 111 crash occurred) which means 'New Scotland' (Pan Am 103 exploded over Scotland). Notice that the "New" part can relate to VI-97's "new city" and it also happens that Nova Scotia is nicely bisected by the "45 degrees" N latitude, and Nova Scotia is historically closely connected with France (=> "Normans"). Furthermore, Swissair 111's destination Switzerland is roughly at "45 degrees" N., and the name Switzerland is derived from a word that means 'to burn' - as in "45 degrees the sky will burn" (!) (it's, therefore, interesting that the capital of Switzerland is called 'Bern'), strengthening the connection between Swissair 111 and VI-97.
And here are some Scotland-Nova Scotia connections that will shift the focus to the new 'associative matrix' of Ark/Grail. It happens that Nova Scotia, like Scotland, is also involved in the Templar tradition and the 'Holy Grail'. Nova Scotia, it turns out, is exactly where the 'Holy Grail' (whatever it may represent) is theorized by some scholars to have been taken by the Knights Templar. In support of this theory, the region of Nova Scotia and the land around it was called 'Acadia' by the French which closely resembles 'Arcadia' which is a term that is very closely associated with the Grail tradition.
The involvement of Switzerland is also very significant as it is a country theorized by some to be founded by the Templars - the country's flag (white cross on red background - the reverse of the Templar symbol of 'red/rose cross') and its famous banking business (the Templars essentially founded the banking system we use today) strongly suggests this, for example. It is also interesting to note that Switzerland is located largely on the Alps which forms a big 'arc' (that separates Italy, France and Switzerland) potentially relatable to the 'Ark' theme. Additionally, the word 'arktos', in Greek, resembling 'ark', refers to the constellation Ursa Major known to Egyptians as 'the thigh' - which can be correlated with the Alps/Switzerland because as you probably know Italy is shaped like a leg with a high-heel shoe and if you consider the size of the foot/shoe, anatomically the land of Italy would correspond to the calf and the Alps/Switzerland region would correspond to the thigh!
For subtler links, we can add that Paris, the destination of TWA 800, has as its landmark the 'Arc de Triomphe' (which was discussed extensively in my long piece, 'The Elysian Fields', so this connection is not as arbitrary as some of you might think), and the mythological character 'Paris' happens to be closely associated with 'torch', thus relating to the fire/flame/burn theme derived from VI-97. It should also be noted that the Statue of Liberty standing beside Long Island/'Fire' Island of NYC (with which TWA 800 and Swissair 111 are connected) which holds the 'torch' of freedom was given to U.S. by France, and there is a smaller replica of the statue in Paris. (For more detailed exposition on the link between the Statue of Liberty and Quatrain VI-97, see 'Babylon Matrix') Additionally, the flight number of the Swissair plane, '111', also seems to bear a subtle esoteric symbolism, as the Sumerian version of (Noah's) 'Ark' (which can be linked with the Ark of the Covenant in some ways) "was a cube - a modest one, measuring 60x60x60 fathoms, which represents the unit in the sexagesimal system where 60 is written as 1" (Hamlet's Mill, p219). So, the ark could also be seen as 1x1x1 or '111', the number of the plane.
Pope Francis makes first papal visit to French island Corsica
FRANCE
Pope Francis landed in Corsica Sunday for his first papal visit to the French island. The pope is expected to highlight the enduring religious traditions of the island as well as the ongoing deaths of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
Issued on: 15/12/2024 - 09:02Modified: 15/12/2024 - 15:03
Pope Francis’ one-day visit to the French island of Corsica on Sunday, two days before his 88th birthday, puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, highlighting local traditions of popular piety on the one hand and migrant deaths and wars on the other.
The visit to Corsica’s capital Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon, will be one of the briefest of his papacy beyond Italy’s borders, just about nine hours on the ground, including a 40-minute visit with French President Emmanuel Macron.
It is the first papal visit to the island, which Genoa ceded to France in 1768 and is located closer to the Italian mainland than France.
Corsica stands out from the rest of secularized France as a particularly devout region, with 92 confraternities, or lay associations dedicated to works of charity or piety, with over 4,000 members.
