The Templars & the Shroud

New Evidence links our old friends the Templars with the Turin Shroud. Go here to read all about it.

The new edition of my book on the Templars new edition of my book on the Templars is due out in September, as is the new Dan Brown novel. Surely a coincidence? Or are the Illuminati still at work and moving behind the scenes?

John Michell, 1933-2009

The great John Michell has left the building. Cancer. He was 76. More here and here.

I met him once, back in February 1988 (I think it was) at Gothic Image in Glastonbury. It was the launch party for Dimensions of Paradise, I seem to recall. And if there's one book that re-enchanted my relationship to the English countryside, it was his The New View over Atlantis.

So, if you're in Glastonbury today, head over to Beckett's and raise a toast to the great man. Otherwise, stop and be silent for a moment. Better still, go for a walk in the woods and think about eternity. I hope John is in some celestial tavern, talking alignments with Stukely over an ale or two.

Templars in Scotland

Yes, the Templars were all over Scotland, Hugues de Payen married a Sinclair, they all escaped in 1307-12, the fleet landed there, they helped win the Battle of Bannockburn and it is also the part of the world where I finished the revised version of the book, which is due out in June. The book contains a number of new earth-shattering revelations, including a recent photo of Lord Lucan at Rosslyn Chapel (applying a bit of Brasso to the Holy Grail with Jim Morrison supplying the bread and wine)... Yes folks, it's all true. And none of it. But at least the book is done and coming to a website near you soon.

On another note, today is the 627th anniversary of Nicholas Flamel's second successful transmutation. I wish he were here now to help me transmute the MS of my latest book into something coherent and finished...

Amazon Store Launched

A quick plug for my newly-launched Amazon store, on which you can purchase the various tomes I have authored so far. You can find it here. I may expand it to include books I like and want to plug, such as Mercurius, The Chymical Wedding, or anything by Messrs Ford, Carver, or Burnside. But for now, it's just me.

And please raise a glass - preferrably a good Greek red - in Sir John Tavener's direction tomorrow, January 28th - it's the great man's birthday:-) I received his Piano Music and Ex Maria Virgine
for Xmas, and they are superb releases indeed.

The Knights Templar - Paperback Edition

The Knights Templar will receive its first UK paperback publication in June.

A paperback edition has been available in the US for some time, but this UK version will be a superior tome in every way, in that it will retain its cover - de Molay in all his finery - and will also be a revised edition, with further sections being added to the final chapter, including A Very Interesting Fact that I have recently come across... (Well, possibly more than one!)

By June, I should also have finished my next book, the long-gestating New Waves in Cinema which, by the time of publication next year, will probably end up being called Old Waves in Praxinoscopes.

Templar Audiobook

The Knights Templar: The History and Myths of the Legendary Military Order is now available as an unabridged audio book. Of course, being the author, I was the last to hear about this... But never mind! It sounds good, and is available from both Audible (US) and (UK).

Incidentally, the book will receive its first UK paperback publication next June. More details hither. (Or is should it be yonder?)

Very blustery night here - thinking of repairing to the pub (as they have an open fire)... It's too cold to write, dammit! And it's an astrologically significant night, to boot.

The Return of Mercurius

A quick plug for a great book: Patrick Harpur's near legendary, and long out-of-print, novel Mercurius: The Marriage of Heaven and Earth has just been republished by Glastonbury's Squeeze Press (an imprint of the Wooden Books empire, I believe). This is one of the best novels about alchemy ever written.

I can also highly recommend his two mind-bending works of non-fiction, Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld and The Philosopher's Secret Fire : A History of the Imagination Life changing books, honestly.

Speaking of my own secret fire, well, it's guttering, but will no doubt be shining brightly again soon with a few well-aimed gusts of the alchemical bellows...