Priory of Scion Da Vinci Code Guardians Jesus’s Progeny

The Sion Revelation: The Truth about the Guardians of Christ’s Sacred Bloodline by Lynn Picknett and Clove Prince.

DESCRIPTION: Softcover: 514 pages. Publisher: A Touchstone Book; (2006). ISBN: 9780743263030. An essential notion in the #1 New York Times bestseller The Da Vinci Code is the existence of an age-old French society, the Priory of Sion, whose task it is to protect Christ's sacred bloodline. In The Sion Revelation, Picknett and Prince reveal the story of the Priory, taking readers on a highly significant, disturbing, and even alarming ride through history into an intriguing world where a great many uncomfortable facts will have to be faced, both religious and political.

Drawing on a wealth of astonishing evidence, they answer numerous questions that shroud this society, including:

Does the Priory actually exist, or is the group’s entire history an elaborate hoax?

Was Leonardo da Vinci really one of the Priory’s Grand Masters?

What is the truth behind Pierre Plantard, the enigmatic French aristocrat who claimed to be a Priory Grand Master, and who some claim was a Nazi sympathizer.

Could the Priory be a front for other occult societies in Europe with religious or even political agendas?

By carefully untangling centuries of obfuscation, rumor, and documented fact, “The Scion Revelation” unravels the great intricacies of this secret society and takes us on a historical journey that is as groundbreaking in its explanation as it is riveting in its telling.

CONDITION: New, never read.

PLEASE SEE IMAGES BELOW FOR SAMPLE PAGES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK.

PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.

PUBLISHER REVIEW:

REVIEW: Authors Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince are writers researchers, and lecturers on the paranormal, the occult, and historical and religious mysteries. They are the authors of “The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ” and “Turin Shroud: In Whose Image?” They live in London, England.

PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS:

REVIEW: The high tide of Dan Brown's “The Da Vinci Code” has lifted many boats, and one of them is the research of Picknett and Prince, self-styled writers on "the paranormal, the occult, and historical mysteries." Authors of “The Templar Revelation”, a book that helped inspire Brown's novel of hidden descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, Picknett and Prince return to these enticing themes of secrets, treasures, heresy and backroom power brokering with a closer look at the Priory of Sion. In this book, they argue that the Priory is a hoax, but one that is carefully designed in the manner of misinformation leaked by intelligence agencies to achieve specific goals. Behind the hoax, they say, is a network of European esoteric societies driven by the principle of "synarchy" and influencing the coalescence of the European Union, perhaps at the expense of democracy. Like their many other books, this one is cluttered with historical minutiae and sources of varying credibility. Skeptics will shake their heads over this next conspiracy theory, but for “Da Vinci Code” fans hungry for additional digging behind the fiction, this will be a dense but satisfying read.

REVIEW: The authors' previous book, “The Templar Revelation” (1998), a primary source for “The Da Vinci Code”, looked at the symbolism in Da Vinci's art as well as exploring the notion that a secret group, the Priory of Sion, was charged with guarding the secret of Jesus' bloodline. Since then, most researchers have debunked the Priory. Picknett and Prince now argue that the Priory is neither the centuries-old society Brown posited nor a complete hoax but a real group that wants to bring about a United States of Europe. To get to their explanation of that concept (a notion that will be of most interest to Europeans), readers must wade through lots of convoluted logic. So, why bother? Well, for the very asset the authors tout--their connection to “The Da Vinci Code”. Thanks to Brown's novel, there is great interest in the topics covered here, everything from bloodlines to Merovingian kings to Gnostic gospels. That's enough to spark interest in this wildly speculative but intriguing book.

READER REVIEWS:

REVIEW: Here is yet another entry into the always fascinating but perplexing genre of "The Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and The Priory of Sion", which first leaped onto an unsuspecting world nearly twenty five years ago and has recently gained new life with Dan Brown's ubiquitous thriller "The Da Vinci Code." The basic story, conveniently summarized by Picknett and Prince, concerns the activities of a poor parish priest in the 1890’s who somehow got his hands on a great deal of money and came into contact with a large number of unusual people: royals, occultists, opera singers, and sundry other types. Tracing this priest's career led to the unveiling of a super secret society, the Priory of Sion, and its supposedly explosive secret: the survival of descendants of Jesus Christ and their claim to be the rightful rulers of France. (There's way more to the story than that, but that's the gist of it.)

