For those of you who read the Da Vinci code and are interested in the current court case where the authors of this book are suing Dan Brown for plagiarism, this is essential reading!!!

I read it many years ago when it was first published and found it fascinating... and I was certainly reminded of it when I read the Da Vinci Code.

The book itself is a bit battered (maybe the albino monk tried to stop its distribution!) but is certainly in a readable state!


From amazon.co.uk...
"Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh, authors of The Messianic Legacy, spent over 10 years on their own kind of quest for the Holy Grail, into the secretive history of early France. What they found, researched with the tenacity and attention to detail which befits any great quest, is a tangled and intricate story of politics and faith that reads like a mystery novel. It is the story of the Knights Templar, and a behind-the-scenes society called the Prieure de Sion, and its involvement in reinstating descendants of the Merovingian bloodline into political power. Why? The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail assert that their explorations into early history ultimately reveal that Jesus may not have died on the cross, but lived to marry and father children whose bloodline continues today. According to the authors, their point here is not to compromise or to demean Jesus, but to offer another, more complete perspective of Jesus as God's incarnation in man. They claim that the power of this secret, which has, they say, been carefully guarded for hundreds of years, has sparked much controversy. For all the sensationalism and hoopla surrounding The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail and the alternative history which it outlines, the authors are careful to keep their perspective and sense of scepticism alive in its pages, explaining carefully and clearly how they came to draw such combustible conclusions."

There's definitely enough interest in this for a bookray. So... here goes!

BookRay Instructions:
1. When you receive the book, please make a journal entry so everyone knows it has safely arrived.
2. When you finish the book, please make another journal entry to share some of your thoughts - enjoyed the book, or hated it?
3. Continue the BookRay by checking this journal entry for the latest list, and sending a PM to the person after you on the list requesting their postal address.
4. Please try to send on the book as soon as you can, preferably within 4-6 weeks. I know that Real Life has a way of intruding on our reading time, so if you need more time, that's not a problem at all. Either send me a PM to let me know or write a journal entry that the book is safe with you. Please feel free to ship via surface if needed once this heads international.
Thanks! :)

Participants and shipping order are....

Melanie2474 - Australia
alice2623663 - Australia
catsalive - Australia
c-a-m - Australia
jford22- Australia
charliewendy - Australia
Rhonnie - Australia
lyttletonwitch - New Zealand
rhythmbiscuit - U.S.
dg7500 - U.S
Aisling78 - U.S.
devon612 - U.S.
keithneese - U.S
BruceAlexander - U.S.
cougmax - U.S.
vc-mike - U.S. * book is here!
darkpunkangel - Canada
PinkManager - Greece
deepdowne - Saudi Arabia

....and off into the wild!!!

*As this ray will remain open for new members, please note the shipping order may change to accommodate people's locations & shipping preferences.

Thanks for joining the ray.... and happy reading!!!

Sending off to Melanie2474. Happy travels little book!

Received by mail today.

Edited 6 April: I suspected being first on this ring would be a bad thing... I have now finished the Ring I was on and will start this book tomorrow, with a view to reading it within a week. My apologies to the rest of you but I promise to get this underway ASAP - a month full of interstate business meetings, 30th birthdays, and weddings (on top of the usual 2 jobs a day and family commitments) has put me a little behind in my reading :)

Have PM'd alice2623663 for her address so I can move this one along quickly once I'm done.

Edited 12 April: AM FINALLY STARTING THIS BOOK! Hopefully having a long weekend means I can get through a chunk of it. Unfortunately, I also have to - paint my study and assemble a new desk; entertain my mother and brother for a day; clean the house from top to bottom (reading not the only thing that's suffered with my lack of attention...); catch up on a biiiig pile of ironing. But I will make a valiant effort to get through this within 2 weeks of now so I can get this Ring on the road :)

An interesting mix of history and theory - whether you treat this book as fact or fiction it's an intriguing read. It is obvious how The Da Vinci Code drew on this book, but Brown never made a secret of having done that; which of course made the recent court case no less fascinating.

I think anyone who has an interest in history, religion, or just likes a good mystery should read this book.

Sending on to alice2623663 this week when I'm back near a PO.

The book arrived safely this morning. Thanks for sending it.

I've been trying to read this book for months and I got about a third of the way through it but I don't think that I'm going to get any further than that (well not anytime this year anyway!) I'm just going to send it to the next person on the list. I'm so sorry for having it for so long. I'll pm the next particpant now.

Hi,
Just thought I'd let you know that the book is safe. I haven't sent it yet because we had an 'incident' at our house with a sexual predator about four weeks ago and I haven't been able to go back there yet....I'm too frightened. I'll hopefully be sending someone around to pick up some stuff for me in the next week so I'll make sure that the book is on the list. Sorry about this!!!

I finally sent the book off today! Hooray. I hope that you enjoy reading it and I'm sorry for the delay.

This book arrived today, thanks alice2623663. Coincidentally, the Aussie General Bookbag #3 also arrived, & in it was a copy of the same. I intend to send this copy on to c-a-m as soon as I have her address, then I can read the other at my leisure.

Thanks also to lmn60 for adding me to this bookray. I will still be able to give you my thoughts when I finally read it.

c-a-m has asked to be skipped so I've PMd jford22.

No response from jford22 so I've Pmd charliewendy.

jford22 has contacted me, her first PM didn't get through, so I'll post this to her next week.

Handed to jford22 yesterday arvo.

Received today from jford22. Thanks for sending it on jford!!

I have one ring in front of it so should be able to get onto it quite soon. It looks really interesting so I can't wait!