“It means that there is a beautiful, mature, adult and responsible collaboration between civil authorities, mayors, deputies, senators, officials and religious authorities,’’ Ajaccio Cardinal François Bustillo told The Associated Press. “There is no hostility between the two. And that is a very positive aspect because in Corsica there is no ideological hostility.”
03:45
Papa Francescu, the pope’s name in Corsican, will address more than 400 participants at the Conference on Popular Religiosity in the Mediterranean, organized by the bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo.
The pope’s remarks will include reflections on local religious traditions, especially strongly held in Corsica, including the cult of the Virgin Mary, known locally as the Madunnuccia, which protected the island from the plague in 1656 when it was still under Genoa.
“The Mediterranean is the backdrop of this trip, surrounded by situations of crisis and conflict,’’ which is expected to be echoed in the pope’s address, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The pope has often referred to the tragedy of migration, which he has said has turned the Mediterranean into "Europe's largest cemetery.'
After the conference address, he will travel to the 17th-century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta to meet with clergy, stopping along the way at the statue of the Madunnuccia. Francis will celebrate Mass at the Place d’Austerlitz park, where it is said Napoleon played as a child. Around 7,000 faithful are expected. He will meet privately with Macron at the airport before departing for the 50-minute flight back to Rome.
The pontiff pointedly did not make the trip to Paris earlier this month for the pomp surrounding the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral following the devastating 2019 fire. The visit to Corsica seems far more suited to Francis’ priorities than a grand cathedral reopening, emphasizing the “church of the peripheries.”
It is Francis’ third trip to France, each time avoiding Paris and the protocols that a state visit entails. He visited the port of Marseille in 2023, on an overnight visit to participate in an annual summit of Mediterranean bishops, and went to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and Council of Europe.
Corsica is home to more than 340,000 people and has been part of France since 1768. But the island has also seen pro-independence violence and has an influential nationalist movement, and last year Macron proposed granting it limited autonomy.
A blog dedicated to discussion of exploration of North America before Columbus
Welcome
I've created this blog to share and exchange ideas relating to the research contained in my novel, Cabal of the Westford Knight: Templars at the Newport Tower. The story itself is fiction, but its premise rests on firm ground: Numerous artifacts and sites in and around New England (see attached images) clearly evidence a history of pre-Columbian discovery and exploration of North America. Specifically, the evidence points to a group of Northern Europeans island-hopping across the North Atlantic in the late 1300s. Who were they, and why did they come? Well, that's where the fun begins. If you come to this site with an open mind, you are welcome to participate in what I hope is a lively discussion.
A Review of CABAL OF THE WESTFORD KNIGHT by the Ohio Record-Courier
I am a graduate of Tufts University and Georgetown Law School. CABAL OF THE WESTFORD KNIGHT is my fourth novel. (Click on "My Books" link above for more info.) I am a former Director of New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA). I live in Westford, MA with my wife and our two daughters. In my spare time I coach youth sports and Special Olympics and also play on adult ice hockey and softball teams.
Medieval stone tower ... in Rhode Island. Does it look like any other Colonial structure you've seen? Recent carbon dating of the mortar indicates 1400s construction date (see post below).
The Westford Knight Sword
Medieval Battle Sword ... in Westford, Massachusetts. Can anyone deny the pommel, hilt and blade punch-marked into the bedrock?
The Spirit Pond Rune Stone
Medieval Inscription ... in Maine, near Popham Beach. Long passed off as a hoax, but how many people know the Runic language? And how is it that some of the Runic characters match rare runes on inscriptions found in Minnesota and Rhode Island? Carbon-dating of floorboards at nearby long house date to 1405.
The Narragansett Rune Stone
Medieval Inscription ... in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. This Runic inscription is only visible for twenty minutes a day at low tide--is this also the work of a modern-day, Runic-speaking hoaxster?
The Westford Boat Stone
Medieval Ship Carving ... in Westford, MA. Found near the Westford Knight site. Weathering patterns of carving are consistent with that of 600-year-old artifact. And why would a Colonial trail-marker depict a knorr, a 14th-century ship?
The Kensington Rune Stone
Medieval Inscription... in Minnesota. Forensic geology confirms the carvings predate European settlement of Minnesota--so did Runic-speaking Native Americans carve it?
