Sinclair Henry - The Templar meridians : the secret mapping of the New World

Let me humbly begin by acknowledging the contributions of those authors, from ancient times forward, who have challenged me throughout a lifetime of reading. From Plato to Bacon, Shakespeare to Tolkien, C. S. Lewis to Joseph Campbell, some of my fondest memories relate to the wonderful times I spent dreaming about everything from ancient mariners, the seven seas, dragons, and knights, to castles and mysterious islands. From the voyages of Jason and the Argonauts, the deeds of King Arthur, the mysteries of Middle Earth, and the quest for the Holy Grail, I developed an ability to explore the full extent of my mind and creativity and learned to intertwine and connect what might at first appear to be unrelated facts and events. This has opened up to me a world of amazement and adventure. For this I am truly grateful, and I hope that this love of books and reading has been passed on to my two sons, for I cannot think of any greater gift.

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the work of those more contemporary authors who have provided me with their own exhaustive research and conclusions as they relate to The Templar Meridians. It is only through their hard work and independent research that I have been able to arrive at my conclusions. In writing about such diverse topics as mythology, geometry, religion, and history, I have been grateful for the influence of such diverse authors as Margaret Starbird, Geoffrey Ashe, Henry Lincoln, Michael Bradley, and Dan Brown, to name but a few. The personal revelations in The Templar Meridians may be more the product of the collective conclusions drawn by others than of some miraculous bolt of lightning striking me.

I thank my two great-uncles, Frederic George Mann and Frank Ederic Mann, two of the kindest and gentlest men whom anyone could ever ask for as mentors and guides, for the sense of wonder and curiosity they instilled in me at an early age. These two men, veterans of the trenches of World War I, saw despair and evil at its worse, yet through it all maintained an amazing sense of forgiveness and spirituality. I dedicate this book to their memory.

I acknowledge the overwhelming support and unwavering encouragement and understanding of my wife, Marie. She provided a great deal of objective criticism in her many reviews of early drafts of The Templar Meridians. Thanks, too, to William and Thomas, my two sons, for allowing their dad at times to remove himself from his and their surroundings. Merlin, our golden retriever, also deserves a fair amount of credit, as those walks in the woods, which he so eagerly demanded, provided me with the time and excuse to collect and sort my thoughts.

Many friends have also continued to be a never-ending source of knowledge and inspiration, specifically Niven Sinclair, Elizabeth Lane, John Ross Matheson, Bill Beuhler, George Karski, John Coleman, and Aleta and Hamilton Boudreaux. Without good friends, life and this book would not be complete. I also thank E. David Warren, George Fairburn, and Gary Humes of Oakville Lodge No. 400 and White Oak Chapter No. 104 and Godfrey de Bouillon, Preceptory No. 3, for their brotherhood and sincerity. Special thanks go to F. Douglas Draker, Supreme Grand Master of the Knights Templar of Canada, 20052006, for his kind encouragement and direction.

Thanks to the Champlain Society, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement, the Trustees of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the National Museum of Scotland, the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University, the Cluny Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters Museum, the University of Toronto Press, the Staatliche Museum in Berlin, the U.S. Library of Congress, and Conservation Halton for their kind and generous use of copyrighted materials.

I also acknowledge those many people who took the time to review my first book, The Knights Templar in the New World. I have been truly amazed at the diverging comments made with respect to the information and conclusions presented there. While some people appear to have viewed it as a personal attack on their religious beliefs and educational teachings and, therefore, have felt compelled to attack my personal integrity, many others found it extremely thought-provoking and highly entertaining. To those who have been somehow offended by the extent of connection presented, I must say that my true intent was to challenge the reader to open his or her mind to new ideas and to think about some of the accepted tenets that exist today as well as their true origin. It is my hope that The Templar Meridians will continue the debate and extend the challenge into new areas of history.

Finally, thanks go to the team at Inner Traditions Bear and Company, who constantly exceed my expectations in every manner: publisher Ehud Sperling, acquisitions editor Jon Graham, marketing director Rob Meadows, managing editor Jeanie Levitan, editor Elaine Cissi, art director Peri Champine, and author liaison Patricia Rydle, as well as the many other staff members who have been involved in making this book a reality.

Note: All latitudinal and longitudinal positions stated in this book have been verified through either Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector, or through Microsofts TerraServer USA, which is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey.

In the plain of Tormore, in the isle of Arran, are the remains of four circles, and by their sequestered situation, this seems to have been sacred ground. These circles were formed for religious purposes: Boetius relates, that Mainus, son of Fergus I, a restorer and cultivator of religion, after the Egyptian manner, (as he calls it) instituted several new and solemn ceremonies; and caused great stones to be placed in a circle: the largest was situated to the south, and served as an altar for the sacrifices to the immortal gods. Boetius is right in part of his account: the object of worship was the sun; and what confirms this, is the situation of the altar, pointed towards that luminary in his meridian glory.

THOMAS PENNANT, VOYAGE TO THE HEBRIDES

Where were you made a Mason?

In the body of a Lodge, just, perfect and regular.

And when?

When the Sun was at its Meridian.

As lodges in this country are usually held in the evening, how do you account for this, which at the first view appears to be a paradox?

The Sun being the Centre of our system, and the Earth constantly revolving on its axis, and Masonry being spread across the whole of its habitable surface, it necessarily follows that the Sun must always be at its Meridian with respect to Masonry.

EXCHANGE BETWEEN THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER AND

A NEWLY INITIATED MASON, FROM THE YORK RITE

MASONRY 1ST-DEGREE EXEMPLIFICATION

In The Knights Templar in the New World we learned the story of the Scottish prince Henry Sinclair, who, in 1398, almost one hundred years before Columbus arrived in the New World, sailed to what is today Nova Scotia. It was also revealed that, along with approximately five hundred of his trusted knights, he established at Green Oaks, Nova Scotia, a secret Grail settlement for the Templars fleeing persecution by the Roman Catholic Church and the French monarchy.

In part, The Knights Templar in the New World is a personal story: My late great-uncle was supreme grand master of the Knights Templar of Canada in the 1950s, and it was from him, when I was still a young boy, that I received the secret key that would eventually allow me to rediscover the site of the Templar settlement established by Sinclair and his followers in what they considered at the time to be the new Arcadia.