I found this quite heavy going. The first two sections on the Cathars and the Templars were particularly heavy with names, dates and lineage details and I found it hard to take in. The later part of the book, on the Gospels, was more interestingly written. I found many of the conclusions they made were not what I was thinking and they often seemed to draw a very long bow from the evidence at hand. It is a very intriguing subject but my conclusion is that we can draw no conclusions from the evidence which has been accidentally and deliberately tampered with for over 2000 years. As a Christian I did not have my faith undermined in any way by reading this book. It just made me realise how very little we know about the life of Christ and his family.

Rhonnie has since come by another copy of this book so it is now off to lytteltonwitch and the first leg of it's international journey.

Thanks for sharing Imn60!!!

Book has arrived safely and sorry I am a couple days late logging it.Wombles has been visiting from Brisbane and we have been busy geocaching.

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted the book a couple of days ago.Sorry I had it for so long but I couldn't get motivated to read it for a while.It was interesting book to read and believe that it is possible.Got a bit confusing at times with all those names.

Oops! I'm about 80 pages in, but I had forgotten to journal the book. Thanks for sharing.

I read further, but I decided there's too much going on right now to commit to this book. I will pass it along to dg7500.

RELEASE NOTES:

I will mail this book to dg7500 today.

Arrived safe & sound. With the busy holiday weekend upon us, I'm not sure I'll get started until sometime next week. Looking forward to reading this, and will move it along just ASAP.

ETA: I contacted Aisling78 for mailing info, and they asked to be skipped.

I managed to get about 1/3 of the way through this, and while it was very interesting, it's taking me way too long to wade through all the details to consider keeping it any longer, as I know there are quite a few people still waiting to read it. It's one of those books, you really need the time and energy to devote full attention to, and with the holiday so rapidly approaching, I know I won't have the time to properly give to the book, so I've chosen to pass it along to the next in line. Hopefully, I'll be able to read it again at a time when life is not so hectic.

RELEASE NOTES:

Winging it's way to devon612 via media mail with delivery confirmation.

Received today from dg7500, will read as soon as possible and get it on it's way!!

Thank you!

I'm so sorry I stalled this bookray!!! I started back to school full-time and I don't get to read anything for fun anymore, lol!! I contacted keithneese but haven't heard back so I'm going to contact BruceAlexander next.

BruceAlexander has acquired a copy so I'm contacting cougmax now!!

Update 7/5/08

I haven't heard from cougmax so I pm'd vc-mike.

8/6/08

I'm such a bad bookcrosser!!! I'm mailing this to vc-mike now!!!

This surprise was in the mailbox when I got home Sat. Aug 9, 2008!
I'm on the sunny Pacific Ocean/Gold Coast !! Thanks Devon612, living on a beautiful lake in sunny Florida!
I'll start reading it Sunday
Aug 10, '08 during commercials of the USA vs China men's basketball game in Beijing, China! See Yao Ming vs Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Duane Wade & the rest of 'The Golden Gang' go for the gold medal !!
I'll let you know in the next week or two!

This is the precursor to The DaVinci Code and it got all of the conspiracy theories started in 1982!! It's easy to see where Dan Brown lots of info for The DaVinci Code !
Reading all of the historical facts 1188 through 1996 about the 'Knights of Templar', their setting up written script, making them the first long distance bankers of their time!
The ancient European Kings of France, Germany, Spain, UK/England, and Scotland, and many ancient countries that merged into other countries over a period of time!
We learn of the history of Jesus, Mary Magdelene, the 12 Apostles, and about The Crucification of Jesus?!
We learn who all of the 'Masonic Grand Masters'(Navigators) were;from the first Grand Master, Jean de Gisors from 1188-1220, to the very famous 12th Grand Master, Leonard de Vinci from 1510-1519, to the 24th Grand Master, Victor Hugo from 1844-1885, 25th Claude Debussy, from 1885-1918, up to Jean Cocteau, from 1918- ?! Also when the Knights Templar ruled in Jeruselem, how Prince Phiillip of France, jealous of the Templars' enormous wealth, set a trap all through Europe, catching most of the Knights, and having them tortured and burned at the stake in 1308!
It's a very intriguing, wondering to this day, where all of the Knights Templar's gold, and wealth is, or where it might have ended up! Do the Knights Templar still exist as a secret society today?! check this book out and see what you think !!
18.08.08 ~ 08/18/08:
Enjoy ~ 'DarkPunkAngel'

This is the 'bookray' Holy Blood and the Holy Grail book that has been sent on to 'DarkPunkAngel' in Montreral, Quebec City, Canada ! Enjoy it
'DarkPunkAngel' !!
10/28/08 ~ 28.10.08:
Looks like 'DarkPunkAngel' is ready to send it on to 'PinkManager' in Athens, Greece! Looks like 'DPA' enjoyed it !
11/19/08 ~ 19.11.08:
The USA Men's Basketball team did take 1st in the Olympics by beating Spain and earning the Gold Medal, with Spain earning the Silver Medal!

Arrived safe and sound today with some beautiful postcards, thanks vc-mike. I think I'll be able to start this today.

Sorry about that, it took me longer then normal to finished this but I did finish this book today and found it a very informational and very interesting read, it's a must read for anyone into this stuff.

I PMed PinkManager to get their address and will send it off as soon as I get it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I sent this on to deepdowne after PinkManager asked to be skipped. Thanks lmn60 for organizing this bookray.

Received the book safe and sound in today's mail. Thank you lmn60 for starting this ray. Will start reading it soon.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Very interesting read indeed!