The Hooked X Rune
Medieval Runic Character ... on inscriptions found in Maine, Minnesota and Rhode Island. But this rare rune was only recently found in Europe. This conclusively disproves any hoax theory while also linking these three artifacts together.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018
Columbus and the Templars
Was Columbus using old Templar maps when he crossed the Atlantic? At first blush, the navigator and the fighting monks seem like odd bedfellows. But once I began ferreting around in this dusty corner of history, I found some fascinating connections. Enough, in fact, to trigger the plot of my latest novel, The Swagger Sword.
To begin with, most history buffs know there are some obvious connections between Columbus and the Knights Templar. Most prominently, the sails on Columbus’ ships featured the unique splayed Templar cross known as the cross pattée (pictured here is the Santa Maria):
Additionally, in his later years Columbus featured a so-called “Hooked X” in his signature, a mark believed by researchers such as Scott Wolter to be a secret code used by remnants of the outlawed Templars (see two large X letters with barbs on upper right staves pictured below):
Other connections between Columbus and the Templars are less well-known. For example, Columbus grew up in Genoa, bordering the principality of Seborga, the location of the Templars’ original headquarters and the repository of many of the documents and maps brought by the Templars to Europe from the Middle East. Could Columbus have been privy to these maps? Later in life, Columbus married into a prominent Templar family. His father-in-law, Bartolomeu Perestrello (a nobleman and accomplished navigator in his own right), was a member of the Knights of Christ (the Portuguese successor order to the Templars). Perestrello was known to possess a rare and wide-ranging collection of maritime logs, maps and charts; it has been written that Columbus was given a key to Perestrello’s library as part of the marriage dowry. After marrying, Columbus moved to the remote Madeira Islands, where a fellow resident, John Drummond, had also married into the Perestrello family. Drummond was a grandson of Scottish explorer Prince Henry Sinclair, believed to have sailed to North America in 1398. It is, accordingly, likely that Columbus had access to extensive Templar maps and charts through his familial connections to both Perestrello and Drummond.
Another little-known incident in Columbus’ life sheds further light on the navigator’s possible ties to the Templars. In 1477, Columbus sailed to Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, from where the legendary Brendan the Navigator supposedly set sale in the 6th century on his journey to North America. While there, Columbus prayed at St. Nicholas’ Church, a structure built over an original Templar chapel dating back to around the year 1300. St. Nicholas’ Church has been compared by some historians to Scotland’s famous Roslyn Chapel, complete with Templar tomb, Apprentice Pillar, and hidden Templar crosses. (Recall that Roslyn Chapel was built by another grandson—not Drummond—of the aforementioned Prince Henry Sinclair.) According to his diary, Columbus also famously observed “Chinese” bodies floating into Galway harbor on driftwood, which may have been what first prompted him to turn his eyes westward. A granite monument along the Galway waterfront, topped by a dove (Columbus meaning ‘dove’ in Latin), commemorates this sighting, the marker reading: On these shores around 1477 the Genoese sailor Christoforo Colombo found sure signs of land beyond the Atlantic.
In fact, as the monument text hints, Columbus may have turned more than just his eyes westward. A growing body of evidence indicates he actually crossed the north Atlantic in 1477. Columbus wrote in a letter to his son: “In the year 1477, in the month of February, I navigated 100 leagues beyond Thule [to an] island which is as large as England. When I was there the sea was not frozen over, and the tide was so great as to rise and fall 26 braccias.” We will turn later to the mystery as to why any sailor would venture into the north Atlantic in February. First, let’s examine Columbus’ statement. Historically, ‘Thule’ is the name given to the westernmost edge of the known world. In 1477, that would have been the western settlements of Greenland (though abandoned by then, they were still known). A league is about three miles, so 100 leagues is approximately 300 miles. If we think of the word “beyond” as meaning “further than” rather than merely “from,” we then need to look for an island the size of England with massive tides (26 braccias equaling approximately 50 feet) located along a longitudinal line 300 miles west of the west coast of Greenland and far enough south so that the harbors were not frozen over. Nova Scotia, with its famous Bay of Fundy tides, matches the description almost perfectly. But, again, why would Columbus brave the north Atlantic in mid-winter? The answer comes from researcher Anne Molander, who in her book, The Horizons of Christopher Columbus, places Columbus in Nova Scotia on February 13, 1477. His motivation? To view and take measurements during a solar eclipse. Ms. Molander theorizes that the navigator, who was known to track celestial events such as eclipses, used the rare opportunity to view the eclipse elevation angle in order calculate the exact longitude of the eastern coastline of North America. Recall that, during this time period, trained navigators were adept at calculating latitude, but reliable methods for measuring longitude had not yet been invented. Columbus, apparently, was using the rare 1477 eclipse to gather date for future western exploration. Curiously, Ms. Molander places Columbus specifically in Nova Scotia’s Clark’s Bay, less than a day’s sail from the famous Oak Island, legendary repository of the Knights Templar missing treasure.
