The Templar Meridians: The Secret Mapping of the New World (ISBN 159477076X)

The Grail comes to North America!:
Every once in a while, I like to dip my toes into some different interpretations of history, those that don't really fit with what most historians really think. Inevitably, the books are interesting, but fail to convince me that their "new" version of history is the correct one. I recently was bitten by that bug again, and so I picked up two books that sounded intriguing. One of them was Templar Meridians: The Secret Mapping of the New World, by William F. Mann. Evidently, I missed his first book, and that's too bad, as this book builds on that one. In fact, I felt a bit lost at times because Mann referred to it so often. He does try to explain the references, and I was generally able to figure out what he was talking about, but I do wish I had read the other book first. That's not the only problem with this book, however, and once again, I fail to be convinced by something that's "out there," so to speak. It's an interesting book, but not a convincing one for anybody who's not already leaning toward Mann's historical vision. The idea behind Templar Meridians is basically an expansion on the theory that the Knights Templar fled to the New World when the Church turned against them, and that they brought a treasure with them. This turns out to be the "Holy Grail," but Mann never really explains what this Grail might be. Perhaps that was in the first book, but the book does tend to be vague on this issue, sometimes calling it "the Grail" and sometimes wondering itself just what the treasure might be. Mann uses Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the book at the heart of the Davinci Code controversy, as a starting point, detailing the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and speculating that the Merovingian heir came with the fleeing knights to hide among the natives in a colony established before the "discovery" of the New World by Columbus. Mann claims that the Templars had some secret knowledge of longitude and latitude lines, and how important certain lines were because of their mystical energy. The book's narrative begins at Green Oaks, Nova Scotia, where the Prince Henry Sinclair led the first Templar settlement in the New World in 1398, a full century before Columbus. It was interesting to me how, when Mann was dealing with established historical fact (known European history, such as can be shown by letters and other concrete documents), he expresses everything with certainty. This happened, and then this. Most of the time, however, when he gets to the subject matter of the book (keeping in mind that this book is supposedly convincing us that what he says is true), the language shifts to phrases like "it is likely that" or "some say." As these suppositions are the basis of his theory, it's a good thing he doesn't present these ideas as established facts, but too often he builds on these "likely" facts to create other ideas that he appears more certain about. While what he's saying certainly *could* be true, the foundation of where he goes from there is hardly stable enough to support everything else as definitive. He does provide plenty of sources for this information, but many of them are suppositions themselves. However, occasionally he lands a whopper with no source whatsoever and I just had to stop reading for a moment and blink my eyes to make sure I read it properly. Most egregious is on page 172, where he baldly states that, because Masons were on both sides of the American Revolution, British generals "secretly supported their fellow Freemasons by disengaging their troops during crucial conflicts..." While he does qualify this with "it seems," he offers us no source for why it would even seem to be true. These kinds of statements threw me out of the book and raised my skepticism even higher. This is a shame, as I did find Mann's theories interesting reading. He ties a lot of geographical knowledge and theories into the secret history of the Templars and the Masons, and also gives a vivid history of European exploration of the New World (both "established" fact and theoretical). I have to admit that some of the geography went over my head, as he applies geometry to the longitudinal lines (the meridians) to show how the locations of some settlements in the New World were chosen and why they are mystically important. But it was still intriguing to read about. The other main problem with The Templar Meridians is that many of the diagrams and pictures of ancient maps are really hard to read. Many times I had to take at face value that the document said what Mann claims it said because I couldn't read it myself. This happens more with the maps where some of the symbols on it are supposedly important to what Mann's saying. I'm sure they're on the document (I'm certainly not accusing him of making it up), but I wish I could have seen some of it myself. Perhaps that was just my copy, though. While this book would probably be interesting to fans of The Davinci Code who want to read something about the "real" Templars and the Holy Grail, I can't really say for sure how much it diverges from that book. They have the same starting point, with the Merovingian dynasty, but I think Mann takes it in a different direction. And, of course, he's not claiming that it's a novel like Brown does. This is documented history, or at least attempts to be. Templar Meridians gives us some interesting theories, a perfect feast for those of you who want to dip your toes in "alternative" (my word, not Mann's) history. Who knows? Mann might even be right. I'm afraid that he doesn't quite convince this reader though. David Roy

Templar Meridians, Magdalene Mandala, Swords at Sunset:
The Templar Meridians employs a good deal of meticulous research to establish the presence of the Grail in North America. This book uses a wealth of historical documents and ancient evidence to support its controversial theories and I highly recommend it. Also highly recommended are two other fine Grail books, one non-fiction and the other fiction, and both are by Michael Bradley, a renowned Grail expert who served as a researcher for the Da Vinci Code movie. Bradley's Swords at Sunset is a non-fiction work that also traces the Grail to North America, primarly Niagara Ontario and Vermont state; while his fictional novel, The Magdalene Mandala is a wonderfully written thriller with a twisting plot that moves at break-neck speed. It also has well drawn characters and in the view of many is superior to the Da Vince Code. For anyone like me with a growing interest in the Grail, do yourself a favour and check out Templar Meridians; Swords at Sunset and The Magdalene Mandala, which sent my heart pounding. These are three very good books.

Celestial Navigation:
Much closer to the truth than most Templar tales. Stellar science for global mapping (trade routes & secret hideouts) was a key Templar trade secret. Templar pirate ships were seafaring Masonic lodges. 'The Christ Conspiracy' and 'Brotherhood of the Sun' are also excellent reads.

Scientific proof would help!:
Although Mr. Mann appears to have performed an immense amount of research, I find the research at this time to be just conjectured tales. To many suggestions, perhaps, maybe and assumtions in trying to weave together a scattered history from an Order that was destroyed by the pope and king of France. I would like to believe many of the suggestions in his book as there are many un-answered questions and bits of history that was lost and hidden under a veil of darkness and secrecy. Our North American scholars have led us in a fairy tale when it comes to the founding of North America and until they find hard evidence, evidence that is most likely kept in a secure vault, we can only try to see through that misty veil, some sort of conspiracy.