Picknett and Prince try to sum up the evidence and tie up the loose ends, and they do a pretty good job of it, so far as is possible when dealing with a story that keeps on unfolding and always comes up with strange new twists. They debunk some of the more bizarre aspects, such as the Merovingian Dynasty's "right" to rule France and all of Europe, and prove(so far as anything in this story can be proven) that some of the chief protagonists, like Pierre Plantard, were habitual exaggerators if not downright liars.

However, the most interesting parts of this book deal with the odd coincidences and strange interconnections so many of the events and characters boast. Reading these sections, I was reminded of the game "Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon," because it turns out that nearly everyone in modern French and European politics has ties to people who supposedly have ties to the Priory of Sion. Furthermore, it appears that the Priory, whether or not it really exists, has an interest in European unification which it shares with some less than savory groups, both past and present. Reading this book will clear up some questions about the whole Priory mystery, but it will leave you with dozens more to ponder.

REVIEW: Kudos to the authors (and shame on those who are addicted to denial and zero-think debunking). The type of intelligence operation documented in the book was common in the Cold War, and no one would blink an eye if they were told the KGB or CIA had initiated such an operation. Considering the intelligence and special operations backgrounds of some of the Priory characters, their use of such techniques is practically predictable. But it took Picknett and Prince to recognize the pattern.

There are still odd aspects to the interweaved threads of the Priory, the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery, and the Merovingian Legends (such as the book by Jules Verne), and plenty to speculate about. But as far as what the Priory really is ... the book is well worth the read to answer that question. And yes, it is not a simple answer. But then, reality is often far more complex than we give it credit for.

REVIEW: Why read a 430-page book about what is known to be a hoax? I myself was reluctant until I read a quote from this book in Armin Risi's outstanding “Machtwechsel Auf Der Erde” that pointed out a connection to political events and political figures. Some of this has already been mentioned on other works but I did like Picknet and Prince's “The Templar Revelation”. This book is divided into two parts: Illusion and Reality. The first part deals with the mythology of the Priory of Sion (PS). What it has said about itself, what its members have said, what they have written, the documents they planted, what others have written about it. Here we encounter the various stories of the Merovingians, Mary Magdalene, Jesus' bloodline, John the baptist, Leonardo, Rennes-les-Chateau, Sauniere, treasures, templars, medieval orders and conspiracies, Plantard etc.

What we find is that most of the theater about the PS is often not of their own doing but they suddenly found themselves in the spotlight and that the PS didn't really use or abuse this sudden fame. We also get to meet every character involved, and there are lots and lots of them throughout history who obviously don't have any direct connection with PS. The authors do a good job of following almost every trail and are critical and objective. They identify the lies, the fabrications, the manipulations but also point out where there might be a trace of truth, and they admit, when necessary, that they have reached the limits of research and are not sure what to make of this or that. They are not dogmatists, either pro or con PS. They just give a fair assessment of the whole PS event. But if the mythology is mostly unreliable, what is this all about? The authors hint at some political current underlying the actions and beliefs of PS and its circle of influence.

In the second part, Reality, the authors present their case of what PS is all about given that the PS mythology is just illusion. We move from religious heresy to esoteric groups to political events and find some of the same characters involved in the PS illusion plotting and carrying out political conspiracies around the time of WWII and after in France. The authors discuss an awful lot of esoteric groups and character, spending a full chapter of the branches and divisions of Masonry and the supposed differences between them. Yet by the end of the book you realize that that line of investigation doesn't lead anywhere. Unfortunately it's only in the last chapter and 30 pages that the authors discuss recent politics in Europe. The authors claim that throughout the history in question one informal group and doctrine has turned out to exert the most influence and is behind important historical events.

This book did satisfy my initial interest by showing the doctrines the ruling elites of different countries and through different times hold and the methods they use to achieve their goals. These methods have changed over time and that shows that the elites are learning from their failures. At the same time the newer ways are even more sinister and despicable. Some paragraphs quoted in this book, written by some curious characters centuries ago, are shocking in so far as they read like recipes used by the self-righteous elites of today to force their twisted agenda onto the world. If one wants to understand, for instance, why the neocons do what they do and how they go about doing it, one will find some of the skin-crawling answers here. Recommended as a first and perhaps only book if you want to find out what PS, Rennes-le-Chateau, and the relationship between politics and esotericism is about and how that has impacted and continues to impact present days politics.

REVIEW: Anyone who is interested in learning about the Priory of Sion and also about the Merovingian myth, will enjoy this easy to read book. It is well researched and based upon my own research, I agree with the conclusions presented in this well written book. Picknett and Prince present information that poses questions about age-old theories. The surprise ending is well worth the read and the bibliography and references are extensive.

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