The Columbus-Templar connections detailed above were intriguing, but it wasn’t until I studied the names of the three ships which Columbus sailed to America that I became convinced the link was a reality. Before examining these ship names, let’s delve a bit deeper into some of the history referred to earlier in this analysis. I made a reference to Prince Henry Sinclair and his journey to North American in 1398. The Da Vinci Code made the Sinclair/St. Clair family famous by identifying it as the family most likely to be carrying the Jesus bloodline. As mentioned earlier, this is the same family which in the mid-1400s built Roslyn Chapel, an edifice some historians believe holds the key—through its elaborate and esoteric carvings and decorations—to locating the Holy Grail. Other historians believe the chapel houses (or housed) the hidden Knights Templar treasure. Whatever the case, the Sinclair/St. Clair family has a long and intimate historical connection to the Knights Templar. In fact, a growing number of researchers believe that the purpose of Prince Henry Sinclair’s 1398 expedition to North America was to hide the Templar treasure (whether it be a monetary treasure or something more esoteric such as religious artifacts or secret documents revealing the true teachings of the early Church). Researcher Scott Wolter, in studying the Hooked X mark found on many ancient artifacts in North American as well as on Columbus’ signature, makes a compelling argument that the Hooked X is in fact a secret symbol used by those who believed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and produced children. (See The Hooked X, by Scott F. Wolter.) These believers adhered to a version of Christianity which recognized the importance of the female in both society and in religion, putting them at odds with the patriarchal Church. In this belief, they had returned to the ancient pre-Old Testament ways, where the female form was worshiped and deified as the primary giver of life.
It is through the prism of this Jesus and Mary Magdalene marriage, and the Sinclair/St. Clair family connection to both the Jesus bloodline and Columbus, that we now, finally, turn to the names of Columbus’ three ships. Importantly, he renamed all three ships before his 1492 expedition. The largest vessel’s name, the Santa Maria, is the easiest to analyze: Saint Mary, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Pinta is more of a mystery. In Spanish, the word means ‘the painted one.’ During the time of Columbus, this was a name attributed to prostitutes, who “painted” their faces with makeup. Also during this period, the Church had marginalized Mary Magdalene by referring to her as ‘the prostitute,’ even though there is nothing in the New Testament identifying her as such. So the Pinta could very well be a reference to Mary Magdalene. Last is the Nina, Spanish for ‘the girl.’ Could this be the daughter of Mary Magdalene, the carrier of the Jesus bloodline? If so, it would complete the set of women in Jesus’ life—his mother, his wife, his daughter—and be a nod to those who opposed the patriarchy of the medieval Church. It was only when I researched further that I realized I was on the right track: The name of the Pinta before Columbus changed it was the Santa Clara, Portuguese for ‘Saint Clair.’
So, to put a bow on it, Columbus named his three ships after the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the carrier of their bloodline, the St. Clair girl. These namings occurred during the height of the Inquisition, when one needed to be extremely careful about doing anything which could be interpreted as heretical. But even given the danger, I find it hard to chalk these names up to coincidence, especially in light of all the other Columbus connections to the Templars. Columbus was intent on paying homage to the Templars and their beliefs, and found a subtle way of renaming his ships to do so.
Given all this, I have to wonder: Was Columbus using Templar maps when he made his Atlantic crossing? Is this why he stayed south, because the maps showed no passage to the north? If so, and especially in light of his 1477 journey to an area so close to Oak Island, what services had Columbus provided the Templars in exchange for these priceless charts?
It is this research, and these questions, which triggered my novel, The Swagger Sword. If you appreciate a good historical mystery as much as I, I think you’ll enjoy the story.
Was Columbus using old Templar maps when he crossed the Atlantic? At first blush, the navigator and the fighting monks seem like odd bedfellows. But once I began ferreting around in this dusty corner of history, I found some fascinating connections. Enough, in fact, to trigger the plot of my latest novel, The Swagger Sword.
To begin with, most history buffs know there are some obvious connections between Columbus and the Knights Templar. Most prominently, the sails on Columbus’ ships featured the unique splayed Templar cross known as the cross pattée (pictured here is the Santa Maria):
Additionally, in his later years Columbus featured a so-called “Hooked X” in his signature, a mark believed by researchers such as Scott Wolter to be a secret code used by remnants of the outlawed Templars (see two large X letters with barbs on upper right staves pictured below):
Other connections between Columbus and the Templars are less well-known. For example, Columbus grew up in Genoa, bordering the principality of Seborga, the location of the Templars’ original headquarters and the repository of many of the documents and maps brought by the Templars to Europe from the Middle East. Could Columbus have been privy to these maps? Later in life, Columbus married into a prominent Templar family. His father-in-law, Bartolomeu Perestrello (a nobleman and accomplished navigator in his own right), was a member of the Knights of Christ (the Portuguese successor order to the Templars). Perestrello was known to possess a rare and wide-ranging collection of maritime logs, maps and charts; it has been written that Columbus was given a key to Perestrello’s library as part of the marriage dowry. After marrying, Columbus moved to the remote Madeira Islands, where a fellow resident, John Drummond, had also married into the Perestrello family. Drummond was a grandson of Scottish explorer Prince Henry Sinclair, believed to have sailed to North America in 1398. It is, accordingly, likely that Columbus had access to extensive Templar maps and charts through his familial connections to both Perestrello and Drummond.
Another little-known incident in Columbus’ life sheds further light on the navigator’s possible ties to the Templars. In 1477, Columbus sailed to Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, from where the legendary Brendan the Navigator supposedly set sale in the 6th century on his journey to North America. While there, Columbus prayed at St. Nicholas’ Church, a structure built over an original Templar chapel dating back to around the year 1300. St. Nicholas’ Church has been compared by some historians to Scotland’s famous Roslyn Chapel, complete with Templar tomb, Apprentice Pillar, and hidden Templar crosses. (Recall that Roslyn Chapel was built by another grandson—not Drummond—of the aforementioned Prince Henry Sinclair.) According to his diary, Columbus also famously observed “Chinese” bodies floating into Galway harbor on driftwood, which may have been what first prompted him to turn his eyes westward. A granite monument along the Galway waterfront, topped by a dove (Columbus meaning ‘dove’ in Latin), commemorates this sighting, the marker reading: On these shores around 1477 the Genoese sailor Christoforo Colombo found sure signs of land beyond the Atlantic.
In fact, as the monument text hints, Columbus may have turned more than just his eyes westward. A growing body of evidence indicates he actually crossed the north Atlantic in 1477. Columbus wrote in a letter to his son: “In the year 1477, in the month of February, I navigated 100 leagues beyond Thule [to an] island which is as large as England. When I was there the sea was not frozen over, and the tide was so great as to rise and fall 26 braccias.” We will turn later to the mystery as to why any sailor would venture into the north Atlantic in February. First, let’s examine Columbus’ statement. Historically, ‘Thule’ is the name given to the westernmost edge of the known world. In 1477, that would have been the western settlements of Greenland (though abandoned by then, they were still known). A league is about three miles, so 100 leagues is approximately 300 miles. If we think of the word “beyond” as meaning “further than” rather than merely “from,” we then need to look for an island the size of England with massive tides (26 braccias equaling approximately 50 feet) located along a longitudinal line 300 miles west of the west coast of Greenland and far enough south so that the harbors were not frozen over. Nova Scotia, with its famous Bay of Fundy tides, matches the description almost perfectly. But, again, why would Columbus brave the north Atlantic in mid-winter? The answer comes from researcher Anne Molander, who in her book, The Horizons of Christopher Columbus, places Columbus in Nova Scotia on February 13, 1477. His motivation? To view and take measurements during a solar eclipse. Ms. Molander theorizes that the navigator, who was known to track celestial events such as eclipses, used the rare opportunity to view the eclipse elevation angle in order calculate the exact longitude of the eastern coastline of North America. Recall that, during this time period, trained navigators were adept at calculating latitude, but reliable methods for measuring longitude had not yet been invented. Columbus, apparently, was using the rare 1477 eclipse to gather date for future western exploration. Curiously, Ms. Molander places Columbus specifically in Nova Scotia’s Clark’s Bay, less than a day’s sail from the famous Oak Island, legendary repository of the Knights Templar missing treasure.
The Columbus-Templar connections detailed above were intriguing, but it wasn’t until I studied the names of the three ships which Columbus sailed to America that I became convinced the link was a reality. Before examining these ship names, let’s delve a bit deeper into some of the history referred to earlier in this analysis. I made a reference to Prince Henry Sinclair and his journey to North American in 1398. The Da Vinci Code made the Sinclair/St. Clair family famous by identifying it as the family most likely to be carrying the Jesus bloodline. As mentioned earlier, this is the same family which in the mid-1400s built Roslyn Chapel, an edifice some historians believe holds the key—through its elaborate and esoteric carvings and decorations—to locating the Holy Grail. Other historians believe the chapel houses (or housed) the hidden Knights Templar treasure. Whatever the case, the Sinclair/St. Clair family has a long and intimate historical connection to the Knights Templar. In fact, a growing number of researchers believe that the purpose of Prince Henry Sinclair’s 1398 expedition to North America was to hide the Templar treasure (whether it be a monetary treasure or something more esoteric such as religious artifacts or secret documents revealing the true teachings of the early Church). Researcher Scott Wolter, in studying the Hooked X mark found on many ancient artifacts in North American as well as on Columbus’ signature, makes a compelling argument that the Hooked X is in fact a secret symbol used by those who believed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and produced children. (See The Hooked X, by Scott F. Wolter.) These believers adhered to a version of Christianity which recognized the importance of the female in both society and in religion, putting them at odds with the patriarchal Church. In this belief, they had returned to the ancient pre-Old Testament ways, where the female form was worshiped and deified as the primary giver of life.
It is through the prism of this Jesus and Mary Magdalene marriage, and the Sinclair/St. Clair family connection to both the Jesus bloodline and Columbus, that we now, finally, turn to the names of Columbus’ three ships. Importantly, he renamed all three ships before his 1492 expedition. The largest vessel’s name, the Santa Maria, is the easiest to analyze: Saint Mary, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Pinta is more of a mystery. In Spanish, the word means ‘the painted one.’ During the time of Columbus, this was a name attributed to prostitutes, who “painted” their faces with makeup. Also during this period, the Church had marginalized Mary Magdalene by referring to her as ‘the prostitute,’ even though there is nothing in the New Testament identifying her as such. So the Pinta could very well be a reference to Mary Magdalene. Last is the Nina, Spanish for ‘the girl.’ Could this be the daughter of Mary Magdalene, the carrier of the Jesus bloodline? If so, it would complete the set of women in Jesus’ life—his mother, his wife, his daughter—and be a nod to those who opposed the patriarchy of the medieval Church. It was only when I researched further that I realized I was on the right track: The name of the Pinta before Columbus changed it was the Santa Clara, Portuguese for ‘Saint Clair.’
So, to put a bow on it, Columbus named his three ships after the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the carrier of their bloodline, the St. Clair girl. These namings occurred during the height of the Inquisition, when one needed to be extremely careful about doing anything which could be interpreted as heretical. But even given the danger, I find it hard to chalk these names up to coincidence, especially in light of all the other Columbus connections to the Templars. Columbus was intent on paying homage to the Templars and their beliefs, and found a subtle way of renaming his ships to do so.
Given all this, I have to wonder: Was Columbus using Templar maps when he made his Atlantic crossing? Is this why he stayed south, because the maps showed no passage to the north? If so, and especially in light of his 1477 journey to an area so close to Oak Island, what services had Columbus provided the Templars in exchange for these priceless charts?
It is this research, and these questions, which triggered my novel, The Swagger Sword. If you appreciate a good historical mystery as much as I, I think you’ll enjoy the story.
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